Humans were making tools from whale bones as far back as 20,000 years ago, according to a study conducted by scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), and the University of British Columbia. This discovery broadens our understanding of early human use of whale remains and offers valuable insight into the marine ecology of the time. 

Support from the Sasakawa Peace Foundation’s Ocean Shot Research Grant program will enable an interdisciplinary team to advance a creative approach combining robotics, imaging, and genetic analysis to illuminate the world of deep-ocean animals.

A study conducted by researchers from the University of Plymouth and Plymouth Marine Laboratory, who have spent more than a decade examining the impact of artificial light at night (ALAN) on the world’s coasts and oceans, has shown that more than one-fifth of the global ocean – an area spanning more than 75million sq km – has been the subject of ocean darkening over the past two decades. Ocean darkening occurs when changes in the optical properties of the ocean reduce the depth of its photic zones, home to 90% of all marine life and places where sunlight and moonlight drive ecological interactions.

Contrary to widespread assumptions, the largest shark that ever lived – Otodus megalodon – fed on marine creatures at various levels of the food pyramid and not just the top, as an international research team led by Goethe University Frankfurt has now discovered. The scientists analyzed the zinc content of a large sample of fossilized megalodon teeth, which had been unearthed above all in Sigmaringen and Passau, and compared them with fossil teeth found elsewhere and the teeth of animals that inhabit our planet today.

Jellyfish cyborgs may sound like something straight out of science fiction. But harnessing jellyfishes’ natural locomotion provides an efficient and environmentally-friendly means to monitor coral reefs, track oil spills or observe climate change. Now,  a team from Tohoku University’s Department of Robotics has successfully modulated the swimming behavior of jellyfish using gentle electric pulses and generated a means of measuring it via AI. In doing so, they have created a gentle way to harness the powerful swimming mechanisms of jellyfish.

Freshwater under the Ocean – in the 1960's scientists were quite surprised when they looked at their data: it clearly showed that there was fresh or freshened water under the ocean floor. How did it get there? How long has it been there? Scientists have been trying to find answers to these questions since their intriguing discovery. The findings will be relevant for the hydrogeology of the New England Shelf and for multiple similar settings elsewhere around the world. Starting in May, an international team of scientists has embarked on an expedition to take a closer look at, and take samples, of this freshened water stored beneath the ocean floor. Prof Karen Johannesson of University of Massachusetts Boston and Prof Brandon Dugan of Colorado School of Mines are the Co-Chief Scientists of this international expedition. Samples will be collected using the Liftboat Robert, which departed from the port of Bridgeport on May 19.

Temperatures around the world continue to rise – and the North Sea is no exception. Yet, in addition to this gradual warming, increasingly frequent and intense heat events also have consequences for marine organisms. Researchers at the Marine Station Helgoland, a research facility of the Alfred Wegener Institute, have quantified the frequency and intensity of these heatwaves along with their repercussions for plankton. They have also conducted an experiment that exposed the North Sea plankton community to different future warmer scenarios, both with and without heatwaves. The researchers found that gradual warming causes significant shifts in the species spectrum. When heatwaves are added, however, these alterations are amplified. The results have been published in three publications, most recently in Limnology and Oceanography.

A resounding victory for the University of Oldenburg, Germany: all three top-level research projects that submitted proposals to be Clusters of Excellence in the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments have been approved and will receive funding for seven years. The topics of the Clusters are hearing research, animal navigation and marine sciences.