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A new kind of pterosaur, a flying reptile from the time of the dinosaurs, has been identified by scientists from the Transylvanian Museum Society in Romania, the University of Southampton in the UK and the Museau Nacional in Rio de Janiero, Brazil. The fossilized bones come from the Late Cretaceous rocks of Sebeş-Glod in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania, which are approximately 68 million years old. The Transylvanian Basin is world-famous for its many Late Cretaceous fossils, including dinosaurs of many kinds, as well as fossilized mammals, turtles, lizards, and ancient relatives of crocodiles....

A study led by Axel Meyer, Professor of Zoology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Konstanz, has successfully demonstrated the emergence of a new hybrid species in cichlid fishes. This is likely the first instance of this genetic speciation method in vertebrates. The researchers reveal that a new hybrid species has emerged from the cichlid A. sagittae and A. xiloaensis in the crater lake Xiloá in Nicaragua using whole genome sequencing of more than 120 individuals as well as a number of other techniques....

The study, by researchers from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and USA, is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Burrowing bats are only found now in New Zealand, but they once also lived in Australia. Burrowing bats are peculiar because they not only fly; they also scurry about on all fours, over the forest floor, under leaf litter, and along tree branches, while foraging for both animal and plant food....

Coffee drinkers intuitively recognize the pleasure of swallowing a smooth, rich brew versus a watery one. Aside from added cream or sugar, the coffee itself contributes to this sensation — referred to as body or mouthfeel — but the specific compounds are not well defined. Now, researchers report several coffee compounds that contribute to the feeling of the beverage coating the inside of the mouth, as well as astringency and chalkiness sensations....

“It is extremely difficult to track individual changes in this chaos,” said Katie Cockburn, a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Valentina Greco, the Carolyn Walch Slayman Professor of Genetics. Cockburn, former graduate student Kai Mesa, Greco, and two colleagues at Harvard Medical School — Allon Klein and Kyogo Kawaguchi — found a way to do that. Using new imaging technology and powerful analyses, they discovered that changes in neighboring cells — either by death or differentiation — triggered stem cells to renew....

Storm chasing takes luck and patience on Earth — and even more so on Mars. For scientists watching the Red Planet from NASA’s orbiters, the past month has been a windfall. “Global” dust storms, where a runaway series of storms create a dust cloud so large they envelop the planet, only appear every six to eight years (that’s 3-4 Mars years). Scientists still don’t understand why or how exactly these storms form and evolve....

Scientists have assumed that ice cliffs taller than 90 meters (300 feet) (about the height of the Statue of Liberty) would rapidly collapse under their own weight, contributing to more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) of sea-level rise by the end of the century — enough to completely flood Boston and other coastal cities. But now MIT researchers have found that this particular prediction may be overestimated. In a paper published today in Geophysical Research Letters, the team reports that in order for a 90-meter ice cliff to collapse entirely, the ice shelves supporting the cliff would have to break apart extremely quickly, within a matter of hours — a rate of ice loss that has not been observed in the modern record....

Launched in 2011, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity Rover arrived on Mars in 2012 to explore the Gale Crater, acquiring rock, soil, and air samples to help scientists characterize the geology of Mars and understand what the planet’s crust is made of. Part of NASA’s long-term effort to explore the Red Planet using robots, Curiosity was designed to discover whether Mars ever had the right environmental conditions to support microbial life forms....

The use of sunscreens is advocated to prevent sun damage, but most formulations contain synthetic UV radiation filters that can make their way into water systems. Many of these are not ecocompatible and may harm fragile marine life including coral, fish, and microorganisms. Scientists at King’s College London extracted a mycosporine-like amino acid (MAA), known as palythine, from seaweed to test its ability to protect against UV radiation in human skin cells....

Mixed origins “These yeasts are hybrids between two completely different species” says Dr. Jan Steensels (VIB – KU Leuven Center for Microbiology), who coordinated the lab work of this study. “Think of lions and tigers making a super-baby.” Such interspecific hybridizations are rare and seem to be favored by the domestication process. In this case, the new hybrid yeasts combined important characteristics of both parental species, with the fermentation capacity of normal beer yeasts and the stress tolerance and capacity to form special aromas of more feral ancient yeasts like S....

