Ebola Outbreak in DR Congo Surpasses 6,250 Cases: The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has reached 6,250 cases and 3,039 deaths, with transmission remaining concentrated largely in North Kivu province. As health officials struggle to contain the epidemic in its fourth month, the World Health Organization has begun using anonymized mobile-phone data to track population movements and anticipate where new clusters might emerge. The approach has not previously been used during an Ebola outbreak. Officials say mobility is especially important in the affected region because mining operations attract transient workers while conflict and displacement regularly move people between communities. By identifying travel patterns, responders hope to predict where infections could spread and position treatment teams and other resources more effectively. The strategy highlights the growing use of digital data in epidemic response. (CIDRAP)
Scientists Identify New Tick-Borne Virus in China: Scientists in China have identified a previously unknown tick-borne virus that causes a flu-like illness marked by fever, fatigue, gastrointestinal symptoms and abnormal laboratory findings. Named Asian longhorned tick nairovirus, or ALTNV, the pathogen was discovered while researchers investigated patients suspected of having Dabie bandavirus infection but who tested negative. Among 3,163 patients studied, 10.4% showed evidence of ALTNV infection, including 15.1% of those negative for Dabie bandavirus. Most people infected only with ALTNV recovered completely, though coinfections appeared more severe. Researchers also detected the virus in ticks across 15 Chinese provinces, especially the Asian longhorned tick, Haemaphysalis longicornis. The findings suggest ALTNV may be an underrecognized cause of tick-associated illness and highlight the need for improved diagnostic testing in endemic regions. (CIDRAP)
Neutron Imaging Reveals T. Rex’s Healing Blood Vessels: A broken rib from “Scotty,” the largest known Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, has given researchers an unusually intimate view of how the dinosaur healed from injury. Scientists from the University of Regina used neutron imaging at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to examine the 66-million-year-old fossil without damaging it. The scans revealed an extensive network of mineralized blood vessels formed while the fractured rib was healing—structures researchers say have never previously been observed at this scale in a fossil. Earlier X-ray and synchrotron work had hinted at preserved soft tissues, but neutron imaging provided complementary three-dimensional detail. Researchers suspect iron-rich blood, combined with Scotty’s burial in a salty marsh, helped preserve the delicate structures. The approach could become a powerful tool for diagnosing injuries and diseases in other fossils. (Oak Ridge National Laboratory)
Iguanodon Fossil May Preserve Ancient Skin Infection: An abnormal growth on the shinbone of an Iguanodon bernissartensis may represent the first known dinosaur case of a severe infected skin ulcer reaching the bone. Researchers studying Early Cretaceous fossils from Spain’s Mas de la Parreta quarry noticed a 17.4-centimeter swelling covering roughly 17 percent of the tibia. CT scans showed that the lesion remained concentrated near the bone’s surface rather than extending into the central cavity, making fractures, tumors and several skeletal diseases less likely. Instead, its structure resembles the response produced when an infected skin wound spreads into tissues surrounding bone, triggering inflammation and new bone formation. The researchers say the condition probably caused persistent pain that worsened when the animal walked. Paleopathology increasingly allows scientists to reconstruct not simply how dinosaurs died, but the illnesses and injuries they endured while alive. (Phys.org)
Cretaceous Ants Reveal Life Before Dinosaur Extinction: Two tiny ants trapped in Saskatchewan amber are helping fill a conspicuous gap in insect evolution just before the asteroid-driven end-Cretaceous extinction. The roughly 67-million-year-old specimens represent the oldest definitive members yet identified from the Aneuretinae and Pseudomyrmecinae ant subfamilies. Researchers combined anatomical measurements with machine-learning models trained on living ants to infer how the ancient insects probably lived. One pseudomyrmecine appears to have been ground-dwelling, unlike many modern relatives that occupy trees, suggesting its lineage may have shifted into arboreal habitats after the dinosaur extinction. The fossils also bolster evidence that modern crown-ant groups were already diversifying alongside flowering plants during the Late Cretaceous. Because ant fossils around the K–Pg boundary are exceptionally scarce, even incomplete specimens can substantially sharpen researchers’ understanding of how today’s enormously successful ant fauna emerged. (Phys.org)
Ancient Insect Had Twenty-Four Legs Instead of Six: A bizarre 324-million-year-old creature from Texas suggests the earliest insects looked dramatically different from their six-legged descendants. Named Chosha praecursor, the animal possessed three conventional pairs of thoracic walking legs—but also nine additional pairs of abdominal appendages, giving it 24 legs altogether. Some of the rear appendages broadened into paddle-like structures, suggesting an animal capable of moving between aquatic and terrestrial environments. Researchers reexamined the long-overlooked fossil using cross-polarized light photography, revealing antennae, an egg-laying structure and body segmentation characteristic of insects. The combination of insect and crustacean-like anatomy could help bridge an approximately 80-million-year gap in the fossil record documenting insects’ transition from aquatic crustacean ancestors to terrestrial animals. The discovery suggests the familiar six-legged insect body plan emerged only after a far more anatomically experimental evolutionary phase. (Smithsonian Magazine)
Scientists Recreate Sounds of Jurassic Insects: Paleontologists have attempted something rarely possible in fossil research: reconstructing what a prehistoric ecosystem sounded like. Using extraordinarily detailed fossil wings from katydid-like insects that lived around 165 million years ago, researchers modeled the structures these animals used to produce mating calls. Artificial-intelligence-assisted analyses and biomechanical simulations were then used to estimate the frequencies generated when the insects rubbed specialized portions of their wings together. The results suggest Jurassic forests contained a surprisingly diverse acoustic environment, ranging from audible chirps to ultrasonic calls beyond the range of human hearing. Such acoustic diversity would have influenced mate recognition, competition and predator-prey interactions. Rather than reconstructing extinct animals solely from bones and body shapes, the study demonstrates how sufficiently detailed fossils can potentially recover aspects of behavior—and even the sensory environment experienced by animals living alongside dinosaurs. (Smithsonian Magazine)
Fossil Study Reveals Why Time Gets Mixed: A massive two-decade analysis involving more than 7,500 dated marine fossils has identified sedimentation rate as a key factor determining how badly geological layers mix organisms from different time periods. Paleontologists routinely confront “time averaging”: shells and bones deposited centuries or millennia apart can wind up together in the same sedimentary layer, creating the misleading impression that organisms coexisted. Researchers assembled radiocarbon dates from marine fossil beds around the world to determine which environmental conditions controlled that mixing. Faster accumulation of sediment generally buried remains quickly and preserved narrower windows of time, while slowly accumulating seabeds allowed fossils from many generations to intermingle. The results can help paleontologists estimate the temporal resolution of fossil assemblages more accurately—crucial when reconstructing ecological change, extinction patterns or how rapidly ancient communities responded to environmental disruption. (SciTechDaily)
Scientists Propose Radically Expanding the Genus Homo: The human family tree could undergo a dramatic taxonomic overhaul if a provocative new proposal gains traction. Research from Monash University argues that Australopithecus and Paranthropus—groups traditionally placed outside the genus Homo—should instead be incorporated into an expanded Homo encompassing human relatives from roughly the past four to five million years. The argument reflects growing evidence that traits once thought to distinguish Homo, including larger brains, toolmaking and complex behavior, are distributed unevenly among early hominins. Some accepted Homo species had remarkably small brains, while sophisticated behaviors increasingly appear among supposedly more primitive groups. Researcher Ian Towle argues that classifications should emphasize evolutionary ancestry rather than arbitrarily selected anatomical “grades.” The proposal would be a major nomenclatural change and is unlikely to end long-running debates about precisely where the human genus begins. (SciTechDaily)
Animal-Microbe Partnerships May Be 550 Million Years Old: Evidence preserved in Ediacaran fossils suggests animals were cooperating with microbes hundreds of millions of years before complex ecosystems resembling modern ones appeared. Researchers studying Conotubus, an enigmatic tube-shaped organism more than 550 million years old, discovered geochemical signatures indicating a symbiotic relationship with bacteria. Such partnerships are fundamental to modern animal biology—the human microbiome being an obvious example—but direct evidence becomes extremely difficult to detect deep in the fossil record. Chemical patterns associated with the fossils suggest microbes may have helped the ancient organisms obtain nutrients or otherwise supported their metabolism. If the interpretation holds, it would represent the earliest known evidence for animal-microbe symbiosis and push the origin of these relationships back to near the dawn of complex animal life. Microbial partnerships, in other words, may have helped enable animal evolution almost from its beginning. (Nature)
Dinosaur Auctions Are Transforming the Fossil Market: Dinosaur fossils have become trophies for the ultrarich, and paleontologists are increasingly worried about the scientific consequences. Scientific American examines a rapidly escalating commercial fossil market highlighted by “Gus,” an approximately 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that recently sold for $50.1 million. Such astronomical valuations make it essentially impossible for most museums and universities to compete with private collectors. The problem extends beyond access: specimens held privately can disappear from scientific scrutiny, become unavailable for replication studies or fail eligibility requirements imposed by journals that expect fossils to reside in permanent public collections. Rising prices may also incentivize landowners and fossil hunters to treat scientifically significant specimens primarily as commodities. The controversy highlights a fundamental tension in American paleontology, where fossils discovered on private property can legally enter commercial markets rather than museums. (Scientific American)
