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Category: evolution

‘Oldest octopus’ fossil is no octopus at all, scans reveal

A famous 300-million-year-old fossil that was thought to be the world’s oldest octopus—even featuring in the Guinness Book of Records—has turned out to be something else altogether. In what amounts to a case of mistaken identity, the fossil hid its true nature through decay 300 million years ago, before being fossilized.

Using the latest synchrotron imaging to search inside the fossil rock, researchers discovered tiny teeth preserved inside the rock that prove that Pohlsepia mazonensis is not an octopus at all, but an animal related to a modern Nautilus—a multi-tentacled animal with an external shell.

This revelation, revealed in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, solves a long-running puzzle in the understanding of octopus evolution that has confused scientists for decades. It also provides evidence of the oldest nautiloid soft tissue preservation known in the fossil record and means that the record-holding “oldest octopus” should be quietly written out of the Guinness Book of Records.

First close pair of supermassive black holes detected

Supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies are one of the most active fields of research in astronomy. In order to accumulate their enormous masses, they must merge with each other. A research team led by Silke Britzen from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn has found direct evidence of two supermassive black holes in the galaxy Markarian 501, which orbit each other very closely. This could be the first time that a pair has been detected that is about to merge. This provides a unique opportunity to better understand a central process in galaxy evolution.

The findings suggest that there is a supermassive black hole at the center of almost every large galaxy, with a mass millions or even billions of times greater than that of our sun. It is still unclear exactly how they can reach such enormous masses. Collecting (accreting) gas from the surrounding area alone would take too long, so it is likely that they have to merge with other massive black holes. Galaxy collisions have been observed throughout our universe. It is thus very likely that the supermassive black holes at the centers of these colliding galaxies also merge, first orbiting each other ever closer and ultimately coalescing into one.

Astronomers thought the early universe was full of hydrogen: Now they’ve found it

The Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) has discovered tens of thousands of gigantic hydrogen gas halos, called “Lyman-alpha nebulae,” surrounding galaxies 10 billion to 12 billion years ago. Known as Cosmic Noon, this is an epoch in the early universe when galaxies were growing their fastest. To spur this growth, they would have needed access to vast reservoirs of hydrogen gas, a key building block for stars. However, until recently, astronomers had only found a handful of these essential structures.

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal has now increased the known number of hydrogen gas halos by a factor of 10: from roughly 3,000 to over 33,000. This confirms suspicions that they are not rare curiosities. The study also increases the range of known sizes, providing a more representative sample for astronomers to study as they continue to tease out the origin and evolution of the first galaxies.

“We’ve been analyzing the same handful of objects for the past 20 or so years,” said Erin Mentuch Cooper, HETDEX data manager and lead author on the study. “HETDEX is letting us find many more of these halos and measure their shapes and sizes. It has really allowed us to create an amazing statistical catalog.”

Rare Type Icn supernova SN 2024abvb is among the most luminous known

An international team of astronomers has carried out photometric and spectroscopic observations of SN 2024abvb—a recently discovered supernova of a rare Type Icn. The new observational campaign yields important information regarding the properties and nature of this supernova. The study was published February 18 on the arXiv pre-print server.

Supernovae (SNe) are powerful and luminous stellar explosions. They are important for the scientific community as they offer essential clues into the evolution of stars and galaxies. In general, SNe are divided into two groups based on their atomic spectra: Type I and Type II. Type I SNe lack hydrogen in their spectra, while those of Type II showcase spectral lines of hydrogen.

Type Icn SNe are an extreme subtype of interacting stripped-envelope supernovae (SESN). They have strong, narrow oxygen and carbon lines but weak or absent hydrogen and helium lines, presenting additional complications to the stripping mechanism. They have narrow emission features indicative of circumstellar interaction.

First carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars discovered in Milky Way’s companion

Using the Baryons Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS) spectrograph, astronomers have discovered five new carbon-enhanced metal-poor stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This is the first time such stars have been identified in this galaxy. The discovery was reported in a paper published January 15 on the arXiv pre-print server.

Metal-poor stars are rare objects, as only a few thousand stars with iron abundances [Fe/H] below-2.0 have been discovered to date. Expanding the still-short list of metal-poor stars is of high importance for astronomers, as such objects have the potential to improve our knowledge of the chemical evolution of the universe.

Observations show that a significant fraction of these stars exhibit a large overabundance of carbon; therefore, they are known as carbon-enhanced metal-poor (CEMP) stars.

Scientists just found DNA “supergenes” that speed up evolution

Hidden within fish DNA are powerful genetic twists that may explain one of nature’s biggest mysteries: how new species form so quickly. In Lake Malawi, hundreds of cichlid fish species evolved at lightning speed, and scientists now think “flipped” sections of DNA—called chromosomal inversions—are the secret. These inversions lock together useful gene combinations, creating “supergenes” that help fish rapidly adapt to different environments, from deep waters to sandy shores.

Hubble detects first-ever spin reversal of tiny comet

Astronomers using NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope have found evidence that the spinning of a small comet slowed and then reversed its direction of rotation, offering a dramatic example of how volatile activity can affect the spin and physical evolution of small bodies in the solar system. This is the first time researchers have observed evidence of a comet reversing its spin.

The object, comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresák, or 41P for short, likely originated in the Kuiper Belt, and was flung into its current trajectory by Jupiter’s gravity, now visiting the inner solar system every 5.4 years.

After its 2017 close passage around the sun, scientists found that comet 41P experienced a dramatic slowdown in its rotation. Data from NASA’s Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory in May 2017 showed the object was spinning three times more slowly than it had in March 2017 when it was observed by the Discovery Channel Telescope at Lowell Observatory in Arizona.

Hearing research traces evolution of key inner ear protein

In the intricate machinery of the inner ear, hearing begins with a protein that moves a few billionths of a meter up to 100,000 times per second. That protein, called TMC1, sits at the tips of sensory hair cells deep in the snail-shaped cochlea. When sound waves move these microscopic hairs, TMC1 acts as a channel, opening and allowing charged particles to flow into the cell and trigger an electrical signal to the brain.

Without TMC1, that signal never starts. Mutations in the TMC1 gene are a well-known cause of hereditary hearing loss in humans. Because of this central role, TMC1 is an attractive target for researchers designing gene therapies aimed at restoring hearing. Several groups are testing ways to supply working copies of the gene or fix harmful mutations.

For these efforts to be safe and effective, scientists need to know in detail how TMC1 is built, how it opens, and which parts of the protein are most sensitive to change. However, the hair-cell system that includes TMC1 is so complex, sensitive, and hard to access that it is notoriously difficult to take apart and study directly.

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