Trudy Myers's Blog, page 2
September 18, 2025
World’s Most Armored Dinosaur
It was the world’s most armored dinosaur, until evolutiondid something strange.
Fossils found in Morocco have revealed that the armoredbody of Spicomellus was also covered in bone spikes that reached nearly a meterin length. The preserved remains are dated to more than 165 million years ago.They also show that the animal lost some of its armor as it evolved.
Spicomellus had a multitude of plates and spikes all overits body. These included meter-long neck spikes, huge spikes projecting upwardsover the hips, and a range of long, blade-like spikes.
Spicomellus was a type of ankylosaur, which were heavilyarmored herbivores with bony skins similar to turtles. They lived from theMiddle Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period but went extinct 66 million yearsago when a comet wiped out most dinosaurs.
Sometimes described as ‘walking coffee tables’, ankylosaurswere four-legged, squat and under 10 feet in length.
Usually, species become better at defending themselves overtime. But this discovery showed that ankylosaurs lost some of their protection,despite their environment being more dangerous in the Cretaceous period. Thisparticular fossil is the oldest known ankylosaur. Scientists thought that laterspecies might have inherited similar features, but they didn’t. Therefore,experts believe the fearsome variety of spikes may have actually been used forattracting mates and showing off to rivals rather than for defense.
In later species, the spikes are gone, having been replacedby flat plates, which were likely used only for defense. The scientistsspeculate that as larger and more fearsome predators evolved, ankylosaur armorbecame simpler, less showy, and more defensive. This suggests they wanted todraw less attention to themselves.
The end of Spicomellus’ tail hasn’t been found, but some ofthe vertebrae have been fused together, which suggests it had a club or similartail weapon.
September 11, 2025
The Tree of Life’s First Branch
There was one commonancestor for all animals on Earth. If you trace the history of anycreature—from humans to slugs—you’d eventually follow all the branches of theanimal tree of life back to its trunk.
Coming from the otherdirection, that trunk had to branch off at some point, or we wouldn’t have adiverse collection of animals. Unfortunately, that first split has been elusiveto scientists because it took place around 600 million years ago.
Scientists have figuredout that the first split resulted in the birth of two creatures. One was theancestor of almost all animals, while its “sister” gave rise to just one groupof modern animals.
For decades, scientistshave debated which group of animals came from the “sister” ancestor. They hadtwo contenders—sea sponges and comb jellies. Thanks to new methods that enableresearchers to analyze these animals’ chromosomes, they think they have theanswer.
The key was to look notjust at what genes each animal had, but where those genes were located on thechromosomes. As a creature evolves, chromosomes will rearrange, and genes willmove around. But once genes move, it’s almost impossible for them to return totheir original position. Therefore, whichever animal showed the leastre-shuffling of genes on its chromosomes must have come into existence first.Out of the two options, whichever animal has the least shuffling is the sister.
The team compared theplacements of certain groups of genes in sponges and comb jellies to theplacements of those same groups in their closest single-cell non-animalrelatives. (The single-cell relatives would have been closely related to the“trunk” organism and would have evidence of what that original genome lookedlike.) The closer an organism is to that genome, the less it has changed, andthe more likely it is the sister.
In both the non-animalsand the comb jellies, they found 14 groups of genes located on separatechromosomes. But in the sponges, they found those 14 groups were rearrangedinto 7 groups, which indicated they split from the original genome later thanthe comb jellies.
Consequently, thesister to all other animals, the first to branch off, and the most geneticallyisolated animal is the comb jelly.
Besides answering along-standing biological question, scientists can investigate what thisknowledge tells us about animal evolution, and the mechanisms of thatevolution. And so the search for more answers continues.
Thank goodness theyfigured that out. I don’t think I could have remained sane another day withoutknowing which animal came first.
September 5, 2025
1600 Year Old Churches in Egypt
Archaeologists havefound two 1,600-year-old churches in Egypt’s western desert. This discoveryoffers rare evidence of Christianity’s rise in Egyptian desert settlements.
The churches were foundat Kharga Oasis, an ancient settlement roughly 350 miles southwest of Cairo.The Christian remains include cemeteries, churches, and a mural of Jesus curinga sick man, but the Oasis has been inhabited since antiquity, thanks to undergroundwater sources.
