Wednesday, April 02, 2025

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

New site contains over 130 footprints and trackways up to 12-meters-long

PLOS

A new Middle Jurassic lagoon margin assemblage of theropod and sauropod dinosaur trackways from the Isle of Skye, Scotland — image:
'A Hidden Place'. An artistic reconstruction of the tracksite in the Middle Jurassic, painted by Tone Blakesley and Scott Reid.
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Credit: Tone Blakesley and Scott Reid, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Jurassic dinosaurs milled about ancient Scottish lagoons, leaving up to 131 footprints at a newly discovered stomping ground on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, according to a study published April 2, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Tone Blakesley of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and colleagues.

In the rocks of the Isle of Skye, dinosaur footprints are abundant, providing insights into dinosaur distribution and behavior during an important time in their evolution. The footprints were left in the rippled sands of an ancient subtropical lagoon, dating back to the Middle Jurassic – approximately 167 million years ago.

The footprints range from 25-60cm long and come in two varieties: three-toed tracks left by bipedal, carnivorous theropods and rounder ‘tyre-size’ tracks made by quadrupedal, long-necked sauropods. Based on comparisons with previous fossil finds, the most likely trackmakers are identified as large theropods similar to Megalosaurus and early-branching members of the neosauropod group similar to Cetiosaurus, both of which are known from skeletal remains in the UK.

Many of these footprints occur together in sequential steps. The longest of these trackways are over 12 meters, among the longest examples known from the Isle of Skye. The spacing and orientation of these trackways represent slow walking gaits with no consistent direction or interaction with each other, most likely left by dinosaurs casually milling about at slightly different times.

This site supports previous evidence that Jurassic sauropods frequented Scottish lagoons. However, this site contains a higher proportion of theropod tracks than similar localities, possibly indicating some environmental difference between these ancient lagoons. This site also lacks footprints from other dinosaurs such as stegosaurs or ornithopods but whether these animals were truly absent in this environment or simply didn’t leave footprints at this site remains unclear.

The authors add: “The footprints at Prince Charles's Point provide fascinating insight into the behaviors and environmental distributions of meat-eating theropods and plant-eating, long-necked sauropods during an important time in their evolution. On Skye, these dinosaurs clearly preferred shallowly submerged lagoonal environments over subaerially exposed mudflats. Intriguingly, the site also has some historical significance, as a place on Skye where Bonnie Prince Charlie landed and hid during his flight across Scotland following the Battle of Culloden.”

An accompanying feature-length documentary, produced by Tone Blakesley, summarizing the research is available to watch at: https://youtu.be/ERQIEH7Epes

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4bVUTdJ

Citation: Blakesley T, dePolo PE, Wade TJ, Ross DA, Brusatte SL (2025) A new Middle Jurassic lagoon margin assemblage of theropod and sauropod dinosaur trackways from the Isle of Skye, Scotland. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0319862. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319862

Author countries: U.K.

Funding: The PalAlba team’s work on Skye is supported by the National Geographic Society (GEFNE185-16) and a Philip Leverhulme Prize to Stephen L. Brusatte.

Digital representations of selected PC-TH-4 tracks.

Credit

Blakesley et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0319862

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

A new Middle Jurassic lagoon margin assemblage of theropod and sauropod dinosaur trackways from the Isle of Skye, Scotland

Article Publication Date

2-Apr-2025

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

PLOS

Article URL: https://plos.io/4hxJYYP

Article title: First unambiguous record of pneumaticity in the axial skeleton of alvarezsaurians (Theropoda: Coelurosauria)

Author countries: Argentina, China

Funding: We thank P. Chafrat from Museo Patagónico de Ciencias Naturales, General Roca, Río Negro Province, Argentina. The authors gratefully acknowledge "Fundacion Patagonica de Ciencias Naturales" and "Sanatorio Juan XXIII" for making the CT images possible. MP was supported by the Faculty of Science of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. We thank Hans-Dieter Sues, an anonymous reviewer, and the editorial team of PLOS ONE for their comments which improved the quality of this manuscript.

Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0320121

Article Title

First unambiguous record of pneumaticity in the axial skeleton of alvarezsaurians (Theropoda: Coelurosauria)

Article Publication Date

2-Apr-2025

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

In-depth assessment indicates dozens of giant amphibians perished on an ancient floodplain

PLOS

A new metoposaurid (Temnospondyli) bonebed from the lower Popo Agie Formation (Carnian, Triassic) and an assessment of skeletal sorting — image:
A skull of *Buettnererpeton bakeri* “sees” the light for the first time in 230 million years. This side of the specimen was uncovered in the fossil preparation lab at the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum.
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Credit: Dave Lovelace, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Dozens of amphibians perished together on an ancient floodplain around 230 million years ago, according to a study published April 2, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Aaron M. Kufner of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S., and colleagues.

Early in the Age of Dinosaurs, alligator-sized amphibians called metoposaurid temnospondyls were common in freshwater habitats. Several fossil sites contain large concentrations of temnospondyls buried together, but determining how these bonebeds formed is often difficult due to a lack of context or detailed examination.

In this study, Kufner and colleagues perform an in-depth assessment of a site called Nobby Knob in Dubois, Wyoming, where fossil remains of a temnospondyl called Buettnererpeton bakeri were found in rocks dating to roughly 230 million years ago. Fine-grained ancient soils and finely layered sediments indicate that these fossils were buried in a floodplain setting. Unlike similar sites, the water was evidently very calm, since even very delicate parts of the skeletons are preserved intact, and the bones aren’t arranged in any pattern that would suggest strong currents. The authors conclude that these animals may have concentrated in this area as a breeding colony or because of restricted waterways due to drought and were ultimately buried together where they died.

This assemblage represents more than of half of the known fossils of Buettnererpeton, providing an excellent opportunity for future study of the species. Whether or not this kind of die-off was common among temnospondyls is difficult to assess since few other sites have received this level of detailed examination and there is limited data regarding how temnospondyl burial varies with different environments. The authors suggest these as directions for future research.

“This assemblage is a snapshot of a single population rather than an accumulation over time” said Kufner, “that more than doubles the number of known Buettnererpeton bakeri individuals.” Whether or not this kind of die-off was common among temnospondyls is difficult to assess considering most bonebeds of this group represent accumulations that were transported from the site of death. Few other metoposaurid sites have received this level of detailed examination highlighting the importance of mapping and systematic data collection during excavation and preparation of mass mortality beds. The Nobby Knob fossil assemblage provides an excellent opportunity for future research into Late Triassic ecosystems and metoposaurid biology.

A new metoposaurid (Temnospondyli) bonebed from the lower Popo Agie Formation (Carnian, Triassic) and an assessment of skeletal sorting

Select specimens of *Buettnererpeton bakeri* from the Nobby Knob bonebed.
Credit
Kufner et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4bYbCNP

Citation: Kufner AM, Deckman ME, Miller HR, So C, Price BR, Lovelace DM (2025) A new metoposaurid (Temnospondyli) bonebed from the lower Popo Agie Formation (Carnian, Triassic) and an assessment of skeletal sorting. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0317325. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0317325

Author countries: U.S.

Funding: A David B. Jones Foundation grant awarded to DML helped fund the excavation of this material. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0317325

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

A new metoposaurid (Temnospondyli) bonebed from the lower Popo Agie Formation (Carnian, Triassic) and an assessment of skeletal sorting

Article Publication Date

2-Apr-2025

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Open sea trips from Denmark to Norway may have been possible – even if hugging the coast was likely safer

PLOS

Seafaring and navigation in the Nordic Bronze Age: The application of an ocean voyage tool and boat performance data for comparing direct open water crossings with sheltered coastal routes — image:
Sea trials in a reconstruction of the c. 350 BC Hjortspring boat, akin to a Scandinavian Bronze Age type boat, with a side view drawing of the boat under full crew inserted above. Photo by Knut Valbjørn.
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Credit: Boel Bengtsson, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

People living in Bronze Age-era Denmark may have been able to travel to Norway directly over the open sea, according to a study published April 2, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS One by Boel Bengtsson from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues. To complete this study, the research team developed a new computer modeling tool that could help other scientists better understand how ancient peoples traversed the sea.

