Biology news: trees against caterpillars, the “crocodile” of the Cretaceous period, primitive travelers... - Trinity option - Science

Natalia Toropova

Trees don't want to feed caterpillars

Over millions of years of evolution, plants have learned to resist pests: they secrete essential oils with an unpleasant odor, produce bitter tannins, and enter into symbiosis with predators. But it turns out that this is not the entire arsenal of the fight. Sumen Mallick from the Biocentre of the University of Würzburg (Germany) and his colleagues found that some types of trees can delay the growth of foliage so that the caterpillars have nothing to eat.

The influence of leaf feeding by insects on tree bud burst and subsequent foliage damage. a) High levels of leaf consumption cause a delay in bud break the following year, causing most of the caterpillars to die and less damage to the foliage. b) Data based on satellite imagery of one of the sites, where a pixel corresponds to one tree. Illustration: Soumen Mallick [ 1 ]

In the course of research conducted from 2017 to 2021, it turned out that if in any year a tree suffered from an invasion of pests, then the next year the growth of foliage during the period of active emergence of caterpillars from eggs slows down. The team monitored oak groves covering an area of 2,400 km2 in Northern Bavaria for five years using the Sentinel-1 radar satellite. It was concluded that trees turn green depending on the load exerted by insects. On average, buds on trees that had been heavily attacked by insects in the previous year bloomed three days later than on trees that were less affected. Thus, trees can “consciously” slow down the growth of green mass until the pests die.

This theory was confirmed in 2020 when, following a massive foliage loss caused by a gypsy moth infestation the year before, the crowns remained bare longer than weather conditions allowed. Moreover, this tactic of tree survival is completely reversible: if there are no pests, then next year the vegetative cycles return to the normal calendar schedule.

“ This dynamic interaction is an example of how a forest shows resilience and the ability to adapt to changing conditions ,” writes another author of the study, Professor Andreas Prinzing from the University of Rennes I (France) [ 2 ]. Thanks to late budding, trees are able to avoid the “evolutionary trap” associated with global warming: due to an earlier spring, buds bloom earlier and young leaves immediately become prey to pests, but the next year this process slows down, caterpillars that hatched ahead of time die of hunger, and the trees retain their foliage.

1. nature.com/articles/s41559-026-03071-9

2. idw-online.de/en/news869908

Neurons can renew themselves at any age

Spoiler: they may not be updated. But that's not what this is about. It is a known fact that most new neurons are formed in children under the age of eight. Then the process slows down and, as previously thought, practically stops in adulthood, and then begins to degrade altogether. But more than half a century ago, scientists studying the hippocampus (the brain structure responsible for memory and learning) began to suggest that new neurons continue to appear in adulthood. And in 2013, a breakthrough work appeared by Jonas Friesen, a professor at the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden), who measured the age of brain cells using radiocarbon dating. A new study conducted at the same Karolinska Institute under the leadership of Friesen’s student Ionut Dumitru has confirmed this knowledge to a new level. Neuroscientists have used sophisticated techniques to study brain tissue from people of all ages, from infants to older adults. Materials were selected randomly from international biobanks. Using single-core RNA sequencing, flow cytometry, and AI analysis, it was found that... drum roll: neuronal development does not stop! Neuronal precursor cells appear in the hippocampus throughout a person's life. Even those over 75! However, in order for the creation of new neural connections to continue, it is necessary to train the brain by mastering new skills.

Brain tissue from donors aged 0–78 years was used. The tissue was dissected, separated to isolate individual cell nuclei, RNA was sequenced on the 10x Genomics platform, the information was processed to remove erroneous data, and the data was analyzed. Source: Ionut Dumitru et al., DOI: 10.1126/science.adu9575

Microscopic observation (RNAscope staining) of two sections of hippocampal tissue from a 53-year-old man. Young, newly born neurons are indicated by arrows in the general plans and highlighted in green. Source: Ionut Dumitru et al., DOI: 10.1126/science.adu9575

3. science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adu9575

Once upon a time there was a crocodile, he walked across America

About thirty years ago, the “golden age” of paleontology began—every year, several dozen descriptions of new species appear. Excavations are constantly underway in the United States, China, South America, Mongolia and Russia. For example, Yi qi (and qi) was discovered in China, a small theropod with bat-like wings. Ubirajara jubatus , a small dinosaur from the Cretaceous period, was found in Brazil. He had a thick mane and strange spikes-ribbons made of keratin that grew from his shoulder girdle. And here is a new discovery, right out of the heat, from the USA - a two-legged crocodile. More precisely, its relative from the distant (212 million years) past.