The archaeologistsuncovered the remains of an entire settlement at Kharga Oasis, includingmultiple residential buildings made of mudbrick, with some walls stillretaining plaster. The team also found ovens and large clay jars that were setinto the ground to store food. Other finds included inscribed pottery shards,vessels, glass and stone pieces, and several burials.
However, thecenterpiece of the excavation was the discovery of two churches. Both date backto the early Coptic era, which is Egypt’s Christianization period that began inthe 4th century AD.
One church was a grandbasilica made of mudbrick. It held remnants of a large hall and two aisles.
The second church wassmaller. It had a rectangular layout and was surrounded by the remains of sevenexternal columns. Some of its inner walls were decorated with Copticinscriptions. The remains of service buildings were found to the west of thesmaller church.
This discovery shedslight on the beginnings of the Coptic period in Egypt. It also shows theimportance of Egypt’s western oases as centers of religious and social life invarious eras. It highlights the tolerance and cultural and religious diversityof Egyptian civilization.
August 28, 2025
37,000 Years of Disease
With ancient DNA,scientists have mapped 37,000 years of disease across Europe and Asia.
More than 200 moderndiseases are zoonoses—that is, they can spread to humans from other animals.Both rampant and widespread, zoonoses are often at the center of contemporaryoutbreaks, epidemics, and research. Six out of ten known infectious diseasesare zoonotic, and three out of four new or emerging diseases that affect humanscome from animals.
For a long time,scientists have speculated that these diseases began afflicting societiesaround the time animals were domesticated. But they’ve never had geneticevidence or pinned down a specific timeline—until now.
A team of scientistshave traced the genetic history of 214 diseases across Europe and Asia over thelast 37,000 years. Their findings indicate that the rise of animal husbandryforever shaped humanity’s relationship with disease. However, the timing defiedtheir expectations.
The researchers foundthat zoonotic pathogens emerged roughly 6,500 years ago and spiked 5,000 yearsago. That was surprising because it was several thousand years after humansbegan domesticating animals in Mesopotamia and southeast Asia. But the evidencesays zoonoses initially became prevalent in Asia and Russia as communitiestransitioned from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to nomadic livestock herding orfarming.
Having already tamedhorses, communities began to travel in wagons pulled by oxen, which allowedthem to voyage farther and exchange goods, ideas, and diseases with othercommunities. Though some pathogens may have moved from animals to humans evenearlier, research suggests these changes made the spread more prevalent.
A vast analysis of DNAfrom ancient human remains made this study possible. The researchers extractedremnants of microbial genetic material from the teeth and bones of 1,313 humanskeletons and identified 5,486 DNA sequences from bacteria, parasites, andviruses. Many remains were found in the same graves, indicating that a singlecontagion killed multiple people.
The study builds onexisting evidence that mutations in these pathogens strengthened the immunesystems of the nomads who were the first to get sick, while farmers andhunter-gatherers succumbed to the new diseases. But another study suggestedthat these nomads’ evolving immune systems might have also made themsusceptible to chronic illnesses, like multiple sclerosis.
Understanding the wayspathogens affected humans long ago could help improve modern treatments andmethods for preventing disease.
Successful mutations ofthe past are likely to reappear. So knowledge is important for future vaccines.Knowledge allows us to test whether current vaccines provide sufficientcoverage or new ones need to be developed due to mutations.
Scientists analyzed onesample dating to 5,500 years ago, which contained the world’s oldest knowngenetic trace of yersinia pestis, which caused the plague that killedbetween 30 and 50 percent of Europe’s population during the Middle Ages. It’sjust one example of how zoonoses have had a massive influence on human historyand culture.
Other diseasesidentified in the human remains include malaria (4,200 years old), leprosy(1,400 years old), Hepatitis B (9,800 years old), and diphtheria (11,100 yearsold).
The work has somelimitations. The genes of many viruses are encoded in RNA, which was notstudied. The research might have missed some pathogens that were present at lowlevels. The history revealed is limited to the Eurasian sites where theskeletons were found.
I look forward to theday when my immune system figures out how to avoid covid-19.
August 21, 2025
Nine-Foot-Long Millipede
A long, long time ago,millipedes were nine-foot-long. Weighing in at 110-pounds, this creature iscalled Arthropleura and is the largest arthropod to ever live.
