April 2017

Scientists Discover How Bacteria Changes Ions Into Gold

Scientists Discover How Bacteria Changes Ions Into Gold

Photo: Alen Magoir Special 'nugget-producing' bacteria may hold the key to more efficient processing of gold ore, mine tailing...

Scientists Solve Mystery Behind Antarctica's Blood Falls

Antarctic, Earth News, Researches 1:42 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Blood Falls in Antarctica </span><span face=""roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif" style="background-color: #222222; color: #888888; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 13px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
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</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Century-old mystery of Antarctica's Blood Falls SOLVED</span></span><br />
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When Antarctic explorers first discovered a cliff stained with blood-red water in 1911, they assumed that red-hued algae were responsible for the colour. The place quickly became known as Blood Falls, although it turned out to be neither blood nor algae.<br /> <br /> In fact, Blood Falls is the result of slowly oozing, iron-rich saltwater that oxidises in contact with air, just like rust. The water is so salty, it's more accurately described as brine. And now geologists have finally figured out where all that brine is coming from.<br /> <br /> A new study led by researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks has outlined the path the red brine takes to escape from underneath a glacier that's at least 1.5 million years old.<br /> <br /> Blood Falls is located at the northern end of Taylor Glacier, which stretches over 100 kilometres (62 miles) through the Transantarctic Mountains. <br /> <br />
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When Taylor Glacier was extending across the icy continent a million years ago, it trapped a small saltwater lake under countless layers of snow and ice. The saltwater became more and more concentrated, until the brine was too salty to freeze at regular temperatures.<br /> <br /> That subglacial brine lake has been scraping iron from the underlying bedrock, giving it its signature rusty colour once it reaches the outside world. But that path to the outside had remained a mystery until now.<br /> <br /> To understand where he brine is coming from and how it's oozing out of the fissure in the glacier, the team used a radar method called radio-echo sounding (RES), which is commonly used for investigating glaciers.<br /> <br /> "The salts in the brine made this discovery possible by amplifying contrast with the fresh glacier ice," says lead researcher Jessica Badgeley from Colorado College.<br /> <br /> The team moved the antennae of the RES radar across the glacier in a grid pattern, revealing a picture of what lay beneath the ice, much like the way bats use echolocation to detect their surroundings.<br /> <br /> As it turns out, Taylor Glacier is hiding a network of crevasses where the brine is injected into the ice under immense pressure. The team then tracked the 300-metre (985-foot) path the brine takes through these pressurised channels until it reaches the top of Blood Falls.<br /> <br /> Their finding also finally explains how liquid water - even if it's super-salty - can flow through an extremely cold glacier.<br /> <br /> "While it sounds counterintuitive, water releases heat as it freezes, and that heat warms the surrounding colder ice," says one of the team, glaciologist Erin Pettit.<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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Brine has lower freezing temperatures – and, together with the heat, it helps the movement of the liquid.<br /> <br /> "Taylor Glacier is now the coldest known glacier to have persistently flowing water," says Pettit.<br /> <br /> This discovery could help researchers find out more about the ecology of the subglacial brine lake, which is not nearly as dead as you might expect.<br /> <br /> Previous research has found that the salty brine is actually home to some extremely hardy bacteria. Cut off from the world for thousands of years, these microbes have had nothing to feed on except sulphate, which many bacteria can use for energy. <br /> <br /> Trapped beneath the glacier with no light and oxygen, the bacteria started recycling their sulphate supply, reducing it to sulphite – which would react with the high iron content of the water, producing more sulphate for them to feed on.<br /> <br /> Scientists think that this surprising adaptation might not even be limited to Taylor Glacier, and is just one example of long-term life surviving trapped under millennia of ice. <br /> <br /> Now researchers think that the latest discovery on how the brine forms a path to the freedom of Blood Falls could also give us clues on the evolution of these sturdy microbes.<br /> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><u><i><span face=""trebuchet ms" , sans-serif">The findings are published in the <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-glaciology/article/an-englacial-hydrologic-system-of-brine-within-a-cold-glacier-blood-falls-mcmurdo-dry-valleys-antarctica/B5C197906AD54619AEA26068AD92989A" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Journal of Glaciology</a>.</span></i></u></span></div>

Scientists Solve Mystery Behind Antarctica's Blood Falls

Blood Falls in Antarctica Century-old mystery of Antarctica's Blood Falls SOLVED When Antarctic explorers first discovered a...

Ancient Anthropod With Gnarly Claws Discovered in Burgess Shale

Earth History, extinction, Fossils 3:45 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Researchers in Canada have found a new species that points to how modern species like millipedes, crabs, insects and others came to be. They have named the creature they discovered Tokummia katalepsis (artist's impression pictured). </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The terrifying 507 million-year-old sea monster that had 50 legs and can-opener like pincers to attack its prey</span></h4>
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Paleontologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered a new fossil species that sheds light on the origin of mandibulates, the most abundant and diverse group of organisms on Earth, to which belong familiar animals such as flies, ants, crayfish and centipedes. The finding was announced in a study published today in Nature.</span></i><br />
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The creature, named Tokummia katalepsis by the researchers, is a new and exceptionally well-preserved fossilized arthropod -- a ubiquitous group of invertebrate animals with segmented limbs and hardened exoskeletons. Tokummia documents for the first time in detail the anatomy of early "mandibulates," a hyperdiverse sub-group of arthropods which possess a pair of specialized appendages known as mandibles, used to grasp, crush and cut their food. Mandibulates include millions of species and represent one of the greatest evolutionary and ecological success stories of life on Earth.<br />
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"In spite of their colossal diversity today, the origin of mandibulates had largely remained a mystery," said Cédric Aria, lead author of the study and recent graduate of the PhD program in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at U of T, now working as a post-doctoral researcher at the Nanjing Institute for Geology and Palaeontology, in China. "Before now we've had only sparse hints at what the first arthropods with mandibles could have looked like, and no idea of what could have been the other key characteristics that triggered the unrivaled diversification of that group."<br />
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Tokummia lived in a tropical sea teeming with life and was among the largest Cambrian predators, exceeding 10 cm in length fully extended. An occasional swimmer, the researchers conclude its robust anterior legs made it a preferred bottom-dweller, as lobsters or mantis shrimps today.<br />
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Specimens come from 507 million-year-old sedimentary rocks near Marble Canyon in Kootenay national park, British Columbia. Most specimens at the basis of this study were collected during extensive ROM-led fieldwork activities in 2014.<br />
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"This spectacular new predator, one of the largest and best preserved soft-bodied arthropods from Marble Canyon, joins the ranks of many unusual marine creatures that lived during the Cambrian Explosion, a period of rapid evolutionary change starting about half a billion years ago when most major animal groups first emerged in the fossil record," said co-author Jean-Bernard Caron, senior curator of invertebrate paleontology at the ROM and an associate professor in the Departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Earth Sciences at U of T.<br />
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Analysis of several fossil specimens, following careful mechanical preparation and photographic work at the ROM, showed that Tokummia sported broad serrated mandibles as well as large but specialized anterior claws, called maxillipeds, which are typical features of modern mandibulates.<br />
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"The pincers of Tokummia are large, yet also delicate and complex, reminding us of the shape of a can opener, with their couple of terminal teeth on one claw, and the other claw being curved towards them," said Aria.<br />
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"But we think they might have been too fragile to be handling shelly animals, and might have been better adapted to the capture of sizable soft prey items, perhaps hiding away in mud. Once torn apart by the spiny limb bases under the trunk, the mandibles would have served as a revolutionary tool to cut the flesh into small, easily digestible pieces."<br />
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The body of Tokummia is made of more than 50 small segments covered by a broad two-piece shell-like structure called a bivalved carapace. Importantly, the animal bears subdivided limb bases with tiny projections called endites, which can be found in the larvae of certain crustaceans and are now thought to have been critical innovations for the evolution of the various legs of mandibulates, and even for the mandibles themselves.<br />
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The many-segmented body is otherwise reminiscent of myriapods, a group that includes centipedes, millipedes, and their relatives. "Tokummia also lacks the typical second antenna found in crustaceans, which illustrates a very surprising convergence with such terrestrial mandibulates," said Aria.<br />
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The study also resolves the affinities of other emblematic fossils from Canada's Burgess Shale more than a hundred years after their discovery. "Our study suggests that a number of other Burgess Shale fossils such as Branchiocaris, Canadaspis and Odaraia form with Tokummia a group of crustacean-like arthropods that we can now place at the base of all mandibulates," said Aria.<br />
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The animal was named after Tokumm Creek, which flows through Marble Canyon in northern Kootenay National Park, and the Greek for "seizing." The Marble Canyon fossil deposit was first discovered in 2012 during prospection work led by the Royal Ontario Museum and is part of the Burgess Shale fossil deposit, which extends to the north into Yoho National Park in the Canadian Rockies. All specimens are held in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum on behalf of Parks Canada.<br />
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The Burgess Shale fossil sites are located within Yoho and Kootenay national parks in British Columbia. The Burgess Shale was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. Parks Canada is proud to protect these globally significant paleontological sites, and to work with leading scientific researchers to expand knowledge and understanding of this key period of earth history.<br />
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New information from ongoing scientific research is continually incorporated into Parks Canada's Burgess Shale education and interpretation programs, which include guided hikes to these outstanding fossil sites.<br />
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<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: x-small;">The terrifying 507 million-year-old sea monster that had 50 legs and can-opener like pincers to attack its prey</span></span></span></span></span></h3>
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based <a href="https://www.utoronto.ca/news/ouch-u-t-paleontologists-identify-508-million-year-old-sea-creature-can-opener-pincers" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.utoronto.ca/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Toronto</a>.</span></i></u></div>

Ancient Anthropod With Gnarly Claws Discovered in Burgess Shale

Researchers in Canada have found a new species that points to how modern species like millipedes, crabs, insects and others came to be. T...

Humans in California 130,000 Years Ago?

Earth History, Fossils 3:01 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two mastodon femur balls, one face up and one face down, are among the remains found at the Cerutti site in San Diego. Photograph by San Diego Natural History Museum</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Humans were in America 100000 years earlier than we thought</span></h4>
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A new study has dropped a bombshell on archaeology, claiming signs of human activity in the Americas far earlier than thought.<br />
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Prehistoric humans — perhaps Neanderthals or another lost species — occupied what is now California some 130,000 years ago, a team of scientists reported on Wednesday.<br />
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The bold and fiercely disputed claim, published in the journal Nature, is based on a study of mastodon bones discovered near San Diego. If the scientists are right, they would significantly alter our understanding of how humans spread around the planet.<br />
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The earliest widely accepted evidence of people in the Americas is less than 15,000 years old. Genetic studies strongly support the idea that those people were the ancestors of living Native Americans, arriving in North America from Asia.<br />
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If humans actually were in North America over 100,000 years earlier, they may not be related to any living group of people. Modern humans probably did not expand out of Africa until 50,000 to 80,000 years ago, recent genetic studies have shown.<br />
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If California’s first settlers weren’t modern, then they would have to have been Neanderthals or perhaps members of another extinct human lineage.<br />
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“It poses all sorts of questions,” said Thomas A. Deméré, a paleontologist at the San Diego Natural History Museum and a co-author of the new study. “Who were these people? What species were they?”<br />
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Some experts were intrigued by the research, but many archaeologists strongly criticized it, saying the evidence didn’t come close to supporting such a profound conclusion.<br />
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“I was astonished, not because it is so good but because it is so bad,” said Donald K. Grayson, an archaeologist at the University of Washington, who faulted the new study for failing to rule out more mundane explanations for markings on the bones.<br />
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In 1992, construction workers dug up the mastodon bones while clearing earth to build a sound barrier along Route 54 in San Diego County. A team of paleontologists from the museum spent the next five months excavating the layer of sediment in which they were found.<br />
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The team discovered more scattered bone fragments, all of which seemed to have come from a single mastodon. From the start, the remains seemed unusual.<br />
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The thick bones were broken and smashed, and near the animal were five large rounded stones. Dr. Deméré and his colleagues invited other experts to help determine how the bones were broken apart.<br />
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In an effort to reproduce the markings, the researchers used similar rocks to break apart fresh elephant bones in Tanzania. The bones fractured at the same angles as the ones in San Diego, they found, and the fragments scattered onto the ground in a similar pattern.<br />
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Dr. Deméré and his colleagues rejected the idea that all these changes could be the work of predators attacking the mastodon. “It’s kind of hard to envision a carnivore strong enough to break a mastodon leg bone,” he said.<br />
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When he and his colleagues closely examined the rocks found near the mastodon fossils, they also found scratch marks. Similar marks appeared on the rocks used to smash elephant bones. Small chips at the site fit neatly into the rocks, suggesting that they had broken off while people used them as hammers.<br />
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The bones and rocks rested on a sandy flood plain by a meandering stream. The researchers argued that these couldn’t have been brought together by a violent current, and that people must have carried the rocks to the mastodon.<br />
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Dr. Deméré speculated that the humans might have been trying to get marrow out of the mastodon bones to eat, while using fragments of the bones to fashion tools. There’s a great deal of evidence for that kind of activity at older sites in other parts of the world, he noted.<br />
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Rolfe D. Mandel, a geoarchaeologist at the University of Kansas who was not involved in the study, found it hard to see how the rocks and bones could come together without the help of people. “It could not happen naturally,” he said.<br />
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But other archaeologists said the bone fractures and rock scratches were unconvincing.<br />
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“They present evidence that the broken stones and bones could have been broken by humans,” said Vance T. Holliday, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona. “But they don’t demonstrate that they could only be broken by humans.”<br />
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Gary Haynes, an archaeologist at the University of Nevada, Reno, said the researchers should have ruled out more alternatives. Some of the bone fractures could have been caused by pressure from overlying sediment, he suggested.<br />
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For years, Dr. Deméré and his colleagues struggled to figure out how long ago the mastodon died. The scientists finally contacted James B. Paces, a research geologist at the United States Geological Survey, who determined how much uranium in the bones had broken down into another element, thorium.<br />
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That test revealed, to their surprise, that the bones were 130,000 years old. Yet the fractures suggested the bones were still fresh when they were broken with the rocks.<br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The study was published in the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature22065" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">journal Nature.</a></span></i></u><br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above post is reprinted from <a href="http://www.sdnhm.org/consulting-services/paleo-services/projects/cerutti-mastodon/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.sdnhm.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">San Diego Natural History Museum</a>.</span></i></u><span style="font-size: x-small;"><u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></i><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; color: black; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><br style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></span></span></i></u></span></div>
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Humans in California 130,000 Years Ago?

Two mastodon femur balls, one face up and one face down, are among the remains found at the Cerutti site in San Diego. Photograph by Sa...

Study: Early Organic Carbon Got Deep Burial in Mantle

Earth History, Earth News, Geology 3:40 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This schematic depicts the efficient deep subduction of organic (reduced) carbon, a process that could have locked significant amounts of carbon in Earth's mantle and resulted in a higher percentage of atmospheric oxygen. Based on new high-pressure, high-temperature experiments, Rice University petrologists argue that the long-term sequestration of organic carbon from this process began as early as 2.5 billion years ago and helped bring about a well-known buildup of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere -- the "Great Oxidation Event" -- about 2.4 billion years ago. Credit: R. Dasgupta/Rice University</td></tr>
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Rice University petrologists who recreated hot, high-pressure conditions from 60 miles below Earth's surface have found a new clue about a crucial event in the planet's deep past.<br />
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Their study describes how fossilized carbon—the remains of Earth's earliest single-celled creatures—could have been subsumed and locked deep in Earth's interior starting around 2.4 billion years ago—a time when atmospheric oxygen rose dramatically. The paper appears online this week in the journal Nature Geoscience.<br />
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"It's an interesting concept, but in order for complex life to evolve, the earliest form of life needed to be deeply buried in the planet's mantle," said Rajdeep Dasgupta, a professor of Earth science at Rice. "The mechanism for that burial comes in two parts.<br />
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First, you need some form of plate tectonics, a mechanism to carry the carbon remains of early life-forms back into Earth. Second, you need the correct geochemistry so that organic carbon can be carried deeply into Earth's interior and thereby removed from the surface environment for a long time."<br />
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At issue is what caused the "great oxidation event," a steep increase in atmospheric oxygen that is well-documented in countless ancient rocks. The event is so well-known to geologists that they often simply refer to it as the "GOE." But despite this familiarity, there's no scientific consensus about what caused the GOE. For example, scientists know Earth's earliest known life, single-celled cyanobacteria, drew down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and released oxygen. But the appearance of early life has been pushed further and further into the past with recent fossil discoveries, and scientists now know that cyanobacteria were prevalent at least 500 million years before the GOE.<br />
<br />
"Cyanobacteria may have played a role, but the GOE was so dramatic—oxygen concentration increased as much as 10,000 times—that cyanobacteria by themselves could not account for it," said lead co-author Megan Duncan, who conducted the research for her Ph.D. dissertation at Rice. "There also has to be a mechanism to remove a significant amount of reduced carbon from the biosphere, and thereby shift the relative concentration of oxygen within the system," she said.<br />
<br />
Removing carbon without removing oxygen requires special circumstances because the two elements are prone to bind with one another. They form one of the key components of the atmosphere—carbon dioxide—as well as all types of carbonate rocks.<br />
<br />
Dasgupta and Duncan found that the chemical composition of the "silicate melt"—subducting crustal rock that melts and rises back to the surface through volcanic eruptions—plays a crucial role in determining whether fossilized organic carbon, or graphite, sinks into the mantle or rises back to the surface through volcanism.<br />
<br />
Duncan, now a research scientist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., said the study is the first to examine the graphite-carrying capacity of a type of melt known as rhyolite, which is commonly produced deep in the mantle and carries significant amounts of carbon to the volcanoes. She said the graphite-carrying capacity of rhyolitic rock is crucial because if graphite is prone to hitching a ride back to the surface via extraction of rhyolitic melt, it would not have been buried in sufficient quantities to account for the GOE.<br />
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"Silicate composition plays an important role," she said. "Scientists have previously looked at carbon-carrying capacities in compositions that were much more magnesium-rich and silicon-poor. But the compositions of these rhyolitic melts are high in silicon and aluminum and have very little calcium, magnesium and iron. That matters because calcium and magnesium are cations, and they change the amount of carbon you can dissolve."<br />
<br />
Dasgupta and Duncan found that rhyolitic melts could dissolve very little graphite, even when very hot.<br />
<br />
"That was one of our motivations," said Dasgupta, professor of Earth science. "If subduction zones in the past were very hot and produced a substantial amount of melt, could they completely destabilize organic carbon and release it back to the surface?<br />
<br />
"What we showed was that even at very, very high temperatures, not much of this graphitic carbon dissolves in the melt," he said. "So even though the temperature is high and you produce a lot of melt, this organic carbon is not very soluble in that melt, and the carbon gets buried in the mantle as a result.<br />
<br />
"What is neat is that with the onset and the expected tempo of crustal burial into the deep mantle starting just prior to the GOE, and with our experimental data on the efficiency of deep burial of reduced carbon, we could model the expected rise of atmospheric oxygen across the GOE," Dasgupta said.<br />
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The research supports the findings of a 2016 paper by fellow Rice petrologist Cin-Ty Lee and colleagues that suggested that plate tectonics, continent formation and the appearance of early life were key factors in the development of an oxygen-rich atmosphere on Earth.<br />
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Duncan, who increasingly focuses on exoplanetary systems, said the research could provide important clues about what scientists should look for when evaluating which exoplanets could support life.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><i>The study was published in <a href="http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/ngeo2943" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nature Geoscience.</a></i></u></div>

Study: Early Organic Carbon Got Deep Burial in Mantle

This schematic depicts the efficient deep subduction of organic (reduced) carbon, a process that could have locked significant amounts of...

What Causes the Color Phenomena of Blue Amber?

Amber Fossils, Gemstones., Mineralogy 3:30 PM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9yWMjHbg3xY/XqyBF65RonI/AAAAAAAASLQ/U1UAiLBhbFk8AR0xUVMJPVHk7Q-5WwBUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Phenomena%2Bof%2BBlue%2BAmber.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1400" height="410" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9yWMjHbg3xY/XqyBF65RonI/AAAAAAAASLQ/U1UAiLBhbFk8AR0xUVMJPVHk7Q-5WwBUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Phenomena%2Bof%2BBlue%2BAmber.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue Amber</td></tr>
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<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The greenish blue color observed in some amber from the Dominican Republic and Indonesia is actually fluorescence stimulated by ultraviolet (UV) light. </span></i></h4>
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Amber is fossilized tree resin used for jewelry, decoration, medicine, and perfume. Specimens with inclusions of insects and plants are of great scientific significance and highly esteemed by collectors. <br />
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Amber is usually yellow to brown, and some specimens display red to brownish red or reddish brown colors. Blue amber is rare, found mainly in the Dominican Republic with some production from Indonesia and Mexico.<br />
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Blue amber is amber exhibiting a rare blue coloration. It is most commonly found in the amber mines in the mountain ranges around Santiago, Dominican Republic, but also in the eastern parts of the Dominican Republic. Although little known due to its rarity, it has been around since the discovery of Dominican amber.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Causes of coloration</span></b><br />
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When natural light strikes blue amber on a white surface, the light passes right through, and is refracted by the white surface. The result is the slight blue hue of blue amber. When the same natural light strikes the amber on a black surface, the light is not refracted by the black surface, but by the actual amber. Hydrocarbons in the blue amber shift the sun's ultraviolet light down in frequency, resulting in the glow of blue amber.<br />
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<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://3.bp.blogspot.com/-90ABzsXLUjw/WQCM5brfYlI/AAAAAAAAMLU/hzN9zt3DQg8BBV50FnLPOY38RVYhsLxPwCLcB/s1600/blueamber_007.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="What Causes the Color Phenomena of Blue Amber?" border="0" height="326" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-90ABzsXLUjw/WQCM5brfYlI/AAAAAAAAMLU/hzN9zt3DQg8BBV50FnLPOY38RVYhsLxPwCLcB/s640/blueamber_007.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dominican blue amber.</td></tr>
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<br />
This effect is only possible in some specimens of Dominican amber category, in some Mexican ambers from Chiapas and some ambers from Indonesia. Any other amber (such as Baltic amber) will not display this phenomenon, because its original resin is not from the Hymenaea protera tree.<br />
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The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, produced through a pyrolytic process that is initiated via irradiation, relax to their ground state, absorb high-energy ultraviolet photons and re-emit them as lower-energy visible photons, according to the absorbance curve of the particular fluorophore.<br />
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Recently, optical absorption, fluorescence and time-resolved fluorescence measurements in Dominican ambers have been reported. These studies show that the "blue" variety reveals an intense fluorescence emission in the visible wavelength region, between 430 and 530 nm, with spectral features typical of aromatic hydrocarbons. On the contrary, the Dominican "red" and "yellow" amber varieties have a much weaker and featureless emission, although still do have a certain fluorescence. The process in blue amber is surprisingly similar to phosphor.<br />
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Although there are several theories about the origin of Dominican blue amber, there is a great probability that it owes its existence to ingredients such as anthracene as a result of 'incomplete combustion' due to forest fires among the extinct species Hymenaea protera trees about 25 to 40 million years ago.<br />
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Vittorio Bellani and Enrico Giulotto at the University of Pavia, Italy studied several amber specimens by means of optical absorption, fluorescence spectroscopy, and time-resolved fluorescence measurements. The resulting spectral analysis revealed that the spectra of the hydrocarbons are very similar in shape to those of diluted solutions of anthracene, perylene, and tetracene, and suggest that the fluorescent hydrocarbon responsible for the blueness is most likely perylene.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lCdHyTTxGL0/WThFE95wssI/AAAAAAAAMl0/qJbvfQwq0eIiDoW823L_CL8PXfW61fyFACLcB/s1600/What%2BCauses%2Bthe%2BColor%2BPhenomena%2Bof%2BBlue%2BAmber.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="What Causes the Color Phenomena of Blue Amber?" border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lCdHyTTxGL0/WThFE95wssI/AAAAAAAAMl0/qJbvfQwq0eIiDoW823L_CL8PXfW61fyFACLcB/s400/What%2BCauses%2Bthe%2BColor%2BPhenomena%2Bof%2BBlue%2BAmber.jpg" title="" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blue amber from Indonesia. photo By Chille Maulidhaa </td></tr>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: xx-small;">The  greenish blue color observed in some amber from the Dominican Republic  and Indonesia is actually fluorescence stimulated by ultraviolet (UV)  light. </span></span><i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br />
</span></i></h3>
<br />
<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">See also: </span></b><br />
<a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/05/types-of-amber.html" target="_blank">Pictures: Types of Amber</a><br />
<a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2017/04/the-eight-most-incredible-fossils.html" target="_blank">The Eight Most Incredible Fossils Preserved In Amber</a></div>

What Causes the Color Phenomena of Blue Amber?

Blue Amber The greenish blue color observed in some amber from the Dominican Republic and Indonesia is actually fluorescence stimul...

What is Unique About Chanthaburi Sapphire?

Gemstones., Mineralogy 3:09 PM

What is Unique About Chanthaburi Sapphire?

Chanthaburi Sapphire. Credit: Vincent Pardieu-GIA Thailand has been a leader in the global corundum trade since the 1950s. Bangkok and ...

