FIRST there was reports of a black panther at Eagleby, and now Daisy Hill residents Lisa and Sean Smith believe they have spotted the extinct Tasmanian Tiger.
The world's last captive Tasmanian Tiger died in Hobart Zoo in 1936.
However, Mrs Smith said one could very well be living in the Daisy Hill Forest.
``A few years ago we were standing in the back yard and we (husband Sean and father Barry) saw this fox-like creature staring at us,'' she said.
``Then we looked at it properly and it didn't look like a fox at all, it had a long thin whippy tail, stripes on its back and it was a lot bigger than a fox.
``A few years ago we were in Tasmania and saw this book (on Tasmanian Tigers), and thought it looked a lot like what we saw. We sight it every now and then and can hear it screaming and making noises at night.''
With their home backing on to the Kimberly Forest Park which connects to Daisy Hill Forest, Mrs Smith said there was definitely something interesting in there.
``I'm happy to think something like the Tasmanian Tiger defied the odds and survived. We're trying to take a photo for proof next time we see it, but sometimes we won't see it for a year, then it comes back.''
According to the Tasmanian Government's Department of Primary Industrys, Parks, Water and Environment, the thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger), was the the world's largest marsupial carnivore and fossils and Aboriginal rock paintings showed that the thylacine once lived throughout Australia and New Guinea.
http://www.couriermail.com.au/questnews/logan/tasmanian-tiger-rears-its-head-in-daisy-hill/story-fn8m0u8i-1226158325064
Showing posts with label extinct animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label extinct animals. Show all posts
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Ancient Wild Horses Help Unlock Past
ScienceDaily (Aug. 23, 2011) — An international team of researchers has used ancient DNA to produce compelling evidence that the lack of genetic diversity in modern stallions is the result of the domestication process.
The team, which was led by Professor Michi Hofreiter from the University of York, UK, has carried out the first study on Y chromosomal DNA sequences from extinct ancient wild horses and found an abundance of diversity.
The results, which are published in Nature Communications, suggest the almost complete absence of genetic diversity in modern male horses is not based on properties intrinsic to wild horses, but on the domestication process itself.
Professor Hofreiter said: "Unlike modern female domestic horses where there is plenty of diversity, genetic diversity in male horses is practically zero.
"One hypothesis to explain this suggests modern horses have little Y chromosome diversity because the wild horses from which they were domesticated were also not diverse, due in part to the harem mating system in horses, implying skewed reproductive success of males. Our results reject this hypothesis as the Y chromosome diversity in ancient wild horses is high. Instead our results suggest that the lack of genetic diversity in modern horses is a direct consequence of the domestication process itself."
The Y chromosome is a valuable tool in population genetics, providing a means of directly assessing evolutionary processes that only affect the paternal lineage. So far mitochondrial DNA studies have failed to discover the origin of domestic horses. However, these new Y chromosomal markers now open the possibility of solving this issue in detail.
As part of the study, researchers sequenced Y chromosomal DNA from eight ancient wild horses dating back from around 15,000 to more than 47,000 years and a 2,800-year-old domesticated horse. The results were compared to DNA sequences from Przewalski horses -- the only surviving wild horse population -- and 52 domestic horses, representing 15 modern breeds, which had been sequenced previously.
Domestication of horses dates back approximately 5,500 years. DNA from the skeletal remains of a 2,800-year-old domesticated stallion from Siberia showed that in contrast to modern horses, Y chromosomal diversity still existed several thousand years after the initial domestication event for horses.
Professor Hofreiter said: "This suggests some level of Y chromosomal diversity still existed in domestic horses several thousand years after domestication, although the lineage identified was closely related to the modern domestic lineage."
The study was carried out in Germany by Sebastian Lippold, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The results were then independently replicated at the Centre for GeoGenetics at Copenhagen University, Denmark.
Sebastian Lippold said: "Working on ancient Y chromosomal DNA was especially challenging but the only opportunity to investigate Y chromosomal diversity in wild horses. For now we have a first idea of ancestral diversity and therefore a better impression of how much diversity has been lost. Basically this was an important first step and points to the potential the Y chromosomal marker could have in order to further investigate domestication history in horses."
Beth Shapiro, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, carried out the analysis and interpretation.
She said: "Most ancient DNA research until now has focused on a different part of the genome -- the mitochondrion -- which is much more abundant in cells and therefore much easier to work with when the DNA is degraded. This has been a serious limitation in ancient DNA research, because we generally only have a good idea what happened along the maternal line. Here, we've been able to look at what happened along the paternal lineage, and, probably unsurprisingly, we see something different going on in males than in females.
"This is exciting stuff, and means we can start getting a much better picture of how events like domestication and climate change have shaped the diversity of organisms alive today."
Researchers had found that Przewalski's horse displays DNA haplotypes not present in modern domestic horses, suggesting they are not ancestral to modern domestic horses. However, while the Y chromosome data supported historic isolation, it also suggests a close evolutionary relationship between the domestic horse and the Przewalski's horse, since the Przewalski Y chromosomal haplotype is more similar to the two domestic ones than any of the ancient wild horse haplotypes.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823115145.htm
The team, which was led by Professor Michi Hofreiter from the University of York, UK, has carried out the first study on Y chromosomal DNA sequences from extinct ancient wild horses and found an abundance of diversity.
The results, which are published in Nature Communications, suggest the almost complete absence of genetic diversity in modern male horses is not based on properties intrinsic to wild horses, but on the domestication process itself.
Professor Hofreiter said: "Unlike modern female domestic horses where there is plenty of diversity, genetic diversity in male horses is practically zero.
"One hypothesis to explain this suggests modern horses have little Y chromosome diversity because the wild horses from which they were domesticated were also not diverse, due in part to the harem mating system in horses, implying skewed reproductive success of males. Our results reject this hypothesis as the Y chromosome diversity in ancient wild horses is high. Instead our results suggest that the lack of genetic diversity in modern horses is a direct consequence of the domestication process itself."
The Y chromosome is a valuable tool in population genetics, providing a means of directly assessing evolutionary processes that only affect the paternal lineage. So far mitochondrial DNA studies have failed to discover the origin of domestic horses. However, these new Y chromosomal markers now open the possibility of solving this issue in detail.
As part of the study, researchers sequenced Y chromosomal DNA from eight ancient wild horses dating back from around 15,000 to more than 47,000 years and a 2,800-year-old domesticated horse. The results were compared to DNA sequences from Przewalski horses -- the only surviving wild horse population -- and 52 domestic horses, representing 15 modern breeds, which had been sequenced previously.
Domestication of horses dates back approximately 5,500 years. DNA from the skeletal remains of a 2,800-year-old domesticated stallion from Siberia showed that in contrast to modern horses, Y chromosomal diversity still existed several thousand years after the initial domestication event for horses.
Professor Hofreiter said: "This suggests some level of Y chromosomal diversity still existed in domestic horses several thousand years after domestication, although the lineage identified was closely related to the modern domestic lineage."
The study was carried out in Germany by Sebastian Lippold, from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The results were then independently replicated at the Centre for GeoGenetics at Copenhagen University, Denmark.
Sebastian Lippold said: "Working on ancient Y chromosomal DNA was especially challenging but the only opportunity to investigate Y chromosomal diversity in wild horses. For now we have a first idea of ancestral diversity and therefore a better impression of how much diversity has been lost. Basically this was an important first step and points to the potential the Y chromosomal marker could have in order to further investigate domestication history in horses."
Beth Shapiro, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the Pennsylvania State University, USA, carried out the analysis and interpretation.
She said: "Most ancient DNA research until now has focused on a different part of the genome -- the mitochondrion -- which is much more abundant in cells and therefore much easier to work with when the DNA is degraded. This has been a serious limitation in ancient DNA research, because we generally only have a good idea what happened along the maternal line. Here, we've been able to look at what happened along the paternal lineage, and, probably unsurprisingly, we see something different going on in males than in females.
