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Categories: Paleontology: Fossils, Space: General

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Microorganisms were the first forms of life on our planet. The clues are written in 3.5 billion-year-old rocks by geochemical and morphological traces, such as chemical compounds or structures that these organisms left behind. However, it is still not clear when and where life originated on Earth and when a diversity of species developed in these early microbial communities. Evidence is scarce and often disputed. Now, researchers have uncovered key findings about the earliest forms of life. In rock samples from South Africa, they found evidence dating to around 3.42 billion years ago of an unprecedentedly diverse carbon cycle involving various microorganisms. This research shows that complex microbial communities already existed in the ecosystems during the Palaeoarchaean period.

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The Hayabusa2 mission that collected samples from the asteroid Ryugu has provided a treasure trove of insights into our solar system. After analyzing samples further, a team of researchers have unearthed evidence that cometary organic matter was transported from space to the near-Earth region.

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Of all the organisms that photosynthesize, land plants have the most complex form. How did this morphology emerge? A team of scientists has taken a deep dive into the evolutionary history of morphological complexity in streptophytes, which include land plants and many green algae. Their research allowed them to go back in time to investigate lineages that emerged long before land plants existed.

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Gliding winged-reptiles were amongst the ancient crocodile residents of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, researchers at the have revealed.

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A new study shows the Megalodon, a gigantic shark that went extinct 3.6 million years ago, was more slender than earlier studies suggested. This finding changes scientists' understanding of Megalodon behavior, ancient ocean life, and why the sharks went extinct.

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An international team of astronomers have found a new and unknown object in the Milky Way that is heavier than the heaviest neutron stars known and yet simultaneously lighter than the lightest black holes known.

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A research team has for the first time discovered anomalous meter-sized rocks on the lunar surface that are covered in dust and presumably exhibit unique properties -- such as magnetic anomalies. These findings help to understand the processes that form and change the lunar crust.

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The new theoretical research proposes that animal size over time depends on two key ecological factors.

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A new study is a significant breakthrough in understanding Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) involving supermassive black holes. The new simulations accurately replicate the entire sequence of a TDE from stellar disruption to the peak luminosity of the resulting flare.

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Researchers have discovered the oldest black hole ever observed, dating from the dawn of the universe, and found that it is 'eating' its host galaxy to death.

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Researchers have developed a 10-centimeter-diameter glass metalens that can image the sun, the moon and distant nebulae with high resolution. It is the first all-glass, large-scale metalens in the visible wavelength that can be mass produced using conventional CMOS fabrication technology.

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High-resolution images captured by the James Webb Space Telescope are offering powerful insights into the complex dust patterns of nearby star-forming galaxies.

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A 10-month mission demonstrated three elements of the plan to beam solar power from space to Earth.

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Researchers have linked the travels of a 14,000-year-old woolly mammoth with the oldest known human settlements in Alaska, providing clues about the relationship between the iconic species and some of the earliest people to travel across the Bering Land Bridge. Isotopic data, along with DNA from other mammoths at the site and archaeological evidence, indicates that early Alaskans likely structured their settlements to overlap with areas where mammoths congregated. Those findings, highlighted in the new issue of the journal Science Advances, provide evidence that mammoths and early hunter-gatherers shared habitat in the region. The long-term predictable presence of woolly mammoths would have attracted humans to the area.

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Fossils of kelp along the Pacific Coast are rare. Until now, the oldest fossil dated from 14 million years ago, leading to the view that today's denizens of the kelp forest -- marine mammals, urchins, sea birds -- coevolved with kelp. A recent amateur discovery pushes back the origin of kelp to 32 million years ago, long before these creatures appeared. A new analysis suggests the first kelp grazers were extinct, hippo-like animals called desmostylians.

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Astronomers have created the most sensitive radio image ever of a globular cluster, an ancient ball of tightly-packed stars.

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New research shows the early lunar crust which makes up the surface of the Moon was considerably enriched in water more than 4 billion years ago, counter to previously held understanding.

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New research has precisely dated some of the oldest fossils of complex multicellular life in the world, helping to track a pivotal moment in the history of Earth when the seas began teeming with new lifeforms -- after four billion years of containing only single-celled microbes.

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New research has cracked a vital process in the creation of a unique rock type from the Moon. The discovery explains its signature composition and very presence on the lunar surface at all, unraveling a mystery which has long-eluded scientists.

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Astronomers have discovered a planet closer and younger than any other Earth-sized world yet identified. It's a remarkably hot world whose proximity to our own planet and to a star like our sun mark it as a unique opportunity to study how planets evolve.