Using drones to hunt for Lichens - as a way to find Dinosaur bones.

The progress of palaeontology as a science is reliant upon the discovery of new fossils, but this process is in itself often close to random. Palaeontologists can identify places they where believe fossils are likely to be found, but this is no guarantee of results, with success often more reliant on luck than science. Anecdotal evidence has suggested for some time that types of red Lichen grow preferentially on the bones of Vertebrates in the Dinosaur beds of western North America, but this has not previously been put to any actual scientific test.

In a paper published in the journal Current Biology on 3 November 2025, Brian Pickles of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading, Caleb Brown of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Manitoba, and the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alberta, Sean Herridge-Berry of the Department of Geography and Environment and Institute for Geospatial Inquiry, Instruction and Innovation at the University of Lethbridge, Cameron Martin, Melissa Dergousoff, and Teri Gilmar, also of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Reading, Phil Bell of the Palaeoscience Research Centre at the University of New England, and Derek Peddle, also of the Department of Geography and Environment and Institute for Geospatial Inquiry, Instruction and Innovation at the University of Lethbridge, present the results of a study in which they used drones to search for Dinosaur fossils by searching for pigments produced by Lichens.

Pickles et al. targeted three multi-taxic microfossil bonebeds within the Dinosaur Park Formation at exposures in Dinosaur Provincial Park, in Alberta, Canada. Within these beds, fossil bone made up between 2% and 6% of the total volume, which ironstone made up between 92% and 98%. The presence of two Lichens, Rusavskia elegans and Xanthomendoza trachyphylla, was found to be strongly correlated with the presence of bone, with no discernible correlation between Lichen presence and ironstone density. Lichen density appeared to correlate well with the amount of time bones had been exposed on the surface.

Lichen were found to be more reflective within the near-infrared to shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum (800–1400 nm), but less reflective in the blue part of the spectrum (400-500 nm) than substrates such as fossil bones, fossil teeth, ironstone, or sandstone, whereas the spectra of by fossil bone was not notably different from that of the surrounding sediment. 

Preferential colonisation of Dinosaur bones by Lichens with distinctive spectral profiles and their detection in drone images. (A) Photograph of mixed faunal bonebed (BB 209) in Dinosaur Provincial Park showing extensive Lichen colonisation of two exposed Hadrosaur limb bones (white arrows), but absent on surrounding sediment (2005). (B) Photograph of the Centrosaurus Bonebed (BB 43) in Dinosaur Provincial Park prior to excavation showing extensive Lichen colonisation of abundant surface-exposed Dinosaur bones (1979). (C) Spectral reflectance plot of major components of the Alberta badlands environment including rock substrates, Rusavskia elegans Lichen, and Vertebrate fossils. (D)–(F) Drone image of mixed faunal bonebed (BB23) in Dinosaur Provincial Park acquired at 30 m above ground; (E) and (F) are zoomed in with each pixel measuring ~2.5 x 2.5 cm and blue pixels in (F) indicating positive detection of Lichen-colonised fossil Dinosaur bones from the spectral classification. Pickles et al. (2025).

Pickles et al. were able to detect Lichen growing on Vertebrate fossils, primarily the bones of Ornithischian Dinosaurs, in images taken using a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System hovering 30 m above the ground, at which distance each pixel represented an area of 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm. The contrast between the Lichen and the background was sufficient to allow detection by an unsupervised algorithm.

Lichen was found to be most heavily concentrated upon the bones of large Ornithischian Dinosaurs, such as Hadrosaurs and Ceratopsids, and in particular on the large limb bones of these, although it was unclear whether this was a true ecological preference, due to the high porosity and large surface area of these bones, or a sampling bias brought about by the abundance of these bones compared to those of other Dinosaurs. Likewise, Lichen were found to grown more abundantly on the lower part of the exposure, but this was also where Dinosaur bones were most abundant. 

Pickles et al. suspect that the preference shown for Dinosaur bones by the Lichen reflects a preference for alkaline, calcareous substrates. They further believe that the porous nature of Dinosaur bones makes more of this substrate readily available, and note that the Lichen were not colonising teeth (other than the cementum of the tooth root), which have a similar chemical makeup to bone, but are denser and less porous. The also note that the more porous bone might be retaining more water than other exposed substrates in the Alberta badlands, which might be another factor promoting Lichen growth.

