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Prostig Mite (Halotydeus sp.), walking on liverworts, family Penthaleidae, New Zealand

photograph by invertebratist

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Cynodonts were one of the few lineages of synapsids ("protomammals") to survive through the Great Dying mass extinction into the Triassic. And while a major branch of cynodonts known as probainognathians would eventually go on to produce the ancestors of modern mammals, for much of the Triassic a separate branch called cynognathians were initially much more diverse and numerous.

Exaeretodon argentinus was a large traversodontid cynognathian, growing up to about 1.8m long (~6'), known from the Late Triassic (~234-227 million years ago) of what is now northwestern Argentina. It was a low-slung animal with short stocky limbs, sprawling at the front and semi-upright at the back, and had a large head with a fairly short narrow snout and wide flaring cheekbones accommodating massive jaw muscles.

Although it it had large fang-like canine teeth, further back in its jaws wide molar-like grinding teeth show it was a specialized herbivore – at least as an adult. Different skull proportions in juveniles suggest that young Exaeretodon may have actually started out life as omnivorous or carnivorous, with jaws better suited for crushing hard-shelled invertebrate prey.

One Exaeretodon specimen shows evidence of severe rib injuries that would have hindered its mobility and made it very difficult to forage for food or avoid predators. But in this case those injuries were healed, suggesting this species may have lived in social groups that helped to protect each other.

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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Chinsamy, Anusuya, and Fernando Abdala. "Palaeobiological implications of the bone microstructure of South American traversodontids (Therapsida: Cynodontia): Research Letters." South African Journal of Science 104.5 (2008): 225-230. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/EJC96794

Doneda, Ana Laura, Lívia Roese–Miron, and Leonardo Kerber. "Bony injuries in a Late Triassic forerunner of mammals from Brazil." The Science of Nature 112.3 (2025): 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-025-01984-2

Kerber, Leonardo, et al. "New insights into the postcranial anatomy of Exaeretodon riograndensis (Eucynodontia: Traversodontidae): phylogenetic implications, body mass, and lifestyle." Journal of Mammalian Evolution 32.1 (2025): 2. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10914-024-09741-4

Ruta, Marcello, et al. "The radiation of cynodonts and the ground plan of mammalian morphological diversity." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280.1769 (2013): 20131865. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1865

Wynd, Brenen, Fernando Abdala, and Sterling J. Nesbitt. "Ontogenetic growth in the crania of Exaeretodon argentinus (Synapsida: Cynodontia) captures a dietary shift." PeerJ 10 (2022): e14196. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.14196

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Hey don't cry, okay? We just found Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, a species thought to be extinct for the past 60 years.

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Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius), father with chick, family Casuariidae, order Casuariiformes, northern QLD, Australia

Photograph by Robert Tidey

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"For the first time in 500 years, the European beaver has been seen in Portugal, a moment that one nonprofit has called “one of the most significant steps in the aquatic rewilding of Portuguese rivers.”

As GNN has reported in the case of the UK, there is no animal other than humans capable of engineering its natural environment at the same scale as the beaver, and it’s clearly this trait which has Portuguese ecologists jumping for joy.

Extinct in the small Iberian country since the 15th century, this large rodent has recently been reintroduced and restored in various parts of Portugal’s large neighbor. Gradually, signs began to appear that the beaver (Castor fibre) was progressively inching closer to Portugal, until recent camera trap footage confirmed the animal’s presence in the country.

“We’ve been on the lookout for this breakthrough for a few years now, and now we’re thrilled to confirm its return. The beaver is a natural ally in restoring the health of our rivers and wetlands and has a fundamental role to play in our river ecosystems,” says Pedro Prata, Team Leader at Rewilding Portugal.

Through its constant activity building dams, beavers transform landscapes into watery paradises for small fish, amphibians, invertebrates, insects, and birds. Their damning of rivers diverts water flow in various different directions, cuts channels for floodwater, and creates ponds and wetlands.

“We’re talking about a species that provides ecological services that no modern equipment can replicate with the same efficiency and scale, without costs and bureaucracy that can never be overcome. The beaver improves water quality, creates refuges for other species and helps us fight phenomena such as drought and fires,” emphasizes Prata.

Portugal suffers from both drought and wildfires, which the beaver’s impact can help prevent through the increased water retention in dryland soil, while the wetter lands beaver dams create act as natural fire breaks.

Beavers don’t only live in the forest, they will happily transform a desert river as well.

Rewilding Portugal, in an article celebrating the animal’s return, detailed how they have long since anticipated this arrival, and informed the relevant ecological authorities to prepare for the disruptive effects which beavers bring hand in hand with the positive ones.

France, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland have all had to cope with the occasional dam-bursting flood, or an agriculturalist complaining about their riverside plantations being damaged, or someone getting their trees gnawed down. They cope with it in different ways, which Rewilding Portugal say is a worthwhile accommodation for the benefits the beavers bring.

Previously, GNN reported that Rewilding Portugal have reintroduced European wood bison into the Greater Côa Valley ecosystem. As the beaver does in water, the bison does on land: engineering the landscape into a biodiverse and resilient patchwork of micro-ecologies."

-via Good News Network, June 18, 2025

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Can You Imagine the Crab-Eating Frog?

The crab-eating frog (Fejervarya cancrivora) is a species of frog found throughout southeastern Asia, including Taiwan, southern China, the island of Sumatra, and the Philippines. They reside primarily in mangrove swamps, as well as tropical rainforests, estuaries, and near freshwater ponds and streams. They are particularly noted for their ability to tolerate high salinities, and they are the only known amphibian to make excursions into pure salt water.

The crab-eating frog is named for its usual diet which, around the mangrove, estuary, and coastal parts of its distributon, is composed mainly of crabs. This is supplemented with insects and smaller frogs, and near fresh water without crabs they make up the bulk of F. cancrivora's diet. Due to their small size, they have many predators, including birds, snakes, lizards, jungle cats, and larger fogs. Crab-eating frogs avoid being eaten by hiding in grass or under vegetation and leaf litter during the day; they are also more active at night.

Male and female crab-eating frogs are fairly similar in appearence. Both can be tan or brown, with dark mottling to resemble the muddy substrate in which they hunt, and a light underbelly. Females are slightly larger than males, reaching up to 10.7 cm (4.21 in) in length compared to only 8 cm (3.14 in). Males may also have dark throats, while females are bare.

Crab-eating frogs can breed year-round, but is particularly active during the wet season from June to October. Males will gather around bodies of water and call to attract females. Once a female has selected a mate, she will lay her eggs while he grasps her from above and fertilizes them. The eggs remain in the body of water in which they're laid without parental care. After hatching, the tadpoles take about three weeks to develop into adults.

Conservation status: F. cancrivora is considered Least Concern by the IUCN. They are harvested for food, but their primary threat comes from habitat destruction.

Photos

Nick Baker

Elijah Wostl

Benard Dupont

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A comb jelly displaying bioluminescence. Filmed off the coast of California. From Deep Ocean EP 2- Lights in the Abyss (2016).

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Bhutan Glory (Bhutanitis lidderdalii), family Papilionidae, Bhutan

photographs by Antonio Giudici

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In the late 18th century a strange fish fossil from the Monte Bolca deposits in northern Italy was described and named as Pegasus volans. This name had actually already been assigned to the living longtail seamoth (today known as Pegasus volitans), but despite this the fossil continued to be referred to as "Pegasus volans" for well over 200 years.

Now, finally, it's been redescribed and given a proper genus name of its own: Dibango volans.

Living during the early Eocene, around 50-48 million years ago, in what was then a warm shallow reef in the western Tethys Ocean, Dibango was probably around 7-10cm long (~3–4"). It had a long flag-like first ray of its dorsal fin, a very reduced and compact abdominal region, an extremely elongated pelvic bone that appears to have supported an exterilium (external gut), long pelvic fins, and a long slender tail.

This bizarre combination of features is often seen in fish larvae, but Dibango's level of skeletal development shows it was fully grown – suggesting it was actually an unusually neotenic fish, retaining its larval anatomy all the way into adulthood.

This also makes it very difficult to figure out what kind of fish it actually was, with the current best guess being "some sort of percomorph".

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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Davesne, Donald, and Giorgio Carnevale. "An enigmatic teleost fish from the Eocene of Bolca (Italy) with unusual larval‐like features." Papers in Palaeontology 11.3 (2025): e70017. https://doi.org/10.1002/spp2.70017

Volta, Giovanni Serafino, et al. "Ittiolitologia veronese del Museo Bozziano: ora annesso a quello del Conte Giovambattista Gazola e di altri gabinetti di fossili veronesi; con la versione latina." Verona, Italy: Dalla Stamperia Giuliari (1796). https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/163554

Wikipedia contributors. “Dibango volans” Wikipedia, 20 May 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dibango_volans

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Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Why build your own nest when you can just someone else's? When it comes to laying eggs, female lace monitors seek out a large termite mound, dig a small hole, and lay their eggs inside. The termites then seal up the hole; the eggs remain protected, and the mound is kept at an ideal incubation temperature. As a bonus, the hatchlings get an all-you-can-eat termite buffet when they emerge!

(Image: A lace monitor (Varanus varius) by Richard N Horne)

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Scientists have identified a novel rock type that has formed not over millions of years but within just 35. This unexpected lithification defies traditional rock-cycle models, which typically require thousands to millions of years.

