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The first excavations at Stonehenge began in the 1600s, and researchers have tried to unlock its secrets ever since.
Although a distinctly English site, Stonehenge bears the marks of long-distance links to other countries like Germany. But one enduring question remains: Why was it built?
No written records exist to shed light on the monument’s significance. However, the best way to understand something is to look at who created it.
A long time ago
Stonehenge was once at the center of a rapidly changing world, bearing witness to the shift from mobile hunter-gatherer societies to the founding of farms that sprawled across the United Kingdom.
Some objects could have cosmic significance, like the Nebra sky disc, which may have functioned as an astronomical calendar.
Other worlds
It has been a year since the Perseverance rover landed on Mars with its helicopter sidekick, Ingenuity.
Since then, the robotic duo have made history, simultaneously setting and breaking exploration records on the red planet.
Ingenuity has taken to the Martian skies 19 times, while Perseverance has collected six samples from rocks that will be returned to Earth in the 2030s.
Samples collected there could contain microfossils, which would be evidence of ancient life — if it ever existed on Mars.
Fantastic creatures
A new feeding program dumps roughly 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms) of romaine and butter lettuce into a popular manatee lagoon each week, serving about 350 manatees a day.
The manatees are responding well to the program so far, showing up to chomp on leafy greens that give them the nutrients and digestible carbohydrates they need.
Dig this
A fossil first discovered in 2010 is actually a previously unknown species of crocodile that lived in Australia 95 million years ago.
But even more rare was the surprise waiting inside of what was once the 8.2-foot-long (2.5-meter-long) reptile’s stomach: a young dinosaur.
The discovery is causing researchers to question the role dinosaurs played in the food chain, especially when they became the prey of other animals.
Climate changed
Rapid changes in our climate may outpace the evolution of some of Earth’s most wide-ranging organisms, like lichen.
Those funky-looking patches you see on trees and rocks cover 7% of the planet’s surface. Algae live inside of greenhouse-like structures provided by fungus, and together they form lichen, anywhere from the Arctic tundra to the most arid desert.
Lichens create oxygen, retain moisture and contribute to water cycling in ecosystems. They also serve as a food source for many species, including some mammals, like reindeer.
Curiosities
Linger a little longer: