As night falls in the rainforests, orangutans climb into the canopy to construct intricate tree nests, displaying remarkable ingenuity. 



These comfy platforms are carefully engineered beds, providing warmth, comfort, protection from predators, and even reduce mosquito bites.



Scientists have long wondered how young orangutans learn to master such complex architecture. Recent findings reveal that they acquire this skill through close observation and practice, a process called observational <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/chimpanzees-and-bees-are-capable-of-complex-social-learning/">social learning</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-orangutans-build-nests-for-survival">Orangutans build nests for survival</h2>



Nest-building is essential for survival. Unlike many behaviors in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-orangutans-can-teach-humans-about-food-and-fitness/">animals</a>, this skill is neither entirely instinctive nor quickly learned. 



Orangutans must manipulate branches, twigs, and leaves with strength and dexterity while making decisions about materials and structure.



Night nests, far more elaborate than day nests, can include linings, pillows, blankets, and even roofs. 



To build such structures requires both technical know-how and material knowledge, making nest-building a cognitively demanding task.



Young <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/orangutan-mothers-have-unique-parenting-styles-like-humans/">orangutans</a> begin showing interest in nests at just six months, playing with leaves and branches. 



Practice of basic day nests starts around age one, but night nest practice begins only at three years and is not mastered until about the age of eight.



Complex additions, such as multitree nests and comfort elements, appear later. This long timeline shows that the skill is not acquired quickly but gradually, with repeated attempts and guided observation.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-learning-from-mom">Learning from mom</h2>



Researchers documented that immatures who carefully peered at their mothers during nest-building were far more likely to practice soon afterward. 



Merely being nearby without watching closely did not have the same effect. This highlights the importance of selective attention in learning.



“Nest-building is critical to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/experts-unlock-the-mysteries-of-orangutan-communication/">survival</a> in orangutans but is surprisingly not the focus of a lot of research," noted Dr. Ani Permana from the <a href="https://warwick.ac.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Warwick</a>. 



"We previously reported that it takes multiple years for immature orangutans to learn to nest-build but, based on 17 years of observational data, this paper shows that this learning process is highly dependent on young animals carefully watching the nest-building of others.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-orangutan-nests-are-complex">Orangutan nests are complex</h2>



The study also showed that young orangutans pay special attention to complex features like multitree nests, twig manipulations, and comfort elements. 



These require memorizing multiple steps and sequences. After observing these, immatures increased their practice, suggesting they were specifically learning the more challenging parts. 



Simpler nests, such as single-tree day nests, did not trigger the same level of focused observation.



“Orangutan nest-building tendency may have some innate basis, but the details and method must be socially learned, starting from a very young age, by watching and practicing, learning from mistakes as they grow and this paper is the first time this has been shown in wild apes,” Dr. Permana added.



At first, immatures mostly learn from their mothers, but as they grow older, they begin peering at other group members, thereby expanding their knowledge base.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-learning-what-to-use">Learning what to use</h2>



Beyond construction skills, orangutans also learn what materials to use. 



“Aside from learning ‘how to’ build a nest, immature orangutans also appear to learn the ‘know-what’ of which materials to use," noted Dr. Caroline Schuppli, <a href="https://www.ab.mpg.de/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior</a>.



The choice of tree species is important, and infants - who primarily peer at their mothers - are more likely to select the same species their mothers use.



“Just like human teenagers finding their own path, maturing orangutans increasingly peer at the nest-building of others and begin experimenting with the tree species those individuals use," Dr. Schuppli continued.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-returning-to-roots">Returning to roots</h2>



Interestingly, adults often revert to using the tree species favored by their mothers, even after experimenting with alternatives in youth.



“Ultimately, adult orangutans tend to revert to the nest materials used by their mothers, perhaps recognizing that the most effective methods had already been established," Dr. Schuppli noted. 



"This consistent variation in nest materials across generations indicates that wild orangutan populations possess cultural elements that could be lost without the conservation of the species and their habitats,” 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-orangutans-learn-and-pass-on-traditions">Orangutans learn and pass on traditions</h2>



The study emphasized four main points: peering, not just proximity, drives learning; immatures focus on complex multi-step elements; role models expand with age; and knowledge of tree species is socially transmitted.



These findings suggest orangutans display cultural variation, with nest-building traditions passed through generations.



<a href="https://academic.oup.com/book/32658/chapter-abstract/270606055?redirectedFrom=fulltext&amp;login=false" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nest-building</a> is an evolutionarily ancient behavior shared by great apes. 



By proving that orangutans acquire this skill through observational social learning, the study suggests that such cultural learning has deep roots in primate history.



It highlights not just the intelligence of orangutans but also their fragile cultural heritage - one that can only continue if their forest homes are preserved.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08217-2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Communications Biology</a>.



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Orangutans learn to build complex tree nests by watching their mothers

As night falls in the rainforests, orangutans climb into the canopy to construct intricate tree nests, displaying remarkable ingenuity. These comfy platforms are carefully engineered beds, providing warmth, comfort, protection from predators, and even reduce mosquito bites. Scientists have long wondered how young orangutans learn to master such complex architecture. Recent findings reveal that they acquire this skill through close observation and practice, a process called observational social learning. Orangutans build nests for survival Nest-building is essential for survival. Unlike many behaviors in animals, this skill is...

