Odd Creatures: Earth & Climate

March 2, 2025

Top Headlines

Bite-Size Clue May Help Rediscover the Missing Desert Rat-Kangaroo

Feb. 25, 2025 — An intriguing native Australian rat-kangaroo, thought to be probably extinct, may still be running around in the inhospitable remote Sturt Stony Desert -- and researchers have discovered new details about its feeding habits that might help to find ...

'Smarts' Count: Evolution of Intelligence

Feb. 25, 2025 — The Beatles said it best: Love is all you need. And according to new research, the same may be true in the animal kingdom. Well, at least for mosquitofish -- a matchstick-sized fish endemic to Central America and now found globally. According to the ...

Glass Fertilizer Beads Could Be a Sustained Nutrient Delivery System

Feb. 21, 2025 — Agricultural fertilizers are critical for feeding the world's population, restoring soil fertility and sustaining crops. Excessive and inefficient use of those resources can present an environmental threat, contaminating waterways and generating ...

Bio-Hybrid Drone Uses Silkworm Moth Antennae to Navigate Using Smell

Feb. 19, 2025 — Conventional drones use visual sensors for navigation. However, environmental conditions like dampness, low light, and dust can hinder their effectiveness, limiting their use in disaster-stricken areas. Researchers have now developed a novel ...

Latest Headlines

updated 11:27pm EST

Coffee Grounds and Reishi Mushroom Spores Can Be 3D Printed Into a Compostable Alternative to Plastics

Feb. 18, 2025 — Researchers developed a new system for turning used coffee grounds into a paste, which they use to 3D print objects, such as packing materials and a ...

Near-Complete Skull Discovery Reveals 'Top Apex', Leopard-Sized 'Fearsome' Carnivore

Feb. 17, 2025 — A rare discovery of a nearly complete skull in the Egyptian desert has led scientists to the 'dream' revelation of a new 30-million-year-old species ...

Foraging Seals Enable Scientists to Measure Fish Abundance Across the Vast Pacific Ocean

Feb. 13, 2025 — A new study by marine biologists reports that seals can essentially act as 'smart sensors' for monitoring fish populations in the ocean's eerily dim ...

Marine Mystery Solved: How Anemonefish Avoid Stings from Their Sea Anemone Hosts

Feb. 14, 2025 — The clownfish-anemone living arrangement is one of the most widely recognized examples of symbiosis. Researchers have made a breakthrough in ...

Outokumpu's Bedrock Reveals a Smelly Surprise

Feb. 11, 2025 — Volatile organic compounds (VOC), usually associated with poor indoor air, were discovered in Finland in a borehole more than two kilometres deep. Previously, groundwater dating back tens of millions ...

Study Takes a 'Bite' out of Shark Depredation Using Citizen Science

Feb. 11, 2025 — Shark depredation is a rising issue in recreational fishing, especially in Florida, where sharks steal fish straight off anglers' lines. Researchers harnessed citizen science -- social media, angler ...

Evidence of Cannibalism 18,000 Years Ago

Feb. 11, 2025 — An international research team has gained new insights into the burial rituals of Late Ice Age societies in Central Europe. Signs of human remains from the Maszycka Cave in southern Poland being ...

Earth's Inner Core Is Undergoing a Transformation

Feb. 10, 2025 — Earth's inner core is undergoing structural transformation. Located 3,000 miles below the Earth's surface, the inner core is anchored by gravity within the molten liquid outer core. Until now the ...

Anomaly in the Deep Sea

Feb. 10, 2025 — Beryllium-10, a rare radioactive isotope produced by cosmic rays in the atmosphere, provides valuable insights into the Earth's geological history. A research team has discovered an unexpected ...

Some Species of Baleen Whales Avoid Attracting Killer Whales by Singing Too Low to Be Heard

Feb. 6, 2025 — New research finds some baleen whale species call at such deep frequencies that they're completely undetectable by killer whales, which cannot hear ...

Scientists Simulate Asteroid Collision Effects on Climate and Plants

Feb. 5, 2025 — A new climate modeling study presents a new scenario of how climate and life on our planet would change in response to a potential future strike of a medium-sized (~500 m) ...

By Studying Neutron 'Starquakes', Scientists Hope to Transform Their Understanding of Nuclear Matter

Feb. 5, 2025 — The study of 'starquakes' (like earthquakes, but in stars) promises to give us important new insights into the properties of neutron stars, improving our understanding of the universe and ...

New Device Uses Electrically Assisted Wind to Fight Fires

Feb. 4, 2025 — Researchers have developed a new portable tool that could improve how firefighters douse fires, making the process more efficient and far less ...

