We’ve all had that thought. Looking out over the glistening ocean waves, you wonder fleetingly what toothy surprises might be lurking beneath the surface. Indeed, researchers out of Oregon State University have revealed two shark species in Puget Sound, a southern part of the Salish Sea not far from Vancouver. The team caught nine broadnose sevengill sharks during their fieldwork and one endangered soupfin shark. Although both have been documented along Canada’s west coast before, this marks the first time their presence in Puget Sound specifically has been confirmed. 

The presence of these two shark species may be a result of climate change, according to Ethan Personius, a graduate student who worked on the project. Personius points to the marine heatwave of 2014 and 2015 which altered the fish populations in that area, leading to higher numbers of certain species like anchovies. These changes in the marine ecosystem could have made the populated area much more desirable for sharks.

Kings of the kings of tyrant lizards

The largest Tyrannosaurus rex individuals could have been up to 70 per cent larger than the largest known fossil specimens, according to a recent study out of Queen Mary University of London. Researchers theorized known specimens of T. rex are highly unlikely to include the largest individual.   

Using computer modelling, researchers crafted a “population” of T. rex’s, incorporating a variety of factors including growth rate, lifespan, and “completeness” of the fossil record in order to determine potential statistical outliers, modelled both with and without sexual dimorphism.  

Researchers found that specimens existing within the 99 to 99.9th percentile are likely to have been much larger than found specimens, with the largest possible hypothetical individual (approximately 1 in 2.5 billion animals) being 70 per cent larger than the current largest known specimen. This would mean an individual weighing in at 15 tonnes as opposed to the record 8.8 tonnes and measuring in at 15 metres long instead of 12 metres.

Climate change presents: puny puffins

The flashy, flight-enabled envy of penguins everywhere is shrinking. A team of researchers from the University of New Brunswick have been monitoring the puffin population of Machias Seal Island in New Brunswick since 1995 — and they’ve discovered a downward trend in the birds’ stature, which has shrunk by about four millimetres as of 2022. 

Not every part of the avian’s anatomy is shrinking however. The team found that as the birds become smaller, their beaks are becoming proportionally larger. The hypothesis for both of these changes is they help puffins dispel heat more effectively as their habitat becomes warmer.

Puffin proportions are not the only changes the researchers have found. The puffin hatching period has become progressively later in the year since 2014, likely as a result of shifting temperatures. At the same time, the team has noticed that there can be drastically higher or lower numbers of puffins reaching maturity year after year which makes their population unstable in the long term. Climate change is hypothesized once again to be the culprit here as increases in ocean temperatures are making it more challenging for the adult puffins to procure food (like herring which seems to be leaving the area in search of cooler waters) for their chicks.

Contagious ornithology in Northern Ontario