It’s easy to see that lizards and salamanders have similarities.  Their bones and basic body structure are remarkably similar. A major difference between the true groups of herptiles is of course skin the lizards are scaly while the salamander’s skin is smooth and porous.  These differences are obvious reflections of different lineages, those of amphibians and reptiles respectively. It’s clear that the evolutionary history of salamanders and lizards is very different from the outset.  

Interestingly, the evolution of a similar body plan in lizards and salamanders doesn’t quite qualify as convergent evolution, one of the more interesting ideas in evolutionary theory.  Convergent evolution is the adaptation of two different types of animals to a similar habitat or niche. 

It’s probably obvious that <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/mosquito-repellent-killing-salamanders/">salamanders</a> and lizards live very different lives.  Salamanders require water for at least part of their lives, while some species never leave water at all.  Lizards on the other hand are sometimes adapted to dry conditions as anyone who has spent time hiking in the desert of Utah can attest to.  Some lizards have go as far as evolving to never drink water, obtaining all their hydration from prey instead. Clearly the tailed quadrupedal body of both lizards and salamanders simply evolved for two separate types of life, not due to similar evolutionary pressures.  There are still some interesting cases of convergent evolution between reptiles and amphibians.

One type of salamander does actually resemble a specific type of lizard in what can be considered convergent evolution of tongues.  The Plethodontidae family of salamanders often referred to simply as the ‘lungless’ salamanders may seem at first blush nothing like chameleons.  However, as a paper in the <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/210/4/655">Journal of Experimental Biology</a> notes, some of these salamanders have extremely high powered tongue projection.  

The tongue of these salamanders can be extended up to 80% of the animal’s total body length in just 20 milliseconds.  If you’ve ever observed chameleons for any length of time, you’ll have noticed that they too have projectile tongues used to capture elusive prey.  According to <a href="https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160105-chameleons-tongue-speed-animals-science/">National Geographic</a>, chameleon tongues average even longer at about twice the animal’s normal body length.  Not just tongues have converged in their evolution in reptiles and amphibians.

Prionosuchus is an extinct genus of amphibians that lived in what is now Brazil approximately 270 million years ago.  Brazil in the Permian when Prionosuchus lived wasn’t radically different from what we think of Brazil today: hot, humid and forested.  The amphibian was found with fish and other aquatic animals, so it certainly lived in the water like its extant relatives.  

According to <a href="https://www.newdinosaurs.com/prionosuchus/">NewDinosaurs</a>, Prionosuchus was a giant, measuring up to 30 feet long and weighing more than 2 tons when alive.  Most specimens are much smaller but the larger individuals would have been terrifying. The monstrous amphibian also had a long, thin snout lined with sharp teeth and a low, squat body with a wide tail adapted for swimming.  Interestingly, with its general body shape, aquatic lifestyle and tropical habitat, Prionosuchus resembles nothing so much as an extinct, amphibian crocodilian.  Indeed, it seems likely that Prionosuchus once inhabited the same ecological niche now occupied by crocodiles and alligators.  Other examples of convergence are out there.

Much has been made about the convergent evolution of flight and it is fascinating.  Birds, bats, pterosaurs and insects are not closely related but all have evolved the ability to fly.  It’s obvious with not much more than a cursory examination that the ways in which each of these animals fly is unique to their lineage.  An insect wing is nothing like the boney feathered wing of an eagle and neither is very much like the membrane spread over a modified hand that bats use to fly.  There is convergent evolution not just in flying but also in gliding. 

So called flying squirrels are probably the most famous example of animals that regularly glide.  Mammals aren’t the only animals to evolve the ability to glide though, and much like the art of flight, it has evolved differently among different animals.  With flying squirrels, there is a membrane of skin between the limbs which allows the animal to glide. 

The Malabar Gliding Frog (Rhacophorus malabaricus) evolved a different strategy.  The gliding frog is native to the Western Ghats, a mountain range in India where it lives a life in trees.  The frog can extend its large webbed feet when jumping and glide. Another tree frog, the genus Ecnomiohyla of Central and South America evolved to glide in the same way, an example of convergent evolution among different frog groups.  The lizard genus Draco has evolved a remarkably similar strategy to a similar problem though in a very different way.  

Draco has a flattened rib cage which can expand beyond their normal configuration reports <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/d/draco-lizard/">National Geographic</a>.  With ribs extended, skin is stretched across them, making the lizard appear superficially like a flying squirrel.  Interestingly, Draco is also found in the forests of Southeast Asia, where the female lizards only venture down from the trees to lay their eggs on the ground.  The ability to glide is a useful one for quickly escaping predators or perhaps even catching prey. 

There’s even a genus of snakes, Chrysopelea that evolved the ability to glide by flattening their bodies and undulating in a unique way.  These snakes are also native to the forests of Southeast Asia, a place that seems to be a hotspot for the evolution of gliding.  Southeast Asia is even the home to two genera of gliding geckos. Clearly there must have been a lot of danger lurking in the heights of Asia’s forests that gave an advantage to those animals that could leap away and glide to safety.  Or perhaps the ability to glide is an adaptation to being prone to falling. Either way, patterns that show up again and again in unrelated organisms tell us something important. 