"This is exciting stuff, and means we can start getting a much better picture of how events like domestication and climate change have shaped the diversity of organisms alive today."
Researchers had found that Przewalski's horse displays DNA haplotypes not present in modern domestic horses, suggesting they are not ancestral to modern domestic horses. However, while the Y chromosome data supported historic isolation, it also suggests a close evolutionary relationship between the domestic horse and the Przewalski's horse, since the Przewalski Y chromosomal haplotype is more similar to the two domestic ones than any of the ancient wild horse haplotypes.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110823115145.htm
Friday, July 29, 2011
Video: Thylacine Sighting from Jan 2009?
Monday, April 11, 2011
Searching for the Tasmanian tiger in PNG
By:Joanna Egan | April-8-2011
IN DECEMBER 2010, the AG Society-sponsored adventurer Andrew Hughes headed into the wilderness in an attempt to see if the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine - declared officially extinct in 1986 - continues to persist in any remote pockets (see video below) of Tasmania - and surprisingly, New Guinea.
Read more: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/search-for-the-tasmanian-tiger.htm
VIDEO: Highlights of Andrew Hughes' expedition to track the history of the Tasmanian tiger
(Via Kristin Edwards)
IN DECEMBER 2010, the AG Society-sponsored adventurer Andrew Hughes headed into the wilderness in an attempt to see if the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine - declared officially extinct in 1986 - continues to persist in any remote pockets (see video below) of Tasmania - and surprisingly, New Guinea.
Read more: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/search-for-the-tasmanian-tiger.htm
VIDEO: Highlights of Andrew Hughes' expedition to track the history of the Tasmanian tiger
(Via Kristin Edwards)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Prehistoric reptile skin secrets revealed in new image
23 March 2011
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News
The infra-red picture reveals the chemical profile of the skin, offering an insight into how it was preserved.
A team of UK scientists say the sample was so well preserved that it was hard to tell the difference between the fossil and the fresh samples.
The details appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"It is a relatively new technique - I think we are the first people to apply it to palaeontology," said co-author Roy Wogelius, a geochemist from the University of Manchester, UK.
He told BBC News that the technology allows non-destructive analysis, meaning that it could be used on rare, valuable museum specimens.
"Now we can apply this organic technique [it] means that there is an awful lot of material that we can analyse in ways people did not realise were possible."
Possible specimens could include invertebrates, marine creatures and plant material, Dr Wogelius said.
He explained that the the infra-red mapping technique worked in a manner that was similar to a record player.
"What you do is you take something that transmits light, so if you take a very small needle - about the size of an old phonograph stylus - and make it so it can transmit light," he revealed.
"You can shine light down through the needle and then when the needle is in contact with the specimen's surface, a little of that light will be absorbed - that is the signal that we use.
"When there is a little more absorption at a certain frequency, that is a fingerprint for a particular organic compound."
Dr Wogelius explained that the team of UK and US researchers had attempted to use the technology before, on a sample from a sample known as "dino-mummy", a 67-million-year-old fossil that still had much of its soft tissue intact.
"This was one of the best preserved dinosaurs discovered, and we were able to show that there was organic compound from the skin remaining (on the fossil)," he observed.
"The problem was that the (sample) fell apart so easily, we could not map anything. So while we were confident that what we had was skin residue, we just could not see if there was any biological structure there."
Prehistoric 'whiff'
With the latest sample, Dr Wogelius said that the preservation was both remarkable and, perhaps more importantly, solid.
"It was also flat which made it very, very convenient to map it," he added.
"So we took this new technology... and the detail of what we were able to reveal was quite striking."
Using the infra-red technique, as well as a series of X-rays, the team were able to confirm that soft tissue was present on the fossil.
They were also able to offer a hypothesis on how the tissue had survived for 50 million years.
The details from the study suggest that when skin's organic compounds began to break down, they formed a chemical bond with trace metals that, under certain circumstances, then go on to build a "bridge" with the surrounding minerals.
A result of this process meant that the skin and remaining soft tissue was protected from further decomposition or further erosion.
"These new infra-red and X-ray methods reveal intricate chemical patterns that have been overlooked by traditional methods for decades," Dr Wogelius explained.
"We have learned that some of these compounds, if the chemistry is just right, can give us a bit of a whiff of the chemistry of these ancient organisms."
He went on to say that the team's findings had offered an insight into a number of area.
"By doing the infra-red analysis, we get some detail about the soft tissue that remains," he said.
"In fact, the chemical remains - in terms of the organic compounds - very closely resemble what we get when we look at modern gecko skin. That means that some of the organic components have been conserved over that period of time.
"Some of the trace metal chemistry is also original to the organism, and that give us hope in terms of understanding some bio-metallic complexes, in particular understanding the colouration and pigmentation of the skin.
"It is very exciting because we can start to pull out more detail."
Dr Wogelius said that this sort of information could unlock a better understanding of a range of research avenues, including prehistoric creatures' diets.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12816862
By Mark Kinver
Science and environment reporter, BBC News
A unique image, for the first time, has mapped organic compounds that are still surviving in a 50-million-year-old sample of reptile skin.
A team of UK scientists say the sample was so well preserved that it was hard to tell the difference between the fossil and the fresh samples.
The details appear in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
"It is a relatively new technique - I think we are the first people to apply it to palaeontology," said co-author Roy Wogelius, a geochemist from the University of Manchester, UK.
He told BBC News that the technology allows non-destructive analysis, meaning that it could be used on rare, valuable museum specimens.
"Now we can apply this organic technique [it] means that there is an awful lot of material that we can analyse in ways people did not realise were possible."
Possible specimens could include invertebrates, marine creatures and plant material, Dr Wogelius said.
He explained that the the infra-red mapping technique worked in a manner that was similar to a record player.
"What you do is you take something that transmits light, so if you take a very small needle - about the size of an old phonograph stylus - and make it so it can transmit light," he revealed.
"You can shine light down through the needle and then when the needle is in contact with the specimen's surface, a little of that light will be absorbed - that is the signal that we use.
"When there is a little more absorption at a certain frequency, that is a fingerprint for a particular organic compound."
Dr Wogelius explained that the team of UK and US researchers had attempted to use the technology before, on a sample from a sample known as "dino-mummy", a 67-million-year-old fossil that still had much of its soft tissue intact.
"This was one of the best preserved dinosaurs discovered, and we were able to show that there was organic compound from the skin remaining (on the fossil)," he observed.
"The problem was that the (sample) fell apart so easily, we could not map anything. So while we were confident that what we had was skin residue, we just could not see if there was any biological structure there."
Prehistoric 'whiff'
With the latest sample, Dr Wogelius said that the preservation was both remarkable and, perhaps more importantly, solid.
"It was also flat which made it very, very convenient to map it," he added.
"So we took this new technology... and the detail of what we were able to reveal was quite striking."
Using the infra-red technique, as well as a series of X-rays, the team were able to confirm that soft tissue was present on the fossil.
They were also able to offer a hypothesis on how the tissue had survived for 50 million years.
The details from the study suggest that when skin's organic compounds began to break down, they formed a chemical bond with trace metals that, under certain circumstances, then go on to build a "bridge" with the surrounding minerals.
A result of this process meant that the skin and remaining soft tissue was protected from further decomposition or further erosion.
"These new infra-red and X-ray methods reveal intricate chemical patterns that have been overlooked by traditional methods for decades," Dr Wogelius explained.
"We have learned that some of these compounds, if the chemistry is just right, can give us a bit of a whiff of the chemistry of these ancient organisms."
He went on to say that the team's findings had offered an insight into a number of area.
"By doing the infra-red analysis, we get some detail about the soft tissue that remains," he said.
"In fact, the chemical remains - in terms of the organic compounds - very closely resemble what we get when we look at modern gecko skin. That means that some of the organic components have been conserved over that period of time.
