History

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On 07/09/2022 at 03:49, CaaC (John) said:

 

According to a scientist who later run into  legal trouble and had to move abroad many people in the West have digestive infections yet we only deal with the symptoms, IBS, Collitis and Chrohn's.

Undercooked meat, dairy, sugar and even some vegetables and fruits can all harbour nasties.

It may be why many of the old monotheistic religions had some form of periodic fasting. 

 

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Fossil algae predates the origin of land plants and modern animals

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of algae more than 500m years old

Palaeontologists have discovered an algae fossil in China, identifying it as a new genus and species called Protocodium sinense. The ancient fossil — 541m years old — predates the origin of land plants, giving scientists new insights into the early diversification of the plant kingdom.

And interestingly the fossil is the first and oldest green algae from this era to be preserved in three dimensions, which has enabled scientists to investigate its internal structure with unprecedented accuracy.

They found that Protocodium appears almost identical to its close relative the modern Codium – a type of green algae found today in many seas – which pushes back the point in history that green algae and land plants shared a common ancestor. 

The findings have been reported in a new study in BMC Biology.

“Protocodium” belongs to a known lineage of green algae and has a surprisingly modern architecture, showing that these algae were already well diversified before the end of the Ediacaran period,” says co-author Cédric Aria, postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Toronto and based at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Canada.

“Its discovery touches the origin of the entire plant kingdom and puts a familiar name on the organisms that preceded the Cambrian explosion over half a billion years ago, when the world’s first modern ecosystems emerged.”

Green algae can photosynthesise, converting light and carbon dioxide into sugars and oxygen. They were therefore likely important foundations of Earth’s early ecosystems, and the study suggests green algae were already established in the world’s shallow waters, as carbon dioxide recyclers and oxygen producers, before the Cambrian explosion.

The Protocodium were discovered as part of the Gaojiashan biota, a significant group of exceptionally well-preserved fossils at the Dengying Formation in the southern Shaanxi Province in north-west China.

“We know that seaweed-like fossils are at least one billion-years-old,” says first author Dr Shu Chai, postdoctoral researcher at Northwest University in Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. “But until now, flat, grainy two-dimensional preservation has made it challenging to recognise more than general morphological structures.”

The whole fossil and its fine cellular details were preserved in three dimensions in a process called phosphatisation where the original organic material was replaced by phosphate, allowing researchers to use electron and X-ray microscopy to virtually slice the through the fossil to reveal its internal structures.

Protocodium fossils are spherical and small (only about half a millimetre wide), with a surface covered by many smaller domes. Inside, the complex, single cell contains thin strands called siphons surrounded by a uniform layer of bulb-shaped structures – a morphology that is typical of certain modern single-celled seaweeds from the genus Codium.

“It’s very telling that such an organism has remained practically unchanged over at least 540 million years,” says Aria. “By the Ediacaran, evolution had driven it towards a stable adaptive zone — it’s been comfortable there since, and more than that, quite successful. So much so, in fact, that nowadays Codium takes advantage of global trade to easily outcompete other algal species.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/ancient-fossil-algae-plant-evolution/

 

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Fish fossils from China show how jaws and walking limbs began to evolve 430 million years ago

The finds help inform our understanding of our own evolution.

Fossils of ancient fish unearthed in two separate digs in China are helping piece together how the first jaws and paired limbs evolved – informing understanding of human evolution.

A treasure trove of 436-million-year-old fossils has revealed for the first time that an extinct clade of jawless fish called galeaspids had paired fins. It shows how early fins began separating into pectoral and pelvic fins, the forerunner of arms and legs.

The first vertebrates which left the water around 375 million years ago – the ancestors of all land vertebrates including humans – did so on primitive walking limbs which evolved from paired fins.

Until now, the only galeaspid fossils found were of the armoured fish’s head. The new fossils, described in a new study published in Nature, comprise whole bodies. The specimens were named Tujiaaspis after the indigenous Tujia people who live in the Hunan Province and Chongqing where the fossils were found.

Early vertebrate fossils either show they had separated fins, or they didn’t. There is little evidence of the gradual evolution of paired fins.

“The anatomy of galeaspids has been something of a mystery since they were first discovered more than half a century ago,” says first author Zhikun Gai, a professor at the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “Tens of thousands of fossils are known from China and Vietnam, but almost all of them are just heads – nothing has been known about the rest of their bodies – until now.”

“Tujiaaspis breathes new life into a century old hypothesis for the evolution of paired fins, through differentiation of pectoral (arms) and pelvic (legs) fins over evolutionary time, from a continuous head-to-tail fin precursor,” adds corresponding author Professor Philip Donoghue from the University of Bristol in the UK.

Called the “fin-fold” hypothesis, this theory, though lacking in supporting evidence until now, has been favoured by palaeontologists. It also reconciles contemporary genetic data which studies the effect of controlling the embryonic development of fins in living vertebrates.

Using computer simulations, the team determined that the paired fins of Tujiaaspis gave it an edge while swimming.

“The paired fins of Tujiaaspis act as hydrofoils, passively generating lift for the fish without any muscular input from the fins themselves. The lateral fin-folds of Tujiaaspis allowed it to swim more efficiently,” says co-author Dr Humberto Ferron, also from Bristol.

Another fossil discovery from China, only 3 million years older than Tujiaaspis, is believed to be the oldest undisputed jawed fish. The palaeontologists who discovered the 439-million-year-old specimen believe that it suggests we need to rethink the timeline of vertebrate evolution.

The fish belongs to an ancient group of “sharks” collectively known as acanthodians and predates the previous oldest jawed fish by 15 million years.

Named Fanjingshania, this ancient fish is covered in external, bony “armour” and sports multiple pairs of fins. It is described in a separate Nature paper. What is shocking about the specimen is that it presents evidence of a diversification of major vertebrate groups well before the so-called “Age of Fishes” which began around 420 million years ago.

“This is the oldest jawed fish with known anatomy,” says senior author Professor Min Zhu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences IVPP. “The new data allowed us to place Fanjingshania in the phylogenetic tree of early vertebrates and gain much needed information about the evolutionary steps leading to the origin of important vertebrate adaptations such as jaws, sensory systems, and paired appendages.”

Analysis of Fanjingshania and algorithmic analysis of the phylogenetic tree have major implications for our understanding of when jawed fish originated.

“The new discovery raises questions about existing models of vertebrate evolution by significantly condensing the timeframe for the emergence of jawed fish from their closest jawless ancestors. This will have profound impact on how we assess evolutionary rates in early vertebrates and the relationship between morphological and molecular change in these groups,” says co-author Dr Ivan J. Sansom from the University of Birmingham in the UK.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/china-fish-fossils-jaw-paired-fins/

 

Edited October 4, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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Death of the dinosaurs: First an asteroid, next a terrifying 1.5 km-high tsunami

Simulations of terrifying impact tsunami that ricocheted around the globe backed up by geological evidence.

 

Animation of the change in sea surface height tsunami propagation over 48 hours model. Shown in ten-minute increments. Credit: Range et al. in AGU Advances, 2022.

What could possibly be worse than dying from a 14-km wide asteroid hitting Earth at 12 kilometres per second? How about surviving that and then dealing with a mile-high tsunami afterwards?

For lifeforms left loitering after the impact 66 million years ago of an asteroid near the Gulf of Mexico town of Chicxulub (pro.: Chix-ah-lubb) – thought to be responsible for the extinction of around 75% of life on the planet (including most of the dinosaurs) – this would have been the terrifying reality.

For the first time, a global simulation of the Chicxulub impact tsunami has reached the shores of a peer-reviewed scientific journal. University of Michigan researchers were able to input the characteristics of the impactor, impact site and models of the Earth and sit back and watch the simulated waves roll around the globe.

What’s more, an investigation of over 100 sites has unearthed evidence supporting the predictions of the simulations.

One of the largest and most destructive tsunamis in recorded history is the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami, which killed more than 230,000 people.

Researchers estimate the Chicxulub impact tsunami had up to 30,000 times the energy of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake tsunami, making it truly colossal.

The simulations show the tsunami mainly radiated east and northeast into the North Atlantic Ocean and to the southwest, with the South Atlantic, North Pacific, Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean region relatively protected.

The first ten minutes of the impact were modelled using a complex computer program called a hydrocode. The results of the hydrocode at the ten-minute mark were inserted into two different codes, both designed to model tsunami propagation across the ocean. The first model, MOM6, is used to model tsunamis travelling through deep oceans, while the second model, MOST, is used by the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, USA) for tsunami forecasting.

The results from MOM6 and MOST were remarkably similar. “The big result here is that two global models with differing formulations gave almost identical results,” said Ted Moore, a palaeoceanographer and co-author of the study.

Two minutes after impact, the simulation shows a large ‘curtain’ of material ejected from the impact site which pushes a wall of water outward and away from the site. This wall of water would have been around 4.5 km high for a short time, until the ejected material fell back to Earth.

Animation of the hydrocode simulation for the first ten minutes post-asteroid impact (crustal material is brown, sediments are yellow, and the ocean is blue. The origin marks the point of impact and black curves mark material interfaces. Credit: Range et al. in AGU Advances, 2022.

Eight minutes later, a 1.5-kilometre-high tsunami radiated outwards from about 220 km from the shallow-watered granite-laden Yucatán Peninsula impact site in Mexico. This swept around the ocean in all directions.

Over the course of the next 48 hours, the tsunami made its way from the Gulf of Mexico and reached most of the world’s coastlines – including Australia’s.

The researchers also calculated open-ocean wave heights, finding waves in the Gulf of Mexico would have likely been over 100 m, and over 10 m in regions near the coastlines of the North Atlantic and the Pacific near South America. As tsunamis reach shallower waters, the wave heights would have increased, although researchers did not specifically calculate the extent of inland flooding.

“Depending on the geometries of the coast and the advancing waves, most coastal regions would be inundated and eroded to some extent,” say the study authors. “Any historically documented tsunamis pale in comparison with such global impact.”

Animation of the change in sea surface height tsunami propagation over 48 hours from the MOST model. Shown in five-minute increments. Credit: Range et al. in AGU Advances, 2022.

Another important result of this research is that geological samples taken from over 100 sites around the globe support the predicted power and reach of the tsunami.

Looking at 165 published records of marine sediments from two different times in the geological record – either side of the impact and subsequent extinction – the researchers found gaps in the record, or regions of jumbled-up older sediments. These sediments confirmed simulation results showing the main radiation path of the tsunami, along which underwater currents would have reached velocity strong enough to erode the fine-grained seafloor.

“We found corroboration in the geological record for the predicted areas of maximal impact in the open ocean,” said Brian Arbic, professor of earth and environmental sciences and a co-author of the paper.

Interestingly, the research also sheds new light on rocky outcrops on the eastern shores of New Zealand’s north and south islands. Dating from the impact period, these sediments are highly disturbed and incomplete – characteristics originally attributed to tectonic activity in the region. (New Zealand lies along a margin, where the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates converge, making it geologically very active.)

This research suggests that given the age and the simulation results, the New Zealand deposits at 12,000 km away from the impact site, are a record of the power and extent of the Chicxulub event.

“We feel these deposits are recording the effects of the impact tsunami, and this is perhaps the most telling confirmation of the global significance of this event,” Range said.

The researchers are keen to investigate the extent of coastal inundation from the impact tsunami using these results.

You can watch more about these discoveries from the University of Michigan below.

“We found corroboration in the geological record for the predicted areas of maximal impact in the open ocean,” said Brian Arbic, professor of earth and environmental sciences and a co-author of the paper.

Interestingly, the research also sheds new light on rocky outcrops on the eastern shores of New Zealand’s north and south islands. Dating from the impact period, these sediments are highly disturbed and incomplete – characteristics originally attributed to tectonic activity in the region. (New Zealand lies along a margin, where the Australian and Pacific tectonic plates converge, making it geologically very active.)

This research suggests that given the age and the simulation results, the New Zealand deposits at 12,000 km away from the impact site, are a record of the power and extent of the Chicxulub event.

“We feel these deposits are recording the effects of the impact tsunami, and this is perhaps the most telling confirmation of the global significance of this event,” Range said.

The researchers are keen to investigate the extent of coastal inundation from the impact tsunami using these results.

You can watch more about these discoveries from the University of Michigan below.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/earth/dinosaurs-tsunami-asteroid-impact/

 

 

Edited October 6, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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Prehistoric invasive species effects provide clues to tackle modern intruders and aid wildlife conservation

Such knowledge can help us protect species jeopardised by human-catalysed invasions.

New research on a species invasion that took place nearly 450 million years ago could inform how we preserve biodiversity today.

When we think of invasive species, we usually (rightly) think of the impact of human activity on ecosystems. But our ecosystems have undergone intrusions by new organisms for millions of years.

Ian Forsythe, a geology graduate student at the University of Cincinnati, has performed an analysis of a well-known invasion of animals that impacted on an ecosystem in the late Ordovician period. The Ordovician took place around 488-444 million years ago. Forsythe presented his findings to the annual conference of the Geological Society of America (GSA) on October 11.

Forsythe studied a phenomenon called the ‘Richmondian Invasion’ which occurred about 446 million years ago. Species encountered each other for the first time in the late Ordovician, causing a disruption of the shallow sea ecosystems of the time.

“We are a catalyst for these things today. But these biotic invasions happened in the past, too,” says Forsythe.

He was able to build a very detailed picture of how the late Ordovician seas in the US Midwest changed over geologically minute timescales of thousands of years. Such analysis is testament to the rich fossil record from the time left behind in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky, which were submerged in salty sea filled with starfish, crinoids, brachiopods and other molluscs 450 million years ago.

“We have really incredible fossil deposits here. They’re globally exceptional,” Forsythe says. “The quantity of fossils gives us an awesome window to the past. It’s an amazing natural laboratory.”

Australia has a pretty harrowing recent history with invasive species brought by humans. Animals like cane toads,  cats, foxes, sheepo, goats and cattle, and many birds have massively disrupted the island continent’s natural ecosystems and driven many species to extinction.

Unlike this unfortunate result of human-catalysed species invasion, the native species of the late Ordovician thrived even after their ecosystems were overrun with new animals. Forsythe concluded that this is because the original organisms were generalists that didn’t need specialised habitats or food requirements. They instead adapted and made room for the newcomers.

“Generalists are more successful during invasions because they can contract their niche to accommodate novel competitors,” Forsythe explains. The invaders were lower on the food chain, causing little disruption.

• Neanderthal tooth enamel indicates that they might have been carnivores

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Forsythe’s project began at Ohio University in Alycia Stigall’s lab.

Stigall, now a professor at the University of Tennessee, told the GSA: “The Richmondian invasion is one of the most intensively studied fossil invasion events in terms of ecosystem and species impacts. But Ian’s work is truly groundbreaking; he was able to examine changes at the community level at a very fine temporal level of a few thousand years and relate this directly to changes in sea level and the timing of the invaders’ arrival.”

Forsythe stressed that we can learn about the resilience of today’s ecosystems by studying changes in ecological networks millions of years in the past.

“That’s what drew me to invasion science. It’s a big issue today with so many outstanding questions,” Forsythe says. “We can’t answer how these things play out in longer timescales without a long data set.”

Invaders which sit higher on the food chain present a greater existential threat to native species, especially specialists (as opposed to generalist species). “It’s a guiding principle for what imperilled species might require attention first,” Forsythe adds.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/ancient-invasive-species/

 

 

Edited October 18, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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Neanderthal genetics study shows that our closest human cousins probably lived in small groups

New findings shed light on the social organisation of Neanderthals.

New research is bringing to life for the first time a description of the social organisation and small community dynamics of Neanderthals.

Neanderthals were our closest human cousins, but up until now we’ve not known much about how they lived and their social relations.

The research published in Nature and led by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, is based on DNA analysis of 13 Neanderthal individuals from two caves in Russia.

Neanderthals lived in western Eurasia from around 430,000 years ago before going extinct around 40,000 years ago, not long after Homo sapiens (modern humans) arrived in Europe from Africa. There is still debate about what exactly caused the extinction of Neanderthals, but new theories appear to counter the old idea that direct confrontation between Neanderthals and our modern human ancestors led to their demise.

While DNA sequencing has given us a better understanding of some aspects of Neanderthal evolution and physiology, their social organisation has remained a mystery until now.

The Max Planck researchers’ findings shed light on the social organisation of Neanderthals, and despite being only 13 individuals, is one of the largest genetic study of these hominids reported to date.

Eleven of the Neanderthal individuals’ remains were found in the Chagyrskaya Cave and two from Okladnikov Cave. Both caves are in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia, Russia.

The Chagysrkaya Cave is believed to have been occupied by Neanderthals between 59,000 and 51,000 years ago. The Okladnikov remains are at least 44,000 years old.

Of the Chagyrskaya individuals, the results show some were closely related and lived around the same time. Genetic diversity in the Y chromosomes (passed down from father to son) is much lower than the mitochondrial DNA passed down from mothers. This suggests more widespread migration of females than males between tribes.

Homozygosity – possessing two identical forms of a particular gene inherited from each parent – was found to be high in the Neanderthal individuals, at levels similar to those found in mountain gorillas.

The authors suggest such findings are best explained by small communities of around 20 individuals. At least 60% of the females in these groups most likely migrated from another troop to join new mates’ families while the males were fixed.

The findings corroborate earlier research based on fossilized footprints and spatial analysis which also suggested small communities of Neanderthals.

Comparing their new Neanderthal genomes with previously sequenced genomes, the researchers were able to determine that these populations fit into the broader Neanderthal picture.

“All 13 newly sequenced individuals shared most variants with the high-coverage genome from Chagyrskaya Cave and were more similar to the around 50,000-year-old Neanderthal genome from Vindija Cave in Croatia than to the 91,000-130,000-year-old Altai Neanderthal from Denisova Cave. Therefore, although the communities from Chagyrskaya and Okladnikov caves were genetically distinct, they all appear equally related to European Neanderthals and were part of the same Neanderthal population; no individual showed evidence of recent gene flow from other Neanderthal populations,” the authors write.

•  Neanderthal tooth enamel indicates that they might have been carnivores

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The authors note the important advance represented in their large-scale genetic study of a Neanderthal population.

“For the first time, to our knowledge, we document familial relationships between Neanderthals, including a father-and-daughter pair,” they write.

But they note that their sample size is small and may not represent the social organisation and group size of Neanderthals across the continent.

“Our findings raise questions as to whether the characteristics of the Altai communities are related to their isolated geographical location at the easternmost extremity of the known range of Neanderthals (especially because the population size at Vindija Cave was probably larger), or whether they are characteristic of Neanderthal communities more broadly,” the authors comment.

“Future studies should, therefore, when possible, aim to sample multiple individuals from additional Neanderthal communities in other parts of Eurasia to shed further light on the social organization of our closest evolutionary relatives.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/neanderthal-genetics-small-groups/

 

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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Ancient kangaroos might have lived in PNG for 20,000 years post megafauna extinction

A mostly human free oasis.

A new study published in the journal Archaeology in Oceania has found that we might have been a bit premature deciding that all areas of Australia and Papua New Guinea lost their megafauna by 40,000 years ago.

A team including Flinders University in Adelaide and Australian National University researchers, used new dating methods and analysis to discover that, in a forest in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, at what’s known as the Nombe rockshelter site, megafauna survived much longer, even with humans making occasional visits.

In particular, the researchers found in this small oasis, two species of kangaroo that could have survived 20,000 years ago. Read more about the story here.

Cosmos Magazine science journalist Jacinta Bowler talked to researchers at the Flinders University Palaeontology Lab in the video above to understand what the team found.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/cosmos-briefing/ancient-kangaroos-png-megafauna/

 

Edited October 25, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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Rare golden sword pommel acquired by Scottish museum

An "exceptionally rare" gold sword pommel discovered by a metal detectorist near Stirling has been acquired by National Museums Scotland.

The pommel, which is about 1,300 years old, was found in 2019 and was declared to the Scottish Treasure Trove unit.

The gold decoration which would have sat at the top of a sword handle measures 5.5cm wide, weighs 25g and was valued at about £30,000.

The find has been described as "hugely significant".

Dr Alice Blackwell, senior curator of medieval archaeology and history at National Museums Scotland (NMS), said goldwork from this period was "virtually unknown" anywhere in the UK.

She said it showed the spectacular skill and craftsmanship of the early medieval period.

The pommel is thought to date from about 700 AD.

The solid gold object is encrusted with garnets and intricate goldwork which feature religious motifs and fantastical creatures.

The discovery was made at Blair Drummond towards the end of 2019 but NMS said that due to restrictions during the pandemic decisions about its acquisition were delayed.

It was allocated to them on recommendation of the Scottish Archaeological Finds Allocation Panel.

Dr Blackwell said its archaeological value was due to what it told us about important cultural, political and artistic interactions in northern Britain at this time.

She said its decoration combined elements from both Anglo-Saxon England and the kingdoms of Early Medieval Scotland.

"Early medieval Scotland is a really interesting period," Dr Blackwell said.

"You have a number of culturally distinct kingdoms and the pommel's design has taken from the different cultures and melded them together "

That melding of different cultural styles is known as "insular art" style, which was made famous by illuminated manuscripts such as the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Dr Blackwell said this fusion of styles had made it hard to determine where exactly it was made and whom it may have belonged to.

However, she said it potentially could have belonged to royalty due to the higher standard of goldwork the pommel had compared with other goldware found in this period.

"In a way this is the start of the artefact's journey," Dr Blackwell said.

"A lot of research and work is still to be done to uncover what stories it can tells us about the political and cultural landscape of Northern Britain at this time."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-63373168

 

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Obese yet malnourished toddler mummy sheds light on life in 17th century aristocratic Austria

‘Virtual autopsy’ shows one-year-old boy was well-fed but kept hidden from sunlight.

Buried in a wooden coffin that was slightly too small and deformed the skull, the young child’s body appeared to be both obese and malnourished. Researchers say the findings might provide a rare insight into historical Austrian aristocratic society.

 

By using CT scanning, scientists were able to perform a ‘virtual autopsy’ on the mummy which was naturally mummified in the conditions of the crypt. Well-preserved soft tissue showed the child was a boy, overweight for his age, and radiocarbon dating suggests a date of death between 1550 and 1635 CE.

By examining the formation and length of the body’s bones, plus evidence of tooth eruption, the researchers were able to estimate that the child was about one year old when he died. The bones also showed that despite being well-fed, the boy was malnourished, with his malformed ribs displaying signs of rachitic rosary. This condition presents in a pattern of prominent bony knobs at points where the rib joins cartilage and results from diseases associated with specific vitamin deficiencies such as rickets (vitamin D) and scurvy (vitamin C).

Vitamin D is found in foods like salmon, tuna, mackerel and beef liver and egg yolks, but we typically only get around 10% of our required Vitamin D from our diets – the rest is made by our bodies when exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) from the sun.

“The combination of obesity along with a severe vitamin-deficiency can only be explained by a generally ‘good’ nutritional status along with an almost complete lack of sunlight exposure,” said Dr Andreas Nerlich of the Academic Clinic Munich-Bogenhausen and lead researcher.

The child appears to have died from pneumonia, judging by the evidence of inflammation in the lungs. Rickets is known to make children more vulnerable to pneumonia, suggesting that, sadly, not only was the child malnourished, but that this condition may have also led to his untimely demise.

“We have to reconsider the living conditions of high aristocratic infants of previous populations,” said Nerlich.

Relatively little is known about aristocratic childhood in the late Renaissance period, so these mummified remains give key insights into life in Europe of a period generally known for its fervent creativity and intellectual development.

“This is only one case,” said Nerlich, “but as we know that the early infant death rates generally were very high at that time, our observations may have considerable impact in the over-all life reconstruction of infants even in higher social classes.”

To understand more about this period, researchers scoured historical records of the crypt and the family to whom the crypt belonged. Curiously, the child was buried in a simple, unmarked, wooden coffin, although he was dressed in an expensive silk hooded coat. The unmarked coffin appeared to have been slightly too small for the body such that the skull became deformed and was the only infant buried amongst the identifiable adult metal coffins in the crypt.

Historical records of renovations on the crypt confirmed the radiocarbon dating, indicating the child was likely buried sometime after 1600 CE.

The crypt belonged to the Counts of Starhemberg and traditionally was kept exclusively for the burial of heirs to their titles, and their wives, making the body likely to be that of the first-born (and only) son, Reichard Wilhelm, of Count Starhemberg.

“We have no data on the fate of other infants of the family,” Nerlich said, regarding the unique burial. “According to our data, the infant was most probably [the count’s] first-born son after erection of the family crypt, so special care may have been applied.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/toddler-mummy-17thcentury-austria/

 

 

Edited October 31, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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Archeologists in Italy find remarkable hoard of ancient bronze statues

PHOTOS - 1 of 4

Archaeologists in Italy have discovered a remarkable cache of 24 Etruscan and Roman bronze statues in the remains of an ancient religious sanctuary, hailing the find as the most important of its kind in fifty years.

The treasure trove includes tiny bronze replicas of human body parts, thrown into the thermal waters of the sanctuary by people suffering from illnesses and hoping to be healed.

The objects, found during a digging campaign between June and October, date from between the second century BC and the first century AD.

The importance of the discovery is being likened to that of the Riace Bronzes, two full-sized, naked Greek warrior figures which were found on the seabed off the coast of Calabria in southern Italy in 1972.

The sanctuary, near the village of San Casciano dei Bagni in Tuscany, was a place of worship from the second century BC, first for the Etruscans and then the Romans, who conquered Etruscan lands and incorporated them into their burgeoning empire.

It was built around a hot spring in a part of Tuscany which to this day boasts natural spas where Italians flock to immerse themselves in thermal waters.

The statues and objects would have been deliberately tossed into the water and have been preserved over the centuries by the thick mud at the bottom of stone-walled pools.

The tiny bronze body parts include representations of lungs, hearts, intestines and livers, offered to the gods by people who prayed for recuperation and healing. “It’s a unique find, the most important discovery of bronzes for 50 years,” Emanuele Mariotti, the director of the archaeological site, told The Telegraph.

“They were offered to the gods as a gift. Bronze statues like this would have been very expensive to make so we are talking about the VIPs of the ancient world – powerful Etruscan families and then rich Romans, perhaps even emperors. The sanctuary was a sacred place – it was not a public thermal bath.”

The bronze statues, some of them a metre or three feet tall, represent gods and goddesses such as Apollo, Isis, Fortuna and Igea, the goddess of health.

Archaeologists have also recovered around 5,000 gold, silver and bronze coins, which Roman devotees tossed into the water.

Prof Jacopo Tabolli, the lead archaeologist at the dig, said the discovery would “rewrite history”.

The finds mean that the sanctuary is “a research laboratory on the cultural diversity of antiquity,” he said.

