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Oct 11th, 2026

Meet “Noo-Noo”: A 99-Million-Year-Old Insect with a Surprising Secret

TAU researchers discover a new insect species from the age of the dinosaurs, revealing an unusual feeding mechanism that has disappeared from the insect world today.

Some 99 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs, a tiny insect belonging to a species previously unknown to science became trapped in tree resin. The resin hardened and turned into amber, and the fossil preserved within it has now enabled a team of researchers from the School of Zoology and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History to identify and describea new species: Cretodorus noonoo, or “Noo-Noo.”

Alongside the description of the new species, the study reveals an extraordinary biological adaptation that characterized Noo-Noo and its close relatives: exceptionally long and flexible mouthparts, which in Noo-Noo reached nearly twice the length of its body. The researchers believe that this unusual structure enabled the insects to reach food sources that were inaccessible to insects with more rigid mouthparts, deep inside cracks and crevices in tree bark.

The study, published in the journal Insects, was conducted by Dolev Fabrikant and Dr Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou of the School of Zoology, Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and New Environmental School at Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with Dr Yanzhe Fu of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The newly described species - Cretoduros noonoo, Photo credit: Dolev Fabrikant

A 99-Million-Year-Old Feeding Mechanism

The researchers examined insect fossils belonging to Neazoniidae, an ancient family of planthoppers, including 13 specimens preserved in Kachin amber from Myanmar. In their modern relatives, the mouthparts are structured like a simple needle, allowing them to pierce plant tissues and suck fluids from them.

The ancient insects examined in the study, however, were found to possess extremely elongated mouthparts, the surface of which was densely covered with transverse folds. Using high-resolution micro-computed tomography, the researchers were able to reconstruct their internal structure. The scans showed that the folds were not merely external ornamentation, but part of the structure itself. They likely gave the mouthparts flexibility while preventing them from kinking or collapsing — much like a bendy drinking straw or a corrugated flexible hose.

Further evidence comes from the fossils themselves: in several specimens, the mouthparts were preserved in a bent position. Because the amber froze the insects in place when they became trapped in the resin, the researchers view this as further evidence that the mouthparts were also flexible during the insect’s lifetime. Such a structure is unknown among their living relatives today, pointing to an ancient evolutionary solution that has since disappeared.

Why the Name “Noo-Noo”?

The new species’ unusual appearance also inspired by its name: Cretodorus noonoo. The epithet “Noo-Noo” was chosen after the friendly vacuum cleaner from the children’s television series Teletubbies, whose long, flexible hose resembles the mouthpart of the ancient insect.

What Did Noo-Noo Eat?

But why would an insect need such long mouthparts? Butterflies might immediately come to mind, as they use a flexible proboscis to drink nectar, but the researchers believe that the resemblance is only superficial. The mouthparts of “Noo-Noo” pointed backward and functioned as a piercing-and-sucking system, which like those of their modern relatives are less suitable for feeding on nectar. Moreover, despite examining numerous fossils, the researchers found no convincing evidence of pollen accumulating on their bodies — a sign that would have indicated a role as pollinators.

The explanation proposed by the researchers is that these insects were specialists in sucking sap from trees. Their long, flexible mouthparts could have snaked through narrow cracks in the bark and guided the piercing organs toward the deep vascular tissues. At the tip was another unusual feature: a structure with two grooved lobes that likely opened during feeding, helping to anchor the mouthpart to the walls of the crack — much like a wall plug expanding inside a drilled hole.

What Can Noo-Noo Tell Us About Ancient Forests?

The researchers’ discovery may also have broader significance for our understanding of Cretaceous forests. Long or corrugated feeding structures appeared in several unrelated insect groups during this period, raising the possibility that forests rich in thick-barked trees provided an advantage for insects capable of reaching deeper tissues. The study notes that resin-producing forests of the Cretaceous period were also associated with evidence of recurrent fires, and that trees in fire-prone environments often develop thicker bark. The researchers cautiously suggest that such conditions may have created ecological opportunities for unique feeding strategies — strategies that are almost entirely absent among planthoppers today.

Dr. Leonidas-Romanos Davranoglou stated: “The discovery of ‘Noo-Noo,’ a new species that lived approximately 99 million years ago, gives us an extraordinary glimpse into the insect world of the age of the dinosaurs. This is not merely an insect previously unknown to science, but an animal that developed an evolutionary solution with almost no modern equivalent: a long, flexible, and durable feeding organ that likely enabled it to reach food deep within tree bark. The fact that similar structures appeared in several insect groups during the Cretaceous period suggests that ancient forests created ecological conditions and opportunities very different from those we know today. The discovery of a new species like this is therefore not simply the addition of another name to the tree of life, but another piece of the puzzle that enables us to reconstruct what ecosystems looked like and how they functioned tens of millions of years ago.”

Lead Authors of the study. Dolev Fabrikant (right), Dr. Leonidas Romanos Davranoglau (left), Photo credit: Dolev Fabrikant

Tel Aviv University Hits a New Record: 25,500 Undergraduate and Graduate Students

Oct 8th, 2026

Tel Aviv University Hits a New Record: 25,500 Undergraduate and Graduate The number of students choosing Tel Aviv University has grown consecutively over the recent years.

Sep 23rd, 2026

Sad News: Passing of Josef Buchmann A visionary leader and a cornerstone of the Tel Aviv University community

General

Research

Sep 17th, 2026

Can AI Really Decode Animal Language?

A new TAU study using toddler vocalizations reveals a fundamental challenge: AI can recognize patterns in sounds, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it understands what those sounds mean

Biology

In recent years, numerous attempts have been made to use artificial intelligence to decipher the communication of bats, whales, birds, and other animals. However, a new study led by a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University points to a fundamental problem with this approach: AI models focus on the physical properties of a sound, but this does not mean that they understand the meaning attributed to it by animal listening.

According to the researchers, sounds that are acoustically similar do not necessarily carry similar meanings, while sounds that appear different may convey the same information to the receiver. Therefore, classifying sounds according to their acoustic similarity, as is done in most studies, may create a misleading picture of the communication system and the meaning of the messages it conveys.

The study, published in the scientific journal Current Biology, was conducted by Mor Taub, Inbal Arnon, Amiyaal Ilany, Mirjam Knörnschild, Yoav Ram, and Prof. Yossi Yovel. The research team included scientists from Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the University of Edinburgh, the Museum für Naturkunde – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

What Can Toddlers Teach Us About Animal Communication?

To investigate the problem, the researchers used a unique communication system: the vocalizations of human toddlers who have not yet fully developed speech. Unlike animal vocalizations, in this case the researchers can determine, at least to some extent, how the humans to whom the vocalizations are directed interpret them. The recordings included vocalizations made in three contexts: distress, calling to a specific person, the mother or the father and requesting food.

The researchers analyzed the recordings using a classical acoustic method and two deep state-of-the-art neural networks: one trained on animal vocalizations and another trained on adult human speech. The models were asked to group the vocalizations according to their characteristics.

Hearing a Pattern Is Not the Same as Understanding It

The results showed that the deep neural networks performed better than the classical acoustic method, but even they failed to classify the toddlers’ vocalizations according to their meaning. In some cases, they grouped together vocalizations carrying different messages; in others, they separated different vocalizations intended to convey the same message. The models also failed to identify how a sequence of vocalizations expressed increasing urgency, a distinction that the human ear perceives naturally.

According to the researchers, reliably deciphering animal communication will require combining AI tools with behavioral observations, playback experiments, and sometimes measurements of brain activity. Every species has its own unique perceptual world, and understanding what animals are “saying” therefore requires more than analyzing sound alone: it also requires examining how they hear the sound and respond to it.

Seeing Communication From the Animal’s Perspective

Prof. Yossi Yovel concludes: “In recent years, there has been growing excitement about the possibility of using artificial intelligence to decode animal communication, but our study shows that these promises should be treated with caution. Identifying acoustic patterns is not necessarily the same as deciphering meaning: to understand what an animal is ‘saying,’ we need to know how the animal receiving the message perceives it and responds to it. The path toward truly deciphering animal communication will require a combination of AI, behavioral observations, experiments, and research into the nervous system. Artificial intelligence is a powerful tool, but it is no substitute for the perspective of the animal itself.”

Research

Sep 14th, 2026

Through Foreign Eyes: How Filmmakers Captured a Young Israel

What were international filmmakers searching for in the young State of Israel, what did they find here, and what can their films teach us about the Israel of then and today?

Arts

“A chosen people, a wandering people, a tormented people, a murdered people, a people reborn. Israel has known struggle in all its forms.”

With these words, French filmmaker Chris Marker opens his 1960 documentary Description of a Struggle (Description d'un combat).

Marker came to Israel not to provide clear answers, but to try to understand a young country in the process of shaping its identity—and, in doing so, to reconsider some of his own perceptions. Yet seven years after the film was released, following the Six-Day War, Marker sought to limit its screenings. In his view, the political reality had changed so dramatically that the film no longer reflected his positions.

The film, which was barely screened in Israel for decades, became the starting point more than 60 years later for research by Dr. Ohad Landesman of the Steve Tisch School of Film and Television, supported by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF). Landesman’s research led to his book, Brief Encounters: Documentary Visits to an Imagined Israel, published this year by SUNY Press.

This story led Landesman to search for other filmmakers who visited Israel during the 1960s and 1970s, among them Pier Paolo Pasolini, Susan Sontag, and Claude Lanzmann. In their films, he found not only documentation of a young Israel, but also the perspectives of outsiders who came here to explore questions that preoccupied them personally.

These films returned to the screen at the 2026 Docaviv Film Festival as part of Imagined Land, a program curated by Landesman. The four films screened drew large audiences, with some screenings completely sold out. The response surprised Landesman somewhat—but also demonstrated just how relevant the research remains today.

From Location Hunting in Palestine, 1963. (Credit: Cineteca Nazionale)

Who Were the “Brief Encounters” and Why Israel?

They were some of the most prominent names in the cultural and cinematic world of their time. They came to Israel for short periods—sometimes just a few weeks—and were not attempting to conduct lengthy anthropological journeys. They arrived with questions, expectations, and sometimes a preconceived image of the country. They filmed, observed, and returned home.

But why Israel? For these filmmakers, Israel was far more than a place to make a film. The young country was perceived as a kind of “laboratory of ideas”: a place where major questions about the Holocaust and rebirth, Zionism, religion, nationalism, war, and socialism converged.

Some arrived with sympathy for and curiosity about the Zionist project, while others sought to examine the gap between the image of Israel and the reality they encountered. For all of them, to varying degrees, Israel became a place through which they could explore larger ideas—and sometimes their own personal positions as well.

Landesman describes these works as “essay films”: films that do not claim to present a complete, objective picture, but instead use documentary filmmaking as a way to think, question, and deliberate. “They are primarily films about the relationship between the filmmaker and the destination, rather than about the destination itself,” Landesman explains.

What You See From Here, You Don’t See From There

Most of the films examined in the research were made between 1960 and 1974, when Israel was still a very young country. The filmmakers arrived with powerful images of the country in mind: a miracle that had emerged from the ruins of the Holocaust, a unique Zionist project, and a society attempting to create a new model of life.

The kibbutz particularly captured their imagination. They saw it as a kind of democratic and socialist bubble—an expression of the new Israeli vision. But their encounter with reality proved more complicated.

Again and again, the films document the gap between the expectations the filmmakers brought with them and what they actually encountered: contradictions, tensions, social and economic disparities, and a reality that did not always correspond to the idealized picture they had imagined.

Precisely because they came from outside, these filmmakers were often able to notice developments that local society—and Israeli cinema at the time—still struggled to see.

Susan Sontag: Seeing the Trauma

From Promised Lands, 1974. (Credit: Cineteca Nazionale)

One striking example is Promised Lands (1974), by Susan Sontag, the prominent American intellectual and cultural figure.

Sontag arrived in Israel immediately after the Yom Kippur War. Rather than documenting the war itself, she became interested in its effects on Israeli society.

One of the film’s most difficult moments takes place at Assaf Harofeh Hospital, where she documents an experimental treatment being given to a soldier suffering from combat trauma. Sontag remains in the room and observes the treatment, which includes a chilling audio reconstruction of the battle played beside the soldier’s bed.

For Landesman, the scene demonstrates the power of an outsider’s perspective: Sontag did not simply document a wounded soldier. Through the experimental treatment of his trauma, she identified something broader—an allegory for a country itself experiencing paranoia, panic, and trauma.

“Not Time Capsules”: Why Do These Films Still Speak to Us Today?

From Description of a Struggle, 1960. (Credit: Cineteca Nazionale)

These films are not “time capsules” that tell us only about the Israel of the 1960s and 1970s. Precisely because they do not offer unequivocal answers, they allow us to reconsider questions that still occupy us today: What does Israel look like from the outside, and how does that differ from the way we see it from within? What are we unable to see that an outsider’s perspective makes visible?

According to Landesman, part of the films’ relevance lies in the fact that some of them still sound prophetic today. At the end of Chris Marker’s 1960 film, for example, the camera focuses on a 12-year-old girl—the same age as the State of Israel that year—as she paints on a canvas. The narration turns to the dangers facing the young country and emphasizes:

“Justice on the soil of Israel will be worse than injustice anywhere else.”

It is a chilling and prophetic moment, and like other moments in the films discussed in the book, it invites viewers to look at Israel through different eyes—and perhaps to look at themselves again as well.

Landesman argues that these films deserve to be revisited in 2026 and remain highly relevant to our present. In the 1960s and 1970s, Israel enjoyed broader international “credit” than it does today, at a time when Israel is perceived as an “outcast” and feels like a “pariah” in the world.

While today’s discourse tends to be dogmatic and polarized, the films Landesman studied offer a more complex perspective. Their creators display considerable intellectual curiosity toward Israel and underscore the need to see the country beyond a one-dimensional political “casting.”

Ultimately, the films made by these “brief visitors” do not provide clear answers about Israel. Instead, they do something else: they formulate questions and bring back a perspective that still allows us to ask those questions anew.

Sep 14th, 2026

Five Researchers, Five Questions, Five ERC Starting Grants Tel Aviv University leads Israeli universities in 2026 ERC Starting Grants, with five researchers receiving funding to explore questions ranging from quantum materials and a heart-on-a-chip to the limits of computation and AI

General

Research

Sep 10th, 2026

Can Antibodies Reach Inside Brain Cells?

A new masking technology could expand the potential of antibody-based therapies for diseases such as Parkinson’s

Medicine

Over the past few decades, antibody-based therapies have revolutionized modern medicine and are now widely used to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases, inflammatory disorders, and even infectious diseases. Despite their success, however, antibodies have a significant limitation: they struggle to penetrate cells and are therefore largely limited to targeting molecules located on the cell surface or outside the cell. In addition, antibody-based drugs have difficulty crossing the blood-brain barrier, restricting their use in treating diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. Now, researchers at Tel Aviv University, together with colleagues, have developed a new technology that could overcome these barriers, enabling antibodies to reach the most important targets, those located inside the cell itself.

The technology was developed through a collaboration between research groups from Cornell University in the United States, Tel Aviv University, and the Technion. The study was led by Prof. Chris A. Alabi and Prof. Matthew P. DeLisa from Cornell, collaborating with Prof. Avi Schroder from the Technion and TAU’s Prof. Ben Maoz of the Fleischman Faculty of Engineering and the Sagol School of Neuroscience and Prof. Uri Ashery of the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, together with Prof. Christopher Alabi of Cornell. The findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

A Temporary “Mask” for Antibodies

In the study, the researchers developed an innovative approach based on temporarily “masking” the antibody using a synthetic molecule called SL4. This masking alters the antibody’s chemical properties in a controlled manner, allowing it to be encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), similar to the technology used to develop mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Once the nanoparticles enter the cell, the antibody is released and regains its original structure and activity.

According to the researchers, this represents a significant breakthrough because approximately 80% of the proteins involved in human disease are located inside cells, making them inaccessible to most antibody-based therapies. The ability to deliver active antibodies into the cell cytoplasm opens new possibilities for treating diseases that have long been considered inaccessible to drug-based interventions.

The study demonstrated that the masking process significantly improves the efficiency with which antibodies can be encapsulated within lipid nanoparticles. Whereas unmodified antibodies were incorporated into the nanoparticles with relatively low efficiency, the masked antibodies achieved substantially higher encapsulation rates while retaining their stability and their ability to recognize the molecular target associated with the disease.

Reaching Targets Inside the Cell

The researchers tested the technology using a series of therapeutic antibodies targeting key biological pathways involved in disease development. The antibodies successfully entered cells and altered important signaling pathways associated with various types of cancer and inflammatory diseases. Following treatment, the activity of these pathways was significantly reduced, indicating that the antibodies had reached their intended targets and remained active inside the cells.

One of the study’s most promising findings emerged from a research model of Parkinson’s disease. The researchers used an antibody targeting alpha-synuclein, a protein whose accumulation in the brain is one of the hallmarks features of the disease. Following delivery of the antibody via the nanoparticles, they observed a significant reduction in the pathological aggregates of the protein in nerve cells, a finding that suggests that the technology could pave the way for new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases.

Beyond the Brain

The technology was also evaluated in a model of acute inflammatory lung injury. The researchers found that delivering antibodies via the lipid nanoparticles reduced inflammatory markers and improved pathological features of lung tissue. These findings highlight the potential for developing targeted therapies for severe inflammatory conditions.

Prof. Ben Maoz said: “For many years, delivering antibodies into cells has been considered one of the greatest challenges in the field of biologic therapies. We have succeeded in developing a system that enables antibodies to cross the cellular barrier and reach targets that were previously beyond their reach. We believe this is an important step toward expanding the therapeutic toolbox of modern medicine and paving the way for more precise treatments for complex diseases that still lack adequate therapeutic solutions.”

