Life on the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing significant shifts caused by climate change and various human-generated factors, according to a recent study.&nbsp;



Researchers warn that reef fish, which are crucial to marine ecosystems through their roles in food provision, seaweed control, and sand production, are undergoing notable changes. 



These developments could have broad consequences for both people and coral reef habitats.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-transformations-in-fish-communities">Transformations in fish communities</h2>



The research was led by an international team of marine scientists from the UK and Australia, led by <a href="https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lancaster University</a> and working with the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS).



The team found that the diversity and makeup of fish communities across the Great Barrier Reef (<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/great-barrier-reef-is-on-the-brink-of-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">GBR</a>) have changed dramatically since the 1990s. The findings indicate that the pace of change has accelerated in recent years, raising questions about evolving geographic patterns of biodiversity.



The researchers examined three decades of data from 1995 to 2022, spanning an extensive stretch of more than 1,200 kilometers between 14°S and 24°S on the GBR. 



Historically, one of the best-documented global biodiversity patterns is the "latitudinal diversity gradient," where species richness increases closer to the Equator. This pattern, previously thought to be stable over long timescales, now appears to be shifting as multiple pressures intensify.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-pressures-on-the-reef">Pressures on the reef</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/extreme-coral-bleaching-event-prompts-emergency-un-session/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Coral bleaching</a> events, occurring six times between 1998 and 2022 - and again in 2024, after the study concluded - are among the most severe disturbances affecting the GBR.&nbsp;



Other stressors, such as cyclones, water pollution, and outbreaks of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/crown-of-thorns-starfish-thrive-in-degraded-coral-reefs/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">crown-of-thorns starfish</a>, have also altered the reef by reducing coral abundance, changing coral assemblages, and ultimately affecting fish diversity.



In the northernmost GBR, closer to the equator, certain groups of fish (including omnivores, plankton feeders, and herbivores) have decreased. In contrast, these groups have increased in the southern sectors, raising important questions about what these trends mean for ecosystem functioning.&nbsp;



The researchers noted that fish species richness in the southern reef has fluctuated dramatically - shifting between high diversity and very low diversity over different periods.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-long-term-changes-in-reef-fish-diversity">Long-term changes in reef fish diversity</h2>



The study also highlights how fish communities themselves are undergoing continuous turnover, with some species replacing others more frequently as disturbances become more common. 



This ongoing turnover shows no sign of stabilizing, indicating that fish diversity patterns in the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem could continue to transform.



Javier González-Barrios is the study's lead author and a PhD researcher at Lancaster University. He noted that the findings show how long-term and persistent changes are occurring in the biodiversity of the Great Barrier Reef, with increasing disturbance from factors such as climate change. 



“We reveal that the fish communities that make their home on the Great Barrier Reef have changed substantially from the beginning of monitoring in the 1990s, both in the number of species and their composition, and continue to change as pressures on the reef system increase,” said González-Barrios.



“We have seen changes in the number and composition of fish species throughout the reef system as well as species turnover - when one species replaces another - are accelerating in recent years, without any sign of stabilization.”



“These changes provide valuable insights into classic geographic patterns, such as the latitudinal diversity gradient, and open questions as to whether these patterns are decoupling from their original underlying drivers.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-coral-composition-and-reef-fish-diversity">Coral composition and reef fish diversity </h2>



A key insight from the research is that shifts in the types of coral species on a reef are more influential in driving fish diversity than the overall percentage of hard coral cover.&nbsp;



While reefs can recover coral cover after disturbances, the specific mix of coral species can change drastically - and that variation in coral composition can alter the three-dimensional structures that fish rely on for shelter and food.



“The Great Barrier Reef has undergone major fluctuations, with hard coral cover on many reefs declining and then recovering in response to large disturbances,” said Mike Emslie, a scientist at AIMS.&nbsp;



“However, just looking at coral cover can mask the underlying changes in the composition of coral species. Corals build the three-dimensional habitat structure that supports other organisms such as fish, and the diversity of corals present can greatly influence the extent of that 3-D structure." 



"The recovery of some corals might not provide the same level of habitat complexity resulting in changes to the fish communities that rely on that complexity.”



According to Emslie, the study shows that changes in fish diversity on the Great Barrier Reef were strongly correlated with shifts in coral composition, and to a lesser extent with fluctuations in coral cover - highlighting the vital importance of a diverse coral assemblage for reef fish communities.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-future-implications-for-coral-reef-ecosystems">Future implications for coral reef ecosystems</h2>



The study highlights the importance of reef fish in maintaining essential ecosystem processes. These fish not only keep <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/restoration-of-underwater-seaweed-forests-offers-hope-for-the-future/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">seaweed</a> in check, preventing it from overtaking seabeds, but also generate sand for beaches - assets integral to tourism and local livelihoods. 



