20-million-year-old tusked sea cow is Central America's oldest marine mammal
Steven Manchester didn't set out to discover Central America's oldest known marine mammal. He was hoping to find fossil plants.
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Researchers address challenges of curating ancient biomolecules
University of Oklahoma researchers, led by Courtney Hofman and Rita Austin, in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, are addressing the challenges of curating ancient biomolecules and working ...
Orchards in natural habitats draw bee diversity, improve apple production
Apple orchards surrounded by agricultural lands are visited by a less diverse collection of bee species than orchards surrounded by natural habitats, according to a new Cornell University-led study, published in the journal ...
3-D scans of bat skulls help natural history museums open up dark corners of their collections
Picture a natural history museum. What comes to mind? Childhood memories of dinosaur skeletons and dioramas? Or maybe you still visit to see planetarium shows or an IMAX feature? You may be surprised to hear that behind these ...
Scientists overhaul corn domestication story with multidisciplinary analysis
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 ...
Medullary bone found in Cretaceous birds
A team of scientists led by Jingmai O'Connor from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported the first occurrence of medullary bone in Enantiornithes, the ...
Whales lost their teeth before evolving hair-like baleen in their mouths
Rivaling the evolution of feathers in dinosaurs, one of the most extraordinary transformations in the history of life was the evolution of baleen—rows of flexible hair-like plates that blue whales, humpbacks and other marine ...
Primates of the Caribbean: Ancient DNA reveals history of mystery monkey
Analysis of ancient DNA of a mysterious extinct monkey named Xenothrix—which displays bizarre body characteristics very different to any living monkey—has revealed that it was in fact most closely related to South America's ...
A toast to the proteins in dinosaur bones
Burnt toast and dinosaur bones have a common trait, according to a new, Yale-led study. They both contain chemicals that, under the right conditions, transform original proteins into something new. It's a process that may ...
Dinosaurs put all colored birds' eggs in one basket, evolutionarily speaking
A new study says the colors found in modern birds' eggs did not evolve independently, as previously thought, but evolved instead from dinosaurs.
