[{"totalItems":"32,268","totalPages":10756,"currentPage":0,"items":[{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/235254","site":"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":235254,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/235254","url":"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/which-winter-olympic-sport-is-most-likely-to-kill-you","path_alias":"which-winter-olympic-sport-is-most-likely-to-kill-you","label":"The Olympic sport most likely to kill you","content":" It's probably not skeleton. Winter Games\u2019 deadliest sport? Deposit Photos W atch a few minutes of Winter Olympics and your knees or ankles might start hurting. Winter sports are notoriously tough on the joints, from skis and snowboards that can tweak legs to the tendon-shredding, cartilage-endangering feats of figure skaters. But which sport is most likely to kill you? Luckily, there aren\u2019t many actual deaths on record to help answer that question. But it\u2019s not like no one has ever died in pursuit of Olympic gold. In 1964, both a luger and a downhill skier perished during practice runs, and after a Swiss speed skier crashed into a snow machine and died while preparing for a demonstration event, the sport never came back to the Olympics. The most notorious death in recent years took place in one of the Winter Games\u2019 most hair-raising sports, luging. In 2010, Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian athlete from a dynasty of successful lugers, died when his sled was thrown off the track. Twenty-one-year-old Kumaritashvili, who was traveling over 89 miles per hour at the time of the accident, was no match for the support beam he slammed into. The International Luge Federation\u2019s final report concluded that it was an accident and that Kumaritashvili, a relatively young athlete, was partly to blame. They later redesigned the track with higher walls and padded beams, and it\u2019s now meant to limit luging speeds to just about 87 miles per hour. It stands to reason that the sports most likely to kill you already have high death tolls off the Olympic stage. But \u201chigh\u201d is a relative term when it comes to winter sports. A 2015 paper published in the European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery analyzed entries in a combined trauma database covering Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Slovenia, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands\u2014all places where winter sports are prized. The database included entries for athletes who presented at emergency rooms with severe traumatic injuries between 1993 and 2012. Alpine skiing claimed the most lives in the database\u20146.4 percent of people hospitalized\u2014followed by 3.4 percent of snowboarders. While sledding resulted in plenty of emergency surgeries and concussions, it didn\u2019t result in any deaths. The researchers concluded that Alpine skiing, snowboarding, and sledding all involve the risk of severe trauma, but that mortality from the sports (at least in the hospital) is low. According to the National Ski Areas Association, an average of 40 people have died while skiing or snowboarding at a ski area in the United States per year over the last decade. Another 48 receive catastrophic injuries per year, and during the 2016-17 season, 0.80 fatalities occurred per one million visits. But fewer people died skiing or snowboarding at ski areas in the U.S. than, say, in airplanes, being struck by lightning or caught in a tornado, or falling off ladders. There are a few factors that could make you likelier to die at the Olympics: partaking in risky behavior or being male. Both are associated with death risk when it comes to skiing and snowboarding. A 2011 study of Austrian ski fatalities found more than 85 percent of fatalities occurred in males. But the risk of dying skiing or snowboarding is \u201cextremely low unless you\u2019re a complete numpty,\u201d wrote ski safety expert Mike Langra m. That said, elite athletes do die on the slopes. And in all varieties of elite skiing tracked by the International Ski Federation, injuries that put athletes out of commission for 28 days or more make up the majority of recorded accidents. Translation: If you get injured skiing or snowboarding, it\u2019s more likely than not to be serious, or at least put you out of elite athlete commission for a while. Technically, nobody died in this year\u2019s Olympics. (Yet.) But multiple Olympic hopefuls did perish while training and competing in the lead-up to the Winter Games, including French Olympian David Poisson. And Sarah Burke, a Canadian women\u2019s freestyle skier who campaigned to add a women\u2019s halfpipe event, who died in 2012 after falling on her head after a trick. Her colleagues remembered her at this year\u2019s competition when another Canadian woman, Cassie Sharpe, won the halfpipe gold. You\u2019d think skeleton and bobsledding\u2014seemingly even riskier than catching air on skis or a snowboard\u2014would be the Winter Games\u2019 deadliest sports, but you\u2019d be wrong. Both are pretty scary and pretty safe. A 1997 analysis published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that \u201cthe sport of luge is quite safe in the U.S. despite the appearance of danger.