The winged reptiles that once roamed the skies over North America 209 million years ago could have easily made it to Europe–and not because of their wings. All of Earth’s continents were still connected in the supercontinent Pangaea. Now, a team led by researchers and volunteers from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have uncovered the oldest known pterosaur in North America. The new sea-gull size pterosaur Eotephradactylus mcintireae is detailed in a study published July 7 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and also includes one of the world’s oldest turtle fossils.

“Our discoveries from this study show how paleontologists have only just started scratching the surface of the fossil record,” study co-author and paleontologist Ben T. Kligman tells Popular Science. 

The fossils were uncovered at a remote bonebed in present-day Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park. They date back to the late Triassic period and offer paleontologists a snapshot of an ecosystem full of older species like giant amphibians and armored crocodilians and some new-for-the-time animals like turtles, frogs, and pterosaurs.

“The climate was arid and monsoonal, where most of the year was hot and dry, and for a short period there were monsoonal rains,” Kligman says. “The setting in which Eotephradactylus and the other animals discovered in this study were living was in and around river channels. The banks of these rivers would have been vegetated by coniferous trees and horsetail plants.”

This important site within the popular national park captures a period in Earth’s history when the more modern terrestrial vertebrates that thrived later on during the Mesozoic living alongside older animals that went extinct by the time the Triassic era came to its fiery end. 

Roughly 201.5 million years ago, volcanic eruptions associated with the break-up of the

Pangaea drastically changed global climates. About 75 percent of all species on Earth were wiped out, clearing the way for newer groups–like dinosaurs. These new species diversified and dominated ecosystems worldwide. Direct fossil evidence of this transition period on land is difficult to find, largely due to a lack of terrestrial fossil outcrops from right before the end-Triassic extinction. However, Petrified Forest National Park is famed for its Triassic fossil beds alongside its signature colorful deposits of petrified wood. 

Additionally, one of the park’s geologic outcrops–the Owl Rock Member–is full of volcanic ash. The minerals within the ash allowed the researchers to date the Owl Rock layer to around 209 million years old. They are among the park’s youngest rocks, but are also among the park’s least studied, according to study co-author William Parker, a paleontologist at Petrified Forest National Park. The Owl Rock Member exposures are found in very remote areas, making their study a bit more difficult. 

[ Related: ‘Remarkable’ fossils offer clues to perplexing pterosaur question. ]

This part of northeastern Arizona was positioned in the middle of Pangea 209 million years ago, sitting just above the equator. Small river channels crisscrossed the area and were likely prone to seasonal floods. It’s this flooding that washed sediment and volcanic ash into the channels. One flood likely buried these animal carcasses, preserving them in the bonebed. 

In total, the team has uncovered over 1,200 individual fossils, including bones, teeth, fish

scales, coprolites (aka fossilized poop), and the oldest known North American pterosaur. At the size of a small seagull, “it could have perched on your shoulder,” according to Kligman.  

“We think it was eating fish. Fish fossils are abundant in the bonebed that yielded Eotephradactylus mcintireae, and these would have been primitive fish related to living gar. These fish were covered in bony mineralized scales that would have acted like a touch [of] armor,” he says.

Eotephradactylus also shows an unusual degree of wear on the tips of its teeth. This indicates that it was eating animals with hard mineralized parts, likely the fish living in the area’s crisscrossing rivers. This wear-and-tear on its teeth is unique among early pterosaurs, indicating that specialized feeding on fish was an important aspect of early pterosaur evolution.

It is also the oldest pterosaur from North America, and one of the oldest pterosaur fossils on Earth. 

“The oldest ones are only 5 million years older, and from Europe,” says Kligman. “Unlike later pterosaurs from after the Triassic, this one has many types of tooth shapes in its jaw, including large fang-like teeth (presumably for grabbing prey) at the front of its jaw, and blade-like teeth with up to 7 sharp cusps at the back of the jaw (presumably for slicing up prey). Later pterosaurs either have no teeth, or lack the differentiation of teeth in the jaw.”

In total, this rock assemblage has 16 different groups of vertebrate animals: armored herbivores and toothy predators that looked like giant crocodiles, early frog species, and an ancient turtle with spike-like armor and a small shell that could fit inside a shoebox. This tortoise-like animal lived at roughly the same time as the oldest known turtle–Solnhofia parsonsi–whose fossils were uncovered in Germany. This suggested that the shelled reptiles rapidly dispersed across the Pangea.

