This week, a team of maritime archaeologists completed a detailed underwater study of the wreck of the SS Terra Nova. Their findings paint a vivid portrait of the famous ship's final hours, and of its fate in the 80 years since.

Launched in 1884, the Terra Nova lived a peaceful life as a whaler until she joined Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Antarctic expedition in 1910. Unlike Scott and the other members of the South Pole party, she survived the expedition but fell victim to pack ice during World War II and sank off the coast of Greenland.

There she rested until 2012, when marine survey technician Leighton Rolley proposed the general location of her sinking as a test project for new sonar equipment. The sonar scans detected various wreck-like features on the sea floor. One of them exactly matched the recorded length of the SS Terra Nova, 57m. After 70 long years, they had found the ship.

The survey team then lowered what was officially called the Simple High Resolution Imaging Package (SHRIMP), which was, in practice, simply an underwater camera and four flashlights attached to a cable. SHRIMP revealed the wooden skeleton of a wreck.

Terra Nova in detail

Now Leighton Rolley is back at the site of the wreck, this time with the equipment necessary for a full visual survey. The expedition vessel, MY Legend, is a high-tech yacht accustomed to polar cruises. Expert divers and a submarine have replaced SHRIMP, exposing details of the wreck.

Their survey confirmed the SS Terra Nova's identity. They also found that the bow had violently split in half. Remnants of gear still on the deck testified to the rapid evacuation of the ship in 1943.

"One of the most powerful moments was discovering the helm station near the stern — a symbolic and moving find," wrote submarine officer Aldo Kuhn. Photographs from the survey also show the ship's wheel, still intact after 80 years in the frigid water.

Still supporting life

But the team didn't only find the remnants of life. They found life is still there.

According to Kuhn, "a beautiful marine ecosystem is now thriving on the wreck, bringing new life to this historic site." Rolley wrote that the team saw corals, anemones, and fish living on the old oak whaler.

Shipwrecks often act as havens for marine life. Plants and corals grow well on wood in underwater environments, and small fish use the structures as shelter. Many oceanic organizations worldwide take special care to preserve the ecological role of shipwrecks.

We imagine the ancient world as one made of stone. Marble temples, megalithic structures, and rock-hewn tombs dominate the modern image of the pre-modern period. That image is, of course, an inaccurate one. Stone is all that remains of sites whose flesh was largely made of wood and other fast-decaying plant materials.

This problem of materials is especially relevant to ancient seafaring. Up until the mid-19th century, ships were practically all wood. Worse, the bottom of the oceans tends to be a uniquely bad place to preserve things. Even vessels that sank fairly recently, such as the Titanic and HMS Erebus, are already decaying.

Because of the simple realities of rot, there are very few physical remains of classical-era ships. There is one place, however, where they can be found: the Black Sea.

The Hospitable/Inhospitable Sea

The Black Sea's unique ecological environment allows it to preserve ancient shipwrecks. Its 436,400 square kilometers fill the space between Asia and Europe, but its secret lies beneath that surface.

Ancient Greeks first called the Black Sea Pontus Axeinus -- the Inhospitable Sea. However, as the centuries went on and they established colonies along the coast, they called it Pontus Euxinus, which had the exact opposite meaning from the original name. They couldn't have known this, but these two contrasting names reflected the hidden duality of the Black Sea.

The top layer of the sea is oxygen-rich and therefore able to support complex marine life. Below 100-200m, however, all oxygen is gone. The Black Sea is the world's largest meromictic body of water -- a marine environment with two stratified layers that never mix.

The two layers exist because water only enters the sea near the surface, from rivers like the Danube and Kuban, and out through the shallow Bosphorus Strait. No water mixing happens below 150m.

Honestly, I was simplifying too much when I said there were only two layers. There are actually secret intermediate layers that keep the upper and bottom from mixing, but for our purposes (shipwrecks) there are two: oxygen-rich upper, anoxic bottom.

That bottom layer is actually most of the sea. Only 13% of the Black Sea is oxygenated. The anoxic layer is a pretty bad place to be alive, but a good place to be a shipwreck.

A hot spot for shipwrecks

The same currents and tides that wreck ships on the surface can also damage them once they've already sunk. Wrecks near rocky coasts are particularly vulnerable and are soon smashed to bits and dispersed.

In addition to those ocean forces, the shipwreck has many natural predators. Organisms like shipworms, gribble (a type of marine isopod), and other wood borers quickly attack exposed beams. Materials buried under sediment will be eaten by bacteria, which feed off sugars like the cellulose and hemicellulose in wood.

So the quiet, deep waters of the Black Sea anoxic zone present an ideal, shipworm-free environment. In 1976, Willard Bascom, an engineer and marine archaeologist, wrote about the possibility of Black Sea anoxic waters preserving a wealth of ancient wrecks.

The Black Sea is also well-situated for wrecking ships in the first place. People have lived along its coasts for tens of thousands of years. Over the centuries, its location between Europe and Asia, connected to the Mediterranean and several major rivers, made the Black Sea a locus of ancient travel and trade.

Its waters were a theater for maritime history, hosting Hittites, Thracians, ancient Greeks, Persians, Scythians, Romans, Byzantines, Huns, ancient Slavic groups, Goths, Vikings, medieval Italian traders, Ottomans, and more.

Technological limitations, however, long prevented investigation of its depths.

Testing the waters

In 2000, Robert Ballard led an expedition to the northeastern Turkic coast of the Black Sea. Ballard pioneered new deep-sea exploration techniques that led him to discover the wreck of the Titanic. Searching off the coast between the Bosphorus and Sinop, the team was also looking for Bronze Age coastal settlements.

The Black Sea Deluge hypothesis proposes that until about the 7th millennium BCE, the Black Sea was a smaller freshwater lake, and people lived on its banks. When the Bosphorus opened, the Mediterranean flowed in, transforming the lake into an inland sea. Finding evidence for this theory was a major goal of Ballard's expedition.

Using a combination of sonar and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technology, the 2000 expedition surveyed the sea floor. Argus, a small imaging vehicle equipped with lights to illuminate the ocean floor, was dropped over the side and dragged behind a boat. The other vehicle was remotely operated and attached to Argus. Called the Little Hercules, researchers deployed it to recover objects or samples.

Under 100m of water, researchers traced what they believed to be an ancient shoreline, finding freshwater snail shells and a possible Neolithic settlement, which they named Site 82. Ballard and his team theorized that the regular limestone blocks were the remains of a manmade settlement.

Twenty-five years later, we still aren't completely sure how the water level in the Black Sea has changed over time. But it probably isn't as simple or dramatic as the Flood Theory posits. For half a million years, the Black Sea has been repeatedly isolated and connected as water levels fluctuated. But these are gradual processes -- there just isn't a lot of physical evidence for a catastrophic, sudden deluge.

But what about the shipwrecks?

Whether Site 82 is a neolithic settlement or just some squarish limestone, it was only one of several key finds. Up to about 85m of depth, years of bottom-net fishing have effectively destroyed the archaeological record. So they began at that depth, scanning a 50km stretch of coast between 85 and 150m.

In a fairly short time, they began getting hits. First, Shipwreck A: two clusters of ceramic vessels and a few half-buried planks, dated to the Late Roman era. Shipwreck B: more ceramic jars and submerged hull planks. The outline of this vessel is larger, and it appears to have a bilge pipe to pump water out of the ship. Based on this, researchers dated it to the Byzantine era. Shipwreck C was similar to Shipwreck A.

Shipwreck D

The promising findings offered new information on the location of an ancient trade route. But very little remained of the ships themselves; the water wasn't deep enough to preserve them. Off this coastal shelf, the sea bottom slopes abruptly downward to depths of 1,000m and more.

They turned to the trickier, deeper waters, with little initial success. With the expedition about to end, Ballard and his team made one final sweep -- and found something.

Shipwreck D sits upright in 320m of water. It's remarkably well preserved, with a deck structure, rudder, and mast rising 11m from the hull. There is even cordage wrapped around the top of the mast. Little Hercules collected a sample of the wood from the rudder area. The samples dated to 410-520 AD.

For such an old ship, it was shockingly well preserved, giving archaeologists insight into the construction of Byzantine ships. However, Shipwreck D, now called Sinop D, is most important as a sign of what else could be out there.

What else was out there?

Ballard and his team returned several times during the 2000s on further expeditions. They continued deploying Argus and Little Hercules to investigate sonar hits.

The technology continually improved, but was still a work in progress. Out of 500 hits, only 44 could be identified, and some of them turned out to be trash. The non-trash spanned a thousand years of history: An early medieval jar wreck, a 19th-century warship, three airplanes and even a WW2 Soviet destroyer, the Dzerzhynsky, named after the founder of the KGB.

Almost 10 years later, The Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project used its ROVs in the Black Sea. A team from the University of Southampton set out on Stril Explorer, a state-of-the-art offshore survey vessel. They were there for the same ancient coastline debate Ballard investigated in 2000. It was almost by accident that acoustic and sonar data, combined with over 250,000 photographs, allowed them to find, map, and model 65 shipwreck sites.

Like the Ottoman ship above, most of them were trade vessels that sank in bad weather. They were far out to sea, along known routes. All were remarkably well preserved. One 13th or 14th-century Venetian vessel was the most complete of its type ever discovered. But the most impressive find was still yet to come.

The world's oldest intact shipwreck

More than two kilometers under the surface of the Black Sea, off the coast of Bulgaria, lies a ship that is more than 2,400 years old. It was an Ancient Greek trading vessel, loaded up with goods meant for Greek colonies on the coast of the Black Sea.

The anoxic water has done its job; the 23m-long ship has an intact hull, with its precious cargo still hidden inside. The mast stands ready for winds that blew before the birth of Alexander the Great. There are intact benches for rowers who died before the invention of the number zero.

Because the cargo, which would usually be used to date the vessel, was inaccessible, the ROV took a small sample to carbon date. The result confirmed what the ship's design had suggested: It came from the 4th century BCE.

University of Southampton Archaeology Professor Jon Adams, who led the Black Sea MAP project, was stunned. An intact shipwreck of this age was unheard of. In fact, they could only recognize the ship's design from depictions on ancient pottery.

"This will change our understanding of shipbuilding and seafaring in the ancient world," Adams said in a press release.

This find is the world's oldest known intact shipwreck. Ships have sailed the Black Sea for over 2,400 years, though. Only a small fraction of its depths have been explored, and even older shipwrecks are still waiting to be found.

You've heard the well-worn saying — that we know more about outer space than we do about parts of the ocean floor. With the help of a powerful satellite called SWOT, that might be changing.

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) program is a joint venture between NASA and space agencies from France, Canada, and the UK.

NASA launched the satellite in late 2022. SWOT uses "phase-coherent, wide-swath radar altimetry" to collect its information, according to a recent paper based on the first year of SWOT's data.

Ocean distorted by what's underneath

If your eyes crossed while reading that, here's what you need to know — SWOT's fancy tools map the sea floor by measuring the height of the ocean's surface. Believe it or not, the surface distorts slightly based on the geography underneath it, and SWOT can spot the minute variations with much more detail than any piece of technology that came before it.

In the paper, published in the journal Science earlier this week, study co-author Yao Yu claimed that "One year of SWOT data offers more detailed information than 30 years of [observations by earlier satellites]."

Yu, a physical geographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, used the data to create a hyper-detailed, high-resolution map of the ocean floor. In fact, it's twice the resolution of previous ocean-floor maps.

She and her team were particularly interested in mapping smaller abyssal hills (parallel ridges on the seafloor) and volcanoes previously invisible to lower-resolution satellites.

"Finding these features will really push scientific developments forward, including tectonic theories," Yu told LiveScience. That's because the volcanoes and abyssal hills show up in areas of high tectonic activity and on continental margins (where the continental crust meets the ocean crust).

"We're very interested in [continental margins] because the ocean currents and tides bring nutrients and sediments from the land to the ocean and influence the biodiversity and ecology in the coastal area," Yu said.

And all this from just the first year of SWOT data. According to NASA, SWOT is nearing the end of its three-year mission, but there are still two years of info for earthbound scientists to sort through. Who knows what they'll find?

Scientists have noticed an unsettling trend in our oceans over the past two decades. Satellite images have revealed that our oceans are steadily becoming greener.

While green mixing with the dark blue hues of the deep may look aesthetically pleasing, it is alarming.

Too much or too little of a species of fish or plant can force marine ecosystems to make drastic adjustments. This is why we often scramble to clean up oil spills and reduce or eliminate invasive species before the damage becomes irreparable.

The most important species in the marine food web is phytoplankton. Despite their small size, they play a vital role in the health of our oceans. They produce oxygen for us and feed many aquatic species. In some ways, they are the backbone of our oceans.

For the past 20 years, scientists have studied how oceans have responded to climate change. They noticed that more pockets of green have started to emerge, and the green is more intense. Green indicates the presence of phytoplankton. The color comes from chlorophyll within the phytoplankton. Green also marks high levels of carbon dioxide.

Over half the ocean has changed color

This color change occurs in the upper regions of our oceans. The 20-year study found that 56% of the ocean has changed color. 

The study included data taken from NASA's MODIS satellite. It analyzed images of the ocean using seven hues or wavelengths to pick up on differences that the naked eye cannot see. The bluer it is, the less marine life and activity. They collected data using a range "from 412 nm in the blue part of the spectrum to 678 nm in the red."

Scientists are not entirely sure why this is happening. Some have suggested that warmer temperatures are responsible. Greener oceans occur nearer the equator.

“To actually see it happening for real is not surprising, but frightening," said researcher Stephanie Dutkiewicz of MIT. "And these changes are consistent with human-induced changes to our climate."

If this trend continues, it can create "hypoxic dead zones," says David Nield of Science Alert. This could affect marine life in certain areas and force animals to migrate, affecting the entire food web.

Scientists have discovered almost 20,000 new seamounts in the deep sea. Seamounts are underwater mountains, just like mountains on land. They form through the movement of tectonic plates and volcanic activity.

Only about a quarter of the seafloor has been mapped. Usually this is done by ships using sonar, but this is an incredibly time-consuming task. Instead, a research team from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Chungnam National University, and the University of Hawaii used satellite data.

The satellite images do not show the actual seamounts but they can measure the height of the sea surface. Around the seamounts, the height changes slightly. The rock formations are denser than the water that surrounds them and they marginally affect the Earth's gravitational field.

In total, they discovered 19,325 seamounts. This almost doubles the total number of known seamounts. We now have registered 43,454 of them. Most were quite small, between 700 meters and 2,500 meters high, but the smallest was just 421 meters tall. Researchers were shocked that they were able to detect it with satellite data.

In a paper published earlier this year, the researchers expressed hope that increased mapping will provide insights into plate tectonics, ocean geology, and the potential rare minerals found around the mounts.

Stirring rods in the ocean

Seamounts are normally hotspots for marine life and biodiversity. They create upwellings of nutrients, affect the flow of ocean currents, and their walls create a variety of habitats. Geophysicist David Sandwell told Science News that “they are like stirring rods in the ocean.”

Aside from this, their impact on currents is of particular interest. The seamounts push cold water from the deep ocean upwards. Currents affect the temperature of the water and the movement of nutrients. As oceans are now absorbing more heat and carbon dioxide due to climate change, finding out how the water moves could be of great importance. Knowing where the seamounts are will help oceanographers accurately map the movement of water.

The team wants to continue their work and map more regions of the seafloor. The biggest challenge is how to detect the smallest ones. As they are smaller, they have less impact on the gravitational field. The change in sea surface altitude is harder to pick up and is more easily hidden by ocean currents.

An additional benefit of mapping the seamounts is to help with the navigation of submarines. Seamounts can rise up to 10 kilometers off the ocean floor and unmapped ones can pose a risk to the underwater vessels and those on board. In the past, two U.S. Navy submarines have collided with them.

It's tempting to poke gentle fun at a group of scientists breaking forth in "audible gasps, hoots, and high fives" after discovering a new batch of hydrothermal vents along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. But when you've devoted your life to a specialized subject, you're allowed to get excited about it.

The scientists in question are part of an expedition whimsically dubbed In Search of Hydrothermal Lost Cities. The "cities" are towers of mud and sediment often formed by hydrothermal vents. It's also worth noting this team named its ship the Research Vessel Falkor (too) and its remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) the SuBastian. Both names reference the classic and much-beloved-by-Millennials fantasy film The NeverEnding Story (just in case you happen to be reading this and you are over 45 or so).

This is a group of scientists who sound like they'd be fun to join for an '80s-themed movie night.

After bad weather prevented the Lost Cities expedition from exploring its primary objective (the Kane Fracture Zone), this neverendingly optimistic team turned its sights to the Puy des Folles Volcano. While previous teams had noticed evidence of venting in the area, they hadn't discovered any active vents.

Black smokers

SuBastian to the rescue. With its sophisticated suite of instruments and cameras, the intrepid ROV quickly detected "black smoker" hydrothermal vents, so named because the minerals they blast into the ocean have a high iron sulfide content.

Such vents often belch forth mineral-rich water up to 371˚C. Studying them is important for understanding how life on Earth evolved, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) press release. Indeed, hydrothermal vents often host a rich array of life specially evolved to withstand such extreme conditions. In fact, they thrive off the complex chemical reactions in the scalding water.

The black smokers discovered by the Lost Cities team were covered in shrimp that somehow managed to avoid boiling themselves right onto a cocktail platter despite their cataclysmically hot environment.

The scientists also took samples of microbes called extremophiles. Extremophiles live in a variety of bonkers conditions that seem to defy logic. Studying them "provides clues to help scientists learn more about the origins of life on Earth — and potentially other planets," the NOAA press release enthusiastically concludes.

The expedition is ongoing, so who knows what the scientists aboard the Falkor will find next. Could it be racing snails? Please tell me it could be racing snails.

You've probably heard that we "know more about the surface of Mars than we do about the bottom of the ocean." That sentiment might be more dramatic than accurate, but the point is well taken — we're discovering nifty new things about the briny blue all the time.

The latest discovery is a 274-meter deep, 13,660 square-meter blue hole off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The underwater cavern is the second deepest of its kind, closely behind a 300-meter-deep blue hole discovered in the South China Sea in 2016.

Researchers discovered the Mexican blue hole — dubbed Taam ja’ — Mayan for "deep water" — in 2021. They published a paper describing their find earlier this year.

The scientists explored Taam ja’ via scuba, sonar equipment, and water sample testing. Using these techniques, they created a map of Taam ja’ along with a chemical profile of its water.

Blue holes provide rich opportunities for exploration of all kinds. Formed by dissolving limestone much like some of the world's largest cave systems, blue holes normally occur in coastal regions. But despite this proximity to land, blue holes "are largely poorly understood," coastal geologist Christopher G. Smith told Live Science.

Blue holes: low on oxygen, high on life

The features typically play home to a vast array of marine life, despite being low on oxygen and sporting a unique water chemistry created by dissolving limestone. Those low-oxygen conditions also preserve fossils that would not endure under different circumstances. (If you missed our report on the amateur diver who found improbably preserved ancient brain matter in a low-oxygen sinkhole in Florida, pop over there and check it out after you're done here.)

A final benefit to studying them? Understanding organisms in a blue hole's low-oxygen environment could help us better understand how ocean life will adjust to climate change.

Scouring the scientist's paper reveals several mentions of "biofilms, sediments, and irregularly shaped rocky ledges," as well as a variety of worms. Regretfully, there's no mention of ancient brain matter or ice-age fossils.

While mostly concerned with mapping and chemical makeup, the paper concludes by suggesting further studies on "microbial diversity, hydrogen sulfide measurements, suspended solids, turbidity, photosynthetically active radiation, biological components, and sediment."

The paper's authors also suggest that regulatory measures by the government of Mexico might be necessary to prevent the currently pristine Taam ja’ from becoming a compromised tourist attraction.

There is a hole at the bottom of the Pacific and it is leaking liquid into the ocean. The hole lies 80km off the coast of Oregon, on the 965km Cascadia Subduction Zone fault line between Vancouver Island and northern California.

Researchers are worried that the hole could trigger a massive "megathrust" earthquake. This occurs when one tectonic plate moves under the other.

The researchers stumbled across the hole in the sea floor accidentally when they noticed a stream of what looked like methane bubbles. Methane seeps are very common in the region. A small submersible collected footage and samples. To the researchers' surprise, it was not just methane. A liquid substance was gushing out of the seabed "like a firehose."

The "water" coming from the hole has a different composition from seawater. It is also 9˚C warmer than the water around the hole and is more like freshwater than saltwater.

"That’s something that I’ve never seen and to my knowledge has not been observed before," said oceanographer Evan Soloman.

A stressful situation

Liquid leaking into the world's biggest ocean might not sound particularly dangerous, but this liquid -- usually located about four kilometers below the seabed -- acts as a lubricant and pressure regulator between tectonic plates. As the spring continues to leak, it puts more stress on the fault line.

"The megathrust fault zone is like an air hockey table," Soloman explained. "If the fluid pressure is high, it’s like the air is turned on, meaning there’s less friction and the two plates can slip. If the fluid pressure is lower, the two plates will lock. That’s when stress can build up."

This is the first time anyone has found a seafloor leak like this. Seismologists are rapidly trying to find out more about the leak and its effects. They are also scouting for more undetected seeps like this along the fault line.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not outside, we love delving into discoveries about the places we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Cold-stunned sea turtles flown to safety: In Massachusetts, the cold stranded 43 sea turtles, which had bcome very weak in temperatures below 50°F.

Marine charities rescued all of the stranded animals and provided initial care before splitting the turtles between multiple wildlife rehabilitation facilities. Nonprofit Turtles Fly Too arranged a flight to relocate the turtles. Twenty went to the Atlantic Marine Conservation Society, 15 went to the South Carolina Aquarium, and eight went to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center.

The turtles are slowly being warmed up so that their body and water temperatures match. If the temperature rises too quickly, it can stress or shock the turtles. Once strong enough, the animals will be released back into the wild. 

Paying for ocean cleanup

Indonesia is paying fishermen to pick up plastic: Indonesia's fisheries ministry has started a new initiative to cut plastic pollution. Fishermen on all the country's major islands will be offered 150,000 rupiahs (approximately $10) per week to collect at least four kilograms of plastic from the water.

Indonesia is a significant contributor to plastic waste entering the ocean. Over the next three years, they want to reduce this by 70%.

Decoding ancient hurricanes: When hurricanes come close to land, they create powerful waves that sweep sand and gravel into marshes, coastal ponds, and lagoons. Researchers can collect sediment cores from these areas to map hurricane activity over thousands of years.

One team is studying the history of Atlantic hurricanes. They are collecting samples from across the U.S. to create decade-to-century patterns of hurricane frequency. Samples from the Bahamas provide almost annual information, showing a long-term picture of the Atlantic Basin. Islands here are particularly vulnerable because the majority of North Atlantic storms pass over or near the islands.

Researchers can pair sediment data with data on water temperatures, currents, global wind patterns, and atmospheric pressure to decipher how all of these factors affect hurricane frequency. The best locations for studying past hurricanes are blue holes and near-shore sinkholes. The Bahamas have thousands of them. Their vertical walls trap sediment and have little oxygen. This preserves the organic matter. 

Lizard ancestor turns up in museum cupboard

Lizards are millions of years older than we thought: You don't always need to be in the field to make a great new archaeological discovery. A fossil found in a cupboard of London's Natural History Museum has added millions of years to the evolutionary tale of lizards. This fossil of an unknown reptile is closely related to modern-day lizards.

Scientists previously thought that lizards originated in the later middle-Jurassic period. This fossil places them on Earth 35 million years earlier, in the late Triassic period. The fossil will "likely become one of the most important found in the last few decades," researcher David Whiteside said. The discovery will change the estimates of when all snakes and lizards originated.

The team took X-rays of the fossil and then reconstructed a 3D image of what the reptile would have looked like. It was this that showed them the specimen was more closely related to squamates (lizards and snakes) than to the Tuatara group it was initially thought to belong to. 

Elite net burglars

Dolphins have elite spice tolerance: Across the oceans, fishermen try to find ways to stop dolphins from eating their catch. Dolphins are frequent net burglars and methods such as noise makers have had very little effect.

Researchers in Greece decided to return to basics. They coated nets in a resin laced with capsaicin, the compound that makes chili peppers spicy. The method has been used to deter multiple species of land animals with great success. The unpleasant spicy taste is usually enough to ward them off.

However, after five months, the spicy nets have had no effect at all. The bottlenose dolphins that interact with them are completely unfazed. The dolphins still spent a significant amount of time methodically tearing holes in the nets and eating their fill.

Researchers are now trying to figure out why dolphins are immune to spice. Many cetaceans only have one of the five primary tastes: salty. So it is possible they do not have the sensory cells to taste the hot pepper. Another idea is that these intelligent mammals have found a way to break into the nets with minimal contact.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. and the Soviet Union tried to turn Jules Verne's science-fiction dream into reality.

Our planet contains many layers of different thicknesses, compositions, and overall purposes. The mantle is the thickest layer, making up 84% of the Earth’s volume. It is over 2,900km thick and sits between the core and the crust. This silicate layer drives plate tectonics, which helps creates the crust above.

Remnants of the mantle appear on the Earth’s surface in a few places around the world, such as the Tablelands in Newfoundland, Macquarie Island in Tasmania, and Barberton Mahkonjwa Geotrail in South Africa. 

