Philippa Kaur

For months, researchers in a laboratory in Dallas, Texas, worked in secrecy, culturing grey-wolf blood cells and altering the DNA within. The scientists then plucked nuclei from these gene-edited cells and injected them into egg cells from a domestic dog to form clones.They transferred dozens of the cloned embryos into the wombs of surrogate dogs, eventually bringing into the world three animals of a type that had never been seen before. Two males named Romulus and Remus were born in October 2024, and a female, Khaleesi, was born in January.A few months later, Colossal Biosciences, the Texas-based company that produced the creatures, declared: “The first de-extinct animals are here.” Of 20 edits made to the animals’ genomes, the company says that 15 match sequences identified in dire wolves (Aenocyon dirus), a large-bodied wolf species that last roamed North America during the ice age that ended some 11,500 years ago.Ancient proteins rewrite the rhino family tree — are dinosaurs next?The company’s announcement of the pups in April, which described them as dire wolves, set off a media maelstrom. The ensuing debates over the nature of the animals — and the advisability of doing such work — have opened a chasm between Colossal’s team and other scientists.“I don’t think they de-extincted anything,” says Jeanne Loring, a stem-cell biologist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. She and many others say that the hype surrounding Colossal’s announcement has the potential to confuse the public about what de-extinction technologies can achieve.Colossal, meanwhile, has taken an increasingly combative tone in addressing criticisms, issuing rapid rebuttals to researchers and conservationists who have publicly questioned the company’s work. The firm has also been accused of taking part in a campaign to undermine the credibility of some critics. The company denies having played any part in this.Colossal stands by its claims and insists that it is listening to dissenters and seeking advice from them. “We have had this attitude of running towards critics, not away,” says Ben Lamm, a technology entrepreneur and co-founder of the company.Colossal ambitionsDe-extinction is an emerging field that represents the meeting point of several groundbreaking biotechnologies: ancient genomics, cloning and genome editing, ostensibly in the service of conservation. The field has roots in science fiction, with the term seeming first to have appeared in a 1979 novel by Piers Anthony called The Source of Magic. And Michael Crichton’s 1990 novel Jurassic Park — itself inspired by ancient-DNA investigations — popularized the possibility that long-dead organisms could be cloned from preserved DNA.There has never been perfect agreement on what counts as de-extinction — such as whether it means cloning exact replicas of extinct species, creating proxies that fulfil their roles in ecosystems, or something in between. Some count the birth of a cloned bucardo (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica), a type of wild goat, as a first example. The animal’s genome was transferred into goat (Capra hircus) egg cells from frozen cell samples taken from one of the last living bucardo specimens in 2000. (The resulting creature died within minutes of birth1.) But this pathway to de-extinction isn’t an option for most species. DNA degrades over time, and without a sample of carefully preserved DNA, researchers would have to engineer the whole genome.The advent of CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing in 2012 provided another option. Researchers can identify genetic variants that contribute to key traits of extinct animals and edit these variants into cells of living relatives. They can then use that manipulated DNA to create a new animal through cloning.Plans to bring back animals such as the passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) and the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) began to flourish. Even though there was interest among researchers and the public, funding was an issue. “We had been unable to get really any philanthropic interest in de-extinction,” says Ben Novak, who leads a passenger-pigeon de-extinction effort at the non-profit organization Revive & Restore in Sausalito, California.But in 2021, geneticist George Church at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, who was working with Revive & Restore, caught a break. He teamed up with Lamm to launch Colossal Biosciences with US$15 million in funding, much of which came from venture capitalists. De-extinction of the woolly mammoth would be the firm’s flagship project, using elephants as surrogates.Beth Shapiro joined US firm Colossal Biosciences in 2024 to focus on de-extinction work.Credit: Shelby Tauber/The Washington Post/GettyBeth Shapiro, an evolutionary geneticist who is chief scientific officer at Colossal, was initially sceptical that there was a strong conservation argument for creating elephants that had key mammoth traits. In 2015, she told Nature that her book on de-extinction, called How To Clone A Mammoth, might have been more accurately titled ‘How One Might Go About Cloning a Mammoth (Should It Become Technically Possible, And If It Were, In Fact, a Good Idea, Which It’s Probably Not)’.Shapiro turned down an offer to join the company at first, but started seriously entertaining the idea when Colossal expanded its de-extinction ambitions. It began projects to bring back the dodo (Raphus cucullatus), which was wiped out in the seventeenth century, and to restore thylacines (Thylacinus cynocephalus), the Australian marsupials that are sometimes referred to as Tasmanian tigers and that were hunted to extinction in the 1930s.She was especially interested in seeing de-extinction technologies applied to existing endangered species. Shapiro joined Colossal in 2024 as its chief scientist. “This is an opportunity to scale up the impact that I have the potential to make,” she says. “Maybe it’s a mid-life crisis.”The company, now valued at around US$10 billion, has attracted celebrity investors, including the media personality Paris Hilton and film director Peter Jackson, alongside a handful of leading scientists as staff and advisers.Dire disagreementsThe dire-wolf project was different from many of Colossal’s other efforts because it proceeded quietly. Few people knew about the work until this year, and that irked some researchers. “They didn’t invite any kind of conversation about whether or not that is a good use of funds or a good project to do,” says Novak.Shapiro says the secrecy around the dire-wolf project was designed to generate surprise, and to counter public perceptions that the company overpromises and under-delivers. She also says that the company talked extensively to scientists, conservationists and others about the project and how it should proceed.The firm has not released the full list of edits that it made — 20 changes to 14 genome locations. Fifteen of the changes were identified in two dire-wolf genomes obtained from the remains of animals that lived 13,000 and 72,000 years ago. The genome differs from that of the grey wolf (Canis lupus) by about 12 million DNA letters.The dodo (Raphus cucullatus) went extinct in the seventeenth century. Colossal Biosciences aims to edit the genome of a related pigeon species to mimic the dodo’s traits.Credit: Klaus Nigge/Nature Picture LibraryColossal says that other edits, including changes that led to the creatures’ white coats and contributed to their large size, were intended to replicate dire-wolf traits using gene variants found in grey wolves. Many scientists say that the coat colour in particular was probably inspired more by the animals’ appearance in the fantasy television series Game of Thrones than by reality.“There is no chance in hell a dire wolf is going to look like that,” says Tom Gilbert, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Copenhagen and a scientific adviser to Colossal. He says he agrees with other scientists who have argued that, on the basis of what is known about the dire wolf’s range, it “basically would have looked like a slightly larger coyote”. Colossal notes that the coat colour is based on the discovery of variants in two dire-wolf genomes that it says would have resulted in light-coloured fur.According to an update from Colossal in late June, Romulus and Remus weigh around 40 kilograms, around 20% heavier than a standard grey wolf of the same age, and Khaleesi is about 16 kilograms. They live on an 800-hectare ecological preserve surrounded by a 3-metre wall. Colossal plans to make more of the animals, and to study their health and development in depth. It says it will not release them into the wild.The mysterious extinction of the dire wolfShapiro argued in her 2015 book that forming a wild population is a requirement for successful de-extinction. She nevertheless considers the dire wolves to be an example of de-extinction, and says that creating them will have conservation benefits for wolves and other species.Many scientists disagree. A group of experts on canids that advises the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) issued a statement in mid-April rejecting Colossal’s claim that gene-edited wolves could be considered dire wolves, or even proxies for the extinct species. The statement cites a 2016 IUCN definition for de-extinction that emphasizes that the animal must fill an ecological niche. The work, the group said, “may demonstrate technical capabilities, but it does not contribute to conservation”. Colossal has disputed this on the social-media platform X (formerly Twitter) saying that the dire-wolf project “develops vital conservation technologies and provides an ideal platform for the next stage of this research”.Novak says: “The dire wolf fits the Jurassic Park model of de-extinction beautifully.” The animals have the traits of extinct species and are, to his knowledge, not intended for release into the wild, he says. “It is clearly for spectacle.”Gilbert, who was a co-author of a preprint describing the ancient dire-wolf genomes2, says he is concerned that Colossal is not being sufficiently clear to the public about what it has done. “It’s a dog with 20 edits,” he says. “If you’re putting out descriptions that are going to be so easily falsified, the risk is you do damage to science’s reputation.”The Tasmanian tiger or thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a carnivorous marsupial that once roamed Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea. The last known specimen died in the 1930s. Credit: Chronicle/AlamyLamm rejects the idea that Colossal’s messaging undermines public credibility in science, pointing to what he says was an overwhelmingly positive reaction.Loring, who is part of an effort to use stem-cell technology in conservation, says that she sees merit in Colossal’s work. It has, she says, changed her views on how to repopulate northern white rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum cottoni). But she worries that Colossal’s messaging overshadows those contributions. “It may create an opportunity for us to educate the public,” she says. “More often, it creates an opportunity for us to be ignored.”To Love Dalén, a palaeogeneticist at the University of Stockholm and a scientific adviser to Colossal, the controversy is “a storm in a teacup” that detracts from Colossal’s achievement. “It makes me a little bit sad there is this huge debate and angry voices about the common name,” he says.DogfightShapiro says she was surprised and saddened by the strength of reactions to Colossal’s announcement. “It was harder than I thought it would be, and the questions were getting meaner and meaner,” she says.

