Couple,Of,Brachiosaurus,Altithorax,And,A,Flock,Of,Pterosaurs,In

Dinosaurs left behind fossilized bones and footprints that offer vivid glimpses into their everyday survival. Paleontologists can infer their diets, estimate their sizes, and even figure out how quickly they grew. 



But there is one perplexing detail that has baffled experts for well over a century: how did these massive creatures have sex, and what were their mating rituals?



Theories about dinosaur courtship and copulation spark curiosity among researchers and casual observers alike. 



Some imagine towering, long-necked giants struggling to coordinate their bulk, while others focus on smaller species trying to avoid spiky tails or protective armor.



One person at the forefront of this conversation is <a href="https://community.geosociety.org/gbgm/dfg/rileyblack" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ms. Riley Black</a>, an American paleontologist who has examined the hidden world of dinosaur intimacy in her published commentaries for the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Smithsonian Magazine</a>.



“For more than a century, paleontologists have wondered about how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rare-triassic-fossil-gondwanax-paraisensis-may-rewrite-history-of-dinosaurs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dinosaurs</a> mated,” said Ms. Black in one of her discussions on the subject.



"Comparisons to living birds and crocodylians hint that individual dinosaurs usually had a phallus or a clitoris, although hard evidence of such structures has not yet been uncovered."



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dinosaur-courtship-rituals">Dinosaur courtship rituals</h2>



Fossils tell us only part of the story. Bones and teeth can reveal feeding behaviors, while footprints occasionally capture intriguing hints about group activity.



Yet, when it comes to mating, the direct evidence is frustratingly limited because reproductive organs rarely - if ever - turn into fossils. Despite this challenge, scientists have found ways to glean indirect insights.



In 2016, a team of paleontologists led by <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2023/12/11/dinosaur-tracks-martin-lockley-paleontologist-ucd-ridge/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Martin Lockley</a> from the <a href="https://www.ucdenver.edu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Colorado Denver</a> identified unusual scrape marks believed to be “<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26741567/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">mating grounds</a>” where large, carnivorous dinosaurs may have performed courtship displays.



These scrape marks give researchers a window into pre-mating behavior, hinting that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-tracks-discovered-on-uks-dinosaur-highway/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dinosaurs</a> had specific routines to woo potential partners.



Think of this as a type of "prehistoric foreplay" as the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Daily Mail</a> so eloquently surmised when discussing these mating grounds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-clues-about-dinosaur-mating">Clues about dinosaur mating</h2>



Birds are living descendants of certain dinosaur lineages, and their closest evolutionary cousins are crocodilians. By examining these groups, scientists can make educated guesses about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dinosaurs-evolved-feathers-for-much-more-than-just-flying/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dinosaur</a> anatomy.



While many modern bird groups do not possess a visible penis, ducks and ostriches (some of the more ancient forms) still do. 



Male crocodilians have a single penis concealed in a cloaca, which is the all-purpose opening for excretion and reproduction.



Given these observations, most specialists propose that dinosaurs likely had similar structures tucked away, ready for brief yet essential moments of contact. 



This notion supports earlier work by researchers who saw parallels with living alligators and large birds.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-all-dinosaurs-mated-the-same-way">All dinosaurs mated the same way</h2>



Although no confirmed fossil of dinosaurs locked in an intimate embrace has ever turned up, parallels with modern reptiles suggest that their mating was typically a direct act that involved the male positioning himself behind the female.



“All dinosaurs used the same basic position to mate. Mounting from the rear, he put his forelimbs on her shoulders, lifting one hind limb across her back and twisting his tail under hers” said <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alain-Blieck/publication/298622786_L_B_Halstead_and_the_heterostracan_controversy/links/5889e749a6fdcc9a35c3badd/L-B-Halstead-and-the-heterostracan-controversy.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Beverly Halstead</a>, a noted English paleontologist who took an interest in dinosaur reproduction decades ago.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-precarious-and-dangerous-positioning">Precarious and dangerous positioning</h2>



This statement may sound simple, but it prompts visions of a precarious balancing act for massive <a href="https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/saurischia/sauropoda.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sauropods</a>. For creatures that outweighed elephants many times over, the mechanics seem daunting.



Researchers note that supporting a partner’s weight during mating would not necessarily exceed the stress a dinosaur’s hind limbs experienced during ordinary walking or running. 



Some breakthroughs come from discoveries that are not related to mating positions at all.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-early-parenting-evidence">Early parenting evidence</h2>



Scientists examining <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dino-directory/tyrannosaurus.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tyrannosaurus rex</a> bones have found <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/srep06253" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">medullary tissue</a> in the thighbone of a pregnant female. This special type of bone tissue is found to <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1112158" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">form</a> in modern birds when they are about to lay eggs. 



This discovery confirmed that dinosaurs shared more reproductive links with birds than previously appreciated.



It also hinted at the age when these creatures reached sexual maturity, often earlier than one might assume. There are always loose ends in any discussion of dinosaur biology.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-some-dinosaurs-needed-water-to-mate">Some dinosaurs needed water to mate</h2>



Questions remain about how spiny, heavily plated <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-did-the-worlds-best-preserved-psittacosaurus-dinosaurs-die/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">creatures</a> like stegosaurs managed intimate moments without injury. 



It is also unclear whether some massive species needed water for extra buoyancy to protect the female from a partner’s weight.



New technology and fresh fossil sites offer hope for clearer answers. Computer modeling allows paleontologists to simulate possible mating postures based on the range of motion in fossilized joints.



Synchrotron scanning and CT imaging allows them peer deeper into ancient bones for evidence of medullary layers and other reproductive signals. 



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dinosaur-mating-and-future-discoveries">Dinosaur mating and future discoveries</h2>



Although a frozen-in-time snapshot of dinosaur mating has yet to be uncovered, many in the field anticipate that more insights into the private lives of dinosaurs are just around the corner.



Even a single skeleton with distinct indicators of reproductive behavior could reshape our entire understanding of how these creatures ensured their survival in a hostile, ever-changing world.



The original article is published in the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/everything-you-want-know-about-sex-lives-dinosaurs-scratching-ground-battling-with-horns-173015/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Smithsonian Magazine</a>.



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How did dinosaurs mate, have sex, and reproduce? Fossil evidence offers some clues

Dinosaurs left behind fossilized bones and footprints that offer vivid glimpses into their everyday survival. Paleontologists can infer their diets, estimate their sizes, and even figure out how quickly they grew. But there is one perplexing detail that has baffled experts for well over a century: how did these massive creatures have sex, and what were their mating rituals? Theories about dinosaur courtship and copulation spark curiosity among researchers and casual observers alike. Some imagine towering, long-necked giants struggling to coordinate their bulk, while others focus on...

Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, amphibians may have been rulers of the planet – or at least, that’s what paleontologists concluded after new research into fossilized footprints.

The fossilized footprints – on about 20 red sandstone slabs – were found in a Birmingham, England museum, where they had been stored and forgotten for decades. But researchers got a surprise when the footprints were found: they were more than 300 million years old, too old to belong to dinosaurs.

A research team led by Dr. Richard Butler of the <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/">University of Birmingham</a> and doctoral student Andrew Jones enthusiastically studied the unique fossils. 

The footprints were formed back when the hard sandstone was mud, and ancient creatures walked through it. The footprints dried, then were preserved under layers of sand and plant material. 

At that time, much of England was a lush rainforest that made an excellent habitat for amphibians, which needs ponds and other bodies of water to raise their young, and the insects they preyed on. 

About 290 million years ago, however, the climate started drying up, Butler said. The rainforests collapsed without enough water, and the animals that relied on them – including the giant amphibians – began to disappear, replaced by enormous reptiles that didn’t need such water habitats.

Using high-resolution imaging, Butler and Jones created 3-D models of the footprints, then compared them to other fossils found around the world. They found that some of the footprints were from large amphibians, while others were from reptiles called pelycosaurs, which would after millions of years diversify into dinosaurs and mammal-like reptiles. 

Because both types of footprints were present in the fossils, the researchers believe the slabs of sandstone may give a unique peek into the end of the age of amphibians and the beginning of the rise of reptiles. They hope to find more Birmingham fossils that will offer insights into what life was like 300 million years ago.

---

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Fossilized footprints help tell story of rise of reptiles

Long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth, amphibians may have been...

In Scotland, a mysterious illness has led to a depressing sight along the coast: scores of dead or dying seals.

The country’s harbor seals have been dying in droves, with some areas losing up to 90 percent of the marine mammals since 2000. Harbor seal populations in northern Scotland and Orkney have dropped by at least 7,000 in just ten years. In a bid to find out the cause of these deaths, marine biologists fitted the animals with their smartphones – well, tags using smartphone technology. The tags allowed the biologists to follow different groups seals through their daily lives, in hopes of finding the deadly common denominator among them. 

Though the seals can’t call in any dangers they face, the biologists can track the water they’re spending time in to see if they’re running with any harmful elements.

The good news? While there’s still a lot of data to examine, the biologists have a prime suspect already: red algae blooms. 

The scientists used the GPS data collected by the seals’ tags to map their favorite feeding sites. Water samples taken at the sites show traces of the domoic acid left behind by red algae.

The bad news? Domoic acid is a dangerous neurotoxin. It accumulates in fish that live in areas with red algae blooms and the “red tides” they produce, and when the seals eat the fish, they’re slowly poisoned. 

Red tides off of the California coast have led to domoic acid toxicity in sea lions, and scientists there believe that the neurotoxin may be causing memory loss. 

However, knowing a potential cause behind the harbor seals’ dwindling numbers can help biologists create new solutions for the problem. For example, scientists are testing treatments for sea lions affected by domoic acid toxicity at the <a href="http://www.marinemammalcenter.org/about-us/News-Room/2015-news-archives/toxic-algal-bloom.html">Marine Mammal Center</a> in Sausalito, California. 

The Scottish scientists aren’t settled on domoic acid yet. It seems the most likely culprit from early data returned by the tags, but the scientists hope to follow the seal populations for a couple of years to get a better idea of what they’re doing.

The smartphone-style tags were designed by the <a href="https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/">University of St. Andrews</a>, which partnered with cellphone provider <a href="https://www.vodafone.com/">Vodafone</a> to track the initial 10 seals in the study. The tags transmitted GPS data over Vodafone’s network back to the university’s Sea Mammal Research Unit. 

The research team at the University of St. Andrews provides updates about the Vodafone study and other seal research at their <a href="http://synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk/harbourseals/">Harbour Seal Decline Project</a> blog.

Scientists seek to solve mystery of Scotland's dying seals

In Scotland, a mysterious illness has led to a depressing...

Australasian marsupials survived ancient climate change, but may not survive the next.

As climate change progresses, australasian marsupials face a high risk of extinction. But according to a recent study, they may actually have survived ancient climate change millions of years ago. 

The study, published in <a href="http://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>, was conducted by an international team of researchers led by Dr. Benjamin Kear from the Museum of Evolution at <a href="https://www.uu.se/en/">Uppsala University</a>.  "We used bandicoots as a model to examine the radiation of marsupials relative to climate change through time,” said Dr. Kear. “Bandicoots are the marsupial equivalents of rodents and rabbits that today occupy a spectrum of desert through to rainforest habitats across Australia, New Guinea and surrounding islands. Alarmingly, however, most bandicoot species are under dire threat of extinction from introduced predators, habitat loss, and human hunting,"

The bandicoot fossils indicate that roughly 5-10 million years ago, a climate shift to much drier conditions drove many species into extinction and prompted others to adapt into their modern evolutionary form. Dr. Ken Aplin of the <a href="https://naturalhistory.si.edu/">Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History</a> noted, "The evolution of Australia's mammals has long been linked to aridity. Yet this hypothesis is based upon only a few distinguishing features found in the teeth and skulls of modern species.” 

Modern bandicoots are estimated to have appeared less than 5 million years ago, with their most ancient relative species existing in ancient rainforests up to to 20 million years ago. But Dr. Aplin uncovered fossils from the Aru Islands of Eastern Indonesia that indicate a new fossil bandicoot, Lemdubuoryctes aruensis, included isolated teeth from over 50 million years ago.

But Lemdubuoryctes aruensis did not inhabit rainforests. Instead, they lived in a large savannah plain between New Guinea and Australia during the last glacial maximum. 

According to Professor Michael Westerman from La Trobe University in Australia, "While retreating rainforests and spreading grasslands did provide a backdrop for ecosystem change 5-10 million years ago. The Australian fauna likely adapted via changing its distribution rather than undergoing wholesale extinction and replacement. This agrees with our results from DNA, which indicate that modern desert-living bandicoot groups pre-date the onset of aridity by as much as 40 million years.”

Added Dr. Kear, “"Bandicoots, like other Australasian marsupials, probably occupied a range of different habitats over many millions of years. However, our study has further implications for future conservation. Arid zone bandicoots are amongst the most vulnerable mammals in Australasia today, with multiple species having gone extinct within the last 100 years. By demonstrating their profound evolutionary antiquity we can thus serve to highlight how extremely urgent it is to protect these living fossils as part of Australia's unique biodiversity.”

Australasian marsupials survived ancient climate change

Australasian marsupials survived ancient climate change, but may not survive...

Some innovators are finding animal inspiration – not from nature, but from one of the world’s most popular pets. It turns out that studying cat tongues has offered up an array of ideas that could be useful in robotics, medicine, and the beauty industry.

Researchers based at <a href="http://www.gatech.edu/">Georgia Tech</a> used macro and high-speed videography to record cats as they groomed, then used the imaging to print three-dimensional models at a 400 percent scale. 

The project revealed that the sandpaper-like feel of a cat’s tongue is due to hook-like features that are the shape and sharpness of tiny claws. These little hooks make cat tongues ideal for detangling their fur. The flexibility of the tongue and the spines themselves help with this task.

And that gave the researchers some ideas. The most obvious, of course, is that hairbrushes modeled after cat tongues instead of with stiff, straight bristles might make detangling hair easier – and be easier to clean. 

The hooked shape of the spines on cats’ tongues make them “self-cleaning,” with caught fur sliding off easily. A similarly shaped brush could be cleaned by simply sliding a hand from the tip to the end.

However, the research could also offer up improved grips for soft robotics systems, as well as innovations in wound cleaning.

In robotics, engineers have struggled to create soft materials that can grip surfaces. The cat’s soft, flexible tongue could offer a model for a solution. 

The scientists aren’t done studying cats. They’ve examined the tongues of domestic cats, but would like to also study large cats like lions and tigers so they can compare the structures of their tongues. They’re hoping to find out how the spacing of the spines affects resistance. 

The researchers presented their findings at the 69th annual meeting of the <a href="https://www.aps.org/units/dfd/">American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Dynamics</a>. They’re planning to create mimic technology based on their findings.

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By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Cat tongues inspire ideas for new innovations

Some innovators are finding animal inspiration – not from nature,...

What happens when movie magic meets modern paleontology? “Jurassic World: The Exhibition,” which opened Friday at the <a href="https://www.fi.edu/">Franklin Institute</a> in Philadelphia.

The touring exhibit is “the closest you will ever come to living dinosaurs,” according to the Institute. 

Instead of the standard dino skeletons, “Jurassic World” used research from working paleontologists to create awe-inspiring, life-sized animatronic dinosaurs. Some top 24 feet tall. 

Visitors to the exhibit travel to the imaginary Isla Nublar, the setting of the movies “Jurassic Park” and “Jurassic World,” where they can meet a Tyrannosaurus rex, a brachiosaurus and a velociraptors face-to-face, along with other dinosaurs. At the Gentle Giants Petting Zoo, visitors can interact with a few more dinos and even “pet” one. 

One unique aspect of the “Jurassic World” exhibit: organizers worked with dinosaur expert Jack Horner, who discovered the first fossilized dinosaur embryos and led research into how different species of dinosaurs may have cared for their young. 

The goal was to make sure the science behind the exhibit was as accurate as possible. The exhibit has several hands-on activities that can teach visitors about how paleontologists study the dinosaurs. There’s also a guide for educators who want to teach their students more about the prehistoric reptiles.

Horner had another connection to the movie-inspired exhibit – he was the inspiration for the character of Alan Grant in “Jurassic Park.” He also served as a technical advisor on all of the movies.

The animatronic dinosaurs were created by The Creature Technology Co., which also worked on the “Walking With the Dinosaurs” arena shows.  

The American exhibit is nearly double the size of the previous version, which appeared in Melbourne, Australia until early October. More interactive and science-based activities were added, as well as a velociraptor training paddock like the one used in the movie “Jurassic World.”

The exhibit will be open in Philadelphia until April 23, 2017.

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By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

'Jurassic World' comes alive at Philadelphia exhibit

What happens when movie magic meets modern paleontology? “Jurassic World:...

When it comes to choosing who deserves their affections, female monkeys prefer males who fight for the good of the group to those who do nothing, new research has found.

The study found that after battles between vervet gangs over food, the females reward warrior males with grooming and attention, while the do-nothing males were given the cold shoulder. If the deadbeats tried to force females to give them unearned attention, the females would snap at them.

The behavior of the female monkeys had an interesting effect, however. Instead of angering the shunned males, it encouraged them to participate in future battles for the good of the group, the <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/283/1843/20161817">scientists reported in their article</a>.

The research team, from the <a href="http://www.uzh.ch/en.html">University of Zurich</a> in Switzerland and the Mawana Game Reserve in South Africa, call the behavior “the carrot and the stick.” Female monkeys used both rewards for active males and punishment for passive males to encourage all of the males in a troupe to protect that group.

They came to the conclusion after spending two years observing four different female monkeys groups at the Mawana Game Reserve. 

The monkeys live in mixed gender troupes, and despite the females’ reward and punishment system toward males, both genders participate in intergroup scraps. 

But without the promise of attention from the female monkeys, the males might not bother to fight, the researchers believe. In short, they show off in the hopes of impressing the right girl. And the females know this and shun the deadbeats who don’t pull their weight.

Because the male monkeys are larger in size and have longer teeth, they’re valuable warriors in the battles. The females are most affected by the outcomes of the battles – which decide food sources and territory, both vital to the mothers in the group – so they have incentive to push the more effective male fighters into battle. 

The researchers published their observations on monkey gender roles in the journal <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a>.

---

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Holding out for a hero: female monkeys prefer males who take action

When it comes to choosing who deserves their affections, female...

Bird fanatics now have two species of hen harrier to love – and one more checkbox to add to their birding lists. 

The two species were previously believed to be one, Circus cyaneus, called the hen harrier in Britain and the northern harrier or marsh hawk in the Americas.

It turns out, however, that the harriers are two distinct species after all, a fact already recognized by the British Ornithologists' Union. However, several other taxonomic committees, including the American Ornithologists’ Union, continued to class them as subspecies of the same species of bird.

A group of scientists set out to smooth ruffled feathers in the birding world one way or the other with <a href="http://avianres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40657-016-0052-3">a genetic study</a>. 

They analyzed mitochondrial DNA from both bird populations, and found that the two harriers were closely related – but not the same species. They found genetic differences of up to 2 percent, well within the range of differences between other species.

In fact, the American northern harrier is more closely related to the cinereous harrier of South America than the hen harrier found in the British Isles, the researchers discovered.

To reflect their new knowledge, they dubbed the Eurasian hen harrier Circus cyaneus and the American northern harrier Circus hudsonius, based on the subspecies names that had when it was believed they were the same species.

Along with the genetic study, the scientists conducted a complete review of the scientific literature, as well as photographing and taking notes about plumage, morphology and other characteristics of both species.

The study could be an important one for the Eurasian hen harriers in the United Kingdom, which are endangered due to hunting and habitat loss. Knowing the birds’ genetic code can help with preservation efforts, the lead researchers said. 

The scientists published the results of their genetic study in the journal <a href="http://avianres.biomedcentral.com/">Avian Research</a>.

---

By <a href="mailto:oliviagharvey24@gmail.com">Olivia Harvey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Hen harrier is two separate species, gene study finds

Bird fanatics now have two species of hen harrier to...

The turkeys we'll be sitting down to eat on Thursday have a history that goes way back. Archaeologists have unearthed a clutch of domesticated turkey eggs used as a ritual offering 1,500 years ago in Oaxaca, Mexico -- some of the earliest evidence of turkey domestication.

"Our research tells us that turkeys had been domesticated by 400-500 AD," explains Field Museum archaeologist Gary Feinman, one of the paper's authors. "People have made guesses about turkey domestication based on the presence or absence of bones at archaeological sites, but now we are bringing in classes of information that were not available before. We're providing strong evidence to confirm prior hypotheses." The results were published in an article in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

Feinman, along with lead author Heather Lapham from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and co-author Linda Nicholas also of The Field Museum, discovered the eggs during an excavation in Oaxaca that was home to the Zapotec people going back thousands of years. "It was very exciting because it's very rare to find a whole cluster of intact eggs. This was very unexpected," says Feinman.

"Heather Lapham is an archaeologist who studies animal bones, and she knew immediately that we had found five intact or unhatched eggs that were left as an offering alongside seven newly hatched baby turkeys, of which only their tiny bones survived," says Feinman. Scanning electron microscope analysis of the eggshells confirmed that they were indeed laid by turkeys.

"The fact that we see a full clutch of unhatched turkey eggs, along with other juvenile and adult turkey bones nearby, tells us that these birds were domesticated," says Feinman. "It helps to confirm historical information about the use of turkeys in the area."

The eggs, according to Feinman, were an offering of ritual significance to the Zapotec people. The Zapotec people still live in Oaxaca today, and domesticated turkeys remain important to them. "Turkeys are raised to eat, given as gifts, and used in rituals," says Feinman. "The turkeys are used in the preparation of food for birthdays, baptisms, weddings, and religious festivals."

The new information about when turkeys were domesticated helps amplify the bigger picture of animal domestication in Mesoamerica. "There were very few domesticated animals in Oaxaca and Mesoamerica in general compared with Eurasia," explains Feinman. "Eurasia had lots of different meat sources, but in Oaxaca 1,500 years ago, the only assuredly domestic meat sources were turkeys and dogs. And while people in Oaxaca today rely largely on meat from animals brought over by the Spanish (like chicken, beef, and pork), turkeys have much greater antiquity in the region and still have great ritual as well as economic significance today."