NASA has successfully landed spacecraft on Mars nine times, using cutting-edge parachutes, massive airbags, and jetpacks to safely touch down on the surface. Now engineers are investigating whether or not crashing is the easiest way to get to the Martian surface. Rather than slow a spacecraft’s high-speed descent before touching down, an experimental lander design called SHIELD (Simplified High Impact Energy Landing Device) would use an accordion-like, collapsible base that acts like the crumple zone of a car and absorbs the energy of a hard impact....

When singers generate beautiful notes, they can also release harmful particles like the coronavirus. Wearing a mask prevents virus transmission, but it also affects the sound. Thomas Moore, from Rollins College, will discuss his observations of a professional soprano singing with and without six types of masks at the 181st Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, which will be held November 29-December 3. The talk, “Aerosol propagation and acoustic effects while singing with a face mask,” will take place Wednesday, December 1 at 12:40 p....

In the original study, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, psilocybin produced immediate, substantial, and sustained improvements in anxiety and depression and led to decreases in cancer-related demoralization and hopelessness, improved spiritual well-being, and increased quality of life. At the final 6.5-month follow-up assessment, psilocybin was associated with enduring antianxiety and antidepressant effects. Approximately 60 percent to 80 percent of participants continued with clinically significant reductions in depression or anxiety, sustained benefits in existential distress and quality of life, as well as improved attitudes toward death....

Previous VIMS maps of Titan (for example, PIA02145) display great variation in imaging resolution and lighting conditions, resulting in obvious seams between different areas of the surface. With the seams now gone, this new collection of images is by far the best representation of how the globe of Titan might appear to the casual observer if it weren’t for the moon’s hazy atmosphere, and it likely will not be superseded for some time to come....

A recent study puts some finishing touches on the 2,300-year history of the beak-like weapon that an ancient warship used to ram enemy ships in the First Punic War, the conflict between ancient Rome and Carthage. The report, in the journal Analytical Chemistry, also identifies a major threat that conservators must address in preserving this archaeological treasure for future generations. Patrick Frank, staff scientist at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource, and colleagues explain that the ram, called a rostrum, was found in 2008 under 22 feet of water, 150 feet offshore from Acqualadrone (which means “Bay of the Pirates”) in northeastern Sicily....

Memory consolidation is the process through which memories are transferred from short-term memory to long-term memory. It typically happens when you’re sleeping. Numerous studies have shown that sleeping after learning might have benefits over passively remaining awake. This happens as a result of the reactivation of important memories, which may also be reflected in dreams. The positive effect of sleep can be observed even years later. However, there are currently no studies that have looked at whether sleep improves fear memory....

New research led by the University of Bristol has revealed that crocodiles once flourished on land and in the oceans as a result of fast evolution. Modern crocodiles are predators living in rivers, lakes, and wetlands, grabbing fish, reptiles, birds, and mammals with their conspicuous snouts and powerful jaws. However, new research published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows that ancient crocodiles were once much more varied because of rapid evolution....

Solar Orbiter lofted to space aboard the US Atlas V 411 rocket from NASA’s spaceport in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 04:03 GMT (05:03 CET) on February 10, 2020 (11:03 p.m. EST, on February 9, 2020.) An ESA-led mission with strong NASA participation, Solar Orbiter carries a set of ten instruments for imaging the surface of the Sun and studying the environment in its vicinity. The spacecraft will travel around the Sun on an elliptical orbit that will take it as close as 42 million km away from the Sun’s surface, about a quarter of the distance between the Sun and Earth....

The question is how much CO2 entered the ocean throughout the ice ages that can be attributed to the “biological pump,” where atmospheric carbon is absorbed by phytoplankton and deposited to the bottom when organisms die and sink. The mystery must be solved in order to increase the accuracy of climate models and get a better knowledge of how ocean systems may respond to future climate change. Led by IMAS and University of Liverpool scientists and published today (October 10, 2019) in Nature Communications, the study found ice age phytoplankton in the tropics absorbed high levels of CO2 due to fertilization by iron-rich dust blowing into the ocean....

Astronomers have long thought that comets and asteroids exist in other planetary systems – perhaps ‘Oumuamua came from one of them. Most current models of our own Solar System suggest that such small bodies are leftovers from the era of planet formation, and other planetary systems should also have produced comets and asteroids. Studying them would offer powerful insights into the similarities and differences in planetary system formation. So far, however, it has been impossible: the presumed large populations of comets and asteroids found in exoplanetary circumstellar disks are far away and their individual members are faint and spatially unresolved....