Woman killed by Elephant in Kerala State, India.

A woman has died after being trampled by an Elephant on Monday 8 June 2026 in the village of Sinkukandam near the town of Suryanelli in the Idukki District of Kerala State, India. The woman, identified as Mari, a 36-year-old widow, mother of two, and day-labourer, encountered a mother Elephant with a calf while escorting her 11-year-old son to catch a school bus, at about 8.30 am local time. Both were attacked by the Animal, and subsequently rushed to a local hospital by a passing auto-rickshaw driver. Here Mari was pronounced dead, while her son, Dakshan, was transferred to the Kottayam Government Medical College Hospital for further treatment.

The funeral of a woman killed by an Elephant in the Idukki District of Kerala State on 8 June 2026. The Hindu.

The village is close to the Chinnakanal Reserve, which is home to a population of 18 Elephants. About 50 people are thought to have been killed by Elephants in and around Chinnakanal since 1990, ten of them by a single male known as 'Arikomban' who was eventually relocated away from the area by the Kerala Forest Department in 2023. This has placed considerable strain on the local Human population, and their ability to live alongside the area's Elephants.  

The major problem appears to be that the Chinnakanal Reserve covers an area of about 4 km², although only about half of this is utilised by the Elephants, who instead spill out into nearby farms and villages, often stealing food from Humans and coming into conflict with them. In an attempt to manage this conflict the Forest Department has set up a system alerts on social media and messaging platforms, which message people warning them that Elephants are in their area. However, local people have complained that they are not simply able to simply stop going about their daily business whenever Elephants wander into the area. On the day of the latest incident an alert had been put out, but visibility was very low due to rains and fog, apparently causing the victims to come close to the Elephants without realising the danger they were in until too late.

In 2022 Raju Francis of the Kerala Forest Development Corporation produced a report recommending the construction of a series of solar-powered electric fences to protect farmland and residential areas from Elephants emerging from the forest. Despite agreeing to this proposal, four years on the Forest Department has yet to install a single stretch of fencing, and is unable to confirm when this will begin, something which local people have described as grossly negligent, leaving their property and families vulnerable to Elephant attacks.

A group of Asian Elephants in Kerala State. Wikimedia Commons.

Asian Elephants, Elephas maximus, are classified as Endangered under the terms of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, as the population has declined by more than 50% over the last three generations (about 75 years for Elephants). There are currently about 50 000 Asian Elephants (although Elephants are notoriously difficult to count, despite being such large Animals) scattered across Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. However, this population is now highly fragmented, with most Elephants living in small groups, reproductively isolated from other groups, and often coming into conflict with local Human populations as the land allocated to Elephants shrinks.

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Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, inundated with pumice following eruption of Titan Ridge submarine volcano.

A series of eruptions from the Titan Ridge submarine volcano, beneath the Bismarck Sea in the southwest Pacific Ocean, has produced a large volume of pumice (a light volcanic rock, produced by the rapid cooling of gas rich lava from submarine eruptions, which can float on the sea), much of which has washed up onto the shores of Manus Island, the largest of the Admiralty Islands and a province of Papua New Guinea. This has caused serious problems for the local population, as it has formed a barrier between them and the sea, too dense to push a boat through, but too quicksand-like to walk across. This in turn has prevented them from harvesting fish and other seafood, the main staples of the island, as well as forcing them to become entirely dependent on the islands limited supply of freshwater for washing and hygiene, rather than bathing in the sea. The large accumulations of pumice are also likely to have smothered local coral reef ecosystems, harming longer-term fishing prospects in the region.

Residents of Manus Island on a beach covered by pumice. ABC.

Pumice forms when hot lava from submarine volcanic eruptions encounters seawater and cools rapidly, simultaneously crystalising and degassing to form a lightweight volcanic rock with many gas filled vesicles (bubbles) within it, which often floats on the sea surface. Big submarine eruptions can produce large volumes of pumice, forming rafts of pumice that cover hundreds of square kilometres, and drift on the ocean surface for months before dissipating or washing ashore. 

