Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Erupting in 'Full Swing' - USGS

<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/-zN64eSfqjKM/YVXLD1XwBWI/AAAAAAAATWE/UHDWCN79-ZIr3xYIkUr9-zfehLVGwHz6wCLcBGAsYHQ/s1212/Hawaii%2527s%2BKilauea%2BVolcano%2BErupting%2Bin%2B%2527Full%2BSwing%2527%2B-%2BUSGS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="909" data-original-width="1212" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zN64eSfqjKM/YVXLD1XwBWI/AAAAAAAATWE/UHDWCN79-ZIr3xYIkUr9-zfehLVGwHz6wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Hawaii%2527s%2BKilauea%2BVolcano%2BErupting%2Bin%2B%2527Full%2BSwing%2527%2B-%2BUSGS.jpg" title="Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Erupting in 'Full Swing' - USGS" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">General view of lava surfacing on the Halema'uma'u crater of Kilauea volcano in Kilauea, Hawaii, U.S. September 29, 2021, in this still image provided by the USGS surveillance camera. Mandatory credit USGS<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p> Hawaii's Kīlauea volcano was erupting in "full swing" late on Wednesday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, with local media reporting that the eruption posed no immediate danger to residents.<br /><br />Officials note that while there is no present danger to nearby residents on Hawaii's Big Island, the situation will be monitored for further escalation.<br /><br />The US Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory had raised its watch alert level earlier in the day after it recorded an increase in seismic readings.</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 /><br />"Increased earthquake activity and changes in the patterns of ground deformation at Kilauea's summit began occurring as of approximately noon on September 29, 2021, indicating movement of magma in the subsurface," USGS said.<br /><p></p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Kīlauea’s eruption continues through the night! And where you find lava, you'll also find volcanologists making observations and collecting data. Activity is still confined to a crater that is within the closed area of Kīlauea’s summit. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KilaueaErupts?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KilaueaErupts</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Kilauea?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Kilauea</a> <a href="https://t.co/4taQXgpok4">pic.twitter.com/4taQXgpok4</a></p>— USGS Volcanoes🌋 (@USGSVolcanoes) <a href="https://twitter.com/USGSVolcanoes/status/1443574358744571904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script> <br />The agency said it detected with observatory webcams a glow within Kilauea's summit crater at around 3:20 p.m. local time, indicating that an eruption had commenced.<br /><br />"What was once a cooling lava lake is now a new fissure eruption," USGS Volcanoes said in a tweet.<br /><br />The U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) elevated  Kīlauea's  volcano alert level from "WATCH" to "WARNING" and its aviation color code from "ORANGE" to "RED" as the  new eruption and associated hazards are evaluated, USGS said.<br /><br />The latest alert level and color code imply that a hazardous eruption is "imminent, underway or suspected", according to the USGS website.<br /><br />The eruption was not in an area with homes and was fully contained within the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park, Hawaii News Now reported, citing officials. <br /><p></p>

Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano Erupting in 'Full Swing' - USGS

General view of lava surfacing on the Halema'uma'u crater of Kilauea volcano in Kilauea, Hawaii, U.S. September 29, 2021, in this st...

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Carnotaurus Had Scaly Skin with No Feathers, Paleontologists Say

