DNA studies suggest disease was central to devastating collapse of northern European population 5,000 years ago
A devastating population collapse that decimated stone age farming communities across northern Europe 5,000 years ago may have been driven by an outbreak of the plague, according to research.
The cause of the calamity, known as the Neolithic collapse, has long been a matter of debate.
Continue reading...Comptonatus chasei roamed island 125m years ago and is most complete dinosaur fossil found in UK in a century
A new species of large plant-eating dinosaur that roamed the Isle of Wight about 125m years ago has been identified.
The specimen, which weighed as much as an African elephant, represents the most complete dinosaur discovered in the UK in a century with 149 bones in total, researchers said.
Comptonatus chasei, named after the late fossil hunter Nick Chase and the place where it was found, the cliffs of Compton Bay, belongs to a group of herbivorous dinosaurs known as iguanodontians, bulky creatures often described as the “cows of the Cretaceous period [145-66 m years ago]” by palaeontologists.
Jeremy Lockwood, a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth, said: “This animal would have been around a tonne (1,000kg), about as big as a large male American bison.
“Evidence from fossil footprints found nearby shows it was likely to be a herding animal, so possibly large herds of these heavy dinosaurs may have been thundering around if spooked by predators on the floodplains over 120m years ago.”
For the study, published in the the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, the researchers analysed every part of the fossil, including skull, teeth, spine and leg bones as well as a pubic hip bone “about the size of a dinner plate”.
Lockwood said it was unclear why the hip bone, found at the base of the abdomen, was so big, but added: “It [the bone] was probably for muscle attachments, which might mean its mode of locomotion was a bit different, or it could have been to support the stomach contents more effectively, or even have been involved in how the animal breathed, but all of these theories are somewhat speculative.”
When Comptonatus was discovered, the specimen was thought to be a different type of dinosaur called Mantellisaurus, three-toed plant-eaters that lived in Britain more than 120m years ago.
But Lockwood said Comptonatus differed from Mantellisaurus because of the “unique features in its skull, teeth and other parts of its body”.
He said: “Its lower jaw has a straight bottom edge, whereas most iguanodontians have a jaw that curves downwards.”
Dr Susannah Maidment, a senior researcher and palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, said Comptonatus demonstrated fast rates of evolution in iguandontian dinosaurs during that time period.
Health service is at tipping point, say experts, and ‘novel solutions’ have been wrongly hyped
The NHS must concentrate on the basics of cancer treatment rather than the “magic bullets” of novel technologies and artificial intelligence, or risk the health of thousands of patients, experts have warned.
In a paper published in the journal Lancet Oncology, nine leading cancer doctors and academics say the NHS is at a tipping point in cancer care with survival rates lagging behind many other developed countries.
Continue reading...Newly recovered DNA shows the predators share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs and are descended from ancient animals from China
Scientists have for the first time recovered DNA from the remains of dingoes between 400 and 2,700 years old to find the predator’s population was well established across the Australian continent thousands of years ago.
According to the researchers, modern dingoes share little genetic ancestry with domestic dogs introduced into Australia from Europe but are instead descended from ancient dogs and wolves from China and the Tibetan plateau. Dingoes were closely related to modern New Guinea singing dogs, the research confirmed, with both sharing a common ancestor.
Continue reading...T Coronae Borealis, or the Blaze Star, was last seen in 1946 and will be visible again some time between now and September
In what is being called a “once-in-a-lifetime event”, light from a thermonuclear explosion on a star has been travelling towards Earth for thousands of years and it will be here any day.
T Coronae Borealis (also known as T Cor Bor, T CrB, and the Blaze Star) will be as bright as the North Star (for those in the northern hemisphere).
Continue reading...Code will remove grey area around stem cell-based technology and ensure responsible research, say scientists
Biological models of human embryos that can develop heartbeats, spinal cords and other distinctive features will be governed by a code of practice in Britain to ensure that researchers work on them responsibly.
Made from stem cells, they mimic, to a greater or less extent, the biological processes at work in real embryos. By growing them in the laboratory, scientists hope to learn more about how human embryos develop and respond to their environment, questions that would be impossible to answer with real embryos donated for research.
Continue reading...New dating technique finds painting on island of Sulawesi is 6,000 years older than previous record holder
The world’s oldest known picture story is a cave painting almost 6,000 years older than the previous record holder, found about 10km away on the same island in Indonesia, an international team of archaeologists has said.
The painting, believed to be at least 51,200 years old, was found at Leang Karampuang cave on the east Indonesian island of Sulawesi, researchers from Griffith University, Southern Cross University and the Indonesian National Research and Innovation Agency wrote in the journal Nature.
Continue reading...About 2.5 metres long, creature was an apex predator 280m years ago, before age of dinosaurs, say scientists
A giant 280m-year-old salamander-like creature that was an apex predator before the age of the dinosaurs has been discovered by fossil hunters in Namibia.
The creature, Gaiasia jennyae, was about 2.5 metres long, had an enormous toilet seat-shaped head and fearsome interlocking fangs. It lurked in cold swampy waters and lakes with its mouth wide open, preparing to clamp down its powerful jaws on any prey unwise enough to swim past.
Continue reading...Bilbies have the biggest genome of any marsupial, which could be down to how it evolved its incredible sense of smell
Genetic research has revealed the threatened Australian native bilby – with its ridiculously oversized ears and stretched snout – does not only look odd from the outside.
“Bilbies are weird and cool. The genome has been fascinating,” said Prof Carolyn Hogg, of the University of Sydney, who led research that sequenced the greater bilby’s genome for the first time.
Continue reading...Company Space Pioneer says first stage of its Tianlong-3 launched during test after ‘structural failure’ and crashed in hills near city of Gongyi
The space rocket of a Chinese private company crashed and exploded into flames near a city on Sunday, after it accidentally launched during a test.
The first stage of the Tianlong-3 rocket left its launch pad due to a structural failure at the connection between the rocket and the test stand, said company Beijing Tianbing, also known as Space Pioneer, in a statement on its official WeChat account. The rocket landed in a hilly area of the city of Gongyi in central China, it said.
Continue reading...Leaked documents from Philip Morris reveal ‘secret’ strategy to market its heated tobacco product IQOS
The tobacco company Philip Morris International has been accused of “manipulating science for profit” through funding research and advocacy work with scientists.
Campaigners say that leaked documents from PMI and its Japanese affiliate also reveal plans to target politicians, doctors and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as part of the multinational’s marketing strategy to attract non-smokers to its heated tobacco product, IQOS.
Continue reading...Higher incidence of damage to hips, jaws and thumbs reveals their writing efforts may have taken a toll
From bad backs to eye strain, office work can take its toll on the body.
But it seems such perils are nothing new: researchers have found Egyptian scribes experienced damage to their hips, jaws and thumbs as a result of their efforts.
Continue reading...Researchers say in most cases condition is mild but it can increase risk of heart attacks and strokes
One in four healthy people aged 60 and over in the UK have undiagnosed heart valve disease, research suggests.
The conditions develops when one or more of the heart valves do not work properly. The main problems are caused by the valves either not opening fully or not closing correctly.
Continue reading...Skull anatomy shows the boy or girl would have been severely disabled, yet survived until the age of six
A Neanderthal child with Down’s syndrome survived until at least the age of six, according to a new study whose findings hint at compassionate caregiving among the extinct, archaic human species.
Recent examination of a human fossil unearthed at the Cova Negra archaeological site in the Spanish province of Valencia found traits in the inner-ear anatomy which indicated Down syndrome, in the earliest-known evidence of the genetic condition.
Continue reading...Argument about a lemon- or orange-shaped planet highlights importance of international competition in science, curator says
It was a row that split scientists, launched globe-trotting expeditions and for one man, ended in murder: was the Earth shaped like an orange or a lemon?
The 18th-century debate – and the endeavours that settled it –can now be relived by visitors to this year’s Royal Society summer science exhibition, in a display called “Figuring the Earth”.
Continue reading...Alarm over high mortality and miscarriage rates as mutated virus spreads in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo
A dangerous strain of mpox that is killing children and causing miscarriages in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is the most transmissible yet and could spread internationally, scientists have warned.
The virus appears to be spreading from person to person via both sexual and non-sexual contact, in places ranging from brothels to schools.
Continue reading...UK researchers say study shows stopping long-term use of the drugs is possible at scale without costly therapy
Almost half of long-term antidepressant users could stop taking the medication with GP support and access to internet or telephone helplines, a study suggests.
Scientists said more than 40% of people involved in the research who were well and not at risk of relapse managed to come off the drugs with advice from their doctors.
Continue reading...Two-page letter written by physicist and fellow scientist, for sale at Christie’s, urged US government to invest in research
A two-page letter written by Albert Einstein warning Franklin D Roosevelt – then the president of the US – that Nazi Germany might harness nuclear research to invent an atomic bomb is going up for sale at Christie’s auctioneers in September with an estimate value of $4m.
Einstein’s letter – one of two the theoretical physicist drafted in a cabin on the north shore of New York’s Long Island with a fellow scientist, Leo Szilard – warned that the German government was actively supporting nuclear research and could make “extremely powerful bombs” like the kind that were eventually deployed by the US at the end of the second world war.
Continue reading...Study identifies 16,825 sites around the world where prioritising conservation would prevent extinction of thousands of unique species
Protecting just 1.2% of the Earth’s surface for nature would be enough to prevent the extinction of the world’s most threatened species, according to a new study.
Analysis published in the journal Frontiers in Science has found that the targeted expansion of protected areas on land would be enough to prevent the loss of thousands of the mammals, birds, amphibians and plants that are closest to disappearing.
Continue reading...Re-entry capsule containing precious cargo from mission has parachuted into Inner Mongolia
China has become the first country to gather samples from the far side of the moon and bring them back to Earth in a landmark achievement for the Beijing space programme.
A re-entry capsule containing the precious cargo parachuted into a landing zone in the rural Siziwang Banner region of Inner Mongolia on Tuesday after being released into Earth’s orbit by the uncrewed Chang’e-6 probe.
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