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The Holly and the Alphaproteobacterium.

The Family Phyllobacteriaceae comprises a group of 19 genera of Alphaproteobacteria, commonly associated with Plants, with many species associated with nitrogen-fixation, nutrient cycling and bioremediation (converting toxic substances into non-toxic substances), although other species are found free-living in soil or water. Strains belonging to the family Phyllobacteriaceae are usually Gram-stain-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic, non-spore forming and non-motile or motile utilising polar, subpolar or lateral flagella. Many members of the genera Mesorhizobium and Phyllobacterium have Plant-growth-promoting properties, with Mesorhizobium in particular commonly associated with the rhizosphere (root-system and associated biological community) of Legumes, where some species have been shown both to fix nitrogen, which is then utilised by the Plants, and receive carbon compounds from the Plants in return. Members of the genus Aminobacter have also been shown to be capable of fixing nitrogen and in some cases to be associated with the root-nodules of Legumes, although this genus is typically free-living in soil or water, with some species surviving entirely chemolithotropicly, utilising carbon monoxide in the process.

In a paper published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology on 3 November 2025, Sinchan Banerjee of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, András Táncsics of the Department of Molecular Ecology at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Zeqin Wu, Tudor Stafioiu, and Jiacheng Gao, also of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, Erika Tóth of the Department of Microbiology at Eötvös Loránd University, Erzsébet Baka, also of the Department of Molecular Ecology at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and Gary Bending and Hendrik Schäfer, again of the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, describe a new species of Phyllobacterium, derived from the leaves of a Holly tree, with the ability to oxidise carbon monoxide.

Carbon monoxide is a common pollutant, produced by a range of industrial and other Human activities, and deadly to both Human and most Animal life. Notably, it is a significant product of biomass burning, which many countries are looking to as a potential energy source as they try to move away from a dependence on fossil fuels. Carbon monoxide is also produced by a range of natural occurrences, from forest fires to rock weathering, but does not build up in the environment, as it is also removed by a range of biological and non-biological processes. This means that carbon monoxide does not present a global atmosphere-changing threat, in the way that carbon dioxide or methane emissions do, but that it does represent a significant hazard at the local level, and that means of reducing that hazard are of interest to a range of researchers.

The phyllosphere, that part of Plants which is above the ground, presents a novel and often challenging environment for micro-organisms, with fluctuating exposure to heat and ultraviolet radiation, nutrient supplies strictly controlled by the host-Plant, and, frequently, exposure to a range of environmental pollutants. 

Banerjee et al. collected Common Holly, Ilex aquifolium, leaves from Tocil Wood Nature Reserve in Coventry, UK. Leaf-wash preparations were made from these, and stored in vials with the headspace filled with carbon monoxide. Samples where the carbon monoxide level was found to drop were placed on agar plates, and incubated at 25°C for five days, to promote Bacterial growth. 

The resultant colonies were subject to 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, which established that Banerjee et al. had found a novel Barcterial strain, which they identified as SB112ᵀ. This strain was then subjected to a full genome phylogenomic analysis, establishing that it was a novel species of Phyllobacterium, related to the genus Mesorhizobium. 

Since SB112ᵀ does not appear to fir into any currently designated genus, Banerjee et al. assign it to a new genus, which they name Foliimonas, which is derived from 'folium' meaning 'leaf' and 'monas' meaning 'unit' (a common suffix for Bacterial names), and give it the specific name ilicis, meaning 'of the Holly Tree'.

Phylogenomic tree constructed using Up-to-date Bacterial Core Genes (concatenated alignment of 92 core genes) showing the phylogenetic position of Foliimonas ilicis (SB112ᵀ). For inferring the tree, the FastTree algorithm was used. Bar represents 0.02 substitution per nucleotide position. Banerjee et al. (2025).

Foliimonas ilicis is a Gram- reaction- negative, aerobic, rod-shaped Bacterium, which is motile with a polar flagellum. Cells have an average length of 1.18 μm. The species has an optimum growth range of 20-37°C, with growth stopping completely below 4°C. Foliimonas ilicis can oxidise carbon monoxide, but is unable to reduce nitrous oxides of ferric citrate. It produces esterase (C4), esterase lipase (C8), leucine arylamidase, acid phosphatase, naphthol-AS-BI-phosphohydrolase, valine arylamidase, cystine arylamidase and trypsin, but not urase. It could assimilate d-glucose, l-arabinose, d-mannitol, d-mannose, potassium gluconate and malic acid, and metabolise l-arabinose, d-xylose and xylitol.

Transmission electron microscopic photograph showing cell morphology and presence of flagella in Foliimonas ilicis. Scale bar is 1 µm. Banerjee et al. (2025).

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At least 116 dead as Typhoon Kalmaegi sweeps across the Philippines.

At least 116 people are now known to have died, with many more still missing, after Typhoon Kalmaegi swept across the central Philippines on Tuesday 4 November 2025. The majority of the deaths occurred in the city of Cebu, and surrounding metropolitan area, with 35 people having apparently drowned in a single incident in the town of Liloan, with 76 people having died in the greater metropolitan area, despite over 400 000 being evacuated from areas deemed to be at risk ahead of the storm. On Mindanao Island a military helicopter taking part in relief efforts crashed during the storm, leading to the deaths of all six crewmembers.

Damage in the city of Talisay on Cebu Island following the passage of Typhoon Kalmaegi on 4 November 2025. Jam Sta Rosa/AFP/Getty Images.

On Negros Island at least 12 people have died and 12 more are still missing after heavy rains triggered a lahar, which buried a number of homes in Canlaon City. Lahars are ash-laden flash floods associated with volcanoes. They can be caused directly by volcanic eruptions, for example when hot lava encounters a glacial lake rapidly destroying an ice dam, but are also common in areas of high seasonal rainfall, where ash deposits from a volcano can build up during the dry season, creating dams on seasonal waterways, which temporarily halt the flow of water, then give way rapidly leading to dramatic flash floods. The Negtos lahar was caused by heavy rains associated with Typhoon Kalmaegi falling onto unconsolidated ash from an eruption on Mount Kanloan last year.

Tropical storms are caused by the warming effect of the Sun over tropical seas. As the air warms it expands, causing a drop in air pressure, and rises, causing air from outside the area to rush in to replace it. If this happens over a sufficiently wide area, then the inrushing winds will be affected by centrifugal forces caused by the Earth's rotation (the Coriolis effect). This means that winds will be deflected clockwise in the northern hemisphere and anti-clockwise in the southern hemisphere, eventually creating a large, rotating Tropical Storm. They have different names in different parts of the world, with those in the northwest Pacific being referred to as typhoons.

The structure of a tropical cyclone. Wikimedia Commons.

Despite the obvious danger of winds of this speed, which can physically blow people, and other large objects, away as well as damaging buildings and uprooting trees, the real danger from these storms comes from the flooding they bring. Each drop millibar drop in air-pressure leads to an approximate 1 cm rise in sea level, with big tropical storms capable of causing a storm surge of several meters. This is always accompanied by heavy rainfall, since warm air over the ocean leads to evaporation of sea water, which is then carried with the storm. These combined often lead to catastrophic flooding in areas hit by tropical storms. 

The formation and impact of a storm surge. eSchoolToday.

Typhoon Kalmaegi, known as Typhoon Tino in the Philippines, deposited 183 mm of rain onto Cebu Island in the 24 hours before making landfall. When it arrived, it brought with it sustained winds of more than 130 km per hour, with gusts exceeding 180 km per hour. Storms such as this are becoming more frequent due to global warming which is warming the oceans faster than the land, with the Philippines, which typically suffers about 20 storms per year, having been hit by twelve major storms since the typhoon season began in June this year: Tropical Storm Wutip in June, Typhoon Danas, Severe Tropical Storm Wipha, and Severe Tropical Storm Co-May in July, Tropical Depression Fabian and Typhoon Kajiki in August, Tropical Storm Mita, Typhoon Ragasa, and Typhoon Bualoi in September, and Typhoon Matmo, Severe Tropical Storm Fengshen, and Tropical Depression Salome in October. Furthermore, it is thought likely that a system currently known as Tropical Depression Thirty Two, which is currently crossing the central Pacific, will increase in strength and become a Typhoon-strength storm before making landfall in the Philippines this weekend.

