New fossil brings us a step closer to unravelling the mystery of feather evolution

By Zixiao Yang, Postdoctoral researcher, University College Cork
Maria McNamara, Professor, Palaeobiology, University College Cork

Strong but light, beautiful and precisely structured, feathers are the most complex skin appendage that ever evolved in vertebrates. Despite the fact humans have been playing with feathers since prehistory, there’s still a lot we don’t understand about them.

Our new study found that some of the first animals with feathers also had scaly skin like reptiles.

Following the debut of the first feathered dinosaur,…

Read complete article

~	How collaboration from across Canada, and the world, is helping fight the Alberta wildfires

~	Video game performers are becoming Hollywood stars in their own right − and are on strike to be paid and protected accordingly

~	Paris Olympics: Canada’s soccer drone scandal highlights the need for ethics education

~	World News in Brief: Historic Palestine monastery on World Heritage in Danger List, rights office condemnation as Ghana upholds anti-gay law, free jailed Russian activist

~	Nearly half of children born in Wales in 2002-3 classed as having special educational needs – this may have negatively affected their attainment

~	Bosses are increasingly forcing workers back into the office – but evidence suggests it could backfire

~	Commonly used drug may extend women’s fertility, claim researchers – here’s what you need to know about rapamycin

~	The first farmers often made landscapes more biodiverse – our research could have lessons for rewilding today

~	An artist has stolen a coin from the British Museum as part of a performance piece – but is the artwork ethical?

~	Books That Shook the Business World: The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken