Petrified Tree Up to 20 Million Years Old Found Intact in Lesbos

<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/-DV9FFV5uNgI/YDvGtqadl7I/AAAAAAAAS4c/Kb03THJaYgoHx7WNOuz2dZK3XpmSJ_IFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Petrified%2BTree%2BUp%2Bto%2B20%2BMillion%2BYears%2BOld%2BFound%2BIntact%2Bin%2BLesbos%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DV9FFV5uNgI/YDvGtqadl7I/AAAAAAAAS4c/Kb03THJaYgoHx7WNOuz2dZK3XpmSJ_IFQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/Petrified%2BTree%2BUp%2Bto%2B20%2BMillion%2BYears%2BOld%2BFound%2BIntact%2Bin%2BLesbos%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A fossilised tree trunk in the petrified forest of Lesbos. Photograph: Nikolas Zouros<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>Discovery of 19.5-metre tree with roots, branches and leaves is unprecedented, say experts<br /><br />Greek scientists on the volcanic island of Lesbos say they have found a rare fossilized tree whose branches and roots are still intact after 20 million years.<br /><br />The tree was found during roadwork near an ancient forest petrified millions of years ago on the eastern Mediterranean island and transported from the site using a special splint and metal platform.<br /><br />It is the first time a tree has been found in such good condition complete with branches and roots since excavations began in 1995, said Professor Nikos Zouros of the Museum of Natural History of the Petrified Forest of Lesbos.<br /><br />“It is a unique find,” he said. “[It] is preserved in excellent condition and from studying the fossilized wood we will be able to identify the type of plant it comes from.”<br /><br />Lesbos’ petrified forest, a 15,000-hectare, UNESCO-protected site, is the result of a volcanic eruption 20 million years ago which smothered the island’s then subtropical forest ecosystem in lava.<br /><br />The fossilized tree, about 19 metres long, was preserved by a thick layer of volcanic ash after it fell. A large number of fruit tree leaves were found in the same spot, adding to the picture along with animal bones from the general area.<br /><br />“During the excavations the various forests that existed between 17 and 20 million years ago on Lesbos are being uncovered and we can reconstruct the ecosystem that existed during that period,” said Zouros.</p><p>Excavations by his 35-strong team along a 20km highway connecting Sigri with Kalloni, the region’s biggest town, since 2013 have yielded more than 15 significant fossil sites but the earlier finds have paled next to the most recent.<br /><br />The discovery of an entire tree lying on a bed of leaves was not only unprecedented but down to pure luck. “Constructors were about to asphalt that part of the highway when one of our technicians noticed a tiny branch. The road work stopped, we starting excavating and quite quickly realised we had chanced upon an incredible find,” said Zouros. “It will now form part of the open-air museum we intend to create.”<br /><br />Geologists around the world have described the find as a breakthrough. “We have a case of extraordinary fossilisation in which a tree was preserved with its various parts intact. In the history of paleontology, worldwide, it’s unique,” said the Portuguese palaeontologist Artur Abreu Sá. “That it was buried by sediments expelled during a destructive volcanic eruption, and then found in situ, makes it even more unusual.”<br /><br />The climate emergency has highlighted the need to understand ecosystems in a hotter future if global temperatures are not reduced and, as such, Lesbos’s petrified forest offers an invaluable window into the past, said Prof Iain Stewart, who directs the Sustainable Earth Institute at the University of Plymouth.<br /><br />“It’s a world-class place to look at the type of environment that existed 20m years ago,” he told the Guardian. “Finds like these are a window into a particular past, a greenhouse, hothouse world, that existed back then. They might be an indication of what is coming if we don’t get our act together in tackling the climate change emergency.”<br /><br />In more recent times, Lesbos has been better known for the thousands of refugees who have landed on its shores but the island’s unusually diverse landscape and vegetation also draws scientists interested in its geological past.<br /><br />“The petrified forest is the first stop on our fieldtrip,” said Chronis Tzedakis, a professor of physical geography at University College London, who has been running field classes on the Aegean isle for the past decade. “It never disappoints … These new finds are stunning. The tree with its branches still attached is a rarity, while 150 trunks recovered together will provide a snapshot of a forest community which will allow us to assess its biodiversity at one point in time.”<br /><br />It was in Lesbos that Aristotle worked on the zoological studies that would become the canon of biological thought for the next 2,000 years.<br /><br />Tzedakis has found himself pondering whether the philosopher who was invited to the island by his disciple, Theophrastus, was ultimately influenced by the geological wonder. The polymath, himself a student of Plato, spent two years there, much of it ensconced in the study of marine biology.<br /><br />“I often like to think that Aristotle, who established the foundation of scientific inquiry while on Lesbos must have seen the petrified trees of Sigri,” he said adding that the similarity of some of the fossils to their living relatives may have inspired his theory of species being fixed and well-defined.<br /><br />“Having grown up in nearby Eressos, Theophrastus, the ‘father of botany’, would have surely known about it and have taken the great man to see it.” <br /></p>

Petrified Tree Up to 20 Million Years Old Found Intact in Lesbos

A fossilised tree trunk in the petrified forest of Lesbos. Photograph: Nikolas Zouros Discovery of 19.5-metre tree with roots, branches and ...

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Earth's Magnetic Field Flipped 42,000 Years Ago. The Consequences Were Dramatic

<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n94HcCtelLs/YDUocPeQuwI/AAAAAAAAS34/CqdHC0bKI_8K3pjOyGugGmT_Hopp9StbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Earth%2527s%2BMagnetic%2BField%2BFlipped%2B42%252C000%2BYears%2BAgo.%2BThe%2BConsequences%2BWere%2BDramatic%2B%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1200" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n94HcCtelLs/YDUocPeQuwI/AAAAAAAAS34/CqdHC0bKI_8K3pjOyGugGmT_Hopp9StbQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Earth%2527s%2BMagnetic%2BField%2BFlipped%2B42%252C000%2BYears%2BAgo.%2BThe%2BConsequences%2BWere%2BDramatic%2B%25282%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /><p></p><p><br />A global period of upheaval 42,000 years ago was the result of a reversal in Earth's magnetic field, new research has found.<br /><br />According to radiocarbon preserved in ancient tree rings, several centuries' worth of climate breakdown, mass extinctions, and even changes in human behaviour can be directly linked to the last time Earth's magnetic field changed its polarity.<br /><br />The research team has named the period the Adams Transitional Geomagnetic Event, or Adams Event, after sci-fi writer Douglas Adams, who famously declared the number 42 the ultimate answer to life, the Universe, and everything.<br /><br />"For the first time ever, we have been able to precisely date the timing and environmental impacts of the last magnetic pole switch," said Earth scientist Chris Turney of the University of New South Wales in Australia. <br /><br />"The findings were made possible with ancient New Zealand kauri trees, which have been preserved in sediments for over 40,000 years. Using the ancient trees we could measure, and date, the spike in atmospheric radiocarbon levels caused by the collapse of Earth's magnetic field."<br /><br />This most recent period of magnetic reversal is known as the Laschamp event, and it is what we call a geomagnetic excursion. This is when the planet's magnetic poles briefly swap places before returning to their original positions. It's one of the most well studied of Earth's magnetic field events, recorded by ferromagnetic minerals.<br /><br />It took place around 41,000 years ago, and lasted for around 800 years. Exactly what impact this event had on life on the planet was unclear, though - so when scientists uncovered an ancient kauri tree (Agathis australis) in 2019 that had been alive during this time period, they seized on the chance to learn more.<br /><br />That's because trees record atmospheric activity in their annual growth rings. In particular, carbon-14, or radiocarbon, can reveal a lot of information about celestial activity.<br /><br />Radiocarbon only occurs on Earth in trace amounts compared to the other naturally occurring carbon isotopes. It's formed in the upper atmosphere under the bombardment of cosmic rays from space. When these rays enter the atmosphere, they interact with the local nitrogen atoms to trigger a nuclear reaction that produces radiocarbon.<br /><br />Since cosmic rays are constantly streaming through space, Earth receives a more or less steady supply of radiocarbon. Therefore, a spike in radiocarbon in tree rings tells us that Earth had greater exposure to radiocarbon during that year.<br /><br />When Earth's magnetic field is weakened, as it was during the Laschamp event, more cosmic rays penetrate through to the atmosphere to produce more radiocarbon. Because of this, scientists had previously been able to ascertain that Earth's magnetic field had weakened to about 28 percent of its normal strength during that 800-year period.<br /><br />The kauri tree, however, allowed the research team to study the years leading up to the Laschamp event. They found that the Adams event took place from about 42,200 years ago, and the magnetic field was at its weakest point before the Laschamp event.<br /><br />"Earth's magnetic field dropped to only 0-6 percent strength during the Adams Event," Turney explained. "We essentially had no magnetic field at all - our cosmic radiation shield was totally gone."<br /><br />During this time, the Sun's magnetic field would also have weakened several times, as it, too, experienced magnetic reversal as part of its regular cycle. These periods see less sunspot and flare activity, but the Sun's magnetic field also provides Earth with a measure of protection from cosmic rays - so, during these solar minima, cosmic ray bombardment would have increased again.<br /><br />This weakened magnetic field would have triggered substantial changes in Earth's atmospheric ozone, with dramatic consequences, including electrical storms and spectacular aurorae, and climate change around the world.<br /><br />"Unfiltered radiation from space ripped apart air particles in Earth's atmosphere, separating electrons and emitting light - a process called ionisation," Turney said.<br /><br />"The ionised air 'fried' the ozone layer, triggering a ripple of climate change across the globe."<br /><br />This is consistent with climate and environmental changes from this time observed in other records from across the globe, such as the mysterious extinction of Australia's megafauna.<br /><br /></p><br /><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> The research has been published in <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6531/811" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Science</a>.</span></i></u>

Earth's Magnetic Field Flipped 42,000 Years Ago. The Consequences Were Dramatic

  A global period of upheaval 42,000 years ago was the result of a reversal in Earth's magnetic field, new research has found. According...