This all happened duringthe Carboniferous period, roughly 300 million to 360 million years ago. The Earth’satmosphere at that time was rich with oxygen, making it possible for someanimals to swell to monstrous size, such as dragonflies with two-foot wingspans.
However, Arthropleurafossils discovered since the 1800s were often only remnants of headlessexoskeletons left behind during molting. A new study states researchers havefinally pieced together what the animal’s head was like. The breakthrough camefrom two well-preserved juvenile Arthropleura fossils found in France. Thesespecimens were less than two inches long, but they provided the first-ever glimpseof Arthropleura’s head.
Apparently, this insect’shead was a rough circle adorned with two antennae, a small mandible hiddenunderneath, and eyestalks protruding from the sides.
Arthropods, are a groupof invertebrates that includes crustaceans, spiders, insects, centipedes andmillipedes. There has been fierce controversy about Arthropleura’s positionon the arthropod family tree since its discovery in 1854. Was it a millipede ora centipede? Scientists weren’t sure.
During examinations ofthe new, complete fossils, scientists found that it had the body of a millipedebut the head of a centipede. It had two pairs of legs per body segment, wherecentipedes only have one pair per segment. Its jaw position resembles that of acentipede, but its shape and antennae are most similar to those of a millipede.One feature is not seen in any living members of the millipede or centipedefamilies—eyestalks. The eyestalks resemble a crab’s, which could point to thecreature having an amphibious youth before becoming terrestrial in adulthood.
Researchers have alsoconcluded that Arthropleura probably chewed on decaying plants like themillipedes of today, rather than hunting prey like a centipede. Its anatomyindicates that it was not carnivorous. It did not have a centipede’s ‘fangs’ orany appendages built for hunting. In addition, having two pairs of legs persegment affected its locomotion and implies it was rather slow.
After piecing togetherthese bits of evidence, the team says the Arthropleura is most closelyrelated to millipedes.
These ancient millipedeslived between 290 million and 346 million years ago, skittering around theEarth’s tropical equator with other massive arthropods, like two-foot-longscorpions. The leading theory for this gigantism is that the oxygenconcentration was estimated at 30% during the Carboniferous era compared to the21% of today. More oxygen in the air may have let insects grow much bigger.
While finding thejuvenile Arthropleura has provided some answers, there are morequestions to be answered with future fossil discoveries. Did the Arthropleurause tracheae for breathing, or lungs like spiders? That’s just one questionthat hasn’t been answered yet.
I find modern insectsare frequently creepy, at least, to my mind. I definitely do not want to comeacross a nine-foot-long millipede.
August 15, 2025
The First Potatoes
The mystery of potatoevolution has been solved—and it involved a tomato.
The potato is a globalfood staple. It was first cultivated thousands of years ago in the Andes ofSouth America before it spread worldwide starting in the 16thcentury. But its evolution has long been a puzzle, until a recent analysisfinally unraveled its origins.
Scientists say that thepotato lineage emerged approximately nine million years ago in South America,through a natural interbreeding event between a wild tomato plant and apotato-like species. This discovery is based on the genomic analysis of 450cultivated types of potatoes and 56 wild species.
This ancienthybridization event led to the appearance of the potato plant’s distinctivetuber—the enlarged structure housing nutrients underground. While the ediblepart of a tomato plant is its fruit, the potato’s value lies in thissubterranean growth. Researchers also identified two crucial genes involved intuber formation, which deepens our understanding of this crop.
Potatoes are one of themost remarkable food staples, combining versatility, nutritional value, andcultural ubiquity. Around the world, people eat potatoes using virtually everycooking method. Although stereotyped as carbohydrates, potatoes offer vitaminC, potassium, fiber, and resistant starch. They are gluten-free, low-fat, andsatiating. They are a nutrient-dense calorie source.
Resistant starch is atype of carbohydrate that resists digestion in the small intestine and fermentsin the large intestine. This means it feeds beneficial bacteria in the gut.
The scientific name formodern a potato plant is Solanum tuberosum. Its two parents wereancestors of a potato-like species now found in Peru named Etuberosum(which closely resembles the potato plant but lacks a tuber) and the tomatoplant. These two plants shared a common ancestor that lived about 14 millionyears ago, so they were able to interbreed when the hybridization eventoccurred five million years after they had diverged.
