A 500-million-year-old fossil just rewrote the spider origin story Half a billion years ago, a strange sea-dwelling creature called Mollisonia symmetrica may have paved the way for modern spiders. Using detailed fossil brain analysis, researchers uncovered neural patterns strikingly similar to today's arachnids—suggesting spiders evolved in the ocean, not on land as previously believed. This brain structure even hints at a critical evolutionary leap that allowed spiders their infamous speed, dexterity, and web-spinning prowess. The findings challenge long-held assumptions about arachnid origins and may even explain why insects took to the skies: to escape their relentless, silk-spinning predators.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/07/2507

A dusty fossil drawer held a 300-million-year-old evolutionary game-changer A century-old fossil long mislabeled as a caterpillar has been reidentified as the first-known nonmarine lobopodian—rewriting what we know about ancient life. Discovered in Harvard’s museum drawers, Palaeocampa anthrax predates even the famous Cambrian lobopodians and reveals that these soft-bodied ancestors of arthropods once lived not only in oceans, but in freshwater environments too.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/07/2507

Ancient recipes or rituals? Neanderthal bones reveal a prehistoric culinary mystery Neanderthals living just 70 kilometers apart in Israel may have had different food prep customs, according to new research on butchered animal bones. These subtle variations — like how meat was cut and cooked — hint at cultural traditions passed down through generations. The findings challenge the idea that Neanderthal life was purely practical, suggesting instead a richer, more social layer to their culinary habits.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/07/2507

Butchery clues reveal Neanderthals may have had “family recipes” Neanderthals living in two nearby caves in ancient Israel prepared their food in surprisingly different ways, according to new archaeological evidence. Despite using the same tools and hunting the same animals, they left behind distinct cut-mark patterns on bones—hints of cultural traditions passed down through generations.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/07/2507

Scholars just solved a 130-year literary mystery—and it all hinged on one word After baffling scholars for over a century, Cambridge researchers have reinterpreted the long-lost Song of Wade, revealing it to be a chivalric romance rather than a monster-filled myth. The twist came when “elves” in a medieval sermon were correctly identified as “wolves,” dramatically altering the legend’s tone and context.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/r....eleases/2025/07/2507