Whales continue to astonish us with the surprises they reveal, and the most recent discovery is nothing short of extraordinary.



A comprehensive new study reveals that right whales have been underestimated in terms of their longevity. This discovery not only overturns long-standing beliefs but also highlights the remarkable resilience and mysterious nature of these marine giants.



These magnificent creatures, once thought to live only 70 to 80 years, are now known to surpass 130 years, with some nearing the age 150 - far outliving humans.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-right-whales-astonishing-lifespans">Right whales' astonishing lifespans</h2>



This incredible discovery surfaced in an in-depth study that painstakingly analyzed photos of individual whales spanning four decades. 



The researchers spotlighted two specific species - the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/southern-right-whales-have-shifted-their-foraging-grounds/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Southern right whale</a>, found in the oceans below the equator, and the North Atlantic right whale, native to the Atlantic coast of North America.



The experts used the photographic data to build survivorship curves - a statistical tool similar to what is used by insurance companies - to calculate these remarkable lifespans.



The data revealed that Southern right whales can live for more than 130 years, with some speculated to reach the ripe old age of 150.



On the other hand, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-we-stop-the-extinction-of-north-atlantic-right-whales/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">North Atlantic right whales</a> were found to have an average lifespan of a mere 22 years, with very few surviving beyond 50 years.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-human-impact-on-north-atlantic-whales">Human impact on North Atlantic whales</h2>



According to Greg Breed, the study's lead author at the <a href="https://www.uaf.edu/uaf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Alaska Fairbanks</a>, this longevity gap between two closely related species is primarily attributable to human interference.



"North Atlantic whales have unusually short lifespans compared to other whales, but this isn't because of intrinsic differences in biology, and they should live much longer," said Breed. 



"They're frequently tangled in fishing gear or <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ships-are-disregarding-efforts-to-protect-north-atlantic-right-whales/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">struck by ships</a>, and they suffer from starvation, potentially linked to environmental changes we don’t fully understand.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-conservation-efforts">Implications for conservation efforts</h2>



These findings will not only rewrite biology textbooks but will also recalibrate the scales on which we measure conservation efforts for these creatures.



"To attain healthy populations that include old animals, recovery might take hundreds of years," noted Breed. "For animals that live to be 100 or 150 and only give birth to a surviving <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/first-ever-footage-of-a-blue-whale-nursing-its-calf-captured/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">calf</a> every 10 years or so, slow recovery is to be expected.”



This slow recovery trajectory highlights the critical need for sustained conservation measures and global collaboration to protect these iconic marine mammals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-wisdom-of-the-whales">The wisdom of the whales</h2>



The research also emphasizes the significance of cultural knowledge among whale clusters. 



“There’s a growing recognition that recovery isn’t just about biomass or the number of individuals. It’s about the knowledge these animals pass along to the next generation," said Breed. 



The loss of older whales disrupts this critical transfer of knowledge and could potentially jeopardize the survival of younger individuals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-expanding-the-study-to-other-species">Expanding the study to other species</h2>



With this breakthrough discovery under their belts, the scientists plan to extend their research to other whales.



The objective is to determine if species currently believed to have an average lifespan of around 80 years might also be hiding centennial secrets. 



Furthermore, the team is eager to understand how <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/echoes-of-the-past-whalings-long-term-impact-on-genetic-diversity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">whaling</a> has impacted the number of aged whales in today's populations and predict when their numbers might rebound to match their pre-whaling glory.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-the-role-of-whaling">The role of whaling </h2>



The dramatic difference in lifespans between Southern and North Atlantic right whales demonstrates the long-lasting consequences of historical and modern whaling practices.



Southern right whales, which faced significantly less hunting pressure in recent decades, are now showcasing their potential for remarkable longevity. 



In contrast, North Atlantic right whales bear the scars of centuries of exploitation, compounded by ongoing threats such as fishing gear entanglements and ship strikes.



Whaling not only reduced populations but also eliminated many of the oldest individuals, robbing populations of cultural knowledge that is vital for survival.



These findings emphasize the importance of creating safer ocean environments and reducing human interference to allow whales to reach their full lifespans.



The full study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adq3086" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Advances</a>.



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Right whales live nearly twice as long as we thought

Whales continue to astonish us with the surprises they reveal, and the most recent discovery is nothing short of extraordinary. A comprehensive new study reveals that right whales have been underestimated in terms of their longevity. This discovery not only overturns long-standing beliefs but also highlights the remarkable resilience and mysterious nature of these marine giants. These magnificent creatures, once thought to live only 70 to 80 years, are now known to surpass 130 years, with some nearing the age 150 - far outliving humans. Right whales'...

