'Very weird' ankylosaur's tail looked like an Aztec war club

'Very weird' ankylosaur's tail looked like an Aztec war club | 1st case of omicron variant in US confirmed in California | This 130 million-year-old ichthyosaur was a 'hypercarnivore' with knife-like teeth Created for {EMAIL} | [Web Version]( December 2, 2021 CONNECT WITH LIVESCIENCE  [Facebook]( [Twitter](  [LIVESCIENCE]( [LIVESCIENCE]( Amazing science every day [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [WEBSITE](  [] Top Science News [] ['Very weird' ankylosaur's tail looked like an Aztec war club]( ['Very weird' ankylosaur's tail looked like an Aztec war club]( (Gabriel Diaz Yantén) Paleontologists in subantarctic Chile have discovered the remains of a "very weird" ankylosaur that had a deadly armored tail like no other known dinosaur, the researchers said. "The tail would have looked like a sword; it's so flat," study co-lead researcher Alexander Vargas, a vertebrate paleontologist in the Department of Biology at the University of Chile, told Live Science. It would have looked "a bit like an Aztec sword, or the Aztec club called the macuahuitl." Full Story: [Live Science]( (12/1) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] COVID-19 [] [1st case of omicron variant in US confirmed in California]( [1st case of omicron variant in US confirmed in California]( (Shutterstock) Officials have confirmed the first known omicron variant (B.1.1.529) case in the United States. The case was an individual who had returned to California from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 29, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said at a White House briefing on Wednesday (Dec. 1). None of the individual's close contacts have tested positive, he said. Full Story: [Live Science]( (12/1) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] History & Archaeology [] [This 130 million-year-old ichthyosaur was a 'hypercarnivore' with knife-like teeth]( [This 130 million-year-old ichthyosaur was a 'hypercarnivore' with knife-like teeth]( (Dirley Cortés) You wouldn't want to meet an ichthyosaur while taking a dip in the early Cretaceous seas. That goes double for Kyhytysuka sachicarum: This newly identified 130 million-year-old marine reptile, now known from fossils in central Colombia, had larger, more knife-like teeth than other ichthyosaur species, a new study finds — and that is saying something, as ichthyosaurs are famous for their long, toothy snouts. These big teeth would have enabled K. sachicarum to attack large prey, such as fish and even other marine reptiles. Full Story: [Live Science]( (12/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Was Stonehenge constructed by builders fueled on 'energy bars'?]( [Was Stonehenge constructed by builders fueled on 'energy bars'?]( (Marianne Purdie/Getty Images) Stonehenge's builders may have kept up their strength during cold winter months by gulping down sweet, meat-infused "energy bars," historians in the United Kingdom recently proposed. The iconic ring of standing stones in Salisbury, England was erected between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago, and people in the region at the time — including those who constructed Stonehenge — ate mostly beef, pork and dairy. However, recently excavated evidence at Durrington Walls, a nearby settlement where the monument's builders may have lived, showed that seasonally foraged sweet and savory snacks were also part of the local winter diet. Full Story: [Live Science]( (12/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Unknown human ancestor may have walked a bit like a bear on its hind legs]( [Unknown human ancestor may have walked a bit like a bear on its hind legs]( (Austin C. Hill and Catherine Miller) Ancient footprints reveal a mysterious relative of humans may have lived at the same time and in the same area as the famous human ancestor "Lucy" in Tanzania. Strangely, these enigmatic tracks possess an unusual cross-stepping gait where one leg crossed over the other during walking, a new study finds. Full Story: [Live Science]( (12/1) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] That’s Strange! [] [Pac-Man-shaped blobs become world's first self-replicating biological robots]( [Pac-Man-shaped blobs become world's first self-replicating biological robots]( (Doug Blackiston and Sam Kriegman) Tiny groups of cells shaped like Pac-Man are the world's first self-replicating biological robots. The tiny bots are made from the skin cells of frogs, but they don't reproduce by mitosis or meiosis or any of the other ways cells divide and replicate in normal circumstances. Instead, they build more of themselves from raw materials — free-floating frog skin cells — creating multiple generations of nearly identical organisms. Full Story: [Live Science]( (12/2) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Daily Quiz [] POLL QUESTION: Ants have social networks, and they exchange info through ____. (Learn the answer [here]() [Vote]( [Vomit]( [Vote]( [Touch]( [Vote]( [Food](   [Sign Up]( | [Update Profile]( | [Unsubscribe]( [Privacy Policy]( | [Cookies Policy]( | [Terms and Conditions]( CONTACT US: [FEEDBACK](mailto:livescience@smartbrief.com) | [ADVERTISE]( © Future US, Inc. 555 11th ST NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20004