The digging race begins

During the 1950s and 1960s, the U.S. and Soviet Union competed to go deeper into the Earth as well as higher into space. Both sought to dig down to the mantle and penetrate its secrets as to how the Earth formed and continues to evolve geologically. Despite the mantle’s exposure in those few locations, its physical and chemical composition change completely in open air. Erosion and weathering have also made it difficult for geologists to answer some of their most pressing questions.

U.S. attempt

During those two decades, projects to reach the mantle began. In the United States,  a group of scientists known as the American Miscellaneous Society spearheaded something called Project Mohole. Its main figures included Harry Hess, one of the founders of plate tectonic theory, and Gordon Lill, an oceanographer and geophysicist. 

They wanted to drill down to recover a sample of the mantle in order to prove certain notions about plate tectonics and sea-floor spread. This sample would lie in the Mohorovičić Discontinuity, 5 to 10 kilometres below the sea floor. The Moho is the boundary between the crust and the mantle.

The National Science Foundation approved their proposal. They chose a spot off Guadalupe Island in Mexico, which had favorable geological features. Their engineers managed to drill five holes, of which the deepest measured a disappointing 183m below the sea floor. While the project acquired some volcanic samples, it suffered from a lack of unity among the stakeholders, a cut in funding, the beginning of the Vietnam War, and internal politics. It disbanded in 1966. 

Soviet attempt

A few years later, in 1970, the Soviets decided to give it a go. They picked a spot on the Kola Peninsula in northwestern Russia. They drilled for over 22 years. By 1989, they had penetrated over 12km. The hole itself was a modest 23cm in diameter.

Despite the impressive depth reached, the mantle below land begins 40km down, so they still had a long way to go.

On the other hand, the Soviets managed to clear up many misconceptions about temperature and rock types at those depths. Scientists previously thought that temperatures would be around 100°C, but the hottest rocks measured 180°C. Also, they believed that the rock would be basalt, but it turned out to be granite. They kept expecting basalt to show up, but it never did.

Within the rocks, they found fossilized plankton, plant material, and most surprisingly, hydrogen gas and water. Unfortunately, the Soviets could not go on. The rock was impenetrable for the drilling equipment they were using. Before their technology could improve, the collapse of the Soviet Union ended the project.

Eventually, other countries decided to try. In 1987, the Germans launched the German Continental Deep Drilling Program. The main aim wasn’t to reach the mantle, but it reached nine kilometres down into the Earth’s crust, profiting from improved drilling technology.

Recent developments

In recent years, the International Ocean Discovery Program launched a massive Japanese drill ship called Chikyū. It was designed specifically to drill down and collect a sample of the upper mantle. It reached a depth of 7.7km but it did not recover anything from the mantle or Mohorovičić Discontinuity.

From 2015 to 2016, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution led another drilling project in the Indian Ocean. The Atlantis Banks, the region they chose, was a perfect candidate: It is a mid-ocean ridge and not as hot as other locations. Sadly, their expedition suffered many delays and a damaged drill. While it has not reached the mantle yet, the project remains ongoing.

What's next?

The success of mega-projects like these depends on funding. The drill race in the 1960s could not have come at a worse time. The costs of the Cold War and Vietnam, and the technological limitations of the time, were simply too great. Will there ever be a revitalized interest in reaching the mantle? Sadly, the focus right now seems to be on drilling for oil and gas, the more practical treasures. 

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Spiders use their webs as ears: Like most vertebrates, humans have eardrums that convert the pressure from sound waves into signals for our brain. It has long been unclear how smaller insects do this, or even if they can hear.

Mechanical engineer Ron Niles has spent decades trying to answer the question and finally has. Orb-weaving spiders use their webs to capture sound. In the study, spiders turned, crouched, or flattened in response to different sounds in the air. The spider silk catches the vibrating air particles that make up a sound wave. Spiders detect the movements of the web through sensory organs on their legs and tarsal claws. Spiders can both localize the sound source and detect its incoming direction with 100% accuracy.

Robot researcher bound for underwater volcano

Robot maps underwater volcano in Tonga: The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted in January. It was one of the largest volcanic eruptions in over a century. Ash and rock flew 30km into the atmosphere, and a tsunami swept across the Pacific. An underwater robot, Maxlimer, will now try and discover exactly what caused the eruption.

The 12m-long robot will spend this June mapping the underwater volcano and measuring the conditions around it. The vehicle will be operated remotely from the UK.

Conger ice shelf collapses: For the first time since satellites began observing Antarctica, an ice shelf on the eastern side has collapsed. Glaciologist Catherine Walker has monitored the 1,170 sq km Conger ice shelf for years. It had been retreating but was seemingly stable.

Walker believes that last month's freakishly high temperatures in East Antarctica, combined with record-low sea ice, were a factor. While it is now fairly common to see ice shelves collapse in West Antarctica, those in East Antarctica are usually much more stable.

Which came first, big body or big brain?

Microplastics found in human blood for the first time: Researchers have found microplastics in the deepest parts of the ocean and on the summit of Mount Everest. It is well known that humans consume tiny pieces of plastic in food and water. Now for the first time, they have turned up in human blood. When scientists tested the blood of 22 people, 17 had microplastics within them.

Half the samples contained PET plastic, often used in drink bottles. This shows that these tiny plastics can travel around the body and may get lodged in organs.

Plastics can damage human cells. Babies and young children are particularly vulnerable, says eco-toxicologist Dock Vethaak. Babies who feed from plastic bottles take in millions of microplastic particles every day.

Early mammals got big before they got smart: Dinosaurs died out 66 million years ago, which left mainly small animals on Earth. Scientists thought that as these evolved to become larger, they also became more intelligent. New evidence suggests this was not the case.

In the time of dinosaurs, many mammals were small and fast to avoid being eaten. The disappearance of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to increase in size. However, their brains did not similarly enlarge until 10 million years later.

Researchers disagree about why brain size began to increase much later than body size. Paleoneurologist Ornella Bertrand believes that the brains began to develop as competition for food increased. Meanwhile, neuroanatomist Suzana Herculano-Houzel thinks that plentiful food gave mammals more energy for their brains to grow.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Flying robots protect endangered wildlife:  Scientists continue to explore ways that drones can help conserve endangered species. ‘SnotBot’ is a small drone fitted with a camera and, more unusually, a petri dish. Marine biologist Andy Rogan uses it to capture images and videos of whales and to collect whale snot.

The little drone hovers above the marine mammals and waits for their breathing spout. The fountain of exhaled air covers both the drone and the petri dish in whale snot.

“[It] has the consistency of water. It’s more like seawater than slime,” says Rogan.

The liquid contains a wealth of biological information, including DNA, stress indicators, and pregnancy hormones. They help scientists better understand the whales' health and ecology.

Photobombing lobster

Squat lobster photobombs Shackleton’s ship: One of the biggest discoveries of the week was that of Ernest Shackleton’s ship, the Endurance. News outlets focused on how well-preserved the ship was after a century at the bottom of the ocean.

One group, however, was interested in something else. Polar biologists have been scouring the footage to see the different underwater organisms that have made the ship their home. This includes a number of invertebrate and filter feeders, such as anemones, sea lilies, and sea squirts.

The biggest surprise was a squat lobster clambering across the shipwreck. Although called lobsters, they are more closely akin to crabs. This is the first sighting of such a creature in the Weddell Sea.

Is octopus farming ethical? The demand for octopus meat is ever-increasing. Fishermen now catch over 350,000 tonnes of wild octopus each year. It is such a lucrative business that one company plans to open the world’s first commercial octopus farm in the Canary Islands next year.

It claims that farming is necessary to “protect a species of great environmental and human value”, but there has been a large backlash. Octopuses are recognized as sentient beings. They are also solitary animals that can become aggressive when kept too close to others.

“There is very strong evidence that they feel pain and distress,” says behavioral ecologist Alex Schnell. She is one of many who believe that high-welfare octopus farming is impossible.

“There’s no reliable, humane slaughter method that could be performed commercially on a large scale,” she insists. The current methods used are clubbing, slicing their brains, and asphyxiation in a net.

Crater under the Greenland ice sheet

The Hiawatha crater is 58 million years old: Researchers have dated the Hiawatha crater to 58 million years ago. NASA’s Operation IceBridge spotted the crater in 2015 while scanning the northwestern edge of Greenland’s ice sheet. The impact crater lies beneath a kilometre of ice.

Since its discovery, scientists have tried to work out how old it is. They cannot study the crater itself, but meltwater at the base of the ice had ported out sediment. Known signs of impact were found in the outflow, including partially melted rocks and pebbles containing zircon crystals. From these, geochemists were able to predict that the crater formed 58 million years ago.

Resilient corals

Hawaiian corals show surprising resilience: Coral reefs do not fare well in warmer and more acidic oceans, but a long-term study of Hawaiian corals suggests some adaptability. Researchers placed three species of coral in conditions that simulated those in future oceans. Though many died, almost half survived. Some were even thriving by the end of the study.

This study, carried out over 22 months, gives more realistic findings than more common, short-term studies. The extra study time made it clear that the corals managed to adjust somewhat to the new conditions. 

Prehistoric squid named after President Joe Biden: A 10-armed prehistoric squid has been named after U.S. President Joe Biden. Syllipsimopdi bideni is the oldest ancestor of cephalopods. Scientists dated the fossil to 328 million years ago.

The fossil turned up at the Mississippian Bear Gulch in Montana. Likely a primitive version of a vampire squid, its extra tentacles would have made it a more efficient predator than contemporary species. Such fossils are incredibly rare: Because of their soft bodies, cephalopods rarely fossilize. This key piece of evidence shows that these cephalopods were on Earth 82 million years earlier than previously thought.

Elks are too smart for their own good: Elk in Utah are moving off public land into protected areas during hunting season, then returning when it ends. "It's almost like they're thinking, 'Oh, all these trucks are coming, it's opening day, better move,’” said Brock McMillan, lead author of the new study. He found that the number of elk on public land dropped by a staggering 30% at that time.

This clever behavior has caused issues for landowners, because these large elk populations are wrecking habitat, disrupting farming, and eating food meant for livestock. Meanwhile, hunters are complaining about the lack of elk.

Seasonal hunting keeps the elk population at a manageable size, but this new survival strategy has significantly increased elk numbers. This is not sustainable long-term. Hunters can now apply for further permits to hunt on private land, as long as the landowners agree.

Early humans

The largest human family tree ever created:  Scientists have created the largest-ever family tree. It attempts to show how humans today link to each other and to our ancestors. Geneticists studied genome sequences from modern and ancient humans across 215 populations. Computers then showed distinct patterns of genetic variation.

The final map contains almost 27 million ancestors. "We definitely see overwhelming evidence of the out-of-Africa event," said researcher Anthony Wilder Wohns.

The ancient genomes also revealed when different mutations first appeared and how they spread.

Ancient African DNA revels surprises about early humans: Researchers have found the earliest known human DNA from Africa. They studied the remains of six individuals buried in Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia between 18,000 and 5,000 years ago. They also reanalyzed published data on 28 other individuals in the ancient sites. The research showed major demographic shifts that took place 20,000 to 80,000 years ago. As far back as 50,000 years ago, people migrated within Africa to trade, share information, and find partners.

Drones in science

NASA is flying drones in the Arctic: Scientists have struggled to use drones in the Arctic. The extreme environment -- cold weather, wind, vast open spaces -- has meant that they can’t fly for very long. But NASA has now developed a fixed-winged drone named Vanilla that can remain airborne over the Arctic for several days at a time.

Among other things, it uses radar to measure snow depth on top of the sea ice. Eventually, the drone may also assess how freshwater melt from Greenland and Antarctica is contributing to sea-level rise.

In 2021, Vanilla earned the world record for the longest continuous flight for a remotely piloted aircraft without refueling -- eight days. Though this was in a temperate climate, its builders hope that Vanilla will fly for five days over the Arctic.

Drones reveal whether dolphins are pregnant: Scientists can now use drones to detect pregnant dolphins by measuring the body width of females. A particular pod of dolphins in northern Scotland has been studied for 30 years. Until now, researchers could only tell a successful pregnancy when a calf appeared. “Using aerial photos will allow us to routinely monitor changes in reproductive success," said Barbara Cheney of the University of Aberdeen.

History's largest flyers

New species of Pterosaur uncovered in Scotland: A Ph.D. student in Scotland has discovered a new species of Jurassic pterosaur. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to fly and were among the largest flying animals in the earth’s history.

The remains are the largest ever found. It is also the best-preserved pterosaur ever unearthed in Scotland. “Its sharp, fish-snatching teeth still retain a shiny enamel cover, as if it were alive mere weeks ago,” said paleontologist Steve Brusatte. The 170-million-year-old species belongs to a group of early pterosaurs known as Rhamphorhynchidae. The reptile's skull reveals large optic lobes, suggesting that pterosaurs had excellent eyesight.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Lizards twist to shed their tails

How do lizards keep their detachable tail attached?: Lizards use self-amputation as a defense mechanism. The detached tail is a decoy that helps them escape from predators. Curious scientists wanted to know how they can let go of their tails when needed but keep it attached the rest of the time.

The breakpoint of the tail contains mushroom-shaped micropillars that act like plugs and sockets. The structure allows adhesion under tension but will also fracture when twisted, allowing the tail to separate as the lizard twists its body.

Two ghosts

Baby ghost shark found by scientists: Scientists in New Zealand have found a newly hatched ghost shark. Ghost sharks are deep-water sharks that live at a depth of 1,200m, off the east coast of the country's South Island.

"We don't know a lot about ghost sharks,” said fisheries scientist Brit Finucci. "What we do know mostly comes from adult specimens. So it's very rare to find a juvenile…that’s why I got quite excited."

Scientists were able to identify the ghost shark because its belly was still full of egg yolk, but they are still unsure of the exact species. Ghost sharks are the most ancient lineage of cartilaginous fish, and researchers are still discovering new species. In time, genetic samples will further identify the rare find.

Ghost village emerges from the deep: Droughts in Spain have uncovered a ghost village. In 1992, the Spanish government flooded the Aceredo village in the northwestern Galicia region to create the Alto Lindoso reservoir.

The water level has now dropped to 15% of the dam's capacity, and the village has remerged. The site intrigues locals and tourists. Buildings are still intact, and water a drinking fountain still pours from a rusty pipe. The mayor of the local council blamed the lack of rain over recent months for the low water levels. She also noted there has been “quite aggressive exploitation” of reservoirs by Portugal’s power utility.

Sun breaks down spilled oil

Sunlight helps clean up oil spills: Sunlight plays a much larger role in cleaning up oil spills than we first thought. It has removed up to 17% of the surface oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The sunlight starts oxygenation reactions that can transform insoluble crude oil into water-soluble products. This process is called photo-dissolution.

They found that shorter wavelengths of light dissolved more oil. Latitude and oil slick thickness also affect the rate of photo-dissolution. Scientists are not sure what impact the new water-soluble compounds have on marine ecosystems. At the moment, oil spill models do not include photo-dissolution. However, this discovery may improve future oil spill models. 

An Ice Age bounty

Dozens of Ice Age animal remains found in England: Archaeologists have uncovered the remains of many ancient animals in Devon, England. Builders found the remains during the construction of a new town.

The team found a woolly mammoth tusk, molar tooth, and bones; a woolly rhinoceros skull; an almost complete wolf skeleton; and partial remains of hyena, horse, reindeer, mountain hare, and red fox. “To find such an array of artifacts untouched for so long is a rare and special occurrence,” says archaeologist Rob Bourn.

These creatures lived during the last Ice Age, from 30,000 to 60,000 years ago. It is still unclear whether all the specimens found came from the same or different time periods. There are two theories. First, some animals may have fallen into a pit and died, and the scavengers that followed them in could not escape either. Second, some of the animals may have died elsewhere. Over time, water washed the bodies into the site.

Lead poisoning in bald and golden eagles: Nearly half of all bald and golden eagles in the U.S. have lead poisoning. Researchers studied eagles in 38 states. Chronic lead poisoning appeared in 46% of bald eagles and 47% of golden eagles. These levels of poisoning will stunt the annual population growth of both species.

Though the population loss will be smaller for golden eagles, the stunted population growth has conservationists worried. While bald eagle populations have grown to over 300,000 in the U.S., only 40,000 golden eagles remain.

Lead poisoning occurs when the birds ingest the metal, and most of the lead comes from ammunition. Eagles often feast on carcasses. Ammunition in those carcasses gets into the eagle's bloodstream and builds up in their bones.

Yesterday, a fatal shark attack in Sydney, Australia captured attention worldwide. When a great white killed a swimmer off Little Bay Beach, it triggered not only an exhaustive search but also a media firestorm.

Many outlets have focused the lens on sharks, but not in a way that does anything good for the animals. While the death of a swimmer is obviously a tragedy, the viral nature of the story vilifies sharks at a time when they are more vulnerable than ever.

Below, ExplorersWeb takes a closer look.

Sydney shark attack: Headline writers go for the kill

Take a deep breath and read this long-winded headline by The Daily Mail:

The chilling reason behind Sydney's deadly shark attack: Expert explains why killer 4.5metre great white was so close to the area - as graphic reveals how the terrifying 'vertical' mauling unfolded.

Words like "chilling", "killer", and "terrifying" cause two effects in the headline: 1) sensationalize the story and 2) demonize sharks.

Meanwhile, The Guardian wrote: “Sydney shark attack: authorities say large great white responsible for death of 35-year-old man.”

How is it fair to hold a wild animal "responsible" for the death of a human? Especially one who voluntarily entered the animal’s habitat?

Even the authorities regulating the search appear to recognize that the great white in question deserves fair treatment. Australia’s Department of Primary Industries (DPI) is using non-lethal baited lines to try to catch and relocate the shark.

We asked an expert about what the episode means for the apex predators. Paul Cater Deaton is an underwater filmmaker and shark expert. He holds certifications in shark biodiversity, biology, and conservation through the University of Queensland and Cornell University.

He stated that humans are not a food source for sharks. When we venture into their habitat, there's a small possibility that sharks will mistake us for food.

"We're talking about somebody who was in the shark's habitat," he said. "The shark obviously mistook it for one of its food items. Humans are not on the menu."

Statistically, Deaton is right. Shark attacks against humans are extremely rare — the International Shark Attack File, or ISAF, recorded just 16 fatal attacks worldwide in 2020-21.

Humans imminently threaten sharks, but also rely on them

Sharks can use all the help they can get from humans — recently, they haven’t gotten much. Over the past 50 years, overfishing and other human activity has decimated sharks. The shark fin soup industry and accidental "bycatch" by commercial fishing boats using gill nets are significant problems.

Now, the majority of species of the keystone ocean predators face extinction.

A 2021 study published in the scientific journal Nature found that open ocean shark populations have dropped a staggering 70% since 1970. The authors pointed out that the outlook is probably even bleaker than that.

Nathan Pacoureau is a marine biologist at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada, and the study’s lead author.

"There is a very small window to save these iconic creatures," he said. He says that the situation jeopardizes marine ecosystems, and in turn, people all over the world who rely on these ecosystems for food. More than three-quarters of oceanic shark and ray species are now threatened with extinction.

Meanwhile, sharks play a vital role in supporting healthy, diverse ocean ecosystems. As top predators, they help regulate every ocean species below them in the food chain — all the way down to seagrass and algae. Without sharks, habitat imbalances lead to chain reactions like reef death and species extinction.

Upshot: What's the real danger?

Recent good news for sharks includes scientific evidence that lighted fishing nets can dramatically reduce their susceptibility to accidental catch.

Still, the proliferation of aggressive headlines about the Sydney incident shows that public perception of sharks has a long way to go.

"When people write provocative headlines and articles about shark attacks, they do it because they want to sell the story," Cater Deaton said. "Actually, sharks are very cautious, inquisitive creatures. Humans cause great loss to sharks; the statistics are staggering."

One popular study found that humans kill anywhere between 63 and 247 million sharks every year. Translation? Two sharks per second, on the low end.

The Daily Mail’s headline is technically accurate in one key detail: yes, sharks are "killers." But we should be far more terrified of losing them than of being attacked by them.

On Thursday, shockwaves rippled through Sydney, Australia, as authorities began trying to catch the great white shark that killed a local swimmer.

Australia's Department of Primary Industries (DPI) closed 13 beaches in the city after the incident and deployed baited lines, drones, and helicopters to find the fish.

Eyewitness accounts put the shark at about 4.5 metres long. More recent estimates put it at about 3 metres or longer. It fatally attacked a swimmer at Little Bay beach who was training for an upcoming charity event.

Authorities have identified the victim as 35-year-old diving instructor Simon Nellist. Despite treatment from first responders, Nellist died at the scene from "catastrophic injuries".

Sydney shark attack closes beaches, triggers search, cancels swim

Nellist had been training for the Murray Rose Malabar Magic Ocean Swim, which benefits children with disabilities. Organizers canceled the swim, originally scheduled for Sunday, out of respect for the victim.

In addition to actively looking for the shark, DPI confirmed that it installed six baited, SMART drumlines along the Sydney coast. SMART, or "Shark Management Alert in Real-Time" drum lines send GPS alerts to facilitate quick response time when they catch a shark.

The system aims to help operators reach the animal before it dies on the line. They can then tag, relocate, and release it.

"The team responds immediately to the SMART drumline alert to manage the animal," the DPI explains.

Search continues; human remains still sought

9News reported that swimmers continued visiting beaches despite the closures on Thursday. The closures covered about 20 km of coastline around Sydney's Botany Bay.

Officials are also looking for any more human remains they might find — divers may join the search soon.

Shaun Daw, with Westpac Rescue Helicopter, said conditions are making the process difficult.

"We have chop out here, it drops off quickly, it adds to the complexity of [the search]," Daw said.

For the next phase of his global circumnavigation, Karlis Bardelis has paired up with fellow circumnavigator Dimitri Kieffer. Together, the pair is rowing from Sri Lanka to Tanzania.

Bardelis started his journey in Namibia in 2016. He rowed to Brazil, cycled to Peru, then rowed 26,000km across the Pacific. In 2020, when he landed in Malaysia, he became the first person to row from South America to Asia. At this point, the pandemic put his round-the-world trip on hold.

In January 2022, he restarted at last. He rowed from Malaysia and reached Sri Lanka on February 2. In Sri Lanka, he crossed an antipodal point -- vital for official recognition of his circumnavigation.

Tick list for circumnavigators

Bardelis has listed three criteria that are part of every circumnavigation of the globe:

1. Travel at least 40,000km. "I'm close to that, he says.

2. Cross all meridians (a bit more than 1/6 left)

3. Be sure to cross antipodal points.

Antipodal points are places that are directly opposite to each other if you drew a line through the centre of the earth. The North and South Poles are two obvious such points. A point near Putalama, Sri Lanka is the antipode to a spot he rowed over in the South Pacific. Since Putalama is on land, he landed his boat and cycled to it. Over four days, he cycled 500km.

An unusual duo

Bardelis's second reason for stopping in Sri Lanka was to pick up Dimitri Kieffer. Kieffer is completing a circumnavigation of his own. His journey began back in 2005, in Alaska. Over 15 years, he has covered 35,000km. He has trekked, cycled, swum, skied, and kayaked his way to Malawi.

Now he has paused his own expedition and went to Sri Lanka to row the 4,800km to Tanzania with Bardelis. He is using the row as a training opportunity and to “get proper sea legs” before re-starting his own endeavor. The two kindred spirits have been in contact for four years, but this is the first time they have met in person.

The row to Sri Lanka was challenging, Bardalis told ExplorersWeb. Steady north winds pushed him south when he needed to go west. As he slept, the boat drifted and he had to spend the next day making up the lost distance.

Still, he remains pleased with his progress. In a single month, he covered 2,400km. “For me, this is quite fast," he said. "The best [Pacific passage] I have done.”

On February 12, the pair left for the Southern Maldives, the first stopover on their row. Here, they will wait out the cyclone season before continuing on to Tanzania.

Since our last update, rowers set six course records in the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, and multiple new ocean row expeditions have taken to the waves.

Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge (TWAC)

In the TWAC, soloists, pairs, trios, and quads race to complete the 5,000km crossing from Tenerife to Antigua. This year's entrants set off on December 12. After 63 days, only three crews remain at sea: two soloists and a pair.

This year’s winners crossed the finish line after 34 days, 23 hours, and 42 minutes. The four-man Swiss Raw team of Roman Mockli, Jan Hurni, Samuel Widmer, and Ingvar Groza are the first team from an inland country to win the race.

This year, teams set multiple course records. We Are ExtraOARdinary cut a staggering seven days off the record for an all-female trio. Wild Waves smashed the previous record for a women’s pair by five days. Force Atlantic became the fastest mixed four to complete the race, beating the previous record by 33 hours. Atlantic Nomads became the fastest-ever mixed trio, finishing in 40 days and 37 minutes.

In addition to the course records, solo winner Lasse Wulff Hansen is now the first Dane to solo cross any ocean. And The Entrepreneur Ship, a pair of Guy Rigby and David Murray, set the record for oldest pair to row any ocean. Their combined age was 124 years and 301 days.

The winners from each race class are as follows:

Overall winners: Swiss Raw (34 days, 23 hours, 42 minutes)

Winning five: Five in a Row (36 days, 4 hours, 42 minutes)

Winning four: Swiss Raw

Winning trio: East Rows West (37 days, 17 hours, 59 minutes)

Winning pair: Two Rowing Finns (41 days, 11 hours, 14 minutes)

Winning soloist: Ocean Rower (55 days, 1 hour, 9 minutes)

Mission Atlantic

Mission Atlantic is another event taking place in the Atlantic Ocean. The event is much smaller and only open to serving members or veterans of the military.

The organizers stress that it isn’t a race but that they just provide support for teams wanting to row the Atlantic independently. The 4,815km route runs from Gran Canaria to Barbados. Two crews set off on December 22.

Atlantic Dagger: This four-man crew completed their row on February 8, after 48 days, 4 hours, and 17 minutes at sea.

In the last few weeks of their row, the temperature was so hot that resting in the cabins became unbearable. They tried leaving the hatches open while they rested to let in a breeze, only to get soaked by unexpected waves. They kept high spirits by having, for example, friendly competitions to see which pair recorded the highest pace. But near the end, they admitted that it felt a bit like the Groundhog Day movie, the same thing over and over.

Cockleshell Endeavour 2021: This four has covered 4,300km of the journey. They decided to take a more direct route than Atlantic Dagger, but the gamble did not pay off. Though they led initially, strong trade winds soon slowed them down.

Though they have struggled at times, hitting bad weather that the other team managed to avoid, they are now in the home stretch.

And just in time: Yesterday, they ran out of basic food. Now they only have protein shakes and emergency rations left. They hope to arrive on Friday, but with only 700 calories a day to keep them going, it will be a hungry last few days.

Independent Atlantic Rowers

United We Conquer: Jack Jarvis (UK) is rowing alone from Portugal to Miami. On February 1, after 60 days at sea, he passed the halfway point of his journey. He recently wrote, “From flying fish...to different weather...it has certainly been a whirlwind of a trip.”

To date, he has rowed 4,200km and has faced some pretty unfavorable conditions. Jarvis has gained a celebrity following too. He has received messages of support from famous footballers David Beckham and Gary Neville, and rowing legend Steve Redgrave.

One pair give up

Rö over Atlanten: Swedish pair Soren Kjellvist and Mans Kampe wanted to row from Portugal to Antigua. After 1,690km and 23 days at sea, they have aborted.

From the beginning, they suffered from seasickness, and their autopilot broke just hours after setting off. After a few weeks of good weather, things began to change. Just one day from Tenerife, the winds shifted and started pushing them northwest into the North Atlantic.

They managed to reach Madeira but had to be towed for the last section. By this point, they were a month behind schedule. With their budget, resources, and available time running out, they decided to make Madeira the endpoint of their row. “We are relieved, frustrated, happy, disappointed, and exhausted all at the same time,” they said.

Shecando 2021: Karen Weekes (IRE) is rowing solo from Gran Canaria to Barbados. She hopes to become the first Irish woman to row the Atlantic alone from east to west. She began on December 6 and has covered 4,000km, 81% of her route.

After some early storms and a few days stuck in her cabin, she has had no further problems and is speeding toward the finish line.

Round and round they go

Forget Me Knot: This trio started their 5,900km Atlantic crossing on January 25 from Portugal. They hope to make it to French Guiana while beating the crossing record of 50 days.

In their first week, they suffered from extreme seasickness and had to make repairs to their autohelm. Strong winds have pushed them off course and around in circles.

The wind continues to play with them. Every few days, it eases up and they try to make the most of it. Then it pushes them around again. They use their para-anchor when necessary.

Rame Océan: Patrick Favre (FR) and Matt Dawson (US) are rowing from Restinga El Hierro, the southernmost tip of the Canary Islands, to Guadeloupe. They started on January 31. Two weeks in, they remain in good spirits.

In their first few days, the sea was calm. If they had any complaint, it is that the beginning was too placid. There was almost no wind at all. So far, they have had some mild seasickness and a broken water pump. After tinkering for a day, Favre managed to fix it.

Atlantic Roar: Emma Wolstenholme (UK) began a solo row from Tenerife to Barbados on February 3. She hopes to break the current record of 49 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes. Ten days into the crossing, she has covered 600km.

The scariest moment so far occurred on her fourth night, when her automatic transponder went off. She was on a collision course with a 157m oil tanker. Happily, the Liberian-flagged ship maneuvered to a safe distance. 

Sea Change Sport: The newest boat to take to the sea. Victoria Evans (UK) began a solo row from Tenerife to Barbados on February 11. Evans is very clear about her goal: She wants to become the fastest female to solo row the Atlantic. This makes her the second woman this season to attempt this particular record. In her first full day, she has rowed over 100km and is feeling positive about her chances.

Pacific Ocean

Erden Eruç: Eruç started his row on October 6 in California. He is aiming for Hong Kong. At 11,000km, it is the longest ocean row currently underway. He has already covered 6,000km and has now paused for the second time on his journey.

In January, he decided that he would stop in the North Marianas to resupply. A nonstop crossing to Hong Kong would have meant resupplying at sea.

He eventually settled on Guam. But although the weather was good, the U.S. Navy had planned a live-fire exercise just north of Guam at exactly the time and place when he was approaching.

Luckily, after some frantic calls, they shifted the exercises to the opposite side of the island. He landed in Guam on February 12.

Eruç is the first recorded person to row from Hawaii to the Marianas.  After months on his boat, he has lost 14kg. His wife is now flying to Guam, and he is looking forward to spending Valentine's Day with her.

While on dry land, he has to fix his water pump and replace two oars he lost in a storm. He also must decide whether to continue his journey or re-launch it next season because of pending bad weather.

Rowing and cycling 

Zerow-Emission: Julen Sanchez is attempting to row from Portugal to Miami. His row is part of a larger challenge. He wants to complete a zero-emission journey that connects Europe and America. He began by cycling 2,800km from Paris to Portugal and is now rowing the 7,500km from Portugal to Miami. Once he reaches Miami, he will cycle the final 2,500km to Pittsburgh.

At the end of January, Sanchez passed the 4,000km mark of his row, but it is now difficult to track his location. His third (and last) phone has broken, so he cannot communicate directly with his family or send GPS positions. Despite this, he has decided to continue. He will send updates through the other vessels he encounters.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Lost range of ‘supermountains’ discovered: Scientists have found a new range of ancient supermountains. Previous studies had hinted at the existence of the Transgondwanan Supermountains that spanned the supercontinent of Godwana. They confirmed this and also found evidence for the even earlier Nuna Supermountains. They were as tall as the Himalaya but stretched three times as far.

Mountains form when tectonic plates force landmasses together, pushing surface rock to great heights. But mountains don't last forever: As soon as they form, erosion starts grinding them down. The first supermountain range lasted from 2 billion to 1.8 billion years ago. The second began 650 billion years ago and survived until 500 million years ago.

These dates are very important because they coincide with two of the biggest evolutionary events on earth: the first appearance of eukaryotic cells (cells with a nucleus, the building blocks of all plants and animals) and the Cambrian explosion of marine life. It is likely that as the mountains eroded, huge amounts of nutrients entered the oceans and sped up evolution.

Balm for chimpanzees

Chimpanzees use insects to treat wounds: Chimpanzees have their own healthcare system. They apply insects to open wounds. Though other animals are known to self-medicate, this is the first time we have seen any animal using other animals as medication. The chimps also used the smashed-up insects to treat their friends' wounds.

The chimps would catch winged insects and apply them directly to open wounds. Over 15 months, researchers witnessed this 76 times. They suspect that the insects may have anti-inflammatory or antiseptic properties.

Mosquito color likes and dislikes

Mosquitos fly to specific colors: The smell of carbon dioxide triggers mosquitoes to scan for signs of an attractive nearby host to bite. New experiments have shown that mosquito behavior changes with different colors. Scientists sprayed carbon dioxide into containers of female mosquitoes. The mosquitoes flew toward red, orange, cyan, and black dots, but ignored green, blue, and purple ones.

Unfortunately, human skin gives off long wavelengths in the red-orange range. But it seems that we can still lessen our attractiveness. When the researchers wore green gloves, the mosquitos once again ignored them.

Sea sponges feast on fossils: Food is hard to find on the seafloor of the central Arctic Ocean, far from any coastline. But in 2016, researchers found an extinct submarine volcano covered in sea sponges, which were usually rare in this area. What they were eating? It turns out that the sponges feasted on the fossilized remains of tubeworms that once thrived on the active volcano. This marked the first time that scientists found an animal that survives by eating fossils. “[This] is very cool,” enthused marine ecologist Jasper de Goeij.

A close call for iguanas

Galapagos volcano produces river of fire: On January 6, the Wolf Volcano in the Galapagos Islands erupted, and a river of fire snaked through the landscape. It glowed so brightly that it was visible from space. Lava spurted 60m into the air, and researchers worried about the pink iguanas that lived on the volcano. Only 200 breeding adults remain. Luckily, the eruption occurred on the opposite side of the volcano from where the iguanas live.

Earth has 9,200 more trees species than we thought: A new study estimates that Earth has 73,300 species of trees, including 9,200 still-undiscovered varieties. Most of these are likely rare or vulnerable and found in the world’s biodiversity hotspots, especially tropical South America.

Male elephant seals get huge or die trying: Male northern elephant seals strive to grow as big as they possibly can. An impressive size is the only way they can find a mate, and they will take great personal risks to find food. While females can weigh hundreds of kilograms, males are up to seven times larger.

Their eating habits explain the colossal size difference. Females head to the open ocean and dive deep for their food. Males stay in shallower waters near the coast. There is more food here, but it is also more dangerous. Males are six times more likely to die while foraging. Among other perils, the nearshore waters are hunting grounds for orcas and great white sharks.

Four Masted Barque Rounding Cape Horn is a dull title for a flamboyant compendium of live-action footage of life aboard a monstrous cargo vessel in 1928, all captured and curated by a young captain, Irving Johnson.

In 1980, Johnson compiled his collection, added his own narration, and created this energetic, one-of-a-kind film. It's informative, humorous, full of action, and remarkably well documented — even by today's adventure film standards.

Captain Irving Johnson

American captain Irving Johnson was a colorful adventurer, sail training pioneer, speaker, and writer.

The documentary opens with a reel of Johnson riding boneshaker and big-wheel bicycles on his family's farm in Hadley, Massachusetts. (The footage includes an over-the-handlebars face plant.) He then proceeds to scale a rotted, wobbling electrical pole, and pulls off a pearl-clutching, hands-free headstand once at the top "to make sure he'd never be scared."

He did all of these things to get in shape for his lifelong ambition — a maritime voyage to Cape Horn.

"Now there's a boy with a one-track mind if you've ever seen one!" the elder captain exclaims. "I got ready for it on the farm before I'd even seen saltwater."

The Peking

Johnson set sail for Cape Horn aboard the Peking, the largest sailing ship in the world, and one of the last cargo vessels ever used in the nitrate-and-wheat trade around Cape Horn.

Built by F. Laesiz company in 1911, the film's titular steel-hulled, four-masted bark weighed 3,100 tons when bone-dry (which it never was), donned more than an acre of canvas across its 32 sails, and ran entirely off human and wind power. It had benefited Germany and Italy by the time Johnson joined its ranks.

The crew stuffed its cargo hold with 5,300 tons of goods and set off on a 17,700-kilometre voyage from northern Ireland to South America's southernmost tip.

Sailing to Cape Horn, 1928

The Peking spent 17 hectic days in the North Sea. Storms battered the ship, sometimes submerging its rails up to nine metres underwater. Drenched but seemingly cheerful sailors dumped out the water from their galoshes between turns at managing the great bark's 315 lines. The only way to dry one's clothes? By sleeping in them.

"There's something about these vessels that causes a kind of hypnotism! You can do things you'd never dream of doing on land," Johnson enthuses in the film.

Mending sails — Johnson tells us they'd learned to sew seven metres of canvas an hour at "racing speed" — lining up for weekly trims, harvesting shark, and sharing four-on/four-off shifts knit the crew together tightly.

In unfavorable weather, the Peking could sail at speeds up to 16 knots with, as Johnson notes, the help of her crew. "We felt like Superman!" said the extroverted skipper. "We made all of this happen!"

After weathering one last nautical storm, the crew approached Cape Horn — and then the Peking came to a lulling halt. The wind had literally been taken out of its sails. Foggy, warm, still air enveloped the ship for a week or so. The crew was forced to mitigate the current without so much as a breeze, causing the Peking to pulse to and from the Chilean coast.

He wanted to experience a storm

"I'm disgusted with the weather." Johnson's narration showcases the exasperation he felt as a greenhorn. "I came all these thousands of miles to get a big 'storm-off' coupon."

And then came the storm he'd always wished for. And a second storm. Johnson, miraculously, provides comprehensive footage from high up on a mast. "Now watch this," he prompts us, "the bottom of Niagara Falls looks exactly like what you're gonna see here."

So what did the young sailor learn? And did the Peking ever make it to the port of Cape Horn? You'll just have to see for yourself.

Runtime: 38 minutes

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

New images of the heart of the Milky Way: This week, we saw a new image of the heart of our galaxy. Unlike any previous image of outer space, it looks like a piece of modern art. The MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa combines 200 hours of observation and 20 separate images over three years to produce this accidental oeuvre.

The satellite captured radio waves from different astronomical events. The bottom right-hand side shows the remnants of a supernova, while the bright orange eye in the center is a supermassive black hole. Stronger radio signals register in red and orange. Fainter zones are gray; darker shades indicate stronger emissions.

Accelerated electrons gyrating in a magnetic field create the vertical filaments, but there is no known engine to accelerate the particles. “They were a puzzle. They’re still a puzzle,” says astrophysicist Farhad Yusef-Zade.

Tiger sharks' quest for cooler oceans may land them in hot water

Tiger sharks are migrating further north: Waters off the northeastern U.S. are warming rapidly. Since the 1980s, the temperature has increased by 1.5˚C. This has rewired the marine ecosystems in the area. Some species have moved into new areas, others have disappeared altogether.

The warmer water has even affected the area's apex predator, the tiger shark. Tiger sharks are migrating 430km further north than they did 40 years ago. This may have an indirect effect on the shark's population. Though numbers are currently stable, the new pattern moves them out of marine protected areas. “Tiger sharks reproduce and grow slowly, which makes them more vulnerable to threats like fishing,” explains researcher Neil Hammerschlag.

Switzerland covered in 3,000 tonnes of nanoplastics each year: Across the Alps and lowlands, 3,000 tonnes of nanoplastics cover Switzerland each year. Researchers took snow samples from the top of one peak, Hoher Sonnblick, every day. They analyzed the contamination levels and used weather data to track the origin of the tiny plastic particles. One-third came from urban areas within 200km. Some came from the oceans, where the plastic drifted great distances in the air because of spray from waves -- amazing that this reached such a landlocked country. Nanoplastics can pose a serious health threat. Particles smaller than 10 microns can enter our lungs and eventually our bloodstream.

The Antarctic Paradox

Unpredictable sea ice behavior around Antarctica explained: Sea ice loss in the Arctic follows predictable patterns and models, but the ice around Antarctica is more capricious. Antarctic sea ice remains fairly constant, despite warming temperatures. This is known as the Antarctic Paradox, and scientists have been at a loss to explain it.

A new study suggests that ocean eddies may delay sea-ice loss. Previous models suggested that the eddies drove more heat toward Antarctica than they actually do. In fact, the eddies neither help nor hurt. This means that the amount of heat transported north is higher than previously thought, and the Southern Ocean is not warming as quickly as expected.

Greenland ice sheet lost enough water in 20 years to cover U.S.: Since 2002, the Greenland ice sheet has lost 4,700 billion tonnes of ice from global warming. This is enough water to submerge the entire United States. Overall, it has caused a 1.2cm sea-level rise. The climate is warming faster in the Arctic than anywhere else on the planet. Satellite images show the most affected areas are the arctic coasts, especially west Greenland. “The ice is thinning, the glacier fronts are retreating in fiords and on land, and there is a greater degree of melting from the surface of the ice,” said the Danish study.

The International Space Station shows its age

The end of the International Space Station: The 30-year-old International Space station is starting to show its age. Astronauts regularly report technical problems, cracks, and leaks. NASA will keep the ISS running until 2030, but plans to repurpose it for private and commercial missions. They are predicting that the station will cease being useful in January 2031. This is when it will start to fall back towards Earth. Its size means it will not burn up in the atmosphere. NASA will need to control its fall using propulsion built into the station, and by other vehicles. They will guide it to touch down in the South Pacific Ocean, the furthest point on Earth from land.

Australian marine archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be the wreckage of British explorer Captain Cook's HMB Endeavour off the coast of Rhode Island. The 18th-century vessel foundered in the western Atlantic nearly 250 years ago.

After 22 years of research, Australian National Maritime Museum chief executive Kevin Sumption has confirmed that the wrecked ship filed under the name ‘RI 2394’ was the Endeavour.

HMB Endeavour in history

Captain James Cook launched the HMB (Her Majesty's Bark) Endeavour to fame or infamy, depending on who you ask. He sailed it around the South Pacific in the early 1770s. During the voyage, Cook and crew collected vast amounts of previously unknown data.

"It's an important historical moment, as this vessel's role in exploration, astronomy, and science applies not just to Australia, but also Aotearoa/New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States," Sumption told reporters. "It's arguably one of the most important vessels in Australia's maritime history."

So important, in fact, that the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM) built an exact and functioning replica of the Endeavour from the original blueprints. It's one of the Museum's greatest attractions.

Captain Cook eventually docked the ship and disembarked on Australia's east coast, where British maritime troops took it over. In the late 1770s, it was sailing through the western Atlantic and into the American War of Independence. In 1778, British forces scuttled (intentionally sank) the Endeavour in Rhode Island's Newport Harbor. The famous ship lies just 14m down and a mere 500m from shore.

There, it remained alongside the remnants of four smaller 18th-century vessels, undisturbed and undetected until 1999.  That's when teams of Australian and Rhode Island-based marine archaeologists began investigating.

Controversy: Captain Cook and his ship

Over the past 20-plus years, efforts between Aussie and U.S. teams to positively identify RI 2394 have been largely cooperative. Each new discovery about RI 2394 seemed to match what archaeologists and Endeavour experts knew of the famous ship.

Ultimately, the evidence mounted to a threshold that some archaeologists believed was more than sufficient proof that RI 2394 and Captain Cook's ship were one and the same. That's when some of the project's experts gave Sumption the nod to go public with the news.

But Dr Kathy Abbass of the Rhode Island-based archaeological contingent (RIMAP) thinks that the announcement is premature. In an interview with ABC, Abbass said, "What we see on the shipwreck site under study is consistent with what might be expected of the Endeavour, but there has been no indisputable data found to prove the site is that iconic vessel, and there are many unanswered questions that could overturn such an identification."

The case for the Endeavour

Archaeologists affirming HMB Endeavour's identity, including project veteran Kieran Hosty and Dr James Hunter, believe that the current body of evidence is sufficient proof. There are many similarities between the two ships, including:

• The Endeavour was the largest of five 18th century ships scuttled by British forces in Newport Harbor, and the RI 2394 wreckage is the largest of any other 18th-century vessel on site.
• The length of the hull is almost exactly that of the Endeavour's hull. The same is true for the RI 2394's bow joinery and the locations of both masts.

Hosty, who began working on the Newport Harbor discoveries in 2000, offered additional justification: "Archaeology is an interesting process where we call on the preponderance of evidence," he said. "We've got a whole series of things pointing to RI 2394 as being HMB Endeavour. And so far, we've found lots of things that tick the box for it to be Endeavour and nothing on the side which says it's not."

To learn more about the discovery, and stay up to date on any developments in the case, head to the Australian Museum’s site about the Endeavour. It includes some great underwater footage of the ship. The Museum also put together the film below.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

The biggest meal

Orcas can kill blue whales: Scientists have recorded orcas hunting and eating a blue whale for the first time. “This is the biggest predation event on this planet: the biggest apex predator taking down the biggest prey,” says marine ecologist Robert Pitman. Twelve orcas chased the blue whale until it tired and slowed enough for them to attack. At this point, more orcas joined in. All 20 orcas bit into the blue whale and forced it underwater.

The new study documents three blue whale killings over the last three years. Previously. orcas have been seen attacking the larger whales but never killing them. In two of these killings, the orcas targeted smaller juvenile blue whales, but the third saw them going after a healthy adult.

It is possible that orcas have always hunted blue whales, but blue whale numbers plummeted throughout the 20th century, which suggests why no one has witnessed this before. The lack of blue whales forced orcas to seek out other prey. Now, as blue whale numbers increase, orcas could be returning to their original food source.

How risky is paragliding? Researchers recently analyzed the risk of paragliding. Surveys with paragliding pilots in the UK revealed that while only 6% had received medical attention due to the sport, 26% admitted that they had had a near miss while flying. The main cause of these accidents or close calls was pilot error. Very few were equipment error. One result surprised scientists: Most assume that with more flying hours, the risk of injury decreases. In fact, it is just the opposite: For every hour spent gliding, a pilot's likelihood of an accident rises.

Deeper divers

Albatrosses can dive much deeper than previously thought: Albatrosses are famous for their long-distance journeys but are usually considered poor divers compared to smaller seabirds like shearwaters. But black-browed albatrosses can dive 19 metres underwater -- three times the previously known depth -- and submerge for up to 52 seconds. Researchers used miniature depth loggers to document black-browed albatrosses in the Falklands. They only dove deeply during the day.

New species found near Mekong River: Along the Mekong River, 224 new species have turned up. The Mekong River runs through the Tibetan Plateau, China, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. This includes 155 plant species, 16 fish, 17 amphibians, 35 reptiles, and one mammal –- the Popa Langur. The little monkey has white rings around its eyes. Only 250 of the monkeys were found, the majority on Mount Popa, a 1,500m dormant volcano in Myanmar. The small population suggests that the species will be classified as critically endangered. “These finds...demonstrate that the region is still a front line for scientific exploration and a hotspot of species diversity,” said the World Wildlife Fund.

Journey to the bottom of the sea

Bigfin squid seen 6km below sea level: A submersible sub has found a bigfin squid six kilometres below sea level. This makes it the deepest dwelling of all squid. Previously, 4.7km marked the deepest bigfin sighting on record. Researchers found the squid while searching for a destroyer ship from World War II in the Philippine Sea.

Scientists knew that cephalopods (squid, octopuses and cuttlefish) live in the deep ocean, but this suggests that their presence in ocean trenches is more common than previously thought.

The panda's chubbiness factor

Giant panda’s gut bacteria help them stay chubby: It is rare to see a skinny giant panda. The black-and-white bears are famously chubby. It turns out that this is because of bacteria in their gut. Curious researchers wanted to know how the pandas maintain their size and health over winter when their diet consists of low-quality bamboo. From August to April, they rely on fibrous bamboo leaves, while between April and August they can eat protein-rich bamboo shoots.

It turns out that the bears' gut bacteria changes with the seasons. The bacteria present while they are eating nutritious bamboo shoots help them store fat that they can use during the leaf-eating season. “Identifying what bacteria are beneficial is very important, because one day we may be able to treat some diseases with probiotics,” said Guangping Huang.

Illegal gold mines flood Amazon forests with toxic mercury: The section of the Amazon rainforest in Peru’s Los Amigos Conservation Concession has a toxic secret. Its mercury levels are as high as those in industrial regions in China. This rainforest, the so-called lungs of the world, also conceal hundreds of small, illegal gold mines. Gold mining now tops coal as the biggest source of airborne mercury.

Miners use mercury to extract gold, as the liquid metal binds to the gold. They heat the bound gold and mercury, and the mercury then vaporizes. The trees in the rainforest act like a sponge and soak up huge amounts of the toxic metal. Although it is locked away in trees, the mercury works its way through rivers and ponds and into the food chain. Mercury levels in 7 out of 10 black-spotted bare-eyes, a small songbird, are now high enough to cause infertility.

Three records have been set during this year's Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge. All crews left La Gomera in the Canary Islands on December 12. Over the last 10 days, they have been rowing across the finish line at Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua.

While some take part for the experience and aim simply to finish, many gun for new course records in the 5,000km race. Three crews have managed that feat this year.

We Are ExtraOARdinary

This all-female team arrived in Antigua on January 23. They completed the crossing in 42 days, seven hours, and 17 minutes, and broke the record for the fastest female trio to complete the TWAC. They knocked a staggering seven days off the previous record.

The UK trio of Kat Cordiner (42), Charlotte Irving (32), and Abby Johnston (31) set out from the first to break this record. The trio is not new to rowing or the ocean. Johnston and Irving rowed together at university and the former is a rowing coach. Meanwhile, Cordiner and Johnston met during the Clipper Round the World Race.

Cordiner may also be the first cancer patient to take part in the TWAC. She has incurable secondary ovarian cancer. In 2020, while training for the race, the cancer returned and she had to undergo chemotherapy. The doctors then found a growth on her heart. She had to stop exercising immediately and undergo heart surgery.

As they finished, the women admitted that they underestimated how tough the challenge was going to be and that the first 10 days were the most difficult for them. “Nothing prepares you," they said. "[Those days] were very emotional for all of us.”

Despite this, those following the trio would never have known their early struggles. Throughout the journey, they have donned Hawaiian shirts and face glitter and did karaoke to keep spirits high.

Force Atlantic

This military foursome completed the race in 40 days, 23 hours, and 57 minutes. As they crossed the line in Antigua, they became the fastest mixed four to row across the Atlantic. They beat the previous record by 33 hours.

Scott Pollock, 39, Victoria Blackburn, 39, Phillip Welch, 37, and Laura Barrigan, 29, are serving members of the Royal Army Physical Training Corps. All have competed in the Indoor Rowing Championships. During the race, they rowed in pairs, rotating in two-hour shifts.

After finishing, Pollock said the biggest challenge they faced was sleep deprivation. They averaged about three hours of sleep a night during the row.

Atlantic Nomads 

This team set the record for the fastest mixed trio to make it to Antigua. They completed the race in 40 days and 37 minutes. Taylor Winyard (29), Tom Rose (28), and James Woolley (37) had their race thrown into chaos just weeks before the start. They were supposed to row as a four, but one member had to withdraw.

They quickly adapted their plan and figured out how to row as a trio. Shifting from two hours on, two hours off, to two hours on, one hour off was a challenge.

Winyard agreed with the previous crew that sleep deprivation was the hardest part. She told The Scotsman, “There were highs and lows every day, but the crossing generally went very smoothly, although we did have issues with our GPS and autohelm in big seas.”

Steering at night was one of the biggest challenges, as they had to hand steer.

Unlike other crews, they had not set out to break any records. They described that as “the icing on the cake”. Winyard was also the first woman to cross the finish line this year. It was an emotional moment when their family and friends greeted them at the finish. “We could see the British flags and I could hear the sound of bagpipes," she said. "It was so special.”

A 75-year-old adventurer who was trying to row solo across the Atlantic has been found dead in his overturned boat.

Jean-Jacques Savin set off from Portugal on January 1 and estimated that the crossing would take him three months. On Wednesday, he reported strong winds and that his solar panels were giving him trouble. He added, "Rest assured, I'm not in danger!"

Last night, he set off two distress beacons. That was the last anyone heard from him. Yesterday, Portuguese officials found his eight-metre boat overturned off the Azores. The ex-military paratrooper was deceased.

"Unfortunately, this time the ocean was stronger than our friend," read a statement on his Facebook page.

Savin was no stranger to ocean crossings. In 2019, he drifted 4,500km across the Atlantic in an enclosed capsule, propelled only by currents. The drift took him 122 days.

Rowing the Atlantic, he had said earlier, was his way to "laugh at old age". He celebrated his 75th birthday last week with foie gras and champagne.

The cause of death is not yet known.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Tonga volcano eruption was a once-in-a-million event: The eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano on January 15 caused a volcanic ash plume, an atmospheric shock wave, and a series of tsunamis. Events like this tend to happen every decade, but for the volcano in Tonga, this was a once-in-a-millennium event. The eruption threw rocks, water, and magma 30km into the atmosphere. The clouds that formed were 350km wide and visible from space. It caused supersonic pressure pulses to travel over 2,000km to New Zealand, and even people in the UK felt them. Scientists think that either this or cataclysmic changes to the structure of the volcano caused the giant waves. Usually, tsunamis come from earthquakes, not volcanoes.

The 'oral plug' of baleen whales

How baleen whales feed without choking: Baleen whales feed by lunging through the water with their mouths wide open. But how do they manage to do this without choking or drowning? This has long confused scientists since the whales must withstand huge pressure from the water careering toward their throats. It turns out that these whales have a plug made of muscle and fat at the back of their mouths. This acts as a kind of trap door between the whales’ mouths and the pharynx. It physically keeps water from pouring into the whales' lungs and stomachs as they move forward. “The discovery of the ‘oral plug’ answers a long-standing question about how whales can simultaneously protect their respiratory tract while opening their mouths wide to engulf prey-laden water,” says researcher Sarah Fortune.

Signs of ancient life on Mars: NASA’s Curiosity Rover has found organic compounds that could signify ancient life on Mars. The rover collected several powdered rock samples with carbon-rich organic material. The type of carbon found is associated with life on Earth. Samples with this carbon-12 material came from five different sites across the Gale Crater. Carbon-12 often signifies biotic chemistry because organisms on Earth use it in many metabolic processes. Scientists do not yet have enough evidence to confirm that they identified past life and are currently exploring other possible explanations for the carbon signature.

Badger as archaeologist

Badger unearths ancient Roman coins: A hungry badger has unearthed hundreds of Roman coins in a Spanish cave. Archaeologists discovered the find at the entrance to the cave and believe that the badger may have stumbled across them when looking for food. The cave yielded 209 coins that date between the third and fifth centuries. This is the largest treasure trove of Roman coins found in northern Spain, say archaeologists. They are seeking to establish whether this was a one-off hiding place or a dwelling for displaced Romans.

Beached Whales visible from space: As satellite technology improves, it has become possible to see beached whales from space. Previously, they showed up as unidentifiable grey blobs, but scientists can now identify the washed-up mammals. Historically, beached whales have only been accidental finds, and they are usually too decomposed to allow scientists to understand what happened to them.

Outer space anaemia

Anaemia during long-duration space flights: Every second, the human body destroys and creates around two million red blood cells. Scientists have discovered that astronauts on the space station destroy 54% more -- three million red blood cells a second. Since the first space missions, astronauts have returned to Earth with anaemia. Previously, researchers believed that space anaemia was an adaptation to fluids shifting into the astronaut’s upper body while in space. Space anaemia can have severe consequences for astronauts. “When landing on Earth and potentially on other planets or moons, anaemia affects your energy, endurance, and strength,” said Guy Trudel of the University of Ottawa. After three months back on Earth, red blood cells return to their normal levels.

Green lights reduce bycatch: Attaching green LED lights to fishing nets significantly reduces the number of accidental species caught in the nets. Fishermen often use gill nets, which drift for days at a time, catching anything in their path. The nets often catch non-target species. This by-catch has caused the number of dolphins, sea turtles, and sharks to decline. But lights on the nets decrease this by-catch by 63% overall. Specifically, 51% fewer turtles, 81% fewer squid, and 95% fewer sharks turn up in the nets. Yet the little lights did not impact the number of target fish caught. Scientists are trying to decipher why some species are more receptive to light than others.

Marine ecologists have just discovered a vast and untouched coral reef near the Tahitian coast in French Polynesia. The reef spans nearly 3.2 kilometres and resides between 35 and 70 metres below the surface — a space known as the ocean's "twilight zone." The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is now leading the mission to map the grove and search for more like it.

Coral and the twilight zone

Overfishing and scourges of pollution have greatly depleted coral reefs in recent years. Between 2016 and 2017, 89% of the Great Barrier Reef collapsed due to climate-induced bleaching. A report published in One Earth journal last fall found that human-caused erosion has degraded 50% of the globe's coral since 1950.

The reef was found in November, during a seabed mapping expedition to the ocean's largely unexplored twilight zone.

Unlike many of Earth's reefs, the one found near Tahiti is flourishing. The reef's depth positions it far enough from the surface to protect it from coral bleaching and destructive human activity, yet close enough to give it adequate sunlight. Its discovery has given some scientists hope.

According to Dr. Julian Baberbie, one of UNESCO's marine ecologists, coral reefs are home to about 25% of all marine life.

"The next stage is to find what species live around this type of reef," he told the BBC. "As shallow waters warm faster than the deeper waters, we may find these deeper reef systems are refuges for corals in the future. We need to get out there to map these special places...and make sure we protect them for the future."

Since our last update, several expeditions have begun in the Atlantic, a Pacific rower struggles, and the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge has a winner.

Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

In the TWAC, soloists, pairs, trios, and quads race to complete the 5,000km crossing from Tenerife to Antigua. The Four Oarsmen (UK) hold the record for the course. In 2018, they finished in 29 days, 14 hours, and 34 minutes.

This year's winners, Swiss Raw, are the four-man team of Roman Mockli, Jan Hurni, Samuel Widmer, and Ingvar Groza. They are the first group from an inland country to win. They crossed in 34 days, 23 hours, and 42 minutes.

The four close friends met during their military service. The race started well for them and they moved into the lead on December 21. The four chose to row a more southerly line to avoid the storms predicted on the northern route. Choosing a route is always a gamble. The northern line is more direct but has headwinds. The southern line is longer but has calmer waters.

The battle for second place is currently underway between Five in a Row and Atlantic Flyers. Five in a Row are 159km from the finish line and the fours Atlantic Flyers are just three kilometres behind them, at 162km from the finish line. Current tracking predicts that both crews will finish today, January 17, between 18:00 and 19:00 UTC.

Thirty-seven days into the row, the leaderboard is as follows:

Winners: Swiss Raw

Leading five: Five in a Row (5,000km)

Leading four: Swiss Raw (Finished)

Leading trio: East Rows West (4800km)

Leading pair: Two Rowing Finns (4292km)

Leading soloist: Ocean Rower (3283km)

Mission Atlantic

The TWAC is not the only Atlantic event at the moment. The much smaller Mission Atlantic is also underway. Supposedly it isn’t a race, and the event merely “supplies support to crews who want to row the Atlantic independently”. Only serving members of the military or veterans can take part in the 4,815km row from Gran Canaria to Barbados. Two crews set off on December 22.

Atlantic Dagger: Conor Patterson, Oscar Stone, Mitchell Hutchcraft, and Jason Gardiner are currently in the lead of this non-race. They have covered 2,740km, 51% of their route. The foursome set off from Gran Canaria in garishly patterned shirts and headed south. Though a less direct route, they hoped to pick up the stronger trade winds at lower latitudes. So far, it looks like their gamble paid off.

After rowing three hours on and three hours off for the last 23 days, they are all suffering from sores. “We just have to put up with the [discomfort],” said Hutchcraft.

Cockleshell Endeavour 2021:  Michael Turner, James Bevan, Dominic Thorne, and Ryan Tipping are slightly behind their compadres, but are very much in the mix. They have covered 2,200km. Unlike Atlantic Dagger, this foursome decided to take a more direct northerly route. In the first few days, this kept them in the lead, but the other crew overtook when they picked up the stronger trade winds.

Independent rowers

Ro över Atlanten: Swedish pair Soren Kjellvist and Mans Kampe, started their row on December 28 from Lagos, Portugal. They are crossing the Atlantic from east to west and will end in Antigua.

They arrived in Lagos on December 13, but bad weather delayed their launch. Then they got off to a tumultuous start. Their autopilot broke just hours into the row. They are now manually steering and are well aware that this will slow them down. They also both suffered from seasickness for the first few days.

After six days, they finally felt on track when their electricity cut out. Their solar panels had stopped charging the battery packs. Luckily, they managed to restart the systems and slowly recharge the batteries.

They have now covered 1,300km. After a few weeks of relatively pleasant weather, heavy winds and big waves are wearing away at them. "It is so frustrating to spend our energy on coping with weird weather rather than on rowing toward the Caribbean,” they reported.

'Rowing through treacle'

Shecando 2021: Karen Weekes is hoping to become the first Irish female to row solo across the Atlantic. She is also rowing from east to west, from Gran Canaria to Barbados. Since setting off on December 6, she has covered 2,000km, 40% of the journey. She hoped to finish in 70 days, but the weather has also slowed her down. She has had to use her para-anchor on a few occasions and recently wrote that it feels as if she is "rowing through treacle”.

Weekes is new to ocean rowing but not to the ocean. She was the first woman to kayak around Ireland and has completed two trans-Atlantic sailing expeditions.

United We Conquer: Jack Jarvis (UK) is a serving member of the British Army and is currently trying a solo unsupported row from mainland Europe to mainland America. He started in Portugal on December 3, bound for Miami. So far, he has covered 2,215km.

Though morale is high, he is currently on his third day in the cabin on his para-anchor and has drifted 26km in the wrong direction. The bad weather will continue for the next few days, so he is preparing to spend more time in his “para-prison”.

Rowing and cycling

Zerow-Emission: Julen Sanchez (Spain/Germany) is also rowing alone from east to west, from Portugal to Miami. He started on 29 November and paused on El Hiero, one of the Canary Islands, on December 16 to fix technical problems. During a storm, an oar broke in half and two attachment ropes for his para-anchor were damaged. His final days before reaching the small island saw him rowing continuously for over 30 hours against prevailing currents. He restarted on December 24. He covers between 40 and 120km a day, depending on the weather.

Unlike other Atlantic campaigns, Sanchez is rowing as part of a larger challenge. Sanchez wants to complete a zero-emissions journey that connects Europe and America, so he conceived the idea of a human-powered journey from Paris to Pittsburgh. He began by cycling 2,800km from Paris to Portugal and is now rowing the 7,500km from Portugal to Miami. There, he will then again hop on his bike and pedal the final 2,500km to Pittsburgh.

Pacific Ocean

Erden Eruç: Veteran rower Erden Eruç (Turkey) is rowing across the Pacific Ocean from California to Hong Kong. At 11,000km, it is the longest ocean expedition currently underway. He began the journey on June 22 and has rowed 5,000km so far.

He paused in Waikiki to repair his boat, then relaunched in October. Throughout November and December, storms and bad weather disrupted his progress. During a storm in early December, he lost two spare oars and his boat suffered some minor damage.

Despite planning his route carefully and studying 15 years' worth of weather reports before setting off, Eruç is worried. He still doesn’t have a visa for China, and he is hoping to get one when he lands in Hong Kong. If not, he will have to change course and head to Vietnam.

Winter storms have created swells, and La Niña has exacerbated the unfortunate wind patterns. His pace has slowed dramatically and he has admitted that “the next four weeks will determine how this attempt to reach Asia from North America will proceed”.

This past weekend, he assured followers that he is not concerned about the current tsunami warning. “I have over 5,000m of depth under my rowboat," he explained. "Tsunami waves move fast and low over such depths.”

On December 20, he became the first person to notch 1,000 days rowing alone across the world's oceans.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Ocean secrets

Sea dragon skeleton found in the UK: Conservationists have found the fossilized remains of an ichthyosaur at the bottom of a reservoir in England. The “sea dragon” is one of the largest and most complete skeletons of the species found to date.

The conservationists were draining Rutland Water Nature Reserve as part of a landscaping project when they stumbled across the remains in 2021. “We sort of looked at it and scratched our heads…we could see these ridges and bumps. That’s when alarm bells started to ring,” said Mr. Davis. He took photos and sent them over to the geology department at the University of Leicester. “I immediately recognized them as ichthyosaur vertebrae,” said Dr. Lomax, who went on to lead the excavation.

Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that first appeared 250 million years ago. This skeleton dates back 180 million years, to the early Jurassic period. The intact skeleton amazed Paleontologists, they had expected to only find fragments. Icy conditions meant they were unable to extract the skeleton, so they covered it with plastic sheets and mud and then returned in August. Researchers are now preserving the skeleton and removing rocks from the bones.

World’s largest fish breeding ground discovered: Scientists have discovered the world’s largest fish breeding ground in Antarctica. Marine biologists discovered approximately 60 million icefish nests on the floor of the Weddell Sea. Each nest contains up to 2,500 eggs.

Scientists started exploring the Weddell Sea in the 1980s but found only small clusters of nests previously. A German research vessel found the huge expanse of nests whilst conducting routine observations. “The idea that such a huge breeding area of icefish in the Weddell Sea was previously undiscovered is totally fascinating,” says Dr. Autun Purser. Scientists are calling for governments to create a Marine Protected Area to safeguard the breeding grounds.

Warrior women

Remains of 3,000-year-old warrior women found in Armenia: Three millennia ago, many civilizations across the Mediterranean collapsed. Archeologists have now discovered the remains of two female warriors in the Jrapi cemetery, Armenia. Initially, they assumed the skeletons were male as they were buried like honored warriors. Testing has proved they were women.

Both women would have been horse-riding warriors who fought for their communities. Their remains show that both women experienced significant trauma before they died. The first skeleton is of a 45 to 50-year-old woman; she had a dent in the back of her skull. The arrow that killed her was still lodged in her ribcage. The second woman was much younger. She had been shot in the ankle, stabbed in the jaw, and had blunt force dents in the back of her head.

A new frog and ageless ants

New Rainfrog species discovered in Panama: You can find Rainfrogs across South America, with a few species present in Central America. There are 574 known species of these often-colorful frogs, but they are relatively understudied. Their variation in color and morphology can make it difficult for biologists to decipher between species by sight alone.

Scientists have found a previously unknown species of rainfrog in Panama. They have named it Pristimantis Gretathunbergae after climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The never-aging ants with a terrible secret: In the forests of Germany a group of ants has done the seemingly impossible, they have stopped the aging process. While some temnothorax ants in the colony age as normal and die after a few months, some live for years. These ants maintain the soft outer shells and tawny shading signifying a juvenile. All these ageless ants have one thing in common, their bellies are teeming with tapeworms.

The parasites prolong the lifespan of their host dramatically. Researchers think the affected ants can live for over a decade. The temnothorax ants become host to the parasites when they ingest bird feces containing tapeworm eggs as larvae. Researchers found that the tapeworm-infected ants also did less work than other ants in the colony. The normal ants treated them as juveniles and groomed, fed, and carried them around due to their youthful appearance.

Climate change is destabilizing the Arctic

Climate change destroying homes across the Arctic: The Arctic is warming two to four times faster than the rest of the planet. The rising temperature is causing permafrost to thaw across Russia, North America, and Scandinavia. This poses a huge problem for the five million people who live on the Arctic permafrost.

The usually frozen ground is forming sinkholes. Landslides and flooding are becoming more common. Studies suggest that 70% of existing infrastructure is at high risk of damage by 2050. Across communities on the permafrost, water mains are rupturing, houses are becoming unstable, and ponds are forming due to all the meltwater. "If you think about the Arctic, landscape stability is dependent on the threshold of zero degrees Celsius. And as the ground temperature approaches zero, we are seeing huge waves of problems," said Arctic geologist Louise Farquharson.

Could a clone bring this ferret species back from the brink?

Cloned ferret celebrates first birthday: Elizabeth-Ann, the world’s first cloned black-footed ferret, has celebrated her first birthday. This is a major milestone for conservationists; the little ferret is one of the first clones to reach sexual maturity.

Black-footed ferrets are one of the most endangered species in North America. Conservationists plan to mate Elizabeth-Ann in spring. If she gives birth to healthy kits it will be the first time cloning has been successfully used to try and save a species from extinction. If successful it opens the door to use the technique on other endangered species, but if it fails the team worries it will boost skepticism about the value of cloning. “Everything about Elizabeth Ann is much bigger than the science behind it, and it’s much bigger than helping the ferrets,” says Ben Novak.

Scientists cloned Elizabeth-Ann using cells of a female ferret that died over three decades ago. Scientists classed the species as endangered in 1973. Their numbers fell dramatically in the 1970s after prairie dog colonies and their burrows were almost wiped out by farmers and ranchers. Prairie dogs are a crucial prey species for the ferrets.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Five Viking longhouses found in Norway: Archaeologists have discovered five Viking longhouses in Ostfold, Norway. The archeological site, Gjellestad, has been a hotbed of Viking discoveries. In 2018, researchers found a Viking ship at the site. Now, north of the ship, they have found the longhouses.

Archeologists used ground-penetrating radar to locate the Iron Age buildings. The largest is 60m long and 15m wide, making it one of the largest found in Scandinavia. Around the buildings, there were also several burial mounds. “These are important to know about to get a more complete picture of Gjellestad and its surroundings,” said Lars Gustavsen. 

Going green

Experts welcome rewilding project in the UK: The UK plans to rewild 300,000 hectares of natural habitat by 2030. Britain is one of the most nature-depleted countries in the world, farming uses over 70% of the land.

Experts have welcomed the plans but note that “we need to make sure we’re seeing this through genuine holistic rewilding.” One worry is the public's attitude towards rewilding. “People associated it with wolves, bears, and land abandonment,” said Alastair Driver.

Backers hope that the project will restore several ecosystems including woodland, wetlands, and floodplains.

Health risks increase as wildfires worsen: Levels of dangerous air pollutants are increasing across the western United States because of wildfires. Scientists found that worsening wildfires have caused the number of smoke and ozone (also called trioxygen) particulates in the air to increase dramatically. If this continues it will create a serious health risk for millions of Americans.

The particulates can travel into lung tissue and cause both respiratory and cardiovascular damage. Ozone inflames airways and makes lungs more susceptible to infection. Researchers discovered that exposure to both pollutants at the same time is disproportionately harmful. “We are expecting these trends to continue given climate change, so the best we can do at this point is to increase awareness and take steps to protect ourselves,” said Dmitri A. Kalashnikov. 

Africa’s ‘Great Green Wall’ could have far-reaching climate effects: The ‘Great Green Wall’ is a proposed 8,000km wall of trees. Researchers hope that the trees will stop the Sahara Desert from expanding southwards.

By 2030 the project wants to plant 100 million hectares of trees along the Sahara's southern edge. Computer simulations predict that the trees would cause rainfall across the Sahel region to double, the average summer temperature in northern Africa to decrease, and the hottest areas in the Sahel to become even hotter.

Scientists also think the Great Green Wall could have a global impact. The West African monsoon would become stronger and shift circulation patterns west. This would impact global climate events such as the El Niño Oscillation.  

Shark-on-shark crime

Fossil evidence of an ancient shark-on-shark attack: Millions of years ago sharks hunted other sharks. Sharks are some of the world's most ferocious predators, and shark-on-shark attacks are not uncommon. However, researchers had not previously found evidence of this behavior in ancient shark species.

Four rare fossils, found by four different people, show the vertebrae of now-extinct shark species. All the fossils had one thing in common, shark bite marks covered the vertebrae. “To find these skeletal elements with bite traces is truly remarkable,” said Victor Perez. 

A (relatively) close shave

Kilometer long asteroid will fly by Earth in two weeks: On January 18, an asteroid will zoom past Earth. Stony asteroid (7482) 1994 PC1, is one kilometer long and classed as a potentially hazardous object. If it hit us the consequences would be catastrophic.

Fortunately, calculations show that it will pass by over 1.98 million kilometers away. This is the closest an asteroid will come to Earth for the next 172 years. Robert McNaught discovered the asteroid in 1994, decades of tracking it has allowed for very accurate measurements of the orbit.   

Mount Everest is the world's tallest mountain by most measures. But in terms of overall height from base to summit, Hawaii's Mauna Kea has it beat.

Mauna Kea is 9,330m tall, making it 482m taller than Everest. However, over 5,000m of it are underwater.

Many ascend the dry part of the dormant volcano, which is a reasonably casual bike/walk. But climbing it from the base requires mountaineering tactics you might call unusual.

Victor Vescovo and Dr. Clifford Kapono started the first complete ascent of Mauna Kea earlier this year in a submarine. The climb technically begins 43km off Hawaii's big island, 6.4km deep in the Pacific Ocean.

Vescovo happened to have a submarine. An aha moment inspired the ascent.

"The light bulb immediately went off in my head of saying, 'well, I have a submarine that can go to any depth,'" he said. "And so I thought, what a wonderful ability to mix marine activity with mountain climbing and climbing Mauna Kea."

Mauna Kea first full ascent details

Over three days, Vescovo and Kapono — a marine biologist and Hawaiian native — used the sub, an outrigger canoe, bikes, and finally hiking boots to summit the mountain.

The trip got underway with Kapono's submarine descent. Though he had previously studied ocean floor species, he had never seen them in their native habitat.

The submarine dive went off without a hitch. The 43km canoe trip looked like a different story. The men wanted to complete as much of the ascent as possible under their own power, but Vescovo was a novice paddler. Unfavorable winds and currents promised an abrasive experience.

"The paddle was rough. I am not a paddler by nature, so this was new to me. I had to train for [it]," Vescovo said.

They employed a local canoeing expert, Chad Cabral, to help smooth out the wrinkles.

During the six-hour trip, "[We] didn't tip the canoe over," Vescovo said, "which was great."

Day two featured a 60km all-uphill bike ride, from the small oceanside city of Hilo to a lodge on the mountain 2,750m above. The ride took the explorers through a wide swath of Hawaii's climatic zones. Starting in lush jungle, they ascended through sub-volcanic terrain with scrub vegetation and finally to bare solidified volcanic flows.

After observing local rites at an altar built from lava rock, they threw themselves into the 17% grades.

The ascent concluded on day three with a snowy hike above the clouds, presided over by a local elder. Dissonantly, machine gunfire and explosions echoed from a military base below. However, the men shared a peaceful summit, where Kapono issued a quiet prayer.

Sub rental rates? A repeat looks unlikely

According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Vescovo and Kapono's adventure constituted the first "full" ascent of Mauna Kea.

Depending on how many mountaineer cyclists also own submarines, it might be a while before the ascent gets a repeat. Among the submarine guide/rental services in Hawaii, ExplorersWeb is unaware of one that will take clients six kilometres below the surface.

Karlis Bardelis has resumed his human-powered, round-the-world journey. His circumnavigation started in Namibia in 2016. With a friend, he rowed across the South Atlantic Ocean to Brazil. Then in 2018, he restarted in Brazil and cycled on a tandem bicycle to Lima, Peru, with his then-girlfriend. They pedaled the 5,400km in 102 days.

Bardelis next left La Punta, Peru in 2018 and rowed 26,000km across the Pacific to Malaysia in 715 days. He became the first person to row from South America to Asia.

In Malaysia, COVID-19 put the next leg of his challenge on pause. Finally, after waiting a year and a half, he has been able to restart his journey.

Damaged boat

Bardelis flew back to Malaysia on December 7, and has spent the last three weeks planning. He had to quarantine for a week before he could visit his boat after 16 months in storage. The boat was in one piece but when he checked inside the cabin, he found water.

“I felt quite down discovering the interior conditions”, he wrote. Before leaving, he had arranged with those storing the boat to keep it under a roof. Clearly, it had stood outside for at least part of the time. Luckily, most of the electronics still worked. After fans dried out the interior for a few days, Linda was almost ready to back on the water.

He initially had planned to row across the Malacca Strait and into the Indian Ocean. But at this time of year, winds would have been against him the whole way, making the row almost impossible. So instead, from December 20-23, he cycled 850km across Malaysia to Kuala Perlis, the new starting point of his row.

