Prehistoric “bookkeeping” continued long after invention of writing

Archaeologists in southeast Turkey have found clay tokens that served as records of trade until the advent of writing, or so it was believed.  But the new find dates from a time when writing was commonplace – thousands of years after the tokens were thought to have been become obsolete.

Fossils of tiny, unknown hedgehog found: Silvacola acares

The 52-mil­lion-year-old fossils of per­haps the tiniest hedgehog species ever, Silvacola acares, have been identified by researchers investigating a “lost world” of fossilised forest in Canada.

Mysterious bursts of radio waves identified far outside galaxy

Mysterious split-second pulses of radio waves are coming from deep in outer space, and nobody knows what causes them.

Mysterious dance of dwarfs may force a cosmic rethink

A finding that many small galaxies don’t “swarm” around larger ones like bees but rather circle them in disc-shaped orbits is creating a new conundrum for scientists.

Astronomers detect most distant Milky Way stars known

The distant outskirts of our galaxy harbour valuable clues for understanding its formation and evolution. But the stars out there are few, far between, and far, far away.  Now, astronomers are reporting the discovery of two stars in this distant “ha­lo” that are the furthest ever discovered in our galaxy, the Milky Way, and are be­ing described as possible ghosts of galaxies past.

Four billion-year-old chemistry in cells today?

Some of the chemical processes that first gave rise to life may be still at work in living cells.  These ancient chemical reactions are thought to have taken place in a “primordial soup” where life originated, such as a pond or ocean.

Elephants possess 'superior' sense of smell

Elephants possess a sense of smell that is likely the strongest ever identified in a single species. The African elephant's genome contains the largest number of olfactory receptor genes - nearly 2,000.

'Optical fibre' made out of thin air

Scientists have turned thin air into an 'optical fibre' that can transmit and amplify light signals without the need for any cables.  In a proof-of-principle experiment they created an "air waveguide" that could one day be used as an instantaneous optical fibre to any point on earth, or even into space.

New find sheds light on dinosaur flight

Fossils of the largest dinosaur capable of flight have been discovered in China, according to a new study.  The 1.2-metre-long raptor named Changyuraptor yangi, was covered with plumage, including 30-centimetre-long tail feathers. This discovery shows this 125-million-year-old raptor was flying long before birds split off from dinosaurs.

A new dinosaur fossil with extremely long feathers boosts a theory that flight was common among the types of dinosaurs that later evolved into birds.  The flying predator, or raptor, had a long, feathered tail that was crucial for lowering descent speed and assuring safe landings.

Supernova lifts the veil on star dust

The creation of star dust in the shockwave of a supernova has been observed by astronomers for the first time. The discovery helps explain the production of large quantities of star dust, which forms stars, planets and people.

Fossil of biggest-known flying seabird: Pelagornis sandersi

Fossilised bird bones uncovered in the US represent the largest flying bird in history, Pelagornis sandersi, with a wingspan of 6.4 metres, twice as long as the biggest modern-day seabird, the royal albatross.  Coupled with its long beak and sharp bony teeth, the enormous wings likely helped the bird master long periods of gliding over water in search of seafood some 25 to 28 million years ago.

Earth-like planet orbiting only one star of a binary system

An Earth-like planet locked in a weird orbit has been found in a two-star system. The newly-discovered planet, called OGLE-2013-BLG-0341LBb is located 3261 light-years away and has about twice the mass of the Earth.  It orbits the smaller of two red dwarf stars at almost the same distance as the Earth orbits the Sun.

Qiyia juras­sica

Around 165 million years ago, a spectacular parasite was at home in the freshwater lakes of present-day Inner Mongolia in China. It was a juvenile fly with a thorax formed entirely like a sucking plate.

Spiders understand “music” of their own web

The sound of a spider web, plucked like a guitar string, provides its inhabitants with information about prey, mates, and even the we­b’s structural condition.  The spiders use that quality by “tuning” the silk, controlling and adjusting its properties, and the threads’ tensions and interconnectivities.

Chimp culture

Chimpanzees are copycats and, in the process, they form new traditions that are often specific to just one group. Such are the findings of an international group of scientists, who waded through over 700 hours of video footage to understand how it came about that one chimpanzee stuck a piece of grass in her ear and started a new trend. Unfortunately, Julie, the inventor of the trend, died. It continued without her.

New dinosaur species has winged crest

Scientists have named a new species of horned dinosaur based on fossils collected from Montana in the United States and Alberta, Canada. Mercuriceratops gemini was about six meters (20 feet) long and weighed more than two tonnes. It lived about 77 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period.

Three black holes found spiraling into each other

Astronomers have detected three giant black holes spiralling into each other. They’re hoping similar systems could give off detectable “ripples” in space and time — gravitational waves — predicted by Einstein.

Cloudina fossils push animal-made reefs back in time

A 548-million-year-old reef in central Namibia is the earliest known ecosystem built by hard bodied animals, according to a new study. Until now, the oldest reefs on record made of hard-bodied animals had been dated to about 530 million years of age.  The reefs were built by tiny, filter-feeding animals called Cloudina that lived on shallow equatorial seabeds during the Ediacaran Period, which ended 541 million years ago.