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A Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton nicknamed “Gus” sold Tuesday for $50.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York, making it the most valuable dinosaur fossil bought at auction after a 10-minute battle between seven bidders. “Gus” is one of the world’s most complete T. rex skeletons — with 183 fossilized bones — and was discovered on a cattle ranch in South Dakota in 2021. The giant beast lived some 72 to 66 million years ago — a period characterized by a warm climate, high sea levels and vast floodable coastal plains. The skeleton measures 38 feet (11.6 meters) in body length, making it one of the largest T. rexes ever discovered.

It is roughly 63 percent complete.Tuesday’s purchase by an anonymous buyer highlights a surging market for dinosaur bones — a trend that has drawn criticism from some paleontologists over the specimens going into private hands. “The United States is the only country in the world where fossils like this are considered personal property,” Cassandra Hatton, head of science and natural history at Sotheby’s, told AFP before the auction. “If you own the land, you own the fossil and you have the right to sell it.

So if you want a dinosaur, this is the only place that you can get it,” she said.The previous record for a fossil auction was “Apex” the Stegosaurus, bought for $44.6 million in 2024 by hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin.

A US appeals court on Monday vacated the dismissal of hundreds of private lawsuits against Tylenol-maker Kenvue that allege scientifically unproven ties of the painkiller to autism.Judges at Manhattan’s second circuit of appeals sent the previously dismissed cases back to a lower court for further proceedings, after ruling that a district judge had improperly excluded expert witness testimony.The plaintiffs argue that Tylenol use during pregnancy can lead to autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.Scientific research has not identified causality between taking the painkiller and the development of those conditions in children.The issue came into the spotlight last year as US President Donald Trump vehemently urged pregnant women not to take Tylenol over the unsubstantiated link to autism.Some public health experts have described Trump’s attacks on the drug as unscientific and dangerous.Acetaminophen is the primary active ingredient in over-the-counter medications including Tylenol. It is considered the safest option for treating pain and fever in pregnant women, as other medications, including aspirin or ibuprofen, present proven risks to the fetus — as do untreated fevers.The judges behind Monday’s ruling emphasized that their decision in no way offered scientific advice or the basis for public health policy.”We are not deciding whether there is a general causal relationship between acetaminophen and ADHD and/or ASD,” they wrote. “And we are certainly not deciding the approach that policymakers concerned with protecting public health should take to regulating the use of acetaminophen.”Their role, they said, was to determine whether certain expert testimony should have been admitted.

And they ruled that “the district court exceeded its discretion” in excluding some of the plaintiffs’ expert witnesses.A Kenvue spokesperson told AFP that the procedural ruling “does not change the fact that credible, independent science shows no proven link between taking acetaminophen and autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).””Science matters, and we stand with the many public health and medical professionals who have reviewed the science on this topic and agree.

We now have another opportunity to show that the plaintiffs’ experts’ opinions are unreliable and should not be allowed in this case.”Kenvue was spun off from Johnson & Johnson, which had sold Tylenol for decades, in 2023.It was announced in 2025 that Kimberly-Clark, the paper and personal care products giant, would acquire Kenvue.

