Orangutan Seen Treating A Wound With A Medicinal Plant In World-First, T. Rex May Have Been A “Smart Giant Crocodile”, And Much More This Week

This week, the best preserved Neanderthal skeleton in over 25 years was discovered in a “funeral cave”, alpaca sex is so strange it’s never been seen in any other mammal, and we now know why a giant hole appeared in Antarctic sea ice eight years ago. Finally, we explore what Earth would be like if it had rings.

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Orangutan Seen Treating A Wound With A Medicinal Plant In World-First Observation

A wild Sumatran orangutan has been seen chewing the leaves of the Akar Kuning plant and applying the juice to a wound on his cheek, the first time this has been reported. The process went on for seven minutes, until the wound was entirely covered, making clear it was deliberate, and the orangutan continued to chew on the plant’s leaves for another half an hour. The wound healed fully without infection. Read the full story here

T. Rex Was A “Smart Giant Crocodile”, Not A Massive Brainy Baboon

That Tyrannosaurus rex might have been as intelligent as a baboon was posited by a 2023 study that used bony braincases to infer dinosaur smarts. It was an incredible and intimidating concept for a predator, but one that’s now been rebutted by a paper that claims in truth, T. rex was more comparable to a “smart giant crocodile”. Read the full story here

Best-Preserved Neanderthal Skeleton In Over 25 Years Found In “Flower Funeral” Cave

The most complete and well-preserved Neanderthal skeleton discovered since the turn of the millennium has been used to reconstruct the face of its owner – a female member of the extinct human lineage who lived around 75,000 years ago. Found within the iconic yet controversial Shanidar Cave – where Neanderthals repeatedly buried their dead, possibly on beds of flowers – the skeleton features in a new Netflix documentary entitled Secrets of the Neanderthals. Read the full story here

Alpaca Sex Is So Weird, It’s Never Been Seen In Another Mammal

Alpacas have weird sex lives: they are the only mammal we know of in which the penis enters the uterus to directly deposit sperm. It’s a reproductive strategy that’s never been confirmed in any other mammal before, and new research suggests it may help the kinky camelids’ chances of pregnancy. Read the full story here

Eight Years Ago A Huge Opening Appeared In Antarctic Sea Ice – Now We Know Why

In 2016, the sea ice in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea developed an enormous hole twice the size of Wales – the country, not a pod of giant mammals. The following year it returned, but the reasons remained unknown. Now scientists think they can explain what caused them, and recruited some pretty cute research assistants to help find out. Read the full story here

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Feature of the week:

What Would The Earth Be Like With Rings?

A ringed planet is a thing of beauty. Saturn is iconic – and let’s be honest, it’s 90 percent due to the rings because the planet itself does not have many other distinctive features. Earth’s beauty is very different, but it’s fun to wonder if it could be enhanced by the presence of rings. The question of aesthetics is in the eye of the beholder, but we can answer the scientific ones: How would Earth get rings, and what would happen to the planet? Read the full story here