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Growing up in the forests of Chicago, Illinois, and the deserts of Phoenix, Arizona, Jaida Elcock never had much access to the ocean — and was even afraid of sharks. But the more she learnt on TV documentaries, the more she realized that we should be advocating for their conservation. “I really don’t want to know what an ocean without sharks looks like,” she says. Having earnt a biology degree at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and worked her way up through various internships and laboratory technician positions, Elcock is now a graduate student based in Falmouth, Massachusetts, studying the movement ecology of basking sharks (Cetorhinus maximus). Along the way, she faced racism, sexism and discrimination, she says.In 2020, the murder of George Floyd, a Black man, sparked civil unrest in the United States. On the same day as Floyd’s murder, a white dog walker falsely reported Black birdwatcher Christian Cooper after he asked her to put her dog on a lead. This inspired many Black naturalists, including Elcock, to speak out on social media about their right to exist and occupy outdoor spaces, she says. It also led to the #BlackInNature hashtag, through which Elcock started chatting with fellow shark researchers Amani Webber-Schultz, Jasmin Graham and Carlee Jackson-Bohannon. Pleasantly surprised to realize there were other Black women working in shark science, the four came together and founded Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), registered in Bradenton, Florida. Its mission is to advance marine sciences by challenging the status quo of what people think a scientist looks like. MISS works to support under-represented and historically excluded communities to help them to feel confident and accepted in science by providing them with access to a community, knowledge and training opportunities. Five years later, the organization has around 400 members in more than 30 countries. What was it like for you as a young Black shark scientist?I got a lot of pushback for wanting to become a marine scientist. I was once told that I got my university scholarship because of affirmative action, not because I deserved it. People would say things like “Black people can’t swim. How are you going to work with sharks?”. These ridiculous stereotypes exist because of systemic racism that has led to a generational fear of water in a lot of Black communities, and that is not our fault. (When public swimming pools became popular in the United States in the 1920s and 30s, segregation meant that Black people had less access and so less opportunity to learn to swim.)I was also told that, as a woman, I wouldn’t be strong enough to handle sharks and I should be in the kitchen or raising a family. The Minorities in Shark Science team.Credit: Julia Wester, Field SchoolFor many people, encountering racism and sexism is incredibly discouraging. Why would you want to start a career in which you might hear those things all the time? But I used this pushback as fuel. If you tell me I can’t do something because of a terrible and irrational reason that’s based in hate, racism and sexism, I’m going to say: ‘Okay, watch me’. When we co-founded MISS, we wanted to create a community of people with shared experiences who would support each other, provide a safe space and create opportunities to help them further their careers. Breaking down the social and financial barriers to getting opportunities in the field of marine science was a key goal.We launched on Juneteenth (19 June) 2020. This is a really important day for the Black community in the United States: it’s the day that the last enslaved people received word that they had been freed, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, in which president Abraham Lincoln declared that all slaves in the Confederate states were now considered free. Launching on this day was a way of showing our dedication, support and pride in who we are. Do you feel like the perception of what a shark scientist looks like is changing?Yes, at least in the spaces I’m in. With MISS, we now have a community of minority scientists that people can contact when they want to highlight certain people in science, whether that’s for a TV show or a school talk. TV production teams now have somewhere to go to when most shark scientists on their shows are white dudes and they want to highlight the amazing work of other scientists as well. That’s not to say that these white guys aren’t also good at their job, but we want to remind people that there are other scientists out there. For younger people, seeing themselves represented is so important, and I think we’re seeing a shift. Young people are now more exposed than before to all these diverse people in science. Seeing someone else who looks like them doing it shows that it could be an option for them, too. Do you see any parallels between the stereotypes of who can be a shark scientist and which of the 500 or so shark species typically get more attention, such as great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)? On nature shows, you always see the same thing — great whites breaching — and that’s cool. But what about the swell shark (Cephaloscyllium ventriosum), which swallows seawater to prevent itself from getting eaten by predators? What about the pocket shark (Mollisquama parini) that spews bioluminescent goo out of a pocket behind its fins? There are parallels with diversity in science, for sure. You often see this one type of scientist — in the same way you see this one type of shark — but there are so many other cool options. We can show appreciation for all these other sharks and shark scientists as well. The more diversity we have in people, the more diversity we’ll get in thought. That’s going to lead to more innovation, more discovery and better science as a whole.How does MISS help its members?We run webinars and pair people up with mentors to help them apply for funding opportunities, fellowship programmes or graduate school. We also fundraise and apply for grants to support marine scientists from minority groups. We also run collaborative working groups, opportunities such as shark-tagging workshops and our Diversifying Ocean Sciences programme, in which people can learn lab and fieldwork techniques. Jaida Elcock handling a shark tail while at sea.Credit: Jackson Coles, Field School

