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2025-06-16 07:55:35 - Traduire -

The stunning reversal of humanity’s oldest bias

Perhaps the oldest, most pernicious form of human bias is that of men toward women. It often started at the moment of birth. In ancient Athens, at a public ceremony called the amphidromia, fathers would inspect a newborn and decide whether it would be part of the family, or be cast away. One often socially acceptable reason for abandoning the baby: It was a girl. Female infanticide has been distressingly common in many societies — and its practice is not just ancient history. In 1990, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen looked at birth ratios in Asia, North Africa, and China and calculated that more than 100 million women were essentially “missing” — meaning that, based on the normal ratio of boys to girls at birth and the longevity of both genders, there was a huge missing number of girls who should have been born, but weren’t. Sen’s estimate came before the truly widespread adoption of ultrasound tests that could determine the sex of a fetus in utero — which actually made the problem worse, leading to a wave of sex-selective abortions. These were especially common in countries like India and China; the latter’s one-child policy and old biases made families desperate for their one child to be a boy. The Economist has estimated that since 1980 alone, there have been approximately 50 million fewer girls born worldwide than would naturally be expected, which almost certainly means that roughly that nearly all of those girls were aborted for no other reason than their sex. The preference for boys was a bias that killed in mass numbers.But in one of the most important social shifts of our time, that bias is changing. In a great cover story earlier this month, The Economist reported that the number of annual excess male births has fallen from a peak of 1.7 million in 2000 to around 200,000, which puts it back within the biologically standard birth ratio of 105 boys for every 100 girls. Countries that once had highly skewed sex ratios — like South Korea, which saw almost 116 boys born for every 100 girls in 1990 — now have normal or near-normal ratios. Altogether, The Economist estimated that the decline in sex preference at birth in the past 25 years has saved the equivalent of 7 million girls. That’s comparable to the number of lives saved by anti-smoking efforts in the US. So how, exactly, have we overcome a prejudice that seemed so embedded in human society?Success in school and the workplaceFor one, we have relaxed discrimination against girls and women in other ways — in school and in the workplace. With fewer limits, girls are outperforming boys in the classroom. In the most recent international PISA tests, considered the gold standard for evaluating student performance around the world, 15-year-old girls beat their male counterparts in reading in 79 out of 81 participating countries or economies, while the historic male advantage in math scores has fallen to single digits. Girls are also dominating in higher education, with 113 female students at that level for every 100 male students. While women continue to earn less than men, the gender pay gap has been shrinking, and in a number of urban areas in the US, young women have actually been outearning young men. Government policies have helped accelerate that shift, in part because they have come to recognize the serious social problems that eventually result from decades of anti-girl discrimination. In countries like South Korea and China, which have long had some of the most skewed gender ratios at birth, governments have cracked down on technologies that enable sex-selective abortion. In India, where female infanticide and neglect have been particularly horrific, slogans like “the Daughter, Educate the Daughter” have helped change opinions. A changing preferenceThe shift is being seen not just in birth sex ratios, but in opinion polls — and in the actions of would-be parents.Between 1983 and 2003, The Economist reported, the proportion of South Korean women who said it was “necessary” to have a son fell from 48 percent to 6 percent, while nearly half of women now say they want daughters. In Japan, the shift has gone even further — as far back as 2002, 75 percent of couples who wanted only one child said they hoped for a daughter.In the US, which allows sex selection for couples doing in-vitro fertilization, there is growing evidence that would-be parents prefer girls, as do potential adoptive parents. While in the past, parents who had a girl first were more likely to keep trying to have children in an effort to have a boy, the opposite is now true — couples who have a girl first are less likely to keep trying. A more equal futureThere’s still more progress to be made. In northwest of India, for instance, birth ratios that overly skew toward boys are still the norm. In regions of sub-Saharan Africa, birth sex ratios may be relatively normal, but post-birth discrimination in the form of poorer nutrition and worse medical care still lingers. And course, women around the world are still subject to unacceptable levels of violence and discrimination from men.And some of the reasons for this shift may not be as high-minded as we’d like to think. Boys around the world are struggling in the modern era. They increasingly underperform in education, are more likely to be involved in violent crime, and in general, are failing to launch into adulthood. In the US, 20 percent of American men between 25 and 34 still live with their parents, compared to 15 percent of similarly aged women. It also seems to be the case that at least some of the increasing preference for girls is rooted in sexist stereotypes. Parents around the world may now prefer girls partly because they see them as more likely to take care of them in their old age — meaning a different kind of bias against women, that they are more natural caretakers, may be paradoxically driving the decline in prejudice against girls at birth.But make no mistake — the decline of boy preference is a clear mark of social progress, one measured in millions of girls’ lives saved. And maybe one Father’s Day, not too long from now, we’ll reach the point where daughters and sons are simply children: equally loved and equally welcomed.A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!See More:
#stunning #reversal #humanitys #oldest #bias

The stunning reversal of humanity’s oldest bias
Perhaps the oldest, most pernicious form of human bias is that of men toward women. It often started at the moment of birth. In ancient Athens, at a public ceremony called the amphidromia, fathers would inspect a newborn and decide whether it would be part of the family, or be cast away. One often socially acceptable reason for abandoning the baby: It was a girl. Female infanticide has been distressingly common in many societies — and its practice is not just ancient history. In 1990, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen looked at birth ratios in Asia, North Africa, and China and calculated that more than 100 million women were essentially “missing” — meaning that, based on the normal ratio of boys to girls at birth and the longevity of both genders, there was a huge missing number of girls who should have been born, but weren’t. Sen’s estimate came before the truly widespread adoption of ultrasound tests that could determine the sex of a fetus in utero — which actually made the problem worse, leading to a wave of sex-selective abortions. These were especially common in countries like India and China; the latter’s one-child policy and old biases made families desperate for their one child to be a boy. The Economist has estimated that since 1980 alone, there have been approximately 50 million fewer girls born worldwide than would naturally be expected, which almost certainly means that roughly that nearly all of those girls were aborted for no other reason than their sex. The preference for boys was a bias that killed in mass numbers.But in one of the most important social shifts of our time, that bias is changing. In a great cover story earlier this month, The Economist reported that the number of annual excess male births has fallen from a peak of 1.7 million in 2000 to around 200,000, which puts it back within the biologically standard birth ratio of 105 boys for every 100 girls. Countries that once had highly skewed sex ratios — like South Korea, which saw almost 116 boys born for every 100 girls in 1990 — now have normal or near-normal ratios. Altogether, The Economist estimated that the decline in sex preference at birth in the past 25 years has saved the equivalent of 7 million girls. That’s comparable to the number of lives saved by anti-smoking efforts in the US. So how, exactly, have we overcome a prejudice that seemed so embedded in human society?Success in school and the workplaceFor one, we have relaxed discrimination against girls and women in other ways — in school and in the workplace. With fewer limits, girls are outperforming boys in the classroom. In the most recent international PISA tests, considered the gold standard for evaluating student performance around the world, 15-year-old girls beat their male counterparts in reading in 79 out of 81 participating countries or economies, while the historic male advantage in math scores has fallen to single digits. Girls are also dominating in higher education, with 113 female students at that level for every 100 male students. While women continue to earn less than men, the gender pay gap has been shrinking, and in a number of urban areas in the US, young women have actually been outearning young men. Government policies have helped accelerate that shift, in part because they have come to recognize the serious social problems that eventually result from decades of anti-girl discrimination. In countries like South Korea and China, which have long had some of the most skewed gender ratios at birth, governments have cracked down on technologies that enable sex-selective abortion. In India, where female infanticide and neglect have been particularly horrific, slogans like “the Daughter, Educate the Daughter” have helped change opinions. A changing preferenceThe shift is being seen not just in birth sex ratios, but in opinion polls — and in the actions of would-be parents.Between 1983 and 2003, The Economist reported, the proportion of South Korean women who said it was “necessary” to have a son fell from 48 percent to 6 percent, while nearly half of women now say they want daughters. In Japan, the shift has gone even further — as far back as 2002, 75 percent of couples who wanted only one child said they hoped for a daughter.In the US, which allows sex selection for couples doing in-vitro fertilization, there is growing evidence that would-be parents prefer girls, as do potential adoptive parents. While in the past, parents who had a girl first were more likely to keep trying to have children in an effort to have a boy, the opposite is now true — couples who have a girl first are less likely to keep trying. A more equal futureThere’s still more progress to be made. In northwest of India, for instance, birth ratios that overly skew toward boys are still the norm. In regions of sub-Saharan Africa, birth sex ratios may be relatively normal, but post-birth discrimination in the form of poorer nutrition and worse medical care still lingers. And course, women around the world are still subject to unacceptable levels of violence and discrimination from men.And some of the reasons for this shift may not be as high-minded as we’d like to think. Boys around the world are struggling in the modern era. They increasingly underperform in education, are more likely to be involved in violent crime, and in general, are failing to launch into adulthood. In the US, 20 percent of American men between 25 and 34 still live with their parents, compared to 15 percent of similarly aged women. It also seems to be the case that at least some of the increasing preference for girls is rooted in sexist stereotypes. Parents around the world may now prefer girls partly because they see them as more likely to take care of them in their old age — meaning a different kind of bias against women, that they are more natural caretakers, may be paradoxically driving the decline in prejudice against girls at birth.But make no mistake — the decline of boy preference is a clear mark of social progress, one measured in millions of girls’ lives saved. And maybe one Father’s Day, not too long from now, we’ll reach the point where daughters and sons are simply children: equally loved and equally welcomed.A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!See More: #stunning #reversal #humanitys #oldest #bias