A new study led by the <a href="https://english.cas.cn/">Chinese Academy of Sciences</a> in Beijing has found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-can-be-prompted-to-repeat-their-recent-actions/">dogs</a> tend to wag their tails to the right when they are in the proximity of people they are familiar with. According to the experts, this phenomenon is caused by the fact that the left side of the brain, which controls the right side of the body, is the place where positive emotions – such as those triggered by meeting a beloved person – are processed.



By using a 3D motion tracking system, the scientists studied how ten beagles wagged their tails when they were with humans for one five-minutes session per day over a period of three days. In total, the researchers analyzed more than 21,000 wagging bouts, including the distance and speed with which their tails moved. The results revealed that, as the dogs get to know a person, they start wagging their tails more frequently to the right and less frequently to the left.



“The switch to right-sided wagging suggests the dogs are perceiving the stranger in a more positive light given the passage of time,” said Deborah Wells, an expert in dog behavior at <a href="https://www.qub.ac.uk/">Queen’s University Belfast</a>, who was not involved in the study.



“Positive and negative emotional states have been associated with left- and right-sided activation of the prefrontal cortex in humans,” explained study senior author Yong Zhang, a professor of Genetics and Developmental Biology at the Chinese University of Sciences.&nbsp;



“We speculate that tail wagging toward the left might be accompanied by right brain activation, while tail wagging toward the right side may be accompanied by left brain activation in the prefrontal cortex.”



According to the study authors, these findings reveal the sophisticated features and organization of dogs’ tail-wagging behavior during interactions with humans, providing a useful paradigm for analyzing dogs’ social behaviors and their underlying neural mechanisms.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004222010197">iScience</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Dogs wag their tails to the right for people they love

A new study led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences...

When temperatures are rising, ant colonies need to make collective <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/red-pandas-face-shrinking-habitats-and-tough-decisions/">decisions</a>. While each ant feels the heat rising beneath its feet, they carry along as usual, until they suddenly reverse course, with the whole group evacuating their nest. A team of researchers from the <a href="https://www.rockefeller.edu/">Rockefeller University</a> has found that, in such situations, ants as a group behave similar to networks of neurons in the brain.&nbsp;



By developing a new experimental setup to rigorously analyze decision-making in ant colonies, the researchers discovered that when a colony evacuates its nest due to rising temperatures, its decision is a function of both the magnitude of the heat increase and the size of the colony. Thus, ants combine sensory information with the parameters of their group in order to arrive at a collective response – a process similar to how neural networks in the brain give rise to decisions.



“We pioneered an approach to understand the ant colony as a cognitive-like system that perceives inputs and then translates them into behavioral outputs,” said study senior author Daniel Kronauer, an expert in Social Evolution and Behavior at Rockefeller. “This is one of the first steps toward really understanding how insect societies engage in collective computation.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Decision-making consists of a series of computations meant to minimize costs and maximize benefits. For example, in a type of decision-making called sensory response thresholding, an animal has to detect sensory input such as heat exceeding a certain level to produce a costly behavior, like moving away.



The scientists exposed ant colonies of 36 workers and 18 larvae to rising temperatures, and found that, when the temperature exceeded 34 degrees Celsius, the ants evacuated their nest. Surprisingly though, if the size of the colony was larger - about 200 individuals – the ants only evacuated the nest when temperatures rose to 36. “It seems that the threshold isn’t fixed. Rather, it’s an emergent property that changes depending on the group size,” said Professor Kronauer.



According to the scientists, pheromones – the invisible chemical messengers that pass information among ants – play a crucial role in structuring this collective behavior. It is not yet clear though why larger colonies would require higher temperatures to pack up shop. A hypothesis is that the larger the colony size, the more onerous it is to relocate.



In future studies, the researchers aim to refine their theoretical model by interfering with more parameters - such as tempering the level of pheromones in the ants’ enclosures or creating genetically altered ants with different abilities to detect temperature changes - and observing how the insects respond.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“What we’ve been able to do so far is to perturb the system and measure the output precisely. In the long term, the idea is to reverse engineer the system to deduce its inner workings in more and more detail,” Kronauer concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2123076119">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Ant colonies behave like neural networks when making decisions

When temperatures are rising, ant colonies need to make collective...

Trap-jaw ants (Odontomachus brunneus) are predatory insects with exceptional jaws. They open their jaws by 180o and lock them there until they need to snap them shut. A snap, when it happens, takes mere microseconds and involves considerable force. In fact, this ant’s jaws are among the fastest moving appendages in the animal kingdom. 



