Bird Flu Surges Amid Shutdown, Straining Turkeys, Labs, and Surveillance

After a quiet summer, highly pathogenic avian influenza has erupted across U.S. poultry since early September, killing nearly seven million farmed birds—including 1.3 million turkeys—just before Thanksgiving. Wild-bird positives are rising, and Idaho, Nebraska, and Texas report infected dairy cows. The seasonal uptick coincides with a federal shutdown that has curtailed routine communications: USDA and CDC have suspended regular briefings with states and the National Animal Laboratory Health Network paused weekly coordination calls, leaving labs and officials with limited, outdated guidance. Immigration raids are further deterring sick farmworkers from seeking care, while fall flu season complicates diagnosis. Economists warn of higher egg and turkey prices; wholesale turkey costs are already up ~40% year over year. Experts say the virus has become a recurring fall threat, with risks extending to endangered wildlife like whooping cranes. (New York Times)

Real-world cefiderocol results and first oral carbapenem trial headline IDWeek

At IDWeek 2025, Shionogi reported five-year, real-world data for cefiderocol (Fetroja) from the international PROVE study (>1,000 patients, 2020–2024) treating severe gram-negative infections. In the U.S. cohort (n=508), overall clinical cure was 70.1%, rising to 73.7% when started empirically versus 54.3% as salvage; ICU patients comprised 57.3%. Cure in bloodstream infections was 63.7% (72.0% empiric). Surveillance data showed strong in-vitro activity, including against metallo-β-lactamase–carrying Acinetobacter baumannii. Separately, GSK/Spero announced phase 3 PIVOT-PO topline results: oral tebipenem HBr was non-inferior to IV imipenem-cilastatin for complicated UTIs (overall success 58.5% vs 60.2%), with similar safety. If approved, tebipenem HBr would be the first U.S. oral carbapenem; GSK plans an NDA by year-end following FDA’s 2022 rejection and request for more data. (cidrap.umn.edu)

Ancient bone upends “overhunting” narrative in Australia

A reanalysis of cut marks on a giant kangaroo bone from South Australia suggests some Ice Age First Peoples were fossil collectors—not megafauna hunters. Microscopic study indicates the bone was collected long after death, curated, and modified, undermining claims that human predation helped drive extinctions. The work reframes site behaviors as symbolic or technological experimentation with old remains and cautions against oversimplified “blitzkrieg” models. It also highlights how taphonomy and cultural practices can mimic hunting traces, complicating paleoecological reconstructions. Broader debates over late Pleistocene extinctions now must weigh collecting, scavenging, and ritual alongside subsistence. The study adds nuance to Australia’s peopling story and how Indigenous knowledge interacted with disappearing fauna. (Science News)

Hominins faced lead exposure at least 2 million years ago

A study of 2-million-year-old hominin teeth reveals ancient lead exposure, pushing back the timeline for heavy-metal toxicity in our lineage. Using high-resolution laser ablation and isotope analysis, researchers traced developmental bands in enamel to episodes of lead uptake during early childhood—potentially tied to geologic sources, groundwater, or dust. The findings complicate assumptions that lead poisoning is strictly a modern industrial problem and suggest neurodevelopmental stresses may have shaped behavior and health deep in human evolution. While sample sizes remain small and sources uncertain, evidence that infants were intermittently exposed offers a new variable for interpreting growth, disease, and survival in early Homo and kin. It also underscores how dental tissues archive life histories across deep time. (Ars Technica)

Bright-red protein maps: a new way to see ancient collagen

Japanese researchers unveiled a staining technique that vividly marks preserved collagen in fossil bone bright red, allowing direct mapping of protein distribution without destructive sampling. Applied to dinosaur-age and other deep-time fossils, the approach could streamline screening for molecular preservation before costly mass spectrometry, reduce false positives from contamination, and guide micro-sampling to hotspots. Because collagen underpins many claims about fossil soft tissues and molecular phylogenies, a rapid visual assay offers a quality-control step for paleoproteomics. The team adapted a medical histology method to fossil matrices, demonstrating clear contrast between endogenous collagen-rich zones and surrounding mineral. If widely adopted, the protocol may standardize how labs triage specimens for deeper molecular work. (Phys.org)

Toronto’s mysterious “subway deer” finally gets a name

A 50-year mystery from a 1976 Toronto subway dig is solved: unusual antlers belong to a newly identified Ice Age deer, Torontoceros hypogaeus. Researchers combined morphology and 3D analyses with ancient DNA prospects (preprint) to separate the antlers from known North American taxa. The thick, horizontally sweeping beams suggest adaptation to open environments and intraspecific display or combat. The specimen, curated at the Royal Ontario Museum, illuminates late Pleistocene faunal diversity in southern Canada and the taphonomic quirks of urban salvage paleontology. Beyond taxonomy, the paper argues for better integration of “rescue” finds into museum workflows and open datasets so long-lingering curiosities can be resolved with modern tools. (Phys.org)

Missouri team reinterprets Roman water basin’s purpose

University of Missouri archaeologists used residue and microstratigraphic analyses to reinterpret a Roman-era stone basin recovered in the 1960s. Previously labeled a utilitarian trough, the feature shows traces consistent with ritual or communal use—possibly linked to purification or civic water distribution—based on mineral deposits, wear patterns, and associated ceramics. The case study highlights how reexamining legacy collections with modern methods (including portable XRF and microscopy) can overturn entrenched catalog labels, unlocking social insights from “known” artifacts. It also models low-cost, museum-based archaeology where new fieldwork is limited. The team advocates systematically revisiting under-studied storerooms as a scalable way to refine regional histories of infrastructure and ritual practice. (Eureka Alert)

Can AI spot an ancient master’s hand? New model says yes
A Maastricht University–led team trained a computer vision system on thousands of annotated images to attribute ancient painted fragments to individual artists or workshops. By focusing on stroke microgeometry, pigment boundaries, and error-tolerant patterning, the model surpassed expert baselines on test sets spanning Greek vases and Roman wall painting. While not replacing connoisseurship, the pipeline exposes latent stylistic signatures and helps cluster fragments from dispersed collections, improving reconstructions of shattered works. The authors stress ethical guardrails and transparency to avoid overconfidence or market misuse. Still, AI-assisted attribution could transform provenance research and illuminate apprenticeship networks across the ancient Mediterranean. (Eureka Alert)

Monumental farms hidden under Michigan forests

Archaeologists report vast, millennium-old Native American agricultural landscapes in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, revealed through lidar and ground survey. The fields—geometric plots, ridges, and waterworks—challenge assumptions that northern Great Lakes farming was marginal or small-scale. Instead, communities engineered soils, frost mitigation, and hydrology to push productivity at high latitudes. Botanical remains and tool scatters align with intensive cultivation and storage, while local oral histories provide continuity. The findings argue for recognizing sophisticated precolonial food systems beyond the Midwest “maize core,” reframing resilience and land stewardship narratives. They also highlight how lidar-first prospection can rapidly map low-relief features otherwise invisible beneath second-growth canopy. (SciTech Daily)

Ice Age “puppies” weren’t dogs after all—they were wolves

New analyses of two remarkably preserved 14,000-year-old canid pups from Siberian permafrost reclassify them as wolves, not early domesticated dogs. Morphology and genetic markers align with wild Canis lupus, narrowing the window for dog domestication and suggesting humans’ earliest interactions with these individuals were likely opportunistic scavenging or fur use. The study underscores how taphonomic context and permafrost preservation can blur behavioral interpretations, and it recalibrates comparative datasets used to track cranio-dental changes tied to domestication. It also reminds researchers to re-test high-profile specimens as techniques advance, since small shifts in phylogenetic placement ripple through timelines for human–canid coevolution. (SciTech Daily)

Moai on the move: evidence they “walked” into place

Fresh synthesis of road traces, statue bases, and experimental archaeology strengthens the case that Rapa Nui’s moai were “walked” upright using rope teams in a rocking gait along prepared paths. The mechanism explains wear patterns on statue bases and zigzag transport roads to ahu platforms without requiring massive sleds or log rollers that would have stripped forests. While debates continue over labor organization and ecology, the model resolves longstanding engineering puzzles and restores agency to Rapa Nui innovators. It also reframes collapse narratives by emphasizing adaptability and infrastructure planning. The work blends ethnography, physics of rocking objects, and GIS mapping of transport corridors. (WIRED)

A non-Homo hominin likely made tools, fossil hands suggest

Hand bones from an African hominin outside our genus show joint proportions and robust muscle attachments compatible with precision grips—supporting stone and bone tool use beyond Homo. The fossils add weight to observations at Lomekwi and elsewhere that multiple lineages experimented with technologies, challenging linear “tool = Homo” narratives. Functional morphology indicates capabilities for forceful pad-to-pad pinching and repeated loading, and the team integrates comparative data from apes and modern humans. If multiple makers coexisted, archaeological signals may blend, complicating attributions of early industries. The study urges more integrated excavations that recover both skeletal and lithic context to pinpoint who did what, where, and when. (Science News)