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The stunning reversal of humanity’s oldest bias
Perhaps the oldest, most pernicious form of human bias is that of men toward women. It often started at the moment of birth. In ancient Athens, at a public ceremony called the amphidromia, fathers would inspect a newborn and decide whether it would be part of the family, or be cast away. One often socially acceptable reason for abandoning the baby: It was a girl. Female infanticide has been distressingly common in many societies — and its practice is not just ancient history. In 1990, the Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen looked at birth ratios in Asia, North Africa, and China and calculated that more than 100 million women were essentially “missing” — meaning that, based on the normal ratio of boys to girls at birth and the longevity of both genders, there was a huge missing number of girls who should have been born, but weren’t. Sen’s estimate came before the truly widespread adoption of ultrasound tests that could determine the sex of a fetus in utero — which actually made the problem worse, leading to a wave of sex-selective abortions. These were especially common in countries like India and China; the latter’s one-child policy and old biases made families desperate for their one child to be a boy. The Economist has estimated that since 1980 alone, there have been approximately 50 million fewer girls born worldwide than would naturally be expected, which almost certainly means that roughly that nearly all of those girls were aborted for no other reason than their sex. The preference for boys was a bias that killed in mass numbers.But in one of the most important social shifts of our time, that bias is changing. In a great cover story earlier this month, The Economist reported that the number of annual excess male births has fallen from a peak of 1.7 million in 2000 to around 200,000, which puts it back within the biologically standard birth ratio of 105 boys for every 100 girls. Countries that once had highly skewed sex ratios — like South Korea, which saw almost 116 boys born for every 100 girls in 1990 — now have normal or near-normal ratios. Altogether, The Economist estimated that the decline in sex preference at birth in the past 25 years has saved the equivalent of 7 million girls. That’s comparable to the number of lives saved by anti-smoking efforts in the US. So how, exactly, have we overcome a prejudice that seemed so embedded in human society?Success in school and the workplaceFor one, we have relaxed discrimination against girls and women in other ways — in school and in the workplace. With fewer limits, girls are outperforming boys in the classroom. In the most recent international PISA tests, considered the gold standard for evaluating student performance around the world, 15-year-old girls beat their male counterparts in reading in 79 out of 81 participating countries or economies, while the historic male advantage in math scores has fallen to single digits. Girls are also dominating in higher education, with 113 female students at that level for every 100 male students. While women continue to earn less than men, the gender pay gap has been shrinking, and in a number of urban areas in the US, young women have actually been outearning young men. Government policies have helped accelerate that shift, in part because they have come to recognize the serious social problems that eventually result from decades of anti-girl discrimination. In countries like South Korea and China, which have long had some of the most skewed gender ratios at birth, governments have cracked down on technologies that enable sex-selective abortion. In India, where female infanticide and neglect have been particularly horrific, slogans like “Save the Daughter, Educate the Daughter” have helped change opinions. A changing preferenceThe shift is being seen not just in birth sex ratios, but in opinion polls — and in the actions of would-be parents.Between 1983 and 2003, The Economist reported, the proportion of South Korean women who said it was “necessary” to have a son fell from 48 percent to 6 percent, while nearly half of women now say they want daughters. In Japan, the shift has gone even further — as far back as 2002, 75 percent of couples who wanted only one child said they hoped for a daughter.In the US, which allows sex selection for couples doing in-vitro fertilization, there is growing evidence that would-be parents prefer girls, as do potential adoptive parents. While in the past, parents who had a girl first were more likely to keep trying to have children in an effort to have a boy, the opposite is now true — couples who have a girl first are less likely to keep trying. A more equal futureThere’s still more progress to be made. In northwest of India, for instance, birth ratios that overly skew toward boys are still the norm. In regions of sub-Saharan Africa, birth sex ratios may be relatively normal, but post-birth discrimination in the form of poorer nutrition and worse medical care still lingers. And course, women around the world are still subject to unacceptable levels of violence and discrimination from men.And some of the reasons for this shift may not be as high-minded as we’d like to think. Boys around the world are struggling in the modern era. They increasingly underperform in education, are more likely to be involved in violent crime, and in general, are failing to launch into adulthood. In the US, 20 percent of American men between 25 and 34 still live with their parents, compared to 15 percent of similarly aged women. It also seems to be the case that at least some of the increasing preference for girls is rooted in sexist stereotypes. Parents around the world may now prefer girls partly because they see them as more likely to take care of them in their old age — meaning a different kind of bias against women, that they are more natural caretakers, may be paradoxically driving the decline in prejudice against girls at birth.But make no mistake — the decline of boy preference is a clear mark of social progress, one measured in millions of girls’ lives saved. And maybe one Father’s Day, not too long from now, we’ll reach the point where daughters and sons are simply children: equally loved and equally welcomed.A version of this story originally appeared in the Good News newsletter. Sign up here!See More:

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2025-05-19 19:17:20 - Traduire -

Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution

Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution
A new study suggests two fossil trackways found in Australia were made by an early amniote, a group that today includes reptiles, birds and mammals

Amateur fossil hunters discovered a trackway left by a creature that might have looked like the one in this illustration. The finding raises new questions about the evolution of the earliest reptiles.
Marcin Ambrozik