Titan Ridge, also known as the Central Bismarck Sea Volcano, is located about 125 km to the southeast of Manus, on the northern edge of the South Bismarck Plate. It is located on the boundary between the Willaumez Transform Fault and an unnamed section of area of seafloor spreading, where the South Bismarck and Pacific plates are being pulled apart, while at the same time the Pacific Plate is moving to the west and the South Bismarck Plate to the east. Here fresh material from the upper mantle is rising up through the fault and being erupted from the volcano as volcanic material, primarily pumice caused by the rapid cooling of a liquid melt containing dissolved gasses. 

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The Daytime Arietid Meteor Shower.

The Arietid Meteor Shower lasts from mid April till late June each year, and is expected to peak before dawn on Wednesday 10 June this year, and originating (appearing to come from) the constellation of Aries. Meteors from this shower can be very bright, leading to the label 'Daytime' Meteors (i.e. meteors that can be seen during the day), although the majority are quite dim, and can be hard to spot. At its peak, the shower can produce about 50 meteors per hour. This year that peak will coincide with a Waning Crescent Moon, which would not normally present a great deal of interference. However, the Moon is also in the constellation of Aries at this time, which may hamper viewing.

The origin point for the Aried Meteors seen from the Northern Hemisphere in early June. Spaceweather.

Meteor streams are thought to come from dust shed by comets as they come close to the Sun and their icy surfaces begin to evaporate away. Although the dust is separated from the comet, it continues to orbit the Sun on roughly the same orbital path, creating a visible meteor shower when the Earth crosses that path, and flecks of dust burn in the upper atmosphere, due to friction with the atmosphere.

The Earth passing through a stream of comet dust, resulting in a meteor shower. Not to scale. Astro Bob.

The origin of the Arietid Meteors is unclear. No body has been confidently identified as the source of the Arietid Meteors, though both the asteroid 1566 Icarus and the comet 96P/Machholz have been suggested. 

How the passage of the Earth through a meteor shower creates a radiant point from which they can be observed. In The Sky.

Though the Arietid Meteors can be hard to see, it may be possible to 'hear' them using an FM radio. In order to do this it will be necessary to find a frequency between 88.0 and 108.0 MHz without any transmissions or significant static (this may not be possible in urban areas). Meteors passing though the atmosphere generate radio waves at these frequencies, which can be heard as 'bumps' or 'chirps'. More detailed observations can be used if the radio set-up has a directional antenna, allowing the observer to concentrate on a particular part of the sky (this is essentially how radio telescopes work).

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Magnitude 5.6 Earthquake in Bhutan.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.6 Earthquake at a depth of 10.0 km, about 15 km to the northwest of the city of Punākha, in Punākha District, Bhutan, slightly after 11.35 pm local time (slightly after 5.35 pm GMT) on Sunday 7 June 2026. There are no reports of any damage or casualties arising from this quake, but people have reported feeling it as far away as Tibet, India, and Bangladesh.

The approximate location of the 7 June 2026 Bhutan Earthquake. USGS.

Earthquake activity in the area is caused by the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau, due to the impact of India into Eurasia to the south. he Indian Plate is moving northwards at a rate of 5 cm per year, causing it to impact into Eurasia, which is also moving northward, but only at a rate of 2 cm per year. The collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates has lead to the formation of the Himalayan Mountains, the Tibetan Plateau, and the mountains of southwest China, Central Asia and the Hindu Kush.

Block diagram showing how the impact of the Indian Plate into Eurasia is causing uplift on the Tibetan Plateau. Jayne Doucette/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Much of northern India and neighbouring areas of Central Asia and the Himalayas, are prone to Earthquakes caused by the impact of the Indian Plate into Eurasia from the south. When two tectonic plates collide in this way and one or both are oceanic then one will be subducted beneath the other (if one of the plates is continental then the other will be subducted), but if both plates are continental then subduction will not fully occur, but instead the plates will crumple, leading to folding and uplift (and quite a lot of Earthquakes). 

The movement of India into Eurasia over the last 71 million years. USGS.

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Bryozoans from the Early Cambrian Cambrian Xiannüdong Formation of Shaanxi Province, China.