The Bronze Age cultures of what are now northern Denmark and southwestern Norway are quite alike, with similar artifacts, burial systems, and architecture. Cultural exchange between the two regions was likely made possible by vessels traveling along the coastlines of Scandinavia, following a 700-kilometer route across Denmark, up the coast of Sweden and back down to southwestern Norway. But, the researchers on this new paper suggest, the cultural similarities between these two regions invite speculation that ancient people may also have traveled directly between the two sites — over more than 100 kilometers of open ocean.

To study this possibility, the research team developed a modeling program that uses data on environmental factors like currents and wind, along with data on how a vessel moves through the water, to simulate different trips. For this study, the team simulated trips using a reconstruction of the Hjortspring boat, a large paddle-driven canoe from around 350 BCE.

According to their simulations, Bronze Age people may have had the capability to travel directly from Denmark to Norway over the open ocean, though these trips likely would have required a boat able to navigate in waves up to one meter high and winds up to 10 knots, along with good weather forecasting and navigational skills. These open-sea voyages may also have been limited to the summer months. In contrast, following the longer route between the two sites along the coastline was likely safer and possible all year, but probably would have taken multiple weeks to complete and required frequent stops to restock supplies.

In addition to these insights into Bronze Age Scandinavian crossings, the authors note that their model could be adapted to study seafaring for any vessel with sufficient information about its hull shape and specifications.

The authors add: “These new agent-based simulations, applied with boat performance data of a Scandinavian Bronze Age type boat, demonstrate regular open sea crossings of the Skagerrak, including some 50 km of no visible land, likely commenced by 2300 BC, as indicated by archaeological evidence.”

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4iEg5qV

Citation: Bengtsson B, Montenegro A, Green A, Tomasini M, Prince M, Skärström VW, et al. (2025) Seafaring and navigation in the Nordic Bronze Age: The application of an ocean voyage tool and boat performance data for comparing direct open water crossings with sheltered coastal routes. PLoS ONE 20(4): e0320791. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0320791

Author countries: Sweden, U.S., U.K., Norway

Funding: This work is supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond under Grant M21-0018. There was no additional external funding received for this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Journal

PLOS One

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0320791

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Seafaring and navigation in the Nordic Bronze Age: The application of an ocean voyage tool and boat performance data for comparing direct open water crossings with sheltered coastal routes

Article Publication Date

2-Apr-2025

How this tiny snake could change our view of genetics

UTA scientists reveal how the flowerpot snake repairs DNA and provides insights into human genetic conditions like Down Syndrome

University of Texas at Arlington

Matthew Fujita, professor of biology — image:
By analyzing the flowerpot snake’s unique genome, scientists at The University of Texas at Arlington are uncovering how the tiny reptile repairs its DNA and prevents harmful mutations. The findings, published recently in the journal Science Advances, provides valuable insights into genetic repair mechanisms that could deepen our understanding of human gene evolution.
“This DNA repair and replication activity supports a fascinating mechanism called premeiotic endoreplication, a process through which the snake duplicates its chromosomes before dividing them, sidestepping the need for the typical pairing of chromosomes seen in sexual reproduction,” said Matthew Fujita, a professor of biology at UTA and a co-author on the paper along with researchers from China and Myanmar. “This mechanism allows the snake to produce offspring that are exact genetic clones of itself.”
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Credit: UTA

The flowerpot snake, one of the world’s smallest snakes, has some unusual distinctions. Also known as the Brahminy blind snake, it's the only known snake species with three sets of chromosomes instead of two—and it can reproduce without a mate.

By analyzing the flowerpot snake’s unique genome, scientists at The University of Texas at Arlington are uncovering how the tiny reptile repairs its DNA and prevents harmful mutations. The findings, published recently in the journal Science Advances, provides valuable insights into genetic repair mechanisms that could deepen our understanding of human gene evolution.

“This DNA repair and replication activity supports a fascinating mechanism called premeiotic endoreplication, a process through which the snake duplicates its chromosomes before dividing them, sidestepping the need for the typical pairing of chromosomes seen in sexual reproduction,” said Matthew Fujita, a professor of biology at UTA and a co-author on the paper along with researchers from China and Myanmar. “This mechanism allows the snake to produce offspring that are exact genetic clones of itself.”