The turkeys that are so important to the Zapotec today are similar birds to the ones that play a role in the American tradition of Thanksgiving. "These are not unlike the kinds of turkeys that would have been around at the first Thanksgiving, and similar to the birds that we eat today," says Feinman.24

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.fieldmuseum.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Field Museum</a>

Turkey domestication happened at least 1500 years ago

The turkeys we'll be sitting down to eat on Thursday...

Just like humans, Chimpanzees learn how to behave from their mother's.

A group of researchers led by Richard Wrangham from the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology has shown, for the first time, that chimpanzees learn grooming styles from their mothers. Once learned, chimps continued to perform the behavior the same way, long after the death of their mothers. The study was published in Current Biology.

"I think what it shows is how strong the maternal influence is," Wrangham said. "It's very charming that our oldest known son was almost 40 years old, still doing what his long-dead mother did."

Known as "high-arm grooming," the behavior occurs during the regular grooming sessions chimpanzees engage in throughout the day. As two chimps groom each other, each raises one arm and either clasp hands or cross their arms as they continue to groom. These brief - sessions averaging only about 45 seconds are repeated as often as ten times a day.

But while grooming behavior is universal among chimps, high-arm grooming is not.

The behavior has been observed in eight chimpanzee populations across Africa; Wrangham said, each of which shows differing rates of clasping and non-clasping, but is notably absent in three other well-studied populations.

It's not clear, however, whether any significance should be attached to those differences - at present, researchers have no clear answer as to why chimps engage in high-arm grooming, or what benefits they get from it.

"So what we wanted to understand was what's responsible for the variation in palm-to-palm clasping," Wrangham said. "When a young female joins a new group does she look at what everyone else is doing...and then do what the rest of the group does for the rest of her life?"

Wrangham and colleagues collected the most detailed data ever on how - and how often - chimps in a particular population engaged in high-arm grooming, and they quickly realized that nearly all previous theories about the behavior were wrong.

"This type of behavior, which seems so trivial in many ways - whether you clasp hands or cross arms - has been suggested as signaling membership in a group," Wrangham said. "People often see these types of strange behaviors we see in chimpanzees and wonder if it is some sort of group identification sign.''

"Alternatively, people have suggested that maybe it signals a special type of social relationship if two individuals do it more often with one another. But what we're showing with this paper is that none of the obvious possibilities figure out," Wrangham said. "The pattern varies widely within the group, it's not closely associated with friendship, it doesn't vary by age or sex, and it does not depend on how long an individual has been in the community."

He stated the only connection researchers were able to identify was the maternal one. The chimpanzees were imitating their mothers, not identifying with the community.

Like humans, young chimpanzees learn behavior from their mothers.

"Even when they're adults, even after their mothers are long dead, they still do it the same way their mother did it," Wrangham said. "This is the first time anyone has realized this, and the pattern is delightfully clear."

Wrangham said studies this far haven't been able to show whether high-arm grooming carries any social meaning.

"People may say it's important because they stick to it," he said. "But the alternative view is that no one in the group cares. There's never rejection (when a clasper meets a non-clasper) - everyone has tended to think that this is something that would be seen more among individuals that have a strong alliance relationship, but it turns out to not be true."

Wrangham states that this finding leaves several unanswered questions, with the hope that further study may yet yield insights into the behavior.

"Now that we know some families clasp hands as much as 90 percent of the time, and others do it only 10 percent, what happens when you get two individuals high-arm grooming together when one is a clasper and the other is not?" Wrangham said. "What is it that decides which pattern they will use? Is it dominance? Is it the higher ranking individual? The older one? Or maybe it is the one that initiates?

"Our current evidence suggests that neither dominance nor age carries sway. Eventually, I hope we can work out the social significance of this quirky behavior. If we can find a pattern for which individual "wins" when a clasper grooms with a non-clasper, maybe we will get a clue to why individuals do high-arm grooming at all."

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.harvard.edu/">Harvard University</a>

Chimpanzees learn grooming styles from their mothers

Just like humans, Chimpanzees learn how to behave from their...

Kiribati, a small island nation in the central Pacific Ocean, has established a large shark sanctuary that will help ensure the creatures are protected.
The Vice President of Kiribati, Kourabi Nenem, said at the shark sanctuary's launch on Friday that the nation was committed to protecting sharks from exploitation and overfishing.
Kiribati has banned commercial shark fishing in the sanctuary, which is about the size of India.
Palau established the first shark sanctuary in the region in 2009, and has been followed by the Marshall Islands, French Polynesia and other nations.
<a href="http://www.pewtrusts.org/en" target="_blank">The Pew Charitable Trusts</a> estimates that 100 million sharks are killed each year by commercial fisheries. It says sharks are vulnerable to overfishing because they're slow to mature and reproduce.
Sharks are prized by some for their fins, which are used in shark fin soup.
Ben Namakin, who was born in Kiribati and has pushed for the sanctuary, said he first began to consult elders and community groups with the idea about four years ago. He said some people were resistant at first because Kiribati had a tradition of catching and eating sharks.
But he said the elders didn't like the way commercial operators were fishing for the creatures and understood their plight more when told of their unusual biology.
"They came to realize the shark sanctuary was important to protecting our culture," Namakin said.
Luke Warwick, the director of Pew's global shark conservation campaign, said the Pacific islands were leading the way when it came to protecting sharks and that Kiribati's announcement represented another significant step.
He said enforcement of the sanctuaries throughout the Pacific remained a difficult issue.
Warwick said the image of sharks was changing.
"Although they got a bad rap in the past, there's a growing movement that sees them as quite vulnerable," he said. "They need very strong protection."
--
Source: Associated Press

Island of Kiribati establishes large shark sanctuary

Kiribati, a small island nation in the central Pacific Ocean, has...