Molecular clock studies have suggested that the Phylum Bryozoa, or Moss Animals, first appeared in the Early Cambrian, which is consistent with the appearance of nearly all other Animal phyla at this time. However, for a long time the earliest known fossil Bryozoans came from the Early Ordovician, at which point six of the eight known orders of Bryozoans appear abruptly. Several putative Cambrian Bryozoan fossils, such as Pywackia, Archaeotrypa, and Marcusodictyon, were described, but none of these was universally accepted as a Bryozoan. In 2021 a more plausible Brozoan, Protomelission gatehousei, was described from the Early Cambrian of Australia and South China. In this it was possible to identify several Brozoan traits, including monomorphic zooid capsules, modular construction, organic composition, and a simple linear budding growth geometry, leading to the conclusion that this was probably a stem-group Bryozoan.

Protomelission gatehousei from the Cambrian Wirrealpa Limestone, South Australia. (a)–(g) Holotype, SADME 10470. (a) Front side of the colony showing the seven series of zooids. Top box corners indicate the area shown in (f); bottom box corners show the broken-off part in (c). (b) The top broken part of (a). (c) The lower broken part of (a). (d) Oblique lateral view of the bilaminate colony. (e) Enlarged view of (d) showing the staggered budding pattern and the curved basal walls of the two back-to-back layers (arrows and tailed arrows) in the bifoliate colony. (f) Quincuncial arrangement of sub-hexagonal zooids with broken frontal walls. (g) Lateral view of uncovered zooids; note the minute spoon-shaped structure (arrow) at the proximal end of basal wall extending backwards underneath the distal part of the parent zooid. (h), (i) SADME 10470-2. (h) Lateral view of a broken colony, showing the largely broken frontal walls (tailed arrows) and basal walls of opposite layer (arrows). (i) Enlarged view of three adjacent zooids. Note the dome shape of the distal part of frontal wall (tailed arrows), and almost circular orifice of zooid. Abbreviations: B, basal wall; F, frontal wall. Zhang et al. (2021).

However, while Protomelission gatehousei shows enough Bryozoan-like features that most palaeontologists have accepted it to be at least a stem group Bryozoan, the specimens used to describe the species lacked the definitive Bryozoan soft-tissue anatomy and diagnostic skeletal microstructure which would be necessary for complete conformation, leaving the identity of these fossils open to challenge.

In a paper published in the journal Nature on 3 June 2026, Baopeng Song (宋宝鹏) and Zhifei Zhang (张志飞) of the Department of Geology at Northwest University, Luke Strotz, also of the Department of Geology at Northwest University and also of the Department of Earth Sciences at Utrecht University, Timothy Topper, again of the Department of Geology at Northwest University, and of the Department of Palaeobiology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Andrej Ernst of the Institut für Geologie at Universität Hamburg, Zhiliang Zhang of the Department of Geology at Northwest University, and the Institut für Geologie at Universität Hamburg, Mei Luo (罗梅), again of the Department of Geology at Northwest University, Lars Holmer, again of the Department of Geology at Northwest University, and of the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University, Yue Liang (梁悦), Yazhou Hu (胡亚洲), Caibin Zhang (张彩彬), and Yanlong Chen (陈延龙), all of the Department of Geology at Northwest University, and Glenn Brock, once again of the Department of Geology at Northwest University, and of the School of Natural Sciences at Macquarie University, describe new specimens of Protomelission gatehousei from the Early Cambrian Xiannüdong Formation of southern Shaanxi Province, China, as well as a second new species of Bryozoan from the same formation.

Notably, these fossils preserve soft-tissue features in exceptional fidelity, including internal moulds of membranous sacs in the zooid chambers, which allow the unequivocal placement of these taxa within the Phylum Bryozoa. The presence of two separate Bryozoan taxa within these Early Cambrian deposits pushes the origin of the group still earlier, confirming that this group appeared during the Cambrian explosion.

