Guided by visual effects supervisor John Knoll, ILM embraced continually evolving methodologies to craft breathtaking visual effects for the iconic space battles in First Contact and Rogue One. By Jay Stobie Visual effects supervisor John Knoll (right) confers with modelmakers Kim Smith and John Goodson with the miniature of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E during production of Star Trek: First Contact (Credit: ILM). Bolstered by visual effects from Industrial Light & Magic, Star Trek: First Contact (1996) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) propelled their respective franchises to new heights. While Star Trek Generations (1994) welcomed Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s (Patrick Stewart) crew to the big screen, First Contact stood as the first Star Trek feature that did not focus on its original captain, the legendary James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Similarly, though Rogue One immediately preceded the events of Star Wars: A New Hope (1977), it was set apart from the episodic Star Wars films and launched an era of storytelling outside of the main Skywalker saga that has gone on to include Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), The Mandalorian (2019-23), Andor (2022-25), Ahsoka (2023), The Acolyte (2024), and more. The two films also shared a key ILM contributor, John Knoll, who served as visual effects supervisor on both projects, as well as an executive producer on Rogue One. Currently, ILM’s executive creative director and senior visual effects supervisor, Knoll – who also conceived the initial framework for Rogue One’s story – guided ILM as it brought its talents to bear on these sci-fi and fantasy epics. The work involved crafting two spectacular starship-packed space clashes – First Contact’s Battle of Sector 001 and Rogue One’s Battle of Scarif. Although these iconic installments were released roughly two decades apart, they represent a captivating case study of how ILM’s approach to visual effects has evolved over time. With this in mind, let’s examine the films’ unforgettable space battles through the lens of fascinating in-universe parallels and the ILM-produced fleets that face off near Earth and Scarif. A final frame from the Battle of Scarif in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). A Context for Conflict In First Contact, the United Federation of Planets – a 200-year-old interstellar government consisting of more than 150 member worlds – braces itself for an invasion by the Borg – an overwhelmingly powerful collective composed of cybernetic beings who devastate entire planets by assimilating their biological populations and technological innovations. The Borg only send a single vessel, a massive cube containing thousands of hive-minded drones and their queen, pushing the Federation’s Starfleet defenders to Earth’s doorstep. Conversely, in Rogue One, the Rebel Alliance – a fledgling coalition of freedom fighters – seeks to undermine and overthrow the stalwart Galactic Empire – a totalitarian regime preparing to tighten its grip on the galaxy by revealing a horrifying superweapon. A rebel team infiltrates a top-secret vault on Scarif in a bid to steal plans to that battle station, the dreaded Death Star, with hopes of exploiting a vulnerability in its design. On the surface, the situations could not seem to be more disparate, particularly in terms of the Federation’s well-established prestige and the Rebel Alliance’s haphazardly organized factions. Yet, upon closer inspection, the spaceborne conflicts at Earth and Scarif are linked by a vital commonality. The threat posed by the Borg is well-known to the Federation, but the sudden intrusion upon their space takes its defenses by surprise. Starfleet assembles any vessel within range – including antiquated Oberth-class science ships – to intercept the Borg cube in the Typhon Sector, only to be forced back to Earth on the edge of defeat. The unsanctioned mission to Scarif with Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) and the sudden need to take down the planet’s shield gate propels the Rebel Alliance fleet into rushing to their rescue with everything from their flagship Profundity to GR-75 medium transports. Whether Federation or Rebel Alliance, these fleets gather in last-ditch efforts to oppose enemies who would embrace their eradication – the Battles of Sector 001 and Scarif are fights for survival. From Physical to Digital By the time Jonathan Frakes was selected to direct First Contact, Star Trek’s reliance on constructing traditional physical models (many of which were built by ILM) for its features was gradually giving way to innovative computer graphics (CG) models, resulting in the film’s use of both techniques. “If one of the ships was to be seen full-screen and at length,” associate visual effects supervisor George Murphy told Cinefex’s Kevin H. Martin, “we knew it would be done as a stage model. Ships that would be doing a lot of elaborate maneuvers in space battle scenes would be created digitally.” In fact, physical and CG versions of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E appear in the film, with the latter being harnessed in shots involving the vessel’s entry into a temporal vortex at the conclusion of the Battle of Sector 001. Despite the technological leaps that ILM pioneered in the decades between First Contact and Rogue One, they considered filming physical miniatures for certain ship-related shots in the latter film. ILM considered filming physical miniatures for certain ship-related shots in Rogue One. The feature’s fleets were ultimately created digitally to allow for changes throughout post-production. “If it’s a photographed miniature element, it’s not possible to go back and make adjustments. So it’s the additional flexibility that comes with the computer graphics models that’s very attractive to many people,” John Knoll relayed to writer Jon Witmer at American Cinematographer’s TheASC.com. However, Knoll aimed to develop computer graphics that retained the same high-quality details as their physical counterparts, leading ILM to employ a modern approach to a time-honored modelmaking tactic. “I also wanted to emulate the kit-bashing aesthetic that had been part of Star Wars from the very beginning, where a lot of mechanical detail had been added onto the ships by using little pieces from plastic model kits,” explained Knoll in his chat with TheASC.com. For Rogue One, ILM replicated the process by obtaining such kits, scanning their parts, building a computer graphics library, and applying the CG parts to digitally modeled ships. “I’m very happy to say it was super-successful,” concluded Knoll. “I think a lot of our digital models look like they are motion-control models.” John Knoll (second from left) confers with Kim Smith and John Goodson with the miniature of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E during production of Star Trek: First Contact (Credit: ILM). Legendary Lineages In First Contact, Captain Picard commanded a brand-new vessel, the Sovereign-class U.S.S. Enterprise-E, continuing the celebrated starship’s legacy in terms of its famous name and design aesthetic. Designed by John Eaves and developed into blueprints by Rick Sternbach, the Enterprise-E was built into a 10-foot physical model by ILM model project supervisor John Goodson and his shop’s talented team. ILM infused the ship with extraordinary detail, including viewports equipped with backlit set images from the craft’s predecessor, the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. For the vessel’s larger windows, namely those associated with the observation lounge and arboretum, ILM took a painstakingly practical approach to match the interiors shown with the real-world set pieces. “We filled that area of the model with tiny, micro-scale furniture,” Goodson informed Cinefex, “including tables and chairs.” Rogue One’s rebel team initially traversed the galaxy in a U-wing transport/gunship, which, much like the Enterprise-E, was a unique vessel that nonetheless channeled a certain degree of inspiration from a classic design. Lucasfilm’s Doug Chiang, a co-production designer for Rogue One, referred to the U-wing as the film’s “Huey helicopter version of an X-wing” in the Designing Rogue One bonus featurette on Disney+ before revealing that, “Towards the end of the design cycle, we actually decided that maybe we should put in more X-wing features. And so we took the X-wing engines and literally