Technologies

76 Million-Year-Old Fossil Fills Long-standing Gap In T. Rex History

Nicknamed «Sisyphus,» this specimen was incredibly difficult to nudge it out of its ancient resting place.

Ask anyone to name three dinosaurs in five seconds, and I guarantee you Tyrannosaurus Rex will make the list. Whether it be because of Jurassic Park’s murderous scenes or humanity’s deep obsession with ancient predatorial kin, the T. Rex has become something of a cultural icon.

Yet, despite the level of detail we have about this tiny-armed reptile itself, scientists surprisingly don’t know much about the rest of T. Rex’s family. A wealth of questions remain about the ancestral tree that sprouted this vicious, quintessential dinosaur — though paleontologists with the Badlands Dinosaur Museum in North Dakota say we may have some answers, at last.

In a paper published Friday in the journal Paleontology and Evolutionary Science, paleontologists Elias Warshaw and Denver Fowler report the discovery of a 76.5 million-year-old fossil that they believe belonged to one of T. Rex’s ancestors, a species now known as Daspletosaurus wilsoni.

And this dinosaur, expected to have lived during the Cretaceous period, seems to have been just as ferocious as its famous descendant. D. wilsoni, which literally translates to «Wilson’s frightful reptile,» after John P. Wilson who found the specimen to begin with, likely once had expended air pockets in its skull, a blue-grayish coloring, a set of sharp teeth and an elongated eye socket — rimmed with horns.

But in short, locating this species is a big deal for scientists because its existence could provide the «missing link» in T. Rex’s family backstory, bridging a longstanding gap between older and younger tyrannosaur species named Daspletosaurus torosus and Daspletosaurus horneri, which lived about 77 to 75 million years ago, respectively.

«Since the 1990s,» Warshaw and Fowler wrote in a statement, «debate has surrounded Daspletosaurus, a large tyrannosaurid known from Montana and Alberta, which has been proposed to be an ancestor of T. rex itself.»

But according to the statement, reconstructing the evolutionary relationships of Daspletosaurus has been hampered by the rarity of good specimens, and many researchers are still engaged in debate as to whether these tyrannosaurids represent a single lineage evolving in place or several closely related species from various lineages.

«We can now see that many of these species are actually very finely separated in time from each other,» the statement reads, «forming consecutive ladder-like steps in a single evolutionary lineage where one ancestral species evolves directly into a descendant species.»

The team even named its fossil find «Sisyphus,» after the mythical Greek king who was punished for cheating death. As the tale goes, Sisyphys’ punishment was to roll a giant boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down the hill every time he got close to the top. This seemingly horrid endeavor lasted for an eternity.

«The holotype skull and partial skeleton, BDM 107, is nicknamed ‘Sisyphus’ after the seemingly endless task of removing over 25 feet (8 meters) of rock which lay on top of the bones,» the researchers said.

It was Badlands Dinosaur Museum crew member Jack Wilson who spotted the skeleton in the first place in 2017 — a small, flat piece of bone was peeking out from the bottom of a towering cliff. Upon close examination, that little bit of evidence turned out to be part of the dinosaur’s nostril. And so the dig began, culminating in 2021 with an exquisite tyrannosaurus-type animal figure.

«These findings,» the researchers said, «suggest that previous research was correct in identifying several species of Daspletosaurus as a single evolving lineage, and supports the descent of T. rex from this group.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Saturday, Feb. 21

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 21.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s the long Saturday version, and some of the clues are stumpers. I was really thrown by 10-Across. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: «Jersey Shore» channel
Answer: MTV

4A clue: «___ Knows» (rhyming ad slogan)
Answer: LOWES

6A clue: Second-best-selling female musician of all time, behind Taylor Swift
Answer: MADONNA

8A clue: Whiskey grain
Answer: RYE

9A clue: Dreaded workday: Abbr.
Answer: MON

10A clue: Backfiring blunder, in modern lingo
Answer: SELFOWN

12A clue: Lengthy sheet for a complicated board game, perhaps
Answer: RULES

13A clue: Subtle «Yes»
Answer: NOD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: In which high schoolers might role-play as ambassadors
Answer: MODELUN

2D clue: This clue number
Answer: TWO

3D clue: Paid via app, perhaps
Answer: VENMOED

4D clue: Coat of paint
Answer: LAYER

5D clue: Falls in winter, say
Answer: SNOWS

6D clue: Married title
Answer: MRS

7D clue: ___ Arbor, Mich.
Answer: ANN

11D clue: Woman in Progressive ads
Answer: FLO

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for Feb. 21, #516

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for Feb. 21, No. 516.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Connections: Sports Edition is a tough one. I actually thought the purple category, usually the most difficult, was the easiest of the four. If you’re struggling with today’s puzzle but still want to solve it, read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is published by The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by The Times. It doesn’t appear in the NYT Games app, but it does in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can play it for free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Old Line State.

Green group hint: Hoops legend.

Blue group hint: Robert Redford movie.

Purple group hint: Vroom-vroom.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Maryland teams.

Green group: Shaquille O’Neal nicknames.

Blue group: Associated with «The Natural.»

Purple group: Sports that have a driver.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is Maryland teams. The four answers are Midshipmen, Orioles, Ravens and Terrapins.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is Shaquille O’Neal nicknames. The four answers are Big Aristotle, Diesel, Shaq and Superman.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is associated with «The Natural.» The four answers are baseball, Hobbs, Knights and Wonderboy.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is sports that have a driver. The four answers are bobsled, F1, golf and water polo.

Technologies

Wisconsin Reverses Decision to Ban VPNs in Age-Verification Bill

The law would have required websites to block VPN users from accessing «harmful material.»

Following a wave of criticism, Wisconsin lawmakers have decided not to include a ban on VPN services in their age-verification law, making its way through the state legislature.

Wisconsin Senate Bill 130 (and its sister Assembly Bill 105), introduced in March 2025, aims to prohibit businesses from «publishing or distributing material harmful to minors» unless there is a reasonable «method to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the website.»

One provision would have required businesses to bar people from accessing their sites via «a virtual private network system or virtual private network provider.»

A VPN lets you access the internet via an encrypted connection, enabling you to bypass firewalls and unblock geographically restricted websites and streaming content. While using a VPN, your IP address and physical location are masked, and your internet service provider doesn’t know which websites you visit.

Wisconsin state Sen. Van Wanggaard moved to delete that provision in the legislation, thereby releasing VPNs from any liability. The state assembly agreed to remove the VPN ban, and the bill now awaits Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers’s signature.

Rindala Alajaji, associate director of state affairs at the digital freedom nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation, says Wisconsin’s U-turn is «great news.»

«This shows the power of public advocacy and pushback,» Alajaji says. «Politicians heard the VPN users who shared their worries and fears, and the experts who explained how the ban wouldn’t work.»

Earlier this week, the EFF had written an open letter arguing that the draft laws did not «meaningfully advance the goal of keeping young people safe online.» The EFF said that blocking VPNs would harm many groups that rely on that software for private and secure internet connections, including «businesses, universities, journalists and ordinary citizens,» and that «many law enforcement professionals, veterans and small business owners rely on VPNs to safely use the internet.»

VPNs can also help you get around age-verification laws — for instance, if you live in a state or country that requires age verification to access certain material, you can use a VPN to make it look like you live elsewhere, thereby gaining access to that material. As age-restriction laws increase around the US, VPN use has also increased. However, many people are using free VPNs, which are fertile ground for cybercriminals.

In its letter to Wisconsin lawmakers prior to the reversal, the EFF argued that it is «unworkable» to require websites to block VPN users from accessing adult content. The EFF said such sites cannot «reliably determine» where a VPN customer lives — it could be any US state or even other countries.

«As a result, covered websites would face an impossible choice: either block all VPN users everywhere, disrupting access for millions of people nationwide, or cease offering services in Wisconsin altogether,» the EFF wrote.

Wisconsin is not the only state to consider VPN bans to prevent access to adult material. Last year, Michigan introduced the Anticorruption of Public Morals Act, which would ban all use of VPNs. If passed, it would force ISPs to detect and block VPN usage and also ban the sale of VPNs in the state. Fines could reach $500,000.