The discovery of a second massive jawbone, over two meters in length, on a beach in Somerset, UK, has recently piqued the interest of paleontologists. This fossil, along with the first one found, has been identified as belonging to a previously <a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Ichthyotitan-severnensis_couple-swimming_credit-gabrielugueto_1m.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">unknown species of giant ichthyosaur</a> named Ichthyotitan severnensis - a marine reptile from prehistoric times. 



Researchers estimate that this creature would have spanned more than 25 meters in length, akin to the size of a blue whale.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-discovery-of-the-marine-reptile-ichthyotitan-severnensis">Discovery of the marine reptile Ichthyotitan severnensis</h2>



This significant find was made by Justin and Ruby Reynolds, a father and daughter duo from Braunton, Devon. During a fossil hunting trip in May 2020 at Blue Anchor, Somerset, 11-year-old Ruby stumbled upon the first fragment of this colossal jawbone.&nbsp;



Realizing the importance of their find, they contacted Dr. Dean Lomax, a leading ichthyosaur expert and a paleontologist at the <a href="https://www.manchester.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Manchester</a> as well as a research fellow at the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Bristol.</a> Lomax. 



They then reached out to Paul de la Salle, a seasoned fossil collector who had discovered the first giant <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/giant-lizards-were-thriving-during-the-age-of-dinosaurs/">jawbone</a> in 2016 along the same coastline.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-multimillion-year-old-jigsaw-puzzle">A multimillion-year-old jigsaw puzzle</h2>



“I was amazed by the find,” Lomax said. “In 2018, my team (including Paul de la Salle) studied and described Paul’s giant jawbone and we had hoped that one day another would come to light. This new specimen is more complete, better preserved, and shows that we now have two of these giant bones - called a surangular - that have a unique shape and structure. I became very excited, to say the least.”



Fueled by this initial success, Justin, Ruby, Paul, Lomax, and several family members returned to the site to search for more pieces. Their efforts were fruitful, eventually piecing together more fragments that fit perfectly together, like a multimillion-year-old jigsaw puzzle.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-species-of-giant-marine-reptile-nbsp">New species of giant marine reptile&nbsp;</h2>



The analysis revealed that these jawbones belonged to a new species of giant ichthyosaur, which they named Ichthyotitan severnensis or "giant fish lizard of the Severn." 



These <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossils-capture-a-turning-point-in-the-evolution-of-life/">fossils</a>, dating back approximately 202 million years to the end of the Triassic Period, represent some of the last members of the Shastasauridae family before they disappeared due to a global <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extinction-event-shows-how-life-responds-to-extreme-changes/">mass extinction </a>event.



This discovery also aligns with findings of other large ichthyosaurs, such as Shonisaurus sikanniensis from Canada and Himalayasaurus tibetensis from China, although the new species appears around 13 million years after these relatives.



Dr. Lomax invited Ruby and Justin to join his research team in studying and naming this <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mysterious-150-year-old-bones-identified-as-ichthyosaur-jaws/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">prehistoric creature</a>. Ruby, now recognized as a young scientist, said that “it was so cool to discover part of this gigantic ichthyosaur. I am very proud to have played a part in a scientific discovery like this.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-biological-limits-of-vertebrates-nbsp">Biological limits of vertebrates&nbsp;</h2>



Further investigations into the bones by Marcello Perillo, a master’s student from the <a href="https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/university/university">University of Bonn</a>, confirmed the ichthyosaur origin and revealed that the creature was still growing at the time of its death.&nbsp;



“We could confirm the unique set of histological characters typical of giant ichthyosaur lower jaws: the anomalous periosteal growth of these bones hints at yet to be understood bone developmental strategies, now lost in the deep time, that likely allowed late Triassic ichthyosaurs to reach the known biological limits of vertebrates in terms of size,” Perillo explained.



“To think that my discovery in 2016 would spark so much interest in these enormous creatures fills me with joy. When I found the first jawbone, I knew it was something special. To have a second that confirms our findings is incredible. I am overjoyed,” de la Salle said.



“This research has been ongoing for almost eight years. It is quite remarkable to think that gigantic, blue whale-sized ichthyosaurs were swimming in the oceans around what was the UK during the Triassic Period. These jawbones provide tantalizing evidence that perhaps one day a complete skull or skeleton of one of these giants might be found. You never know,” Lomax concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0300289" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">PLoS ONE</a> and the jawbone will soon go on display at the <a href="https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/bristol-museum-and-art-gallery/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Bristol Museum and Art Gallery</a>.



Image Credit: Sergey Krasovskiy.



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Largest known marine reptile discovered is a giant ichthyosaur

The discovery of a second massive jawbone, over two meters in length, on a beach in Somerset, UK, has recently piqued the interest of paleontologists. This fossil, along with the first one found, has been identified as belonging to a previously unknown species of giant ichthyosaur named Ichthyotitan severnensis - a marine reptile from prehistoric times. Researchers estimate that this creature would have spanned more than 25 meters in length, akin to the size of a blue whale. Discovery of the marine reptile Ichthyotitan severnensis This significant find...

Bird-speak and human-speak aren’t so different after all. A team of scientists have identified how <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/birds-magnetic-field-navigate/">birds</a> vocalize and found that like humans, their method of communicating is seemingly reliant on vocal “building blocks.” 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html">Universities of Zurich</a>, <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">Exeter</a>, <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/">Warwick</a>, <a href="https://www.mq.edu.au/">Macquarie</a>, and <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/">New South Wales</a> studied the calls of the Australian Outback chestnut-crowned babbler to come to their conclusion.

Prior to this study, scientists found that chestnut-crowned babbler calls were composed of two different sounds, labelled “A” and “B,” vocalized in different arrangements depending on behaviors. For example, when flying, the babbler vocalized a flight call, “AB,” but when feeding chicks, they produced “BAB” calls.

In the new study, the research team used playback experiments, used to test speech-sound discrimination in human infants, to examine the perception of babblers’ calls.

"Through systematic comparisons we tested which of the elements babblers perceived as equivalent or different sounds,” said lead author Sabrina Engesser, from the University of Zurich. “In doing so, we were able to confirm that the calls could be broken up into two perceptually distinct sounds that are shared across the calls in different arrangements. Furthermore, none of the comprising elements carried the meaning of the calls, confirming the elements are meaningless.”