mounted them onto the configuration that we had going.” Modeled by ILM digital artist Colie Wertz, the U-wing’s final computer graphics design subtly incorporated these X-wing influences to give the transport a distinctive feel without making the craft seem out of place within the rebel fleet. While ILM’s work on the Enterprise-E’s viewports offered a compelling view toward the ship’s interior, a breakthrough LED setup for Rogue One permitted ILM to obtain realistic lighting on actors as they looked out from their ships and into the space around them. “All of our major spaceship cockpit scenes were done that way, with the gimbal in this giant horseshoe of LED panels we got from [equipment vendor] VER, and we prepared graphics that went on the screens,” John Knoll shared with American Cinematographer’s Benjamin B and Jon D. Witmer. Furthermore, in Disney+’s Rogue One: Digital Storytelling bonus featurette, visual effects producer Janet Lewin noted, “For the actors, I think, in the space battle cockpits, for them to be able to see what was happening in the battle brought a higher level of accuracy to their performance.” The U.S.S. Enterprise-E in Star Trek: First Contact (Credit: Paramount). Familiar Foes To transport First Contact’s Borg invaders, John Goodson’s team at ILM resurrected the Borg cube design previously seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), creating a nearly three-foot physical model to replace the one from the series. Art consultant and ILM veteran Bill George proposed that the cube’s seemingly straightforward layout be augmented with a complex network of photo-etched brass, a suggestion which produced a jagged surface and offered a visual that was both intricate and menacing. ILM also developed a two-foot motion-control model for a Borg sphere, a brand-new auxiliary vessel that emerged from the cube. “We vacuformed about 15 different patterns that conformed to this spherical curve and covered those with a lot of molded and cast pieces. Then we added tons of acid-etched brass over it, just like we had on the cube,” Goodson outlined to Cinefex’s Kevin H. Martin. As for Rogue One’s villainous fleet, reproducing the original trilogy’s Death Star and Imperial Star Destroyers centered upon translating physical models into digital assets. Although ILM no longer possessed A New Hope’s three-foot Death Star shooting model, John Knoll recreated the station’s surface paneling by gathering archival images, and as he spelled out to writer Joe Fordham in Cinefex, “I pieced all the images together. I unwrapped them into texture space and projected them onto a sphere with a trench. By doing that with enough pictures, I got pretty complete coverage of the original model, and that became a template upon which to redraw very high-resolution texture maps. Every panel, every vertical striped line, I matched from a photograph. It was as accurate as it was possible to be as a reproduction of the original model.” Knoll’s investigative eye continued to pay dividends when analyzing the three-foot and eight-foot Star Destroyer motion-control models, which had been built for A New Hope and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980), respectively. “Our general mantra was, ‘Match your memory of it more than the reality,’ because sometimes you go look at the actual prop in the archive building or you look back at the actual shot from the movie, and you go, ‘Oh, I remember it being a little better than that,’” Knoll conveyed to TheASC.com. This philosophy motivated ILM to combine elements from those two physical models into a single digital design. “Generally, we copied the three-footer for details like the superstructure on the top of the bridge, but then we copied the internal lighting plan from the eight-footer,” Knoll explained. “And then the upper surface of the three-footer was relatively undetailed because there were no shots that saw it closely, so we took a lot of the high-detail upper surface from the eight-footer. So it’s this amalgam of the two models, but the goal was to try to make it look like you remember it from A New Hope.” A final frame from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). Forming Up the Fleets In addition to the U.S.S. Enterprise-E, the Battle of Sector 001 debuted numerous vessels representing four new Starfleet ship classes – the Akira, Steamrunner, Saber, and Norway – all designed by ILM visual effects art director Alex Jaeger. “Since we figured a lot of the background action in the space battle would be done with computer graphics ships that needed to be built from scratch anyway, I realized that there was no reason not to do some new designs,” John Knoll told American Cinematographer writer Ron Magid. Used in previous Star Trek projects, older physical models for the Oberth and Nebula classes were mixed into the fleet for good measure, though the vast majority of the armada originated as computer graphics. Over at Scarif, ILM portrayed the Rebel Alliance forces with computer graphics models of fresh designs (the MC75 cruiser Profundity and U-wings), live-action versions of Star Wars Rebels’ VCX-100 light freighter Ghost and Hammerhead corvettes, and Star Wars staples (Nebulon-B frigates, X-wings, Y-wings, and more). These ships face off against two Imperial Star Destroyers and squadrons of TIE fighters, and – upon their late arrival to the battle – Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer and the Death Star. The Tantive IV, a CR90 corvette more popularly referred to as a blockade runner, made its own special cameo at the tail end of the fight. As Princess Leia Organa’s (Carrie Fisher and Ingvild Deila) personal ship, the Tantive IV received the Death Star plans and fled the scene, destined to be captured by Vader’s Star Destroyer at the beginning of A New Hope. And, while we’re on the subject of intricate starship maneuvers and space-based choreography… Although the First Contact team could plan visual effects shots with animated storyboards, ILM supplied Gareth Edwards with a next-level virtual viewfinder that allowed the director to select his shots by immersing himself among Rogue One’s ships in real time. “What we wanted to do is give Gareth the opportunity to shoot his space battles and other all-digital scenes the same way he shoots his live-action. Then he could go in with this sort of virtual viewfinder and view the space battle going on, and figure out what the best angle was to shoot those ships from,” senior animation supervisor Hal Hickel described in the Rogue One: Digital Storytelling featurette. Hickel divulged that the sequence involving the dish array docking with the Death Star was an example of the “spontaneous discovery of great angles,” as the scene was never storyboarded or previsualized. Visual effects supervisor John Knoll with director Gareth Edwards during production of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (Credit: ILM & Lucasfilm). Tough Little Ships The Federation and Rebel Alliance each deployed “tough little ships” (an endearing description Commander William T. Riker [Jonathan Frakes] bestowed upon the U.S.S. Defiant in First Contact) in their respective conflicts, namely the U.S.S. Defiant from Deep Space Nine and the Tantive IV from A New Hope. VisionArt had already built a CG Defiant for the Deep Space Nine series, but ILM upgraded the model with images gathered from the ship’s three-foot physical model. A similar tactic was taken to bring the Tantive IV into the digital realm for Rogue One. “This was the Blockade Runner. This was the most accurate 1:1 reproduction we could possibly have made,” model supervisor Russell Paul declared to Cinefex’s Joe Fordham. “We did an extensive photo reference shoot and photogrammetry re-creation of the miniature. From there, we built it out as accurately as possible.” Speaking of sturdy ships, if you look very closely, you can spot a model of the Millennium Falcon flashing across the background as the U.S.S. Defiant makes an attack run on the Borg cube at the Battle of Sector 001! Exploration and Hope The in-universe ramifications that materialize from the Battles of Sector 001 and Scarif are monumental. The destruction of the Borg cube compels the Borg Queen to travel back in time in an attempt to vanquish Earth before the Federation can even be formed, but Captain Picard and the Enterprise-E foil the plot and end up helping their 21st century ancestors make “first contact” with another species, the logic-revering Vulcans. The post-Scarif benefits