Science News Briefs from around the World: April 2023

Scientists mapped nearly 1,000 ancient Maya settlements in Guatemala using lasers fired from an airplane. The technique revealed pyramids, reservoirs and canals, laying bare the stunning breadth and interconnectivity of the civilisation around the millennia-old city of El Mirador. Researchers found 92 fossilised nests filled with 256 titanosaur eggs in India. Six species of the massive, long-necked herbivores laid eggs in the hatching area, indicating more diversity than anticipated.

Working in Japan, scientists discovered an unlikely partnership between the rare Amami rabbit and a parasitic plant that feeds on the roots of others. The rabbit and plant have a mutually beneficial arrangement; the animal eats the unappealing fruit produced by the plant, which relies on rabbits to disperse its seeds. An ongoing debate has been concluded, as research reveals indigenous Americans most likely travelled from the America’s to Siberia multiple times via boat, including as recently as 1,500 years ago. Native American DNA found in ancient Siberians’ genomes suggests it wasn’t a one-way trip.

Chicken DNA introduced by domestication is supplanting wild genomes of local red junglefowl in Singapore. Chickens sometimes mate with their undomesticated cousins, endangering the latter’s genetic diversity and potentially its ability to resist disease. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US will no longer require new drugs to be tested on animals. Developers can use alternative methods, such as simulating human tissues with high-tech chips, to prove a drug is safe to test in humans.



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