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New fossils of oldest American primate found

Johns Hopkins researchers have identified the first ankle and toe bone fossils from the earliest North American true primate, which they say suggests that our earliest forerunners may have dwelled or moved primarily in trees, like modern day lemurs and similar mammals.

Magnified images reveal the fine tooth structure of Teilhardina magnoliana, a newly discovered species believed to be the oldest known primate in North America. The tiny, 55-million-year-old creature raises the controversial possibility that primates arrived in the Americas thousands of years before they reached Europe, according to the fossils' discoverer [Credit: PNAS/National Academy of Sciences (copyright 2008)]

Previous excavations have yielded pieces of the jaw and teeth of Teilhardina, primates that first appeared just after the beginning of the Eocene Epoch about 55.5 million years ago. In a report on their analysis of the fossils, published in the October issue of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, the Johns Hopkins team said they identified the latest bones when they went prospecting for evidence of the earliest Eocene mammals in the badlands of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, an area rich in fossils. The primate fossils were discovered in strata—bands of stratified earth —dating to the beginning of the Eocene Epoch.

“Living primates have nails on all or most of their toes and fingers, and they don’t occur in any other animal in exactly the same way,” says Ken Rose, Ph.D., professor of anatomy in the Center for Functional Anatomy and Evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “The fossil toes we found have morphology [shape and form] indicating the presence of nails rather than claws, making our discovery the oldest evidence of nails found in primitive primates so far. “

The researchers noticed the ankle bone fossils were elongated, which is a characteristic of present-day prosimian (non-monkey or ape) primates that do a lot of jumping. The neck of the talus — one of the ankle bones — is relatively longer in Teilhardina than it is in present day lemurs, which move about by leaping from tree to tree, says Rose. Unfortunately the talus specimen was damaged and a total measurement can’t be taken for exact comparisons. However, another ankle bone, the navicular, is also elongated and the researchers were able to quantify its measurements.

Prior excavations in the same region revealed fossils of early relatives of horses, carnivores and rodents, as well as Teilhardina. The researchers screened through hundreds of pounds of sedimentary rock, reducing it to fine-grained concentrate, which was transported back to the lab for examination under the microscope. Some early primate teeth specimens are known to be many times smaller than a grain of rice and only appear as specks to the human eye. Under the microscope, the researchers discovered not only teeth and jawbones from Teilhardina as before, but also three fossilized toe bones and three ankle bones, which Rose says are the first found in North America. The bones were relatively free of attached sediment and appeared smooth and dark — due to the type of minerals accumulated during fossilization — against the gray, fine-grained sediment. Although toe bones are quite variable among species, Rose says, these particular primate specimens are highly distinctive to a trained anatomist.

Close examination of the tips of the toe bones revealed a widened, expanded arrow-shaped region characteristic of flat finger or toe nails, rather than claws. One of the toe bones was larger than the other two proportionally, and the research team proposed that this one was from the big toe or thumb.

Ancestors of Teilhardina originally had claws—hooked, narrow nail beds found on many land animals like cats or birds. One of the distinguishing factors of primates was that they evolved finger and toe nails, with wide nail beds, like those found in humans and apes.

Analysis of the intact navicular ankle bone involved a calculation known as the navicular index that takes into account the proportion of the length to the width of the bone. Teilhardina has a relatively elongated navicular bone with an index of 165 units, similar to those of lemurs which are less than 162 units. But the Teilhardina navicular bone is significantly shorter than those found in bush babies (between 300 to 500 units) and tarsiers (between 400 to 600 units). The modern lemurs are known leapers, while the bush babies and tarsiers are exceptional leapers that can jump up to six and a half feet. The numbers suggest that Teilhardina moved actively through the trees and was capable of some leaping, says Rose.

The leaping capabilities make Teilhardina most likely a tree-dweller too, says Rose, which is an incredibly different habitat than the badlands of Wyoming today, which are dry and rocky with little vegetation. These creatures lived during a period of global warming, when subtropical climates and vegetation stretched all the way to the Arctic Circle, explains Rose.

Rose says Teilhardina was most likely similar in appearance to modern-day bush babies — small primates with big eyes, strong back legs and long tails. But he estimates that the Teilhardina were smaller, only weighing about three or four ounces — about the size of the smallest living primates, mouse lemurs.

“Research on early primates gives us more evidence of our origins and our place in nature, with this particular study highlighting the oldest known member of our group from North America,” says Rose.

Source: Johns Hopkins University [November 16, 2011]

Air pollution a culprit in worsening drought and flooding

Increases in air pollution and other particulate matter in the atmosphere can strongly affect cloud development in ways that reduce precipitation in dry regions or seasons.

A storm monitored by cloud radars provides key data for this study [Credit: Z. Li, University of Maryland]

This while increasing rain, snowfall and the intensity of severe storms in wet regions or seasons, according to results of a new study.

The research provides the first clear evidence of how aerosols--soot, dust and other particulates in the atmosphere--may affect weather and climate.

