Giant hyenas, giraffes and sabretooth cats roamed around Southern Spain 1.8 MY ago. A great collection of fossils have been unearthed at Fonelas in Granada.

BBC article. Scroll down the BBC page – what’s wrong with the picture of the sabretooth?

Highlight from here to the bottom of the post to read the answer: The upper canines were behind the lower canines – just like in a modern cat. This doesn’t look anywhere near as scary, so most modern pictures of sabretooths – and indeed, prehistoric images – have the big upper teeth at the front.

Dr David Penney, from the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, a.k.a. Spider Dave, has used Very High Resolution X-Ray Computed Tomography to dissect a 1mm spider that has been preserved in amber for 53 MY. Amazing pictures. The spider is a male. How can you tell?

BBC news item; original Zootaxa article (open access).

Quiz answer – highlight this line: Male spiders have little bobbles on the end of their palps; they use them to transfer sperm (don’t ask).

The Tasmanian Devil suffers from a horrible viral cancer which is killing off the population. Conservationists are trying to take measures to save them.

Faculty of Life Sciences trivia quiz: which member of staff has a scar from a Tasmanian Devil bite?

Highlight this line to get the answer: Andrew Loudon

Bet you don’t know the names of the middle two species. Answer here (in the caption).