WFS

Formation of sedimentary layers of white clay, Tamilnadu, India

Fossil site for wood fossils, Tamilnadu, India

Fossil site in Kerala, India

Fossil wood park maintained by geological survey of India at Tamilnadu

Cretaceous fossil sites india

Fossils in rack:-Cyad

Fossils in rack:-echiniderms

Fossils in rack:-Rastellum sp

Pre-historic seabed, Cretaceous period

WFS NEWS: Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri shed light on the early evolution of ants

June 8th, 2016

Riffin

Ants comprise one lineage of the triumvirate of eusocial insects and experienced their early diversification within the Cretaceous. The success of ants is generally attributed to their remarkable social behavior. Recent studies suggest that the early branching lineages of extant ants formed small colonies of either subterranean or epigeic, solitary specialist predators.

The vast majority of Cretaceous ants belong to stem-group Formicidae and comprise workers and reproductives of largely generalized morphologies, and it is difficult to draw clear conclusions about their ecology, although recent discoveries from the Cretaceous suggest relatively advanced social levels.

This is a general dorsal view of holotype of new late Cretaceous worker ants Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri.
Credit: Image by WANG Bo

Remarkable exceptions to this pattern of generalized morphologies are ants with bizarre mouthparts in which both female castes have modified heads and bladelike mandibles that uniquely move in a horizontal rather than vertical plane. Haidomyrmecines have puzzled evolutionary biologists as to their specific ecology, with the mandibles apparently acting as traps triggered by sensory hairs in a way distinct from that of modern trap-jaw ants.

Not all ants cooperate in social hunting, however, and some of the most effective predatory ants are solitary hunters with powerful trap jaws. Models of early ant evolution predict that the first ants were solitary specialist predators, but discoveries of Cretaceous fossils suggest group recruitment and socially advanced behavior among stem-group ants.

Dr. WANG Bo of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues describe a new bizarre ant,Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri, from 99 million-year-old Burmese amber that displays a prominent cephalic horn and oversized, scythelike mandibles that extend high above the head. These structures presumably functioned as a highly specialized trap for large-bodied prey. The horn results from an extreme modification of the clypeus hitherto unseen among living and extinct ants, which demonstrates the presence of an exaggerated trap-jaw morphogenesis early among stem-group ants.

Together with other Cretaceous haidomyrmecine ants, the new fossil suggests that at least some of the earliest Formicidae were solitary specialist predators. In addition, it demonstrates that soon after the advent of ant societies in the Early Cretaceous, at least one lineage, the Haidomyrmecini, became adept at prey capture, independently arriving at morphological specializations that would be lost for millions of years after their disappearance near the close of the Mesozoic. The exaggerated condition in the new fossil reveals a proficiency for carriage of large-bodied prey to the exclusion of smaller, presumably easier-to-subdue prey, and highlights a more complex and diversified suite of ecological traits for the earliest ants.

KeY: WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev

WFS NEWS: Underwater ‘lost city’ found to be geological formation

June 6th, 2016

Riffin

Key: WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev

The ancient underwater remains of a long lost Greek city were in fact created by a naturally occurring phenomenon — according to joint research from the University of East Anglia (UK) and the University of Athens (Greece).

When underwater divers discovered what looked like paved floors, courtyards and colonnades, they thought they had found the ruins of a long-forgotten civilization that perished when tidal waves hit the shores of the Greek holiday island Zakynthos.

But new research published today reveals that the site was created by a natural geological phenomenon that took place in the Pliocene era — up to five million years ago.

The ancient underwater remains of a long lost Greek city were in fact created by a naturally occurring phenomenon — according to joint research from the University of East Anglia and the University of Athens (Greece).
Credit: University of Athens

Lead author Prof Julian Andrews, from UEA’s School of Environmental Sciences, said: “The site was discovered by snorkelers and first thought to be an ancient city port, lost to the sea. There were what superficially looked like circular column bases, and paved floors. But mysteriously no other signs of life — such as pottery.”

The bizarre discovery, found close to Alikanas Bay, was carefully examined in situ by the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities of Greece.

Archaeologist Magda Athanasoula and diver Petros Tsampourakis studied the site, together with Prof Michael Stamatakis from the Department of Geology and Geoenvironment at the University of Athens (UoA).

After the preliminary mineralogical and chemical analyses, a scientific research team was formed, composed of UoA and UEA staff.

The research team went on to investigate in detail the mineral content and texture of the underwater formation in minute detail, using microscopy, X-ray and stable isotope techniques.

Prof Andrews said: “We investigated the site, which is between two and five meters under water, and found that it is actually a natural geologically occurring phenomenon.

“The disk and doughnut morphology, which looked a bit like circular column bases, is typical of mineralization at hydrocarbon seeps — seen both in modern seafloor and palaeo settings.

“We found that the linear distribution of these doughnut shaped concretions is likely the result of a sub-surface fault which has not fully ruptured the surface of the sea bed. The fault allowed gases, particularly methane, to escape from depth.

“Microbes in the sediment use the carbon in methane as fuel. Microbe-driven oxidation of the methane then changes the chemistry of the sediment forming a kind of natural cement, known to geologists as concretion.

“In this case the cement was an unusual mineral called dolomite which rarely forms in seawater, but can be quite common in microbe-rich sediments.

“These concretions were then exhumed by erosion to be exposed on the seabed today.

“This kind of phenomenon is quite rare in shallow waters. Most similar discoveries tend to be many hundreds and often thousands of meters deep underwater.

“These features are proof of natural methane seeping out of rock from hydrocarbon reservoirs. The same thing happens in the North Sea, and it is also similar to the effects of fracking, when humans essentially speed up or enhance the phenomena.”

WFS NEWS:Radix carbonica (320 MYO stem-cell fossil)

June 4th, 2016

Riffin

Key: WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev

Scientists at Oxford University have discovered the oldest known population of plant root stem cells in a 320-million-year-old fossil.

The cells, which gave rise to the roots of an ancient plant, were found in a fossilized root tip held in the Oxford University Herbaria.

As well as revealing the oldest plant root stem cells identified to date, the research also marks the first time an actively growing fossilised root has been discovered — in effect, an ancient plant frozen in time.The study is published in the journal Current Biology.

The oldest fossilized remains of an actively growing plant root.Credit: Sandy Hetherington/Oxford University Herbaria

Oxford Plant Sciences PhD student Alexander (Sandy) Hetherington, who made the discovery during the course of his research, said: ‘I was examining one of the fossilised soil slides held at the University Herbaria as part of my research into the rooting systems of ancient trees when I noticed a structure that looked like the living root tips we see in plants today.

‘I began to realise that I was looking at a population of 320 million-year-old plant stem cells preserved as they were growing — and that it was the first time anything like this had ever been found.

‘It gives us a unique window into how roots developed hundreds of millions of years ago.’

Stem cells — self-renewing cells responsible for the formation of multicellular organisms — are located in plants at the tips of shoots and roots in groups called meristems. The 320 million-year-old stem cells discovered in Oxford are different to all those living today, with a unique pattern of cell division that remained unknown until now. That tells us that some of the mechanisms controlling root formation in plants and trees have now become extinct and may have been more diverse than thought.

These roots were important because they comprised the rooting structures of the plants growing in Earth’s first global tropical wetland forests with tall trees over 50m in height and were in part responsible for one of the most dramatic climate change events in history. The evolution of deep rooting systems increased the rate of chemical weathering of silicate minerals in rocks — a chemical reaction that pulled CO2 out of the atmosphere, leading to the cooling of Earth and thus one of the planet’s great ice ages.

The fossils studied during this research are the remains of the soil from the first giant tropical rainforests on Earth. The rock in which the soil is preserved formed in the Carboniferous swamps that gave rise to the coal sources spanning what is now Appalachia to central Europe, including the coal fields in Wales, northern England and Scotland.

Sandy has named the stem-cell fossil Radix carbonica (Latin for ‘coal root’).