Hovering over the volcano, a buzzing drone pauses in front of a laser beam on the crater’s edge, as researchers test whether the devices can measure gases to predict eruptions.On the Aeolian island of Vulcano, off the coast of Sicily, German researcher Marius Schaab, from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), stands next to a gas sensor mounted on a tripod, waiting for the drone his colleague has just launched to draw closer. In this remote lunar landscape, where hot volcanic gases and steam smelling of sulphur rise eerily from the earth, the small propeller-driven device catches the eye. The last eruption of the island’s Grand Crater occurred in the late 19th century but the volcano continues to show intense degassing activity — to the awe of the visitors who are allowed to walk around the rim.Soon, the drone positions itself along the axis of the sensor, which transmits an invisible laser beam that passes through the volcanic gas emissions before being reflected by the drone, and travelling back.The sensor works by “sending a laser beam through some gas and then onto some reflector that measures the intensity of the driving light”, Schaab said, The drone can move around and switch angles to take full measurements.Using a laser allows the sensor to avoid the gas plume, the researcher told AFP.”Our drone flies behind the plume and also our ground unit is not in the plume,” said Schaab, noting that the corrosive nature of the plume would require any sensor inside it to be constantly recalibrated. Based on the signals sent back to the sensor, an algorithm calculates a map of gas concentration in the 10 or 15 minutes it takes for the drone to follow a predefined path at a distance of up to 60 metres (nearly 200 feet). – First tries -Although drones have been used in monitoring volcanoes for about 15 years, scientists are now looking to develop gas measurement tools that are increasingly accurate and risk-free.Further around the crater, another team of German scientists from the University of Mainz is using sensors carried on a drone to measure concentrations of chemical substances in the air.”One reason for measuring gases and particles is to better understand the impact of volcanic eruptions and volcanic emissions on the atmosphere,” said Tjarda Roberts, a researcher at the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, who is collaborating with the Mainz team. “Another reason is to anticipate volcanic eruptions, because the gas composition can change before an eruption occurs,” she said. The greater the pressure exerted by lava rising from inside the Earth towards the surface, the larger the amount of gas released. It is the first time the team from TUM has tested its drone system — which can work at altitudes up to 3,000 metres — on a volcano. – Great flexibility –A checklist in hand, Jonas Krajewski, a student at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, checks that “Tina” -– the name given to the drone –- is ready to fly safely. Soon, the drone weighing 2.5 kilograms (5.5 pounds) lifts into the air and heads towards the rising gases. This time, following a predefined flight path lasting up to 40 minutes, the drone flies into the heart of the fumaroles, or vents where the gases and vapour escape and where temperatures range between 100 and 140C. “Tina” is equipped with a series of sensors measuring gases, particles and halogens, elements like chlorine, bromine and others.”We have a very constant output of gas… so we can have very reliable sensor data,” said Krajewski. For Roberts, one of the biggest advantages of the drone is its great flexibility and ability to move around more diluted parts of the plume and quickly switch direction if the plume suddenly changes angles.With the drone, researchers no longer need to carefully enter the area of the gas emissions, a dangerous activity which requires the use of masks and other protection. “Here we don’t have a major risk of an imminent eruption but there are volcanoes where you can’t reach the summit on foot,” Roberts said.  But with a drone, “you can take measurements… without putting yourself in danger”. Skimming over rocks speckled with yellow sulphur crystals deposited by the fumaroles, “Tina” soon reappears on the horizon. In the coming days, a new challenge awaits the drone — Mount Etna, the 3,000 metre-high active volcano in eastern Sicily, where a new eruption has just occurred. 

The El Nino weather pattern picked up strength over the past month and is highly likely to “rank among the largest” ever recorded when it peaks between October and December, US forecasters said Thursday.El Nino warms surface temperatures in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, triggering worldwide changes in winds, atmospheric pressure and rainfall patterns, and pushing warmer overall global temperatures.In its latest update, the US Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said there is an 81 percent chance of a “very strong” El Nino between October and December that would rank among the largest such events in the historic record going back to 1950.”Very strong” is defined as being 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) or more above an index value.  The CPC also put the odds at 97 percent that the event will persist through early spring 2027.That adds to a prediction made by Tim Stockdale, an El Nino expert of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, who said this week it would be “a very, very big surprise” if the event failed to be a record-breaker.El Ninos typically have knock-on effects globally, including drier conditions and drought in Australia, along with wetter winters in East Africa and the southern United States. Isla Simpson, a climate scientist at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, told AFP that “there’s quite a lot of evidence from our models that global warming increases the variance of El Nino, so you get bigger El Nino events and also bigger La Nina events.”La Nina is the cooling phase of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation cycle.Within the United States, El Nino events are typically “drought-busting” over some regions including California but drying in others. The connections to Europe are smaller and less certain, but there is some evidence that El Nino can increase the likelihood of cold conditions later in the winter in Northern Europe, said Simpson.”Most likely, what we’ll see are the canonical El Nino teleconnections,” she said, “but in any given event, things can deviate from that just because we have all of these random uncertainties.

There’s weather that happens on top of these longer timescale predictable signals.”Sea surface temperatures are now 1.2C (2.2F) above average in a defined stretch of the equatorial Pacific known as the Nino 3.4 region, the CPC said.Combined with warming waters below the surface and shifting wind and pressure patterns, the “ocean-atmosphere system reflected a strengthening El Nino.”While El Nino usually peaks between November and February, the resulting spike in temperatures typically comes later.Compounded with human-induced climate change, the last El Nino contributed to making 2023 the second-hottest year on record and 2024 the all-time high.

