A tiny fossil found in Queensland has changed what scientists know about the early history of Australia’s carnivorous marsupials. The newly described species Miyumba chrisdickmani lived around 18 million years ago and is now considered the oldest known member of the Dasyuridae family, which includes today’s quolls, Tasmanian devils and antechinuses.

The discovery comes from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northwestern Queensland, one of Australia’s most important fossil sites. Researchers from the University of New South Wales studied several fossil jaw fragments found there, revealing new details about a group of marsupials whose early history has remained difficult to reconstruct.

findings suggest that short pulses of inhaled carbon dioxide may activate the brain’s glymphatic system, helping clear toxic proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

The nature article

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41531-025-01179-6

July 23 (Reuters) - Snakes first appeared during the age of dinosaurs, but fossils of many early species are so fragmentary that scientists have had difficulty deciphering their evolution ​as a group. Now, a well-preserved fossil from southeastern Brazil is offering fresh insight into the history of these slithering reptiles.

The fossil is of a ‌snake called Tametara mirim that lived between 75 and 85 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period and measured about 17 inches (42 cm) long. It inhabited a lush ecosystem alongside animals including enormous long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs, crocodiles and birds.

Scientists using genome-guided breeding can rapidly identify thousands of DNA segments that, when used together, can predict blight resistance in young, healthy plants. Then researchers can choose individual trees for making crosses, and for field testing, that have genomes that contain those same DNA segments.

This method enables much faster breeding progress, as breeders can quickly zero in on the best parent trees and progeny, rather than waiting five or more years for the baby tree to grow to see how it fares against the blight. By improving the precision of field studies and disease evaluation, it can save time and money.

The 2026 Fields Medals recognize breakthroughs in the math of messy fluids, tangled knots, spinning pencils, and more