Researchers with the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Staiton have found the first evidence that drought and insect herbivory can create lasting, transgenerational effects in soybeans. The stressors not only affect the parent plants but alter the traits and defenses of their offspring. The research demonstrates some of the positive and negative impacts the stressors have on a plant’s progeny and could be used to develop more resilient crops in the same season.

The team found fossils of Homo that confirm the earliest evidence for the human lineage at 2.8 million years ago as well as evidence of Homo at 2.6 million years ago, solidifying the antiquity of Homo. Unexpectedly, the team also found evidence that Homo overlapped at the site with a different type of hominin, Australopithecus, at 2.6 million years ago.