The hybridization ledto genes being reshuffled so that the lineage produced tubers, which allowedthese plants to expand into the cold, dry habitats of the rising Andes mountainchain. During the rapid uplift of the Andes, the potato plant could adapt tothe changing environment and thrive in the harsh conditions of the mountains.The tubers stored nutrients for cold adaptation and enabled asexualreproduction to counter the reduced fertility in cold conditions. Therefore,the plant could survive and rapidly expand.
The study’s findingsmay improve cultivated potato breeding to address environmental challenges thatcrops presently face. There currently are roughly 5,000 potato varieties.Potatoes are the world’s third most important food crop for humans, after rice andwheat. China is the world’s leading potato producer.
It is hard to removeall harmful mutations in potato genomes when breeding, but this study may showhow to make a potato free of harmful mutations using the tomato as the chassisof synthetic biology. It may also lead to a new crop species that would producetomato fruit above ground and potato tubers below ground.
The potato and tomatobelong to the nightshade family of flowering plants, which also includestobacco and peppers, among others. The study did not investigate the evolutionof other tuberous root crops that originated in South America such as the sweetpotato and yuca, which belong to different families of flowering plants.
Although the parts ofthe tomato and potato plants that people eat are quite different, the plantsare very similar. If you look at the flowers or leaves of these plants, theyare very similar. And if you let your potato plant produce fruits, those fruitslook like little green tomatoes. But don’t try to eat them; they are prettyyucky.
August 7, 2025
Trash in a Cave
A spelunker found trashin a cave, but it was actually evidence of a lost civilization.
A professional caveexplorer, on a mapping expedition in the Tlayococ cave in Mexico found a hiddenchamber that contained evidence of an extinct civilization.
Yekaterina KatiyaPavlova went to a community in the Sierra de Guerrero to further map theTlayococ cave. When Pavlova and her local guide reached the bottom of the cave,after exploring all that was already mapped, they opted to head into an unknownpassage through a submerged entrance.
The passage led to apreviously unseen room where two engraved shell bracelets sat atop stalagmites.They also found another bracelet, a giant snail shell, and pieces of blackstone discs similar to pyrite mirrors. All of these things dated to more than500 years ago.
When archaeologistslater descended to the cave, they found more items; a bracelet fragment, apiece of burnt wood, and pieces of a total of eight stone discs (two of whichwere complete).
All of the braceletswere made from snail shells—probably a marine species—and were engraved withanthropomorphic symbols and figures. The engravings featured S-shaped symbols(known as xonecuilli), zigzagging lines, and circles to create human faces inprofile. These designs could be meant to indicate deities.
The archaeologistsestimate that the items were left in the cave between 950 and 1521 AD. At thattime, the area was known to be populated by the now-extinct Tlacotepehausethnic group.
One archaeologist feltthe items found could help with interpreting symbolic notions, culturalaspects, manufacturing, and trade of the pre-Hispanic societies in the Sierrade Guerrero.
The archaeologists alsodetermined that the stalagmites were manipulated in pre-Hispanic times to givea more spherical finish, possibly to fit ritual needs. It is felt that thesymbols and representations of characters on the bracelets may be related topre-Hispanic cosmogony regarding creation and fertility. The sealed contexthelps them understand how the ancient inhabitants may have seen these caves—as portalsto the underworld, or as sacred spaces connected to the Earth and the divine.
The black stone discsresemble others from nearby regions, such as El Infiernillo, as well as fromdistant cultures like Huasteca, Mayan states in east-central Mexico.
Historical reports sayextreme cold forced the people living in the Sierra de Guerrero, which islocated over 7,850 feet above sea level, to lower altitudes. Little is knownabout the Tlacotepheuas, other than some 16th-century historical mentions oftheir presence. The shell bracelets could help tell their story.
August 1, 2025
New Human Species
Scientists havediscovered a new human species.
Only one species ofhominin exists on the planet today, and that’s Homo sapiens. Butthroughout more geologically recent Earth history, the human family was acomplex tableaux of members. Over the years, scientists have tried to get aclearer picture of that prehistoric story by excavating ancient human sitesaround the world.
Now anthropologists areillustrating a previously unknown chapter of that story with the introductionof a formerly uncatalogued human species, Homo juluensis.