“Our study helped partially close a 13 million year gap in the fossil record preceding the end Triassic extinction, however there is still a 7 million year gap remaining which obscures when many groups of animals actually go extinct,” says Kligman. “The only way to fully understand what happened during transformative events in Earth history like the end Triassic extinction is to go out and find new fossil sites that fill critical gaps in the fossil record.

[ Related: Dinosaur Cove reveals a petite pterosaur species. ]

The remarkable pterosaur fossil was found by preparator Suzanne McIntire, who volunteered in the National Museum of Natural History’s FossiLab for 18 years.

“What was exciting about uncovering this specimen was that the teeth were still in the bone, so

I knew the animal would be much easier to identify,” McIntire said in a statement.

The new species is named Eotephradactylus mcintireae. Eotephradactylus means “ash-winged dawn goddess,” and references the site’s volcanic ash and the animals’ position towards the base of the pterosaur evolutionary tree. The species name also references McIntire, who retired last year.

“Because of the painstaking and time consuming nature of preparing these fossils, the entire study would not have been possible without the thousands of hours of time FossilLab volunteers put into this study,” Kligman adds. 

The post North American pterosaur could sit on your shoulder appeared first on Popular Science.

As a gear editor, I have a lot of stuff and I’ve recently been trying to get it all organized as I begin to pare it down. Randomly chucking items into a storage unit has proven unproductive, but sturdy bins have really helped. Right now, both Home Depot has rugged 27-gallon totes on sale for just $7.98, which is $2 off their regular price. That may not sound like a huge discount, but if you’re buying a bunch of them, it can add up quickly. Plus, this is the most popular size tote so these almost never go on sale.

Home Depot

This 27-gallon tote is a great size for storing just about anything. The HDX version has a burly red or yellow lid (you can choose which one you like better or get a mix). They stack easily when they’re empty and when they’re full. Plus, the chunky handles on the sides make them easy to carry. The lids snap into place and stay put, even when you’re moving them around. I filled one with clothes and dropped it from waist high five times to see if it would break and it stayed strong.

You can have these shipped or go pick them up directly from a Home Depot store. I recommend going to the store because then you can check the bins and the lids for small cracks or imperfections before you take them home.

• 20-Gal. Professional Heavy Duty Waterproof Stackable Plastic Storage Container with Hinged Lid in Red $30 (was $36)
• 3 gal. Heavy-Duty Stackable Storage Tote, Black with Yellow Lid (Set of 5) $36 (was $43)
• 5 gal. Heavy-Duty Stackable Storage Tote (Set of 4) $34 (was $37.59)
• 17 gal. Storage Box in Desert Tan $21 (was $30)
• 30 Gal. Deck Storage Box in Brown Container Seating Tools Organization Deliveries $52 (was $63)
• Durabilt 15 Gal. Tough Flip Lid Storage Tote in Black/Yellow (6-Pack) $130 (was $166)

• 4-Tier Industrial Duty Steel Freestanding Garage Storage Shelving Unit in Red (77 in. W x 72 in. H x 24 in. D) $199 (was $249)
• Black 4-Tier Metal Garage Storage Shelving Unit with Casters and Leveling Feet (60 in. W x 24 in. D x 76 in. H) $169 (was $239)
• Black 5-Tier Boltless Tier Height Adjustable Steel Frame Garage Storage Rack Shelving Units (42″ W x 16″ D x 72″ H) $139 (was $156)
• 5-Tier Medium Plastic Garage Storage Shelving Unit, Black (12 W x 64 H x 24 D) $29 (was $33)

The post Right now is the best possible time to buy storage bins thanks to this $8 Home Depot deal appeared first on Popular Science.

Corporations are quietly buying up fire-ravaged properties in Altadena, California, where January’s Eaton Fire claimed over 6,000 homes, according to an article by Yoonj Kim in Dwell.

Of the nearly 150 homes that have sold since the fire, Kim found that at least half were bought by corporate entities. “This on its own isn’t inherently alarming, as individuals can purchase property through LLCs to limit legal exposure. But it is a rate that far exceeds the national average, where corporate buyers account for roughly 23 percent of single-family home sales.” However, Kim notes that “the concentration of ownership points to a pattern of land consolidation that warrants attention—particularly in a community still recovering from disaster.”

Kim details the top corporate buyers of Altadena properties, which include Black Lion Properties, LLC, a newly formed company that has purchased almost exclusively post-fire Altadena properties, and Ocean Development Inc., which currently develops affordable housing in South LA. Other buyers are more concerning, such as Virtua Capital Management, which “was the subject of an SEC proceeding for failing to disclose conflicts of interest and double-dipping on real estate deals they weren’t supposed to profit from.”

