DISCOVERY! 70 million-year-old hypercarnivore named after Egyptian god

 This week's Dinosaur news is about a dinosaur named after an Egyptian God. Kostensuchus atrox, was a giant crocodile relative in Argentina 70 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.

(Kostensuchus atrox was part of an extinct group of reptiles related to living crocodiles and alligators. (Image credit: Gabriel Diaz Yanten, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/))

A gigantic crocodile-like hypercarnivore likely hunted dinosaurs 70 million years ago in what is now Argentina, a new study reveals.

LIVE SCIENCE, August 28, 2025 By Patrick Pester

Researchers discovered the fossilized skeleton from the extinct apex predator in southern Patagonia in 2020. It grew up to around 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) long and weighed about 550 pounds (250 kilograms).

The creature is named Kostensuchus atrox after the Patagonian wind called "the Kosten" and the Egyptian crocodile-headed god Sobek, also known as Suchus. K. atrox was hypercarnivorous, meaning more than 70% of its diet was meat. Equipped with a broad snout, big teeth and robust forelimbs, K. atrox's anatomy suggests it was capable of taking down large prey in South America's Cretaceous (145 million to 66 million years ago) ecosystem, according to a new study published Wednesday (Aug. 27) in the journal PLOS One.

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(Image: Egyptian God, Sobek. Credit: hurghadalovers.com)

WHO IS SOBEK? - Sobek was an ancient Egyptian god of crocodiles, strength, fertility, and protection, particularly associated with the Nile River. He was depicted as a crocodile or a man with a crocodile's head, symbolizing his control over the dangerous reptiles of the river, which brought life and prosperity to Egypt.

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The discovery highlights the fact that dinosaurs lived in the company of a wide diversity of organisms, said study lead author Fernando Novas, a paleontologist at the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) and the Félix de Azara Natural History Foundation in Argentina.

"In particular, terrestrial crocodylians were notably diverse and abundant during Cretaceous times in South America and Africa, including small and large, meat-eating and plant-eating forms, revealing that these continents were 'land of crocs,'" Novas told Live Science in an email. "These extinct crocodyles competed and preyed upon dinosaurs, and played an important role in the structure of vanished ecosystems."

K. atrox was part of a group of reptiles called peirosaurid crocodyliforms, which are extinct relatives of living crocodiles. The newly discovered fossils were so well preserved that K. atrox is one of the best peirosaurid crocodyliform examples ever found, and is the most complete large and broad-snouted member on record, according to the study.

SCIENCE: Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees unseen for 80 years

Today's blog is about how the re-introduction of wolves to Yellowstone have resulted in growth of Aspen trees, which helps the ecosystem and many other animals. It's all because elk that boomed in the National Park had no predators, and they were the ones eating and killing all the Aspen trees. Here's the story.

(Photo: The researchers found tall aspen saplings in many of the sites studied. Image credit: Photo provided by Luke Painter, OSU College of Agricultural Sciences.) 

Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees unseen for 80 years

Live Science, By Chris Simms July 22, 2025

Gray wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone National Park in 1995 to help control the numbers of elk that were eating young trees, and it is finally paying off for quaking aspen.

Yellowstone's wolves are helping a new generation of young aspen trees to grow tall and join the forest canopy — the first new generation of such trees in Yellowstone's northern range in 80 years.

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) had disappeared from Yellowstone National Park by 1930 following extensive habitat loss, human hunting and government eradication programs. Without these top predators, populations of elk (Cervus canadensis) grew unfettered. At their peak population, an estimated 18,000 elk ranged across the park, chomping on grasses and shrubs as well as the leaves, twigs and bark of trees like quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides). This stopped saplings from establishing themselves, and surveys in the 1990s found no aspen saplings.

"You had older trees, and then nothing underneath," Luke Painter, an ecologist at Oregon State University and lead author of the new study, told Live Science.

But when wolves were reintroduced in 1995, the picture began to change. As wolf numbers rose, the elk population in the park dropped sharply, and it is now down to about 2,000.

