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That’s 10 free  cups of coffee and over 30 percent off! [♪ INTRO] Earlier this week, NASA’s James Webb  Space Telescope successfully deployed its primary mirror, which was  the last major maneuver on the way to being a functioning space telescope. If you want to know more  about what’s next for Webb, we will have an entire episode  dedicated just to that on our Space channel later this month. SciShow Space!

Meanwhile, back here on Earth, scientists recently pulled a mind-boggling  discovery out of thin air. Literally: Two independent groups of scientists  successfully detected the presence of animal species by measuring their DNA in the air. The scientists were trying to see if they  could detect and identify individual animal species just from the bits of their  genome circulating in the environment.

All organisms shed DNA through things like  their skin, urine, saliva, and pollen. This DNA that they leave behind is  called environmental DNA, or eDNA. And by measuring the eDNA in  permafrost, soil, even honey, researchers can figure out what  organisms are present in an ecosystem.

That gives them a picture of the health  of an ecosystem without having to tromp around and actually find  every single organism living in it. This method of monitoring populations of  organisms has been especially useful in aquatic ecosystems. Scientists can just  collect the water, catalog the DNA in it, and get a sense of the biodiversity of  the area.

Which is pretty dang convenient. So in two studies done in Europe,  scientists decided to see if they could try something similar on land, by  measuring eDNA present in the air. So to do this, first, they  collected air samples at two European zoos by just vacuuming it.

Just vacuuming up the air. That air entered the vacuum  through a filter, which trapped all the little bits of skin cells and  saliva and poop that contained DNA. Then they took those filters back  to the lab, extracted the DNA, and sequenced the genomes  to see whose DNA showed up.

Now they weren’t very  optimistic that this would work. At least one of the teams fully  expected that it would not work at all. But it didn’t just work.  It worked remarkably well.

Both teams identified dozens of species. Some were hundreds of meters away from  the collection site, others were housed inside buildings, and some were  dead, like chickens and cows, which only exist in the zoo  as dinner for the carnivores. The teams also detected wild  species living outside the zoo.

And in one case, researchers  even picked up DNA from an endangered hedgehog living nearby in the wild. Now these were just proof-of-concept studies, so there are still some kinks to  work out, like finding ways to reduce the risk of the  sample getting contaminated. Scientists will also need  to replicate the results in different types of environments  before we know just how well it works.

But even so, the fact that two research  labs did this independently and found similar success strengthens the results  here. And it suggests that these studies could have huge implications for conservation. See, traditional methods for  surveying ecosystems involve going into field sites and physically  observing the species present.

That’s invasive and can damage the ecosystem. Plus, it’s imperfect. It’s really easy to  miss small or endangered species, and it relies on experts who can personally  identify a ton of different kinds of species.

But if scientists can monitor ecosystems  just by measuring the air, that would be a safer, more reliable way to keep track  of species moving into or out of an area. And it would let us look out  for endangered species and even species that may or may not be extinct. Speaking of extinct species,  last month, paleontologists made an amazing discovery about a  species that is definitely extinct.

An international team of researchers examined an exceptionally preserved theropod  egg from southern China. Theropods are the group of dinosaurs that includes T. rex and raptors, and they’re  the ancestors of modern-day birds. And in this theropod egg there was an  exceptionally preserved theropod embryo.

Like, one of the most complete  embryos of its kind ever discovered. Finding dinosaur skeletons in eggs is  super rare, but when it happens, these skeletons can reveal a lot about the  dinosaur’s reproduction and development. And that offers a lot of clues about  dinosaurs’ relationship to modern animals.

This embryo was unearthed in the storage room of a museum in China, where it had  been hanging out for a decade. Researchers affectionately named it  Baby Yingliang after the museum it was found inside of. Baby Yingliang  is about 24 centimeters long from the top of its head  to the bottom of its spine.

It’s nestled in the egg with its head tucked  down around its pelvis, its legs folded up next to its head, and its spine  following the curve of the egg. This posture is actually pretty surprising, because it has never been  seen in dinosaurs before, but it is actually really similar to a  position that we see in modern birds. Modern birds adjust themselves into  this position shortly before they hatch, and taking on this shape is  critical for hatching successfully.

No other theropod embryos have been  found with skeletons in this position, this discovery hints that theropods  might have done something similar, repositioning themselves  right before they hatched. This is the first evidence that a non-bird  species might have had this same tucking behavior, and the researchers  think this might indicate that the behavior actually evolved in  theropods way before birds. They’ll need to look at more  embryos to confirm that hypothesis, though, so for now, it’s still just incubating.

Thank you for watching this episode of SciShow! And thanks to today’s sponsor, Cometeer.   Cometeer offers barista-quality  coffee that’s super convenient, brewed 10 times stronger than regular coffee, and delivered in frozen, recyclable aluminum capsules. Cometeer sources their coffee  from some of the world’s best specialty coffee roasters.  It’s ground and brewed, and then immediately flash frozen  to lock in freshness and flavor.

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