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Ivory Package 1 (Natural History Museum Denmark) Credit: Mikkel Høegh A new genetic analysis of ivory artifacts from across Europe suggests that early Norse hunters ventured far into North American waters and likely interacted with indigenous North Americans as early as 985 CE, or over 500 years before Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas. The scientists behind the potential historical discovery’s genetic and isotopic analysis show that the ivory was harvested from the tusks of Walruses that lived in the North Atlantic waters off of present-day Canada. Their study also found that the long distances and extreme weather that Norse...

A mysterious sound heard booming from deep under the ocean waves has finally been traced to a fascinating source. First recorded in 2014 in the west Pacific, the "biotwang" is actually the call of the Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei) traveling long distances in the open ocean. What's more, the techniques used to identify the sound have led to the development of a new tool for understanding whale populations and how they move about in and inhabit Earth's enigmatic seas. "Bryde's whales occur worldwide in tropical and warm temperate waters, but their population structure and movements are not well understood," writes...

The Grumpy dwarfgoby, Sueviota aethon. Credit: Viktor Nunes Peinemann The grumpy dwarfgoby, a new fish species with a menacing look, has been discovered in the Red Sea, emphasizing the importance of conservation efforts in this environmentally sensitive area. Researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the University of Washington have discovered a new fish species with a perpetual frown, the grumpy dwarfgoby. Appearance and Habitat of the New Fish Although the grumpy dwarfgoby is less than 2 centimeters long, its large canines and fierce expression give it a rather intimidating look for such a small fish....

On July 1, Alex Bitts was walking into work at Sutter Roseville Hospital when she stopped near a drainage ditch outside after hearing what she said was a cat "yowling." "Cats generally don't yowl like that unless something is wrong," Betts said. She went down and looked into a small cement tunnel to find a cat barely holding on to life. "It took me a while to get the cat close enough to see it because it didn't want to come close," Betts said As an animal lover at heart, Betts did what she says was the right thing to...

Henry is thought to have been born before Salvador Dalí and Dr Seuss, but he's still going strong. At the ripe estimated age of 123 years old, Henry is the oldest known crocodile in the world – and what a life he’s led. In the past few decades alone, the mature gentleman has fathered thousands upon thousands of offspring With all those decades under his belt, Henry has amassed a gigantic size. The immensely hefty croc measures over 5 meters (16 foot 5 inches) from snout to tail and weighs 700 kilograms (1,543 pounds). For context, the average Nile crocodile...

A 14-inch-long theropod track encrusted with marine life. Credit: Anthony Martin New theropod and ornithopod dinosaur tracks from the Early Cretaceous period in Australia’s Wonthaggi Formation illustrate a rich polar dinosaur ecosystem, highlighting the adaptability and diversity of these ancient creatures. A recent discovery of dinosaur tracks on Australia’s southern coast, dating back to the Early Cretaceous when Australia was still connected to Antarctica, suggests that large theropod dinosaurs thrived in this polar environment, prowling the river floodplains when the ice thawed during the summers. In a study published in the journal Alcheringa, researchers analyzed the tracks made in the...

A newly discovered geoglyph on the Nazca Pama. Image credit: Sakai et al. Advanced artificial intelligence (AI) has helped identify over 300 previously unknown ‘Nazca Lines’ geoglyphs, according to newly published findings. Discovered over a six-month period, the total number of images located using the new process nearly matches the 430 previously known Nazca Lines geoglyphs found more than 80 years ago. The discoveries, reported by a research team led by Masato Sakai from Yamagata University in Japan, are helping unravel the possible meaning of these ancient artworks, some of which are 2,000 years old, and point to the likely...

A potential 370-mile-wide crater in Australia, known as MAPCIS, may reshape our understanding of Earth’s geological history. Researchers found geological evidence, including shocked minerals and melt rock, suggesting a massive impact at the end of the Ediacaran period. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com =========================================================================== Research team is delving into history, exploring events that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago. A potential crater over 370 miles (600 kilometers) wide in central Australia may transform our knowledge of Earth’s geological past. Researcher Daniel Connelly and Virginia Commonwealth University’s Arif Sikder, Ph.D., believe they have found evidence to support the existence of MAPCIS...

It was a real flight to nowhere. Passengers aboard a recent international American Airlines flight were flabbergasted after the plane turned around five hours into the trip — without any explanation. One of the flummoxed flyers detailed the aerial about-face in a viral Instagram video. “American Airlines needs a lesson in effective communication,” Jimin Lee, 41, captioned the clip of the incident, which occurred Sept. 7 aboard AA flight 281 from Dallas, Texas, to Seoul, South Korea ... crew members provided “zero explanation” for aborting the flight bound for Incheon International Airport,

The Sarco suicide pod has been used for the first time, its creators have confirmed, with an American woman aged 64 believed to be the first person to have died in the device 'under a canopy of trees' in Switzerland. Police in northern Switzerland said that several people were detained on Monday, and that prosecutors had opened an investigation on suspicion of incitement and accessory to suicide. The 'Sarco' suicide capsule is designed to allow a person inside to push a button that injects nitrogen gas into the sealed chamber, according to its creators. The person is then supposed to...