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World's Oldest DNA Found in Siberian Mammoth Teeth

<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/-AJb7HQbNAH4/YDKRqjam1NI/AAAAAAAAS3M/NLFLnfm0wDcPos0Run4murd0jsGYzc0TwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1220/World%2527s%2BOldest%2BDNA%2BFound%2Bin%2BSiberian%2BMammoth%2BTeeth%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="871" data-original-width="1220" height="456" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AJb7HQbNAH4/YDKRqjam1NI/AAAAAAAAS3M/NLFLnfm0wDcPos0Run4murd0jsGYzc0TwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h456/World%2527s%2BOldest%2BDNA%2BFound%2Bin%2BSiberian%2BMammoth%2BTeeth%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="World's Oldest DNA Found in Siberian Mammoth Teeth" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An illustration of the mammoth.</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p>Scientists have recovered DNA from mammoth fossils found in Siberian permafrost that are more than a million years old. This DNA—the oldest genomic evidence recovered to date—illuminates the evolutionary history of woolly mammoths and Columbian mammoths. It also raises the prospect of recovering DNA from other organisms this ancient—including extinct members of the human family.<br /><br />Ever since the recovery of two short DNA sequences from a recently extinct zebra subspecies known as the quagga in 1984, researchers have been working to get ever larger amounts of DNA from ever older remains. Advances in ancient DNA extraction and sequencing methods eventually brought to light genomes of creatures from deeper time, including cave bears and Neandertals. </p><p>In 2013, investigators announced that they had retrieved DNA from a 700,000-year-old horse fossil—by far the oldest genomic data ever obtained. But as astonishingly old as that genetic material was, some experts predicted that sequenceable DNA should survive more than a million years in fossils preserved in frozen environments.<br /><br />The new findings, published today in Nature, bear that prediction out. Tom van der Valk and Love Dalén of the Center for Paleogenetics in Stockholm and their colleagues obtained DNA from molar teeth belonging to three mammoths from different time periods. Mammoth species can be distinguished on the basis of dental characteristics. One tooth, discovered in deposits thought to be around 700,000 years old, looked like that of an early woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius. The other two teeth—one dated to around one million years ago and the other to 1.2 million years ago or more—resembled molars of the steppe mammoth, Mammuthus trogontherii.<br /><br />The genetic material extracted from the teeth was highly degraded, having fragmented into lots of tiny pieces over the millennia. To reassemble the pieces and help filter out any DNA from microbes or other contaminants, the researchers used the genomes of modern-day elephants as guides, much as someone solving a jigsaw puzzle might refer to the image on the box. </p><p>In all they recovered billions of DNA base pairs from the youngest fossil (the woolly mammoth)—about 70 to 80 percent of the genome. They got hundreds of millions of base pairs constituting around 25 to 30 percent of the genome of the second oldest mammoth. The oldest fossil yielded the least DNA, but the team still sequenced around 60 million base pairs from it—enough to provide insights into mammoth evolution.<br /><br />The fossil record of mammoths indicates that they arose around five million years ago in Africa and spread across much of the world, evolving into number of species and enduring for millions of years before going extinct just a few thousand years ago. Comparing the new genomic data to genomes of younger mammoths, the researchers confirmed their expectation that the woolly mammoth evolved from the steppe mammoth, and they showed that it gradually acquired its adaptations to the extreme cold of ice age Siberia.<br /><br />The results also revealed surprises about another branch of the mammoth family tree. The oldest mammoth the team sampled turned out to belong to a previously unknown lineage that was ancestral to the mammoths that colonized North America 1.5 million years ago during the early Pleistocene epoch and gave rise to the Columbian mammoth that inhabited temperate regions of North and Central America. The Columbian mammoth may have been the product of interbreeding between woolly mammoths and members of the lineage to which the researchers’ oldest fossil specimen belonged, they suggest.<br /><br />Outside experts say the work represents a significant advance in ancient DNA research. “It’s an exciting study revealing DNA survival beyond what many in the field would have predicted being the upper limit just a decade ago,” remarks Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen, whose team recovered the 700,000-year-old horse genome in 2013. He and his colleagues were among the researchers who calculated that DNA more than a million years old could survive in permafrost conditions. “Now this has been proven,” he says. <br /><br />“This is a very exciting study, not only because it pushes back the age of the oldest DNA yet recovered, but because the DNA that the team obtained from these very ancient mammoths provides important insights into early mammoth populations and into the origins of later mammoths both in Europe and the Americas,” says Janet Kelso of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. <br /><br />Mammoths are not the only creatures of interest from this time period. Dalén, van der Valk and their colleagues note that many modern-day mammal and bird species got their start in the Early and Middle Pleistocene. At a press teleconference on February 16, Dalén said that the team is starting projects looking into some of these species, including horses, musk ox and various rodents.<br /><br />Can scientists expect to recover DNA from similarly ancient human ancestors? The human fossil record spans up to seven million years. The oldest human DNA comes from remains dated to 430,000 years ago. “We know that environmental conditions matter a lot for the preservation of DNA. The extraordinary preservation of these mammoth specimens is likely thanks to the fact that they have been ‘on-ice’—frozen in Northern Siberia since the death of these mammoths,” says Kelso, who has studied a number of ancient human genomes. “The ancient humans that have been discovered so far are not found in such ideal conditions, and our view back into the human past is unfortunately therefore still limited.”<br /><br />But all hope is not lost. “Every year there are new innovations in methods,” Dalén said at the press teleconference. “Maybe a number of years in the future the methods will be there to recover DNA from human nonpermafrost specimens that are getting close to a million years old.” Alternatively, he added, “it is quite possible that in the future someone will find human remains frozen in permafrost of that age.  <br /></p><p><b><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><i><u>The study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00436-x#ref-CR1" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nature.</a></u></i></span></b><br /></p>

World's Oldest DNA Found in Siberian Mammoth Teeth

An illustration of the mammoth.   Scientists have recovered DNA from mammoth fossils found in Siberian permafrost that are more than a milli...

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Researchers Find Ingredients for Microbial Life in 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Rocks

<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/-gK8RSlKXMqY/YDE6g6lELqI/AAAAAAAAS3A/QfjXsAafBY409_mtnB4RBHadmUCmY9XdACLcBGAsYHQ/s1500/Researchers%2BFind%2BIngredients%2Bfor%2BMicrobial%2BLife%2Bin%2B3.5-Billion-Year-Old%2BRocks%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="779" data-original-width="1500" height="332" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gK8RSlKXMqY/YDE6g6lELqI/AAAAAAAAS3A/QfjXsAafBY409_mtnB4RBHadmUCmY9XdACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h332/Researchers%2BFind%2BIngredients%2Bfor%2BMicrobial%2BLife%2Bin%2B3.5-Billion-Year-Old%2BRocks%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The close association between the inclusion-bearing black barites and stromatolites suggests that hydrothermal fluids might have influenced ancient microbial communities. Image credit: Mißbach et al.</span></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p></p><p>A team of geobiologists from Germany has found biologically-relevant primordial organic molecules and gases in fluid inclusions trapped in 3.5-billion-year-old barites from the Dresser mine, Marble Bar, Australia.<br /><br />A research team including the geobiologist Dr. Helge Missbach from the University of Cologne has detected organic molecules and gases trapped in 3.5-billion-year-old rocks. A widely accepted hypothesis says that the earliest life forms used small organic molecules as building materials and energy sources. However, the existence of such components in early habitats on Earth was as yet unproven. <br /><br />The current study, published in the journal Nature Communications, shows that solutions from archaic hydrothermal vents contained essential components that formed a basis for the earliest life on our planet.<br /><br />Specifically, the scientists examined about 3.5-billion-year-old barites from the Dresser Formation in Western Australia. The barite thus dates from a time when early life developed on Earth. "In the field, the barites are directly associated with fossilized microbial mats, and they smell like rotten eggs when freshly scratched. <br /><br />Thus, we suspected that they contained organic material that might have served as nutrients for early microbial life," said Dr. Helge Missbach of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy and lead author of the study.<br /><br />In the fluid inclusions, the team identified organic compounds such as acetic acid and methanethiol, in addition to gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. These compounds may have been important substrates for metabolic processes of early microbial life. Furthermore, they are discussed as putative key agents in the origin of life on Earth. <br /><br />"The immediate connection between primordial molecules emerging from the subsurface and the microbial organisms—3.5 billion years ago—somehow surprised us. This finding contributes decisively to our understanding of the still unclear earliest evolutionary history of life on Earth," Missbach concluded.</p><p> </p><p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> The above story is based on <a href="https://portal.uni-koeln.de/en/universitaet/aktuell/press-releases/single-news/fuel-for-earliest-life-forms-organic-molecules-found-in-35-billion-year-old-rocks" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; 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; 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://portal.uni-koeln.de/en/uoc-home" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; 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 Cologne</strong></a></span></i></u><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="color: black;"><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">.</span></i></u></span><span><span style="color: black;"><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></i></u></span><br /></span></span></p>

Researchers Find Ingredients for Microbial Life in 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Rocks

The close association between the inclusion-bearing black barites and stromatolites suggests that hydrothermal fluids might have influenced ...