Homo juluensis means“big head”. This species thrived in eastern Asia from about 300,000 years agoto around 50,000 years ago but then died out. According to the researchers,they likely hunted wild horses, fashioned stone tools, and processed animal hidesto survive frigid winters. The breakthrough for discovering this possibly newspecies came when a team began devising a new system for organizing fossilevidence. They did not expect to propose a new human ancestor species and thento organize hominin fossils from Asia into different groups. But their studyclarifies a hominin fossil record that has tended to include anything thatcould not easily be assigned to Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis, orHomo sapiens.
One possible member ofthe Homo juluensis species isn’t exactly a newcomer. Denisovans werefirst identified in 2010 by way of DNA extracted from a young girl’s fingerbonefound in Siberia, but have not been given a species classification. They couldbelong to this new species.
Homo juluensis may also solve anothermystery of the Xujiayao hominin fossils. These fossils have long perplexedresearchers, as the remains display a mix of Homo erectus and Homosapiens features. These remains have been confused for a variety oftaxonomic representations, but scientists note that differences in the (big)cranium, the teeth, jaws, and a few other features indicate a new species.These fossil remains include Penghu 1 (jawbone), Xiahe (mandible), Xuchang(partial crania), and a variety of Denisova fossils.
Although this is aconvincing argument that these particular specimens belong to a previouslyunknown human species, more research is needed. But since these fossils stilldefy any other species classification, it may only be a matter of time beforethe human tribe increases by at least one species.
July 26, 2025
Giant Alien Planet
Astronomers havedetected a hidden planet by examining the orbits of the known worlds in thestar system known as Kepler-139. The newfound alien planet, Kepler-139f, is agigantic world roughly twice the mass of Neptune and 35 times the mass ofEarth. It takes 355 days to orbit its star. Despite its giant size, Kepler-139fhad evaded detection until now.
NASA’s Kepler spacetelescope discovered nearly 3,000 planets in the nine years it operated. But itrelied on worlds transiting, that is, passing between their star and Earth.When they do that, the resulting dimming of the star allowed astronomers to identifyplanets and calculate their size. But Kepler couldn’t see planets travelingabove or below the wedge of space between it and the star, so any outliersremained unseen.
But when the hiddenworld is part of a multiplanet system, astronomers could maybe find it despiteits inclined orbit. And Kepler-139 has three rocky transiting super-Earths;later a fourth gas giant was discovered. Gaps between their orbits suggested thatother worlds might be present. Precise measurements of the orbits allowed theastronomers to infer the existence of at least one more planet. It seems theproblem is not exactly in finding non-transiting planets, but in findingsituations where they can deduce where the non-transiting planet is located.
After Kepler initiallyidentified a world, observations from the ground often followed. By using aplanet’s radial velocity, astronomers could measure the amount the planettugged on its star, which allowed them to determine the planet’s mass. Radialvelocity measurements could also reveal new worlds, which is what happened withthe outermost gas giant, Kepler-139e.
Each planet is pullednot only by its star but also by other planets in the system, even if thatplanet cannot be seen from Earth. These pulls can affect how swiftly a planettransits, which creates ‘transit timing variations’. Such variations can revealworlds that don’t cross the star.
Scientists looked forgaps in known systems. Then they used both radial velocity and transit timingvariation measurements to hunt for a missing planet. While the radial velocityobservations did not conclusively point toward another planet, when combinedwith the transit timing variations they revealed a fifth planet in the system,Kepler-139f, which was between the outermost super-Earth and the gas giant.
The discovery ofKepler-139f helped answer a question about Kepler-139c, the outermostsuper-Earth. Originally, the reports for 139c showed an unusually large densityfor a sub-Neptune-sized planet. Because the scientists didn’t yet know about139f, they had attributed some of its pull on its star to 139c. But the newdata suggests a more typical density for 139c while leaving the densities for139d and 139b unchanged. These revisions provide indirect evidence for 139f.
It is possible thatthere may be other hidden worlds around Kepler-139. For instance, there is aprominent gap between 139b and 139c.
Both Kepler and NASA’smore recent exoplanet hunting mission (the Transiting Exoplanet SurveySatellite) were sensitive to planets orbiting close to their star. Inner worldsmade more transits, which allowed scientists to confirm the planet’s existence.But transiting planets with wider orbits made fewer passes in front of theirsun, so they were harder to observe and confirm.