"Some of the trace metal chemistry is also original to the organism, and that give us hope in terms of understanding some bio-metallic complexes, in particular understanding the colouration and pigmentation of the skin.
"It is very exciting because we can start to pull out more detail."
Dr Wogelius said that this sort of information could unlock a better understanding of a range of research avenues, including prehistoric creatures' diets.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12816862
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Two-clawed and parrot-sized: new T.rex cousin unveiled
25 January 2011
By Neil Bowdler
Science reporter, BBC News
Linhenykus monodactylus weighed no more than a large parrot and was found in sediments between 84 and 75 million years old.
The dinosaur belongs to a sub-branch of the theropods, the dinosaur group which includes T.rex and Velociraptor, and which gave rise to modern birds.
Details are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new species was named after the Chinese city of Linhe, Inner Mongolia, near where its fossilised remains was uncovered in what is called the Upper Cretaceous Wulansuhai Formation.
The international team found a partial skeleton, including bones of the vertebrae, forelimb, hind limbs, and a partial pelvis
It is part of the Alvarezsauroidea family of theropods, a group of small, long-legged dinosaurs, known for their strange and tiny arms.
Michael Pittman of University College London, who was part of the team, says the animal would hardly have been intimidating.
"You'd see a very small animal, probably below your hip height, with a very small skull. It's not very threatening because its teeth are very small compared to other carnivorous dinosaurs and there's some evidence it may have been an insectivore," he told the BBC.
What is striking is the animal's unusual claws.
"Non-avian theropods start with five fingers but evolved to have only three fingers in later forms," he says. "Tyrannosaurs were unusual in having just two fingers but the one-fingered Linhenykus shows how extensive and complex theropod hand modifications really were."
Disappearing fingers
The suggestion is that this mono-digit theropod may represent the end of one evolutionary pathway, in which unused digits disappear as part of a process of natural selection.
"Vestigial structures, like legs in whales and snakes, may appear and disappear seemingly randomly in the course of evolution," says Jonah Choiniere of the American Museum of Natural History, who also worked on the find.
"Linhenykus highlights complexity in evolution of these vestigial fingers."
Dr Paul Barrett of London's Natural History Museum said the discovery was a "nice specimen" to add to a sub-group already known for its weirdness.
"Alvarezsauroids are already known to be an unusual group of theropods with very bizarre hands used primarily for digging, and this new find confirms there was some variation in how weird these hands were."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12262349
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
By Neil Bowdler
Science reporter, BBC News
A tiny distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex has been discovered in China with only a single claw on each forelimb.
The dinosaur belongs to a sub-branch of the theropods, the dinosaur group which includes T.rex and Velociraptor, and which gave rise to modern birds.
Details are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new species was named after the Chinese city of Linhe, Inner Mongolia, near where its fossilised remains was uncovered in what is called the Upper Cretaceous Wulansuhai Formation.
The international team found a partial skeleton, including bones of the vertebrae, forelimb, hind limbs, and a partial pelvis
It is part of the Alvarezsauroidea family of theropods, a group of small, long-legged dinosaurs, known for their strange and tiny arms.
Michael Pittman of University College London, who was part of the team, says the animal would hardly have been intimidating.
"You'd see a very small animal, probably below your hip height, with a very small skull. It's not very threatening because its teeth are very small compared to other carnivorous dinosaurs and there's some evidence it may have been an insectivore," he told the BBC.
What is striking is the animal's unusual claws.
"Non-avian theropods start with five fingers but evolved to have only three fingers in later forms," he says. "Tyrannosaurs were unusual in having just two fingers but the one-fingered Linhenykus shows how extensive and complex theropod hand modifications really were."
Disappearing fingers
The suggestion is that this mono-digit theropod may represent the end of one evolutionary pathway, in which unused digits disappear as part of a process of natural selection.
"Vestigial structures, like legs in whales and snakes, may appear and disappear seemingly randomly in the course of evolution," says Jonah Choiniere of the American Museum of Natural History, who also worked on the find.
"Linhenykus highlights complexity in evolution of these vestigial fingers."
Dr Paul Barrett of London's Natural History Museum said the discovery was a "nice specimen" to add to a sub-group already known for its weirdness.
"Alvarezsauroids are already known to be an unusual group of theropods with very bizarre hands used primarily for digging, and this new find confirms there was some variation in how weird these hands were."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12262349
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
Two-clawed and parrot-sized: new T.rex cousin unveiled
25 January 2011
By Neil Bowdler
Science reporter, BBC News
Linhenykus monodactylus weighed no more than a large parrot and was found in sediments between 84 and 75 million years old.
The dinosaur belongs to a sub-branch of the theropods, the dinosaur group which includes T.rex and Velociraptor, and which gave rise to modern birds.
Details are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new species was named after the Chinese city of Linhe, Inner Mongolia, near where its fossilised remains was uncovered in what is called the Upper Cretaceous Wulansuhai Formation.
The international team found a partial skeleton, including bones of the vertebrae, forelimb, hind limbs, and a partial pelvis
It is part of the Alvarezsauroidea family of theropods, a group of small, long-legged dinosaurs, known for their strange and tiny arms.
Michael Pittman of University College London, who was part of the team, says the animal would hardly have been intimidating.
"You'd see a very small animal, probably below your hip height, with a very small skull. It's not very threatening because its teeth are very small compared to other carnivorous dinosaurs and there's some evidence it may have been an insectivore," he told the BBC.
What is striking is the animal's unusual claws.
"Non-avian theropods start with five fingers but evolved to have only three fingers in later forms," he says. "Tyrannosaurs were unusual in having just two fingers but the one-fingered Linhenykus shows how extensive and complex theropod hand modifications really were."
Disappearing fingers
The suggestion is that this mono-digit theropod may represent the end of one evolutionary pathway, in which unused digits disappear as part of a process of natural selection.
"Vestigial structures, like legs in whales and snakes, may appear and disappear seemingly randomly in the course of evolution," says Jonah Choiniere of the American Museum of Natural History, who also worked on the find.
"Linhenykus highlights complexity in evolution of these vestigial fingers."
Dr Paul Barrett of London's Natural History Museum said the discovery was a "nice specimen" to add to a sub-group already known for its weirdness.
"Alvarezsauroids are already known to be an unusual group of theropods with very bizarre hands used primarily for digging, and this new find confirms there was some variation in how weird these hands were."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12262349
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
By Neil Bowdler
Science reporter, BBC News
A tiny distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex has been discovered in China with only a single claw on each forelimb.
The dinosaur belongs to a sub-branch of the theropods, the dinosaur group which includes T.rex and Velociraptor, and which gave rise to modern birds.
Details are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The new species was named after the Chinese city of Linhe, Inner Mongolia, near where its fossilised remains was uncovered in what is called the Upper Cretaceous Wulansuhai Formation.
The international team found a partial skeleton, including bones of the vertebrae, forelimb, hind limbs, and a partial pelvis
It is part of the Alvarezsauroidea family of theropods, a group of small, long-legged dinosaurs, known for their strange and tiny arms.
Michael Pittman of University College London, who was part of the team, says the animal would hardly have been intimidating.
"You'd see a very small animal, probably below your hip height, with a very small skull. It's not very threatening because its teeth are very small compared to other carnivorous dinosaurs and there's some evidence it may have been an insectivore," he told the BBC.
What is striking is the animal's unusual claws.
"Non-avian theropods start with five fingers but evolved to have only three fingers in later forms," he says. "Tyrannosaurs were unusual in having just two fingers but the one-fingered Linhenykus shows how extensive and complex theropod hand modifications really were."
Disappearing fingers
The suggestion is that this mono-digit theropod may represent the end of one evolutionary pathway, in which unused digits disappear as part of a process of natural selection.
