Ecology

Using molecular evidence buried in rocks, researchers at MIT suggest that some of the Earth’s first living creatures are ancestors of the modern sea sponge, reports Ashley Fike for Vice. “The discovery suggests the earliest animals were simple, filter-feeding organisms that slowly cleaned the seas while the rest of the evolution was still figuring itself out,” says Fike. “These early sponges likely had no skeletons, nerves, or eyes – just porous bodies that absorbed water and nutrients. Yet they paved the way for everything that came next, from insects to mammals to us.” 

A new study by MIT researchers suggests sea sponges may have been the “first animals to inhabit the Earth,” reports Maria Azzura Volpe for Newsweek. “In their work, the researchers linked so-called ‘chemical fossils’ found in ancient rocks to the ancestors of a class of modern-day sea sponges known as demosponges,” explains Volpe. “These chemical fossils—the molecular remnants of once-living organisms that have been buried, transformed, and preserved in sediment over time—were discovered in rocks that date back to more than 541 million years ago, during the Ediacaran Period.” 

MIT researchers have uncovered new evidence that suggests some of Earth’s first living creatures are ancestors of the modern sea sponge, reports Andrew Paul for Popular Science. The researchers identified 541 million-year-old chemical fossils embedded in sediment that they believe may indicate that some of Earth’s earliest creatures were the ancient relatives of today’s sea sponges. 

MIT researchers have used a sonar imaging system to observe a “colossal congregation of cod consume over 10 million capelin,” reports Mark Kaufman for Mashable. This event “was the largest predation event ever documented in the ocean,” writes Kaufman. 

Using a sonar-based technique called Ocean Acoustic Waveguide Remote Sensing (OAWRS), researchers at MIT and elsewhere have tracked a swarm of cod off the coast of Norway eating millions of migrating capelin fish, reports Ed Cara for Gizmodo. Cara notes that in the future this technique could potentially allow “researchers and others to more easily monitor the health of these important fish and other life in marine ecosystems.”

MIT researchers have found that the number of species and the average interaction strength determine whether different ecosystems would be stable or chaotic, reports Gabriel Popkin for Science. The researchers “grew microbes together in plastic wells and increase and decrease the concentration of nutrients to manipulate how strongly the different species interacted with each other,” explains Popkin. “The more nutrients, the more the different species competed.”

 Scientists at MIT and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have found that while albatross couples typically mate for life, shy wandering albatross males are more likely to be divorced, reports Forbes. “This link between personality and divorce could help scientists predict the resilience of an albatross population over time."

HuffPost reporter Mary Papenfuss writes that a team of archeologists and scientists, including Research Scientist Jahandar Ramezani, have uncovered evidence of social behaviors in dinosaurs. “The bones were segregated by age, with eggs in a common nesting ground,” writes Papenfuss. “Juveniles likely were left in ‘schools’ while adults foraged.”

Research scientist Jahandar Ramezani speaks with Scientific American reporter Christopher Intagliata about his new study that provides evidence early dinosaurs exhibited herding behavior. “This is a critical time in the evolution of dinosaurs. This is pretty early on,” says Ramezani. “So the idea is: this type of behavior, this social behavior, may have actually contributed to the evolutionary success of dinosaurs.”

Researchers from MIT and other institutions have uncovered evidence that early dinosaurs may have lived in social herds, reports Kate Baggaley for Popular Science. “People have known for a long time that the more advanced dinosaurs, the ones that lived in the late Jurassic and Cretaceous, especially the large sauropods…moved and lived in herds,” explains research scientist Jahandar Ramezani. “But the question has always been, when did this behavior start?”

Boston Globe reporter Derrick Z. Jackson writes about Dr. Juliet Simpson’s work mapping the amount of carbon in Boston-area sea grass beds. Simpson explains that in undisturbed areas, half of a handful of salt marsh soil is “probably straight carbon.”

“Chemical analysis of poop samples discovered at an archaeological site in Alicante, Spain, suggests Neanderthals may have enjoyed significant servings of plants too,” writes Washington Post reporter Gail Sullivan of new findings from MIT researchers concerning the diets of Neanderthals. 

In a piece for Salon, Sarah Gray reports that a team of researchers, “discovered 50,000-year-old human poop while excavating the ancient Neanderthal site El Salt, located in Spain near the port of Alicante on the Mediterranean.” Analysis of the fecal matter showed that the Neanderthals may have eaten more vegetables than previously thought.  

Nicholas St. Fleur of NPR examines new findings from MIT researchers concerning the Neanderthal diet. "This opens a new window into Neanderthal diet because it's the first time we actually know what they digested and consumed," Ainara Sistiaga says.

Carolyn Johnson writes for The Boston Globe about MIT’s findings that the diets of Neanderthals included plants in addition to animals. The results, obtained by analyzing fecal samples, undermine previous beliefs that Neanderthals were carnivorous.