Geology News: Fossil Plesiosaur Discovered in Antarctica

Geology News: Fossil Plesiosaur Discovered in Antarctica

Fossil Plesiosaur Discovered in Antarctica

Photo of the discovery site on a cold, rocky, windswept slope on Vega Island, Antarctica. Photo by James Martin, used with permission.

Paleontologists from the United States and Argentina discovered one of the most complete plesiosaur skeletons ever found. (A plesiosaur is a swimming marine reptile that lived about 70 million years ago. At that time the waters of what is now Antarctica were much warmer than they are today.) The fossil plesiosaur was discovered during a 2005 expedition to Antarctica. The fossil goes on display today at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology's Museum of Geology.

This plesiosaur specimen is a juvenile of about 5 feet (1.5 meters) in length. An adult plesiosaur is about 32 feet (10 meters). It was perfectly articulated and complete, except that the skull had been lost to erosion. The plesiosaur was excavated from deposits of shallow marine sands covered by volcanic ash. Paleontologists speculate that the volcanic blast or debris thrown into the ocean was responsible for the plesiosaur's death.

Researcher carefully excavates the fossil plesiosaur. Photo by James Martin, used with permission.

Excavation of the fossil was extremely difficult because of weather conditions. The paleontolgists had to contend with 70 mile per hour winds sweeping the excavation site, low temperatures and frozen ground. Transporting the specimen to the Herbert Sound camp would have been extremely difficult but the researchers were fortunate to get helicopter support from the Argentine air force.

Artist's impression of the plesiosaur and environment. Painting by Nicolle Rager, National Science Foundation.

James Martin (South Dakota School of Mines and Technology), Judd Case (Eastern Washington University), Marcelo Reguero (Museo de La Plata, Argentina) and J. Foster Sawyer (South Dakota Geological Survey and the School of Mines) were among the participants in the discovery.

Cross-industry co-operation aids salmon recovery

Fishupdate.com: Cross-industry co-operation aids salmon recovery

Cross-industry co-operation aids salmon recovery

Published: 11 December, 2006

THE salmon population in a Wester Ross river has made a dramatic recovery from the brink of extinction following a programme of targeted stocking and close co-operation with the local fish farming industry.

The 2006 rod catch of salmon in the River Carron has been confirmed as the highest for at least 25 years.

The river's salmon rod catch declined inexorably during the 1990s to reach a low point of only five fish in 2000. The stocking of the river with juvenile fish of Carron origin began in earnest in 2001 and has continued each year since then. The rod catch of adult salmon rose sharply to 141 in 2004, followed by further increases to 166 in 2005 and 200 in 2006. The first adult salmon from increased natural spawning (in 2004) will not be expected to return to the river from the North Atlantic until 2007. If sufficient numbers return, the amount of restocking could then be reduced.

Bob Kindness of the Seafield Centre, who has masterminded and spearheaded the stocking programme, commented: "The evidence is now very strong that the recovery of the salmon stocks in the Carron is primarily due to the stocking programme at a time when local marine conditions have been more favourable for salmon survival, partly due to the co-operation of the local salmon farmers including the control of sea-lice. It should be remembered that nothing other than stocking has been done to improve the river itself".

A project, funded by the Tripartite Working Group (TWG), is now underway with Bob Kindness, to provide further information on the numbers of returning Carron salmon.

Shaun MacDonald, Chairman of the River Carron Improvement Association and co-proprietor of part of the river, noted: "There is no doubt that the restoration of our salmon stocks is largely due to Bob Kindness's hard work and expertise. We have also benefited from our close working relationship with the local fish farmers through the TWG programme. Here in Strathcarron and Lochcarron the fish farmers and the wild fish interests fully appreciate that both aquaculture and angling are very important to the local economy".

Alex Adrian, Technical Manager for Pan Fish Scotland Ltd, commented: "The recovery of the Carron salmon stock and fishery is an outstanding achievement on Bob Kindness's part, and we as salmon farmers in Loch Carron are delighted that our efforts in the control of sea-lice through the Area Management process have been acknowledged as helping to contribute to the creation of a local marine environment that has been conducive to this recovery. The primary aim of the Carron/Kishorn Area Management Agreement is the health of both wild and farmed stocks, and thanks to the efforts of Bob and the other members of the Group, we appear to be well on the way to achieving this."

Sea Urchin Genome Suprisingly Similar To Man And May Hold Key To Cures

ScienceDaily: Sea Urchin Genome Suprisingly Similar To Man And May Hold Key To Cures

Sea Urchin Genome Suprisingly Similar To Man And May Hold Key To Cures

Sea urchins are small and spiny, they have no eyes and they eat kelp and algae. Still, the sea creature's genome is remarkably similar to humans' and may hold the key to preventing and curing several human diseases, according to a University of Central Florida researcher and several colleagues.

Professor Cristina Calestani raises sea urchins in her lab as part of her research at UCF. (Photo: Jerry Klein)

UCF Professor Cristina Calestani was part of the Sea Urchin Genome Sequencing Group, which recently completed sequencing of the sea urchin genome and published its findings in the November issue of Science. The National Institutes of Health funded most of the nine-month project.

The genome of the purple sea urchin is composed by 814 "letters" coding for 23,300 genes.

Sea urchins are echinoderms, marine animals that originated more than 540 million years ago. The reason for the great interest in sequencing the sea urchin genome is because it shares a common ancestor with humans. Sea urchins are closer to human and vertebrates from an evolutionary perspective than other more widely studied animal models, such as fruit fly or worms. The purple sea urchin, in fact, has 7,000 genes in common with humans, including genes associated with Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases and muscular dystrophy.

"Another surprise is that this spiny creature with no eyes, nose or hears has genes involved in vision, hearing and smell in humans," Calestani said. "The comparison of human genes with their corresponding ancestral sea urchin genes may give important insight on their function in humans, in the same way the study of history helps understanding the reality of our modern world."

The genome sequencing project was led by Erica Sodergren and George Weinstock at the Baylor College of Medicine-Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, along with Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the Baylor center, and Drs. Eric Davidson and Andrew Cameron at the California Institute of Technology.

Of particular interest to Calestani is the way the sea urchin's immune system works. The human immune system has two components: innate immunity, with which we are born, and acquired immunity, which is the ability to produce antibodies in response to an infection. Sea urchins only have innate immunity, and it is greatly expanded with 10 to 20 times as many genes as in human.

"Considering that sea urchins have a long life span -- some can live up to 100 years -- their immune system must be powerful," Calestani said. "Sea urchins could very well provide a new set of antibiotic and antiviral compounds to fight various infectious diseases."

The sea urchin has been used for many years as a research model to study embryonic development.

Cell development is very complicated. In order to properly regulate just one gene expression of a single-cell layered gut of the sea urchin larva, at least 14 proteins binding the DNA at 50 sites are needed, Calestani said.

"Multiply that hundreds of times and you begin to understand the level of complexity involved in human development," she added.

Using a "simple" creature like the sea urchin embryo to uncover the molecular basis underlying development offers several experimental advantages compared to the use of mice. Raising sea urchin embryos is easy and inexpensive. One female can provide up to 20 millions eggs. The embryos develop in just three days and are transparent. Also, single cells can be easily observed live in the embryos.

"If we know how these biological processes work, then we can begin to figure out how to intercede to repair and to heal," Calestani said. "It holds a lot of promise."

Calestani is continuing her work with sea urchins at UCF in Orlando by examining the development of pigment cells found in the marine creatures. Those cells also might provide some insight into human immunity to diseases.

Calestani, who teaches genetics at UCF, worked with Davidson at Caltech before arriving at UCF.

New Data Show Global Warming Kills Marine Life - image

Yahoo! News Photo
 

New Data Show Global Warming Kills Marine Life

 

 

This NASA Aqua satellite image released in 2003 shows clouds of phytoplankton thriving in the cold, nutrient-rich waters off of Greenland's eastern coast. A new study of the oceans suggests that phytoplankton -- the vital first link in the food chain of the seas -- will be hugely affected by global warming.(AFP/NASA-HO/File)

New Data Show Global Warming Kills Marine Life

New Data Show Global Warming Kills Marine Life

New Data Show Global Warming Kills Marine Life

Sara Goudarzi
LiveScience Staff Writer

Satellite data revealed for the first time that global warming could devastate key marine life, scientists announced today.

