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Joseph Dellavalla 6Th Grade Homeschool, Jackson NH Use Of Joseph DellaValla 6th Grade Homeschool, Jackson NH Use of New Technologies to Discover and Rediscover Species Every different species can teach us something new. Finding them allows us scientists to study and learn from them. While finding new species and locating old ones can be difficult and labor intensive, several new technologies are making the process easier, leading to some really cool developments. In recent decades, science has rekindled its interest in exploring biodiversity. We are discovering new species very quickly, at a rate of about 15,000 to 18,000 species per year.1 That equals about 50 new species a day. In the past decade, we have discovered new species like the three-toed sloth, the blossom bat, a fish with hands (named “red handfish”, Figure A), and a frog smaller than a dime (Paedophryne amauensis), which is now the tiniest vertebrate in the world.2 Figure A. Red handfish (Thymichthys politus) Image credit: © Phil Malin Image credit: © Phil Malin3 We are also rediscovering species we thought were extinct. That means that animals that have been previously extinct are found again. That happens when we do not see a certain 1 "Why Thousands of New Animal Species Are Still Discovered ...." 1 Jun. 2015, https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/new-animal-species. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 2 "World's Smallest Frog Found—Fly-Size Beast Is Tiniest ...." 13 Jan. 2012, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/1/120111-smallest-frogs-vertebrates-new-species- science-animals/. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 3 "New population of rare red handfish discovered - Australian ...." 25 Jan. 2018, https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2018/01/new-population-of-rare-red-handfish-discovered/. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. type of animal for a while. We have rediscovered species like black-footed ferrets, crested geckos, and giant tortoises. It is hard to believe something with “giant” in its name could get lost for so long, but the Fernandina giant tortoise (Figure B) disappeared more than 100 years ago. Now there is hope its population could return. Figure B. The newly-discovered female tortoise on Fernandina Island. Image Credit: Galapogos.org4 While discovering “new” and rediscovering “lost” species are not new, the ways we are finding them are. We are also able to do more things with the species because of new advances. Modern Methods of Discovery Cameras and drones help us to find new species and ones we thought were extinct. They help us get to places people cannot get to, and see what we cannot see just with our own eyes. Drones flying over a forest or ocean can record species we have not found yet. We can then share the photos and videos and others can find and learn from them. Google Earth has given scientists a way to scout land and cheaply survey habitats. Google Earth is a computer program that renders a 3D Earth based mostly on satellite images. It allows us to look around the world for different patterns and areas where animals have been. “Crowdsourcing” has become a common way to gather information from many diverse people relatively quickly. Crowdsourcing is where a person or group asks everybody to send them data if they find out about a certain thing. Imagine there are bears traveling in your town and you want to know where they go and what they are doing. Using newer technology like smartphones and social media platforms, you could ask the people in town to take and send pictures with a sentence or two about the time, date, and weather where 4 "The Most Unexpected Discovery of My Life: A Live Tortoise on ...." 1 May. 2019, https://www.galapagos.org/blog/2019-fernandina-tortoise-discovery/. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 2 they saw the bears. The United States government has even set up an official website for crowdsourcing and citizen science. Through Citizen Science, eBird allows volunteers anywhere in the world to submit data about birds they see at any time and in any location. eBird data have been used in more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.5 Scientists now also use something called “DNABarcoding”.6 DNA is the genetic blueprint material in living organisms. Nearly every cell in an organism has the same DNA. In DNA barcoding, the sequence of a specific gene or genes of DNA, rather than the whole genome, is used to identify the organism, like a supermarket barcode to identify the species. The barcode sequence can be compared to a library of known sequences, looking for a match. It's fast and inexpensive. You can scan 98% of the world's species of animals in this way. “Environmental DNA”, or “eDNA”, helps scientists study species too hard to monitor the regular ways. Instead of having to see every single creature, we can now sample air, water, soil and anywhere a living creature might leave secretions, skin or other scraps of DNA in order to track them.7 Deforestation and development, sadly, also help us find species because they destroy hiding places and habitats. If you are discovering new species, sometimes you are looking where you think they are located. Sometimes, let us say, when we are building a new store or logging, and we have to cut down a bunch of trees, we also discover species that were hiding there. Vessel technology like boats and subs help us find new aquatic animals and sea birds. Submarines help us go deeper than ever before and for much longer times than ever with most recent technology. For instance, we are now able to explore the Mariana Trench out in the Pacific Ocean, which is the deepest part of our planet. Scientists have found shrimp-like species, and translucent animals called holothurians or sea cucumbers (Figure C) there (among lots of others). Many scientists are excited to go back there because they think that by studying species living in the trenches, we can make big breakthroughs in biomedicine and biotechnology. 5 "eBird | Crowdsourcing Bird Data | CitizenScience.gov." https://www.citizenscience.gov/ebird-bird-data/. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 6 "Laboratory - DNA Barcoding 101." https://dnabarcoding101.org/lab/. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 7 "Environmental DNA (eDNA) - USGS." https://www.usgs.gov/special-topic/water-science- school/science/environmental-dna-edna. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 3 Figure C. A sea cucumber, or holothurian, swims at the Fina Nagu Caldera near the Mariana Trench.8 An example of how all these technologies can come together is happening in our own state of New Hampshire. Figure D. Students working at New Hampshire Academy of Science. Photo credit: New Hampshire Academy of Science.9 At the New Hampshire Academy of Science (Figure D), student scientists are using drone technology and artificial intelligence to identify all the natural shades unique to the Lady’s Slipper flower (Figure E), so that they can find them out in the forest more easily. Lady’s Slippers are endangered/threatened in New England where we live. Being able to locate them will be very helpful in preserving them and in discovering new and different varieties. 8 "Sea cucumber swims near the Mariana Trench - Los Angeles ...." 6 May. 2016, https://www.latimes.com/87106395-132.html. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 9 "New Hampshire Academy of Science." https://www.nhacadsci.org/. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 4 Figure E. A lady’s slipper. Photo Credit: Janette Dallas https://newengland.com/today/living/gardening/are-lady-slippers-endangered/ Uses for Information What can we do with all this information? Many other species share genes with us. We already test medicines or chemicals or even the effects of things (like noise or sugar) on other species, which can be controversial but is necessary. We learn how they respond and use what we learn to improve our lives and, with other knowledge, sometimes theirs too. We can do all sorts of new things too, especially if we combine it with advances in genetic engineering and computer science. Scientists have created “living” robots from cells that frogs shed. They call them “xenobots” (Figure F). The xenobots, named after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis), can be programmed to move around and do specific actions, like push food into neat piles. They can be programmed to self-heal too. Currently not used on a large scale, someday maybe they could use tons of them to push plastic into piles. Or move things that humans cannot get near, like nuclear waste. 5 Figure F. A xenobot, derived from the skin cells of frog embryos, at an early stage of development in the laboratory. Photo credit: NY Times.10 Geckos have developed some of the most detailed adhesive structures of almost any animal in the world (Figure G). They can stick to surfaces because their round toes are covered in hundreds of tiny hairs called setae. For the past twenty years, researchers have tried to create synthetic adhesives with nanoscale fibers by trying to copy their amazing hairy toes. Figure G. Geckos use nanoscale structures on their feet to accomplish gravity-defying feats like hanging upside down from glass. Image credit: Kellar Autumn, Lewis & Clark College.11 10 "Meet the Xenobots, Virtual Creatures Brought to Life - The ...." 3 Apr. 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/science/xenobots-robots-frogs-xenopus.html. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 11 "7 Cool Animal-Inspired Technologies | Biomimicry | Live Science." 22 Apr. 2013, https://www.livescience.com/28873-cool-technologies-inspired-by-nature.html. Accessed 1 Sep. 2020. 6 One thing we have not done yet, but would be amazing with genetic engineering, would be to recreate ivory or other rare animal parts instead of killing the animals to get them.
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