Paleontology news

Darwin was a brilliant observer and described everything he could perceive with the naked eye. However, the micro-organisms from the beginning of evolution remained hidden from him. He came unsuspectingly close to them in his essay on reefs.

Crisogono Vasconcelos, director of the laboratory, and his colleague Rolf Warthmann, spared no trouble in bringing the sensational “living rocks” from Brazil to Zurich for ETH Zurich’s 150th anniversary celebrations. What began as a small adventure has now become a long-term research project.

Minimal growth

Stromatolites are inhabited by organisms that were probably the first to colonize the planet. The jelly-like mass consists of micro-organisms. Cyanobacteria (formerly called blue-green algae) live on the very top. The oxygen-free lower regions are populated by other micro-organisms such as those that consume methane and sulfate ions, living together in symbiosis. They metabolize either by photosynthesis or by reducing sulfate ions, and excrete carbonate as a by-product, so to speak, of their metabolism. The lower layers of the microbial mat gradually die off, while new organic material forms continuously at the surface. Thin layers of carbonate are left behind to form the laminated rocks or stromatolites, which grow very slowly: by only about a few centimeter in thirty years.

Ecological niches as protection from predators

Stromatolites are virtually living fossils and are found nowadays only at specific locations, such as the Hamelin Pool of Shark Bay in Western Australia. The “living rocks” in the ETH Geomicrobiology Laboratory originate from the Lagoa Vermehla in Brazil. The salinity of the lagoon water there is two to three times higher than normal seawater. Today, stromatolites have retreated into ecological niches that are apparently hostile to life and in which they need fear no natural enemies. In the ocean, they would be grazed upon by fish, crabs or snails.

Predators such as the trilobites, which were among the first arthropods in the Paleozoic era, are probably the reason why stromatolites were driven away into ecological niches of this kind. Stromatolites formed entire reefs and were the first ecosystems in the Precambrian era more than 540 million years ago. They record the early stages of evolution beginning at 3.45 billion years ago. In Darwin’s publication “On The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs” of 1842, in which he describes the different types of coral reefs and their distribution and sketches theories about coral reef development, he came – indirectly – very close to the origin of life.

This is because, billions of years ago, the reef-forming stromatolites were inhabited exclusively by micro-organisms that are regarded as our planet’s first forms of life. The microbial fossils, invisible to the naked eye, and the so-called Ediacaran fauna, which were still unknown at that time, led to “Darwin's Dilemma”, namely the question of why fossils suddenly appeared on the Earth in rocks less than 540 million years old.

The cradle of evolution

In Western Australia, there are large fossilized stromatolite reefs in rocks about 3.5 billion years old, known as the Apex Chert. Judith McKenzie, emeritus Professor of Sedimentology at ETH Zurich, who together with Crisogono Vasconcelos has built up the stromatolite laboratory, enthuses that “One can walk across them for several dozen meters.” For a long time the Apex Chert was regarded as the cradle of evolution because, in 1987, the paleontologist William Schopf from the University of California, Los Angeles, described fossil micro-organisms in the Apex Chert.

He even suspected that they could involve cyanobacteria, which, at 3.465 billion years old, would have been the oldest traces of life. In the spring of 2002, the Oxford University paleontologist Martin Brasier refuted Schopf’s study and described the supposed cyanobacteria as artifacts. Similar studies on other findings followed, opening up a new discussion about the beginning of evolution. More stringent criteria were applied from then on in order to identify fossilized traces of life with certainty – above all the detection of biomarkers.

Since then, experts have become cautions and skeptical about new discoveries. This became clear once again at a specialist conference in September 2005, when leading authorities met to resolve the question as to when and how microbes began to change the world. Even during this intensive exchange of information, the experts were unable to agree on which fossil findings were indisputable and which were the oldest traces of life. Or, as to when the first oxygen-producing organisms appeared on the evolutionary stage and whether there was any life at all on our planet before then.

As a result, the studies relating to stromatolites, which are considered to have first appeared about 3.5 billion years ago, came under attack. There was discussion as to whether their mushroom-like conical shapes could have formed on the young Earth either as a result of other types of organisms unknown today or in purely chemical ways. Scientists counter this by saying that, up to now, it has been impossible to observe in nature any structures of this kind that could have formed by chemical means.

