"Walrus" fossils revealed to be ancient white sperm whale

Scientists say fossils unearthed in 1909 in Santa Barbara, California, that had been wrongly categorised for decades as belonging to a group of extinct walruses, were the remains of a fearsome sperm whale that swam the Pacific Ocean 15 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch.

Scientists teach computers how to learn like humans

Scientists have created a computer model, or algorithm, that captures the unique human ability to grasp new concepts in a study that involved learning unfamiliar handwritten alphabet characters.  The algorithm enabled computers to recognise and draw simple symbols that were indistinguishable from those created by humans.

Kunbarrasaurus

Kunbarrasaurus ieversi, or Kunbarrasaurus, appears to be a primitive ankylosaur, a group of four-legged herbivorous dinosaurs known for their heavy armour and club-like tail.

Moon's orbit was tilted by close encounters with passing planetesimals

The Moon was nudged into its tilted orbit by the gravitational pull of small planetary bodies left over from the formation of the solar system, according to a new model.  The findings explain a long-standing mystery of why the Moon's orbit around Earth is inclined by five degrees relative to Earth's orbit around the Sun.

Conflicting Dental Evidence On Homo Floresiensis

Ancient tiny people whose remains were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores evolved from large-bodied Homo erectus individuals from Asia, according to the first ever comprehensive analysis of their teeth. The teeth were certainly not equivalent to those of our species, which negates the theory that hobbits were somehow deformed modern humans and not a new species. The teeth were also not equivalent to those of very early humans like Australopithecus and Homo habilis. The hobbit's teeth and skull were most similar to those of Java Man, according to the researchers.

Dr María Martinón-Torres, a University College London anthropologist, remains perplexed by the ancient humans' teeth. Their canines have an asymmetrical shape when viewed from the outside, while their molars are relatively short and only have four cusps. Those of most primitive humans had five.

Early galaxies were more efficient at making stars

Galaxies were more efficient at making stars when the universe was younger, according to a study based on the largest Hubble Space Telescope survey ever conducted.

Fossil bones from extinct cousin reveal how giraffe got its long neck

Analysis of the neck bones of an extinct member of the giraffe family reveal how today's giraffe got its exceptionally long neck.  In a paper published in Royal Society Open Science, scientists describe the neck of a "transitional" or "intermediate" species that existed about 7 million years ago.  The findings, by researchers at the New York Institute of Technology, are based on analysis of fossil vertebrae of Samotherium major, a giraffid that roamed parts of Eurasia, including Samos of Greece (where it was originally found and named), South Italy, Turkey, Moldavia, Iran, and China.

Humans have been using honeybee products for at least 9,000 years

Humans were making use of honeybee products such as beeswax as early as 7000BC, according to new research released.  Previously the use of bee products was dated to around 2400BC with ancient Egyptian murals and iconography depicting beekeeping.

Possible ice volcanoes discovered on frozen Pluto

The dark distinctive depression on the summit of the icy mountain at the centre of this image of Pluto's surface is believed to be the giant, 56 kilometre-wide caldera of a recently active cryovolcano.

'Protein compass' may explain how pigeons find their way home

A pair of proteins may hold the key as to how animals like pigeons, sharks and bees sense the Earth's magnetic field and use it to navigate.

Mystery of the Moon's missing volatile elements finally solved

A new model that solves the last remaining major questions about the birth of the Moon has been developed by astronomers.

Mars' moon Phobos slowly being pulled apart by tidal forces

Mars' moon Phobos is slowly being pulled apart by tidal forces and scientists expect it to be destroyed in 30 to 50 million years.

Black Death plague pathogen thousands of years older than first thought

The microbe responsible for the Black Death plagues was infecting Bronze Age humans more than 3,000 years earlier than the pandemics it is most notorious for.  Early forms of the bacteria, Yersinia pestis, have been found in Bronze Age human teeth up to 5,000 years old.

Musicians' brain waves dance to the beat

Musicians get more out of music because their brain waves are better able to synchronise with musical rhythms.

New Hubble Space Telescope images reveal faint galaxies from the early cosmos

Spectacular new Hubble Space Telescope images reveal 250 previously unknown galaxies that formed just 600 million years after the Big Bang.  This amazing collection of ancient galaxies is fainter than anything previously seen by the Earth-orbiting space telescope.

Scientists levitate tiny objects using sound

A team of scientists have used sound waves to levitate tiny objects.  The breakthrough could lead to developments in areas as diverse as high-powered "tractor beams"; or manipulating drug delivery in the human body.