A Massive Lake of Molten Carbon The Size of Mexico is Discovered Under The US

climate, Earth News, Environment, Tectonic, USA 2:28 PM

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Massive Lake of Molten Carbon The Size of Mexico is Discovered Under The US. Scientists uncovered a huge reservoir of molten carbon situated under the Western US, 217 miles (350km) beneath the Earth's surface. Credit: Royal Holloway University of London</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;"><b>Situated under western US, 217 miles (350km) beneath the Earth's surface</b></span></h3>
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<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Upper mantle could contain up to 100 trillion metric tonnes of melted carbon </span></span></h3>
<ul style="text-align: left;"></ul>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Scientists have discovered a huge reservoir of molten carbon deep beneath the western U.S.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">A huge well of molten carbon that would spell disaster for the planet if released has been found under the US.<br />
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Scientists using the world's largest array of seismic sensors have mapped a deep-Earth area, covering 700,000 sq miles (1.8 million sq km).<br />
</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">This is around the size of Mexico, and researchers say it has the potential to cause untold environmental damage. The discovery could change our understanding of how much carbon the Earth contains, suggesting it is much more than we previously believed.<br />
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It would be impossible to drill far enough down to physically 'see' the Earth's mantle, so a team of researchers used a massive group of sensors to paint a picture of it, using mathematical equations to interpret their results.<br />
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The study, conducted by geologists at Royal Holloway University in London, used a huge network of 583 seismic sensors that measure the Earth's vibrations, to create a picture of the area's deep sub surface.<br />
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Known as the upper mantle, this section of the Earth's interior is known for by its high temperatures where solid carbonates melt, creating distinctive seismic patterns.<br />
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What they found was a vast buried deposit of molten carbon, which produces carbon dioxide and other gases, situated under the Western US, 217 miles (350km) beneath the Earth's surface. As a result of this study, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, scientists now believe the amount of CO2 in the Earth's upper mantle may be up to 100 trillion metric tons.<br />
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In comparison, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates the global carbon emission in 2011 was nearly 10 billion metric tons – a tiny amount in comparison.<br />
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The deep carbon reservoir discovered will eventually make its way to the surface through volcanic eruptions and contribute to climate change albeit very slowly, but a sudden release could have dire consequences.<br />
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Dr Sash Hier-Majumder of the University of London's Department of Earth Sciences led the study. He said: 'The residence time of this carbon in the mantle is relatively large (nearly 1 billion years), so this reserve is not an imminent threat.'<br />
<br />
'But one important mechanism by which carbon, sinking into the mantle via a subducting oceanic plate, can make it's way back to the surface is by arc volcanism.'<br />
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'Arc volcanism returns between 30-40% of the total subducted carbon back into the atmosphere. The remaining carbon stays in the mantle for a much longer.'<br />
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He added: 'We might not think of the deep structure of the Earth as linked to climate change above us, but this discovery not only has implications for subterranean mapping but also for our future atmosphere,'<br />
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'For example, releasing only one per cent of this CO2 into the atmosphere will be the equivalent of burning 2.3 trillion barrels of oil.'<br />
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'The existence of such deep reservoirs show how important is the role of deep Earth in the global carbon cycle.' As a result of this study, scientists now believe the amount of CO2 in the Earth's upper mantle may be up to 100 trillion metric tons.<br />
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In comparison, the US Environmental Protection Agency estimates the global carbon emission in 2011 was nearly 10 billion metric tons – a tiny amount in comparison.<br />
<br />
The area covered by the study includes Yellowstone National Park, where previous research has uncovered evidence of a supervolcano which could also spell danger for the planet.<br />
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The volcano at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and Montana sits atop a huge reserve of molten rock and last erupted 640,000 years ago.<br />
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It releases around 45,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide each day. If it were to erupt, it would be one thousand times as powerful as the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption and have the potential to blanket the US in a 'nuclear winter'.<br />
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While it has lain dormant for more than 70,000 years, scientists say that we can't rule out the possibility eruption this may some day take place - although they say the chances are extremely slim.<br />
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The Grand Prismatic hot spring in Yellowstone National Park is among the park's many hydrothermal features created by the Yellowstone supervolcano.<br />
<br />
Experts say there is a one in 700,000 annual chance of a volcanic eruption at the site.</span><br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><u><i>The study was published  <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/0012821X" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Earth and Planetary Science Letters</a></i></u></span></div>
</div>

A Massive Lake of Molten Carbon The Size of Mexico is Discovered Under The US

A Massive Lake of Molten Carbon The Size of Mexico is Discovered Under The US. Scientists uncovered a huge reservoir of molten carbon sit...

5 Dinosaur Eggs Were Just Discovered at a Construction Site in China

3:14 PM

5 Dinosaur Eggs Were Just Discovered at a Construction Site in China

Photos: Fossilized dinosaur eggs found in China The round shaped eggs that belonged to plant-eating dinosaurs from the Cretaceous per...

The Formation of Gold deposits in South Africa

Geochemistry, Gold 1:57 PM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4-_ClHKuWGM/WPnlPBN6-YI/AAAAAAAAMJQ/bvS8mARTgx8ws-ZMdn8k8D-iSTfXhxeSwCLcB/s1600/South%2BAfrican%2B%2527Gold%2BRush%2527%2BNugget%2BMounted%2Bon%2Ba%2BGold%2BBar%2BBrooch%2Band%2Ba%2Bpiece.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4-_ClHKuWGM/WPnlPBN6-YI/AAAAAAAAMJQ/bvS8mARTgx8ws-ZMdn8k8D-iSTfXhxeSwCLcB/s640/South%2BAfrican%2B%2527Gold%2BRush%2527%2BNugget%2BMounted%2Bon%2Ba%2BGold%2BBar%2BBrooch%2Band%2Ba%2Bpiece.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">South African 'Gold Rush' Nugget Mounted on a Gold Bar Brooch and a piece</td></tr>
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<br />
<i><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">At a first glance, the Witwatersrand basin, the largest known gold resource on our planet, is not automatically related to ocean research. However, in its 3 billion years old geological history, the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa has been covered by seawater, but experienced also episodes of drying out, flooding and erosion by rivers and the repeated coverage by seawater. </span></i><br />
<br />
In 1852, the English prospector J.H. Davis discovered the first gold in the Witwatersrand, leading to the South African gold rush and the discovery of much more gold deposits within the basin. Although the Witwatersrand has been subject for decades of research, the genesis of gold and uranium ore is still unclear.<br />
<br />
A group of scientists from Canada and the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre of Ocean Research Kiel, successfully unravelled some mechanisms of the ore-forming process using complex analytical techniques. The results were recently published in the scientific journal Precambrian Research.<br />
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In this study, the scientists analysed samples from the Witwatersrand ore deposits with high-resolution scanning- and transmission-electron microscopes, and the processed their data using novel 2D and 3D software. "We were able to find out that fossil oil, that has been formed by organic matter derived from the first living organisms on Earth, mobilized uranium in the basin. Uraninite nanoparticles flocculated in the oil and formed uranium ore," explains Dr. Sebastian Fuchs from the GEOMAR, the first author of the study. "Hot hydrothermal fluids, similar to those fluids that we find today in modern seafloor Black Smoker systems, transported dissolved gold and formed oil-in-water emulsions at the site of the deposits. The oil droplets in the hydrothermal fluids initiated the efficient chemical precipitation of native gold and the formation of very complex-structured gold and uranium ore."<br />
<br />
Using high-resolution imaging techniques, the researchers were able to visualize a to date unknown ore-forming process, in which migrating oil plays the dominant role in the distribution and concentration of metals. "With our method we have been able to show remnants of fossil oil entrapped in gold for the very first time" says Dr. Sebastian Fuchs.<br />
<br />
"We are surprised to see such an intimate spatial relationship between the oil products and the metals," reports Dr. Fuchs. "We hope that our study gives new impulses to industry and science to explore new mineral deposits. Perhaps it is possible at some day to extract gold and other metals from mined crude oil."<br />
<br />
With the methods used, it is now possible to study not only ore particles on the ocean floor in the range of millimetre to nanometre, but also the smallest fossils and living organisms, such as micro-organisms. "We are curious about what else we might discover on the ocean floor in the future," Fuchs concludes.<br />
<br />
<br />
<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based <a href="http://www.geomar.de/en/news/article/entstehung-von-goldlagerstaetten-in-suedafrika/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.geomar.de/en/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel (GEOMAR)</a>. </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: normal; letter-spacing: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-converted-space"><br />
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The Formation of Gold deposits in South Africa