The ants use these jaws to stun or kill <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rattlesnakes-diversify-their-venom-for-evolving-prey/">prey</a> mostly, but can also release the snap close to the ground surface. This action ends up propelling the ant into the air, either as a sort of “leap” to aid locomotion, or to get the ant out of a sticky situation.&nbsp;&nbsp;



When not used for killing prey or leaping to safety, the ant’s jaws can be used extremely delicately to greet other ants or to manipulate small pieces of food. Impressed by the way in which trap-jaw ants use their jaws for both delicate maneuvers and savage blows, a team led by Sheila Patek at Duke University set out to investigate just how these jaws work. The fascinating results of the study are published in the <a href="https://journals.biologists.com/jeb">Journal of Experimental Biology</a>.



The species is native to the southern parts of the U.S., Central America and the West Indies. Patek and her colleagues collected specimens from a colony they found in the scrubland near Lake Placid, Florida. They dissected some of the ants and took detailed measurements and micro-CT scans of the heads and jaws. The experts used these measurements to model the ant’s movements and understand what enables them to release their jaws with such force and speed.



Study co-author Chi-Yun Kuo gently secured ants in front of a high-speed camera and filmed their jaw movements at 300,000 frames per second to capture the lightning-fast maneuver as the insects crashed their mandibles together.&nbsp;



After release, each mandible swung in a perfect arc through the first 65o before it decelerated and came to rest. “When we played back the videos in slow-motion, their strikes were spectacularly precise,” said Patek.&nbsp;



The researchers found that the ants used two separate spring mechanisms to accomplish their powerful jaw snaps. Firstly, muscles stretch the jaws apart so that there is a 180o angle between them. In doing this, they deform the sides of the ant’s head somewhat, making it slightly shorter (3.2 percent) and narrower (6 percent) in the middle. As the exoskeleton deforms inwards, it stores elastic potential energy that can be used when the jaws are released.&nbsp;



Secondly, enormous muscles attach to each jaw by means of springy elastic tendons. Thus torque is developed by having stored elastic energy in two different sites on each mandible. When the jaws are released, the head capsule pops back into normal shape and this pushes part of the mandible forwards, away from the body. At the same time, the elastic tendons pulls the internal edge of each jaw towards the body. This causes the jaws to swing out in a perfect arc, and to achieve a maximum speed of around 120 mph (195 km/h). The movement is equivalent to spinning at an eye-watering 470,000 rpm. The researchers term this system a “dual spring force couple,” because two springs deliver energy at two different locations at the same time, on each mandible.



Calculating the amount of energy released as the insects unleashed their smashing mandibles, the team discovered that the energy stored as the head exoskeleton deformed was sufficient to drive the mandibles through 33o of perfect rotation. The energy stored in the springy tendon attaching the mandible to the enormous adductor muscle inside the head (comprising 14 percent of the ant’s body mass) powered the remaining 32o of the arc.



The researchers puzzled over how this spring system could work without generating excessive friction, which would slow the jaw movements and result in wear-and-tear on the joints. Using dynamic modeling, they found that dual spring force couples reduce the need for joint constraints and that the ants had a far less rigid joint structure than they expected. This system reduces friction, which is essential if the ant is to snap its jaws shut repeatedly.&nbsp;



Trap-jaw ants thus make use of a mechanism that allows them to coordinate the opposing forces driving the perfect mandible rotation. Since no strain is placed on the fragile joint about which the mandible pivots, there is no damage to the ant itself, regardless of how often it snaps its jaws closed.&nbsp;



Patek suspects that other spring-loaded creatures also use the strategy, and she, Sarah Bergbreiter (Carnegie Mellon University, USA) and Suzanne Cox (Duke University) suggest that the revolutionary design could be embraced by engineers.&nbsp;



“The principles can be incorporated into microrobotics to improve multifunctionality, precision and longevity of ultrafast systems,” they say.&nbsp;



More details of the study can be found at: <a href="https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-lookup/doi/10.1242/jeb.244077">https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article-lookup/doi/10.1242/jeb.244077</a>



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How do trap-jaw ants keep from blowing their heads off?

Trap-jaw ants (Odontomachus brunneus) are predatory insects with exceptional jaws....

A new report from the <a href="https://mote.org/">Mote Marine Laboratory</a> has revealed that over 70 percent of species in the global <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-worlds-fastest-shark-spotted-near-barcelona/">shark</a> fin trade are threatened with extinction. 



An international team of scientists analyzed 9,820 fin trimmings from markets in Hong Kong, one of the largest shark fin trade hubs in the world. Overall, 86 different shark species were found, as well as rays and chimeras. More than two-thirds of the species identified in the analysis are at risk of extinction.&nbsp;



“Overfishing is most likely the immediate cause of the declining trends we are seeing in shark and ray populations around the world. The fact that we are finding so many species threatened with extinction in the global shark fin trade is a warning sign telling us that international trade might be a main driver of unsustainable fishing,” said study lead author Diego Cardeñosa.



In 2021, The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species revealed that about one third of all shark species are threatened. Sadly, the current study indicates that species in the fin trade are much more likely to be endangered.



For nearly a decade, Dr. Demian Chapman has led a project to track and monitor the global shark fin trade. The researchers have conducted DNA testing on about 10,000 small scraps taken from processed imported fins, sold in markets in Hong Kong and South China.&nbsp;



The experts aimed to better understand what species are in the trade and how common they are. By tracking this over time, the information can be shared with decision-makers to consider how well various management measures are working.



The most common species found to end up in the fin trade are open-ocean, or pelagic sharks, such as blue and silky sharks. In addition, the greatest number of species in the fin trade live in coastal areas, including blacktip, dusky, spinner, and sandbar sharks. Without sufficient management, many coastal species could vanish.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“A few nations are protecting or sustainably fishing sharks and their relatives, but the majority are not for a variety of reasons,” said Chapman. “Quite a few of the coastal sharks we found in the trade - such as smalltail, broadfin, whitecheek and various hound shark, river shark and small hammerhead species - are listed as Endangered or Critically Endangered and yet there are no regulations protecting them anywhere in their range."&nbsp;



"Unless the relevant governments respond with management soon, we are likely to experience a wave of extinctions among coastal sharks and rays.”



In nations that do not regulate shark fishing, three coastal species are already thought to be extinct. To encourage better management, species should be listed under the <a href="https://cites.org/eng">Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)</a> — an international agreement seeking to protect species from overexploitation driven by international trade.&nbsp;



The 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP19) to CITES will take place in November. This study will provide key evidence, bringing the plight of coastal sharks to the attention of governments. The findings will also show that only a small percentage of the overall trade in shark fins is currently regulated under the Convention.



“The upcoming CITES CoP19 Governments have tabled proposals that would bring the vast majority of sharks traded for their fins under the Convention’s sustainability controls, action that has been informed by this study’s findings. We’re encouraged to see CITES Governments match their level of ambition to the level of threat seen for sharks and rays globally, with CITES listings a strong driver for better domestic management of shark fisheries,” said Luke Warwick, director of shark and ray conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society.



There are many actions that can be taken to better manage coastal shark fishing and avert the threat of extinction. These strategies include changing fishing gear, creating protected areas and limiting catch.&nbsp;



“Since our Founding Director, Dr. Eugenie Clark - the Shark Lady - began her work documenting shark populations in southwest Florida and around the world over 65 years ago, the core of Mote has been to push the frontiers of science in support of evidence-based, sustainable use of our shared ocean resources,” said Mote President &amp; CEO Dr. Michael P. Crosby.&nbsp;



The research team plans to continue their work in monitoring shark species found in the trade. The international team will continue to collaborate through innovative science, community-engagement and resource management to prevent the extinction of these species.



“Our results highlight high levels of international trade and clear management gaps for coastal species. Many are in the highest extinction risk categories," said Cardeñosa. "The next category is extinction. We can’t allow this to happen."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1755263x">Conservation Letters</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Sharks in the fin trade have a high risk of extinction

A new report from the Mote Marine Laboratory has revealed...

The North American <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/monarch-butterflies-may-not-be-threatened-as-previously-thought/">monarch butterflies</a> (Danaus plexippus plexippus), a species famous for its multigenerational, cross-continental migration patterns, have recently been classified as endangered by the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a> (IUCN), the world’s leading scientific authority on the status of species. This decision comes after decades of steady decline in monarch populations driven by losses of the plants they need as caterpillars, combined with the impact of climate change.



“It’s been so sad to watch their numbers decline so much, so anything that might help them makes me happy, and I think that this designation might help them,” said Karen Oberhauser, a conservation biologist at the <a href="https://www.wisc.edu/">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> who contributed to the assessment. “Although it’s sad that they need that help, that they’ve reached the point where this designation is warranted.”



According to Dr. Oberhauser and her colleagues, the number of Western Monarchs, which live west of the Rocky Mountains, has plummeted by 99.9 percent between 1980 and 2021. Although they rebounded slightly in 2022, they still remain in great danger. Eastern monarchs – which make up most of the monarch butterfly population in North America – also dropped by an estimated 84 percent from 1996 to 2014.



Monarch butterflies depend on milkweed, the only plant that they can consume. After departing from their overwintering grounds in the forests of central Mexico, females deposit eggs on milkweed plants from Texas to Canada, during a multigenerational journey. While habitat destruction in the Mexican forests was an early threat to the butterflies, the fact that American farmers turned to crops genetically modified to withstand glyphosate, a widely used herbicide, created significant problems for the monarchs.&nbsp;



“Glyphosate was suddenly sprayed over vast acreage of farm in the Midwest,” said Anna Walker, an entomologist at the <a href="https://www.bioparksociety.org/main/">New Mexico BioPark Society</a> who led the assessment. “That took out a lot of the milkweed plants that the monarch caterpillars rely on.”