Dogs may have been first domesticated in Nepal and Mongolia

Dogs evolved from Eurasian grey wolves at least 15,000 years ago, but just where and how they made the historical leap from roving in packs to living with humans has been a matter of debate.  An international team has analysed more than 185,800 genetic markers in more than 4,600 purebred dogs of 165 breeds, along with more than 540 village dogs from 38 countries.  They found that dogs from East Asia, India and South-West Asia had high levels of genetic diversity.

Fossil eggs shed light on dinosaur body temperature

Scientists have chemically analysed the fossilised eggs of dinosaurs to estimate their body temperature.  The findings support recent work by other teams that dinosaurs were neither warm- nor cold-blooded, but somewhere in between.  But it also indicated that body temperature differed between dinosaur species.

Homo naledi handy with tools, walked like modern humans

Homo naledi may have been handy with tools and walked much like a person.  Its foot and hand anatomy shared many characteristics with our species but possessed some primitive traits useful for tree climbing.

Signs of Water Flowing on Mars

Scientists have for the first time confirmed liquid water flowing on the surface of present-day Mars, a finding that will add to speculation that life, if it ever arose there, could persist now.

New species unearthed: Homo naledi

The fossilised bones of 15 bodies from a previously unknown human species have been unearthed from the depths of an underground graveyard, in a discovery scientists say could change the history of mankind.

First evidence of galaxy metamorphosis detected

Many galaxies in the universe have undergone a dramatic transformation from flat discs into spherical shapes over the past 8 billion years or so.  An international team looked at data on some 10,000 of the billions of galaxies in the observable universe today, and then used the Hubble and Herschel telescopes to peer back in time.  They found that 83 per cent of stars formed since the Big Bang about 13.8 billion years ago, were initially grouped in flat, rotating, disc-shaped galaxies, called spirals.  But only 49 per cent of stars that exist in the universe today are located in these disc-shaped galaxies, the remainder are located in spherical-shaped galaxies called elliptical galaxies.

Tropical songbirds raise smaller families

By having smaller clutches than their temperate counterparts, tropical songbirds can feed more food to fewer offspring, enabling their young to grow longer wings before they leave the nest.

How ants steer the collective hauling of heavy loads

A new study shows how a dozen or more ants working in unison to haul, say, a large insect can adjust their course based on intelligence provided by a single ant joining the effort.  Realising somehow that the group is off-course or headed for trouble, the "scout" subtly signals a needed change in direction by tugging at a different angle.

Ancient Americans migrated in a single wave from Siberia

Two new DNA studies shed light on the migration of ancient people into the Americas, including 'surprising' links to present day Australo-Melanesians.  The first study reveals that Native American ancestors reached the New World in a single, initial migration from Siberia at most 23,000 years ago, only later differentiating into today's distinct groups.  A second study reveals that some Amazonians descend from forefathers more closely related to the Indigenous peoples of Australia, New Guinea and the Andaman Islands than present-day fellow Native Americans.

Mars may have had continental crust like ancient Earth

Rocks similar to some of the oldest continental crusts on Earth have been discovered on the surface of Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover.

Fossil bumps up age of world's oldest sperm

A 50-million-year-old sperm has been found preserved in the wall of a fossilised leech cocoon in Antarctica.  The discovery is 30 million years older than the previous contender for the title 'world's oldest sperm'.

Human hands more primitive than chimp hands

The development of an opposable thumb that enables humans to grip and manipulate objects is widely believed to give us an evolutionary edge.  But new research finds that human hands are more primitive than those of chimpanzees.

New particle detected: the pentaquark

Scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland have announced the discovery of a new kind of particle called the pentaquark, solving a 50-year-old puzzle about the building blocks of matter.

Universe may be ringing like crystal glass

The universe may be ringing like a crystal glass, with its expansion repeatedly speeding up and slowing back down.  The “ringing,” however, would seem to be dying down after having undergone seven rounds of oscillation.

Genome reveals how woolly mammoth thrived in the cold

Woolly mammoths spent their lives enduring extreme Arctic conditions including frigid temperatures, an arid environment and the relentless cycle of dark winters and bright summers.

Ancient gills were selected by acidic oceans

Fish gills evolved as a means of balancing pH, not breathing, suggests a new study.

Chestnut-crowned babbler becomes first known non-human species to communicate using language

A small gregarious bird that lives in the Australian outback has been found to communicate with one another using a simple form of language – the first species other than humans known to do so. Scientists studying the vocal noises made by the chestnut-crowned babbler have shown that it uses combinations of different sounds that on their own are meaningless but when combined convey a certain message to other members of the species. Although bird songs are known to have different meanings, scientists have not been able to show until now that individual messages can be made by using different combinations of the same repertoire of sounds, much like the phonemes or individual sounds that make up human words.

