University of Portsmouth

Pterosaurs included the largest flying animals ever, and a new study has uncovered biological secrets that helped them grow so large. CT scans revealed that the neck vertebrae of giant pterosaurs had a supporting structure unlike any other animal.

Ichthyosaurs were intriguing prehistoric aquatic creatures, in that they looked kind of like dolphins but were actually reptiles. Scientists have now classified a previously-unknown species, that distinguished itself by diving deep.

If the movie Jurassic World is to be believed, pterosaurs could easily catch human-sized prey. A newly discovered species of the prehistoric reptile wouldn't have posed much of a threat to us, however, as it likely fed more like a modern sandpiper.

Debate is raging about whether ancient flying reptiles called pterosaurs had feathers or not. Years ago a study found fossil evidence of protofeathers, but now another team claims the evidence doesn’t stack up, and the creatures were instead bald.

Back in 2018, scientists made the key discovery of a bacterium with a natural appetite for PET plastics. Scientists have now used this bacterium as the basis for a newly engineered “super-enzyme” that can digest plastic waste at six times faster.

Earlier this year, paleontologists discovered that Spinosaurus was the first water-dwelling dinosaur. Now some of the same team has found further evidence, with a deposit of teeth recovered from an ancient riverbed, far outnumbering land dinosaurs.

For the daring tippler, scientists from the University of Portsmouth have distilled an artisan "radioactive-free" vodka, branded Atomik, made from ingredients from the Exclusion Zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor site.

Evolution helps life adapt to new environments – and now scientists have uncovered a rare occasion where it got a second chance. About 136,000 years ago, a flightless bird on an island in the Indian Ocean was wiped out, only to re-evolve itself back into existence tens of thousands of years later.

With a little luck, researchers have happened upon an engineered enzyme with an appetite for some of the most commonly disposed of types of plastic, meaning this waste could conceivably be broken down relatively quickly rather than contaminating the environment for hundreds of years.

Palaeontologists have uncovered the remains of some of humanity’s oldest ancestors in the UK. The team found two teeth belonging to rat-like animals that date back 145 million years, meaning they’re among the earliest creatures on our branch of the tree of life to have been discovered.

Kleptopredation describes what happens when one animal makes a point of eating another that has just fed, essentially eating both that animal AND its recently-consumed meal. The behaviour has been observed in nature for the first time, in sea slugs off the coast of Sicily.

Reef-forming coralline algae is currently at risk due to climate change, and scientists are doing something about it. They're creating synthetic reefs in the Mediterranean Sea, made from artificial coralline algae.​