Observers watching baboons in Namibia were impressed when they saw how the baboons responded to glowing spots shone onto their arms and legs. They poked and scratched at these bright areas with evident curiosity, hinting at a level of awareness about what appeared on their own bodies. 



However, the mood changed when those same spots were placed on baboon body parts that were only visible in a mirror.



Although they sometimes stared at their own reflection, the baboons showed no indication that they knew the marks in the mirror were on themselves.



Dr. Alecia Carter, affiliated with University College London (UCL Anthropology), led a field study tracking these baboons over several months. Her team documented how baboons interacted with laser marks and mirrors while in a wide-open habitat.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-self-recognition-in-animals">Self-recognition in animals</h2>



The mirror test has long been used to examine whether <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/what-animal-will-replace-humans-as-earths-dominant-species-this-scientist-has-an-idea/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">animals</a> recognize a reflected image as their own. 



Psychologist Gordon Gallup was among the first to observe that some great apes touched paint marks on their heads when placed in front of mirrors.



Subsequent efforts revealed that <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC33317" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dolphins</a> and a few <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0608062103" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">elephants</a> also showed behavior suggesting they noticed marks on their bodies through reflection. These findings inspired further research into how different animals handle the challenge of seeing themselves.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-why-baboons-were-chosen">Why baboons were chosen </h2>



Scientists wanted to see if wild baboons that had never been in captivity, would respond differently than <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ai-monitoring-will-help-protect-endangered-spider-monkeys/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">animals</a> in controlled environments.



Many earlier studies used limited samples, often involving apes or monkeys that were kept in enclosures where mirrors might not be entirely new.



Chacma baboons flourish in Namibia’s drier areas and do not often encounter reflective surfaces. This made them good candidates for determining whether they would link the moving shapes in a mirror to their own bodies.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-baboons-with-mirrors-and-laser-spots">Baboons with mirrors and laser spots</h2>



Researchers introduced small safety mirrors near spots where baboons congregate. They then used laser pointers to place harmless green or red marks on the baboons’ fur, targeting areas that were visible without a mirror and other places that were only visible when looking at a reflection.



Baboons frequently touched or scratched at marks they could see right away. Yet the animals showed no equivalent reaction to marks that were only apparent in a mirror.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-results-of-the-baboon-mirror-test">Results of the baboon mirror test</h2>



“The Chacma baboons we observed in Tsaobis Nature Park certainly enjoyed using the mirrors as a new toy, but throughout our study they didn’t quite understand that the mirror’s reflection represented their own bodies,” said Dr. Carter.



She and her collaborators believe it confirms a pattern seen in many monkey species that do not show full self-recognition in mirrors.



“Monkeys don’t spontaneously recognize themselves in a mirror,” noted corresponding author Esa A. Ahmad, who helped analyze the data. 



The experts explained that this latest work adds to a broader discussion about which mental abilities are needed to pass mirror tests.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-about-other-species">What about other species?</h2>



Some great apes, including <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/great-apes-will-suffer-through-frequent-and-extreme-climate-events/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">chimpanzees</a>, bonobos, and orangutans, have been documented to pass mirror mark tests. 



Researchers also mention bottlenose dolphins, Asian elephants, and certain birds, like <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2517622/">magpies</a>, that appear to notice a mark when seeing it in a reflection.



Domestic cats, dogs, and most monkeys typically fail to show convincing self-recognition. Scientists point out that these animals may rely more on other senses, so a mirror might not be the best measure of how they perceive themselves.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-possible-future-directions">Possible future directions</h2>



Some experts suggest that alternative experiments might capture different kinds of self-awareness in species that depend less on vision. 



Scent-based or social-behavior tasks could reveal that some animals are aware of their identity but do not prove it through mirror-based tests.



Meanwhile, wild baboon research highlights the role of age and temperament. Younger <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/humpback-whale-travels-farther-than-any-mammal-ever-recorded/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">animals</a> showed more interest in new objects or stimuli, while older ones often lost curiosity fast, which might influence how they respond to novel visual scenarios.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-implications-for-human-animal-connections">Implications for human-animal connections</h2>



Understanding how self-awareness varies across species can shift how people view intelligence and cognition in non-human animals. 