"This system is reminiscent of the way humans use sounds to form meaningful words," added co-author Andy Russell, from the University of Exeter. 

"This is the first time that the meaning-generating building blocks of a non-human communication system have been experimentally identified,” said last author Simon Townsend, from the University of Zurich and the University of Warwick. “Although the building blocks in the babbler system may be of a very simple kind, it might still help us understand how combinatoriality initially evolved in humans."

This discovery could help other researchers generate meaning from other animals’ vocalized building blocks, however, the researchers note that there are big differences between animals’ systems and word generation in language. 

These findings are published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Niall Stopford

Bird-speak and human-speak aren’t so different after all

Bird-speak and human-speak aren’t so different after all. A team...

As a federal land management agency, the <a href="https://www.nps.gov/index.htm">National Park Service</a> (NPS) is often charged with rather conflicting goals. In the case of the NPS, there are the goals to preserve the land as well as facilitate recreation on it. 

In some cases, the NPS also manages non-recreational use of land, such is the case with Point Reyes National Seashore. Point Reyes is one of only two national parks that allow ranching inside their borders. <a href="https://www.nps.gov/cuva/learn/historyculture/farming-in-a-national-park.htm">Cuyahoga Valley National Park</a> in Ohio for its part is encouraging farming within its borders to preserve historic farming in the area. Point Reyes National Seashore is unique that it was created under a partnership between local ranchers and the National Park Service in an effort to forestall the possibility of large scale development in the area.      

Point Reyes is relatively new as far as land managed by the NPS goes, having been established on September 13, 1962. Since the park was created so recently, many of the cattle and dairy ranches that graze on Point Reyes were in business long before the park was officially recognized. 

According to the <a href="http://www.prsranchersassociation.com">Point Reyes Seashore Ranchers Association</a>, many of their members have operated in the area since the 1800s. Ranchers now lease land on short term agreements from the NPS that they once owned. In acknowledgement of the hardships of obtaining loans when operating on a five year lease, the park service has considered 20 year leases. At the time, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar ordered environmental impact statements and consideration of the longer term leases in 2012. 

The <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/08/09/point-reyes-national-seashore-proposes-20-year-ranch-leases-culling-tule-elk/">Mercury News</a> reported earlier this month that the NPS has released a formal plan to extend leases to 20 years for ranchers at Point Reyes as well as Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Ranchers would also be allowed consideration of diversifying their livestock on a case by case basis. This would mean extending ranch leases on 26,000 acres of federal land. 

The NPS plan also calls for limiting the size of the Drake’s Beach tule elk herd from its current estimated population of 124 to 120 individual elk. This is the option preferred by the NPS as opposed to alternatives put forward such as killing all the elk and removing all ranchers. The plans are now open for <a href="https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?documentID=97154">public comments</a> until September 23. 

The different plans highlight the inherent conflict between ranching and elk populations at Point Reyes National Seashore. Tule elk are a subspecies found only in California. The elk population was once as large as 500,000 individuals but decimated to a low point of <a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-elk-20141229-story.html">just two</a> tule elk in the 1870s. Luckily, the two remaining elk were a male and a female which allowed the elk population to rebound. 

Today, there are <a href="https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Mammals/Elk">approximately</a> 5,700 elk living in 22 largely isolated herds throughout the state of California. Besides the elk own resilience the population rebound is the result of hard work and money on the part of captive breeding and reintroduction programs by the state of California. Tule elk were reintroduced to Point Reyes National Seashore in 1978 as part of the statewide recovery. There is still more habitat available for the elk to inhabit but their population growth has run into a roadblock of human intolerance. 

The growing population of tule elk on state land has not been looked upon kindly by ranchers in California.  The <a href="https://www.latimes.com/science/la-me-elk-20141229-story.html">Las Angeles Times</a> reports that ranchers have also called on the NPS to limit elk populations on the ranch land they lease at Point Reyes National Seashore. Ranchers complain that the elk compete with cattle for grass as well as damaged fences. 

The state management agencies have quietly moved ‘excess’ elk to other herds in an effort to minimize conflict. The <a href="https://www.wildlandsconservancy.org/preserve_windwolves.html">Wind Wolves Preserve</a>, managed by the non-profit The Wildlands Conservancy, has taken many of the elk. Despite these effortsl the west is a place of contradictory ideas two of the most cherished being wilderness and the cowboy. 

With growing human populations and less land available, ranching and wildlife are as much at odds as ever. The western landscape as we know it was created over the conflict between wild animals like bison, wolves, bears and the domestic cow. 

Many environmentalists are as unhappy with the presence of the ranchers on federal land as the ranchers are unhappy about the elk. In a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/park-service-floats-plan-shoot-native-elk-point-reyes-national-seashore-2019-08-08/">press release</a>, The Center for Biological Diversity said that the NPS plan would enshrine cattle grazing as the primary use of a large part of the seashore. 

Senior conservation advocate for the center, Jeff Miller added:

“This is a shockingly anti-wildlife plan, and killing these elk will do nothing to fix or reduce the environmental damage caused by cattle ranching…What is the Park Service thinking? Allowing expansion of commercial agricultural activities would inevitably lead to further conflicts with other native wildlife. After the elk shooting starts, get ready for ranchers to call for the slaughter of the park’s bobcats, foxes and birds.”

Conservationists point out that the plan would allow longer leases for cattle and more livestock. The cost of this expanded ranching and farming is paid by NPS employees shooting elk to control the only population of tule elk on national park land, made up of only two herds. 

Conflict between ranchers and wildlife is nothing new. Conflicts have flared up between ranchers and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/washington-state-wolf-killings/">wolves in Washington</a>, with <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/yellowstone-wild-bison-slaughter/">bison near Yellowstone</a>, and have pushed historic predator eradication efforts across the United States. In other countries, livestock have created conflicts with lions and other top predators. 

The main question is whether there is enough room for the western mythology of a rugged, self sufficient rancher next to the reality of an overdue rewilding of the American west? Now is the time to speak up, as the NPS is <a href="https://parkplanning.nps.gov/document.cfm?documentID=97154">accepting comments</a> on its plans until September 23.     

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Tory Kallman

Tule elk of Point Reyes National Seashore are in conflict with ranchers

As a federal land management agency, the National Park Service...

