The near-complete skeleton, nicknamed "Vulcan," consists of exactly 300 bones, of which roughly 80% are authentic, and stretches to around 70 feet (21 meters) from end to end. It belonged to an Apatosaurus — a genus of plant-eating giants very similar to the iconic Brontosaurus — and roamed what is now North America in the late Jurassic period (201 million to 145 million years ago). Private collectors unearthed the fossils at an unnamed site in Wyoming between 2018 and 2021, according to French news agency AFP.

The stunning remains, which weigh more than 22 tons (20 metric tons), were put up for auction on Saturday (Nov. 16) at Dampierre-en-Yvelines — a chateau located around 30 miles (50 kilometers) southwest of Paris. The auction was won by an anonymous bidder who paid 6 million euros ($6.4 million) to land the skeleton.

Vulcan is now "the biggest dinosaur ever sold at auction worldwide," representatives from auction house Barbarossa, which co-ran the auction alongside Collin du Bocage, wrote online. It is unclear which fossil previously held this record.

The unnamed winner of the auction has promised that Vulcan will be put on public display "at an institution" and has agreed to give researchers access to study the bones, AFP reported.

Related: $25 million auction of T. rex skeleton called off at the last minute over replica bone controversy

Vulcan likely places 6th on the list of most expensive dinosaur fossils ever sold (although an exact list is hard to come by, especially when accounting for inflation). It is slightly less expensive than "Big John," the world's largest Triceratops, sold for $7.7 million in 2021, but slightly more pricey than an unnamed Gorgosaurus fossil and a Tyrannosaurus rex skull named Maximus, each sold for around $6.1 million.

The most expensive dinosaur fossil ever sold was "Apex," a near-complete Stegosaurus that was bought at auction for $44.6 million by billionaire Ken Griffin, according to Forbes — more than 11 times the original guide price.

Before then, the world's most expensive dinosaur was "Stan" — the 67-million-year-old T. rex that sold for $31.8 million in 2020. Stan became something of a celebrity after this sale when it disappeared for around two years before finally emerging in Abu Dhabi, despite rumors that it had been bought by actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

The current third-most-expensive dinosaur ever sold is "Hector" the Deinonychus — the species that inspired the appearance of the Velociraptors in the "Jurassic Park" movies — which was bought for $12.4 million in 2022.

The human population of Greater Los Angeles is increasingly using mountain lion (Puma concolor) territory for recreational activities such as hiking, running and cycling. That puts the mountain lions in a tough spot — so they're changing their behavior.

Mountain lions, also known as pumas or cougars, are naturally most active during dusk and dawn, but in places where humans engage in recreational activities, the cats now favor nighttime hours, according to the study, published Nov. 15 in the journal Biological Conservation.

"This flexibility we see in mountain lion activity is what allows us to share these natural areas together," study lead author Ellie Bolas, a doctoral candidate studying mountain lions and mule deer at the University of California, Davis, said in a statement. "Mountain lions are doing the work so that coexistence can happen."

Related: 1st of its kind footage shows guard dogs saving sheep from puma attack on a pitch black mountain

Bolas and her colleagues fitted GPS collars to 22 mountain lions living in and around the Santa Monica Mountains between 2011 and 2018. They then compared mountain lions' activity with human recreational activity registered on the online platform Strava, which enables users to track their physical exercise.

The researchers found that mountain lions living in areas with increased recreational activity shifted the timing of their activities from dawn to night — when human activity was at its lowest, according to the study. This suggests they adapted to avoid people.

These findings are consistent with previous studies that suggest mammals across the world are becoming more nocturnal in response to human activities, and that predators like mountain lions will go out of their way to avoid humans.

A 2019 study published in the journal Ecology Letters found that the sound of humans talking was enough to scare away mountain lions and reduce their activity — to the point that our voices had a similar effect to removing the predators from the ecosystem altogether. Humans have historically persecuted mountain lions, so this fear of our species is well-earned.

Today, mountain lions living around Los Angeles face many threats, including busy roads, wildfires, rodenticide exposure, low genetic diversity and fragmented habitat, according to the statement. The study authors noted that our recreational activities are another potential stressor for the cats.

