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Shorter Days
Featured on July 30, 2020
Growth rings in fossilized clams known as rudists, such as this one, record the changing length of Earth's day due to the gravitational interactions between Earth and the Moon. A recent study found that, near the end of the time of the dinosaurs, each year consisted of 372 days, which means a day was about 30 minutes shorter than it is now. Earlier studies had shown that the length of a day was even shorter in the more distant past. [Wilson 44691/Wikipedia]