A new study from <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> reveals what is going on inside of your <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gut-brain-interactions-have-an-influence-on-diseases/">brain</a> when you get lost in a fictional fantasy. The experts discovered that the more immersed we become in the lives of our favorite characters of fiction, the more our brain activity reflects how much we identify with them.
&#8220;When they think about a favorite fictional character, it appears similar in one part of the brain as when they are thinking about themselves,&#8221; said study lead author Timothy Broom.
The research was focused on self-described fans of the HBO series &#8220;Game of Thrones.&#8221; The individuals were instructed to think about themselves, nine of their friends, and nine characters from the drama series. The participants also reported on which character they felt closest to and liked the most.
According to Broom, Game of Thrones was ideal for this study because it attracted a devoted fan base and the large cast presented a variety of characters that people could become attached to.
One of the key findings involved participants who scored highest on &#8220;trait identification.&#8221; These individuals agreed most strongly with statements like &#8220;I really get involved in the feelings of the characters in a novel.&#8221;
&#8220;People who are high in trait identification not only get absorbed into a story, they also are really absorbed into a particular character,&#8221; said Broom. &#8220;They report matching the thoughts of the character, they are thinking what the character is thinking, they are feeling what the character is feeling. They are inhabiting the role of that character.&#8221;
The researchers used an fMRI machine to measure activity in various parts of the brain through small changes in blood flow. As the participants&#8217; brains were scanned, they were evaluating themselves, their friends, and Game of Thrones characters. 
A part of the brain called the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) is known to show increased activity when people think about themselves and, to a lesser extent, when they think about close friends.
While in the fMRI, the individuals were shown a series of names &#8211; including themselves, friends, or characters &#8211; along with a trait, such as lonely, sad, trustworthy, or smart. The participants simply said &#8220;yes&#8221; or &#8220;no&#8221; to imply whether the trait fit the person.
As expected, the vMPFC was most active when people were evaluating themselves, less active when they evaluated friends, and least active when they evaluated characters from Game of Thrones.
However, among those who were high in trait identification, the vMPFC was more active when they thought about the fictional characters than it was for participants who identified less with the characters. This region of the brain was particularly active when the individuals evaluated the character they identified with the most.
Study co-author Dylan Wanger said the findings help explain how fiction can have such a big impact on some people.
&#8220;For some people, fiction is a chance to take on new identities, to see worlds though others&#8217; eyes and return from those experiences changed,&#8221; said Wagner.
&#8220;What previous studies have found is that when people experience stories as if they were one of the characters, a connection is made with that character, and the character becomes intwined with the self. In our study, we see evidence of that in their brains.&#8221;
The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/scan">Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience</a>.
&#8211;&#8212;
By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What happens in your brain while you're lost in fiction

A team of researchers led by <a href="https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/">Lancaster University</a> has recently explored the feasibility of 3D printed flavor-based cues for the recall of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rewriting-negative-memories-by-activating-positive-ones/">memories</a> in old age. The experts found that older people exposed to food flavors from their youth were able to “time travel” back to the past and experience an enhanced memory of the original event.



The scientists enrolled 12 older adults and collected 72 memories (half involving food and half not), each recalled twice. The memories ranged from eating grilled mackerel at a golden wedding to eating strawberries in a hospital after giving birth. In the case of food memories, the researchers worked with the participants to create bespoke flavor-based cues for each of them. These 3D printed cues are small, gel-like, edible balls that model the original food, are easier to swallow, and have more intense flavors.&nbsp;



All the study participants were able to provide highly rich sensory accounts when prompted by flavor-based cues, with many of the details not being present in the earlier free recall. For instance, one participant initially described a Green Thai curry dinner in Cambodia as follows: “We went into the kitchen area, which was very basic and preparing all sorts of types of green vegetables, which I have no idea what they were, sitting on the floor. And then we would help cook them, stir fry them, and then we would help dish them up…”&nbsp;



However, after being exposed to the 3D flavor-based cue of this curry, the participant provided a more detailed memory of “the chopping noises of cutting up the vegetables, me sitting on the floor cross legged with my friend, chatting together. And then when we went out, put stuff on the tables, the rest of the group coming out and we sit on long tables outside, the front of the school, so it’s outside in the open air to eat.”&nbsp;



“Our outcomes indicated that personalized 3D printed flavor-based cues have rich sensorial and emotional qualities supporting strong recollective retrieval, especially when they distinctively match the food in the original experience, and prompt emotionally positive self-defining memories,” explained study co-author Corina Sas, an expert in Human-Computer Interaction and Digital Health at Lancaster.



According to the researchers, these findings could be useful in the treatment of dementia, since many participants talked about the importance of food memories based on their experiences of caring for their loved ones. By creating rich, multi-sensory memory aids, scientists and medical professionals may help people with dementia effectively trigger recollections of past events.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2022.2107518">Human-Computer Interaction</a>.&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Food flavors can help us travel back in time

A team of researchers led by Lancaster University has recently...

New research has identified a lack of appropriate control tools for many infectious diseases of animals that could impact the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The impacts of animal disease go beyond public health and can lead to socio-economic effects for those who rely on <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scavengers-protect-livestock-from-infectious-disease/">livestock</a> for income.&nbsp;



In most cases, animal diseases are global problems and need a global approach to control them. For this study, an international team of animal health experts assessed the current state of available control tools for 53 major infectious diseases of animals.



The scientists used DISCONTOOLS – an open-access database for animal health research to assess the current state of appropriate control tools for 53 major infectious diseases of animals.



The DISCONTOOLS resource was then used to prioritize the list of infectious animal diseases where appropriate control tools are lacking and where addressing this need would help achieve the relevant SDGs.



The results show that there is an urgent need for the development of diagnostics that can differentiate infected animals from vaccinated animals and assess disease characteristics like transmissibility, impact on animal productivity and welfare.



Utilizing technological advances could also help make diagnostics widely available and affordable. The scientists call for further research to improve the convenience of use and duration of immunity, and to establish performant marker vaccines.



“Animal health is a prerequisite for global health, economic development, food security, food quality and poverty reduction while mitigating against climate change and biodiversity loss," said Dr. Johannes Charlier, project manager of DISCONTOOLS.



“If we are to achieve the SDGs, further research into appropriate control tools is needed to reduce the burden of animal diseases, including zoonoses, and to manage emerging diseases, pandemic threats and antimicrobial and antiparasitic resistance.”&nbsp;



The research team also noted that the largest gap in animal pharmaceuticals is the threat of pathogens developing resistance to available drugs, namely bacterial and parasitic pathogens.



Five research priorities for animal health that will help deliver a sustainable and healthy planet were identified by the research theme. These include vaccinology, antimicrobial resistance, climate mitigation and adaptation, digital health and epidemic preparedness.



“The potential for transfer of infectious diseases between animals and people is a One Health challenge recognised at the highest level, signalling that it is high-time for all of us to move from firefighting to fire prevention," said Roxane Feller, secretary general of <a href="https://animalhealtheurope.eu/">AnimalhealthEurope</a>.



“By public and private investments in innovative early research, the animal health industry as a whole can focus on unlocking the secrets needed to develop new generations of vaccines, diagnostics and other therapies to prevent animal disease and avoid the negative effects.”



International efforts should focus on developing control tools for a range of priority infectious diseases of animals, including African swine fever, foot and mouth disease, and bovine tuberculosis.&nbsp;



However, progress is needed across a wide range of zoonotic, endemic and epidemic diseases to secure a healthy planet for humans, animals and the environment.



The study is published in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/PIIS2542-5196(22)00147-4">The Lancet Planetary Health</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Tools are needed to control infectious animal diseases

New research has identified a lack of appropriate control tools...

While water availability is acknowledged as a significant and present problem that threatens the livelihoods and health of people in many regions, the same is not true for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/water-quality-threatened-by-nutrient-pollution-in-40-u-s-states/">water quality</a>. The World Bank has branded water pollution an “invisible crisis” and stressed that because water quality is often difficult to detect and imperceptible to the human eye, it is being under-monitored all over the world.&nbsp;



With increasing human population, economic and agricultural development and climate change, water quality is increasingly coming under pressure. Yet, clean water is vital for our societal needs – such as public health, energy generation and crop production – and for protecting ecosystem health. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.3 recognizes the role of inadequately managed wastewater in this crisis and requires countries to halve the amount of untreated wastewater being discharged into the environment by 2030.&nbsp;



The authors of a new study, published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00554-y">Nature Communications Earth &amp; Environment</a>, have now developed a comprehensive new water quality model to map hotspots of water problems, as well as to help understand what the consequences of attaining SDG 6.3 would be in terms of water quality around the world. In this high-resolution model they consider current and future surface water quality in terms of its salinity, its levels of organic pollution and its pathogen load, as indicated by fecal coliform abundance.&nbsp;



“We hope our model will help to fill in the gaps in water quality knowledge, particularly in world regions where we lack observations,” said study lead author Edward Jones from the Department of Physical Geography, <a href="https://www.uu.nl/en">Utrecht University</a>, Netherlands.&nbsp;



In addition to identifying hotspots of water quality issues, the model can help with attributing the source of pollution to particular sectors. “For instance, large-scale irrigation systems for agriculture drive salinity issues in Northern India, while industrial processes are more responsible in eastern China. Conversely, the domestic and livestock sectors drive organic and pathogen pollution worldwide,” said Jones.



The model predicted that, while achieving SDG 6.3 would reduce water pollution to some extent, it would be insufficient to improve ambient water quality to below key concentration thresholds in several world regions. This would be particularly true in regions of the developing world where reductions in pollutant loadings are locally effective but transmission of pollution from upstream areas still leads to water quality issues downstream.&nbsp;



“Our simulations show that, for a large part of the year, water quality in several regions would still exceed critical thresholds for human uses and ecosystem health. This is especially the case for developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia,” explained Jones. These findings highlight that, while the SDG target would lead to improved water quality, it will not necessarily be enough and will not achieve the overarching goal of clean water for all.



Poor quality water can affect humans in many different ways, state the authors. Organic and pathogen pollution causes risks to human health, increased salinity levels threaten agricultural productivity,&nbsp;and increased water temperatures can disrupt thermoelectric power plants that depend on surface water resources for cooling. In addition, all these pollutants can adversely affect the aquatic environment and threaten ecosystems.



“Even achieving the current SDG target will pose serious economic challenges, as expansion of wastewater treatment can be an expensive process,” warned Jones. “Yet the cost disadvantages of inadequate water quality for sectoral uses must also be considered. Ultimately, however, we also need to reduce our pollutant emissions and develop new approaches towards wastewater management.”&nbsp;



“As such, with this paper we hope to underline the water quality problems we’re facing and firmly place these issues back on the political agenda.”



Image Credit: Izzet Cakalli&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Global water resources are becoming increasingly polluted

While water availability is acknowledged as a significant and present...

