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Dinosaur means “terrible lizard”. The idea that the prehistoric creatures were scaly, sluggish reptiles with splayed postures dragging their tails across tropical swamps is deeply embedded in the collective imagination.
However, science now has a more nuanced understanding of the diversity of dinosaur physiology. Many dinosaurs wore brightly colored feathers like birds. The dinos lived in many different ecosystems, including the Arctic, where they would have encountered snow (if not today’s ice caps) and winters without light.
New research this week adds fresh details to one of paleontology’s biggest questions: Did dinosaur blood flow hot or cold?
Davide Bonadonna/Universidade de Vigo/UCL
Fossils reveal that dinosaurs lived year-round in cold climates like the Arctic.
It is difficult to find evidence that shows beyond doubt what the dinosaurs’ metabolism was like. Clues from fossilized eggshells and bones now suggest that some dinosaurs were warm-blooded and others were not.
Finding the answer is important because it sheds light on dinosaur behavior. Warm-blooded animals, such as mammals and birds, are more active than their cold-blooded counterparts.
A new study based on fossils from 1,000 dinosaur species and information on paleoclimate has found that the three main groups of dinosaurs adapted differently, with two of the groups developing the ability to regulate body temperature in the early Jurassic period about 180 million years ago.
The study suggests that carnivorous theropods, including T. rex, and plant-eating ornithischians, such as Triceratops and Stegosaurus, spread out to live in colder climates during the early Jurassic period, indicating that they may have evolved the ability to generate body heat internally.
Researchers have mapped a 40-mile-long extinct stretch of the Nile River using satellite radar images and sediment analysis.
The ancient Egyptians erected some 31 pyramids, including the Great Pyramid of Giza, on the banks of the now-defunct arm of the river, which the builders probably used to transport stones and other building materials.
The discovery, buried deep under farmland and invisible on aerial photographs, could help archaeologists find other Egyptian temples and monuments hidden by the fields and desert sands that now cover the riverbed.
Google Research & Lichtman Lab/Harvard University
The 3D image above shows excitatory neurons colored according to their depth from the surface of the brain. Blue neurons are those closest to the surface, and fuchsia marks the innermost layer.
In another feat of mapping, a 3D model of a cubic millimeter of brain tissue – smaller than a grain of rice – is now available in stunning detail and beauty, thanks to a collaboration between Harvard University and Google researchers.
A team led by Dr. Jeff Lichtman, professor of molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, sliced the sample into thin sections one-thousandth the thickness of a human hair. Despite the small size of the fragment, it contained 57,000 cells, 230 millimeters of blood vessels and 150 million synapses.
Color images make individual components more visible, but are otherwise a true representation of the fabric.
Ultimately, the team hopes that observing the brain in this way can help scientists make sense of unsolved medical conditions like autism.
The ring patterns in tree trunks—influenced by sunlight, precipitation, and temperature—provide a climate history for each year of their lives, going back hundreds or even thousands of years.
Tree-ring data from nine regions of the Northern Hemisphere, including North America and Scandinavia, allowed scientists to reconstruct annual Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures between 1 and 1849 and compare them to the previous summer’s temperatures.
The summer of 2023 was warmer than any other summer during that 2,000-year period, according to the study.
The temperature then was at least 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the warmest summer during the study period, the year 246 – when the Roman Empire still ruled Europe and the Mayan civilization was dominated Central America.
Reinhard Dirscherl/ullstein bild/Getty Images
Sperm whale communication is more complex than first thought, researchers have found.
Marine scientists have used artificial intelligence to decode a previously unknown complexity in the calls of sperm whales.
The whales produce a catalog of clicking sounds that researchers describe as akin to a “phonetic alphabet” for sperm whales.
Sperm whales produce clicks by forcing air through an organ in their heads called a spermaceti, and these sounds can be as loud as 230 decibels—louder than a rocket being fired and capable of rupturing human eardrums.
What sperm whales say with their clicks remains a mystery to human ears, but understanding the range of their vocal exchanges is an important step toward linking their calls to specific behaviors.
Relax with these remarkable reads.
— Astronomers have spotted an unusual giant planet as fluffy as cotton candy about 1,200 light-years from Earth.
— Scientists have solved a mystery about giant South American hummingbirds — with the help of tiny, custom-made backpacks.
— Meet the herpetologist trying to save people in India from the dangers of snakebites.
— Engravings found on a castle door in Dover, England, may include graffiti of a hanged Napoleon Bonaparte, according to English Heritage.
And before you go, here’s a Starliner update: The long-awaited first crewed mission of Boeing’s new spacecraft has been delayed again.
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