Understanding how and why fish communities are changing is critical for predicting the future benefits that reefs can provide to people.



Nick Graham, a professor of marine ecology at Lancaster University, noted that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/reef-fish-populations-are-boosted-by-ocean-connectivity/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reef fish</a> are important to a range of ecosystem processes, such as controlling seaweed so it doesn’t overgrow and take over areas of the seabed, to producing the sand we sunbathe on in tropical locations.&nbsp;



“Reef fish are also important to fisheries and are a vital source of food for millions of people,” said Professor Graham. “With disturbances becoming more frequent and severe, the patterns in fish diversity and abundance we have come to expect are changing, and this will alter the benefits the fish provide for the ecosystem and for people.”



“It’s important that we improve our understanding of how patterns of biodiversity are changing on coral reefs, and the ecological and social implications of this change.”&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55128-7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nature Communications</a>.



-----



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Fish diversity has changed dramatically on the Great Barrier Reef

Life on the Great Barrier Reef is experiencing significant shifts caused by climate change and various human-generated factors, according to a recent study.&nbsp; Researchers warn that reef fish, which are crucial to marine ecosystems through their roles in food provision, seaweed control, and sand production, are undergoing notable changes. These developments could have broad consequences for both people and coral reef habitats. Transformations in fish communities The research was led by an international team of marine scientists from the UK and Australia, led by Lancaster University and...

A new study from the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/">University of Oxford</a> has revealed that, before they vanished from Earth, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/anteosaurus-was-a-killing-machine-millions-of-years-before-the-dinosaurs/">dinosaurs</a> were not the main competitors of modern mammals. The research indicates that distinct mammal groups were in greater competition with each other. 

"There were lots of exciting types of mammals in the time of dinosaurs that included gliding, swimming and burrowing species, but none of these mammals belonged to modern groups, they all come from earlier branches in the mammal tree." said study co-author Dr.  Elsa Panciroli, a researcher from the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. 

"These other kinds of mammals mostly became extinct at the same time as the non-avian dinosaurs, at which point modern mammals start to become larger, explore new diets and ways of life." 

"From our research it looks like before the extinction it was the earlier radiations of mammals that kept the modern mammals out of these exciting ecological roles by outcompeting them."

Most of the modern mammal species have origins in groups that expanded in a big way 66 million years ago, after a mass extinction wiped out non-avian dinosaurs. It has been widely assumed that mammals lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs prior to the extinction event. 

Mammals were thought to have been held back by the dinosaurs, remaining small and unspecialized in terms of diet and lifestyle. It appeared that mammals did not begin to thrive until the niches of dinosaurs were made available after the extinction. 

But now, the Oxford team has used new statistical methods to identify the evolutionary "limits" placed on different groups of mammals. The results suggest that closely related mammals were placing the biggest constraints on each other, and not the dinosaurs.

The researchers analyzed the anatomy of all the different mammals which lived alongside dinosaurs, including the ancestors of modern groups, also known as therians. The team examined how frequently new features appeared, such as changes in the size and shape of their teeth and bones, and the pattern and timing of their appearance before and after the mass extinction.

Based on the analysis, the researchers determined that modern mammals were more constrained during the time of the dinosaurs than their close relatives. In other words therians were being shut out of certain niches as their relatives explored larger body sizes, different diets, and new strategies such as climbing and gliding.

"This result makes very little sense if you assume that it was the dinosaurs constraining the therians," said Dr. Neil Brocklehurst, who led the research. "There is no reason why the dinosaurs would be selectively competing with just these mammals and allowing others to prosper. It instead appears that the therians were being held back by these other groups of mammals."

According to the experts, the extinction of other mammals helped the most to pave the way for the success of modern mammals.

"Most of the mammals that lived alongside the dinosaurs were less than 100g in body mass - that's smaller than any non-bird dinosaur. Therefore, these smallest mammals would probably not have been directly competing with dinosaurs," said study co-author Dr. Gemma Benevento.

Despite this, small mammals show diversity increases after the extinction which are just as profound as those seen in larger mammals, explained Dr. Benevento. 

"Palaeontology is undergoing a revolution. We have greatly expanded the toolkit available to analyse large datasets and directly test our ideas about evolution," said Dr. Brocklehurst. "Most studies of the mammal radiation have focused on how fast they evolved, but analysing what limits there were on the evolution provides new perspectives. We have had to rethink many of our theories using these state-of-the-art approaches."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dinosaurs did not hold modern mammals back from evolving

A new study from the University of Oxford has revealed...

A new big data study from <a href="https://www.unsw.edu.au/">UNSW Sydney</a> has calculated that there are 50 billion birds in the world, which is about six birds for every <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humans-and-livestock-create-the-perfect-storm-for-pandemics/">human</a>. By combining citizen scientist observations with detailed algorithms, the experts estimated the number of birds that belong to 9,700 different bird species worldwide.

