Sebecid fossils are changing everything we thought we knew about the ancient Caribbean. Imagine a crocodile built like a greyhound - tall, fast, and fully land-dwelling. These agile predators, some stretching up to 20 feet long, once ruled South American landscapes after the extinction of the dinosaurs.



Scientists believed they vanished around 11 million years ago. But a surprising discovery in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/caribbean-salt-affects-global-climate-study-reveals/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Caribbean</a> tells a different story - one that begins with a few unusual fossilized teeth.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-fossil-discovery-changed-the-story">A fossil discovery changed the story</h2>



Back in the 1990s, scientists discovered a pair of fossilized teeth in Cuba. The teeth, about 18 million years old, were serrated and sharp - built for tearing meat.



Then came another one in Puerto Rico, dated to 29 million years ago. The shape of these fossils clearly pointed to a large predator. 



But researchers were baffled. Until then, they thought the Caribbean had no land predators of that size. Without more bones to go on, the mystery sat unsolved.



Then in early 2023, something changed. A new fossil tooth turned up in the Dominican Republic, but this time it came with two vertebrae. It was a small clue, but it changed everything. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-large-predators-in-the-caribbean">Large predators in the Caribbean </h2>



The fossils confirmed the presence of a sebecid. That meant the Caribbean had been a safe haven for these large, land-based predators. They were still roaming these islands five million years after disappearing everywhere else.



This new discovery comes from a research team led by scientists from the <a href="https://www.ufl.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Florida</a>. 



“That emotion of finding the fossil and realizing what it is, it’s indescribable,” said Lazaro Viñola Lopez, the study's lead author.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crocodiles-that-ran-like-dinosaurs">Crocodiles that ran like dinosaurs</h2>



Sebecids were part of a long-extinct family of crocodile relatives called notosuchians. Unlike <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ancient-amphibians-swam-like-modern-crocodiles/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">modern crocodiles</a> that lurk in rivers and swamps, sebecids were fully land-dwelling. 



They ran on strong limbs and hunted like the carnivorous dinosaurs that came before them. Some were enormous. 



Sebecids had armored bodies with tough bony plates beneath their skin. Their teeth were made for slashing meat, not catching fish.



When the mass extinction 66 million years ago wiped out most life, only the sebecids from the notosuchian line managed to survive in South America. With <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/nuclear-winter-dinosaurs-were-likely-killed-by-dust/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dinosaurs</a> gone, they rose to dominate the food chain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-sebecids-may-have-crossed-the-sea">Sebecids may have crossed the sea</h2>



How did a sebecid get to the Caribbean? The ocean has always been a serious barrier for land animals. That’s where the GAARlandia hypothesis comes in. 



The theory suggests there was once a chain of temporary land bridges or stepping-stone islands between South America and the Caribbean. 



These paths may have allowed animals like sebecids to migrate and settle. If the other teeth found across the Caribbean also belonged to sebecids, it means these <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/past-climate-change-drove-the-rapid-evolution-of-reptiles/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reptiles</a> weren’t just visitors. They were long-term residents.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-land-bridges-reshaped-ecosystems">Land bridges reshaped ecosystems </h2>



The land bridges may have shaped island ecosystems for millions of years. Now that they’re gone, smaller animals like birds, snakes, and native crocodiles have taken their place.



“You wouldn’t have been able to predict this looking at the modern ecosystem,” said a paleontologist from the Florida Museum of Natural History. 



“The presence of a large predator is really different than we imagined before, and it’s exciting to think about what might be discovered next in the Caribbean fossil record as we explore back further in time.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-fossil-secrets-of-the-caribbean">Fossil secrets of the Caribbean </h2>



Scientists often describe islands as natural museums. Their isolation makes them safe places for rare plants and animals to hang on after they’ve vanished elsewhere. But the Caribbean still holds many sebecid secrets - especially from deep in the past.



Until now, most Caribbean fossils have been found in caves and water-filled sinkholes called blue holes. Caves protect bones from the elements, while blue holes prevent decay by cutting off oxygen. 



These places have been valuable but only give a narrow view into recent biodiversity. They don’t tell us much about ancient species like sebecids.



Today, researchers are switching tactics. Instead of relying on caves and sinkholes, they’re going after older fossils in harder-to-reach spots.



“This is like a renaissance,” said Viñola-Lopez, describing the new wave of excitement in Caribbean paleontology.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-vanishing-fossil-sites">Vanishing fossil sites </h2>



In the Caribbean, fossil sites vanish quickly. Rain, wind, and forests erase rocky outcrops fast. When workers cut new roads or dig into hills, researchers have to act fast. 



That’s how the sebecid fossils were found. Road work in the Dominican Republic exposed the fossil bed just in time.



