During the 3rd millennium BCE, major copper smelting activities using wind-powered furnaces took place in the Wadi Arabah, particularly in the Faynan region of Jordan. In the second half of the 2nd millennium BCE, smelting operations at Timna and Wadi Amram, and later in Faynan, employed a different smelting technology, using an artificial air source. Copper smelting and overall settlement activities in the first half of the second millennium BCE (The Middle Bronze Age) were scarcely attested. This study shows that copper smelting technology continued from the 3rd to the 2nd millennium BCE, filling this alleged gap. Here we present the study of copper slag collected from two hilltops in the southern Arabah, Be'er Ora Hill and Tell Hara Hadid, dated through radiocarbon dating to the late 3rd and first half of the 2nd millennium BCE. Metallurgical analyses focused on the characterization of the slag, the question of tapping, and the efficiency of smelting. Results were compared to slag samples from two 3rd millennium BCE sites in the northern Arabah and Lead Isotope Analysis was also employed for provenancing. While the overall continuity of the smelting technology is indicated, changes in the organization of production and the source of copper ore are suggested.

Large-scale, cross-species comparative analyses on cooperative breeding—where individuals care for the offspring of other group members—are important for understanding sociality and cooperation. However, the datasets that facilitate these analyses are often limited in precision. To advance comparative research on cooperative breeding, we hereby introduce the Cooperative-Breeding Database (Co-BreeD) for birds and mammals. We describe key features of Co-BreeD's structure: (i) integration of complementary datasets, each presenting a biological parameter relevant to cooperative-breeding research; (ii) sample-based (i.e. multiple samples per species linked to an exact sampling location and period); and (iii) open-source. Respectively, these features enable: (a) comprehensive identification of cooperative-breeding species according to the user's chosen definition, (b) linking intra- and inter-specific variation in traits with fine-scale environmental parameters and (c) enabling the research community to correct and expand this database. We present the initial Co-BreeD dataset, which estimates the prevalence of breeding events involving potential alloparents in 460 populations of 324 species, including 6 human populations (No. total = 43,247 breeding events). We conclude by demonstrating: (i) how Co-BreeD can improve comparative research (e.g. by enabling the study of cooperative breeding as a continuous rather than a binary trait); and (ii) that cooperative breeding is probably more prevalent than previously estimated in birds and mammals.

Most membrane and secretory proteins undergo N-glycosylation, catalyzed by oligosaccharyltransferase (OST), a membrane-bound complex in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). Proteins failing quality control are degraded via ER-associated degradation (ERAD), involving retrotranslocation to cytosolic proteasomes, or relegated to ER subdomains and eliminated via ER-phagy. Using stable isotope labeling by amino acids in cell culture (SILAC) proteomics, we identified OST subunits as differential key interactors with a misfolded ER protein bait upon proteasomal inhibition, suggesting unexpected involvement in ERAD. Previous reports implied additional roles for OST subunits beyond N-glycosylation, such as quality control by ribophorin I. We tested OST engagement in glycoprotein and non-glycosylated protein ERAD; overexpression or partial knockdown of OST subunits interfered with ERAD in conditions that did not affect glycosylation. We studied the effects on model misfolded type I and II membrane-bound proteins, BACE476 and asialoglycoprotein receptor H2a, respectively, and on a soluble luminal misfolded glycoprotein, α1-antitrypsin NHK variant. OST subunits appear to participate in late ERAD stages, interacting with the E3 ligase HRD1 and facilitating retrotranslocation. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest membrane thinning by OST transmembrane domains, possibly assisting retrotranslocation via membrane distortion.

Human modifications to the environment are having a dramatic effect on biodiversity, but in desert habitats the high abundance of resources near human villages may be beneficial to breeding birds. By collecting high-throughput tracking data on Argya squamiceps (Arabian Babbler), we examined whether nesting and foraging in a village increased nestling growth and development in this social, desert-dwelling species. We placed tags on 10 individuals representing 8 groups of A. squamiceps and 16 nests with nestlings, collecting 191,087 localizations (average = 1,504.6 ± 1,067.4 SE localizations per day). Contrary to our predictions, we found that it was more beneficial for A. squamiceps to have nests farther away from villages—groups nesting farther from villages covered less area when foraging and yet had heavier nestlings. The heaviest nestlings were from nests, where groups spent the highest proportion of time foraging in orchards. This suggests that some level of human resources (ie, orchards) was beneficial but only if combined with otherwise low levels of human presence. Detailed movement data of wild birds, particularly in the context of reproductive success as used here, can further uncover the effects of human disturbance on breeding individuals. This is particularly important in dryland areas, where human impact may elicit nontrivial responses from local wildlife, and which are under-represented in such basic and applied research.

Camera traps can generate huge amounts of images, and thus reliable methods for their automated processing are in high demand: in particular to find those images or image sequences that actually include animals. Automatically filtering out images that are empty or contain humans can be challenging, as images can be taken in different landscapes, habitats and light. Weather and seasonal conditions can vary greatly. Most of the images can be empty, because cameras using passive infrared sensors (PIR) trigger easily due to moving vegetation or rapidly varying shadows and sunny spots. Animals in images are often hiding behind vegetation, and camera traps will see them from previously unseen angles. Therefore, conventional animal image detection methods based on deep learning need huge training sets to achieve good accuracy. We present a novel background removal approach based on movement masked images computed using sequences of images. Our deep vision classifier uses these movement images for classification instead of the original images. Additionally, we apply a deep active learning (active learning for deep models) for collecting training samples to reduce the number of annotations required from the user. Our method performed well in singling out image sequences that actually include animals, thus filtering out the majority of images that were empty or contained humans. Most importantly, the method performed well also for backgrounds and animal species not seen in the training data. Active learning brought good separation between classes already with small training sets, without the need for laborious large-scale pre-annotation. We present a reliable and efficient method for filtering out empty image sequences and sequences containing humans. This greatly facilitates camera trapping research by enabling researchers to restrict the task of animal classification to only those image sequences that actually contain animals.

We studied the effect of a demonstrator on the learning of a novel foraging task in 12 groups of free-living cooperative breeding Arabian babblers (Argya squamiceps). We allowed naïve babblers to forage jointly on a foraging grid with a demonstrator previously trained to solve a task in one of 2 possible methods: lifting covers of 1 color or pecking through covers of another color. We found that most group members learned to solve the task using one of the methods, and persisted with it even when later tested with covers of a third (neutral) color that could be opened by both lifting and pecking. However, the method learned by group members did not necessarily follow the method used by the pre-trained demonstrator. Instead, learners within each group tended to use the same method (significantly more than expected by chance), and the extent to which groups differed from the demonstrator was correlated with the extent to which the demonstrator occasionally (and quite rarely) exhibited also the alternative method. These results, together with further analysis of the sequence of events in each group, suggest that both naïve birds and demonstrators learn socially from each other, as well as through individual trial-and-error learning, which enables naïve individuals to become demonstrators themselves and influence the pattern of social transmission. This process mostly leads to a homogenous group behavior, but one that cannot be predicted by the seeded demonstration.

Microbial endolithic communities in the sandstone rocks of the southern Negev Desert, particularly in Timna Park, were initially discovered by Imre Friedmann and Roseli Ocampo-Friedmann in their pioneering study about 50 years ago. Nonetheless, this harsh microecosystem, dominated by cyanobacterial taxa, raises questions about the adaptive mechanisms that enable the survival of these microorganisms. The present study provides comprehensive data, including extensive precipitation records for the Timna Valley, and multi-year microclimatic data from a colonised site. It includes examinations of rock structure, as well as microscopic and metagenomic analysis. Our findings point to a distinct bacterial endolithic population dominated by the cyanobacterial genus Chroococcidiopsis. Although the taxa are well known, we show here how their exclusive persistence is driven by the sandstone's fine porosity and thermal properties, combined with rare, low-volume precipitation. This highly selective microenvironment highlights how specific rock and climate interactions can filter microbial diversity in hyper-arid deserts. Additionally, it demonstrates an adaptation strategy based on both short-term and decadal-scale dormancy. Thus, it offers new insights for the survival of these unique ecosystems and provides valuable perspectives for astrobiology and the search for evidence of microbial life on Mars.

