Long before his name was attached to one of the most formidable predators ever to walk the Earth — or appeared in the pages of an auction catalog — the late Gary “Gus” Licking, a cattle rancher in South Dakota, had a strong feeling that something extraordinary lay beneath his land. The Licking ranch sits within the Hell Creek Formation, a renowned fossil-rich region spanning Montana, Wyoming and the Dakotas. It is considered the most significant site in the world for Tyrannosaurus rex. One of

KUBUQI DESERT, China (AP) — For five decades, millions of workers have carried out the same careful routine across the windswept deserts of northern China: pressing forearm-length sticks into loose sand in straight rows, then crossing them with another set to create a tight grid. In the middle of each small square, young saplings are planted. This approach, known as “straw checkerboards,” is a straightforward but effective way to anchor shifting dunes. The grids reduce wind speed at ground