The findings have important implications for the availability, management and use of water resources in regions across the United States and around the world.

"Using a 10-year dataset of atmospheric measurements, we have uncovered the long-term, net impact of aerosols on cloud height and thickness and the resulting changes in precipitation frequency and intensity," says Zhanqing Li, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland and lead author of a paper reporting the results.

The paper was published today in the journal Nature Geoscience. Co-authors are Feng Niu and Yanni Ding, also of the University of Maryland; Jiwen Fan of the U.S. Department of Energy Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Yangang Liu of the U.S. Department of Energy Brookhaven National Laboratory; and Daniel Rosenfeld of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

"Aerosols' effects on cloud and precipitation development are key questions for scientific community," says Chungu Lu, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, which funded the research.

"The question is not only important for our understanding of the effects of natural processes and human activities on climate change, but for addressing issues in air pollution, disaster relief, water resource management and human weather modification."

In addition to the scope and timeframe of the research team's observations, the scientists matched their findings with results from a cloud-resolving computer model.

"Understanding interactions among clouds, aerosols and precipitation is one of the grand challenges for climate research in the decade ahead," says Tony Busalacchi, a scientist at the University of Maryland and chair of the Joint Scientific Committee of the World Climate Research Program.

"Findings from this study are a significant advance in our understanding of such processes, with implications for both climate science and sustainable development," says Busalacchi.

"We have known for a long time that aerosols impact both the heating and phase changes [such as condensing and freezing] of clouds, and that they can either inhibit or intensify clouds and precipitation," says Russell Dickerson, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Maryland.

A radar image of clouds; data from a decade of time played an important role in the results [Credit: ARM Climate Research Facility]

"What we have not been able to determine until now is the net effect," says Dickerson. "This study shows that fine particulate matter, mostly from air pollution, impedes gentle rains while exacerbating severe storms. It adds urgency to the need to control sulfur, nitrogen and hydrocarbon emissions."

According to Steve Ghan of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, "This work confirms what previous cloud modeling studies had suggested: that although clouds are influenced by many factors, increasing aerosols enhances the variability of precipitation, suppressing it when precipitation is light and intensifying it when it is strong.

"This complex influence is completely missing from climate models, casting doubt on their ability to simulate the response of precipitation to changes in aerosol pollution."

Aerosols are tiny solid particles or liquid particles suspended in air. They include soot, dust and sulfate particles and are what we commonly think of when we talk about air pollution.

Aerosols come, for example, from the combustion of fossil fuels, from industrial and agricultural processes and from the accidental or deliberate burning of fields and forests.

They can be hazardous to human health and the environment.

Aerosol particles also affect the Earth's surface temperature by reflecting light back into space.

The variable cooling and heating that results is, in part, how aerosols modify the stability that dictates atmospheric vertical motion and cloud formation.

Aerosols also affect cloud microphysics because they serve as nuclei around which water droplets or ice particles form.

Both processes can affect cloud properties and rainfall. Different processes may work in harmony or offset each other, leading to complex yet inconclusive interpretations, scientists say, of their long-term net effect.

Researchers agree that greenhouse gases and aerosol particles are two major agents dictating climate change.

The mechanisms of climate warming effects of increased greenhouse gases are clear: they trap solar energy absorbed at the Earth's surface and prevent it from being radiated as heat back into space.

The climate effects of increased aerosols are much less certain.

"This study demonstrates the importance and value of keeping a long record of continuous and comprehensive measurements to identify and quantify the important roles of aerosols in climate processes," says Steve Schwartz, a scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

"While the mechanisms for some of these effects remain uncertain, the well-defined relationships discovered demonstrate their significance," says Schwartz. "Controlling for these processes in models remains a future challenge, but this study clearly points to important directions."

"The findings from ground measurements of long-term effects are consistent with the global effects revealed from satellite measurements reported in our separate study," says Li.

"They attest to the needs of tackling the climate and environmental changes that matter so much to our daily lives."

Source: National Science Foundation [November 14, 2011]

Evidence of ancient lake in California's Eel River emerges

A catastrophic landslide 22,500 years ago dammed the upper reaches of northern California's Eel River, forming a 30-mile-long lake, which has since disappeared, and leaving a living legacy found today in the genes of the region's steelhead trout, report scientists at two West Coast universities.

This is how the ancient lake likely appeared after being formed by a landslide, based on LiDAR technology [Credit: Benjamin Mackey]

Using remote-sensing technology known as airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) and hand-held global-positioning-systems (GPS) units, a three-member research team found evidence for a late Pleistocene, landslide-dammed lake along the river, about 60 miles southeast of Eureka.

The river today is 200 miles long, carved into the ground from high in the California Coast Ranges to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean in Humboldt County.

The evidence for the ancient landslide, which, scientists say, blocked the river with a 400-foot wall of loose rock and debris, is detailed this week in a paper appearing online ahead of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Science Foundation-funded study provides a rare glimpse into the geological history of this rapidly evolving mountainous region.

It helps to explain emerging evidence from other studies that show a dramatic decrease in the amount of sediment deposited from the river in the ocean just off shore at about the same time period, says lead author Benjamin H. Mackey, who began the research while pursuing a doctorate earned in 2009 from the University of Oregon. He is now a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology.

This graphic shows the Eel River system in northern California, where researchers found evidence for an ancient lake [Credit: Benjamin Mackey]

"Perhaps of most interest, the presence of this landslide dam also provides an explanation for the results of previous research on the genetics of steelhead trout in the Eel River," Mackey said, referring to a 1999 study by U.S. Forest Service researchers J.L. Nielson and M.C. Fountain. In their study, published in the journal Ecology of Freshwater Fish, they found a striking relationship between two types of ocean-going steelhead in the river -- a genetic similarity not seen among summer-run and winter-run steelhead in other nearby rivers.

An interbreeding of the two fish, in a process known as genetic introgression, may have occurred among the fish brought together while the river was dammed, Mackey said. "The dam likely would have been impassable to the fish migrating upstream, meaning both ecotypes would have been forced to spawn and inadvertently breed downstream of the dam. This period of gene flow between the two types of steelhead can explain the genetic similarity observed today."

Once the dam burst, the fish would have reoccupied their preferred spawning grounds and resumed different genetic trajectories, he added.

"The damming of the river was a dramatic, punctuated affair that greatly altered the landscape," said co-author Joshua J. Roering, a professor of geological sciences at the University of Oregon. "Although current physical evidence for the landslide dam and paleo-lake is subtle, its effects are recorded in the Pacific Ocean and persist in the genetic make-up of today's Eel River steelhead. It's rare for scientists to be able to connect the dots between such diverse and widely-felt phenomena."

Sediment from ancient lakebed [Credit: Benjamin Mackey]

The lake's surface formed by the landslide, researchers theorize, covered about 12 square miles. After the damn was breached, the flow of water would have generated one of North America's largest landslide-dam outburst floods. Landslide activity and erosion have erased much of the evidence for the now-gone lake. Without the acquisition of LiDAR mapping, the lake's existence may have never been discovered, researchers say.

The area affected by the landslide-caused dam accounts for about 58 percent of the modern Eel River watershed. Based on today's general erosion rates, researchers theorize the lake could have been filled in with sediment within about 600 years.

"The presence of a dam of this size was highly unexpected in the Eel River environment given the abundance of easily eroded sandstone and mudstone, which are generally not considered strong enough to form long-lived dams," Mackey said.

He and his colleagues were drawn to the Eel River -- among the most-studied erosion systems in the world -- to study large, slow-moving landslides. "While analyzing the elevation of terraces along the river, we discovered they clustered at a common elevation rather than decrease in elevation downstream, paralleling the river profile, as would be expected for river terraces. This was the first sign of something unusual, and it clued us into the possibility of an ancient lake."

Source: University of Oregon [November 14, 2011]

Bones found in New Orleans' French Quarter

Construction crews made an historic find in New Orleans' French Quarter when they were building a pool at a condo building and came across several graves. Archaeologists believe the bodies belong to some of the area's first settlers.

Construction crews found the grave site when digging a new pool. The straight sides of this hole are the sides of wooden coffins [Credit: WWL/CNN]

Everyone once in a while, construction crews will dig up humans bones in the French Quarter - like in a tucked-away courtyard.

"That's a piece of one, then you see the side of the wood, see the one in the corner that's the side of one. That's still there," construction foreman Glenn Angelo said.

The first graveyard for the city was located in the area, from Toulouse to Saint Peter. Angelo said the old, unearthed coffins aren't the coffins of today - just simply made.

"They look like a side of a Cyprus tree. Real rough. Really crude, basic, very narrow," he said.

"Basically, the closer you get to the river the more likely you're going to find old things and the older the things are likely to be," archaeologist Jill Yakubik said.

Yakubik with Earth Search headed up a team of archaeologists and anthropologists that helped excavate the site for four weeks this past summer.

"In the surrounding area around New Orleans, it's not unusual to find graveyards," she said.

Yakubik confirmed that a total of 15 coffins were removed from the north rampart site. She said it's where the colony's first cemetery was located, pre-dating the City of New Orleans.

"There also have been instances where there have been established cemeteries that have been forgotten, either family cemeteries or cemeteries that went into disuse over time," she said.

Once Yakubik and her team confirmed the remains at the construction site were human, a state law required the property owner to apply to have them removed.

"No burials can be excavated without a permit," Yakubik said.

Some of the remains are being stored and analyzes at Louisiana State University, and other items are being washed, processed and analyzed inside a lab where Yakubik and her team hope to uncover some of the city's lost secrets.

"It's pretty neat uncovering something from the 1700s."

Source: KFVS [November 11, 2011]

Ancient petroglyph in Keewenaw Penninsula vandalised

Four thousand years ago ancient peoples gathered on the shores of the Great Lakes. The waters from melting glaciers made the beaches many feet above the current level of Lake Superior.

