In the natural world, family often defines survival strategies. Across species, cooperation among relatives has evolved into a powerful tool to ensure success in challenging environments. Yet few creatures embody this principle so intricately as the long-tailed tit.



Found flitting through British gardens, these small birds reveal extraordinary loyalty to their kin. Far from fleeting connections, long-tailed tits show unwavering commitment to family, even during the upheaval of migration. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-cooperation-in-animal-societies">Cooperation in animal societies</h2>



Recent research from the <a href="https://www.sheffield.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Sheffield</a> brings the hidden social lives of long-tailed tits into sharp focus, offering new insights into how cooperation shapes animal societies.



Decades of careful observation and rigorous analysis culminated in a study that redefines what we know about the evolution of social behaviors. 



Through the lives of these tiny <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-adapt-their-survival-strategies-to-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">birds</a>, we glimpse powerful lessons about kinship, resilience, and the surprising complexity of animal communities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-tailed-tits-stay-loyal-to-family">Long-tailed tits stay loyal to family</h2>



The study, published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, draws on an extraordinary 30-year dataset. It confirms that long-tailed tits retain strong family bonds throughout migratory movements - a phenomenon never before documented so consistently in cooperative <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/big-brains-and-wide-ranges-cant-save-birds-from-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">birds</a>.



Long-tailed tits migrate not as isolated individuals but as tightly knit family units. This behavior ensures that when they arrive at new locations, they are surrounded by familiar, trusted kin ready to support each other.



"This 30-year study is unique in its depth and has allowed us to understand the evolution of cooperation in a way that would not have been possible otherwise. The discovery of family ties persisting through migration is particularly exciting," noted Dr. Jennifer Morinay, co-lead author of the research.



"These tiny <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bird-evolution-timeline-pushed-back-20-million-years-by-baminornis-zhenghensis-discovery/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">birds</a> essentially travel with their support network, ensuring that when they reach their new location, they have their kin ready to assist. It highlights the profound importance of family in their social structure."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-family-groups-survive-together">Family groups survive together</h2>



The research identifies several intertwined processes that create and sustain these family structures. Limited natal dispersal ensures many young birds settle close to their birthplace. Even when they do move, long-tailed tits often migrate alongside their siblings, keeping family bonds intact across vast distances.



At the same time, environmental pressures, particularly high predation rates, play a significant role. Frequent nest failures result in clusters of surviving families, making the presence of close kin nearby more likely. Together, these ecological and demographic factors form what scientists term "kin neighborhoods."



Incredibly, even migratory long-tailed tits, such as those studied in Estonia, preserve these ties during long journeys. Studies found that 82% of migratory flocks included at least one first-order relative. These findings challenge longstanding assumptions that migration disrupts social cohesion among birds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-evolutionary-roots-of-helping-behavior">Evolutionary roots of helping behavior</h2>



Long-tailed tits do not only stick close to their families; they actively help them. When breeding attempts fail, many individuals redirect their efforts to assist <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/most-birds-are-at-great-risk-from-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">relatives</a> raising broods. This redirected helping strengthens the survival chances of their kin’s offspring, ultimately boosting their own inclusive fitness.



"The push and pull between cooperation and competition is something we readily recognize in our own lives. This study demonstrates that these same fundamental tensions are at play in the social dynamics of long-tailed tits and likely many other species," noted Professor Ben Hatchwell, co-lead author of the study.



"Our long-term research provides significant insights into the ecological and social conditions that favour cooperative behaviour and the evolutionary forces that sculpt these intricate social interactions."



Helping decisions are not random acts of kindness. They are influenced by various factors including the bird’s own breeding success, its relatedness to nearby individuals, and the strength of prior social bonds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-mistakes-in-kin-recognition">Mistakes in kin recognition</h2>



Despite their strong social instincts, long-tailed tits sometimes help unrelated individuals. 



About 30% of helpers were found assisting nests of non-kin. Scientists believe this stems from errors in kin recognition rather than a deliberate choice.



The birds rely heavily on learned acoustic cues to identify relatives. Calls learned during the nestling stage help them recognize kin, but these vocal cues are not always completely reliable. Studies show overlap in call similarities between kin and non-kin, leading to occasional misdirected care.



Efforts are ongoing to determine whether other cues, such as olfactory signals, also influence how long-tailed tits recognize their family and make crucial helping decisions.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-environment-shapes-cooperation">Environment shapes cooperation</h2>



The study also shows how environmental pressures influence the rates of cooperation. Moderate levels of nest predation foster the highest levels of helping behaviour. 



If predation is too low, there are fewer failed breeders needing alternative strategies. If too high, there are simply fewer successful nests available to help.



Shorter breeding seasons similarly encourage cooperation. With less time to attempt new broods after failure, many birds abandon independent breeding and instead opt to help their kin.



Interestingly, overall population density did not seem to impact cooperation rates, suggesting that the quality of family connections matters more than simple numbers.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-choosing-where-to-live">Choosing where to live</h2>



Where a bird chooses to settle has long-term fitness consequences. Males who stay close to their natal territory accrue higher indirect fitness by helping relatives. Conversely, males who disperse far have fewer opportunities to help and lower overall inclusive fitness.



Females experience a different dynamic. Those who disperse farther tend to achieve slightly better direct reproductive success, likely because dispersal reduces inbreeding risks.



