bWelcome back to the Abstract! Here are the stories this week that battled rivals, devoured sharks, solved riddles, and left fingerprints in the sky.First, scientists chronicle the victories of a jousting champion unlike any other in all of history. Then: it turns out that krakens are real, the mystery of the Golden Orb is solved, and the Northern winds are changing.As always, for more of my work, check out my book First Contact: The Story of Our Obsession with Aliens or subscribe to my personal newsletter the BeX Files.Peak Beak: The Bruce StoryGrabham, Alexander A. et al. \u201cA disabled kea parrot is the alpha male of his circus.\u201d Current Biology.Meet Bruce, a kea parrot that lost the top half of his beak about 12 years ago. Despite his injury, Bruce is the undisputed alpha male of his \u201ccircus,\u201d the term for a group of kea. He remains undefeated in dominance battles with rivals, allowing him to live a life of luxury in his long-time home at Willowbank Wildlife Reserve in New Zealand.Now, Bruce has inspired one of the most delightful questions ever asked in an academic paper:\u00a0 \u201cHow does the kea missing his upper beak win every fight and not get stressed?\u201dThe answer is Bruce\u2019s invention of \u201cbeak jousting,\u201d a set of moves that has ruffled feathers among his \u201cintact\u201d rivals, allowing him to ascend to the top of the pecking order.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBruce deployed his exposed lower beak in jousting thrusts, both at close range, with an extension of his neck, and from afar, with a run or jump that left him overbalanced forward with the force of motion,\u201d said researchers led by Alexander Grabham of the University of Canterbury.\u00a0\u201cBruce has therefore weaponised his disability through behavioural innovation: jousting is a behaviour not observed in other kea, with different motor patterns, that targets a wider range of body parts,\u201d the team said.In this way, Bruce has maintained his position as the ringleader of the circus, a position that comes with appreciable benefits. The other birds give him dibs at all feeders in the preserve where he eats undisturbed, plus, he is the only male that is groomed by other males as opposed to female mates. He has been observed enjoying these \u201callopreening\u201d services from his excellently-named male subordinates Taz, Megatron, Joker, and Neo.Bruce being Bruce. Image: Alex Grabham\u201cThis provides evidence of up-hierarchy allopreening: it was exclusive to the alpha and generally increased in frequency inversely to dominance, with the highest frequency of allopreening done by the lowest-ranking male,\u201d the team said (Taz is bottom of the heap, in case you\u2019re curious). \u201cThis is likely a key factor in why Bruce exhibits the lowest stress: allopreening is associated with reduced glucocorticoids.\u201dAlpha males in other species normally have higher stress levels than their subordinates, but Bruce has found a way to kick back and chill out. Indeed, this isn\u2019t the first time he\u2019s been the subject of scientific fascination; a 2021 study reported Bruce\u2019s use of pebbles as tools of self-care. The fact that he displays such immense behavioral flexibility and resilience \u201cbrings into question whether well-intentioned prosthetic assistance for physically impaired animals will always improve positive animal welfare,\u201d according to the study.\u00a0\u201cThe bird missing his upper beak has rewritten what disability means for behaviourally complex species,\u201d the team concluded.In other news\u2026Who left all these fingerprints in the extratropical zone?Blackport, Russell, and Sigmond, Michael. The Emergence of a Human Fingerprint in the Boreal Winter Extratropical Zonal Mean Circulation.\u201d Geophysical Research Letters.Everyone wants to change the world, and well, we did it folks. Scientists have discovered \u201ca human fingerprint\u201d in the atmospheric circulation of the Northern hemisphere during winter, according to a new study.In other words, the impact of human-driven climate change is measurably causing the structure of Northern jet streams to shift over time, a trend that can be observed across multiple different datasets, and which may be a blind spot in our current climate models.\u00a0\u201cWe find that the pattern or \u2018fingerprint\u2019 of wind changes caused by increased greenhouse gases predicted by the models matches with observed changes and that random variability cannot explain the changes,\u201d said authors Russell Blackport and Michael Sigmond of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis.\u00a0\u201cIf the models are underestimating the human-caused response, we expect the circulation trends to continue at a faster rate than models predict,\u201d the team added. \u201cUnderstanding the cause of these discrepancies will be crucial for obtaining accurate projections of regional climate change.\u201dWhile this is not your typical biometric data, we are still leaving figurative prints in the skies. The good news is that at least there are experts and instruments monitoring these shifts\u2014for now.Release the Cretaceous krakensIkegami, Shin and Iba, Yasuhiro et al. \u201cEarliest octopuses were giant top predators in Cretaceous oceans.\u201d Science.April has been a very octopusian month, featuring new discoveries about octopus sex and octopus imposters. How fitting to round it out with an amazing tale of real-life \u201ckrakens\u201d\u2014octopuses that may have exceeded 60-feet in length (!)\u2014that once prowled the Cretaceous seas as apex predators.\u00a0\u201cWith a calculated total length of ~7 to 19 meters, these octopuses may represent the largest invertebrates thus described, rivaling contemporaneous giant marine reptiles,\u201d said researchers co-led by Shin Ikegami and Yasuhiro Iba of Hokkaido University. \u201cTheir position in the food chain, however, has remained completely unknown since direct evidence such as the stomach contents of these giants has not been found to date.\u201dConcept art of Cretaceous kraken Nanaimoteuthis haggarti. Image: Yohei Utsuki: Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Hokkaido UniversityIn the absence of any preserved octopus guts, the team looked at wear-and-tear on jaw fossils of these extinct giants for insights about their diet. The results revealed ample evidence of \u201ca powerful bite\u201d and \u201cdynamic crushing of hard skeletons.\u201d In other words, these krakens may not have only rivaled iconic ocean predators of this age\u2014such as sharks or giant mosasaurs\u2014they may have devoured them as well.These ancient giants \u201cprobably consumed large prey with their long arms and jaws, playing the role of top predators in Cretaceous marine ecosystems,\u201d the team concluded.I think I have a new idea for a cryptid, in case anyone wants to spin up some lore.Solved! The case of the Golden Orb\u00a0\u00a0Auscavitc, Steven et al. \u201cThe Curious Case of the Golden Orb \u2014 Relict of Relicanthus daphneae (Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Hexacorallia), a deep sea anemone.\u201d bioRxiv.While there are no longer giant krakens prowling the seas (that we know of), the modern ocean is still home to plenty of bizarre creatures. Case in point: The Golden Orb, a strange object of indeterminate origin first glimpsed in 2023 by a robotic submersible more than two miles under Alaskan waters as part of a NOAA expedition with the ship Okeanos Explorer.\u00a0This orb completely baffled the scientific community. Was it an egg mass? A dead sponge? A biofilm? Theories abounded. But now, scientists think they have finally solved the riddle after a thorough lab analysis, according to a new preprint study that has not yet been peer-reviewed.\u00a0The verdict is that the orb is a clump of dead cells from the deep-sea anemone Relicanthus daphneae\u2014put another way, these are basically gilded toe-nails.\u00a0\u201cDuring the course of Okeanos Explorer expeditions, it is not uncommon that encountered organisms are not immediately recognized,\u201d said researchers led by Steven Auscavitch of Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. \u201dHowever, sometimes real mysteries exist and imagery alone only raises questions. Such is the case of the Golden Orb.\u201d\u201cFortunately, the specimen was collected using a suction sampler\u2026and we have determined that the Golden Orb is the organic remnant of Relicanthus daphneae,\u201d the team concluded.Like the old saying goes, one anemone\u2019s trash is a laboratory\u2019s treasure.\u00a0\u00a0Thanks for reading! See you next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"