Earth and Environmental Sciences
Why ‘Phantom’ Archaeopteryx discovery has scientists in a flap
Departments 25th October 2018
Since its discovery 150 years ago, scientists have heralded Archaeopteryx as the ‘missing link’ in the evolution of dinosaurs to modern birds. A transitional fossil, the species was commonly referred to as Urvogel – meaning “first bird”. But as is so often the case, once something reaches such lofty heights, it’s human nature to want […]
The very rocky horror show
Departments 6th September 2018
When an event is known as the ‘Great Dying’, you know it’s fairly serious – as in, the end of almost all life on Earth serious. That was the extent of the damage wrought by the End-Permian Extinction, which wiped out 70 per cent of species on land and up to 96 per cent of […]
Great balls of fire
Departments 24th August 2018
Goodness gracious – two great balls of fire have been spotted in the skies over Manchester. But there’s no need to run for higher ground quite yet – while fireball events aren’t always caught on camera, they are fairly common. In the last month alone, a brand new meteor camera located here on The University […]
The bone of contention in the evolution of vertebrates
Departments 2nd August 2018
It takes backbone to try and tackle one of the age-old mysteries of the evolution of life, but a researcher at The University of Manchester has proven he’s certainly not too spineless to take on the challenge. Just like close to ten per cent of all life on Earth, we humans are vertebrates – meaning […]
Magma crystallisation provides scientists with volcanic crystal ball
Departments 7th June 2018
Volcanos have been around since time on Earth began – and the devastation they can cause has hardly changed in the intervening 4.5 billion years. In the past month alone, untold damage has been wrought by volcanic eruptions – in Hawaii, Indonesia and Guatemala. Of course, it is not possible to prevent volcanoes from erupting […]
Inspiring the future women of STEM
Departments 2nd May 2018
Science and engineering is all about coming up with solutions to the great mysteries and challenges of our age. But one of these challenges is proving hard to overcome, and that’s how to encourage more girls to choose a career in these subjects. When children are very young and first begin learning about the world […]
Baby bird proves big deal to palaeontologists
Departments 14th March 2018
A tiny bird that was smaller than your little finger and lived the briefest of lives has proven itself a giant of fossil history. The chick in the picture below may look like a character from a Disney remake of Walking With Dinosaurs, but this little chap has provided us with a valuable insight into […]
New predator shows its teeth
Departments 28th February 2018
Fuxianhuiid – it may not be simple to say but these ancient arthropods have always seemed like pretty simple animals in all other respects. However, things aren’t always what they seem and the discovery of a new type of fuxianhuiid has provided a valuable insight into how predators evolved. A team of scientists including Dr […]
Jurassic Park meets Arachnophobia
Departments 14th February 2018
It’s the ultimate 90s movie mash-up – Arachnophobia meets Jurassic Park. And it’s happened in real life, right here at the University of Manchester. Imprisoned within a block of amber dating back to the Cretaceous period, a spider has been discovered that could provide an unparalleled insight into the evolution of everyone’s favourite creepy-crawly. And […]
Who’s the daddy? Mystery of the mummy brothers unravelled
Departments 24th January 2018
Who can resist an episode of The Jeremy Kyle Show when it’s a DNA results special? Well, here at The University of Manchester, we’ve just wrapped up our own DNA mystery – and the result was just as shocking. As is a popular theme on the ITV chat show, the question we wanted to answer […]