Category Archives: Evolution

The pendant, seen here in slightly different views, would've been about 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) long and 1.5 centimeters (just over half an inch) wide, with a thickness between 0.36 and 0.39 centimeter (1.4 and 1.5 inches).

In 2010, scientists unearthed an ivory pendant from an abandoned Polish cave. Punctured with patterns reminiscent of moon cycles and mathematics, the artifact's origins eluded archaeologists -- until now. An international team of researchers just declared the relic to be 41,500 years old.

That makes it the earliest piece of ornate jewelry ever found in Eurasia, and a wonderful reminder that art is timeless. Images and details of the discovery were published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

But beyond its aesthetic value, this ancient pendant also marks the first proof of post-Neanderthal civilization in the Polish region, enriching our textbooks with new data on the movement of early human populations.

"It was not expected to have any evidence of early Homo sapiens in this cave, because it was sort of seen as a Neanderthal cave," said Sahra Talamo, lead author of the study. "This sort of shows the next step in evolution."

The Polish cave where the pendant was excavated.

The pendant's modern story began 11 years ago, when researchers excavated two fragments of it in Poland's Stajnia Cave. Each piece is made of mammoth bone and has unique looping designs etched with a sequence of dots. There are two holes on the adornment, which presumably were used to attach a string of sorts to make a necklace.

"When I saw it, I was shocked," Talamo said of her first encounter with the item.

The confusion came from its location in a stratigraphic layer of the cave attributed to Neanderthals. Tools, and even teeth, of the human ancestors had already been discovered there. But according to Talamo, it was peculiar to connect the jewelry to the early humans, because of the dotted decorations. Such artwork is typical of Homo sapiens, who lived after the Neanderthal era, and are thought to have engaged in more-complicated creative endeavors.

Neanderthals had their own jewelry, but it wasn't nearly as elaborate as what's on the pendant. Armed with a ton of questions, Talamo decided to investigate.

Talamo is an expert in the field of radiocarbon dating, a method that uses an isotope of carbon to determine the age of organic material. Lo and behold, the pendant didn't originate with the Neanderthals. It likely just migrated to a lower layer of the cave even though it was made by later generations from the Early Upper Paleolithic era.

Given its rarity, she also suggests these relics were probably not commonplace items for the Homo sapiens. Perhaps it could've been a status symbol of sorts?

Interestingly, the pendant's remains were found alongside an ancient awl, or small pointed tool used for piercing holes. Coincidence? Well, probably. The team realized the awl dates back 500 years prior to the pendant's creation, and either way, was likely too "soft" to make the dotted markings in bone. That finding is also a result of Talamo's radiocarbon dating technique.

Typically, radiocarbon dating is seen as invasive because it requires breaking off a physical piece of the object being studied. As Talamo puts it, it's a "destroying method."

But for the purpose of this study, she invented a new way to radiocarbon-date. It requires only a tiny piece of the artifact to arrive at an accurate result while preserving nearly all the delicate art, teeth or tools being examined.

"I tried to develop this method because I want to destroy as little as possible," Talamo said, but "start to combine this puzzle of human evolution with a real piece of the puzzle."

Going forward, Talamo's novel technique could be employed for other fossils or artifacts. She hopes to apply it to ancient jewelry found in France and Germany, for example, but thinks it could help decode any valuable objects worth studying.

Sahra Talamo (left) as she hands her 3D representation of the ancient pendant and accompanying awl back to Polish researchers.

A future queue of such objects could include similar decorated ornaments, then move to figurines and weapons. The possibilities are endless, which Talamo hopes will prove radiocarbon dating can be done in a careful way by any team across the globe -- an important consideration, she says, because archaeology requires a grand perspective.

"You have to have a big team with different minds, different opinions, different disciplines that work together for the same goal," she stressed. "This will make it stronger -- the evidence that we're going to bring to the world."

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Pendant from 41,500 years ago may have uncovered a 'step in evolution' - CNET

Photo: Cat's Eye Nebula, by NASA, ESA, HEIC, and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

Jerry Coyne,a traditional Darwinian evolutionary biologist and author ofWhy Evolution Is True,is having a hard time understanding why anyone would even consider taking panpsychism seriously. His bafflement over the growing acceptance of the idea that every living thing (or everything) is conscious to some extent may shed light on some new features of the changing science landscape.

His jumping off point is a recent three-way debate/discussion, sponsored byMindChat,between panpsychist philosopherPhilip Goff,naturalist theoretical physicistSean Carroll,and physicalist philosopherKeith Frankish,who views the mind as anillusion created bythe brain or, as Coyne puts it, a trick of the biological mind.

Coyne, as a metaphysical naturalist (nature is all there is), is quite sure that panpsychism is bunk and that Carrollwonthe debate:

I watched only until an hour and 45 minutes in, so I cant tell you what happens in the rest of the discussion. But if you watch up to that point, and listen to Seans eloquent and patient explanations, and see the sweating panpsychist professor try to prop up his crumbling ideas, you will not be any more enamored with panpsychism than you were before. In other words, youll see that its a theory without substance.

But speaking of theories without substance, a commenter, Maximillian,writes to notethat Carroll is a proponent of themultiverse,itself acontestedidea, deemed unfalsifiable. The commenter also points out a fact that Coyne appears reluctant to take into consideration:

Maximillian:Integrated information theory (which strictly speaking is not panpsychist in Goffs sense) is currently a leading contender for a theory of consciousness. According to IIT, consciousness is what it feels like when information is processed. If that turns out to be the case, then it is within the realm of possibility that the arrangement of physical matter in patterns unlike the biological brain might lend conscious experience to other entities that current scientific theories do not comprehend. In fact, if IIT is correct, physical fields could in principle be conscious. But that is a big if.

Yes, thats right.Integrated Information Theory(IIT)isa leading contender for a theory of consciousness. Would it likely be a leading theory if cranks, kooks, and charlatans were driving the bus?

Read the rest at Mind Matters News, published by Discovery Institutes Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence.

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Darwinist: Learning to Live with Panpsychism? - Discovery Institute

My last column on the changing meaning of savage from the 17th century to now invites further development. The word took on a central place in the late 18th on into the 19th century when Romanticism emerged in Europe and here.

The first step in that transformation can be found in the words of the ever-sensible Benjamin Franklin. Writing out of his direct experience dealing with the Indigenous population during the French and Indian War, Franklin declared, Savages we call them, because their manners differ from ours, which we think the perfection of civility; they think the same of theirs.

Romanticism pushed savage from Franklins balanced assessment to a preferred status by positing that human nature is essentially good. Therefore, all the clearly morally reprehensible acts we see daily result from societys corruption of that goodness. Tracking back to the words root as meaning uncivilized, savage individuals were deemed to be noble, because they had not been corrupted by society. The exact origin of this phrase is often ascribed to the French philosopher Jean-Jacque Rosseau, a contemporary of Franklin, who without using the term itself did praise the virtue of the uncorrupted savage. Later usage elevated uncorrupted to noble.

English Romantic poet William Wordsworth opens a famous sonnet by declaring, The world is too much with us late and soon/Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers and in the process lose contact with the essential goodness of nature. The more civilized we become, that is, the more removed we are from this essential goodness, the more corrupted we are.

All of the above is essentially a European concept. American Romantics, such as Emerson and Thoreau generally subscribed to the view of nature as essentially good, the motivation for Thoreau to retreat into the woods surrounding Walden Pond, but real-life exposure to the ongoing conflicts with the Indigenous population as settlers moved across the continent provided a different perspective. One form of this perspective was to respect the pre-contact Indigenous population as an evolutionary step toward a superior white civilization. Such a view is expressed in Henry Wadsworth Longfellows The Song of Hiawatha, which offers a noble savage existence that gives way to the reality of the presence of a superior culture carried here from Europe. Ralph Waldo Emerson protested the removal of the Cherokees but argued that the tribe could raise itself up by becoming more civilized, that is, whiter.

James Fennimore Cooper in his Leatherstocking Tales, novels set in the then-frontier of western upstate New York, describes his main character Natty Bumppo as a being removed from the every-day inducements to err which abound in civilized life, who sees God in the forest a being who finds the impress of the Deity in all the works of nature without the blots produced by the expedients, and passions, and mistakes of man. In short, a man of nature.

Coopers view of the tribes is an interesting attempt at balance. Some of his critics chastised him for presenting the tribes in a too-positive light. That criticism seems to be an indicator of the move toward seeing the tribes as savage Indians, a view that soon dominated their representation in the American imagination. Cooper invented the term of gifts, attributes he associated with each culture, that is, white gifts and red man gifts.

For Cooper, his Natty Bumppo represented the best resolution, one who retained his superior white gifts while acknowledging, and learning from, the red mans gifts. That resolution, of course, did not take hold, giving way to the perceived necessity of cleansing the tribes gifts and replacing them with those of the whites settlers moving across the continent.

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Stephen Lewis: The continuing evolution of 'savage' | News - Traverse City Record Eagle

Photo: Plasmodium falciparum, by Lukas.S at English Wikipedia(Original text: Lukas 05:24, 5 October 2006 (UTC)), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

On a new episode ofID the Future,Darwin Devolvesauthor and biologist Michael Behe discusses two recent technical papers that the news media billed as dramatic evidence for evolution. As Behe explains in his conversation with host Eric Anderson, a careful look at the papers themselves shows that both cases involve devolution. That is, the biological forms in question did not evolve novel structures and information; instead they threw away things to achieve a niche advantage.

Inthe first study, in the journalNature Microbiology, the researchers found that in Africa, where most rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for falciparum malaria recognize histidine-rich protein 2 antigen, the malaria parasite has repeatedly evolved a way to sometimes elude detection, giving it a selective advantage, since this sneakier form of the parasite is less likely to be treated with anti-malaria drugs and eliminated. But what gets lost in the media hype is that the trick is managed by deleting histidine-rich protein 2 (pfhrp2) and 3 (pfhrp3) genes devolution.

A similar story unfolds inaCurrent Biologyarticlefocused on the yeastS. cerevisiae. Behe says the thinking used to be that, as an earlier and simpler evolutionary form, it was no wonder this yeast had fewer introns than later, more sophisticated organisms higher up the evolutionary tree. But as Behe underscores and as this recent paper argues, it looks instead like the yeast devolved, tossing off genetic information to achieve a niche advantage while sacrificing functionality outside the niche.

But evolutions grand tree-of-life story requires constructive evolution, not more and more cases of organisms tossing parts overboard. Instead, here we have two more examples strengtheningBehes thesisthat devolution dominates the biological scene, swamping by many orders of magnitude cases of genuine, complexity-building evolutionary mutations (if any such exist), rendering the prospect of substantive constructive evolution hopeless. Download the podcast or listen to it here.

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Two Papers Support Behe and Darwin Devolves - Discovery Institute

In the original Jurassic Park film, Ian Malcolm has a famous monologue criticizing the park and its very existence. In that speech, he says: Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didnt stop to think if they should. To the PC modder responsible for replacing some dinosaurs in Jurassic World Evolution 2 with Ice Cage characters, I offer the same Malcolm quote.

Simply titled the Ice Age Replacer mod, this project can be downloaded and installed via the Nexus Mods website. What I enjoy about the name is that someone might be looking for a mod to add ice age-era animals to the prehistoric park builder and not realize what they are actually doing is adding animated characters from the popular Ice Age film franchise.

All your favorites are here including Ray Romanos furry elephant, an angry comedian stuck in the body of a saber-toothed tiger, and of course John Leguizamo. Sadly (or luckily depending on who you ask...) the mod doesnt include audio clips from the movie. Instead, it just replaces the skins of a few different dinos in the game with Ice Age characters.

Yes, for all you Scrat fans out there, the little annoying squirrel who loves nuts and who has somehow become the face of this popular media franchise, is in this mod, too. I assume this mod is a better way to play around with Scrat than his odd PS2-like platformer released on Xbox One and PS4 a few years back.

Did you know that Scrat was involved in a legal dispute between Blue Sky Studios and a cartoonist who claimed she created the character first and Fox stole it from her? Well, now you know and you can thank NanoLancensisthe creator of the Ice Age modfor learning about that very important bit of trivia.

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh right, a weird mod for Jurassic World Evolution 2. If you want to play with the gang from Ice Age the free mod is easily downloadable from the Nexus Mods website and can be installed in just a few steps.

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Someone Replaced The Dinos In Jurassic World Evolution 2 With Uh... Ice Age Characters - Kotaku

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The Eagles left tackle took up residence at the International House of Pancakes last Sunday after a big win against New Orleans.

Jordan Mailata looks on against the New Orleans Saints at Lincoln Financial Field on November 21, 2021. / Photograph by Mitchell Leff / Contributor via Getty Images

When you want to protect the family its nice to have a 6-foot-8, 380-pound bodyguard.

Thats the role Eagles emerging star left tackle Jordan Mailata played in the teams 40-29 win over New Orleans last Sunday.

The typically affable Mailata showed his nastier side when Saints defensive end Marcus Davenport started taking a few liberties with the guy Mailata is tasked with protecting: Philadelphia quarterback Jalen Hurts.

Mailata and Davenport even got into a bit of a scrum, something not unfamiliar to Mailata, an ex-rugby player in his native Australia.

There were no flags on the play but plenty of lingering discontent as the big man ended on top of the duel, something that led to some pushing and shoving when the two players were finally untangled.

As the winner, Mailata took a bit of a victory lap on social media, changing the location of his Instagram account to IHOP the International House of Pancakes.

Pancake blocks, of course, is what every NFL offensive lineman strives for.

I was being cheeky, thats all that was, Mailata smiled before a walkthrough practice on Wednesday.

That cheekiness quickly ended, however, when Mailata talked about the way Davenport went about his business.

The biggest thing for me was all the extra stuff (Davenport) was doing to Jalen, said Mailata. Im a big boy, I can handle myself, but I think seeing him getting pushed out of bounds and even when Jalens breaking the pockets and hes throwing the ball, hes getting hit late by No. 92.

So, for me it kind of built up. The frustration was, once I get an opportunity, Im going to do something to this dude. It just so happened that play he lined up against me, I got the right footwork, got the right leverage, and just kind of wanted to finish him into the ground.

The angst went back to the 2020 game when the Eagles topped the Saints, 24-21, in a much closer affair.

I just remember them being so dirty after plays last year, Mailata noted. For me, I wanted to set the tone early and thats why I was the way I was on Sunday because I wasnt going to let that fly again this year.

A natural leader, Hurts has sparked incredible loyalty from his teammates.

For me, its protecting my family, Mailata explained. I told you guys this last week, all these guys on the team are my family. So, for me, protecting my family is what made me do thatseeing my brother get hit, getting pushed out of bounds late, it didnt roll right with me.

Mailata has evolved from seventh-round project into a franchise left tackle in less than four years and with it, the uncertainty of trying a new sport in a foreign country has turned into a self-assured second nature for Mailata.

The confidence is there, and it should be there, All-Pro center Jason Kelce said of Mailata. I think when you go out there and have success, you should be confident. When you put the work in, you practice and create all of these habits that are going to enable you to have success, you should be confident.

The key is you cant be so confident where you dont realize you still have room to grow.

John McMullen covers the NFL and the Eagles for Sports Illustrated and JAKIB Media. Hes also the co-host of Birds 365, a daily streaming show covering the Eagles and the NFL, and the host of Extending the Play on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or follow John on Twitter: @JFMcMullen.

Subscribe to the JAKIB Media YouTube page to watch BIRDS 365 every day as well as Football 24/7.

Eagles Report is a partnership between Philly Mag and JAKIB Media Partners.

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From Affable Aussie to Nasty Bodyguard: The Evolution of Jordan Mailata - Philadelphia magazine

Southampton made life pretty easy for Liverpool at times on Saturday afternoon.

Playing three vs three in the first half against Mohamed Salah, Sadio Man and the prolific Diogo Jota might, in hindsight, have been a slight error from Saints boss Ralph Hasenhttl, but that did not stop plenty of Reds players from impressing.

Jota scored twice, Man looked sharp (his pass for the opening goal was inch-perfect), and Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold assisted in the same game for the first time in almost a year.

