Million-and-a-half-year-old bone tools from Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania.

Hominins have been using stone tools to access meat from Animal carcases for at least 2.6 million years, and this use of stone tools is also presumed to have helped them switch to a significantly more carnivorous diet. Logically, a Hominin which can use stone tools to hunt large Animals should also be able to make tools from the bones of those Animals, but bone tools have a much more limited record than their stone counterparts.

A number of bone-objects from archaeological sites in Africa dated to between 2.5 and 0.8 million years ago have been interpreted as having been modified by use as tools, for such purposes as digging or Termite fishing, but do not appear to have been deliberately shaped prior to use. A few purpose modified tools have been repoted from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, but these were surface finds, lacking the context from which they could be dated. Bone tools are also known from the Konso site in Ethiopia, including a bone handaxe which has been dated to 1.4 million years ago. Bone tools start to appear across Eurasia around 500 000 years ago, and highly shaped bone tools, such as spear and arrow points, barbed points, awls and needles, appear in Africa about 90 000 years ago, spreading to Eurasia around 45 000 years ago.

In a paper published in the journal Nature on 5 March 2025, Ignacio de la Torre of the Instituto de Historia of the CSIC-Spanish National Research Council, Luc Doyon of the Université de Bordeaux, Alfonso Benito-Calvo of the Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana, Rafael Mora of the Facultat de Lletres at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Ipyana Mwakyoma, also of the Instituto de Historia of the CSIC-Spanish National Research Council, Jackson Njau of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Indiana University, and the Stone Age Institute, Renata Peters of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London, Angeliki Theodoropoulou, again of the Instituto de Historia of the CSIC-Spanish National Research Council, and Francesco d’Errico, also of the Université de Bordeaux, and of the SFF Center for Early Sapiens Behaviour at the University of Bergen, describe an assemblage of bone tools from a horizon at Olduvai Gorge Bed II, which has been dated to 1.5 million years ago.

The tools form part of an assemblage identified as the T69 complex, were derived from a layer between Middle and Upper Bed II, in the Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully at Olduvai Gorge, which has been  radiometrically dated to 1.5 million years ago. T69 complex materials have been derived from six tranches, the bulk of the material comprising early Acheulean stone tools. A total of 10 900 stone tools larger than 2 cm, and over 41 000 smaller artefacts have been recovered, mostly made from a local quartzite.

Geographic and stratigraphic context of the FLK T69 Complex site. (a) Location of Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. (b) Main geographical features of the Olduvai Basin. The geographical image was adapted from the NASA /USGS ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model. (c) Position of the T69 Complex in the Main Gorge at Olduvai. (d) Stratigraphic position of the bone tool level shown on a composite section of the deepest part of trench T69 and the central area of the T69-T79 west section. (e) Position of the T69 Complex within the general chrono-stratigraphic sequence of Bed II in the Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully area. (f) Normal (left) and polarized (right) thin section photographs of the sandstone containing the bone tool horizon. De la Torre et al. (2025).

In addition to the tools, the assemblage contains abundant Vertebrate fossils, including 9419 identified bone fragments and 13 413 unidentified fragments. Many of the identifiable remains can be attributed to Fish, Crocodiles, and Hippopotamuses, suggesting that 1.5 million years ago, the site was close to water. The majority of the large Animals are Bovids and Hippopotamuses, with some relatively intact Hippopotamus carcasses present. Other large Animals present include Equids, Suids (Pigs), Rhinoceros, and Elephants. Hippopotamus bones are the most abundant, and many of these show signs of deliberate modification.

The faunal elements of the T69 assemblage, including bone tools, are excellently preserved, something not common at Middle Pleistocene sites, allowing for careful documentation and analysis of the material present. De la Torre et al. identify 27 artefacts as unequivocal stone tools, ruling out other forms of damage such as Carnivores gnawing, Crocodiles biting, trampling and fracturing to access marrow; in fact, Carnivore bones are very rare in the T69 assemblage, and the only signs of bone-modification by Carnivores are two possible tooth marks.

