Six 'space balls' found on Queensland beach.

Local authorities in Forest Beach, Queensland, have set up a 50 m exclusion zone around a group of six spherical objects that washed up on beaches on Friday 3, Saturday 4, and Sunday 5 July 2026. The objects have been identified by the Australian Space Agency as most probably being propellant tanks from a recent space launch. These tanks would have contained pressurised fuel before it was released, during the launch process, and have warned people not to approach them due to the possibility of residual amounts of flammable or reactive chemicals being present.

One of six spherical metal objects which washed up on beaches around Forest Beach, Queensland, in the first week of July 2026. Queensland Fire Department.

Spacecraft tend to contain a lot of thick-walled spherical tanks, which is the most stable shape for a tank containing liquids under pressure in a changing gravity field. Unfortunately this is also a good shape for surviving re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere, so as the amount of space junk orbiting the Earth increases, so does the number of metal spheres falling from the sky. As yet there have been no reported cases of death or serious injury caused by space junk, but it does seem to be an increasing hazard on Earth as well as in orbit, with several reports of damage to property now coming in each year.

The basic design of a hydrazine bladder tank, thought to be the type object found on a Queensland beach this week. The tank comprises a tough, protective, outer shell, typically made of titanium, with a flexible bladder inside, which shrinks as the gas inside is expelled, maintaining a constant pressure. Ariane Orbital Propulsion Centre.

Because the debris are thought to have come from a non-Australian rocket, they are covered by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which enables countries to reclaim any portion of a space vehicle which fell onto another country's territory, in order to investigate any problems with a launch or re-entry procedure. The Australian Space Agency have therefore contacted the country they believe to have carried out the launch from which the tanks came in order to give them the chance to reclaim their parts. They do not, however, expect them to act upon this, as the launch was successful and such tanks are often recovered intact. In the modern world it is unusual for countries to exercise their rights under the Outer Space Treaty, which comes from a time when space travel was a newer and more experimental technology.

A spherical metal object which washed up on a beach near Forest Beach, Queensland, in the first week of July 2026. Queensland Fire Department.

Although not generally considered one of the world's leading environmental problems, the increasing amount of space traffic and man-made objects in orbit, means that the space industry is beginning to have a serious environmental impact. There were 324 space launches in 2025, and have been 154 so far in 2026, with the largest rockets (which are becoming more common, as they can carry multiple satellites at a time) releasing around 76 000 tons of carbon dioxide in a launch. Other environmental impacts are large pieces of debris from launches, such as those found in Queensland this week, but also particulate matter from the breakup of larger pieces of launch stage rockets and satellites re-entering the atmosphere, as well as combustion products of metal and plastics burned during these processes.

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Algeria, Australia, and Tunisia have all eliminated Trachoma as a public health risk.

On 23 April 2026 the World Health Organization published a press release confirming that Algeria had eliminated Trachoma, a transmissible Bacterial disease which is thew world's leading infectious cause of blindness. On 29 April a second press release confirmed that Australia had eliminated the disease. On 14 May a third press release confirmed that Trachoma had also been eliminated in Tunisia. This brings the number of countries which have eliminated the once widespread tropical disease to 31. Countries where it has previously been eliminated are: Benin, Burundi, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Fiji, The Gambia, Ghana, India, Iraq, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Togo, Vanuatu and Vietnam.

Regular examination of eyes at risk can help to reduce the incidence of communicable diseases such as Trachoma. Lily Solomon/World Health Organization.

Trachoma is caused by the Bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis, and spread through contact with mucus emitted from the eyes and nose during infection, and can be spread by Flies. Infections are most common among children, and the disease can spread rapidly in overcrowded environments, particularly where sanitation is poor and access to clean water is limited. The Bacterium infects the inside of the eyelid, causing a roughening which can in turn lead to damage to the surface of the eye. Eventually the disease can lead to the eyelids turning inwards, blinding the patient. Infections are generally fought off fairly quickly, particularly in adults, but having been infected does not offer protection against future infections, and the damage caused by each infection is cumulative. Chlamydia trachomatis is vulnerable to the antibiotics azithromycin and tetracycline.

McCoy cell monolayer micrograph reveals a number of intracellular Chlamydia trachomatis inclusion bodies; Magnified 200 times. The intracellular inclusion body represents the replication phase of the Chlamydia spp. organisms, whereupon, the reorganised reticulate body multiplies through binary fission into 100-500 new reticulate bodies, which mature into elementary bodies. Eugene Arum/Norman Jacobs/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Wikimedia Commons.

All three countries have been waging public health campaigns against Trachoma for many decades, with recent successes in eliminating infections attributed to the adoption of the World Health Organization's 'SAFE' strategy on the disease. This relies on four pillars, Surgery, which is used to save patients sight before it is lost in advances cases, Antibiotics, which are administered en masse during outbreaks, Facial cleanliness, in which large scale public health campaigns promote personal hygeine as a way to stop the spread of the disease, and Environment, in which access to clean water and good sanitation is improved. 

Mural promoting facial cleanliness to eliminate Trachoma, at Warburton in Western Australia. Minum Barreng: Indigenous Eye Health Unit/University of Melbourne/World Health Organization.

Both Algeria and Tunisia have historically had particular problems with Trachoma in their more arid southern provinces, where access to clean water has been limited. It has been estimated that in the early and mid twentieth centuries, as much as half of the population of southern Tunisia may have been affected by the disease.

World Health Organization consultant, Mario Tarizzo, prepares to take an eye smear from a school child at Srendi on the Tunisian island of Djerba. The World Health Organization has supported long-standing efforts in Tunisia to eliminate Trachoma, a disease of the eye that can cause blindness if left untreated. Eric Schwab/World Health Organization.

In Australia Trachoma was eliminated in much of the country decades ago, but has persisted in many remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, where access to both clean water and healthcare facilities can be very limited, and not everyone speaks English as a first language. In recent years bringing healthcare to such communities has been driven by a network of Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations, which are better able to understand the healthcare needs of indigenous Australians, and deliver solutions in a culturally appropriate way.

Trachoma is one of 21 Neglected Tropical Diseases associated with devastating health, social and economic consequences outlined in the Roadmap proposed by the World Health Organization's Executive Board at its 146th session in February 2020, and adopted by the Seventy-third World Health Assembly in November 2020. This Roadmap aims to control, eliminate, or eradicate all of these diseases by 2021, in line with the United Nation's third Sustainable Development Goal: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. The elimination of Trachoma in Algeria and Tunisia makes then the 62nd and 63rd countries to have eliminated at least one Neglected Tropical Disease since the adoption of the Roadmap.

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Marine Trematosaurid Temnospondyls from the Early Triassic of Western Australia.

The Temnospondyls were an ancient group of Tetrapods, which are the sister group to the modern Lisamphibians (Frogs, Salamanders, and Caecilians), although they were in many ways more Reptile-like, with many apparently able to live completely away from water for much of their lives, while others colonised marine environments. The first Temnospondyls appeared in the Carboniferous, rapidly expanding to become one of the most diverse and abundant groups of terrestrial Vertebrates. The Temnospondyls remained a major group throughout the Permian and Triassic, but were badly affected by the End Triassic extinction from which they never recovered. A few Temnospondyl lineages persisted through the Jurassic and into the Early Cretaceous, when they finally disappeared.

The Trematosaurids were a group of Temnospondyls which migrated into marine environments in the Early Triassic, evolving to occupy a large marine predator role which had become vacant during the End Permian Extinction, and spreading throughout much of the world's environments. Trematosaurids have been described from Madagascar, Greenland, Australia, Pakistan, Spitsbergen, European Russia, the Russian Far East, Germany, and Jordan. 

To date, only a single species of Marine Trematosaurid (several others are known from clearly non-marine environments) has been described from Australia, Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis, which described in 1972 by John Cosgriff and Neil Garbutt on the basis of a composite of fragmentary cranial remains from the Early Triassic Blina Shale of the central-southern Kimberley region of far northwestern Western Australia, collected during a series of expeditions to the area in the 1960s.