take longer to play out for the Rebel Alliance, but the theft of the Death Star plans eventually leads to the superweapon’s destruction. The Galactic Civil War is far from over, but Scarif is a significant step in the Alliance’s effort to overthrow the Empire. The visual effects ILM provided for First Contact and Rogue One contributed significantly to the critical and commercial acclaim both pictures enjoyed, a victory reflecting the relentless dedication, tireless work ethic, and innovative spirit embodied by visual effects supervisor John Knoll and ILM’s entire staff. While being interviewed for The Making of Star Trek: First Contact, actor Patrick Stewart praised ILM’s invaluable influence, emphasizing, “ILM was with us, on this movie, almost every day on set. There is so much that they are involved in.” And, regardless of your personal preferences – phasers or lasers, photon torpedoes or proton torpedoes, warp speed or hyperspace – perhaps Industrial Light & Magic’s ability to infuse excitement into both franchises demonstrates that Star Trek and Star Wars encompass themes that are not competitive, but compatible. After all, what goes together better than exploration and hope? – Jay Stobie (he/him) is a writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to ILM.com, Skysound.com, Star Wars Insider, StarWars.com, Star Trek Explorer, Star Trek Magazine, and StarTrek.com. Jay loves sci-fi, fantasy, and film, and you can learn more about him by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

Extra-sensory perception The nine-armed octopus and the oddities of the cephalopod nervous system A mix of autonomous and top-down control manage the octopus's limbs. Kenna Hughes-Castleberry – Jun 7, 2025 8:00 am | 19 Credit: Nikos Stavrinidis / 500px Credit: Nikos Stavrinidis / 500px Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more With their quick-change camouflage and high level of intelligence, it’s not surprising that the public and scientific experts alike are fascinated by octopuses. Their abilities to recognize faces, solve puzzles, and learn behaviors from other octopuses make these animals a captivating study. To perform these processes and others, like crawling or exploring, octopuses rely on their complex nervous system, one that has become a focus for neuroscientists. With about 500 million neurons—around the same number as dogs—octopuses’ nervous systems are the most complex of any invertebrate. But, unlike vertebrate organisms, the octopus’s nervous system is also decentralized, with around 350 million neurons, or 66 percent of it, located in its eight arms. “This means each arm is capable of independently processing sensory input, initiating movement, and even executing complex behaviors—without direct instructions from the brain,” explains Galit Pelled, a professor of Mechanical Engineering, Radiology, and Neuroscience at Michigan State University who studies octopus neuroscience. “In essence, the arms have their own ‘mini-brains.’” A decentralized nervous system is one factor that helps octopuses adapt to changes, such as injury or predation, as seen in the case of an Octopus vulgaris, or common octopus, that was observed with nine arms by researchers at the ECOBAR lab at the Institute of Marine Research in Spain between 2021 and 2022. By studying outliers like this cephalopod, researchers can gain insight into how the animal’s detailed scaffolding of nerves changes and regrows over time, uncovering more about how octopuses have evolved over millennia in our oceans. Brains, brains, and more brains Because each arm of an octopus contains its own bundle of neurons, the limbs can operate semi-independently from the central brain, enabling faster responses since signals don’t always need to travel back and forth between the brain and the arms. In fact, Pelled and her team recently discovered that “neural signals recorded in the octopus arm can predict movement type within 100 milliseconds of stimulation, without central brain involvement.” She notes that “that level of localized autonomy is unprecedented in vertebrate systems.” Though each limb moves on its own, the movements of the octopus’s body are smooth and conducted with a coordinated elegance that allows the animal to exhibit some of the broadest range of behaviors, adapting on the fly to changes in its surroundings. “That means the octopus can react quickly to its environment, especially when exploring, hunting, or defending itself,” Pelled says. “For example, one arm can grab food while another is feeling around a rock, without needing permission from the brain. This setup also makes the octopus more resilient. If one arm is injured, the others still work just fine. And because so much decision-making happens at the arms, the central brain is freed up to focus on the bigger picture—like navigating or learning new tasks.” As if each limb weren’t already buzzing with neural activity, things get even more intricate when researchers zoom in further—to the nerves within each individual sucker, a ring of muscular tissue, which octopuses use to sense and taste their surroundings. “There is a sucker ganglion, or nerve center, located in the stalk of every sucker. For some species of octopuses, that’s over a thousand ganglia,” says Cassady Olson, a graduate student at the University of Chicago who works with Cliff Ragsdale, a leading expert in octopus neuroscience. Given that each sucker has its own nerve centers—connected by a long axial nerve cord running down the limb—and each arm has hundreds of suckers, things get complicated very quickly, as researchers have historically struggled to study this peripheral nervous system, as it’s called, within the octopus’s body. “The large size of the brain makes it both really exciting to study and really challenging,” says Z. Yan Wang, an assistant professor of biology and psychology at the University of Washington. “Many of the tools available for neuroscience have to be adjusted or customized specifically for octopuses and other cephalopods because of their unique body plans.” While each limb acts independently, signals are transmitted back to the octopus’s central nervous system. The octopus’ brain sits between its eyes at the front of its mantle, or head, couched between its two optic lobes, large bean-shaped neural organs that help octopuses see the world around them. These optic lobes are just two of the over 30 lobes experts study within the animal’s centralized brain, as each lobe helps the octopus process its environment. This elaborate neural architecture is critical given the octopus’s dual role in the ecosystem as both predator and prey. Without natural defenses like a hard shell, octopuses have evolved a highly adaptable nervous system that allows them to rapidly process information and adjust as needed, helping their chances of survival. Some similarities remain While the octopus’s decentralized nervous system makes it a unique evolutionary example, it does have some structures similar to or analogous to the human nervous system. “The octopus has a central brain mass located between its eyes, and an axial nerve cord running down each arm (similar to a spinal cord),” says Wang. “The octopus has many sensory systems that we are familiar with, such as vision, touch (somatosensation), chemosensation, and gravity sensing.” Neuroscientists have homed in on these similarities to understand how these structures may have evolved across the different branches in the tree of life. As the most recent common ancestor for humans and octopuses lived around 750 million years ago, experts believe that many similarities, from similar camera-like eyes to maps of neural activities, evolved separately in a process known as convergent evolution. While these similarities shed light on evolution's independent paths, they also offer valuable insights for fields like soft robotics and regenerative medicine. Occasionally, unique individuals—like an octopus with an unexpected number of limbs—can provide even deeper clues into how this remarkable nervous system functions and adapts. Nine arms, no problem In 2021, researchers from the Institute of Marine Research in Spain used an underwater camera to follow a male Octopus vulgaris, or common octopus. On its left side, three arms were intact, while the others were reduced to uneven, stumpy lengths, sharply bitten off at varying points. Although the researchers didn’t witness the injury itself, they observed that the front right arm—known as R1—was regenerating