Cave spiders use their webs in a way that hasn't been seen before

 

A cave orb spider Image courtesy of blickwinkel/Alamy

Joel Kontinen

Cave-dwelling orb spiders have adapted their webs so they act as tripwires for prey that crawl on the walls of the caves.

Can spiders make orbs in the dark? This must be inspired by intelligent design,  

Spiders known for elaborate circular webs have altered their spinning style in dark spaces to create apparent tripwires for walking prey.

Those that make circular webs are known as orb-weavers, and most of them trap mosquitoes, beetles and other flying insects in sticky spiral frame webs sparsely attached to outdoor structures, like tree branches. But European cave orb spiders (Meta menardi) anchor their webs to cave walls using twice as many silk strands, which appear to vibrate when tripped by unsuspecting crawlers, says Thomas Hesselberg at the University of Oxford.

Source:

Christa Lesté-Lasserre 2025 Cave spiders use their webs in a way that hasn't been seen before | New Scientist 31 March 

Unusually tiny hominin deepens mystery of our Paranthropus cousin

 

The thigh and shin bones of Paranthropus robustus. Image courtesy of Jason L. Heaton

Joel Kontinen

Paranthropus was an ape-like hominin that survived alongside early humans for more than a million years. A fossilised leg belonging to a strikingly small member of the group. 

What do people say about the ape men hypothesis?. According to Darwinists who think that we evolved from ape like creatures, the answer is yes, but according  to Bible believing scientist, it is no.

According to Darwinists,  “ a fossilised left leg unearthed in South Africa belongs to one of the smallest adult hominins ever discovered – smaller even than the so-called “hobbit”, Homo floresiensis.

The diminutive hominin was a member of the species Paranthropus robustus. This was one of several species of Paranthropus, a group of ape-like hominins that shared the African landscape with the earliest representatives of our human genus, Homo, between about 2.7 and 1.2 million years ago. Paranthropus had heavily build  skulls that housed small brains and large teeth.”

 Source:

 Colin Barras 2025 Unusually tiny hominin deepens mystery of our Paranthropus cousin | New Scientist 31 March 

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Ancient wasp may have used its rear end to trap flies

 

Image courtesy of Qiong Wuh

Joel Kontinen

Wasps might use there rear end to catch  fear end to catch flies and other insects. Scientist have analysed a wasp they taught was 99 million years old. ‘

But the evolutionists dating  relies on amber that was so old in Myanbar and it is not based on fossils. Only evolution can think of millions of years.  

“An extraordinary extinct wasp preserved in amber may have used its abdomen to grasp other insects like a Venus flytrap before laying its eggs on them.”

Source:

Chris Simms 2025 Ancient wasp preserved in amber may have used its rear end to trap flies | New Scientist 27 March 

Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life

A painting of what Prototaxites may have looked like, 400 million years ago. (Image credit: Painting by Mary Parrish, National Museum of Natural History.)

Joel Kontinen

An ancient and enormous organism called Prototaxites, initially found to be a type of fungus, may actually be an unknown branch of life, researchers say.

When were the first organisms formed?

According to evolutionist, they were formed some 420 million years ago.

“A bizarre ancient life-form, considered to be the first giant organism to live on land, may belong to a totally unknown branch of the tree of life, scientists say.”

These organisms, named Prototaxites, lived around 420 million to 375 million years ago during the Devonian period and resembled branchless, cylindrical tree trunks. These organisms would have been massive, with some species growing up to 26 feet (8 meters) tall and 3 feet (1 meter) wide.

Since the first Prototaxites fossil was discovered in 1843, scientists haven't been sure whether they were a plant, fungus or even a type of algae. However, chemical analyses of Prototaxites fossils in 2007 suggested they were likely a giant ancient fungus.

Yes, according to evolution, these organisms were in The Devonian period.

Source:

Jess Thomson 2025 Giant, fungus-like organism may be a completely unknown branch of life | Live Science 27 March

An early hint of cosmic dawn has been seen in a distant galaxy

 

Image courtesy of SA/Webb, NASA & CSA, JADES Collaboration, J. Witstok, P. Jakobsen, M. Zamani

Joel Kontinen

How can galaxies form? A study has them forming some 239 million years ago after the Big Bang.