"Vestigial structures, like legs in whales and snakes, may appear and disappear seemingly randomly in the course of evolution," says Jonah Choiniere of the American Museum of Natural History, who also worked on the find.
"Linhenykus highlights complexity in evolution of these vestigial fingers."
Dr Paul Barrett of London's Natural History Museum said the discovery was a "nice specimen" to add to a sub-group already known for its weirdness.
"Alvarezsauroids are already known to be an unusual group of theropods with very bizarre hands used primarily for digging, and this new find confirms there was some variation in how weird these hands were."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12262349
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
Monday, January 24, 2011
Fossil female pterosaur found with preserved egg
21 January 2011
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News
A pterosaur has been found in China beautifully preserved with an egg.
The egg indicates this ancient flying reptile was a female, and that realisation has allowed researchers to sex these creatures for the first time.
Writing in Science magazine, the palaeontologists make some broad statements about differences in pterosaurs, including the observation that only males sported a head-crest.
David Unwin, a palaeobiologist in the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, was part of the research team.
He told the BBC the discovery was astonishing: "If somebody had said to me a few years back that we would find this kind of association, I would just have laughed and said, 'yeah, maybe in a million years', because these sorts of things are incredibly rare."
Pterosaurs, also sometimes referred to as pterodactyls, dominated the skies in the Mesozoic Era, 220-65 million years ago. Although reptiles like the dinosaurs were plodding on the ground below them, they were not actually dinosaurs themselves - a common misconception.
This particular specimen has been dated to about 160 million years ago.
It was found by Junchang Lü and colleagues and excavated from sedimentary rocks in the famous fossil-hunting grounds of Liaoning Province in China. Liaoning has yielded many of the great finds in recent years, including a series of feathered dinos that have transformed thinking on bird evolution.
The new creature is from the Darwinopterus genus, or grouping, but has been dubbed simply as "Mrs T" (a contraction of "Mrs Pterodactyl") by the research team.
The state of the egg's shell suggests it was well developed and that Mrs T must have been very close to laying it when she died.
She appears to have had some sort of accident as her left forearm is broken. The researchers speculate she may have fallen from the sky during a storm or perhaps a volcanic eruption, sunk to the bottom of a lake and then been preserved in the sediments.
"The most important thing about this particular individual is that she has a relatively large pelvis compared to other individuals of the same pterosaur, Darwinopterus," explained Dr Unwin.
"This seems quite reasonable - females lay eggs, they probably need a slightly wider pelvis. And then the really exciting thing is that she has a skull which lacks any kind of adornment or decoration whatsoever. When we look at other individuals of Darwinopterus, we find quite a few individuals with a large crest on the skull.
"We're very confident now that we're dealing with two genders here - males with big crests and small hips, and females with no crest on the skull and large hips."
More at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12242596
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News
For fossil hunters, it represents one of those breakthrough moments.
A pterosaur has been found in China beautifully preserved with an egg.
The egg indicates this ancient flying reptile was a female, and that realisation has allowed researchers to sex these creatures for the first time.
Writing in Science magazine, the palaeontologists make some broad statements about differences in pterosaurs, including the observation that only males sported a head-crest.
David Unwin, a palaeobiologist in the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, was part of the research team.
He told the BBC the discovery was astonishing: "If somebody had said to me a few years back that we would find this kind of association, I would just have laughed and said, 'yeah, maybe in a million years', because these sorts of things are incredibly rare."
Pterosaurs, also sometimes referred to as pterodactyls, dominated the skies in the Mesozoic Era, 220-65 million years ago. Although reptiles like the dinosaurs were plodding on the ground below them, they were not actually dinosaurs themselves - a common misconception.
This particular specimen has been dated to about 160 million years ago.
It was found by Junchang Lü and colleagues and excavated from sedimentary rocks in the famous fossil-hunting grounds of Liaoning Province in China. Liaoning has yielded many of the great finds in recent years, including a series of feathered dinos that have transformed thinking on bird evolution.
The new creature is from the Darwinopterus genus, or grouping, but has been dubbed simply as "Mrs T" (a contraction of "Mrs Pterodactyl") by the research team.
The state of the egg's shell suggests it was well developed and that Mrs T must have been very close to laying it when she died.
She appears to have had some sort of accident as her left forearm is broken. The researchers speculate she may have fallen from the sky during a storm or perhaps a volcanic eruption, sunk to the bottom of a lake and then been preserved in the sediments.
"The most important thing about this particular individual is that she has a relatively large pelvis compared to other individuals of the same pterosaur, Darwinopterus," explained Dr Unwin.
"This seems quite reasonable - females lay eggs, they probably need a slightly wider pelvis. And then the really exciting thing is that she has a skull which lacks any kind of adornment or decoration whatsoever. When we look at other individuals of Darwinopterus, we find quite a few individuals with a large crest on the skull.
"We're very confident now that we're dealing with two genders here - males with big crests and small hips, and females with no crest on the skull and large hips."
More at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12242596
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
Fossil female pterosaur found with preserved egg
21 January 2011
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News
A pterosaur has been found in China beautifully preserved with an egg.
The egg indicates this ancient flying reptile was a female, and that realisation has allowed researchers to sex these creatures for the first time.
Writing in Science magazine, the palaeontologists make some broad statements about differences in pterosaurs, including the observation that only males sported a head-crest.
David Unwin, a palaeobiologist in the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, was part of the research team.
He told the BBC the discovery was astonishing: "If somebody had said to me a few years back that we would find this kind of association, I would just have laughed and said, 'yeah, maybe in a million years', because these sorts of things are incredibly rare."
Pterosaurs, also sometimes referred to as pterodactyls, dominated the skies in the Mesozoic Era, 220-65 million years ago. Although reptiles like the dinosaurs were plodding on the ground below them, they were not actually dinosaurs themselves - a common misconception.
This particular specimen has been dated to about 160 million years ago.
It was found by Junchang Lü and colleagues and excavated from sedimentary rocks in the famous fossil-hunting grounds of Liaoning Province in China. Liaoning has yielded many of the great finds in recent years, including a series of feathered dinos that have transformed thinking on bird evolution.
The new creature is from the Darwinopterus genus, or grouping, but has been dubbed simply as "Mrs T" (a contraction of "Mrs Pterodactyl") by the research team.
The state of the egg's shell suggests it was well developed and that Mrs T must have been very close to laying it when she died.
She appears to have had some sort of accident as her left forearm is broken. The researchers speculate she may have fallen from the sky during a storm or perhaps a volcanic eruption, sunk to the bottom of a lake and then been preserved in the sediments.
"The most important thing about this particular individual is that she has a relatively large pelvis compared to other individuals of the same pterosaur, Darwinopterus," explained Dr Unwin.
"This seems quite reasonable - females lay eggs, they probably need a slightly wider pelvis. And then the really exciting thing is that she has a skull which lacks any kind of adornment or decoration whatsoever. When we look at other individuals of Darwinopterus, we find quite a few individuals with a large crest on the skull.
"We're very confident now that we're dealing with two genders here - males with big crests and small hips, and females with no crest on the skull and large hips."
More at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12242596
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
By Jonathan Amos
Science correspondent, BBC News
For fossil hunters, it represents one of those breakthrough moments.
A pterosaur has been found in China beautifully preserved with an egg.
The egg indicates this ancient flying reptile was a female, and that realisation has allowed researchers to sex these creatures for the first time.
Writing in Science magazine, the palaeontologists make some broad statements about differences in pterosaurs, including the observation that only males sported a head-crest.
David Unwin, a palaeobiologist in the Department of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester, was part of the research team.
He told the BBC the discovery was astonishing: "If somebody had said to me a few years back that we would find this kind of association, I would just have laughed and said, 'yeah, maybe in a million years', because these sorts of things are incredibly rare."
Pterosaurs, also sometimes referred to as pterodactyls, dominated the skies in the Mesozoic Era, 220-65 million years ago. Although reptiles like the dinosaurs were plodding on the ground below them, they were not actually dinosaurs themselves - a common misconception.
