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Ancient 'Monster' Insect: 'Unicorn' Fly Never Before Observed


ScienceDaily
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:00 UTC
ancient fly
© George Poinar
This image of an ancient fly in amber shows the strange horn on its head, topped by three eyes.
Just in time for Halloween, researchers have announced the discovery of a new, real-world "monster" -- what they are calling a "unicorn" fly that lived about 100 million years ago and is being described as a new family, genus and species of fly never before observed.

A single, incredibly well-preserved specimen of the tiny but scary-looking fly was preserved for eternity in Burmese amber, and it had a small horn emerging from the top of its head, topped by three eyes that would have given it the ability to see predators coming. But despite that clever defense mechanism, it was apparently an evolutionary dead end that later disappeared.

"No other insect ever discovered has a horn like that, and there's no animal at all with a horn that has eyes on top," said George Poinar, Jr., a professor of zoology at Oregon State University who just announced the new species in Cretaceous Research, a professional journal.
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Info

Wolves Lose Their Predatory Edge In Mid-life


Science Daily
Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:42 UTC
Image
© iStockphoto/Jim Kruger
Wolf (Canis Lupus) near Yellowstone National Park.
Although most wolves in Yellowstone National Park live to be nearly six years old, their ability to kill prey peaks when they are two to three, according to a study led by Dan MacNulty and recently published online by Ecology Letters. The study will appear in the journal's December print issue.

The finding challenges a long-held belief that wolves are successful predators for their entire adult lives. It now appears that like human athletes, they are only at the top of their game for about 25 percent of that time. It also shows that physiology can limit predation.

"Wolves are not perfect predators," says MacNulty, a postdoctoral researcher in the College of Biological Sciences' Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior. "They lack physical characteristics to kill prey swiftly, so they rely on athletic ability and endurance, which diminishes with age. They're like 100-meter sprinters. They need to be in top condition to perform."
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Bizarro Earth

Tsunami Waves Reasonably Likely To Strike Israel


Terra Daily / SPX
Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:17 UTC
Image
© Unknown
"There is a likely chance of tsunami waves reaching the shores of Israel," says Dr. Beverly Goodman of the Leon H. Charney School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa following an encompassing geo-archaeological study at the port of Caesarea.

"Tsunami events in the Mediterranean do occur less frequently than in the Pacific Ocean, but our findings reveal a moderate rate of recurrence," she says.

Dr. Goodman, an expert geo-archaeologist, exposed geological evidence of this by chance. Her original intentions in Caesarea were to assist in research at the ancient port and at offshore shipwrecks.

"We expected to find the remains of ships, but were surprised to reveal unusual geological layers the likes of which we had never seen in the region before. We began underwater drilling assuming that these are simply local layers related to the construction of the port. However, we discovered that they are spread along the entire area and realized that we had found something major," she explains.
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Bizarro Earth

Volcanoes Played Pivotal Role In Ancient Ice Age, Mass Extinction


Terra Daily / SPX
Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:12 UTC
Image
© Matthew Saltzman, courtesy of Ohio State University
Researchers at Ohio State University have discovered that volcanoes played a pivotal role in a deadly ice age that occurred nearly half a billion years ago. This photograph shows volcanic ash beds - formed around 455 million years ago - layered in the rock of the Nashville Dome area in central Tennessee.
Researchers here have discovered the pivotal role that volcanoes played in a deadly ice age 450 million years ago. Perhaps ironically, these volcanoes first caused global warming - by releasing massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. When they stopped erupting, Earth's climate was thrown off balance, and the ice age began.

The discovery underscores the importance of carbon in Earth's climate today, said Matthew Saltzman, associate professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University.

The results will appear in the journal Geology, in a paper now available online.

Previously, Saltzman and his team linked this same ice age to the rise of the Appalachian Mountains. As the exposed rock weathered, chemical reactions pulled carbon from Earth's atmosphere, causing a global cooling which ultimately killed two-thirds of all species on the planet.
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Bizarro Earth

Algae foam killing thousands of sea birds


United Press International
Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:08 UTC
Image
© Unknown
The bloom, which poses no threat to people or pets, has killed thousands of birds since mid-September from northern Oregon to Washington's Olympic Peninsula, Schirato said.
Foam from an unusual algae bloom has killed thousands of birds along the Oregon and Washington coasts in recent weeks, marine biologists said.