Kim notes that institutional investment in housing is growing around the country. “This trend is associated with declining homeownership rates and rising rents, particularly in working-class or destabilized areas. Wall Street and private equity have increasingly targeted working-class neighborhoods, often after moments of destabilization.”

The companies named in the article did not reply to requests for comment or did not have publicly available contact information. “In the end, the lack of response echoed the larger pattern—underscoring the secrecy surrounding these acquisitions, and the walls that often go up when trying to follow the money.”

• Altadena
• Eaton Fire
• Wildfire
• fire damage
• Home Sales
• Institutional Investors
• Financialization of Housing

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In an opinion piece in The San Francisco Standard, Thomas Goetz calls on readers to take San Francisco Mayor Dan Lurie’s “family zoning” proposal literally.

Acknowledging that the proposal may be purely “verbal window-dressing to pave the way for dense upzoning and extensive development,” Goetz argues that “family zoning” could mean something else entirely.

The “family zoning” concept offers a way to say yes to a whole new vision of healthy housing. We need a smart mix of retail, office, housing, and parks to create the sorts of neighborhoods that encourage walking to the store and bumping into your neighbors. Healthy housing also means more than parks or exercise equipment.  We need spaces that foster socializing and fun almost by accident.

Goetz proposes the creation of “loose-use” spaces, “flexible areas where people of all ages can do things like cook, play games, exercise, and relax.” Examples of “low-cost, high-use spaces” that the city could incentivize, Goetz writes, include: free-play spaces that can be used for a variety of sports and activities, fitness circuits, flexible co-working and general hangout spaces, communal cookout areas, and libraries for tools and other households needs.

According to Goetz, “Amenities like these can be built into new buildings or incorporated into existing fallow space in ‘family-zoned’ neighborhoods. Where possible, the city could ensure that parklets provide more than just restaurant seating, and turn other public-space niches into active-use areas. The city could offer tax incentives to developers to carve out more shared space that fosters healthier behaviors.”

• San Francisco
• Density
• Family Zoning
• Mixed-Use Development
• Walkability

The nation’s first autonomous public transit shuttle launched in Jacksonville, Florida, with a fleet of 14 customized electric vehicles that serve 12 designated stations over a 3.5-mile downtown route. 

As Dan Zukowski explains in Smart Cities Dive, the service will be free until the end of September. “The service is the first phase of a 10-mile autonomous urban circulator to be completed over the next 10 years.” The fleet is operated by Beep for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA).

Similar autonomous shuttles operate in more controlled environments such as college campuses, but have not been deployed on U.S. roads.

• Jacksonville
• Jacksonville Transportation Authority
• Public Transit
• Autonomous Vehicles
• Autonomous Transit
• Self-Driving Cars

The ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ passed in Congress last week slashes electric vehicle funding, ending the federal EV tax credit as early as September and eliminating subsidies for commercial EVs.

According to am article by Tim Stevens in Engadget, “Earlier versions of the bill imposed a $250 annual fee for EV owners, and a still-spiteful $100 for hybrid owners.” That proposal didn’t make it into the final bill.

Pointing to examples from Europe, Stevens posits that the loss of the EV credit will likely have a major impact on EV sales, particularly on the lower end of the market. Meanwhile, the elimination of the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit, which funded up to 30 percent of the cost of installing chargers, will dissuade business owners from installing them. The administration is also attempting to end the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. 

The bill does include a new tax deduction for all vehicle buyers with car or motorcycle loans making under $150,000 per year.

• Big Beautiful Bill
• Federal Funding
• Electric Vehicles
• EV Charging
• National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program
• Electric Cars
• Electric Vehicle Rebate
• Trump 2.0

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Washington, D.C.’s Department of Transportation is launching a pilot project to test the feasibility of using e-bikes for deliveries within the city, reports Matt Pusatory for WUSA 9.

According to DDOT Director Sharon Kershbaum, “This pilot is testing one of many strategies to achieve our climate goals while also improving street safety, reducing traffic congestion, and supporting the local workforce.”

The program will support two groups of participants over a six-month period, providing e-bikes suitable for food delivery and access to charging stations and battery swapping. “To encourage food delivery workers to participate in the pilot, battery charging cabinets will be installed at convenient locations for quick and easy swapping, and the e-bikes will be highly subsidized with the option to own the e-bike at the end of the pilot.”

After a year, DDOT will evaluate the potential for expanding the program and supporting more sustainable deliveries.

• E-Bikes
• Sustainability
• Delivery Bikes
• Food Delivery
• Cargo Bikes

Mosquito bites are much more than just a red and itchy summertime nuisance. The diseases that they carry are notoriously difficult to control and kill over 700,000 people worldwide every year. What’s more, many mosquitoes have developed resistance to the synthetic insecticides–the same substances that can also pose environmental and health risks. 