Scientists in Australia have identified the earliest known tracks of a reptile-like animal, suggesting these creatures walked the Earth millions of years longer than thought.
The two trackways were spotted by builder Craig Eury and winemaker John Eason, who were fossil hunting along a river bed in eastern Victoria, Australia. “It was literally the footprints that caught my eye—the light hit the rock in a way that cast a shadow on the footprints,” Eury tells Jacinta Bowler and Annie Brown at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Both are now listed as co-authors on a new study of the fossils, published in the journal Nature last week.
John Long, a paleontologist at Flinders University in Australia and the study’s lead author, had enlisted amateur paleontologists such as Eury and Eason to look for fossils in the area. He was shocked when he saw what the two had found.
The prints appeared to be from an early four-legged creature classified as an amniote, or an animal with eggs that contain “amniotic membranes” to protect the fetus. While the earliest amniotes looked like lizards, they ultimately gave rise to the branches on the animal evolutionary tree that became today’s reptiles, birds and mammals.
Eason and Eury “hit the mother lode with this trackway,” says Long to Joel Achenbach at theWashington Post. “This is the oldest evidence in the world of amniote trackways—the lineage that will eventually end up as humans. It’s huge.”
The scientists dated the fossil to between 354 million and 359 million years ago, which would mean that amniotes existed at least 35 million years earlier than previously thought. That places the creatures as having lived during the early Carboniferous period, a time when Earth was covered in trees, and vast deposits of coal were beginning to form.
To conduct their study, researchers analyzed the two discovered trackways, which criss-cross on a 14-inch sandstone slab. The fossilized rock is covered in dimples from raindrops, hinting at a shower just before the tracks were made—and indicating the amniotes were likely moving on dry land, as some of the paper’s authors write in an article for the Conversation.
The footprints also have claw marks, which are not seen in amphibian tracks, and they’re five-toed, another sign that points to amniotes. Some of them left long scratches from dragging the foot.

350 million year old reptile tracks
Watch on

Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland in Australia who was not involved in the study, disagrees with the assumption that the creatures were on land. “I seeacross a variety of different animals, when the animal is supported by water,” he says to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
For instance, the animals could have made the tracks by pushing off the ground in shallow water, then gliding until they landed to push off again, in a motion known as “punting,” as Steven Salisbury, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland, tells Nature’s Rita Aksenfeld.
Long, however, stands behind his work. “In our opinion … the sharp claws digging in the second trackway are too precise to suggest they were digging or clawing the sediment underwater,” he adds to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The scientists also identified similar tracks found in Poland. Those tracks are slightly younger but are still record-breaking: They’re the oldest known reptile-like tracks in Europe, per the Conversation.
Key questions about the track maker remain unanswered from the footprints alone. What the creature looked like, its exact size and traits such as whether or not it had a tail can’t be revealed by a trackway.
To verify their findings, the researchers will have to “find body fossils—bones from these rocks—that can confirm the presence of amniotes so long ago,” says Erich Fitzgerald, a senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute who was not involved in the work, to Petra Stock at the Guardian. Nevertheless, he adds it is a “provocative discovery with potentially far-reaching implications.”
Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden and a co-author of the study, tells the Washington Post that footprints, in general, are useful to paleontologists. “Footprints are fossil movie clips of living animals. You’re not looking at dead remains,” he says. “You’re looking at live animals doing their stuff.”

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#fossil #hunters #discover #earliest #known

Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution
Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution A new study suggests two fossil trackways found in Australia were made by an early amniote, a group that today includes reptiles, birds and mammals Amateur fossil hunters discovered a trackway left by a creature that might have looked like the one in this illustration. The finding raises new questions about the evolution of the earliest reptiles. Marcin Ambrozik Scientists in Australia have identified the earliest known tracks of a reptile-like animal, suggesting these creatures walked the Earth millions of years longer than thought. The two trackways were spotted by builder Craig Eury and winemaker John Eason, who were fossil hunting along a river bed in eastern Victoria, Australia. “It was literally the footprints that caught my eye—the light hit the rock in a way that cast a shadow on the footprints,” Eury tells Jacinta Bowler and Annie Brown at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Both are now listed as co-authors on a new study of the fossils, published in the journal Nature last week. John Long, a paleontologist at Flinders University in Australia and the study’s lead author, had enlisted amateur paleontologists such as Eury and Eason to look for fossils in the area. He was shocked when he saw what the two had found. The prints appeared to be from an early four-legged creature classified as an amniote, or an animal with eggs that contain “amniotic membranes” to protect the fetus. While the earliest amniotes looked like lizards, they ultimately gave rise to the branches on the animal evolutionary tree that became today’s reptiles, birds and mammals. Eason and Eury “hit the mother lode with this trackway,” says Long to Joel Achenbach at theWashington Post. “This is the oldest evidence in the world of amniote trackways—the lineage that will eventually end up as humans. It’s huge.” The scientists dated the fossil to between 354 million and 359 million years ago, which would mean that amniotes existed at least 35 million years earlier than previously thought. That places the creatures as having lived during the early Carboniferous period, a time when Earth was covered in trees, and vast deposits of coal were beginning to form. To conduct their study, researchers analyzed the two discovered trackways, which criss-cross on a 14-inch sandstone slab. The fossilized rock is covered in dimples from raindrops, hinting at a shower just before the tracks were made—and indicating the amniotes were likely moving on dry land, as some of the paper’s authors write in an article for the Conversation. The footprints also have claw marks, which are not seen in amphibian tracks, and they’re five-toed, another sign that points to amniotes. Some of them left long scratches from dragging the foot. 350 million year old reptile tracks Watch on Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland in Australia who was not involved in the study, disagrees with the assumption that the creatures were on land. “I seeacross a variety of different animals, when the animal is supported by water,” he says to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. For instance, the animals could have made the tracks by pushing off the ground in shallow water, then gliding until they landed to push off again, in a motion known as “punting,” as Steven Salisbury, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland, tells Nature’s Rita Aksenfeld. Long, however, stands behind his work. “In our opinion … the sharp claws digging in the second trackway are too precise to suggest they were digging or clawing the sediment underwater,” he adds to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The scientists also identified similar tracks found in Poland. Those tracks are slightly younger but are still record-breaking: They’re the oldest known reptile-like tracks in Europe, per the Conversation. Key questions about the track maker remain unanswered from the footprints alone. What the creature looked like, its exact size and traits such as whether or not it had a tail can’t be revealed by a trackway. To verify their findings, the researchers will have to “find body fossils—bones from these rocks—that can confirm the presence of amniotes so long ago,” says Erich Fitzgerald, a senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute who was not involved in the work, to Petra Stock at the Guardian. Nevertheless, he adds it is a “provocative discovery with potentially far-reaching implications.” Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden and a co-author of the study, tells the Washington Post that footprints, in general, are useful to paleontologists. “Footprints are fossil movie clips of living animals. You’re not looking at dead remains,” he says. “You’re looking at live animals doing their stuff.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday. #fossil #hunters #discover #earliest #known