Japan Names Its First Definitive Ankylosaur Species: A dinosaur skull discovered in Hokkaido three decades ago has finally received a name—and it changes the picture of armored-dinosaur dispersal across the Cretaceous world. Researchers have designated the roughly 100-million-year-old animal Nipponopelta yezoensis, making it the first formally named ankylosaur from Japan. CT scanning and digital reconstruction exposed previously obscured anatomical features in the partial skull, allowing scientists to establish the new genus and species. Surprisingly, phylogenetic analyses place Nipponopelta closer to derived North American and European nodosaurids than to several other Asian forms. That pattern suggests armored dinosaurs may have entered Asia on multiple occasions rather than spreading through the continent in a single evolutionary expansion. Habitat reconstruction also points toward coastal or estuarine environments, raising the possibility that shoreline habitats helped nodosaurids disperse across large geographic regions. (hokudai.ac.jp)
In-Body CAR-T Therapy Eases Multiple Sclerosis: A small clinical trial suggests CAR-T-style immune therapy can be generated directly inside patients rather than manufacturing engineered cells externally. Sixteen people with multiple sclerosis or other autoimmune diseases received a modified lentivirus designed to deliver genetic instructions to their T cells, causing those cells to attack disease-associated B cells. All participants experienced clinical improvement, and researchers reported no severe cytokine-release syndrome or neurotoxicity—the potentially dangerous complications associated with conventional CAR-T therapy. The approach could dramatically simplify treatment because traditional CAR-T requires collecting a patient’s cells, genetically modifying them in specialized facilities and reinfusing them. Researchers caution that the trial was small and follow-up remains limited, but successful in-vivo CAR-T engineering could eventually make powerful cellular therapies considerably easier to manufacture and deploy against autoimmune diseases. (Nature)
Fibromyalgia Genetics Point Toward the Brain: The largest genetic study of fibromyalgia to date strengthens evidence that the poorly understood chronic-pain disorder has substantial neurological roots. Researchers analyzed genetic data from 2.5 million people, including nearly 55,000 diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and identified 26 genomic regions associated with increased risk. About half were near genes involved in neural functions such as nerve-cell growth and pain sensitivity. Surprisingly, the strongest association occurred near the gene responsible for Huntington’s disease, although the fibromyalgia-associated variant is different from the mutation that causes Huntington’s. The findings do not exclude roles for immune dysfunction or other mechanisms, nor are the variants suitable for diagnosing individual patients. But researchers say the study provides powerful biological evidence for a condition historically—and incorrectly—dismissed by some as psychological, while highlighting pathways that could eventually produce better treatments. (Science News)
Medieval Books Preserve Ancient Disease DNA: Centuries-old manuscripts have unexpectedly become genetic archives of livestock disease. Researchers extracted DNA from parchment—the processed animal skin used to make medieval books—and reconstructed more than 3,500 years of evolution of sheeppox virus, a highly contagious pathogen capable of devastating sheep populations. Viral DNA appeared in famous manuscripts including the approximately 1,000-year-old York Gospels and the Corpus Glossary, one of the earliest surviving English dictionaries. Multiple pages from individual manuscripts sometimes carried the virus, indicating infected animals supplied their parchment. Researchers even detected sheeppox DNA on calfskin and goatskin, potentially reflecting cross-species infection or contamination during parchment production. Published in Science Advances, the work demonstrates that libraries may preserve enormous, largely unexplored molecular records of animal epidemics, agriculture and pathogen evolution alongside the written histories already contained in their books. (Phys.org)
Psilocybin Prevents Chemotherapy Nerve Damage in Mice: Psilocybin, the psychoactive compound in psychedelic mushrooms, prevented chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy in mice, suggesting an unexpected neurological application distinct from its better-known effects on depression and consciousness. Peripheral neuropathy causes burning, tingling, numbness and extreme sensitivity in the hands and feet and can become severe enough that cancer patients must reduce or discontinue chemotherapy. Researchers found that psilocybin acted on sensory nerves to protect mice against the painful condition. The findings, published in Science, are particularly intriguing because neuropathy can persist long after cancer treatment ends and currently has limited therapeutic options. However, the research remains preclinical: benefits observed in mice do not establish that psilocybin will prevent neuropathy safely in people. Researchers will need to determine appropriate dosing, mechanisms, potential psychoactive effects and whether protection interferes with chemotherapy’s anticancer activity. (Nature)
El Niño Creates Tale of Two Hurricane Seasons: The strengthening El Niño is producing dramatically different hurricane seasons on opposite sides of North America. By September 3, the northeastern Pacific had generated 15 named storms and six hurricanes, while the Atlantic had produced only five named storms and no hurricanes. Deep Space Climate Observatory captured three Pacific cyclones—Lowell, Karina and Marie—simultaneously on September 1. Lowell subsequently reached Category 5 strength while Karina reached Category 4, an unusual simultaneous pairing. The contrast fits El Niño’s characteristic influence: unusually warm eastern Pacific waters encourage storms there, while altered atmospheric circulation increases wind shear that suppresses Atlantic hurricanes. Accumulated cyclone energy in the northeastern Pacific was about 50 percent above normal by September 3; the Atlantic stood at only about 9 percent of normal. (NASA Science)