Sea foam is a common sight along the coastline as breaking waves churn up air and algae. Now, a study in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology reports that sea foam from several beaches along North Carolina’s coast contain higher levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) compared to the water below. Some foam samples had more PFAS than what is allowed in drinking water, highlighting the need to clean up and reduce environmental PFAS pollution.

For the more than 242 million years that lizards and snakes appear in the fossil record, they show up as mostly pieces of lizard jaws and snake vertebrae. Exactly why these parts survive as fossils has been a mystery—until now. In a new study published in Paleobiology, Dr. Hank Woolley from the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County’s Dinosaur Institute looks at the entire history of squamates (the reptile group that includes lizards, snakes, and mosasaurs among others) to understand why only certain parts show up—the bias of the record—and to quantify that bias for the first time. Woolley and his co-authors found that physical characteristics like bone density and body size, along with where the animals lived and died, were the main predictors of how complete a fossil would be. Woolley identifies these patterns as megafilters, which refer to processes that have an outsized effect on the way we understand the fossil record. This unprecedented high-resolution view of the group’s biodiversity through multiple mass-extinction events illuminates mysteries of squamates’ evolutionary history and can help guide future work that examines how animals are preserved as fossils. 

Researchers including those from the University of Tokyo build on past studies and introduce new methods to explore the nature and role of subsurface fluids including water in the instances and behaviors of earthquakes and volcanoes. Their study suggests that water, even heavy rainfall, can play a role in or even trigger seismic events. This could potentially lead to better early warning systems. The study improves models of seismic activity and can even help identify optimal sites for drilling to tap sources of supercritical geothermal energy.

A team from the University of Liège has developed novel equations to estimate the size of large marine reptiles from the dinosaur Era known from incomplete skeletons. This work, published in Biology Letters, paves the way for a better understanding of the evolution and ecology of these marine predators.

Clothianidin, a widely used neonicotinoid pesticide, is notorious for its persistence in soils and accumulation in crops, posing risks to ecosystems and human health. Now, scientists have found a way not only to remove this pesticide from soil but also to transform it into a useful nutrient for plants.