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New Mineral Described From Uranium Mine In Utah

<p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgeHQBnFNJog7MXqYsaA4eTA7Mj7yn_1e4ga_7SK_plJIdA6cX7odQTTVFYIJ1pL9eV54VZfIJdlL10BN6OKZ8XM_8Q8ZNpyU9-TtqzkWPJuM97TpJdUV3Kda2cF7R800rihmUFLotsaMGx8hu0Tj8B4VATTQcxi9NVOr2rAJneb1xRuZyrN_N-bbK-=s1024" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgeHQBnFNJog7MXqYsaA4eTA7Mj7yn_1e4ga_7SK_plJIdA6cX7odQTTVFYIJ1pL9eV54VZfIJdlL10BN6OKZ8XM_8Q8ZNpyU9-TtqzkWPJuM97TpJdUV3Kda2cF7R800rihmUFLotsaMGx8hu0Tj8B4VATTQcxi9NVOr2rAJneb1xRuZyrN_N-bbK-=w640-h480" title="Yellow oldsite blades with blue stanleyite and white szomolnokite on asphaltum. Horizontal field of view is 0.7 millimeters. Photo by Dr. Anthony Kampf." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Yellow oldsite blades with blue stanleyite and white szomolnokite on asphaltum. Horizontal field of view is 0.7 millimeters. Photo by Dr. Anthony Kampf.<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p>A new mineral named oldsite has been verified and accepted by the International Mineralogical Association.</p><p>Carnegie Museum of Natural History announces the naming of the new mineral Oldsite after Dr. Travis Olds, the museum’s Assistant Curator of Minerals. The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) verified the mineral, which was accepted in October 2021 by an international team of scientists. Oldsite is named in recognition of Olds’ contributions to uranium minerology. <br /><br />Collected at Utah’s North Mesa mines near Temple Mountain, Oldsite forms from the interaction of air and water with uranium and iron-sulfide ores in the humid underground environment, leading to crystalline deposits on the surfaces of mine walls. Oldsite occurs as tiny yellow, rectangular blades measuring up to 0.3 millimeters in length. The crystals are thin and brittle and dissolve in water. <br /><br />The holotype specimen of Oldsite, or original specimen to be named, is held in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Its chemical formula is <span style="font-family: times;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">K</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 12.75px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 0; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Fe</span><sup style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 12.75px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 0; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2+</sup><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">[(UO</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 12.75px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 0; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">)(SO</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 12.75px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 0; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">4</sub><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">)</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 12.75px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 0; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">]</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 12.75px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 0; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">(H</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 12.75px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 0; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">2</sub><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">O)</span><sub style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; bottom: -0.25em; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-size: 12.75px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; line-height: 0; position: relative; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">8</sub><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 17px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span></span><br /><br />“I’m honored to be the namesake of such a fascinating mineral,” said Olds. “My research focuses on descriptive minerology, particularly minerals containing uranium, which has been my passion since I knew I wanted to become a mineralogist. Oldsite is unique because it helps us fill in some puzzle pieces about how uranium behaves in the environment. The way its atoms connect to each other in the crystal structure tells us about the conditions that led to its formation. This information can be useful to help keep uranium out of drinking water, or to clean up nuclear waste.”<br /><br />The research team that discovered and described Oldsite includes Dr. Jakub Plášil from the Czech Republic’s Institute of Physics ASCR, Dr. Anthony R. Kampf of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Dr. Chi Ma of California Institute of Technology, and German mineralogist Joy Desor. <br /></p><p></p><p><br /></p><p><i><u>The above story is based on <span style="color: black;"><a href="https://carnegiemnh.org/press/mineral-oldsite-named-for-carnegie-museum-of-natural-history-scientist/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided b<span style="font-family: trebuchet;">y <a href="https://carnegiemnh.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><em style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-size: 17px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: 0.2px; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Carnegie Museum of Natural History</em></a>.</span></span></u></i><br /></p>

New Mineral Described From Uranium Mine In Utah

Yellow oldsite blades with blue stanleyite and white szomolnokite on asphaltum. Horizontal field of view is 0.7 millimeters. Photo by Dr. An...