In the new study, published Tuesday (July 22) in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, Painter and his colleagues surveyed aspen stands — specific areas of the forest where these trees grow.

The team returned to three areas surveyed in 2012 to examine changes to aspen sapling numbers. Of the 87 aspen stands studied, a third had a large number of tall aspen saplings throughout, indicating the trees are healthy and growing. Another third of the stands had patches of tall saplings.

"We're seeing significant new growth of young aspen and this is the first time that we've found it in our plots," Painter said. These are young aspen with a trunk greater than 2 inches (5 centimetres) in diameter at chest height — which haven't been seen there since the 1940s, he added.

"It doesn't mean that they're not going to get killed or die from something, but it's a pretty good indication that we're getting some new trees," Painter noted. "As they get bigger, they get more resilient."

Such trees are old enough to spread themselves, either by sending up new shoots from their roots a fair distance from the main tree, or via seed production, he said.

However, while Yellowstone's quaking aspen are recovering, they aren't out of the woods just yet. The elk population has declined, but bison numbers have increased in some areas in recent years.

Bison are a lot harder for wolves to take down, said Painter, so increasing numbers of bison may be emerging as a new constraint on aspen in some areas.

Painter said that the variation in aspen recovery shows the effects of reintroducing a big predator to the top of the food chain, rather than to changes in the overall climate, for example.

The re-emergence of aspen has widespread effects, he told Live Science. "Aspen are a key species for biodiversity. The canopy is more open than it is with conifers and you get filtering light that creates a habitat that supports a lot of diversity of plants."

This means a boost to berry-producing shrubs, insects and birds and also species like beavers, because the trees are a preferred food and building material for the semi- aquatic rodents, along with the willows and cottonwoods that grow near to water in the region.

SCIENCE: 'Universal' cancer vaccine heading to human trials could be useful for 'all forms of cancer

 This looks like an incredibly promising step forward in the battle against cancer- and all forms of cancer. If only it was farther along, perhaps it could have helped our Tyler who passed from cancer  on July 29th, 2025. It's also Research like THIS that is critical. Yet, the current Administration is Cutting all kinds of cancer research. In today's blog you'll learn about this hopeful vaccine.

(Image: Immune cells shown attacking cancer cells. A new mRNA-based cancer vaccine could someday be used "off-the-shelf" to treat cancer, scientists hope. (Image credit: STEVE GSCHMEISSNER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY)

Universal' cancer vaccine heading to human trials could be useful for 'all forms of cancer' 

 

By Nicoletta Lanese, LIVE SCIENCE   July 30, 2025

 A new mRNA-based vaccine triggers a response from the innate immune system to help arm the body against cancer, a mouse study finds. It's now in early human trials. 

A universal cancer vaccine in development could help rev up the immune system against tumors and supercharge the effects of existing cancer therapies, an animal study suggests.

Similar to vaccines for viral infections like the flu, many cancer vaccines are designed to help the immune system recognize specific proteins. However, while conventional vaccines aim to prevent disease, cancer vaccines are currently being developed to clear away cancers already growing in the body and to help prevent treated cancers from coming back.

Nonetheless, conventional vaccines and cancer vaccines often work similarly. The flu shot trains the immune system to look for unique proteins found on the surface of influenza viruses, while cancer vaccines typically teach immune cells to spot unique features of cancer cells.

But there's a challenge: These cancer proteins of interest can often be unique to individual patients, meaning each cancer vaccine may need to be specially formulated for each patient. Although it's possible to craft such personalized vaccines, they take time to make — and, in the interim, the patient's cancer mutates, potentially causing the vaccine to be less effective.

"It can be months from the time you get a patient's specimen to when they actually have a personalized therapy," said study senior author Dr. Elias Sayour, a pediatric oncologist at University of Florida Health. Sayour and colleagues wondered if they could design a cancer vaccine that would not require this personalization and instead ignite a general immune response to keep cancer at bay.