Western Europe experienced its hottest June on record last month as a searing heatwave swept across a continent facing increasingly frequent and intense heat extremes, the EU’s climate monitor said Thursday.The report comes as a new heatwave is battering Europe this week, following a record-breaking one in June and an unusually early spring hot spell in May.The average temperature in western Europe reached 20.74C in June, more than 3C above the 1991-2020 norm, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.

It broke the region’s previous record set in June 2025.”We will see more heatwaves in a warmer world,” said Samantha Burgess, strategic climate lead at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), which operates Copernicus.”They will be more intense and they will last longer, and they will impact more geographical areas,” Burgess told AFP.It was the second hottest June on record for the world and for Europe as a whole, Copernicus said, as human-induced climate change continues to push temperatures higher.Global temperatures in June were 1.39C above the estimated pre-industrial average, a period covering 1850-1900, according to Copernicus.The world’s oceans experienced their highest June temperatures on record, against a backdrop of the warming El Nino weather pattern which is developing and is forecast to strengthen in the tropical Pacific.”We’re at a transition point where climate change is shifting from being an abstract statistical future problem that you read about in reports, to a concrete present and disruptive feature of daily life,” Burgess said.- ‘Heat dome’ -Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, and changes in atmospheric circulation are fuelling more frequent and more intense heatwaves there.June was particularly brutal for Europe as a “heat dome” — a high-pressure system acting like a lid on a boiling pot — led to all-time and monthly temperature records in several countries.Thousands of deaths were linked to the heatwave — mostly in France, Spain and Belgium.More than two-thirds of Europeans — 410 million people — endured temperatures topping 35C during the June 15-30 heatwave, according to an AFP analysis.The June heatwave “contributed to severe health impacts, including heat-related deaths”, Copernicus said.Nearly 300 million people, including 100 million children and elderly people, may have been exposed to harmful levels of ozone pollution during the punishing June heat, according to a report from NGO Global Witness exclusively shared with AFP.High rates of humidity were one of the reasons why the June heatwave was so intense, Burgess said.”It was extremely humid, which then meant we people didn’t get relief at night.

So we had a number of tropical nights in a row,” she said.The Mediterranean experienced its own record-breaking marine heatwave, with the continent’s Atlantic coasts also hit by hot spells, putting ecosystems at risk.”When the sea is warm, we get less alleviation at nighttime because there’s no coolness coming from the ocean.

There’s no sea breeze,” Burgess said.Dry conditions raised drought risks in eastern Europe and contributed to wildfire activity in the Iberian Peninsula and southern France, Copernicus said.- Older buildings -World Weather Attribution, a network of climate scientists, said last month that Europe’s June heatwave was the “most severe ever recorded” based on a three-day forecast of average peak temperatures over the region studied.Such a heatwave would have been “virtually impossible” without the influence of climate change, they said.

A similar event in June 2003 would have been about 2C cooler.Burgess said Europe needs adaptation plans to cope with climate change.”Many amazing buildings across Europe were built hundreds of years ago, and that climate no longer exists,” she said.The world, Burgess said, needs to get to net-zero emissions from the burning of fossil fuels as soon as possible.”Heatwaves will only get worse the more (emissions from) fossil fuel we pump into the atmosphere,” she said.