Convergent evolution shows us the extent to which the same physical limitations dictate our individual histories.  Each lineage may respond differently but sometimes it’s a response to the same problem, similar in effect to different engineers contriving unique solutions to the same problem.  The difference of course is that evolution is a natural process occurring without guidance over vast stretches of time acting on minute difference in genetics. 

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Convergent evolution in reptiles & amphibians

It’s easy to see that lizards and salamanders have similarities....

Both bats and dolphins use <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bats-echolocation-hunt-prey/">echolocation to hunt prey</a> and explore their surroundings, but the question is, who does it better? 

Sonar and echolocation have helped improve sensing technology but our current sensors pale in comparison to those used in the natural world. 

Researchers have much to learn from bats and dolphins, but when it comes to dealing with acoustic interference, bats seem to have a leg up according to recent studies. 

A special session during the <a href="https://acousticalsociety.org/176th-meeting-acoustical-society-of-america/">Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting</a> this week will discuss bat and dolphin sonar systems as well as how echolocation studies can improve not just our understanding of different species but also improve sensor technology.

One of the session speakers, Laura Kloepper, will present her research comparing dolphins and bats and their ability to deal with acoustic interference. 

Kloepper is self-proclaimed “team bat,” but her work revolves around examining both dolphins and bats to prove why bats are more effective at dealing with interference. 

“I'm going to be presenting the first study looking at how dolphins might be changing their signals to avoid jamming, or if they are even subject to any sort of acoustic jamming,” said Kloepper.

First, Kloepper revealed a dolphin who was using echolocation to perform a task to outside dolphin sounds using speakers and microphones. 

The researchers observed how the dolphin responded to the outside noise but discovered that dolphins might not have to deal with as much acoustic interference within a pod because their clicks are so short. 

“The probability of overlapping one call with another dolphin isn't high, because the clicks are so short, therefore dolphins don't really have a need to change to avoid any sort of acoustic interference,” said Kloepper. “Bats, on other hand, have calls that are much longer in duration, so have a higher probability of overlapping with other bats when they are flying in the same airspace.”

Kloepper compared the results of the dolphin study to her research on bats which involves using drones and other mobile devices for recording bats while they fly. 

For example, a hawk trained to fly through a swarm of bats has helped show how bats can change the frequency and pitch of their calls over time. 

According to Kloepper, bats can overcome acoustic interference by changing their calls. 

“They have the ability to be really flexible with their echolocation, which is how they can overcome this jamming,” said Kloepper.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandett</a>e, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dolphins versus bats: Who has the best sonar system?

Both bats and dolphins use echolocation to hunt prey and...

Huge hurricanes that have hit the Gulf Coast in recent years as a result of climate change have not altered life within the waters, researchers at <a href="https://utmsi.utexas.edu/">University of Texas at Austin's Marine Science Institute</a> (UTMSI) found. Some fish species were still able to spawn during a Category 4 hurricane, which is great news for species across the globe.

A team of UTMSI researchers along with scientists from the <a href="http://www.ufl.edu/">University of Florida</a> discovered via underwater microphones that the Gulf Coast’s spotted trout continued to spawn during <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/hurricane-harvey-global-warming/">Hurricane Harvey</a> in August 2017, which brought with it an 8- to 10-foot storm surge and 134 miles per hour winds.

During the storm, the sea trout spawned normally. The only upset occurred after the storm when the trout began spawning 2.5 hours earlier than usual. However, their schedule returned to normal after a few days.

This is great news for the Texas coast, where sportfishing is a $2 billion industry, and is relieving for environmentalists who are studying the impact of climate change on global species.

[caption id="attachment_1861649" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/spotted-seatrout.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1861649" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/spotted-seatrout.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="213" /></a> Image Credit: University of Texas at Austin Marine Science Institute[/caption]

Christopher Biggs, a UTMSI PhD candidate studying fisheries ecology and lead author on a paper, said, “This data gives us a little insight into how key species will handle changing and unpredictable conditions. They are somewhat preadapted to this. They regularly deal with changing situations. They might be better suited to handle the changing climate in the future."

Briggs added that sea trout are an important factor in the Gulf Coast ecosystem. Not only do they attract sport fishermen, but they’re also, “a top predator in the estuary and a favorite food for dolphins."

If the Gulf Coast sea trout were unaffected by Hurricane Harvey, this could mean other fish species are just as hearty and can easily adapt to the increase of extreme weather.

--

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Gulf Coast fish continue to spawn amidst more extreme hurricanes

Huge hurricanes that have hit the Gulf Coast in recent...

The Giant Salamander of China is an obscure animal, one you’d easily be forgiven for mistaking as an online hoax.  But the salamander is an actual animal, even five to eight different animal species. How much longer the Giant Salamanders will be actual living animals remains unclear.  Giant salamanders at first seem like a relic from a distant past that have outlived their time… and this isn’t entirely untrue. 

The oldest fossil evidence of giant salamanders, reported in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01491">Nature</a> in 2003, comes from the Middle Jurassic and were found in volcanic deposits in China dating back roughly 160 million years.  This fossil salamander is very similar to the living giant salamanders found in China today, which is why the group of salamanders are considered living fossils.  