A graduate student from the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez was studying the rocks in the area and spotted the site. He notified his colleagues, and soon after, the team from the University of Florida arrived to excavate the bones.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-more-surprises-to-come">More surprises to come</h2>



The sebecid fossils are only one piece of a much larger puzzle. In recent years, researchers have also found the first signs of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/mosasaurs-had-fierce-survival-strategies-including-cannibalism/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mosasaurs</a> - massive sea reptiles - in the Caribbean. 



The experts have identified the region’s oldest ground sloth fossils. And new work is hinting that early human arrival may have led to the extinction of native rodents.



It’s clear there’s more to uncover. “The sebecid is only the tip of the iceberg,” said Viñola-Lopez. And with more eyes now turned to the Caribbean, who knows what ancient giants might turn up next?



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.2891" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences</a>.



Image Credit: Illustration by Jorge Machuky



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Giant crocodile in the Caribbean? Fossils reveal a lost apex predator

Sebecid fossils are changing everything we thought we knew about the ancient Caribbean. Imagine a crocodile built like a greyhound - tall, fast, and fully land-dwelling. These agile predators, some stretching up to 20 feet long, once ruled South American landscapes after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Scientists believed they vanished around 11 million years ago. But a surprising discovery in the Caribbean tells a different story - one that begins with a few unusual fossilized teeth. A fossil discovery changed the story Back in the 1990s,...

How to save your food from seagulls. If you’ve been unlucky enough to have a <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wing-technique-gulls-drones/">seagull</a> snatch your snack from right in front of you while enjoying a day at the beach, you know that trying to eat when there are gulls around is no picnic. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> may have found a solution to keep your snacks safe from any thieving seagull. 

The trick is to just keep your eyes on the bird that’s after your chips, according to a new study published in the journal Biology Letters.

The researchers set a bag of chips on the ground and measured how long before 19 herring gulls approached the bag both while being watched and when a human was turned away. 

Gulls were more cautious when a human was staring at them. The researchers found that the herring gulls took around 21 seconds longer to grab the chips compared to when someone was looking away. 

Only 19 out of 74 gulls completed a “looking at” and “looking away” test without flying away first. 

“Gulls are often seen as aggressive and willing to take food from humans, so it was interesting to find that most wouldn’t even come near during our tests,” said Madeleine Goumas, the lead author of the study. “Of those that did approach, most took longer when they were being watched. Some wouldn’t even touch the food at all, although others didn’t seem to notice that a human was staring at them.” 

The study only involved 19 gulls, and not all gulls had the same response to staring. 

“We didn’t examine why individual gulls were so different - it might be because of differences in “personality” and some might have had positive experiences of being fed by humans in the past - but it seems that a couple of very bold gulls might ruin the reputation of the rest,” said Goumas. 

What the study does provide is a potential tool that annoyed tourists and beachgoers might use to dissuade gulls from approaching. 

Herring gulls in the UK and gulls in other coastal towns are considered a nuisance. One New Jersey beach town has gone so far as to hire birds of prey to scare away the gulls, according to the <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/08/06/beach-town-pays-65000-for-hawks-owls-to-scare-seagulls-away/">New York Post</a>. 

“We therefore advise people to look around themselves and watch out for gulls approaching, as they often appear to take food from behind, catching people by surprise,” said Dr. Neeltje Boogert, a senior author of the study.

Chips and picnic food are not part of a gull’s natural diet, and the researchers plan to study how human food impacts gulls and their chicks. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Photography by Adri

How to save your food from seagulls

How to save your food from seagulls. If you’ve been...

Paleontologists discover world’s largest extinct giant parrot in New Zealand. The first-ever giant parrot fossil has been located near St. Bathans in Central Otago, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/birds-extinction-new-zealand/">New Zealand</a>. Dubbed Heracles, the bird stood about a meter (3.3 feet) tall, weighed about 7 kg (15.4 pounds), and had a huge beak large enough to crack pretty much anything.

"Heracles, as the largest parrot ever, no doubt with a massive parrot beak that could crack wide open anything it fancied, may well have dined on more than conventional parrot foods, perhaps even other parrots," said Professor Mike Archer, from the UNSW Sydney <a href="http://www.pangea.unsw.edu.au/">Palaeontology, Geobiology and Earth Archives (PANGEA) Research Centre</a>.

According to a team made up of experts from <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a>, <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/">UNSW Sydney</a>, and <a href="https://www.canterburymuseum.com/">Canterbury Museum</a>, the Heracles fossil is about the same size of the giant 'dodo' pigeon of the Mascarenes and is twice as big as the critically endangered flightless New Zealand kakapo, which has been previously identified as the largest known parrot on Earth. 

In fact, both Heracles and the kakapo belong to a lineage of ancient parrots that were much more primitive than the parrots found on New Zealand today.

"New Zealand is well known for its giant birds," said Flinders University Associate Professor Trevor Worthy. "Not only moa dominated avifaunas, but giant geese and adzebills shared the forest floor, while a giant eagle ruled the skies. But until now, no-one has ever found an extinct giant parrot — anywhere."