"The idea that something could be available immediately, albeit in a nonspecific way … could be revolutionary for how we bridge therapy and how we manage patients," Sayour told Live Science.

Touring Around with Friends in NH and Maine

 Over the weekend of Sept 5-7, our friends visited from Maryland and we toured them around. Today's blog will give you an idea of fun things to do in New Hampshire and southern Maine that include a famous lighthouse, an outdoor festival, an historic mill area, lunch at an old train station and more! 

VISITING NUBBLE LIGHTHOUSE - One of the "Must-see" places if you visit northern New England is Nubble Light in York, Maine. When we arrived there, there was a line of gusty thunderstorms headed our way, so the winds picked up and the temperature dropped from 80 F to about 62 degrees F!

ABOUT NUBBLE LIGHT - Nubble Lighthouse is famous for its picturesque setting on a small, inaccessible island, making it an iconic and heavily photographed symbol of New England's maritime heritage and coastal beauty. Its classic red-and-white tower, timeless charm, historical significance, and accessibility from a nearby park also contribute to its popularity among tourists, photographers, and lighthouse enthusiasts. It is located in SOHIER PARK, Sohier Park Rd, York, ME 03909

A FUN FESTIVAL - In downtown Dover, New Hampshire we attended the "Mystics, Makers & Magick Market" on Saturday, Sept. 6, in Dover. This was a New Age kind of festival. there were yoga classes outside, jewlery makers, tarot readers, relaxation massage, reiki, candles, soaps, tee shirts, authors and many other things. The event was large and vendors were in tents. 

INTERESTING ART EXHIBIT - Local artists put together a display that took a while to figure out. One part had amazon boxes, with the logo upside down and things bursting out of them, like wires. It was a statement against Amazon for being part of the billionaire problem of rich people trying to run the country.  Another part was a wheel barrel full of orange cheetos, and I could guess who that's referencing.  

   After the festival we walked through downtown old Dover, NH and took in the former Mills and the Cocheco River. 

COCHECO MILLS, DOVER, NEW HAMPSHIRE - The Cocheco Mills comprise a historic mill complex in the heart of Dover, New Hampshire. The mills occupy a bend in the Cochecho River that has been site of cotton textile manufacturing since at least 1823, when the Dover Manufacturing Company supplanted earlier sawmills and gristmills. The present mill buildings were built between the 1880s and the early 20th century, and were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.

MILL OPERATIONS - By 1898, the Cocheco Manufacturing Company covered over 30-acres of floor pace, operated 130,000 spindles in 2,800 looms, and employed 2000 workers earning an average wage of 53 cents a day, six days a week. Housed in 15 buildings, the Cocheco Print Works produced over 65,000,000 yards of finished cloth a year.

MILL CLOSES, CHANGES - Competition from textile processors in the American South, unburdened by the North's heating costs, combined with the effects of the Great Depression, led Pacific to shutter the complex in 1937. The city purchased the complex at auction in 1941. The buildings have since been home to a succession of smaller enterprises, primarily engaged in manufacturing.  The buildings also house offices, restaurants, breweries and bars.

BEST BREAKFAST AND LUNCH - Breakfast Station #319 at  Main Street, Somersworth, NH has the best breakfast and lunch in the entire southern NH area. Everything is wonderful. It's housed in an old passenger train station ticket office. Behind the restaurant are the railroad tracks that now only serve freight trains, and run along the Salmon Falls River that acts as a border between Maine and New Hampshire.

Across the river from Somersworth, New Hampshire lies the small town of Berwick, Maine. It's very quaint. So we stopped for a picture in front of town hall. 

Of course, when you walk over the bridge that spans the river, one side says "New Hampshire" and the other "Maine" so there had to be pictures taken there, too!  

Did you know my last Six Books have all hit #1?

 Did you know my last Six Books have all hit #1?

Here's the list- Please give them a read!