A rescue team in the Talamban District of Cebu City following the passage of Typhoon Kalmaegi on 4 November 2025. Philippine Red Cross/Reuters.

As well as leading to larger and more frequent storms, warmer seas can enable them to change course rapidly, making it harder to predict where and when they will make landfall. However, this does not appear to have been the issue in the Philippines this week, where over half a million people were evacuated in advance from areas considered vulnerable to the storm. Instead, the storm has contributed to a growing corruption scandal in the country, with approximately 26.6 billion Philippine Pesos (about US$452 million) having been spent on flood defences which were found to be insufficient, incomplete, or simply absent as the storm approached.

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Seven known deaths following avalanche on Mount Yalung Ri, Nepal.

Seven people are known to have died and another four are missing following an avalanche on Mount Yalung Ri in the Rolwaling Himal Mountain Range (part of the Wider Himalayas) in east-central Nepal, close to the Tibetan border. The event happened at about 8.30 am local time on Monday 3 November 2025, shortly after the party had left a base camp at 4900 m to ascend the 5630 m peak. The known dead comprise two Nepalese mountain guides, plus five foreign tourists, two Italians, a Canadian, a German, and a Frenchman. Four more Nepalese mountain guides, and another two French tourists (one of whom is understood to have been the wife of the deceased French national) survived, but had to be airlifted to a hospital in Kathmandu to be treated for a variety of injuries. All four of the missing climbers are described as experienced Nepalese mountain guides, familiar with high-altitude conditions.

The location of Yalung Ri. Google Maps.

Avalanches are caused by the mechanical failure of snowpacks; essentially when the weight of the snow above a certain point exceeds the carrying capacity of the snow at that point to support its weight. This can happen for two reasons, because more snow falls upslope, causing the weight to rise, or because snow begins to melt downslope, causing the carrying capacity to fall. Avalanches may also be triggered by other events, such as Earthquakes or rockfalls. Contrary to what is often seen in films and on television, avalanches are not usually triggered by loud noises. Because snow forms layers, with each layer typically occurring due to a different snowfall, and having different physical properties, multiple avalanches can occur at the same spot, with the failure of a weaker layer losing to the loss of the snow above it, but other layers below left in place - to potentially fail later.

Diagrammatic representation of an avalanche, showing how layering of snow contributes to these events. Expedition Earth.

Yalung Ri is generally considered to be a 'safe' mountain for inexperienced climbers, and the team hit by the avalanche had been scaling it as part of a training exercise ahead of an attempt on the more challenging, 6334 m Dorma Kang. However, Nepal has been hit by particularly high snowfalls this autumn, linked to Cyclone Montha, which hit the coast of Andhra Pradesh, India, on Tuesday 28 October. This has led to a series of snowfall related events, and has led many high-altitude communities in Nepal to move to lower locations temporarily. One of the surviving tourists on Yalung Ri has complained that, despite calling for help, rescue workers did not reach them till some time after the avalanche, something which rescue workers have attributed to poor weather conditions, which prevented a helicopter from approaching the mountain.

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World Tsunami Awareness Day.

November 5 2025 will mark the tenth annual World Tsunami Awareness Day. The event this year is dedicated to the theme 'Be Tsunami Ready: Invest in Tsunami Preparedness'. This intended to raise awareness of the risks presented by tsunamis, and promote investment in in tsunami early warning, evacuation mapping, risk education, and regular drills reduce mortality, limit disruption, and protect development gains along coasts. 

Social media art for World Tsunami Awareness Day 2025. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

World Tsunami Awareness Day was adopted as an annual event in December 2015, as part of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, a program intended to run from 2015 to 2030, which aims to increase the world's resilience to natural disasters, by providing United Nations member states with actions intended to protect development gains from natural disasters. The Sendai Framework is intended to run in concert with the Paris Agreement on climate change. The Sendai Framework was intended as the successor to the Hyogo Framework for Action, which was founded in 2005, in response to the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, which killed over 227 000 people in coastal communities around the Indian Ocean.

