In the Feb. 4 SN: Dino doomsday detectives, enterprising ancient mammals, lucky birds, pregnancy brain benefits, stuttering pulsars, rule-breaking carbon, black hole spitballs, swimming heads and more.

February 4, 2017

COURTESY OF THE DIVISION OF PALEONTOLOGY, AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Archives

Feature

Devastation detectives try to solve dinosaur disappearance

Dinosaurs and others faced massive losses 66 million years ago from an asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions or maybe a mix of the two.

1 week ago

Earth,
Paleontology
Feature

With dinosaurs out of the way, mammals had a chance to thrive

The animals that lived through the great extinction event had a range of survival strategies to get them through.

1 week ago

Paleontology,
Evolution,
Animals
Feature

Some lucky birds escaped dino doomsday

Dino doomsday took out early birds too, but a lucky few survived.

1 week ago

Evolution,
Animals
News in Brief

Milky Way’s black hole may hurl galactic spitballs our way

Gas blobs formed in the wake of stars shredded by the black hole in the center of the galaxy could pass within several hundred light-years of Earth on their way to intergalactic space.

3 weeks ago

Astronomy
News

It takes guts for a sea spider to pump blood

Most sea spiders have hearts, but what really gets their blood flowing are gut contractions.

3 weeks ago

Animals,
Physiology
News in Brief

Antarctic ice shelf heading toward collapse

A fast-growing crack in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf could soon break off a 5,000-square-kilometer hunk of ice into the ocean.

3 weeks ago

Earth,
Climate
Rethink

Baby dinosaurs took three to six months to hatch

Growth lines on teeth indicate a surprisingly long incubation period.

1 week ago

Paleontology
Science Visualized

Bony head ornaments signal some supersized dinosaurs

Bony headwear, like bumps and horns, is tied to bigger bodies in the theropod dinosaur family tree.

1 week ago

Paleontology,
Evolution
Science Stats

Humans’ stuff vastly outweighs humans

The human-made technosphere weighs 30 trillion tons and surpasses the natural biosphere in mass and diversity, researchers estimate.

1 week ago

Pollution,
Science & Society
News

Pain promoter also acts as pain reliever

A pain-sensing protein also regulates activity of pain-relieving opioids.

3 weeks ago

Neuroscience,
Cells