Science Illustrated Issue 87

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Getting a grip: orang-utan climbs trees on four limbs The orang-utan is designed for life in the trees. The big ape is around seven times stronger than the average human, with a major portion of its strength in its arms, which can span 225cm. The ape’s thumbs are located on the sides of its hands, and the big toes are opposite the other toes, allowing the orang-utan to climb with a firm grip from all four limbs. This photo, in which the trees are reflected in the water below the orang-utan, won the Nature TTL Photographer of the Year award. Photo // Thomas Vijayan Climate crime? Tiny algae leave blood trail in the snow Algae are a well-known phenomenon in oceans and lakes, but the tiny monocellular organisms, which convert sunlight into sugar and…

GENETICS In a Mexican cave, Danish and British DNA researchers have made a ground-breaking discovery. By sequencing DNA found in soil from the mountain cave, they have mapped out the DNA of several animals – including a huge extinct cave bear that existed 16,000 years ago. The scientists consider this a milestone in the research field of eDNA, which maps out animals and plants based on genetic material found in the environment, such as in soil and water. In this case, the eDNA comes from urine, faeces and hair left behind by animals in the cave and conserved in the soil. The cave bear from which the DNA has been sequenced is the extinct short-faced bear, which existed in North America in the early Stone Age and was very large, measuring 2…

CLIMATE A team of Australian National University and UNSW researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes has discovered that the higher water temperatures associated with global warming are influencing surface ocean eddies on scales smaller than the great ocean currents that are considered in most climate change models. These ‘mesoscale’ eddies are 10 to 100km wide, somewhat like cyclones in the atmosphere, and are responsible for ocean ‘weather’. The eddies play a key role in circulation, mixing warm and cold water, salt and fresh. Their role in moving heat, carbon and nutrients around the oceans is of global importance. Satellites can monitor the eddies with remarkable precision, determining ocean levels and the energy in the currents. But only recently has there been enough long-term data to study trends over…

The new Australian genus name Opaluma (from the Latin words for opal and thorn) reflects the iridescent colours in this group of soldier flies and the distinctive thorn on their abdomens. One species has been named Opaluma RuPaul after the US actor and drag queen RuPaul. TAXONOMY Given that we frequently see threatened, endangered and near-extinct species in the pages of Australian Science Illustrated, it’s a pleasure to receive news of some 150 new species identified and named by Australia’s CSIRO and its partners during the last year. They include a new Opaluma genus of iridescent soldier flies, many of them identified in areas impacted by the Black Summer bushfires, says Dr Bryan Lessard, Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the National Research Collections Australia. He notes that the naming process for new species…

ARCHAEOLOGY Scientists estimate that since the last Ice Age, some 2 million square kilometres of coastal plains around Australia have been inundated by rising oceans, submerging as much as a quarter of our continent. These areas now form Australia’s underwater continental shelf, and represent what is known today as Sea Country to many Indigenous Australians, who have a deep cultural, spiritual and historical connection to these underwater environments. Some scientists have previously asserted that there is likely nothing of interest that would have been preserved in these areas. But two studies published in the journal Archaeology Australia have produced clear evidence to overturn this view, with The Deep History of Sea Country (DHSC) project team uncovering a new intertidal stone quarry and stone tool manufacturing site, as well as coastal rock…