All these efforts to save coral reefs might not have been in vain, as we have just marked a victory in this difficult quest. This week, Unesco made the historical move of no longer classifying the Belize coral reef as endangered. The organization removed the Mesoamerican reef from the threatened World Heritage Sites list and called the country responsible for this success.

The Belize coral reef was in a critical state

The Belize coral reef was among the most important formations of the kind, as it is the second biggest after the Australian Great Barrier Reef. Its loss would have been a serious blow to the environment, as it hosts a variety of species. These include fish, sharks, turtles, as well as many other diverse creatures.

Almost a decade ago, Unesco got worried about the future of the Belize coral reef, so it included it on the endangered list. These concerns came from a series of dangerous actions performed by the country, such as the lack of environmental laws and the plans for an oil extraction site right next to the shore.

The Belizean authorities acted quickly when they understood the danger

However, Belize paid attention to these warnings. In 2016, the country adopted a well-defined plan to deal with these issues, and the efforts were successful. Before this plan, the authorities settled a target of conservation, so they would be able to guide their actions.

The Belize coral reef entered the World Heritage List in 1996, but Unesco realized it was endangered only in 2009. Given the huge number of species it encompassed, the situation was pretty critical. However, the warning didn’t only address the coral reef. The mangroves that surrounded and protected it were also in danger.

All these factors were enough to scare the Belize government. They quickly understood the destruction of the coral reef would be a big blow for their economy, so the authorities took action immediately. Now, their efforts were successful, and Unesco congratulated them for their initiative.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons

Have you ever wondered how flying spiders manage to travel through air? A recent study developed by scientists from Technische Universität in Berlin discovered the mechanism behind this behavior. It all starts with their ability to identify proper atmospheric conditions. If the wind can help them travel, they start producing nanoscale fibers that act like parachutes.

Flying spiders perform ballooning

Most spiders engage in regular activities, like building webs and traveling on the ground. However, some of them can sense when a wind is coming and travel in the air for several hundreds of miles. They do it during the mating season, to find food, or simply to abandon a place and find a new site to colonize. Flying spiders are usually young and small, but some bigger species might also do it.

This behavior is called ballooning and has been quite a mystery for researchers. Even this is not the first study on flying spiders, the German researchers performed the first accurate measurements of the nanoscale fibers, and also monitored the spiders’ ability to predict wind. The main object of their study was the large crab spider, which measured only 5 millimeters in length.

Researchers measured all conditions necessary for ballooning

These flying spiders could measure the speed and direction of the wind by raising their front legs. This way, they could orient themselves and find out how to produce their parachuting nanoscale fibers. Overall, they produced around 60 fibers of about 3 meters each. It turns out the creatures can identify the ideal wind conditions and only then do they start producing the parachuting silk.

After studying flying spiders right in the middle of ballooning, they performed more calculations. This way, they could identify the ideal conditions for flying. It turns out light winds are perfect for a ballooning attempt to be successful. The study on this interesting behavior was published in the journal PLOS Biology.

Image source: OpenCage

Coyotes are now spread everywhere around North America, but the truth is nobody actually knows where they came from. This is why a team of researchers from North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences have decided to solve their mystery. By looking at a series of fossils and other museum exhibits, they were finally able to reconstruct the lost history of the animals.

Coyotes are now an important part of the North American continent

Since the beginning of the 20^th century, most mammals suffered serious declines in their populations both in North America and in the entire world. However, this wasn’t the case for coyotes, as they suddenly spread all over the continent. When it comes to this expansion, there’s plenty of information on the distribution of these creatures at a local level. However, it wasn’t as easy when you looked at the whole continent.

For this study, researchers started right at the beginning. Based on the fossil evidence they had, they reconstructed the genetic material coming from the original set of coyotes in the world. Afterwards, they reviewed all the archaeological evidence they had, covering a period from 1900 to 2016.

These creatures have actually spread over a much larger surface

This way, they ended up with data from 12,500 exhibits which spread over a period of 10,000 years. In the end, they obtained some really interesting findings. It turns out the first coyotes actually spread over a much larger region in North America. Initially, researchers thought they only populated deserts areas, but the fossil evidence says otherwise.

In 1920, however, coyotes started gaining supremacy over the North American territories and expanded beyond what this fossil evidence was showing. Most probably, the phenomenon came as a result of land fragmentation. However, the expanse of farming and the spread of other species played an important role, too. As time passes, these creatures are expanding these territories even more.

