Science

An extinct rainforest tree has been identified from its beautiful flowers - dislodged by a rampaging dinosaur 100 million years ago. A Triceratops or Tyrannosaurus rex could have been crashing its way through a pine forest when it knocked off the blooms, which then became trapped in chunks of amber. It's the first time seven complete flowers this old have been found together. They are tiny - ranging from 3.4 to 5 millimetres in diameter - but so well-preserved they...

Snakes lose their stripes the nearer they live to man - because of pollution, suggests a new study. Researchers monitoring turtle-headed seasnakes living on coral reefs in the Pacific noticed something unusual about the snakes' colour patterns. Seasnakes living in more pristine parts of the reef were decorated with black-and-white bands or blotches. But those in places with more human activity - near the city or military activity - were black. This is a photograph of a turtle-headed seasnake.  The...

Human bones may have been engraved by cannibals as part of a ritual in SOMERSET around 15,000 years ago, suggests new research. Bones found at Gough's Cave in Cheddar Gorge feature unusual zig-zagging cuts which researchers say indicates intentional engraving. The bones date from the Magdalenian period around 12,000 to 17,000 years ago. Previous analysis of the human bones from Gough's Cave found evidence of human cannibalism. But paleontologists debate about whether some of the marks found on the bones...

An ozone layer just like that surrounding Earth has been detected surrounding a planet outside the solar system for the first time. The 'sunscreen' on the distant gas giant known as WASP-121b was identified by british scientists in groundbreaking research. It has a stratosphere - one of the main layers of our own planet's atmosphere - but is totally ununhabitable with temperatures hot enough to boil iron. But the discovery reported in Nature could help identify other worlds where life...

The early Greeks - creators of Europe's first advanced civilisations - descended from migrants from modern day Turkey, reveals new research. An analysis of ancient DNA has revealed that Ancient Minoans and Mycenaens were genetically similar - with both peoples descending from early Neolithic farmers. Researchers say they likely migrated from Anatolia to Greece and Crete thousands of years before the Bronze Age. Modern Greeks, in turn, are largely descendants of the Mycenaeans, the study found. The researchers analysed tooth...

These extraordinary pictures capture the stunning Milky Way lighting up the night sky above the British countryside. Stargazing photographer Andrew Fusek-Peters, 51, was able to snap the stunning sight from the top of Titterstone Clee Hill, in Ludlow, Shrops. In the foreground of the images is a radar dome, which forms part of the National Air Traffic Services radar network, which monitors all aircraft within a 100-mile radius. Andrew, who has been a freelance photographer for four years, arrived on...

The icy worlds of Europa and Enceladus could never be habitable - because they suffer from either extreme hot or cold. NASA has said the mysterious moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively could one day be home to humans. But scientist said the moons swing from a "icehouse" to "hothouse" without a "goldilocks" period when conditions are just right for life to thrive. The finding could have implications for the search for extra-terrestrial life as they are believed to be...

An inventor has told how a Tory government pulled the plug on his revolutionary electric car - 40 years ago. The government last week announced it wanted Britain to become free of all petrol and diesel-powered cars by 2040. But Noel Hodson, 74, said we would have been a lot further down the road if Margaret Thatcher's officials had accepted his pioneering design back in 1980. Noel and his small team developed a hybrid petrol-electric car on a Mini chassis...

A sea monster that hunted "like the great white shark" more than 250 million years ago has been dug up... in the Nevada! The six foot long beast had huge jaws and three parallel rows of razor sharp teeth - with several smaller ones inside its enormous mouth. Palaeontologist Dr Carlo Romano said the creature hunted similarly to the modern great white shark. It would have pursued its prey, then bitten it - before swallowing the hapless fish whole. Scientists...