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A New, Clearer Insight Into Earth's Hidden Crystals

<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/-UIxIXJBHiMQ/YC6NRI9EObI/AAAAAAAAS2g/w_bP3wFAqjs_RzcaxFdX9nPikWz-bcu5QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/A%2BNew%252C%2BClearer%2BInsight%2BInto%2BEarth%2527s%2BHidden%2BCrystals%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Olivine - rock-forming mineral of Dunite" border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="1200" height="276" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UIxIXJBHiMQ/YC6NRI9EObI/AAAAAAAAS2g/w_bP3wFAqjs_RzcaxFdX9nPikWz-bcu5QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h276/A%2BNew%252C%2BClearer%2BInsight%2BInto%2BEarth%2527s%2BHidden%2BCrystals%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Olivine - rock-forming mineral of Dunite</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p>Geologists have developed a new theory about the state of Earth billions of years ago after examining the very old rocks formed in the Earth's mantle below the continents.<br /><br />Assistant Professor Emma Tomlinson from Trinity College Dublin and Queensland University of Technology's Professor Balz Kamber have just published their research in leading international journal, Nature Communications.<br /><br />The seven continents on Earth today are each built around a stable interior called a craton, and geologists believe that craton stabilisation some 2.5 -- 3 billion years ago was critical to the emergence of land masses on Earth.<br /><br />Little is known about how cratons and their supporting mantle keels formed, but important clues can be found in peridotite xenoliths, which are samples of mantle that are brought to the Earth's surface by erupting volcanoes.<br /><br />Dr Tomlinson, from Trinity's School of Natural Sciences, said:<br /><br />"Many rocks from the mantle below old continents contain a surprising amount of silica -- much more than is found in younger parts of the mantle."<br /><br />"There is currently no scientific consensus about the reason for this."<br /><br />The new research, which looks at the global data for mantle peridotite, comes up with a new explanation for this observation.<br /><br />The research used a new thermodynamic model to calculate that the unusual mineralogy developed when very hot molten rock -- greater than 1700 °C -- interacted with older parts of the mantle and this caused the growth of silica-rich minerals.<br /><br />"For more than 1 billion years, from 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, volcanoes also erupted very unusual lavas of very low viscosity -- lava that was very thin, very hot and often contained variable levels of silica," Dr Tomlinson added.<br /><br />"Our modelling suggests that the unusual lavas were in fact the molten rocks that interacted with the mantle at great depth and this interaction resulted in the variable level of silica."<br /><br />Professor Kamber, QUT, said:<br /><br />"Both the silica-rich rocks in the deep mantle and the low viscosity volcanic rocks stopped being made by the Earth some 2.5 billion years ago. This timing is the boundary between the Archaean and Proterozoic eons -- one of the most significant breaks in Earth's geological timescale."<br /><br />What caused this boundary remains unknown, but the research offers a new perspective.<br /><br />Professor Kamber added:<br /><br />"This may have been due to a change in how the mantle was flowing. Once the mantle started slowly turning over all the way down to the core (2,900 km), the very high temperatures of the Archaean eon were no longer possible."</p><p><i><u> </u></i></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><i><u> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/a-new-clearer-insight-into-earths-hidden-crystals/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; 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; 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></span>provided by<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; 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></span><a href="http://www.tcd.ie/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; 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;">Trinity College Dublin</strong></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; 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></u></i></span></p>

A New, Clearer Insight Into Earth's Hidden Crystals

Olivine - rock-forming mineral of Dunite Geologists have developed a new theory about the state of Earth billions of years ago after examini...

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Mount Etna: Europe's Most Active Volcano Explodes and Closes Nearby Airport

<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/-66ka1pM62oQ/YC07ypXHEHI/AAAAAAAAS2I/fsBSJnKlgE4rTp2RcKbUQF1tzSv-N7mXgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1376/Spectacular%2Bshow%2Bas%2BItalian%2Bvolcano%2BMount%2BEtna%2Berupts.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="1376" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-66ka1pM62oQ/YC07ypXHEHI/AAAAAAAAS2I/fsBSJnKlgE4rTp2RcKbUQF1tzSv-N7mXgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h400/Spectacular%2Bshow%2Bas%2BItalian%2Bvolcano%2BMount%2BEtna%2Berupts.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On Tuesday there was a major increase in volcanic activity at the Southeast Crater, followed by a violent pyroclastic flow accompanied by tall lava fountains and lava flow CREDIT: Anadolu Agency <br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p>Mount Etna, one of the world's most active volcanoes, belched smoke and ashes in a new eruption on Tuesday, but Italian authorities said it posed no danger to the surrounding villages.<br /><br />"We've seen worse," the head of the INGV National Institute for Geophysics and Vulcanology in the nearby city of Catania, Stefano Branco, told Italian news agency AGI.<br /><br />Estimating that the eruption from Etna's southeastern crater began late Tuesday afternoon, Branco insisted that the latest burst of activity was "not at all worrying".<br /><br />Nevertheless, with small stones and ashes raining down, authorities decided to close Catania's international airport.<br /><br />The emergency authorities said on their Twitter account that they were monitoring the situation closely in the three villages at the foot of the volcano—Linguaglossa, Fornazzo and Milo.<br /><br />Images showed a spectacular rose-coloured plume of ashes above the snow-capped summit, but the cloud had largely dissipated by nightfall, while lava flows continued to glow.<br /><br />At 3,324 metres (nearly 11,000 feet), Etna is the tallest active volcano in Europe and has erupted frequently in the past 500,000 years.<br /> </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/-Y8fAw87iI1Y/YC0-FRm1ArI/AAAAAAAAS2U/Sfp8ayhm9jg2R1WDTEgDqD7OBSVt3IWsgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1376/Mount%2BEtna%2Bhas%2Berupted%252C%2Bsending%2Bsmoke.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="860" data-original-width="1376" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y8fAw87iI1Y/YC0-FRm1ArI/AAAAAAAAS2U/Sfp8ayhm9jg2R1WDTEgDqD7OBSVt3IWsgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h400/Mount%2BEtna%2Bhas%2Berupted%252C%2Bsending%2Bsmoke.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view of the Mount Etna eruption spewing ash, as seen from Paterno, Italy CREDIT: LUIGI SENNA /REUTERS</td></tr></tbody></table><br />

Mount Etna: Europe's Most Active Volcano Explodes and Closes Nearby Airport

On Tuesday there was a major increase in volcanic activity at the Southeast Crater, followed by a violent pyroclastic flow accompanied by ta...

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Thai Fisherman Finds Rare Orange Pearl Worth $330k

<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/-jA1WID6iKnc/YB1v2q6sXgI/AAAAAAAAS1c/NqFcKCt9UOgUpNaMqXskMvkZExz7BF9uwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1286/Thai%2BFisherman%2BFinds%2BRare%2BOrange%2BPearl%2BWorth%2B%2524330k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Thai Fisherman Finds Rare Orange Pearl Worth $330k" border="0" data-original-height="836" data-original-width="1286" height="416" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jA1WID6iKnc/YB1v2q6sXgI/AAAAAAAAS1c/NqFcKCt9UOgUpNaMqXskMvkZExz7BF9uwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h416/Thai%2BFisherman%2BFinds%2BRare%2BOrange%2BPearl%2BWorth%2B%2524330k.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The pearl is about the width of a dime and weighs 7.68 grams.<br />Photo: ViralPress</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p>It’s rare enough to find a pearl in a shell, so to happen upon an extraordinary orange pearl — worth more than $330,000 — was like winning the lottery for one Thai fisherman.<br /><br />Brothers Hatchai Niyomdecha, 37, and Worachat Niyomdecha, 35, were walking the shore of Nakhon Si Thammarat in the Gulf of Thailand on Jan. 27. when they spotted an abandoned buoy, dotted with shellfish, according to Viral Press.<br /><br />The siblings plucked three snails from the apparatus with plans to have them for a snack. But what their father Bangmad Niyomdecha, 60, found while cleaning the shells was worth much more than fresh escargot.<br /><br />The tangerine-hued pearl, which is about the width of a dime and weighs 7.68 grams, was found in the Melo melo sea snail, as opposed to typical oyster pearls. These exceedingly rare pearls, formed in a gastropod native to Asian waters, can be found in shades from tan or brown to the more coveted orange color, and take many more years to form than standard pearls.<br /><br />Hatchai, whose family hails from an impoverished fishing community, believes it may have been destiny that led him to the treasure.<br /><br />“An old man in white with a long mustache told me to come to the beach so I can receive a gift. I think he led me to finding the pearl,” he said of a dream he had just days before the discovery.<br /><br />“I want to sell the pearl for the highest price,” he told Viral Press. “The money won’t just change my life, it will change my destiny. My whole family will have better lives.”<br /><br />He was since approached by at least three buyers, two of whom low-balled the pearl’s value.<br /><br />The family, including wife Worachat Niyomdecha, 35, and their two sons, is negotiating with a buyer from China who is allegedly offering $10 million Baht (about $332,000) following a live appraisal, scheduled for later this month.<br /><br /> </p>

Thai Fisherman Finds Rare Orange Pearl Worth $330k

The pearl is about the width of a dime and weighs 7.68 grams. Photo: ViralPress   It’s rare enough to find a pearl in a shell, so to happen ...