Until recently, the family Cryptobranchidae was thought to be a fairly small one, with only a few species known.  The <a href="http://eol.org/pages/319982/details">Japanese Giant Salamander</a> (Andrias japonicus) reaching impressive lengths of almost 5 feet and the <a href="http://eol.org/pages/1018725/details">Chinese Giant Salamander</a> (Andrias davidianus) were thought to be the only living relatives to the United States less impressive Hellbender (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), reaching lengths of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellbender">12 to 29 inches</a>.  

<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-44190126">BBC News</a> reported earlier this year that in fact, the Chinese Giant Salamander may be up to eight separate species.  Each of the eight species looks very similar, accounting for why it took a genetic study to define the separate species.

All together, the Chinese Giant Salamander has a strange appearance from the standpoint of a bipedal ape.  The animal’s body is flattened for a life in the bottom of streams and ponds. The head is wide and flat, reminding me a little bit of a less exaggerated <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diplocaulus">Diplocaulus</a>, the so-called boomerang headed amphibian from the Permian, a distant relative.  

The animal is an indistinct mottled grey/greenish color.  Eyes are on the top of the Chinese Giant’s head and are largely useless.  Instead of seeing, the over-sized amphibian uses special sensory nodes over its entire body to hunt for insects, crabs, smaller amphibians and mammals, not being a very picky eater.  Eggs are laid in a hidden cavity underwater and guarded by the male salamander until they hatch. Captive salamanders have lived up to 60 years but the average lifespan is unknown, according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_giant_salamander#Feeding">Wikipedia</a>.                

The largest wildlife survey carried out to date in China found the giant salamanders at 4 of 97 sites surveyed across 16 of China’s 23 provinces.  Genetic evidence showed that the salamanders found in the wild may not have been native to the areas they were found, instead released from salamander farms where the animals are raised as food delicacies.  

The study also found that the Chinese Giant Salamander is at least five separate species and perhaps as many as eight.  The releases from farms which are encouraged by the Chinese government as a conservation method, may in fact be damaging the genetics of the separate species by encouraging hybridization.  The Chinese Giant Salamander is listed 3rd on <a href="https://www.edgeofexistence.org/species/">Edge’s list</a> of focal species, it is also <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/1272/3375181">IUCN red listed</a> as critically endangered.  The population is declining too according to IUCN.  The Chinese Giant Salamander isn’t alone in this sad state of affairs either.

The Japanese Giant Salamander is doing better, listed by <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/1273/3376261">IUCN</a> as only nearly threatened, but the population is still said to be declining.  The Japanese Salamander is also sometimes hunted as a delicacy and silt runoff caused by deforestation may cause the salamander problems in the future.  

The related giant is similar to its Chinese counterpart in appearance but with a wrinkly mottled grey green skin.  The Japanese Giant Salamander seems to be a popular new exhibit in zoos. Hawaii News Now reported in February that a new Japanese Giant Salamander exhibit was opening at the Honolulu Zoo, including three individual salamanders.  <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/oakland/2018/08/03/detroit-zoo-japanese-giant-salamanders/900246002/">Detroit Free Press</a> reported in August that the Detroit Zoo’s Japanese Giant Salamanders got a new enclosure.  <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/05/chinese-giant-salamander-is-at-least-five-species-all-nearly-extinct/">Mongabay</a> reports there are striking differences between wild populations of Japanese Giant Salamanders and their Chinese relatives as well.             

Mongabay also reports that it took researchers in China an average of 16 weeks to find a giant salamander.  In Japan, researchers average just a bit over an hour to find that country’s giant salamander. In the US it takes researchers an average of about two hours to find a hellbender.  Even the hellbender is near threatened according to <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/59077/11879843">IUCN</a> with their population declining.  

Eastern hellbenders are the only giant salamander found in the US and probably the one with the most interesting common name.  The hellbender is of course much smaller than the Chinese and Japanese salamanders that it shares a family with. Perhaps ‘rather large’ salamander is a more apt description for the hellbender than ‘giant’.  The hellbender is also more visually attractive than its Asian relatives. 

The salamander is an olive green color spotted with bright orange and a pale belly.  The hellbender specializes in cold streams with fast flowing water and is only found in a small area of south eastern mountains.  The Ozark hellbender is a subspecies of the eastern hellbender. The <a href="https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/amphibians/ozhe/ozheSummary2011FinalRule.html">Fish and Wildlife Service</a> reports that the Ozark hellbender is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  The service says that the population of Ozark hellbenders, limited to only 8 rivers historically has declined to a point where only about 590 individuals remain in the wild, remaining in only 3 rivers.  Researchers at one river found 1,150 hellbenders along a 1.7 mile stretch in 1973. In 2006, only 200 individuals could be found in the same area.

The Chinese Giant Salamanders are clearly doing the worst of all the giant salamanders in the world.  It’s not hard to imagine them simply being the first of the living giant amphibians to become extinct with the others following eventually.  The ancient lineage of giant salamanders on earth is no guarantee for their future survival, they’ve already survived the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/warming-mountain-birds-extinction/">extinction</a> of many others, most famously the dinosaurs.  Whether genetics can be taken into account in the survival of all of China’s giants will be important. Even survival of one hybridized species of giant salamander would be better than the extinction of all species.  Only the future will tell. 

--

By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer                 

Image Credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2009_Andrias_davidianus.JPG">J. Patrick Fischer</a>

Is the decline of the giant salamander inevitable?

