News
- Dead fish breathes new life into the evolutionary origin of fins and limbs 28 September 2022 A trove of fossils in China, unearthed in rock dating back some 436 million years, have revealed for the first time that the mysterious galeaspids, a jawless freshwater fish, possessed paired fins.
- Armoured worm reveals the ancestry of three major animal groups 27 September 2022 An international team of scientists, including from the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, and the Natural History Museum, have discovered that a well-preserved fossilised worm dating from 518-million-years-ago resembles the ancestor of three major groups of living animals.
- Earliest land animals had fewer skull bones than fish – restricting their evolution, scientists find 12 September 2022 The skulls of tetrapods had fewer bones than extinct and living fish, limiting their evolution for millions of years, according to a latest study.
- Bristol signs new twinning partnership with the National Aerospace University in Ukraine 8 September 2022 The University of Bristol has signed a new partnership with the National Aerospace University (Kharkiv Aviation Institute) in Ukraine as part of a UK government-backed ‘twinning’ scheme to support higher education institutions affected by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
- Scientists relieved to discover ‘curious’ creature with no anus is not earliest human ancestor 17 August 2022 An international team of researchers have discovered that a mysterious microscopic creature from which humans were thought to descend is part of a different family tree.
- A gold inflatable Martian House designed to withstand life on Mars has landed in Bristol 16 August 2022 A two storey house designed for future life on Mars has landed on M Shed Square in Bristol, UK as part of ongoing public art project, Building a Martian House.
- Volcanic super eruptions are millions of years in the making – followed by swift surge 3 August 2022 Researchers at the University of Bristol and Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre have discovered that super-eruptions occur when huge accumulations of magma deep in the Earth’s crust, formed over millions of years, move rapidly to the surface disrupting pre-existing rock.
- Environmental stability on Earth allowed marine biodiversity to flourish 13 July 2022 Modern ocean biodiversity, which is at its highest level ever, was achieved through long-term stability of the location of so-called biodiversity hotspots, regions of especially high numbers of species, scientists have found.
- Plankton will store more carbon as Earth’s climate warms – but storage beyond end of century uncertain 11 July 2022 The amount of carbon stored by microscopic plankton will increase in the coming century, predict researchers at the University of Bristol and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).
- Shrimps and worms among first animals to recover after largest mass extinction 29 June 2022 Researchers studying ancient sea bed burrows and trails have discovered that bottom burrowing animals were among the first to bounce back after the end-Permian mass extinction.
- Triassic revolution: animals grew back faster and smarter after mass extinction 20 June 2022 Palaeontologists in the UK and China have shown that the natural world bounced back vigorously following the End-Permian Extinction.
- Researchers discover overlooked Jurassic Park of lizards 3 May 2022 Scientists have found that a key modern group of reptiles that includes lizards and snakes – known as squamates – diverged in the Jurassic period, 50 million years earlier than previously thought.
- Large bodies helped extinct marine reptiles with long necks swim, study finds 28 April 2022 Scientists at the University of Bristol have discovered that body size is more important than body shape in determining the energy economy of swimming for aquatic animals.
- €8 million ERC grants awarded for diverse range of research projects 26 April 2022 Three researchers from the University of Bristol have been awarded European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants totalling around €8 million. This places the University third in the UK in terms of the number of Advanced Grants awarded from the 2021 call.
- Scientists discover when beetles became prolific 23 March 2022 Researchers at the University of Bristol have found that beetles first roamed the world in the Carboniferous and later diversified alongside the earliest dinosaurs during the Triassic and Jurassic.
- A sulphurous end for the dinosaurs, according to new research 21 March 2022 Climate cooling associated with sulphur gases directly contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs, research carried out at the Universities of St Andrews and Bristol has found.
- Ancient ancestors evolved to be strong and snappy, study finds 18 March 2022 Researchers, led by the University of Bristol, have shown that the earliest jaws in the fossil record were caught in a trade-off between maximising their strength and their speed.
- Bristol scientist has key voice in new global report highlighting grave peril posed by human-induced climate change and urgent need to act 28 February 2022 Human-induced climate change is wreaking havoc in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit, according to leading scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released today.
- Advanced computer simulations shed intriguing new light on magma deep below Earth’s surface 14 February 2022 Unlike the classic Jules Verne science fiction novel Journey to the Center of the Earth or movie The Core, humans cannot venture into the Earth’s interior beyond a few kilometres of its surface. But thanks to latest advances in computer modelling, an international team of researchers led by the University of Bristol has shed new light on the properties and behaviour of magma found several hundreds of kilometres deep within the Earth.
- When Europe was flooded by the oceans 4 February 2022 About 200 million years ago, much of Europe was transformed by a huge flood. What had been land, occupied by early dinosaurs and other reptiles, was covered by shallow seawater, from Poland in the east to Wales and south-west England in the west.
