© Kaori Serakaki (OIST) Illustrations of Ordovician, jawless vertebrates. Left is a _Promissum_ conodont, ranging from 5 to 50 cm in length and named after unusual, cone-like teeth fossils, which are hypothesized to be ancestors of modern lampreys and hagfishes. On the right is a pair of _Sacabambaspis_ , around 35 cm in length, which had distinct, forward-facing eyes and an armored head. Very few conodont species survived the Late Ordovician Extinction Event, and no fossils of animals like _Sacabambaspis_ from after the event have been discovered. © Nobu Tamura (CC BY-SA) The Age of Fishes began with mass death | Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology OIST A recent paper published in _Science Advances_ by Wahei Hagiwara and Professor Lauren Sallan of the Macroevolution Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, Japan, closes a long-standing gap in our understanding of the early radiation of vertebrates into jawed and jawless fishes following the Late Ordovician mass extinction, around ~445–443 million years ago. Their analysis shows that this radiation arose from a small number of fortunate survivors clinging on in ecological refugia. From those few lineages, of course, all modern marine and terrestrial vertebrates ultimately evolved. This study neatly dismantles one of creationism’s favourite rhetorical fallbacks: the claim that Earth was deliberately “fine-tuned” to support complex life, and ultimately humans. The evolutionary pattern revealed here—near-annihilation followed by recovery from a few scattered refugia—is not the signature of foresight or optimisation, but of contingency and survival against the odds. Life does not flourish because conditions are perfectly arranged for it; rather, whatever happens to survive is forced to adapt to whatever conditions remain. The history of vertebrates, like that of life more generally, is therefore not one of careful planning, but of repeated catastrophe followed by opportunistic evolutionary radiation. Creationists are notable for clinging to demonstrably false beliefs in the face of overwhelming evidence, childishly mistaking stubbornness for intellectual strength, rather like a spoilt toddler refusing to accept that they have just lost a game of *Snap!*. Alongside the patently absurd claim that Earth is only 6,000–10,000 years old sits the almost equally untenable belief that the planet was created exactly as it is, perfectly suited for human life. This notion is maintained despite abundant evidence for repeated mass extinctions driven by cosmic impacts, large-scale geological processes such as plate tectonics and associated seismic activity, major reorganisations of ocean circulation, and delicately balanced biogeochemical feedback systems involving oxygenation and carbon cycling that periodically spiral out of control, triggering catastrophic climate change. What the evidence actually reveals is not a cosy, well-regulated world resembling some tranquil small town in Kansas, but a planet that is frequently so hostile to life that much of it is wiped out entirely. Most species go extinct, leaving only a handful of survivors to inherit the aftermath and radiate into new forms adapted to altered conditions—until they too are eliminated by some future catastrophe. The conclusion is unavoidable: Earth is not fine-tuned for human life, or for life in general. Instead, today’s species are the fortunate descendants of a few lucky survivors, shaped by natural selection to fit available ecological niches as neatly as a hand fits a glove. > Creationist Claim vs Reality. > > > > Source: National Geographic > > **Creationist claim:** > Earth was designed as a stable, life-friendly environment, finely tuned from the outset to support complex organisms and ultimately human beings. > > **Reality:** Earth’s history is dominated by instability, violence, and repeated biological collapse. > > Major mass extinctions and their impact > > > * **Late Ordovician (~445–443 million years ago)** > ~85% of marine species lost. Early vertebrate diversity was devastated, with survival restricted to scattered ecological refugia. > * **Late Devonian (~372–359 million years ago)** > ~75% of species lost. Reef ecosystems collapsed repeatedly; early jawed fishes and marine invertebrates were severely reduced. > * **Permian–Triassic (“The Great Dying”, ~252 million years ago)** > ~90–96% of marine species and ~70% of terrestrial vertebrate species wiped out. Entire ecological structures were erased, requiring tens of millions of years to recover. > * **Triassic–Jurassic (~201 million years ago)** > ~80% of species lost. Cleared ecological space that allowed dinosaurs to dominate terrestrial ecosystems. > * **Cretaceous–Palaeogene (~66 million years ago)** > ~75% of species lost, including all non-avian dinosaurs. Mammals and birds radiated only because dominant competitors were eliminated. > > > > > **Bottom line:** > Life on Earth does not persist because conditions are carefully balanced or benevolently maintained. It survives because a few lineages repeatedly endure catastrophe by chance, then diversify into the ecological vacuum left behind. If Earth were truly “fine-tuned” for life, repeated near-sterilisation of the biosphere would not be a defining feature of its history. > > **Failure of Intelligent Design Predictions** > Mass extinctions pose a fundamental problem for Intelligent Design and fine-tuning claims because they represent exactly what a designed biosphere should not exhibit. Design arguments routinely invoke optimisation, foresight, robustness, and stability; yet Earth’s history is marked instead by fragility, repeated collapse, and wholesale ecological failure. Entire, well-established ecosystems have been erased not once, but repeatedly, often by mechanisms external to biology itself—asteroid impacts, massive volcanism, runaway greenhouse effects, and ocean anoxia. Evolutionary theory predicts this pattern precisely: survival is contingent, not guaranteed, and long-term trends are shaped by bottlenecks, chance survival, and post-catastrophe radiation. Intelligent Design, by contrast, makes no coherent prediction that explains why a supposedly engineered world would repeatedly come within a hair’s breadth of biological annihilation. > > The two palaeontologists based their conclusions on an analysis of a comprehensive global database of fossil occurrences. How they carried out this work, and the evolutionary story it reveals, is explained in accessible terms in a research update from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology. > The Age of Fishes began with mass death > > * * * > > New fossil database gives unique insights into the earliest vertebrate ecosystems, revealing how mass extinction events are key drivers of evolutionary diversification. > > * * * > > 445 million years ago, life on our planet was forever changed. During a geological blink of an eye, glaciers formed over the supercontinent Gondwana, drying out many of the vast, shallow seas like a sponge and giving us an ‘icehouse climate’ that, together with radically changed ocean chemistry, ultimately caused the extinction of about 85% of all marine species – the majority of life on Earth. > > In a new Science Advances study, researchers from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) have now proved that from this biological havoc, known as the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME), came an unprecedented richness of vertebrate life. During the upheaval, one group came to dominate all others, putting life on the path to what we know it as today: jawed vertebrates. > > > We have demonstrated that jawed fishes only became dominant because this event happened, and fundamentally, we have nuanced our understanding of evolution by drawing a line between the fossil record, ecology, and biogeography. > > Professor Lauren Sallan, senior author > Macroevolution Unit > Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology > Onnason, Kunigamigun, Okinawa, Japan. > > > A fuller picture of life at the Ordovician sunset > > The Ordovician period, spanning from roughly 486 to 443 million years ago, was a time when Earth looked very different. The southern supercontinent, Gondwana, dominated the planet, surrounded by vast, shallow seas. The poles were ice-free, and the water was pleasantly warm thanks to a greenhouse climate. And while the coasts were slowly being colonized by liverwort-like plants and many-legged arthropods, the surrounding basins were teeming with diverse – and bizarre – forms of life. Large-eyed, lamprey-like conodonts snaked around towering sea sponges, trilobites scuttled among swarms of shelled mollusks, while human-sized sea scorpions and giant nautiloids with pointy shells up to five meters in length patrolled the waters in search of prey. Few and far in between these strange creatures were the humble ancestors of gnathostomes, or jawed vertebrates, which would later come to dominate animal life on the planet. > > > While we don’t know the ultimate causes of LOME, we do know that there was a clear before and after the event. The fossil record shows it. > > Professor Lauren Sallan. > > > The extinction came in two pulses: First, the planet rapidly switched from a greenhouse to an icehouse climate, covering most of Gondwana with glaciers that dried out the shallow ocean habitats. Then, a few million years later, just as biodiversity was beginning to recover, the climate flipped again, melting the icecaps and drowning the now cold-adapted marine life with warm, sulfuric, and oxygen-depleted water. > > During and after these waves of death, most of the vertebrate survivors were confined to refugia – isolated biodiversity hotspots separated by unsurmountable swaths of deep ocean – where surviving gnathostomes evidently had an advantage. > > > We pulled together 200 years of late Ordovician and early Silurian paleontology creating a new database of the fossil record that helped us reconstruct the ecosystems of the refugia. From this, we could quantify the genus-level diversity of the period, showing how LOME led directly to a gradual, but dramatic increase in gnathostome biodiversity. And the trend is clear – the mass extinction pulses led directly to increased speciation after several millions of years. > > Wahei Hagiwara, first autrhor > Macroevolution Unit > Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology > Onnason, Kunigamigun, Okinawa, Japan. > > > > > > > The fall in jawless vertebrates coincides with the rise of jawed vertebrates following the two pulses of the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME). Top genus-level diversity curves follow global, taxonomic richness in genera – i.e. the number of identified genera - per geological stage (A.) and per million years in each stage (B.). Notice the sharp change during the final stage of the Ordovician period, the Hirnantian (Hir). C. shows genus-level richness per stage for 13 different gnathostomes groups. Note that while gnathostomes denote jawed vertebrates today, many jawless forms lived in the Ordovician and Silurian periods, as these split off from our ancestors before the origin of jaws. D. shows diversity curves across 5 major regions at the time, highlighting the impact of isolation to specific refugia. > > > © Hagiwara &anp; Sallan, 2025 > > > From toothed “worms” to Darwin's finches > > In constructing this comprehensive database of fossils from across the world, the researchers were able to link the rising gnathostome biodiversity to not only LOME, but also location. > > > This is the first time that we’ve been able to quantitatively examine the biogeography before and after a mass extinction event. We could trace the movement of species across the globe – and it’s how we’ve been able to identify specific refugia, which we now know played a significant role in the subsequent diversification of all vertebrates. > > Professor Lauren Sallan. > > > > > For example, in what is now South China, we see the first full-body fossils of jawed fishes that are directly related to modern sharks. They were concentrated in these stable refugia for millions of years until they had evolved the ability to cross the open ocean to other ecosystems. > > Wahei Hagiwara > > > By integrating the fossil record with biogeography, morphology, and ecology, these findings have helped nuance our understanding of evolution. > > > Did jaws evolve in order to create a new ecological niche, or did our ancestors fill an existing niche first, and then diversify? Our study points to the latter. In being confined to geographically small areas with lots of open slots in the ecosystem left by the dead jawless vertebrates and other animals, gnathostomes could suddenly inhabit a wide range of different niches. > > Professor Lauren Sallan. > > > A similar trend is clear with Darwin’s finches on the Galápagos Islands, which took advantage of new opportunities to diversify their diet to survive – and over time, their beaks evolved different shapes to better suit the niche they came to occupy. > > While the jawed fishes were trapped in South China, their jawless relatives continued to evolve in parallel elsewhere, ruling the wider seas for the next 40 million years. These diversified into many different forms of reef fishes, some of which had alternative mouth structures. But why jawed fishes, among all other survivors, came to dominate later once they spread from the refugia remains mysterious. > > The researchers found that rather than wiping the slate clean, LOME triggered an ecological reset. Early vertebrates stepped into the niches left vacant by conodonts and arthropods, rebuilding the same ecological structure but with new species. This pattern repeats across the Paleozoic following extinction events driven by similar environmental conditions, forming what the team calls a recurring ‘diversity-reset cycle’ in which evolution restores ecosystems by converging on the same functional designs. > > By integrating location, morphology, ecology, and biodiversity, we can finally see how early vertebrate ecosystems rebuilt themselves after major environmental disruptions. This work helps explain why jaws evolved, why jawed vertebrates ultimately prevailed, and why modern marine life traces back to these survivors rather than to earlier forms like conodonts and trilobites. Revealing these long-term patterns and their underlying processes is one of the exciting aspects of evolutionary biology. > > Professor Lauren Sallan. > > > > Publication: > >> > Show details > Abstract > Most vertebrate lineages are first recorded from the mid-Paleozoic, well after their Cambrian origin and Ordovician invertebrate biodiversification events. This delay has been poorly understood and is usually attributed to sampling and long ghost lineages. We analyzed newly compiled databases of Paleozoic vertebrate occurrences, biogeography, and ecosystems, revealing that the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (~445 to 443 million years ago) triggered parallel, endemic radiations of jawed and related jawless vertebrates (gnathostomes) in isolated refugia. Postextinction ecosystems hosted the first definitive appearances of most major vertebrate lineages of the Paleozoic “Age of Fishes” (and today), following the loss of ubiquitous stem-cyclostome conodonts, nascent faunas of other gnathostomes, and pelagic invertebrates. Turnover and recovery patterns matched those following climatically similar events like the end-Devonian mass extinction, including a postextinction “gap” with low biodiversity. The prolonged Silurian recovery, and the challenges of oceanic dispersal, likely further delayed the dominance of jawed gnathostomes for millions of years after the first fossil jaws. > > > > > > > **Fig. 1. Genus-level diversity curves for gnathostomes from the Ordovician to Silurian.** > (**A**) Genus-level, stage-binned curves of global taxonomic richness for gnathostomes (_N_ = 418) and conodonts (_N_ = 613). (**B**) Diversity curves based on richness per million years (Myr) in each stage. (**C**) Diversity curves for genus-level richness per stage in 13 Paleozoic gnathostome classes (fig. S1). (**D**) Diversity curves for stage-binned gnathostome genus-level richness in five major regions (fig. S1). Species-level curves are shown in fig. S3. Paleomap used with permission 2016 Colorado Plateau Geosystems. Vertebrate reconstructions by N. Tamura used with permission, originally published under a CC BY-SA license ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)]. > > > > **Fig. 2. Change in the composition of gnathostome faunas through time.** > (**A**) Histogram of species-level faunal composition for all 169 Ordovician-Silurian faunas (1156 species-level occurrences) (data S1). Species are binned into 13 major gnathostomes groups as in Fig. 1. The geological timescale (9) corresponds to the series-level age of each site as some faunas span multiple stages. (**B**) CCA of group-binned species diversity for a subsample of 101 faunas containing at least three species (1076 species occurrences). Filled triangles indicate marine sites, whereas open circles indicate nonmarine. Left: Fauna ordination plot (_N_ = 101), with the most disparate Ordovician and Silurian faunas on each axis indicated (_N_ = 9). Sites F5, F7, and F9 shared the same score and thus overlap at the same coordinate. Right: Group ordination plot (_N_ = 13). Biplot arrows represent the eight gnathostome groups with the highest contributions to fauna position and two explanatory variables (series or geological time; environment) based on their correlation with taxon distribution. (**C**) NMDS based on gnathostome group species richness at faunas and Bray-Curtis distances, with the seven most disparate Ordovician and Silurian faunas on each axis indicated. Alternative groupings combining Chondrichthyes and Acanthodii shows the same result (figs. S11 to S17). Vertebrate reconstructions by N. Tamura used with permission, originally published under a CC BY-SA license ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)]. > > * * * > > > > **Fig. 3. Species-level richness by geological series for 13 gnathostome groups in five Paleozoic geographic regions (Gondwana, Siberian, Laurasia, Baltic, and China).** > (**A**) Lower Ordovician (~487 to 471 Ma). (**B**) Middle Ordovician (~471 to 458 Ma). (**C**) Upper Ordovician (~458 to 443 Ma). (**D**) Llandovery Silurian (~443 to 433 Ma). (**E**) Wenlock Silurian (~433 to 427 Ma). (**F**) Ludlow Silurian (~427 to 423 Ma). (**G**) Pridoli Silurian (~423 to 420 Ma). Maps used with permission 2016 Colorado Plateau Geosystems Inc. Vertebrate reconstructions by N. Tamura used with permission, originally published under a CC BY-SA license ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)]. > > > > **Fig. 4. Comparison of jawed and jawless gnathostome diversity trends over the mid-Paleozoic.** > (**A**) Histogram showing species-level richness for jawed and jawless gnathostomes for faunas from Ordovician to Silurian, using the same dataset as in Fig. 1A excluding “Unknown” species (_N_ = 1144 species occurrences). Group assignment based on taxonomic attribution, rather than direct evidence for jaws. (**B**) Global diversity curves for stage-binned genus richness for jawless (_N_ = 830) and jawed (_N_ = 1188) gnathostome groups for the Silurian and Devonian, with the timescale based on (9). (**C**) Global diversity curves for stage-binned genus richness per million years. Vertebrate reconstructions by N. Tamura used with permission, originally published under a CC BY-SA license ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)]. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

The Krainer lab developed 12 initial ASO drug candidates. The best performing ASO—ASO-A—completely broke the SRSF1-AURKA-MYC circuit, leading to slower tumor growth and cell death. Untreated PDAC tumor organoid PDAC tumor organoid after treatment with ASO-A CSHL’s Krainer lab has discovered a key oncogenic circuit driving aggressive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) progression. Using human PDAC tumor organoids, seen here, the team developed a potential RNA splicing-based therapeutic that collapses the circuit. Short-circuiting pancreatic cancer | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory These examples of what Discovery Institute fellows Michael J. Behe and William A. Dembski call _“irreducible complexity”_ and _“complex specified information”_ respectively — cited by them as evidence for an intelligent designer — are now being discovered with such monotonous regularity that it is astonishing they never appear in any of the Discovery Institute’s anti-evolution, anti-science propaganda. The answer to that conundrum is, of course, that such examples are far more frequently found in parasites, pathogens, and idiopathic conditions such as cancer and autoimmune disease. No self-respecting religious fundamentalist is going to open that particular can of worms and appear to be promoting a manifestly malevolent god. It is far safer to remain silent and instead present cult followers with carefully curated examples of supposedly “beneficial” complexity, selected to appeal to their pre-existing biases. Nevertheless, here is yet another example whose refusal to be addressed by creationists neatly illustrates the disingenuous nature of these alleged “proofs of intelligent design”. The news comes from a paper just published in the Cell Press journal, _Molecular Cell_, which shows how pancreatic cancer—specifically pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC)—depends on a complex regulatory circuit consisting of three key components. The research, conducted by a team from _Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory_ (CSHL) and led by former CSHL graduate student Alexander Kral, builds on earlier work by Professor Adrian Krainer, who discovered that the protein SRSF1 jump-starts PDAC. The new study shows that SRSF1 does not act alone, but forms one of three interdependent “pillars” in this malignant system—the other two being Aurora kinase A (AURKA) and the oncogene _MYC_. In laboratory experiments, disabling any one of these three components using RNA-based therapy collapsed the circuit, reduced tumour viability, and triggered programmed cell death. In Michael Behe’s terms, reducing the complexity kills the system. In William Dembski’s terms, destroying the “complex specified genetic information” kills the cancer cells. This leaves creationists who are honest enough to confront the evidence with a stark choice: either this is evidence that their intelligent designer deliberately designed pancreatic cancer, or Behe’s and Dembski’s long-trumpeted “proofs of intelligent design” are nothing of the sort. Some of the less scientifically literate will, predictably, invoke _“The Fall”_ , thereby revealing once again that Intelligent Design creationism is not science at all. It is merely Bible-literalist religious fundamentalism dressed up in a laboratory coat — exactly what the Discovery Institute has been attempting to smuggle into US classrooms ever since the 1987 Supreme Court ruling in _Edwards v. Aguillard_ made it clear that teaching creationism in public schools violates the Establishment Clause of the US First Amendment. > Creationist Claims vs Reality. **Claim:** > *“ _Irreducible complexity proves intelligent design.”_ > — advocated by **Michael J. Behe** > > **Reality:** > Irreducibly complex systems are routinely found in **pathological biological processes** , including cancers, parasites, and pathogens. The pancreatic cancer regulatory circuit involving SRSF1, AURKA, and _MYC_ is irreducibly complex in precisely Behe’s sense — yet its destruction halts disease and kills tumour cells. If irreducible complexity implies design, then cancer is designed. > > > > * * * > > > **Claim:** > _“Complex specified information cannot arise naturally.”_ > — asserted by **William A. Dembski** > > **Reality:** > The cancer-promoting gene network described here contains complex, specific, functional genetic information. Disrupting that information destroys the system. Either such information can arise through natural evolutionary processes—or the “designer” intentionally engineered lethal disease. There is no third option. > > > > * * * > > > **Claim:** > _“Intelligent Design predicts beneficial, life-enhancing systems.”_ > > **Reality:** > ID has **no predictive power**. It selectively highlights systems that appear beneficial while systematically ignoring equally complex systems that cause suffering and death. This is confirmation bias, not science. > > > > * * * > > > **Claim:** > _“Diseases result from ‘The Fall’, not design.”_ > > **Reality:** > Invoking _The Fall_ abandons science entirely and admits that Intelligent Design is merely **theology in disguise**. Scientific theories explain observations without recourse to supernatural events. Once theological excuses are introduced, ID ceases to be falsifiable and fails as a science. > > > > * * * > > > **Bottom line:** > If the criteria of Intelligent Design are applied consistently, pancreatic cancer qualifies as a designed system. If that conclusion is rejected, then the criteria themselves are meaningless — and Intelligent Design collapses as a scientific claim. The work of the CSHL team is explained for a lay readership in a CSHL news item. > Short-circuiting pancreatic cancer > > * * * > > Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most lethal form of pancreas cancer. It’s also the most common form of the disease. Potential treatments typically target a key mutated oncogene called KRAS. In some cases, PDAC tumors with these mutations have resisted therapeutic efforts. However, combination therapies involving alternative drug targets may one day help clinicians overwhelm these defenses. > > * * * > > The Takeaway > The Krainer lab discovered a three-oncogene circuit that helps drive the aggressive progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Using antisense oligonucleotide technology, the team developed a potential RNA therapy. In lab tests, the new treatment broke the cancerous circuit, reduced tumor viability, and triggered a type of programmed cell death. > > > In 2023, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Professor Adrian Krainer’s lab discovered how the protein SRSF1 jumpstarts PDAC tumor development. Now, after revisiting data from that study, a team led by former CSHL graduate student Alexander Kral has found that SRSF1 doesn’t act alone. Instead, the protein is one of three pillars in a key circuit promoting aggressive PDAC progression. > > Our theory was that some of the changes caused by increased levels of SRSF1 were playing a role in the accelerated tumor growth we were seeing. We homed in on a molecule we thought could be an important driver of this called Aurora kinase A (AURKA). We found it’s part of a complex regulatory circuit that includes not only AURKA and SRSF1, but another key oncogene called MYC. > > Alexander J. Kral, lead author > Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory > Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA. > > > In this circuit, SRSF1 regulates AURKA through a process called alternative splicing. This increases AURKA production, which allows it to stabilize and protect the MYC protein. MYC then increases SRSF1 levels, restarting the loop. > > > Bits and pieces of this circuit were known previously, but we didn’t have the full picture until now. Once we figured out alternative splicing of AURKA was involved, we could start looking into ways to disrupt it. > > Professor Adrian R. Krainer, senior author > Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory > Cold Spring Harbor, NY, USA. > > > The team developed an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) to alter the process. These molecules are a specialty of the Krainer lab. They previously developed an ASO called Spinraza, the first-ever FDA-approved treatment for spinal muscular atrophy. Based on their observations, the team hoped their new ASO could obstruct AURKA’s alternative splicing. Remarkably, in pancreatic cancer, the ASO didn’t just interfere. It collapsed the entire oncogenic circuit. This reduced tumor cells’ overall viability and triggered a programmed cell death called apoptosis. > > > It’s like killing three birds with one stone. SRSF1, AURKA, and MYC are all oncogenes contributing to PDAC progression. Just by targeting AURKA splicing with our ASO, we see the loss of these other two molecules as well./p> > > Professor Adrian R. Krainer. > > > The Krainer lab is now working to refine their ASO. Potential clinical applications are still a long way off. However, Krainer says every clinical breakthrough begins with such basic research. That was true of Spinraza, which has saved thousands of lives. So, hopefully, it will be for the next lifesaving cancer treatment. > > Publication: > >> [Kral, Alexander J.; Jia, Lu; Sim, GeunYoung; Wan, Ledong; Ishigami, Yuma; Krainer, Adrian R. > **Splice-switching ASOs targeting the _AURKA_ 5′ UTR collapse an SRSF1-AURKA-MYC oncogenic circuit in pancreatic cancer** > _Molecular Cell_ (2026) **86**(1) 60-77.e7, DOI: 0.1016/j.molcel.2025.12.004.](https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765%2825%2900978-5) > > > Show details > Highlights > > * SRSF1 controls AURKA 5′ UTR alternative splicing in pancreatic cancer > * Alu-derived exon 2 inclusion drives splicing-dependent AURKA expression > * AURKA splicing establishes an oncogenic circuit linking SRSF1, AURKA, and MYC > * ASOs targeting AURKA disrupt the SRSF1-AURKA-MYC oncogenic circuit > Summary > Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a highly lethal malignancy, driven by oncogenic KRAS mutations and dysregulated oncogenes, including SRSF1, MYC, and Aurora kinase A (AURKA). Although KRAS-targeted therapies are in development, resistance mechanisms underscore the need to identify alternative vulnerabilities. Here, we uncover an SRSF1-AURKA-MYC oncogenic circuit, wherein SRSF1 regulates AURKA 5′ UTR alternative splicing, enhancing AURKA protein expression; AURKA positively regulates SRSF1 and MYC post-translationally, independently of its kinase activity; and MYC transcriptionally upregulates both SRSF1 and AURKA. Elevated SRSF1 in tumor cells promotes inclusion of an Alu-derived exon in the AURKA 5′ UTR, resulting in splicing-dependent mRNA accumulation and exon-junction-complex deposition. Modulating 5′ UTR splicing with splice-switching antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) collapses the oncogenic circuit, reducing PDAC cell viability and triggering apoptosis. Our findings identify AURKA alternative splicing as a critical regulatory node and highlight a potential therapeutic strategy that simultaneously targets SRSF1, AURKA, and MYC oncogenes. > > Graphical abstract > > > > > > > > > [Kral, Alexander J.; Jia, Lu; Sim, GeunYoung; Wan, Ledong; Ishigami, Yuma; Krainer, Adrian R. > **Splice-switching ASOs targeting the _AURKA_ 5′ UTR collapse an SRSF1-AURKA-MYC oncogenic circuit in pancreatic cancer** > _Molecular Cell_ (2026) **86**(1) 60-77.e7, DOI: 0.1016/j.molcel.2025.12.004.](https://www.cell.com/molecular-cell/fulltext/S1097-2765%2825%2900978-5) > > Copyright: © 2026 The authors. > Published by Elsevier. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) This work leaves Intelligent Design in an untenable position. The very criteria that Behe and Dembski have spent decades promoting as hallmarks of a designing intelligence—interdependent parts, tightly regulated circuits, and highly specific functional information—are now being documented most clearly in systems that cause profound harm. When the removal of a single component collapses a cancerous network and kills tumour cells, the appeal to “irreducible complexity” ceases to look like evidence of design and starts to look like a description of biological fragility shaped by evolutionary processes. Creationists are therefore faced with a dilemma entirely of their own making. Either their intelligent designer deliberately engineered pancreatic cancer, complete with elegant regulatory feedback loops and lethal efficiency, or the concepts of irreducible complexity and complex specified information are not indicators of design at all. The routine retreat to theological explanations such as *“The Fall”* merely underscores the point: Intelligent Design cannot function as science because, when confronted with inconvenient evidence, it abandons testable explanations in favour of religious doctrine. As studies like this continue to accumulate, the selective silence of the Intelligent Design movement becomes ever more conspicuous. The failure to engage with such findings is not an oversight, but a tacit admission that their central claims cannot survive contact with real biology. Far from rescuing creationism, modern molecular biology is steadily dismantling it—one complex, lethal, and entirely natural system at a time. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Pencil marks note specific years along tree rings from a Japanese cedar. Tomozo Yagi/AP Images for American Association for the Advancement of Science (“AAAS”); publisher of Science **A cosmic carbon spike** Cosmic rays from solar flares or other extraterrestrial sources collide with gas molecules in our atmosphere, spawning neutrons. When a free neutron knocks a proton out of a nitrogen atom, it forms the radioisotope carbon-14 (14C). The more energetic the event, the higher the ratio of 14C to stable carbon isotopes. Trees breathe in these isotopes as carbon dioxide (CO2) Marking time: Cosmic ray storms can pin precise dates on history from ancient Egypt to the Vikings | Science | AAAS As though 2026 hadn't started badly enough for creationism, it just got a whole lot worse, with news that geochronologists have a method with which they can pinpoint carbon-14 dates to exact years, removing virtually all sources of error and, devastatingly for creationists, one of their traditional ways to dismiss evidence they don't like has evaporated. But this isn't new information; it's something creationists have either been kept ignorant of, have been pretending not to know about it, or, more likely, did not understand the subject well enough to realise it refuted their claims. It was actually published in _Science_ in April 2023 One of the most persistent fall-back positions in creationist rhetoric is not to deny individual discoveries outright, but to retreat into claims that scientific dating methods are too uncertain to be trusted. Radiocarbon dating, in particular, is routinely portrayed as vague, circular, or endlessly “adjusted” to fit preconceived evolutionary timelines. This claim relies heavily on the idea that dates come with wide error bars that can supposedly be stretched, compressed, or reinterpreted to accommodate a much younger history. Creationists also rely on the unsupported assertion that radioactive decay rates were much higher once upon a time - a process that coincidentally stopped as soon as we developed the technology to measure it accurately. This claim also sits uncomfortably with another creationist claim - that the Universe is so fine-tuned that altering any of its parameters by even the smallest an=mount would make life impossible. The inconsistency of these two claims is lost on those who have no understanding of how radioactive decay depends on nuclear forces and altering those would make the formation of atoms impossible, so high decay rates when they believe life was created would mean not even Earth could exist, let alone organic molecules. But perhaps the most amusing accusations against science is that carbon-14 dating assumes a constant ratio of carbon-14 to carbon-12 in the atmosphere, but in fact it is variable, depending on solar activity. Not only is this known and is routinely compensated for using dendrochronology because tree rings contain an accurate record of these changes, but it forms the very basis of this devastating rebuttal of creationist claims - we can accurately pinpoint spikes in carbon-14 production and correlate them with known events in history, thus removing any reasonable margin of error. A contemporary magazine illustration depicted the radiant aura of 1859. Harper's New Monthly Magazine The research discussed in _Science_ explains how. Over the past decade, scientists have identified abrupt, globally synchronous spikes in atmospheric carbon-14 caused by extreme cosmic-ray or solar particle events. These events leave a sharp, unmistakable signature in annually resolved natural archives such as tree rings. Unlike conventional radiocarbon calibration, which often yields date ranges spanning decades, these spikes function as precise chronological anchors: once a spike is identified in a sample, individual annual growth rings can be counted forward or backward to yield an exact calendar year. This is not a refinement at the margins. It is a qualitative shift in how securely the past can be dated. Why this matters for creationist claims Creationist arguments about dating typically exploit uncertainty. When radiocarbon dates are expressed as ranges, critics claim that the entire chronological framework is subjective or adjustable. The existence of discrete, globally recorded cosmic-ray events removes that ambiguity. These events are not regional, cultural, or theoretical constructs; they are physical phenomena recorded simultaneously across the planet. > L'Anse aux Meadows. > > > > Historic living history reconstruction based on the excavations at L'Anse aux Meadows, a Norse settlement in Newfoundland. > > > > Getty Images / Russ Heinl / All Canad Photos > > L’Anse aux Meadows is a UNESCO World Heritage Site on the northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada. It is the only confirmed site of a Norse settlement in North America and provides archaeological evidence of Viking exploration around the year 1000 CE. The site’s discovery fundamentally changed understanding of pre-Columbian transatlantic contact. **Key facts** > > * **Location:** Northern tip of Newfoundland, Canada > * **Established (rediscovered):** 1960 > * **Period of occupation:** Circa 1000 CE > * **UNESCO inscription:** 1978 > * **Designation:** National Historic Site of Canada > **Discovery and excavation** > > Norwegian explorer Helge Ingstad and archaeologist Anne Stine Ingstad identified the site in 1960 after local residents pointed out ancient mounds resembling Norse ruins. Excavations uncovered turf-walled buildings, iron nails, and other artifacts consistent with Viking construction found in Iceland and Greenland. These findings confirmed the first known European presence in North America nearly 500 years before Christopher Columbus. > > **Historical significance** > > L’Anse aux Meadows is widely associated with the Vinland sagas, which describe Norse voyages from Greenland to lands westward. Archaeological evidence suggests it served as a short-term base for exploration and resource gathering rather than a permanent colony. Its existence supports the authenticity of medieval Norse accounts of transatlantic travel. > > **Preservation and interpretation** > > The site is jointly managed by Parks Canada and the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador. Visitors can explore reconstructed Norse buildings, view original excavation areas, and learn about Viking seafaring culture. As a protected heritage site, L’Anse aux Meadows continues to be a focus of archaeological study and public education on early European exploration of the Americas. Because the spikes appear in tree rings worldwide, they allow independent chronologies to be locked together. Once such a spike is identified, it becomes impossible to compress centuries of history into a few decades without denying the existence of annually formed growth rings themselves — a denial that would contradict basic plant biology and observable modern processes. In short, the “you can’t really know the date” argument collapses when the date is pinned to a specific calendar year by a globally synchronised physical signal. Concrete examples already in use The most widely cited demonstration of this method is its application to Norse archaeology in North America. Wood recovered from Viking structures at L’Anse aux Meadows contains a known carbon-14 spike from a cosmic-ray event that occurred in 993–994 CE. By counting annual growth rings from that spike to the bark edge, researchers established that the trees were felled in 1021 CE. This provides an exact year for Viking activity in the Americas — something previously thought unattainable. That result alone is devastating to claims that archaeological dating is inherently imprecise or speculative. The same approach is now being extended to much older contexts. In ancient Egypt, where debates over “high” and “low” chronologies have sometimes been seized upon by creationists as evidence of historical chaos, cosmic-ray markers offer a way to synchronise wooden artefacts, papyri, and construction materials to absolute calendar years. As more of these spikes are mapped and identified, floating chronologies become fixed ones. Importantly, these markers are not limited to Europe or the Mediterranean. Because the events are global, they can be used to cross-check dates across continents and cultures, independently of written records or historical assumptions. Closing off the escape route Creationism has long survived not by providing a coherent alternative chronology, but by attacking the perceived weaknesses of scientific dating. That strategy depends on uncertainty. Cosmic-ray radiocarbon time-stamps dramatically reduce that uncertainty and, in some cases, eliminate it altogether. What this research demonstrates is that human history is not just ancient, but precisely dated. It shows that science is not hand-waving its way through the past with flexible estimates, but increasingly able to assign exact years to events thousands of years ago using independent, physical evidence. For creationist arguments that rely on claims of chronological vagueness or arbitrariness, this is not merely inconvenient. It is existentially damaging. The escape hatch of “you can’t really know the dates” is being sealed shut, one cosmic-ray storm at a time. And there is an additional source of embarrassment for creationists in that these spikes of solar radiation don't just cause a rise in the level of carbon-14 but they also produce two other radioisotopes — beryllium-10 and chlorine-36 — in the upper atmosphere. Unlike carbon-14 which gets bound up in living tissues, these isotopes are brought to the surface of Earth in rain and snow and get deposited in discrete, detectable layers in polar ice cores, producing spikes there too, which can then be accurately correlated with the known dates from tree rings. And of course, ice cores record the passage of deep time on an Earth very much older than creationists claim. Publication: > Michael Price > **Marking time - Radiocarbon timestamps left in ancient tree rings by cosmic ray bombardments can date historical events with unprecedented precision** > _Science_ , Vol **380** , Issue 6641. > > > Show details > * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Thomas Quarry I, Grotte à Hominidés: Mandible ThI-GH-10717 during the excavation. © J.P. Raynal, Programme Préhistoire de Casablanca 773,000-year-old mandible ThI-GH-1 from Thomas Quarry in Morocco. © Hamza Mehimdate, Programme Préhistoire de Casablanca. Early hominins from Thomas Quarry I (Morocco) reveal an African lineage near the root of Homo sapiens The discovery and dating (of which more later) of hominin remains in a Moroccan quarry, reported recently in _Nature_, has provided further confirmation that the origin of _Homo sapiens_ lies in Africa, not Eurasia, contrary to an alternative hypothesis that has occasionally been proposed. The material consists of mandibles and other fragmentary remains, and also sheds light on the evolutionary origins of Neanderthals and Denisovans. That is not to say that any serious palaeoanthropologists believed humans evolved wholly in Eurasia. Rather, some suggested that the final stages of _Homo sapiens_ evolution may have occurred there, derived from descendants of earlier African migrants such as _H. erectus_ , _H. rhodesiensis_ , or _H. antecessor_. Others have argued that the so-called ‘muddle in the middle’ of the hominin family tree may represent a single, widely distributed species exhibiting regional variation across both Africa and Eurasia. However, the Moroccan specimens display a clear mosaic of primitive and derived features — precisely the pattern that creationists call ‘transitional species’ and insist don't exist. These fossils combine traits seen in African sister lineages with features associated with _H. antecessor_ , a pre-Neanderthal/Denisovan European species whose remains are being excavated at the _Sima de los Huesos_ (Cave of Bones) site at Atapuerca, Spain. The fossils are also exceptionally valuable for palaeoanthropology for another reason. The sediments in which they were found preserve the unmistakable signature of the Matuyama–Brunhes geomagnetic reversal, which occurred around 773,000 years ago when Earth’s magnetic poles flipped. This provides an unusually robust chronological anchor, as the timing of this reversal has been independently verified from multiple, entirely separate lines of evidence. There is therefore a great deal here for creationists to attempt to dismiss. First, there is the mosaic of primitive and derived features that identify these fossils as genuinely transitional — something creationism insists does not exist. Second, there is the age of the material, securely dated to approximately 763,000 years (±4,000 years) before creationists insist Earth was magicked out of nothing, placing ancestral hominins hundreds of thousands of years before the Bronze Age biblical story of a single, ancestor-free human couple. Finally, and perhaps most inconveniently of all, the dating does not rely on radiometric methods at all, but on geomagnetic reversal stratigraphy, verified beyond any reasonable doubt. The biblical timeline is therefore wrong by many orders of magnitude. > Background^ Geomagnetic Reversals and Why They Matter. > > > > Earth’s magnetic field is generated by convection currents in its liquid outer core. Over geological time, this field has repeatedly **reversed polarity** , with magnetic north and south swapping places. These events are known as _geomagnetic reversals_ and occur irregularly, typically every few hundred thousand years. > > When volcanic rocks cool or sediments settle, iron-bearing minerals within them align with the direction of Earth’s magnetic field at that moment. Once locked in place, this magnetic orientation is preserved indefinitely. As a result, rock sequences record a barcode-like pattern of normal and reversed polarity that can be read long after deposition. > > One of the most important of these events is the **Matuyama–Brunhes magnetic reversal** , which occurred about 773,000 years ago. It marks the boundary between a long period of reversed polarity (the Matuyama Chron) and the current normal-polarity interval (the Brunhes Chron). This reversal has been independently identified in marine sediments, ice cores, volcanic flows, and continental deposits across the globe. > > Because geomagnetic reversals are: > > * **Global** (they occur everywhere at once), > * **Non-biological** (unaffected by climate or ecology), > * **Independently dated** using multiple methods, > they provide one of the most reliable chronological anchors in Earth science. When fossils are found in sediments showing a known magnetic polarity, their age can be constrained with exceptional precision — without relying on radiometric dating at all. > > In the case of the Moroccan hominin fossils, their position relative to the Matuyama–Brunhes reversal fixes them at approximately **760,000 years old** , with a very small margin of error. This places them deep in the Middle Pleistocene and utterly incompatible with any young-Earth or biblical chronology. > > For creationism, geomagnetic reversals present an unsolvable problem: they are real, physical events recorded worldwide, repeated many times, and stacked in a consistent order far older than any proposed creation date. There is no coherent alternative explanation within a biblical framework, other than that the physical evidence is a lie created to deceive. The discovery, made by an international research team led by Jean-Jacques Hublin (Collège de France & Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), David Lefèvre (Université de Montpellier Paul-Valéry), Giovanni Muttoni (Università degli Studi di Milano), and Abderrahim Mohib (Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine, Morocco), is described in a press release from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. > Early hominins from Morocco reveal an African lineage near the root of _Homo sapiens_ > > * * * > > 773,000-year-old fossils from Thomas Quarry I in Morocco illuminate the shared ancestry of _Homo sapiens_ , Neandertals, and Denisovans > > * * * > > To the point > > * **Precisely dated fossils:** A high-resolution magnetostratigraphic record at Thomas Quarry I captures the Matuyama–Brunhes reversal at around 773,000 years ago, providing one of the most accurate ages for an African Pleistocene hominin assemblage. > * **Near the root of our lineage:** Mandibles and other remains show a mosaic of archaic and derived traits consistent with an African sister population to Homo antecessor, near the divergence of Middle Pleistocene Eurasian and African hominin lineages. > * **Northwestern Africa’s key role:** Decades of Moroccan-French research in the Casablanca coastal formations reveal a uniquely preserved cave sequence and carnivore-den context, highlighting the region’s importance in early _Homo_ evolution. > > > An international research team led by Jean-Jacques Hublin (Collège de France & Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), David Lefèvre (Université de Montpellier Paul Valéry), Giovanni Muttoni (Università degli Studi di Milano) and Abderrahim Mohib (Moroccan Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine, INSAP) reports the analysis of new hominin fossils from the site of Thomas Quarry I (Casablanca, Morocco). The fossils are very securely dated to 773,000 plus/minus 4,000 years ago, thanks to a high-resolution magnetostratigraphic record capturing in detail the Brunhes/Matuyama boundary, the last main geomagnetic polarity reversal and precise temporal markers of the Quaternary. Published in Nature, this work highlights African populations near the base of the lineage that eventually gave rise to Homo sapiens, providing new insights into the shared ancestry of H. sapiens, Neandertals, and Denisovans. > > Decades of Moroccan-French fieldwork lead to major new discoveries > > The results presented here stem from over three decades of continuous archaeological and geological research conducted in the framework of the Moroccan-French Program “Préhistoire de Casablanca”. This program conducts extensive excavations, systematic stratigraphic studies, and large-scale geoarchaeological analyses in the southwest part of the city of Casablanca. > > This patient and rigorous fieldwork progressively revealed the exceptional stratigraphic, palaeoenvironmental and archaeological setting of Thomas Quarry I, ultimately leading to the discovery of the hominin remains and geological sequences that underpin the present study. > > > The success of this long-term research reflects a strong institutional collaboration involving the Ministère de la Jeunesse, de la Culture et de la Communication Département de la Culture of the Kingdom of Morocco (through INSAP) and the Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires Étrangères of France (through the French Archaeological Mission Casablanca). > > Abderrahim Mohib, senior author > Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine > Rabat, Morocco > > > The present study was also supported by the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy), the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany), the LabEx Archimède – University of Montpellier Paul Valéry, the University of Bordeaux and the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (France). > > A unique geological setting: the Moroccan Atlantic coast as a Pleistocene treasure house > > > Thomas Quarry I lies within the raised coastal formations of the Rabat–Casablanca littoral, a region internationally renowned for its exceptional succession of Plio-Pleistocene palaeoshorelines, coastal dunes and cave systems. These geological formations, resulting from repeated sea-level oscillations, aeolian phases, and rapid early cementation of coastal sands, offer ideal conditions for fossil and archaeological preservation. > > Jean-Paul Raynal, co-author > Institut National des Sciences de l’Archéologie et du Patrimoine > Rabat, Morocco > > > As result, the Casablanca region has become one of Africa’s richest repositories of Pleistocene palaeontology and archaeology, documenting the early Acheulean and its developments, diverse faunas reflecting environmental change, and several phases of hominin occupation. > > Thomas Quarry I, excavated into the Oulad Hamida Formation, is particularly well known for containing the oldest Acheulean industries of north-western Africa dated to around 1.3 million years ago and lies close to other celebrated sites such as Sidi Abderrahmane, a classic reference for Middle Pleistocene prehistory in the Northwest Africa. > > > [Within this wider complex, the “Grotte à Hominidés” constitutes] a unique cave system carved by a marine highstand into earlier coastal formations and later filled with sediments that preserved hominin fossils in a secure, undisturbed and undisputable stratigraphic context. > > David Lefèvre, co-author > LabEx Archimède and ASM-UMR 5140 > Université de Montpellier Paul Valéry, CNRS, > Montpellier, France. > > > A uniquely well-dated hominin assemblage in Africa > > Dating Early and Middle Pleistocene fossils is notoriously difficult, due to discontinuous stratigraphies or methods affected by considerable uncertainty. The Grotte à Hominidés is exceptional because rapid sedimentation and continuous deposition allowed to capture a high-resolution magnetic signal recorded within sediments with remarkable detail. > > Earth’s magnetic field reverses polarity episodically over geological time. These paleomagnetic reversals occur worldwide and almost instantaneously on geological timescales, leaving in sediments a sharp, globally synchronous signal. The Matuyama–Brunhes transition (MBT), which occurred around 773,000 years ago, is the most recent of these major reversals and constitutes one of the most precise markers available to geologists and archaeologists. > > > Seeing the Matuyama–Brunhes transition recorded with such resolution in the ThI-GH deposits allows us to anchor the presence of these hominins within an exceptionally precise chronological framework for the African Pleistocene. > > Serena Perini, co-corresponding author > Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “A. Desio” > Università degli Studi di Milano > Milan, Italy. > > > The Grotte à Hominidés sequence spans the end of the Matuyama Chron (reverse polarity), the MBT itself, and the onset of the Brunhes Chron (normal polarity). Using 180 magnetostratigraphic samples - an unprecedented resolution for a Pleistocene hominin site - the team established the exact position of the reverse-to-normal switch, currently dated at 773,000 years, and even captured the short duration of the transition (8,000 to 11,000 years). It is chronologically valuable that the sediments containing the hominin fossils were deposited precisely during this transition. Additional faunal evidence independently supports this age, affirming the primacy of magnetostratigraphy over other methods for establishing the chronology of this site. > > Hominins close to the root of the Homo sapiens lineage > > > > Lower jaws (mandibles) from North Africa, illustrating variation among fossil hominins and modern humans. The fossils shown are Tighennif 3 from Algeria (upper left), ThI-GH-10717 from Thomas Quarry in Morocco (upper right), and Jebel Irhoud 11 from Morocco (lower left), compared with a mandible from a recent modern human (lower right). All specimens are shown at the same scale, allowing direct comparison of their size and shape. > > > > © Philipp Gunz, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology > > > The hominin remains come from what appears to have been a carnivore den, as suggested by a hominin femur showing clear traces of gnawing and consumption. The assemblage includes a nearly complete adult mandible, a second adult half mandible, a child mandible, several vertebrae, and isolated teeth. > > High-resolution micro-CT imaging, geometric morphometrics, and comparative anatomical analysis reveal a mosaic of archaic and derived traits. Several characteristics recall hominins from Gran Dolina, Atapuerca, of comparable age – the so-called Homo antecessor - suggesting that very ancient population contacts between north-west Africa and southern Europe may once have existed. However, by the time of the Matuyama–Brunhes transition, these populations appear to have been already clearly separated, implying that any such exchanges must have occurred earlier. > > > Using microCT imaging we were able to study a hidden internal structure of the teeth, referred to as the enamel-dentine junction, which is known to be taxonomically informative and which is preserved in teeth where the enamel surface is worn away. Analysis of this structure consistently shows the Grotte à Hominidés hominins to be distinct from both Homo erectus and Homo antecessor, identifying them as representative of populations that could be basal to Homo sapiens and archaic Eurasian lineages. > > Matthew M. Skinner, co-author > Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology > Leipzig, Germany. > > > > > In their shapes and non-metric traits, the teeth from Grotte à Hominidés retain many primitive features and lack the traits that are characteristic of Neandertals. In this sense, they differ from Homo antecessor, which - in some features - are beginning to resemble Neandertals. The dental morphological analyses indicate that regional differences in human populations may have been already present by the end of the Early Pleistocene. > > Shara Bailey, co-author > Centre for the Study of Human Origins > Dept. Anthropology > New York University > New York, NY, USA. > > > A new window on the last common ancestor of humans and Neandertals > > This discovery highlights that Northwest Africa played a major role in the early evolutionary history of the genus _Homo_ , at a time when climatic oscillations periodically opened ecological corridors across what is now the Sahara. > > > The idea that the Sahara was a permanent biogeographic barrier does not hold for this period. The palaeontological evidence shows repeated connections between Northwest Africa and the savannas of the East and South. > > Denis Geraads, co-author > CR2P-UMR 7207, CNRS, MNHN, > Sorbonne Université, > Paris, France. > > > The hominins from the Grotte à Hominidés are almost contemporaneous with the hominins from Gran Dolina, older than Middle Pleistocene fossils ancestral to Neanderthals and Denisovans, and roughly 500,000 years earlier than the earliest Homo sapiens remains from Jebel Irhoud. In their combination of archaic African traits with traits that approach later Eurasian and African Middle Pleistocene morphologies, the hominins from the Grotte à Hominidés provide essential clues about the last common ancestor of Homo sapiens, Neandertals, and Denisovans—estimated from genetic evidence to have lived between 765,000 and 550,000 years ago. Paleontological evidence from the Grotte à Hominidés aligns most closely with the older part of this interval. > > > [T]he fossils from the Grotte à Hominidés may be the best candidates we currently have for African populations lying near the root of this shared ancestry, thus reinforcing the view of a deep African origin for our species. > > Jean-Jacques Hublin, lead author > Chaire de Paléoanthropologie, CIRB > Collège de France > Université PSL, CNRS, > Paris, France. > > > Publication: > >> Hublin, JJ., Lefèvre, D., Perini, S. _et al._ **Early hominins from Morocco basal to the Homo sapiens lineage.