Many of the bronze objects bear inscriptions in Latin and Etruscan and indicate that Etruscan survived for much longer as a living language than previously thought.

Massimo Osanna, the director general of museums and archeological sites, said: “It's the most important discovery since the Riace Bronzes and is certainly one of the most significant discovery of bronzes ever made in the history of the ancient Mediterranean.”

There are plans to turn the dig site into an archaeological park and to build a museum to display the bronzes.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/archeologists-in-italy-find-remarkable-hoard-of-ancient-bronze-statues/ar-AA13SeiS?cvid=87f5941ea8a440969ae12a630e4588f2#image=1

 

Edited November 9, 2022 by CaaC (John)
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Fossils from half a billion years ago preserve first skeletons, solving centuries-old mystery

Chinese fossils show us what the first organisms to make skeletons looked like.

What did the first animals to have skeletons look like? The discovery of extraordinarily well-preserved fossils – over half a billion years old – has helped scientists solve this centuries-old mystery.

The ancestors of all backboned animals (including humans) suddenly appear in the fossil record 550 million years ago during the “Cambrian explosion.” That biological “big bang” saw the evolution of all the basic body plans that we see in the animal kingdom today – including exoskeletal arthropods (ancestors of spiders, insects and scorpions) and vertebrates.

The earliest known vertebrates were small fish-like organisms, no longer than 5 centimetres. One such ancient fish, Pikaia, lived 505 million years ago.

But the answer to the question of how skeletons evolved before becoming bendy backbones has long eluded scientists.

Because the soft tissue surrounding the skeleton is rarely preserved, this has remained a palaeontological riddle.

Four specimens of a species called Gangtoucunia aspera allow scientists to finally answer these questions. The 514-million-year-old fossils preserved impressions of the animals’ soft tissues – including the gut, mouthparts and the tissue surrounding the hollow-tube skeleton.

Gangtoucunia are revealed to have a mouth fringed with smooth tentacles about 5 millimetres long. These tentacles were probably used to capture small arthropods for food. The skeletal pioneers are also shown to have a blind-ended gut – that is, a single opening performed both the function of a mouth and an anus.

The features present in Gangtoucunia are found today only in modern jellyfish, anemones, and their close relatives, the cnidarians – organisms whose soft tissue is rarely preserved in the fossil record. The research shows these animal groups were among the first to build the fossilised skeletons.

Gangtoucunia would have looked like the polyps of true jellyfish. The hard, tubular body anchored to the sea floor would have been topped with the retractable, tentacled mouth. Unlike modern jellies, however, the skeletal tube of Gangtoucunia was made of calcium phosphate – the same stuff that makes up our teeth and bones, but has become more rare in animal skeletons over the aeons.

“This really is a one-in-million discovery,” says author Dr Luke Parry from Britain’s Oxford University. “These mysterious tubes are often found in groups of hundreds of individuals, but until now they have been regarded as ‘problematic’ fossils, because we had no way of classifying them. Thanks to these extraordinary new specimens, a key piece of the evolutionary puzzle has been put firmly in place.”

The fossils are the subject of a research paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Analysing the new Gangtoucunia specimens shows that the organisms are not related to annelid worms (like earthworms) as was previously believed. The smooth exterior of Gangtoucunia and its longitudinally-partitioned gut does not correspond to the segmented and transversely-partitioned bodies of annelids.

“The first time I discovered the pink soft tissue on top of a Gangtoucunia tube, I was surprised and confused about what they were,” says first author and Yunnan University PhD student Guangxu Zhang, who collected and discovered the specimens.

“In the following month, I found three more specimens with soft tissue preservation, which was very exciting and made me rethink the affinity of Gangtoucunia. The soft tissue of Gangtoucunia, particularly the tentacles, reveals that it is certainly not a priapulid-like worm as previous studies suggested, but more like a coral, and then I realised that it is a cnidarian.”

While Gangtoucunia certainly appears to be an early jellyfish, it doesn’t rule out the possibility that other fossil tubes may have belonged to animals that looked very different. Some are still believed to have belonged to marine worms and other early worm-like organisms.

“A tubicolous mode of life seems to have become increasingly common in the Cambrian, which might be an adaptive response to increasing predation pressure in the early Cambrian,” adds co-author Dr Xiaoya Ma of both Yunnan and Exeter Universities. “This study demonstrates that exceptional soft-tissue preservation is crucial for us to understand these ancient animals.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/fossils-first-skeletons/

 

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Earliest sign of controlled fire for cooking found in Israel, dating back nearly 800,000 years

The discovery predates available data by 600,000 years.

A huge carp-like fish, two metres in length, found in Israel, shows that fish were cooked roughly 780,000 years ago. Until now, the earliest evidence for cooking dates to around 170,000 years ago.

Cooking – the act of processing food by controlling the temperature at which it is heated – developed at some point in human history. It is also widely accepted that preparing our food in this way would have had a major impact on brain development and how the human body evolved.

Pinpointing when humans began cooking has been subject to much debate over the last century. Some research suggests a surge in brain size 1.8 million years ago in human ancestor Homo erectus is related to cooked meals.

But concrete evidence of cooking in prehistory is rare.

Findings published in Nature Ecology and Evolution show definitively that the earliest known cooked meal was 780,000 years ago in Israel. The study was conducted by a team of researchers from Israeli universities.

The team analysed the remains of a carp-like fish found at the Gesher Benot Ya’aqov archaeological site in Israel.

Pharyngeal teeth (used to grind up hard food such as shells) from the carp were found in large quantities at the site. Studying the structure of the crystals that form the teeth enamel (which increase in size when exposed to heat), the researchers were able to prove that the fish were exposed to temperatures suitable for cooking and were not simply burned by a spontaneous fire.

“This study demonstrates the huge importance of fish in the life of prehistoric humans, for their diet and economic stability,” say first author Dr Irit Zohar, a researcher at Tel Aviv University’s Steinhardt Museum of Natural History and corresponding author Dr Marion Prevost from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

They add that the find also helps reconstruct the fish population of the region for the first time.

“The large quantity of fish remains found at the site proves their frequent consumption by early humans, who developed special cooking techniques,” Zohar and Prevost explain. “These new findings demonstrate not only the importance of freshwater habitats and the fish they contained for the sustenance of prehistoric man, but also illustrate prehistoric humans’ ability to control fire in order to cook food, and their understanding the benefits of cooking fish before eating it.”

“The fact that the cooking of fish is evident over such a long and unbroken period of settlement at the site indicates a continuous tradition of cooking food,” says co-author and director of the excavation site, Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor Naama Goren-Inbar. “Gaining the skill required to cook food marks a significant evolutionary advance, as it provided an additional means for making optimal use of available food resources. It is even possible that cooking was not limited to fish, but also included various types of animals and plants.”

