Crystals in Apollo Lunar Rocks Reveal the Moon’s True Age
After an ocean of magma cooled down, the lunar crystals formed at least 4.46 billion years ago. More than 4 billion years ago, when the…
Field Museum News
Founded by Marshall Field in 1894, the Field Museum (Field Museum of Natural History/FMHN) boasts one of the world’s most impressive collections of cultural artifacts. Research is actively being conducted on museum contents to advance natural science initiatives. To learn more about Field Museum artifacts or research visit SciTechDaily.com.
“Margarita Snails” – Scientists Discover New Species of Bright Yellow Snail in Florida
The marine snails’ bright citrus coloring might help ward off predators. The “Margaritaville” in Jimmy Buffett’s famous song isn’t a real place, but it’s long…
Survival Secrets: Surprising Traits of Mammals That Survive Mass Extinctions
Contrary to previous beliefs, mammals that survived past mass extinctions weren’t always generalists; many had unique traits that aided their survival, prompting a…
Bizarre “Mind Controlling” Parasitic Hairworms Are Missing Genes Found in Every Other Animal
Hairworms are missing the tiny “hairs” responsible for cell movement, filtration, and sensing that every other known animal has. In a world teeming with bizarre…
Ancient Saber-Toothed Predator Sheds Light on the “Great Dying” Extinction Event
A recent study reveals intriguing insights into the catastrophic “Great Dying” extinction event 252 million years ago, focusing on the role of a tiger-sized, saber-toothed…
How Ants Took Over the World
Ants took over the world by following flowering plants out of prehistoric forests. Ants are pretty much everywhere. There are more than 14,000 different species,…
Lasers and Chemistry Reveal How How an Ancient Empire Functioned
The Wari Empire, Peru’s earliest major civilization, spanned over a thousand miles across the Andes Mountains and the coastal region from 600-1000 CE. The remnants…
Immense Power of an Empire Revealed in Colors on Ancient Pots
Color plays a huge role in our lives — the hues we wear and decorate with are a way for us to signal who we…
Why Do Some Cities Thrive for Millennia While Others Fade Away?
Cities often have vastly different lifespans, with some lasting just a century or two, while others endure for a thousand years or more. The reasons…
A Peculiar Case of “Virgin Birth” in Aquarium Sharks
Asexual reproduction is prevalent among animals such as starfish, deep-sea worms, and stick insects, but it is a rarity among vertebrates. Parthenogenesis is a process…
Meteorite Hunters Discover Extraordinary 17-Pound Space Rock in Antarctica
Antarctica is a tough place to work, for obvious reasons— it’s bitterly cold, remote, and wild. However, it’s one of the best places in the…
120-Million-Year-Old Fossil Shows Modern Bird Skull Evolved From a Mixture of Dinosaur and Bird Features
A new study from researchers at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Field Museum of Natural…
Prehistoric Superpredator: Weird Whatcheeria Was the “T. rex of Its Time”
Ancient Iowan superpredator got big by front-loading its growth in its youth. Fossils found only at the Field Museum reveal the growth history of Whatcheeria….
Hot-Blooded or Cold-Blooded? Chemical Clues Solve One of the Oldest Mysteries in Paleontology
Paleontologists have been debating for decades whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded, like modern mammals and birds, or cold-blooded, like modern reptiles. Knowing whether dinosaurs were warm-…
Lost South American Wildflower “Extinctus” Not Extinct After All – “Was It Really That Easy?”
Scientific names get chosen for lots of reasons — they can honor an important person, or hint at what an organism looks like or where…
Dense Bones Allowed Spinosaurus – The Biggest Carnivorous Dinosaur Ever Discovered – To Hunt Underwater
Its close cousin Baryonyx probably swam too, but Suchomimus might’ve waded like a heron. Spinosaurus is the biggest carnivorous dinosaur ever discovered—even bigger than T….
“Amazing” New Fossil Birds – From the Time of Dinosaurs – Discovered Near China’s Great Wall
Approximately 80 miles from the westernmost reach of China’s Great Wall, paleontologists found relics of an even more ancient world. Over the last two decades,…
Strange Animals That Lived Before the Dinosaurs Reveal the Evolutionary Origin of Tusks
A wide variety of animals have tusks, from elephants and walruses to five-pound, guinea pig-looking critters called hyraxes. But one thing tusked animals have in…