'Jurassic Tree Lives Again': 200-Million-Year-Old ‘Dinosaur Tree' Successfully Bred in Stunning Scientific Breakthrough
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Euronews
a day ago
- Euronews
Geologists turn to remote tools as Italy's Ventina glacier melts fast
Italy's Ventina glacier, one of the biggest in northern Lombardy, has melted so much due to climate change that geologists can no longer measure it the way they have for the past 130 years. After this year's hot summer, geologists discovered that the simple stakes used as benchmarks to measure the glacier's retreat each year are now buried under rockslides. Debris has made the terrain too unsteady for future in-person visits. The Lombardy Glaciological Service said Monday that it will now use drone imagery and remote sensing to keep track of the ongoing shrinkage. Geologists say that the Ventina glacier has already lost 1.7 kilometres in length since the first measuring benchmarks were positioned at the front of the glacier in 1895. The melting has accelerated in recent years, with the glacier losing 431 metres in the last 10 years, nearly half of that since 2021, the service said. It's another example of how accelerating global warming is melting and shrinking Europe's glaciers, causing a host of environmental and other impacts. 'While we could still hope until the 1980s that there would be normal cycles (of retraction) or at least a contained retraction, in the last 40 years something truly striking has occurred,' said Andrea Toffaletti, a member of the Lombardy Glaciological Service. Hot summers and less snow are melting Italy's glaciers Italy's mountain glaciers, which are found throughout the Alps and Dolomites in the north and along the central Apennines, have been receding for years, thanks to inadequate snowfall in the winter and record-setting hot summers. Glaciers always melt some in summer, with the runoff fueling mountain streams and rivers. But the hot summers are 'no longer able to guarantee the survival of the winter snowpack,' which keeps the glacier intact, Toffaletti said. 'In order to regenerate and remain in balance, a certain amount of residual snow from the winter must remain on the glacier's surface at the end of the summer. And this is happening less and less frequently,' said Toffaletti. According to the Lombardy service, the Alps represent a climate hotspot, recording double the global average of temperature increases since pre-industrial times, resulting in the loss of over 64 per cent of the volume of Alpine glaciers. In February, the journal Nature reported on a study showing the world's glaciers lost ice at the rate of about 231 billion tonnes annually from 2000 to 2011, but that quickened to about 314 billion tonnes annually over about the next decade.
France 24
6 days ago
- France 24
Scientists find surprising sex reversal in Australian birds
A study of five common Australian species, including kookaburras, magpies and lorikeets, found around six percent of birds had the chromosomes of one sex but the reproductive organs of another. The findings indicated a surprisingly high number of birds had reversed their sex after birth, said researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast. "This indicates that sex determination in wild birds is more fluid than we thought, and can persist into adulthood," said study co-author Dominique Potvin. The study performed DNA tests on almost 500 birds. The overwhelming majority of sex reversals involved genetically female birds growing male gonads. "We also discovered a genetically male kookaburra who was reproductively active with large follicles and a distended oviduct, indicating recent egg production," said Potvin. Sex reversal is well known in certain species of reptile and fish but is thought to be rare in wild birds and mammals. Scientists have documented how pollutants and even warm temperatures can trigger sex reversal in frogs. The cause of sex reversal in wild birds was not clear, the University of the Sunshine Coast study said. But it could be due to environmental factors, such as hormone-disrupting chemicals building up in wild areas. "Understanding how and why sex reversal occurs is vital for conservation and for improving the accuracy of bird research," added Potvin. The study was published this week in peer-reviewed journal Biology Letters.
France 24
13-08-2025
- France 24
Scientists unearth 'cute' but fearsome ancient whale
Museums Victoria pieced together the species from an unusually well-preserved skull fossil found on Victoria's Surf Coast in 2019. Scientists discovered a "fast, sharp-toothed predator" that would have been about the size of a dolphin. "It's essentially a little whale with big eyes and a mouth full of sharp, slicing teeth," said researcher Ruairidh Duncan. "Imagine the shark-like version of a baleen whale -- small and deceptively cute, but definitely not harmless." The skull belonged to a group of prehistoric whales known as the mammalodontids, distant smaller relatives of today's filter-feeding whales. It is the fourth mammalodontid species ever discovered, Museums Victoria said. "This fossil opens a window into how ancient whales grew and changed, and how evolution shaped their bodies as they adapted to life in the sea," said palaeontologist Erich Fitzgerald, who co-authored the study. Victoria's Surf Coast lies on the Jan Juc Formation -- a geological feature dating to the Oligocene epoch between 23 and 30 million years ago. A string of rare fossils have been unearthed along the scenic stretch of beach, a renowned site for the study of early whale evolution. "This region was once a cradle for some of the most unusual whales in history, and we're only just beginning to uncover their stories," said Fitzgerald. "We're entering a new phase of discovery. "This region is rewriting the story of how whales came to rule the oceans, with some surprising plot twists." The species was named Janjucetus dullardi, a nod to local Ross Dullard who stumbled across the skull while strolling the beach in 2019. It was described in the peer-reviewed Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