Brain chemical identified that turns tree ants into aggressive soldiers

Worker roles in Australian green tree ant society are influenced by a chemical in the tiny insect's brain.  Differences in the levels of the chemical octopamine in the brains of two types of worker ant correlate with the level of aggression they show.

Transparent worm reproduces by injecting sperm into its own head

The species is a microscopic, water-dwelling flatworm Macrostomum hystrix, about one millimetre long and a hermaphrodite with both male and female reproductive organs.

First teeth evolved from fish scales

Fish that lived long before the dinosaurs featured the world's first known teeth.  The findings suggest all teeth originally evolved from fish scales.

Recent sapiens fossil shows neanderthal progenitor

A jawbone unearthed in Romania of a man who lived about 40,000 years ago, boasts the most Neanderthal ancestry ever seen in a member of our species.  The finding also indicates that interbreeding with Neanderthals occurred much more recently than previously known.  One of the very first modern humans known from Europe had a Neanderthal ancestor just four to six generations back in his family tree.  He carries more Neanderthal DNA than any other present-day or ancient modern human seen to date.

General relativity explains the Schrödinger's cat paradox

General relativity theory can explain why one of the spooky properties of quantum mechanics works at the subatomic scale, but not in everyday life.

[Blogger Note: No it doesn't.  The answer lies in the distinction between potential perception and an actual instance of perceiving.]

Egg or sperm?

A gene that controls whether germ cells eventually become sperm or eggs has been identified.

Life was difficult for dinosaurs in the tropics

Raging fires, droughts, food shortages and extreme climate change help to explain why most dinosaurs failed to populate the tropics for more than 30 million years after these iconic prehistoric animals first emerged.

Chimps soak up alcohol using leaves as sponges

Wild chimpanzees in the west African country of Guinea discovered a free treat in raffia palms tapped by local people to extract a sweet, milky sap which then ferments into an alcoholic drink.  The apes scrunched up leaves in their mouths, moulding them into spongy pads that they then dipped into the sap-gathering container, which villagers attach to the tree near its crown.

Red blood cells, collagen fibres found in poorly preserved, 75-million-year-old dinosaur bones

Scientists say they have discovered what appear to be red blood cells and collagen fibres in dinosaur bones, a find that may boost prospects of prising organic remains from a much wider range of fossils.

Chimps understand the concept of cooking

Chimpanzees and humans share some of the basic brain skills needed for cooking, a finding that may explain a turning point in the story of humankind.  Experiments at a chimp sanctuary suggest a common ancestor imparted these cognitive abilities to apes and humans alike.

(What the experiments actually demonstrate is the chimps' ability to reason how to satisfy desire in a novel situation.)

Bird cries wolf to fool a predator

The little brown thornbill (Acanthiza pusilla) protects its young by using vocal mimicry to trick its predator into thinking that they themselves are under attack.  It does this by mimicking a chorus of other species' alarm calls that are normally used to warn of an approaching hawk.

First 'virgin birth' fish found in the wild

An endangered species of fish can produce offspring without mating.  The discovery is the first-known example of the asexual reproductive process known as parthenogenesis to have been uncovered in the wild.

The oldest evidence of murder?

Lethal wounds on a Neanderthal skull may point to a bloody encounter some 430,000 years ago.

Stone tools pre-date the genus Homo

Newly discovered stone tools pre-date the emergence of Homo. Scientists dated the artefacts, found in Kenya, to 3.3 million years ago.

CERN discovery backs physics' Standard Model

Researchers at the world's biggest particle collider have observed an extremely rare event — the decay of the neutral B meson into a pair of muons, the heavy cousins of electrons.  The results provide further support for the 'Standard Model', the conceptual framework for the particles and forces that constitute the cosmos.

Deep-sea fish found to be warm-blooded

While it was previously known that the opah (Lampris guttatus) could heat its eyes and brain, it can also heat its entire body. This makes the opah the only known fish species to be whole-body endothermic, or warm-blooded.

Europa's red bands may be salt seeping through its icy crust

Reddish bands that criss-cross the surface of Jupiter's moon Europa may be caused by salt seeping from an underground sea to the surface, then darkening as it is exposed to radiation.

Archaeornithura meemannae

Modern birds may have evolved six million years earlier than thought, say palaeontologists after analysing the fossil remains of a previously unknown prehistoric relative.  The extinct species, of which two fossils were discovered in China's northeastern Hebei province about two years ago, is the oldest known relative of all birds alive today.  The new bird, named Archaeornithura meemannae, shared many features with its modern cousins, apart from tiny, sharp claws on its wings.  It stood about 15 centimetres tall on two legs that had no feathers — suggesting it may have been a wader from a lake shore environment.