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635 Million-Year-Old Fossil Is the Oldest Known Land Fungus

<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/-4Q9kjRVp5OI/YBrQJ5XM7vI/AAAAAAAAS1M/4YAMfbixwN0X8TBvuTieIsxyAYrev-m9ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1202/635%2BMillion-Year-Old%2BFossil%2BIs%2Bthe%2BOldest%2BKnown%2BLand%2BFungus%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="843" data-original-width="1202" height="448" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4Q9kjRVp5OI/YBrQJ5XM7vI/AAAAAAAAS1M/4YAMfbixwN0X8TBvuTieIsxyAYrev-m9ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h448/635%2BMillion-Year-Old%2BFossil%2BIs%2Bthe%2BOldest%2BKnown%2BLand%2BFungus%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Microscopic image of the fungus-like microfossils.<br />(Image: © Andrew Czaja of University of Cincinnati)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">The oldest evidence of land fungus may be a wee microfossil that's 635 million years old, found in a cave in southern China.</span></p><p>When you think of fungi, what comes to mind may be a crucial ingredient in a recipe or their amazing ability to break down dead organic matter into vital nutrients. But new research by Shuhai Xiao, a professor of geosciences with the Virginia Tech College of Science, and Tian Gan, a visiting Ph.D. student in the Xiao lab, highlights yet another important role that fungi have played throughout the Earth's history: helping the planet recover from an ice age.<br /><br />A team of scientists from Virginia Tech, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guizhou Education University, and University of Cincinnati has discovered the remains of a fungi-like microfossil that emerged at the end of an ice age some 635 million years ago. It is the oldest terrestrial fossil ever found. To put it into perspective, this microfossil predates the oldest dinosaurs about three times over.<br /><br />The fossil was found in small cavities within well-studied sedimentary dolostone rocks of the lowermost Doushantuo Formation in South China. Although the Doushantuo Formation has provided a plethora of fossils to date, researchers did not expect to find any fossils toward the lower base of the dolostones.<br /><br />But against all odds, Gan found a few long, thread-like filaments -- one of the key characteristics of fungi.<br /><br />"It was an accidental discovery," said Gan. "At that moment, we realized that this could be the fossil that scientists have been looking for a long time. If our interpretation is correct, it will be helpful for understanding the paleoclimate change and early life evolution."<br /><br />This discovery is key for understanding multiple turning points throughout Earth's history: the Ediacaran period and the terrestrialization of fungi.<br /><br />When the Ediacaran period began, the planet was recovering from a catastrophic ice age, also known as the "snowball Earth." At that time, ocean surfaces were frozen to a depth of more than a kilometer and it was an incredibly harsh environment for virtually any living organism, except for some microscopic life that managed to thrive. Scientists have long wondered how life ever returned to normalcy -- and how the biosphere was able to grow larger and more complex than ever before.<br /><br />With this new fossil in hand, Tian and Xiao are certain that these microscopic, low profile cave dwellers played numerous roles in the reconditioning of the terrestrial environment in the Ediacaran time. One role involved their formidable digestive system.<br /><br />Fungi have a rather unique digestive system that plays an even greater role in the cycling of vital nutrients. Using enzymes secreted into the environment, terrestrial fungi can chemically break down rocks and other tough organic matter, which can then be recycled and exported into the ocean.<br /><br />"Fungi have a mutualistic relationship with the roots of plants, which helps them mobilize minerals, such as phosphorus. Because of their connection to terrestrial plants and important nutritional cycles, terrestrial fungi have a driving influence on biochemical weathering, the global biogeochemical cycle, and ecological interactions," said Gan.<br /><br />Although previous evidence stated that terrestrial plants and fungi formed a symbiotic relationship around 400 million years ago, this new discovery has recalibrated the timeline of when these two kingdoms colonized the land.<br /><br />"The question used to be: 'Were there fungi in the terrestrial realm before the rise of terrestrial plants'," said Xiao, an affiliated faculty member of the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and the Global Change Center. "And I think our study suggests yes. Our fungus-like fossil is 240 million years older than the previous record. This is, thus far, the oldest record of terrestrial fungi."<br /><br />Now, new questions have arisen. Since the fossilized filaments were accompanied by other fossils, Gan will set out to explore their past relationships.<br /><br />"One of my goals is to constrain the phylogenetic affinities of these other types of fossils that are associated with the fungal fossils," said Gan.<br /><br />Xiao is thrilled to tackle the environmental aspects of these microorganism. Sixty years ago, few believed that microorganisms, like bacteria and fungi, could be preserved as fossils. Now that Xiao has seen them with his very eyes, he plans to learn more about how they have been virtually frozen in time.<br /><br />"It is always important to understand the organisms in the environmental context," said Xiao. "We have a general idea that they lived in small cavities in dolostone rocks. But little is known about how exactly they lived and how they were preserved. Why can something like fungi, which have no bones or shells, be preserved in the fossil record?"<br /><br />However, it can't be said for sure if this fossil is a definitive fungus. Although there is a fair amount of evidence behind it, the investigation into these microfossils is ongoing.<br /><br />"We would like to leave things open for other possibilities, as a part of our scientific inquiry," said Xiao. "The best way to put it is that perhaps we have not disapproved that they are fungi, but they are the best interpretation that we have at the moment."<br /><br />Three distinct groups and labs at Virginia Tech were crucial for the identification and timestamping of this fossil. The Confocal Laser Scanning and Microscopy lab at the Fralin Life Sciences Institute helped Tian and Xiao perform initial analysis that prompted further investigation at the University of Cincinnati.<br /><br />The Department of Biological Sciences' Massey Herbarium, which houses over 115,000 specimens of vascular plants, fungi, bryophytes, and lichens, provided modern fungal specimens for comparison with the fossils.<br /><br />The team called in technicians to conduct geochemical analysis using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry, which ionize nanomoles of material from small areas that are a fraction the thickness of a hair strand, to analyze the isotopic abundance of sulfur-32 and sulfur-34 in order to understand the fossilization environment.<br /><br />Advanced computerized tomography was crucial to getting the 3D morphology of the filaments, which are just a few micrometers thick. And a combination of Focused Ion Beam Scanning Electron Microscopy and Transmission Electron Microscopy allowed researchers to cut samples with surgical precision and take an even closer look at every nanometer of the filaments.<br /><br />"This wasn't a single person or even a single lab that did this work," said Xiao.<br /><br />Xiao also emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary research in this study and many others.<br /><br />"It's very important to encourage the next generation of scientists to be trained in an interdisciplinary light because new discoveries always happen at the interface of different fields," said Xiao.<br /><br /> </p><p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The above story is based on <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2021/01/fralinlifesci-oldest-fungi-like-microfossil-bailed-us-out-of-an-ice-age.html" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; 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; 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></span>provided by<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; 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></span><a href="http://www.vt.edu/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #337ab7; 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"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Virginia Tech</b></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; 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>Original written by Kendall Daniels.</span></i></u></p>

635 Million-Year-Old Fossil Is the Oldest Known Land Fungus

Microscopic image of the fungus-like microfossils. (Image: © Andrew Czaja of University of Cincinnati) The oldest evidence of land fungus ma...

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Mineral Often Found on Mars Discovered Deep in Antarctic Ice

<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/-jTxomgXAAK8/YBWISAkDwgI/AAAAAAAAS0w/-z4l4Kp4XOUY_9E-YHd4MKiterppLfIxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1220/Jarosite-114913%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1175" data-original-width="1220" height="616" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jTxomgXAAK8/YBWISAkDwgI/AAAAAAAAS0w/-z4l4Kp4XOUY_9E-YHd4MKiterppLfIxwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h616/Jarosite-114913%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Martian mineral, rare on Earth, found locked in Antarctic ice" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jarosite crystal. photo by: Christian Rewitzer<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Martian mineral, rare on Earth, found locked in Antarctic ice </span><br /></p><p>Scientists boring more than a mile deep into Antarctic ice have unearthed a mineral that's rarely seen on Earth but found in abundance on Mars, Science Magazine reported.<br /><br />An international team of researchers has found evidence of the mineral jarosite in ice cores extracted from Antarctica. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the researchers describe how the discovery came about and why they believe it could bolster theories regarding the presence of the same mineral on the surface of Mars.<br /><br />Jarosite is very rarely found on Earth—it is generally seen in mining waste that has been exposed to air and rain. The researchers with this new effort were not looking for it in their ice cores—they were focused on minerals in deep ice cores that might help to better understand ice age cycles. But when they came across the yellow-brown mineral, their interest was piqued. X-ray absorption testing and electron microscopy showed it be jarosite.<br /><br />The researchers suggest the mineral formed in ice pockets that also held small amounts of dust. Under the ice, they had eroded, the researchers noted. The finding brought to mind another site where jarosite is found—the surface of Mars. </p><p>It was found there by the Opportunity rover back in 2004 and has been found to be abundant. Finding jarosite on Mars created a lot of excitement at NASA and around the world, because prior research had shown that water must be present for jarosite formation.<br /><br />The discovery of jarosite on Mars led scientists to come up with theories to explain how it might have originated. Some suggested it might have been left behind as salty water evaporated. Others suggested that Mars might have been covered by a massive ice blanket billons of years ago. They further suggested that jarosite could have formed in ice pockets. </p><p>That would have been possible, they noted, if the ice blanket grew slowly with dust blowing onto it. At the time the theory was formulated, it was difficult to test because it had never been found to form that way anywhere else, including Earth.<br /><br />Now that jarosite has been found deep in Antarctic ice, the latter theory will likely become the most prominent. The researchers note that the theory still has one glitch—the ice in Antarctica contains very small amounts of jarosite—on Mars, the mineral is found in large slabs. The researchers suggest that the difference might be explained by the huge amounts of dust on the Martian surface.</p><p> </p><p><u><i>The study was published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20705-z" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Nature Communications.</a></i></u><br /></p>

Mineral Often Found on Mars Discovered Deep in Antarctic Ice

Jarosite crystal. photo by: Christian Rewitzer   Martian mineral, rare on Earth, found locked in Antarctic ice Scientists boring more than a...