A brewing “Super” El Nino cycle is poised to unleash heat waves, floods and drought worldwide, with the effects amplified by long term human-caused climate change.But what if it was possible to interrupt and effectively “switch off” the Pacific Ocean heating phenomenon as it starts to form?That’s the premise of a new Science Advances study published Wednesday, which uses computer models to show that artificially brightening clouds over the Pacific, when timed right, could neutralize the influential weather pattern and blunt its worst impacts.While previous research on so-called geoengineering has focused on cooling the planet as a whole, the new paper instead proposes more targeted interventions.”These shorter timescales of interventions could be a very powerful way that geoengineering enters this portfolio of responses to climate change,” lead author Jessica Wan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago, told AFP.Prior research had shown that the “Black Summer” bushfires that scorched Australia in 2019-2020 played a key role in creating a multi-year La Nina, the cool phase of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation cycle.As smoke particles entered the clouds, they set off chain reactions that actually made the clouds brighter, bouncing more of the Sun’s energy back to space.Motivated by this “natural experiment,” Wan and her colleagues wondered whether solar geoengineering could achieve a similar effect.They used a powerful forecasting model to gauge what impact artificial marine cloud brightening over a vast rectangular zone in the equatorial Pacific would have had on the 1997-1998 and 2015-16 El Nino events.This could theoretically be achieved by using ships fitted with nozzles that spray sea salt into the lower atmosphere.El Ninos are linked with warming sea surfaces in the eastern tropical Pacific, with knock on effects globally including drier conditions and drought in Australia, wetter winters in East Africa, and warmer overall global temperatures. After running several simulations, they found the intervention worked best when started early — in June — and continued through the following February.”But the reason people would ever care about this is not temperature in a box in the Pacific, but how the impacts translate over land,” said Wan.Extreme weather events linked to El Nino have caused loss of life and trillions of dollars of economic damage.The modeled cloud brightening reversed most of the temperature and precipitation effects — those areas that got warmer under an El Nino were cooler, regions that got wetter instead became drier, and vice versa.So what’s the catch?- Unknown consequences -For starters, the technology isn’t yet ready. Teams around the world are developing the nozzles to spray sea salt into the sky, but the devices can’t yet shoot nearly enough volume.

Even if a nozzle is perfected, it would take roughly 2,400 ships to make the required impact.Beyond the engineering challenges, there are further risks.Not all regions of the world would benefit from reversing El Nino conditions, and the models showed unintended consequences, including warming over Europe and Asia. “The other catch I would say is that we didn’t look at long-term impacts,” said Wan, including what would happen if marine cloud brightening was used repeatedly to suppress El Ninos.Geoengineering has many detractors, who argue it creates a moral hazard by giving polluters a free pass to keep emitting if the climate can be artificially cooled.

Wan disagrees.”We’re beyond the point now where we could just turn off emissions today and be totally fine, we’re locked into warming already, and so the way that I viewed geoengineering is ‘how can we reduce the worst of those impacts while we work on a long-term solution?'” she said.”I think it would be irresponsible to not do the research, given that’s the context we’re in.”

As a child, Enrique Bordallo would gaze in awe at the starry night sky in rural Spain.

Next month’s solar eclipse has now made his passion a popular obsession.”We’re absolutely buzzing,” Bordallo, president of the Burgos Astronomy Association, told AFP before explaining the workings of the celestial spectacle to dozens of excited locals in the northern village of Belorado.”We’re eager for this to happen now, to experience it, for the weather to be right, for everything to work,” he said.The total solar eclipse on August 12 — the first in Spain since 1905 — will only last around 90 seconds.But the global attention and tourism could bring long-term benefits to often overlooked areas known as “empty Spain”.The “band of totality” where the eclipse will be fully visible is due to plunge into darkness swathes of rural regions suffering population decline, including Castile and Leon in the north.”Castile and Leon isn’t always in the news, and unfortunately the foreigners (tourists) stay more on the coast,” said Belen Molinuevo Puras, a 51-year-old anthropologist who has family roots in Belorado.”We’re really excited that it (the eclipse) is in this area,” she told AFP in a pitch-black field in the village, where the astronomy association was running a night-time star observation session.- Stars align -As the world’s second most-visited country after France, Spain is already a tourism powerhouse.But the government aims to diversify away from seasonally dependent beach holidays and places under strain from overtourism such as Barcelona.After August 12, another two eclipses are due in 2027 and 2028, and rural areas are set to reap economic benefits, according to a May report commissioned by travel platform Airbnb.The three eclipses are “an unprecedented opportunity to help rebalance tourist flows in Spain”, the report said.In the city of Burgos, a modest provincial capital that will offer excellent vantage points when the Moon covers the Sun, eclipse hunters have hoovered up accommodation options.The United States, South America, Japan and other Asian countries have driven international eclipse tourism in Burgos, vice mayor Andrea Ballesteros told AFP outside the city’s landmark 13th-century cathedral.The hope is that foreign visitors “take away a good impression of our city, and later that can have a ripple effect”, said Ballesteros, who heads the municipal entity responsible for coordinating activities around the event.Burgos works to “attract external tourism, not just in the summer months”, while the eclipse “will be a boost for tourism and culture” and “a major economic boost”, she added.Chinese guests are the largest group at Lucia Molina’s hotel in Burgos, which is fully booked for August 12 and where reservations started up to 18 months in advance.”Practically all rooms have sold out for very high prices, not only here, but in all hotels in Burgos,” the receptionist said.The rare spare rooms were going for up to 1,200 euros ($1,370) a night, Molina added.- ‘Unique event’ -Around 500,000 visitors are predicted to flock to Castile and Leon for the eclipse, including some 40,000 in Burgos — more than one-fifth of the city’s population.But the prospect of thousands of visitors traipsing through fields and sweltering for hours in the summer heat has raised security, health and logistical concerns.Droves of day-trippers from the rest of Spain and caravans from neighbouring France are expected to amplify the anarchy on the roads.Ballesteros conceded the “challenge” was bound to cause disruption but emphasised months of preparation between different levels of government and the emergency services, including the creation of specific observation points to manage the crowds.As for potential health hazards, Marta Serrano, who works at an optical store in Burgos, insisted on the importance of wearing specially designed glasses to watch the eclipse.”This is like going to the beach on a cloudy day.

