Discovery reveals intimate details about the lives of some of the largest dinosaurs

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To unlock the mysteries of our planet’s past, scientists often study fossilized rocks and bones.

Eggs are an often overlooked but extremely rich source of information, with birds, reptiles, dinosaurs and a few eccentric mammals that have left them on earth for more than 200 million years.

Rare Fossilized Eggshells can light up the behavior and diet of ancient creatures, expose changes in weather, and shed light on how our prehistoric relatives lived Y release.

And now, an “exciting” discovery in India announced this week has revealed intimate details about the lives of some of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the Earth.

Paleontologists in central India have unearthed a fossilized dinosaur hatchery with 92 nests and 256 eggs belonging to colonies of herbivorous giant titanosaurs.

Judging by the proximity of the nests to each other, the researchers inferred that the dinosaurs laid eggs together in colonies or colonies, as many birds do today.

However, unlike most bird species, titanosaurs were not loving parents. The researchers believe these creatures likely laid their eggs and then left their young to fend for themselves.

“Because titanosaurs were enormous in size, the closely spaced nests would not have allowed them to visit the nests to maneuver and incubate the eggs or feed the young… as the parents would step on the eggs and stomp on them,” said Dr. The study’s lead author, Guntupalli Prasad. , paleontologist at the University of Delhi.

Planting a tree is a fitting memory for a loved one, but how about “becoming” a tree after death?

Transcend, a New York-based green burial start-up, is a company offering a way for people to have a positive environmental impact when they dispose of this mortal coil.

Clients will select a species of tree to plant over the body, which will be prepared with biodegradable flax and buried with wood chips, local soil and mushrooms to facilitate composting. The site is marked and the tree is allowed to grow.

Advocates hope that green burials can help curb the climate crisis, but the the industry is new — Transcend hasn’t planted people yet — and there’s little research on how much better human composting is for the environment compared to traditional burials.

Want more ideas on how to tackle the climate crisis and reduce your eco-anxiety? enroll in CNN’s Life, But Greener Limited Newsletter Series.

The Australian echidna, like the platypus, belongs to a rare group of egg-laying mammals known as monotremes. But the spiky creature’s egg-laying ability isn’t its only unusual feature.

Despite being one of the oldest surviving species in the world, echidnas are also believed to be sensitive to heat. Researchers, however, have discovered the echidna uses a unique method to cool off and stay active at temperatures much higher than previously known.

Infrared images of 124 echidnas taken over the space of a year revealed how they beat the heat of global warming: The creature blows bubbles of mucus, which burst over the tip of its nose, moistening it. As the moisture evaporates, it cools the echidna’s blood, and the tip of the nose acts as an “evaporation window.”

When the Artemis I mission lifted off in November, NASA’s Space Launch System performed as advertised. The most powerful rocket ever flown provided the propulsion needed to send the Orion spacecraft on a journey around the moon and back.

but SLS has long been considered controversialand NASA and Boeing, which was responsible for the rocket’s core stage, have been criticized for the delays and sky-high prices.

SLS’s complicated history has left some industry experts with mixed feelings about the rocket and its place in the Artemis program, which is designed to land humans on the moon and eventually reach Mars.

Meanwhile, astronomers have now documented the cosmic drama that is the Milky Way in unprecedented detail during the Dark Energy Camera Plane Survey, and produced an impressive image.

Runes are the oldest known form of writing in Scandinavia and are closely associated with the Viking Age between 793 and 1066. — a time from which thousands of stones with runic inscriptions have been found.

The older runestones are much rarer, Y archaeologists in Norway have recently discovered the oldest known example – It is believed to be around 2,000 years old.

Researchers from the Museum of Cultural History at the University of Oslo discovered the stone while investigating a cemetery in the municipality of Hole in eastern Norway in 2021.

Eight runes on the front face of the reddish-brown sandstone rock spell out “idiberug” when converted to Roman letters. According to one of the archaeologists, could be a woman’s name.

Immerse yourself in these fascinating stories:

— Scientists have discovered a foot-long snake in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It shares a key trait with its much larger cousin. – the boa constrictor.

— NASA and Boeing are teaming up to design a new type of single-aisle aircraft that reduces emissions. Air travelers could benefit in the 2030s.

— Analysis of DNA extracted from the skeletal remains of more than 100 individuals has revealed that, in ancient Greece, marrying his cousin was not only allowed, but encouraged.