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National Geographic
4 hours ago
- Science
- National Geographic
This bizarre ancient worm had spiky teeth and a retractable throat
Scientists found the 500-million-year-old fossil of a "penis worm" in the Grand Canyon—and reconstructed how the creature would have used its strange mouth to feed. The newly discovered species of priapulid, Kraytdraco spectatus, got its name from a Star Wars monster. Illustration by Rhydian Evans In September of 2023, Giovanni Mussini, a paleontologist and doctoral student at the University of Cambridge, joined an expedition into the vast depths of the Grand Canyon. He and other researchers rode a dinghy down the turbid Colorado river, stopping occasionally to scale dangerously flaky rocks in search of 500-million-year-old fossils from the Cambrian period, the dawn of complex animal life. The results of that expedition, reported July 13 in Science Advances, included the miniscule remnants of brine shrimp-like crustaceans and snail-like mollusks. But the most interesting findings—uncovered as Mussini dissolved Grand Canyon rocks in acid and combed them for fossils—were two types of tiny mystery teeth. One set was sharp. The other had feathery projections coming out of its sides. Both, it turns out, belonged to an obscene-looking monster. The creature was a priapulid worm, often known—for obvious reasons—as a 'penis worm.' 'They're … peculiarly shaped,' says Mussini. The 500-million-year old cache of fossils, including the 'penis worm' were found in the Grand Canyon. Photographs by Joe Clevenger Following the suggestion of a Star Wars-obsessed colleague, Mussini named the newly discovered Grand Canyon worm Kraytdraco spectatus after the 'krayt dragon,' an enormous burrowing dragon seen in the streaming show The Mandalorian. An adult K. spectatus would have measured roughly six to eight inches long, says Mussini. From within its body emerged a darting, retractable throat, reminiscent of the xenomorph in Alien. This throat, or pharynx, was ringed with spirals of teeth. The Grand Canyon worm differed from most of its fellows, however. While it had the usual spiky teeth around the ring of its extendable throat, the inside was filled with concentric rows of feathery-looking teeth, of a sort 'that have never been observed anywhere else,' Mussini says. The priapulid's pharynx Named for Priapus, the Roman god of fertility, priapulids are far, far older than the vertebrate genitalia they resemble. Trace fossils and body remains from before the dawn of the Cambrian period suggest that they were some of the world's earliest dedicated predators and ecosystem-engineering burrowers, devouring anything they could swallow. Some lived like hermit crabs in animal shells. Others hosted symbiotic accumulations of smaller worms. 'Everywhere we look in these exceptional preservation deposits, like China and the Burgess Shale, we see priapulids,' says Mussini. In a video his team made reconstructing this new species of priapulid, the animal's pharynx rises toward the camera as if chasing after prey, showing off the concentric rows of feathery teeth inside. While the bigger, heavy-duty teeth around the rim could scrape the sediment or bits of animal carcass, the more delicate rings may have filtered 'for the finer particles the animal is really interested in,' Mussini says. Once satisfied, 'the pharynx itself can be folded inside out like the finger of a glove,' returning the worm to a more bulbous appearance. Although it might be named for a Star Wars character, Mussini says the penis worm more closely resembled the sandworms seen in Dune with its sphincter mouth full of fine, sand-sifting teeth. Unfortunately for the research team, the name 'Shai-Hulud' was already taken by an unrelated worm fossil. A closer look at the pharanx of Kraytdraco spectatus and the teeth inside it. Illustrations by Rhydian Evans 'A priapulid would have been better to get that name,' says Mussini, 'because the resemblance is quite uncanny.' Priapulid worms are still around today, Mussini adds. About 20 living species survive, though they've been shrunken by time, now measuring mere millimeters long. 'There may have been some trend toward miniaturization as the eons went by,' he says of the priapulid worms that have endured half a billion years of evolution. In other words, for penis worms, size wasn't necessarily everything. Limited Time: Bonus Issue Offer Subscribe now and gift up to 4 bonus issues—starting at $34/year.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Hotter summers could be making us sicker in unexpected ways
As the earth experiences hotter and hotter summers, new research using data from California emergency departments shows that the heat may be making us sicker than we know, and in ways we may not anticipate. A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances tracked emergency department visits and fatalities in the state over the course of 11 years and found that while deaths increased both in cold and hot temperatures, especially among older adults, emergency room visits steadily increased as temperatures did - particularly among young children. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. The findings underscore the impact that a hotter planet has on lives, health and medical infrastructure. While scientists have spent decades covering how extreme heat and cold lead to death, 'we have a relatively poor understanding of whether those relationships are the same for morbidity - rates of disease and poor health,' said Carlos Gould, the paper's lead author and an environmental health scientist at the University of California San Diego. The focus on fatalities could be because of how deadly heat is - it's the most lethal form of extreme weather. High temperatures have been linked to cardiovascular deaths, chronic kidney disease mortality and respiratory failure. Heat can put undue stress on organs: The heart pumps faster to get blood flow to the skin; kidneys work harder to preserve the body's water. Those with preexisting conditions are more at risk in hot weather. The cold kills more people than heat does. As Earth warms, some projections indicate that temperature-related fatalities could decrease, but the effects would be unequal: Hotter and poorer countries would see an increase in deaths, while colder, wealthier countries would see a decrease. Some researchers contend it's a fraught comparison to begin with. 'It remains problematic to trade off mortality and morbidity from hot versus cold temperature extremes,' said Kristie Ebi, a professor at the Center for Health and Global Environment at the University of Washington. 'People are not fungible. The goal of public health is to prevent as much morbidity and mortality as possible.' Gould said deaths are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to temperature's effects on society. Between 2006 and 2017, more people in California visited emergency rooms as temperatures went up, further burdening public health systems as the world got hotter. 'It is helpful to have more detailed analyses of temperature-morbidity relationships, to help identify interventions that could decrease hospitalizations during heat waves,' said Ebi. Gould added that while he was reluctant to generalize beyond the data from California, its rates of mortality to extreme temperatures were in line with those from across the country. The study found that as temperatures increased, more people visited emergency rooms for illnesses including those linked to poison, respiratory symptoms and nervous system problems. Data also showed that children under 5 visited emergency rooms at a higher rate than any other age group. 'Hot days can worsen our health far before they lead to deaths,' said Gould. 'And it can be a large range of things that we get sick from.' In some cases, it's difficult to know how these illnesses are linked to heat, said Robert Meade a research fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who studies heat's impacts on the human body. It could be an error in how the data was analyzed, or it could further highlight the challenge of anticipating heat's indirect effects on our health. For example, researchers cautioned against using the data to draw a direct link between hotter temperatures and more poison-related illness. 'The mechanisms might not be clear to us, but it still could reflect a very complex interaction between heat and people's behavior that causes this rise,' Meade added. Ebi also noted that the analyses didn't consider other factors, such as wildfires, which are drivers of cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses and mortality, especially in California. 'Climate change is increasing the numbers of wildfires, which could have influenced the results because wildfires are often associated with hot days,' she said. She also pointed out that the data ends in 2017, which means it missed many large, extreme heat waves over the last 7½ years that could have altered the way we respond to heat exposure. Gould hopes the data will help public health officials broaden their understanding of who needs to be protected during heat waves. 'Deaths are of course the most severe outcome, and protecting deaths is one of the single largest priorities of public health,' he said. 'But these illnesses can affect kids, working families, reduce our productivity and strain our hospitals and communities.' 'Even when heat doesn't kill,' said Gould, 'it hurts a lot.' - - - Kevin Crowe contributed to this report. Related Content Kamala Harris will not run for California governor, opening door for 2028 run The U.S. military is investing in this Pacific island. So is China. In a stressful human world, 'mermaiding' gains popularity in D.C. area Solve the daily Crossword
The Hill
2 days ago
- Health
- The Hill
California study finds ER visits spiking with heat, but overall deaths falling from lack of cold
Californians are poised to become sicker in a future marked by climate-fueled warming, but they may also be less likely to die from temperature-related events as extreme cold days become rarer, a new study has found. Emergency room visits in California increased in a linear fashion as daily temperatures escalated over the course of a recent decade, from 2006 to 2017, according to the study, published on Wednesday in Science Advances. But neither hospital admissions or related-death exhibited the same unbending climb. Although extreme heat and extreme cold alike cause more people to die, illness rates tend to increase as the weather becomes hotter, and they tend to be lower in colder conditions, the study authors explained. In other words: Emergency visits are still likely to surge as the planet warms, but temperature-related deaths as a whole may decline thanks to the ongoing disappearance of extreme cold days. The researchers — led by Carlos Gould at the University of California San Diego — analyzed 123 million zip code-level emergency department visits, 45 million such hospital admissions and 2.9 million county-level death records between 2006 and 2017. They also compiled daily temperature records from 1,500 zip codes in 56 California counties for the same period. Over time, they observed that the zip codes experienced an increase in emergency room visits: from an average of 1,936 per 100,000 people every month to 2,531 in 2017. During the same window, both hospitalization rates and