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This is a summary of: Peng, X. et al. Flourishing chemosynthetic life at the greatest depths of hadal trenches. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09317-z (2025).

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“Here in Meghalaya, India, the practices of Indigenous Peoples influence the foods that we eat and where they come from. It’s a food system characterized by richness and diversity. The Khasi, Garo and Karbi Indigenous People here grow multiple plant species together on the same land, use several approaches to farming and rely on knowledge of the surrounding forests and rivers. In the conventional system of farming, people grow food in one place all the time. But here, people farm in different areas across the mountains every year.These food systems are resilient because of that diversity. Climate change is affecting agricultural systems around the world and farming contributes to around 30% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Implementing Indigenous Peoples’ food systems is among the game-changing solutions that can help us to adapt.In this photo, I’m examining bean leaves with Khasi farmer Ricona as part of my research on the links between Indigenous Peoples’ food systems, food sovereignty, nutrition and natural-resource management, as a consultant for the North East Society for Agroecology Support in Shillong, India. Over the past few years in Meghalaya, we’ve experienced record rainfall, rising temperatures and extreme heat waves.

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When it comes to food, the difficulties faced by astronauts, older people and those affected by disaster are more similar than you might think.Space agencies worldwide are rolling out plans to build bases on the Moon. One challenge is how to nourish astronauts by growing fresh food in the extreme conditions on the lunar surface — in soils with few nutrients and where there is scarce water and no air. It’s too expensive to send supplies from Earth regularly, and long-term storage is difficult because foods decay.Without healthy food, astronauts on long missions might face malnutrition, just like people on Earth do. They lose bone and muscle mass when working in low gravity1, mirroring changes that occur naturally during ageing. Food systems for any future missions need to be sustainable and resilient — as does food production on Earth in the face of climate change.Here, we highlight four areas of common ground between space and Earth-bound nutrition research programmes that need exploring.Maintaining food suppliesIn the aftermath of disasters, affected people need access to food. With water, electricity and gas supplies often cut off, there are parallels with remote operations in space. In Japan, earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons and floods occur frequently, and the country has been learning from these parallels for the past decade.How to keep astronauts healthy in deep spaceAs in space, disaster food supplies for emergencies must be stable when stored at room temperature in the absence of power and refrigeration2. They must come in durable packaging that protects against damage and contamination. Meals must require minimal preparation and be easy for anyone to eat with limited equipment. And they must be prepared and packed in hygienic environments to prevent foodborne illnesses. In Japan, pre-cooked and dried rice, dried noodles, fermented products such as miso, sweets and jelly drinks, and fish or meat stored in cans or sterile plastic pouches are used in both disaster settings and space.The Tōhoku earthquake in Japan in 2011 led to changes in how disaster foods are managed. Emergency shelters saw food-supply disruptions as well as problems with limited dietary diversity and hygiene3,4. Recognizing that many of the stringent space-food standards set by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) were applicable to disaster contexts, the Japan Disaster Food Society launched its Disaster Food Certification System in 2015.In 2022, the society introduced a streamlined cross-certification process, allowing JAXA-approved Japanese space foods to be certified as disaster food. This reduces duplicate product development and, in large-scale emergencies, means that foods earmarked for space missions can be diverted to humanitarian use (although these are not stored in large amounts).Japan has developed about 53 space foods through JAXA’s programme — some have been stockpiled for disaster preparedness by local governments and deployed in emergency situations, including in earthquake-affected regions.People received emergency rations after an earthquake hit Wajima City in Japan in 2024.Credit: Yomiuri Shimbun/AP Images/AlamyNow, one of us (N.T.