news 2013

A 190-million-year-old dinosaur bonebed near the city of Lufeng, in Yunnan, China has revealed for the first time how dinosaur embryos grew and developed in their eggs. The great age of the embryos is unusual because almost all known dinosaur embryos are from the Cretaceous Period. The Cretaceous ended some 125 million years after the bones at the Lufeng site were buried and fossilized.

New fracking research led by Durham University finds it is "not significant” in causing earthquakes A new study of hundreds of thousands of hydraulic fracturing (or "fracking") operations has found that the process has only caused earth tremors that could be felt on the surface in three cases.

Dinosaurs are long extinct but their role in understanding life on Earth in the 21st century is vital, says a dinosaur researcher at the University of Alberta. "Humans have been around for about 200,000 years; dinosaurs ruled for Earth for 160 million years," says U of A paleontologist Scott Persons.

Research points to an abrupt and widespread climate shift in the Sahara 5,000 years ago. As recently as 5,000 years ago, the Sahara - today a vast desert in northern Africa, spanning more than 3.5 million square miles - was a verdant landscape, with sprawling vegetation and numerous lakes. Ancient cave paintings in the region depict hippos in watering holes, and roving herds of elephants and giraffes - a vibrant contrast with today's barren, inhospitable terrain.

Researchers at the University of Leeds may have solved a key puzzle about how objects from space could have kindled life on Earth. While it is generally accepted that some important ingredients for life came from meteorites bombarding the early Earth, scientists have not been able to explain how that inanimate rock transformed into the building blocks of life.

If the sheet of ice covering Greenland were to melt in its entirety tomorrow, global sea levels would rise by 24 feet. Three million cubic kilometers of ice won't wash into the ocean overnight, but researchers have been tracking increasing melt rates since at least 1979. Last summer, however, the melt was so large that similar events show up in ice core records only once every 150 years or so over the last four millennia.

Vast mantle melting region below world's largest volcanic system advances theory of plate tectonics Since the plate tectonics revolution of the 1960s, scientists have known that new seafloor is created throughout the major ocean basins at linear chains of volcanoes known as mid-ocean ridges. But where exactly does the erupted magma come from? During a 2004 expedition aboard R/V Roger Revelle, researchers deployed an electromagnetic instrument off Central America.

Geological processes can affect evidence of the original colors of fossil feathers, according to new research by Yale University scientists, who said some previous reconstructions of fossil bird and dinosaur feather colors may now merit revision. The discovery reveals how the evidence for the colors of feathers - especially melanin-based colors - can be altered during fossilization, and suggests that past reconstructions of the original colors of feathers in some fossil birds and dinosaurs may be flawed.

Using information gathered from samples of deep sea sediments, researchers from the University of Bristol report new findings regarding the dynamics of the eruption of Mount Tambora, Indonesia in 1815 - one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the last 1,000 years. Interpretation and understanding of such past eruptions are important for the assessment of hazards related to future eruptions.

New mathematical tool developed by a Scripps scientist can help avoid misleading conclusions for species management In the early 1940s, California fishermen hauled in a historic bounty of sardine at a time that set the backdrop for John Steinbeck's "Cannery Row" novel. But by the end of the decade the nets came up empty and the fishery collapsed.

Scientists prepare to deploy an electromagnetic instrument during a 2010 expedition aboard R/V Melville off Nicaragua. Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have found a layer of liquefied molten rock in Earth's mantle that may be acting as a lubricant for the sliding motions of the planet's massive tectonic plates.

When it comes to examining the surface of rocks on Mars with a high-powered laser, five is a magic number for LANL postdoctoral researcher Nina Lanza. If we can find a reason for this widespread alteration of the surface of Martian rocks, it will tell us something about the Martian environment and the amount of water present there.

The humble salamander may provide evidence to support a controversial claim that North and South America were joined together much early than previously thought. The two continents are generally believed to have been joined together around three million years ago by the formation of a land bridge - what is now Panama - that sealed up the sea channel between them.

Storing carbon dioxide underground can be done in a way that minimizes and perhaps eliminates related earthquake risk, according to new research by Yale University scientists. One way of reducing high levels of atmospheric CO2, a major cause of global warming, involves storing it underground by a process called carbon sequestration.

Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) working on the New South Wales south coast have discovered a new species of ancient fish, after unearthing the largest fossilised lobe-finned fish skull ever found in rocks of Devonian age. The descendants of these ancient fish evolved into the first land animals.

Scientists will use the results from the project to help gauge and track progress on Government targets to curb greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. The project will measure gases emitted from various UK sources, such as industry, landfill and agriculture. Tracking their movements will also help researchers improve their current understanding of how the gases affect climate change.

An international research team led by Yale University scientists has for the first time explained the preservation of colors in fossil insects. The discovery shows why colors change during fossilization and reveals hidden gems among insect fossils that could help reconstruct the evolution of colors in these creatures.

Stanford Report, March 4, 2013 Trace radiation from the Fukushima nuclear disaster is showing up in Pacific bluefin tuna. By measuring that radiation, scientists are gaining valuable insight about the fish's early migratory habits. Last May, scientists reported that 15 Pacific bluefin tuna caught in California in the months after the disaster at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in 2011 contained trace amounts of radiation.

Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found evidence of an ancient micro-continent buried beneath the Indian Ocean. The ancient continent extends more than 1500 km in length from the Seychelles to the island of Mauritius and contains rocks as old as 2,000 million years, much older than the Indian Ocean which has formed only in the last 165 million years.

An international research team led by a University of Bristol scientist has explained the preservation of colours in fossil insects for the first time. The discovery explains why colours change and why they are destroyed during fossilisation, revealing hidden gems in the insect fossil record that could help reconstruct the evolution of colours in insects.