The authors suggest that not only was the transition from eating raw to cooked food important for our development, but that fish might have played a critical role in human evolution. Omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, iodine and other compounds common in fish are known to contribute greatly to brain development.

In fact, the research team believe that freshwater areas – some which have long since dried up, leaving arid desert behind – may have determined the migration of early humans out of Africa.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/israel-earliest-cooking-fire/

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Spider monkey sacrificed 1,700 years ago in Mexico earliest sign of primate captivity and Mayan gift diplomacy

Spider monkeys were considered an exotic curiosity in pre-Hispanic Mexico.

The complete skeleton of a spider monkey that died 1,700 years ago in Mexico reveal new evidence of social and political ties between the Teotihuacán and Maya Indigenous rulers of the time.

Anthropological archaeologist and University of California (UC) Riverside assistant professor Nawa Sugiyama made the discovery with a team who have been excavating the site at Plaza of Columns Complex, in Teotihuacán, Mexico since 2015.

Along with the spider monkey skeleton were the remains of other animals, thousands of Maya-style mural fragments and over 14,000 broken bits of ceramic, called sherds, from a grand feast. All date from from 250–300CE.

Spider monkeys were considered an exotic curiosity in pre-Hispanic Mexico. Their modern range extends from central Mexico in the north to Bolivia in the south.

The spider monkey found at Teotihuacán, northeast of Mexico City, is the earliest evidence of primate captivity, translocation, and gift diplomacy. Researchers believe the animal was sacrificed in this ceremonial centre, and is evidence of a diplomatic gift exchange with neighbouring Maya.

The analysis of the individual’s remains is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The findings debunk previous beliefs that Maya in Teotihuacán were restricted to migrant communities. The spider monkey helps researchers piece together the complex interactions of high diplomacy in central Mexico 1,700 years ago.

“Teotihuacán attracted people from all over, it was a place where people came to exchange goods, property, and ideas. It was a place of innovation,” says Sugiyama who is first author on the PNAS paper. “Finding the spider monkey has allowed us to discover reassigned connections between Teotihuacán and Maya leaders. The spider monkey brought to life this dynamic space, depicted in the mural art. It’s exciting to reconstruct this live history.”

Multiple methods were applied in studying the female spider monkey. These included zooarchaeology (the study of animal remains in the archaeological record), DNA analysis, isotope measurements, palaeobotany and radiocarbon dating.

The spider monkey was likely between five and eight years old at the time of death. According to the analysis, the animal was captured before the age of three.

Bone chemistry suggests the animal was captive for more than two years, and fed maize, arrowroot and chili peppers by its captors. Prior to arriving in Teotihuacán, it lived in a humid environment, eating primarily plants and roots.

It was ceremonially sacrificed tethered to and associated with a golden eagle, several rattlesnakes and an array of other statecrafts. Among the artefacts were fine greenstone figurines made of jade, shell ornaments, and obsidian blades and projectile points.

This arrangement is consistent with live sacrifice in rituals performed in Teotihuacán’s Moon and Sun Pyramids.

The study is more than about analysing a few bones and bits of ceramic. It helps paint a broader picture of how these powerful, advanced societies interacted.

“This helps us understand principles of diplomacy, to understand how urbanism developed … and how it failed,” Sugiyama explains. “Teotihuacán was a successful system for over 500 years, understanding past resilience, its strengths and weaknesses are relevant in today’s society. There are many similarities then and now. Lessons can be seen and modelled from past societies; they provide us with cues as we go forward.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/spider-monkey-mexico/

 

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Gold coin proves 'fake' Roman emperor was real

An ancient gold coin proves that a third century Roman emperor written out of history as a fictional character really did exist, scientists say.

The coin bearing the name of Sponsian and his portrait was found more than 300 years ago in Transylvania, once a far-flung outpost of the Roman empire.

Believed to be a fake, it had been locked away in a museum cupboard.

Now scientists say scratch marks visible under a microscope prove that it was in circulation 2,000 years ago.

Prof Paul Pearson University College London, who led the research, told BBC News that he was astonished by the discovery.

"What we have found is an emperor. He was a figure thought to have been a fake and written off by the experts.

"But we think he was real and that he had a role in history."

FULL REPORT

 

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Ancient Denisovan DNA found to have shaped the immune system of modern Papuans

Denisovan DNA makes up about five percent of the DNA of Papuans.

The DNA of Denisovans likely helped the evolution of modern Papuans’ immune systems.

Closely related to Homo neanderthalensis (Neanderthals), Denisovans were discovered in 2010 and are only known to science through their DNA and sparse remains in Siberia and Tibet. Denisovans, like Neanderthals, are mysterious ancient humans who went extinct but appear to have interbred with ancient modern humans, Homo sapiens.

Denisovans may have lived until as recently as 30,000 years ago.

It’s believed that Denisovans and Neanderthals shared a common ancestor about 400,000 years ago. While Neanderthals went to Europe, the Denisovans split eastward into Asia.

Today, Denisovan DNA makes up about five percent of the DNA of Papuans, indigenous Australians, Melanesians and other ethnic groups in Southeast Asia such as in the Philippines. Similarly, Neanderthals contributed 1-4 percent of non-African human genomes, depending on the region of the world.

As little as 40,000 years ago, modern humans had 6-9 percent Neanderthal DNA.

Australian and Papuan researchers sought to better understand the significance of Denisovans’ genetic contributions to modern human populations. Their results are published in the journal PLOS Genetics.

The scientists mapped and analysed the genomes of 56 modern Papuans to see if they carried any bits of Denisovan or Neanderthal DNA. They then predicted how the sequences given to the Papuans by the ancient humans might affect the function of different cell types.

Looking at where the genes appeared to not come from ancient Homo sapiens, the team found that Papuans had Denisovan – not Neanderthal – DNA which strongly and consistently affected immune cells and their functions.

Further testing of cell cultures confirmed this. Denisovan DNA sequences influenced nearby genes, either making them more or less pronounced in ways that could affect how the human body responds to infections.

The study suggests that the DNA passed down from Denisovans may have helped early modern humans living in New Guinea and nearby islands by altering their immune response and helping them adapt to their environment.

“Some of the Denisovan DNA that has persisted in Papuan individuals until today plays a role in regulating genes involved in the immune system,” explains senior author Dr Irene Gallego Romero from the University of Melbourne. “Our study is the first to comprehensively shed light on the functional legacy of Denisovan DNA in the genomes of present-day humans.”

Exploring how DNA from now extinct humans plays into gene expression may be key in understanding the consequences of interbreeding between early modern humans and other groups such as Neanderthals and Denisovans.

The results of the study support the theory that ancient DNA from long-gone human groups has impacted genetic diversity and evolution in modern human. Multiple characteristics of modern people can likely be traced back to Denisovan and Neanderthal DNA.

