Throughout its 4.5 billion-year history, our planet has undergone numerous transformations.
Over millennia, various species have emerged and vanished, leaving behind fossils that shroud the ancient creatures in mystery. Now, some scientists are aiming to resurrect these animals.
While fictional movies like "Jurassic Park" have explored this idea, a biotech startup named Colossal has set its sights on genetically engineering an Asian elephant-mammoth hybrid.
The road to success for Colossal is paved with significant challenges. It involves piecing together the genetic code, fertilizing an egg, and ultimately, bringing an actual animal to life.
However, a critical question remains: Could these hybrid creatures thrive if they were to roam the Arctic tundra, just like their ancestors did thousands of years ago?
Fantastic creatures
Elephants inhabit intricate societies governed by social hierarchies. Therefore, when young elephants become separated or orphaned, they cannot simply be integrated into another herd.
Even when organizations rescue baby elephants, reintroducing them to the wild is a gradual process.
A wildlife foundation named Elephant Havens, situated at the fringes of Botswana's Okavango Delta, has established a comprehensive long-term reintroduction project. Orphaned elephants are "soft released" into a 1,000-acre enclosed area as they learn to fend for themselves without relying on human assistance.
Over time, the bonded herd will eventually transition to the wild, and their progress will be closely monitored for the next decade.
In collaboration with Colossal, the foundation is leveraging genetic data collection on the elephants, combined with artificial intelligence. This data could potentially help determine the most suitable approach for introducing hybrid mammoths into the wild.
Fossils and fireballs
Scientists continue to debate which creature would have emerged victorious in the fight if a volcano-triggered mudslide had not buried both of them before a clear winner could be determined.
The "once in a lifetime" fossil, discovered in northeastern China, impeccably preserves the encounter between a badger-like animal and a plant-eating beaked dinosaur, according to paleobiologist Jordan Mallon, a research scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
This finding adds yet another piece of evidence suggesting that early mammals were predators of dinosaurs, rather than merely coexisting alongside them.
Across the Universe
As celestial objects governed by gravity, planets typically maintain their distances from each other as they orbit stars. However, astronomers using a telescope located in Chile made an unusual observation - they spotted an improbable "sibling" trailing along the same orbit as a Jupiter-like planet in a system located 370 light-years away.
The cloud of debris, depicted above, may potentially be an incredibly rare celestial body known as a "Trojan" planet, which could either be in the process of forming or already fully formed.
This discovery is not the only celestial oddity reported this week. Astronomers have also detected a new type of stellar object located 15,000 light-years away, which emits radio waves every 22 minutes.
As the Earth experiences warming due to the climate crisis, certain butterflies may face greater challenges than others.
These winged insects heavily rely on solar warmth, but smaller butterflies with lighter hues may struggle to regulate their body temperature as the heat intensifies.
On the other hand, butterflies with larger wings and darker colors may find it easier to cool down, as per recent research. Lead study author Esme Ashe-Jepson from the University of Cambridge in the UK has a hypothesis on why butterfly color plays a role.
The climate crisis has also been associated with an increase in extreme weather events, which are projected to persist. Additionally, a phenomenon known as "underground climate change" is causing ground deformations in urban areas, according to a recent study conducted in Chicago.
Wild Kingdom
Female killer whales have the remarkable ability to live up to 90 years, making them one of the few animals to experience menopause.
This longevity extends well beyond their reproductive years and is attributed to the "grandmother effect." Older matriarchs play a crucial role in their pods by sharing preferred hunting spots and prey with the rest of the group.
New research conducted on killer whales off the Pacific Northwest coast of North America reveals that orca mothers also engage in a form of helicopter parenting during their later years. These experienced females assist their sons in navigating the complexities of orca social life and protect them from potentially dangerous conflicts with other individuals.
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