unusually, splitting into two separate limbs and giving the octopus a total of nine arms. “In this individual, we believe this condition was a result of abnormal regeneration [a genetic mutation] after an encounter with a predator,” explains Sam Soule, one of the researchers and the first author on the corresponding paper recently published in Animals. The researchers named the octopus Salvador due to its bifurcated arm coiling up on itself like the two upturned ends of Salvador Dali’s moustache. For two years, the team studied the cephalopod’s behavior and found that it used its bifurcated arm less when doing “riskier” movements such as exploring or grabbing food, which would force the animal to stretch its arm out and expose it to further injury. “One of the conclusions of our research is that the octopus likely retains a long-term memory of the original injury, as it tends to use the bifurcated arms for less risky tasks compared to the others,” elaborates Jorge Hernández Urcera, a lead author of the study. “This idea of lasting memory brought to mind Dalí’s famous painting The Persistence of Memory, which ultimately became the title of the paper we published on monitoring this particular octopus.” While the octopus acted more protective of its extra limb, its nervous system had adapted to using the extra appendage, as the octopus was observed, after some time recovering from its injuries, using its ninth arm for probing its environment. “That nine-armed octopus is a perfect example of just how adaptable these animals are,” Pelled adds. “Most animals would struggle with an unusual body part, but not the octopus. In this case, the octopus had a bifurcated (split) arm and still used it effectively, just like any other arm. That tells us the nervous system didn’t treat it as a mistake—it figured out how to make it work.” Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is the science communicator at JILA (a joint physics research institute between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder) and a freelance science journalist. Her main writing focuses are quantum physics, quantum technology, deep technology, social media, and the diversity of people in these fields, particularly women and people from minority ethnic and racial groups. Follow her on LinkedIn or visit her website. 19 Comments

“Pillars” (2024), oil on linen, 84 x 96 inches. All images courtesy of Mario Moore and Library Street Collective, shared with permission Mario Moore’s Oil Paintings Bridge Past and Present to Spotlight Black Resilience and Style June 4, 2025 Kate Mothes In large-scale works in oil, Detroit-based artist Mario Moore taps into the legacy of European painting traditions to create bold portraits exploring the nature of veneration, self-determination, and the continuum of history. Moore’s work is currently on view in Beneath Our Feet at Library Street Collective alongside fellow Detroiter LaKela Brown. His new pieces nod to the Dutch and Flemish tradition of devotional painting, particularly religious garland paintings. Within elegant arrangements of flowers and foliage, he highlights Black figures relaxing or tending to gardens. “The Patron Saint of Urban Farming” (2025), oil on linen, 72 x 48 inches In “Watermelon Man,” a stone altar is surrounded by hibiscus and watermelons, both symbols of resilience. Historically, the latter represented self-sufficiency and freedom for Southern African Americans following Emancipation, but whites flipped the narrative into a stereotypical exemplar of poverty. Moore reclaims the fruit in the spirit of refined 17th-century still-lifes. The artist has long drawn on the culture and legacies of both Detroit and the U.S. more broadly through the lens of the Black diaspora. Earlier works like “Pillars” position Black figures in elegant dress within the vast wildernesses of the American frontier, bridging the past to explore how racial divisions continue to shape the present. An exhibition last summer at Grand Rapids Art Museum titled Revolutionary Times took his series A New Republic as a starting point, revisiting the history of Black Union soldiers during the Civil War. Moore learned that one of his ancestors, who had been enslaved as a child, later enlisted in the Union Army, spurring the artist’s exploration of the seminal mid-19th-century period of conflict and Western colonization. He positions present-day figures in contemporary dress within historical contexts, interrogating political and racial segregations. “Watermelon Man” (2025), oil on linen, 51 1/2 x 42 inches Through tropes of European painting like a self-portrait of the artist in mirrored reflections and poses in three-quarter profile, Moore renders individuals whose direct, confident gazes and elegant dress invoke Detroit style and pride. For Beneath Our Feet, Brown and Moore collaborated on a five-foot-wide bas-relief bronze coin. Each artist completed one side, with Mario’s contribution taking the form of a portrait of Brown. “Her profile echoes the conventional format of traditional American coinage, confronting the historic absence of Black women in national symbolism and positions of authority,” the gallery says. On the opposite side, Brown depicts a bouquet of collard greens symbolic of nourishment and community. For this exhibition, Brown and Moore “reflect on the wealth held in the earth beneath us—and the enduring question of who holds the rights to till, own, and shape that land,” says an exhibition statement. Detroit is home to ambitious urban gardening initiatives that aim for local food sovereignty, mirroring the resourcefulness of Black farmers throughout history. The artists “consider land not just as property but as history, inheritance, and possibility,” the gallery says. Beneath Our Feet continues through July 30 in Detroit. See more on Moore’s website and Instagram. “International Detroit Playa: Sheefy” (2022), oil on linen, 108 x 96 inches “These Are Not Yams But They Are Damn Good” (2025), oil on linen, 51 1/2 x 42 inches “Creation of a Revolutionary (Helen Moore)” (2023), oil on linen, 76 x 52 inches “Black” (2023), oil on linen, 48 x 48 inches “Garland of Resilience” (2025), oil on linen, 51 1/2 x 42 inches “Birth of Cool” (2023), oil on linen, 72 x 48 inches Installation view of ‘LaKela Brown and Mario Moore: Beneath Our Feet’ at Library Street Collective, Detroit Previous articleNext article

The Independents marks Colony’s 10th anniversary as a platform where founder Jean Lin’s personal vision and marketplace viability find rare equilibrium. The exhibition brings together 24 design studios from Colony’s orbit, each responding to what independence in design practice means to them. The resulting collection serves as both retrospective and manifesto – a declaration that independence in design isn’t merely aesthetic preference but philosophical stance. A paper cord chair with a single walnut along a corner hinge sits in the corner of Lin’s Tribeca gallery space. To the casual observer, it might register simply as a thoughtful detail of material juxtaposition. But Chen Chen & Kai Williams’ Walnut Corner Chair carries cultural memory within its form. The designers drew inspiration from the Chinese tradition of passing walnuts from one generation to the next, objects worn smooth by the hands of ancestors. This object-as-inheritance becomes a fitting metaphor for what Colony has cultivated over its decade of existence. “I’m very proud of the community of independent designers that we have built at Colony over the past decade,” says Colony founder Lin. “The Independents exhibition encapsulates my very own ‘why.’ My belief in the independent spirit is limitless, and so is my awe.” The exhibition reveals how Colony’s cooperative model has evolved beyond representation to becoming an incubator. Studios emerging from the gallery’s Designers’ Residency program – including Ember Studio, Thomas Yang Studio, and the freshly minted Studio BC Joshua from the 2025 class – demonstrate how Colony functions as both launch pad and ongoing support system. Materiality serves as a throughline connecting past and present. Current Colony designers like Hiroko Takeda, Moving Mountains, and SSS Atelier present new work that extends their material investigations. Takeda’s textiles in particular showcase how technical mastery creates spaces for expression – the constraints of the loom enabling greater creative freedom. For more information on The Independents, visit Colony at goodcolony.com. Photography by Brooke Holm.

