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Categories: Anthropology: General, Geoscience: Severe Weather

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X-rays of an ancient jawless fish shows earliest-known example of internal cartilage skull, unlike that of any other known vertebrate.

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A new study sheds new light on the origins of modern brain cells. Researchers find evidence that specialized secretory cells found in placozoans, tiny sea creatures the size of a grain of sand, have many similarities to the neuron, such as the genes required to create a partial synapse. From an evolutionary point of view, early neurons might have started as something like these cells, eventually gaining the ability to create a complete synapse, form axons and dendrites and create ion channels that generate fast electrical signals -- innovations which gave rise to the neuron in more complex animals such as jellyfish. Though the complete story of how the first neuron appeared remains to be told, the study demonstrates that the basic building blocks for our brain cells were forming in the ancestors of placozoans grazing inconspicuously in the shallow seas of Earth around 800 million years ago.

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Researchers discover how molecules in ancient glass rearrange and recombine with minerals over centuries to form a patina of photonic crystals -- ordered arrangements of atoms that filter and reflect light in very specific ways -- an analog of materials used in communications, lasers and solar cells.

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A new research paper tells the story of the recovery of World War II weather data from 19 US Navy ships thanks to the hard work of over 4,000 volunteers.

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A new type of analysis suggests that droughts in Ohio were more severe from 2000 to 2019 than standard measurements have suggested.

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Fires that raged in the days following the 1 September 1923 magnitude 7.9 Kant earthquake killed roughly 90% of the 105,000 people who perished in and around Tokyo, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in history -- comparable to the number of people killed in the World War II atomic bombing of Hiroshima. The story of the conflagration, not well-known outside of Japan, holds important lessons for earthquake scientists, emergency response teams and city planners, according to a new article.

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Researchers have developed a new simulation model, which can predict flooding during an ongoing disaster more quickly and accurately than currently possible.

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A review of almost 1000 studies on the effects of climate change and extreme weather events on rivers around the world has found an overall negative effect on water quality in rivers globally. An international team of experts sourced from every continent, conducted between 2000-2022.

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Climate experts project a decline in the frequency of future tropical storms but an increase in their strength across the Ganges and Mekong basins allowing for better future planning.

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Research found that, in some western states, the amount of snow already on the ground by the end of December is a good predictor of how much total snow that area will get.

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Researchers have focused on the moisture present in the air as a potential source of drinking water for drought-stressed populations. They reached a significant breakthrough in their efforts to create drinkable water out of thin air: a molecularly engineered hydrogel that can create clean water using just the energy from sunlight.

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Failing to achieve climate mitigation goals puts increasing pressure on climate adaptation strategies. In two new studies, researchers address novel approaches to these issues.

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Researchers investigated the relationship between historical traumatic events experienced by Alaska Native communities and epigenetic markers on genes that previous studies have linked to trauma. The new study found a similar pattern among Alaska Native participants, with specific epigenetic differences observed in those who reported experiencing the most intense symptoms of distress when reflecting on historic losses.

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Between 1840 and 1867, thousands of enslaved Africans who had been 'liberated' from slave ships intercepted by the British Royal Navy were taken to the South Atlantic island of St Helena. But little is written in history books or otherwise known about the lives of these individuals. Now, ancient DNA analyses offer the first direct evidence for the origins of St Helena's liberated Africans.

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From the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment, 'monstrous births' -- malformed or anomalous fetuses -- were, to Western medicine, an object of superstition. In 19th-century America, they became instead an object of the 'modern scientific study of monstrosity,' a field formalized by French scientist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. This clinical turn was positioned against the backdrop of social, political, and economic activity that codified laws governing slavery, citizenship, immigration, family, wealth, and access to resources.

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Researchers report that the flexible shoulders and elbows that allow us to throw a football or reach a high shelf may have evolved as a natural braking system that let our primate ancestors get out of trees without dying. The researchers used sports-analysis software to compare the climbing movements of chimpanzees and small monkeys called mangabeys. While the animals climb up trees similarly, the researchers found that the shallow, rounded shoulder joints and shortened elbow bones that chimps have -- similar to humans -- allow them to fully extend their arms above their heads when climbing down, holding onto branches like a person going down a ladder to support their greater weight. When early humans left forests for the grassy savanna, these versatile appendages would have been essential for gathering food and using tools for hunting and defense. The findings are among the first to identify the significance of 'downclimbing' in the evolution of apes and early humans.

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A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the evolution of plant biology, effectively rewriting the history of how they evolved over the past billion years.

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Atmospheric scientists have discovered abundant fine sea salt aerosol production from wind-blown snow in the central Arctic, increasing seasonal surface warming.

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Tropical forests in South America lose their ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere when conditions become exceptionally hot and dry, according to new research. For a long time, tropical forests have acted as a carbon sink, taking more carbon out of the air than they release into it, a process that has moderated the impact of climate change. But new research found that in 2015 -- 2016, when an El Niño climate event resulted in drought and the hottest temperatures ever recorded, South American forests were unable to function as a carbon sink.

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The Qing Dynasty in China, after over 250 years, crumbled in 1912. An international research team has pinpointed key reasons behind the collapse, revealing parallels to modern instability and offering vital lessons for the future.