"Even something as innocuous as recreation can add to these other stressors we're bringing into their lives, potentially by altering the amount of energy they have to expend for hunting and other needs," Bolas said. "But we can feel a sense of optimism that they are flexible in the timing of their activity. Coexistence is happening, and it's in large part because of what mountain lions are doing."

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are social animals that typically live in pods. But, in September 2019, a solitary dolphin, known as Delle by the locals, started hanging around the Svendborgsund channel, south of Funen Island, Denmark. This area is outside bottlenose dolphins' usual range, and no other dolphins were seen nearby.

Researchers had put down underwater recording devices to see how the presence of the solitary dolphin affected harbor porpoises. They were shocked when they heard Delle making so many noises. "Out of curiosity, I decided to add a recorder that captures actual sounds," lead author Olga Filatova, a cetacean biologist at the University of Southern Denmark, told Live Science via email. "I thought we might pick up a few distant whistles or something along those lines. I certainly didn't anticipate recording thousands of different sounds."

Over 69 days between Dec. 8, 2022 and Feb. 14 2023, the researchers detected 10,833 sounds, including several usually related to communication. These included 2,291 whistles, 2,288 burst-pulses — a rapid series of clicks sometimes associated with aggression — 5,487 low-frequency tonal sounds and 767 percussive sounds. The findings were published in a new study on Oct. 31 in the journal Bioacoustics.

Among these noises, the dolphin produced three distinctive whistles. "Bottlenose dolphins have what are known as signature whistles, believed to be unique to each individual, much like a name," Filatova said. "If we hadn't known that Delle was alone, we might have concluded that a group of at least three dolphins was engaged in various social interactions."

Related: Dolphins are 'literally acting like jerks' by beating up baby manatees

Filatova wasn't expecting to hear any vocalizations, certainly not noises associated with communication. "These sounds are traditionally considered communicative, meaning there should be at least two dolphins 'talking' to each other. But Delle was completely alone," she said.

At first, the scientists wondered if the dolphin might be trying to communicate with a local paddleboarder, but they also recorded the sounds at night time. "There were definitely no humans in the water," Filatova said.

For other experts, the results aren't entirely shocking. "Dolphins are very vocal animals, so I'm not overly surprised that this individual was still making sounds despite being alone," Thea Taylor, managing director at the Sussex Dolphin Project, who wasn't involved in the study, told Live Science via email.

"Dolphins rely on sound for key activities such as hunting and to sense their surrounding environment," she said, adding that they also use sound to communicate over large distances.

Why the solitary dolphin was so vocal remains a mystery. He could have been talking to himself or they might have been involuntary sounds triggered by a certain emotion, "much like how we sometimes laugh when we read something funny, even if no one else is around to hear," Filatova said.

Another theory is that he was calling out in the hope of attracting the attention of other dolphins nearby. "Though this seems unlikely," she said. "He had already spent three years in the area and would likely know by now that no other dolphins are present."

For Taylor, the idea that the dolphin's vocalizations may be involuntary emotional signals was the most intriguing element of the study. "This opens up so many questions about whether we can utilize dolphin communications to understand more about their behavior and emotions in the wild," she said.

Researchers don't usually record the sounds made by solitary dolphins. "They're seen as outcasts, as oddities, and no one truly expects them to produce any sounds worth documenting," Filatova said.

However, there is still much more to learn. "We still have some way to go before we fully understand why dolphins make the various sounds in their repertoire," Taylor said.

Where it lives: Rivers in South and Southeast Asia

What it eats: Fish, crustaceans, mollusks, frogs, insects, birds, small mammals

Why it's awesome: Cantor's giant softshell turtles — named in honor of Danish zoologist Theodore Edward Cantor — spend 95% of their lives completely motionless, buried under mud or sand in shallow rivers with only their eyes and snorkel-like snouts protruding out. But when these unusual-looking reptiles spot something to eat, they can move at lightning-quick speeds.

When they spot fish, frogs or crustaceans, they rapidly extend their necks to strike their prey. They have long claws and powerful jaws that are strong enough to crush bone.

Unlike their hard-shelled cousins, these turtles have leathery, flat, green or brown shells. These large, freshwater turtles are also known as "frog-faced softshells" because of their amphibian-like facial features. They can grow up to 40 inches (100 centimeters) long — although some sources suggest they can grow even larger — and weigh more than 100 kilograms.

