The idea of life continuing on Earth without humans has a way of catching our attention. Our species has spread across land and sea, altering the planet in countless ways.



Still, Earth’s history shows that no species lasts forever. It can be sobering to consider a future without us, but it also sparks plenty of curiosity about what might follow in our absence.



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossil-discovery-anadoluvius-turkae-suggests-humans-originated-in-europe-not-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Human beings</a> have been at the center of ecological change on Earth for thousands of years. Our inventions and communities have reshaped forests, oceans, and even the atmosphere. 



Yet many researchers say nature will adapt once we are gone. This leads to questions about who - or what - would occupy our spot.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-earth-after-humans">Earth after humans</h2>



<a href="https://www.biology.ox.ac.uk/people/tim-coulson" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Professor Tim Coulson</a> from the <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">University of Oxford</a> has spent years studying biology and evolution. He believes our disappearance could open the door to surprising new species that take over Earth’s ecological roles.



In his book, <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/459065/the-universal-history-of-us-by-coulson-tim/9780241662304" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Universal History of Us</a>, he traces life’s entire history and zeroes in on a single, striking prediction about what might come next.



One of his main themes involves evolution, which he describes as the “gradual change in living organisms over time as they better adapt to their environments.”



He emphasizes that “most mutations are harmful, but a few provide a survival or reproductive advantage.” Because genes are heritable, these beneficial mutations become more common over generations.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-natural-selection-and-change">Natural selection and change</h2>



Mutations, in Coulson’s view, drive life forward despite the risks. Yet he reminds readers that no species is permanent.



“Extinction is the fate of all species, <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/scientists-predict-how-and-when-humans-and-mammals-will-face-extinction/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">including humans</a>, although let’s hope our demise is far in the future.” 



That message can feel unsettling. But it also serves as a reminder that every life form, no matter how successful, eventually faces an endpoint.



Coulson’s outlook stems from years of research into how species emerge, survive, and sometimes vanish. “I started to wonder what species might take our place if humans, and our close great ape relatives, were to die out,” he says.



Once humans are removed from the picture, Earth's ecosystems could find balance again, which might allow new creatures to fill the empty slots.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-new-forms-of-intelligence-emerge">New forms of intelligence emerge</h2>



Nobody knows if the next ruling life form would mirror humanity. Coulson proposes that “new forms of intelligence and complexity could emerge in unexpected ways.”



This opens the possibility that a future species might come up with solutions and technologies unlike any we can picture right now.



Some believe that primates are the likeliest successors, but Coulson raises doubts.



“Primates depend heavily on strong social networks,” he explains, along with the idea that “they engage in activities like hunting, grooming, and defense, which are essential for their survival. These constraints might help them struggle to adjust to a world undergoing dramatic ecological shifts.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-potential-successor-to-humans-on-earth">Potential successor to humans on Earth</h2>



In place of our <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bonobos-group-cohesion-common-enemy-effect-do-not-kill-inside-their-species/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">primate relatives</a>, Coulson offers a contender that many might find startling: <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/world-octopus-day-the-intelligent-creatures-of-the-sea/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">the octopus</a>. He points to their cleverness and adaptability.



“Their ability to solve complex problems, communicate with one another in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/blue-ringed-octopus-a-master-of-deception-inspires-new-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">flashes of color</a>, and manipulate objects suggests that, given the right <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/turquets-octopus-dna-tells-scientists-that-west-antarctic-ice-sheet-collapse-is-close/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">environmental conditions</a>, they could evolve into a civilization-building species.”



He adds, “their advanced neural structure, decentralized nervous system, and remarkable problem-solving skills make several <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rare-dumbo-octopus-captured-on-film-and-video-in-hawaii/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">species of octopus</a> well suited for an unpredictable world.”



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/warming-seas-impair-octopus-vision-to-a-critical-extent/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Octopuses</a> already have a reputation for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-octopus-has-mastered-the-art-of-multispecies-hunting/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">being creative</a> and a bit mischievous. 



“Some individuals even escape from their tanks at night in some research centers, visiting those of their neighbors, believe it or not,” Coulson says. They are known to use tools, open jars, and display signs of curiosity.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-life-underwater">Life underwater</h2>



If humans were gone, oceans might become even more central to Earth’s future. Though land-based creatures have typically held top positions on the food chain, Coulson notes a critical challenge for <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/do-octopuses-dream-a-recent-study-shows-octopuses-sleep-is-very-similar-to-humans/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">octopuses</a>.



“Octopuses are unlikely to adapt to life on land due to their lack of a skeleton, which makes swift and agile movement out of water challenging,” he explained.



"With evolutionary advances, it is possible, if not probable, that they might develop ways to breathe outside of water and eventually hunt terrestrial animals like deer, sheep, and other mammals - assuming they have survived the catastrophic event that drove humans extinct."



That sounds extreme. Yet Coulson is simply highlighting how evolution can lead life down paths that seem impossible at first.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-would-octopus-earth-look-like">What would octopus-Earth look like?</h2>



<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/octopuses-adapt-to-seasonal-temperatures-by-rewiring-their-brains/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Octopuses</a> might build underwater habitats, find new ways to interact with their surroundings, and even reach beyond the waves one day.



“Would octopuses build vast underwater cities and come onto land wearing breathing apparatus to shoot a deer? We’ve no way of knowing,” he says.



No one predicted that ancient primates would slowly turn into bipedal humans with advanced technology.



Coulson believes that “random mutations, unforeseen extinction events, and population bottlenecks can all significantly influence the trajectory of evolution.” This means the future is wide open, shaped by countless variables that scientists can’t fully predict.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-impossible-to-know-fun-to-think-about">Impossible to know, fun to think about</h2>



“The future of life on Earth is shaped by countless variables,” he points out. The path of evolution might take strange turns. Some scenarios might never pan out. Others could surprise us by unfolding in real time.



