An evolving situation: How humans force plants and animals to change

Our way of life exerts incredible selection pressures on the natural world

Thu, Nov 26, 2020, 01:00

Yvonne Buckley

St Stephen’s Green, Dublin. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw

 

 

Charles Darwin was obsessed with pigeons. To be fair, he was also obsessed with barnacles, earthworms and plants that move and climb about. But pigeons were close to his heart. He owned them, bred them, experimented with them and painstakingly documented them. Darwin’s correspondence shows that pigeons were mentioned in more than 400 letters to and from him over the years.

Darwin does not discuss only his observations on pigeons in this correspondence, but also has some choice commentary on pigeon fanciers, the men he met at the “Columbarian Society”. One he describes as “a queer little fish”, while another was an “odd little man (NB all Pigeons Fanciers are little men, I begin to think)”. It is not recorded what the pigeon fanciers made of Charles Darwin. In any case, he goes on to describe pigeon fancying as “a noble & majestic pursuit, & beats moths [and] butterflies”.

Darwin travelled widely, collected many wild specimens and thought deeply about a huge diversity of animals and plants. So why did pigeons intrigue him? Darwin’s theory of natural selection, and the beginning of modern evolutionary biology, was rooted in his observations and experiments with artificial selection.

Every animal and plant breeder, before Darwin’s time as well as now, understands clearly the importance of inheritance and the role that inherited variation plays in the development and maintenance of breeds.

It is clear to see the role of human preference in purposefully bred varieties and breeds of pigeons, chickens, daffodils, dogs and cows. The prettiest, strongest, tastiest, earliest-flowering or fastest made it into the next generation.

Darwin’s great breakthrough proposed that a parallel mechanism to artificial selection was natural selection. While human preference was critical for determining which individuals got to pass their inherited characteristics on to the next generation of a breed, the environment played that role in the evolution of species by natural selection in the wild.

Middle ground

There is an interesting middle ground between artificial selection and natural selection, which is those animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms that are unconsciously selected by humans, or which have become attached to our way of life and evolve in concert with our habits. Weeds are a brilliant group of plants that have adapted to our gardens, farms and streets. There is a well-known saying that weeds are just plants in the wrong place. And by wrong, we mean undesirable to a particular human, in a particular place at a particular time.

Bright blue cornflowers (Centaurea cyanus) were once very common weeds of arable fields, but the advent of modern herbicides pushed these plants to field edges and disturbed ground. Some of these weeds of old agricultural systems are now highly endangered themselves and the British plant conservation charity PlantLife lists many of them. The future of the cornflower, which is not native to Ireland, now seems to be as a component of wildflower seed mixes scattered on roadsides, meadows and gardens. It has a past, and a future, very much tied to human activities and preferences.

To survive in modern times you need modern evolutionary solutions. Our most troublesome agricultural weeds are now those that have evolved resistance to multiple herbicides and are often grasses that are weeds of barley, wheat and oats. Even those almost invisible weeds that live in the cracks of our pavements have been busy evolving strategies for survival in the urban jungle.

Exerting pressure

One of my favourite examples of city evolution is the delicate little dandelion-like Holy Hawksbeard (Crepis sancta), which produces large and small seeds. Plants that live in the little scrapes of soil around street trees in a sea of concrete mostly produce the larger seed types that stay within that patch, whereas those that grow in continuous open ground produce the smaller type. Smaller seeds have the ability to disperse farther to find suitable patches.

Like weeds, pigeons have become accustomed to human habitats, and the wild cliffs of the original rock dove species have turned into the steep city canyons and junk food diet of feral pigeons. Look around you and notice the incredible selection pressures that our way of life is exerting on the natural world. What does the future hold for weeds, pigeons and us?

Yvonne Buckley is an ecologist, Irish Research Council laureate and professor of zoology at Trinity College Dublin

 

December sky: Jupiter and Saturn to appear closest to each other since 400 years ago

Christmas treat will see gas giants visible together in telescope along with their moons

Wed, Nov 25, 2020, 11:24 Updated: Wed, Nov 25, 2020, 13:52

John Flannery

A file combination photograph of Jupiter (L) and Saturn as taken by the Subaru telescope on Mount Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. Photograph: Tokyo Astronomical Observatory

 

 

For some celestial events you really do have to wait almost a lifetime.

Jupiter and Saturn met three times in the sky during 1981, but it was while I was only figuring out the basics of astronomy as a teenager. The gas giants then had another encounter in May 2000, but on that occasion, they were too deep in the morning twilight to be easily seen.

This month, Jupiter and Saturn convene again on the evening of the 21st when they are just six arcminutes apart. That remarkably small angular separation is equivalent to only one-fifth the apparent diameter of the full moon.

To put it in context, your little finger held up at arm’s length easily covers the moon, so imagine the gap between Jupiter and Saturn as just a fraction the width of your fingernail.

The regular nature of these encounters is because Jupiter orbits the Sun every 11.86 years, but Saturn takes 29.45 years to do so. It is therefore inevitable faster moving Jupiter periodically catches and overtakes Saturn as they circle the zodiac so that every 19.6 years on average, we have what is termed a Great Conjunction.

This year’s conjunction is special though as almost 400 years have elapsed since Jupiter and Saturn were last as close in 1623. Of the next three encounters in 2040, 2060, and 2080, only that of March 15th, 2080, is comparable in closeness.

At the start of December the two planets are two degrees (four moon-widths, or your thumb held at arm’s length) apart low in the southwest after sunset, with Jupiter the brightest “star” in this area of sky, while dimmer Saturn is just to its upper left.

That distance is halved by the 11th, and the gap narrows further to just 0.4 degrees on the 17th when the crescent moon in the area makes for a striking scene. Thereafter, the space between them decreases by about 0.1 degree daily.

As twilight fades on the evening of the December 21st winter solstice, look low in the southwest after 4.45pm for a sight that will be rare, beautiful, and memorable when Jupiter and Saturn are closest. The two will be near the horizon however, and set shortly after 6.30pm, so an unobstructed skyline is necessar for to seeing them.

Although the two planets will not appear to merge as a single point, they will still be extremely close and a wonderful sight. Their distance will only be half that between Mizar and Alcor, the two stars in the middle of the Plough’s handle, although that is not a practical comparison though as both planets are much brighter than those stars.

Binoculars will offer a stunning vista of both planets in the same field-of-view, with some of the brighter moons of Jupiter also visible. You may need to use them at first to sweep up the planets around 4.45pm in the still twilit sky when Jupiter and Saturn are about 10 degrees (one fist-width) above the southwest skyline.

By 5.30pm the pair are only seven degrees up and sinking quickly, but they will be in a darker sky. A half hour later sees that altitude halved, and the two planets will likely appear lower if you do not have a flat horizon towards the southwest. Jupiter and Saturn then exit the evening sky stage at 6.30pm, drawing a final curtain on the drama.

In an eyepiece magnifying about 80 times on a telescope you can glimpse the extraordinary sight of Saturn’s rings, the disk of Jupiter, and the major moons of both planets all at the same time. That view is possible for a couple of days on either side of the 21st running up to Christmas and is bound to be live-streamed by amateur astronomers worldwide – but nothing beats seeing the real thing.

The two planets remain close a few days after their conjunction, and the gap is still only one degree (two moon-widths) at the end of the year. But they are edging towards the sunset glow and both will be difficult to see by mid-January, before going behind the Sun from our perspective later that month.

Great conjunctions have had some importance throughout human history, with the astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) even suggesting the star of Bethlehem may have been a triple conjunction seen in 7 BC. Perhaps thoughts might turn to the Christmas star again this year with this event occurring so close to the 25th? One thing is certain, though: In a world sometimes divided, the Great Conjunction on December 21st will unite many in wonder.

The Moon this month

Last-quarter moon falls on December 8th, new moon on the 14th and first quarter on the 21st, with the final full moon of 2020 on the 30th. A total solar eclipse on the 14th cuts a narrow swathe that starts in the south Pacific, and then tracks across Chile and Argentina, to end off the coast of Namibia. Regular eclipse fans, or umbraphiles, will find themselves unable to travel to the eclipse during the current pandemic, but a handful of tour groups have received permission from some countries to host expeditions to see it.

Other planets this month

Mercury is a morning sky object but is too close to the Sun to be seen in December

Venus is up in the east around 5.30am at the beginning the month but will slowly lose height each passing day to end the year rising just 1½ hours before the Sun. The planet is to the Moon’s lower left on the 12th and to its upper right on the 13th.

Mars continues to burn bright these evenings and does not set until the early hours. It is through a telescope though that the most obvious change is noticed. By the middle of December, the apparent size of the planet’s disk is only half that in early October as it continues to recede from Earth. Mars is directly above the Moon when they are both due south at 10pm on the 23rd.

Glorious Geminids

New moon on the 14th means perfect conditions for the Geminids, one of the richest annual meteor showers. The display peaks on December 13th, and from a dark site you may see a meteor a minute when Gemini climbs highest in the sky after midnight. The shower is rather broad so good rates can be expected the following evening too.

Gemini rises a little before 6pm, but the number of meteors seen will be initially low until the group gets a bit clearer of the horizon. Tracing their path backwards leads to a point of origin known as the radiant which can be found near the bright star Castor.

Geminids are bright and leave persistent trails, possibly due to the nature of the material shed by the shower’s parent body, the asteroid 3200 Phaethon. The object is sometimes dubbed a “rock comet” and solar heating at perihelion – the point in its orbit when it is closest to the sun – cracks its surface, causing dust and other particles to be ejected. The composition of a Geminid meteor is therefore a little harder than the fluff from most comets.

