Lone Survivor of a Forgotten Era: The Enigmatic Tale of Ekgmowechashala
The story of Ekgmowechashala, the last primate in North America before Homo sapiens or Clovis people, reads like a spaghetti western: A grizzled and mysterious…
University of Kansas News
Unraveling an Ice Age Mystery – New Study Reveals Surprises About Early Human Migration
The mystery of human migration during the Ice Age has long been a subject of debate among anthropologists: When and how did the flow of…
The Addictive Recipe: Food From Tobacco-Owned Brands More “Hyperpalatable”
Tobacco-owned food brands in the U.S. have been linked to the promotion of addictive, unhealthy foods, leading to prevalent health issues like obesity. Many of…
Scientists Reveal What Makes the Best Free-Throw Shooters
Release point height, trunk lean were revealed to be top biomechanical traits among the most skilled individuals. At one time or another, every basketball coach…
What Happened to All the Supermassive Black Holes? Astronomers Surprised by Webb Data
James Webb Space Telescope survey reveals fewer supermassive black holes than presumed. A University of Kansas survey of a swath of the cosmos using the…
500-Million-Year-Old “Dune” Monster Unveiled – Ancient Sea Worm Unknown to Science
Researchers from the University of Kansas have discovered a previously unknown species of ancient sea worm, named Shaihuludia shurikeni. Another fossil at the same site…
Garbage Patches in Our Backyard: Surprising Microplastics Contamination in Freshwater Lakes and Reservoirs
Research from the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network finds that freshwater environments like lakes and reservoirs have higher concentrations of plastic than oceanic garbage patches,…
A Big Step Forward: New Breakthrough Could Lead to Cleaner Hydrogen Energy
Scientists from the University of Kansas and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have made significant progress towards separating hydrogen and oxygen molecules…
New Tool Detects ChatGPT-Generated Academic Text With 99% Accuracy
Heather Desaire, a University of Kansas chemist who applies machine learning to biomedical studies, has developed a novel tool capable of identifying scientific text produced…
Worlds Largest “Raptor” Dinosaurs Lived 10 Million Years Earlier Than Thought
The Utahraptor, the world’s largest “raptor” dinosaur, is now estimated to be 135 million years old, 10 million years older than previously thought. The discovery…
Ancient California Fossil Unlocks Secrets of Coffee and Potato Ancestors’ Survival Amid Dinosaur Extinction
An ancient 80-million-year-old fossil plant rewrites the history of lamiids, revealing that these flowering plants, including staple crops, evolved earlier than previously believed and suggesting…
“Going Where No Primate Has Gone Before”: Scientists Identify New Species of Near-Primates
The fossils were found on Ellesmere Island, located in Nunavut, Canada, within sedimentary layers associated with the early Eocene epoch, potentially providing insight into how…
Unlocking Effective Weight Loss: Investigating the Impact of “Hyper-Palatable” Foods Across Four Diets
If losing weight was among your 2023 resolutions, findings by researchers from the University of Kansas and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) may provide…
Glowing Spider Fossils Prompt Breakthrough Research on Treasure Trove of Amazingly Well-Preserved Specimens
Glowing spider fossils prompt breakthrough study of how they were preserved at Aix-en-Provence. A geologic formation near Aix-en-Provence, France, is renowned as one of the…
Peering Into the Inner Workings of Evolution With Jellyfish Eyes
Some jellyfish have simple eyes; some have complex ones. Other jellyfish have no eyes at all. Indeed, recent research has shown jellyfish eyes in different…
Freaky Fanged Frog Discovered in the Philippines
Researchers at the University of Kansas have described a new species of fanged frog discovered in the Philippines that’s nearly indistinguishable from a species on…
Researchers Examine “Godzilla” – The Record-Shattering 2020 Trans-Atlantic Dust Storm
For two weeks in June 2020, a massive dust plume from Saharan Africa crept westward across the Atlantic, blanketing the Caribbean and Gulf Coast states…
Remarkable New Species of Snake Found Hidden in a Biodiversity Collection – Occupies Its Own Branch on Snake Tree of Life
Waray Dwarf Burrowing Snake occupies its own branch on snake tree of life. To be fair, the newly described Waray Dwarf Burrowing Snake (Levitonius mirus)…