“But could <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/octopus-and-squid-senses-linked-to-human-brain-evolution/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">octopuses replace humans</a> - and potentially also <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/primates-face-an-uncertain-future-due-to-climate-change/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">primates</a> - if they were to die out? Absolutely. They could become the brains of the sea.”



For now, it remains an intriguing thought experiment to imagine aquatic invertebrates overseeing a planet once dominated by upright mammals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-imagining-earth-without-humans">Imagining Earth without humans</h2>



Coulson does not claim that this outcome is inevitable. Instead, he suggests it as a lesson in how nature might rearrange itself without us. 



Earth’s past is packed with examples of life enduring massive upheavals. It’s possible that intelligence, in some form, might spring up long after humans are gone.



His book underscores evolution’s capacity to produce forms and behaviors that seem strange from our perspective.



This speculation encourages us to think about the delicate nature of our own hold on the planet. Our species is part of a story that began ages ago, and life will keep moving forward, one step at a time.



The full interview was published in <a href="https://the-european.eu/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The European</a>.



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What animal will replace humans as Earth's dominant species? This scientist has an idea

The idea of life continuing on Earth without humans has a way of catching our attention. Our species has spread across land and sea, altering the planet in countless ways. Still, Earth’s history shows that no species lasts forever. It can be sobering to consider a future without us, but it also sparks plenty of curiosity about what might follow in our absence. Human beings have been at the center of ecological change on Earth for thousands of years. Our inventions and communities have reshaped forests, oceans,...

A new study has extended the history of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/birds-shiny-feathers-trees/">feathers</a> by 70 million years. A team of palaeontologists led by the <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a> has discovered that flying reptiles known as pterosaurs had four different kinds of feathers.

Pterosaurs lived alongside the dinosaurs around 230 to 66 million years ago. While it was known that pterosaurs had a type of furry covering called “pycnofiber,” it was assumed to be fundamentally different to bird feathers.


The international team, which included experts from Nanjing, Bristol, Cork, Beijing, Dublin, and Hong Kong, has now demonstrated that pterosaurs had at least four types of feathers. These included simple filaments, bundles of filaments, down feathers, and filaments with a tuft halfway down.

The same types of feathers are now also associated with two major groups of dinosaurs: the ornithischians, which were plant-eaters, and the theropods, which include the ancestors of birds.

“We went to Inner Mongolia to do fieldwork in the Daohugou Formation,” said study lead author Baoyu Jiang of Nanjing University. “We already knew that the sites had produced excellent specimens of pterosaurs with their pycnofibres preserved and I was sure we could learn more by careful study.”

Study co-author Maria McNamara of University College Cork said, “Some critics have suggested that actually there is only one simple type of pycnofibre, but our studies show the different feather types are real.”

“We focused on clear areas where the feathers did not overlap and where we could see their structure clearly. They even show fine details of melanosomes, which may have given the fluffy feathers a ginger color.”

Professor Mike Benton from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences added, "We ran some evolutionary analyses and they showed clearly that the pterosaur pycnofibres are feathers, just like those seen in modern birds and across various dinosaur groups.”

"Despite careful searching, we couldn't find any anatomical evidence that the four pycnofibre types are in any way different from the feathers of birds and dinosaurs. Therefore, because they are the same, they must share an evolutionary origin, and that was about 250 million years ago, long before the origin of birds."

Professor Benton said that the discovery has amazing implications for our understanding of the origin of feathers, and also for a revolution of life on land.

“When feathers arose, about 250 million years ago, life was recovering from the devastating end-Permian mass extinction,” he  explained. ‘Independent evidence shows that land vertebrates, including the ancestors of mammals and dinosaurs, had switched gait from sprawling to upright, had acquired different degrees of warm-bloodedness, and were generally living life at a faster pace.”

‘The mammal ancestors by then had hair, so likely the pterosaurs, dinosaurs and relatives had also acquired feathers to help insulate them.”

“The hunt for feathers in fossils is heating up and finding their functions in such early forms is imperative. It can rewrite our understanding of a major revolution in life on Earth during the Triassic, and also our understanding of the genomic regulation of feathers, scales, and hairs in the skin.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/natecolevol">Nature Ecology &amp; Evolution</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 
Image Credit: by Yuan Zhang

Feathers emerged 70 million years earlier than previously thought

A new study has extended the history of feathers by...

On December 14th, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed “Nosey’s Law” making New Jersey the first state to outlaw the use of wild animals in traveling acts. This monumental win illustrates the country’s growing disdain for animal circus performances.

While other states have passed laws regulating the use of wild animals in traveling acts, Nosey’s Law marks the first time a state law has banned wild animal traveling acts. Last year, both Illinois and New York banned the use of elephants in traveling shows and the cities of Los Angeles and New York banned the use of wild animals in <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/scotland-bans-animals-circuses/">circuses</a>.

The bipartisan legislation received high levels of support and was even passed through the Legislature last year before being pocket-vetoed by then-Governor Chris Christie.

Nosey’s Law was inspired by Nosey, an elderly African elephant who was being transported around the country for traveling circus acts. After years of performing, Nosey was found by government officials chained in place, standing in her own excrement and without access to food or water. Nosey was seized from her owners and her owners were subsequently <a href="https://whnt.com/2017/12/15/custody-battle-continues-for-nosey-the-elephant/">arrested</a> for animal cruelty. Nosey is now living in an elephant sanctuary.

Nosey’s plight is similar to many other wild animals who are forced to perform for circus acts. Life in a circus act is far from a wild animal’s natural habitat. The animals are exposed to long periods of traveling and confinement, inhumane handling and training practices and overwhelming stimuli such as circus lights and music. Circus animals are often trained using bullhooks, whips and other tools in an attempt to “tame” them.

The stress of captivity and circus performances can manifest into dangerous animal attacks. A simple internet search can show dozens of videos of circus animals lashing out during performances. A<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Zjd26P57lM"> video</a> of an ostrich trying to escape a circus performance by jumping into the audience went viral just a few months ago. The audience frantically runs and screams as the ostrich falls to the ground. One person was reportedly injured by the incident. In<a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/04/tiger-kills-trainer-mexico_n_2617478.html"> 2013</a>, horrified circus goers in Mexico watched a tiger kill its trainer during a performance.

Sponsor of the bill, Senator Nilsa Cruz-Perez said, “These beautiful creatures suffer from routine abuse and mistreatment by their handlers for the sake of entertainment. This by no means justifies the emotional and physical abuse animals like Nosey are forced to endure. Nosey is now safe in an animal sanctuary, but the law protects other animals from being abused like she was. Today, New Jersey is taking a stand for animal rights and I hope that other states will follow our example so that this sort of abuse can be eliminated everywhere in the country."

With Nosey’s Law on the books, momentum may soon pick up for circus animal bans. New Jersey’s neighbor, New York, is currently considering a similar bill to restrict the use of wild animals in traveling circus performances. Legislation is starting to reflect the growing public sentiment against animal circus performances. In a 2015 Gallup<a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/183275/say-animals-rights-people.aspx"> poll</a>, 69% of Americans stated they were concerned about animals in circuses.

“I am proud to sign ‘Nosey’s Law’ and ensure that New Jersey will not allow wild and exotic animals to be exploited and cruelly treated within our state,” said Governor Murphy. “This law would not have been possible without the years of hard work and advocacy by Senator Ray Lesniak, whose legacy on issues of animal rights is second to none. These animals belong in their natural habitats or in wildlife sanctuaries, not in performances where their safety and the safety of others is at risk.”

--

By <a href="mailto:brianna.grant134@gmail.com">Brianna Lynne</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

New Jersey bans wild animal traveling performances

On December 14th, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed “Nosey’s...

Critically endangered hawksbill turtles could be the next animal to see their existence threatened by climate change, according to a new report.

They’re not the only <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-sea-turtles/">turtle species at risk</a> as global air temperatures rise, but they do face a few unique challenges, according to <a href="https://www.fsu.edu/">Florida State University</a> researchers.

Along with warmer air temperatures, increased rain and solar radiation could have a significant effect on hatching success at the beaches where hawksbill turtles make their nests.

"Marine turtles have been around for millions of years, and during this time they have adapted to substantial climatic changes," co-author Dr. Mariana Fuentes said in a press release. "In the past they have adapted by shifting their nesting grounds and nesting season to align with more favorable conditions. However, increasing impacts to nesting habitats from coastal construction, storms and sea level rise are jeopardizing their ability to adapt."

The research team from FSU’s <a href="https://www.eoas.fsu.edu/">Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science</a> analyzed more than 5,000 nesting sites on five beaches in Brazil. Those are the sites where the majority of the hawksbill turtles prefer to nest.

The scientists looked at five factors – rainfall, air temperature, humidity, wind speed and solar radiation – to create a model that will show possible effects of climate change on the hawksbill turtles.

"Research is lacking on how climate change may influence hawksbills, and this population in particular," said Natalie Montero, the former FSU graduate student who led the study. "We chose to study how climate change may impact hatchling production because significant changes to how many baby marine turtles are born can dramatically alter population stability."

The researchers found that between rising air temperatures and rainfall, hawksbill turtles could see an 11 percent drop in hatching success by 2100. The warmth could cause sand temperatures to rise enough to damage the eggs, and rainfall could suffocate the embryos, they said. Additionally, both could cause nests to cave in, they said.

"Humans can help marine turtles in many ways," Montero said. "Reducing coastal construction and protecting more coastal habitat will help ensure present and future nesting habitat is available. Reducing human impacts on dune structure and beach vegetation is also important. Additionally, reducing trash and microplastics on the beach can create a higher quality nesting and incubating environment."

The study has been published in the journal <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0204188">PLOS ONE</a>. Funding was provided by the <a href="http://www.helpingseaturtles.org/grants.php">Sea Turtle License Plate Grants Program</a>.

--

By <a href="mailto:kcathey@earth.com">Kyla Cathey</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page">Wikimedia Commons</a>

Climate change poses critical threat to hawksbill turtles

Critically endangered hawksbill turtles could be the next animal to...

Earlier this year, around 1.5 million <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/supercolony-adelie-penguins-antarctica/">Adélie penguins</a> were discovered among a stretch of small Antarctic islands known as the Danger Islands. A new investigation into this supercolony has revealed that the penguins have lived in this region completely undetected for at least 2,800 years. 

The penguins were found using satellite images after a NASA scientist developed an algorithm which automated their detection by recognizing penguin poop, or guano. Heather Lynch, who is an ecologist at the <a href="https://www.stonybrook.edu/">Stony Brook University</a>, said that the experts thought they knew where all the penguin colonies were in this part of the world. 

However, the new computer algorithm flagged major hotspots of penguin waste across the Danger Islands, which is when Lynch and her team became aware that the supercolony existed.

“We, I think, had missed it in part because we hadn't expected to find them there,” said Lynch. The Danger Islands are extremely remote and difficult to access because they are usually covered in a thick layer of sea ice. 


After discovering the extent of penguin waste in the area, the research team took a trip to survey the site both on the ground and also using drones. According to <a href="https://www.livescience.com/">Live Science</a>, Lynch said: “In this area that's so small that it doesn't even appear on most maps of the Antarctic, live more Adélie penguins than the rest of Antarctica combined.”