For many centuries, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/growing-environment-impacts-the-aroma-of-beer-and-hops/">beer</a> was brewed in open, horizontal vats. However, in the 1970s, the beer industry switched to using large, closed vessels, which are easier to fill, empty, and clean, enabling brewing of larger volumes of beer at reduced costs. Unfortunately, these modern methods produce inferior quality beer, due to insufficient flavor production.



Now, a team of researchers from <a href="https://www.kuleuven.be/english/kuleuven">KU Leuven</a> in Belgium (a country famous for its wide variety of beers) have managed to improve the flavor of contemporary beer by identifying and engineering a gene which is responsible for much of the flavor of beer and other alcoholic drinks.



During fermentation, yeast converts half of the sugar in the mash to ethanol, and the other half to carbon dioxide. The CO2 pressurizes the closed vessels, dampening beer flavor. To fix this problem, the scientists have developed a groundbreaking technology for identifying genes responsible for commercially important traits in yeast, and applied it to find the genes responsible for flavor in beer by screening a wide variety of yeast strains to evaluate which did the best job of preserving flavor under pressure. The analysis revealed a gene for a banana-like flavor – one of the most important flavors present in beer and other alcoholic drinks.



“To our surprise, we identified a single mutation in the MDS3 gene, which codes for a regulator apparently involved in production of isoamyl acetate, the source of the banana-like flavor that was responsible for most of the pressure tolerance in this specific yeast strain,” said study senior author Johan Thevelein, an emeritus professor of Molecular Cell Biology at KU Leuven.



By using a revolutionary gene editing technology called CRISPR/Cas9, the scientists managed to engineer this mutation in other brewing strains, which similarly improved their tolerance of carbon dioxide pressure, enabling full flavor. “That demonstrated the scientific relevance of our findings, and their commercial potential,” Professor Thevelein explained.



“The mutation is the first insight into understanding the mechanism by which high carbon dioxide pressure may compromise beer flavor production,” he added, stressing that the MDS3 protein is most likely a component of a crucial regulatory pathway that may play a role in carbon dioxide inhibition of banana flavor production.



This technology has also been highly successful in identifying genetic elements contributing to rose flavor production by yeast in alcoholic drinks, as well as other commercially important traits, such as glycerol production and thermotolerance.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/aem.00814-22">Applied and Environmental Microbiology</a>.&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Belgian microbiologists improve the flavor of beer

For many centuries, beer was brewed in open, horizontal vats....

According to the <a href="https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/">World Weather Attribution</a> service, climate change made the record <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/europe-is-experiencing-its-worst-drought-in-500-years/">droughts</a> experienced by the Northern Hemisphere this summer at least 20 times more likely. Without anthropogenic global warming, such an event would have been expected to occur only once every four centuries.&nbsp;



The massive droughts that severely hit crop production and power supplies, exacerbating the food and energy crises already fueled by the war in Ukraine, resulted largely from the heatwaves that struck North America, Europe, and parts of Asia, causing over 24,000 heat-related fatalities in Europe alone. Without global warming, a summer as hot as that of 2022 would have been “virtually impossible,” the experts reported.



The dry conditions caused widespread water shortages and wildfires, with a record number of blazes in Europe, the first national drought alert in China, and over half of the United States declared under drought.&nbsp;



“The 2022 summer has shown how human-induced climate change is increasing the risks of droughts in densely populated and cultivated regions,” said Sonia Seneviratne, a climate scientist at <a href="https://ethz.ch/en.html">ETH Zurich</a>. “We need to phaseout the burning of fossil fuels if we want to prevent more frequent and more intense droughts.”



“In Europe, drought conditions led to reduced harvests” added Friederike Otto, a climatologist at the <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/">Imperial College London</a>. “This was particularly worrying as it followed a climate change-fueled heatwave in India and Pakistan that also destroyed crops, and happened at a time when global food prices were already extremely high due to the war in Ukraine.”



According to the researchers, the record droughts in the Northern Hemisphere would be expected every 20 years in today’s climate, but only every 400 years without global warming. The drought in Western and Central Europe was made at least three to four times more likely by climate change. Moreover, these estimates are probably quite conservative, with the real influence of human activities likely even higher.



&nbsp;“Climate change is really hitting us hard, not just in poor countries like Pakistan, but also in some of the richest parts of the world, like west central Europe, that had been considered less vulnerable. It’s playing out in front of our eyes even faster than we might have expected,” said Maarten van Aalst, the director of the<a href="https://www.climatecentre.org/"> Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center</a>.



“This new study clearly points to the fingerprint of climate change and should be another wake-up call to reduce emissions, but also to invest more in resilience,” he concluded.&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Climate change has made droughts 20 times more likely

According to the World Weather Attribution service, climate change made...

A recent study led by the <a href="https://www.mbari.org/">Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute</a> (MBARI) has shed new light on the movements of mysterious, endangered blue whales. The experts used a directional hydrophone – a specialized underwater microphone that records sounds and identifies the direction from which they originate – to listen for the booming vocalizations of blue whales. By using these sounds, they tracked the movements of blue whales and discovered how these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-pollution-is-making-the-ocean-more-acidic/">ocean</a> giants respond to changes in the wind.



Along California’s Central Coast, both spring and summer bring coastal upwelling. From March to July, seasonal winds push the upper layer of water out to sea, allowing the colder water below to rise to the surface. This nutrient-rich water fuels massive blooms of phytoplankton, jumpstarting the food web in the Monterey Bay, from tiny krill all the way to gigantic whales. The scientists discovered that, when the winds create such an upwelling event, blue whales seek out the plumes of cooler water, where krill are most abundant, while when the upwelling stops, these whales move offshore into habitats that are often transected by shipping lanes.



“This research and its underlying technologies are opening new windows into the complex and beautiful ecology of these endangered whales,” said study lead author John Ryan, a biological oceanographer at MBARI. “These findings demonstrate a new resource for managers seeking ways to better protect blue whales and other species.”



The study built upon previous research which revealed that swarms of forage species, such as anchovies and krill, responded to upwelling events. This time, the scientists combined satellite and mooring data of upwelling conditions and echosounder data on krill aggregations with the acoustic tracks of foraging blue whales logged by the directional hydrophone.



“Previous work by the MBARI team found that when coastal upwelling was strongest, anchovies and krill formed dense swarms within upwelling plumes. Now, we’ve learned that blue whales track these dynamic plumes, where abundant food resources are available,” Dr. Ryan explained.



According to the researchers, blue whales recognize when the wind is changing their environment and identify places where the wind aggregates krill, their main type of food. While scientists have long known that blue whales seasonally occupy Monterey Bay during the upwelling season, this new study has revealed that they are able to closely track the upwelling event on very fine spatial and temporal scales.



“Tracking many individual wild animals simultaneously is challenging in any ecosystem. This is especially difficult in the open ocean, which is often opaque to us as human observers,” said study co-author William Oestreich, a postdoctoral fellow at MBARI. “Integration of technologies to measure these whales’ sounds enabled this important discovery about how groups of predators find food in a dynamic ocean. We’re excited about the future discoveries we can make by eavesdropping on blue whales and other noisy ocean animals.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ele.14116">Ecology Letters</a>.



Image: Goldbogen Lab/Duke Marine Robotics and Remote Sensing Lab (NMFS Permit 16111)



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Blue whales use changes in the wind to locate food

A recent study led by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research...

Every spring, swarms of colorful butterflies called painted ladies can be spotted in Southern California as they make their way back to breed. Some years, the number of migrating <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-forecast-the-future-of-monarch-butterflies/">butterflies</a> is in the millions.&nbsp;



California is also home to painted lady populations that do not migrate and require food sources year-round. By documenting new nectar plants, scientists have renewed hope these butterflies may be resilient to climate change. There have been concerns that the butterflies are negatively affected by hotter, drier weather and habitat loss.



“The lack of rainfall in Southern California likely impacts the butterflies’ ability to move through the state, potentially decreasing nectar sources and causing them to die without reproducing,” said Jolene Saldivar, an ecologist at <a href="https://www.ucr.edu/">UC Riverside</a>. “There’s so much to be learned about these butterflies before drought and climate change damage them irreparably."



The research team sorted through 10,000 images of painted ladies in California shrublands. Any images in which the butterflies were not obviously feeding were omitted from analysis. The experts identified 195 new nectar plants as food sources for the species.&nbsp;



Of the top 10 plant species identified as food sources, seven are native to California. The butterflies also feed on showy ornamental plants common to California landscaping, such as lantana, butterfly bush and rosemary, as well as flowering weeds.&nbsp;



“Much of what we identified could responsibly be planted during a drought,”&nbsp; said study co-author Erin Wilson-Rankin.



Painted lady caterpillars consume plants, but they do not eat any agriculturally important species. They also serve as prey for insects, birds, wasps and reptiles, and mature butterflies can pollinate some of the many plants they visit.



“It might be getting tougher for painted ladies in some places, but these butterflies will feed on what flowers are available - even a few plants in a window box could help them,” said Wilson-Rankin.&nbsp;



Saldivar believes the results of this paper may encourage community scientists, whose contributions to knowledge should be celebrated and promoted.&nbsp;



The new identified food sources offer hope for imperiled butterflies.



“Adding a photo and a little information to a community science website or through an app on your smartphone might seem minor, but in the big picture, it helps inform us about ecological processes we’d otherwise be very challenged to learn about,” said Saldivar.&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Painted ladies may be resilient to climate change

Every spring, swarms of colorful butterflies called painted ladies can...

Individuals who consume <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ultra-processed-foods-can-make-you-feel-mentally-unwell/">foods</a> high in omega-3 fatty acids during midlife may have superior thinking ability compared to those who do not, according to a recent study published in an online issue of <a href="http://www.neurology.org/">Neurology®</a>, the medical journal of the <a href="https://www.aan.com/">American Academy of Neurology</a>. Omega-3 fatty acids may also lead to better brain structure.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"Improving our diet is one way to promote our brain health," explained study co-author Dr. Claudia L. Satizabal of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. "If people could improve their cognitive resilience and potentially ward off dementia with some simple changes to their diet, that could have a large impact on public health."



"Even better, our study suggests that even modest consumption of omega-3 may be enough to preserve brain function. This is in line with the current American Heart Association dietary guidelines to consume at least two servings of fish per week to improve cardiovascular health."



The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of 2,183 participants with an average age of 46. The experts measured levels of omega-3 fatty acids, performed brain scans, and tested thinking skills. The participants had no history of stroke and had not been diagnosed with dementia.



Omega-3 fatty acids are found in several types of fish, fortified foods, and supplements. According to the researchers, an ideal level of omega-3 fatty acids is 8 percent of all fatty acids. The researchers broke the participants into two groups. The "low" group had an average of 3.4 percent, and the "high" group had an average of 5.2 percent.&nbsp;



The study authors found that those with higher average levels of omega-3 were better at abstract reasoning and had a larger hippocampus - the part of the brain essential for memory.&nbsp;



"These results need to be confirmed with additional research, but it's exciting that omega-3 levels could play a role in improving cognitive resilience, even in middle-aged people," said Dr. Satizabal.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Omega-3 fatty acids may provide superior cognitive ability in midlife

Individuals who consume foods high in omega-3 fatty acids during...

We usually think of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/safety-on-frozen-lakes-declining-due-to-climate-change/">climate change</a> in terms of summer heat waves, warming oceans and extreme weather events. But what is happening in winter, when the ground should be frozen or covered in snow? Statistics show that winter is actually the season that is warming fastest in the U.S., and this is having some serious and unforeseen consequences.&nbsp;



In a first-of-its-kind national study, scientists from the Universities of Vermont, Colorado, Kansas, and Michigan have identified a significant new threat to U.S. water quality that is directly related to the warming associated with climate change. In cold regions, accumulated nutrients from farming activities, such as phosphorus and nitrogen from fertilizers, manure, animal feeds and other sources, have historically remained frozen in snowpack throughout winter. When the spring thaw has arrived, the nutrients have been carried away into rivers and lakes where plants have been able to use these nutrients for their growth.



But with winters becoming warmer, cold snaps becoming shorter and the number of days with temperatures below 32°F decreasing each year, the seasonal snowpack in much of the U.S. has become less stable. Increased rain-on-snow, snowmelt, and rainfall events now carry the nutrients into streams and rivers during winter instead, when the vegetation is dormant and cannot absorb the excess. As a result, nutrient pollution from winter runoff has quickly progressed from rare or non-existent to far worse than at other times of the year



“We are clearly seeing much larger amounts of cloudy water and sediment traveling through U.S. watersheds in winter,” said Carol Adair, a researcher at UVM’s Gund Institute for Environment, the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, and Vermont EPSCoR. The idea of&nbsp;winter nutrient pollution is new, because it’s a relatively recent impact of climate change with the potential to&nbsp;cause significant problems for people and the environment – from algal blooms that make swimming dangerous to ‘dead zones’ that kill fish stocks.”



The researchers were particularly interested in the effects of so-called “rain-on-snow” events that occur when rain falls on existing snowpack, causing it to melt to some extent. They say that this can lead to large, economically and environmentally devastating floods, in addition to releasing frozen nutrients into the waterways. And as rainfall becomes more common than snowfall in some of these areas, the impacts of these events are likely to become more serious.&nbsp;



The scientists used geospatial datasets to explore the impacts of rain-on-snow events in U.S. regions with large pools of nitrogen and phosphorous.&nbsp;The findings, published this week in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac8be5">Environmental Research Letters</a>, indicate that nutrient pollution, unlocked by rising winter temperatures and rainfall, is putting water quality at risk in 40 percent of the contiguous U.S., including over 40 states. They show that rain-on-snow affects 53 percent of the contiguous U.S. and places 50 percent of the U.S. nitrogen and phosphorus pools at risk of being exported into groundwater and surface water reservoirs.&nbsp;



Analyzing the Mississippi River floods of 2019, researchers found rain-on-snow events&nbsp;delivered a large pulse of nutrients and sediment into the river and Gulf of Mexico, at much greater levels than a similar&nbsp;growing season rainfall event would have done. This contributed to the Gulf of Mexico’s eighth largest dead zone on record. Dead zones occur when bacteria that thrive on excess nutrients remove too much oxygen from the water, causing massive die-offs of fish and other aquatic animals.



“We hope this study is a wake-up call for government agencies and researchers, because it reveals that&nbsp;40 percent of the U.S. is producing winter pollution - but no one is tracking exactly how much, where it’s going, or the impacts on water quality and ecosystems,"&nbsp;said Adair. “That’s a big problem that urgently needs addressing.”



The study’s findings are visualized in several maps showing projected winter nutrient pollution across over 40 U.S. states, including large swathes of the Northeast, the northern Midwest and central plains, the Pacific Northwest, and the Sierra and Rocky Mountain ranges. The authors say the research marks the first large-scale&nbsp;study&nbsp;of the impact of rain-on-snow on nutrient runoff and water quality. The findings are conservative and do not include the additional risks from snowmelt and winter rainfall events, nor the impact of winter runoff on downstream ecosystems and communities.



“Climate change impacts on winter are often overlooked,” said co-author Aimee Classen, a Gund Affiliate from the University of Michigan. “If we care about our water quality, we can no longer ignore how climate change impacts winter precipitation.”



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Water quality threatened by nutrient pollution in 40 U.S. states

We usually think of climate change in terms of summer...

Interacting with animals, but especially with dogs, is known to help people dealing with stress and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/social-media-increases-depression-risk-across-all-personalities/">depression</a>. Because of this phenomenon, researchers from the <a href="https://www.unibas.ch/en.html">University of Basel</a> in Switzerland wanted to look at what happens in the brain when we interact with dogs.&nbsp;



The research, led by Rahel Marti, was published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274833">PLOS ONE</a>. The scientists measured activity in the prefrontal cortex as study participants viewed a dog, sat with the dog against their legs, and petted the dog. The same trial was carried out with a stuffed lion holding a water bottle to mimic the weight and temperature of the dog.&nbsp;



"Twenty-one healthy individuals each participated in six sessions. In three sessions, participants had contact with a dog, and in three control sessions they interacted with a plush animal. Each session had five two-minute phases with increasing intensity of contact to the dog or plush animal from the first to the fourth phase," explained the researchers.



"We measured oxygenated, deoxygenated, and total hemoglobin and oxygen saturation of the blood in the frontal lobe/frontopolar area with functional near-infrared spectroscopy to assess brain activity."



Unsurprisingly, the human brain reacted differently to a real dog when compared to the stuffed toy. The prefrontal cortex activity was greater while interacting with the dog, especially when petting the dog. This brain activity also lingered for a time after the dog was gone. This is interesting because it is thought that the prefrontal cortex is important in regulating social and emotional interactions.&nbsp;



"The present study demonstrates that prefrontal brain activity in healthy subjects increased with a rise in interactional closeness with a dog or a plush animal, but especially in contact with the dog the activation is stronger. This indicates that interactions with a dog might activate more attentional processes and elicit stronger emotional arousal than comparable nonliving stimuli," explained the study authors.



The researchers hope their findings may be used in the future to improve animal assisted therapy. The study was carried out on healthy, emotionally stable people. A follow up study could look for the same effect in those with socioemotional deficits.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Petting dogs has an interesting impact on the brain

Interacting with animals, but especially with dogs, is known to...

Green,Seaweed

In a new study led by the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a>, experts have used <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seaweed-superfood-could-help-ease-global-food-crisis/">seaweed</a> nanomaterials to create a strong battery separator. The research represents a major step toward greener and more efficient energy storage.



Currently, sodium-metal batteries (SMBs) are the most promising alternatives to lithium-ion batteries. The biggest challenge that scientists have encountered while developing sodium-metal batteries is uncontrolled dendrite growth, which can penetrate the battery’s separator and cause short-circuiting.



In collaboration with Imperial College and University College London, the Bristol team has succeeded in making a strong separator from seaweed materials.



According to the researchers, the fibers containing these seaweed-derived nanomaterials not only stop crystals from the sodium electrodes penetrating the separator, but also improve the performance of the batteries.



Study first author Jing Wang is a PhD student in the Bristol Composites Institute (BCI). He worked with Dr Amaka Onyianta, who created the cellulose nanomaterials



“The aim of a separator is to separate the functioning parts of a battery (the plus and the minus ends) and allow free transport of the charge. We have shown that seaweed-based materials can make the separator very strong and prevent it being punctured by metal structures made from sodium. It also allows for greater storage capacity and efficiency, increasing the lifetime of the batteries - something which is key to powering devices such as mobile phones for much longer,” said Wang.&nbsp;



“I was delighted to see that these nanomaterials are able to strengthen the separator materials and enhance our capability to move towards sodium-based batteries. This means we wouldn’t have to rely on scarce materials such as lithium, which is often mined unethically and uses a great deal of natural resources, such as water, to extract it."



Professor Steve Eichhorn who led the research at BCI, said this work demonstrates that greener forms of energy storage are possible, without being destructive to the environment in their production.



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15214095">Advanced Materials</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Seaweed-based battery may ultimately replace lithium

In a new study led by the University of Bristol,...

Groundwater that is produced by melting permafrost transports <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/large-amounts-of-methane-are-released-from-fjords/">methane</a> to Arctic lakes, where it is released into the atmosphere. This process has been quantified for the first time in a study led by Carolina Olid of the Geomodels Research Institute of the <a href="https://www.ub.edu/web/portal/en/">University of Barcelona</a>.



According to Olid, climate change will enhance the process of methane runoff from permafrost to Arctic lakes through groundwater, which is why it is important to include this process in climate prediction models.



The research was focused on Arctic lakes located in the sporadic permafrost region of northern Sweden, where the layer of soil above the permafrost thaws annually and then refreezes.



"In this region, the average annual temperature has risen considerably in recent years and is now above 0ºC. This causes permafrost - with its abundant organic matter rich in carbon and greenhouse gases - to thaw. Through the circulation of groundwater, the thawing permafrost acts as a spring that supplies the hydrologically connected lakes in the region with greenhouse gases. The gases are finally emitted into the atmosphere and contribute to amplifying global warming," said Olid.



The researchers found that the flow of methane gas into lakes is more intense in the summer, when the most water is circulating. Hotter temperatures also promote the production of methane in the subsoil.



"Climate change and accelerated permafrost melting will increase the amount of greenhouse gases that can be transported to the lakes through groundwater. The increase in precipitation - up to 40% in the Arctic over the next decade - will also increase the flow of groundwater and, therefore, the discharge of methane into the lakes," said Olid.



"Permafrost water contains high concentrations not only of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane (CH4), but also of other compounds such as nutrients, and pollutants (mercury, etc.). The arrival of these compounds in the lakes generates harmful impacts on the natural environment and the organisms that live in lake ecosystems, as well as in terrestrial systems (bogs, etc.)," said study co-author Gerard Rocher-Ros.



"These are effects with implications for the entire aquatic trophic chain of both the lake itself and the network of interconnected rivers and streams, which have an impact on the ecosystem services provided by natural resources to society," said Olid.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31219-1">Nature Communications</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Arctic lakes are releasing methane from melting permafrost

Groundwater that is produced by melting permafrost transports methane to...

A team of researchers from <a href="https://oregonstate.edu/">Oregon State University</a> (OSU) has developed a new satellite tag called RDW which allows scientists to better track <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/great-whales-will-drift-southward-due-to-climate-change/">whales</a>’ behavior, including previously unobserved feeding events during dives. This tag is a major advancement in researchers’ ability to observe important whale behavior events and habitats, and better understand whales’ responses to human activities, such as ship traffic or military sonar.



As shipping traffic increases, whales are more at risk of being struck by large vessels. According to the experts, the 30 meters of the water column (the vertical expanse of water which stretches from the water’s surface to the ocean floor) is considered a “danger zone” for whales swimming through shipping lanes.



“One of the benefits of these new tags is that they give us information about how much time whales are spending within the danger zone throughout their migration,” said study lead author Daniel Palacios, an associate professor of Whale Habitats at OSU. “With that information, we can identify areas of higher risk and make more informed decisions to help protect them from the threat of ship strikes.”



Moreover, the ability to monitor dive behavior and identify changes could also have important applications for assessing how whales respond to sources of loud sound, such as sonar used by the United States Navy. In addition, the new satellite tag could help shed more light on marine mammal physiology, behavior, ecology, and conservation.



“Studying anything, whether it is a plant, animal or even something like our solar system, relies on our ability to observe it,” said study co-author Ladd Irvine, an expert in the ecology of large whales at OSU.



“Whales spend the vast majority of their lives underwater, where we can’t see them. They can move more than 100 kilometers in a day, so typical methods of observation aren’t reliable for keeping track of where they are going or what they are doing. Tags allow us to ride along with the whales as they go about their lives, similar to a fitness tracker or smartphone app.”



This new system allows scientists to monitor the feeding behavior of whales over much longer periods than was previously possible. “Before the advent of tagging, we could only get glimpses into the lives of the whales when they surfaced or by following individuals for a few hours at a time. It was like trying to watch a theater production in the dark, where someone would flip the lights on for a few seconds every now and then. By tracking whales across weeks, months, and even over a year of their lives, we are now able to put together a more complete picture of the lives of whales,” Irvine concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40317-022-00297-9">Animal Biotelemetry</a>.&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Satellite tag allows long-term tracking of whale behavior

A team of researchers from Oregon State University (OSU) has...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coral-reefs-can-survive-if-given-the-chance-to-evolve/">Coral reefs</a> all over the world are currently imperiled by a variety of factors, such as mass bleaching events due to climate change or ocean acidification. In order to protect the reefs, some scientists, resource managers, and conservationists have argued that restoring populations of algae-eating fish (such as the parrotfish) could promote the recovery of distressed reefs – a theory known as “fish-mediated resilience.”



However, according to a new study led by the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> (U-M) that analyzed long-term data from 57 coral reefs around the French Polynesian Island of Mo’orea, such a strategy may not be sufficient, since fish do not efficiently regulate coral reefs over time.&nbsp;



“This paper very well might radically change how we think about the conservation of coral reefs,” said study co-senior author Jacob Allgeier, an assistant professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at U-M. “People have been saying for years that we can protect coral through fisheries management, and our work on Mo’orea reefs shows that this is unlikely to work - there are too many other things going on. There is functionally no measurable effect of fishes on coral cover over time.”



During the 2006-2017 data-collection period, Mo’orea coral reefs were negatively impacted by two major events: a devastating outbreak of the coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, and a direct hit from the Cyclone Oli in 2010. These events allowed scientists to study the degradation and subsequent recovery of the Mo’orea reefs, and examine which factors contributed to their successful recovery.&nbsp;



“We found no evidence that the substantial variation in fish community biomass and diversity had any influence on how sites recovered from disturbances,” reported study lead author Timothy Cline, a former postdoctoral fellow at U-M. “Instead, we suggest additional location-specific attributes are critical in recovery, and the fish community is just one component of a suite of variables that must be considered.”



The theory of fish-mediated coral reef resilience has led to calls on moratoriums on fishing for algae-eating fish – a well-intentioned but misguided management strategy with major implications for the millions of people who depend on coral-reef fisheries for sustenance and income. According to these new findings – which identify a multitude of threats to coral reefs, including predatory species, nutrient pollution, ocean acidification, overfishing, coral bleaching, and sedimentation – it would make more sense to support strategies which promote the conservation of diverse habitats and coral reef types at different stages of degradation.



“We do need to manage fisheries in these ecosystems, but instead of things like wholesale restrictions on parrotfish, we should consider management efforts that promote sustainable harvest throughout the food web to disperse the impacts of fishing,” Professor Allgeier concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01882-0">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Restoring fish will not be enough to protect  coral reefs

Coral reefs all over the world are currently imperiled by...

A new study led by <a href="https://wsu.edu/">Washington State University</a> and Texas A&amp;M University adds to a growing collection of evidence that bears are not <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/african-carnivores-face-range-losses-in-the-future/">carnivores</a>. The research suggests that bears are omnivores like humans - even though they are fed high protein diets like carnivores while in captivity.&nbsp;



“Bears are not carnivores in the strictest sense like a cat where they consume a high-protein diet,” said study lead author Professor Charles Robbins. “In zoos forever, whether it's polar bears, brown bears or sloth bears, the recommendation has been to feed them as if they are high-protein carnivores. When you do that, you kill them slowly.”



The WSU Bear Center is the only research institution in the United States with a captive population of grizzly bears. Professor Robbins, who founded the center, has studied bear nutrition for decades. In a previous project, he and his graduate students discovered that grizzly bears gain the most weight when they are fed a combination of protein, fats and carbohydrates.



For the latest study, the researchers set out to investigate the food preferences of captive giant pandas and sloth bears by conducting feeding studies. Under human care, sloth bears are dying up to 20 years early, and there is a lack of data on their nutritional requirements. One theory is that the bears are fed too much protein, which is causing cancer and disease.



"Consumption of diets with inappropriate macronutrient profiles has been associated with increased energy expenditure, ill health, failed reproduction, and premature death. Consequently, we conducted feeding and preference trials with giant pandas and sloth bears, a termite and ant-feeding specialist," wrote the study authors.&nbsp;



"We found that giant pandas are low-protein, high-carbohydrate omnivores, whereas sloth bears are low-protein, high-fat omnivores. The preference for low protein diets apparently occurred early in the evolution of ursids and may have been critical to their world-wide spread."



When presented with unlimited avocados, baked yams, whey and apples, the sloth bears almost exclusively preferred the fat-rich avocados. The exports said that this high-fat, low-carb diet is similar to their wild diet of termites and ants as well as their eggs and larvae.



The researchers also found that giant pandas preferred the carbohydrate-rich bamboo culm found in the woody stalks over the more protein-rich leaves. The results of the study suggest that, when given the chance, bears know what to eat to maximize their health and fitness.&nbsp;



“There's certainly this long-standing idea that humans with PhDs know a lot more than a sloth bear or a brown bear,” said Robbins. “All of these bears started evolving about 50 million years ago, and in terms of this aspect of their diet, they know more about it than we do. We’re one of the first to be willing to ask the bears: What do you want to eat? What makes you feel well?”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-19742-z">Scientific Reports</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Bears are not carnivores, and they crave a healthy diet

A new study led by Washington State University and Texas...

A new longitudinal study led by the <a href="https://wustl.edu/">Washington University in St. Louis</a> (WUSTL) has found evidence of lasting social relationships between chimpanzees and gorillas in the wild. Drawing from over two decades of observations of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/primates-have-greater-diversity-on-indigenous-lands/">primates</a> at the Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in the Republic of Congo, the experts have documented social ties between individual chimpanzees and gorillas that persisted over several years and across different contexts.



“There are few (if any) studies of interactions between primate species that have been able to take the identity of individuals into account,” said study lead author Crickette Sanz, a professor of Biological Anthropology at WUSTL. “It has long been known that these apes can recognize individual members of their own species and form long-term relationships, but we had not known that this extended to other species.”



“An example of what we found might be one individual traveling through a group of the other species to seek out another particular individual. We were also able to document such interactions over time and in different contexts in this study.”



Such long-lasting forms of inter-species collaboration have several possible benefits, including protection from predation, improved foraging options, and other social benefits from information sharing. “Rather than thinking about chimpanzees alone, we should be thinking about them within diverse and dynamic habitats where they are actively engaging with other species and play an integral role in the persistence of the unique ecosystems in which they exist,” explained study co-author David Morgan, a research fellow at the <a href="https://www.lpzoo.org/">Lincoln Park Zoo</a>.



While social interactions between members of different species have many benefits, they also increase the risk of transmission of various infectious diseases. For instance, the highly transmissible Ebola virus has already had a devastating impact on ape populations in Central Africa, wiping out one-third of the world’s chimpanzees and gorillas.



“No longer can we assume that an individual ape’s social landscape is entirely occupied by members of their own species,” said study co-author Jake Funkhouser, a doctoral student in Biological Anthropology at WUSTL. “The strength and persistence of social relationships that we observed between apes indicates a depth of social awareness and myriad social transmission pathways that had not previously been imagined. Such insights are critical given these interspecies social relationships have the potential to serve as transmission pathways for both beneficial socially learned cultural behaviors and harmful infectious disease.”



Studying co-existing primates may shed new light on interactions between early hominins. While scientists generally assumed that these hominins would competitively exclude each other from using the same resources, this study suggests that these interactions would have most likely occurred in more tolerant social contexts.



The study is published in the journal<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.105059"> iScience</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Chimpanzees and gorillas can form lasting relationships

A new longitudinal study led by the Washington University in...

A new study conducted by <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birdsong-frequency-is-influenced-by-sexual-selection/">birdsong</a> scientists from the <a href="https://ucsd.edu/">University of California, San Diego</a> (UCSD) in collaboration with musicians from the <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/music/">Sydney Conservatorium of Music</a> has found that the order of song elements – or the syntax – of Australian pied butcherbirds is strongly associated with the butcherbird’s rhythmical timing. In the human brain, grammatical syntax and musical rhythm processing have been found to share cognitive resources. The study suggests that songbirds could be processing syntactic-rhythmic relationship in a similar manner to humans.&nbsp;



The scientists and musicians involved in the research discovered that the order of song elements in Australian pied butcherbird songs share a productive relationship with how these elements are rhythmically timed. This relationship seems to be retained when the length of song elements is controlled, suggesting that how syntax and rhythm interact with each other in pied butcherbird songs is more than an artifact of simply producing song elements of different lengths in sequence.



“It is extremely exciting,”&nbsp;said study co-author Hollis Taylor, a fellow at the Sydney Conservatorium. “This collaboration adds to my previous documentation of the myriad overlaps between pied butcherbird vocalizations and human music genres. The musician in me recognizes the musician in them.”&nbsp;



According to Taylor and her collaborators, each bird sings differently, with phrases changing annually, and the songs are combinatorial. “Previously, songbird research has been dominated by studies of song syntax, or how song elements are ordered,” she explained. “Song rhythm, on the other hand, is relatively understudied. We know that if you provide a regular musical beat to children with communication disorders, their grammatical skills improve. To our knowledge, rarely anyone has thought about how syntax and rhythm might be related in birdsong.”



Until recently, birdsong researchers have mainly studied song syntax via information theory – a theory that originates in mathematics and is focused on the encoding of discrete symbols rather than on temporally-continuous bio-acoustic signals. While this has led to a rich variety of valuable studies on birdsong syntax, other aspects of songbird behavior have been largely ignored.



“Information theory tends to treat birdsong as chunkable units; our paper shows we can more directly use music theory to patch some of the inherent problems of information theory,” Taylor said.



Although further laboratory research is necessary to clarify whether songbirds truly process syntactic-rhythmic relationships in the same way as humans, these findings suggest that songbird and human cognition may have more similarities than previously thought, despite the fact that birds lack a layered cerebral neocortex, which is believed to support complex cognition in humans.



“Our paper adds to a gradually growing belief in the birdsong scientific community that we can start integrating what we know about how humans process music to understand how songbirds process their songs. In this pursuit, we can begin to understand the latent musicality of other animals, and in turn, re-examine our own musicality,” concluded lead author Jeffrey Xing, a researcher at UCSD.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220704">Royal Society Open Science</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Songbirds have some impressive cognitive skills

A new study conducted by birdsong scientists from the University...

Extreme,Magnification,-,Ant,Queen,Portrait.,Ant,Super,Macro,Picture.

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.tamu.edu/">Texas A&amp;M University</a> has found that a common <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ants-show-signs-of-cognitive-sophistication/">ant</a> species - Tapinoma sessile, a relatively small type of ant commonly known as the house ant or sugar ant – undergoes physiological and behavioral changes in unnatural settings, such as urban areas.



“Urbanization is a growing habitat around the world, and it’s becoming more important for organisms to develop ways to live when their natural settings are disturbed,” said study senior author Edward Vargo, an expert in Urban and Structural Entomology at Texas A&amp;M. “Studies like this look at important questions regarding this change, ‘Can they adapt to urban environments and how?’”



In their natural environments, house ants create small, single-queen colonies usually found under leaf litter, rocks, and logs. However, in urban and suburban areas, these ants build large, ever-expanding multi-queen colonies around human-made structures such as sidewalks, plant containers, or landscape mulching.



By analyzing the ants’ chemistry (such as levels of hydrocarbons), the genetic make-up of colonies, and ant behavior (like aggression toward familial and outsider ants), the researchers found stark differences based on the environment. Their investigations revealed that, while house ant queens in their natural habitat typically leave the colony they were born in, fly to another suitable location, and attempt to establish a new colony, queens in urban colonies stay in their nest and expand their colony rather than leaving it. As a result, urban queens were closely related and less aggressive toward ants with which they were genetically related. Moreover, behavioral analyses showed that ants in super-colonies were aggressive toward ants with outside genetics.



In addition, polydomous colonies – ant colonies that are spatially separated but socially connected – were found only in urban habitats, suggesting that house ants only create super-colonies in developed areas. Since ants from different urban areas shared some genetic similarities, it seems they are adapting to features which are common in urban environments.



In future research, the scientists aim to compare stable isotopes in the ants to investigate dietary changes and how they relate to natural versus urban environments, while taking into account factors such as temperature and the urban heat island effect.



“The study highlights urbanization’s influence on the evolutionary course for species,” concluded lead author Alexander Blumfeld, who was a doctoral student in Vargo’s lab and is now a postdoctoral fellow at <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a>. “It’s important for us to answer questions related to adaptive evolution, whether it is an invasive species or a forest species adapting to city environments.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/mec.16188">Molecular Ecology</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ants can effectively adapt to urban environments

A new study led by the Texas A&amp;M University has...

Research from <a href="https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/">Lund University</a> shows that bird diversity in forests surrounded by urban areas is less than that in comparable rural <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/trees-are-overheating-in-warmer-rainforests/">forests</a>. To carry out the research, the scientists examined 459 naturally wooded areas near or in 32 cities in southern Sweden.&nbsp;



“Our study demonstrates that you cannot surround nature with urban development and believe that it will remain as it is, there is going to be a negative effect," said William Sidemo Holm, who worked on the study during his time as a doctoral student.



In woodlands near a city center, there were on average 25 percent less bird species compared to woodlands outside the city. Likewise, there were approximately half as many endangered species inside the urban woods.&nbsp;



The scientists emphasize they were looking at natural woodland areas inside cities, not in urban parks. In fact, this is one of the first studies to compare similar natural areas along an urban gradient.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This way we know that the results are not driven by differences in the actual habitats, which in this scenario was natural forest. Instead, it was the surrounding environment that was different," said Sidemo Holm.



It was already known that urbanization has a negative impact on biodiversity, but this study is important in showing the impact of cities even on protected natural areas in their midst.&nbsp;



“Our results highlight the importance of taking surrounding nature into account in urban planning. Above all, it is important to avoid the expansion of cities adjacent to protected environmental areas where there may be endangered species - we found that these are particularly sensitive to urban surroundings," said Sidemo Holm.



“Our conclusion is that it is important to preserve natural forests both in the cities and outside them in order to maintain local diversity."



While the study may drive greater protection for urban dwelling birds and other creatures, the scientists still believe more research would be of greater benefit.&nbsp;



“In the future, it would be particularly interesting to investigate whether coherent green infrastructure in cities, or between city and countryside, can increase the opportunities for bird species in the city to find the necessary resources," said Sidemo Holm.



The research is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16350">Global Change Biology</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Bird diversity suffers in urban environments

Research from Lund University shows that bird diversity in forests...

The fight for the survival of baby sea turtles begins long before hatching. The conditions of the beaches where eggs are laid play a critical role in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/orangutan-mothers-are-actively-involved-in-helping-offspring-learn/">offspring</a> survival.&nbsp;



Some factors include sand moisture content, sand color, and slope angle. Human activities have been known to influence these factors and can have devastating consequences for endangered species of sea turtles.&nbsp;



Researchers with <a href="https://www.kaust.edu.sa/">King Abdullah University of Science &amp; Technology</a> (KAUST) were curious about potential sea turtle activity in a group of 1,150 islands in the Saudi Arabian Red Sea. While these islands may be potential nesting sites, very few of them have been surveyed, and those surveys were conducted decades ago. As a result, any potential damage caused by future development projects would be challenging to track.



The researchers sought to explore these islands to see if any of them provide nesting habitats for sea turtles. They visited 35 of the islands in search of tracks, nests, and eggshells, all signs of sea turtle nesting.&nbsp;



The experts found two hawksbill nests on Abu Gisha. They also found three hawksbill turtle nests and two green turtle nests on the island of Um Mesk. Rabigh, a beach on the mainland, however, contained no evidence of nests.&nbsp;



"This was expected because it is next to a foraging reef that turtles migrate away from to breed," explained Scott.



The researchers took measurements and samples from the sites to compare them to known nesting areas, including Ras Baridi, the largest nesting area in the red sea.&nbsp;



The hope is that policymakers could use this information to design management plans for future development and help us understand how climate change might affect these charismatic species.&nbsp;



"Seeing nests and tracks where they had never been recorded before confirmed our suspicion that nesting occurs along the whole Red Sea coastline," said Scott. "A wide-scale survey of all the islands off the Red Sea coast to look for nesting evidence and migration corridors will help us identify priority areas."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/13408/">PeerJ</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New turtle nesting sites discovered in the Red Sea

The fight for the survival of baby sea turtles begins...

Currently, there are thousands of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/viruses-have-eyes-and-ears-on-their-hosts/">viruses</a> circulating among animals all over the world, most of them causing no symptoms. In recent decades, an increasing number of these viruses – such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2003, the Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome virus (MERS) in 2012, and SARS-CoV-2 in 2020 - have jumped over to humans, wreaking havoc on immunologically naïve human populations.&nbsp;



Now, a research team led by the <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/">University of Colorado Boulder</a> has found that an obscure family of viruses already endemic in wild African primates and known to cause Ebola-like symptoms in some monkeys, is poised for spillover in humans too. While such arteriviruses are already considered a major threat to macaque monkeys, no human cases have been reported to date, and scientists are still uncertain what effects they would have on humans should they spill from wild animals. However, evoking parallels with HIV – a virus whose precursor also originated in African monkeys – the scientists call for vigilance from the global health community in order to avoid future pandemics.



“This animal virus has figured out how to gain access to human cells, multiply itself, and escape some of the important immune mechanisms we would expect to protect us from an animal virus. That’s pretty rare,” said study senior author Sara Sawyer, a professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology at CU Boulder. “We should be paying attention to it.”



Professor Sawyer and her team examined the simian hemorrhagic fever virus (SHFV), which causes a lethal disease similar to Ebola that led to deadly outbreaks in captive macaque colonies&nbsp;since the 1960s. Their investigation revealed that a receptor called CD163 plays a key role in the biology of simian arteriviruses, enabling them to invade and cause infection to target cells. To their surprise, a series of laboratory experiments revealed that SHVF was also remarkably adept at latching on to the human CD163 receptor, enabling it to get inside human cells and swiftly make copies of itself. Like HIV and its precursor simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), simian arteriviruses also attack immune cells, disabling fundamental defense mechanisms and taking hold in the body for extended periods of time.



“The similarities are profound between this virus and the simian viruses that gave rise to the HIV pandemic,” said study lead author Cody Warren, an assistant professor of Veterinary Medicine at the <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a>.



Although another pandemic caused by this virus does not appear to be imminent, there is no guarantee that this virus will not spill over into humans, since a wide range of African monkeys already carry high viral loads of diverse arteriviruses, and some species interact frequently with humans and are known to bite and scratch people.&nbsp;



“COVID is just the latest in a long string of spillover events from animals to humans, some of which have erupted into global catastrophes. Our hope is that by raising awareness of the viruses that we should be looking out for, we can get ahead of this so that if human infections begin to occur, we’re on it quickly,” Professor Sawyer concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2022.09.022">Cell</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Another monkey virus could spill over to humans

Currently, there are thousands of viruses circulating among animals all...

Climate change is anticipated to affect ocean <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plant-biodiversity-hotspots-can-be-found-on-small-scales/">biodiversity</a> and play a major role in future changes in the structure of marine communities. This is because marine species are directly impacted by changes in ocean temperature and acidity, which can alter their abundance, diversity, distribution, feeding patterns, development and breeding. Measurements of biodiversity are thus commonly used in studies that monitor and assess the effects of climate change on marine communities.&nbsp;



However, it is difficult for scientists to predict exactly how changes in ocean acidification and temperature will influence marine communities in future because of the complex nature of marine ecosystems and the inadequacy of laboratory or mesocosm (outdoor laboratory) conditions in replicating this complexity. Previous experimental research has made use of various different methods to assess the potential effects and come up with contradicting results.



