Eels move in ways that seem to ignore the rules most vertebrates live by. They swim with flowing body waves, they can scoot across wet ground, and they often keep going even when the spinal cord is cut. 



According to a new paper, two simple body signals, stretch and pressure, help explain how that is possible.



Those signals are not fancy. Stretch tells the body how much each segment bends, and pressure reports forces on the skin from water or from <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-discover-a-new-eel-species-with-fang-like-teeth/">objects</a>. 



When these signals are fed into the spinal circuits that set a basic rhythm for movement, the eel’s whole body keeps time without micromanagement from the brain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-secrets-of-eel-movement">Secrets of eel movement</h2>



Kotaro Yasui is an assistant professor at Tohoku University’s Frontier Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science (<a href="https://www.fris.tohoku.ac.jp/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">FRIS</a>) and lead author of the study



“Our findings will help design highly adaptive robots capable of navigating complex and unpredictable environments,” noted Professor Yasui.



Most vertebrates walk or swim thanks to networks in the spinal cord called central pattern generator <a href="https://openbooks.lib.msu.edu/introneuroscience1/chapter/central-pattern-generators/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">circuits</a>. 



These circuits can produce rhythmic muscle commands on their own, then shape that rhythm using feedback from the body. That is why the same overall plan can show up in animals as different as fish, salamanders, and mice.



Eels add a twist by leaning hard on two kinds of sensory input. Proprioception is internal sensing of stretch that tells a segment where it is in the cycle. Exteroception is sensing from outside the body, including water pressure on the sides of the fish or contact with a surface. 



Stretch sensitive neurons like the classic lamprey edge cells have long shown how such bending <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-day-2025-our-power-our-planet/">signals</a> can tune the spinal rhythm.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-flexible-robot-mimics-eel-movement">Flexible robot mimics eel movement </h2>



Yasui’s team built a mathematical model in which each body segment has a small local oscillator that produces a timing signal. They wired in two feedback loops, one for stretch and one for pressure, so the oscillators would be tugged into step by what the body feels.



The researchers tested the controller in two settings. First, they used computer simulations that generated body movements and force patterns. Then, they tried it on a physical eel-like robot made of flexible segments and equipped with skin-level sensors.



The same controller worked in both settings, and it produced stable swimming quickly, without central commands to lock the segments together.



The stretch loop had a special job. It sped up the time it took for a smooth traveling wave to appear from random starting positions. It also helped the body hold a strong stride once the pattern settled, even though that gain could cost a little <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/earth-day-2025-what-were-really-fighting-for/">energy</a> because the joints work harder during sharper turns.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-spinal-rhythm-and-sensory-feedback">Spinal rhythm and sensory feedback</h2>



The team asked a simple question. If the controller swims well, can it also crawl on land when the ground is dotted with obstacles? They ran the robot through a peg field where pushing and bracing matter more than glide.



Stretch feedback made the difference. With stretch only, the robot found traction on the pegs and made steady headway. 



Pressure alone did not help in that setting, which fits earlier <a href="https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/acg/publications/Pace_%26_Gibb_2011.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a> showing that elongated fishes such as ropefish change their kinematics across water and land in specific ways, with long, slow, high amplitude body waves on land.



The results suggest continuity rather than a clean break between swimming and crawling in these fishes. 



The same spinal rhythm and sensory feedback can drive both swimming and crawling, as long as the environment provides the right reaction forces. The fish doesn’t need a separate land-based neural controller to move



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-spinal-injuries-teach-us">What spinal injuries teach us</h2>



The most striking tests involved spinal cord transection. The group measured swimming in live American eels before and after a complete cut around the middle of the body, then matched those tests with simulation and robot runs using the same controller.&nbsp;



The movement behind the injury kept a similar frequency and phase as the movement in front of it, which echoes decades old <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11744256/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence</a> that eels can recover coordinated swimming after transection as regrowth advances.



In the model, that coordination did not need signals from the brain. It emerged when the local oscillators had some built-in tendency to tick on their own, and when stretch and pressure loops were strong enough. 



The body above the cut tugged the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animals-secretly-reshape-landscapes-in-powerful-ways/">body</a> below the cut into the same rhythm through passive motion and local sensing.



That simple recipe explains why eels can move immediately after injury while many amphibians and mammals cannot. If the posterior spinal cord cannot oscillate on its own, or if the feedback pathways are too weak, the two halves fall out of step and the body stalls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-eel-movement-robots-and-evolution">Eel movement, robots, and evolution</h2>



Robots that move without legs need to live with uncertainty. Water currents change, floors are cluttered, and obstacles shift. Prior <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abf6354" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">work</a> has shown that proprioceptive feedback can entrain undulatory robots into reliable patterns despite turbulence and noise.



This study adds pressure sensing on the skin to that recipe and shows how a simple stretch rule helps robots use clutter for propulsion. That means eel-like machines could search pipes, navigate earthquake rubble, or inspect tanks without complex top down control.



There is also a story about evolution here. If a swimming controller can produce useful crawling when the environment offers something to push against, early vertebrates may have needed adjustments more than a full rewrite to move onto land. Flexible circuits and strong local feedback could have carried a lot of that load.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-research-directions">Future research directions </h2>



Biologists can now test specific predictions in the lab. For example, they can look for descending stretch pathways that echo the model’s anterior to posterior copy rule, and they can probe how pressure sensors along the skin tune rhythm in moving fish.



Engineers can search for energy savings by blending stretch rules that boost stride with rules that prevent excessive bending. They can also explore how to route around damaged links in a robot by letting neighboring segments pull each other back into rhythm.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2422248122" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.



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Spinal secrets: What eels reveal about the origins of movement

Eels move in ways that seem to ignore the rules most vertebrates live by. They swim with flowing body waves, they can scoot across wet ground, and they often keep going even when the spinal cord is cut. According to a new paper, two simple body signals, stretch and pressure, help explain how that is possible. Those signals are not fancy. Stretch tells the body how much each segment bends, and pressure reports forces on the skin from water or from objects. When these signals are fed...

We think of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/sea-spiders-antarctica/">spiders</a> as solitary creatures, hunched in their webs awaiting unfortunate flies or trekking solo up the living room wall on what we can only assume are nefarious errands. Shelob, the nightmarish arachnid antagonist of Lord of the Rings, is emblematic of these reclusive tendencies. Isolated in the caves of the Mountains of Shadow, she waits for passing elves, orcs, and hobbits to suck dry. 

For arachnophobes, these antisocial tendencies are all to the good. One spider is really bad enough. Heaven forfend that they team up, as Shelob’s offspring do in the forests of Mirkwood. Up to 6% of the population is believed to have diagnosable arachnophobia and many of the rest of us maintain an irrational but nonetheless marked distaste for the creepy critters.

Of course, such fears are almost entirely baseless: very few spider species are threatening to humans and most are unlikely to even try to bite unless accidentally squished. The pleas of concerned arachnologists and other animal lovers have resulted in a renewed appreciation for these eight-legged predators, which provide invaluable ecological services by feeding on pest organisms. More householders are taking a humane approach to spider maintenance, coexisting with them or, at worst, gently moving them outside. There are now <a href="https://www.amazon.com/My-Critter-Catcher-Spider-Insect/dp/B0192MB5RS/ref=asc_df_B0192MB5RS/?tag=hyprod-20&amp;linkCode=df0&amp;hvadid=167137474498&amp;hvpos=1o1&amp;hvnetw=g&amp;hvrand=4554934011747182523&amp;hvpone=&amp;hvptwo=&amp;hvqmt=&amp;hvdev=c&amp;hvdvcmdl=&amp;hvlocint=&amp;hvlocphy=9021750&amp;hvtargid=pla-314702872443&amp;psc=1">specialized tools</a> for extracting them from inconvenient spots and relocating them. 

But even the most ardent arachnid sympathizer might be hard pressed to resist reaching for a rolled newspaper in the face of the African social spider (Stegodyphus dumicola).

While their better-known cousins are lone wolves, these spiders live in groups. Enormous ones. Native to southern Africa, they form colonial webs containing up to a thousand individuals. An entire culture of weavers must have ticked off Athena some time in African prehistory. Unlike poor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arachne">Arachne</a>, for whom the class Arachnida is named, at least these guys have company. And, to some extent, they work together, creating an expansive web for food capture and a central chamber for rest and concealment. 

