Palaeontology
More than 700 fossils from the Jiangchuan Biota in Yunnan Province, southwest China, dating 554-539 million years ago in the late Ediacaran, include early relatives of starfish, acorn worms, deuterostomes, and other bilaterians. Led by Dr. Gaorong Li of Yunnan University, the discovery—after nearly a decade of fieldwork—challenges the suddenness of the Cambrian explosion by showing diverse animal communities predated it. The results, published in Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.adu2291), feature exceptionally preserved carbonaceous films revealing fine details like digestive systems.
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Researchers have re-examined a 125,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant skeleton found in Germany in 1948, confirming that Neanderthals hunted and butchered the animal with a wooden spear lodged in its ribs. The findings, detailed in a recent Scientific Reports study, provide vivid evidence of Neanderthal big-game hunting skills. The elephant, a prime male over 3.5 metres tall, shows clear cut marks from flint tools.
A newly discovered 230-million-year-old dinosaur fossil from Argentina suggests that the evolution of long necks in sauropods began much earlier than previously thought. Named Huayracursor jaguensis, the specimen shows early signs of neck elongation in a small, bipedal dinosaur. This finding challenges the idea of a gradual transition in sauropodomorph evolution.