<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/-CMDwLYs95LQ/YVHaxKFWScI/AAAAAAAATVs/zeHnuXSKiggfOG6w8WcMR_oNOekPKEIxgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1000/Carnotaurus%2BHad%2BScaly%2BSkin%2Bwith%2BNo%2BFeathers%252C%2BPaleontologists%2BSay%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="750" data-original-width="1000" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CMDwLYs95LQ/YVHaxKFWScI/AAAAAAAATVs/zeHnuXSKiggfOG6w8WcMR_oNOekPKEIxgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Carnotaurus%2BHad%2BScaly%2BSkin%2Bwith%2BNo%2BFeathers%252C%2BPaleontologists%2BSay%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Close-up of the skin, with ridges marked. (Hendrick and Bell, Cretaceous Research)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close-up of the skin, with ridges marked. (Hendrick and Bell, Cretaceous Research)</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p>Scientists have analysed the well-preserved skin of one of the “strangest carnivorous dinosaurs ever discovered” in unprecedented detail and found that its complex coat was made up of different patterns of scales and studs.<br /><br />Since the outer parts of prehistoric animals decompose easily and leave behind very little evidence in the form of fossils, the researchers said the specimen in question, discovered initially in 1984 in the Chubut Province of Patagonia in Argentina, was “remarkable”.<br /><br />According to the researchers, the scaly skin of this carnivorous dinosaur <i>Carnotaurus </i>sastrei is the most completely preserved of any theropod — a group of hollow-boned, two-legged dinosaurs from which modern birds also evolved.<br /><br />The study was conducted by researchers from the Unidad Ejecutora Lillo in Argentina and the University of New England in Australia and was published in the journal Cretaceous Research.<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 />The scientists described in detail, for the first time, the features of skin preserved in the shoulder, thoracic, tail and, possibly, neck regions of the fossil skeleton.<br /><br />“By looking at the skin from the shoulders, belly and tail regions, we discovered that the skin of this dinosaur was more diverse than previously thought, consisting of large and randomly distributed conical studs surrounded by a network of small elongated, diamond-shaped or subcircular scales,” Christophe Hendrickx from the Unidad Ejecutora Lillo, said in a statement.<br /><br />The large studs and small scales of <i>Carnotaurus</i>, the scientists said, were similar to those seen in the thorny devil lizard found in Outback Australia.<br /><br />“Contrary to previous interpretations, the feature scales are randomly distributed and neither form discrete rows nor show progressive variations in their size along parts of the body,” the scientists wrote. “They also show little difference in morphology along the body, although their apices are variously positioned in different body parts.”<br /><br />The findings, according to the researchers, help give a makeover to <i>Carnotaurus</i>, which translates as “carnivorous bull” in reference to its strange skull with large horns.<br /><br />Considering the presumed active lifestyle of the horned dinosaur and the need to shed excess heat, the scientists speculate that the complex skin may have played a vital role in regulating body temperature — a role that the skin also plays in modern day mammals and reptiles. </p><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><u>The above story is based on <a href="https://www.une.edu.au/connect/news/2021/09/scientists-reveal-the-fossilised-skin-of-a-bull-like-carnivorous-dinosaur" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by <a href="https://www.une.edu.au/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The University of New England .</a></u></span><br /></p>

Carnotaurus Had Scaly Skin with No Feathers, Paleontologists Say

Close-up of the skin, with ridges marked. (Hendrick and Bell, Cretaceous Research)   Scientists have analysed the well-preserved skin of one...

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480-Million-Year-Old Spores of Early Land Plants Found in Australia