Though these gossamer fortresses are intimidating to all but the most intrepid researcher, they present little challenge to the species’ main adversaries: ants of the genus Anoplolepsis. The dramatic antagonism between the spiders and the ants mirrors the well-documented wars between much larger African carnivores such as lions and hyenas. It is, however, more one-sided. When the ants descend en masse, they always win.

So how does spider society work? And how does social behavior play into the ancient conflicts between the spiders and their ant opponents? In a clade whose members are largely independent, this is a rich area of study. Enter Penn State evolutionary biologist <a href="https://www.grozingerlab.com/dr-colin-wright">Colin Wright</a> and his colleagues. 

Wright et. al. have journeyed to South Africa in search of answers. Braving the blazing Kalahari heat, not to mention their subjects themselves, they have shed new light on the evolution of sociality in these unique arthropods. In addition to their innate value, these revelations have implications for social evolution as a whole. 

In a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/beheco/advance-article/doi/10.1093/beheco/arz069/5489230?guestAccessKey=2df02fd9-b97e-452f-8782-564c898a0fc2">brand new study</a>, the researchers have demonstrated that social spiders can actually learn from each other. They found that colonies experimentally isolated from their ant predators respond similarly to exposed colonies when a single new member who had experience with ants is introduced. That is to say: the entire colony is able to cue off of the cautious behavior of its new member and adjust its collective response accordingly—namely, a reduced willingness to exit the inner chamber when ants are detected. This suggests that, like other social invertebrates such as bees, social spiders can transmit information to each other to the benefit of the group as a whole.

[caption id="attachment_1872942" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/spiders.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1872942" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/spiders.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="433" /></a> An African social spider does battle with an invading ant. Image Credit: Graham Montgomery[/caption]

How exactly they do this is unknown. Says Wright, “My guess would be that the spiders can sense the identity of the ants by the types of vibrations they make on the webs. It could also be chemical as well, since one of my experiments showed that colonies reduce foraging even when exposed to chemical ant cues only. But in the open air, it might be more difficult to detect these chemical cues. It's probably a combination of both.”

So, the ant-experienced spider may detect physical or chemical cues indicating the presence of ants and can then respond in behavioral or chemical ways that are perceptible to its naive nest-mates. They can act on this information—scuttling into their silky redoubt in the hopes of protection from the attack.

They have good reason to. These marauding ants tend to decimate social spider colonies when they find them. They climb into the acacias where the spiders build their nests, likely using pheromone trails to lay the war path for other colony members. Carnage ensues. Though the spiders’ social structure confers a variety of benefits, per <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26205161">a 2015 paper</a> co-authored by Wright, the larger and more conspicuous the communal web, the more likely it is to be attacked by Anoplolepsis. The genus bears the common name of “pugnacious ants” and their aggression isn’t restricted to other arthropods.

Wright explains, “The predatory ants were rather nightmarish to deal with. We had to spray our boots with 98% DEET, or line them with sticky goop to keep the ants from climbing up our legs and biting and stinging us. These ants are large and blanket the desert floor, so working with them was extremely tough. They're quite rabid!”

The spiders display a number of defensive activities in response to the presence of their hymenopteran enemies. Some members spin a particularly sticky type of silk at the periphery of the web in an effort to entangle them. Others pin down the legs of the first ants to breach their fortifications (see image). And once a full scale invasion has begun, the spiders retreat to their inner chamber or simply attempt to flee the inevitable massacre. Though spiders are able to cooperatively subdue individual ants, colonies are nearly always decimated by full-scale ant attacks. Their behavioral peculiarities reflect the significance of these epic conflicts.

Individual spiders exhibit one of two personality types: bold or shy. These are experimentally determined by exposing spiders to puffs of air that mimic the breath of avian predators and observing the length of time that it takes them to come out of defensive postures. Bold spiders are those that return to their normal activities more quickly. It is not known what causes spiders to exhibit one personality type or the other.

“Boldness does appear to be heritable to some degree, indicating some genetic predisposition,” notes Wright. “But we also know that individuals can shift their behaviors depending on the distribution of personalities around them. When we create colonies of entirely shy spiders, more spiders will increase their boldness. Shy spiders appear to be more behaviorally plastic in this regard. Shy spiders can become more bold, but bold spiders appear less able to become shy.”

The balance of personality types appears to affect the colony’s defensive and foraging activities. For example, colonies with greater numbers of bold individuals respond in greater numbers to prey items trapped in their webs. And, interestingly, shy spiders are actually the ones expected to shoulder much of the burden of ant capture. One might reasonably expect the bold individuals to be the ones to confront the species’ most dangerous enemy.

Unlike other social arthropods such as ants, bees, wasps, and termites, social divisions end at the personality level. “Social spiders do not have queens,” Wright explains. “There is no division of spider societies into reproductives and workers. Rather, all spiders cooperate in all tasks including reproduction and brood care.”

Interestingly, a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347216000774?via%3Dihub">2016 paper</a> co-authored by Wright found that colonies comprising a mixture of bold and shy individuals engaged in double the amount of defensive web-making than artificially assembled colonies containing only one personality type or the other. These colonies were at least temporarily more stable in the face of attack. “We tend to find that colonies that are composed of a mixture of personality types tend to outperform behaviorally homogeneous societies,” he expounds. “This is true for many social spiders and social animals generally, including humans.”

The interplay between the distinct personality types in this species is somewhat unusual in the several hundred species of social spider.

“The most striking difference in social Stegodyphus spiders is perhaps the phenomenon of having ‘keystone’ individuals,” says Wright. “Some individuals … act somewhat as leaders that catalyze others to participate in things like collective hunting and web repair. Other species seem to lack these leader-follower dynamics.”

These dynamics can be applied to the study of sociality and its complexities more broadly, even in humans. 

According to Wright, “This has implications for computer AI in identifying keystones in human crowds during things like riots, or even fun human activities like sports. What makes an influential leader? Spiders may be able to tell us. It's not guaranteed to translate to humans 1-to-1, but it allows us to understand what's possible and apply our findings to other systems. Many corporations now use personality research to construct teams composed of personality phenotypes that are optimal for output and cooperation.”

Luckily, the parallels between human and spider society are mostly abstract and theoretical. We certainly wouldn’t want to take child-rearing tips from them. They feed their young, but not in the way you might think. The first repast of each generation of spiderlings consists of its own relatives  … mothers and aunts alike are consumed, the male ancestors having died before their offspring hatched.

All of this is probably enough to leave the sanity of the spider-averse hanging by a thread. But, like nearly all of its brethren, the African social spider poses a only a psychological threat. Unless of course you are a hapless insect trapped in its web. Then prepare for annihilation by an eight-legged mob.

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Main Image Credit: Graham Montgomery

When spiders unite: African social spiders live in large groups of up to 1,000

We think of spiders as solitary creatures, hunched in their...

Known affectionately as the “garbage cans of the sea,” <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/shark-populations-australia-decline/">tiger sharks</a> are known for eating almost anything they come across — from sea turtles to rubber tires. A new paper in <a href="https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/19399170/">Ecology</a> has found yet another bizarre addition to the tiger shark menu: songbirds.

It’s not weird for a shark to eat birds in general, as many seabirds meet their demise at the hands (or teeth) of sharks every day. But the weird part about this new finding is that the birds found to be consumed by young tiger sharks are more commonly found in your backyard than in the ocean, such as sparrows, doves, and woodpeckers.

The research team – led by Marcus Drymon of <a href="https://www.msstate.edu/">Mississippi State University</a> – wrestled three-foot-long juvenile tiger sharks onto a boat, pumped their stomachs, and then analyzed a sample of their stomach contents before releasing the sharks back into the wild. Out of the 105 sharks studied, a whopping 41 had bird remains in their stomachs. These remains were sent to the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a>’s Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution for DNA analysis.

Through this DNA analysis, scientists were able to determine that none of the bird remains found belonged to any kind of marine bird. All of the species analyzed were terrestrial birds. This is the first evidence of tiger sharks eating birds that primarily live on land.

All of the sharks caught and analyzed were in the Gulf of Mexico during bird migration season. 

“In every instance, the timing of the tiger shark eating the bird coincided with the peak sighting for that species of bird off our coast,” explains Drymon. 

“The tiger sharks scavenge on songbirds that have trouble flying over the ocean. During migration, they’re already worn out, and then they get tired or fall into the ocean during a storm,” adds Chicago’s Field Museum researcher Kevin Feldheim, a co-author on the study.

