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For the first time, zinc isotope ratios in tooth enamel have been analysed with the aim of identifying the diet of a Neanderthal. Other chemical tracers indicate that this individual did not consume the blood of their prey, but ate the bone marrow without consuming the bones. A new study published on october 17th in the journal PNAS , led by a CNRS researcher, has for the first time used zinc isotope analysis to determine the position of Neanderthals in the food chain.

On February 21, 2021, NASA's Perseverance rover landed in the Jezero Crater on Mars. In October 1 , the rover confirmed the importance of its landing site, showing that Jezero Crater really was the site of a lake 3.6 billion years ago. Perseverance's geological discoveries in the crater's floor are described in four papers published on August 25, 2022 in Science and Science Advances .

Until now, it has been assumed that the oxygenation of the oceans over geological timescales has mainly been driven by atmospheric oxygen levels. However, a new study published in Nature June 27 2022   suggests otherwise. Work by scientists at the Biogeosciences Laboratory (CNRS/UBFC), together with their colleagues at the University of California's Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, shows that the movement of tectonic plates has probably contributed to ocean oxygenation.

The 2022 Paname initiative 1 aims to better understand the causes and effects of climate change in urban environments through intensive measurement campaigns planned for the Paris region this summer. From the studies, information will be derived that is key to making cities more resilient to future climate realities.

Using a microphone developed in France, the Perseverance rover has recorded the first ever sounds from Mars audible to the human ear. By analysing these sounds, scientists have been able to find out more about the physical characteristics of the Martian atmosphere, and in particular about the speed of sound and its attenuation there.

In a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, two scientists - Chloé Michaut from Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon 1 and Jerome A. Neufeld from University of Cambridge 2 , propose a new model of crystallization of the lunar magma ocean where the crystals remain suspended in the lunar interior and the formation of the crust only begins once a critical crystal content is reached.

Previously detected in rivers, oceans, and snow, 1 microplastic has now been found in the high-altitude air surrounding the Pic du Midi (2,877 m)-by an international research team including scientists from the CNRS, Université Grenoble Alpes, 2 and the University of Strathclyde (Scotland).

Whether Venus, one of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets, ever had oceans remains an unsolved puzzle. Although an American study hypothesized involving in particular scientists from the CNRS and University of Versailles-Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines 1 (UVSQ). Using a state-of-the-art climate model, the research team has come up with an alternative scenario to the American study.

Images from Perseverance's French-American instrument SuperCam show that the crater where the rover landed once contained a lake. The SuperCam observations also identified strata containing boulders, related to a major change in the hydrological regime. This study, led by a French researcher, will facilitate selection of the most suitable areas for Perseverance to collect samples.

One of Earth's unique features is that it has continents. Contrary to many theories, the continents have always been rich in silica (which is found in quartz for example). The continents did not form continuously over time but result from episodic events throughout Earth's history. The continents, a specific feature of our planet, still hold many secrets.

Publication of LGL-TPE in Science on October 7, 2021. CNRS press release on October 7, 2021. The Perseverance rover has now confirmed the suitability of its landing site: Jezero crater really did contain a lake, into which a river flowed through a delta 3.6 billion years ago. Led by a CNRS researcher, the international team involved scientists in France from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier , and published its findings on October 7 in Science.

Using information obtained from around a dozen earthquakes detected on Mars by the Very Broad Band SEIS seismometer, developed in France, the international team of NASA's InSight mission has unveiled the internal structure of Mars.

Communication from CNRS on May 18, 2021. Publication of LGL-TPE in the June 2021 issue of Earth-Science Reviews. Fossils of land animals from South America have been found in the Antilles. The appearance/disappearance of archipelagos is due to tectonic plate movements and glacial-interglacial cycles.

Publication of LGL-TPE in the journal Solid Earth on July 21, 2021. Due to the low to moderate seismicity of the European Western Alps, few focal mechanisms are available in this region to this day, and the corresponding current seismic stress and strain fields remain partly elusive. The development of dense seismic networks in past decades now provides a substantial number of seismic records in the 0-5 magnitude range.

Study by the LGL-TPE published Geoscience on November 4, 2021. The abrupt changes in mineralogical properties across the Earth's mantle transition zone substantially impact convection and thermochemical fluxes between the upper and lower mantle. While the 410-km discontinuity at the top of the mantle transition zone is detected with all types of seismic waves, the 660-km boundary is mostly invisible to underside P-wave reflections (P660P).

Was burial of the dead practiced by Neandertals or is it an innovation specific to our species? There are indications in favour of the first hypothesis but some scientists remain sceptical. For the first time in Europe, however, a multi-disciplinary team led by researchers at the CNRS and the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle (France) and the University of the Basque Country (Spain) 1 has demonstrated, using a variety of criteria, that a Neandertal child was buried, probably around 41,000 years ago, at the Ferrassie site (Dordogne).

Erosion of the frozen soil of Arctic regions, known as permafrost, is creating large areas of subsidence, which has catastrophic impact in these regions sensitive to climate change. As the mechanisms behind these geological events are poorly understood, researchers from the Géosciences Paris Sud (GEOPS) laboratory (CNRS / Université Paris-Saclay), in cooperation with the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk, Russia, conducted a cold room 1 simulation of landslides, or slumps, caused by accelerated breakdown of the permafrost.

A small amount of molten rock located under tectonic plates encourages them to move. This is what scientists from the Laboratoire de géologie de Lyon: Terre, planètes et environnement (CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1) have recently discovered. Their new model takes into account not only the velocity of seismic waves but also the way in which they are attenuated by the medium they pass through.

Common assumptions notwithstanding, rare species can play unique and essential ecological roles. After studying two databases that together cover all known terrestrial mammals and birds worldwide, scientists from the CNRS, the Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), Université Grenoble Alpes, and the University of Montpellier 1 have demonstrated that, though these species are found on all continents, they are more threatened by human pressures than ecologically common species and will also be more impacted by future climate change.

A team of 76 seismologists, including several French scientists from the CNRS, the Paris Institute of Earth Physics (IPGP), Université de Paris, Université de Strasbourg and the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) 1 discovered that the lockdown measures used in the fight against the spread of COVID-19 have led to a 50% reduction in seismic noise due to human activity across the globe between January-June 2020.