Besides these problems, climate change has also significantly contributed to the steep decline of monarch populations, by disrupting their ancient cycles through increases in storms, droughts, and other similar events, which can be catastrophic for already vulnerable populations. “We’re starting to see this kind of mismatch between when insects are ready to start the spring and when plants are ready,” Walker explained. “There are a ton of unknowns.”



According to the experts, a viable solution for saving monarchs from extinction is by planting milkweed native to each specific region in the U.S. and Canada. For instance, swamp milkweed is a good, easy-to-grow variety native to most of the western regions of the U.S., which could help migrating butterflies along their journey. Unless such measures are implemented rapidly, we are at risk of losing one of the most fascinating species of insects on our planet.&nbsp;



More details regarding this new assessment of the status of monarch butterflies can be found on IUCN’s <a href="https://www.iucn.org/press-release/202207/migratory-monarch-butterfly-now-endangered-iucn-red-list">website</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Monarch butterflies are officially listed as endangered

The North American monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus plexippus), a species...

According to a new study led by the <a href="https://www.ubc.ca/">University of British Columbia</a> (UBC) that investigated 31 mountain regions across the globe, competition with other species, not climate, drives the distribution of bird biodiversity in tropical mountains, one of our planet’s main <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/can-land-conservation-stop-the-biodiversity-crisis/">biodiversity</a> hotspots. The findings suggest that species interactions have played a much larger role in shaping tropical mountain biodiversity than previously thought, while providing novel insights into how tropical mountain species are responding to climate change.



Tropical mountains are some of the most biodiverse regions on our planet, frequently with entirely different sets of species which live only within narrow elevational ranges. This pattern is significantly different from that characterizing species from temperate mountains, which tend to have significantly broader elevation ranges.&nbsp;



Many scientists argue that this pattern is most likely due to adaptation to the low-temperature seasonality of tropical climates. Although temperatures in the tropical mountains range from hot in the lowlands to cold in the highlands, they remain relatively stable at any elevation throughout the entire year, thus creating various climatic niches along mountain slopes. Physiological adaptations to these myriad niches are generally thought to result in the accumulation of high number of species in these mountains.



However, by performing a comparative analysis of forest bird species’ elevational ranges across 31 tropical mountain areas all over the world – using 4.4 million fine-scale locality records from <a href="https://ebird.org/home">eBird</a>, a global online scientific database of bird abundance and distribution – the UBC scientists have argued that, rather than climate effects, interspecific competition is the main factor limiting tropical mountain species’ elevational ranges.



The analysis revealed that species richness is a much better predictor of smaller elevational ranges than temperature seasonality, suggesting that the narrow elevational ranges of tropical mountain birds are in fact driven more by interspecies competition than climatic factors.



“We find strong support that competition, not climate, is the leading driver of narrow elevational ranges. These results highlight the importance of species interactions in shaping species’ ranges in tropical mountains, Earth’s hottest biodiversity hotspots,” the study authors conclude.



Further research is needed to find out whether these patterns could be generalized to other, non-aviary taxa, in order to disentangle the complex interplay between climate and other factors in the distribution and abundance of various animal species on tropical mountains.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abl7242">Science</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Competition limits the ranges of tropical mountain birds

According to a new study led by the University of...

The emergence of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics has increased worldwide in the past few decades. This is concerning because it limits the efficacy of these antibiotics to treat human <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rhinos-show-that-diseases-can-disrupt-conservation-efforts/">diseases</a>. Although the pharmaceutical industry has developed numerous new types of antibiotics since resistance was first detected after the Second World War, the situation today is that there are no antibiotic medications for which resistance has not been recorded.&nbsp;



According to the World Health Organization, we should all be doing our best to prevent the development of antibiotic resistance in bacteria, and a new study published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jac">Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy</a> suggests one way in which we can contribute to this.&nbsp;



The study, led by researchers from Bristol University, assessed the presence of drug-resistant Escherichia coli bacteria in the excrement of pet dogs in both rural and urban settings.&nbsp; E. coli are commonly associated with infections in humans and have also been shown previously to be shared between pet dogs and humans through everyday interactions.