These findings could help provide scientists with a better understanding of tiger sharks, which may help us protect them in the long run. 

“All sharks are in trouble,” says Feldheim. “We don’t know the extent of how industrialized fishing has taken a toll, but the vast majority of top predator populations have declined in recent years.”

--

By <a href="mailto:certz@earth.com">Connor Ertz</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Young tiger sharks eat the birds commonly found in your backyard

Known affectionately as the “garbage cans of the sea,” tiger...

An international team of researchers led by the <a href="http://www.manchester.ac.uk/">University of Manchester</a> has conducted a groundbreaking study which reveals fossilized color pigments in a long extinct mouse species.

The researchers applied X-ray imaging to three-million-year-old fossils in an effort to identify the key pigments in the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/new-fossil-earliest-known-bird/">ancient animals</a>. The experts looked for chemical signatures of specific red pigments to help determine how the colors may have evolved.

“The fossils we have studied have the vast potential to unlock many secrets of the original organism,” said study lead author Professor Phil Manning. “We can reconstruct key facets from life, death and the subsequent events impacting preservation before and after burial. To unpick this complicated fossil chemical archive requires an interdisciplinary team to combine their efforts to crack this problem. In doing this, we unlock much more than just palaeontological information.”

“This was a painstaking effort involving physics, palaeontology, organic chemistry, and geochemistry,” added study co-author Professor Roy Wogelius. “By working as a team, we were able, for the first time, to discover chemical traces of red pigment in fossil animal material. We understand now what to look for in the future and our hope is that these results will mean that we can become more confident in reconstructing extinct animals and thereby add another dimension to the study of evolution.”

Nearly ten years ago, the same research team found chemical traces of black pigment in well-preserved soft tissue. The red pigment found in animals such as foxes, however, is not as durable and is much more difficult to detect.

“We had data which suggested red pigment residue was present in several fossils, but there was no useful data available to compare this to in modern organisms. So we needed to devote several years to analyzing modern tissue before we could go back and review our results from some amazing fossil specimens,” said Professor Wogelius. “In the end, we were able to prove that detailed chemical analysis can resolve such pigment residue, but along the way we learned so much more about the chemistry of pigmentation throughout the animal kingdom.”

The key was identifying trace metals in the soft tissues of ancient organisms and comparing these to living species. The trace metals in the mouse fur were found to be bonded to organic chemicals in exactly the same way that these metals are bonded to organic pigments in animals with high concentrations of red pigment.

“Palaeontology offers research that is more than relevant to our everyday life,” said Professor Manning. “Information gleaned from the fossil record is influencing multiple fields, including; climate research, the burial of biowaste and radwaste, the measure of environmental impact of oil spills on living species with techniques developed on fossil organisms. Whilst our research is firmly anchored in the past, we set our sights on its application to the future."

The study 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

Image Credit: University of Manchester

Scientists identify red color pigments in ancient fossil for the first time

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

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/">British Ecological Society</a> studied an endangered African penguin colony during a three-year closure of commercial fisheries around Robben Island, South Africa. The team found that local fish abundance directly affects how adult <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/antarctic-biodiversity-penguins-poop/">penguins</a> fish and the body condition of their chicks.

One of the biggest drivers of biodiversity loss in the ocean is fishing, which is so widespread that it prevents us from understanding the “natural” relationships between predators and their prey. Many marine predators like penguins are species whose success indicates the condition of their habitat, also known as indicator species.

“Understanding how African penguins forage to feed their chicks in their variable marine environment can help us identify conservation measures for these endangered populations,” said study lead author Dr. Kate Campbell. “A three-year commercial fisheries closure around Robben Island, South Africa created a unique opportunity to study how African penguins directly respond to natural changes in local abundance of their prey - anchovies and sardines.”

The study revealed that local abundance of anchovy and sardine populations were directly linked to African penguin foraging behavior and the condition of chick offspring.

When fish abundance was lower, adults were seen swimming further, foraging for longer,  and diving more often. This explains why chick body condition declined, as breeding adults were dedicating more energy to finding food.

“Interestingly, the variation in foraging behavior between individuals also increased when prey fish were scarcer,” said study co-author Dr. Richard Sherley. “While some 'superstar' penguins find food easily, others are less successful. Once food gets harder to find, more individuals will start to struggle and work harder, but they will do so at different rates, increasing the variation we see in foraging effort.”

The study findings suggest that penguin foraging behavior and chick condition could be key indicators for local fish abundance.

“Since these short-term changes will likely have knock-on effects for chick survival and penguin population size, they could be used as powerful early warning signs to inform fisheries' policies and marine conservation efforts,” said Dr. Campbell. “Technological advances also means there's exciting potential to better understand how these endangered penguins behave when prey resources are scarce.”

“Hopefully, in the future, we could aim to effectively balance fishery management with penguins' needs, to reduce the impact on local economies whilst maximising the benefits to our oceans,” concluded Dr. Sherley.

The study is published in the <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/13652664">Journal of Applied Ecology</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: R. B. Sherley

Penguin foraging behavior and body condition offer clues to habitat health

Researchers from the British Ecological Society studied an endangered African...

Bonobo mothers may be some of the most meddling moms in the animal kingdom, according to a new study. 

<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bonobos-generous-share-food/">Bonobos</a> form a matriarchal society, and primatologists from the <a href="https://www.eva.mpg.de/">Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology</a> recently discovered that bonobo mothers have an active role in finding mates for their sons.

Bonobo moms have been observed using their social position to get mates for their sons, preventing other males from mating with females, and dragging their sons to get close to ovulating females all to ensure that their sons reproduce. 

The researchers detailed these findings in a study published in the journal <a href="http://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)30338-0">Current Biology. </a>

“This is the first time that we can show the impact of the mother’s presence on a very important male fitness trait, which is their fertility,” said Martin Surbeck, the first author of the study. “We were surprised to see that the mothers have such a strong, direct influence on the number of grandchildren they get.”

[caption id="attachment_1872901" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/male-bonobo.jpeg"><img class="wp-image-1872901" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/male-bonobo.jpeg" alt="" width="650" height="430" /></a> Adult male bonobo, Image Credit: Martin Surbeck[/caption]

The researchers led by Surbeck recorded observations of wild populations of bonobos in the Democratic Republic of Congo and chimpanzees in Tanzania and Uganda. Both the bonobo and chimp mothers were invested in their son’s reproductive success and future fatherhood. 

If bonobo or chimpanzee males started fighting, the mothers would help their sons, but bonobo mothers went above and beyond to make sure their sons found a mate. 

From physically putting their sons in the vicinity of ovulating females to warding off competition, bonobo mothers exhibited a range of overbearing tactics to strengthen their son’s chances. 

Bonobo daughters, however, were left to themselves, receiving very little help or intervention from their mothers when it came to mating or raising young. 

The researchers hope to continue their observations and explore how these protective and active tactics that bonobo mothers use help both mothers and sons. The researchers say it may all boil down to the drive to ensure the survival of their lineage and genes, but further studies are needed to confirm these theories. 

“These females have found a way to increase their reproductive success without having more offspring themselves,” said Surbeck. 

--

By<a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com"> Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Main Image Credit: Martin Surbeck

Bonobo mothers get proactive in helping their sons find mates

Bonobo mothers may be some of the most meddling moms...

In the absence of wolves, coyotes have adapted to changing landscapes. Once while hiking in the Catskills of New York, my partner Erin and I were lucky to stumble upon a few coyotes. The canines sprinted away quickly in a flurry of dried leaves that covered the forest floor on that autumn day. Even in that brief moment, I noticed the coyotes were a bit different from the coyotes I knew from the western states where I’ve spent most of my life. 

Eastern coyotes are longer in leg than the relatively stocky coyotes you’ll find in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming or South Dakota.  The differences between eastern coyotes and western coyotes bring to mind several questions – is there hybridization with wolves? What causes the difference? And finally, what ecological role does each population of coyotes play? 

As <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/spread-coyotes-deer-numbers/">we reported</a> back in March of this year, research has shown that although coyotes do sometimes eat deer, they don’t significantly control their population, at least in the eastern US. This is a problem because the eastern states are somewhat overrun with white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) populations.

