Looking for an easy way to use or preserve fresh chili peppers AND create a delicious, versatile, probiotic-packed hot honey? Come learn how to make infused hot pepper honey using only two ingredients, one jar, and no heating or straining. I like to call this jalapeño honey, but you can use any type of hot chilis you prefer. This naturally fermented hot honey is full of flavor and therapeutic compounds, ready to spice up your next charcuterie board AND your medicine cabinet! It’s delicious drizzled over cheese, pizza, bread, stuffed dates, dressings, tea, cocktails and more. See a complete list of ways to use it at the end of this post. Beyond our cowboy candy recipe (so good), this has quickly become one of our favorite ways to use chilis from the summer garden. Jars of homemade hot honey is also a great homemade gift idea. Disclosure: Homestead and Chill is reader-supported. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Related: If you like this recipe, don’t miss our fermented garlic honey recipe, quick and easy refrigerator pickled peppers, or this sweet and spicy fermented hot sauce! What is fermented hot pepper honey? Hot honey is a popular sweet and spicy condiment that folks can buy or make at home. Most hot honey recipes involve heating the honey along with dry chili peppers (or red chili flakes) on the stovetop for a quick infusion of flavors, and then straining the peppers out afterwards. Yet heating honey is known to destroy many of its medicinal benefits. Instead, fermented hot honey is made by passively infusing fresh peppers in honey at room temperature, allowing them to naturally ferment together over time. The result is an even healthier, multi-purpose hot honey that you can use as a tasty condiment and for immune system support. Since we’re not going to strain them, you can enjoy eating both the honey AND the peppers too! Why is fermented hot honey good for you? Hot honey combines the impressive health benefits that both honey and chili peppers have to offer. By avoiding heat, this hot pepper honey recipe preserves the beneficial enzymes, nutrients, and antioxidants that make honey so good for you. Plus, the natural fermentation process adds even more gut-healthy probiotics to the mix! Raw honey is high in antioxidants. Studies show it has anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, prebiotic, and anticancer properties. Honey also helps to coat and soothe sore throats. The capsicum found in chili peppers stimulates the circulatory system, working as a natural detoxifier, decongestant, expectorant, and pain reliever all at once. Chili peppers are also high in vitamin C and A, and can help fight inflammation, cancer, diabetes, arthritis and more. Together, hot pepper honey can help support the immune system, cardiovascular system, and digestive health as well as alleviate cold and flu symptoms such as coughs, sore throats and congestion. Eat it by the spoonful, or add it to tea! What type of peppers to use? We used jalapeños in this particular batch of hot honey, which results in a perfect balance of spicy and sweet flavors. Feel free to use any type of chili peppers you have or desire. Serranos, Anaheim, or Fresno chilies are also excellent choices. If you’re a real hot-head, give habaneros a try! Ingredients and Supplies Needed Fresh hot chili peppers of choice* such as jalapeños, Fresno chilis, Anaheim, serranos, habaneros, or similar. You’ll need enough to fill your jar at least halfway to two-thirds full. Raw honey (enough to fill your container). We love to use raw local honey when possible! A glass jar and lid Optional: To give your hot pepper honey an extra special kick, feel free to add a small handful of fresh thyme, sage leaves, garlic cloves and/or slices of fresh ginger to the jar as well! *To make a pint-size batch of fermented jalapeño honey, you’ll need approximately 5 to 7 medium-large jalapeños and about 1.25 to 1.5 cups (300 – 350 mLs) of honey. Unlike many other fermented concoctions, this hot pepper honey recipe doesn’t require a starter culture or brine. The honey itself has acidic antimicrobial and prebiotic properties that safely ferment the peppers, limiting the growth of harmful pathogens while encouraging gut-healthy probiotics to form.  Instructions Begin by washing the peppers. Cut the stems off, and then slice them into approximately 1/4-inch rounds. To make your hot pepper honey less spicy, core the peppers first to remove the white membrane and seeds (or at least some of them). Remember to use caution while working with hot chilis! You may want to wear gloves. Next, add the sliced jalapeños (or other peppers) to a clean jar or other glass container with a lid. Add enough peppers to fill the jar at least one-half to two-thirds full. Pour the honey over the peppers until it’s completely full*. It may take a few minutes for the honey to seep and settle between the pepper slices, which will then start to float. Top off the jar with more honey as needed after settling.  *Tip: If your honey is cold and difficult to pour, warm it up first by placing the jar of honey in a bowl of hot water. Avoid heating the honey directly however, as that can destroy some of the medicinal compounds and health benefits of the honey.  Instructions continued  Loosely add a lid, but don’t tighten it completely. It’s important that fermentation gasses can escape from the jar. Set the jar of jalapeño honey in a cool dark location to ferment, such as a cupboard or pantry. I recommend setting the jar on a plate since it’s possible it may overflow and can be very sticky. During the first week of fermentation, either stir or gently turn/shake the jar every day (but be sure to tighten the lid first, and then re-loosen it after!) I usually tighten the lid, flip the jar upside down for a few minutes, turn it back right-side up, and then loosen the lid again. This helps to prevent mold by rotating and coating the pepper slices that are floating on top. Within a few days, you’ll likely see bubbles forming within the jar, though it’s okay if you don’t. The honey will also start to become increasingly runny over time – that’s normal! As the honey draws moisture out of the peppers, the slices get smaller, darker in color, and more wrinkled over time too. It takes one to two weeks for the hot pepper honey to ferment, though the flavor will be even stronger if allowed to sit longer. Storage and Shelf Life Fermented hot pepper honey is shelf-stable and lasts for many years. Stored in a cool dark location (like a pantry or cupboard), it lasts almost indefinitely… until you use it all up! Note that it’s normal for the honey and peppers to darken over time. As long as no mold occurs, it’s likely still good.  Ways to use fermented hot pepper honey Fermented hot pepper honey is more versatile than you’d imagine. Both the honey and pepper slices add a delicious kick to all things cheesy and bready: on pizza, biscuits, sourdough focaccia, sourdough cornbread, goat cheese or brie on baguette or crackers, with bagels and cream cheese, quesadillas… yum! Hot pepper honey is fantastic drizzled over grilled peaches, roasted vegetables, stir fry, ripe figs, goat cheese stuffed dates, cured meats, and other charcuterie board items. Add it to homemade salad dressing, marinades, barbecue sauce, cocktails (or mocktails) and more. My husband loves to add it to lime sparkling water. Hot honey also amazing with sweet treats like baked goods or vanilla ice cream. When you’re feeling congested or a sickness coming on, take 1 tablespoon of fermented hot honey (or add a spoonful to tea) up to a few times per day to help open airways, stimulate the immune system, and alleviate symptoms. Don’t forget your homemade elderberry syrup and fire cider recipe will help too! No matter what you do, it’s best to use fermented hot honey raw as a finishing touch or topping when possible. Avoid heating it in order to preserve the maximum healing potential. Raw honey shouldn’t be given to babies under one year of age. Don’t miss our goat cheese stuffed dates recipe. They’re one of my go-to dishes for special occasions, and SO good with a drizzle of hot pepper honey on top! I hope you enjoy this easy recipe as much as we do. Please feel free to ask any questions in the comments below, and stop back by to leave a review once you try it! You may also enjoy: Crunchy Refrigerator Pickles: Quick & Easy Homemade Dill Pickles Fire Cider Recipe: How to Make Fire Cider for Immune Health Quick Pickled Red Onions (Easy Refrigerator Pickled Onions) Preserving Apples: How to Make Homemade Apple Cider Vinegar Print Easy Hot Pepper Honey Recipe (Fermented Jalapeño Honey) Learn how to make delicious fermented hot pepper honey. The sweet and hot flavors spice up a variety of meals, and support your immune and digestive system! This is one of our favorite ways to use and preserve jalapeños (or other chili peppers) from the summer garden. Course Condiment, Fermented Foods, SauceKeyword fermented hot honey, fermented jalapeno honey, hot pepper honey Prep Time 15 minutes minutesInfusion/Ferment Time 10 days days Equipment1 pint jar and lid (or similiar) Ingredients1.5 cups raw honey5-7 fresh chili peppers, such as jalapeños, Fresno chilis, Anaheim, serranos, habaneros, or similar InstructionsBegin by washing the peppers. Cut the stems off, and then slice them into approximately 1/4-inch rounds. To make your hot pepper honey less spicy, core the peppers first to remove the white membrane and seeds (or at least some of them). Remember to use caution while working with hot chilis! You may want to wear gloves.Next, add the sliced jalapeños (or other peppers) to a clean jar or other glass container with a lid. Add enough peppers to fill the jar at least one-half to two-thirds full.Pour the honey over the peppers until it’s completely full*. It may take a few minutes for the honey to seep and settle between the pepper slices, which will then start to float. Top off the jar with more honey as needed after settling.Loosely add a lid, but don’t tighten it completely. It’s important that fermentation gasses can escape from the jar.Set the jar of jalapeño honey in a cool dark location to ferment, such as a cupboard or pantry. I recommend setting the jar on a plate since it’s possible it may overflow and can be very sticky.During the first week of fermentation, either stir or gently turn/shake the jar every day (but be sure to tighten the lid first, and then re-loosen it after!) This helps to prevent mold by rotating and coating the pepper slices that are floating on top.Within a few days, you’ll likely see bubbles forming within the jar, though it’s okay if you don’t. The honey will also start to become increasingly runny over time – that’s normal! It takes one to two weeks for the hot pepper honey to ferment, though the flavor and benefits will be even stronger if allowed to sit longer.To use: take 1 tablespoon (15 mL) of fermented hot honey when you feel a sickness coming on, up to 3 times daily. It can also be consumed daily for general health and prevention, even when you’re feeling fine! You can also drizzle it over breads, salads, cheesy and savory snacks, and more.Store in a cool dark location. Fermented hot pepper honey will stay good for many years. It is normal for it to darken in color over time. Notes*Tip: If your honey is cold and difficult to pour, warm it up first by placing the jar of honey in a bowl of hot water. Avoid heating the honey directly however, as that can destroy some of the medicinal compounds and health benefits of the honey.  Did you enjoy this article? Want to hear more? Stay in touch! Sign up below to receive weekly updates on new posts from Homestead and Chill. The post Easy Hot Pepper Honey Recipe (Fermented Jalapeño Honey) appeared first on Homestead and Chill.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) is back in the headlines big time – what with the recent decision of X to rejoin the group, and now, as anticipated, the US Congress is stepping up its attempts to shed more light on what GARM actually does, censorship-wise. Once again it is House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan who is trying to hold Big Tech – and in this case, “the advertising industrial complex” as it were – accountable. GARM is a World Economic Forum (WEF)-affiliated initiative, launched by the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA); the latter by its own admission represents more than 150 biggest brands and over 60 advertiser associations around the world. “Brand safety” is what the group says it is offering to these clients. But Jordan, and many conservatives and media outlets and businesses – allied or perceived to be allied with them – have strong suspicions that GARM can and is being used as yet another avenue of censorship and suppression – this time via actions that result in demonetization or boycott of those who hold “disfavored views.” Concerning GARM, Jordan started fighting what supporters must see as “the good fight” last year (first by requesting information and then by issuing a subpoena once that was ignored). Then, this March, the Committee sent letters to five members of the GARM Steering Team including Unilever and GroupM (a media investment group) asking for access to documents and communications that might prove the overall anti-conservative bias executed by the imitative. We obtained a copy of the letter for you here. Jordan was not in the mood to sugarcoat the issue, as he sees it: “This coordination does not always revolve around ‘brand safety’ and ‘harmful’ content as GARM publicly claims, but instead the desire to censor conservative and other views that GARM members disfavor,” he wrote, adding that this results in content creators losing revenue, in a way that may be illegal and collusive under the Sherman (antitrust) Act. In late June, Jordan wrote to Unilever again, and the inclusion of GroupM is pertinent given that the March letter mentioned several leading conservative media outlets as alleged targets of this conduct. The letter is asking top representatives of the two corporations to publicly testify regarding the Committee’s misgivings around their activities. According to a Committee spokesman’s comments made in March, “everything is on the table” in case of non-compliance with this series of requests – including more subpoenas, and congressional hearings. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Advertiser Alliance Members Are Called To Testify After Allegations of Efforts To “Demonetize, and Censor Disfavored Viewpoints” appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. Sign Up To Keep Reading This post is for Reclaim The Net supporters. Gain access to the entire archive of features and supporters-only content. Help protect free speech, freedom from surveillance, and digital civil liberties. Join Already a supporter? Login here If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post The First Amendment and AI: Reading Between the Lines of the Supreme Court’s Latest Social Media Ruling appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. From presidential election to another election, to Covid – to another election. That is how members of particular, mostly flying-under-the-radar power centers in the US have been moving over the last decades. From time to time, however, circumstances demand that they show their faces: one is James “Jim” Baker, a former FBI lawyer whose “censorship portfolio” includes the infamous case of endorsing the Hunter Biden laptop story suppression – while he was on Twitter’s payroll. And while there – Baker also wanted to know how come President Trump was not censored for a post saying – “Don’t fear Covid.” Well, Baker also seems to be staying true to himself – unfortunately, his “truth” appears to be to never miss the chance to support the wrong thing (the “RussiaGate” saga happens to be among them). Right now, he has joined something called “the National Task Force on Election Crises.” It’s a crisis, alright. A crisis of online censorship that can, and does, produce multiple “election” crises and a rapid erosion of trust in legacy media and political institutions. The group’s parent operation is the Protect Democracy Project. There’s nothing particularly innovative about the group’s lobbying talking points: remove or downgrade “election misinformation” and make sure removing and labeling content (as false) is done ASAP by social and news media (time is clearly of the essence, at this point…) As for the electoral process itself – which ended up highly and even dangerously contested perhaps for the first time in US democratic history in 2020 – the group Baker is now affiliated with seems to want the reasons by and large leading to that to remain intact. Namely, things like “(preventing) cyber or other attacks by foreign adversaries or domestic disrupters, promot(ing) pre-canvassing of absentee ballots” – and working to discourage legal challenges to the election process. Looks like Baker might be just the right man for the wrong job. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Former FBI and Twitter Lawyer Jim Baker Joins Election Task Force Advocating for Social Media Censorship appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. A Mississippi state law (introduced as House Bill 1126) that, among other things, requires platforms to implement age verification, has been declared as by and large unconstitutional by the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. The law was challenged by Big Tech trade group NetChoice in the NetChoice v. Fitch lawsuit. As the law was to come into force on July 1, the plaintiff asked for a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement. This has now been granted in part and denied in part by the district court, which found that “a substantial number, if not all, of H.B. 1126’s applications are unconstitutional judged in relation to its legitimate sweep.” We obtained a copy of the decision for you here. Observers now expect to see how the ruling might satisfy the – apparent – direction the Supreme Court is giving to lower courts, or affect its own future decisions. Related: The 2024 Digital ID and Online Age Verification Agenda Meanwhile, the Mississippi law is yet another in a series of legislative efforts introduced under the banner of protecting children from predatory behavior online. As summed up by the court, one of the bill’s sections requires “all users” – adults and children – to verify their age. This would be necessary to create an account, on what is referred to as non-excluded internet services, while another provision calls for parental consent in case a minor is opening that account. “This burdens adults’ First Amendment rights, and that alone makes it overinclusive,” is how the court explained its ruling against age verification. Meanwhile, the legislation also sets limitations on the data the relevant online services can collect. In addition, platforms are required to make “commercially reasonable efforts to develop and implement a strategy to prevent or mitigate the known minor’s exposure to harmful material.” The data collection provision was not contested in the lawsuit, and so the court opinion issued this week does not deal with that – while it grants motions for a preliminary injunction concerning other provisions, as filed by NetChoice. The court – unlike some observers, who warn about the consequential harmful effects of such efforts – sees nothing but good intentions behind bills like H.B. 1126, but is critical of the way it (vaguely) delineates its own scope and even the definition of a digital service provider. In addition, the court cites the lack of specificity concerning how tech platforms would go about ascertaining somebody’s parental status, and as in general being “either overinclusive or underinclusive, or both.” The case is now expected to move into the appeals stage with the Fifth Circuit. If you're tired of censorship and dystopian threats against civil liberties, subscribe to Reclaim The Net. The post Mississippi’s Age-Verification Digital ID Law is Declared Unconstitutional appeared first on Reclaim The Net.

Nothing Can Save Biden's Campaign, but Can Biden Save His Spot on the Ticket?

Above our heads, almost at the edge of space, there is a fair bit of plasma extending way past the orbit where the International Space Station flies. This is the ionosphere. Ultraviolet light from the Sun frees electrons from the atoms and molecules in the atmosphere creating this layer. It influences radio communications and it’s the place where auroras occur. It's also possible to punch a hole right through it, which we can see if the conditions are right – like a rocket launch.Firefly Alpha took off on July 3 from the Vanderberg Space Force Base in California. The rocket flew with eight small satellites from both NASA centers and universities as part of the space agency’s CubeSat Launch Initiative to provide a low-cost way to conduct science and technology demonstrations in space.Atmospheric scientist David Blanchard was at the ready taking a timelapse of the sky as the rocket flew through the ionosphere. He was able to capture the beautiful spectacle unfolding in the sky before the hole disappeared just as quickly.      IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.The rocket flew into a Sun-synchronous orbit and as it reached the ionosphere, the water vapor in the rocket exhaust punched a glowing red "hole" through it, which is a wonderfully pragmatic way to picture it. What's happening is the oxygen atoms in the ionosphere interact with the exhaust and recombine into oxygen molecules releasing light.While rockets can punch a hole pretty quickly, there are also natural events that do it too and they can make even larger holes. Atmospheric waves down near the ground can climb 80 kilometers (50 miles) or more to enter the ionosphere and affect the compositions there. Recently planetary scientists have witnessed multiple letter-shaped structures taking place in that high layer of the atmosphere.

Have you heard of trypophobia, the fear characterized by an aversion to clusters of small holes? Awareness of the phobia has become more widespread in recent years, creating a source of fascination for the public and the scientific community alike. But is it just another human quirk, or does trypophobia have an evolutionary root? New research argues that the phobia’s origins could be explained by two hypotheses: the “dangerous animal” hypothesis and the “skin disease-avoidance” hypothesis.According to evolutionary psychology, our brains may still implement certain mental algorithms that we, as a species, acquired during our evolutionary history. This means that even though we no longer live in the environments and conditions that our ancient ancestors did, our behavior could nevertheless be triggered by certain things in the world today.So phobias like those related to snakes or spiders, for instance, may be leftovers from our evolutionary past. In fact, many researchers believe we may have inherited fear responses as a mechanism to keep us safe from these creatures that once exerted pressure on us in the distant past. Even the fear of heights may be explained by this process, but does it work for every source of fear?This is what drove the latest research conducted by evolutionary psychologists in France and Slovakia. They wanted to see if a phobia like trypophobia could have similar evolutionary roots.This phobia was largely unknown until the rise of the internet in the 2000s. At a time when people could share content with people from across the world, it soon became clear that many also shared a strange aversion to images of clustered holes related to innocuous things like beehives, soup bubbles, and even air holes in chocolate.Trypophobia may seem an unusual phobia, but a significant portion of the population actually experiences some of its apparent symptoms. This suggests there may be an inherent and even adaptive reaction to certain stimuli.One explanation for this is the so-called “dangerous animal” hypothesis. This holds that trypophobic reactions may be leftover from an evolutionary adaptive behavior designed to avoid dangerous animals. This is because many venomous creatures, including spiders and snakes, have patterns that resemble clusters of holes.Trypophobia-triggering patterns and images of venomous animals can trigger similar neural responses, which could indicate a specific avoidance mechanism our ancestors developed. When people see these patterns in photos, or on an animal like a snake, for instance, they experience an increase in “early posterior negativity”, a neural response that occurs when we automatically process threatening visual information. This deep-rooted response could indicate an adaptive behavior.Alternatively, trypophobia could be explained by the “skin disease-avoidance” hypothesis, which suggests that the fear evolved from mechanisms to avoid infectious diseases. Parasites and certain diseases create patterns on the skin that resemble clusters of holes. Serious infectious diseases like smallpox, plague, leprosy, typhus, and rubella all produce circular stigmata or clusters of pustules on the skin.Interestingly, research has shown that trypophobia reactions are quite similar to ones of disgust, which is also the primary response involved in disease avoidance. At the same time, other research has shown that people who have higher sensitivity to disease disgust are more likely to experience trypophobia, which strengthens the idea that the two are related.The researchers believe this idea of disgust is further supported by physiological evidence. Measurements of heart rate, skin conductance, and pupil diameter have all been used in the past to measure the emotion of disgust, but they have also shown that trypophobic images create stronger physiological responses than neutral images. It is possible that disgust may have helped our ancestors avoid potential sources of disease, which has now left behind trypophobia as a byproduct.However, tropophobia is not yet recognized as a legitimate phobia by everyone. In fact, it isn’t included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). But the researchers of this latest study argue otherwise – they believe that trypophobia meets many of the diagnostic criteria that should establish it as a “true” phobia.If it can be recognized as a legitimate phobia, then it would open up the opportunity to investigate methods to help those who experience it. The team suggests that things like cognitive-behavioral therapy, exposure therapy, and medication may be useful to treat trypophobia. Previous case studies have shown their efficacy in relieving such symptoms, even though additional research is needed.“In this review, we have examined why certain individuals experience negative emotions when confronted with images of clusters of holes. Evolutionary psychologists consider that trypophobia, like many other phobias, is the result of selective pressures faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors in the remote past”, the team concludes.“So the next time your eyes fall on a lotus seed head or a beehive, we hope we have helped the ‘Cro-Magnon in you’ better understand the reasons for the discomfort you feel or that others experience if you are lucky enough not to feel anything yourself!”The study is published in the journal Evolutionary Psychological Science.[H/T PsyPost]

JR West is set to start fixing its railway system in a very Japanese fashion: using advanced humanoid robots.Starting this month, giant Mecha-style robots will be used to perform a bunch of maintenance tasks on the company's railway infrastructure, such as painting overhead support structures and removing tree branches that obstruct the tracks.Capable of lifting objects of up to 40 kilograms (88 pounds) and reaching heights of up to 12 meters (39 feet), the nimble arms can be equipped with a variety of tools to perform numerous odd jobs.The toiling mechanoid is operated by a human who can sit in its accompanying truck and control its movement using a joystick and VR goggles linked to a camera on the bot's head.You can watch a video of the technology in action below. Part of the montage even shows the robot wielding a circular saw to trim tall trees – but fear not, the developers of the contraption believe their creation is a pair of safe hands.                    In a recent announcement, JR West said they developed the technology with the help of robotics company Jinki Ittai and tech company Nippon Signal in a bid to improve their employees' safety and reduce the risk of work-related accidents.They also cited “labor shortages” as a big driver of the new technology. Japan has one of the oldest populations in the world, with around 29 percent of the country over the age of 65. It's a problem that’s set to cause all kinds of headaches, not least for the economy that’s starting to strain under the pressure of labor shortages.Robots and new technologies often get accused of "stealing jobs" for humans, but it looks like they can be employed to alleviate worker shortages too.

