Speed is not a word typically associated with trees; they can take centuries to grow. However, a new study to be published the week of Feb. 1 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has found evidence that ...
Environment
Feb 1, 2010
19
0
At 100 feet long and weighing more than 100 tons, blue whales are the largest creatures to have evolved on the planet. Other whales, like killer whales, are larger than most terrestrial animals but pale in comparison to the ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 12, 2019
1
141
In warm coastal waters around the world, swimmers can often spot large groups of jellyfish pulsing rhythmically on the seafloor. Unless properly prepared with protective clothing, it is best to steer clear of areas that Cassiopea, ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 13, 2020
1
344
The 2011 Japanese tsunami set the stage for something unprecedented. For the first time in recorded history, scientists have detected entire communities of coastal species crossing the ocean by floating on makeshift rafts. ...
Environment
Sep 28, 2017
0
743
On first glance, Mecysmaucheniidae spiders, which live exclusively in New Zealand and southern regions of South America, do not look like much to the naked eye. Because they are minute spiders that hunt for prey on the ground, ...
Plants & Animals
Apr 7, 2016
0
109
Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Florida have announced the discovery of a bone fragment, approximately 13,000 years old, in Florida with an incised image of a mammoth or mastodon. This engraving ...
Archaeology
Jun 21, 2011
8
1
Smithsonian scientists and collaborators are revising the history of one of the world's most important crops. Drawing on genetic and archaeological evidence, researchers have found that a predecessor of today's corn plants ...
Biotechnology
Dec 13, 2018
0
654
Scientists led by Michael Ackerson, a research geologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, provide new evidence that modern plate tectonics, a defining feature of Earth and its unique ability to support ...
Earth Sciences
May 14, 2021
2
529
Along the shores of Africa's Lake Victoria in Kenya roughly 2.9 million years ago, early human ancestors used some of the oldest stone tools ever found to butcher hippos and pound plant material, according to new research ...
Archaeology
Feb 9, 2023
1
257
Researchers from the United States and Slovenia have discovered a new, giant Nephila species (golden orb weaver spider) from Africa and Madagascar and have published their findings in the Oct. 21 issue of the journal PLoS ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 21, 2009
0
0