** _Nature_ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09914-y > > > Show details > Abstract > Palaeogenetic evidence suggests that the last common ancestor of present-day humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans lived around 765–550 thousand years ago (ka)1. However, both the geographical distribution and the morphology of these ancestral humans remain uncertain. The _Homo antecessor_ fossils from the TD6 layer of Gran Dolina at Atapuerca, Spain, dated between 950 ka and 770 ka (ref. 2), have been proposed as potential candidates for this ancestral population3. However, all securely dated _Homo sapiens_ fossils before 90 ka were found either in Africa or at the gateway to Asia, strongly suggesting an African rather than a Eurasian origin of our species. Here we describe new hominin fossils from the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I (ThI-GH) in Casablanca, Morocco, dated to around 773 ka. These fossils are similar in age to _H. antecessor_ , yet are morphologically distinct, displaying a combination of primitive traits and of derived features reminiscent of later _H. sapiens_ and Eurasian archaic hominins. The ThI-GH hominins provide insights into African populations predating the earliest _H. sapiens_ individuals discovered at Jebel Irhoud in Morocco4 and provide strong evidence for an African lineage ancestral to our species. These fossils offer clues about the last common ancestor shared with Neanderthals and Denisovans. > > > > > > **a** , Location map of ThI, modified according to ref. 13. **b** , Magnetostratigraphy of members OH3A, OH3B, OH4, GH-CCC and OH5 of ref. 13 and this study. The black bars represent normal polarity, and the white bars represent reverse polarity. Further details are provided in Supplementary Fig. 2. Magnetochron ages are from ref. 22. **c** , Photograph of the outcrop stratigraphy with indication of magnetic polarity from this study and a previous study13 and lithologic members. Here we focused on sections A–E, of which only section A is reported here. **d** , Magnetostratigraphy of sections A–E comprised stratigraphic units OH4 SU6–5 and GH-CCC SU4–3. Context and details for lithostratigraphic units are provided in Extended Data Fig. 2. The red stars with labels represent hominin remains (the larger stars indicate mandibles) (Extended Data Table 1): ThI-GH-UA28-7 (femur, a); ThI-GH-OA23-24 (tooth, b); ThI-GH-SA26-88 (tooth, c); ThI-GH-SA26-90 (tooth, d); ThI-GH-PA24-107 (tooth, e); ThI-GH-10717 (mandible) and ThI-GH-10717/1-5 (vertebrae, f); ThI-GH-10725 and ThI-GH-10725/1 (vertebrae, g); ThI-GH-10726 (vertebra, h); and ThI-GH-10978 (mandible, i). Note that ThI-GH-UA28-7 (a) is located outside the section on the right. Close to the bottom wall of the cavity, its insertion into the stratigraphy is imprecise (SU4/5). > > > > Mandible ThI-GH-1: (1) lateral view; (2) occlusal view; (3) lingual view. Mandible ThI-GH-10717: (4) right lateral view; (5) occlusal view. Mandible ThI-GH-10978: (6) lateral view; (7) lingual view. UP4 ThI-GH-OA23-24: (8) distal view; (9) mesial view. UP3 ThI-GH-PA24-107: (10) distal view; (11) mesial view. UP3 ThI-GH-SA26-90: (12) mesial view; (13) distal view. UI1 ThI-GH-SA26-88: (14) buccal view; (15) lingual view. (16) Fused C2 and C3 vertebrae ThI-GH-10725 and ThI-GH-10725/1, caudal view. (17) C4 vertebra ThI-GH-10717/5, cranial view. (18) C6 vertebra ThI-GH-10717/1, cranial view. (19) C7 vertebra ThI-GH-10717/3, cranial view. (20) T1 vertebra ThI-GH10717/2, cranial view. (21) T2 vertebra ThI-GH-10717/4, cranial view. Scale, 5 cm. > > * * * > > > > A) General view of the quarry from the southwest (M. Rué). ThI-GH: Grotte à Hominidés. ThI-L: Unit L,early Acheulean site. See details in Extended Data Fig. 2a. B) Excavations plan in the local coordinate system (R. Gallotti, J.-P. Raynal, A. Mohib, M. Rué). Top left: Google Earth view (WGS84 coordinate system). > > > > A) Thomas Quarry I (ThI). The Oulad Hamida Formation: OH1 to OH5 Members and GH - Continental Cave Complex (CCC) (D. Lefèvre, M. Rué). ThI-GH: Grotte à Hominidés. ThI-L: Unit L, early Acheulan site. OH1: coarse calcirudite and calcarenites (Bed 1) overlain by bioclastic sands and limestones (Bed 2); OH2: coarse cross-bedded and finer planar-bedded intertidal biocalcarenites, then massive coarse bioclastic aeolianites; OH3A: massive coarse or coquinoid biocalcarenites, OH3B: clino-stratified aeolianites; OH4: planar-bedded intertidal calcarenites; OH5: cross-bedded coarse aeolian sands; GH-CCC: continental cave deposits. B) Sedimentary infilling of ThI-GH (D. Lefèvre, M. Rué, photogrammetric survey by S. Sanz). C. Synthetic lithostratigraphic log of ThI-GH (M. Rué, D. Lefèvre). Mb: Member, SU: Stratigraphic unit. ThI-GH infilling starts with OH4 marine deposits: calcirudites (SU7) preserved in a notch and plurimetric collapsed blocks of calcarenites and calcirudite with blunt-surfaced onlapped by fine, grey, planar-bedded intertidal biocalcarenites (SU6), and then well-sorted bioclastic and quartzose sands derived from reworked loose littoral deposits (SU5). Without any apparent disconformity, the sequence transitions into continental well-sorted bioclastic and quartzose reddish sands (GH-CCC-SU4 and 3). The upper continental deposits lie in discontinuity on SU3. SU2 consists of multilayer dripstone interbedded with loose red sands, and SU1 comprises massively bedded, rubified sands. At the entrance of the cavity (see A), cross-bedded grey aeolianite sandstones (OH5) are interposed between SU3 and the upper continental deposits SU2-SU1. > > * * * > > > > A) Horizontal and B) vertical distribution of all coordinated remains including hominin fossils and OSL/ESR-U series dating (M. Rué, R. Gallotti, A. Mohib, J.-P. Raynal). Same location as Fig. 1d. The red stars with labels represent hominin remains: a: ThI-GH-UA28-7 (femur); b: ThI-GH-OA23-24 (tooth); c: ThI-GH-SA26-88 (tooth); d: ThI-GH-SA26-90 (tooth); e: ThI-GH-PA24-107 (tooth); f: ThI-GH-10717 (mandible), ThI-GH-10717/1-5 (vertebrae); g: ThI-GH-10725 and ThI-GH-10725/1 (vertebrae); h: ThI-GH-10726 (vertebra); i: ThI-GH-10978 (mandible). The stratigraphic insertion of femur ThI-GH-UA28-7 (a) located near the bottom wall of the cavity is uncertain (SU4/5). C) Photograph of the excavation (D. Lefèvre, M. Rué). SU: stratigraphic unit (see Extended Data Fig. 2). Section C, D and E: magnetostratigraphic sections (see Fig. 1d). Red stars: hominin remains: f (ThI-GH-10717) and i (ThI-GH-10978). D) and E) Photographs of hominin fossils ThI-GH-10978 and ThI-GH-10717 (Photographs J.-P. Raynal). > > * * * > > > > A) Articular pillar morphology and lower facet orientation. Comparison in dorsal and caudal views of the seventh cervical vertebra from ThI-GH-10717/3 compared to KNM-WT 15000 and to a recent _Homo sapiens_ (figures not to scale). The arrow indicates the presence of a marked notch in the articular pillars between the upper and the lower articular facets. The black lines indicate the approximate orientation of the lower articular facets, which are slightly convex and display a ventral-lateral orientation in ThI-GH and KNM-WT 15000, while they are flatter with a ventral to ventral-medial orientation in recent _Homo sapiens_. B) Box plots of vertebral canal area relative to vertebral body geometric mean (following and modified from134). All the Casablanca specimens fall close to the _H. sapiens_ mean, except for the T2, where both KNM-WT 15000 and ThI-GH specimens show very low value. In the boxplots, the whiskers represent the 1.5 times the interquartile range, the box represents the interquartile range, and the centre represents the median. The _Pan troglodytes_ sample was compared to the _Homo sapiens_ sample using a two-tailed Student’s T-tests. The different fossil specimens (Dmanisi, Sima de los Huesos, ThI-GH, KNM WT-15000 and Gran Dolina-TD6 and MH1) were compared to the _Homo sapiens_ sample using a z-score analysis. * = significantly different from _Homo sapiens_ (p < 0.05); ** = significantly different from _Homo sapiens_ (p < 0.01). Comparative sample sizes: _Pan troglodytes_ (C3: _n_ = 18; C7: _n_ = 13; T1: _n_ = 10; T2: _n_ = 19); _Homo sapiens_ (C3: _n_ = 62; C7: _n_ = 37; T1: _n_ = 25; T2: _n_ = 52)134. > > > > > Hublin, JJ., Lefèvre, D., Perini, S. _et al._ **Early hominins from Morocco basal to the Homo sapiens lineage.** _Nature_ (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09914-y > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) Taken together, the Moroccan fossils remove yet another refuge for creationist evasions. They reinforce the African origin of _Homo sapiens_ , illuminate the shared ancestry of modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans, and do so using evidence that is independent, mutually reinforcing, and devastatingly consistent. This is not a single awkward fossil that can be waved away, but a coherent convergence of anatomy, stratigraphy, and global geophysics. What makes this discovery particularly uncomfortable for creationism is that it bypasses many of the usual escape routes. The fossils display the very mosaic of traits that creationists insist does not exist, while their age is anchored by a planetary-scale magnetic event that cannot be dismissed as faulty laboratory technique or circular reasoning. No appeal to “flawed radiometric dating” can rescue a worldview that collapses under the weight of Earth’s own magnetic history. Once again, reality aligns precisely with what evolutionary theory predicts and utterly contradicts Bronze Age mythology. Human origins are deep, complex, and African, involving long-diverged populations, repeated dispersals, and gradual anatomical change over hundreds of thousands of years. The idea of a recently created, ancestor-free human couple is not merely unsupported — it is rendered absurd by the accumulating evidence. As so often, the problem for creationism is not a lack of data, but far too much of it. Each new discovery narrows the gap between prediction and observation for evolution, while widening the chasm between scripture and the real history of our species. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Creationism's Unintelligent Designer Trying To Solve The Problem He Just Created Adult spruce bark beetles in their galleries in the bark of a Norway spruce tree. The beetle in the middle is infected with the fungus _Beauveria bassiana_. © Benjamin Weiss, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology Fungus turns bark beetles’ defenses against them A paper recently published in the _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA_ (PNAS) has raised the spectre of evolutionary arms races for creationism. Evolutionary arms races are something of a nightmare for creationists because, within the paradigm of intelligent design by a single designer, having an arms race with yourself makes no sense at all. Evolutionary arms races are among the strongest arguments against intelligent design, as I point out in my book, _The Unintelligent Designer: Refuting the Intelligent Design Hoax_. They epitomise stupidity. What on Earth is the point of designing a solution to a problem for one species, only to treat that solution as a problem to be solved for another? It is almost exactly as if two organisms are evolving in response to changes in their environments, of which their predator or prey is a key component. It makes less sense than a dog chasing its own tail – at least the dog gets some exercise. The arms race reported in this paper, by a research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany, is between the spruce bark beetle, _Ips typographus_ , and the pathogenic fungus _Beauveria bassiana_. In fact, there are two arms races at work here. The first is between the Norway spruce, _Picea abies_ , and its microbial environment. The tree produces antimicrobial phenolic compounds as a defence. The spruce bark beetle has evolved the ability to convert these compounds into an even more toxic derivative, which helps protect the beetle and enables it to successfully colonise the spruce. The clever twist is that the fungus _Beauveria bassiana_ has evolved a countermeasure. It converts the beetle’s toxic compound by binding a sugar molecule to it and adding a methyl group. This modification effectively neutralises the beetle’s antifungal defence, making it more susceptible to fungal infection. Translated into creationist terms, a designer first designed a defence for the spruce that can be exploited by a parasitic beetle to protect itself from microbes, including a pathogenic fungus. The same designer then designed a pathogenic fungus capable of neutralising the beetle’s defences, allowing it to infect the beetle more efficiently. > What Is an Evolutionary Arms Race? An **evolutionary arms race** occurs when two or more species exert strong selective pressure on each other, leading to a cycle of reciprocal adaptations over many generations. As one species evolves a new defence, weapon, or strategy, the other evolves a counter-adaptation, which in turn selects for further change in the first. > > Crucially, this process has **no end point**. There is no “perfect” solution, only temporary advantages that are eventually eroded by further evolution. > > How Arms Races Arise > > Arms races most commonly occur between: > > * **Predators and prey** (speed, camouflage, toxins, sensory acuity) > * **Hosts and parasites/pathogens** (immune responses vs immune evasion) > * **Plants and herbivores** (chemical defences vs detoxification mechanisms) > * **Competing species** (resource acquisition, weaponry, behaviour) > Each adaptation alters the selective environment of the other species, driving further evolutionary change. > > Why Arms Races Are Strong Evidence for Evolution > > Evolutionary arms races: > > * Require **ongoing, incremental change** over long periods > * Produce **inefficient, jury-rigged solutions** , not optimal designs > * Frequently involve **trade-offs** , where gains in one trait cause losses in another > * Show clear signs of **historical contingency** rather than foresight > These patterns are exactly what evolutionary theory predicts and exactly what purposeful, intelligent design does _not_. > > Why Arms Races Are a Problem for Intelligent Design > > Within the framework of Intelligent Design by a single, omniscient designer, evolutionary arms races are incoherent. They imply that: > > * A “designed” solution immediately becomes a problem requiring redesign > * The same designer repeatedly undermines its own work > * Harmful traits (toxins, immune evasion, parasitism) are deliberately engineered > This would amount to a designer endlessly **designing around its own previous designs** , a scenario that is indistinguishable from blind evolutionary processes and far less parsimonious. > > The Bigger Picture > > Evolutionary arms races are not rare anomalies. They are **widespread, predictable, and measurable** , and they occur at genetic, biochemical, physiological, and behavioural levels. Their existence is one of the clearest demonstrations that life evolves through natural selection acting on variation — not through foresight, planning, or design. > > Creationist Claim vs Reality > > **Creationist claim:** > Living systems are intelligently designed, with purposeful features carefully engineered to fulfil specific functions. > > **Reality:** > Evolutionary arms races show organisms repeatedly modifying traits in response to each other, producing temporary, contingent, and often self-defeating solutions. Defences become vulnerabilities, countermeasures generate new problems, and harm is ubiquitous. This pattern is exactly what is expected from natural selection acting without foresight — and exactly what would _not_ be expected from a single, intelligent, benevolent designer. > > **Bottom line:** > Arms races make sense under evolution because no one is in charge. Under Intelligent Design, they imply a designer endlessly correcting its own mistakes. This research is explained in a press release from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany. > Fungus turns bark beetles’ defenses against them > > * * * > > The insect-pathogenic fungus _Beauveria bassiana_ detoxifies the defense substances of the beetles, which originate from plant precursors, and can successfully infect these insects > > * * * > > To the point: > > > * **Spruce bark beetles exploit the defenses of spruce trees for their own protection:** they feed on the tree’s bark and convert the antimicrobial phenolic compounds it contains into even more toxic derivatives to protect themselves against pathogens. > * **The insect-pathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana overcomes the beetles' antimicrobial defenses,** enabling it to successfully infect spruce bark beetles. > * **Fungus-specific detoxification pathway includes glycosylation and methylation:** Beauveria bassiana neutralizes the toxic phenolic compounds by binding a sugar (glycosylation) and adding a methyl group (methylation). > * **The beetles' susceptibility to infection depends on the functionality of this fungal metabolic pathway:** If the pathway is blocked, the infection rate decreases. > * **This mechanism demonstrates the evolutionary adaptation of a pathogenic fungus to a host with complex chemical defenses,** with potential benefits for biological pest control. > > > Spruce bark is rich in phenolic compounds that protect trees from pathogenic fungi. A research team at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena investigated how these plant defenses function within the food web, particularly in spruce bark beetles (Ips typographus), which ingest the compounds through their diet. Could the beetles use substances from the spruce's defenses to protect themselves against pathogenic fungi? > > Beetles convert plant defenses into even more toxic forms > > Using state-of-the-art analytical methods such as mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), the team investigated which chemical compounds spruce trees produce for defense and how these compounds are metabolized by bark beetles. The team demonstrated that bark beetles infesting spruce trees utilize the trees' defensive substances found in the phloem, particularly phenolic glycosides such as stilbenes and flavonoids, to bolster their defense against pathogens. They convert these compounds into more toxic aglycones, which are sugar-free and have increased antimicrobial activity. These aglycones serve as an effective defense against fungi. "We did not expect the beetles to be able to convert the spruce's defenses into more toxic derivatives in such a targeted way," said the lead author Ruo Sun from the Department of Biochemistry. > > The fungus neutralizes the beetles' defenses via specific detoxification pathways > > Then, the scientists investigated how the beetle defense substances affected the fungus _Beauveria bassiana_. > > > Although this fungus has not been effective in controlling bark beetles in the past, we found strains that had naturally infected and killed them. We therefore wanted to investigate more closely how they were able to successfully infect the beetles. > > Ruo Sun, lead author. > Department of Biochemistry > Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany. > > > Further analyses and enzyme assays revealed that the fungus employs a two-step detoxification process. First, there is glycosylation, which involves the re-addition of a sugar to the aglycones. Second, there is methylation, which involves the binding of a methyl group to the sugar. The resulting methylglycoside derivatives are not toxic to _Beauveria bassiana_. Interestingly, methylglycosylation increases fungal infestation, particularly in beetles that had previously consumed plant tissue with a high phenol content. Additionally, methylglycosides are resistant to beetle enzymes that would restore the compounds' toxicity through hydrolysis. > > The scientists tested the function of the detoxification pathway in _Beauveria bassiana_ by knocking out the genes responsible for methylglycosylation. Further experiments revealed that fungi lacking these genes, and thus the detoxification pathway, were far less effective at infesting bark beetles. > > > The successful infection of bark beetles with Beauveria bassiana depends on a highly specific detoxification pathway that neutralizes antimicrobial phenolics and increases the pathogen's virulence. > > Ruo Sun. > > > An evolutionary balancing act with potential application > > The study clearly shows that a tree's chemical defenses can undergo multiple transformations and retransformations throughout the food chain – with far-reaching consequences for the evolutionary arms race between hosts, pests, and pathogens. > > > We have demonstrated that a bark beetle can co-opt a tree's defensive compounds to make defenses against its own enemies. However, since one of the enemies, the fungus _Beauveria bassiana_ , has developed the ability to detoxify these antimicrobial defenses, it can successfully infect the bark beetles and thus actually help the tree in its battle against bark beetles. > > Jonathan Gershenzon, lead author > Department of Biochemistry > Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology, Jena, Germany. > > > These findings could lead to the development of more effective biological control agents against bark beetles. > > Now that we know which strains of the fungus tolerate the bark beetle's antimicrobial phenolic compounds, we can use these strains to combat bark beetles more efficiently. > > Ruo Sun. > > > The study emphasizes the importance of checking for resistance or detoxification strategies developed by the pest against its host when using biological pesticides. > > In further experiments, the research team wants to determine how widespread the methylglycosylation detoxification pathway is in different strains of the fungus _Beauveria bassiana_ and in other bark beetle pathogens. They also want to understand how this pathway interacts with other characteristics of pathogens that influence its effectiveness. > > Publication: > >> [R. Sun,B. Hu,Y. Nakamura,M. Reichelt,X. Jiang,K. Luck,C. Paetz, & J. Gershenzon > **Detoxification of conifer antimicrobial defenses promotes entomopathogenic fungus infection of bark beetles** > _Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A._ **123** (1) e2525513122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2525513122 (2026).](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2525513122) > > > Show details > Significance > Plants produce antimicrobial compounds to defend themselves against pathogens, and herbivorous insects may gain protection from their own pathogens by consuming these compounds. We found that bark beetles enzymatically convert some antimicrobial phenolic compounds of spruce trees into more potent antimicrobial derivatives. However, an insect-killing fungus counters these phenolic compounds with a two-step detoxification pathway to produce methylglucoside derivatives. Knocking out this fungal pathway by genetic transformation reduces the virulence of the fungus on bark beetles, proving the pathway’s importance for successful fungal infection. > > Abstract > After consumption by herbivores, plant antimicrobial defense compounds may enhance herbivore immunity to pathogenic microbes. In conifer-bark beetle interactions, beetles ingest large quantities of phloem tissue containing high concentrations of antimicrobial phenolic glucosides, such as stilbenes and flavonoids. It is not known, however, if these compounds increase bark beetle resistance to pathogens. We showed that Eurasian spruce bark beetles (Ips typographus) attacking Norway spruce (Picea abies) hydrolyze phenolic glucosides to their corresponding aglucones increasing their antifungal activity. However, the entomopathogen _Beauveria bassiana_ , a natural fungal parasite of these beetles, detoxifies stilbene and flavonoid aglucones by forming methylglucoside derivatives. A two-step pathway involving a UDP-glycosyltransferase and an O-methyltransferase produces phenolic O-methylglucosides that are no longer toxic to _B. bassiana_ and are stable to β-glucosidase action. Compared to wild-type strains of _B. bassiana_ , mutant strains knocked out in the genes of this pathway exhibited decreased methylglucoside formation, slower growth on medium containing phenolic compounds, and reduced virulence toward bark beetles. Hence, methylglucosylation of plant-derived phenolics is a detoxification process that significantly increases the ability of _B. bassiana_ to parasitize host insects consuming plant tissue high in phenolics, such as conifer phloem. This is one of the few examples of an entomopathogen that is able to resist the plant-derived defenses of an insect host. > > [R. Sun,B. Hu,Y. Nakamura,M. Reichelt,X. Jiang,K. Luck,C. Paetz, & J. Gershenzon > **Detoxification of conifer antimicrobial defenses promotes entomopathogenic fungus infection of bark beetles** > _Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A._ **123** (1) e2525513122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2525513122 (2026).](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2525513122) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by the National Academy of Science of the USA. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) This study is yet another reminder that the living world is not the product of foresight, planning, or optimisation, but of relentless, unguided evolutionary processes. Evolutionary arms races arise inevitably when organisms interact over long periods, each responding to the selective pressures imposed by the other. No intelligence is required, only variation, inheritance, and differential survival. For Intelligent Design, however, such systems are a conceptual dead end. Arms races imply waste, harm, redundancy, and constant retrofitting — precisely the opposite of what one would expect from a competent designer. They force creationists to invoke a deity that repeatedly undermines its own creations, engineers defences only to design ways around them, and produces suffering not as an unfortunate side effect, but as a built-in feature of the system. As with so many discoveries in modern biology, this research fits seamlessly within evolutionary theory while presenting insurmountable problems for creationism. The more closely we examine the details of life — at the genetic, biochemical, and ecological levels — the clearer it becomes that life was not intelligently designed. It evolved, blindly and brilliantly, through natural selection acting over deep time. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Source: BioLogos First ancient human herpesvirus genomes document their deep history with humans An international research team led by the University of Vienna and the University of Tartu (Estonia) — in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and University College London — has shown that ancient genomes of human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/B) entered the human genome and then co-evolved with humans over the last 2,000 years. Their study, published in _Science Advances_ a few days ago, confirms that these viruses have been evolving with, and within, humans since at least the Iron Age. A common creationist claim, rooted in ignorance of what genetic information actually is, is that new genetic information cannot be created. Claims that new genetic information cannot arise because it would violate the laws of thermodynamics rely on a fundamental category error. The second law applies to closed systems, whereas every biological system on Earth is emphatically open, continuously exchanging energy and matter with its environment. Local decreases in entropy are not only permitted but expected in open systems supplied with external energy — which, on Earth, is overwhelmingly provided by the Sun. Crystals grow, snowflakes form, embryos develop, and genomes increase in length and complexity without violating any physical law. Moreover, information is not a conserved physical quantity like energy. Shannon information theory concerns the statistical properties of signals in communication channels; it says nothing about biological meaning, function, or heredity. Treating genetic information as though it were interchangeable with thermodynamic entropy is simply a misuse of terminology. When genomes gain duplicated genes, viral insertions, or transferred sequences, no atoms are created, no laws are broken, and no special pleading is required — just chemistry operating under well-understood physical principles. The creationist claim is flatly contradicted by straightforward observations of several well-understood mechanisms by which new genetic information can enter a species’ genome. These include gene duplication or whole-genome duplication, horizontal gene transfer from one species to another (particularly common in parasite–host relationships), and — as demonstrated by the research discussed here — the insertion of viral DNA into the genome. This last process gives rise to endogenous viral elements that are ubiquitous in biology and which precisely match evolutionary trees established independently from multiple other lines of evidence. Endogenous viral insertions are especially devastating for the creationist concept of immutable “created kinds”. Viral DNA does not insert itself independently at exactly the same genomic locations in unrelated lineages by chance. When identical viral sequences are found embedded at the same chromosomal positions in different populations — and when their accumulated mutations form nested hierarchical patterns — they provide a precise historical record of shared ancestry. The HHV-6A/B insertions documented in this study behave exactly as evolutionary theory predicts: they enter the genome at a particular point in time, are inherited by descendants, accumulate mutations at measurable rates, and track human population history. There is no coherent creationist explanation for why a designer would place broken, mutating viral sequences into genomes in patterns that perfectly mirror evolutionary trees derived independently from anatomy, archaeology, and population genetics. If humans were created as a distinct “kind”, there is no reason for their genomes to contain time-stamped viral relics tracing population divergence over millennia. But if humans evolved — and if viruses have co-evolved with us — this is precisely the pattern we expect to find. The data fit evolution effortlessly, while creationism is left inventing ad hoc excuses to deny what the genome itself records. > Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs)^ Molecular Fossils of Common Ancestry. > **Endogenous retroviruses (ERVs)** are the remains of ancient retroviruses that infected germ-line cells and became permanently embedded in the host genome. Once inserted, these viral sequences are inherited by all descendants, accumulating mutations over time and gradually decaying into non-functional genetic relics. > > Because retroviruses integrate at **specific, effectively random chromosomal locations** , the chance of the same virus independently inserting into the _same genomic position_ in unrelated species is vanishingly small. Yet related species routinely share ERVs at identical loci, often flanked by the same host DNA and carrying the same disabling mutations. These shared genetic scars form an unambiguous record of common ancestry. > > Across major vertebrate groups, ERVs appear exactly where evolution predicts: fish possess ERVs absent from land vertebrates; amphibians share some ERVs with reptiles and mammals; reptiles and mammals share others absent from amphibians; placental mammals share ERVs not found in marsupials; and primates share thousands absent from other mammals. At every branching point, ERVs form nested hierarchies that mirror evolutionary trees derived independently from fossils, anatomy, and comparative genetics. > > The human–chimpanzee comparison provides a clear worked example. Humans and chimpanzees share thousands of ERVs at identical chromosomal locations, many with the same mutations and deletions. Some ERVs are shared by humans, chimps, and gorillas; others only by humans and chimps; others are species-specific. This layered pattern precisely matches known primate relationships and divergence times, with older ERVs showing more accumulated mutations than younger ones. > > There is no coherent creationist explanation for why a designer would insert broken viral DNA into genomes and arrange it in patterns that precisely track evolutionary history. ERVs are powerful evidence not because they are functional or complex, but because they are **broken, redundant, and historically constrained** — exactly what evolution predicts, and design does not. The work of the University of Vienna-led team is explained in a Universität Wien press release. > First ancient human herpesvirus genomes document their deep history with humans > > * * * > > Genomic data confirm that certain human herpesviruses became part of the human genome thousands of years ago > > * * * > > **For the first time, scientists have reconstructed ancient genomes of Human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/B) from archaeological human remains more than two millennia old. The study, led by the University of Vienna and University of Tartu (Estonia) and published in Science Advances, confirms that these viruses have been evolving with and within humans since at least the Iron Age. The findings trace the long history of HHV-6 integration into human chromosomes and suggest that HHV-6A lost this ability early on.** > > HHV-6B infects about 90 percent of children by the age of two and is best known as the cause of roseola infantum – or "sixth disease" – the leading cause of febrile seizures in young children. Together with its close relative HHV-6A, it belongs to a group of widespread human herpesviruses that typically establish lifelong, latent infections after an initial mild illness in early childhood. What makes them exceptional is their ability to integrate into human chromosomes – a feature that allows the virus to remain dormant and, in rare cases, to be inherited as part of the host's own genome. Such inherited viral copies occur in roughly one percent of people today. While earlier studies had hypothesized that these integrations were ancient, the new data from this study provide the first direct genomic proof. > > Recovering viral DNA from the distant past > > An international research team led by the University of Vienna and the University of Tartu (Estonia) – in collaboration with the University of Cambridge and University College London – screened nearly 4,000 human skeletal samples from archaeological sites across Europe. Eleven ancient viral genomes were identified and reconstructed – the oldest from a young girl of the Iron Age Italy (1100–600 BCE). The remaining individuals covered a wide geographic and temporal range: Both types of HHV were found in medieval England, Belgium and Estonia, while HHV-6B also appeared in samples from Italy and early historic Russia. Several of the English individuals carried inherited forms of HHV-6B, making them the earliest known carriers of chromosomally integrated human herpesviruses. The Belgian site of Sint-Truiden yielded the largest number of cases, with both viral species circulating within the same population. > > > While HHV-6 infects almost 90% of the human population at some point in their life, only around 1% carry the virus, which was inherited from your parents, in all cells of their body. These 1% of cases are what we are most likely to identify using ancient DNA, making the search for viral sequences quite difficult. Based on our data, the viruses' evolution can now be traced over more than 2,500 years across Europe, using genomes from the 8th-6th century BCE until today. > > Meriam Guellil, lead author > Department for Evolutionary Anthropology > University of Vienna > Vienna, Austria. > > > Ancient integrations, lasting consequences > > The recovered genomes allowed the researchers to determine where in the chromosomes the viruses had integrated. Comparisons with modern data revealed that some integrations happened a very long time ago and passed down through generations for millennia. One of the two viral species (HHV-6A) appears to have lost its ability to integrate into human DNA over time – evidence that these viruses have evolved differently while coexisting with their human hosts. > > Carrying a copy of HHV6B in your genome has been linked to angina–heart-disease. We know that these inherited forms of HHV6A and B are more common in the UK today compared to the rest of Europe, and this is the first evidence of ancient carriers from Britain. > > Charlotte Houldcroft, co-author > Department of Genetics > University of Cambridge > Cambridge, UK. > > > A new chapter in virus–host evolution > > The discovery of these ancient HHV-6 genomes provides the first time-stamped evidence for the long-term co-evolution of this virus with humans at the genomic level. It also shows how ancient DNA can reveal the long-term evolution of infectious diseases – from short-lived childhood infections to viral sequences that became part of the human genome. Discovered only in the 1980s, HHV-6A and HHV-6B can now be traced back to the Iron Age, offering direct genomic evidence for an ancient, shared history between viruses and humans. > > > Modern genetic data suggested that HHV-6 may have been evolving with humans since our migration out of Africa," says Guellil. "These ancient genomes now provide first concrete proof of their presence in the deep human past. > > Meriam Guellil. > > > Publication: > >> [Meriam Guellil _et al_. > **Tracing 2500 years of human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B diversity through ancient DNA.** > _Sci. Adv._ **12** , eadx5460 (2026). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adx5460](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx5460) > > > Show details > Abstract > > Human betaherpesviruses 6A and 6B (HHV-6A/6B) are DNA viruses, which integrate into the human genome, and are best known to cause “sixth disease.” Despite their recent discovery (1980s), they were speculated to have a much longer history within the human population than modern data suggest. We present the first 11 ancient genomes of HHV-6A and HHV-6B, dating as far back as the 8th to 6th century BCE. We demonstrate that large fractions of current HHV-6 diversity were already established by the 14th century CE. Our data corroborate that HHV-6A/6B integrations stem from ancient founder events. In addition, we show that all known inherited chromosomally integrated HHV-6A clades were already represented in historical populations, confirming that HHV-6A no longer integrates into the germ line within populations of European ancestry and likely endogenized in early human history. > > > > > > > **Fig. 1. Temporal and geographical range of the sample set.** > (**A**) Map of Europe depicting all sampling locations and HHV-6 species found at the site. (**B**) OxCal (75) plot with calibrated radiocarbon dates for all samples presented in this study. Dates are shown in cal BCE/cal CE (EZH008 dating is likely affected by the freshwater reservoir effect; see Supplementary Text). > > > > **Fig. 2. Genome coverage for all 11 ancient HHV-6 genomes reconstructed in this study.** > Left: Genomic coverage plots for all (**A**) HHV-6A and (**B**) HHV-6B mappings to respective reference sequences. Intervals with reads under a mapping quality of 30 are shown in light gray. On the top of each figure, mappability of the reference sequence is plotted in a heatmap and the second line shows the location of the unique long region of the 6A and 6B reference genomes used for analysis. On the right, edit distances for the mappings are shown in a barplot with light gray bars showing the percentage of reads under a mapping quality of 30. > > * * * > > > > **Fig. 3. Midpoint-rooted maximum likelihood phylogeny for HHV-6A using 66 modern and 6 ancient genomes.** > Node labels show SH-aLRT support (%)/ultrafast bootstrap support (%) based on 10,000 replicates each in IQ-Tree2. Tip labels are colored on the basis of clade groupings, and integration locations are shown as defined in Aswad _et al_. (16). aDNA samples are shown in purple, with illustrations of the type of samples the genomes were extracted from. Strains are only noted as ici if they are known to be inherited. > > > > **Fig. 4. Maximum likelihood phylogeny for HHV-6B using 214 modern and 3 ancient genomes.** Rooted on the reference sequence. Node labels show SH-aLRT support (%) / ultrafast bootstrap support (%) based on 10,000 replicates each in IQ-Tree2. Tip labels are colored on the basis of clade groupings, and integration locations are shown as defined in Aswad _et al_. (16). aDNA samples are shown in pink, with illustrations of the type of samples the genomes were extracted from. Strains are only noted as ici if they are known to be inherited. > > > > > [Meriam Guellil _et al_. > **Tracing 2500 years of human betaherpesvirus 6A and 6B diversity through ancient DNA.** > _Sci. Adv._ **12** , eadx5460 (2026). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adx5460](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adx5460) > > Copyright: © 2026 The authors. > Published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) As usual, this evidence will be waved away in creationist circles as “not evolution”, dismissed as faulty dating, or redefined out of existence by invoking vague notions of “kind”. None of these evasions engages with the actual data. Viral insertions entering genomes, being inherited, accumulating mutations, and tracking population history over millennia are not optional extras bolted onto evolutionary theory — they are precisely what the theory predicts should happen in a world where life has a deep history. Nor does this research merely show change within a lineage. The mechanisms on display here — viral integration, mutation, inheritance, and divergence — are the very processes by which genomes grow, diversify, and split into distinct lineages over time. The same processes that leave time-stamped viral relics in human DNA also underpin the broader pattern of common descent linking all life on Earth. Creationism, by contrast, has no predictive framework capable of explaining why genomes are littered with broken viral sequences arranged in nested hierarchies that independently confirm evolutionary relationships. Each new genomic study tightens the constraints, leaving fewer and fewer places for ad hoc excuses to hide. Once again, the evidence does not merely fail to support creationist claims — it actively contradicts them. The genome, it turns out, keeps better records than any ancient text. And those records continue to tell the same story: not of sudden magical creation, but of deep time, shared ancestry, and an evolutionary history written indelibly into our DNA. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Modern dog skull used for the photogrammetric reconstruction of 3D models in the study. Image credit: C. Ameen (University of Exeter) Variations in skulls of modern dogs. Extensive dog diversity millennia before modern breeding practices - University of Exeter News There is, of course, no let-up in the steady stream of bad news for creationists to ignore in 2026, and today is no exception. This time the problem comes from archaeology and concerns events taking place toward the end of the very long span of Earth’s history that preceded creationism’s so-called *Creation Week*. The news is that the diversification of domestic dogs, descended from domesticated wolves, had already begun at least 11,000 years ago — long before anything resembling the modern concept of dog “breeds”. The evidence is presented in a paper published in _Science_ by a team led by palaeontologists from the University of Exeter and France’s Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). The researchers analysed 643 modern and archaeological canid skulls—including recognised breeds, village dogs, and wolves—spanning the last 50,000 years. In both geographical scope and time depth, it is the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind to date. Using a technique known as geometric morphometrics, the team demonstrated that by the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods dogs already displayed a striking range of shapes and sizes. This diversity almost certainly reflects their varied roles in early human societies, from hunting and herding to guarding and companionship, rather than anything resembling systematic modern breeding. All of this directly contradicts the claim in Genesis that animals were created fully formed for mankind’s exclusive use by an omnipotent and omniscient creator. Had that been the case, dogs would not require modification to make them fit for different purposes, nor would the archaeological record preserve clear evidence of their gradual evolutionary divergence from an ancestral wolf population. Instead, the evidence shows — unambiguously — that modern dogs are the product of an evolutionary process in which human-mediated selection played a central role, carried out by people who themselves existed long before the biblical timeline allows. > Background^ From Wolves to Dogs. > > > > The Domestication and Origin of the Modern Day Dog. > > > > Source: The Sled Dog Society of Wales. > > > **Origins of domestication** > Genetic and archaeological evidence shows that domestic dogs evolved from populations of grey wolves through a gradual process of domestication that began at least **20,000–30,000 years ago** , and possibly earlier. This was not a single event but a prolonged interaction in which some wolves became tolerant of human proximity, scavenging near camps and gaining selective advantages from reduced fear and increased social adaptability. > > **Multiple pathways, not a single origin** > Rather than dogs arising from one place or moment, evidence increasingly supports **multiple domestication episodes** or long-term gene flow between wolves and early dogs across Eurasia. This explains why early dog remains already show regional variation long before modern breeding practices. > > **Early roles of dogs** > By the Mesolithic period, dogs were already performing diverse functions, including: > > * assisting in hunting and tracking, > * guarding camps and settlements, > * hauling loads, > * and social companionship. > These roles imposed different selective pressures, producing variation in size, skull shape, dentition, and behaviour. > > **What changed in modern times** > The extreme diversity seen in modern dog breeds is largely a **recent phenomenon** , driven by intensive selective breeding over the last few centuries. However, the archaeological record clearly shows that substantial morphological diversity existed **thousands of years earlier** , undermining claims that dogs were created in their present forms. > > **Why this matters** > Dog domestication provides one of the clearest and best-documented examples of evolution by selection—observable, measurable, and preserved in the archaeological record. It directly contradicts the idea that animals were created fully formed and immutable, and instead demonstrates how human cultural practices can act as powerful evolutionary forces over relatively short timescales. The findings of the Exeter-led team are summarised for a general audience in an Exeter University news article by Andrew Merrington. > Extensive dog diversity millennia before modern breeding practices > > * * * > > A groundbreaking archaeological study has revealed when domestic dogs first began to show the remarkable diversity that characterises them today. By applying cutting-edge shape analysis to hundreds of archaeological specimens spanning tens of thousands of years, researchers have traced the emergence of distinct dog forms deep into prehistory pinpointing the moment dogs began to diversify in size and shape – at least 11,000 years ago. > > * * * > > These findings challenge long-standing assumptions that canine diversity is largely a recent phenomenon shaped by selective breeding which started with the Victorian Kennel Clubs. Instead, the study demonstrates that significant variation in skull shape and size among domestic dogs was already present thousands of years ago, soon after their divergence from wolves. > > Published in Science and led by the University of Exeter and the French CNRS, the study is the most comprehensive of its kind in terms of both geographic reach and timespan, with specimens ranging from the Pleistocene to the present day. The research, which began in 2014, analysed 643 modern and archaeological canid skulls – including recognised breeds, street dogs, and wolves- spanning the last 50,000 years. > > The international team of archaeologists, curators and biologists from more than 40 institutions collaborated to create 3D models of the skulls to study their size and shape using a method known as geometric morphometrics. Results show that by the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, dogs already exhibited a wide range of shapes and sizes. This variation likely reflected their diverse roles in early human societies, from hunting and herding to companionship. > > > > > > Photograph of an archaeological canid skull used for the photogrammetric reconstruction of 3D models in the study. > > > > Image credit: C. Ameen (University of Exeter) > > > > > These results highlight the deep history of our relationship with dogs. Diversity among dogs isn’t just a product of Victorian breeders, but instead a legacy of thousands of years of coevolution with human societies. > > Dr. Carly Ameen, co-lead author > Department of Archaeology and History > University of Exeter > Exeter, UK. > > > The earliest specimen identified as a domestic dog came from the Russian Mesolithic site of Veretye (dating to ~11,000 years ago). The team also identified early dogs from America (~8,500 years ago) and Asia (~7,500 years ago) with domestic skull shapes. After that, the study shows a lot of variation emerging relatively quickly. > > > A reduction in skull size for dogs is first detectable between 9,700–8,700 years ago, while an increase in size variance appears from 7,700 years ago. Greater variability in skull shape begins to emerge from around 8,200 years ago onwards. Modern dogs exhibit more extreme morphologies, such as short-faced bulldogs and long-faced borzois, which are absent in early archaeological specimens. However, there is a large amount of diversity among dogs even as early as the Neolithic; it was double that of Pleistocene specimens and already half the range seen in dogs today. > > Dr Allowen Evin, co-lead author > ISEM, University of Montpellier, > CNRS, EPHE, IRD > Montpellier, France. > > > > > > > Static visualisation of skull shape differences between modern dogs (pink) and modern wolves (green), shown relative to an average morphology. > > > Image credit: C. Brassard (VetAgro Sup/Mecadev) > > > The study also underscores the challenges of tracing the earliest dogs. None of the Late Pleistocene specimens – some previously proposed as “proto-dogs” – had skull shapes consistent with domestication, suggesting that the very first stages of the process remain difficult to capture in the archaeological record. > > > The earliest phases of dog domestication are still hidden from view and the first dogs continue to elude us. But what we can now show with confidence is that once dogs emerged, they diversified rapidly. Their early variation reflects both natural ecological pressures and the profound impact of living alongside humans. > > Professor Greger Larson, senior author > Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network > School of Archaeology > University of Oxford > Oxford, UK. > > > By demonstrating that dog diversity emerged millennia earlier than assumed, the study opens new avenues for exploring how human cultural and ecological shifts shaped the evolutionary history of our closest animal companions. > > Publication: > >> [Allowen Evin _et al_. > **The emergence and diversification of dog morphology.