For the investigation,&nbsp;the researchers collected and analyzed the feces of hundreds of dogs for the presence of E. coli that were resistant to antibiotics commonly used to treat human infections. Dog owners completed questionnaires about demographic factors and dog behavior and feeding regimes. All the dogs and owners were resident in a specified 50 x 50km study area in south-western England.&nbsp;



The researchers found a link between dogs that were fed raw meat and the presence of antibiotic resistant E. coli in their excrement. This link was stronger in the population of rural dogs than in those living in an urban setting. In urban dogs, however, there was an additional link between swimming in rivers and carrying resistant E. coli. The analysis also showed that rural dogs excreted resistant E. coli with specific genetic sequences that are also commonly found in the E. coli in cattle but not in humans in the region. Conversely, urban dogs carried resistant E. coli with genetic sequences commonly found in E. coli in humans, but not in cattle. &nbsp;



The research supports a recent study by the same team, published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8802057/">One Health</a>, which looked at the presence of resistant E. coli in 16-week-old puppies. Both studies, which used data from different dogs, demonstrate that dogs may excrete resistant bacteria regardless of their age or the length of time they are fed a raw meat diet.



“Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are everywhere, but some antibiotics are considered critically important for use in humans," said Professor <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/matthew-b-avison">Matthew Aviso</a>n. "We have shown that dogs fed raw meat are more likely to carry bacteria resistant to these important medicines. This doesn’t mean that the animal, or the owner, will become sick.”



“E. coli&nbsp;is a widespread bacterium that is found in the intestines of all humans and animals, however it is a common cause of many diseases, including urinary tract infection, and can cause serious illness, including sepsis, if it spreads to other parts of the body."



“We should do everything we can to reduce the circulation of critically important antibiotic-resistant&nbsp;E. coli&nbsp;and other bacteria. Our research adds to the increasing evidence that not feeding raw meat to dogs may help in that objective."



“We know humans and animals share bacteria with one another, so what we find in your pet may well also be in you. Pet owners should be encouraged to practice good hygiene and not feeding raw food to your dog can be part of this,” added Professor &nbsp;<a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/persons/kristen-k-reyher">Kristen Reyher</a>. “We can all do our part to decrease antibiotic resistance and its terrible effects on both human and animal health.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dogs fed raw meat may spread antibiotic resistant bacteria

The emergence of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics has...

Large carnivores are crucial members of many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-can-earths-ecosystems-adapt-to-climate-change/">ecosystems</a> and play important roles in their functioning. But their populations are in decline worldwide because they require large territories in which to live, have low reproduction rates and behave in ways that bring them into conflict with humans. 



To gain an understanding of just how populations of large carnivores have changed in recent years, researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara have turned to data from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).



Led by Adrian Stier and Kurt Ingeman, the team identified a list of 362 carnivore species from six different major taxon groups (sharks and rays, bony fish, amphibians and reptiles, birds, terrestrial mammals, and marine mammals) using the existing IUCN database from 2019. Species on this list include leopards, yellowfin tuna, steppe eagles, and gharials.



The researchers gathered data on population trends and extinction risk status for these species from the IUCN database. They report in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a> that 137 (37.8 percent) of the large carnivore species on this list were currently considered threatened (classed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered). Marine mammals had the lowest proportion of threatened species (26.5 percent), while 60.9 percent of rays and sharks included in the study were classified as threatened.&nbsp;



The experts then assessed the recovery of large carnivore populations based on whether the IUCN reported increasing population numbers and whether the risk of extinction had changed since the populations were first investigated. Of the 362 species considered, only 12 had shown genuine decreases in the risk of extinction, while 39 (10.7 percent) showed recovery for one or both factors. These improvements were concentrated among populations of marine mammals such as humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus). Among terrestrial mammals, only the Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) met either recovery criterion.&nbsp;



Lastly, the researchers quantified whether large carnivore species had shown any population recoveries when targeted conservation strategies, such as habitat protection and restrictions on hunting, had been applied. The results showed that carnivores protected by international legislation were 6.8 times more likely to show a reduced extinction risk, while those with controlled hunting plans were three times as likely to be at lower risk of extinction.



The experts concluded that national and international legislation and the identification of conservation sites were associated with reduced risk of extinction in carnivore species, and they suggest that these findings provide a glimmer of hope that large carnivore population declines can be halted, and even reversed when protective legislation and targeted conservation actions are put in place.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Large carnivores need protection to avoid extinction

Large carnivores are crucial members of many ecosystems and play...

Understanding how individuals change their behaviors as they age is useful for research on many different animal species, including humans. By clarifying the consequences of senescence for aging individuals, such studies could also provide new insights into how societal structure and function might change as the population ages. 



A research team led by the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> has now studied a population of aging female wild red <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/deer-migration-is-driven-by-springtime-vegetation-patterns/">deer</a> on the Isle of Rum in Scotland. The analysis revealed that aging deer become less sociable with age and tend to adopt a life of solitude in their advancing years.



“We found that deer’s social networks shrink as they grow old and begin associating less with others,” said study lead author Greg Albery, a biologist at Oxford. “This ‘social aging’ appears to be driven by older individuals choosing to live in more isolated locations and engaging with fewer other deer within these sparser areas.”