The stream is inclined to Earth’s orbit and we are presently fording its denser regions. But that situation will not last as gravitational perturbations by Jupiter shifts the dust trail. In only a few hundred years our encounters with the Geminids will be no more.

Spaceflight

Japan’s Hayabusa-2 snagged a tiny sample of regolith from the asteroid Ryugu in early-2019, and its return capsule will be dropped off to land in Australia this December 6th when the probe does a flyby of Earth.

Hayabusa-2 has now continued back into solar orbit for a potential rendezvous with two further asteroids in 2026 and 2031. Uniquely, the mission deployed four tiny rovers onto Ryugu’s surface to investigate the environment there.

Evening passes of the International Space Station run until December 10th after which it switches to the morning sky from the 18th. Predictions for your location can be calculated on Heavens Above.

My free annual night sky calendar is now available to download. Although it highlights all the predictable celestial events visible during the year ahead, the sky can still spring surprises such as the beautiful comet Neowise last summer.

*John Flannery is a long-time amateur astronomer with an interest in the history and lore of the sky along with astronomical phenomena observable with the unaided eye. He is a member of the Irish Astronomical Society.

Florida man who saved his puppy from alligator's jaws shares update on dog's recovery
Karl Schneider
Fort Myers News-Press

ESTERO, Fla. — The day they met, Richard Wilbanks and Gunner were inseparable.

Gunner, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel, snuggled up right next to Richard that first meeting at the breeder’s place in Miami, and that was all the two needed.

Richard took Gunner home to his wife, Louise, in Estero and the now-famous duo are always side by side whether it’s on the couch or out on the lanai that overlooks a wild nature preserve.

The companionship was put to the ultimate test one Sunday morning in late October as Richard and Gunner went out for a walk by the pond just next to the Wilbanks’ home.

The pair were walking along the shoreline where, unseen to either Richard or Gunner, an alligator was on alert.

In an instant, the almost 4-foot gator lunged from the water and grabbed Gunner. Without any hesitation, Richard lept into the water after the puppy and the gator that had it in its jaws.

The rescue:Florida man saves his dog from the jaws of an alligator; wildlife cam films the dramatic rescue

“It was like a missile,” Richard said recalling the incident. “We were only about 3 feet away from it, but it struck like a snake. It had Gunner in a vise grip and I just rushed in.”

Richard and Louise moved to Estero four years ago.

The couple came by way of central Texas hill country, Louise said. Richard’s son Grant is a landscape architect living in Bonita Springs, so the Wilbanks were familiar with the area and wanted to be close to family.

The pair came to see the house in Estero, but it was under a contract, Richard said. The two went back to Texas and were on their honeymoon when the Realtor called to let them know the house was back on the market. They didn’t hesitate.

“We fell in love with it,” Richard said

.

Tucked at the dead-end of their neighborhood, the Wilbanks’ home speaks to their love of nature.

Paintings of seahorses and roseate spoonbills hang in the family room where one of Gunner’s beds lays out in front of the TV. A cross-stitched heron and a large painting of two great egrets watch over the dining table.

Louise said Richard spent four years growing plants in the backyard so the view into the nature preserve was uninterrupted.

Richard said he’s seen deer, turkey, bobcats and even a panther near their home.

“It’s wonderful to be able to share our lives with the wildlife,” he said.

And that positivity even goes for the alligator who grabbed Gunner, too.

“He’s still swimming out there,” Richard said.

Gunner's recovery

Immediately following the attack, Gunner was in shock. Once Richard was able to pry Gunner free, the gator clamped down on his hands and he then had to free himself. The pair traipsed back to the house, both dripping blood.

After a quick home fix on Richard’s hands, Gunner went to the animal hospital where doctors found a puncture wound. The Wilbanks were worried about any internal injuries, but X-rays showed only some water in the lungs. The puppy stayed at the hospital for a few days to recover.

Gunner is just right as rain now, greeting visitors at the door with an energy only puppies can muster, and he has a new leash for his walks.

“A new leash on life,” Richard said.

Gunner and Richard’s harrowing attempt was captured on video because the Florida Wildlife Federation and the fstop Foundation put up cameras to track wildlife in the area.

“I’m pleased with the job they do,” Richard said of FWF. “And this lets people know we can live with wildlife.”

Meredith Budd, the FWF representative in Southwest Florida, said the Wilbanks’ street was very receptive to the cameras.

Overall, 17 cameras across 15 properties are placed in backyards in Estero in what the two organizations call Sharing the Landscape.

“Humans and wildlife, we both inherently share the same landscape and homeowners who live in and around nature should understand the value of wildlife around them,” Budd said. “While this video was shocking and I’m glad everyone was OK, I’m glad it’s a learning opportunity for the importance of respecting wildlife and taking precautions to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else.”

The federation checks the cameras, periodically, Budd said, and this was the first time an incident like this showed up.

The cameras only hold a certain number of photos and videos before the memory cards fill up, and they run on batteries, so it’s a bit labor intensive to keep up with them all. 

Budd said she’d love to get solar power and cloud storage for the cameras, but the funding isn’t there.

Even so, the cameras show the dynamic between people enjoying nature in their backyards and wildlife doing the same.

“It’s interesting seeing the timestamps to see when people are out there, and we are sharing that landscape — just usually not at the same time,” Budd said.

In Southwest Florida, there are wild animals sharing the same spaces humans use, and Budd said it’s important to know what precautions are needed to mitigate risk or conflict.

Richard said for him and Gunner, this was a happy ending story.

His advice: Make sure to leash your dog and keep them 10 feet away from the water.

A remarkable recovery: Bald eagles thriving in Ohio after near-extinction in 1970s
Jon Stinchcomb
Port Clinton News Herald


CARROLL TOWNSHIP, Ohio – With the most recent count documenting more than 700 nests across the state, the remarkable recovery of bald eagles in Ohio is reaching new heights.

The recent numbers are a far cry from around 40 years ago, when Ohio was then home to only four breeding pairs of bald eagles.

To Mark Shieldcastle, a wildlife biologist who has been at the forefront of the effort to save Ohio’s bald eagles from that time through today, the current numbers would have been unimaginable.

“Quite honestly, there’s no way I would have ever thought this would have been the number to come out in 2020 — 700 nests, going from 200 a decade ago,” Shieldcastle said. “It really shows what you can do. When humans make their minds up to do something for wildlife, we can do it.”

Shieldcastle worked for over 30 years specializing in avian research at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife, including spearheading recovery efforts when the United States’ majestic national bird was at its most vulnerable state.

Also a founding member of the Black Swamp Bird Observatory, Shieldcastle eventually retired from his position at the Division of Wildlife in 2012 and now serves as research director for the BSBO.

The number of eagles were dwindling dangerously low around the late 1970s due to several factors, Shieldcastle explained, which were primarily habitat loss, fragmentation and contaminants.

While the pesticide DDT is one of the most widely known contaminants to impact bird populations, which was documented in Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring,” another significant culprit were PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyl, an industrial pollutant.

From eggs that could not hatch to young birds with terminal deformities, researchers documented a plethora of issues caused by contaminants and other human-related activities.

“There was a lot that we were learning and it was very complex, what was going on,” Shieldcastle said.

But by the early 1980s, efforts to save the bald eagle were underway.

Shieldcastle described Ohio’s bald eagle restoration program as four-pronged, with each of the following components being vital to bringing the bird back to the state: fostering, education, rehabilitation and artificial nest bases.

According to Shieldcastle, Ohio led the country with fostering, where young captive-born eagles were placed in active nests and raised by adults in the wild.


Education was another immensely important component, Shieldcastle said, such as teaching landowners with nests on their property, along with informing politicians, legislators, and the general public.

“We got them to understand the value of wildlife and the importance of this bird,” he said.

Thanks to legislation such as the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, a federal law that Shieldcastle described as the single strongest piece of legislation ever written for wildlife, the bald eagle became “the most protected bird in the world.”

With only four breeding pairs left in Ohio in 1979, it was with just eight birds that the restoration program was built off of, he said. Within a decade, they were seeing some growth in the Lake Erie marshes.

By the turn of the century, “things had really taken off.”

“Ohio felt we could have 12 pairs by 2000. We blew that away in 1992 and it’s continued to grow,” Shieldcastle said.

By 2008, which Shieldcastle said was the last year that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had overseen the organization of the bald eagle monitoring efforts, Ohio had 184 nests.

 

It was in 2007 that the bald eagle was taken off the endangered species list nationally.

At that point, the number of nests began growing exponentially, which Shieldcastle described as the fruit of the hard work done throughout the 1980s and '90s.

Now, Ohio is quite possibly home to the most eagles it has ever had in its history, he said.

“It’s been an amazing recovery and really it’s because of the productivity, which was coming from the education about being responsible around this bird,” Shieldcastle said.

Pulsating aurora: Killer electrons in strumming sky lights

by Nagoya University

Low-energy (blue) and high-energy (yellow) electrons form during the process that generates the pulsating aurora. The high-energy 'relativistic' electrons could cause localized destruction of the ozone. Credit: PsA project

Computer simulations explain how electrons with wide-ranging energies rain into Earth's upper and middle atmosphere during a phenomenon known as the pulsating aurora. The findings, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, suggest that the higher-energy electrons resulting from this process could cause destruction of the part of the ozone in the mesosphere, about 60 kilometers above Earth's surface. The study was a collaboration between scientists in Japan, including at Nagoya University, and colleagues in the US, including from NASA.

The northern and southern lights that people are typically aware of, called the aurora borealis and australis, look like colored curtains of reds, greens, and purples spreading across the night skies. But there is another kind of aurora that is less frequently seen. The pulsating aurora looks more like indistinct wisps of cloud strumming across the sky.

Scientists have only recently developed the technologies enabling them to understand how the pulsating aurora forms. Now, an international research team, led by Yoshizumi Miyoshi of Nagoya University's Institute for Space-Earth Environmental Research, has developed a theory to explain the wide-energy electron precipitations of pulsating auroras and conducted computer simulations that validate their theory.

Their findings suggest that both low- and high-energy electrons originate simultaneously from interactions between chorus waves and electrons in the Earth's magnetosphere.

Chorus waves are plasma waves generated near the magnetic equator. Once formed, they travel northwards and southwards, interacting with electrons in Earth's magnetosphere. This interaction energizes the electrons, scattering them down into the upper atmosphere, where they release the light energy that appears as a pulsating aurora.

The electrons that result from these interactions range from lower-energy ones, of only a few hundred kiloelectron volts, to very high-energy ones, of several thousand kiloelectron volts, or 'megaelectron' volts.

Miyoshi and his team suggest that the high-energy electrons of pulsating auroras are 'relativistic' electrons, otherwise known as killer electrons, because of the damage they can cause when they penetrate satellites.

"Our theory indicates that so-called killer electrons that precipitate into the middle atmosphere are associated with the pulsating aurora, and could be involved in ozone destruction," says Miyoshi.

The team next plans to test their theory by studying measurements taken during a space rocket mission called 'loss through auroral microburst pulsations' (LAMP), which is due to launch in December 2021. LAMP is a collaboration between NASA, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Nagoya University, and other institutions. LAMP experiments will be able to observe the killer electrons associated with the pulsating aurora.

The paper, "Relativistic Electron Microbursts as High‐Energy Tail of Pulsating Aurora Electrons," was published online in Geophysical Research Letters on October 13, 2020.


Explore further  Pulsating aurora mysteries uncovered with help from NASA's THEMIS mission
More information: Y. Miyoshi et al. Relativistic Electron Microbursts as High‐Energy Tail of Pulsating Aurora Electrons, Geophysical Research Letters (2020). 

DOI: 10.1029/2020GL090360

Journal information: Geophysical Research Letters

Provided by Nagoya University

STEVE is smearing green 'streaks' across the sky, and nobody knows why


By Brandon Specktor 2 days ago

The green streaks only last for 30 seconds, then vanish. What are they?

A 2017 STEVE event over New Zealand reveals the strange new feature that astronomers are calling "streaks." (Image: © Stephen Voss)


The mysterious, aurora-like phenomenon called STEVE just got a little weirder.

If you don't know STEVE (short for Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement) by name, you may know it from photos. Unlike the infamous Southern and Northern Lights, which blanket the sky in ethereal green swirls near Earth's magnetic poles, STEVE appears as a purplish-white ribbon of light that slashes diagonally toward the horizon, stretching hundreds of miles through the atmosphere. It can appear closer to the equator than a typical aurora, and is often accompanied by a "picket fence" of jagged green points dancing beside it.

Nobody knows what causes STEVE, but scientists agree it's no mere aurora. Auroras appear when charged particles from the sun sail across space and crackle along Earth's magnetic field lines; STEVE, meanwhile, is a river of hot, turbulent gas that shows up independently of that solar weather. Researchers suspect that it may be the result of some native process in the ionosphere — the level of Earth's atmosphere that extends between 50 and 600 miles (80 to 1,000 kilometers) above Earth's surface, just below the planet's magnetic field.

Related: Infographic: Earth's atmosphere, top to bottom

Now, a newfound feature of STEVE that only appears in the lower ionosphere has scientists puzzling over the ethereal lights again. In a study published Oct. 1 in the journal AGU Advances, NASA researchers reviewed hundreds of hours of STEVE footage recorded by citizen scientists to look for a strange new structure they've named "the streaks." These tiny smears of green light are sometimes seen extending horizontally from the bottom of STEVE's green fence pickets, curving backward for about 20 to 30 seconds before vanishing from view.

Four examples of "streaks" in STEVE events from 2017 and 2018. (Image credit: Alexei Chernenkoff (a), Shawn Malone (b), Stephen Voss (c) and Alan Dyer (d))

What are the streaks, exactly? As with all things STEVE, nobody really knows. But the new paper lays down some basic characteristics. For starters, the streaks' long, tube-like appearance may be an optical illusion; according to the researchers, the streaks behave more like tiny points of light, which appear elongated to us due to motion blur.

Each streak appears to share a physical connection with the picket fence structure above it, the team found, and each one moves along the same magnetic field lines. The streaks also seem picky about where they form; according to the team's calculations, streaks appear only low in the ionosphere between 62 and 68 miles (100 to 110 km) above Earth. That makes the streaks "the lowest‐altitude and smallest‐scale optical feature associated with STEVE," the researchers wrote in the study.

One clue about the streaks' origins comes from their green color, which is identical to the color of STEVE’s picket fence. According to the researchers, this particular green wavelength is associated with emissions from atomic oxygen in the atmosphere. It's likely that the turbulent particles within STEVE are colliding with and rapidly heating up ambient oxygen, the team wrote, creating tiny green fires in the sky that trail below the picket fence as they slowly fizzle out.

Or, maybe not. STEVE's streaks are so new to science that this paper is likely just "the tip of the iceberg," study co-author Elizabeth MacDonald, a space scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, said in a statement. That depth of uncertainty is par for the course when it comes to STEVE, which was first reported by citizen scientists gazing at the Canadian skies in July 2016. Astronomers continue to rely on observations from civilian photographers and stargazers — whose time and passion may exceed professional scientists' — in order to unpack the mysterious river of light in our atmosphere.

Originally published on Live Science.

Ireland’s first-ever dinosaur fossils confirmed
Geologically speaking, Ireland is not conducive to finding dinosaur fossils.

ANOTHER AMAZING FIND FROM THE MUSEUM STORAGE ROOM

by Alexandru Micu
November 25, 2020

Researchers from the University of Portsmouth, Queen’s University Belfast, and National Museums Northern Ireland (NI) report on a first-ever for the island — the first-ever dinosaur bones to be discovered in Ireland.

Proximal fragment of left femur of Scelidosaurus. Image credits Michael Simms, et al., (2020), Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association.

The two fossils were discovered by Roger Byrne, a late fossil collector and schoolteacher, who donated them (among many other specimens he’s gathered) to Ulster Museum. Researchers were able to confirm that they hail from the early Jurassic, based on where they were discovered — rocks in Islandmagee, on the east coast of Northern Ireland.

Locally-sourced

“This is a hugely significant discovery. The great rarity of such fossils here is because most of Ireland’s rocks are the wrong age for dinosaurs, either too old or too young, making it nearly impossible to confirm dinosaurs existed on these shores,” explains Dr. Simms, National Museums NI, first author of the study. “The two dinosaur fossils that Roger Byrne found were perhaps swept out to sea, alive or dead, sinking to the Jurassic seabed where they were buried and fossilized.”

The only dinosaur bones ever found on the island of Ireland have been formally confirmed for the first time by a team of experts from the University of Portsmouth and Queen’s University Belfast, led by Dr. Mike Simms, a curator and paleontologist at National Museums NI.

Initially, the two fossils were believed to have belonged to the same animal. However, the authors report that they, in fact, belonged to two completely different dinos. One of them, a femur, belonged to a plant-eating species, Scelidosaurus. The other one was a tibia from a theropod, a two-legged predatory dinosaur similar to Sarcosaurus. The team identified their origin starting from high-resolution 3D models of the bone fragments.
.

 Proximal fragment of left tibia of megalosauroid theropod. Image credits Michael Simms, et al., (2020), Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association.

“Analyzing the shape and internal structure of the bones, we realized that they belonged to two very different animals. One is very dense and robust, typical of an armored plant-eater” says co-author Robert Smyth from the University of Portsmouth. “The other is slender, with thin bone walls and characteristics found only in fast-moving two-legged predatory dinosaurs called theropods”.

Although the specimens aren’t in ideal shape — they are, after all, broken into pieces, they still carry a huge paleontological weight. Not only were they discovered in Ireland, filling a gap in our understanding, but they also hail from an important time in the history of the dinosaurs. During the early Jurassic, about 200 million years ago, dinosaurs were poised to take the crown of the dominant terrestrial lineage and start dominating land ecosystems.

Little owl is Swiss bird of the year
 

The little owl is doing better in Switzerland but its habitat still needs to be preserved. Martin Becker/BirdLife

The little owl, almost extinct in Switzerland 20 years ago, has been chosen as BirdLife Switzerland’s “bird of the year” for 2021. 

This content was published on November 27, 2020 -

“This small nocturnal bird of prey symbolises the great successes that conservation projects can achieve,” BirdLife said on Thursday. “It also illustrates the consequences of neglecting biodiversity in public policies related to land use planning and agriculture.”

Once common in the orchards of northern Switzerland, the little owl became rare in the last century. Twenty years ago, only 50 to 60 pairs were still recorded. This trend has now been reversed thanks to conservation projects by BirdLife and others, but the association says the bird’s numbers are still insufficient to ensure its survival.

The little owl, which measures only 20 centimetres, feeds on various small prey, such as rodents, reptiles or insects. The owl breeds preferably in the cavities of old trees.

But over the last few decades, millions of tall-stemmed fruit trees have been felled and orchards have been replaced by buildings, says BirdLife. Over-fertilisation and the widespread use of pesticides have also deprived the little owl of its food supply.


The Swiss Alps are beautiful, but are they biodiverse?

The demands of a growing human population often clash with the needs of nature, a fact that regularly sparks political debate in Switzerland.

BirdLife says it has chosen the little owl, with its “magnificent eyes and mewing call”, as an “ambassador for the quality of cultivated landscapes” and biodiversity.
 

Little owls prefer to breed in trees. / Mathias Schäf

Pakistan's first transgender lawyer goes from begging to fighting in court

Syed Raza Hassan
Thu, November 26, 2020

KARACHI, Pakistan (Reuters) - Lawyer Nisha Rao maneuvers among the throng of black-coated attorneys clustered near Karachi's city courts searching for her client.

But Rao, 28, is not just another lawyer running for a meeting. As Pakistan's first transgender lawyer, she has carved a path from the streets to the courtroom and her example is inspiring other transgender people in the conservative Islamic Republic.


"I am proud to have become Pakistan first transgender lawyer", Rao told Reuters.

Life is hard for transgender persons in Pakistan, where the Supreme Court only allowed them to claim a third gender on their national identity cards in 2009. The parliament just passed a law in 2018 recognising transgender people as equal citizen and protecting them from discrimination and violence.

Treated as outcasts, many transgender persons are victims of sexual assault and resort to working as wedding dancers or begging to make a living.

Rao also ended up begging on the streets after running away from her middle class home in the eastern city of Lahore when she was 18 with two other transgender persons.

Arriving in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, the elder transgender people she sought refuge with advised her to beg or become a sex worker to survive.

Rao stood at traffic lights begging from car to car but was determined to escape that path, eventually using her income to pay for law classes at night.

After several years, she earned a law degree, gaining her law license earlier this year and joining the Karachi Bar Association.

She has contested 50 cases and is working with a non-governmental organisation fighting for transgender rights.

Rao has broadened her clientele to include non-transgender persons

“As my case pertains to harassment, I feel that Rao can represent me best since transgenders are subjected to frequent harassment in our society,” said Jeya Alvi, 34, an office secretary meeting Rao for a consultation.

A 2017 census counted 10,418 transgender people out of 207 million in the country, but rights group Charity Trans Action Pakistan estimates there are at least 500,000.

"Rao used to beg here along with us, today she is better than many. But she still helps us, she even responds at midnight (if we contact her)," said Nayab, a transgender beggar who goes by one name.

Rao has even bigger aspirations than becoming an attorney.

“My goal is to become Pakistan’s first transgender judge,” she said.

(Reporting by Syed Raza Hassan; Editing by Gibran Peshimam and Christian Schmollinger)

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Pakistan's first transgender lawyer goes from begging to fighting in court
Nisha Rao, 28, a transgender woman who became country's first practicing lawyer, listens to one of her clients at office in Karachi,

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Pakistan's first transgender lawyer goes from begging to fighting in court
Nisha Rao, 28, a transgender woman who became country's first practicing lawyer, boards a cab, in Karachi,

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Pakistan's first transgender lawyer goes from begging to fighting in court
Nisha Rao, 28, a transgender woman who became country's first practicing lawyer, works at her office in Karachi,



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Pakistan's first transgender lawyer goes from begging to fighting in court
Nisha Rao, 28, a transgender woman who became country's first practicing lawyer, poses for a selfie along with her colleagues at the district City Court in Karachi

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Pakistan's first transgender lawyer goes from begging to fighting in court
Nisha Rao, 28, a transgender woman who became country's first practicing lawyer, shares a moment with her colleague at the district City Court in Karachi,

A Fight Over Agriculture Secretary Could Decide the Direction of Hunger Policy

Jonathan Martin
Thu, November 26, 2020

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) speaks with reporters after a hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, in Washington, on Friday, July 31, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds/The New York Times)More

An unlikely fight is breaking out over President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for agriculture secretary, pitting a powerful Black lawmaker who wants to refocus the Agriculture Department on hunger against traditionalists who believe the department should be a voice for rural America.

Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, the highest-ranking Black member of Congress and perhaps Biden’s most important supporter in the Democratic primary, is making an all-out case for Rep. Marcia Fudge of Ohio, an African American Democrat from Ohio.

Clyburn, whose endorsement of Biden before the South Carolina primary helped turn the tide for the former vice president’s nomination, has spoken to him on the phone about Fudge as recently as this week. The lawmaker has also lobbied for her with two of the president-elect’s closest advisers and discussed the matter with Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“I feel very strongly,” Clyburn said in an interview Wednesday about Fudge, who leads the nutrition and oversight subcommittee on the House Agriculture Committee.

