Bats have been in the news lately,¹ but bats themselves are not new—they were created on Day 5 of Creation Week, along with other flying creatures.

Bats are a large and fascinating group of flying mammals. They include 1,240 species. Not surprisingly, the fossil record shows bats have always been bats. They suddenly appear in a most un-Darwinian manner.

A new study published in the journal PLOS ONE has found that T. rex had legs made more for walking, rather than running.¹ Their long legs were well designed for sustained foraging.

T. Alexander Dececchi (from the Department of Biology, Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota) and colleagues from several institutions began their article by stating,

Dogs don’t read the words on a page. Neither did Coco, the famous gorilla that learned to communicate using simple hand signs. So what affords humans the unique ability to read and write, and why do we do it? These kinds of questions drive Zeynep Saygin’s research at Ohio State. Her team’s recent discovery sets the stage for some answers.

Arsenic is a common toxic component in pesticides and herbicides, and one place it is found naturally is in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park. The arsenic in the water there would be deadly to many living creatures, yet the Cyanidioschyzon algae thrive in it because they are specially equipped to detoxify arsenic through chemical modification.

Although details differ according to where you are, it is often quieter these days due to stay-at-home restrictions on normally noisy human activities. Less loudness and more calmness—some of that can be good¹—yet ongoing economic shutdowns can cripple or crush curtailed livelihoods. So it’s calmer now, but not completely silent.