Deer species thought to have gone extinct in the 1930s may still be alive. The wild population of Schomburgk’s deer was believed to be hunted to extinction by humans in 1932, with the last known member of the species dying in captivity six years later. 

But now, researchers from <a href="https://www.northwestern.edu/">Northwestern University</a> have confirmed that “fresh” antlers found by a trucker in Laos in 1991 belonged to a Schomburgk’s deer – more than a half-century after the species was declared extinct.

This species was native to Thailand, and researchers believe that a small population of these deer lived in a remote area of central Laos in the past. Given this discovery, it’s possible that they could still be living there today. 

The study – published in the <a href="http://www.bnhsjournal.org/">Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society</a> – details how a trucker gave the antlers to a shop in the northern Laos province of Phongsali after finding them in 1991. United Nations agronomist Laurent Chazee happened to photograph those antlers in February of that year.

Researcher Gary Galbreath, a professor of biological sciences at Northwestern University, analyzed these photos along with his collaborator GB Schroering. The pair posits that based on the basket-shaped, wide-spread and hyper-branched structure of the antlers, they must have come from a Schomburgk’s deer. According to the researchers, other Asian deer’s antlers do not have this distinct shape. 

The research team also confirmed that the presence of dark red to reddish-brown dried blood on the antlers when they were photographed makes it highly likely that they were fresh when they were documented. 

“The relative antiquity of the antler specimens can be assessed by the materials such as dried marrow, still adhering to them,” explains Galbreath. “Even the blood was still reddish. It would become black with increased age. In the tropics, the antlers would not continue to look this way even within a matter of months.”

While this study indicates that this <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/spread-coyotes-deer-numbers/">deer species</a> that was once believed to be extinct could still be hanging around Thailand, a living member of the species has still not been seen since 1938.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Northwestern University

Deer species thought to have gone extinct in the 1930s may still be alive

Deer species thought to have gone extinct in the 1930s...

New pterosaur species was one of the largest flying animals ever. Move over wandering albatross with a 12-foot wingspan, and step aside <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/science/21obgiant.html">prehistoric Pelagornis chilensis</a>, with a wingspan of 17 feet. There’s a new flying reptile on the block with a wingspan that takes the cake.  

Researchers from <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/">Queen Mary University</a> analyzed previously undocumented fossils and found that the remains belonged to a new species of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/pterosaurs-mass-extinction-event/">pterosaur</a>.  

The newly described species, Cryodrakon boreas, was one of the largest flying animals ever to exist with a wingspan of up to 32 feet and lived around 77 million years ago during the Cretaceous period.  

Described from remains that were found in Canada 30 years ago, it was thought that the fossils belonged to a species of pterosaur called Quetzalcoatlus. 

Quetzalcoatlus had been discovered in Texas, but the researchers found that the fossils just didn’t fit that species and instead belonged to the Azhdarchid group of pterosaurs.  

[caption id="attachment_1877656" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/New-species-of-pterosaur-was-one-of-the-largest-flying-animals-ever1.png"><img class="wp-image-1877656" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/New-species-of-pterosaur-was-one-of-the-largest-flying-animals-ever1.png" alt="" width="650" height="362" /></a> Cryodrakon boreas, Image Credit: David Maas[/caption]

“This is a cool discovery, we knew this animal was here, but now we can show it is different to other azhdarchids and so it gets a name,” said Dr. David Hone, the lead author of the study.  

Among the fossils analyzed by the researchers was a skeleton of a juvenile Cryodrakon boreas with a wingspan of around 16 feet and a neck bone from an adult specimen that would have had a wingspan measuring approximately 32 feet. 

Quetzalcoatlus had a similar, if slightly larger, wingspan. 

It’s an exciting find and Cryodrakon boreas, like other flying reptiles, likely fed on smaller lizards, mammals, and even young dinosaurs.  

“It is great that we can identify Cryodrakon as being distinct to Quetzalcoatlus as it means we have a better picture of the diversity and evolution of predatory pterosaurs in North America,” said Dr. Hone.  

The new pterosaur species was discussed in a new study published in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2019.1649681">Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology</a>.  

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Main Image Credit: David Maas

New pterosaur species was one of the largest flying animals ever

New pterosaur species was one of the largest flying animals...

Paleontologists have been studying a fossilized turtle shell that was flattened into the Earth when it crossed paths with a massive dinosaur approximately 150 million years ago.

The unique remains were discovered at a dig site in the Jura Mountains between Switzerland and France in 2007. Although around 100 fossilized turtle shells were uncovered at the site, this particular turtle was the only one who had been flattened. 

The experts theorize that the turtle was inadvertently crushed under the foot of a giant sauropod. These long-necked herbivores were some of the largest land animals in the history of the planet. 

The scientists agree that the encounter took place during the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/jurassic-fossil-mammals-swallow/">Jurassic Period</a>, which was named after the Jura Mountains.

Dr. Daniel Marty is a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum in Basel. He told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/">New York Times</a> that the evidence showing the turtle was stepped on is pretty clear. "It’s kind of a funny thing, and it also shows that these two animals were in the same paleoenvironment. It’s a real time-crossroad."

[caption id="attachment_1877645" align="aligncenter" width="634"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/dinosaur-sea-turtle.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1877645" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/dinosaur-sea-turtle.jpg" alt="" width="634" height="401" /></a> Image Credit: Paleorxiv Papers[/caption]

The encounter may have taken place as the turtle was crossing mud flats in pursuit of a beach where it could lay its eggs. Another idea is that the turtle became stranded in the mud or dried out and died on its journey before it was stepped on.

The Jura Mountains are no longer close to the ocean, but the positions of the continents have changed tremendously in the years since the Jurassic Period. During the excavation in this region, the experts found around 100 fossilized sea turtles surrounded by more than 15,000 dinosaur footprints.

Jordan Mallon is a paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature, who was not involved in the research. He described the theory proposed by Dr. Marty's team as being "plausible."

"It’s important to document fossils like this where you can try and show two species lived together," Mallon told the New York Times. "It’s only by doing that that we’re able to reconstruct ancient ecosystems."

The study is published in the <a href="https://link.springer.com/journal/15">Swiss Journal of Geosciences</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Main Image Credit: Shutterstock/Daniel Eskridge

Fossilized sea turtle was flattened by a dinosaur 150 million years ago

Paleontologists have been studying a fossilized turtle shell that was...

A team of scientists from the <a href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/">Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History</a> have discovered two new species of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/electric-eels-leap-stronger-shock/">electric eel</a> within the Amazon basin. 

For more than 250 years, scientists have known that electric eels reside in the basin and within South American rivers, however, it was previously thought that all the eels belonged to a single species. 

But after analyzing 107 fish collected from Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, and Suriname, scientists now know that Amazonian eels belong to three distinct species that all evolved from a shared ancestor millions of years ago, with one such species being capable of generating a greater electrical discharge than any other known animal.

This discovery proves just how little is currently known about the biodiversity within the Amazon rainforest.

"These fish grow to be seven to eight feet long,” said study leader C. David de Santana, a research associate in the museum’s division of fishes. “They're really conspicuous. If you can discover a new eight-foot-long fish after 250 years of scientific exploration, can you imagine what remains to be discovered in that region?"

For six years, de Santana and his team, with collaborating researchers from the University of São Paulo's Museum of Zoology, researched eel diversity, as well as the diversity of other electricity-generating fishes, within South America. And although most eel specimens looked fairly similar, the eel’s DNA told a different story. The collection of 107 specimens belonged to three distinct species.

Upon closer research, de Santana found that the eels had unique head shapes, defining characteristics on the pectoral fin, as well as distinctive arrangement of pores all over their bodies. Furthermore, each species had its own geographic distribution, as well. 

Electrophorus electricus is seemingly confined to the highlands of the Guiana Shield.  Electrophorus voltai, one of the two newly discovered species, primarily lives on the Brazilian Shield. And the third species, Electrophorus varii, resides in murky, slow-flowing lowland waters.

These three species evolved from two groups of electric eels that began to evolve in South America about 7.1 million years ago, de Santana believes. The common ancestor of E. voltai and E. electricus lived in the waters of the ancient highlands. 

But the ancestor of E. varii lived in the murky lowland waters. De Santana and team believe E. voltai and E. electricus diverged about 3.6 million years ago when the Amazon River changed course, and E. voltai evolved to discharge up to 860 volts of electricity, which is massive compared to E. electricus’s 650 volts. 

This discovery could help scientists investigate how animals generate high-voltage electricity and how they evolved to do so.

The findings are published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11690-z">Nature Communications</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: L. Sousa

Electric eel species produces most potent electrical discharge of any animal

A team of scientists from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of...

Eleutherodactylus nortoni

Haiti may not be the first place you think of when nature reserves come to mind.  Much of Haiti has been ravaged by hurricanes, and the primary source of energy for use in homes in Haiti is charcoal, which is created by local people from local trees.  Mainly, the image of Haiti has been a stark one; the country has been called the most deforested country in this hemisphere.  

A photo in a 1987 <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com">National Geographic</a> centerfold showed a barren Haitian landscape next to a lush, green Dominican Republic. Studies have said that Haiti has only 2% forest remaining but this number is hotly contested.  Due to lack of clear data and long term studies, deforestation in Haiti is poorly understood. 

Despite warnings that wood for fuel and charcoal production would run out by the year 2000, prompting an environmental apocalypse, satellite photographs reveal that currently roughly one third of Haiti covered in trees.  Earlier studies were built on extrapolations from flights over the most deforested parts of Haiti. Because of the poor studies, the story of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dramatic-increase-brazilian-deforestation/">deforestation</a> in Haiti is one of <a href="http://www.envirosociety.org/2016/05/haiti-is-covered-with-trees/">exaggeration</a>.  

Despite the confusion and contradictions, Haiti is severely deforested. Much of the areas covered with trees in Haiti are fragmented and original old growth forest is a rarity.  According to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/haitis-first-private-nature-reserve-seeks-to-protect-rare-plants-and-animals/">Mongabay</a>, recent research has found that as little as 1% of original forest in Haiti remains.  Deforestation in Haiti has a long history, starting in the modern era with large colonial production plantations.  There was actually a small forest resurgence after Haiti gained independence and large plantations were put out of production.  Still, trends today point toward a loss of forest in Haiti not a gain. Even with a third of the country covered with trees, very little virgin forest remains.      

The forest that is still untouched in Haiti is truly amazing.  According to a report from <a href="http://www.usaidgems.org/Documents/FAA&amp;Regs/FAA118119LAC/Haiti_FAA_118-119_Dec_2010%20(1).pdf">USAID</a>, the Caribbean is a hotspot of biodiversity with a large portion of species found nowhere else on Earth.  Even within the Caribbean, Haiti is special. Roughly one third of plants found in Haiti are found only there. Deforestation and the resulting erosion, flooding and destruction of aquatic habitat remain the biggest threat to the biodiversity of Haiti.  Officially, as much as 6% of Haiti’s land is protected by the government but effective protection is estimated to cover only about 0.5%.

One of these officially protected areas is <a href="https://www.haititrust.org/grand-bois">Grand Bois</a>, a place of great importance in terms of Haitian biodiversity. According to Haiti National Trust, Grand Bois is an isolated, bowl-shaped mountain in Southwest Haiti covered in rare rainforest.  The highest summit of the mountain is 1,262 meters (roughly 4,140 ft.) about half of which above the elevation of 1000 meters is still covered in forest.  

Grand Bois is home to 68 vertebrate species, including 2 threatened birds and three recently discovered frog species and a critically endangered frog.  Overall, 19 frog species are found in Grand Bois and nowhere else on Earth, which is more frog species than anywhere else in the Caribbean. One frog the Tiburon Stream Frog (Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus) was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered on Grand Bois after four decades without being seen, according to <a href="https://www.globalwildlife.org/our-work/regions/caribbean/haitis-first-private-nature-reserve/">Global Wildlife Conservation</a>.  The rare Ekman’s Magnolia (Magnolia ekmanii) was also re-discovered after not being seen by scientists for decades.    

In 2015, Grand Bois National Park was created to protect this special part of Haiti and its rare species.  Unfortunately, studies by Blair Hedges, director of the Center for Biodiversity at Temple University in the US, and his colleagues show the official protection wasn’t enough.  Forest is still being lost inside national parks in Haiti.  

A rule in Haiti allows a national park to be entirely on private land, so Hedges started buying up lands near Bois National Park.  Partnering with <a href="https://www.globalwildlife.org/">Global Wildlife Conservation</a>, Haiti National Trust, (a non-profit founded by Hedges) and Société Audubon Haiti, a private nature reserve was founded bordering Grand Bois National Park.  This is Haiti’s first private nature reserve.  

The idea of a private nature reserve in a nation like Haiti raises lots of questions. According to the <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/haiti/overview">World Bank</a>, Haiti is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters with 90% of the population susceptible to harm from natural disasters.  In 2016, Hurricane Matthew caused the equivalent of 32% of Haiti’s GDP in damages and parts of the country are still rebuilding.  About 59% of Haitians live below the poverty line of US $2.41 per day and 24% lie below the extreme poverty line of US $1.23 per day.  Small economic growth was shown last year due to agriculture in Haiti, but a drop in financing from Venezuela is causing greater problems within Haiti’s government.  

Faced with these stark realities in one of the poorest countries in the Americas, the question become, ‘why care about a nature reserve at all?’ Is the creation of a nature reserve financed by wealthy Haitians and non-profits managed by outsiders just a form of colonialism or is it in the best interest of Haitians?

To answer that question, it must be realized that natural resources such as soil, water and clean air are more important than the money which is based on not only real resources but collective trust of those who use it.  As US President Franklin D. Roosevelt <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/us_8may_drought.pdf">said</a>, “A nation that destroys its soil, destroys itself.”  Besides trees, soil started to improve after the colonial period in Haiti.  Forest health and soil health go hand in hand. Soil health allows agriculture.  Healthy land also contributes to the health of marine habitats surrounding a nation, especially an island nation like Haiti.  Healthy oceans mean fish to eat.  

“With less than one percent of Haiti’s original forest left, the country is on the verge of a potential ecological collapse,” said Wes Sechrest, GWC chief scientist and CEO. “We knew that we needed to take action to protect the country’s staggering diversity of unique and threatened species, many of which are found only in Haiti. Global Wildlife Conservation has partnered with Haiti National Trust to directly protect, manage and restore this high-priority conservation site in an effort to begin to turn the tide of centuries of unregulated environmental destruction.”             

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit: Robin Moore, Global Wildlife Conservation

Haiti gets its first private nature reserve to protect forests and species

Haiti may not be the first place you think of...

Evolution of the oldest segmented animal revealed in fossilized death march. A team of international researchers have discovered a fossil that may be one of the oldest mobile and segmented animals ever to exist on Earth. 

The fossilized death march of the bilaterally symmetrical animal (dubbed “bilaterian”) was found in a 550-million-year-old rock in <a href="http://www.earth.com/image/historic-flooding-has-killed-hundreds-across-china/">China</a>, placing its existence in the Ediacaran Period (635-539 million years ago).

The research was performed by scientists from the <a href="http://english.nigpas.cas.cn/">Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology</a> of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and <a href="https://vt.edu/">Virginia Tech</a> 

The evolution of bilaterians with segmented body parts is a huge event in early animal evolution, and this discovery, called Yilingia spiciformis, is the first piece of evidence to show that this evolution occurred during the Ediacaran Period, as previously estimated.

This fossil is especially unusual because of the connected and preserved trail it made while it moved across the earth. This animal-and-trail connection helps scientists understand the producers of other Ediacaran trace fossils. Evolution of the oldest segmented animal revealed in fossilized death march

Yilingia spiciformis is believed to have been capable of locomotion, and evidence of body segmentation, polarity, and directional locomotion points to Yilingia spiciformis being a bilaterian animal, despite scientists being unable to place it within the bilaterian family tree.

This discovery, published in <a href="https://www.nature.com/">Nature</a>, will help scientists better understand the origin of segmentation and animal motility, which led to the Cambrian substrate and agronomic revolutions.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: NIGPAS

Evolution of the oldest segmented animal revealed in fossilized

Evolution of the oldest segmented animal revealed in fossilized death...

There are almost 400,000 different <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/100-new-species-beetle/">species of beetles</a>, and of those, more than 64,000 belong to the rove beetle family staphylinidae.  

When compared to the 5,800 different species of mammals, beetles have most other animal family trees beat. However, researchers are now rethinking the origin of staphylinidae rove beetles. 

Rove beetles are some of the oldest beetles in the world dating back to the Cretaceous period.  

New evidence suggests that the oldest known rove beetle isn’t actually a member of the rove family at all, which means that the entire beetle family tree may need to be rewritten. 

The beetle at the heart of it all is Leehermania prorova which, until recently, was believed to be the oldest species of rove beetle ever discovered. Leehermania prorova fossils were found in the 1990s along the border of Virginia and North Carolina. 

“When Leehermania was formally described, and more photos came out, we thought to ourselves ‘that doesn’t look quite right for a staphylinid,’” says Margaret Thayer, one of the researchers who thought something was not quite right about the beetle’s placement on the family tree. 

Thayer was not the only one who was tipped off by the description of the species. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.nm.cz/en">National Museum </a>in Prague and <a href="http://english.nigpas.cas.cn/">China’s Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology</a> thought that the fossil species did not fit with other rove beetles but more closely resembled beetles in the Myxophaga suborder. 

Unlike staphylinids, Leehermania didn’t have exposed mandibles and the narrow club-shaped antennae of Leehermania differs from the wider club-shaped antennae of staphylinids. 

Nine researchers across four continents collaborated together to reclassify Leehermania. 

After theorizing that the beetle didn’t belong to staphylinidae, the researchers conducted several tests that showed that the beetle belonged to the suborder Myxophaga. 

The new family placement means that rove beetles are not the oldest family of beetles ever to live. Instead, Leehermania is one of the oldest skiff beetles ever describes. 

“The re-classification of Leehermania means that staphylinids are now 50 million years younger than we thought,” said  Martin Fikáček, a member of the research team. “But if staphylinids are so much younger, that means that this family evolved into many lineages much more rapidly than we thought they did.”

The researchers published their findings in the journal Systematic Entomology. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/khlungcenter

Research reveals that the oldest known rove beetle actually isn’t a rove beetle

There are almost 400,000 different species of beetles, and of...

The Philippines may be the next nation to grant rights to nature In the West, non-human animals, plants and inanimate things such as mountains and rivers have long been seen as intrinsically different from humans. This is partially due to religious tradition. The Bible seems pretty clear that humans are superior to animals and everything else on Earth in Genesis 1:26:

“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.””

