10/01/2026
For decades, scientists couldn't agree on where the world's only flying mammals actually came from.
A massive new study involving 137 researchers from 64 countries has now produced the strongest evidence yet that bats most likely first evolved in Europe about 60–65 million years ago.
The team analyzed 103 bat genomes, including 42 newly generated chromosome-level genomes, representing all 21 living bat families. They then combined that genetic evidence with information from 44 fossil bats to rebuild the bat family tree.
The result points toward late-Paleocene Europe as the birthplace of bats — a surprising conclusion because scientists had previously proposed Africa, Asia and North America as possible origins.
Even more fascinating is what the fossils suggest about their abilities.
The researchers found evidence that powered flight and echolocation appeared very early in bat evolution. That means the ancestors of modern bats may have already been flying and using sound to navigate before today's major bat groups began diversifying.
One fossil, Vielasia, was especially important because its position near the oldest branches of the bat family tree supports the idea that echolocation evolved very early.
The study doesn't mean scientists have discovered the exact first bat. The European origin is described as “most likely,” based on the combined genomic and fossil evidence, so future fossils could still change the picture.
But for now, a giant international analysis has moved the story of Earth's only powered-flying mammals to a very different place.
Imagine looking at a European landscape 65 million years ago and realizing that somewhere in that world, the earliest ancestors of today's bats may already have been taking flight.
Where do you think the very first bat actually lived?
SOURCE: Nature; University College Dublin; Bat1K Consortium.
A 245-million-year-old fossil has something scientists almost never get to see: the animal’s organs are still preserved inside it.
The fossil belongs to a small marine reptile called Austronaga minuta, which lived in what is now southern China during the Triassic Period. The animal was only about 2 feet long, but its long neck, long tail and enlarged front limbs show that it was already highly adapted to life in the water.
Then researchers noticed something extraordinary between its ribs.
Using ultraviolet photography and mass spectrometry, they identified preserved remains of a stomach, liver and intestines. The liver even retains reddish coloration and chemical traces associated with hemoglobin.
Scientists say this is the oldest known example of a largely complete digestive system preserved in a reptile.
And the fossil appears to preserve another remarkable clue: fish scales inside the digestive tract, suggesting that this little reptile had eaten fish shortly before it died.
The internal anatomy is especially interesting because Austronaga belonged to the broader archosaur lineage — the evolutionary group that eventually produced crocodiles, dinosaurs and birds.
Unlike modern birds and crocodiles, which have more complex two-part stomachs, Austronaga appears to have had a simple single-chambered stomach. Researchers say this provides evidence that the more elaborate digestive systems of later archosaurs evolved after this early stage.
The fossil doesn't just show what this animal looked like.
For one extraordinary moment, it also preserves clues about what was happening inside its body 245 million years ago.
What would you most want scientists to discover inside a fossil — its last meal, its organs, or something completely unexpected?
SOURCE: Science Advances; State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart; Reuters; Phys.org.
934 people raised the famous Vulcan salute at exactly the same time — and it became a new world record.
On September 10, 2026, hundreds of Star Trek fans packed the Science Museum in London to celebrate the franchise’s 60th anniversary and attempt something wonderfully unusual: getting the largest number of people ever to perform the Vulcan salute simultaneously.
A total of 1,188 fans were registered for the attempt, many wearing Star Trek costumes and merchandise. But Guinness World Records had strict rules: participants had to perform the salute together and hold it for one full minute.
When the moment arrived, 934 people successfully held the iconic hand gesture at the same time.
A Guinness adjudicator confirmed the record on the spot.
The gesture was made famous by the character Spock and first appeared in the original Star Trek episode “Amok Time” in 1967. More than half a century later, thousands of fans were still using it to celebrate the fictional Vulcan culture.
What makes the story even better is that this wasn't a carefully rehearsed performance by professional actors. It was simply a huge crowd of fans coming together for one very strange, very recognizable hand signal.
And for exactly one minute, 934 people in a London museum managed to do it perfectly.
Would you join a world-record attempt like this if you had the chance?
SOURCE: Guinness World Records; UPI, September 2026.
