Tag: oceans
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Climate Comeback: How Earth Exited the Last Ice Age
Introduction: A World Cooling and Then Awakening Around 20,000 years ago, Earth faced a dramatic chill. Global temperatures were about 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than today, and much of North America wore a thick blanket of ice. Some regions saw ice nearly half a mile high, creating a landscape of plains, fjords, and channels carved…
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How Earth Emerged from the Last Ice Age
Introduction: A World Locked in Ice About 20,000 years ago, much of North America and large swaths of the planet were buried under ice. Global temperatures sat roughly 10°F cooler than today, and in some regions ice sheets reached nearly half a mile in thickness. The Earth’s climate was a stark reminder of how sensitive…
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Old fish fossil rewrites the size timeline of lamniform sharks
New fossil evidence shifts the timeline of lamniform giant sharks A collaborative international study, highlighted in Communications Biology, reveals a pivotal new fossil that suggests giant lamniform sharks emerged much earlier than previously thought. The research, led by Dr. Mohamad Bazzi of Stanford University and involving Dr. Mike Newbrey of Columbus State University, centers on…
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Mimas Likely Hides a Young Ocean Beneath Its Ice
New Findings Reframe Mimas as an Ocean World Candidate Saturn’s small, cratered moon Mimas has long been dismissed as a frozen relic, best known for its prominent Herschel Crater. Yet a growing body of research is challenging that view. Recent thermal and orbital models indicate that a young subsurface ocean could lie beneath 12–19 miles…
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Ancient Flight-Enabled Ancestors Carried Flightless Birds Across Oceans
Rewriting the dispersal tale: oceans, not just drift Birds are celebrated for their aerial prowess, yet a surprising twist in their story emerges from new research. Scientists have found that the ancestors of today’s flightless giants, including ostriches, emus and kiwis, were once capable of long distance flight across open oceans. This challenges the traditional…