Again in verse 28, God tells the new humans he created to “fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Many Christians interpret these passages and others in the Bible as blanket permission to treat animals in whatever way they feel like. The idea of humanity’s superiority was also influenced by Aristotle who felt humans but not animals had immortal souls. 

Later thinkers like French philosopher René Descartes believed that animals were unfeeling machines merely responding to their environment with the illusion of feeling pain or other cognitive features. Descartes even dissected a live, conscious dog and interpreted his yelps of pain as nothing more than an automated response. 

Other Christians have interpreted the Bible as instructing humans to take good care of non-human animals and other life, each deserving respect as fellow creations. In most of mainstream America, it seems that the prevalent thinking is to assume non-humans as lesser beings with fewer rights to a life of dignity. Although we have some <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/canada-protect-whales-dolphins-captivity/">anti-cruelty laws</a>, they don’t apply in many cases such as animals raised for food. 

In general, animals have relatively few rights. Other countries have started to forge a different way ahead, influenced by different thinking, to grant animals and nature rights not afforded in the US as we slowly move forward as well. 

The first anti-cruelty animal laws date back to Ashoka, a Buddhist emperor of India who ruled from circa 268 to 232 BCE, but that was more of a historical anomaly than a trend. Slowly, concerns for nature and non-human life have been revived in recent centuries and gained some support. During the 2016 IUCN World Conservation Congress held in Hawaii, members from over <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/10/natures-right-to-exist-gets-a-boost-from-key-organizations/">170 countries supported</a> the idea that nature has an inherent right to exist.

Individual countries have taken more substantial steps forward. In 2018, an <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/05/animals-accorded-rights-humans-indian-national-park/">Indian court ruled</a> that animals have rights like humans in the Indian state of Haryana. Previously, courts in India have declared rivers to have rights as well, a decision that was overturned. Rulings in 2014 and 2015 also gave animals in India constitutional rights as well as affirmed the right of birds to fly.

South American countries have also pioneered the idea of granting non-human animals rights. <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/sandra-the-orangutan-inside-argentina-zoo-granted-human-rights-in-landmark-ruling-9940202.html#r3z-addoor">In Argentina</a>, animal rights activists filed a habeas corpus petition, a document used to free people held in prison without good reason. The petition in this case was filed for a captive orangutan named Sandra who was held at the Buenos Aires zoo. In a 2014 court ruling, the judge found Sandra to be not a thing but instead a “non-human person” thus granting her basic rights. The decision allowed Sandra to be transferred from the zoo where she is said to have been treated poorly to an animal sanctuary. 

This was followed by a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/argentina-judge-says-chimpanzee-poor-conditions-has-rights-and-should-be-freed-from-zoo-a7402606.html">similar court ruling</a> in Argentina that forced the release of a chimpanzee from a zoo where she was held alone to a wildlife sanctuary. A similar trial in the US ended with a captive chimpanzee being <a href="https://gizmodo.com/new-york-court-says-chimps-aren-t-people-but-it-s-not-h-1825886329">denied person status</a> under the law but the judge acknowledged the inadequacy of the law as well. Germany and New Zealand have meanwhile advanced their own legal recognition of non-human rights. 

Germany was the first country in the EU to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jun/22/germany.animalwelfare">change its constitution</a> in 2002 to give non-human animals the right to have their dignity protected under law. 

New Zealand went even further. The Māori tribe of Whanganui traditionally consider the Whanganui River an ancestor and thus worthy of consideration as a person. In 2017, the status of the river as a person was legally recognized in New Zealand. The new law allows humans to act as legal guardians of the river and opens the door for legal redress previously not available to the body of water. The trend of allowing non-human animals and even physical features or ecosystems legal standing seems to have caught hold worldwide.

The Philippines may be the next country to grant some sort of legal standing to the non-human world. A coalition in the Philippines including a local arm of the Catholic Church is pushing for a new <a href="http://www.pmpi.org.ph/news-statements/environment/417-press-statement-pmpi-and-nassa-caritas-philippines-spearhead-filing-a-rights-of-nature-bill">“right of nature” bill</a>. 

If passed, the bill would be similar to other bills in that humans could act as guardians of non-humans and seek legal redress in courts based on rights given to non-humans. Catholic Church leaders have spoken up in support of the new bill, calling for people to live in communion with nature. The bill is still being drafted and hasn’t been submitted to Congress yet but it’s already creating a discussion about the place of nature in law. 

The Philippines bill drew inspiration from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/10/natures-right-to-exist-gets-a-boost-from-key-organizations/">Ecuador and Bolivia</a>. In 2008, Ecuador became the first country to allow nature the constitutional right to thrive. In 2010 Bolivia passed the Law of the Rights of Mother Earth which granted Earth itself a legal personhood. 

Despite these laws, non-human nature is still not always treated with deep amounts of respect in Latin America or other parts of the world where it has legal standing. Pollution still occurs as does animal abuse and poaching. It could be that changing the law is a first step towards changing daily reality.                         

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Parmna

The Philippines may be the next nation to grant rights to nature

The Philippines may be the next nation to grant rights...

A new study led by conservation biologists at <a href="https://www.fsu.edu/">Florida State University</a> has revealed that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/american-bellflower-plants-adapt/">climate change</a> could provide some loggerhead turtles with optimal conditions for reproductive success. These benefits, however, may ultimately be reversed as environmental changes become more drastic. 

The loggerhead turtle has a diverse geographic range, stretching from the cooler shores of Newfoundland to the much hotter beaches of Australia. The research suggests that some loggerhead populations in warmer regions will be adversely affected by climate change more immediately, while nesting areas across milder regions could experience short-term gains. 

The investigation was focused on 17 loggerhead turtle nesting beaches along the coast of Brazil. The experts found that hatchling production could improve in temperate areas that are projected to experience a boost in temperatures as a result of global warming. 

"Even though hatchling success is projected to increase by the year 2100 in areas that currently have lower temperatures, it is likely that as climate change progresses and temperatures and precipitation levels approach negative thresholds, hatchling production at these locations will start to decrease,” said study co-author Professor Mariana Fuentes.