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Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution
Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution A new study suggests two fossil trackways found in Australia were made by an early amniote, a group that today includes reptiles, birds and mammals Amateur fossil hunters discovered a trackway left by a creature that might have looked like the one in this illustration. The finding raises new questions about the evolution of the earliest reptiles. Marcin Ambrozik Scientists in Australia have identified the earliest known tracks of a reptile-like animal, suggesting these creatures walked the Earth millions of years longer than thought. The two trackways were spotted by builder Craig Eury and winemaker John Eason, who were fossil hunting along a river bed in eastern Victoria, Australia. “It was literally the footprints that caught my eye—the light hit the rock in a way that cast a shadow on the footprints,” Eury tells Jacinta Bowler and Annie Brown at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Both are now listed as co-authors on a new study of the fossils, published in the journal Nature last week. John Long, a paleontologist at Flinders University in Australia and the study’s lead author, had enlisted amateur paleontologists such as Eury and Eason to look for fossils in the area. He was shocked when he saw what the two had found. The prints appeared to be from an early four-legged creature classified as an amniote, or an animal with eggs that contain “amniotic membranes” to protect the fetus. While the earliest amniotes looked like lizards, they ultimately gave rise to the branches on the animal evolutionary tree that became today’s reptiles, birds and mammals. Eason and Eury “hit the mother lode with this trackway,” says Long to Joel Achenbach at theWashington Post. “This is the oldest evidence in the world of amniote trackways—the lineage that will eventually end up as humans. It’s huge.” The scientists dated the fossil to between 354 million and 359 million years ago, which would mean that amniotes existed at least 35 million years earlier than previously thought. That places the creatures as having lived during the early Carboniferous period, a time when Earth was covered in trees, and vast deposits of coal were beginning to form. To conduct their study, researchers analyzed the two discovered trackways, which criss-cross on a 14-inch sandstone slab. The fossilized rock is covered in dimples from raindrops, hinting at a shower just before the tracks were made—and indicating the amniotes were likely moving on dry land, as some of the paper’s authors write in an article for the Conversation. The footprints also have claw marks, which are not seen in amphibian tracks, and they’re five-toed, another sign that points to amniotes. Some of them left long scratches from dragging the foot. 350 million year old reptile tracks Watch on Anthony Romilio, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland in Australia who was not involved in the study, disagrees with the assumption that the creatures were on land. “I see [tracks like these claw-like marks] across a variety of different animals, when the animal is supported by water,” he says to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. For instance, the animals could have made the tracks by pushing off the ground in shallow water, then gliding until they landed to push off again, in a motion known as “punting,” as Steven Salisbury, a paleontologist at the University of Queensland, tells Nature’s Rita Aksenfeld. Long, however, stands behind his work. “In our opinion … the sharp claws digging in the second trackway are too precise to suggest they were digging or clawing the sediment underwater,” he adds to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The scientists also identified similar tracks found in Poland. Those tracks are slightly younger but are still record-breaking: They’re the oldest known reptile-like tracks in Europe, per the Conversation. Key questions about the track maker remain unanswered from the footprints alone. What the creature looked like, its exact size and traits such as whether or not it had a tail can’t be revealed by a trackway. To verify their findings, the researchers will have to “find body fossils—bones from these rocks—that can confirm the presence of amniotes so long ago,” says Erich Fitzgerald, a senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at Museums Victoria Research Institute who was not involved in the work, to Petra Stock at the Guardian. Nevertheless, he adds it is a “provocative discovery with potentially far-reaching implications.” Per Ahlberg, a paleontologist at Uppsala University in Sweden and a co-author of the study, tells the Washington Post that footprints, in general, are useful to paleontologists. “Footprints are fossil movie clips of living animals. You’re not looking at dead remains,” he says. “You’re looking at live animals doing their stuff.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

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2025-05-16 04:25:53 - Traduire -

A Draconian Abortion Law Is Forcing Doctors to Keep a Pregnant Brain-Dead Woman Alive for Months So She Can Give Birth

On Life SupportMay 15, 3:38 PM EDT / by Noor Al-SibaiA Draconian Abortion Law Is Forcing Doctors to Keep a Pregnant Brain-Dead Woman Alive for Months So She Can Give Birth"Every day that goes by, it’s more cost, more trauma, more questions."May 15, 3:38 PM EDT / Noor Al-SibaiImage by Getty / FuturismDevelopmentsA draconian "heartbeat law" in Georgia is forcing a brain-dead pregnant woman to be kept on life support for months so she can deliver — all at the expense of her family.As Atlanta's WXIA-TV reports, the family of 30-year-old Adriana Smith, a nurse at the city's Emory University Hospital, was declared brain-dead more than 90 days ago after doctors found that she had blood clots in her brain.It's a particularly horrifying situation, highlighting the alarming state of reproductive rights in the US, especially following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which struck down federal protections for abortion rights.Smith, as her mother, April Newkirk, told the broadcaster, was initially taken to the hospital for bad headaches earlier in her pregnancy. She was given medication and discharged — only to wake her boyfriend the next morning with loud, gurgling gasps for air.Upon finally conducting CT scans, doctors at Emory University discovered the clots. The window to do surgery to relieve the pressure had passed, and the young woman's family was left with few options but to let the clots take their course.Smith's body still hasn't been taken off of life support thanks to Georgia's "Living Infants Fairness and Equality" Act, which stipulates that after six weeks, when fetal heartbeats generally begin to be detected, any fetal death — including in the case of miscarriage — becomes illegal.Though there are carveouts in the case of rape, incest, or the mother's life being in danger, Smith's case falls into a legal grey area.Because her life is not per se "at risk" following the cessation of brain activity, Emory doctors decided that she must be kept alive until the child is ready to be delivered so that the fetus gestating will not die, a technicality required by Georgia's heartbeat law and many others like it that have proliferated in the three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned.At press time, Smith is about 21 weeks or five months pregnant, and the fetus growing inside her will only be considered viable at 32 weeks or more, which means that she has to be kept on life support for at least 11 more weeks under the hospital's strict reading of the law.According to Newkirk, the doctors at her daughter's former employer told her that there were no other legal avenues to pursue while they wait for the fetus to be viable for birth. She's concerned not only about the child she's soon going to have to raise, who may well have serious impairments due to his mother being in a vegetative state, but also about the massive bill she'll be footing."They’re hoping to get the baby to at least 32 weeks," Newkirk told WXIA. "But every day that goes by, it’s more cost, more trauma, more questions."In a statement to Newsweek, Emory representatives insisted their decision was made after consulting "consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance."Ironically, the relevant heartbill law — which was passed in 2019 but did not go into effect until 2022, when Roe was overturned — was rescinded for a week after a county court found that the state could not interfere with personal reproductive decisions prior to fetus viability at 32 weeks.Georgia's Supreme Court overruled that decision and reinstated the ban shortly thereafter, a move described by Monica Simpson of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective as "with anti-abortion extremists."Newkirk, meanwhile, said she's not sure what Smith or her family would have chosen had she been given the option to terminate the pregnancy to save her own life or be allowed to die naturally.Nonetheless, it should have been their choice to make."I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision," the mother told WXIA-TV. "And if not, then their partner or their parents."More on reproductive weirdness: Trump Appears to Have Accidentally Declared That Every Person in America Is Now FemaleShare This ArticleImage by Getty / FuturismRead This Next
#draconian #abortion #law #forcing #doctors