Looking at satellite images dating back to 1982, the team found evidence that the Adélie penguin populations likely peaked in the 1990s and have been on a slow yet steady decline ever since. 

For the current study, the researchers used four decades of satellite images to analyze what the penguins had been eating based on the color of their poop. “Penguin guano ranges from white to pink to dark red,” said Lynch. “White guano is from eating mostly fish; pink and red would be from eating mostly krill.”

The investigation revealed that the were no changes in the penguins’ diets over the years. The study was led by Casey Youngflesh, a postdoctoral researcher at the <a href="https://uconn.edu/">University of Connecticut</a>.

“It is interesting that no obvious trend in diet was seen over time, despite changes in the physical environment,” said Youngflesh. “This was a big surprise, since the abundance and distribution of Adélie penguins has changed dramatically over the last 40 years and scientists had hypothesized that a shift in diet may have played a role.”

“These findings are important for our understanding of how the Antarctic ecosystem functions and how this system might change in the future.”

The research was presented December 11 at the annual meeting of the <a href="https://sites.agu.org/">American Geophysical Union</a> in Washington, D.C. 

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Heather Lynch/Stony Brook University

Satellite images reveal new clues about Adélie penguins in Antarctica

Earlier this year, around 1.5 million Adélie penguins were discovered...

Australia’s extinct “marsupial lion,” or Thylacoleo carnifex, has intrigued palaeontologists for more than 150 years. A new reconstruction by experts at <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a> has revealed that T. carnifex was capable of ripping through its prey with violent force. 

Based on the creature's jaw mechanics, it has been long assumed that T. carnifex was a carnivore. But now, an examination of the creature's sharp incisors and other physical characteristics leaves no doubt that the lion was a terrorizing <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/deep-ocean-predators-thrived/">predator</a>.

“A thrust with the honed puncturing tip of the paired lower incisors, against the resistance of the robust, buttressed mandibular fossa may have been employed to sever the spinal cord at the neck, sever tendons or cause massive trauma to a struggling prey during capture,” wrote the study authors. “The powerful forelimbs equipped with grasping hands and slashing first digit would amply serve to both to restrain a victim or a carcass.’

The research team, which was led by Rod Wells, carefully analyzed the ancient skeletons of T. carnifex to solve some of the mysteries surrounding the creature. A detailed reconstruction showed that the marsupial lion would have measured more than half a meter tall and about one meter in length, weighed around 100 kilograms, and carried its young in a pouch.

[caption id="attachment_1863894" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Extinct-marsupial-lion-was-unlike-any-modern-predator1.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1863894" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Extinct-marsupial-lion-was-unlike-any-modern-predator1-1024x768.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="525" /></a> Skeleton of a Marsupial Lion[/caption]

Comparisons show that T. carnifex was most similar in appearance to the Tasmanian devil, but was about ten times as large.  Patterns on the creature's teeth suggest that it swallowed prey without chewing, using a force similar to that of an African lion. 

According to the <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/">New Scientist</a>, Wells explained that the predator’s stiff back hints that it was not equipped for chasing prey and likely procured its dinners by ambush hunting or scavenging. He also said that the marsupial lion’s forearms, strong collar bone, and large thumb claw suggest that it climbed like a koala.

“We think it could reach around a tree the way a koala does, dig that claw in and push up with its hind legs in a kind of hopping motion,” Wells told New Scientist. “It may have dragged its prey down into its cave dens or up trees to keep it away from other scavenger predators.”

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

Extinct marsupial lion was unlike any modern predator

Australia’s extinct “marsupial lion,” or Thylacoleo carnifex, has intrigued palaeontologists...

In a broad sense, taxonomy is the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/taxonomy">science of classification of living things</a> including organisms that have long since gone extinct. Our need to classify species and bring order to the living world has been a driving desire for thousands of years, but the roots of classification and taxonomy begin with Aristotle.

Some of Aristotle's writing contains the first examples of classification and separating animals based on their physical traits. Aristotle’s ideas about the classification of living things heavily influenced future scientists and documentarians of nature, but it is with Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish botanist, where we see the makings of modern taxonomy. 

In fact, Linnaeus is considered the<a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Carolus-Linnaeus"> father of modern taxonomy</a> and it was his hierarchical classification system that became the basis for the taxonomic system used today. Linnaeus is perhaps most famous for creating binomial nomenclature which uses both species and genus to name an organism. 

For example, <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/polar-bears-climate-change-2/">polar bears</a> are known by the scientific name Ursus maritimus, Ursus meaning bear and maritimus referring to the bears’ preferred Arctic marine habitats. 

Over his lifetime, Linnaeus would go on to name over <a href="https://study.com/academy/lesson/carolus-linnaeus-classification-taxonomy-contributions-to-biology.html">4,000 animals species and 7,700 plant species using binomial nomenclature</a> and publishing his findings in a series of pamphlets called “Systema Naturae” (The System of Nature). 

Later, Charles Darwin’s work on evolution was heavily influenced by taxonomy, which gave scientists a new perspective with which to look at the animal kingdom. 

Darwin himself grew up believing in creationism or the idea that all life on Earth was created by a higher power, but taxonomy was always a major part of his life. 

It could be argued that taxonomy may have had a leading role in Darwin's transition from creationist to believing in the branches of evolution. 

In a paper published in the journal <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27756822?read-now=1&amp;seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents">Taxon</a>, Mary Winsor discusses how taxonomy influenced Darwin’s work on evolution. What started as a boyhood hobby, taxonomy and the classification of living things would go on to provide the foundation for Darwin’s studies and his expeditions to the Galapagos, according to Winsor.  

As much as we know about the animal kingdom and the living world, it’s only a sliver of the complexities, inner workings, and history of life on Earth. But how does taxonomy work and who decides what’s what?