** > _Science_ **390** , 741-744 (2025). DOI:10.1126/science.adt0995](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt0995) > > > Show details > Abstract > > Dogs exhibit an exceptional range of morphological diversity as a result of their long-term association with humans. Attempts to identify when dog morphological variation began to expand have been constrained by the limited number of Pleistocene specimens, the fragmentary nature of remains, and difficulties in distinguishing early dogs from wolves on the basis of skeletal morphology. In this study, we used three-dimensional geometric morphometrics to analyze the size and shape of 643 canid crania spanning the past 50,000 years. Our analyses show that a distinctive dog morphology first appeared at about 11,000 calibrated years before present, and substantial phenotypic diversity already existed in early Holocene dogs. Thus, this variation emerged many millennia before the intense human-mediated selection shaping modern dog breeds beginning in the 19th century. > > > > > > [Allowen Evin _et al_. > **The emergence and diversification of dog morphology.** > _Science_ **390** , 741-744(2025). DOI:10.1126/science.adt0995](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adt0995) > > © 2025 the American Association for the Advancement of Science. > Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. As usual, the reaction from creationist circles has been entirely predictable. Rather than engaging with the data, the findings are already being dismissed as either fabricated or the product of “faulty dating”, despite the fact that the study relies on multiple, well-established dating methods and comparative analyses drawn from hundreds of specimens across tens of thousands of years. This reflex rejection is not scepticism; it is denial. Any evidence that conflicts with a pre-decided conclusion must be waved away, regardless of its quality, scope, or independent corroboration. Equally familiar is the claim that this is “not evolution” because there has been no change in “kind”. This objection fails on two levels. First, “kind” is not a biological concept and has no definition that can be applied consistently or tested scientifically. Second, dogs evolving from wolves are precisely what evolutionary biology predicts: descent with modification, driven here by a combination of natural and human-mediated selection. Evolution does not require the sudden appearance of entirely new creatures; it works through cumulative changes over time, which is exactly what the archaeological and genetic records reveal. What makes this evidence particularly awkward for creationism is its historical depth. The diversification of dogs was already well underway thousands of years before the dates permitted by a literal reading of Genesis, and it occurred among human societies that themselves have no place in the biblical narrative. To accept the evidence is to accept that both dogs and humans have real, traceable histories extending far beyond the confines of Bronze Age mythology. Once again, then, creationism is left with a stark choice: either reject yet another robust body of evidence by alleging conspiracy or incompetence, or accept that the natural world has a history that is older, richer, and far more interesting than the stories invented to explain it in pre-scientific times. As ever, the evidence is not going away—only the excuses are changing. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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[left caption] [right caption] Extracting drilled sediments. Origins of Ancient Egypt’s Karnak Temple revealed – Uppsala University An international team of archaeologists led by Dr Angus Graham of Uppsala University has shown that the temple to Amun-Ra at Karnak Temple Complex was originally built more than 3,000 years ago on an island formed when the Nile split into eastern and western channels. Their findings were published last October in the journal _Antiquity_. One can easily imagine the jubilation with which Christian circles would greet the discovery of any credible archaeological evidence for Adam and Eve or Noah’s Ark. In practice, judging by the regular declarations of “proof” that appear on social media, almost any claim — no matter how tenuous or poorly authenticated — that can be retro-fitted to a biblical story is enthusiastically celebrated. It is hard to avoid the impression that this eagerness betrays a certain underlying insecurity. Yet when archaeological discoveries appear to lend support to the origin myths of other cultures, the reaction is very different. The usual response is indifference, outright dismissal, or an appeal to the tentative nature of the evidence and the dangers of confirmation bias—precisely the same grounds on which much supposedly “biblical” evidence can be rejected, of course. It will therefore be interesting to observe the reaction in Christian circles to this research from Karnak and its relevance to ancient Egyptian creation mythology, in which the land is caused to rise from the primordial waters by the creator. This bears an obvious resemblance to the later biblical motif of land being divided from the waters. The relatively high ground at Luxor is the only plausible candidate in the region for such a formation, and during periods of high Nile flood it would indeed have appeared as an island within a lake—an environment readily imbued with sacred significance by the temple builders. Such parallels are not especially surprising. The ancient Near East was a densely interconnected cultural landscape in which ideas, myths, and cosmological frameworks circulated freely over centuries. Egyptian conceptions of creation—particularly the emergence of land from primeval waters—pre-date the composition of the Hebrew Bible by many centuries and would have been well known, directly or indirectly, throughout the eastern Mediterranean. When the authors of Book of Genesis framed their own creation narrative, they were not writing in a cultural vacuum, but drawing upon a shared mythological vocabulary that had long been established in the region. The team also uncovered evidence that the eastern Nile channel was deliberately infilled with sand, accelerating a silting process that was already under way. These conclusions are based on detailed analysis of 61 sediment cores taken from in and around the temple complex, along with thousands of ceramic fragments recovered from the site. > Origin Myths from Other Cultures. Across the ancient world, societies developed creation stories to explain the origin of land, life, and cosmic order. Although culturally distinct, many of these myths share strikingly similar themes—particularly the emergence of order from water or chaos. > > **Ancient Mesopotamia (Babylonian)** > In the Babylonian creation epic, the Enuma Elish, the universe begins as a mingling of primordial waters embodied by the deities Apsu (fresh water) and Tiamat (salt water). Creation follows a cosmic struggle in which the god Marduk defeats Tiamat and fashions the ordered world from her divided body—establishing land, sky, and the celestial order from watery chaos. > > **Ancient Egypt** > Egyptian cosmology features several regional variants, but a common theme is the **primeval waters** (Nun), from which the first land—the benben mound—emerges. Upon this mound the creator god (often Atum or Ra) brings the cosmos into being. The idea of sacred land rising from water was deeply embedded in Egyptian religious thought and temple symbolism. > > **Ancient Near East / Hebrew Tradition** > In the opening verses of the Book of Genesis, creation begins with a formless, watery deep over which God moves before separating the waters and causing dry land to appear. The structure and imagery closely mirror older Near Eastern cosmologies, though reframed within a monotheistic theology. > > **Indus and Vedic Traditions (South Asia)** > Early Vedic hymns, preserved in the Rigveda, describe creation as arising from an undefined, dark, watery state. In some hymns, existence emerges through cosmic heat, sacrifice, or self-generation rather than divine command, reflecting philosophical speculation rather than narrative certainty. > > **Mesoamerica (Maya)** > The Maya creation account recorded in the Popol Vuh describes a primordial sea and sky before the gods bring forth land, plants, animals, and eventually humans. Early attempts at human creation fail, emphasising trial, error, and refinement rather than instantaneous perfection. > > **Norse Tradition** > In Norse mythology, the cosmos begins in the void of Ginnungagap, between realms of fire and ice. As ice melts, the giant Ymir forms, from whose body the world is later constructed. While less water-centred, the theme of creation from chaos and dismemberment echoes patterns seen elsewhere. > > > > * * * > > > **Common Themes** > Despite vast cultural separation, these myths repeatedly invoke: > > > * primordial waters or chaos, > * emergence or separation of land, > * sacred geography, and > * creation as a process rather than a single moment. > Such similarities strongly suggest cultural transmission, shared symbolic language, and the human tendency to explain the world using familiar natural phenomena—rather than independent revelation of literal historical events. * * * Their work is also the subject of an Uppsala University press release. > Origins of Ancient Egypt’s Karnak Temple revealed > > * * * > > The most comprehensive geoarchaeological survey of Egypt’s Karnak Temple complex has been carried out by an international research team led from Uppsala University. The temple is one of the ancient world’s largest temple complexes and part of a UNESCO World Heritage site within the modern-day city of Luxor. > > * * * > > The study, published in _Antiquity_ reveals new evidence on the foundation of the temple, possible links to ancient Egyptian mythology, and new insights about the interplay between the temple’s riverine landscape and the people who established, occupied and developed the complex over its 3,000 years of use. > > > Our research presents the clearest understanding of the landscape upon which the ancient Egyptians founded their temple at Karnak approximately 4000 years ago. > > Dr Angus Graham, co-lead author > Department of Archaeology > Ancient History and Conservation > Uppsala Universitet > Uppsala, Sweden. > > > From Flooded Land to Temple Foundation > > Karnak temple is located 500 meters east of the present-day River Nile near Luxor, at the Ancient Egyptian religious capital of Thebes, but this was not always the case. > > The team analysed 61 sediment cores from within and around the temple site and studied tens of thousands of ceramic fragments to help date their findings. Using this evidence, the team have been able to interpret how the landscapes and waterscapes around the site changed throughout its history. > > They found that prior to about 2520 BCE, the site would have been unsuitable for permanent occupation as it would have been regularly flooded by fast-flowing water from the Nile. The earliest occupation at Karnak would have likely been during the Old Kingdom (c.2591–2152 BCE). Ceramic fragments found at the site support this finding, with the earliest dating from sometime between c.2305 to 1980 BCE. > > The land on which Karnak was founded was formed when river channels cut their beds to the west and east of a terrace, creating an island of high ground in what is now the east/south-east area of the temple precinct. This emerging island provided the foundation for occupation and early construction of Karnak temple. > > A New Interpretation of the Temple Site's Role > > Over subsequent centuries and millennia, the river channels either side of the site migrated, creating more space for the temple complex to develop. > > Researchers were surprised to find that the eastern channel – until this study not much more than a supposition – was more well-defined, and perhaps even larger than the channel to the west, which archaeologists had previously focussed on. > > > What also surprised us was the longevity of this eastern channel. It remains a very minor channel until the arrival of the Romans in the first century BCE. We also have evidence of how the Ancient Egyptians engineered the landscape. They may well have been impatient to expand their temple footprint as they dumped desert sands into a minor river channel that was already starting to silt up. > > Dr Angus Graham. > > > The Landscape Reflects the Creation Myth > > This new knowledge of the temple’s landscape has striking similarities to an Ancient Egyptian creation myth, leading the team to believe that the decision to locate the temple here could have been linked to the religious views of its inhabitants. > > Ancient Egyptian texts of the Old Kingdom say that the creator god manifested as high ground, emerging from ‘the lake’. The island upon which Karnak was found is the only known such area of high ground surrounded by water in the area. > > > It’s tempting to suggest the Theban elites chose Karnak’s location for the dwelling place of a new form of the creator god, ‘Ra-Amun’, as it fitted the cosmogonical scene of high ground emerging from surrounding water. Later texts of the Middle Kingdom (c.1980–1760 BC) develop this idea, with the ‘primeval mound’ rising from the ‘Waters of Chaos’. During this period, the abating of the annual flood would have echoed this scene, with the mound on which Karnak was built appearing to ‘rise’ and grow from the receding floodwaters. > > Dr Ben Pennington, co-lead author. > School of Geography & Environmental Science > University of Southampton > Southampton, UK. > > > Publication: > >> [Pennington BT, Graham A, Masson-Berghoff A, _et al_. > **Conceptual origins and geomorphic evolution of the temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak (Luxor, Egypt).** _Antiquity_. Published online 2025:1-15. doi:10.15184/aqy.2025.10185](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/conceptual-origins-and-geomorphic-evolution-of-the-temple-of-amunra-at-karnak-luxor-egypt/12B8A406D84C46F89CDDD7A3DCDF297D) >> >> > The paper has built upon the project’s 2024 Nature Geoscience paper (doi.org/10.1038/s41561-024-01451-z), which demonstrates how climatic and environmental changes have shaped the landscape of the Egyptian Nile Valley over the past 11,500 years. > > > Show details > Abstract > > > > > > Despite almost a century and a half of excavation, the dynamic landscape into which the temple complex of Karnak was embedded is not well understood. Presenting the results of the first comprehensive geoarchaeological survey of the area, the authors show that Karnak was built upon a fluvial terrace segment surrounded by river channels in an island configuration potentially recalling the ‘primeval mound’ of Egyptian creation myths. Permanent occupation of the site became possible after 2520 BC ±420 years, likely during the Old Kingdom. Subsequent landscape changes were dramatic, with the occupants of the island responding both opportunistically and proactively. > > > > > > > > > > > **Figure 1.** Location of study area and archaeological features: 1) Amun-Ra temple complex, Karnak; 2) Montu temple complex, North Karnak; 3) Mut temple complex; 4) Kom el-Ahmar; 5) Avenue of Sphinxes; 6) Luxor Temple; 7) temples and necropoleis (not all shown). The core transects outside the Karnak area are published elsewhere (Toonen et al. 2018, 2019; Peeters et al. 2024) (figure by authors). > > * * * > > > > **Figure 2.** Location of coring sites and transects. a) Plan of the Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak: pylons (monumental gateways) are indicated with Roman numerals; archaeological excavations as follows: E1 Karnak North (Jacquet 1983: 80, 95–96, 2001: 13–14); E2 Ptah Temple (Charloux et al. 2018.1, 2021: 924–26); E3 MK Court (Carlotti et al. 2010; Charloux & Mensan 2011; Larché 2020); E4 Osirian Catacombs (Charloux et al. 2021: 928); E5 East Karnak (Redford et al. 1991); E6 SE Sacred Lake (Millet 2007, 2008; Masson-Berghoff 2021.1); E7 Opet Temple (Charloux et al. 2012: 255); E8 tenth pylon court (Azim 1980). The Chevrier Drain is modern. MK: Middle Kingdom; FIP: First Intermediate Period. b) Hand auger in use at AS040; c) percussion corer in use at PC026; d) extracting drilled sediments at PC027 (figure by authors). What this discovery ultimately highlights is the asymmetry in how archaeological evidence is treated by creationists. When ambiguous or misinterpreted finds appear to align with biblical stories, they are triumphantly proclaimed as confirmation. When well-documented, peer-reviewed research illuminates the mythological foundations of other cultures—and in doing so exposes the likely antecedents of biblical narratives—it is quietly ignored or dismissed as irrelevant. Evidence, it seems, is only compelling when it flatters prior belief. The research at Karnak does not demonstrate that any creation myth is literally true. Rather, it shows how human societies anchor cosmological stories to striking features of the landscape and how sacred narratives evolve from real, observable environments. The parallels between Egyptian cosmology and the opening chapters of the Book of Genesis are best explained not by divine revelation, but by cultural inheritance, adaptation, and reinterpretation over centuries. For creationism, this presents a familiar problem. The more archaeology, geology, and history reveal about the ancient world, the clearer it becomes that the Bible sits firmly within that world, shaped by it and dependent upon it. Far from standing apart as a uniquely inspired account of cosmic origins, it increasingly resembles what it actually is: one regional mythology among many, repackaged and retrospectively elevated to universal truth. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Creationism's God at work Creationism's intelligent designer creating cancer. AI-generated image (ChatGPT 5.2). Dresden research group uncovers new key mechanism in cancer cells | TU Dresden ID advocates should be thrilled to learn that a team of researchers from Technische Universität Dresden (TUD), Germany, together with colleagues from Charles University, Prague, Czechia, have discovered a perfect example of what Discovery Institute fellows William A. Dembski and Michael J. Behe claim is proof of intelligent design—namely _complex specified information_ and _irreducible complexity_. The team have just published their findings, open access, in _Nature Communications_. There is one slight problem, however: this supposed ‘proof of intelligent design’ turns out to be one of the mechanisms that makes cancer so effective at increasing pain and suffering — and at killing people. This presents creationists with a theological conundrum. Either there is more than one intelligent designer, which comes close to—or even crosses—the line into blasphemy, or the intelligent designer is actively and knowingly creating a cause of pain and suffering, and is therefore not the omnibenevolent deity portrayed in the Bible. The stark alternative to these theologically insurmountable problems is equally problematic for ID creationism: admitting that their ‘proof of intelligent design’ is nothing of the sort, and is better explained as the result of a natural process in which no intelligence was involved—thereby absolving their god of any culpability. The TUD-led team discovered that the protein MCL1 not only inhibits programmed cell death, or apoptosis, but also plays a central role in tumour metabolism. Normal, non-cancerous cells will usually self-destruct if their DNA becomes corrupted beyond repair, but when this process fails, a tumour can develop through the proliferation of cells carrying damaged DNA. In cancers, this self-destruct mechanism is suppressed by MCL1. The team also found that MCL1 is not only responsible for preventing apoptosis, but also dysregulates cellular energy metabolism. In other words, a single factor ensures both cancer cell survival and the functioning of key metabolic and signalling pathways for the benefit of the tumour. In Michael J. Behe’s terms, all the components of this survival mechanism must be present for the cancer to persist; and in William A. Dembski’s terms, the genetic information coding for MCL1 must constitute highly specified complex information. > Background^ Apoptosis and Cancer Metabolism. > > > > Diagram of intrinsic and extrinsic pathways of apoptosis. (A) In the intrinsic pathway, the proapoptotic BH3-only family members activate Bax or Bak, leading to mitochrondrial outer membrane permeabilization, which drives formation of the apoptosome, activation of the executioner caspases, 3 and 7, and subsequent apoptosis. The proapoptotic BH3-only proteins are inhibited via interactions with the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 family of proteins. (B) In the extrinsic pathway, ligands such as Fas, tumor necrosis factor (TNF), or tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing (TRAIL) ligand bind to death receptors. This results in the recruitment of Fas-associated death domain protein (FADD) and activation of caspase 8. Caspase 8 directly activates caspase 3 and 7. The two pathways interact via caspase 8-mediated cleavage of Bid. > > > > source: Ho, Jacqueline, 2014 > > **Apoptosis: the cell’s self-destruct mechanism** > > Apoptosis is _programmed cell death_ —a tightly regulated process that allows damaged, infected, or unnecessary cells to destroy themselves in an orderly way. It is essential for normal development, tissue maintenance, and cancer prevention. > > When a cell detects severe DNA damage, metabolic failure, or other irreparable faults, it activates internal signalling pathways that dismantle the cell from within. This prevents defective cells from continuing to divide and protects the organism as a whole. Proteins of the BCL-2 family act as key regulators of this process, either promoting or blocking cell death depending on circumstances. > > Cancer arises when this safety mechanism fails. Cells that should self-destruct instead survive, accumulate further mutations, and begin dividing uncontrollably. > > **Cancer metabolism: fuelling uncontrolled growth** > > Cancer cells do not behave metabolically like normal cells. To support rapid and continuous division, they rewire their energy production and nutrient use. Even when oxygen is available, many cancers favour inefficient pathways that prioritise the production of raw materials for growth rather than maximising energy efficiency—a phenomenon known as metabolic reprogramming. > > This altered metabolism supports: > > * rapid cell division > * resistance to cellular stress > * survival in hostile, low-oxygen environments > Crucially, cancer metabolism and resistance to apoptosis are closely linked. Proteins that prevent cell death often also help redirect energy production and cellular resources to favour tumour survival. > > **Why this matters** > > Cancer is not caused by a single failure, but by the breakdown of multiple protective systems that normally keep cells in check. Mechanisms that suppress apoptosis _and_ enhance metabolic resilience give tumours a powerful survival advantage—but one that arises naturally through mutation and selection at the cellular level, not from foresight or intent. The work of the TUD-led team is explained in lay terms in a TUD news article. > Dresden research group uncovers new key mechanism in cancer cells > > * * * > > A study by the Mildred Scheel Early Career Center group led by Dr. Mohamed Elgendy at the TUD Faculty of Medicine provides fundamental insights into cancer biology. Published in the renowned journal Nature Communications, the study shows for the first time that the protein MCL1 not only inhibits programmed cell death, but also plays a central role in tumor metabolism. > > * * * > > The researchers have succeeded in tracing two classic hallmarks of cancer – the evasion of apoptosis (a form of programmed cell death) and the dysregulation of energy metabolism – back to a common molecular mechanism. > > The study focuses on the protein MCL1, which is strongly overexpressed in many tumor types and has previously been considered primarily an anti-apoptotic factor of the Bcl-2 protein family. The Dresden researchers now show that MCL1 directly influences the central metabolic regulator mTOR and thus controls the bioenergetics of cancer cells. This is the first time that MCL1 has been described as an active regulator of central signaling and metabolic pathways. > > > > Our findings show that MCL1 is much more than just a survival factor for tumor cells. The protein actively intervenes in key metabolic and growth signaling pathways, thereby linking two fundamental cancer mechanisms. > > Dr. Mohamed Elgendy, senior author > Institute for Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine > University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine > Technische Universität Dresden > Dresden, Germany. > > > Mechanistically, the team identified a direct functional link between MCL1 and the mTORC1 complex in various cancer models. This newly discovered signaling pathway fundamentally expands the current understanding of the role of MCL1 and opens up new therapeutic perspectives. > > In addition to genetic analyses, the study also investigated the effect of MCL1 inhibitors, which are currently undergoing clinical development as promising new cancer therapeutics. The study showed that these agents also inhibit mTOR signaling. This finding is of high clinical relevance, as mTOR inhibitors are already routinely used in cancer therapy. > > Another particularly significant finding is the resolution of a previously unsolved problem: several clinical trials with MCL1 inhibitors had to be discontinued due to severe cardiotoxic side effects. The Dresden researchers identified an underlying molecular mechanism for the first time and, based on this, developed a dietary approach that can significantly reduce cardiac toxicity. This protective effect was confirmed in an innovative humanized mouse model. > > > This work represents a significant advance in our understanding of the molecular basis of cancer. This high-ranking publication with enormous clinical potential once again demonstrates that the targeted support of outstanding young scientists, as carried out at the Mildred Scheel Center for Young Scientists, is a prerequisite for innovations and the cancer therapy of tomorrow. > > Professor Esther Troost, not an author of the paper. > Dean of the Carl Gustav Carus Faculty of Medicine > Technische Universität Dresden > Dresden, Germany. > > > > > This outstanding research work exemplifies how excellent basic research can create direct benefits for our cancer patients. Particularly significant from a clinical perspective is the solution to the cardiotoxicity problem of MCL1 inhibitors. The identification of the underlying mechanism and the development of a dietary protective approach can now pave the way for safer therapies. > > Professor Uwe Platzbecker, not an author of the paper. > Chief Medical Officer > University Hospital and Faculty of Medicine > Technische Universität Dresden > Dresden, Germany. > > > The study is the result of interdisciplinary collaboration between various research groups and institutions. Dr. Mohamed Elgendy's working group in Dresden acted as the lead partner and was supported by experts from national and international partner institutes in Czechia, Austria, and Italy. > > The importance of the work was also recognized by the editors of the journal Nature Communications: The publication was selected as one of the outstanding research papers on cancer on the “Editors' Highlights” website, which presents the 50 best currently published studies in this field. > > Background > Dr. Mohamed Elgendy has been leading a research group on cancer metabolism at the Mildred Scheel Early Career Center in Dresden since 2019. His research focuses on molecular and cell biology methods, genome editing, and the analysis of tumor metabolism in cell and mouse models. Dr. Elgendy coordinates the METRICs project within the framework of ERA-NET (European Research Area Networks) and is also funded by an ERC Starting Grant from the European Research Council. > > Since 2018, the Mildred Scheel Early Career Center has been supporting the career development of research physicians and scientists in the field of cancer research in Dresden and at four other university locations with funding from German Cancer Aid (DKH). > > Publication: > >> [Gui, W., Paral, P., Dhamija, B. et al. > **MCL1 modulates mTORC1 signaling to promote bioenergetics and tumorigenesis.** > _Nat Commun_ **16** , 10841 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66831-4](https://rdcu.be/eXPfE) > > > Show details > Abstract > Myeloid cell leukemia-1 (MCL1) is among the most overexpressed proteins in tumors. MCL1 contributes to tumorigenesis by antagonizing apoptosis. However, apoptosis-unrelated functions are emerging. Screening an array of signaling switches identifies mTORC1 to be modulated by MCL1 but not by the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 or Bcl-xL. mTORC1 is a central metabolic regulator. MCL1 impacts metabolism via modulating the expression of hexokinase 2 (HK2) in an mTORC1-dependent manner, which ultimately contributes to the tumor-promoting effects of MCL1. MCL1 inhibitors suppress mTORC1 in tumor cells but are associated with cardiotoxicity due to mTORC1 inhibition in the heart. Dietary leucine supplementation rescues mTORC1 signaling in the hearts of humanized Mcl-1 mice and greatly ameliorates the cardiotoxicity of MCL1 inhibitors. Taken together, here we describe tumor-promoting roles for MCL1 in regulating mTORC1 signaling and subsequently in bioenergetics, besides its role in antagonizing apoptosis, identifying MCL1 as a hinge of cell bioenergetics and survival. > > > > > [Gui, W., Paral, P., Dhamija, B. et al. > **MCL1 modulates mTORC1 signaling to promote bioenergetics and tumorigenesis.** > _Nat Commun_ **16** , 10841 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66831-4](https://rdcu.be/eXPfE) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by Springer Nature Lts. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) What this research ultimately exposes is the intellectual cul-de-sac into which Intelligent Design has driven creationism. By insisting that _complexity_ and _interdependence_ are reliable indicators of conscious design, ID advocates have handed science a weapon that cuts both ways. When those same features turn up in diseases that maim, torment, and kill, the claim quietly becomes catastrophic for their theology. Cancer does not merely _fail_ by design standards; it succeeds spectacularly. It hijacks regulatory networks, exploits metabolic pathways, and deploys tightly coordinated molecular systems that would be praised as masterful engineering if they were doing something benign. If such systems genuinely require foresight and intent, then the designer responsible is either morally indifferent or actively malicious. Faced with this, creationists are left with no viable escape route. To maintain belief in a benevolent, intelligent creator, they must abandon the very criteria they promoted as decisive evidence of design. Yet if they retreat from those criteria, Intelligent Design collapses into an empty assertion, offering no explanatory power beyond what evolutionary biology already provides—only without the evidence. The uncomfortable reality is that biology looks exactly as one would expect if it were shaped by blind processes: effective but inefficient, powerful but dangerous, capable of astonishing innovation and horrific failure alike. Intelligent Design did not rescue creationism from science; it merely ensured that, when science advanced, creationism would be crushed under the weight of its own arguments. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Dr Jesse Martin of LaTrobe University thinks Little Foot could be a whole new branch of the human family tree. Photograph: La Trobe University Iconic fossil may be new type of human ancestor, News, La Trobe University A brief communication, published last November in the _American Journal of Biological Anthropology_ may, if creationists never read past the title (as usual), have produced a frisson of excitement in those circles. It questioned the taxonomic status of one of the most complete fossil skeletons of an early ancestral hominin, _Australopithecus prometheus_ , popularly known as “Little Foot”. However, reading even a little further would have turned that excitement into disappointment — assuming, of course, that they understood what they were reading. The authors were not questioning whether the fossil was ancestral at all, but whether it had been assigned to the correct position in the hominin family tree, or whether it should instead be recognised as a distinct ancestral hominin species. In other words, this was a discussion about _how many_ transitional species there are, not whether transitional species exist at all. The only crumb of comfort available to creationists is the familiar claim that this demonstrates how science “keeps changing its mind”, something they take as evidence that science is fundamentally unreliable—presumably including even those parts they routinely misrepresent as supporting their beliefs. For anyone who understands the scientific method, and the importance of treating all knowledge as provisional and contingent on the best available evidence, this paper represents the principle functioning exactly as it should. Far from being a weakness, this willingness to revise conclusions in the light of new information is what makes science self-correcting and progressively more accurate over time. The authors of the paper — a team led by La Trobe University adjunct Dr Jesse Martin—carried out a new analysis of the “Little Foot” fossils and concluded that the specimen was probably placed in the wrong taxon when first described on the basis that it does not share the same “unique suite of primitive and derived features” as _Australopithecus africanus_. Since that initial assessment, additional fossils of _A. prometheus_ have been discovered, and it has become clear that “Little Foot” also differs from those specimens. At the same time, it remains sufficiently distinct from _A. africanus_ that reassignment to that species is not justified. In short, it possesses its own unique combination of primitive and derived traits and should therefore be recognised as a separate species. Naturally, there is no real comfort here for creationists. The phrase “suite of primitive and derived features” is simply palaeontological shorthand for evidence of descent with modification—what Darwin referred to as transitional forms. It follows that the researchers involved have no doubt whatsoever that the species under discussion evolved from earlier ancestors, and there is no hint that they believe it was spontaneously created, without ancestry, by magic. > Background information^ “Transitional species” in hominin evolution. > > > > **"Transitional" Hominins:** > Top L to R; _Australopithecus sediba_ (Wikipedia CC BY SA-4.0); _A. afarensis_ ('Lucy') (Wikipedia CC BY 2.5); _A. prometheus_ ('Little Foot') (USC.Today). > > Bottom L to R: _Homo habilis_ (Wikipedia CC BY 4.0); _H. erectus_ (Australian Museum) > > In evolutionary biology, the term **“transitional species”** does not mean a half-formed or incomplete organism. It refers to a population that combines **ancestral traits with newly evolved, derived traits** , capturing a stage in an evolutionary sequence. Such species are fully functional in their own ecological context, but occupy an intermediate position between earlier and later forms. > > In hominin evolution, transitional species are not rare exceptions but the **expected outcome** of gradual evolutionary change over millions of years. Because evolution proceeds by modification of existing structures, fossils frequently show mosaics of traits rather than abrupt jumps from one form to another. > > Early australopithecines, such as **_Australopithecus afarensis_** , display a mixture of ape-like and human-like features: small brains and long arms suited to climbing, combined with pelvis and leg structures adapted for habitual bipedalism. Later forms, including **_Australopithecus africanus_** and **_Australopithecus prometheus_** (the species to which “Little Foot” is attributed), show further refinements in locomotion and anatomy, while still retaining many primitive characteristics. > > The transition does not end with australopithecines. Early members of the genus **_Homo habilis_** retain relatively small brains and apelike proportions, yet show evidence of increased tool use and behavioural complexity. Later species such as **_Homo erectus_** exhibit larger brains, more human-like body proportions, and long-distance dispersal beyond Africa—again illustrating gradual change rather than sudden appearance. > > Importantly, palaeoanthropologists do not expect evolution to produce a single, neat “missing link”. Instead, the fossil record reveals a **branching pattern** , with multiple hominin species coexisting, diverging, and sometimes going extinct. Taxonomic debates—such as whether a fossil belongs to an existing species or represents a new one—reflect this complexity, not uncertainty about evolution itself. The difficulty in assigning an accurate taxon is to be expected, as there never is a discrete point in time when one species changes into another, like the childish creationist parodies of evolution, because the whole population changes gradually over time. > > In short, so-called transitional species are not anomalies that challenge evolutionary theory. They are precisely what the theory predicts, and their increasing number and anatomical detail are among the strongest lines of evidence for human evolution, each representing a snapshot in time of an ever-evolving gradation. > > > > Where does red become blue? > > > The work of the La Trobe–led team is summarised in a La Trobe University news article. > Iconic fossil may be new type of human ancestor > > * * * > > An international study led by researchers from Australia’s La Trobe University and the University of Cambridge has challenged the classification of one of the world's most complete human ancestral fossils, raising the possibility of a new human species. > > * * * > > The fossil, found in South Africa’s Sterkfontein Caves in 1998 and dubbed "Little Foot", has been widely believed to be a member of the _Australopithecus_ genus, a lineage of ape-like upright walkers that lived in South Africa between 3 million and 1.95 million years ago. > > Paleoanthropologist Ronald Clarke, who led the team that took 20 years to excavate and analyse the skeleton, attributed Little Foot to the species _Australopithecus prometheus_ when the fossil was first revealed to the world in 2017. Others maintained it was _Australopithecus africanus_ , a species first described by Australian anatomist Raymond Dart in 1925 and which was already known from the same site and South Africa more broadly. > > But in a peer-reviewed article published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, a team led by La Trobe University adjunct Dr Jesse Martin found that Little Foot does not share a unique suite of traits with either species, raising the possibility that it may represent a new species altogether. > > > > This fossil remains one of the most important discoveries in the hominin record and its true identity is key to understanding our evolutionary past. We think it's demonstrably not the case that it’s _A. prometheus_ or _A. africanus_. This is more likely a previously unidentified, human relative. > > Dr Clarke deserves credit for the discovery of Little Foot, and being one of the only people to maintain there were two species of hominin at Sterkfontein. Little Foot demonstrates in all likelihood he's right about that. There are two species. > > Dr Jesse M. Martin, lead author > Palaeoscience Labs > Department of Archaeology and History > Latrobe University > Bundoora, Victoria, Australia. > > > Little Foot, known formally as StW 573, remains the most complete ancient hominin in the fossil record. > > Dr Martin’s team is the first to have challenged the species attribution of Little Foot since it was unveiled in 2017. > > > Our findings challenge the current classification of Little Foot and highlight the need for further careful, evidence-based taxonomy in human evolution. > > Dr Jesse M. Martin > > > Dr Martin, who is an adjunct at La Trobe and a postdoctoral research fellow at Cambridge, and students from La Trobe University will now work to clarify which species Little Foot represents and where that species sits in the human family tree. > > The research was carried out under the auspice of an Australian Research Council grant directed by Professor Andy Herries at La Trobe. > > Professor Herries said Little Foot was one of the most complete and important fossils ever discovered in terms of what it could tell us about early human diversity and how our ancestors adapted to the different environments of southern Africa. > > > It is clearly different from the type specimen of _Australopithecus prometheus_ , which was a name defined on the idea these early humans made fire, which we now know they didn’t. Its importance and difference to other contemporary fossils clearly show the need for defining it as its own unique species. > > Professor Andy I.R. Herries, co-author > Palaeoscience Labs > Department of Archaeology and History > Latrobe University > Bundoora, Victoria, Australia. > > > The research involved collaboration between institutions in the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and the United States. > > Publication: > >> [Martin, J. M., L. Morris-Obst, A. B. Leece, S. Baker, A. I. R. Herries, and D. S. Strait. 2025. > **The StW 573 Little Foot Fossil Should Not Be Attributed to _Australopithecus prometheus_.** > _American Journal of Biological Anthropology_ **188** , no. 4: e70177. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.70177.](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.70177) > > > Show details > ABSTRACT > > Objectives > To test the hypothesis that the StW 573 (Little Foot) fossil specimen should be attributed taxonomically to _Australopithecus prometheus_. > > Materials and Methods > We adopt the methods of classic morphology by comparing StW 573 to the type specimen of _A. prometheus_ (MLD 1) and other consensus members of _Australopithecus africanus_. We utilize qualitative anatomical descriptions and comparisons, supplemented with the examination of selected relevant quantitative measurements. > > Results > We find that the morphology preserved by StW 573 does not support assigning that specimen to _A. prometheus_ because it does not share a unique suite of primitive and derived traits in common with the _A. prometheus_ type specimen, MLD 1. Specifically, StW 573 differs from MLD 1 in having a more pronounced external occipital protuberance, a sagittal crest at lambda, an asterionic notch, a long nuchal plane, and a smaller cranial capacity. Regarding these same areas of anatomy, MLD 1 more closely resembles Sts 5, and MLD 37/38, consensus members of _A. africanus_. > > Discussion > _A. prometheus_ should remain a junior synonym for _A. africanus_ based on the demonstrated morphological similarities between MLD 1 and the broader _A. africanus_ sample. Conversely, while StW 573 cannot be attributed to _A. prometheus_ , the results of this study indicate that it also differs in meaningful ways from specimens conventionally attributed to _A. africanus_. > > > > > > > > **Figure 1.** > Sts 5, MLD 1, StW 573 positioned in Frankfurt Horizontal in posterior view. Black dotted line demonstrates the configuration of the superior temporal lines, the red arrow indicates the configuration of the external occipital protuberance, and the blue line demonstrates the slope of the parietals relative to a vertical plane. > > > > **Figure 2.** > StW 573 in lateral view with second panel and blue line highlighting the presence of an asterionic notch. In the end, this episode illustrates not a flaw in science, but its greatest strength. The reassessment of “Little Foot” is not an admission of ignorance or failure; it is a demonstration of how scientific understanding improves as new evidence accumulates and analytical techniques advance. Taxonomic refinement is an expected and routine part of palaeoanthropology, particularly in a field where new discoveries can illuminate previously unseen patterns of variation and ancestry. For creationists, however, this distinction is routinely missed or deliberately ignored. Any revision is portrayed as vacillation, while the complete absence of testable evidence for special creation is treated as certainty. Yet only one of these approaches is capable of correcting its own mistakes, refining its models, and converging on an ever more accurate account of reality. Far from undermining human evolution, debates over hominin classification strengthen it. Each newly recognised species, each clarified relationship, and each refined evolutionary pathway adds detail to an already overwhelming body of evidence showing that humans are the product of deep time, branching descent, and gradual change. Science moves forward by questioning details, not by clinging to unalterable dogma—and it is precisely this process that continues to leave creationist claims stranded far outside the realm of reality. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Source: Canadian Geographic. Researchers find evidence of cosmic impact at classic Clovis archaeological sites | The Current A new paper in _PLOS One_ presents compelling evidence that a comet exploding in Earth’s atmosphere around 13,000 years ago played a major role in the extinction of megafauna such as mammoths and mastodons across Eurasia and North America, and in extinguishing the Clovis Culture, the archaeological sites of which provided the evidence for the impact. The study was led by James Kennett, Professor at University of California, Santa Barbara, working with an international team of collaborators. The findings cut directly across a familiar creationist trope: the claim that Earth is “finely tuned” to be a benign and stable haven, perfectly suited for human life. This notion, often promoted by parochial American creationists, quietly assumes that the wider world is a trivial backdrop where nothing of consequence ever happens. It ignores the obvious realities of earthquakes, floods, famines, volcanic eruptions and climate shocks—realities that dominate both human history and the deep geological record. That record tells a very different story. Earth’s past is marked by repeated catastrophes, ranging from abrupt climate shifts to mass extinctions, many triggered by astronomical or geological events. Impacts from space, massive volcanism, plate tectonics and cascading ecosystem failures have repeatedly reshaped life on this planet. Far from being a delicately balanced paradise, Earth is a dynamic and often hostile environment in which survival has always depended on adaptation—and, frequently, sheer luck. > Background^ Earth’s Repeated Mass Extinctions. > > > > Mass Extinctions > > > National Geographic > > **Timing** > Over the past ~540 million years, Earth has experienced at least five major mass extinctions, each eliminating a substantial fraction of global biodiversity in geologically short intervals (thousands to hundreds of thousands of years). These events punctuate the fossil record and separate major evolutionary eras. > > **Causes** > No single mechanism explains all mass extinctions. Instead, different events were driven by different—sometimes overlapping—triggers: > > * **Astronomical impacts** (e.g. large asteroids or comets), injecting dust and aerosols that blocked sunlight and disrupted climate and food webs (as with the end-Cretaceous event linked to the **Chicxulub Crater**). > * **Large-scale volcanism** , releasing vast quantities of CO₂, sulphur gases and toxic metals, causing rapid warming, acid rain and ocean acidification (notably at the end-Permian). > * **Abrupt climate change** , including rapid warming or cooling, often amplified by feedbacks in oceans and ice sheets. > * **Ocean anoxia** , where warming and nutrient disruption lead to oxygen-starved seas, collapsing marine ecosystems. > **Consequences** > > > * **Severe biodiversity loss** , often exceeding 70–90% of species globally. > * **Ecosystem collapse** , with food webs simplified or wiped out entirely. > * **Evolutionary bottlenecks** , followed by long recovery periods during which surviving lineages diversify to fill vacant ecological niches. > * **Biological turnover** , reshaping life on Earth—many dominant groups disappear, while previously minor ones rise to prominence. > Taken together, mass extinctions show that Earth’s history is not one of steady, benign stability, but of repeated disruption and renewal. Life persists not because the planet is finely tuned to avoid catastrophe, but because evolution is resilient in the aftermath of it. The new research, and its wider implications, are clearly explained in a UC Santa Barbara news feature by Sonia Fernandez, which sets the study in the broader context of Earth’s long history of environmental upheaval and biological turnover. > Researchers find evidence of cosmic impact at classic Clovis archaeological sites > > * * * > > Researchers continue to build on a body of evidence for a fragmented comet that is thought to have exploded over the Earth almost 13,000 years ago, which may have had a role in the disappearance of mammoths, mastodons and most of other megafauna at that time, and in the vanishing of the Clovis culture from the archaeological record in North America. > > * * * > > Reporting in PLOS One, UC Santa Barbara Emeritus Professor of Earth Science James Kennett and collaborators present their findings of shocked quartz — grains of sand deformed by extreme pressures and temperatures — at three classic Clovis culture archaeological sites in the United States: Murray Springs in Arizona, Blackwater Draw in New Mexico and Arlington Canyon in California’s Channel Islands. > > > These three sites were classic sites in the discovery and the documentation of the megafaunal extinctions in North America and the disappearance of the Clovis culture. > > Professor James Kennett, first author. > Department of Earth Science and Marine Science Institute > University of California, Santa Barbara > California, USA. > > > This work made use of the University of Utah USTAR shared facilities supported, in part, by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation. > > Evidence for the Younger Dryas Impact hypothesis > > The disappearance of the megafauna and the vanishing of the Clovis technocomplex from the archaeological record coincide with the onset of the Younger Dryas cool episode, an anomalous and abrupt return to near ice-age conditions that persisted for about a thousand or so years amid what was generally a warming transition from the Last Glacial Period. > > There are several hypotheses for what may have happened to trigger that event; Kennett and team propose a scenario in which a fragmented comet exploded aboveground, sending shockwaves and extreme heat to Earth. > > According to the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis, the explosions were responsible for widespread burning and the resulting smoke and soot, in addition to dust that blocked the sun, leading to an “impact winter.” Rapid melting of the ice sheets could have helped to further cool the impact zones. The shock of impact itself, followed by harsh conditions thereafter, may have contributed to the demise of the megafauna in both North and South America and the disappearance of the Clovis culture, according to the hypothesis. > > > In other words, all hell broke loose. > > Professor James Kennett. > > > For the past couple of decades, Kennett and fellow proponents of this hypothesis have been gathering evidence that increasingly supports it, including a “black mat” layer in the sediment at many sites across North America and Europe — indicative of widespread burning. Additionally, they have uncovered a growing list of impact proxies, which include unusually high concentrations of rare minerals that are common in comets, such as platinum and iridium, and mineral formations indicative of extremely high temperatures and pressures, such as nanodiamonds and metals and minerals that have melted, cooled and hardened again, including metallic spherules and meltglass. > > > > The three classic Clovis archaeological sites in the study. > > > Photo Credit: Courtesy Image. > > > Thanks to advances in technology, the team is homing in on another proxy that is considered the crème de la crème of cosmic impact evidence: shocked quartz — grains of sand that exhibit deformations due to extreme heat and temperature. In samples from the three North American archaeological sites — Murray Springs, Blackwater Draw and Arlington Canyon — the researchers identified quartz grains with telltale cracks, some filled with melted silica. They used a variety of techniques, including electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence, to confirm that the quartz grains had been shocked at extremely high temperatures and pressures, far beyond what could have been accomplished by volcanism or ancient human activity. > > The presence of shocked quartz is particularly important in the absence of craters — the smoking gun of cosmic impact evidence. Unlike the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and left a crater beneath the Yucatan Peninsula, “touchdown airbursts” — cosmic collisions that occur above the Earth’s surface, such as from this proposed fragmented comet — leave little, if any, evidence on the landscape. Using hydrocode modeling, the team modeled these low-altitude, above-ground explosions and the variety of impacts that could lead to the shock patterns in the quartz grains. > > “There are different levels of shocked quartz,” Kennett said. While the accepted evidence for cosmic impact leans heavily on the parallel cracks in quartz found at craters, the variety of directions, pressures and temperatures that emerge around airbursts would lead to variations in the shock patterns in the quartz, he explained. “There are going to be some very highly shocked grains and some that will be low-shocked. That’s what you would expect.” > > Added to the other impact proxies found in the same layer of sediment — carbon-rich black mat, nanodiamonds, impact spherules — and found at three key archaeological sites, the discovery of these shocked quartz grains “supports a cosmic impact as a major contributing factor in the megafaunal extinctions and the collapse of the Clovis technocomplex at the Younger Dryas onset,” according to the paper. > > Publication: > >> [Kennett JP, LeCompte MA, Moore CR, Kletetschka G, Johnson JR, Wolbach WS, et al. (2025) > **Shocked quartz at the Younger Dryas onset (12.8 ka) supports cosmic airbursts/impacts contributing to North American megafaunal extinctions and collapse of the Clovis technocomplex.