Category: 7. Science

In Antarctic waters, glaciers calve like distant thunder and the air stings with salt and cold. It is in these waters that marine mammal ecologist Ari Friedlaender shuts off the inflatable boat’s engine and waits. This is the edge of the world—remote, hostile, and stunningly alive. Beneath the hull, the dark sea churns with wonder abound. A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) emerges, slow, deliberate, and gentle in its curious demeanor, casting a ripple across the surface. Then another shadow glides below. One rolls sideways to peer up, one spyhops, another nudges the rubber boat as if asking a question.

“You feel alien out there,” Friedlaender tells Popular Science. “And yet, the whale chooses you and interacts with you as a curious individual. It gives you its attention, and that kind of moment is just the most compelling.”

In the last two decades, humpback whales in Antarctic waters have staged one of the most remarkable recoveries since the end of commercial whaling.

“We started seeing them again—first almost none, then a few, then many,”  Ted Cheeseman, a marine ecologist and co-founder of the whale tracking platform Happywhale, tells Popular Science. “But we didn’t know who we were seeing. We wanted to know more than just that whales were coming back. We wanted to know which whales.”

[ Related: Humpback whales use bubble-nets as ‘tools’. ]

Unlike critically endangered species like the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) or Rice’s whale (Balaenoptera ricei), humpbacks have shown a striking degree of behavioral flexibility and resilience in a rapidly changing ocean. But their future is still uncertain: ship strikes, warming waters, and shifting food webs continue to pose serious threats.

So began a transformative shift in whale science, driven by photography, artificial intelligence, public participation, and lab research–and it all starts with the fluke.

The story flukes tell

To the casual observer or the untrained eye, the emergence of a whale’s tail may just be an exciting and fleeting splash of black and white. But to researchers and other whale lovers across the globe, that exhilarating splash holds a unique story and is as idiosyncratic as a human fingerprint. The shape of the trailing edge, pigmentation patterns, rake marks from orca attacks, scars from fishing gear, and barnacle clusters all combine to tell the narrative of an individual whale’s life, as well as how to identify that humpback.

“Flukes as a primary piece of data are incredibly valuable,” Friedlaender explains. “They help us trace migration routes, understand site fidelity, and even track how changes in the environment impact individual behavior over time.”

If you’re lucky enough to observe a whale fluke arcing above the waterline, try taking a closer look beyond the marvel of it. Is the edge smooth or torn? Are there specks, scars, or barnacles dotting one side more than the other? Do the pigmentation patterns differ from other fluke’s that you’ve spotted? Like a fingerprint, these ever-so-slight irregularities and subtle signatures mark a whale’s identity, and can give you some insight into their life story.  

This citizen science and fluke analysis is crucial, because whales are famously hard to study. As Cheeseman puts it, “We see one percent of a whale for one percent of its life.” Most of what whales do—feed, rest, nurse, socialize—happens deep below the surface, and far from view. That disconnect, he says, contributes to a larger issue: a failure to relate.

“When we look out at the horizon,” he says, “we’re removed from what’s really happening under the waves.”

Whales need you–to take photos

Happywhale aims to change that by making individual whales visible, trackable, and, most of all, relatable. Anyone—tourists, sailors, researchers—can upload a fluke photo to the platform. AI, trained on thousands of images, scans each photo and compares it to over 112,000 known whales in the database.

“The algorithm reads features we might miss,” Cheeseman says. “Even if a scar disappears, or pigmentation changes over time, the trailing edge often stays consistent from nearly birth. The computer can pick up on that and match individuals with more accuracy than the human eye.”

Still, every match is verified by a human—preserving both the integrity of the data and the intimacy of the process. “The goal is to keep people at the center of the science,” Cheeseman says. “We want people to feel close to it.”

And they do. When someone uploads a photo and later receives a notification that “their whale” has been seen thousands of miles away, something shifts. “It lights something up inside people,” he says. “They go from being a bystander to being part of a story.”

That story is often one of resilience in a rapidly changing ocean. Many whales carry visible signs of survival—scars from boat strikes, or entanglement wounds that wrap around the tail like old rope. In 2016, there were 71 documented whale entanglements off the US West Coast, but Cheeseman estimates that’s just 10% of what actually occurred.