<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/-o0cFTYKnu3I/YUyEPLtIDWI/AAAAAAAATVU/usuG243IT9IffE6L_dyiE30bLeABO2UNgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/image_9961e-Land-Plant-Spores%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1123" data-original-width="1280" height="562" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o0cFTYKnu3I/YUyEPLtIDWI/AAAAAAAATVU/usuG243IT9IffE6L_dyiE30bLeABO2UNgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h562/image_9961e-Land-Plant-Spores%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Fossilized spores from the Early Ordivician deposits of Australia. Image credit: Strother & Foster" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fossilized spores from the Early Ordivician deposits of Australia. Image credit: Strother & Foster<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">Spores found in 480 million-year-old rock bring the fossil record in line with molecular estimates of when plants first adapted to life on land.</span><br /></p><p>When plants first ventured onto the land, evolving from freshwater-dwelling algae, more than 500 million years ago, they transformed the planet. By drawing carbon dioxide from the air, they cooled Earth, and by eroding rock surfaces they helped build the soil that now covers so much land.<br /><br />Until now, the first fossil evidence of land plants was from the Devonian period (420 million years ago). However, molecular evidence suggests an earlier origin in the Cambrian period. In a new paper in the journal Science, paleontologists described an assemblage of spore-like microfossils from Early Ordivician (480 million years ago) deposits in Australia; these spores are of intermediate morphology between confirmed land plant spores and earlier forms of uncertain relationship.<br /><br />“These spore-like microfossils fill in a gap of approximately 25 million years in the fossil spore record, linking well-accepted younger plant spores to older more problematic forms,” said Dr. Paul Strother, a paleobotanist in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College.<br /><br />Dr. Strother and his colleague, Dr. Clinton Foster from the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University, examined populations of fossil spores extracted from a rock core drilled in 1958 in northern Western Australia.<br /><br />“We found a mix of fossils linking older, more problematic spore-like microfossils with younger spores that are clearly derived from land plants,” Dr. Strother said.<br /><br />“This helps to bring the fossil spore record into alignment with molecular clock dates if we consider the origin of land plants as a long-term process involving the evolution of embryonic development.”<br /><br />“The fossil record preserves direct evidence of the evolutionary assembly of the plant regulatory and developmental genome.”<br /><br />“This process starts with the evolution of the plant spore and leads to the origin of plant tissues, organs, and eventually macroscopic, complete plants — perhaps somewhat akin to mosses living today.”<br /><br />“When we consider spores as an important component of the evolution of land plants, there is no longer a gap in the fossil record between molecular dating and fossil recovery.”<br /><br />“Absent that gap, we have a much clearer picture of a whole new evolutionary step: from simple cellularity to complex multicellularity.”<br /><br />“As a result, researchers and the public may need to re-think how they view the origin of terrestrial plants — that pivotal advance of life from water to land.”<br /><br />“We need to move away from thinking of the origin of land plants as a singularity in time, and instead integrate the fossil record into an evo-devo model of genome assembly across millions of years during the Paleozoic Era, specifically between the Cambrian and Devonian divisions within that era,” he said.<br /><br />“This requires serious re-interpretation of problematic fossils that have previously been interpreted as fungi, not plants.”<br /><br /></p><p><i><u>The study was published in the journal <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.abj2927" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Science</a>.</u></i></p>

480-Million-Year-Old Spores of Early Land Plants Found in Australia

Fossilized spores from the Early Ordivician deposits of Australia. Image credit: Strother & Foster   Spores found in 480 million-year-ol...

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Pink Halite

<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/-rv8ApPI8OHo/YUC6sg0NRKI/AAAAAAAATUo/_4qh6xq6x08aQ9pdQYY2yyxTpLoytr6ZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/Pink%2BHalite.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rv8ApPI8OHo/YUC6sg0NRKI/AAAAAAAATUo/_4qh6xq6x08aQ9pdQYY2yyxTpLoytr6ZwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h400/Pink%2BHalite.jpg" title="Pink Halite" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pink Halite from California<br />Photo Copyright ©️ Artstonetics/IG<br /></td></tr></tbody></table> <br /><p></p><p>Halite  is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride (NaCl). Halite forms isometric crystals. The mineral is typically colorless or white, but may also be light blue, dark blue, purple, pink, red, orange, yellow or gray depending on inclusion of other materials, impurities, and structural or isotopic abnormalities in the crystals.</p><p>Halite has economic value. In addition to its use in food, salt is traditionally used in large quantities in wintertime to prevent roadways from icing up. Halite is principally mined from ancient rock salt successions. Rock salt is a chemical sedimentary rock composed of halite and formed by evaporation of seawater.<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 /><p></p><p>Pink Halite is a type of Halite that had its color tainted from bacteria of various algae species. Halite is known as the “natural form of salt” and is a very common mineral found near oceans and salt lakes. This stone can be found in the form of masses and a tubular crystal structure. </p><p>The specimen pictured above is from a dried up salt lake in San Bernardino, California. Be careful to avoid getting pieces of Pink Halite wet as it may start to disintegrate before your eyes. <br /> </p><p>Through geologic time, the lake has alternated between having water and being dry. What little water does occur in modern Searles Lake is highly saline. When the water evaporates, halite precipitates. The pinkish coloration is from incorporation of pigments (carotenoids) in halophilic archaea and algae that live in the water. <br /></p><p><br /></p>

Pink Halite

Pink Halite from California Photo Copyright ©️ Artstonetics/IG   Halite  is a type of salt, the mineral (natural) form of sodium chloride (N...

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Giant 'Swimming Head' Creature Lived in Our Oceans 500 Million Years Ago

<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/-AMOQeEq5_zw/YT9xdDgAkfI/AAAAAAAATUg/gMdJU7W3LfoU9bewgymXz5aedo-HivkbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1260/08tb-predator-3-mobileMasterAt3x%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="902" data-original-width="1260" height="458" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AMOQeEq5_zw/YT9xdDgAkfI/AAAAAAAATUg/gMdJU7W3LfoU9bewgymXz5aedo-HivkbQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h458/08tb-predator-3-mobileMasterAt3x%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="Palaeontologists unearth one of the largest radiodonts of the Cambrian explosion" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Titanokorys gainesi carapace. Image credit: Jean-Bernard Caron, Royal Ontario Museum.</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;"> Paleontologists have described the largest Cambrian hurdiid radiodont known so far, named Titanokorys gainesi, from the Burgess Shale, British Columbia, Canada.</span></p><p>Palaeontologists at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered the remains of a huge new fossil species belonging to an extinct animal group in half-a-billion-year-old Cambrian rocks from Kootenay National Park in the Canadian Rockies. The findings were announced on September 8, 2021, in a study published in Royal Society Open Science.<br /><br />Named Titanokorys gainesi, this new species is remarkable for its size. With an estimated total length of half a meter, Titanokorys was a giant compared to most animals that lived in the seas at that time, most of which barely reached the size of a pinky finger.<br /><br />"The sheer size of this animal is absolutely mind-boggling, this is one of the biggest animals from the Cambrian period ever found," says Jean-Bernard Caron, ROM's Richard M. Ivey Curator of Invertebrate Palaeontology.<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 />Evolutionarily speaking, Titanokorys belongs to a group of primitive arthropods called radiodonts. The most iconic representative of this group is the streamlined predator Anomalocaris, which may itself have approached a metre in length. Like all radiodonts, Titanokorys had multifaceted eyes, a pineapple slice-shaped, tooth-lined mouth, a pair of spiny claws below its head to capture prey and a body with a series of flaps for swimming. Within this group, some species also possessed large, conspicuous head carapaces, with Titanokorys being one of the largest ever known.<br /><br />"Titanokorys is part of a subgroup of radiodonts, called hurdiids, characterized by an incredibly long head covered by a three-part carapace that took on myriad shapes. The head is so long relative to the body that these animals are really little more than swimming heads," added Joe Moysiuk, co-author of the study, and a ROM-based Ph.D. student in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto.<br /><br />Why some radiodonts evolved such a bewildering array of head carapace shapes and sizes is still poorly understood and was likely driven by a variety of factors, but the broad flattened carapace form in Titanokorys suggests this species was adapted to life near the seafloor.<br /><br />"These enigmatic animals certainly had a big impact on Cambrian seafloor ecosystems. Their limbs at the front looked like multiple stacked rakes and would have been very efficient at bringing anything they captured in their tiny spines towards the mouth. The huge dorsal carapace might have functioned like a plough," added Dr. Caron, who is also an Associate Professor in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and Earth Sciences at the University of Toronto, and Moysiuk's Ph.D. advisor.<br /><br />All fossils in this study were collected around Marble Canyon in northern Kootenay National Park by successive ROM expeditions. Discovered less than a decade ago, this area has yielded a great variety of Burgess Shale animals dating back to the Cambrian period, including a smaller, more abundant relative of Titanokorys named Cambroraster falcatusin reference to its Millennium Falcon-shaped head carapace. According to the authors, the two species might have competed for similar bottom-dwelling prey.<br /><br />The Burgess Shale fossil sites are located within Yoho and Kootenay National Parks and are managed by Parks Canada. Parks Canada is proud to work with leading scientific researchers to expand knowledge and understanding of this key period of earth history and to share these sites with the world through award-winning guided hikes. The Burgess Shale was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980 due to its outstanding universal value and is now part of the larger Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site.<br /><br />The discovery of Titanokorys gainesi was profiled in the CBC's The Nature of Things episode "First Animals." These and other Burgess Shale specimens will be showcased in a new gallery at ROM, the Willner Madge Gallery, Dawn of Life, opening in December 2021.<br /><br />Major funding support for the research and fieldwork came from the Polk Milstein Family, ROM, the National Geographic Society (#9475-14 to JBC), the Swedish Research Council (to Michael Streng), the National Science Foundation (NSF-EAR-1556226, 1554897) and Pomona College (to Robert R. Gaines). This research is also supported by a National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) Discovery grant to J.-B.C and a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship through the University of Toronto (Dept. of Ecology and Evolution) to J.M.</p><p> </p><p><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> The above story is based on <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/massive-new-animal-species-discovered-in-half-billion-year-old" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank">Materials</a><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-decoration-color: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span> </span>provided by<span> </span></span><a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/" rel="nofollow" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; color: #004276; font-size: 14px; font-variant-caps: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;" target="_blank"><strong style="border-radius: 0px !important; box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: bold;">Royal Ontario Museum</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;"><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">.</span></i></u><span><u><i><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"> </span></i></u><br /></span></span></p>