* Ghosts of Linville Manor #1 in General Maryland Travel

* Haunting of Emery Estate #1 in Ghosts & Hauntings and #1 in Parapsychology

* Ghosts of the Bird Cage Theatre on a Medium’s Vacation: #1 in General Western US Travel

* Ghosts of Ireland on a Medium’s Vacation: #1 in Haunted & Unexplained Travel and #1 in Irish Travel

* Pets and the Afterlife 3: Messages from Spirit Dogs: #1 in Pet Loss Grief

* Pets and the Afterlife 4: Messages from Spirit Cats: #1 in Pet Loss Grief

GET THEM HERE: https://www.amazon.com/author/robgutro

Available on Amazon in Paperback, Ebook, and Audiobook

Idiot of the Week: So. Carolina Republican lawmaker RJ May resigns over distributing child sexual abuse material

Here's yet ANOTHER Republican who harrassed LGBTQ people and accused them of crimes that HE committed! South Carolina Republican State Rep. Robert John "R.J." May III has resigned nearly two months after being indicted on federal charges related to child exploitation. I am SO tired of these Republicans accusing gay and trans people of crimes, and the accusers are committing them. They obviously do it to throw people off their trail. This is another idiot going to jail.

(Photo: South Carolina Republican State Rep. Robert John "R.J." May III  By Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0)

So. Carolina Republican lawmaker RJ May resigns over child sexual abuse material

WLTX, Published: August 11, 2025

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Suspended South Carolina State Rep. Robert John "R.J." May III has resigned nearly two months after being indicted on federal charges related to child sexual abuse material.

The South Carolina House Speaker’s Office confirmed May’s resignation on Monday and released a copy of his letter, where May wrote:

“I have decided that it is in the best interest of my family and constituents to resign immediately from the South Carolina House of Representatives. Please accept this letter as my formal resignation from the South Carolina House of Representatives. It has been an honor to serve the people of District 88.”

May, a Republican representing the Lexington area, was indicted in June on 10 federal counts of distributing child sexual abuse material and was suspended shortly after his arrest.

Prosecutor said May used a personal messaging app to send and receive child sexual abuse messages and videos in 2024.

May faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison with a minimum of five years, a fine of $250,000, and a term of at least five years of supervised release to follow any term of imprisonment. May has a pretrial conference hearing scheduled for August 20 in Columbia.

The ultra-conservative South Carolina Freedom Caucus, which May co-founded, released a statement, saying:  RJ May's resignation from the South Carolina House of Representatives is long overdue. The people of District 88 deserve true and honorable representation. While we welcome this resignation, we strongly believe that the SC House should have acted to expel RJ May after he was indicted for such heinous crimes. Our hearts are with his victims and his innocent family and we pray for swift justice as this ugly chapter in the South Carolina House of Representatives comes to a close.

Heroes of the Week: Nashua, New Hampshire Firefighters

 This week's heroes are firefighters from Nashua, who were joined by mutual aid apparatus from Hudson, Manchester, Merrimack and Hollis,  New Hampshire to put out a two alarm fire in a Nashua home.

(Photo: Heavy flames spread through a two-story home at 24 Spindlewick Drive early Sunday morning, August 24, 2025. Credit: Nashua, NH Fire Department)

Two alarm fire sweeps through Nashua home; two residents displaced 

By Dean Shalhoup Union Leader Correspondent Aug 24, 2025

Heavy flames spread through a two-story home at 24 Spindlewick Drive early Sunday morning, August 24, 2025. The two occupants escaped without injury but the house was left uninhabitable. Provided by Nashua Fire Rescue

An early morning fire on Sunday heavily damaged a large, two-story residence in Nashua’s Lancashire Heights neighborhood, leaving the building uninhabitable and displacing the two residents.

No one was injured in the two-alarm blaze at 24 Spindlewick Drive, according to Deputy Fire Chief Glenn Telgen.

Telgen didn’t identify the residents. City property tax records show it is owned by a trust under the names Joseph Werbeck and Maureen Furey, but it’s not clear if they are the occupants. Telgen said the Nashua Fire Rescue dispatch center received several calls just after 3 a.m. reporting the fire.

