In 1997, when paleontologist Paul Sereno first began to unearth the remains of a dinosaur in Niger's Sahara Desert, he didn’t know what to think. He was excavating bones in a dry region called Gadoufaoua, which had a rich fossil bed first discovered by French uranium miners. There were a lot of light, aerated bones — usually associated with theropods, like Tyrannosaurus rex, and the birds that evolved from them — so the researchers assumed that was what they were dealing with.As Sereno beg ...read more
On April 8, 2024, the maximum duration of totality anywhere along the eclipse path will be 4 minutes 28 seconds. For comparison, the maximum length of totality for the last total solar eclipse to cross the continental U.S., which occurred on Aug. 21, 2017, was just 2 minutes 40 seconds.Indeed, some eclipse totalities last but a few seconds. And the longest eclipse totality from 2000 B.C. to A.D. 3000 is 7 minutes 29 seconds. That eclipse will occur July 16, 2186.What Determines The Length Of A S ...read more
In recent years, orca whales have repeatedly made headlines after attacking — and, in several cases, capsizing — ships off the coast of Spain and Portugal. Though none of these incidents involved direct harm to any humans, the belligerent behavior caused a stir, prompting many to once again question the threat marine mammals pose to humans. After all, orcas (Orcinus orca), also known as killer whales, sit at the top of the marine food web, and these highly-efficient apex predators are capa ...read more
For 62 years, the only proof that Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna ever existed was a single specimen, recovered in 1961 from the Cyclops Mountains of New Guinea. In the interim, this quill-covered, egg-laying mammal (named for the British naturalist David Attenborough) vanished from the scientific radar. After all that time, you might think, it would’ve been perfectly reasonable to presume the creature extinct. But then, in 2007, an expedition stumbled upon evidence of its survival: “no ...read more
When April 8’s solar eclipse arrives, more than 42 million North Americans living under the path of totality, as well as uncounted millions nearby, will be watching the weather forecast for the prospects of a cloud-free sky. However, those skies could pose a challenge: April is a month that struggles to get out from under the clouds as winter reluctantly gives way to spring.Useful forecasts can’t be made much more than a week ahead, but satellite-based observations of cloud coverage beginnin ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine