Ancient DNA Rewrites Story of Enigmatic ‘American Cheetah’
For several decades, paleontologists have described Miracinonyx trumani — an extinct species of cheetah-like felid that roamed the…
What’s the Largest Current on Earth? It Moves More Water Than Every River Combined—Many Times Over
Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Credit: Wikimedia Commons Earth’s mightiest current has no banks. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current, or ACC,…
Fossils from Chinese Cave Fill Crucial Gap in History of Gigantopithecus blacki
Deep inside a limestone cave in southern China, paleontologists have uncovered an assemblage of thirteen fossilized teeth belonging…
Ancient Earth Repeatedly Thawed during Catastrophic Ice Ages, New Research Suggests
Earth experienced extreme climate swings during the Neoproterozoic epoch (one billion to 538.8 million years ago), including the…
Earth’s Longest Ice Age May Have Repeatedly Thawed and Refrozen for 56 Million Years
Artistic representation of a Snowball Earth. Credit: Wikimedia Commons. The Sturtian glaciation was one of the most extreme…
New Species of Fossil Koala Found in Museum Drawer
Long-overlooked fossils in the Western Australian Museum collection have been identified as a new species of koala. Named…
Scientists Solve Origin of a Massive Ocean Current Carrying a Hundred Times More Water Than All the World’s Rivers Combined
Antarctic Circumpolar Current. Credit: Wikimedia Commons Earth’s mightiest river has no banks. The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the…
Earth’s 40 000-year axial tilt cycle influenced subtropical marine productivity during early Antarctic ice sheet expansion
The cycle, known as obliquity, reflects changes in the angle of Earth’s axis and affects how solar radiation…
Earth’s distance from the Sun found to dramatically alter seasons
A strip of cool water stretches west from South America along the equator, helping set the pace for…
Seasonal and Multi-Decadal Climate Cycles Persisted during Snowball Earth, Scientists Say
A new analysis of exquisitely preserved laminated rocks (varves) from the Port Askaig Formation on the Garvellach Islands,…
Fossil Shorebirds Tell New Story about Climate Change in Australia
Shorebirds are widespread birds whose dependence on coastal and wetland environments makes them effective paleoenvironmental indicators. Wading shorebirds…
Tectonic Plate Movements, Not Volcanoes, Drove Major Climate Shifts Over 540 Million Years
New research challenges conventional wisdom by demonstrating that mid-ocean ridges and continental rifts, not volcanic eruptions, played the…