There have been five mass extinctions over the course of life on earth. The largest one, known as the Great Dying, occurred at the end of the Permian period, 252 million years ago. Around 96 percent of earth’s marine species, 70 percent of terrestrial vertebrates and 57 percent of all insect families were completely killed off.

There have been several theories as to what caused this mass extinction. A study recently published in the science journals Science and Nature, suggest “rocks from 252 million years ago suggest that carbon dioxide from volcanoes made sea water lethal.”

Scientists were able to study rocks from the time of the Great Dying in the oceans to “calculate how quickly ocean chemistry shifted.” Matthew Clarkson of the University of Otago in Dunedin, argued that “volcanoes in Siberia belched so much CO2 in such a short time that the oceans simply could not absorb it all.” This caused ocean pH levels to drop dramatically. The Great Dying took mostly marine species with “calcium carbonate skeletons especially those reliant on stable CO2 levels to produce their skeletons.”

This information is extremely relevant to us today because human industrial activity produces a vast amount of CO2. Approximately 30-40 percent of CO2 goes into our oceans. And, eventually if there is enough of it, could cause another Great Dying. Nature states that “the average [ocean] pH has dropped by 0.1 units since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.”

As a frame of reference during the second half of the Great Dying ocean pH levels dropped 0.7 units over the course of 10,000 years. Clarkson encourages us to consider the Great Dying as a terrifying possible future, considering the rate at which we continue to produce CO2.

Falling ocean pH is also commonly known as ocean acidification. It has various negative effects on ocean species. Especially “calcifying species, including oysters, clams, sea urchins, shallow water corals, deep sea corals, and calcareous plankton,” according to NOAA. These creatures serve as major parts of the food web, for other marine species as well as humans. If ocean acidification continues at such a high rate, there is the possibility of another Great Dying, which would seriously alter the ocean’s marine life and thereby alter ours.

Pinzón Island, located at the center of the chain of Galápagos Islands is home to many of the famous giant Galápagos tortoises. They were able to live peacefully on their small island of less than 15 square miles until the mid 18th century, when European sailors arrived and brought rats with them. The rats quickly overtook the island, and effectively destroyed the tortoise population. They ate the tortoise’s eggs and young hatchlings.

Normally this kind of attack would cause a species to go extinct suddenly. But because these tortoises have such long life spans the older individuals were able to survive and keep reproducing. The surviving generations of juveniles and adults that avoided the rats were able to keep laying eggs, but the rats just kept eating them. Preventing the species to produce a new generation. This cycle continued until the mid 1900’s, when there were about one hundred tortoises left on the island. In the 1960’s conservationists took a stand for the survival of the species and collected every tortoise egg they could find on the island and were able to hatch and raise them on another small island. Once they were large enough to avoid the rats the tortoises were returned to Pinzón Island.

This was only one part of the efforts to save these lumbering giants. In 2012 conservationists dispersed poison baits over the island to kill off every single rat. This poison was specifically designed to attract only the rats so as to not harm any other species native to the island. This unique effort proved to be highly effective and Pinzón has been completely rid of rats because of it.

Because of this hard work tortoise eggs have been spotted on the island for the first time in over one hundred years. James Gibbs, one of the first people to see the eggs and new hatchlings, stated, “I’m amazed that the tortoises gave us the opportunity to make up for our mistakes after so long,” and that, “the incredible eradication of rats on this island, done by the [Galápagos] park service and others, has created the opportunity for the tortoises to breed for the first time.” Gibbs was happy to announce that conservationists had found ten new hatchlings.

“This is the first time they’ve bred in the wild in more than a century” and that, “given projection probabilities, [he’s] sure there were a hundred times more hatchlings out there.” There are now thought to be over 500 tortoises on the island, successfully beginning to save them from the brink of extinction.

A recent study has shown that the mean body mass of marine mammals has increased by 150 times since the Cambrian period (542 million years ago). These findings are consistent with Cope’s rule, which “proposes that animal lineages evolve towards larger body size over time.”