This was also just the third time that the midfield trio of Fabinho, Thiago Alcntara and Jordan Henderson had started a match together (the others being against Everton in last season's Merseyside derby, in which Thiago was injured, and in the 3-0 win over Crystal Palace earlier this season).

While there were scares (Thiago losing the ball on the edge of his own box, under pressure from James Ward-Prowse, for instance), Liverpool were largely, as you might expect, in control of proceedings.

After all, this was the midfield trio that was supposed to take Liverpool to the next level; to give them their next evolution and mean that Gini Wijnaldum's departure at the end of last season would not be felt.

Jordan Henderson's importance to the Liverpool side is undoubted, but it is with the other two players Thiago and Fabinho where the most interesting pattern lies, with the duo really forming an excellent partnership.

Liverpool have now played 13 matches with Fabinho and Thiago starting in midfield. The Reds have won 12 of those, drawn one, and lost none. Across that period, they have scored 35 goals and conceded just five.

That record is remarkably good, with Liverpool reaping the rewards every time they are both on the field of play.

The only issue with Thiago so far in his Liverpool career has been that he has not been able to get onto the pitch often enough, and his rhythm has therefore been disrupted.

But he appears in a good vein of form at the moment, and dictated play as he can at his best twice this week.

Fabinho, too, has missed a fair few games over the past couple of seasons, but the Brazilian is instrumental to how Liverpool play; keeping him fit will be vital.

As ever, Liverpool's success this season will come down, at least in part, to which players they can keep injury-free.

Mohamed Salah leads the way in terms of importance, but Thiago and Fabinho are not far behind.

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Liverpool 64m duo are giving Jrgen Klopp next evolution, and proving Gini Wijnaldum point right - Liverpool.com

In Pokemon Go, most of the Pokemon found throughout the world can evolve by giving them enough Candies. Some require 50 Candies, others as much as 400, but there are a few evolutions where Candies won't do by themselves.

These Pokemon can only evolve to more powerful forms after walking with their trainers for a set distance. Make one of these creatures your in-game Buddy before setting out for a walk or run around the neighborhood and before you know it you'll have a brand new powerful Pokemon to use in battle.

The first two evolutions both involve Eevee, a special Pokemon that can evolve into one of eight forms. Only two of those forms involve walking a set distance, those being Espeon and Umbreon.

Both evolutions will require Eevee to walk with you as your Buddy for 10km total, as well as 25 Eevee Candies. However, the evolution you'll receive will also depend on the time of day; if you wish for your Eevee buddy to become Espeon, evolve it during the day, while Umbreon fans should wait until nighttime to feed Eevee the Candies.

Next up is a trio of tiny Pokemon that hatch from Pokemon Eggs, the so-called "Baby Pokemon" that debuted as pre-evolutions of existing Pokemon. Bonsly, Happiny, and Mime Jr. all evolve into their adult forms by becoming your Buddy.

The requirements for getting these Baby Pokemon to grow up are as follows:

There are only two other Pokemon that require walking in order to evolve: the batty Flying type Woobat and the fishy Feebas.

In order to evolve Woobat into Swoobat, you will need to set Woobat as your Buddy Pokemon, walk all of 1km with it as your Buddy, and then feed it 50 Woobat Candies. Once that's done, you'll have a new Swoobat to add to your collection.

The Feebas to Milotic evolution takes a lot more effort than Woobat, even if the method is the same. After making Feebas your Buddy Pokemon, you'll need to walk 20km with it in order for it to be ready to evolve. Once that's done 100 Feebas Candies will turn it into the powerful Milotic, so you'd better hope there's a lot more Feebas on the road while walking those 20km.

That's it! Use these quick tips to add all of Pokemon Go's Walking Evolutions to your Pokedex. If you're looking for more unique evolutions, check out our guide on all things Eevee in order to add all eight Eeveelutions to your roster.

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Pokemon Go Walking Evolution Guide: How To Evolve Eevee, Bonsly, Happiny, Mime Jr, and More By Walking - GameSpot

Jurassic World Evolution 2's campaign mode bridges the gap between the movie Fallen Kingdom and its imminent follow-up Dominion. Explaining how their game fits into the broader series canon, the team at Frontier Developments spoke to Newsweek in an exclusive interview.

