Dinosaur claws for digging and display, claim scientists from Bristol University and Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, who carried out a biomechanical study of the claws of two types of theropod dinosaurs – alvarezsaurs and therizinosaurs. Alvarezsaurs were small dinosaurs, about the size of a chicken, with short robust arms with […]
Posts by Diane Eager
Neolithic Violence from Changing Economics
An international team of scientists have compiled data from studies of human remains in 180 archaeological sites in Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Spain, and Sweden, dated between around 8000 – 4000 years ago – believed to be the time when farming replaced hunter-gathering in Europe. They found evidence of many head injuries from blunt […]
Tiger Snake Jaws Evolve
Tiger snake jaws evolve, claim scientists who studied tiger snakes on Carnac Island – a tiny rocky island off the coast of western Australia. The snakes are the descendants of a collection of snakes believed to have been taken to the island in 1930 by a travelling showman who was in trouble with the authorities […]
Self Planting Seeds Inspired by Natural Seeds
A team of scientists and engineers have developed a simple device enables seeds to bury themselves in soil. They were inspired by the seeds of a plant Erodium cicutarium aka stork’s bill geranium. These seeds have a corkscrew shaped tail that coils and uncoils with changing moisture levels and this movement drills the seeds into […]
How Penguins Turn Underwater
Penguins are very agile swimmers and able to turn within one body length. Scientists from Tokyo Institute of Technology filmed Gentoo penguins swimming in an enclosure at Nagasaki Penguin Aquarium to see how they manoeuvre underwater. The researchers analysed the movement of the penguin wings and body and worked out the hydrodynamic forces involved. They […]
Oldest Pterodactyl
Oldest Pterodactyl found in limestone quarry. Researchers in Germany have studied an “exquisitely preserved” fossil of Pterodactylus antiquus – an extinct flying reptile, dated as 152 million years old. This makes it the oldest specimen of this species of flying reptile. The fossil is almost complete, with only a few fragments missing. The scientists wrote […]
Giant Wombat Skull
The fossil of a giant wombat skull has been found in a Central Queensland cave. The fossil has been classified as Ramsayia magna, a species previously known from isolated teeth and jaw fragments. Researchers estimate the wombat was the size of a “really large sheep” and weighed around 130kg. Modern day wombats can grow to […]
Wettest Year Since When?
South eastern Australia has just experienced a cold, wet Spring with many rivers in flood following a year of high rainfall. All extreme weather these days is blamed on man-made climate change, but these are not the highest floods on record! In a report on ABC News 27 November 2022 Chas Keys, a former deputy […]
Climate Change Brings Brolar Bears
As Arctic regions in North America and Russia are warming brown bears are moving north so they are crossing paths with polar bears more often. Brown bears and polar bears can mate and produce fertile offspring, referred to as “brolar” bears, and these hybrids bears are becoming more common, and the hybrids are also breeding […]
Oldest Fossil Brain
An international team of scientists have studied the fossil of a lobopodian, a small extinct arthropod with a segmented trunk and multiple short stubby legs. The fossil has been named Cardiodictyon catenulum and is dated as 525 million years old. Using sophisticated scanning techniques the researchers were able to identify the creature’s brain. Nicholas Strausfeld […]