Scientists were on Thursday working to classify a new species of giant jellyfish that washed up on an Australian beach, describing it as a "whopper" that took their breath away.

The 1.5-metre (4 foot 11 inch) specimen was found by a family in the southern state of Tasmania, who contacted a local marine biologist.

Last year tied for the sixth hottest on record, confirming that Earth's climate system is in the grip of warming that will affect generations to come, the U.N.'s weather agency said Wednesday.

"The global temperature for the year 2013 is consistent with the long-term warming trend," World Meteorological Organization (WMO) chief Michel Jarraud said in a statement.

A treasure trove of fossilized dinosaurs and other long-extinct species in northeastern China was created, Pompeii-style, by an erupting volcano, scientists said Tuesday.

A seam of rock known as the Yixian and Jiufotang formations, in western Liaoning province, is the burial ground of an astonishing array of creatures that lived around 120 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous.

Scientists on Tuesday said they could fill a blank in the history of Central Africa's pygmies, whose past is one of the most elusive of any community in the world.

At a key period in the human odyssey, these hunter-gatherer tribes shunned interbreeding with Bantu-speaking communities who were early farmers, according to a gene analysis.

Women rate top male endurance cyclists more attractive than lower-ranked ones even without knowing who they are, a finding that sheds light on the mating game, a scientist said Wednesday.

Evolutionary biologist Erik Postma of the University of Zurich selected portraits of 80 cyclists who took part in the 2012 Tour de France, one of the most grueling events in sport, and asked participants in an online survey to rate the faces for attractiveness.

The bodies of around 400 dolphins washed up on beaches in northern Peru last month, baffling authorities who are so far mystified as to the cause, officials said Tuesday.

The mammals' remains were found on beaches stretching across the northern departments of Piura and Lambayeque, said Peruvian Sea Institute (IMARPE) official Jaime de la Cruz in Chiclayo.

Just outside the Olympic Park in Sochi, where the Winter Games open on Friday, is a green space with benches, artificial ponds and a couple of hides. "Ornithological Park", the sign declares.

The problem is that there is not a bird in sight in the park, which was set up as a replacement for sensitive wetlands that were covered over for the construction of Games venues.

All the pieces of the most powerful space telescope ever are ready for assembly at NASA, the U.S. space agency said Monday.

The $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled for launch in 2018 and aims to provide an unprecedented look at far-away planets and the first galaxies formed.

Iran on Monday unveiled two domestically-made communication satellites, one to bolster its wireless connections and the other capable of taking high-resolution pictures, media reported.

Iran's space program has prompted concern among Western governments, which fear Tehran is trying to master the technology required to deliver a nuclear warhead.

The amount of harmful pollutants released in the process of recovering oil from tar sands in western Canada is likely far higher than corporate interests say, university researchers said Monday.

Actual levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions into the air may be two to three times higher than estimated, said the findings in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed U.S. journal.