These mirror-based observations open deeper questions about whether awareness looks the same in every creature, given that some use their visual sense more than others.



Many anthropologists see such findings as a window into evolutionary processes that shape thinking and perception. Insights from field studies add a fresh dimension, since animals roam and behave naturally, away from the artificial conditions of captivity.



The mirror test has drawn <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/04/fish-mirrors-animal-cognition-self-awareness-science/673718/">criticism</a> for its emphasis on the sense of sight. Yet, it remains a straightforward way to check if an animal perceives the reflection as an extension of itself.



The baboons gave scientists plenty to think about by investigating visible marks but ignoring those that only appeared in the mirror. Researchers plan to refine methods further and explore alternative signals of self-awareness out in the wild.



The study was published in the <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2024.1933" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences</a>.



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Wild baboons fail to recognize themselves in mirrors

Observers watching baboons in Namibia were impressed when they saw how the baboons responded to glowing spots shone onto their arms and legs. They poked and scratched at these bright areas with evident curiosity, hinting at a level of awareness about what appeared on their own bodies. However, the mood changed when those same spots were placed on baboon body parts that were only visible in a mirror. Although they sometimes stared at their own reflection, the baboons showed no indication that they knew the marks in...

“Life is always a rich and steady time when you are waiting for something to happen or to hatch.”
-E.B. White in Charlotte’s Web
In nearly every animal, it is the female who is responsible for carrying offspring to term. Sure, the males of some insects and amphibians tote around eggs until they hatch. But they’re not actually pregnant. They’re more like Park Slope dads...though taking on more traditionally female roles, their spawn remain outside the body. Not so with the members of the fish family Syngnathidae. The males of these fish, which include the 32 species of the widely known <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/seahorses-disappearing-boating/">seahorses</a> of the genus Hippocampus, as well as the 180 species of pipefishes and two species of sea dragons, actually become pregnant in the true sense of the word. This is particularly true of male seahorses and some pipefishes, which actually have pouches that contain their eggs.

Like a marsupial’s, the seahorse’s pouch is on the outside of the body. That is, it doesn’t connect to the abdominal cavity. Instead, it is an extension of the skin. Some pipefish and sea dragons merely possess an indentation or patch in which eggs are deposited. It is easy to tell male and female seahorses apart using this region, which is smooth and not covered by bony plates as the rest of the body is. 

When seahorses are ready to mate, they engage in a dance in the early hours of the morning. Eligible males may inflate and deflate their pouches with water to demonstrate their available real estate and both partners brighten their coloration. This courtship ritual lasts for as many as 8-9 hours. The climax occurs when the female injects her eggs into the male’s pouch using her penis-like ovipositor. Though fertilization was long thought to occur inside the pouch, <a href="http://jeb.biologists.org/content/210/3/432">recent research</a> has revealed that the sperm-releasing orifice is outside of the pouch. This means that the sperm must fertilize the eggs in the few seconds during which they are outside of both parents. Males may take in only a few eggs or as many as 1,500, depending on the species. 

Upon impregnation, the male becomes largely sedentary until he gives birth some 9-45 days later. His mate visits him each morning and they engage in an abbreviated version of their initial mating dance. As he gestates, he actively nourishes and cares for eggs inside the pouch. These pouches aren’t mere receptacles, holding the eggs until they hatch. They contain specialized tissues that help to nourish the roe, much as a female uterus does. In fact, the pouch is known as a marsupium, like that of mammalian marsupials. 

The lining of the pouch is heavily vascularized and spongy. Once the eggs are inside, their outer coating is dissolved and they embed in the wall of the organ. This allows the male’s body to provide them with nutrients and oxygen, and to dispose of waste through his blood vessels. 

