Thapunngaka shawi was Australia’s biggest known pterosaur. About 110 million years ago in what is now Australia, a flying “dragon” dominated the skies. With an estimated 23-foot (7 meters) wingspan, it was the continent’s biggest pterosaur, new research finds. Pterosaur fossils are rare in Australia; fewer than 20 specimens haveContinue Reading
COVID-19 may increase the risk of giving birth prematurely, according to the largest study to date on this link. The risk is even greater, the researchers found, for pregnant people who have both COVID-19 and certain conditions, also called comorbidities, including high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. The study isContinue Reading
Many parents experience postpartum depression. Here’s what it looks like and how it can be treated. Postpartum depression is clinically defined as depression following the birth of a child that lasts at least two weeks and interferes with a parent’s ability to go about their daily tasks. About 14% ofContinue Reading
It’s all in their biology. On the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic, there lives a creature that Guinness World Records has dubbed the “world’s oldest animal on land.” His name is Jonathan, and he’s a giant tortoise. According to Guinness World Records, Jonathan was 187 years oldContinue Reading
A preserved tusk revealed how far the animal ranged during its 28-year lifetime. A mammoth that lived in Alaska about 17,000 years ago traveled so far and wide that, if it had walked in a straight line, it would have gone all the way around the world — nearly twice.Continue Reading
Manure pits produce toxic gases that can be deadly. Three men in Ohio died this week after entering a manure pit and passing out from the fumes, according to news reports. The men, who were brothers, had entered the manure pit to fix a pump, according to local news outletContinue Reading
An ocean-powered buoy brings technology closer to the dream of obtaining energy from the sea One key to harvesting the ocean’s clean energy—at least a little of it—may lie in static electricity. A team of researchers in Portugal has now successfully used it to run small generators inside a navigationalContinue Reading
The tablet is the earliest discovered example of applied geometry. A 3,700-year-old clay tablet has revealed that the ancient Babylonians understood the Pythagorean theorem more than 1,000 years before the birth of the Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who is widely associated with the idea. The tablet, known as Si.427, was usedContinue Reading
Your fingerprints are different from those of everyone else on Earth. The whorls and ridges on your fingertips are determined partly by your genetic makeup. But if you had an identical twin with the same genetic makeup as you, would your fingerprints still be unique? Identical twins, also known asContinue Reading
Meet the sheepshead fish, a common Atlantic coast swimmer with a very crunchy diet. Last week (Aug 3), anglers at Jennette’s Pier in North Carolina pulled up something unexpected — and uncanny — from the Atlantic: a fish with human teeth. Yes, this fish — and its teeth — areContinue Reading