-K.) is working with experts to develop an international standard for emergency and disaster foods. This could simplify food-aid coordination between governments and non-governmental organizations by standardizing stockpiling conditions, hygiene protocols and food labelling. Shared protocols could also help countries to adopt advanced food-production and preservation technologies originally developed for space for their own emergency and disaster food supplies.The next step is to build consensus among food-safety authorities, humanitarian organizations and space agencies. Implementation of pilot projects in disaster-prone regions of Asia is under consideration. Challenges include aligning diverse national regulations, encouraging private-sector participation in dual-use product development and demonstrating cost-effectiveness in resource-limited settings.Optimizing nutritionJapan’s government recommends4 that food provided to emergency shelters should contain five elements: energy, protein and vitamins B1, B2 and C. Together, these factors prevent deficiency-related diseases such as beriberi, ariboflavinosis and scurvy, and help to sustain basic physiological functions.As part of JAXA’s Lunar Food System Working Group 2023–25, one of us (N.T.-K.) is evaluating whether a set of eight staple crops — rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, soya beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and strawberries — can provide these five elements and other crucial nutrients. These crops are rich in carbohydrates, dietary fibre and certain vitamins.How to chart a moral future for space explorationThe working group is using nutritional modelling, simulations of human dietary intake and cultivation studies under controlled environmental conditions to assess how much of astronauts’ daily nutritional requirements could be met using just these eight crops, and to identify any nutritional gaps that would require supplements.Antioxidant compounds have anti-inflammatory and other effects that might help to prevent muscle deconditioning caused by microgravity in space and in people who are confined to bed rest on Earth because of illness or age. The French, German and Canadian space agencies are examining whether a cocktail of antioxidant supplements — polyphenols, vitamin E, selenium and omega-3 fatty acids — could prevent muscle deconditioning. Although there is no firm evidence yet5, the agencies are planning to assess these compounds’ benefits in space.Supplements generated using soya might also help to prevent the wasting of astronauts’ muscles and bones. One of us (T.N.), together with colleagues, has conducted experiments in space using rats6 and cells grown in culture7 to reveal that muscle atrophy comes about when microgravity induces oxidative stress in muscle tissues. The process activates enzymes that alter cell signalling such that protein synthesis ceases and degradation increases. The same changes were subsequently shown to occur in adults under bed-rest conditions, and a clinical trial found that oral intake of soya proteins, especially Cblin-like peptides — which prevent this protein-degradation pathway from being activated — increases the quadricep strength of people on bed-rest8.We are now testing whether similar Cblin peptides can also help astronauts, through experiments in cultured muscle cells aboard the International Space Station (ISS).Specialists who can take a high-level view of micronutrient function, delivery methods and physiological needs under stress could vastly improve our ability to build resilience into future food systems — on Earth and beyond.Alternative protein sourcesSustainable sources of alternative protein are urgently needed to avoid widespread food insecurity and malnutrition on Earth. A 2019 survey of Japanese citizens found that, on average, more than 50% of a person’s protein intake was derived from animal-based sources such as meat, dairy and fish (see go.nature.com/44xwmyn). But with the global population projected to reach nine billion by 2050, there is concern that current protein sources will be insufficient to meet global nutritional needs9.Alternative protein sources are a focus of research for space agencies, too. Conventional animal agriculture requires large amounts of water, land and feedstock — resources that are unavailable in space. Protein-production systems involving plants, cultured cells or insects are more viable options.Soya protein is of interest to JAXA, because of its high yield, relatively complete amino-acid profile and long shelf life, and because it is widely consumed in Japan. One of us (T.N.) has been involved in developing a compact soya-bean cultivation system. It uses programmable LED lighting and supplies nutrients through a mist infused with rhizobia — bacteria that convert inert nitrogen into forms that plants can use to grow10. Next, we hope to test its applicability aboard the ISS.Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui enjoys a taste of home while in space: ramen noodles with soy sauce.Credit: JAXA/NASAMeat produced from animal cells grown in the laboratory could give astronauts some of the nutrients that soya protein lacks — particularly branched-chain amino acids, which muscles need to generate energy during exercise. Cultured meat can be produced under sterile conditions, reducing the risk of foodborne illness11. However, this technology is in its infancy. Cells need to be coaxed to keep proliferating so that they form large, structured tissue pieces. Getting oxygen to the core of thick cultures is tricky. The liquids in which the cells need to be grown are expensive to produce and transport. And there isn’t a good way to generate cultures with meat-like textures, which are important for psychological satisfaction.

