#9 new age of discovery
Hidden in Plain Sight: Biodiversity, hidden species, ancient civilizations, 155 tiny genes
new age of discovery
We are witnessing a boom in the discovery of new species, a rekindled interest in biodiversity studies is leading conservationists to once again go out on scientific collecting expeditions. Explorers are identifying new species at a rate that would have amazed Charles Darwin. This is the dichotomy Earth finds itself in as it enters a time marked by the significant global impact that humans are having on the planet’s ecosystems.
new wonder of biology
We have reached a time where biologists are uncovering vast new elements of biodiversity, which are the fundamental building blocks of ecosystems, and the provisions of an ecosystem's goods and services.
There are thousands of examples of unexpected discoveries of new populations of organisms (taxa) across broad geographic spectra, from extremophile bacteria in Yellowstone geysers to whole new ecosystems in the Pacific Ocean hydrothermal vents. For example, the Census of Marine Life program has uncovered hundreds of new species.
During 2022, researchers at the California Academy of Sciences have added 146 new animal, plant, and fungi species to the tree of life, enriching our understanding of Earth's biodiversity and strengthening our ability to regenerate the natural world.
The discovery of these new-to-science species prove that our vast and dynamic planet still harbors unexplored places with never-before-recorded plants and animals.
hundreds of “hidden” new mammal species waiting to be found
At least hundreds of so-far unidentified species of mammals are hiding in plain sight around the world, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that most of these hidden mammals are small bodied, many of them bats, rodents, shrews, and moles.
These unknown mammals are hidden in plain sight partly because most are small and look so much like known animals that biologists have not been able to recognize they are actually a different species, said study co-author Bryan Carstens, a professor of evolution, ecology and organismal biology at The Ohio State University.
Based on conservative estimate would be that there are hundreds of species of mammals worldwide that have yet to be identified.
Only an estimated 1 to 10% of Earth’s species have been formally described by researchers.
SOURCE: Ohio State News
ancient civilizations hiding in plain sight
Lasers have become an archeological tool in recent years, helping archaeologists unearth ancient civilizations that were previously invisible.
A laser technology known as LiDAR — short for light detection and ranging — uses planes to beam thousands of laser pulses from the sky at the ground below, penetrating through thick, deep forest coverage. It provides researchers with three-dimensional maps underneath the vegetation, revealing human-built structures.
There are five previously unknown civilizations that were discovered through LiDAR technology:
• Using laser pulses, researchers detected a 2,000-year-old Mayan civilization in northern Guatemala with nearly 1,000 archaeological sites, more than 417 cities, towns, and villages spread across 650 square miles.
• Nearly 500 long-lost Maya and Olmec ceremonial sites in Mexico. Researchers uncovered 478 Mesoamerican sites they estimated were between 2,000 and 3,000 years old.
• 61,000 undiscovered structures were found hidden under the dense Guatemalan jungle. Researchers found 61,480 long-lost roads, foundations for houses, and elevated causeways dating back to 650 and 800 CE, in the Mayan Late Classic Period.
• 81 earthworks, including fortified villages and roads, buried deep in the Amazon rainforest, believed to have supported a complex civilization of up to 1 million people between the years 1250 and 1500.
• In the Bolivian Amazon, the hidden ruins of 26 Indigenous settlement sites, nine of which were new discoveries, that thrived in the Amazon rainforest more than 600 years ago.
SOURCE: Insider
155 tiny new genes evolving in humans
Yes, the human species is still evolving, and short, hidden genes for microproteins called ORFs hint at the future of human evolution.
A team of researchers in Greece and Ireland, led by Nikolaos Vakirlis at the Alexander Fleming Biomedical Sciences Research Center in Athens, argues that a key to understanding human evolution lies with short sequences of DNA named “open reading frames” (ORFs). These structures are small sections of the genome that encode tiny protein molecules — microproteins — which can perform a diverse range of crucial biological tasks, from regulating muscle performance to alerting cells to damaging stresses. The study found that two of the microproteins were entirely unique to humans, emerging after our ancestors split away from chimpanzees.
While identifying and studying these molecules in more detail could offer new clues as to where our evolution may be headed in the future, they may also lead to new medical discoveries in the shorter term, such as diagnosing and treating dangerous genetic diseases.
SOURCE: Sam Jarman, Freethink
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