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Categories: Geoscience: Geology, Paleontology: Dinosaurs
Published Dinosaurs' success helped by specialized stance and gait, study finds



Dinosaurs' range of locomotion made them incredibly adaptable, researchers have found.
Published A new origin story for deadly Seattle fault



The Seattle fault zone is a network of shallow faults slicing through the lowlands of Puget Sound, threatening to create damaging earthquakes for the more than four million people who live there. A new origin story, proposed in a new study, could explain the fault system's earliest history and help scientists improve hazard modeling for the densely populated region.
Published Study challenges the classical view of the origin of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and warns of its vulnerability



The Circumpolar Current works as a regulator of the planet's climate. Its origins were thought to have caused the formation of the permanent ice in Antarctica about 34 million years ago. Now, a study has cast doubt on this theory, and has changed the understanding of how the ice sheet in Antarctic developed in the past, and what this could mean in the future as the planet's climate changes.
Published Source rocks of the first real continents



Geoscientists have uncovered a missing link in the enigmatic story of how the continents developed- - a revised origin story that doesn't require the start of plate tectonics or any external factor to explain their formation. Instead, the findings rely solely on internal geological forces that occurred within oceanic plateaus that formed during the first few hundred million years of Earth's history.
Published Scientists pinpoint growth of brain's cerebellum as key to evolution of bird flight



Evolutionary biologists report they have combined PET scans of modern pigeons along with studies of dinosaur fossils to help answer an enduring question in biology: How did the brains of birds evolve to enable them to fly?
Published Unexpected biodiversity on the ocean floor



Hydrothermal vents and manganese nodule fields in the deep oceans contain more biodiversity than expected.
Published Records of cometary dust hitting the asteroid Ryugu



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.
Published Planetary Commons: Fostering global cooperation to safeguard critical Earth system functions



Tipping elements of the Earth system should be considered global commons, researchers argue. Global commons cannot -- as they currently do -- only include the parts of the planet outside of national borders, like the high seas or Antarctica. They must also include all the environmental systems that regulate the functioning and state of the planet, namely all systems on Earth we all depend on, irrespective on where in the world we live. This calls for a new level of transnational cooperation, leading experts in legal, social and Earth system sciences say. To limit risks for human societies and secure critical Earth system functions they propose a new framework of planetary commons to guide governance of the planet.
Published Student discovers 200-million-year-old flying reptile



Gliding winged-reptiles were amongst the ancient crocodile residents of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, researchers at the have revealed.
Published Key factors in human-made earthquakes



Researchers report that the roughness of pre-existing faults and associated stress heterogeneity in geological reservoirs play a key role for causing human-made earthquakes, so-called runaway events. The study combines novel fluid injection experiments under acoustic monitoring performed in GFZ's geomechanical laboratory with numerical modelling results.
Published Study uncovers potential origins of life in ancient hot springs



A research team investigated how the emergence of the first living systems from inert geological materials happened on the Earth, more than 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists found that by mixing hydrogen, bicarbonate, and iron-rich magnetite under conditions mimicking relatively mild hydrothermal vent results in the formation of a spectrum of organic molecules, most notably including fatty acids stretching up to 18 carbon atoms in length.
Published New research sheds light on an old fossil solving an evolutionary mystery



Picrodontids -- an extinct family of placental mammals that lived several million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs -- are not primates as previously believed.
Published Meteorite analysis shows Earth's building blocks contained water



Analysis of iron meteorites from the earliest years of the solar system indicate that the planetary 'seeds' that ultimately formed Earth contained water.
Published 'Juvenile T. rex' fossils are a distinct species of small tyrannosaur



A new analysis of fossils believed to be juveniles of T. rex now shows they were adults of a small tyrannosaur, with narrower jaws, longer legs, and bigger arms than T. rex. The species, Nanotyrannus lancensis, was first named decades ago but later reinterpreted as a young T. rex. The new study shows Nanotyrannus was a smaller, longer-armed relative of T. rex, with a narrower snout.
Published From NYC to DC and beyond, cities on the East Coast are sinking



Major cities on the U.S. Atlantic coast are sinking, in some cases as much as 5 millimeters per year -- a decline at the ocean's edge that well outpaces global sea level rise, confirms new research. Particularly hard hit population centers such as New York City and Long Island, Baltimore, and Virginia Beach and Norfolk are seeing areas of rapid 'subsidence,' or sinking land, alongside more slowly sinking or relatively stable ground, increasing the risk to roadways, runways, building foundations, rail lines, and pipelines, according to a new study.
Published Mesopotamian bricks unveil the strength of Earth's ancient magnetic field



Ancient bricks inscribed with the names of Mesopotamian kings have yielded important insights into a mysterious anomaly in Earth's magnetic field 3,000 years ago, according to a new study.
Published Little bacterium may make big impact on rare-earth processing



A tiny, hard-working bacterium -- which weighs one-trillionth of a gram -- may soon have a large influence on processing rare earth elements in an eco-friendly way.
Published Exoplanets' climate -- it takes nothing to switch from habitable to hell



The Earth is a wonderful blue and green dot covered with oceans and life, while Venus is a yellowish sterile sphere that is not only inhospitable but also sterile. However, the difference between the two bears to only a few degrees in temperature. A team of astronomers has achieved a world's first by managing to simulate the entirety of the runaway greenhouse process which can transform the climate of a planet from idyllic and perfect for life, to a place more than harsh and hostile. The scientists have also demonstrated that from initial stages of the process, the atmospheric structure and cloud coverage undergo significant changes, leading to an almost-unstoppable and very complicated to reverse runaway greenhouse effect. On Earth, a global average temperature rise of just a few tens of degrees, subsequent to a slight rise of the Sun's luminosity, would be sufficient to initiate this phenomenon and to make our planet inhabitable.
Published Global inventory of sound production brings us one step closer to understanding aquatic ecosystems



Our understanding of which aquatic species produce sounds just took a big step forward. Scientists have created an inventory of species confirmed or expected to produce sound underwater.
Published Positive tipping points must be triggered to solve climate crisis



Positive tipping points must be triggered if we are to avoid the severe consequences of damaging Earth system tipping points, researchers say.