Nearly 20% of U.S. public charging attempts ended in failure, with roughly 10% of those aborted sessions were due to a damaged or missing cable ============================================================== Rick Wilmer spends most of his work days at the office. But every so often, the chief executive officer of ChargePoint Holdings Inc. will make his way to the company’s laboratory in San Jose, Calif., where he dons safety glasses and wields an array of saws and shears against EV chargers. The goal: to approximate the rash of vandalism sweeping the 65,000 U.S. cords under ChargePoint’s care. “It’s all over the country,” Wilmer says....

(Image Source: NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASU) NASA’s Perseverance Rover has made a striking new discovery—a black-and-white striped rock on the Martian surface dubbed “Freya Castle,” unlike anything previously seen on the Red Planet. This unique find has sparked excitement among scientists and space enthusiasts, offering a fresh puzzle in the ongoing quest to understand Mars’ geological history. “Team scientists and the internet alike were amazed when Perseverance spotted a black-and-white striped rock unlike any seen on Mars before,” Athanasios Klidaras, a Perseverance team member and doctoral student at Purdue University, wrote in an update published by NASA. “Is this a sign of exciting...

World A polar bear was spotted on the shores of Iceland for the first time in 8 years. It was shot dead by police. September 23, 2024 / 10:50 AM EDT / CBS/AP A rare polar bear that was spotted outside a cottage in a remote village in Iceland was shot by police after being considered a threat, authorities said Friday. The bear was killed Thursday afternoon in the northwest of Iceland after police consulted the Environment Agency, which declined to have the animal relocated, Westfjords Police Chief Helgi Jensson told The Associated Press. "It's not something we like to...

A video of a man apparently exploring a bear’s den has gone viral for what happened after the hulking bruin returned home. VIDEO AT LINK.............. But does the video show a real-life situation or a carefully choreographed production? The first clip was posted on Sept. 13 to the page of Instagram influencer Stefan Jankovic. In the video, Jankovic recorded himself in the underground den before turning the camera back to the entrance and showing a massive brown bear blocking the way. Jankovic made his way forward slowly, and was eventually able to squeeze past the bear as the massive beast...

"During the past 2 decades, articles suggesting that stun guns be utilized to treat venomous bites and stings have appeared in both the lay and medical press."

Only Rayne Beau, a house cat from Salinas, California, knows how he survived 60 days on his own and traveled 800 miles from Yellowstone National Park to a shelter in Roseville, California, about 200 miles from home. Rayne Beau was traveling with his owners, Benny and Susanne Anguiano, camping in Yellowstone National Park in June. For reasons known only to himself, the cat got spooked, ran off into the wilderness at their campsite and disappeared. The Anguianos told KSBW TV news in Salinas this week that they spent several days trying to find Rayne Beau and lure him back, while...

The attack happened in Siren, Burnett County, on 6 September, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Owen Beierman, 12, took aim at the bear as it pinned down his dad while they were on a legal hunting trip. The pair were hunting for black bear near the family's cabin when they spotted the 200lb (91kg) bruin. Owen shot and injured the animal, which ran off into dense forest. They gave chase, and as they entered a glade the animal charged at Mr Beierman from about 6ft (1.8m) away. He said he fired eight shots at the bruin with...

The head of a company developing gas in a vast 28,000km-wide Northern Territory basin south of Darwin says the site can provide the type of energy revolution Australia needs as a power crisis continues to plague the territory. The head of a company developing gas in the Northern Territory’s Beetaloo Basin says the “huge” resource has the potential to transform the Australian energy market, lowering gas prices and reducing emissions. Empire Energy managing director Alex Underwood told Sky News his company expected to produce the first gas from the Beetaloo by mid-2025. “Just in the next five or six weeks...

A 200-year-old South African cave painting made by the region’s first inhabitants, the San people, appears to depict an animal that has been extinct for over 200 million years. A long-bodied animal with downward-turned tusks, the warm-blooded, lizard-like creature called a dicynodont (two-toothed dog) roamed the area before the first dinosaur appeared and died off at the end of the Triassic. If the artwork from the cave’s Horned Serpent panel at La Belle France (Free State Province, South Africa) is of this extinct species, its creation would predate the first known scientific classification of a dicynodont by at least a...

At the turn of the 20th century, there were thousands of electric vehicles in operation around the world. ================================================================== By the 1890s, steam had established itself as the main source of power for trains, industrial applications and even the occasional passenger car. Gasoline-powered personal transportation was still in its infancy. So electric vehicles were preferred by most because they didn’t require a dangerous crank-starting procedure, they didn’t backfire and spew oil everywhere, and they were perceived as quiet and torquey. Remember, this was a time when you'd get gasoline from your local pharmacist or the area blacksmith, if you had...