Can science shape its own future?

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Call for applications: ISC Civic Science Fellow | deadline: 16 August

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While carbonaceous chondrites make up only a small portion of the meteorites sampled on Earth, CO chondrites make up a very tiny fraction of those meteorites. According to the study, these types of meteorites are among the most pristine materials in our Solar System.

According to the study, the Cretaceous-Paleogene impactor was about six to nine miles wide and created a massive crater in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. It was eventually named the Chicxulub crater.

“Being impacted by such a rare, distant projectile really underscores how unlucky the dinosaurs were,” Claeys said.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8995304

Banner image: Dorymyrmex ants clean workers of a different ant species. Image by Moffet, 2026 (CC BY 4.0).

Unusual ant interaction hints at mutualistic ‘cleaning’ system

Some coral reef ecosystems famously have “cleaning stations,” where fish line up to be cleaned by other species of fish and shrimp. Entomologist Mark Moffet recently published observations of what appears to be a similar relationship in ants.

In the Chiricahua Mountains of the U.S. state of Arizona, Moffet, from the National Museum of Natural History, was watching harvester ants (Pogonomyrmex barbatus) collecting seeds when he noticed something odd. He saw several harvester ant workers frozen in place. When he zoomed in with his camera, Moffet saw the harvester ants covered with cone ants (Dorymyrmex spp.).

At first Moffet assumed he was seeing aggression between the species. On closer inspection however, he observed that the small cone ants were licking and nibbling the larger harvester ant workers, not fighting with them. Moffet observed the cone ants inspecting the harvester ants’ open mandibles, which could easily crush the smaller cone ants.

Moffet observed at least 90 individual harvester ant workers being tended this way and concluded that they might be getting cleaned by the cone ants. He even watched harvester ants approach the nests of cone ants and wait for cone ants to attend to them, which reminded him of reef fish lining up for a cleaning by cleaner fish species.

The big question is: What is each species getting out of the arrangement? Moffet consulted colleagues and came up with several possible explanations. Perhaps the ants exchange microbes, which create a healthier microbiome for both species. Or maybe they swap pheromones, to keep harvester ants from attacking cone ants later on. Maybe the cone ants impart an antifungal substance they’re known to produce.

Another possibility is that the cone ants get a free meal. “The Pogonomyrmex are called ‘harvester ants’ because they harvest seeds and store them in underground larders,” Moffet told Mongabay by email. “Seeds are high in calories and a carbohydrate-rich dust from them are likely all over the ant’s body surfaces — an energy rich snack that would be invisible to the eye.”

In return for that snack, the cone ants may be helping the harvester ants stay free from disease by eating seed dust that could potentially contain harmful microbes.

The cleaner ant system might be an example of mutualism — a symbiotic relationship that benefits both species — but this hypothesis needs more research. “I want to go back and take a further look. But proving that this is a mutualism would take quite a bit of time — what we need is an interested PhD student!” Moffet wrote.

Daniel Kronauer, an ant biologist at Rockefeller University in the U.S., who wasn’t involved with the cleaner ant research, told The New York Times that “It’s a pretty unique observation” that could lead to new directions in research.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8987286

Why these toads are evolving faster than anyone expected

An invasive cane toad (Rhinella marina) is measured in Australia. (Chris Barlow / Macquarie University via SWNS)

By Stephen Beech

Cane toads have leapt ahead of evolution theories by growing bigger and changing more rapidly than expected, according to new research.

The invasive species has bulged in size since being introduced into Japan less than 50 years ago, reveals the study.

Scientists say their findings suggest environmental pressures can drive rapid biological change.

The study comparing invasive cane toads in Japan and Australia found "substantial" changes in body size and shape have developed much more rapidly than suggested by long-held ideas of the pace of evolution.

Researchers measured and weighed wild-caught cane toads on Ishigaki Island in southern Japan and compared them to toads measured in Australia, Hawaii and South America.

A large cane toad outside. (Photo by Flávio Santos via Pexels)

The most striking difference was in body size with adult toads from Ishigaki weighing an average 190 grams (0.4 lbs) compared to 135g (0.3 lbs) for toads from Australia, while their average length was 122 millimeters (4.8 inches) compared to 111mm (4.3 ins).

The findings, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, also showed that Ishigaki toads had wider heads, shorter arms and longer legs than toads from other locations.

Cane toads have spread to more than 40 countries worldwide from their ancestral habitat in north-eastern South America.

They first spread to Puerto Rico and then to Hawaii and from there to Australia in the 1930s.

The toads of Ishigaki were introduced from Hawaii, via Taiwan and the Daito Islands, in 1978.

Senior researcher Rick Shine said: "Given these populations of toads in Japan and Australia shared a common history in Hawaii until the 1930s, these differences in size and body shape have developed in less than 100 years.

"The idea that evolutionary change happens at a glacially slow pace is being challenged by recent evidence showing rapid changes in species confronted with novel challenges, like being translocated to a different habitat."

The study didn't collect sufficient data to allow researchers — from Macquarie University and the University of Sydney in Australia plus Kyoto University in Japan — to test alternative theories about what might be driving the changes in body size.

But the research team speculated that the larger body sizes of Ishigaki toads could reflect favorable climatic conditions, particularly year-round rainfall or the impact of lower pressure from predators on the island.

Shine, an evolutionary biologist and ecologist at Macquarie University in Sydney, added: "We don't have a clear idea of the evolutionary forces that might be involved, so we can't say why body mass and shape has changed among the toads in the Japanese system."