The word tsunami derives from the Japanese 津波 (tsu-nami), meaning 'harbour wave'. The term refers to the large waves which occur when large water movements enter an enclosed coastal area, such as harbours. The initial water movements are typically caused by geological events such as Earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, or even meteor impacts, and can be almost invisible when crossing deep water, but become deadly when entering shallow and confined spaces. A tsunami typically takes the form of a sudden drop in sea level, often exposing areas of the seabed not normally exposed, followed by an inrush of water which sweeps over low-lying areas, often sweeping away coastal communities.

The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 was caused by a Magnitude 9.2 Earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, and caused waves up to 30 m high to sweep over coastal communities in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and parts of India, with fatalities recorded as far away as South Africa.

Animation showing the movements of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami. NOAA/Center for Tsunami Research/Wikimedia Commons.

The 2011 Tōhoku Tsunami was caused by a Magnitude 9.0 Earthquake off the coast of the Oshika Peninsula, Japan, and caused waves over 40 m high travelling at speeds of over 700 km per hour to overwhelm communities as far as 10 km from the coast. This led to over 19 750 deaths, and the destruction of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

The 1883 Krakatoa eruption (in which the Krakatoa volcano essentially exploded) caused a tsunami within the Sunda Straight (which separates Sumatra from Java) with a maximum recorded height of 46 m, washing away coastal communities on both islands, and many smaller ones, and killing over 36 000 people, with fatalities recorded as far away as Sri Lanka.

The Minoan eruption, which occurred around 1600 BC, is destroyed much of the island of Santorini, and triggered a tsunami which swept over the island of Crete, destroying the Minoan civilisation which was based there. It has been suggested that the waves also reached other civilisations around the Eastern Mediterranean, including Egypt, although this has been hard to prove.

The Storegga Submarine Landslide, which occurred some time between 6225 and 6170 BC, displaced about 3500 km³ of material along a 290 km stretch of the continental shelf off the coast of Norway. This triggered a tsunami which scoured about 600 km of Scottish coastline, with waves reaching about 29 km inland, wiping out the Mesolithic civilisation which dwelt there. It has also been suggested that tsunamis caused by this event may have swamped Doggerland, the former landbridge which connected Great Britain to the European continent, although it is now generally accepted that this was drowned by rising waters associated with melting glaciers at the end of the Pleistocene.

No known example of a meteorite causing a tsunami has been recorded in Human history. However, the Chicxulub Impact at the End of the Cretaceous is thought to have caused waves up to 600 m high to hit the coast of what is now Louisiana, causing major sediment redistributions from Texas to Florida.

Tsunamis, therefore, present a series threat to coastal, and in extreme cases non-coastal communities and infrastructure. Human survival in the face of such events is often dependent on good early warning systems; part of the reason that the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami was so deadly was that the Indian Ocean did not have a tsunami warning system similar to that which had been in place in the Pacific since 1965. One of the achievements of the Hyogo Framework being the establishment of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System in 2006.

Social media art for World Tsunami Awareness Day 2025. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

The concept of World Tsunami Awareness Day 2025 is to promote five courses of action to protect coastal communities from the dangers of tsunamis. 

The first of these calls on national and local governments, finance ministries, development banks, insurers, and private investors to commit multi-year financing for tsunami preparedness and multi-hazard early warning systems. 

The second calls upon coastal municipalities, community groups, school systems, tourism operators, and media partners to elevate tsunami readiness, enrol in recognized community frameworks, and showcase real-world success stories. 

The third calls for disaster management authorities, educators, non-governmental organisations, and local media to co-develop and distribute tsunami risk-communication toolkits, and to institutionalise regular public education and community drills aligned with readiness indicators.

The fourth calls upon mayors, civil protection leads, school principals, health and port authorities, and faith/youth leaders to serve as visible champions for tsunami preparedness in their communities.

Finally, the fifth course of action calls upon research institutions, technology providers, and public agencies to promote international awareness and knowledge-sharing of disaster-risk-reduction technologies adapting and piloting them in high-risk coastal areas.

Social media art for World Tsunami Awareness Day 2025. United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

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