The male’s body also regulates the concentration of salt and other substances inside the pouch to levels optimal for the eggs and produces antimicrobial compounds to protect them from infection. <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-secret-sex-life-and-pregnancy-of-a-seahorse-dad-46599">Genomic analysis has revealed</a> that some 3,000 genes play a role in regulating male pregnancy in seahorses. Remarkably, many of these genes are similar to those that influence pregnancy in females of other animals. (This unique hormonal systems <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/052f/64edfbc9b2ca1fc71958f69aef1e3f5e0f65.pdf">may put them at risk</a> from endocrine disrupting chemicals released into the water as a result of human pollution.)

[caption id="attachment_1863980" align="aligncenter" width="700"]<a href="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/seahorse.jpg"><img class="wp-image-1863980" src="https://www.earth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/seahorse-1024x784.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="536" /></a> Image Credit: devra/flickr[/caption]

The eggs eventually hatch inside the pouch and the fry remain there for about a week. When the male is ready to give birth, he begins having contractions that eventually expel his brood into the water, where they must immediately begin caring for themselves. Some 1% of them are likely to survive to adulthood. At the largest, they are perhap 12 mm long and thus prime targets for the many predatory organisms inhabiting their habitats in seagrass beds and reefs. As soon as the male gives birth, he is almost immediately ready to be impregnated again. 

Over a single breeding season, all seahorses are monogamous. Though it has been said that they mate for life, this has not been definitively established. Some species of the related pipefishes, however, don’t display any fidelity at all...females may lay their eggs in several different males. In these species, the females may display prominent secondary sex characteristics, in the inverse of the usual dynamic. Think, for example of male peacocks and birds of paradise, which are more ornamented than the drab females. Seahorses, on the other hand, display little sexual dimorphism.

Fascinatingly, the mating habits of the syngnathids appear to have <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/238115983_Male_pregnancy_and_the_formation_of_seahorse_species_Male_pregnancy_and_the_formation">driven speciation within the group</a>. Speciation is a phenomenon often associated with the geographical relocation of one population, so that genes are no longer exchanged between other groups, leading to the formation of a new species. This is known as allopatric speciation.

However, sympatric species, in which two or more species diverge while still inhabiting the same area, is much rarer. It has been postulated that because seahorses appear to prefer mates of the same size, over time, this preference led to the formation of genetically distinct populations. Larger seahorses mated with larger seahorses and smaller seahorses with smaller seahorses, leading to two groups that adapted to different niches in the same habitat. 

The discovery of the world’s smallest seahorse, the .8 inch long Hippocampus denise, supports this theory. It was initially believed to be simply a juvenile of a related species, which it resembles. The syngnathids are largely sedentary, only incidentally dispersing from their place of birth when washed out to sea while clinging to mats of debris and vegetation, so it is also likely that geographical separation and thus allopatric speciation also played a role. 

Further study of these strange creatures and their sui generis mode of reproduction is needed. They are under threat.  <a href="https://www.hakaimagazine.com/news/accidental-slaughter-millions-seahorses/">As many as 37 million</a> are taken each year as bycatch and their seagrass and reef habitats, many of which are near shore, are at constant risk. We don’t want a world in which there aren’t pregnant seahorses dancing with their mates at dawn.

--

By <a href="mailto:rtpallardy@gmail.com">Richard Pallardy</a>, <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a> Contributing Writer

How male seahorses give birth

“Life is always a rich and steady time when you...

The world’s oceans absorb around 30 percent of atmospheric CO2 emissions, but as greenhouse gas emissions increase, so do CO2 levels in the sea, according to the <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/acidification.html">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)</a>. 

As carbon levels in the ocean rise, pH levels shrink and the oceans become more acidic. Ocean acidification is one of the primary drivers of coral bleaching, and it’s <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/ocean-acidification-marine-ecosystems/">disrupting many marine ecosystems</a>. 

A new study has found that increases in ocean acidification and ocean carbon levels could cause salmon to lose their sense of smell, a critical mechanism for survival that salmons rely on to avoid predators and navigate. 

Researchers from the <a href="https://www.washington.edu/">University of Washington</a> and the <a href="https://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/">NOAA Fisheries' Northwest Fisheries Science Center</a> wanted to find out how projected CO2 levels in the ocean would impact a salmon’s ability to process smells.

