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Categories: Ecology: Sea Life, Space: Cosmology
Published Fossil of mosasaur with bizarre 'screwdriver teeth' found in Morocco
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered a new species of mosasaur, a sea-dwelling lizard from the age of the dinosaurs, with strange, ridged teeth unlike those of any known reptile. Along with other recent finds from Africa, it suggests that mosasaurs and other marine reptiles were evolving rapidly up until 66 million years ago, when they were wiped out by an asteroid along with the dinosaurs and around 90% of all species on Earth.
Published Perfect 'pathogen' storm: Vibrio bacteria, Sargassum and plastic marine debris
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Little is known about the ecological relationship of Vibrio bacteria with Sargassum. Evidence also is sparse as to whether vibrios colonizing plastic marine debris and Sargassum could potentially infect humans. As summer kicks off and efforts are underway to find solutions to repurpose Sargassum, could these substrates pose a triple threat to public health? Results of a study representing the first Vibrio spp. genome assembled from plastic finds Vibrio pathogens have the unique ability to 'stick' to microplastics, harboring potent opportunistic pathogens.
Published New use for A.I.: Correctly estimating fish stocks
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A newly published artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm is allowing researchers to quickly and accurately estimate coastal fish stocks without ever entering the water.
Published What did the earliest animals look like?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Surprisingly, genome comparisons have failed to resolve a major question in animal evolution: Which living animals are the descendants of the earliest animals to evolve in the world's oceans? Scientists performed a detailed chromosomal analysis that comes down definitively in favor of comb jellies, or ctenophores, as the most recent common ancestor of all animals, or the sister taxa to all animals. Sponges evolved later.
Published Radio signal reveals supernova origin
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers reveal the origin of a thermonuclear supernova explosion. Strong emission lines of helium and the first detection of such a supernova in radio waves show that the exploding white dwarf star had a helium-rich companion.
Published Jaw shapes of 90 shark species show: Evolution driven by habitat
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers investigated how the jaw shape of sharks has changed over the course of evolution. Their conclusion: in the most widespread shark species, the jaws show relatively little variation in shape over millions of years; most variable jaws were found for deep-sea sharks.
Published Crushed clams, roaming rays: Acoustic tags reveal predator interactions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Inspired by clam fishermen reports, researchers used passive acoustic telemetry to gauge the interactions between two highly mobile rays. They monitored the tagged rays in the wild over two years to see how often and when they visited clam leases, designated underwater locations used to produce hard clams of all sizes from littlenecks to chowders. Results provide both good news and bad news for clammers. Rays spent even more time in these clam lease sites than clammers reported or suspected, but it's not necessarily where they prefer hanging out.
Published Astronomers reveal the largest cosmic explosion ever seen
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have uncovered the largest cosmic explosion ever witnessed. The explosion is more than ten times brighter than any known supernova and three times brighter than the brightest tidal disruption event, where a star falls into a supermassive black hole.
Published Singing humpback whales respond to wind noise, but not boats
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has found humpback whales sing louder when the wind is noisy, but don't have the same reaction to boat engines.
Published Researchers find new approach to explore earliest universe dynamics with gravitational waves
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered a new generic production mechanism of gravitational waves generated by a phenomenon known as oscillons.
Published Hidden supermassive black holes brought to life by galaxies on collision course
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Astronomers have found that supermassive black holes obscured by dust are more likely to grow and release tremendous amounts of energy when they are inside galaxies that are expected to collide with a neighbouring galaxy.
Published Global warming puts whales in the Southern Ocean on a diet
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In the autumn, when right whales swim towards the coasts of South Africa, they ought to be fat and stuffed full. But in recent years, they have become thinner because their food is disappearing with the melting sea ice.
Published Celestial monsters at the origin of globular clusters
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Globular clusters are the most massive and oldest star clusters in the Universe. They can contain up to 1 million of them. The chemical composition of these stars, born at the same time, shows anomalies that are not found in any other population of stars. Explaining this specificity is one of the great challenges of astronomy. After having imagined that supermassive stars could be at the origin, a team believes it has discovered the first chemical trace attesting to their presence in globular proto-clusters, born about 440 million years after the Big Bang.
Published Like ancient mariners, ancestors of Prochlorococcus microbes rode out to sea on exoskeleton particles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Throughout the ocean, billions upon billions of plant-like microbes make up an invisible floating forest. As they drift, the tiny organisms use sunlight to suck up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Collectively, these photosynthesizing plankton, or phytoplankton, absorb almost as much CO2 as the world’s terrestrial forests. A measurable fraction of their carbon-capturing muscle comes from Prochlorococcus — an emerald-tinged free-floater that is the most abundant phytoplankton in the oceans today. New research suggests the microbe's ancient coastal ancestors colonized the ocean by rafting out on chitin particles.
Published Hammerhead sharks hold their breath on deep water hunts to stay warm
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scalloped hammerhead sharks hold their breath to keep their bodies warm during deep dives into cold water where they hunt prey such as deep sea squids. This discovery provides important new insights into the physiology and ecology of a species that serves as an important link between the deep and shallow water habitats.
Published Measurement of the Universe's expansion rate weighs in on a longstanding debate in physics and astronomy
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A team used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, providing insight that could help more accurately determine the Universe's age and help physicists and astronomers better understand the cosmos.
Published Giants of the Jurassic seas were twice the size of a killer whale
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source There have been heated debates over the size of Jurassic animals. The speculation was set to continue, but now a chance discovery in an Oxfordshire museum has led to palaeontologists publishing a paper on a Jurassic species potentially reaching a whopping 14.4 meters -- twice the size of a killer whale.
Published Nature favors creatures in largest and smallest sizes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Surveying the body sizes of Earth's living organisms, researchers found that the planet's biomass -- the material that makes up all living organisms -- is concentrated in organisms at either end of the size spectrum.
Published Water warming study shows unexpected impact on fish size
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The theory that water-breathing animals such as fish will shrink due to global warming has been called into question by a new study.
Published Basic 'toolkit' for organ development is illuminated by sea star
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source One of the basic and crucial embryonic processes to unfold in virtually every living organism is the formation of hollow, tubular structures that go on to form blood vessels or a digestive tract, and through branching and differentiation, complex organs including the heart and kidneys. This study illuminates fundamental design principles of tubulogenesis for all chordates, including mammals.