A five-minute prologue for Jurassic World: Dominion has just been released online by Universal Pictures. If you attended an IMAX screening of Fast & Furious 9 earlier this year, then you will have already seen it (as the clip debuted as a teaser before that film) but for everybody else, this is their first look at the upcoming prehistoric adventure.

Essentially the pre-title sequence of the movie, you can watch this sneak peek on the official Jurassic World YouTube account. It starts off unusually sedate, with a dialogue-free stretch that depicts Earth as it was 65 million years ago, when dinosaurs ruled the earth. After this journey into the past (which feels almost like a nature documentary in terms of its style), we then flash forward to the present day, where a stampeding T-Rex wreaks havoc upon a drive-in theatre.

This is the central hook of the new movie, which finally takes the action outside of the Cinco Muertes archipelago and into the mainland United States. We have had brief teases of this before (most notably in the climax of The Lost World), but Jurassic World: Dominion is all about what happens when these primeval animals intrude upon modern civilization.

It's an intriguing premise for any dino fan and the prologue gives us a tantalizing first glimpse at what's in store. Or rather, it would do, were it not for the fact that Jurassic World Evolution 2 already came out a couple of weeks ago.

The park management sim's campaign mode is effectively a prequel to Dominion, sandwiched between the events of the newer film and the Battle at Big Rock short that came out in 2019.

As such, anybody who has already played through the title will immediately recognize certain elements in the Dominion prologue. Many of the animals you see (including the intimidating Giganotosaurus) have already made their debut in Evolution 2, and the game offers you a good look at what the exciting new world will feel like.

Speaking about how this came to be, the game's director Rich Newbold said: "Around the time we finished the "Return to Jurassic Park" DLC [for the first game] the team felt we had a great opportunity [to] tell some interesting narratives in the shape of a sequel.

"Jurassic World is such an iconic universe, and one that the team were keen to explore in more depth [...] Being able to pick up where Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom left off gave us huge creative licence to create our own original narrative, which also precedes the upcoming Jurassic World: Dominion. It was incredibly exciting to be able to create a story of our own set within Jurassic's canon. Universal are such supportive partners and helped us to craft a narrative that feels like a true extension of the franchise.

"Our story is set immediately after the Earth-shattering events of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. We wanted to explore how finding dinosaurs out in the wild could present entirely new challenges to players. They'll work to lead the efforts of the DFW (Department of Fish and Wildlife) to control, conserve, and contain wild dinosaurs now rampaging across the USA."

Jurassic World Evolution 2 has a "Chaos Theory" mode that lets you play out hypothetical What If style scenarios, that reimagine key events from the movies.

They're fun little twists on the established lore with ideas like "what if InGen successfully opened up the San Diego park in The Lost World?" but they're obviously not part of the official canon. They're just alternate universe scenarios for you to explore.

Elaborating upon this side of the game, Newbold said: "When designing Chaos Theory mode, we wanted to offer a re-imagined take on pivotal scenes from the Jurassic World and Jurassic Park franchises, letting players experience key moments of their favourite films.

"We watched each film and brainstormed ways in which we could take a moment and turn it into a "what if" [scenario], asking ourselves the questions of what the player could be responsible for."

While Chaos Theory is very much its own thing, the Jurassic World Evolution 2 story mode is firmly integrated with the series canon. In fact, it provides a lot of set-up for where Dominion will ultimately end up.

If you have dipped into the campaign at all, then you will know that it concerns Owen Grady and Claire Dearing (Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard's characters respectively) trying to establish animal sanctuaries around the United States. These protected zones, overseen by the DFW, will help care for all the dinos that escaped from the Lockwood mansion at the end of Fallen Kingdom.

Along the way you will have to deal with threats of internal sabotage, poachers, and dinosaurs clashing with their modern surroundings (there is a neat little reference to Jurassic Park 3, when one of your exhibits swallows a mobile phone).

Speaking about how this sets the stage for Dominion, Newbold said: "A great Jurassic game has to respect the universe [...] We're always working closely with the team at Universal Studios to make sure that the game stays true to the Jurassic franchise. [The Studio] has such a clear vision for where they want to take things and we work closely with them to make sure our game and our story fits into their canon."

