Geology, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 31, 2007

First 'Modern' Ears Found

The first backboned creatures to conquer land were largely deaf, lacking anatomical features whereby tiny bones help transmit airborne sounds into the inner ear. Advanced hearing was assumed to have evolved shortly before the emergence of dinosaurs, roughly 200 million years ago. Now, scientists have found that weasel-sized prehistoric reptiles...

Jul 31, 2007

Mount Everest Deadlier for Older Hikers

When it comes to trekking up Earth's tallest peak, age matters. New research reveals 60-year-olds lag behind 40-year-olds in reaching Mount Everest's summit. And for those who make it, the 60-and-overs are more likely to die on the descent. On Everest, youth and vigor trump age and experience, the study...

Jun 30, 2007

Possible Link to Lucy's Ancestors Found

New jaw fossils might suggest a direct line of descent between two species of early humans, including the one to which Lucy belongs. The 3.2 million-year-old Lucy, the earliest known adult hominid, was found in Ethiopia in 1974 by U.S. paleontologists Donald Johanson and Tom Gray. Lucy and her kind,...

Feb 28, 2007

Ancient Furry Featherweight Mammal Discovered

Fossil remains have revealed a new svelte, squirrel-like mammal that scurried around in the wee hours of the night snagging insects and worms about 125 million years ago. Paleontologists unearthed the remains in the Yan Mountains in what is now the Hebei Province in China. A reconstruction of what the...

Sep 30, 2008

Dinosaur Graveyard Yields Fossil Bounty

A dinosaur graveyard full of fossils has been discovered in a former river bed in Utah, presenting an opportunity for a decade's worth of Jurassic research by paleontologists, it was announced this week. Scientists and technicians with the Utah Thornbury Dinosaur Expedition unearthed an abundance of sauropod (an herbivorous long-necked...

Sep 30, 2008

Hawaiian Cave Reveals Ancient Secrets

From the moment we saw it, we knew the place held many great secrets. We had been looking for new fossil sites on the south side of the Hawaiian island of Kauai in 1992 with our colleagues, Helen F. James and Storrs L. Olson of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,...

Jun 30, 2008

Fossil Suggests Antarctica Much Warmer in Past

A college student's new discovery of fossils collected in the East Antarctic suggests that the frozen polar cap was once a much balmier place. The well-preserved fossils of ostracods, a type of small crustaceans, came from the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica's Transantarctic Mountains and date from about 14 million...

Jun 30, 2008

San Andreas Fault Longer Than Thought

As if the San Andreas Fault weren't long and menacing enough, newly found mud pots and mud volcanoes now suggest it extends another 18 miles, going under the Salton Sea and beyond, in the desert southeast of Palm Springs. The extension is probably inactive. U.S. Geological Survey researchers David K....

May 31, 2008

New Fossils Suggest Ancient Cat-sized Reptiles in Antarctica

Cat-sized reptiles once roamed what is now the icebox of Antarctica, snuggling up in burrows and peeping above ground to snag plant roots and insects. The evidence for this scenario comes from preserved burrow casts discovered in the Transantarctic Mountains, which extend 3,000 miles (4,800 km) across the polar continent...

Jan 31, 2008

Image Gallery: Dinosaur Fossils

Camarasaurus Skull (Image credit: © 2003 Calvin J. Hamilton ScienceViews.com)This skull cast is from Dinosaur National Monument, Utah. It dates to the Jurassic Period, about 150 million years ago. This picture was taken on Nov. 10, 2003 at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Tyrannosaurus Rex (Image credit: ©...

Jun 30, 2009

Huge Fossilized Dung Reveals a Hidden Ancient Ecosystem

The world might be knee-deep in cow patties and other animal waste today were it not for dung beetles. Dung beetles roll the waste of large animals into tiny balls that they bury underground to snack on later. Burying the dung fertilizes the soil and reduces disease, but the benefits...

Apr 30, 2009

'Ida' Fossil Hype Went Too Far

Science is supposed to be methodical, and usually it is, sometimes to the point of being dull. But there are times when a little hoopla is called for. Major discoveries that rewrite the textbooks deserve big headlines and ubiquitous media coverage and lots of scientific slaps on the back and...

Feb 28, 2009

Oldest Fossil Brain Find Is 'Really Bizarre'

Most fossil specimens can only wish they had a brain. But paleontologists recently discovered the oldest known example nestled within a 300-million-year-old fish fossil from Kansas. The rare find provides an unusually detailed view of brain structure in prehistoric life. It similarly sheds light on the extinct relatives of modern...

Feb 28, 2009

Great White Sharks Once Grew Slower, Fossil Shows

Editor's Note: The story has been revised to clarify that ancient great white sharks likely grew more slowly but could have ultimately been longer, not smaller, than great whites today. The most complete fossil of an ancient great white shark has been found in the dry deserts of Peru, including...

Jan 31, 2009

Odd Life Found in Great Lakes

Scientists have found some odd life forms in Lake Huron. Peculiar geological formations are supporting floating plumes and purple mats of microbes dwelling in enclaves of the Great Lake, researchers report. The odd biology is more akin to what is found in some of Earth's most extreme environments. The mats...