Animal Life news stories

Even Without a Meteorite, The Stage Was Set For Dinosaurs to Go Extinct
28th November 2023 | science.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A new analysis by an international team of researchers has added evidence to claims that the world prior to the asteroid blow was anything but paradise, with measures of sulfur in the atmosphere reaching critical levels.

Casas del Turuñuelo, a site of repeated animal sacrifice in Iron Age Spain
23rd November 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Archaeological sites with evidence of major animal sacrifices are rarely known from the Iron Age of the Mediterranean region, and there is a gap between information offered by written sources and by the archaeological record. This makes it difficult to establish a clear understanding of the patterns and protocols of this practice. See the study here.

Glowing Fingertips And Green Eyes: First-of-Its-Kind Monkey Chimera Born in China
13th November 2023 | sciencealert.com | Animal Life, Humans, Tech, Weird

Scientists in China have announced the birth of a primate like no other, with eyes that shined green and fingertips that glowed yellow – and those were just the observable features. The study was published in Cell.

Mysterious Origins of North America’s ‘Last Primate’ Finally Emerge
12th November 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A mysterious primate appeared in North America 30 million years ago, long after the continent’s native primates had died out and even longer before the next big influx of primates – humans – would arrive. The study was published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

In a Jedi-like feat, rats can move a digital object using just their brain
5th November 2023 | sciencenews.org | Animal Life, Humans, Tech

Like tiny, hairy Yodas raising X-wings from a swamp, rats can lift digital cubes and drop them near a target. But these rats aren’t using the Force. Instead, they are using their imagination. See the study here.

Burial suggests dingoes had ‘almost-human status’ in First Nations communities
30th October 2023 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

An archaeological site south of Sydney has investigated 2,000-year-old dingo bones, buried alongside, and in the same way, as the Indigenous people of the area. The research has been published in PLOS One.

11,000-year-old statue of giant man clutching penis unearthed in Turkey
17th October 2023 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

Archaeologists in Turkey have unearthed a nearly 11,000-year-old statue that may depict a giant man clutching his penis, along with a life-size wild boar statue. The two statues come from the neighboring sites of Gobekli Tepe and Karahan Tepe, which are among the oldest temple sites in the world.

Missing ‘Law of Nature’ Found That Describes The Way All Things Evolve
17th October 2023 | sciencealert.com | Animal Life, Earth, Humans

A US team of astrobiologists, philosophers, a mineralogist, a theoretical physicist, and a data scientist describe the “missing law” of nature in an intriguing new peer-reviewed paper.

Six-Million-Year-Old Turtle Shell May Still Hold Ancient DNA Traces
5th October 2023 | iflscience.com | Ancient, Animal Life

Traces of ancient DNA appear to have been found within the 6-million-year-old fossil bones of an extinct turtle. This is staggeringly old evidence of DNA and may suggest that genetic material can last much longer than previously appreciated. The study is published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

New computer analysis hints volcanism killed the dinosaurs, not an asteroid
2nd October 2023 | sciencenews.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

For decades, scientists have vigorously debated whether an asteroid strike or massive volcanic eruptions ended the reign of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago…Now, researchers have devised a new way to identify the true dino killer: Let computers take a crack at it. See the study here.

Mysterious and ‘beautifully carved’ life-size camel carvings discovered in Saudi Arabian desert
2nd October 2023 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Life-size carvings of camels have been found in the Saudi Arabian desert, but archaeologists aren’t sure who created them and when….Radiocarbon dating of two trenches and two hearths nearby indicate that the Sahout site was repeatedly occupied between the Pleistocene (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) and the Middle Holocene (7,000 to 5,000 years ago), according to the study.

Hippos in The Desert: Study Reveals Why And When The Sahara Desert Turned Green
25th September 2023 | sciencealert.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

Our planet has changed a lot over billions of years, from the location of the continents to the makeup of the atmosphere, and a new study looks in detail at the history of the Sahara desert – which wasn’t always an arid wilderness.

Tiny sea creatures reveal the ancient origins of neurons
20th September 2023 | eurekalert.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A study in the journal Cell sheds new light on the evolution of neurons, focusing on the placozoans, a millimetre-sized marine animal. Researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation in Barcelona find evidence that specialized secretory cells found in these unique and ancient creatures may have given rise to neurons in more complex animals.

Vocal learning linked to problem solving skills and brain size
18th September 2023 | eurekalert.org | Animal Life, Misc.

The European starling boasts a remarkable repertoire. Versatile songbirds that learn warbles, whistles, calls, and songs throughout their lives, starlings rank among the most advanced avian vocal learners. Now a new study published in Science finds that starlings, along with other complex vocal learners, are also superior problem solvers.

Archaeologists reveal largest paleolithic cave art site in Eastern Iberia
12th September 2023 phys.org | Ancient, Animal Life, Humans

More than 100 ancient paintings and engravings, thought to be at least 24,000 years old, have been found in a 500-meter-long cave in “Cova Dones” or “Cueva Dones”—a site located in Millares near Valencia in Spain. See the research here.

Scientists Discover ‘Pure Math’ Is Written Into Evolutionary Genetics
5th September 2023 | sciencealert.com | Animal Life, Earth, Humans

A team of researchers has just uncovered another striking connection between math and nature: between one of the purest forms of mathematics, number theory, and the mechanisms governing the evolution of life on molecular scales, genetics. See the study here.

News stories covering Animal Science, bacterial life, DNA.