BEACON TRANSCRIPT – A team of scientists just added a new member to the great ape family, one that they found living in a Sumatra. The previously unknown species was noted to be living in a small colony and to have an incredibly small number of members, only around 500.

The New Orangutan Species Might Soon Get Listed on the IUCN Red List

The existence of an unknown species of great apes was first hinted at back in 1997.  Then, in 2013, researchers discovered the complete skeleton of an adult male orangutan. This was known to have perished in a fight with some local villagers and then became a holotype.

Namely, the skeleton became description basis for a new species, one now known as the Pongo tapanuliensis or the Tapanuli orangutan. Its name takes after the district in northern Sumatra in which it was discovered and lives, Tapanuli.

This newly discovered species lives in the Batang Toru area, and according to the latest research, numbers only around 800 specimens. In-depth analyses revealed significant differences between the jaws and teeth of known orangutans and the new species.

The Tapanuli orangutans are Sumatra’s third known species of great apes, besides the Bornean and Sumatran orangutans.

Further research revealed that the Tapanuli might actually be the eldest among the three species. According to this new study, they are the descendants of a branch that split off from an ‘original orangutan’ species over three million years ago.

“The Batang Toru orangutans appear to be direct descendants of the initial orangutans that had migrated from mainland Asia, and thus constitute the oldest evolutionary line within the genus Pongo,” says Alexander Nater.

He is an evolutionary biologist part of the study team and also of the University of Zurich.

Still, specialists are raising questions about the species’ evolution. Because of their small number of specimens, some consider that this newly discovered orangutan species should be added to the IUCN’s Red List of Endangered Species. If so, the species would likely be listed as “Critically Endangered”.

Current study findings and an in-depth analysis of the Tapanuli orangutan is available in the journal Current Biology.

Image Source: Wikimedia

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – A new study reached the conclusion that microplastics might be to corals just what the so-called junk food is to humans, an unhealthy snack that they nonetheless consume and seemingly like.

Researchers determined this after analyzing corals collected off the coast of North Carolina.

Microplastics, and Unhealthy Meal that Still Gets Consumed

Nicholas School of the Environment from Duke University scientists are behind this new study. They exposed the collected corals to quite a variety of food options. This included bits of sand and also tiny plastic parts known as microplastics.

According to the study team, even when they had to make a choice, the corals still chose to go for the bits of tiny plastics.

“Corals in our experiments ate all types of plastics but preferred unfouled microplastics by a threefold difference over microplastics covered in bacteria,” stated Austin S. Allen, one of the researchers part of the study.

Based on these results, the team hypothesized that the corals might actually ‘enjoy’ eating plastic. So they will be looking what precisely in the composition of this material makes it appealing to this marine lifeform.

Research will also reportedly look to establish if other marine animals share the same taste for plastics as the corals. By finding out what exactly attract marine life to the material, scientists are hoping to do so something to combat this unexpected preference.

As the currently produced plastic contains something that appeals to corals, creating microplastics that “taste bad” might help reduce part of the problem, believes the team.

Although corals might “enjoy” the taste of microplastics, these are rather bad for them, as plastic masses are completely indigestible. Because of this, plastics might create blockages and give a “false sense of being full”. This also might lead to a reduction in their energy reserves.

Study results are set to be released in Volume 124, Issue 1 of the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin.

Image Source: Flickr

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – According to a recently released study, the first trees that started growing on Earth were more complex than their modern-day counterparts, and at the same time, also rather bizarre.

Earth’s primordial trees seem to have had several hundred tree-like structures within them, which came to light as the trunk split open to grow.

Primordial Trees Tore Themselves Apart as Part of Their Growth Process?

This latest study is based on the discovery of the fossil specimens of 374 million years old trees. Unearthed in Xinjiang, China, in 2012 and 2015, they have been studied by scientists led by Hong-He Xu ever since.

The fossilized remains of the million years old trees were found to be part of the cladoxylopsids, a group of trees established to have existed somewhere around 393 million to 320 million years ago. Part of the Middle Devonian to Early Carboniferous periods, these trees are even older than dinosaurs. The volcanic environment also ensured that the preservation of these fossils, which offer far more details than previously discovered, similar such samples.

These latest remains of Earth’s primordial trees were found to be part of a new species, called the Xinicaulis lignescens or the “new stem becoming woody”.

These ancient trees were determined to have been hollow on the inside. In contrast, modern-day trees grow around a xylem, which adds a growth tree with each new year. Xylems are woody tubes that transport water from tree’s roots to its leaves and branches.

Xylems and Ancient Growing Methods

In primordial trees, the xylems were arranged in strands on the outer side of the trunk, and they were linked to each other by supportive strands. Basically, each tree had a mini-tree growing inside it. Each of the xylems also seemed to have its own growth rings.

As the rings started adding over the years, and the supportive web grew, the trees began getting larger, and the xylems started pulling. In doing so, they also pulled at their supportive network, and tore themselves apart from the others, becoming their own tree.

However, the supportive web also repaired themselves, so the process started all over again.

“What you see, basically, is the way that each individual strand is growing, and the fact that it’s slowly ripping itself apart but repairing itself at the same time. That’s the key to how this thing grew. It’s just incredibly complex,” states Christopher Berry, part of the study.

Berry revealed that he is planning to continue studying these bizarre and very complex primordial trees, ones that had a strange shape and the rather unique growing technique.

Current study findings are available in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Image Source: Wikimedia

BEACON TRANSCRIPT – Conservation scientists from the Australian National University or ANU have set up an urgent crowdfunding campaign in an effort to protect and save the critically endangered swift parrot from what they are calling a “potential parrot massacre”.

The Lathamus discolor, more commonly known as the swift parrot, is a small species indigenous to Tasmania which migrates in the winter. A 2011 report found less than 2,000 adult specimens still living in the wild. In 2014, ANU researchers modeled that the species might become extinct by 2031 because of habitat loss and predation.

Swift Parrots, Unprepared to Face A Newly Arrived Predator

These small parrots have been breeding on Bruny Island, a Tasmanian region that used to be free of sugar gliders. However, large numbers of such nocturnal gliding possums have been noted to have moved to the state’s east coast.

ANU’s Dr. Dejan Stojanovic considers that the swift parrots on Bruny are unprepared to face a potential invasion of sugar gliders. As he points out, the tiny species is rather defenseless against the gliders that can eat anything from the egg to the baby, to the adult parrot itself.

In trying to prevent this from happening, ANU is looking to build nest boxes, which could then be used to protect the tiny parrots.

The team has already launched a crowdfunding campaign, with a deadline set for mid-next week. Its goal is to attract $40,000 or at least enough money to build 100 of the proposed gated nest boxes that would also be solar paneled.

These so-called “possum-keeper-outer” are nest boxes with a door that gets closed as night falls.

“Effectively, it’s just a little motor and a light sensor. As soon as it’s daytime the sensor automatically detects that there’s ambient light and it will open to release the parrot to go about their business”, explains Dr. Stojanovic.

The urgency of the campaign comes from the fact that the swift parrots have already returned from their migration and are looking for places to nest.

So the researchers are all set and will try to build the much-needed boxes within the following weeks. They hope that, in doing so, they will help raise these tiny parrots’ chances at a safe and normal breeding season, and their subsequent survival.

Image Source: Wikimedia

BEACON TRANSCRIPT –   The story of Jeremy, a rare garden snail specimen made unique by its left-coiling shell has now come to an end. While this special lefty has gone to the great gardens in the sky, his legacy should still live on through its three descendants, born just days before Jeremy’s death.

#RIPjeremy #jeremyschildren #wearethenews pic.twitter.com/vw7XlKK66v

— Shellebrity snail (@leftysnail) October 13, 2017

Jeremy Left Behind Three Offspring and a Complicated Tale

Jeremy was not the average garden snail. Instead, this brown specimen was “one in a million” as its shell coiled to the left and not the usual right. This also means that all of its organs, including the reproductive ones, were on the other side.

After being discovered by scientists, these had to release a worldwide appeal for the discovery of another left-coiling snail, one that could become Jeremy’s partner.

Following the discovery of not one but two such specimens, everyone’s heart went out to Jeremy once again after the researchers revealed that he was actually the third wheel in this relationship.

Now, late last week, the research team came with bittersweet news about the “Shellebrity snail”. They announced that Jeremy was found dead in its fridge-home. At the same time, they also revealed that, just days before, the lefty snail had successfully mated with his fellow left Tomeau. This resulted in three offspring, although neither one of them is left coiled.

Also, the research team announced that they received four other left-coiled snails. All of them came from a snail farm in Spain, which offered further wind in the sails of an existing theory.

The scientists consider that the left-coiled shell of these specimens is most likely a genetic trait, passed down not from one generation to the other but rather from “grandfather” to “grandson” or even further down the line.

This may be the end for Jeremy, but now that the snail has finally produced offspring, this is a waypoint in our long term research goal to understand the genetics of body asymmetry,” declared Dr. Angus Davidson.

Part of the University of Nottingham’s School of Life Sciences, he is the initiator of the left-coiled snails’ study.

Scientists are hoping to translate their research findings into a better understanding of the human body and its development.

Image Source: Pixabay 

BEACON TRANSCRIPT- Scientists are quite baffled after noticing that a very large hole formed or opened up in the Antarctic sea ice. According to reports, satellite images helped spot this unexpected formation, which is believed to be around a month old, possibly more.

The Antarctic Sea Ice, Home to a New Polynya?

Based on the satellite images, specialists approximate that this huge hole is about the size of the state of Maine. However, this did not help them establish how it formed there, or whether it might have possibly have come from somewhere else.

Reports point out that this is likely a polynya. This is a sea ice feature which basically gives a name to open areas of water that should have normally been covered by ice. Most polynyas are reportedly large, and mostly oval-shaped, but irregular ones have been recorded all the same.

Regions hosting polynyas usually remain open as either ice is moving away from the area or specific processes are stopping new ice from forming.

Scientists recognize two types of such Antarctic sea ice features, and the main difference between them is the way in which they lose their ice.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center offer an explanation for the sensible-heat polynyas. Namely, warmer water meets with the sea ice and, by transferring some of its heat to it, melts it.

The second type of polynyas is latent-heat ones. These can appear as ice gets pushed away by wind that blows constantly in a single direction. Many consider this to be a polynya that suffers a change of state, rather than temperature.

However, Kent Moore, an atmospheric physicist, is reported as having another opinion and theory as to how this latest and very large polynya formed.

The specialist points out that this new formation is quite atypical because it is located deep in the ice pack, which is not a usual occurrence. So Moore believes that this polynya must have formed because of another process.

As it is, researchers will likely start or continue studying this unusual polynya which appeared in the Antarctic sea ice coverage.

Image Source: Flickr