Earth & Climate

Since when has the Nile been flowing?

The Nile runs like a blue ribbon through northeast Africa. (Image: Harvepino / iStock) It forms the ancient lifeline of Egypt. But since...

Hibernation 250 million years ago?

This is what a hibernating lystrosaur might have looked like. (Image: Crystal Shin) The clever strategy with which some of today's animals survive times...

Dinosaur embryo with nasal horn

Exposed head of the sauropod embryo (Image: Kundrat et al. / Current Biology) Sauropods - long-necked herbivorous dinosaurs - were the largest land animals to...

How cold was the last ice age?

Much of the northern hemisphere was covered by glaciers during the last ice age. (Image: Grafissimo / iStock) Around 20,000 years ago, large parts...

Greenland experiences record ice loss

Icebergs and ice front of the Jakobshavn Isbræ glacier in West Greenland. (Image: Alfred Wegener Institute / Ingo Sasgen Greenland is still covered by...

As the Sahara dried up, Asia suffered too

Analyzes of stalagmite samples from caves in the north of Laos have provided geochemical indications of climatic developments in the heavily populated Asian monsoon...

Ocean warming drives tropical expansion

The tropical belt, shaped by rainforests, is expanding. (Image: NASA / iStock) Over the past few decades, the Earth's tropical belt has expanded slowly...

Ichthyosaurs with large prey in their belly

The belly of this fossil ichthyosaur contains the central portion of another marine reptile that was only slightly smaller. (Image: Da-Yong Jiang, et...

The Atlantic is full of “hidden” microplastics

Most of the microplastic in the ocean is much smaller than these particles. (Image: Erlantz Pérez Rodríguez / iStock) Our oceans are littered with...

Featured picture: Beirut in ruins

The capital of Lebanon, Beirut, is located right on the Mediterranean coast and also includes the country's main port. It is estimated that...

Why did the woolly rhinoceros die out?

Apparently humans were not responsible for the extinction of the horned steppe dweller. (Image: Fedor Shidlovskiy) For millennia they trudged through the icy landscapes...

Giraffe-necked dinosaur: fossil mystery solved

Since 1852 paleontologists have speculated about the way of life of this 242 million year old dinosaur. (Image: Beat Scheffold, PIMUZ, UZH) The neck...

Primeval mammals ate dinosaur carrion

Paleontologists at the site of the dinosaur bone with the bite marks. (Image: Andreas Matzke) When the dinosaurs dominated the earth, most of our...

Animal earthquake forecast

Animals actually have some sort of sixth sense for the signs of tremors. Your sensitivity could even lead to the development of an...

Survive on an extreme back burner

A deep-sea research submersible extracts sediment cores from the sea floor. (Image: Geoff Wheat, NSF OCE 1130146, and the National Deep Submergence Facility) It...

Featured picture: A “gravedigger” with rarity value

This colorful journeyman is one of a very rare crayfish recently discovered in the southern United States. Because of his lonely, active lifestyle,...

Featured picture: Turbulent winds

Here you can see the wind currents and turbulence that occur within an offshore wind turbine. The slower vortex fields behind the individual...

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