Fossil Misidentified for 150 Years Revealed as First Freshwater Lobopodian
A fossil once thought to be a caterpillar has been reclassified as the first known nonmarine lobopodian, reshaping understanding of early animal evolution. According to a new study in Communications Biology, Palaeocampa anthrax – originally described in 1865 and long mislabeled – has now been identified as a spiny, legged relative of modern arthropods that lived in freshwater during the Carboniferous period.
Researchers analyzed over 40 specimens from two Lagerstätten – Mazon Creek (USA) and Montceau-les-Mines (France) – using backscatter scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive spectroscopy, and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The latter revealed chemical residues, including aldehyde-like compounds, at the tips of nearly 1,000 preserved spines – suggesting a potential chemical defense system.
"It was literally hiding in plain sight," said lead author Richard Knecht in a press release. "Sometimes, the biggest discoveries are the ones waiting to be looked at again."
Mini Spectrometer Achieves High Precision with Quantum Dot Filters
A newly developed miniaturized near-infrared spectrometer, powered by finely tuned lead sulfide (PbS) quantum dots (QDs), achieves excellent spectral resolution and accuracy – opening the door to portable, low-cost applications in fields like medical diagnostics and quality control.
Published in Nano Research, the study from Huazhong University of Science and Technology outlines a contact-printed QD filter array paired with an InGaAs image sensor. The filters are made from monodisperse PbS QDs synthesized via a seeded-growth cation exchange method, with size distributions below 4 percent and absorption peak intervals controlled to within 3 nm. This high uniformity boosts both spectral resolution and noise resistance, allowing the device to distinguish spectral features just 1.5 nm apart across a wide 900–1700 nm range.
The team used a TKVA reconstruction algorithm to achieve high-fidelity spectral recovery (R² up to 0.998), and demonstrated accurate quantification of alcohol content in white wines. Comparisons with commercial instruments showed the QD spectrometer performs on par, but with reduced size and complexity.
Electrolyte Strategy Boosts Efficiency in Green Ammonia Production
A key relationship between electrolyte composition and ammonia yield has been identified in lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction, offering a strategy to improve electrochemical ammonia synthesis efficiency. Published in Energy & Environmental Science, the study shows that the ethanol-to-water ratio in the electrolyte governs the structure of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI), which in turn affects selectivity and reaction performance.
Using in situ infrared spectroscopy and cryo-scanning electron microscopy, the researchers observed that increasing water content caused a shift from lithium ethoxide (LiEtO)-rich SEIs to layered structures containing LiOH and Li₂O. These changes were correlated with reduced hydrogen evolution and higher Faradaic efficiency in ammonia production.
The findings suggest that electrolyte tuning can serve as a controllable parameter for optimizing lithium-mediated nitrogen reduction systems as a potential alternative to the fossil fuel–intensive Haber–Bosch process.
Ribose's Phosphate Preference Offers Clue to RNA Origins
Ribose reacts more rapidly and selectively with phosphate than other similar sugars, forming chemical structures compatible with RNA – offering a possible explanation for how it became the sugar backbone of life’s earliest genetic material. The findings, published in Angewandte Chemie, suggest that ribose may have been chemically favored under prebiotic conditions, even before enzymes or life existed.
In controlled experiments, researchers tested the reaction of diamidophosphate (DAP) – a prebiotically plausible phosphorylating agent – with ribose, arabinose, xylose, and lyxose. Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, they found that while all sugars could react with DAP, only ribose formed 5-membered ring cyclic phosphate products rapidly and exclusively – the structure used in RNA today.
When all four sugars were present, DAP preferentially phosphorylated ribose, which advanced further in the reaction than its counterparts. “Ribose not only reacts faster than the other sugars, it’s also more selective for the five-member ring form, which happens to be the form that we see in RNA and DNA today,” said lead author Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy in a press release. The results provide chemical support for ribose selection in early nucleotide formation, while acknowledging that many steps still remain before the emergence of RNA.
Building Blocks of Life Detected in a Distant Planet-Forming Disk
Tentative detections of ethylene glycol and glycolonitrile – complex organic molecules considered precursors to sugars and amino acids – have been reported in the protoplanetary disk around the outbursting star V883 Orionis. The findings suggest that key molecular ingredients for life may be inherited from earlier stages of star formation, challenging the “chemical reset” hypothesis and supporting the idea that the seeds of life assemble in space and are more widespread than previously assumed.
The team used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to detect these molecules via rotational spectroscopy, identifying 15 emission lines corresponding to ethylene glycol and 6 to glycolonitrile. As the central star underwent an energetic outburst, heat vaporized surrounding ices, releasing volatile organics into the gas phase where their rotational transitions became detectable at millimeter wavelengths. These spectral “fingerprints” enabled astronomers to measure the abundance and distribution of the molecules across the disk.
“While this result is exciting, we still haven't disentangled all the signatures we found in our spectra,” said co-author Kamber Schwarz in a press release. “Higher resolution data will confirm the detections of ethylene glycol and glycolonitril and maybe even reveal more complex chemicals we simply haven't identified yet.”
Newsletters
Receive the latest analytical science news, personalities, education, and career development – weekly to your inbox.