The HD-2D remakes of Dragon Quest I & II will be coming to PlayStation 5 on October 30, 2025. Experience the conclusion of the Erdrick trilogy in breathtaking HD-2D which seamlessly blends 3D graphics and pixel art. Dragon Quest I & II Dragon Quest I & II, which take place after Dragon Quest III, will be released in one package, allowing players to fully experience the adventures of the scions of Erdrick. Dragon Quest I Thanks to the heroic efforts of the legendary Erdrick, the Lord of the Underworld was defeated and peace returned to the land of Alefgard. Yet this peace was not to last, as the diabolical Dragonlord rose up and unleashed horde upon horde of monsters on the realm once more. Now it falls to you, Erdrick’s descendant, to lay the fiend low and rescue the world from its plight! The original game exclusively pitted the player against singular foes, however, the remake features battles against multiple enemies. Dragon Quest II Many years have passed since Alefgard was saved at the hero’s hand, earning him the same title as his storied forebear. The descendants of this Erdrick and his scions founded three kingdoms that thrived in peacetime. Yet, darkness stirs once more and a sudden invasion of malicious monsters plunges the world into shadow again. All that stands between the forces of evil and their wicked ambitions is a band of young princes and princesses of Erdrick’s lineage. The time has come for them to venture forth and honor their ancestor’s legacy. In addition to updated HD-2D graphics, both games feature new stories, new areas, and numerous other improvements and updates. What is the Erdrick trilogy? Dragon Quest, Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line and Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation—the first three games in this long-running series—are connected both in their stories and the worlds in which they take place. They have come to be known collectively as “The Erdrick Trilogy”— Erdrick being the name passed down to each new incarnation of the legendary hero. Playing the HD-2D versions of Dragon Quest I & II after Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake will allow players to enjoy the connections between these three titles. A world remade in HD-2D HD-2D is a graphical style developed by Square Enix Co., LTD.’s Team Asano that combines pixel art and 3D graphics. The advanced visual effects used alongside this combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional styles creates a blend that is both new and nostalgic. Pre-orders are open for Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake, which goes on sale October 30, 2025.

Let's make this simple: You want to know if there are any post- or mid-credits scenes in Karate Kid: Legends. The answer is yes!Well, what do you call it when a movie ends, they cut to a title card, but then they immediately cut to another scene? Let’s call it a starts-credit scene. It would be hard to miss, but if you had to pee and were thinking of leaping out of your seat the second it seemed the movie was over, well, you shouldn’t. Full spoilers for the entire movie follow!The prophecy of six movies and six seasons of a TV show – wait, was that a thing? – has been fulfilled, as the Karate Kid franchise returns to theaters in Karate Kid: Legends. Though it is opening just a few months after the conclusion of the hit Netflix series Cobra Kai, the filmmakers have stressed this is a standalone story and that while Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) is in both, fans shouldn’t expect the film to continue Cobra Kai storylines, as we shift focus to a new Karate Kid, Li Fong (Ben Wang). Still, it was hard not to wonder if there would be any overt connections between the two beyond Daniel’s presence - or if fans should actually worry that the film would outright contradict the series in any way. Ultimately, while the movie sticks to that standalone promise pretty strongly, and Daniel actually has a relatively small role, there are two scenes that touch upon other aspects of the larger Karate Kid franchise - specifically tied to The Karate Kid Part II and, yes, Cobra Kai. Ranking the Karate Kid MoviesThe Karate Kid Part II Connection (and Continuity Error)Karate Kid: Legends has been marketed as a movie where Li Fong gets trained by two legends from Karate Kid history - Daniel LaRusso and Jackie Chan’s Mr. Han. This is pretty notable because Mr. Han’s only appearance prior to this was alongside Jaden Smith in 2010’s The Karate Kid, a film that was intended at the time to be an outright remake of the 1984 original. And while it changed the character names and locations, it used nearly every notable story beat from the 1984 film. All of which makes it pretty funny that it’s now been retconned to be part of the larger Karate Kid/Cobra Kai universe, since it means we just have to accept Mr. Han and Mr. Miyagi had remarkably similar experiences as widowed handymen who were secretly martial arts masters that ended up mentoring and befriending a bullied young boy who moved into the building they worked in… And then entered them in a tournament where they could face their bully… And one night drunkenly broke down and spoke about their dead family to the kid they were training... And so on…But hey, the universe works in mysterious ways, and I guess maybe it’s even more cosmic that Han and Miyagi lived such similar lives since it turns out they were really good friends whose families had been bonded together for literal centuries! Legends reveals that the two were longtime pals and we even get a photoshopped image of Pat Morita and Jackie Chan in the mid-1980s together to prove it. Legends opens with a flashback scene pulled from The Karate Kid Part II to dive into the bond between the Miyagi and Han families.“Legends actually opens with a flashback scene pulled from The Karate Kid Part II to dive into the bond between the Miyagi and Han families. In Part II, when Daniel traveled with Miyagi to Okinawa, Miyagi explained to him how in the year 1625, his ancestor, fisherman Shimpo Miyagi, got drunk on his boat and woke up to find himself off the coast of China. He would return to Okinawa a decade later with a Chinese wife and two children, also now knowing the secret of Miyagi family karate, bringing karate to Okinawa for the first time in the process. However, Legends transitions from this scene between Daniel and Miyagi into animation accompanied by a soundalike for the late Pat Morita (is it an actual human or AI? Who can say these days?) that goes into specifics we didn’t hear in The Karate Kid Part II. Here, Miyagi says that it was the kung fu experts in the Han family who Shimpo encountered and learned from, and that is what forged a bond that has lasted to the present day between the two families. Oh, and a side note fanboy rant: Karate Kid: Legends literally begins with this flashback scene, alongside onscreen text that says “Okinawa, 1986.” 