deaths showed a U-curve for temperature — exhibiting unsurprising increases during extreme cold and hot periods. The scientists calculated an increase in emergency department visits California due to changes in temperatures by 2050 — an additional 0.46 percent, or 1.5 million excess visits, in comparison to today. At that point, related hospitalizations and deaths will both likely decline, by 0.18 percent and 0.43 percent, respectively, or 244,000 fewer hospitalizations and 53,500 fewer deaths, according to the study. By 2100, the researchers projected a 0.76 percent increase in emergency department visits, a 0.38 percent decline in hospital admissions and a 0.77 plunge in deaths due to temperature changes. As far as economics are concerned, the scientists calculated that by 2050, emergency room visits would cost California an additional $52 million, while temperature-related death costs would decrease by $30 billion and hospitalization costs by $53 million. Going forward, the researchers called for further analysis into the morbidity and mortality — illness and death — impacts of temperature variation within populations, noting that specific effects may differ considerably among age groups. 'A very broad range of morbidity outcomes will likely be affected by a warming climate and that future increases in heat extremes will increase both morbidity and mortality,' the authors stated. And with a much warmer future likely ahead, the researchers questioned just how long the decreases in death related to cold could truly outweigh the increases related to excessive warmth. 'Our results suggest that beneficial impact of declining cold extremes for mortality — an expected substantial benefit of climate change in much of the world — will be offset, at least partially, by increases in morbidity at those temperatures,' they added.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- Health
- Washington Post
Hotter summers could be making us sicker in unexpected ways
As the earth experiences hotter and hotter summers, new research using data from California emergency departments shows that the heat may be making us sicker than we know, and in ways we may not anticipate. A study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances tracked emergency department visits and fatalities in the state over the course of 11 years and found that while deaths increased both in cold and hot temperatures, especially among older adults, emergency room visits steadily increased as temperatures did — particularly among young children.
2 days ago
- Science
Japanese Ecologist Fukano Yūya Finds Hints About Ourselves in Biodiversity
Urbanization has left an indelible mark on the planet, altering landscapes across large swaths of the globe. As the atmosphere warms, the prevalence of heat-retaining materials like asphalt, stone, and metal create sweltering urban heat islands, imposing severe pressures on the flora and fauna that inhabit cities. Ecologist Fukano Yūya of Chiba University points out that most research into the effects of heat stress on wildlife in urban environments has focused on animals. Concentrating his attention on plant life, he led a multi-institutional team that investigated the dispersion of Oxalis corniculata , a low-growing plant known by the common name creeping woodsorrel. The pervasive species thrives both in parks as well as the cracks in roads and sidewalks. Depending on environmental conditions, plants can have either green or red leaves. Fukano observed that the former is dominant in green spaces, while the latter is found only near impervious surfaces like asphalt walkways that trap heat. He and his colleagues set out to explore why. Counterclockwise from top left: creeping woodsorrel with green leaves; red-tinted leaves; and plants growing in a crack in a road in Tokyo's Marunouchi area. (© Fukano Yūya) The team examined online images of the plant growing in different locations around the world and was able to demonstrate a link between urbanization and the leaf color of creeping woodsorrel. They studied whether the different variations represented an adaptive trait and found that red-leaved specimens performed better under heat stress, while their green-leaved compatriots did better in non-stressful conditions—the world's first discovery of a species adapted to urban heat islands. They published their results in the journal Science Advances in 2023. While woodsorrel is an interesting case in adaptability, most wildlife is not so resilient. Climate change has already pushed many species to extinction, with countless more expected to disappear as the planet continues to warm. Fukano sounds the alarm over this loss, warning that as so little is known about the intricate workings of ecosystems there is no way to predict how the loss of even one species will affect the precarious balance of nature. 'We're all aboard this spacecraft called earth,' he declares. 'But without understanding the multitude of mechanisms that power it, how can we right the vessel when things start to get out of whack?' Drawing Attention to Biodiversity Many cities have embraced urban oases as part of revitalization plans, building gardens, parks, and other green spaces to beautify drab concrete landscapes and provide residents with natural environments to enjoy. Fukano, however, points out that such spaces are carefully tailored by human hands, limiting the diversity of flora and fauna. Grassy areas, for instance, are a popular type of urban greenery that, while great for picnics and relaxing, are simple ecosystems made up of a limited number of specially selected species. Fukano has explored the impact of such favoritism, focusing his research on the ways human psychology affects biodiversity. Looking at conservation efforts, he says that there is a tendency for people to give so-called lovable animals—pandas for instance—preference over less-captivating creatures, a bias that leaves many endangered species to fend for themselves. 'Favoritism can tip the scale one way or the other for biodiversity,' he declares. He stresses the risk of picking favorites, describing how a 'hated' insect allowed to go extinct might turn out to be the sole pollinator of a beloved plant variety, with their symbiotic relationship condemning both to the same fate. Making matters worse is the impact of implicit bias, which makes it difficult for humans to recognize how our self-interests sway our decisions. A perfect example of this is Japanese attitudes toward climate change. While public awareness of the issue continues to rise, a global survey by French-based polling company Ipsos shows that few individuals in Japan actually feel motivated to take action themselves. Fukano and his team uncovered a hint for reversing this trend—anime. Specifically, they looked at the influence on people's actions of Kemono Friends , a game and anime franchise that imagined a zoo with animals anthropomorphized into adorable girls. The 2017 anime, which featured threatened species and other animals, was a massive hit in Japan. Fukano's team analyzed changes in donation amounts at three zoos in Tokyo and found a notable increase in money earmarked for 30 animals featured in the anime, compared to donations for 129 not featured in the show. Fukano says the findings reveal the untapped potential of subculture genres like anime to bolster support for conservation efforts. 'Cultural and educational facilities like museums tend to rely on established approaches—documentary programs and the like—to attract public interest to their causes,' he explains. 'Our research shows that subculture genres such as anime can play a pivotal role as well.' A poster featuring characters from Kemono Friends . (© KFP) The Solar Conundrum Another environmental trend that has unintended consequences for biodiversity is the proliferation of large-scale solar farms. These sprawling emplacements typically involve the removal of vegetation and laying of large amounts of concrete that severely damage existing ecosystems. Fukano and his colleagues have teamed up with the realtor Tōkyū Fudōsan and the Ministry of the Environment to explore ways to limit the footprint of these large facilities. Fukano says changing management approaches to promote biodiversity would benefit big solar facilities by improving efficiency while preserving surrounding ecosystems. For instance, solar panels are affected by high temperatures, resulting in reduced power production when the mercury rises in summer. But Fukano explains that rather than clearing vegetation or paving over land as is common, creating plant-rich ecosystems similar to grasslands or wetlands would have a cooling effect, increasing the efficiency of arrays. Groundcover would also slow runoff from rain, helping reduce the risk of flooding and other disasters. Action on the Individual Level Looking across the Pacific, Fukano says he is concerned with the turmoil at many US universities in the face of slashed public funding for research. 'Ideally, support for basic research would continue uninterrupted regardless of which party is in power,' he says. While refraining from speculating on the underlying cause of the growing partisan divide in the United States, he finds it notable that many of the institutions targeted by conservatives are so-called elite universities. Fukano wonders if the animosity stems from the neglect of schools to foster open relationships with the public. He stresses that losing the trust of the wider community is a risk that Japanese schools also face. 'Universities must keep their status in society in mind,' he says. 'They must promote strong relations with the public and give back to the communities that host them.' He holds up outreach programs as an example, touting them as great ways for institutes to educate students and the public about ongoing research while inspiring the next generation of scientists and scholars. Fukano has focused much of his attention on areas, such as woodsorrel and anime, that people can easily relate to. With regard to what individuals can do to preserve biodiversity, he paraphrases the French ecologist Anne Larigauderie, who in accepting the 2024 Blue Planet Prize for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services called on individuals to move toward more sustainable diets and to choose leaders who promote policies to protect the planet. In terms of food, Fukano says that the rise in beef consumption has had a major impact on biodiversity. Japanese cattle are fed soybeans imported from Brazil, much of which is grown on land reclaimed from the Amazon rainforest. Even by consuming Japanese beef, then, people are contributing to deforestation and the loss of irreplaceable habitat halfway around the globe. Even something as mundane as our daily eating habits connects us with environmental issues. Recognizing the relationship between our lives and biodiversity raises awareness of the impact of our choices, paving the way to adjust our behaviors and switch to alternative forms of food, such as meat substitutes, that place less burden on the environment. 'The accumulation of small choices leads to major changes,' Fukano declares. 'As an ecology researcher, I want to motivate people to take action by revealing the hidden workings of our environment.' (Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: Fukano Yūya at the botanical garden at Chiba University's Matsudo Campus. © Shime, Inc.)
