Asher Elbein

2 weeks ago | texasmonthly.com | Asher Elbein

On a warm spring morning a few years ago, I ducked into a rock shelter on Austin’s Barton Creek Greenbelt while taking a walk. Sunlight cut through the live oaks and painted the walls of the limestone canyons. Only as I stood up to leave did I see it: a slender, serpentine lizard sitting on a ledge, its armored back banded in orange and white, its narrow face and glittering eyes set in an expression of faint distaste.

3 weeks ago | infobae.com | Asher Elbein

your-feed-sciencePaleontologyFossilsDinosaursResearchNature (Journal)O'Connor, JingmaiField MuseumA partir de un espécimen inusualmente bien conservado, estudiado en el Museo Field de Chicago, se obtuvieron nuevos datos sobre las capacidades de vuelo de un dinosaurio que aún no era un ave. En 1861, unos científicos descubrieron el Archaeopteryx, un dinosaurio con plumas, en rocas calizas de 150 millones de años de antigüedad en Solnhofen, Alemania.

3 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Asher Elbein

New insights into the flying capabilities of a nonbird dinosaur were drawn from an unusually well-preserved specimen known as the Chicago Archaeopteryx. In 1861, scientists discovered Archaeopteryx, a dinosaur with feathers, in 150-million-year-old limestones in Solnhofen, Germany. They didn't know it at the time, but that fossilized skeleton - and the several that followed - provided a key piece of evidence for the theory of evolution, as well as for the fact that birds were actually dinosaurs.

1 month ago | nytimes.com | Asher Elbein

Superb starlings help care for the offspring of birds they are not related to. "To me, that sounds like friendship," one scientist said. True friends, most people would agree, are there for each other. Sometimes that means offering emotional support. Sometimes it means helping each other move.

2 months ago | texashighways.com | Asher Elbein |Danielle Lopez

In March 2024, Deb Manley—a volunteer walking the rugged backcountry of Big Bend National Park after a recent rain—noticed tiny, strange flowers among the limestone scree. The little plants clung to the dirt like tufts of dryer lint, with minuscule flowers and a pair of long, maroon petals that stuck up like devil’s horns. Fascinated, Manley uploaded pictures onto iNaturalist, a community biodiversity site.