Per the study, published in <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsbl">Biology Letters</a>, Heracles was located in a grouping of fossils dated to about 19 million years ago.

"We have been excavating these fossil deposits for 20 years, and each year reveals new birds and other animals," said Worthy, who works at the Flinders University Palaeontology Lab. "While Heracles is one of the most spectacular birds we have found, no doubt there are many more unexpected species yet to be discovered in this most interesting deposit."

[caption id="attachment_1876165" align="aligncenter" width="595"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/heracles.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1876165" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/heracles.jpg" alt="" width="595" height="632" /></a> Heracles inexpectatus silhouette next to an average height person and common magpie. Image Credit: Professor Paul Scofield, Canterbury Museum[/caption]

Islands are often home to giant bird species, such as the dodo, the giant megapode and a giant pigeon species on the island of Fiji, a giant stork species on Flores, Hawaii’s giant ducks, and giant owls and raptors in the Caribbean.

Because Heracles lived in a diverse subtropical forest, in which many species of laurels and palms grew with podocarp trees, the experts believe Heracles had no problem finding fresh fruit to eat.

"But on the forest floor Heracles competed with adzebills and the forerunners of moa," said Professor Suzanne Hand, from UNSW Sydney.Paleontologists discover world’s largest extinct giant parrot in New Zealand

"The St. Bathans fauna provides the only insight into the terrestrial birds and other animals that lived in New Zealand since dinosaurs roamed the land more than 66 million years ago," added Paul Scofield, Senior Curator at Canterbury Museum, Christchurch.

Canterbury Museum research curator Vanesa De Pietri said the St. Bathans fossil deposit also reveals a diverse fauna typical of subtropical climates with crocodilians, turtles, bats, and other mammals, as well as more than 40 bird species.

"This was a very different place with a fauna very unlike that which survived into recent times," De Pietri concluded.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Dr Brian Choo, Flinders University

Paleontologists discover world’s largest extinct giant parrot in New Zealand

Paleontologists discover world’s largest extinct giant parrot in New Zealand....

A new study from <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/">Columbia University</a> has demonstrated that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/female-japanese-macaques-red/">macaques</a> can use logical reasoning to execute tasks. The investigation was focused on the ability of the animals to use transitive inference (TI), which is a form of deductive reasoning that was long believed to be unique to humans. 

To demonstrate an understanding of TI, subjects are often given lists of adjacent pairs, such as AB and CD, and then tested for their ability to recognize non-adjacent pairs that are implied, such as AC and BD. 

Over the last few decades, research has suggested that some nonhuman animals are also able to use this logical learning process. However, these studies primarily depended on reward associations, which makes it difficult to determine whether the test subjects were learning through logical inference or if they were simply making associations to maximize a reward. 

"It is widely accepted that animals also learn from experience, but most studies of nonhuman animals assume that their choices depend chiefly on the expected reward value associated with choices," wrote the study authors.

"We conjecture that the full scope of published TI results can only be explained if nonhuman animals perform inferences by manipulating an abstract representation of list order."

Led by Greg Jensen, the research team set out to manipulate an experiment so that the problems could not be solved by reward associations alone. In other words, the reward values were not always higher when the macaques produced the correct answers. 

The macaques learned a sequence of images, and were rewarded with water for selecting and touching one of two adjacent images that came earlier in the sequence. The monkeys had been on a water-restricted diet, and received no water for an incorrect answer. 

In the next phase of the trial, the researchers began showing the monkeys pairs of images that were not adjacent in the sequence. The monkeys continued to get a water reward for selecting the image that came earlier in the sequence. 

Finally, the researchers switched up the reward value of the correct answers, where the earliest image in the sequence that may have once corresponded with six drops of water now only corresponded with one. 

According to the experts, if the monkeys had no logical basis for their decision-making and were only driven by rewards, their performance would have suffered under this reverse condition. Instead, the monkeys continued to accurately identify the earliest images in the sequence across hundreds of trials, indicating that the monkeys were driven by logical reasoning and not just by rewards.

"This is the first study to test reward-based explanations of TI performance in a paradigm in which subjects have to ignore the experienced magnitude of reward to choose the correct response," wrote the researchers. 

"Subjects’ success in learning under the reverse reward gradient adds to a growing body of demonstrations that nonhuman animals can solve inference-based problems by a more cognitive means than favoring whichever alternative has the highest experienced value."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/">Science Advances</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Sergey Uryadnikov

Logical thinking drives the problem solving skills of macaques

A new study from Columbia University has demonstrated that macaques...

Non-carnivores pose a surprising threat to livestock. Most research examining conflict between humans and wildlife has focused on how large predators like <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/absence-wolves-eastern-coyotes-adapted/">wolves</a> and tigers may threaten livestock.