The Ararat Depression (Armenia), situated between the southern Caucasus and northern Mesopotamia, holds substantial archaeological Middle Paleolithic sites. However, as paleoclimate archives are scarce in the region, the climatic history is not well constrained. To reconstruct the local paleoclimatic conditions in the past, we studied a ∼30 m-thick sequence of carbonates deposited in the Vedi Valley, a tributary of the Ararat Valley. We applied field mapping, petrography, geochemistry, stable isotope analysis, and U–Th dating to investigate the genesis and evolution of these carbonates. Two main facies are identified: (1) a micritic-peloidal microbial facies formed in low-energy palustrine settings, and (2) a sparitic calcite facies formed via CO₂ degassing from deeply sourced hypogene fluids. δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O values, together with elemental proxies, indicate early closed-system degassing of hydrothermal solutions interacting with marine carbonates of the Yerakh Anticline, followed by increased meteoric influence and detrital input in the upper portion of the sequence.

Three distinct detrital units coincide with heavier δ¹⁸O and lighter δ¹³C values and likely reflect wetter intervals during interglacial phases. Isochron U–Th dating constrains deposition to occur between 319 ± 84 and 198 ± 14 ka, corresponding to Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 9–7. The results indicate that the Vedi Valley carbonates constitute a Middle Pleistocene sequence formed under the combined influence of active tectonics, volcanism, and climatic shifts. As such, they provide a rare archive of landscape evolution in a region critical for understanding past environmental variability and human dispersal pathways.

Conservation campaigns via digital media are becoming increasingly popular amongst conservationists. However, effectively measuring their impacts remains a challenge, and campaign effectiveness often goes unmeasured. Conservation culturomics, which explores the intricate relationship between people and nature in the digital sphere, can help fill this gap. Here, we used culturomics data to evaluate impacts of two digital conservation campaigns: one regional campaign promoting the importance of the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot in India and one global campaign using humorous skits to address broader conservation themes. Specifically, we used a synthetic control approach to analyze Wikipedia pageviews of topics featured in the two campaigns and compared these to Wikipedia pageviews of related topics that were not featured in the campaigns. We found that across 21 topics in multiple languages, the regional campaign showed limited success in boosting engagement for specific topics in local languages, whereas the global campaign had no measurable impact on Wikipedia page views. We also found evidence on negative impact for one topic in the regional campaign. Overall, we found a limited effect of the campaigns in increasing online traffic to Wikipedia, with the impact detected being associated with localized topics as opposed to global ones. The study highlights the utility of combining digital data with counterfactual-based methods for rapid, cost-effective evaluations while acknowledging the need for deeper investigation into how digital engagement translates to real-world behavior change. Future research should explore integrating digital and traditional evaluation methods to enhance the evidence base for conservation communication strategies.

Despite extensive archaeological explorations in En-Gedi, the largest oasis along the western shore of the Dead Sea, over the past seven decades, a significant component of its settlement landscape has so far gone unnoticed. This component, referred to in this article as Cenotaph Hill, is located in the northern part of the oasis plain, somewhat removed from the nucleus area of previously explored ancient settlement remains. Recent investigation of Cenotaph Hill, combining analysis of a forgotten excavation conducted on its slope in the 1960s with a high-resolution surface survey and new trial excavations, underscores the existence of significant activity from the Hellenistic and Roman periods in this part of the oasis. The discovery and research of this hitherto unknown multi-period site has important implications for settlement dynamics in the oasis during the late Second Temple period.