(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Overnight News Digest: April 11, 2026. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2026-04-11 Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and FarWestGirl. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man (RIP), wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, JeremyBloom, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP), jlms qkw, and doomandgloom . OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos since 2007, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time. Please feel free to share your articles and stories in the comments. Space Artemis II's record-breaking journey around the moon ends with dramatic splashdown. Phys.org Artemis II's astronauts closed out humanity's first lunar voyage in more than half a century with a Pacific splashdown on Friday, blazing new records near the moon with grace and joy. It was a dramatic grand finale to a mission that revealed not only swaths of the lunar far side never seen before by human eyes, but a total solar eclipse and a parade of planets, most notably our own shimmering Earth against the endless black void of space. With their flight now complete, the four astronauts have set NASA up for a moon landing by another crew in just two years and a full-blown moon base within the decade. The triumphant moon-farers—commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Canada's Jeremy Hansen—emerged from their bobbing capsule into the sunlight off the coast of San Diego. After Artemis II, NASA looks to SpaceX, Blue Origin for moon landings. Phys.org With Artemis II successfully completing its historic lunar mission on Friday, NASA is banking on billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk for the next step: landing astronauts on the moon. The Apollo program—which sent the first and only humans to the moon's surface between 1969 and 1972—was designed so that only two astronauts could land on the lunar surface for a maximum of a few days. More than 50 years later, American ambitions and expertise have grown, with NASA hoping to send four people on a mission lasting several weeks and eventually building a lunar base. For the second phase of its mission, the space agency is looking to commercial landers designed by Musk's SpaceX and Bezos's Blue Origin to get its astronauts on the moon. Chang'e mission samples reveal how exogenous organic matter evolves on the moon. Phys.org Elements essential to life, such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur, were "delivered" to Earth and the moon during the early stages of the solar system via asteroids and comets impacting their surfaces. These exogenous materials may have provided the chemical building blocks necessary for the origin and early evolution of life on Earth. But extensive geological activity and biological processes on Earth have largely erased the direct records of these early inputs on our planet. In contrast, the moon, with its relatively limited geological activity, serves as a natural "time capsule," making it easier to unravel the history and evolution of extraterrestrial organic matter. A recent study has, for the first time, systematically identified multiple nitrogen-bearing organic species on the surfaces of lunar soil grains returned by China's Chang'e-5 and Chang'e-6 missions. The research further reveals an evolutionary pathway defined by exogenous delivery, impact modification, and continuous solar wind processing. The findings demonstrate that the moon not only records the history of organic material delivery by asteroids and comets to the inner solar system but also preserves evidence of how these materials were subsequently modified by impacts and irradiation on an airless celestial body. Parachutes: A vital part of Artemis II's trip home. Phys.org As the Orion spacecraft hurtles home, friction caused by reentry into Earth's atmosphere will drastically decrease its speed from a potential 25,000 miles per hour (40,000 kilometers per hour). But for a gentle, 17-mile-per-hour (27-kph) impact in the Pacific Ocean, Orion and the humans onboard need parachutes. Artemis II is scheduled to splash down off the southern California coast at 5:07 pm local time (0007 GMT) after the most dangerous part of its mission—reentry. Jared Daum, the parachute system manager for Artemis II, explains how it will work in comments to AFP that have been lightly edited for clarity. 'Pinprick of light': Artemis crew witnesses meteorite impacts on moon. Phys.org During their historic lunar flyby, astronauts on NASA's Artemis II mission witnessed meteorites striking the rugged surface of the moon, a sight that has piqued scientists' curiosity. "That was definitely impact flashes on the moon. And Jeremy (Hansen) just saw another one," mission commander Reid Wiseman reported on Monday while flying around the moon—the first such journey by humans in more than half a century. "Amazed," replied Kelsey Young, the mission's lunar science lead, as she followed the spacecraft from more than 250,000 miles (400,000 kilometers) away on Earth. "I don't know if I expected to have the crew see any on this mission, so you probably saw the surprise and shock on my face," she said, recounting the strikes at a press briefing the next day. Lunar crater named after Artemis commander's deceased wife. Phys.org Artemis astronauts at the outer edge of human space travel had an emotional moment Monday as they proposed to name a crater in honor of the deceased wife of mission commander Reid Wiseman. "It's a bright spot on the moon. And we would like to call it Carroll," Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen told a live broadcast. The crater can be seen "at certain times of the moon's transit around Earth," he said. As Wiseman and others wiped away tears, the four astronauts pulled together in a silent, floating embrace. Parabolic flight test shows lasers can propel graphene aerogels in microgravity. Phys.org Lasers could one day steer solar sails and adjust a satellite's position in outer space, thanks to graphene. An experiment on a gravity rollercoaster ride showed how this innovative material has the potential to revolutionize propulsion beyond Earth. An international research team boarded ESA's 86th parabolic flight campaign in May 2025 with ultralight graphene aerogels, then hit them with light during zero gravity phases to observe their reaction under space-like conditions. The effect of the laser during the microgravity phases was startling: The graphene samples shot forward instantly. Archeology/Anthropology Rare Roman paint 'recipe' uncovered in Cartagena murals makes smart use of costly cinnabar. Phys.org Roman painters commissioned at the end of the 1st century to decorate the walls of the Domus of Salvius in present-day Cartagena could hardly have imagined that their technical expertise would still attract attention twenty centuries later. Analysis of wall paintings from one of the house's rooms—among the best preserved in ancient Carthago Nova—shows that these craftsmen possessed a sophisticated understanding of the materials used to produce pigments, as well as the effects achieved through combining them. In particular, researchers identified an advanced "recipe" that enabled them to reduce costs while ensuring the durability of the paint. This method relied on a mixture of pigments, including one of the most valued minerals of the time: costly cinnabar, often referred to as "red gold." Ancient Māori remains point to largely plant-based diets before colonization. Phys.org New research led by the University of Otago—Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka, in close partnership with mana whenua, is shedding new light on Māori diet and burial practices in Aotearoa New Zealand prior to European colonization. The study, conducted with the approval and guidance of Waikato hapū and iwi—Ngāti Maahanga, Ngāti Wairere, Ngāti Koroki Kahukura and Ngāti Hauā—provides the first direct scientific evidence that some Māori ate predominantly plant-based diets before Pākehā (European) arrival. Seal tooth pendant reveals ancient human culture and long-distance trading. Phys.org The identity of a mysterious artifact found in Devon almost 160 years ago has finally been revealed. New research has identified it as a pendant made from the tooth of a gray seal, which would have been worn by an ancient human more than 15,000 years ago. The "exceptionally rare" seal tooth pendant has been unearthed among the finds of a famed Victorian dig. ... Renewed interest in the finds made in Kents Cavern has uncovered a tooth artifact that had previously been overlooked. Initially thought to come from a badger, a wolf or a beaver, a new study has found that the tooth actually came from a seal. Early humans in South Africa were quarrying stone as far back as 220,000 years ago. Phys.org As long as 220,000 years ago—far earlier than previously thought—people quarried rocks for their tools in places they specifically sought out. An international research team led by the University of Tübingen has demonstrated this behavior at the Jojosi site in South Africa, challenging the prevailing view that Paleolithic hunter–gatherers collected their raw materials incidentally during other activities. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications. Evidence of deliberate rock quarrying "At Jojosi, we found numerous traces of the quarrying of hornfels—a metamorphic shale—including blocks that were tested for their quality, flakes of various sizes, thousands of millimeter-sized pieces of production waste and hammerstones," says Dr. Manuel Will from the Department of Early Prehistory and Quaternary Ecology at the University of Tübingen. Hornfels is a fine-grained rock that was frequently used to produce tools in the Stone Age. "People worked cobbles on site here and knapped the material until they had achieved the desired shape from the rock—probably to make tools from it later." DNA evidence reveals a Stone Age population collapse in France. Phys.org By analyzing DNA of ancient skeletons at a Neolithic burial site near Paris, an international team of researchers has uncovered evidence of a dramatic population replacement 5,000 years ago. The findings indicate that the population collapse known as the "Neolithic decline" was a far-reaching phenomenon. "By joining forces of experts from a wide variety of disciplines, we can now begin to understand what happened during one of the most dramatic transitions in European prehistory," says Kristian Kristiansen, Professor of Archaeology at the University of Gothenburg and one of the researchers behind the study. The large-scale genetic study shows that the people buried at the site