The Giant Salamander of China is an obscure animal, one...

You’ve heard of whale watching, but what about whale listening?

Now, thanks to an extensive research project called <a href="http://www.orcasound.net/">Orcasound</a>, you can tune into live streams of orca whales near Washington State and participate in a massive citizen science initiative.

Orcasound is using advances in technology, streaming media, and algorithms to take citizen science to the next level and make it easier for people who are passionate about marine conservation and whales to access sounds and recordings typically reserved for field researchers. 

To study, track, and model <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/satellites-endangered-whale-populations/">whale populations</a>, researchers first need to find them. In the ocean, this is easier said than done, especially during temperamental weather or at night when spotting for whales is nearly impossible. 

This is why researchers use hydrophones, underwater microphones, that can pick up whale calls and other underwater sounds.

Algorithms can take hydrophone audio data and create models and projections that can help marine biologists better understand different environmental impacts and set up measures to protect and manage threatened species. 

Once researchers hear a whale on a hydrophone, a team of fieldworkers can track the whale, collect fecal samples and even pieces of prey left behind, all of which help further our understanding of the ocean’s largest mammals. 

This is where Orcasound comes in. Now, instead of a small team of researchers tuning into the hydrophones, anyone with a computer can open the live stream and listen for orcas near the San Juan Islands.

Scott Viers, the lead researcher of Orcasound, says that the aim of the project is to create a user-friendly and inexpensive app that gets more people engaged in marine research. 

Right now, the web app for Orcasound uses the same data formats of other popular video streaming services like Youtube. 

“We want to make it really easy for citizen scientists to listen to signals,” said Veirs.

People listening to live streams are encouraged to email Orcasound when they hear something, but a future version of the app will include a button that users can click w12hen they hear something interesting. 

All audio is uploaded to online cloud storage servers for later analysis whether by researchers or algorithms. 

Veirs will discuss the Orcasound app and its many potential implications at the <a href="https://acousticalsociety.org/176th-meeting-acoustical-society-of-america/">Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting</a> this week. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

You can now live stream whale calls from the sea using an app

You’ve heard of whale watching, but what about whale listening?...

Moths evade bat predators thanks to acoustic camouflage. Moths have thick fur that works as a kind of acoustic camouflage by absorbing nearby sounds. The fur guards against bats which are a primary predator of moths and which use echolocation to hunt. 

Thomas Neil, a researcher from the <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> who specializes in bioacoustics, and a team of colleagues examined the fur of moths and butterflies as part of an ongoing study of moths and their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/moths-darwins-theory-evolution/">evolved defenses</a>. 

Moths are a main source of prey for bats, and some moths have evolved special ears that detect the ultrasonic calls of bats. However, only a few species of moths have ears, and a vast majority of moths are deaf. 

Neil and his team wanted to find out how moths without hearing abilities are able to avoid predators like the bat. 

It turns out that moths have a furry coat that works as acoustic camouflage and muffles the sound of nearby bat calls. 

“Moth fur is thin and lightweight, and acts as a broadband and multidirectional ultrasound absorber that is on par with the performance of current porous sound-absorbing foams.” said Neil. 

First, Neil and his team used acoustic tomography, a kind of imaging technique that produces cross sections, and calculated the echo strength of two deaf moth<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/native-species-in-the-eastern-mediterranean-are-vanishing/"> species</a> and two butterfly species. 

The researchers then removed the thorax fur from the moths and butterflies, and while it had little impact on the butterflies, the lack of fur increased the risk of detection by 38 percent for the moths. 

“We found that the fur on moths was both thicker and denser than that of the butterflies, and these parameters seem to be linked with the absorptive performance of their respective furs,” said Neil. “The thorax fur of the moths was able to absorb up to 85 percent of the impinging sound energy. The maximum absorption we found in butterflies was just 20 percent.”Moths evade bat predators thanks to acoustic camouflage

Neil will present his latest findings on moth camouflage at the <a href="https://acousticalsociety.org/176th-meeting-acoustical-society-of-america/">Acoustical Society of America's 176th Meeting</a> this week.

The research sheds insight on how moths evolved to defend against bats and could help with creating effective sound absorbers. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Thomas Neil

Moths evade bat predators thanks to acoustic camouflage

Moths evade bat predators thanks to acoustic camouflage. Moths have...

Researchers at the <a href="https://www.caryinstitute.org/">Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies</a> have found alarming levels of pharmaceutical compounds in stream insects. Out of 69 compounds, some were detected at concentrations that threaten the animals that feed on them, such as trout and platypus. Furthermore, the stream insects can pass the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/antidepressants-waterways-marine-life/">drugs</a> along to spiders, birds, and other streamside predators when they emerge as flying adults. 

Pharmaceutical pollution is present in surface waters worldwide. Most wastewater treatment facilities are not equipped to remove drugs from sewage, and aging septic tanks and pipes are contributing to the problem.

Study co-author Emma Rosi is an aquatic ecologist at the Cary Institute. 

“Stream life is swimming in a mixture of pharmaceuticals. Our study is the first to show that this chronic drug pollution can concentrate in aquatic insects and move up food webs, in some cases exposing top predators to therapeutically-relevant doses,” explained Rosi. 