This particular specimen has been dated to about 160 million years ago.
It was found by Junchang Lü and colleagues and excavated from sedimentary rocks in the famous fossil-hunting grounds of Liaoning Province in China. Liaoning has yielded many of the great finds in recent years, including a series of feathered dinos that have transformed thinking on bird evolution.
The new creature is from the Darwinopterus genus, or grouping, but has been dubbed simply as "Mrs T" (a contraction of "Mrs Pterodactyl") by the research team.
The state of the egg's shell suggests it was well developed and that Mrs T must have been very close to laying it when she died.
She appears to have had some sort of accident as her left forearm is broken. The researchers speculate she may have fallen from the sky during a storm or perhaps a volcanic eruption, sunk to the bottom of a lake and then been preserved in the sediments.
"The most important thing about this particular individual is that she has a relatively large pelvis compared to other individuals of the same pterosaur, Darwinopterus," explained Dr Unwin.
"This seems quite reasonable - females lay eggs, they probably need a slightly wider pelvis. And then the really exciting thing is that she has a skull which lacks any kind of adornment or decoration whatsoever. When we look at other individuals of Darwinopterus, we find quite a few individuals with a large crest on the skull.
"We're very confident now that we're dealing with two genders here - males with big crests and small hips, and females with no crest on the skull and large hips."
More at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12242596
(Submitted by Dawn Holloway)
Monday, January 17, 2011
New Species Of Flying Reptile Identified On BC Coast
Edmonton, Canada (SPX) Jan 17, 2011
Persistence paid off for a University of Alberta paleontology researcher, who after months of pondering the origins of a fossilized jaw bone, finally identified it as a new species of pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived 70 million years ago.
Victoria Arbour says she was stumped when the small piece of jaw bone was first pulled out of of a fossil storage cabinet in the U of A's paleontology department.
"It could have been from a dinosaur, a fish or a marine reptile," said Arbour."
Arbour, a PhD student in paleontology, says the first clue to the fossil's identify came after she compared it to known species of pterosaurs, "I found a previously published paper describing the teeth of a previously discovered pterosaur and ours was very close," said Arbour.
"The teeth of our fossil were small and set close together," said Arbour. "They reminded me of piranha teeth, designed for pecking away at meat."
That led Arbour to believe her new species, named Gwawinapterus beardi was a scavenger of the late Cretaceous.
"It had a wing span of about 3 metres and patrolled the sky and set down to feed on the leftover kills made by predator dinosaurs of the time such as Albertosaurus."
The fossil is not only a new species it's the first pterosaur of any kind to be found in British Columbia. It was found on Hornby Island, off the coast of Vancouver Island
However, Arbour says the place where the fossil was located has little to do with the actual area where the living pterosaur, was actually flying around 70 million years ago.
"In the late Cretaceous period, the B.C. coastal islands were about 2,500 kilometres to the south and part of what is now mainland, California," said Arbour.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/New_Species_Of_Flying_Reptile_Identified_On_BC_Coast_999.html
New Species Of Flying Reptile Identified On BC Coast
Edmonton, Canada (SPX) Jan 17, 2011
Persistence paid off for a University of Alberta paleontology researcher, who after months of pondering the origins of a fossilized jaw bone, finally identified it as a new species of pterosaur, a flying reptile that lived 70 million years ago.
Victoria Arbour says she was stumped when the small piece of jaw bone was first pulled out of of a fossil storage cabinet in the U of A's paleontology department.
"It could have been from a dinosaur, a fish or a marine reptile," said Arbour."
Arbour, a PhD student in paleontology, says the first clue to the fossil's identify came after she compared it to known species of pterosaurs, "I found a previously published paper describing the teeth of a previously discovered pterosaur and ours was very close," said Arbour.
"The teeth of our fossil were small and set close together," said Arbour. "They reminded me of piranha teeth, designed for pecking away at meat."
That led Arbour to believe her new species, named Gwawinapterus beardi was a scavenger of the late Cretaceous.
"It had a wing span of about 3 metres and patrolled the sky and set down to feed on the leftover kills made by predator dinosaurs of the time such as Albertosaurus."
The fossil is not only a new species it's the first pterosaur of any kind to be found in British Columbia. It was found on Hornby Island, off the coast of Vancouver Island
However, Arbour says the place where the fossil was located has little to do with the actual area where the living pterosaur, was actually flying around 70 million years ago.
"In the late Cretaceous period, the B.C. coastal islands were about 2,500 kilometres to the south and part of what is now mainland, California," said Arbour.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/New_Species_Of_Flying_Reptile_Identified_On_BC_Coast_999.html
Saturday, January 15, 2011
New dinosaur species provides evolutionary clues
15 January 2011 | 01:20:08 PM | Source: New Scientist
Triassic Park was a more diverse place than we thought, according to the latest finds from the 230-million-year-old Ischigualasto formation in north-eastern Argentina.
Dinosaurs make up one-third of all vertebrate genera found in the fossil beds, and all three major dinosaur groups had already appeared – not bad for a time when the beasts were thought to be rare.
The newly recognised diversity is surprising because the fauna contains the oldest known dinosaurs, thought to have lived just a few million years after the first tiny ones appeared.
The Argentine deposits have been famed as the home of the world's oldest true dinosaurs since the discovery in 1989 of Herrerasaurus. The petite 1.2-metre-long Eoraptor followed a few years later; both were identified as very primitive two-legged predatory dinosaurs called theropods, a group which ultimately gave rise to Tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds.
Now Ricardo Martinez of the National University of San Juan, Argentina, and colleagues have discovered another Triassic dinosaur in the deposits – a 1.2-metre-long predator that they have named Eodromaeus. They have also found that Eoraptor was not a predator at all, but a plant-eating sauropodomorph – a lineage that eventually evolved into the gigantic long-necked sauropod dinosaurs.
Close cousins
That reclassification is not surprising, says Sterling Nesbitt of the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. Because the various groups of dinosaurs separated only a few million years earlier, "only a few features differentiate them", he says.
In this case, key evidence came from a close examination of the teeth, which revealed Eoraptor had the same spatulate, or leaf-shaped, teeth as the giant sauropods. Eodromaeus, by contrast, had a predator's hooked teeth for tearing through flesh, says Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago, a co-author of the study.
The dinosaurs of Ischigualasto had already evolved features important for their later success, whether as predators or plant-eaters, says Sereno. That makes what happened next surprising: the dinosaurs' march to dominance of vertebrate fauna apparently stalled during the remaining 30 million years of the Triassic.
"Why didn't they take over in 1 to 5 million years?" Sereno wonders – that's what would be expected in the traditional view of evolution as progress in adaptation.
Opportunity knocks
He thinks what happened to dinosaurs during the late Triassic was similar to what happened to mammals during the reign of the later dinosaurs. Triassic dinosaurs couldn't displace the more abundant vertebrate groups – the rhynchosaurs and cynodonts – that dominated their world. Instead, they became victors by accident, expanding into niches left vacant by a major extinction event at the end of the Triassic.
Steve Brusatte of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City welcomes the "very important" find, but warns against drawing major evolutionary conclusions. He points out that huge holes remain in the Triassic fossil record – the next-oldest well-preserved dinosaur fossils are about 15 million years younger. "You have to be careful in drawing big pictures from one site," he warns.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1466587/New-dinosaur-species-provides-evolutionary-clues
Triassic Park was a more diverse place than we thought, according to the latest finds from the 230-million-year-old Ischigualasto formation in north-eastern Argentina.
Dinosaurs make up one-third of all vertebrate genera found in the fossil beds, and all three major dinosaur groups had already appeared – not bad for a time when the beasts were thought to be rare.
The newly recognised diversity is surprising because the fauna contains the oldest known dinosaurs, thought to have lived just a few million years after the first tiny ones appeared.
