The first ever piece of the Antarctic amber was found in a sediment core from the mid-shelf section of Pine Island trough in Antarctica. Pine Island amber. Scale bars – 50 μm. Image credit: Klages et al., doi: 10.1017/S0954102024000208. “Resin is a direct plant product defined as a lipid-soluble mixture of volatile and non-volatile compounds

A new genus and species of ankylosaur has been identified from an articulated and partial skeleton found in 1986 in southern China. The artistic reconstruction of Huaxiazhoulong shouwen. Image credit: Ye Jianhao. The newly-discovered species was an early member of a family of armored dinosaurs called Ankylosauridae. Dubbed Huaxiazhoulong shouwen, the ancient animal was approximately

An accurate description of low-density nuclear matter is crucial for explaining the physics of neutron star crusts, according to a team of theoretical physicists led by Argonne National Laboratory’s Dr. Alessandro Lovato. Fore et al. study neutron star crusts by simulating neutron matter then adding ‘hidden’ neutrons to mediate interactions between ‘real’ neutrons; next, neural

When NASA’s Voyager 2 spacecraft flew by Uranus in 1986, it provided scientists’ first close glimpse of this ice-giant planet. Alongside the discovery of new moons and rings, baffling new mysteries confronted the scientists: the energized particles around Uranus defied their understanding of how magnetic fields work to trap particle radiation. According to a new

The identification of a new hominin group called Denisovans was one of the most exciting discoveries in human evolution in the last decade. Unlike Neanderthal remains, the Denisovan fossil record consists of only several skeletal fragments. According to new research, several Denisovan populations, who likely had an extensive geographical range, were adapted to distinct environments

A team of scientists from the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at the University of Arizona, TU Delft, and Caltech has developed a new method to compute how tides affect the interiors of planets and moons in the Solar System. Importantly, they’ve looked at the effects of body tides on objects that don’t have a perfectly

Sedimentary mineral deposits found on the surface of Mars may have been left by an ancient sea 3.5 billion years ago. New results from China’s Tianwen-1/Zhurong mission suggest the presence of features consistent with a coastline in the southern Utopia Planitia and provide further evidence for the existence of a short-lived ocean early in the

Using a laser-based detection system, archaeologists have discovered over 6,500 pre-Hispanic structures — including a previously unknown Maya city named Valeriana — in Campeche, Mexico. Detail of the major site of Valeriana in Campeche, Mexico. Image credit: Auld-Thomas et al., doi: 10.15184/aqy.2024.148. “Our analysis not only revealed a picture of a region that was dense