During incubation, marine turtle eggs are strongly affected by their environments. External temperatures influence the sex of the hatchlings, solar radiation exposure can reduce their chances of survival, and excessive moisture content can drown developing embryos.

The FSU team analyzed how a number of environmental scenarios may influence hatchling production along the coast of Brazil. 

The study revealed that, for hotter beaches near the equator, accelerating climate change will likely increase air temperatures and precipitation levels beyond the thresholds for healthy incubation. Across the temperate beaches located hundreds of miles from the equator, however, similar environmental changes will produce completely different results for hatchling production.

"These cooler beaches are also predicted to experience warming air temperatures; however, productivity is predicted to increase under both the extreme and conservative climate change scenarios,” said study lead author Natalie Montero.

As temperatures rise in the coming decades, these cooler beaches will become more suitable for healthy loggerhead incubation. On the other hand, if climate change continues at the current rate, Montero explained that these beaches may also become too warm for successful production.

"Sea turtles have been around for a long time and have survived many changes to the global climate,” said Montero. “However, climate changes of the past took a long time, allowing sea turtles to adapt to the changing conditions. Today’s climate change is happening very quickly, and therefore sea turtles must adapt quickly or perish.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Pete Niesen

Loggerhead turtles may benefit from a warming climate, but not for long

A new study led by conservation biologists at Florida State...

T. Rex had a built-in air conditioning system to help keep cool. New evidence suggests that the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/real-t-rex-feathers-massive-eyes/">Tyrannosaurus rex</a> was equipped with a built-in air-conditioner to help regulate heat. 

It was long believed that the two holes in the roof of a T. rex skull, the dorsotemporal fenestra, actually helped jaw movements and were filled with muscles. As T. rex is said to have a <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/17/528677883/tyrannosaurus-rexs-bite-force-measured-8-000-pounds-scientists-say">bite force of 8,000 pounds</a>, some extra muscle certainly couldn’t have hurt. 

However, researchers from the <a href="https://missouri.edu/">University of Missouri,</a> <a href="https://www.ohio.edu/">Ohio University</a> and the <a href="http://www.ufl.edu/">University of Florida </a>have good reason to believe that the dorsotemporal fenestra regulated heat and helped keep T. rex cool. 

The study, published in the journal the <a href="https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ar.24218">Anatomical Record</a>, challenges what researchers know about the massive Cretaceous carnivore. 

“Yet, we now have a lot of compelling evidence for blood vessels in this area, based on our work with alligators and other reptiles,” said Casey Holliday, the lead researcher of the study. 

The researchers studied alligators at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in Florida and used thermal imaging to see body heat. 

“Therefore, we noticed when it was cooler and the alligators are trying to warm up, our thermal imaging showed big hot spots in these holes in the roof of their skull, indicating a rise in temperature,” said Kent Vliet, a co-author of the study. ‘Yet, later in the day when it’s warmer, the holes appear dark, like they were turned off to keep cool.”

Next, the alligator thermal imaging data was compared to dinosaur and crocodile fossils and the researchers tracked changes in the dorsotemporal fenestra over time. 

Alligators have an internal thermostat according to Vliet, which helps discharge and regulate heat, and T. Rex may have had a similar system. 

“We know that, similarly to the T. rex, alligators have holes on the roof of their skulls, and they are filled with blood vessels,” said Larry Witmer, a fellow co-author of the study. “By using some anatomy and physiology of current animals, we can show that we can overturn those early hypotheses about the anatomy of this part of the T. rex’s skull.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Herschel Hoffmeyer

T. Rex had a built-in air conditioning system to help keep cool

T. Rex had a built-in air conditioning system to help...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Nushagak Bay, a large estuary in southwest Alaska. Nushagak runs mainly north to south and exits in Bristol Bay, a large body of water in the Bering Sea.



"The bay is primarily fed by the Nushagak River, which begins in the Alaska Range and flows southwest approximately 450 km. The bay is also fed by several additional rivers including the Wood, Igushik, Snake and Weary rivers," says ESA.



"The dark colors of the Nushagak River are most likely due to tannins or lignins (chemical substances found in plants). Tannins and lignins from roots, leaves, seeds, bark and soil can leach into the water and give it a brown or even black colour. The sediments then flow southwards where it is mixed with the bluer waters of the bay."



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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.

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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.

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

[sendtonews key="LvS8v8bp9z-2564889-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> explores the ability of salt to transform the way that foods and beverages taste. Salt is known to cover up undesirable flavors, such as bitterness in coffee or beer, but how exactly does sodium chloride change the taste of other compounds?



One previous study showed that, not only does salt suppress bitterness, but also enhances sweetness and sourness. Another study revealed that bitterness reduction by salt seems to be happening at the tongue receptor level as well as in the brain.&nbsp;



While it is known that salt taste is mediated by the presence of sodium channels in the form of taste buds, experts believe that there is also an unknown receptor responsible for how we taste salt that has not yet been identified.&nbsp;



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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.

How does salt makes things taste better?

[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Santiago, the capital city of Chile. The city is located in the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, which has a population of about eight million people.&nbsp;



'The weather of Santiago resembles the Mediterranean climate with dry and warm summers with temperatures reaching up to 35°C (from October to March) and cool and humid winters that can drop to 0°C (from April to September)."



"The city lies in the centre of the country’s central valley around 80 km from the Pacific Ocean to the west and borders Argentina to the east. A tiny part of Argentina is visible in the top-right corner of the image where the mountain crest of the Andes Mountains acts as a divider between the two countries," says ESA.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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.

Santiago, Chile in South America

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Spiral,Galaxy,,Illustration,Of,Milky,Way

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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.

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky" Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features northwest Lesotho in South Africa.



According to ESA, Lesotho is the only nation in the world that lies completely above 1,000 m in elevation. The country is famous for its tall mountains and narrow valleys, and is known as Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky."



Out of a population of around two million people, about 80 percent live in rural areas. More than 75 percent of these people are engaged in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-will-have-a-global-impact-on-agriculture/">agriculture</a>, including rainfed cereal production and animal grazing.&nbsp;



ESA reports that the country’s agricultural system faces a growing number of issues, with climate-related vulnerabilities such as drought, floods and extreme temperatures occurring more frequently. 



