An artist’s impression of the Western Australian koala WA Museum Australia was once home to a second species of koala that lived only in the west of the continent, where it became extinct around 30,000 years ago. Today, there is only one koala species: Phascolarctos cinereus. It is found almost exclusively in eucalyptus forests in…
Octopuses’ earliest relatives that lived 100 million years ago may have been “gigantic” predators that hunted alongside dinosaurs, according to new research. Although scientists previously believed that the earliest finned octopuses lived around 15 million years ago, researchers with Hokkaido University found fossilized jaws inside Late Cretaceous rock samples, according to a study published in…
Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. In the latest episode of old museum collections revealing new discoveries, two researchers in Australia have solved a paleontological mystery with an Ice Age fossil first discovered over 100 years ago. The fossil was found in the underground Foul…
Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Every mammal gives birth to live young, except for a handful of egg-laying monotremes like the platypus. But did the earliest ancestors of mammals also reproduce through eggs? It’s a question that’s stumped evolutionary biologists for decades, but researchers…
Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. The groundwater flowing through the subterranean cave systems of central Texas are vital for both farming and daily life. They’re also underground, ancient archives of the past. In Comal County just north of San Antonio, Bender’s Cave is yielding…