Tools are identified as bones with multiple fragments removed, which lack the striations associated with trampling. Experimental breaking of large Mammal bones to recover marrow failed to produce similar flaking. Patterns of breakage consistent with marrow-extraction are present on many bones present in the faunal assemblage, suggesting that this was something done by the Hominins here. This seldom results in more than two or three flakes being removed, whereas the 'tools' have an average of 12.9 flaking scars, typically arranged contiguously and preferentially on their lateral edges.

Twenty seven bone tools were recovered during excavations at Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully, eighteen of which are attributed to Mammals weighing more than two tonnes. Sixteen of these are identifiable, including eight tools made from Elephant bones, six tools are made from the bones of Hippopotamus, and two from the bones of large Bovids. Thus, in an assemblage dominated by Bovid bones, where 169 taxa are recorded and Elephant remains make up about 1.1% ot the total, more than half the tools are made from Elephant bones. One of the tools is made from the proximal portion of the radius of a large Bovid, all the others from long portion of limb bones, predominantly the femora, tibiae and humeri.

Tools made on long bone diaphysis of very large Mammals. (a) Indeterminable taxon larger than two tonnes (accession number T69L20-3009). (b) Elephant (accession number T79L10-2511). Scale bars are 5 cm. De la Torre et al.  (2025).

The Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully tools represent a set of technological and behavioural innovations previously unrecorded in Hominins of this antiquity. The tools are relatively 'fresh', which is to say they were apparently buried quite soon after being made, and do not show signs of having sat on the surface and subject to weathering. The Hippopotumus bone tools all appear to have been made from fresh bone (i.e. from Animals which had died shortly before the tools were made), but some of the Elephant bone tools appear to have been made from bones partially weathered before flaking occurred, suggesting that old Elephant bones were recognised as a valuable resource and collected separatley from scavenging carcases for food. Elephant bone tools range from 22 to 38 cm in length and from 8 to 15 cm in width, making them the largest in the assemblage. Hippopotamus bone tools are slightly smaller, 18 to 30 cm in length and 6 to 8 cm in width.

Elephant bone tools also show more working, showing on average 17.3 flake removal scars, compared to an average of 13.3 scars on Hippopotamus bone tools. Among the fifteen tools made from unidentified Animals, seven are comparable to Elephant or Hippopotamus bone tools in size, with similar numbers of scars, while eight are smaller, with an average of six flaking scars. The preferred method of tool making appears to have been to first remove large flakes to give the tools its shape, then remove smaller flakes to regularize the edge surfaces. Experimentally braking bones for marrow-extraction produced scars significantly shorter than the initial flaking used in tool production at Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully, indicating deliberate intent from the outset. The shape of the scars is compatible with the use of hand-held hammerstones, although these would have needed to be large and heavy.

Six of the large-Mammal bone tools show a recurrent shape, with one crescent-shaped end and one pointed end, combined with a large notch on the middle part of the tool. This was achieved using an average of 16.8 flake removals, the majority of which are associated with the creation of the notch. The pointed end of the tool corresponds to the robust part of the diaphysis (middle section) of the bone, which the rounded end appears to be derived from the metaphysis (wider, end-part) of the bone. 

Large bone tools made on diaphysis fragments. (a) Elephant humerus (accession number T79L10-9047). (b) Hippopotamus femur (accession number T79L10-18461). Scale bars are 5 cm. De la Torre et al. (2025).

The bone tools at Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully are larger, heavier, more elongated, and more worked than stone tools from the same site, suggesting that bone was deliberately chosen as the material of choice for such tools. The tool makers appear to have a good understanding of the properties bone as a material, and the anatomy of the Animals from which it was derived, preferentially choosing Elephant bone even when this was not fresh, and consistently making tools to the same plan, following a standard flaking pattern.

Recurrent distal fracture patterns on additional bone tools. (1) Tibia diaphysis of cf. Hippopotamus (accession number T69L20-1872; dimensions 222 × 80 × 54 mm). (2) Accession number T69L20-3633. (3) Accession number T77L64-823. (4) Elephant long bone diaphysis (accession number T78L84-75; dimensions 353 × 103 × 53 mm). Each scale bar segment is 1 cm. De la Torre et al. (2025).

The T69 technology from Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully represents evidence for bone tool production by Hominins 1.5 million years ago. Previously, our knowledge of bone tool use in the Early Stone Age consisted of bone fragments which had apparently been used as tools without modification, and isolated tools with possible evidence of working and/or dubious stratigraphy (dating), with the regular appearance of deliberately made bifacial bone tools not occurring till after 500 000 years ago. 

The Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully discovery shows that Hominins had a complex tool industry which included the production of large knapped bones a million years before bifaced bone tools become common. These tools date to a key period in technological innovation, during which the early Acheulean technology was replacing the late Oldowan technology, a change which probably reflects a general increase in behavioural complexity. This increased behavioural complexity appears to have included a greater ability to select materials, a better ability to imagine the shape of a finished tool and work towards it, and morse sophisticated knapping techniques to reach that end. At this point bifacial tools were starting to appear, forming a minor part of tool assemblages and not reaching the large sizes seen in later Acheulean assemblages. 

Hominins at this stage are known to have been scavenging the carcasses of large Mammals and actively developing butchery techniques, which would have made bone a readily available material. It is possible the large bone tools from the Frida Leakey Korongo West Gully fulfilled the same role as the large bifacial tools of later Acheulean assemblages, and that the development of these more advanced stone tools led to the abandonment of large bone tools. In this scenario, the bifacial bone tools of the Middle Pleistocene might represent a reversion to bone use among populations lacking access to good lithic material.

An alternative hypothesis is that bone technologies appeared and disappeared several times over the course of the Pleistocene, all being being slightly more common in the Early Stone Age than previously realised. Either way, Early Pleistocene use of bone tools is clearly an under-reported phenomenon, possibly due to collection bias (archaeologists finding stone tools, because that is what they are looking for). Further research may reveal earlier use of bone tools, as well as a more widespread use of bone as a tool making material in the Early and Middle Pleistocene.

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Acheulean tools from the Upper Son Valley of Central India.

The Acheulean technology represents a significant stage in the development of Human technology, appearing in East Africa around two million years ago, and associated with the first major spread of Hominins out of Africa on the Middle Pleistocene. The oldest known Acheulean tools from South Asia were deposited in Tamil Nadu about 1.5 million years ago, which the youngest come from the Middle Son Valley of Central India, and are between 140 000 and 100 000 years old. While many Middle Pleistocene settlements in India appear to have been occupied for relatively as people moved about in response to a changing climate and landscape, the Son Valley appears to have provided a stable environment facilitating a long period of Hominin inhabitation, and is thought likely to have been a significant centre for the distribution of Hominin populations into other parts of South Asia, with a large number of sites discovered in the middle and lower parts of the valley. The upper reaches of the Son Valley, however, have not been extensively studied by archaeologists.

In a paper published in the journal Antiquity on 20 February 2025, Hemant Kumar Vaishnav and Bora Janardhana, of the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology at the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, and Deepak Kumar Jha of the Department of Coevolution of Land Use and Urbanisation at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, and the School of Archaeology at the University of the Philippines Diliman, present the results of a survey of the Upper Son Valley for Acheulean stone tools.

Vaishnav et al. surveyed the upper reaches of the Son River, between Amarkantak Hill in Chhattisgarh State, where the river arises, and Lake Bansagar in Madhya Pradesh, on foot in 2022 and 2023, examining the river channel, terrain, cliff sections, gullies and tributaries. This process led to the discovery of eight new Acheulean sites, and 1348 individual lithic artefacts. 

Handaxes were the most common tools, particularly at the Mahuda Site on the left bank of the river. Cleavers were present at most sites, though not in great numbers. These tools were made by the bifacial shaping (shaping of a tool by removing pieces from both sides) of blanks made from medium-or-large rock flakes. Two sites, Chilhari and Semarpakha, produced tools made using the more-advanced Levallois technique, which involves forming a striking platform at one end of a stone tool, then trimming the core's edges by flaking off pieces around the outline of the intended lithic flake, prior to separating the tool with a final blow.

Characterisation of handaxes and their raw materials in the Upper Son Valley: (a) & (b) chert; (c) quartz; (d)–(f) quartzite; (g) sandstone Vaishnav et al. (2025).

Tools wre made from quartzite, chert, and quartz, with fine grained quartzite, abundant in the region, being the most commonly used material at all sites except Chilhari, where the majority of tools were made from a course sandstone obtained locally.

The most common items were flakes, comprising 65.8% of the total, followed by handaxes (14.8%), cleavers (4.3%), choppers (0.5%), retouched tools (7.8%) and cores (6.3%). Notably, the Silpahari site produced 47 handaxes but no cleavers, which may relate to local landscape usage.

Characterisation of cleavers and their raw materials in the Upper Son Valley: (a)–(d) quartzite; (e) & (f) chert; (g) sandstone; (h) quartz. Vaishnav et al. (2025).

Material from the Chichgohna and Silpahari sites showed little signs of wear, that from Semarpakha was highly worn and weathered, and material from other sites showed variable levels of wear. This probably reflects energy levels in these environments (higher energy environments tend to have fast moving water with strong currents).

The eight new sites in the Upper Son Valley support the long-term usage of the valley by Hominins in the Middle Pleistocene, with the tools interpreted in being Early to Late Acheulean in age, with the latest site being at Silpahari, where the handaxes have become smaller and slimmer, and cleavers are absent, interpretted as signs of a Late Acheulean phase in South Asia.

The high energy levels which many of the tools were deposited in imply a fast-flowing river system, which in turn implies abundant water, which would have made for a good environment for Hominins in the sometimes-arid Pleistocene. The tools were well made, using the best locally available rock, suggesting these Hominins had a good understanding of both toolmaking and their environment.

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Two confirmed deaths following failureof mine tailings pond in Bolivia.

Two people have been confirmed dead, four people are being trated in jospital, and 47 homes have been destroyed following the collapse of a mine tailings pond in the Potosí Department of Bolivia. The incident happened at Laguna Kenko in the Llallagua District, on the Bolivian Altiplano, at about 5.00 am on Sunday 16 March 2025, following heavy rains in the area, associated with the local rainy season, and led to hundreds of tonnes of a grey, muddy slurry washing through the community of Andavilque. 

Part of the community of Andavilque in Potosí Department, Bolivia, covered by mud following the failure of a mine tailings pond on Sunday 16 March 2025. Agencia Boliviana de Información.

The mine tailings pond was associated with the Siglo XX Mine, which opened in 1900 and closed in 1987, being at its peak the most important tin mine on the Bolivian Altiplano. The mine was a centre of union activity in Bolivia, and in 1967 was the site of the San Juan Massacre, in which the Bolivian military shot more than 90 men, women, and children at close range, killing at least 20, in rsponse to a threat to strike by miners, an event considered to be the worst massacre in Bolivian history. Although the mine itself has closed, mine tailings at the pond have been worked by the Cooperativa Multiactiva 'Catavi Siglo XX Ltda' since 1994, and the tailings pond was associated with this operation.

Tailings ponds are used to store sediment-laden waters from mines; such waters typically contain a high proportion of fine silt and clay particles, which take time to settle out of the water. The resulting water may be fairly clean, or may contain other pollutants (typically acids, either generated by the local geology or used in the mining process), and need further treatment. The waters of the Laguna Kenko were acidic, and contained dissolved tin, lead, and arsenic, although these were not at levels as high as in solid waste at the site.

The Bolivian Rainy Season, typically lasts from November to March, driven by high evaporation over the Pacific Ocean during the southern summer, which falls as rain when air currents coming from the ocean are pushed upwards as they encounter the Andes Mountains, causing the air to cool and lose its moisture, with peak rainfall in January and February. 

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The March Equinox.

The March Equinox will fall at 9.01 am GMT on Thursday 20 March this year. The Earth spins on its axis at an angle to the plain of the Solar System. This means that the poles of the Earth do not remain at 90° to the Sun, but rather the northern pole is tilted towards the Sun for six months of the year (the northern summer), and the southern pole for the other six months (the southern summer). Thus, twice a year neither pole is inclined towards the Sun, on days known as the equinoxes.

The tilt of the Earth relative to the incoming light of the Sun at the March Equinox. Przemyslaw Idzkiewicz/Wikimedia Commons.

The equinoxes fall each year in March and September, with the March Equinox being the Spring (or Vernal) Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Autumn Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere, while the September Equinox is the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere and the Spring Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere. On these two days the day and night are both exactly twelve hours long at every point on the planet, the only days on which this happens.

The tilt of the Earth relative to the Sun at the planet's equinoxes and solstices. Astronomy Group/University of St Andrews.

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Studying Beaked Whales entangled in Tuna nets in the northwest Indian Ocean.

Beaked Whales, Ziphiidae, spend the majority of their time in deep oceanic waters, spending most of their lives beyond the continental shelves, and little at the surface. This makes them one of the least well-understood groups of Cetaceans, or Mammals of any kind. Some species have few, if any, sitings ar sea, being known almost exclusively from bodies washed ashore in varying states of decomposition. Because of this, the taxonomy of Beaked Whales is less well-established than is the case for most Mammal groups, with new species and nomenclature revisions being published every few years. 

Studying Whales caught as bycatch offers a cost-effective way to study poorly understood Cetacean populations, providing insights into populations which can help shape conservation policies. Such data collection is often accomplished by training fishermen themselves as citizen scientists. Drift gillnets are widely used many parts of the world to target Tuna, but are also noted for the large amount of large-Vertebrate bycatch they produce. In the northwest Indian Ocean drift gillnets are widely used by the fishing fleets of Iran and Pakistan, presenting a threat to Whales in this area, but also presenting an opportunity for scientists to gather data on these Animals.

In a paper published in the journal Zoology in the Middle East on 13 February 2025, Muhammad Shoaib Kiani of the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Karachi, Mohsen Rezaie-Atagholipour of the Qeshm Environmental Conservation Institute, Rab Nawaz and Muhammad Moazzam of the World Wide Fund for Nature - Pakistan, Bushra Shafiq also of the  Institute of Marine Science at the University of Karachi, Haleh Ali Abed of the Midaf Nature Conservation Society, and Koen Van Waerebeek, also of the Qeshm Environmental Conservation Institute and of the Centro Peruano de Estudios Cetológicos, present the results of a long-term study of Beaked Whale entanglements in Tuna gillnets in Iranian and Pakistani waters.

A citizen science program was established in Pakistan in 2012, in which fishermen on pelagic gillnet Tuna vessels were trained to collect data on Cetacean bycatch. In Iran reviews of mass media at local and national levels, looking for Cetacean-related stories, have been carried out since 2018, and a series of interviews of fishermen was carried out in 2022.

Kiani et al. discovered eight incidents in which entangled Cetaceans could be identified as Beaked Whales in the waters of the Gulf of Oman and Arabian Sea, two in Iranian territory, five in Pakistani territory, and one in international waters.

The first recorded incident happened on 10 February 2015, when fishermen on board the Pakistani vessel Al-Azaan discovered a live Beaked Whale caught in a gillnet they had deployed 95 km to the west of the Swatch (the undersea canyon formed where the Indus River enters the ocean) and 177 km off the coast of Sindh, an area where the seafloor is about 1.5 km deep. 

Based upon video evidence, this Whale was estimated to be 5-6 m long, and slender with a slightly protrudent melon (mass of adipose tissue on the forehead), and a long snout without protruding teeth. This Animal lacked the scars associated with tooth-raking typically seen in male Beaked Whales, and is therefore assumed to have been a female.

The Whale had a brownish-grey dorsal surface, slightly paler on the head, and had a large, Dolphin-like fin about two thirds of the way along its body. This is, along with its location in the tropical Indian Ocean, is considered to be consistent with a Longman’s Beaked Whale, Indopacetus pacificus. This species was first described in 1928 from the skull of a Whale found in Queensland Australia in 1882, with a second skull being found on the shore of Somalia, East Africa, in 1955. For a long time, these two specimens were all that was known of this species, however, recent studies have established that Whales washed up on the shores of the Philippines, Maui (Hawaii), Taiwan, Myanmar, the Andaman Islands, South Africa, and Japan, previously identified as Southern Bottlenose Whales, Hyperoodon planifrons, were in fact Longman’s Beaked Whales, and based upon this data, 65 sightings of live Whales in the  Indian and Pacific oceans have been assigned to the species.

The Whale encountered by the Al-Azaan became entangled in a net as it was being retrieved, allowing the crew to release it without apparent harm by cutting away part of the net. This process took about 30 minutes, and while the Whale is thought to have been unharmed, one of the fishermen received minor injuries.

(a)-(h). Successive steps in gillnet disentanglement operation of a Longman’s Beaked Whale, Indopacetus pacificus, in Pakistani waters. Note the head with moderately bulbous melon (e), (h), long rostrum (f), (g), (h) tubular in dorsal view (h), limited linear scarring (e) and large falcate dorsal fin (f, g). Selected frames were taken from a video. Kiani et al. (2025).

The second recorded incident happened on 31 March 2017, when an un-named Pakistani vessel encountered a 4 m long Whale 383 km off the coast of Pakistan, again in the Swatch area, an area where the sea slightly more than 3 km deep. 

This Whale had a distinct, but non-bulbous melon, a long slender snout, and a low, sub-triangular dorsal fin. The skin of the Whale was a uniform grey, slightly darker towards the tail, and it had no visible scarring of any type. It was not possible to identify this Whale to species level, but it was probably a member of the genus Mesoplodon, possibly Deraniyagala’s Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon hotaula, or Ginkgo-toothed Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon ginkgodens, although this species has never been recorded in the Indian Ocean, or even Ramari’s Beaked Whale, Mesoplodon eueu, although this species tends  to lighten towards the tail, and is a cold-water species, never previously recorded in the western Indian Ocean north of Mozambique. 

The third incident was recorded in August 2017, when a fisherman from Bandar-e-Konarak on the coast of Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iran, sent a video to the Iranian National News Agency, IRIB News, showing a Whale entangled in a gill net. This incident is thought to have happened in the waters of Iran’s Exclusive Economic Zone, and probably close to Bandar-e-Konarak. 

The Whale could be seen to blow, suggesting that it was alive and breathing. It appears to be a Beaked Whale with no visible teeth. The bulbosity of the melon cannot be determined from the video. The fluke (tail) of the Whale can be seen, and from comparison to the arm of a fisherman, is estimated to be between about 140 cm wide, which would equate to a Whale 4.7-4.9 m in length. The fluke also lacks a median notch, confirming that the Animal is a Ziphiid.

An unidentified middle-sized Beaked Whale, with a melon of unclear bulbosity, net-entangled within Iran’s Exclusive Economic Zone waters off Sistan and Baluchistan Province, northern Gulf of Oman, in August 2017. (a), (b) Flukes without central notch and tailstock; (c) the only registered blow and vague view of the head. Both Mesoplodon sp. and Indopacetus pacificus would be possible. Kiani et al. (2025).

The fourth incident occurred on 18 January 2018, when a small-to-medium sized Beaked Whale was recorded trapped in gillnet 474 km from the coast of Pakistan, an area where the sea is slightly under 3.2 km deep. This Whale was 3.5-4.5 m long, with a medium length snout and a non-bulbous melon and no central notch on its fluke; its colour and/or markings could not be determined due to poor light. This is consistent with it being a member of the genus Mesoplodon. The Pakistani fishermen who encountered this Whale were able to disentangle it from their nets, and report if swam away in good condition. 

The fifth incident occurred on 19 March 2019, when two Beaked Whales, interpreted as a mother and calf, became entangled in the same gillnet off Churna Island, 96 km from the coast of the Pakistani Mainland. The waters here are shallow, at 295 m.

The calf was described as the size of an adult Common Bottlenose Dolphin, making it 3.0-3.5 m in length, while it was not possible to estimate the size of the larger Whale. The smaller Whale had a dark grey upper surface,  and a whitish underside. It had a short snout, and no sign of a bulbous melon, its dorsal fin hooked, no notch could be seen in the tail. These Whale are also interpreted as belonging to the genus Mesoplodon. The fishermen reported successfully disentangling both Whales.

The sixth recorded incident happened in February 2022, when Iranian fishermen reported encountering a Whale caught in a drift gillnet 1300 km off the coast of Bandar-e-Beris in eastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province. Video footage of the incident shows a medium-sized Beaked Whale with a medium-length Dolphin-like beak, and a non-steeply sloping melon, consistent with a member of the genus Mesoplodon. The video also shows that the Whale has two apical or slightly sub-apical mandibular teeth, indicating that it was male, as well as a dark eye-patch, an almost straight mouth, and a small, slightly hooked tail. The length of the Whale is uncertain, but it appears to be about 4.5-5.5 m.