\u201d And though freak accidents do happen\u2014Latvian skeleton rider Girts Ostenieks, for example, was killed in 2001 when his sled crashed into another that hadn\u2019t been removed from the track\u2014they\u2019re so rare that there\u2019s not even a fatality database for the sport. Okay, so skiing and snowboarding are the most likely ways to die at the Winter Games\u2014and even those are likelier to jack up your knees than take your life. But are there other ways to meet your maker while you go for the gold? More Olympics stories Want more news like this? Sign up to receive our email newsletter and never miss an update! By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. You betcha. You could have a heart attack and die while ice skating, like Olympic medalist Sergei Grinkov. (Turns out he had untreated blood pressure problems and blocked arteries.) You could fall and hit your head on the ice while curling, or die of exposure to the nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide that refrigerate ice used by hockey players. Or you could, hypothetically, get in the line of fire at the biathlon event, during which players must literally shoot specialized rifles between heartbeats to hit their targets. Biathletes could be more likely to die off-course, though, if they keep any guns at home: People who have firearms in their houses are more likely to die from gunshot wounds than the rest of the population. Yes, there are plenty of ways to die at the Winter Games\u2026 but the most likely one involves strapping on a pair of skis or a snowboard. So stay safe when you hit the slopes, folks. ","teaser":" It's probably not skeleton. Winter Games\u2019 deadliest sport? Deposit Photos W atch a few minutes of Winter Olympics and your knees or ankles might start hurting. Winter sports are notoriously tough on the joints, from skis and snowboards that can tweak legs to the tendon-shredding, cartilage","ss_name":"kkelley","tos_name":"kkelley","ss_name_formatted":"kkelley","tos_name_formatted":"kkelley","is_uid":1980,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2018-02-23T20:30:00Z","ds_changed":"2018-02-23T20:30:01Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2018-02-23T20:30:01Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":false,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"bs_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":true,"bs_field_x90_hide":false,"bs_field_last_updated":false,"bs_field_exclude_from_cl":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
Winter sports are notoriously tough on the joints, from skis and snowboards that can tweak legs to the tendon-shredding, cartilage-endangering feats of figure skaters.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_summary_long":"
Winter sports are notoriously tough on the joints, from skis and snowboards that can tweak legs to the tendon-shredding, cartilage-endangering feats of figure skaters. But which sport is most likely to kill you?<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Science<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2018-02-23T20:30:01.891Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_image":["https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/325_4x3\/public\/images\/2018\/02\/winter-olympic-skiier.jpg?itok=Do_SI-q_&fc=50,50"],"bm_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":[true],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"bm_field_x90_hide":[false],"tid":[208120,224374,209593,62,203207,224106],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["science"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Erin Blakemore"],"tm_vid_1_names":["Olympics Sports safety Science death"],"spell":["The Olympic sport most likely to kill you"," It's probably not skeleton. Winter Games\u2019 deadliest sport? Deposit Photos W atch a few minutes of Winter Olympics and your knees or ankles might start hurting. Winter sports are notoriously tough on the joints, from skis and snowboards that can tweak legs to the tendon-shredding, cartilage-endangering feats of figure skaters. But which sport is most likely to kill you? Luckily, there aren\u2019t many actual deaths on record to help answer that question. But it\u2019s not like no one has ever died in pursuit of Olympic gold. In 1964, both a luger and a downhill skier perished during practice runs, and after a Swiss speed skier crashed into a snow machine and died while preparing for a demonstration event, the sport never came back to the Olympics. The most notorious death in recent years took place in one of the Winter Games\u2019 most hair-raising sports, luging. In 2010, Nodar Kumaritashvili, a Georgian athlete from a dynasty of successful lugers, died when his sled was thrown off the track. Twenty-one-year-old Kumaritashvili, who was traveling over 89 miles per hour at the time of the accident, was no match for the support beam he slammed into. The International Luge Federation\u2019s final report concluded that it was an accident and that Kumaritashvili, a relatively young athlete, was partly to blame. They later redesigned the track with higher walls and padded beams, and it\u2019s now meant to limit luging speeds to just about 87 miles per hour. It stands to reason that the sports most likely to kill you already have high death tolls off the Olympic stage. But \u201chigh\u201d is a relative term when it comes to winter sports. A 2015 paper published in the European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery analyzed entries in a combined trauma database covering Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Slovenia, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands\u2014all places where winter sports are prized. The database included entries for athletes who presented at emergency rooms with severe traumatic injuries between 1993 and 2012. Alpine skiing claimed the most lives in the database\u20146.4 percent of people hospitalized\u2014followed by 3.4 percent of snowboarders. While sledding resulted in plenty of emergency surgeries and concussions, it didn\u2019t result in any deaths. The researchers concluded that Alpine skiing, snowboarding, and sledding all involve the risk of severe trauma, but that mortality from the sports (at least in the hospital) is low. According to the National Ski Areas Association, an average of 40 people have died while skiing or snowboarding at a ski area in the United States per year over the last decade. Another 48 receive catastrophic injuries per year, and during the 2016-17 season, 0.80 fatalities occurred per one million visits. But fewer people died skiing or snowboarding at ski areas in the U.S. than, say, in airplanes, being struck by lightning or caught in a tornado, or falling off ladders. There are a few factors that could make you likelier to die at the Olympics: partaking in risky behavior or being male. Both are associated with death risk when it comes to skiing and snowboarding. A 2011 study of Austrian ski fatalities found more than 85 percent of fatalities occurred in males. But the risk of dying skiing or snowboarding is \u201cextremely low unless you\u2019re a complete numpty,\u201d wrote ski safety expert Mike Langra m. That said, elite athletes do die on the slopes. And in all varieties of elite skiing tracked by the International Ski Federation, injuries that put athletes out of commission for 28 days or more make up the majority of recorded accidents. Translation: If you get injured skiing or snowboarding, it\u2019s more likely than not to be serious, or at least put you out of elite athlete commission for a while. Technically, nobody died in this year\u2019s Olympics. (Yet.) But multiple Olympic hopefuls did perish while training and competing in the lead-up to the Winter Games, including French Olympian David Poisson. And Sarah Burke, a Canadian women\u2019s freestyle skier who campaigned to add a women\u2019s halfpipe event, who died in 2012 after falling on her head after a trick. Her colleagues remembered her at this year\u2019s competition when another Canadian woman, Cassie Sharpe, won the halfpipe gold. You\u2019d think skeleton and bobsledding\u2014seemingly even riskier than catching air on skis or a snowboard\u2014would be the Winter Games\u2019 deadliest sports, but you\u2019d be wrong. Both are pretty scary and pretty safe. A 1997 analysis published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine found that \u201cthe sport of luge is quite safe in the U.S. despite the appearance of danger.\u201d And though freak accidents do happen\u2014Latvian skeleton rider Girts Ostenieks, for example, was killed in 2001 when his sled crashed into another that hadn\u2019t been removed from the track\u2014they\u2019re so rare that there\u2019s not even a fatality database for the sport. Okay, so skiing and snowboarding are the most likely ways to die at the Winter Games\u2014and even those are likelier to jack up your knees than take your life. But are there other ways to meet your maker while you go for the gold? More Olympics stories Want more news like this? Sign up to receive our email newsletter and never miss an update! By submitting above, you agree to our privacy policy. You betcha. You could have a heart attack and die while ice skating, like Olympic medalist Sergei Grinkov. (Turns out he had untreated blood pressure problems and blocked arteries.) You could fall and hit your head on the ice while curling, or die of exposure to the nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide that refrigerate ice used by hockey players. Or you could, hypothetically, get in the line of fire at the biathlon event, during which players must literally shoot specialized rifles between heartbeats to hit their targets. Biathletes could be more likely to die off-course, though, if they keep any guns at home: People who have firearms in their houses are more likely to die from gunshot wounds than the rest of the population. Yes, there are plenty of ways to die at the Winter Games\u2026 but the most likely one involves strapping on a pair of skis or a snowboard. So stay safe when you hit the slopes, folks. ","Olympics Sports safety Science death","Erin Blakemore","
Winter sports are notoriously tough on the joints, from skis and snowboards that can tweak legs to the tendon-shredding, cartilage-endangering feats of figure skaters.<\/div>","
Winter sports are notoriously tough on the joints, from skis and snowboards that can tweak legs to the tendon-shredding, cartilage-endangering feats of figure skaters. But which sport is most likely to kill you?<\/div>","
Science<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[false],"im_field_author":[224106],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_field_exclude_from_cl":[false],"bm_field_last_updated":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_subtitle":["It's probably not skeleton.\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[208120,224374,209593,62,203207],"im_vid_2":[224106],"sm_vid_Authors":["Erin Blakemore"],"im_vid_1":[208120,224374,209593,62,203207],"sm_vid_Tags":["Olympics","Sports","safety","Science","death"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/235255","site":"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":235255,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/235255","url":"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/standing-desk-deal","path_alias":"standing-desk-deal","label":"A standing desk for $105 off? I'd buy it.","content":" This elevated desktop workplace costs 30 percent less now. FlexiSpot An elevated work station. Amazon Buy Now! If you\u2019ve been thinking about getting a standing desk\u2014and building your own version seems like too much of an ordeal\u2014this 35-inch wide FlexiSpot option is on sale for 30 percent off. While the science on the\u00a0 body benefits \u00a0of standing while working is light, insight into the health risks of sitting all day is not. Being able to stretch, periodically move your joints around, and change position while still being able to work is beneficial to your health. The\u00a0FlexiSpot stand-up desk comes mostly assembled, so you don't need to spend an afternoon setting it up. It also doesn\u2019t move toward you when it's raised, which is helpful if you have a tight workspace. It can hold up to 35 pounds, which means it's plenty-strong for your stuff, but definitely not strong enough for you to lean on. A single handle on the side allows you to quickly adjust the desk between 12 height levels (5.9 inches to 19.7 inches). The fiberboard-and-steel desk has a pretty deep work surface, too, measuring 35 inches by 23 inches. It'll fit your laptop and your extra monitor and your coffee. Plus it has a wide, detachable keyboard and mouse tray. The deal is available in two color options: white or black. $245. Interested in talking about deals and gadgets? Request to join our exclusive Facebook group. With all our product stories, the goal is simple: more information about the stuff you're thinking about buying. We may sometimes get a cut from a purchase, but if something shows up on one of our pages, it\u2019s because we like it. Period. ","teaser":" This elevated desktop workplace costs 30 percent less now. FlexiSpot An elevated work station. Amazon Buy Now! If you\u2019ve been thinking about getting a standing desk\u2014and building your own version seems like too much of an ordeal\u2014this 35-inch wide FlexiSpot option is on sale for 30 percent off. While","ss_name":"billycadden","tos_name":"billycadden","ss_name_formatted":"billycadden","tos_name_formatted":"billycadden","is_uid":1680,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2018-02-23T18:30:00Z","ds_changed":"2018-02-23T18:30:02Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2018-02-23T18:30:02Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":true,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":false,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"bs_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":true,"bs_field_x90_hide":false,"bs_field_last_updated":false,"bs_field_exclude_from_cl":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
An elevated desktop workplace for $105 less? I'd buy it. Read on.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_summary_long":"
An elevated desktop workplace for $105 less? I'd buy it. Read on.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Gadgets<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2018-02-23T18:30:02.621Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_image":["https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/325_4x3\/public\/images\/2018\/02\/flexispot.jpg?itok=_g-pnLjr&fc=50,50"],"bm_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":[true],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"bm_field_x90_hide":[false],"tid":[60,209967,224045,224027,212430,203205,204971,224025],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["gadgets"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Billy Cadden"],"tm_vid_1_names":["Gadgets shopping Commerce desk Health deals goods"],"spell":["A standing desk for $105 off? I'd buy it."," This elevated desktop workplace costs 30 percent less now. FlexiSpot An elevated work station. Amazon Buy Now! If you\u2019ve been thinking about getting a standing desk\u2014and building your own version seems like too much of an ordeal\u2014this 35-inch wide FlexiSpot option is on sale for 30 percent off. While the science on the\u00a0 body benefits \u00a0of standing while working is light, insight into the health risks of sitting all day is not. Being able to stretch, periodically move your joints around, and change position while still being able to work is beneficial to your health. The\u00a0FlexiSpot stand-up desk comes mostly assembled, so you don't need to spend an afternoon setting it up. It also doesn\u2019t move toward you when it's raised, which is helpful if you have a tight workspace. It can hold up to 35 pounds, which means it's plenty-strong for your stuff, but definitely not strong enough for you to lean on. A single handle on the side allows you to quickly adjust the desk between 12 height levels (5.9 inches to 19.7 inches). The fiberboard-and-steel desk has a pretty deep work surface, too, measuring 35 inches by 23 inches. It'll fit your laptop and your extra monitor and your coffee. Plus it has a wide, detachable keyboard and mouse tray. The deal is available in two color options: white or black. $245. Interested in talking about deals and gadgets? Request to join our exclusive Facebook group. With all our product stories, the goal is simple: more information about the stuff you're thinking about buying. We may sometimes get a cut from a purchase, but if something shows up on one of our pages, it\u2019s because we like it. Period. ","Gadgets shopping Commerce desk Health deals goods","Billy Cadden","
An elevated desktop workplace for $105 less? I'd buy it. Read on.<\/div>","
An elevated desktop workplace for $105 less? I'd buy it. Read on.<\/div>","
Gadgets<\/a><\/div>"],"bm_field_feed_builder_exclusion":[true],"im_field_author":[224025],"bm_field_display_social":[true],"bm_field_exclude_from_cl":[false],"bm_field_last_updated":[false],"sm_field_sponsor_label":[""],"bm_in_nps":[false],"sm_field_subtitle":["This elevated desktop workplace costs 30 percent less now.\n"],"bm_field_display_author_bio":[true],"im_field_tags":[60,209967,224045,224027,212430,203205,204971],"im_vid_2":[224025],"sm_vid_Authors":["Billy Cadden"],"im_vid_1":[60,209967,224045,224027,212430,203205,204971],"sm_vid_Tags":["Gadgets","shopping","Commerce","desk","Health","deals","goods"]},{"id":"phhg4e\/node\/235246","site":"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/","hash":"phhg4e","entity_id":235246,"entity_type":"node","bundle":"basic_content","bundle_name":"Basic content","ss_language":"und","path":"node\/235246","url":"https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/squid-graveyard-deep-sea-scavenger","path_alias":"squid-graveyard-deep-sea-scavenger","label":"The critters of the deep sea may thrive on calamari","content":" Scientists found a squid graveyard swarming with scavengers. A crab and sea stars feast upon a squid carcass and egg sheet. \u00a9 MBARI 2012 Deep at the bottom of the Gulf of California there lies a graveyard. Scientists have discovered dozens of squid carcasses being gobbled up by scavengers in the waters of northwestern Mexico. The bodies appeared fresh, hinting that many more vanished from the seafloor before they could be spotted. If so, squid graveyards could be the sites of much-needed feasts for bottom-feeders around the world, the team reported recently in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It\u2019s not easy for deep-sea critters to get enough food to survive. Lots of marine snow\u2014tiny bits of dead animals, feces, and other debris\u2014does drift down to the seafloor. But it sinks so slowly that microbes devour much of the nutrients before it arrives. Corpses, on the other hand, sink too quickly to decompose much before they touch down. While squid flesh has been found in the bellies of deep-sea fish, though, actual bodies are almost never seen\u2014until now. The scientists did not set out to find a graveyard. But the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) they sent to explore the seafloor kept stumbling upon dead squid. \u201cAs we saw yet another dead squid\u2026we realized\u2014hey, this isn\u2019t random, there\u2019s a pattern here,\u201d Bruce Robison, a deep-sea biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California, said in an email. Over the course of 11 dives between 2012 and 2015, the robotic submersible found the remains of 64 squids and egg sheets, the membranes that females use to encase their eggs. On one dive, it observed 36 carcasses and egg sheets. The squid all belonged to the Gonatidae family, whose members are plentiful in the Pacific Ocean. As in most species of squid and octopus, females enjoy but one breeding season before dying when their eggs hatch. The squid were probably drawn to waters near the graveyard because the area offered ideal conditions to hunt or hide from predators while brooding their progeny. Then, after pouring all their energy into the developing eggs, the females perished and sank to the seafloor. The life of a female squid is short and not particularly glamorous. Most, including this one, will die after brooding their eggs in membranes called egg sheets. \u00a9 MBARI 2012 It\u2019s likely that the squid had died recently. Living squid control their coloration by expanding and shrinking pigment-containing cells called chromatophores. After death, the cells contract one final time, leaving the body ghostly pale. Several of the squid carcasses bore purple patches, though, indicating their chromatophores were still active. The carrion was swarming with ratfish, worms, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and other animals. It takes years for these scavengers to make a large whale carcass disappear, but they can likely manage a squid within a day. \u201cFood this rich does not last long on the deep seafloor,\u201d Henk-Jan Hoving, another member of the team and a deep-sea biologist at the GEMOAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany, said in an email. In future, he and his colleagues hope to investigate where else squid graveyards show up on the seafloor and how many species contribute their remains. The researchers suspect, however, that these fleeting graveyards can be found worldwide. And, because there are massive numbers of squid in the seas and they don\u2019t live very long, dead females could add up to quite a few meals for scavengers. A ratfish makes off with a tentacle from a nearby squid carcass. \u00a9 MBARI 2012 Squid populations are on the rise because their predators are being overfished, and they are better equipped to adapt to climate change than many marine animals, the researchers say. This means squid may transport even more carbon to the seafloor in future. The deep sea is the largest ecosystem on Earth, and also the one that we know the least about. Squid graveyards are a reminder, though, that the bottom of the ocean is not an isolated world, and its inhabitants are influenced by what happens in the waters above. "The fact that we continue making important new discoveries like this about the basic processes of deep-sea ecology shows that we have a great deal yet to be learned," Robison says. ","teaser":" Scientists found a squid graveyard swarming with scavengers. A crab and sea stars feast upon a squid carcass and egg sheet. \u00a9 MBARI 2012 Deep at the bottom of the Gulf of California there lies a graveyard. Scientists have discovered dozens of squid carcasses being gobbled up by scavengers in the","ss_name":"kbaggaley","tos_name":"kbaggaley","ss_name_formatted":"kbaggaley","tos_name_formatted":"kbaggaley","is_uid":1375,"bs_status":true,"bs_sticky":false,"bs_promote":true,"is_tnid":0,"bs_translate":false,"ds_created":"2018-02-23T17:30:00Z","ds_changed":"2018-02-23T17:30:01Z","ds_last_comment_or_change":"2018-02-23T17:30:01Z","bs_field_sponsored":false,"bs_field_display_social":true,"bs_field_custom_page":false,"bs_field_feed_builder_exclusion":false,"bs_field_display_author_bio":true,"bs_field_display_bottom_recirc":true,"bs_use_sir_trevor_body":true,"bs_field_flag_gallery":false,"bs_field_flag_video":false,"bs_field_display_off_ramp":true,"bs_in_nps":false,"bs_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":true,"bs_field_x90_hide":false,"bs_field_last_updated":false,"bs_field_exclude_from_cl":false,"ts_bonnier_summary":"
Squid carcasses strewn across the bottom of the Gulf of California may represent just one of many deep-sea graveyards.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_summary_long":"
Squid carcasses strewn across the bottom of the Gulf of California may represent just one of many deep-sea graveyards.<\/div>","ts_bonnier_eyebrow":"
Animals<\/a><\/div>","timestamp":"2018-02-23T17:30:02.056Z","bm_field_display_off_ramp":[true],"sm_field_image":["https:\/\/www.popsci.com\/sites\/popsci.com\/files\/styles\/325_4x3\/public\/images\/2018\/02\/squid_carcass_scavengers1.jpg?itok=bx3fbvod&fc=50,50"],"bm_use_sir_trevor_custom_page":[true],"bm_field_sponsored":[false],"bm_field_flag_gallery":[false],"bm_field_custom_page":[false],"bm_field_flag_video":[false],"bm_field_display_bottom_recirc":[true],"bm_use_sir_trevor_body":[true],"bm_field_x90_hide":[false],"tid":[214484,203232,208049,200200,200095],"sm_field_layout_standard":["right-sidebar"],"sm_field_primary_channel":["animals"],"tm_vid_2_names":["Kate Baggaley"],"tm_vid_1_names":["squid deep sea ocean floor Animals"],"spell":["The critters of the deep sea may thrive on calamari"," Scientists found a squid graveyard swarming with scavengers. A crab and sea stars feast upon a squid carcass and egg sheet. \u00a9 MBARI 2012 Deep at the bottom of the Gulf of California there lies a graveyard. Scientists have discovered dozens of squid carcasses being gobbled up by scavengers in the waters of northwestern Mexico. The bodies appeared fresh, hinting that many more vanished from the seafloor before they could be spotted. If so, squid graveyards could be the sites of much-needed feasts for bottom-feeders around the world, the team reported recently in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. It\u2019s not easy for deep-sea critters to get enough food to survive. Lots of marine snow\u2014tiny bits of dead animals, feces, and other debris\u2014does drift down to the seafloor. But it sinks so slowly that microbes devour much of the nutrients before it arrives. Corpses, on the other hand, sink too quickly to decompose much before they touch down. While squid flesh has been found in the bellies of deep-sea fish, though, actual bodies are almost never seen\u2014until now. The scientists did not set out to find a graveyard. But the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) they sent to explore the seafloor kept stumbling upon dead squid. \u201cAs we saw yet another dead squid\u2026we realized\u2014hey, this isn\u2019t random, there\u2019s a pattern here,\u201d Bruce Robison, a deep-sea biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing, California, said in an email. Over the course of 11 dives between 2012 and 2015, the robotic submersible found the remains of 64 squids and egg sheets, the membranes that females use to encase their eggs. On one dive, it observed 36 carcasses and egg sheets. The squid all belonged to the Gonatidae family, whose members are plentiful in the Pacific Ocean. As in most species of squid and octopus, females enjoy but one breeding season before dying when their eggs hatch. The squid were probably drawn to waters near the graveyard because the area offered ideal conditions to hunt or hide from predators while brooding their progeny. Then, after pouring all their energy into the developing eggs, the females perished and sank to the seafloor. The life of a female squid is short and not particularly glamorous. Most, including this one, will die after brooding their eggs in membranes called egg sheets. \u00a9 MBARI 2012 It\u2019s likely that the squid had died recently. Living squid control their coloration by expanding and shrinking pigment-containing cells called chromatophores. After death, the cells contract one final time, leaving the body ghostly pale. Several of the squid carcasses bore purple patches, though, indicating their chromatophores were still active. The carrion was swarming with ratfish, worms, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and other animals. It takes years for these scavengers to make a large whale carcass disappear, but they can likely manage a squid within a day. \u201cFood this rich does not last long on the deep seafloor,\u201d Henk-Jan Hoving, another member of the team and a deep-sea biologist at the GEMOAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel in Germany, said in an email. In future, he and his colleagues hope to investigate where else squid graveyards show up on the seafloor and how many species contribute their remains. The researchers suspect, however, that these fleeting graveyards can be found worldwide. And, because there are massive numbers of squid in the seas and they don\u2019t live very long, dead females could add up to quite a few meals for scavengers. A ratfish makes off with a tentacle from a nearby squid carcass. \u00a9 MBARI 2012 Squid populations are on the rise because their predators are being overfished, and they are better equipped to adapt to climate change than many marine animals, the researchers say. This means squid may transport even more carbon to the seafloor in future. The deep sea is the largest ecosystem on Earth, and also the one that we know the least about. Squid graveyards are a reminder, though, that the bottom of the ocean is not an isolated world, and its inhabitants are influenced by what happens in the waters above. "The fact that we continue making important new discoveries like this about the basic processes of deep-sea ecology shows that we have a great deal yet to be learned," Robison says. ","squid deep sea ocean floor Animals","Kate Baggaley","
Squid carcasses strewn across the bottom of the Gulf of California may represent just one of many deep-sea graveyards.<\/div>","
Squid carcasses strewn across the bottom of the Gulf of California may represent just one of many deep-sea graveyards.<\/div>","
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