1+ day, 1+ hour ago  (952+ words) Each year, more than two trillion wild and farmed fish are killed to feed humanity. Their deaths often go unnoticed. Yet beneath the surface is a simple biological fact: fish can suffer. Rainbow trout, a species farmed and consumed across…...

4+ day, 15+ hour ago  (1006+ words) Soft-bodied animals almost never become fossils. Their bodies break down quickly and leave little behind. This is why a new discovery from Qu'bec stands out. Scientists have identified a 450-million-year-old tubular polyp fossil that relates closely to modern jellyfish. The…...

6+ day, 1+ hour ago  (809+ words) A fossil that has been sitting in a drawer at London's Natural History Museum since 1885 has turned out to be a big deal. Purchased from a Victorian fossil dealer and cataloged without much fuss, the skull has now been identified…...

6+ day, 5+ hour ago  (791+ words) Scientists have identified a 230 million-year-old reptile with a sharp, parrot-like beak that sliced and processed plants with unusual precision. That discovery adds a new kind of plant eater to a crowded prehistoric landscape just before dinosaurs began to dominate life…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago  (390+ words) New research shows that trimming specific synapses in a mouse brain circuit can strengthen memories and help them last longer. The finding upends the simple idea that more neural connections always produce better recall, showing instead that selective loss can…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago  (836+ words) Eruptions in the Andes, a long volcanic mountain chain along South America's western edge, likely helped cool Earth between 7 million and 5. 4 million years ago, according to a new study. Nutrient-rich ash in the Southern Ocean appears to have fed vast…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago  (857+ words) Scientists have confirmed that a tiny Triassic fossil long mistaken for another animal is actually its own species. That shift turns a long-standing misidentification into evidence of a much older lineage that survived a mass extinction. A small skull discovered…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago  (858+ words) Biological soil crusts " thin, living layers of organisms that grow on desert soil " can be artificially grown to help stop deserts from spreading. These crusts are often referred to as the "living skin" of the desert. In nature, these crusts…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago  (861+ words) A new study has found that most rare earth deposits " sources of metals essential for electronics and clean energy technologies " sit above ancient buried collision zones. These zones formed where tectonic plates once collided and sank deep beneath continents. That…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago  (798+ words) Droughts are quietly putting pressure on Europe's clean energy ambitions. When rivers run low, hydropower weakens, and countries are forced to lean on fossil fuels again. That creates a worrying loop: climate change makes droughts worse, and droughts push emissions…...