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The United States is once again withdrawing from the United Nations science and cultural organization UNESCO, ending its short two-year return to the agency. The decision by the US state department, announced on 22 July, will take effect on 31 December 2026.Researchers say that the US departure from UNESCO is a setback for global cooperation in science and education. The agency, which is headquartered in Paris and has offices in more than 50 countries, supports programmes on biodiversity, girls’ education, closing the gender gap in science and protecting natural heritage. Its work is especially important in low- and middle-income countries, where it also helps to train teachers and rebuild universities in countries experiencing wars, such as Lebanon and Ukraine.UNESCO also supports open science, and, in 2023, it released global guidelines on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in education and research.Daniel Wagner, UNESCO chair in learning and literacy at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, says: “It’s never been wise to pull out of UNESCO, and now is particularly poor timing”.Biomedical scientist Peter Gluckman, president of the International Science Council, which works closely with UNESCO and is also based in Paris, agrees. At the end of this year, UNESCO’s member states will choose a new director-general to succeed Audrey Azoulay, formerly France’s culture minister. The United States will lose the opportunity to work with the organization’s new leader, says Gluckman.Barbara Finlayson-Pitts, an atmospheric chemist at the University of California, Irvine, says: “The US will be at a significant disadvantage with this withdrawal.” The move weakens the United States’s position in global discussions about crucial issues such as climate change, she adds.Wagner adds: “For generational challenges and opportunities such as AI adoption in education or improving literacy in low-income countries — areas in which the US is well-positioned to lead — we are, in effect, cutting off our nose to spite our face.”Not unexpectedThis decision was not a surprise. The White House announced in February that it was reviewing US membership of international agencies — in the case of UNESCO, it cited concerns about the organization’s failure to reform itself and its rhetoric against Israel.In a 22 July statement, the US administration also added the UN Sustainable Development Goals in its list of criticisms. The statement says: “UNESCO works to advance divisive social and cultural causes and maintains an outsized focus on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy.”Azoulay said in a statement that UNESCO was prepared for the US decision. The country last withdrew from UNESCO in 2017, during Trump’s first term, cutting off more than 22% of the agency’s funds. According to UNESCO, the latest withdrawal will not hit as hard as in 2017 because the US contribution now accounts for 8% of UNESCO’s current annual budget of US$900 million.Azoulay also said that the US’ claims contradict the reality of UNESCO’s efforts as the only UN agency responsible for Holocaust education and the fight against antisemitism. “We will continue to work hand in hand with all of our American partners in the private sector, academia and non-profit organizations,” she added in the statement.

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Adaptations for stealth in the wing-like flippers of a large ichthyosaur The extinct marine mega-predator Temnodontosaurus had specialized adaptations to stealthily hunt its prey, suggests an analysis of a fossil flipper. Temnodontosaurus’s lifestyle has been a mystery due to a lack of preserved soft tissue, but fossil remains of a fore-fin have revealed several anatomical details that probably reduced low-frequency noise as the animal swam. The authors suggest that these adaptations show that Temnodontosaurus was a stealth predator.Hear more on the Nature Podcast. More