Earth Blog

There was once a turtle so large, they say it was the size of a Smart car and that if it had wanted it could have eaten a small crocodile.

That’s what paleontologists from North Carolina State University have concluded in a paper recently published about the discovery of 60 million year old fossil they call Carbonemys.

Earlier this month thanks to the efforts of the USDA Forest Service, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and the Memphis Zoo officials were able to take seven Louisiana pine snakes, all six months old and about three feet long, into the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana for immediate release.

The snakes hadn’t slithered into homes via the plumbing or weren’t hanging around residential backyards terrorizing small dogs to have earned a one-way ticket back to the forest. Officials are hoping reintroduction will help restore the population to its natural range in the center of The Bayou State. Last year officials released twenty snakes as part of the initiative which hatches and raises the snakes in captivity from wild-caught snakes.

Today in news of frighteningly large and thankfully extinct creatures: a group of Chinese scientists found fossils in Mongolia of giant prehistoric “flea-like” insects that feasted on the blood of sleeping dinosaurs. The discovery was written up in a recent issue of the journal Current Biology.

These fleas were approximately ten times the size of the fleas we are familiar with today so they were about as big as a fly that’s not so bad right?  

Biomimetics was an area of focus during the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society convention in San Diego which started this Saturday and will run through this week ending on Thursday.

You probably haven’t heard of biomimetics because it’s considered an “emerging field” but the idea behind it is simple to the point of almost being old-fashioned: looking to Mother Nature for ideas about how to use and adapt biological structures in beneficial ways for medicine and industry.

A global research study conducted by an international team has found that Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are functioning as intended- they are protecting marine life such as sea turtles.

An MPA is a designated no fishing zones which is excellent news for turtles. Fishing nets and lines, active or abandoned, are considered two of the most common ways turtles can die before their time. If a turtle gets caught in a net and can’t escape they will eventually drown because they are unable to surface for air. The fishing industry also inadvertently kills sea grass which is a turtle’s primary source of food.

What better toppings are there for a heaping stack of waffles or pancakes than butter and maple syrup? Restaurants and grocery stores may try and tempt you with fresh fruit or other flavored syrups but maple syrup is the king of breakfast condiments. Even if you have given it up for healthier alternatives nothing can beat it -except for maybe the Asian longhorned beetle.

Little Red Riding Hood may not have admitted to being scared as she faced the wolf dressed in her grandmother’s clothing and lying in her grandmother’s bed. Her exclamations tend to sound innocent, spoken with wide-eyed disbelief: “My, what big teeth you have!” But she must have been a little frightened. Did Little Red Riding Hood have a wolf phobia? If she did that might explain why she perceived the wolf’s features to be larger than they might have actually been.

A new study conducted by the psychology department at Ohio State University tested people who suffer from arachnophobia to see if their fear changed their perception of the size of spiders. Researchers hope that this study’s findings will help treat phobias, fear, and anxiety disorders.

A threatened coral reef off the coast of Florida’s Broward County received a staghorn coral transplant last week. Researchers at Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) Oceanographic Center noted that this was the first time this specific reef has received coral.  Along the Florida coast and globally reefs have previously benefited from nursery grown coral. 

“This is the northernmost location on the planet for transplanted staghorn corals,” said Abby Renegar, a researcher and doctoral student, “Staghorn corals previously have been transplanted in the Florida Keys, Southeast Florida, and other tropical locations around the world.”

Televisions have evolved from clunky, overweight boxes into slim, flat-screen electronics that seamlessly blend into most living rooms.  Their new design doesn’t make them any easier to mount on a wall though.  Think about all the screws and hardware needed in mounting and what is left behind when the television is ripped from its moors -unsightly holes and damaged paint. Imagine a way to get that television, bookcase, or oversized oil painting to stick to the wall with nothing but a sticky substance similar to what is found on gecko’s feet. 

There was some bad news out of the University of Adelaide in Australia yesterday for approximately 531 species of American birds, mammals, and a slew of other creatures. A new study by the university’s Environment Institute and School of Earth & Environmental Sciences has found that a significant number of American species aren’t on the protection list compiled under the laws of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). However, the species are on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. When researchers compared the two lists, the ESA list and the red list, the disparity was found. The findings have been published in the most recent issue of Conservation Letters.

Whether some of the great minds behind today’s efforts at innovation are willingly to admit it or not, much of what we aspire to accomplish with future technologies often mirrors what certain species are already naturally capable of. As our technological capabilities and achievements continue to grow at exponential rates, it’s increasingly important for us to maintain appreciation for the innate abilities found within the earth’s creatures, reinforcing the great importance of environmental conservation. And with ancestral roots dating back millions and millions of years, building off our current knowledge of sharks provides an ideal example of living learning tools.