Whether a large and fuzzy social media sensation or deep-sea slug slunking around the ocean’s Midnight Zone, there are still so many exciting animals on Earth just waiting for their close-up. In that spirit, here are the 11 of the most exciting animal stories that Popular Science covered this year.
First photo of a newborn great white shark
A wildlife filmmaker and biology doctoral student took what could be the first picture of a newborn great white shark. Filmmaker Carlos Gauna and University of California, Riverside biology doctoral student Phillip Sternes were looking for sharks near Santa Barbara on California’s central coast. Most great whites are gray on top with white bellies, but Gauana’s drone camera showed a roughly 5-foot-long shark pup that had more white on its body than normal. When they enlarged the photos they saw that a layer of white skin appeared to be shedding as it swam. The team believes that they observed a newborn great white shedding its embryonic sac.
The images and findings are described in a study published in the journal Environmental Biology of Fishes in January.
Tardigrades: Built darn tough
It was quite a year for tardigrades. These microscopic creatures commonly called “water bears” can survive in environments with extreme temperatures–without water or oxygen–and withstand radiation.
In January, we learned that these microscopic creatures have a molecular sensor that detects uninhabitable elements of their environment. It then tells them when to go dormant and…
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