Fossil of a Giant Millipede Reveals 'The Biggest Bug That Ever Lived'

evolution, extinction 2:28 AM

<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhSQqWkmbrC02cjYaExL9JSKBVcUo4grvMELTg9IKf8NEtyqsv3A7QL_f4KgjuDSAupe3Gq9XqjDT5EgNNfgNL5VSZDIqAdQVEFxeERWD9vs0gt-Psfm2d9nt6iw4hbLwAZCW90BzKq8UNN-RO5MLcxS3SAYgZlyyTygJys1_3hSfESkk3GgJzk9F4=s1200" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="647" data-original-width="1200" height="346" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhhSQqWkmbrC02cjYaExL9JSKBVcUo4grvMELTg9IKf8NEtyqsv3A7QL_f4KgjuDSAupe3Gq9XqjDT5EgNNfgNL5VSZDIqAdQVEFxeERWD9vs0gt-Psfm2d9nt6iw4hbLwAZCW90BzKq8UNN-RO5MLcxS3SAYgZlyyTygJys1_3hSfESkk3GgJzk9F4=w640-h346" title="Fossil of a Giant Millipede Reveals 'the Biggest Bug That Ever Lived'" width="640" /></a></div> <br /><p></p><p> </p><p>The fossil – the remains of a creature called <i>Arthropleura </i>– dates from the Carboniferous Period, about 326 million years ago, over 100 million years before the Age of Dinosaurs. The fossil reveals that <i>Arthropleura </i>was the largest-known invertebrate animal of all time, larger than the ancient sea scorpions that were the previous record holders.<br /><br />The specimen, found on a Northumberland beach about 40 miles north of Newcastle, is made up of multiple articulated exoskeleton segments, broadly similar in form to modern millipedes. It is just the third such fossil ever found. It is also the oldest and largest: the segment is about 75 centimetres long, while the original creature is estimated to have measured around 2.7 metres long and weighed around 50 kilograms. The results are reported in the Journal of the Geological Society.<br /><br />The fossil was discovered in January 2018 in a large block of sandstone that had fallen from a cliff to the beach at Howick Bay in Northumberland. “It was a complete fluke of a discovery,” said Dr Neil Davies from Cambridge’s Department of Earth Sciences, the paper’s lead author. “The way the boulder had fallen, it had cracked open and perfectly exposed the fossil, which one of our former PhD students happened to spot when walking by.”<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div><br />Unlike the cool and wet weather associated with the region today, Northumberland had a more tropical climate in the Carboniferous Period, when Great Britain lay near the Equator. Invertebrates and early amphibians lived off the scattered vegetation around a series of creeks and rivers. The specimen identified by the researchers was found in a fossilised river channel: it was likely a moulted segment of the Arthropleura’s exoskeleton that filled with sand, preserving it for hundreds of millions of years.<br /><br />The fossil was extracted in May 2018 with permission from Natural England and the landowners, the Howick Estate. “It was an incredibly exciting find, but the fossil is so large it took four of us to carry it up the cliff face,” said Davies.<br /><br />The fossil was brought back to Cambridge so that it could be examined in detail. It was compared with all previous records and revealed new information about the animal’s habitat and evolution. The animal can be seen to have only existed in places that were once located at the Equator, such as Great Britain during the Carboniferous. Previous reconstructions have suggested that the animal lived in coal swamps, but this specimen showed <i>Arthropleura </i>preferred open woodland habitats near the coast.<br /><br />There are only two other known <i>Arthropleura </i>fossils, both from Germany, and both much smaller than the new specimen. Although this is the largest <i>Arthropleura </i>fossil skeleton ever found, there is still much to learn about these creatures. “Finding these giant millipede fossils is rare, because once they died, their bodies tend to disarticulate, so it’s likely that the fossil is a moulted carapace that the animal shed as it grew,” said Davies. “We have not yet found a fossilised head, so it’s difficult to know everything about them.”<br /><br />The great size of <i>Arthropleura </i>has previously been attributed to a peak in atmospheric oxygen during the late Carboniferous and Permian periods, but because the new fossil comes from rocks deposited before this peak, it shows that oxygen cannot be the only explanation.<br /><br />The researchers believe that to get to such a large size, <i>Arthropleura </i>must have had a high-nutrient diet. “While we can’t know for sure what they ate, there were plenty of nutritious nuts and seeds available in the leaf litter at the time, and they may even have been predators that fed off other invertebrates and even small vertebrates such as amphibians,” said Davies.<br /><br /><i>Arthropleura </i>animals crawled around Earth’s equatorial region for around 45 million years, before going extinct during the Permian period. The cause of their extinction is uncertain, but could be due to global warming that made the climate too dry for them to survive, or to the rise of reptiles, who out-competed them for food and soon dominated the same habitats. <p></p><p>The fossil will go on public display at Cambridge’s Sedgwick Museum in the New Year.<br /></p><p><br /><u><i>The above story is based on <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/giantmillipede" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by  <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Cambridge.</a></i></u><br /></p>