** _PLoS One_ **20**(9): e0319840. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319840](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0319840) > > > Show details > Abstract > > Shocked quartz grains are an accepted indicator of crater-forming cosmic impact events, which also typically produce amorphous silica along the fractures. Furthermore, previous research has shown that shocked quartz can form when nuclear detonations, asteroids, and comets produce near-surface or “touch-down” airbursts. When cosmic airbursts detonate with enough energy and at sufficiently low altitude, the resultant relatively small, high-velocity fragments may strike Earth’s surface with high enough pressures to generate thermal and mechanical shock that can fracture quartz grains and introduce molten silica into the fractures. Here, we report the discovery of shocked quartz grains in a layer dating to the Younger Dryas (YD) onset (12.8 ka) in three classic archaeological sequences in the Southwestern United States: Murray Springs, Arizona; Blackwater Draw, New Mexico; and Arlington Canyon, California. These sites were foundational in demonstrating that the extinction or observed population bottlenecks of many megafaunal species and the coeval collapse/reorganization of the Clovis technocomplex in North America co-occurred at or near the YD onset. Using a comprehensive suite of 10 analytical techniques, including electron microscopy (TEM, SEM, CL, and EBSD), we have identified grains with glass-filled fractures similar to shocked grains associated with nuclear explosions and 27 accepted impact craters of different ages (e.g., Meteor Crater, 50 ka; Chesapeake Bay, 35 Ma; Chicxulub, 66 Ma; Manicouagan, 214 Ma) and produced in 11 laboratory shock experiments. In addition, we used hydrocode modeling to explore the temperatures, pressures, and shockwave velocities associated with the airburst of a 100-m fragment of a comet and conclude that they are sufficient to produce shocked quartz. These shocked grains co-occur with previously reported peak concentrations in platinum, meltglass, soot, and nanodiamonds, along with microspherules, similar to those found in ~28 microspherule layers that are accepted as evidence for cosmic impact events, even in the absence of a known crater. The discovery of apparently thermally-altered shocked quartz grains at these three key archaeological sites supports a cosmic impact as a major contributing factor in the megafaunal extinctions and the collapse of the Clovis technocomplex at the YD onset. > > > > > > **Fig 3. YDB proxies for Arlington Canyon, Santa Rosa Island (A, B), California, USA.** > This figure summarizes the stratigraphic context and proxy evidence for a potential Younger Dryas impact event near Arlington Canyon, a well-dated coastal site on Santa Rosa Island. (**A**) Location in Southwestern USA (lat/long: 33.990333°N, 120.1580555°W). (**B**) Aerial view of the site. (**C**) This profile is exposed on a 5-m-high cliff of a low terrace cut by a stream ~2 km inland from the NW coast of Santa Rosa Island. Detailed stratigraphy and chronology are in Kennett et al. 63]. The 44-cm-thick YDB layer at the cliff base contains proxy abundance peaks in a black silty mud layer. (**D**) All proxy abundance peaks are significantly higher than background concentrations. The darker blue horizontal bar represents the YDB layer with a Bayesian-modeled radiocarbon age of 12.8 ka (revised range: 12,875−12,775 cal BP) [48]; the lighter blue bar represents the upward distribution of YDB proxies considered to be reworked (SI, Table S5 in S1 File). The graph depicts a new proxy from this study: glass-filled fractured quartz at an abundance of 5 grains in ~8,000 quartz grains on a 27 x 46 mm slide with none above. Other proxies from previous studies: (**E**) Microspherules from Wittke et al. [44]. (**F**) Nanodiamonds [49,54,88]. (**G**) Carbon microspherules from biomass burning [44,63]. (**H**) Soot/aciniform carbon from biomass burning [12,24,89]. (**I**) Platinum [45]. Panel A is courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey, accessed at [https://apps.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ on 01/28/2025. Panel B is courtesy of the Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, the Jon B. Lovelace Collection of California Photographs in Carol M Highsmith’s America Project; the photo is in the public domain. > > * * * > > > > **Fig 4. YDB proxies at Blackwater Draw, New Mexico, USA.** > This figure presents stratigraphic and geochemical evidence for a potential impact event near Blackwater Draw, the type-site for the Clovis culture and a key location for investigating the YDB layer. (**A**) Location in Southwestern USA (lat/long: 34.275687°N, 103.326101°W). (**B**) Aerial view of site, overlaid on a 3D digital elevation model (DEM). This is the initial Clovis artifact discovery site, 18 km SE of Clovis, New Mexico. The sampling location is inside the South Bank Interpretive Center. Haynes 2] reported that the black mat at this site dates to 12,855 ± 80 (13,060−12,735 cal BP) [64,79]. YDB abundance peaks in YDB proxies exceed background concentrations. The blue horizontal bar marks the YDB layer with a Bayesian-modeled radiocarbon age of ~12.8 ka (revised range: 12,875−12,775 cal BP), calculated using probabilistic methods that incorporate stratigraphic constraints and prior information to refine radiocarbon date estimates (SI, Table S6-S7 in S1 File). (**C**) The YDB layer is a 1-cm-thick dark-gray stratum (arrow) at a ~ 2.5 m depth. Abundance peaks in various proxies occur in the YDB layer. The new proxy reported here is (**D**) Glass-filled fractured quartz at 7 grains in ~18,000 quartz grains on a 27 x 46 mm slide with none above or below. Other proxies from previous studies: (**E**) Microspherules [1,44,58]. (**F**) Nanodiamonds [54]. (**G**) Carbon microspherules from biomass burning [12,24,44]. (**H**) Black carbon from biomass burning [12,24,89]; and (**I**) Platinum [45,58]. A nearby butchered mammoth skeleton, stained black by the 12.8 ka black mat, indicates the animal was killed at or close to the time of the YDB event [1,44]. No in situ Clovis points or mammoth remains have been found above the YDB layer here or at other known sites [1,44]. The figure is from the U.S. Geological Survey, composited from NAIP Plus aerial imagery, 3DEP Elevation multi-directional hillshade data, and 3DEP elevation aspect data, accessed at [https://apps.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ on 01/28/2025. > > * * * > > > > **Fig 5. YDB proxies at Murray Springs, Arizona, USA.** > This figure illustrates the stratigraphic setting and proxy evidence for a potential Younger Dryas impact event near Murray Springs, a key Clovis archaeological site with well-preserved megafaunal and cultural remains. (**A**) The location is in the Southwestern USA (lat/long: 31.570912°N, 110.177996°W), 10 km east of Sierra Vista, Arizona. (**B**) Aerial view of the site, composited with a false-colored map showing the terrain slope. (**C**) The black mat at ~2.46 m is immediately above the ~ 1 cm-thick YDB layer, which contains abundance peaks in YDB proxies. Haynes 2] reported that the black mat at this site dates to 12,805 ± 45 (12,895−12,735 cal BP), with a Bayesian-modeled radiocarbon age of ~12.8 ka (revised range: 12,875−12,775 cal BP) (**SI** , Table S8 in S1 File). The new proxy reported here is (**D**) Glass-filled fractured quartz at 4 grains in ~3,000 quartz grains on a 27 x 46 mm slide with none above or below. YDB abundance peak concentrations are represented by the blue horizontal bar and mark the YDB layer. Other proxies reported from previous studies are (**E**) Microspherules [44]. Haynes et al. [90] confirmed the peak in microspherules but offered an alternate explanation. (**F**) Nanodiamonds [54]. (**G**) Carbon microspherules are produced by biomass burning [12,24,44]. (**H**) Soot/aciniform carbon (black carbon) from biomass burning [12,24,89]. (**I**) Platinum [45]. Clovis-age projectile points, tools, and a campsite were found in the proxy-rich YDB layer at the site [2]. A butchered, fully-articulated mammoth skeleton, found in the YDB layer just below the black mat and stained black by contact with it, indicates the animal was killed at or near the time of the YDB event [1,44]. No in situ Clovis points or mammoth remains have been found above the YDB layer at this or any other site [1,44]. Figure is from the U.S. Geological Survey, composited from NAIP Plus aerial imagery, 3DEP Elevation multi-directional hillshade data, and 3DEP elevation aspect data, accessed at [https://apps.nationalmap.gov/viewer/ on 01/28/2025 > > [Kennett JP, LeCompte MA, Moore CR, Kletetschka G, Johnson JR, Wolbach WS, et al. (2025) > **Shocked quartz at the Younger Dryas onset (12.8 ka) supports cosmic airbursts/impacts contributing to North American megafaunal extinctions and collapse of the Clovis technocomplex.** _PLoS One_ **20**(9): e0319840. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319840](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0319840) > > Copyright: © 2026 The authors. > Published by PLoS. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) This evidence leaves creationist claims about a carefully engineered, human-friendly world in ruins. A planet that periodically wipes out much of its own biosphere through impacts, volcanism and runaway climate change is not “finely tuned” in any meaningful sense. It is dangerous, unstable and frequently lethal to the life it carries. Humanity exists not because Earth was designed with us in mind, but because our lineage happened—by chance—to survive the most recent in a long series of planetary catastrophes. The extinction of the megafauna at the end of the last Ice Age fits neatly into this broader pattern. It was not a moral fable, a divinely scripted transition, or a gentle handover to human dominance, but a brutal ecological reset triggered by forces entirely indifferent to human hopes or future aspirations. That some species survived while others vanished is exactly what evolutionary theory predicts in the face of sudden environmental shock. Once again, science reveals a world shaped by contingency, catastrophe and adaptation, not purpose or foresight. The rocks, the fossils and now the geochemical signatures all tell the same story: Earth is not a cradle carefully prepared for humanity, but a restless planet on which survival has always been provisional. Creationism survives only by ignoring this reality—and each new discovery makes that act of wilful blindness harder to sustain. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Cast of the skull of _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_ a species discovered in the early 2000s. By Didier Descouens - Own work CC BY-SA 4.0, Link _S. tchadensis_ fossils (TM 266) compared to a chimpanzee and a human. Anthropologists Offer New Evidence of Bipedalism in Long-Debated Fossil Discovery We are only three days into 2026 and already creationism is facing an avalanche of new evidence against it and in favour of evolution on an ancient Earth in a vastly older Universe — directly contradicting the Bronze Age origin myths that creationists cling to with the desperation of a drunk clutching a lamppost. The latest blow comes from the New York University Department of Anthropology, where a team of researchers led by Associate Professor Scott Williams, working with colleagues from the University of Washington, Chaffey College, and the University of Chicago, have carried out a detailed re-examination of fossil remains attributed to _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_. Their analysis provides strong evidence that this species was bipedal and shared several key skeletal characteristics with later bipedal hominins, including the australopithecines and members of the genus _Homo_. _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_ was discovered in the early 2000s, and its place in human evolution has been debated ever since. Some researchers argued it might represent an extinct ape rather than a stem hominin. Evidence for habitual bipedalism, however, strongly favours the latter interpretation, making _S. tchadensis_ the earliest known human ancestor currently identified in the fossil record. As such, it becomes yet another example of the transitional species that creationists continue to insist do not exist, often under the mistaken belief that Charles Darwin — whom they treat as the final authority on all matters evolutionary — admitted that the absence of transitional forms was a serious problem for his theory. In reality, Darwin explicitly predicted that such fossils would eventually be found, and the subsequent century and a half of palaeontology has repeatedly confirmed that prediction. The discovery is of a point of attachment on the femur of a ligament only found in bipedal hominins. The importance of bipedalism in human evolution cannot be overstated. Habitual upright walking is one of the defining characteristics that separates hominins from other apes, reflecting a fundamental shift in anatomy, locomotion, and behaviour. It requires extensive reorganisation of the skeleton, including changes to the position of the foramen magnum, the curvature of the spine, the shape of the pelvis, the proportions of the limbs, and the structure of the feet. Because these adaptations are complex, interdependent, and leave clear signatures in fossilised bones, bipedalism is not a trivial or ambiguous trait. Evidence for it in _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_ therefore places this species firmly on the human lineage and pushes the origin of upright walking — and with it the human evolutionary trajectory — back far earlier than creationist models allow. Scott Williams’ team have now published their findings, open access, in _Science Advances_. > Background information^ _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_. > > > > Virtual reconstruction of _Sahelathropus tchadensis_ cranium > > > > Zollikofer, C., Ponce de León, M., Lieberman, D. _et al_. (2005) > > **_Sahelanthropus tchadensis_** is one of the earliest and most significant candidates for a member of the human lineage. What makes it especially important is its great age and its combination of primitive and derived traits. > > **Discovery and age** > > > * Discovered in **2001** at **Toros-Menalla** , in the Djurab Desert of northern Chad, Central Africa. > * Described in **2002** by a Franco-Chadian research team led by Michel Brunet. > * Dated to approximately **7–6 million years ago** , placing it very close to the estimated divergence between the human and chimpanzee lineages. > **Fossil material** > > > * Known primarily from a remarkably complete but distorted cranium (nicknamed _Toumaï_), along with fragments of the jaw and teeth. > * Postcranial material was scarce for many years, which fuelled debate over its locomotion. > **Anatomical features** > > > * **Small braincase** (around 350 cc), comparable to that of modern chimpanzees. > * **Reduced canine teeth** with wear patterns more similar to later hominins than to apes, suggesting changes in diet and social behaviour. > * **Thickened brow ridges** and a relatively flat face, unusual for an ape of this age. > * A **forward-positioned foramen magnum** , indicating the skull balanced atop an upright spine — a strong anatomical signal of bipedal posture. > **Locomotion and evolutionary status** > > > * For many years, critics argued that without limb bones, bipedalism could not be demonstrated. > * Subsequent analysis of associated postcranial remains, together with detailed reassessment of cranial anatomy, now provides strong evidence that _S. tchadensis_ was **habitually bipedal** , not a knuckle-walking ape. > * This places it firmly within the **hominin lineage** , rather than among extinct apes. > **Why it matters** > > > * _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_ pushes the origin of hominins back to **within a million years of the human–chimpanzee split**. > * It demonstrates that **bipedalism evolved very early** , before large brains, stone tools, or human-like body proportions. > * Its existence directly contradicts creationist claims that there are no transitional fossils linking humans to other primates. > **In short:** _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_ is not a vague or controversial “missing link”, but a well-documented early hominin whose anatomy fits precisely where evolutionary theory predicts it should — at the dawn of the human lineage. The discovery and its wider significance are also explained in a New York University news story by James Devitt. > Anthropologists Offer New Evidence of Bipedalism in Long-Debated Fossil Discovery > > * * * > > Analysis centers on point of attachment of ligament vital to walking upright > > * * * > > In recent decades, scientists have debated whether a seven-million-year-old fossil was bipedal—a trait that would make it the oldest human ancestor. A new analysis by a team of anthropologists offers powerful evidence that Sahelanthropus tchadensis—a species discovered in the early 2000s—was indeed bipedal by uncovering a feature found only in bipedal hominins. > > Using 3D technology and other methods, the team identified Sahelanthropus’s femoral tubercle, which is the point of attachment for the largest and most powerful ligament in the human body—the iliofemoral ligament—and vital for walking upright. The analysis also confirmed the presence of other traits in Sahelanthropus that are linked to bipedalism. > > > _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_ was essentially a bipedal ape that possessed a chimpanzee-sized brain and likely spent a significant portion of its time in trees, foraging and seeking safety. Despite its superficial appearance, _Sahelanthropus_ was adapted to using bipedal posture and movement on the ground. > > Associate Professor Scott A. Williams, Lead author > Center for the Study of Human Origins > Department of Anthropology > New York University, New York, NY, USA. > > > The study, which included researchers from the University of Washington, Chaffey College, and the University of Chicago, appears in the journal Science Advances. > > _Sahelanthropus_ was discovered in Chad’s Djurab desert by University of Poitiers’ palaeontologists in the early 2000s, with initial analyses focusing on its skull. Two decades later, studies on other parts of that discovery—its forearms, or ulnae, and thigh bone, or femur—were reported. This prompted debate over whether the species was bipedal or not, leaving open the question on its status: Is _Sahelanthropus_ a hominin (a human ancestor)? > > > > > > Crania, ulnae, and femora of (left to right): a chimpanzee, Sahelanthropus, and Australopithecus. > > > > Image courtesy of Scott Williams/NYU and Jason Heaton/University of Alabama Birmingham. > > > In the _Science Advances_ study, the scientists took a closer look at the ulnae and femur using two primary methods: a multi-fold trait comparison with the same bones of living and fossil species and 3D geometric morphometrics—a standard method for analyzing shapes in greater detail in order to illuminate areas of particular interest. Among the compared fossil species was _Australopithecus_ —an early human ancestor, well-known through the discovery of the “Lucy” skeleton in the early 1970s, who lived an estimated four to two million years ago. > > The analysis revealed three features that point to bipedalism in Sahelanthropus: > > * The presence of a femoral tubercle, which provides attachment for the iliofemoral ligament linking the pelvis to the femur and has so far been identified only in hominins > * A natural twist, specifically within the range of hominins, in the femur—or femoral antetorsion—that helps legs to point forward, thereby aiding walking > * The presence, drawn from the 3D analysis, of gluteal, or butt, muscles similar to those in early hominins that keep hips stable and aid in standing, walking, and running > The latter two traits—femoral antetorsion and gluteal complex—had previously been identified by other scientists; the Science Advances study affirmed their presence. > > The authors also found that _Sahelanthropus_ had a relatively long femur relative to its ulna—additional evidence of bipedalism. The researchers note that apes have long arms and short legs, whereas hominins have relatively long legs. And while _Sahelanthropus_ had much shorter legs than do modern humans, these were distinct from apes and approached _Australopithecus_ in relative femur length, suggesting another adaptation to bipedalism. > > > > Our analysis of these fossils offers direct evident that Sahelanthropus tchadensis could walk on two legs, demonstrating that bipedalism evolved early in our lineage and from an ancestor that looked most similar to today’s chimpanzees and bonobos. > > Associate Professor Scott A. Williams. > > > The paper’s other authors were Xue Wang and Jordan Guerra, both NYU doctoral students, Isabella Araiza, an NYU graduate student at the time of the study and now a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington, Marc Meyer, an anthropology professor at Chaffey College, and Jeffery Spear, an NYU graduate student at the time of the study and now a researcher at the University of Chicago. > > Publication: > >> [Scott A. Williams _et al_. > **Earliest evidence of hominin bipedalism in _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_**. > _Sci. Adv._ **12** , eadv0130(2026). DOI:10.1126/sciadv.adv0130](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adv0130) > > > Show details > Abstract > Bipedalism is a key adaptation that differentiates hominins (humans and our extinct relatives) from living and fossil apes. The earliest putative hominin, _Sahelanthropus tchadensis_ (~7 million years old), was originally represented by a cranium, the reconstruction of which suggested to its discoverers that _Sahelanthropus_ carried its head in a manner similar to known bipedal hominins. Recently, two partial ulnae and a femur shaft were announced as evidence in support of the contention that _Sahelanthropus_ was an early biped, but those interpretations have been challenged. Here, while we find that both limb bones are most similar in size and geometric morphometric shape to chimpanzees (genus _Pan_), we demonstrate that their relative proportion is more hominin-like. Furthermore, we confirm two features linked to hominin-like hip and knee function and identify a femoral tubercle, a feature only found in bipedal hominins. Our results suggest that _Sahelanthropus_ was an early biped that evolved from a _Pan_ -like Miocene ape ancestor. > > > > > **Fig. 1. S. tchadensis fossils (TM 266) compared to a chimpanzee and a human.** > Chimpanzee (_P. troglodytes_) cranium, ulna, and femur (A); TM 266-01-060 original (unmodified) cranium, TM 266-01-050 (left ulna) with TM 266-01-358 in outline proximally, and a chimpanzee specimen in outline distally; TM 266-01-063 with _O. tugenensis_ femur (BAR 1002′00) outlined proximally and A.L. 333-4 (_A. afarensis)_ outlined distally (B); human (_H. sapiens_) cranium, ulna, and femur (C). Specimens are set to approximate scale, with the exception of BAR 1002′00, which was increased in size to approximate the size of TM 266-01-063. The gray line demarcates the approximately equal lengths of the ulna and femur in _Pan_. > > > Once again, the fossil record is behaving exactly as evolutionary theory predicts and in precisely the way creationist dogma insists it cannot. An early hominin appears close to the expected time of the human–chimpanzee divergence, shows a mosaic of primitive and derived traits, and exhibits clear anatomical evidence of a key transitional adaptation — in this case, bipedalism. This is not an anomaly or a “just-so story”; it is the routine outcome of careful scientific investigation. For creationism, however, Sahelanthropus tchadensis is profoundly inconvenient. It exists millions of years before their imagined Creation Week, displays traits that cannot be dismissed as either fully ape or fully human, and fits seamlessly into an ever-growing sequence of hominin fossils documenting gradual change over deep time. To accept it would require abandoning the comforting fiction of instant, perfect creation — something ideology simply does not allow. As the evidence continues to accumulate, the claim that there are no transitional fossils becomes increasingly untenable. What remains is not a scientific controversy, but a refusal to engage honestly with reality. And as 2026 is already demonstrating, reality is not waiting for creationism to catch up. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Fossilized elephant dentine (scale: 1.5 mm across), with rock seen in the lower right and dentine in the upper left. The white dentine is intact collagen. Credit: Timothy Bromage and Bin Hu, NYU Dentistry Metabolic Analyses of Animal Fossils Helps Scientists Reconstruct Million-Year-Old Environments The bad news for creationism continues unabated. Scientists led by Professor Timothy G. Bromage of the Department of Molecular Pathobiology at New York University College of Dentistry have developed a technique that opens an entirely new window onto the deep past. By analysing metabolites preserved in fossilised bones, the researchers are able to extract detailed biological and environmental information from animals that lived between 1.3 and 3 million years ago. The team have published their findings in _Nature_, describing a method that pushes palaeobiology well beyond traditional morphology-based reconstruction. The significance of this technique lies in its ability to reconstruct ancient environments with remarkable precision. From the chemical signatures locked within fossil bone, researchers can infer temperature, soil conditions, rainfall patterns, vegetation, and even the presence of parasites. The resulting picture is one of ecosystems changing over time, with animals adapting in step with shifting environments — exactly what evolutionary theory predicts, and wholly incompatible with the childish notion of magical creation a few thousand years ago or a recent biological reset caused by a genocidal flood. > How Fossil Chemistry Reveals Ancient Lives and Landscapes. **What Are Metabolites?** > > Metabolites are small molecules produced by normal biological processes. They include compounds involved in digestion, energy use, immune responses, and interactions with parasites and microbes. Unlike DNA or proteins, which are fragile and degrade relatively quickly, some metabolites — or their chemically altered remnants — are remarkably robust. > > Crucially, metabolites reflect how an organism actually lived: what it ate, the stresses it experienced, the diseases it carried, and the environment it inhabited. In modern biology they are widely used to diagnose illness or reconstruct diet. What is new is their application to deep time. > > **How Can Chemical Signals Survive for Millions of Years?** > > Fossilisation is not a simple process of organic material being destroyed and replaced. Bone, in particular, creates a stable microenvironment. Its mineral matrix, rich in hydroxyapatite, can bind organic molecules and shield them from complete decay. In some cases, metabolites become chemically altered yet still retain diagnostic structures that modern analytical techniques can identify. > > Using advanced mass spectrometry, scientists can detect these molecular traces at extremely low concentrations. What survives is not intact tissue, but a chemically readable record — rather like smoke residues revealing the existence and nature of a long-extinguished fire. > > This directly undermines the common claim that “nothing organic can last millions of years”. The chemistry shows otherwise. > > **What This Reveals That Fossil Bones Alone Cannot** > > Traditional palaeontology relies largely on morphology: the size, shape, and structure of bones and teeth. That tells us what an animal looked like. Metabolite analysis tells us how it lived. > > From fossil chemistry, researchers can infer: > > > * **Dietary patterns** and nutritional stress > * **Seasonal or long-term environmental change** > * **Soil chemistry and vegetation types** > * **Parasite infections and physiological stress** > In other words, fossils are no longer silent stones. They carry biochemical evidence of ecosystems, climates, and life histories that cannot be read from anatomy alone. > > Together, these chemical signatures build a picture of animals embedded in changing environments over deep time — precisely what evolutionary theory predicts, and exactly what sudden creation or global catastrophe models fail to explain. A news release from New York University explains the research and its wider significance for palaeobiology. > Metabolic Analyses of Animal Fossils Helps Scientists Reconstruct Million-Year-Old Environments > > * * * > > Thanks to molecules trapped in ancient animal bones, fossils tell stories about disease, diet, and climate > > * * * > > For the first time, scientists have analyzed metabolism-related molecules from the fossilized bones of animals that lived 1.3 to 3 million years ago, revealing insights about both the animals and their environments. > > The metabolic clues about the animals’ health and diets enabled researchers to paint a picture of their living conditions, including the temperature, soil, rainfall, and vegetation. Their findings, published in Nature, reveal warmer and wetter conditions across these environments compared to today. > > Studying metabolites—the molecules produced and used in digestion and other chemical processes in the body—can provide information about health and disease, as well as external factors like diet and environmental exposures. While metabolomic research is increasingly used in studying human diseases and drugs, few scientists have explored its use in understanding the prehistoric world. Instead, they largely focus on DNA in fossils, which is primarily used for establishing genetic relationships. > > > I’ve always had an interest in metabolism, including the metabolic rate of bone, and wanted to know if it would be possible to apply metabolomics to fossils to study early life. It turns out that bone, including fossilized bone, is filled with metabolites. > > Professor Timothy Bromage, lead author > College of Dentistry > New York University > New York, USA. > > > Measuring metabolites > > In recent years, paleontologists learned that collagen—the protein that provides structure to bones, skin, and connective tissues—can be preserved in ancient bones, including those of dinosaurs. > > > I thought, if collagen is preserved in a fossil bone, then maybe other biomolecules are protected in the bone microenvironment as well. > > Professor Timothy Bromage. > > > The surfaces of bones are spongy and surrounded by capillary networks, exchanging oxygen and nutrients between the bloodstream and bones. Bromage suspected that, during the process of bone formation, metabolites carried in the bloodstream enter and become trapped in tiny niches in bone. > > To test this idea, the researchers employed mass spectrometry, an analytical technique that converts molecules into ions, to see if they could extract metabolites from bone. Using present-day mouse bones, they identified nearly 2,200 metabolites for analysis. The technology also analyzed proteins to detect collagen in some bone samples. > > > > > Antelope bone fragment in rock from the 3-million-year-old early human site, Makapansgaat (South Africa). > > > > > > A polarized light image of fossilized antelope bone showing intact collagen (scale: 1 mm across) > > > > Credit: Timothy Bromage and Bin Hu, NYU Dentistry > > > The researchers then turned to animal fossils from 1.3 million to 3 million years ago, collected for prior paleontological research at sites in Tanzania, Malawi, and South Africa where early humans lived. Focusing on species with living counterparts near these sites today, they used the same analytical methods on fossilized bone fragments from rodents (mouse, ground squirrel, gerbil), as well as an antelope, pig, and elephant. > > The analyses yielded thousands of metabolites, many of which were shared with modern-day animals. > > The stories fossils tell > > Many of the metabolites the researchers found in the fossilized bones represent normal biological functions, including the metabolism of amino acids, carbohydrates, and vitamins and minerals. Several pointed to genes associated with estrogen, suggesting that some of the animals were female. > > Other metabolites revealed the animals’ response to disease. Notably, in the bone of a 1.8-million-year-old ground squirrel from the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, the researchers found evidence that the squirrel was infected with a parasitic disease known as sleeping sickness in humans, caused by the Trypanosoma brucei parasite and transmitted by the tsetse fly. > > > What we discovered in the bone of the squirrel is a metabolite that is unique to the biology of that parasite, which releases the metabolite into the bloodstream of its host. We also saw the squirrel’s metabolomic anti-inflammatory response, presumably due to the parasite. > > Professor Timothy Bromage. > > > The researchers could also deduce what plants the animals ate. While data on plant metabolites are much more limited than those documented in human and animal health, they identified the metabolites of several regionally specific plants, including forms of aloe and asparagus. > > What that means is that, in the case of the squirrel, it nibbled on aloe and took those metabolites into its own bloodstream. Because the environmental conditions of aloe are very specific, we now know more about the temperature, rainfall, soil conditions, and tree canopy, essentially reconstructing the squirrel’s environment. We can build a story around each of the animals. > > Professor Timothy Bromage. > > > > > > > Olduvai Gorge, an important archaeological site in northern Tanzania. > > > > Credit: Friedemann Schrenk, Goethe University and Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum > > The reconstructed environments corroborate what other research has found about these settings millions of years ago—for instance, that the Olduvai Gorge Bed in Tanzania was freshwater woodland and grassland, while the Olduvai Gorge Upper Bed was dry woodlands and marsh. Across all of the sites studied, the conditions in which the animals lived were wetter and warmer than the regions are today. > > > Using metabolic analyses to study fossils may enable us to reconstruct the environment of the prehistoric world with a new level of detail, as though we were field ecologists in a natural environment today. > > Professor Timothy Bromage. > > > Additional study authors include Bin Hu, Sher Poudel, Sasan Rabieh, and Shoshana Yakar of NYU College of Dentistry; Thomas Neubert, Christopher Lawrence de Jesus, and Hediye Erdjument-Bromage of NYU Grossman School of Medicine; and collaborators from the National Museum of Natural History (France), Senkenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum (Germany), Goethe University (Germany), McGill University (Canada), Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt (Germany), Rutgers University (US), Eurofins Lancaster Laboratories (US), and Université de Bordeaux (France.) The research was supported by The Leakey Foundation, with additional support for the technology used in the analyses by the National Institutes of Health (1S10 OD026989-01, S10 OD023659, and S10 RR027990). > > Publication: > >> [Bromage, T.G., Denys, C., De Jesus, C.L. _et al_. > **Palaeometabolomes yield biological and ecological profiles at early human sites.** > _Nature_ (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09843-w](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09843-w) > > > Show details > Abstract > The science of metabolic profiling exploits chemical compound byproducts of metabolism called metabolites1 that explain internal biological functions, physiological health and disease, and provide evidence of external influences specific to an organism’s habitat. Here we assess palaeometabolomes from fossilized mammalian hard tissues as a molecular ecological strategy to provide evidence of an ancient organism’s relationship with its environment. From eastern, central and southern African Plio-Pleistocene localities of palaeoanthropological significance, we study six fossils from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, one from the Chiwondo Beds, Malawi, and one from Makapansgat, South Africa. We perform endogeneity assessments by analysing palaeometabolomes of palaeosols and the effects of owl digestion on rodent bones to enable prudent ecological inferences. Diagenesis is indicated by metabolites of collagenase-producing bacteria2, whereas the preservation of peptides including those of collagen are identified by proteomics. Endogenous metabolites document biological functions and exogenous metabolites render environmental details including soil characteristics and woody cover, and enable annual minimum and maximum rainfall and temperature reconstructions at Olduvai Gorge, supporting the freshwater woodland and grasslands of Olduvai Gorge Bed I3,4,5, and the dry woodlands and marsh of Olduvai Gorge Upper Bed II6. All sites denote wetter and/or warmer conditions than today. We infer that metabolites preserved in hard tissues derive from an extravasated vasculature serum filtrate that becomes entombed within developing mineralized matrices, and most probably survive palaeontological timeframes in the nanoscopic ‘pool’ of structural-bound water that occurs in hard tissue niches7. > > > > [Bromage, T.G., Denys, C., De Jesus, C.L. _et al_. > **Palaeometabolomes yield biological and ecological profiles at early human sites.** > _Nature_ (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09843-w](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09843-w) > > © 2026 Springer Nature Ltd. > Reprinted under the terms of s60 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. This work represents yet another line of evidence that creationism has no credible way to absorb. It does not merely rely on radiometric dating, stratigraphy, or evolutionary inference — all of which creationists habitually attempt to dismiss — but on the internal chemical records preserved within fossil bones themselves. These records independently encode ecological continuity, environmental change, and biological response over spans of time that simply do not exist in any creationist chronology. Most damaging of all is the internal consistency of the picture that emerges. The metabolic signatures recovered from these fossils align with what geology, palaeoclimatology, ecology, and evolutionary biology have been saying for decades. They show animals responding to shifting climates, changing vegetation, and long-term environmental pressures in ways that make sense only in a deep-time framework. There is no sign of a recent global catastrophe, no chemical scrambling of ecosystems, and no trace of the kind of biological reset demanded by flood mythology. Creationism depends on the hope that gaps in knowledge might yet provide room to manoeuvre. But advances like this do the opposite: they close gaps. They add independent, converging evidence that does not rely on bones alone, or dates alone, or assumptions about ancestry, but on the direct chemical residues of ancient life itself. Each new technique tightens the net, leaving less and less space for supernatural explanations to hide. Far from rescuing creationism, discoveries like this underline its central problem: it is not merely contradicted by one branch of science, but by all of them simultaneously. Fossil chemistry now joins anatomy, genetics, geology, climatology, and archaeology in telling the same story — one of a dynamic, ancient, evolving biosphere that bears no resemblance whatsoever to the simplistic myths of magical creation a few thousand years ago. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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At least 4,500-year-old cave painting of Sulawesi warty pig, Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia. One of the world’s oldest known examples of cave art. Adam Brumm (Griffith University) and Adhi Agus Oktaviana (BRIN, Indonesia). Prehistoric cave painting of two Sulawesi warty pigs, Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least 45,000 years old, this is among the world’s oldest known cave art and illustrates the long-standing relationship between pigs and people in the region Adam Brumm (Griffith University) and Adhi Agus Oktaviana (BRIN, Indonesia). How people moved pigs across the Pacific | EurekAlert! A new study, published today in the journal _Science_, reveals how millennia of human migration across the Pacific islands led to the widespread introduction of pigs throughout the Asia–Pacific region, creating what are now invasive populations. The research was led by Laurent Frantz, Professor of Palaeogenomics at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), together with David Stanton of Cardiff University and Greger Larson of the University of Oxford. The study documents a long history of deliberate pig transport between islands in South-East Asia and Polynesia, extending back as far as 50,000 years ago on the island of Sulawesi — some 40,000 years before creationists believe the universe itself existed. Comparing this abundant and ever-expanding body of evidence for an ancient Earth — one already inhabited by modern humans migrating out of Africa and dispersing across the globe over the last 100,000 years — with the biblical timeline that compresses all of human history into a few thousand years should be straightforward. The conclusion is unavoidable: the evidence comprehensively refutes the Bible’s origin myths. Yet creationists remain committed to demonstrating that no facts, however compelling or indisputable, can change their minds. In that worldview, changing one’s mind is treated as a weakness. The result is an escalating creativity in dismissing inconvenient evidence, clinging to easily refuted beliefs, and increasingly invoking vast conspiracies — involving every working scientist, their staff, journal publishers, universities, and research institutes — all supposedly colluding to undermine biblical literalism. > Origins and domestication of pigs. > > > > Central European wild boar, _Sus scrofa scrofa_ > > > > By Valentin Panzirsch - Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link > > * * * > > > > Map depicting Southeast Asia, as the origin of suid species (_Sus scrofa_ , _Sus celebensis_ , _Sus verrucosus_ , _Sus barbatus_ , _Sus philippensis_ and _Sus cebifrons_), and the current geographic distribution of wild boar. > > > > Ramos-Onsins, S., Burgos-Paz, W., Manunza, A. _et al_.(2014) > > Domestic pigs descend from the wild boar, **_Sus scrofa_** , one of the most geographically widespread large mammals prior to human influence. Wild boar ranged naturally across much of Eurasia and North Africa, occupying forests, woodlands, and mixed environments. Their omnivorous diet, intelligence, high fertility, and tolerance of human-disturbed habitats made them particularly well suited to domestication. > > > > * * * > > > Multiple, independent domestications > > Unlike many domestic animals that appear to have a single centre of origin, pigs were domesticated **independently in multiple regions** : > > > * **East Asia (China)** – as early as ~9,000 years ago, with clear archaeological and genetic evidence for local domestication. > * **Anatolia and the Near East** – around the same time, associated with early Neolithic farming communities. > * **Secondary domestications** occurred as domestic pigs spread into Europe and interbred repeatedly with local wild boar populations. > Genetic studies show that early European domestic pigs initially carried Near Eastern ancestry but were later almost completely replaced by genes from European wild boar through repeated hybridisation. This makes pigs one of the clearest examples of domestication as an **ongoing evolutionary process** , not a single historical event. > > * * * > > > How pigs were domesticated > > Pig domestication was probably opportunistic rather than deliberate at first: > > > * Wild boar scavenged around human settlements. > * Less aggressive individuals tolerated proximity to humans. > * Humans began managing, feeding, and selectively breeding them. > * Over time, traits such as reduced aggression, faster growth, and increased fertility were favoured. > This pathway resembles commensal domestication seen in animals such as dogs and chickens, rather than controlled capture and breeding from the outset. > > > > * * * > > > Spread with humans > > As humans migrated, pigs travelled with them: > > > * Across **Europe** , pigs spread with Neolithic farmers and later Iron Age cultures. > * Into **Island South-East Asia and the Pacific** , pigs were transported deliberately by seafaring peoples. > * In **Polynesia** , pigs became part of tightly managed subsistence systems, often isolated on islands, leading to distinct genetic lineages. > Because pigs do not swim long distances and cannot raft naturally between islands, their presence on remote islands is unambiguous evidence of **human-mediated transport**. > > > > * * * > > > Genetic and archaeological evidence > > Modern pig genetics strongly support this complex history: > > > * **Mitochondrial DNA** reveals multiple domestication centres. > * **Nuclear DNA** shows extensive introgression from wild populations. > * **Archaeological remains** show size reduction, tooth shape changes, and demographic profiles consistent with human management. > Together, these lines of evidence demonstrate that pig domestication reflects deep time, repeated migration, and continuous interaction between humans and animals. > > > > * * * > > > Why this matters > > The domestication history of pigs directly contradicts ideas of: > > > * a recent origin of agriculture, > * a single post-Flood dispersal of animals, > * or a static, unchanging human past. > Instead, pigs document tens of thousands of years of human movement, ecological manipulation, and evolutionary change — precisely what archaeology, genetics, and evolutionary biology predict, and exactly what biblical literalism cannot accommodate. The findings of the research team are explained in a news release from Queen Mary University of London, issued through EurekAlert!. > How people moved pigs across the Pacific > > * * * > > Genomic study reveals the routes taken by people as they island hopped across Indonesia > > * * * > > A new study, published today in the journal Science, reveals how millennia of human migration across Pacific islands led to the introduction of invasive pig species all over the Asia-Pacific region. > > The study was led by Laurent Frantz, Professor of Palaeogenomics at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), and the Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich (LMU), David Stanton, from Cardiff University, and Greger Larson, from the University of Oxford. > > Plants and animals have not always spread naturally across the islands of Indonesia. The evolutionary biologist Alfred Russell Wallace identified a major biogeographic boundary, the “Wallace Line”, noting that wildlife on either side rarely crossed. Leopards and monkeys, for example, are found on the Asian side, while marsupials and cassowaries are largely limited to the Australasian side. > > One notable exception is pigs. Pig populations occur on both sides of the Wallace Line and extend across Southeast Asia to New Caledonia, Vanuatu and remote Polynesia. Pigs are highly effective ecological invaders, and they are also culturally important across the region, raising a key question: what role did people play in their spread? > > The new paper looked at the genome of over 700 pigs, including from living and archaeological specimens. This allowed the reconstruction of their movement across southeast Asia and identify when they arrived on certain islands and how they might have interbred with various native pig species. > > The researchers found that people of different cultures have moved pig species in the region for millennia. The earliest evidence points to people living in Sulawesi perhaps as early as 50,000 years ago, known to be the earliest cave painters, who both depicted and transported warty pig species as far away as Timor, possibly to establish future hunting stock. > > > > > Prehistoric cave painting of two Sulawesi warty pigs, Leang Tedongnge Cave, Sulawesi, Indonesia. At least 45,000 years old, this is among the world’s oldest known cave art and illustrates the long-standing relationship between pigs and people in the region. > > > > Adam Brumm (Griffith University) and Adhi Agus Oktaviana (BRIN, Indonesia). > > The introduction of pigs in Island Southeast Asia dramatically accelerated, around 4,000 years ago, when early agricultural communities transported domestic pigs in the region. Their journey began from Taiwan, extending across the Philippines, northern Indonesia (Maluku), into Papua New Guinea, and on to the outlying islands as far as Vanuatu, and remote Polynesia. The authors also found evidence for the introduction of pigs from Europe during the colonial period. > > Many of these domestic pigs escaped, and became feral, in some cases, like on the Komodo islands, hybridising with the warty pigs brought by people from Sulawesi thousands of years earlier. These hybrid pigs are now a major source of food for the endangered Komodo dragons. > > The findings of this study highlight the dramatic and enduring impact of human activity on local ecosystems in the Pacific, raising conservation conundrums. Pigs in the region today have dramatically different statuses and impacts across islands: some are considered spiritual beings, others pests, while some are now so ingrained in local ecosystems that they could almost be considered native. Efficient conservation policy will need to navigate these complexities, going beyond the traditional paradigm of conserving only native fauna. > > The study included collaborators from around the world, with more than 50 authors being involved, including scientists from Cardiff University, the University of Oxford, the National Research and Innovation Agency of Indonesia, National Museum of the Philippines, and the Vanuatu Cultural Centre. > > > It is very exciting that we can use ancient DNA from pigs to peel back layers of human activity across this megabiodiverse region. The big question now is, at what point do we consider something native? What if people introduced species tens of thousands of years age, are these worth conservation efforts? > > Professor Laurent Frantz, senior author > School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences > Queen Mary University of London > London, UK. > > > > > This research reveals what happens when people transport animals enormous distances, across one of the world’s most fundamental natural boundaries. These movements led to pigs with a melting pot of ancestries. These patterns were technically very difficult to disentangle, but have ultimately helped us understand how and why animals came to be distributed across the Pacific islands. > > Dr. David Stanton, lead author > School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences > Queen Mary University of London > London, UK. > > > > > Wild boar dispersed across all of Eurasia and North Africa and certainly don’t need people to help them disperse into new areas. When people have landed a hand, pigs were all too willing to spread out on newly colonised islands in South East Asia and into the Pacific. By sequencing the genomes of ancient and more recent populations we’ve been able to link those human-assisted dispersals to specific human populations in both space and time. > > Professor Greger Larson, co-corresponding author. > Palaeogenomics and Bio-Archaeology Research Network > Research Laboratory for Archaeology and History of Art > University of Oxford > Oxford, UK. > > > Publication: > >> [David W. G. Stanton _et al_. > **Genomic and morphometric evidence for Austronesian-mediated pig translocation in the Pacific.