Weekly Science Picks
FollowIt’s Sunday… Hurray! It’s our time to review what have happened during the last 7 days. This time we bring you the most exciting stories from biology, nature and wildlife. So, let’s start our tour!
Grey seals identified as killers behind mystery harbour porpoise deaths
Using DNA analysis of the the bite wounds, a Dutch team examined 721 porpoises that were stranded between 2003 and 20013 along the Dutch coastline and found that nearly one in five had been killed by seals. That makes the seals the major cause of harbour porpoise deaths in the Netherlands, alongside being killed as fishing bycatch.
Turtles and dinosaurs: Scientists solve reptile mysteries with landmark study on the evolution of turtles
A team of scientists has reconstructed a detailed ‘tree of life’ for turtles. Next generation sequencing technologies have generated unprecedented amounts of genetic information for a thrilling new look at turtles’ evolutionary history. Scientists place turtles in the newly named group ‘Archelosauria’ with their closest relatives: birds, crocodiles, and dinosaurs.
Exploring the ocean’s hidden depths
We know so little about the depths of our oceans that they might as well exist on another planet. The majority of the sea floor has never been visited by humans. As to what lives and feeds and breeds down there in the icy depths, it remains best left to our imagination.
The thorny issue threatening the coral reefs of Pilbara
The Great Barrier Reef is a global icon and something of a heavyweight in the natural world. If it was a movie it would be a Spielberg-directed Hollywood blockbuster starring Hugh Jackman and Angelina Jolie. Its cousin, Ningaloo Reef, off Australia’s western coast, is something of a poor relation in a branding sense, but still holds a relative degree of fame. It would be more your ‘straight-to-video’ sort of flick.
That would be all for this week’s choice. Please stay curious and scientifically passionate. We promise you a great stuff in the coming period.