Mark Mancini is a freelance writer currently based in Texas. Over the years, he’s covered every subject from classic horror movies to Abe Lincoln’s favorite jokes. He is particularly fond of paleontology and has been reporting on new developments in this field since 2013. When Mark’s not at his writing desk, you can usually find him on stage somewhere because he loves to get involved with community theatre. And if you ever feel like trading puns for a few hours, he’s your guy.
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Hundreds of explorers tried to locate the Northwest Passage. Many of those attempts ended badly.
These super-frightening entelodonts (aka hell pigs) once patrolled throughout Eurasia, North America and Africa.
The Apollo 14 mission landed on the moon in January 1971, but what the astronauts brought back could be making history now.
What makes these spongy, waterlogged areas of decaying plant matter so perfect at preservation? In a word: science.
Prior to the mid-1990s, the magnetic north pole traveled at speeds of around 9 miles per year. Now, it's 34 miles annually. What accounts for the acceleration?
Researchers hypothesize that missing rocks from the geologic record, known as the Great Unconformity, were sheared away by glaciers at a time when most — or all — of the world's surface was coated with ice.
Mid-Jurassic England was teeming with flighted creatures. Now we know it included one pterosaur called Klobiodon rochei.
The China National Space Administration makes history — and shows the world the dark side of the moon.
You may never see it happen live, but if you do, consider yourself lucky. Because this meteorological phenomenon doesn't happen very often.
Autopsies have been around since ancient times, but they seem so shrouded in secrecy. What goes on when a corpse goes under the knife?
Lakes seem like serene places to escape and enjoy peace and quiet. So you'd probably be surprised to learn that a lake can actually explode without warning. It's happened, with deadly consequences.
Three of the five longest field goals in NFL history have been kicked in Denver's Mile High Stadium. What gives?
From burrowing beneath the frost line to literally surviving with 40 percent of the its body frozen solid, these creatures have it rough during the cold months.
The image, which was created by the European Space Agency, shows the blazing hot orb's northern-most region for the very first time. Pretty cool stuff.
Before you declare which team you're on, we've got the breakdown on this auditory battle royal.
This ice-age asteroid crater isn't just the first of its kind. It may also be the smoking gun about what triggered the Younger Dryas, one of the most well-known examples of abrupt climate change.
This fin-backed pelycosaur roamed what's now the American Southwest 298 million years ago. And it's by far the oldest-known vegetarian tetrapod with gaps between some of its teeth, which is a big deal.
You know that sound synonymous with a certain laser blaster from a galaxy far, far away? Yeah. It sounds like that.
Ice cubes usually look cloudy and opaque in the middle, despite the fact that water is clear. What's the deal?
The idea behind the "fake" moon is to provide extra illumination to Chengdu, a city in China's Sichuan province. What could possibly go wrong?