Specimen of Protomelission gatehousei from the Xiannüdong Formation in which the membranous sacs are preserved (ELI DYCX 8-001). (a) Front side of the colony. The outlined area is magnified in (h). (b) Back side of the colony. The outlined area is magnified in (j). (c) Lateral view of the bifoliate colony. (d) Oblique lateral view of the bifoliate colony showing the hollow arched mesotheca (arrow). (e) Partial enlargement of (c) showing the staggered budding pattern. (f), (g) X-ray tomographic microscopy images showing the longitudinal section of the colony and the orifice of autozooids (arrowheads) (f, oblique lateral view; (g) lateral view). (h) Quincuncial arrangement of sub-hexagonal membranous sacs with elliptical orifice. Note the 10-μm gap present between adjacent membranous sacs, indicating the loss of skeletal walls during the taphonomic processes. The outlined area is the membranous sac magnified in (i). (i) Enlarged view of a membranous sac showing the orifice (asterisk), circular fibres (arrow) and longitudinal fibres (arrowhead). These features suggest muscle preservation in the membranous sac. (j) Enlarged view of a zooid. Note that the aperture is coated with secondary phosphate. (k) Enlarged view of a zooid. Note that the secondary phosphate coating of the aperture is partially stripped away. (l), (m) Enlarged view of the membranous sac showing the longitudinal fibres in (l) arrowhead, and circular fibres in (m), arrow. These features suggest muscle preservation in the membranous sac. Scale bars, 500 μm (a)–(d), 50 μm (e), (i)–(k), 200 μm (f), 150 μm (g), 100 μm (h) and 30 μm (l), (m). Song et al. (2026).

These new specimens show Protomelission gatehousei as forming upright colonies with two curved lamellar sheets of zooids back-to-back, with the largest colonies being 1-2 mm in width and about 3 mm high, tapering towards their tip. Each of these lamellae has six-to-eight rows of zooids, with budding originating from a planar mesotheca.

Soft-tissue preservation of Protomelission gatehousei. (a)–(e) ELI DYCX 8-005. (a) Front side of the colony, box corners indicate the area shown in (d). (b) The back side of the colony. (c) Lateral view of the bifoliate colony. (d), (e) Enlarged view of elongated hexagonal zooids. Note the longitudinally neatly arranged cylindrical structures on the both sides of the ridge-like orifice, which are possible secondary coatings of protective shields. (f) Protective shields developed in an extant Cheilostome Bryozoan, Valdemunitella sp. photographed by Dennis Gordon (Wellington). Song et al. (2026).

The new species described is named Dayingomelission hexaclitia, where 'Dayingomelission' means 'honeycomb from Daying' and 'hexaclitia' means 'six slopes' in reference to the sloped, hexagonal apertures of its autozooids. Colonies of Dayingomelission hexaclitia form a sheet-like grown covering the substrate. This sheet is interpreted as having spread by linear branching, with a single row of zooids diverging to form two new rows. Each autozooid is hexagonal and box-like, between 200 µm to 400 µm in diameter, and separated from its neighbours by a double-walled structure. All vertical walls show this double-walled structure, while the basal wall is planar, sometimes showing a slight curvature. 

Specimens of Dayingomelission hexaclitia from the Xiannüdong Formation showing the colony and cystids. (a), (b) ELI ZJBX 10-001 (holotype). (a) Oblique view of the front side of a unilaminate colony form clearly showing the regular hexagonal, compactly arranged, honeycomb-shaped cystids. The outlined area is shown in (b). (b) Hexagonal cystid with vertical wall and ring septa clearly evident (arrow). (c)–(e) ELI ZJBX 10-002. (c) Front side of a unilaminate colony form. The bottom outlined area shows the cystids magnified in (d); whereas the top outline shows the cystids magnified in (e). (d) Enlarged view of adjacent cystids. Note the hexagonal vertical wall (arrow) and the basal exterior wall of cystids (arrowheads). (e) Row bifurcation showing change in zooid width along rows. (f)–(i) ELI ZJBX 3-001. (f) Front side of a unilaminate colony form with styles indenting the zooidal chambers. (g) Oblique view showing hexagonal cystids with styles. (h) Oblique view of colony surface. Note that the styles arise in the endozone and extend through most of exozone. (i) Enlarged view of the vertical wall with planar spherulitic fabric. Scale bars, 500 μm (a), (c), 80 μm (b), 100 μm (d), 200 μm (e), 300 μm (f), (g), 100 μm (h) and 25 μm (i). Song et al. (2026).