Dr. Albery and his colleagues applied novel social network analysis methods to a large, 46-year-long dataset containing observations of over 3,500 female deer over their lifetimes. As these deer grew older, they began interacting with fewer conspecifics within their home ranges, and often shifted their locations to less populated areas of their habitat. Moreover, they had smaller home ranges, farther away from the center of the population, in areas of lower density with lower-quality grazing opportunities.



“This new evidence of social aging in the wild shows the value of long-term datasets. By tracking many individuals simultaneously over their entire lives, we can understand how and why their social associations with one another change over time,” said study senior author Josh Firth, a professor of Biology at Oxford.



Further research is needed to clarify why aging deer become less social. The scientists currently hypothesize that social aging is driven by a combination of multiple factors, including moving to areas that are easier for older individuals to forage in, and changing their behavior to become more socially selective in their relationships with other deer. Applying the scientific methods employed in this study to other long-term data sets of wild animals will help generate a broader view of the fundamental rules that govern aging and social behavior in natural populations.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-022-01817-9">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Red deer become less sociable with age

Understanding how individuals change their behaviors as they age is...

When humans suffer heart attacks and don’t receive treatment quickly enough, heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) are damaged by the lack of oxygen and begin to die off. Afterwards, scar tissue forms, and - since we cannot produce more cardiomyocytes - the heart can no longer pump as well as before. A new study led by <a href="https://www.mdc-berlin.de/">Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association</a> (MDC) has found that things are very different in animals such as the zebrafish, which can regenerate organs, including their hearts.



In their laboratory, the scientists simulated myocardial infarction injuries in the hearts of zebrafish and, by using single-cell analyses and cell lineage trees, tracked the regeneration of the cardiomyocytes. At the beginning, these injuries caused an inflammatory response - just like in humans – followed by scarring from connective tissue cells known as fibroblasts.



“Surprisingly, the immediate response to the injury is very similar. But while the process in humans stops at that point, it carries on in the fish. They form new cardiomyocytes, which are capable of contracting,” said study senior author Jan Phillip Junker, an expert in Developmental Biology at MDC. “We wanted to identify the signals that come from other cells and help drive the regeneration.”



The analysis revealed three new types of fibroblasts that activated several genes that are responsible for forming proteins, such as connective tissue factors like collagen 12. The scientists identified two sources of temporarily activated fibroblasts: the outer layer of the heart (the epicardium) and the inner layer (the endocardium). However, the cells that produce collagen 12 were found only in the epicardium.



In future studies, the researchers aim to explore in more depth the genes that the temporarily activated fibroblasts read especially often, in order to shed more light on how they promote the regeneration of heart tissue and help form new blood vessels that supply the heart with oxygen. Better understanding these processes could help scientists create medicine to stimulate heart regeneration in humans too.



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41588-022-01129-5">Nature Genetics</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;

Zebrafish regenerate their heart tissue after injury

When humans suffer heart attacks and don’t receive treatment quickly...

Infections by parasites and pathogens can affect not only a host’s physical and physiological wellness, but also its <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/for-some-walking-boosts-cognitive-function/">cognitive</a> functioning. There are numerous examples, across many different animal taxa, which illustrate changes to cognitive performance during times of infection or illness. We have to think no further than the “brain fog” experienced by some COVID-19 sufferers, especially those with long-haul symptoms.&nbsp;



As climate change alters the distribution of pathogens and wild animals, it is likely that animals will come into contact with a range of new pathogens and will experience infections from these sources. If these infections lead to cognitive impairment then this may influence the animals’ ability to adapt and succeed in the changing world. In particular, if pathogens affect an animal’s ability to learn, remember, or make decisions, this may compromise the fitness of populations in the wild at a time when they need to call on all these skills to adapt to new conditions.&nbsp;



A review of the effects of infection on cognitive function, published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/trends/ecology-evolution/home">Trends in Ecology &amp; Evolution</a> finds that, although scientists are well aware that disease impairs cognitive function in many different species, the mechanisms and consequences for fitness are not well understood. One of the obstacles is that different cognitive abilities are tested in infected animals, using different forms of tests, different types of infections and different host species.&nbsp;



This review, written by four US researchers, aims to bring together ideas from the fields of cognitive ecology and disease ecology in order to examine evidence for infection-linked cognitive impairment. In addition, the authors considered why certain pathogens bring about change in cognition and what the ecological and evolutionary implications of this may be, particularly as populations of wild animals face changes to their habitats.