“Imagine driving down a road and seeing a deer caught in a barbed wire fence,” he says. “Most people would stop, call someone, and maybe even risk yourself to help free it. But with whales, it’s out of sight, so it’s out of mind, and since we don’t know about it, we don’t care, and we don’t act.”

The work Friedlaender and Cheeseman are doing—alongside the growing community of citizen scientists—aims to help close that gap. And in a time when climate change, noise pollution, and industrial fishing continue to erode ocean health, proximity matters.

“We’ve urbanized the ocean,” Cheeseman says. “We build roads in it—shipping lanes—and infrastructure like ports and offshore platforms. We ask so much of it. But we don’t think of it as part of our shared space.”

That’s beginning to change, and in part, it’s because of whales. Not just whales as a species, but whales as individuals.

Early whale research looked at the species as a whole, Friedlander notes, but fluke matching has transformed this approach by allowing scientists to study individual whales in much finer detail. This method opens up opportunities to investigate how specific factors—such as food supply, noise pollution, or environmental shifts—affect particular whales and various demographic groups differently.

“What has really been valuable,” he continues, “is being able to say, ‘This is a fluke of an individual whale with a long sighting history—41 years in one case.’ When you want to study processes that happen over an animal’s lifetime, that contextual detail becomes crucial.” This rich, individual-level perspective informs everything from behavioral studies to toxicology research, facilitating new ways in understanding these ocean giants in unprecedented depth.

‘That personal connection leads to a desire for protection’

Friedlaender’s research focuses on detailed snapshots of individual whales using suction cup tags that collect incredibly fine-resolution data. These tags reveal intimate details about how a whale moves, dives, and feeds—showing, for example, how it manages to engulf what’s essentially a swimming pool’s worth of water in a single mouthful to fuel its massive energy needs.

Cheeseman highlights how this complementary blending of citizen science and traditional scientific methods brings research from being something “out there” to something closer and more accessible.

“By combining fine-scale data from suction cup tags with long-term sighting records collected by everyday people through Happywhale, we create a more holistic view of humpback whales—connecting detailed individual behaviors to broader lifetime patterns and population trends.”

[ Related: Whale pee moves vital nutrients thousands of miles. ]

And it all stirs something deeper. “We are wired to care about individuals more than abstract concepts,” Cheeseman continues. “And that personal connection is what leads to a desire for protection.”

Friedlaender and Cheeseman will soon return to Antarctica to continue their research in one of the planet’s most ecologically vital and least accessible regions. Their work is supported through a partnership between the Friedlaender Lab at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Quark Expeditions, which facilitates science-based voyages in the Southern Ocean. In these former whaling grounds, the team will deepen their data on humpback behavior and migration—bringing AI, photo ID, and public participation into one of the last truly wild frontiers.

One whale at a time, the ocean is becoming less anonymous. And with every scar and splash recorded, the researchers see that a clearer picture of this hidden world begins to emerge, not just in the minds of scientists, but in the hearts of the people observing, and participating, from ashore.

The findings, published on July 21 in the prestigious Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, mark the first large-scale global study of osteoderms in lizards and snakes. The international collaboration brought together researchers from Australia, Europe and the United States, who used cutting-edge micro-CT scanning to examine nearly 2,000 reptile specimens from major museum collections including those held at Museums Victoria’s Research Institute.

‘We were astonished to find osteoderms in 29 Australo-Papuan monitor lizard species that had never been documented before,’ said Roy Ebel, lead author and researcher at Museums Victoria Research Institute and the Australian National University. ‘It’s a fivefold increase in known cases among goannas.’

Osteoderms are most commonly known from crocodiles, armadillos, and even some dinosaurs like Stegosaurus. But their function has remained something of an evolutionary mystery. While they may provide protection, scientists now suspect they may also support heat regulation, mobility and calcium storage during reproduction.

This new research reveals that osteoderms are far more widespread in lizards than previously thought, occurring in nearly half of all lizard species worldwide – an 85% increase on earlier estimates.

At the heart of this discovery lies the power of museum collections. Scientific institutions like Museums Victoria Research Institute play a critical role in preserving biodiversity through time, enabling researchers to study species long after they were collected. Many of the specimens used in this study were decades, and in some cases over 120 years old, but advances in imaging technology enabled scientists to uncover new insights without harming the original material. These collections are not just archives, they’re active tools for scientific discovery.

