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 benefits of having a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/pets-can-tell-time/">pet</a> are usually not lost on those who own one – whether it’s a dog or cat, or even a less common pet that comes with scales or feathers. And according to a new national poll, pets of all shapes and sizes can also help older adults cope with mental and physical health issues.

The findings from the National Poll on Healthy Aging – conducted by the<a href="https://ihpi.umich.edu/"> University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation</a> – showed that 55 percent of adults ages 50 to 80 have a pet, and roughly three-quarters of these pet owners claim that their animals help reduce their stress, as well as give them a sense of purpose. Additionally, two-thirds of pet owners said that their pet helps them stay physically active.

“We have long known that pets are a common and naturally occurring source of support,” says Cathleen Connell, Ph.D., a professor at the <a href="https://sph.umich.edu/">U-M School of Public Health</a>. “Although the benefits of pets are significant, social connections and activities with friends and family are also key to quality of life across the lifespan. Helping older adults find low cost ways to support pet ownership while not sacrificing other important relationships and priorities is an investment in overall mental and physical health.” 

Although the poll showed that owning a pet can be a positive influence in the lives of older adults, there are still some concerns. Some people may put their animals’ needs before their own health, and 18 percent said that having a pet puts a strain on their budget.

“More activity, through dog walking or other aspects of pet care, is almost always a good thing for older adults,” explains Preeti Malani, M.D., the poll director who has training in caring for older adults. “But the risk of falls is real for many, and six percent of those in our poll said they had fallen or injured themselves due to a pet. At the same time, given the importance of pets to many people, the loss of a pet can deal a very real psychological blow that providers, family and friends should be attuned to.” 

Malani believes that physicians and other health care providers should ask older adults about the role of pets in their lives. 

“Later life is often a time when people have more freedom to travel, and a long list of things they want to do with their free time, and sometimes having a pet can get in the way,” says Mary Janevic, Ph.D., M.P.H., an assistant research scientist at the U-M School of Public Health. “For people living on a fixed income, expenses related to health care for pets, and especially pets that have chronic health issues, can be a struggle. Older adults can also develop health problems or disabilities that make pet care difficult.”

But despite these concerns, many poll respondents indicated the companionship and social connection benefits of pet ownership. Over half said that they own a pet specifically to have a companion, and even more said they let their pets sleep in bed with them. Sixty-five percent of pet owners also said that having a pet helps them connect with other people as well. 

“Relationships with pets tend to be less complicated than those with humans, and pets are often a source of great enjoyment,” says Janevic. “They also provide older adults with a sense of being needed and loved.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Pets help older adults deal with health problems, but there are drawbacks

The benefits of having a pet are usually not lost...

In an unprecedented event, an Australian lizard has laid three eggs before giving birth to a live baby weeks later from the same pregnancy. The three-toed skink is a rare “bimodally reproductive” species, in which some females lay eggs and others give birth to live babies. Until now, however, no <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/dorsal-fin-arms-legs/">vertebrate</a> has ever been observed to do both in one litter.

Study lead author Dr. Camilla Whittington is an evolutionary biologist at the <a href="https://sydney.edu.au/">University of Sydney</a>.

“It is a very unusual discovery,” said Dr. Whittington. “We were studying the genetics of these skinks when we noticed one of the live-bearing females lay three eggs. Several weeks later she gave birth to another baby. Seeing that baby was a very exciting moment!”

The small lizards are native to the east coast of Australia. Those located in the northern highlands of New South Wales usually give birth to live young, while those located in and around Sydney lay eggs.

According to Dr. Whittington, there are at least 150 evolutionary transitions from egg-laying to live-bearing in vertebrates.

“The earliest vertebrates were egg-layers, but over thousands of years, developing embryos in some species were held inside the body for longer, until some animals began to give live birth. People mostly think about humans and other mammals giving birth. But there are many species of reptile that give birth, too.”

Dr. Whittington said that the unusual observation of both egg laying and live birth in a single litter shows that the three-toed skink is an ideal model for understanding pregnancy. 

“It makes Australia one of the best places in the world to study the evolution of live birth, because we can watch evolution in action,” said Dr. Whittington. “Put in the context of evolutionary biology, being able to switch between laying eggs and giving live birth could allow animals to hedge their bets according to environmental conditions.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsbl">Biology Letters</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: Nadav Pezaro, Haifa University for the University of Sydney

Lizard produces both eggs and a live birth from the same pregnancy

In an unprecedented event, an Australian lizard has laid three...