These observations paint a better picture of their evolution as predators and the role they played in the North American ecosystem. Also, researchers could combat the false knowledge that revolved around coyotes and build accurate maps of their expansions. The study on these creatures was published in the journal ZooKeys.

Image source: Public Domain Pictures

We are all used to blood being scarlet red, but some creatures seem to have it colored in odd shades. A strange genus of skink belonging to the species Prasinohaema has strange green blood that has incredibly toxic properties. This surprised the researchers, who decided to investigate the matter and disclose the mystery of the green blood.

Why do the strange lizards have green blood?

These strange skinks seem to be really fond of the color green. Not only their blood has this color, but also their tongue, bones, and muscles. This happens as their entire bodies have high concentrations of biliverdin. You might have heard of the substance, as it’s present in our organism as bile pigment.

Biliverdin appears whenever hemoglobin, the particle that transports oxygen, breaks down to produce bilirubin, another bile pigment. We only have low levels of biliverdin in our bodies, and we can spot it at the surface whenever we get hurt and develop bruises. However, too much of the pigment can be really dangerous.

This is exactly why we should stay away from the odd lizard. Its green blood and body contains 40 times the concentration of biliverdin that is enough to kill a human. Therefore, this tiny creature is extremely toxic. However, researchers were curious how these creatures could survive the toxic chemical.

The creatures somehow evolved a resistance to the toxicity of the pigment

For the study, they analyzed 51 skink species living in Papua New Guinea. This is how they realized they somehow managed to evolve a resistance to the high toxicity of biliverdin. The pigment might have caused them to have green blood and green bones, but they became immune to developing adverse reactions to it.

The genetic analysis of the lizards showed there are four different groups of skinks with green blood. They all evolved separately but had a common ancestor with red blood. This suggests that green blood might have been an adaptive reaction, but researchers cannot tell why the process had occurred. The pigment might work somehow as an antioxidant and protect the creatures from infection.

The study in question was published in the journal Science Advances.

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Ocean acidity is on the rise, and that spells for even more bad news for coral reefs. These rising levels of ocean acidity are expected to start having a significant effect on the sand reefs build upon within the following decades. Once the sand is reduced or gone, it’s possible that the reefs they’re built upon will erode or even collapse.

Acidic Oceans Dissolving Carbonate Sands

The acidity level of the world’s oceans has been on the rise for nearly a century. According to scientists, it has also intensified over the last few decades. The culprit seems to be carbon dioxide.

As CO2 gets absorbed into the waters of the ocean, it raises its acidity levels. Human industries are releasing a significant output of CO2, and one-third of that has reportedly been absorbed into the oceans.

CO2 output levels due to human activity aren’t expected to decrease in the near future. In turn, this means that CO2 will likely continue to be absorbed into the waters of our planet. This will lead to their being more acidic, which might begin to have major effects on the structure of the coral reef, at least if nothing changes.

 

Carbonate Sands in Detail

Coral reefs grow and build themselves on a foundation of carbonate sands. Carbonate sands are created over thousands of years from the breakdown and decay of coral and other organisms in and around reefs. This sand is particularly vulnerable to water acidity levels.

Scientists studying coral reefs project that within 30 years, acidity levels will have risen to the point where carbonate sand will begin to dissolve. The effect of the sand dissolving isn’t precisely known, but scientists can hazard a guess as to its most likely outcomes.

It’s possible that reefs will continue to be able to grow and develop even in the absence of such sand.  However, a worst case scenario is that the reefs could collapse entirely. But what scientists think is most likely to happen is that coral reefs will begin to slowly erode over time.

As things stand, the increasingly acidic oceans will likely pose a threat to the existence of coral reefs within several decades. One of the only ways of combating this is to decrease the oceanic CO2 absorption.

 

Image Source: Pixabay 

A species of crayfish, also known as a crawfish or crawdad, is capable of reproducing without mating. These invasive female freshwater crustaceans have turned to cloning themselves, allowing the population of marbled crawfish to spread from a single aquarium in Germany to other parts of the world. Researchers believe the species will begin impacting local ecosystems as it continues to spread.