You say, ‘today I won’t put on cream because I won’t burn,'” Serrano said.”Then at night you realise that you did because the rays keep getting through.

This will be the same,” she said, warning of the risks for eyesight.Demand for the glasses is now “very large” after “people were not too worried” initially, Serrano said.Back in Belorado, astronomer Bordallo cannot wait to see decades of work culminating in his home region under the world’s gaze.”It’s a unique event, it’s a wonder, it’s a free show within anyone’s reach.

And it will astonish them and delight them,” he enthused.

Day will briefly turn into night across a swathe of northern Spain on August 12, when the Moon will completely cover the Sun during a rare total solar eclipse.Here is what you need to know about the total eclipse, which is the first visible in mainland Europe since 2006.- What is an eclipse? -Eclipses happen when the Moon passes directly between the Sun and Earth, casting a narrow band of shadow across our planet.It creates a strange twilight during which temperatures drop, shadows appear at strange angles and some animals go to sleep.These odd phenomena convinced ancient cultures that eclipses were signs of the apocalypse — or messages from the gods.However it is really the result of a “cosmic coincidence,” according to NASA.”Even though the Sun is about 400 times bigger than the Moon, it is also about 400 times farther away,” the US space agency says.This means that for people standing in the right spot, the Moon totally covers the Sun — revealing its outer atmosphere called the corona.- Where can it be seen? -On August 12, a remote region of northern Russia will be the first to see the total eclipse.The “path of totality”, as it is known, will then cross over Greenland, Iceland, Spain and the northeastern tip of Portugal.In Spain, it will roughly move from the northern city of Oviedo to the island of Mallorca. – How long will it last? -For observers in Spain, the total eclipse will last under two minutes just before sunset.The northern city of Burgos, for example, will be plunged into darkness for exactly one minute and 48 seconds.It will last slightly longer in parts of Russia and Greenland, though still under two-and-a-half minutes.However, partial eclipses — which occur as the Moon starts and finishes crossing the Sun — will last around one hour and 45 minutes.Partial eclipses will also be visible in most of Europe, Canada, the northern United States and northwest Africa.- How rare is it? -One or two solar eclipses occur roughly every year.

However the small band of totality means that the same area may wait 400 years before seeing another one.On August 2, 2027, a total solar eclipse will cross southern Spain, northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula.Some media have dubbed it the “eclipse of the century” because its totality will last six minutes and 23 seconds, the longest of the 21st century.Spain will be treated yet again on January 26, 2028, when an annular — or “ring of fire” — eclipse will cross southern areas.- Do you need protection? -Yes.

It is important not to look directly at the Sun during an eclipse — it can cause serious eye damage. Experts recommend specifically designed eclipse glasses which filter UV rays that meet the standard ISO 12312-2:2015.There are no pain receptors in eyes to warn the brain they are being injured, so problems only appear later.Following a total solar eclipse in the United States in 2024, the rate of people googling “my eyes hurt” surged, research has shown.