These differing pressures create a fascinating tug-of-war, shaping dispersal behaviours across generations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-family-ties-of-long-tailed-tits">Family ties of long-tailed tits </h2>



Perhaps the most striking revelation is that migration, once believed to hinder the evolution of cooperation, does not necessarily break social bonds. Long-tailed tits maintain their family ties even after traveling hundreds of kilometres.



This finding challenges traditional theories and highlights the incredible flexibility of social strategies in the natural world. Stable territorial groups are not the only route to successful cooperation. 



Dynamic, migratory species can also evolve and sustain sophisticated social systems based on family loyalty.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-how-do-long-tailed-tits-recognize-family">How do long-tailed tits recognize family?</h2>



Looking ahead, the researchers aim to untangle the specific mechanisms that allow long-tailed tits to recognize and remember their kin.



Current efforts focus on understanding the role of calls, scents, and social associations built during early life stages. Scientists are investigating whether maintaining winter flock associations with relatives influences recognition in later breeding seasons.



These studies promise to deepen our understanding of how cooperation, kinship, and social cognition evolve across species.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tiny-birds-with-mighty-hearts">Tiny birds with mighty hearts</h2>



Through the lives of long-tailed tits, we see how powerful, enduring, and flexible family bonds can be, even in a world full of risks and change.



The study from Sheffield shows that nature’s loyalty is not reserved for mammals or large social species alone. In every tiny flutter of a long-tailed tit’s wing, there lies a rich story of kinship, survival, and the enduring power of cooperation.



The study is published in the <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2656.14237" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal of Animal Ecology</a>. 



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Long-tailed tits migrate in family units and maintain lasting bonds

In the natural world, family often defines survival strategies. Across species, cooperation among relatives has evolved into a powerful tool to ensure success in challenging environments. Yet few creatures embody this principle so intricately as the long-tailed tit. Found flitting through British gardens, these small birds reveal extraordinary loyalty to their kin. Far from fleeting connections, long-tailed tits show unwavering commitment to family, even during the upheaval of migration. Cooperation in animal societies Recent research from the University of Sheffield brings the hidden social lives of long-tailed...

The so-called sixth mass extinction may have first caught flame at the end of the last ice age, but it's turned into an inferno in today's warming world. The blame, unlike with previous mass extinctions, lies largely at the feet of one species: us. But how have we done it? From ice-age humans' overhunting of megafauna to today's warming climate, humans have remade the biosphere in an alarming — but fascinatingly — evolving way. 

Number 6?

Five times in prehistory, a mass extinction event decimated Earth's life, with <a href="https://cosmosmagazine.com/palaeontology/big-five-extinctions">at least 75%</a> of the planet's species disappearing. Many scientists say we've entered the sixth one: the "Holocene mass extinction," named for the current geological epoch (to 11,7000 years ago), which coincides with humanity's rise from hunter-gathering to world dominance.

Evidence comes from <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/269/5222/347">extinction rates</a>, which are now 100 to 1,000 times the normal (or "background') rate of extinction, studies show. 

"The rapidity and global nature of species loss in such a short amount of time does seem to increasingly warrant characterization of a mass extinction," said Jennifer Crees, a biodiversity researcher at the <a href="https://www.zsl.org/">Zoological Society of London</a>. "It is indubitably human-caused."

Not all scientists agree, however. Duke University biologist Stuart Pimm said, "It's a worry, it's beginning to happen, but it hasn't happened yet." 

First spears fired

That debate aside, humans may have been wiping out species for a long time — since the last ice age (Pleistocene) gave way to the Holocene. The disappearance of megafauna repeatedly follows the arrival of humans to bodies of land, particularly islands. Natural climate change likely played a role in those extinctions. But many scientists argue that human hunting killed off the mammoth in North America, the moa in New Zealand and others.

Early humans could cause such extensive losses because people aren't like other predators, said <a href="https://www.unl.edu/">University of Nebraska-Lincoln</a> biologist Kate Lyons. First, we don't follow the typical predator-prey cycles, with predator populations falling in response to overhunting.

The human intellect also supercharged our hunting prowess, giving us tools like the spear-hurling atlatl. In Australia, some 20,000 years passed between human's arrival and the megafaunal wipeout. In the Americas, it took just 3,000 years. 

"But humans hadn't developed the atlatl in Australia," Lyons said. "In North and South America, they had."

Transforming the land

Early humans may also have contributed to extinctions by using fire to clear areas for more-accessible plants. The big leap in extinctions, however, came with the transformations of the agricultural revolution, said <a href="https://www.stanford.edu/">Stanford</a> biologist Paul Erhlich. 

Agriculture converts enormous areas of biodiverse habitat in, for example, the Amazon to grazing areas. Forest and wetlands converted to fields offer <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691371/">poorer resources</a> for wildlife. 

"We're getting more and more areas turned to agriculture, which clobbers biodiversity," Ehrlich said.

Humans have also destroyed species' habitats via urban development, bleaching coral due to CO2 emissions and other means. Overall, our land use could rob 1,700 species of 50% of their habitat over the next half-century, a recent <a href="http://fortune.com/2019/03/06/human-land-use-study/">Yale study</a> found. 

Climate change

Like many other human activities, today's agriculture also pumps out a lot of climate-changing gases. And an altered climate puts even more extinction pressure on Earth's biota.

Species may not be able to tolerate hotter temperatures, Crees said. For example, "rises in temperatures cause bleaching and disease outbreaks in coral reefs," she said. 