The investigation was focused on six streams in Melbourne, Australia, where the  researchers screened for 98 pharmaceutical compounds including common drugs like antibiotics, antidepressants, antihistamines, and NSAIDs. The team collected aquatic insects and riparian spiders for testing.

[caption id="attachment_1861639" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/stream-drug-pollution.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1861639" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/stream-drug-pollution-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="525" /></a> Image Credit: Stephen Hamilton[/caption]

Study lead author Erinn Richmond is a freshwater ecologist at <a href="https://www.monash.edu/">Monash University</a> in Australia. “We focused on riparian spiders because they build their webs over streams and feed on adult aquatic insects as they emerge from the water,” said Richmond. 


The analysis of tissues detected up to 69 different pharmaceutical compounds in aquatic insects and up to 66 compounds in riparian spiders. Insects collected downstream of wastewater treatment facilities or in heavily populated areas with potential septic tank leakage had the highest drug concentrations. Across these sites, pharmaceutical concentrations were an average of 10 to 100 times higher compared to sites with less contamination.

Study co-author Jerker Fick is a chemist at <a href="https://www.umu.se/en/">Umeå University</a> in Sweden who analyzed the insect and spider samples. 

“Insect tissues had drug concentrations that were orders of magnitude higher than concentrations measured in surface waters,” said Fick. “We also found a diverse suite of drugs in spiders, indicating that drugs are passed from the water to prey to predator, thereby exposing other animals in the food web to drugs.”

Richmond added: “Pharmaceuticals were present in every insect and spider we tested - including those collected in Dandenong Ranges National Park. Even this seemingly pristine site was contaminated, likely because people live in the park's drainage area and visit the park.”

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: Denise Illing

Stream animals found to be heavily contaminated by drug pollution

Researchers at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies have found...

“You can hide as cleverly as you like, but in the final analysis mimicry is deception, pure and simple. It doesn't solve a thing,” says a character in Haruki Murakami’s IQ84. 

That might be true for humans, but in the animal world, mimicry has evolved as as essential adaptation in some species. This deception does indeed solve a problem: that of being eaten. Some animals mimic leaves, or rocks, or the substrate upon which they live, obscuring them from <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/plants-use-camouflage/">predators</a>. Others possess markings that make them resemble predators themselves. Take, for example, the owlish “eyes” on the wings of many insects. 

While the camouflaging properties conferred by a resemblance to an inanimate object or a larger, dangerous, animal are obvious, some creatures have developed even more complex forms of mimicry. In Batesian mimicry, non-toxic species have evolved to mirror the aposematic patterns used by poisonous species to advertise their toxicity, thus protecting them in some measure from predators who are wary of such markings. That phenomenon was first noted by Henry Walter Bates <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1860.tb00146.x">in an 1862 paper</a> and was later taken up by Charles Darwin. 

Conversely, in Müllerian mimicry, one toxic species evolves to resemble another toxic species. The German scholar Fritz Müller first noted strong similarities between the markings of several species of poisonous Brazilian butterfly <a href="http://www.ucl.ac.uk/taxome/jim/Mim/muller1878.html">in 1878</a>. (He too communicated his findings to Darwin.) While all were toxic to birds and other animals that might think to prey upon them, they appeared to be copying each other in physical appearance. Among the butterflies he observed were those in the subfamily Heliconiinae, still among the most diverse and best studied groups of Müllerian mimics. Müller’s observations have since been borne out in observations of many other species. However, the validity of his original characterization is hotly debated, not least due to the overlapping Batesian characteristics of some putative Müllerian mimicry relationships. 

Per Müller’s reasoning, this form of mimicry evolved in less common, but still unpalatable species that shared a habitat with another distasteful, but more common species. This advergence allowed the two species to share the burden of predation by naive young birds and lizards. If, for example, a fledgling bird must sample a novel type of insect several times before learning that it is poisonous, relatively fewer members of each similarly patterned species will be taken. The bird population will have learned that the pattern shared by the less abundant species with the more abundant species signifies an inedible insect by eating some of the model species rather than its mimic and vice versa. 

If the less-common species had its own pattern, more would need to be sampled before the bird population wised up to its nasty taste, resulting in the death of more specimens of that butterfly. Though the benefits to the mimic species are greater, predation on the model species is slightly defrayed by the consumption of mimic specimens. 

In experiments where the patterns of Heliconius butterflies were obscured before they were released near insectivorous birds, the birds attempted to eat them. The butterflies were of the same species that the birds avoided when its natural coloring was visible. So, too, birds exposed to <a href="http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1646/02128">color morphs of toxic butterflies that did not share their range</a> sampled them with abandon, thereby supporting the notion of predator learning curves as a strong selective force. Such an arrangement strongly discourages the emergence of polymorphism in the mimic species. If it displays a novel pattern rather than the pattern of its model, it is that much more likely to be eaten.

[caption id="attachment_1861603" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/4362021301_26d1e7b43f_o.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1861603" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/4362021301_26d1e7b43f_o-744x1024.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="963" /></a> Ben Sale/Seitz Macrolepidoptera Volume V: THE AMERICAN RHOPALOCERA. Stuttgart 1924 - Page 76 (HELICONIUS)[/caption]

Model species, however, often do display polymorphism and mimics may follow these shifting colors and patterns as they vary across their shared range. This is known as a mimicry ring. The butterflies Heliconius erato and H. melpomene exhibit at least 30 color variations. Each variation is matched by the other species across the expanse of their co-distribution. 