The decade-long analysis showed that as the surface water of the oceans warmed up, phytoplankton biomass declined.

Tiny marine plants, called phytoplankton, impact the network of organisms that directly or indirectly depend on them for food. Changes in ocean color--a measure of phytoplankton mass--detected from space allowed researchers to calculate their photosynthetic rates and correlate these changes to the climate.

As rising air temperatures heat up the ocean's surface, this water becomes less dense and separates from the cold dense layer below, which is full of nutrients. Since phytoplankton need light for photosynthesis, these floating plants are restricted to the surface layer--now separated from nutrients needed for growth.

When phytoplankton is abundant, the color of the water shifts from blue to green. These marine plants remove carbon dioxide and convert it to organic carbon, accounting for almost half of the Earth's photosynthesis.

During periods of cooler temperatures, there is a flowering of these marine plants. Such was the case in late 1999 when the oceans were recovering from a strong El Nino and the globe was cooling.

But between 2000 and the present, researchers found that as the oceans warmed and became more stratified, phytoplankton productivity declined by 190 million tons of carbon each year.

"This clearly showed that overall ocean productivity decreases when the climate warms," said lead author Michael Behrenfeld of Oregon State University.

Unlike terrestrial plants that can stick around for hundreds of years, these tiny greens have quick turnover rates. Every two to six days, predators munch down the entire global phytoplankton mass. 

"This very fast turnover, along with the fact that phytoplankton are limited to just a thin veneer of the ocean surface where there is enough sunlight to sustain photosynthesis, makes them very responsive to changes in climate," Behrenfeld said. "This was why we could relate productivity changes to climate variability in only a 10-year record. Such connections would be much harder to detect from space for terrestrial plant biomass."

The problem could create a vicious cycle.

As the carbon dioxide levels rise, phytoplankton production is reduced. This means that there will be less ocean plants to uptake this greenhouse gas, which worsens the overall problem, Behrenfeld said.

The study is detailed in the Dec. 7 issue of the journal Nature.

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Image of The strongest jaws in history

The strongest jaws in history | NEWS.com.au

Jaws of steel ... this artist's rendition shows the armor-plated fish dunkleosteus, a 33 foot long (10 metres), four tonne (3600kg) monster that terrorised other marine life in about 400 million years ago / Reuters

The strongest jaws in history

The strongest jaws in history | NEWS.com.au
 

The strongest jaws in history
 

ITS titanic jaws could pulverise any creature that came its way, and their strength has not been rivalled 400 million years after it ceased to exist.The armour-plated fish dunkleosteus was a 10m-long, 3600kg monster that terrorised other marine life in the Devonian Period, from 415 million to 360 million years ago.

While lacking true teeth, dunkleosteus used two long, bony blades in its mouth to snap and crush creatures unfortunate enough to encounter it.

Scientists at the Field Museum in Chicago and the University of Chicago decided to test dunkleosteus's reputation for wielding some of the most powerful jaws ever on Earth, creating a biomechanical model.

They came away impressed.

In research published in Britain's Royal Society journal Biology Letters, they said the big fish's bite packed 5000kg of force.

The bony blades in its mouth, almost certainly enamelled like teeth, concentrated the bite force into a small area at the tip at an astonishing force of 36,000kg per square inch, they said.

That, the scientists proclaimed, crowns dunkleosteus as the all-time chomping champion of fish.

"It blows sharks out of the water as far as bite force goes," said Mark Westneat, curator of fish at the Field Museum and the paper's co-author.

"A huge great white shark is probably only capable of biting at about half that bite force.

"It puts it with big crocodiles and alligators and big dinosaurs like tyrannosaurus rex in terms of the most powerful biters ever."

The researchers also determined that dunkleosteus could open its mouth very rapidly - in a 50th of a second -  to form a suction force that drew prey into the gaping mouth.

It is very rare for a fish to possess both a powerful and a fast bite, they said.

Dunkleosteus appeared on earth about 175 million years before the first dinosaurs and was one of the first jawed vertebrates.