Professor Liam Dolan, Head of the Department of Plant Sciences at Oxford University and senior author of the paper, said: ‘These fossils demonstrate how the roots of these ancient plants grew for the first time. It is startling that something so small could have had such a dramatic effect on Earth’s climate.

‘This discovery also shows the importance of collections such as the Oxford University Herbaria — they are so valuable, and we need to maintain them for future generations.’

How geodynamo sustains…

June 2nd, 2016

Riffin

Earth’s magnetic field shields us from deadly cosmic radiation, and without it, life as we know it could not exist here. The motion of liquid iron in the planet’s outer core, a phenomenon called a “geodynamo,” generates the field. But how it was first created and then sustained throughout Earth’s history has remained a mystery to scientists. New work published in Nature from a team led by Carnegie’s Alexander Goncharov sheds light on the history of this incredibly important geologic occurrence.

Our planet accreted from rocky material that surrounded our Sun in its youth, and over time the most-dense stuff, iron, sank inward, creating the layers that we know exist today–core, mantle, and crust. Currently, the inner core is solid iron, with some other materials that were dragged along down during this layering process. The outer core is a liquid iron alloy, and its motion gives rise to the magnetic field.

A better understanding of how heat is conducted by the solid of the inner core and the liquid in the outer core is needed to piece together the processes by which our planet, and our magnetic field, evolved–and, even more importantly, the energy that sustains a continuous magnetic field. But these materials obviously exist under very extreme conditions, both very high temperatures and very intense pressures. This means that their behavior isn’t going to be the same as it is on the surface.

This is an illustration of how the diamond anvil cell is used to mimic and study planetary core conditions.
Credit: Stewart McWilliams

“We sensed a pressing need for direct thermal conductivity measurements of core materials under conditions relevant to the core,” Goncharov said. “Because, of course, it is impossible for us to reach anywhere close to Earth’s core and take samples for ourselves.”

The team used a tool called a laser-heated diamond anvil cell to mimic planetary core conditions and study how iron conducts heat under them. The diamond anvil cell squeezes tiny samples of material in between two diamonds, creating the extreme pressures of the deep Earth in the lab. The laser heats the materials to the necessary core temperatures.

Using this kind of lab-based mimicry, the team was able to look at samples of iron across temperatures and pressures that would be found inside planets ranging in size from Mercury to Earth–345,000 to 1.3 million times normal atmospheric pressure and 2,400 to 4,900 degrees Fahrenheit–and study how they propagate heat.

They found that the ability of these iron samples to transmit heat matched with the lower end of previous estimates of thermal conductivity in Earth’s core–between 18 and 44 watts per meter per kelvin, in the units scientists use to measure such things. This translates to predictions that the energy necessary to sustain the geodynamo has been available since very early in the history of Earth.

“In order to better understand core heat conductivity, we will next need to tackle how the non-iron materials that went along for the ride when iron sunk to the core affect these thermal processes inside of our planet,” Goncharov added.

Ref: Zuzana Konôpková, R. Stewart McWilliams, Natalia Gómez-Pérez, Alexander F. Goncharov. Direct measurement of thermal conductivity in solid iron at planetary core conditions. Nature, 2016; 534 (7605): 99 DOI: 10.1038/nature18009

Citation: Carnegie Institution for Science. “Just what sustains Earth’s magnetic field anyway?.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 June 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160601141512.htm.

Key: WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev

WFS News:Searching for Moondust

June 1st, 2016

Riffin

NASA needs more moon dust. And not just a few sterile baggies of moon dust. NASA engineers need tons of it – or a suitable simulant.

NASA has lots of new plans for lunar gadgets and lunar equipment, given the new plans to return to the Moon. Since we’ve been there before, and we’ve gathered samples, we know what a problem moondust can be.

