Earth and Planetary Sciences Content

Buried Alive: Carbon Dioxide Release From Magma Deep Beneath Ancient Volcanoes a Hidden Driver of Earth’s Past Climate

Andy Fell — October 30, 2024 - 2:34pm

An international team of geoscientists led by a volcanologist at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and including Maxwell Rudolph, associate professor in the �ٺ��Ƶ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has discovered that, contrary to present scientific understanding, ancient volcanoes continued to spew carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from deep within the Earth long past their period of eruptions.

Taking the Earth’s Temperature Over the Past 485 Million Years

Andy Fell — September 19, 2024 - 10:36am

Palm trees in Alaska, crocodiles in Wyoming: Fossils show that Earth’s temperature has changed over hundreds of millions of years. Now a new study co-led by the Smithsonian and the University of Arizona, with Professor Isabel Montañez of the �ٺ��Ƶ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, has produced a curve of global mean surface temperatures over the past 485 million years. The new curve, published Sept. 19 in Science, reveals that Earth’s temperature has varied more than previously thought as life has diversified, populated land and endured multiple mass extinctions.

Recent Volcanoes on the Moon?

Andy Fell — September 04, 2024 - 3:09pm

New results from China’s Chang’e 5 lunar samples returned to Earth provide evidence for active volcanoes on the Moon as recently as 120 million years ago. Previously, scientists had thought that any activity with magma (molten rock) rising to the Moon’s surface ended billions of years ago.

No Evidence of a Common Set of Regeneration Genes

Andy Fell — August 19, 2024 - 2:57pm

Some animals, especially those that have been around for a long time in evolutionary terms, possess extraordinary abilities to regenerate lost limbs or organs. These animals, such as flatworms, salamanders and zebrafish, are not at all closely related, suggesting that the ability to regenerate goes far back in evolutionary time. Is it possible to find a common set of genes for regeneration, that could unlock a new understanding of this process?

Slimming Down a Colossal Fossil Whale

Andy Fell — February 29, 2024 - 2:23pm

A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists at �ٺ��Ƶ and the Smithsonian Institution. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded. The work is published Feb. 29 in PeerJ.

Finding Hope ‘At Every Depth’

Malia N Reiss — January 30, 2024 - 3:24pm

In the prologue for their book At Every Depth: Our Growing Knowledge of the Changing Oceans, �ٺ��Ƶ scientist Tessa Hill and writer Eric Simons open with an astute observation about humanity’s relationship with the ocean.

Molecular Fossils Shed Light on Ancient Life

Andy Fell — December 07, 2023 - 9:00am

Paleontologists are getting a glimpse at life over a billion years in the past based on chemical traces in ancient rocks and the genetics of living animals. Research published Dec. 1 in Nature Communications combines geology and genetics, showing how changes in the early Earth prompted a shift in how animals eat.

Geerat Vermeij Discusses New Book: The Evolution of Power: A New Understanding of the History of Life

Andy Fell — November 02, 2023 - 4:08pm

Geerat Vermeij wasn’t sure he had another book in him. The 77-year-old paleobiologist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Earth and Planetary Sciences already had six books and hundreds of academic publications to his name. But Vermeij, if anything, is a constant student and writing, for him, is still one of the best ways to learn.

Reanalysis Shows Dinosaurs Not So Warm-Blooded

Andy Fell — September 07, 2023 - 12:09pm

Modern birds and mammals are “warm-blooded” or endothermic, maintaining a constant body temperature and generating heat internally, while reptiles rely on heat from their surroundings. It has been known for some time that at least some dinosaurs, including the direct ancestors of modern birds, were also endotherms.

Aluminum Isotope in the Early Solar System

Andy Fell — September 05, 2023 - 11:02am

A little over four and a half billion years ago, dust circling our young sun was collecting into balls that would become planets. Heat from radioactive decay melted these balls of dust into blobs of molten rock, growing as they accumulated more material. A small piece of one of these molten objects broke away and traveled around the solar system for eons before falling to Earth as a meteorite in the Algerian desert. Now, very accurate dating of this meteorite is giving new insight into the formation of the Solar System.