Twenty years since it was found in Argentina, a fossil of a 231.4-million-year-old lepidosaur has been described in detail by paleontologists. This animal has features place it before the split between lizards, snakes, and sphenodonts (a branch of reptiles that today only includes the strange tuatara). The fossilized skull recently underwent CT scanning, and an interdisciplinary team of researchers published their analysis of the specimen this week in Nature.
The animal is Taytalura alcoberi. To the untrained eye, it looks very much like a lizard (a rusted-over gecko, to this writer). But the animal’s anatomy is much more ancient, something the research team found out when they were able to examine the fossil in detail. None of the animal’s body was preserved, but the skull—which measures about an inch and a half long—is the most complete fossil of lepidosaur evolution yet known, said study co-author Gabriela Sobral, who supervised the CT scanning, in a Harvard press…
29-year-old Noland Arbaugh was injured in a car crash 8 years ago that left him paralyzed from the shoulder down. Now, he’s livestreaming on Elon Musk’s X platform and using the computer with his mind alone thank to Elon Musk’s Neuralink. Arbaugh described the process of using the computer with his mind, saying, “Basically, it […]
Students from John Jay High School, from the Wappingers Central School District, protested the district’s announced plans to allow students to choose which bathrooms they want to use. The students claim the decision makes many of them feel uncomfortable and unsafe. The protest involved students walking out of class and protesting outside of the school. […]
As independent investigators continue to uncover illegal abortion practices and sales of human body parts by the abortion industry, a U.S. Congressional panel held an independent hearing this week for the purpose of “investigating the black market of baby organ harvesting” through abortion. The panel heard testimony from two investigators, David Daleiden and Terrisa Bukovinac, who have spent years uncovering the […]
