Bison which killed woman in South Dakota to be relocated.

A Bison which killed a 70-year-old Canadian woman in Custer State Park, South Dakota, is to be relocated to another area. The incident happened on 18 May, when the woman and her husband encountered a group of five Bison bulls on the Grace Coolidge Trail, which runs through the park. At this time the bulls were about 500 m ahead of the couple, who allowed them to move off before following. A little while later the couple encountered the Bison again, though this time they were only about 15 m away. The couple waited for them to move before starting to follow, but this time moved while the Animals were still in site, causing one of the bulls to turn and charge.

Bison in Custer State Park, South Dakota. Wikimedia Commons.

The initial charge resulted in the woman being thrown about two metres in the air, sustaining serious injuries to the leg and abdomen. The Bison then stood over the injured woman for about 15 minutes while her husband hid behind a tree and called the local sheriff's office. During this time the woman remained conscious, and was able to talk to her husband. The bull eventually wandered off, after which the husband approached the woman, but this caused the Animal to turn and charge again, this time throwing her about three meters into the air and causing fatal injuries. After this the Bison walked off, and the husband attempted to perform CPR, being joined shortly after by first aid-trained park staff, but it was impossible to save her. The death was the first Bison-related fatality in the park for 21 years.

Following the incident, rumours began to circulate that the park authorities planned to euthanize the Bison, leading to a public outcry, and many people contacting the South Dakota Governor’s Office, the South Dakota Game, Fish, and Parks and Custer State Park, asking for the Animal to be spared. On Wednesday 10 June the Rosebud Sioux Tribe Game, Fish and Parks announced that they were willing to rehome the bull and take care of its welfare. 

Bison are large animals, the American Bison can reach 1.8 m in length and weigh around 900 kg, and have notoriously unpredictable tempers, often appearing placid and indifferent to their surroundings, and then charging without warning. They can reach speeds of 35 km per hour, and both sexes have horns, which can make unexpected charging highly dangerous.

North America is thought to have been home to about 50 million Bison at the beginning of the nineteenth century, a number that fell to less than a thousand individuals by the middle of the twentieth century due to over-hunting, not just for the purpose of food, but as part of a conscious effort to change the landscape from one amenable to traditional, Native American, lifestyles to a landscape suitable to European-style farming. However since the mid-twentieth century conservation efforts and breeding programs have reversed this decline, with the population now about 530 000 across the continent, including around 40 000 in South Dakota.

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Understanding the reasons for the use of historical anatomical skeleton collections for research in the US.

While scientists generally like to see their work as politically neutral, the nature of research carried out generally reflects the social and moral norms of the day, and these change over time. In recent years there has been an increasing discussion of the use of Human skeletal remains from historical collections in research, particularly as many such remains originally belonged to members of marginalised communities and other non-consenting individuals. A central part of this debate is whether scientists should continue to use such skeletons, and what should be done with them if it is determined that their continued use is unethical. Many such collections were amassed via processes which would be considered unethical today, such as the 'Anatomy Acts' in the US, which were passed by various state legislatures, and which allowed for the dissection and curation of unclaimed Human remains, often with a relatively short window of opportunity for the claiming of remains. This disproportionately affected poor and marginalised communities, who were often unable to afford to claim and bury the remains of their relatives within the short time available. 

In a paper published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology on 27 March 2026, Allyson Simon and Nicholas Passalacqua of the Department of Anthropology at The Ohio State University, and Mark Hubbe of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, present a review of research which has used Human remains from four Historical Anthropological Skeletal Collections, with a view to understanding current and past standards and social values in biological anthropology.

The use of historical anthropological skeletal collections has played a key role in the field of biological anthropology, with techniques such as the methods for estimating sex, age, stature, and population affinity, having first been developed using material from such collections. Despite this, until relatively recently little-or-no consideration was given to the lived experiences of the people whose remains found their way into such collections, or of the circumstances under which they got there. Today, there are ongoing discussions about the continued use and curation of these skeletons, with some scholars calling for such collections to be permanently dismantled and the remains held in them buried or cremated, while others argue that these are still vital resources that it will not be possible to replace once they are gone, and that they should therefore continue to be preserved.