‘What’s so exciting about this finding is that it reshapes what we thought we knew about reptile evolution,’ said Dr Jane Melville, Museums Victoria Research Institute Senior Curator of Terrestrial Vertebrates. ‘It suggests that these skin bones may have evolved in response to environmental pressures as lizards adapted to Australia’s challenging landscapes.’

Until now, the presence of osteoderms in monitor lizards was considered rare and mostly confined to the famed Komodo dragon. But the discovery of their widespread presence across Australo-Papuan goannas opens up new questions about how these lizards adapted, survived and diversified across the continent.

This landmark study not only tells a new chapter in the story of Australia’s goannas, it provides a powerful new dataset for exploring how skin, structure, and survival have intertwined across millions of years of evolution.

While Australia is the world’s second-largest exporter of oats, high oil content in oat grains creates challenges during milling, reducing processing efficiency and limiting product innovation – particularly in high-demand sectors like oat flour and plant-based proteins.

Researchers from the University of South Australia, the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI), and the University of Adelaide are collaborating on research designed to better understand the biological processes responsible for oil synthesis in oat grains.

In this study, two contemporary varieties of oats were examined using spatial imaging techniques to track oil build-up during grain development. Researchers then applied ‘omics’ technologies – lipidomics and proteomics – to analyse lipid and protein expression, which provided key insights into the biological mechanisms involved in the actual formation of the grain, including those relating to oil synthesis.

The UniSA findings have provided further evidence of the mechanisms that underlie the amount of oil in an oat grain. These findings will help to guide future breeding efforts for naturally lower-oil oat varieties, improving milling yields and creating new value-added opportunities across the oat supply chain.

UniSA PhD candidate, Darren Lau, says that current oil removal methods are inefficient and that low-oil breeding programs will aid industry growth.

“While oil can be removed from partially milled oat flakes – using supercritical carbon dioxide prior to further milling – this approach is laborious and expensive,” he says.

“Breeding low-oil oat varieties is a cost-effective approach but requires further understanding of oil production in oats. This is where our research is critical.

“Our analysis has identified several key enzymes that are involved in oil synthesis which could be genetically manipulated to lower oil content of oat grains.

“Reducing oil content could also unlock new opportunities in sectors like oat flour and alternative proteins, which could significantly strengthen Australia’s position in the market.”

The economic potential of these opportunities is reflected in the quantity of oats exported globally. For example, in 2022 twenty-six million metric tonnes of oats were produced worldwide, ranking them seventh among cereals in production quantity.

Lowering oil content in oat grains will enhance processing and product versatility, positioning them alongside traditional cereal staples like barley, maize, wheat, and rice, and further driving industry growth.

The UniSA findings are being used by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC) oat grain quality consortium to improve suitability for milling and food/beverage ingredient development. Additional research is continuing within the consortium that will build on the study’s findings to further inform breeding efforts aimed at reducing oil content in oats.

“The consortia are currently working on a larger and more diverse oat cohort to further investigate molecular markers and nutrient partitioning of oil in oats,” Lau says.

“The consortia are also investigating one of the key enzymes validated in this study to determine whether manipulating or removing it can lower oil content, and how that affects the growth of the plant.”

SARDI Project Lead Dr Janine Croser, says the study’s findings provide further evidence of key pathways involved in oat oil biosynthesis.

“This research provides important insights into the biological mechanisms underlying varietal differences of oil production in developing oat grains,” Dr Croser says.

“We expect that the development of low-oil lines will improve efficiencies in the flour milling process and potentially lead to novel uses for oats.

“With demand for plant-based foods on the rise, we anticipate the oat grain quality consortium research will help put Australia at the forefront of oat innovation – supporting growers, processors, and exporters alike.”

The full paper, Proteomic and lipidomic analyses reveal novel molecular insights into oat (Avena sativa L.) lipid regulation and crosstalk with starch synthesis during grain development, is available online.

With satellite navigation becoming increasingly crucial to global infrastructure, there is a growing threat of spoofing, which involves the deliberate broadcasting of false navigation signals, but OSNMA may be the answer to this problem

Spoofing can mislead GPS and GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receivers, leading to location errors of hundreds of kilometres. This creates risks for sectors such as civil aviation, maritime transport, and logistics, particularly in geopolitically sensitive areas like the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, and parts of the Middle East.