The researchers found that many iconic Australian birds are numbered in the millions, including 19 million Rainbow Lorikeets and 10 moon Sulphur-crested Cockatoos. By contrast, the rare Black-breasted Buttonquail is down to around 100 individuals.

"Humans have spent a great deal of effort counting the members of our own species - all 7.8 billion of us," said study co-senior author Professor Will Cornwell. "This is the first comprehensive effort to count a suite of other species."

The study was focused on almost a billion bird sightings documented on eBird, an online database of bird observations from citizen scientists. The researchers developed an algorithm to analyze the data and estimate the global population of each species.

"While this study focuses on birds, our large-scale data integration approach could act as a blueprint for calculating species-specific abundances for other groups of animals," said study lead author Dr. Corey Callaghan.

"Quantifying the abundance of a species is a crucial first step in conservation. By properly counting what's out there, we learn what species might be vulnerable and can track how these patterns change over time - in other words, we can better understand our baselines."

The dataset included records for 92 percent of all existing bird species. The experts noted that it is unlikely the remaining 8 percent, which are extremely rare,  would have much impact on the estimate.

Four bird species belong to what the researchers call "the billion club," which are species with an estimated global population of over a billion. The House Sparrow came out on top with 1.6 billion individuals, followed by the European Starling, the Ring-billed Gull, and the Barn Swallow.

"It was surprising that only a few species dominate the total number of individual birds in the world," said Dr. Callaghan. "What is it about those species, evolutionarily, that has made them so hyper-successful?"

Overall, about 12 percent of bird species analyzed for the study have an estimated global population of less than 5,000, including the Chinese Crested Tern, Noisy Scrub-bird, and Invisible Rail.

"We'll be able to tell how these species are faring by repeating the study in five or 10 years," said Professor Cornwell. "If their population numbers are going down, it could be a real alarm bell for the health of our ecosystem."

The study was made possible with the help of more than 600,000 citizen scientists who recorded their sightings in the eBird dataset between 2010 and 2019. The eBird site is run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and the data is freely available.

"Large global citizen science databases such as eBird are revolutionising our ability to study macroecology," said Professor Cornwell. "This type of data simply wasn't available a decade ago."

The research is published in the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/">Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Birds outnumber people six to one with a global population of 50 billion

A new big data study from UNSW Sydney has calculated...

Decades after the Griffon Vulture vanished from its <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/social-bonds-are-key-to-breeding-success-among-pelicans/">breeding</a> ground in the Eastern Balkan Mountains, the bird has made a remarkable return to the region, according to a study published by <a href="https://pensoft.net/">Pensoft</a>.  

Three local conservation organizations, including the <a href="https://www.rspb.org.uk/our-work/policy-insight/species/birds-of-prey-in-the-uk/why-should-we-protect-birds-of-prey/">Birds of Prey Protection Society</a>, have been working on a long-term restoration program to bring vultures back to their former breeding range in Bulgaria since 2009.

"The Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus is a Western Palearctic cliff-nesting social obligate scavenger and one of the largest birds of prey in Europe. It used to be widespread and numerous in Bulgaria up to the 1940s, but became less frequently observed and likely became extinct as a breeding species around the 1970s," wrote the researchers.

"The Eastern Balkan Mountains and the area of the town of Kotel were amongst the last sites where breeding of the species was reported."

Between 2009 and 2020, a total of 153 Griffon Vultures were tagged and released from five sites in Bulgaria. The first successful reproduction was reported as early as 2016. 

By December of 2020, the local population had grown to more than 80 permanently present individuals, including about 25 breeding pairs and more than 30 chicks.

"Why vultures of all creatures? Because they were exterminated, yet provide an amazing service for people and healthy ecosystems," explained Elena Kmetova-Biro, initial project manager for the Green Balkans NGO.

According to the experts, many of the vultures were killed shortly after release  due to electrocution. 

"The birds predominantly forage on feeding sites, where the team provides dead domestic animals collected from local owners and slaughterhouses," said the researchers.

"We, however, consider the establishment phase of the reintroduction of Griffon Vulture in this particular site as successfully completed."

"The population is still dependent on conservation measures (supplementary feeding, isolation of dangerous power lines and accidental poisoning prevention), but the area of the Eastern Balkan Mountains can currently be regarded as a one of the only seven existing general areas for the species in the mainland Balkan Peninsula and one of the five which serve as population source sites."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://bdj.pensoft.net/">Biodiversity Data Journal</a>.

---

By Chrissy Sexton, Earth.com Staff Writer

Griffon Vultures have made a remarkable recovery in Bulgaria

Decades after the Griffon Vulture vanished from its breeding ground...

A new study from <a href="https://www.tufts.edu/">Tufts University</a> has identified the gene that controls sexual preference in male corn borer moths. The researchers were surprised to find that mating preference in the male is driven by a protein that changes pheromone detection in the brain, rather than affecting the pheromone receptors themselves. 

The research complements a previous study which pinpointed the gene expressed in the sex glands of females that regulates the production of pheromones.

The identification of these two genes will ultimately provide a better understanding of how the pheromones of 160,000 moth species have evolved. The research may also help experts answer the long-standing question of why mating preferences evolve and change in the first place, considering that any change could reduce the chances of reproductive success.

One of the most obvious explanations that mating preferences evolve is that males and females of the same species rely on pheromone signals to find each other. The European corn borer has been used as a model for how one species can split into two ever since two different pheromone types were discovered 50 years ago.

"That means we now know - at the molecular level - how chemical matchmaking aids in the formation of new species. Similar genetic changes to pheromone preference could help explain how tens of thousands of other moth species remain separate," said study co-author Professor Erik Dopman.

"This is the first moth species out of 160,000 in which female signaling and male preference genes have both been identified," said study co-author Astrid Groot of the University of Amsterdam. "That provides us with complete information on the evolution of mate choice and a way to measure how closely these choices are linked to evolving traits and populations."

The ability to predict mating preferences could also help control reproduction in pest insects. The European corn borer is a significant agricultural pest that is known to feed on 250 different kinds of plants. In the United States alone, nearly $2 billion is spent each year to monitor and control these moths. 

One method of controlling the European corn borer moth is genetically modified "Bt corn," which expresses insecticidal proteins. However, moths in Nova Scotia are now evolving resistance to Bt corn.

"Our results can help to predict whether Bt resistance could spread from Nova Scotia to the Corn Belt of the U.S., or whether assortative mating could prevent or delay it," said study co-author David Heckel at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.

"Bt corn has enabled a huge reduction in the use of chemical insecticides, and it should be a high priority to preserve its ecological benefits as long as possible."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mating secrets uncovered in European corn borer moths

A new study from Tufts University has identified the gene...

More than 50 years after jaguars vanished from the United States, a team of conservation biologists led by the <a href="https://www.wcs.org/">Wildlife Conservation Society</a> (WCS) is proposing a plan to reintroduce them. 

According to the experts, there is a stretch of two million acres in the central mountains of Arizona and New Mexico where up to 150 jaguars could live.

“The jaguar lived in these mountains long before Americans did,” said study lead author Eric Sanderson, WCS senior conservation ecologist.

In 2018, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service investigated the potential for reintroducing jaguars, but did not look far enough north. The investigation concluded that there was only enough space for six jaguars in the entire country.

There are still some jaguar populations in Mexico, and the cats occasionally cross the border. However, the researchers explained that due to factors such as habitat destruction, transport infrastructure, and constrictions in the landscape, the natural re-establishment of jaguars from Mexico is not possible any time soon. 

“The Southwest’s native wildlife evolved with jaguars," said Michael Robinson of the Center for Biological Diversity. “They have a storied and vital place in our canyons and forests, so we should plan an intelligent and humane reintroduction program.”

The researchers suggest that bringing jaguars back to the United States could provide the species with an important refuge in the face of climate change.

“The Central Arizona and New Mexico Recovery Area is vast, covered with suitable vegetation, and well populated with potential prey," wrote the experts.  "Given its elevation and latitude, it may provide an important climate refuge for the species in the future, though further research is required."

Bringing endangered jaguars back to the country could boost their overall numbers. The study authors also noted that recent reintroduction efforts, such as the rewilding of jaguars in Argentina’s Iberá wetlands, have demonstrated the potential for success.

"This represents a turning point for this iconic wild cat, identifying a path forward for restoration of the jaguar to its historic range in the United States," said Dr. Sharon Wilcox of the Defenders of Wildlife. “It should serve as the starting point for a renewed conversation among stakeholders.”

“Restoring jaguars to the northernmost portions of their historic range is an issue of importance for both the US and Mexico," said Juan Carlos Bravo of Wildlands Network Mexico and Borderlands.

“Our paper provides an initial step for both countries to draft together a roadmap of what that major rewilding effort may look like.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/25784854">Conservation Science and Practice</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Jaguars could be reintroduced to the United States

More than 50 years after jaguars vanished from the United...

Scientists at <a href="https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/">Johns Hopkins Medicine</a> are describing why insects are much smarter than what you would expect. After meticulously counting the neurons in fruit flies and three species of mosquitos, the experts found that their brains contained an average of 200,000 cells. 

A human brain contains 86 billion neurons, while a rodent brain contains about 12 billion. According to the researchers, the average number of brain cells found in the insects likely represents a "floor" for the number needed to execute complex tasks. 