Diamonds are amongst the minerals found in the mountains. Indeed, Lesotho can truly be called the Kingdom in the Sky. Beautiful, culturally rich, safe, affordable, and easily accessible from Durban and Johannesburg, mountainous Lesotho is a vastly underrated travel destination. the Kingdom of Lesotho (Sotho: 'Muso oa Lesotho) is an enclaved country in southern Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size and has a population of around 2 million.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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.

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Dublin, the capital and largest city of Ireland. Beyond its pub culture, Dublin is known as a modern culinary destination and a UNESCO City of Literature.



"Dublin is located near the midpoint of Ireland’s east coast in the province of Leinster. The city, which covers an area of around 115 square kilometers, is bordered by the Dublin Mountains, a low mountain range to the south, and is surrounded by flat farmland to the north and west," says ESA.



"The city straddles the River Liffey, which rises in the Wicklow Mountains and flows around 80 kilometers eastwards through the city of Dublin, in which it is canalised and bordered with quays. It then empties into Dublin Bay, an arm of the Irish Sea."



Dublin has an abundance of green spaces, including one of the largest enclosed public parks in any European capital city. Phoenix Park, which was originally formed as a royal hunting park in the 1660s, includes 707 hectares of green space.



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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.

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain. The image was captured by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission.



"Together with the provinces of Huesca and Teruel, Zaragoza formed the old kingdom of Aragon. Its capital, also called Zaragoza (not visible in this image) is home to around half of Aragon’s population," says ESA.



"The Ebro River can be seen winding its way through the province from west to east in this image. Between its source in the Cantabrian Mountains in the northwest and its delta on the Mediterranean coast, the Ebro River is fed by more than 200 tributaries as it flows 910 km across much of northern Spain."



Since rainfall is very scarce in this region, irrigation in the Ebro basin is critically important. In the valleys surrounding the Ebro River, many fields are used for growing crops such as corn, wheat, and barley.



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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.

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> reveals the evolution of the Columbia Glacier in southeastern Alaska. Columbia is among the fastest shrinking glaciers in the world, and the video documents its rapid retreat over the years.&nbsp;



Columbia Glacier is a large, multi-branched calving glacier that flows out of the Chugach Mountains to the Prince William Sound.&nbsp;



According to USGS, Columbia had a long history of stability prior to 1980, with a length 41 miles, and small, short-lived advances or retreats.



In the years since 1980, however, satellite images have captured Columbia’s alarming retreat. By using false-color images, scientists can distinguish between snow and ice, open water, vegetation, and rocky debris on the glacier’s surface.



The series of false-color images featured in today's video were acquired over the span of 35 years. You can see that by 2021, the glacier’s main branch had retreated about 15 miles from its initial position.



The Columbia Glacier has also lost more than 50 percent of its volume, mostly due to calving. <a href="https://www.earth.com/video/nasa-reveals-3d-visual-of-an-atmospheric-river/">NASA</a> reports that while climate change likely started the retreat, mechanical processes kept the disintegration going.



The NASA images are provided by Jesse Allen, Robert Simmon, Joshua Stevens, and Lauren Dauphin using data from Landsat satellites, from the U.S. Geological Survey, and data from MODIS on NASA’s Terra satellite. The structure of Columbia’s moraine played a large role in the stability of the glacier before 1980. 



Like other tidewater glaciers, the Columbia built up a moraine over time, and the mixture of ice and rock functioned like a dam keeping out the sea. It was supported on one end by the shoreline and by the underwater terminal moraine at the other.



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory/&nbsp; NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio



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



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.

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features the Pyrenees Mountains, which form a natural boundary between France and Spain in southwest Europe.



The mountain range is 430 kilometers in length. It stretches from the Mediterranean Sea on the east to the Atlantic Ocean on the west.



At an elevation of 3404 meters, Pico de Aneto is the highest mountain peak in the Pyrenees, and the third-highest peak in Spain. Pico de Aneto is located in the Posets-Maladeta Natural Park, which spans more than 82,000 acres.&nbsp;



"Geological studies have revealed that the Pyrenees Mountains have been around for longer than the Alps, with their sediments first deposited in coastal basins during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras," reports ESA.



"The entire mountain range formed due to the upwelling of large sedimentary rocks by the collision of the Iberian and the Eurasian plate around 100 to 150 million years ago, followed by intense erosion from ice and water."



The western Pyrenees receive more precipitation due to moisture blowing in from the Atlantic Ocean. The mountain range contains many lakes, several small glaciers, and some of the highest waterfalls in Europe.



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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.

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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Today's Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes two exoplanets that are orbiting a star 218 light-years away. A team of researchers led by the University of Montreal has found evidence that these planets are "water worlds."



The experts used data from NASA’s Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes. They discovered that exoplanets Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 could be composed largely of water.



"We previously thought that planets that were a bit larger than Earth were big balls of metal and rock, like scaled-up versions of Earth, and that's why we called them super-Earths," explained study co-author Björn Benneke.&nbsp;



"However, we have now shown that these two planets, Kepler-138 c and d, are quite different in nature and that a big fraction of their entire volume is likely composed of water. It is the best evidence yet for water worlds, a type of planet that was theorized by astronomers to exist for a long time."



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Leah Hustak (STScI)



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



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.

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/goddard">NASA Goddard</a> describes Earth’s interconnected systems, and how this network is affected by rising temperatures.&nbsp;



During 2020, average global temperatures matched the hottest year on record. The hurricane season was also record-breaking, with many of the storms intensifying at extraordinary speeds. Hot water in the ocean is fuel for hurricanes. The satellite data shows that it's all one interconnected system showing how Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected.



According to NASA, dust swept up from Northern Africa plays a major role in the formation of hurricanes, and is also a key source of fertilization in the Amazon rainforest. As a result of<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/seagrass-wasting-disease-is-fueled-by-climate-change/"> climate</a> change, dust plumes are expected to decline, which will have an effect on vegetation far away.&nbsp;



Images from Earth-observing satellites show how the world’s plant life is affected by natural disasters, fires, and deforestation. Satellites also reveal how widespread changes in vegetation impact waterways,&nbsp; the climate, air quality. Satellites communicate by using radio waves to send signals to the antennas on the Earth. "Earth From Space" is a groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. 



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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.

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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



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.

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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.

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video Credit: ESA



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



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.

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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.

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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.

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&nbsp;



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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

[sendtonews key="761m2QQvR1-2035772-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...