Latest Articles

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  Section: Archaeology ; Topics: Archaeology, Paleontology, Computer sciences

  Computational simulations of potential Pachycrocuta bite damage based on a ~1.2 Ma ravaged hippopotamus femur from Fuente Nueva 3 (Orce, Granada, Spain)

  Courtenay, Lloyd A.;   Serrano-Ramos, Alexia;   Saarinen, Juha;   Viranta, Suvi;   Barsky, Deborah;   Jiménez-Arenas, Juan-Manuel;   Yravedra, José  

  10.24072/pcjournal.771 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e81

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  Understanding the behaviour and interactions of extinct carnivoran species present a significant challenge in archaeological and palaeontological research, often limited by numerous constraints in the fossil record. Here we analyse a hippopotamus femur that presents extensive damage by carnivorans, recovered from the open-air site Fuente Nueva 3 ($\sim$1.2 Ma, Orce, Granada, Spain). Given the extent of furrowing, the potential agents known in the palaeolandscape, and a number of additional theoretical features, we believe this bone to have been consumed by an extinct species of giant hyena; Pachycrocuta brevirostris. Leveraging the use of advanced microscopic techniques to digitise the tooth marks observed on this specimen in three dimensions, the present study utilises artificially intelligent algorithms to then simulate the possible morphological variability of this carnivoran. This allows us to propose a characterisation of Pachycrocuta brevirostris tooth pit morphology, so as to construct a proposal for a diagnostic reference sample of this species. If our findings are correct, they underscore the importance tooth mark size has on identifying the activity of Pachycrocuta, revealing the giant hyena to have produced remarkably large, deep, and circular tooth pits on dense cortical bone.

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  Section: Plants ; Topics: Agricultural sciences, Biophysics and computational biology, Plant biology

  A multi-scale dataset combining 3D plant architecture, leaf gas exchange, and whole-plant fluxes in young oil palm under controlled climate scenarios

  Perez, Raphael P. A.;   Torrelli, Valentin; Roques, Sandrine;   Devidal, Sébastien; Piel, Clément;   Landais, Damien; Ramel, Merlin; Arsouze, Thomas;   Lamour, Julien;   Caliman, Jean-Pierre; Vezy, Rémi  

  10.24072/pcjournal.773 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e80

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  Functional-structural plant models simulate plant responses to environmental conditions, but their development and evaluation are often limited by the lack of datasets combining detailed architectural and physiological measurements. Here, we present a comprehensive dataset acquired from four oil palm plants (Elaeis guinnensis) grown under controlled and contrasting climate scenarios. The dataset includes (i) three-dimensional reconstructions of plant architecture derived from terrestrial lidar point clouds, (ii) leaf-level gas exchange measurements used to parameterize photosynthesis and stomatal conductance models, and (iii) continuous plant-scale measurements of CO₂ and H₂O fluxes obtained in a microcosm under precisely monitored and manipulated environmental conditions (light, temperature, humidity, and CO₂ concentration) across height climate scenarios. By combining detailed structural data with physiological measurements at both leaf and whole-plant scales, this database has been designed to build and evaluate digital twins (or shadows) of plants functioning under controlled conditions. It provides a valuable resource for calibrating biophysical models (light interception and photosynthesis), benchmarking model predictions across scales, and investigating the consistency between leaf-level parameterization and plant-level fluxes. All data and processing workflows are openly available, facilitating reuse for model development, evaluation, and intercomparison in plant and crop modelling communities.

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  Section: Psychology ; Topics: Psychological and cognitive sciences

  The Linear Relationship Between Visual Imagery and Alexithymia Breaks When Imagery Is Absent: Complete Aphantasics Are No More Alexithymic Than Typical Imagers

  Delem, Maël;   Mas, Marine;   Luminet, Olivier;   Plancher, Gaën;   Ruby, Perrine  

  10.24072/pcjournal.772 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e79

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  Several studies have suggested a link between aphantasia (reduced or absent visual mental imagery) and alexithymia (difficulty identifying and describing one's feelings, together with an externally oriented thinking style), but results and interpretations differ across studies, and no consensus has emerged. We pooled data from five independent studies (N = 1478: 147 complete aphantasics, 141 hypophantasics, 1115 typical imagers, 75 hyperphantasics) who completed the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire and the twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and compared six candidate models, from linear and categorical baselines to several non-linear alternatives (GAM, Segmented and Floor-group models), to determine the shape of the relationship between visual imagery vividness and alexithymia, rather than assuming it in advance. The best fitting and most interpretable model (floor-group) showed  that among all participants capable of some degree of visual imagery (from hypo- to hyperphantasics), alexithymia declined as visual imagery vividness increased, consistent across all three TAS-20 sub-scales. Complete aphantasics broke this linear relationship entirely: rather than showing the highest level of alexithymia, as the linear relationship would predict, their scores were lower than that of hypophantasics and did not meaningfully differ from those of typical imagers. This discontinuity, specific to the total absence of visual imagery, was corroborated by an equally well-fitting segmented model and held up across all five studies individually. This finding calls into question previous research which regarded any reduction in imagery, regardless of its degree, as equivalent. Our results support the idea that some components of alexithymia are related to the level of visual imagery vividness in people who experience visual imagery, whereas in people with complete aphantasia, alexithymia levels may depend on other processes. In other words, having no visual imagery at all does not seem to be associated with increased alexithymia levels, while having very weak visual imagery does.

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  Section: Paleontology ; Topics: Paleontology, Environmental sciences, Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences

  Chemical characterization of Nannoconus based on synchrotron micro X-ray fluorescence

  Chowdhury, Rajkumar; Suchéras-Marx, Baptiste;   Colocho Hurtarte, Luis Carlos ;   Castillo-Michel, Hiram;   Fernandez-Martinez, Alejandro;   Giraud, Fabienne  

  10.24072/pcjournal.748 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 6 (2026), article no. e78

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  Nannoconus, an extinct calcareous nannoplankton genus, characterized by a heavy calcite skeleton (micaliths; ~200-1400 picogram), was a major planktonic producer in the Early Cretaceous seas (~150-120 Ma) contributed to massive marine carbonate accumulations for over ~30 million years. However, the calcification site (intra versus extracellular) of its skeleton remains unknown till date. Notably, the extracellularly produced biocalcite is often Mg-enriched compared with the intracellularly produced one. Braarudosphaera bigelowii, an extant extracellularly calcifying nannoplankton closely related to Nannoconus, shows such Mg-enrichment in its biocalcite. To assess the Mg content along with other trace (e.g., Sr, Mn) elements in the micaliths of different Nannoconus species, their chemical composition has been analysed using synchrotron micro X-ray fluorescence (μ-XRF). The results show that the elemental signals of the micaliths are affected by post-depositional recrystallization and clay contamination. However, for the first time, a Mg/Ca value (in mmol/mol) of a single micalith of Nannoconus, i.e., a ~150 Myr old calcareous nannofossil is given. Mg/Ca of the micalith, calculated as lower than 3.27 mmol/mol, is very similar to that of intracellular calcite. Thus, chemical data alone remain inconclusive to infer the calcification site of the Nannoconus skeleton.