If that seems remarkable, consider this: Müllerian mimicry frequently involves more than two species. In the Appalachian Mountains of the United States, a group of seven species of toxic millipede exists in a ring wherein coloration varies from locale to locale and <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/106/24/9755">all seven species at a given locale resemble the others</a>. The case of the millipedes is a particularly appealing illustration of Müllerian mimicry because they are all blind, ruling out the role of sexual selection in their coloration, as may be the case in butterflies and other animals. Intriguingly, in some species, one sex may exhibit Müllerian mimicry and the other not, <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/273/1590/1135">as in the case of Asian pitvipers</a>. This is thought to be due to the differing habits of the sexes, which expose them to different predation risk.

All of this is complicated by the frequent imbalance in toxicity between mimics. Sometimes, the mimicking species is less toxic than the model species, blurring the boundaries between Müllerian and Batesian mimicry. Some have suggested that supposedly Müllerian mimicry relationships in which the mimic is less toxic than the model may actually be Batesian or parasitic. 

Because some specimens exhibiting the shared pattern are more palatable, the resemblance may actually result in more predation of the toxic model species by predators who have learned that is sometimes okay to eat specimens exhibiting those patterns. On this basis, it is asserted that true Müllerian mimicry is quite rare, as most such relationships contain species with unequal level of toxicity. 

To whit: several species of tiger moths mimic wasps and while the moths are toxic, they hardly possess the stopping power of a wasp sting. Such scenarios have been proposed as a possible selection pressure on certain model species who are evolving to resemble their tastier mimics less closely in order to reduce being mistaken for them. Then, there are the mimics who are in fact more toxic than their models, as in the case of the poison frog Dendrobates imitator. It mimics three different species, all of which are less toxic, depending on which species it occurs alongside. It may have been more evolutionarily parsimonious for D. imitator to resemble its more-common model species as it moved into their territories than to rely on its own aposematic signals to deter predation.

All of this suggests a more intricate schema for the development of shared aposematism than initially conceptualized by Bates and Müller. Further exceptions and modifications to the general rules for these relationships are sure to emerge as more species are studied. What’s sure is this: the sickening sartorial habits of toxic organisms reflect an evolutionary arms race belied by the fantastical colors and patterns that result.

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit: yakovlev.alexey/Flickr

Pretty poison and Müllerian mimicry: Teaming up to avoid predation

“You can hide as cleverly as you like, but in...

The Inaccessible Island rail, so named for the island it calls home, is the world’s smallest flightless bird. 

Inaccessible Island is one of five islands equal distance from South America and Argentina that are part of a cluster of extinct and active <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/japanese-volcanoes-magma-pool/">volcanoes</a>.

Steep cliffs and rocky beaches make the Inaccessible Island challenging to explore and so the island, and its wildlife has remained a mystery for hundreds of years. 

In 2011, four biologists from the <a href="https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/">Lund University</a> in Sweden took a fieldwork trip to the island and in the process uncovered the evolutionary history of the Inaccessible Island rail.  

The rails are found only on the island and there are many mysteries about how and when the birds arrived. 

It was thought that the birds used a chain of land extensions called Atlantisia (long since submerged). But according to the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6351431/Scientists-discover-worlds-smallest-flightless-bird-descended-flying-ancestors.html">Daily Mail</a>, new research have revealed that early ancestors of the rail flew to the island 1.5 million years ago from South America. 

Over time, the rail evolved without flight because there were no threats on the island. 

The researchers used low nets to capture rails and then sequenced the genome of the birds. After gene sequencing, the researchers discovered that the Inaccessible Island rail’s closest relative was the Dot-winged crake. 

Dot-winges crakes can fly which means at one time, the rail was able to fly but lost this trait over time. 

“We’re quite sad because Atlantisia is a beautiful name with a beautiful history,” Martin Stervander, a member of the fieldwork team, told <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/inaccessible-island-rails-history">Atlas Obscura</a>. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Peter G Ryan/SWNS

How the world’s smallest flightless birds lost the ability to fly

The Inaccessible Island rail, so named for the island it...

Recent studies on orangutans are contradicting a new report from the Indonesian government, which claims that orangutan populations increased by more than ten percent from 2015 to 2017. Earlier this year, researchers found that over 100,000 orangutans were lost in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/orangutans-lost-borneo/">Borneo</a> between 1999 and 2015, and that the animals are still seriously threatened by deforestation and hunting.

“All three species of orangutan are Critically Endangered and on a steep decline. Their numbers are not increasing as indicated by the Indonesian government report,” said Erik Meijaard of <a href="http://www.borneofutures.org/about.html">Borneo Futures</a> and the IUCN Species Survival Commission.

Indonesia's research, which was focused on nine monitoring sites, suggests that the orangutan population doubled in a single year - growing from 1,153 orangutans in 2015 to 2,451 individuals in 2016.

According to the researchers, however, “it is biologically impossible for an orangutan population to double its size in a year.” They explained that any increase in those areas was inevitably preceded by a reduction elsewhere.

Furthermore, the sites accounted for by the Indonesian government represent less than five percent of the Bornean and Sumatran orangutan's range. One group, the Tapanuli orangutan, is left out of the estimates altogether. The study authors said that it is “scientifically unjustified to extrapolate population trends from these sampling sites to the total range of all three species.”

