NEWS AND NOTES ABOUT SCIENCE
PREHISTORIC PARENTS USED BABY BOTTLES MADE OF POTTERY
As long as 7,000 years ago, Stone Age farmers in Central Europe were making and using small pottery bottles or cups with spouts. Ancient baby bottles?
So it seemed — although they could have been used to nurse the sick. As the Stone Age gave way to the Bronze and Iron ages, the vessels were more widely used, and some took on the shapes of animals. Archaeologists have found the small containers in the graves of children and infants, suggesting they were used in weaning children from breastfeeding.
But until now, researchers had not analyzed residues in the containers. On Wednesday, archaeologists reported in the journal Nature that three such objects, all found in the graves of children in Bavaria dating from about 2,500 to 3,200 years ago, once held dairy products, most likely milk from ruminants, like cows or goats.
Proving exactly how any ancient bit of pottery was used is difficult. But Julie Dunne, a geochemist at the University of Bristol in England and one of the authors of the report, said the location of the feeding cups in child graves, along with the new chemical evidence, is “as close as you’re going to get” to that proof. James Gorman
IT’S A DIRTY JOB, BUT SOMEONE HAS TO DO IT AND NOT GET EATEN
Cleaner shrimp set up their stations — grooves in rocks in which they can retreat — in tropical coral reefs, where they pick parasites and dead skin off the fish, eels and turtles that seek them out for this purpose.
Some of these clients, as they are called, are many times the shrimp’s size. And if such a client is hungry, it might start to see the little guy crawling over it as less of a helper, and more of a snack.
According to a new study, one species has a strategy: Choose your clients carefully and, when necessary, do a funky dance, bending your front legs and waving them back and forth. Pacific cleaner shrimp have white front legs that contrast with the rest of their body; in videos, it looks as if they’re performing a color guard solo. Cara Giaimo
A NEW TIMELINE OF THE DAY DINOSAURS BEGAN TO DIE OUT
The giant asteroid’s impact into shallow waters in the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago was bad enough. But then an amalgam of additional disasters ensued: Rocks fell from the sky, wildfires ignited and tsunamis inundated distant shorelines.
It was the beginning of the end of the Mesozoic Era when dinosaurs ruled the world.
A study led by Sean P.S. Gulick, a marine geophysicist, provides a new timeline of the first day of the Cenozoic Era. The study used high-resolution photography, microscopy, computed tomography imaging and magnetic measurements of sedimentary rock recovered from Chicxulub, one of Earth’s largest impact craters.
When the asteroid struck, it temporarily carved a hole 60 miles across and 20 miles deep. The impact triggered a tsunami moving away from the crater. It also catapulted rock into the upper atmosphere and beyond.
“Almost certainly some of the material would have reached the moon,” Gulick said. Katherine Kornei
FOUND IN MAINE: A 1-IN-50 MILLION LOBSTER
Some lobsters aren’t meant for a roll. That was the case for a rare two-toned lobster that was plucked recently from the waters off Stonington, Maine. The lobster, split from head to tail into halves of black and orange, the result of a genetic anomaly, was found in Penobscot Bay by Capt. Daryl Dunham when he was fishing there.
The lobster was donated to the Maine Center for Coastal Fisheries, where it will live in rarefied company for a few weeks, before it is released back into the bay. Laura Holson
FOR POISON DART FROGS, MARKINGS MATTER WHEN IT COMES TO SURVIVAL
Poison dart frogs in one part of French Guiana usually are blue and black with yellow markings. But in the nearby Mont Grand Matoury nature preserve, they have white stripes. Scientists found that the white-striped frogs were not as effective at scaring off predators as their yellow brethren. But they still managed to avoid being outcompeted by the fitter, more threatening yellowstriped frogs, perhaps in part because of their location.
Yellow-striped frogs were often found right out in the open, said J.P. Lawrence, but the whitestriped frogs were much more hidden away. By altering their behaviors, white-striped frogs may have increased their chances of success. Veronique Greenwood