You may not be able to teach an old dog new tricks, but it turns out you can train a cow to use a litter box. 

Henk Hanskamp, a Dutch inventor and businessman, has developed a “cow toilet” that collects cow urine, and it’s an innovative device that could help limit the amount of ammonia that enters the environment from farms. 

A single cow toilet collects around 26 to 35 pints of cow pee from a single cow every day, and according to Hanscamp, his inventions could cut the amount of ammonia emissions produced by cows by half. 

Since cow ammonia emissions account for around 49 percent of all <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/farms-have-become-a-major-source-of-air-pollution/">ammonia emissions from agriculture</a>, finding ways to tackle ammonia and other cattle-specific emissions is crucial to agriculture sustainability and mitigating atmospheric greenhouse gases. 

Cows and other livestock are not the only sources of ammonia emissions, but high concentrations of ammonia are dangerous to human health and wellbeing. 

Ammonia has been linked to haze and eutrophication which is when water is enriched with nutrients from agricultural and waste runoff and causes dangerous algae blooms. When algae blooms occur, it limits the amount of oxygen for other aquatic species. 

Hanskamp hopes to have the cow toilet market ready by 2020, but as of now, the device is being tested in farms in the Netherlands. 

“We are tackling the problem at the source,” Hanskamp told the <a href="https://www.afp.com/en">Agence France-Presse</a>. “A cow is never going to be completely clean, but you can teach them to go to the toilet.”

The device is a box that is placed behind the cow during feeding. After the cow is done eating, the device stimulates a nerve that causes the cow to urinate. However, some of the cows have become so well trained and used to the litter box that they urinate without having their nerve stimulated.

Besides limiting emissions, Hamskamp also says that the device helps keep cowpens clean and dry. 

In the US last year, the <a href="https://www.fda.gov/">Food and Drug Administration </a>(FDA) approved a drug called <a href="https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/FDAInBrief/ucm625209.htm">Experior </a>which, when fed to beef cattle, reduces the number of ammonia emissions from the animal’s waste. 

The drug has been deemed safe by the FDA, but if Hanskamp’s litter box method proves successful and becomes available to international markets, it might be an easier and less invasive way to get the same desirable results without drug intervention. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

New ‘cow toilets’ could help reduce emissions from livestock

You may not be able to teach an old dog...

Tiger geckos, a genus of 19 gecko species native to Vietnam, China, and Japan, are at risk of extinction, mainly due to being sold in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/popular-exotic-pets-dumped/">exotic pet trade</a>. 

Despite their declining numbers, very little is known about the tiger gecko’s conservation status and few protections if any exist to prevent them from being sold as pets. 

In a new study, researchers from Germany and Vietnam assessed tiger gecko populations, some from species that have never before been monitored, and tracked geckos as they were collected and sold both locally and internationally. 

The study, published in the journal Nature Conservation, provides an overview of the tiger geckos and how trade threatens populations and could soon lead to their extinction. 

The results call for immediate management and protection to conserve the species. Currently, only eight species of tiger gecko are listed as Vulnerable, Endangered, or Critically Endangered by the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/iucn-red-list-threatened-species-test-single-page">International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List </a>(IUCN Red List).

“Tiger geckos are neither sufficiently protected by law nor part of conservation programmes, due to the lack of substantial knowledge on the species conservation status and probably due to the general lack of public as well as political interest in biodiversity conservation,” the researchers said. “To date, exact impacts of trade on the species cannot be identified, as data of legal trade are only recorded for species listed in the CITES Appendices.” 

The researchers surveyed five tiger gecko species in Vietnam and made a note of local traders that had captured or bought wild tiger geckos. Tiger geckos congregate in small populations and are often isolated to just one area where they were initially found. 

For example, the Cat Ba Tiger Gecko is only found on Cat Ba Island and a few islands in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam, and there are only around 120 individuals left in the species. 

Pet trading and habitat destruction have significantly reduced these isolated populations.

The five species of gecko were found in local pet shops but also in markets in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Sometimes, the researchers found advertisements for the animals on Facebook. 

The researchers say that all tiger gecko species need to be included in the <a href="https://www.cites.org/eng/disc/text.php">Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora</a> (CITES) to help monitor populations and limit trade. 