Just how Hannibal managed to lead war elephants and a full army over the Alps to attack the Romans remains a mystery, but a new modern biology study points to a potential route.The bold and legendary crossing in 218 BC, which allowed the ancient Carthaginian leader to strike Rome from the north, has long remained one of the most astounding and celebrated achievements in warfare.Calculations about the energy requirements of Hannibal’s force — especially the elephants — points to the Col de la Traversette as the most likely route, according to a study released on Monday by a group of German and British researchers.The Col de la Traversette is a high-altitude mountain pass in the Cottian Alps at 2,947 metres (9,669 feet) on the border between modern-day France and Italy.Researchers from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the University of Jena and the University of Oxford used route models and elevation data to weigh the physical demands on Hannibal’s army of roughly 40,000 men, thousands of horses and a reported 37 war elephants, using body mass data from modern African elephants.”The new analysis does not eliminate all ambiguity, but it does strengthen the case for the Traversette route by demonstrating that it would better accommodate the demands of moving a large army that included elephants through extremely difficult alpine terrain,” said co-author Emilio Berti of iDiv and the University of Jena.Other routes considered — such as the Col de Montgenevre, the Col du Clapier, and the Col du Mont Cenis — would have required 11 percent, 16 percent, and 19 percent more energy, respectively, for the army to traverse.The study also highlighted the immense physical strain the march through the Alps almost certainly imposed on Hannibal’s army.According to the models, the soldiers on the Traversette route would have lost around 19 percent of their body fat reserves, which could explain the high death toll.In contrast, calculations for the war elephants indicated a loss of only about four percent of their energy reserves.Many of the animals reportedly survived the mountain crossing.The successful crossing of the Alps allowed Hannibal to bypass Roman defences and pull off a string of stunning victories on the Italian peninsula during the Second Punic War.Rome, however, managed to weather the setbacks and defeat Carthage in the conflict as well as the subsequent Third Punic War.

They already have the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver, lay eggs like reptiles and have venom like snakes.Yet the humble platypus, a small creature which quietly swims in the rivers of eastern Australia, has found yet another way to amaze scientists. It is the only mammal that has hollow structures of the pigment melanin, a trait normally found in birds, biologists said in a new study on Wednesday.When the first taxidermied specimen of a platypus was brought back from Australia in 1799, European naturalists began looking for the seams — they assumed it was a hoax.The animal has been surprising scientists ever since.The platypus is one of only five mammal species that lay eggs, which are called monotremes.

The other four are all types of echidna — spiny creatures that waddle through the Australian bush.It is also one of the few poisonous mammals — males have a spur on their hind legs that releases venom at their enemies.Now another oddity has been added to the unusual platypus characteristics, according to the study published in the Biology Letters journal of the UK’s Royal Society.In animals with spines, called vertebrates, the pigment called melanin protects against UV radiation, helps regulate body temperature and is responsible for the colour of skin, fur or feathers.Melanin is contained in tiny, specialised structures inside cells called melanosomes, the shape of which is linked to their colour.For example, eumelanin — which produces black, grey and dark brown hues — is usually found in elongated melanosomes. Pheomelanin, which produces reds, reddish-browns and some shades of orange and yellow, is found in spherical melanosomes.And in mammals, these melanosomes are always solid.However in birds, sometimes the structures are hollow or flat, with only a thin layer of melanin.

This helps birds have the dazzling and varied colours seen across the world.Birds also have melanosomes that are organised into smaller “nanostructures” which create iridescent colours that interact with light, such as the feathers of a peacock.- ‘Surprising and exciting’ -Jessica Leigh Dobson, a biologist at Ghent University in Belgium and the study’s lead author, told AFP the team was compiling a database of mammal melanosomes when they made an “extremely surprising and exciting” discovery.Platypus melanosomes were mostly spherical — which should give it reddish-orange fur.

But the animal is merely dark brown.Then the scientists discovered that some of its melanosomes are hollow — like those of birds.They checked their database for other mammals, including marsupials, rodents and primates.”To the best of our knowledge, this is the only example of hollow melanosomes in mammals,” Dobson said.The melanosomes were “scattered randomly throughout the hair cortex” and do not create iridescence, she said. “Further work is definitely needed to find out why they have them,” Dobson added.Why these animals evolved these unusual features in the first place is also unclear.The ancestors of the platypus and echidna are thought to have been aquatic burrowing animals, so their hollow melanosomes could have helped them adapt to life in the water, giving them warmer insulation.But this theory raises more questions.If this was the case, why is this trait “not more widespread among aquatic mammals?” the study asked.