SYDNEY: A new theory explains why tectonic plates move at different rates and solves other long-standing problems in Earth sciences, Australian scientists said. The rate at which tectonic plates move depends on the width of its associated subduction zone – a place where two tectonic plates meet, and the thicker plate is pushed under […]
Archive for May, 2013
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Hearing the Russian Meteor, in America: Sound Arrived in 10 Hours, Lasted 10 More
May 15th, 2013 
Riffin How powerful was February’s meteor that crashed into Russia? Strong enough that its explosive entry into our atmosphere was detected almost 6,000 miles away in Lilburn, Ga., by infrasound sensors — a full 10 hours after the meteor’s explosion. A Georgia Tech researcher has modified the signals and made them audible, allowing audiences to “hear” […]
Impact of Sauropod Dinosaurs on Lagoonal Substrates in the Broome Sandstone (Lower Cretaceous), Western Australia
May 14th, 2013 Riffin Existing knowledge of the tracks left by sauropod dinosaurs (loosely ‘brontosaurs’) is essentially two-dimensional, derived mainly from footprints exposed on bedding planes, but examples in the Broome Sandstone (Early Cretaceous) of Western Australia provide a complementary three-dimensional picture showing the extent to which walking sauropods could deform the ground beneath their feet. The patterns of […]
WFS Profiles : William Buckland
May 13th, 2013 Riffin Buckland was born at Axminster in Devon and, as a child, would accompany his father, the Rector of Templeton and Trusham, on his walks where interest in road improvements led to collecting fossil shells, including ammonites, from the Jurassic lias rocks exposed in local quarries. […]
Disparity Changes in 370 Ma Devonian Fossils: The Signature of Ecological Dynamics?
May 12th, 2013 Riffin Early periods in Earth’s history have seen a progressive increase in complexity of the ecosystems, but also dramatic crises decimating the biosphere. Such patterns are usually considered as large-scale changes among supra-specific groups, including morphological novelties, radiation, and extinctions. Nevertheless, in the same time, each species evolved by the way of micro-evolutionary processes, extended over […]
Dusting for Prints from a Fossil Fish to Understand Evolutionary Change
May 11th, 2013 Riffin In 370 million-year-old red sandstone deposits in a highway roadcut, scientists have discovered a new species of armored fish in north central Pennsylvania. Fossils of armored fishes like this one, a phyllolepid placoderm, are known for the distinctive ornamentation of ridges on their exterior plates. As with many such fossils, scientists often find the remains […]
Four New Dinosaur Species Identified
May 10th, 2013 Riffin Just when dinosaur researchers thought they had a thorough knowledge of ankylosaurs, a family of squat, armour plated, plant eaters, along comes University of Alberta graduate student, Victoria Arbour. Arbour visited dinosaur fossil collections from Alberta to the U.K. examining skull armour and comparing those head details with other features of the fossilized ankylosaur remains. […]
‘Lost’ Tectonic Plate Found Beneath California
May 9th, 2013 Riffin A tectonic plate that disappeared under North America millions of years ago still peeks out in central California and Mexico, new research finds. The Farallon oceanic plate was once nestled between the Pacific and North American plates, which were converging around 200 million years ago at what would become the San Andreas fault along the […]
Acrotholus audeti : a New Species of Dinosaur
May 8th, 2013 Riffin Scientists have named a new species of bone-headed dinosaur (pachycephalosaur) from Alberta, Canada. Acrotholus audeti (Ack-RHO-tho-LUS) was identified from both recently discovered and historically collected fossils. Approximately six feet long and weighing about 40 kilograms in life, the newly identified plant-eating dinosaur represents the oldest bone-headed dinosaur in North America, and possibly the world. Dr. […]
Ancient Genetic Data from Black Sea
May 7th, 2013 Riffin When Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine paleoecologist Marco Coolen was mining through vast amounts of genetic data from the Black Sea sediment record, he was amazed about the variety of past plankton species that left behind their genetic makeup (i.e., the plankton paleome). The semi-isolated Black Sea is highly sensitive to climate driven environmental […]