1986 is the year The Karate Kid Part II was released, yes, but that’s not the year that movie took place in! The Karate Kid Part II is set the summer after Daniel won the All-Valley in December 1984 in the first movie. Hence, it’s the summer of 1985. They make sure to get this right on Cobra Kai when referencing Part II’s events (and hell, when referencing The Karate Kid Part III as well, which takes place later in 1985), so it is odd and annoying that no one noticed this error in the entire process of completing this film, when plenty of Karate Kid/Cobra Kai fans can spot it instantly. Sigh… End rant. PlayLi’s Three Dads (Can Fight)Karate Kid: Legends is actually rather misleading in terms of marketing, because yes, Li ends up being trained by Mr. Han and Daniel together for this film’s big tournament, the New York-based 5 Boroughs. But none of that happens – and we don’t even see Daniel outside of that old Part II footage – until the second half of the movie. The first half follows Li moving to New York with his mom (Ming-Na Wen) where, at first, he’s having the traditional Karate Kid new kid in town path of falling for a friendly cute girl he meets (Sadie Stanley as Mia) whose ex-boyfriend (Aramis Knight as Connor) turns out to be a bullying a-hole who’s also a seemingly unbeatable karate champion. But one big difference this time is that Li actually is a rather formidable kung fu fighter already, thanks to the training he received back in China from Mr. Han - he’s just not ready for someone as skilled as Connor yet. But the other big difference is that the film then takes a huge detour from other Karate Kid films for quite awhile when Li bonds with Mia’s dad, Victor (Joshua Jackson), an ex-boxer turned pizza place owner who’s attempting a boxing comeback in order to quickly make money he needs to pay back a loan from the dangerous O’Shea (Tim Rozon). O’Shea is also the guy who runs the Demolition karate school that trains Connor, so basically think of him as Kreese from the original Karate Kid… if he also had a side hustle as a mobster/loan shark type.      After Li helps Victor fight off some of O’Shea’s goons, Victor is amazed at his fighting prowess and asks the kid to help him train to get back into fighting shape - and pass on some of his kung fu techniques for punching and dodging. Li accepts, and for a surprising amount of the first half of its run time Karate Kid: Legends does a fun twist on the usual underdog story, with the young teen character mentoring the older character on how to fight. However, in Victor’s big comeback fight, his opponent goes for some brutal sucker punches at O’Shea’s orders, sending Victor to the hospital. With Connor still harassing Li and Li now wanting to help Victor and Mia get the money they still need to pay off Victor’s debt, he is convinced by Mr. Han – who comes from China to see him – to enter the 5 Boroughs tournament, which comes with a snazzy $50,000 prize for the winner. Mr. Han will of course help train him, but he can’t do it alone, because the 5 Boroughs is a karate tournament, not kung fu. So it’s off to Los Angeles and to Mr. Miyagi’s house (AKA Miyagi-Do Karate Dojo to Cobra Kai fans) to recruit a reluctant Daniel LaRusso to help, with Han explaining his friendship with Miyagi - though you’d think Daniel might already know about him?Karate Kid: Legends Ending ExplainedSoon enough, as Han predicts, Daniel does come to New York and he and Han team up to get Li ready for the tournament in just a few days time, using his foundation of kung fu to build upon to teach him Miyagi karate. Daniel also gives Li a headband he found among Miyagi’s belongings that he believes is connected to the bond between the Hans and the Miyagis and the idea of “two branches, one tree.” And then Li gets his ass kicked in the tournament and loses to Connor! Li beats Connor, and it being a Karate Kid movie, he does it using a special move he’d practiced earlier, of course.“Just kidding, Li beats Connor, and it being a Karate Kid movie, he does it using a special move he’d practiced earlier, of course - this one a fancy kick his late brother taught him, with an added second slide move suggested by Daniel, since Connor already has seen and countered that kick on its own in a previous skirmish the two had.Does Karate Kid: Legends Have a Mid- or Post-Credits Scene?As mentioned above, Karate Kid: Legends does have an additional scene – two, actually – though they appear almost immediately after the film appears to end, rather than true “mid-credits” scenes, since no credits actually run before they appear. After Li wins, Victor holds him up triumphantly to the cheering crowd and we get the traditional Karate Kid freeze frame on Li and then cut to the movie’s logo filling the screen… Except then, instead of the closing credits beginning, we get the two back-to-back scenes that actually wrap up the story. In the first scene, Victor is opening a new second location for his pizza place, with Li and Mia assisting. Han is there too alongside Li’s mom, though he mentions he will be returning to China soon, while Li says something about a pizza delivery to a notably far address. William Zabka (center) does show up as Johnny Lawrence in the "mid-credits" scene!We then cut to Los Angeles and a knock at the door of Mr. Miyagi’s home. Daniel answers and is confused to see it’s a pizza, saying he didn’t order one. However, when he opens the box, alongside the pizza (which we only glimpse, but it does appear to be freeze-dried, thankfully) is a note from Li, thanking Daniel for his help. Daniel walks inside with the pizza and up to… Johnny Lawrence! Yes, William Zabka does make a cameo in this movie as Johnny, in the one moment at my press screening of Karate Kid: Legends that got a big cheer from the crowd. The scene is an amusing comedic one, as Johnny first mocks the New York pizza Daniel received, insisting the best pizza is in the Valley’s own Encino. He then suggests to Daniel they open their own pizza place, which he has the perfect name for - Miyagi-Dough. An exasperated Daniel tells Johnny that’s offensive and walks off as Johnny begins brainstorming slogans like “Slice hard, slice fast.”So Is That It for Cobra Kai Connections in Karate Kid: Legends? Pretty much. And obviously the Johnny appearance is not an “important” scene, in that it doesn’t overtly set up anything for the future (unless we get a Miyagi-Dough Netflix series), but it does acknowledge Cobra Kai for the first time in the film. Prior to that, at no point does Daniel mention his wife or kids or that he runs a car dealership and an active dojo or really anything about the characters and events from the series, who we can presume are all simply living their lives off screen. But Johnny finally showing up, as Daniel’s pal, does at least let us know they are reinforcing where the show left off as far as where Daniel is in his life. If you’re searching for possible connections beyond that, there are a couple of slight/tenuous ones. When Li is explaining how vicious Connor fights, they end up describing him like he’s a tiger, with Daniel suggesting they just need to bait him. He mentions having fought opponents like that before, though it’s up to the viewer to determine if he means Johnny, Chozen, Mike Barnes, Kreese, Terry Silver, some combination of those guys, or someone else entirely. Then there’s the headband that Daniel says he found among Miyagi’s belongings. Was this something Daniel has had in his possession since Miyagi died or did he find it more recently? The final season of Cobra Kai had Daniel discover a trunk Miyagi had hidden away, containing artifacts from his past, including his headband from the brutal Sekai Taikai tournament. Was this second headband in there too and we just didn’t see it on the show or did Daniel already have it? That’s probably not a question we’ll ever get an answer to on screen, so the answer may be whichever you’d like it to be.But what did you think of Legends? Let’s discuss in the comments!

