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Categories: Geoscience: Geology, Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology

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A specimen retrieved from a cupboard of the Natural History Museum in London has shown that modern lizards originated in the Late Triassic and not the Middle Jurassic as previously thought.

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New evidence, helping to form a 15th-century reconstruction of part of Westminster Abbey, demonstrates how a section of the building was once the focus for the royal family's devotion to the cult of a disemboweled saint and likely contained gruesome images of his martyrdom.

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Earthquakes are notoriously hard to predict, and so too are the usually less-severe aftershocks that often follow a major seismic event.

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Fossilized fragments of a skeleton, hidden within a rock the size of a grapefruit, have helped upend one of the longest-standing assumptions about the origins of modern birds.

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Paleontologists say environmental DNA is not always helpful in identifying when animals like mammoths went extinct because genetic material found in sediment could have come from animals that died thousands of years earlier.

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New research demonstrates a 20x improvement in resetting a quantum bit to its '0' state, using a modern version of the 'Maxwell's demon'.

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A new study compiles data on more than 3,000 species to show how climate and geologic changes across Asia over the last 66 million years have shaped the evolution of the continent's mammals.

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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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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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Researchers have developed a novel method for measuring the earth's crust on the seafloor. A lightweight geodetic measurement device was mounted on a sea-surface landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The mobility of this new system will enable rapid, efficient collection of real-time deep seafloor information, which is critical for understanding earthquake risk, as well as various other oceanographic observations.

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Volcanic eruptions are dangerous and difficult to predict. A team has found that the ratio of atoms in specific gases released from volcanic fumaroles (gaps in the Earth's surface) can provide an indicator of what is happening to the magma deep below -- similar to taking a blood test to check your health. This can indicate when things might be 'heating up.' Specifically, changes in the ratio of argon-40 and helium-3 can indicate how frothy the magma is, which signals the risk of different types of eruption. Understanding which ratios of which gases indicate a certain type of magma activity is a big step. Next, the team hopes to develop portable equipment which can provide on-site, real-time measurements for a 24/7 volcanic activity monitoring and early warning system.

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A new study confirms that the planet harbors a 'stabilizing feedback' mechanism that acts over hundreds of thousands of years to keep global temperatures within a steady, habitable range.

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Carbon dioxide in the deep Earth may be more active than previously thought and may have played a bigger role in climate change than scientists knew before, according to a new study.

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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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Researchers are using dust trapped in glacier ice in Tibet to document past changes in Earth's intricate climate system -- and maybe one day help predict future changes.