South African 'Gold Rush' Nugget Mounted on a Gold Bar Brooch and a piece At a first glance, the Witwatersrand basin, the...

Methane Seeps in the Canadian High Arctic

climate, Earth News, Environment 4:02 PM

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ORrGgSf55F4/WPNq1Img0YI/AAAAAAAAMF8/z8M9LsgfdA0P2d48minUw6gGIXUmOSOuwCLcB/s1600/Methane%2Bseeps%2Bin%2Bthe%2BCanadian%2Bhigh%2BArctic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ORrGgSf55F4/WPNq1Img0YI/AAAAAAAAMF8/z8M9LsgfdA0P2d48minUw6gGIXUmOSOuwCLcB/s640/Methane%2Bseeps%2Bin%2Bthe%2BCanadian%2Bhigh%2BArctic.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Widespread methane leakage from the sea floor</td></tr>
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</span></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Cretaceous climate warming led to a significant methane release from the seafloor, indicating potential for similar destabilization of gas hydrates under modern global warming. A field campaign on the remote Ellef Ringnes Island, Canadian High Arctic, discovered an astounding number of methane seep mounds in Cretaceous age sediments.</span><br />
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Seep mounds are carbonate deposits, often hosting unique fauna, which form at sites of methane leakage into the seafloor. Over 130 were found covering over 10,000 square kilometers of the Cretaceous sea floor. They occurred over a very short time interval immediately following onset of Cretaceous global warming, suggesting that the warming destabilized gas hydrates and released a large burb of methane. Given that methane has 20 times the impact of CO2 as a greenhouse gas, such a release could have accelerated global warming at that time. This discovery supports concerns of potential destabilization of modern methane hydrates.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Background</span></b><br />
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A field campaign was run during 2009-2011 to map the geology of Ellef Ringnes Island. Around the same size as Jamaica, this is one of the most remote and difficult to access islands in the Canadian High Arctic, and as such not much was known about the geology. A remote helicopter supported field camp was established in 2009, with a peak of 30 geoscientists working from the camp in 2010 as part of the Geological Survey of Canada's GEM Program. The island, and its neighbor Amund Ringnes Island, were named after brothers who founded Norway's Ringnes Brewery that funded the exploration of the region conducted by Otto Sverdrup in the early 1900s<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">As part of this work, Krista Williscroft, Stephen Grasby, and colleagues intended to reinvestigate strange spaghetti-like rock that was noticed, but the origin not understood, during the first geologic mapping of the island in the 1970s. Years later, a geologist saw a sample of this feature sitting on his colleague's desk and was intrigued by its spaghetti like nature. Chemical analyses revealed that this was a carbonate rock formed by the oxidation of methane, and the spaghetti texture was formed by fossil tube worms. This was shortly after the first discovery of methane cold seeps in the modern oceans and became the first recognition of such features in the geologic record. In this case, it was known to have formed during the Cretaceous, the time of the dinosaurs roamed Earth, around 110 million years ago. Sadly, these original samples were lost, and given the remoteness of the location, it was not possible to gain more, limiting any further work.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Methane Cold Seeps</span></b><br />
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Methane cold seeps are similar to the more famous black smokers in that they form isolated ecosystems as oasis in the deep ocean, but are lower temperatures and form away from mid-ocean ridges. They forms at sites were natural methane gas leaks into seawater. Microbes oxidase this methane as a source of energy and produce carbonate deposits as a by-product. In the modern world, these sites are characterized by an unusual abundance of tube worms, bivalves (clams), molluscs, and other animals that survive on the microbial mats that grow there. In the rock record, they stand out as very unusual features that have this strange spaghetti-like appearance related to fossil tube worms and an abundance of other fossils. As they form in deep water they also stand out as resistant carbonate mounds in rock that is otherwise easily eroded shale.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">New Discovery</span></b><br />
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In 2010 the intention was to revisit the site first discovered in the 1970s. It stood out as a small mound on the otherwise rolling landscape of arctic tundra. From this site another mound could be seen in the distance, which raised the tantalizing possibility of a second site. Some hard walking through thick mud paid off when it was reached, revealing another fossil methane seep. From there a further mound could be seen, and on and on. This lead to more than four weeks of trudging from mound to mound through muddy tundra, and the discovery of over 130 methane seep mounds in the rock record. This is now one of the most extensive sites of these features known anywhere in the world, covering more than 10,000 square kilometers.<br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Implications</span></b><br />
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A key feature of this discovery is recognition that all the seep mounds formed during a very narrow range of geologic time. Because they form by leakage of methane into seawater it implies that something at that time caused a large release of methane into the ocean. The timing is coincident with a period of global warming, and Williscroft and colleagues suggest that it was this warming that released methane frozen as methane hydrates in the sea floor, as a relatively sudden methane "burp." If correct, this has important implications for modern warming of the Arctic Ocean. Similar frozen methane hydrates occur throughout the same arctic region as they did in the past, and warming of the ocean and release of this methane is of key concern as methane is 20x the impact of CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Release of methane hydrates has previously been suggested as a mechanism to drive runaway greenhouse events, as warming oceans releases trapped methane that causes further warming and releases more methane. The extensive methane seep mounds across the remote arctic island of Ellef Ringnes may be a caution from the past regarding potential impacts of modern warming of the Arctic Ocean.</span><br />
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<u><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The above story is based <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/GSA/News/Releases/GSA/News/pr/2017/17-21.aspx" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Materials</a> provided by <a href="http://www.geosociety.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Geological Society of America</a></span></i></u></div>

Methane Seeps in the Canadian High Arctic

Widespread methane leakage from the sea floor Cretaceous climate warming led to a significant methane release from the seafloor, in...

NASA has captured new mysterious crack on the Greenland's largest glacier

climate, Earth News, NASA 4:33 PM

NASA has captured new mysterious crack on the Greenland's largest glacier

An aerial view of a chasm running through an ice shelf. The first photographs of a new and ominous crack in Greenland’s enormous Pete...

The Eight Most Incredible Fossils Preserved In Amber

Amber Fossils, Fossils 3:43 PM

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<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://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XVfek6GCclg/Wbq5EbZOiZI/AAAAAAAANao/ayfhWlvML1s6tFXV6km4sReOBk4HjA1LwCLcBGAs/s1600/This%2BIs%2BQuite%2BPossibly%2Bthe%2BUgliest%2BBug%2BEver%2BFound%2BTrapped%2Bin%2BAmber.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Eight Most Incredible Fossils Preserved In Amber" border="0" data-original-height="471" data-original-width="910" height="330" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XVfek6GCclg/Wbq5EbZOiZI/AAAAAAAANao/ayfhWlvML1s6tFXV6km4sReOBk4HjA1LwCLcBGAs/w640-h330/This%2BIs%2BQuite%2BPossibly%2Bthe%2BUgliest%2BBug%2BEver%2BFound%2BTrapped%2Bin%2BAmber.jpg" title="The Eight Most Incredible Fossils Preserved In Amber" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Eight Most Incredible Fossils Preserved In Amber</td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> <span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: georgia;">Even if fossils in amber are not useful for extracting dinosaur blood from for cloning purposes, despite what Jurassic Park may have you believe, they still preserve amazing snapshots of life millions of years ago. Amber is fossilized tree resin, a sticky, viscous substance secreted by plants in order to protect them from pests and predators. And because it is meant to protect a plant from predators, on occasion those organisms get stuck in the resin and frozen for millions of years, preserving fragile structures and unique instances of behavior paleontologists would have never seen otherwise. These are just nine example of the most incredible fossils found in amber in the last few years.</span><br />
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</span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">'Alien' insect in amber from 100 million years ago</span></b></span></span></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-poF97CEjvsU/WPSnKAY_XUI/AAAAAAAAMGs/KfZyJlofMfEYEIjmBDBdJzhuuIBLrJc-wCLcB/s1600/This%2BIs%2BQuite%2BPossibly%2Bthe%2BUgliest%2BBug%2BEver%2BFound%2BTrapped%2Bin%2BAmber.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="'Alien' insect in amber from 100 million years ago" border="0" height="360" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-poF97CEjvsU/WPSnKAY_XUI/AAAAAAAAMGs/KfZyJlofMfEYEIjmBDBdJzhuuIBLrJc-wCLcB/s640/This%2BIs%2BQuite%2BPossibly%2Bthe%2BUgliest%2BBug%2BEver%2BFound%2BTrapped%2Bin%2BAmber.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: small;">Introducing Aethiocarenus burmanicus. (image: George Poinar, Jr.)</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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<br />Around 100 million years ago, an alien-looking insect with a bizarre head and long thin legs likely crawled around on trees in what is now Burma.<br /> <br /> The insect is so strange that researchers say that it is not only a new species, but also belongs in its own new scientific order. Living in the time of the dinosaurs, the insect was tiny and wingless. Just two specimens of this new species exist, both of them preserved in Burmese amber.<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2017/01/scientists-discover-alien-insect-in.html" target="_blank">Read about it here</a></span></b><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Fluffy Dinosaur Feathers </span></span></span></h4>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j1wS2DZBK9A/WPSn6uQdidI/AAAAAAAAMG0/MlZgkXhudP8pGShsaV4yijoNA0CSbvU3QCLcB/s1600/Fluffy%2BDinosaur%2BFeathers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Fluffy Dinosaur Feathers. The Eight Most Incredible Fossils Preserved In Amber" border="0" height="308" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j1wS2DZBK9A/WPSn6uQdidI/AAAAAAAAMG0/MlZgkXhudP8pGShsaV4yijoNA0CSbvU3QCLcB/w640-h308/Fluffy%2BDinosaur%2BFeathers.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></div>
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</span> Some 99 million years ago, a juvenile dinosaur got its feathery tail stuck in tree resin, a death trap for the small creature. But its misfortune is now giving scientists unique insight into feathered dinosaurs that prospered during the Cretaceous Period.<br /> <br /> Researchers said on Thursday a chunk of amber - fossilized resin - spotted by a Chinese scientist in a market in Myitkyina, Myanmar, last year contained 1.4 inches (36 mm) of the tail of the dinosaur, complete with bones, flesh, skin and feathers. The dinosaur itself was no more than 6 inches (15 cm) long, about the size of a sparrow.<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/12/scientists-discover-beautiful-feathered.html" target="_blank">Read about it here.</a><br />
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</span><span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Oldest arthropods ever to be preserved in amber</span></b></span></span></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="The Eight Most Incredible Fossils Preserved In Amber" border="0" height="491" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IsRXjFe0-P8/WPSz_ytmDkI/AAAAAAAAMHE/BhJk6e3-SFsjfy4TQ6jwFr1RyfivUQxkQCLcB/w640-h491/Oldest%2Barthropods%2Bever%2Bto%2Bbe%2Bpreserved%2Bin%2Bamber.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: Alexander Schmidt, Eugenio </td></tr>
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</span> The Dolomite Alps of northeastern Italy have revealed plenty of droplets of amber, each between two and six millimeters in length and not that remarkable-looking on the outside. Yet an international team of researchers led by Eugenio Ragazzi and Guido Roghi from the University of Padova and by Alexander Schmidt from the University of Göttingen discovered some of the oldest ever arthropods to be caught in tree resin. <br />
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</span> <span style="font-size: small;">There are two genera in the droplets, both gall mites. This in itself is surprising. Gall mites today predominantly feed on flowering plants. Yet these ancient mites date back to the Triassic, to before flowers had evolved. Source: Schmidt A.R. et al., <a href="http://www.pnas.org/content/109/37/14796.long" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Arthropods in amber from the Triassic Period</a>. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012 Sep ; 109(37):14796-801. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1208464109</span><br />
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<span style="color: blue; font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Spider attacking a wasp</b></span></span></span></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Spider attacking a wasp" border="0" height="494" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m0ece8aBA4I/WPS1THfmh7I/AAAAAAAAMHI/6RqOOo0qoLEFtiJP_MdRbwK2ZJPQaREWgCLcB/s640/The%2B100-Million-Year-Old%2BSpider%2BAttack%2BCaptured%2Bin%2BAmber.jpg" title="" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: Dr. George Poinar Jr.</td></tr>
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</span>Trapped in a piece of amber, the juvenile spider appears to be on the cusp of devouring a male wasp that was caught in its web. Such a grisly scene between spider and prey has never before been found in the fossil record.<br /> <br /> The amazing snapshot shows an event that occurred in the Early Cretaceous period, about 97 to 110 million years ago, in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar, “almost certainly with dinosaurs wandering nearby,” as the press release about this discovery reports.<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2014/08/100-million-year-old-spider-attack.html" target="_blank">Read more at here.</a></span></b><br />
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</span><span><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Baltic Amber with Lizard Inclusion</span></b></span></span></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--GY8OWzPui4/WPS3jIR5j3I/AAAAAAAAMHM/6DBF5wFD2a4-75K4GcqNJ31N3l7gGG_qQCLcB/s1600/Baltic%2BAmber%2Bwith%2BLizard%2BInclusion.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Baltic Amber with Lizard Inclusion" border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--GY8OWzPui4/WPS3jIR5j3I/AAAAAAAAMHM/6DBF5wFD2a4-75K4GcqNJ31N3l7gGG_qQCLcB/s400/Baltic%2BAmber%2Bwith%2BLizard%2BInclusion.jpg" title="" width="362" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Courtesy: Heritage Auctions</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Baltic Amber is also referred to as succinite, and the European variety tends to have a lighter and more yellowish tone than other varieties, such as Amber specimens from the Dominican Republic. Of course, it is the curved "Lizard" preserved inside this incredible piece of Amber that makes this a beyond belief specimen. The creature is actually likely an amphibian of a salamander variety which should make it even more of a rarity.<br /> <br /> As inclusions are typically only found in about ten percent of Amber specimens, any rare vertebrate like this is a paleontological treasure. A group of scientists in Russia performed numerous tests in the effort to authenticate this specimen. Determining specific taxonomic details of the creature are impossible to determine without further specialized testing. Examples like this will continue to be studied and tested.<br />
<b><span style="font-size: small;">Read more it <a href="https://fineart.ha.com/itm/amber/baltic-amber-with-lizard-inclusion-eocene-ukraine/a/5296-81021.s?ic3=ViewItem-Inventory-BuyNowFromOwner-ThisAuction-120115" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a></span></b><br />
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<b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">First salamander in amber</span></b></span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-67OXC9IrAWE/WPdUMCiCOBI/AAAAAAAAMH8/eDt8IVeQ5DQKbC5_hsE8KVMRevNrS0A8ACLcB/s1600/First%2Bsalamander%2Bin%2Bamber.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="First salamander in amber. The Eight Most Incredible Fossils Preserved In Amber" border="0" height="426" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-67OXC9IrAWE/WPdUMCiCOBI/AAAAAAAAMH8/eDt8IVeQ5DQKbC5_hsE8KVMRevNrS0A8ACLcB/w640-h426/First%2Bsalamander%2Bin%2Bamber.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Image credit: Dr. George Poinar Jr.<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</span><br />Salamanders are absent from the Caribbean islands today. But one block of amber from this area preserves a salamander nonetheless. Not only that, but it had just gone through a rough spot in its life before succumbing to the viscous resin. One of its legs had been bitten off by an attacking predator before falling into a resin deposit, entombing it forever since the Early Miocene.<br /> <br /> Poinar and team, who studied the fossil, said that the salamander was an extinct Palaeoplethodon hispaniolae, a close relative of the numerous salamanders of today’s Appalachians. Even the tree from which the amber came from, is more closely related to East African trees rather than anything in the Caribbean. Thus the find may hold clues to how life on these islands evolved, with the current theory being that these little amphibians rafted onto the islands on floating logs and other forms of vegetation. All these Caribbean salamanders may have gone extinct due to climatic change, says Poinar yet again, having published the find in the journal Paleodiversity.<br />
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</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b>Stinging Scorpions</b></span></span></span></h4>
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<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/-CY2cqTRQ0RY/WPdVX-2ZeTI/AAAAAAAAMII/tl1yB7914uAuOfbNItCEtroGYKiSkTC8gCLcB/s1600/Stinging%2BScorpions.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="484" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CY2cqTRQ0RY/WPdVX-2ZeTI/AAAAAAAAMII/tl1yB7914uAuOfbNItCEtroGYKiSkTC8gCLcB/s640/Stinging%2BScorpions.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tityus apozonalli from Chiapas, Mexico (Image Credit: Riquelme et al.  PLOS ONE CC-BY 4.0)</td></tr></tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div>A rare male scorpion preserved in amber was recently uncovered in the Miocene (23-15 million year old) Chiapas amber of Mexico. Described in PLOS ONE by Francisco Riquelme and co-authors just last week, Tityus apozonalli is a new species of early scorpion closely related to other Neotropical fossil species. This specimen was discovered by a farmer in a hand-dug dirt pit.<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: blue;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Meat-Eating Plants</span></span></b></span></span></h4>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Peu48SHk8Dk/WPdWfH9cHEI/AAAAAAAAMIU/kUl_DJrEhTs9L5uyN3BaJM3lm5b_R__kgCLcB/s1600/Meat-Eating%2BPlants.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="418" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Peu48SHk8Dk/WPdWfH9cHEI/AAAAAAAAMIU/kUl_DJrEhTs9L5uyN3BaJM3lm5b_R__kgCLcB/s640/Meat-Eating%2BPlants.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tityus apozonalli from Chiapas, Mexico (Image Credit: Riquelme et al.  PLOS ONE CC-BY 4.0)</td></tr>
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<br />It is actually quite uncommon for large plant pieces to be trapped in amber. That is why it was so remarkable that in<a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"> 2014, Eva-Maria Sedowski and co-authors</a> were able to find and describe some of the earliest preserved remains of a carnivorous plant in approximately 40 million year old Baltic amber. The sticky tentacles on this fossil plant resemble that of the modern plant family Roridulacea, which is currently restricted only to South Africa. This find reveals this group once had a much more widespread distribution.An Insect Caring for its Young.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Read also: </span></b></span><br />
<a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2016/05/types-of-amber.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Pictures: Types of Amber</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="http://www.geologyin.com/2018/02/part-spider-part-scorpion-creature.html" target="_blank">Part Spider, Part Scorpion Creature Found in Amber </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2017/06/this-100-million-year-old-bird-trapped.html" target="_blank">This 100-Million-Year-Old Bird Trapped in Amber Is The Best We've Ever Seen</a></span><br />
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