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Not a 'night owl' yet: Extraordinary bird fossil from Messel Pit suggests species still hunted by day
المصدر: Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories · نُشر
An exceptionally well-preserved, approximately 47-million-year-old owl fossil from the UNESCO World Heritage Site Messel provides new clues as to when owls became nocturnal. The newly described species Masillastrix blattophaga was likely still diurnal—as indicated by an iridescen
An exceptionally well-preserved, approximately 47-million-year-old owl fossil from the UNESCO World Heritage Site Messel provides new clues as to when owls became nocturnal. The newly described species Masillastrix blattophaga was likely still diurnal—as indicated by an iridescent cockroach in its stomach, as well as the structure of its feathers and wing bones. In their new study, published in the journal Current Biology, the Senckenberg researchers speculate that nocturnal behavior in owls only developed between the middle and late Eocene, some 47 to 34 million years ago.
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3-million-year-old Taung Child once again shakes up our human family tree
A century after the Taung Child permanently altered our view of human origins, a new study published in npj Palaeoecosystems dates the famous fossil to between 2.96 and 3.03 million years old. Led by professor Gabriele Macho of the Archaeology, Environmental Changes and Geo-Chemi
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Canines could help anthropological studies, answering questions about human evolution
Anthropologists seeking to understand human evolution often include primates such as chimps or apes in their studies. But a new review paper by Kyle Smith, a postdoctoral research scholar in NC State's College of Veterinary Medicine, argues that an equally informative animal is o
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Our sun's undiscovered stellar nemesis is still out there, says physicist
Long-period, high-inclination comets of the sort that can cause extinction-level impacts here on Earth have long been thought to originate from a theoretical Oort cloud. That is, a roughly spherical cloud of icy cometary objects that number in the trillions at distances that exte
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Extended mathematical language captures symmetry in layered materials
Symmetry is all around us, from the repeating patterns of crystals to the stitches in a knitted sweater. In materials science, these patterns are more than just visually appealing: They can influence how a material conducts heat, transports electricity and interacts with light. N
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Tiny beetle trapped in 53-million-year-old amber is named after Twenty One Pilots
Preserved in amber for about 53 million years, a beetle has been described as a new species by researchers in Spain and France. Named Cnopus twentyonepilotorum, it is the first puppet beetle (family Aderidae) to be formally described from the Oise amber of northern France. The fi
Phys.org - latest science and technology news stories ·