But Dr. Shari Rodriguez and Dr. Christie Sampson of <a href="http://www.clemson.edu/">Clemson University</a> examined the less-studied relationships between livestock and predatorial non-carnivores like feral pigs and elephants. 

Although livestock predators such as tigers and wolves have been studied as the human-wildlife conflict continues to heighten as human populations expand, the lesser known predators have been excluded, despite having an impact on livestock. Non-carnivores pose a surprising threat to livestock

"Our study highlights the importance of including species not traditionally considered in the livestock protection conversation, and finding similarities in how the effects of non-Carnivora species can be addressed through the same methodologies as species such as wolves, tigers, or lions," said Dr. Rodriguez.

The study, published in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3000386">PLOS Biology</a>, shows that non-Carnivora species oftentimes kill young and small livestock, therefore damaging the entire farm infrastructure. Non-carnivores pose a surprising threat to livestock

Because of the harm they can do to local livestock, community perception of the species has altered and some may not be willing to support conservation efforts, especially in the case of elephants.

"Sharing experiences across taxa and adopting methodology found to be successful for other [predatory] species may help us to improve the tools we use to promote co-existence and conservation efforts for elephants," said Dr. Sampson.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH

Non-carnivores pose a surprising threat to livestock

Non-carnivores pose a surprising threat to livestock. Most research examining...

The wildlife charity <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/">Butterfly Conservation</a> is reporting that a striking blue butterfly may have its "best summer ever" after dwindling over the last four decades. The Common Blue started showing signs of recovery last year when extreme summer heat boosted the UK population by 104 percent. 

This summer, a July <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/europe-early-summer-heatwave/">heatwave</a> combined with above-average temperatures in August are expected to further support the comeback of the Common Blue. 

In collaboration with the Campaign for National Parks, the Butterfly Conservation  is asking the public to record sightings of the Common Blue as part of the UK's annual Big Butterfly Count.

"People should be able to spot these butterflies in National Parks areas as their caterpillars mainly feed on the wildflower, Common Bird’s-foot-trefoil," explained Dr. Zoe Randle. "In England last year, the butterfly’s numbers were up 110% from 2017 and in Wales their numbers were up 94% for the same period."

“However, numbers of the first brood which emerged in June were slightly down on last year, so it will be interesting to see how the second brood emerging in August will respond to the heatwave."

“It would really help us if people could get outside and look for this butterfly, so we can see if its fortunes really have turned around or if the Common Blue still needs our help."

“We’re also keen for people to keep recording any Painted Lady sightings, as this could be a record year for them - in just two days last week, people across the UK counted more than 30,000 Painted Lady butterflies and thousands more have been seen since then, so keep counting and we’ll reveal the total number after Sunday 11 August!”

The Common Blue males have bright blue upper wings that are unmarked, while the females are marked with orange crescents and dark spots that vary from bluish-purple to brown. The underwings of both males and females contain black spots with white halos and orange marks around the edges.

As the Campaign for National Parks celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, people across the UK can join the celebration by looking out for the Common Blue at their favorite parks.

"This is a great opportunity to help chart the progress of this beautiful blue butterfly and we’d love to know where our top Common Blue colonies are," said Campaign for National Parks CEO Corinne Pluchino. "We’d also like to have a better idea of the other butterfly species our sites are supporting, so please let us know what you find by taking part in the Big Butterfly Count."

The Big Butterfly Count is now underway and will continue through Sunday August 11. Participants are encouraged to find a sunny place and spend about 15 minutes counting every butterfly seen. The sightings can be submitted online <a href="http://www.bigbutterflycount.org">here</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Butterfly Conservation/PA

Common blue butterfly populations are making a big comeback across the UK

The wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation is reporting that a striking...

Forest fires are becoming too intense for birds that normally depend on them. Fires are a necessary part of the forest ecosystem that help clean up the landscape and increase the level of nutrients and organic matter in the soil. For some species of animals, such as the Black-backed Woodpecker, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/forest-fires-beetles-woodpeckers/">forest fires</a> also create ideal habitats. 

But now, a new study has found that mega-fires across the western United States may be threatening these fire-loving woodpeckers. The researchers found that as the fires become bigger and more intense, the birds are struggling to find the edges of burned patches where they prefer to settle.

Collaborating with experts from <a href="https://www.birdpop.org/">The Institute for Bird Populations</a> and the <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/">U.S. Forest Service</a>, PhD candidate 

Andrew Stillman investigated the nest site selection and nesting success of Black-backed Woodpeckers in burned forests of northern California. For eight years, the researchers monitored more than 100 nests while measuring nest site characteristics. Forest fires are becoming too intense for birds that normally depend on them

The birds were found to strongly prefer nesting in severely burned stands that had lots of dead trees. The birds placed their nests near the edges of these burned patches, typically within 500 meters of a patch with live trees.

"We didn't expect to find these woodpeckers nesting so close to edges," said Stillman. This is because previous research has shown that woodpecker nests closer to living forest patches are at a much higher risk of being raided by squirrels and other predators. 

A separate study found that the baby birds quickly move to living patches with good cover after leaving the nest, suggesting that the adults are providing their offspring with easy access to the live forest. 

Stillman explained that "pyrodiversity," which is the diversity found in the age, size, and severity of burned patches, appears to be important for the woodpecker because it provides more edges between different burn severities. As a result of climate change, however, fires are growing larger with reduced pyrodiversity.

"The thing about pyrodiversity is that we expect it to decrease," said study co-author Dr. Morgan Tingley. "Every year we see more 'mega-fires,' and these fires are quite homogenous in their structure, leading to low pyrodiversity. So even though the future is expected to hold more fire in western forests, the outlook may not even be good for fire-loving species."

"We hope that these results provide some of the missing information necessary to balance post-fire logging activities with the habitat needs of woodpeckers," said Stillman.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.americanornithology.org/content/condor-ornithological-applications">The Condor: Ornithological Applications</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Jean Hall

Forest fires are becoming too intense for birds

Forest fires are becoming too intense for birds that normally...

A new study has found that when it comes to alligator attacks since the 1970s, Florida’s official state reptile has shown a preference for local men. 

While the American alligator was listed as endangered in 1967, the species made a dramatic recovery through the 1970s and 80s and was removed from the endangered species list in 1987. 

In correlation with this population recovery in Florida, the number of human-American alligator conflicts increased. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://myfwc.com/">Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission </a>reviewed records of past alligator bites from 1971 through 2014 to identify any trends and patterns in where and how these attacks occur, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tourists-close-wildlife/">as well as who is most at risk</a>. 

372 bites were included in the study and classified as either unprovoked or unintentionally provoked. 

Three-quarters of the bites involved male alligators that were looking for food, and only one instance involved a female alligator defending her nest. 

Out of the 372 bite incidents, 247 resulted in significant injuries, and 81.4 percent of the victims were male. 

Between 1971 and 2014, the number of annual bites that caused severe injury increased from 3.5 to 7.0. 

Alligator bites occurred in ponds and canals, and most of the bites occurred near water. Quite a few people were attacked on golf courses. 

Feeding the alligators before an attack was linked to 34.7 of the bite reports. 

The best thing is to be aware of where alligators may be lurking and stay away from waterways, especially deeper areas where escape may be difficult and serious or fatal injury more likely. 

A study, detailing the analysis of bite incidents in Florida, was published in the<a href="https://wildlife.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jwmg.21719"> Journal of Wildlife Management</a>. 

“The risk of alligator bites can be reduced by educating people likely to interact with alligators and by selectively removing problem alligators in human residential areas and water bodies used regularly by people for swimming, wading, and shoreline,” the researchers wrote. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: ShutterstockMark_Kostich

Men in Florida may be more likely to be attacked by an alligator, study shows

A new study has found that when it comes to...

Leopard seals, one of the largest species of seal in the world, are long, sleek predators at the top of the food chain in Antarctica. 

Leopard seals have been filmed in several curious and playful encounters with divers on Antarctic expeditions, but they have never before been captured sharing food with other seals.  

Leopard seals are largely considered solitary and do not spend much time with other leopard seals. Occasionally leopard seals have been found hunting together, but these instances are few and far between.  

Never before seen footage from the Netflix series <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/our-planet-ominous-warning/">Our Planet</a> appears to show leopard seals sharing a penguin meal. 

First filmed in October 2016, in St. Andrews Bay and Right Whale Bay, the footage was captured by the production company Silverback Films which produced Our Planet.  

The footage was not featured in the six-part documentary, but researchers from <a href="https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/">Plymouth University</a> in the UK, the <a href="https://www.bas.ac.uk/">British Antarctic Survey</a>, <a href="https://www.monash.edu/">Monash University</a> in Australia, and the <a href="https://www.smsg-falklands.org/">Shallow Marine Surveys Group</a> of the Falkland Islands analyzed the unseen film in a new study. 

Drones from Silverback Films reportedly captured up to 36 seals feeding at a penguin colony on South Georgia Island. 

The footage even shows two seals feasting on the same penguin carcass, something never before seen in the wild. 

James Robbins, the leader of the study, notes that the film sheds light on the behaviors of leopard seals.  

“The footage provided by Our Planet film crews has given us an exciting new insight into the behaviour and lives of leopard seals,” said Robbins. “There is still so much that we don’t understand about these predators as they live in remote areas of the Antarctic and are often seen alone on an inaccessible iceberg. But I’ve personally had over 500 encounters with leopard seals and have never seen two animals being so tolerant of each other.”

The researchers can’t say with complete certainty that the footage shows two seals sharing food. Instead, the footage could show a rare example of being forced to concede to another competitor so as not to lose a potential meal. 

