The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has been heavily influenced by controversies around nuclear plants and the surrounding politics. However, amid missiles raining over the nuclear plants in Ukraine that could quickly escalate into a nuclear catastrophe, a mystery is unfolding around the Chernobyl plant, which melted decades ago in 1986.
On the first day of the invasion, Russian forces occupied the former nuclear power plant at Chernobyl in northern Ukraine. On February 24, Russian forces encircled Chernobyl with tanks and armored vehicles as they crossed into Ukraine from the border with Belarus.
Soon after, the Russians took control.
In March, the Ukrainians snatched control of the plant in an astonishing maneuver. Months later, the Chernobyl Power Plant is again in focus and for reasons extremely peculiar to mankind. The recent mystery unfolding near Chernobyl nuclear plant dates back to 1986, the year of absolute nuclear chaos near Ukraine.
According to a recent study, the radioactive disaster of Chernobyl that took place in 1986 has altered the natural evolution of species near the Nuclear plant.
Research that appeared in the journal Evolutionary Applications claims that the radiation from the Chornobyl accident has caused the Eastern tree frog (Hyla Orientalis) in Ukraine to change its skin color from green to black.
On April 26, 1986, the fourth reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility melted down and exploded. The reactor core then burned for several days in the open air leading to a disaster of a scale that Europe had never seen.
As a result of the meltdown, airborne radioactive pollutants were discharged and spread across most of adjacent Europe, including Ukraine.
These radioactive isotopes, primarily fission by-products, emit ionizing radiation that can damage DNA and result in genetic mutations. This incident emitted 400 times more radiation than the nuclear bomb that exploded in Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.
The radioactive fallout contaminated an area of 2,600 square kilometers and extended to other regions of Europe, where it may have caused thousands more deaths. And although the Chernobyl catastrophe took place more than 35 years ago, its effects on the ecosystem are still being felt.
Despite the area around Chornobyl being uninhabitable, it has become one of Europe’s biggest wildlife reserves. It is also home to various endangered species, including wolves, lynxes, and bears.
This potentially piqued the interest of scientists to research how the species were adapting, and the result is here: The frogs have turned black!
The Chernobyl frog discovery is significant as it comes when the Russian Defense Ministry has claimed that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine’s south has allegedly come under ongoing bombardment by kamikaze drones from Ukrainian forces, which could provoke a nuclear catastrophe.
The Mystery ‘Nuclear’ Frogs Of Chernobyl
In the study of frogs near Chernobyl conducted by scientists, several unusually black-tinted Eastern tree frogs (Hyla Orientalis) were discovered close to the damaged nuclear plant.
The species typically has a bright green dorsal color. However, close to the site of the reactor explosion, the frogs discovered were black.
Researchers investigated the possibility that radiation exposure and melanin concentration might be related. The research’s motivation was that not much had been studied about this class of pigments’ capacity to decrease UV radiation’s damaging effects.
Melanin partially absorbs and dissipates the radiation’s energy. Thus, when people are exposed to radiation, those with more melanin are less likely to have cell damage later on and are more likely to survive. It can also act as a shield against ionizing radiation.
Researchers studied the dorsal skin coloration of more than 200 male frogs caught in 12 separate mating ponds between 2017 and 2019 after the first discovery in 2016 that was made public.
The study areas were distributed along a broad gradient of radioactive contamination. They included some of the most radioactive places on Earth and four sites outside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
The research findings imply that Chernobyl frogs may have undergone a quick evolutionary process in reaction to the radiation. In this case, the protective effect of melanin would have favored frogs with darker coloration at the time of the accident, typically representing a minority in their populations.
The dark frogs would have better tolerated the radiation, and they would have produced more offspring.
It’s also vital to remember that more than ten generations of frogs have existed since the disaster. The researchers were able to conclude that the reason why these black frogs have come to dominate the species in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone may be because of an exceptionally rapid process of natural selection.
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