belonged to two completely different populations, separated by a dramatic collapse around 5,000 years ago. The study was led by researchers from the Lundbeck Foundation GeoGenetics Centre at the University of Copenhagen and is based on DNA analysis of 132 individuals buried at the Bury site, about 50 kilometers north of Paris. Ancient Neanderthal genome reveals isolated, distinct populations. Phys.org Neanderthals split into distinct regional groups that developed genetic differences far sooner than modern human populations typically did, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. These findings were based on the analysis of a newly sequenced 110,000-year-old Neanderthal genome, which researchers compared with previously mapped DNA from several other Neanderthal remains. While Neanderthals are well-documented in the fossil record, high-quality genomic information is much rarer. Most of the DNA we have comes from individuals who lived toward the end of their era, shortly before they became extinct around 40,000 years ago. However, this new research is based on the genetic information from a male Neanderthal known as D17, who lived approximately 110,000 years ago in the Denisova Cave in Siberia. Earth/Environment The Cascadia Subduction Zone isn't shutting down—but it's more complicated than previously thought. Phys.org Recent seismic imaging off Vancouver Island has revealed something extraordinary: a tear in the subducting oceanic plate beneath the Cascadia Subduction Zone. The finding briefly raised the public's hopes that Cascadia might be "shutting down," potentially lowering earthquake risk in North America's Pacific Northwest. A subduction zone is a boundary where tectonic plates collide, forcing a heavier plate to dive, or subduct, below a lighter one. Recent research suggests that part of the Cascadia Subduction Zone, just off the coast of Vancouver Island, may be slowing down due to a newly identified tear in the subducting plate. It's an eye-catching idea: a major plate boundary winding down, perhaps even reducing earthquake risk, would be a comforting thought for millions of people living with seismic hazards in the Pacific Northwest, particularly given the challenges of predicting earthquakes. Defensive rewilding could turn wetlands and forests into border barriers. Phys.org Restoring forests, wetlands and peatlands could help defend national borders as well as tackle climate change, according to new research from the University of East London (UEL). The study introduces the concept of "defensive rewilding"—the intentional, pre- or mid-conflict restoration of ecosystems to shape terrain in ways that can slow, redirect or impede military advances, while delivering environmental benefits. The research responds to what the authors describe as a growing "guns versus climate" dilemma, where investment in military capability can come at the expense of action on climate change and biodiversity loss. It reframes the environment as a potential "force multiplier" in national defense. Rather than treating environmental policy and defense as competing priorities, the research suggests the two can be closely aligned. Unlike temporary battlefield measures such as minefields or field fortifications, defensive rewilding operates at a strategic scale, shaping terrain across entire regions before conflict begins. Unlocking Earth's 4.5-billion-year secret: The case of the missing lead. Phys.org Geoscientists have long relied on different forms of lead to understand Earth's geological history and how it was created over billions of years. However, there is a mystery that has been puzzling scientists for decades: Earth is missing a massive amount of lead that ought to be in the planet's crust, and no one knows where it has gone to. Recently, a groundbreaking study from researchers led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore's (NTU Singapore) Asian School of the Environment (ASE) may have finally provided new insights into this long-standing mystery. By exploring how lead behaves under the crushing pressures of Earth's interior, they found that the solution to one of our planet's oldest chemical secrets could in fact be hiding beneath our feet in the planet's mantle layer. Their study was published in Nature Communications. Yellowstone's magma plumbing mainly shaped by tectonic forces—not deep mantle plume. Phys.org A lot of research goes into determining how to best predict the next eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Part of this involves pinning down how the magma migration system functions and evolves over time. The exact mechanism driving Yellowstone's volcanism and how magma travels from deep within Earth to the surface is still debated, but a new study, published in Science, offers up evidence that Yellowstone's underground magma system is largely driven by tectonics. This is in contrast with some previous theories which posit that a deep mantle plume is the main source of magma. High levels of forever chemicals found in Svalbard reindeer. Phys.org Svalbard reindeer live in a place so remote they have actually evolved to become a subspecies. But that remoteness isn't enough to protect them from contaminants from the industrial world. Researchers have long known that heavy metals and persistent organic pollutants such as DDT concentrate in the Arctic, in top predator