The lunar soil (or regolith) covering the Moon’s surface is a complex material that is sharp and abrasive – with interlocking glass shards and fragments. It is a powdery grit that gets into everything, jamming moving parts and abrading spacesuit fabrics. It can also get into living spaces, where it is impossible to brush off, due to ease with which lunar dust picks up electrostatic charges. And can even irritate the lungs of astronauts. Astronaut Jack Schmitt had a case of “lunar dust hay fever” during his stay on the Moon.

Seeing small areas of the Moon at 50 cm per pixel often presents unexpected views, and sometimes it is hard to interpret the geology at first glance, much less what is up and what is down! What are the white streaks? How did they get there? Image is 600 meters wide, from NAC frame M109624226L [NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University].

For testing purposes, noting else will do. And supplies of the real thing, brought back during the Apollo program, have run out. “We don’t have enough real moondust to go around,” says Larry Taylor, director of Planetary Geosciences Institute at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. To run all the tests, “we need to make a well-qualified lunar simulant.”

An early substitute, JSC-1, was developed in 1993. It consisted of basaltic volcanic cinder cone deposits from a quarry near Flagstaff, AZ. It’s replacement, JSC-1a, comes in three different varieties based on grain size: fine, moderate grain and coarse grain. Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) is working on three new simulants that will provide fake moondust from three different lunar areas; two will represent mare and polar highlands regions, while the third will represent the sharp, glassy, jagged regolith that is the worst that the Moon has to offer.

The Moon offers too many distinct varieties of regolith to economically simulate each one.

We will develop root simulants and manufacture specific simulants from these, but also enable investigators to enhance the products as needed,” Carol McLemore, program manager at MSFC, stated. “I liken this process to baking a cake: depending on the type of cake you want, you need certain ingredients for it to come out right and taste right. Getting the recipe right whether for a cake or lunar simulants is critical.”

Source materials for simulants will probably come from many diverse locations in Montana, Arizona, Virginia, Florida and Hawaii. For example, the mare simulant will use ilmenite, a crystalline iron-titanium oxide. Once NASA understands how to make the simualants, and determines the best composition, certification procedures for vendors will ensure that fake moondust meets NASA standards.

More lunar dust news:

Skiing That Soft Lunar Powder
Skiing on the moon? Heinlein thought you could do it, and so do the Apollo astronauts.
Lunar Dust Fountains Due To Electrostatic Charges
Science fiction author Hal Clement predicted in a 1956 short story that electrostatically charged lunar dust particles might actually suspend themselves above the surface:
Moon Dust Substrate For Solar Panels
Simulated moon dust has been used to make the substrate of a solar cell.

Key: WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev

WFS News: Sclerocormus parviceps reveal rapid evolution after mass extinction ?

May 28th, 2016

Riffin

Two hundred and fifty million years ago, life on earth was in a tail-spin–climate change, volcanic eruptions, and rising sea levels contributed to a mass extinction that makes the death of the dinosaurs look like child’s play. Marine life got hit hardest–96% of all marine species went extinct. For a long time, scientists believed that the early marine reptiles that came about after the mass extinction evolved slowly, but the recent discovery of a strange new fossil brings that view into question.

In a paper published in Scientific Reports, paleontologists describe a new marine reptile, Sclerocormus parviceps, an ichthyosauriform that’s breaking all the rules about what ichthyosaurs are like.

This is Sclerocormus parviceps, the newly described marine reptile.Credit: Copyright Da-yong Jiang

Ichthyosaurs were a massive group of marine reptiles that lived around the time of the earliest dinosaurs. Most of them looked a little bit like today’s dolphins–streamlined bodies, long beak-like snouts, and powerful tail fins. But the new species is something of a black sheep. It has a short snout (its species name even means “small skull”), and instead of a tail with triangular flukes (think of a fish’s tail-fins), it had a long, whip-like tail without big fins at the end. And while many ichthyosaurs had conical teeth for catching prey,Sclerocormus was toothless and instead seems to have used its short snout to create pressure and suck up food like a syringe. In short, it’s really different from most of its relatives, and that tells scientists something important about evolution.