The researchers also recommend an official assessment of each tiger gecko species for the IUCN Red List and that breeding programs need to be introduced to help boost populations. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a><a href="https://www.earth.com/">, Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: Mona van Schingen

Exotic pet trade may send the tiger gecko into extinction

Tiger geckos, a genus of 19 gecko species native to...

A new study from the <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/">University of Exeter</a> has found that male crickets age more slowly when they are surrounded by plenty of females. Even though the entire lifespan of a field cricket only lasts about 90 days, the researchers determined that the insects still experience age-related physical decline. 

The investigation compared years when male and females were evenly distributed to years when there were twice as many females. The study revealed that when females were abundant, the rate of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/women-live-longer-men-why/">male mortality</a> associated with age was reduced by around 50 percent.

“The leading theory for why animals fall apart as we get old is that we use up our energy on reproduction instead of maintaining our bodies,” said Dr. Rolando Rodríguez-Muñoz. “If this theory is right, we would expect that when males have to compete more vigorously, they should age faster.”

“We studied a population of crickets in a Spanish meadow where years vary in the relative numbers of males and females. As predicted, males in years with more competition aged faster.”

Age-related decline was measured by how much the males chirped, a behavior used to attract females and to deter other potential male mates. In addition to becoming more frail, males experienced a rapid decline in chirping during years with equal numbers of males and females. When females outnumbered the males, however, there was no decline.

“Our study shows that even male insects pay the costs of reproductive competition in later life,” said Professor Tom Tregenza. “It seems that battling with rivals is more of a drain on males than mating with more females.”

“The declines that organisms experience as they age are a consequence of how they use their resources earlier in their lives. For males, life is easier when females are more plentiful.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rspb">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</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: Wildcrickets.org

Male crickets age more slowly with plenty of females around

A new study from the University of Exeter has found...

Illuminated city buildings present a major <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/led-lights-birds-collisions-planes/">collision risk for birds</a> that migrate at night. Now, a new study has found that birds who use chirps called flight calls to help navigate are more likely to collide with lighted buildings compared to other migrating birds that don’t produce such calls.

The study was conducted by researchers from the <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> and relied on decades of data from the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a> in Chicago.

While flight calls can be useful to help migrating birds stay on course, the results of the study show that these calls may be inadvertently luring more birds to their death when some migrating birds become disoriented and head towards sources of artificial light.

“Nocturnal flight calls likely evolved to facilitate collective decision-making among birds during navigation, but this same social behavior may now exacerbate vulnerability to a widespread anthropogenic disturbance: artificial light from buildings,” said Benjamin Winger, the first author of the study.

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Monitoring efforts in cities like Chicago and Cleveland have helped reduce instances of bird collisions, but this study shows that bird calls as a collision risk factor have been overlooked and that more can still be done in cities to limit bird deaths.

“To date, we have not mined the potential information that flight calls could provide to advance our understanding of how nocturnally migrating birds make decisions and orient in difficult situations," said Andrew Farnsworth, a co-author of the research. “This work heralds a new direction in the integration of data on collisions, species distributions and behavior ecology for understanding nocturnal bird migration.”

The researchers analyzed data on 70,000 nighttime songbird collisions in Chicago and Cleveland dating back to 1978.

The data was collected from Field Museum researchers and volunteers in Chicago and Cleveland and included information on 93 species of birds.

For the study, the researchers focused on the relationship between high-frequency flight calls from songbirds like warblers, sparrows, and thrush and nighttime collisions.

The majority of bird species in the collision database were songbirds that use flight calls. There were far fewer collisions involving birds that didn’t use calls while flying.

“Our paper provides some of the strongest published evidence on the effect of artificial light on bird collisions in urban areas, though this relationship has been known anecdotally for a long time,” said Benjamin Wing, the first author of the study. “This relationship may spawn a vicious cycle of increased mortality rates if disoriented individuals lead other migrating individuals to sources of artificial light.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com </a>Staff Writer

Birds that use flight calls are more likely to crash into buildings

Illuminated city buildings present a major collision risk for birds...

A new study led by researchers at the <a href="https://www.zsl.org/">Zoological Society of London</a> is warning that the genetic diversity of African lions has declined substantially since the late 19th century, leaving the animals more susceptible to reduced fitness and resilience. In the KAZA region, up to 17 percent of genetic variation has been lost among lions since 1895.