“It’s time for Democrats to treat the Department of Agriculture as the kind of department it purports to be,” he added, noting that much of the budget “deals with consumer issues and nutrition and things that affect people’s day-to-day lives.”

But there are complications. Two of Biden’s farm-state allies are also being discussed for the job: Heidi Heitkamp, a former senator from North Dakota, and Tom Vilsack, the former Iowa governor who served as agriculture secretary for President Barack Obama.

The delicate proxy clash over the post, which is usually not as coveted as more high-profile Cabinet positions, has pitted Democrats eager to emphasize issues like hunger and nutrition against more traditional members of the party who believe the department should represent rural America. The sprawling agency oversees farm policy, the Forest Service, food safety and animal health but also the food stamp program, nutrition services, rural housing and rural development.More broadly, the debate illustrates the challenge Biden faces as he builds his administration. Every appointment he makes interlocks with others, and if he does not select a diverse candidate for one position, it becomes more likely he will for other posts.

The Agriculture job specifically is pinching Biden between two of his central campaign themes, which he repeated in plain terms this month in his victory speech: that he owes a special debt to African American voters and that he wants to be a president for all Americans, including those who didn’t vote for him.

And nowhere did Biden fare worse than in rural America, particularly the most heavily white parts of the farm belt.

“This is a choice that only Joe Biden can make, and he will make it understanding the unique challenges of rural America and what needs to happen in rural America moving forward,” said Heitkamp, a moderate who was defeated in 2018 after serving as attorney general and then senator in one of the most sparsely populated states in the country.

Recalling her campaign efforts on behalf of Biden’s “great rural plan,” Heitkamp predicted the president-elect would “pick the person who can implement that rural plan.”

Clyburn, though, said the Agriculture Department had for too long seemed “to favor big farming interests” over less wealthy people, whether they be “little farmers in Clarendon County, South Carolina, or food stamp recipients in Cleveland, Ohio,” Fudge’s hometown.

Clyburn did not mention Heitkamp, but he bridled at the prospect of Vilsack reclaiming the department he had led for all eight years of the Obama administration.

“I don’t know why we’ve got to be recycling,” Clyburn said, echoing complaints that Biden only represents Obama’s third term. “There’s a strong feeling that Black farmers didn’t get a fair shake” under Vilsack, Clyburn said.

Vilsack did not respond in kind. He said he had “all the respect in the world for Rep. Clyburn” and that he had learned from him.

The former Iowa governor, who with his wife was an early supporter of Biden in his first campaign for president and again this year, said he was not angling for the agriculture job but was careful not to disclaim interest in the position.

“If there’s something I can do to help the country, fine,” Vilsack said. “But the president-elect makes that decision.”

When he does, he will be fully aware of where one of his most prominent supporters stands.

In addition to his conversations with Biden, Clyburn has reached out to Steve Ricchetti, who will serve as a counselor in the White House, and Ted Kaufman, Biden’s longest-serving adviser and former chief of staff.

House Democratic leaders are sensitive to creating vacancies in the chamber, even in safe districts like Fudge’s, given their slender majority. Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio, a Republican, might not schedule a quick special election to replace her. But Clyburn said he was hopeful from his conversation with Pelosi that she “would greenlight” Fudge.

Drew Hammill, a spokesperson for Pelosi, declined to comment on the discussion. But he signaled that the speaker, who appointed Fudge as chair of a subcommittee two years ago to defuse a potential rivalry for the speakership, would not object to her departure.

“The speaker wants the full contribution of House Democrats to the Biden-Harris mandate and to the future represented in the administration,” Hammill said.

Like other positions, the Agriculture Department decision could be settled by finding an alternate post elsewhere in the administration for whoever is passed over.

A spokesperson for Biden’s transition declined to comment on the appointment but said the president-elect was “prioritizing diversity of ideology and background as he builds a team of experts that looks like America to serve in his administration.”

Fudge, though, has other important advocates, including Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who said he had made the case for her “with four or five top Biden transition people.” Her colleagues on the House Agriculture Committee have also been supportive.

“It is time for a hunger advocate to lead the Department of Agriculture, and nobody could lead the agency better than Marcia Fudge,” said Rep. Filemon Vela, D-Texas.

Most significant, though, are three Black House Democrats who are close to one another and Fudge. The group includes Clyburn, Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, who is leaving Congress to become a senior adviser in the White House.

As for Biden, Clyburn said, “he likes Fudge a whole lot.”

Recounting his conversation with the president-elect, the congressman said he wanted to let him make the decision. “I just told him I thought she’d be a very good candidate and help refocus what the department is all about.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company