Thankfully, years of trial and error and continual advancements and discoveries have created a fundamental framework for classifying animals with the goal of not only labeling and neatly organizing animals, but also finding common ancestors to trace back to. 

The modern taxonomic classification system has <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/levels-of-taxonomy-1224606">eight main levels</a>. Domain is at the top with the least number of groups. The three domains are Bacteria, Archaea, and Eukarya. We, as homo-sapiens, belong to the domain Eukarya and any organism that has cells with a nucleus belongs to that same domain. 

Next under Domain is Kingdom, and there are six Kingdom groups: Archaebacteria, Eubacteria, Protista, Fungi, Plantae, and Animalia. Homo-sapiens are part of the Animalia kingdom.

<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/taxonomy.jpg"><img class="aligncenter wp-image-1863866" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/taxonomy-1024x819.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="560" /></a>

After Domain comes Phylum, and in each category, the number of groups increases to help narrow down which species are which. Currently, there are <a href="http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150325-all-animal-life-in-35-photos">35 individual phyla </a>that a species can belong to. 

Below Phylum, we have class. There are many different classes, but some of the most familiar classes include mammals, reptiles and birds. 

Continuing down the classification pyramid, there’s Order, and there are hundreds of Orders. The further down you go, the less precise the numbers of groups in a category becomes. 

After Order, there’s Family and Genus, and if you’ve made it this far, next comes the individual species. 

According to <a href="https://www.nature.com/news/2011/110823/full/news.2011.498.html">Nature</a>, there are 8.7 million eukaryotic species on Earth and millions more waiting to be discovered. 

Taxonomy is broad, it’s messy and inexact, and our understanding of the natural world continues to evolve every day with new discoveries and lost species. But having a classification system, even if it isn’t perfect, lends a little order to the chaos. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How did humans begin to classify and name all of life on Earth?

In a broad sense, taxonomy is the science of classification...

From the Mesozoic Era’s “Age of the Dinosaur” to the woolly mammoths of the last ice age, researchers use clues in the fossil record to understand what animals and events had the largest impact on the Earth throughout history. 

For the Anthropocene, the world’s current Epoch (or the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/new-age-earths-history/">Meghalayan Age</a> depending on which geologists you are talking to), humankind has had a major impact on the world. 

However, according to a new study published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.180325#d5767127e1">Royal Society Open Science</a>, researchers from the <a href="https://le.ac.uk/">University of Leicester</a> say that our lasting legacy on Earth will be chickens

Hundreds of thousands of years from now, our mark on Earth will likely be defined by an abundance of chicken bones in the fossil record during the Anthropocene. 

According to the researchers, you couldn’t ask for a better sign of the times than the chicken. 

“We think they are a really important symbol and potential future fossil of this age, and man’s impact on the planet,” Carys Bennett of the University of Leicester told <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2187838-when-humans-are-wiped-from-earth-the-chicken-bones-will-remain/">New Scientist</a>. 

The domestication of the chicken and chicken farming has led to some of the most profound and rapid evolutionary changes in the animal kingdom. 

Every year over 60 billion chickens are slaughtered, and there are more chickens on Earth than any other species of land vertebrate bigger than a bird. 

With so many chickens slaughtered every year, it’s not difficult to imagine that these will be the most abundant fossils of our age. Chicken bones and chicken carcasses are dumped into landfills which creates the perfect conditions for fossilization. 

What sets the chicken apart from other animals that humans have domesticated is the rampant changes the chicken has undergone in size, shape, and genetics over the years. 

Chickens today are very different from their wild chicken ancestors, according to the researchers. 

“Human-directed changes in breeding, diet and farming practices demonstrate at least a doubling in body size from the late medieval period to the present in domesticated chickens, and an up to fivefold increase in body mass since the mid-twentieth century,” the researchers wrote in their study. 

Broiler chickens are unable to survive without humans and have evolved 15 times faster than expected due to their domestication. 

“Given this global distribution, together with its huge population size and distinctive biology, genetics and bone geochemistry, the broiler chicken may be viewed as a key species indicator of the proposed Anthropocene Epoch,” the researchers conclude in their study. 

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Why researchers say we are living in the age of the chicken

From the Mesozoic Era’s “Age of the Dinosaur” to the...

Bird feeding, although common and often considered harmless, has actually been shown to have some <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bird-feeders-helping-birds/">negative consequences for birds</a> and wildlife. 

Scientists have yet to make a definitive judgment on whether bird feeders pose a real problem for birds, but a new study published in the journal PLOS ONE shows that it does impact bird behaviors. 

For one, bird feeders placed in urban environments are forcing typically solitary birds like hummingbirds to interact with other hummingbirds while they feed. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.ucdavis.edu/">University of California, Davis</a> used passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags to monitor and track 230 Anna’s and Allen’s hummingbirds that visited seven urban feeding stations across three different sites in California. 

The researchers recorded bird feeder visits with radio-frequency transceivers that scanned the PIT tags as the birds entered the feeding stations.

[caption id="attachment_1863869" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/bird-feeders.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1863869" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/bird-feeders-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="466" /></a> Image Credit: Jen May Photography[/caption]

Individual visits, as well as the length of a bird’s stay, were recorded by the researchers, and this provided insight into how hummingbirds interact at bird feeders and the risk of spreading disease during these interactions. 

“Hummingbird feeders attract birds to gather in areas where they normally wouldn't congregate,” said Lisa Tell, a co-author of the study. “This is a human-made issue, so we're looking at how that might change disease transmission and dynamics in populations.”

Overall, the researchers recorded 65,000 visits to the feeding stations during the study period, and over 60 percent of the 230 tagged birds returned to the feeding stations more than once. 

Visits to the feeding stations were most common in the morning and evening, and the researchers found that female hummingbirds lingered longer at the feeders compare to males. 