The flowerpot snake’s genetic and reproductive quirks may also provide insights into human trisomy conditions, such as Down Syndrome.

“For example, we know that having multiple sets of chromosomes is rare for animals, yet flowerpot snakes survive just fine with three instead of the normal two humans have,” Fujita said.

Using advanced genomic technology, the research team discovered that the flowerpot snake, native to Africa and Asia, has 40 chromosomes, organized into three subgenomes. These subgenomes formed through complex genetic events, including chromosome fusion in ancestral species. The researchers hypothesize that this genetic structure enables the snake to reproduce without needing sperm from a male partner.

One major question the scientists explored was whether this reproductive strategy comes with evolutionary drawbacks. Asexual species typically struggle because they lack genetic shuffling, which helps eliminate harmful mutations over time. However, the flowerpot snake appears to have developed a way to counteract this risk. The researchers believe its slow but steady evolutionary pace helps limit the accumulation of harmful mutations.

They also examined how genetic variations across different flowerpot snake populations suggest chromosome exchanges between the subgenomes. These exchanges appear to balance genetic diversity and stability—maintaining enough variation for adaptation while preventing incompatibilities that could disrupt reproduction.

“The study also revealed something unexpected—many of the flowerpot snake’s immune-related and sexually selected genes, such as those involved in sperm development, have lost their functions,” Fujita said. “This finding provides key insights into how reproduction without a mate works in reptiles, but it also reshapes some of our long-held views about the limitations of asexual species. Rather than being an evolutionary ‘dead end’ as researchers have thought, the flowerpot snake shows how nature can innovate and adapt in extraordinary ways.”

The flowerpot snake’s genetic and reproductive quirks may also provide insights into human trisomy conditions, such as Down Syndrome.

Credit

UTA

Journal

Science Advances

DOI

10.1126/sciadv.adt6477

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Genomic insights into evolution of parthenogenesis and triploidy in the flowerpot snake

COI Statement

Funding: We are grateful for the funding provided to this project by the following project funds: the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32325011, 32200347, and 32220103004) and Sichuan Science and Technology Program (2023NSFSC1238). Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Turning wood waste into metal alternative

University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Imagine if all the wood waste left over from home construction zones, furniture manufacturing, landscaping projects, or lumber mills could be turned into a substance as strong as steel.

That is the goal of a research project at the University of Tennessee led by Art Ragauskas, UT-ORNL governor’s chair for biorefining and acting department head of the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering.

The project—Waste Upcycling for Defense (WUD)—received a $2 million contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is a government agency that develops new technologies for national security. UT, the lead university on the project, is collaborating with the University of California, Riverside, and Georgia Tech.

Wood is a low-cost, environmentally friendly alternative to metal and alloys. Natural wood, however, lacks the strength and toughness for wider use a structural material. Past research has proven that wood exhibits exceptional strength properties when it is densified by removing the lignin, which is the glue that holds wood cells together, and compressing the wood.

“Lignin forms a very stiff matrix with hemicellulose to protect the cellulose. It basically supports the plant, so once we remove that, that leaves a lot of space in the wood or in the cell wall,” said Yunxuan Wang, the UT post-doctoral researcher assisting Ragauskas on the project. “At that point, the cell wall is basically composed of cellulose and can be densified when compressed. The fibers form hydrogens bond that will provide additional strength to the material.”

This approach becomes more challenging for mixed waste wood material due to the diverse nature of the starting biosources like scrap wood, cardboard, and paper.

“You don’t always have large chunks of wood available. You usually have a lot of waste wood during the manufacturing of wood, like the sawdust or those waste materials,” Wang said. “So, the goal of the project is to utilize this material, but to achieve the same goal to make this densified board with very high strength.”

There has been a need to develop more sustainable materials to replace metal because metal processing and fabrication are energy intensive. Producing wood with an increased strength could potentially be used in cars, airplanes, or buildings.

As early as the 1930s, densified wood was used to replace metal materials in military aircraft in the United States and Germany.

“The conversion of waste wood to a high-performance board provides a unique opportunity to turn ‘trash to cash,’ minimize landfill needs, and reduce the logistics of building materials, especially in remote areas,” Raguaskas said.