The Blina Shale records a transgressive delta setting (setting where the land is extending into the sea over a delta system), which would have faced onto the East Gondwana interior rift seaway. These deposits record a mixture of saline, brackish, and freshwater environments, and have produced non-Trematosaurid Temnospondyls such as the Rhytidosteid, Deltasaurus kimberleyensis, the Capitosauroid, Warrenisuchus aliciae, and the Brachyopids, Batrachosuchus henwoodi, and Banksiops townrowi. A variety of other fossils have also been found within the Blida Shale, including the ubiquitous Triassic Saurichthyid Actinopterygian, Saurichthys, a variety of Ceolacanths, the Ptychoceratodontid Lungfish, Ptychoceratodus philippsi, the Sagenodontid Lungfish, Aphelodus anapes, the Ceratodontid Lungfish, Asiatoceratodus tiguidensis, several possible Sharks, Conodonts, Insects, Spinicaudatans and Lingulid Brachiopods, possible Pseudomonotid Bivalves, indeterminate Ammonoids, some possible Mollusc egg cases, burrow traces, palynomorphs (fossil pollen and spores), Achritarchs, Horsetails, and possible Lycopods. 

Temnospondyls from the Blina Shale are typically found in a disarticulated state, either as individual bones or accumulations, and show signs of having been transported before their final deposition, including weathering and sorting by size. This is consistent with deposition in beds with preserved ripple marks and thin cross-lamination, which is suggestive of a shallow, tidal environment. 

In a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology on 22 February 2026, Benjamin Kear of the Department of Palaeobiology at the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Nicolás Campione of the Palaeoscience Research Centre at the University of New England, Mikael Siversson of the Western Australian Museum, and the School of Molecular and Life Sciences at Curtin University, Mohamad Bazzi of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Stanford University, and Lachlan Hart of the School of Education and Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, as well as the Australian Museum Research Institute, reassess that material assigned to Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis from the Blinda Shale deposits, and draw new conclusions about the presents of Trematosaurid Temnospondyls in the Early Triassic of Western Australia.

The original material assigned to Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis included the holotype, WAM 62.1.46, two topotype specimens, WAM 71.6.22 and WAM 62.1.50, and a high-definition plaster caste of the holotype, WAM 62.1.59 (in taxonomy, a holotype is the specimen from which a species is described, any other specimen considered to belong to the same species as the holotype therefore belongs to that described species, but if the holotype is found to belong to the same species as the previously described holotype of another species, then the newer species is considered invalid; a topotype is a specimen asigned to a species which comes from the same location as the holotype). All of these specimens were placed in the collection of the Western Australian Museum, but when Kear et al. came to look for them, only WAM 62.1.50 and WAM 62.1.59 could be found, WAM 62.1.46 and WAM 71.6.22 having apparently been loaned to John Cosgriff in 1984, at which time he was working at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. 

A search of the palaeontological collection of Wayne State University could not locate these specimens, although WAM 62.1.46 was subsequently found in a search for potentially related specimens in the collection of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, where it had been identified as cf. Tertrema sp., and given the identifier UCMP 65858. The collection of the University of California Museum of Paleontology was also found to contain a second high-definition plaster caste of this specimen, listed as UCMP 65850. The University of California Museum of Paleontology has subsequenty returned WAM 62.1.46 to the Western Australian Museum. 

Also found within the collection of the University of California Museum of Paleontology was a box labelled WAM 62.1.50, however, this was found to be empty, having been 'withdrawn for study' by John Cosgriff in August 1968.

Source locality for the Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis holotype (WAM 62.1.46) and referred material (WAM 62.1.50). Map of the Noonkanbah Station area with the Great Northern Highway (1) extending southeast of Derby towards Fitzroy Crossing in northwestern Western Australia. Outcrop areas of the Lower Triassic Blina Shale are shown with the overlying Erskine Sandstone, and Middle Triassic Munkayarra Shale. Kear et al. (2026).

