Shroomhenge

I am SO totally geeking out over this!

Bluebell & Sparkle!

Finally, the story we’ve all waited for!

Nalini Singh returns to the world of the Guild Hunters for the most highly anticipated novel of the beloved series—a love story so epic it’s been half a millennia in the making…

Illium and Aodhan. Aodhan and Illium. For centuries they’ve been inseparable: the best of friends, closer than brothers, companions of the heart. But that was before—before darkness befell Aodhan and shattered him, body, mind, and soul. Now, at long last, Aodhan is healing, but his new-found strength and independence may come at a devastating cost—his relationship with Illium.

As they serve side by side in China, a territory yet marked by the evil of its former archangel, the secret it holds nightmarish beyond imagining, things come to an explosive decision point. Illium and Aodhan must either walk away from the relationship that has defined them—or step forward into a future that promises a bond infinitely precious in the life of an immortal…but that demands a terrifying vulnerability from two badly bruised hearts.

Geekness: Wolves, Plague, and Teeth

Credit: Mauricio Antón

DNA analysis has shown that dire wolves aren’t nearly as close to gray wolves and other canid species as previously thought. In fact, they appear to have been the sole survivors of an ancient lineage and should have their own genus, Aenocyon. The lineage of the dire wolf and that of the gray wolf split more than 5 million years ago. And, even stranger, dire wolves never interbred with either gray wolves or coyotes.

See: Ancient DNA reveals secrets of Game of Thrones wolves (EurekAlert!) and Dire Wolves Were Not Really Wolves, New Genetic Clues Reveal: The extinct giant canids were a remarkable example of convergent evolution by Riley Black (Scientific American)

A fascinating study from Stockholm University hints at a possible outbreak of Yersinia Pestis, aka the Plague, in the area west of Lake Baikal about 4400 years ago. It also demonstrates a genetic relationship between peoples inhabiting the Baikal area about 6000 years ago and Paleo-Inuit populations in Greenland approximately 4000 years BP.

See: Ancient DNA analysis reveals Asian migration and plague (EurekAlert!)

Some teeth discovered in Meipu cave in China, and dated between 780,0000 and 990,000 years ago, are NOT Homo erectus, but something older. They seem to have closer similarities with Homo ergaster and the Dmanisi hominins than with H. erectus.

See: Meipu teeth shed light on the human settlement of Asia (Phys.org)

As always, Lady Whistledown has the scoop!

Yay! Who will they cast to play Kate Sheffield, the future Viscountess Bridgerton and able wielder of the Mallet of Death? I’ve wondered if one of the Sheffields would inherit the Featherington estates. Or, perhaps, one of the Penwood family?

Can’t wait to see. Also, I love that Queen Charlotte has such a prominent role in the show, but, this is a Regency series. Where’s the Regent? Why hasn’t Prinny made an appearance?

This is how I spent my Christmas!

I watched the whole series, only stopping long enough to prepare dinner. It is awesome! Can’t wait for the second season!

Bjorn!

Is he crazy? Or is there a very tricksy ambush about to happen?  Or is Ivar just seeing things?  Whichever it is, the gods are, no doubt, enjoying the show!

Best of Bugs

I don’t really agree with #10.  What about that last scene in “Duck Amuck!”?  Or “Falling Hare”?  What do you think?

Happy Birthday, Bugs!

People were in the Americas at least 15,000 years earlier than previously thought

I’ve always thought the peopling of the Americas was more complex than DNA evidence would have us believe. The ice retreated and advanced many times. Who knows how many times various clans wandered into the “New World” and died out when the ice advanced.  Stone tools discovered in Mexico’s Chiquihuite Cave have pushed back the arrival of the first humans in the New World by, at least, 15,000 years.

Dr Ardelean said: “We don’t know who they were, where they came from or where they went. They are a complete enigma. We falsely assume that the indigenous populations in the Americas today are direct descendants from the earliest Americans, but now we do not think that is the case.

“By the time the famous Clovis population entered America, the very early Americans had disappeared thousands of years before. There could have been many failed colonisations that were lost in time and did not leave genetic traces in the population today.”
Earliest humans stayed at the Americas ‘oldest hotel’ in Mexican cave – University of Cambridge

Also read:

Stone tools move back the arrival of humans in America thousands of years
University of Copenhagen the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences
July 22, 2020

Humans may have reached the Americas 15,000 years earlier than previously thought
University of New South Wales
July 23, 2020