A first alarm assignment was dispatched, with the crew of Engine 6 out of the Conant Road fire station first to arrive. They reported heavy fire showing from the home, and pulled hose lines into the building while additional crews backed them up with multiple lines, Telgen said.

He said a second alarm was sounded due to the size of the fire.

(Photo: Nashua, NH Fire’s Recruit Class 221 in 2022/ Nashua FD)

Meanwhile, crews on the three ladder trucks that responded opened up the roof for ventilation while protecting nearby structures from the flames.

In all, 43 Nashua Fire Rescue members responded, manning six engines, three ladder trucks, the Special Hazards Unit, three investigators and two chief officers. An AMR ambulance also responded for standby.

Telgen said the fire was brought under control in one hour. He said it left the home with extensive fire and smoke damage, prompting representatives of the local American Red Cross to assist the residents in finding temporary housing.

He said the cause of the fire is under investigation. He didn’t indicate where in the house the fire started. Telgen also said the house is equipped with smoke detectors, but it is not known if they were working.

Mutual aid apparatus came from Hudson, Manchester, Merrimack and Hollis while Tyngsborough, Mass., firefighters covered Nashua’s stations while crews were at the scene.

Good News 7 Northeastern States & NYC Form Public Health Partnership

What do you do when the federal government tosses out all protocols to keep the country healthy? Join with other states who have intellgence enough to Know how to keep their residents safe. That's what happened with northeastern states who have banded together to ensure residents are healthy since the federal CDC has become so corrupt and useless. It's unfortunate for those in NH and VT, though, as they have Republican governors. Although there are differing reports about whether VT joined. There are also some reports Maryland and Delaware may join the partnership, but I've been unable to confirm at the time of this blog. Here's the story about this Health Partnership.

Maine joins public health partnership with 6 other states, New York City

Sep 19, 2025 Russ Reed, WABC 8, Portland, Maine

AUGUSTA, Maine —Maine is one of seven states that have formed a regional public health partnership that also includes the largest city in the country.

The Northeast Public Health Collaborative was officially announced Thursday, but officials from Maine, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York State, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and New York City revealed they have been working together since early this year.

The voluntary coalition of public health agencies held its first in-person meeting in Rhode Island last month, and said that it has already formed working groups to identify opportunities for collaboration and shared planning across public health disciplines, including emergency preparedness and response, vaccine recommendations and purchasing, data collection and analysis, infectious disease, epidemiology and laboratory capacity and services.

"The people of Maine are known for their resilience, neighborly support and a collaborative approach to solving community challenges. This spirit is evident in the Northeast Public Health Collaborative, which serves as an incubator for solutions in public health," Dr. Puthiery Va, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a statement. "By working together, we can build a more adaptable, sustainable and resilient public health framework for the region."

PURPOSE OF THE COLLABORATIVE

The collaborative said its shared goal is to protect the health, safety and well-being of all residents by providing information based on science, data and evidence, while working to ensure equitable access to vaccines, medications and services.

"As the Trump administration politicizes and undermines our nation's public health system, our state will work closely with our neighbors to promote and protect the health and well-being of Maine people," Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement.

Last week, Maine's Governor Janet Mills directed the Maine CDC to issue a standing order authorizing qualified health care professionals, including pharmacists, to administer the 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccine. The order serves as a prescription for all Mainers, allowing them to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at pharmacies, clinics and health care offices across the state.

The only states in the Northeast that are not part of the collaborative are New Hampshire and Vermont, which are the only two states in the region that currently have Republican governors.

Book of the Week: A Superhero Graphic Novel to Avoid

As an avid reader, and comic book collector since the 1970s, I've read countless books, comics and graphic novels. Recently, I bought an old graphic novel about a Supergirl series from the 1990s, and it was the worst thing I've ever read related to the Superman family of characters. There's a good reason why, too.