“The dramatic population decline of the African lion has made the protection of the remaining populations and the improvement of gene flow between populations of the utmost importance and has led to a number of transboundary conservation initiatives, such as the Kavango–Zambezi transfrontier conservation area (KAZA),” wrote the study authors. 

“The size of the KAZA region and its ability to support a large number of lion prides, results in it being considered one of the few remaining strongholds for the lion population.”

A drop in genetic diversity means that the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/rhino-poachers-killed-lions/">lions</a> will be less capable of handling changes in their environment.

“If you lose some of those populations, or they’re not mixing, you’re going to lose the overall population’s ability to withstand change. It could be climate change, it could be disease. It’s the ability to withstand the unknown,” study lead author Simon Dures told <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/">New Scientist</a>.

Many of the lions that were killed in the KAZA region by a 19th-century British hunter, Frederick Selous, ended up at the Natural History Museum in London. The team used 27 of these samples to compare the DNA to modern lions. 


“The rapid decline observed in allelic richness and the highest levels of genetic differentiation coincide with the arrival of the first western settlers in 1890 and the subsequent rise of the colonial presence in the region after the end of the Matabele Wars in 1897,” said Dures.

“Furthermore, modern firearms became more prevalent following European settlement and predators were often persecuted as vermin, which likely contributed to the earlier decline of lions in the study region.’

“While the timing of genetic decline and colonial settlement is compelling enough to suggest causation, the evidence is not conclusive.”


According to the study authors, the findings emphasize the need for improved connectivity between protected areas in order to prevent further loss of genetic diversity in the region.

The research is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14724642">Diversity and Distributions</a>.
--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

African lions are losing their genetic diversity and resilience

A new study led by researchers at the Zoological Society...

An international team of researchers led by the <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk/">University of Warwick</a> has sequenced and analyzed the genome of the milkweed bug. The study is providing new insight into the diet and colors of the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/insects-extinct-century/">insects</a>. 

The Hemiptera are a diverse insect order, with between 50,000 to 80,000 species including the milkweed bug, Oncopeltus fasciatus.


“Milkweed bugs are a great species to study,” said lead investigator and species coordinator Kristen Panfilio. “They have served as a research model for ecology, metabolism, development, and genetics since the mid-twentieth century, in part because they are very easy to keep. In fact, the strain we sequenced for the genome project is also used in school classrooms, as the bugs are a beautiful red-orange and black colour throughout their life cycles.”

Milkweed is a toxic food source, and the insect’s bright red-orange color serves as a warning to predators that the bugs would taste bad. This is the same coloration seen in monarch butterflies, which share the same food source. The researchers found that the bugs and butterflies have different enzymes for handling essential amino acids.

“Having worked on wing development for over fifteen years, it is exciting that we now have access to the genome to fully analyze some of these very complex genes,” said study co-author Deniz Erezyilmaz.

[caption id="attachment_1870647" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/adult-milkweed-bug.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1870647" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/adult-milkweed-bug.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="479" /></a> Adult milkweed bug, Image Credit: Jena Johnson[/caption]

The researchers also determined that species with highly specialized liquid diets tend to lose certain metabolic enzymes along with the range of their smell and taste receptors. By contrast, the milkweed bug retains a much fuller collection of sensory proteins. 

Furthermore, the genome analysis revealed that milkweed bugs and some of their relatives such as the stink bug have newly acquired genes from bacteria, some of which provide enzymes that help them digest the tough cellulose found in plant tissues. According to the researchers, knowing which genes support an invasive species' diet can help in developing pest management strategies. 

“As genome sequencing projects continue to venture out into the wider array of insect and animal diversity, knowledge of gene properties in larger genomes will be increasingly important,” said study co-author Robert Waterhouse.

The research is published in the journal <a href="https://genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/">Genome 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: Deniz Erezyilmaz

Milkweed bug genome analysis reveals secrets of insect diets

An international team of researchers led by the University of...

Scientists have recently identified three new genus groups and one new species of wood-boring clams. Beyond the finding that this family tree is larger and more diverse than what was previously known, the experts noted that the clams play an important role in cleaning up the wood that accumulates in the bottom of the ocean. 

As tiny <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/clams-worms-high-methane/">clams</a> bore into waterlogged wood on the seafloor, they eat the shavings with help from special bacteria in their gills. This makes them some of the only animals on the planet that eat wood. According to the study, the creatures then live the rest of their lives with their heads down in the holes they dug, using tube-like organs called siphons to pull in water and extract oxygen from it. 

Study lead author Janet Voight is an associate curator of Invertebrate Zoology at the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a>.

[caption id="attachment_1870637" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/How-tiny-clams-play-an-important-role-in-keeping-ecosystems-healthy.jpeg"><img class="wp-image-1870637" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/How-tiny-clams-play-an-important-role-in-keeping-ecosystems-healthy.jpeg" alt="" width="650" height="487" /></a> Image Credit: Image Credit: Angelo Bernardino and Paulo Sumida[/caption]

“There's not just one tree-cleaner-upper in the ocean, they're really diverse,” said Voight. “Imagine living at the bottom of the ocean as a tiny swimming clam; you either have to find a sunken piece of wood or die. You wouldn't think there'd be that many kinds of clams doing this. But we've now found that there are six different groups, called genera, and around sixty different species.”

While studying the DNA of deep-sea wood-eating clams, the researchers determined that there are at least six different genera that make up the family. Three of these genera are being described for the first time, as well as one previously unknown species. Even though the clams are tiny, they can settle in massive numbers and greatly improve the health of their deep-sea ecosystems. 

“We have no idea how much wood is at the bottom of the ocean, but there's probably a lot more than we think,” said Voight. “After big storms, we estimate that millions of tons of wood are washed out to sea. What if these clams weren't there to help eat it? Think how long it would take the wood to rot. The clams contribute to the cycling of carbon, they play an integral part in making the wood into something that the other animals at the bottom of the ocean can get energy from. It could even affect sea level rise. It blows me away.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/mollus">Journal of Molluscan Studies</a>.
--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How tiny clams play an important role in keeping ecosystems healthy

Scientists have recently identified three new genus groups and one...

In their research to determine why so many <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/fungal-disease-mass-amphibian-extinction/">amphibian</a> species are dying out, scientists at the <a href="https://www.wlv.ac.uk/">University of Wolverhampton</a> and <a href="https://www.salford.ac.uk/">University of Salford</a> are asking for your help. The researchers are attempting to gather as much data as possible from publicly provided toad samples – in the form of either mouth swabs of living animals or toe-tips from dead toads.

“We are really interested in having as many people from across the UK helping to collect as many genetic samples as possible,” Rémi Martin, a PhD candidate conducting the research, told <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/">The Times</a>. “These samples can be in the form of ‘toe-tips’ from toads killed on roads or buccal swabs from live toads. If people want to get involved, then they should email us and we will send out a sampling pack.”

Their research is being conducted in partnership with <a href="http://amphibian-reptile-conservation.org/">Amphibian and Reptile Conservation</a> (ARC). 

“We will use the data to look at how genetic diversity in toad populations may have changed over time or by area, how this may be affecting some populations in the modern landscape, and how declines might be addressed through conservation,” Dr. John Wilkinson, the supervisor of this research who also works for the ARC, told <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/">The Times</a>. “Samples from all populations are useful but we would be particularly interested in sites with some history – that is, known not to have declined or known to have been through a decline already.”

A recent study published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/">Science</a> found that 90 amphibian species have already died out as a result of a single deadly fungal disease. This disease, known as Chytrid fungus disease, is caused by the pathogenic fungus Batrachochyrium dendrobatidis (Bd). The fungus kills amphibians by damaging their skin, destroying their immune systems, and even causing heart failure. It is believed to be responsible for killing off hundreds of amphibian species, and could potentially be a threat to one-third of the world’s frogs and salamanders.

So if you want to help out our amphibian friends in the face of this fearless fungus, get in touch with the ARC and keep your eyes peeled for toads to sample.

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How you can help frogs by cutting off their toes (after they’re dead)

In their research to determine why so many amphibian species...

One especially skilled dog recently broke the elevation record for canine mountaineers.  Dogs are actually quite commonly encountered on mountaineering trips in the Himalayas. In his book, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Uwj-BBsM3SYC&amp;q=Key#v=snippet&amp;q=Pack&amp;f=false">Merle’s Door</a>, author Ted Kerasote recounted a climb where he carried a stray dog he named ‘the Khyi’ who was determined to follow him:

“I took off my pack and opened it wide.  Since the ropes and ice-climbing equipment were being employed on the mountain, I now had extra room.  Lifting the Khyi by his armpits, I slipped him into the pack tail-first. He didn’t protest in the least, and I continued up the ropes…Occasionally the load pulled me off my stance, my crampons scraping across the ice as I swung on the rope.  The Khyi didn’t stir. When I looked around, he met my eye and gave me a steady look, unfazed by the steep angle.”

On Mt. Hood, an 11,249 ft volcanic peak in Oregon’s Cascade mountains, a dog was attributed with saving the lives of mountaineers.  <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/dog-helped-saved-mount-hood-climbers/">CBS News</a> reports that climbers cuddled up next to a black lab named Velvet when trapped on the mountain in a snowstorm.  Rescuers attributed the safety of the climbers partially to the dog’s body heat. The climbers were also able to be found by using emergency location beacons the Sheriff’s department used to locate them on the mountain and bring them down safely.  

Hiking mountains in Colorado and parts of Wyoming, it’s common to see dogs along for the trip.  Plenty of cattle dogs, labs and other mid to large sized dogs climb some of Colorado’s highest peaks each year under their own power.  I’ve also seen some chihuahuas and other small dogs partially carried to the top. Our Shih Tzu Zari has taken a ride in my pack up several Colorado peaks.  Mountains are still mountains though, and some people underestimate the hardship dogs face while climbing. 

Sometimes, dogs run into trouble and need rescuing themselves.  <a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/1870206/dog-left-die-mountain">Outside Online</a> reported in 2012 on a German Shepherd left alone at 13,000 feet elevation on the 14,264 ft Mt. Bierstadt.  The dog was left alone in cold weather with no food, no shelter and little water for seven days. The climb down from the mountain turned out to be more than the dog’s owner could handle while also taking care of his dog.  Assuming the dog died of exposure that first night, the man gave up. Fortunately for the dog, other brave volunteers climbed the mountain and took turns carrying her in a backpack on the climb down. It’s stories like this that make many mountaineers discourage dogs from tagging along on climbing trips.  

In fact, the <a href="https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/mountaineering-experts-warn-climbers-against-bringing-dogs-on-difficult-trips/">Seattle Times</a> reports that mountaineers strongly discourage people from bringing dogs on any serious climbs like the one Velvet attempted on Mt. Hood.  Every climb and every dog is different though, and there is a distinction to be made between mountaineering and hiking a mountain.            

Recently, stray dog found in the Himalayas named Mera showed that it’s not always up to humans to set a dog’s climbing goals.  Mountaineers were climbing Baruntse when Mera started following them. Generally, mountaineers under such demanding and dangerous conditions discourage dogs from following them, for the safety of everyone involved.  But Mera showed herself determined and continued to persevere. 

Baruntse is by the standards of Nepal not incredibly impressive at only 23,389 ft elevation above sea level compared with the highest elevation of Mt. Everest at 29,029 ft.  By world standards though, Baruntse is very high. The highest peak in North America, Mt. Denali, is shorter at 20,310 ft elevation. Despite the obstacles of elevation, cold weather and rough terrain, Mera was determined to climb the mountain.  

<a href="https://www.outsideonline.com/2390456/first-dog-ascent-baruntse-nepal">Outside Online</a> reported earlier this year on the mountaineering expedition that Mera tagged along on.  The trip was led by Washington mountaineer <a href="https://www.alpineascents.com/guides/don-wargowsky/">Don Wargowsky</a>, who was one of the first to take a liking to Mera.  The team was about a third of their way into a month long expedition on Mera Peak when the dog Mera came running to them, earning her name.  Wargowsky supplied Mera with pieces of meat and a sleeping pad and jacket to use as a nest inside his tent. 

After Mera Peak, the team started up Baruntse where Mera truly showed her mettle.  After following Sherpas to where they were setting up fixed ropes, Mera seemed spooked by the steep terrain and refused to follow them back to base camp.  Mera spent two nights at high elevation by herself before again being reunited with the climbers. The Sherpas took her back down with them after setting up routes to higher climbing camps.  Mera’s paws were bloody and injured but she seemed undeterred.

