Why People Are Afraid of Sharks, Discovery of 4 “Walking” Shark Species, and Fighting Climate Change with Rocks

To celebrate Shark Week, learn about why people are afraid of sharks; how scientists discovered four new species of “walking” sharks (also called epaulette sharks); and how enhanced rock weathering might help us fight climate change with rocks.

People are afraid of sharks for 3 psychological reasons by Kelsey Donk

• Ipsos editor. (2015, July 7). Sharks: Half (51%) of Americans are Absolutely Terrified of Them and Many (38%) Scared to Swim in the Ocean Because of Them... Ipsos; www.ipsos.com. https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/sharks-half-51-americans-are-absolutely-terrified-them-and-many-38-scared-swim-ocean-because-them
• Ropeik, D. (2015, July 6). Shark Attack: The Risk Is Tiny, but the Coverage, and Fear, Are High -- Why? HuffPost; HuffPost. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/shark-attack-the-risk-is_b_7736266
• Why are we afraid of sharks? There’s a scientific explanation. (2019, June 27). Nationalgeographic.com. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/01/sharks-attack-fear-science-psychology-spd/
• Hettermann, K. (2017, July 25). Are You Afraid of Sharks? Don’t Be. Scientific American Blog Network. https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/are-you-afraid-of-sharks-dont-be/
• Eveleth, R. (2013, August 6). How to Survive the Shark Attack That Is Never Going to Happen To You. Smithsonian Magazine; Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/how-to-survive-the-shark-attack-that-is-never-going-to-happen-to-you-24121725/?no-ist

Four new species of "walking" sharks were discovered this year by Grant Currin

• Walking sharks discovered in the tropics. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-01/uoq-wsd012020.php
• Dudgeon, C. L., Corrigan, S., Yang, L., Allen, G. R., Erdmann, M. V., Fahmi, Sugeha, H. Y., White, W. T., & Naylor, G. J. P. (2020). Walking, swimming or hitching a ride? Phylogenetics and biogeography of the walking shark genus Hemiscyllium. Marine and Freshwater Research. https://doi.org/10.1071/mf19163
• These sharks have evolved to walk on land—and they did it quickly. (2020, January 23). Nationalgeographic.com. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/01/walking-sharks-new-species-evolving-fast/
• Andrew, S. (2020, January 23). See walking shark discovered near Australia. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/23/world/walking-sharks-recently-evolved-scn-trnd/index.html

We may be able to fight climate change with rocks by Cameron Duke

• Beerling, D. J., Kantzas, E. P., Lomas, M. R., Wade, P., Eufrasio, R. M., Renforth, P., Sarkar, B., Andrews, M. G., James, R. H., Pearce, C. R., Mercure, J.-F., Pollitt, H., Holden, P. B., Edwards, N. R., Khanna, M., Koh, L., Quegan, S., Pidgeon, N. F., Janssens, I. A., … Banwart, S. A. (2020). Potential for large-scale CO 2 removal via enhanced rock weathering with croplands. Nature, 583(7815), 242–248. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2448-9
• Layton, L. (2020, July 8). Spreading rock dust on the ground could pull carbon from the air, researchers say. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/07/08/spreading-rock-dust-ground-could-pull-carbon-air-researchers-say/
• Sheffield, U. of. (2020, July 11). Shockingly Simple: How Farmland Could Absorb an Extra 2 Billion Tonnes of CO2 From the Atmosphere Each Year. SciTechDaily. https://scitechdaily.com/shockingly-simple-how-farmland-could-absorb-an-extra-2-billion-tonnes-of-co2-from-the-atmosphere-each-year/

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Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/why-people-are-afraid-of-sharks-discovery-of-4-walking-shark-species-and-fighting-climate-change-with-rocks

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