Raven on female figure destroyed [Credit: Jo Lorichan]

On the cliffs of the Keewenaw Penninsula a long lava extrusion sticks out on this ancient shoreline. Scatterred across the rock are lithic carvings of unknown antiquity.

Some are of superb quality while others challenge the beliefs of 20th Century archaeology.

Modern diffussionist studies suggest evidence that presents differring views of man's past accomplishments.

Often primitives were thought unable to achieve some task, only to prove a better understanding than modern man of the complexities involved.

Prejudices based on race, religion, or culture can blind us to the inherent abilities of all humans throughout time and around the world.

Photo of petroglyph as it originally was [Credit: Judy Johnson]

Viewing others through the lens of one own's culture can distort the reality of what is going on.

This could be the reason for criminal acts taking place at one site in the area. A figure referred to as 'the Birdwoman' consisted of an anthropomorphic female shape with the recognizable figure of a crow standing atop the neck.

Jeff Savage, curator of the Fon du Lac Tribal museum, is certain the triangluar figure represents a woman, while Old World epigraphers identify the distinctive design as Tanit, a Carthaginian war goddess known in other ancient cultures as Ishtar and Astarte.

Other shapes; a hand, crossed circle, and various straight and curved lines, in close proximity, were untouched. The bird, as shown in the second picture, was completely destroyed.

Author: Charles Bruns | Source: Examiner [November 10, 2011]

Palaeontologists develop new way to find new dig sites

National science journals are putting the spotlight on two Western Michigan University professors for discovering a new way to predict where fossils are hidden.

University of Michigan graduate student in Anthropology Craig Wuthrich at the 2009 fossil site in the Great Divide Basin in Wyoming [Credit: Robert Anemone]

Traditionally, finding fossils is a "serendipitous and intuitive" event that comes with lots of reading and luck.

Paleontologist and WMU anthropology professor Robert Anemone and WMU geography associate professor Charles Emerson said technologies are available and should be used to develop clues about where fossil sites are located.

Their researched method - using a neural network, infrared electromagnetic radiation and satellite imagery - is being recognized as a possible option to help paleontologists prioritize where to spend time and resources out in the field with better results.

Glenn Conroy, an anatomy and anthropology professor at Washington University, was a partner in developing this method.

The professors were invited to present the neural network approach at the Society for Vertebrate Paleontology meeting in Las Vegas last week and were featured in national scientific journals Nature and New Scientist.

Finding fossils

During a field excursion, paleontologists camp out in a region and use their eyeballs and other tools to hunt for fossil treasure.

"We understand the geology of the region and we don't just wander around but in the field it's a lot of intuition," Anemone said. "We want to add a more rigorous, predictive tool and we're trying to pioneer the use of new tools from geographic sciences in the search for fossils."

Anemone has been leading field crews of students and other professionals to the Great Divide Basin in southwestern Wyoming since 1993 to collect mammal bones and fossils from the Paleocene and Eocene eras, 55 to 48 million years ago.

In 2009, Anemone's team took a wrong turn and found themselves in an area of land with recognizable traits or hints of holding fossils. They "crawled around" for an hour and there it was: at least 100 partial mammal jaws with teeth.

It was the greatest find he ever "stumbled upon," he said, with the discovery of one new rodent species and two new species of early primates that roamed the earth 50 million years ago.

He said if the rodent were around today, it'd be some sort of "desert squirrel."

"It's not just history, it's pre-history," he said. "It's the deep past. Fifty million years ago the only way we know what the earth was like and the living inhabitants that existed is by people going out and collecting fossils and studying the geology of the things that were alive."

A better way

After the big find, Anemone said he knew there had to be a better way.

He asked Emerson, who has an extensive knowledge of satellite imagery, to get involved in 2010. They partnered to develop the neural network approach and have been conducting research for the past year.

"We suggest that the geospatial sciences have earned a place in the paleoanthropological tool kit, and that 21st century research must increasingly rely on the kinds of sophisticated spatial analyses that can only come from collaborations with our colleagues in the geographical and geospatial sciences," it says in their study.

While the use of GPS and satellite imagery is not entirely new in the profession, this method goes further by training a neural network - or the software brain - to recognize the characteristics and electromagnetic radiation data of a landscape to project the probability of finding fossils.

By training the network to recognize "the fingerprint" of fruitful fossil sites, they hope it can find more.

New approach

The results are promising, with 85 percent accuracy in the testing stage. Next summer their model will be used to identify where to conduct field research. The results will show if the approach actually increases the number of fossil finds.

Gerald Smith, the curator emeritus in the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, attended the Las Vegas meeting and said the neural network approach has the potential to change the field.

"Some of us spent the day after the meetings looking for new fossil sites without any success, so in the future it's possible that their approach will be an important tool," he said.

For Anemone, more fossils means more research.

