Where Did the Dinosaur-Killing Impactor Come From?
A new study blames a comet fragment for the death of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. But most experts maintain that an asteroid caused this cataclysmic event.
An artist’s rendering of the impact event 66 million years ago that ended the reign of dinosaurs.Credit.Roger Harris/Science Source
By Becky Ferreira
Feb. 15, 2021
In one searing apocalyptic moment 66 million years ago, Earth was transformed from a lush haven into a nightmare world with a fiery wound that bled soot into the skies. The extraterrestrial object that slammed into our planet spelled doom for dinosaurs and countless other species, even as its fallout opened new niches to our mammal ancestors.
Whale Songs Could Reveal Deep Secrets Beneath the Oceans
The aquatic mammals’ sound waves penetrate into the rocks under the waves, which could assist seismologists’ surveys.
A fin whale in waters off Pico Island, in the Azores, Atlantic Ocean.Credit.Blue Planet Archive, via Alamy
By Robin George Andrews
Feb. 11, 2021
In 2019, Václav Kuna, a seismologist, was perusing recordings from dozens of seismometers at the bottom of the northeast Pacific Ocean, when he kept finding strange noises: one-second chirps, repeating every 30 seconds or so.
This staccato symphony turned out to be the songs of fin whales.
“Because I’m a seismologist, I wasn’t just like, oh, fin whales, that’s cute,” said Dr. Kuna, then a doctoral student at Oregon State University.
Can These Hedge Trimmers With Fins Avoid a Brush With Extinction?
Scientists have found that sawfish are thriving in some habitats while vanishing from others.
A largetooth sawfish released into waters in northern Australia after being rescued from a drying floodplain waterhole.Credit.Peter Kyne
By Lesley Evans Ogden
Feb. 10, 2021
Sawfish look something like hedge trimmers with fins and can reach lengths of 17 feet. To Jasmin Graham, president and chief executive of Minorities in Shark Sciences, it’s sometimes hard to believe such weird fish exist.
“They look so intimidating if you look at them from the top down,” she said. But from the bottom, “they have these cute, adorable little gray mouths that kind of look like they’re smiling.”