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Gay Hooded Warblers

In 1988, a researcher spotted a male Hooded Warbler (which the researcher named Y) building and sitting on a nest within the territory of another male (which the researcher called X). This was unusual for several reasons.

Male warblers rarely build nests and tend not to sit on the eggs or nestlings. Plus, X was a fierce singer who usually defended his territory from other males!

Y and X cared for their nest together, feeding nestlings. It’s not clear where those nestlings came from- it’s possible that another Hooded Warbler laid eggs in an act of same-species brood parasitism, basically leaving her eggs for someone else to raise. The nestlings might have been Brown-headed Cowbirds, which also practice brood parasitism. The fate of this nest is unknown.

A month later, Y turned up on the territory of another nearby male (Z). Z and Y had a nest with one Brown-headed Cowbird and two baby Hooded Warblers. Z would bring food to the nest, feeding his waiting mate and nestlings.

It’s tough to conclusively label these birds, but it’s pride month, so.  Gay warblers!

Original article (anyone can access):

Niven, D. (1993). Male-Male Nesting Behavior in Hooded Warblers. The Wilson Bulletin, 105(1), 190-193. Retrieved from https://sora.unm.edu/sites/default/files/journals/wilson/v105n01/p0190-p0193.pdf 

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A team of paleontologists affiliated with several institutions in Argentina, working with a colleague from the U.K., has discovered evidence of scales from lepidopterans in dung samples recovered from a dig site in Talampaya National Park, Argentina. In their paper published in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, the group describes how they found the scales in the dung samples and what the find means for scientists who study butterflies and moths.

Continue Reading.

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BULL SHARK SWIMS 7,290 KILOMETRES IN RECORD MIGRATION

A recent study revealed that a female bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) travelled at least 7,290 kilometres from the Mozambique Channel to Nigeria, crossing from the Indian Ocean into the Atlantic in what is now the longest recorded movement for this species. The finding was made possible by an acoustic transmitter implanted in South Africa in 2021 and recovered when the shark was captured near Lagos in July 2024. Bull sharks have long been considered coastal residents with relatively limited movements and a strong preference for warm, estuarine environments, making this ocean-crossing journey a remarkable exception that challenges previous assumptions about their ecology.

The shark’s route included passing through the Benguela upwelling, a major cold-water system along the coasts of South Africa and Namibia that has traditionally served as a biogeographic barrier for tropical species. Researchers suggest that climate change, by altering the temperature and dynamics of such systems, may be enabling new migratory pathways for widely distributed marine animals. In addition to expanding our understanding of bull shark ecological flexibility, this event highlights the value of large-scale acoustic tagging programmes and international collaboration in tracking the movements of highly mobile and potentially vulnerable species.

Main photographs: Bull shark by Ingo Rogalla. And fisherman from Lagos, Nigeria, reported capturing a female bull shark with an internal acoustictransmitter. The shark was originally tagged on 2 April 2021 at the St Lucia Estuary mouth on the east coast of South Africa. Photo credit: Mr. Akeem Kolawol.

Reference: Daly et al., 2025. Breaking barriers: Transoceanic movement by a bull shark. Ecology.

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Duonychus tsogtbaatari was a therizinosaurid dinosaur living in what is now the Gobi Desert in southern Mongolia during the Late Cretaceous, around 96-90 million years ago.

Like other therizinosaurids it would have been a chunky-bodied herbivore with a small beaked head atop a long neck, long rake-like claws on its hands, stout legs, and a rather short tail. But it was rather small compared to most of its close relatives, estimated at about 3m long (~9'10"), with its known fossil remains including several vertebrae, partial ribs and pelvis, and a set of nearly-complete arms and hands.

Its hands had only two well-developed fingers, with a small splint-like vestigial third finger, an anatomical condition convergently seen in some other theropod groups but previously unknown in therizinosaurids. One of its long curved claws also preserved a rare example of a thick keratinous sheath, showing that in life the claw was over 40% longer than its bony core.

Duonychus' elbow and finger joints had a fairly limited range of motion – more similar to the forearms of Tyrannosaurus than other therizinosaurids – but its claws were able to flex almost 90° at the tips of its fingers, which may have given it the ability to reach out and grab onto foliage with a very strong and precise grip.

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References:

Kobayashi, Yoshitsugu, et al. "Didactyl therizinosaur with a preserved keratinous claw from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia." iScience 28.4 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.isci.2025.112141

Wikipedia contributors. “Duonychus” Wikipedia, 18 May. 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duonychus

Woodford, James. "Two-fingered dinosaur used its enormous claws to eat leaves" NewScientist, 20 Mar. 2025, https://www.newscientist.com/article/2473027-two-fingered-dinosaur-used-its-enormous-claws-to-eat-leaves/

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Kāruhiruhi (Pied Shag) Courting pair exchanging feather 'gift'. Aotearoa by Steve Atwood