In order to improve understanding of climate-driven effects on marine communities, scientists from the <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide</a> have now reviewed 58 studies on community responses around volcanic CO2 vents in temperate reef, coral reef and seagrass ecosystems. The CO2 that bubbles up from below the ocean floor in these areas acidifies the seawater and this affects the surrounding biological communities. Scientists use these conditions as a proxy to provide insights into what may happen to biological communities in the face of ocean acidification.&nbsp;



The researchers also reviewed the findings of 23 studies conducted in outdoor experimental environments (mesocosms) or laboratories in order to determine whether these conditions can adequately represent the changes that occur in marine communities. Their aim was to test for the prevalence of global and generalized responses in biodiversity and community-level change to the stresses of acidification and warming in both natural and artificial locations. Their results are published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16410">Global Change Biology</a>.



Previous research studies have typically used measures of species diversity to track community changes. This means that they counted the number of different species present, and their abundances, in communities subject to changing environmental conditions. Overall, the University of Adelaide researchers found that this was a poor metric to use as both increases and decreases in species richness were recorded, cancelling out any global trend. Instead, there was a pattern of community replacement, meaning that although some species declined or disappeared from the community, others moved in and became established.



“The belief that climate change will alter global marine biodiversity is one of the most widely accepted,” said Professor Ivan Nagelkerken from the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories, who was first author on the study. “Commonly used biodiversity measures don't pick up reorganization of marine communities due to ocean acidification because new species replace species that are lost. [This means that] little or no biodiversity change is detected when one community of marine species is replaced by another, even under significant habitat loss.”



Instead, the researchers detected globally repeated patterns of species replacements and community ‘reshuffling’ in the studies of CO2 vent communities. In particular, these communities showed decreases in cover by calcareous algae, crustose coralline algae, and filter feeders that have calcified shells or tubes. All these organisms contain calcium carbonate which would dissolve under acidic conditions. In contrast, there was&nbsp;increased cover by fleshy algae, turf algae and biofilm in CO2 vent communities. The authors feel that these measures of community change are more useful than simple determination of species diversity.



Furthermore, outdoor laboratory studies of marine communities were even less sensitive in detecting species replacements, community reshuffling or biodiversity change than natural systems, either to ocean acidification or warming, or to a combination of both. This lower-sensitivity is not unexpected as community structure is often influenced by ecological processes that operate over substantially larger spatial and temporal scales than those tested in outdoor laboratories.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Experiments done in the laboratory are weak in detecting biodiversity change, so natural systems experiencing advanced ocean acidification are emerging as an innovative way of studying biodiversity responses,” said Professor Sean Connell, co-author and professor in the University of Adelaide’s Environment Institute and Southern Seas Ecology Laboratories. “No ecological study, whether in the laboratory or field, can fully replicate the complex ecological interactions that exist in nature across the time and spatial scales of relevance to climate change.”



The authors conclude that there are detectible, generalizable changes that take place in marine communities in response to environmental changes in acidity and temperature, but that these are not accurately tracked by considering changes in biodiversity alone. Instead, ecologists should monitor species replacements and community reorganization, particularly in terms of important functional groups, if they wish to detect the effects of climate change on marine communities.&nbsp;



“Future projections of ecosystem change and stability will be more meaningful if they focus on detections of species replacements and changes to the abundance of species rather than testing for signs of habitat loss or biodiversity loss&nbsp;per se,” said Professor Nagelkerken.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Climate stress causes undetected changes in marine ecosystems

Climate change is anticipated to affect ocean biodiversity and play...

A,Male,Baltimore,Oriole,Is,Perched,On,A,Branch.,Tommy

According to the latest <a href="https://www.birdlife.org/news/2022/09/28/state-of-the-worlds-birds-2022-paints-most-concerning-picture-for-nature-yet/">State of the World’s Birds report</a> from BirdLife International, expansion of the agricultural industry, along with the chemicals and equipment used, have affected 73 percent of endangered bird species. Currently, nearly half of the world’s bird populations are in decline and just six percent of them are increasing in population – a bleak situation calling for increased <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nature-conservation-must-become-more-dynamic/">conservation</a> efforts to help reverse this staggering declines.



The report – which is released every four years – has found that one in eight species (or 1,409 in total) face extinction. Since 1970, almost three billion birds have been lost in North America (a 29 percent decline), while in the European Union – a region five times smaller than North America – 600 million birds have died since 1980. Unfortunately, similar trends appear to be playing out all over the world.



“We have already lost over 160 bird species in the last 500 years, and the rate of extinction is accelerating,” said the report’s lead author Lucy Haskell, a science officer for BirdLife. “Historically, most extinctions were on islands, but worryingly there is a growing wave of continental extinctions, driven by landscape-scale habitat loss.”



This massive die-offs are mainly caused by agricultural expansion. For instance, in Europe, the agricultural sector contributed to a more than 55 percent decline in the continent’s farmland birds since 1980. Moreover, unsustainable rates of logging and deforestation also contributed to global declines in bird populations and have a significant impact on almost half of threatened bird species.



In addition, climate change and the proliferation of invasive species pose additional threats to bird populations, together with bycatch from fisheries, the expansion of residential and commercial development, the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires, and poorly planned energy production. According to the report authors, climate change affects over 34 percent of threatened species through extreme weather events such as droughts or storms. Since natural disasters are becoming increasingly frequent and intense, bird biodiversity will likely face even more challenges.



However, despite these grim findings, the experts argue that there are solutions to solve these problems. For instance, in December 2022, the <a href="https://www.cbd.int/">Convention of Biological Diversity</a> meeting will take place, during which scientists will finalize and start implementing a ten-year plan aiming to address our planet’s declining biodiversity. Additional measures include the preservation of remaining intact habitats, the restoration of degraded ecosystems, the prevention of overexploitation and illegal bird killings, the management of invasive species, and the minimization of the negative effects of energy infrastructure such as power lines.



“There are many examples of species being saved from extinction, populations recovering, threats being effectively managed and ecosystems being restored. However, time is running out,” the authors warned.



“The next decade is critical if we are to stop unraveling the fabric of life and destroying our global safety net. Governments must adopt a Global Biodiversity Framework with ambitious commitments to ensure transformative change and urgent implementation of action. The future of the world’s birds and ultimately our own species depends upon it.”



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Half of the world’s bird species are now in decline

According to the latest State of the World’s Birds report...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stress-has-an-odor-and-dogs-can-smell-it-on-us/">Dogs</a> and humans have a unique bond that goes back thousands of years, and humans have spent hundreds of years trying to figure out how this bond developed and why it's so strong. A study published in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0274353#sec021">PLOS ONE</a> delved into another element of this special bond. The researchers wanted to know the specific behavioral traits dog owners found important in building a bond with their pets.&nbsp;



The experts wish to use this information in the future to program autonomous dog-like robots to mimic these desired behaviors to help cure loneliness. The researchers surveyed 153 dog owners, asking them open-ended questions about what dog behaviors they thought supported their bond with their pets.



Overall, the owners felt that attunement, communication, consistency, predictability, physical affection, positivity, enthusiasm, proximity, and shared activities were important in building and maintaining social bonds. Some dog behaviors the participants deemed meaningful were nudging and checking in on the owner during walks.&nbsp;



By including these behaviors in autonomous robot programming, the researchers believe that robots could, one day, provide the same mental health benefits that we currently get from dogs. They hope future studies will explore how people interact with dog-like robots and what kind of effect they have on human mental health.



&nbsp;Also, since our relationships with dogs are varied, they want to look at how people with different backgrounds and demographics respond to other dog-like behavior in robots.&nbsp;



"Using a qualitative approach enabled us to gain a deep and nuanced understanding of the things people find so endearing about our canine companions," wrote the study authors. "While it won't be easy to model most of these behaviors on robots, this work offers new and exciting insights for those working to develop pet-like technologies."



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dog-human bond helps guide social robot programming

Dogs and humans have a unique bond that goes back...

Since urban <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eastern-coyotes-wolves/">coyote</a> research began in the 1980s and 1990s, there has been a sustained interest in the scientific community in what type of foods coyotes living in urban areas are eating, specifically whether they are relying on human foods for sustenance. Now, by analyzing the DNA of urban coyotes living in New York, a team of experts discovered that they eat a variety of native prey species and only supplement this diet with human-sourced food items.



“Urban areas have lots of people and thus greater availability of anthropogenic foods,” said study lead author Carol Henger, a postdoctoral fellow at the <a href="https://www.wcs.org/">Wildlife Conservation Society</a>. “Knowing what the coyotes are eating can help inform management practices by city officials.”



Coyotes are opportunistic omnivores, usually taking advantage of whatever food is available. Although previous research conducted in cities such as Los Angeles and Chicago have found that coyotes eat mainly “natural” foods such as rabbits or rodents, city coyotes still tend to consume more human-sourced food items than their countryside counterparts.



To find out what New York coyotes are eating, the researchers analyzed DNA from coyote fecal samples collected in parks and other green spaces between 2010 and 2017. The analyses revealed that urban coyotes consumed a wide variety of mammalian prey, including racoons, rabbits, deer, and voles. However, they also ate birds, insects, plants, as well as human-sourced foods like beef, pork, or chicken.



“What’s unique about our study is that by sequencing the DNA of coyote scat we were able to detect diet items that might not be detected through a visual analysis of the scat samples, such as specific human food items. There are no wild cows, chickens, or banana trees in NYC parks so if we got a DNA hit on something like that, we knew that the coyote had eaten from an anthropogenic source,” Dr. Henger explained.



The scientists also compared the diet of NYC coyotes to that of coyotes living in non-urban areas from the New York state, and found that raccoons and deer made up a larger proportion of the diet of non-urban coyotes compared to that of their urban relatives. Although both groups of coyotes ate similar proportions of human food (about 60 percent of the fecal samples contained traces of at least one human food item), the urban coyotes ate a wider variety of such products, including rice, goat meat, guineafowl, or bananas.



“Raccoons were the most prevalent mammal detected in the New York City coyote diet,” Dr. Henger reported. “With no other natural predators to limit their populations, coyotes provide an important ecological service. Raccoons can carry diseases such as rabies and canine distemper that can be transmitted to humans and pets. By predating on raccoons, coyotes are helping to provide healthy ecosystems.”&nbsp;



“Our results show that coyotes are not reliant on human food to survive in New York City. Instead, coyotes are eating natural food items that are available in the city parks. This study highlights the importance of creating and maintaining green spaces where wildlife can thrive,” she concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13788">PeerJ</a>.



&nbsp;Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Urban coyotes do not rely on human food

Since urban coyote research began in the 1980s and 1990s,...