"Even though these brains are simple (in contrast to mammalian brains), they can do a lot of processing, even more than a supercomputer," said Dr. Christopher Potter.

"They enable the insects to navigate, find food and perform other complicated tasks at the same time, and our study offers one answer to the question of how many brain cells come together to conduct these behaviors."

According to Dr. Potter, those who study insect behavior and brain function have long suspected these insects must have hundreds of thousands of brain cells. In collaboration with Dr. Joshua Raji, he searched for documentation to support this theory, but came up without any proof.

The experts set out to find their own proof using a relatively simple counting method called an isotropic fractionator, which is a method used to determine the cellular composition of nervous tissue.

First, Dr. Raji broke down all of the brain tissue of individual insects. Then, he used a pipette to break apart the tissue and distribute the cells evenly through a buffered solution.

Dr. Potter said the most challenging part of the technique was the microdissection of a brain that is smaller than the tip of a pencil. "It takes a really steady hand and lots of practice."

The solution that contained the brain cells was spread on a microscope slide and placed on top of a small grid. Dr. Raji thoroughly counted the cells on each slide.

The experiment revealed that the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, had 199,380 brain cells plus or minus 3,400. 

For three species of mosquito, the researchers found 217,910 plus or minus 6,180 in Aedes aegypti; 223,020 plus or minus 4,650 in Anopheles coluzzii; and 225,911 plus or minus 7,220 in Culex quinquefasciatus.

The brain cells in each species were made up of about 90 percent neurons, while the rest are most likely supportive cells called glia, explained the experts. 

Dr. Potter said that researchers have determined the number of brain cells in only a few species of insects, including wasps and ants. "It would be interesting to apply this approach to social insects like bees, and see if there are differences between queens and drones."

The counting technique used for this study is a simple one that most researchers could perform, said Dr. Potter, and it is an opportunity for any researcher to contribute the counts to scientific literature.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/">PLOS ONE</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Some insects have more than 200,000 brain cells

Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine are describing why insects are...

Many <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animals-rarely-try-to-avoid-inbreeding/">animals</a> will not be able to survive climate change, and predicting how individual species will respond can be very challenging. In a new study from <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/">McGill University</a>, scientists have used genome sequencing to reveal that some animals, like the threespine stickleback fish, can adapt remarkably quickly to extreme new environments. 

According to the researchers, the findings could help scientists forecast the evolutionary future of stickleback populations.

Threespine stickleback fish are known to be very resilient. They can live in both seawater and freshwater, and under a wide range of temperatures. The researchers set out to investigate the genetic foundation of such adaptations.

"The modern version of Darwin's idea of evolution by natural selection posits that organisms with genes that favor survival and reproduction will tend to leave more offspring than their peers, causing the genes to increase in frequency over generations. As a result, populations become adapted or better-suited to their environments over time," explained study lead author Alan Garcia-Elfring.

"However, this process has typically been studied retrospectively, in populations that adapted to their current environments long in the past. This can make it difficult to understand the sequence of events - for example, which traits were most important and when - that led to their adaptation."

To study natural selection among threespine stickleback fish, the experts tracked six populations before and after seasonal changes to their environment through genome sequencing. 

In estuaries along the coast of California, dramatic seasonal shifts take place that range from wet winters to dry summers. The habitat structure changes, as well as the balance of saltwater and freshwater, which means that fish must rapidly adapt to survive from season to season. 

For example, when sandbars form during dry summer months, estuaries become temporarily shut off from the ocean. Such conditions present a unique opportunity for experts to study natural selection in real time.

"These changes probably resemble the habitat shifts experienced by stickleback populations when they colonized many newly created freshwater lakes from the ocean after the glaciers receded 10,000 years ago" said Professor Barrett. "We hope to gain insight into the genetic changes that may have resulted from natural selection long in the past."

The researchers discovered genetic changes in the stickleback fish driven by seasonal shifts in habitat that were comparable to differences found between long-established freshwater and saltwater populations. 

"These genetic changes occurred in independent populations over a single season, highlighting just how quickly the effects of natural selection can be detected," said Alan Garcia-Elfring.

"The findings are important because they suggest that we may be able to use the genetic differences that evolved in the past as a way to predict how populations may adapt to environmental stressors like climate change in the future."

The research highlights the importance of studying species that adapt to dynamic environments to gain a better understanding of how natural selection works. 

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1365294x">Molecular Ecology</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Stickleback fish provide new insight into natural selection

Many animals will not be able to survive climate change,...

Dinosaur,Model,In,The,Jungle,At,Phu,Kum,Khao,Dinosaur

After the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, herbivores rapidly evolved to eat different types of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/plant-diversity-will-decline-along-with-rainfall-in-dry-regions/">plants</a>, according to a new study from the <a href="https://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a>. The researchers discovered that herbivores with powerful jaws to chew tougher plants, including some of the earliest dinosaurs, were the most successful. 

