The coelacanth — a giant weird fish still around from dinosaur times — can live for 100 years, a new study found.
These slow-moving, people-sized fish of the deep, nicknamed a “living fossil,” are the opposite of the live fast, die young mantra. These nocturnal fish grow at an achingly slow pace.
Females don’t hit sexual maturity until their late 50s, the study said, while male coelacanths are sexually mature at 40 to 69 years. And maybe strangest of all, researchers figure pregnancy in the fish lasts about five years.
Coelacanths, which have been around for 400 million years, were thought extinct until they were found alive in 1938 off South Africa. Scientists long believed coelacanths live about 20 years. But by applying a standard technique for dating commercial fish, French scientists calculated they actually live close to a century, according to a study in Thursday’s Current Biology.
Coelacanths are so endangered that scientists can only study specimens already caught and dead.
In the past, scientists calculated fish ages by counting big lines on a specific coelacanth scale. But the French scientists found they were missing smaller lines that could only be seen using polarized light — the technique used to figure out the age of commercial fish.
Study co-author Bruno Ernande, a marine evolutionary ecologist at France’s marine research institute, said polarized light revealed five smaller lines for every big one. The researchers concluded the smaller lines better correlated to a year of coelacanth age — and that indicated their oldest specimen was 84 years old.
Using the technique, the scientists studied two embryos and calculated the largest was five years old and the youngest was nine years old. So, Ernande said, they figured pregnancy lasts at least five years in coelacanths, which have live births.
That five-year gestation is “very strange” for fish or any animal, said Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s Harold Walker, who wasn’t part of the research.
Even though coelacanths are unrelated genetically and show wide evolutionary differences, they age slowly like other dwellers of the deep, sharks and rays, Ernande said. “They might have evolved similar life histories because they are sharing similar type habitats,” he said.
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June 16 (UPI) -- A Michigan woman said she would not have been able to purchase the scratch-off lottery ticket that earned her a $1 million jackpot if a store clerk hadn't unlocked the closed door so she could shop.
The 52-year-old Saginaw County woman, who chose to remain anonymous, told Michigan Lottery officials she and a friend arrived at a store to find the doors were locked.
"My friend and I were on the way home for a bonfire and we needed to stop for a couple things," the player said. "We stopped at the Marion Springs General Store, but they must have just closed because the door was locked. We were standing at the door when a clerk came over to let us in."
The clerk allowed the woman and her friend to quickly shop for their items.
"We grabbed items for the night and picked up some lottery tickets. I got home and got the fire going and forgot all about the tickets for a couple days. When I finally scratched it off, I was so surprised to win $1 million," the woman recalled.
The woman said she plans to use the money as a cushion to make her life more comfortable.
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June 17 (UPI) -- A nature reserve in Russia said a nature camera disguised as a piece of bark had an unintended consequence when it was destroyed by a hungry woodpecker.
The Nizhne-Svirsky Nature Reserve in Leningrad Oblast said in a Facebook post that the black woodpecker, nicknamed Zhelna by researchers, apparently was hunting for insects when it unintentionally committed "vandalism" on the camera.
The reserve shared video of the woodpecker methodically pecking away at the camera until it broke.
"Zhelna quickly discovered the camouflaged device and for several days methodically hit the camera," the post said.
The reserve said the camera has been removed for repairs and likely will be out of commission for some time.
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(FOX) A case of beer in the back seat may have been the enticement for a bear that got itself trapped inside a car in Douglas County, Colorado, for at least an hour on Tuesday, according to a report.
A Colorado Parks and Wildlife officer and a sheriff's deputy eventually managed to safely remove the animal, FOX 31 of Denver reported.
"He was just doing what they do, which is just kind of pinballing around in there, trying to figure his way out," District Wildlife Manager Casey Westbrook told the station.
The bear had reportedly gotten into the unlocked car and couldn't figure out how to get out.
The animal shredded part of a door and the ceiling of the car, according to FOX 31. The case of beer also got slightly banged up but none of the cans appeared to have been opened, the report said.
