OKLAHOMA EVOLUTION/CLIMATE NEWS–JANUARY 2021

1.  Anti-science education legislation in Oklahoma

2.  Anti-science and pro-science education legislation in other states

3.  2020 ties 2016 as the warmest year on record

4.  Newborn megalodon sharks were larger than most adult humans

5.  Dire wolves aren’t wolves at all—they form a distinct lineage with jackals

6.  Some electric eels coordinate attacks to zap their prey

7.  January video

ANTI-SCIENCE EDUCATION LEGISLATION IN OKLAHOMA
Two anti-science education bills have been introduced in the 2021 Oklahoma legislature. SB 613 by Bullard, the so-called Academic Freedom Act and SB 662 by Dahm, the so-called Oklahoma Science Education Act. The bills are virtually identical and are standard Discovery Institute talking points as similar bills in the past. The bills have been assigned to the Senate Education Committee. Please contact committee chair Adam Pugh (adam.pugh@oksenate.gov, 405-521-5623) and vice-chair Dewayne Pemberton (dewayne.pemberton@oksenate.gov; 405-521-5533) about your opposition to the bills.  SB 665 has been reassigned to the Senate Appropriations Committee.  Please visit the OESE web site frequently for updates.  More info at NCSE and the Sensuous Curmudgeon.

PRO-SCIENCE EDUCATION IN OTHER STATES
Connecticut–Connecticut’s House Bill 5235 would, if enacted, “revise the climate change curriculum [sic: presumably “standards”] to add a requirement that students are exposed to the debate and research concerning the amount and effects of anthropomorphic [sic: presumably “anthropogenic”] carbon dioxide levels.”
The bill, introduced on January 22, 2021, and referred to the Joint Committee on the Environment, is sponsored by John E. Piscopo (R-District 76). In 2009, Piscopo introduced a bill to “repeal global warming legislation that was passed based on the assumption that global warming is caused by human action,” telling the Connecticut Post (March 2, 2010), “The public has been hoodwinked … I have serious doubts about whether this is man made.” As a member of the board of directors of the American Legislative Exchange Council, he reportedly worked with a staffer of the climate-change-denying Heartland Institute in 2017 to call for a review of the EPA’s 2009 Endangerment Finding that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health and welfare.  More at NCSE.Connecticut’s House Bill 5619 (PDF) would, if enacted, “require that the climate change curriculum in the Next Generation Science Standards be taught as part of the state-wide science curriculum for public schools and that such teaching begin in elementary school.”
The bill, introduced by Christine Palm (D-District 36) on January 27, 2021, and referred to the Joint Committee on Education, is similar to her House Bill 5011 from 2019. Similar provisions were later incorporated in three bills in 2019. None of these four bills passed.  More at NCSE.
New York–Assembly Bill 3468 would, if enacted, require the state commissioner of education to “create and establish a comprehensive and accurate climate change and sustainability curriculum which shall be taught in grades kindergarten through twelve in all public and charter schools.” The curriculum would include “instruction on how human activities cause climate change, the effects of climate change, the dangers associated with climate change[,] and preventative measures that can be taken to alleviate the impacts of climate change.” 
No fewer than five previous bills currently active in the New York state legislature also seek to support climate change education. Four of them, Assembly Bill 2325 and the identical Senate Bill 1081, Senate Bill 596, and Senate Bill 654, similarly require the state commissioner of education to establish a model curriculum for or offer recommendations about climate change instruction; the fifth, Assembly Bill 617, also sponsored by Rosenthal, would establish a program “to award grants to eligible applicants to support climate change education grant programs for young people or to provide optional teacher training or professional development programs relevant to the advance of climate change literacy in young people.”  More at NCSE here, here, here, and here.
U.S. Congress–House Resolution 29, introduced in the House of Representatives on January 11, 2021, would, if adopted, express the House’s support for “teaching climate change in public and private schools at all grade levels.”The resolution observes that “there is a broad consensus among climate scientists that the human activities contributing to increases in greenhouse gas emissions are the dominant cause of climate change,” that a large majority of parents and teachers think that climate change should be taught in the schools, and that professional organizations of science teachers have “called for greater support for science educators in teaching climate science and climate change.”  More at NCSE.
2020 TIES 2016 AS THE WARMEST YEAR ON RECORD
NASA and NOAA announced that 2020 was one for the record books, tying with 2016 for the warmest year since we’ve been tracking temperatures. NASA rates 2020 as the warmest ever, although by a margin that’s not large enough to reach statistical significance; NOAA reverses the order, also without a significant difference between the two years. Whatever its precise rank, 2020 was the continuation of a worrying trend—the past seven years are all on the list of the seven warmest years on record, regardless of which source you turn to for your global temperatures.  More at Ars Technica, phys.org, New York Times, slashdot, Science News, Scientific American, AP, and Wired.

NEWBORN MEGALODON SHARKS WERE LARGER THAN MOST ADULT HUMANS

“Baby shark” has taken on a whole new meaning. Newborn megalodon sharks were supersized fish larger than most adult humans, a new study suggests.
An analysis of the growth rates of the ancient ocean predators, which lived between about 23 million and 2.5 million years ago, estimates that the sharks started life at about 2 meters long.
The large birth size of O. megalodon suggests that the young sharks, like many present-day sharks, ate unhatched eggs in the uterus to survive – a phenomenon called intrauterine cannibalism.
“The consequence is that only a few pups will survive and develop, but each of them can become large in body size at birth which gives [them] an advantage as already large predators.
More at Science News, New Scientist. and New York Times.  Original article at Historical Biology.

DIRE WOLVES AREN’T WOLVES AT ALL–THEY FORM A DISTINCT LINEAGE WITH JACKALS
Dire wolves once shared North America—and likely prey—with predators like the Smilodon, a saber-toothed cat. Prior to the arrival of humans, dire wolves were far more common than regular wolves, as indicated by the remains found in the La Brea tar seeps, where they outnumber gray wolves by a factor of about 100.Like the smilodon and many other large North American mammals, the dire wolf vanished during a period of climate change and the arrival of humans to the continent, even as gray wolves and coyotes survived. And with their departure, they left behind a bit of a mystery: what were they?A new study uses ancient DNA from dire wolf skeletons to determine that they weren’t actually wolves and had been genetically isolated from them for millions of years.  More at Ars Technica, phys.org, and Scientific American.  Original paper in Nature.

SOME ELECTRIC EELS COORDINATE ATTACKS TO ZAP THEIR PREY
One Volta’s electric eel — able to subdue small fish with an 860-volt jolt — is scary enough. Now imagine over 100 eels swirling about, unleashing coordinated electric attacks.
Such a sight was assumed to be only the stuff of nightmares, at least for prey. Researchers have long thought that these eels, a type of knifefish, are solitary, nocturnal hunters that use their electric sense to find smaller fish as they sleep. But in a remote region of the Amazon, groups of over 100 electric eels (Electrophorus voltai) hunt together, corralling thousands of smaller fish together to concentrate, shock and devour the prey.  More at Science News and Ars Technica.  Original paper at Ecology and Evolution.

JANUARY VIDEO
Why does spring spring?