Thanks to having the “chunkiest squid butt” ever seen on an ancient cephalopod, paleontologists have discovered a 160-million-year-old octopus cousin. The newly identified fossils are described by an international research team in their study recently published in Papers in Palaeontology, which also includes a potential explanation for Wyoteuthis linsterorum’s hefty proportions. Just like today’s tentacled ocean dwellers, the Mesozoic squid ancestor likely had no problem devouring its relatives—or even members of its own species.
W. linsterorum is a belemnite, a group of prehistoric cephalopods who left behind some of paleontology’s most common fossils. Examples of their bullet-shaped structures known as a rostrum have regularly shown up at dig sites around the world for over 200 years. This includes the Sundance Formation in present-day Wyoming, which was covered by an inland sea millions of years ago.
Most of Wyoming’s belemnites are comparatively tiny—usually about two-to-four inches long and less than one inch wide. But about 30 years ago, Wyoming Dinosaur Center founder Burkhard Pohl found a fossil that “stuck out like a sore thumb,” according to study co-author Bill Wahl. While the preserved belemnite rostrum was about as long as other examples, it measured about 2.4 inches wide. Based on what they knew of belemnite proportions, paleontologists estimated this specimen’s entire body probably reached nearly two feet long.
The two ‘W. linsterorum’ fossils were discovered over 30 years apart. Credit: Jessica Lippincott
Without any comparable examples, the thick squid butt remained in storage for nearly three decades. In 2019, fossil collector Cliff Linster finally discovered a similar cephalopod near Ten Sleep, Wyoming. He soon donated it to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center, and researchers began analyzing this pair of mystery fossils.
Computed tomography (CT) scanning allowed the team to inspect the remains without damaging them. The results confirmed the ancient sea creatures were never-before-seen belemnites.What’s more, they belonged to a family researchers previously believed went extinct millions of years earlier.
“After spending years fossil hunting in Wyoming and collecting countless fossils of the common Pachyteuthis belemnites here in Wyoming, this one is unlike anything I have ever seen,” Jessica Lippincott, a paleontologist and study co-author, said in a statement.
But why did W. linsterorum evolve to reach such bulky proportions? The team believes the answer lies in the diets of many present-day cephalopods.
“A possible explanation is that their relatively large size gave them an advantage when hunting co-occurring smaller belemnites of the genus Pachyteuthis,” explained paleontologist Alexey Ippolitov, a study co-author now at New Zealand’s Victoria University. “Modern squid, after all, are hardly picky when it comes to prey: they readily hunt not only other species of cephalopods, but sometimes even their own kind.”
An unexpected and surprising species, W. linsterorum is named in honor of Cliff Linster, who died in June 2026. While he didn’t live to see the dedication, Linster was well aware that the team was working to describe the animal he helped discover.
“It goes to show that we are still finding new species of fossils all the time, and people who rockhound or collect invertebrate fossils can also contribute to science,” said Lippincott.
We humans love our mind-altering substances. Cultures around the world have discovered, ritualized, and simply experimented with alcoholic drinks and ingestible drugs for millennia. However, recent archaeological evidence indicates humanity possibly began utilizing psychoactive plantsmuch earlier than previously believed. Based on findings published in the journal Science Advances, some communities in present-day Indonesia enjoyed the effects of betel nuts as long as 25,000 years ago. This pushes the timeline over 23,000 years back from documented Neolithic and Bronze Age uses circa 1,500 BCE.
The areca nut (Areca catechu), better known as the betel nut, isn’t widely known in the United States, but it’s one of the world’s most popular intoxicants. Most frequently seen across southeast Asia cultures, its global usage only trails behind alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. Betel nuts are prepared by grinding and processing the plant seeds with slaked lime (calcium hydroxide). This fine powder is often combined with additional ingredients such as flavoring spices or tobacco to make a “quid,” that is then chewed as a stimulant. There are millions of betel users today, with some estimates putting the global total at 1-in-10 people.
Many researchers contend that most human intoxicant use began with fermented alcoholic drinks, amid the rise of farming during the Neolithic era about 13,000 years ago. Adam Brumm, one of the study’s co-author and an archaeologist at Australia’s Griffith University, believes otherwise.
“This theory fails to account for the possibility that very ancient drug-taking lies at the roots of our most commonly used psychoactive substances,” he explained in a university profile.
Brumm and his team cite evidence gathered from the extremely rare skeletal remains of two early human foragers discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The older of the two lived between 25,000 and 16,000 years ago, while the younger individual is 7,600 to 6,300 years old. Unlike many other documented skeletons from the region, these hunter-gathers both exhibit rarely seen dental damage in the form of deep, curved grooves in the teeth. Researchers theorized this unexpected deterioration stemmed from a never-before-identified practice of regularly sucking on entire betel nuts.
But there was a problem—this hypothesis contradicted earlier studies of betel nut usage. Many scientists believe the drug’s primary neuroactive alkaloid, called arecoline, is only noticeable after chewing betel nuts processed with slaked lime. Lab experiments conducted by Brumm’s group suggest this isn’t necessarily always the case. To test their theory, researchers soaked betel nuts in artificial saliva, then introduced the mixtures to exposed cloned human receptors grown from frog egg cells. These receptors included specific proteins that function as molecular switches overseeing neural activity.
The study authors discovered that even simply sucking on whole betel nuts is all it takes to release enough arecoline to elicit altered neural activity and physiological effects. To further bolster their findings, biochemists even flagged arceoline traces in the dental tissue of both hunter-gatherers.
However, the ancient humans living on Sulawesi didn’t necessarily ingest betel nuts for recreational use. Unprocessed nuts likely offer milder effects, but arceoline remains a natural analgesic. Knowing this, the study’s authors surmise these betel nut habits were self-reinforcing.
“Sucking these hard, abrasive seeds wore down the foragers’ teeth so badly that in some cases the inner pulp chamber became completely exposed,” explained Brumm. “So while this habit may have been a remedy for toothache, years of prolonged nut-sucking eventually caused much worse dental health problems, creating a cycle of continued habitual use.”
The implications go far beyond revising the timeline of humanity’s relationship with mind-altering substances. If true, this means at least some ancient hunter-gatherer cultures discovered psychoactive properties before the development of agriculture.
“The study implies that some modern drug-taking behaviors are deeply rooted in forager traditions,” added Brumm.
In order to survive, the first humans to reach Mars will immediately need a safe and reliable place to set up shop. But building on Earth’s neighbor is immensely more challenging than construction projects at home. The Martian surface is a practically airless vacuum, constantly bombarded with radiation, and regularly reaches temperatures as low as -81 degrees Fahrenheit.
However, there is a very specific process on Earth that approximates similar conditions to the Red Planet: freeze-drying. According to researchers at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, the same method used to preserve perishable foods could also inspire sturdy and even recyclable 3D-printed houses on Mars. The secret ingredients? Everyday gelatin and yeast. The novel approach is detailed in a study published today in the journal Chem Circularity.
“My inspiration came from freeze-dried fruits that become harder. So I asked myself if we can take advantage of that and make some materials,” Jishen Qiu, a study co-author and civil engineer, said in a statement.
The combination of materials are simple: sand and an adhesive binder. Since gluing tiny rocks together requires specialized stickiness, Qiu’s team invented a new concoction from gelatin and lab engineered yeast. When mixed, the yeast microbes become coated with adhesive proteins similar to those used by mussels to anchor on stones underwater. The goop is then extruded through a 3D printer nozzle into an extremely cold, low-pressure environment, where it solidifies as the water instantly freezes and converts from ice to vapor. The final result is a light, porous, foam-like material that remains very resilient.
“This is actually strong enough to build a one- or two-story building on Earth—whose gravity is three times that of Mars,” explained Qiu. “So, you can probably easily build a multistory building on Mars with the material.”
Qiu and his collaborators know they must first start small before expanding to Martian neighborhoods. Their prototype domes are only about the size of a wine cork at this point, but their compressive strength is comparable to low-grade concrete.
Engineers have experimented with 3D-printed structures to use on the moon and Mars for years, but many of these still require steps like melting down rocks or lunar regolith. These methods usually require a lot of extra energy, which may limit their utility. Qiu’s technique requires comparatively little energy, although he admits it’s still unclear if yeasts can withstand life on Mars. That said, the team’s early results are a promising step towards simple, efficient, and sturdy buildings beyond Earth. If nothing else, yeast also lends itself to trial-and-error.
“As long as there’s one yeast that’s still alive, you can grow them again,” added Qiu.
A new virus emerges in rural China. Although those who contract it initially display moderate, flu-like symptoms, their health quickly declines. The mortality rate is unclear, but one aspect is immediately obvious—it’s very contagious. Within three months, nations around the world are planning lockdown protocols and quarantine measures. Politicians seem completely out of their league and ill-equipped.
The world eventually recovers from the ordeal, but consequences of the virus linger for decades.While society pushes forward, there’s no promise that an even deadlier virus isn’t already lurking out of sight.
This isn’t about COVID-19, by the way. It’s the plot to the novel World War Z—arguably the most realistic depiction of a zombie apocalypse ever created. Released 20 years ago this week, the horror novel by Max Brooks quickly became one of the undisputed cornerstones of walking dead canon. Readers and critics devoured the book (no pun intended), but their responses often worry Brooks. Much like the reception to his first book, The Zombie Survival Guide, many fans seem to misunderstand his intentions. These projects weren’t simply intended to entertain. Max Brooks was trying to warn everyone about the looming threats we would prefer to ignore.
While the 54-year-old writer ostensibly writes books about zombies, Sasquatch, and (soon) an alien invasion, his attention to disaster details and hyperrealism has earned him a parallel career as a security and threat analyst for some of the world’s most respected geopolitical think tanks.
To celebrate World War Z’s 20th anniversary, Popular Science recently spoke with Brooks about the book’s massive impact.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Andrew Paul: Did you anticipate World War Z attaining the legacy it now has in popular culture?
Max Brooks: Oh, God no. Of course not. Especially because I’m never tapped into pop culture. I don’t know what anybody else is doing—even when it was my job writing for Saturday Night Live! I’m good at thinking about what I think about.
AP: Before World War Z, you wrote an actual preparedness handbook called The Zombie Survival Guide. What prompted you to take a hyperreal approach to such a seemingly outlandish subject?
MB: The reason I wrote [them] was because all the zombie stories, even to this day, tend to focus around small groups. To me, it’s like trying to understand World War II from watching Saving Private Ryan. I had big picture questions nobody was answering.
I think the best zombie movie ever made was Dawn of the Dead. To me, the most interesting part was when they’re holed up in the mall watching the news. That window into the wider world was so fascinating, and I wanted more.
AP: But there was a time when World War Z almost never happened, right?
MB: [The publisher] didn’t know what to do with The Zombie Survival Guide. Their marketing strategy almost killed my career before it even launched. They thought, “Well, no one is clearly that much of a loser that he’s actually spent this much time thinking about [zombies]. Clearly, he’s a cool guy making fun of those losers. And because he’s Mel Brooks’ son and he’s coming off SNL, we’re gonna position him as Mel Brooks, Jr. writing Younger Frankenstein.”
But The Zombie Survival Guide really is a disaster preparedness manual. It’s why [soldiers] took it to Afghanistan; people told me it saved their lives when they were lost in the woods. I didn’t make anything up. It’s not Hollywood stuff—it’s all about dehydration and dry socks and shelter.
But [these books were] legitimately the product of years of thinking, “If I was in a zombie world, how would I survive?”It really set me on this path of asking, “What happens when the grown-ups drop the ball?”
AP: And now it’s your job to worry professionally.
MB: I’ve now been part of three military and national security think tanks—the Atlantic Council, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and the Modern War Institute at West Point. I’m a non-resident senior fellow at all three of them, and it’s my job to study real threats.
For some reason, I was not blessed with the wall of denial. Like, I can’t just say, “That would never happen and I’m just going to go about my merry way.” I’m already terrified! And the way to reduce my anxiety is to study the threat so that it’s not nebulous.
AP: What was the most difficult part in preparing to write World War Z?
MB: You don’t know what you don’t know, so you don’t know what you’re missing. There’s always a fear of groping around in the dark; of not even knowing who to talk to. That was a real struggle, because I’m an insular guy. I’m not a social guy. Part of it was talking to experts, but part of it was reading books—and I’m fully dyslexic. So that was a real slog.
It was also about never trusting the internet. I used it once or twice, like, to research laser weaponry. I literally went to a company’s website, saw their demonstration video, and was like, “Yeah, okay. That is not a practical weapon for hunting zombies. I see how long it takes to burn through something.”
AP: Obviously humanity’s most terrifying challenge in the last 20 years was the COVID-19 pandemic. How do you view that real-world horror in the context of World War Z?
MB: COVID was scary because I knew it was coming thanks to my friends in the military and biodefense community. I was part of what was called the Blue Ribbon Biodefense Panel for germ attacks way before COVID. So I already had at my fingertips the ability to tell the difference between panic porn in the media and the real deal. I also had to study diseases enough to write about a zombie plague. But also, it came from being on the receiving end of a bioterror attack. When I worked at SNL [from 2001 to 2003], we had the anthrax letters delivered to our building [in October 2001].
So, I knew this was coming, but the question was how to warn people. I had people laughing at me. Ironically, the people who are the worst minds to reach are the smarty-smarts because they think they know everything.
AP: Were you expecting COVID to be much worse than it was?
MB: Oh, much worse. It got me into trouble, because I was prepping for, like, tanks on the street, you know? I was ready for that. I stocked my home with food that would last the longest as opposed to food that my wife would actually eat.
But the irony is, had it been worse, we might have actually done better. Studying diseases over the years—it’s sort of like the slow zombie versus the fast zombie. The fast zombie is so scary you have to react. The slow zombie gives you the false sense of security. Like, “Oh, I can take ‘em out.” COVID was the slow zombie. It allowed us to be arrogant and dismiss it: “Oh, it’s no worse than the flu.”
AP: How did you see that play out during the quarantine?
MB: It goes back to when COVID hit New York City. I had written a book called The Harlem Hellfighters, which was a true story of African American soldiers in World War I. They’re still an active unit in the National Guard, and I’m friends with their chief medical officer. Their job was to pick up the dead bodies around New York.
He said to me, “If those bodies had been stacked up on the street for everyone to see them, there would have been no argument about masking or distancing or taking the vaccine.” The hiding of it is what allowed naysayers to get way more people killed.
AP: Where did the grown-ups “drop the ball,” as you say?
MB: I think the greatest failure on the part of leadership at every level was not publicizing the dead. Maybe they were afraid of angry letters and backlash and didn’t want to cause a panic, but that’s exactly what they should have done.
A doctor in Los Angeles told me they converted hospital rooms into morgues. He said, “You don’t believe the amount of bodies. We’ve got pyramids of body bags.” And I’m like, “Well, then why is this not on the news every night?”
AP: After experiencing an actual global plague, how do you feel about World War Z’s overall accuracy?
MB: I think it was accurate for the time. I would still have the plague coming from China, 100 percent. I would love to say that was my genius futuristic prediction, but no. I based it on SARS. And this is why it’s unforgivable that it happened again. If I wrote it today, I would really highlight why it was allowed to be [downplayed]—and the reason is our greed. All of our stuff is made in China.
I would also really change the politicization of information. We’re living in a time where all facts have become tribalized. We’ve had 20 years of such dumbing down that I think it would be a central tenant of the book.
AP: Would you change how the United States responded to a zombie outbreak?
MB: I still firmly believe we are a moderate country, but I don’t know how brave we are. In order for a crime to be committed, you don’t need 100 bullies. You just need one bully and 99 cowards.
The psycho fanatics have a microphone now, which was inconceivable 20 years ago. They are hate merchants, and the erosion of our education system has created a demand that the merchants supply.
AP: So you think we would have handled COVID differently in 2006?
MB: If COVID happened 20 years earlier, we would all have gotten vaccinated, because of all the grandmas and grandpas who grew up before the polio vaccine.
AP: What else has changed?
MB: When I talk to people in power, I try to educate them about what I call “uphill influence” versus “downhill influence.” Downhill influence is when there’s a pre-existing bias that you just need to hijack and ride downhill. There’s gravity already there, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It was an established fact 20 or 30 years ago that vaccines kept you safe. So, if you were rolling out a vaccine, you could already just ride that existence acceptance downhill. The gravity was with you.
Uphill is when you have to educate before you can even start to persuade. You first have to educate people about just the world that you’re trying to explain. Vaccines have gone from downhill to uphill. The [subjects] we all had to try to stay awake through in seventh grade science class aren’t even there anymore.
I understand [MAHA supporters] want a clean planet, food, and water, and all of that will make you healthier. However, in 1491, the people who lived on this continent had all that, right? The moment the first Javier Bardem-looking Spaniard coughed on them, whole civilizations died.
Max Brooks and Mel Brooks at the Los Angeles premiere of HBO Documentary Films’ Mel Brooks: 99 Year Old Man! on January 20, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. Credit: Chad Salvador/Variety via Getty Images Chad Salvador
AP: Both of your zombie books hinge on public education, and that’s now a major aspect of your threat analysis work. Do you know why you keep returning to this theme?
MB: I think one of the reasons I’m so obsessed with education is because I was not a good student. I have such ferocious learning disabilities. I never felt instantly comfortable learning, and I’ve always had to find workarounds. My mother had to help me find workarounds so I could learn. So when I research, it takes so much time and effort and [there’s] so much insecurity. I understand how hard it is to teach something to someone who doesn’t naturally pick it up.
I’m very lucky that I come from two parents who had no formal education, but were both very smart. Most importantly, they were very curious. I became very comfortable with the idea of approaching something as an absolute beginner.
AP: It took 14 years between World War Z and your follow-up sci-fi novel, Devolution. Your next book, The First Hundred Hours: A Story of Alien Invasion, comes out in 2027. Is there a reason for such long pauses between these projects?
MB: I’m not a natural scientist. The amount I’ve had to study for this new book has been excruciating. But it’s very humbling having to talk to the experts and say things like, “Please talk to me like I’m a third grader—and not a smart third grader.”
AP: Would you end World War Z the same if it was set in 2026?
MB: I would still end it on a positive note, and I think that has to do with being an American. We don’t have the luxury of abandoning our ideals, because that’s all we are. We’re not a nation-state—the ideals in America are all that hold this mutt [of a] nation together. We all come from different places and tribes, and we all agree to live under a certain set of guidelines. It’s really critical that we fight for those guidelines.
If there is one takeaway, it’s the central reason I wrote the book in the first place. We’re all stuck on the same planet together, and that planet is not that big anymore. What affects some of us could potentially affect all of us. I think America has some amazing cultural strengths, but one of our weaknesses is our isolationism. That’s built on an outdated notion that we are somehow protected by two oceans and our geography. That’s not true anymore.
Tyrannosaurus rex fossils are relatively common finds, with dozens of variously complete examples on display in museums around the world. But T. rextracks? That’s an entirely different story. Even when stomped into the mud by a 17,500-pound apex predator, dinosaur footprints rarely last long enough to fossilize over millions of years.
That’s what makes a recent discovery in southwestern North Dakota so remarkable. Paleontologists from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and Liverpool John Moores University in England have documented not one, but four footprints preserved along a 23-foot-long path within the famous Hell Creek Formation. The prints are the first known trackway made by an adult T. rex, and are described in a study recently published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
The tracks were discovered in North Dakota’s Hell Creek Formation: Tyler Lyson
While rare, T. rex footprints are distinctive for their massive size and narrow toes. In this case, each dino-stomp measures about three feet long. Paleontologists identified the roughly 66.5-million-year-old path last year on federal land near the town of Marmath, North Dakota, near the state’s southwestern border with Montana. After carefully clearing the surroundings, researchers imaged each footprint using a high-resolution 3D surface scanner. This allowed the team to digitally analyze the scene, as well as create physical reproductions.
The two left and right imprints suggest that the dinosaur was a sizable adult with an estimated 13-foot stride—but paleontologists don’t think this particular T. rex was in much of a hurry. Based on the gait, it was likely moseying around at 3.5 to 4.5 miles per hour, or about the same speed as a human going on a power-walk. Given the tracks’ weathering and erosion, the team stresses their theorized speed is somewhat speculative.
3D scans allowed researchers to generate digital recreations as well as physical models. Credit: Antoine Bercovici
Paleontologists are now planning to excavate three of the four footprints later this year, then transfer them by helicopter to the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
“Bones tell us an enormous amount about these animals, but footprints capture a moment of behavior. With a trackway, we can actually follow an animal as it moved across the landscape,” Tyler Lyson, a Denver Museum of Nature & Science paleontologist and study co-author, said in a statement. “That is incredibly rare for T. rex.”
As the National Park Service (NPS) continues highlighting the many roles of its parks during World War II, the western most landmass in the contiguous United States is getting its due: Olympic National Park.
First designated a monument by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1909 before President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s reclassification as a park in 1938, the 922,650 acre protected region in Washington State is also recognized by UNESCO as an International Biosphere Reserve. Olympic National Park includes temperate forests, stretches of Pacific coastline, as well as subalpine forests and meadows. Thanks to its location on an isolated peninsula, it’s also home to many endemic plant and animal species including the Olympic marmot (Marmota olympus) and Piper’s bellflower (Campanula piperi).
The national park received a lot of attention during WWII for very different reasons, however. Its history is laid out in a recent social media post by Pearl Harbor National Memorial due to an ongoing search-and-rescue operation in the park. Because the peninsula extends further west than any other landmass in the contiguous United States, military and government officials considered it one of the most strategic—and vulnerable—places in the nation. The nearby Strait of Juan de Fuca funneled all traffic to-and-from vital ports in Seattle and Tacoma, as well as the naval base in Bremerton.
Two of the outposts are still accessible by trail today. Credit: NPS
U.S. Army and Coast Guard engineers began installing 13 Aircraft Warning Service (AWS) stations throughout Olympic National Park in 1942, many from converted fire lookouts. Park rangers even staffed some of the stations, and continuously monitored the skies for potential aerial bombardments. The installations remained operational throughout the entire year, regardless of the region’s notorious winter storms.
The many logistical and environmental challenges were even documented by Olympic National Park’s superintendent. At one point, it took two days for a six-person resupply crew to toboggan the three miles to Hurricane Lookout. Another team of eight workers backpacked six miles to one of the park’s most remote posts while carrying 400 pounds of supplies.
The AWS ended in 1944, but two of the original outposts still exist and are accessible to park visitors. Dodger Point and Pyramid Peak can be reached after hiking a steep trail north of Lake Crescent.
Every week leading up to the 85th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, the National Park Service will take you across the country to explore America’s experience in World War II through the lens of national parks. The first week in the series also highlighted the roles of Golden Gate Recreation Area and Governors Island National Monument in protecting the coasts.
Cannibalism is understandably frowned upon today,but humans haven’t always been so adverse to the idea of eating our own. Across Europe, multiple archaeological sites indicate at least some Neolithic communities routinely consumed unlucky victims as far back as 5000 BCE. But inside three caves in present-day Spain, ancient skeletal remains vividly illustrate that prehistoric groups never adopted a “one-size-fits-all” approach to their cannibalism. As researchers explained in a study recently published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, a range of methods and motivations for cannibalism existed among Neolithic peoples prior to the Bronze Age.
“For decades, prehistoric cannibalism has tended to be interpreted as a single type of behavior,” Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo, a study co-author and archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology of Mérida, explained in a statement. “Our work shows that it is not possible to speak of a single form of ‘Neolithic cannibalism’, because similar archaeological evidence may conceal very different social realities.”
At least two Neolithic human skulls were fashioned into cups at Carigüela cave in Granada. Credit: Antonio Rodríguez- Hidalgo / IAM-CSIC Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo
The latest evidence originated inside Malalmuerzo, Carigüela, and Majolicas,a trio of caves located in the Grenada region of southern Spain. Archaeologists first discovered the Neolithic gathering spots over 50 years ago, and the caverns have since become famous examples of prehistoric cannibalism. Rodríguez-Hidalgo’s team re-examined almost 1,000 bones excavated from the caves, then combined their observations with statistical analysis and machine learning programs to classify the various types of damage exhibited on every fragment. These markings included fractures, cuts, blunt impacts, and even teeth marks. They also determined each subject’s estimated age based on skeletal and dental development.
Although many bones show similar butchering techniques and boiling preparations, each cave’s specimens highlighted different practices and contexts. At Malalmuerzo, it appears that a single, brutal act of collective violence involving victims across many age groups took place about 5000 BCE. However, the remains at Carigüela span multiple Neolithic time periods, and even include a pair of skulls fashioned into drinking cups. The most recent cannibalism occurred in Majolicas around 3800 BCE, but doesn’t appear directly tied to violence. Instead, some of the bones are stained red—likely using a rare mineral called cinnabar—which points to ritualistic or funerary motives.
Cut marks are visible on the zygomatic bone of an adult skull from Majolicas cave. Credit: Antonio Rodríguez-Hidalgo / IAM-CSIC
Combined with other archaeological findings, it now appears that cannibalism during the European Neolithic historically occurred in three eras:the late sixth millennium BCE, the middle fifth millennium BCE, and the end of the third millennium BCE. Although traceable to these periods, it still remains unclear why the communities engaged in the practices and rituals.
“We cannot say that all these episodes had a common cause, but we can say that throughout the Neolithic… there was a context of conflict and/or manipulation of human remains,” added archaeologist and study co-author Palmira Saladié.
The humble egg is often a symbol of fragility, but there is strength in numbers. According to, egg-based geometry may be sturdy enough to protect future generations of astronauts from the ever-growing threat of space debris.
Around one million pieces of junk larger than one centimeter currently orbit the Earth, thanks to decades of space travel, rocket launches, and satellite deployments. Each tiny trash bit travels at roughly 17,400 miles per hour, making them immensely dangerous for ongoing missions and exploration efforts. International agencies are now monitoring the existing space trash, while researchers test methods to clean up the problem. However,there is still a growing need to protect both people and property above everyone’s heads. And that’s where eggs come into play.
“A single eggshell breaks easily under local force, but the protection mechanism of the eggshell array is completely different,” Yuxin Wang, an engineer at Dalian University of Technology, explained in a statement.
As Wang and his colleagues demonstrate in a study published today in the Journal of Applied Physics, aluminum eggshell shaped designs arrayed together cooperatively deform in a way that distributes energy across a larger structure, making the overall surface a promising addition in reinforced shielding. These are even stronger when each “egg” in Wang’s prototypes were filled with water. Good ol’ H2O then dampened impact shock waves through the eggs.
A 3D image of the water-filled aluminum eggshell array metastructure shows the eggshell pattern on an aluminum plate. The second aluminum plate—which goes on top of the eggs—is excluded from the image to help visualize the geometry. Credit: Wang et al.
Engineers tested both 3D printed designs and ran computer simulations for standard aluminum plates, water-filled aluminum spheres placed between flat plates, and the novel eggshell arrays. The sandwiched spheres performed the best—reducing a projectile’s impact velocity by almost 65 percent, compared to 51 percent from just the plates. The most optimized iterations also included placing the egg models upright so that their narrowed end touches the top aluminum plate.
The team still needs to optimize the metamaterial’s filling and overall geometry, along the metal thickness and aspect ratios. That said, egg-ified shielding may one day be a common addition to vehicles and satellites destined for low Earth orbit.
“This work demonstrates that bionic, lightweight metastructures are a promising route for hypervelocity-impact protection,” said Wang.
Marine biologists from Trinidad and Tobago recently completed the first locally helmed and most expansive survey of the deep-sea waters around the Caribbean islands. The month-long project aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute’s research vessel (R/V) Falkor (too) documented around 13 percent of the nation’s marine territory, and described 20 potential new species. Researchers also collected over 700 specimens for the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine. Once catalogued, the additions will increase the size of the university’s Zoology Museum deep ocean collection by 12 times.
“Every new discovery we make, whether ecosystem, species or behavior, deepens our understanding of what’s at stake and strengthens our ability to be true stewards of this largely unseen but critical part of our country,” said expedition chief scientist Diva Amon.
Check out some of the stunning, rarely seen creatures below. (Click to expand images to full screen.)
Suspected new sea star
A suspected new species of sea star (Porcellanasteridae) rests on the seafloor at a depth of 3,961 meters. Researchers collected the specimen while making dozens of other discoveries during the expedition, including at least 20 suspected new species. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
Symbiotic coral
Symbiotic brittle stars cling to a deep-sea coral off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. A research team led by marine biologist Dr. Diva Amon (SpeSeas), composed largely of Trinbagonian scientists, surveyed the island nation’s deep-water territory to document rare ecosystems and guide local conservation efforts. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
King crab
A king crab (Lithodes genus) crawls across the seafloor at a depth of 1,083 meters. Top predators in deep-sea environments, researchers documented these crabs while searching for bubble streams associated with unexplored cold seeps. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
Rare manta ray fall
The science team encountered this rare manta ray (Mobula) fall at 1,025 meters depth off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. When animals die in the ocean, their bodies often sink to the seafloor, creating a rich food buffet that feeds hundreds of deep-sea species in an often food-scarce environment. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
Eelpout
An eelpout (Pachycara caribbaeum) lies on a bed of chemosynthetic mussels (Gigantidas childressi) off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago. Ninety-three percent of Trinidad and Tobago lies below recreational scuba depths, placing its largest ecosystems in the mesophotic zone (between 30 and 199 meters) and the deep ocean. The geological setting of the two islands is ideal for supporting chemosynthetic habitats. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
Squat lobster
A cold-water coral recorded at a depth of 1,055 meters (3,461 feet) provides habitat for marine life on the seafloor. While warm-water coral reefs at shallow recreational depths are widely known, deep-sea cold-water corals are far more abundant yet remain understudied. These complex ecosystems support diverse marine species, including squat lobsters, as pictured here. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
Mushroom coral
A mushroom coral rests on the seafloor at a depth of 1,277 meters off Trinidad and Tobago. Less than 0.001% of the island nation’s deep-ocean territory has been explored due to technological constraints, leaving significant knowledge gaps about deep-water marine life in the region. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
Black swallower fish
A black swallower fish (Chiasmodon niger) swims at a depth of 1,259 meters during a remotely operated vehicle dive off Trinidad and Tobago. Known for their expandable stomachs and dislocating jaws, these rare deep-sea fish can swallow prey larger than themselves. This specimen’s translucent belly reveals a recent meal. A research team led by marine biologist Diva Amon conducted the first comprehensive deep-water survey of the nation’s ocean territory, where more than 93% of the waters lie below recreational diving depths. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
Lizard fish
Scientists observed this lizardfish at a depth of 148 meters while exploring a slope off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago in a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
Ghost shark
A chimaera, or ghost shark, swims near a cold seep at a depth of 2,355 meters. Scientists discovered 25 cold seeps during the recent deep-sea expedition. Unlike sunlight-dependent ecosystems, marine life near these seafloor fissures relies on chemosynthetic energy generated by gas escaping from the Earth’s surface. Credit: ROV SuBastian / Schmidt Ocean Institute
The American cheetah (Miracinonyx trumani) stalked North America’s Pleistocene grasslands for nearly 2.5 million years, but new evidence suggests they likely didn’t resemble their present-day African namesake. After comparing M. trumani DNA to nine other feline species ranging from house cats to lions, it now appears that the ancient predator’s closest relative is an entirely different big cat. What’s more, M. trumani often roamed much farther north than researchers once assumed.
“It’s really surprising and exciting to identify another predator present in Beringia,” Molly Cassatt-Johnstone, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), said in a statement.
Berinigia is the ancient stretch of land that once connected northeastern Asia to northwestern North America. While submerged in the Pacific Ocean today, its exposure during the Pleistocene allowed megafauna like the woolly mammoth and other large animals to migrate between continents.
Cassatt-Johnstone and her colleagues presented their findings in a study published today in the journal Current Biology. Their evidence is based on four of the most complete sets of M. trumani DNA found to date. Paleontologists previously discovered one of the specimens in Wyoming, but the other three come from Canada’s Yukon territory. While the latter samples were previously believed to belong to a completely different big cat species, the UCSC team successfully proved that they were actually also American cheetahs. This means M. trumani often lived as much as 20 degrees of latitude farther north than experts thought.
M. trumani fossils exhibit long forelimbs, large nasal cavities, and a slender body, which led paleontologists to theorize the predators resembled the present-day cheetah. The presence of big cat remains near pronghorns (aka the American antelope) further suggested M. trumani chased down fast prey. However, the discovery of American cheetahs so far north into Canada complicates this image—pronghorns didn’t live in the Yukon.
So what did these M. trumani eat? An analysis of the Yukon fossils’ carbon and nitrogen levels revealed the big cats subsisted on a diet almost entirely of fish, while the Wyoming predators mainly ate herbivores. The team also identified two genes in M. trumani tied to circadian rhythm that were nonfunctional. This allowed the animals to handle the extended periods of daylight and darkness experienced in northern latitudes, and perhaps even made them nocturnal.
As for their closest relatives, it now appears that M. trumani was much more similar to today’s pumas, since the two species share a common ancestry about 2.6 million years ago. By comparison, the closest shared relative between M. trumani and cheetahs is 4.7 million years ago. Taken altogether, the latest findings highlight a big cat that was highly adaptable to its environment, as well as regional climates and available prey.
“It’s very hard to imagine a prehistoric species we’ve never seen without comparing it to something we know,” said Cassatt-Johnstone. “But this approach can limit our understanding of ancient animals’ complexity, unique evolutionary histories, and behaviors.”
The largest Tyrannosaurus rex fossils ever discovered belong to a 66-million-year-old apex predator named Scotty. Like many T. rex skeletons, it’s difficult to determine if the specimen was male or female, but Scotty was an unequivocal bruiser. Standing 13-feet-tall at the hip and measuring upwards of 43-feet-long, the Late Cretaceous hunter weighed as much as 19,500 pounds.
However, Scotty isn’t simply the biggest T. rex on record. One of its bones still has traces of preserved soft tissue. This is almost never seen in paleontology, as soft tissues degrade due to the ravages of time. The only way to safely examine these delicate remains is through highly sensitive techniques like neutron imaging. But with the help of researchers at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee, paleontologists recently glimpsed Scotty’s rib and its remaining tissue in unprecedented detail. The results offer some of the first in-depth looks at fossilized dinosaur tissue on a microscopic level.
“It’s like winning the lottery,” Mauricio Barbi, a physicist at the University of Regina (U of R) in Saskatchewan, Canada, said in a recent interview. “Scotty’s rib contains a vast network of mineralized blood vessels that has never before been observed in a fossil.”
The reason for the blood vessels’ preservation is also a window into the T. rex’s death. The broken rib indicates that Scotty likely succumbed to injuries sustained during a dinosaur brawl. After the rib cracked, iron-saturated blood covered the wound and formed tiny blood vessels to facilitate faster healing. The anatomical response wasn’t enough, and Scotty soon died in a salty marsh. The surrounding environment slowed down the T. rex’s decomposition so much that it allowed many of those blood vessels to fossilize.
To get a closer look at these details, paleontologists relied on neutron imaging to see the lighter elements present in the fossils as well as X-ray imaging to look at the heavier ones. From there, researchers also used synchrotron radiation and other microscopy approaches to analyze the healing tissues on a cellular level. Importantly, all of this imaging was possible without damaging Scotty’s priceless fossils.
“Neutrons not only corroborated what we found with synchrotron radiation techniques that led to the discovery of blood vessels in Scotty’s rib,” explained U of R physicist Marcella Berg. “They also proved to be a highly valuable addition to our current studies in search of soft tissue preservation in fossils.”
The story of a 2,000-year-old ring potentially tied to one of the Christian Bible’s most impactful figures has yet another hypothesis. In a study recently published in the journal Palestine Exploration Quarterly, historian Catherine Bonesho argues that the letters on a ring often associated with the Roman governor Pontius Pilate refer to somebody named Pilate, and not necessarily the official who sentenced Jesus to death. The reason behind the mix-up? A common Roman translation error.
The backstory behind Pilate’s ring
The ring was first excavated during the 1960s at a mountaintop fortress called Herodium about 7.5 miles south of Jerusalem. However, researchers ostensibly forgot about the jewelry after placing it in storage, where it remained until its rediscovery in 2018. That same year, archaeologists publicly revealed the artifact uncovered in the Judean desert with supposedly dramatic historical connections.
Based on their analysis, researchers initially argued a copper alloy ring’s engraved Greek lettering (ΠΙΛΑΤO) and image of a vase tied the accessory either to Pontius Pilate, or someone who worked in the New Testament figure’s administration.
The theory made international headlines while also receiving a heavy dose of criticism. Another group of scholars eventually refuted the claims in 2023, contending the ring had no connection to anyone named Pilate. In their view, the image separating the letters Π and Ι from Λ, Α, Τ and Ο denoted two separate words.
Archeologists suggested the ring was supposed to feature the name ΠΙΛΑΤΟY—the Greek translation of PILATI, or “belonging to Pilate.”But for whatever reason, the engraver left off the “Y.” It was around then that Bonesho first learned about the ring’s existence—and this theory—through a social media post.
“After talking with a friend of mine about it, I commented on the post that maybe it was Latin written in Greek letters,” Bonesho, a historian of ancient Judaism at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) recalled in a recent profile.
It’s all Greek to me
A separate scholarly article cited her suggestion, which eventually spurred Bonesho’s own investigation. After analyzing digital images and renderings of the ring, Bonesho now believes whoever engraved it wasn’t trying to fit two separate words on the face. Nor were they discarding a “Y” to save space. Instead, they were attempting to fit ΠΙΛΑΤO around the vessel relief, which was possibly engraved on the ring by an earlier artisan. The second engraver may have also accidentally created a tiny defect that required them to break up Pilate’s name.As for the letters themselves, Bonesho thinks the ring’s maker mistakenly swapped the Latin long “o” vowel with the similar looking Greek omicron. Basically, she thinks it’s a 2,000-year-old typo.
“The mixing up of omicron and omega for long and short ‘O’ vowels in transliterating Latin into Greek is common among early Latin language learners,” Bonesho contended. “They might have thought, ‘It looks like an O, and I have an O in front of me—why not just use the O?’”
Under these parameters, the ring technically should say “ΠΙΛΑΤΩ,” which means “to” or “for” Pilate. If true, then the wearer wasn’t a man named Pilate, but a subordinate or enslaved person under his oversight who used the ring as a wax or clay seal for various materials and documents. The theory is further bolstered by the jewelry’s material,Copper alloy was considered a cheaper metal at the time, and usually only worn by lower status individuals.
Bonesho said this latest interpretation doesn’t lessen the artifact’s historical importance. If anything, it imbues it with more nuance and context.
“Complexity often gets lost in popular narratives of how things worked at that time,” she said. “But understanding the ring gives us more insight into what the Roman administration of early Roman Judea looked like.”
High school students interning at an observatory in Hawaii have successfully imaged a pair of colliding spiral galaxies located deep within overlapping cultural constellations. Formally classified as NGC 7253, the two galaxies are over 200 million light-years away, and reside in both Pegasus and Ka Lupe o Kawelo, or “The Kite of Kawelo.”
“NGC 7253 is a fascinating object because it’s two galaxies that are merging into one over billions of years,” said Project Hōkūlani intern Raiyan Rahman. “But we mainly picked this object because it was one of the few that actually lay within a Hawaiian constellation.”
Rahman and the other students from Waiākea High School and the Volcano School of Arts and Sciences spent one week in fall 2025 at the Gemini North Hilo Base Facility in Hilo to learn more about observatory operations, astronomy, and identify a deep space subject to study using the facility’s telescope. They selected NGC 7253 for its location inside a major navigational constellation utilized by Hawaiian sailors for generations.
Despite being separated by four million light-years, the gravitational pull inside NGC 7253 is strong enough that the two cosmic neighborhoods are on an inescapable collision course. Over a period of about one billion years, the spiral galaxies will smash into each other and merge into a single amalgamation. When this finally occurs, its spiral arms will generate a massive uptick in star formations. These newborn stellar objects will then ionize nearby hydrogen gas to form H II regions. In the image compiled by the high schoolers, these H II regions are already visible in the areas of bright pink light.
Earlier this summer, another three students from Keaʻau High School and Kamehameha Schools also participated in Project Hōkūlani. Continuing on the work of their predecessors, they decided on an official name for NGC 7253—Nā ʻUhane Māhoe Huki Pū i ke Ola, which roughly translates to “The Twin Spirits Pulling Together Creating Life.”
“After spending so much time on Maunakea, it was important to us to pick something that was both culturally and astronomically significant,” added Rahman.
People generally want to spend as little time as possible in a public restroom. The vulnerability, the crass graffiti, the (lack of) cleanliness, uncomfortable toilet seats—the list of reasons is lengthy. But despite their infamy, public bathrooms remain an absolute societal necessity that deserve much more appreciation. At least, that’s what designer Jake Welch believes.
“There is perhaps no space in society which better captures the creativity and impertinence of humans when they know that nobody else is watching,” Welch explains in the description for his ongoing Restroom Archive project.
Although he admits the Restroom Archive started as a joke in 2023, he officially launched the site last year. It already features nearly 100 bathrooms, including amenities found in restaurants, gas stations, coffee shops, and various other public spaces in 36 cities across the United States and Europe.
Welch isn’t a one-man urinal investigation unit, however. Almost 250 archivists have contributed to the project so far, and anyone is welcome to help document this wide and weird subsection of urban planning. As long as you can provide a 3D scan of a bathroom. While scanning a building’s interior may sound technical, Restroom Archive includes a quick how-to section on the website. The easiest way is to download a LIDAR-based smartphone app called Polycam to digitally map each space, but Welch offers a couple alternative routes, as well. Volunteers then tag the bathroom’s location and provide a brief description of the lavatory itself.
“This compact stall has white painted cinder block walls and a speckled tile floor with an open top with a pale yellow door trimmed in a brick red,” reads one entry for a graffiti-covered faculty bathroom in the Fine Arts building at Spain’s University of the Basque Country.
“A sign in the back left of the stall encourages users in Spanish and Basque to ‘not leave evidence’ on the toilet seat,” the uploader added.
A rare dime that inadvertently launched one of most successful coin collecting careers in history has sold for an astounding $1.25 million. The coveted 1894 S-Dime was auctioned during Stack’s Bowers Galleries “Rarities Night” on September 1, and was this particular coin’s fourth auction appearance. Known as a Barber Dime for its designer, United States Bureau of the Mint Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber, only 24 of the 10-cent pieces were ever manufactured. Of those, just nine are known to still exist, making them exceptionally coveted by collectors. The Barber Dime is also ranked fourth in the widely used 100 Greatest U.S. Coins reference guide.
Coincidentally, Stack’s Bowers is named after one of those very collectors. In 1957, a 19-year-old Dave Bowers successfully bid on the same Barber Dime auctioned earlier this month. Bowers made international headlines given his age, and the idea that anyone would pay $4,750 for a dime. He soon leveraged both to help launch his own career in numismatism. Bowers resold the 1894 S-Dime for $6,000 in 1960, before later moving between a handful of other collectors.
There are multiple conflicting stories to explain why the 1894 S-Dime is so rare, although they all tie back in one way or another to the Panic of 1893. Within a year of its onset, the economic depression practically eradicated the need to mint any new coinage for months. Some historians allege the dimes are a result of the San Francisco Mint needing to melt $2.40 in leftover silver, while other experts claim the Mint’s superintendent made the coins as gifts for his daughter and a handful of banker friends. Regardless of the true origin story, only nine Barber Dimes are accounted for today.
Unlike the current U.S. dime’s design featuring Franklin D. Roosevelt, Barber dimes showcase a portrait of Lady Liberty on the front along with the words “One Dime” above another wreath on the back.
One of a smartwatch’s main selling points can be its ability to track the calories burned while exercising. But similar to the health tech industry’s “10,000 steps” selling point, new research strongly suggests a wearable’s workout assessment may overestimate your efforts—and in some cases, the readings are off by as much as 25 percent.
“You can’t treat the calories burned number it gives you as an accurate number, because it’s not,” Florida International University kinesiologist Jason Kostrna said during a recent profile.
Kostrna and his colleagues compared four of the most popular fitness wearables on the market: the Apple Watch Series 8, Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, Fitbit Sense 2, and Garmin Forerunner 955 against clinical-grade measurement equipment. They then asked 58 adult volunteers to use a stationary bike during a controlled workout session, while alternating between moderate and intense activity. Their results were simultaneously recorded by one of the commercially available wearables, as well as a COSMED K5 metabolic analyzer. For reference, COSMED fitness equipment can be seen during James Bond’s physiology assessment scene in the 2012 film Skyfall.
According to results recently published in the journal PLOS One, smartwatch calorie overestimations ranged between 15 and 25 percent. Apple was the most comparatively accurate, while Garmin and Samsung offered the most generous results. Meanwhile, the researchers needed to discard Fitbit from their trial entirely because the device repeatedly glitched during experiments. In some instances the Fitbit recorded a single calorie burned during an entire workout, or even failed to generate any assessment.
To put the larger findings in perspective: if your wearable claims you burned 500 calories at the gym, that number may be much closer to 350 calories. This may not seem too serious, but the errors can easily add up over time.
“You could be hundreds of calories off each week and easily end up in a calorie surplus when you think you’re in a calorie deficit,” said Kostrna.
Tests also consistently indicated that smartwatches become less accurate for wearers with higher body fat percentages. The exact reason is still unclear, but Kostrna’s team suspects the issue may stem from how each device’s algorithms are calculated. This information is often highly guarded from public scrutiny by the tech companies themselves.
“When the companies are developing those algorithms, we don’t know where the test data is coming from,” Kostrna explained. ” That’s why I think it’s beneficial for the companies to see this type of data, so they can refine their products over time.”
However, this doesn’t mean the devices are completely useless. Their caloric measurements should just be taken as generous estimates. Researchers suggest treating a reading as a best case scenario after each workout, while people with higher body fat index may want to view the actual numbers even more conservatively. At the same time, the study’s authors warn against solutions like more aggressive dieting, since the body still requires healthy foods to recharge and improve. In any case, Kostrna stressed that calorie monitoring should only be one part of a person’s larger fitness goals.
“Focus on how you’re feeling, and use data to get a little better over time,” he suggested.
Japan’s bears are still causing problems. The hefty predators continue to stray from mountainous forests in search of food, putting them in direct contact with the nation’s rapidly aging and dwindling population. According to the country’s Environment Ministry, bears have killed six people across the country since April 1, while a record 13 victims died during the previous fiscal year. It’s gotten so bad that Japan called in the armed forces to help, and companies are even running out of their popular robotic wolf deterrents.
Culling strategies are reducing bear numbers, with around 14,000 killed during the last fiscal year. But in the central prefecture of Nagano on the main island of Honshū, conservationists are promoting a different approach to keeping both humans and bears safe. Using a combination of sensors, traps, and GPS monitoring, researchers are avoiding unnecessarily killing bears while improving the overall population’s wellbeing at the same time.
“By not killing too many of them, more bears survive to live out their expected lifespan. In that sense, a healthy bear population is being formed,” biologist Akiko Takii explained in a recent interview with AFP.
Takii is participating in a program with an over 30 year head start. In 1995, local authorities discovered bear numbers suddenly shrinking on Honshū, and slowly enacted new strategies like GPS monitoring and installing over 2,000 miles of fencing. But concerns for the animals have dwindled in recent years, as attacks and deaths continue to mount across Japan.
Takii and her supporters argue that simply culling bears is not a practical, ethical, or necessarily long-term solution strategy. Instead, members of Nagano’s Shinshu Asian Black Bear Research Association are using catch-and-release tactics to monitor animal movements and keep locals out of harm’s way. Meanwhile, Takii is overseeing school outreach classes to educate children and their parents about bears, as well as humanity’s relationship to them. While a combination of culling and conservation is likely the path forward, advocates like Takii hope officials will see the added benefits of humane interventions
“I am convinced it’s safe to live with them as long as humans don’t offend them,” a school principal recently told AFP , following one of Takii’s presentations.
A recently excavated, 2,000-year-old ancient Roman artifact suggests that followers of secretive cult were more widespread than historians initially thought. Based on findings recently detailed in the journal Antiquity, a skyfather named Sabazios from present-day Turkey boasted worshippers as far away as northeastern Spain.
Ancient Rome’s primary pantheon of deities like Jupiter, Minerva, Juno, Mars, and Vulcan are fairly well-known today. But for every Apollo or Neptune, there were hundreds of minor gods and goddesses worshipped across the vast empire. These entities often evolved in diversity and complexity depending on regional influences and traditions.