"In the time we are working with - 50 million years ago - there was a major event of global warming," he said. "The earth's climate was warmer than what it had ever been, so we are interested in the effects of climate change in the past on living things so we better prepare for climate change today by seeing the past events."

But, they have to find the fossils first.

Author: Ursula Zerilli | Source: The Kalamazoo Gazette [November 12, 2011]

Turkey pushes for return of Sion Treasure

The Antalya Museum in southern Turkey is hoping to get back the rest of Sion Treasure from the Dumbarton Oaks Institute in Washington, D.C.

Turkey is hoping to get back the rest of Sion Treasure from Washington. The reasure is currently at the Dumbarton Oaks Institute in Washington, D.C. [Credit: AA]

The museum’s director, Mustafa Demirel, told Anatolia news agency on Wednesday that Dumbarton Oaks had a part of the Sion Treasure, adding that the Antalya Museum owned the main part of the treasure.

Recently, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts returned the top half of the Weary Heracles, Greek for Hercules, to the Antalya Museum. Turkey said the top piece was stolen from an archaeological site in Turkey in 1980 and smuggled to the U.S. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan flew the 1,900-year-old statue back with him at the end of a trip to the U.S. in September.

The Sion Treasure was found by a villager by accident in Kumluca town in Antalya province in 1963. The treasure, which was later smuggled abroad, was named from an inscription on an oblong “polycandelon” (multiple-lamp holder) mentioning

“Holy Sion,” possibly the church or the monastery for which the objects were intended. The monastery of Holy Sion was near present-day Kumluca. The museum director said that the Antalya Museum was located on an area of 30,000 square meters, and 60,000 artifacts were registered in the museum.

The Elmalı coins, which were returned to Turkey in 1999 after being smuggled abroad in 1984 and top half of 1,800-year-old Roman sculpture Weary Herakles, which was returned from the U.S. Sept. 25 , are on display at the Antalya Archaeology Museum.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News [November 09, 2011]

Workers discover extinct pig during excavation

A ancient revelation surfaced in the morning light last week at the Pantex Plant. Construction workers were excavating the site of a new high explosive pressing facility and decided to call it a day.

A worker brushes away dirt to uncover bones embedded at the construction site of a high explosive pressing facility at the Pantex Plant [Credit:: Amarillo]

When the crew came back in the morning, they saw fragments of a prehistoric pig staring back at them.

Don Lankford, a project contractor, said the bones were embedded about 8 feet down in the walls of the excavation.

“If we’d have taken another bucket of dirt out of the wall of that pit, we’d have never known they (the bones) were there,” Lankford said.

“The next morning, the light was hitting the bones just right, and one of the workers spotted them.”

He said the massive excavator bucket would certainly have destroyed the bone fragments if it had taken another chunk out of the wall.

Dr. Gerald Schultz, a geology professor at West Texas A&M University, identified the bones as belonging to a Platygonus, an extinct prehistoric pig related to a modern javelina.

Platygonus became extinct at least 11,000 years ago, but the bones could be as old as 23 million years old, Schultz said.

Monica Graham, the Pantex Plant’s historian, teamed with a wildlife biologist and a geologist to excavate the bones, said B&W Pantex spokesman Bill Cunningham.

Author: Bobby Cervantes | Source: Amarillo [November 04, 2011]

Archaeological finds in northern Minnesota may rewrite history

Exciting archaeological finds recently near northern Minnesota’s Knife Lake may rewrite the books on how long human beings have lived not only in Minnesota, but much of North America.

Paleo-Indians enjoyed some really good hunting [Credits: Wikipedia]

Knife Lake straddles the border between Canada and Minnesota, with Quetoco Provincial Park to the north, and the famous Boundary Waters on the U.S. side. Professor Mark Muniz of St. Cloud State and fellow researches have been digging around there, and what they have found is fairly amazing if their dating holds up.

Flint-stone tools found in this area which may date from 11,000 to 12,500 years ago would indicate all kinds of things – including the fact that the glacier that once existed in this area may have receded earlier than thought, or at least that this area became inhabitable much earlier than thought possible.

If there were Paleo-Indians in the Knife River area between 11,000 and 12.500 years ago, that would be hundreds, if not thousands of years after other humans first left signs of inhabiting the southern part of Minnesota.

The Knife River area was covered by glacier during the previous global ice age. The glaciers began to recede starting some 15,000 years ago. But the melted ice left behind a massive ancient inland sea, which is called Lake Agassiz today. The area where the Knife Lake artifacts have been uncovered should have been covered with water, or at least not recovered enough from being scourered by the receding glacier

Even so, to find evidence that Paleo-Indians were making stone tools here, and most likely living and hunting, is really pushing the limits of when this was thought possible. The flint-stone tools found by Muniz will now undergo intense, high-tech dating procedures – although the style of the tools themselves already indicate they may be far older than 10,000 years.

