Mauna Loa eruption and more: Understand the world through 7 images

A giant awakens on the Big Island.

Researchers identified a new class of mushrooms, Lichinomycetes, which descended from a single ancestor 300 million years ago. The 600 “oddball” mushrooms previously categorized in disparate groups all have a limited genome and live in symbiosis with other species because they lack important metabolic abilities.

Researchers discovered octopuses’ complex brains likely developed because they contain the most microRNA, a gene expression regulating molecule, of any invertebrate. Neural microRNA is also responsible for complex brain development in humans.

Mauna Loa, the largest active volcano on Earth, erupted for the first time since 1984. Located on the Big Island of Hawai’i, Mauna Loa is still spewing lava toward the island’s main highway, but it doesn’t pose a danger to people yet.

NASA’s Orion spacecraft reached its farthest distance from Earth — 268,563 miles — before it returns home later this month. The milestone came on Flight Day 13 of the Artemis I mission, surpassing the record set during the Apollo 13 mission.

Research revealed that ant pupae secrete a kind of “milk” that sustains larvae but must also be eaten by adults because it can harbor infections that will kill the pupae. This never-before-seen behavior shows one more way that ant colonies are completely interdependent for survival.

Researchers found fossil evidence that the mobile beak seen in modern birds evolved before the extinction of dinosaurs. That overturns a foundational assumption that mobile beaks evolved after dinosaurs, and suggests that birds like emus reverted to fixed beaks later.

Researchers identified neurons in mice that become hyperactivated following social trauma, leading to avoidance of even non-threatening juveniles. The researchers plan to study how the finding could provide insight into the treatment of humans after trauma.