Like other soft-shell turtle species, they are thought to have the ability to extract oxygen from the water through their skin, which helps them stay underwater for long periods of time. However, they can only get so much oxygen this way, so they come up to the surface to breathe air twice a day.

These endangered turtles are extremely rare: Between 1985 and 1995, only a single specimen was found. They are native to rivers in India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, the Philippines and Indonesia.

In 2024, the first nesting site of a Cantor was discovered by biologists on the banks of the Chandragiri River in Kerala,India. The researchers used knowledge from local communities to locate the turtle.

A new analysis of the kitten's stunningly-preserved head and upper body shows it was just 3 weeks old when it died in what is now Russia's northeastern Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia. Scientists found pelvic bones, a femur and shin bones encased in a block of ice together with the mummy. The circumstances of the animal's death are unknown.

It is extremely rare to find well-preserved remains of saber-toothed cats, and this one belongs to the species Homotherium latidens, according to a study published Thursday (Nov. 14) in the journal Scientific Reports. Saber-toothed cats of the extinct genus Homotherium lived across the globe during the Pliocene (5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago) and early Pleistocene (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago) epochs, but evidence suggests this group became less widespread toward the end of the Pleistocene (also known as the last ice age).

"For a long time, the latest presence of Homotherium in Eurasia was recorded in the Middle Pleistocene [770,000 to 126,000 years ago]," researchers wrote in the study. "The discovery of H. latidens mummy in Yakutia radically expands the understanding of distribution of the genus and confirms its presence in the Late Pleistocene [126,000 to 11,700 years ago] of Asia."

Related: 32,000-year-old mummified woolly rhino half-eaten by predators unearthed in Siberia

The small, deep-frozen mummy shows H. latidens was well-adapted to ice age conditions, according to the study. The researchers compared the carcass to that of a modern 3-week-old lion (Panthera leo) cub and found the saber-toothed kitten had wider paws and no carpal pads — pads on the wrist joint that act as shock absorbers in today's felines. These adaptations enabled saber-toothed cats to walk with ease in snow, while thick, soft fur observed on the mummy shielded the predators against polar temperatures.

The comparison with the lion revealed that saber-toothed cats had a larger mouth, smaller ears, longer forelimbs, darker hair and a much thicker neck. Researchers already knew from studying the skeletons of adult Holotherium that these saber-toothed cats had short bodies and elongated limbs, but the new research shows these features were already present at the age of 3 weeks.

Radiocarbon dating of the mummy's fur suggested the kitten has been buried in permafrost for at least 35,000 years, and possibly 37,000 years. The carcass was pulled from the banks of Yakutia's Badyarikha River in 2020, and its discovery has enabled researchers to describe, for the first time, physical characteristics of H. latidens, including the texture of these cats' fur, the shape of their muzzle and the distribution of their muscle mass.

Remarkably, the mummy still had sharp claws and whiskers (or vibrissae) attached to it. However, "the mummy eyelashes were not preserved," the researchers noted in the study.

The new analysis identified the species the mummy belongs to and its most striking features, but its authors are already working on a new paper. "The anatomical features of the find will be discussed in more detail in a subsequent paper," they wrote.

The coral, identified as Pavona clavus, is a single, standalone structure, unlike the sprawling networks that typically form coral reefs. Scientists estimate it's around 300 years old, making it not just a biological marvel that spans the size of two basketball courts, but also a record of centuries of oceanic conditions.

"It is a natural monument that has seen the arrival of the first Europeans to these waters," San Félix, an underwater cinematographer for National Geographic Pristine Seas who was first to spot the giant coral, said in a statement.

Despite its size, the coral went under the radar until now, with even the local community reportedly not knowing of its existence.

Related: World's largest deep-sea coral reef found lurking beneath the Gulf Stream 'right on the doorstep' of US coast

The coral was discovered by a group of scientists from the Pristine Seas program, which carries out exploration and research projects to help protect the world's oceans. The team was studying the ocean health of the area on board the Argo research vessel when they spotted the behemoth structure.

They originally thought it might have been a shipwreck, but closer inspections revealed the vibrant marine ecosystem sheltered amongst the coral’s yellows, blues and reds. Shrimp, crabs, and reef fish rely on the coral complex for both shelter and breeding groups.

