Paleontologists have analyzed the body profiles of Ediacaran-Cambrian organisms by using trace fossils as proxies for body fossils.
A reconstruction of early Cambrian ocean life in South China. Image credit: Dongjing Fu.
The so-called Cambrian…
Category: Earth
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Mystery of the Maka Lahi Rock finally solved
In 2024, researchers from Australia’s University of Queensland discovered a giant 1,200-tonne rock more than 200 metres inland on the island of Tongatapu.
Located in the island’s dense jungle, the rock measures 4 x 12 x 6.7 metres, and stands…
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World’s Largest Cliff-Top Boulder Provides Evidence of Ancient Tsunami in Tonga
Locally known as Maka Lahi, meaning ‘Big Rock,’ this boulder was moved more than 200 m inland by a tsunami around 7,000 years ago.
The limestone boulder Maka Lahi. Image credit: Köhler et al., doi: 10.1016/j.margeo.2025.107567.
The Maka…
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The ethereal fire of blue lava
Despite the name, blue lava is not actually molten lava, but rather an extremely rare natural phenomenon caused by the combustion of sulphuric gases emitted from certain volcanoes and fumarole vents.
Unlike the familiar warm red and orange hue in…
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Seafloor amber may hold hints of a tsunami 115 million years ago
Wavelike patterns in 115-million-year-old amber suggest that a long-ago tsunami inundated what is now northern Japan, researchers report May 15 in Scientific Reports.
Tsunamis can be destructive and, to anything alive nearby, often…
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Modeling Study Provides New Details about Venus’ Crust
Planetary scientists expected the outermost layer of the crust of Earth’s hotter twin would grow thicker and thicker over time given its apparent lack of forces that would drive the crust back into the planet’s interior. But a team of…
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Before altering the air, microbes oxygenated large swaths of the sea
Ancient oxygen-making microbes may have oxygenated large swaths of Earth’s seafloor hundreds of millions of years before the element filled the atmosphere.
Geochemical analysis of sediments deposited roughly 2.6 billion years ago…
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Cool water could protect sea stars from a mysterious disease
A mysterious disease that has plagued sea stars for more than a decade may have met its match in the fjords of British Columbia.
Sunflower sea stars discovered thriving in the frigid waters suggest that cooler temperatures provide…
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Massive Meteorite Struck Northwestern Scotland 990 Million Years Ago
Previously believed to have occurred 1.2 billion years ago, this ancient impact created the Stac Fada Member, a layer of rock that holds vital clues to Earth’s ancient past. According to new research led by Curtin University, it occurred 990…
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