In addition, the radialvelocity method tends to find larger planets, because massive worlds tugstronger on their stars. Also, the closer a planet is to its sun, the strongerits tug. That’s why so many of the discovered exoplanets were Jupiter-sizedworlds whose orbit only took a few days.
All of these factorsmean it’s harder to discover smaller planets that are farther away, especiallyif they don’t transit their star. But by combining various methods, astronomerscan find smaller worlds orbiting farther from their star.
And soon it will beharder for those planets to hide. In 2026, the European Space Agency willlaunch the Planetary Transits and Oscillations of Stars (PLATO) mission. Itwill conduct its own survey of transiting planets, as well as revisit Kepler’sfield. By providing additional transit times for planets detected by Keplermore than a decade earlier, PLATO will enable the discovery of more misalignedworlds.
July 18, 2025
FOUND: the Universe’s Missing Matter
There are two kinds ofmatter in the universe. There is dark matter, which is invisible to us. It isknown only because of its gravitational effects on a grand scale. And there isordinary matter, which we are all familiar with; it makes up gases, dust,stars, planets, and earthly things like cake batter and camping gear.
Scientists haveestimated that ordinary matter makes up only 15% of all matter. But they havestruggled to document where all of the matter is located, since only about halfof it is accounted for. Now, with the help of powerful bursts of radio wavesemanating from 69 locations in the cosmos, researchers have found the “missing”matter.
It was primarily hidingas thinly distributed gas spread out in the vast expanses between galaxies andwas detected because of the effect the matter has on the radio waves travelingthrough space. This tenuous gas is the intergalactic medium, a sort of fogbetween galaxies.
Scientists hadpreviously determined the total amount of ordinary matter using a calculationinvolving light observed that was left over from the Big Bang. But they couldnot actually find half of this matter.
Researchers found thata smaller slice of the missing matter resides in the halos of diffuse materialsurrounding galaxies, including our Milky Way.
Ordinary matter iscomposed of baryons, which are the subatomic particles needed by protons andneutrons to build atoms. Dark matter, on the other hand, is a mysterioussubstance. Scientists do not know what new particle or substance makes up darkmatter.
How did so muchordinary matter end up in the middle of nowhere? Vast amounts of gas areejected from galaxies when massive stars explode as supernovas of whensupermassive black holes inside galaxies “burp,” expelling material afterconsuming stars or gas.
If the universe were amore boring place, or the laws of physics were different, ordinary matter wouldall fall into galaxies, cool down and form stars until every proton and neutronwere a part of a star.
Thus, these violentprocesses throw ordinary matter across immense distances and consign it to thecosmic wilderness. This gas is not in its usual state; it is in the form ofplasma, with its electrons and protons separated.
The missing ordinarymatter was detected and measured by using phenomena called fast radio bursts,or FRBs. These are powerful pulses of radio waves emanating from faraway pointsin the universe. Their exact cause remains mysterious, but a leading hypothesisis that they are produced by highly magnetized neutron stars, which are compactstellar embers left over after a massive star dies in a supernova explosion.
As light in the radiowave frequencies travels from the source to Earth, it becomes dispersed intodifferent wavelengths, just like a prism turns sunlight into a rainbow. Thedegree of dispersion depends on how much matter is in the light’s path. Thisprovides the mechanism for pinpointing and measuring matter where it otherwisewould remain unfound.
Scientists used radiowaves traveling from 69 FRBs. Of these, 39 were discovered using a network of110 telescopes located at Caltech’s Owens Valley Radio Observatory near Bishop,California, which is called the Deep Synoptic Array. The remaining 30 FRBs werediscovered using other telescopes.
The FRBs were locatedat distances up to 9.1 billion light-years from Earth, which is the farthest ofthese on record. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year (5.9trillion miles/9.5 trillion km).
With all the ordinarymatter accounted for, researchers were able to determine its distribution.About 76% resides in intergalactic space, approximately 15% in galaxy halos,with the remaining 9% concentrated within galaxies as stars or gas.
Now they can move on toother mysteries regarding ordinary matter. And beyond that, they still don’tknow the nature of dark matter.