If you go down to the ancient swamp today you’ll be sure of a big surprise. Which is exactly what happened to researchers in Namibia who have discovered a giant salamander-like ancient beastie with huge fanged teeth and a head that was over half a meter long.Found in the Gai-as Formation in the Ugab River valley in Damaraland Namibia, researchers discovered a brand new species they’ve named Gaiasia jennyae, after both the formation and a palaeontologist named Jenny Clack who specialized in these early tetrapods. This discovery of the fossil was something of a surprise to the team.“When we found this enormous specimen just lying on the outcrop as a giant concretion, it was really shocking. I knew just from seeing it that it was something completely different. We were all very excited,” said Claudia Marsicano, co-lead author of the study, in a statement. The team actually discovered four total specimens including a particularly well-preserved skull and spine. This allowed the team to think more about the ecology of this species as well as what the area was like when Gaiasia jennyae was alive. The large interlocking teeth suggest that G. jennyae was a large ambush predator that would have consumed fish within the lake. “Gaiasia jennyae was considerably larger than a person, and it probably hung out near the bottom of swamps and lakes. It's got a big, flat, toilet seat-shaped head, which allows it to open its mouth and suck in prey. It has these huge fangs, the whole front of the mouth is just giant teeth,” said Jason Pardo, an NSF postdoctoral fellow at the Field Museum in Chicago and the co-lead author of the study. Multiple specimens also allowed the team to compare Gaiasia jennyae to other known species from this age. This helped them discover that G. jennyae is around 280 million years old, and so hails from the lost supercontinent Gondwana. The skull is the most impressive part of the fossil with large interlocking teeth that curved backwards on both the lower and upper jaws. The top of the skulls even possess unusual patterns.The fossil is thought to be around 280 million years old.Image Credit: C. Marsicano“After examining the skull,  the structure of the front of the skull caught my attention. It  was the only clearly visible part at that time, and it showed very unusually interlocking large fangs, creating a unique bite for early tetrapods,” continued Marsicano. Gaiasia jennyae is so old that the team think the specimen is a stem tetrapod, one of the earlier vertebrate ancestors before the crown groups of mammals, birds, and reptiles became truly established. Stem tetrapods possessed four legs, and were among the earliest ancestors of modern-day species. “Gaiasia is a stem tetrapod – it’s a holdover from that earlier group, before they evolved and split into the groups that would become mammals and birds and reptiles and amphibians, which are called crown tetrapods,” said Pardo. “It’s really, really surprising that Gaiasia is so archaic. It was related to organisms that went extinct probably 40 million years prior”.They also believe that the specimen was big enough to be the primary predator of the ecosystem in which it lived. Namibia today looks very different from the Namibia of 300 million years ago. The area would have been much further south, even with the northernmost point of Antarctica. The land would have been swampy closer to the poles with ice and glaciers, although nearer the equator forests were starting to appear as the Earth neared the end of an ice age. “The fact that we found Gaiasia in the far south tells us that there was a flourishing ecosystem that could support these very large predators. The more we look, we might find more answers about these major animal groups that we care about, like the ancestors of mammals and modern reptiles,” finished Pardo.The paper is published in Nature.