Satellites to keep track on turtles

The Statesman

Satellites to keep track on turtles

Statesman News Service
KENDRAPARA, Nov. 30: Stung by conservationists' criticism that oil exploration along the Orissa coast will adversely affect the marine ecology, the state forest department and Wildlife Institute of India have joined hands to closely monitor the path of one million of Olive Ridley sea turtles, visiting the Gahirmatha coast from January to March every year, through satellite telemetry tracking technology.
Turtle experts have the view that it is imprudent to allow offshore oil drilling in the sea perilously close to the maximum turtle concentration zones.
The novel satellite study on these threatened species, the itinerant path of which has largely remained unexplored, would start once the turtles start arriving at the Gahirmatha nesting ground to lay eggs, according to officials.
About 70 turtles will be handpicked for experiment with satellite telemetry application. After fitted with telemetry, they would be released in the wild. Its track and path of movement would be minutely observed by WII scientists, said the Bhitarkanika forest officials.
The divisional forest officer, Bhitarkanika forest (mangrove) division, Mr Ajay Kumar Jena, said the satellite application on turtles would start shortly under the stewardship of scientists of Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. He refused to elaborate on.
Though the experiment to track the turtles' itinerant path through satellite telemetry technique had earlier been conducted in 2001, it was not a great success. Four female turtles fitted with satellite transmitters and released in the wild near the Devi river mouth nesting ground hardly moved long distance and were sighted roaming along the Bay of Bengal coast. The telemetry fitted then had reportedly developed technical snags and as a result these species are learnt to have gone out of sight.
While one of the turtle advanced up to Jaffna off Sri Lankan coast, two others roamed on the Bay of Bengal coast before making their annual journey to Orissa coast for mass nesting. The latest satellite tracking experiment on turtles would commence during early 2007 after turtles make their annual rendezvous to Gahirmatha rookery for mass nesting, officials of Bhitarkanika national park said.
The Union government has accorded nod to oil exploration work by corporate giant Reliance Industries and Oil and Natural Gas Commission along the Mahanadi river basis area.
After the conservationists raised voice, the environment ministry had directed the RIL to stop oil drilling during the nesting season.
Of the two midsea blocks, where RIL has taken to oil exploration reserve, one of the blocks is right on the return path of these migratory species who travel long distances to nest along the Gahirmatha coast.
The satellite telemetry tracking of these species was given a serious thought to scientifically establish whether the oil drilling block is swarmed by breeding turtles. The satellite study will also examine the impact of human interference on the turtles and other marine species.
The oil exploring companies had contended that the turtle congregation areas thrived on the near shore which is 10 nautical miles off the coast. The offshore drilling beyond 50 nautical miles will not affect the turtles, the oil companies had maintained citing similar explorations in the USA and Gulf of Mexico.
The satellite tracking being done this time is in accordance with recommendation of Multi-disciplinary Expert Group (MEG) constituted by the Union forest and environment ministry, said officials of the state forest department.

Marine Life Leaped From Simple to Complex After Greatest Mass Extinction

Marine Life Leaped From Simple to Complex After Greatest Mass Extinction - New York Times

Marine Life Leaped From Simple to Complex After Greatest Mass Extinction

 

At least five mass extinctions, most presumably caused by asteroids that struck the earth, have transformed global ecology in the half-billion years since the emergence of multicelled life, lopping entire branches from the evolutionary tree and allowing others to flourish.

 

Ron Testa/The Field Museum

Field Museum dioramas depicting simple, fixed marine life before the Permo-Triassic extinction, left, and the complex organisms that dominated later.

The greatest "great dying," 251 million years ago, erased 95 percent of species in the oceans (and most vertebrates on land). But new research suggests that it was followed by an explosion of complexity in marine life, one that has persisted ever since.

Moreover, it happened quite suddenly, according to the study, which was led by scientists at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and published in the current issue of the journal Science. The shift to complicated, interrelated ecosystems was more like a flip of a switch than a slow trend.

The researchers detected the change by analyzing records of marine fossils from 1,176 sites around the world, which are part of a new international archive, the Paleobiology Database ( pbdb.org).

They found that marine life before the biggest global die-off, the Permo-Triassic extinction, was evenly split into two types of communities: simple ones, in which most species were anchored in place and got by without interacting with neighbors (like eating them or being eaten by them), and complex ones, with many interrelationships.

But since then, complex communities filled with grazers, scavengers, predators, burrowers and other mobile creatures have been three times as common as simple ones, said Peter J. Wagner, the lead author of the study.