** > _Science_ 391, eadv4963 (2026). DOI:10.1126/science.adv4963](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv4963) > > > Show details > Structured Abstract > > INTRODUCTION > > Humans have long moved animal species beyond their native ranges, drastically altering ecosystems, especially on islands. The translocation of vertebrates eastward across the Wallace Line into Wallacea, a biogeographic region between the Asian and Australasian biotas, has had major environmental impacts. For example, although the natural range of the genus _Sus_ (pigs) is primarily located in Eurasia and Western Indonesia, free-living pigs are now widespread in Wallacea. > > RATIONALE > > The human-mediated translocation of pigs east of the Wallace Line most likely began with S. celebensis, a species native to Sulawesi, in pre-Neolithic times >4000 years ago. _S. scrofa_ (the ancestor of modern domestic pigs) populations were also likely introduced east of the Wallace Line between 4000 and 3000 years ago during the expansion of Austronesian speakers from mainland East Asia and Taiwan, through the Philippines and northern Wallacea, into Melanesia and Polynesia. The geographic origin and ancestry of these populations from Wallacea and Oceania, however, remain unknown. > > To establish the geographic origins of the pig populations in Wallacea, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia and the potential dispersal routes along which they traveled alongside people, we sequenced 119 _Sus_ nuclear genomes (including 63 historical and ancient genomes) and generated geometric morphometric data (from the third lower molar) from 401 modern and 307 archaeological individuals. > > RESULTS > > Ancestry analyses based on ancestry deconvolution, a process by which specific ancestries in admixed individuals can be identified and isolated using local ancestry inference, highlighted multiple pig-dispersal processes in Wallacea. The initial dispersal was a natural and/or human-mediated translocation of Island Southeast Asian endemic pigs from Java (_S. verrucosus_) into present-day Bali. The indigenous suid on Sulawesi, _S. celebensis_ , then dispersed over water to the Lesser Sunda Islands, including Flores and Timor, potentially as a result of hunter-gatherer translocations more than 4000 years ago. > > More recently, domestic _S. scrofa_ pigs from southern China and the Philippines were introduced across most islands of Wallacea and Oceania sometime after 3500 to 3000 years ago. Many of these introduced pigs later became feral on islands across the region. Finally, during the colonial period, pigs with European ancestry were introduced broadly across the region, including in the Lesser Sundas and Papua New Guinea. > > CONCLUSION > > Our results demonstrate that non-native free-living pigs east of the Wallace Line have a complex ancestry that primarily reflects multiple intentional introductions by people. The most important of these events was the migration of Austronesian-speaking groups, ~4000 years ago, who moved from Southeast China and Taiwan via the Philippines and introduced domestic pigs across a vast geographical region from the Philippines to Hawai‘i, many of which became feral. > > > > > **Map showing the dispersal of pigs into Wallacea, including deliberate introductions by people in Wallacea and the Pacific.** > The numbers (1–4) on the arrows indicate the chronological order of these dispersal events, as per our analysis. > > > Abstract > > Several millennia of human-mediated translocation of non-native pig species (genus _Sus_) to the islands of Wallacea and Oceania have considerably altered local ecosystems. To investigate the timing and trajectory of these introductions, we conducted both genomic analyses of 576 pig nuclear genomes and a geometric morphometric analysis of 708 modern and ancient dental remains. Our analyses demonstrate that free-living and domestic pigs in Wallacea and Oceania have diverse ancestries resulting from the introduction of multiple sequential pig populations followed by gene flow. Despite the variability in their genomic ancestry, these pigs all have a distinct tooth morphology as well as a genetic link to the Chinese domestic pig populations that accompanied the dispersal of Austronesian language speakers ~4000 to 3000 years ago via Taiwan and the Philippines. > > > > > > > **Fig. 1. Genomic and morphometric variation.** > > (**A**) Map of sampling locations. Red triangles indicate 49 newly sequenced historical _S. scrofa_ specimens (dating between 1871 and 1994) from ISEA (cataloged as _S. scrofa_ in museum collections) and three archaeological specimens from the Philippines (~1500 CE), Palau (Micronesia; ~672 CE), and the Lapita culture site of Teouma on Efate Island, Vanuatu. Gray dots represent individual _S. scrofa_ genomes (some of which are newly sequenced; see data S1) from mainland Asia (both South Asia and East Asia). The locations of the ISEA-endemic _Sus_ species individual genomes analyzed in this study are noted in lilac (_S. barbatus_ ; Borneo), maroon (_S. cebifrons_), orange (_S. celebensis_), and green (_S. verrucosus_). (**B**) Mitochondrial analysis. Geographic distribution of major mtDNA haplogroups based on data from ~705 control regions and ~323 whole mitochondrial genome data. The tree on the right is a schematic representation illustrating the phylogenetic relationships between these major haplogroups. The complete phylogenetic tree, based on whole mitochondrial genome data, is available in fig. S3. This figure illustrates the distribution of the red dots, representing the Pacific Clade, extending west of the Wallace Line into Western Indonesia, the Philippines, and mainland Asia (as shown in the full mitogenome tree). (C) Morphometric analysis. This neighbor-joining network illustrates the morphometric similarities in third lower molar (m3) shape among _S. scrofa_ and ISEA-endemic _Sus_ species, based on Mahalanobis distances. The network was generated following a discriminant analysis that used the first 15 principal components from a preceding PCA. These selected components explain 88.7% of the total shape variance and were chosen to maximize the morphological distinctions between the groups. The tooth outlines shown represent the mean shape for each population, derived from separate superimposition analyses. (D) This PCA [see (A) for labels], based on pseudohaploid genotype from >500 individuals, illustrates the genetic variation among Eurasian _S. scrofa_ and ISEA-endemic _Sus_ species. PC1 clearly separates the ISEA-endemic _Sus_ species from _S. scrofa_ individuals, whereas PC2 distinguishes between European and Asian _S. scrofa_. The red triangles (_S. scrofa_ genomes from ISEA) are scattered across PC1 and PC2, reflecting their complex ancestry, which includes contributions from Asian and European _S. scrofa_ as well as ISEA-endemic _Sus_ ancestry. > > * * * > > > > **Fig. 2. Ancestry of pigs inferred using ADMIXTURE and D statistics.** > > The ancestry of each individual Asian pig in our dataset was decomposed into five components using a combination of supervised ADMIXTURE analysis and D statistics. Initially, the ancestry was decomposed with _K_ = 3 in ADMIXTURE (see fig. S6), representing European _S. scrofa_ , Asian _S. scrofa_ , and ISEA-endemic _Sus_ ancestry. The ISEA-endemic _Sus_ ancestry component was further resolved using D statistics (see supplementary materials). Each pie chart on the figure represents a sampling location, and its size is proportional to the number of samples from that location. > > > > > > [David W. G. Stanton _et al_. > **Genomic and morphometric evidence for Austronesian-mediated pig translocation in the Pacific.** > _Science_ 391, eadv4963 (2026). DOI:10.1126/science.adv4963](https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adv4963) > > Copyright: © 2026 The authors. > Published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) Taken together, the origins and domestication history of pigs expose a gulf between evidence-based history and biblical origin myths that cannot be bridged by reinterpretation or metaphor. Pigs were being actively managed, transported, and genetically reshaped by human populations tens of thousands of years before the Bible’s timeline even allows a universe to exist, let alone complex human societies capable of long-distance migration and animal husbandry. The biblical narrative requires a world in which all animals were created simultaneously a few thousand years ago and later redistributed from a single location after a global flood. Yet the pig record shows something entirely different: multiple independent domestications, repeated hybridisation with local wild populations, and regionally distinct genetic lineages accumulating over immense spans of time. There is no bottleneck, no universal reset, and no trace of a recent, global dispersal event. Equally damaging to biblical literalism is the sheer mundanity of the process. Pig domestication was not a sudden act of design or divine instruction, but a messy, opportunistic, and ongoing interaction between humans and animals, driven by ecology, behaviour, and natural selection. It is precisely the sort of untidy, historically contingent process that mythological origin stories fail to anticipate and cannot explain. A further problem for the biblical claim that animals were created “for” mankind is that pigs — like almost all domesticated species — are manifestly **not** fit for human use in their natural state. Wild boar are aggressive, dangerous, slow to fatten, and poorly suited to confinement. Making them useful required thousands of years of human intervention: selecting for docility, altered growth rates, body shape, fertility, and behaviour. That prolonged process of trial, error, and selective breeding is exactly what one would expect from fallible humans adapting wild animals to their needs — and exactly what one would **not** expect if an omniscient god had designed animals for human use from the outset. In short, pigs are yet another quiet but devastating witness against biblical creationism. Their bones, genomes, and global distribution tell a story of deep time, migration, and evolution that unfolds exactly as modern science predicts — and in a way that flatly contradicts the compressed timelines and magical resets of the Bible’s origin myths. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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Ancient African bedrock reveals the violent beginnings of life on our blue planet One reliable way to recognise that the Bible is the product of ancient ignorance is simply to compare its claims with what science has since revealed. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Genesis, which turns out to be a ludicrously simplistic attempt to explain the origins of the universe and life on Earth. Its compressed timescale cannot possibly accommodate what we now know about the age of the universe, the age of our planet, the deep history of life, or—most conspicuously—the emergence of human cultures and the migration of humans across every continent except Antarctica, as revealed by the archaeological record. The gap between biblical mythology and reality is so vast that it cannot plausibly be rescued as allegory or metaphor, and the evidence continues to accumulate relentlessly, with nothing being discovered that remotely validates the biblical account. The year 2025 ended badly for creationism with the discovery of a 37-million-year-old transitional snake fossil from southern England, and 2026 has begun no better. A new book, _The Oldest Rocks on Earth_, by Simon Lamb, Associate Professor of Geophysics at Victoria University of Wellington, describes the surface conditions on Earth when life first emerged more than 3.5 billion years ago—conditions utterly incompatible with the biblical creation narrative. The research behind this book is summarised in an article in _The Conversation_, also by Associate Professor Lamb. That article is reproduced here under a Creative Commons licence, reformatted for stylistic consistency. Ancient African bedrock reveals the violent beginnings of life on our blue planet Simon Lamb, _Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington_ You have probably seen the images of the surface of Mars, beamed back by NASA’s rovers. What if there were a time machine capable of roaming Earth during its remote geological past, perhaps even going right back to its beginnings, beaming back pictures of similar quality? This is not science fiction. In remote corners of the world, geologists have found tiny relics of Earth’s very ancient surface. I have been part of this scientific endeavour, looking at the treasure trove of information in the bedrock of the Makhonjwa Mountains in South Africa and the adjacent small kingdom of Eswatini. These rocks reach back more than three quarters of the way through our planet’s long history of nearly 4.6 billion years. In my new book, The Oldest Rocks on Earth, I describe the graphic images “beamed back” by this geological time machine. Beneath the remote and rugged landscape of the Makhonjwa Mountains, in Eswatini, is a bedrock that holds a record of Earth’s surface from 3.2 to 3.5 billion years ago, when our planet was about a quarter of the way through its history. Copyright: © Tony Ferrar Source World of oceans The ancient rocks reveal a world with extensive oceans and intense volcanic activity on the sea floor. Deep beneath the crust, Earth was much hotter than today, giving rise to an unusual white-hot magma, rich in elements from its interior. Huge volumes of super-heated water continually gushed out of underwater cracks, building up chimneys of valuable metals. And life was thriving around these undersea vents. Volcanic islands rose up from the ocean depths. These were dangerous places. Pools of hot bubbling mud dotted their shores, and clouds of volcanic ash periodically exploded from volcanic craters. Life was already there, forming microbial mats in the sheltered nearshore waters. Periodically, large earthquakes violently shook the bedrock, triggering submarine avalanches that cascaded down into the deep ocean, creating vast jumbles of rock on the sea floor. Giant asteroid impacts disturbed this world, but crucially, did not extinguish it. Deep-seated forces were pushing up new land, creating the early continents. Ocean waves moved back and forth on sandy beaches along coastlines with bays, lagoons, inlets and estuaries, with tides similar to those today. During floods, large rivers brought muddy water from the continental interior. Farther in the distance, their headwaters drained a mountainous terrain, often enveloped in thick cloud. It was a blue planet because, like today, the oceans scattered light in the blue part of the colour spectrum. But the atmosphere contained a lethal cocktail of gases, including high concentrations of methane and carbon dioxide. These greenhouse gases kept the surface at the right temperature for liquid water, at a time when astrophysicists calculate the Sun was much weaker. But there was no oxygen. The earliest life forms were anaerobic microbes, although brightly coloured – pink or purple have been proposed. Oceania today Oceania, in the southwestern Pacific, may illustrate best what this early world was like. Here, the ocean is peppered with volcanic islands and small continents, rocked by great earthquakes where tectonic plates rub against each other. There are even clues to how life began. The 2022 eruption of the Hunga volcano, near Tonga, created a mushroom cloud of ash that burst out of the ocean and reached up into space with an estimated energy of a 60-megaton atomic bomb. It generated more than 200,000 lightning strikes and left behind a deep underwater crater filled with a chemical soup derived from numerous underwater hot vents. Experiments show that lightning strikes can trigger the synthesis of basic organic molecules needed by living organisms. Millions of Hunga-like eruptions on early Earth would have created myriad opportunities to kick start the chemistry of life in underwater volcanic craters – life was born out of extreme geological violence. Staying blue Going back in time beyond the Makhonjwa Mountains, we still find evidence for oceans, life and, I argue, plate tectonics. Earth became blue within the first tenth of its history. Mars and Venus may have started this way, too. But our planet uniquely lies in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, receiving just the right amount of solar energy to avoid becoming a boiling Venusian hell or freezing Martian world. It is also big enough to have a magnetic field and pull of gravity sufficient to retain its atmosphere. And right at the start, a dramatic collision with a Mars-sized asteroid spalled off our Moon, stabilising Earth’s spin axis so that day and night were less extreme. Finally, the biochemistry of living organisms may have played a key role in keeping Earth this way by helping the bedrock absorb greenhouse gases in the face of a steadily warming Sun. We must not be the first to let Earth lose its distinctive life-giving blue, a colour so wonderfully referred to in the Siswati language of Eswatini as _luhlata lwesibhakabhaka_ , literally “green like the sky”. Simon Lamb, Associate Professor in Geophysics, _Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington_ This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Published by _The Conversation_. Open access. (CC BY 4.0) What emerges from this work is not a minor disagreement over interpretation, nor a gap that can be papered over with metaphor or selective reading. The world described by geology, geochemistry and planetary science is fundamentally incompatible with the universe imagined by the authors of Genesis. Earth was not a gentle, pre-prepared garden awaiting life, but a violent, unstable planet shaped by impacts, volcanism and relentless geological recycling over billions of years. Life did not appear suddenly by decree, but clawed its way into existence under conditions that would have been lethal to almost anything alive today. This matters because creationism depends on the claim that its sacred text offers a privileged insight into reality. Yet when examined against the physical evidence locked into Earth’s oldest rocks, Genesis is not merely wrong in detail—it is wrong in kind. Its authors had no conception of deep time, planetary formation, plate tectonics, or the chemical and physical constraints under which life emerged. Their account reflects the worldview of Bronze Age pastoral societies, not hidden wisdom awaiting modern confirmation. As discoveries like these continue to accumulate, the creationist position becomes ever more untenable. There is no convergence, no narrowing of the gap, no sense in which science is “catching up” with scripture. Instead, each new insight into Earth’s early history widens the chasm between myth and reality. The Bible does not describe the world we inhabit, the planet on which life evolved, or the processes that made our existence possible—and no amount of reinterpretation can change that. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. 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The new fossil snake species, _Paradoxophidion richardoweni_ , lived in a much warmer England over 37 million years ago. © Jaime Chirinos The most commonly found bones of fossil snakes are their vertebrae, which contain traits that scientists can use to identify the species. © Georgalis and Jones “Weird” new species of ancient fossil snake discovered in southern England | Natural History Museum 2026 is shaping up to be yet another dreadful year for the creationist cult, as palaeontology, archaeology, geochronology, and genetics continue to uncover facts that do not merely show creationism to be a divinely inspired allegory or metaphor, but demonstrate that it is simply and unequivocally wrong at every level. At times it seems like an unfair contest between myths invented by Bronze Age pastoralists—without the slightest benefit of scientific understanding—and the cumulative output of modern science. It is rather like a chess match between a pigeon and a powerful computer, in which the pigeon’s concept of chess is to knock the pieces over, then strut about on the board declaring victory. This tactic is known in creationist circles as “debate”, and everywhere else as “pigeon chess”. As usual, the closing months of the year have brought yet more palaeontological evidence that creationism cannot accommodate. This latest find dates to around 37 million years before creationists believe Earth was magicked into existence, bears the unmistakable fingerprints of one of those supposedly “non-existent” transitional forms, and displays the familiar mosaic of archaic and modern features that are commonplace in the fossil record. It also fits precisely into the established timeline of reptilian evolution and was discovered in southern England, in deposits that align exactly with the known geological and climatological history of the region. The fossil was discovered in 1981 at Hordle Cliff, England, and donated to the Natural History Museum in London, where it has now been identified as a new species. The identification was made by Professor Georgios L. Georgalis of the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals at the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków, currently a visiting researcher at the Natural History Museum. His paper, co-authored with Dr Marc E. H. Jones, curator of fossil reptiles and amphibians, has recently been published open access in _Comptes Rendus Palevol_. > Hordle Cliff, Geology. **Hordle Cliff** is one of the most important and intensively studied fossil-bearing coastal exposures in southern England. Its significance lies in the exceptional sequence of **Eocene** marine sediments exposed by continual coastal erosion along the western Solent. > > > > * * * > > > **Geological setting** > > Hordle Cliff lies on the coast of **Hampshire** , west of Milford-on-Sea, forming part of the **Hampshire Basin** , a large sedimentary basin that accumulated marine and marginal-marine deposits during the early Cenozoic. The strata exposed here date mainly to the **Late Eocene** , approximately **41–34 million years ago** , a time when southern England lay beneath a warm, shallow sea. > > * * * > > > **Stratigraphy** > > The cliff exposes a classic succession of Eocene formations, including: > > > * **Barton Group** (upper Eocene) > * Dominated by clays, silts, and fine sands > * Deposited in shallow marine conditions > * Exceptionally fossil-rich > * **Barton Clay Formation** > * The most famous unit at Hordle Cliff > * Known for abundant molluscs, sharks’ teeth, rays, fish remains, turtles, crocodilians, birds, and reptiles (including snakes) > * Indicates warm, subtropical seas with nearby coastal and estuarine environments > These sediments accumulated gradually, layer upon layer, in calm marine settings—exactly the opposite of the chaotic, high-energy deposition required by flood-geology models. > > > > * * * > > > **Depositional environment** > > During the Late Eocene, this region experienced: > > > * * ***Warm greenhouse climates** > * **High sea levels** > * **Low-energy marine sedimentation** > Fine-grained clays settled slowly out of suspension, allowing delicate fossils to be preserved intact. Many beds show **bioturbation** , shell beds, and orderly fossil assemblages—clear evidence of stable ecosystems persisting over long periods. > > > > * * * > > > **Fossil significance** > > Hordle Cliff is internationally important because it preserves: > > > * **Highly diverse faunas** spanning multiple ecological niches > * **Mosaic evolutionary forms** , including transitional reptiles > * Fossils preserved **_in situ_** , not reworked or mixed from different ages > This makes the site particularly valuable for reconstructing Eocene ecosystems and tracing evolutionary change through time. > > > > * * * > > > **Structural and erosional features** > > The cliffs themselves are relatively soft and unstable: > > > * Frequent **slumping and landslips** continually expose fresh material > * Ongoing erosion has made Hordle Cliff productive for over two centuries > * The geology is simple and undisturbed, with gently dipping strata—no folding, overturning, or tectonic chaos > > > * * * > > > **Why this matters for creationist claims** > > The geology of Hordle Cliff presents multiple, independent problems for young-Earth creationism: > > * The sediments record **millions of years** of gradual deposition > * Fossils are **ordered, local, and ecological** , not globally mixed > * Climatic signals match global Eocene warming trends > * The strata fit seamlessly into the wider regional and global geological record > There is no evidence whatsoever of rapid, catastrophic deposition, let alone a single global flood. Instead, Hordle Cliff is a textbook example of slow geological processes operating exactly as modern geology predicts. The discovery and its broader significance were explained in a recent Natural History Museum news item by James Ashworth. > “Weird” new species of ancient fossil snake discovered in southern England > > * * * > > An extinct snake has slithered its way out of obscurity over four decades after its discovery. > > The newly described species of reptile, _Paradoxophidion richardoweni_ , is offering new clues in the search for the origin of ‘advanced’ snakes. > > * * * > > In 1981, the backbones of an ancient snake were uncovered at Hordle Cliff on England’s south coast. They’ve now been revealed as the remnants of a previously unknown species. > > Research published in the journal _Comptes Rendus Palevol_ has identified that the vertebrae belong to a new species named _Paradoxophidion richardoweni_. This animal would have lived around 37 million years ago, when England was home to a much wider range of snakes than it is now. > > While little is known about this animal’s life, it could shed light on the early evolution of biggest group of modern snakes. This is because _Paradoxophidion_ represents an early-branching member of the caenophidians, the group containing the vast majority of living snakes. > > The new species is so early in the evolution of the caenophidians that it has a peculiar mix of characteristics now found in different snakes throughout this group. This mosaic of features is summed up in its genus name, with _Paradoxophidion_ meaning ‘paradox snake’ in Greek. > > Its species name, meanwhile, honours Sir Richard Owen. Not only did he name the first fossil snakes found at Hordle Cliff, but this scientist was also instrumental in establishing what’s now the Natural History Museum where the fossils are cared for, giving the name multiple layers of meaning. > > Lead author Dr Georgios Georgalis, from the Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Krakow, says that being able to describe a new species from our collections was ‘a dream come true’. > > > It was my childhood dream to be able to visit the Natural History Museum, let alone do research there, so, when I saw these very weird vertebrae in the collection and knew that they were something new, it was a fantastic feeling. It’s especially exciting to have described an early diverging caenophidian snake, as there’s not that much evidence about how they emerged. _Paradoxophidion_ brings us closer to understanding how this happened. > > Dr Georgios Georgalis, lead author > Institute of Systematics and Evolution of Animals > Polish Academy of Sciences > Krakow, Poland. > > > > > > > The most commonly found bones of fossil snakes are their vertebrae, which contain traits that scientists can use to identify the species. > > > > © Georgalis and Jones. > > > What’s been discovered at Hordle Cliff? > > Hordle Cliff, near Christchurch on England’s south coast, provides a window into a period of Earth’s history known as the Eocene that lasted from around 56 to 34 million years ago. > > Dr Marc Jones, our curator of fossil reptiles and amphibians who co-authored the research, says that this epoch saw dramatic climatic changes around the world. > > > Around 37 million years ago, England was much warmer than it is now, though the Sun was very slightly dimmer, levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide were much higher. England was also slightly closer to the equator, meaning that it received more heat from the Sun year round. > > Dr Marc E.H. Jones, co-author > Curator of fossil reptiles and amphibians. > Natural History Museum > London, UK. > > > Fossils were first uncovered at Hordle Cliff around 200 years ago. In the early 1800s Barbara Rawdon-Hastings, the fossil-hunting Marchioness of Hastings, collected the skulls of crocodile relatives from the site, one of which Richard Owen would later name after her. > > Since then, a variety of fossil turtles, lizards and mammals have also been uncovered at Hordle Cliff. There are also abundant snake fossils, including some particularly important species. > > > The fossil snakes found at Hordle Cliff were some of the first to be recognised when Richard Owen studied them in the mid-nineteenth century. They include _Paleryx_ , the first named constrictor snake in the fossil record. Smaller snakes from this site, however, haven’t been as well investigated._Paradoxophidion_ ’s vertebrae are just a few millimetres long, so historically they’ve not had a lot of attention. > > Dr Georgios Georgalis. > > > To get a better look at these fossils, Marc and Georgios took CT scans of the bones. In total, they identified 31 vertebrae from different parts of the spine of _Paradoxophidion_. > > > We used these CT scans to make three dimensional models of the fossils. These provide a digital record of the specimen which we’ve shared online so that they can be studied by anyone, not just people who can come to the museum and use our microscopes. > > Dr Marc E.H. Jones. > > > The scans show that the fossils are all slightly different shapes and sizes, as the snake’s spine bones gradually taper from head to tail. However, they share some features that show they all belong to one species. > > Georgios estimates that _Paradoxophidion_ would have been less than a metre long, but other details about this animal’s life are hard to say. The lack of a skull makes it difficult to know what it ate, while the vertebrae don’t have any sign of being adapted for a specialised lifestyle, such as burrowing. > > > > > > The backbones of _Paradoxophidion_ are surprisingly similar to those of Acrochordus snakes. > > > > © Smacdonald via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. > > > A living link to the past? > > Though the vertebrae don’t give much away about _Paradoxophidion_ ’s lifestyle, they are strikingly similar to a group of snakes known as the Acrochordids. These reptiles are known as elephant trunk snakes due to their unusually baggy skin. > > Today, only a few species of these snakes can be found living in southeast Asia and northern Australia. But they’re among the earliest branches of the caenophidian family tree, with a fossil record extending back over 20 million years. > > > As _Paradoxophidion_ is really similar to the acrochordids, it’s possible that this snake could be the oldest known member of this family. If it was, then it could mean that it was an aquatic species, as all Acrochordids are aquatic. On the other hand, it might belong to a completely different group of caenophidians. There’s just not enough evidence at the moment to prove how this snake might have lived, or which family it belongs to. > > Dr Georgios Georgalis. > > > Finding out more about _Paradoxophidion_ and the early evolution of the caenophidians means that more fossils will need to be studied. Georgios hopes to continue his work in our fossil reptile collections in the near future, where he believes more new species might be waiting. > > I’m planning to study a variety of snake fossils in the collection, including those originally studied by Richard Owen. These include the remains of the giant aquatic snake _Palaeophis_ , which were first found in England in the nineteenth century. There are also several bones with differing morphology that haven’t been investigated before that I’m interested in looking at. These might represent new taxa and offer additional clues about snake evolution. > > Dr Georgios Georgalis. > > > Publication: > >> [Georgalis G.L. & Jines M.E.H. (2025). > **A new peculiar early diverging caenophidian snake (Serpentes) from the late Eocene of Hordle Cliff, England** , in Georgalis G.L., Zaher H. & Laurin M. (eds), **Snakes from the Cenozoic of Europe – towards a macroevolutionary and palaeobiogeographic synthesis.** > _Comptes Rendus Palevol_ 24 (25): 505-530. https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2025v24a25](https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/fr/periodiques/comptes-rendus-palevol/24/25) > > > Show details > **A novel caenophidian serpent (Serpentes) peculiar to early divergence from the late Eocene of Hordle Cliff, England** > > We describe here a new genus and species of snake, based on several trunk and caudal vertebrae, from the late Eocene (MP 17a) of Hordle Cliff, England. We studied the fossil material using both visual microscopy and computed tomography (μCT), focusing on its intracolumnar variation and comparing it extensively with other Paleogene snake taxa from England and continental Europe. The new small taxon is characterized by a set of bizarre and distinctive vertebral features that may differentiate it from all other snakes. Its morphology is somewhat similar to that of russellophiids; however, some of its anatomical features are radically different from those seen in the latter group and thus defy such placement at the family level. Furthermore, the new English taxon bears a striking resemblance to extant acrochordids, particularly the species _Acrochordus granulatus_ (Schneider, 1799). Consequently, we consider the new taxon to most likely represent an early divergent caenophid, possibly even a member of the _Acrochordidae_ Bonaparte, 1831, well outside the stratigraphic and geographic distribution known to date for the latter group. It further adds to the astonishing diversity of vertebral morphologies in European Paleogene snakes. > > > > > > > Appendix 1. — Flythrough video of the μCT of the holotype trunk vertebra NHMUK PV R 10795. > > * * * > > > > > Appendix 2. — Flythrough video of the μCT of the caudal vertebra NHMUK PV R 10796. > > > > > [Georgalis G.L. & Jines M.E.H. (2025). > **A new peculiar early diverging caenophidian snake (Serpentes) from the late Eocene of Hordle Cliff, England** , in Georgalis G.L., Zaher H. & Laurin M. (eds) **Snakes from the Cenozoic of Europe – towards a macroevolutionary and palaeobiogeographic synthesis.** > _Comptes Rendus Palevol_ 24 (25): 505-530. https://doi.org/10.5852/cr-palevol2025v24a25](https://sciencepress.mnhn.fr/fr/periodiques/comptes-rendus-palevol/24/25) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by [publisher]. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) Taken together, the geology of Hordle Cliff leaves no room for creationist evasions. The sediments accumulated slowly in warm, shallow Eocene seas, preserving stable marine ecosystems over millions of years. The fossils are local, ordered, and ecologically coherent, embedded within undisturbed strata that fit seamlessly into the wider geological history of southern England and the global Eocene record. None of this resembles the chaotic aftermath of a recent global catastrophe; all of it is exactly what conventional geology predicts. The newly identified fossil from this site simply adds to the embarrassment. It is neither out of place nor out of time, but sits precisely where evolutionary theory says it should—both stratigraphically and anatomically—displaying the familiar mosaic of ancestral and derived features that creationists insist do not exist. Hordle Cliff has been yielding such transitional forms for over two centuries, and every one of them tells the same story. For creationism, this presents a recurring and insoluble problem. Each new discovery must be dismissed, distorted, or ignored, not because it is anomalous, but because it fits too well. Hordle Cliff is not an exception to the rule; it is the rule itself—one more quietly devastating reminder that the natural world records its own history with remarkable consistency, and that history bears no resemblance whatsoever to a Bronze Age flood myth. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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View from the Stora Förvar cave on Stora Karlsö where 3,000-5,000 year-old wolf remains were found. Photo: Jan Storå Illustration from "_The Way of the Wolf: A Stone Age Epic_ " Ancient wolves on remote Baltic Sea island reveal link to prehistoric humans - Stockholms universitet This article struck a chord with me — not primarily because it refutes creationism, although it certainly does that by presenting evidence that simply should not exist if the biblical flood genocide story contained even a kernel of truth. Such evidence ought either to have been swept away entirely or buried beneath a thick layer of flood-deposited silt containing a chaotic jumble of animal and plant fossils from unrelated landmasses. It was neither. What resonated more personally, however, is that I have just published a novel in which a clan of Neolithic hunter-gatherers forms a close association with wolves, with the animals playing a central role in both their hunting strategies and their folklore. In the novel, _The Way of the Wolf: A Stone Age Epic_ — the second volume in the _Ice Age Tales_ series — Almora is raised alongside a wolf cub that becomes her inseparable guide and protector. This relationship gives rise to several versions of a mythologised hunt in which the wolf, Sharma, saves the day and defends the hunters. Together with her Neanderthal partner, Tanu, Almora later leads a group of exiles who encounter a clan already familiar with these legends, and who have begun adopting abandoned wolf cubs and raising them as part of the community. It is fiction, of course — but a deliberately realistic depiction of how wolves could have been domesticated through mutual benefit, cooperation, and prolonged social contact with humans. The article itself concerns the discovery by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, Stockholm University, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of East Anglia of wolf remains on a remote Baltic island that could only have been transported there by boat. Isotopic analysis shows that these wolves consumed the same food as the humans, and skeletal pathology in one individual indicates long-term care. The findings are reported in a research paper published in _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)_. > The domestication of wolves and the origin of dogs. > > > > The Domestication and Origin of the Modern Day Dog > > > > Source. > > **Dogs were the first domesticated animals** , originating from grey wolves through a long, complex process that began during the Late Pleistocene. Current evidence places the start of domestication at least **20,000–30,000 years ago**, well before agriculture and long before permanent settlements. > > How domestication likely began > > The dominant model today is **self-domestication via commensalism** , not deliberate human capture or breeding. Some wolves were less fearful and more tolerant of humans and began scavenging near hunter-gatherer camps. These wolves gained a selective advantage from access to food, while humans benefited from: > > * Early warning of predators or rival groups > * Assistance in tracking and hunting prey > * Disposal of waste around camps > Over generations, natural selection favoured wolves with **reduced aggression, increased sociability, and greater responsiveness to human cues**. > > Archaeological evidence > > Clear archaeological indicators include intentional burials and skeletal changes: > > > * At **Bonn-Oberkassel** (c. 14,200 years ago), a dog was buried alongside two humans, indicating social and emotional significance rather than utility alone. > * Early dog remains show **shorter snouts, smaller teeth, and altered cranial proportions** compared with wolves—classic markers of domestication. > Genetic evidence > > Genomic studies confirm that dogs descend from wolves, but **not from any single modern wolf population**. Instead: > > > * Dogs retain genetic signatures from now-extinct wolf populations. > * There is evidence of **multiple domestication events or extensive gene flow** between early dogs and regional wolves. > * Genes involved in **behaviour, neural development, and stress response** were among the earliest to change—supporting a behavioural rather than physical starting point. > Behaviour came first > > Crucially, dogs were domesticated **before** traits like floppy ears, coat colour variation, or curled tails appeared. These later features are by-products of selection on behaviour, a pattern also seen in classic domestication experiments (e.g. foxes selected only for tameness). > > Why this matters > > Wolf domestication shows that: > > > * Complex biological change can occur **without intention or foresight** > * Mutual benefit can drive profound evolutionary outcomes > * Human–animal cooperation predates civilisation itself > Rather than humans “designing” dogs, **dogs and humans co-evolved** , shaping each other’s behaviour, ecology, and survival strategies over tens of thousands of years. > > This makes dog domestication one of the clearest, best-documented examples of **natural selection operating through social and ecological interaction** , not intelligent planning or directed design. They are also summarised in a Stockholm University news release. > Ancient wolves on remote Baltic Sea island reveal link to prehistoric humans > > * * * > > Scientists have found wolf remains, thousands of years old, on a small, isolated island in the Baltic Sea – a place where the animals could only have been brought by humans. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers at the Francis Crick Institute, Stockholm University, the University of Aberdeen and the University of East Anglia, suggests that grey wolves may have been managed or controlled by prehistoric societies. > > * * * > > The discovery of the 3,000–5,000-year-old wolf remains was made in the Stora Förvar cave on the Swedish island of Stora Karlsö, a site known for its intensive use by seal hunters and fishers during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The island, which covers only 2.5 square kilometres, has no native land mammals, meaning that any such animals must have been brought there by people. > > > > Detail of one of the upper arm bones from one of the wolves included in the study. > > > > Photo: Jan Storå > > Genomic analysis of two canid remains confirmed they were wolves, not dogs, with no evidence of dog ancestry. However, they exhibited several traits typically associated with life alongside humans. Isotope analysis of their bones revealed a diet rich in marine protein, such as seals and fish, aligning with the diet of the humans on the island and suggesting they were provisioned. Furthermore, the wolves were smaller than typical mainland wolves, and one individual showed signs of low genetic diversity, a common result of isolation or controlled breeding. > > Wolves living alongside humans > > > The discovery of these wolves on a remote island is completely unexpected. Not only did they have ancestry indistinguishable from other Eurasian wolves, but they seemed to be living alongside humans, eating their food, and in a place they could have only have reached by boat. This paints a complex picture of the relationship between humans and wolves in the past. > > Dr. Linus Girdland-Flink, co-lead author > Department of Archaeology > University of Aberdeen > Aberdeen, UK. > > > The finding challenges the conventional understanding of wolf-human dynamics and the process of dog domestication. While it remains unclear if these wolves were tamed, kept in captivity, or managed in some other way, their presence in a human-occupied, isolated environment points to a deliberate and sustained interaction. > > > It was a complete surprise to see that it was a wolf and not a dog. This is a provocative case that raises the possibility that in certain environments, humans were able to keep wolves in their settlements, and found value in doing so. > > Pontus Skoglund, senior author. > Ancient Genomics Laboratory > The Francis Crick Institute > London, UK. > > > > > The genetic data is fascinating. We found that the wolf with the most complete genome had low genetic diversity, lower than any other ancient wolf we’ve seen. This is similar to what you see in isolated or bottlenecked populations, or in domesticated organisms. While we can’t rule out that these wolves had low genetic diversity for natural reasons, it suggests that humans were interacting with and managing wolves in ways we hadn’t previously considered. > > Anders Bergström, co-lead author > School of Biological Sciences > University of East Anglia > Norwich. UK. > > > May have been cared for > One of the wolf specimens, dated to the Bronze Age, also showed advanced pathology in a limb bone, which would have limited its mobility. This suggests it may have been cared for or was able to survive in an environment where it did not need to hunt large prey. > > The combination of osteology and genetic analyses have provided unique information not available separately. > > > The combination of data has revealed new and very unexpected perspectives on Stone Age and Bronze Age human-animal interactions in general and specifically concerning wolves and also dogs. > > Professor Jan Storå, co-author > Department of Archaeology and Classical Studies > Stockholm University > Stockholm, Sweden. > > > The study suggests that human-wolf interactions in prehistory were more diverse than previously thought, extending beyond simple hunting or avoidance to include complex relations and interactions that, in this case, mirrors new aspects of domestication without leading to the canines we know as dogs today. > > Publication: > >> [L. Girdland-Flink, A. Bergström, J. Storå, E. Ersmark, J. Apel, M. Krzewińska, L. Dalén, A. Götherström, & P. Skoglund > **Gray wolves in an anthropogenic context on a small island in prehistoric Scandinavia** > _Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A._ **122** (48) e2421759122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2421759122 (2025).](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421759122) > > > Show details > Significance > Wolves, the wild ancestor of dogs, are the only large carnivores that have undergone domestication by humans. Yet, it remains unclear if this process took place via direct and deliberate human control of wild wolves or if wolf populations gradually adapted to the human niche. Here, we report two canid individuals with gray wolf genetic ancestry excavated from a human archaeological site on a small isolated island in the Baltic Sea dated to between three and 5,000 y ago. The remote island location in combination with the anthropogenic burial context, low genome-wide heterozygosity, marine-rich diet, and small size, are all consistent with a scenario in which these individuals were under human control, but other explanations are also possible. > > Abstract > Dogs were domesticated at least once from a yet-unidentified wolf population at least ~15,000 y ago. However, how domestication took place is a topic of ongoing debate, and the ability of human groups to manage wolves in their communities during early stages of domestication is poorly understood. Here, we report multiproxy data from two canids excavated from Late Neolithic and Bronze Age contexts in the Stora Förvar cave on the island of Stora Karlsö in the Baltic Sea. The island is small (2.5 sq km) and, like the neighboring island of Gotland, carries no endemic populations of terrestrial mammals. Instead, the current consensus is that human introductions account for some mammal fauna on Gotland, and for the majority of that on Stora Karlsö. Genome-wide data show that the two canids have ancestry indistinguishable from Eurasian wolves, with no shared ancestry with domestic dogs of the _Canis familiaris_ lineage. Their genome-wide heterozygosity is lower than that observed in 72 previously published ancient wolf genomes, and instead comparable to dogs. Stable isotope data (δ13C and δ15N) reveals a diet rich in marine protein, which is consistent with habitation alongside the human groups who used Stora Karlsö as a seal-hunting, fowling, and sea fishing station, and in the Bronze Age probably also for grazing. Skeletal size is at the lower end of wolf variability, and one individual shows advanced pathology consistent with reduced mobility. While other scenarios are possible, a parsimonious explanation is that these wolves were brought to the island by humans and were possibly under human control. > > > > (A) Map showing the location of Gotland, Stora Karlsö and Öland in the Baltic Sea. The gray area shows the reconstructed shoreline approximately 9,000 cal BP (12). (B) A range plot of humeral greatest distal breadth (Bd) in modern and ancient dogs and wolves, including a wolf-dog hybrid from the comparative dataset used by Pira (9) (SI Appendix, Table S3). (C) δ13C and δ15N stable isotope values of a representative sample of dogs, humans, and fauna from approximately contemporaneous archaeological sites on Gotland, Stora Karlsö and Öland, and Mesolithic dogs from mainland Sweden and Denmark (SI Appendix, Table S4). PWC=Pitted Ware Culture, TRB=Trichterbecherkultur or Funnel Beaker Culture (Early to Middle Neolithic), MN = Middle Neolithic, LN = Late Neolithic, BA = Bronze Age. See SI Appendix, Table S1 for archaeological periods and associated calendar years. > > > > > [L. Girdland-Flink, A. Bergström, J. Storå, E. Ersmark, J. Apel, M. Krzewińska, L. Dalén, A. Götherström, & P. Skoglund > **Gray wolves in an anthropogenic context on a small island in prehistoric Scandinavia** > _Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A._ **122** (48) e2421759122, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2421759122 (2025).](https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421759122) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by the Nationla Academy of Science of the USA. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) These wolf remains from a Baltic island add yet another awkward complication for creationists who insist that all terrestrial animals were wiped out by a single, recent global flood and then rapidly dispersed from a Middle Eastern landing point. Wolves are highly mobile animals, but they are not magical ones. Their presence on an island that was intermittently isolated by rising post-glacial sea levels requires either land bridges at specific times, seasonal ice crossings, or sustained ecological continuity — all of which are well understood within Quaternary palaeoecology and none of which are compatible with a planet-wide inundation followed by a frantic, ahistorical repopulation event a few thousand years ago. Under the flood myth, these wolves should not be there at all. Any pre-Flood population would have been exterminated, and any post-Flood recolonisation would require implausibly rapid migration, precise timing of land exposure, and the immediate establishment of viable prey populations — all without leaving the chaotic sedimentary and fossil signatures that a global catastrophe of that scale would necessarily produce. Instead, what we see is exactly what evolutionary biology, palaeogeography, and archaeology predict: a gradual, traceable history of animal movement tracking climate change, ice retreat, and shifting coastlines. What makes this particularly satisfying is that none of this comes as a surprise. In my second novel in the _Ice Age Tales_ series, _The Way of the Wolf_, I explored precisely this long-standing relationship between humans and wolves — not as a sudden or miraculous partnership, but as one forged over deep time, shaped by shared landscapes, shared pressures, and mutual advantage. The archaeological and palaeontological record increasingly supports that picture: wolves were not late arrivals blundering into a post-Flood world, but long-term companions of human groups navigating the complex geography of the post-Ice Age north. Once again, the evidence is quietly but firmly doing what it always does: reinforcing a coherent, testable account of the past while leaving creationist mythology scrambling for ever more contrived excuses. The wolves on the Baltic island do not merely tell us where wolves once lived; they tell us, indirectly but unmistakably, that the Flood never happened — and that the real story of our shared past with them is far older, richer, and more interesting than any Bronze Age fable. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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The ancient environment and its fauna. Reconstruction by Tibor Pecsics Paleontoligists have discovered an exceptionally rich dinosaur site in Transylvania. Normally, creationists seize on any concentration of animal fossils that can be attributed to flooding as supposed “evidence” for their favourite Bronze Age myth of a global genocide. On that basis, they should be delighted by recent news from Romania describing a rich deposit of dinosaur fossils that appears to have accumulated as a result of flooding in the Hațeg Basin. There is, however, a serious snag. These fossils occur in deposits dated to around 72 million years ago — tens of millions of years before creationists believe the Earth even existed — and the evidence points clearly to repeated local flooding events, not a single global catastrophe. The discovery of the fossil site is reported in the journal _PLOS ONE_ by the Valiora Dinosaur Research Group, a collaboration of Hungarian and Romanian palaeontologists co-led by Gábor Botfalvai and Zoltán Csiki-Sava of the Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Department of Palaeontology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. > Where the Hațeg Basin sits (tectonic setting). The Hațeg (Haţeg) Basin is in south-western Transylvania, Romania, in/around Hunedoara County.[1.1] > > > * The Hațeg Basin is an **intramontane basin** in the Southern Carpathians region, formed as a **post-tectonic depression** following a major Late Cretaceous compressional/orogenic phase (often linked in the regional literature to a “Laramian/Laramide” tectonic pulse in the area). In plain terms: mountain-building rearranged the crust, then a local low developed and began to collect sediment. [2.1] > * It developed on/against Carpathian structural units (commonly discussed in terms of the **Getic unit** and neighbouring nappes/terranes in the regional geology). [3.1] What it contains (a long sedimentary record) > > * The basin fill is **thick—on the order of kilometres** —and spans multiple phases of deposition. One synthesis figure-captioned summary notes **~4 km of sediments** , with the oldest part beginning with **Lower Jurassic continental clastics** , transitioning into **Middle Jurassic marine limestones/marls** , then later Mesozoic carbonates before the famous Late Cretaceous continental packages. [4.1] > * For your dinosaurs post, the key units are the **Upper Cretaceous continental deposits** , especially the **Densuș-Ciula Formation** and the **Sânpetru Formation** , which are widely treated as broadly **Maastrichtian in age** and represent terrestrial settings (rivers, floodplains, soils). [5.1] The depositional environments (why floods matter here) > > The Hațeg Basin’s dinosaur-bearing rocks are important precisely because they record _ordinary_ terrestrial processes: > > * **Fluvial systems** : channels and overbank deposits (sandstones, mudstones), often described as **braided river / wet floodplain** settings in summaries of the Sânpetru Formation. [6.1] > * **Floodplains and palaeosols** : soils forming between floods, then being buried by later sediment pulses—exactly the kind of repeated local process that can concentrate bones into “bonebeds” without invoking anything global. [7.1] > * The specific bonebed work you’re citing is explicitly within the **Densuș-Ciula Formation** and discusses multiple **high-diversity bonebeds** consistent with repeated depositional events. [5.1] “Hațeg Island” (the palaeogeographic angle) > > * In the Late Cretaceous, the region is often reconstructed as part of an **island setting (“Hațeg Island”)** within the Tethyan realm, which is one reason its fauna is so famous (including the long-running discussion of insular effects). [8.1] Dating (why the timescale is robust) > > * The dinosaur-bearing successions are tied into the global timescale using standard stratigraphic approaches; in addition, parts of the regional Upper Cretaceous record include **volcaniclastic material** that has been targeted for radiometric dating (e.g., U–Pb work on volcaniclastic deposits in the broader Transylvanian region). [9.1] > * Your cited paper is a Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) study in the Hațeg Basin context; the wider literature consistently places these terrestrial strata in the **uppermost Cretaceous** rather than anywhere near the Holocene. [5.1] The discovery itself, and its wider scientific significance, are also explained in a Faculty of Science news item from ELTE. > Paleontoligists have discovered an exceptionally rich dinosaur site in Transylvania > > * * * > > The Hațeg Basin in Transylvania is world-famous for its dinosaur remains, which have been unearthed from dozens of sites over the past century. Despite the high number of fossil localities, dinosaur finds are generally considered rare in the area. An exception is the newly discovered site, where researchers found more than a hundred vertebrate fossils per square meter — with the large dinosaur bones lying almost on top of each other. > > * * * > > The Valiora Dinosaur Research Group, consisting of Hungarian and Romanian paleontologists, has been conducting research for more than five years in the western part of the Hațeg Basin, an area famous for its dinosaur fossils. The Upper Cretaceous continental deposits studied here provide a glimpse into the final few million years before the extinction of the dinosaurs. During the excavations, the team collected assemblages containing thousands of vertebrate remains, including fossils of amphibians, turtles, crocodiles, dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and mammals. Among these, the K2 site stands out as the richest locality, yielding more than 800 vertebrate fossils from an area of less than five square meters. The detailed paleontological results of the site have recently been published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE. > > > > In 2019, during our first field survey in the Hațeg Basin, we almost immediately came across the K2 site. It was a defining moment for us — we instantly noticed dozens of large, exceptionally well-preserved black dinosaur bones gleaming in the grey clay layers exposed in the streambed. We immediately began our work, and through several years of excavation we collected an extraordinarily rich vertebrate assemblage from the site. > > Assistant Professor Gábor Botfalvai, Co-lead author > Department of Paleontology > Eötvös Loránd University > Budapest, Hungary. > > > Around 72 million years ago, the area now known as the Hațeg Basin was dominated by ephemeral rivers formed in a subtropical climate. These rivers flowed from elevated regions toward the basin, and during heavy rainfall, they frequently flooded, overflowing their banks. As they moved toward lower-lying areas, they picked up carcasses lying on the surface, as well as living animals or their remains that happened to be in their path. > > > Detailed study of the rocks at the K2 site indicates that a small lake once existed here, which was periodically fed by flash floods carrying animal carcasses. As the flow of the rivers slowed rapidly upon entering the lake, the transported bodies accumulated in the deltaic environment along the shore, producing this exceptionally high bone concentration > > > > > Soma Budai, co-author > Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e dell’Ambiente > Università degli Studi di Pavia > Pavia, Italy. > > > > > > > Several associated partial dinosaur skeletons were also recovered from the site > > The site yielded not only isolated bones but also several partial, associated dinosaur skeletons. These represent the remains of two different herbivorous dinosaur species. Some of the skeletons belong to a roughly two-meter-long, predominantly bipedal herbivore of the Rhabdodontidae family — one of the most common dinosaurs in the Hațeg Basin. The other type of skeleton, however, represents a major discovery: they belong to a titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur, of which no such well-preserved skeletons had previously been found in Transylvania. The study of these new fossils will provide valuable insights into the taxonomy of this long-necked dinosaur. > > > Besides the remarkably high bone concentration, another key significance of this newly described site is that it represents the oldest known vertebrate accumulation in the Hațeg Basin. Studying this fossil assemblage allows us to look into the earliest composition of the Hațeg dinosaur fauna and trace the evolutionary directions and processes leading toward the dinosaurs known from younger Transylvanian sites — revealing how these Late Cretaceous ecosystems were similar or different from one another. > > Associate Professor Zoltán Csiki-Sava, co-lead author > Department of Geology, Mineralogy and Palaeontology > University of Bucharest > Bucharest, Romania. > > > The fossil assemblage described in this publication, along with other finds from ongoing excavations in the Hațeg Basin, will help scientists gain a more precise understanding of the evolutionary and ecological processes that shaped the composition of (Eastern) European dinosaur faunas during the Late Cretaceous. > > Publication: > >> [Botfalvai G, Csiki-Sava Z, Magyar J, Páll-Gergely B, Koczó L, Ţabără D, _et al_. (2025) > **Paleontological and paleoecological significance of the oldest highly productive Upper Cretaceous (lowermost Maastrichtian) bonebed of Haţeg Basin (western Romania; Densuş-Ciula Formation).** > _PLoS One_ **20**(11): e0335893. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0335893](https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0335893) > > > Show details > Abstract > Recent extensive fieldwork in the Densuş-Ciula Formation in Haţeg Basin has led to the discovery of several important high-diversity bonebeds. Among the excavated locations, site K2 is by far the most significant, as based on its stratigraphical position it is considered the oldest known (earliest Maastrichtian) highly diversified vertebrate site in the entire Haţeg Basin, and thus provides a good starting point for paleofaunistic, paleoecological and biostratigraphic comparisons with other similar sites across the Transylvanian area. During this study, detailed sedimentological, palynological, invertebrate- and vertebrate paleontological investigations were conducted to reconstruct the former paleoenvironment and the different depositional processes that allowed the formation of this productive bonebed. More than 800 vertebrate fossils were collected from an approximately 4.75 m2 area of the bonebed horizon of site K2 representing at least 17 species including fish, amphibians, turtles, squamates, crocodyliforms, dinosaurs, pterosaurs and mammals, ranking this site among the most taxonomically diverse ones within the basin. The sedimentological investigation points towards a lacustrine depositional environment in which a high-diversity, multitaxic, multidominant mixed assemblage was accumulated on a flood-related delta due to a sudden drop in transport energy. Based on its stratigraphical position, site K2 represents the oldest vertebrate site within the Haţeg area and suggests a remarkable large-scale faunal stability on the Haţeg Island during the Maastrichtian. The dominant elements of the local fauna were already present in the earliest Maastrichtian, and no significant differences in faunal composition can be detected between this oldest and other, younger vertebrate assemblages of Haţeg Basin, at least at the level of higher taxa. Furthermore, just as the faunal composition, the dominance spectrum of the different taxa has not changed significantly among the Maastrichtian sites of Haţeg Basin. > > > > > **Fig 1. Geological maps.** > (**A**) Geologic map of Haţeg Basin (based on [20] and references therein). (**B**) Detailed geological map of the Vălioara area showing the main vertebrate sites (based on [20]. Base maps were compiled using openly licensed (CC BY 4.0 or public domain) datasets: Sentinel-2 (Copernicus, 2023.01.08), SRTM (NASA/JPL-Caltech), EU GISCO (Eurostat), and EU-Hydro (Copernicus/EEA). > > * * * > > > > **Fig 2. Site K2, Vălioara (Densuș-Ciula Formation).** > (**A**) Status of the investigated bonebed in 2019 (**B**) and in 2022. (**C**) Vertically oriented tree trunk in the bonebed horizon of site K2. (**D-F**). In situ well-preserved dinosaur bones at site K2. (**G**). In situ associated pelvic elements of Rhabdodontidae indet. [12]. > > * * * > > > > **Fig 3. Geological background and sedimentology of site K2.** > (**A**) Sedimentary architecture, depositional environments and depositional units of the lower Densuș-Ciula Formation in the Vălioara area, for details see [20] (Bas.: basal deposits, Fluv.: fluvial deposits). (**B**) Sedimentary log of the K2 site, with important surfaces and sample locations. (**C**) Lower portion of the K2 outcrop showing structureless black and grey mudstone. (**D**) Texture of the heterolithic bonebed, plant fragments and molluscs. > > * * * > > > > **Fig 4. Selected terrestrial palynomorphs, freshwater algae, and typical constituents of organic matter recognized at site K2, Vălioara (Densuș–Ciula Formation).** > (**A**) _Deltoidospora australis_ (sample 6B). (**B**) _Polypodiaceoisporites_ sp. (sample P2). (**C-D**) _Polypodiaceoisporites_ sp. (sample 6B). (**E**) _Polypodiaceoisporites hojrupensis_ (sample 6B). (**F**) _Laevigatosporites ovatus_ (sample 6B). (**G**) _Lusatisporites dettmanniae_ (sample 6B). (**H**) _Echinatisporis_ sp. (sample 6B). (**I**) _Stereisporites antiquasporites_ (sample 6B). (**J**) _Inaperturopollenites dubius_ (sample 6B). (**K**) _Pinuspollenites_ sp. (sample 6B). (**L**) _Classopollis_ sp. (sample 6B). (**M**) _Araucariacites australis_ (sample 6B). (**N**) _Oculopollis praedicatus_ (sample P2). (**O**) _Trudopollis nonperfectus_ (sample P2). (**P**) _Proteacidites_ sp. (sample 6B). (**Q**) _Plicapollis serta_ (sample 6B). (**R**) _Pseudopapillopollis praesubhercynicus_ (sample 6B). (**S**) _Trudopollis minimus_ (sample 6B). (**T**) _Myricipites bituitus_ (sample 6B). (**U**) _Subtriporopollenites anulatus_ (sample P2). (**V**) _Chomotriletes fragilis_ (sample P2). (**X**) _Ovoidites_ sp. (sample 6B). (**Y-Z**) _Pterodinium cingulatum_ cf. _granulatum_ (sample 6B; reworked). (**AA**) large lath-shaped opaque phytoclasts (sample P2). (**AB**) a mixture of equidimensional opaque and translucent phytoclasts (sample 6B). (scale bar: 30 µm). > > * * * > > > > **Fig 5. Gas chromatogram–mass spectrometry spectra from sample 6B, site K2, Vălioara (Densuş–Ciula Formation) (A), and diverse cross-plots: C, D. phytane/n-C18 versus pristane/n-C17 indicating the type of organic matter and depositional environment.** > (**B**) fragment of large-sized leaf cuticle considered to be composed mainly of long-chain n-alkanes (n-C23 – n-C31). > > * * * > > > > **Fig 6. Shells of the terrestrial and freshwater gastropods from site K2, Vălioara (Densuș–Ciula Formation).** > (**A**) Lymnaeidae sp. (abapertural view). (**B**) _Acroloxus_ sp. (apical view). (**C**) Physidae sp. 1 (apertural view). (**D**) Physidae sp. 2 (lateral view). (**E**) Physidae sp. 3 (abapertural view). (**F**) Physidae sp. 4 (apertural view). (**G**) Physidae sp. 4 (abapertural view). (**H**) Physidae sp. 4 (lateral view). (**I**) Physidae sp. 4, specimen2 (apertural view). (**J**) Physidae sp. 4, specimen2 (abapertural view). (**K**) Ajkaia sp. (abapertural view). (**L**) Pupinidae sp. 1 (lateral view). (**M**) Pupinidae sp. 1 (abapertural view). (**N**) Pupinidae sp. 1 (apical view). (**O**) Pupinidae sp. 2 (lateral view). (**P**) Pupinidae sp. 2 (enlarged view of the protoconch and the initial whorls of the teleoconch). (**Q**) Pupinidae sp. 2 (lateral view). (**R**) Laminiferinae sp. (abapertural view). (**S**) Laminiferinae sp. (lateral view). > > * * * > > > > **Fig 7. Shells of terrestrial gastropods and freshwater bivalves from site K2, Vălioara (Densuș–Ciula Formation).** > (**A**) Lychnus sp. (apical-dorsal view). (**B**) Lychnus sp. (apical view). (**C**) Helicoidea sp. 1 (lateral view). (**D**) Helicoidea sp. 1 (apical view). (**E**) Helicoidea sp. 2 (apical view). (**F**) Helicoidea sp. 3 (apical view). (**G**) Helicoidea sp. 3 (lateral view). (**H**) slender gastropod sp. 1 (dorsal view). (**I**) slender gastropod sp. 2 (abapical view). (**J**) slender gastropod sp. 2 (apertural view). (**K**) slender gastropod sp. 3 (lateral view). (**L**) Sphaeriidae sp. 1. (**M**) Sphaeriidae sp. 2. (**N**) Cyrenidae sp. (**O**) Sphaeriidae sp. 3. > > * * * > > > > **Fig 8. Isolated vertebrate remains, site K2, Vălioara (Densuș–Ciula Formation).** > (**A**) Lepisosteiformes indet., scale LPB [FGGUB] v.900 in external view. (**B**) Albanerpetontidae indet., right dentary LPB [FGGUB] v.901 in lingual and (**C**) labial views. (**D**) Barbatteidae indet., maxilla LPB [FGGUB] v.902 in lingual and (**E**) labial views. (**F**) Velociraptorine dromaeosaurid tooth, LPB [FGGUB] R.2885 in labial and (**G**) lingual views. (**H**) _Richardoestesia_ sp. tooth, (LPB [FGGUB] R.2884) in labial and (**I**) lingual views. (**J**) Hadrosauroidea indet. right dentary fragment LPB [FGGUB] R.2887 in medial view. (**K**) Possible pterosaurian limb bone fragment LPB [FGGUB] R.2891. (**L**) Kogaionidae indet., left P1 (LPB [FGGUB] M.1710) in lingual and (**M**) oblique occlusal views. > > * * * > > > > **Fig 9. Isolated crocodyliform teeth, site K2, Vălioara (Densuș–Ciula Formation).** > _Doratodon_ sp., anterior-middle maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.910) in (**A**), labial, and (**B**), lingual views. Doratodon sp., posterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.907) in (**C**), labial, (**D**), lateral, and (**E**) lingual views. Theriosuchus-like taxon, caniniform premaxillary/anterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.915) in (**F**), labial, (**G**), lateral, and (**H**), lingual views. Theriosuchus-like taxon, hypertrophied caniniform?maxillary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.924) in (**I**), labial, and (**J**), lingual views. Theriosuchus-like taxon, middle-posterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.918) in (**K**), labial, and (**L**), lingual views. Allodaposuchus sp., apical part of anterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.911) in (**M**), labial, (**N**), lateral, and (**O**) lingual views. Allodaposuchus sp., posterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.913) in (**P**), labial, (**Q**), lateral, and (**R**) lingual views. Acynodon sp., anterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.885) in (**S**), labial, (**T**), lateral, (**U**), lingual, and (**V**) apical views; arrow in S, U and V point to the lateral platform (pf) replacing the carina basally. Acynodon sp., middle-posterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.906) in (**X**), labial, (**Y**), lateral, and (**Z**), lingual, views. Acynodon sp., posterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.903) in (**AA**), labial/lingual, and (**AB**) apical views. Indeterminate crocodyliform morphotype (?Acynodon, or perhaps?juvenile Allodaposuchus – see text for details), probably middle-posterior maxillary/dentary tooth (LPB [FGGUB] v.920) in (**AC**), labial, (**AD**), lateral, and (**AE**), lingual views. > > * * * > > > > **Fig 10. Generalized cranial and skeletal reconstruction of the ‘K2 rhabdodontid’, Vălioara (Densuș–Ciula Formation).** > (**A**) Associated premaxillae, LPB (FGGUB) R.2769 in left lateral view. (**B**) Right maxilla, LPB (FGGUB) R.2770, in lateral view. (**C**) Left prefrontal, LPB (FGGUB) R.2772, in dorsal view. (**D**) Articulated right frontal-postorbital, LPB (FGGUB) R.2774, in dorsal view. (**E**) Right dentary, LPB (FGGUB) R.2778, in medial view. (**F**) Middle dorsal vertebra, LPB (FGGUB) R.2795, in posterior view. (**G**) Chevron, LPB (FGGUB) R.2805, in anterior view. (**H**) Right scapula, LPB (FGGUB) R.2806, in lateral view. (**I**) Left ulna, LPB (FGGUB) R.2807, in medial view. (**J**) Right ilium, LPB (FGGUB) R.2809, in lateral view. (**K**) Left ischium, LPB (FGGUB) R.2810, in lateral view. (**L**) Left tibia, LPB (FGGUB) R.2812 in lateral views. (**M**) Right fibula, LPB (FGGUB) R.2814, in medial view. (**N**) Third metatarsal, LPB (FGGUB) R.2816, in lateral view. (**O**) Pedal phalanx, LPB (FGGUB) R.2822, in dorsal view. Shaded skeletal elements indicate bones represented in the K2 assemblage (adapted from [12]). Taken together, the geology of the Hațeg Basin leaves creationist flood apologetics with nowhere to hide. What we see is not a chaotic jumble of life swept together in a single, planet-wide catastrophe, but a well-ordered succession of terrestrial sediments laid down over long periods by rivers, floodplains, and repeated local flooding events in a Late Cretaceous landscape. The fossil assemblages, sedimentary structures, and palaeosols all point to normal geological processes operating exactly as modern geology predicts. Crucially, this fossil site sits firmly within the uppermost Cretaceous, around 72 million years ago, in the heart of the Hațeg Basin. That alone is fatal to any attempt to conscript it as evidence for a biblical flood supposed to have occurred just a few thousand years ago. No amount of rhetorical hand-waving can compress tens of millions of years of stratigraphy, tectonic history, and ecological succession into a single Bronze Age myth. As so often happens, a discovery that creationists might initially welcome turns out, on closer inspection, to reinforce exactly the opposite conclusion. Far from supporting the idea of a global deluge, the Hațeg fossils add yet another clear, well-documented example of deep time, local environmental change, and the ordinary processes by which life is preserved in the geological record—processes that render the creationist narrative not merely unsupported, but fundamentally incompatible with the evidence. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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The Gobi Desert, where many dinosaur eggs have been found. Dinosaur eggshells unlock a new way to tell time in the fossil record | Stellenbosch University This paper will have creationists searching for reasons to dismiss evidence that would, if they were prepared to accept it honestly, force them to concede that their beliefs are wrong. It reports a discovery by researchers at Stellenbosch University showing that dinosaur eggshells can be dated with a high degree of precision using an already well-established technique: uranium–lead (U–Pb) radiometric dating. Until now, U–Pb dating has been most famously applied to zircon crystals in volcanic ash, where the age can be determined by measuring the ratio of radioactive uranium isotopes to the stable lead isotopes produced by their decay. In this study, however, the same underlying principles are applied to calcite crystals preserved in dinosaur eggshells. The scientists have published their method, open access, in the journal _Communications Earth & Environment_. > Why uranium–lead (U–Pb) dating is reliable — and common objections fail. Uranium–lead (U–Pb) dating is one of the most thoroughly tested and internally self-checking methods of radiometric dating. It is based on well-understood nuclear physics and is used precisely because it is resistant to the kinds of problems often raised by critics. > > > 1. **dating uses *_two separate radioactive decay chains_ * at the same time:** > * Uranium-238 decays to Lead-206 > * Uranium-235 decays to Lead-207 > These isotopes decay at different, precisely measured rates. If both decay chains yield the same age, the result is not an assumption but a powerful internal verification. If they disagree, the data immediately reveal that something has gone wrong. > > > 2. **No assumption of “starting lead”** A common claim is that radiometric dating assumes no lead was present at the start. In reality, U–Pb dating explicitly tests for this. Any non-radiogenic (“common”) lead can be measured and mathematically accounted for. The method does not require zero initial lead, and disagreement between the two decay systems would expose any incorrect assumption. > > 3. **Closed systems are tested, not assumed** > Critics often argue that minerals are not closed systems. U–Pb dating directly checks this. If uranium or lead has been added or lost, the two decay chains will diverge in predictable ways. Such samples are rejected or corrected using concordia–discordia analysis. The method includes its own built-in falsification test. > > 4. **Decay rates are not guesses** > Radioactive decay rates are governed by nuclear forces and are unaffected by temperature, pressure, chemical environment, or geological processes. These rates are measured repeatedly in laboratories and confirmed by natural nuclear reactors (such as Oklo) and astronomical observations. No evidence exists that decay rates have changed in Earth’s history. > > 5. **Precision comes from physics, not interpretation** > U–Pb ages are calculated directly from measured isotope ratios using known decay constants. The process is quantitative, reproducible, and independent of fossil interpretation, sedimentation rates, or evolutionary assumptions. > > 6. **Why eggshells can be dated** > Calcite crystals in dinosaur eggshells can incorporate uranium shortly after burial while excluding lead. As radioactive decay proceeds, lead accumulates within the crystal lattice. Measuring these isotopic ratios allows the time since fossilisation to be determined directly — not inferred from surrounding rocks. > > > * * * > > > **In short:** > U–Pb dating does not rely on circular reasoning, unverifiable assumptions, or evolutionary bias. It uses redundant decay systems, tests its own assumptions, and produces results that either agree internally or fail transparently. That is why it is trusted — and why dismissing it requires ignoring how the method actually works. The research is also explained in a video accompanying a Stellenbosch University news release. > Dinosaur eggshells unlock a new way to tell time in the fossil record > > * * * > > * Novel method developed to date fossilized dinosaur eggshells. > * Regarded as a breakthrough to date the age of fossil-bearing rocks. > > * * * > > An international team of geologists and paleontologists is pioneering a groundbreaking methodology to reliably determine the age of fossil-bearing rocks — by directly dating fossilized dinosaur eggshells. > > The study, led by Dr Ryan Tucker from Stellenbosch University’s Department of Earth Sciences, was published in Communications Earth & Environment. > > Many fossil sites around the world are only coarsely dated. Without precise information on the geologic age of fossils, paleontologists struggle to understand how different species and ecosystems relate across time and space. Usually, researchers rely on dating minerals such as zircon or apatite found associated with fossils, but those minerals aren’t always present. Attempts to date the fossils themselves, such as bones or teeth, have often produced uncertain results. > > Dr Tucker's team, consisting of MSc student Kira Venter and Prof Cristiano Lana from the Elemental and Isotope Analysis Laboratory at SU's Central Analytical Facilities, took a different approach. They used advanced uranium–lead (U–Pb) dating and elemental mapping to measure trace amounts of uranium and lead housed inside the calcite of fossilized dinosaur eggshells. These isotopes function like a natural clock, enabling scientists to determine when the eggs were buried. > > View video on novel method. > > Tests on dinosaur eggs from Utah (USA) and the Gobi Desert (Mongolia) showed that the eggshells record ages with an accuracy of about five percent relative to precise volcanic-ash dates. In Mongolia, the team determined the first-ever direct age — around 75 million years old — for a historic locality preserving dinosaur eggs and nests. > > > > Eggshell calcite is remarkably versatile. It gives us a new way to date fossil sites where volcanic layers are missing, a challenge that has limited paleontology for decades. > > Dr Ryan T. Tucker, lead author. > Department of Earth Sciences > Stellenbosch University > Stellenbosch, South Africa. > > > The work involved collaborators from the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, North Carolina State University, Colorado School of Mines, Mongolian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Paleontology, Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (Brazil). Fieldwork in Mongolia was carried out through the Mongolian Alliance for Dinosaur Exploration (MADEx) and supported by the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation. > > By showing that dinosaur eggshells can reliably record the passage of geologic time, the study links biology and Earth science in a new way — offering researchers a powerful tool to date fossil sites around the globe. > > > Direct dating of fossils is a paleontologist’s dream. Armed with this new technique, we can unravel mysteries about dinosaur evolution that used to be insurmountable. > > Associate Professor Lindsay E. Zanno, co-author > Department of Earth Sciences > Stellenbosch University > Stellenbosch, South Africa. > > > Publication: > >> [Tucker, R.T., Venter, K.E., Lana, C. _et al_. > **U-Pb calcite age dating of fossil eggshell as an accurate deep time geochronometer.** > _Commun Earth Environ_ **6**(872) (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02895-w](https://rdcu.be/eVJnm) > > > Show details > Abstract > Earth’s sedimentary rock record is the primary archive for biotic, environmental, and climatic trends in deep time. Reconstructing these patterns requires a high-resolution geochronologic framework. This remains a significant challenge for many terrestrial ecosystems and an acute problem for some of the world’s most important Mesozoic and Cenozoic fossil records. Overcoming this issue requires frontier approaches, such as directly dating fossils, long considered untenable. Here, we test the reliability of novel LA-ICP-MS U-Pb calcite dating and elemental mapping of non-avian dinosaur eggshells to produce accurate “burial ages.” We directly dated fossilized dinosaur eggs recovered from the Western Interior Basin of North America, producing ages within 5% of high-precision ages from bracketing ash beds. We then directly dated dinosaur eggs from Upper Cretaceous strata within Mongolia’s famous yet poorly age-constrained Gobi Basin, providing the first radioisotopic age for these deposits. Geochemical data coupled with trace elemental mapping indicate early uptake of uranium (U) in non-avian dinosaur eggshells via sediment contact, consistent with findings from Quaternary avian eggs. Calcified eggs, having evolved over 250 million years ago, offers a promising experimental methodology for determining the age of globally distributed fossil assemblages and recovering temporal, environmental, and ecological data from a single fossil. > > > > [Tucker, R.T., Venter, K.E., Lana, C. _et al_. > **U-Pb calcite age dating of fossil eggshell as an accurate deep time geochronometer.** > _Commun Earth Environ_ **6**(872) (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-02895-w](https://rdcu.be/eVJnm) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) For creationists, this development closes yet another escape route. One of the most persistent tactics has been to claim that fossils cannot be dated directly and that ages are merely inferred from surrounding rock layers. Uranium–lead dating of dinosaur eggshells removes that line of argument entirely. The age comes from the fossil material itself, using a method grounded in nuclear physics rather than geological interpretation. It also undercuts the familiar assertion that radiometric dating depends on special assumptions that conveniently favour evolutionary timescales. The U–Pb method uses two independent decay systems that act as mutual checks on each other. Any disturbance, contamination, or incorrect assumption would be immediately apparent in the data. The reliability of the result is not asserted; it is demonstrated. Most damaging of all, this technique produces ages that are entirely incompatible with a young Earth. There is no plausible way to compress hundreds of millions of years of radioactive decay into a few thousand without invoking unknown physics, selective miracles, or wholesale rejection of the very nuclear processes that modern technology relies upon. At that point, the objection is no longer scientific but theological. As with so much in the fossil record, the problem for creationism is not a lack of evidence but an excess of it. Each new method that allows the past to be read more clearly tightens the constraints on reality. Dinosaur eggshells, it turns out, carry not just embryos but timestamps — and they record a history far older than creationism can tolerate. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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Clues to Alzheimer’s disease may be hiding in our ‘junk’ DNA Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia, have identified DNA switches that help control how astrocytes work. These are brain cells that support neurons and are known to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease. They have just published their findings in _Nature Neuroscience_. Coming soon after researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark discovered a design defect in astrocytes that contributes to the development of Alzheimer’s, this represents a double embarrassment for those creationists who understand its implications. Firstly, there is the embarrassment that the cause of Alzheimer’s is indistinguishable from Michael J. Behe’s favourite ‘proof’ of intelligent design — irreducible complexity — in that all the elements must be present for Alzheimer’s to occur. Secondly, there is the discovery by the Australian team of which triggers ‘switch on’ which genes that affect the astrocytes implicated in Alzheimer’s. These switches are embedded in the 98% of the human genome that is non-coding, or so-called ‘junk’ DNA. Since they can be separated from the genes they regulate by thousands of base pairs, it has been notoriously difficult to identify which switches control which genes. Now, using CRISPR, the team have identified around 150 of these regulatory elements. The existence of this non-coding DNA has long been an embarrassment for creationists, who have been unable to explain why an intelligent designer would produce so much DNA that does not contain the roughly 20,000 genes that actually code for proteins. Why such prolific waste, adding massively to the risk of errors that can result in cancer? The creationist response has been to conflate the terms ‘non-coding’ and ‘non-functional’, and then proclaim this ‘functional DNA’ as intelligently designed — reducing, but by no means eliminating, the amount of ‘junk’ they still have to explain away. Of course, ‘non-coding’ does not mean ‘not transcribed’, only that the RNA does not code for a functional protein. However, this non-coding but functional DNA does play a role in gene expression, in that the resulting RNA can act as controls or ‘switches’ that turn genes on and off. So, creationists — having triumphantly waved ‘functional, non-coding DNA’ as evidence for intelligent design after all — are now presented with the fact that it is part of the ‘irreducible’ cause of Alzheimer’s, and probably the cause of many other diseases with a genetic basis. > What is currently known about the causes of Alzheimer’s disease? > > > > Examples of roles of astrocytes in normal condition and in AD. > > > > Monterey, Michael D.; _et al_ (2021) > > > Alzheimer’s disease is a **progressive neurodegenerative disorder** and the most common cause of dementia. It does not have a single cause; instead, it arises from the interaction of **genetic, molecular, cellular, and environmental factors** over many years or decades. > > > > 1. **Amyloid-β plaques** > > One of the earliest and best-known features of Alzheimer’s is the accumulation of **amyloid-β protein** outside neurons, forming sticky plaques. These result from abnormal processing of the amyloid precursor protein (APP). While amyloid accumulation alone does not fully explain the disease, it is thought to **trigger downstream pathological processes**. > > > 2. **Tau tangles** > > Inside neurons, the protein **tau** can become abnormally phosphorylated and form **neurofibrillary tangles**. These disrupt the cell’s internal transport system and are closely correlated with **neuronal dysfunction and cognitive decline**. Tau pathology spreads through the brain in a predictable pattern as the disease progresses. > > > 3. **Synapse and neuron loss** > > Long before widespread neuron death occurs, Alzheimer’s causes **loss of synapses** , the connections between neurons. This synaptic failure is the strongest anatomical correlate of memory loss and cognitive impairment. > > > 4. **Neuroinflammation and glial cells** > > Non-neuronal brain cells — especially **astrocytes and microglia** — play a central role. Chronic activation of these cells leads to **neuroinflammation** , which can exacerbate amyloid and tau pathology, impair synaptic function, and accelerate neuronal damage. Recent research highlights failures in astrocyte regulation as a contributing factor. > > > 5. **Genetic risk factors** > > * **Early-onset Alzheimer’s** (rare, often before age 60) can be caused by inherited mutations in a small number of genes involved in amyloid processing. > * **Late-onset Alzheimer’s** (the vast majority of cases) is influenced by many genetic variants, the most significant being **APOE-ε4** , which increases risk but does not determine outcome. > > 6. **Non-coding DNA and gene regulation** > > Most genetic risk for Alzheimer’s lies not in protein-coding genes, but in **non-coding regions of the genome**. These regions regulate when, where, and how strongly genes are expressed. Disruption of these regulatory “switches” can alter brain cell behaviour, immune responses, and vulnerability to degeneration. > > > 7. **Vascular and metabolic factors** > > Conditions such as **hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and atherosclerosis** increase Alzheimer’s risk. Reduced cerebral blood flow and impaired glucose metabolism appear to make the brain more vulnerable to degenerative processes. > > > 8. **Age and cumulative damage** > > Age is by far the greatest risk factor. Alzheimer’s reflects **long-term accumulation of molecular damage** , declining cellular repair mechanisms, and reduced resilience of neural networks. > > > * * * > > > **In summary** > > Alzheimer’s disease is best understood not as a single defect, but as a **systems failure** involving protein misfolding, gene regulation, immune dysfunction, and cellular breakdown. Each component is necessary, but none is sufficient on its own — a fact that has important implications for both treatment and claims of “perfect” biological design. The work of the UNSW research team is summarised in a UNSW news release. > Clues to Alzheimer’s disease may be hiding in our ‘junk’ DNA > > * * * > > UNSW scientists have uncovered the hidden switches in DNA, revealing new insights into Alzheimer’s disease. > > * * * > > When most of us think of DNA, we have a vague idea it’s made up of genes that give us our physical features, our behavioural quirks, and keep our cells and organs running. > > But only a tiny percentage of our DNA – around 2% – contains our 20,000-odd genes. The remaining 98% – long known as the non-coding genome, or so-called ‘junk’ DNA – includes many of the switches that control when and how strongly genes are expressed. > > Now researchers from UNSW Sydney have identified the DNA switches that help control how astrocytes work – these are brain cells that support neurons, and are known to play a role in Alzheimer’s disease. > > In research published today in Nature Neuroscience, researchers from UNSW’s School of Biotechnology & Biomolecular Sciences described how they tested nearly 1000 potential switches – strings of DNA known as enhancers – in human astrocytes grown in the lab. Enhancers can be located very far away from the gene they control, sometimes hundreds of thousands of DNA letters away – making them difficult to study. > > The team used CRISPRi, a tool that lets you turn off small sections of DNA without cutting it, combined with single-cell RNA sequencing, which measures gene expression in individual cells. This approach allowed them to test the function of nearly 1000 enhancers at once. > > We used CRISPRi to turn off potential enhancers in the astrocytes to see whether it changed gene expression, and if it did, then we knew we’d found a functional enhancer and could then figure out which gene – or genes – it controls. That’s what happened for about 150 of the potential enhancers we tested. And strikingly, a large fraction of these functional enhancers controlled genes implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. > > Dr Nicole F. O. Green, co-lead author. > School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences > University of New South Wales > Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. > > > Going from 1000 candidates to 150 real switches dramatically narrows where scientists need to look in the non-coding genome to find clues to the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease. > > > These findings suggest that similar studies in other brain cell types are needed to highlight the functional enhancers in the vast space of non-coding DNA. > > Dr Nicole F. O. Green. > > > Reading between the lines > > Professor Irina Voineagu, who oversaw the study, says the results give researchers a catalogue of DNA regions that can help interpret the results of other genetic studies as well. > > > When researchers look for genetic changes that explain diseases like hypertension, diabetes and also psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease – we often end up with changes not within genes so much, but in-between. > > Professor Irina Voineagu, corresponding author. > School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences > University of New South Wales > Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. > > > Those “in-between” regions are the enhancers her team has now tested directly in human astrocytes – revealing which ones genuinely control important brain genes. > > > We’re not talking about therapies yet. But you can’t develop them unless you first understand the wiring diagram. That’s what this gives us — a deeper view into the circuitry of gene control in astrocytes. > > Professor Irina Voineagu. > > > From gene switches to AI > > Testing nearly a thousand enhancers in the lab was painstaking work. And it is the first time a CRISPRi screen of enhancers of this scale has been done in brain cells. But with the groundwork now done, the data can be used to train computer tools to predict which potential enhancers are true switches, potentially saving years of experimental time. > > This dataset can help computational biologists test how good their prediction models are at predicting enhancer function. > > Professor Irina Voineagu. > > > In fact, Google’s DeepMind team is already using the dataset to benchmark their recent deep learning model called AlphaGenome, she adds. > > Potential tools for gene therapy > > Because specific enhancers are only active in specific cell types, targeting them could allow precise control of gene expression in astrocytes without affecting neurons or other brain cells. > > While this is not close to being used in the clinic yet – and much work remains before these findings could lead to treatments – there is a clear precedent. The first gene editing drug approved for a blood disease – sickle cell anaemia – targets a cell-type specific enhancer. > > Professor Irina Voineagu. > > > > > This is something we want to look at more deeply: finding out which enhancers we can use to turn genes on or off in a single brain cell type, and in a very controlled way. > > Dr Nicole F. O. Green. > > > Publication: > >> [Green, N.F.O., Sutton, G.J., Pérez-Burillo, J. et al. > **CRISPRi screening in cultured human astrocytes uncovers distal enhancers controlling genes dysregulated in Alzheimer’s disease.** _Nat Neurosci_ (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-025-02154-3](https://rdcu.be/eVEMK) > > > Show details > Abstract > Genetic variants associated with complex traits often lie in distal enhancers. While candidate enhancers have been mapped genome wide, their functional state and gene targets in specific cell types remain unclear. Here we present AstroREG, a resource of enhancer–gene interactions in human primary astrocytes, generated by combining CRISPR inhibition (CRISPRi), single-cell RNA-seq and machine learning. By functionally testing nearly 1,000 PsychENCODE enhancers, we identified more than 150 regulatory interactions, revealing enhancers that control key astrocyte functions and genes implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. The CRISPRi screen also provided valuable ground-truth data from a primary cell type for training and benchmarking prediction models of enhancer activity. We thus developed EGrf, a random forest (RF) model trained on these data, and applied it genome wide to predict regulatory interactions with high specificity. Together, our data provide a comprehensive functional map of enhancer-mediated regulation in a key glial cell type, shedding light on brain function and disease. > > Main > CRISPR screening with gene expression readout enables the examination of enhancer function within its native genomic locus1,2,3,4,5. Large-scale screens using this technology to study hundreds to thousands of enhancers have been performed primarily in K562 cells1,2,3,6, while smaller-scale experiments have been conducted in T cells7, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)-derived neurons8 and as a massively parallel reporter assay (MPRA) validation approach9,10. > > Here we set out to uncover transcriptional regulatory circuitry in human primary astrocytes, the most abundant type of glia in the human brain, having key roles in modulating neuronal function and plasticity11,12. > > We carried out a CRISPR inhibition (CRISPRi) screen of 979 PsychENCODE13 distal candidate enhancers, identifying 158 regulatory interactions in human primary astrocytes (Fig. 1a). These data uncovered a regulatory network that controls astrocyte-specific gene expression and identified distal enhancers that control the expression of genes dysregulated in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We further used the screen data to train a random forest model (EGrf) that achieved higher prediction accuracy for enhancer–gene regulatory interactions than existing prediction models (ABC4, ENCODE rE2G14, TAP-seq RF15). Applying EGrf genome wide to intergenic open chromatin regions, we predicted more than 1,300 regulatory interactions with high specificity. The AstroREG resource (Fig. 1a) combines enhancer–gene regulatory interactions identified through CRISPRi screening and EGrf prediction. > > > Fig. 1: CRISPRi screen of intergenic enhancers in astrocytes. > > > > **a** , Study overview. The selection pipeline (see Results for details) led to a set of 979 candidate enhancer regions. Candidate regions were tested in a CRISPRi screen with scRNA-seq readout, which identified 158 functional enhancer–gene interactions. Functional enhancers and their target genes were extensively characterized and used to construct an enhancer–gene regulatory network controlling astrocyte-specific gene expression. Furthermore, the CRISPRi results were used to train an RF model, which was then applied to predict enhancer–gene regulatory interactions genome wide. The AstroREG resource includes the experimentally tested and predicted enhancer–gene interactions. Panel a was created with BioRender.com. **b** , PCA plot of RNA-seq data from NHAs and brain samples immunopanned with cell-type-specific antibodies from ref. 16. All samples in this study were from healthy donors except peritumor astrocytes and sclerotic astrocytes; the cortex sample did not undergo immunopanning. The PCA plot was generated based on the intersample Spearman correlation matrix. **c** , Top, barplot of cell type and developmental stage annotation of NHA CRISPRi screen scRNA-seq data (_n_ = 47,577 cells). Reference-based annotation of single cells was performed using SingleR, with reference snRNA-seq from the human brain maturation atlas17 (Methods). Cells annotated as not assigned did not reach the minimal identity threshold for any cell type. Bottom, UMAP plots of CRISPRi screen scRNA-seq data with cells colored by SingleR cell-type annotation (left), developmental stage annotation (middle) and cell-cycle stage annotation (right); the latter was obtained using the CellCycle Scoring Seurat function. The identity of C1 is characterized in Supplementary Note 1. **d** , Overlap of candidate peaks with ENCODE-annotated23 genomic regions. Distal enhancers, P = 4 × 10−; proximal enhancers, P = 4 × 10−44; promoters, P = 2 × 10−27. Two-sided Fisher’s exact test. **e** , Upset plot displaying the overlap between the selected candidate enhancer set and four datasets used in the selection pipeline—two ATAC–seq datasets of NeuN− cells from adult human brain18,19, a dataset of iPSC-derived astrocytes21 and a dataset of astrocytes immunopanned with anti-HepaCAM or FACS-sorted with anti-GFAP from hCS maintained for up to 595 days in culture20. f, Heatmap of candidate enhancer chromatin accessibility based on pseudobulked snATAC–seq data across cell types and developmental stages from ref. 17. Rows display enhancers and are sorted by the enhancer’s module membership in the co-accessibility network (Methods). Cell types—astrocytes (astro), excitatory neurons (exc), inhibitory neurons (inh), microglia (micro) and oligodendrocytes and OPCs (oligo). Developmental stages—fetal (gestational age of 22–24 weeks), neonatal (28 days), infancy (86 days–1 year), childhood (1.5–8 years), adolescence (10–16 years) and adulthood (20–40 years). **g** , Co-accessibility network module significance. Cell type and stage—a linear model was used to assess the variation of module eigengene values across all cell types and developmental stages. P values were extracted using ANOVA. Astrocyte—a two-sided Wilcoxon rank-sum test was performed for a two-group comparison of module eigengene values between astrocytes and all other cell types. Astrocyte stage—a Spearman correlation coefficient was used to assess the effect of developmental stage within the astrocyte samples. PCA, principal component analysis; OPCs, oligodendrocyte precursor cells; hCS, human cortical spheroids; C0, cluster 0; C1, cluster 1; ANOVA, analysis of variance. > > Source data Taken together, this picture of Alzheimer’s disease is profoundly awkward for creationism. The condition does not arise from a single failure, but from the interaction of many individually necessary components — proteins, regulatory DNA, glial cells, immune responses, and ageing processes — all functioning exactly as designed, yet collectively producing catastrophic breakdown. This is not design gone wrong; it is design that fails because it works as intended. The role of non-coding regulatory DNA is especially damaging to creationist claims. What was once dismissed as “junk” is now known to be essential to gene regulation, yet it also introduces layers of fragility and error-prone complexity. These regulatory switches do not merely permit disease when damaged; in Alzheimer’s they actively participate in the pathological process. A system in which normal gene control mechanisms are an indispensable part of degenerative disease is indistinguishable from an evolved system shaped by historical constraints, trade-offs, and accumulated compromises. For those creationists who understand the science, this leaves no refuge in slogans like “irreducible complexity” or “functional information”. Alzheimer’s is irreducibly complex in exactly the wrong way: remove any element and the disease does not occur, yet include them all and the system self-destructs. That is not evidence of foresight or optimisation, but of **blind tinkering**, the hallmark of evolutionary history. For those creationists who insist that irreducible complexity is evidenc of intelligent desgign, the conclusion is inescapable - the designer of Alzheimers is malevolent. In short, Alzheimer’s disease exemplifies what biology looks like when it has not been intelligently designed, but incrementally patched together over deep time. If creationists genuinely understood how this disease arises — and why it cannot be simplified without eliminating normal brain function — it would represent not just an embarrassment for their superstition, but a decisive refutation of it. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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Life in the Paja ecosystem AI-generate image (ChatGPT5.2) Illustration of some of the apex predators in the Paja Formation biota with a human for scale. Image by Artwork by Guillermo Torres, Hace Tiempo, Instituto von Humboldt. Apex predators in prehistoric Colombian oceans would have snacked on killer whales today: McGill study | Newsroom - McGill University Two researchers at McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada, have uncovered evidence of an ecosystem teeming with giant marine predators some 130 million years ago. The largest of these predators could, quite literally, have eaten something the size of a modern orca as little more than a snack. This will make depressing reading for creationists, not only because it all happened deep in the long pre-“Creation Week” history of life on Earth, but because the evolutionary arms races that led to these giants are precisely what the theory of evolution by natural selection predicts. The two researchers, Dirley Cortés and Professor Hans C. E. Larsson, have just published their findings, open access, in the _Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society_. It doesn’t get any easier for creationists. Just because it’s Christmas week doesn’t mean the awkward facts are going to go away, or that scientists are going to stop uncovering more of them. No matter what they post on social media; no matter how loudly they shout; or how fervently they gather on Sundays to collectively drown out their doubts, Santa is not going to deliver evidence that the Bronze Age creation myths in the Bible contain even a grain of historical truth. The problem is that truth remains true whether a creationist believes it or not, and regardless of whether their parents believed it. No amount of looking the other way or pretending the facts aren’t there will ever change that. The palaeontologists reached their conclusions by reconstructing an ecosystem network for all known animal fossils from the Paja Formation in central Colombia. They used body sizes, feeding adaptations, and comparisons with modern animals, and then validated the results against one of the most detailed present-day marine ecosystem networks available: the living Caribbean ecosystem, which they used as a reference. The Paja ecosystem thrived with plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and abundant invertebrates, giving rise to one of the most intricate marine food webs known. This complexity emerged as sea levels rose and Earth’s climate warmed during the Mesozoic era, including the Cretaceous, triggering an explosion of marine biodiversity. > Background^ The Paja Ecosystem (Colombia). The **Paja Formation** is a Lower Cretaceous geological formation exposed in central Colombia, particularly within the Eastern Cordillera. It represents a **shallow to moderately deep marine environment** that existed along the northern margin of South America when the region was covered by warm epicontinental seas. > > The Paja ecosystem flourished during the **Early Cretaceous** , roughly **130–115 million years ago** , spanning the **Barremian to early Aptian stages**. At the time, rising sea levels and a greenhouse climate created conditions highly favourable to marine life, leading to complex and productive food webs. Fossils recovered from the Paja Formation include an exceptionally rich assemblage of **marine reptiles** , notably large **plesiosaurs** and **ichthyosaurs** , alongside sharks, bony fishes, ammonites, belemnites, crustaceans, and other invertebrates. The presence of multiple large apex predators indicates a well-structured ecosystem with sufficient primary productivity to support high trophic levels—something only stable, long-lived marine systems can achieve. > > > > * * * > > > How the Paja Formation Is Dated > > The age of the Paja Formation is established using several **independent and mutually reinforcing dating methods** , rather than relying on a single technique: > > * **Biostratigraphy** > The primary dating method uses **index fossils** , especially ammonites, which evolved rapidly and had wide geographic distributions. Specific ammonite species found within the Paja Formation correspond closely to well-dated Barremian and Aptian stages elsewhere in the world. > * **Lithostratigraphic correlation** > The rock layers of the Paja Formation can be matched with contemporaneous marine deposits in other parts of South America and globally, based on sediment type, layering, and fossil content. > * **Radiometric dating of associated volcanic material** > While the Paja Formation itself is largely sedimentary, nearby volcanic ash layers and igneous intrusions of known age help constrain the timing of deposition through radiometric methods such as uranium–lead and argon–argon dating. > * **Chemostratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental markers** > Global geochemical signals—such as carbon isotope excursions associated with Early Cretaceous oceanic anoxic events—provide additional chronological anchors that align the Paja deposits with well-dated global climate events. > Together, these methods place the Paja ecosystem firmly within the Early Cretaceous, long before the appearance of modern marine mammals and vastly predating any human history. More details of the study are given in a McGill University news item. > Apex predators in prehistoric Colombian oceans would have snacked on killer whales today: McGill study > > * * * > > Researchers uncovered a prehistoric ecosystem teeming with giant marine reptiles, uncovering unmatched food web complexity > > * * * > > Predators at the top of a marine food chain 130 million years ago ruled with more power than any modern species, McGill research into a marine ecosystem from the Cretaceous period revealed. > > The study, published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, reconstructs the ecosystem of Colombia’s Paja Formation, and finds it was teeming with marine reptiles reaching over 10 metres in length that inhabited a seventh trophic level. > > Trophic levels are the layers or ranks within a food chain that describe the roles organisms play in an ecosystem based on their source of energy and nutrients. Essentially, they help define who eats whom in an ecosystem. Today’s marine trophic levels cap at six, with creatures like killer whales and great white sharks. > > The discovery of giant marine reptile apex predators occupying a seventh trophic level underscores the Paja ecosystem’s unmatched diversity and complexity, offering a rare view into an evolutionary arms race among predators and prey. > > In their study, McGill researchers reconstructed an ancient ecosystem network for all known animal fossils in a single geological formation in central Colombia. This network was constructed using body sizes, feeding adaptations and analogues to animals living today. They also checked their network against one of the most detailed present-day marine ecosystem networks, based on living Caribbean ecosystems, which they had used as a reference. > > The Mesozoic era, which included the Cretaceous period, was marked by rising sea levels and warmer climates, leading to an explosion of biodiversity in marine life. The Paja ecosystem thrived with plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, and abundant invertebrates, giving rise to one of history’s most intricate marine food webs. > > > Our study is the first to examine these possible ecological interactions. Understanding this complexity helps us trace how ecosystems evolve over time, shedding light on the structures that support today’s biodiversity. > > Dirley Cortés, lead author. > Redpath Museum, Biology Department > McGill University > Montréal, Québec, Canada. > > > > > These findings illuminate how marine ecosystems developed through intense trophic competition and shaped the diversity we see today. > > Professor Hans Larsson, co-author. > Redpath Museum, Biology Department > McGill University > Montréal, Québec, Canada. > > > This research is just the beginning, the researchers said, as few fossil ecosystems have had their food webs reconstructed. There is potential for new comparisons across time and space, advancing our understanding of ancient marine life and its impact on today’s oceans. > > Publication: > >> [Dirley Cortés, Hans C E Larsson > **Top of the food chains: an ecological network of the marine Paja Formation biota from the Early Cretaceous of Colombia reveals the highest trophic levels ever estimated** > _Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society_ , **202**(1), September 2024, zlad092, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad092](https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/202/1/zlad092/7275647?login=false) > > > Show details > Abstract > The Mesozoic Marine Revolution restructured the world’s ocean biodiversity into the complex marine ecosystems of today. This revolution began during the Triassic but the origin of this complexity is poorly understood due to a lack of detailed ecosystem reconstructions throughout time. We present the first site-specific ecological network for a marine Mesozoic fauna based on the Early Cretaceous Paja Formation biota of Colombia that preserves numerous, large-bodied, predatory marine reptiles. The trophic food-web was quantitatively reconstructed based on inferred trophic interactions of marine producers, consumers, and large apex predators. Compared to well-studied Caribbean reef ecosystem networks, the Paja biota network is missing a great proportion of benthic invertebrates and fishes, despite its rich higher trophic levels. We hypothesize that the ammonites from the Paja biota either mirrored the diversity represented by some fishes today or established a novel trophic unit with no living analogue. Recalibrating the Paja biota network to trophic analogues in the Caribbean, such as sea turtles, estimates that the largest Paja marine reptile hyper-apex predators occupied trophic levels a full tier higher than any extant marine apex predator. The Paja biota network is a starting point to tracing the evolution of marine ecosystems across the Mesozoic Marine Revolution. > > > > > > [Dirley Cortés, Hans C E Larsson > **Top of the food chains: an ecological network of the marine Paja Formation biota from the Early Cretaceous of Colombia reveals the highest trophic levels ever estimated** > _Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society_ , **202**(1), September 2024, zlad092, https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad092](https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article/202/1/zlad092/7275647?login=false) > > Copyright: © 2025 The Linnean Society of London > Published by Oxford University Press. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) Studies like this are not isolated curiosities, nor are they awkward anomalies that can be brushed aside with a shrug. They are part of a vast and internally consistent body of evidence showing how ecosystems emerge, diversify, and stabilise over immense spans of geological time. The Paja marine ecosystem was not a chaotic free-for-all, but a structured, energy-rich system capable of supporting multiple layers of large apex predators—exactly what evolutionary theory predicts when ecological opportunity and time are allowed to do their work. For those prepared to engage with the evidence, this research offers a glimpse into a long-vanished world whose complexity rivals that of modern oceans. For those who insist that the Earth’s history must fit inside a few thousand years and a literalist reading of ancient myth, it presents yet another immovable problem. Fossils do not negotiate, rock layers do not lie, and nature does not bend to theology. The Paja ecosystem existed, it evolved, and it left a record that we can still read today—whether or not anyone is comfortable with what it says. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

World’s Earliest Botanical Art Discovered By HUJI Archeologists, and Evidence of Prehistoric Mathematical Thinking - The Canadian Friends of Hebrew University Geometric and mathematical patterns on Halafian pottery. Scientists have once again — almost certainly unintentionally — produced evidence that the Bible is profoundly wrong about human history. This time it comes in the form of pottery shards dating back more than 8,000 years to the Halafian culture of northern Mesopotamia (c. 6200–5500 BCE). These artefacts show that people were not only producing sophisticated ceramics, but were decorating them with complex mathematical patterns long before the formal invention of numbers and counting systems. The findings of the archaeologists, Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Sarah Krulwich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, are published, open access, in the _Journal of World Prehistory_. According to the biblical account of global history, Earth was subjected to a catastrophic genocidal reset, inflicted in a fit of pique by a vengeful god who had failed to anticipate how his creation would turn out. Rather than simply eliminating humanity and starting again with a corrected design, this deity allegedly chose to preserve the same flawed model in a wooden boat while drowning everything else beneath a flood so deep it covered the highest mountains. The implicit hope appears to have been that repeating the experiment would somehow yield a different result. As implausible as that story already is, we now possess a vast body of archaeological and palaeontological evidence showing not only that Earth is vastly older than the biblical narrative allows, but that this supposed catastrophic reset never occurred. The latter is demonstrated by the existence of civilisations that predate the alleged flood and continue uninterrupted through it, as though it never happened at all. Their material remains include artefacts that would have been completely destroyed or displaced by such a deluge, and settlement sites that show no sign of burial beneath a chaotic, fossil-bearing sedimentary layer containing mixed local and foreign species. No such global layer exists. Instead, human artefacts are found precisely where they were made and used, unaffected by any mythical torrent scouring the planet clean. The designs on the Halafian pottery themselves are particularly revealing. They include repeating patterns — for example, binary progressions such as 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 — suggesting that this culture possessed systematic ways of dividing land or goods to ensure equitable distribution. > The Halafian Culture. > > > > Map of the Halaf, early Ubaid culture, J-ware, and Halaf related cultures. > > The **Halafian (Halaf) culture** was a Neolithic culture that flourished in **northern Mesopotamia** between roughly **6200 and 5500 BCE** , spanning parts of what are now **northern Iraq, north-eastern Syria, and south-eastern Turkey**. It is best known for its striking painted pottery, but archaeologically it represents a much broader and surprisingly sophisticated way of life. > > * * * > > > **Chronology and context** > > * **Period:** Late Neolithic (Pottery Neolithic) > * **Preceded by:** Hassuna and Samarra cultures (regionally) > * **Succeeded by:** Ubaid culture > * The transition into Ubaid appears **gradual rather than catastrophic*** *, with continuity at many sites. > This alone is significant, as it contradicts any notion of a region-wide cultural collapse during this period. > > > > * * * > > > **Settlement and architecture** > > * Settlements were generally **small villages** , often consisting of a few dozen structures. > * A distinctive architectural feature is the **tholos** : circular, domed buildings sometimes attached to rectangular antechambers. > * Tholoi are interpreted variously as **dwellings, storage buildings, or communal/ritual structures**. > The architectural uniformity across a wide area suggests shared traditions and communication between communities. > > > > * * * > > > **Economy and subsistence** > > The Halafians practised a **mixed subsistence economy** : > > * **Agriculture:** Emmer wheat, barley, and legumes > * **Animal husbandry:** Sheep and goats (with cattle present but less dominant) > * **Supplementary hunting and gathering** > This was a **stable, long-term economy** , not an experimental or short-lived phase. > > > > * * * > > > **Pottery and material culture** > > Halaf pottery is among the most accomplished ceramics of the Neolithic world: > > * **Thin-walled, well-fired pottery** , often made on slow wheels or turntables > * Painted in **red, brown, and black** on light backgrounds > * Designs include: > * Geometric patterns (chevrons, spirals, cross-hatching) > * Repeating sequences and symmetrical motifs > * Occasional stylised plants and animals > The precision and repetition strongly imply **planning, abstraction, and formal pattern systems** , even in the absence of writing or numerals. > > Other artefacts include: > > * Stone tools (sickles, scrapers) > * Clay figurines (often interpreted cautiously as symbolic or ritual objects) > * Stamp seals, suggesting **ownership, storage control, or trade administration** > > > * * * > > > **Trade and connectivity** > > Halafian communities were **not isolated** : > > * Obsidian sourced from Anatolia > * Marine shells transported far inland > * Pottery styles remarkably consistent across hundreds of kilometres > This indicates **long-distance exchange networks** and shared cultural norms across northern Mesopotamia. > > > > * * * > > > **Social organisation** > > There is little evidence for rigid hierarchy: > > * Houses are broadly similar in size > * No clear elite burials or monumental architecture > * Wealth appears **relatively evenly distributed** > Most archaeologists interpret Halaf society as **largely egalitarian** , with social cohesion maintained through shared traditions rather than coercive authority. > > > > * * * > > > **Symbolism and cognition** > > While there is no writing, the Halafians clearly engaged in **symbolic thought** : > > * Repetitive geometric design > * Standardised motifs across regions > * Early use of seals > * Deliberate aesthetic choices beyond mere utility > This places them firmly within the trajectory of **abstract reasoning and proto-mathematical thinking** , well before formal accounting systems. > > > > * * * > > > **Why the Halaf culture matters** > > The Halafian culture demonstrates that: > > * Complex symbolic behaviour predates writing by millennia > * Stable agricultural societies existed long before biblical chronologies allow > * Cultural continuity was the norm, not repeated catastrophic resets > * Human cognitive sophistication emerged **gradually and naturally** , not suddenly or divinely imposed > In short, the Halafians represent a quietly devastating problem for literalist views of early human history: they were settled, skilled, connected, and intellectually capable — and they were doing all of this **thousands of years before Genesis would permit them to exist at all**. > The findings of Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Sarah Krulwich are summarised in a Hebrew University of Jerusalem news release. > World’s Earliest Botanical Art Discovered By HUJI Archeologists, and Evidence of Prehistoric Mathematical Thinking > > * * * > > A new study reveals that the Halafian culture of northern Mesopotamia (c. 6200–5500 BCE) produced the earliest systematic plant imagery in prehistoric art, flowers, shrubs, branches, and trees painted on fine pottery, arranged with precise symmetry and numerical sequences, especially petal and flower counts of 4, 8, 16, 32, and 64. This suggests that early farming villages in the Near East already possessed sophisticated, practical mathematical thinking about dividing space and quantities, likely tied to everyday needs such as fairly sharing crops from collectively worked fields, long before writing or formal number systems existed. > > * * * > > A new study published in the Journal of World Prehistory reveals that some of humanity’s earliest artistic representations of botanical figures were far more than decorative, they were mathematical. > > In an extensive analysis of ancient pottery, Prof. Yosef Garfinkel and Sarah Krulwich of the Hebrew University have identified the earliest systematic depictions of vegetal motifs in human history, dating back over 8,000 years to the Halafian culture of northern Mesopotamia (c. 6200–5500 BCE). Their research shows that these early agricultural communities painted flowers, shrubs, branches, and trees with remarkable care, and embedded within them evidence of complex geometric and arithmetic thinking. > > A New Understanding of Prehistoric Art > > Earlier prehistoric art focused primarily on humans and animals. Halafian pottery, however, marks the moment when the plant world entered human artistic expression in a systematic and visually sophisticated way. > > Across 29 archaeological sites, Garfinkel and Krulwich documented hundreds of carefully rendered vegetal motifs, some naturalistic, others abstract, all reflecting conscious artistic choice. > > “These vessels represent the first moment in history when people chose to portray the botanical world as a subject worthy of artistic attention,” the authors note. “It reflects a cognitive shift tied to village life and a growing awareness of symmetry and aesthetics.” > > Among the study’s most striking insights is the precise numerical patterning in Halafian floral designs. Many bowls feature flowers with petal counts that follow geometric progression: 4, 8, 16, 32, and even arrangements of 64 flowers. > > > > A meticulously executed drawing of a single large flower, depicted in a symmetrical arrangement with 16 or 32 petals, and a bowl with 64 (+ 12) flowers > > These sequences, the researchers argue, are intentional and demonstrate a sophisticated grasp of spatial division long before the appearance of written numbers. > > > The ability to divide space evenly, reflected in these floral motifs, likely had practical roots in daily life, such as sharing harvests or allocating communal fields. > > Professor Yosef Garfinkel, senior author > Institute of Archaeology > The Hebrew University of Jerusalem > Jerusalem, Israel. > > > This work contributes to the field of ethnomathematics, which identifies mathematical knowledge embedded in cultural expression. > > The motifs documented span the full botanical spectrum: > > * Flowers with meticulously balanced petals > * Seedlings and shrubs, rendered with botanical clarity > * Branches, arranged in rhythmic, repeating bands > * Tall, imposing trees, sometimes shown alongside animals or architecture > Notably, none of the images depict edible crops, suggesting that the purpose was aesthetic rather than agricultural or ritualistic. Flowers, the authors note, are associated with positive emotional responses, which may explain their prominence. > > Revising the History of Mathematics > > While written mathematical texts appear millennia later in Sumer, Halafian pottery reveals an earlier, intuitive form of mathematical reasoning, rooted in symmetry, repetition, and geometric organization. > > > These patterns show that mathematical thinking began long before writing. People visualized divisions, sequences, and balance through their art. > > Sarah Krulwich, co-author > Institute of Archaeology > The Hebrew University of Jerusalem > Jerusalem, Israel. > > > > > > > Small flowers with four petals in various compositions > > By cataloguing these vegetal motifs and revealing their mathematical foundations, the study offers a new perspective on how early communities understood the natural world, organized their environments, and expressed cognitive complexity. > > > > > > Small flowers with four petals in various compositions > > Publication: > >> [Garfinkel, Y., Krulwich, S. > **The Earliest Vegetal Motifs in Prehistoric Art: Painted Halafian Pottery of Mesopotamia and Prehistoric Mathematical Thinking.** > _J World Prehist_ **38** , 14 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-025-09200-9](https://rdcu.be/eVnec) > > > Show details > Abstract > The earliest systematic depictions of vegetal motifs in prehistoric art appear on painted pottery vessels of the Halafian culture of northern Mesopotamia, c. 6200–5500 BC. The motifs are varied, representing flowers, shrubs, branches and trees. The first part of our analysis deals with four major questions. What was chosen to be depicted? How common were the vegetal motifs? What was the distribution of these motifs? And why were vegetal motifs introduced in this particular era? The second part of the analysis deals with the Halafian skills of symmetry and precise division of space. The depictions of flower petals in the geometric sequence of the numbers 4, 8, 16 and 32, as well as 64 flowers in another type of arrangement, point to arithmetical knowledge. We argue that in the early village communities of the Near East the ability to make precise divisions was relevant to various needs, such as equal sharing of crops from fields that were collectively cultivated by a number of families, or the whole village. > > Introduction: Vegetal Motifs in Prehistoric Art > The topic of prehistoric mathematics seems at first glance to be beyond the borders of knowledgeability. Without written evidence it is difficult to assess the degree of the mathematical abilities possessed by prehistoric communities, how this knowledge was used and for what purposes. In this article we argue that the vegetal decoration of Halafian pottery vessels enables some understanding of these aspects. > > The earliest artistic expressions of the European Upper Paleolithic era (c. 40,000–10,000 BC), which were both depicted on walls of caves and engraved on small portable objects, focused on anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures. A few depictions were understood by Marshack as vegetal motifs (1991, figs. 65a, 66b, 67b, 94a, 105, 187), but Paul Pettitt (personal communication) debated this interpretation and argued that most of these depictions represent spears. > > In the Near East only a few Upper Paleolithic artistic expressions have been found. They include two small plaques, one depicting a horse and the other part of an anthropomorphic figure and a schematic animal (Belfer-Cohen & Bar-Yosef, 1981, fig. 8; Belfer-Cohen & Bar-Yosef, 2009, p. 26). Later, around 14,000 BC in the Natufian culture of the Epi-Paleolithic era, there is an increase in the number of artistic expressions (Grosman et al., 2017; Rollefson, 2008; Yizraeli-Noy, 1999). In the Neolithic era (c. 9000–6000 BC), zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures appear in large quantities and in almost every site (Garfinkel et al., 2010; Rollefson, 2008; Schmandt-Besserat, 2013; Yizraeli-Noy, 1999). However, to the best of our knowledge, vegetal motifs were introduced only around 6200 BC in the Halafian culture of north Mesopotamia, and were already depicted in a rather impressive manner. > > The lack of vegetal motifs is rather surprising, since plants have always been extensively exploited by humans. Ethnographic observations on hunter-gatherer societies indicate that plants supply most of the human intake of calories. An association of plants with human symbolic behavior has been suggested for the Middle Paleolithic Neanderthal burials of Shanidar, but this suggestion has proved problematic (Sommer, 1999.1). A clear association of this kind, however, has been observed in burials of the Natufian culture at Raqefet Cave, Mt. Carmel, Israel, where plants and flowers were used to line graves (Nadel et al., 2013.1). > > With the beginning of agriculture in the Near East in the Neolithic period, plant cultivation was essential to the economy, and yet plants were not depicted by these communities. The only possible symbolic connection suggested so far is the introduction of green beads, reflecting the desired color of cultivated fields (Bar-Yosef Mayer & Porat, 2008.1). The earliest depictions of vegetal motifs in the Near East are evident in the Halafian culture (Fig. 1), which flourished in northern Mesopotamia and the northern Levant from c. 6200 to 5500 BC (Akkermans, 2000; Gómez-Bach et al., 2016; Campbell, 2007; Watson, 1983a). The pottery of this culture, which is characterized by its high quality, elaborate shapes and outstandingly meticulous painting, is one of the peaks of ancient Near Eastern pottery in its aesthetics and craftsmanship (Davidson & McKerrell, 1976; İpek, 2019; LeBlanc & Watson, 1973; Nieuwenhuyse, 2007.1; Von Wickede, 1986). Previous studies of Halafian painted pottery have focused on aspects like the typology, production centers and geographical distribution of the motifs. Although scholars have sometimes noted vegetal motifs (Mallowan, 1936, fig. 27:14–16; Mallowan & Cruikshank Rose, 1935, figs. 77:7, 10, 17, & 78:11; Nieuwenhuyse, 2007.2, pp. 350–351, nos. 241, 249, 957, 263; Watson, 1983b, fig. 206:15–16, 26, 30), or motifs that we interpret as vegetal, none of these analyses has focused entirely on this phenomenon. Moreover, it was not recognized that this is the earliest appearance of vegetal motifs in Near Eastern symbolic expression. > > > Fig. 1 > > > > Map of the Near East showing the location of the Halafian sites examined in the research. > > The analysis of Halafian vegetal motifs presented here will attempt to answer four questions: > > > 1. What was chosen to be depicted? This aspect involves iconographic analysis of the vegetal motifs. > 2. How common are the vegetal motifs within Halafian painted pottery? > 3. Were these motifs distributed in restricted regions or over the entire Halafian territory? Did vegetal motifs spread into neighboring regions, such as eastern Mesopotamia or the southern Levant? > 4. Why were vegetal motifs introduced into human artistic expression in this particular era? Are there other developments in the Halafian culture that can be connected to the introduction of vegetal motifs? > Halafian Vegetal Motifs: Methodological Aspects > > The data presented in our analysis derives from 29 Halafian sites and a regional survey in the Şirnak region. For some sites detailed book-length final excavation reports have been published, while others are represented only by short preliminary accounts. Together they present several tens of thousands of painted pottery sherds. The painted pottery bears various motifs, mainly geometric patterns but depictions of animals, human figures and plants as well. In each site only a small number of sherds were decorated with vegetal motifs, which have consequently received little attention in the research. It is only when the relevant data from the various reports is combined that the outstanding importance of the vegetal motifs becomes apparent. > > > > Fig. 2 > > > > The classification of the vegetal motifs into four basic categories: 1–2 flowers, 3–4 shrubs, 5–6 branches, 7–8 trees > > * * * > > Fig. 3 > > > > Seasonal short-leaved plants with two leaves, a tall stalk and a flower: 1. Yarim Tepe II (Merpert & Munchaev, 1987, fig. 15:9), 2. Yarim Tepe II (Merpert & Munchaev, 1987, fig. 8.25:6), 3. Arpachiyah (Hijara, 1997, pl. XXXV:243), 4. Yarim Tepe II (Merpert & Munchaev, 1987, fig. 15:1), 5. Yarim Tepe II (Merpert & Munchaev, 1987, fig. 15:4), 6. Arpachiyah (Mallowan & Cruikshank Rose, 1935, fig. 77:17), 7. Şirnak Valley (Erdalkιran, 2008, fig. 4:28), 8. Chagar Bazar (Mallowan, 1936, fig. 27:14), 9. Arpachiyah (Mallowan & Cruikshank Rose, 1935, fig. 20), 10. Chagar Bazar (Gómez-Bach et al., 2016, fig. 4) > > * * * > > Fig. 4 > > > > Small flowers with four petals inside black squares of a checkerboard pattern: 1. Tell Halula (Cruells, 2013.2, fig. 14:1860), 2. Tell Amarna (Cruells, 2004, fig. 5.12:10,577), 3. Arpachiyah (Hijara, 1997, fig. 82:5), 4. Arpachiyah (Mallowan & Cruikshank Rose, 1935, fig. 66:6), 5. Arpachiyah (Mallowan & Cruikshank Rose, 1935, fig. 66:7), 6. Tell Halaf (Von Oppenheim, 1943, pl. LXXV:2) > > * * * > > Fig. 5 > > > > Small flowers with four petals in various compositions: 1. Tell Halaf (Von Oppenheim, 1943, pl. XCIII:6), 2. Chagar Bazar (Mallowan, 1936, pl. II:6), 3. Ugarit (De Contenson, 1992, fig. 191:1), 4. Ugarit (De Contenson, 1992, fig. 212:8), 5. Chagar Bazar (Mallowan, 1936, pl. II:8), 6. Arpachiyah (Mallowan & Cruikshank Rose, 1935, fig. 60:3), 7. Tell Halaf (Von Oppenheim, 1943, pl. LI:7), 8. Tell Halaf (Von Oppenheim, 1943, pl. LI:8), 9. Tell Halaf (Von Oppenheim, 1943, pl. LI:10), 10. Tell Halaf (Von Oppenheim, 1943, pl. LI:4) > > * * * > > Fig. 6 > > > > A meticulously executed drawing of a single large flower, depicted in a symmetrical arrangement with four or eight petals: 1. Tepe Gawra (Tobler, 1950, pl. CXI:17), 2. Tepe Gawra (Tobler, 1950, pl. CXII:20), 3. Arpachiyah (Mallowan & Cruikshank Rose, 1935, fig. 61.2), 4. Tepe Gawra (Tobler, 1950, pl. CXI:16), 5. Chagar Bazar (Mallowan, 1936, pl. II:7), 6. Tell Bagum (Hijara, 1997, pl. XCII:3), 7. Arpachiyah (Hijara, 1997, pl. LXV:441), 8. Yarim Tepe II (Merpert & Munchaev, 1987, fig. 11:7) > > [Garfinkel, Y., Krulwich, S. > **The Earliest Vegetal Motifs in Prehistoric Art: Painted Halafian Pottery of Mesopotamia and Prehistoric Mathematical Thinking.** > _J World Prehist_ **38** , 14 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-025-09200-9](https://rdcu.be/eVnec) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) Taken together, the Halafian material leaves no room for the biblical narrative to manoeuvre. By the late seventh millennium BCE, people in northern Mesopotamia were living in stable, long-established farming communities, producing finely crafted pottery and employing abstract, repeatable pattern systems that reflect structured thought and social organisation. This is not the archaeological footprint of a world recently rebooted after a planetary catastrophe, but of a culture with deep roots and a long, uninterrupted history. If the biblical flood had occurred as described, Halafian settlements should show clear signs of abrupt destruction, displacement, or burial beneath chaotic flood deposits. Instead, the archaeological record shows continuity — gradual change in pottery styles, architecture, and subsistence strategies, with no evidence of a sudden, universal break. The artefacts remain exactly where they were made and used, and the landscape preserves no trace of a global inundation. The Halafian culture therefore joins a long list of civilisations that simply should not exist if the Bible were even approximately correct about early human history. Their pottery, settlements, and symbolic behaviour stand as quiet but decisive testimony against a literal reading of Genesis. Once again, the evidence does not need to argue — it merely exists, and in doing so renders the biblical narrative untenable. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Photo montage of five major elements of DAN5 fossil cranium Credit: Dr. Michael Rogers Map showing potential migration routes of the human ancestor, Homo erectus, in Africa, Europe and Asia during the early Pleistocene. Key fossils of Homo erectus and the earlier Homo habilis species are shown, including the new face reconstruction of the DAN5 fossil from Gona, Ethiopia dated to 1.5 million years ago. Credit: Dr. Karen L. Baab. Scans provided by National Museum of Ethiopia, National Museums of Kenya and Georgian National Museum. A new fossil face sheds light on early migrations of ancient human ancestor | EurekAlert! Palaeontologists at the College of Graduate Studies, Glendale Campus of Midwestern University in Arizona, have reconstructed the head and face of an early _Homo erectus_ specimen, DAN5, from Gona in the Afar region of Ethiopia on the Horn of Africa. In doing so, they have uncovered several unexpected features that should trouble any creationist who understands their significance. The research has just been published open access in _Nature Communications_. Creationism requires its adherents to imagine that there are no intermediate fossils showing a transition from the common _Homo_ /_Pan_ ancestor to modern _Homo sapiens_ , whom they claim were created as a single couple just a few thousand years ago with a flawless genome designed by an omniscient, omnipotent creator. The descendants of such a couple would, of course, show no genetic variation, because both the perfect genome and its replication machinery would operate flawlessly. No gene variants could ever arise. The reality, however, is very different. Not only are there vast numbers of fossils documenting a continuum from the common _Homo_ /_Pan_ ancestor of around six million years ago, but there is also so much variation among them that it has become increasingly difficult to force them into a simple, linear sequence. Instead, human evolution is beginning to resemble a tangled bush rather than a neat progression. The newly reconstructed face of the Ethiopian _Homo erectus_ is no exception. It displays a mosaic of more primitive facial traits alongside features characteristic of the _H. erectus_ populations believed to have spread out of Africa in the first of several waves of hominin migration into Eurasia. The most plausible explanation is that the Ethiopian population descended from an earlier expansion within Africa, became isolated in the Afar region, and retained its primitive characteristics while other populations continued to evolve towards the more derived Eurasian form. The broader picture that has emerged in recent years—particularly since it became clear that _H. sapiens_ , Neanderthals, and Denisovans formed an interbreeding complex that contributed to modern non-African humans—is one of repeated expansion into new environments, evolution in isolation, and subsequent genetic remixing as populations came back into contact. DAN5 represents just one of these populations, which appears to have evolved in isolation for some 300,000 years. Not only is this timescale utterly incompatible with the idea of the special creation of _H. sapiens_ 6,000–10,000 years ago, but the sheer existence of this degree of variation is also irreconcilable with the notion of a flawless, designed human genome. Even allowing for old-earth creationist claims that a biblical “day” may represent an elastic number of millions of years, the problem remains: a highly variable genome must still be explained as the product of perfect design. A flawless genome created by an omniscient, omnipotent creator should, moreover, have been robust enough to withstand interference following “the Fall” — an event such a creator would necessarily have foreseen, particularly if it also created the conditions for that fall and the other creative agency involved (Isaiah 45:7). As usual, creationists seem to prefer the conclusion that their supposed intelligent creator was incompetent—either unaware of the future, indifferent to it, or powerless to prevent it—rather than accept the far more parsimonious explanation: that modern _Homo sapiens_ are the product of a long, complex evolutionary history from more primitive beginnings, in which no divine intervention is required. > Origins of _Homo erectus_ > > > > _Homo erectus_ > > _Homo erectus_ appears in the fossil record around **1.9–2.0 million years ago** , emerging from earlier African _Homo_ populations, most likely **derived from _Homo habilis_ –like ancestors**. Many researchers distinguish early African forms as **_Homo ergaster_** , reserving _H. erectus_ sensu stricto for later Asian populations, although this is a taxonomic preference rather than a settled fact. > > Key features of early _H. erectus_ include: > > * A substantial increase in **brain size** (typically 600–900 cm³ initially, later exceeding 1,000 cm³) > * A **long, low cranial vault** with pronounced brow ridges > * A **modern human–like body plan** , with long legs and shorter arms > * Clear association with **Acheulean stone tools** and likely habitual fire use (by ~1 million years ago) > Crucially, _H. erectus_ was the **first hominin to disperse widely beyond Africa** , reaching: > > * The Caucasus (Dmanisi) by ~1.8 Ma > * Southeast Asia (Java) by ~1.6 Ma > * China (Zhoukoudian) by ~0.8–0.7 Ma > This makes _H. erectus_ not a single, static species, but a **long-lived, geographically structured lineage**. > > > > * * * > > > **_Homo erectus_ as a population complex** > > Rather than a uniform species, _H. erectus_ is best understood as a **metapopulation** : > > * African populations > * Western Eurasian populations > * East and Southeast Asian populations > These groups experienced repeated **range expansions, isolation, local adaptation, and partial gene flow** , producing the mosaic anatomy seen in fossils such as DAN5. > > This population structure is critical for understanding later human evolution. > > > > * * * > > > **Relationship to later _Homo_ species** > > > > Neanderthal (_H. neanderthalensis_) > > From _H. erectus_ to _H. heidelbergensis_ > > By around **700–600 thousand years ago** , some _H. erectus_ -derived populations—probably in Africa—had evolved into forms often grouped as **_Homo heidelbergensis_** (or _H. rhodesiensis_ for African material). > > These hominins had: > > * Larger brains (1,100–1,300 cm³) > * Reduced facial prognathism > * Continued Acheulean and early Middle Stone Age technologies > They represent a **transitional grade** , not a sharp speciation event. > > > > * * * > > > **Divergence of Neanderthals, Denisovans, and modern humans** > > Genetic and fossil evidence indicates the following broad pattern: > > * **~550–600 ka** : A _heidelbergensis_ -like population splits > * **African branch → modern _Homo sapiens_** > * **Eurasian branch → Neanderthals and Denisovans** > Neanderthals > > * Evolved primarily in **western Eurasia** > * Adapted to cold climates > * Distinctive cranial morphology > * Contributed **~1–2% of DNA** to all non-African modern humans > Denisovans > > * Known mostly from **genetic data** , with sparse fossils (Denisova Cave) > * Closely related to Neanderthals but genetically distinct > * Contributed genes to **Melanesians, Aboriginal Australians, and parts of East and Southeast Asia** , including variants affecting altitude adaptation (e.g. EPAS1) > Modern _Homo sapiens_ > > * Emerged in Africa by **~300 ka** > * Retained genetic continuity with earlier African populations > * Dispersed out of Africa multiple times, beginning ~70–60 ka > * Interbred repeatedly with Neanderthals and Denisovans > > > * * * > > > **The key point: no clean branching tree** > > Human evolution is **reticulate** , not linear: > > * Species boundaries were porous > * Gene flow occurred repeatedly > * Populations diverged, adapted, re-merged, and diverged again > _Homo erectus_ is not a side branch that “went extinct”, but a **foundational grade** from which multiple later lineages emerged. DAN5 fits neatly into this framework: a locally isolated _erectus_ population retaining ancestral traits while others continued evolving elsewhere. > > > > * * * > > > **Why this matters** > > This picture: > > * Explains **mosaic anatomy** in fossils > * Accounts for **genetic admixture** in living humans > * Makes sense of long timescales and geographic diversity > * Is incompatible with any model of recent, perfect, single-pair creation > Instead, it shows that our species is the outcome of **millions of years of population dynamics** , not a single moment of design. The work of the Midwestern University researchers is summarised in a press release published by EurekAlert! > A new fossil face sheds light on early migrations of ancient human ancestor > > * * * > > A New Fossil Face Sheds Light on Early Migrations of Ancient Human Ancestor > > * * * > > A 1.5-million-year-old fossil from Gona, Ethiopia reveals new details about the first hominin species to disperse from Africa. Summary: Virtual reassembly of teeth and fossil bone fragments reveals a beautifully preserved face of a 1.5-million-year-old human ancestor—the first complete Early Pleistocene hominin cranium from the Horn of Africa. This fossil, from Gona, Ethiopia, hints at a surprisingly archaic face in the earliest human ancestors to migrate out of Africa. > > A team of international scientists, led by Dr. Karen Baab, a paleoanthropologist at the College of Graduate Studies, Glendale Campus of Midwestern University in Arizona, produced a virtual reconstruction of the face of early _Homo erectus_. The 1.5 to 1.6 million-year-old fossil, called DAN5, was found at the site of Gona, in the Afar region of Ethiopia. This surprisingly archaic face yields new insights into the first species to spread across Africa and Eurasia. The team’s findings are being published in Nature Communications. > > > We already knew that the DAN5 fossil had a small brain, but this new reconstruction shows that the face is also more primitive than classic African _Homo erectus_ of the same antiquity. One explanation is that the Gona population retained the anatomy of the population that originally migrated out of Africa approximately 300,000 years earlier. > > Dr. Karen L. Baab, lead author > Department of Anatomy > Midwestern University > Glendale, AZ, USA. > > > Gona, Ethiopia > > The Gona Paleoanthropological Research Project in the Afar of Ethiopia is co-directed by Dr. Sileshi Semaw (Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Spain) and Dr. Michael Rogers (Southern Connecticut State University). Gona has yielded hominin fossils that are older than 6.3 million years ago, and stone tools spanning the last 2.6 million years of human evolution. The newly presented hominin reconstruction includes a fossil brain case (previously described in 2020) and smaller fragments of the face belonging to a single individual called DAN5 dated to between 1.6 and 1.5 million years ago. The face fragments (and teeth) have now been reassembled using virtual techniques to generate the most complete skull of a fossil human from the Horn of Africa in this time period. The DAN5 fossil is assigned to _Homo erectus_ , a long-lived species found throughout Africa, Asia, and Europe after approximately 1.8 million years ago. > > How did the scientists reconstruct the DAN5 fossil? > > The researchers used high-resolution micro-CT scans of the four major fragments of the face, which were recovered during the 2000 fieldwork at Gona. 3D models of the fragments were generated from the CT scans. The face fragments were then re-pieced together on a computer screen, and the teeth were fit into the upper jaw where possible. The final step was “attaching” the face to the braincase to produce a mostly complete cranium. This reconstruction took about a year and went through several iterations before arriving at the final version. > > Dr. Baab, who was responsible for the reconstruction, described this as “a very complicated 3D puzzle, and one where you do not know the exact outcome in advance. Fortunately, we do know how faces fit together in general, so we were not starting from scratch.” > > What did scientists conclude? > > This new study shows that the Gona population 1.5 million years ago had a mix of typical _Homo erectus_ characters concentrated in its braincase, but more ancestral features of the face and teeth normally only seen in earlier species. For example, the bridge of the nose is quite flat, and the molars are large. Scientists determined this by comparing the size and shape of the DAN5 face and teeth with other fossils of the same geological age, as well as older and younger ones. A similar combination of traits was documented previously in Eurasia, but this is the first fossil to show this combination of traits inside Africa, challenging the idea that _Homo erectus_ evolved outside of the continent. > > > I'll never forget the shock I felt when Dr. Baab first showed me the reconstructed face and jaw. The oldest fossils belonging to _Homo erectus_ are from Africa, and the new fossil reconstruction shows that transitional fossils also existed there, so it makes sense that this species emerged on the African continent,” says Dr. Baab. “But the DAN5 fossil postdates the initial exit from Africa, so other interpretations are possible. > > Dr. Yousuke Kaifu, co-author > The University Museum > The University of Tokyo > Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, Japa. > > > > > This newly reconstructed cranium further emphasizes the anatomical diversity seen in early members of our genus, which is only likely to increase with future discoveries. > > Dr. Michael J. Rogers, co-author. > Department of Anthropology > Southern Connecticut State University > New Haven, CT, USA. > > > > > It is remarkable that the DAN5 _Homo erectus_ was making both simple Oldowan stone tools and early Acheulian handaxes, among the earliest evidence for the two stone tool traditions to be found directly associated with a hominin fossil. > > Dr. Sileshi Semaw, co-author > Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) > Burgos, Spain. > > > Future Research > > The researchers are hoping to compare this fossil to the earliest human fossils from Europe, including fossils assigned to _Homo erectus_ but also a distinct species, _Homo antecessor_ , both dated to approximately one million years ago. > > > Comparing DAN5 to these fossils will not only deepen our understanding of facial variability within _Homo erectus_ but also shed light on how the species adapted and evolved. > > Dr. Sarah E. Freidline, co-author > Department of Anthropology > University of Central Florida > Orlando, FL, USA. > > > There is also potential to test alternative evolutionary scenarios, such as genetic admixture between two species, as seen in later human evolution among Neanderthals, modern humans and “Denisovans.” For example, maybe DAN5 represents the result of admixture between classic African _Homo erectus_ and the earlier _Homo habilis_ species. > > > We’re going to need several more fossils dated between one to two million years ago to sort this out. > > Dr. Michael J. Rogers. > > > Publication: > >> [Baab, K.L., Kaifu, Y., Freidline, S.E. _et al_. > **New reconstruction of DAN5 cranium (Gona, Ethiopia) supports complex emergence of _Homo erectus_.** > _Nat Commun_ **16** , 10878 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66381-9](https://rdcu.be/eVjxy) > > > Show details > Abstract > The African Early Pleistocene is a time of evolutionary change and techno-behavioral innovation in human prehistory that sees the advent of our own genus, _Homo_ , from earlier australopithecine ancestors by 2.8-2.3 million years ago. This was followed by the origin and dispersal of _Homo erectus_ sensu lato across Africa and Eurasia between ~ 2.0 and 1.1 Ma and the emergence of both large-brained (e.g., Bodo, Kabwe) and small-brained (e.g., _H. naledi_) lineages in the Middle Pleistocene of Africa. Here we present a newly reconstructed face of the DAN5/P1 cranium from Gona, Ethiopia (1.6-1.5 Ma) that, in conjunction with the cranial vault, is a mostly complete Early Pleistocene _Homo_ cranium from the Horn of Africa. Morphometric analyses demonstrate a combination of _H. erectus_ -like cranial traits and basal _Homo_ -like facial and dental features combined with a small brain size in DAN5/P1. The presence of such a morphological mosaic contemporaneous with or postdating the emergence of the indisputable _H. erectus_ craniodental complex around 1.6 Ma implies an intricate evolutionary transition from early _Homo_ to _H. erectus_. This finding also supports a long persistence of small-brained, plesiomorphic _Homo_ group(s) alongside other _Homo_ groups that experienced continued encephalization through the Early to Middle Pleistocene of Africa. > > Introduction > The oldest fossils assigned to our genus are ~2.8 million years old (Myr) from Ethiopia and signal a long history of _Homo_ evolution in the Rift Valley1,2,3. There is evidence of multiple _Homo_ lineages in Africa by 2.0–1.9 million years ago (Ma) and an archaeological and paleontological record of expansion to more temperate habitats in the Caucasus and Asia between 2.0 and 1.8 Ma4 (Fig. 1). The last appearance datum for the more archaic _Homo habilis_ species (or “1813 group”) is ~1.67 (OH 13) or ~1.44 Ma, if KNM-ER 42703 is correctly attributed to _H. habilis_5, which is uncertain6. The archetypal early African _Homo erectus_ fossils from Kenya (i.e., KNM-ER 3733, 3883; and the adolescent KNM-WT 15000) already present a suite of traits that distinguish them from early _Homo_ taxa by 1.6–1.5 Ma, including larger brains and bodies, smaller postcanine dentition, more pronounced cranial superstructures (e.g., projecting and tall brow ridges), a relatively wide midface and nasal aperture, deep palate, and projecting nasal bridge1,6,7,8,9,10,11. The only evidence for _H. erectus_ sensu lato in Africa before 1.8 Ma are fragmentary or juvenile fossils12,13,14, while fossils expressing both ancestral _H. habilis_ and more derived _H. erectus_ s.l. morphological traits are only known from Dmanisi, Georgia at 1.77 Ma15,16. Thus, _H. erectus_ emerged from basal _Homo_ between 2.0 and 1.6 million years ago, but when, where (Africa or Eurasia), and how it occurred remain unclear. An expanded fossil record also documents significant variation in endocranial 17,18 and craniofacial6,8 and dentognathic morphology19,20 throughout the Early Pleistocene, which extends to the Middle Pleistocene with the addition of small-brained _Homo_ lineages to the human tree. > > Fig. 1: Early _Homo_ and _Homo erectus_ timeline between 2.0 and 1.0 Ma and map of key sites in Africa and southern Eurasia. > > > > The solid bars of the timeline indicate well-established first and last appearance data; the horizontal stripes indicate possible extensions of the time range based on fragmentary or juvenile fossils. Diagonal lines signal earlier archaeological presence in those regions. The question mark indicates a possible date of <1.49 Ma for the Mojokerto, Indonesia site cf.22,23,24,25. The horizontal gray bar represents the time range associated with DAN5/P1. Colors on the map indicate presence of fossils matching taxa or geographic groups of _H. erectus_ as indicated in the timeline. Surface renderings of the best-preserved regional representatives of archaic or small-brained _Homo_ fossils (beginning at top and continuing clockwise): D2700, KNM-ER 1813, KNM-ER 1470, KNM-ER 3733, SK 847, OH 24, KNM-WT 15000, and DAN5/P1. All surface renderings visualized at FOV 0° (parallel). Map was generated in “rnaturalearth” package68 for R. > > The initial announcement of DAN5/P1 assigned it to _H. erectus_ on the basis of derived neurocranial traits21. Subsequent analyses of neurocranial shape and endocranial morphology confirmed affinity with _H. erectus_ but also noted similarities to early (pre-_erectus_) _Homo_ fossils such as KNM-ER 181317,18. Only limited information about the partial maxilla and dentition was presented in the original description21. Yet, facial and dental traits are increasingly important in early _Homo_ systematics, given overlap in brain size among closely related hominins6,8,22. The DAN5/P1 fossil is a rare opportunity to evaluate neurocranial, facial, and dental anatomy in a single Early Pleistocene _Homo_ fossil and thus has significant implications for this discussion. > > Here we present a new cranial reconstruction of the 1.6–1.5 Myr DAN5/P1 fossil from Gona, Ethiopia. This study demonstrates that the small-brained adult DAN5/P1 fossil (598 cm3 21) presents a previously undocumented combination of early _Homo_ and _H. erectus_ features in an African fossil. > > > > [Baab, K.L., Kaifu, Y., Freidline, S.E. _et al_. > **New reconstruction of DAN5 cranium (Gona, Ethiopia) supports complex emergence of _Homo erectus_.