Latest news with #Pleistocene
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Study reveals how woolly mammoths adapted to survive ice age
Research has revealed how woolly mammoths and other species adapted to survive the ice age. A team of palaeontologists and palaeogeneticists studied ancient fossil and DNA evidence to understand the changes animals and plants went through in the Northern Hemisphere. They found that cold-adapted animals began to evolve 2.6 million years ago, when permanent ice at the poles became more common. The study showed that many current cold-adapted species, as well as extinct ones like mammoths, evolved around 700,000 years ago, when cold periods doubled in length. READ MORE: Dorset 'war cemetery' not victims of Roman Conquest Research shows Arctic foxes and polar bears arrived later than once thought (Image: Canva) The findings, which offer a greater understanding of how species evolved in the past, were published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. John Stewart, professor of paleoecology at Bournemouth University, led the study. He said: "The cold-adapted species are among the most vulnerable animals and plants to ongoing climate change. "Therefore, an understanding of how species evolved in the past is essential to help us understand the risks faced by endangered species today." As part of their research, the team compared evidence of evolution in plants and beetles with that for mammals. SEE MORE: Habitat in many estuaries at high risk of being 'squeezed' out by climate change Cold-adapted animals began evolving 2.6 million years ago, researchers find (Image: Canva) They suggested that ideas that some organisms had evolved earlier in the polar regions need to be tested. This means that the way the modern Arctic ecologies assembled needs to be resolved, as it is not clear when and how the animals and plants who live there came together. The study found evidence for early occurrences of true lemmings and reindeer in the Arctic, where they may have evolved as climates cooled in the early Pleistocene period, between one and two million years ago. The polar bear and Arctic fox, on the other hand, may have joined them more recently within the last 700,000 years, colonising from the south. Some of the ice age cold species like the woolly rhino are different and may have evolved in the steppe grasslands to the south, with the earliest occurrences in the Tibetan Plateau. Professor Stewart said: "This is the first concerted effort to compare the evolution of cold-adapted animals and plants since modern methods of palaeogenetics appeared."
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
28 American Cities Are Literally Sinking Into the Earth
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." Major U.S. cities are experiencing some degree of subsidence, a.k.a. sinking. It's not just major coastal cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Houston; landlocked cities like Las Vegas, Denver, Nashville, and more are showing signs of sinking. Causes range from groundwater extraction to plate tectonics. It's a well-known fact that sea levels around the world are slowly rising. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), sea levels have risen some eight to nine inches around the world since 1880, and show no sign of stopping. That's concerning enough on its own, considering that 40 percent of the U.S.'s population lives near coastlines. But American cities—along with cities around the world—are facing yet another problem that's only exacerbating this concerning side effect of climate change: They're sinking. In a new study led by scientists at Virginia Tech, a research team tracked the subsidence (a.k.a. sinking) rate of 28 major U.S. cities across the country and found that at least 20 percent of the urban area of all of the cities was sinking to some degree. In 25 of those 28 cities, more than 65 percent of the land area was sinking to varying degrees. The most extreme example is Houston, Texas, where scientists discovered that some areas of the city were sinking as much as 10 millimeters per year. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Cities. Obviously, the image of cities slowly sinking paints a picture of places like Houston, New York, and L.A. simply slipping into the sea. But the implications of this higher-than-expected subsidence rate comes with a much more complex list of nearer-term practical problems for both city planners and average homeowners. 'Even slight downward shifts in land can significantly compromise the structural integrity of buildings, roads, bridges, and railways over time,' Leonard Ohenhen, a former Virginia Tech graduate student and the lead author of the study, said in a press statement. The cause of the sinking varies from city to city. The leading cause of subsidence is groundwater extraction, which eventually leads to compaction of soil and sediments and—you guessed it—the net result of slowly sinking land. However, other causes can also be pretty impactful. Some parts of the country, for example, are still experiencing the extraordinary see-sawing of bedrock caused by the retreat of glaciers during the tail of the Pleistocene epoch. Meanwhile, out West in cities like Portland, Seattle, and San Francisco, plate tectonics can claim some of the blame. 'Sustained groundwater extraction lowers pore pressure in aquifer systems, leading to compaction of fine-grained sediments, which results in land subsidence that can be detected from satellites,' Susanna Werth, a co-author of the study from Virginia Tech, said in a press statement. 