Toward a New Generation of Biologic Therapies

The researchers emphasize that the technology is still at the preclinical stage. Nevertheless, they believe the platform could lay the foundation for a new generation of biologic therapies. If it successfully progresses through development and clinical trials, it could, for the first time, enable the widespread use of antibodies against intracellular targets, a goal widely regarded in the pharmaceutical industry as the next frontier of personalized medicine.

The development began in Prof. Tal Dvir’s laboratory.

Aug 19th, 2026

Engineered Spinal Cord Moves One Step Closer to Human Implantation A technology developed at TAU is entering a new stage, as preparations begin to identify patients for a potential first treatment in 2027

General

Research

Aug 17th, 2026

Why Do Men and Women Walk Differently?

A new TAU study of Neandertal and modern human pelvises suggests that the male pelvis evolved a natural shock-absorbing mechanism that may make long-distance walking more efficient.

Biology

A new study at the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology of Tel Aviv University, and published in Scientific Reports, offers an explanation for one of the striking differences between men and women: the evolutionary development of the modern human pelvis. By comparing Neandertal pelvises with those of modern humans, the researchers reached a surprising conclusion: the unusual structure of the pelvis may not be that of the Neandertal, as has been assumed for decades, but rather that of the modern human male. According to the researchers, the male pelvis evolved into a unique biomechanical shock absorbing mechanism that stores energy and makes long-distance walking more efficient.

Led by Professor Yoel Rak of the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University, and conducted in collaboration with researchers from Spain, the Technion, Bar-Ilan University, and Ono Academic College, the study is based on a comparison of two nearly complete male Neandertal pelvises, one from Kebara Cave in Israel and the other from the Sima de los Huesos site in Spain, with dozens of modern human pelvises. Surprisingly, despite their large size and robust construction, the Neandertal pelvises were found to resemble those of modern human females in most measurements and proportions rather than those of modern human males.

Rethinking the Neandertal Pelvis

For many years, the Neandertal pelvis has been regarded as an anatomically unusual structure requiring a functional explanation of its own. The new findings, however, require a new look at Neandertal pelvises. The ancestral configuration may have been retained in Neandertals and in modern human females, while the modern human male pelvis underwent substantial evolutionary modification, giving rise to a distinctive anatomical configuration.

The central finding of the study is that the hip joints of modern human males are positioned farther forward on the pelvic ring than those of both modern human females and male Neandertals. According to the researchers, this shift created a new mechanical system in which the anterior thigh muscles, attached to the front of the pelvis, function much like a spring, while body weight acts on the posterior part of the pelvis .

The Neanderthal pelvis

A Natural Spring in Every Step

Professor Rak explains that during every step of bipedal walking, the body's center of mass drops downward. This drop traumatizes the joints and requires energy to raise the body again in preparation for the next step. According to the new model, the distinctive geometry of the male pelvis enables the thigh muscles to cushion the drop of the body's center of mass, store potential energy during the step, and then release that energy immediately afterward- effectively "springing" the body upward into the next step.

In this way, the pelvis functions as a natural shock-absorber and energy-return system. It may reduce energy expenditure, improve walking efficiency, and thereby provide a significant advantage during long-distance travel on foot. The change in the position of the hip joints also required additional structural adaptations, including the thickening of the pubic bone and deepening of the anterior portion of the pelvis to withstand the new mechanical loads.

Why Did Male and Female Pelvises Evolve Differently?

Modern human females, by contrast, could not adopt the full suite of these modifications. According to the researchers, the constraints imposed by childbirth require a relatively shallow pelvis and a sufficiently wide birth canal. As a result, the female pelvis remains closer to the ancestral configuration—the same general configuration found in male Neandertals.

Professor Ella Been of Ono Academic College, a co-author of the study, adds: “This study demonstrates that questions about human evolution are not confined to the distant past. Understanding the evolution of our walking mechanism can contribute to contemporary research in biomechanics, musculoskeletal medicine, rehabilitation, and injury prevention. The perspective provided by the Neandertals helps us better understand the modern human body.”

A reconstruction of the skeleton

The Evolutionary Innovation May Be Us

Professor Rak emphasizes that the findings of the study change the way we understand the evolution of the human pelvis. It is not the Neandertal pelvis that is the anomaly requiring explanation. Rather, it is the pelvis of the modern human male. The mechanism that evolved within the human male represents the evolutionary innovation.

The researchers note that the study presents a new biomechanical model that may explain a substantial part of the human pelvis’s sexual dimorphism, the anatomical differences between females and males. The research also demonstrates that even in human macroscopic anatomy, a field that might appear to have been thoroughly explored, there is still potential to uncover previously unrecognized structures, geometries, and mechanisms of biological significance.