Hi everyone! Cordy here today with a fill-in header. I know everyone is on pins and needles for the election, but let’s take a breather with some science news courtesy of beloved public program Science Friday.
Ever wonder about how bats evolved? They’re the only flying mammal, and they make up about a fifth of the total mammal species. Wild! Science Friday digs into the science and evolution of bats, taken from a recent study.
By combining genomic data from all living bat families with ancient fossil records, an international team of 137 researchers from 64 countries working as part of the Bat1K consortium, a global initiative dedicated to sequencing the genomes of all living bat species co-founded by UCD’s Professor Emma Teeling, have reconstructed the evolutionary history of the world’s only mammals capable of true powered flight.
The landmark study published in Nature analysed 103 bat genomes, including 42 newly generated chromosome-level assemblies, representing all 21 recognised bat families. This was combined with evidence from 44 fossil bats.
The results provide a clearer picture of where and how this remarkable lineage emerged.
The researchers found that bats most likely first evolved in Europe during the late Palaeocene. And from there, their descendants spread into Africa.
As bats diversified, different groups then expanded independently into the Americas, Asia and Australia, eventually giving rise to the major bat groups found around the world today.The researchers found that bats most likely first evolved in Europe during the late Palaeocene. And from there, their descendants spread into Africa.
As bats diversified, different groups then expanded independently into the Americas, Asia and Australia, eventually giving rise to the major bat groups found around the world today.
If you’d rather think about dinosaurs instead, how about an interview with paleontologist and trans icon Riley Black on her new book Tyrant Lizard Queen about the t-rex?
So often we look at dinosaurs, and they’re like, oh, they look more or less the same. But T-Rex, each and every one has a little bit different personality. And that’s partially because they had ornaments on their skull. They had horns on their nose and over their brow ridges.
We think that they were likely fuzzy, maybe not extensively covered. It doesn’t look like a gigantic cardinal or something like that. But other Tyrannosaurs that we found have these almost hair-like shaggy coats of feathers. We think T-Rex had something like that.
And it would have been this very bulky animal. If you look at T-Rex, and you do the full walk around, not just from the side, but especially from the front, you can just see how broad and muscular this animal was, how much everything was invested into those jaws that were not only powerful, but especially sensitive.
We have fossils, for example, that show us how a T-Rex had delicately scraped away flesh at bone very delicately and intentionally. It could have just chomped through the whole thing. But it was also capable of handling things in this more graceful sort of manner.
So it’s this up to 40-foot long or above 9-ton carnivorous creature. You probably wouldn’t see the teeth. They were probably covered by lips. This kind of giant murder bird, for lack of a better term, but it was still graceful for as bulky as it seemed.
And some quick hits:
Apparently humans are starting to speak more like AI? That’s not just bad, that’s awful.
All about apples
The end of leap seconds.
It’s going to be a long day with a lot of news coming in. Think before you post, verify information, and be kind and thoughtful today. Also please keep Sheleeta, Kip, and their families in your thoughts. Cheers.