'Such land subsidence has been observed across the U.S. for many decades, but its increasing relevance in urban areas is especially hazardous.' Ohenhen and his team are part of that observational history. Just last year, they published a study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences about the rapid subsidence of cities along the East Coast. However, this new study shows that not only is the phenomenon more widespread than originally understood, it's also not contained to coastal cities. Las Vegas, Denver, Oklahoma City, Nashville, Indianapolis, and many landlocked metropolitan areas also show signs of sinking. While this study only focused on the contiguous United States, the country's two most far-flung states—Alaska and Hawai'i—are also struggling with increased subsidence. For Alaska, the main culprit is permafrost degradation. And regarding Hawai'i, a study published earlier this year showed that some areas of O'ahu are sinking as much as 25 millimeters per year due to some industrial sectors having been built atop artificial fill. None of this means that the U.S. is about to become some legendary, water-filled Atlantis. But understanding the rate at which cities are sinking—and the rate at which sea levels are rising—can help city planners, water resource managers, and average homeowners prepare for the slowly sinking future ahead of us. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Miami Herald
12-05-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Bone discovered in ancient layer of Cuban cave belonged to a new extinct species
During a joint expedition to the mountains of western Cuba, researchers uncovered a rare complete bone from a bird that lived between 18,000 and 11,000 years ago. The humerus, pulled from a well-preserved ancient layer of sediment, belonged to a new extinct species of duck named Amazonetta cubensis, or the Cuban teal, according to a May 9 study published in the peer-reviewed journal Zootaxa. The Cuban teal is described as 'a relatively small duck' with many physical similarities to its closest living relative, the Brazilian teal, according to researcher Nikita Zelenkov. Zelenkov said the discovery is significant because it 'for the first time indicates a wider distribution of Amazonetta ducks' during the later Quaternary period, which spanned from the later or upper Pleistocene and Holocene epochs. According to the study, many insular or island duck species had reduced flying abilities. Experts point to a lack of island predators as the reason for this change. The Cuban teal, however, likely never lost its ability to fly. If it did, it would 'almost certainly have been one of the main prey items of raptors and as a result would have been relatively common in the fossil record,' according to Zelenkov. Zelenkov said duck fossils are 'extremely rare' in the West Indies, with only two other fossil ducks ever reported in Cuba. The fossil was discovered in El Abrón Cave in Western Cuba's Pinar-del-Río province, the study said. The extinct species was discovered in a geological layer of the cave dating back to the Late Pleistocene epoch, Zelenkov said. This particular layer is 'rich' with vertebrate remains left behind by ancient avian predators, specifically barn owls, according to the study.
Indian Express
08-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indian Express
Jurassic Park, Black Mirror, dire wolves: A foreshadowing worth revisiting
Dire wolves are back — not the pack that prowled the halls of Winterfell but the real things, in flesh and blood. When George R R Martin chose the sigil of House Stark in the Game of Thrones, he took a cue from the Pleistocene era. The dire wolves that feature in the blockbuster fantasy series are named after a species of large canines that were endemic to the Americas during the last ice age. These prehistoric carnivores dwindled and then died out many millennia ago, but a team of scientists is now rewriting their script. This April, Colossal Biosciences — which describes itself as 'The de-extinction company' on X — announced the birth of Romulus and Remus, two dire wolf pups resurrected from the dead. The duo, and their younger sister, Khaleesi, are the first dire wolves to roam this planet in over 10,000 years. The complex genetic editing that made this feat possible has triggered howls of celebration in many quarters. But there have also been a few growls of consternation. Some experts have questioned the fidelity of the tall claims made by Colossal. Tweaking a minuscule number of genetic codes may have granted them the appearance of dire wolves, but to the critics, the trio are just grey wolves with cosmetic upgrades. Less technical are the questions that have been raised about the ethics of this enterprise. Is 'de-extinction' really a noble pursuit, or is it the 'allure of playing God' that drives experiments of this nature? Some of you may be old enough to remember this question being posed in a movie that made the Tyrannosaurus Rex a household name. Their social media posts suggest that folks at Colossal have watched Jurassic Park. Perhaps they forgot how the movie ends — or, simply chose to ignore its grim portents. The latter is not hard to imagine. There is, after all, a rich tradition of scientists ignoring the warnings of science-fiction — a phenomenon that has become a leitmotif for the Netflix show, Black Mirror. One of the reasons for the enduring popularity of Black Mirror is how the fictional technology it features feels eerily close to reality. In its stories, the future — often dark and dystopian — is not the distant epoch of a Star Trek but a present that is almost upon us. An early episode of the series ('Nosedive') was set in a world where every social interaction is followed by a rating. These ratings determine the course of a person's life and career, and one minor faux pas can set the dominoes tumbling. Soon after the episode's release, parallels were drawn with the 'social credit system' in China. The idea expands the well-worn concept of financial creditworthiness to incorporate the more ephemeral notion of 'social creditworthiness', by 'judging citizens' behaviour'. Granted, the system is fragmented and often misunderstood, and your neighbours in China cannot (yet) rate you poorly after a quarrel. But a low score can 'disqualify' people from buying plane tickets or boarding trains, a scenario that would fit right into a Black Mirror fable. 'Nosedive' is not the only instance when the series has echoed into the real world. In a 2013 episode (Be Right Back), a woman avails of a service that allows her to communicate with her dead boyfriend. This premise has now been realised by a host of 'grief-tech' companies. For the right price, these businesses offer you solace by generating AI-powered simulations of the loved ones you've lost. In the episode 'Metalhead', the autonomous hounds that roam a dystopian wasteland are just the bulkier (and more belligerent) cousins of the Unitree B2-W, a real-life robot dog that can outrun an average marathoner. And the ability to record and replay one's memories (The Entire History of You) is not that hard to imagine in a world where we are surrounded by tools that chronicle our conversations. None of this is to say we must become Luddites. Innovations in technology have made our lives immeasurably better. Over a decade ago, when I bought my first car, I was delighted to see volume buttons on the steering. I marvelled, then, at the wonders of science that allowed me to change radio channels without taking my hands off the wheel. Now my car can tell me the temperature in Timbuktu and remind me to take my multivitamins. This is the shape of humanity's progress, and it is, on the whole, a good thing. Yet, there are occasions when you wonder if we should pause and take a moment to reflect on the implications of our actions. When you discover that ChatGPT consumes 1.174 billion gallons of water each month — enough to fill 1,780 Olympic-size swimming pools — you question if your cutesy (and uncredited) Studio Ghibli-style avatar was worth it. These considerations are incumbent not just upon the users of new technology, of course, but also its creators. Whether it's the de-extinction of dire wolves or the building of robotic canids, perhaps it is worth prefacing the project with a query that was once raised by Ian Malcom. At the lunch table in Jurassic Park, while discussing the propriety of creating a dinosaur-filled amusement park, Malcom had chided the CEO, John Hammond, saying, 'Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to ask if they should.' More than 30 years have passed, but this has never been as pertinent as it is today. The writer is a Mumbai-based lawyer
New York Times
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
There's No ‘Undo' Button for Extinct Species
'Over 10,000 years ago, a howl was lost to time.' So begins a recent promotional video by Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology company, whose narrator speaks in a voice that sounds as if it, too, was resurrected from the past: a 1950s newsreel or biology-class explainer. Quick cuts of scientific B-roll — frozen blood in vials, a microscope, a white-coated hand jiggling a computer joystick — eventually give way to a lingering close-up of a wolf opening a bright, golden eye. 'Today,' the voice intones, 'it returns.' The video introduces viewers to Romulus and Remus, 'the first two dire wolves since the Pleistocene era.' In under three minutes, the very cute pups mature from tiny fluff balls, stumbling through their first steps, to regal youngsters romping in drifts of snow that accentuate their own (luxurious) white coats. 'Roughhousing may look like play,' the narrator tells us, 'but it's serious practice for life in the pack.' The voice then shows a third, younger pup, Khaleesi — 'the first female dire wolf brought back from extinction.' Colossal brands itself 'the de-extinction company' and has announced plans to bring back woolly mammoths and dodos and Tasmanian tigers, some of the biggest stars in the species extermination hall of fame. On a planet with as many as one million species at risk of disappearing, many within decades, the company is promising an undo button. Many media outlets, including People and CNN, breathlessly promoted Colossal's story; Time featured a cover portrait of Remus with a big red line through the word 'extinct.' On my Facebook feed, clickbait link aggregators trumpeted 'the world's first de-extinction' in posts that were awe-struck and joyful. Any commenter who questioned the company's narrative was shouted down as a hater. Amid the relentlessly grim news about the state of our planet, here was a tale of pure inspiration, of futuristic science triumphing over the tragic losses of a mythic past.