Around the world, more than five billion species of hoofed animals – known as “ungulates” and including species such as giraffes, horses, pigs, alpacas, or yaks – are kept as livestock or in zoos and safari parks. A new study led by <a href="https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/">Aberystwyth University</a> and the <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/">University of Portsmouth</a> has investigated which of these species are better suited to captive environments and which display significant levels of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/stress-may-sometimes-protect-our-bodies/">stress</a> and require better husbandry if kept in captivity.&nbsp;



By examining the behavior of over 15,000 individual animals across 38 ungulate species, the experts found that the type of food species eaten and their mating strategies were associated to the risk of stress symptoms. Species most at risk of experiencing stress in captivity were those that eat high-growing woody vegetation (browsers), such as camels, okapis, and rhinoceros, or are sexually promiscuous, like buffalos, yaks, pigs, or sheep.



If a species’ behavioral needs – which they perform to survive and reproduce in the wild – are restricted by captivity, the animals often experience poor welfare and engage in repetitive, unusual behaviors – known as “stereotypical behaviors.” In this study, the scientists aimed to identify which specific behavioral needs should be prioritized to avoid stress and stereotypical behaviors and provide better welfare for the ungulates.



“Our data suggest that features of both a species’ wild behavioral biology and captive husbandry are predictive of these stereotypic behaviours in ungulates,” said study senior author Sebastian McBride, an expert in Animal Cognition at Aberystwyth.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“This research has very important implications for how these large, hoofed animals are kept in captivity – we now have a better understanding of which species are most susceptible to stress in captivity and how we can tackle this problem to improve the welfare of those animals.”



“We found that for ungulates, having the right food and social organization is crucial for their welfare. Whereas for carnivores, having enough space in captivity seems to be key. This shows the importance of understanding the specific needs of different groups of species,” added study co-author Leanne Proops, a researcher in Animal Behavior and Welfare at Portsmouth.



“As a society, we need to continue to question and examine the environmental factors that are important to animals if we are to maximize their welfare. There are lessons here for both farmers and zoos about how best to raise and treat livestock,” concluded lead author Kate Lewis, a doctoral student in Equine Behavior at Portsmouth.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.1311">Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</a>.&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Proper food and company reduce stress in captive animals

Around the world, more than five billion species of hoofed...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humanity-should-brace-for-catastrophic-climate-change/">Climate change</a> and related extreme weather events such as heatwaves or droughts are putting livestock at risk, causing huge economic losses for the production chain. To solve this problem, a research team led by the <a href="https://piacenza.unicatt.it/">Catholic University of the Sacred Heart</a> in Piacenza, Italy, are searching for genes to make cattle and sheep breeds more resistant to climate change.



“Production loss due to heat depends on environmental conditions, as assessed by the temperature/humidity index (THI),” explained study senior author Professor Paolo Ajmone-Marsan, a professor of Animal Breeding at the Catholic University. “Several studies revealed worrying estimates of the order of millions of euros in direct costs (loss of production) and indirect costs (cost of veterinary interventions, fodder, etc.).”



Recent research estimates that the loss of global production from heat stress could reach $40 billion a year by the end of the century, equivalent to ten percent of the 2005 value of meat and milk. “Heat stress is deleterious to all animal species, particularly for ruminants and high-producing dairy cattle, as well as our breeds,” said study co-author Riccardo Negrini, an expert in Animal Science at the same university. “Unfortunately, climate projections indicate that summer weather in our country will be increasingly dry and hot. That will increase stress in animals, despite shading, ventilation, sprinkling of water, and possible conditioning.”



However, according to Professor Ajmone-Marsan, genomics can now be efficiently employed to save livestock from the harmful effects of climate change. For instance, national breeding programs have changed the selection goals of livestock species, favoring animals which are more robust and resilient to environmental factors, and not just highly productive (as previous breeding efforts did).&nbsp;



Through genomics, several genetic variants which help animals to better adapt to hostile climates have already been identified. For example, in some local Caribbean cattle breeds, such as Senepol, Limoneiro, and Carora, a “slick” mutation that results in hair shortening and other physiological changes that make the animals highly resistant to heat stress has recently been discovered. This mutation has been introduced into the Friesian cattle breed in Florida, making them more resilient to climate change.



“Many ongoing research projects are looking for other favorable genetic variants associated with adaptation to the environment in other breeds and other species. We are actively involved in some of these projects,” said study co-author Licia Colli, a researcher in Zootechnics at the Catholic University. “Understanding the genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of climate adaptation is important for planning genetic and genomic improvement programs that increase the production efficiency of local breeds without compromising their adaptive traits.”



“Genomics is a powerful tool and it will facilitate the selection of animals more resilient to climate change, but it is only one of the factors that can ensure animal welfare in extreme climates; it’s crucial also to control farm structures, breeding management, and precision feeding. The good news is that animals in production are increasingly closely monitored by cameras, sensors, and intelligent data analysis systems, that alert farmers as soon as animals show the first signs of stress, allowing immediate implementation of mitigation measures,” concluded Emilio Trevisi, a professor of Animal Sciences, Food, and Nutrition at the same university.&nbsp;



The study – which comprehensively reviews several of current genomic projects aiming to increase farm animals’ resilience to climate change – was published in the journal <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/10/2833">MDPI Animals</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Genomics can help farm animals adapt to climate change

Climate change and related extreme weather events such as heatwaves...

The deep <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plastic-pollution-is-making-the-ocean-more-acidic/">ocean</a> is a harsh environment. At 11 kilometers below, water at the Mariana Trench exerts eight tons of pressure per square inch. This is 1,100 times greater than the pressure at sea level on dry land.&nbsp;



Under this type of pressure, the normal tetrahedron shape of the water molecule is warped. Inside of an organism, this change in water molecule shape prevents biological processes from taking place, thus killing the organism. New research from the <a href="https://www.leeds.ac.uk/">University of Leeds</a> shows how fishes living at these depths survive otherwise crushing pressure.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Life has adapted to survive and thrive in environmental extremes. In the depths of the oceans, organisms live under extreme high pressures that would destroy human life," said Professor Lorna Dougan.



“These high pressures distort the liquid water that resides in all life, resulting in detrimental impacts to the biomolecules that underpin all biological processes."&nbsp;&nbsp;



“We need to understand what happens to water under pressure and how pressure-adapted organisms combat these effects. If we can understand how these organisms survive at extreme pressure, we can apply these findings to the wider study of biomolecular stability.”&nbsp;



The chemical that allows fish to survive these depths is TMAO - trimethylamine N-oxide. The research shows that the amount of TMAO in ocean dwelling animals increases with the depth they live at.&nbsp;



Led by Dr. Harrison Laurent, the researchers fired a beam of neutrons at water particles under low pressure (25 bar) and high pressure (4 kbar) with and without TMAO present. Without TMAO, the water bonds became distorted and compacted. With TMAO, however, the water bonds were strengthened and supported.



“The TMAO provides a structural anchor which results in the water being able to resist the extreme pressure it is under. The findings are important because they help scientists understand the processes by which organisms have adapted to survive the extreme conditions found in the oceans," said Dr. Laurent.



This research allows scientists to better understand how a plethora of newly discovered organisms can survive deep in the world’s oceans. The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42004-022-00726-z.">Communications Chemistry</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How do fish survive the intense pressure of deep water?

The deep ocean is a harsh environment. At 11 kilometers...

The use of service <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-are-more-aware-of-actions-than-objects/">dogs</a> to support people with psychological conditions such as anxiety, panic attacks and post-traumatic stress disorder is growing in popularity. Such dogs are reported to improve a sufferer’s quality of life and social connections. In addition, they are able to help reduce the number of panic attacks, or the severity of PTSD symptoms, by behaving in a way that ‘calms’ the sufferer, or ‘interrupts’ his or her anxiety. Clearly, the dogs are able to perceive and respond to their owners’ psychological distress, but the mechanisms by which they do this are currently not understood.



A new study by researchers from Queens University, Belfast, and Newcastle University in the U.K. has investigated whether dogs can in fact smell when a person experiences stress. Given the excellent sense of smell that dogs have, and the fact that they have lived in association with humans for thousands of years, the researchers wondered whether dogs are able to perceive the chemical signals associated with stress in their owners.&nbsp;



The experience of stress is the main characteristic of people who suffer from anxiety, panic attacks and PTSD. Stress results in physiological changes in the body, including the release of epinephrine and cortisol hormones into the bloodstream, and increases in heart rate, blood pressure and speed of respiration. The physiological response to psychological stress is rapid, bringing about these changes within a few seconds. The researchers hypothesized that dogs, with their superior sense of smell, may be responding to olfactory cues produced by humans that are in a state of psychological stress.&nbsp;



In order to test this hypothesis, the researchers collected samples of breath and sweat from non-smoking participants who had not recently eaten or drunk anything. Baseline samples were collected first, and then the participants were given a fast-paced arithmetic task that provoked stress, after which their breath and sweat odors were again collected. In addition, participants’ heart rate and blood pressure were recorded, along with their self-reported experience of stress level.&nbsp;



Thirty-six of the participants showed increases in blood pressure and heart rate during the test, and also reported increased levels of stress.&nbsp; The samples from these participants were shown to&nbsp;trained&nbsp;dogs within three hours of being collected. Four dogs of different&nbsp;breeds and breed-mixes&nbsp;were trained, using a clicker and kibble rewards, to&nbsp;indicate the stress sample of a participant by adopting an alert posture.&nbsp;



Initially, the dogs had to identify a stress sample when it was randomly presented along with two blanks (samples without sweat or breath). They correctly&nbsp;alerted to&nbsp;the stress sample in 94 percent of the trials, with individual dogs achieving success rates of between 90 and 97 percent.&nbsp;But then the dogs were asked to identify the stress sample when it was presented along with one blank and with the baseline (relaxed) sample from the same participant. The researchers proposed that if the dogs could alert on the stress sample when the same participant’s baseline sample was present, this would imply that the chemical composition of the two human samples is different.



The findings of the study are published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274143">PLoS ONE</a>, and show that the dogs&nbsp;correctly detected and indicated (by alerting) 675 out of 720 stress samples. This equates to a success rate of 93.8 percent, which is far greater than would be expected if the alerting behavior were purely random (p&lt;0.001).&nbsp;



The experts conclude that dogs can detect&nbsp;the odor associated with&nbsp;the change in&nbsp;volatile organic compounds&nbsp;produced by humans in response to stress, a finding that&nbsp;tells us more about the human-dog relationship and&nbsp;could have applications to the training of anxiety and PTSD service dogs that are currently trained to respond predominantly to visual cues.



“This study demonstrates that dogs can discriminate between the breath and sweat taken from humans before and after a stress-inducing task," wrote the researchers.&nbsp; "This finding tells us that an acute, negative, psychological stress response alters the odor profile of our breath/sweat, and that dogs are able to detect this change in odor.”



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Stress has an odor, and dogs can smell it on us

The use of service dogs to support people with psychological...