Specimen WAM 62.1.46, the holotype of Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis is a steinkern internal cast from the naso-frontal region of the skull and vomero-palatine section of the palate. This, along with the plaster casts WAM 62.1.59 and UCMP 65850, show Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis to have had an elongate skull with a basally constricted rostrum, dorsolaterally facing orbits that are positioned close to the lateral jaw margin, broad nasals that contact the lacrimals posterolaterally, and possibly the septo-maxilla near the external bony nasal opening, anteriorly narrow interpterygoid vacuities that are bordered by transversely broad palatines, ctopterygoids apparently lacking large palatal tusks, at least at the ectopterygoid-palatine suture, and a narrow cultriform process of the parasphenoid that divides the interpterygoid vacuities along the palatal midline, and extends to a point level with the anterior edges of the choanae.

High-definition plaster cast (WAM 62.1.59) and holotype specimen (WAM 62.1.46/UCMP 69858) of Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis from the Blina Shale. (A) Cast, and (B) original internal steinkern of the naso-frontal section of the cranium in dorsal aspect. (C) Interpretation of the cranial sutures (solid/dashed lines), openings (black fills), and broken/plaster surfaces (hatching). (D) Skull reconstruction in dorsal aspect. (E) Cast and (F) original internal steinkern of the vomero-palatine section of the cranium in ventral aspect. (G) interpretation of the cranial sutures and openings. (H) Skull reconstruction in ventral aspect. Skull outlines based on Tertrema acuta and Hyperokynodon keuperinus. Abbreviations: ch, choana; cp, cultriform process of the parasphenoid; ec, ectopterygoid; fr, frontal; ju, jugal; la, lacrimal; mx, maxilla; na, nasal; nc, nerve channel cast; or, orbit; pf, postfrontal; pl, palatine; pr, prefrontal; pv, pterygoid vacuity; sm, septomaxilla; ?tb, possible palatal tusk base; vo, vomer. Scale bars equal 50 mm. Kear et al. (2026).

Specimen WAM 62.1.50 is an external impression of the vomerine palate showing multiple dental rows and anterior margins of the choanae. This is recorded as a paratype of Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis on its Western Australia Museum label (a paratype is a specimen other than the holotype of a species which is used in the formal description of that species), but as 'cf. Aphaneramma' (refer to Aphaneramma) on the label of the empty box at the University of California Museum of Paleontology, a label which Kear et al. assume reflects Cosgriff's original thoughts on the classification of the specimen. Aphaneramma is a cosmopolitan Trematosaurid Temnospondyl also known from the Early Triassic of Pakistan, Madagascar, Russia, and Svarlbard. 

WAM 62.1.50 appears to be similar in proportions to the skull of Aphaneramma gavialimimus, a large (skull-lenght about 400 mm) species of Aphaneramma described from Madagascar in 2017. It also has fine longitudinal bone ridges, which have previously been observed in members of the genera Aphaneramma, Wantzosaurus, and Cosgriffius. The choanae of WAM 62.1.50 are longitudinally offset, such that the left opening would have been displaced anteriorly relative to the right, something which has also been recorded in other specimens of Aphaneramma. In their 1972 description of Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis, Cosgriff and Garbutt identify this as being the result of displacement of the right choanae, which they believe was 'compressed and pushed forward from its original position', but which Kear et al. consider may be a diagnostic feature of the genus. Notably, WAM 62.1.50 shows several rows of vomerine teeth (teeth on the roof of the mouth), which are absent in WAM 62.1.46, suggesting the two do not belong to the same species. Vonerine teeth are found in Aphaneramma, as well as some other genera of Trematosaurid Temnospondyls, although the size and arrangement of those of WAM 62.1.50 do not appear to exactly match any previously described taxa. For this reason, Kear et al. return WAM 62.1.50 to the designation cf. Aphaneramma. 

Referred material (WAM 62.1.50) of cf Aphaneramma sp. from the Blina Shale. (A) Palate impression in ventral aspect (coated with ammonium chloride sublimate). (B) Interpretation of the palatal sutures, dentition (solid/dashed lines), and openings (black fills). Skull outline based on Aphaneramma gavialimimus. (C) Skull reconstruction in ventral aspect. Skull outline based on Aphaneramma gavialimimus. Abbreviations: ch, choana; mx, maxilla; tr, tooth row; vo, vomer. Scale bar equals 30 mm in (A) and (B); and 50 mm in (C). Kear et al. (2026).