Historical anatomical skeleton collections often include records of individuals' names, sex, age, cause of death, and other identifying information, presenting a unique set of ethical considerations. Because of this, Simon et al. felt it was important to distinguish between collections where such information has been preserved and those where it has not. They note that some previous ethical studies have lumped the two types of collections together, thereby ignoring some nuanced differences in both the demographics of these collections, and the way in which they are used by researchers. They further note that the views of both the scientific and non-scientific communities should be taken into account when determining the potential benefits of any research involving such collections.

Understanding how Human remains in historical collections have been used by researchers in the past, as well as how they are used today is an important step in evaluating the ethical dilemmas relating to these collections. When skeletons have been used in the development and validation of osteological methods without any consideration of the lived experiences of those individuals, there is a danger of those individuals being reduced to their value as osteological specimens, with their lives and individual identities being lost. It has also been noted that the value of studies based upon such collections might be lower than expected, as the way in which collections acquired skeletons makes the collections unrepresentative of the wider population. However, few previous studies have asked whether those methodological studies are ethically appropriate. Anthropological studies, in contrast, focus primarily on the lifetime experiences of the individuals involved, and often engage with current social theory. While such studies cannot undo past injustices, they do tend to re-emphasise the fact that the remains involved were once living people.

Understanding the aims of research is an important way of understanding the communities which that research serves, and can act as a proxy for the social perspective of the researchers. The Ghent Phrenological Collection comprised about 200 skulls transferred from the prison in Ghent, Belgium, to the University Museum in the same city in 1845. For the next century it was used as both a teaching aid and a research tool. However, much of the research for which the skulls were used was concentrated on the now discredited fields of eugenics and racial science, and some of that research was used to justify the atrocities of the Holocaust. Because of this the collection was felt to have become tainted by association, and following the Second World War the decision was taken to cremate the remains. However, it has been suggested that this could be seen as another act of violence against the people whose remains were held in the collection, as the method of disposal was chosen without reference to their wishes or the cultural norms of the societies which produced them.

Simon et al. believe that the debate around the continuing use of human remains from historical collections should be informed by accurate information on the uses to which they are put by researchers. To this end, they reviewed articles published in academic journals between 1920 and 2024, and the abstracts of presentations from the annual conferences of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists and the American Academy of Forensic Sciences between 2014 and 2024, which referenced samples from four historical anthropological collections, the Hamann-Todd Human Osteological Collection held by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Skeletal Collection held by the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the W. Montague Cobb Human Skeletal Collection held by Howard University, and the George S. Huntington Anatomical Collection, also held by the Smithsonian Museum.

Deathmask, skull, and cadaver photograph of number 709 from the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Collection. Hunt & Albanese (2004).

These publications were analysed to determine the aims of the research being carried out in each case, with the studies being divided into five categories, 'anthropological' research, which sought to understand past human lives and experiences, often shaped by social theory, 'comparative' studies, in which specimens from one or more of the collections were compared to another sample in order to make an assessment of that sample, 'methodological' studies, concerned with the development, validation, and refinement of osteological methods and procedures for data collection and analysis, 'clinical' studies which aimed to contribute to medical knowledge and clinical practice, and 'other' studies, where the aims of the research could not be fit into one of the other categories, or could not be determined at all. These categories were not exclusive, in some cases studies were placed into more than one category.

Based upon this, Simon et al. attempted to answer four questions, (1) whether research with methodological aims was becoming less common, (2) whether work with anthropological aims was becoming more common, (3) whether different forms of research were rewarded better in terms of citations by other authors, and (4) how the preponderance of different types of research varied across journals.

The Hamann-Todd Human Osteological Collection and the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Skeletal Collection were the most commonly used in both journal articles and conference abstracts. Twelve percent of journal articles used samples from more than one of the studied collections, while 32% used samples from at least one of the studied collections, plus samples from another collection, with the most commonly cited being the Knoxville Donated Skeletal Collection at the University of Tennessee. 