animals like polar bears. But what happens with animals like Svalbard's reindeer, which graze on arctic plants? How contaminated are these animals? How do they compare to other reindeer species, such as caribou, across the Arctic? What kinds of effects might those contaminants have? And lastly, people eat Svalbard reindeer. Do they need to cut back? Health/Medicine Scientists test new ways to regrow joints damaged by arthritis. Phys.org The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) said several experimental treatments could help regrow cartilage and bone in folks with osteoarthritis. The condition affects about 32 million Americans and happens when joints wear down over time. Three research teams are working on new methods, mainly focused on knee osteoarthritis. Two teams—one at Duke University and another at University of Colorado Boulder—are developing injections or infusions that may help rebuild cartilage and bone. Meditation changes brain activity quickly with a noticeable peak at 7 minutes, research reveals. Phys.org Meditation is widely recognized for its extensive range of mental and physical health benefits, from reducing stress and anxiety to boosting cognitive and emotional health. What was considered a fringe activity is now a mainstream practice embraced by millions of people around the world. But how long does it take to reap the benefits? A new study published in the journal Mindfulness reports that the first brainwave changes start at about two to three minutes and peak at around seven minutes. Study of 12 monks finds meditation heightens brain activity, reshaping neural dynamics. Phys.org Contrary to popular belief, meditation isn't "thinking about nothing." In fact, a new international study on Buddhist monks shows that meditation is a state of heightened cerebral activity in which brain dynamics are profoundly altered. More specifically, the study found that practicing meditation is associated with modulations in neural oscillations, an increase in the complexity of brain activity and an alteration in "brain criticality," a state of equilibrium between chaos and order. These changes are thought to reflect a brain that is more alert, flexible, adaptive and efficient. ... 12 monks, two types of meditation To decode the subtle mechanisms of the meditative state, the researchers worked with 12 monks of the Thai Forest Tradition at Santacittarama monastery outside Rome, who between them had practiced an average of more than 15,000 hours of meditation each. CBD found to reverse brain damage in mouse model of Alzheimer's disease. Phys.org Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive memory loss, cognitive decline, and behavioral changes. The deficits linked to AD are known to result from the abnormal accumulation of proteins, particularly tau and β-amyloid (Aβ) in the brain and between nerve cells, which causes neuroinflammation and can prompt the degradation of brain cells. The non-psychoactive compound derived from the Cannabis sativa plant, called cannabidiol (CBD), was recently found to show promise for protecting brain cells from damage. Compared to Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound in cannabis that elicits feelings of euphoria and alters a user's mental state, CBD is safer and could thus be easier to introduce in clinical settings. New drug combination doubles down on Alzheimer's treatments. A new study has found that combining the current medications for Alzheimer's disease with small molecules derived from micronutrients found in grapes, berries, peanuts and turmeric is a safer and more effective way to treat the disease. The work is published in the journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. Individuals with Alzheimer's have a buildup of toxic amyloid proteins in the brain. Researchers from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Waterloo combined amyloid-destroying small molecules with anti-amyloid antibodies that are already used in Alzheimer's treatment. They found that it neutralized the clumping of proteins that accumulate in the brain, leading to better outcomes. Experimental drug cuts Parkinson's-linked protein up to 60% in early trial. Phys.org An experimental drug designed to silence a gene strongly linked to Parkinson's disease has shown encouraging effects in a first-in-human clinical trial, according to a study published in Nature Medicine. The drug, known as BIIB094, targets LRRK2, the most common genetic contributor to Parkinson's disease; variants in LRRK2 are known to increase the risk of developing the neurodegenerative disorder, which affects nearly 10 million people worldwide. New biological marker of early-stage Alzheimer's disease uncovered. Phys.org Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive memory loss and a decline in mental functions. These symptoms are known to arise from an abnormal buildup of proteins known as amyloid and tau, which can damage or gradually destroy neurons and the connections between them. Interestingly, past studies have uncovered a link between AD and a reduced or altered sense of smell. In fact, an impaired ability to smell is often one of the early signs of AD and could thus help to diagnose the disorder early. Tech/Green Tech A nanoscale robotic cleaner can hunt, capture and remove bacteria. Phys.org Tiny robots—around 50 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair—open up fascinating possibilities: they enable the controlled manipulation of objects far too small for human hands. This brings us closer to a long-standing dream—the direct interaction with the microscopic world. Particularly relevant are biological objects in aqueous environments, such as single cells or bacteria. Handling such objects in a controlled and targeted way has remained a major challenge. A team of researchers have demonstrated how such microscopic cleaners can be employed and precisely controlled. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications. The nanorobots presented demonstrate that controlled manipulation, including collection and relocation of bacteria, is already achievable. New hydrogen fuel cell design could unlock key clean energy technology. Phys.org UNSW researchers have redesigned hydrogen fuel cells to solve a critical flaw, bringing clean energy for aviation, heavy transport and beyond closer to reality. Hydrogen fuel cells, using locally produced green hydrogen as the only fuel, have long been viewed as the ultimate clean energy source, but their commercialization has been difficult. A multidisciplinary team from UNSW, led by Dr. Quentin Meyer and Professor Chuan Zhao from the School of Chemistry, has managed to make hydrogen fuel cells much more efficient, paving the way for their commercialization. "Hydrogen fuel cells generate clean electricity with water as the only byproduct," says Dr. Quentin Meyer, a Senior Research Fellow in Prof. Zhao's team, and first author of the research published in the journal Applied Catalysis B: Environment and Energy. Ancient Roman concrete was known to use volcanic ash and was much stronger and lasted longer than modern formulations. Volcanic rock formula cuts cement emissions by two-thirds. Phys.org Researchers have developed a volcanic rock formula that cuts carbon emissions by 67%, potentially offering an affordable alternative to increasingly scarce cement additives. Cement, a manufactured powder that holds concrete together, is the most widely used building material on Earth. It's also one of the most polluting: Cement production accounts for nearly 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Stanford geophysicist Tiziana Vanorio began researching this challenge 10 years ago after discovering rocks with unusual properties beneath her childhood home in Pozzuoli, Italy, a volcanic region where heat, pressure, and water drive intense chemical reactions underground. The rocks originated from volcanic ash, a so-called "pozzolan" for its cement-like ability to bind materials under reactive conditions. A 1.9 billion-year-old bedrock will soon house the world's first permanent nuclear waste site. Phys.org With the push of a button, the elevator descends hundreds of meters in seconds into the dark depths of Onkalo. "We are now at about minus 430 meters (1,411 feet)," muttered geologist Tuomas Pere as he steered a car through a labyrinth of man-made tunnels. "We are driving through 1.9-billion year old bedrock." After decades of construction, the world's first facility for permanently disposing spent nuclear fuel is set to begin operations in Finland, becoming a final resting place for tons of dangerous radioactive waste. Wearable robots improve coordination between pairs of violin players. Phys.org In some settings and when completing some collaborative tasks, humans are required to coordinate their movements or actions with those of others. A clear example of this is musical performance, particularly instances in which two or more musicians play their instruments together. To coordinate their movements and play in sync, musicians typically focus on different types of sensory information, including sound signals and visual cues. The same type of information is also used by other people who are required to coordinate their actions with those of others, including athletes, dancers, and some skilled laborers who work in teams. Researchers at Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa, and other institutes recently developed a new wearable robotic system that could help musicians to play in sync. This system, presented in a paper published in Science Robotics, is essentially an exoskeleton that can be attached to a person's upper limbs and provides haptic feedback, allowing them to feel the movements of the partner. Hackers meet their match: New DNA encryption protects engineered cells from within. Phys.org Engineered cells are a high-value genetic asset that is key to many fields, including biotechnology, medicine, aging, and stem cell research, with the global market projected to reach $8.0 trillion USD by 2035. Yet the only ways to keep the cells safe are strong locks and watchful guards. In Science Advances, a team of U.S. researchers present a new approach to genetically securing precious biological material. They created a genetic combination lock in which the locking or encryption process scrambled the DNA of a cell so that its important instructions were non-functional and couldn't be easily read or used. The unlocking, or decryption, process involves adding a series of chemicals in a precise order over time—like entering a password—to activate recombinases, which then unscramble the DNA to their original, functional form. Paleontology The oldest breath: A 300-million-year-old mummy