One of the finds: a fragment of a vertebra of Labrujasuchus expectatus [ 4 ]

A small digression. In the American state of New Mexico there is Ghost Ranch, which has long been a place of discovery - the paleochannel of the Norian Stage of the Late Triassic runs there. Teams of scientists work in the Canjilon, Snyder and Hayden quarries.

The new species of “crocodile,” or, to put it scientifically, a shuvosaurid, did not outwardly resemble a modern alligator, but rather an ostrich, but with a reptilian tail: tall, upright, with lightness and agility; with relatively small legs, like those of a tyrannosaurus; without teeth, but with an unusual beak. Scientists say American shuvosaurids were very graceful and graceful, unlike more massive members of the family discovered in the 1990s in Argentina.

Reconstruction of the species Labrujasuchus expectatus. Image: Jorge Gonzalez, NHMLAC Dinosaur Institute

The new shuvosaurid was named Labrujasuchus expectatus . Paleontologists tend to joke - one of its previously discovered relatives was named Shuvosaurus inexpectatus , i.e. unexpected, and the name of the genus - labruhasuchus - is constructed from the Spanish La Bruja (“witch”, a reference to the Phantom Ranch) and the Greek suchus (“crocodile”, it is included in the names of many crocodile ancestors and relatives). Labruchasuchus belongs to the third taxon of shuvosaurids from North America. Excavations at Phantom Ranch continue. We will monitor them closely.

4. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2026.2618182
5. nhm.org/stories/discover-labrujasuchus-expectatus-bipedal-toothless-crocodile-relative-triassic-ghost-ranch

No blood ties

The term “patchwork family” appeared relatively recently - in the 2000s. It essentially means the second and subsequent marriages of two people who already have children from previous relationships. Nothing new, but at least it has a name, however... Recent studies by anthropologists have proven that the term, or rather, this family format is not so new. It is at least 5,000 years old.

Scientists from the Institute of Prehistoric and Early History at the University of Kiel studied samples of 203 individuals from megalithic tombs in central Germany [ 6 , 7 ]. Using DNA analysis, they found that not all people buried in the same tomb were genetically related, and blood relatives, on the contrary, could end up in very remote places. Thus, in the megalithic tomb in Zorzum, the northernmost of those explored, a man was buried, the remains of whose son were discovered in Niedertiefenbach, 250 km to the southwest.

Megalithic burial site at Zorzum, used around 3100 BC. e. Image: Susanne Beyer, Inst. UFG/Uni Kiel

This means that our ancestors were mobile, covered vast distances, created new families and left communities. But in history lessons they said that gender was above all! But no - sympathy arose thousands of years ago, and young men and women flew out of the nest in search of happiness. Due to the high mortality rate, remarriages were frequent; such families willingly accepted stepchildren and adopted children.

So, the megalith builders actively communicated with each other, transferred new knowledge and technologies, and formed mixed families. And newcomers from other communities contributed to the development of genetic diversity and the survival of a particular community. For example, this study revealed connections between neighboring communities belonging to two different “peoples” - in Zorzum there lived people belonging to the Western Funnel Beaker culture, in other settlements - to the Wartberg culture. Despite the cultural (more precisely, archaeological) differences, it turned out that they form a single population. And this is another discovery - previously it was believed that different archaeological cultures should be genetically different.

6. ikmb.uni-kiel.de/2026/05/patchwork-families-more-than-5000-years-ago/
7. science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeb2926

Natalia Toropova