 Rather than risk having a meal stolen, the seals may be allowing some of their food to be eaten to save energy and keep most of their prey.  

The study, published in the journal Polar Biology, shows how new technologies like drone footage can offer researchers an up close and personal look at the remote wilderness that is Antarctica. 

“This study also provides a great example of how new technology is helping researchers to make close-hand observations of wild animals,” said David Hocking, a co-author of the study. “By using a camera drone, the filmmakers were able to fly above the animals without disturbing them, revealing detailed behaviours that otherwise may have gone unnoticed to shore-based observers.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: James Robbins/University of Plymouth

Leopard seals filmed sharing food for the first time

Leopard seals, one of the largest species of seal in...

Human-driven climate change is reshaping the globe as we know it. Amid rising sea-levels and shifting weather patterns, many species are being forced to adapt to new stressors as their preferred habitats are becoming uninhabitable. 

Research has shown that animals are <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/beetles-shrinking-climate-change/">shrinking in response to climate change</a>, but how human activities and rising temperatures are impacting invertebrates has been poorly understood. 

In a new study, a team of researchers from several academic institutions in Spain examined morphological changes in social wasps in connection to climate change over the past 100 years.

The researchers measured the body mass, head width, and wing size of over 200 Dolichovespula sylvestris wasps that were housed in museum collections. 

Some of the specimens dated back to 1904, and the researchers were able to measure changes in size over time. 

The team compared the changes in body size to the increases in annual temperatures. 

The researchers found that body mass, wing area, and head width all decreased through the years, and the wasp got smaller and smaller in response to changes in temperature. 

Wing size decreased faster compared to body size, and if this trend continues, it could impair the wasps’ ability to fly.  

The study, published in the journal Ecological Entomology, is the first to find a potential link between climate change and morphological changes in social insects like wasps. 

“Body size shrinking is likely to have some adverse effects on recent (and future) insects,” Carlo Polidori, the first author of the study, told <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2212024-wasps-are-shrinking-in-size-and-it-may-be-because-of-climate-change/?utm_medium=NLC&amp;utm_source=NSNS&amp;utm_campaign=2019-0802-GLOBAL-NSDAY&amp;utm_content=NSDAY">New Scientist</a>. “For example, smaller wasps may be able to hunt only smaller prey species compared with past wasps.”

There may be other factors at work that could explain the changes in body size, but the study shows that wasps are shrinking along with many other species in response to new environmental stressors. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Ruth Swan

Climate change may be causing insects to get smaller

Human-driven climate change is reshaping the globe as we know...

A recent study of ancient predators trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits has revealed why <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/absence-wolves-eastern-coyotes-adapted/">coyotes</a> persisted into modern-day America as opposed to saber-toothed cats. The research, which is the most comprehensive of its kind, suggests that predators whose descendants are still alive today are those that had the most flexible diets. 

Larisa DeSantis, a paleontologist at <a href="https://www.vanderbilt.edu/">Vanderbilt University</a>, has spent the last decade visiting the La Brea Tar Pits to analyze the teeth of extinct species such as American lions, saber-toothed cats, and dire wolves. DeSantis has also examined teeth from gray wolves, cougars, and coyotes. 

The results of the long-term analysis contradict the idea that megafaunal extinction during the Pleistocene was driven by competition for prey among carnivores. This is because the carnivores did not share the same foraging behavior. Just like cats and dogs today, one preferred chasing down prey in open fields, while the other preferred stalking prey in forested areas.

"Isotopes from the bones previously suggested that the diets of saber-toothed cats and dire wolves overlapped completely, but the isotopes from their teeth give a very different picture," said DeSantis. "The cats, including saber-toothed cats, American lions and cougars, hunted prey that preferred forests, while it was the dire wolves that seemed to specialize on open-country feeders like bison and horses.  While there may have been some overlap in what the dominant predators fed on, cats and dogs largely hunted differently from one another."

To study the ancient predators, DeSantis shaved tiny bits of enamel off of preserved teeth for chemical analysis. She explained that information about everything the animal ate lies within the isotopes. In addition, the wear patterns on teeth indicate whether bones or flesh were eaten. 

According to DeSantis, it is likely that giant predators went extinct due to climate change, the arrival of humans, or a combination of the two. In a separate study, her team is working to clarify the cause of the Pleistocene extinction by collaborating with experts across six institutions.

One thing that is known for certain is that large predators alive in the Americas today were better able to adapt their diets. They were able to feed on large prey, hunt small mammals, or scavenge from carcasses.

"The other exciting thing about this research is we can actually look at the consequences of this extinction," said DeSantis. "The animals around today that we think of as apex predators in North America - cougars and wolves - were measly during the Pleistocene. So when the big predators went extinct, as did the large prey, these smaller animals were able to take advantage of that extinction and become dominant apex-predators."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Shutterstock/Daniel Eskridge

Predators that survived Pleistocene extinction had the most flexible diets

A recent study of ancient predators trapped in the La...

