New supergiant 'Darth Vader' sea bug discovered in South China Sea — and it's absolutely massive

 

Image credit: Peter Ng

A new supergiant isopod was found near the Spratly Islands in South China Sea — and it's absolutely massive

Scientists have discovered a never-before-seen giant sea bug after studying samples purchased from fishers in Vietnam.

“Bathynomus vaderi belongs to the genus Bathynomus — giant isopods that are abundant in cold, deep waters. It is a "supergiant," weighing over 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) and growing up to 12.8 inches (32.5 centimeters) long, making it one of the largest known isopods.”

The species is named "vaderi" because its head resembles Darth Vader's iconic helmet from "Star Wars."

It seems that God can make animals big or small, and in this instance it is big.

Source:

Jacklin Kwan 2025 New supergiant 'Darth Vader' sea bug discovered in South China Sea — and it's absolutely massive | Live Science 14 January

 

A supermassive black hole is sending out a mysterious pulsing beat

 

Image courtesy of Aurore Simonnet/Sonoma State University

Joel Kontinen

What are black holes? Recently, a black hole appears to send more noise to us.  

“Strange vibrations emanating from a supermassive black hole appear to be growing more frequent and they could be caused by a white dwarf star orbiting perilously close to its event horizon.

In 2018, a supermassive black hole called 1ES 1927+654 took astronomers by surprise by changing from a relatively inactive black hole to an extremely bright one. It was the first time a supermassive black hole had been observed changing in this way.”

Space is unique, as God created it that way,

Source:

Alex Wilkins 2025 A supermassive black hole is sending out a mysterious pulsing beat | New Scientist 13 January 

Why sabre-toothed animals evolved again and again

 

Image courtesy of Steve Morton 

Joel Kontinen

How do sabre-tooted animals evolve again in the cause of life?   Evolution is a thing that is supposed to come one at a time.  Animals are supposed to get an advantage and then die out.   

But according to evolution, “predators have evolved sabre teeth many times during the history of life – and we now have a better idea why these teeth develop as they do.

Sabre teeth have very specific characteristics: they are exceptionally long, sharp canines that tend to be slightly flattened and curved, rather than rounded. Such teeth have independently evolved in different groups of mammals at least five times, and fossils of sabre-tooth predators have been found in North and South America, Europe and Asia.”

Here’s which New Scientist says about the event:

” The teeth are first known to have appeared some 270 million years ago, in mammal-like reptiles called gorgonopsids. Another example is Thylacosmilus, which died out about 2.5 million years ago and was most closely related to marsupials. Sabre teeth were last seen in Smilodon, often called sabre-toothed tigers, which existed until about 10,000 years ago.

To investigate why these teeth kept re-evolving, Tahlia Pollock at the University of Bristol, UK, and her colleagues looked at the canines of 95 carnivorous mammal species, including 25 sabre-toothed ones.

First, the researchers measured the shapes of the teeth to categorise and model them. Then they 3D-printed smaller versions of each tooth in metal and tested their performance in puncture tests, in which the teeth were mechanically pushed into gelatine blocks designed to mimic the density of animal tissue.

The study has millions of years with evolution, as evolution cannot be caused by thousands of years.  

Source:

Chris Simms 2025 Why sabre-toothed animals evolved again and again | New Scientist 9 January

Permafrost thaw beneath Arctic lakes poses surprise pollution threat

  

Image courtesy of (AP/EmrahGurel). 

 Joel Kontinen

Climate change has been in the news recently, in spite of the winter weather in America and England. but is the weather caused by carbon dioxide or is there something that most scientist do not understand.

”As the Arctic gets warmer, large quantities of greenhouse gas could be released from the sediment at the bottom of lakes, a source that has previously been overlooked.

The frozen soil of the Arctic has already started to thaw, triggering the release of more methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This climate feedback is well known, but most modelling only accounts for thawing in the top 3 metres of Arctic soil.”

Source:

Madeleine Cuff 2025 Permafrost thaw beneath Arctic lakes poses surprise pollution threat | New Scientist 6 January 

 

What were the Velociraptors?

 

Joel Kontinen

Velociraptors were turkey sized animals. The dino sized things in the film Jurassic Park described what these Cretaceous predators looked like Deinonychus. That was what scientists thought at that time.

”In 2007, researchers confirmed that Velociraptors had feathers. The presence of feathers gave Velociraptors a whole new look that was far more bird-like than how they — or Deinonychus — were previously depicted.”

that is what evolution says. 

Source:

Patrick Pester 2024 A sea monster with it's head on it's butt? 10 times we were completely wrong about dinosaur-age creatures 30.12.

Dinosaurs may have run like emus by keeping one foot on the ground

 

Emus always have one foot on the ground when running at an intermediate pace

Image courstesy of Imagebroker / Alamy Stock Photo

Joel Kontinen

How did dinosaurs run? According a new  study, they run like emus, which is strange.

“If you want to imagine a dinosaur running, then perhaps look at emus. They probably shared a similar posture, which makes it most energy efficient to keep one foot on the ground when running at an intermediate pace.

Pasha van Bijlert at Utrecht University in the Netherlands and his colleagues wanted to understand why birds have a style of running that is so different to humans.

For instance, emus (Dromaius novaehollandiae), which can sprint at up to 50 kilometres per hour, always have one foot on the ground when running at intermediate speeds. This was thought to require much more energy than the “aerial” running style, in which both feet are off the ground at the same time, which is seen in other bipeds, such as people.

To learn more, the scientists built a computer model based on an emu and used physics simulations to measure the energy output of different running styles, while varying the bird’s anatomy.

“These are all changes you can’t really make in a real bird, but they represent differences between different bird species,” says van Bijlert. “For example, quails are very crouched and their tendons probably don’t store a lot of energy. Emus are, comparatively, pretty upright, but their tendons store a lot of energy.”

But dinosaurs and emus have lots of differences, Emus are birds, and dinos are not. God created each species in its own way and dinos can never really run like emus.

Source:

James Woodford 2024  Dinosaurs may have run like emus by keeping one foot on the ground | New Scientist 25 September

Britain’s ‘dinosaur highway’ discovered as hundreds of footprints found in quarry

 

Image courtesy of Friends of Dinosaur Valley State Park via Facebook

 Joel Kontinen

“A newly discovered ‘dinosaur highway’ has been discovered buried under mud in a quarry in England.

Researchers have discovered nearly 200 dinosaur footprints dating back 166 million years, changing what we knew about the creatures.

The dig, carried out at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire by teams from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham, uncovered five extensive trackways, forming part of a ‘dinosaur highway’ – with evidence of more in the surrounding area.”  

In this research, the millions of years have teemed up with evolution,  as if these dinosaurs truly lived at that time, but many things say that they did not live at that time as dinosaur DNA does not last that long. .

Source:

Stephanie Wareham 2025 Britain’s ‘dinosaur highway’ discovered as hundreds of footprints found in quarry 2 January