Science

A new British Columbia park will protect an ancient cedar forest believed to be the only inland temperate rainforest in the world. The 11,190-hectare Class A provincial park, which will be known as Ancient Forest/Chun T’oh Wudujut Park, was established approximately 120 kilometres east of Prince George, near the community of Dome Creek.

Puzzling ‘fairy circles’ spotted in Australia. How did they get there?. Mysterious circular patches of dry, barren land have been spotted scattered across the Australian outbreak. Known as ‘fairy circles’, these round patterns had previously only been seen in the dry grasslands of Namibia, and were thought to be the only example anywhere in the world.

The shipwreck is believed to be the Esmeralda, part of a fleet led by legendary Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama during his second voyage to India (1502-1503). The wreckage was first discovered in 1998 off the coast of Al Hallaniyah Island in the Arabian Sea, but an archaeological excavation to reveal more about the sunken ship has taken place over …

Researchers have sequenced the oldest human DNA found in a fossil dating back about 430,000. Recent analysis of mitochondrial DNA from the bones indicated that these Middle Pleistocene hominins were distantly related to the Denisovans, who lived in Asia, despite their Neanderthal-derived features.

A hiker in Israel made a historic find while visiting the countryside — a nearly 2,000-year-old gold coin dating to the Roman Empire, the second of its kind known to exist. Connecticut native Laurie Rimon was hiking in eastern Galilee near an archeological site when she saw something glinting in the grass. She picked it up and didn’t realize at …

Life on Mars? ExoMars mission to study methane mystery may provide answer. The European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos sent two robots to Mars, successfully kicking off the first of its two-part ExoMars mission. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli, a lander, were carried by a Russian rocket that blasted from Kazakhstan early this morning.

Bumblebees exposed to even low levels of pesticides have trouble acquiring the pollination skills necessary to retrieve nectar from some wildflowers — especially those with complex shapes. Scientists found bumblebees exposed to to neonicotinoid insecticide took longer to collect pollen and sought pollen from different flowers than control bees. The study, published March 14 in Functional Ecology, is the first …

Skull found in Uzbekistan belonging to Timurlengia euotica, a horse-sized forerunner of Tyrannosaurus rex, reveals advanced brain and hearing ability that may have helped it become ‘king of the Cretaceous’ over larger rivals. Researchers have long known from the fossil record that the family of dinosaurs at the center of the study–tyrannosaurs–transitioned from small-bodied species to fearsome giants like the …

Researchers at the Universidad de Chile have experimented with the molecular development of chicken embryos to produce chickens with longer fibula, a trait which was present in their ancestors, the dinosaurs. Brazilian researcher Joâo Botelho, working at the lab of Alexander Vargas (University of Chile) studied the mechanisms that underlie this transformation. In normal bone development, the shaft matures and …

Hundreds of dolphins were seen frolicking in the water off Dana Point on Thursday in what is known as a “dolphin stampede.” Whale watchers off the coast of Dana Point were treated to a rare and unexpected sight on Thursday when hundreds of common dolphins began porpoising at high speed out of the water.

Researchers studying the Twelve Apostles in Victoria have discovered five previously unknown limestone stacks underwater. Dubbed the Drowned Apostles, the surprise find means there has in fact been 17 of the columns in the ocean off the Great Ocean Road. The never-before-seen sea stacks, located 6km offshore from the Great Ocean Road and 50m beneath the water’s surface, were revealed …