For decades, scientists have assumed that mutation rates were consistent enough to be used as a natural clock to date biological specimens. By comparing the number of single changes in the genetic code between two different species, a researcher could supposedly estimate the amount of time that had elapsed since those species diverged from one another.

A recent narrative-style article in Smithsonian magazine highlighted research in the largely unexplored Congo River in central Africa, where researchers have identified new fish species. The researchers preliminarily confirmed that strong currents in deep waters had isolated the breeding populations of certain fishes, including the bottom-feeding elephant fish.

Amateur fossil hunters Jamie and Jonathan Hiscocks were looking for dinosaur remains in East Sussex, UK, when they instead found tiny spider webs trapped inside a piece of ancient amber. Oxford University paleobiologist Martin Brasier inspected the amber, which was assigned an age of over 100 million years.

The Great Rift Valley extends some 4,000 miles southward from Syria north of Israel, through the Gulf of Aqaba, through Ethiopia, and all the way to Mozambique in southeast Africa. It harbors a giant fault, which has been under investigation as a model for sea floor spreading. A recent geologic event rent a gaping crack through the desert of Ethiopia, causing safety concerns for locals.

Volcanic activity in 2005 accompanied the formation of a deep, wide rift in Ethiopia on part of the 4,000-mile-long north-to-south trending Great Rift Valley fault. Studies show that the injection of mantle material that “unzipped” the earth along the fault operated the same way as similar material does in less-accessible undersea rifts.