CLARE WATSON
5 FEBRUARY 2021
Up to 1,000 shipping vessels storm through blue whale feeding grounds in northern Patagonia every day, according to a new study from researchers who say the findings should support an urgent conversation about the regulation of marine traffic in Chile.
The research, which used satellite tracking data to identify where blue whales – the largest mammal on Earth – come up against heavy shipping traffic, could also in time help to create strategies and safe havens to protect these ocean giants. This is a great example of where science can directly help inform conservation actions, Vanessa Pirotta, a wildlife scientist at Macquarie University Australia, who was not involved in the study, told ScienceAlert.
They Put the Bite in Trilobite
New research helps explain how some ancient species hunted and fed, and highlights the shell-crushing power of one large trilobite.
A fossil of Olenoides serratus, one of two types of trilobite whose appendages were studied.Credit.Dave Rudkin
By Cara Giaimo
Jan. 30, 2021
Hundreds of millions of years ago, trilobites filled the ancient seas. Now, their iconic fossils are plucked from shale beds to fill museum shelves and eBay stores, quintessential symbols of the teeming Cambrian Period. There is even at least one newspaper column named for them.
But despite the trilobites’ post-extinction popularity, there is still much we don’t know about their lives. We’re not even quite sure about their diets: While their hardy exoskeletons fossilized easily, the creatures’ guts, which might reveal a last meal, are much harder to find.