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May 22, 2019 by blogadmin

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More at https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/btyb/index.jsp?WT.mc_id=USNSF_51

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Ornithologists Identify Cryptic New Bird Species in Japan
by Natali Anderson on March 18, 2026 at 1:47 am
Genetic and acoustic evidence show that the rare Ijima’s leaf warbler (Phylloscopus ijimae) is actually two distinct bird species, including the newly-identified Tokara leaf warbler -- both with […]
Oviraptors May Have Needed the Sun to Hatch Their Eggs
by News Staff on March 17, 2026 at 11:42 pm
New experiments indicate bird-like oviraptorid dinosaurs could not fully warm their eggs with body heat alone, instead combining brooding with solar warmth in semi-open nests. The post Oviraptors May […]
DNA’s Building Blocks May Have Arrived from Space, Asteroid Ryugu Samples Suggest
by News Staff on March 17, 2026 at 9:42 pm
Samples returned by JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 mission from the C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu contain all five canonical nucleobases -- purines (adenine and guanine) and pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine and […]
Early Triassic Cyclidan Crustacean Had Powerful Jaws
by Enrico de Lazaro on March 17, 2026 at 1:51 am
Paleontologists have described a new species of enigmatic cyclidan crustacean on the basis of three well-preserved specimens from the Early Triassic Guiyang biota of China. The post Early Triassic […]
Neanderthals May Have Hunted Giant Elephants that Roamed across Prehistoric Europe
by Enrico de Lazaro on March 16, 2026 at 11:16 pm
Chemical clues preserved in the teeth of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) from the 125,000-year-old site of Neumark-Nord in Germany suggest these massive animals traveled hundreds […]
New Kind of Planet May Lurk in Milky Way: Extreme World of Magma and Sulfur
by News Staff on March 16, 2026 at 8:25 pm
New observations of L 98-59d, a member of the five-planet system L 98-59, suggest it harbors a vast global magma ocean that traps sulfur deep inside, forming a previously unrecognized class of […]
Tropical Bush Cricket’s Hot-Pink Phase May Be Nature’s Perfect Disguise
by Natali Anderson on March 16, 2026 at 6:31 pm
Entomologists in Panama have observed a leaf-masquerading katydid species that begins life bright pink before turning green days later, a shift that may mimic rainforest leaves that flush red or pink […]
Supergiant Star Makes Rare Leap to Hotter Phase, Astronomers Say
by News Staff on March 16, 2026 at 12:10 pm
Long-term observations of WOH G64 -- once considered the most extreme red supergiant star in its galaxy -- reveal that the star has undergone a dramatic transition, possibly shedding part of its […]
Sun May Have Escaped Milky Way’s Crowded Core Billions of Years Ago
by News Staff on March 14, 2026 at 12:55 am
Using a vast catalog of Sun-like stars built by ESA’s Gaia mission, astronomers have found strong evidence that our home star traveled outward with thousands of stellar counterparts roughly 4 to 6 […]
New Fossil Crocodile from Ethiopia Lived alongside Australopithecus afarensis
by News Staff on March 13, 2026 at 3:31 am
Paleontologists analyzing fossils from Ethiopia have described a previously unknown crocodile species that shared the landscape with a hominid species called Australopithecus afarensis. The post New […]
Early Howler Monkeys Adapted to Eating Leaves 13 Million Years Ago
by News Staff on March 12, 2026 at 2:38 am
Fossil jaws of the ancient monkey species Stirtonia victoriae from the La Victoria Formation in Colombia suggest that a shift toward leaf-eating allowed early primates in South America to grow larger […]
Astronomers Witness Aftermath of Catastrophic Planetary Collision
by News Staff on March 11, 2026 at 10:08 pm
An unusual flickering of a young F-type star called Gaia20ehk and an expanding cloud of dust around it suggest that a catastrophic planetary crash unfolded in real time, offering a rare glimpse of […]
New Research Links Daily Multivitamins to Slower Biological Aging
by News Staff on March 11, 2026 at 7:42 pm
In a randomized clinical trial of older adults, researchers found that taking multivitamins for two years modestly slowed epigenetic markers of aging -- equivalent to roughly four months less […]
Astronomers Observe Neutron Star Crash in Unexpected Environment
by News Staff on March 11, 2026 at 5:19 pm
Using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes, astronomers have traced a short-duration gamma-ray burst event called GRB 230906A to a faint dwarf galaxy embedded in a vast stream of […]
Study: Raccoons Don’t Just Solve Puzzles for Food, They Do It for Fun
by News Staff on March 11, 2026 at 3:30 pm
In a new study led by University of British Columbia Ph.D. student Hannah Griebling, raccoons (Procyon lotor) continued manipulating complex puzzle boxes long after retrieving the only marshmallow […]
275-Million-Year-Old Amphibian Relative with Twisted Jaws Rewrites Early Tetrapod Diets
by News Staff on March 11, 2026 at 1:15 am
A new genus and species of archaic stem tetrapod from the Permian period has been identified from fossil jawbones found in Brazil. The post 275-Million-Year-Old Amphibian Relative with Twisted Jaws […]
Ancient Parrot DNA Points to Pre-Inca Animal Trade
by News Staff on March 11, 2026 at 12:25 am
Ancient DNA from brightly colored feathers found in Peru shows that at least four distinct species of Amazonian parrots -- the scarlet macaw (Ara macao), the blue-and-yellow macaw (Ara ararauna), the […]
VLT Discovers Third Gas Cloud near Milky Way’s Central Black Hole
by Enrico de Lazaro on March 10, 2026 at 10:27 pm
The newly-identified gas cloud, dubbed G2t, follows nearly the same orbit as two known clouds, suggesting they were all expelled by a pair of massive stars near the core of our Milky Way Galaxy. The […]
Two New Bird Species Identified in Amazonia
by Natali Anderson on March 10, 2026 at 1:09 am
An antbird long thought to be a single widespread species across the Amazon rainforest is, in fact, several different ones. Among them are two newly-described species -- Cercomacra mura and […]
3I/ATLAS is Unusually Rich in Methanol, ALMA Observations Show
by News Staff on March 9, 2026 at 10:26 pm
Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have detected hydrogen cyanide (nitrogen-bearing organic molecule commonly seen in comets) as well as unusually high levels […]