“Salmon famously use their nose for so many important aspects of their life, from navigation and finding food to detecting predators and reproducing,” said Chase Williams, the lead author of the study. “So it was important for us to know if salmon would be impacted by future carbon dioxide conditions in the marine environment.” 

The results of the study were published in the journal Global Change Biology.

The researchers set up a lab experiment with three different tanks of saltwater with varying levels of pH. 

One tank had pH levels that matched current levels in Puget Sound where coho salmon are found, the second tank had lower pH levels to match Puget Sound projections 50 years from now, and the third had levels that matched predicted averages 100 years from now 

Juvenile coho salmon were placed in the tanks, and the researchers monitored their behavior in the new environments for two weeks.

The researchers then conducted several behavioral and neural tests to see how the differing pH levels impacted the salmon’s ability to sniff out dangers and potential predators. 

The fish were placed in a different tank that had salmon skin extract in the water, the scent of which would normally warn salmon of a predator attack nearby. 

If a salmon had spent time in a tank with higher CO2 levels, they were less responsive to the smell, and some didn’t even seem to notice. Normally the smell of the salmon skin extract would trigger a flight response in a salmon and the fish would swim away to hide from danger. 

The researchers also measured neural activity in the part of the brain where smell is processed, the olfactory bulb, and found that the increased CO2 disrupted normal activity and processing in that area for some of the salmon.

Gene expression for the salmon that spent time in the tanks with higher acidity was also changed. 

“At the nose level, we think the neurons are still detecting odors, but when the signals are processed in the brain, that's where the messages are potentially getting altered,” said Williams. 

The researchers plan to examine other species of fish to see if rising CO2 levels have a similar effect, but the results of this study are concerning given how important salmon are as a food source. 

“We're hoping this will alert people to some of the potential consequences of elevated carbon emissions,” said Andy Dittman, senior co-author of the study. “Salmon are so iconic in this area. Ocean acidification and climate change are abstract things until you start talking about an animal that means a lot to people.”

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette,</a><a href="https://www.earth.com/"> Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Paid for by <a href="http://earth.com">Earth.com</a>

Salmon could lose their sense of smell due to ocean acidification

The world’s oceans absorb around 30 percent of atmospheric CO2...

Rates of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rampant-overfishing-gulf-california/">overfishing</a> have increased over the past fifty years, and although there have been efforts to conserve and restore fisheries, a new study has found that conservation success is reliant on past habits. 

Researchers from <a href="https://www.rutgers.edu/">Rutgers</a>, <a href="https://www.princeton.edu/">Princeton University</a> and <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a> discovered that conservation is much easier to keep up if restrictive measures are already put in place. 

However, if an area has a history of overfishing, conservation measures are much more difficult to implement. 

The results of the study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show that reducing harvests can spur sustainable conservation for years to come. 

“Surprisingly, we found that people often get trapped by their past decisions,” said Edward Tekwa, the lead author of the study. “If they start out overharvesting, they tend to continue overharvesting. But once people start conserving, this behavior is also self-perpetuating and gets amplified. Policies change slowly.” 

The researchers examined a global database of 217 fisheries from 1961 to 2009 taking into account maximum sustainable yields and harvest rates. The data was then used to develop a mathematical model to help explain the global patterns in fishery harvests.  

Of the 217 fisheries included in the study, the researchers found that 35 are influenced heavily by past instances of overfishing or conversation and only one successfully transitioned from a pattern of overfishing to conservation. 

Eleven of the fisheries remain chronically over-harvested, which calls into question previous theories about the collapse of fast-growing fisheries. 

“Our results challenge the conventional expectation that the collapse of fast-growing resources is unlikely,” said Tekwa. “But they also offer hope that conservation is much easier to continue once we start.”

The researchers did find that conservation efforts like the 2006 and 1996 revisions to the <a href="https://www.westcoast.fisheries.noaa.gov/whatwedo/msa/magnuson_stevens_act.html">Magnuson-Stevens Act</a> led the way to lasting conservation in some cases. 

The team suggests that the most over-harvested fisheries would be good targets for conservation and may be the easiest to implement lasting changes to because of their high economic value.  