(Pictured: This 1990s graphic novel collects DC "Showcase 96" issue #12 with the character origin, and the first 9 issues of this awful series) 

IT STARTED IN 1985- When DC comics created the famous "Crisis on Infinite Earths" 12-issue story that changed comic book history, and merged the "multiverse"- that is, countless versions of Earth vibrating at different frequencies (same for all planets and universes), the original Supergirl, Linda Danvers, was one of two major fatalities in the story (the other was the Barry Allen version of the Flash).

AFTERMATH THE "MATRIX SUPERGIRL" - Readers wanted Supergirl back, but one of the writers of DC Comics decided to create a "Supergirl" out of a shapeshifting type of alien, known as the "Matrix" to assume Supergirl's identity and her civilian Linda Danvers role. She was created by the good Lex Luthor of a "Pocket Universe,"  using an artificial life form called the "protoplasmic matrix." This character has telekinesis (does things with her mind), shape shifts, has super strength and flight. That Pocket Universe was destroyed, so Superman took the orphaned Matrix, now turned into a humanoid form of protoplasm, back to the mainstream DC Universe where she took on the identity of Supergirl, without Supergirl's memories. ... until the writers suggested she merged with a dead Linda Danvers...

MY TAKE ON THE "MATRIX SUPERGIRL" - Truly one of the WORST characters DC Comics ever came up with. Supergirl needs to be Supergirl. Not some protoplasmic blob trying to impersonate the character. I read the first 9 issues of the 1990s series and they were AWFUL.  By the last 4 issues, I didn't care about the character, and read quickly through it. I'm glad that DC got rid of that dumb character. 

Book of the Week: Blood Trail by Frederic Bean

 I've been enjoying reading westerns lately, and I've read several by author Frederic Bean and enjoyed them. I recently finished "Blood Trail," published in 1993. That's today's blog! 

"Blood Trail" by Frederic Bean was a good story that kept me reading. It started out with a terrible tragedy, which became the impetus for the main character's mission. John Villalobo is a half native american and half Mexican who was married with a wife and son in Texas near the Mexican border. When he was away, he came back to find his family and an old friend were slain, so he set out to avenge them. It took him into various battles with native americans and Mexican bandits. 

A couple of times there were some graphic descriptions of some horrendous deaths... which I read through quickly. But the story was very good and kept the reader engaged. While reading, I kept thinking how is John going to survive battling all of those villains? It's a good read.

ABOUT THE BOOK: Ten years after giving up his career as the murderous pistolero Lobo, marrying and settling down with a wife and child, John Villalobo heads back to Mexico, armed only with a Bowie knife, on the trail of the men who butchered his family.  

Discovery! Medieval knight's stunning stone tomb found under ice cream shop in Poland

I love archaeology, and making discoveries of what happened in the past is fascinating. Under an ice cream shop in Poland, archaeologists discovered the burial site of a 13th century knight. That's today's blog!

 (Image credit: © ArcheoScan – Archaeological and Conservation Laboratory / Sylwia Kurzyńska)

 Medieval knight 'Lancelot' and his stunning stone tomb found under ice cream shop in Poland

LIVE SCIENCE Kristina Killgrove, August 15, 2025

Archaeologists found the body of a medieval knight underneath a tombstone that depicted him in full military regalia.

Archaeologists were surprised to discover the exceptional tomb of a medieval knight underneath an ice cream shop in the seaside Polish city of Gdańsk. The 13th-century burial includes a rare carving that probably depicts the knight himself.

"We discovered a large limestone tomb slab carved with the image of a knight in full chainmail armor," Sylwia Kurzyńska, an archaeologist with ArcheoScan who co-directed the excavation, told Live Science in an email. The carved slab is rare in medieval Poland because "only a few featured images of the deceased," she said.

Kurzyńska and her team found the monument in the historic center of Gdańsk in July, when they were excavating the grounds of a stronghold used from the 11th to the 14th centuries. Within the stronghold were the remains of a castle, a church and a cemetery.

