June 9, 2013
Cat's Paw Clutches Baby Stars Most skygazers recognize the Orion Nebula, one of the closest stellar nurseries to Earth. Although it makes for great views in backyard telescopes, the Orion Nebula is far...
View ArticleBalaur
Balaur Living 70 million years ago in what is now Romania, Balaur was originally thought to be a close relative of velociraptors, but is now considered to be an early flightless bird. Martyniuk is...
View ArticleDapingfangornis
Dapingfangornis "That's one of my favorites," said Martyniuk. "I didn't know much about this bird before I did the research for my book. It almost got cut from the book because the paper describing it...
View ArticleHongshanornis
Hongshanornis Though dinosaur species are often known from a bone or two, Hongshanornis remains are complete enough to know that it had a crest on its head and long, spindly legs perhaps suited to...
View ArticleIchthyornis
Ichthyornis "There's a conception that different birds emerged from different dinosaurs, that there are, say, ostrich dinosaurs, and that's where ostriches evolved from," Martyniuk said. "But when you...
View ArticleJinfengopteryx
Has any paleontological discovery of the 21st century been so transformative as the fact that dinosaurs were feathered? Sure, biologists still have academically foundational arguments over the proper...
View ArticleBoluochia
Boluochia Gracing the cover of Mesozoic Birds are a pair of squabbling Boluochia, which lived 120 million years ago in what is now northeastern China. The region is home to fantastically preserved...
View ArticleMicroraptor
Microraptor Pigments decay over time — but if a fossil preserves the microscopic physical structures that generate iridescent color, its hues can be inferred after millions of years. Such was the case...
View ArticleNingyuansaurus
Ningyuansaurus Scheduled to be published in the upcoming second edition of Mesozoic Birds, Ningyuansaurus was an early oviraptor, or egg-stealing dinosaur. One lineage of its own descendants would...
View ArticleWulatelong
Wulatelong Wulatelong, depicted here with lizard prey, was described for the first time in May in the little-known journal Vertebrata PalAsiatica. Many new dinosaur species, especially those from...
View ArticleAurornis
Aurornis As with many early bird fossils, scientists know that Aurornis -- which was announced late in May, and may be the earliest known bird -- had feathers, but their exact shape and distribution is...
View ArticleJune 13, 2013
Black Hole Bonanza Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory have been used to discover 26 black hole candidates in the Milky Way's galactic neighbor, Andromeda, as described in our latest press...
View ArticleJune 14, 2013
Changing Neptune Seasons NASA Hubble Space Telescope observations in August 2002 show that Neptune's brightness has increased significantly since 1996. The rise is due to an increase in the amount of...
View ArticleJune 15, 2013
Guts of a Dead Star Suspended in time and space, the aftermath of a massive star’s dramatic ending in a supernova explosion is captured by ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory. Nested knots of hot gas...
View ArticleJune 16, 2013
Warm Venus Volcano This figure shows the volcanic peak Idunn Mons (at 46 degrees south latitude, 214.5 degrees east longitude) in the Imdr Regio area of Venus. The topographic backbone derives from...
View ArticleJune 17, 2013
Cloud in Serpens As the realm of galaxies slowly slides past it prime, the dim and dusty clouds that float above the plane of our galaxy harbingers the rise of galactic center. Here then is one of...
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