The Argentine deposits have been famed as the home of the world's oldest true dinosaurs since the discovery in 1989 of Herrerasaurus. The petite 1.2-metre-long Eoraptor followed a few years later; both were identified as very primitive two-legged predatory dinosaurs called theropods, a group which ultimately gave rise to Tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds.
Now Ricardo Martinez of the National University of San Juan, Argentina, and colleagues have discovered another Triassic dinosaur in the deposits – a 1.2-metre-long predator that they have named Eodromaeus. They have also found that Eoraptor was not a predator at all, but a plant-eating sauropodomorph – a lineage that eventually evolved into the gigantic long-necked sauropod dinosaurs.
Close cousins
That reclassification is not surprising, says Sterling Nesbitt of the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. Because the various groups of dinosaurs separated only a few million years earlier, "only a few features differentiate them", he says.
In this case, key evidence came from a close examination of the teeth, which revealed Eoraptor had the same spatulate, or leaf-shaped, teeth as the giant sauropods. Eodromaeus, by contrast, had a predator's hooked teeth for tearing through flesh, says Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago, a co-author of the study.
The dinosaurs of Ischigualasto had already evolved features important for their later success, whether as predators or plant-eaters, says Sereno. That makes what happened next surprising: the dinosaurs' march to dominance of vertebrate fauna apparently stalled during the remaining 30 million years of the Triassic.
"Why didn't they take over in 1 to 5 million years?" Sereno wonders – that's what would be expected in the traditional view of evolution as progress in adaptation.
Opportunity knocks
He thinks what happened to dinosaurs during the late Triassic was similar to what happened to mammals during the reign of the later dinosaurs. Triassic dinosaurs couldn't displace the more abundant vertebrate groups – the rhynchosaurs and cynodonts – that dominated their world. Instead, they became victors by accident, expanding into niches left vacant by a major extinction event at the end of the Triassic.
Steve Brusatte of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City welcomes the "very important" find, but warns against drawing major evolutionary conclusions. He points out that huge holes remain in the Triassic fossil record – the next-oldest well-preserved dinosaur fossils are about 15 million years younger. "You have to be careful in drawing big pictures from one site," he warns.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1466587/New-dinosaur-species-provides-evolutionary-clues
Extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life: report
NEWSCORE
Last Updated: 11:51 AM, January 14, 2011
Posted: 11:37 AM, January 14, 2011
The long-extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life within four years after a breakthrough in cloning technology by Japanese scientists.
Researchers have tried unsuccessfully in the past to recover nuclei in cells from the skin and muscle tissue of mammoths found frozen in permafrost, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported late Thursday.
The attempts failed because the cells were too damaged by the extreme cold.
However, a technique pioneered by Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology has succeeded in cloning a mouse from the cells of another, which had been frozen for 16 years.
Akira Iritani, a professor at Kyoto University, said the same technique could be used to resurrect the woolly mammoth, which died out about 5,000 years ago.
"Now the technical problems have been overcome, all we need is a good sample of soft tissue from a frozen mammoth," he said.
The woolly mammoth would be conceived by inserting the nuclei into the egg cells of an African elephant, which will act as a surrogate mother.
Iritani said the first cloned woolly mammoth could be born in about four years.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/extinct_woolly_mammoth_could_be_yRJIeHdsf5KxzAf0E8trcM
See also: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/japansciencemammoth
Last Updated: 11:51 AM, January 14, 2011
Posted: 11:37 AM, January 14, 2011
The long-extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life within four years after a breakthrough in cloning technology by Japanese scientists.
Researchers have tried unsuccessfully in the past to recover nuclei in cells from the skin and muscle tissue of mammoths found frozen in permafrost, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported late Thursday.
The attempts failed because the cells were too damaged by the extreme cold.
However, a technique pioneered by Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology has succeeded in cloning a mouse from the cells of another, which had been frozen for 16 years.
Akira Iritani, a professor at Kyoto University, said the same technique could be used to resurrect the woolly mammoth, which died out about 5,000 years ago.
"Now the technical problems have been overcome, all we need is a good sample of soft tissue from a frozen mammoth," he said.
The woolly mammoth would be conceived by inserting the nuclei into the egg cells of an African elephant, which will act as a surrogate mother.
Iritani said the first cloned woolly mammoth could be born in about four years.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/extinct_woolly_mammoth_could_be_yRJIeHdsf5KxzAf0E8trcM
See also: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/japansciencemammoth
New dinosaur species provides evolutionary clues
15 January 2011 | 01:20:08 PM | Source: New Scientist
Triassic Park was a more diverse place than we thought, according to the latest finds from the 230-million-year-old Ischigualasto formation in north-eastern Argentina.
Dinosaurs make up one-third of all vertebrate genera found in the fossil beds, and all three major dinosaur groups had already appeared – not bad for a time when the beasts were thought to be rare.
The newly recognised diversity is surprising because the fauna contains the oldest known dinosaurs, thought to have lived just a few million years after the first tiny ones appeared.
The Argentine deposits have been famed as the home of the world's oldest true dinosaurs since the discovery in 1989 of Herrerasaurus. The petite 1.2-metre-long Eoraptor followed a few years later; both were identified as very primitive two-legged predatory dinosaurs called theropods, a group which ultimately gave rise to Tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds.
Now Ricardo Martinez of the National University of San Juan, Argentina, and colleagues have discovered another Triassic dinosaur in the deposits – a 1.2-metre-long predator that they have named Eodromaeus. They have also found that Eoraptor was not a predator at all, but a plant-eating sauropodomorph – a lineage that eventually evolved into the gigantic long-necked sauropod dinosaurs.
Close cousins
That reclassification is not surprising, says Sterling Nesbitt of the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. Because the various groups of dinosaurs separated only a few million years earlier, "only a few features differentiate them", he says.
In this case, key evidence came from a close examination of the teeth, which revealed Eoraptor had the same spatulate, or leaf-shaped, teeth as the giant sauropods. Eodromaeus, by contrast, had a predator's hooked teeth for tearing through flesh, says Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago, a co-author of the study.
The dinosaurs of Ischigualasto had already evolved features important for their later success, whether as predators or plant-eaters, says Sereno. That makes what happened next surprising: the dinosaurs' march to dominance of vertebrate fauna apparently stalled during the remaining 30 million years of the Triassic.
"Why didn't they take over in 1 to 5 million years?" Sereno wonders – that's what would be expected in the traditional view of evolution as progress in adaptation.
Opportunity knocks
He thinks what happened to dinosaurs during the late Triassic was similar to what happened to mammals during the reign of the later dinosaurs. Triassic dinosaurs couldn't displace the more abundant vertebrate groups – the rhynchosaurs and cynodonts – that dominated their world. Instead, they became victors by accident, expanding into niches left vacant by a major extinction event at the end of the Triassic.
Steve Brusatte of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City welcomes the "very important" find, but warns against drawing major evolutionary conclusions. He points out that huge holes remain in the Triassic fossil record – the next-oldest well-preserved dinosaur fossils are about 15 million years younger. "You have to be careful in drawing big pictures from one site," he warns.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1466587/New-dinosaur-species-provides-evolutionary-clues
Triassic Park was a more diverse place than we thought, according to the latest finds from the 230-million-year-old Ischigualasto formation in north-eastern Argentina.
Dinosaurs make up one-third of all vertebrate genera found in the fossil beds, and all three major dinosaur groups had already appeared – not bad for a time when the beasts were thought to be rare.
The newly recognised diversity is surprising because the fauna contains the oldest known dinosaurs, thought to have lived just a few million years after the first tiny ones appeared.
The Argentine deposits have been famed as the home of the world's oldest true dinosaurs since the discovery in 1989 of Herrerasaurus. The petite 1.2-metre-long Eoraptor followed a few years later; both were identified as very primitive two-legged predatory dinosaurs called theropods, a group which ultimately gave rise to Tyrannosaurus rex and modern birds.
