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Categories: Offbeat: Earth and Climate, Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds

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For decades, fish-eating killer whales in the Pacific Northwest have been observed harassing and even killing porpoises without consuming them —- a perplexing behavior that has long intrigued scientists.

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A new article has analyzed another understudied behavior in baleen (filter-feeding) whales such as humpback whales in different populations across the northern and southern hemispheres. They appeared to roll around and 'play' with clumps of kelp and seaweed at the water's surface. The research also emphasizes that the behavior was similar in different individuals, regardless of where in the world it occurred.

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A new study shows unprecedented heat is likely to lead to the next mass extinction, akin to when the dinosaurs died out, eliminating nearly all mammals in some 250 million years time.

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When Charles Darwin traveled to the Galapagos Islands almost 200 years ago as a gentleman naturalist, he used the power of observation to develop his theory that species evolve over time.

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Palaeontologists have discovered X-ray evidence of proteins in fossil feathers that sheds new light on feather evolution.

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Marine virologists analyzed sediment from the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth, and identified a new bacteriophage.

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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 finds that most Rafflesia species, which produce the world's largest flowers, face extinction. Lack of protection at local, national, and international levels means that remaining populations are under critical threat.

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Researchers have discovered 16 new species of strange-looking parasitoid wasps from the Loboscelidia group. The study also revealed for the first time the unique parasitic behavior of a captive female from one species, who after parasitizing her host egg, buried the egg in a hole in the soil.

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A new study shows the isolation and sequencing of more than a century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at room temperature in a museum collection. This resulted in the reconstruction of skin and skeletal muscle transcriptomes from an extinct species for the first time. The researchers note that their findings have relevant implications for international efforts to resurrect extinct species, including both the Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth, as well as for studying pandemic RNA viruses.

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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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The sun and the sea -- both abundant and free -- are being harnessed in a unique project to create vertical sea farms floating on the ocean that can produce fresh water for drinking and agriculture.

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Right at the bottom of the deep sea, the first very simple forms of life on earth probably emerged a long time ago. Today, the deep sea is known for its bizarre fauna. Intensive research is being conducted into how the number of species living on the sea floor have changed in the meantime. Some theories say that the ecosystems of the deep sea have emerged again and again after multiple mass extinctions and oceanic upheavals. Today's life in the deep sea would thus be comparatively young in the history of the Earth. But there is increasing evidence that parts of this world are much older than previously thought.

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An international team of marine scientists has studied the DNA of family groups from four different whale species to estimate their mutation rates. Using the newly determined rates, the group found that the number of humpback whales in the North Atlantic before whaling was 86 percent lower than earlier studies suggested.

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Scientists have developed a fabric-based wearable device that 'taps' a user's wrist with pressurized air, silently helping them navigate to their destination. The study demonstrated that users correctly interpreted which direction the device was telling them to go an average of 87% of the time. Since the wearable embeds most of its control system within the fabric itself, using air instead of electronics, it can be built lighter and more compact than existing designs.

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Researchers used advanced technology to study a massive aggregation of deep-sea octopus gathered at thermal springs near an extinct underwater volcano off the coast of Central California. Warm water from hydrothermal springs accelerates development of octopus embryos, giving young octopus a better chance of survival. The Octopus Garden is the largest known aggregation of octopus on the planet -- the size of this nursery, and the abundance of other marine life that thrives in this rich community, highlight the need to understand and protect the hotspots of life on the deep seafloor from threats like climate change and seabed mining.

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Geoscientists have created a new method that can reconstruct the drift path and origin of debris from flight MH370, an aircraft that went missing over the Indian Ocean in 2014 with 239 passengers and crew. 

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The sensory hairs of the Venus flytrap contain a heat sensor that warns the plant of bush fires. It reacts to rapid temperature jumps, as researchers have discovered.

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Radiocarbon dating on bones in the La Brea Tar Pits lead archaeologists to warn that history may be repeating itself.

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Indoor air pollution may have met its match. Scientists have designed catalyst-coated lampshades that transform indoor air pollutants into harmless compounds. The lampshades work with halogen and incandescent light bulbs, and the team is extending the technology so it will also be compatible with LEDs.