Akashiwo sanguinea, a single-cell algae or phytoplankton, strips the birds of their natural waterproofing, said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist and professor at Washington State University.

"It's the largest mortality event of its kind on the West Coast that we know of," Parrish told The (Portland) Oregonian in a story published Friday. "We're getting counts of up to a million cells per liter of water," she said. "Think about that. That's pretty dense."

Storms have whipped the algae into a substance similar to a sticky soap, which washes off the birds' protective waterproofing oils and causes them to die of hypothermia, said Greg Schirato, a manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
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Wolf

Do Bears Stimulate their Vagus Nerves? The 'Man Who Walks with Bears' Discovers their 'Hum'

Matt Walker
BBC News
Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:46 UTC
Image
© Lynn Rogers
Professor Lynn Rogers hangin out with black bears
Black bears are often considered among the most dangerous animals in North America, depicted down the years as ferocious predators threatening to man.

But, says one man, that perception could not be further from the truth.

For 43 years, has studied wild bears, walking and playing with them, gaining amazing insights into their behaviour.

His studies reveal the bears as peaceful, playful creatures, which even hum when they are content.

The new understanding of wild black bear (Ursus americanus) behaviour unveiled by Prof Roger's research is depicted by the BBC natural history programme Natural World: Bearwalker of the Northwoods.
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Bad Guys

GMO Seeds: 'Multinational Corporations Gaining Total Control Over Farming'

Anil Netto
Dandelion Salad
Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:44 UTC
Image
Food security campaigners are now more concerned than ever that farmers are turning dependent on large multinational corporations (MNCs) for seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs while also becoming more vulnerable to pressures to produce genetically engineered crops.

Gathered here over the weekend, for the Pesticide Action Network (PAN)'s 25th anniversary, many expressed concern over the predatory nature of corporate agriculture and its attempts to corner the entire chain of food production from seeds to sales of food products.

PAN is a network of over 600 participating non-governmental organisations, institutions and individuals in over 90 countries working to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.
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Cloud Lightning

ANI Detecting clear trend in water vapor would take 50 years, say scientists


All News India
Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:59 UTC
A new study by scientists has determined that it would take about 50 years of observations to detect a clear trend in upper tropospheric water vapor.

Water vapor in the upper troposphere contributes to the greenhouse effect, and scientists predict that humidity will increase in the future along with rising levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

However, there is currently no observing program that could detect the predicted trends.
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Cow Skull

Fossilised skull of 'sea monster' pliosaur found on Dorset coast

Haroon Siddique
Guardian.co.uk
Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:44 UTC
Image
© Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Norway
An artist's impression of a 45-ton pliosaur attacking
Ferocious prehistoric predator's skull is 2.4 metres and could belong to creature measuring up to 16 metres in length

The fossilised skull of a "sea monster", which may be the largest of its type ever found, has been unearthed on the Dorset coast.

The skull from the ferocious prehistoric predator the pliosaur is 2.4 metres long and could belong to a creature measuring up to 16 metres in length from tip to tail and weighing up to 12 tonnes.

Pliosaurs were a form of plesiosaur, a group of giant aquatic reptiles that terrorised the ocean 150m years ago, around the same time that dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

They had short necks and huge, crocodile-like heads that contained immensely powerful jaws and a set of huge, razor-sharp teeth.
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Frog

Rainforest treaty 'fatally flawed'

Michael McCarthy
The Independent
Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:04 UTC
rain forest
© Getty
Regenerated palm oil trees are seen growing on the site of destroyed tropical rainforest in Kuala Cenaku, Indonesia

Climate summit loophole lets palm oil producers cull vital wilderness

A vital safeguard to protect the world's rainforests from being cut down has been dropped from a global deforestation treaty due to be signed at the climate summit in Copenhagen in December.

Under proposals due to be ratified at the summit, countries which cut down rainforests and convert them to plantations of trees such as oil palms would still be able to classify the result as forest and could receive millions of dollars meant for preserving them. An earlier version of the text ruled out such a conversion but has been deleted, and the EU delegation - headed by Britain - has blocked its reinsertion.

Environmentalists say plantations are in no way a substitute for the lost natural forest in terms of wildlife, water production or, crucially, as a store of the carbon dioxide which is emitted into the atmosphere when forests are destroyed and intensifies climate change.
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