“Sclerocormus tells us that ichthyosauriforms evolved and diversified rapidly at the end of the Lower Triassic period,” explains Olivier Rieppel, The Field Museum’s Rowe Family Curator of Evolutionary Biology. “We don’t have many marine reptile fossils from this period, so this specimen is important because it suggests that there’s diversity that hasn’t been uncovered yet.”

The way this new species evolved into such a different form so quickly sheds light on how evolution actually works. “Darwin’s model of evolution consists of small, gradual changes over a long period of time, and that’s not quite what we’re seeing here. These ichthyosauriforms seem to have evolved very quickly, in short bursts of lots of change, in leaps and bounds,” says Rieppel.

Animals like Sclerocormus that lived just after a mass extinction also reveal how life responds to huge environmental pressures. “We’re in a mass extinction right now, not one caused by volcanoes or meteorites, but by humans,” explains Rieppel. “So while the extinction 250 million years ago won’t tell us how to solve what’s going on today, it does bear on the evolutionary theory at work. How do we understand the recovery and rebuilding of a food chain, of an ecosystem? How does that get fixed, and what comes first?”

This study was conducted by scientists at Peking University, University of California, Davis, the Anhui Geological Museum, the Università degli Studi di Milano, The Field Museum, National Museums Scotland, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society

Ref:Da-Yong Jiang, Ryosuke Motani, Jian-Dong Huang, Andrea Tintori, Yuan-Chao Hu, Olivier Rieppel, Nicholas C. Fraser, Cheng Ji, Neil P. Kelley, Wan-Lu Fu & Rong Zhang. A large aberrant stem ichthyosauriform indicating early rise and demise of ichthyosauromorphs in the wake of the end-Permian extinction. Scientific Reports, 2016

WFS NEWS : Impact Crators

May 25th, 2016

Riffin

Impact craters reveal one of the most spectacular geologic process known to human beings. During the past 3.5 billion years, it is estimated that more than 80 bodies, larger than the dinosaur-killing asteroid that struck the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago, have bombarded Earth. However, tectonic processes, weathering, and burial quickly obscure or destroy craters. For example, if Earth weren’t so dynamic, its surface would be heavily cratered like the Moon or Mercury.

The Barringer Meteorite Crater.

Work by B.C. Johnson and T.J. Bowling predicts that only about four of the craters produced by these impacts could persist until today, and geologists have already found three such craters (larger than 170 km in diameter). Their study, published online for Geology on 22 May 2014, indicates that craters on Earth cannot be used to understand Earth’s bombardment history.

Formation of a simple crater. Image Credit: Illustration from an educational poster, Geological Effects of Impact Cratering, David A. Kring, NASA Univ. of Arizona Space Imagery Center, 2006. Modified from a figure in Traces of Catastrophe, Bevan M. French, 1998 – modified from a figure in Impact Cratering on the Earth, Richard A. F. Grieve, Scientific American, v. 262, pp. 66–73, 1990.

Johnson and Bowling write, however, that layers of molten rock blasted out early in the impact process may act as better records of impacts — even after the active Earth has destroyed the source craters. The authors suggest that searches for these impact ejecta layers will be more fruitful for determining how many times Earth was hit by big asteroids than searches for large craters.

Key: WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev

Major earthquake threat from the Riasi fault in the Himalayas ?

May 23rd, 2016

Riffin

New geologic mapping in the Himalayan mountains of Kashmir between Pakistan and India suggests that the region is ripe for a major earthquake that could endanger the lives of as many as a million people.

Scientists have known about the Riasi fault in Indian Kashmir, but it wasn’t thought to be as much as a threat as other, more active fault systems. However, following a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in 2005 on the nearby Balakot-Bagh fault in the Pakistan side of Kashmir — which was not considered particularly dangerous because it wasn’t on the plate boundary — researchers began scrutinizing other fault systems in the region.

Scientist studying the Riasi fault note that the resulting earthquake may be large – as much as magnitude 8.0 or greater (Google Maps)

What they found is that the Riasi fault has been building up pressure for some time, suggesting that when it does release or “slip,” the resulting earthquake may be large — as much as magnitude 8.0 or greater.

