Troubled waters

Diania cactiformis

Around 520 million years ago, a walking cactus roamed the Earth. Its body had nine segments, each bearing a pair of armour-plated legs, covered in thorns. It was an animal, but one that looked more like the concoction of a bad fantasy artist. Jianni Liu from Northwest University in Xi’an discovered this bundle of spines and named it Diania cactiformis – the “walking cactus from Yunnan”. And she thinks that it sits at the roots of the most successful group of animals on the planet. If Liu is right, Diania is one of the earliest relatives of the arthropods – the group that includes insects, spiders, crabs, and more. These species all share a segmented body, a hard external skeleton and jointed legs. They are life’s winners, the most diverse of all animal groups.

Neanderthal feather accessories

A Neanderthal burial site in Italy reveals hundreds of bird bones mixed in with those of our hominid cousins. The bones had the feathers scraped off, as though the Neanderthals had removed them on purpose - and the only plausible reason they would do that is to wear the feathers. It's more evidence that Neanderthals were just as cultured as own ancient ancestors.

The woman shown in the above artist's impression is wearing what looks like a fascinator. 

Miranda sings

The unearthly sounds in this video are derived from electromagnetic signals picked up by the Voyager spacecraft as it flew past Miranda, moon of Uranus. 

The Infant's Grammar or a Pic-nic Party of the Parts of Speech

Two pages from The Infant's Grammar, published 1824. Source.

Scans of the whole book can be seen here.