Climate change can also shift habitats, turning species' homes into desert or raising sea level around land-based critters. "Species may not be able to move or adapt in time," Crees said.

[caption id="attachment_1871049" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/coral-bleaching.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1871049" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/coral-bleaching.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="366" /></a> Coral bleaching[/caption]

Overexploitation

Even as broader human activity transforms climate and habitat, hunting still plays a role in extinction — as just part of modern humanity's overexploitation of nature. 

"Hunting and harvesting of animals and plants for e.g. food, traditional medicine and the pet trade are causing major crashes in populations," Crees said.

Today's trophy hunters may hasten the extinction of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/apr/19/giraffes-endangered-species-conservation-hunting">giraffes</a>, while poachers threaten <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/world/africa/african-elephant-population-dropped-30-percent-in-7-years.html?_r=1">elephants</a>. Modern fishing methods, like trawling, devastate marine populations. 

The pangolin, a mammal prized for both its meat and unusual scales, faces widespread poaching, with <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/pangolins-world-day-most-trafficked-mammal-scales-meat-china-africa-wwf-a8214726.html">300 killed</a> every day.

"I saw a report of intercepting shipments … of tons not of pangolins, but of pangolin scales," Ehrlich said. "We are wiping out what we can."

Spreading fungi, cats and plastic

Beyond the those massive effects, humans have imposed extinction pressures by introducing disease, invasive species and pollution globally. Spread via travel and wildlife trade, for instance, the fungi-caused disease chytridiomycosis has killed off some <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/363/6434/1459">90 amphibian species</a>.

Human-introduced non-native species can outcompete locals, Crees said, and domesticated carnivores, including Fluffy and Fido, severely endanger creatures who evolved without such threats. 

Pollution affects species like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/sep/27/orca-apocalypse-half-of-killer-whales-doomed-to-die-from-pollution">orca</a>, which faces population collapses due to PCBs. Meanwhile, vast quantities of <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2951256/Study-World-dumps-8-8-million-tons-plastics-oceans.html">plastic</a> endanger <a href="https://archive.fo/20130415201331/http:/www.seaturtles.org/article.php?id=1751">turtles</a> that may ingest our trash.

A tangled web

These varied extinction pressures rarely act in isolation, however, Crees stressed. 

"Species are often driven to extinction by a combination and often-complex interaction between these factors," she said.

In a case Ehrlich studied, pollution and climate came together to put extreme pressures on butterflies.

Nitrogen from automobile traffic changed the food plants available for the butterflies. Meanwhile, climate change altered when remaining food plants were available, so they didn't appear when the butterflies flew. "We had three populations of the butterfly … and all three of them were wiped out."

Globally, insects, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/insects-extinct-century/">as Earth.com reported</a> in February, are vanishing due to similar combinations of agricultural effects and climate change.

The lives we save…

The threat to insects highlights what humanity stands to lose, Ehrlich said. "The other organisms on the planet are our life-support system," he said. "Without them, our crops can't be pollinated. Our water can't be purified."

To address that threat, Ehrlich advises reducing consumption and conserving habitat – which humanity has actually been doing quite well, Pimm said.

"We've massively expanded the areas in the planet that we have protected," he said. "We need to do a lot more … but equally, it's a mistake to think that it's all over."

--

By <a href="mailto:michael.dhar@gmail.com">Michael Dhar</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

How humans hunted, farmed and warmed their way to the 6th mass extinction

The so-called sixth mass extinction may have first caught flame...

Ten new <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/parasitic-wasp-spiders-loners/">parasitic wasp species</a> from Australia have been described by researchers from the <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide</a>.

The researchers took inspiration from Oreo cookies and the popular television series Doctor Who when coming up with names for the new species. 

“I named one wasp Sathon oreo as the antennae are dark brown with a thick white stripe in the middle... like an Oreo chocolate biscuit,” said Dr. Erinn Fagan-Jeffries from the University of Adelaide's School of Biological Sciences.

A study detailing the ten new species was published in the journal Zootaxa. 

One species, Choeras zygon, injects its eggs into caterpillars, and the newly hatched wasps eat their way out of the live caterpillar. Choera zygon is named after the fictional Zygon aliens in Doctor Who that utilize similarly gruesome parasitic traits when inhabiting a host.

[caption id="attachment_1871065" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Dr-Erinn-Fagan-Jeffries-2.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1871065" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Dr-Erinn-Fagan-Jeffries-2.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="434" /></a> Choeras zygon, Image Credit: Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries[/caption]

It may be an unpleasant way to die for caterpillars, but the researchers stress that parasitoid wasps are important in keeping caterpillar populations in check and play a crucial role in the ecosystem.

Another species was named after the Bush Blitz television show which is a collaboration between the Australian government and <a href="https://au.earthwatch.org/">Earthwatch Australia</a> to document Australia’s wildlife and vegetation. 

The researchers analyzed wasp specimens collected from six different Bush Blitz surveys in South Australia and Tasmania. 

“Less than 10% of this group of wasps have scientific names, which is why programs like Bush Blitz are so vital,” said Jo Harding, the manager of Bush Blitz. “We have discovered over 1,660 new species since 2010, and 17 of those are wasps.” 

The names and their origins may be unique, but when it comes to taxonomy, naming is a vital part of the game. 

“Until taxonomists name and formally describe a species, it is difficult for other researchers, such as those working in conservation, or biological control, to do anything with it,” said Harding.