Collection usage based upon (a) journal articles, (b) American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference abstracts, and (c) American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference abstracts. Simon et al. (2026).

The majority of both research papers and conference abstracts had methodological aims. Anthropological aims were most common in the American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference abstracts, but almost absent from the American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference abstracts. 

The oldest journal article was from 1920, and was a paper by Thomas Wingate Todd discussing ageing of the pubic symphysis in individuals in the Hamman-Todd Collection.

Ossa innominata of specimen 571, male, white, age sixty-nine. An illustration from Thomas Wingate Todd's 1920 paper Age changes in the pubic bone. I. The male white pubis. At the time Todd was an advocate of the theory of racial determinism, which held that education and environment were less important than heredity in development, but in later life came to reject these ideas. Todd (1920).

Methodological aims became less common over the 124 years of the study, but still represent the largest category, representing 69% of all journal articles. The number of research articles using historical anatomical skeletons has been increasing over the past decade. The number of anthropological studies has increased over the total time-frame, but still makes up only 14% of the total. Thirteen studies from journals were placed into more than one category, but in only three of these was anthropology one of those categories. Eighty one percent of the journal articles were hypothesis-driven research. Only three of the journal articles were review studies or meta-analyses.

Total count of journal articles with each research aim category between 2014 and 2024. Some journal articles are counted more than once due to having more than one research aim. Simon et al. (2026). 

Slightly over half of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference abstracts had methodological research aims, while 36% had anthropological aims. Six of these abstracts had both methodological and anthropological aims. In the American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference abstracts, 98.3% had methodological aims, while one had an anthropological aim and one had both an anthropological and a methodological aim. Almost all of the conference abstracts related to hypothesis-driven research, there were no review papers or meta analyses. The most common subject of the methodological research was sex determination, comprising 39.1% of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference abstracts and 50.9% of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference abstracts. This was followed by age determination, which made up 23.4% of the American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference abstracts and 33.3% of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference abstracts.

Frequency of methodological and anthropological research aims from journal articles between (a) 1975 and 2024, and (b) 2014 and 2024. Simon et al. (2026).

The number of American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference abstracts fluctuated considerably from year-to-year over the course of the studied period, but there has been no evidence of any decline in the number of methodological samples. There did appear to be an increase in the number of anthropological studies over the time period, although the variation in the number of anthropological studies over the entire period was less than the year-to-year variation in the number of methodological studies.

Total count of American Association of Biological Anthropologists abstracts with each research aim category between 2014 and 2024. Some abstracts are counted more than once due to having more than one research aim. Simon et al. (2026).

Due to the overwhelming preponderance of Methodology driven research in the American Academy of Forensic Sciences conference abstracts, no statistical analysis of this data was attempted. However, Simon et al. did note that there the number of studies using specimens from historical anatomical collections did decline over time.

Frequency of American Academy of Forensic Sciences abstracts that address methodological research aims with a historical anatomical skeleton collection sample between 2014 and 2024. Simon et al. (2026).

Of the ten most cited journal articles in the study, eight were methodology-based, while two fell in the 'other' category, one of these having addressed the subject of secular change in bone length, and the other the demographics of the skeletons in the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Collection. These most referenced papers were typically studies which had introduced methods which had become widely used, with six of the eight written before 2000.

Simon et al. also looked at what sort of journals tended to publish articles containing data from historical anatomical skeleton collections, concluding that the majority of such articles were published in forensic anthropology journals.

Simon et al. note an overall decline in the use of historical anatomical skeleton collections in research, along with a declining number of methodology-related studies, which have previously been the greatest users of such collections. The number of anthropological studies of material from historic collections was observed, but only in the American Association of Biological Anthropologists conference abstracts. Simon et al. propose two possible explanations for these results, either a declining usefulness for historical specimens within forensic anthropology, or a cultural shift away from studying the remains of marginalised individuals without there consent. 

Much of the development of the science of forensic anthropology has come about through the use of remains from historical collections. However, in recent years, collections made up of donated skeletons have become increasingly available. At the same time, studies of secular changes in skeletal changes have shown that these historical collections are less scientifically useful for understanding modern populations. This decline in the use of historical collections for forensic purposes has not been accompanied by an equivalent increase in anthropological studies, probably because this lies outside the traditional goals of the science.

The ongoing discussion about the ethics of using human material that was not voluntarily surrendered appears to have driven a shift in the way they are used in research. As such collections have become less useful for forensic studies, it has also become clear that they are able to provide useful information about the lives of historically marginalised communities. This creates a moral dilemma which scientists are now beginning to address, and which will probably result in the development of new ethical codes for the use of such material.

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Three dead as California hit by a series of storms over Christmas period.

Three people have died and many others have been affected by flooding as California has been hit by a series of storms over the Christmas period. A 74-year-old man from Redding, in Shasta County, died on the weekend of 20-21 December 2025, after his car became trapped in floodwaters, despite efforts by local police officers to rescue him. On Monday 22 December a woman in her 70s died after being swept into the sea by a large wave at MacKerricher State Park in Mendocino County. On Wednesday 24 December a 64-year-old man from San Diego was struck by a falling tree.

A car partially buried by a mudslide in San Bernadino County, California. CBS News.

Many areas have been affected by flooding, with some communities in San Bernadino County facing evacuation orders in order to keep them safe. Several flash floods have been reported in Los Angeles County, where 27 cm of rainfall was recorded on Wednesday 24 December, with a large landslip reported in Altadena, on a slope which had been stripped of vegetation by wildfires in January this year. Around 130 households were evacuated due to concerns about flooding and landslides in Los Angeles, mostly in the Pacific Palisades neighbourhood, which was also hit by wildfires in January. Windspeeds gusting in excess of 100 km per hour have been recorded in San Francisco, where waves more than 7 m high have been reported. More than 100 000 people have been left without power due to the storms, mostly in the central part of the state.

The storms have been driven by a phenomenon called an atmospheric river, in which a narrow band of saturated air carries large volumes of moisture for long distances. Such streams typically originate in tropical regions, and typically travel along the boundaries between diverging weather systems. As with other storm systems, once they pass over land they lose momentum, and can be forced upwards by hills or mountains, causing them to cool and deposit their moisture as precipitation, causing high rainfall and often flooding.

A diagrammatic representation of an atmospheric river. National Weather Service/National Atmospheric and Oceanic Organization/Wikimedia Commons.

Atmospheric rivers are a common phenomenon on the west coast of the United States, and a significant driver of local weather conditions. However, these systems are becoming both more common and more severe as a result of the warming climate, which has led to rising temperatures over the tropical Pacific, and subsequently higher levels of atmospheric moisture, combined with a tendency form storm systems and other weather events to form and move much more quickly, making it harder for meteorologists to make long term predictions about where and when such storms will hit.

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Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake beneath the Hubbard Glacier on the border between Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory.

The Alaska Earthquake Centre recorded a Magnitude 6.8 Earthquake at a depth of 3 km, beneath the Hubbard Glacier on the border between Alaska and Canada's Yukon Territory, slightly after 11.40 am Alaskan Standard Time (slightly before 8.40 pm GMT) on Saturday 6 December 2025. Earthquakes Canada recorded the same event as a Magnitude 7.0 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, but people have reported feeling it over a wide area of eastern Alaska, the Yukon, British Colombia, and parts of Washington State.

The approximate location of the 6 December 2025 Hubbard Glacier Earthquake. USGS.

Alaska lies on the North American Plate, with the Pacific Plate underlying the ocean to the south. The Aleutian Trench runs along much of the south coast of Alaska, with the Pacific Plate being subducted beneath this and passing under Alaska as it sinks into the Earth. Off the coast of southeast Alaska the Pacific and North American Plates pass one-another horizontally, with the Pacific Plate moving northward and the North American to the south (a transform plate margin). This is not a smooth process, and the plates frequently stick together, then break apart as the pressure builds up, causing Earthquakes.

How the subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the North American Plate fuels the volcanoes of Alaska. Alaska Volcano Observatory.

Witness accounts of quakes can help geologists to understand these events and the rock structures that cause them. If you felt this quake (or if you were in the area but did not, which is also useful information) you can report it to the United States Geological Survey here, or Earthquakes Canada here.

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Athenar bermani: A new species of Diplodocoid Sauropod from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation of Dinosaur National Monument, Utah.

In 1913 prolific American fossil hunter Earl Douglass excavated a Sauropod braincase and partial skull roof from the Carnegie Quarry site at Dinosaur National Monument in Utah. This made its way to the collection of the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, where it was given the specimen number CM 26552, and was largely forgotten for half a century (to give some context, Douglass excavated over 300 tonnes of material, including many complete skeletons of Jurassic Dinosaurs such as Diplodocus, Dryosaurus, Stegosaurus, Barosaurus, Camarasaurus, and Brontosaurus, which may have left museum staff a bit busy).

In 1978, palaeontologists David Berman and John McIntosh published a study in which they revised the genera Diplodocus and Camarasaurus, in which they assigned the specimen CM 26552 to Diplodocus. However, since that time our understanding of Sauropods as a group has developed significantly, notably in that proportional differences, which could change significantly as Sauropods grew, are no longer given the same emphasis, with modern palaeontologists instead placing more emphasis on character states (discrete features which can be present or absent).

In a paper published in the journal Palaeontologica Electronica in October 2025, John Whitlock of the Department of Science and Mathematics at Mount Aloysius College and the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Juan Pablo Garderes and Pablo Gallina of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, the Argentina and Fundación de Historia Natural Félix de Azara, and the Centro de Ciencias Naturales, Ambientales y Antropológicas at Universidad Maimónides, and Matthew Lamanna, also of the Section of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, formally redescribe specimen CM 26552, assigning it to a new species and genus.

Based upon their inspection of CM 26552, Whitlock et al. conclude that it should be placed in the Dicraeosauria, a sub-group of the Diplodocidae, the skulls of which can be determined by (1) the presence of postparietal and frontoparietal fenestrae, (2) the exclusion of the basioccipital from the dorsal margin of the occipital condyle by the exoccipitals, (3) the presence of a distinct prong on the squamosal, (4) the contribution of the frontal to the margin of the supratemporal fenestra, (5) an expanded crista prootica, (6) a free dorsal margin of the antotic process, (7) the presence of a “shelf” overhanging the foramen for the trigeminal (V) nerve, and (8) the flat distal margin of the paroccipital process.

Braincase CM 26552 in anterior (A), (C) and posterior (B), (D) views. Abbreviations: BO, basioccipital; BS, basisphenoid; BT, basal tubera; CPR, crista prootica; EO-OP, exoccipitalopisthotic; F, frontal; LS, laterosphenoid; OS, orbitosphenoid; P, parietal; PO, postorbital; POP, paroccipital process; PR, prootic; S, shelf overhanging the opening for cranial nerve V; SOC, supraoccipital; SQ, squamosal; I, opening for cranial nerve I; II, opening for cranial nerve II; IV, opening for cranial nerve IV; V, opening for cranial nerve V. Whitlock et al. (2025).

Within that group, however, specimen CM 26552 shows a unique combination of features, not seen in any other genera, plus one unique character state,  the presence of a ‘tooth’ in the parietal/opisthotic suture, which has not previously been seen. For this reason, Whitlock et al. assign CM 26552 to a new species and genus, under the name Athenar bermani, where 'Athenar' honours the musician Athenar, 'for whom no better palaeontological comparison exists than a broken skull', and 'bermani' honours palaeontologist David Berman, who did so much of the fundamental modern work on Diplodocoid skulls at Carnegie Museum of Natural History and was responsible for the initial description of the specimen. 

Given the limited material available, no size estimate is made for Athenar bermani, although Whitlock et al. note that it appears to have been larger than the mature Diplodocus CM 11161, but shows incomplete fusion of many of the sutures of the braincase, suggesting that the specimen was a subadult at its time of death. 

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