2020-11-14NewScientistAustralianEdition

22 | New Scientist | 14 November 2020

Archaeology

Zoology Space

Diets could cause

1.5°C of warming

An analysis of data on diets

and population growth

suggests that greenhouse

gas emissions from food

production alone will push

Earth beyond 1.5°C of

warming. Researchers say

that both individuals and

policy-makers can do their

part to reduce the impact

(Science, DOI: 10.1126/

science.aba7357).

The fish with very

sensitive fins

The round goby (Neogobius

melanostomus) has fins

that are as sensitive to

touch as our fingertips.

Nerves in the fins reacted

even when they were

exposed to surfaces

with extremely fine

textures – the kind our

fingertips can respond to

(Journal of Experimental

Biology, doi.org/fg59).

Arctic animals now

migrating earlier

Animals in the Arctic,

including reindeer, are

migrating earlier due to

climate change, suggests

a three-decade-long study.

Migrating animals give

birth earlier in the spring

too. This can be dangerous

in the Arctic because spring

storms can kill newborns

(Science, DOI: 10.1126/

science.abb7080).

Ancient burial hints

at modern bias

A WOMAN buried with stone tools

9000 years ago in what is now

Peru probably hunted animals

including deer. The finding may

help overturn long-standing

assumptions about gender roles

in ancient hunter-gatherer

communities in the Americas.

Randy Haas at the University

of California, Davis, and his

colleagues recently ran analyses

including carbon dating on

bones and teeth from a burial pit

THERE have been almost 100

sightings of wallabies across Britain

over the past decade. “Everyone

was surprised by the number and

the spread,” says Holly English at

University College Dublin in Ireland.

She and Anthony Caravaggi at

the University of South Wales, UK,

trawled through environmental

records and media reports to

map all wallaby sightings between

2008 and 2018 (Ecology and

Evolution, doi.org/fg8t).

The species in question is the

red-necked wallaby, Notamacropus

rufogriseus (pictured). This

marsupial is native to south-east

Australia including Tasmania,

whose climate is similar to the UK’s.

It is possible that these wallabies

are breeding in the Chilterns of

southern England and in Cornwall,

south-west England. But most

of the sightings are thought to be

of escapees from zoos or private

collections. “They are very good

at escaping,” says English.

There is also a small population

on an island in Loch Lomond,

Scotland, originating from animals

released by the island’s owner in

the 1940s. Outside Britain, there

has been a thriving population on

the Isle of Man, where the photo

above was taken, in the Irish Sea

since the 1960s. Michael Le Page

discovered in Peru in 2018.

These provided confirmation

that the remains belonged to a

17 to 19-year-old woman who was

interred 8700 to 9000 years ago

with a 24-piece hunting toolkit,

including spearhead points,

butcher knives and tanning

blades. The butchered remains

of deer and camelids at the site

hint at the animals she hunted.

Rather than assuming that

the teenager was a one-off case of

a female hunter, the researchers

checked for other published

discoveries of humans buried

with hunting tools anywhere

Europa may have

an eerie green glow

JUPITER’S moon Europa may glow

in the dark. Lab experiments show

that the type of ice covering its

surface glows under radiation,

which could help us figure out

the composition of its frozen

plains and subsurface oceans.

Because of the effect of

Jupiter’s magnetic field, Europa

is constantly bombarded by

high-energy electrons. Murthy

Gudipati at NASA’s Jet Propulsion

Laboratory in California and

his colleagues investigated how

Europa’s icy surface might react

to this by blasting electrons at ice

samples enriched with molecules

that may be found on Europa.

When the electrons hit

molecules in the ice, the molecules

fell apart and their constituent

atoms absorbed some energy. The

atoms then re-emitted that energy

as light, causing an eerie, green-

tinged glow (Nature Astronomy,

DOI: 10.1038/s41550-020-01248-1).

NASA’s Europa Clipper mission

is planned to launch in 2024

to study this moon. It could

potentially observe the glowing

ice and use its brightness to help

determine its composition.

Figuring out what the surface is

made of could help us understand

whether Europa’s seas have the

ingredients for life. Leah Crane

“from Alaska to Argentina” at least

8000 years ago. Of the 27 burials

identified, nearly half recorded the

gender of the buried individual as

female, says Haas.

However, faced with the

unexpected discovery of hunting

blades buried with female

skeletons, in most cases the

archaeologists who compiled

the reports either questioned

the accuracy of their own sex-

confirmation analysis or declared

that the knives and points must

have been cooking utensils

(Science Advances, doi.org/

ghh2g2). Christa Lesté-Lasserre

Wallabies spotted in the UK

on nearly 100 occasions

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