Both species have hexagonal zooids with a box-shaped profile and a non-porous phosphatized or silicified skeleton. These are more-or-less uniform in size, and angled at 30-75° to the median lamina or basal exterior wall. They have preserved phosphatized internal structures interpreted as membranous sacks, the outer end of which comprises an elliptical orifice surrounded by an undulating fold. These are made up of densely packed circular and longitudinal fibres interpreted as annular and longitudinal muscles. Longitudinally aligned cylindrical structures, possibly representing protective shields or a broad operculum are present in some specimens. In others sac is attached to the cystid wall in the inner part of the zooid cell.

Membranous sacs preserved in situ in the autozooid cystids of Protomelission gatehousei and Dayingomelission hexaclitia and colonial growth reconstruction of Protomelission gatehousei . (a), (b) Protomelission gatehousei  ELI DYCX 8-016. (a) Front side of a bifoliate colony showing the eight series of zooids. The outlined area is magnified in (b). (b) Enlarged view of a zooid. Note that the membranous sac (arrow) is preserved in the cystid (arrowhead). (c)–(g) Dayingomelission hexaclitia ELI DYCX 8-004. (c) Front side of a unilaminate colony, with ten series of zooids, all with membranous sacs and cystids. The outlined area is magnified in (g). (d) Back side of the colony showing the membranous sacs of the zooids and the gap between the sacs. The outlined area is magnified in (e). (e) Enlarged view showing capsule￾like membranes and gaps. (f) X-ray tomographic microscopy image showing the longitudinal section of zooids with membranous sacs and cystids. (g) Enlarged view highlighting that the membranous sacs (arrow) are captured in the cystids (arrowhead), and the membranous sacs are in contact with the cystids 20 μm from the apertures (ligamentous attachment, asterisks). (h) Three-dimensional reconstruction of a Bryozoan zooid with protruding lophophore. (i) Longitudinal section of reconstructed Bryozoan zooid. Greyish white, cystid; translucent white, membranous sac and tentacles; pink, polypide excluding tentacles. (j) Reconstruction of Protomelission gatehousei , front surface view. Scale bars, 500 μm (a), (c), (d), 40 μm (b), 200 μm (e), (f) and 100 μm (g). Song et al. (2026).

Both Protomelission gatehousei and Dayingomelission hexaclitia show most of the key features associated with Palaeozoic Bryozoans, including  aspects of their colony morphology, their skeletal architecture,  the presence of soft-tissue structures such as membranous sacs, as well as annular and longitudinal musculature. Notably they contain a number of features associated with the Class Stenolaemata, including styles and  a free-walled colony organisation, which would make both species crown-group Brozoans. This makes it more likely that they were biomineralized in life, although it is impossible to determine the initial composition of their skeletons. Brozoans are known to have undergone a number of independent biomineralization events, with a molecular clock analysis indicating that the first of these was likely to have happened in the Early Cambrian. These results also imply that the common ancestor of the organic￾walled Gymnolaemata and the mineralized Stenolaemata probably originated in the early Cambrian (Terreneuvian) or even perhaps in the Ediacaran Period.

Phylogenetic relationships of Bryozoans. A 50% majority-rule consensus phylogenetic tree inferred using morphological characters and Bayesian analysis based on a matrix of 22 taxa and 50 characters. Node values are Bayesian posterior probability support values. Coloured areas indicate the three taxonomic classes that comprise the Bryozoa along with outgroups, with Protomelission and Dayingomelission belonging to Stenolaemata. Song et al. (2026).

The presence of two species of Bryozoan in the Early Cambrian Xiannüdong Formation of Shaanxi Province, as well as one of these species being present in the lower Wirrealpa Limestone of South Australia makes it likely that Bryazoans had already diversified and become widespread in the Early Cambrian. This lends support to the idea that the tentative mineralised Bryomorphs from the Lower Cambrian of Nevada recently described by Pruss et al. (2022) are also Bryozoans, and that Moss Animals were therefore widespread in shallow Cambrian seas, particularly Archaeocyath reef-associated carbonate platform settings. 

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