While digging at the site of a Roman villa about 200 miles east of Madrid in Spain, archaeologists from the University of Girona discovered a striking artifact that points to a similarly mysterious cult that existed in the area around 2,000 years ago. Pottery fragments featuring a handle crafted to resemble a two-headed snake suggest at least some locals dedicated themselves to the god Sabazios. While minor religious groups were common at the time, the deity’s location makes the find particularly interesting. The skyfather horseman Sabazios traces back to Thrace and Phrygia, regions located about 2,000 away, across present-day Turkey and the Balkans.
Sabazios was often represented with a votive hand decorated with various iconic embellishments. Credit: Alcuni monumenti del Museo Carrafa
Sabazios’ origins date back at least 3,000 years, and likely solidified as migrating Indo-European Phrygians settled in Anatolia, Turkey. Despite always being depicted on horseback and wielding a staff of power, ancient Greeks came to associate the sky god with both Zeus and Dionysus. Followers of Sabazios may have even come into conflict with Indigenous Phrygians who worshipped a mother goddess named Cybele. Historians cite the poet Homer, who wrote of a young Priam’s alliance with the Phrygians against the Amazons.
Sabazios remained associated with Jupiter as well as Mercury amid the Roman era, and was most commonly symbolized by small brass or copper votives crafted into hands and decorated with numerous symbolic embellishments like pinecones, rings, and lightning bolts. However, historians are still unsure about the exact meaning behind these images.
Archaeological layers and surrounding artifacts indicate the Roman villa vessel dates back to around the reign of Emperor Augustus between 27 BCE and 14 CE. Mineral analysis could not conclusively identify the pot’s geographic origins, but certain details indicate it may have come from North Africa.
Snakes are a common religious motif across ancient Rome and were associated with multiple deities, including Mithras. Despite this, the researchers still believe the pottery shards likely reference Sabazios based on previous finds at nearby sites. Archaeologists identified a portable bronze triptych with two of its three panels still intact inside of a tomb in present-day Catalonia dating to the same era. The triptych’s central image is Sabrazios surrounded by his cultic symbols.
While there is no clear explanation for how the worship of Sabazios traveled from central Asia, the study’s authors suggest a wandering priest from an eastern province operated in the region at the time. At some point, residents of the villa then incorporated the once foreign god into their private worship at home. If true, the discovery could dramatically expand the known reach of even the more obscure Roman cults.
“Apparently minor cults were not confined to restricted areas, but could have constituted extensive cultic networks within the wider Roman empire,” the study’s authors wrote.
The United States’ 63 official National Parks are often renowned for their natural beauty, but many of them are also hubs of history. To help honor both the country’s 250th birthday and the upcoming 85th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, more than a dozen locations are participating in World War II Across America’s National Parks. According to a recent announcement, three parks from around the country will highlight “different parts of America’s wartime story, including both triumphs and tragedies” every week leading up to December 7.
“This list of parks is by no means exclusive, nor are the stories that will be shared,” park representatives wrote on social media. “They represent just a fraction of the war’s impact on our parks and the nation, with many of those impacts still felt today.”
Located in New York Harbor near Lower Manhattan, Governors Island National Monument commemorates the location of the Eastern Theater of Operations, later renamed the Eastern Defense Command in 1942. The U.S. established the military headquarters here two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. This headquarters oversaw protecting the then 40 states, Washington D.C., as well as Army bases in Bermuda, Iceland, Greenland, and Newfoundland.
Governors Island also oversaw New York City’s defensive brownouts and blackouts to guard residents against any suspected aerial bombardments.
According to the National Park Service, Governors Island was the command headquarters and military post for the United States Army from 1794 until 1966. From 1966 to 1996 it was the US Coast Guard’s largest and most complex installation. Credit: STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images STAN HONDA
Anti-submarine nets, blackouts, and other domestic defences
On the other side of the country,the Golden Gate Recreation Area, was vital to the West Coast’s domestic defense during WWII. At the newly established Fort Cronkhite, thousands of troops in the Harbor Defenses of San Francisco mandated evening blackouts around the Bay Area, while maintaining an anti-submarine net, anti-aircraft weapons, and 600 underwater mines. The fort also included two 500-pound battery guns that were ready to aim at any potential incoming enemy naval vessels. Even today, many of the site’s hastily built, temporary wooden structures are still used by non-profit and educational park partners.
A sign for Golden Gate National Recreation Area near Crissy Field, in the Presidio, San Francisco, California. Credit: Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images Smith Collection/Gado
To keep up with the series, the National Park Service recommends following the #WWIINPS and #Freedom250 hashtags on social media. Next up for celebration: the Redwood National and State Parks.
Few entities from Australia’s Aboriginal cultures are more powerful than a Rainbow Serpent. Often likened to an archetypal mother goddess, the beings are associated with concepts like creation and chaos. Rainbow Serpents even possess the ability to fold the cosmos itself (often known as Dreamtime) to blend the past and the present. While stone wall paintings and rock arrangements of Rainbow Serpents across Australia date back hundreds of years, many examples of these revered deities apparently experienced a major growth spurt beginning during the 19th century.
“We could see from the shape of [it] with a large head-like stone at the end of a winding neck attached to a large body outlined with stones, that it resembled some paintings of Rainbow Serpents,” Paul Taçon, an archaeologist at Queensland’s Griffith University, said about a 407-foot-long rock arrangement near Awunbarna (Mount Borradaile) in northern Australia.
Taçon and his colleagues worked in partnership with local Amurdak representatives to meticulously document 165 archaeological locales across the region. In addition to 29 Rainbow Serpents found at 21 sites, the team also examined depictions of seven-foot-long pythons, life-sized kangaroos and crocodiles, Australia’s only known baleen whale rock art, and even a giant man measuring over seven feet tall.
A stone arrangement of a Rainbow Serpent is around 407 feet long. Credit: Paul Taçon
Although much of the art wasn’t available for radiocarbon dating, Aboriginal creators painted many of the Rainbow Serpents using white pipe clay that starts fading after only a few decades. Combined with other historical accounts and data, Taçon’s team now believes they can explain all of the elongated Rainbow Serpents. According to their recent study published in the journal Australian Archaeology, the desire to illustrate larger animals and other revered beings in art was a direct response to European colonization.
Awunbarna itself also supports this theory, since the region served as a nexus for trading, social gatherings, and religious ceremonies for multiple Aboriginal groups for generations. The area was also one of the initial places to experience colonial buffalo hunting during the latter half of the 19th century, making its inhabitants some of the first communities to endure European pressures on the environment. In some cases, Aboriginal artists even painted Rainbow Serpents and other mythically charged animals over or next to depictions of European firearms and sailing vessels. Archaeologists believe these depictions were communal attempts to reassert autonomy, authority, and tradition amid violent external threats.
Today, these cultural echoes remain vital reminders of an era marked by intense upheaval and Aboriginal erasure. But even centuries later, Rainbow Serpent artwork like a 407-foot-long stone protector Taçon spotted near Awunbarna remains as impactful as ever.
“I thought to myself, ‘Wow! This is one of the largest Rainbow Serpent paintings I have seen in 40 years of Arnhem Land rock art fieldwork,’” he recalled. “And look at those teeth and tongue!”
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