The study authors, including Dana Hawley and Kendra Sewall from Virginia Tech and Anne Leonard from the University of Nevada, said that cognitive impairment could contribute to population declines, particularly for species that rely heavily on learning and memory for foraging or other important functions. “Impaired cognitive performance could compromise the ability of some animals to exploit urbanized and other rapidly changing habitats, where problem solving may be particularly important.”



The experts found a lot of evidence in the scientific literature for infection-linked cognitive impairment, albeit that this evidence was very variable, across host and pathogen taxa, and across cognitive abilities. For example, bumblebees infected with the trypanosome Critidia bombin showed impaired performance on learning tasks, and American crows naturally infected with the bacteria Campylobacter jejuni showed a reduced ability to solve problems. This effect was also recorded for female blue tits infected with the blood protozoan Plasmodium.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The researchers determined that pathogens could impair cognitive performance either directly or indirectly, and either in the short term or over longer periods. Direct effects involved neurological damage caused by pathogens that infect the central nervous system. For example, West Nile virus, feline immunodeficiency virus, Ebola virus and coronaviruses may manifest as meningitis, encephalitis and myelitis, all of which can have long-term cognitive impacts.&nbsp;



Indirect impairment of cognitive function in diseased animals can arise from such consequences as malnutrition (when a sick animal cannot forage effectively or loses motivation to forage), missing out on social contacts and missing out on learning opportunities through being absent and ill. In addition, infections can change the gut microbiome of a host, which can lead to impaired digestion or absorption of nutrients. Furthermore, immune responses, such as inflammation, can also impede a foraging animal’s success.&nbsp;



The timing of infection in an animal’s life may also have significant consequences. For example, young canaries that are infected with&nbsp;Plasmodium&nbsp;when they are learning songs might have a reduced song repertoire and complexity as adults.&nbsp;



The authors state that cognitive abilities are crucial for animals to be able to collect, retain and act on information relating to their survival. Therefore, impairment of cognitive performance due to disease could have widespread ecological consequences for populations of wild animals. As climate changes lead to habitat alterations, wild animals will need all their cognitive skills to adapt and survive, and this against a backdrop of increased pathogen proliferation in warmer conditions.



“In a century characterized by global changes that accelerate pathogen emergence, while simultaneously favoring cognitive flexibility, there is an urgent need to better understand the interactions between animal cognition and infection, and their potential consequences for wild populations," said the researchers.



The experts call for increased attention to be paid to this topic, saying: “One challenge in all studies of cognitive ecology is the scarcity of comparable data across taxa. Understanding how infection affects specific cognitive abilities will require research across a wider breadth of hosts and pathogens, targeting analogous aspects of cognition (e.g., spatial learning; problem solving; general versus specialized cognitive abilities), and standardizing experimental paradigms to the extent possible.”



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Animals with infections are less able to adapt and survive

Infections by parasites and pathogens can affect not only a...

Climate change is causing a mass <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildfires-likely-contributed-to-earths-largest-mass-extinction/">extinction</a> that has not been seen in recorded history. For birds, this biodiversity loss has implications beyond species extinction risks. 



New research published by <a href="https://www.cell.com/">Cell Press</a> has found that the loss of numerous bird species will decrease morphological diversity among the remaining birds at a rate greater than species loss alone. 



The study reveals which birds could be lost, and the regions most susceptible to homogenization. Emma Hughes, a bird researcher at the University of Sheffield, has spent her career examining broad morphological traits in birds. 



“I began to wonder what will happen with global change. So, not only how traits are currently distributed globally, but what might happen to morphological and phylogenetic diversity under the global extinction crisis,” said Hughes.



“As species go extinct you expect the traits that they represent to also be lost. But what we found was that with morphological diversity, the traits were lost at a much, much, much greater rate than just species loss could predict. This is really important because that can lead to a major loss of ecological strategies and functions.”



Diversity loss is most likely to affect birds with extreme features. The size and shape of birds are widely variable, ranging from the giant, flightless ostrich to the tiny hummingbird. The study suggests these types of birds have the greatest risk of extinction.&nbsp;



“We do find strong evidence to support the hypothesis that the largest and smallest species are likely to be most at risk of extinction," said Hughes.



With climate change, certain regions are also more likely to be left with homogenized populations.&nbsp;



“The Himalayan mountains and foothills are at particular risk, and it's likely that the loss of trait diversity will be considerable,” said Hughes. “The dry and moist forests of south Vietnam and Cambodia are also vulnerable.”



The researchers are hopeful that their work will help people understand how biodiversity loss will change the world.&nbsp;



“The global extinction crisis doesn't just mean that we're losing species. It means that we are losing unique traits and evolutionary history, including species that could confer unique benefits to humanity that are currently unknown.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:katherinebucko@gmail.com">Katherine Bucko</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Birds could rapidly lose the traits that make them unique

Climate change is causing a mass extinction that has not...

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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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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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

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