All Stories by Sid Perkins
- Earth
Ancient marine reptiles losing their cool
Warm-bloodedness may help explain the creatures’ evolutionary success, a new study suggests.
- Climate
With warming, some commercial fish may boom and bust
Higher temps in Arctic waters might be good for some species but not for others, new research suggests.
- Planetary Science
Before the Mississippi, minerals show ancient rivers flowed west
Michigan zircons uncover the path of an ancient river system across North America.
- Earth
Hazy antidote to a faint young sun
A new theory suggests atmospheric answer to the continuing paradox of why early Earth wasn’t icy.
- Archaeology
Jamestown settlers’ trash confirms hard times
Analyses of discarded oyster shells confirm a deep drought during the Virginia colony’s earliest years.
- Paleontology
Octopus origins
After examining more than 90 new specimens of Nectocaris pteryx, paleontologists put it near the root of the cephalopod evolutionary tree.
- Climate
Oceans warmed in recent decades
Measurements show a trend of rising temperatures along with a leveling off since 2003.
- Planetary Science
Martian moon probably pretty porous
Phobos may be a mass of rocky rubble, not a captured asteroid.
- Earth
Earliest birds didn’t make a flap
The feathers of Archaeopteryx and Confuciusornis probably were not strong enough to support sustained flight.
- Earth
Archaeopteryx fossil seen in new light
X-ray technique reveals original tissue in the feathers of a primitive bird fossil.
- Earth
Gravity lows mark burial sites of ancient tectonic plates
Dips in Earth's gravitational field are tied to 'slab graveyards'
- Paleontology
Dinos molted for a new look
In one species, adolescents appear to have sprouted a new type of feathers as they matured.