As a solution, microbiologists are looking into biopesticides derived from living organisms. According to a study published July 7 in the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a bacteria isolate collected from the Mediterranean island of Crete works as insecticides against Culex pipiens molestus mosquitoes. Nicknamed the London Underground mosquito because they bit people sheltering in the city’s underground train stations during World War II, this species can transmit dangerous human pathogens, including West Nile Virus and Rift Valley Fever Virus. 

Extracts with these metabolites produced by three isolates killed 100 percent of mosquito larvae within 24 hours of exposure. It’s those metabolites that could be used to develop biopesticides that have minimal ecological side effects, according to the team. 

“They degrade more quickly in the environment and therefore don’t accumulate, and they often don’t kill such a wide range of different insect species as chemical insecticides,” said George Dimopoulos, a study co-author and molecular entomologist and microbiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (IMBB) in Crete. 

[ Related: Mosquitoes can sense our body heat. ]

In microbiology, an isolate is a single species of bacteria that has been separated out from a mixed culture and also obtained from a pure culture. As a result, all of the bacteria in the culture are the same type. This makes it easier for biologists to study and identify that specific bacteria or bacterium. 

For this new study, Dimopoulos and IMBB molecular biologist John Vontas collected 186 different samples from 65 locations across the island of Crete. The samples included topsoil, soil from around plant roots, plant tissues, water samples, and dead insects. Then, they exposed C. pipiens molestus larvae to water solutions that had the most promising isolates found in the samples. Killing mosquito larvae before they grow into adult mosquitoes is a common control method since the insects reproduce so quickly.

More than 100 of the isolates killed all of the mosquito larvae within a week and 37 of those killed the larvae within three days. Those 37 isolates represented 20 genera of bacteria, many of which have not previously been identified for use in biopesticides, according to Dimopoulos. 

Additional analysis revealed that the rapid-acting bacteria did not kill the larvae through infection. Instead it spurred the larvae to produce compounds like proteins and metabolites–small molecules produced when an organism is breaking down food. This method is promising because it suggests that an insecticide using this bacteria would not depend on the microbes staying alive. Not being too dependent on living microbes could potentially make the biopesticides work longer. This method could have implications for controlling mosquitoes and potentially agricultural pests. 

The team is also studying the chemical nature of the insecticidal molecules more closely and pinpointing whether they are proteins or metabolites. They’re also mapping out how much pesticidal activity the bacteria is capable of, including screening the isolates against other strains of pathogen-bearing mosquitoes and insects that threaten crops. 

Since biopesticides often degrade quickly and require multiple applications, finding the right way to formulate and deliver these compounds will be a challenge in the future. 

“It’s now entering the basic science phase to understand the molecules’ chemical structures and modes of action, and then we’ll shift to a more applied path, really aiming at prototype product development,” Dimopoulos said. “There is a major push toward developing ecologically friendly insecticides.” 

The post A mosquito killer may lurk in a Mediterranean bacteria appeared first on Popular Science.

What if you found out your VPN had a weak point? Actually, it has two. The first is that it probably relies on a single network (your provider), and the second is that you’re paying subscription fees just to feel safer online. The Deeper Connect Mini is turning the tables on what it means to be protected online by offering decentralized VPN and firewall access without any recurring fees.

During Popular Science’s Deal Days (our version of Prime Day), you can save $49 and get free shipping on this VPN and firewall hardware for your home. You have until July 15 to save!

So how does it work? The Deeper Connect Mini connects directly to your home network—just plug it in between your modem and router using the included cables. From that point on, it automatically routes your internet traffic through a decentralized network of peer nodes, rather than through one company’s centralized servers like traditional VPNs. That means there’s no single point of failure, no server logs to worry about, and no need to install any apps or software on your devices.

It acts as both a VPN and a firewall, offering always-on protection for everything on your network: laptops, phones, smart TVs, game consoles—you name it. It blocks ads and trackers, filters out malicious websites, and even gives you tools for parental control or region-based access.

Because it’s a one-time purchase and a physical device, you’ll never be hit with monthly charges or renewal fees. That alone could save you hundreds of dollars over time, especially if you’re currently paying for VPN services across multiple devices.

If you’re interested in a physical VPN device, don’t miss this Deal Days discount! Grab yours for $179.99 with free shipping (reg. $229) until July 15 at 11:59 p.m. PT.

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The post Did regular VPNs just become obsolete? appeared first on Popular Science.