Experts are reporting that it would take 50 million years to bring back the birds that have been lost in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-zealand-worlds-largest-parrot/">New Zealand</a> following the arrival of the earliest human inhabitants. In the years since human occupation, half of the birds have gone completely extinct and many other species are threatened across the island nation.

Study co-author Dr. Luis Valente is an evolutionary biologist at the <a href="https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/">Museum für Naturkunde</a> in Berlin.

"The conservation decisions we make today will have repercussions for millions of years to come," said Dr. Valente. "Some people believe that if you leave nature alone it will quickly recuperate, but the reality is that, at least in New Zealand, nature would need several million years to recover from human actions - and perhaps will never really recover."

Dr. Valente explained that the biodiversity observed today is the result of millions of years of evolution, and that this history is easily erased by the consequences of human activities. Many studies have examined the number of lost and threatened bird species, but the current study is one of the first to investigate the human impact on island biodiversity.

"The anthropogenic wave of extinction in New Zealand is very well documented, due to decades of paleontological and archaeological research," said Dr. Valente. "Also, previous studies have produced dozens of DNA sequences for extinct New Zealand birds, which were essential to build datasets needed to apply our method."

[caption id="attachment_1876084" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/kakapo-bird.jpeg"><img class="wp-image-1876084" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/kakapo-bird.jpeg" alt="" width="650" height="488" /></a> Kakapo bird. Image Credit: Andrew Digby / Current Biology[/caption]

The researchers used computer simulations to project various human-induced extinction scenarios. The analysis revealed that it would take approximately 50 million years to recover the number of species lost since humans first arrived in New Zealand. In addition, if all of the currently threatened species were lost, it would take about 10 million years for those populations to recover. 

According to Dr. Valente, the team plans to estimate evolutionary return times for several islands worldwide to see whether there are specific islands that take longer to recover than others. He also pointed out that there is a bright side for New Zealand. 

"The conservation initiatives currently being undertaken in New Zealand are highly innovative and appear to be efficient and may yet prevent millions of years of evolution from further being lost."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</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: Juan Carlos Carcia / Current Biology

Birds driven to extinction in New Zealand will take 50 million years to recover

Experts are reporting that it would take 50 million years...

Pangolins are the most illegally trafficked animals in the world today. A scaly anteater group comprised of eight species living in Africa and Asia, the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/pangolins-illegally-trafficked-mammal/">pangolin</a> relies on its scaled body armor for protection, leaving them an easy target of poachers. 

The <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/mammals/pangolin/index.html">Center for Biological Diversity</a> reports that approximately one million pangolins were poached from the wild over the last decade. Some pangolins have seen a 50% reduction rate in their populations. This devastating decline lead to an international rule of zero exports of Asian pangolins in 2000, as well as the <a href="https://www.fws.gov/">US Fish and Wildlife Service</a> starting investigation into additional protections for pangolins in 2015. 

Most of the attention given to the plight of the pangolin puts the blame for the pangolin’s demise on traditional Chinese medicine. But China is not the only country with a demand for pangolin products though, as the US imports pangolin skins for a different reason. Exotic looking boots have been made from pangolin skin, something most consumers are probably unaware of.

Being the only scaled mammal in the world means that pangolin skin has a unique diamond pattern that most people would probably associate with a reptile skin, not that of a mammal. The pattern unfortunately seems to be attractive to many cowboy boot makers and those who purchase the boots. The scales that create the diamond pattern in the leather are also what is most prized by traditional Chinese medicine as an ingredient in ineffective folk remedies. The unique skin is also used to make decorative leather items such as wallets and belts.  

Although there is still a small scale amount of pangolin leather imported into the US, pangolin imports have dropped off dramatically since 2000, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cowboy-boots-purchased-us-played-part-pangolins-decline-180972728/">Smithsonian</a> reports. Unfortunately, a substitute for the uniquely patterned skin was quickly found and may soon be as threatened as the pangolin. 

The arapaima is a genus of large, tropical South American freshwater fish. Arapaimas sometimes grow to 6 feet long and up to 400 pounds. The large fish looks very much like a giant betta fish but with slightly less flashy colors and very large, obvious scales. The most well-known arapaima species lives in the Amazon River basin and can grow to over nine feet long. <a href="https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/arapaima">Smithsonian’s National Zoo</a> reports that the arapaima sometimes venture into oxygen starved waters where most fish cannot live, in the flooded Amazon forest, which it accomplishes by breathing air at the surface with a primitive lung. 