Every summer, thousands of migratory seabirds go to the Arctic to feed and raise their young. Because of the migratory nature of most Arctic birds, these animals connect the Arctic to all other parts of the globe.

It turns out, these migratory seabirds have a symbiotic relationship with the land...their poop helps cool the Arctic.

That's according to new research from Colorado State University atmospheric scientists, who are working to better understand key components of Arctic climate systems.

Publishing in Nature Communications and featured by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science Jeff Pierce and graduate student Jack Kodros present evidence linking ammonia emissions from summertime Arctic seabird-colony excrement, called guano, to newly formed atmospheric aerosol particles. These particles can in turn influence Arctic cloud properties and their effects on climate.

Clouds play a key role in modulating Arctic temperature; thus, understanding factors that influence clouds is essential, Pierce says. Central to the development of clouds is the availability of cloud condensation nuclei - small atmospheric particles around which water can condense.

Using a combination of observations and computer modeling, Pierce, Kodros and co-authors at Dalhousie University, University of Toronto, and Environment and Climate Change Canada determined that migratory-seabird colonies have a definitive influence on atmospheric particles and clouds in the pristine summertime Arctic.

They report the presence of summertime bursts of atmospheric particles linked to ammonia emissions from seabird-colony guano. These particles can spread throughout the Arctic, fostering cloud-droplet formation, and in turn reflect sunlight back to space for a net cooling effect.

"This newly identified and fascinating ecological-atmospheric connection highlights the interconnectedness of the many components of Earth's climate system," Pierce said.

--

Credit: <a href="http://www.colostate.edu" target="_blank">Colorado State University</a>

How does poop from migratory seabirds help cool the Arctic?

Every summer, thousands of migratory seabirds go to the Arctic...

Reindeer in Siberia play a crucial role in the lives of the indigenous people. They rely on their reindeer herds for food, clothing, and income.
The indigenous reindeer herders in Russia's northern Yamal Region, a remote section of Siberia where winter temperatures can sink below minus 50 degrees Celsius, are familiar with nature's caprice.
Last year, 70,000 reindeer  starved to death when ice and deep snow sealed off the Arctic tundra where they graze. This summer, the region's first outbreak of anthrax in 75 years - an epidemic thought to be linked to climate change - sickened humans and animals alike.
Now, the nomadic herders who cover the same icy ground their ancestors roamed for centuries are facing a man-made threat as officials push ahead with an unprecedented culling that calls for at least one in seven of the Yamal's reindeer to be slaughtered.
The cull that started this month is championed by local officials and scientists who say a record reindeer population is leading to over-grazing and more frequent epidemics. But environmental activists and some herders allege that energy interests pressed for the forced killings, which they say could destroy the endangered culture of the Nenets people.
"Every herder should decide the fate of their own reindeer," Eiko Serotetto, the owner of a 200-head herd who has called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the expanded cull, said in an interview.
The rare tradition of nomadic reindeer herding the Nenets people practice sees them complete annual migrations of hundreds of miles as they drive their flocks from winter grazing lands below the Arctic Circle to the tundra near Yamal's northern coast.
Since during the Soviet era, the government has organized an annual cull in which up to 70,000 reindeer are usually killed off. This year, officials announced that 100,000 of the animals would be slaughtered by the end of December.
The final number could end up being higher since the slaughtering season also has been extended until the end of January, a month longer than usual.
One of the most heavily affected areas is the Yamal Peninsula, a 435-mile-long promontory of wind-blasted land made up of permafrost and serpentine rivers jutting into the icy Kara Sea and home to about 280,000 of the Yamal Region's estimated 700,000 reindeer.
Shrinking the number of reindeer on the peninsula is necessary for their continued survival, according to Lyudmilla Morozova, a researcher at the <a href="http://www.ras.ru/en/index.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Russian Academy of Sciences</a>. The population has grown by 50 percent over the last two decades, Morozova said, and large tracts of reindeer moss, a slow-growing staple of the species' herbivore diet, have been lost due to over-grazing.
"It is essential to urgently reduce reindeer numbers," she said. "The reindeer have eaten all the stores (of food) they shouldn't have eaten, and we are on the edge of a cliff."
Slaughter house workers, many of them former herders, are given kill quotas by the regional government that they levy on herd owners, who in turn receive a fixed price of 190 rubles ($3) per kilogram of meat. During the cull, herders bring their reindeer to one of six regional slaughter houses, each of which can process up to 260 animals a day. The meat is then sold commercially.
Although the Nenets relied on their herds for food and clothing before the Russian Revolution, the yearly cull has become an integral part of their lives and livelihoods, providing one of their primary sources of income.
Andrey Rubashin, the deputy head of Yamal's agriculture, trade and provision department, said the bigger cull will mean more money for herders. Ten more slaughter houses partly financed by donations from oil and gas companies will be built by 2020, according to Rubashin.
"The aim is to push our reindeer herders toward a more intensive use of their reindeer," he said in an interview in the regional capital of Salekhard.
Opponents of the culling plan say traditional pasture lands are disappearing due the growth of the oil and gas industry in resource-rich Yamal, not the reindeer population.
The industry's rapid expansion over the last 15 years has curtailed the access herders have to pasture and their freedom to move across the tundra. Reindeer migration routes are restricted by pipelines, railways, roads and large zones around drilling sites, where herders are prohibited from camping.
"It is an unequivocal tragedy for both people and animals," Yelena Sakirko, the Arctic coordinator for Greenpeace in Russia, said of the bigger cull. "It will end up with nomadic reindeer herders turning into settled reindeer farmers. This is a completely different form of husbandry, and means the loss of a culture."
Reindeer numbers are not unusually high at the moment, according to Moscow-based anthropologist Olga Murashko, who said they were at similar levels in pre-revolutionary Russia and during the 1980s and have remained static for nearly a decade.
In 2010, there were 290,000 animals on the peninsula - 10,000 more than today, according to the Russian State Statistics Service.
Regional government spokeswoman Olesya Litovskikh denied the oil and gas industry lobbied for increased culling. Energy companies spend "billions of rubles" developing far-flung areas and supporting Nenets culture, Litovskikh said.
The Yamal Region already has one of the biggest natural gas fields in Russia, the Bovanenkovskoye field, which is operated by state-owned Gazprom. Rising temperatures and melting Arctic sea ice mean the Yamal Peninsula also looks set to become an energy export hub.
Greenpeace estimates there are 1,100 kilometers (684 miles) of pipelines and 2,095 kilometers (1,302 miles) of railways on the Yamal Peninsula, where 15 percent of the land is licensed for exploration and drilling.
In the short-term, herders fear they are being made to slaughter reindeer they would not normally sell for meat and money, and for reasons that remain unclear. Serotetto says the terrain where he spent his childhood is now inaccessible because of a natural gas compressor station.
The 25-year old herder said he usually sends 10 percent of his herd for slaughter, but he does not yet know if he will be forced to sacrifice more this year. He created an online petition to Putin in October that has gotten 962 signatures.
"Our president should know we are also humans, and it is not just the gas industry that can work here," he said.
--
Source: Associated Press

