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From Smithsonian Magazine, By -   Riley Black   -  Science Correspondent, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, An artist’s reconstruction of  Scleromochlus taylori , an ancestor of pterosaurs  Gabriel Ugueto Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to take to the air. Flapping with wings made of a membrane stretched over ludicrously-elongated fourth fingers, these flying reptiles filled the skies between 66 and 220 million years ago in a range of body sizes from sparrow to Cessna. But what did the ancestor of pterosaurs look like? A new analysis of a controversial fossil that is more than 100 years old has helped to resolve the longstanding paleontological puzzle. Using high definition CT scans, an international team of researchers has revealed that an agile Triassic reptile shared many traits in common with the flying saurians. The paleontologists report their findings today in  Nature . The initial discovery that would help bring pterosaur origins into focus was made over a century ago. In 1907,

  From- Knowable magazine   ,                                                        By  Viviane Callie, Edited By Amal Udawatta, The complex cells of organisms known as eukaryotes, such as the animal cell pictured here, arose more than 1.5 billion years ago. Biologists have long known that back then, one simple, bacteria-like cell engulfed another, and the new arrival settled into its host cell to eventually become what we know as the energy-generating mitochondrion. But new genetic evidence suggests the origin of eukaryotes may have been more complicated than that, involving multiple partners. For billions of years after the origin of life, the only living things on Earth were tiny, primitive cells resembling today’s bacteria. But then, more than 1.5 billion years ago, something remarkable happened: One of those primitive cells, belonging to a group known as the archaea, swallowed a different one — a bacterium. Instead of being digested, the bacterium took up permanent residence with