Everyone knows what modern sharks look like: large fish with hydrodynamic bodies cutting through the water in search of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-can-pythons-eat-prey-as-large-as-a-deer/">prey</a>. However, sharks are an ancient lineage of fishes and in the deep past, ancestral sharks did not always appear as our modern sharks do.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Recently, the discovery of a 439 million-year-old shark was published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05233-8">Nature</a> predating the next oldest jawed fish by 15 million years. This shark is from the class Acanthodii and unlike modern sharks was armored. The shark was named Fanjingshania after the famous UNESCO world heritage site, Fanjingsha.&nbsp;



"This is the oldest jawed fish with known anatomy," said Professor ZHU Min from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the <a href="https://english.cas.cn/">Chinese Academy of Sciences</a>. "The new data allowed us to place Fanjingshania in the phylogenetic tree of early vertebrates and gain much needed information about the evolutionary steps leading to the origin of important vertebrate adaptations such as jaws, sensory systems, and paired appendages."



There were several features to distinguish Fanjingshania, including a shoulder girdle fused to fin spines. The fish also had unique armor plates, with parts of the pectoral fins fused to scales on the body. This anatomy suggests a unique role in the evolution of vertebrates for Fanjingshania. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;



"This level of hard tissue modification is unprecedented in chondrichthyans, a group that includes modern cartilaginous fish and their extinct ancestors," said study lead author Dr. Plamen Andreev, a researcher at Qujing Normal University. "It speaks about greater than currently understood developmental plasticity of the mineralized skeleton at the onset of jawed fish diversification."



"The new discovery puts into question existing models of vertebrate evolution by significantly condensing the timeframe for the emergence of jawed fish from their closest jawless ancestors. This will have a profound impact on how we assess evolutionary rates in early vertebrates and the relationship between morphological and molecular change in these groups," said Dr. Ivan J. Sansom from the University of Birmingham.



This discovery helps scientists better understand the evolution of fishes and pushes the origin of jawed fish to an earlier date than previously suspected. Since we all evolved from fishes, it’s an important piece of our own heritage.&nbsp;



Image Credit: ZHANG Heming



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ancient shark was one of the earliest human ancestors

Everyone knows what modern sharks look like: large fish with...

According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.ku.dk/english/">University of Copenhagen</a>, contrary to popular belief, dairy cows and other dairy <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cattle-are-becoming-less-adapted-to-their-environment/">cattle</a> are likely to experience worse welfare than cows raised solely for meat. By asking 70 leading bovine welfare experts from all over the world to assess the welfare risks of the most common production systems in their countries, the researchers found that dairy production involves a higher degree of human intervention, since dairy cattle are used to provide milk for human consumption, whereas beef cattle produce milk for their own calves – an aspect which has major implications for how these animals and their calves are raised and managed.



“The welfare is worse with cattle in the most common dairy production systems in opposition to cattle in the most common beef production systems. These findings contradict a very long and widely held belief in our society,” said study lead author Roi Mandel, a postdoctoral fellow in Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.



“The higher welfare risk in the dairy sector is not limited to dairy cows – defined from first calving onwards – but also to their calves. Experts rated the welfare risk of calves originating from dairy herds to be higher than that of calves originating from beef herds, regardless of the production goal, be it for red-meat, veal, or to replace the dam.”



Since the milk from dairy cows is produced in significantly higher volumes than in beef cows and is collected one to three times per day - often for 305 days or more per lactation - these cows frequently experience more stress than those grown solely for meat. Moreover, early separation of calves from their dams, together with long-term genetic selection for high milk yield in dairy cows are major factors causing poor welfare, with the latter leading to health problems such as lameness, mastitis, and reproductive and metabolic disorders.



“Refining or simply eliminating, when possible, husbandry practices that have long been recognized as compromising the welfare of both cows and their calves, such as early separation of the calves from their dams, may help to minimize the welfare gap between the beef and the dairy sector,” said Dr. Mandel.



“A complementary approach that applies to both sectors, dairy or beef, would be to elevate overall welfare, e.g. by better training of animal handlers. Unfortunately, in many regions of the world, training of animal handlers is not mandatory. In other countries periodic training updates could be required.”



“Raising awareness about the fact that dairy production also produces meat, and the toll of milk production on the welfare state of animals in the dairy industry, would hopefully encourage a more sustainable and responsible food consumption. Labeling the origin of the meat (beef/dairy herd) on food packaging, could be a first step in this process,” he concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.animal.2022.100622">animal</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dairy cattle’s welfare is worse than that of beef cattle

According to a new study led by the University of...

Fruit,Fly

In the fight for love, the male members of a species usually take center stage. However, a group of scientists at the <a href="https://www.fchampalimaud.org/champalimaud-foundation/champalimaud-centre">Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown</a> have demonstrated that female fruit flies aren't spectators when it comes to sexual <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sexual-competition-makes-animal-populations-more-resilient/">competition</a>.



"It is well known that female fruit flies display aggression over food and territory. So we asked, 'what about mating?" said study senior author Maria Luisa Vasconcelos.



When the team placed one male with two virgin females, everything seemed fine while the male was courting both females. But if the male began copulating with one of the flies, the spurned female began attacking the other female.



"This is curious because when the situation is reversed - when two males are in the same chamber with one female - both vigorously court the female simultaneously. But once mating is in progress, the 'losing' male doesn't attack. Instead, it courts the female even though she is otherwise engaged," explained Vasconcelos.&nbsp;



However, if a male had not previously courted a female, she would not attack. This piqued the researchers' curiosity.



"We wanted to understand what were the exact circumstances that gave rise to this behavior. For example, was it important that the females were virgins? Also, were there any external signals involved, like particular odors?" explained study first author Miguel Gaspar.



The researchers confirmed that the sexual status of the female influenced her behavior. "Mating triggers a series of physiological changes in females, which are known to have a dramatic effect on their behaviour as well," Gaspar explained. "And indeed, we found that while virgins quickly became aggressive, mated females were indifferent to the copulating pair."



The presence of food also played a role. "This was very interesting," said Vasconcelos. "We know that mated females become aggressive towards each other in the presence of food. Probably because they need nourishment to support the pregnancy. However, here the females were virgins. A possible explanation might be that mating in an environment with food is perceived as conducive to a successful pregnancy."



"We report here how female aggression towards mating pairs can be elicited. These findings add to the growing body of evidence that fruit fly females display rich, complex behaviors that are sensitive to social, environmental, and internal states. Now, we can use the extensive genetic and molecular tools available in fly research to investigate the neural underpinnings of this newly-discovered behavior."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(22)01453-1?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982222014531%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">Current Biology</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:nire518@gmail.com">Erin Moody </a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scorned female fruit flies attack their sexual competitors

In the fight for love, the male members of a...

Unrefined – or “crude” – oil has been spilled into the sea in massive amounts following ecological disasters such as the Exxon Valdez or the Sea Empress spills. Moreover, oil is also routinely released into the environment in moderate volumes due to extraction and transportation activities. According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.ucc.ie/">University College Cork</a> (UCC) in Ireland, oil pollution poses a significant threat to many already endangered <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seabirds-are-damaging-their-health-by-eating-plastic/">seabird</a> populations.



The experts found that even tiny amounts of crude oil on the water surface – less than one percent of the thickness of a hair – could severely damage seabird feathers. After collecting feathers from the Manx shearwaters – a species considered to be at-risk from oil pollution – the scientists examined them to asses how quickly water would pass through after exposure to increasing concentrations of oil. Moreover, they also studied the feathers under high-powered microscopes to examine structural changes occurring after contamination.



The analyses revealed that even very thin oil sheens, between 0.1 and three micrometers in thickness, were enough to have a significant effect on feather structure and impacted waterproofing. Thus, seabirds exposed to oil are more likely to become waterlogged, cold, and less buoyant, as several other studies have already shown.



“Chronic small-scale oil pollution is commonly overlooked in the marine environment, though it has been shown to have serious implications for the fitness and survival of seabirds,” said study lead author Emma Murphy, a graduate student in Environmental Science at UCC. “This study examined one species, but the results can be extended to other species that rely on waterproofing to stay healthy when at sea for long periods.”



Murphy and her colleagues concluded that even when oil is released in moderate amounts from extraction and transport infrastructure, it can spread quite quickly across the surface of the sea, causing large marine areas to be coated by oil in concentration that are harmful for seabirds.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220488">Royal Society Open Science</a>.



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Even a tiny amount of oil can damage seabird feathers

Unrefined – or “crude” – oil has been spilled into...

Over 200 years ago, Ichthyosaurs were discovered by Mary Anning at Lyme Regis, England. Anning sold the first Ichthyosaur <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plesiosaur-fossils-found-in-a-100-million-year-old-river/">fossil</a> she found for enough money to support her family for six months and thus began her life as a celebrated commercial paleontologist.



Ichthyosaur means "fish lizard," reflecting the different features embodied by the animal, which seems to almost be a reptilian dolphin. Although all Ichthyosaurs share similar traits, there are differences as well. Some of Anning’s specimens have long, slender snouts, while others have short, stout ones.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



New research is shedding light on some of these old Ichthyosaur specimens. A study from the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> shows that Ichthyosaurs may have had different diets.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Functional studies need excellent three-dimensional specimens, and the Lower Jurassic ichthyosaur fossils from Strawberry Bank in Ilminster are just that. Mary Anning’s fossils are amazing, but they are mostly squashed flat," said Matt Williams of Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.



“Our idea was to CT scan the specimens,” said Dr. Ben Moon, of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences and a supervisor of the study. “The scans allow us to make a detailed, 3D model of the skull in the computer, and it can then be tested for the likely forces experienced during biting.”



“After we had the models, we could stress test them,” said supervisor Andre Rowe. “We tested and confirmed the hypothesis that the slender-snouted ichthyosaur had a quick but weak bite, and the broad-snouted ichthyosaur had a slow but powerful bite.”



“Confirming the supposition was important,” added Professor Michael Benton. “It’s important we apply rigorous scientific approaches such as these engineering analyses. The two species of ichthyosaur presumably chased fast-moving prey (the fast biter) and slower, tough-shelled prey (the slow, powerful biter).”



Professor Benton noted that modern marine predators comparable to Ichthyosaur (like orcas and sharks) eat whatever they can, so it’s interesting that these marine reptiles had specialized feeding habits. "The work can be extended to explore other marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and crocodiles, so we get a detailed picture of these amazing and alien worlds of the Jurassic oceans.”



The study is published in the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14697580">Journal of Anatomy</a>



Check us out on <a href="https://www.earth.com/earthsnap/">EarthSnap</a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls and Earth.com.



---



By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ichthyosaurs had specialized diets to peacefully coexist

Over 200 years ago, Ichthyosaurs were discovered by Mary Anning...

species in Kophobelemnidae