250,000 reindeer in Siberia are being killed to make room for drilling

Reindeer in Siberia play a crucial role in the lives...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> (ACS) reveals that proteins on flu viruses are actually flexible, tilting and waving in a “breath-like” motion. According to the experts, these proteins could be used to better defend against the flu.



"The main antigenic targets of influenza virus are two surface glycoproteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Whereas the structural and dynamical properties of both glycoproteins have been studied previously, the understanding of their plasticity in the whole-virion context is fragmented," wrote the researchers.



To investigate, the team conducted detailed simulations of the influenza A H1N1 virion, or the swine flu. The experts concluded that the visualizations show many new vulnerable states of flu viruses, which could improve future vaccines and antiviral drugs.



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

[sendtonews key="G9bUoxcjr4-2511624-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> features Lake Trasimeno, which is located west of Perugia in central Italy. It is the fourth largest lake in the country. While Trasimeno’s water level varies, it has a maximum depth of approximately six meters.&nbsp;



"In this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image, captured on 6 August 2022, the lake’s emerald green colour is likely due to the presence of phytoplankton. Streaks in the water, particularly visible in the west, indicate the presence of soil and sediments which have been stirred up by winds. Dark colored waters in the southern part of the lake indicate a presence of submerged and floating macrophytes (aquatic plants) as well as algae," says ESA.



"Surrounded by hills on three sides, Trasimeno is subject to heavy storms created by winds, especially from the north and west. There are three islets in the lake: Maggiore, Minore and Polvese (the largest). The lake’s shores are sparsely inhabited with only two popular villages: Castiglione del Lago and Passignano sul Trasimeno."



"Italy is experiencing its worst drought in 70 years which has affected drinking water supplies, hydroelectric power and agricultural production. High temperatures, hot winds and lack of rainfall are the main causes of drought in the Umbrian region which saw Lake Trasimeno’s drop 1.3 m, reaching the limit of the hydrometric zero in July 2022."



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.acs.org/">American Chemical Society</a> describes a new self-powered nanosensor that can instantly detect mercury contamination with the tap of a finger.&nbsp;



The oxidized form of mercury can be harmful when it is ingested through contaminated water or food. This makes it necessary for experts to develop sensors that can quickly and accurately detect the presence of mercury.&nbsp;



Zong-Hong Lin and colleagues have now created a triboelectric nanosensor (TENS) that can detect mercury by simply by touching a sample. According to the researchers, their TENS could serve as the basis for similar devices to safely and remotely monitor other pollutants.



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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Astronomers at <a href="https://www.jhu.edu/">Johns Hopkins University</a> have created an interactive map of the universe, including the actual position and real colors of 200,000 galaxies. The map allows the public to access data that was previously only available to scientists.



The map was developed using data collected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. For over two decades, a telescope in New Mexico was aimed at slightly different locations to capture the night sky.&nbsp;



"Growing up I was very inspired by astronomy pictures, stars, nebulae and galaxies, and now it's our time to create a new type of picture to inspire people," said map creator Brice Ménard, a professor at Johns Hopkins. "Astrophysicists around the world have been analyzing this data for years, leading to thousands of scientific papers and discoveries. But nobody took the time to create a map that is beautiful, scientifically accurate, and accessible to people who are not scientists. Our goal here is to show everybody what the universe really looks like."



"In this map, we are just a speck at the very bottom, just one pixel. And when I say we, I mean our galaxy, the Milky Way which has billions of stars and planets. We are used to seeing astronomical pictures showing one galaxy here, one galaxy there or perhaps a group of galaxies. But what this map shows is a very, very different scale."



"From this speck at the bottom, we are able to map out galaxies across the entire universe, and that says something about the power of science."



The <a href="https://mapoftheuniverse.net/">interactive map</a> is available online, where it can be downloaded for free.



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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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"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

[sendtonews key="JbW4VsY53O-1632195-12187" type="single"] Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected...

Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://welcome.miami.edu/">University of Miami</a> Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science explores how changes in water temperatures have affected tiger shark habitats and movements in the North Atlantic Ocean. The study reveals that rising temperatures have caused the sharks to shift toward the poles over the past 40 years.