--

By <a href="http://mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Main Image Credit: Dr Erinn Fagan-Jeffries

Newly discovered wasp species named after Oreos, Dr Who characters

Ten new parasitic wasp species from Australia have been described...

Researchers from Russia and South Korea are in the process of cloning a 42,000-year-old horse that has been extinct for around 4,000 years. The young horse, which was only about two weeks old when it died, has been almost perfectly preserved in the frozen soil of a Siberian crater.

The scientists are reportedly optimistic as they attempt to extract viable cells from the young specimen in an effort to resurrect the prehistoric Lenskaya breed of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/horses-tails-blow-insects-away/">horse</a>.

A source at the <a href="https://www.s-vfu.ru/en/">North-Eastern Federal University</a>, where the work is being conducted, told the <a href="https://siberiantimes.com/">Siberian Times</a> that the team is “confident” that the project will be a success. “The attempts will continue until the end of April this year.”

The research team, led by South Korean cloning expert Professor Hwang Woo-suk, has made more than 20 attempts to obtain useable cells in the last month alone.

“Cells are grown in a special nutrient medium,” explained Russian researcher Dr. Lena Grigoryeva. “At first the material is milled and put in a CO2 incubator for a few days. Three to four days later the cells are checked and the nutrient medium is replaced.”

[caption id="attachment_1871027" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/horse.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1871027" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/horse.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="426" /></a> The horse was preserved in permafrost for over 42,000 years, Image Credit: Michil Yakolev/The Siberian Times[/caption]

The team considers this work as a stepping stone to bringing back the giant woolly mammoth with remains that were also frozen and preserved in Siberian permafrost. The current project is so far along that the researchers are already considering the use of a Korean horse as a surrogate to carry the cloned baby.

“The Korean horse will fit in perfectly,” said Dr. Grigoryeva. “They have been used in cloning for a while and the technology is mastered to perfection. Besides, the Korean horse is quite ancient too. It is a successor of Mongolian horse.”

According to the Siberian Times, the Yakut horse is another candidate for surrogacy. This breed is native to eastern Siberia and succeeded the cold-resistant Lenskaya species.

“There are the types of horses that are very close with the ancient one,” said Professor Hwang. “And if we manage to clone the horse - it will be the first step to cloning the mammoth. It will help us to work out the technology.”

--

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: Maria Vasilieva/The Siberian Times

Scientists are attempting to clone a 42,000-year-old horse

Researchers from Russia and South Korea are in the process...

Cat owners and dog owners will often fight like, well… cats and dogs. But the eternal struggle between these two groups may have just recorded a major victory for the canine aficionados, according to a new <a href="http://gss.norc.org/">US General Social Survey</a>, which has tracked a litany of American trends over the last half-century. 

With last year’s edition being the first to include questions about pets and the relationship between owner and animal, the survey scored results that showed – while pet owners and non-owners have similar levels of happiness – there is a significant divide within the happiness levels of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dog-owners-perceived-attractive/">dog owners</a> and cat owners. 

Results showed that dog owners were twice as likely to call themselves “very happy,” with 36 percent versus only 18 percent for cat owners. Additionally, dog owners also reported seeking comfort from their animals at a higher rate, along with playing with their pets and even considering their dog a part of the family. 

When put in the context of happiness divide between other groups, the results are even more interesting. The difference between these pet owners as more significant than the happiness disparity between middle class and upper class people, and very close to the difference between people who report they are in “fair” versus “good or excellent” health.

If you’re a dog owner, you may want to immediately run to your nearest cat owner friend and shout these results right in their face – but there are some stipulations. Survey data also showed that dog owners are more likely to be married and own their homes than cat owners, so it’s possible these external factors have an effect in their happiness levels too. Although, in this context, it might be an opportunity to remind your cat-owning friend of why he’s still single.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dog owners are happier than cat owners, survey shows

Cat owners and dog owners will often fight like, well… cats...

The annual <a href="http://www.ukbms.org/">UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme</a> (UKBMS) has revealed that more than two-thirds of butterfly species returned in greater numbers in 2018 compared to the previous year. Two of the rarest UK species, the Large Blue and Black Hairstreak, made a bigger comeback than any other year on record. 

From 2017 to 2018, numbers of the Large Blue increased by 58 percent and numbers of the endangered Black Hairstreak exploded by more than 900 percent. According to the experts, these rare <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/orange-butterflies-southern-california/">butterfly populations</a> were boosted by both warm summer weather and a cold spell in late winter that likely helped caterpillars survive. 

Common white butterflies also had a good year after many below-average seasons, with the numbers of various white species rising by as much as 155 percent. In addition, the Brown Argus and Speckled Wood recorded their third best season, while the threatened Duke of Burgundy was up by 65 percent.

Despite this progress, however, the <a href="https://butterfly-conservation.org/">Butterfly Conservation</a> reports that “2018 was still only an average year for the UK’s butterflies.” Overall, 36 out of 57 species have declined since record-keeping began just over four decades ago. 

Not all of the UK’s butterflies had a good 2018 season, as the hot spring and summer weather produced drought conditions that damaged caterpillar food plants. As a result, the Gatekeeper, the Small Skipper, and Essex Skipper all experienced significant declines of up to 32 percent.

Professor Tom Brereton is the associate director of monitoring at Butterfly Conservation. 

“2018 brought some welcome relief for butterflies following five below average years in a row. But, there were not as many butterflies around as we might have expected given the fabulous weather over much of the butterfly season and overall 2018 ranked as barely better than average,” said Brereton.