According to the journal Science in which this study was published, the researchers “compiled a data set of body sizes for 17,208 genera of marine animals spanning the past 542 million years,” and found that “neutral drift from a small initial value cannot explain this pattern. Instead, most of the size increase reflects differential diversification across classes” meaning that large body size was favored in through natural selection in the evolution of marine animals over the past 542 million years.

Jonathan Webb, writing for BBC notes that, “the pattern is not consistent across the animal kingdom, however. Most groups of dinosaurs got bigger until they died out – but the birds that evolved from them grew smaller and lighter with the necessity of flight.” He goes on to explain that the head researcher Dr. Noel Heim and his colleagues, “say the consistent trend does not mean that every single genus of animals evolved to grow larger. Instead, the branches of the family tree that were populated by larger animals divided many more times – diversifying and expanding so that the ocean gradually built up a greater variety of bigger and bigger beasts.”

This data could be coincidental but, as noted before, it is not consistent with a natural drift. The researchers ran computer simulations of evolution over the past 542 million years both with no an imposed favoring of size and favoring of larger size. The model that favored larger sized animals in natural selection bared the closest resemblance to our current evolutionary model.

The researchers as of now are unsure of what the exact benefits of the bulk might be. Webb notes that there are likelihoods that larger species, “took advantage of being able to move faster, burrow better in sediment, or eat larger prey.” Dr. Heim also suggested that, “the changing chemistry of the ocean, including an increase in oxygen, may also have played a role.”

Dr. Michael Berenbrink, an evolutionary physiologist at the University of Liverpool comments of the study, “You can see in the data, there is this trend to increasing size – but the real kick comes when you have these air-breathers re-entering the water, then you have a sort of step change in size.” By taking in oxygen from the air the animals are able to deliver this influx to their tissues and support larger bodies.

Most people have heard the adage that the blue whale is the largest creature to ever exist, but the sheer size of many other sea creatures is often overlooked. Below is a daunting graphic to make you think twice about getting in the water.

Antarctica is the coldest, driest and windiest continent on the planet. About 98 percent of it is covered in ice that is about 1.93 kilometers thick. There are also vast ice shelves that extend off of its coast. Beneath these sheets is more than a million square kilometers of unexplored seafloor.

One of these ice shelves, the Ross Ice Shelf is the size of France, and is several hundred meters thick – as much as 746.76 meters in some places.

The National Science Foundation launched a project to explore this ice shelf in order to observe the effects of climate change on the ice. The scientists carved a hole in the ice shelf using a hot-water drilling technique and then released a robot called Deep-SCINI (Submersible Capable of under Ice Navigation and Imaging) to college samples of sea water and sediment. This robot was also equipped with a small camera.

The camera was lowered through the hole in the ice to the water below. The space between the ice and barren rocky sea floor is only about 10.06 meters. It is a harsh environment; there is no sunlight, and as a result, little food. The NSF team only expected to find some primitive microbes as far as life beneath the ice.

But they were surprised when a small transparent fish came into the view of the robot’s camera. In total, the camera spotted about thirty fish and crustaceans in an area thought to be unable to support life.

Their existence remains confounding to scientists. The fish and crustaceans survive on a completely different food web than other organisms. Douglas Fox writing for nature explains one theory is that microbes and bacteria might feed on “ammonium or methane seeping up from ancient marine sediments hundreds of meter below.” These small organisms then serve as food for protists, which then were eaten by crustaceans which are then eaten by the fish.

Ross Powell 63-year old glacial geologist from Northern Illinois University says, “I’m surprised.”

“I’ve worked in this area my whole career, you get the picture of these areas having very little food, being desolate, not supporting much life.”

This discovery is just the beginning of exploring this habitat that was previously thought inhabitable. These organisms are functioning in what appears to be a near-complete separate food web from us, meaning that life may not need what we have previously thought is necessary to survive.

Click here for a photo and more information from Scientific American magazine.

Cara Delevingne, a model and actress has sparked controversy with her latest photo shoot. She is seen holding a captive lion cub while modeling for TAG Heuer, a watch company. Cara is a self-proclaimed wild-animal lover and even sports a lion tattoo on her finger. While she may love wild animals, by taking pictures with a captive wild animal she is passively endorsing captivity and animal abuse.

Taking pictures with and interacting with captive big cat cubs is becoming a common of a tourist attraction. Even Beyoncé has pictures with a tiger cub from her trip to Thailand. However, these pictures hide an unsettling reality.

In their criticism of Beyoncé’s picture, World Animal Protection wrote, “when you look behind the scenes, vacation snaps like these support an industry that relies on animal cruelty. Many tourists unwittingly contribute to the suffering of wild animals like these. They’re simply not aware that their ‘once in a lifetime’ photo means a lifetime of misery for that animal.”

Additionally, the Humane Society of the United States recently investigated two roadside zoos that provide customers with photo shoots of them with tiger cubs. The Natural Bridge Zoo in Virginia and Tiger Safari in Oklahoma both breed tigers for their cubs which attract customers. The HSUS’s investigation found that these cubs are bred for the tourist seasons, and are then taken from their mothers so they can begin bringing in money for the zoo. According to The Dodo the “tired, overheated, thirsty, hungry, or sick cubs are expected to sit still for a parade of paying customers, and are often physically disciplined to ensure that they do so.” Once the tiger cubs get too large they are sold off, most of them to the exotic pet trade where they will continue to be mistreated.

Back to Delevingne’s photo shoot with the lion cub. Exotic animals in the entertainment industry are notoriously ill-treated. World Animal Protection wildlife expert Dr. Neil D’Cruze states, “lion cubs are not photo props. Their heath and well-being should not be compromised,” referring to the starvation, and physical and mental distress the cubs endure. D’Cruze continues, “[the lions] belong in the wild, not draped over a celebrity just to sell a designer watch…when you look behind the scenes, advertisements like these support an industry that relies on animal cruelty. Our concern is that such high profile adverts will legitimize these cruel encounters with animals.”

When well known people like Delevingne and Beyoncé are promoting this kind of behavior, others are likely to follow suit. Any civilian interaction with wild animals should be suspected of covering up animal abuse.

Below is a helpful link to bigcatrescue.org’s facts about interacting captive big cats.

http://bigcatrescue.org/abuse-issues/issues/pet-cubs/

Pangolins (also called scaly anteaters) are strange creatures that are quietly being eaten to extinction. They are coved in scales are actually modified hairs. They also have large claws on their front legs, which they use for digging up ants’ nests. They then use their ant-eater-like tongue to lick them up. They are insectivores, and their diet is mainly comprised of ants and termites. Their name comes from the Malay word “penugguling,” which means “something that rolls up.” There are eight different species of pangolin, but they are all on the endangered species list. They are facing extinction because of habitat loss, their use in traditional Chinese medicine, and general consumption. Their scales are thought to have medicinal properties, and their meat is considered a delicacy.

An estimated one million of them have been traded and killed within the past ten years, this makes them the most trafficked animals in the world.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species bans pangolin trade but poaching in some areas is still strong. This past July Vietnamese customs officials seized 1.4 tons of pangolin scales from a cargo ship. This amounts to about 10,000 dead animals.  Pangolin scales are worth more than $200 a kilogram.

One chef in southern China describes cooking pangolin: “We keep them alive in cages until the customer makes an order. Then we hammer them unconscious, cut their throats and drain the blood. It is a slow death. We then boil them to remove the scales. We cut the meat into small pieces and use it to make a number of dishes, including braised meat and soup. Usually the customers take the blood home with them afterwards.” This morbid description is how many pangolins spend their final days. Others are not so lucky, many are frozen alive and then distributed around Asia.

However, even though they are largely unknown to the world, and are understudied, pangolins are incredibly resilient animals, if given the opportunity they breed fairly quickly and could begin to recover in the wild.

So consider the pine-cone creature, and give it the attention it so badly needs, and maybe it might have a chance.

Sea stars more commonly (and incorrectly) known as star fish, are dying off in vast numbers. Millions of individuals, from at least twenty different species along the west coast are “wasting” away.

They are suffering from what is called a wasting disease or wasting syndrome. This disease is classified by symptoms of ectoderm lesions, decaying tissue, autonomous limbs, and tissue fragmentation. So in less science-y terms the sea-star contracts the disease, develops skin wounds, which end up decaying and making the sea-star appear like it is melting away as it dies. Or worse, its limbs end up having “minds of their own” and crawling off in separate directions. The sea star either melts or literally rips itself apart.

The outbreak began in June 2013, along the Washington coast. Soon sea starts all along the Pacific Coast, from Baja California to southern Alaska were dying off because of this wasting disease. The National Academy of Sciences conducted a year-long study on the strange disease. They have concluded that the densovirus is the most likely culprit for the gruesome deaths. This virus has been known to be present in the Pacific Ocean since 1942. Something must have happened now to induce such an extreme outbreak.

Their study was incredibly intense: “There are ten million viruses in a drop of seawater, so discovering the virus associated with a marine disease can be like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Ian Hewson, a professor of microbiology said.

There have been similar die-offs in the 1970’s, 80’s, and 90’s, but the current outbreak has had the most casualties, and over such a large area. Also interestingly, sea stars can “have” the virus but not exhibit symptoms. The Densovirus has been found in museum sea star specimens collected as far back as the 1940’s. Researchers have found that sea stars with higher concentrations of the virus in their system are the ones that are dying.

Sea stars are deceptively essential to the environment: they’re more important than we might expect. Ecologists consider them to be what is known as “keystone species.” National Geographic defines a keystone species as “a plant or animal that plays a unique and crucial role in the way an ecosystem functions. Without a keystone species, the ecosystem would be dramatically different or cease to exist altogether.”

There is hope, however, there seem to be a large number of juvenile sea stars in certain regions. Some regions like Monterey Bay have the highest number of juveniles in fifteen years. Maybe these little sea stars will have developed some sort of immunity to this decimating sickness.

In the latest Zoological news, baby penguin robots are conducting research on unsuspecting king, and emperor penguins. King penguins look very similar to their larger cousins the emperor penguins. King penguins also don’t live in the midst of Antarctica like the emperors, but live in the sub-antarctic islands close by.

Researchers had been trying and failing to collect information about the penguins without disturbing them. Every time they got close to the penguins they would become stressed and scatter, disturbing set familial territories and causing fights. They wanted to collect data on the bird’s natural behavior, but this commotion made their research impossible. Furthermore they found that when the birds were approached by humans their levels of stress hormones would rise. The researchers worried that this was unhealthy for the penguins. So the researchers concluded that they had to devise a plan to study these skittish birds without disturbing them. So obviously a baby penguin robot was the next logical option.

They found that the birds’ heart rates did not increase as much when approached by the robot. They also noted that the penguins attacked human researchers and undisguised robots (data collector on wheels), but did not attack the penguin robot. The robot is also a remote-controlled RFID (radio frequency identification) reader. This machine registers certain information about the birds it approaches that have been micro-chipped by researchers in the past.

The mechanical chick was so effective that other baby penguins and penguin parents were vocalizing to it. The author of this study, Yvon Le Maho, said that the penguins “were very disappointed when there was no answer…next time we will have a rover playing songs” (Songs being the song of a penguin chick). The penguin rover was even able to successfully join a huddle of other baby penguins undetected. Perhaps they realized how cold the little robot was and were attempting to warm it up.

The fanged deer is a species that hadn’t been spotted in over half a century.

An endangered deer that hasn’t been spotted since 1948 was recently sighted in northeastern Afghanistan by a team of researchers. The Kashmir musk deer is not only remarkable in its continued survival, but in its strange appearance. The males have tusks that resemble fangs. They use these during the rutting (mating) season to compete for females. Kashmir musk deer are about 0.8 to 1 meter long and can weigh anywhere from 7 to 17 kilograms. They are native to northern India’s Himalayas, northern Afghanistan and Kashmir, the region in Pakistan for which it was named. And they are probably the only animal that can make fangs look cute.

Kashmir musk deer are part of a larger genus known as Moschus, or musk deer. Musk deer are hunted for their meat and their musk glands. Musk used to be commonly used in perfumery, but is now often replaced with synthetic scents. However, the musk is still coveted for cosmetic and pseudo-medicinal purposes, and is worth about $45,000 per kilogram in illegal markets. The researchers also found evidence of this in their studies: a dead deer as a result of poaching.

These deer also suffer from extreme habitat loss. Additionally, because of political issues and violence, conservation agencies have not been able to conduct proper studies of the deer’s survival. The good news is that the Wildlife Conservation Society has trained locals to monitor and study the musk deer, and report back to the organization.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Kashmir musk deer as endangered because of “a serious population decline, estimated to be more than 50 percent over the last three generations (approximately 21 years), inferred from over-exploitation, which is characteristic of this genus…it should also be noted that the species has a relatively restricted range, and so its population is unlikely to be large.”

The researchers, however, are hopeful and stated that, “this rare species, along with better known wildlife such as snow leopards, are the natural heritage of this struggling nation. We hope that conditions will stabilize soon to allow the WCS and local partners to better evaluate conservation needs of this species.”

Political issues will continue to take precedent over the Kashmir musk deer’s survival. But hopefully this fearsome-looking herbivore will get the support it needs to recover while there is still time left.

When most people think of otters, the image that comes to mind is something small, cute, playful and cuddly. But in the Amazon the local otters are known by another name: river wolf. They get this fierce name from their voracious eating habits. They are adept hunters and eat many different types of fish, including piranha. They are also known as giant river otters, and are native to South America. They are members of the weasel family, and they can grow to be six feet long and about seventy pounds, hence the name.

However, they are best known for their impressive fur. The fur is so dense and has such variety in length, that water never reaches the otter’s skin. Their cubs are even born covered in it, and they are one of the few mammal carnivores to have a fur-covered nose. This amazing fur has also been the root of their struggle to survive. By the 70s, their populations had been decimated as a result of hunting for their pelts. By 1971 there were only twelve giant river otters left. But in 1973 Peru banned the commercial hunting of the otters, and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) treaty was established and protected endangered plants and animals such as the giant river otter though international agreements.

The otters’ populations have been carefully monitored and protected since then, with numbers in Manu National Park in Peru increasing from forty-nine individuals in 1991 to eighty-one in 2006.

Unfortunately these animals are still listed as an endangered species. This is mainly because of an expected increase in problems like habitat loss. There has also been a history of conflict between these otters and local fishermen, who think that the otters deplete the river’s fish. Gold mining in this area also leads to habitat loss and mercury poisoning (mercury is used to mine the gold, and gets into the river water).

There are options for ecotourism in their habitat now but it is still debated as being potentially helpful or hurtful to the otter’s survival. It brings the issue to light for many people, but can create unnecessary stress for the otters. These grumpy fishermen are yet another species that seems indestructible until it meets humans. Hopefully conservation efforts in the area are able to preserve the otter’s habitat and ensure its survival.

More reading on the river wolves through the links below:

http://news.mongabay.com/2014/1014-hance-giant-river-otters-manu.html

http://www.nature.org/newsfeatures/specialfeatures/animals/mammals/giant-otter.xml

Also, these otters make pretty unusual sounds, here is a link to them vocalizing at someone on the river: