The weta has ears similar to those of a whale

Like other vocal insects, wetas have ears on their legs. This is to enable the small creatures to separate their ears wide enough to use their hearing as a locating device.

Hubble spies galaxies from early universe

Astronomers have found seven galaxies that formed relatively soon after the universe's birth some 13.7 billion years ago. One of the objects may be the oldest galaxy yet found, dating back to a time when the universe was just 380 million years old.

Lizards 'nearly wiped out' with dinosaurs

Contrary to previous understanding, lizards and snakes were nearly wiped out along with the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

Nyasasaurus parringtoni

Fossilised bones unearthed by a British palaeontologist in colonial Tanzania in the 1930s may be those of the oldest dinosaur ever found.  A denizen of the Middle Triassic around 243 million years ago, the creature predates all previous dinosaur finds by 10 to 15 million years. The specimen also points to the possible birthplace of these enigmatic species in Pangaea.

Yet Another Tool-Making Species

A parrot determined to grab an out-of-reach pebble has figured out how to make tools to get it — even though parrots aren’t known to make tools in the wild.

"Bigger Brains" Gave Us Cooking

New da­ta sup­port a the­o­ry that the in­ven­tion of cook­ing trig­gered a great in­crease in hu­man brain size.

New Human Gene Emerged From Non-Coding DNA

A gene called miR-941 seems to have played a crucial role in brain development and may shed light on how we learned to use tools and language. It's the first time a new gene, carried only by humans and not by the other apes, has been shown to have a specific function in the body.

Stray stars may haunt vastness between galaxies

Stray stars floating far beyond the edges of galaxies may be the cause for a mysterious glow of infrared light seen across the entire sky.

New type of exploding star may be a dud

A type of oddly dim, exploding star is probably a sort of dud—one the could nonetheless throw light on the nature of the mysterious “dark energy” pervading space.  The seemingly failed outbursts are said to come from variants of exploding stars called type Ia supernovae, which are found by the thousands.

Parrots' mimicking talent may be for addressing individuals

A study indicates that at least some parrots' talent for mimicking sounds, which underlies their “talking” skill, functions in nature to let them communicate with individual parrots they encounter.

Dogs may link words to object sizes rather than shapes

Dogs relate words to objects very differently than humans do, new research claims: whereas we relate words for objects primarily to their shapes, dogs relate these words to sizes and textures.

Ancient tree-wombat behaved like a koala

The rainforests of Australia were once inhabited by a 70-kilogram tree-dwelling wombat that hugged trees like a koala.

Midlife crisis strikes chimps and orang utans

A new study has found that chimpanzees and orangutans, too, often experience a midlife crisis, suggesting the causes are inherent in primate biology and not specific to human society.

Ancient dung heaps are genetic time capsules

DNA extract from ancient latrines has "opened the door" to identifying the plants and animals that existed in northern Australia's remote Pilbara region more than 30,000 years ago.

New mark for oldest, furthest galaxy

Astronomers have caught a glimpse of a galaxy that sets a new record for the furthest, and thus oldest, yet discovered - 13.3 billion light years from Earth.

Prenatal learning demonstrated in birds

Superb fairy wren mothers teach a "password" to their young while they are still in the egg as a means of identifying them when they want to be fed and stopping home invasion.

Bs meson observed to decay into a muon and an anti-muon

CERN researchers say they have spotted a particle reshaping into two others in the Large Hadron Collider, a breakthrough that could be crucial in exploring physics frontiers.  The mutation was predicted under the so-called Standard Model (SM) of physics, but until now scientists had never seen it.

Brain function fragments under general anæsthetic

The unconscious brain is fragmented into tiny regions that are 'awake' but unable to talk to each other, according to a study looking at the effects of general anaesthetic.

Tone deaf shed light on origin of language

A study involving 'tone deaf' people supports Darwin's idea that music and language evolved from the same emotional "musical protolanguage".

Scientists unearth 'ostrich' dinosaurs

Ostrich-like dinosaurs roamed the Earth millions of years ago using feathers to attract a mate or protect offspring rather than for flight, according to a new study.

Meteor sheds light on watery solar system

Liquid water existed over a far wider area of the solar system than originally thought, a new study confirms.

Crows Test Human Intelligence

Researchers still do not understand what cognitive processes are used by the birds to solve problems set by humans.

Earth-sized world found next door

Scientists have found an Earth-sized planet circling a neighbour star just four light-years away.

Scientists measure cosmic “exit door”

Researchers have for the first time measured the closest distance at which matter can approach before being irretrievably pulled into the black hole at the centre of a distant galaxy. The finding could shed light on how galaxies evolve and on the correctness of Einstein’s theories.

Slave ant “rebellions” found to be common

Ants held as slaves in nests of other ant species often damage their oppressors through acts of sabotage.

Giant black holes from chaotic early era coming to light

Cutting-edge sky surveys have revealed a previously unseen group of giant, fast-growing black holes from a violent early period in cosmic history.  The findings could have special significance because they shed light on how huge black holes and galaxies shaped each other’s early development.

Fossil said to be earliest to show complex brain

A remarkably well-preserved fossil of an extinct, worm-like animal reveals that anatomically complex brains evolved earlier than previously thought.  Found in rock formed from mud deposits during the Cambrian period 520 million years ago, the roughly 7cm fossil represents a primitive arthropod.

DNA 'half life'

Reconstructing dinosaurs from ancient DNA has been dealt a blow with a new study finding genetic material can only last one million years.  An international team of researchers reached the finding after analysing DNA extracted from bones of the extinct New Zealand moa. They found that while short fragments of DNA could possibly survive up to one million years, sequences of 30 base pairs or more would only have a 'half-life' of around 158,000 years under certain conditions.

Racing star could confirm Einstein's theory

Astronomers have found evidence of a star racing tightly around the monstrous black hole at the heart of our galaxy - the closest ever found near the matter-sucking body.

Trails help slime moulds to navigate

Slime moulds leave a gooey trail behind them to remember where they've been.  The findings suggest early life forms developed such externalised spatial "memory" to navigate, long before the evolution of brains.

Frogs hit high notes to ward off competition

Male orange-eyed tree frogs trill to advertise their size not to prospective mates, but to other males.

Khoe-San first to split from other humans

Southern Africa's bushmen, and their relatives the Khoe, veered off on their own path of genetic development 100,000 years ago, according to a new study.  The split, gleaned from an analysis of genetic data, is the earliest divergence scientists have discovered in the evolution of modern humans.

The vampire squid is neither a squid nor an octopus

Biologists say they have unlocked secrets about the vampire squid, a mysterious creature that feeds on the decaying dead in the unlit depths.

Ancient text suggests founder of Christian Mythology was married

Four words on a previously unknown papyrus fragment provide the first evidence that some early Christians believed Jesus of Nazareth had been married.

Most “junk” DNA not junk

DNA formerly called “junk” is involved in important activities called transcription factor association, chromatin structure and histone modification. These functions ultimately involve influencing the activity of traditional genes.

Scrub jays found to react to their dead

West­ern scrub jays sum­mon oth­ers to screech over the body of a dead jay, ac­cord­ing to new re­search from the Uni­vers­ity of Cal­i­for­nia, Da­vis. The ca­coph­o­nous bird “fu­ner­als” can re­portedly last for up to half an hour, though their pur­pose is un­known.

Record-distance galaxy may confirm theories

A galaxy has been detected at possibly a record distance from us, and its size is consistent with mainstream theories that hold the earliest galaxies were small.

Sharks see world as 50 shades of grey

Sharks are colour blind, a new molecular study has confirmed, filling a gap in our knowledge about the evolution of colour vision. The evolution of colour vision has been studied in most vertebrates, but until recently, elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) had been overlooked. Previous physiological research has shown some rays have colour vision but it suggested sharks were colour blind.

Post-dinosaur mammals were fat and slow

A near complete fossil of an ancient mammal proves it wasn't much of a runner.  Many of the mammals that emerged right after the non-avian dinosaur extinction were hearty creatures, as exemplified by Ernanodon.  The skeleton that is the focus of the study is nearly complete, revealing how this early mammal looked in the flesh and lived.  Ernanodon was a badger-sized, rather chunky mammal with a short square skull, extremely reduced dentition and big claws on the forelimbs.

Missing supernova mystery solved

A large number of dying stars called core-collapse supernovae are not detected because they are obscured by galactic dust.

Ancient genome offers clues to human waves

Scientists have sequenced the complete genome of a Denisovan, an ancient human, from a tiny finger bone fragment.  Their work provides the most detailed picture yet of the human that lived alongside Neanderthals and contributed to the genetic heritage of people living in Southeast Asia, Papua New Guinea and possibly Australian Aborigines.

'Rocket dust' kicks up storms on Mars

Explosive vertical storms cause the layers of dust that float kilometres above the Martian surface, new research suggests.

Brain 'switches between maths and memory'

New research, reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, boosts our understanding of how the brain switches from being internally focused (ruminating) to focusing on a task in the outside world.

Binary Star System Found

The discovery dramatically widens the range of environments and conditions in which planets could form.

Earliest human evidence in Southeast Asia

Parts of a skull found in a cave in Laos are the earliest skeletal evidence for modern human occupation in Southeast Asia.

Universe was 'born in a big chill'

The early universe can be likened to water that froze into ice and cracked as it cooled.  If proven correct, the predictions could revolutionise the way we view the birth of the universe.

Dying Star

For the first time astronomers have detected the last gasps of a star being torn apart by a previously dormant giant black hole.  The signals, which came from a galaxy 3.9 billion light years away, were x-rays generated by matter heated to millions of degrees and torn apart as material from the star crosses the black hole's event horizon.  Known as quasi-periodic oscillations, they are a characteristic feature of stellar black holes which have about ten times the mass of the Sun.

Three Planets Circling The Sun-like Star Kepler-30

Astronomers have confirmed that our solar system isn't unique, after the discovery of a planetary system that is as flat and orderly as our own.

Earth's water formed close to home

A new study claims most of Earth's water didn't originate in the frozen outer reaches of the solar system, but came from the asteroid belt.

Earliest Americans Arrived in Waves, DNA Study Finds

North and South America were first populated by three waves of migrants from Siberia rather than just a single migration, say researchers who have studied the whole genomes of Native Americans in South America and Canada.

M-Theory and the Higgs boson

The discovery of a potential Higgs boson particle plays a crucial role in super-symmetry - just one more of the ingredients needed to provide evidence of the M-Theory of strings.

Australopithecus sediba ate bark

Australopithecus sediba, a short, gangly South African species from two million years ago, targeted trees, bushes and fruits for its diet, chomping on harder foods than other known early hominids, or human ancestors. Virtually all others that have been tested from Africa—including Paranthropus boisei, dubbed “Nutcracker Man” thanks to its massive jaws and teeth—focused more on grasses and sedges.

Could Neanderthals have painted?

New estimates on the date of ancient European cave paintings raise the possibility that Neanderthal people might have made them.

Feathered dinosaur fossil found in Germany

German researchers say they have discovered a fossil of a feathered hatchling that may be the earliest evidence of a plumed, meat-eating dinosaur that was not closely related to birds.  The fossil is believed to belong to a young land-based dinosaur from the Late Jurassic period, some 170 million years ago.

Scientists find best hint of elusive Higgs particle

Scientists have discovered a sub-atomic particle they believe is crucial in the formation of the universe.  The Higgs boson, otherwise known as the God particle, is thought to give all other particles in the universe their mass.

Long-sought Higgs particle probably found

Scientists at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN, near Geneva announced on Wednesday that a particle fitting the correct description had been found, though there remains the unlikely possibility it is a misidentification.

The Closest Of Planets

An odd pair of distant worlds - one rocky like Earth (Kepler-36b) and another gassy like Neptune (Kepler-36c) - have been found doing the closest dance of any planetary pair ever discovered.

Kepler-36c would appear three times larger than the Moon in our skies.

Ancient cave art could be Neanderthal

Researchers have found cave paintings in Spain that are up to 40,000 years old, suggesting they might have been created by Neanderthals.

Jupiter's family of moons grows by two

The largest planet in our solar system is home to two of the smallest moons.  The discovery pushes the number of Jovian moons to 67.  Named S/2010 J 1 and S/2010 J 2, the two moons are only three and two kilometres in size respectively.

S/2010 J 1 (circled) measures three kilometres in diameter and takes two years to orbit the planet Jupiter.