Scientists have found that giant octopuses were the terror of the seas in the era of dinosaurs, learned that malaria-carrying mosquitoes determined the routes of our ancestors’ settlement across Africa, and also stated that late-night snacks seriously harm digestion. About these and other science news in the weekly NM review.
Giant octopuses from the age of dinosaurs
In the seas of the Cretaceous period (an era in the history of the Earth that began 145 million and ended 66 million years ago), not only huge reptiles lived, but also giant octopuses. An international team of scientists concluded that these soft-bodied creatures could reach almost 19 meters in length. Previously, it was believed that at the top of the food chain there were exclusively vertebrate predators, such as sharks or dinosaurs, and octopuses were small and hidden at the bottom. However, a new discovery changes our understanding of ancient marine ecosystems (communities of living organisms and their habitats).
Researchers came to these conclusions after studying 27 fossil beaks of ancient cephalopods. The fact is that octopuses do not have bones, so their soft tissues are almost not preserved in rocks. The only hard part that reaches paleontologists is the chitinous beak, very similar to the beak of a parrot. The team used high-tech scanning and artificial intelligence to literally “pull” out of the rock and recreate the shape of beaks found off the coast of Japan and Canada.
By comparing the resulting three-dimensional models with the jaws of modern octopuses, scientists were able to calculate the approximate sizes of ancient monsters using mathematical formulas. Moreover, scratches were found on only one side of the beaks, which indicates the complex behavior of the predators – they were probably “right-handed” or “left-handed” and more often used one side of the body to capture food. Judging by the serious damage to their beaks, these giants easily crushed the hard shells of other animals, providing real competition to the most terrible reptiles of that time.
How malaria mosquitoes controlled ancient people
It is generally accepted that the settlement routes of our distant ancestors across Africa depended solely on climate changes. However, new research shows that a deadly disease, malaria, played a key role in ancient people’s choice of place to live. It turned out that the threat of infection forced groups of gatherers and hunters to avoid dangerous areas or simply killed those who decided to settle there.
To make this unexpected discovery, an international team of scientists combined archaeological data from ancient human sites with computer models of the distribution of malaria mosquitoes. Experts analyzed the historical period from 74 thousand to 5 thousand years ago and compared the ancient climate with modern data on foci of infection. Thus, they were able to create a detailed map of areas where the risk of infection was especially high in those distant times.
The results of overlaying the maps on top of each other clearly showed that people avoided “mosquito” areas. For example, archaeologists find almost no traces of ancient human sites near large rivers and swampy areas, where insects felt most comfortable.
Brain cells linked to depression discovered
Canadian researchers have taken an important step in understanding the nature of severe mood disorders. For the first time, they were able to pinpoint two types of brain cells that start to malfunction during depression. Scientists came to this result by studying a unique database – post-mortem samples of brain tissue carefully collected from people who suffered from mental disorders during their lifetime. Using sophisticated genomic analysis (the study of the structure of DNA and RNA molecules), the team examined thousands of individual cells in detail. They looked for genes that show different degrees of activity in healthy people and in patients with depression to understand where exactly the biological failure occurs.
It turns out that the main problem lies in a certain group of neurons that regulate our emotions and response to stress, as well as in the brain’s immune cells, which are responsible for controlling inflammation. In people with depressive disorder, the genes in these two types of cells worked completely differently, signaling the breakdown of the entire system. Now scientists hope to develop new, more precise and effective drugs that will specifically treat these damaged cells.
Why can’t you eat at night?
American scientists have found that the habit of heavy snacking late in the evening is directly related to a sharp deterioration in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. Late feasts are especially dangerous for those who are in a state of severe nervous tension, since stress, combined with late-night eating, hits the digestion with double force.
For their study, the researchers used large-scale US national health and nutrition databases. They analyzed detailed surveys in which people talked about their eating habits, and also studied information about the state of the microbiota (the totality of all the good and bad bacteria) in their gut. Experts paid special attention to those experiment participants who consumed more than a quarter of their daily calorie intake after nine o’clock in the evening.
Having compared the information received, experts discovered a clear pattern: lovers of late-night snacks were two and a half times more likely to complain about various stomach problems. In addition, their guts had significantly less variety of beneficial bacteria, and the risk of unpleasant symptoms such as constipation and diarrhea almost doubled. According to the researchers, this fact proves a simple rule – not only the quality of what we eat is important for our health, but also the exact time of day when we eat it.
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