Preserved dinosaur nest and eggs unearthed, lost World War I tunnel found, artificial human-Neanderthal hybrid "minibrains" created.
Paleontologists Just Found A Preserved Dinosaur Sitting On A Nest With Its Eggs Intact
Shundong Bi/Indiana University of PennsylvaniaExperts believe that the eggs were just about to hatch when the mother died while sitting atop the nest.
In a world-first discovery, scientists in China just unearthed a 70-million-year-old preserved dinosaur found sitting atop its nest.
What’s more, the 24 eggs in the nest were still intact, with seven of them still containing undamaged embryos. Scientists believe that this oviraptor died while sitting atop the nest —just before the eggs were about to hatch.
Read more about this historic find.
Amateur Historians Uncover Long-Lost WWI Tunnel In France Where 270 Germans Were Buried Alive
Pierre MalinowskiSoldiers at the notorious Winterberg tunnel, which currently lies under a forest trail popular amongst dog walkers.
In May 1917, more than 270 German soldiers were buried alive in the Winterberg tunnel on the Chemin des Dames battlefront when the French bombarded it, sealing off both sides. Now, that tunnel — and the corpses inside of it — have just been found by an amateur historian and his son.
This disastrous collapse occurred during the Second Battle of the Aisne, when the French attempted to push back the Germans in the Spring of 1917. The German soldiers inside the tunnel belonged to the 111th Reserve Infantry Regiment from Baden.
However, after the war, neither French nor German authorities seemed eager to locate the Winterberg tunnel or the men entombed in it. As such, it remained lost to history until Alain Malinowski and his son set out to find it themselves.
Dig deeper here.
Scientists Are Growing Human-Neanderthal Hybrid ‘Minibrains’ To Understand The Evolution Of Our Brains
Wikimedia CommonsResearchers used the ancient version of a modern human gene to grow an unconscious Neanderthal-like brain in a petri dish.
The human brain has remained quite a mystery to researchers. In an effort to better understand how it evolved into such a large and complex organ, experts have grown model Neanderthal “minibrains” out of genes found in both Neanderthals and modern humans.
Alysson Muotri, director of the Stem Cell Program at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), reported that the groundbreaking experiment is meant to help scientists better understand what makes us human. “Why are our brains so different from other species including our own extinct relatives?” he asked.
Scientists have found that one way of answering this question is to compare modern human brains with those of Neanderthals. But while scientists have found ample fossilized Neanderthal skulls, a sample of a Neanderthal brain has eluded them.
See more here.