The Permian-Triassic extinction event, also known as the Great Dying, took place about 250 million years ago and wiped out at least 90 percent of all species.  The Triassic Period that followed was a time of great change when many new plants and animals emerged. 

"I wanted to focus on the plant-eaters, including some of the first dinosaurs," said Dr. Suresh Singh. "The main animals in any ecosystem tend to be the herbivores, and we found that they show remarkable evidence of specialization in the turbulent times after the great mass extinction." 

"In fact, the environmental shocks that killed so many species, such as global warming and acid rain, were still returning from time to time, but the survivors were set on exploring new diets."

"We were surprised to be able to identify definite specializations among the herbivores," said Dr. Tom Stubbs. "We call these groups, the ingestion generalists, prehension specialists, durophagous specialists, shearing pulpers, and heavy oral processors; these names reflect the power of their jaws, their teeth, and the kinds of plants they would likely have been eating."

Professor Emily Rayfield noted that it may seem hypothetical to identify the diets of animals that died over 200 million years ago. 

"But we measured hundreds of fossil jaws and compared their shapes with living animals, and we estimated key functional values from the fossil jaws such as mechanical advantage and bite force, measuring the leverage of the jaws and how fast or forcefully they could shut," explained Professor Rayfield.

The investigation was focused on the 80 million years that followed the mass extinction event. 

"We were able to map the evolution of all the functional characters relating to feeding across the evolutionary tree and through time," said Dr. Armin Elsler. 

"We found to our surprise that, during this time, several new groups diversified as herbivores, and they seemed to take over their roles by pushing potential competitors aside, not necessarily by wiping them out."

Plants were also diversifying throughout the Triassic, and certain aspects of the evolution of herbivores can be linked to the availability of new kinds of plant food. 

"One key thing was the expansion of groups that were able to handle tough plant material, with powerful jaws for chopping and chomping," explained Dr.  Singh. 

"This reflects the drying conditions especially in the Late Triassic, when many softer plant groups became less common, and dry-adapted conifers for example, spread worldwide. These changes combined with strictly enforced niche separation drove patterns of extinction as the generalist, hardy herbivores thrived, as other herbivores died out."

"This kind of macroecological analysis represents a huge amount of work," said Professor Mike Benton. "But it sheds real light on key processes at an ecological level and helps explain why some groups died out and were replaced by others such as the first dinosaurs." 

"We can be reasonably certain of the results because we have excellent data on the geological ages of the specimens, their relationships to each other, and the key features of their jaws and teeth that correspond to their ancient diets. What was once quite a speculative kind of project has now become much more analytical and testable."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/ncomms/">Nature Communications</a>.

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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

Herbivores evolved powerful jaws to survive the Triassic

After the largest mass extinction in Earth's history, herbivores rapidly...

In a new report from the <a href="https://www.fieldmuseum.org/">Field Museum</a>, scientists are describing the largest-ever trial of artificial insemination in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/sharks-attract-illegal-fishing-in-protected-areas/">sharks</a>. The study has revealed that "virgin births" are more common than what was previously realized.

The project resulted in 97 baby sharks. According to the researchers, some of the babies have parents that live on opposite sides of the country, and a few have no fathers at all.

"Our goal was to develop artificial insemination as a tool that could be used to help support and maintain healthy reproducing populations of sharks in aquariums," said study lead author Jen Wyffels, who conducted the research with the South-East Zoo Alliance for Reproduction &amp; Conservation.

Through captive breeding programs, experts aim to pair up sharks in ways that will increase genetic diversity.

"Moving whole animals from one aquarium to another to mate is expensive and can be stressful for the animal, but now we can just just move genes around through sperm," said study co-author Kevin Feldheim, who led the DNA analysis of the newborn sharks to determine their parentage.

Identifying the parents of a baby shark can be challenging. In some species, the females can store sperm for months after mating, so the father of a newborn shark is not necessarily the male that the mother most recently had contact with. 

Some female sharks are even capable of reproducing with no male at all. In a process called parthenogenesis, the female's egg cells are able to combine with each other and create an embryo that only contains genetic material from the mother.

The current investigation was focused on whitespotted bamboo sharks, which are small and gentle.  

"When people think of sharks, they picture great whites, tiger sharks, and bull sharks - the big, scary, charismatic ones," said Feldheim. "Whitespotted bamboo sharks are tiny, about three feet long. If you go to an aquarium, they're generally just resting on the bottom."

According to the researchers, whitespotted bamboo females do not require frequent and repeated mating during their laying season and use sperm that they have stored to fertilize eggs. These sharks are also known to reproduce parthenogenetically.