Learning to understand through analogies

To interpret particular structures as traces of early life, Judith McKenzie and Crisogono Vasconcelos compare ancient stromatolites with recent analogous systems, for example by exposing the living stromatolites to different conditions: they vary the salinity, temperature, light input or oxygen content. In a glass box in the laboratory, the scientists can also simulate conditions like those on the early Earth. Vasconcelos says, “This may make it possible to find new stages in evolution.”

credited to ETH Zurich (2009, April 18). The Life That Escaped Darwin’s Notice. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 26, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/04/090418084432.htm

A newly discovered prehistoric seal with "arms" is the no-longer missing link between seals' land-based ancestors and the ocean-dwelling, flippered creatures we know, a new study says.

Unlike the shuffling seals of today, the newfound species may have walked as gracefully as it swam, researchers say.

If the finless seal looks slightly less than odd, it may be because of its resemblance to a modern otter, which lead study author Natalia Rybczynski agreed "to some extent, ecologically" could be "a modern analogy for these early pinnipeds."

Pinnipeds—literally "fin feet"—include walruses, seals, and sea lions.

Seal-ing the Evolutionary Gap

Many marine mammals, such as whales and manatees, are believed to have roots on land—an idea that originated with Charles Darwin 150 years ago.

But hard evidence for land-to-water evolution in seals and other pinnipeds was lacking until the new discovery—aptly named Puijila darwini ("Darwin's young marine mammal" in an amalgamation of an Inuit language and Latin).

"We know that some sort of land-dwelling ancestor existed, but how did we get to the fully marine form?" asked Rybczynski, a vertebrate paleontologist with the Canadian Museum of Nature.

"There was a morphological gap. So Puijila darwini is an important transition fossil," Rybczynski added.

Evolution on Fast Forward

The most primitive pinniped fossil skeleton yet found, the P. darwini specimen was discovered in 2007 in an impact crater in the Canadian Arctic.

The inland location on Devon Island, Nunavut, suggests that pinniped evolution featured a freshwater phase, according to the study.

During that period the animals frequented the then temperate Arctic's lakes and rivers. The species may have gradually adapted to an ocean lifestyle after lakes had begun to freeze over in winter, depriving the seals of food.

This first evidence of early Arctic pinnipeds suggests that the region may have been a hotbed of pinniped evolution, Rybczynski said. The Arctic experiences amplified climate shifts, which could speed evolution as animals are forced to adapt—or disappear.

credited to news.nationalgeographic.com

The Neanderthals inhabited a vast geographical area extending from Europe to western Asia and the Middle East 30,000 to 100,000 years ago. Now, a group of researchers are questioning whether or not the Neanderthals constituted a homogenous group or separate sub-groups (between which slight differences could be observed).

Researchers Virginie Fabre, Silvana Condemi and Anna Degioanni from the CNRS Laboratory of Anthropology (UMR 6578) at the University of Marseille, France, have given further consideration to the question of diversity of Neanderthals by studying the genetic structure of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and by analyzing the genetic variability, modeling different scenarios. The study was possible thanks to the publication, since 1997, of 15 mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences (the mtDNa is maternally transmitted) that originated from 12 Neanderthals.

The new study confirms the presence of three separate sub-groups and suggests the existence of a fourth group in western Asia. According to the authors, the size of the Neanderthal population was not constant over time and a certain amount of migration occurred among the sub-groups. The variability among the Neanderthal population is interpreted to be an indirect consequence of the particular climatic conditions on their territorial extension during the entire middle Pleistocene time period.

Degioanni and colleagues obtained this result by using a new methodology derived from different biocomputational models based on data from genetics, demography and paleoanthropology. The adequacy of each model was measured by comparing the simulated results obtained using BayesianSSC software with those predicted based on nucleotide sequences.

The researchers hope that one day this methodology might be applied to questions concerning Neanderthal cultural diversity (for example the lithic industry) and to the availability of natural resources in the territory. This could provide new insights into the history and extinction of the Neanderthals.

Public Library of Science (2009, April 15). Three Neanderthal Sub-groups Confirmed. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/04/090415075150.htm

Packed with treasure in the styles of two ancient orders, the 1,500-year-old tomb of the Moche Indian "king of bling" is like no other, according to archaeologist Steve Bourget. Discovered in Peru at the base of an eroded mud-brick pyramid, the tomb gradually yielded its contents last summer.

The tomb's mysterious contents and location—far from known Moche capitals—could shed new light on this little-known culture of Peru's arid northern coast, said Bourget, of the University of Texas at Austin.