The filmmakers are clearly pleased with the results of all this effort, as Jurassic World: Dominion's director, Colin Trevorrow, has publicly endorsed the game.

With Jurassic World Evolution 2 having Universal's seal of approval, Frontier have had access to a lot of branding and resources.

They've got the authentic sound effects library, the iconic theme music and even some of the A-list cast reprising their roles from the movies. Specifically, they've been able to utilize the likes of Bryce Dallas Howard and Jeff Goldblum for voice-over work (and, in the case of the latter, for all of their promotional materials as well).

Talking about what it was like to work with Goldblum in particular, Newbold said: "Jeff knows these characters so well and it's so collaborative working with him to bring his character to life. Being in the VO sessions with him is a lot of fun.

"He'll add his own mannerisms and offer up some brilliant yet subtle tweaks. It all comes from his experience playing Dr. Ian Malcolm in a number of Jurassic movies over the years. It's always a fantastic experience to work with Jeff, and the rest of our wonderfully talented cast."

For more Jurassic World Evolution 2 content, check out our comprehensive list of every dino featured in the game, as well as our guide on how to get your scientist employees to chill out.

The management sim is available now on Xbox, PlayStation and PC.

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How 'Jurassic World Evolution 2' Bridges the Gap Between 'Fallen Kingdom' and 'Dominion' - Newsweek

We have no idea if Blue Oval head honchos are up for some involuntary humor or not. But they may have just addressed the biggest issue with recent introductions the much-delayed first deliveries. It is still late autumn 2021, and they just officially presented the all-new Ford Ranger, scheduled for release in 2023.

But no one is going to harass them with questions regarding its availability because the company itself does not even know if customers will get it as a 2022 model year. Rather, with order books opening late next year in Europe, its safe to assume that it will be offered as the 2023 Ranger. After all, the promised customer deliveries in early 2023 can always be postponed, Bronco style.

Though, on the other hand, Fords new Ranger has more design traits in common with the 2022 Maverick rather than its equally-delayed fourteenth-generation 2021 F-150 bigger sibling. Lets not be hazardous with our predictions, and hopefully, we will be positively surprised... sometime early 2023. That is when Blue Oval assembly facilities in Thailand and South Africa are going to build new Rangers at full steam.

Before that happens, we need to get to know this all-new development a little better and decide if we are dealing with evolution or revolution. With Fords Ranger being a top-selling pickup truck across so many different markets, it is a complicated answer. The company promises this is the mid-size truck people will want to own and experience. That is an uphill battle when dealing with more than 180 markets around the world.

The evolutionary part of the Ranger has to do with the exterior design and its upgraded chassis. Not much has changed from the T6 days, but upcoming new owners will not mind that because of the cool high-tech features and modern details. There is a front, Maverick-like C-style signature, complete with first-ever matrix LED headlights.

Underneath the body, there is a slightly longer and wider chassis with an additional 50 mm (almost two inches) for both the wheelbase and track widths. And round the back, the taillights mirror the innovative design with their easy-to-recognize signature. But wait, there is more as we get to powertrains.

Although thoroughly proven, no one is going to be surprised by the single and Bi-Turbo 2.0-liter inline-four diesel options. No technical specifications have been advanced, but most likely we arent looking at big changes. On the other hand, the new Ranger does feature an important addition an equally proven 3.0-liter V6 turbodiesel. Again, there is no data about its capabilities, just yet.

After promises of improved ride and handling (which cant be tested just yet), as well as talk of a flurry of customer-oriented features (from a 360-degree camera to wireless software updates), it all finally boils down to Fords new cockpit arrangement. That is Rangers revolutionary part, to be frank.

Inside, Blue Oval engineers apparently spared no expenses and dropped large 10.1-inch or 12-inch touchscreens to bode well alongside the companys SYNC 4 infotainment system. Theres also a digital instrument cluster, as well as SYNC or app access to control the trucks new exterior zone lighting system which should make it a breeze to work or play around it in the dark.

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Is the 2023 Ford Ranger Global Pickup Truck Powerhouse Evolution or Revolution? - autoevolution