A galaxy found at the dawn of the universe appears to be the earliest known evidence of cosmic reionisation, the period when the universe was lit up for the first time.

Following the big bang, the early universe was filled with hot hydrogen and helium gas that scattered photons, making the cosmos somewhat opaque. Over the next few hundred million years, as stars began to shine, their light ionised the hydrogen and helium, enabling photons to flow freely and making the universe transparent, though the exact timing of this is uncertain.

Joris Witstok at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and his colleagues used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to study a galaxy called JADES-GS-z13-1-LA. The galaxy is seen 330 million years after the big bang, making it one of the earliest known galaxies in the universe.

Ultraviolet light from the galaxy suggests it was surrounded by a bubble about 200,000 light years across, which might be the result of its starlight interacting with the surrounding cosmic hydrogen. Seeing evidence for this so early in the universe is “beyond even our wildest expectations,” says Witstok.

Michele Trenti at the University of Melbourne agrees that the observations are consistent with the process of cosmic reionisation. “It’s both surprising and exciting,” says Trenti. “I would not expect the ultraviolet light emitted from this galaxy to reach JWST. The cold neutral hydrogen gas that we were expecting would have surrounded the galaxy should have blocked the photons. We are witnessing the onset of reionisation.”

The nature of the small galaxy itself is not entirely clear; it might be shining brightly because of a population of massive hot and young stars, or a powerful central black hole. “This would be the earliest known evidence for a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy,” says Trenti.

While astronomers have seen other, later galaxies with a similar bubble around them, JADES-GS-z13-1-LA is the earliest known example. “It’s a benchmark,” says Richard Ellis at University College London. “It tells us that this galaxy must have been around for quite a while, and pushes that little bit further back to the beginning of when galaxies first emerged from darkness.”

JWST was able to unearth the secrets of this galaxy only by staring at it for a relatively long time, about 19 hours. Witstok is hopeful we might soon see other early evidence for cosmic reionisation. “We have a few more candidates,” he says. “We might find it even further [back in time], or maybe this is the most extreme that it gets.”

The millions of years in this study are not based on science but on  evolutionary thinking,

Source:

Jonathan O’Callaghan 2025 An early hint of cosmic dawn has been seen in a distant galaxy | New Scientist 26 March 

Why do giraffes have spots? Not for the reason you might think

 Image courtesy of Monica Bond

Joel Kontinen

Why do giraffes have spots? It may have to do with intelligent design bringing them.

“The beautiful “mottled patterns of a giraffe’s coat work as more than camouflage – the size of the spots seems to be linked to how well the animals survive during unusual temperatures.

Every giraffe has a unique array of spots. Patterns with larger and rounder spots can increase the chance of a baby giraffe surviving its first four months, because they help them blend into the background in the dappled light near bushes. But spots are are darker than the rest of the fur, it is also thought they help them to survive. “

 Just like in the case of the zebra, intelligence design helps them to succeed.

Source:

 Chris Simms 2025 Why do giraffes have spots? Not for the reason you might think | New Scientist March 

Sharks aren’t silent after all

 Image courtesy of Paul Caiger

Joel Kontinen

Can sharks be talkative? They were thought to be quiet, but new research shows they are not.  

”At least one shark species has a bark to go along with its bite. It can make clicking noises, scientists report, a first among an animal group once thought to be totally silent.

During her doctoral research at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Carolin Nieder, now at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, was studying sharks’ hearing. When handling the sharks during experiments, she noticed one species – a houndshark called the rig (Mustelus lenticulatus) – appeared to make metallic clicking sounds.”

Yes. even animals know how to tell stories to their kin.

“I was just kind of ignoring it because sharks are not supposed to make sounds,” says Nieder. “And it just kept happening.”

Source:

Jake Buehler 2025 Sharks aren’t silent after all | New Scientist 25 March