A fossilized forest that flourished more than 2.5 million years ago could return to life thanks to a warming planet, scientists say.
The paleo-scene won't sprout up overnight, of course, said Alexandre Guertin-Pasquier of the University of Montreal, who will present his research at the Canadian Paleontology Conference in Toronto this week.
[Full Story: Fossil Forest May Sprout Again as the Arctic Warms]
Get prepared: It's time to kiss long days and warm weather goodbye and welcome in crisp temperatures and crunchy leaves. The first day of fall, also known as the autumnal equinox, is Saturday, Sept. 22.
The equinox gets its name from an astronomical curiosity. During both the spring and fall equinoxes, the sun transits directly over the Earth's equator. Day and night are approximately equal length on equinoxes, which is how the days got their name — it means "equal night" in Latin.
[Full Story: Goodbye, Summer! Fall Starts Saturday]
The San Diego Zoo’s newest panda cub got another checkup today and his vets report that he's growing well, especially around the waist, and is just starting to see.
"The cub weighed 4.9 pounds this morning and veterinarians noted that his eyes are almost open now and believe the cub has some vision but it is likely limited to light and shadows," the zoo announced in a statement Thursday (Sept. 20). "His chest now measures 12.5 inches and his well-fed belly is 14.5 inches around."
[Full Story: Panda Cub Starts to See at San Diego Zoo]
Braving pecks from sharp, colorful beaks, researchers placed tags on 25 Atlantic puffins in Ireland this summer to track the elusive birds during their winter migration.
It's unknown exactly where the birds go in the winter (other than "out to sea"), and they are difficult to track because they spend much of their time on the water.
[Full Story: Mysterious Winter Wanderings of Puffins Traced]
The earliest known confirmed galaxy has been discovered with the help of cosmic lenses formed out of the warped fabric of space and time, researchers say.
[Full Story: Farthest Galaxy Yet Revealed by Cosmic Lens]
A new telescope camera in Chile focused on mysterious dark energy has taken its first photos of extremely distant galaxies.
The images represent the first observations — called "first light" — of an instrument called the Dark Energy Camera that was eight years in the works.
[Full Story: New Dark Energy Telescope Snaps First Cosmic Photos]
This summer's unprecedented melt for the icy white cap over Arctic waters appears to have come to a stop on Sunday, Sept. 16, setting a new record low for Arctic sea-ice extent that far surpasses the previous low set in 2007.
This summer, melt pushed the sea ice back to 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers), according to the U.S. National Snow & Ice Data Center, which tracks sea ice using satellite data.
[Full Story: Dramatic Arctic Ice Melt Blows Away Previous Record]
A gorgeous new photo by the Hubble Space Telescope confirms that a faraway spiral galaxy is indeed churning out new stars at a rapid rate.
The new Hubble image captures a galaxy called NGC 7090, which is found about 30 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Indus (The Indian). The edge-on shot shows the galaxy's disc and bulging central core — which is likely full of cool, relatively old stars — as well as a number of pinkish regions scattered throughout NGC 7090.
[Full Story: Stunning Hubble Telescope Photo Captures Star-Forming Galaxy]
Perth Zoo's first litter of baby otters in 18 years made their public debut this week during a checkup.
At 13 weeks old, the four male Asian small-clawed otters (Aonyx cinerea) are healthy and starting to become more active and adventurous, the zoo reports. Photos of the otter pups showed the zoo's veterinary staff handling them during their "physicals," during which the 13-week-olds received their second vaccinations.
[Full Story: Otter Pups Make Zoo Debut]
Nature's not much for subtlety. Just ask Chris Tangey, the man who watched in awe as a 100-foot-high (30-meter-high) whirlwind of fire tore around a patch of Australian Outback on Tuesday (Sept. 11).
Tangey, a filmmaker, managed to capture some very rare footage of the startling phenomenon while out scouting locations near Alice Springs, Australia, according to The Australian.
[Full Story: Rare 'Fire Devil' Caught on Film]
