The Evolution of Birds, from Archaeopteryx to the Passenger Pigeon

 

The Thunder Bird, Dromornis (Nobu Tamura)

Perhaps for tourism purposes, Australia has been doing its best to promote the Thunder Bird as the largest prehistoric bird that ever lived, proposing an upper-bound weight for adults of a full half a ton (which would vault Dromornis over Aepyornis in the power ratings) and suggesting that it was even taller than the Giant Moa of New Zealand. Those may be overstatements, but the fact remains that Dromornis was a huge bird, surprisingly not related as much to modern Australian ostriches as to smaller ducks and geese.

Unlike these other giant birds of prehistoric times, which (because of their lack of natural defenses) succumbed to hunting by early human settlers, the Thunder Bird seems to have gone extinct all on its own--perhaps because of climatic changes during the Pliocene epoch that impacted its presumed herbivorous diet.

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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).

Oil In America

It was American geochemist David Keeling who helped make the link between global warming and carbon dioxide emissions.

The Lasting Impact Of Deepwater Horizon

 by Kiley Kroh and Michael Conathan

 

Two years ago an explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico took the lives of 11 men and spewed nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. It took 9,700 vessels, 127 aircraft, 47,829 people, nearly 2 million gallons of toxic dispersants, and 89 days to stop the gush of oil. But the work to restore the ecosystem and Gulf economy has only just begun.

The regional oil and gas industry hasn’t skipped a beat despite claims from Big Oil and drilling advocates in Congress that the moratorium on deepwater drilling imposed in the wake of the spill devastated the Gulf economy. The New Orleans Times-Picayun found that oil-fueled economies in the Houma area are humming along just fine. And according to a recent Reuters analysis, Gulf drillers will be busier this year than at any point since the spill, adding eight new deepwater rigs and bringing the total count to 29, just shy of pre-spill levels.

But even though BP’s slick new ads show sparkling beaches and flourishing marshes, the perception that everything is fine in the Gulf is far from the truth. Last week Garret Graves, top coastal advisor to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, said the state “ still has 200 miles of oiled coast,” including “very clear, retrievable oil in coastal areas,” and called the current conditions “unacceptable.”

While the Obama administration took steps to strengthen offshore drilling safety and oversight, much remains to be done. Tourism in the region has rebounded this year but the Gulf Coast is still struggling with the lingering effects of the spill and will likely continue to do so for decades to come. Here are five reasons the Gulf deserves renewed attention:

Congress’s failure to act

Two years ago the United States spent 89 days battling the single-biggest offshore oil spill in our nation’s history. But Congress hasn’t enacted a single piece of legislation in response.

Fisheries

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the nation’s most productive fishing grounds, providing one-third of all seafood consumed in the United States prior to the spill. But in 2010, at peak response to the oil spill, about 40 percent of Gulf waters were closed to all commercial and recreational fishing—a huge blow to area fishermen, many of whom have yet to rebound.

Beaches

Throughout the spill, BP cleanup crews worked furiously to ensure the majority of oil remained off of area beaches and out of the public eye. Yet the only oil we know was removed for certain was the amount directly recovered from the wellhead—17 percent of the total oil spilled.

Wetlands

Louisiana was home to 40 percent of the continental United States’ wetlands but experienced about 80 percent of all wetlands loss from the 1950s through the middle of the last decade. Wetland loss destroys habitats and removes natural flood protection and environmental services from coastal communities.

The BP oil spill shocked the Gulf Coast’s already compromised ecosystem, which will continue to degrade until comprehensive coastal restoration is undertaken.

Deep-sea death and long-term implications

During the three-month spill, a staggering volume of oil spilled into the Gulf far beneath the surface. We are only beginning to understand the impact that will have on deep-sea health.

Conclusion

Researchers throughout the Gulf Coast emphasize one critical point: It will be a long time before we know the full extent of the oil spill’s damage.

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The Evolution of Birds, from Archaeopteryx to the Passenger Pigeon

Kelenken (Wikimedia Commons)

A close relative of Phorusrhacos--the poster genus for the family of extinct feathered carnivores known as "terror birds"--Kelenken is known only from the remains of a single, oversized skull and a handful of foot bones described in 2007. That's enough for paleontologists to have reconstructed this prehistoric bird as a mid-sized, flightless carnivore of the mid-Miocene forests of Patagonia, although it's as yet unknown why Kelenken had such a huge head and beak (probably it was another means to intimidate the mammalian megafauna of prehistoric South America).

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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).

Whales sensed Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster

Written By Peter Gwynne

A technique that monitors whales through the sounds they emit has answered a key issue raised by the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico two years ago this month.

The sound-monitoring technique revealed that sperm whales retreated from the immediate area around the spill caused by the explosion.

"There's obvious evidence of relocation," said team member Azmy Ackleh, professor and head of mathematics at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

The discovery is important because it provides information about a species almost hunted to extinction for its valuable oil in the 19th century.

Sperm whales are listed as endangered under the terms of the United States Endangered Species Act, and estimates of their population vary between 200,000 and 1.5 million worldwide.

However, said Vassili Papastavrou, lead whale biologist for the International Fund for Animal Welfare who did not work on the study, "sperm whales are difficult animals to count, because they spend so much of their lives beneath the surface. The overall population estimates are so uncertain that it is not possible to determine trends."

The discovery of their relocation also indicates the value of "passive" acoustic technology, which quietly listens for things instead of actively bouncing sounds off objects to find them. This approach, first tried in the 1980s, uses hydrophones mounted on buoys to detect "clicks," the powerful sounds emitted by the sperm whales. The University of Louisiana team, led by Natalia Sidorovskaia, associate professor and chair of the physics department, has extended the technology to localize and track sperm whales and to estimate their populations, and to do the same for other marine mammals, including other types of whales and dolphins.

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Cellulose Energy

The Evolution of Birds, from Archaeopteryx to the Passenger Pigeon

Terror Bird: Adalgalornis

Andalgalornis (John Conway)

As "terror birds"--the oversized, flightless apex predators of Miocene and Pliocene South America--go, Andalgalornis isn't quite as well known as Phorusrhacos or Kelenken. However, you can expect to hear more about this once-obscure predator, because a recent study about the hunting habits of terror birds employed Andalgalornis as its poster genus. It seems that Andalgalornis wielded its large, heavy, pointed beak like a hatchet, repeatedly closing in on prey, inflicting deep wounds with quick stabbing motions, then withdrawing to a safe distance as its unfortunate victim bled to death. What Andalgalornis (and other terror birds) specifically did not do was grasp prey in its jaws and shake it back and forth, which would have placed undue strain on its skeletal structure.


____________________________________________________________________
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).

A Car That Runs on Air?

The Air Car, developed by ex-Formula One engineer Guy N. For Luxembourg-based MDI, uses compressed air to push its engine's pistons and make the car go.

The Air Car, called the "Mini CAT" could cost around 365,757 rupees in India or $8,177 US.
The Mini CAT which is a simple, light urban car, with a tubular chassis, a body of fiberglass that is glued not welded and powered by compressed air. A Microprocessor is used to control all electrical functions of the car. One tiny radio transmitter sends instructions to the lights, turn signals and every other electrical devices on the car. Which are not many.

The temperature of the clean air expelled by the exhaust pipe is between 0-15 degrees below zero, which makes it suitable for use by the internal air conditioning system with no need for gases or loss of power.

There are no keys, just an access card that can be read by the car from your pocket. According to the designers, it costs less than 50 rupees (approx. $1.12 US) per 100 KM, that's about a tenth the cost of a car running on gas. Its mileage is about double that of the most
advanced electric car, a factor that makes it a perfect choice for city motorists. The car has a top speed of 105 KM per hour or 60 mph and would have a range of around 300 km or 185 miles between refuels. Refilling the car will take place at adapted gas stations with special air compressors. A fill up will only take two to three minutes and costs approximately 100 rupees and the car will be ready to go another 300 kilometers.

This car can also be filled at home with it's on board compressor. It will take 3-4 hours to refill the tank, but it can be done while you sleep.

Because there is no combustion engine, changing the 1 liter of vegetable oil is only necessary every 50,000 KM or 30,000 miles. Due to its simplicity, there is very little maintenance to be done on this car.

This Air Car almost sounds too good to be true. We'll see in August. 2012

Gulf dolphins suffer post-oil spill illnesses

A veterinary technician handles a dead bottlenose dolphin, one of many collected along the Gulf of Mexico. Patrick Semansky/AP

In Barataria Bay, La. (located in the northern Gulf of Mexico), bottlenose dolphins are suffering from severe illnesses - the aftermath of the BP oil spill, according to a report by Click Green.

Last summer, marine biologists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration conducted physicals on 32 dolphins from that area. Results show many of them are underweight, anemic, have low blood sugar, and exhibit symptoms of liver and lung disease. Nearly half also have exceptionally low levels of the hormones that typically help with stress-coping, metabolism, and the immune system.

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Edible Biofuels

Edible biofuels, like corn, can be an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuels. iStockphoto/Thinkstock

Taking a sip from a modern car's fuel tank is a bad idea. The gasoline and petroleum-based diesel fuels that power most of the world's automobiles are fairly far removed from anything nutritious, or even safe, to drink.

But that's changing. A growing industry has been investigating fossil-fuel alternatives for decades, and much of their research focuses on biofuels -- petroleum substitutes made from natural plant oils [source: Demirbas]. In some cases, pure, unaltered vegetable oil can power standard diesel engines; after all, Rudolph Diesel originally designed the engine that bears his name in an attempt to give farmers the ability to operate equipment using locally grown fuel.

Details Here