Results of the new study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, have been accepted for publication by the Geological Society of America Bulletin, and published online.

“What we set out to learn was how much the fault has moved in the last tens of thousands of years, when it moved, and how different segments of the fault move,” said Yann Gavillot, lead author on the study who did much of the work as a doctoral student at Oregon State University. “What we found was that the Riasi fault is one of the main active faults in Kashmir, but there is a lack of earthquakes in the more recent geologic record.

“The fault hasn’t slipped for a long time, which means the potential for a large earthquake is strong. It’s not a question of if it’s going to happen. It’s a matter of when.”

There is direct evidence of some seismic activity on the fault, where the researchers could see displacement of Earth where an earthquake lifted one section of the fault five or more meters — possibly about 4,000 years ago. Written records from local monasteries refer to strong ground-shaking over the past several thousand years.

But the researchers don’t have much evidence as to how frequent major earthquakes occur on the fault, or when it may happen again.

“The Riasi fault isn’t prominent on hazard maps for earthquake activity, but those maps are usually based more on the history of seismic activity rather than the potential for future events,” said Andrew Meigs, a geology professor in OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and co-author on the study. “In actuality, the lack of major earthquakes heightens the likelihood that seismic risk is high.”

The researchers say 50 percent of the seismic “budget” for the fault can be accounted for with the new information. The budget is determined over geologic time by the movement of the tectonic plates. In that region, the India tectonic plate is being subducted beneath the Asia plate at a rate of 14 millimeters a year; the Riasi fault accounts for half of that but has no records of major earthquakes since about 4,000 years ago, indicating a major slip, and earthquake, is due.

“In the last 4,000 years, there has only been one major event on the Riasi fault, so there is considerable slip deficit,” Meigs said. “When there is a long gap in earthquakes, they have the potential to be bigger unless earthquakes on other faults release the pressure valve. We haven’t seen that. By comparison, there have been about 16 earthquakes in the past 4,000 years in the Cascadia Subduction Zone off the Northwest coast of the United States.”

An anticipated earthquake generated on the Riasi Fault would have a major impact on Jammu. Image-Google Earth

Gavillot said a major earthquake at the Riasi fault could have a major impact on Jammu, the Indian capital of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which has a population of about 1.5 million people. Another 700,000 people live in towns located right on the fault.

“There are also several dams on the Chenab River near the fault, and a major railroad that goes through or over dozens of tunnels, overpasses and bridges,” Gavillot said. “The potential for destruction is much greater than the 2005 earthquake.”

The 2005 Kashmir earthquake killed about 80,000 people in Pakistan and India.

Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society

Citation:Oregon State University. “New study finds major earthquake threat from the Riasi fault in the Himalayas.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 May 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160518133832.htm

Spiclypeus shipporum: New horned dinosaur species with ‘spiked shield’

May 19th, 2016

Riffin

A chance fossil discovery in Montana a decade ago has led to the identification of an audacious new species of horned dinosaur. The international research team that described the plant-eating dinosaur was led by a scientist at the Canadian Museum of Nature. The results are published today in the online science journal PLOS ONE.

The museum now houses the specimen in its national fossil collection, which includes some of the best examples of horned dinosaurs in the world. Museum palaeontologist Dr. Jordan Mallon completed the scientific analysis that pinned down the dinosaur as a new species. It is one among a growing number of newly discovered ceratopsids (four-legged dinosaurs generally characterized by horns on the face and elaborate head frills).

Artist illustration by Mike Skrepnick of Spiclypeus shipporum, a newly described genus and species of horned dinosaur. Here, the dinosaur roams across a floodplain 76 million years ago. The fossil was discovered in 2005 in the Judith River Formation in Montana.
Credit: Illustration by Mike Skrepnick © Mike Skrepnick.

Mallon has bestowed the scientific name Spiclypeus shipporum (spi-CLIP-ee-us ship-OR-um) on the dinosaur, which lived about 76 million year ago.Spiclypeus is a combination of two Latin words meaning “spiked shield,” referring to the impressive head frill and triangular spikes that adorn its margins. The name shipporum honours the Shipp family, on whose land the fossil was found near Winifred, Montana.

