MERNIZ

1240

6

Done

https://www.livescience.com/ Cookiecutter sharks are known for ripping small, cookie-shaped chunks out of sharks and whales much larger than themselves, but a new study finds that they actually terrorize animals of all sizes. The green-eyed, alien-like sharks look like sinister sock puppets made of pastry dough and can grow up to 20 inches (50 centimeters) long. These odd creatures use their pointed teeth to feed off great white sharks 10 times their size and are even known to nibble chunks out of human flesh, Live Science previously reported. Scientists frequently observed cookiecutter markings on larger animals and thus assumed that's what the sharks primarily ate. But it turns out, these sharks munch on animals at the bottom of the food chain as well, giving them a unique role in the ocean ecosystem, a new analysis of shark specimens finds. "They feed on everything from the biggest, toughest apex predators — like white sharks, orcas, everything you can imagine — down to the smallest little critters," lead author Aaron Carlisle, an assistant professor in the School of Marine Science and Policy at the University of Delaware, said in a statement. "There's not very many animals that do something quite like this." Cookiecutter sharks (Isistius brasiliensis) live in tropical and subtropical waters and can inhabit depths of more than 4,920 feet (1,500 meters), according to the study. If humans see cookiecutter sharks, it's usually near the surface at night, when they come up to hunt larger prey in the upper ocean. The researchers tested the assumption that these sharks mainly eat larger animals in the upper ocean by studying 14 cookiecutter sharks caught around Hawaii by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The sharks' stomachs were mostly empty of food, but the team figured out what the animals had been eating by looking at the chemical composition of their tissues. The team also checked for environmental DNA (eDNA), or the presence of DNA left behind even when there is no tissue to study. "Environmental DNA is an increasingly po[CENSORED]r and powerful tool that works under the idea that, if an animal swims by in the ocean, it's going to be shedding DNA in the water," Carlisle said. "So if you take a water sample and filter it out, you can extract the DNA of everything that's been in that water mass and identify what species were there. So we tried that on their stomach contents." The researchers found that the cookiecutter sharks fed mostly on smaller species at lower depths, including crustaceans, squid and small fish, such as members of the genuses Ariomma and Cololabis. Some of these prey may be small enough for the sharks to swallow whole. In contrast, large animals from the upper ocean made up less than 10% of the sharks' diet, the study found. These findings shed light on the behavior of this cryptic ocean creature. But the sample of sharks was small and from a limited geographic range, so it's unclear whether this feeding trend is the same throughout cookiecutter sharks' global range, according to the study.

https://www.bbc.com/news The Ethiopian military claims it has killed more than 5,600 members of the Tigray rebel forces it is fighting in the north of the country. A bloody conflict has been raging since November, but the statement from senior general Bacha Debele gave no timescale for the casualties. Correspondents say they may be from recent battles. The general said a further 2,300 rebels had been injured, and 2,000 captured. Millions of civilians face starvation due the conflict, the UN says. Lt Gen Debele accused the rebel Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) of trying to break up Ethiopia, as the group made incursions into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions. One TPLF division had tried to gain control of Humera on the border between Tigray and Amhara, he said, but had been "completely decimated". There has been no response to the claims from the TPLF. The war began last year after months of feuding between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government and leaders of the TPLF, the main political party in the Tigray region. The president sent troops to Tigray to overthrow the regional government after accusing the TPLF of being behind several attacks on military camps. Thousands of people are thought to have been killed and millions have been forced from their homes, with some fleeing into Sudan. Both sides have been accused of committing atrocities, including rape and mass civilian killings. line Tragic consequences By Kalkidan Yibeltal, BBC Ethiopia correspondent The figures provided by the army are large and it's hard to independently verify them. But one thing is clear. The 10-month war is still raging with tragic consequences. Lt Gen Bacha, who didn't give a time period during his statement on Saturday afternoon, described fierce fighting which he said was aided by airstrikes. After the TPLF unexpectedly recaptured Tigray from the hands of the army and its aligned forces in June, they managed to advance to neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar, indicating the expansion of the war. In the past two weeks the army and its allies appear to have stalled the Tigrayan forces and even pushed them back and regained control of some strategic areas. But key areas within Afar and Amhara, including the historic town of Lalibela with Unesco world-heritage rock hewn churches, remain under TPLF control. line On Friday, the UN accused the government of effectively blockading aid supplies to Tigray, warning that millions of lives were being put at risk. The UN estimates that 5.2 million people need urgent assistance if "the world's worst famine situation in decades" is to be averted. But on Saturday, the Ethiopian government said 500 trucks with aid had entered the region, including 152 in the past two days. The number of security checkpoints had also been reduced, it said. There's been no independent verification of this claim. The UN had complained that not a single truck had reached Tigray since 22 August, while 100 per day were needed.

orange @The GodFather/ @Mr.Love

nu @Hard

7100

1066 1066

1692

1238

2007

4

84

630

Done

post

1064 1064

7090

8/10

1688

1236

2005