Males were more likely to interact and overlap their visits with other males and not other females. 

“It's the first time we were able to truly quantify not only the time spent at feeders but also time spent co-mingling with fellow hummingbirds at these feeders,” said Pranav Sudhir Pandit, a co-lead author of the study. 

Studies like this one are crucial for understanding how urban feeders impact hummingbirds and determining if there are unknown disease risks that haven’t been considered. 

“The aggregation of hummingbirds in urban habitats due to feeders is the new normal and now it's time to understand the implications of this,” said Ruta Rajiv Bandivadekar, another co-lead author of the study.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Don Preisler/UC Davis

How bird feeders are changing hummingbird interactions

Bird feeding, although common and often considered harmless, has actually...

The truth about relict megafauna. In 1876, British biologist Alfred Russel Wallace observed: “We live in a zoologically impoverished world, from which all the hugest, and fiercest, and strangest forms have recently disappeared; and it is, no doubt, a much better world for us now they have gone. Yet it is surely a marvellous fact, and one that has hardly been sufficiently dwelt upon, this sudden dying out of so many large mammalia, not in one place only but over half the land surface of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/abrupt-climate-changes-occur-simultaneously-across-the-globe/">globe.</a>”

Modern scientists and laypeople alike would aver on one point: we are actually poorer for the loss of the loss of our prehistoric megafauna. The tantalizing rediscoveries of such supposedly extinct animals as <a href="http://blogs.britannica.com/2012/06/filleted-fossil-the-unlikely-discovery-of-the-coelacanth/">the coelacanth in 1938</a> and <a href="https://www.allaboutbirds.org/dr-orbells-unlikely-quest-new-zealands-bush-moa/">the takahe in 1948</a>, as well as the surprisingly late discovery of such large animals as the okapi in 1901 have supported the notion that some of these enormous animals might still be lurking in the wilds, undetected by humans. The truth about relict megafauna

The fantasy is an appealing one. It’s somehow both comforting and titillating to think that we have not managed to completely extirpate the monsters that once roamed the Earth. Lest this seem totally delusional, <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/thomas-jefferson-built-this-country-on-mastodons">consider this</a>: no less august a personage than Thomas Jefferson urged the Lewis and Clark expedition to be on the lookout for remnant mastodons as they explored the West. The truth about relict megafauna 

While most of the quests to prove the existence of relict megafauna have proven quixotic, verging into the pseudoscience of cryptozoology—the search for folkloric creatures such as the Bigfoot or Nessie—some have actually turned up compelling evidence of the survival of many of these creatures well beyond when they were thought to have become extinct. Sadly, they are, nonetheless, extinct. 

Most studies on the lives and extinctions of megafauna, categorized as animals above 100 pounds, have at best moved up the time of their disappearance by hundreds, or even thousands of years. Nothing to sniff at, certainly, but hardly equivalent to stumbling upon a <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/woolly-mammoths-extinct/">mammoth</a> or moa today. Though megafauna do persist in the present—consider the animals of the African savannah, the North American plains, and the Asian jungle—the massive mammoths, cave bears and lions, and flightless birds of the Pleistocene appear to have largely died out in the Quaternary Extinction by some 10,000 years ago or before. The current research suggests that, in most cases, climate change and the consequent ecosystem shifts, were to blame, with pressure from human hunting contributing to the demise of some species.

One of the most persistent quests, to prove that giant ground sloths still survive in South America, has born little fruit despite some intriguing finds. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1994/02/08/science/legendary-giant-sloth-sought-by-scientists-in-amazon-rain-forest.html">Even as recently as 1994</a>, a government-sponsored expedition in Brazil sought, unsuccessfully, to locate one of the creatures. As wild a proposition as it may have seemed, these questers weren’t entirely without reason for their belief that such a large animal as a Mylodon might have escaped notice. In 1895, a Mylodon hide was discovered in a Chilean cave. Replete with hair and distinctive bony ossicles, the skin appeared relatively recent. However, carbon dating has found the remains from the cave to be, <a href="https://www.academia.edu/683586/Does_the_ground_sloth_Mylodon_darwinii_still_survive_in_South_America">at the youngest, 10,200 years old</a>. The remarkable preservation of the skin was likely due to the dry conditions in the cave. Still, substantially younger giant sloth remains from the Caribbean have been found. The 200 pound Megalocnus is thought to have trundled around Cuba as recently as 4,200 years ago and some smaller ground sloths survived even longer than that.

Islands like those of the Caribbean served as refugia for these creatures—small pockets of suitable habitat, free of significant predators, notably humans. The perhaps 11 species of moa, an group of enormous birds, the largest of which were over 12 feet tall, were likely protected by their evolution on the islands of New Zealand. The only known flightless birds to have entirely lost their wings, these creatures persisted even up to the human colonization of the islands by settlers from Polynesia around 1250 AD but were thought to have been extirpated within 200 years, around 1440. However, rumors of their survival persisted in the 19th and 20th centuries, fed by Maori accounts of having hunted them as late as the 1830s and by more contemporary sightings, most of which have been debunked. (<a href="https://www.csicop.org/sb/show/the_new_zealand_moa_from_extinct_bird_to_cryptid">One putative find</a> in 1993 turned out to be a non-native red deer.)

[caption id="attachment_1863855" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/3738979464_b3e634a402_o.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1863855" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/3738979464_b3e634a402_o-1024x657.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="449" /></a> Moa birds, Image Credit: Paul K/Flickr[/caption]

Similarly, tales of extant elephant birds, <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/344/6186/898">most closely related to the kiwis</a>, abounded following European exploration of Madagascar. One species may have been heavier even than the moa. Like their Kiwi cousins, elephant birds were among the largest birds ever to live. They persisted on the island until perhaps 1100 AD. Intriguingly, their bones have helped to place the arrival of humans in Madagascar <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/09/new-find-clears-madagascar-s-first-settlers-wiping-out-world-s-largest-bird">some 8,000 years earlier than previously believed</a>. Knife markings on elephant bird bones dated to 10,500 years ago have established human arrival at that time. Tales from natives about relict elephant birds are recorded as late as the 17th century. 

Similar cases have been made for the survival of the island’s giant lemurs. The largest of these, the sloth lemurs, weighed more than 500 pounds and may have hung on until 1500 AD. French explorer Alfred Grandidier, <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/c0c4/c978ef5a3bd34575370b7a510f40478b95c3.pdf">who discovered a number of notable bones</a>, including those of elephant birds and giant lemurs, reported that natives still believed the beasts to have persevered when he visited in the 1860s.

Less dramatic, but nonetheless compelling, survivals occurred on Wrangel Island off the coast of Kamchatka in Russia. There, mammoths hung on by their tusks until <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(15)00420-0">4,300 years ago</a>, likely due to the fact that the island relieved them of hunting pressures and may have retained some of their preferred vegetation. Prior to the discovery of fossils there, mammoths were thought to have been entirely extinct by <a href="http://www.rhinoresourcecenter.com/pdf_files/128/1280538062.pdf">9,650-70 years ago</a>. Saint Paul Island in Alaska was <a href="https://news.psu.edu/story/419291/2016/08/01/research/st-paul-island-mammoths-most-accurately-dated-prehistoric">home to a population of mammoths that died 5,600 years ago</a>. The Irish elk, actually a 7-foot-tall species of deer with antlers that spread up to 12 ft across, once ranged across Europe and northern Asia and Africa. It found unlikely refuge in western Siberia. Extinct elsewhere by 10,300 years ago, the enormous cervid lasted until 7,700 years ago in the frigid north.

While our only hope of seeing any of these creatures alive rests with speculative cloning experiments—possible due to the existence of well-preserved remains from which genetic material can be extracted—their grit and tenacity in the face of the forces that would eventually obliterate them is a heartening testament to the adaptability of life, especially in an age when many species are again disappearing.

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Image Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/joshezzellphotography/">Joshua Ezzell</a>

The truth about relict megafauna

The truth about relict megafauna. In 1876, British biologist Alfred...

Data from the <a href="https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries/shark-control-program">Queensland Shark Control Program</a> has revealed that the region's coastal shark populations are in the midst of a steady 50-year decline. This finding directly contradicts reports of “exploding’ numbers of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/climate-change-sharks-swim/">sharks</a> along this stretch of Australian coastline.

A team of experts from the <a href="https://www.uq.edu.au/">University of Queensland</a> and Griffith University examined information collected for the study, which has used baited drum lines and nets to minimize human-shark interactions since 1962.

According to study co-author Dr. George Roff, the historical numbers of Queensland shark populations are largely unknown - despite a long history of shark exploitation by fisheries.

“Explorers in the 19th century once described Australian coastlines as being ‘chock-full of sharks,’ yet we don't have a clear idea of how many sharks there used to be on Queensland beaches,” explained Dr. Roff. “Shark populations around the world have declined substantially in recent decades, with many species being listed as vulnerable and endangered.”

The data from the Queensland Shark Control Program enabled the researchers to evaluate changes in the number and sizes of sharks over the last five decades.

“What we found is that large apex sharks such as hammerheads, tigers and white sharks, have declined by 74 to 92 per cent along Queensland coast,” said Dr. Roff. “And the chance of zero catch - catching no sharks at any given beach per year - has increased by as much as seven-fold.”

[caption id="attachment_1863848" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/shark-populations.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1863848" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/shark-populations-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="467" /></a> A hammerhead shark entangled in a Queensland Shark Control Program net, Image Credit: Nicole McLachlan[/caption]

“The average size of sharks has also declined - tiger sharks and hammerhead sharks are getting smaller. We will never know the exact numbers of sharks in our oceans more than half a century ago, but the data points to radical changes in our coastal ecosystems since the 1960s.”

“The data acts as a window into the past, revealing what was natural on our beaches, and provides important context for how we manage sharks.What may appear to be increases in shark numbers is in reality a fraction of past baselines, and the long-term trend shows ongoing declines.”


Dr. Roff pointed out that, although sharks are often perceived as a danger to the public, they play important ecological roles in coastal ecosystems.

“Large apex sharks are able to prey on larger animals such as turtles, dolphins and dugongs, and their widespread movement patterns along the coastline connects coral reefs, seagrass beds and coastal ecosystems,” he said. Such losses of apex sharks is likely to have changed the structure of coastal food webs over the past half century.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/commsbio">Communications Biology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Nicole McLachlan

Shark populations off the Australian coast are in a 50-year decline

Data from the Queensland Shark Control Program has revealed that...

New invasive tick could spread across the eastern US. An invasive insect known as the Asian longhorned tick, or Haemaphysalis longicornis, has been recently popping up in regions across North America. Since the first sighting was reported in New Jersey earlier this year, the <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/ticks-trapped-amber/">tick</a> has been found in eight other states and is expected to emerge in many more. 

Dr. Ilia Rochlin is an entomologist and researcher with the <a href="http://vectorbio.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers University Center for Vector Biology</a>. She studied climate data from where the tick is already established in East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand, and then combined climate data from North America to identify which habitats are suitable for the insect to flourish. 

The findings of the study suggest that the Asian longhorned tick could survive in a large region of eastern North America as well as in the coastal Pacific Northwest.