Scientists Investigate 2.2-Million-Year-Old Tooth Enamel to Unravel the Mysteries of Ancient Human Relatives By studying proteins preserved in teeth, researchers determined the sex of four Paranthropus robustus individuals that lived in southern Africa This skull of a 1.8-million-year-old Paranthropus robustus individual was unearthed in South Africa, but it was not one of the fossils included in the study. José Braga and Didier Descouens via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0 Paranthropus robustus was a prehistoric, two-legged human relative that lived in southern Africa roughly two million years ago. Scientists have unearthed various P. robustus fossils, but because of the specimens’ age, they haven’t been able to glean much from them. Now, using a novel method, researchers say they’ve determined the sex of four P. robustus individuals by studying their teeth. The new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science, also reveals insights into the genetic diversity of the broader Paranthropus genus. For the study, the team analyzed teeth discovered in a cave at the Swartkrans paleoanthropological site in South Africa, reports Live Science’s Kristina Killgrove. Because the fossils were so old—dating to between 1.8 million and 2.2 million years ago—researchers could not recover ancient DNA from them. So, instead, they turned to the relatively new field of paleoproteomics, or the study of preserved proteins. Ancient DNA degrades over time, particularly in hot places like southern Africa. So far, scientists studying hominin remains on the continent have only been able to successfully sequence DNA from material that’s less than 20,000 years old. But proteins can survive much longer than DNA, particularly in hard tooth enamel. When they analyzed the fossilized enamel of the P. robustus teeth, the researchers were able to identify specific protein sequences found only in males. This allowed them to determine that two of the P. robustus individuals were male and two were female. They were surprised to learn that one individual, named SK 835, was male. Based on the comparatively small size of that individual’s teeth, researchers had previously thought SK 835 was female, since male hominins tend to be larger than females, on average. This marks an important finding, as it supports the idea that dental measurements are not the most reliable way to determine the sex of ancient hominins. “Paleoanthropologists have long known that our use of tooth size to estimate sex was fraught with uncertainty, but it was the best we had,” says Paul Constantino, a paleoanthropologist at Saint Michael’s College who was not involved with the research, to ScienceNews’ Bruce Bower. “Being able to accurately identify the sex of fossils using proteins will be hugely impactful.” Further analyses of the fossils’ amino acid sequences revealed that SK 835 was less closely related to the other three individuals than they were to each other. That means it’s possible SK 835 represents a different species altogether—maybe the newly proposed Paranthropus capensis. After all, the team writes in the paper, the recent description of that species shows Paranthropus diversity “is currently underestimated and needs to be investigated further.” Or, perhaps the small size of SK 835’s teeth can be explained by microevolution—variations between P. robustus groups living at different sites. Scientists say they will need to get their hands on more Paranthropus fossils from multiple places to know for certain, per Science News. Moving forward, researchers hope they can one day use paleoproteomic methods to map the entire human family tree. Right now, however, their “ability to distinguish between different species is limited by the small number of different proteins present in enamel,” three of the study authors tell Live Science in an email. Scientists are also exploring other protein-sequencing techniques that are less destructive to fossil samples than the current methods. In the meantime, they’re excited about the potential of paleoproteomics to help them learn even more about humans’ ancient ancestors. “It opens entirely new avenues for understanding our evolutionary history [in Africa],” study co-author Marc Dickinson, a chemist at the University of York in England, says in a statement. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Giant Sloths the Size of Elephants Once Walked Along the Ground. Here’s How the Massive Animals Evolved and Declined Researchers analyzed fossils and DNA to get a big-picture view of sloth evolution and determine what drove their immense size variation Researchers revealed that differences in sloth habitats drove the wide variation in size seen in extinct species. Diego Barletta Today, sloths are slow-moving, tree-dwelling creatures that live in Central and South America and can grow up to 2.5 feet long. Thousands of years ago, however, some sloths walked along the ground, weighed around 8,000 pounds and were as big as Asian elephants. Some of these now-extinct species were “like grizzly bears, but five times larger,” as Rachel Narducci, collection manager of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, says in a statement. In a study published last week in the journal Science, Narducci and her colleagues studied ancient and modern sloth DNA along with more than 400 sloth fossils to shed light on the shocking differences in their ancient sizes—from the elephant-sized Megatherium ground sloth to its 14-pound relatives living in trees. While it’s clear that tree-dwelling lifestyles necessitate small bodies, scientists weren’t sure why ground sloths specifically demonstrated such vast size diversity. To investigate this, the team used their genetic and fossil analyses to reconstruct a sloth tree of life that reaches back to the animals’ emergence more than 35 million years ago. They integrated data on sloths’ habitats, diets and mobility that had been gathered in previous research. With a computer model, they processed this information, which ultimately indicated that sloths’ size diversity was mostly driven by their habitats and climates. “When we look at what comes out in the literature, a lot of it is description of individual finds, or new taxa,” Greg McDonald, a retired regional paleontologist with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management who was not involved with the study, tells Science News’ Carolyn Gramling. The new work is “more holistic in terms of looking at a long-term pattern. Often, we don’t get a chance to step back and get the big picture of what’s going on.” The big picture suggests that since the emergence of the oldest known sloths—ground animals around the size of a Great Dane—the creatures evolved into and out of tree living a number of times. Around 14 million to 16 million years ago, however, a time of global warming called the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum pushed sloths to become smaller, which is a known way for animals to respond to heat stress. Warmer temperatures might have also seen more rain, which would have created more forest habitats ideal for tree-dwelling sloths. Around a million years later, however, ground sloths grew bigger as the planet’s temperature cooled. “Gigantism is more closely associated with cold and dry climates,” Daniel Casali, a co-author of the paper and a researcher of mammalian evolution at the University of São Paulo, tells New Scientist’s Jake Buehler. A larger body mass would have helped the animals traverse environments with few resources more efficiently, Narducci says in the statement. In fact, these large ground sloths spread out across diverse habitats and thrived in different regions. The aquatic sloth Thalassocnus even evolved marine adaptations similar to manatees. Ground sloths achieved their greatest size during the last ice age—right before starting to disappear around 15,000 years ago. Given that humans arrived in North