Meijaard explained that the Indonesian government is now in the process of developing a new 10-year action plan for orangutan conservation.

“If the government thinks that orangutan populations are increasing, it calls for completely different strategies compared to those required for dealing with rapidly decreasing populations,” said Meijaard. “It is important that the government realizes that populations remain in decline. Therefore, a new approach to orangutan conservation is needed.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Image Credit: HUTAN-KOCP

Despite Indonesia’s claims, orangutans are still on the decline

Recent studies on orangutans are contradicting a new report from...

Australia’s long-lasting and severe drought, known as the “Big Dry,” has been persisting for years in some parts of the country and is devastating populations of Australia's iconic animals. 

The drought is shrinking greenery and with it, food and water for many animals like kangaroos, Koalas, emus, wombats, and echidnas. 

Unable to adapt to the drought while farmers work to reserve grazing areas for their livestock, wildlife in Australia are taking more risks, traveling farther, and venturing into more populated areas in search of food. 

As a result, wildlife rescuers are seeing an increase in traffic incidents from animal crossings and abandoned young. 

In the last three years, there has been a 20 percent increase in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/emus-australian-drought/">wildlife traffic incidents</a>, according to insurance reports from Australia. 

Many drivers in North America don’t have to be reminded of the hazard of driving during peak deer season in the fall. 

Deer can do untold amounts of damage to a car, and in Australia, kangaroos pose a similar risk and drivers are being cautioned not to swerve when faced with a potential collision. 

“People don't want to hurt the animal because that's understandable, but sometimes you just need to learn you don't swerve, you just have to brake,” Australian farmer, Sandra Ireson, told the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6340625/Perilous-times-Australia-wildlife-amid-severe-drought.html">Daily Mail</a>. “And you may have to injure the animal, which is disappointing but that's better than having a disastrous accident.”

The <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6340625/Perilous-times-Australia-wildlife-amid-severe-drought.html">Daily Mail</a> reported on the steep declines in wildlife populations due to the drought and stated that the animals are not able to adapt quickly enough to the changes. As a result, many populations are struggling to survive. 

Many animals are traveling outside of their known habitats and human-wildlife encounters are increasing. 

“We're finding a lot more wallabies with blindness because they're actually coming out into the open paddocks searching for food, and their eyes are unable to cope with full sunlight,” Rachel Walker, a wildlife rescuer told the Agence France-Presse. 

Since 2016, there has been a 52 percent increase in marsupial rescues, according to the rescue group <a href="https://www.wires.org.au/">WIRES</a>. 

In some parts of New South Wales, kangaroos have been particularly hard hit, with one ecologist reporting a 90 percent decline in the local kangaroo population. 

At this point, there is no telling when the big dry will be over, and climate change is projected to cause more droughts worldwide. 

With Australia's wildlife unable to cope with the changes, conservation measures will need to take into account wildlife populations as well as agricultural operations to preserve the country’s rich biodiversity while still allowing farming communities to keep their livelihoods.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Severe drought in Australia has led to serious declines in wildlife

Australia’s long-lasting and severe drought, known as the “Big Dry,”...

No need to feel guilty when you snack on "junk food" like fish sticks – at least, not on the environmental front. They’re surprisingly sustainable, according to a new study by the <a href="https://www.mcsuk.org/">Marine Conservation Society</a>.

The society has released a “Good Fish Finger Guide” on its website to help people choose snacks with the lowest negative impact on marine life.

“Consumers may not be aware that the majority of fish in retail own brand and branded fish fingers actually comes from sustainable sources,” said Rajina Gurung, a sustainable seafood advocate with MCS. “Some saver brands even turned out to be the most sustainable, showing that you do not have to pay a fortune for sustainability.”

Gurung and colleagues analyzed 48 different brands of fish sticks – called fish fingers in the UK – to determine what kinds of fish they use and where they get their supplies. 

They found that the fish sticks contained one or more of just four species: Atlantic cod, Pacific cod, haddock and Alaska pollock. The majority got their fish ingredients from sustainable sources, the study found.

So why don’t more customers know that? The problem is one of labeling, Gurung said.

Forty percent of the fish sticks brands didn’t have a credible eco-label, and only 19 percent included enough details for buyers to know where and how their fish ingredients were caught. But with a little digging, it wasn’t hard for Gurung and her team to find out more about their fish supplies.

“By and large most of the supermarkets and brands we were in contact with were forthcoming with providing the information regarding the origins of the fish within their fish fingers. We’re now considering focusing on other processed products that are available through retail or food service outlets,” she said. 

To find out more, visit the <a href="https://www.mcsuk.org/responsible-seafood/fish-finger-guide">Good Fish Finger Guide</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Save the oceans – eat more fish sticks

No need to feel guilty when you snack on "junk...

<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.

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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...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

[sendtonews key="0ynNMYkMKa-2340414-12187" 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> (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;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

[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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="X0f6OHYoI4-2310561-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="JRaP49ISmm-2357509-12187" type="single"]</div>



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

<div class="wp-block-sendtonews-playerselector">[sendtonews key="e4ZG0Jawp3-2374785-12187" type="single"]</div>



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;



---



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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