To address this concern, the European Union is taking steps with the official launch of Galileo’s Open Service Navigation Message Authentication (OSNMA) capability.

Starting Thursday, 24 July 2025, OSNMA will become fully operational, offering strong protection against spoofed signals.

What is OSNMA?

OSNMA is a feature developed for the Galileo satellite system. It allows each satellite to broadcast a digital signature alongside its normal navigation data. This digital signature enables receivers to verify that the signal originates from a genuine Galileo satellite, further helping to detect and reject spoofed signals.

This extra layer of security does not require any significant change to Galileo’s existing infrastructure. OSNMA has been designed to use the system’s spare capacity efficiently, enabling a seamless rollout and widespread adoption without disrupting current services.

European collaboration

The successful development and launch of OSNMA is the result of more than ten years of coordinated effort across Europe’s space and defence sectors. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Defence Industry and Space has led the initiative, guiding the vision and overseeing implementation. The European Space Agency (ESA) has managed the core infrastructure. At the same time, the EU Space Programme Agency (EUSPA) will be responsible for daily operations via the European GNSS Service Centre in Torrejón, Spain.

The collaboration also includes many partners from Europe’s aerospace industry, showcasing a united approach to safeguarding critical navigation technologies and reinforcing Europe’s position as a global leader in space.

Testing for full operations

Galileo satellites have been broadcasting OSNMA data since 2021 in test mode. This allowed developers, manufacturers, and users to evaluate the feature and integrate it into their systems. With the transition to full operational status in July 2025, OSNMA will now offer formal service guarantees, marking a significant milestone in global satellite navigation security.

Many GNSS receivers, including those used in logistics, personal devices, and high-end applications, are already compatible with OSNMA. One early adopter is the Smart Tachograph system, which is mandatory in all EU trucks and now benefits from improved navigation security and reliability.

In the future, Galileo plans to expand its services with the introduction of the Public Regulated Service (PRS) and the Signal Authentication Service (SAS). These will create even better resilience and performance, particularly with the next generation of Galileo satellites expected to arrive in the coming decades.

With no light pollution nearby, the night skies around the Vera Rubin Observatory glow in brilliant colors in this timelapse photo.

What is it?

The Vera Rubin Observatory is designed to study dark matter, which makes up 85% of our universe but is still unknown to scientists. Dark matter can create various effects in space thanks to its gravity, such as lensing, which astronomers can capture with the observatory’s telescopes, hoping to find more about what makes up dark matter.

The Moon’s thin atmosphere, called an exosphere, has been a puzzle to science for some time. Two main processes were thought to create this wispy gas envelope; tiny meteoroids hitting the surface and solar wind particles bombarding the lunar soil. But new research using Apollo moon samples reveals that the Moon’s own surface features provide surprising protection against solar wind erosion.

Researchers at TU Wien and the University of Bern conducted the first direct measurements of solar wind ejecting atoms and molecules when striking the lunar soil, a process known as sputtering. Unlike previous studies that relied on Earth based mineral substitutes, the team used Apollo 16 Moon dust and bombarded it with hydrogen and helium ions at solar wind speeds.

Neil Armstrong’s footprint immortalised in the soft, powdery lunar regolith (Credit : NASA)

The results were striking. Solar wind sputter yields were up to an order of magnitude lower than previously used in exosphere models. This dramatic reduction comes from two key factors that previous models had underestimated, surface roughness and the porous, fluffy nature of lunar soil.

The Moon’s surface isn’t smooth like a billiard ball, it’s incredibly rough and porous at the microscopic level. This texture acts like a natural shield against solar wind bombardment. When ions hit the jagged, crater-filled landscape, many get trapped in tiny pockets or strike surfaces at angles that reduce their erosive power.

Micrographs of three particles of moon dust collected during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. The montage showcases the vast differences seen within a sample. The scale bars are all 1 micrometer. The images were made with a scanning electron microscope at NIST. (Credit : Chiaramonti Debay/NIST)

The high porosity of lunar regolith further reduces sputter yields, with the combined effects of roughness and porosity making erosion rates largely independent of the solar zenith angle. This means the protective effect works across most of the Moon’s surface, regardless of latitude.