Thriving between A.D. 100 and 800, the highly agricultural Moche Indians are known in large part by their stepped pyramids, jewelry-filled tombs, and exquisite pottery and art.

Lord of Ucupe

Located some 475 miles (750 kilometers) north of Lima, the newfound tomb was found at the base of Huaca el Pueblo, a mud-brick, stepped pyramid that has eroded into a high, round mound.

The Lord of Ucupe—as locals have come to call the entombed Moche leader—was in his early thirties when he died, Bourget said.

For entombment, the lord was dressed in full regalia—and then some.

His body was covered with a tunic and train of tiny gilded copper plates, and his face was covered with two funerary masks—a first, according to Bourget. A necklace of four-inch (ten-centimeter), disk-shaped silver rattles encircled his neck.

On his head was a gilded crown. Six more crowns and ten V-shaped headdresses called diadems were arrayed on top of his body. Still another diadem was folded in half and placed atop six metal war clubs to serve as a mat for his lifeless body.

The Lord of Ucupe was then wrapped in a large bundle made of reed and textile, along with artifacts suggestive of political status, said Bourget, who co-led the team that found the tomb with Bruno Alva of the Museum Tumbas Reales de Sipán.

Atop it all was placed a final diadem, the first treasure found by the archaeologists as they brushed away the layers of dirt—probably from a cave-in, Bourget said—filling the originally hollow tomb.

Sandwiched

The lord was entombed atop another man. At the second man's side was yet another man, who himself was atop a pregnant woman.

"We don't know the relationships between the leader and the other males," Bourget said. And "this woman may have been a concubine or a wife. She may have died [of natural causes] while pregnant."

There were no marks on the bones indicating that the people had been sacrificed, he said, adding that textile fragments from around the bodies were radiocarbon dated to A.D. 340 to 540.

King of Bling

In life, the Lord of Ucupe would probably not have ventured out of his elevated palace unless arrayed much as he was in death, Bourget believes.

Nearly everything the lord wore—tunic, headdress, ear spools, nose mask—would have been made of gilded copper, he said.

"This guy would have shined in the sunlight"—to dazzle and distract, Bourget said.

"This is the king of bling, literally."

Even his jingling necklace and handheld metal rattles served to inspire awe, Bourget said. Because of metal's scarcity, "no commoner could ever make this noise."

A First

The styles and funeral arrangements found at Huaca el Pueblo are similar to those at the famed Moche site of Sipán, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) away.

But archaeologists have never before unearthed anything like the Lord of Ucupe, Bourget said.

"This find is particularly important, because it is the first time we have found an individual outside of Sipán that is the same type as some of the leaders found in Sipán," he said.

But even in storied Sipán, he said, it's unheard of to find so many precious funerary ornaments in a single Moche tomb.

What's more, the artifacts are a jumble of both the more florid early Moche style and the stylistically simpler middle Moche designs.

Bourget suspects the inclusion of both styles was a political act, perhaps designed to help legitimize the new order by linking it with the old.

Theories Debunked?

Similarities between the Lord of Ucupe's tomb and Sipán sites may challenge a widely held theory that northern Moche settlements were highly independent.

"I don't think the idea that they were organized into city-states will fly anymore," Bourget said.

Jeffrey Quilter, deputy director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, wouldn't go quite that far.

Still, Quilter said, "Finding what appears to be a local lord who was part of a larger cultural system but may have been relatively independent—or maybe not—will … be a great contribution to understanding the past."

Charles Stanish, director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles, largely agrees with Bourget.

Referring to medieval European kingdoms, Stanish said "the Moche could have been similarly organized, with semi-autonomous [settlements] being linked by ideology, artifacts, and ways of acting."

credited to nationalgeographic.com

The evolution of flight by dinosaurs, widely accepted as the ancestors of modern birds, has been a controversial subject among palaeontologists for decades.

While some believe avian dinosaurs learned to fly by jumping out of trees and gliding to the ground, almost all of the bird-like ancestors found as fossils were ground-dwelling creatures.

Instead scientists have suggested that these "proto-birds" flapped their forelimbs like wings to give them additional thrust to help them climb while attempting to escape from predators.

New research from the University of Manchester, however, suggests this is inefficient and reduces the ability of the animals to run fast.

The biologists claim there would have been little competitive advantage that could have driven natural selection of wings in this way.

Rather, they suggest another evolutionary force was at work, a procesdins known as sexual selection, where traits deemed as attractive by the opposite sex become more common and more pronounced through generations because they are favoured by mating animals.