“This and the fact that two-thirds of butterflies show negative trends over the long-term highlights the scale of the challenge we face in restoring their fortunes and creating a healthier environment.”

“It remains to be seen what the knock-on effects of the 2018 heatwave will be. We know that extreme events such as this, which are set to increase under climate change, are generally damaging to butterflies.”

“The results show the positive impact that suitable weather conditions can have if there is suitable habitat in place for our butterflies to thrive,” added butterfly ecologist Dr. Marc Botham.

“Thanks to ongoing habitat management, many of our threatened species can benefit from the good weather like that of summer 2018, but more still needs to be done to improve the condition of the wider countryside as a whole so other species can also take advantage. This can start in our own back gardens, by leaving areas unmown and planting native wildflower species, for example.”

The UKBMS is organized and funded by Butterfly Conservation, the Centre for Ecology &amp; Hydrology, the British Trust for Ornithology, and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Butterflies make a big comeback across the pond

The annual UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) has revealed that...

For the first time, four lizards have been genetically modified using the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gene-editing-tool-color-plants/">CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tool</a>.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uga.edu/">University of Georgia</a> (UGA) were able to target the pigmentation genes of Anolis sagrei lizards to create four albino offspring.

This feat is particularly noteworthy because reptile embryos are very difficult to manipulate and work with given their soft shells and difficult to pinpoint fertilization. 

“Reptiles are very understudied in terms of their reproductive biology and embryonic development,” said Douglas Menke, the leader of the study. “There are no good methods to manipulate embryos like we can easily do with mammals, fish or amphibians. To our knowledge, no other lab in the world has produced a genetically altered reptile.”

But the researchers were able to overcome these challenges and microinject CRISPR proteins into multiple immature eggs or oocytes located in the ovaries of 21 Anolis lizards. 

The team specifically targeted the tyrosinase gene and successfully injected the gene editing solution into 146 oocytes. 

After just four weeks, four albino lizard offspring hatched from their eggs, and the team’s efforts paid off. 

“When I saw our first albino hatchling, it was truly awe inspiring,” said Ashley Rasys, the first author on the study. “I’m most excited about the possibility of expanding this approach into many other reptilian model systems, effectively opening the doorway for future functional studies.”

Albinism is a trait inherited from both parents and in this study, the researchers found that the CRISPR protein targeted the tyrosinase protein from both the mother and father of the offspring which means that the CRISPR solution was active long after fertilization. 

“That was a surprise,” said Menke. “It enabled us to see the functional requirements of the gene without having to breed mutated animals to produce offspring who inherit the mutated gene from both parents. It’s a big time-saver.”

The researchers say that the results of their study, now submitted for peer-review, could have far-reaching implications for future gene-editing research and also human genetics as the tyrosinase gene is necessary for some aspects of eye development.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Image Credit: <a href="https://www.uga.edu/">University of Georgia</a>

Researchers create the first ever gene-edited lizards

For the first time, four lizards have been genetically modified...

“Trust in me, just in me…” croons Kaa, the Indian python (Python molurus) in the Disney adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book as he hypnotizes poor man cub Mowgli and prepares to ingest him. The Kaa of Kipling’s original tale is far more benevolent than his screen incarnation, helping the hapless human child escape from a number of scrapes with other creatures of the Indian jungle in an inversion of the perception of the snake as a dead-eyed predator. Let’s be honest though: in this rare instance, Disney’s version is probably more accurate... pythons have in fact eaten humans.

Kipling’s Kaa more closely resembles one of North America’s two boa species—namely, the charmingly docile rubber boa (Charina bottae), who is more likely to curl lightly around your wrist than to squeeze the life out of you. Incidentally, pythons like Kaa were once considered to be part of the Boidae, the family containing the boas and anacondas. However, <a href="http://www.anu.edu.au/news/all-news/pythons-and-boas-shed-new-light-on-reptile-evolution#">more recent research</a> has demonstrated that they belong to separate families, and, due to similarities in habitat and habit, evolutionarily converged, resulting in remarkably similar appearances and adaptations. 

The rubber boa is not nearly so large as Kaa and his brethren, with the larger females topping out at a bit under two feet. They lack the sinuous grace of their Asian and African cousins in the Pythonidae—and for that matter, their South American boa brethren as well. These most northerly of the boas—found from southern California all the way up into British Columbia and as far east as Wyoming—are the pudgy folk songstresses to the serpentine Shakiras and Selenas of the western hemisphere. 

They look more like kinked garden hoses than they do taut coils of muscle. Their slack skin, which wrinkles and folds when they coil up, makes them look as if they’d be more comfortable in hand-woven knits and Birkenstocks than in body stockings and stilettos. One can’t quite picture them gyrating to the sensuous strains of Latin pop, an amusing irony given the fact that their genus name derives from the Greek for “graceful.” Henri de Blainville—who formally described the species in 1835, naming it after Paul-Émile Botta, the French surgeon who discovered it—referred to their bodies as “spongy.” 

Some observers have even compared these humble boas, when they are in their defensive posture, to piles of excrement. Brown on top and creamy on the bottom, they lack the ornate patterning and vibrant coloration of their tropical confreres and might, in an uncharitable moment, be mistaken for turds. But, for all of their aesthetic deficiencies, they demonstrate a fortitude that their relatives lack. Along with the rosy boa (Lichanura trivirgata) of the southwest, they are one of only two species from their family found in North America. They are remarkably cold-tolerant, sometimes found slithering through the snow and even attempting to burrow into it. They’re not typically active during the worst of winter, but they are among the first snakes in their range to emerge from hibernation in areas where it is necessary.