** > _Nat Commun_ **16** , 10878 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66381-9](https://rdcu.be/eVjxy) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) Taken together, the evidence leaves little room for the idea that _Homo erectus_ was a dead-end curiosity, neatly replaced by something entirely new. Instead, it represents a long-lived, widely dispersed, and internally diverse population complex that provided the evolutionary substrate from which later human lineages emerged. Its descendants were not produced by sudden leaps or special creation events, but by the ordinary, observable processes of population divergence, isolation, and adaptation acting over deep time. Modern _Homo sapiens_ , Neanderthals, and Denisovans did not arise as separate “kinds”, nor did they follow clean, branching paths. They represent regional outcomes of this _erectus_ -derived heritage, shaped by geography, climate, and repeated episodes of contact and interbreeding. The genetic legacy of those interactions is still present in living humans today, providing independent confirmation of what the fossil record has long been indicating. What emerges is not a ladder of progress but a dynamic, reticulated history: populations spreading, fragmenting, evolving in isolation, and reconnecting again. Fossils such as DAN5 are not anomalies to be explained away; they are exactly what we should expect from evolution operating on structured populations across continents and hundreds of thousands of years. For creationism, this is deeply inconvenient. For evolutionary biology, it is precisely the kind of rich, internally consistent picture that arises when multiple independent lines of evidence converge on the same conclusion: humanity is the product of a long, complex evolutionary history, not a recent act of design. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! 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Genomic Maps Untangle the Complex Roots of Disease In another major embarrassment for those creationists who understand it, researchers at the Gladstone Institutes and Stanford University have developed a method for linking the genome of a cell to diseases caused by specific gene variants. They have recently published their findings, open access, in _Nature_. Creationists insist that the human genome was intelligently designed, with every outcome the result of “complex specified information” which, according to Discovery Institute Fellow William A. Dembski, constitutes definitive evidence of intelligent design. If this were true, it would follow that genes which cause disease were intelligently designed to cause those diseases. The difficulty deepens for creationists when one considers that many diseases involve multiple genes, sometimes hundreds or even thousands, all of which must possess the “correct” variants for the disease to emerge. In other words, some diseases not only depend on Dembski’s “complex specified genetic information”, but also conform to Michael J. Behe’s proposed hallmark of intelligent design: irreducible complexity. Unless creationists invoke an additional creator—one over whom their reputedly omnipotent and omniscient god has no control—their supposedly intelligent designer must have deliberately created these gene variants to produce the suffering they cause. By contrast, the evolutionary explanation requires no such mental gymnastics. The existence of genetic variants is exactly what evolutionary theory predicts, and provided such variants remain rare within a population, there is little selective pressure to remove them. A genome produced by an omniscient, perfect designer, however, would contain no such variants: the original design would be flawless, as would the mechanisms responsible for replicating it. The very existence of gene variants is therefore evidence against intelligent design. The technique developed by the research team is sensitive enough to examine the entire genome and determine which genes influence which cell types. This makes it possible to identify which genes contribute to particular diseases. In cases where a single gene is involved, this can be relatively straightforward, but where many genes are implicated, it can be extremely difficult to disentangle their individual effects—precisely the problem this new technique helps to overcome. > Diseases caused by multiple gene variants. Many diseases are **polygenic** , meaning they arise from the combined effects of multiple gene variants, often interacting with environmental factors. In such cases, no single gene is sufficient to cause the disease on its own; rather, risk increases as particular combinations of variants accumulate. Well-studied examples include the following. > > Common complex diseases > > * **Type 2 diabetes** > Involves variants in hundreds of genes affecting insulin production, insulin sensitivity, fat distribution, and glucose metabolism (e.g. _TCF7L2_ , _PPARG_ , _SLC30A8_). > * **Coronary heart disease** > Influenced by variants affecting cholesterol metabolism, inflammation, blood pressure, and vascular integrity (e.g. _APOE_ , _LDLR_ , _PCSK9_ , many others). > * **Hypertension** > Associated with variants in genes regulating kidney function, salt balance, vascular tone, and hormonal control. > * **Asthma** > Involves numerous immune-related and airway-development genes, with strong gene–environment interactions (e.g. allergens, pollution). > Neurological and psychiatric disorders > > * **Schizophrenia** > One of the most polygenic conditions known, involving thousands of variants, each contributing a tiny increase in risk. No single gene is determinative. > * **Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)** > A mixture of rare high-impact variants and many common low-impact variants affecting synapse formation, neuronal signalling, and brain development. > * **Alzheimer’s disease (late-onset)** > Influenced by many genes involved in lipid transport, immune response, and amyloid processing. _APOE ε4_ increases risk, but only as part of a much larger genetic background. > * **Parkinson’s disease (sporadic forms)** > Involves multiple variants affecting mitochondrial function, protein degradation, and neuronal maintenance. > Autoimmune and inflammatory diseases > > * **Rheumatoid arthritis** > Involves numerous immune-system genes, especially within the HLA region, plus many non-HLA variants. > * **Multiple sclerosis** > Strongly polygenic, with variants influencing immune regulation, inflammation, and nervous system vulnerability. > * **Inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis)** > Involves hundreds of genes affecting immune response, gut barrier function, and interactions with gut microbes. > Cancer > > Most common cancers are **highly polygenic** at the population level. > > * **Breast cancer** > * **Prostate cancer** > * **Colorectal cancer** > While rare inherited mutations (e.g. _BRCA1/2_) can greatly increase risk, the majority of cases involve the cumulative effects of many low-risk variants combined with somatic mutations acquired during life. > > > > * * * > > > Why this matters for the intelligent design argument > > In many of these diseases: > > * Hundreds or thousands of gene variants contribute > * Each variant may be harmless on its own > * Disease emerges only when particular combinations occur > This directly contradicts the notion of a genome composed of optimised, purposefully specified components. Instead, it fits precisely with evolutionary expectations: variation, redundancy, historical contingency, and trade-offs. The research is summarised in a Gladstone Institutes news item by Josh Baxt. > Genomic Maps Untangle the Complex Roots of Disease > > * * * > > Today’s biomedical researchers are relentlessly searching for genes that drive disease, with the goal of creating therapies that target those genes to restore health. > > When a single gene is the culprit, the approach can be rather straightforward. But for the majority of diseases, in which multiple genes—sometimes thousands of them—are implicated, the task of pinpointing the connections becomes far more difficult. > > * * * > > Listen to this press release. > > > But a new genomic mapping technique may change that. In a study published in Nature, researchers from Gladstone Institutes and Stanford University leveraged a comprehensive method of probing every gene in a cell to connect diseases and other traits with their underlying genetic machinery. These maps could clarify confusing biology and pinpoint disease-causing genes that are ripe for intervention. > > > We can now look across every gene in the genome and get a sense of how each one affects a particular cell type. Our goal is to use this information as a map to gain new insights into how certain genes influence specific traits. > > Dr. Alexander Marson, MD, PhD, co-lead author > Gladstone-UCSF Institute of Genomic Immunology > San Francisco, CA, USA > > > Finding the ‘Why’ > > For decades, researchers have leaned on “genome-wide association studies,” which analyze genomes from thousands of people to statistically link DNA anomalies with diseases and other traits. These projects have provided a wealth of data, but the information isn’t always actionable—particularly when it comes to complex traits that are rooted in many genes. > > > Even with these studies, there remains a huge gap in understanding disease biology on a genetic level. We understand that many variants are associated with disease; we just don’t understand why. > > Dr. Mineto Ota, MD, PhD., first author > Department of Genetics > Stanford University > Stanford, CA, USA. > > > In some ways, it’s like having a map that shows a starting point and a destination but none of the roads in between, Ota says. > > > To understand complex traits, we really need to focus on the network. How do we think about biology when thousands and thousands of genes, with many different functions, are all affecting a trait? > > Professor Jonathan K. Pritchard, co-lead author > Department of Genetics > Stanford University > Stanford, CA, USA. > > > To answer that question, the team queried two separate databases. > > The first was derived from a human leukemia cell line often used to model red blood cell traits. An MIT researcher with no role in the current study had previously disabled every gene in the cell line, one by one, mapping how each loss affected genetic activity. > > Marson and his team combined those findings with data from the UK Biobank, which contains genomic sequences of more than 500,000 people. Ota mined the data for people who had genetic mutations that reduced function in a way that altered their red blood cells. > > By combining these datasets, the team was able to comprehensively map the gene networks that affect red blood cell traits, illuminating an incredibly complex genomic landscape. Now they had a starting point, a destination, and the web of roads in between. > > They found that some genes act on multiple mechanisms, diminishing some biological activities while boosting others. A good example is SUPT5H, a gene linked to beta thalassemia, a blood disorder that affects hemoglobin production and can cause moderate to severe anemia. The researchers linked SUPT5H to three essential blood-cells programs: hemoglobin production, cell cycle, and autophagy. Importantly, they also highlighted how the gene affects those programs—by either boosting or minimizing gene activity. > > > SUPT5H regulates all three main pathways that affect hemoglobin. It activates hemoglobin synthesis, slows down the cell cycle, and slows down autophagy, which together have a synergistic effect. > > Professor Jonathan K. Pritchard. > > > Applications for Immunology > > The ability to reveal the detailed genetic mechanisms that control cells could have a profound impact on biological discovery and drug development. > > While the study uncovered a number of ways gene networks influence blood cell function, those findings are secondary to the method itself. The research team—and possibly many others in the life science community—can now conduct similar research in a variety of human cells to tease out the molecular signatures that drive disease. > > For the Marson lab, which seeks to better understand T cells and other immune mechanisms, this new method could be the wish that grants more wishes. > > > The genetic burden associated with many autoimmune diseases, immune deficiencies, and allergies are overwhelmingly linked to T cells. We look forward to developing additional detailed maps that will help us really understand the genetic architecture behind these immune-mediated diseases. > > Dr. Alexander Marson, MD, PhD > > > Publication: > >> [Ota, M., Spence, J.P., Zeng, T. _et al_. > **Causal modelling of gene effects from regulators to programs to traits.** > _Nature_ (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09866-3](https://rdcu.be/eU9DW) > > > Show details > Abstract > Genetic association studies provide a unique tool for identifying candidate causal links from genes to human traits and diseases. However, it is challenging to determine the biological mechanisms underlying most associations, and we lack genome-scale approaches for inferring causal mechanistic pathways from genes to cellular functions to traits. Here we propose approaches to bridge this gap by combining quantitative estimates of gene–trait relationships from loss-of-function burden tests1 with gene-regulatory connections inferred from Perturb-seq experiments2 in relevant cell types. By combining these two forms of data, we aim to build causal graphs in which the directional associations of genes with a trait can be explained by their regulatory effects on biological programs or direct effects on the trait3. As a proof of concept, we constructed a causal graph of the gene-regulatory hierarchy that jointly controls three partially co-regulated blood traits. We propose that perturbation studies in trait-relevant cell types, coupled with gene-level effect sizes for traits, can bridge the gap between genetic association and biological mechanism. > > Main > Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and rare variant burden tests have identified tens of thousands of reproducible associations for a wide range of human traits and diseases. These signals have identified many genes that can serve as therapeutic targets4,5,6; driven discoveries of new molecular mechanisms7,8, critical cell types9 and physiological pathways of disease risks or traits10,11,12; and enabled genetic risk prediction for complex diseases13. > > But despite these successes, interpreting the vast majority of associations remains challenging. Aside from coarse-grained analyses such as identifying trait-relevant cell types and enriched gene sets, we lack genome-scale approaches for interpreting the molecular pathways and mechanisms through which hundreds, if not thousands, of genes affect a given phenotype. > > One challenge for interpreting genetic associations is the observation that many hits act indirectly, via trans-regulation of other genes14,15,16,17,18,19. This observation is formalized in the omnigenic model3,20, which proposes that, for any given trait, only a subset of genes, referred to as core genes, are located within key molecular pathways that act directly on the trait of interest. Meanwhile, many more genes affect the trait indirectly, by regulating core genes through links in gene-regulatory networks. In this model, we can interpret the effect size of a variant in terms of all paths through the network by which it affects core genes. > > The central role of trans-regulation underlying many GWAS hits implies that fully understanding the genetic basis of complex traits requires tools to measure how genetic effects flow through networks. However, until recently, we have had very limited information about gene-regulatory networks in any human cell type, with the main information coming from observational data such as trans-expression quantitative trait locus (trans-eQTL) and co-expression mapping14,16,21. However, both approaches have important limitations including low power20,22 and confounding effects of cell-type composition14 in the case of trans-eQTLs, and ambiguous causality in co-expression analysis23,24. > > Advances in genome editing and single-cell RNA sequencing, including Perturb-seq, now provide new opportunities to measure causal gene-regulatory connections at genome scale25,26,27,28. In Perturb-seq experiments, a pool of cells is transduced with a library of guide RNAs, each of which causes knockdown (or other perturbation) of a single gene. After allowing the cells time to equilibrate, single-cell sequencing is used to determine which genes were knocked down in each cell and measure the transcriptome of the cell. Critically, Perturb-seq enables measurement of the trans-regulatory effects of each gene in a controlled experimental setting at the genome-wide scale. Recent work has shown that such approaches are a promising tool for interpreting GWAS data, finding that GWAS hits are often enriched in specific transcriptional programs identified by CRISPR perturbations of a subset of genes29,30,31,32,33. > > Major challenges remain as we aim to move beyond identifying enriched programs to inferring genome-scale causal cascades of biological information. In this paper, we developed a new systematic approach to this problem. We demonstrate how, by combining loss-of-function (LoF) burden results with Perturb-seq, we can infer an internally coherent graph linking genes to functional programs to traits, and derive biological insight into the key genes and pathways that control these traits (Fig. 1a). The resulting graph helps us to understand not only the trait-relevant pathways but also the functions of genes and programs within the graph, to explain why those genes are associated with the traits. On the basis of our results, we expect that forthcoming efforts to generate perturbation data in a wide variety of cell types will provide a critical interpretative framework for human genetics. > > > Fig. 1: Study overview and selection of model traits. > > > > **a** , Overview of the study. The square nodes represent genes, the coloured arrows between genes represent regulatory effects and the arrows from genes to traits represent associations. sgRNA, single guide RNA. **b** , Heritability enrichment of UKB traits to open chromatin regions in K562. Traits are ordered based on the P value of enrichment, which was estimated using the Jackknife test in S-LDSC. The dashed line indicates the threshold for Bonferroni significance. ATAC-seq, assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing; Cou, count; HLSR, high light scatter reticulocyte count; MCV, mean corpuscular volume; MRV, mean reticulocyte volume; MSCV, mean sphered corpuscular volume; Per, percentage; RBC, red blood cell; Ret, reticulocyte. **c** , Schematic of the human haematopoietic tree. Traits of interest are annotated near their relevant cell types. CLP, common lymphoid progenitor; CMP, common myeloid progenitor; GMP, granulocyte–monocyte progenitor; HSC, haematopoietic stem cell; MPP, multipotent progenitor. **d** , Comparison of heritability enrichment to UKB traits, between MEP and K562 open chromatin regions. P values were estimated using the Jackknife test in S-LDSC. The dashed line indicates the threshold for Bonferroni significance. > > > > > [Ota, M., Spence, J.P., Zeng, T. _et al_. > **Causal modelling of gene effects from regulators to programs to traits.** > _Nature_ (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09866-3](https://rdcu.be/eU9DW) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by Springer Nature Ltd. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) Genetic diseases sit uneasily with the claim that the human genome is the product of an intelligent, benevolent designer. Many such diseases do not arise from a single malfunctioning component, but from the interaction of numerous gene variants spread across the genome. These variants often perform useful functions in other contexts and only become harmful in particular combinations. This is precisely what one would expect from an undirected evolutionary process that preserves variation and tolerates trade-offs, but it is profoundly difficult to reconcile with deliberate, foresighted design. An intelligent designer with perfect knowledge would not need to rely on fragile genetic systems in which normal biological function is balanced precariously against the risk of catastrophic failure. Nor would such a designer construct diseases that require the coordinated involvement of dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of genetic elements to manifest. The existence of polygenic disease means that suffering is not the result of a single error, but of entire networks of interacting genes behaving exactly as they were “designed” to behave. Appeals to mystery or to a “fallen world” do nothing to resolve this problem. They merely shift responsibility away from the designer while preserving the claim of intelligence without evidence. By contrast, evolutionary biology predicts both genetic variation and its occasionally harmful consequences as unavoidable by-products of mutation, inheritance, and imperfect selection. There is no need to posit intention, foresight, or purpose behind genetic disease. Far from pointing to intelligent design, the growing ability to map genetic variants to disease strengthens the evolutionary account. It reveals a genome shaped by history, constraint, and compromise, not by optimal engineering. Genetic disease is not an anomaly within evolution; it is exactly what evolution leads us to expect—and exactly what a truly intelligent, benevolent designer would have avoided. * * * **Advertisement** **Amazon** USA $14.20 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $14.15 UK $11.20 **Amazon** USA $12.90 UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $16.00 UK £12.60 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £9.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £9.93 **Amazon** USA $12.50UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $10.50UK £8.30 **Amazon** USA $12.00UK £10.00 **Amazon** USA $15.00UK £12.29 **Amazon** USA $7.50UK £5.75 **Amazon** USA $10.20UK £8.30 **All titles available in paperback, hardcover, ebook for Kindle and audio format.** **Prices correct at time of publication. Click here for current prices.** **Advertisement** Click for My Books ### Thank you for sharing! Tweet Link Blue Sky Flip to Flipboard If you've enjoyed my blog please show your appreciation by giving to a great cause - Oxfam Be Humankind. Feed the world.

Why Do We Have a Consciousness? | Newsportal - Ruhr-Universität Bochum Having recently watched a grey squirrel carefully plot a route through a line of trees, I was struck by the sophistication of its behaviour. It was not simply moving at random. It clearly knew where it wanted to go and was able to take into account such factors as how much slender branches would bend under its weight, how wide a gap it could safely jump, and—perhaps most importantly—exactly where it was within its own mental map of the environment. It is difficult to see how such behaviour could be possible in a creature that was not conscious and, to some degree, self-aware. In animal psychology, there is now little doubt that many vertebrates possess some level of self-awareness and therefore consciousness. The remaining debate has centred not on whether consciousness exists in non-human animals, but on how it arose. The fact that consciousness is found across a wide range of vertebrates, and even in molluscs such as cephalopods, suggests either that it originated in a remote common ancestor or that it evolved independently multiple times through convergence. Either way, this strongly points to an evolutionary origin. According to two papers published in a special edition of the journal _Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B_ , by working groups led by Professors Albert Newen and Onur Güntürkün at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, consciousness can indeed be explained as the outcome of an evolutionary process, with each step conferring a selective advantage. Moreover, consciousness **only** makes sense as an evolved biological function. The two open-access papers can be found here and here. This work is bound to provoke another bout of denialism among creationists, for whom consciousness remains one of the standard “impossible to explain without supernatural intelligence” fallback arguments. As with abiogenesis and the Big Bang, the reasoning typically amounts to: “Science hasn’t explained it and I don’t understand how it could, therefore God did it.” This false dichotomy conveniently removes any obligation to provide evidence in support of the supernatural claim. Creationists also like to flatter themselves that consciousness is a uniquely human trait and thus evidence of special creation. In scientific terms, however, this does not even rise to the level of a hypothesis: it proposes no mechanism, makes no testable predictions, and is unfalsifiable by design. It is, in essence, wishful thinking rooted in the belief that the Universe is obliged to conform to personal expectations. By contrast, the Ruhr University team have identified three distinct levels of consciousness and demonstrated the evolutionary advantage of each, drawing on detailed studies of birds that show parallel forms of consciousness to those seen in humans. These levels are: 1. **Basic arousal** — such as the perception of pain, which signals that harm is occurring and that corrective action is required. 2. **General alertness** — awareness of the broader environment, allowing threats and opportunities to be recognised and responded to appropriately. 3. **Reflexive (self-)consciousness** — the ability to place oneself within an environment, learn from past experience, anticipate future outcomes, and formulate an action plan; in other words, to construct a narrative with oneself as a participant. > I remember as a child in the 1950 we believed that only humans were truly conscious* Do you have any information on how this view has changed in the last 75 years or so? Yes — that belief was very much the mainstream view in the 1950s, and its decline over the past 75 years is one of the more striking shifts in how science understands minds, both human and non-human. The change did not happen suddenly; it unfolded in stages as psychology, neuroscience, ethology, and evolutionary biology matured. > > > 1. The dominance of behaviourism (1930s–1950s) > > in the 1950's, animal psychology was dominated by **behaviourism** , particularly in the English-speaking world. Figures such as John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner argued that science should concern itself only with _observable behaviour_ , not internal mental states. > > Because consciousness could not be directly observed or measured, it was treated as either irrelevant or unscientific. Humans were often granted consciousness as a practical concession, but animals were described in mechanistic terms — stimulus in, response out. Talk of animal “thoughts”, “intentions”, or “feelings” was dismissed as anthropomorphism. > > This fitted neatly with older philosophical ideas, going back to Descartes, that animals were essentially biological machines. > > 2. Cracks in the wall: ethology and natural behaviour (1950s–1970s) > > The first serious challenge came from **ethology** , led by scientists such as Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen, and Karl von Frisch. Instead of studying animals in artificial laboratory settings, they observed them in natural environments. > > Their work showed that many animals: > * plan actions, > * recognise individuals, > * communicate symbolically, > * and modify behaviour flexibly rather than reflexively. > This did not immediately lead to claims about consciousness, but it made purely mechanistic explanations increasingly implausible. > > 3. The cognitive revolution (1960s–1980s) > > From the 1960s onwards, psychology underwent the **cognitive revolution**. Mental processes — memory, attention, representation, decision-making — were back on the table. > > Once human cognition was treated as information processing rather than mystical introspection, it became much harder to deny similar processes in animals. Researchers began cautiously talking about: > * mental maps (e.g. Tolman’s rats), > * problem-solving, > * expectation and surprise, > * and goal-directed behaviour. > Still, consciousness itself remained a sensitive topic, often avoided in favour of terms like _cognition_. > 4. Self-awareness enters the discussion (1970s–1990s) > > A major symbolic turning point was **Gordon Gallup’s mirror self-recognition test** in the 1970s. Chimpanzees recognising themselves in mirrors challenged the idea that self-awareness was uniquely human. > > Over the following decades, evidence accumulated for sophisticated cognition in: > * great apes, > * dolphins, > * elephants, > * corvids, > * parrots, > * and later cephalopods. > The question shifted from _“Are animals conscious?”_ to _“What kind of consciousness do different animals have?”_ > 5. Neuroscience closes the gap (1990s–2010s) > > Advances in neuroscience further eroded the old view. It became clear that: > * consciousness correlates with specific neural architectures, > * many of these architectures are conserved across vertebrates, > * and similar functional solutions have evolved independently in very different brains (e.g. birds and mammals). > Once consciousness was treated as a **biological function** rather than a metaphysical property, denying it to animals with comparable neural complexity became untenable. > 6. The modern consensus (2010s–present) > > Today, the mainstream scientific position is roughly this: > * **Consciousness is not all-or-nothing** > * **It comes in degrees and forms** > * **It evolved because it is useful** > The 2012 **Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness** , signed by leading neuroscientists, explicitly stated that many non-human animals possess the neurological substrates necessary for conscious experience. > > Recent work — including the Ruhr University research you mention — goes further by identifying _levels_ of consciousness and showing how each can be favoured by natural selection. > 7. Why the old belief persisted so long > > Looking back, the 1950s view survived not because it was well supported, but because: > * tools for studying brains were primitive, > * behaviourism discouraged discussion of inner states, > * and human exceptionalism exerted a strong cultural pull. > Once those constraints lifted, the idea of uniquely human consciousness quietly collapsed under the weight of evidence. > In short, what changed over the last 75 years was not sentimentality towards animals, but **methodology, evidence, and conceptual clarity**. Consciousness moved from being treated as a mysterious human essence to being understood as an evolved biological capacity — unevenly distributed, but very much part of the natural world. The research carried out by the Ruhr University team is also the subject of a Ruhr University press release, which helps place these findings in a broader evolutionary and cognitive context. > Why Do We Have a Consciousness? > > * * * > > What is the evolutionary advantage of our consciousness? And what can we learn about this from observing birds? Researchers at Ruhr University Bochum published two articles on this topic. > > * * * > > Although scientific research about consciousness has enjoyed a boom in the past two decades, one central question remains unanswered: What is the function of consciousness? Why did it evolve at all? The answers to these questions are crucial to understanding why some species (such as our own) became conscious while others (such as oak trees) did not. Furthermore, observing the brains of birds shows that evolution can achieve similar functional solutions to realize consciousness despite different structures. The working groups led by Professors Albert Newen and Onur Güntürkün at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, report their findings in a current special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B from November 13, 2025. > > Purposes of pleasure and pain? > > Our conscious experience makes up our lives, often through positive pleasure: I feel the warm sun on my skin, I hear the singing of birds, I enjoy the moment. Yet we also often experience pain: I feel my knee hurt from falling on the stairs, I suffer from always being pessimistic. Why have we, as living creatures, even developed a perception that can involve positive experiences as well as pain and even unbearable suffering? > > Albert Newen and Carlos Montemayor categorize three types of consciousness, each with different functions: 1. basic arousal, 2. general alertness, and 3. a reflexive (self-)consciousness. > > > Evolutionarily, basic arousal developed first, with the base function of putting the body in a state of ALARM in life-threatening situations so that the organism can stay alive. Pain is an extremely efficient means for perceiving damage to the body and to indicate the associated threat to its continued life. This often triggers a survival response, such as fleeing or freezing. > > Professor Albert Newen, lead author of the second papers. > Institut für Philosophie II, > Ruhr-Universität Bochum > Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. > > > A second step in evolution is the development of general alertness. This allows us to focus on one item in a simultaneous flow of different information. When we see smoke while someone is speaking to us, we can only focus on the smoke and search for its source. > > > This makes it possible to learn about new correlations: first the simple, causal correlation that smoke comes from fire and shows where a fire is located. But targeted alertness also lets us identify complex, scientific correlations. > > Carlos Montemayor, co-author of the second paper. > Department of Philosophy > San Francisco State University > San Francisco, CA, USA. > > > > Humans and some animals then develop a reflexive (self-)consciousness. In its complex form, it means that we are able to reflect on ourselves as well as our past and future. We can form an image of ourselves and incorporate it into our actions and plans. “Reflexive consciousness, in its simple forms, developed parallel to the two basic forms of consciousness,” explains Newen. “IN such cases conscious experience focuses not on perceiving the environment, but rather on the conscious registration of aspects of oneself.” This includes the state of one’s own body, as well as one’s perception, sensations, thoughts, and actions. To use one simple example, recognizing oneself in the mirror is a form of reflexive consciousness. Children develop this skill at 18 months, and some animals have been shown to do this as well, such as chimpanzees, dolphins, and magpies. Reflexive conscious experiences – as its core function – makes it possible for us to better integrate into society and coordinate with others. > > What Birds Perceive > > Gianmarco Maldarelli and Onur Güntürkün show in their article that birds may possess fundamental forms of conscious perception. The researchers highlight three central areas in which birds show remarkable parallels to conscious experience in mammals: sensory consciousness, neurobiological foundations, and accounts of self-consciousness. > > Firstly, studies of sensory consciousness indicate that birds not only automatically process stimuli, but subjectively experience them. When pigeons are presented with ambiguous visual stimuli, they shift between various interpretations, similar to humans. Crows have also been shown to possess nerve signals that do not reflect the physical presence of a stimulus, but rather the animal’s subjective perception. When a crow sometimes consciously perceives a stimulus and does not at other times, certain nerve cells react precisely according to this internal experience. > > Secondly, birds’ brains contain functional structures that meet the theoretical requirements of conscious processing, despite their different brain structure. > > > The avian equivalent to the prefrontal cortex, the NCL, is immensely connected and allows the brain to integrate and flexibly process information. The connectome of the avian forebrain, which presents the entirety of the flows of information between the regions of the brain, shares many similarities with mammals. Birds thus meet many criteria of established theories of consciousness, such as the Global Neuronal Workspace theory. > > Professor Onur Güntürkün, lead author of the fist paper > Department of Biopsychology > Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience > Faculty of Psychology > Ruhr University Bochum > Bochum, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany. > > > Thirdly, more recent experiments show that birds may have different types of self-perception. Even though some species of corvids pass the traditional mirror test, other ecologically significant versions of the tests have shown further types of self-consciousness in other bird species. > > > Experiments indicate that pigeons and chickens differentiate between their reflection in a mirror and a real fellow member of their species, and react to these according to context. This is a sign of situational, basic self-consciousness. > > Professor Onur Güntürkün. > > > The findings suggest that consciousness is an older and more widespread evolutionary phenomenon than had previously been assumed. Birds demonstrate that conscious processing is also possible without a cerebral cortex and that different brain structures can achieve similar functional solutions. > > Publications: > >> [Gianmarco Maldarelli, Onur Güntürkün > **Conscious birds.** _Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci_ 13 November 2025; **380** (1939): 20240308. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0308](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/380/1939/20240308/235178/Conscious-birdsConscious-birds) > > [Albert Newen, Carlos Montemayor > **Three types of phenomenal consciousness and their functional roles: unfolding the ALARM theory of consciousness.** > _Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci_ 13 November 2025; **380** (1939): 20240314. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0314](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/380/1939/20240314/235161/Three-types-of-phenomenal-consciousness-and-their) > > > Show details > Abstract > In this article, we start from the assumption that consciousness is not the ultimate triumph of human evolution but rather represents a more basic cognitive process, possibly shared with other animal phyla. In this article, we show that there is growing evidence that (i) birds have sensory and self-awareness, and (ii) they also have the neural architecture that may be necessary for this. We present behavioural studies and recent neurobiological data and discuss them in relation to three major theories of consciousness: the Global Neural Workspace Theory (GNWT), the Recurrent Processing Theory (RPT) and the Integrated Information Theory. Although the findings so far do not allow for a strong conclusion, the neurophysiological and anatomical features of the avian brain seem to align with the prerequisites of the GNWT and RPT to host consciousness. > > This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary functions of consciousness’. > > 1 Introduction > Just two decades ago, neuroscientists were highly sceptical about the possibility of consciousness in non-human animals. Today, the tables have turned, and comparative cognitive neuroscientists increasingly consider it plausible that different species could possess consciousness. This change has been prompted by theoretical advances and novel neuroscientific experiments. As a result, consciousness in non-human animals is not only hotly debated (e.g. [1–3]), but sometimes also taken for granted, at least in great apes and some monkey species [4,5]. Therefore, the scientific community has nowadays been discussing the presence of consciousness in animals such as insects and fishes [6,7], while also proposing alternative approaches to explore animal consciousness [8]. > > One of the current conundrums of consciousness concerns its function(s). While some have asserted that it has no function and no causal role in cognitive processes, other authors have suggested that consciousness enables various behavioural and mental functions that an unconscious organism could not recruit (for a review, see [9]). Because evolution can only operate by selecting an animal’s behavioural output, we assume that theories of consciousness must account for both its neural basis and its behavioural implications. When looking at their behavioural repertoire and cognitive abilities, birds have proved to be much smarter than previously thought [10–15]. However, are they therefore conscious? This discussion has started, and some recent interesting findings have stimulated the debate on avian consciousness [16–19]. In this review, we will show the most recent discoveries in the field of avian consciousness in terms of sensory- and self-awareness, and we will argue that evidence for that is already emerging. Besides that, many theories of consciousness have been proposed in the last decades to put forward the neural mechanisms involved in subjective experience (for a review, see [20,21]). However, they have been mainly designed and tested on humans or non-human primates. Thus, we will discuss whether the avian brain could also meet their requirements. To do so, we will take into account three major theories of consciousness, i.e. the Global Neural Workspace Theory (GNWT), the Recurrent Processing Theory (RPT) and the Integrated Information Theory (IIT). > > These three theories are based on different assumptions and neural mechanisms and state different predictions. The GNWT holds that consciousness arises when information becomes globally available through a nonlinear ‘ignition’ across a distributed network of long-range neurons, particularly involving parietal and prefrontal areas [22,23]. Conscious content becomes available when it is selected, amplified and broadcast across brain areas, enabling reportability, flexible routing and integration of features [23,24]. Experimental findings support key predictions, such as spontaneous ignition and the decoding of conscious content from prefrontal neural activity, including abstract and sensory information [5,25]. > > The RPT posits that conscious visual perception arises from local recurrent interactions within the visual cortex [26,27]. Empirical findings show that feedforward processing, while capable of activating both low- and high-level areas, does not correlate with consciousness, whereas recurrent activity is consistently associated with conscious experience [28–30]. RPT advocates for consciousness as an independent process, orthogonal to cognition and attention [31]. > > The IIT explains consciousness by starting from the phenomenology of subjective experience and its essential properties [32]. It proposes that consciousness corresponds to the cause–effect structure (Φ-structure) of a physical substrate, defined by how the parts of a system influence each other [33]. Consciousness is quantified by Φ, while the specific quality of experience depends on the structure of causal relationships within the system [32]. IIT suggests that regions like the posterior cortex support high Φ because of their integrated architecture [34], whereas structures like the cerebellum do not, owing to their modular organization. In the following, we will first show studies of sensory awareness in birds and then discuss whether their neurophysiology and neuroanatomy fit with the assumptions and predictions of the mentioned theories. Last, we will discuss studies about avian self-awareness. > > > > [Gianmarco Maldarelli, Onur Güntürkün > **Conscious birds.** _Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci_ 13 November 2025; **380** (1939): 20240308. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0308](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/380/1939/20240308/235178/Conscious-birdsConscious-birds) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by The Royal Society. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) > > > > > > * * * > > > Abstract > The evolution of consciousness is a neglected topic that plays a surprisingly insignificant role in all major theories of consciousness. Furthermore, substantial disagreements can be observed in the dominant views on the neural correlates of consciousness (NCCs), which focus too much on cortical brain regions. In order to dissolve some of the contradictions among these views and to constrain the rival theories, we propose to distinguish three core phenomena of phenomenal consciousness: basic arousal, general alertness and reflexive (self-)consciousness. The central aim is to show that we can fruitfully distinguish specific functions for each of the three phenomena. Basic arousal has the function to alarm the body and secure survival by intervening in the slow updating of homeostatic processes. General alertness fosters advanced learning and decision-making processes, enabling various new behavioural strategies to deal with challenges, and reflexive (self-)consciousness enables future-directed long-term planning, accounting for the mindset of oneself and other agents. Constraining our contemporary theories of consciousness with this evolutionary and functional approach will enable the science of consciousness to make progress by accounting for three specific functions of consciousness, thereby informing the search for distinct an NCC. > > This article is part of the theme issue ‘Evolutionary functions of consciousness’. > > 1 Introduction > Evolution is typically discussed as a conundrum in the context of consciousness research, with authors defending a wide variety of views, with respect to both the demarcation problem of what species are conscious and the time during our evolution when consciousness first emerged [1.1–3.1]. Consciousness certainly is, as Lane [4.1] puts it, a great invention of evolution. Our lives would not be the same without it; it might even be inconceivable to imagine our lives without being conscious. Yet, because of the standard interpretation of the ‘hard problem’, most functional accounts, including evolutionary ones, are still considered as preliminary, at best. This situation of lack of empirical constraints concerning evolution is reflected in the core commitments of the major scientific views on consciousness, none of which takes evolution as a major factor in its explanation of consciousness. Moreover, the empirical predictions of these theories at the neural level are incompatible, making the situation worse. If, besides the scientific obfuscation produced by the hard problem, the leading scientific theories contradict each other, then it is not surprising that our scientific understanding of consciousness has not progressed much. > > We believe that the recent and considerable progress in neuroimaging techniques needs to be accompanied by equally substantial theoretical progress regarding our understanding of the functionary roles that consciousness performed in the evolution of the minds. Evolution needs to become a major factor in our explanation of consciousness. We start by setting the stage with two observations that we take to be criteria of adequacy: first, we argue that non-cortical areas must be part of the explanation of consciousness, and that we can best characterize the non-cortical processing of consciousness as basic arousal (§1). Second, we need to distinguish three phenomena of consciousness, namely basic arousal, general alertness and reflexive self-consciousness (§2): those are different varieties of phenomenal consciousness. Since it is not clear whether reflexive self-consciousness should be included in the discussion of an evolutionary perspective on functions of consciousness (in addition to basic arousal and general alertness), we clarify the status of this phenomenon. We show that there are non-linguistic tests indicating the realization of reflexive self-consciousness in non-human animals (§3a). Furthermore, we argue that reflexive self-consciousness is best described as a special case of general alertness (§3b), but it nevertheless has a specific functional role going beyond the function of standard general alertness. With this background, we then unfold the main argument of the paper as follows: we show that an evolutionary perspective in combination with neuroscientific evidence supports (i) that three selected scientific theories of consciousness (information integration theory (IIT), higher-order-thought (HOT) and global neuronal workspace theory (GNWT)) either do not adequately account for the basic form of consciousness called basic arousal or do not consider it at all (§4), and (ii) that the three distinct phenomena of consciousness (basic arousal, general alertness and reflexive self-consciousness) have three different core functions (§5). > > Let us set the stage with some methodological remarks: first, we do not discuss vegetative states or other preconscious states, but focus on phenomenal consciousness, in the sense of having a conscious experience in a state of wakefulness [5.1]. We also abstract in this context from the distinction between access and phenomenal consciousness [6.1] since we focus on phenomenal consciousness that is experienced longer than the duration of ultra-short-term memory, which is the focus of Block [6.1]. Second, we do not characterize types of consciousness as certain types of contents, e.g. higher-order theories are inclined to do this. We presuppose an independence of phenomenality and content in the sense that a phenomenal experience cannot be explained by a certain content, but only by the way a content is processed [7.1,8.1]. Third, we want to distinguish three ways of answering the question about the functional role of phenomenal consciousness [9.1]: (i) consciousness is the result of an adaptation; or (ii) it is an inseparable element of something else that is an adaptation; or (iii) it is a useless by-product, which means that it is an epiphenomenon. We are not discussing here epiphenomenalism, which is, e.g., a constitutive component of Chalmers’ dualism [10.1], because we think that there is convincing criticism for not going in the direction of epiphenomenalism (neither version of it) [11.1,12.1]. Furthermore, to discuss the function of consciousness, we will focus on the best candidates for a theoretical framework to investigate and understand consciousness, namely GNWT, IIT and HOT. We aim to show that they are missing a basic evolutionary perspective, namely what the earliest evolutionary functional role of consciousness could be. We want to close this gap but remain neutral about the debate about which of the three theories (if any) will win the open race about the best theoretical framework of consciousness. However, we claim that our evolutionary perspective is an important foundation for any successful and more detailed theory of consciousness in the future. Our fourth methodological commitment highlights the limits of our approach: we explicitly account for the co-evolutionary unfolding of consciousness in species with quite different brain structures, like birds and fish. Thus, we are not expecting one and the same cluster of neural mechanisms to be the realizer in all conscious living beings. With the ALARM theory of consciousness, we propose to start with the characterization of the most basic form of consciousness by describing its embeddedness in core principles of life, focusing on improving homeostatic regulation systems that keep the body alive (see below). Therefore, we propose a combination of a functional and neural characterization of the evolution of consciousness, and the result is our proposal for distinguishing three forms of phenomenal consciousness. > > > > [Gianmarco Maldarelli, Onur Güntürkün > **Conscious birds.** _Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci_ 13 November 2025; **380** (1939): 20240308. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2024.0308](https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/article/380/1939/20240308/235178/Conscious-birdsConscious-birds) > > Copyright: © 2025 The authors. > Published by The Royal Society. Open access. > Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) What this body of research demonstrates is not merely that consciousness exists beyond our own species, but that it can be understood as a natural consequence of evolutionary processes. Once consciousness is approached as a biological function rather than a metaphysical mystery, its distribution across the animal kingdom becomes explicable. Different forms of consciousness emerge where they confer a survival advantage, shaped by ecological pressures and constrained by neural architecture, just as with any other evolved trait. Creationist claims about consciousness rest almost entirely on argument from ignorance. The assertion that consciousness “cannot be explained” is not evidence for supernatural design; it is simply a reflection of limited understanding at a given moment in time. History is replete with phenomena once declared beyond natural explanation that later yielded to careful observation and theory. Consciousness is following the same trajectory, with each advance narrowing the explanatory gap that creationism relies upon. Moreover, the insistence that consciousness is uniquely human is now empirically indefensible. Evidence from birds, mammals, and cephalopods shows that self-awareness, planning, and subjective experience are not singular human endowments but evolutionary solutions to complex environmental challenges. These capacities differ in degree and form, but they are recognisably continuous rather than categorically distinct. In the end, creationism offers no competing explanation of consciousness at all—only a refusal to engage with mechanisms, predictions, or evidence. Evolutionary biology, by contrast, provides a coherent framework in which consciousness emerges incrementally, leaves traces in comparative anatomy and behaviour, and can be investigated scientifically. 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