A Draconian Abortion Law Is Forcing Doctors to Keep a Pregnant Brain-Dead Woman Alive for Months So She Can Give Birth
On Life SupportMay 15, 3:38 PM EDT / by Noor Al-SibaiA Draconian Abortion Law Is Forcing Doctors to Keep a Pregnant Brain-Dead Woman Alive for Months So She Can Give Birth"Every day that goes by, it’s more cost, more trauma, more questions."May 15, 3:38 PM EDT / Noor Al-SibaiImage by Getty / FuturismDevelopmentsA draconian "heartbeat law" in Georgia is forcing a brain-dead pregnant woman to be kept on life support for months so she can deliver — all at the expense of her family.As Atlanta's WXIA-TV reports, the family of 30-year-old Adriana Smith, a nurse at the city's Emory University Hospital, was declared brain-dead more than 90 days ago after doctors found that she had blood clots in her brain.It's a particularly horrifying situation, highlighting the alarming state of reproductive rights in the US, especially following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which struck down federal protections for abortion rights.Smith, as her mother, April Newkirk, told the broadcaster, was initially taken to the hospital for bad headaches earlier in her pregnancy. She was given medication and discharged — only to wake her boyfriend the next morning with loud, gurgling gasps for air.Upon finally conducting CT scans, doctors at Emory University discovered the clots. The window to do surgery to relieve the pressure had passed, and the young woman's family was left with few options but to let the clots take their course.Smith's body still hasn't been taken off of life support thanks to Georgia's "Living Infants Fairness and Equality" Act, which stipulates that after six weeks, when fetal heartbeats generally begin to be detected, any fetal death — including in the case of miscarriage — becomes illegal.Though there are carveouts in the case of rape, incest, or the mother's life being in danger, Smith's case falls into a legal grey area.Because her life is not per se "at risk" following the cessation of brain activity, Emory doctors decided that she must be kept alive until the child is ready to be delivered so that the fetus gestating will not die, a technicality required by Georgia's heartbeat law and many others like it that have proliferated in the three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned.At press time, Smith is about 21 weeks or five months pregnant, and the fetus growing inside her will only be considered viable at 32 weeks or more, which means that she has to be kept on life support for at least 11 more weeks under the hospital's strict reading of the law.According to Newkirk, the doctors at her daughter's former employer told her that there were no other legal avenues to pursue while they wait for the fetus to be viable for birth. She's concerned not only about the child she's soon going to have to raise, who may well have serious impairments due to his mother being in a vegetative state, but also about the massive bill she'll be footing."They’re hoping to get the baby to at least 32 weeks," Newkirk told WXIA. "But every day that goes by, it’s more cost, more trauma, more questions."In a statement to Newsweek, Emory representatives insisted their decision was made after consulting "consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance."Ironically, the relevant heartbill law — which was passed in 2019 but did not go into effect until 2022, when Roe was overturned — was rescinded for a week after a county court found that the state could not interfere with personal reproductive decisions prior to fetus viability at 32 weeks.Georgia's Supreme Court overruled that decision and reinstated the ban shortly thereafter, a move described by Monica Simpson of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective as "with anti-abortion extremists."Newkirk, meanwhile, said she's not sure what Smith or her family would have chosen had she been given the option to terminate the pregnancy to save her own life or be allowed to die naturally.Nonetheless, it should have been their choice to make."I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision," the mother told WXIA-TV. "And if not, then their partner or their parents."More on reproductive weirdness: Trump Appears to Have Accidentally Declared That Every Person in America Is Now FemaleShare This ArticleImage by Getty / FuturismRead This Next #draconian #abortion #law #forcing #doctors

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A Draconian Abortion Law Is Forcing Doctors to Keep a Pregnant Brain-Dead Woman Alive for Months So She Can Give Birth
On Life SupportMay 15, 3:38 PM EDT / by Noor Al-SibaiA Draconian Abortion Law Is Forcing Doctors to Keep a Pregnant Brain-Dead Woman Alive for Months So She Can Give Birth"Every day that goes by, it’s more cost, more trauma, more questions."May 15, 3:38 PM EDT / Noor Al-SibaiImage by Getty / FuturismDevelopmentsA draconian "heartbeat law" in Georgia is forcing a brain-dead pregnant woman to be kept on life support for months so she can deliver — all at the expense of her family.As Atlanta's WXIA-TV reports, the family of 30-year-old Adriana Smith, a nurse at the city's Emory University Hospital, was declared brain-dead more than 90 days ago after doctors found that she had blood clots in her brain.It's a particularly horrifying situation, highlighting the alarming state of reproductive rights in the US, especially following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which struck down federal protections for abortion rights.Smith, as her mother, April Newkirk, told the broadcaster, was initially taken to the hospital for bad headaches earlier in her pregnancy. She was given medication and discharged — only to wake her boyfriend the next morning with loud, gurgling gasps for air.Upon finally conducting CT scans, doctors at Emory University discovered the clots. The window to do surgery to relieve the pressure had passed, and the young woman's family was left with few options but to let the clots take their course.Smith's body still hasn't been taken off of life support thanks to Georgia's "Living Infants Fairness and Equality" Act, which stipulates that after six weeks, when fetal heartbeats generally begin to be detected, any fetal death — including in the case of miscarriage — becomes illegal.Though there are carveouts in the case of rape, incest, or the mother's life being in danger, Smith's case falls into a legal grey area.Because her life is not per se "at risk" following the cessation of brain activity, Emory doctors decided that she must be kept alive until the child is ready to be delivered so that the fetus gestating will not die, a technicality required by Georgia's heartbeat law and many others like it that have proliferated in the three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned.At press time, Smith is about 21 weeks or five months pregnant, and the fetus growing inside her will only be considered viable at 32 weeks or more, which means that she has to be kept on life support for at least 11 more weeks under the hospital's strict reading of the law.According to Newkirk, the doctors at her daughter's former employer told her that there were no other legal avenues to pursue while they wait for the fetus to be viable for birth. She's concerned not only about the child she's soon going to have to raise, who may well have serious impairments due to his mother being in a vegetative state, but also about the massive bill she'll be footing."They’re hoping to get the baby to at least 32 weeks," Newkirk told WXIA. "But every day that goes by, it’s more cost, more trauma, more questions."In a statement to Newsweek, Emory representatives insisted their decision was made after consulting "consensus from clinical experts, medical literature, and legal guidance."Ironically, the relevant heartbill law — which was passed in 2019 but did not go into effect until 2022, when Roe was overturned — was rescinded for a week after a county court found that the state could not interfere with personal reproductive decisions prior to fetus viability at 32 weeks.Georgia's Supreme Court overruled that decision and reinstated the ban shortly thereafter, a move described by Monica Simpson of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective as "[siding] with anti-abortion extremists."Newkirk, meanwhile, said she's not sure what Smith or her family would have chosen had she been given the option to terminate the pregnancy to save her own life or be allowed to die naturally.Nonetheless, it should have been their choice to make."I think every woman should have the right to make their own decision," the mother told WXIA-TV. "And if not, then their partner or their parents."More on reproductive weirdness: Trump Appears to Have Accidentally Declared That Every Person in America Is Now FemaleShare This ArticleImage by Getty / FuturismRead This Next

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2025-05-13 14:55:01 - Traduire -

