“The University Library of the University of California, Santa Cruz, seeks an enterprising, creative, and service-oriented archivist … for the Grateful Dead Archive. This is a potential career status position.”

UCSC cements its left-field reputation in a new job advert.

“At first sight, it seems improbable. Munidopsis andamanica is a species only found in the deep sea and yet it eats ‘terrestrial food’.”

Caroline Hoyoux, of the University of Liège, Belgium, has discovered a deep-sea crab that lives on trees (BBC).

“They’re just like any other small cute bird, and then they throw their wings over their back and make this sound that is totally out of this world.”

Kimberly Bostwick, of Cornell, has worked out that the club-winged manakin ‘sings’ by vibrating its feathers (Times).

“The questions of life’s origins and of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe are very suitable and deserve serious consideration.”

Jose Gabriel Funes, astronomer, priest and director of the Vatican Observatory, discusses a conference at the Vatican on astrobiology (AP).

“This new dinosaur is helping us complete and revise our picture of how the truly giant dinosaurs first got going.”

Adam Yates, of Johannesburg’s Wits University, discusses newly discovered, seven-metre-long Aardonyx Celestae (Reuters).