Underwater fossil bed discovered by collectors preserves rare slice of Florida’s past
About half a million years ago, several horses, sloths and armadillos fell into a sinkhole in Florida’s Big Bend region…
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Unprovoked shark bites plummeted in 2024
2024 was an exceptionally calm year for shark bites. Worldwide, there were only 47 unprovoked attacks, down 22 from the…
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Decades-long study shows this endangered butterfly benefits from hurricanes
Sometimes, nature’s surprises come with wings. In a new study, scientists pulled from a 35-year dataset to examine long-term population…
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This mysterious plant fossil belongs to a family that no longer exists
In 1969, fossilized leaves of the species Othniophyton elongatum — which translates to “alien plant” — were identified in eastern…
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Scientists can now predict how climate change will alter plant growth cycles
On February 2, 1887, residents of Punxsutawney Pennsylvania consulted a large rodent regarding the arrival of spring, marking the first…
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Interactive museum exhibit shows how paleontologists study the past
A recent paleontology exhibit at the Florida Museum of Natural History put fossils and scientists on full display. The exhibit…
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Rare fossils of extinct elephant document the earliest known instance of butchery in India
During the late middle Pleistocene, between 300 and 400 thousand years ago, at least three ancient elephant relatives died near…
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Fossils from the Adriatic Sea show a recent and worrying reversal of fortunes
If you’d stopped monitoring the Adriatic Sea’s marine life in the mid-20th century, the outlook would have been promising. Snails…
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Maintaining an essential habitat: What’s good for pollinators is good for utility companies too
Electric power companies dedicate significant resources to clearing overgrown plants and debris from the area surrounding power lines. These areas…
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Moths may use disco gene to regulate day/night cycles
How does one species become two? If you’re a biologist, that’s a loaded question. The consensus is that, in most…
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