BAHAMAS

Biologists attached tiny cameras to tiger sharks to study seagrasses in the Caribbean. The images helped expand estimates of the global area of ​​seagrass cover by 41 percent, a good sign for climate because seagrass stores carbon.

CHINA

Scientists have struggled to identify the creatures that left behind the world’s oldest skeletal remains: tube-shaped structures 500 million years old. Now, a new analysis of specimens from Yunnan (including a rare look at their fossilized soft tissues) suggests the animals were relatives of jellyfish that resembled sea anemones.

MALAYSIA

Researchers have produced stem cells using the skin of the last male Malaysian Sumatran rhino, Kertam, who died in 2019. Converting these cells into viable sperm could help save this critically endangered animal from extinction.

MEXICO

Archaeologists unearthing an administrative complex in the ancient city of Teotihuacán found the skeleton of a spider monkey approximately 1,700 years old that was not native to the region. Experts suspect it was a gift from neighboring Mayans, pointing to a previously unknown animal-based diplomacy.

REPUBLIC OF CONGO

A new study suggests that Congo peatlands have alternated, every few thousand years, between releasing carbon dioxide (when dry) and storing it (when wet). This may mean that peatlands are a climate change “time bomb” set to release stored carbon as they dry up.

United Kingdom

A meteorite that landed in an English driveway was found to contain water with a similar ratio of hydrogen isotopes to Earth. This supports the idea that young Earth’s water could have been brought by asteroids.