How whale poop balanced Earth’s nutrient cycles
by Maddie Stone for Gizmodo

“Every week, it seems, we hear about a new way that humans are screwing up the oceans. Too much plastic. Too much sunscreen. Too much fishing. Next to these problems, “not enough whale poop” does sounds a bit silly, but I assure you, it’s a serious consequence of human exploitation.”

Mysterious whales seen alive for the first time
by Elizabeth Preston for Discover

“Imagine the surprise, then, of researchers in a boat in the Indian Ocean when they spied some Omura’s whales in the distance. During a survey of marine mammals off Madagascar’s coast, New England Aquarium scientist Salvatore Cerchio and his colleagues saw whales with markings that seemed to match B. omurai. They used biopsy darts to snag tissue samples from 18 of the whales as they swam by. DNA analysis confirmed it: the animals were the elusive Omura’s whales.”

The sushi project: farming fish and rice in California’s fields
by Jacques Leslie for Yale Environment 360

“In 2012 Cal Marsh & Farm Ventures and the scientists joined forces in the Nigiri Project, named after a kind of sushi because both combine rice and fish, to use rice fields to promote salmon restoration. The scientists have since compiled persuasive evidence that salmon benefit greatly by lingering in flooded rice fields, while Johnson has started another enterprise that uses rice fields to grow forage fish for protein.”

The tusks of narwhals are actually teeth that are inside-out
by Leslie Evans Ogden for BBC Earth

“‘The narwhal tusk is ‘essentially built inside out,’ says Nweeia. Unlike our own teeth, it is soft on the outside, and gradually gets hard and dense on the inside.

Nweeia’s team showed that the tusk can sense changes in the salinity of the water, suggesting that it is a giant, antennae-like sensor.”

DNA of ancient children offers clues on how people settled the Americas
by Carl Zimmer for The New York Times

“[T]he researchers reported that they had recovered DNA from two skeletons of children who lived in Alaska 11,500 years ago. The genetic material is not only among the oldest ever found in the Americas, but also the first ancient DNA discovered in Beringia, the region around the Bering Strait where many researchers believe Asians first settled before spreading through North and South America.”