Paleo in the News

When Siberian volcanoes kicked off the Great Dying, the real climate villain turned out to be the rainforests themselves: once they collapsed, Earth’s biggest carbon sponge vanished, CO₂ rocketed, and a five-million-year heatwave followed. Fossils from China and clever climate models now link that botanical wipe-out to runaway warming, hinting that losing today’s tropical forests could lock us in a furnace we can’t easily cool.

The vanilla species grown for its flavoring is finicky. Genes from its wild relatives could help make it hardier — but not if those cousins go extinct.

A key advisory group vows to base decisions on evidence, boost confidence in vaccines and protect health. Experts fear the opposite is happening.

Algae grown under Mars-like conditions could make bioplastic building materials for structures to harbor life in space.

AI models such as ChatGPT consume serious power. Experts break down where that energy goes, and what you can do to help.

In a small cell therapy trial, 10 out of 12 people with type 1 diabetes no longer needed supplemental insulin, even a year after treatment.

Exploding stars V462 Lupi and V572 Velorum are best seen from the Southern Hemisphere. One has been spotted from the United States.

A GLP-1 drug led to fewer days with headaches, a small pilot study of migraine sufferers shows. It may work by lowering pressure inside the head.

Researchers say they have developed a new way to distinguish between legal mammoth ivory and illegal elephant ivory.  Elephant ivory is often passed off as mammoth ivory when being imported. As the mammoth is extinct, it is legal to trade this form of ivory as opposed to that from elephant tusks, which was banned in …

The system contains a sensor, chip and tiny AI model inspired by biological eyes and brains and uses a tenth of the energy of a camera-based system.

Micrometeorites are thought to shower down on planets throughout the universe, so the discovery that they help protocells form could tell us something about the chances of life elsewhere

Researchers have documented orcas seemingly gifting rays, seals and fish to scientists and divers, which could suggest they have theory of mind and engage in altruism – even across species

Using millions of tiny needles, the patch samples molecular data from inside cells without damaging them, providing intel on composition in minutes.

New imaging tools reveal how within an hour of infection, the virus begins to alter our chromosomes to kick-start its own replication.

Footprints found in the ancient lakebeds of White Sands may prove that humans lived in North America 23,000 years ago — much earlier than previously believed. A new study using radiocarbon-dated mud bolsters earlier findings, making it the third line of evidence pointing to this revised timeline.

Even without reaching heat wave levels, sustained high temperatures may contribute to a litany of health issues.

A type of lichen was able to survive extreme UV radiation in the lab, suggesting that ozone protection might not be required for life on exoplanets.

Compact ruddy galaxies seen by the James Webb telescope confound astronomers. Having very little spin at birth may explain the galaxies’ small sizes.

A groundbreaking study suggests that the famous Cambrian explosion—the dramatic burst of diverse animal life—might have actually started millions of years earlier than we thought. By analyzing ancient trace fossils, researchers uncovered evidence of complex, mobile organisms thriving 545 million years ago, well before the traditionally accepted timeline. These early creatures likely had segmented bodies, muscle systems, and even directional movement, signaling a surprising level of biological sophistication. Their behavior and mobility, preserved in fossil trails, offer new insight into how complex life evolved, potentially rewriting one of the most important chapters in Earth’s evolutionary history.

A groundbreaking study suggests that the famous Cambrian explosion—the dramatic burst of diverse animal life—might have actually started millions of years earlier than we thought. By analyzing ancient trace fossils, researchers uncovered evidence of complex, mobile organisms thriving 545 million years ago, well before the traditionally accepted timeline. These early creatures likely had segmented bodies, muscle systems, and even directional movement, signaling a surprising level of biological sophistication. Their behavior and mobility, preserved in fossil trails, offer new insight into how complex life evolved, potentially rewriting one of the most important chapters in Earth’s evolutionary history.