Fossil of a Giant Millipede Reveals 'The Biggest Bug That Ever Lived'

The fossil – the remains of a creature called Arthropleura – dates from the Carboniferous Period, about 326 million years ago, over 100 ...

99 Million-year-old Spider Mummies Reveal Moms Cared for Teeny Spiderlings

amber, extinction 1:51 PM

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3Vo4YrD5jCpVgOkVYkl0mMktqwrwJR4x3oR0WoPL6hw73QdNaDYDBydCnRw84NtD4OT49o4H3aaXemSn89FPZ_9nDxKAbLjeWQ7F_n9zeFsVSwXOipWJPJNKY27cDtMjmVEHA8yjruGOzP0xA5Owdz4mTE5guVvHz7HCQWkVR4vNDbUlu0HAnT-e5=s1344" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="756" data-original-width="1344" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi3Vo4YrD5jCpVgOkVYkl0mMktqwrwJR4x3oR0WoPL6hw73QdNaDYDBydCnRw84NtD4OT49o4H3aaXemSn89FPZ_9nDxKAbLjeWQ7F_n9zeFsVSwXOipWJPJNKY27cDtMjmVEHA8yjruGOzP0xA5Owdz4mTE5guVvHz7HCQWkVR4vNDbUlu0HAnT-e5=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A mother spider positioned over her egg sac was caught in tree resin about 99 million years ago. (Image credit: Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden and Dong Ren; Proceedings of the Royal Society B </td></tr></tbody></table> <br />Big-eyed spiders were likely guarding their egg sacs and possibly caring for already hatched spiderlings when they were trapped in sticky tree resin some 99 million years ago. That resin hardened, locking up those arachnid mamas in four chunks of amber recently mined in Myanmar, and now considered the oldest evidence of maternal care in spiders, researchers say. <p></p><p><br />A trio of researchers with Capital Normal University in China has found evidence of a mother spider protecting her young in an amber sample dated back to 99 million years ago. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden and Dong Rend describe where the sample was found and what they learned about the spider it contains.<br /><br />Many modern spider species have been found to take measures to ensure the survival of their offspring—females have been seen crouching to cover hatchlings, for example, and producing silk to tie and hold eggs closely together. In this new effort, the researchers have found evidence of a mother spider from the mid-Cretaceous exhibiting the same behavior.<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div><br />The researchers found four chunks of amber that had been extracted from a mine in Myanmar that contained entombed spiders. In one of the chunks, they found an adult female with a bit of her egg sac still intact underneath her body. <p></p><p>Study of the facial features showed that the spider was a member of the extinct Lagonomegopidae family. The researchers also noted that the female was in a stance very similar to that of modern female spiders who are engaged in protecting their eggs from predators. <br /><br />A closer look showed the female had also used her own silk to tie the eggs together. Notably, some scientists have suggested that silk production in spiders began with attempts to tie eggs together, and once it was established, they began using it for other purposes, such as building webs.<br /><br />The three other chunks of amber contained baby spiders and spider thread. One also had what appeared to be an arthropod leg and a wasp. The researchers suggest it is likely that each chunk of amber holds related spiderlings—all of which have been identified as members of the Lagonomegopidae family. <br /><br />The researchers note that both the adult female and the groups of spiderlings all had large eyes, which suggests they were free-range hunters rather than web builders. They also note that one of the chunks contains bits of material suggesting the spiderlings had recently exited a nest.<br /></p><p></p><p><br /><i><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.1279" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by the <a href="https://ku.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Kansas</a>.</u></i><br /></p>