<a href="https://farm.vassar.edu/management/deer/">Vassar Farms and Ecological Preserve</a>, a research facility connected to Vassar University, hired a private company in 2010 to kill deer in an attempt to control deer overpopulation. Since 2013, Vassar has been working with the US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to cull their deer population. The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/22/nyregion/deer-vasectomies-staten-island.html">New York Times</a> reports that on Staten Island, New York City’s <a href="https://www.nycgovparks.org/about/health-and-safety-guide">Department of Parks and Recreation</a> has been working with veterinarians to control deer populations by performing vasectomies. 

Some critics feel the procedure will be useless as deer that aren’t pregnant will only go into heat again and a single male deer can impregnate many females. It’s still in the first few years of the deer vasectomy trial, so it’s hard to say how much affect the procedures are having. But the real question is why is so much effort in deer population control needed at all? And why is deer population control more necessary in the eastern US than in the west? The answer is related to ecology but it’s also wrapped up in human history.In the absence of wolves, coyotes have adapted to changing landscapes

When Europeans first arrived on the eastern coast of what came to be known as North America, wolves were distributed throughout what would become the United States (minus Hawaii), including the eastern half. Due to their arrival on the eastern side of the continent, European persecution of wolves hit the canids hardest in the eastern states, with small remnant populations remaining in the midwest and importantly, Alaska. By 1960, only about 300 wolves remained in the lower 48 states, hiding in dense forests of Michigan and Minnesota, according to <a href="https://www.graywolfconservation.com/Wild_Wolves/history.htm">Grey Wolf Conservation</a>. 

Much of the wolf habitat in the eastern US was developed, slicing up potential habitat into smaller pieces. Small reintroduction programs in several states where more land is available have had a rocky start, often coming into conflict with ranchers in those areas. Reintroduction and survival of the wolf in the contiguous United States is an ongoing if controversial effort. Meanwhile, the downfall of the wolf has only benefited their smaller cousin, the coyote.  

The <a href="https://urbancoyoteresearch.com/coyote-info/north-american-distribution">Urban Coyote Research Project</a> reports that before 1700, coyotes were found only in the deserts and prairies of the central United States and Mexico. That population slowly began to spread outwards as wolves were killed off by settlers and hunters. With less competition from the larger wolves, coyotes flourished.  European Americans and the US government tried to control the coyote populations in the same way they curtailed the wolf populations – bullets, traps, poison. But coyotes are a trickier animal than wolves, especially when it comes to eradication. Often, killing coyotes results in the few remaining female coyotes going into heat more often, producing more young and in the end creating a population boom. 

Coyotes have also been found living in urban environments, something impossible for wolves. I’ve seen coyotes unconcernedly strolling across streets and along city park sidewalks in the city of Tucson (interestingly Tucson coyotes are larger than many other western coyotes as well). Coyotes have become common in west coast cities and now live near population centers outside of their historic range, such as New York City. 

The success of coyotes isn’t confined only to North America either. <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coyotes-exploded-north-america/">Earth.com</a> reported that coyotes have crossed the Panama Canal and have been seen approaching the Darien Gap, a dense piece of roadless jungle on the border of Panama and Columbia. Given the differing fate of wolves and coyotes when subjected to the pressures of human development, habitat destruction, and hunting, the question becomes how the change in populations is likely to affect the ecology of North America?

There is some evidence that coyotes fill some of the ecological roles of wolves.  <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/better-hunter-eastern-coyotes-wolves/">Earth.com</a> reports that coyotes are only 10 to 15 pounds lighter on average than wolves, but that this difference in weight is enough that the smaller canids rarely hunt moose the way wolves do. Coyotes instead prey on deer, rabbits and smaller game. Later, it was <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/spread-coyotes-deer-numbers/">found</a> that despite preying on deer, for some reason coyotes in eastern states aren’t effectively controlling deer populations for the most part. There is still some evidence that in parts of the eastern US, deer populations are declining, pointing to the unpredictability of coyotes as deer hunters. Researchers suspect that as coyote populations continue to grow, they may more effectively deer populations. This all points to the flexibility and adaptiveness of the coyote, which asks another question – are they still coyotes?     

As I mentioned before, eastern coyotes look differently than their stockier western cousins. Coyotes in the eastern states actually look a lot more like the mostly eradicated wolves. As <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/eastern-coyotes-wolves/">Earth.com</a> reported, some have taken to call them “coy-wolves” instead of coyotes at all. This is because genetically, the eastern coyote isn’t exactly a coyote. Genetic research has found that the eastern coy-wolves are actually hybrids of coyotes, wolves and dogs. This goes a long way towards explaining the persistence of coyotes in the United States. 

To adapt, it seems the coyote tapped into a bigger gene pool, allowing greater flexibility in its adaptation. Genetic diversity is the raw material of evolution. In the end, the story of the coyote is the story of humans. 

Coyotes in North America reflect a reaction of wildness – ecosystems, evolution, a stubborn canine that won’t die off to our own disturbance of a mighty continent. It even shows reflections of our own interactions with the dogs we love and their ancestors, the wolves, that we hate. When you think of the history of destruction and colonization of America, also think of the persistence of the coyote and the coy-wolf.        

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

In the absence of wolves, coyotes have adapted to changing landscapes

In the absence of wolves, coyotes have adapted to changing...

Environmental pollutants don’t just affect living people who encounter them. They can also affect the fertility of future generations, according to new research.

A team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.uliege.be/cms/c_8699436/en/uliege-portal">University of Liege</a> studies how endocrine-disrupting chemicals – common pollutants already in our environment from plastic, pesticides and medications – affected pregnant rats and their offspring. 

When the pregnant rats were given doses equivalent to those many human communities are exposed to, they showed impairments in their maternal behavior that were passed down to future generations. Their offspring and later generations also showed impaired sexual development.

"Our results raise real concerns about the effects of these pollutants in our environment,” said Dr. Anne-Simone Parent, who worked with graduate student David Lopez Rodriguez on the study. “We found effects of EDCs in generations of animals that had not been directly exposed to the chemicals. We exposed the parent generation only and found long-term effects on fertility.”

Other studies have already linked environmental pollutants to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/home-chemical-pollutants-harm-fertility/">infertility</a> and <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bpa-exposure-premature-birth/">premature birth</a> in humans and other animals.

The researchers were especially concerned because in their study, only the pregnant rats were exposed to endocrine-disrupting chemicals. In real life, humans and other animals are exposed to EDCs and other environmental pollutants on a regular basis for generations.

"These findings raise questions about the legacy we are leaving future generations,” Rodriguez said. “Current European legislation on EDCs does not consider how mixtures of low dose pollutants in our environment could be causing harm and affecting our children and wildlife in future generations, our data suggest an urgent need to follow the precautionary principle."

The team will present their findings at the <a href="https://www.ese-hormones.org/">European Society of Endocrinology</a> annual meeting, <a href="https://www.ese-hormones.org/events-deadlines/european-congress-of-endocrinology/ece-2019/">ECE 2019</a>.

They plan to continue studying the rats, to determine whether the impaired maternal behavior linked to environmental pollutants or the pollutant exposure itself contributes to future generations’ difficulties. 

—

By Kyla Cathey, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> staff writer

Environmental pollutants affect sexual development for generations

Environmental pollutants don’t just affect living people who encounter them....

There are only 80,000 koala bears left in Australia, according to the <a href="https://www.savethekoala.com/">Australian Koala Foundation</a> (AKF). In an alarming <a href="https://www.savethekoala.com/sites/savethekoala.com/files/uploads/AKF_press_release_10_may_2019.pdf">press release</a> issued on May 10th, the foundation reports that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/koalas-defense-viral-attacks/">koalas</a> may be ‘functionally extinct’ as populations decline.

But the timing of the announcement is significant. Australia is in the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/australia-election-190514043301121.html">process of a major election</a> to vote for the next Prime Minister and Parliament, and the bold koala claim lines up with growing concerns about environmental protections. 

The AKF has been monitoring 128 Federal electorates or electoral districts. 41 out of the 128 have no koalas, 26 have a population of less than 100, and 46 have between 500 and 1,000 koalas leading to the declaration that the lovable marsupials are functionally extinct.

“I am calling on the new Prime Minister after the May election to enact the Koala Protection Act (KPA) which has been written and ready to go since 2016. The plight of the Koala now falls on his shoulders,” said Deborah Tabart OAM, the CEO of the AKF. 

Habitat degradation, deforestation, and Australia’s<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/australia-battles-drought/"> record-breaking heat waves and recent droughts</a> are all contributing to the species’ demise, and the AKF is calling on the government to act. 