[caption id="attachment_1863845" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/map.png"><img class="wp-image-1863845" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/map-1024x770.png" alt="" width="700" height="526" /></a> Image Credit: Ilia Rochlin, Ph.D., Rutgers University Center for Vector Biology[/caption]

“The Asian longhorned tick is a very adaptable species, especially in its native East Asia,” said Dr. Rochlin. “The optimal tick habitat appears to be defined by temperate conditions - moderate temperature, humidity, and precipitation. These climatic conditions also support forested or shrubby vegetation, providing prime environment for ticks. The eastern U.S. and China share similar landscape and climate.”

According to the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention</a> (CDC), H. longicornis is the first invasive tick to appear in the United States in about 80 years. Even though the tick has not yet been found to transmit disease-causing pathogens in North America, it has demonstrated this capability in Asia.

The tick is also known to have the unusual ability to reproduce by parthenogenesis, a process in which females produce offspring that are essentially clones. 

“At these initial stages of the Asian longhorned tick invasion, this coarse-scale modeling can alert public health and veterinary authorities in moderate - to high-risk regions,” said Dr. Rochlin. “Hopefully, this awareness will lead to increased surveillance and expanded public outreach and education, especially to the most exposed: farmers, hunters, outdoor workers, pet owners.”

The study is published in the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jme">Journal of Medical Entomology</a>.

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: Jim Occi, Rutgers University Center for Vector Biology

New invasive tick could spread across the eastern US

New invasive tick could spread across the eastern US. An...

On December 6, Malaysia set fire to close to three tons of seized pangolins scales, worth $9 million in the illicit wildlife market. This incineration makes an important statement to wildlife traffickers but some in the conservation field question the effectiveness of wildlife product burnings.

According to the wildlife trade monitoring group <a href="https://www.traffic.org/news/malaysia-incinerates-tonnes-of-seized-africa-sourced-pangolin-scales/">TRAFFIC</a>, the country of Malaysia burned 12% of their total scales from pangolin seizures in 2017. The three tons of pangolin scales came from three separate seizures by the Royal Malaysian Customs.

“Malaysia has emerged as a transit hub for the illicit trade of pangolins from Africa to Asia. Over a seven-month period between May and November 2017, Malaysia seized a whopping 17,131 kg of pangolin scales in 10 shipments originating from Africa,” the group states.

As Earth.com has previously<a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wildlife-trafficking-pangolins/"> reported</a>, pangolins are currently facing a global, and little known, crisis as a result of wildlife trafficking. The pangolin currently holds the title of the most trafficked mammal in the world with an estimated one million individuals taken from the wild in the last decade alone. All eight species of pangolins are currently listed on Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora affording them the highest international protection in the wildlife trade. Despite this protection, the illegal trade in pangolins has been rampant.

The species is in high demand in the wildlife market for its meat, skin and scales. Pangolin skins have been used to make boots, shoes and leather and the scales are commonly used for traditional medicine. The recent burning of pangolin scales ensures these products never enter the wildlife market and symbolizes the country’s commitment to protecting the species.

The burning of wildlife products has become a common practice for countries across the world. Countries accumulate wildlife products as they continue to thwart trafficking efforts. Instead of simply holding onto the illicit products, countries have gotten creative in efforts to deter wildlife traffickers.

In 2016, Kenya burned 105 tons of ivory in the largest ever ivory stockpile burn. This burn took out ten percent of the global stock of elephant ivory. The United States burned six tons of elephant ivory in 2013 and two tons in 2017. Between 1989 and April 2016,<a href="https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/17/WorkingDocs/E-CoP17-57-03.pdf"> over 100 tons</a> of ivory was destroyed, with the practice gaining momentum in the later years.

Supporters of wildlife product burnings argue that the burnings send the message that wildlife products have no value and that governments will not tolerate wildlife trafficking.

Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/apr/30/kenya-to-burn-largest-ever-ivory-stockpile-to-highlight-elephants-fate"> stated</a> during the ivory burning ceremony, “Kenya is making a statement that for us ivory is worthless unless it is on our elephants. This will send an absolutely clear message that the trade in ivory must come to an end and our elephants must be protected. I trust that the world will join us to end the horrible suffering of our herds and save our elephants for future generations.”

Critics of the practice worry that destroying large amounts of wildlife products will only make the remaining wildlife products more valuable. Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe have even proposed that their stockpiles of seized wildlife products should be sold and the proceeds be used for wildlife conservation.

Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe were allowed to sell part of their ivory stockpiles in a one-off sale to Japan in 1999 and to China and Japan in 2008, with South Africa also participating in this one-off sale. These one-off sales could have enabled wildlife traffickers to launder their illegal products, as it is can be impossible to distinguish between legal ivory bought in a one-off event and poached ivory products. Botswana, home to the largest population of wild elephants, has since changed their viewpoint on the issue and<a href="https://medium.com/@CountingElephants/end-african-elephant-poaching-by-banning-the-ivory-trade-918b81f40c21"> support</a> ending the international trade in elephant ivory permanently.

A 2016<a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w22314.pdf"> study</a> published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found a 66% increase in illegal ivory production across two continents and 71% increase in ivory smugglings out of Africa after the 2008 one-off ivory stockpile sale. While the price of ivory fell after the one-off sale, the researchers believe that the sale helped to de-stigmatize ivory causing increased demand for the product.

Some countries want to go beyond one-off sales by lifting the ban on the international trade of ivory products. By holding on to stockpiles of illicit wildlife products, these countries could make huge profits if the ivory trade was re-opened. The countries who choose to burn their stockpiles make it clear that they are not holding out hope for a legalized international ivory trade.

While wildlife product burnings are likely to remain a contentious issue in the conservation field, it is clear that the seizure of three tons of pangolins scales is a major conservation win for the much imperiled species.

--

By <a href="mailto:brianna.grant134@gmail.com">Brianna Lynne</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

Malaysia burns 3 tons of seized pangolin scales to deter trafficking

On December 6, Malaysia set fire to close to three...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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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



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Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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



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Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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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



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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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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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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



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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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