Earth & Climate

Five-eyed fossil illuminates arthropod evolution

This is what Kylinxia zhangi might have looked like while she was alive. (Image: D.-Y. Huang and H. Zeng) Arthropods such as spiders, insects...

Mammals: Social even in dinosaur times

Apparently primitive mammals lived in social groups even when the dinosaurs ruled the country. (Artist impression: Misaki Ouchida) From rodents to primates, many...

“Predatory algae” mastered the darkness

Electron micrographs of single-celled algae fossils. Flagella once came out of the holes, which among other things were used to hunt bacteria (red)....

Optimized over millions of years

Rhamphorhynchus - one of the 75 species of pterosaurs examined by the researchers. (Artist impression: Mark Witton) "Aviation" further development over 150 million years:...

Featured picture: Hunger Wasp in Amber

Amber opens up unique insights into the past: the plants, animals and other organisms enclosed in the fossil tree sap remain almost unchanged over...

Large fish form carbon stores

Large fish obviously have a special meaning in the marine cycle of matter. (Image: Enric Sala) If a fish dies in the ocean, the...

Additional global warming from ice melting

Icebergs off Greenland (Image: Imagebear / iStock) Man-made climate change endangers the ice masses in the polar and mountain regions of the world. When...

Featured picture: A little mouse with a viral load

Rubella is an infectious disease caused by viruses around the world, which is particularly problematic in pregnant women - as it damages the embryo...

Poorly designed flight dinosaurs

Artist's impression of Ambopteryx gliding. (Image: Gabriel Ugueto) The best concepts prevail: This principle of evolution also shaped the development history of "animal aviation"....

Why life almost disappeared once

Artist's impression of the catastrophic processes involved in the greatest mass extinction of all time. (Image: Dawid A. Iurino) Hardly anything was left of...

When does the permafrost start to thaw?

Sediment drilling in the arctic seabed. (Image: Pete Hill) The arctic permafrost stores large amounts of carbon - more than the entire atmosphere. ...

Featured picture: A stone curtain

What here looks like a rust-colored fabric curtain is actually solid rock. Because it is a limestone stalactite formation in the Lehman Caves...

Saber-toothed cats in the genetic mirror

The representatives of the saber-toothed cats, which are also widespread in Europe, could have brought down prey by their persistence, according to genetic evidence....

MOSAIC: Review of the final

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxVk-R7X1fs The greatest Arctic expedition of all time has been successfully completed! The Alfred Wegener Institute sums up the process and presents impressions of...

Animals & humans under the spell of a transformation

Artist's impression of a Southeast Asian savannah from the Middle Pleistocene. You can see Homo erectus, a stegodon, hyenas and Asian rhinos. ...

An Oviraptor cousin with only two fingers

This is what Oksoko avarsan could have looked like during his lifetime. (Image: Michael W. Skrepnick) They already resembled birds, were still unable to...

Featured picture: A golden flap turtle discovered

At first glance, the Indian valve turtle does not seem particularly noticeable in this photo. From an anatomical point of view, it cannot...

Stratification of the oceans is getting stronger

Two water masses meet here in the ozone, but vertical stratifications are much more important. (Image: Jiang Zhu) The oceans are important actors in...

Dispute over pterosaur “feathers”

How far back did the evolution of the spring go back? Whether the pterosaurs also had archetypes of this structure plays an important...

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