Tiny Copper 'Flowers' Bloom on Artificial Leaves for Clean Fuel Production

Feb. 3, 2025 — Tiny copper 'nano-flowers' have been attached to an artificial leaf to produce clean fuels and chemicals that are the backbone of modern energy and ...

White Shark Liver Is on Australian Killer Whales' Menu, Genomic Evidence Confirms

Feb. 1, 2025 — DNA evidence has confirmed killer whales in Australia hunted a white shark for its liver. Based on DNA analysis from the bite wounds on the carcass of a large white shark washed ashore near Portland ...

Life Cycles of Some Insects Adapt Well to a Changing Climate: Others, Not So Much

Jan. 31, 2025 — Some biologists speculate that animals will get smaller with global warming to reduce heat stress. While this may be true of warm-blooded animals, what about exotherms like insects? Thanks to a ...

Life as a Multiscale Cascade of Machines Making Machines

Jan. 31, 2025 — A new study proposes a framework for understanding living matter as a cascade of machines making machines, extending from the atomic scale to the scale of the entire ...

Ancient DNA Analyses Bring to Life the 11,000-Year Intertwined Genomic History of Sheep and Humans

Jan. 30, 2025 — The rise of pastoralist peoples in the Eurasian steppes and their westward spread some 5,000 years ago may have been fueled by sheep herding and people exploiting their milk. As early as 8,000 years ...

Potential in Cultivation of a Special Nutritious Microalga

Jan. 30, 2025 — The microalga Nannochloropsis oceanica holds potential as a valuable source of sustainably produced nutrients such as protein, omega-3 fatty acids, and vitamin K2. A new study shows that cultivation ...

Sharks and Rays Benefit from Global Warming, but Not from CO2 in the Oceans

Jan. 30, 2025 — Sharks and rays have populated the world's oceans for around 450 million years, but more than a third of the species living today are severely threatened by overfishing and the loss of their ...

Lead Contamination in Ancient Greece Points to Societal Change

Jan. 30, 2025 — Studies of sediment cores from the sea floor and the coastal regions surrounding the Aegean Sea show that humans contaminated the environment with lead early on in antiquity. Geoscientists conducted ...

Working Dogs Take a Day to Adjust to Daylight Savings Time, but Pets Are More Flexible

Jan. 29, 2025 — Working dogs take a day to adjust to the change in routine caused by Daylight Savings Time, whereas pet dogs and their owners seem to be unaffected, according to a new ...

Bad Hair Bears! Greasy Hair Gives Polar Bears Fur With Anti-Icing Properties

Jan. 29, 2025 — Scientists have discovered the anti-icing secret of polar bear fur -- something that allows one of the planet's most iconic animals to survive and thrive in one of its most punishing climates. ...

Oceanic Plate Between Arabian and Eurasian Continental Plates Is Breaking Away

Jan. 29, 2025 — An international research team has investigated the influence of the forces exerted by the Zagros Mountains in the Kurdistan region of Iraq on how much the surface of the Earth has bent over the last ...

Archaeologists Find 'Lost' Site Depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry

Jan. 27, 2025 — Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that a house in England is the site of a lost residence of Harold, the last Anglo-Saxon King of England, and shown in the Bayeux Tapestry. By reinterpreting ...

Underwater Mud Volcanos Are a Haven for Marine Organisms

Jan. 27, 2025 — One would think that a volcano was not the most hospitable place for living organisms. However, the Borealis Mud Volcano, at 400 m water depth, acts as a sanctuary for a number of marine ...

'Buzz Me In:' Bees Wearing Itty Bitty QR Codes Reveal Hive Secrets

Jan. 23, 2025 — Several hundred bees in rural Pennsylvania and rural New York are sporting tiny QR codes on their backs to track when they go in and out of their hives. The work, a collaboration among entomologists ...

London Cabbies' Planning Strategies Could Help Inform Future of AI

Jan. 23, 2025 — Researchers have measured the thinking time of London taxi drivers -- famous for their knowledge of more than 26,000 streets across the city -- as part of a study into the future of AI ...

New Twist in Mystery of Dinosaurs' Origin

Jan. 23, 2025 — The remains of the earliest dinosaurs may lie undiscovered in the Amazon and other equatorial regions of South America and Africa, suggests a new ...

Solving the Evolutionary Puzzle of Polyploidy: How Genome Duplication Shapes Adaptation

Jan. 23, 2025 — Scientists have developed a theoretical model that uncovers the dual role of polyploidy -- organisms carrying extra genome copies -- in evolution. Their findings reveal that polyploidy can stabilize ...