Cosgriff and Garbutt apparently viewed the additional specimens assigned to Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis, WAM 71.6.22 and WAM 62.1.50, as developmental stages of the species, noting that they were smaller than the holotype, WAM 62.1.46. As WAM 71.6.22 could not be located, this assessment could not be evaluated for this specimen, but Kear et al.'s study clearly shows that the smaller size of WAM 62.1.50 only relates to its fragmentary nature, and that it was clearly derived from quite a large animal. Furthermore, it differs significantly in morphology to WAM 62.1.46, and cannot be assigned to the same species.

This expands the diversity of Temnospondyls known from the Blina Shale, and expands our knowledge of how that assemblage relates to wider Temnospondyl faunal distributions in the Early Triassic. This includes widespread Australian species such as Deltasaurus kimberleyensis, Warrenisuchus aliciae, and Banksiops townrowi, taxa also known from South Africa, such as the genus Batrachosuchus, species not found anywhere else, such as Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis, and now an example of the globally distributed genus Aphaneramma. This also increases the distribution of these marine Temnospondyls, raising the possibility that their distribution was not just due to expansion along the continuous coastal Tethyan periphery of the Pangean supercontinent, but may also have involved longer distance, ocean-crossing dispersals between Laurasia and Gondwana across the Tethys Ocean.

Early Triassic (about 250 million years ago) paleobiogeographic distributions of Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis (star) and Aphaneramma in Australia (star), Madagascar (circle), Pakistan (square), Svalbard (polygon); and Russia (triangle). Kear et al. (2026).

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United Nations recognises three conservation projects as new World Restoration Flagships.

The United Nations has recognised three conservation projects as World Restoration Flagships, according to a press release issued by the United Nations Environment Program on 4 December 2025. World Restoration Flagships are projects intended to have large-scale and long-term impacts, held up as examples which embody the 10 Restoration Principles of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021–2030). World Restoration Flagships already cover an area of over 10 million km², an area larger than China.

The first new project recognised is the Shellfish Reef Building Program in Australia. This project, a partnership between the Nature Conservancy and the Australian Government, aims to restore reefs of Oysters and Mussels which were once found around much of the southern coast of Australia but which have been greatly depleted by over-harvesting, sedimentation and pollution.

Globefish amongst Mussels and restored shellfish reef in Dromana, Port Phillip Bay. Jarrod Boord/Streamline Media in Reef Builder (2024).

Since its inception in 2020, the Reef Builder Program has worked with local communities to restore reefs at thirteen locations along the southern coastline of Australia; it aims to restore 30% of Australia's original shellfish reefs by 2030. The project has generated over 425 jobs, and about US$10 million in income for over 50 small and medium sized businesses, as well as helping local communities to reconnect to nature and promote stewardship over the natural environment.

The second project recognised is the Respectful Returns Initiative in Canada, a partnership between Parks Canada and local and Indigenous communities, which aims to restore damaged rivers and streams in seven national parks along Canada’s Pacific and Atlantic coasts. 

Salmon being released into the Bay of Fundy as part of the Respectful Returns Initiative. Parks Canada.

Since its initiation in 2010, the Respectful Returns Initiative has restored over 650 km² of land and 228 km of waterways, created over 100 jobs, supported research projects by three universities, and formed partnerships with 32 local organisations and community groups. The Salmon population has increased at six of the seven locations where the Initiative works. The Initiative aims to both protect Salmon and to strengthen the connection between the population and their environment. 

The third project recognised is the Thicket Restoration Movement in South Africa, a collaboration uniting over 60 initiatives in Eastern and Western Cape provinces, which aims to restore over 8000 km² of indigenous subtropical thicket by 2030.

Replanting a Kuzuko Thicket in South Africa. AfriCarbon. 

These thickets serve as a grazing resource for both wild Mammals and livestock, particularly under drought conditions, which is an important consideration following the drought of 2023/4, which is the worst the region has suffered in over 100 years. It is a particularly important resource for threatened species such as Black Rhinoceros and African Bush Elephant, and is also a significant carbon reserve, with soils covered by thicket retaining notably more carbon than exposed soils. It is estimated that restoring these thickets sequesters around eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. The project is also predicted to directly create over 1000 jobs in rural communities, as well as improving the lives of around two million people.

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