Mysterious ichthyosaur graveyard may have been a breeding ground

In a fossil graveyard in Nevada, palæontologists have found more than 100 individual Shonisaurus popularis ichthyosaurs — including both adults and embryonic or newborn individuals, but no juveniles. The finding supports the theory that the prehistoric marine reptile migrated to sheltered waters and gathered in groups to give birth, as some whales do today.

Hint of new physics vanishes under scrutiny

An intriguing anomaly in data gathered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that raised hopes of a new elementary particle has turned out to be a fluke. In 2014, LHC scientists at CERN, Europe’s particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, discovered that some massive particles decay more often into electron–positron pairs than into muon–antimuon pairs. This imbalance defied the standard model of physics, which predicts both pairs to occur with roughly the same frequency. The latest measurements and an investigation of confounding factors revealed that the discrepancy was partly the result of misidentifying other particles as electrons.

The mysterious song of the dinosaurs

Dinosaurs almost certainly didn’t roar. Researchers have yet to find any fossilised evidence of sound-producing organs like those of modern birds or mammals, so Tyrannosaurus rex probably resorted to closed-mouth vocalisation — low-frequency sounds that are made by inflating the throat. Computer simulations of a hadrosaur’s hollow head-crest showed that it could double as a resonating chamber.

First glimpse of 7-planet system with potentially habitable worlds

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has turned its incredible observing power onto one of the most exciting targets in space: the atmospheres of seven Earth-sized planets circling the star TRAPPIST-1. The planets lie in its ‘goldilocks’ zone, where temperatures are right for liquid water — and possibly life — to exist. The first results from two of the planets show that neither has a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. That could mean that they have denser atmospheres that are made of molecules such as carbon dioxide or methane, or no atmosphere at all.

Giant wombat skull hints at distinct lifestyle

A fossilised skull found in a cave in Australia is the 80,000-year-old remains of a giant wombat (Ramsayia magna). A study of the most complete giant wombat skull ever found has revealed that the creature probably had a sizeable, fleshy nose and strong muscles for chewing tougher foods, and they did not live in burrows like modern wombats do. The sheep-sized animal probably weighed about 130 kilograms. Scientists still don’t know when or how the giant wombat went extinct.

Nuclear-fusion lab achieves ‘ignition’

Scientists at the world’s largest nuclear-fusion facility have for the first time achieved the phenomenon known as ignition — creating a nuclear reaction that generates more energy than it consumes. The breakthrough at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) has excited the global fusion-research community. The laboratory’s analysis suggests that the reaction released some 3.15 megajoules of energy — roughly 54% more than the energy that went into the reaction, and more than double the previous record of 1.3 megajoules. However, NIF’s 192 lasers consumed 322 megajoules of energy in the process.

Ankylosaurs competed for mates with club combat

Ankylosaurs might have used their enormous tail clubs to bash each other in battle over potential mates, rather than to ward off predators such as Tyrannosaurus rex. Researchers who analysed several Zuul crurivastator fossils (translation: ‘Zuul the shin-destroyer’) discovered that the spikes covering the animals’ bodies were often broken and half-healed around the hips. Since these scars were found only where another ankylosaurid club could have reached, the tail clubs were probably used for ritualistic combat, similar to how deer use their antlers.

Oldest-ever DNA shows mastodons roamed Greenland 2 million years ago

Two-million-year-old DNA sequences — the oldest ever obtained — recovered from frozen soil in the northeastern tip of Greenland suggest that the region was once home to mastodons and reindeer that roamed a forested ecosystem unlike any now found on Earth. Reindeers were also unheard of in Greenland — suggesting that DNA could reveal much about ecosystems that was not recorded in the fossil record.

Did physicists create a wormhole in a quantum computer?

Physicists have used a quantum computer to generate an entity known as an emergent wormhole. Quantum systems can be linked by entanglement, even when separated by extremely long distances. The authors generated a highly entangled quantum state between the two halves of a quantum computer, creating an alternative description, known as a holographic dual, in the form of an emergent wormhole stretched between two exterior regions. They then simulated a message traversing this wormhole. Such exotic physics is part of efforts to reconcile quantum mechanics with the general theory of relativity.

Inside the Proton

Quanta offers a beautifully illustrated survey of the proton’s wonders, focusing on its paradoxical building blocks — quarks.

Pupating ants make milk for larvæ

During their pupal stage, between larva and adult, ants are immobile and were previously thought to be pretty much useless to the rest of the colony. Now researchers have discovered that they have a pivotal role, secreting a nutritious fluid that is drunk by adult ants and fed to larvæ. Analogous to mammalian milk, the secretion seems to be essential for young larvæ to grow strong and healthy. The pupæ also receive parental care: if the secretion is not removed, it can hurt them.

67-million-year-old fossil upends bird evolutionary tree

A 67-million-year-old beak bone has upended the evolutionary tree of life for birds. Most modern birds have flexible bony palates that allow them to move their upper beak independently of their skull. Just a few — including emus, ostriches and kiwis — have fused palates and fixed beaks. It had been assumed that the ancestors of all modern birds were like these ‘ancient-jawed’ palæognaths. But a tiny bone encased in rock suggests that flexible jaws came first.

Two new minerals discovered in meteorite

Researchers have identified two, possibly even three, new minerals in a huge iron-based meteorite that landed in Somalia. The minerals have been named elaliite, after the meteorite’s location near the town of El Ali, and elkinstantonite after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, lead investigator of a NASA mission to a metal-rich asteroid. The 2-metre-wide meteorite has been well known to generations of people who live in the area, where it was named Nightfall.

Ancient skull uncovered in China could be million-year-old Homo erectus

A rare, well-preserved ancient human skull found in central China could be a million-year-old Homo erectus. As excavation of the fossil continues, archæologists and palæoanthropologists anticipate that the skull could give a fuller picture of the diverse family tree of archaic humans living throughout Eurasia in prehistoric times. It lies 35 metres from where two significant finds — dubbed the Yunxian Man skulls — were unearthed in 1989 and 1990 but, unlike them, it has not been crushed and distorted after millennia underground.