The shift essentially took the oceans from a norm in which anchored (or sessile) creatures, including brachiopods and sea lilies, filtered food carried in currents to one dominated by roaming (or motile) fauna like snails, urchins and crabs.

Dr. Wagner said it was not clear why this particular extinction spasm had this permanent effect on the character of communities, while others did not.

A 2002 study led by Richard K. Bambach, an emeritus professor at Virginia Tech, found the general shift to a higher abundance of motile fauna from the early Triassic Period onward, but it did not examine patterns in individual communities.

But Dr. Wagner said motility was an enduring characteristic of the more variegated biological webs.

"The increased diversity of mobile species would have contributed to more complex ecological communities," he said. "With sessile guys, everybody is just living next to one another and that's it. With mobility and higher metabolism, you bump into each other more often, both literally and figuratively, and you end up with a greater number of potential interactions."

Wolfgang Kiessling, a paleoecologist at Humboldt University in Berlin who assessed the study in an accompanying article in Science, said it represented "a major step forward," particularly in finding a reliable way to distinguish simple ecosystems from complex ones through 500 million years of life history.

California sea lions attack humans

California sea lions attack humans - Yahoo! News

California sea lions attack humans

SAN FRANCISCO - Tourists flock to Fisherman's Wharf for the seafood and the stunning views of San Francisco Bay, but for many visitors, the real stars are the dozens of playful, whiskered sea lions that lounge by the water's edge, gulping down fish.

Now a series of sea-lion attacks on people in recent months has led experts to warn that the animals are not as cute and cuddly as they appear.

"People should understand these animals are out there not to attack people or humans. But they're out there to survive for themselves," said Jim Oswald, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Center across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco.

In the most frightening of the recent episodes, a rogue sea lion bit 14 swimmers this month and chased 10 more out of the water at San Francisco's Aquatic Park, a sheltered lagoon near the bay. At least one victim suffered puncture wounds.

Some scientists speculate that the animals' aggressive behavior is being caused by eating fish contaminated by toxic algae, or by a shortage of food off the coast. But wildlife experts say even healthy sea lions are best left alone.

In Southern California in June, a sea lion charged several people on Manhattan Beach and bit a man before waddling into the water and swimming away. In Berkeley, a woman was hospitalized last spring after a sea lion took a chunk out of her leg.

Last year, a group of sea lions took over a Newport Beach marina and caused a vintage 50-foot yacht to capsize when they boarded it. And a lifeguard in Santa Barbara was bitten three times while swimming off El Capitan State Beach.

In Alaska, a huge sea lion jumped onto a fisherman's boat in 2004, knocked him overboard and pulled him underwater; he escaped without serious injury.

Sea lions, which can reach 1,000 pounds, typically bite only if they feel threatened or cornered. And they are more likely to flee than fight if they can escape. Researchers have described the most recent attacks, in which some swimmers were chased through open water, as abnormal behavior.

Still, with a population numbering about 200,000 and growing, these playful, social creatures are increasingly likely to cross paths with humans.

Sea lions accustomed to the easy pickings of seafood scraps in popular fishing areas can become aggressive toward people if they fear their food is about to be taken away, Oswald said.

The Berkeley attack, for example, was at a marina where fishermen dock their boats and feed fish scraps to sea lions. After they ran out of scraps, the sea lion turned aggressive and bit a crew member.

At the same time, a drop in fish stocks off the Southern California coast due to El Nino-like conditions could be driving more hungry sea lions than usual to San Francisco Bay, said Lynn Cullivan, a spokesman for San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.

Humans could also be contributing to aggression in sea lions in another way: Toxic algae blooms fed by agricultural runoff and other pollution can lead to the poisoning of marine mammals by a chemical called domoic acid, which can cause brain damage. The Marine Mammal Center treated more than 200 sea lions for domoic acid poisoning last year.

Veterinarians at the center believe the brain damage caused by the poison could have led to the marauding animal's erratic behavior in Aquatic Park, Oswald said, though they cannot be sure without actually examining the sea lion.

So far park rangers have not been able to track the attacker down. Nevertheless, the lagoon where the attacks occurred has been reopened to swimmers, though with new signs warning people to stay away from sea lions.

"People who swim with the lions — though I'm sure that's nice — it's probably not the best thing to do," Oswald said. "It's a wild animal. And you want to keep them wild."

Crabs Give Blood for Space Travel

Crabs Give Blood for Space Travel

Crabs Give Blood for Space Travel

Picture this: You're on a mission to Mars, halfway there from Earth, and you're not feeling well. Your throat hurts when you swallow, your forehead is hot. You don't want to get sick or infect your crewmates. Should you take an antibiotic? If so, which kind?

With a new biological laboratory on a chip being developed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, in partnership with outside researchers, you may be able to get the answer in as little as five minutes.

The mini-lab goes by the maxi-acronym LOCAD-PTS, which stands for Lab-On-a-Chip Application Development–Portable Test System. The latest version is a handheld device slated for launch this December aboard shuttle mission STS-116 for testing on the International Space Station.

On Earth, the most reliable method of diagnosing illness is to take a sample of bodily fluid (throat swab, or blood or urine sample) and culture them on Petri dishes with different growth media in a medical laboratory. Culturing decisively reveals whether an infection is viral (which will not respond to antibiotics) or bacterial or fungal (which will), Culturing also pinpoints the species and thus the most effective kind of antibiotic.

"So-called gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli and Salmonella, respond to different antibiotics than gram-positive bacteria, such as Staphylococcus," explains Ginger N. Flores, LOCAD project manager at Marshall.

But cultures can be impractical, chiefly because growing them takes two or three days—by which time a person might be very ill, indeed. LOCAD-PTS, on the other hand, is fast: "It gives results in 5 to 15 minutes," says Norman Wainwright, the project's principal investigator and director of research and development at Charles River Laboratories in Charleston, SC. "And it's very sensitive—it can detect just a single bacterium."

The high-tech device relies on four enzymes extracted from the blood cells of one of Earth's most ancient living creatures: the horseshoe crab. "The horseshoe crab, a species that has survived some 300 million years, has a very primitive but sensitive immune system," Wainwright continues. A single bacterium can be enough to trigger enzymes in the crab's immune system, which clot the blood to seal off a wound.

The enzymes' extraordinary sensitivity and rapid response makes them widely useful in medical research to test the effectiveness of drugs and devices. (Withdrawing a bit of blood annually from horseshoe crabs, which are then returned to the wild, does not injure the creatures, and so far there is no acceptable synthetic substitute.)

It is these horseshoe crab enzymes that allow LOCAD-PTS to be so small, sensitive, and fast. First, a tiny amount of enzyme is inserted into tube-like channels and dried. Introducing any liquid sample to be tested into the channels rehydrates the enzymes. If the sample includes bacteria, their toxins trigger the enzymes, which change the liquid's color—the degree of color change depending on the number of germs.

The experiment package scheduled to fly in December will pit LOCAD-PTS versus traditional Petri dishes in a competition to see which works best. Once a week for six weeks, astronauts will press a sticky, flexible patch onto an exposed surface, and then swab a short distance all around the patch. Any bacteria adhering to the swab will be introduced into LOCAD-PTS, whereas any bacteria adhering to the sticky patch will be cultured. A few days later, bacterial colonies will counted in the traditional manner.

Note: This procedure takes advantage of the fact that humans aren't the only astronauts in space: the surfaces of the space station, just like walls, floors, and kitchen counters here on Earth, are rich in bacteria ("one small step for a germ…").

Of course, Wainwright and Flores expect that LOCAD-PTS will win the race for speed—but what about accuracy? A big unknown is how well LOCAD-PTS will compare in analyzing the type of bacteria, and how well its color changes can be calibrated to the number of bacterial colonies that grow. "We also want to see how easy and practical the device is for astronauts to manipulate in microgravity," Flores adds.

Although the initial LOCAD-PTS will test only for Gram-negative bacteria, "we plan later also to test for Gram-positive bacteria, yeast, mold, and certain chemicals."

Eventually, if all goes as planned, one sample from the throat of an ill-feeling astronaut could be sent flowing through parallel channels on a future generation of LOCAD-PTS, and could indeed, within minutes, come up with a diagnosis like "take two Amoxicillin and call me in the morning."

>From NASA