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Categories: Mathematics: Modeling, Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology

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Researchers have discovered and characterized a DNA sequence found in jawed vertebrates, such as sharks and humans, but absent in jawless vertebrates, such as lampreys. This DNA is important for the shaping of the joint surfaces during embryo development.

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Whatcheeria, a six-foot-long salamander-like creature that lived 340 million years ago, was the T. rex of its time: the biggest, baddest predator in its habitat. A new study reveals how they grew to their 'giant' size: instead of growing slow and steady throughout their lives like many modern reptiles and amphibians, they did most of their growing when they were young.

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According to a new study, fossils of a tiny sea creature with a delicately preserved nervous system solve a century-old debate over how the brain evolved in arthropods, the most species-rich group in the animal kingdom. Combining detailed anatomical studies of the fossilized nervous system with analyses of gene expression patterns in living descendants, they conclude that a shared blueprint of brain organization has been maintained from the Cambrian until today.

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A gold coin long dismissed as a forgery appears to be authentic and depicts a long-lost Roman emperor named Sponsian, according to a new study.

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Research finds using a large collection of simple, un-curated synthetic image generation programs to pretrain a computer vision model for image classification yields greater accuracy than employing other pretraining methods that are more costly and time consuming, and less scalable.

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A new study has revealed how the glass-like shells of diatoms help these microscopic organisms perform photosynthesis in dim conditions. A better understanding of how these phytoplankton harvest and interact with light could lead to improved solar cells, sensing devices and optical components.

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The complete skeletal remains of a spider monkey -- seen as an exotic curiosity in pre-Hispanic Mexico -- grants researchers new evidence regarding social-political ties between two ancient powerhouses: Teotihuacán and Maya Indigenous rulers. The remains of other animals were also discovered, as well as thousands of Maya-style mural fragments and over 14,000 ceramic sherds from a grand feast. These pieces are more than 1,700 years old.

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The preserved footprints found in New Mexico's Lake Otero Basin would upend scientific understanding of how, and when, humans first arrived in North America, if they are accurately dated. A new study brings the age claim into question.

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International team of researchers describe new fossil species discovered in fossil deposit near Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales. The fossil, Mierridduryn bonniae, shares many features with Cambrian 'weird wonder' Opabinia, but is 40 million years younger. Robust phylogenetic analyses suggest that Mierridduryn is either the third opabiniid ever discovered, or is a distinct group that is key for understanding the evolution of the arthropod head.

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Artificial intelligence has revealed that prehistoric footprints thought to be made by a vicious dinosaur predator were in fact from a timid herbivore.

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The remains of a huge carp fish mark the earliest signs of cooking by prehistoric human to 780,000 years ago, predating the available data by some 600,000 years, according to researchers.

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Computational scientists adopt new framework for making AI models more findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable.

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With wings spanning nearly 16 feet, a new species of pterosaurs has been identified from the Atlantic coast of Angola.

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Researchers have unearthed an ivory comb from 1700 BCE inscribed with a plea to eradicate lice. The finding provides direct evidence for the use of the Canaanite alphabet in daily activities some 3700 years ago.

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The earliest morphological traces of life on Earth are often highly controversial, both because non-biological processes can produce relatively similar structures and because such fossils have often been subjected to advanced alteration and metamorphism. Stromatolites, layered organo-sedimentary structures reflecting complex interplays between microbial communities and their environment, have long been considered key macrofossils for life detection in ancient sedimentary rocks; however, the biological origin of ancient stromatolites has frequently been criticized.

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Computer science researchers have demonstrated that a widely used technique called neural network pruning can adversely affect the performance of deep learning models, detailed what causes these performance problems, and demonstrated a technique for addressing the challenge.

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Archaeological researchers have identified human remains as a child, who may have been laid on a bed of down in a Stone Age burial site discovered in Eastern Finland. There may also have been a canid at the child's feet. It reveals interesting details of how Stone Age humans buried their dead about 8000 years ago.

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An exceptionally well-preserved collection of fossils discovered in eastern Yunnan Province, China, has enabled scientists to solve a centuries-old riddle in the evolution of life on earth, revealing what the first animals to make skeletons looked like.

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Many computer systems people interact with on a daily basis require knowledge about certain aspects of the world, or models, to work. These systems have to be trained, often needing to learn to recognize objects from video or image data. This data often contains superfluous content that reduces the accuracy of models. So researchers found a way to incorporate natural hand gestures into the teaching process. This way, users can more easily teach machines about objects, and the machines can also learn more effectively.

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A new study by mathematicians shows that math borrowed from neuroscience can describe how swarms of these unique insects coordinate their light show, capturing key details about how they behave in the wild.