An eruption on the Sun, the source of the solar wind. (Credit : NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)

The research team created three dimensional computer simulations of the lunar surface structure, complete with the spaces between dust grains. These models revealed that the Moon’s natural “fluffiness” dramatically reduces the number of atoms knocked loose by solar wind impacts.

These findings change our understanding of how the Moon loses material to space. The study provides realistic sputter yield estimates which are ten times smaller than previous estimates! This suggests that micrometeoroid impacts, rather than solar wind sputtering, are likely the dominant source of the Moon’s exosphere. The tiny space rocks that constantly pepper the lunar surface may be doing most of the work in creating the Moon’s thin atmospheric envelope.

Understanding how solar wind interacts with airless planetary surfaces is crucial for upcoming missions, including NASA’s Artemis program and the European Space Agency’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury. As for the atmosphere of the Moon, the study helps explain why previous space observations didn’t match theoretical predictions. The Moon’s surface has been protecting itself all along, we just needed the right tools and real lunar samples to see how.

Source : Solar wind erosion of lunar regolith is suppressed by surface morphology and regolith properties

In a study published in Physical Review Letters on July 10, physicists from the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and their collaborators have reported the first observation and spectroscopy of aluminium-20, a previously unknown and unstable isotope that decays via the rare process of three-proton emission.

“Aluminium-20 is the lightest aluminium isotope that has been discovered so far. Located beyond the proton drip line, it has seven fewer neutrons than the stable aluminum isotope,” said Associate Prof. Xiaodong Xu from IMP, first author of the study.

Using an in-flight decay technique at the Fragment Separator of the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, Germany, the researchers measured angular correlations of aluminium-20’s decay products and discovered the previously unknown nucleus aluminium-20.

Through detailed analysis of angular correlations, the researchers found that the aluminium-20 ground state first decays by emitting one proton to the intermediate ground state of magnesium-19, followed by subsequent decay of magnesium-19 ground state via simultaneous two-proton emission. Aluminium-20 is the first observed three-proton emitter where its one-proton decay daughter nucleus is a two-proton radioactive nucleus.

The researchers also found that the decay energy of the aluminium-20 ground state is significantly smaller than the predictions inferred from the isospin symmetry, indicating a possible isospin symmetry breaking in aluminium-20 and its mirror partner neon-20.

This finding is supported by state-of-the-art theoretical calculations that predict that the spin-parity of the aluminium-20 ground state differs from the spin-parity of the neon-20 ground state.

“This study advances our understanding of the proton-emission phenomena, and provides insights into the structure and decay of nuclei beyond the proton drip line,” said Xu.

To date, scientists have discovered over 3,300 nuclides, yet fewer than 300 are stable and exist naturally. The remainder are unstable nuclides that undergo radioactive decay. Common decay modes, such as α decay, β^– decay, β⁺ decay, electron capture, γ radiation, and fission, were discovered by the mid-20th century.

Over the past several decades, owing to the tremendous development in nuclear physics experimental facilities and detection technologies, scientists discovered several exotic decay modes in the study of nuclei far from the stability, particularly in neutron-deficient nuclei.

In the 1970s, scientists discovered single-proton radioactivity, where nuclei decay by emitting a proton. After entering the 21st century, two-proton radioactivity was found in the decays of some extremely neutron-deficient nuclei. In recent years, even rarer decay phenomena such as three-, four-, and five-proton emission were observed.

This collaborative effort included contributions from IMP, GSI, Fudan University, and more than a dozen other institutions.

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China, the CAS President’s International Fellowship Initiative, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, among others.

To explore the unknown in deep space, millions of miles away from Earth, it’s crucial for spacecraft to have ample power. NASA’s radioisotope power systems (RPS) are a viable option for these missions and have been used for over 60 years, including for the agency’s Voyager spacecraft and Perseverance Mars rover. These nuclear batteries provide long-term electrical power for spacecraft and science instruments using heat produced by the natural radioactive decay of radioisotopes. Now, NASA is testing a new type of RPS heat source fuel that could become an additional option for future long-duration journeys to extreme environments.

Historically, the radioisotope plutonium-238 (plutonium oxide) has been NASA’s RPS heat source fuel of choice, but americium-241 has been a source of interest for the past two decades in Europe. In January, the Thermal Energy Conversion Branch at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland and the University of Leicester, based in the United Kingdom, partnered through an agreement to put this new option to the test.