About half of the skull, as well as parts of the dinosaur’s legs, hips and backbone had been preserved in the silty hillside that once formed part of an ancient floodplain.

“This is a spectacular new addition to the family of horned dinosaurs that roamed western North America between 85 and 66 million years ago,” explains Mallon, who collaborated with researchers in Canada and the United States. “It provides new evidence of dinosaur diversity during the Late Cretaceous period from an area that is likely to yield even more discoveries.”

Holotype cranial Material and Cranial Reconstruction of Machairoceratops cronusi (UMNH VP 20550) gen. et sp. nov.
Recovered cranial elements of Machairoceratops in right-lateral view, shown overlain on a ghosted cranial reconstruction (A). The jugal, squamosal and braincase are all photo-reversed for reconstruction purposes. Machairoceratops cranial reconstruction in dorsal (B), and right-lateral (C) views. Green circle overlain on the ventral apex of the jugal highlights the size of the epijugal contact scar (ejcs). Abbreviations: BC, braincase; boc, basioccipital; bpt, basipterygoid process; ej, epijugal; ejcs, epijugal contact scar; j, jugal; lpr, lateral parietal ramus; lsb, laterosphenoid buttress; m, maxilla; n, nasal; o, orbit, oc, occipital condyle; oh, orbital horn; on, otic notch; p, parietal; pf, parietal fenestra; pm, premaxilla; po, postorbital; poc, paroccipital process; p1, epiparietal locus p1; sq, squamosal. Scale bars = 0.5 m.

What sets Spiclypeus shipporum apart from other horned dinosaurs such as the well-known Triceratops is the orientation of the horns over the eyes, which stick out sideways from the skull. There is also a unique arrangement to the bony “spikes” that emanate from the margin of the frill–some of the spikes curl forward while others project outward.

“In this sense, Spiclypeus is transitional between more primitive forms in which all the spikes at the back of the frill radiate outward, and those such asKosmoceratops in which they all curl forward,” says Mallon.

While the fossil now has a scientific moniker, it is more commonly known by its nickname “Judith,” after the Judith River geological formation where it was found. Until it was purchased by the museum in 2015, the fossil had remained in the official possession of Dr. Bill Shipp, who found it while exploring his newly acquired property in 2005.

Shipp invested time and money to excavate and prepare the bones, aided by volunteers and palaeontologists including the PLOS ONE study co-authors Chris Ott and Peter Larson. “Little did I know that the first time I went fossil hunting I would stumble on a new species,” explains Shipp, a retired nuclear physicist who became a fossil enthusiast after moving to his dinosaur rich area of Montana. “As a scientist, I’m really pleased that the Canadian Museum of Nature has recognized the dinosaur’s value, and that it can now be accessed by researchers around the world.”

Apart from the horns and frill bones that helped define Judith as a new species, close examination of some of its other bones reveal a story of a life lived with pain. Judith’s upper arm bone (humerus) shows distinct signs of arthritis and osteomyelitis (bone infection)–determined following analysis by Dr. Edward Iuliano, a radiologist at the Kadlec Regional Medical Cener, in Richland, Washington.

“If you look near the elbow, you can see great openings that developed to drain an infection. We don’t know how the bone became infected, but we can be sure that it caused the animal great pain for years and probably made its left forelimb useless for walking,” explains Mallon. Despite this trauma, analysis of the annual growth rings inside the dinosaur’s bones by the Royal Ontario Museum’s Dr. David Evans suggest it lived to maturity. The dinosaur would have been at least 10 years old when it died.

Mallon and his team note that there are now nine well-known dinosaur species (including Spiclypeus shipporum), from Montana’s Judith River Formation. Some are also found in Alberta, which has a much richer fossil record, but others such as Spiclypeus are unique to Montana. Significantly, Mallon says that none of the species are shared with more southerly states, suggesting that dinosaur faunas in western North America were highly localized about 76 million years ago. Mallon’s prior research has shown that such species-rich communities may have been enabled by dietary specializations among the herbivores, a phenomenon more commonly known as niche partitioning.