An unidentified Mesoplodon sp. bycaught in far offshore waters of the northern Arabian Sea, 1300 km from Bandar-e-Beris at the eastern side of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province, in February 2022. (a), (c) Two erupted (sub)apical mandibular teeth indicate an adult male. (b) Dolphin-like, medium-length rostrum, gently sloping melon and smallish dorsal fin. Kiani et al. (2025).

The final incident happened in early June 2023, when a large Beaked Whale became entangled in a drift gillnet in the coastal Iranian Gulf of Oman, about 37 km from the port of Chabahar in eastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province. This Animal was clearly an adult male, with numerous took-rake scars and erupted apical teeth. It was estimated to have been 5.8-6.0 m in length, with an erect, Dolphin-like dorsal fin, and way brownish grey in colour with a lighter head. This is interpreted as being consistent with either a Longman’s Beaked Whale, Indopacetus pacificus, or a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale, Ziphius cavirostris. 

An adult male Beaked Whale being liberated after accidental entanglement in Tuna gillnet in coastal waters of the Gulf of Oman, some 37 km from Chabahar, Iran, in early June  2023. (a) Large body size with two erupted teeth at the apex of the mandibula; (b) a tall, erect, falcate, Dolphin-like dorsal fin, a moderately long and well-defined rostrum; (c) with numerous tooth rakes on anterior body; and (d) some degree of bulbosity in the melon. The morphology of the Beaked Whale is congruent with Indopacetus pacificus, but Ziphius cavirostris cannot be excluded. Kiani et al. (2025).

The first of these incidents is regarded as the first record of Longman’s Beaked Whale, Indopacetus pacificus, in Pakistani waters, with incidents five and seven representing potential additional sightings. A beached individual assigned to the species was recorded in Gujarat State, India, in 2014, making the Pakistan entanglement the second record of the species in the northwest Indian Ocean. Previously a skull has been recorded from the coast of Somalia in 1955, a member of the species was sighted from Socotra Island, Yemen in 1971, and another in the waters of the southern Bay of Bengal in 2009. Five Longman’s Beaked Whales have been recorded as bycatch from Sri Lanka, although these have been disputed, and fourteen sightings and a stranding recorded from the Maldives. 

Incidents two, four, six, and possibly five represent the first records of Mesoplodon sp. in Iranian and Pakistani waters, although none of these specimens could be confidently identified to species level. 

Drift gillnets are considered to be one of the most significant anthropogenic threats to Whales, although evidence to support this is absent in many areas. Kiani et al.'s study shows entanglement is a clear threat to Beaked Whales in the northwestern Indian Ocean, as while all of the reported Whales were freed, it is likely that a greater number of Whales were not released safely, and therefore not reported.

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Total lunar eclipse to be visible from the Americas.

A total Lunar Eclipse will occur on Friday 14 March 2025, starting at about 5.09 am GMT. It will be visible across the entire of the Americas, as well as much of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and the eastern tip of Russia. Part of the eclipse will be visible from western parts of Africa and Europe, as well as much of East and Southeast Asia, and Australasia, although in these areas the Moon will either rise part way through the eclipse, or set before it is complete in these areas.

Areas from which the 14 March 2025 Lunar Eclipse will be visible. Dominic Ford/In the Sky.

The Moon produces no light of its own, but 'shines' with reflected light from the Sun. Thus at Full Moon the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth to the Sun, and its illuminated side is turned towards us, but at New Moon the Moon is between the Earth and the Sun, so that its illuminated side is turned away from us.

How the phases of the Moon are caused by the relative positions of the Earth, Sun and Moon. Karl Tate/Space.com.

Lunar eclipses occur when the Moon passes through the Earth's shadow. This can only happen at Full Moon (unlike Solar Eclipses, which happen only when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sum, and therefore only occur at New Moon), but does not happen every Lunar Month as the Sun, Moon and Earth are not in a perfect, unwavering line, but rather both the Earth and the Moon wobble slightly as they orbit their parent bodies, rising above and sinking bellow the plane of the ecliptic (the plane upon which they would all be in line every month). 

Phases of the Lunar Eclipse that will be seen on 14 March 2025. The times are given in GMT. Sky & Telescope.

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