The carved tombstone has been preliminarily dated to the late 13th or early 14th century, Kurzyńska said. Roughly 59 inches (150 centimeters) long and made out of limestone imported from Gotland, Sweden, the slab shows a man standing upright in full armor and holding a sword and a shield.

"Given that it was made out of soft limestone and lay buried for centuries," Kurzyńska said, "the preservation of the slab is remarkable — the carving, the armor and the shield are still well-defined."

Shortly after their discovery of the slab, the ArcheoScan team removed the stone and dug deeper. They found a well-preserved male skeleton but no grave goods.

"All evidence suggests that the person commemorated was of high social standing, most likely a knight or someone holding a military function," Kurzyńska said. Although the date and location of this burial coincide with the rise of the Teutonic Knights, researchers found no inscriptions or symbols to definitively link him to that order.

The discovery is an important one in Gdańsk, Kurzyńska said, as it represents "a direct link to the city's formative years, offering a rare glimpse into the lives and burials of its medieval elite."

Additional work on both the tomb slab and the skeleton is already underway.

 Researchers are documenting the slab using high-resolution 3D scanning, with the aim of reconstructing and preserving the unique carving. In addition, a chemical and genetic analysis of the bones will help them better understand who this man was and what his life was like.

"We also plan to create a facial reconstruction based on the skull," Kurzyńska said, to figure out what the knight, which the public has dubbed the "Gdańsk Lancelot," may have looked like in life.

Ever Hear of "Pallas' Cat"? - It's a Strange Cat in the Wild

Pallas's cat is one of the oldest feline species in the world (over 5.2 million years old) and lives in the wilds of Central Asia. The Pallas's cat was first described in 1776 by Peter Simon Pallas, who observed it in the vicinity of Lake Baikal. Pallas' Cat is also known as one of the grumpiest kind of cats!  Today's blog is about that fascinating cat species!   

(Photo: Pallas' cat. Credit: Calgary Zoo.) 

One of the world's oldest felines is Wild Pallas' Cat   

 By Sascha Pare, LIVE SCIENCE, August 23, 2025

Pallas's cat is a small wild cat native to Central Asia with short legs and dense fur, making it look bigger than it really is — but the yelps it makes in stressful situations betray its size.

Pallas's cats are very grumpy-looking wild cats. (Image credit: xtrekx/Getty Images)

QUICK FACTS 

• Name: Pallas's cat (Otocolobus manul) 
• Where it lives: Steppes and high-elevation grasslands in Central Asia, particularly Mongolia and China 
• What it eats: Small rodents, including gerbils, hamsters and pikas, small lizards and birds
• Size: 50 to 60 centimetres (1.6 to 2.0 feet) long, with a 10 to 20-centimetre (4 to 8 inches) long tail
• Weight: 1.8 to 4.9 kilograms or 4 to 11 pounds

 Pallas's cat, also known as a manul, is a feline from Central Asia that yelps like a small dog and has such short legs that it sometimes struggles to run after prey. Researchers think it is one of the oldest living cat species in the world, having diverged 5.2 million years ago from a leopard ancestor.

Although it looks stocky, Pallas's cat isn't actually much bigger than a domestic cat beneath its long, dense fur. This thick coat provides insulation against its environment, the freezing cold of Central Asia's steppe and high-altitude grassland ecosystems. The species is rarely seen because it is solitary and very secretive, spending the daytime in rock crevices and marmot burrows.

Fun Facts from the Calgary Zoo about Pallas’s Cats

• ·         Pallas’s cats are typically solitary, only coming together to mate.
• ·         Kittens will begin to learn how to hunt from their mothers at three weeks of age.
• ·         They prefer to hide and sleep during the day.
• ·         This species has a variety of vocalizations, including growling, yelping, and purring.
• ·         They use scent to mark their territories.
• ·         Pallas’s cats are ambush predators.
• 

(Photo:A Pallas's cat at Rotterdam Zoo)

Pallas's cat comes out at dusk to hunt and stays out until dawn. It is an ambush predator, meaning it waits at the exits of rodent burrows until its prey appears — although some cats also stick their paws in to scoop out a meal, according to the Smithsonian's National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute.