The coral is around three times bigger than the previous record holder, according to the statement. It's made up of a network of polyps, which are tiny soft-bodied creatures related to anemones and jellyfish that act as the building blocks of corals. The polyps that form the giant coral came from larvae that settled on the seafloor then multiplied over the centuries.

"Just when we think there is nothing left to discover on planet Earth, we find a massive coral made of nearly one billion little polyps, pulsing with life and color,” Enric Sala, National Geographic Explorer in Residence and founder of Pristine Seas, said in the statement. "This is a significant scientific discovery, like finding the world's tallest tree. But there is cause for alarm."

The Solomon Islands, known for hosting the second-highest coral diversity in the world, stands at the forefront of ocean conservation. The area's reefs are vital ecosystems that support marine biodiversity and act as buffers against coastal storms.

Climate-driven changes threaten the stability and health of many marine habitats, including coral reefs. As average temperatures and greenhouse emissions rise, more carbon dioxide is dissolved into the ocean, causing them to become more acidic.

Ocean acidification has led to significant coral death, reducing their ability to grow their calcium skeletons and bleaching them to a ghostly white color.

The Soloman coral's size and health offer hope, but its researchers highlight the need for further action. "For the people of the Solomon Islands, this mega coral discovery is monumental. It reinforces the importance of our ocean, which sustains our communities, traditions, and future," Ronnie Posala, Fisheries officer, Solomon Islands Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, said in the statement. "Such discoveries remind us of our duty to safeguard these natural wonders, not only for their ecological value but for the livelihoods and cultural identity they provide."

These hardy animals can easily endure levels of radiation that would be lethal to most other forms of life, extreme temperatures and even survive in the vacuum of space. Some scientists think that uncovering the genes responsible for their remarkable resilience, particularly to ultrahigh radiation, could unlock a range of potential applications from cancer research to space exploration.

And we may be closer than ever to unlocking them. Chinese scientists have now identified a new species of tardigrades hosting thousands of genes that become more active when exposed to radiation. The findings point to a complex defense system that shields tardigrade DNA from radiation-induced damage and can pave the way for devising better protection for astronauts from the stresses of long-duration missions, researchers say.

The new species, named Hypsibius henanensis after China's Henan province where it was collected about six years ago, was pummeled with doses of radiation many times higher than what would be lethal for humans. The bombardment affected 2,801 tardigrade genes associated with DNA repair, cell division, hormone metabolism and immune responses, according to a paper published Oct. 25 in the journal Science.

Related: 1st tardigrade fossils ever discovered hint at how they survived Earth's biggest mass extinction

One of the genes that became most active, called DODA1, appears to resist radiation damage by enabling tardigrades to produce antioxidant pigments known as betalains, which can erase some of the harmful reactive chemicals inside cells that are caused by radiation. When the researchers treated human cells with a tardigrade's betalains, they found the cells fared much better at surviving radiation than untreated cells, study co-author Lingqiang Zhang, who is a molecular and cellular biologist at the Beijing Institute of Lifeomics, told Nature News.

Tardigrades, commonly known as water bears or moss piglets, have been the subject of extensive research due to their extraordinary resilience. In 2007, they became the first animals to survive exposure to outer space after a Russian crewless capsule ferried 3,000 living tardigrades on a European mission to low Earth orbit, and exposed them to the hard vacuum of space for 10 days. 68 percent of them survived and gave birth to normal offspring. The same occurred with tardigrades that were blasted to space in 2011 on the final flight of NASA's space shuttle Endeavour.

A few thousand tardigrades were spilled onto the moon's surface after riding there aboard Israel's Beresheet spacecraft, which crashed during landing. While the fact that the specimens lay dormant on lunar soil raised ethical questions, microbiologists have deemed their chances of colonizing the moon zero, given the lack of oxygen and liquid water.

Tardigrades' most recent trip to space was in 2021 to the International Space Station, where a long-term study of their genes and other survival techniques is underway.

"We want to see what 'tricks' they use to survive when they arrive in space, and, over time, what tricks their offspring use," Thomas Boothby, an associate professor of molecular biology at the University of Wyoming, said in a previous NASA statement. "Are they the same or do they change across generations? We just don't know what to expect."

Scientists know from previous research that tardigrades persist through unfavorable conditions by rapidly suspending their metabolism, for which they lose majority of their body water and shrink to half their normal sizes, a state known as cryptobiosis. After returning from space, they regained their former vigor within just 30 minutes of becoming hydrated.

