Geology In

Fossil of 67m-year-old Raptor Dinosaur Found in New Mexico

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zOd_imBHsRA/Xn4udwRKzKI/AAAAAAAASDk/Inp9kPFKcAY0neXLYlw_lTEJGlv_JUlRQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Fossil%2Bof%2B67m-year-old%2Braptor%2Bdinosaur%2Bfound%2Bin%2BNew%2BMexico%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="1213" height="384" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zOd_imBHsRA/Xn4udwRKzKI/AAAAAAAASDk/Inp9kPFKcAY0neXLYlw_lTEJGlv_JUlRQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Fossil%2Bof%2B67m-year-old%2Braptor%2Bdinosaur%2Bfound%2Bin%2BNew%2BMexico%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Illustration of three Dineobellator near a water source, with the ceratopsid Ojoceratops and sauropod alamosaurus in the background. Photograph: Sergey Krasovskiy / Nature</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Newly discovered feathered dinosaur was one of the last raptors before extinction</span><br />
<br />
A new feathered dinosaur that lived in New Mexico 67 million years ago is one of the last known surviving raptor species, according to a new publication in the journal Scientific Reports.<br />
<br />
Dineobellator notohesperus adds to scientists' understanding of the paleo-biodiversity of the American Southwest, offering a clearer picture of what life was like in this region near the end of the reign of the dinosaurs.<br />
<br />
Steven Jasinski, who recently completed his Ph.D. in Penn's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the School of Arts and Sciences, led the work to describe the new species, collaborating with doctoral advisor Peter Dodson of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Penn Arts and Sciences and as well as Robert Sullivan of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.<br />
<br />
In 2008, Sullivan found fossils of the new species in Cretaceous rocks of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico. He, along with his field team of Jasinski and James Nikas, collected the specimen on U.S. federal land under a permit issued by the Bureau of Land Management. The entire specimen was recovered over four field seasons. Jasinski and his coauthors gave the species its official name, Dineobellator notohesperus, which means "Navajo warrior from the Southwest," in honor of the people who today live in the same region where this dinosaur once dwelled.<br />
<br />
Dineobellator, as well as its Asian cousin Velociraptor, belong to a group of dinosaurs known as the dromaeosaurids. Members of this group are commonly referred to as "raptor" dinosaurs, thanks to movies such as "Jurassic Park" and "Jurassic World." But unlike the terrifying beasts depicted in film, Dineobellator stood only about 3.5 feet (about 1 meter) at the hip and was 6 to 7 feet (about 2 meters) long--much smaller than its Hollywood counterparts.<br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />
<ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br />
<script>
     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><br /></div>
Raptor dinosaurs are generally small, lightly built predators. Consequently, their remains are rare, particularly from the southwestern United States and Mexico. "While dromaeosaurids are better known from places like the northern United States, Canada, and Asia, little is known of the group farther south in North America," says Jasinski.<br />
<br />
While not all of the bones of this dinosaur were recovered, bones from the forearm have quill nobs--small bumps on the surface where feathers would be anchored by ligaments--an indication that Dineobellator bore feathers in life, similar to those inferred for Velociraptor.<br />
<br />
Features of the animal's forelimbs, including enlarged areas of the claws, suggest this dinosaur could strongly flex its arms and hands. This ability may have been useful for holding on to prey--using its hands for smaller animals such as birds and lizards, or perhaps its arms and feet for larger species such as other dinosaurs.<br />
<br />
Its tail also possessed unique characteristics. While most raptors' tails were straight and stiffened with rod-like structures, Dineobellator's tail was rather flexible at its base, allowing the rest of the tail to remain stiff and act like a rudder.<br />
<br />
"Think of what happens with a cat's tail as it is running," says Jasinski. "While the tail itself remains straight, it is also whipping around constantly as the animal is changing direction. A stiff tail that is highly mobile at its base allows for increased agility and changes in direction, and potentially aided Dineobellator in pursuing prey, especially in more open habitats."<br />
<br />
This new dinosaur provides a clearer picture of the biology of North American dromaeosaurid dinosaurs, especially concerning the distribution of feathers among its members.<br />
<br />
"As we find evidence of more members possessing feathers, we believe it is likely that all the dromaeosaurids had feathers," says Jasinski. The discovery also hints at some of the predatory habits of a group of iconic meat-eating dinosaurs that lived just before the extinction event that killed off all the dinosaurs that weren't birds.<br />
<br />
Jasinski plans to continue his field research in New Mexico with the hope of finding more fossils.<br />
<br />
"It was with a lot of searching and a bit of luck that this dinosaur was found weathering out of a small hillside," he says. "We do so much hiking and it is easy to overlook something or simply walk on the wrong side of a hill and miss something. We hope that the more we search, the better chance we have of finding more of Dineobellator or the other dinosaurs it lived alongside."<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-61480-7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Pennsylvania.</a></span></i></u></div>

Fossil of 67m-year-old Raptor Dinosaur Found in New Mexico

Illustration of three Dineobellator near a water source, with the ceratopsid Ojoceratops and sauropod alamosaurus in the background. Pho...

Fragments of a Long Lost Continent Found in Canada

Earth History, Geology, Tectonic 8:34 PM

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pwov1jBdo_I/XnehFELt9QI/AAAAAAAASC8/BYuc38QCMik3BKmj1ZzYPPg54TuCGlZKgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Geologists%2Bfind%2Blost%2Bfragment%2Bof%2Bancient%2Bcontinent%2Bin%2BCanada%25E2%2580%2599s%2BNorth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="657" data-original-width="1024" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Pwov1jBdo_I/XnehFELt9QI/AAAAAAAASC8/BYuc38QCMik3BKmj1ZzYPPg54TuCGlZKgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Geologists%2Bfind%2Blost%2Bfragment%2Bof%2Bancient%2Bcontinent%2Bin%2BCanada%25E2%2580%2599s%2BNorth.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diamond embedded in a piece of kimberlite.<br />
Image credits James St. John / Flickr</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">Geologists find lost fragment of ancient continent in Canada’s North</span></b><br /><br />
Sifting through diamond exploration samples from Baffin Island, Canadian scientists have identified a new remnant of the North Atlantic craton—an ancient part of Earth's continental crust.<br />
<br />
A chance discovery by geologists poring over diamond exploration samples has led to a major scientific payoff.<br />
<br />
Kimberlite rock samples are a mainstay of diamond exploration. Formed millions of years ago at depths of 150 to 400 kilometres, kimberlites are brought to the surface by geological and chemical forces. Sometimes, the igneous rocks carry diamonds embedded within them.<br />
<br />
“For researchers, kimberlites are subterranean rockets that pick up passengers on their way to the surface,” explains University of British Columbia geologist Maya Kopylova. “The passengers are solid chunks of wall rocks that carry a wealth of details on conditions far beneath the surface of our planet over time.”<br />
<br />
But when Kopylova and colleagues began analyzing samples from a De Beers Chidliak Kimberlite Province property in southern Baffin Island, it became clear the wall rocks were very special. They bore a mineral signature that matched other portions of the North Atlantic craton—an ancient part of Earth's continental crust that stretches from Scotland to Labrador.<br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />
<ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br />
<script>
     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><br /></div>
“The mineral composition of other portions of the North Atlantic craton is so unique there was no mistaking it,” says Kopylova, lead author of a new paper in the Journal of Petrology that outlines the findings. “It was easy to tie the pieces together. Adjacent ancient cratons in Northern Canada—in Northern Quebec, Northern Ontario and in Nunavut—have completely different mineralogies.”<br />
<br />
Cratons are billion-year old, stable fragments of continental crust—continental nuclei that anchor and gather other continental blocks around them. Some of these nuclei are still present at the center of existing continental plates like the North American plate, but other ancient continents have split into smaller fragments and been re-arranged by a long history of plate movements.<br />
<br />
“Finding these 'lost' pieces is like finding a missing piece of a puzzle,” says Kopylova. “The scientific puzzle of the ancient Earth can’t be complete without all of the pieces.”<br />
<br />
The continental plate of the North Atlantic craton rifted into fragments 150 million years ago, and currently stretches from northern Scotland, through the southern part of Greenland and continues southwest into Labrador.<br />
<br />
The newly identified fragment covers the diamond bearing Chidliak kimberlite province in southern Baffin Island. It adds roughly 10 percent to the known expanse of the North Atlantic craton.<br />
<br />
This is the first time geologists have been able to piece parts of the puzzle together at such depth—so called mantle correlation. Previous reconstructions of the size and location of Earth’s plates have been based on relatively shallow rock samples in the crust, formed at depths of one to 10 kilometres.<br />
<br />
"With these samples we’re able to reconstruct the shapes of ancient continents based on deeper, mantle rocks,” says Kopylova. “We can now understand and map not only the uppermost skinny layer of Earth that makes up one percent of the planet’s volume, but our knowledge is literally and symbolically deeper. We can put together 200-kilometre deep fragments and contrast them based on the details of the deep mineralogy.”<br />
<br />
The samples from the Chidliak Kimberlite Province in southern Baffin Island were initially provided by Peregrine Diamonds, a junior exploration company. Peregrine was acquired by the international diamond exploration company and retailer De Beers in 2018. The drill cores sample themselves are very valuable, and expensive to retrieve.<br />
<br />
“Our partner companies demonstrate a lot of goodwill by providing research samples to UBC, which enables fundamental research and the training of many grad students,” says Kopylova. “In turn, UBC research provides the company with information about the deep diamondiferous mantle that is central to mapping the part of the craton with the higher changes to support a successful diamond mine.”<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://science.ubc.ca/news/geologists-find-lost-fragment-ancient-continent-canada%E2%80%99s-north" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://science.ubc.ca/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">UBC Science.</a></span></i></u></div>

Fragments of a Long Lost Continent Found in Canada

Diamond embedded in a piece of kimberlite. Image credits James St. John / Flickr Geologists find lost fragment of ancient continent i...

'Wonderchicken': Oldest Fossil of Modern Bird Discovered

dinosaur, Earth History 7:51 PM

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R14LKc9YIx0/XnT0PXcoZWI/AAAAAAAASCY/i0VtPUfCUCUs3bAwokrgiBTprXz6NkSUgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Oldest%2BFossil%2Bof%2BModern%2BBird%2BDiscovered.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="794" data-original-width="1203" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-R14LKc9YIx0/XnT0PXcoZWI/AAAAAAAASCY/i0VtPUfCUCUs3bAwokrgiBTprXz6NkSUgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Oldest%2BFossil%2Bof%2BModern%2BBird%2BDiscovered.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photograph: University of Cambridge</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Experts have discovered a fossil of the world’s oldest known modern bird – a diminutive creature about half the size of a mallard duck.</span><br />
<br />
The oldest fossil of a modern bird yet found, dating from the age of dinosaurs, has been identified by an international team of palaeontologists.<br />
<br />
The spectacular fossil, affectionately nicknamed the 'Wonderchicken', includes a nearly complete skull, hidden inside nondescript pieces of rock, and dates from less than one million years before the asteroid impact which eliminated all large dinosaurs.<br />
<br />
Writing in the journal Nature, the team, led by the University of Cambridge, believe the new fossil helps clarify why birds survived the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period, while the giant dinosaurs did not.<br />
<br />
Detailed analysis of the skull shows that it combines many features common to modern chicken- and duck-like birds, suggesting that the 'Wonderchicken' is close to the last common ancestor of modern chickens and ducks. The fossil was found in a limestone quarry near the Belgian-Dutch border, making it the first modern bird from the age of dinosaurs found in the northern hemisphere.<br />
<br />
The fossil doesn't look like much on first glance, with only a few small leg bone fragments poking out from a piece of rock the size of a deck of cards. Even those small bones attracted the researchers' interest, since bird fossils from this point in Earth's history are so rare.<br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />
<ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br />
<script>
     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><br /></div>
Using high-resolution X-ray CT scans, the researchers peered through the rock to see what was lying beneath the surface. What they saw, just one millimetre beneath the rock, was the find of a lifetime: a nearly complete 66.7-million-year-old bird skull.<br />
<br />
"The moment I first saw what was beneath the rock was the most exciting moment of my scientific career," said Dr Daniel Field from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences, who led the research. "This is one of the best-preserved fossil bird skulls of any age, from anywhere in the world. We almost had to pinch ourselves when we saw it, knowing that it was from such an important time in Earth's history.<br />
<br />
"The ability to CT scan fossils, like we can at the Cambridge Biotomography Centre, has completely transformed how we study palaeontology in the 21st century."<br />
<br />
"Finding the skull blew my mind," said co-author Juan Benito, also from Cambridge, who was CT scanning the fossils with Field when the skull was discovered. "Without these cutting-edge scans, we never would have known that we were holding the oldest modern bird skull in the world."<br />
<br />
The skull, despite its age, is clearly recognisable as a modern bird. It combines many features common to the group that includes living chickens and ducks -- a group called Galloanserae. Field describes the skull as a kind of 'mash-up' of a chicken and a duck.<br />
<br />
"The origins of living bird diversity are shrouded in mystery -- other than knowing that modern birds arose at some point towards the end of the age of dinosaurs, we have very little fossil evidence of them until after the asteroid hit," said co-author Albert Chen, a PhD student based at Cambridge. "This fossil provides our earliest direct glimpse of what modern birds were like during the initial stages of their evolutionary history."<br />
<br />
While the fossil is colloquially known as the Wonderchicken, the researchers have given it the slightly more elegant name of Asteriornis, in reference to Asteria, the Greek Titan goddess of falling stars.<br />
<br />
"We thought it was an appropriate name for a creature that lived just before the end-Cretaceous asteroid impact," said co-author Dr Daniel Ksepka from the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. "In Greek mythology, Asteria transforms herself into a quail, and we believe Asteriornis was close to the common ancestor that today includes quails, as well as chickens and ducks."<br />
<br />
The fact that Asteriornis was found in Europe is another thing which makes it so extraordinary. "The late Cretaceous fossil record of birds from Europe is extremely sparse," said co-author Dr John Jagt from the Natuurhistorische Museum Maastricht in the Netherlands. "The discovery of Asteriornis provides some of the first evidence that Europe was a key area in the early evolutionary history of modern birds."<br />
<br />
"This fossil tells us that early on, at least some modern birds were fairly small-bodied, ground-dwelling birds that lived near the seashore," said Field. "Asteriornis now gives us a search image for future fossil discoveries -- hopefully it ushers in a new era of fossil finds that help clarify how, when and where modern birds first evolved."<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/wonderchicken" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.cam.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Cambridge</a>. Original written by Sarah Collins. </span></i></u><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br />
</span></div>

'Wonderchicken': Oldest Fossil of Modern Bird Discovered

Photograph: University of Cambridge Experts have discovered a fossil of the world’s oldest known modern bird – a diminutive creature a...

Giant Clam Shells: Unprecedented Natural Archives for Paleoweather

Earth History, Fossils 6:15 PM

Giant Clam Shells: Unprecedented Natural Archives for Paleoweather

Giant Clam shell Paleoclimate research offers an overview of Earth's climate change over the past 65 million years or longer and ...

Mysterious Ice Age Structure Made From Hundreds of Mammoth Bones Discovered

Earth History, Fossils 6:01 PM

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1F7zsKo6O0k/XnOIFkulBRI/AAAAAAAASCA/qIrd-kcPitw3T6Z0mqJIeFQRJBBlJFQtwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/25%252C000-Year-Old%2BBuilding%2BMade%2Bof%2B60%2BMammoths%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="1216" height="424" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1F7zsKo6O0k/XnOIFkulBRI/AAAAAAAASCA/qIrd-kcPitw3T6Z0mqJIeFQRJBBlJFQtwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/25%252C000-Year-Old%2BBuilding%2BMade%2Bof%2B60%2BMammoths%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hundreds of mammoth bones were found at the Kostenki 11 site in Russia.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
An unusually large structure from the last ice age built from the bones of dozens of woolly mammoths has been uncovered in Russia. Dating back some 25,000 years, it’s the oldest known structure of its kind—but its purpose isn’t entirely clear.<br />
<br />
Circular structures made from mammoth bones are surprisingly common in the archaeological record, dating to around 22,000 years ago and appearing across much of ice age Eastern Europe. Scientists working at the Kostenki 11 site, located next to the Don River near the Russian city of Voronezh, have found the largest one yet: a 12.5-meter-wide structure (41-foot) made from hundreds of woolly mammoth bones. The dwelling was radiocarbon dated to 25,000 years old, making it the oldest known mammoth bone structure in the world. Details of this remarkable discovery were published today in Antiquity.<br />
<br />
These structures are typically surrounded by a series of large pits, the purpose of which isn’t known. It’s possible the pits were a place to store food or bones used for burning. They could’ve also been a place to dump waste or quarries that formed during construction. As to the overall purpose of the mammoth-bone structures themselves, that’s also unclear.<br />
<br />
“Other than being explained as ‘dwellings,’ sites of this type have previously been interpreted as having potential ritual significance,” Alexander Pryor, the first author of the new study and a researcher from the University of Exeter, said in an email to Gizmodo. “However, exactly what this ritual significance might have been is difficult to say from archaeology alone.”<br />
<br />
This is not the first time that archaeologists have found a mammoth bone structure at Kostenki 11. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, Soviet scientists found a pair of smaller structures, also made from mammoth bones.<br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />
<ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br />
<script>
     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><br /></div>
In 2013, archaeologists were conducting surveys in the area when they stumbled upon the third structure at Kostenki 11, which is located on the Russian Plain and approximately 520 kilometers (323 miles) due south of Moscow. Excavations lasted for three years and included a technique known as floatation, in which water and sieves are used to separate archaeological material from the soil. A key advantage of this approach is that it allows for the discovery of exceptionally small remnants and artifacts.<br />
<br />
That Pleistocene humans living in Eastern Europe at the time would bother to build such structures is definitely a surprise. Hunter-gatherers of the Upper Paleolithic lived mobile, nomadic lifestyles, and making permanent structures is not something typically associated with their mode of existence.<br />
<br />
“Sourcing so many mammoth bones, from at least 60 different mammoths, is a significant challenge,” said Pryor. “These would have been gathered either from recent kills or by scavenging bones from long-dead carcasses found around the landscape. Either way, mammoth bones are really heavy, particularly when fresh, and simply carrying the bones around would have taken an enormous amount of work.”<br />
<br />
No signs of butchery were found on the bones, but Pryor said that’s not altogether surprising. These animals were so big that it was relatively easy to remove meat and fats without leaving obvious traces on the bones, he said. A similar thing has been documented in modern times, in which humans butchered elephants using metal knives and without marking the bones, he added.<br />
<br />
Using the floatation technique, the researchers uncovered evidence of charcoal, burnt bone, bits of stone tools, and soft plant tissue associated with edible roots or tubers. Excitingly, the discovery hints at the foods eaten by Upper Paleolithic humans in Central Europe. What’s more, the site yielded the first meaningful collection of charred plant remains from a site of this kind, which means trees were still around in the area during the frigid time period, according to the new research.<br />
<br />
The humans who built these structures burned their wood inside, so the dwelling likely served as a refuge from the harsh ice age winters and possibly year-round, according to the authors. It might have also been a place to store and stockpile food.<br />
<br />
“If at least some of these mammoths were hunted, this is going to generate a lot of food from each kill,” said Pryor. “Therefore, preserving and storing that food could be a really significant part of what humans were doing there,” but more research will be required to suss this out, he said. And indeed, the next stage of the project will focus on the potential role of the structure as a place to store and stockpile food.<br />
<br />
The structure might have also carried ritualistic significance; perhaps it was some kind of shrine or monument in honor of woolly mammoths. That mammoths held an important spiritual role in the lives of these humans is not a stretch of the imagination.<br />
<br />
Importantly, Pryor and his colleagues could not find evidence consistent with the idea that the dwellings were a place for long-term, day-to-day habitation.<br />
<br />
“It is difficult to imagine how an area this large could have been roofed,” Pryor told Gizmodo. “Some of the bones that make up the ring were found in articulation—for example groups of vertebrae—indicating that at least some of the bones still had cartilage and fat attached when they were added to the pile. This would have been smelly, and would have attracted scavengers including wolves and foxes, which is not great if this was a dwelling.”<br />
<br />
There weren’t many stone chips at the site linked to the manufacture of stone tools, compared to similar sites. “This suggests the intensity of activity at the site was lower than might be expected from a dwelling and was a real surprise given the time and effort invested by the people that built the site,” Pryor said.<br />
<br />
This discovery shows that hunter-gatherers were more crafty and strategic than is typically assumed. Instead of mindlessly following animal herds and picking nuts and berries along the way, these humans were actively planning for the future and building structures accordingly. At least, if this particular interpretation is correct. Hopefully the team will succeed during the next stage of the project and shed new light on this remarkable structure.<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br />The above story is based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.15184/aqy.2020.7" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Exeter. </a></span></i></u></div>

Mysterious Ice Age Structure Made From Hundreds of Mammoth Bones Discovered

Hundreds of mammoth bones were found at the Kostenki 11 site in Russia. An unusually large structure from the last ice age built from ...

Microbial Life Has Been Found Deep in Earth's Crust Beneath the Ocean Floor

earth, Geology, ocean 7:30 PM

Microbial Life Has Been Found Deep in Earth's Crust Beneath the Ocean Floor

Detailed examination of rocks nestled thousands of feet beneath the ocean floor revealed life in plutonic rocks of the lower oceanic crus...

A Chunk of Yellowstone the Size of Chicago Has Been Pulsing. Why?

Geology, USA, Yellowstone 6:57 PM

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ckdMDcZeYM/XnZHEaGviwI/AAAAAAAASCw/LDf8DNmL6As55fsq3ucIzjWjCJpYp2AbwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/A%2BChunk%2Bof%2BYellowstone%2Bthe%2BSize%2Bof%2BChicago%2BHas%2BBeen%2BPulsing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="1024" height="425" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5ckdMDcZeYM/XnZHEaGviwI/AAAAAAAASCw/LDf8DNmL6As55fsq3ucIzjWjCJpYp2AbwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/A%2BChunk%2Bof%2BYellowstone%2Bthe%2BSize%2Bof%2BChicago%2BHas%2BBeen%2BPulsing.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grand Geyser eruption. Photo:  Jacob W. Frank</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">An injection of magma under Norris Geyser Basin may be why the region is five inches higher today than it was 20 years ago.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unusual Uplift at Yellowstone Volcano Was Caused by Magma Rising Up Deep Beneath the Surface, Study Finds</span><br />
<br />
In 2013, an area of the Yellowstone supervolcano started rising at an unusually high rate. Over the next two years, it rose by over 5.9 inches per year—the highest rate of uplift ever recorded inside the caldera. What was behind this was unknown.<br />
<br />
Everyone wants a picture with Old Faithful. But what many tourists don’t realize is that the hot springs and geysers of Yellowstone National Park are a constant reminder that 12 to 30 miles beneath the surface, there’s still an active volcanic system. And the Yellowstone Caldera, the expanse of supervolcano surface that takes up most of the park, is moving. Researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey published an article about Yellowstone’s uplift in January in the Journal of Geological Research—Solid Earth.<br />
<br />
In the article, researchers highlighted two recent instances of uplift on the Yellowstone Caldera. One was in 2013–14, and another was in 2016. Both cases, researchers said, can actually be traced to underground magma movement from 20 years ago.<br />
<br />
The entire Yellowstone Caldera is situated above a magma reservoir. Calderas themselves are products of eruptions, when underground magma chambers rapidly empty out and can no longer support the weight of the earth above them. Then, kind of like a deflating meringue, the ground depresses and forms a large crater-like sinkhole.<br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />
<ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br />
<script>
     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><br /></div>
The Yellowstone Caldera is actually three calderas, the oldest of which is 2.1 million years old, and two resurgent domes. At 30- by 45-meters large, the mass is bigger than some countries, including Bhutan, Rwanda, and Puerto Rico. Sizable geographic changes tend to be hard to spot.<br />
<br />
Thankfully, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory is constantly monitoring the volcano and its surrounding area for changes beyond normal background movement. Recently, the group noted periods of uplift and subsidence, which formed the backbone of the USGA’s article. An area of the Yellowstone supervolcano began rising at an unusually high rate in 2013, lifting over 5.9 inches in the following two years. It might not seem like much, but for Yellowstone, it’s the highest uplift ever recorded.<br />
<br />
Such epeirogenic movement can be traced back to the 1970s, when rapid uplift in the area was first noticed by researchers. They reevaluated their data on Yellowstone and found that the space had experienced 28 inches of uplift over the past five decades. After that, they’ve measured instances of rapid uplift and subsidence of the ground, as well as significant changes in hydrothermal features and earthquake activity.<br />
<br />
The researchers theorized that the uplift and subsidence we’re seeing at Yellowstone now can be traced back to magma intrusion underground from 1996 to 2001. An excess of magma beneath the surface caused the ground to swell between 2013 and 2014. The rise paused when a magnitude-4.9 earthquake struck the area, then continued from 2016 to 2018.<br />
<br />
Yellowstone’s epeirogeny also affects its hydrological features—the geysers and hot springs the park is famous for. Steamboat Geyser, for instance, the highest-erupting geyser in the world, has been erupting more frequently. It produced 32 eruptions in 2018 and a record 48 in 2019. The increased risk of hydrothermal events comes with shallow magma underground.<br />
<br />
Steamboat entered similar moody phases in the 1960s and early ’80s, according to the Yellowstone Caldera Chronicles, published weekly by the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. Thanks to those phases of increased eruptions, we know that it doesn’t mean anything for future volcanic activity at Yellowstone. Increased geyser activity isn’t anything to get paranoid about.<br />
<br />
Still, not every geyser at Yellowstone is Old Faithful, literally named for being an easy hydrological phenomenon to predict. In the past decade, says John Ayers, professor of earth and environmental sciences at Vanderbilt University, “Steamboat has gone from as few as three days to as much as three years between eruptions.”<br />
<br />
Thankfully, we can expect the surge in eruption frequency to continue into 2020. So if you’ve ever wanted to snap a photo of an impressive geyser that’s far less predictable than Old Faithful, this might be your year. Just keep in mind that far below your feet, there’s magma moving that will affect the geology of Yellowstone whole decades down the line.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The study was published in the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2019JB018208" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Journal of Geological Research—Solid Earth</a>.</span></i></u></div>

A Chunk of Yellowstone the Size of Chicago Has Been Pulsing. Why?

Grand Geyser eruption. Photo: Jacob W. Frank An injection of magma under Norris Geyser Basin may be why the region is five inches ...

New Dinosaur Tracks on Scotland’s Isle of Skye

dinosaur, Earth History 7:54 PM

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KwiA0_Nnyxo/Xm-u3rrdTaI/AAAAAAAASBE/GQJFe3Tu2ZUHGJhch1btVb9e07pZXRBjACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/New%2BDinosaur%2BTracks%2Bon%2BScotland%25E2%2580%2599s%2BIsle%2Bof%2BSkye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="New Dinosaur Tracks on Scotland’s Isle of Skye" border="0" data-original-height="795" data-original-width="1193" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KwiA0_Nnyxo/Xm-u3rrdTaI/AAAAAAAASBE/GQJFe3Tu2ZUHGJhch1btVb9e07pZXRBjACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/New%2BDinosaur%2BTracks%2Bon%2BScotland%25E2%2580%2599s%2BIsle%2Bof%2BSkye.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fossil tracks left by a stegosaur on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
The footprints of stegosaurs, carnivorous theropods and huge herbivorous ornithopod dinosaurs that date back to 170 million years ago (Middle Jurassic epoch) have been discovered on the Isle of Skye, Scotland.<br />
<br />
Stand on the wind-swept crags lining Scotland's western coast today, and you'd be lucky to spot a puffin or two. But the closer we look, the more evidence we find it was once home to an incredibly diverse array of ancient beasts.<br />
<br />
The discovery of new sets of fossilised tracks has expanded the list of potential dinosaur populations that roamed what is now the Isle of Skye. Among them are tracks left by an animal that would have belonged to one of the most famous plate-backed herbivore suborders, Stegosauria.<br />
<br />
Scottish and Brazilian researchers have spent the past couple of years analysing two recently found tracksites at a spot on the island's north-eastern coast called Rubha nam Brathairean, or Brothers' Point.<br />
<br />
"These new tracksites give us a much clearer picture of the dinosaurs that lived in Scotland 170 million years ago," says University of Edinburgh palaeontologist Stephen Brusatte.<br />
<br />
Back then, the lands making up the British Isles were nothing like they are today. Jurassic Scotland sat far closer to the equator, roughly in alignment with where Greece is today. Warm seas and a sub-tropical climate established ecosystems that were bustling with life.<br />
<br />
Still, just because it was a virtual paradise doesn't mean it's been perfect for preserving the remains of ancient life. The Jurassic isn't exactly fossil friendly as it is, but Scotland has always seemed especially thin on dinosaur tracks and bones.<br />
<br />
In spite of a rich history of fossil hunting throughout much of the United Kingdom, the first clear traces of dinosaur wildlife in Scotland were finally uncovered in the early 1980s when palaeontologists John Hudson and Julian Andrews found the "unmistakable print from a large dinosaur" in a fallen limestone block at Brothers' Point.<br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />
<ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br />
<script>
     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><br /></div>
Since then, a plethora of tracks belonging to a wide range of long-necked sauropods and fleet-footed theropods have been identified, turning the Isle of Skye into a landmark site for Jurassic researchers.<br />
<br />
The most recent additions include teapot-sized holes that haven't been found elsewhere on the island – impressions that are described in palaeontological terms as belonging to a category called Deltapodus.<br />
<br />
"These discoveries are making Skye one of the best places in the world for understanding dinosaur evolution in the Middle Jurassic," says Brusatte.<br />
<br />
Without a means of narrowing down the exact species of dinosaur responsible, the researchers are careful about jumping to any conclusions.<br />
<br />
But it's fair to say that this group includes a type of cow-sized dinosaur famed for its lines of geometric plates adorning its spine, and a wicked clump of 'thagomising' spines on its tail.<br />
<br />
The team also uncovered another potentially new addition to the list, in the form of large imprints of something with three stubby toes possibly belonging to a group of heavyweight herbivores called ornithopods.<br />
<br />
"We knew there were giant long-necked sauropods and jeep-sized carnivores, but we can now add plate-backed stegosaurs to that roster, and maybe even primitive cousins of the duck-billed dinosaurs too," says Brusatte.<br />
<br />
Not only do the tracks provide tantalising evidence that stegosaurs once trod along the muddy Scottish coastline, the age of the tracks provides some of the earliest evidence of this particular dinosaur's existence.<br />
<br />
Only last year, a species of stegosaur was dug up in the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco. At an estimated age of around 168 million years old, the fossilised remains of Adratiklit boulahfa are officially the oldest of its kind.<br />
<br />
These tracks at Brother's Point are closer to 170 million years old. While there's no way to confirm what kind of stegosaur might have left them behind, it does help establish timelines and distributions describing their evolution.<br />
<br />
"In particular, Deltapodus tracks give good evidence that stegosaurs lived on Skye at this time," says the study's lead author, Paige dePolo from the University of Edinburgh.<br />
<br />
With such a rich assortment of tracks being found across the island, this part of Scotland is representative of an important period in evolutionary history, where the late Jurassic's zoo of classic creatures was just beginning to develop their famous characteristics and spread out around the globe.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229640" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://plos.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Public Library of Science</a>.</span></i></u></div>

New Dinosaur Tracks on Scotland’s Isle of Skye

Fossil tracks left by a stegosaur on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. The footprints of stegosaurs, carnivorous theropods and huge herbivo...

Protein Discovered Inside a Meteorite

Meteorite, NASA 8:13 PM

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UPIUmU37KJM/Xm0QSCmrSMI/AAAAAAAASAo/mokbm9YzWH8xM-nh5h6tAHyy8WHlxk98QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Protein%2BDiscovered%2BInside%2Ba%2BMeteorite%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Protein Discovered Inside a Meteorite" border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UPIUmU37KJM/Xm0QSCmrSMI/AAAAAAAASAo/mokbm9YzWH8xM-nh5h6tAHyy8WHlxk98QCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Protein%2BDiscovered%2BInside%2Ba%2BMeteorite%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
A new discovery could be a clue for us to see if life could emerge elsewhere in the Solar System. Using a new analysis technique, scientists think they have found an extraterrestrial protein, tucked inside a meteorite that fell to Earth 30 years ago.<br />
<br />
If their results can be replicated, it will be the first protein ever identified that didn't originate here on Earth.<br />
<br />
"This paper characterises the first protein to be discovered in a meteorite," the researchers wrote in a paper uploaded to preprint server arXiv. Their work is yet to be peer reviewed, but the implications of this finding are noteworthy.<br />
<br />
Over the last few years, meteorites from the wider Solar System have been yielding some building blocks for life as we know it. Cyanide, which could play a role in building molecules necessary for life; ribose, a type of sugar that is found in RNA; and amino acids, organic compounds that combine to form proteins.<br />
<br />
Researchers have now revisited the meteorites that yielded the latter. Led by physicist Malcolm McGeoch of superconductor X-ray source supplier PLEX Corporation, the team focussed their search for something more.<br />
<br />
Using "state-of-the-art" mass spectrometry, they found what they believe to be protein in a meteorite called Acfer 086, found in Algeria in 1990.<br />
<br />
While not proof of extraterrestrial living creatures, this protein discovery makes for yet another of life's building blocks to be found in a space rock. There are many processes that can produce protein, but life, as far as we know, can't exist without it. <br />
<div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
<script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><br />
<ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br />
<script>
     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});
</script><br /></div>
"In general, they're taking a meteor that has been preserved by a museum and has been analysed previously. And they are modifying the techniques that they're using in order to be able to detect amino acid inside of this meteor, but in a higher signal ratio," astronomer and chemist Chenoa Tremblay of CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science in Australia, who was not involved in the research.<br />
<br />
Not only did the team find the glycine amino acid with a stronger signal than previous analysis, they found that it was bound with other elements, such as iron and lithium. When they performed modelling to see what was occurring, they found that the glycine wasn't isolated; it was part of a protein.<br />
<br />
The researchers are calling this newly discovered protein hemolithin. While hemolithin is structurally similar to terrestrial proteins, its ratio of deuterium to hydrogen was not matched by anything on Earth. It is, however, consistent with long-period comets.<br />
<br />
This suggests, the researchers argue, that the structure they have identified as protein is of extraterrestrial origin, and possibly formed in the proto-solar disc, over 4.6 billion years ago.<br />
<br />
But, they also note that there's a possibility what they found might not be protein. Although the team thinks it's the most likely explanation, it's also possible that their finding is actually a polymer - a broad class of molecules, of which proteins are only one.<br />
<br />
So it's a little too early to get too carried away. But, overall, Tremblay is impressed with the work.<br />
<br />
"I think this is really exciting," she said. "I think that it's got a lot of really interesting implications and a lot of compelling arguments. And I think it's a really great step forward."<br />
<br />
There are several next steps that the research could take. Other scientists can take the spectra, and use modelling software to try to replicate structures that produce the same or similar spectra. That could help determine whether we're looking at protein or a different kind of polymer.<br />
<br />
Similar techniques could now be used on other meteorites in which amino acids have been found, to see if similar structures can be found.<br />
<br />
As Tremblay explains, recent studies on the International Space Station have indicated that "protein should be easier to make in space because of the reduced gravity", and astronaut scientists have actually managed to produce quite large protein molecules, stable enough to bring down to Earth.<br />
<br />
"So we're pretty sure that proteins are likely to exist in space," she says. "But if we can actually start finding evidence of their existence, and what some of the structures and the common structures might be, I think that's really interesting and exciting."<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based on <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.11688" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by  <a href="https://www.cornell.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Cornell University.</a></span></i></u></div>

Protein Discovered Inside a Meteorite

A new discovery could be a clue for us to see if life could emerge elsewhere in the Solar System. Using a new analysis technique, scien...