Even if Pallas's cat is active during the day, the feline is hard to spot. Its coat is usually gray or light tan, but it can change color with the seasons to better blend into the local landscape, according to the National Zoo. Most of the hairs also have white tips, giving the cat a mottled or frosted appearance that is difficult to distinguish from rocks and shrubs in its natural surroundings.

 For even more camouflage, Pallas's cat has rounded ears set so low on its head that it can peer over rocks without its ears peeking out. The only part of its body that protrudes is its bushy tail, which is about half as long as the head and body combined, according to the Felidae Conservation Fund.

Unlike other small cats, which have slit-like pupils, Pallas's cat has rounded pupils that are good for judging distances. The cat also yelps when it is scared or excited, which makes it sound more like a small dog than a feline, according to the National Zoo — but the species purrs and growls like any other small cat.

In the wild, Pallas's cat typically lives eight to nine years, according to the National Zoo. The cat uses scent to mark its territory, which is unusually large for such a small feline, with a range typically covering 3.5 to 7 square miles (9 to 18 square kilometers).

DISCOVERY! Keratin extracted from sheep's wool repairs teeth in breakthrough

Here's a discovery I can "sink my teeth in" - something to repair teeth. As someone who has "soft teeth" from tetracycline. Back in the 1960s and 70s if your mom took tetracycline, you likely have cavity prone teeth with weak enamel. It's a fact that tetracycline given to pregnant women can make a baby's teeth weaker by binding to calcium in developing teeth, causing discoloration and potentially contributing to enamel hypoplasia (thinning of enamel). Now there's something that may offer a little help.

(Image:  This study establishes keratin as a promising, sustainable platform for functional enamel regeneration, offering a clinically translatable approach for repairing demineralized dental enamel lesions and restoring enamel architecture. Credit:  Sara Gamea, Elham Radvar, Dimitra Athanasiadou, Ryan Lee Chan, Giacomo De Sero, Ecaterina Ware, Sunie Kundi, Avir Patel, Shwan Horamee, Shuaib Hadadi, Mads Carlsen, Leanne Allison, Roland Fleck, Ka Lung Andrew Chan, Avijit Banerjee, Nicola Pugno, Marianne Liebi, Paul T Sharpe, Karina Carneiro, Sherif Elsharkawy 

12 August 2025

 

https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202502465)

Keratin extracted from sheep's wool repairs teeth in breakthrough

LIVE SCIENCE, Skyler Ware published August 19, 2025

Dental treatments from sheep’s wool and other hair could be used to coat teeth to repair enamel and prevent tooth decay, according to a new study.

After extracting keratin — a protein found in hair, skin and fingernails — from wool and applying it to teeth, scientists found that the substance formed a protective crystal-like coating that mimicked natural tooth enamel.

The finding could support sustainable, low-cost treatments for early tooth decay within the next two to three years, according to the researchers.They reported their findings August 12 in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials.

"Keratin offers a transformative alternative to current dental treatments," study coauthor Sara Gamea, a dentistry researcher at King's College London, said in the statement.

 "Not only is it sustainably sourced from biological waste materials like hair and skin, it also eliminates the need for traditional plastic resins, commonly used in restorative dentistry, which are toxic and less durable. Keratin also looks much more natural than these treatments, as it can more closely match the color of the original tooth."

Untreated tooth decay is the world's most common oral health condition, affecting some 2 billion people worldwide. Over time, acidic foods, poor oral hygiene, and everyday wear and tear can break down the protective enamel that covers a person's teeth. Losing that enamel can lead to pain, cavities and tooth loss.

"Unlike bones and hair, enamel does not regenerate," study coauthor Sherif Elsharkawy, a researcher specializing in prosthodontics at King's College London, said in a statement. "Once it's gone, it's lost forever."