Search

The article reports on the Haliphron atlanticus giant deep-sea octopus that was added by scientists in the jelly connoisseurs list. Topics mentioned include the study of the food webs in 2013, the investigation in the Hamburg Zoological Museum in Germany, and the findings that the octopus eat jellyfish.

Now, fragile bones in 30-million-year-old rocks from southern Germany show that hummingbirds were much farther-flung than anyone expected. The discovery of ornithologist Gerald Mayr of the Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg in Frankfurt, Germany, raises questions about where early hummingbirds evolved and why the European ones became extinct. Hummingbird history has long been shrouded in mystery, chiefly because the delicate-boned creatures have left so few fossils. Hints of Old World origins appeared when a possible primitive insect-eating hummingbird, Parargornis messelensis, turned up in 49-million-year-old rocks in Messel, Germany.

Discusses an article published in the July 17, 1998 issue of `Science,' magazine. Scientists of the University of Munich who demonstrate a way to unlock DNA trapped inside ancient feces; The dung they studied, which was left by an extinct ground sloth 20,000 years ago; Hopes that the method will provide clues about the ecology and relationships of extinct animals; How the Paabo lab is one of a few to have successfully extracted DNA from ancient bones.