[caption id="attachment_1876090" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pangolin.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1876090" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/pangolin.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="394" /></a> Pangolin, Image Credit: Shutterstock/Positive Snapshot[/caption]

The arapaima is also adaptable in its diet eating other fish but also insects, birds fruits and other plant material when these are available. The arapaima can also live up to twenty years. Unfortunately, the little scientific data on populations of the arapaima isn’t encouraging. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/arapaima-alert-amazons-biggest-fish-going-extinct-n180161">NBC News</a> reports that 3 of the 5 species of arapaima haven’t been observed in the wild for decades. Other species of arapaima simply lack in any <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/1991/9110195">official data</a> to determine their conservation status at all. 

Unfortunately for the arapaima, its interesting adaptation of breathing air from the surface also makes it an easy target for fishing. Arapaimas have to come to the surface of the water every 10 to 20 minutes to gulp in some air. A fish inhaling at the surface of dark water is easily speared or shot with an arrow. Of course, a four hundred pound fish is a lot of food but its skin is also used as boot leather. 

The scaly skin of the arapaima is a nearly perfect substitute for that of the pangolin. Both skins when prepared show a similar diamond pattern on the leather. <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/cowboy-boots-purchased-us-played-part-pangolins-decline-180972728/">Smithsonian</a> reports that due to greater international protections, pangolin imports into the US have fallen since 2000. Inversely, arapaima imports have risen since 2011, in many cases replacing pangolin skin in cowboy boots. A <a href="https://sciences.adelaide.edu.au/news/list/2019/06/24/no-yee-haw-what-endangered-creature-are-your-cowboy-boots-made-from">report</a> from the University of Adelaide details the contribution of cowboy boots to the decline of both the pangolin and the arapaima. Sadly, the arapaima was already endangered due to overfishing before trade in its skin took off. In a bizarre twist, conservation of pangolins is actually pushing the arapaima closer to extinction. Of course, more attention has been given towards the cute pangolin than the monstrously sized arapaima. 

So far, research is needed to determine the full impact of the exotic leather trade on the arapaima. We can only by common sense say that there must be some impact. <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/07/forgotten-species-the-arapaima-or-dinosaur-fish/">Mongabay</a> calls the arapaima a ‘forgotten species’ when compared to pandas, whales and other high profile endangered animals. The fish has long been a food source for Amazonian natives. But the demands of the modern era have increased fishing pressures in the Amazon as well as all over the world, including pressure on the arapaima. 

Overfishing has shown large declines. Areas that initiated fishing bans on arapaima have shown dramatic increases in fish populations showing that there is some hope in regulated fishing. Unfortunately, data and general public interest are not abundantly present for the arapaima. The Amazon River is incredibly diverse in fish and other species but many have yet to be documented by science. It’s unclear what other species the arapaima may depend on for its survival or which depend on the big fish for theirs. Likewise, little is known about the habitat needs for feeding or mating or simply surviving for the arapaima. 

The danger of the arapaima simply reflects the danger of a global system of consumption where someone in the US can wear a pair of shoes being unaware whether the leather they’re made from comes from a mammal or a fish. We live in an increasingly complex society where it is becoming harder to know the origin of any one product much less be self sufficient. This incredible ignorance and insatiable appetite is part of the interconnectedness of our ‘global society’, pangolins and arapaima alike fall prey to this system, something no animal has evolved to face. The question is, can we reshape that system and rethink the products we consume?             

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer   

Main Image Credit: Shutterstock/SergioRocha

Protections for the pangolin may threaten an already endangered fish

Pangolins are the most illegally trafficked animals in the world...

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing it with probiotics and prebiotics, aiming to create a treat that satisfies cravings while supporting gut health. 



The challenge lies in maintaining chocolate's beloved texture and flavor while adding health benefits.



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Probiotics - beneficial microbes that balance gut bacteria and aid digestion - are typically fragile and can be destroyed by stomach acid or processing. 



Prebiotics act as food for these microbes, helping them thrive. Together, they form "synbiotics," a powerful health combination.



Researchers Smriti Gaur and Shubhi Singh from India's Jaypee Institute of Information Technology took an innovative approach, using natural prebiotics like corn and honey instead of complex processing methods. 



They created five chocolate varieties: a control and four synbiotic versions containing different combinations of prebiotics, probiotics (Lactobacillus strains), and flavor enhancers (cinnamon or orange).



Laboratory simulations of human digestion showed the probiotics remained viable for over five hours, suggesting they could survive long enough to benefit gut health.



Taste tests were positive, with researchers particularly enjoying the orange-flavored variety, describing it as having "vibrant citrus notes" complementing the "rich cocoa" with a "luxurious" texture.



This research represents just the beginning. With further refinement of strains, textures, and flavors, chocolate could evolve beyond mere indulgence to become a functional food that nourishes while it delights.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsfoodscitech.4c00741" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ACS Food Science &amp; Technology</a>.

Is chocolate the next nutritional powerhouse?

Scientists are transforming chocolate into a functional food by infusing...

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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

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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?

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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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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

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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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