One method to generate electricity from radioisotope heat sources is the free-piston Stirling convertor. This is a heat engine that converts thermal energy into electrical energy. However, instead of a crankshaft to extract power, pistons float freely within the engine. It could operate for decades continuously without wear, as it does not have piston rings or rotating bearings that will eventually wear out. Thus, a Stirling convertor could generate more energy, allowing more time for exploration in deep space. Researchers from the University of Leicester — who have been leaders in the development of americium RPS and heater units for more than 15 years — and NASA worked to test the capabilities of a Stirling generator testbed powered by two electrically heated americium-241 heat source simulators.

“The concept started as just a design, and we took it all the way to the prototype level: something close to a flight version of the generator,” said Salvatore Oriti, mechanical engineer at Glenn. “The more impressive part is how quickly and inexpensively we got it done, only made possible by a great synergy between the NASA and University of Leicester teams. We were on the same wavelength and shared the same mindset.”

The university provided the heat source simulators and generator housing. The heat source simulator is the exact size and shape of their real americium-241 heat source, but it uses embedded electric heaters to create an equivalent amount of heat to simulate the decay of americium fuel and therefore drive generator operation. The Stirling Research Lab at Glenn provided the test station, Stirling convertor hardware, and support equipment.

“A particular highlight of this (testbed) design is that it is capable of withstanding a failed Stirling convertor without a loss of electrical power,” said Hannah Sargeant, research fellow at the University of Leicester. “This feature was demonstrated successfully in the test campaign and highlights the robustness and reliability of an Americium-Radioisotope Stirling Generator for potential future spaceflight missions, including long-duration missions that could operate for many decades.”

The test proved the viability of an americium-fueled Stirling RPS, and performance and efficiency targets were successfully met. As for what’s next, the Glenn team is pursuing the next version of the testbed that will be lower mass, higher fidelity, and undergo further environmental testing.

“I was very pleased with how smoothly everything went,” Oriti said of the test results. “Usually in my experience, you don’t accomplish everything you set out to, but we did that and more. We plan to continue that level of success in the future.”

For more information on NASA’s RPS programs, visit:
https://science.nasa.gov/rps

An Australian lizard in the same genus as the komodo dragon has been found harboring secret bone chainmail under their scaly skin.

Goannas – a name that encompasses several Australian species – are not the only monitor lizards with this fascinating adaptation, either. A wild new study has found tens of monitor lizard species sporting hidden osteoderms; tiny bones that may perform any number of functions from protective armor to thermoregulation.

Osteoderms themselves are not a new discovery, though they are poorly understood and cataloged. They’re known in crocodilians, lizards, frogs, komodo dragons, even some mammals. But their discovery in these monitors has come as a surprise to biologists.

“We were astonished to find osteoderms in 29 Australo-Papuan monitor lizard species that had never been documented before,” says evolutionary biologist Roy Ebel of Museums Victoria Research Institute and the Australian National University in Australia. “It’s a fivefold increase in known cases among goannas.”

Related: Komodo Dragon Teeth Have Iron Caps For Sharpness, Scientists Discover

The researchers conducted a census, investigating more than 2,000 lizard specimens housed in museums around the world, including Museums Victoria in Australia, the Florida Museum of Natural History in the US, and the Natural History Museum Berlin in Germany.

Because osteoderms are hidden and embedded in the skin, Ebel and his colleagues conducted non-invasive, non-destructive micro-CT scans. Their results suggest that up to half of all lizard species may have osteoderms. But the findings also raise some questions.

The most obvious reason lizards and other reptiles may have evolved these armored skins is to protect themselves against attack, but the distribution of these tiny bones isn’t consistent. Some lizards are armored from nose to tail-tip. Some are more heavily armored around their heads and necks; while others have the most osteoderms along their tails.

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Other roles osteoderms might play in the lizards’ lives could involve the sequestration of calcium, mobility, and temperature regulation. Studying them may help us better understand how different lizards in different parts of the world adapted to their environments.

“What’s so exciting about this finding is that it reshapes what we thought we knew about reptile evolution,” says herpetologist Jane Melville, Museums Victoria Research Institute Senior Curator of Terrestrial Vertebrates.

“It suggests that these skin bones may have evolved in response to environmental pressures as lizards adapted to Australia’s challenging landscapes.”

The research has been published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.