Author: Ken Korczak | Source: Examiner [October 04, 2011]

Americans using more fossil fuels

American energy use went back up in 2010 compared to 2009, when consumption was at a 12-year low. The United States used more fossil fuels in 2010 than in 2009, while renewable electricity remained approximately constant, with an increase in wind power offset by a modest decline in hydroelectricity. There also was a significant increase in biomass consumption, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Wind power jumped from .70 quadrillion BTU, or quads, in 2009 to .92 quads in 2010. (A BTU or British Thermal Unit is a unit of measurement for energy and is equivalent to about 1.055 kilojoules) Most of that energy is tied directly to electricity generation and thus helps decrease the use of coal for electricity production. Biomass energy consumption rose from 3.88 quads to 4.29 quads. That increase was driven by ethanol use as a transportation fuel and a feedstock for industrial production. (The apparent decline in geothermal energy use is due to an accounting change by the Energy Information Administration.)

"We are still seeing the capacity additions from a wind energy boom come online," said. A.J. Simon, an LLNL energy systems analyst who develops the flow charts using data provided by the Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration. "And renewable fuel mandates are driving the consumption of ethanol by cars and trucks."

Overall, U.S. energy use in 2010 equaled 98 quads compared to the 94.6 quads used in 2009. Most of the energy was tied to coal, natural gas and petroleum.

Energy use in the residential, commercial, industrial and transportation arenas all rose as well.

The majority of energy use in 2010 was used for electricity generation (39.49 quads), followed by transportation, industrial, residential and commercial consumption. "This is just a snapshot of how the energy system was used," Simon said. "Although it doesn't appear to change much from year-to-year, even small shifts can have big consequences for certain sectors of our economy."

As in previous years, coal was the major player in producing electricity, with nuclear and natural gas coming in second and third, respectively. But natural gas consumption by the electric sector grew 0.5 quads this year, driven by consistently low natural gas prices. Over the past six years, gas use in the electric sector has increased 25 percent.

Petroleum fuels continue to dominate the transportation sector.

Though carbon emissions in 2010 were higher than they were in 2009, Americans' carbon footprint has decreased over the past few years. The U.S. emitted 5,632 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2010, up from 5,428 in 2009, but down from the all time high of 6,022 in 2007. The decrease is due primarily to reduced energy consumption, but aided by a shift from coal to natural gas in the electric sector and adoption of renewable energy resources.

One metric ton of CO2 emissions is equivalent to 37.8 propane cylinders used for home barbecues or 2.1 barrels of oil consumed, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Author: Anne M Stark | Source: DOE/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory [November 09, 2011]

Texas drought reveals historic treasures

All across Texas, the bones of history lie in watery graves. From the ribs of sunken ships to the grave sites of prehistoric Texans, uncounted treasures abound beneath the surface of rivers and lakes. For state archaeologists, these sites are untapped treasures — hard to reach but relatively protected.

A ship in deep South Texas periodically appears above the water. Many other sunken ships could be seen again as Texas' rivers and lakes dry up [Credit: The Texas Historical Commission/Texas Historical Commission]

But now, with the state in the grip of devastating drought, such sites are emerging from receding waters and — for the first time in years, experts worry — becoming vulnerable to looters and vandals.

Since midsummer, the Texas Historical Commission, which oversees such locations, has on average learned of a newly exposed site each month, said Pat Mercado-Allinger, the agency's archaeology director.

Among the sites are four cemeteries, including an apparent slave burial ground in Navarro County, southeast of Dallas. In Central Texas, fishermen recovered a human skull thought to be thousands of years old.

An unspecified number of additional sites have emerged from waters overseen by the Lower Colorado River Authority. An agency spokeswoman refused to discuss details, saying that even divulging the number of newly exposed sites could induce the unscrupulous to search out and pilfer them.

East Texas waterways shroud dozens of sunken vessels, from early Texas ferries to steamboats and World War I-era cargo ships. While most of these craft probably remain underwater, their appearance above water could occur at any time, said state nautical archaeologist Amy Borgens.

Such sites, most of which were submerged before Texans became appreciative of archaeological treasures, can be vital in helping researchers fill the gaps of state history, Mercado-Allinger said.

“In many ways, this is the only way we can learn about these times and the people who came before us,” she said. “I would hope that people who might encounter any archeological sites ... would consider the damage they might do.”

Mercado-Allinger urged those making such discoveries, which are protected under the Texas Antiquities Code, to contact the historical commission's Austin office. Looting or vandalizing such sites can bring penalties of up to 30 days in jail and a $1,000 fine per offense.

Thus far, the historical commission has received no definitive reports of sites being looted or damaged. Under normal circumstances, they would be safely submerged. But with most of the state in the throes of what the U.S. Drought Monitor calls an “exceptional” drought, which is the worst category in its five-level rating system, that situation is likely to change.

Water levels of East Texas rivers are well below normal; earlier this year, the Neches was at its lowest point in 90 years.

Borgens said that as many as 300 shipwrecks litter Texas rivers and river mouths. Only 13 have been investigated. While many of the vessels likely were stripped of machinery and artifacts before they sank, a few could provide tantalizing clues to an era when commerce moved by water.