America around the same time (though recent research indicates they may have arrived as far back as 20,000 years ago), some scientists say humans are the obvious cause of the sloths’ demise. While tree-dwelling sloths were out of reach to our ancestors, the large and slow ground animals would have made easy targets. Even still, two species of tree sloths in the Caribbean disappeared around 4,500 years ago—also shortly after humans first arrived in the region, according to the statement. While the study joins a host of research indicating that humans drove various large Ice Age animals to extinction, “in science, we need several lines of evidence to reinforce our hypotheses, especially in unresolved and highly debated issues such as the extinction of megafauna,” says Thaís Rabito Pansani, a paleontologist from the University of New Mexico who did not participate in the study, to New Scientist. The International Union for Conservation of Nature currently recognizes seven—following a recent species discovery—and three are endangered. As such, “one take-home message is that we need to act now to avoid a total extinction of the group,” says lead author Alberto Boscaini, a vertebrate paleontologist from the University of Buenos Aires, to the BBC’s Helen Briggs. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Large projectile point made of Gray Whale bone from the Duruthy rockshelter, Landes, France, dated between 18,000 and 17,500 years ago.   CREDIT: Alexandre Lefebvre. Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Prehistoric stone tools are among some of the oldest and important pieces of evidence we have of a time when our species began to evolve a higher level of intelligence. Many of these tools were also made from animal bones–including the bones of some of the biggest animals on the planet. New research finds that humans living up to 20,000 years ago may have been making tools out of whale bones. The discovery not only adds more to the story of early human tool use, but gives a glimpse into ancient whale ecology. The findings are detailed in a study published May 27 in the journal Nature Communications. “That humans frequented the seashore, and took advantage of its resources, is probably as old as humankind,” Jean-Marc Pétillon, an archaeologist at the Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès in France and study co-author, tells Popular Science. “There is evidence of whale scavenging at the site of Dungo 5 in Angola dating to 1 million years.” Fragment of projectile point from the cave site of Isturitz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France), made of bone from right whale or bowhead whale, dated to 17,300-16,700 years before present, curated at the Musée d’Archéologie Nationale (Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France). CREDIT:  Jean-Marc Pétillon. By land and sea For our Paleolithic ancestors living in coastal areas, the sturdy bones of large whales were potentially an excellent resource for various tools. However, many prehistoric coastal archaeological sites are fragile and are at risk of rising sea levels, making reconstructing the past interactions between marine mammals and humans a challenge for scientists..   “The tools were dated between 20,000 and 16,000 years before [the] present, a period way before the invention of agriculture, and during which all human groups in the world lived a life of nomadic hunter-gatherers,” says Pétillon. “Climatically, this is the last part of the last glaciation, with a climate much colder than today.” That colder climate brought a sea level that was roughly almost 400 feet lower than it is today. With this change in sea level, we have no direct evidence of the human occupations on the shore, since the rise in sea level either wiped them out or the settlements lay buried under 300 or so feet of water.  Excavations in 2022 in the Basque cave of Isturitz, France, where several dozen whale bone objects were discovered. CREDIT: Jean-Marc Pétillon, Christian Normand. With this lack of evidence Paleolithic people have historically been viewed as inland hunters. Those living in present day western Europe would have hunted red deer, reindeer, bison, horse, and ibex. While they did hunt inland, there is a growing body of evidence from the last 20 years showing that they also took advantage of the Paleolithic seashore. “There are studies showing that people also gathered seashells, hunted seabirds, fished marine fish, etc., as a complement to terrestrial diet, and these studies were made possible because Paleolithic people carried remains of marine origin away from the seashore, into inland sites,” explains Pétillon. “Our study adds whales to the lot. It is one more contribution showing that Late Paleolithic humans also regularly frequented the seashore and used its resources.” Ancient giants In the new study, the team analyzed 83 bone tools that were excavated from sites around Spain’s Bay of Biscay and 90 additional bones uncovered from Santa Catalina Cave in Spain. They used mass spectrometry and radiocarbon dating to identify which species the bones belonged to and estimate the age of  the samples.  The bones come from at least five species of large whales–sperm, fin, blue, gray, and either right whales or bowheads. The latter two species are indistinguishable using this technique. The oldest whale specimens are dated to roughly 19,000 to 20,000 years ago, representing some of the earliest known evidence of humans using the remains of whales to make tools. Some of the whale bone points themselves were over 15 inches long.  Fragment of projectile point from the rockshelter site of Duruthy (Landes, France), made of gray whale bone, dated to 17,300-16,800 years before present, curated at the Arthous Abbey Museum (Landes, France). CREDIT: A. Lefebvre. “Most of the objects made of whale bone are projectile points, part of the hunting equipment. They can be very long and thick, and were probably hafted on spear-style projectiles rather than arrows (and the use of the spearthrower is documented in this period),” says Pétillon. “The main raw material used to manufacture projectile points at that period is antler, because it is less brittle and more pliable than bone, but whale bone was preferred in certain cases probably because of its large dimensions.” The ocean’s bounty Most of these whale species identified in this study are still found in the Bay of Biscay and northeastern North Atlantic to this day. However, gray whales are now primarily limited to the North Pacific Ocean and Arctic. Additional chemical data from the tools also suggests that the feeding habits of the ancient whales were slightly different than those living today. According to the authors, this is likely due to behavioral or environmental changes. That the whales in the area have stayed relatively the same was particularly intriguing for Pétillon. “What was more surprising to me—as an archeologist more accustomed to terrestrial faunas—was that these whale species remained the same despite the great environmental difference between the Late Pleistocene and today,” he says. “In the same period, continental faunas are very different: the ungulates hunted include reindeer, saiga antelopes, bison, etc., all disappeared from Western Europe today.” Importantly, the findings here do not imply that active whaling was occurring. The techniques at the time would not allow humans to hunt sperm, blue, or fin whales and the team believes that these populations took advantage of whale strandings to harvest the bones for tools.  “The earliest evidence of active whaling is much younger, around 6,000 [years] before present in Korea (site of Bangudae) and maybe around 5,000 before present in Europe (Neolithic sites in the Netherlands),” says Pétillon. Future studies could look at the systematic way that these ancient Atlantic Europeans systematically used the seashore and how they developed their ocean hunting techniques.