“We show that not only Neanderthal, but also Denisovan DNA is very likely to contribute to gene expression in human populations,” says first author Dr Davide Vespasiani also from the University of Melbourne. “Further validations will reveal whether these effects are mostly cell type specific or consistent across cells.”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/people/denisovan-papuan-dna-immune/

 

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What if these ancient plaques aren’t religious icons, but toys made by children?

The owl-like plaques from the copper age look like children’s drawings.

The Iberian Peninsula is dotted with thousands of plaques engraved with pictures that look like owls.

Dating from the Copper Age, around 5500 to 4750 years ago, the purpose of these hand-sized owl plaques has remained a mystery. Archaeologists thought they might have religious or ritualistic significance.

But a team of Spanish researchers has another suggestion: what if they’re actually children’s toys?

Publishing in Scientific Reports, the researchers point out the similarities between the plaques and modern children’s drawings of owls, and propose that children made the slate pieces to use as dolls, toys, or amulets.

Lead author Dr Juan J. Negro, a researcher in the Department of Evolutionary Ecology at the Spanish National Research Council’s Estación Biológica de Doñana, says that the simplicity of the designs made them think that these carvings may have been done by children.

Read more: Early humans’ social connections revealed by stone age tool

“The owl-looking plaques are a step behind other handcrafted objects produced in the same time period,” says Negro.

“Investigations by previous researchers who replicated the engraved plaques experimentally reported that the whole process of producing a finished plaque takes about three and half hours – a rather short time.

FULL REPORT

 

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100-million-year-old plesiosaur reptile skeleton found in Australia's outback

 

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Ice ages, they come and go. Until they don’t.

Humans have so polluted the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, it’s messed with natural ice age cycles.

Humans have pumped so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere we’ve overridden the natural and astronomical factors that cause ice ages to occur. 

“So this is a big deal, as a species. Through polluting and changing the level of greenhouse gasses, we have essentially knocked our climate system off its natural pattern,” says paleoclimatologist Professor Tim Naish from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.

“If we keep carbon dioxide above 350 parts per million (ppm) … and if it stays there long enough, then we can no longer go into a natural ice age,” he says.

For around three million years, ice ages have occurred in regular cycles triggered by astronomical factors – variations in radiation from the sun and changes in the Earth’s orbit – as well as tectonic activity and fluctuations in carbon dioxide.

But now, says Naish, if greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere remain at current levels – around 415 ppm – it’s virtually certain that we can no longer go back to a natural ice age. 

Scientists have been able to reconstruct the pattern of the Earth’s climate and its ice ages going back almost 50 million years, Naish says.

In the 1940s, Serbian astrophysicist and mathematician, Milutin Milankovich, developed a theory about how Earth’s orbit around the Sun changes on long timescales, controlling variations in solar radiation on Earth and affecting its climate.

In the 1970s, scientists, including geologist Sir Nicholas Shackleton, pioneered a process of drilling the ocean floor and taking sediment cores – covering millions of years – to analyse something called the ‘oxygen isotopic composition’ of the microfossils in the sediment. This works as a proxy for the volume of ice on the planet at different points in history. And it turns out those records align with Milankovich cycles. 

“So the combination of what we call the orbital forcing, the changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun, and the different concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, we think we can now explain Earth’s climate going back 50 million years. 

•  A barcode of Earth’s climatic past

“Which is really important, because we need to understand the natural pattern, the natural variability before we can extract, what we as humans are doing on top of that natural climate variability,” Naish says.

Learning about past climate can help scientists understand the future effects of global warming, he says. 

For instance, roughly 125,000 years ago during the last interglacial period, when the Earth was naturally 1.5 – 2 degrees warmer than today, sea levels were a lot higher. “We know there are fossil coral shorelines that are six to nine metres higher,” he says. 

“You have to go back 3 million years when geological records show us, for the last time CO₂ in the atmosphere was 400ppm. And then, sea levels were 20 metres higher.”

In contrast, Naish says, during the last ice age, sea levels were around 120 metres lower, “because all the water that’s currently in the ocean was on land, forming ice sheets”.

Carbon dioxide is a very important greenhouse gas that’s currently in the driver’s seat, controlling our climate, he says. 

“This is why the 1.5^oC target, the Paris Agreement, target is so important. Because the science tells us if we get above 1.5 degrees, or closer to two degrees, we may cause irreversible melting of both the Greenland and parts of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and be committed to multi-metre sea level rise.”

For more listen to “Which climate extreme would you rather – an ice age or a very warm interglacial?”

https://cosmosmagazine.com/podcast/ice-ages-come-and-go/

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by CaaC (John)
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First evidence of a dinosaur eating a mammal found in Chinese Microraptor fossil

A mammal foot was found in the 120-million-year-old remains of a crow-sized dinosaur.

For the first time, scientists have found direct evidence for a dinosaur eating a mammal.

The fossilised remains of a Microraptor which would have lived in what is now China more than 120 million years ago has been shown by UK palaeontologists to have a little surprise in its tum. In the crow-sized dinosaur’s digestive system is the remains of another animal – a small mammal foot.

“It’s so rare to find examples of food inside dinosaurs, so every example is really important, as it gives direct evidence of what they were eating,” says lead author Dr David Hone from Queen Mary University of London.

While pale in comparison to the scenes from Steven Speilberg’s 1993 film Jurassic Park of a lawyer being swallowed whole by a giant Tyrannosaurus rex, the discovery sheds important light on how these bird-like dinosaurs lived and ate.

“While this mammal would absolutely not have been a human ancestor, we can look back at some of our ancient relatives being a meal for hungry dinosaurs. This study paints a picture of a fascinating moment in time – the first record of a dinosaur eating a mammal – even if it isn’t quite as frightening as anything in Jurassic Park,” Horne adds.

Microraptor made headlines after being first described in 2000 for being a four-winged dinosaur. Like many other small theropod (two-legged, mostly carnivorous) dinosaurs discovered in China in recent decades, Microraptor marks a clear point in the evolution of dinosaurs into modern birds.

With its four feathered limbs, Microraptor prompted theories suggesting flight may have evolved as a result of four-winged gliding.

The specimen studied by the Queen Mary University of London palaeontologists was first found in 2000, but it was many years later that the presence of the mammal foot was found between the dinosaur’s ribs.

Near complete, the mammal foot belonged to a tiny animal, about the size of a mouse. The bones suggest that the mammal predominantly lived on the ground and was not a good climber. It seems an interesting choice of food source for Microraptor which is believed to have soared from tree-to-tree hunting small animals.

Previous studies have revealed other Microraptor specimens with bird, lizard and fish in their stomach contents. Now, adding mammals to that mix tells of a dinosaur with a diverse diet, not a specialist.

It’s not clear if the dinosaurs were hunting these animals, or scavenging the remains of dead animals they found. Nevertheless, the find does give some insight into how the dinosaurs lived and fed.