Dr Robert Nudds, a biologist at the University of Manchester who carried out the research, said his work had raised the prospect that sexual selection played a bigger role in the evolution of flight than had been previously thought.

He said: "The problem we see is why an animal would start holding its forelimbs out to the side in a symmetrical manner in the first place.

"Two legged animals use their forelimbs in asymmetrical movements to help counteract the force fro the legs and to stop their body from rotating as they run.

"If an animal started running with its limbs held out to the side, then there would be cost that would have left them competitively at a disadvantage. There must have been another factor involved to allow this trait to continue through the generations.

"One theory is that these feathered dinosaurs used their forelimbs in some sort of sexual display, so maybe they ran around with their arms outstretched to show off how pretty their feathers were."

Early birds are first thought to have appeared during the late Jurassic period around 145 million years ago. Fossils have been found of a feathered dinosaur, known as Archaeopteryx, which is thought to have been a stepping stone between dinosaurs and modern birds.

Dr Nudds, who worked with palaeontologist Dr Gareth Dyke at University College Dublin, used biomechanical models to simulate how Archaeopteryx and two other feathered dinosaurs, Caudipteryx and Protarchaeopteryx, would have moved.

They found that the early wings of these animals would have provided little thrust to assist when running uphill and would have also increased drag.

Dr Nudds added: "To me, it makes more sense that dinosaurs began to hold their forelimbs out when jumping out of trees and eventually started gliding to the ground, but the problem is the evidence in the fossil record doesn't support this.

"There may of course be gaps in the fossil record and with the ground dwelling species we have discovered so far, it seems that something other than simple natural selection drove the evolution of symmetrical forelimb posture."

Dr Paul Barrett, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum where a specimen of Archaeopteryx is held, said: "This is a controversial topic.

"I find the idea that proto-birds flapped their forelimbs to help them climb trees quite attractive, but it is one of a number of ideas that are out there and I suspect the truth will be a combination of a number of these."

credited to telegraph.co.uk

Three thousand eight hundred years ago, long before U.S. plains rippled with vast rows of corn, Native Americans planted farms with hardy "pioneer" crops, according to new evidence of the first farming in eastern North America. Because the area appears to have been well stocked with wild food sources, the discovery may rewrite some beliefs about what led people to start farming on the continent, scientists say.

Farming Not a Necessity?

The ancient farm was found at a Riverton site along the Wabash River in present-day Illinois.

At least five varieties of seed-bearing plants, such as easily cultivated sunflowers and gourds, were grown at the site, the new study says.

This "crop complex" is the earliest known in eastern North America—previous evidence from this time period had indicated that only single crops were domesticated at a time.

Around the world and throughout ancient history, people switched from mainly hunting and gathering to farming as a way to cope with environmental stresses, such as drought—or so the conventional wisdom says.

But the new research "really challenges the whole idea of humans domesticating plants and animals in response to an external stress [and] makes a strong case for almost the polar opposite," said lead study author Bruce Smith, curator of North American archaeology at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Before they began farming, the Riverton people lived among bountiful river valleys and lakes, apparently eating a healthy and diverse diet of nuts, white-tailed deer, fish, and shellfish, the study says.

Farming may not have been a necessity but rather a reflection of their "own free will," Smith said.

How They Lived

Smith and colleagues radiocarbon-dated samples of seeds in soil collected in the 1960s from middens, or garbage piles, of the Riverton culture. In communities of about six to ten families, the Riverton people prepared their food without ceramic pots or boiled water: The families broke nuts, ground food on slabs, and used earthen ovens with fire-heated rocks.

They likely ate sunflower, marsh elder, two types of chenopod—a family that includes spinach and beets—and possibly squash and little barley, according to the findings. The people also grew bottle gourd to make into containers.

Several of these "aggressive" colonizer plant species, such as sunflowers and bottle gourd, are around today, said Smith, whose research appears this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Many of the Riverton plant species are so hardy that modern gardeners in the U.S. Midwest or Southeast often find them stubbornly popping up in their backyards, he said.

Icing on the Cake?

The Riverton crops may have "added to what was [already] a successful life" for the ancient Americans, said Brian Redmond, curator and head of archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio.

But that doesn't mean farming didn't give the Riverton culture a practical advantage: In addition to their normal fare, the people may have relied on the crops as a stable source of food—insurance against shortages of wild food sources—Redmond added.

The Riverton discovery, he said, "gives us a whole lot of dimension to what these people are doing in this time."

credited to news.nationalgeographic.com

The last Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) died nine years ago, the victim of loneliness (and a falling tree). But for a brief, seven-minute window, the extinct species may have recently been resurrected, thanks to cloning.

The cloning attempt -- the first "successful" cloning of an extinct species outside of Jurassic Park -- was led by Folch, of Spain's Centre of Food Technology and Research of Aragon with help from colleagues at the National Research Institute of Agriculture and Food. They extracted DNA using a technique called nuclear transfer, then implanted embryos into 57 surrogate goats. Seven pregnancies, and one live birth, resulted.

"Our present work encourages appropriately storing tissues and cells of all endangered species or suitable animals, as they may be useful for future cloning-based conservation," Folch said. Following the first successful attempt to clone a troubled species in 2001, other scientists are giving it a shot: The endangered northern white rhino, the extinct Tasmanian tiger, and the mammoth, for example.

But the question remains, could an extinct species really be brought back to life through cloning? One seven-minute lifespan does not translate to much quality of life, and even if the kid had lived, it wouldn’t have had a family, so who would have taught it how to behave like a Pyrenean ibex? Could enough members of a species be cloned to allow it to be reintroduced into the wild, and could they be taught to survive on their own, or would cloned animals have to live in captivity for the rest of their lives?

Seven minutes, of course, wasn’t quite enough to answer these questions.

credited to sciam.com

A medieval Hungarian town full of ritually sacrificed dogs could shed light on mysterious pagan customs not found in written records from the era, a new study suggests.

These sacrifices probably served much like amulets to ward against evil—for instance, to protect against witchcraft or the evil eye, said study leader Márta Daróczi-Szabó, an archaeozoologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.

About a dozen other canines were found buried under house foundations. These animals likely served as "construction sacrifices," Daróczi-Szabó said.

During the Middle Ages it was customary in Hungary to lock sacrificial animals inside new houses or to slaughter the beasts as people moved in.

Sometimes dogs were beaten to death on the doorsteps or a chicken's throat was slit.

Dogs were popular sacrificial animals in medieval Hungary, Daróczi-Szabó said. They were seen two different ways: They symbolized loyalty, but they also stood for the deadly sin of envy.

"There was a very big difference between the hunting dogs of the nobility and the scavenging pariah dogs of everyday life," she said.

Surprisingly Widespread

Previous evidence of animal sacrifices—seen even under churches, in Budapest and elsewhere in Hungary—had been mostly isolated cases, Daróczi-Szabó noted.

But the new findings, described this month in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior, show that "sacrifices were not a rare phenomenon, as one may have thought from isolated finds," she said. "It was practiced regularly in a Christian village."

The fact that pagan customs such as animal sacrifice persisted for centuries side-by-side with the church is surprising, noted University of Edinburgh archaeozoologist László Bartosiewicz.

Christianity came to dominate the region after the first king of Hungary, Stephen I, began his rule in A.D. 1000. Under his reign, pagan rituals such as animal sacrifices were explicitly banned.

"One wouldn't expect these practices in Christian times," said Bartosiewicz, who did not participate in the new study. "It's exciting to see what was sacred and profane back then.

"The great number of sacrifices we see [in Kana] will significantly improve our chances of interpreting what their meaning was," he added.

"It's probably the find of a lifetime. I can't imagine lucking upon anything else of this scope."

credited to news.nationalgeographic.com

"The 'foot' structures that we found in the Jordan valley are the first sites that the People of Israel built upon entering Canaan and they testify to the biblical concept of ownership of the land with the foot," said archaeologist Prof. Adam Zertal of the University of Haifa, who headed the excavating team that exposed five compounds in the shape of an enormous "foot", that it were likely to have been used at that time to mark ownership of territory. On the eve of the Passover holiday, researchers from the University of Haifa reveal an exceptional and exciting archaeological discovery that dates back to the time of the People of Israel's settlement in the country: For the first time, enclosed sites identified with the biblical sites termed in Hebrew "gilgal", which were used for assemblies, preparation for battle, and rituals, have been revealed in the Jordan valley. The researchers, headed by Prof. Adam Zertal, exposed five such structures, each in the shape of an enormous "foot", which they suppose functioned during that period to mark ownership on the territory. "I am an archaeologist and only deal with the scientific findings, so I do not go into the additional meanings of the discovery, if there are any," Prof. Zertal said.

The Hebrew word "gilgal" (a camp or stone-structure), is mentioned thirty-nine times in the Bible. The stone enclosures were located in the Jordan valley and the hill country west of it. To this day, no archaeological site has been proposed to be identified with the gilgal. Between the years 1990 and 2008, during the Manasseh Hill-Country Survey that covers Samaria and the Jordan Valley, five such enclosures were found and excavated, all designed in the shape of a human foot. All of these sites were established at the outset of the Iron Age I (the 13th-12th centuries BCE). Based on their size and shape, it is clear that they were used for human assembly and not for animals.

Two of the sites (in Bedhat esh-Sha'ab and Yafit 3) were excavated in the years 2002-2005, under the directorship of Dr. Ben-Yosef and the guidance of Adam Zertal. The findings, mostly of clay vessels and animal bones, date their foundation to the end of the 13th century BCE, and one of them endured up to the 9th or 8th century BCE without architectonic adjustment.

In at least two cases, paved circuits, some two meters wide, were found around the structures. These were probably used to encircle the sites in a ceremony. "Ceremonial encirclement of an area in procession is an important element in the ancient Near East," Prof. Zertal says, adding that the origins of the Hebrew term "hag" (festival) in Semitic languages is from the verb "hug", which means "encircle". Thus, this discovery can also shed new light on the religious processions and the meaning of the Hebrew word for festival, "hag".

Prof. Zertal emphasized that the "foot" held much significance as a symbol of ownership of territory, control over an enemy, connection between people and land, and presence of the Deity. Some of these concepts are mentioned in ancient Egyptian literature. The Bible also has a wealth of references to the importance of the "foot" as a symbol: of ownership over Canaan, the bond between the People of Israel and their land, the link between the People and God's promise to inherit the land, defeating the enemy 'underfoot', and the Temple imaged as a foot.

"The discovery of these 'foot' structures opens an entirely new system of linguistic and historical perceptions," Prof. Zertal emphasizes. He explains that the meaning of the biblical Hebrew word for "foot" - "regel" – is also a "festival", "holiday", and ascending to see the face of God. As such, the source of the Hebrew term "aliya la-regel", literally translated as "ascending to the foot" (and now known in English as a pilgrimage), is attributed to the "foot" sites in the Jordan valley. "Now, following these discoveries, the meanings of the terms become clear. Identifying the 'foot' enclosures as ancient Israeli ceremonial sites leads us to a series of new possibilities to explain the beginnings of Israel, of the People of Israel's festivals and holidays," he stated.

According to Prof. Zertal, the "foot" constructions were used for ceremonial assemblies during Iron Age I (and probably after). When the religious center was moved to Jerusalem and settled there, the command of "aliya la-regel" (pilgrimage) became associated with Jerusalem. The source of the term, however, is in the sites that have now been discovered in the Jordan valley and the Altar on Mt. Ebal. "The biblical text testifies to the antiquity of these compounds in Israel's ceremonials, and the 'foot' structures were built by an organized community that had a central leadership," Prof. Zertal stated. He stressed that there is a direct connection between the biblical ideology, which identifies ownership over the new land with the foot and hence with the shape of the constructions.

credited to esciencenews.com

A brilliant burst of gamma rays may have caused a mass extinction event on Earth 440 million years ago—and a similar celestial catastrophe could happen again, according to a new study.

Such a disaster may have been responsible for the mass die-off of 70 percent of the marine creatures that thrived during the Ordovician period (488 to 443 million years ago), suggests study leader Brian Thomas, an astrophysicist at Washburn University in Kansas.

The simulation also shows that a significant gamma-ray burst is likely to go off within range of Earth every billion years or so, although the stream of radiation would have to be lined up just right to affect the planet.

Currently WR104, a massive star 8,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius, is in position to be a potential threat, Thomas noted.

But the study, which has been submitted to the International Journal of Astrobiology, isn't necessarily sending other astrophysicists into a panic.

"There is certainly no harm in looking at what a gamma-ray burst might do if it were close enough to us, as this author has done. That's the way science works," said David Thompson, a NASA astrophysicist and deputy project director on the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

But Thompson compares the risk to Earth from a future gamma-ray burst to "the danger I might face if I found a polar bear in my closet in Bowie, Maryland.

"It could happen, but it is so unlikely that it is not worth worrying about."

Lingering Damage

Study author Thomas' former graduate advisor, Adrian Melott, first proposed in 2004 that a gamma-ray burst near Earth wiped out Ordovician life. Since then, both researchers have been tackling pieces of the puzzle.

According to their newest models, gamma radiation from a nearby burst would quickly deplete much of Earth's protective ozone layer, allowing increased ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the sun to reach the surface.

In the longer term, chemical reactions in the atmosphere would produce dark, nitrogen-based gases that would block the sun's heat and trigger global cooling, even as the gamma rays continued to deplete ozone and let in UV rays, the authors suggest.

Some of the pollution would fall as damaging acid rain, which can severely disrupt ecosystems.

The atmosphere might be able to recover within a decade, and a rise in DNA damage caused by increased UV exposure might pass after a few months or years, the researchers note.

But other biological impacts—such as reduced ocean productivity—could linger for an unknown length of time, Thomas said.

The Trouble With Trilobites

Bruce Lieberman, a paleontologist at the University of Kansas, helped develop the initial theory about the Ordovician die-off but did not co-author the recent papers.

The prevailing idea is that an ice age caused the extinction event, he said, but he questions the completeness of that hypothesis.

"At other times there have been ice ages without mass extinctions," he said.

Furthermore, the ice age during the Ordovician was comparatively short, lasting only about 500,000 years before the climate cycled back to a warm spell—almost as if something unusual set the icy period in motion.

So far Thomas and Melott have uncovered a pattern of higher UV radiation during the Ordovician extinction that would match cosmic bombardment over the South Pole.

And Lieberman believes the disappearance of trilobites, extinct arthropods related to horseshoe crabs, could be tied to the Ordovician event.

Although most trilobites are mud-scurrying bottom dwellers, the juveniles of some species have a life stage that sends them floating in the shallow water column, making them vulnerable to higher UV radiation.

But like NASA's Thompson, Lieberman adds that worry over a future gamma-ray burst is "not the thing that's keeping me up at night."

Instead he appreciates the new work for pointing out that Earth is a vulnerable part of the cosmos.

"It gives us a new perspective on things like natural selection and adaptation."

credited to news.nationalgeographic.com

A group of students, celebrating the end of a school course, decided to steal a life-size triceratops replica from the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester, England. Unfortunately, they didn't get very far before being stopped by the man. Which is a shame, because I would have bought it from them on the black market.

The revellers were ordered to take the dinosaur back immediately otherwise they would have been arrested for theft and criminal damage.

The Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester is packed full of life-sized reconstructions of dinosaurs, alongside skeletons and fossils.

The museum's website says the models 'beg to be touched by little hands - and that is encouraged, as is the handling of some of the dinosaur fossils.'

What the? *booking flight to England* Hello, Dinosaur Museum? Yes, I was wondering about the possibility of renting out your facility for a private party. Number of guests? One. Also, is there a pharmacy nearby? I'm gonna need some lube. Oooh, and boner pills.

Hit the jump for one more of the sexy shenanigans.

Thanks to Bungo and Jonathan, who promise to help me steal a dinosaur replica just like they did in that movie, The Italian Job. Well, the way they should have made it.

credited to geekologie.com

Sauropod dinosaurs — the group including the well-known Apatosaurus (formerly known as Brontosaurus) — could not have kept their long necks in a vertical position, according to a new study.

At best, the dinosaurs would have needed to expend nearly half their energy just to hold their necks up, the study found. At worst, they would have passed out after lifting their heads at a 90-degree angle.

The study, published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters, adds to an emerging consensus that sauropods held their necks — up to 30 feet long — in a horizontal position. In the future, museum exhibits, movies and books may reflect the change in their depictions of these enormous prehistoric animals.

Based on the new findings, it is believed that sauropods held their heads more like a horse than a giraffe.

"There is good evidence for a strong ligament that supported the neck horizontally at no energy cost to the animal," study author Roger Seymour told Discovery News. "Like horses, (sauropods) used their muscles to pull the neck down, not up." Seymour, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Adelaide, performed a series of calculations to determine the metabolic rate and energy cost required for a sauropod to hold its head and neck aloft. He began by determining what the blood pressure would have been for the hefty dinosaurs if they had held their heads up.

"Blood pressure at a minimum can be calculated exactly from the vertical distance above the heart," he explained.

In Mamenchisaurus, for example, skeletal remains show its head, if the animal had reared, would've been more than 11 meters, or 36 feet, above its heart.

To generate high enough blood pressure to keep its head held high, the dinosaur's heart would have needed to have been five times thicker and 15 times heavier than that of an animal with more average blood pressure, according to the study.

Modern giraffes face similar challenges, but their necks are "only" about 6.5 feet long. Nevertheless, a giraffe's blood pressure "is about twice that of normal mammals," Seymour said. "If they had 9-meter (29.5-foot) necks, giraffes would be in the same problem as high-browsing sauropods."

Seymour's calculations didn't stop there.

He determined that the cardiac work rate of a sauropod holding its neck vertically would have been 7.5 times higher than that of many modern animals.

This, in turn, would have required a high metabolic rate, with sauropods expending 49 percent of their total energy requirements "just to circulate the blood."

Such a supercharged, yet wasteful, cardiovascular system never evolved in sauropods, argues Seymour.

"They would have fainted, as you would in less than five seconds without blood flow to the brain," he said.

credited to msnbc.msn.com

An Italian archaeologist claimed Friday to have discovered Cyprus' oldest religious site, which she said echoes descriptions in the Bible of temples in ancient Palestine.

Maria Rosaria Belgiorno said the 4,000-year-old triangular temple predates any other found on the east Mediterranean island by a millennium.

"For sure it's the most ancient religious site on the island," she told The Associated Press from her home in Rome. "This confirms that religious worship in Cyprus began much earlier than previously believed."

But authorities on the island say they cannot confirm her claim before further study.

"That the site is dated to around 2,000 B.C. is certain, but the interpretation that it's a temple or a sacred site has yet to be confirmed," Cyprus Antiquities Department official Maria Hadjicosti told state radio.

The 200-sq.-meter (2,150-sq.-foot) building was discovered last year outside Pyrgos, a village near the south coast, where previous digs unearthed a settlement dating to 2,000 B.C. that included a perfumery, winery and a metal workshop.

Belgiorno, who heads an Italian archaeological mission in Cyprus, initially disclosed the find to English-language The Cyprus Weekly.

She said evidence points to a monotheistic temple with a sacrificial altar that resembles Canaanite places of worship described in the Bible.

"The temple has a very peculiar shape for a building, which is very rare."

Belgiorno said a key piece of evidence linking the site to Biblical accounts of temples in ancient Palestine is a pair of 6-meter (20-foot) stone "channels" extending from either side of the altar that allowed sacrificial animals' blood to flow out of the structure.

Other evidence includes a stone water basin, which she said might have been used in the ritual cleansing of the channels.

Belgiorno said the temple was situated across from the industrial area in the heart of the settlement, which she estimates covered 35 hectares (86 acres). Most of the settlement now lies under village homes and holiday villas.

The industrial area was built around a large mill producing olive oil that was used as fuel to fire up the metal workshop and as a perfume base.

Although it is difficult to say with certainty, she said the settlement was home to around 500 people. Their origins are unclear, but they had trade links with ancient Egypt and Palestine, she said.

A major earthquake destroyed the settlement in 1,850 B.C.

The earliest settlements excavated so far on the island date back to around 9000 B.C. Cyprus then saw successive waves of colonization, including Phoenicians, Mycenaean Greeks, Romans and — in the Middle Ages — Franks and Venetians. It was conquered by Ottoman Turks in 1571, and became part of the British Empire in 1878 before winning independence in 1960.

Violence between Cyprus' majority Greek community and the Turkish community broke out shortly after, and the island has been divided along ethnic lines since a Turkish invasion in 1974 — prompted by a failed coup aimed at union with Greece.

credited to msnbc.msn.com

Researchers may have finally come face-to-face with the real—and wrinkled—Nefertiti, thanks to sophisticated CT scanning technology. A carefully carved limestone face in the inner core of the Egyptian queen's famous bust (above, right) has emerged in new images, a new study says.

These new images show that Thutmose placed stucco layers of varying thickness on top of a limestone core.

Nefertiti's "hidden" visage is more realistic, with creases around the corners of her mouth (above, bottom left) and cheeks, less prominent cheekbones, and a bump on her nose.

"CT [scans] impressively demonstrated that the inner core was not just an anonymous mold, but rather a skillfully rendered work of quality art," Huppertz said in an email.

In the final stucco layer (above, top left), Thutmose smoothed over the creases and nose bump, possibly to reflect the "aesthetic ideals of the era," said Huppertz, whose research appears in April in the journal Radiology.

Such glimpses into Thutmose's artistry will help conservators "prevent damage of this extremely precious art object," Huppertz said.

That's because the scans also revealed areas where the stucco is most vulnerable and requires the most careful handling.

credited to news.nationalgeographic.com