September 8, 2024

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Meet Lokiceratops, the cousin of the rock star Triceratops

Meet Lokiceratops, the cousin of the rock star Triceratops

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s science newsletter Wonder Theory. To get it in your inbox, Sign up for free here.



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About 67 million years ago, two dinosaurs had a confrontation in what is now Montana before being buried together in a single grave.

It is not clear which dino won the battle. Both Triceratops horridus and Tyrannosaurus rex died sporting battle scars.

The Triceratops fossil first appeared when it eroded from the rock of the Hell Creek Formation in 2006. Then a T. rex fossil was spotted nested within it.

When commercial paleontologist Mark Eatman Interlocking fossils foundThe discovery was like something out of the “Jurassic Park” movies come to life.

“Dueling Dinosaurs” went on display in April at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh.

Now, Eatman has struck dinosaur gold again.

Sergei Krasovsky / Museum of Evolution

An artist’s illustration depicts what Leuciceratops looked like 78 million years ago living in the swamps of what is now northern Montana.

This specimen may be the rock star of dinosaurs.

After being on display for more than a year at the Museum of Evolution in Maribo, Denmark, a horned dinosaur fossil has finally been identified as a previously unknown species.

Named in part after the Norse god of mischief, Lokiceratops rangiformis was a cousin of Triceratops and lived in a swampy environment alongside other horned dinosaur species about 78 million years ago.

Lokiceratops had a fierce, cheerful appearance befitting a metal head that helped it defend Earth and attract mates: Decorated skull with shield-like frillIt has horns above its eyes and paddle-shaped horns at the back.

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When NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams launched on a test flight of Boeing’s Starliner capsule on June 5, they were expected to return from a visit to the International Space Station about eight days later.

now, The duo are likely to aim for a comeback Sometime in July, according to the space agency.

The return date continues to change as Boeing and NASA work to understand Various issues arose During the first manned flight of the spacecraft, such as helium leakage and propulsion failure.

Because the capsule service module, which ran into problems, won’t come back, engineers They race to understand as much as possible Before Starliner left.

M. Kornmesser/ESO

An artist’s illustration shows a supermassive black hole waking up at the center of a distant galaxy. The black hole pulls in an accretion disk of material as it feeds on the gas surrounding it, causing the galaxy to brighten.

Astronomers are observing a The awakening of a supermassive black hole In the middle of a distant galaxy for the first time.

The telescope’s 2019 discovery of an unusually bright glow initially alerted scientists that something unusual was happening in the galaxy, located 300 million light-years away.

Now, the international team has an unprecedented vision as the sleeping giant comes to life and consumes all the cosmic matter it can.

At the same time, researchers may have He discovered a primitive type of black hole As they re-examine a popular theory by the late British physicist Stephen Hawking in the search for elusive direct evidence of the existence of missing matter throughout the universe.

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A 246-million-year-old fossil found in an unexpected place reveals the nature of some of the ancient creatures that roamed the globe.

The late paleontologist Robert Erwan Fordyce, professor emeritus at the University of Otago, first discovered the Nothosaurus fossil in New Zealand. This discovery represents a rare occurrence for a marine reptile to be discovered in the Southern Hemisphere.

This amazing discovery prompted researchers to wonder how reptiles moved from one side of the Earth, which was dominated by a giant continent called Pangea at the time, to the other side.

It is likely that nothosaurs, which They paddle in the water with their limbsDinosaurs swam all the way around Pangea using the World Ocean as a coastal highway, said Benjamin Kerr, a paleontologist at the Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University in Sweden.

Martin Pernetti/AFP/Getty Images

The massive stone statues, known as moai in the indigenous Rapa Nui language, emerge from a ridge of the Rano Raraku volcano on Easter Island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Chile in 2005.

Mapping the remains of rock gardens could help researchers understand exactly what happened to the Polynesian sailors who originally inhabited Easter Island.

Researchers are divided into two camps as they study the remote Pacific island, also known as Rapa Nui, which is dotted with hundreds of massive stone heads called moai.

Some experts suspect that limited resources have led to a catastrophic population decline. Others believe the isolated group lived a sustainable existence until European settlers in the 18th century brought disease to the island.

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New research using satellite imagery and machine learning suggests that the island’s population is much smaller and more sedentary, and that the islanders were able to survive on sweet potatoes and other crops grown with… Ancient agricultural technology.

Dive into these results:

– like Voyager 1 explores uncharted cosmic territoryThe probe is sending back valuable scientific data for the first time since a computer glitch sidelined the spacecraft seven months ago.

– Scientists have Discover microplastics in the human penisWhich adds to the growing list of potential health concerns about small molecules.

– a A 3,300-year-old ship filled with hundreds of intact jars The discovery of this shipwreck at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea is one of the oldest shipwrecks ever found.

— Meet Colombian marine biologist Fernando Trujillo, who ventured into the Amazon decades ago on a mission: rescue. Mysterious pink river dolphins.

– For years, astronomers believed that Jupiter’s Great Red Spot was first observed on the planet more than 350 years ago. New analysis reveals observations made in 1665 It belongs to something else.

Like what I read? Oh, but there’s more. Register here To receive in your inbox the next issue of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland And Katie Hunt. They find wonder at planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.