Giant 'Swimming Head' Creature Lived in Our Oceans 500 Million Years Ago

Titanokorys gainesi carapace. Image credit: Jean-Bernard Caron, Royal Ontario Museum.    Paleontologists have described the largest Cambrian...

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'Flying Dragon' First-ever Remains of Prehistoric Winged Dinosaur

<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/-1J2XB3pS49Q/YT4lSjEcx4I/AAAAAAAATUY/2hlZq5Sx-K0rC_dvtbHgx7nGgKlz4v3FgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/%2527Flying%2BDragon%2527%2BFirst-ever%2BRemains%2Bof%2BPrehistoric%2BWinged%2BDinosaur%2B%25281%2529.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1J2XB3pS49Q/YT4lSjEcx4I/AAAAAAAATUY/2hlZq5Sx-K0rC_dvtbHgx7nGgKlz4v3FgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/%2527Flying%2BDragon%2527%2BFirst-ever%2BRemains%2Bof%2BPrehistoric%2BWinged%2BDinosaur%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="'Flying Dragon' First-ever Remains of Prehistoric Winged Dinosaur" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fossils of the dinosaur were unearthed by a group of scientists in the Atacama Desert.</td></tr></tbody></table> <p></p><p><span style="font-family: georgia;">The dinosaur fossil is preserved in a rare three-dimensional way, as the bones of pterosaurs generally get crushed due to their delicacy.</span><br /></p><p>Scientists in Chile's Atacama Desert have unearthed the fossil remains of a so-called "flying dragon," a Jurassic-era dinosaur previously known only to the northern hemisphere.<br /><br />The flying reptile belonged to a group of early pterosaurs that roamed the earth 160 million years ago. It had a long pointed tail, wings and sharp, outward pointing teeth.<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 />The beast's fossil remains were discovered by Osvaldo Rojas, director of the Atacama Desert Museum of Natural History and Culture, and then further investigated by scientists at the University of Chile.<br /><br />Details of the discovery, the first linking such creatures to the Southern Hemisphere, were published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.<br /><br />"This shows the distribution of the animals in this group was wider than what was known up to now," said Jhonatan Alarcon, a University of Chile scientist who led the investigation.<br /><br />The discovery points to close ties and possible migration between the northern and southern hemispheres at a time when most of the globe's southerly land masses where believed to be linked in a supercontinent called Gondwana.<br /><br />”There are pterosaurs of this group also in Cuba, which apparently were coastal animals, so most likely they have migrated between the North and the South or maybe they came once and stayed, we don't know," Alarcon said.<br /><br />Chile's vast Atacama Desert, once largely submerged beneath the Pacific Ocean, is now a moonscape of sand and stone.<br /><br />The region, parts of which haven't seen rain for decades, is a hot spot for fossil discoveries, with many remains untouched in remote areas not far beneath the desert surface.<p></p><p> </p><p> </p>

'Flying Dragon' First-ever Remains of Prehistoric Winged Dinosaur

Fossils of the dinosaur were unearthed by a group of scientists in the Atacama Desert.   The dinosaur fossil is preserved in a rare three-di...

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Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NG6NR7BQgsk/XHFzvLtIHdI/AAAAAAAAQzo/dy0mcr8DBvUgGGL6TTG0ivnZYJes4fECQCLcBGAs/s1600/Fossilized%2BInsect%2BDiscovered%2BNot%2Bin%2BAmber%252C%2BBut%2Bin%2BOpal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="1024" height="376" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NG6NR7BQgsk/XHFzvLtIHdI/AAAAAAAAQzo/dy0mcr8DBvUgGGL6TTG0ivnZYJes4fECQCLcBGAs/s640/Fossilized%2BInsect%2BDiscovered%2BNot%2Bin%2BAmber%252C%2BBut%2Bin%2BOpal.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo: <a href="https://www.instagram.com/velvetboxsociety/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">(Brian Berger/Instagram/@velvetboxsociety)</a></td></tr> </tbody></table> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In a find unlike anything seen before, a piece of opal from the island of java in indonesia holds some remarkable cargo: a stunningly preserved insect that may be at least four to seven million years old.</span><br /> <br /> Previously, plenty of ancient insects have been found in amber, a gemstone made of fossilized tree resin. When animals became encased in the fresh resin, it entombs them rapidly enough to preserve the remains, often with exquisite detail.<br /> <br /> On a trip to Indonesia, gemologist Brian Berger purchased an opal that appeared to have an insect entombed inside. Insects trapped in amber are a common-enough sight, but in a slow-forming gemstone like opal?<br /> <br /> “Some researchers weren’t sure it was possible,” Berger told Gizmodo. “Now we know it’s possible. Is it likely? Extremely unlikely.”<br /> <br /> Berger had the stone analyzed by the Gemological Institute of America, which confirmed its authenticity. He published <a href="https://entomologytoday.org/2019/01/18/fossilized-insect-discovered-amber-opal/?fbclid=IwAR3tvq4p9ZxpCQ8qBNd29sRDsvWxLu_DpKqC9SgOwPgPvxuwFGVH8g3yBcQ" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">a blog in Entomology </a>about his finding and is looking for entomologists to further analyze it.<br /> </span><br /> <div style="margin: 0px auto; width: 100%;"> <script async="" src="//pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/js/adsbygoogle.js"></script><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-1021498709184325" data-ad-format="fluid" data-ad-layout="in-article" data-ad-slot="6157425841" style="display: block; text-align: center;"></ins><br /> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script></span></div> <span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Plants produce a sticky substance called resin mostly as a means to protect themselves. Under the right circumstances, the chemical structures of these resins can change over time, fossilizing into amber—occasionally trapping and preserving an insect inside.<br /> <br /> This specimen probably started as a typical insect trapped in amber—but then it appears to have gone through a second process called opalization, where some of the amber turned into opal. Opals are essentially spheres of silicon dioxide with water combined into their chemistry. Organic specimens can turn into opal similar to the way fossilization turns bone into stone; paleontologists in Australia have recently found an opalized dinosaur fossil.<br /> <br /> At least, this is what Berger speculates happened. How the specimen formed remains unclear.<br /> <br /> One entomologist, Ryan McKellar, curator of invertebrate palaeontology at the Royal Saskatchewan Museum in Canada, told Gizmodo “it is a pretty neat find, and a bit puzzling.” Though commenting only on Berger’s blog post in Entomology Today, McKellar said it “definitely looks like an insect inclusion.” He noted that he’d seen a comparable specimen in Canada, where a piece of wood was partially embedded in resin and partially exposed to the surrounding environment. The amber preserved the wood, but silica replaced the organic matter outside the amber and turned it into petrified wood.<br /> <br /> McKellar thought that perhaps this specimen was formed by a similar process, and said he’d be interested in the age of the deposit where it was found.<br /> <br /> Meanwhile, well-known American entomologist George Poinar Jr. from Oregon State University remained cautious. He found the specimen “interesting,” but wanted to wait for an entomologist’s opinion before offering any further comment without examining the object himself.</span><br /> <br /> <br /> <i><a href="https://gizmodo.com/gemologist-finds-insect-trapped-in-opal-instead-of-ambe-1831966497" rel="nofollow" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Gizmodo</span></a></i></div>

Fossilized Insect Discovered Not in Amber, But in Opal

Photo: (Brian Berger/Instagram/@velvetboxsociety) In a find unlike anything seen before, a piece of opal from the island of java in i...