If a species is declared functionally extinct, it can mean that they may as well be extinct even though populations are still present but have no impact on the ecosystem. It can also be used to categorize species that researchers are not yet convinced have gone extinct although few if any members of the species have been observed. 

In this case, the AKF used to the term to emphasize the fate of koalas and their steadily declining populations. 

However, a number of researchers and koala experts have questioned the AKF claims.

Christine Adams-Hosking, a biologist from the <a href="https://www.uq.edu.au/">University of Queensland,</a> told <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2203655-no-koalas-are-not-functionally-extinct-but-they-are-in-trouble/">New Scientist</a> that koalas are nowhere near in danger of extinction, but local populations are declining in certain regions due to habitat clearing. 

Importantly, Adams-Hosking surveyed koala populations in 2016 and estimated that the total number of koalas in Australia at the time was around 300,000, which is a far cry from the estimated 80,000 koalas left reported by the AKF. 

Whether the AKF was utilizing hyperbole to gain the attention of politicians during a heated election has yet to be substantiated. But what is certain is that koalas, like so many of Earth’s wildlife, are struggling with the stress of climate change and habitat loss due to human activities. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Are koala bears heading towards extinction?

There are only 80,000 koala bears left in Australia, according...

An isolated fossil of a wing discovered in the Solnhofen Limestones in Germany dating back to the late Jurassic era has added a new chapter to the lineage of birds. 

It was previously thought that Archaeopteryx, first discovered in 1861, was the earliest known bird to take to the skies. But researchers from the <a href="https://www.en.uni-muenchen.de/">Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität</a> say that this is not the case and that Archaeopteryx was not the only bird capable of flight 150 million years ago. 

Birds today are related to dinosaurs, and until now Archaeopteryx had the honor of being the first <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dinosaurs-flapping-wings-fly/">flying dinosaur</a>.

In a new study, published in the journal <a href="https://elifesciences.org/articles/43789">eLife</a>, researchers describe a previously unknown species of flying dinosaur that lived alongside Archaeopteryx in the Altmühl Valley in Germany during the late Jurassic. 

“This suggests that the diversity of birds in the late Jurassic era was greater than previously thought,” said Oliver Rauhut, a paleontologist who led the project.

[caption id="attachment_1872795" align="aligncenter" width="633"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/bird-fossil.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1872795" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/bird-fossil.jpg" alt="" width="633" height="593" /></a> Image Credit: Rauhut et al/LMU Munich/eLife[/caption]

Rauhut analyzed the fossil of the bird’s right wing and found that it belonged to an entirely new species of bird which the researchers called Alcmonavis poeschli. 

“At first, we assumed that this was another specimen of Archaeopteryx,” said Rauhut. “There are similarities, but after detailed comparisons with Archaeopteryx and other, geologically younger birds, its fossil remains suggested that we were dealing with a somewhat more derived bird.”

According to the researchers, Alcmonavis poeschli may have been able to outfly Archaeopteryx, and the new bird was better adapted to flapping flight similar to many of today’s birds. 

“Its adaptation shows that the evolution of flight must have progressed relatively quickly,” said Dr. Christian Foth, a co-author of the study.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>,<a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Rauhut et al/LMU Munich/eLife

New fossil reveals that the earliest known bird had some competition

An isolated fossil of a wing discovered in the Solnhofen...

Redefining ‘endangered species’ could be key to protecting larger animals. Today is Endangered Species Day, and new research suggests that we must re-evaluate our definition of what constitutes an “endangered” group if we want to protect large, slow-breeding animals from irreversible decline. 

Study lead author Dr. Shermin de Silva is the president and founder of the Asian elephant conservation charity <a href="http://www.trunksnleaves.org/">Trunks &amp; Leaves</a>.

“Critical thresholds in so-called vital rates - such as mortality and fertility rates among males and females of various ages - can signal an approaching population collapse long before numbers drop below a point of no return,” said Dr. de Silva.Redefining ‘endangered species’ could be key to protecting larger animals 

“We propose that conservation efforts for Asian elephants and other slow-breeding megafauna be aimed at maintaining their 'demographic safe space': that is, the combination of key vital rates that supports a non-negative growth rate.”

According to the researchers, vital rates provide a better indication of a species' viability compared to short-term trends in population size.

[caption id="attachment_1872786" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/asian-elephants.jpeg"><img class="wp-image-1872786" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/asian-elephants.jpeg" alt="" width="650" height="391" /></a> Asian elephants, Image Credit: Udawalawe Elephant Research Project[/caption]

“History bears this out,” said Dr. de Silva. “Genomic studies of the last mammoths isolated on Wrangel Island - between Russia and Alaska - have shown that although they were able to persist for thousands of years beyond the extinction of mainland populations with just ~300 individuals, they had accumulated numerous genetic mutations that may have eventually contributed to their extinction.”

This means that populations of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/humans-extinction-megafauna/">megafauna</a> can become biologically doomed long before they disappear if they are pushed beyond their “demographic safe space.” The researchers applied this theory to the case of the Asian elephant and found that near-optimal reproduction and high calf survival is necessary to maintain population growth.

“Measures to enhance survival of calves, and particularly females, are key to saving the Asian elephant,” said Dr. de Silva. “But while the attention of the world has been focused on the ivory trade, for critically endangered Asian elephant populations the greatest threat is habitat loss - followed by illegal trade in live animals and parts.”

“Habitat loss can create something known as 'extinction debt' by slowing down birth rates and increasing mortality rates. For slow breeding long-lived species, even incremental changes make a big difference, but their longevity can obscure the risk of extinction.”

[caption id="attachment_1872785" align="aligncenter" width="650"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Redefining-‘endangered-species’-could-be-key-to-protecting-large-animals.jpeg"><img class="wp-image-1872785" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Redefining-‘endangered-species’-could-be-key-to-protecting-large-animals.jpeg" alt="" width="650" height="511" /></a> Mother and calf, Image Credit: Udawalawe Elephant Research Project[/caption]

Conservation efforts for other large, slow-breeding species such as giraffes and rhinos could also benefit from modelling the interaction between vital rates. 

“Rather than rely on simple population counts or estimates of near-term extinction probability, we urge that conservation resources for slow-breeding megafauna also be invested in identifying demographic tipping points and how to maintain populations within their safe spaces.”

“Populations of slow-breeding taxa need proactive management well before numbers become critically low, when returns on investment are potentially greater and populations less likely committed to extinction.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution">Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution</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: Udawalawe Elephant Research Project

Redefining ‘endangered species’ could be key to protecting larger animals

Redefining ‘endangered species’ could be key to protecting larger animals....

Dung beetles may sound gross, but here’s why they’re important to ecosystems. The first time I visited Ecuador, it was as part of a Tropical Ecology field course.  The first stop on the trip was <a href="http://www.shiripunolodge.com">Shiripuno Lodge</a>, a research station and tourism lodge near the far western edge of the Amazon Rainforest on the Shiripuno River.  The course covered all aspects of wildlife biology, botany, and ecology in the region that could be covered in a week.  Hikes in the day and at night found a myriad of amazing, if often tiny wild creatures. One part of the trip was quite memorable – the dung beetles.  

Dung beetles are one of the most intensively studied animal groups in tropical forests, according to <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/all-you-need-is-human-feces-the-strange-world-of-dung-beetle-sampling/">Mongabay</a>, and they truly are fascinating creatures.  I’ve watched scarabs roll their perfectly round balls across a dirt road in <a href="https://www.nps.gov/wica/index.htm">Wind Cave National Park</a> and on hard pack soil in the desert southwest.  The Egyptians watched beetles with their balls and imagined a giant scarab rolled the sun across the sky.  Despite their fecal proclivities, many of the beetles are actually quite beautiful – some are brightly colored, armed with horns and spikes, tiny and dull, large or shiny.  I saw one that was the spitting image of a brightly painted Volkswagen Beetle. 

One of the researchers teaching the field course in Ecuador cut up an old t-shirt and created small bundles of fabric.  Tied within the bundles was feces. These bundles strung over plastic cups of alcohol acted as effective dung beetle traps.  As students, we took turns collecting the beetles once an hour and putting them into labeled tubes. I myself went out in the dark along a mud path slippery with recent rain to collect beetles from several traps.  

The exercise was technically research but it demonstrated something already known, dung beetles are more active in the early morning and around twilight as the sun sets.  It makes intuitive sense – beetles that eat feces are more active when animals are most likely to defecate. Morning after waking up or just before bedding down for the night (reverse that for nocturnal animals) are the most productive defecation times.  It was a simple experiment with satisfying results and very few materials needed to pull it off. What we know sometimes depends on how easy it is to carry out an experiment. 

A paper published in <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01133.x">Ecology Letters</a> In 2007 is perhaps part of the popularity of dung beetles.  The paper authored by over twenty researchers compared the cost and benefit of surveying 14 different animal groups in the Amazon region.  They found dung beetles to be the least expensive animal group to survey, with easy monitoring carried out with simple supplies. 

Interestingly, dung beetles have also been found to be one of the most telling animal groups in terms of how intact an ecosystem is.  This makes intuitive sense. You’d expect an animal that feeds on the excrement of other animals to indicate whether or not a large amount of wildlife was doing well.  

Dung beetles are also sensitive to disturbance of their tropical forest homes.  <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/all-you-need-is-human-feces-the-strange-world-of-dung-beetle-sampling/">Mongabay</a> reports that beetles found in Brazil’s most endangered forest, the Atlantic forest, can show how long ago a forest was cut down (in secondary growth forest).  Other dung beetles are indicators of particularly undamaged forests .Dung beetles may sound gross, but here’s why they’re important to ecosystems 

Dung beetles themselves are incredibly diverse. Like many invertebrate groups, scarabs (dung beetles are a type of scarab) are found on every continent except Antarctica.  Of beetles, the most diverse order of insects, scarabs make up almost 10% with approximately 30,000 species, according to <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/invertebrates/group/scarabs/">National Geographic</a>.  

Not all scarabs are dung beetles, though.  The dung beetles are spread across the world and have been used as indicators of ecological health not just in the neotropics but also in forests in Africa and Asia.  

Evidence shows that certain dung beetle species are attracted to different types of dung and won’t eat other types, although a few of them find human waste to be particularly tasty.  Unsurprisingly, large dung beetles require larger piles of dung, while smaller beetles are fine with smaller droppings. Ecological health isn’t about the beetle itself, although they do play a role.  It’s also about the mammal populations that the beetles depend on. Dung beetles are important in other places far from tropical rainforests. There’s a chance that the dung beetle I saw in Wind Cave National Park was feeding on bison dung.  

The <a href="https://denverite.com/2018/01/16/dung-beetles-inform-us-of-colorados-past-and-future/">Denverite</a> reported last year that with the decline of bison in much of the western United States, dung beetles also declined.  The <a href="https://entnemdept.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/BENEFICIAL/BEETLES/Phanaeus_vindex.htm">Rainbow Scarab</a> (Phanaeus vindex) was once native to Colorado but it’s incredibly rare now, due probably to the horrible slaughter of the bison.  It’s possible that the Rainbow Scarab could’ve survived on similar cow dung but by the time settlers arrived with their imported European bovine, the die off of the beetle was complete.  

<a href="http://www.oikosjournal.org/blog/when-big-partner-disappears-ecological-consequences-megafauna-loss-dung-beetles">Oikos Journal</a> reports that it isn’t just the decimation of the bison population that was detrimental to dung beetles.  60% of large late Pleistocene mammals are now extinct, an event possibly caused by human hunting. Along with the extinction of animals like mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths and woolly rhinos, the larger dung beetles died off as well.  Other beetles studied for comparison actually showed an increase in size over time, which is consistent with adaptation for global warming, making it all the more likely that the extinction of large mammals also caused the extinction of dung beetles.  

Today, human habitat destruction and overhunting are just two factors endangering more and more large mammals, and <a href="http://www.endangeredearth.com">as much as 25%</a> of mammal species are threatened with extinction.  With <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/hunting-decline-mammals-tropical-forests/">mammals</a> dying off, we can expect the extinction or reduction of many dung beetles as well.  No one knows exactly the consequences of a dung beetle mass extinction but it’s likely, the ramifications from the extinction connected to the Pleistocene megafauna hasn’t caught up to us yet.

Dung beetles are important parts of ecosystems. <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-humble-dung-beetle-180967781/">Smithsonian Magazine</a> reports that when European Cattle with their new type of dung were introduced to Australia, the native beetles were poorly equipped.  Half a million acres of grazing land was smothered in dung that couldn’t be cleaned up by the native dung beetles. Parasites thrived in the feces rich environment.  23 new species of dung beetle introduced to Australian rangeland have turned the situation around. Similarly, introduced beetles have helped clean up cattle dung in Madagascar, Hawaii, Easter Island, Vanuatu and New Zealand.                     

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Dung beetles may sound gross, but here’s why they’re important to ecosystems

Dung beetles may sound gross, but here’s why they’re important...

Lizards, starfish, flatworms, and tadpoles are all equipped with the ability to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/genetic-control-switch-regeneration/">regenerate a lost limb</a>. 

Regeneration in the animal kingdom has been documented as far back as the 4th century, but scientists are still unsure exactly what mechanisms are responsible for this remarkable ability. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> are one step closer to solving the regeneration puzzle after the discovery of a new type of skin cell specifically responsible for tail regrowth in tadpoles. 

Single cell genomics, a new advancement in gene sequencing that allows researchers to track gene expression at the level of individual cells, provided an up-close look at tadpole skin cells and how these cells jump to attention when it’s time to regenerate. 

The researchers analyzed cell types involved in regeneration in African clawed frog tadpoles and focused on a two-day period where regeneration is inhibited. 

“Tadpoles can regenerate their tails throughout their life; but there is a two-day period at a precise stage in development where they lose this ability,” said Dr. Tom Hiscock, a member of the research team that helped sequence the skin cells. “We exploited this natural phenomenon to compare the cell types present in tadpoles capable of regeneration and those no longer capable.”

Hiscock and his colleagues found that regeneration is jumpstarted by a subpopulation of epidermal cells called Regeneration-Organizing Cells (ROCs). The ROCs direct the entire process. 

“It’s an astonishing process to watch unfold. After tail amputation, ROCs migrate from the body to the wound and secrete a cocktail of growth factors that coordinate the response of tissue precursor cells,” said Can Aztekin, a co-researcher for the project. “These cells then work together to regenerate a tail of the right size, pattern and cell composition.”

Having a better understanding of the driving mechanisms that make regeneration possible in reptiles and amphibians could help open the door to new pathways for studying potential regeneration in mammals. 

The researchers published their findings in the journal Science. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a> <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Tadpoles can regenerate their tails thanks to a newly discovered type of cell

Lizards, starfish, flatworms, and tadpoles are all equipped with the...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE
</div></figure>



On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop and sunlight barely penetrates through the polar winter. It was here, however, that an international team of scientists found <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/predatory-worms-were-terror-beasts-half-a-billion-years-ago/#google_vignette" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">evidence of sea monsters</a> that would change our understanding of ocean life in the past.



This video captures the discovery of Timorebestia fossils that had been hidden for more than 500 million years in the Sirius Passet formation. The "terror beasts," as they are called, are a hidden chapter in the evolutionary history of <a href="https://www.earth.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earth</a>, showing that sophisticated predator-prey interactions occurred much earlier than previously envisioned.



Dr. Jakob Vinther and his research team at the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Bristol</a>, in collaboration with researchers at the <a href="https://eng.kopri.re.kr/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Korean Polar Research Institute</a>, braved extreme weather conditions at 82.5 north latitude to locate these giant creatures. Using sophisticated electron microprobe analysis, they revealed the detailed anatomy of the animals, including their muscle and nerve tissues.



The find upsets the traditional timeline of sea predators. Although we've long appreciated that Cambrian oceans were at one time ruled by <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWI3-UgA3_o&amp;list=PL1QLQMW9MWDwpkFOnvgAmu7wT6rZmYqdJ&amp;index=19" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">arthropods</a>, these discoveries indicate that relatives of arrow worms were first to dominate the seas. These worms were building sophisticated food webs several million years before other predator groups arose.



Each fossil is a story of ancient hunger, with fossil stomach contents revealing these meter-long beasts dined on heavily armored arthropods regularly, cementing their place as the ocean's first apex predators.



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Worms dominated seas before dinosaurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y4eLFNYrKE On the unforgiving landscape of North Greenland, temperatures drop...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">New York is the site of the world's oldest forest.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-385-million-year-old-trees-discovered">385-million-year-old trees discovered</h2>



Scientists have uncovered something extraordinary just two hours north of New York City. The <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/worlds-oldest-forest-discovered-close-to-new-york-city/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">world's oldest forest</a>, dating back 385 million years, offers a window into how Earth's first complex forests shaped our planet's atmosphere.



Located near <a href="https://townofcairo.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cairo, New York</a>, in Greene County, these weren't merely primitive plants struggling to survive. These were sophisticated trees with root systems remarkably similar to modern forests. This ancient woodland predates dinosaurs by 140 million years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-cairo-forest-discovery">The Cairo forest discovery</h2>



385 million years ago, upstate New York was a tropical paradise near the equator. Thanks to continental drift, this ancient forest has traveled thousands of miles to its current location.



The fossil forest sits in an abandoned quarry, roughly half the size of a football field. This represents just a slice of what was likely a massive forest system stretching from New York into Pennsylvania.



Charles Ver Straeten, curator of sedimentary rocks at the <a href="https://www.nysm.nysed.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New York State Museum</a>, made the discovery in 2009. While scouting the former highway department property, his trained eye spotted wandering patterns in the stone that looked like marine features.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-revolutionary-age-and-preservation">Revolutionary age and preservation</h2>



The site contains 385-million-year-old rocks with fossilized woody roots forming horizontal patterns up to 18 feet (5.5 meters) wide. As Christopher Berry, a paleobotanist at Cardiff University, explains: "You are walking through the roots of ancient trees."



This discovery pushes back advanced tree evolution by millions of years. The research, published in <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Current Biology</a> in December 2019, fundamentally changes our understanding of when complex forests first emerged.



Researchers believe a massive flood buried the forest floor, creating perfect fossilization conditions. Over millions of years, sediment hardened into rock, preserving these root patterns like nature's time capsule.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-meet-archaeopteris-the-first-modern-tree">Meet Archaeopteris: the first modern tree</h2>



The star of this ancient forest is Archaeopteris – not to be confused with the feathered dinosaur Archaeopteryx. This tree was far older and more revolutionary.



William Stein from <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Binghamton University</a> describes the roots as "strikingly modern, essentially what you'd see outside in my yard right now." These weren't simple root systems you'd expect from ancient plants.



Some fossilized roots are six inches (15 centimeters) in diameter, forming 36-foot-wide (11-meter) patterns. These giants grew up to 65 feet (20 meters) tall with five-foot-diameter (1.5-meter) trunks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-climate-changing-impact">Climate-changing impact</h2>



These trees fundamentally changed Earth's environment. Kevin Boyce, a Stanford University geoscientist, explains how their deep roots triggered "weathering," chemical reactions that pulled carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.



This process dropped atmospheric CO2 levels from 10-15 times higher than today to roughly modern concentrations. These ancient trees helped create atmospheric conditions that made complex life possible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-ancient-forest-ecosystem">Ancient forest ecosystem</h2>



The forest was remarkably diverse. Scientists identified Eospermatopteris, palm tree-like plants with short roots that reached 30 feet (9 meters) tall but lacked woody structure. The forest also housed cladoxylopsids and a mysterious third species still being studied.



All reproduced through spores rather than seeds – millions of years before seeds evolved. This tropical environment had no grass, flowers, or flying insects, just towering trees creating Earth's first complex forest canopy.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-scientific-significance">Scientific significance</h2>



Before this finding, the Gilboa forest, located 25 miles (40 kilometers) away, held the "oldest forest" title. Cairo's trees are 2-3 million years older, showing that complex forest ecosystems developed much faster than scientists believed possible.



Patricia Gensel, a <a href="https://www.unc.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of North Carolina</a> paleobotanist, notes: "The size of those root systems is really changing the picture. Even 20 years ago, researchers assumed trees with such complex root systems didn't evolve so early."



The Cairo site presents three unique root systems, suggesting Devonian period forests were diverse ecosystems with different trees occupying different environmental niches, much like today's forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-modern-preservation-efforts">Modern preservation efforts</h2>



In 2022, New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey secured a $170,000 grant for the town of Cairo to construct specialized fencing around the fossil forest site. The town plans to conduct a feasibility study exploring the possibility of creating an educational center and working lab on-site.



Joe Hasenkopf, chair of the Cairo Planning Board, hopes to partner with educational institutions to create a research facility serving scientists, students, and the public.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-lessons-for-today-s-climate">Lessons for today's climate</h2>



Why does a 385-million-year-old forest matter today? It shows how dramatically forests can change Earth's climate. These ancient woodlands created the atmospheric conditions supporting complex life.



Understanding how prehistoric forests transformed the planet helps us appreciate modern forests' critical role in addressing climate change. Forests remain Earth's most effective carbon capture systems.



These prehistoric trees changed Earth's atmosphere by pulling massive amounts of carbon dioxide from the air. As we face modern climate challenges, this ancient forest reminds us of trees' incredible power to transform our planet's environment.



The next time you walk through a forest, remember you're experiencing an ecosystem whose blueprint was established 385 million years ago in upstate New York. These ancient pioneers didn't just survive – they thrived and changed the world forever.



The full study was published in the journal Current Biology.



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Earth's oldest forest found in the United States

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ow3JH03PqEQ New York is the site of the world's oldest...

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk
</div><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">Acid rain and a crisis solved.</figcaption></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-don-t-we-ever-hear-about-acid-rain-anymore-the-environmental-crisis-that-was-solved">Why don't we ever hear about "acid rain" anymore? The environmental crisis that was solved</h2>



Remember the 1980s when acid rain dominated headlines? Dire warnings about rain eating buildings, killing fish, and destroying forests filled every news cycle. Then, almost like magic, acid rain vanished from public discourse. What happened? Did we actually solve one of the late 20th century's most pressing environmental challenges?



The answer might surprise you. Unlike many environmental issues that drag on indefinitely, acid rain represents one of modern history's most successful ecological recovery stories. It's a tale of science, politics, and technology working together to tackle what seemed impossible.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What was acid rain?</h2>



Acid rain isn't regular rain having a bad day – it's precipitation that became significantly more acidic due to air pollution. When power plants, factories, and vehicles burn fossil fuels, they release sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) into the atmosphere.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The science behind it</h2>



Think of acid rain as nature's chemistry experiment gone wrong. These compounds react with water, oxygen, and other chemicals to form sulfuric and nitric acids. When mixed with water vapor in clouds, they create precipitation with dangerously low pH levels.



While clean rain has a pH of about 5.6, acid rain could drop as low as 4.2 to 4.4 – roughly as acidic as tomato juice or coffee. According to US Geological Survey documentation, Scottish chemist Angus Smith first coined "acid rain" in 1872, but it didn't become a household phrase until the 1960s and 1970s when Swedish scientist Svante Odén documented its devastating effects on Scandinavian lakes and European forests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The crisis at its peak</h2>



During the height of public concern, environmental damage was both widespread and visible. This wasn't some abstract future threat – people could see destruction happening in real-time.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Environmental devastation</h2>



The most dramatic impacts were impossible to ignore. Research documented by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation shows that in the Adirondack Mountains, more than 200 lakes became so acidic they couldn't support fish life. The Adirondack Council reports that 409 lakes once supported brook trout, but many lost their fish populations due to acid rain.



By 1976, when scientists cataloged all acidified lakes in the Adirondack Park, researchers found that half of the lakes over 2,000 feet above sea level had no fish, according to studies published in environmental journals. The acidification process worked like a slow-motion disaster. As acid rain fell into watersheds, it gradually lowered pH levels. Fish couldn't survive in acidic water, and their food sources died off too.



Trees at high elevations showed stress directly linked to acid rain. It weakened them by leaching nutrients and making them susceptible to disease. Historical records show Germany's Black Forest saw nearly half its trees damaged by the mid-1980s.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Economic impact</h2>



Acid rain wasn't just environmental – it was expensive. Acidic precipitation corroded infrastructure, buildings, and monuments. Historic stone structures deteriorated at accelerated rates. Tourism suffered as lakes became fishless and forests declined. EPA economic analyses from the period documented repair costs mounting into billions annually.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The solution: government action and technology</h2>



Transformation from crisis to success required unprecedented cooperation between governments, industries, and environmental groups.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The Clean Air Act of 1990</h2>



The turning point came with the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, signed by President George H.W. Bush. This represented a fundamentally new approach to environmental regulation, as documented in EPA historical records.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cap-and-trade success</h2>



Instead of mandating specific technologies, the 1990 amendments introduced something revolutionary: a cap-and-trade system for sulfur dioxide emissions. EPA program documentation shows this market-based approach set overall limits but allowed companies to trade emission allowances.



The genius was harnessing market forces to find cost-effective pollution reduction. Companies reducing emissions cheaply could sell excess allowances to those facing higher costs. Research published in environmental economics journals and EPA progress reports shows this resulted in dramatic SO2 reduction at a fraction of projected costs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Technology advances</h2>



Policy provided the framework, but technology made reductions possible. Studies in atmospheric science journals document the widespread adoption of flue gas desulfurization systems ("scrubbers") that removed sulfur dioxide before it reached the atmosphere. By the 2000s, new installations could remove over 95% of SO2 emissions, according to EPA technical reports.



The push coincided with cleaner energy development. Natural gas produces fewer sulfur compounds than coal. Wind and solar, emerging in the 1990s, captured growing market share, reducing reliance on high-sulfur coal.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-we-don-t-hear-about-it-today">Why we don't hear about it today</h2>



Why did acid rain disappear from headlines? Simple: the problem was largely solved.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Success doesn't make news</h2>



There's an old journalism saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." Environmental success stories don't generate urgency like crisis reporting. Media attention shifted to other challenges: climate change, plastic pollution, and biodiversity loss. There's only so much environmental anxiety the public can absorb, and newer concerns replaced acid rain.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Mission accomplished</h2>



The primary reason is beautifully simple: interventions worked. EPA monitoring data shows sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990. Academic research published in environmental science journals confirms pH levels in formerly affected areas returned closer to normal. This represents one of history's most dramatic environmental recoveries. Studies by the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation show fishless lakes now support healthy populations. Forests recovered, and building damage slowed dramatically.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-is-it-really-gone">Is it really gone?</h2>



The crisis is largely resolved, but monitoring data shows the problem isn't completely eliminated – it's managed to acceptable levels. Some areas still experience occasional events during high pollution periods. International environmental research indicates that rapidly industrializing Asian countries face similar problems to what we experienced decades ago, though they're implementing successful strategies.



EPA research shows nitrogen oxide emissions proved more challenging than sulfur dioxide, coming from vehicles and mobile sources. Climate science studies suggest changing weather patterns add complexity to how acid rain forms and falls.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">What this teaches us</h2>



The acid rain experience proves that seemingly intractable environmental problems can be solved with scientific understanding, political will, and technological innovation. Environmental monitoring data shows recovery speed was remarkable – within a decade, measurable improvements appeared in air quality and ecosystem health.



Success came from bipartisan support across party lines. Policy analysis studies show the market-based approach appealed to those preferring economic incentives while achieving environmental goals. This support created lasting policy surviving political changes.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Conclusion</h2>



Acid rain's disappearance from public consciousness represents environmental science's greatest success stories. Through effective regulation, technological innovation, and international cooperation, we transformed an overwhelming crisis into a manageable challenge.



Today's silence isn't because we forgot – it's because we solved it. The 1990 Clean Air Act, combined with technology and energy market changes, reduced acid rain emissions over 90%, according to comprehensive EPA data analysis.



This success offers hope for current challenges. It proves complex problems can be solved when science, policy, and technology work together. As we face climate change and plastic pollution, acid rain reminds us that dramatic positive change is possible.



Next time someone asks whether environmental regulations work, remember acid rain. It's proof that sometimes, we get it right.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Sources: This article draws from EPA official documentation and progress reports, peer-reviewed research published in environmental and atmospheric science journals, historical data from the Adirondack Lakes Survey Corporation, New York State Department of Environmental Conservation records, US Geological Survey publications, policy analysis studies, and environmental monitoring data collected over three decades.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



1. Is acid rain completely gone? No, but EPA monitoring shows it's reduced to manageable levels. US sulfur dioxide emissions dropped over 90% since 1990, making acid rain much less severe than the 1980s crisis.



2. How long did solving take? Environmental monitoring data shows significant improvements began within 5-10 years of 1990s emission controls. Full ecosystem recovery took longer – some areas need 20-30 years for complete recovery.



3. What made the solution successful? Clear scientific understanding, visible damage motivating action, bipartisan support, available technology, and innovative market-based policies like cap-and-trade.



4. Do other countries have acid rain problems? Yes, particularly rapidly industrializing Asian countries. However, international environmental research shows many implement similar successful control strategies.



5. Could acid rain return? Potentially, if regulations weaken or we return to high-sulfur coal without controls, though effects would take years to become severe according to environmental projections.



6. Can you recommend any teaching tools on the subject of "acid rain"? The United States Environmental Protection Agency produced a wonderful teacher's guide for ages 14 and under that you can find on the EPA website here: <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2017-03/documents/teachersguide.pdf</a>



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The environmental problem we actually solved

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prrq8Ql81zk Acid rain and a crisis solved. Why don't we...

Fresh,Radish,Harvest,On,Soil,In,Garden.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex
</div></figure>







Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving fall garden, and this guide lays out the best vegetables and herbs to plant now for a fruitful autumn harvest. 



Fast-growing leafy greens such as spinach, lettuce, kale, and arugula perform especially well in the waning summer heat, with harvests beginning as soon as 30 days. 



These cool-season crops relish the transition into fall, offering repeated yields with cut-and-come-again methods.



Root vegetables like radishes, carrots, and beets also excel during this period. Radishes deliver satisfaction in under a month, while carrots and beets mature in about two months. Employing succession planting ensures a continuous stream of produce deep into the cooler months. 



For a boost of fresh flavor, herbs like cilantro, basil, dill, and chervil are excellent picks. These heat-loving varieties flourish in July’s warmth and are harvest-ready in about 30 days, especially when sown continuously.



Gardeners in zones 6 through 9 can benefit from planting bush beans and snap peas, which don’t require trellising and are ideal for compact plots. 



Maturing in 50–60 days, they’re a smart choice for quick, protein-rich harvests. For those in hotter regions, heat-tolerant crops such as okra and southern peas provide reliable yields and thrive in scorching conditions.



This guide emphasizes more than crop selection—it highlights the importance of timing, soil preparation, and ongoing sowing techniques. 



With thoughtful planning and attention to regional climate needs, even late-summer gardeners can enjoy fresh salads, hearty stews, and the satisfaction of a robust, homegrown harvest well into fall.



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What to plant in your garden in mid-July

https://youtu.be/Fi2OeEwuzRM?si=vTyd2m9FMmtyWkex Mid-July is an opportune time to kick-start a thriving...

Green,Ecoduct,Over,An,Empty,Highway,During,Sunset.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU
</div></figure>



A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that wildlife tunnels significantly reduce amphibian road mortality during seasonal migrations. 



Frogs and salamanders often cross roads to reach breeding ponds each spring, but many are killed by vehicles. 



Researchers from the <a href="https://www.uvm.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Vermont</a>, in collaboration with local citizens and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, installed two underpass tunnels in 2015. 



Over a 12-year monitoring period, they observed an 80.2% reduction in amphibian deaths, and up to 94% for non-climbing species like salamanders. 



The study used a before-after-control-impact design and documented more than 5,200 amphibians, highlighting the tunnels’ effectiveness even in nearby buffer zones.



Funded at $342,397 - far cheaper than wildlife crossings for large mammals - the project showcased the power of community-led conservation.



Local groups initiated the effort after observing mass amphibian deaths. Wildlife cameras later captured over 2,200 amphibians using a tunnel in just one spring, along with other species like raccoons and bobcats, indicating wider ecosystem benefits.



This marks the first peer-reviewed, long-term data set in the northeastern U.S. confirming amphibian-specific underpasses work. 



The study urges transportation departments to incorporate these designs into road planning and highlights how community action, thoughtful infrastructure, and persistence can make a real difference for biodiversity.



The full study was published in the <a href="https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1617138125000780" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Journal for Nature Conservation</a>.



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Wildlife tunnels save millions of amphibians

https://youtu.be/XYgiPzmNBTU?si=eFYY7gPHU1JznLvU A new long-term study in Monkton, Vermont, reveals that...

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.



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
https://youtu.be/Ug657J67iEo?si=w96YjGMsg939LD_3
</div></figure>



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"]</div>



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

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"]</div>



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...

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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

[sendtonews key="3upvlAaHgO-2256633-12187" 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> 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



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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



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How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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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

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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

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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



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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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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