[caption id="attachment_1870576" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Baruntse.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1870576" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Baruntse.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="385" /></a> Baruntse[/caption]

Sherpas in Nepal live in an area with widespread rabies among street dogs and the animals are not always treated well.  Initially, the Sherpas seemed to only tolerate Mera but her prowess impressed everyone and it became clear that she is a very special dog.  Mera showed that not only was she tough but also determined. 

During a particularly rough part of the climb, Wargowsky tied Mera up at camp to keep her safe.  Mera just chewed through the rope and ran to catch up. Another time, Mera slipped on what could have lead to a 600 foot fall but was caught by Wargowsky.  On the day the mountaineering team was set to climb to the summit, Mera was left at 2am sleeping in the tent. 

Hours later, Mera sprinted up to the human climbers catching them after giving them a serious head start.  In the end, Mera climbed to the top of Baruntse under her own power, a challenging feet for many humans. This is, as far as anyone can tell, an elevation record for dogs.  On the descent, a harness was made for Mera and she was clipped with a carabiner into a rope to keep her safe. 

At the end of the trip, the base camp manager, a Sherpa, adopted Mera.  Because the team was flying back to Kathmandu and dogs can’t fly on such trips, someone was paid $100 to walk three days to take Mera another three days to the nearest bus ride to her new home in Kathmandu.  Mera’s name was changed to Baru in honor of her achievement. Now, Baru has healed from her mountaineering wounds and put on weight she lost, perhaps preparing for a new adventure. 

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Main Image Credit: Don Wargowsky

The remarkable dog who broke a climbing record in the Himalayas

One especially skilled dog recently broke the elevation record for...

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/tourism-light-pollution-sea-turtle/#.XJ5D75hKhPY">Sea turtles</a> including loggerheads, Kemp’s ridleys, and green turtles are washing up on beaches on Cape Cod in ever-increasing numbers. 

The mass stranding of sea turtles in the area could be linked to climate change as the sea turtles are lulled into the Cape during the summer due to spikes in summer sea temperatures. But when winter sets in and the waters turn cold, the turtles find themselves trapped. 

The <a href="https://www.massaudubon.org/get-outdoors/wildlife-sanctuaries/wellfleet-bay">Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary</a> has seen more and more turtles stranded through the years. This year, 829 turtles were recovered from beaches, ten times more than what was recorded in 2008 and double the number of turtles stranded in 2016. 

Volunteers comb the beaches or use boats to rescue turtles in the ocean and bring them to a sea turtle hospital in New England where the goal is rehabilitation. 

Cape Cod has one of the largest annual turtle strandings in the world and exactly what drives these mass strandings is unclear. 

One <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0211503">PLOS ONE study</a> recently found that warmer sea-surface temperatures were behind strandings of Kemp’s ridley turtles. 

“This is particularly alarming, considering the Gulf of Maine is predicted to continue to warm at a rapid rate in coming decades,” the researchers wrote in their study. 

2,349 Kemp’s ridleys could be stranded on beaches if the warming trends continue in the Gulf, according to the study. 

However, while warming could be driving recent strandings, some experts argue that the number of turtles that wash up on beaches is proof that the conservation measures have been successful and that more of the population has recovered compared to previous decades. 

Whatever the reason, the fact of the matter is the Cape is a deadly hook-like trap for sea turtles. 

“They know they have to leave but the Cape is like a trap — a hook within a hook,” Bob Prescott, the director of the Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and a co-author on the PLOS ONE paper, told the Associated Press. “This is our worst nightmare. There are so many turtles getting cold-stunned and washing up on the beaches. There would be tides where you'd find 30, 40, 50 turtles.”

When the turtles are rescued, they often have hypothermia and pneumonia. 

It takes a long, gradual process to get the turtles warmed up and into saltwater tanks that resemble their preferred habitat. 

In the sea turtle hospital, there can be as many 150 turtles at one time depending on how many are rescued and released. 

“This is what we are here for, to get these guys released,” Adam Kennedy, a biologist at New England Aquarium's sea turtle hospital in Quincy, Massachusetts, told the AP. “It's bittersweet because you spend so much time with them, but ultimately every one of these guys getting back to the ocean helps the population.”

--

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>

Hundreds of sea turtles end up stranded on Cape Cod beaches each winter

Sea turtles including loggerheads, Kemp’s ridleys, and green turtles are...

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

[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

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

[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

[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"] Astronomers at Johns Hopkins University have created...

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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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