“Many of these are significant because their construction was unique or they were built regionally,” she said.

They also can shed light on now-vanished communities they served.

“It's kind of both an opportunity and a misfortune,” Mercado-Allinger said of receding levels on lakes and rivers. “It does give us an opportunity to view these resources, but we don't have the (financial) resources to deal with them. The historical commission is working with other partners out there to help accomplish these tasks.”

At a very basic level, she said, her agency is trying to facilitate exhumations from submerged graveyards, with reburial of occupants in perpetual care cemeteries.

“It all depends on how much is exposed, where it's exposed and what's happening to it,” she said. “It may be that one option is just to let the water cover them again.”

Author: Allan Turner | Source: My San Antonio [November 06, 2011]

16th century Spanish artifacts unearthed in Georgia, USA

Under a former Native American village in Georgia, deep inside what's now the U.S., archaeologists say they've found 16th-century jewelry and other Spanish artifacts.

Glass beads found during Glass Site dig in southern Georgia [Credit: Dan Schultz, Fernbank Museum of Natural History]

The discovery suggests an expedition led by conquistador Hernando de Soto ventured far off its presumed course—which took the men from Florida to Missouri—and engaged in ceremonies in a thatched, pyramid-like temple.

The discovery could redraw the map of de Soto's 1539-41 march into North America, where he hoped to replicate Spain's overthrow of the Inca Empire in South America. There, the conquistador had served at the side of leader Francisco Pizarro.

A continent and five centuries away, an excavation organized by Atlanta's Fernbank Museum of Natural History found buried glass beads, iron tools, and brass and silver ornaments dating to the mid-1500s. The southern-Georgia location—where they'd been searching for a 17th-century Spanish mission—came to be called the Glass Site.

"For an Indian in the South 500 years ago, things like glass beads and iron tools might as well have been iPhones," said project leader Dennis Blanton, an independent archaeologist who until recently was Fernbank's staff archaeologist.

"These were things that were just astonishing to them. They were made of materials that were unknown and were sometimes in brilliant blue and red colors that were unmatched in the native world."

Blanton called the finding a "stunning surprise." Prior to the discovery, it had been generally accepted that de Soto and his men had crossed a river about 100 miles (160 kilometers) upstream of the site, but archaeologists hadn't suspect that the expedition had ventured so far south and east.

The trove of items—all of which could fit into a shoe box – represents the largest collection of early 16th-century Spanish artifacts ever found in the U.S. interior outside of Florida, according to Blanton, whose work was funded in part by the National Geographic Society's Committee for Research and Exploration. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)

Quid Pro Quo?

Excavations by Blanton's team suggest a large building with a thatched, pyramid-shaped roof once stood at the Glass Site. The structure was surrounded by a ditch, contained a large central hearth, and may have served as an important ceremonial center or temple.

The concentration of Spanish artifacts at the Glass Site suggests de Soto may have participated in a gift-exchange ceremony with the town's chief and other leaders. It's not known what the Spaniards would have received in return, but they commonly asked for food, information, free passage, baggage carriers, and perhaps female company, Blanton said.

By comparing the archaeological results with journal accounts by the Spanish party, Blanton and his team think the Glass Site was an important village in a province ruled by the Ichisi Indians. The team also believes de Soto and his men stayed there between March 30 and April 2, 1540, according to journals.

The Man Who Fell to Earth

De Soto's party consisted of more than 600 men and hundreds of pigs and horses—animals that many of the Indians had never seen before.

"There are accounts in the chronicles of how Indians at first imagined the mounted men to constitute a single creature," Blanton said.

To encourage cooperation among the Indians and avoid conflict, de Soto sometimes claimed to be a god.

"De Soto took advantage of the fact that the Indians revered the sun and even at Ichisi made the claim to be descended from it," Blanton said.

By 1540 rumors of an "alien people" had already spread among Native Americans in southeastern North America, but few Indians would have encountered any Europeans in the flesh, he said.

"A de Soto encounter would have been for most, if not all, of the people at the Glass Site a wholly new—and undoubtedly startling—experience," Blanton said.

The fact that there is no evidence of mass killing or vandalism at the Glass Site suggests de Soto and his men were treated well during their stay, he added. And in fact Spanish journal records say the Spaniards were lavished with food and hospitality at an Ichisi village, which Blanton suspects was the Glass Site settlement.

This wasn't always the case.

"The Spaniards often treated the Natives very badly, and when the local people did not accede to their demands, de Soto would usually take the local leader hostage until he got his way," said Jeffrey Mitchem, a de Soto scholar with the Arkansas Archeological Survey, who was not involved in the discoveries.

"Usually their demands for food and young women wore out their welcome very quickly," Mitchem said, "so the natives were almost always trying to make them leave as rapidly as possible."

"Even More Spectacular" Than Thought?

Mitchem agreed that the discoveries support the idea that de Soto and his men camped for several days at the Glass Site.

"Many of the specific types of artifacts that have been found at [Glass Site] are the same types recovered from other sites that were contacted by the Hernando de Soto expedition," he said.

The new discoveries will not only help refine de Soto's expedition route, but could also provide valuable insight into how American Indian groups were organized in particular areas.

"As we identify specific Native American towns or villages described in the narratives, we can then look at what the Spanish narratives tell us about the political situation in those specific areas," Mitchem said.

The team has also explored another Georgia Indian site, called Deer Run, but the case for a de Soto encounter there is less conclusive, Blanton said.

While a visit by de Soto's party is the most likely explanation for the artifacts found at the Glass Site, Blanton says there may be another explanation: that the items were left by deserters of the lost Spanish colony of Ayllon. The settlement is known only from writings, and some scholars have proposed it was located on the Georgia coast.

Though it's unlikely that the bead site harbored lost colonists, Blanton said, "if that proves to be true, then the Glass Site record is arguably even more spectacular."

Author: Ker Than | Source: National Geographic News [November 01, 2011]

Oviraptor dinosaurs used feathery tail to attract potential mates

Oviraptor dinosaurs may have waved their flexible tail feathers, in a way that resembles the habits of a modern-day peacock, to attract potential mates, a new study has suggested.

Oviraptor philocerataps [Credit: Andrews, 1924]

The dinosaur lived in the late Cretaceous Period, about 75 million years ago and got its name, Latin for "egg thief", because the first specimen was found near a clutch of eggs as if the beast were stealing them, but it was later revealed that the eggs were likely its own.

Scott Persons from the University of Alberta began studying the tails of various species of Oviraptor as part of a larger study on the tails of all theropods, a group of dinosaurs related closely to modern-day birds.

According to him, the dinosaurs have unusually compact, flexible tails, and combined with a fan of feathers attached to the tail's end, this would have enabled Oviraptor to put on a show similar to that of a modern-day peacock.

"The tail of an Oviraptor by comparison to the tail of most other dinosaurs is pretty darn short," Persons said.

"But it's not short in that it's missing a whole bunch of vertebrae, it's short in that the individual vertebra within the tail themselves are sort of squashed together. So they're densely packed," he said.

The dense bone arrangement would have made the tails especially flexible, like a person's spine with its many bone junctions can move more sinuously than an arm, which has only a couple of joints.

The study also suggests that oviraptorids had particularly muscular tails, and fossil impressions reveal that they also came equipped with a fan of feathers at the end of their tails, attached to a hunk of fused vertebrae not unlike those found in the tails of modern-day birds.

"If you combine that with having a muscular, very flexible tail, what you have is a tail that could, potentially at least, have been used to flaunt, to wave that tail-feather fan," Persons said.

"If you think about things like peacocks, they often use their tails in courtship displays," he added.

Source: New Kerala [November 06, 2011]

Anthropologist discusses iron coffin discovery

Halloween may be over, but some of us still have cadavers, coffins and mummies on our minds. Last night, the Spurlock Museum welcomed David Hunt to the Dr. Allan C. Campbell Family Distinguished Speaker Series. Hunt is the collections manager of the physical anthropology division at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

David Hunt examines the iron coffin [Credit: Taylor Odisho/The Daily Illini]

At the presentation, Hunt discussed his most recent project that dealt with the excavation of an iron coffin. The coffin was found accidentally by construction workers who were digging out a pipeline. With Hunt’s expertise in the field, detectives asked him what steps should be taken with the coffin. So began Hunt’s research.

“It’s a fascinating area of research in looking at iron coffins because if the coffin has remained sealed, the body is very preserved,” Hunt said. “Its flesh is still supple and you can move it and do histology, so it gives you the opportunity to study an individual who comes from 100 to 150 years ago.”

The process of identifying the body has been long. After taking DNA samples from the boy, Hunt had to identify who he was. Experts from the museum scoured obituaries for a boy age 14 to 17 between the years 1850 and 1854. Of the four matches they found, DNA from one group of descendants matched the boy’s. He was identified as William White. White was born around 1837 in Accomack County, Penn., and died in 1852 from pneumonia.

The descendant Hunt found was a woman named Linda Dwyer, White’s great-great grandniece.

Jazmin Martin-Billups, junior in LAS, found Hunt’s presentation to be very informative.

“The genealogy … was really cool,” Martin-Billups said. “It’s really nice to see things so far away get connected with the present.”

White’s family held a memorial service for the boy before turning over his body and the coffin to the Smithsonian Institution.

Nathan Banion, senior in LAS, initially went to the presentation for anthropology extra credit but came out with a new appreciation for the field.

“I’ve actually come to a few Spurlock speakers before, and they’re always really interesting,” Banion said.

Hunt said the best part of the project was educating White’s family.

“The true greatness of it was the fact that we were able to reassociate a boy with this family, granted it was 150 years later,” Hunt said. “He was sort of a lost-and-then-found-again story.”

Author: Taylor Odisho | Source: The Daily Illini [November 02, 2011]