Now Ricardo Martinez of the National University of San Juan, Argentina, and colleagues have discovered another Triassic dinosaur in the deposits – a 1.2-metre-long predator that they have named Eodromaeus. They have also found that Eoraptor was not a predator at all, but a plant-eating sauropodomorph – a lineage that eventually evolved into the gigantic long-necked sauropod dinosaurs.
Close cousins
That reclassification is not surprising, says Sterling Nesbitt of the University of Washington in Seattle, who was not involved in the study. Because the various groups of dinosaurs separated only a few million years earlier, "only a few features differentiate them", he says.
In this case, key evidence came from a close examination of the teeth, which revealed Eoraptor had the same spatulate, or leaf-shaped, teeth as the giant sauropods. Eodromaeus, by contrast, had a predator's hooked teeth for tearing through flesh, says Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago, a co-author of the study.
The dinosaurs of Ischigualasto had already evolved features important for their later success, whether as predators or plant-eaters, says Sereno. That makes what happened next surprising: the dinosaurs' march to dominance of vertebrate fauna apparently stalled during the remaining 30 million years of the Triassic.
"Why didn't they take over in 1 to 5 million years?" Sereno wonders – that's what would be expected in the traditional view of evolution as progress in adaptation.
Opportunity knocks
He thinks what happened to dinosaurs during the late Triassic was similar to what happened to mammals during the reign of the later dinosaurs. Triassic dinosaurs couldn't displace the more abundant vertebrate groups – the rhynchosaurs and cynodonts – that dominated their world. Instead, they became victors by accident, expanding into niches left vacant by a major extinction event at the end of the Triassic.
Steve Brusatte of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City welcomes the "very important" find, but warns against drawing major evolutionary conclusions. He points out that huge holes remain in the Triassic fossil record – the next-oldest well-preserved dinosaur fossils are about 15 million years younger. "You have to be careful in drawing big pictures from one site," he warns.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1466587/New-dinosaur-species-provides-evolutionary-clues
Extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life: report
NEWSCORE
Last Updated: 11:51 AM, January 14, 2011
Posted: 11:37 AM, January 14, 2011
The long-extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life within four years after a breakthrough in cloning technology by Japanese scientists.
Researchers have tried unsuccessfully in the past to recover nuclei in cells from the skin and muscle tissue of mammoths found frozen in permafrost, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported late Thursday.
The attempts failed because the cells were too damaged by the extreme cold.
However, a technique pioneered by Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology has succeeded in cloning a mouse from the cells of another, which had been frozen for 16 years.
Akira Iritani, a professor at Kyoto University, said the same technique could be used to resurrect the woolly mammoth, which died out about 5,000 years ago.
"Now the technical problems have been overcome, all we need is a good sample of soft tissue from a frozen mammoth," he said.
The woolly mammoth would be conceived by inserting the nuclei into the egg cells of an African elephant, which will act as a surrogate mother.
Iritani said the first cloned woolly mammoth could be born in about four years.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/extinct_woolly_mammoth_could_be_yRJIeHdsf5KxzAf0E8trcM
See also: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/japansciencemammoth
Last Updated: 11:51 AM, January 14, 2011
Posted: 11:37 AM, January 14, 2011
The long-extinct woolly mammoth could be brought back to life within four years after a breakthrough in cloning technology by Japanese scientists.
Researchers have tried unsuccessfully in the past to recover nuclei in cells from the skin and muscle tissue of mammoths found frozen in permafrost, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported late Thursday.
The attempts failed because the cells were too damaged by the extreme cold.
However, a technique pioneered by Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology has succeeded in cloning a mouse from the cells of another, which had been frozen for 16 years.
Akira Iritani, a professor at Kyoto University, said the same technique could be used to resurrect the woolly mammoth, which died out about 5,000 years ago.
"Now the technical problems have been overcome, all we need is a good sample of soft tissue from a frozen mammoth," he said.
The woolly mammoth would be conceived by inserting the nuclei into the egg cells of an African elephant, which will act as a surrogate mother.
Iritani said the first cloned woolly mammoth could be born in about four years.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/extinct_woolly_mammoth_could_be_yRJIeHdsf5KxzAf0E8trcM
See also: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/japansciencemammoth
Friday, November 5, 2010
Man Buys Extinct Tasmanian Tiger Pelt for $5 (via Jayne Ayris)
Bill Warren figures to turn a $5 garage sale buy into $70,000 after finding what may be the pelt of an extinct Tasmanian tiger, according to the web site SignOnSanDiego.
The Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a carnivore that resembled a striped coyote and vanished from its Australian haunt nearly 80 years ago. It was a marsupial (creatures including kangaroos
that carry young in a pouch).
The last wild Tasmanian tiger was killed between 1910 and 1920, and the last captive one died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia. In 1986, the creature was declared extinct. (The DNA of Tasmanian tigers was recently resurrected in mice, interestingly.)
Warren said neither he nor the seller knew what they had. Then he did some Internet research. Most pelts of this creature are in museums so they're rare and, you guessed it, an auction house is now involved.
The tasmanian tiger is not the same thing as the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), a fierce-looking, dog-sized marsupial that's fighting cancer.
Full story at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/03/he-might-have-tiger-pelt/
The Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a carnivore that resembled a striped coyote and vanished from its Australian haunt nearly 80 years ago. It was a marsupial (creatures including kangaroos
that carry young in a pouch).
The last wild Tasmanian tiger was killed between 1910 and 1920, and the last captive one died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia. In 1986, the creature was declared extinct. (The DNA of Tasmanian tigers was recently resurrected in mice, interestingly.)
Warren said neither he nor the seller knew what they had. Then he did some Internet research. Most pelts of this creature are in museums so they're rare and, you guessed it, an auction house is now involved.
The tasmanian tiger is not the same thing as the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), a fierce-looking, dog-sized marsupial that's fighting cancer.
Full story at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/03/he-might-have-tiger-pelt/
Man Buys Extinct Tasmanian Tiger Pelt for $5 (via Jayne Ayris)
Bill Warren figures to turn a $5 garage sale buy into $70,000 after finding what may be the pelt of an extinct Tasmanian tiger, according to the web site SignOnSanDiego.
The Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a carnivore that resembled a striped coyote and vanished from its Australian haunt nearly 80 years ago. It was a marsupial (creatures including kangaroos
that carry young in a pouch).
The last wild Tasmanian tiger was killed between 1910 and 1920, and the last captive one died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia. In 1986, the creature was declared extinct. (The DNA of Tasmanian tigers was recently resurrected in mice, interestingly.)
Warren said neither he nor the seller knew what they had. Then he did some Internet research. Most pelts of this creature are in museums so they're rare and, you guessed it, an auction house is now involved.
The tasmanian tiger is not the same thing as the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), a fierce-looking, dog-sized marsupial that's fighting cancer.
Full story at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/03/he-might-have-tiger-pelt/
The Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) was a carnivore that resembled a striped coyote and vanished from its Australian haunt nearly 80 years ago. It was a marsupial (creatures including kangaroos
that carry young in a pouch).
The last wild Tasmanian tiger was killed between 1910 and 1920, and the last captive one died in 1936 at the Hobart Zoo in Tasmania, Australia. In 1986, the creature was declared extinct. (The DNA of Tasmanian tigers was recently resurrected in mice, interestingly.)
Warren said neither he nor the seller knew what they had. Then he did some Internet research. Most pelts of this creature are in museums so they're rare and, you guessed it, an auction house is now involved.
The tasmanian tiger is not the same thing as the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii), a fierce-looking, dog-sized marsupial that's fighting cancer.
