Table of Contents
Sharks wielding study cameras in the Bahamas, Mexico’s spider monkey diplomacy, a carbon “time bomb” in the Republic of Congo, and significantly far more in this month’s Fast Hits
BAHAMAS
Biologists strapped smaller cameras on to tiger sharks to research seagrass in the Caribbean. The footage aided develop estimates of the world-wide area of seagrass coverage by 41 percent—a good sign for the climate due to the fact seagrass merchants carbon.
CHINA
Experts have struggled to discover the creatures that still left driving the world’s oldest skeletal remains—500-million-12 months-old tubelike constructions. Now a new examination of specimens from Yunnan (like a rare glance at their fossilized comfortable tissues) indicates the animals ended up jellyfish kinfolk that resembled sea anemones.
MALAYSIA
Scientists have produced stem cells using skin from Malaysia’s past male Sumatran rhinoceros, Kertam, who died in 2019. Converting these cells into practical spermatozoa could aid to help you save the critically endangered animal from extinction.
MEXICO
Archaeologists unearthing an administrative intricate of the historic metropolis Teotihuacán discovered the around 1,700-year-previous skeleton of a spider monkey that was not indigenous to the area. Specialists suspect it was a present from the neighboring Maya, pointing to formerly not known animal-primarily based diplomacy.
REPUBLIC OF CONGO
A new examine indicates the Congo peatlands have alternated—every few thousand years—between releasing carbon dioxide (when dry) and storing it (when soaked). This may perhaps mean the peatlands are a weather change “time bomb” established to release stored carbon as they dry.
U.K.
A meteorite that landed in an English driveway has been observed to include drinking water with a ratio of hydrogen isotopes resembling Earth’s. This supports the concept that the youthful Earth’s h2o could have been introduced by asteroids.
This post was originally revealed with the title “Quick Hits” in Scientific American 328, 2, 18 (February 2023)
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0223-18a
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