Female Marbled Crayfish Clone and Spread Rapidly

The marbled crawfish has only existed as a species for about 35 years. Its first known specimen appeared in 1995 in an aquarium in Germany. The first crayfish of this now all-female species was born with the ability to clone itself without having its eggs fertilized by a male. Every egg laid by a marbled crawfish is a clone of the mother.

The marbled species is a split from the slough crayfish native to the Florida Everglades. According to a genetic analysis, the marbled variety is the result of a mutation in the sex cells of the parents.

Aside from natural mutations, all marbled crawfish are genetically the same. Unlike most animals, which have two sets of chromosomes — one from each parent — this species has three sets.

Crawfish are popular aquarium pets because they can reproduce quickly. However, the problem comes when they are introduced into the wild. Their quick adaptability also means that they can spread very fast.

Since its creation in 1995, the marbled crawfish has spread to freshwater systems around the world, including Japan, Madagascar, Ukraine, and the United States.

 

The Crayfish, a Danger?

 

A recent study documenting this spread called the marbled crawfish potentially the most dangerous invasive crawfish species in Europe. A single specimen can easily become 300 within the span of three months.

While the news is a concern for environmentalists, cancer researchers hope to learn from the marbled crawfish’s abandonment of reproduction in favor of cloning. Because all specimens are genetically identical and reproduce by cloning themselves, the crawfish offers a model for an essential aspect of tumor development.

Tumor genomes in humans also come from a single cell and multiply by copying itself over and over. Both tumors and crawfish can still adapt to their environments by clonal evolution, which is a problem. With crawfish, this ability to change allows the species to spread to new climates. Tumors use this skill to develop resistance to treatments.

The best method to stop the spread of the crawfish is to prevent its introduction into the wild, as the species only travels through the pet trade. In the meantime, scientists hope the marbled crawfish’s reproduction strategy and genome will be useful in developing new cancer treatments.

Image Source: Wikimedia

The coral reefs are all over the world are dying due to mass bleaching, a phenomenon closely associated with climate change. Over the last few years, mass coral bleaching events started becoming more frequent.

A recent paper claims that because of this, the hopes for recovery are fading. Although experts are trying to save coral reefs, climate change might have a more powerful effect than initially expected.

Mass Coral Bleaching and Its Effects

Coral reefs are still fragile ecosystems that are now running out of time. The latest paper, which was published in the journal Science, shows that the rate of mass coral bleaching is increasing compared to the amount of recovering corals.

Because these events are happening more frequently, the reefs don’t have the time needed to recover before another mass coral bleaching strikes them again.

A team of specialists monitored the rate of coral bleaching over the past four decades. They found that such events are happening more often now than they used to some ten years ago. Usually, severe mass bleaching events occurred every 30 years back in the 1980s. In comparison, after 2010, these happen once every 5 to 6 years.

Researchers mentioned that mass bleachings could hit once every year if the global temperatures continue increasing. The mass coral bleaching is not only dangerous for the corals but also for the marine animals that live there.

Once the animals remain without their habitat, they could die within days or weeks. In 2016, the mass bleaching event at the Great Barrier Reef killed 2/3 of it. Another event like this occurred in 2017 and shocked scientists.

If ocean temperatures were to return to normal and there is enough time for the corals to regain their health, some corals could recover.

Unfortunately, this can take up to 15 years even for the species that recover the fastest. This best-case scenario is unlikely to happen anytime soon if the current global warming trends continue.

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In 1957, researchers from the University of Toronto spotted a strange bird living in the Amazonian rainforest. The species, called the golden-crowned manakin, was different from any known species due to its distinctive yellow plumage. After a close analysis, scientists discovered it was actually a hybrid, the first such species to be discovered in the Amazon area.

The golden-crowned manakin is the first hybrid born in the Amazon

Since the strange bird didn’t seem to fit into any existing species, researchers decided to perform a genetic analysis on it and see where it came from. This is how they discovered it was actually a hybrid between two other species. The bird was the offspring of snow-capped manakins and opal-crowned manakins. This is unusual, as hybridization among vertebrates is extremely rare.

However, the findings are interesting from another point of view as well. The golden-crowned manakin lives quite far away from the species which birthed it. Researchers explained this through a separation which might have occurred during the ice age, when the Amazon river split the rainforest.

In fact, this isolation might have brought the new manakin species into being. It might happen that two different species mate and brought a new one into being, but this doesn’t actually live in the same geographical area as its parents. Therefore, this was an essential condition for the golden-crowned manakin to exist for a longer period of time.

