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Categories: Paleontology: General, Space: Structures and Features
Published Dinosaur teeth reveal what they didn't eat
(via sciencedaily.com) Scratches on dinosaur teeth could reveal what they really ate. Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) has now been used to infer the feeding habits of large theropods, including Allosaurus and T. rex. By taking 3D images of individual teeth and analyzing the pattern of marks scratched into them, researchers could reason which dinosaurs may have frequently crunched on hard bone and which may have regularly eaten softer foods and prey. This technique opens up a new avenue of research for paleontology, helping us to better understand not only dinosaurs themselves but also the environment and communities in which they lived.
Published Immune system of modern Papuans shaped by DNA from ancient Denisovans, study finds
(via sciencedaily.com) Modern Papuans' immune system likely evolved with a little help from the Denisovans, a mysterious human ancestor who interbred with ancient humans, according to a new study.
Published Fjords, small in size and number, are significant carbon reservoirs
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fjords comprise a mere 0.1 percent of the surface area of the ocean yet store a whopping 11-12 percent of the carbon stored in the ocean. New research shows they sock away 18 million tons of carbon during interglacial periods, like the one we're in now.
Published Smilodon's sabre teeth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have tested the biting efficiency of Smilodon, an extinct species of carnivore close to the extant felines. Using high-precision 3D scans and simulation methods, the team has just revealed how these animals managed to bite despite the impressive length of their teeth.
Published Discovery of world's oldest DNA breaks record by one million years
(via sciencedaily.com) Two-million-year-old DNA has been identified -- opening a 'game-changing' new chapter in the history of evolution. Microscopic fragments of environmental DNA were found in Ice Age sediment in northern Greenland. Using cutting-edge technology, researchers discovered the fragments are one million years older than the previous record for DNA sampled from a Siberian mammoth bone. The ancient DNA has been used to map a two-million-year-old ecosystem which weathered extreme climate change.
Published NASA missions probe game-changing cosmic explosion
(via sciencedaily.com) On Dec. 11, 2021, astronomers detected a blast of high-energy light from the outskirts of a galaxy around 1 billion light-years away. The event has rattled scientists' understanding of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), the most powerful events in the universe.
Published For 400 years, Indigenous tribes buffered climate's impact on wildfires in the American Southwest
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Devastating megafires are becoming more common, in part, because the planet is warming. But a new study suggests bringing 'good fire' back to the U.S. and other wildfire fire-prone areas, as Native Americans once did, could potentially blunt the role of climate in triggering today's wildfires.
Published Dinosaurs were on the up before asteroid downfall
(via sciencedaily.com) Dinosaurs dominated the world right up until a deadly asteroid hit the earth, leading to their mass extinction, some 66 million years ago, a landmark study reveals. Fresh insights into dinosaurs' ecosystems -- the habitats and food types that supported their lives -- suggests that their environments were robust and thriving, right up until that fateful day, at the end of the Cretaceous period.
Published Meteorites plus gamma rays could have given Earth the building blocks for life
(via sciencedaily.com) Even as detailed images of distant galaxies from the James Webb Space Telescope show us more of the greater universe, scientists still disagree about how life began here on Earth. One hypothesis is that meteorites delivered amino acids -- life's building blocks -- to our planet. Now, researchers have experimentally shown that amino acids could have formed in these early meteorites from reactions driven by gamma rays produced inside the space rocks.
Published Peekaboo! Tiny, hidden galaxy provides a peek into the past
(via sciencedaily.com) Peeking out from behind the glare of a bright foreground star, astronomers have uncovered the most extraordinary example yet of a nearby galaxy with characteristics that are more like galaxies in the distant, early universe. Only 1,200 light-years across, the tiny galaxy HIPASS J1131-31 has been nicknamed "Peekaboo" because of its emergence in the past 50-100 years from behind the fast-moving star that was obscuring astronomers' ability to detect it.
Published Researchers say space atomic clocks could help uncover the nature of dark matter
(via sciencedaily.com) Studying an atomic clock on-board a spacecraft inside the orbit of Mercury and very near to the Sun could be the trick to uncovering the nature of dark matter.
Published Characterizing the earliest galaxies in the universe -- only 200 million years after the Big Bang
(via sciencedaily.com) An international team of astrophysicists has managed to statistically characterize the first galaxies in the Universe, which formed only 200 million years after the Big Bang.
Published New analysis approach could help boost sensitivity of large telescopes
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers detail an analysis method that could improve telescopes at the Simons Observatory by evaluating their performance before installation. This is the first time the optical performance of a telescope has been confirmed prior to its deployment.
Published Rare sighting of luminous jet spewed by supermassive black hole
(via sciencedaily.com) Astronomers discover a bright optical flare caused by a dying star's encounter with a supermassive black hole.
Published Mysteriously bright flash is a black hole jet pointing straight toward Earth, astronomers say
(via sciencedaily.com) Astronomers have determined the source of an incredibly bright X-ray, optical and radio signal appearing from halfway across the Universe.
Published Non-detection of key signal allows astronomers to determine what the first galaxies were -- and weren't -- like
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have been able to make some key determinations about the first galaxies to exist, in one of the first astrophysical studies of the period in the early Universe when the first stars and galaxies formed, known as the cosmic dawn.
Published Astrophysicists hunt for second-closest supermassive black hole
(via sciencedaily.com) As massive as the black hole at the center of the Milky Way, the behemoth is hosted by a dwarf galaxy less than 1 million light-years away. Invisible so far -- maybe not for long.
Published Astronomers observe intra-group light -- the elusive glow between distant galaxies
(via sciencedaily.com) Pioneering a new technique, researchers have peered into the extremely faint light that exists between galaxies to describe the history and state of orphan stars.
Published International team observes innermost structure of quasar jet
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists have observed the narrowing of a quasar jet for the first time by using a network of radio telescopes across the world. The results suggest that the narrowing of the jet is independent of the activity level of the galaxy which launched it.
Published An exoplanet atmosphere as never seen before
(via sciencedaily.com) New observations of WASP-39 b reveal a never-before-seen molecule in the atmosphere of a planet -- sulfur dioxide -- among other details.