reveals the origins of how amniotes breathe. Phys.org Every breath you take is an ancient inheritance. The rise and fall of your chest, the intercostal muscles pulling your ribs outward, the rush of air into your lungs—this mechanism is so familiar it barely registers as remarkable. But a tiny, mummified reptile that died in an Oklahoma cave roughly 289 million years ago has revealed the oldest example of this breathing system in amniotes—a group that includes all reptiles, birds, mammals, and their common ancestors, among the first to conquer life on land. In a new study published in Nature, researchers describe the extraordinary preservation of the oldest known costal breathing system in Captorhinus aguti, a small, lizard-like creature from the early Permian period. The mummified fossil, which is only a few inches long, preserves not only bones, but also three-dimensional skin, calcified cartilage, and—most astonishingly—protein remnants that predate the previous oldest-known example by nearly 100 million years. 'Oldest octopus' fossil is no octopus at all, scans reveal. Phys.org A famous 300-million-year-old fossil that was thought to be the world's oldest octopus—even featuring in the Guinness Book of Records—has turned out to be something else altogether. In what amounts to a case of mistaken identity, the fossil hid its true nature through decay 300 million years ago, before being fossilized. Using the latest synchrotron imaging to search inside the fossil rock, researchers discovered tiny teeth preserved inside the rock that prove that Pohlsepia mazonensis is not an octopus at all, but an animal related to a modern Nautilus—a multi-tentacled animal with an external shell. This revelation, revealed in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, solves a long-running puzzle in the understanding of octopus evolution that has confused scientists for decades. It also provides evidence of the oldest nautiloid soft tissuepreservation known in the fossil record and means that the record-holding "oldest octopus" should be quietly written out of the Guinness Book of Records. 'Living fossils' nautilus and allonautilus shaped by depths and diets over 500 million years. Phys.org Nautilus and Allonautilus cephalopods and their extinct ancestors have been drifting through the mesophotic zone of the ocean for more than 500 million years. Researchers have spent the last 40 years trying to understand how these mysterious "living fossils" thrive in areas with limited nutrients. In a recent paper published in Scientific Reports, a UW-led team documented new habits and habitats for current Nautilus and Allonautilus species. These creatures appear to live in deeper water than their extinct cousins did, and the younger ones live twice as deep as the fully mature adults. Nautilus and Allonautilus species scavenge their food and never stop moving. While a few species migrate hundreds of meters down at dawn and then back up at dusk every day, the team found that most species aren't quite as intrepid. The researchers also describe a new population of Allonautilus in waters off the island of New Britain, one of several populations thriving due to hunting restrictions inspired in part by research efforts from this team. Engineering the bite of ancient marine predators. Phys.org An international team of researchers, led by paleontologists of the University of Liège, has investigated the biting capabilities of extinct predatory marine reptiles, revealing how these formidable predators could coexist within the same ecosystem. This work sheds new light on the hunting strategies of long-extinct predators that dominated the seas during the Age of Dinosaurs. The research is published in the journal Palaeontology. How can we infer the hunting strategies of extinct predators? A multidisciplinary team of paleontologists, biologists, and engineers from ULiège now provides an answer to that question. By combining paleontological data with cutting-edge 3D modeling and engineering simulations, the team recreated the biting behavior of marine predators that inhabited an ancient sea that covered North America approximately 80 million years ago. A 500-million-year-old clawed predator rewrites the origin of spiders and horseshoe crabs. Phys.org It had been a long day of teaching for Rudy Lerosey-Aubril. As a reward, he returned to cleaning an intriguing Cambrian arthropod fossil he had recently received for review. At first, the specimen showed all the expected characteristics of its time—yet, something was off. In place of an antenna, there appeared to be a claw. "Claws are never in that location in a Cambrian arthropod," said Lerosey-Aubril, "It took me a few minutes to realize the obvious, I had just exposed the oldest chelicera ever found." ... The discovery pushes the evolutionary history of chelicerates back by 20 million years. "This fossil documents the Cambrian origin of chelicerates," noted Lerosey-Aubril, "and shows that the anatomical blueprint of spiders and horseshoe crabs was already emerging 500 million years ago." I think I actually managed schedule it to the group queue tonight. Just in time not to need it anymore. ::sigh:: Hope everyone has a great weekend. :-) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/4/11/2377455/-Overnight-News-Digest-April-11-2026?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/