The tiny creatures are also likely capable of producing heaps of antioxidants — such as the newfound reservoir of betalains — to combat harmful, radiation-induced changes in their bodies, scientists say.

"We have seen them do this in response to radiation on Earth," said Boothby. "We think the ways tardigrades have evolved to withstand extreme environments on this planet may also be what protects them against the stresses of spaceflight."

Originally posted on Space.com.

Research suggests a small, isolated population of mammoths survived until 4,000 years ago before going extinct due a random, sudden event — although scientists still don't know what that event could be.

There are many things we may never know about mammoths, but scientists are working to obtain a clearer picture of how and where the animals lived — and some researchers are even trying to bring them back to life. In the meantime, how much do you know about mammoths? Find out by taking this quiz, and if you need a hint, tap the lightbulb in the top left corner.

The research, published Nov. 13 in the journal Biology Letters, suggests that while working dogs may have more complex abilities compared with other breeds, they're organized into a more compact space in the brain. This differs from what's seen in evolutionary history in wild mammals, where as brains get bigger relative to body size, cognitive skills tend to become more complex.

"In other groups [of species] relative brain size is indicative of higher cognitive abilities — here we see the opposite," said Ana Balcarcel, lead author of the new study and an evolutionary biologist at the Montpellier Institute of Evolutionary Sciences in France.

The study compared the ratios of dogs' brain size to body size by measuring 1,682 skulls of adult dogs covering 172 breeds housed at the Natural History Museum Bern in Switzerland. The researchers calculated the dogs' "relative endocranial volume" — their brain size relative to their body size. Scores for 14 behavioral traits were also taken from the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire, a standardized behavioral evaluation of dog breeds that measures trainability, attention-seeking behaviors, aggression and other traits.

"Working" breeds, like Siberian huskies bred to perform complex skills to assist humans, had the smallest brains relative to their body size. "Companion" breeds, like Chihuahuas bred primarily to be pets, had the largest relative brain size.

Related: Why do dogs look like their owners?

Relative brain size was smaller in dogs that were more trainable — typically, working breeds like Siberian huskies, Great Pyrenees and rottweilers. Working breeds perform human-assistance roles such as search-and-rescue, guiding and policing, and previous research has shown that they have better executive function — meaning greater behavioral control and short-term memory — than other dog breeds. Bigger dogs have a different composition of internal brain tissues than smaller dogs, said Balcarcel.

Previous research has suggested that bigger brains tend to correlate with higher survival odds, better decision-making and higher information processing capacity, so the findings of the new study were surprising, Balcarcel said.

"The key difference here is that dogs are not in a natural environment,” Balcarcel said. "They are a function of artificial selection… a very directed selection, evolution under human hands."

The study also found that dog breeds with larger relative brain size — mostly toy breeds, like Chihuahuas, Pomeranians and Yorkshire terriers Pomeranians — tended to show higher levels of fear and aggression, separation anxiety and more attention-seeking behaviors.

These toy dogs are bred mainly as human companions, making affection and attention-seeking favorable traits for breeding and passing on through artificial selection. Fear and aggression may not have been as disadvantageous to these breeds as they would have been for working dogs, which have been bred to be more trainable, Balcarcel speculated.

"We can say that we have really altered the brains — not just the body sizes and the proportions of different dogs, but it looks like we have also changed their brains in a significant way," Balcarcel said.

Next, the team plans to compare different breeds' brain form and function. Variation in the shape of the neocortex — a part of the brain responsible for higher-level functions — across dog breeds could shed light on the senses and functions that are important for different types of dogs, Balcarcel said.

Studying brain form in dogs could also answer questions about evolution and domestication. The brains of domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) are about 20% smaller than those of wild gray wolves (Canis lupus) relative to body size, yet compared with wild gray wolves, domesticated dogs are more specialized for complex social skills cooperating with humans: following humans’ gaze and interpreting human pointing gestures, for example.

Balcarcel reminded dog owners that, no matter your dog's brain-to-body size ratio, the findings don't necessarily translate directly to your dog's intelligence. "Dogs have been bred for different cognitive abilities," Balcarcel said, "so even if your dog is on the small-brained end of things, they are special and specialized in their own way."