Animal Life news stories

Our Universe Is Finely Tuned For Life, And There’s an Explanation For Why That Is So
23rd November 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans, Space

Physically speaking, our Universe seems uncannily perfect. It stands to reason that if it wasn’t, life as we know it – and planets, atoms, everything else really – wouldn’t exist.

DNA analysis confirms 2,000-year-old sustainable fishing practices of Tsleil-Waututh Nation
15th November 2021 phys.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Ancient Indigenous fishing practices can be used to inform sustainable management and conservation today, according to a new study from Simon Fraser University.

Dogs Have Co-Evolved With Humans Like No Other Species
6th November 2021 | discovermagazine.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

The connection between human and dog runs deep. Early signs of domestication date back to 33,000 years ago The pairing makes for a striking case in coevolution — no other species has been so thoroughly integrated into human society. Dogs are our sentinels and shepherds, hunting partners and cancer detectors. And more importantly, to those of us who have had dogs in our lives, they are our dearest friends.

Scientists Traced The Weird Origins of Tusks to Find Out Where They Came From
29th October 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Weird

Stick a turtle’s beak on a baby hippo. Then twist its front legs so they stick out to either side, but keep its back legs straight. And give it tusks. Presto, you have something that looks a little bit like a prototype mammal-like animal that walked the planet hundreds of millions of years ago.

Mammoths and other extinct Ice Age giants clung on longer than previously thought, DNA analysis suggests
25th October 2021 edition.cnn.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Mammoths and other giant creatures of the Ice Age such as woolly rhinos survived longer than scientists thought, coexisting with humans for tens of thousands of years before they vanished for good. That’s according to the results of an ambitious 10-year research project that analyzed DNA from hundreds of soil samples across the Arctic.

2.5 billion-year-old traces of life locked inside primeval ruby
24th October 2021 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

Traces of ancient life were locked inside a 2.5 billion-year-old ruby from Greenland, according to a new study.

This Jurassic Graveyard Holds The Oldest Known Evidence of ‘Complex’ Dinosaur Herds
24th October 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A Jurassic graveyard in Patagonia, Argentina, holds more than 100 fossilized eggs and the bones of 80 Mussaurus patagonicus dinosaurs ranging in age from hatchling to adult. The trove of dinosaur remains suggests that these paleo-beasts lived in herds as early as 192 million years ago, a new study finds.

Ancient rainforest-dwelling humans ate wide range of foods to survive
24th October 2021 | nhm.ac.uk | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Some of the oldest evidence for modern humans living in rainforests has been found in a cave in Southeast Asia. Researchers analysed fossilised teeth discovered in Laos, revealing that these humans ate fruits and meat as part of an omnivorous diet.

 

Earth Tipped on Its Side 84 Million Years Ago, New Evidence Suggests
20th October 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

We know that true polar wander (TPW) can occasionally tilt whole planets and moons relative to their axes, but it’s not entirely clear just how often this has happened to Earth. Now a new study presents evidence of one such tilting event that occurred around 84 million years ago – when dinosaurs still walked the Earth.

So-called junk DNA plays critical role in mammalian development
20th October 2021 phys.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Nearly half of our DNA has been written off as junk, the discards of evolution…

A Grim ‘Huge Extinction Event’ Happened 30 Million Years Ago, And We Only Just Noticed
11th October 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

The close of the Eocene roughly 33 million years ago marks a time of great change on Earth. In a slow reversal of what we’re seeing today, temperatures dropped and glaciers stretched their icy fingers towards the equator.

Ancient Humans Tended The World’s Most Dangerous Birds, Because of Course We Did
29th September 2021 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

With powerful legs tipped by dagger-like talons, capable of eviscerating you with a single kick, cassowaries are the bird that most lives up to the moniker of a modern dinosaur.

South Australian eagle fossil identified as one of the oldest raptor species in the world
29th September 2021 | theguardian.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A 25m-year-old eagle fossil discovered on a remote outback cattle station in South Australia has been identified as one of the oldest raptor species in the world.

Dinosaurs: ‘Bizarre’ fossil is Africa’s first ankylosaur
24th September 2021 | bbc.co.uk | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

“Think of a coffee table. Short, broad, covered in spikes and walking towards you. That’s an ankylosaur!”

Modern snakes evolved from a few survivors of dino-killing asteroid
14th September 2021 phys.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A new study suggests that all living snakes evolved from a handful of species that survived the giant asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs and most other living things at the end of the Cretaceous

Dark regions of the genome may drive the evolution of new species
7th September 2021 | livescience.com | Animal Life, Humans

Genetic “dark matter” may drive the emergence of new species, new research finds.

News stories covering Animal Science, bacterial life, DNA.