The genetic study revealed how evolution worked on the manakin species

For this study, researchers collected feathers from the manakin, and performed a genetic sequencing. This is how they found out that 80 percent of its genome was taken from the snow-capped species, while the remaining came from the opal-crowned one. Also, they established that the first specimen was born about 180,000 years ago.

The parents’ feathers are white and iridescent, while those of the offspring are yellow and non-reflective. After the genetic study and a keratin examination, researchers established how a combination of the parents’ traits resulted in the non-iridescent property. Also, the feathers must have been white at first, but evolution turned them yellow.

The study on the golden-crowned manakin was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

A team of paleontologists coming from different countries have stumbled upon some interesting remnants of an ancient bear situated beyond the Arctic Circle in Canada. The remains dated back to the Pliocene period, so they were about 3.5 million years old, and indicated that the animal had a predilection for berries.

The High Arctic bear was the ancestor of almost all modern bears

Researchers called this prehistoric creature the High Arctic bear. It belonged to the species Protarctos abstrusus, and represents an ancestor for most bear species that exist today. It was smaller than the American black bear, but about as big as an Asian black bear. Its head was quite flat, and displayed interesting dental features.

This was the first evidence of a bear species living so far north. Also, it can finally offer a complete view of how the High Arctic bear must have looked like. At first, researchers found only a tooth fossil in Idaho, which belonged to this creature. Then, they finally managed to gather other body parts, and constructed a complete skeleton of the ancestor of all bears.

The High Arctic bear, as its name suggests, lived in an area covered in ice and snow, where there was winter for six months a year. Also, the night sometimes lasted for 24 hours. Modern bears live in more varied habitats, including both Arctic and tropical regions. Most of their ancestors originated from Eurasia, and this individual represents an instance of the first bear migrations from Asia to North America.

This was the first bear species to start eating berries

What was the most interesting about this High Arctic bear were its teeth. Both the old tooth found previously in Idaho and the one found in Northern Canada showed signs of cavities. This led researchers to the conclusion that they consumed plenty of sugars. Glucose or fructose can easily be broken down by the oral bacteria, which led to the destroying of teeth and the apparition of cavities.

Now, it’s not uncommon that bears enjoy eating berries to accumulate fat for the hibernation period. However, this is the earliest evidence of high-calorie consumption in bears, suggesting they started gathering their fat deposits quite early in their evolution.

The study on the High Arctic bear was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

A team of researchers made a remarkable fossil discovery in New Zealand. The skeleton was 1.77 meters tall, which was impressive, given the fact that it belonged to an animal. Judging from the appearance of the fossils, they determined it must have belonged to an extinct species of penguin.

The extinct species of penguin reached impressive heights

As soon as the researchers unearthed the fossils, they realized they were just looking at a new species, which stood undiscovered until now. They gave it the name Kumimanu biceae, and established it was an extinct species of penguin. After dating the skeleton, they discovered it was 60 million years old, making it the oldest known penguin species.

This is a great discovery, as it offers a new perspective into the evolution of these creatures, promising to reveal new details about the species. However, this extinct species of penguin is not as unique as some might think. The unearthed skeleton might have been as tall as a man, but gigantism was quite a common trait among the birds.

During previous expeditions, researchers managed to discover other giant penguins which were even more impressive in size. They measured up to 2 meters in height, and were found on the territory of New Zealand and Australia, and in the icy land of Antarctica.

Penguins grew so big to occupy the empty slot in the marine food chain

Given the age of the extinct species of penguin, researchers established this must have been among the first to evolve. However, its traits were quite different from the ones of newer species. Also, these newer species also reached to impressive sizes, so they assumed penguins might have underwent multiple evolution paths.

What they could tell for sure from these fossils was the fact that penguins started growing so large shortly after they stopped flying and became marine animals. This moment coincided with the extinction of dinosaurs, when fierce marine predators also disappeared. Thus, penguins could evolve into a replacement for these predators.

Also, as soon as a whole new phase of marine predators started evolving, penguins grew smaller. Their place in the marine food chains was taken by seals and whales, which made it harder for them to survive in the old conditions. However, researchers still don’t know why penguins continued shrinking even later.

The study on the extinct species of penguin was published in the journal Nature Communications.
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