Physics.com says "Ardipithecus ramidus - a purported human ancestor that was dubbed Science magazine's 2009 'Breakthrough of the Year' - is coming under fire from scientists [including geologist Jay Quade of the University of Arizona,who say there is scant evidence for her discoverers' claims that there were dense woodlands at the African site where the creature lived 4.4 million years ago."
Mystery of Martian ice cap solved
"Researchers have reconstructed the formation of two curious features in the northern ice cap of Mars: a chasm larger than the Grand Canyon and a series of spiral troughs. The group studying a canyon feature called Chasma Boreale included Shane Byrne from the University of Arizona's Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. Jack Holt and Isaac Smith of The University of Texas at Austin's Institute for Geophysics are the papers' lead authors." [taken from the UA news release] [right, looking up Chasma Boreale. Yellow line indicates ground track of SHARAD (Shallow Radar) in orbit. Credit: NASA/Caltech/JPL/E. DeJong/J. Craig/M. Stetson]