Wild horses thrived across Eurasia until the Last Glacial Maximum to collapse after the beginning of the Holocene. The interplay of climate change, species adaptability to different environments, and human domestication in horse history is still lacking coherent continental-scale analysis integrating different lines of evidence. We assembled temporal and geographical information on 3070 horse occurrences across Eurasia, frequency data for 1120 archeological layers in Europe, and matched them to paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental simulations for the Late Quaternary. Climate controlled the distribution of horses, and they inhabited regions in Europe and Asia with different climates and ecosystem productivity, suggesting plasticity to populate different environments. Their decline in Europe during the Holocene appears associated with an increasing loss and fragmentation of open habitats. Europe was the most likely source for the spread of horses toward more temperate regions, and we propose both Iberia and central Asia as potential centers of domestication.

Trace fossils are vital for studying early animals and their co-evolution with paleoenvironments during the terminal Ediacaran, a period with sparse body fossil records. Thus, patterns of morphologic evolution are difficult to untangle for Ediacaran trace-makers and quantitatively unexplored. In this study, we use the integral scale, which reflects the distance within which a trajectory (i.e., force and displacement) is self-correlated, as a potential indicator for the characteristic length of trace-maker’s locomotion. By analyzing modern and fossilized animal-trace-correlated trajectories, a proportionality between the characteristic locomotory length and the trajectory integral scale is found. Since the length of the structure producing locomotion is no larger than that of the body, the characteristic locomotory length also reflects the minimal body length. Applying this scaling law to Ediacaran−Cambrian locomotory trace fossils (e.g., Archaeonassa, Gordia, Helminthopsis, Parapsammichnites), we identify clear evidence of slender anterior-posterior body axes after around 545 Ma, with gradually increasing minimal body length-to-width ratios to up to 4−12. The trace-makers probably had relatively rigid bodies with robust hydrostatic nerve-muscle systems enhancing directional sensation and movement, enabling them to thrive in dynamically complex, heterogeneous, and shifting habitats. These adaptations likely drove niche partitioning and cascading diversification, underpinning the evolutionary roots of the Cambrian Explosion and more familiar animals of the Phanerozoic. Our findings establish a novel quantitative approach to studying deep-time locomotory trace fossils, offering robust insights into early animal anatomy and paleoecological dynamics.

Horse domestication revolutionized warfare and accelerated travel, trade, and the geographic expansion of languages. Here, we present the largest DNA time series for a non-human organism to date, including genome-scale data from 149 ancient animals and 129 ancient genomes (≥1-fold coverage), 87 of which are new. This extensive dataset allows us to assess the modern legacy of past equestrian civilizations. We find that two extinct horse lineages existed during early domestication, one at the far western (Iberia) and the other at the far eastern range (Siberia) of Eurasia. None of these contributed significantly to modern diversity. We show that the influence of Persian-related horse lineages increased following the Islamic conquests in Europe and Asia. Multiple alleles associated with elite-racing, including at the MSTN "speed gene," only rose in popularity within the last millennium. Finally, the development of modern breeding impacted genetic diversity more dramatically than the previous millennia of human management.

Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all living European land and freshwater animals, their geographical distribution at country level (up to the Urals, excluding the Caucasus region), and some additional information. The Fauna Europaea project covers about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. This represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many users in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education. Helminths parasitic in animals represent a large assemblage of worms, representing three phyla, with more than 200 families and almost 4,000 species of parasites from all major vertebrate and many invertebrate groups. A general introduction is given for each of the major groups of parasitic worms, i.e. the Acanthocephala, Monogenea, Trematoda (Aspidogastrea and Digenea), Cestoda and Nematoda. Basic information for each group includes its size, host-range, distribution, morphological features, life-cycle, classification, identification and recent key-works. Tabulations include a complete list of families dealt with, the number of species in each and the name of the specialist responsible for data acquisition, a list of additional specialists who helped with particular groups, and a list of higher taxa dealt with down to the family level. A compilation of useful references is appended.

The redevelopment of the gardens at the Natural History Museum (London, UK) required the preparation and stabilisation of several large fossil specimens to enable them to withstand exposure to typical weathering in an urban setting within the UK. Several specimens were considered to be at risk from damage: limestone dinosaur trackways, limestone invertebrate fossil blocks and some silicified sections of fossil tree. This project explores several options using literature searches, scanning electron microscopy and tape tests to identify sustainable but effective methods of preservation. The most appropriate treatment chosen for the limestones is CaLoSiL® E25 with TiO2 and for the silicious fossils SILRES® BS OH 100.

Ask a geologist to name a fossil bryozoan found in the rocks of the British Isles and the most likely answer will be Fenestella. The net-like fossils of Fenestella are especially abundant in the Carboniferous Limestone (Figs 1 and 2), although the genus, as used in its broadest sense, is also present in the Silurian, Devonian and Permian deposits of Britain.

As part of ongoing studies of Solanum in South America, three new species of the Geminata clade are described for Colombia. Solanum caquetense J.D.Tovar sp. nov., from the Department of Caquetá, is a riverside shrub found in lowland rainforests, with willow-like leaves characteristic of rheophyte plants. Solanum pinguiculum J.D. Tovar sp. nov. is confined to the understory of cloud forests on the eastern Andean slopes in the Departments of Cauca, Huila, and Putumayo, and is a tiny subshrub with somewhat watery stems and minute flowers. Solanum sabu J.D. Tovar sp. nov. is a rare plant, represented by a single collection from the eastern Andean slopes of the Cordillera Central in the Department of Tolima; it is a shrub with loose dendritic trichomes on abaxial leaf surface, and is described here to encourage further investigation in the field and herbaria. Differences between these new taxa and morphologically similar species are discussed, and photos, preliminary conservation status, and distribution maps are provided for all newly described species. To facilitate the identification of these morphologically very similar plants, a dichotomous key for all members of the Geminata clade occurring in Colombia is provided together with a synopsis of their distribution by Department.

The evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis was one of the most transformative evolutionary events in Earth’s history, leading eventually to the oxygenation of Earth’s atmosphere and, consequently, the evolution of aerobic respiration. Previous work has shown that the terminal electron acceptors (complex IV) of aerobic respiration likely evolved after the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. However, complex I of the respiratory complex chain can be involved in anaerobic processes and, therefore, may have pre-dated the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. If so, aerobic respiration may have built upon respiratory chains that pre-date the rise of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere. The Melainabacteria provide a unique opportunity to examine this hypothesis because they contain genes for aerobic respiration but likely diverged from the Cyanobacteria before the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis. Here, we examine the phylogenies of translated complex I sequences from 44 recently published Melainabacteria metagenome assembled genomes and genomes from other Melainabacteria, Cyanobacteria, and other bacterial groups to examine the evolutionary history of complex I. We find that complex I appears to have been present in the common ancestor of Melainabacteria and Cyanobacteria, supporting the idea that aerobic respiration built upon respiratory chains that pre-date the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis and the rise of oxygen.

Echinoderms are among the most morphologically distinctive animal phyla, encompassing familiar forms like starfish and sea urchins. Uncovering how their unique pentaradial body plan evolved from a bilaterally symmetrical ancestor has long proved challenging, as this involved fundamental changes to adult morphology and body plan development, associated with a complete reorganization of the anteroposterior (A-P) axis,1–3 obfuscating homologies between disparate groups.4,5 This has greatly limited our understanding of one of the most radical transformations in bilaterian evolutionary history.6–8 Here, we describe a new bilaterally symmetrical echinoderm, Atlascystis acantha, from the Cambrian of Morocco.9 This is the oldest bilaterally symmetrical echinoderm and the first with this body plan known from different ontogenetic stages, allowing us to elucidate mechanisms ofits growth. Thisdemonstrates thatAtlascystis possessed ambulacra—structures accommodating extensions of the characteristic echinoderm water vascular system—providing a clear point of homology betweenAtlascystis andradially symmetricalforms. By integrating the Cambrian fossilrecordandour newphylogeny with developmental biology,10 we uncover how changes to the ancestral bilaterian A-P patterning network alongside stepwise morphological transformations gave rise to the pentaradial structure of extant echinoderms, transforming our understanding of the origin and earliest evolution of this major animal phylum.

Evidence of climate-driven environmental change is increasing in Antarctica, and with it comes concern that this will propagate to impacts on biological communities. Recognition and prediction of change needs to incorporate the extent and timescales over which communities vary under extant conditions. However, few observations of Antarctic microbial communities, which dominate inland habitats, allow this. We therefore carried out the first molecular comparison of Cyanobacteria in historic herbarium microbial mats from freshwater ecosystems on Ross Island and the McMurdo Ice Shelf, collected by Captain R.F. Scott's ‘Discovery’ Expedition (1902–1903), with modern samples from those areas. Using 16S rRNA gene surveys, we found that modern and historic cyanobacteria assemblages showed some variation in community structure but were dominated by the same genotypes. Modern communities had a higher richness, including genotypes not found in historic samples, but they had the highest similarity to other cyanobacteria sequences from Antarctica. The results imply slow cyanobacterial 16S rRNA gene genotype turnover and considerable community stability within Antarctic microbial mats. We suggest that this relates to Antarctic freshwater 'organisms requiring a capacity to withstand diverse stresses, and that this could also provide a degree of resistance and resilience to future climatic-driven environmental change in Antarctica.