“The great thing is that, like your housecat which was about the same size, Microraptor would have been an easy animal to live with but a terror if it got out as it would hunt everything from the birds at your feeder to the mice in your hedge or the fish in your pond,” adds co-author Dr Alex Dececchi from Mount Marty University in the US.

://cosmosmagazine.com/history/dinosaur-eating-mammal/

 

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s a dinosaur with the body of a modern bird, but a head like T. rex

The 120-million-year-old Chinese fossil helps inform how modern birds evolved.

We know birds are descendants of dinosaurs like T. rex, but when and how did the transformation from dinosaur to modern bird happen?

This transition is one of the most dramatic in terms of morphology, functionality and ecology, but palaeontologists are still struggling to get to grips with exactly how modern birds came about.

A new fossil discovery by a team at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, of a bird ancestor dinosaur in China, might place another piece to this feathery puzzle.

Named Cratonavis zhui, the 120-million-year-old fossil has a dinosaur-like skull and modern bird-like body. It also shows surprisingly long scapula and first metatarsal bones, setting it apart from all other birds including ancient birds.

The skull was analysed using high-resolution CT scans before digitally removing the fossil from the surrounding rock to see their original shape.

Cratonavis’s skull is not bird like. Morphologically it’s almost identical to that of dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus rex.

“The primitive cranial features speak to the fact that most Cretaceous birds such as Cratonavis could not move their upper bill independently with respect to the braincase and lower jaw, a functional innovation widely distributed among living birds that contributes to their enormous ecological diversity,” says a lead author Dr. Li Zhiheng from the IVPP.

The palaeontologists believe that the elongated scapula and metatarsal were mechanical compensators for an overall underdeveloped flight apparatus in the early bird.

Cratonavis sits on the avian evolutionary tree somewhere between Archaeopteryx and other ancient birds which evolved many of the traits of modern birds. It suggests that early bird skeletons were subject to much variability and plasticity.

When they were discovered in Germany in the 1860s, the 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx fossils were the first indication that dinosaurs and birds might be related. The fossils were the first to show dinosaurs with feather imprints.

The authors suggest that changes in the skeletons of theropods which began the transition to flight, and modern bird body plans, show that there was probably interplay between natural selection, skeletal development and ecological opportunities.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/bird-body-dinosaur/

 

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Edited January 11, 2023 by MUFC

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What is hallucigenia?

When scientists first studied the fossilised remains of this strange, spiky, worm-like creature, they couldn’t tell its ‘up’ from its ‘down’, or its front from its back.

Named for its ‘bizarre and dream-like’ appearance, hallucigenia was a finger-sized ocean-dweller that lived during the Cambrian Period around 508 million years ago. It belonged to a group called the panarthropods, which later gave rise to velvet worms, water bears and arthropods.

In 1977, British palaeontologist Simon Conway Morris determined that it had seven pairs of stilt-like legs sticking down, and seven pairs of mouth-tipped tentacles pointing up. Then more specimens were analysed, and this interpretation was turned upside down… literally. Scientists realised that the ‘tentacles’ were, in fact, claw-tipped legs that pointed down, and the ‘legs’ were actually pointy spines that protruded upwards.

Hallucigenia was now the right way up, but no one knew which end was the head. Then in the mid-2000s, modern microscopy methods were applied, and hey presto, the longer of the two ‘sticky-out bits’ was found to contain, not just eyes, but a mouth too. Behind the head, three hitherto unknown pairs of appendages were discovered, and the legs were shown to be jointless.

Hallucigenia, it’s thought, may have walked by altering the pressure of the fluid inside its legs, much like a modern-day starfish.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/nature/what-is-hallucigenia/

 

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Fossils reveal wondrous dinosaur diversity just before mass extinction

Among the fossils are the first recorded theropods from Chilean Patagonia.

A more complete picture of what the world looked like in the age of dinosaurs is being created by palaeontologists in fossil rich Patagonia in the southernmost reaches of South America.

Scientists like Marcelo Leppe, director of the Antarctic Institute of Chile, says the fossil record is key to understanding life today. This latest research provides a glimpse into the dinosaurs and birds that lived in the region during the Late Cretaceous just before the mass extinction 66 million years ago which saw the disappearance of non-avian dinosaurs.

“We still need to know how life made its way in that apocalyptic scenario and gave rise to our southern environments in South America, New Zealand and Australia,” Leppe says.

But we can now build a snapshot of the diverse dinosaurs that roamed prehistoric Patagonia thanks to the study led by Leppe and palaeontologists at the University of Texas at Austin.

Patagonia has been a treasure trove of fossil discoveries for decades. Among the significant fossils found in southern Argentina and Chile are Dreadnoughtus, a 70 tonne long-necked sauropod thought to be the largest land animal ever, and one the largest carnivorous dinosaurs, Giganotosaurus, which, at 14 metres from nose to tail, is longer than T. rex!

This latest study focuses on the late Cretaceous period 66 to 75 million years ago.

The region where they were found is believed to be an ancient river delta.

Among the fossils are the first recorded theropods from Chile. Theropods are the dinosaur group that includes both modern birds and their close non-avian dinosaur relatives. Most famous among them are Tyrannosaurus rex, Allosaurus and the raptors such as Velociraptor.

Included in the finds are giant megaraptors with large sickle-like claws and birds closely related to modern species.

“The fauna of Patagonia leading up to the mass extinction was really diverse,” says lead author Sarah Davis. “You’ve got your large theropod carnivores and smaller carnivores as well as these bird groups coexisting alongside other reptiles and small mammals.”

As a group, theropods are mostly carnivorous. The top predators found in the Patagonian study included dinosaurs from two groups – megaraptors and unenlagiines.

The megaraptors reached lengths of over seven metres, making them among the larger theropod dinosaurs in South America’s Late Cretaceous.

Unenlagiines ranged from chicken-sized to more than three metres tall and were likely covered with feathers. The unenlagiine fossils found in Patagonia are the southern-most found in the world.

Bird fossils also came in two groups – enantiornithines and ornithurines.

Enantiornithines are now extinct, but were the most diverse and abundant birds millions of years ago. They resembled sparrows, but with toothed beaks.

Ornithurines includes all birds living today. The fossils are too fragmentary to tell for sure, but the palaeontologists believe the ones living in ancient Patagonia may have been similar in appearance to geese or ducks.

Davis says the team found mainly small fossil fragments including teeth, toes and small bone pieces. The enamel on dinosaur teeth glinted out of the rocks, making them easier to spot.

Some scientists suggest that climatic changes in the southern hemisphere after the asteroid impact 66 million years ago were less extreme and more gradual than in the north.

Patagonia and other places in the southern hemisphere, including Australia and Antarctica, may have been a refuge for birds, mammals and other creatures which survived the extinction. Davis says this study is another piece in the puzzle and may help investigate this theory.

https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/patagonia-dinosaur-diversity/

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