Clever use of high-resolution mass spectrometry allows rapid cataloging of...
Plants are a rich resource of bioactive compounds, many of which have inspired therapeutic drugs. Yet countless plant compounds, potentially with medical uses, still remain to be identified. Kazuki...
View ArticleThree billion-year-old microfossils include plankton
Spindle-shaped inclusions in 3 billion-year-old rocks are microfossils of plankton that probably inhabited the oceans around the globe during that time, according to an international team of researchers.
View ArticleFossil kangaroo teeth reveal mosaic of Pliocene ecosystems in Queensland
The teeth of a kangaroo and other extinct marsupials reveal that southeastern Queensland 2.5-5-million-years ago was a mosaic of tropical forests, wetlands and grasslands and much less arid than...
View ArticleNewly revealed Maya farming hotspots hold key to ancient culture
(Phys.org) —BYU researchers have dug up new evidence from an ancient Maya city that may help solve the mystery of just how many people lived in the civilization.
View ArticleHow Mars' atmosphere got so thin: New insights from Curiosity
(Phys.org) —New findings from NASA's Curiosity rover provide clues to how Mars lost its original atmosphere, which scientists believe was much thicker than the one left today.
View ArticleFirst long temperature reconstruction for the eastern Mediterranean based on...
For the eastern Mediterranean, an exactly dated time series of almost 900 year length was established, exhibiting the medieval warm period, the little ice age between the 16th and 19th century as well...
View ArticleRising mountains dried out Central Asia, scientists say
(Phys.org) —A record of ancient rainfall teased from long-buried sediments in Mongolia is challenging the popular idea that the arid conditions prevalent in Central Asia today were caused by the...
View ArticleScientists find impact of open-ocean industrial fishing within centuries of...
The impact of industrial fishing on coastal ecosystems has been studied for many years. But how it affects food webs in the open ocean―a vast region that covers almost half of the Earth's surface―has...
View ArticleResearchers find connection with global warming and increased monsoonal...
(Phys.org) —New research by scientists at the University of New Mexico suggests that future warming may lead to above average monsoonal moisture. While that sounds like a ray of sunshine especially to...
View ArticleResearchers document acceleration of ocean denitrification during deglaciation
As ice sheets melted during the deglaciation of the last ice age and global oceans warmed, oceanic oxygen levels decreased and "denitrification" accelerated by 30 to 120 percent, a new international...
View ArticleChanging climate may have driven collapse of civilizations in Late Bronze Age
Climate change may have driven the collapse of once-flourishing Eastern Mediterranean civilizations towards the end of the 13th century BC, according to research published August 14 in the open access...
View ArticleNew microplasma source excites matter in controlled way, may revolutionize...
A team of researchers from Uppsala University in Sweden has designed a microplasma source capable of exciting matter in a controlled, efficient way. This miniature device may find use in a wide range...
View ArticleA selective approach to draw data from altered foraminifera shells
A sudden surge in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the air and the ocean 56 million years ago may have triggered the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), a period of rapid and dramatic...
View ArticleResearchers quantify toxic ocean conditions during major extinction 93.9...
Oxygen in the atmosphere and ocean rose dramatically about 600 million years ago, coinciding with the first proliferation of animal life. Since then, numerous short lived biotic events—typically marked...
View ArticleDiscovery of oldest footprints gives clues to Mexico's climate
The oldest human footprints in North America have been dated for the first time and could help scientists to understand what Mexico's climate was like 7000 years ago.
View ArticleRichest marine reptile fossil bed along Africa's South Atlantic coast is...
(Phys.org) —Paleontologists at Southern Methodist University have measured the carbon isotopes in marine fossils to precisely date for the first time 30 million years of sediments along Africa's South...
View ArticleStudy on global carbon cycle may require reappraisal of climate events in...
A recent study of the global carbon cycle offers a new perspective of Earth's climate records through time. Scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric...
View ArticleStudy sheds new light on the diet of extinct animals
A study of tooth enamel in mammals living today in the equatorial forest of Gabon could ultimately shed light on the diet of long extinct animals, according to new research from the University of Bristol.
View ArticleNew chemical analysis of ancient Martian meteorite provides clues to planet's...
A new analysis of a Martian rock that meteorite hunters plucked from an Antarctic ice field 30 years ago this month reveals a record of the planet's climate billions of years ago, back when water...
View ArticleLife might thrive a dozen miles beneath Earth's surface
Life teems all over our planet's exterior and even down into the lightless oceanic depths. But just how far underground might life be able to hack it?
View ArticleNew detector sniffs out origins of methane
Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, second only to carbon dioxide in its capacity to trap heat in Earth's atmosphere for a long time. The gas can originate from lakes and swamps, natural-gas pipelines,...
View ArticleTooth enamel provides clues on tsetse flies and the spread of herding in...
One of the most important technological advances of our species happened for the first time only in the last 12,000 years: food production, including agriculture and animal husbandry. For nearly 7...
View ArticleMacroalgae helps to understand marine food webs
Research into macroalgae on WA reefs has revealed relationships between carbon isotope ratios and factors like temperature that may assist in the long-term monitoring of marine food webs.
View ArticleCombining techniques provides new insight into bird migration
Two complementary methods work together in a study forthcoming in The Auk: Ornithological Advances, producing more refined estimates of where individual Barn Swallows spend the winter. Using the...
View ArticleTiny fossils tell a long(ish) story
The impact of an asteroid at the end of the Cretaceous caused mass extinctions in the oceans, as well as killing the dinosaurs on land. The carbon isotope difference between surface and seabed...
View ArticleHow ancient horse-dung bacteria is helping our team locate where Hannibal...
Despite thousands of years of hard work by brilliant scholars, the great enigma of where Hannibal crossed the Alps to invade Italy remained unsolved. But now it looks like we may just have cracked it –...
View ArticleAncient horse poo sheds light on Hannibal's march
The route taken by Hannibal over the Alps to invade Italy has been a matter of debate for 2,000 years, but scientists may now have the answer—thanks to some ancient horse poo.
View ArticlePrehistoric humans actively adapted their survival strategies
Scientists from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen discovered that Neanderthals modified their survival strategies even without external...
View ArticleIdentifying age measurements distorted by fossil fuel emissions
Good news for archaeologists and natural scientists! You will be able to continue to use the radiocarbon method as a reliable tool for determining the age of artefacts and sample materials. The...
View ArticleStudy advances understanding the stories of ancient climate told by tiny shells
How can we know anything about the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere in earth's deep past? Tiny bubbles trapped in ice provide samples of ancient air but this record goes back only 800,000 years....
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