A public exhibit about Spiclypeus shipporum, will open May 24 at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa. It will include a reconstruction of the dinosaur’s skull, the diseased humerus, and other bones from this amazing fossil find.

Citation:Canadian Museum of Nature. “New horned dinosaur species with ‘spiked shield’.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 May 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160518152908.htm

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev

WFS news: How the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain became so bendy

May 16th, 2016

Riffin

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev

The physical mechanism causing the unique, sharp bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain has been uncovered in a collaboration between the University of Sydney and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).

Led by a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney’s School of Geosciences, researchers used the Southern Hemisphere’s most highly integrated supercomputer to reveal flow patterns deep in the Earth’s mantle — just above the core — over the past 100 million years. The flow patterns explain how the enigmatic bend in the Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain arose.

True to the old adage — as above, so below — the Sydney-US collaboration found the shape of volcanic seamount chains (chains of mostly extinct volcanoes), including Hawaii, is intimately linked to motion near the Earth’s core.

This is a Hawaii-Emperor seamount chain.Credit: University of Sydney

The findings of PhD candidate Rakib Hassan and fellow researchers including Professor Dietmar Müller from the University’s EarthByte Group, are being published in Nature.

Mr Hassan explained: “Until now, scientists believed the spectacular 60° bend in the Hawaiian seamount chain — not found in any other seamount chains — was related to a change in plate motion combined with a change in flow direction in the shallow mantle, the layer of thick rock between the Earth’s crust and its core.

“These findings suggest the shape of volcanic seamount chains record motion in the deepest mantle, near the Earth’s core. The more coherent and rapid the motion deep in the mantle, the more acute its effects are on the shape of seamount chains above,” he said.

Although solid, the mantle is in a state of continuous flow, observable only over geological timescales. Vertical columns of hot and buoyant rock rising through the mantle from near the core are known as mantle plumes. Volcanic seamount chains such as Hawaii were created from magma produced near the surface by mantle plumes. Moving tectonic plates sit above the mantle and carry newly formed seamounts away from the plume underneath — the oldest seamounts in a chain are therefore furthest away from the plume.

“We had an intuition that, since the north Pacific experienced a prolonged phase where large, cold tectonic plates uninterruptedly sank into the mantle, the flow in the deepest mantle there would be very different compared to other regions of the Earth,” Mr Hassan said.

One of the most contentious debates in geoscience has centred on whether piles of rock in the deep mantle — to which plumes are anchored — have remained stationary, unaffected by mantle flow over hundreds of millions of years.The new research shows the shapes of these piles have changed through time and their shapes can be strongly dependent on rapid, coherent flow in the deep mantle.

Between 50-100 million years ago, the edge of the pile under the north Pacific was pushed rapidly southward, along with the base of Hawaii’s volcanic plume, causing it to tilt. The plume became vertical again once the motion of its base stopped; this dramatic start-stop motion resulted in the seamount chain’s sharp bend.

Using Australia’s National Computational Infrastructure’s supercomputer Raijin, the team created high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of mantle evolution over the past 200 million years to understand the coupling between convection in the deep Earth and volcanism.

Mr Hassan said the simulations were guided by surface observations — similar to meteorologists applying past measurements to predict the weather.

“These simulations required millions of central processing unit (CPU) hours on the supercomputer over the course of the project,” he said.

Professor Müller concluded: “Our results help resolve a major enigma of why volcanic seamount chains on the same tectonic plate can have very different shapes.

“It is now clear that we first need to understand the dynamics of the deepest ‘Underworld’, right above the core, to unravel the history of volcanism at Earth’s surface,” said Professor Müller.

Watch the animation here https://youtu.be/Xy5kHjAHXec

Citation:University of Sydney. “How the spectacular Hawaiian-Emperor seamount chain became so bendy.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 11 May 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160511142351.htm