The rowing begins again

On December 30, he rowed for nine hours to the island of Langkawi. He spent a few days at the Royal Langkawi Yacht Club, making the final few adjustments to his boat before reembarking.

The final part of his circumnavigation splits into four legs. The first, which began on January 2, is a relatively short row from Malaysia to Sabang, Indonesia. Bardelis hopes to complete this in eight days.

Here, Bardelis hopes that a friend will join him for the 50- to 60-day row to the Northern Maldives. If not, he will continue solo.

From there, the Latvian will island-hop to the South Maldives. Then he may have to wait a bit for good weather before leaving. At that time of year, conditions in the South Indian Ocean may be too dangerous to row in.

When weather permits, he will row from the Maldives to Tanzania, which he plans to reach in early July. He then cycles to Namibia for the final leg. “Once I reach Namibia, the circle will be complete,” he says.

You can track his journey here.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

You have no idea how hard it is to get a hamster drunk: Hamsters are the heaviest drinkers of the animal kingdom. “You just put a bottle of unsweetened Everclear in the cage and they love it,” says one researcher. Everclear is a neutral grain spirit, and hamsters can regularly drink 18 grams per kilogram of body weight a day. That’s the equivalent of a human drinking a litre and a half of 190-proof Everclear. For those not well-versed in Everclear, that is a lot of alcohol! In fact, when given the choice of alcohol or water, the little rodents pick alcohol. In the wild, hamsters collect seeds and fruit to keep them nourished over winter. Over time, these stores ferment. Even when they drink a lot, it is very hard to get a hamster drunk. Their livers are so efficient at processing ethanol that very little makes it into their blood.

What to do with radioactive water?

Japan to dispose of Fukushima water: Last week, Japan laid out plans to release contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea. The first announcement in April led to an outcry from local fishermen and neighboring countries. In response, Japan commissioned a review to assess how the water should be handled. "Releasing the...treated water is an unavoidable task to decommission the Fukushima Plant," said Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga. Huge tanks currently store 1.3 million tonnes of contaminated water at an annual cost of over $900 million. Filters will remove most of the harmful radioactive isotopes. Only tritium, a hydrogen isotope, will remain. Before releasing the water in 2023, they plan to dilute it so that tritium levels are below the regulatory limits.

Tourists bring invasive species to Antarctica: Antarctic visitors bring invasive species with them, usually seeds and microbes. Studies have found 11 new invertebrate species and meadowgrass, an aggressive weed. Introduced microbes also pose a threat. COVID-19 reached Antarctica in December 2020, despite strict protocols, and a rare bacterium that infects humans has turned up in penguin feces.

Scientists build atlas of ocean’s oxygen-starved waters: Oxygen-deficit zones (ODZs) make up less than one percent of the ocean's volume. They are a significant source of nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas. Using 40 years' worth of ocean data and 15 million measurements, MIT scientists have created a 3D atlas of the largest ODZs. The map shows the volume, extent, and varying depth of each one. They plan to use the atlas to track changes in the zones as the climate warms.

A silver lining to the great asteroid impact

Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs gave rise to South American rainforests: Sixty-six million years ago, the Chicxulub asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. It also triggered environmental shifts that gave us the Earth we know today. Tropical rainforests, for example, are a by-product of this catastrophic event. While the asteroid destroyed 45 percent of plant species, ash from the collision enriched the soil. The plants that took over were very different from those that came before. Combined with the lack of giant herbivores in the area, this allowed more species to grow.

Seals with sensors used as Antarctic researchers: Seals with sensors stuck to their heads are collecting data from the ice shelves in Antarctica. The eight equipped Weddell seals can avoid ice and rocks that stymie research boats. The data has shown new aspects of the Antarctic Ocean’s seasonal changes and the hunting habits of seals.

Over 141 days, Brendon Prince circumnavigated mainland Britain by stand-up paddleboard. He covered 4,203km, took over 8 million strokes, and tackled 7-metre waves. The 48-year-old became the first person to SUP around Britain, completed the first known SUP from Lands End to John O’Groats via the coast, and made the longest ever SUP journey.

He began his journey in Torquay, in southwest England. He paddled up the west coast, around Scotland, and then down the east coast back to Torquay. Prince told ExplorersWeb that his favorite sections were between Kintyre and Oban in Scotland because of its beauty, and the beaches in Northumberland and Norfolk because of the wildlife.

He particularly enjoyed seeing British landmarks as he paddled. “Blackpool Tower, the bridges in Newcastle, paddling past Dover Harbour: They're exciting because they're big landmarks," he recalled. "I love nature and I love natural coastline. But let's face it, once you've seen a limestone cliff, they all look pretty similar.”

No support boat

Prince undertook this circumnavigation in part to emphasize water safety. He was previously a lifeguard on the Devon coast. Five years ago, he had to drag three people from the water on the North Cornish coast, and none survived.

“It made me think that what I was doing wasn’t enough,” said Prince. "I wanted to do more to prevent drowning and most importantly, to educate people."

Prince wanted to prove that his project could be done safely, without a support boat.  He did have a support vehicle on land, which was valuable for logistics and as a backup when he landed on the trickier beaches. But once he was on the water, Prince was completely by himself.

Sometimes, he made only 10km for 10 hours of paddling

Bad weather plagued him throughout the journey.

“I had 22 days [when I was] not on the water at all and I had another 30 days where I did under 10km in a day, even though I was paddling all day,” he said.

“One day I started paddling at seven in the morning and a guy was walking his dog. It got to about five that night, and the same guy came out to walk his dog again. He stopped and he shouted, 'I can't believe you are still paddling.' I had only covered about six kilometres the whole day.”

The northwest coast was particularly challenging.  The man-made sea defenses in the area deflected the power of the sea, and the rebounding waves forced him to stay farther out to sea.

Longest day: 78km

He had initially thought that he could complete the journey in 90 days if the weather was good. And he is still certain that is a good estimate. The weather just wasn't on his side. But despite the lost time and the short days, he averaged 10 hours and 40km a day on his board. On his longest day, he made 78km in 17 hours of paddling.

The bad weather brought big waves and swells. He became better at reading the weather and as his hours at sea accrued, so did his level of expertise.

“I’m not the paddler I was when I started,” Prince said. “Unless I had a 40 mile-an-hour wind in my face, I paddled. By the end of it, I was just going out and getting on with it. Big seas just don't really worry me in a way that perhaps they did six months ago.”

Prince planned his route carefully and started in the areas that he had regularly paddled. He had done 100km paddles around Cornwall and Devon previously. He knew that crossing the Severn, Scotland, and the northwest coast would be the hardest sections. Starting in the south meant that by the time he reached these cruxes, he had hundreds more hours of experience under his belt.

Careful planning

By the time he got to Scotland, the big waves did not faze him at all.

“I was surfing down every wave that came through," he said. "There was a seven-metre swell, with the wind at the top of the wave and then no wind in the trough. It's great fun.”

A one- to two-metre chop was more dangerous because it continuously threw him from the board. On two occasions, Scotland winds rolling off the mountains caught him off guard. He solved this by heading further out to sea.

Over the 141 days, the physicality took its toll. Prince switched between six different paddle strokes to “keep my body fresh”. Although he ate 10,000 calories a day, he lost 13kg. The changes to his body became very evident.

“Regardless of how much you eat, your body reshapes itself," he said. "I lost a lot of bulk because I didn't need strength, I needed stamina. I lost a lot from my legs. By the end, they were useless for walking up steps or going for a run.”

The aftermath

The effort even affected his hands. By the end of the four-and-a-half months, they were like claws.

“I couldn't really open and close my hands because they were wrapped around a paddle for so many days," he recalled. "Only now have my hands got back to a level where I can open a jar.”

Later, his wife was upset that he kept the state of his hands a secret. “But if you articulate it, it's real and it brings you down. And that is something I couldn't afford.”

Prince took great pride in his unwavering positivity. Every day, he made a conscious effort to keep a smile on his face and power through. “Never moaning gets you through anything,” he said.

Over the last 12 months, ExplorersWeb has documented incredible adventures in climbing, cycling, running, walking, skiing, and anything involving force of will and dedication to a dream in the outdoors. As this year comes to a close, we present our countdown of the Top 10 Expeditions of 2021.

Ocean rowing may not be as aesthetic or technical as climbing, river kayaking, or other expeditions we typically cover. But where it lacks in those areas, it makes up for its lack in those areas with a heightened need for self-reliance, perseverance, and a good head for risk. After all, you're always one capsize away from a watery grave.

As on the 8,000m peaks, there is a swathe of well-publicized and more straightforward ocean rows each year, typically as part of organized events such as the Talisker Atlantic Rowing Challenge. Occasionally, however, independent and ambitious ocean journeys make you sit up with interest.

Back in August, Ian Clinton, Simon Chalk, Jordan Swift, and Matt Mason in the Ocean Revival became the first crew to row across the North Atlantic Ocean from New York to London. Before this, only 57 rowers, including just 16 soloists, had crossed the North Atlantic. None had traveled west to east from New York to London.

Reaching London is harder than ending in the western UK

Most who row the Atlantic follow the prevailing winds and tides from east to west, and those few crews who started in the United States typically finished in France, Ireland, or the Isles of Scilly, at the southwest corner of England. The Ocean Revival team pioneered that harder route in August. The same month, former SAS soldier Ian Rivers rowed alone west-east from New York across the Atlantic, but he finished at the Isles of Scilly.

Cue the stage for Mark Delstanche from the UK and a solo row attempt from New York to London. Unlike many ocean rowers, Delstanche wasn't a first-timer. He had some pedigree as an adventurer. He had previously summited Everest and Cho Oyu and had rowed 600km with a team in the Canadian High Arctic. A former club rower, Delstanche had spent the past 20 years as a professional yachtsman, more recently captaining a super-yacht.

Delstanche set off from Battery Park, New York on June 14. He faced complications almost immediately. The custom-made flywheel-powered propeller on his boat, Square Peg, broke before he even reached the Atlantic. Then the main solar panels failed on the third day, wiping out auto-steering. This meant that Delstanche had to steer with his feet for the remainder of the journey. It also forced him to limit his water consumption.

Within that first week, Delstanche had issues with his oars. He quickly replaced them with a backup pair. No doubt these equipment wobbles would have spooked a less able seaman.

His proposed straight-line route was a cool 7,000km. By mid-to-late July, the superyacht captain was halfway through the journey. Delstanche's fortunes were mixed, though, as storms in the North Atlantic were particularly bad that summer. In total, he reported facing eight storms and a hair-raising seven capsizes. The first capsize knocked out some electronics and revealed weep holes, which he patched up with the ever-dependable duct tape.

The list of woes continued: a lost compass light and non-functional VHF radio, tracker, and all deck navigation equipment. But this and continuing fog didn't drag Delstanche down. He made good time and hit the British coastline on August 21.

An 18-day wait

However, on reaching the Cornish coast, Delstanche had to wait for favorable winds before rowing the remaining 600km to the capital. In the end, Delstanche bided his time for 18 days. Oh, how he must have pined for his super-yacht minibar during those weeks.

Toward the end, Delstanche went full gas for the finish to ensure that the wind didn't push him away from shore. “I slept four hours in four days and at one stage rowed for 27 out of 31 hours. At times, my mind and body were totally disassociated and very much on auto.”

Finally on September 19, after 97 days, he crossed the finish line at Tower Bridge, London, just inside his target time of 100 days. In doing so, the former firefighter-turned-yachtsman pocketed his own slice of ocean rowing history, during a particularly challenging season weather-wise.

Very few people set out to row a new ocean route, and in particular, solo. Fewer finish, especially within their target time. Despite an eventful journey encompassing a number of storms, equipment failures, and dunks in the ocean, Delstanche displayed an unwavering commitment to his goal, and ingenuity to find workarounds to these failures. In doing so, he edges into the outer echelons of our top 10.

Since out last ocean roundup, a journey across the Pacific has restarted, the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge is underway, and one man's attempt to row to Antarctica ended before it began.

Pacific Ocean

Erden Eruç (Turkey)

Erden Eruç began his 11,000km row from California to Hong Kong on June 22. After reaching Asia, he will continue overland to Everest, which he plans to climb in autumn 2022. So far, he has rowed 4,300km.

Eruç paused his row in Waikiki on September 10. During a busy month on land, he fixed his water maker, installed a new chart plotter, reinforced the cracked base of his spare oar stands, and arranged visas. He relaunched on October 7.

For the first few weeks afterward, he made steady westerly progress. On October 26, he “successfully achieved a rendezvous with the Sentinal-1 SAR satellite". The satellite captures 20km x 20km images of the Earth, and Eruç’s mission was to be in one of those images.

On November 9, Eruç crossed the dateline and moved from the western into the eastern hemisphere. That day, Guinness World Records informed him that he now holds the "Greatest Distance Solo Rowed on The Ocean", thanks to his many ocean-rowing expeditions.

Throughout November, bad weather slowed Eruç’s progress. Last week, he heard that at the end of December, 40-knot winds and huge swell could pull him north and derail his journey. In anticipation, he began moving south to put as much distance as possible between himself and the coming storm.

He hopes to reach the Northern Marianas by January 20 and move into the Philippine Sea in February.

Drake Passage

Antonio de la Rosa (Spain)

In late November, Antonio de la Rosa was getting ready to start his Antarctic Triathlon. This was to begin with a 1,000km row across the Drake Passage from the tip of South America to Livingston Island in the South Shetlands. The Drake Passage is a narrow section of water in the Southern Hemisphere where the Pacific and Atlantic mix to create the roughest seas on earth.

He waited in Chile for almost a week for his boat to arrive. A few days later, he was being towed to his starting point at Cape Horn when he started to develop a fever. After days of silence, he released a terse statement on social media: He has caught COVID-19 and is unable to start the row. He plans to try again next year.

Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge

Sir Chay Blyth founded the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in 1997. It was initially known as the Atlantic Rowing Race and bills itself as “the premier event in ocean rowing”. Soloists, pairs, trios, and quads vie to complete the 4,800km crossing from Tenerife to Antigua.

Rowers in each team row for two hours and sleep for two hours around the clock. On average, each rower drinks 10 litres of water and burns 5,000 calories a day, and loses around 8kg during the crossing.

A UK team known as The Four Oarsmen set the record for the TWAC in 2018. It took them 29 days, 14 hours, and 34 minutes. The winners of last year’s race, a pair from the Netherlands, finished in 32 days, 22 hours, and 13 minutes. They became the fastest pair to complete the crossing.

On December 12, 36 crews made up of 107 rowers started the 2021 race. Four days into the crossing, the race statistics are as follows:

Leading overall: Pacific Boys (574km)

Leading five: Five in a Row (566km)

Leading four: Shaw and Partners Atlantic (563km)

Leading trio: Pacific Boys (574km)

Leading pair: Two Rowing Finns (513km)

Leading soloist: Ocean Warrior (318km)

There are now three soloists, 10 pairs, six trios, 15 fours, and one five. One soloist, Simon Howes, has already withdrawn from the race. He slipped on deck during the first two days, injured his ankle, and was unable to continue.

Team profiles

A large number of teams are taking part, from different countries and with different goals. To name a few:

ExtraOARdinary (UK). A trio aiming to break the record for a women’s three. One member, Kathyrn Cordiner, was diagnosed with incurable cancer in 2019, and in November 2020, she had to have heart surgery. Though she was unable to train for months after the surgery, teammates Abby Johnston and Charlotte Irving are doing more than their share.

East Rows West (UK & SA). This highly competitive trio of Hong Kong rugby players wants to win. Their original plan was to row as a four, but one member had to drop out during training. “It has not changed our goals too much. We have been clear that we want to be competitive, but as a four, that is a lot easier to do.”

Two Rowing Finns (FI). John Blassar and Markus Mustelin are no strangers to time on the sea. They met in the Whitbred Round the World Race. Since then, they have sailed around the world together, crossed the Atlantic about 20 times on different boats, and become business partners. “Years of planning...have matured into a common decision: to join forces again and take the challenge to the Atlantic,” they said.

Four From Home (USA). A military veteran group that wants to “experience that intimate connection with the ocean”. Hailing from the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, they are rowing to raise awareness of veteran suicide and PTSD.

The Mothership (UK). An all-female crew. Pippa Edwards decided that she wanted to do the row when she was awaiting her husband's arrival at the finish of the 2019 race.  Along with her sister and two friends, she wants to “inspire women and children of all ages”.

Anna Victorious (UK). A four joining in memory of the late wife of one crew member. Ed Smith’s wife died in 2018 after a year-long battle with cancer. He is now rowing to raise awareness and money for cancer research.

Situated on Portugal's Silver Coast, Nazaré is a small city of fishermen, artisans, and big, exceptional waves.

And surf season is heating up. From October through February, Nazaré will host prestigious and aspiring surfers alike. This week, the World Surf League had its annual Tow Challenge. The team-oriented event drew heavily decorated competitors from around the globe.

After a patch of less-than-ideal conditions, the perfect weather window arrived on December 13, rolling 15-metre-high bombs and telescoping barrels up to Nazaré's shoreline.

Nazare’s underwater scape is what sets the perfect environment this time of year. “The topography confines internal tidal currents and refracts oncoming waves, causing them to double in size as they join,” reports ExplorersWeb contributor, Kristine De Abreu.

In this highlight reel, big-wave surfing's best wrangle the goliath waves at this year's Nazaré Tow Surfing Challenge. For the complete Tow Challenge replay, head to the WSL's YouTube channel.

Garbage and melting ice create new habitats

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is being colonized: The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a 79,000-tonne mass of plastic waste floating between California and Hawaii. It covers 1.5 million square kilometres of ocean. It formed when sea currents trapped floating garbage. Multiple coastal species, including anemones and amphipods, are now making their homes on the plastic. “It’s creating opportunities for coastal species’ biogeography to greatly expand beyond what we previously thought possible,” said lead researcher Linsey Haram. 

Melting glaciers may produce new salmon habitat: Pacific salmon need almost perfect conditions to reproduce, but their spawning streams are overheating, storms are ruining stream beds, and some are drying up. But there is hope for the species. By 2100, retreating glaciers in British Columbia and Alaska will open up six thousand kilometres of river habitat. A third of this will be suitable salmon nurseries. Some of the healthiest populations have formed along those coasts where new rivers have formed after the ice melted. Sadly, the new rivers may not last long. As the ice disappears entirely, the water will again become too warm for the salmon.  

Cane toads are coming...

Toxic cane toads are invading Taiwan: Non-native, toxic toads are invading Taiwan. The cane toad is native to the Americas. When threatened, the poisonous species releases bufotoxin, a milky white toxin, from the glands behind its eyes. Investigators discovered over 200 toads in one area. As they have no natural predators in Taiwan, they can reproduce at a rapid pace. The invasion likely started months ago and went unnoticed. "Taiwanese farmers generally ignore toads and even look favorably [on] them, because they help rid the land of pests and are also a good luck symbol," said expert Yang Yi-Ju. Cane toads were introduced to Australia decades ago and created many problems for local wildlife, as one highly entertaining documentary shows.

Pig-nosed turtle fossil found in Australia: The pig-nosed turtle is a freshwater species found in northern Australia and southern New Guinea. Its fossil record dates to the Cretaceous period, about 100 million years ago. No such fossils had turned up in Australia, so scientists believed that they had reached the continent relatively recently. “The discovery of a five-million-year-old pig-nosed turtle fossil changes the picture entirely,” said Dr. Erich Fitzgerlad.

Where the honeybee began

The origins of the world's most famous honeybee: Scientists have long debated where the western honeybee, the most common species, originated. A new study concludes that it began in western Asia. Scientists analyzed the genomes of 251 western honeybees from 18 subspecies across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The species originated seven million years ago and soon expanded westward. It first reached Africa, then Europe. Eventually, seven different honeybee lineages and 27 subspecies formed. They now live on every continent except Antarctica.

Light-colored feathers may help migrating birds: Half of the world's bird species migrate. Many of them share a common feature: lighter-colored feathers. Researchers think that light coloration allows the birds to stay cool as they fly long distances. Migratory birds push their bodies to the limit, and this creates excess heat. The farther they migrate, the lighter their feathers. 

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Rain to replace snow in the Arctic: Snow ha long been the most common form of precipitation in the Arctic. Researchers believe that by 2060, rain will become the most common. The previous estimate for this was 2090, but new climate models have brought the date forward. The implications of this rapid warming will be profound. “You might think the Arctic is far removed from your day-to-day life, but in fact temperatures there have warmed up so much that it will have an impact further south,” said lead researcher Michelle McCrystall. These Arctic changes increase extreme weather events in Europe, Asia, and North America.

Each tentacle has a mind of its own

Scientists astonished by octopus brain: Octopuses are one of the smartest animals on earth, but the anatomy that allows this is quite unique. Their mind is spread throughout their body. All eight tentacles contain neurons that are sensitive to touch, smell, and taste. Each tentacle seems to have a mind all its own. Scientists have studied the brains of multiple species of octopus to try and figure out how their intelligence has developed. They do so in a way similar to vertebrates: by the need to adapt to their surroundings. The number of folds in the brain of the octopuses surprised scientists. Their evolved brains can process large quantities of information. This allows the animals to remember landmarks and even break out of their housing tanks. "This is the nightmare for most octopus researchers," said Dr. Wen-Sung Chung of the Queensland Brain Institute.

Playing recordings of healthy oceans helps restore marine ecosystems: Back-to-back cyclones in 2014 and 2015 wrecked huge sections of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. In 2017, scientists used coral rubble to build new mini-reefs in hope of restoring the area. They placed two speakers near these mini-reefs and played recordings of the noises made when the reefs were healthy. Double the number of young fish settled on the reefs near the speakers. This suggests that sound might help rebuild marine ecosystems. “The acoustic world underwater is critical for the survival of most animals,” said Stephan Simpson of the University of Bristol.

Strangely positioned mummy

1,200-year-old mummy unearthed in Peru: Archaeologists have discovered an 800- to 1,200-year-old mummy in Cajamarquilla, 24km east of Lima. The body is of a male aged 18 to 22. It lay in a burial chamber 1.4 metres wide and three metres long. The discovery is very peculiar because rope binds the body and the hands cover the face. The tomb also contained the skeletons of a guinea pig and a dog and traces of corn and vegetables.

Houses choke elephant sanctuary

Ethiopian elephants under threat: Between 2006 to 2017, the number of houses within the Babile Elephant Sanctuary in Ethiopia soared from 18,000 to over 50,000. The roaming area of the elephants overlaps with 32,000 of the houses. The sanctuary is home to one of six recognized populations of African savannah elephants in Ethiopia. The growing human population has caused land shortages and a huge demand for natural resources in the area. Unless poverty issues in the area are addressed, the population of elephants will decline and the sanctuary will disappear.

Microbial mats and the origins of oxygen

Is Lake Huron the key to the origin of life?: Oxygen is essential for all life on earth, but why oxygen levels began to rise 2.4 billion years ago is a mystery. Scientists are now exploring deep sinkholes in Lake Huron to try and solve the conundrum. The sinkholes are home to microbial mats of cyanobacteria. These exist in just a few places on earth, in conditions that are free of oxygen. “These microbial mats…are representative of the types of organisms that would have lived billions of years ago and played a really important role in Earth’s oxygenation,” said scientist Gregory Dick. Billions of years ago, the mats started producing oxygen, but no one knows why. Researchers are monitoring the microbial mats with microsensors and cameras to determine when oxygen production starts. This will hopefully give clues to what triggered the appearance of oxygen on Earth.

Fossil remains of herd of 11 dinosaurs discovered in Italy: Palaeontologists discovered the fossils of 11 dinosaurs in Villaggio del Pescatore, a former limestone quarry in Italy. The discovery includes the largest and most complete dinosaur fossil ever found in the country. All 11 dinosaurs belong to the species Tethyshadros insularis, which lived 80 million years ago. They also found remains of fish, shrimp, crocodiles, and flying reptiles. “This is super cool as we can figure out the kind of environment the dinosaurs lived and died in,” said Federico Fanti of the University of Bologna.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Hubble telescope captures images of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune:  Every year, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope creates visual maps of the planets to show their ever-changing atmospheres and weather patterns. This year, Jupiter and Saturn are on display in “intense, crisp detail”. Images of Jupiter reveal recent storms above its equator, while color changes in Saturn’s bands indicate that it undergoes seasonal changes, like Earth. Neptune, the only planet in the solar system not visible to the naked eye, shows up as an ice-blue giant, while ultraviolet light bathes Uranus's north polar region.

Underwater mammoth

Ancient tusk found 250km from land and 3,000m under water: In 2019, scientists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute were searching for new deep-sea species off the coast of California. Instead, the R.O.V pilot spotted, of all things, a tusk 3,000m below the surface. They collected a small sample of the tusk, but it took years to identify what animal it came from, and how old it was. The tusk belonged to a young female mammoth that died in the Lower Paleolithic era. After returning to collect the whole tusk and analyzing its DNA, they have discovered that the tusk has been sitting on the seafloor for well over 100,000 years. “This is an ‘Indiana Jones’ mixed with ‘Jurassic Park' moment,” said one researcher. The creature reportedly died on land, then ocean currents carried its body to its current location, where it sank.

Butterflies find new home in abandoned coal mines: Coal mines and quarries are not known for their positive impact on the environment. But rock quarries in northern Germany have become the preferred home of Europe’s silver-studded blue butterfly. The species usually lives in meadows but these have been declining for decades. The number of butterflies in quarries is four times higher than in grasslands of the same size. Researchers think that this is due to the relatively high temperatures in these areas and the abundance of birdsfoot trefoil, the butterflies' plant of choice for egg-laying.

Another La Niña

La Niña has begun: A La Niña event is occurring for the second consecutive year. Last year in Australia, it caused “once in a century” rains that deluged parts of the country. Although this year’s event is likely to be weaker, it increases the chances of flooding and cyclones in Australia, as well as storms in the U.S. and Canada and heavy rain across Northern Europe. La Niña, the cooler phase of the El Niño, occurs when winds blow away warm surface water in the Pacific Ocean off South America and colder water comes to the surface.

Albatrosses divorce more often when ocean waters warm: Albatrosses are famous for mating for life. On average, just four percent of the birds change partners each year. New research from the Falkland Islands shows that in years when the water temperature has increased, this divorce rate increases to eight percent. The warmer water leads to fewer nutrients and the birds stay out at sea longer. This delays their return to the colony and can mean that they arrive at different times than their usual partner does.

E=Mc2=$13 million

Einstein’s notes on the theory of relativity sell for $13 million: Albert Einstein’s handwritten notes on relativity sold for $13 million at an auction in Paris. The 54-page manuscript contains the initial work that led to his most famous achievement. Christie’s called the notes “without a doubt, the most valuable Einstein manuscript ever to come to auction.” Einstein and Michele Besso, his colleague and friend, wrote it from 1913-1914. In the document, they discuss the theory of relativity and the orbit of Mercury.

New species of octopus discovered: Marine biologists have discovered a new species of octopus. The medium-sized star octopus, with a body length of about 11 to 18cm, lives along the southwest coast of Australia. The newly discovered octopus is a close relative of the common Sydney octopus, but its form and genetics are different.

When minors do extraordinary things, controversy follows. That rule was no different for Laura Dekker. Bucking opposition from the authorities because of her age, in 2012 she became the youngest person to sail solo around the world. She was 16 years old.

For her entire life, Dekker has been around the ocean. While her unconventional parents (a Dutch boatbuilder father and a German circus performer mother) were on a seven-year sail around the world, Dekker was born off the coast of Whangarei, New Zealand.

She spent her first five years almost exclusively at sea. Eventually, her family returned to the Netherlands. Dekker lived with her father after her parent’s divorce.

Being in her father’s care helped Dekker’s fledging sailing career. In those early years when it was just the two of them, Dekker's father was building a 20m Norwegian fishing cutter. She was eager to help, and her father obliged.

Receives her first boat, age 6

Those moments together were more than father-daughter bonding. They were inspirational for Dekker’s future. Soon, she began building a boat for herself. Then for her sixth birthday, Dekker received a boat of her own.

That first boat was an Optimist dinghy, designed for children’s use. As Dekker developed her skills on the ocean, her father sailed beside her in a windsurfer. Before long, she was sailing solo.

At nine years old, Dekker began competition sailing. She assisted her father in a 24-hour sailing race on board his friend's Hurley 700. When the race was over, she convinced the boat’s owner to let her borrow it in exchange for cleaning and maintenance.

The Hurley 700 gave Dekker a chance to learn how to handle a boat more aligned to her ability than the smaller ones she was assigned because of age. The boat also fell within the 7m size limit which Dutch law imposes on minors.

Never short of ambition, Dekker and her dog Spot took that boat on a seven-week voyage around Holland and the Wadden Islands. When she returned, Dekker put four years' worth of savings from odd jobs into a boat of her own.

By then, Dekker was 11 years old and owner of a Hurley 700. In it, she sailed around the Netherlands, spending all her free time either on the water or maintaining the craft. But Dekker had her sights set on an ambitious voyage. She wanted to sail alone around the world.

Not everyone was as enthusiastic about the idea as she. Her father tried to discourage her by suggesting that she first sail to England. The English Channel is particularly challenging for sailboats. Surely that would deter her, he figured.

Run-ins with child services

This was the first of Dekker’s run-ins with the authorities.

Leaving Maurik, she arrived first in Maassluis, then across the English Channel. Strong winds delayed her arrival into Lowestoft, but she eventually made it.

English authorities were stunned that a 13-year-old was left to sail alone on such a voyage. They placed Dekker in a children’s home but released her when her father arrived to collect her. He returned her to her boat and she sailed home alone.

Undeterred by the English Channel as her father had hoped, Dekker remained fixated on sailing around the world. Eventually, her father relented, offering to strengthen her skills before departure.

"He just taught me everything he knew about making the boat safe," she said. "He would sit down with me every night and tell me it would not be fun. Mum was worried but didn't say no."

Dutch authorities had other ideas.

Perhaps injudiciously, Dekker wrote of her plans in her local newspaper. That’s when Child Welfare stepped in.

Eight court cases try to stop her

Over the next 10 months, eight court cases brought by the government and Child Protection Services argued that she was too young to risk her life.

First, they placed her in the shared custody of her father and Child Protection, to prevent her from leaving. Then they combed through her upbringing for signs of mistreatment as a minor. When they didn't find anything, they released her back into her father’s custody.

"They thought it was dangerous," Dekker said after the court battle. "Well, everywhere is dangerous. They don't sail and they don't know what boats are, and they are scared of them."

Dutch maritime regulations prohibit a captain younger than 16 from sailing a boat longer than seven metres in Dutch waters. To avoid this, Dekker set off on her east-west journey from Gibraltar in 2010. She was 14 years old.

Away she goes

Sailing a 12m red ketch also named Guppy, which was adapted for solo circumnavigation, she first sailed the Caribbean, then through the Panama Canal and over to the Galapagos Islands. Then further across the Pacific: to Tahiti, Fiji, and through the Torres Strait to Darwin, Australia.

There, further controversy followed when she admitted that the hard work of sailing prevented her from keeping up with her studies. School officials said that she should be in a classroom.

Next, she spent 48 days crossing the Indian Ocean non-stop. Monstrous winds swiveled her boat from bow to stern. Although shaken when she arrived in Durban, she remained committed to her goal.

On her last leg across the South Atlantic, Dekker struggled against high seas and heavy winds. In 2012, at the age of 16, she completed her circumnavigation in St. Marteen. She was the youngest person ever to do so. The journey took her 17 months.

Hard times

At times, she doubted herself, especially when eight-metre waves washed over Guppy, flooding the cabin. Or when vermin infested her dry food supply. Or when sharks circled the little boat. As her father warned her, it wasn't fun. But her willpower pushed her through.

Although Dekker is a record holder, Guinness World Records and the World Sailing Speed Record Council would not verify the claim. They no longer recognize records for very young sailors in order to discourage dangerous attempts.

Abby Sunderland -- a 16-year-old American sailor –- had attempted the same goal two months before Dekker. Sunderland was rescued in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Australian Jessica Watson completed a 210-day solo journey. She was a few months older than Dekker.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

This eagle is very, very lost: Birdwatchers have spotted a Stellar’s sea eagle in eastern Canada, 7,600km from home. “It’s almost as far away from your origin as you can be,” said Andrew Farnsworth of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The rare bird normally lives in China, Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East. No one has ever seen them near the Atlantic Ocean. “I couldn’t believe it. Something like this is just one in a million,” said one expert in bird migration.

A penguin's progress

Penguin swims from Antarctica to New Zealand

Episode two in this week's Gone Astray category: An Adelie penguin swam 3,000km from its home in Antarctica to New Zealand. A local resident thought that a toy had washed up on shore unless the bird moved its head. It was unclear what prompted the unusual migration. The penguin was dehydrated and hungry after its marathon swim. After shoring it up with some water and a "fish smoothie", conservation officials released it back into the wild.

Daylight saving time reduces deer-vehicle collisions: Daylight saving ended in the U.S. and Canada on November 7. The debate over the time change has raged for years. Now a new risk of standard time has emerged: The chances of a deer-vehicle collision increase. Deer are most active around dusk and dawn. In the first few weeks of November, there are over four times as many deer-vehicle accidents as in spring.  As night falls sooner, more cars are on the road at dusk. This causes a 72% rise in accidents during commuter hours.

Coastal darkening harms kelp forests: Fertilizers that run into the water increase the growth of algae, and that adds to pollution to cloud coastal water. This stops sunlight from reaching the photosynthetic organisms that rely on it for energy. Among other things, it impacts the growth of kelp forests. As the kelp forests diminish, we are losing an essential carbon sink. This amplifies climate change.

A puzzling route change

Some songbirds now migrate east to west:  In autumn, Richard's pipits leave Siberia’s grasslands for warmer climates. But the little songbirds are starting to use a new westerly route. This is the first known long-distance migration on an east-west axis. Songbirds normally migrate alone and follow a route by instinct, so changes like this are very rare.

Why do dogs tilt their heads? Heat tilting in dogs is a universally endearing trait. Scientists have accidentally linked the behavior to a dog’s memory. While studying canines' ability to learn words, they found that dogs often tilt their heads while listening to their owners. The lovable head tilt could be a sign that the dog is paying attention, or matching a word to a visual image in their head.

Coastal saltmarsh engineered to fight climate change: Scientists have re-flooded coastal wetlands in Scotland so they can use sea-level rise to fight climate change. They removed seawalls to allow water to flood back in. Then they waited for the wildlife to respond. The soil and plants in the salt marsh are now rich in carbon and are absorbing greenhouse gases.

Ancient Egyptian bees in danger: Honeybees were a symbol of wealth in ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptians used the bees to harvest honey and beeswax. The beeswax was central to mummification, wound dressing, and medicine. The Egyptians even built rafts to move the bees up and down the river to aid pollination. While this continues today, the species of bee has changed. The "Pharaonic" honeybee is now only found in Egypt's Wadi Al-Assiut nature preserve, and scientists are struggling to keep them from extinction.

The boat of U.S. ocean rower Angela Madsen has washed up in the Marshall Islands, 16 months after her fatal attempt to row alone from California to Hawaii.

Her custom-made boat, RowofLife, turned up on the east-facing shore of Mili Atoll at the end of October. Benjamin Chutaro, from nearby Majuro, was visiting his home island of Mili when he heard about the boat. He provided images and an account of the find.

Cameras gone

"Unfortunately, [people] from the island ransacked a lot of the equipment," he said. "I did find the EPIRB with her NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] identification number."

Chutaro also noted that though he identified five GoPro mounts on the boat, "I was not able to locate any [camera]," he said. "Hopefully none of the footage was erased."

Madsen had been at sea for 60 days and covered 2,000km of her 4,000km journey when she died. The Paralympian checked in with her wife on June 21, 2020, and mentioned that she needed to go into the water to make a few repairs to the boat.

Madsen’s last post said, “Tomorrow is a swim day. I have to re-shackle my bow anchor bridle in case there is a big storm. It came undone some time ago. I’ve been using the stern.”

She never made it back on board.

The cargo ship Polynesia found her body the following day. Madsen was still tethered to her boat. Though they recovered her body, they were unable to collect the boat. It drifted around the Pacific for over a year.

A veteran rower

Madsen had hoped to bag a trifecta of records on the row: first paraplegic, oldest woman, and first openly gay rower to cross the Pacific alone.

Madsen was a seasoned athlete. After a failed spinal surgery left her paralyzed in 1993, she competed in multiple sports at the highest level. The U.S marine veteran held six Guinness world records for her rowing. She crossed the Atlantic Ocean twice — once in a pair and once with a crew of 16. She rowed the Indian Ocean with a crew of 8, circumnavigated the UK with three other women, and crossed the Pacific Ocean as a pair. Outside of this, she competed in rowing, shot put, and javelin at the Paralympics.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Mysterious glass in the Atacama Desert may be from an ancient comet: Shards of twisted glass have turned up across a seven-kilometer-long corridor in the  Atacama Desert in Chile. The unusual green and black glass originated from a large comet that exploded in our atmosphere 12,000 years ago. The explosion produced intense heat and wind that melted the desert sand, creating silicate glass. Only meteorites and other materials from space contained the minerals found in this glass.

Japanese ports swamped by pumice spewed from undersea volcano: Volcanic pebbles have blocked much of Japan’s southern coastline. Undersea volcanic eruptions spewed out the pumice that is affecting 30 ports in Okinawa and Kagoshima. The floating pebbles have also damaged a large number of fishing boats. The debris from the eruption has had a “huge impact on fisheries...as well as the environment,” said Denny Tamaki, Okinawa Governor. The Fukutoku-Oka-no-Ba undersea volcano erupted in mid-August. It is 1,000km away from Japan, near Iwo Jima, of World War II fame.

Tracking a polar bear's diet

Polar Bears used to monitor climate change: Polar bears are helpful indicators of environmental change in the Arctic. The bears eat whatever food is readily available, and scientists can analyze their fat tissue. Their fatty acid signature acts as “a fingerprint for individual bears...you can see what that particular individual is eating," says one researcher. Scientists can use this to monitor the distribution of marine mammals -- the polar bear's prey -- in the Arctic.

SS Bloody Marsh shipwreck found: The rusted hulk of the SS Bloody Marsh, sunk by a German U-boat in 1943, has been discovered 160km off the coast of South Carolina. Torpedoes hit the oil tanker 78 years ago, on its maiden voyage. “Based on evidence surveyed, participating scientists are reasonably certain that it is SS Bloody Marsh,” the NOAA reported. A remotely operated camera discovered the wreck. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had been searching for the ship, which still holds 106,000 barrels of oil. “The site has the makings of an environmental disaster,” said experts.

The spider's dance

Night vision and artificial intelligence reveal secrets of spider webs: Scientists have used artificial intelligence and night vision to see how spiders build their webs. Cameras with a fast frame rate captured the hackled orb weaver spiders at work. Web-making behavior was similar across individual spiders. Algorithms can now correctly predict the position of a spider's legs as it works on a particular part of the web. “By following every tiny movement, this research is finally unlocking the complex ‘dance’ spiders do to make their webs,” said entomologist Adam Hart.

Repeated extreme ice melting in Greenland raises global flood risk: Extreme ice melt has increased in Greenland over the last four decades. Over the last 10 years, 3.5 trillion tonnes of ice have melted from the ice sheet that sits atop the world's largest island. Since 1980, Greenland's meltwater has increased by 21%. This, in turn, has raised sea level by one centimetre. Scientists believe that global warming and increasingly extreme weather cause this excessive melt. Models estimate that by 2100, the accelerating melt will raise the global sea level between 3 and 23 cm.

Saber-Toothed Cats were Social Animals: Saber-toothed tigers are one of the best-studied predators from the Late Pleistocene era. One particular individual with a deformed hip bone suffered from hip dysplasia, a hereditary disease. This suggests that the big cats were social animals. The affected individual would have needed a social structure to help them survive with this defect. “[The] animal...was able to live to adulthood," said Dr. Mairin Balisi. "This suggests that it must have received support, perhaps by food-sharing with its family.”

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Ice loss is changing local seal hunts: Inupiat residents in northwestern Alaska hunt bearded seals. Continually declining sea ice has drastically reduced their available hunting time and forced them to change their practices. From 2003 to 2019, the seal-hunting season diminished by over two weeks. To maintain the haul they require for their communities, the hunters have had to make more frequent trips in larger stretches of open water. This significantly increases the dangers of the hunt.

New species of beaked whale identified: Scientists have accidentally identified a new species of beaked whale, the Ramari’s beaked whale. It lives in the waters around South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Researchers were investigating another species, the True’s beaked whale, when they made the discovery. “The genetics and skull shape of True’s beaked whales in the northern hemisphere are very different from True’s beaked whales in the southern hemisphere. It’s clear that they are different species,” said the authors of the study.

The Biblical persimmon

2,000-year-old amethyst seal found in Israel: A 2,000-year-old seal has turned up in the foundations of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Commonly used to sign documents and worn as jewelry, the amethyst seal is engraved with a dove and fruit-bearing branch. The plant may be the Biblical persimmon, which is not related to the modern orange persimmon. “This may be the first time a seal has been discovered with an engraving of the precious and famous plant, which until now we could only read about in historical descriptions,” said archaeologist Dr. Shukron.

Why do only mammals have tusks? The only animals on earth with tusks are mammals. Scientists have now discovered that animals such as rhinos, walruses, and elephants all have an ancient, non-mammalian ancestor that predates the dinosaurs. "We were able to show that the first tusks belonged to animals called dicynodonts,” said Ken Angielczyk, author of the study. The dicynodonts lived from 270 to 201 million years ago. Though their closest living relatives are mammals, they looked more reptilian.

Great white sharks bite humans due to mistaken identity: Great white shark attacks on humans could sometimes be a case of mistaken identity. Scientists used footage of seals, sea lions, and humans in the water in a “shark vision” model that replicates the vision of a juvenile shark. “We found that surfers, swimmers, and pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) on the surface of the ocean will look the same to a white shark looking up from below because these sharks can’t see fine details or colors,” said Laura Ryan, a researcher at Macquarie University.

Pluto supporters press their case

Pluto is no longer a planet –- or is it? In 2006, poor Pluto lost its full planetary status and was reclassified as a dwarf planet. Leading up to this, astronomers discovered several objects beyond Neptune that were similar to Pluto. The choice was to add more planets or to dock Pluto from the list. The International Astronomical Union chose the latter. But 15 years later, the debate over Pluto continues. Planetary scientist Jim Bell argues that “Everything with interesting geology should be a planet. It doesn’t matter where you are, it matters what you are.”

Rare owl photographed in wild for the first time: Shelley’s eagle owls are the largest owls in Africa’s rainforests and among the largest owls in the world, at up to 61cm long. Despite their size, photographers have not managed to capture a single picture of this rare owl in the wild in 150 years. Then on October 16, scientists from Imperial College London snapped a photo of the large bird in Ghana’s Atewa forest. "This is a sensational discovery," enthused Dr. Nathaniel Annorbah. "We've been searching for this mysterious bird for years in the western lowlands. So to find it here in the ridgetop forests of the east...is a huge surprise."

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week. 

Domesticated horses trace back to Western Eurasian Steppes: People have used horses for transport, farming, and warfare for centuries, but their origins have never been clear. Researchers analyzed the remains of 273 ancient horses from possible regions of horse domestication. They identified the lower Volga-Don region on the Western Eurasian Steppes as the centre from which horses spread across the world 4,200 years ago.

Who built these Mayan ruins?

Mayan ruins resemble Teotihuacan: Archaeologists have found a small plaza and temple in the Mayan capital of Tikal in Guatemala. The new discoveries resemble the ruins of La Ciudadela and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Teotihuacan. Since Teotihuacan conquered Tikal in the year 378, “it is almost like Teotihuacan had installed their own neighborhood or embassy in Tikal,” says archaeologist Thomas Garrison. Old maps of the sites did not show the ruins because jungle growth concealed them. Lidar mapping revealed the hidden ruins.

Major ocean current could warm greatly: The Kuroshio Current in the North Pacific Ocean is crucial to many ecosystems and the fishing industry. The northernmost corals in the world occur here, thanks to its warmth. Because of climate change and increased carbon dioxide, this current is warming three times faster than other ocean regions. Modeling shows that an extension of the Kuroshio Current is moving northward, but researchers are unsure what the repercussions this will have.

African elephants lose tusks to evolution: Ivory poaching in Africa has led to the evolution of tuskless elephants in many regions. Though tuskless elephants are rare, their numbers are much higher in certain places, and they are also all female. Half of the female calves born to tuskless mothers are also tuskless, while all male calves retain their tusks. In addition, two-thirds of their offspring are now female.

Hubble Space Telescope shows a star’s destruction: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has given astronomers an unprecedented view of a star’s demise. Previously, “we would show up after the fact and try to figure out what happened,” said Ryan Foley, University of California. The new information may give astronomers an early warning system for other stars about to go supernova.

The last two northern white rhinos

Kenyan northern white rhino retired from breeding program: Only two northern white rhinos remain in the world, and Najin is one of them. Zoologists have now retired her from a breeding program that has been trying to save the species. The last male died in 2018, and now the only two survivors are Najin and her daughter Fatu. Neither is able to carry a calf to term. Scientists harvested eggs from Najin before she was retired, and collected sperm from the last remaining male. Currently, 12 viable embryos exist. These will be implanted into surrogate southern white rhinos to try and save this species on the very verge of disappearing.

Japanese wolf is the closest relative of domestic dogs: The Japanese wolf, a subspecies of the gray wolf, became extinct in 1905, but many bone and tissue samples still exist. DNA from the Japanese wolf also occurs in an evolutionary branch of wolves that arose 20,000 to 40,000 years ago. This branch led to both Japanese wolves and domestic dogs.

Undersea volcanic eruption caused odd seismic waves: Seismometers worldwide recorded a major identified event in 2018. This confused scientists because no one actually felt the shock waves. Eventually, it became clear that volcanic activity on the seafloor off the French island of Mayotte caused the waves. The eruption is the largest ever recorded in the sea. Since the eruption of the magma chamber began, a new underwater volcano has grown to a height of 820m. The location previously showed very little elevation.

The unassuming seaside town of Nazaré in Portugal is home to the world’s biggest and most aggressive waves. The once sleepy village/resort of fishermen and fishmongers, which feared these waters that shipwrecked hundreds of vessels, now hosts thousands of visitors every year. They come from all around the world to watch expert surfers brave these Atlantic walls of water. 

Nazaré Canyon

The most notable cause of the size of these waves is the presence of Nazaré Canyon, the largest submarine canyon in Europe. This 230km stretch of sharp escarpments, gorges, and steep cliffs form a V-shape that focuses waves at its sharp end, off Nazaré. This submarine structure spreads out from there, gradually joining the 5,000m deep Iberian Abyssal Plain.

The topography confines internal tidal currents and refracts oncoming waves, causing them to double in size as they join -- so-called constructive interference. The waves rise and break well away from the shoreline, so surfers don't crash against the coastal rocks.

Despite the waves' monstrous size and power, no surfer has yet died at Nazaré, though there have been a couple of close calls.

The North Canyon Project specializes in understanding Nazaré's wave action. For surfers or the simply curious, webcams show the live sea state at Nazaré.

Swells and wave action

Some big waves come from storms brewing further out at sea. But Nazaré's waves have a consistent westerly swell that originates in the North Atlantic. Prevailing winds here come from northwest or southwest. Swells traveling WNW create the best waves, up to 30m, thanks to constructive interference with the canyon. The biggest swells usually form from October to April, and the very largest typically come in February. Surfers consider the waves from WNW swells the highest quality because of their smooth tubes.

Surf city

Locals have always surfed and bodyboarded on these waves. Foreigners started visiting Nazaré in the 1960s, and word spread. Lately, it has become the world's premier big-wave surfing destination. Surfers need jetski tows to reach the right point on the wave before it starts to break.

In 2011, pro surfer Garrett McNamara surfed a 24m wave, a Guinness World Record. Then in 2018, Brazilian surfer Rodrigo Koxa broke that record on an incrementally greater 24.38m wave. Finally, in 2020, another Brazilian, Maya Gabeira, surfed 22.4m, the largest ever by a woman. Many others claim to have tackled higher waves, but these remain unconfirmed.

Australia is the sixth-largest country in the world by area and features every type of landscape from dense rainforest to bone-dry desert. Temperatures can soar above 40˚C and plummet to 0˚C within hours. Its size and ruggedness invite adventure, and over the years, there have been some true Australian classics. Here is our pick of the country's hardest modern expeditions.

Jon Muir: Trekked alone and unsupported across Australia

Australia’s Outback is huge, largely unpeopled, and extremely harsh. It crosses three mountain ranges (MacDonnell, Musgrave, and Petermann) and four deserts (Gibson, Great Sandy, Great Victoria, and Tanami). During summer, the flats can bake at 45˚C. Water is scarce and hard to find.

In 2001, Jon Muir walked 2,500km alone across this formidable land. Starting in Port Augusta, he finished 128 days later in Burketown, without a GPS or resupplies. This is what makes the trip so remarkable: Over those months, he managed to scrounge most of his own food and water. It included scavenging dead cows found along the way, but also a lot of termites. Once, he dined on a feral cat.

Muir pulled his supplies in a cart. He had 55 maps, a compass, rice, muesli, and a gun. Mostly, he survived on rainwater. His only companion was his Jack Russell, Seraphine.

“It was a self-imposed isolation that came in the form of a quest to walk across Australia, hunting and gathering along the way, using only my own energy to get me there”, Muir said later. “But it wasn’t loneliness, rather an incredible sense of aloneness.”

For four months, Muir went without a shower. Sometimes the puddles he drank from were polluted with dead animals. When he finished his expedition, he’d lost a third of his body weight.

Paul Caffyn: Circumnavigated Australia by kayak

Paul Caffyn's circumnavigation of Australia might be the most incredible kayak expedition of all time. In 1982, he spent 360 days paddling 15,000km.

Caffyn had already kayaked around New Zealand and Great Britain. Paddling around Australia started as a joke but evolved into a bull-headed expedition to take on the seemingly impossible.

Australia is one of the most formidable sea kayaking circumnavigations in the world. Caffyn paddled alone, through the surf and big waves. He survived a cyclone and always had to stay alert for crocodiles. But the Zuytdorp Cliffs were by far the biggest challenge.

Considered impossible to paddle because it required covering 160km without landing, the Zuytdorp Cliffs required skill, determination, and planning.

He used caffeine pills to stay awake. He slit a hole in his wetsuit to pee and took anti-diarrhea tablets to subdue his bowels. Then Caffyn paddled the entire stretch of limestone in 36 nonstop hours.

He was the first person to kayak the Zuytdorp Cliffs, and eventually became the first person to circumnavigate Australia by kayak.

In 2009, Freya Hoffmeister became the first woman to kayak around Australia. It took her 322 days.

Andrew McAuley: Attempted to kayak the Tasman Sea

The 2,000km journey across the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand is a direct route but not a simple one. The vast expanse of wind-whipped ocean and New Zealand’s unpredictable surf make this expedition both difficult and hazardous.

In 2007, Andrew McAuley set out from Australia, hoping to become the first person to make the crossing by kayak. He was highly experienced. He had already kayaked Bass Strait, between the Australian mainland and Tasmania, crossed the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia, and paddled 800km in the Arctic.

Paul Caffyn had made two previous attempts to kayak the Tasman Sea. Both attempts ended unsuccessfully.

McAuley had made an initial attempt in 2006 but had aborted after just one night. He had struggled to stay warm in the cockpit and knew that such an early problem made it too dangerous to continue.

In 2007, he tried again. This time, the voyage cost his life.

More than two-thirds of the way from New South Wales to New Zealand, McAuley encountered horrific storms. The final third of the journey had been a concern. Approaching New Zealand, strong waves battered his kayak.

Despite McAuley’s little removable cockpit dome attachment, which would allow him to sleep and hopefully self-right the boat during the month-long voyage, his kayak was otherwise an off-the-shelf model. Unlike most "kayaks" used on such crossings, it did not include a cabin where he could stretch out. It was very hard for him to recline in the boat to sleep. Over the weeks, the sleep deprivation wore him down. It was likely responsible for his fatal lapse just 50km -- not even a day -- from the end of his journey.

The New Zealand Coastguard picked up a garbled distress call almost one month after he set off. At first, they couldn’t be made out. Eventually, the words “sinking” and “help” became clear.

They later found his intact kayak, but no trace of his body.

That same year, two Australians, James Castrission and Justin Jones, successfully crossed the Tasman Sea, although they used a custom boat with an enlarged aft section in which they could comfortably sleep.

In 2014, Australian Stuart Cleary attempted the crossing. After just 24 hours at sea, he called for rescue and had to abandon his vessel. His kayak washed up on Murawai Beach in New Zealand 18 months later.

Finally, in 2018, after 62 days of paddling, Scott Donaldson paddled from Coffs Harbour to New Plymouth and became the first person to kayak solo from Australia to New Zealand. It was his third attempt. Both Cleary and Donaldson's boats also had a cabin where they could take refuge and sleep.

Robyn Davidson: Went across Australia by camel

When she trekked across the Australian Outback, Robyn Davidson wanted to find meaning, away from the noise of modern society. It was 1977, and Australia was experiencing a political shift. With an election coming later in the year, parties were ramping up their campaigns.

Davidson was a left-wing liberal and soon tired of what she viewed as overly commercialized political discourse. To escape, she set off from Alice Springs with her dog and four camels. She headed west across Australia.

Mostly, she walked alone. Occasionally people joined her for sections of the 2,700km journey. A photographer from National Geographic commandeered snippets of her solitude. (The two also had a brief affair.) For a month, an elderly aboriginal man also accompanied her.

When they parted ways, Davidson confronted the most challenging section of her walk: the Gibson Desert. It took her a month to cross the Gibson’s vast, undulating sand dunes.

Davidson's complete journey to Shark Bay lasted nine months. She dealt with dehydration, sick camels, and her dog, Diggity, was poisoned -- as was Jon Muir's little Jack Russell years later.

This was a time before “constant observation”, as Davidson puts it. She traveled without a cell phone, sat phone, GPS device, SPOT, or other modern safety gadgets.

"It was the 70s and I think it was a time when a lot of young people were experimenting in their lives, and freedom was hugely important to us — the idea of freedom — and I think we knew that freedom would ultimately involve risk,” Davidson said years later.

Her bestselling book Tracks has inspired countless adventurers since, including Esther Nunn, who recreated the same journey in 2007.

Andrew Harper: Walked 4,600km across Australia

With two camels as beasts of burden, Andrew Harper walked across the Australian desert 22 years after Robyn Davidson. His quest, to follow the Tropic of Capricorn, was an exercise in “pure desert navigation,” he said. Australia’s Tropic of Capricorn passes through small settlements, the Gibson and Simpson Deserts, and outback Queensland.

Harper had a “strong aversion to following tracks or roads across deserts”. He used camels because they were practical for crossing large areas of wilderness. Without them, or at least without Jon Muir's supreme survival skills, the 229-day expedition wouldn’t have been possible.

When Harper completed his 4,637km journey, he was the first person to walk across Australia from west to east. He spent more than a third of his journey alone.

Terra Roam: 17,000km around Australia

Terra Roam was inspired by Robyn Davidson’s book Tracks.

“I simply wanted to walk around Australia, seeing as much as possible, and going alone was the most practical way,” said Roam.

Roam didn’t set out to achieve a world first. Two other women had walked the route before her, but both had enlisted support vehicles. About halfway through, when a news crew mentioned support vehicles, Roam realized that what she was doing was significant. While she resupplied at towns, she was on her own for much of the time.

“When I reached Darwin, I could confidently claim to be the first woman to walk the length and breadth of Western Australia solo [and] unsupported, because on my southern traverse, I took the scenic route via Esperance, Albany, and Cape Leeuwin,” Roam said.

Roam designed a 200-litre barrow (named Dory) to transport her essentials. She did not pull Dory, she pushed it. This employed bigger, stronger, muscle groups.

Starting in Tasmania, Roam broke off sections seasonally. Most nights she slept in a tent or hammock. On occasion, she’d find a room for the night.

Over the 17,000km journey, there were numerous setbacks. Early on, doctors found three tumors that needed removing. Later, she was hospitalized with heat stress. On one highway 1, a truck driver tried to run her down, and she battled to keep her mental health. Yet Roam persisted.

She walked through monsoons, dealt with scorching temperatures often above 40˚C, and survived a 289km stretch of outback between water resupplies.

In 2018, Roam completed the full Australian circum-walk that she had started in 2014.

Louis-Philippe Loncke: Unsupported winter crossing of Tasmania

Tasmania is small but wild, and over 20% of the island is protected. It’s also said to have some of the cleanest air in the world. But Tasmania's wild spaces can be seriously tough going.

In 2018, Belgian Louis-Philippe Loncke tested Tasmania’s brutality. He walked, without resupply, from the north of the island to the south. In winter.

Loncke created a unique set of rules: he was not to be resupplied with food or fuel, would not use roads, and could only sleep in his tent. Each condition pushed his physical and mental limits.

When he set off from the interestingly named town of Penguin, his pack weighed 60 kilograms. He carried enough food for 44 days. In retrospect, he may have packed too light. Some days, he had to ration so severely that he would only eat 30 grams of nuts. Other days he survived on warm water and aspirin.

During his expedition, torrential rain soaked him, and he waded through waist-deep snow. When he lost his headlamp, he navigated by moonlight.

Loncke emerged at Cockle Creek 52 days after he started. He had walked 550km and was 15kg lighter.

"A few friends and adventurers said it was completely mad," he said.

On December 4, 1872, a crew sailing for Gibraltar found an unassuming merchant vessel adrift off the coast of the Azores. It was devoid of life.

The Mary Celeste’s cargo and supplies were relatively undisturbed. The former occupants’ belongings were present, the sails were furled, and the lifeboat was gone. With little evidence of chaos, there wasn’t much to go on. The sailors took the Mary Celeste to Gibraltar for further investigation. Soon after, it became the subject of conspiracy theories, rumors, and lies.

The Mary Celeste was not an extraordinary ship. It was an average brigantine, refitted from the wreck of its predecessor, the Amazon. After a couple of days of bad weather, the vessel left New York with seven crew members. It was captained by Benjamin Spooner Briggs, an experienced, well-respected sailor. His wife and two-year-old daughter were also on board. They were traveling to Genoa with over 1,700 barrels of denatured alcohol.

Historians assume that all was well until the ship’s final log entry at 5 am on November 25. What took place between then and the Mary Celeste’s discovery by the crew of the Dei Gratia, which was eight days behind them, was a mystery.

They found the ship eerie quiet, with no trace of the crew

The Dei Gratia was heading to Gibraltar when they stumbled across the Mary Celeste. Captain Morehouse sent his first and second mates, Oliver Deveau and John Wright, to the Mary Celeste to check it out. They found the ship eerily quiet. No one was on board and the sails were partially set. But there was some evidence of disturbance. They found disheveled ropes, a couple of open hatches, a broken compass out of place, and a damaged pump. 

A six-month supply of food sat untouched, but nine of the alcohol barrels were empty, and some navigational instruments and documents were missing. Some personal items in Briggs’ quarters looked scattered, but there were no signs of a struggle. The floors were wet, and the pair discovered water in the ship’s hold. The lifeboat was nowhere in sight.

Otherwise, the ship was in good enough condition to sail and was by no means sinking. Morehouse ordered some of his crew to sail the Mary Celeste alongside the Dei Gratia to Gibraltar.

Was foul play involved?

Before rewarding the crew of the Dei Gratia with salvage payments, Gibraltar’s Attorney General, Frederick Solly-Flood, led an investigation. According to first-hand accounts, he was not open-minded. Once he caught a whiff of the Dei Gratia crew’s eagerness to collect the salvage earnings, he was out for blood.

He immediately suspected foul play and aligned the evidence with his hypotheses. It was not uncommon for ships to be over-insured and then intentionally run aground. After finding red stains on Briggs’ sword and marks from a sharp weapon on the bow, he believed that Captain Morehouse and his crew had stalked the Mary Celeste on the high seas, boarded the ship, and killed Briggs and his party. 

Solly-Flood had other theories too.  He would not rule out the possibility of a member of Briggs’ crew indulging in the denatured alcohol, killing everyone in a drunken rage, and fleeing in the lifeboat. Solly-Flood even suspected one of the Mary Celeste’s investors, James Winchester, of conspiring to kill the crew. Eventually, a third-party investigation found that the red stains were not blood. Flood gave up his quest and the Dei Gratia crew received a menial £1,700 payout.

Plausible theories

The disappearance of the Mary Celeste’s crew is perhaps the most intriguing nautical mystery. Many believe that a conspiracy took place. The Mary Celeste was over-insured, and many journalists suspected that the crew's disappearance was no accident. Others believed that the Dei Gratia crew was responsible, as per Flood’s theory. Some theorized that Briggs and Morehouse were good friends who worked together to collect the insurance money. However, there is no evidence of their friendship. 

Other theories focus on the ship itself. Perhaps faulty equipment caused the crew to abandon the ship? Maybe the captain overestimated the volume of water in the hold, which turned out to be only 1.1m deep. In these scenarios, the Mary Celeste’s crew would have taken the lifeboat to escape. However, this does not explain the fate of the 10 passengers. The lifeboat was never found.

A natural phenomenon could be responsible. A powerful waterspout could have swept everyone overboard. It could also explain the water found in the cabins and the hold. Some historians, and even a relative of Briggs, support the idea of an earthquake rocking the ship and causing the denatured alcohol to leak from its barrels, prompting Briggs to abandon ship, fearing an explosion. 

Down the rabbit hole

Publishing houses, newspapers, and magazines picked up different versions of the story and devoted column inches to individuals who claimed to be survivors of the ill-fated journey to Genoa. A journal in Edinburgh wrote that a giant sea creature had dragged the passengers into the depths of the Atlantic. Another journal claimed that ravenous sharks had eaten the crew. 

Years later, a couple of men came forward, claiming to be survivors of the voyage. The New York Herald Tribune ran a story told by Laurence J. Keating, an Irish writer who claimed that the Dei Gratia crew killed everyone on board the Mary Celeste. Embarrassingly for the paper, this turned out to be false.

Another man, R. Lucy, claimed that the Mary Celeste’s crew abandoned ship when they found a drifting vessel full of silver and gold. Supposedly, they sailed it to Spain where they lived comfortably for the rest of their lives. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle weighs in

Most notorious was the fictionalized account written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for Cornhill Magazine. He never intended for readers to accept his short story as truth. Conan Doyle called it J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement and wrote it from a survivor’s perspective. In the story, a man goes on a murderous rampage, killing the captain and crew. Jephson survived because he wore a protective amulet. Conan Doyle changed the ship's name and renamed the crew, but this did not stop readers from believing it word for word. 

Modern theories

More recently, researcher Anne MacGregor came to the reasonable conclusion that Captain Briggs may have abandoned the Mary Celeste thinking that the boat was sinking. The disassembled pump may have given him this false belief. Reports from the original logbook (which was conveniently lost in the 1880s) showed that the Mary Celeste was almost 200km away from the position he had calculated them to be. The log also states that he changed course.

MacGregor believes that Briggs changed course to get to the Azores. From there, he would have been able to get his bearings. This theory assumes that Briggs then made the difficult decision to abandon ship because he was unsure of where they were, and if the Mary Celeste was able to sail further.

Finally, UCL professor Andrea Sella simulated an explosion on a Mary Celeste replica. He found that the denatured alcohol (he used butane gas for his experiment) could have been accidentally lit by a crew member’s smoking pipe. This could have caused a ball of fire to shoot up the hatch. The explosion did not cause any visible burning signs. An explosion could have caused chaos and resulted in the evacuation of the ship.

But none of these theories explain the disappearance of the entire crew. Where did they go once they abandoned the ship? Did they drift until they died of starvation? Did they start a new life on an uncharted island? Nearly 150 years later, the fate of the Mary Celeste and her crew is still a mystery.

On October 14, the U.S. Coast Guard and the NOAA announced that they had found the long-lost remains of the 135-year-old arctic rescue vessel, the USS Bear.

The sunken ship lay 150km south of Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. Famously, it went down in 1963, when a storm popped its towline and punctured the hull. At the time, it was being towed from Nova Scotia to Philadelphia.

It wasn't until 2019 that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration researchers began charting the seabed near the Bear's supposed foundering point. In early 2021, advanced remote vehicles fitted with videography equipment zeroed in on the precise location of the wreckage.

The Bear and the Greely Relief Expedition

The Greely disaster

The discovery both closes a decades-long search and recalls a historically significant lesson in arctic expeditions. The U.S. Navy purchased the Bear in 1884 for a dire mission to rescue the survivors of the Greely expedition to the Canadian High Arctic.

Adolphus Greely, a lieutenant of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, arrived on Ellesmere Island with his 24 men three years earlier as part of the first International Polar Year. They did a lot of science and also bested the old British record for Farthest North.

However, they were dropped off at their research site by ship and they relied on another ship to reach them again and pick them up. Twice, those relief expeditions failed because of bad ice, and Greely and his men left their station and retreated 400km south in the hope of rescue.

For eight months, they overwintered on a horrible rocky island, living in a cold stone shelter, trying to stretch out 40 days of food. Only six of the original 25 would survive this ordeal. Some desperate men secretly cannibalized the bodies of their deceased comrades.

By the time the Bear and its sister ship, the Thetis, arrived in 1884, Greely and the remaining men were on the verge of death. Six survived, but it was the greatest disaster in U.S arctic exploration.

Later Operations and Wreck

Following the celebrated rescue, the U.S. Treasury Department assumed custody of both ships and commissioned them as "revenue cutters". According to the NOAA's press release, the Bear later came under the purview of the U.S. Coast Guard. It served as an arctic patrol ship, "saving lives and dispensing justice in the remote and often challenging region" for more than 40 years. In 1948, the Coast Guard sold the Bear to a sealing privateer. It was decommissioned entirely not long afterward.

In 1963, the Bear transferred custody again, this time to a business owner in Philidelphia. He intended to repurpose the ship into a museum and restaurant. During its dispatch from Nova Scotia to Philidelphia, the Bear met its demise.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week. 

Modern crocodiles evolving rapidly: Crocodile ancestors date back 235 million years, to the Triassic period. But today, they are currently evolving faster than they have at any point in history. Analysis of crocodilian skulls shows that modern species look so similar because they have evolved to have the same skull shapes, not because of their shared ancestry.

Norwegian cave holds 100,000-year-old polar bear bones: The EvoCave project began in September to excavate cave systems in Norway. Already, their first dig discovered pieces of bone that date back 100,000 years. Many fragments come from prehistoric wolves, polar bears, and seals. The findings show that there must have been multiple warm phases during the last glaciation in Europe.

A human disease appears in chimpanzees

Leprosy identified in wild chimpanzees for the first time: Leprosy-infected chimps have turned up in Guinea-Bissau and the Ivory Coast. The images show that the infected chimpanzees develop symptoms similar to those in humans. The chimps had lesions and growths on their faces, hair loss, and "claw hand" – excessive nail growth and deformed fingers. These are the first known cases of leprosy in wild chimpanzees and the first known non-human cases in Africa.

Octopuses can ‘see’ with their skin: Many cephalopods are known for their mesmerizing color-changing displays. Now scientists have discovered that octopuses can do this without using their eyes or brain. Their skin detects light and changes with the color temperature, in order to blend in better.

An ancient winery

1,500-year-old winemaking facility unearthed in Israel: The largest known wine production complex from the Byzantine period has been discovered. The Israel Antiques Authority unearthed the facility in Yavne, south of Tel Aviv. The site contains five wine presses, four warehouses for aging, and kilns for firing clay amphorae. Archaeologists estimate that the site produced two million litres of wine every year. “We were surprised to discover a sophisticated factory here, which was used to produce wine in commercial quantities,” said researchers.

The Earth is reflecting less light: The amount of sunlight that the Earth reflects has noticeably lessened in recent years. A study from 1998 to 2017 found that the largest decrease happened in the last two years. The team measured earthshine –- the light that reflects off the Earth, to the moon, and then back to our planet. The drop may be due to warmer temperatures along the Pacific coasts of North and South America.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Dog DNA reveals ancient trade network connecting Arctic to outside world: Ancient arctic communities traded with the outside world 7,000 years ago. DNA analysis shows that Siberian dogs interbred with dogs from Europe and the Near East. Dogs have been central to life in the Arctic for thousands of years. Inuit and their predecessors used them to hunt, travel, and for clothing and food. The DNA analysis reveals that the trade networks of ancient populations may have extended down to the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas.

AstraZeneca Covid vaccine arrives in Antarctica: Nine months after it became available, the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine has made it to Antarctica. A series of increasingly small airplanes flew the vaccine 16,000km to immunize 23 staff members at the British Rothera station. For the entire journey, refrigeration kept the doses from  2˚C to 8˚C. Antarctica has stayed COVID-free, other than a few cases at the Chilean base.

Unmasking the gorilla's social distance habits

Gorillas also social distance: Mountain gorillas in Rwanda social distance from neighboring primate groups. Respiratory infections can be fatal for gorillas. Researchers have studied outbreaks among the primates for 16 years to decipher how these diseases spread. Though the disease runs quickly between individuals in a group, it rarely impacts other populations of gorillas. They found that when gorillas from different groups came into contact, they kept a distance of one to two metres.

Mass extinction 30 million years ago in Africa and Arabia:  Scientists can now pinpoint when different mammalian species first appeared in Africa. The analysis of hundreds of fossils has created a family tree. Many fossil species disappeared around the Eocene-Oligocene boundary and then reappeared later in the Oligocene. Scientists think that a huge extinction event occurred around 30 million years ago, followed by a recovery period.

Finally, a malaria vaccine

World’s first malaria vaccine given go-ahead: Malaria is the largest cause of childhood death in sub-Saharan Africa. Every year, it kills over 260,000 kids under the age of five. The world health organization now recommends a vaccine for malaria in Africa. “This is a historic moment....a breakthrough for science, child health, and malaria control,” said WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “Using this vaccine...could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.”

Giant ground sloths may have been meat-eating scavengers: Modern sloths are vegetarians, but their ice-age ancestors were opportunistic scavengers. Darwin’s ground sloths could grow to three metres long and weigh up to 2,000kg. Nitrogen isotopes in fossil hair samples showed that the ancient animals were omnivores, not herbivores as previously thought.

Why do pilot whales chase killer whales? Killer whales are the top predator in most places where they occur, but when pilot whales approach them, the orcas fall silent. This has surprised scientists. Killer whales in southern Iceland actively avoid pilot whales, and the pilot whales have been observed chasing the predator at high speeds. We aren't sure yet why this happens. The two species do not eat the same prey, and killer whales aren’t known to eat smaller pilot whales.

Since our last ocean roundup, journeys across the North Atlantic have ended in success and a journey across the Pacific is on pause.

Pacific Ocean

Erden Eruç (Turkey)

Erden Eruç began his row on June 22. He plans to row 11,000km from California to Hong Kong. Once he reaches Asia, he will continue overland to Everest, which he plans to climb in autumn 2022.

He had wanted to row non-stop to Hong Kong, but weather and visa logistics have forced him to pause in Hawaii. He arrived in Waikiki on September 10 after 80 days of rowing. Of the final stretch into the harbor, he said, “The challenge was immense, the winds never let up…I had to steel myself to the thought that I was going to stay on the oars for as long as necessary.”

Since stopping in Hawaii, he has made multiple repairs to the boat and returned briefly to the mainland to organize his visa. He hopes to re-launch for the rest of his row in the next few days.

North Atlantic, U.S. to Europe

Guirec Soudée (France)

Guirec Soudée arrived in Brest, France on October 1. The Frenchman was at sea for 107 days, rowing from Massachusetts to France. This is the return leg of a roundtrip journey: In December 2020, he rowed in 74 days from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean.

At the end of June, Soudée lost his communication devices to a storm. He decided to continue without them and asked passing ships and boats to send his location to his family.  Occasionally, weeks went by with no updates. Just five days before he finished, his worried family wrote on social media, “The non-news of the last few days is forcing us to consider several scenarios.”

The last month of his journey was difficult. Bad weather pushed him off course and forced him to a standstill. On September 14, he was in the same position he had been in three weeks earlier, despite his best efforts. His family called him a “prisoner to the waves and current”.

Out of a dark place

Mark Delstanche (UK) 

Mark Delstanche has become the first person to row solo from New York to London. The crossing from Battery Park, New York to Tower Bridge, London took the former firefighter 97 days.

The first 10 days of the trip went quite smoothly. Then he had to row through some of the harshest conditions seen in years.  Speaking to South China Morning Post, Delstanche said, “I found myself huddling in my cabin, wanting it to be over. If I could have pressed a button and got out of there, I would. I found myself in a place of my head I’d never been before.”

His wife persuaded him to continue, and in time, he became more positive. “To be back home with my family, and to be in the pub with a couple of pints and a burger was the motivation,” he said.

Lost 13kg despite 6,000 calories a day

David ‘Dinger’ Bell (UK)

Dave Bell triumphantly arrived in Cornwall after 119 days at sea.  He is one of the first people to row unsupported from New York to mainland Britain.  He had initially intended to land in Falmouth but had to aim for Newlyn Harbour, further down the coast, because of weather.

The former Royal Marine ended with a marathon 45-hour row. “I didn’t want to finish in the Scillies”, he told the BBC. "I wanted to make the mainland." During the journey, he lost 13kg, despite consuming 6,000 calories per day.

Like everyone who tackled the North Atlantic this year, he faced incredibly tough conditions. Unlike other crews, he tackled the three-metre waves and tropical storms despite his fear of open water. The weather caused huge delays and forced Bell to spend weeks on his para-anchor. When he arrived, he had just one day of food remaining. “I’m never doing anything dangerous ever again,” Bell said back on dry land.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Genetic study reveals how ancient seafarers settled Polynesia: The islands of Polynesia were the last habitable region to be settled by humans. New genetic research has revealed how and when the migrants settled. They moved to Samoa first and Rapa Nui -- commonly known as Easter Island -- last or almost last. From Samoa, they spread to Fiji, Tonga, and Rarotonga in the 9th century. Much later, in the 13th century, they continued to Rapa Nui and Raivavae.

Glow-in-the-dark gophers

Pocket gophers glow in the dark: Ultraviolet biofluorescence is widespread in fish, amphibians, birds, and plants. It is far less common among mammals. We can now add pocket gophers to the shortlist of glow-in-the-dark mammals. Researchers tested four species of these gophers. Under UV light, all individuals’ abdomens fluoresced bright orange pink. Their backs were slightly duller. Some also glowed blue around their mouths.

Climate change threatens the polar ocean's food web: Polar oceans host some of the largest food webs on earth. The base of the marine food web is microscopic phytoplankton. In colder water, the phytoplankton are eukaryotic, which means that their cells have a distinct nucleus. As water temperatures rise, the prokaryotic phytoplankton (without nuclei) that occur in warmer waters could replace them. “Prokaryotes are not capable of producing all the juicy proteins and lipids that eukaryotes can,” says marine microbiologist Thomas Mock. This would have huge consequences for the entire arctic food web.

‘Ghost tracks’ suggest people came to the Americas earlier than believed: Over 60 footprints found in New Mexico have been dated between 23,000 and 21,000 years ago. If the fossil findings are correct, it proves that humans walked through North America during the last Ice Age –- earlier than previously thought. Scientists calculated the age of the footprints by radiocarbon dating the aquatic plants ingrained into the prints. Still, some archaeologists aren’t convinced. They want the dating double-checked in other ways. “This is the kind of stuff that makes you rewrite textbooks,” said Loren Davis, Oregon State University. "For the good of the field, we need really high standards."

The Goldilocks principle works for pandas

Too much of a good home is bad for panda mating: Experts think the Goldilocks principle can be applied to creating habitats for giant pandas. The vulnerable species thrives and reproduces most effectively when its habitat is "just right". This occurs when 80 percent of its habitat is ideal. If the ideal environment exceeds this, the bears spread out too much. Then their reproductive success declines rapidly.

Vampire bats prefer to drink with friends: Vampire bats that have bonded while roosting and grooming often team up to drink blood. Researchers studied a colony’s social network using tiny bat backpacks housing computer sensors on 50 female bats. The bats rarely left the roost together and mostly foraged alone, but if they bumped into a roost buddy while hunting, they fed together. By contrast, when the bats met a feeding stranger, a fight was the most common outcome.

Personality matters, even for squirrels: It is not as easy for a scientist to talk about an animal's personality as it is for a pet owner. But a new study is the first to document personality in golden-mantled ground squirrels. They displayed four main personality traits; boldness, aggressiveness, activity level, and sociability. Different traits gave the squirrels different advantages. Bolder ones had larger core areas. Those that were more aggressive or social had greater access to perches.

What is the ocean twilight zone and how can we solve the marine climate crisis unfolding within it? These are the questions that ocean experts will dive into Tuesday night during "Illuminating the Abyss", a virtual roundtable event.

The online broadcast is free to all registrants and will be live-streamed from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on September 21, from 7:30-8:15 PM ET.

Panel experts

Four subject matter experts from various fields will round out the panel.

Film director James Cameron is the most familiar name on the list. Cameron's authority on the topic comes from years of deep-sea exploration and marine advocacy.

Ray Dalio is a philanthropist and co-founder of OceanX, a nonprofit institution that fosters and funds partnerships between scientists, tech innovators, and "storytellers" to advance deep-sea exploration.

Peter de Menocal is Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's president and director. A marine geologist by degree, de Menocal is also the founding director of Columbia University's Center for Climate and Life.

Edith Widder is the founder and CEO of the Ocean Research & Conservation Association (ORCA). By trade, Widder is a deep-sea biologist who has invented a number of submersible scientific instruments. Notably, she's given several TED talks about her life's work to stop and reverse the degradation of marine environments.

"Illuminating the Abyss" registration

"Illuminating The Abyss: Inspiration, Exploration, and Discovery in the Ocean Twilight Zone" is open for registration to all. Sign up to attend at the event registration page.

Mark Delstanche, 47, has become the first person to solo row from New York to London. He set off from Battery Park, New York on June 14, and after 97 days he crossed the finish line at Tower Bridge, London.

Since the beginning, Delstanche has faced complications. His boat Square Peg was custom-made with a flywheel-powered propeller, which broke early in his journey. He then rowed through some of the worst weather in years. Over the three months, he endured eight major storms and seven capsizes. The storms damaged most of his electronic equipment. During one capsize, he twisted his knee.

Delstanche wanted to complete the 7,000km in 100 days and he made it with three days to spare. At one point, it looked like he would be almost three weeks early, but easterly winds forced him to a standstill in Cornwall for 18 days, just 600km from the end.

During the endless wait, he began to ration his food. “I’m going slightly bonkers," he admitted in one interview.

A rough start

Delstanche said that the first part of his expedition was terrible. Thick fog and storms pushed him into a “very dark place”, alone with his fears. Eventually, his outlook became more positive.

A particular highlight was a close encounter with a humpback whale. "It went two metres under the boat and came up about 30m away with a calf,” he told the BBC. "It was a wonderful experience."

Before 2021, just 57 people had successfully rowed across the North Atlantic. Forty-eight had tried to do it solo, and only 16 succeeded. Though these select few have traversed the ocean, no one had done a New York-to-London route.

This year has been ground-breaking for North Atlantic rowers. Not only did Delstanche become the first to solo row from New York to London, in August Ocean Revival became the first crew to complete the route.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

1,400 dolphins slaughtered in Faroe Islands: Grindadráp is an ancient tradition in the Faroe Islands. Hunters drive pilot whales and large dolphin species into the fiords so that they can't escape, then slaughter them with lances. It is the only indigenous whaling practice that still occurs in Western Europe. This year, hunters slaughtered a super-pod of 1,428 white-sided dolphins, the largest single kill they’ve had since 1940. Environmentalists have long criticized this ritual, but the unnecessary size of the haul has brought criticism from the government, locals, and supporters. "It was a big mistake," said Olavur Sjurdarberg, chairman of the Faroese Whalers Association.

Making a flight to Mars safer

Is it safe for humans to fly to Mars? A human mission to Mars should not exceed four years, scientists believe. A leading risk of such a long space journey is the particle radiation from the sun, stars, and galaxies. The spacecraft needs strong protection, and the journey should take place during the so-called solar maximum when the sun's activity is at its peak. This enhanced activity deflects the most energetic particles from distant galaxies. A journey of over four years, even during the solar maximum, would expose astronauts to dangerously high levels of radiation.

A plan to bring back the Woolly Mammoth: If U.S. start-up Colossal Biosciences has its way, the woolly mammoth will again wander the Siberian tundra -- sort of. It has proposed using CRISPR gene editing to modify the embryos of the mammoth's closest living relative –- the Asian elephant –- to resemble those of woolly mammoths. If successful, this would create an elephant-mammoth hybrid, mammophants.

Men sleep poorly when the moon is waxing

Lunar cycle affects men's sleep more than women's: Men sleep more briefly and poorly when the moon is waxing. This phase runs from the day after the new moon until the day of the full moon. By contrast, women seem to sleep the same in all phases of the moon. Studies suggest that the male brain responds more to ambient light than female brains. This could explain the difference. During the waxing phase, the moon's illumination increases.

Modern snakes evolved from a few survivors of dino-killing asteroid: All living snakes evolved from a handful of species that survived the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. Researchers consider this asteroid event a form of “creative destruction” that allowed snakes to thrive. Fossils and genetic analysis of different species pinpoint when modern snakes began to evolve. All living species trace back to those that survived the collision 66 million years ago. While many other species perished, the snake's ability to endure long periods without food or underground shelter helped them survive.

Fossil tracks reveal ancient elephant nursery: Storms in 2020 washed away the sand on a beach in southern Spain and revealed fossilized footprints. The prints included those of elephants, cattle, wolves, pigs, deer, and even Neanderthals. The elephant footprints date to 106,000 years ago. The tiny footprints, which belong to a now-extinct species called straight-tucked elephants, were just 9.6cm across. Researchers believe that the site may have been an elephant nursery.

Half of the planet's coral reefs have disappeared: We now have half as many coral reefs as we did in the 1950s. A mix of climate change, overfishing, and pollution have destroyed these vibrant underwater ecosystems. Scientists knew that coral reefs were in trouble but they hadn't realized just how much.

Brendon Prince has become the first person to stand up paddleboard around mainland Britain. He began his circumnavigation in Torquay, Devon on April 27 and arrived back in the seaside town on September 14. A flotilla of fellow paddlers joined him for the last moments of his journey.

Over 141 days, he covered a staggering 4,203km on his SUP. That is 400km more than expected since the wind often pushed him off course. Before starting, he told App World Tour, “On paper, I can do it in 90 days if I have good wind.” More realistically, he hoped to complete it in 120 days. Unfortunately, winds plagued his journey from the start and he lost a total of 22 days to the weather.

The most arduous sections of the paddle were the North Sea, going through large ports, and crossing the Thames. But each section brought its own challenges. It was cold in the north, dangerous in the south, horrifically windy in the east, and "wildest" in the west.

Prince addled without a support boat, so once on the water, he had to face every difficulty alone. “It tested the limit of skill and endurance, knowing you have to do an 88km paddle north of Scotland with nowhere to get out,” he told The Times.

One of the reasons Prince began the challenge was to raise awareness for water safety. But he admits that he did see the irony in promoting safety through a risky endeavor.

“There’s a balancing act," said the former lifeguard. "You’re doing something that has not been done before because it is dangerous and difficult. You have to have that level of experience to understand the risk.”

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Sea snake attacks on divers could be ‘misdirected courtship’: Sea snakes are attacking divers as a “result of mistaken identity during sexual interactions”, researchers now believe. During attacks, they flick their tongues and coil themselves around a limb, behaviors usually linked to courtship. When divers flee, “they inadvertently mimic the responses of female snakes”, encouraging male sea snakes to chase the diver. Scientists advise divers to stay still if approached.

New species of boa discovered in the Dominican Republic: The Hispaniolan vineboa is the first boa species discovered in the Dominican Republic for over a century. Less than one metre long, it is one of the smallest species of boas in the world. It has protruding eyes, a square snout, and dark, zigzag-patterned scales. The new species occurs on the southwestern border with Haiti. “The fact that an animal could have gone undetected for so long...is pretty remarkable,” said herpetologist R. Graham Reynolds.

More droplets, less rain

Clouds affected by wildfire smoke may produce less rain: Tiny particles of smoke from wildfires in the U.S. turn up in the clouds where wildfires have occurred. The affected clouds have five times as many water droplets as unaffected clouds, much more than expected. The smoke particles act as tiny nuclei for forming droplets. Despite this, rainfall is less likely because the droplets are only half the size of normal droplets. The reduced rainfall worsens drought and increases the risk of future wildfires.

Female octopuses throw shells at males: Female octopuses throw shells, silt, and algae at males during unwanted mating advances. They do not throw in the same way as humans; the arms impart no force. Instead, they coordinate their arms, web, and jets of water to forcibly project the material they have gathered. Males hit by the flying shells do not retaliate. Only females throw. This puts octopuses in the short list of animals that throw objects, and in the even shorter list of those that throw at other animals, said the research team.

Adapting to climate change

Warming climate causes animals to ‘shape shift’: Warm-blooded animals are adapting to increasing temperatures by getting larger beaks, legs, and ears. The adaptations make it easier for them to regulate their body temperature. These changes have occurred in many regions and species. These creatures have little in common other than climate change to explain the similar changes. Shape-shifting is most prevalent in birds. Multiple Australian parrot species have increased their bill size by 4 to 10 percent over the last century. "Shape-shifting does not mean that animals are coping with climate change…They are evolving to survive it,” said Sara Ryding from Deakin University, Australia. 

New species of giant meat-eating dinosaur identified in Uzbekistan: A new species of dinosaur has been identified from a fossilized jawbone in Uzbekistan. The new species dates from 90 to 92 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous epoch. Measurements suggest “that this individual of Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis was at least seven metres [long] and over one ton in body mass,” said the study's lead author. The discovery shows that carcharodontosaurians were widespread from Europe to East Asia. 

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Geologists dig into Grand Canyon's mysterious time gap:  Over one billion years worth of rocks are missing from the Grand Canyon’s geological record. This “Great Unconformity” has confused geologists for 150 years. New research suggests a series of small and violent faulting events hit the region during the break up of Rodinia, an ancient super-continent. The events caused rocks and sediment to wash into the sea, where they vanished from the geological timeline.

An ancient green corridor in Arabia

Stone Age humans trekked through a green Arabia: Four hundred thousand years ago, Arabia acted as a "green turnstile" for Stone Age humans. Monsoon rains meant that northern Arabia could serve as a passageway out of Africa for early humanity. Analysis of five ancient lake beds in the area showed stone tools, sediment from a wetter climate, and fossils of hippos, wild cattle, and other animals. The various animals migrated into the now-desert landscape for its lakes, wetlands, and rivers. 

Three new species of skunk: DNA analysis of over 200 animals has found seven distinct species of spotted skunk. This is three more than previously thought. “[To be] able to redraw the skunk family tree is very exciting,” said Dr. Adam Ferguson. The analysis showed that the Plains spotted skunk, previously denoted as a subspecies, is a separate species. Its identification is good news for the mammal. “If a subspecies is in trouble, there’s sometimes less emphasis on protecting it because it’s not as distinct an evolutionary lineage as a species,” said Ferguson.

Fires penetrate deeper into the rainforest

Fires may have affected 85% of threatened Amazon species: For two decades, forest fires have ravaged the Amazon rainforest. They have destroyed thousands of plant and animal species. These fires have affected 85% of threatened species in the region. “If the fire-impacted area continues to rise, not only does the Amazon lose forest cover, but also some of its capacity to cope with the changing climate,” said ecologist Arie Steel. As fires occur deeper into the rainforest, more species experience fire for the first time. As they have not evolved in these conditions, population decline and extinction are likely.

Galapagos pink land Iguana on verge of extinction: The Galapagos pink land iguana is critically endangered. First identified in 1986, it is distinct from the Galapagos land iguana. In a 10-day expedition across Wolf Volcano, the pink iguanas' only habitat, researchers counted just 211 iguanas. Worryingly, none of them were juveniles, causing concern for the future of the species.

The third shark

"Virgin birth" of shark in Italy: Two female smoothhound sharks have lived in the shark tank at Cala Gonone Aquarium in Sardinia, Italy for 10 years. In August, staff discovered a third, newborn shark in the tank. The new addition is the result of a rare "virgin birth". The phenomenon is parthenogenesis: When a female fertilizes her own egg. It occurs in some sharks and rays before but never before in this species. “It is difficult to detect in the wild, so we really only know about it from captive animals,” said Demian Chapman from the Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium in Florida.

African wild dogs use diverse cover to survive around lions: African wild dogs are one of the top predators in sub-Saharan Africa. The only animal that they won’t challenge is a lion. Lions view the dogs as a threat to their food source. To avoid this alpha predator, the dogs are experts at hiding. They use the scrub brush, holes, gullies, and brambles to camouflage from the lions.

Since our last roundup of ocean rowing expeditions, some crews have ended their new routes and storms in the Atlantic and Pacific have ramped up.

Pacific Ocean

Erden Eruç (Turkey)

On June 22, Eruç set off in his boat Around-n-over from California bound for Hong Kong. He has been rowing for 71 days and covered 3,000km.

He faced multiple storms in August. The month started with Tropical Storm Hilda, which brought northwesterly winds and swells. The remnants of Tropical Storm Jimena quickly followed. Then came Kevin, then Linda, which became a hurricane.

For safety, he moved out of its path and off-track. He often had to use his para-anchor. Since the storms have died down, the currents and winds have been “messing up my plans big time,” he said.

Eruç had hoped to row nonstop to Hong Kong but the weather and the logistics of entering China have forced him to reassess. In March, he was denied an entry visa because of the pandemic. Embassy officials told him to reapply when the San Francisco office reopened. It is still closed.

“An earlier launch with a month or two of pause at Waikiki to relaunch in September would have been wiser and less risky overall,” he wrote in hindsight. 

North Atlantic, U.S. to Europe

Guirec Soudée (France)

Storms at the end of June led to the loss of Soudée’s communication devices, but the Frenchman was determined to carry on. He has continued to update his position by asking the larger ships that he passes to relay his coordinates.

He began in Massachusetts and has now been at sea for 78 days. His destination: Brest, France. On August 18, his message home said, “I am safe and going to France. My plan is to arrive in France the first week of September.”

Unfortunately, easterly winds picked up and pushed him backward for several days, throwing off his schedule.

On August 25, a passing ship informed him that the winds were not going to die down for at least another week. He is now unable to row because of the weather. Soudée is holding to and waiting for it to pass. He has sufficient food for 23 more days at sea.

Ocean Revival (UK)

On August 11, Ian Clinton, Simon Chalk, Jordan Swift, and Matt Mason became the first-ever crew to row from New York to London. It took the foursome 72 days to cover the 5,572km route. They arrived at Tower Bridge in London to cheering crowds.

Once back on dry land, Jordan Swift told CNBC that the physical aspect of that challenge hadn’t been as hard as anticipated. The biggest difficulty was the emotional ups and downs from all the weather setbacks.

Ian Rivers (UK)

The ex-Special Forces soldier has become the first person to complete an unsupported solo row from New York to the Isle of Scilly, UK. It took 83 days and 21 hours. Interestingly, he chose to navigate with a sextant rather than a GPS.

The final weeks of his row began with a vicious storm. The Force 10 storm hit him hard and he found himself in pitch black, upside down, and up to his neck in a flooded cabin. The capsize destroyed his maps and books, and he lost his AIS. Despite a few broken ribs, he decided to continue rowing. The only silver lining was that while checking the damage, he found a forgotten food stash.

Since capsizing, storms have continued to plague him. One broke his rudder. He managed to jury-rig a new one from spare parts. On August 24, he triumphantly made it to the Isle of Scilly.

Mark Delstanche (UK)

Delstanche is trying to be the first person to row solo across the Atlantic from New York to London.

He has been out for 79 days and has completed 94 percent of the journey. Currently, he is at a standstill on the Cornish coast. He needs the easterly winds to die down so that he can continue. Though he cannot leave the boat or receive assistance, many in the harbor have been coming out to chat with him. One visitor was fellow U.S.-to-UK rower Ian Rivers. Having finished his own journey, Rivers borrowed a canoe and paddled out to meet Delstanche.

Like Rivers, Delstanche has faced brutal weather over the last few weeks. At the start of August, he endured three storms in five days. The weather damaged most of his electronic equipment, including his tracker, and he was unable to row.  Since then he has capsized three times, and on August 14 he faced four-metre swells. Fighting the swells, he clocked his top speed so far, 17.1 knots down the face of a large wave. It was “a bit hairy,” he said.

From August 20 to August 21, he rowed for 27 hours in a 31-hour stretch, hoping to get past the brewing bad weather. At that point, he had to pause in St Mawes. He has been there since August 24, waiting out winds that are predicted to last until September 8. “Now for the real endurance test, days at anchor not 50m from a pub, with many offers to bring me over a pint which I'm kindly refusing!” he said on social media.

David ‘Dinger’ Bell (UK)

Bell has been at sea for 93 days and has covered 82 percent of the distance from New York to Falmouth, UK. As with Rivers and Delstanche, he has found himself embroiled in storms and bad weather.

At the beginning of August, storms forced him to deploy his para-anchor. While anchored, he heard about the terrifying situation Rivers had found himself in. Rivers and Bell quarantined together before they started their respective rows and have stayed in contact as they crossed the Atlantic.

Bell's family reported, “Dinger has gone from quite enjoying himself to being very worried for Ian. But also suddenly becoming very aware of the fragility of his own crossing."

Physically and mentally, it has been a challenging few weeks. One morning, he woke to find he had drifted 15km in the opposite direction. The weather has consistently pushed him off course. “Not being able to make the desired progress is hard. Not being able to make it time after time after time is brutal,” he wrote.

On August 30, he was once again on para-anchor. Fortunately, weather reports show that the low-pressure system keeping him at a standstill is going to dissipate, and the weather might even turn in his favor. His team is hopeful that he could arrive in the next few weeks.

The Hard Way Home (IE/U.S.)

Réamonn Byrne (IE), Chris McCaffrey (U.S.), and Ryen Cosgro (U.S.) started their row from Cape Cod to Galway, Ireland on July 10. Problems plagued them from the beginning, and after seven weeks at sea, they had to abort.

During their first few days, they faced strong winds and almost immediately had to deploy their para-anchor to stop themselves from drifting back to the start line. Then they paddled through rainstorms, fog, and lightning. “We are caught in new tidal currents that make the oars mud half the time. Progress is slow. We accept it and push east,” they said at the time.

Fast forward to the end of July, and their watermaker had broken, electronics were shorting, and they were sitting in “gales, and mountains of swell.” In August, a wave ripped the rudder from the boat. They rebuilt the bracket and struggled on, only for their power system to break on August 27.

“We can’t go on with communications and safety systems dark, so while obviously disappointing, it’s a decision that makes itself,” they explained, before abandoning their quest. 

Around mainland Britain

Ready, salt, row

After 43 days, the six-man crew completed their row around mainland Britain on August 22. The round trip started and ended at Cowes on the Isle of Wight, an island off the south coast of England.

At the start of August, an illness forced them to stop in Aberdeen. After a few days, they were able to continue their row. As they made their way along the North East coast they met strong headwinds: “Mother Nature is really making us sing for our supper,” they wrote. Big winds hindered them during the last week of their row and forced them to spend a few days on para-anchor.

Though multiple crews have rowed the same route, they are the first mixed crew to do so. The men’s record around the UK mainland is 26 days, and the women’s record is 52 days.

A passion for the natural world drives many of our adventures. And when we’re not actually outside, we love delving into the discoveries about the places where we live and travel. Here are some of the best natural history links we’ve found this week.

Giant tortoise stuns scientists by eating baby bird: A giant tortoise has been caught on camera stalking and eating a young tern chick in the Seychelles. No one has ever witnessed such behavior before. “It’s totally surprising and rather horrifying,” said study author Justin Gerlach. "The tortoise deliberately pursues this bird, kills it, and then eats it. So yeah, it’s hunting." In the video, the female tortoise approaches the chick, which perches on a log. As it gets closer, the bird flaps its wings, but this does not deter the tortoise. It lunges forward and snaps down on the chick's head, then swallows it whole.

Blue whales return to Spain’s Atlantic coast: Blue whales have not turned up on Spain’s Atlantic coast for decades.  The area's whaling industry had driven them to near extinction. In 2017, marine biologist Bruno Diaz spotted a blue whale near Ons Island. Since then, the whales have also returned in 2018 and 2019. Two of these individuals came back in 2020, and about a week later, another blue whale appeared off the Islas Cies. Researchers are now monitoring the whales' migration patterns and behavior in the region. It is too early to say whether the memory of previous migrations has brought the whales back, or whether climate change has affected their movements.

Where the Denisovans and modern humans collided

Ancient remains in Indonesia belong to a vanished human lineage: A woman buried 7,200 years ago has turned up in a cave in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Genetic analysis revealed that she belongs to a human lineage that doesn’t exist anymore. She is a distant relative of present-day Aboriginal Australians and the indigenous people on the islands of New Guinea and in the western Pacific. She has a significant amount of DNA from the Denisovans, an archaic human species. These discoveries suggest that Indonesia and the surrounding islands were "the meeting point for the major admixture [mating] event between Denisovans and modern humans on their initial journey to Oceania," said Cosimo Posth, the study's co-leader.

Four-hundred-year-old coral in Great Barrier Reef: Just off the coast of Goolboodi Island lies the widest standalone coral in the Great Barrier Reef. It is 10.4 metres in diameter and has earned the nickname Muga dhambi, “big coral”. Marine scientists have estimated that it is 421-438 years old. This means that the coral has survived 80 cyclones and 99 coral bleaching events. “Knowing that these things exist and have persisted for a long time helps to provide a renewed sense of hope for the future,” said marine scientist Nathan Cook.

Brush-tailed bettongs reintroduced in South Australia: The brush-tailed bettong is critically endangered in Australia. Introduced species such as foxes and cats have led to a huge decline in their populations. In South Australia, the marsupials disappeared over 100 years ago. Now a major rewilding program aims to bring these locally extinct creatures back to the area. Last week, 28 females and 12 males were released into Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park. They came from Wedge Island, over 1,600km away, where a healthy population continues.

A new type of planet

Will extraterrestrial life turn up in the next two to three years?: Researchers at the University of Cambridge have identified a new class of habitable planets. Hycean planets are hot, ocean-covered bodies with hydrogen-rich atmospheres. Astronomers believe that searching specifically for Hycean planets could help us find life outside our solar system in the very near future. Hycean planets are much larger than Earth and have baking atmospheric temperatures up to 200ºC, but their oceans could hold microbial life.

Female hummingbirds have pretty plumage to avoid being harassed: Male white-necked Jacobin hummingbirds have bright blue heads and throats. Although females often have duller plumage, some do have blue feathers. Birds often have bright feathers to attract a mate, but scientists found that the blue plumage on the females did little to attract males. Instead, the blue feathers allowed females to blend more with their male counterparts and feed for longer without harassment.

Brendon Prince has been stand-up paddle boarding his way around mainland Britain since April 27. If successful, he will cover 3,800km and become the first person to complete the entire route on an SUP.

Prince has hit multiple milestones on his self-imposed challenge. On July 19, he made it to John O’Groats, Scotland. Although Lands End to John O’Groats is a well-trodden route for runners, hikers and cyclists, it is rare in the world of watersports. Prince is the only person known to have completed the iconic British route on a SUP.

46 days around Scotland

Shortly after this, on August 3, he hit his next milestone, a circumnavigation of the Scottish coastline and crossing the border back into England. This section took him 46 days.

This also marked the 2,800km point of the journey and signaled the final 1,000km. It also meant he broke the record for the longest journey on an SUP. Previously this was held by Shilpika Gautam, who paddled the 2,641km length of the Ganges River.

Along the Scottish coastline, he saw "seals, dolphins, massive jellies, minke whales, killer whales, otters, eagles, stags, cliff-loving goats, basking sharks, and a very curious porbeagle shark”. The wildlife has also given clues to the weather.

"Birds will always take off into the wind so you can see what the wind is doing a mile ahead," he said. "Jellyfish always swim sideways to the current."

Over the last month, tumultuous weather in the UK has disrupted much of his journey. “The wind can really play havoc with your paddle plans,” he said recently.

From 11km to 76km per day

Because of this, his daily distance varies significantly. On bad weather days, he often has to call off paddling completely. His shortest day so far has been 11km. In good weather, he tries to make up for lost time. On July 13, he paddled an incredible 76.5km in one day, as he made his way past Cape Wrath.

His route around Scotland has been particularly difficult because of the tidal flows. He told the BBC, “In Scotland, you can have four high and four low tides in one day.  It basically means eight hours of chaos in every 24 hours.”

He described himself as a “feather on the water” because of the huge impact that wind and moving water have on him. But after months at sea, he is now used to it.

“I’m a very different paddler to what I was three months ago,” he said.

He is now making his way around North East England and still hopes that he will finish the full journey in 120 to 125 days. You can track his journey here.