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The Atlantic Ocean Is Getting Wider Every Year

<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tTf6GPy364Q/YBQ55_ArnXI/AAAAAAAAS0k/Z1cSk2mlvzM0EQ2-PUDWr8SPxLNhRa4owCLcBGAsYHQ/s1206/The%2BAtlantic%2BOcean%2BIs%2BGetting%2BWider%2BEvery%2BYear.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Atlantic Ocean Is Getting Wider Every Year" border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="1206" height="516" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tTf6GPy364Q/YBQ55_ArnXI/AAAAAAAAS0k/Z1cSk2mlvzM0EQ2-PUDWr8SPxLNhRa4owCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h516/The%2BAtlantic%2BOcean%2BIs%2BGetting%2BWider%2BEvery%2BYear.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> The Atlantic Ocean Is Getting Wider Every Year, Pushing the Americas Away From Europe and Africa</span></p><p>An upsurge of matter from deep beneath the Earth's crust could be pushing the continents of North and South America further apart from Europe and Africa, new research has found.<br /><br />The plates attached to the Americas are moving apart from those attached to Europe and Africa by four centimetres per year. In between these continents lies the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a site where new plates are formed and a dividing line between plates moving to the west and those moving to the east; beneath this ridge, material rises to replace the space left by the plates as they move apart.<br /><br />Conventional wisdom is that this process is normally driven by distant gravity forces as denser parts of the plates sink back into the Earth. However, the driving force behind the separation of the Atlantic plates has remained a mystery because the Atlantic ocean is not surrounded by dense, sinking plates.<br /><br />Now a team of seismologists, led by the University of Southampton, have found evidence of an upwelling in the mantle -- the material between the Earth's crust and its core -- from depths of more than 600 kilometres beneath the Mid Atlantic ridge, which could be pushing the plates from below, causing the continents to move further apart.<br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />Upwellings beneath ridges are typically thought to originate from much shallower depths of around 60 km.<br /><br />The findings, published in the journal Nature provide a greater understanding of plate tectonics which causes many natural disasters around the world, including earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.<br /><br />Over two research cruises on the RV Langseth and RRV Discovery, the team deployed 39 seismometers at the bottom of the Atlantic as part of the PI-LAB (Passive Imaging of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary) experiment and EURO-LAB (Experiment to Unearth the Rheological Oceanic Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary). The data provides the first large scale and high-resolution imaging of the mantle beneath the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.<br /><br />This is one of only a few experiments of this scale ever conducted in the oceans and allowed the team to image variations in the structure of the Earth's mantle near depths of 410 km and 660 km -- depths that are associated with abrupt changes in mineral phases. The observed signal was indicative of a deep, sluggish and unexpected upwelling from the deeper mantle.<br /><br />Lead author, Matthew Agius, a former post-doctoral fellow at the University of Southampton and currently at Università degli studi Roma Tre said: "This was a memorable mission that took us a total of 10 weeks at sea in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The incredible results shed new light in our understanding of how the Earth interior is connected with plate tectonics, with observations not seen before."<br /><br />Dr Kate Rychert and Dr Nick Harmon from the University of Southampton and Professor Mike Kendall from the University of Oxford led the experiment and were the chief scientists on the cruises. The experiment was funded by NERC (Natural Environment Research Council, UK) and the ERC (European Research Council).<br /><br />Dr Harmon said: "There is a growing distance between North America and Europe, and it is not driven by political or philosophical differences -- it is caused by mantle convection!"<br /><br />As well as helping scientists to develop better models and warning systems for natural disasters, plate tectonics also has an impact on sea levels, and therefore affects climate change estimates over geologic times scales.<br /><br />Dr Rychert said: "This was completely unexpected. It has broad implications for our understanding of Earth's evolution and habitability. It also demonstrates how crucial it is to gather new data from the oceans. There is so much more to explore!"<br /><br />Professor Mike Kendall added: "This work is exciting and that it refutes long held assumptions that mid-ocean ridges might play a passive role in plate tectonics. It suggests that in places such as the Mid-Atlantic, forces at the ridge play an important role in driving newly-formed plates apart."<p></p><p> </p><p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2021/01/atlantic-plate-tectonics.page" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; 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; 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></span>provided by<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; 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></span><a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px; 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"><b style="border-radius: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">University of Southampton</b></a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline; 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>

The Atlantic Ocean Is Getting Wider Every Year

   The Atlantic Ocean Is Getting Wider Every Year, Pushing the Americas Away From Europe and Africa An upsurge of matter from deep beneath t...

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Study Shows What Earth's Future Supercontinent Will Look Like

<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ugCCw7jR9QM/YA7x1_qs5EI/AAAAAAAASz0/Cc0NFzEcazE-GQBXDjbwp39WJDKfhhdYQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/Future%2BSupercontinents%2BMight%2BBe%2BLike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="1200" height="314" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ugCCw7jR9QM/YA7x1_qs5EI/AAAAAAAASz0/Cc0NFzEcazE-GQBXDjbwp39WJDKfhhdYQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h314/Future%2BSupercontinents%2BMight%2BBe%2BLike.jpg" title="Future Supercontinents Might Be Like" width="640" /></a></div>   <br /><p></p><p>Some 200 million years ago, the supercontinent of Pangea split apart and created the continents we see on Earth today, separated by vast oceans. It’s easy to think these mighty landmasses are here to stay, but it looks like another supercontinent could grace our planet in the future.  <br /></p><p>Long ago, all the continents were crammed together into one large land mass called Pangea. Pangea broke apart about 200 million years ago, its pieces drifting away on the tectonic plates — but not permanently. The continents will reunite again in the deep future. And a new study, which will be presented December 8 during an online poster session at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union, suggests that the future arrangement of this supercontinent could dramatically impact the habitability and climate stability of Earth. The findings also have implications for searching for life on other planets.<br /><br />The study, which has been submitted for publication, is the first to model the climate on a supercontinent in the deep future.<br /><br />Scientists aren’t exactly sure what the next supercontinent will look like or where it will be located. One possibility is that, 200 million years from now, all the continents except Antarctica could join together around the north pole, forming the supercontinent “Amasia.” Another possibility is that “Aurica” could form from all the continents coming together around the equator in about 250 million years.<br /><br />In the new study, researchers used a 3D global climate model to simulate how these two land mass arrangements would affect the global climate system. The research was led by Michael Way, a physicist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, an affiliate of Columbia University’s Earth Institute.<br /><br />The team found that, by changing atmospheric and ocean circulation, Amasia and Aurica would have profoundly different effects on the climate. The planet could end up being 3 degrees Celsius warmer if the continents all converge around the equator in the Aurica scenario.<br /><br />In the Amasia scenario, with the land amassed around both poles, the lack of land in between disrupts the ocean conveyor belt that currently carries heat from the equator to the poles. As a result, the poles would be colder and covered in ice all year long. And all of that ice would reflect heat out into space.<br /><br />With Amasia, “you get a lot more snowfall,” explained Way. “You get ice sheets, and you get this very effective ice-albedo feedback, which tends to lower the temperature of the planet.”<br /><br />In addition to cooler temperatures, Way suggested that sea level would probably be lower in the Amasia scenario, with more water tied up in the ice caps, and that the snowy conditions could mean that there wouldn’t be much land available for growing crops.<br /><br />Aurica, by contrast, would probably be a bit beachier, he said. The land concentrated closer to the equator would absorb the stronger sunlight there, and there would be no polar ice caps to reflect heat out of Earth’s atmosphere — hence the higher global temperature.<br />    </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/-yE6tc4FQH_k/YA7wdGMqDoI/AAAAAAAASzo/8zw-p5Xj4788ovNKPD9XImnkUQSFNvy4wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1029/aurica-amasia%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="1029" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yE6tc4FQH_k/YA7wdGMqDoI/AAAAAAAASzo/8zw-p5Xj4788ovNKPD9XImnkUQSFNvy4wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/aurica-amasia%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">How land could be distributed in the Aurica supercontinent (top) versus Amasia. The future land configurations are shown in gray, with modern-day outlines of the continents for comparison. Credit: Way et al.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <br />Although Way likens Aurica’s shores to the paradisiacal beaches of Brazil, “the inland would probably be quite dry,” he warned. Whether or not much of the land would be farmable would depend on the distribution of lakes and what types of precipitation patterns it experiences — details that the current paper doesn’t delve into, but could be investigated in the future.<br /><br />The simulations showed that temperatures were right for liquid water to exist on about 60% of Amasia’s land, as opposed to 99.8% of Aurica’s — a finding that could inform the search for life on other planets. One of the main factors that astronomers look for when scoping out potentially habitable worlds is whether or not liquid water could survive on the planet’s surface. When modeling these other worlds, they tend to simulate planets that are either completely covered in oceans, or else whose terrain looks like that of modern-day Earth. The new study, however, shows that it’s important to consider land mass arrangements while estimating whether temperatures fall in the ‘habitable’ zone between freezing and boiling.<br /><br />Although it may be 10 or more years before scientists can ascertain the actual land and sea distribution on planets in other star systems, the researchers hope that having a larger library of land and sea arrangements for climate modeling could prove useful in estimating the potential habitability of neighboring worlds.<br /><br />Hannah Davies and Joao Duarte from the University of Lisbon, and Mattias Green from Bangor University in Wales were co-authors on this research.<br /><br /></p><p>The above story is based on <a href="https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/12/01/climate-supercontinent-deep-future/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.columbia.edu/content/copyright" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Columbia University</a>.<br /></p>

Study Shows What Earth's Future Supercontinent Will Look Like

   Some 200 million years ago, the supercontinent of Pangea split apart and created the continents we see on Earth today, separated by vast ...

