All Stories by Carolyn Gramling
- Fossils
This dinosaur was no bigger than a hummingbird
The skull of one of these ancient birds — the tiniest yet known — was discovered encased in a chunk of amber originally found in Myanmar.
- Earth
Study appears to rule out volcanic burps as causing dino die-offs
New data on when massive volcanic eruptions happened do not match when the dinosaur mass extinction took place.
- Animals
Blood vessels in their heads kept big dinos from overheating
Giant dinosaurs evolved several ways to cool their blood and avoid heatstroke.
- Earth
Powerful storms may be causing ‘stormquakes’ offshore
A perfect-storm mixture of hurricane, ocean and seafloor structures can create distinct seismic signals that have now been named ‘stormquakes.’
- Oceans
Cool Job: This ecologist is studying an ocean of changes
A young marine ecologist is studying how warming is changing the oceans and what people can do to minimize the harm.
- Climate
Record heat is burning the Arctic and melting Greenland’s ice
High temperatures are melting Greenland’s ice. They’re also fueling Arctic wildfires that are pumping record amounts of carbon dioxide into the air.
- Climate
Today’s global warming is unlike the last 2,000 years of climate shifts
Temperatures at the end of the 20th century were hotter almost everywhere on the planet than in the previous two millennia. And it’s only gotten hotter.
- Climate
Slow hurricanes, like Dorian, become dangerous and hard to predict
The warming seas associated with climate change may be fueling powerful but sluggish hurricanes, the type that 2019’s Dorian exemplifies. A climate scientist explains why.
- Fossils
A flexible bone that aids mammals in chewing arose during the Jurassic
A flexible bony structure that helps with chewing may have helped give rise to the Age of Mammals, a new fossil suggests.
- Climate
Climate change made 2019 European heat wave worse
An intense heat spell gripped much of Europe in June. A network of climate scientists now reports finding that global warming made the event much more likely.
- Earth
Three things scientists want to know after California’s July earthquakes
Major back-to-back earthquakes struck northern California on July 4 and 5 — but not where geoscientists were expecting them. That’s raised some questions about how things might be changing.
- Earth
Record seaweed belt spanned from Africa to Gulf of Mexico
Blooms of Sargassum seaweed used to form at the mouth of the Amazon River each year. In 2011, they mushroomed in size to where they now span from South America across to Africa.
