science news 16.8.2019

Today's selection of science news. Links are normally to press releases on EurekAlert (at the bottom end I may also add a couple of newspaper stories). I include quotes from the summary (using quotation marks) in cases where the title alone doesn't reveal what the story is about. My own thoughts appear without quotation marks, if I have any.


evolution

Early species developed much faster than previously thought, OHIO research shows
We're talking Ordovician biodiversity explosion here (not origin of life). Only 500 million years ago.

The composition of fossil insect eyes surprises researchers
"Eumelanin -- a natural pigment found for instance in human eyes - has, for the first time, been identified in the fossilized compound eyes of 54-million-year-old crane-flies. It was previously assumed that melanic screening pigments did not exist in arthropods."

Extinct Caribbean bird yields DNA after 2,500 years in watery grave


Dinosaur brains from baby to adult



Head posture if the lateral (horizontal) semi-circular canal is parallel to the ground, in hatching (A), juvenile (B) and adult (C) Psittacosaurus lutjiatunensis.
Credit: Images courtesy of Claire Bullar and IVPP. Images not to scale.


sustainable materials

Green chemists find a way to turn cashew nut shells into sunscreen


humans

Care less with helmet
"A bike helmet suggests safety -- even if the wearer is not sitting on a bike and the helmet cannot fulfil its function."