Full story at http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/nov/03/he-might-have-tiger-pelt/
Thursday, October 7, 2010
A Third of ‘Extinct’ Mammals May Still Be Alive
By Brian Switek
September 29, 2010
There may be many more “extinct” mammals waiting to be rediscovered than conservation biologists previously thought.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/a-third-of-extinct-mammals-may-still-be-alive/#ixzz11g8oHt8h
September 29, 2010
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/a-third-of-extinct-mammals-may-still-be-alive/#ixzz11g8oHt8h
A Third of ‘Extinct’ Mammals May Still Be Alive
By Brian Switek
September 29, 2010
There may be many more “extinct” mammals waiting to be rediscovered than conservation biologists previously thought.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/a-third-of-extinct-mammals-may-still-be-alive/#ixzz11g8oHt8h
September 29, 2010
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/a-third-of-extinct-mammals-may-still-be-alive/#ixzz11g8oHt8h
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Amazing Horned Dinosaurs Unearthed on 'Lost Continent'; New Discoveries Include Bizarre Beast With 15 Horns
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| Artist's rendering of two new species of dinosaur -- Utahceratops gettyi and Kosmoceratops richardsoni -- discovered in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument of southern Utah. (Credit: Courtesy of Utah Museum of Natural History) |
The newly discovered dinosaurs, close relatives of the famous Triceratops, were announced in PLoS ONE, the online open-access journal produced by the Public Library of Science.
The study, funded in large part by the Bureau of Land Management and the National Science Foundation, was led by Scott Sampson and Mark Loewen of the Utah Museum of Natural History (UMNH) and Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah. Additional authors include Andrew Farke (Raymond Alf Museum), Eric Roberts (James Cook University), Joshua Smith (University of Utah), Catherine Forster (George Washington University), and Alan Titus (Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument).
The bigger of the two new dinosaurs, with a skull 2.3 meters (about 7 feet) long, is Utahceratops gettyi (U-tah-SARA-tops get-EE-i). The first part of the name combines the state of origin with ceratops, Greek for "horned face." The second part of the name honors Mike Getty, paleontology collections manager at the Utah Museum of Natural History and the discoverer of this animal. In addition to a large horn over the nose, Utahceratops has short and blunt eye horns that project strongly to the side rather than upward, much more like the horns of modern bison than those of Triceratops or other ceratopsians.
Mark Loewen, one of the authors on the paper, likened Utahceratops to "a giant rhino with a ridiculously supersized head."
Second of the new species is Kosmoceratops richardsoni (KOZ-mo-SARA-tops RICH-ard-SON-i). Here, the first part of the name refers to kosmos, Latin for "ornate," and ceratops, once again meaning "horned face." The latter part of the name honors Scott Richardson, the volunteer who discovered two skulls of this animal. Kosmoceratops also has sideways oriented eye horns, although much longer and more pointed than in Utahceratops. In all, Kosmoceratops possesses a total of 15 horns -- one over the nose, one atop each eye, one at the tip of each cheek bone, and ten across the rear margin of the bony frill -- making it the most ornate-headed dinosaur known. Scott Sampson, the paper's lead author, claimed that, "Kosmoceratops is one of the most amazing animals known, with a huge skull decorated with an assortment of bony bells and whistles."
Although much speculation has ensued about the function of ceratopsian horns and frills -- from fighting off predators to recognizing other members of the same species or controlling body temperature -- the dominant idea today is that these features functioned first and foremost to enhance reproductive success. Sampson added, "Most of these bizarre features would have made lousy weapons to fend off predators. It's far more likely that they were used to intimidate or do battle with rivals of the same sex, as well as to attract individuals of the opposite sex."
The dinosaurs were discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM), which encompasses 1.9 million acres of high desert terrain in south-central Utah. This vast and rugged region, part of the National Landscape Conservation System administered by the Bureau of Land Management, was the last major area in the lower 48 states to be formally mapped by cartographers. Today GSENM is the largest national monument in the United States. Sampson added that, "Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is now one of the country's last great, largely unexplored dinosaur boneyards."
For most of the Late Cretaceous, exceptionally high sea levels flooded the low-lying portions of several continents around the world. In North America, a warm, shallow sea called the Western Interior Seaway extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, subdividing the continent into eastern and western landmasses, known as Appalachia and Laramidia, respectively. Whereas little is known of the plants and animals that lived on Appalachia, the rocks of Laramidia exposed in the Western Interior of North America have generated a plethora of dinosaur remains. Laramidia was less than one-third the size of present day North America, approximating the area of Australia.
Most known Laramidian dinosaurs were concentrated in a narrow belt of plains sandwiched between the seaway to the east and mountains to the west. Today, thanks to an abundant fossil record and more than a century of collecting by paleontologists, Laramidia is the best known major landmass for the entire Age of Dinosaurs, with dig sites spanning from Alaska to Mexico. Utah was located in the southern part of Laramidia, which has yielded far fewer dinosaur remains than the fossil-rich north. The world of dinosaurs was much warmer than the present day; Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops lived in a subtropical swampy environment about 100 km from the seaway.
Beginning in the 1960's, paleontologists began to notice that the same major groups of dinosaurs seemed to be present all over this Late Cretaceous landmass, but different species of these groups occurred in the north (for example, Alberta and Montana) than in the south (New Mexico and Texas). This finding of "dinosaur provincialism" was very puzzling, given the giant body sizes of many of the dinosaurs together with the diminutive dimensions of Laramidia. Currently, there are five giant (rhino-to-elephant-sized) mammals on the entire continent of Africa. Seventy-six million years ago, there may have been more than two dozen giant dinosaurs living on a landmass about one-quarter that size.
Mark Loewen asks, "How could so many different varieties of giant animals have co-existed on such a small chunk of real estate?" One option is that there was a greater abundance of food during the Cretaceous.
Another is that dinosaurs did not need to eat as much, perhaps because of slower metabolic rates more akin to those of modern day lizards and crocodiles than to those of mammals and birds. Whatever the factors permitting the presence of so many dinosaurs, it appears that some kind of barrier near the latitude of northern Utah and Colorado limited the exchange of dinosaur species north and south. Possibilities include physical barriers such as mountains, or climatic barriers that resulted in distinct northern and southern plant communities. Testing of these ideas have been severely hampered by a dearth of dinosaurs from the southern part of Laramidia. The new fossils from GSENM are now filling that major gap.
During the past decade, crews from the University of Utah and several partner institutions (e.g., the Utah Geologic Survey, the Raymond Alf Museum of Paleontology, and the Bureau of Land Management) have unearthed a new assemblage of more than a dozen dinosaurs in GSENM. In addition to Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops, the collection includes a variety of other plant-eating dinosaurs -- among them duck-billed hadrosaurs, armored ankylosaurs, and dome-headed pachycephalosaurs -- together with carnivorous dinosaurs great and small, from "raptor-like" predators to mega-sized tyrannosaurs (not T. rex but rather its smaller-bodied relatives). Also recovered have been fossil plants, insect traces, clams, fishes, amphibians, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and mammals, offering a direct glimpse into this entire ancient ecosystem.
Most remarkable of all is that virtually every identifiable dinosaur variety found in GSENM turns out to be new to science, offering dramatic confirmation of the dinosaur provincialism hypothesis. Many of these animals are still under study, but two have been previously named: the giant duck-billed hadrosaur Gryposaurus monumentensis and the raptor-like theropod Hagryphus giganteus.
Utahceratops and Kosmoceratops are part of a recent spate of ceratopsian dinosaur discoveries. Andrew Farke, another of the paper's authors, stated, "The past year has been a remarkable one for horned dinosaurs, with several new species named. The new Utah creatures are the icing on the cake, showing anatomy even more bizarre than typically expected for a group of animals known for its weird skulls."
Clearly many more dinosaurs remain to be unearthed in southern Utah. "It's an exciting time to be a paleontologist," Sampson added. "With many new dinosaurs still discovered each year, we can be quite certain that plenty of surprises still await us out there."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100922121943.htm
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