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io9MoviesDisney Is Closing Blue Sky Studios, Creators of Ice Age
The Walt Disney Company has decided to dissolve Blue Sky, one of its animation studios, starting in April. As a result, production on that studio’s 2022 releaseNimona has been cancelled. Disney absorbed Blue Sky, the studio behind hit films like Ice Age and Rio, in its 2019 acquisition of Fox. Though Disney already owned two animation studios, … Continued
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EartherEarth ScienceThe Arctic Ocean Was Once Filled With Fresh Water, New Research Suggests
Stunning new evidence suggests the Arctic Ocean was covered by a thick layer of ice and filled with fresh water on at least two occasions during the past 150,000 years. The observation could finally explain strange and dramatic climate anomalies associated with these glacial periods. With all the human-induced melting that’s going on these days, … Continued
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ScienceBiologyIce Age Cave Bear Found Exquisitely Preserved in Siberian Permafrost
Reindeer herders working on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island in arctic Russia have stumbled upon an incredibly well-preserved cave bear, in what scientists say is a discovery of “world importance.” When it comes to studying extinct cave bears, paleontologists have traditionally dealt with scattered bones and the odd skull. That’s why this new discovery is so important, … Continued
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EartherDuring the Last Ice Age, Erratic Temperatures in Greenland Triggered Changes All Over the World
During the Last Glacial Period some 11,500 years ago, Greenland went through massive changes called interstadial events. Then, it quickly oscillated between lower and higher temperatures, which melted and then refroze (and then melted again) massive ice sheets in the region. Geological records appear to show that around the same time that this was happening in … Continued
By Dharna Noor -
ScienceBiologyAncient DNA From Preserved Cave Lions Reveals They Were a Unique Species
A genetic analysis of ice age cave lions shows this species to be distinct from modern lions, ending a long-standing mystery. What’s more, the new evidence suggests these fearsome creatures diverged into two distinct lineages. During the Pleistocene, lions lived across much of the Northern Hemisphere, including in Siberia. The northernmost of these beasts, dubbed … Continued
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ScienceHuman HistoryScientists Discover Ice Age Structure Made From Bones of 60 Mammoths
An unusually large structure from the last ice age built from the bones of dozens of woolly mammoths has been uncovered in Russia. Dating back some 25,000 years, it’s the oldest known structure of its kind—but its purpose isn’t entirely clear. Circular structures made from mammoth bones are surprisingly common in the archaeological record, dating … Continued
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ScienceBiologyBird That Looks Like It Died Yesterday Turns Out to Be 46,000 Years Old
On Jacquelyn Gill’s first day doing field work at the Siberian permafrost caves during the summer of 2018, a local fossil hunter approached her with a dead bird in his hands. The translator hadn’t yet arrived, but from the freshly dead look of the bird, Gill assumed it had just recently flown into the cave … Continued
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ScienceBiologyThese Crows Evolved Into a New Species, Boned the Old Species Too Much, Now Back Where They Started
Hundreds of thousands of years ago, a glacier advanced upon the Pacific Northwest, its ice forming a natural barrier that fractured crows into two populations. These populations began to diverge into two separate species, which ornithologists decided were distinguishable by small differences in body measurements and the sounds they made. At least, that’s what they … Continued
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ScienceBiologyHow the Last Woolly Mammoths Met Their Demise on a Remote Arctic Island
The last mammoths to stomp on Earth lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean. This isolated population lived for thousands of years after most mammoths were gone, but when extinction finally came, it happened quickly. New evidence may finally explain what happened to these stubborn holdouts. Research published in Quaternary Science Reviews is shedding … Continued
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ScienceBiologyTreasure Trove of Ice Age Animal Remains Found in Submerged Mexican Cave
Bones from an extinct short-faced bear and a wolf-life carnivore are among the many fascinating remains pulled from a submerged cave in Mexico. The discoveries provide a glimpse into the kinds of animals that lived in Central America during the last Ice Age. For paleontologists, Central America’s Late Pleistocene period is a bit of a … Continued
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ScienceBiologyExtinct ‘Siberian Unicorns’ Walked the Earth Alongside Modern Humans
Weighing up to 7,700 pounds, Elasmotherium sibiricum—an extinct hairy rhino popularly known as the “Siberian unicorn”—was thought to have disappeared as long as 200,000 years ago. An updated fossil analysis suggests this formidable species was still around some 39,000 years ago, and that Ice Age conditions, not human hunters, contributed to its demise. Paleontologists know … Continued
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Tech News
Discovery of Unknown Ancient Population Changes Our Understanding of How North America Was Settled
She died 11,500 years ago at the tender age of six weeks in what is now the interior of Alaska. Dubbed “Sunrise Girl-child” by the local indigenous people, the remains of the Ice Age infant—uncovered at an archaeological dig in 2013—contained traces of DNA, allowing scientists to perform a full genomic analysis. Incredibly, this baby … Continued
