This week, the world’s oldest preserved were found in 12-million-year-old snail shells, long before dogs, may have been humans’ best friend, and we say goodbye to Polaris as we prepare to get a . Finally, we ask what on Earth is a ?
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Rare Photos Show Blue Whales Performing The Largest Mating Dance On Earth
Male blue whales have been witnessed battling for the chance to mate with a female off the coast of Australia in arguably the most formidable combat on Earth. When male whales sense a female is fertile, they follow her. The males use their bulk against each other to try and gain an advantage and be her “escort”. Collectively, this is known as a racing group and is very rarely witnessed by humans or caught on camera.
World’s Oldest Preserved Fossil Pigments Found In 12-Million-Year-Old Snail Shells
Colors in the natural world can come in just about every possible shade, from the bright blues of a to the glow of an animal under . Now researchers have found some of the earliest traces of the pigments that help produce the pretty colors in snail shells and they are around 12 million years old.
We Now Know What Caused The Brightest Explosion Ever Seen In Space
The gamma-ray burst GRB 221009A, better known as the B.O.A.T (“brightest of all time”), was so far off the charts that we would only expect to see something this bright once every thousand years. Naturally, astronomers expected some phenomenal event to be responsible – but instead, the phenomenon that generated the explosion was unexpected, with few clues as to why it would produce something so dazzling.
Foxes May Have Been Humans’ Best Friend Long Before Dogs
Ancient hunter-gatherers in South America may have kept foxes as pets before arrived on the continent. Evidence for this unexpected alliance comes from a 1,500-year-old burial site in Patagonia, Argentina, where a human skeleton appears to have been buried alongside a fox, suggesting that the pair may have shared a during their lifetimes.
So Long Polaris: The Earth Will Get A New North Star
If you look up into the clear night sky in the Northern Hemisphere, you will see the star Polaris, more commonly known as the North Star. Sitting around 1 degree away from the geographic North Pole, Polaris has been used in navigation (of the Northern hemisphere) for centuries. But it hasn’t always been our North Star and won’t be forever either.
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Feature of the week:
What Is A Henge, And Why Were They Built?
If we ask you to imagine a henge, we’d bet your mind instantly goes to the now-iconic Stonehenge in Wiltshire, UK. This prehistoric megalithic structure is, in the minds of many people, the quintessential example of a henge. It’s even in the name, right? Well, not quite. Stonehenge isn’t actually recognized as a true henge, despite giving its name to the classification. This raises a rather obvious question: what on Earth is a henge?
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