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The Geology behind Kidney Stone Crystallization

<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/-p_T7jjBO5v0/YTToKQhk20I/AAAAAAAATTc/FQKg0aDIhAMdar2Ki-azdAFR5D-SWJvjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1229/The%2BGeology%2Bbehind%2BKidney%2BStone%2BCrystallization%2B%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1078" data-original-width="1229" height="562" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p_T7jjBO5v0/YTToKQhk20I/AAAAAAAATTc/FQKg0aDIhAMdar2Ki-azdAFR5D-SWJvjwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h562/The%2BGeology%2Bbehind%2BKidney%2BStone%2BCrystallization%2B%25281%2529.jpg" title="The Geology behind Kidney Stone Crystallization" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Section of a kidney stone. Credit: Mayandi Sivaguru and Bruce Fouke</td></tr></tbody></table> <br /></p><p><b> Rather than crystallizing all at once, kidney stones dissolve and re-form over and over</b></p><p>Medical researchers are poised to map the entire process of kidney stone formation for the first time, thanks to insights from an unlikely source: geology. Combining this framework with a suite of cutting-edge microscopic tools and a new device that grows kidney stones in the laboratory, they are developing novel ways to stop or slow down the stones’ growth.<br /><br />Stone disease occurs when jagged mineral crystals form in urine within the kidney. This excruciating problem affects roughly one in 10 adults and is steadily rising, especially in women and adolescents. “It’s common, debilitating and costly, both to the health-care system as well as individuals. </p><p>To top it off, it’s also recurrent—if you’ve had one, there’s about a 50 percent chance of having another soon,” says urologist Margaret Pearle, who treats stone disease at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and did not participate in the new research.<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 />Geobiologist Bruce Fouke turned his microscope lens from coral reefs to kidney stones about a decade ago. Working with biologists and doctors at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he found that kidney stones form similarly to many other stones in nature: they partially dissolve and re-form many times rather than crystallizing all at once. <br /><br />“That’s when we realized that stones are quite dynamic and have phases where they’re dissolving, so maybe there’s a way to harness that dissolution phase and treat stones,” says Fouke’s collaborator Amy Krambeck, a urologist at Northwestern Medicine.<br /><br />There have been few good animal or lab models to study kidney stone formation, Krambeck says. So the team developed a new device called the GeoBioCell, a cartridge designed to mimic the kidney’s intricate internal structures. It lets scientists measure and link how various factors—including kidney cell activity, as well as the urinary microbiome, chemistry and flow—can affect stone growth. Varying any one factor can make stones develop and dissolve differently.<br /><br />In their recent research, summarized in Nature Reviews Urology, the researchers primarily used GeoBioCell to study growing calcium oxalate crystals, which account for about 70 percent of kidney stones. Until Fouke’s preliminary work, these crystals were thought to be almost impossible to dissolve—but he and his colleagues found the stones do, in fact, partially dissolve in the body before regrowing. <br /><br />The scientists are now using GeoBioCell to examine precisely how stones form, and they hope to identify ways of initiating or prolonging the dissolution phase with drugs. They are also using the new device to test a variety of proteins (including the bone-related osteopontin) that could potentially inhibit growth if administered as a drug. Additionally, they are investigating the impact that specific microorganisms and microbial communities might have on stone formation.<br /><br />This research has tremendous potential to identify kidney processes that can be targeted with drugs or other interventions, Pearle says, and will likely improve doctors’ ability to predict and treat stone recurrence.</p><p><b><br /><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-tool-shows-geology-behind-kidney-stone-crystallization/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Scientific American </a></b><br /><i><u><span style="font-family: trebuchet;">The above story is based on <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41585-021-00469-x" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">materials </a>provided by Scientific American . </span></u></i><br /></p>

The Geology behind Kidney Stone Crystallization

Section of a kidney stone. Credit: Mayandi Sivaguru and Bruce Fouke    Rather than crystallizing all at once, kidney stones dissolve and re-...

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