January 2022

New Mineral Described From Uranium Mine In Utah

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

New Mineral Described From Uranium Mine In Utah

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

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

evolution, extinction 2:28 AM

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

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

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

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

amber, extinction 1:51 PM

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