Overall, 20 female sharks located at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies and the Aquarium of the Pacific were inseminated. Baby sharks hatched from fertilized eggs after 4 months of incubation. 

"The hatchlings are about the size of your hand, and they have distinctive spot patterns that help to tell them apart," said Wyffels. 

Tissue samples were collected from all of the babies and the parents for DNA analysis at the Field Museum's Pritzker Laboratory for Molecular Systematics and Evolution.

"We sequenced the DNA and found sections where the code repeats itself," said Feldheim. "These repeating bits of code serve as signatures, and when we see them in the babies, we match them up to the potential dads."

The experts determined that freshly collected semen was effective in fertilizing eggs in 27.6 percent of cases, while semen that had been cold-stored for 24 hours had a success rate of 28.1 percent.

The genetic analysis of the offspring revealed two instances of parthenogenesis - where the mother reproduced without using the sperm she had been inseminated with. 

"These cases of parthenogenesis were unexpected and help illustrate how little we know about the basic mechanisms of sexual reproduction and embryo development among sharks," said Wyffels.

"One of the goals of this pilot project was to just see if it worked," said Feldheim. "Now, we can extend it to other animals that actually need help breeding, from other species in aquariums to sharks under threat in the wild."

The researchers noted that if their work contributes to the conservation of sharks in the wild, it will be largely thanks to aquariums. 

"Aquariums allow you to observe the same individual animals over time, and that's very difficult to do in the wild," said Wyffels. "Aquarists have eyes on their animals every day. They pick up on subtle changes in behavior related to reproduction, and they tell us what they see. Research like this depends on that collaboration."

"We are already taking what we learned from this study and applying it to other species, especially the sand tiger shark, a protected species that does not reproduce often in aquariums."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Artificial insemination project confirms "virgin births" in sharks

In a new report from the Field Museum, scientists are...

Fossilized footprints that were recently found within the Hanna Formation may represent the earliest evidence of mammals gathering on the seashore, according to a new study from the <a href="https://www.utah.edu/">University of Utah</a>. 

The research suggests that mammals first used marine habitats during the late Paleocene. This is at least 9.4 million years earlier than previously thought.

The rocks of the Hanna Formation, which are hundreds of miles away from the ocean in Wyoming, were once oceanfront around 58 million years ago.

"Trace fossils like footprints record interactions between organisms and their environments, providing information that body fossils alone cannot," explained study co-author Dr. Anton Wroblewski. 

"In this case, trace fossils show that large- bodied mammals were regularly using marine environments only eight million years after non-avian dinosaurs went extinct."

The tracks are preserved in sandstone and stretch over more than half a mile. They were made by two animals - one with four toes and one with five.

The five-toed tracks were likely left behind by Coryphodon, a semi-aquatic mammal that is similar to a hippopotamus. The animal responsible for the four-toed tracks remains a mystery.

"Paleontologists have been working in this area for thirty years, but they've been looking for bones, leaf fossils, and pollen, so they didn't notice footprints or trackways," said Dr. Wroblewski, who first saw the tracks in September 2019. 

"When I found them, it was late afternoon and the setting sun hit them at just the right angle to make them visible on the tilted slabs of sandstone. At first, I couldn't believe what I was seeing; I had walked by this outcrop for years without noticing them. Once I saw the first few, I followed out the ridge of sandstone and realized they were part of a much larger, more extensive trackway."

Based on fossilized plants and pollen, the researchers determined that the tracks are 58 million years old, dating back to the Paleocene epoch. Prior to this finding, the earliest evidence of mammals on the seashore was linked to the Eocene epoch, around 9.4 million years later. 

Dr. Wroblewski noted that the Hanna Formation tracks are the first Paleocene mammal tracks found in the United States and only the fourth in the world. He said that it is also the largest accumulation of Paleocene mammal tracks in the world in both aerial extent and the absolute number of tracks.

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Study reveals earliest evidence of mammals at the seashore

Fossilized footprints that were recently found within the Hanna Formation...

A new study has revealed that orangutans on the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia are severely threatened by food shortages. Scientists have discovered that the muscle mass of orangutans is significantly lower when less <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fruit-flies-can-travel-six-million-times-their-body-length/">fruit</a> is available. 

Orangutans are critically endangered as a result of habitat destruction and deforestation. The finding that they are further threatened by low fruit availability was unexpected because orangutans are thought to be particularly good at storing and using fat for energy. 

The study, led by <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University</a>, suggests that further disruption of the food supply could have serious consequences for orangutans.

"Conservation plans must consider the availability of fruit in forest patches or corridors that orangutans may need to occupy as deforestation continues across their range," said study lead author Caitlin A. O'Connell.

Orangutans can live to be as old as 55 and weigh up to about 180 pounds. They are the most solitary of the great apes, spending almost all of their time in trees. 

Steep declines in orangutan populations in recent decades have been primarily driven by deforestation linked to palm oil production, logging, and paper pulp.

In their Southeast Asian forest habitats, orangutans must deal with unpredictable fruit availability and frequent shortages. They often struggle to eat enough to meet their nutritional needs and maintain a healthy weight. 

Study senior author Erin R. Vogel runs the Laboratory for Primate Dietary Ecology and Physiology at Rutgers. Here, the experts measured creatinine - a waste product formed when muscle breaks down - in wild orangutan urine. The goal was to estimate how much muscle the primates had when fruit was scarce compared to when fruit was abundant.

In humans, burning through muscle as the main source of energy marks the third and final phase of starvation. This phase occurs after body fat stores are greatly reduced. 

The researchers were surprised to find that both male and female orangutans of all ages had reduced muscle mass when fruit availability was low. This indicated that they had burned through most of their fat reserves and their bodies had resorted to burning muscle.

"Orangutans seem to go through cycles of building fat and possibly muscle mass and then using fat and muscle for energy when preferred fruits are scarce and caloric intake is greatly reduced," said study senior author Erin R. Vogel. 

"Our team plans to investigate how other non-invasive measures of health vary with muscle mass and how the increasingly severe wildfires on Borneo might contribute to muscle loss and other negative health impacts."

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/srep/">Scientific Reports</a>.

---

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Orangutans are starving from fruit shortages

A new study has revealed that orangutans on the island...

A team of experts led by the <a href="https://www.bath.ac.uk/">University of Bath</a> is describing a previously unknown lizard species, Pluridens serpentis, that was thriving during the the end of the Cretaceous period in Morocco. 

The giant mosasaur, which reached up to eight metres in length, was wiped out by the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/asteroid-impact-helped-flowering-plants-take-over-rainforests/">asteroid</a> impact that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

"It's a new species of a large predator which, with its eight meter length, comes to confirm the diversity of the faunas of the seas just before the Cretaceous crisis," said study co-author Dr Nour-Eddine Jalil.

"Pluridens serpentis highlights the importance of the paleontological heritage of Morocco to help illustrate the history of life."

Pluridens represents the third new mosasaur species to be described from the region in less than a year, bringing the total number up to 13. These massive marine reptiles were related to snakes and Komodo dragons. 

The fossils found in Morocco have revealed that mosasaurs were extremely diverse. Some had small teeth for preying on fish and squid, some had blunt teeth for crushing clams and crustaceans, and some had teeth that could rip apart marine animals, including other mosasaurs.

"The diversity in these fossils is just astonishing. Far from declining in diversity, the mosasaurs seem to be peaking just before they went extinct," said study lead author Dr. Nick Longrich.

"We're not seeing any evidence that this group was struggling before they went extinct - From an evolutionary standpoint, they were succeeding, they did everything right- but nothing can prepare you for an asteroid."

According to the researchers, Pluridens had long, slender jaws with over a hundred sharp teeth. The ancient lizard had small eyes, which indicates that it also had poor vision. 

However, the experts discovered that Pluridens had a snout with dozens of openings for nerves, possibly representing the ability to hunt by sensing water movements. These nerves may have been sensitive to tiny variations in water pressure, which is an adaptation found in sea snakes.

"Typically, when animals evolve small eyes, it's because they're relying more heavily on other senses," said Dr. Longrich.

"If it wasn't using the eyes, then it's very likely that it was using the tongue to hunt, like a snake. Many aquatic snakes and lizards - sea snakes, filesnakes, water monitors- flick their forked tongues underwater, using chemical cues to track their prey." 

"Mosasaurs would have resembled whales and dolphins, so it's tempting to assume they lived like them. But they're very different beasts - they're huge lizards - so they probably acted like them."

Along with its massive size, Pluridens had thick, heavily built jawbones. "It's possible that big males were fighting with these jaws," said Dr. Longrich. 

"In some beaked whales, the males have massive jaws they use to fight with, and male sperm whales can be highly aggressive. Some Pluridens jaws show healing injuries, which suggests some violent fights."

Dr. Nathalie Bardet is an expert on mosasaurs, particularly those from the Phosphates of Morocco at the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris.

"Working on this group of marine reptiles since more than 20 years, I never stop being surprised by the incredible diversity of these predators, who all lived there and shared the available space and food resources," said Dr. Bardet.

"These latest discoveries show perfectly that the list of species present here is far from being closed and that the future still holds great surprises and discoveries!"

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/cretaceous-research">Cretaceous Research</a>.

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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

Giant lizards were thriving during the age of dinosaurs

A team of experts led by the University of Bath...

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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

[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

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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

[sendtonews key="oL4FnPTGCV-2384527-12187" type="single"] Today's Video of the Day from the...

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites capture the world's biggest and fastest waves

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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...