Horned 'Viking' helmets were actually from a different civilization, archaeologists say

Thousands of starlings form 'bent spoon' swarm over Israel | Horned 'Viking' helmets were actually from a different civilization, archaeologists say | Ancient dog-headed statue found during Roman road excavation Created for {EMAIL} | [Web Version]( January 6, 2022 CONNECT WITH LIVESCIENCE  [Facebook]( [Twitter](  [LIVESCIENCE]( [LIVESCIENCE]( Amazing science every day [SIGN UP]( ⋅ [WEBSITE](  [] Top Science News [] [Thousands of starlings form 'bent spoon' swarm over Israel]( [Thousands of starlings form 'bent spoon' swarm over Israel]( (Albert Keshet) For a brief moment in Israel last week, an enormous black shape resembling a twisted teaspoon darkened the sky. This was not the work of a spoon-bending telepath, but arguably something much cooler: tens of thousands of migrating starlings, swooping and swarming through the sky together in a type of collectively steered flock called a murmuration. Albert Keshet, a wildlife photographer based in Israel, saw the stunning scene after spending more than five hours recording starlings in the northern Jordan Valley during the last week of 2021. At one point, he saw an entire flock of several thousand starlings take flight, dance through the sky and form an unmistakable spoon shape. Full Story: [Live Science]( (1/5) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] History & Archaeology [] [Horned 'Viking' helmets were actually from a different civilization, archaeologists say]( [Horned 'Viking' helmets were actually from a different civilization, archaeologists say]( (National Museum of Denmark) Two spectacular bronze helmets decorated with bull-like, curved horns may have inspired the idea that more than 1,500 years later, Vikings wore bulls' horns on their helmets, although there is no evidence they ever did. Rather, the two helmets were likely emblems of the growing power of leaders in Bronze Age Scandinavia. Full Story: [Live Science]( (1/6) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Ancient dog-headed statue found during Roman road excavation]( [Ancient dog-headed statue found during Roman road excavation]( (Italian Ministry of Culture, photo by Fabio Caricchia) Archaeologists in Rome recently unearthed an ancient terracotta statue with a dog's head that was buried below an urban road. The statue, which is palm-size, shows a pointy-eared pup with long, wavy fur flowing over its head and neck. It appears to be wearing a collar dangling a small emblem over its chest, and a circular object rests between its carved paws. Full Story: [Live Science]( (1/6) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] ['Truly remarkable' fossils are rare evidence of ancient shark-on-shark attacks]( ['Truly remarkable' fossils are rare evidence of ancient shark-on-shark attacks]( (Original drawing by Tim Scheirer; Coloration added by Clarence Schumaker; CC BY 4.0) During the age of megalodon, sharks hunted all kinds of creatures, including other sharks, according to a new study based on four rare fossils. In four separate finds, researchers and amateur fossil hunters discovered the ancient vertebrae of now-extinct sharks; all four vertebrae are covered in shark bite marks, and two still have pointy shark teeth sticking out of them. These findings are extraordinary, as shark skeletons are made of cartilage, which doesn't fossilize well, the researchers said. Full Story: [Live Science]( (1/5) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Child mummies in Sicily's Capuchin Catacombs to be X-rayed]( [Child mummies in Sicily's Capuchin Catacombs to be X-rayed]( (Stanislavskyi via Shutterstock) The mummified and skeletal remains of more than 160 children lie preserved in the Capuchin Catacombs of Palermo in northern Sicily, and soon, scientists hope to uncover some of the mysteries surrounding their lives and deaths using X-ray technology. The catacombs contain at least 1,284 mummified and skeletonized corpses of varying ages, according to the new research project's website. The catacombs were in use from the late 1590s to 1880, although two additional bodies were buried there in the early 20th century, according to the Palermo Catacombs website. Full Story: [Live Science]( (1/5) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] In the Sky [] [Comet Leonard puts on a final, spectacular display with ion tail in solar wind]( [Comet Leonard puts on a final, spectacular display with ion tail in solar wind]( (James Yu/Getty Images) Comet Leonard is falling out of view, but not without putting on one last show. Discovered just a year ago, the comet, formally known as Comet C/2021 A1, made its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 12, marking the climax of a month full of prime observing opportunities. As the comet has continued on its journey through the inner solar system, however, something has changed: its tail has taken on the appearance of twisted streamers, even as the core of the comet became brighter. "Somehow it decided to return to life and unleash a couple of outbursts that reversed the fading trend," Quanzhi Ye, an astronomer at the University of Maryland who specializes in comets, told Space.com. Full Story: [Live Science]( (1/6) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] [Big hunk of failed Russian rocket crashes to Earth as space junk]( [Big hunk of failed Russian rocket crashes to Earth as space junk]( (Russian Ministry of Defense) The space junk population just got a tiny bit smaller. The Persei upper stage of a Russian Angara A5 heavy-lift rocket crashed back to Earth in an uncontrolled fashion Wednesday (Jan. 5), hitting the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean at 4:08 p.m. EST (2108 GMT). "Persei reentry confirmed: 2108 UTC over 121W 14S in the South [Pacific]," astronomer and satellite tracker Jonathan McDowell, who's based at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, said via Twitter. Full Story: [Live Science]( (1/6) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Curious Creatures [] [Dogs can differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human languages]( [Dogs can differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar human languages]( (Eniko Kubinyi) If you were to move to a new country with a different language and bring along the family dog, your pet would likely have a hard time understanding commands from the locals, according to a new study looking at how dogs' brains react to different languages. MRI scans revealed that dogs' brains can distinguish between familiar and unfamiliar languages, making them the first-known, and so far only, non-human animals to be able to tell the difference between human languages. Full Story: [Live Science]( (1/6) [LinkedIn]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Email]( [] Daily Quiz [] POLL QUESTION: Are jackalopes real? 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