Flying Dinosaurs - Eudimorphodon

Although it's not nearly as well known as others of its kind, Eudimorphodon holds an important place in paleontology as one of the earliest pterosaurs: this tiny, winged reptile hopped around the shores of Europe a whopping 210 million years ago, during the late Triassic period. Eudimorphodon possessed the wing structure--forelimbs embedded in an extended flap of skin--characteristic of all pterosaurs, as well as a diamond-shaped appendage at the end of its tail that probably helped it to steer or to adjust its course in mid-air. (By the way, despite its name, Eudimorphodon wasn't particularly closely related to Dimorphodon, beyond the fact that they were both pterosaurs.)

_______________________________________________________________
Check out Bob's Dinosaur Blog !

Bob Strauss is a freelance writer and book author; one of his specialties is explaining scientific concepts and discoveries to both a lay and professional audience.

Bob Strauss is the author of two best-selling question-and-answer books that range across the expanse of science, biology, history and culture: The Big Book of What, How and Why (Main Street, 2005) and Who Knew? Hundreds & Hundreds of Questions & Answers for Curious Minds (Sterling Innovation, 2007).

The Grid

It's the largest machine on the planet, linking thousands of power plants to millions of users. Keeping it all in balance are the grid engineers, whose jobs are getting even more complicated by the addition of renewables.

Problems with the fossil fuel economy

Currently, the United States and most of the world is locked into what could be called the fossil fuel economy. Our automobiles, trains and planes are fueled almost exclusively by petroleum products like gasoline and diesel. A huge percentage of our power plants use oil, natural gas and coal for their fuel.

If the flow of fossil fuels to the United States were ever cut off, the economy would come to a halt. There would be no way to transport the products that factories produce. There would be no way for people to drive to work. The whole economy, and in fact the whole of western society, currently depends on fossil fuels.

While fossil fuels have played an important role in getting society to the point it is at today, there are four big problems that fossil fuels create:

Air pollution - When cars burn gasoline, they would ideally burn it perfectly and create nothing but carbon dioxide and water in their exhaust. Unfortunately, the internal combustion engine is not perfect. In the process of burning the gasoline, it also produces:

• Carbon Monoxide, a poisonous gas
• Nitrogen oxides, the main source of urban smog
• Unburned hydrocarbons, the main source of urban ozone

Catalytic converters eliminate much of this pollution, but they aren't perfect. Air pollution from cars and power plants is a real problem in big cities.

It is bad enough now that, in the summer, many cities have dangerous levels of ozone in the air.

Environmental pollution - The process of transporting and storing oil has a big impact on the environment whenever something goes wrong.

Supertankers being loaded with oil in Saudi Arabia

An oil spill, pipeline explosion or well fire can create a huge mess. The Exxon Valdez spill is the best known example of the problem, but minor spills happen constantly.

Global warming - When you burn a gallon of gas in your car, you emit about 5 pounds (2.3 kg) of carbon into the atmosphere. If it were solid carbon, it would be extremely noticeable -- it would be like throwing a 5-pound bag of sugar out the window of your car for every gallon of gas burned. But because the 5 pounds of carbon comes out as an invisible gas, carbon dioxide, most of us are oblivious to it. The carbon dioxide coming out of every car's tailpipe is a greenhouse gas that is slowly raising the temperature of the planet. The ultimate effects are unknown, but it is a strong possibility that, eventually, there will be dramatic climate changes that affect everyone on the planet. For example, if the ice caps melt, sea level will rise significantly, flooding and destroying all coastal cities in existence today. That's a big side effect.

Dependence - The United States, and most other countries, cannot produce enough oil to meet demand, so they import it from oil-rich countries. That creates an economic dependence. When Middle East oil producers decide to raise the price of oil, the rest of the world has little choice but to pay the higher price.

Learn More Here

How Dinosaurs Work

by Tracy V. Wilson

Dinosaur Image Gallery This theropod is part of the Evolving Planet exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. See more dinosaur pictures.

Getty Images

Most people don't have to travel too far to find some kind of dinosaur exhibit. In addition to touring shows like "Walking with the Dinosaurs," there are museums with dinosaur displays all over the world. But if you want to get a really good look at a dinosaur, you may not have to travel at all. Simply look at any bird you can see outside your home.

The prevailing scientific view is that whether you're seeing a hummingbird, a robin, a flamingo or an ostrich, you're seeing a descendant of dinosaurs. In fact, some scientists go so far as to call birds avian dinosaurs and to call all other dinosaurs non-avian dinosaurs.

­The thought that a giant carnivore like Tyrannosaurus rex has something in common with an ordinary wren might seem foreign or even far-fetched. This is especially true since people often descr­ibe dinosaurs as reptiles. But the idea that dinosaurs became birds has been around for more than 100 years. In 1868, Thomas Henry Huxley described evidence that birds evolved from dinosaurs. This is currently the most widely-held scientific theory about the origin of birds, and it's helped shape today's view of dinosaurs as swift and agile instead of plodding and clumsy.

Read More

Finding a Potent New Energy Source by Listening for Earth's Gas Bubbles?

ScienceDaily http://www.sciencedaily.com — What if we could cheaply and efficiently detect a potent new energy source, while also monitoring for environmental safety? Olivier Carrière, a physicist in the Marine Physical Laboratory at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and other researchers are using the symphony of sound produced in the ocean to do just that.

---

When natural gas is released from the seafloor, it produces bubbles; similarly, gas leaking from a pipeline also produces bubbles. Instead of traditional acoustic methods that use active surveys of the ocean floor with sonar or seismic techniques, researchers are developing a revolutionary method that listens for these bubbles passively. If successful, this new advancement could change the way we survey the oceans.

The new passive acoustic techniques allow researchers to listen to the bubbles to identify both gas hydrate deposits -- which could be an energy source or a potential hazard -- and to keep watch over subsea natural gas pipelines.

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Geological Institute.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

Marine Animals that Swam with Dinosaurs

by Tracy V. Wilson

Although they didn't exist during the Mesozoic era, lampreys bear a resemblance to Mesozoic sea life.

Pedre/iStockphoto

Sharks inhabited the world's oceans long before the first dinosaur made its way across the land, and they're among the most well-known oceanic predators today.

Few of today's species are the only remaining examples of long-extinct marine families. Today's hagfish and lampreys bear a resemblance to the now-extinct ostracoderms, which were jawless fish. But the most well-known throwback to Mesozoic marine life may be the coelacanth, the last known marine sarcopterygian. Sarcopterygians were lobe-finned, bony fish. There are plenty of other sarcopterygians in the world, though -- the four-legged, vertebrate tetrapods arose from ancestors that diverged from the sarcopterygians long before the Mesozoic Era.

Read More

Environmental damages remain issue after BP deal

By HARRY R. WEBER, MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

NEW ORLEANS — BP's settlement with plaintiffs suing the company over the 2010 oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico may address harm to individuals and businesses, but there is nothing in it that compensates the public for damage to its natural resources and environment, the Justice Department said Saturday.

That's a potentially critical issue because a separate victims' claims fund that was set up months after the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion was also meant to cover environmental damages, but it's now expected to be used to cover the BP settlement with plaintiffs. BP said it expects to pay out $7.8 billion in the settlement with the plaintiffs that was announced Friday.

It's not clear whether environmental claims will now have to be addressed separately between BP and the U.S. government, or whether it will be rolled up into their ongoing discussions over settling the fines and penalties that the British company faces. Both issues also could be resolved at an eventual civil trial, which has now been postponed indefinitely.

The Justice Department noted that the settlement doesn't address "significant damages" to natural resources and the environment.

Read More