Westbrook and a Douglas County sheriff's deputy were able to get the bear out by tying a rope to the door handle, opening it and backing away.
"They're just looking for an escape route so once that door opened he was looking for the nearest way out of there with no people," Westbrook said.
Nearly 500 car break-ins by bears were reported between 2019 and 2020 in the state, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said, according to FOX 31.
Westbrook advised locking your car and not leaving food or drinks inside.
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GABORONE, Botswana (AP) — A huge diamond weighing more than 1,000 carats, which could be the third-largest mined in history, has been discovered in the southern African country of Botswana.
The high-quality gemstone weighing 1,098.3 carats was unearthed earlier this month in the Jwaneng mine owned by Debswana, the mining company jointly owned by the Botswanan government and the De Beers Group.
"With the recent introduction of a modern, state-of-the-art large diamond pilot plant, I have every hope that we will be able to recover more large diamonds," said Lynette Armstrong, Debswana's acting managing director.
"This by all standards is a great metallurgical achievement, to recover a diamond of this size intact through our conventional ore processing plant," she said.
The large diamond — 73 millimeters long, 52 millimeters wide and 27 millimeters thick — is the largest gem-quality diamond found in Debswana's mines in the company's more than 50-year history, she said. Diamonds were discovered in Botswana in 1967 and Debswana was formed in 1969.
The most recent large diamond found at Jwaneng mine was a stone weighing 446 carats in 1993, she said.
"The first sighting of the stone was on the first of June by our colleagues Kefentse Orakeng and Phodiso Selaledi when it was processed in the Aquarium plant. This sighting was confirmed three days later in the sort house on June 4th by a team led by Wapula Gaolatlhe," said Armstrong.
The big diamond is good news for Botswana's beleaguered economy which has experienced a significant downturn during the COVID-19 pandemic. Diamonds account for about two-thirds of Botswana's export earnings.
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June 17 (UPI) -- Three sheriff's deputies in Florida responded to a convenience store to help sort out an unusual problem -- an alligator hiding under a vending machine.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office said the alligator was found hiding under a vending machine at a Circle K gas station in Polk City.
The sheriff's office said the gator was "freaking people out" at the station.
Three deputies responded to the store and were able to extract the small gator from its hiding spot.
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June 17 (UPI) -- A Nebraska man set a new world record by completing 60 skydiving jumps in 24 hours while dressed in nothing but his safety equipment.
Rian Kanouff of Omaha said he contacted Guinness World Records about setting the record for most naked skydiving jumps in 24 hours, and the group said he could create the new record category if he performed at least 25 jumps in the time period.
Kanouff said its an informal tradition for skydivers to perform their 100th jump in the nude, and he came up with the idea to set the naked skydiving world record as a fundraiser for a mental health charity after the recent death of a friend.
"My friend that we lost to mental health issues was about that close to his 100th jump," Kanouff told KOLN-TV. "Close enough that he talked about it all the time, and he didn't get to make it. So I am out here for him and a lot of other people that we lost."
Kanouff ended his attempt with 60 completed naked jumps over Weeping Water, Neb. His attempt raised money for the Movember Foundation, a charity dedicated to men's mental health and suicide prevention.
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June 17 (UPI) -- A New York man who found a briefcase filled with old photos in a public park trash can was able to reunite the photos with family members of the owners.
Dimitri Romanenko said he was walking in Elmwood Park in Syracuse when he spotted an old briefcase thrown into the trash.
Romanenko discovered the briefcase contained what appeared to be a family's photos and personal documents from the 1930s-1960s.
Romanenko posted photos of his discovery on Facebook in the hopes of finding someone who recognized the people in the pictures.
A TV news report on the photos came to the attention of Dorothy Cooper, who recognized the photos as belonging to Geraldine Neary and Robert "Bob" Hunt, her deceased aunt and uncle.
"It just brings back a lot of memories and I'm sure once everybody else looks at these pictures, they'll bring back memories for them too," Cooper told WSYR-TV.
Cooper said her family does not know how the photos ended up in a public park trash can.
"I think it was a shame that someone would just abandon pictures like this because you cannot replace these," Cooper said. "These are irreplaceable and I just think it's a tragedy that they would just discard somebody else's property like this. Who did it? I have no idea."
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June 17 (UPI) -- A Wisconsin college employee using his metal detector on the campus found a high school class ring underground that turned out to have been lost 45 years earlier.
Mike Counter, director of media relations for St. Norbert College, said he was using his metal detector behind the De Pere school's Bergstrom Hall when he found the 1976 Holy Cross High School class ring under about 4 to 5 inches of soil.
"I've been detecting for over 30 years, and I never found a class ring, never. And I've always wanted to find one, and I thought finally I found a class ring," Counter told WBAY-TV.
Andy Caldie, a researcher at St. Norbert College, helped Counter determine that Holy Cross High School had merged with another Catholic school that recently closed down.
Counter discovered the school had been run by the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods, and he was able to get in touch with Sister Jeanne Hagelskamp, the school's former principal.
Hagelskamp used school records and the initials on the ring, "JRD," to identify the likely owner as John Daciolas, a 1976 graduate who now lives in California.
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(SMITHSONIANMAG.COM) When human medications leach into waterways, they can affect aquatic animals. In a new study published this week in the open-access journal Ecosphere, crayfish exposed to low levels of the antidepressant citalopram, also known as Celexa, altered their behavior and became more bold and adventurous.
The tiny swimmers spent more time foraging food and less time hiding under shelters, which could leave the crayfish susceptible to predators. Over time, their vulnerability could have cascading ecological effects on their natural environments, reports Douglas Main for National Geographic.
Citalopram is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressant medication, which are the most common type of antidepressant prescribed. The drug increases levels of a mood-balancing neurotransmitter called serotonin in the brain, per National Geographic. Serotonin is present in many animals, including crayfish, reports Clare Wilson for New Scientist.
Trace amounts of pharmaceuticals end up in water systems through human waste or improper disposal, such as flushing medications down the toilet, reports Tara Yarlagadda for Inverse.
Treated wastewater still contain trace amounts of drug compounds because facilities are not fully equipped to filter and remove them. So, the contaminated water flows back into the waterways, Inverse reports. While only small amounts end up back in waterways, these small doses are enough to influence neurochemistry in the tiny brains of aquatic life.
"When you flush a toilet, that small amount of pharmaceutical will make its way wherever the rest of your wastewater goes to," study co-author A.J. Reisinger, an urban soil and water quality scientist at the University of Florida, tells Inverse.
To see how the crayfish exposed to antidepressants in a natural setting respond, Reisinger and his team placed the crustaceans inside tanks of water that mimicked a usual stream environment. Each tank contained a plexiglass shelter for the crayfish to hide under.
For two weeks, the team infused the tanks with 0.5 micrograms of citalopram per liter of water. Researchers placed chemical cues for food on one side of the tank, while the other side had odors of their crayfish buddies, Inverse reports. From there, the scientists observed the crayfish and calculated how long it took them to emerge from their shelter. A control group did not receive the antidepressant.
Compared to the control group, crustaceans exposed to low levels of the antidepressant were twice as likely to pop out of their shelters and explore their surroundings, reports Natalie Grover for the Guardian. The group exposed to the medication also spent 400 percent more time in the part of the tank with the chemical food cues, reports National Geographic.
No predators were introduced during the experiment, but in the wild, the crayfishes' bold new ways may make them easy targets for raccoons, foxes, or other predators, per National Geographic.
The ecosystem's microbial components also changed when trace levels of antidepressants were added to the water, reports the Guardian. Algae and other organic compounds flourished in the tanks laced with pharmaceuticals. Researchers suspect that because the crayfish ate more, they made more waste, which feeds the algae. It is also possible that their increased scurrying movements were stirring up sediment from the bottom of the tanks, which could affect ecosystems long term, per National Geographic. The research team is working on exploring this topic in future experiments.
Flushed medications may not cause death in animals that swim in them, but they have the potential to alter normal behaviors. One way to help eliminate substances from leaching into waterways is to dispose of medications properly.
