Science

A small fanged kangaroo that once roamed rainforests that covered northern Australia lived longer than previously thought. The long toothed creature the size of a wallaby lived at least five million years longer than previously thought. Despite its fearsome canines the fangaroo was a plant eater, did not hop like modern roos and its teeth were just for show to attract mates. They were thought to have gone extinct about 15 million years ago because of climate change. But new...

A tiny planet that orbits the Sun beyond Neptune has a Saturn-style ring, it has been revealed. Astronomers say the discovery suggests the stunning bands made up of dust, rocks and ice are not as rare in our solar system as previously thought. They used observations from 12 ground-based telescopes across Europe to measure Haumea's size, shape and density with unprecedented accuracy. The mysterious icy world was only discovered in 2004. It's the first time a ring has been spotted...

A tubby, tusked mammal that survived the biggest extinction in Earth's history may hold the key to saving the planet, according to new research. Lystrosaurus lived through the 'Great Dying' at the end of the Permian about 252 million years ago which wiped out 70 per cent of land living vertebrates. This drastic loss of biodiversity led to global 'disaster faunas' dominated by a small number of species, say scientists. One of those still standing was Lystrosaurus, an early relative...

Volcanoes on Mars grew a thousand times slower than those on Earth, according to new research. Scottish scientists have reconstructed the evolution of a volcano on Mars for the first time using space rocks that fell to Earth. Analysis of the meteorites from the Red Planet uncovered more than 90 million years of information about the supersized mountains - and identified from which volcano they came from. Martian volcanoes - including Olympus Mons which is over 13 miles high and...

A sea crocodile dubbed the 'Melksham Monster' was terrorising the shallow waters off Britain 163 million years ago, according to scientists. The apex predator, with powerful jaws and huge, razor-sharp teeth roamed the prehistoric ocean around Britain in the Jurassic era. The beast - dug up in Wiltshire - was 10 feet long from snout to tail and inhabited the warm, shallow waters that covered the country at that time. It was one of the most terrifying marine reptiles that...

Life on Earth really did begin around 4 billion years ago - increasing the chances it could be abundant throughout the universe, according to new research. Evidence of living organisms has been found in Canadian rocks dating back 3.95 billion years. They represent some of the earliest known life following a similar discovery in Australia two years ago in even older sediment going back 4.1 billion years. The latest finding published in Nature adds to evidence life began a remarkably...

SpaceX, PayPal and Tesla Motors. Is there anybody’s name that comes to your mind? Well, the name of this intelligent and successful person should have popped up straight away! Yes, Elon Musk! With already great success with Tesla, here are many more ideas from this genius which could work out in the future.   Space tourism Ever wanted to see the moon close up? Space X will be undergoing an unmanned test this year and 2 lucky tourists could be...

Fish have "complex" personalities, according to new research. Scientists studied how tiny guppies behaved in various situations, and found complex differences between individual fish. The researchers tested whether differences could be measured on a "simple spectrum" of how risk-averse or risk-prone guppies were. But they found variations between individuals were too complicated to be described in this way. Dr Tom Houslay, of the Centre for Ecology and Conservation (CEC) on the University of Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall, said: "The...

The site where Europe's first lunar mission crash-landed on the Moon 11 years ago has finally been located using CSI-style techniques. A detailed "Crash Scene Investigation" have revealed the last resting place of the European Space Agency’s first lunar mission, SMART-1. The spacecraft was sent into a controlled impact with the lunar surface in 2006. Although an "impact flash" was imaged at the time by the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope on the dark side of the boundary between night and day on...