99 Million-year-old Spider Mummies Reveal Moms Cared for Teeny Spiderlings

A mother spider positioned over her egg sac was caught in tree resin about 99 million years ago. (Image credit: Xiangbo Guo, Paul Selden and...

Mind-Blowing New Fossil Site Found in The 'Dead' Heart of Australia

evolution, Fossils 3:22 PM

Mind-Blowing New Fossil Site Found in The 'Dead' Heart of Australia

Spider fossil found in new fossil site. Credit: (c) Michael Frese The new fossil site (named McGraths Flat), located in the Central Tablel...

Triassic Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Wales

extinction, Fossils 1:28 PM

Triassic Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Wales

An individual footprint of a sauropodomorph dinosaur on the foreshore near Penarth, south Wales, the United Kingdom. Image credit: Peter Fal...

Well-Preserved Embryo Found Inside Fossilized Dinosaur Egg

dinosaur, evolution, extinction 7:57 PM

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGYYUs4x0S-xqMkRU8bnTsaQCIIvwW8kGWtDWswBayi_oRgML4sshZR0p7NqkAaIbWEu3nXy3kov0d0sTCw3CrkV-OTfB53jp6yET7uo1EBf8G0HLBrceJ5-YcotsmNEXRN8ReKS55vnSX7BAdcmGYBxMKpALtY1OSNAPy0DOcVZYb4P7vYdQ_Qi6n=s1306" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="1306" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhGYYUs4x0S-xqMkRU8bnTsaQCIIvwW8kGWtDWswBayi_oRgML4sshZR0p7NqkAaIbWEu3nXy3kov0d0sTCw3CrkV-OTfB53jp6yET7uo1EBf8G0HLBrceJ5-YcotsmNEXRN8ReKS55vnSX7BAdcmGYBxMKpALtY1OSNAPy0DOcVZYb4P7vYdQ_Qi6n=w640-h308" title="Photo of the oviraptorosaur embryo inside its fossilized egg. (Xing et al., iScience, 2021)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo of the oviraptorosaur embryo inside its fossilized egg. (Xing et al., iScience, 2021)<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>A rare look inside a fossilized dinosaur egg found in southern China has revealed an exquisitely preserved embryo—and evidence suggesting that some of these prehistoric creatures had even more in common with modern birds than previously thought.<br /></p><p>A 72 to 66-million-year-old embryo found inside a fossilised dinosaur egg sheds new light on the link between the behaviour of modern birds and dinosaurs, according to a new study.<br /><br />The embryo, dubbed 'Baby Yingliang', was discovered in the Late Cretaceous rocks of Ganzhou, southern China and belongs to a toothless theropod dinosaur, or oviraptorosaur. Among the most complete dinosaur embryos ever found, the fossil suggests that these dinosaurs developed bird-like postures close to hatching.<br /><br />Scientists found the posture of 'Baby Yingliang' unique among known dinosaur embryos -- its head lies below the body, with the feet on either side and the back curled along the blunt end of the egg. Previously unrecognised in dinosaurs, this posture is similar to that of modern bird embryos.<br /><div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div><br />In modern birds, such postures are related to 'tucking' -- a behaviour controlled by the central nervous system and critical for hatching success. After studying egg and embryo, researchers believe that such pre-hatching behaviour, previously considered unique to birds, may have originated among non-avian theropods.<br /><br />Led by scientists from the University of Birmingham and China University of Geosciences (Beijing), the research team from institutions in China, UK and Canada today published its findings in iScience.<br /><br />The embryo is articulated in its life position without much disruption from fossilisation. Estimated to be 27 cm long from head to tail, the creature lies inside a 17-cm-long elongatoolithid egg. The specimen is housed in Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum.<br /><br />Fion Waisum Ma, joint first author and PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham, said: "Dinosaur embryos are some of the rarest fossils and most of them are incomplete with the bones dislocated. We are very excited about the discovery of 'Baby Yingliang' -- it is preserved in a great condition and helps us answer a lot of questions about dinosaur growth and reproduction with it.<br /><br />"It is interesting to see this dinosaur embryo and a chicken embryo pose in a similar way inside the egg, which possibly indicates similar prehatching behaviours."<br /><br />'Baby Yingliang' was identified as an oviraptorosaur based on its deep, toothless skull. Oviraptorosaurs are a group of feathered theropod dinosaurs, closely related to modern-day birds, known from the Cretaceous of Asia and North America. Their variable beak shapes and body sizes are likely to have allowed them to adopt a wide range of diets, including herbivory, omnivory and carnivory.<br /><br />Birds are known to develop a series of tucking postures, in which they bend their body and bring their head under their wing, soon before hatching. Embryos that fail to attain such postures have a higher chance of death due to unsuccessful hatching.<br /><br />By comparing 'Baby Yingliang' with the embryos of other theropods, long-necked sauropod dinosaurs and birds, the team proposed that tucking behaviour, which was considered unique to birds, first evolved in theropod dinosaurs many tens or hundreds of millions of years ago. Additional discoveries of embryo fossils would be invaluable to further test this hypothesis.<br /><br />Professor Lida Xing from China University of Geosciences (Beijing), joint first author of the study, said: "This dinosaur embryo was acquired by the director of Yingliang Group, Mr Liang Liu, as suspected egg fossils around the 2000. During the construction of Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in 2010s, museum staff sorted through the storage and discovered the specimens.<br /><br />"These specimens were identified as dinosaur egg fossils. Fossil preparation was conducted and eventually unveiled the embryo hidden inside the egg. This is how 'Baby Yingliang' was brought to light."<br /><br />Professor Steve Brusatte from the University of Edinburgh, part of the research team, said: "This dinosaur embryo inside its egg is one of the most beautiful fossils I have ever seen. This little prenatal dinosaur looks just like a baby bird curled in its egg, which is yet more evidence that many features characteristic of today's birds first evolved in their dinosaur ancestors." </p><p><br /></p><p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/latest/2021/12/embryo-found-inside-fossilised-dinosaur-egg.aspx" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>provided by<span> </span></span><a href="https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/index.aspx" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><strong style="border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">University of Birmingham</strong></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">.</span></span></i></u></p>

Well-Preserved Embryo Found Inside Fossilized Dinosaur Egg

Photo of the oviraptorosaur embryo inside its fossilized egg. (Xing et al., iScience, 2021) A rare look inside a fossilized dinosaur egg fou...

Ancient Pine Cone Trapped in Amber Shows a Super-Rare Form of Plant 'Parenting'

amber, Fossils 6:59 PM

Ancient Pine Cone Trapped in Amber Shows a Super-Rare Form of Plant 'Parenting'

Photo: (Poinar, Historical Biology, 2021) An exceptional amber deposit from roughly 40 million years ago has captured a rare form of paren...

Earth’s Early Magma Oceans Detected in 3.7 Billion Year-Old Greenland Rocks

earth, Earth History, Tectonic 6:42 PM

<p style="text-align: left;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gzZeo72ilp0/YaeWvi5RhFI/AAAAAAAATaw/g8ABKS_yn2cWtd5qw7xpyl1Y3L5H1iW-wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2000/Earth-Core-Mantle-Crust%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gzZeo72ilp0/YaeWvi5RhFI/AAAAAAAATaw/g8ABKS_yn2cWtd5qw7xpyl1Y3L5H1iW-wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/Earth-Core-Mantle-Crust%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="The Earth is now composed of the inner core, the outer core, the lower mantle, the upper mantle, and the crust." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Earth is now composed of the inner core, the outer core, the lower mantle, the upper mantle, and the crust.</td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p style="text-align: left;">Earth hasn’t always been a blue and green oasis of life in an otherwise inhospitable solar system. During our planet’s first 50 million years, around 4.5 billion years ago, its surface was a hellscape of magma oceans, bubbling and belching with heat from Earth’s interior.<br /><br />The subsequent cooling of the planet from this molten state, and the crystallization of these magma oceans into solid rock, was a defining stage in the assembly of our planet’s structure, the chemistry of its surface, and the formation of its early atmosphere.<br /><br />These primeval rocks, containing clues that might explain Earth’s habitability, were assumed to have been lost to the ravages of plate tectonics. But now, my team has discovered the chemical remnants of Earth’s magma oceans in 3.7 billion year-old rocks from southern Greenland, revealing a tantalizing snapshot of a time when the Earth was almost entirely molten.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Hell on Earth</h4><p style="text-align: left;">Earth is the product of a chaotic early solar system, which is believed to have featured a number of catastrophic impacts between the Earth and other planetary bodies. The formation of Earth culminated in its collision with a Mars-sized impactor planet, which also resulted in the formation of Earth’s moon some 4.5 billion years ago.<br /><br />These cosmic clashes are thought to have generated enough energy to melt the Earth’s crust and almost all of our planet’s interior (the mantle), creating planetary-scale volumes of molten rock that formed “magma oceans” hundreds of kilometers in depth. Today, in contrast, Earth’s crust is entirely solid, and the mantle is seen as a “plastic solid”: allowing slow, viscous geological movement a far cry from the liquid magma of Earth’s early mantle.<br /><br />As the Earth recovered and cooled after its chaotic collisions, its deep magma oceans crystallized and solidified, beginning Earth’s journey to the planet we know today. The volcanic gases which bubbled out of Earth’s cooling magma oceans may have been decisive in the formation and composition of our planet’s early atmosphere – which would eventually support life.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Geological search</h4><p style="text-align: left;">Finding geological evidence for the Earth’s former molten state is extremely difficult. This is because magma ocean events are likely to have taken place over 4 billion years ago, and many of the rocks from that period of Earth’s history have since been recycled by plate tectonics.<br /><br />But while rocks from this period no longer exist, their chemical traces may still be stored in Earth’s depths. Solidified crystals from Earth’s cooling period would have been so dense that they’d have sunk to the base of Earth’s mantle. Scientists even believe that these mineral residues may be stored in isolated zones deep within Earth’s mantle-core boundary.<br /><div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto">
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</div><br />If they do exist, these ancient crystal graveyards are inaccessible to us – hiding far too deep for us to take direct samples. And if they were to ever rise to the Earth’s surface, the magma ocean crystals would naturally undergo a process of melting and solidifying, leaving only traces of their origins in the volcanic rocks that make it to Earth’s crust.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Crystal clues</h4><p style="text-align: left;">We knew Greenland would be a good place to search for these traces of Earth’s molten past. Our samples originate from the Isua supracrustal belt in southwestern Greenland, which is a famous area for geologists. At first glance, Isua’s rocks look just like any modern basalt you’d find on the seafloor. But these rocks are some of the oldest in the world, believed to be between 3.7 and 3.8 billion years old.<br /><br />On analyzing Isua’s rocks, we discovered unique iron isotope signatures. These signatures showed that the region of the mantle from which the rocks had formed had been subjected to very high pressure, over 700 kilometers below Earth’s surface. That’s exactly where minerals formed during magma ocean crystallization would have been located.<br /><br />But if these rocks did indeed bear traces of crystallized magma ocean, how did they find their way to the Earth’s surface? The answer lies in how the Earth’s interior melts, producing volcanic rocks on the planet’s surface.<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Melting rocks</h4><p style="text-align: left;">When regions of the Earth’s semi-solid mantle heat up and melt, they rise buoyantly towards the Earth’s crust, ultimately producing volcanic rocks when the magma reaches the surface and cools. By studying the chemistry of these rocks on the surface, we can probe the composition of the material that melted to form them.<br /><br />The isotopic makeup of Isua rocks revealed that their journey to Earth’s surface involved several stages of crystallization and remelting in the interior of the planet – a kind of distillation process on their way to the surface. But the rocks that emerged, located in present-day Greenland, still retain chemical signatures that connect them to Earth’s magma-covered past.<br /><br />The results of our work provide some of the first direct geological evidence for the signature of magma ocean crystals in volcanic rocks found on Earth’s surface. Now, we’d like to understand whether other ancient volcanic rocks across the world can tell us more about Earth’s former magma oceans, or whether we’ve instead stumbled upon a geological oddity: more of a one-off clue.<br /><br />If other volcanoes may have spewed similar geological artifacts, we might also look to modern eruption hotspots such as Hawaii and Iceland for further isotopic novelties that speak of Earth’s ancient past. It’s possible that more primordial rocks may be found in the future which could help us understand more about the Earth’s violent, magma-covered past.</p><br /><div><div><div><div>Written by Helen M. Williams, Reader in Geochemistry, University of Cambridge.<i><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /><br />This article was first published in <a href="https://theconversation.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</span></u></i><p> </p></div></div></div></div>

Earth’s Early Magma Oceans Detected in 3.7 Billion Year-Old Greenland Rocks

The Earth is now composed of the inner core, the outer core, the lower mantle, the upper mantle, and the crust. Earth hasn’t always been a...

Woman Finds 4.38-carat Diamond at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park

Diamonds, Mining, USA 8:22 PM

<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7jNJNQA0H0/YZ_F5-3RZ5I/AAAAAAAATaY/cz0F1L5mRWc4ickP3xUy5d0VdPFVCdMbACLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Woman%2BFinds%2B4.38-carat%2BDiamond%2Bat%2BArkansas%2527%2BCrater%2Bof%2BDiamonds%2BState%2BPark%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7jNJNQA0H0/YZ_F5-3RZ5I/AAAAAAAATaY/cz0F1L5mRWc4ickP3xUy5d0VdPFVCdMbACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/Woman%2BFinds%2B4.38-carat%2BDiamond%2Bat%2BArkansas%2527%2BCrater%2Bof%2BDiamonds%2BState%2BPark%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="The Lucy Diamond discovered by Noreen Wredberg at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Photo courtesy of Arkansas State Parks." width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lucy Diamond discovered by Noreen Wredberg at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Photo courtesy of Arkansas State Parks.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Finders Keepers! A Lucky Retiree Visited an Arkansas National Park and Discovered a 4.38-Carat, Jellybean-Sized Diamond</span></p><p>Noreen Wredberg and her husband, Michael, weren't really expecting to find anything at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park, she said, and she wasn't sure what she had found when she picked up a stone.<br /><br />A Northern California couple found a 4.38-carat yellow diamond while visiting Arkansas, making it the biggest piece of bling found this year at a state park known for yielding the shiny stones. <br /><br />Noreen and Michael Wredberg took a trip to two national parks in Arkansas last month, then decided on a whim to travel an hour south to Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro. About 40 minutes into their walk, Noreen saw something sparkly on the ground. <br /><br />"I didn't know it was a diamond then, but it was clean and shiny, so I picked it up," she told park officials, according to a news release. "We really didn't think we would find one, let alone something that big."<br /><br />Since retiring in 2011, Noreen and her husband Michael have spent much of their leisure time traveling and visiting America’s National Parks. During a recent stop at Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, Noreen realized that they were also close to another destination she had long wanted to visit, Crater of Diamonds State Park.<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;">
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</div><p><br />“I first saw the park featured on a TV show several years ago,” she said. “When I realized we weren’t too far away, I knew we had to come!”<br /><br />“Arkansas is the only state in the country that has a diamond mine open to the public,” said Arkansas Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism Secretary Stacy Hurst. “It’s such a unique experience and visitors make lifetime memories, whether or not they find a diamond. Of course, finding a diamond adds to the experience!”<br /><br />The couple arrived at Crater of Diamonds on Thursday, September 23, a sunny-but-cool fall morning. She started to search in a shaded area near the mine entrance, but her husband suggested they venture farther out.<br /><br />“It was cold in the shade that morning,” Michael said, “so I told Noreen that we should go to the middle of the field, where it was warmer.”<br /><br />His suggestion paid off about 40 minutes later. She was walking just north of a central pathway in the search area when she spotted the sparkling gem on top of the ground.<br /><br />She said, “I didn’t know it was a diamond then, but it was clean and shiny, so I picked it up!”<br /><br />She gave the stone to her husband, who brought it to the park’s Diamond Discovery Center for identification. After examining the stone, park staff informed Michael that he was in possession of a very large yellow diamond.<br /><br />Park Superintendent Caleb Howell said, “When I first saw this diamond under the microscope, I thought, ‘Wow, what a beautiful shape and color!’ Mrs. Wredberg’s diamond weighs more than four carats and is about the size of a jellybean, with a pear shape and a lemonade yellow color.”<br /><br />Noreen was surprised and excited when park staff gave her the news a few minutes later, saying, “We really didn’t think we would find one, let alone something that big!”<br /><br />Park Interpreter Waymon Cox says that many of the park’s largest diamonds are found right on top of the ground. “We plow the search area periodically to loosen the soil and promote natural erosion. Diamonds are somewhat heavy for their size and lack static electricity, so dirt doesn’t stick to them. When rain uncovers a larger diamond and the sun comes out, its reflective surface is often easy to see.”<br /><br />Cox noted that weather conditions were perfect for Noreen to find her diamond. “Many visitors surface search for diamonds after a good rain. More than one inch of rain fell at the park between September 19 and 21. The soil had dried a little, and the sun was out when Mrs. Wredberg visited two days later. She was in just the right place to see her diamond sparkle in the morning sunlight!”<br /><br />Weighing 4.38 carats, Noreen’s diamond is the largest found at the park since last October, when a visitor from Fayetteville, Ark., .<br /><br />Finders of large Crater diamonds often choose to name their gems. Noreen named hers Lucy’s Diamond, for her husband’s kitten. “The name is sentimental to us. Lucy is mostly gray but has slight tints of yellow in her fur, similar to the light yellow of my diamond.”<br /><br />Noreen isn’t sure what she will do with her diamond but says she might have it cut, depending on the quality. “I don’t even know what it’s worth yet. It’s all new to me!”<br /><br />Park staff is not trained in diamond appraisals but offers resources to help finders decide what to do with their gems.<br /><br />As of this publication, 258 diamonds have been registered at Crater of Diamonds State Park in 2021, weighing more than 46 carats in total. An average of one to two diamonds are found by park visitors each day.<br /></p><p><b><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/08/the-only-diamond-mine-in-world-where.html" target="_blank">See:  The Only Diamond Mine In the World Where You Can Be the Miner</a></b></p><p></p><p> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/news/visitor-finds-438-carat-diamond-crater-diamonds-state-park" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.arkansasstateparks.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Arkansas State Parks..</a></p>

Woman Finds 4.38-carat Diamond at Arkansas' Crater of Diamonds State Park

The Lucy Diamond discovered by Noreen Wredberg at Crater of Diamonds State Park in Murfreesboro, Arkansas. Photo courtesy of Arkansas State ...