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Gemologist Discovers Rock That Looks Like Cookie Monster

<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/-XCPfOIHXciw/YBGLqrxym1I/AAAAAAAAS0A/629TTh2-R4A7XDEc2_koBJI8zk0MwthSwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1261/Gemologist%2BDiscovers%2BRock%2BThat%2BLooks%2BLike%2BCookie%2BMonster%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="1261" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XCPfOIHXciw/YBGLqrxym1I/AAAAAAAAS0A/629TTh2-R4A7XDEc2_koBJI8zk0MwthSwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/Gemologist%2BDiscovers%2BRock%2BThat%2BLooks%2BLike%2BCookie%2BMonster%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Gemologist Discovers Rock That Looks Like Cookie Monster" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dead ringer for Cookie Monster? (Image credit: Kennedy News & Media)</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p>You never know what you're going to get when you crack open a geode-like rock called an agate, but a new specimen is even more surprising than usual: It looks just like Cookie Monster. <br /><br />The agate, found in Soledade, a precious stone hotspot in southern Brazil, is a dead ringer for the blue, googly-eyed Sesame Street Muppet. After its owner, California mineral collector Mike Bowers, posted about the agate on Facebook, it went viral, with write-ups in newspapers from Australia to Israel to the United States. <br /><br />"I didn't realize that Cookie Monster was so well known and part of the world cultural heritage!" Bowers told Live Science. He's since been contacted by the actor who plays Cookie Monster on "Sesame Street," he said.</p><p><br /><b><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2020/01/this-is-rock-not-slice-of-cheesecake.html" target="_blank">See: This is a Rock, Not a Slice of Cheesecake</a></b></p><p><b>  </b><br />The agate came to Bowers in November via Brazilian gemologist Lucas Fassari, who had acquired it in a batch of many agates from Soledade. Bowers immediately purchased the Cookie Monster agate, but didn't post it online until Jan. 16, as he was ill with COVID-19. <br /></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br /><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/08/types-of-agate-with-photos.html" target="_blank">Agates </a>are a form of quartz, the crystalline form of silicon dioxide, that develop within cavities in volcanic rocks. The cavities are formed by gas bubbles in hot lava. Over time, as the lava cools, water infused with silicon dioxide percolates through the cavities. As the water evaporates, the silicon dioxide is left behind on the cavity walls, creating colorful layers of crystals. The colors are caused by chemical impurities in the silicon dioxide and by the spacing of the crystals.<br /><br />Some agates completely fill their volcanic voids, but many leave small spaces inside, lined with sparkly, inward-facing quartz crystals. In the case of the Cookie Monster agate, these voids just happen to look like a pair of Muppet eyes and an enthusiastically grinning mouth. <br /><br />"It is somewhat uncommon to find a face shape in <a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/08/types-of-agate-with-photos.html" target="_blank">agates</a>, but in many instances it's like looking at the clouds. You kind of see a face," Bowers said. "What makes the Cookie Monster unique is there is just no doubt: Clear-cut, it is Cookie Monster, no explanation required." <br /><br />Another unique feature of the Cookie Monster agate is that the face appears on both sides of the cut stone, Bowers added. Usually the voids are not lined up so neatly as to create a mirror image. <br /><br />For now, Bowers said, he plans to keep the stone. It may eventually end up in a museum or in the hands of a high-end collector, he said. <br /><br />"It is totally unique and awesome to see everyone loving this stone as much as we do," he said. <br /> <p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2016/10/funny-weird-agate-specimens-you-should.html" target="_blank">See also: Funny Weird Agate Specimens You Should See</a></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2020/05/thunderegg-ordinary-rocks-with-crystal.html" target="_blank">Thunderegg: Ordinary Rocks With Crystal Surprise Inside! </a><br /><br /></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"><b> </b></span><br /></p>

Gemologist Discovers Rock That Looks Like Cookie Monster

Dead ringer for Cookie Monster? (Image credit: Kennedy News & Media)   You never know what you're going to get when you crack open a...

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Dinosaur Unearthed in Argentina Could Be the World's Largest Land Animal Ever

<p></p> <br /><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/-KnFldcd8jFA/YBGVK2bS0MI/AAAAAAAAS0U/YQM10354sqg-yLIrTsJ97hY3AvFjajQoACLcBGAsYHQ/s1384/Dinosaur%2BUnearthed%2BIn%2BArgentina%2BCould%2BBe%2BThe%2BWorld%2527s%2BLargest%2BLand%2BAnimal%2BEver%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="1217" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KnFldcd8jFA/YBGVK2bS0MI/AAAAAAAAS0U/YQM10354sqg-yLIrTsJ97hY3AvFjajQoACLcBGAsYHQ/w562-h640/Dinosaur%2BUnearthed%2BIn%2BArgentina%2BCould%2BBe%2BThe%2BWorld%2527s%2BLargest%2BLand%2BAnimal%2BEver%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="562" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Paleontologists discovered the fossilized remains of a 98 million-year-old titanosaur in Neuquén Province in Argentina's northwest Patagonia.<br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jose Luis Carballido/CTyS-UNLaM Science Outreach Agency</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>Experts have uncovered the remains of a gigantic dinosaur in Argentina, and believe it could be one of the largest creatures to have ever walked the Earth.<br /><br />A team of researchers with Naturales y Museo, Universidad de Zaragoza and Universidad Nacional del Comahue has found evidence that suggests the remains of a dinosaur discovered in Argentina in 2012 may represent a creature that was the largest ever to walk the Earth. In their paper published in the journal Cretaceous Research, the group describes the fossilized remains that have been found so far and what they have revealed.<br /><br />The largest creature ever to live is believed to be the blue whale—the largest of which grow to 33.6 meters long. The biggest land creatures are believed to have been the dinosaurs—of them, the titanosaur (as their name suggests) is believed to be the largest. And of those, Argentinosaurus represents the largest that left enough evidence for it to be classified the heaviest—at approximately 36.5 meters in length and weighing in at a hundred tons, it would have dwarfed today's land animals by a considerable amount. </p><p></p><div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div> <br /><p></p><p>Researchers studying Patagotitan fossils (another titanosaur found in Patagonia) have suggested some of them might have broken the record for the largest, but there was insufficient fossil evidence to prove it. In either case, the researchers studying the new remains have begun to believe that they have found an even bigger titanosaur.<br /><br />Thus far, the dinosaur has been dated back to 98 million years ago (putting it in the Late Jurassic to the early Cretaceous). The fossils found include 24 vertebrae, all belonging to a giant tail, parts of a pelvis and a pectoral girdle. </p><p>The huge size of each suggests the dinosaur was a very large titanosaur—one that might be bigger than Argentinosaurus. That claim cannot be confirmed, however, until leg bones are found. Their size will allow the researchers to make estimates of the animals' body weight.<br /><br />Titanosaurs belong to the sauropod family, which means they were herbivores, had massive bodies and long necks and tails. Such dinosaurs would have had few worries from meat-eating enemies if they managed to grow to full size. </p><p>Their fossils have been found on all continents except Antarctica. The researchers conclude by noting that more digging in the area will likely reveal more fossils from the same dinosaur and perhaps evidence of its true size.<br /><br />Patagotitans may have been the world's largest terrestrial animal of all time, and weighed up to 77 tons, while Argentinosaurus were similarly gargantuan, and measured up to 40 meters (131 feet) and weighed up to 110 tons -- weighing more than 12 times more than an African elephant (up to 9 tons).<br /></p><p></p><p></p><p>Experts believe that the specimen strongly suggests the co-existence of larger titanosaurs together with medium-sized titanosaurs and small-sized rebbachisaurids at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous period, which began 101 million years ago.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>"These size differences could indeed explain the existence of such sauropod diversity in the Neuquén Basin during the Late Cretaceous in terms of niche partitioning," they wrote.<br />Researchers said that, while they don't believe the creature to belong to a new species, they have so far been unable to assign it to a known genus of dinosaur.<br /><br />The research was conducted by Argentina's The Zapala Museum, Museo de La Plata, Museo Egidio Feruglio and the universities of Río Negro and Zaragoza.</p><p> <br /><i><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://www.conicet.gov.ar/cientificos-del-conicet-hallan-un-gigantesco-dinosaurio-cuello-largo-en-neuquen/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.fcnym.unlp.edu.ar/">The Zapala Museum</a>.</u></i><br /></p>

Dinosaur Unearthed in Argentina Could Be the World's Largest Land Animal Ever

  Paleontologists discovered the fossilized remains of a 98 million-year-old titanosaur in Neuquén Province in Argentina's northwest P...

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Why Is Wave Rock Shaped Like a Wave?

<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/-htcl0Pzp__8/YAr4FexmeZI/AAAAAAAASzE/n8v9N441-_gml7tKrTCGaDNEU_F8QHPvwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1408/Why%2BIs%2BWave%2BRock%2BShaped%2BLike%2Ba%2BWave%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1070" data-original-width="1408" height="486" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-htcl0Pzp__8/YAr4FexmeZI/AAAAAAAASzE/n8v9N441-_gml7tKrTCGaDNEU_F8QHPvwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h486/Why%2BIs%2BWave%2BRock%2BShaped%2BLike%2Ba%2BWave%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wave Rock Western Australia</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">It's all about erosion—but not as we know it.<br /><br />The story of Wave Rock begins millions of years ago, as rock met water—but probably not in the way you'd expect.<br /><br />"Wave Rock is an upstanding part of a huge ancient crustal mass called the Yilgarn Craton," says David Newsome, Professor of Geotourism at Murdoch University.<br /><br />You've probably seen the Yilgarn Craton before and haven't realized it. It's the enormous chunk of the planet's crust that makes up most of southwestern Australia.<br /><br />That rock has been around for a long, long time. Although it's stable, it's not indestructible—and that's the key to Wave Rock's mysterious shape.<br /><br />"It's just the vast expanse of time, where there's been no subsequent mountain building, no volcanism, no earthquakes, no uplift. The land that once covered Wave Rock was just gradually worn away," says David.<br /><br />"At the end of the day, this particularly hard piece of rock then ends up as an upstanding piece in the landscape."<br /><div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto"> <script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-slot="6157425841"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />Beneath the fields of eroded bits and pieces, the remaining rock was weathered into domes beneath the ground. Erosion, over a vast expanse of time, exposed the granite domes to the surface, and the structure we now call Wave Rock began to form.<br /><br />Straight off the top of my dome<br /><br />Because of its shape, it's easy to assume that wave rock formed because of flowing water or blowing wind—but that doesn't seem to be the case.<br /><br />For starters, there's not enough wind or flowing water in the area to cause that much erosion, even over millions of years.<br /><br />But the biggest clue is that, according to geologists, the landform's wave shape continues below the current ground level, for at least a meter, without flattening out. There's only one conclusion that makes sense:<br /><br />"It was born underground," says David. "The granite formed deep under the ground and was then revealed. Post formation, the landscape has been eroded back, exposing the magnificent rock itself."<br /><br />So how does a spectacular shape like that form?<br /></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">Eroding me softly</h4><p style="text-align: left;">It turns out water doesn't have to be moving to eat away solid granite. Just sitting around and dissolving the minerals that hold it together, over millions of years, is enough.<br /><br />"At that particular site, there was a fracture under the ground that weakened the rock," says David. "That rock is covered in soil and unconsolidated material called regolith."<br /><br />That soil hangs on to water, just like the soil around a pot plant.<br /><br />"Under the ground, there was all this weathering going on, because the water was slowly but surely breaking down the rocks. The fracture was a weak zone, so it sort of worked faster there than it did anywhere else," says David.<br /><br />And just like your houseplant, it dries out at the top first. The bottom layer stays wetter for longer.<br /><br />"So it starts to eat into the side of the main dome over time," says David.<br /><br />With this theory, over millennia, the bottom dissolves more than the top. Peel the sandy covering away, and you're left with … well, this:<br /><br />New wave<br /><br />According to David, appreciating geology is like appreciating wine or fine art.<br /><br />"Wave Rock has something to offer all of us because it has these secrets that just need to be brought out."<br /><br />Standing at the base, it is undeniably cool to know that Wave Rock emerged fully formed from the Earth, like some kind of Greek God on an epic journey.<br /><br />"When you know the granite that makes up Wave Rock is 2.7 billion years old—that is a pretty profound concept," agrees David.<br /><br />This knowledge can also help us understand some of the stuff we can't see, happening beneath our feet.<br /><br />A quick walk around the rock reveals that there's still a lot of sand out there—and there's plenty more rock left in this patch of the Yilgarn Craton. That means it's possible—likely even—that, as you visit, more Wave Rocks are forming right under your feet.<br /><br />Just like the first one, these new waves will take millions of years to form, so we should appreciate the one we've got.<br /><br />"It's important that it's not defaced, doesn't have stuff hammered into it or people riding bikes over it and climbing on it and stuff like that.<br /><br />"Wave Rock … its key asset is its wildness, what it represents as a natural feature," says David. "Deep within us, there's something there that gives us recognition that we evolved in nature."<br /><br />"And I'm of the opinion that, in the future, we're going to be yearning for that wildness more than ever." </p><p><br /></p><p><i><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://particle.scitech.org.au/earth/why-is-wave-rock-shaped-like-a-wave/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://particle.scitech.org.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Particle</a>.</u></i><br /></p>

Why Is Wave Rock Shaped Like a Wave?

Wave Rock Western Australia It's all about erosion—but not as we know it. The story of Wave Rock begins millions of years ago, as rock m...

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Tiny, Mineral Grains Could Explain a Fundamental Tectonic Force

<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/-RqEUzIRWb1I/YAmtBPw1oZI/AAAAAAAASyo/SNfRqcVvayEUvRQQAlsMXTKMhi4XFG3FACLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/Tiny%252C%2BMineral%2BGrains%2BCould%2BExplain%2Ba%2BFundamental%2BTectonic%2BForce.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="714" data-original-width="1280" height="356" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqEUzIRWb1I/YAmtBPw1oZI/AAAAAAAASyo/SNfRqcVvayEUvRQQAlsMXTKMhi4XFG3FACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h356/Tiny%252C%2BMineral%2BGrains%2BCould%2BExplain%2Ba%2BFundamental%2BTectonic%2BForce.jpg" title="Mylonite from near Røragen, Norway" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mylonite from near Røragen, Norway. Photo: Mikenorton<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p>Subduction happens when one tectonic plate slides under another plate and then sinks into the Earth’s mantle. Its role in geological and measures is huge: It is the main engine for tectonic motion. It builds mountains, triggers quakes, structures volcanoes, and drives the geologic carbon cycle.<br /><br />Yet, scientists have been uncertain about what initiates <b>subduction</b>. <br /><br />A new study suggests that tiny, mineral grains — squeezed and mixed over millions of years — set in motion the chain of events that plunge massive tectonic plates deep into the Earth’s interior.<br /><br />The theory, proposed by Yale scientists David Bercovici and Elvira Mulyukova, may provide an origin story for subduction, one of the most fundamental forces responsible for the dynamic nature of the planet.<br /><br />The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<br /><br />Subduction occurs when one tectonic plate slides underneath another plate and then sinks into the Earth’s mantle. Its role in major geological processes is immense: It is the main engine for tectonic motion. It builds mountains, triggers earthquakes, forms volcanoes, and drives the geologic carbon cycle.<br /><br />Yet researchers have been uncertain about what initiates subduction.<br /><br />“Why Earth even has subduction, unlike other terrestrial planets as far as we know, is a mystery,” said Bercovici, Yale’s Frederick William Beinecke Professor and chair of Earth and Planetary Sciences.<br /><br />“Mantle rock near the surface that has cooled for hundreds of millions of years has two competing effects,” he said. “While it’s gotten colder and heavier and wants to sink, it’s also gotten stiffer and doesn’t want to sink. The stiffening effect should win out, as it does on most planets, but on Earth, for some reason, it doesn’t.”<br /><br />According to the theoretical model developed by Bercovici and Mulyukova, a research scientist at Yale, subduction may initiate at the margins between Earth’s sea floor and continents.<br /></p><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/-syAWfl80-wM/YAmtsfMlXHI/AAAAAAAASy0/POCtJvAjLqsijInsrtIAeICamErnwiilwCLcBGAsYHQ/s766/ynews-grain-mix-passive-margin%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="444" data-original-width="766" height="370" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-syAWfl80-wM/YAmtsfMlXHI/AAAAAAAASy0/POCtJvAjLqsijInsrtIAeICamErnwiilwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h370/ynews-grain-mix-passive-margin%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A conceptual sketch of the ocean basin setting for the new model. Inset images from a computer model show mineral fraction, grain size, and weakness. (Credit: Elvira Mulyukova and David Bercovici)<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />The model shows that tectonic stresses in an oceanic plate cause its mineral grains to mix with each other, become damaged, and eventually shrink. Over a period of approximately 100 million years, this process weakens the oceanic plate and makes it susceptible to vertical shear and bending — which are associated with the start of subduction.<br /><br />“The real bottleneck for tectonic plate activity on a terrestrial planet is how fast its massive, rocky layers can deform,” said Mulyukova. “The rocks can deform only as fast as their tiny mineral grains allow. Our model explains how these changes in mineral grains can dramatically weaken the rock and make subduction possible on a planet like Earth.”<p></p><p> </p><p><i><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The above story is based on <a href="https://news.yale.edu/2021/01/18/going-grains-explain-fundamental-tectonic-force#:~:text=A%20new%20study%20suggests%20that,deep%20into%20the%20Earth's%20interior.&text=Its%20role%20in%20major%20geological,main%20engine%20for%20tectonic%20motion." rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="http://www.yale.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Yale University. </a></span></u></i><br /></p>

Tiny, Mineral Grains Could Explain a Fundamental Tectonic Force

Mylonite from near Røragen, Norway. Photo: Mikenorton   Subduction happens when one tectonic plate slides under another plate and then sinks...

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Stunning Heart-Shaped Amethyst Geode Discovered by Miners in Uruguay

<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/-bNQoDhHa2ac/YCU_KW2nPgI/AAAAAAAAS10/0rL5gohLA7Yf1Gl3FoCcwTusuNwPfnhNwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1386/Stunning%2BHeart-Shaped%2BAmethyst%2BGeodes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="726" data-original-width="1386" height="336" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bNQoDhHa2ac/YCU_KW2nPgI/AAAAAAAAS10/0rL5gohLA7Yf1Gl3FoCcwTusuNwPfnhNwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h336/Stunning%2BHeart-Shaped%2BAmethyst%2BGeodes.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The New Treasure | Photo by: Uruguay Minerals</td></tr></tbody></table> </p><p>There are probably thousands of heart-shaped gems manufactured for gifts on Valentine’s Day, but this amethyst crystal didn’t need any carving or polishing. When miners broke it open they found an extraordinary heart already prepared by Mother Earth.<br /><br />Miners in Uruguay just dug up a massive crystal in a new mine that held a secret inside. <br /><br />Workers discovered the amazing quartz geode at the border of Uruguay and Brazil when they split open a rock to discover a beautiful purple heart on each side of it.<br /><br />Uruguay Minerals had just begun excavation at the Santa Rosa mine in the Catalan area in Artigas, and weren’t sure if anything of value would be uncovered.<br /><br />The land with its rugged terrain of basalt provided difficult conditions under which to work—but their struggle was rewarded with ‘a pearl of great price’.<br /><br />“What a treasure!” exclaimed Marcos Lorenzelli of Uruguay Minerals, who said it was the first time the company had ever found such a once-in-a-lifetime gemstone.<br /><br />Lorenzelli told GNN they have already received a bid of $120,000 for the matching pair of rocks. Due to the basalt, Lorenzelli estimates the weight to be over 150 pounds (80kg).<br /><br /> <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/-sS8ehWGwjRI/YCU-ZbtfU2I/AAAAAAAAS1s/WNoJ6ebhF28rJeGtggRkx5pT55s45yn3gCLcBGAsYHQ/s962/Stunning%2BHeart-Shaped%2BAmethyst%2BGeode.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="962" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sS8ehWGwjRI/YCU-ZbtfU2I/AAAAAAAAS1s/WNoJ6ebhF28rJeGtggRkx5pT55s45yn3gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/Stunning%2BHeart-Shaped%2BAmethyst%2BGeode.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">By Marcos Lorenzelli – Uruguay Minerals Instagram<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><b><a href="https://www.geologyin.com/2020/05/thunderegg-ordinary-rocks-with-crystal.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Thunderegg: Ordinary Rocks With Crystal Surprise Inside! </a></b><br /></p>

Stunning Heart-Shaped Amethyst Geode Discovered by Miners in Uruguay

The New Treasure | Photo by: Uruguay Minerals   There are probably thousands of heart-shaped gems manufactured for gifts on Valentine’s Day,...

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50 Million-Year-Old Fossil Assassin Bug Has Unusually Well-preserved Anatomy

<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/-v5fpTvtCuJY/YAG5m62UC6I/AAAAAAAASwU/-86v5D-4mp4kbcbf_bZrXV3GGGy7yV7ZgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1200/50%2BMillion-year-old%2BFossil%2BAssassin%2BBug%2BHas%2BUnusually%2BWell-preserved%2BAnatomy%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="50 Million-year-old Fossil Assassin Bug Has Unusually Well-preserved Anatomy" border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v5fpTvtCuJY/YAG5m62UC6I/AAAAAAAASwU/-86v5D-4mp4kbcbf_bZrXV3GGGy7yV7ZgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/50%2BMillion-year-old%2BFossil%2BAssassin%2BBug%2BHas%2BUnusually%2BWell-preserved%2BAnatomy%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Recovered from the Green River Formation in present-day Colorado, this fossil represents a new genus and species of predatory insects known as assassin bugs. Researchers named the specimen Aphelicophontes danjuddi. A small beetle was also fossilized with the specimen.<br />Photos by Daniel Swanson</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> The fossil of an ancient assassin bug preserves its anatomy in remarkable detail, researchers report.</span></p><p>The fossilized insect is tiny and its genital capsule, called a pygophore, is roughly the length of a grain of rice. It is remarkable, scientists say, because the bug’s physical characteristics – from the bold banding pattern on its legs to the internal features of its genitalia – are clearly visible and well-preserved. Recovered from the Green River Formation in present-day Colorado, the fossil represents a new genus and species of predatory insects known as assassin bugs.<br /><br />The find is reported in the journal Papers in Palaeontology.<br /><br />Discovered in 2006 by breaking open a slab of rock, the fossilized bug split almost perfectly from head to abdomen. The fracture also cracked the pygophore in two. A fossil dealer later sold each half to a different collector, and the researchers tracked them down and reunited them for this study.<br /><br />Being able to see a bug’s genitalia is very helpful when trying to determine a fossil insect’s place in its family tree, said Sam Heads, a paleontologist at the Illinois Natural History Survey and self-described fossil insect-genitalia expert who led the research with Daniel Swanson, a graduate student in entomology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.<br /><br />Species are often defined by their ability to successfully mate with one another, and small differences in genitalia can lead to sexual incompatibilities that, over time, may result in the rise of new species, Swanson said. This makes the genitalia a good place to focus to determine an insect species.<br /><br />But such structures are often obscured in compression fossils like those from the Green River Formation.<br /><br />“To see these fine structures in the internal genitalia is a rare treat,” Swanson said. “Normally, we only get this level of detail in species that are living today.”<br /><br />The structures visible within the pygophore include the basal plate, a hardened, stirrup-shaped structure that supports the phallus, he said. The fossil also preserved the contours of the phallotheca, a pouch into which the phallus can be withdrawn.<br /><br />The find suggests that the banded assassin bugs, a group to which the new specimen is thought to belong, are about 25 million years older than previously thought, Swanson said.<br /><br />“There are about 7,000 species of assassin bug described, but only about 50 fossils of these bugs are known,” he said. “This just speaks to the improbability of even having a fossil, let alone one of this age, that offers this much information.”<br /><br />This is not the oldest fossil bug genitalia ever discovered, however.<br /><br />“The oldest known arthropod genitalia are from a type of bug known as a harvestman that is 400-412 million years old, from the Rhynie Chert of Scotland,” Heads said. “And there are also numerous fossil insects in amber as old as the Cretaceous Period with genitalia preserved.<br /><br />“However, it is almost unheard of for internal male genitalia to be preserved in carbonaceous compressions like ours,” he said.<br /><br />The researchers named the new assassin bug Aphelicophontes danjuddi. The species name comes from one of the fossil collectors, Dan Judd, who donated his half of the specimen to the INHS for study.</p><p> <br /><u><i>The above story is based on <a href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Rzy25YcHGN0J:https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/848450653+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://illinois.edu/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">University of Illinois.</a></i></u><br /></p>

50 Million-Year-Old Fossil Assassin Bug Has Unusually Well-preserved Anatomy

Recovered from the Green River Formation in present-day Colorado, this fossil represents a new genus and species of predatory insects known ...

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57,000-Year-Old Frozen Remains of Wolf Pup Found in Canada

<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/-7OxMpcWF6bw/X_siW1vqrYI/AAAAAAAASwI/YzFBWMfezdg2TmLmCwuU8a79OhklALRfgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1800/57%252C000-Year-Old%2BFrozen%2BRemains%2Bof%2BWolf%2BPup%2BFound%2Bin%2BCanada%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1800" height="346" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7OxMpcWF6bw/X_siW1vqrYI/AAAAAAAASwI/YzFBWMfezdg2TmLmCwuU8a79OhklALRfgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h346/57%252C000-Year-Old%2BFrozen%2BRemains%2Bof%2BWolf%2BPup%2BFound%2Bin%2BCanada%2B%25281%2529.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Credit: Government of Yukon</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;">A wolf cub that was found mummified in northern Canada lived at least 56,000 years ago, scientists say.</h4><p>Hidden in permafrost for tens of thousands of years, the female cub was discovered by a gold miner near Dawson city in Yukon territory in 2016. She has since been named Zhur, meaning wolf, by the local Tr'ondek Hwech'in people. <br /></p><p>While water blasting at a wall of frozen mud in Yukon, Canada, a gold miner made an extraordinary discovery: a perfectly preserved wolf pup that had been locked in permafrost for 57,000 years. The remarkable condition of the pup, named Zhùr by the local Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in people, gave researchers a wealth of insights about her age, lifestyle, and relationship to modern wolves. <br /><br />"She's the most complete wolf mummy that's ever been found. She's basically 100% intact--all that's missing are her eyes," says first author Julie Meachen, an associate professor of anatomy at Des Moines University. "And the fact that she's so complete allowed us to do so many lines of inquiry on her to basically reconstruct her life."<br /><div style="width:100%;margin: 0px auto"> <script async src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:block; text-align:center;" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-slot="6157425841"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script> </div><br />One of the most important questions about Zhùr that the researchers sought to answer was how she ended up preserved in permafrost to begin with. It takes a unique combination of circumstances to produce a permafrost mummy.<br /><br />"It's rare to find these mummies in the Yukon. The animal has to die in a permafrost location, where the ground is frozen all the time, and they have to get buried very quickly, like any other fossilization process," says Meachen. "If it lays out on the frozen tundra too long it'll decompose or get eaten."<br /><br />Another important factor is how the wolf died. Animals that die slowly or are hunted by predators are less likely to be found in pristine condition. "We think she was in her den and died instantaneously by den collapse," says Meachen. "Our data showed that she didn't starve and was about 7 weeks old when she died, so we feel a bit better knowing the poor little girl didn't suffer for too long."<br /><br />In addition to learning how Zhùr died, the team were also able to analyze her diet. As it turns out, her diet was heavily influenced by how close she lived to water. "Normally when you think of wolves in the Ice Age, you think of them eating bison or musk oxen or other large animals on land. One thing that surprised us was that she was eating aquatic resources, particularly salmon."<br /><br />Analyzing Zhùr's genome also confirmed that she is descended from ancient wolves from Russia, Siberia, and Alaska, who are the ancestors of modern wolves as well. Although analyzing Zhùr gave the researchers many answers about wolves of the past, there remain some outstanding questions about Zhùr and her family.<br /><br />"We've been asked why she was the only wolf found in the den, and what happened to her mom or siblings," says Meachen. "It could be that she was an only pup. Or the other wolves weren't in the den during the collapse. Unfortunately, we'll never know."<br /><br />The specimen holds special significance for the local Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in people, who have agreed to place Zhùr on display at the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre in Whitehorse. She is cleaned and conserved so she will stay intact for years to come, allowing her to travel to other Yukon locations as well. And the research team predicts there may be more and more permafrost mummies found in the coming years.<br /><br />"One small upside of climate change is that we're going to find more of these mummies as permafrost melts," says Meachen. "That's a good way for science to reconstruct that time better, but it also shows us how much our planet is actually warming. We really need to be careful."</p><p> </p><p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31686-9" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)31686-9" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Current Biology.</a></span></i></u><br /></p>

57,000-Year-Old Frozen Remains of Wolf Pup Found in Canada

Credit: Government of Yukon   A wolf cub that was found mummified in northern Canada lived at least 56,000 years ago, scientists say. Hidden...

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