Scientists have finally solved a centuries-old riddle in the evolution of life on earth, revealing what the first animals to make skeletons looked like. This discovery was possible due to an exceptionally well-preserved collection of fossils discovered in eastern Yunnan Province, China. The results of the research were published on November 2 in the scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

During an event called the Cambrian Explosion around 550–520 million years ago, the first animals to build hard and robust skeletons appear suddenly in the fossil record in a geological blink of an eye. Many of these early fossils are simple hollow tubes ranging from a few millimeters to many centimeters in length. However, what sort of animals made these skeletons was almost completely unknown, because they lack preservation of the soft parts needed to identify them as belonging to major groups of animals that are still alive today.

The so-called Deltacron variant is back this fall, with the potential to be the next big thing in COVID viral evolution, scientists say.

Their existence will no longer mystify us.

Identified in Namibia, fairy circles are circular regions of land devoid of vegetation that range in diameter from 7 to 49 feet (2 to 15 meters) and are frequently surrounded by a ring of promoted grass growth.

Until recently, these fairy circles were seen as a mystery. In 2020, in the Department of Ecosystem Modeling at the University of Göttingen in Germany, researchers tried to solve the mystery by using the Turing method — which explains how natural patterns like stripes and dots can emerge organically and independently from a homogeneous, uniform state.

Now, the team has officially sold the mystery, as reported in the release. The results of the research were published in Perspectives in Plant Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics on October 20.