“We found that highly productive, costly-to-harvest resources are paradoxically most susceptible to strong depletion, but also most receptive to strong conservation because of prevailing economic incentives,” the researchers wrote in their study.

--

By <a href="mailto:kayvandette@gmail.com">Kay Vandette</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer 

Image Credit: NEFSC/NOAA

Areas with a history of overfishing are more difficult to restrict

Rates of overfishing have increased over the past fifty years,...

Infectious diseases are commonly passed along from humans to animals, but a new study is the first to document human-linked pathogens on the isolated continent of <a href="http://www.earth.com/news/adelie-penguins-antarctica/">Antarctica</a>. The researchers discovered antibiotic resistant microbes and other bacterial strains in bird poop, raising new concerns about the health of Antarctic bird colonies.

“It's reasonable to think that the rapid increase of tourism has increased the risk of pathogen invasion,” said study co-author Professor Jacob González-Solís of the <a href="https://www.ub.edu/web/ub/en/">University of Barcelona</a>. “Sooner or later the transmission of one of these pathogens is going to destroy a local population of birds.”

The investigation was focused on the droppings of hundreds of birds from 24 different species, such as rockhopper penguins and Atlantic yellow-nosed albatrosses. Between 2008 and 2011, the poop samples were collected at four sites across the Antarctic Ocean, including Livingston, Marion Island, Gough Island, and the Falkland Islands. These are all areas along bird migration routes that are frequented by tourists.

Within the fecal matter, the research team found traces of the bacteria Campylobacter jejuni, which is one of the most common sources of food poisoning in the United States and Europe. They also detected a strain of Salmonella that is typically associated with birds in urban areas, as well as an antibiotic-resistant strain of a gastrointestinal bug called Campylobacter lari.

Professor González-Solís predicts that, even though Salmonella and Campylobacter are not necessarily fatal, the pathogens could have “devastating consequences” to Antarctic bird colonies because they have never been exposed to these strains. According to the researchers, the bacteria could have originated from domestic poultry, tourist cruises, or from research centers.  

Kyle Elliott is an ornithologist and ecologist at McGill University, who was not involved in the research. He told <a href="http://www.sciencemag.org/">Science magazine</a>, “We often think of polar environments as being too cold and that disease transmission is not a huge threat, but the authors have clear evidence that bacteria can spread widely in polar environments.”

The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/science-of-the-total-environment">Science of the Total Environment</a>.  

--

By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Human-linked pathogens found across Antarctica for the first time

Infectious diseases are commonly passed along from humans to animals,...

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...

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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

Nushagak Bay in southwest Alaska

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Flu viruses are more flexible than expected

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

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



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



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



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



Video/Image Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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

Lake Trasimeno in Central Italy

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



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



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



Video Credit: American Chemical Society&nbsp;



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



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

Detecting mercury contamination with the tap of a finger

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

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



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



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



Video Credit: ACS Reactions



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



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

How does salt makes things taste better?

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

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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

Santiago, Chile in South America

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

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Johns Hopkins&nbsp;



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



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

Interactive map of the universe includes 200,000 galaxies

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

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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;&nbsp;



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



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

Lesotho: Africa's "Kingdom in the Sky"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

The city of Dublin on Ireland's east coast

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



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



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



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



Video/ Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The province of Zaragoza in northeast Spain

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

The rapid retreat of the Columbia Glacier

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video &amp; Image Credit: ESA



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



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

The Pyrenees Mountains in southwest Europe

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Earth,Like,Exoplanet,3d,Render

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard



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



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



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

Two distant planets may be "water worlds"

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Goddard&nbsp;



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



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

Satellites reveal how Earth's systems are interconnected

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



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

Tiger sharks are shifting poleward as temperatures rise

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

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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA&nbsp;



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



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

Melt ponds on the Greenland Ice Sheet

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



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



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



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



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



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



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



Video Credit: ESA



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



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

The history of Mars is much more complex than we thought

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



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



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



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



Video Credit: Stowers Institute for Medical Research



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



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

Cavefish are healthy despite their sedentary lifestyle

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



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



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



Video Credit: NASA Earth Observatory&nbsp;



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



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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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