#333;">First Ever Pregnant Ichthyosaur from the Early Cretaceous Reveals Life in Prehistoric Seas
During an excavation, amidst the Patagonian winds and hard rock, a fossil began to turn green.
It was an unexpected reaction: the adhesive applied to protect the bones, fragile after millions of years beneath the ice, had interacted with plant matter trapped in the rock’s cracks.
This greenish hue earned the fossil the nickname Fiona, like the ogre from Shrek.But Fionais much more than a ogre-themed name.
It is the first complete ichthyosaur ever excavated in Chile and, even more remarkably, the only known pregnant female from the Hauterivian — a stage of the Early Cretaceous dating back 131 million years.
Her skeleton, discovered at the edge of the Tyndall Glacier in Torres del Paine National Park — an area increasingly exposed by glacial retreat — belongs to the species Myobradypterygius hauthali, originally described in Argentina from fragmentary remains.The discovery, led by Judith Pardo-Pérez, a researcher at the University of Magallanes and the Cabo de Hornos International Center (CHIC), and published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, offers an unprecedented glimpse into ancient marine life — from how these majestic reptiles reproduced to how they adapted to oceans vastly different from those of today.An Ichthyosaur Maternity Ward in Patagonia(Image Courtesy of Irene Viscor)So far, 88 ichthyosaurs have been found on the Tyndall Glacier.
Most of them are adults and newborns.
Two key facts stand out: food was abundant, and no other predators were competing with them.Fiona, who measures nearly 13 feet long, is still encased in five blocks of rock.
Despite the challenge, she was transported to a local clinic, where CT scans allowed researchers to study her skull and body.
Her species was identified thanks to one of her fins.
“There’s no other like it in the world,” says Pardo-Pérez.
The limbs were remarkably elongated, suggesting this animal was built for long-distance swimming.Inside her, there were more surprises.
One of them was her stomach contents, which revealed what may have been her last meal: tiny fish vertebrae.
But the most striking find was a fetus, about 20 inches long, already in a position to be born.“We believe these animals came to Magallanes — the southern tip of Chilean Patagonia — from time to time to give birth, because it was a safe refuge,” Pardo-Pérez says.
“We don't know how long they stayed, but we do know that mortality was high during the first few days of life.”One of the big unanswered questions is where they went next, as there are no records of Myobradypterygius hauthali, apart from a piece of fin found in Argentina.
The most abundant remains come from southern Germany, but those date back to the Jurassic period, meaning they’re older.Palaeontologist Erin Maxwell suggests, “In many modern ecosystems, species migrate to higher latitudes during the summer to take advantage of seasonally abundant resources and then move to lower latitudes in winter to avoid harsh conditions,” she explains.
“We believe Mesozoic marine reptiles may have followed similar seasonal patterns.”Sea Dragon GraveyardThe environment where Fiona was discovered — dubbed the "sea dragon graveyard" — also has much to reveal.According to geologist Matthew Malkowski of the University of Texas at Austin, the Hauterivian age is particularly intriguing because it coincided with major planetary changes: the breakup of continents, intense volcanic episodes, and phenomena known as "oceanic anoxic events," during which vast areas of the ocean were depleted of dissolved oxygen for hundreds of thousands of years.One such poorly understood event, the Pharaonic Anoxic Event, occurred around 131 million years ago, near the end of the Hauterivian, and still raises questions about its true impact on marine life.
“We don't have a firm grasp of how significant these events were for marine vertebrates, and geological records like that of the Tyndall Glacier allow us to explore the relationship between life, the environment, and Earth’s past conditions,” Malkowski notes.Evolution of IchthyosaursReconstruction of Fiona.
(Image Courtesy of Mauricio Álvarez)Don't be misled by their body shape.
“Ichthyosaurs are not related to dolphins,” clarifies Pardo-Pérez.
Although their hydrodynamic silhouettes may look nearly identical, the former were marine reptiles, while the latter are mammals.
This resemblance results from a phenomenon known as convergent evolution: when species from different lineages develop similar anatomical features to adapt to the same environment.Ichthyosaurs evolved from terrestrial reptiles that, in response to ecological and climatic changes, began spending more time in the water until they fully adapted to a marine lifestyle.
However, they retained traces of their land-dwelling ancestry, such as a pair of hind flippers — absent in dolphins — passed down from their walking forebears.
They lived and thrived in prehistoric oceans for about 180 million years, giving them ample time to refine a highly specialized body: their forelimbs and hindlimbs transformed into flippers; they developed a crescent-shaped tail for propulsion, a dorsal fin for stability, and a streamlined body to reduce drag in the water.
Remarkably, like whales and dolphins, “ichthyosaurs had a thick layer of blubber as insulation to maintain a higher body temperature than the surrounding seawater and gave birth to live young, which meant they didn’t need to leave the water to reproduce,” explains Maxwell.Whales and dolphins also descend from land-dwelling ancestors, but their transition happened over a comparatively short evolutionary timespan, especially when measured against the long reign of the ichthyosaurs.
“Their evolution hasn't had as much time as that of ichthyosaurs,” notes Pardo-Pérez.
“And yet, they look so similar.
That’s the wonderful thing about evolution.”Read More: Did a Swimming Reptile Predate the Dinosaurs?Fossils on the Verge of DisappearanceOne of the key factors behind the remarkable preservation of the fossils found in the Tyndall Glacier is the way they were buried.
According to Malkowski, Fiona and her contemporaries were either trapped or swiftly covered by underwater landslides and turbidity currents — geological processes that led to their sudden entombment.But the good fortune that protected them for millions of years may now be running out.
As the glacier retreats, exposing fossils that were once unreachable, those same remains are now vulnerable to wind, rain, and freeze-thaw cycles, which crack the surrounding rock.
As vegetation takes hold, roots accelerate erosion and eventually conceal the fossils once again.“While climate change has allowed these fossils to be studied, continued warming will also eventually lead to their loss,” Maxwell warns.
In Fiona’s story, scientists find not only a record of ancient life, but also a warning etched in stone and bone: what time reveals, climate can reclaim.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards.
Review the sources used below for this article:María de los Ángeles Orfila is a science journalist based in Montevideo, Uruguay, focusing on long-form storytelling.
Her work has appeared in Discover Magazine, Science, National Geographic, among other outlets, and in leading Uruguayan publications such as El País and El Observador.
She was a fellow in the 2023 Sharon Dunwoody Mentoring Program by The Open Notebook and often explores the intersections of science, culture, and Latin American identity.
#666;">المصدر: https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/first-ever-pregnant-ichthyosaur-from-the-early-cretaceous-reveals-life-in" style="color: #0066cc; text-decoration: none;">www.discovermagazine.com
#0066cc;">#first #ever #pregnant #ichthyosaur #from #the #early #cretaceous #reveals #life #prehistoric #seas #during #excavation #amidst #patagonian #winds #and #hard #rock #fossil #began #turn #greenit #was #unexpected #reaction #adhesive #applied #protect #bones #fragile #after #millions #years #beneath #ice #had #interacted #with #plant #matter #trapped #rocks #cracksthis #greenish #hue #earned #nickname #fiona #like #ogre #shrekbut #fionais #much #more #than #ogrethemed #nameit #complete #excavated #chile #even #remarkably #only #known #female #hauterivian #stage #dating #back #million #yearsher #skeleton #discovered #edge #tyndall #glacier #torres #del #paine #national #park #area #increasingly #exposed #glacial #retreat #belongs #species #myobradypterygius #hauthali #originally #described #argentina #fragmentary #remainsthe #discovery #led #judith #pardopérez #researcher #university #magallanes #cabo #hornos #international #center #chic #published #journal #vertebrate #paleontology #offers #unprecedented #glimpse #into #ancient #marine #how #these #majestic #reptiles #reproduced #they #adapted #oceans #vastly #different #those #todayan #maternity #ward #patagoniaimage #courtesy #irene #viscorso #far #ichthyosaurs #have #been #found #glaciermost #them #are #adults #newbornstwo #key #facts #stand #out #food #abundant #other #predators #were #competing #themfiona #who #measures #nearly #feet #long #still #encased #five #blocks #rockdespite #challenge #she #transported #local #clinic #where #scans #allowed #researchers #study #her #skull #bodyher #identified #thanks #one #finstheres #world #says #pardopérezthe #limbs #elongated #suggesting #this #animal #built #for #longdistance #swimminginside #there #surprisesone #stomach #contents #which #revealed #what #may #last #meal #tiny #fish #vertebraebut #most #striking #find #fetus #about #inches #already #position #bornwe #believe #animals #came #southern #tip #chilean #patagonia #time #give #birth #because #safe #refuge #sayswe #don039t #know #stayed #but #that #mortality #high #few #days #lifeone #big #unanswered #questions #went #next #records #apart #piece #fin #argentinathe #remains #come #germany #date #jurassic #period #meaning #theyre #olderpalaeontologist #erin #maxwell #suggests #many #modern #ecosystems #migrate #higher #latitudes #summer #take #advantage #seasonally #resources #then #move #lower #winter #avoid #harsh #conditions #explainswe #mesozoic #followed #similar #seasonal #patternssea #dragon #graveyardthe #environment #dubbed #quotsea #graveyardquot #also #has #revealaccording #geologist #matthew #malkowski #texas #austin #age #particularly #intriguing #coincided #major #planetary #changes #breakup #continents #intense #volcanic #episodes #phenomena #quotoceanic #anoxic #eventsquot #vast #areas #ocean #depleted #dissolved #oxygen #hundreds #thousands #yearsone #such #poorly #understood #event #pharaonic #occurred #around #ago #near #end #raises #its #true #impact #lifewe #firm #grasp #significant #events #vertebrates #geological #allow #explore #relationship #between #earths #past #notesevolution #ichthyosaursreconstruction #fionaimage #mauricio #Álvarezdon039t #misled #their #body #shapeichthyosaurs #not #related #dolphins #clarifies #pardopérezalthough #hydrodynamic #silhouettes #look #identical #former #while #latter #mammalsthis #resemblance #results #phenomenon #convergent #evolution #when #lineages #develop #anatomical #features #adapt #same #environmentichthyosaurs #evolved #terrestrial #response #ecological #climatic #spending #water #until #fully #lifestylehowever #retained #traces #landdwelling #ancestry #pair #hind #flippers #absent #passed #down #walking #forebearsthey #lived #thrived #giving #ample #refine #highly #specialized #forelimbs #hindlimbs #transformed #developed #crescentshaped #tail #propulsion #dorsal #stability #streamlined #reduce #drag #waterremarkably #whales #thick #layer #blubber #insulation #maintain #temperature 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#sourcesour #writers #discovermagazinecom #use #peerreviewed #studies #highquality #sources #our #articles #editors #review #scientific #accuracy #editorial #standardsreview #used #below #articlemaría #los #Ángeles #orfila #science #journalist #based #montevideo #uruguay #focusing #longform #storytellingher #work #appeared #discover #magazine #geographic #among #outlets #leading #uruguayan #publications #país #observadorshe #fellow #sharon #dunwoody #mentoring #program #open #notebook #often #explores #intersections #culture #latin #american #identity

First Ever Pregnant Ichthyosaur from the Early Cretaceous Reveals Life in Prehistoric Seas
During an excavation, amidst the Patagonian winds and hard rock, a fossil began to turn green. It was an unexpected reaction: the adhesive applied to protect the bones, fragile after millions of years beneath the ice, had interacted with plant matter trapped in the rock’s cracks. This greenish hue earned the fossil the nickname Fiona, like the ogre from Shrek.But Fionais much more than a ogre-themed name. It is the first complete ichthyosaur ever excavated in Chile and, even more remarkably, the only known pregnant female from the Hauterivian — a stage of the Early Cretaceous dating back 131 million years. Her skeleton, discovered at the edge of the Tyndall Glacier in Torres del Paine National Park — an area increasingly exposed by glacial retreat — belongs to the species Myobradypterygius hauthali, originally described in Argentina from fragmentary remains.The discovery, led by Judith Pardo-Pérez, a researcher at the University of Magallanes and the Cabo de Hornos International Center (CHIC), and published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, offers an unprecedented glimpse into ancient marine life — from how these majestic reptiles reproduced to how they adapted to oceans vastly different from those of today.An Ichthyosaur Maternity Ward in Patagonia(Image Courtesy of Irene Viscor)So far, 88 ichthyosaurs have been found on the Tyndall Glacier. Most of them are adults and newborns. Two key facts stand out: food was abundant, and no other predators were competing with them.Fiona, who measures nearly 13 feet long, is still encased in five blocks of rock. Despite the challenge, she was transported to a local clinic, where CT scans allowed researchers to study her skull and body. Her species was identified thanks to one of her fins. “There’s no other like it in the world,” says Pardo-Pérez. The limbs were remarkably elongated, suggesting this animal was built for long-distance swimming.Inside her, there were more surprises. One of them was her stomach contents, which revealed what may have been her last meal: tiny fish vertebrae. But the most striking find was a fetus, about 20 inches long, already in a position to be born.“We believe these animals came to Magallanes — the southern tip of Chilean Patagonia — from time to time to give birth, because it was a safe refuge,” Pardo-Pérez says. “We don't know how long they stayed, but we do know that mortality was high during the first few days of life.”One of the big unanswered questions is where they went next, as there are no records of Myobradypterygius hauthali, apart from a piece of fin found in Argentina. The most abundant remains come from southern Germany, but those date back to the Jurassic period, meaning they’re older.Palaeontologist Erin Maxwell suggests, “In many modern ecosystems, species migrate to higher latitudes during the summer to take advantage of seasonally abundant resources and then move to lower latitudes in winter to avoid harsh conditions,” she explains. “We believe Mesozoic marine reptiles may have followed similar seasonal patterns.”Sea Dragon GraveyardThe environment where Fiona was discovered — dubbed the "sea dragon graveyard" — also has much to reveal.According to geologist Matthew Malkowski of the University of Texas at Austin, the Hauterivian age is particularly intriguing because it coincided with major planetary changes: the breakup of continents, intense volcanic episodes, and phenomena known as "oceanic anoxic events," during which vast areas of the ocean were depleted of dissolved oxygen for hundreds of thousands of years.One such poorly understood event, the Pharaonic Anoxic Event, occurred around 131 million years ago, near the end of the Hauterivian, and still raises questions about its true impact on marine life. “We don't have a firm grasp of how significant these events were for marine vertebrates, and geological records like that of the Tyndall Glacier allow us to explore the relationship between life, the environment, and Earth’s past conditions,” Malkowski notes.Evolution of IchthyosaursReconstruction of Fiona. (Image Courtesy of Mauricio Álvarez)Don't be misled by their body shape. “Ichthyosaurs are not related to dolphins,” clarifies Pardo-Pérez. Although their hydrodynamic silhouettes may look nearly identical, the former were marine reptiles, while the latter are mammals. This resemblance results from a phenomenon known as convergent evolution: when species from different lineages develop similar anatomical features to adapt to the same environment.Ichthyosaurs evolved from terrestrial reptiles that, in response to ecological and climatic changes, began spending more time in the water until they fully adapted to a marine lifestyle. However, they retained traces of their land-dwelling ancestry, such as a pair of hind flippers — absent in dolphins — passed down from their walking forebears. They lived and thrived in prehistoric oceans for about 180 million years, giving them ample time to refine a highly specialized body: their forelimbs and hindlimbs transformed into flippers; they developed a crescent-shaped tail for propulsion, a dorsal fin for stability, and a streamlined body to reduce drag in the water. Remarkably, like whales and dolphins, “ichthyosaurs had a thick layer of blubber as insulation to maintain a higher body temperature than the surrounding seawater and gave birth to live young, which meant they didn’t need to leave the water to reproduce,” explains Maxwell.Whales and dolphins also descend from land-dwelling ancestors, but their transition happened over a comparatively short evolutionary timespan, especially when measured against the long reign of the ichthyosaurs. “Their evolution hasn't had as much time as that of ichthyosaurs,” notes Pardo-Pérez. “And yet, they look so similar. That’s the wonderful thing about evolution.”Read More: Did a Swimming Reptile Predate the Dinosaurs?Fossils on the Verge of DisappearanceOne of the key factors behind the remarkable preservation of the fossils found in the Tyndall Glacier is the way they were buried. According to Malkowski, Fiona and her contemporaries were either trapped or swiftly covered by underwater landslides and turbidity currents — geological processes that led to their sudden entombment.But the good fortune that protected them for millions of years may now be running out. As the glacier retreats, exposing fossils that were once unreachable, those same remains are now vulnerable to wind, rain, and freeze-thaw cycles, which crack the surrounding rock. As vegetation takes hold, roots accelerate erosion and eventually conceal the fossils once again.“While climate change has allowed these fossils to be studied, continued warming will also eventually lead to their loss,” Maxwell warns. In Fiona’s story, scientists find not only a record of ancient life, but also a warning etched in stone and bone: what time reveals, climate can reclaim.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:María de los Ángeles Orfila is a science journalist based in Montevideo, Uruguay, focusing on long-form storytelling. Her work has appeared in Discover Magazine, Science, National Geographic, among other outlets, and in leading Uruguayan publications such as El País and El Observador. She was a fellow in the 2023 Sharon Dunwoody Mentoring Program by The Open Notebook and often explores the intersections of science, culture, and Latin American identity.
المصدر: www.discovermagazine.com
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First Ever Pregnant Ichthyosaur from the Early Cretaceous Reveals Life in Prehistoric Seas
During an excavation, amidst the Patagonian winds and hard rock, a fossil began to turn green. It was an unexpected reaction: the adhesive applied to protect the bones, fragile after millions of years beneath the ice, had interacted with plant matter trapped in the rock’s cracks. This greenish hue earned the fossil the nickname Fiona, like the ogre from Shrek.But Fionais much more than a ogre-themed name. It is the first complete ichthyosaur ever excavated in Chile and, even more remarkably, the only known pregnant female from the Hauterivian — a stage of the Early Cretaceous dating back 131 million years. Her skeleton, discovered at the edge of the Tyndall Glacier in Torres del Paine National Park — an area increasingly exposed by glacial retreat — belongs to the species Myobradypterygius hauthali, originally described in Argentina from fragmentary remains.The discovery, led by Judith Pardo-Pérez, a researcher at the University of Magallanes and the Cabo de Hornos International Center (CHIC), and published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, offers an unprecedented glimpse into ancient marine life — from how these majestic reptiles reproduced to how they adapted to oceans vastly different from those of today.An Ichthyosaur Maternity Ward in Patagonia(Image Courtesy of Irene Viscor)So far, 88 ichthyosaurs have been found on the Tyndall Glacier. Most of them are adults and newborns. Two key facts stand out: food was abundant, and no other predators were competing with them.Fiona, who measures nearly 13 feet long, is still encased in five blocks of rock. Despite the challenge, she was transported to a local clinic, where CT scans allowed researchers to study her skull and body. Her species was identified thanks to one of her fins. “There’s no other like it in the world,” says Pardo-Pérez. The limbs were remarkably elongated, suggesting this animal was built for long-distance swimming.Inside her, there were more surprises. One of them was her stomach contents, which revealed what may have been her last meal: tiny fish vertebrae. But the most striking find was a fetus, about 20 inches long, already in a position to be born.“We believe these animals came to Magallanes — the southern tip of Chilean Patagonia — from time to time to give birth, because it was a safe refuge,” Pardo-Pérez says. “We don't know how long they stayed, but we do know that mortality was high during the first few days of life.”One of the big unanswered questions is where they went next, as there are no records of Myobradypterygius hauthali, apart from a piece of fin found in Argentina. The most abundant remains come from southern Germany, but those date back to the Jurassic period, meaning they’re older.Palaeontologist Erin Maxwell suggests, “In many modern ecosystems, species migrate to higher latitudes during the summer to take advantage of seasonally abundant resources and then move to lower latitudes in winter to avoid harsh conditions,” she explains. “We believe Mesozoic marine reptiles may have followed similar seasonal patterns.”Sea Dragon GraveyardThe environment where Fiona was discovered — dubbed the "sea dragon graveyard" — also has much to reveal.According to geologist Matthew Malkowski of the University of Texas at Austin, the Hauterivian age is particularly intriguing because it coincided with major planetary changes: the breakup of continents, intense volcanic episodes, and phenomena known as "oceanic anoxic events," during which vast areas of the ocean were depleted of dissolved oxygen for hundreds of thousands of years.One such poorly understood event, the Pharaonic Anoxic Event, occurred around 131 million years ago, near the end of the Hauterivian, and still raises questions about its true impact on marine life. “We don't have a firm grasp of how significant these events were for marine vertebrates, and geological records like that of the Tyndall Glacier allow us to explore the relationship between life, the environment, and Earth’s past conditions,” Malkowski notes.Evolution of IchthyosaursReconstruction of Fiona. (Image Courtesy of Mauricio Álvarez)Don't be misled by their body shape. “Ichthyosaurs are not related to dolphins,” clarifies Pardo-Pérez. Although their hydrodynamic silhouettes may look nearly identical, the former were marine reptiles, while the latter are mammals. This resemblance results from a phenomenon known as convergent evolution: when species from different lineages develop similar anatomical features to adapt to the same environment.Ichthyosaurs evolved from terrestrial reptiles that, in response to ecological and climatic changes, began spending more time in the water until they fully adapted to a marine lifestyle. However, they retained traces of their land-dwelling ancestry, such as a pair of hind flippers — absent in dolphins — passed down from their walking forebears. They lived and thrived in prehistoric oceans for about 180 million years, giving them ample time to refine a highly specialized body: their forelimbs and hindlimbs transformed into flippers; they developed a crescent-shaped tail for propulsion, a dorsal fin for stability, and a streamlined body to reduce drag in the water. Remarkably, like whales and dolphins, “ichthyosaurs had a thick layer of blubber as insulation to maintain a higher body temperature than the surrounding seawater and gave birth to live young, which meant they didn’t need to leave the water to reproduce,” explains Maxwell.Whales and dolphins also descend from land-dwelling ancestors, but their transition happened over a comparatively short evolutionary timespan, especially when measured against the long reign of the ichthyosaurs. “Their evolution hasn't had as much time as that of ichthyosaurs,” notes Pardo-Pérez. “And yet, they look so similar. That’s the wonderful thing about evolution.”Read More: Did a Swimming Reptile Predate the Dinosaurs?Fossils on the Verge of DisappearanceOne of the key factors behind the remarkable preservation of the fossils found in the Tyndall Glacier is the way they were buried. According to Malkowski, Fiona and her contemporaries were either trapped or swiftly covered by underwater landslides and turbidity currents — geological processes that led to their sudden entombment.But the good fortune that protected them for millions of years may now be running out. As the glacier retreats, exposing fossils that were once unreachable, those same remains are now vulnerable to wind, rain, and freeze-thaw cycles, which crack the surrounding rock. As vegetation takes hold, roots accelerate erosion and eventually conceal the fossils once again.“While climate change has allowed these fossils to be studied, continued warming will also eventually lead to their loss,” Maxwell warns. In Fiona’s story, scientists find not only a record of ancient life, but also a warning etched in stone and bone: what time reveals, climate can reclaim.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:María de los Ángeles Orfila is a science journalist based in Montevideo, Uruguay, focusing on long-form storytelling. Her work has appeared in Discover Magazine, Science, National Geographic, among other outlets, and in leading Uruguayan publications such as El País and El Observador. She was a fellow in the 2023 Sharon Dunwoody Mentoring Program by The Open Notebook and often explores the intersections of science, culture, and Latin American identity.

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