Researchers have identified a newfound sauropod species that was the largest of its kind and one of the last living members of its family.

Paleontologists first discovered fossils from the species, now named Sidersaura marae, in 2012 in the Huincul Formation in Argentina's Neuquén Province. It took researchers multiple excavations over several years to retrieve the giant dinosaur parts, which came from four individuals, according to a study published Jan. 3 in the journal Historical Biology.

An asteroid discovered earlier this month will reach its closest point to Earth on Saturday (Jan. 27), when it will soar through the sky at a distance closer to us than the moon.

You can watch the airplane-size asteroid as it sails just 220,000 miles (354,000 kilometers) from Earth — more than nine tenths of the average distance between our planet and the moon — on a Virtual Telescope Project live feed from 12:15 p.m. EST. The flying space rock will reach its closest point to Earth at 12:30 p.m. EST, according to NASA.

When a lion decides to chase down a zebra it seems as though nothing can stop it. But now researchers have discovered these enormous predators are being thwarted by a tiny foe: ants.

Scientists have found the spread of big-headed ants in east Africa sets off a situation leading to lions making fewer zebra kills.

Prof Todd Palmer of the University of Florida, a co-author of the research, said the findings were a surprise. “I was stunned,” he said. The fewer kills appear to be due to the upending of a crucial relationship – between native ants and the trees in which they live, causing a loss of cover for lions.

What are the origins of wings and tails in birds? This is one of the key questions in the evolution of animals. It has long been accepted that their evolution began in feathered dinosaurs.

Some of these dinosaurs had feathers on the tails and small wing-like feathers on their forelimbs. These small wing-like structures called 'proto-wings' are composed of special feathers known as pennaceous feathers—the stiff feathers found in the wings and tails of birds.

The ancient form of these feathers first emerged in dinosaurs during the Jurassic Period, and these dinosaurs, called Pennaraptorans, had proto-wings made of pennaceous feathers. However, it has been known that these proto-wings were too small for powered flight. Because we cannot time-travel to observe their behavior, what dinosaurs did and how they behaved remains unanswered.

Various functions of proto-wings and tail feathers in the ancestors of birds have been considered since John Harold Ostrom proposed the first idea 50 years ago that proto-wings were used to knock down insect prey by small predatory dinosaurs living on the ground and following their prey. However, how the small 'proto-wings' and feathered tails helped the dinosaurian ancestors of birds in their lives has not been resolved.

Jenna Moar will win a small place in history next week, marked by the sizzling sound and heat of her flare being lit in the darkness of a January night in Lerwick, Shetland. Jenna, 16, wearing her handmade Viking warrior’s uniform, will be among the first female participants, alongside three cousins, at the heart of one of Scotland’s most famous cultural events, Lerwick’s Up Helly Aa fire festival.

After decades of quiet complaints, covert attempts at subversion and then open rebellion from feminist Shetlanders, she and her cousins are full members of the jarl squad, the axe-wielding Viking-dressed celebrants who will lead Up Helly Aa on Tuesday.

In the wee morning hours on Sunday (Jan. 21), a tiny asteroid came hurtling through the sky and smashed into Earth's atmosphere near Berlin, producing a bright but harmless fireball visible for miles around. Such sightings typically occur a few times a year — but this one was unique because it was first detected by scientists roughly three hours before impact — only the eighth time that researchers have spotted one of these space rocks before it hit.

The asteroid, dubbed 2024 BXI, was first discovered by self-proclaimed asteroid hunter Krisztián Sárneczky, an astronomer at the Piszkéstető Mountain Station, part of Konkoly Observatory in Hungary. He identified the cosmic rock using the 60-cm Schmidt telescope at the observatory. Shortly after the space rock's discovery, NASA gave a detailed prediction of where and when the meteor would strike.