[caption id="attachment_1870945" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rubber-boa.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1870945" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/rubber-boa.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="433" /></a> Adult northern rubber boa, Image Credit: Todd Battey[/caption]

This ability to function in chilly weather, somewhat atypical in ectotherms, has allowed them to carve out a niche in areas of the world otherwise inhospitable to their close kin—and even their more distant reptilian affiliates. Specimens captured while out and about—not hibernating—have been measured as having body temperatures as low as 54°F. In addition to the benefits this confers to a species that lives in climates with extreme seasonal variations, it also facilitates a nocturnal lifestyle that may compensate for its sluggish habits. Non-reactive in the extreme, the rubber boa isn’t particularly good at evading predators, preferring a glacial slither to the whiplike velocities achieved by other serpents. So, instead, it prefers to hunt at night. The colder temperatures during that time make for slower movement, which is less likely to attract the attention of predators—hawks, coyotes, raccoons, skunks. 

It was long believed that the rubber boa’s strange tail was intended to distract the creatures that might eat it. The terminal vertebrae of the tail are fused and form a head-like structure. Because of the scarring evident on this false noggin in wild specimens, it was thought that it served to distract predators. 

However, further analysis has demonstrated that this is unlikely. For one, the snake’s predators tend to be large and unlikely to be deterred by a second head. Food is food. Further, the rubber boa is known for feeding on newborn rodents and insectivores such as shrews...whose parents will in fact strike at the head region of a perceived predator. Laboratory experiments have demonstrated that panicked mice will indeed sink their teeth into the fake head when their babies are at imminent risk of becoming dinner. These snakes aren’t relegated to such risky dining experiences exclusively though. In addition to eating wriggling newborn mammals, from mice to bats, rubber boas are also willing to take equally pink and tender bird hatchlings, various amphibians, the eggs of other reptiles, and, per at least one account, even <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/mojave-rattlesnakes-different-venom/">rattlesnakes</a>.

Rubber boas are largely fossorial...that is, they live underground, usually in pre-made rodent burrows or in natural crevices in rocks and plant substrates. Their skin dehydrates more rapidly than that of other snakes, so their damp hideaways likely serve to maintain their delicate complexions. Though they are believed to be relatively common throughout most of their range, they are not often sighted. They maintain tiny territories, with specimens often sighted in the same spots year after year, and prefer to remain sheltered, save for those times when a sunbath seems necessary. Though they are less likely than some snakes to emerge for some rays, females who are gestating do tend to seek out warmth in order to maintain adequate temperatures for their growing young. They are ovoviviparous. That is: their offspring hatch inside them and are born alive, with broods of two to eight young produced in the late summer or fall every few years. Rubber boa babies emerge as pink and unpleasantly dewy as the baby rodents that their mother devoured in order to sustain them.

However, unlike the squirmy mammalian babies that sustained them, baby rubber boas are immediately self-sufficient. And they may not feed for over a year, subsisting on stored energy from their mothers until after their first hibernation period. Their ability to live for long periods without sustenance persists throughout their lives...females usually do not eat while gestating and some captive specimens have survived without eating for several years, without apparent ill-effect.

For all of its rather lackadaisical lifestyle choices, populations of the northern subspecies (C. bottae bottae) appear to be relatively stable. Specimens regularly live into their 20s and one specimen first sighted in the wild in 1971 as an adult was later captured and lived until 2006 in captivity, putting it at upwards of 50 years old at the time of its death. 

However, the southern subspecies (C. b. umbratica), restricted to the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains of southern California, was listed as threatened by the state in 1971 due to its limited range. <a href="http://newsroom.ucla.edu/stories/the-search-for-the-southern-californian-rubber-boa">Recent research</a> has aimed to better understand its habits in the region and determine its eligibility for federal protection.

It would be a shame to lose this most trustworthy of snakes. They may not writhe about with the gymnastic abandon of their legless relatives, but they are among the few who perform an even more impressive spectacle—reptiles on ice. No triple lutzes in evidence, admittedly, but given their ectothermic restrictions, even a little shimmy is a noteworthy accomplishment.

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Snakes in the snow: The resilience of the rubber boa

“Trust in me, just in me…” croons Kaa, the Indian...

A global study conducted by researchers at <a href="https://www.kaust.edu.sa/en">King Abdullah University of Science and Technology</a> (KAUST) shows that when foreign marine species are introduced to a new habitat, they can pose a threat to their new environment. 

The team set out to show just how complex the ecological impact of new species on an existing environment can be in an effort to quell the debate about whether or not exotic species even have an impact at all.

Lead author Andrea Anton and her colleagues at the KAUST <a href="https://rsrc.kaust.edu.sa/Pages/Home.aspx">Red Sea Research Center</a> extracted data from over 150 studies that covered 76 exotic species. Rather than categorizing the change in environment as “positive” or “negative,” the team used a metric that measured an increase or decrease in specific ecological variables.

[caption id="attachment_1870949" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/lionfish.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1870949" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/lionfish.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="252" /></a> Lionfish occur naturally in Caribbean coral reefs, (left) but in seagrass areas, they are invasive species (right). Image Credit: Andrea Anton[/caption]

Generally, the team found that exotic species often disrupt marine ecosystems, although their impact is fairly low compared to other factors like global warming and <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/overfishing-history-conservation/">overfishing</a>. For example, exotics had negative effects on primary producers but less impact on species on other trophic levels. 

And the impact of exotics was also dependent on their origin and the environment in which they were introduced. The team saw that marine species almost always impacted their environment, whereas freshwater and terrestrial exotics did not. Overall, the team found that exotic species often reduced the abundance of native species, however they did not affect communities in terms of survival or diversity.

"Globally, exotic species are a threat: although we also found that only 10 percent of species introduced outside their natural area of distribution are actually destructive,” Anton said. “However, 90 percent of them are not. So both sides of the debate are partially correct."

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Exotic marine species pose a complex threat to their new environment

A global study conducted by researchers at King Abdullah University...

Dogs have a sense of smell that is 10,000 times more powerful than that of humans, which means they are aware of many scents that we cannot detect. A new study has revealed that dogs can use their remarkable sense of smell to identify cancer in blood samples with an accuracy rate of nearly 97 percent.

“Although there is currently no cure for cancer, early detection offers the best hope of survival,” said Heather Junqueira, who is the lead researcher at <a href="https://www.capf.org/bioscentdx/">BioScentDx</a>. “A highly sensitive test for detecting cancer could potentially save thousands of lives and change the way the disease is treated.”

The research team trained four beagles to distinguish between blood samples collected from patients with malignant lung cancer and normal blood samples. While one of the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dogs-detect-epileptic-seizures/">dogs</a> was uncooperative, the other three beagles correctly identified the samples from cancer patients almost 97 percent of the time. These dogs also identified the healthy samples 97.5 percent of the time.

“This work is very exciting because it paves the way for further research along two paths, both of which could lead to new cancer-detection tools,” said Junqueira. “One is using canine scent detection as a screening method for cancers, and the other would be to determine the biologic compounds the dogs detect and then design cancer-screening tests based on those compounds.”

BioScentDx has recently launched a breast cancer study in which participants donate samples of their breath for screening by cancer-sniffing dogs. The researchers also hope to isolate the chemical components that the dogs are detecting when they pick up on the presence of cancer. 

The research was presented at the American Physiological Society’s annual meeting <a href="https://experimentalbiology.org/2019/home.aspx">Experimental Biology 2019</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: BioScentDx

Dogs can accurately detect cancer in blood samples

Dogs have a sense of smell that is 10,000 times...

For thousands of years, reindeer have persisted across Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, despite the harsh <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/arctic-warming-increase-droughts/">Arctic</a> conditions. But now, climate change is impacting the health of these reindeer as they struggle to access the grass and plants that they need for survival. 

In recent decades, global warming has increased the frequency of rain-on-snow (ROS) events, which cause ice to form on the ground. This ice covers the preferred food of the reindeer and they begin to starve.

A team of researchers led by Brage Bremset Hansen from the <a href="https://www.ntnu.edu/">Norwegian University of Science and Technology</a> used computer models to investigate the fate of reindeer populations if icing becomes a normal event.

“In the past, some rare icing events have been shown to cause population crashes,” wrote the study authors. “An intuitive expectation would be to predict more population crashes and hence a greater extinction risk with continued warming.”

Based on reindeer data collected each year since 1994 and a biological model called an Integrated Population Model, the researchers created a detailed picture of the Svalbard reindeer population. They also analyzed historical ROS events, which allowed them to make projections of how the reindeer population would change under various scenarios.

The study revealed that under harsher conditions in the future, as ROS frequency increased, the reindeer population would respond in an unexpected way. 

“If ROS conditions remain the same as observed in the past, the probability that the population goes extinct is actually much higher than under the likely future scenario of very high ROS frequencies,” said study co-author Marlène Gamelon.

The researchers found that extremely harsh winters with ROS events could only cause a population crash if animal density was high, when there was the greatest competition for food.

The study also showed that winter icing in consecutive years caused no significant effect on the population. Under this scenario, the small population had not aged that much and was not at risk of starvation.

“The interactions between climate effects, density and age structure explain why our study population did not crash in recent icy winters,” said the researchers. “In other words, internal population restructuring modifies and buffers the effects from climate change.”


“One important message from our study, supported by past observations of this population, is that the impact of a harsh winter on the population is far less dramatic if it happens soon after a previous harsh winter.”

The research is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</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: Erik Ropstad

Extreme weather in the Arctic may affect animals in unexpected ways

For thousands of years, reindeer have persisted across Norway’s Svalbard...

Species richness and biodiversity are important indicators of a thriving ecosystem, and habitat loss both hurts population numbers and decreases the number of different species that live in a particular area. 

Both fragmentation and habitat loss are some of the main drivers of decreases in biodiversity, but a new study has shown that the damage is actually double what was previously realized.

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.idiv.de/">German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research </a>and <a href="https://www.uni-halle.de/?lang=en">Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg</a> found that if a species goes extinct due to the loss of a patch of fragmented habitat, species in neighboring patches also decline. 

The reason for these drops is because populations in fragmented habitats cannot travel the vast distances between habitat fragments to recover their populations. 

Picture a road winding through a forest or a highway cutting through grasslands as an example of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildlife-corridors-habitat-fragmentation/">habitat fragmentation</a>. Human activities and climate are both degrading and shrinking habitats, and species are having a hard time adapting to their shrinking world. 

In a new study published in the journal Ecology Letters, the researchers reviewed data on the Seewinkel region of Eastern Austria which is home to multiple shallow saline ponds. 

Referred to as soda pans, the ponds are small shallow ponds that are fed by groundwater and precipitation and which easily dry out.  Populations of invertebrate zooplankton inhabit these ponds, and in the 1950s there were more than 110 soda pans with around 64 species.

[caption id="attachment_1870918" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/soda-pan.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1870918" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/soda-pan.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="433" /></a> Soda pans in the Seewinkel region, Image Credit: Zsófia Horváth[/caption]

In 2010, the number of ponds decreased to around 30 and only 47 species remained, meaning that 17 species had gone extinct in the region. 

The researchers say that only four species should have been lost given the circumstances, but for some reason, the number of species that disappeared was quite high. 

“Even if we had not taken into account the number of soda pans, but rather their area, we would have expected a decline of only nine species,” said Jonathan Chase, the senior author of the study. 

After ruling out habitat degradation, the researchers knew that there must be another explanation behind the declines. 

“So there must be another factor on landscape-scale which is responsible for the extinction of these species in this region,” said Zsófia Horváth, the first author of the study. 

According to the researchers, the answer is fragmentation. The disappearing soda pans meant there were growing distances between soda pans and the zooplankton species were no longer able to readily colonize a new pond or patch. 

“That species disappear locally happens again and again,” said Chase. “But if they have no possibility to repopulate habitat patches, it becomes a problem.” 

It’s been long thought that habitat fragmentation disrupts metacommunities of organisms that are distributed through multiple habitat patches, but this study is the first to conclusively show how and why this occurs. 

“This is important because this effect can now be taken more into consideration in future modeling - for example, when calculating expected losses of biodiversity when habitat is lost,” said Chase. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Main Image Credit: Imre Potyó

Decreases in biodiversity are exacerbated by habitat loss, fragmentation

Species richness and biodiversity are important indicators of a thriving...

Until recently, it was thought that only humans were capable of mourning dead loved ones. Only humans, the theory went, were capable of grasping the concept of death and loss. 

That view has been shattered as biologists spend more time observing other animals.

Elephants have been <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/elephants-mourning-video-animal-grief/">captured on video</a> mourning dead family members and showing fascination in the deaths of strangers. Whales have been spotted holding the bodies of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-research-reveals-that-whales-mourn-their-dead/">dead pod members</a> for long periods before finally releasing them into the depths, which biologists say is a display of grief.

It’s not limited to mammals. Crows and their close relatives also appear to have rituals for mourning <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ravens-crows-corvid-intelligence/">dead flockmates</a> with “funerals.”

Koko the gorilla was able to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/koko-gorilla-animal-intelligence/">share her emotions</a> through sign language, including expressing grief when her kitten died.

Now, a <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1363531/Moment-canines-recall-complex-actions-just-like-humans.html">new video</a> released by the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/">Daily Mail</a> shows another gorilla grieving and adds to the body of evidence that humans are not alone in honoring the dead.

A team of researchers studying gorillas in Rwanda’s <a href="https://www.volcanoesnationalparkrwanda.com/">Volcanoes National Park</a> were able to observe how different groups of gorillas reacted to three separate deaths. In all three cases, the gorillas gathered around their dead, groomed them and touched them. 

In the heart-wrenching video, a young mountain gorilla was captured on film grooming its dead mother. The young gorilla, who had already been weaned, even tried to “comfort nurse.” Not shown in the video, an older son was spotted beating his chest in obvious distress over the corpse.

In another case, a group of Grauer’s gorillas found a dead male unrelated to them.

“Our observations were surprising because not only did almost all individuals in the Grauer's gorilla group engage with the corpse of the silverback, their behavioral responses were strikingly similar to those of the mountain gorillas around the corpses of established group members,” said Dr. Amy Porter of the <a href="https://gorillafund.org/">Dian Fossey Fund</a>. “Most notably, individuals in all three cases typically sat close to the corpse and stared at it.”

In the two mountain gorilla cases, where the dead gorillas were members of the group, the gorillas who spent the most time with the deceased also spent the most time with the corpse.

“Among primates, especially great apes, there is compelling evidence from behavioural and physiological responses to death that they do grieve,” Porter said. “Observations may suggest that humans are not unique in their capacity to grieve.”

While mourning dead group members seems to be the most obvious explanation, Porter does note that the gorillas may also be fascinated with death. They didn’t just sit vigil, she told the Mail.

“They also touched, licked, sniffed, and groomed the corpse,” Porter said. “The behaviors may partially be explained by a general curiosity with death.”

This has raised researchers’ concerns. Gorillas can contract and spread the ebola virus.

“Given the severe health risks that can accompany close inspection of corpses, it is curious why the behaviour occurs so widely among animals, especially primates,” Porter said.

— 

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Heartbreaking video shows gorilla mourning dead mother

Until recently, it was thought that only humans were capable...

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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https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
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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

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" 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 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?

[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



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Santiago, Chile in South America

[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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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

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

[sendtonews key="0879czfG3k-1785905-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from NASA...

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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



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The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

[sendtonews key="6HyfrAJTBI-1831843-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

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



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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

[sendtonews key="QIoVYJqRBi-2434608-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from NASA...

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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



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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



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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



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Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

[sendtonews key="qARzJPSabQ-2270617-12187" 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> 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



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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



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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



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Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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