“Tiger shark annual migrations have expanded poleward, paralleling rising water temperatures,” explained study lead author Neil Hammerschlag. “These results have consequences for tiger shark conservation, since shifts in their movements outside of marine protected areas may leave them more vulnerable to commercial fishing.”



The researchers analyzed nine years of tracking data from satellite-tagged tiger sharks, combined with four decades of conventional tag and recapture data provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Cooperative Shark Tagging Program.



The experts found that during the last decade of record heat, for every one-degree Celsius increase in water temperatures, tiger sharks migrated further poleward by over 400 kilometers. They also migrated two weeks earlier than usual to waters off the northeastern coast of the United States.



“Given their role as apex predators, these changes to tiger shark movements may alter predator-prey interactions, leading to ecological imbalances, and more frequent encounters with humans,” concluded Professor Hammerschlag.



Video Credit: University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

Today’s Video of the Day from the University of Miami...

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> is focused on the melt ponds that emerge during the spring and summer on the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is the largest ice mass in the northern hemisphere.



"Melt ponds are vast pools of open water that form on both sea ice and ice sheets and are visible as turquoise-blue pools of water in this Copernicus Sentinel-2 image," says ESA.



"When snow and ice melts atop glaciers, water flows in channels and streams and collects in depressions on the surface. These melt ponds can speed up the melting of the surrounding ice since they greatly reduce the ice’s ability to reflect sunlight."



"This can create a positive feedback where an increasing number of melt ponds absorb more heat which causes ice cover to melt even faster."



According to ESA, Greenland has been hit with a late-season heatwave that began in early September. This caused the type of melt event that usually occurs in the middle of summer.



"In a recent paper published in Nature Climate Change, scientists found that major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now ‘inevitable’ even if the burning of fossil fuels were to halt overnight," says ESA. "Using satellite observations of Greenland ice loss and ice cap from 2000 to 2019, the team found the losses will lead to a minimum rise of 27 cm regardless of climate change."



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes a new map of Mars that is providing insight into the planet’s watery past. The map also reveals where future missions could safely land on Mars.&nbsp;



The map has been created over the last decade using observations of water-rich rocks and mineral deposits. The images were captured by ESA’s Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.



"A big surprise is the prevalence of these minerals, with the map revealing hundreds of thousands of water-affected locations in the oldest parts of the planet," says ESA. "The new data will help answer exciting questions about Mars’ climate history, whether water was globally persistent or confined to short, intense episodes, and whether the conditions were ever suitable for life."



"Specifically, the map shows the locations and abundances of aqueous minerals. These are from rocks that have been chemically altered by the action of water in the past, and have typically been transformed into clays and salts."



According to John Carter of the Institut d’Astrophysique Spatiale (IAS), our collective understanding of Mars has been oversimplified. He explained that planetary scientists have tended to think that only a few types of clay minerals on Mars were created during its wet period, then as the water gradually dried up, salts were produced across the planet.



The new map shows that the composition of Mars is much more complicated than what we thought. For example, while many salts formed after Martian clays, there are some salts that are presumed to be older than some of the clays.&nbsp;



“The evolution from lots of water to no water is not as clear cut as we thought, the water didn’t just stop overnight. We see a huge diversity of geological contexts, so that no one process or simple timeline can explain the evolution of the mineralogy of Mars. That’s the first result of our study. The second is that if you exclude life processes on Earth, Mars exhibits a diversity of mineralogy in geological settings just as Earth does,” said Carter.



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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Today's Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.stowers.org/">Stowers Institute for Medical Research</a> describes how cavefish adapted to a sedentary lifestyle over tens of thousands of years. 



The experts found that the muscle metabolism of cavefish has been genetically reprogrammed over time. As a result, the animals have experienced major changes in their morphology and behavior. Despite these changes, however, the cavefish remain healthy and fit.



The research may provide new clues about the evolutionary consequences of prolonged physical inactivity in humans.&nbsp;



“It’s no surprise that people are moving less and less as technology has advanced,” said Rohner. “With cavefish, we have a unique system where we can study what might happen if people remained couch potatoes over very, very long periods of time.”



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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Today’s Video of the Day from <a href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/">NASA Earth Observatory</a> some of the most incredible waves in the world, as seen by Landsat satellites.



"With more than 370,000 miles of coastline on Earth, there are plenty of places where epic waves build up, curl over, and hurtle toward the shore.- much to the thrill of surfers," says NASA. "There are some places where these waves are so magnificent that they can be seen from space."



"With the broad perspective of satellites, we can see how these iconic waves develop into the world’s tallest, longest, fastest, and heaviest."



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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Today’s Video of the Day from the <a href="https://www.esa.int/">European Space Agency</a> describes why satellite images and measurements of our planet have become "essential to our survival, offering a new outlook of our world."&nbsp;



Rising sea levels pose one of the biggest societal threats associated with climate change. According to ESA, satellite altimeter missions such as Copernicus Sentinel-6 are essential in monitoring global and regional changes in sea level.



"Unbeknown to many, the island of Crete, Greece, plays an important role in the Copernicus satellite altimetry constellation and on an international stage," reports ESA.



"Satellite altimetry data have to be continuously monitored at the ESA’s Permanent Facility for Altimetry Calibration where different techniques have pioneered the use of transponders to provide the best measurements to validate satellite altimeters in space soon after launch."



Dr. Craig Donlon explains that, by understanding planet Earth through satellite measurements, we are able to find evidence of change.&nbsp;



Video Credit: European Space Agency&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

Satellites have become essential to our survival

[sendtonews key="761m2QQvR1-2035772-12187" type="single"] Today’s Video of the Day from the...