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Categories: Geoscience: Earth Science, Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology
Published Crocodile family tree mapped: New light shed on croc evolution
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Around 250 million years ago, 700 species of reptiles closely related to the modern-day crocodile roamed the earth, now new research reveals how a complex interplay between climate change, species competition and habitat can help explain why just 23 species of crocodile survive today.
Published One of the largest magnetic storms in history quantified: Aurorae covered much of the night sky from the Tropics to the Polar Regions
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international multidisciplinary team consisting of solar physicists, geophysicists, and historians from nine countries analysed observations of an extreme solar-terrestrial storm reported in historical records from February 1872. Their findings confirm that a moderate sunspot group triggered one of the largest magnetic storms ever recorded, almost covering the entire night sky with colourful aurorae in both hemispheres. If such an extreme storm occurred today, it would severely disrupt modern technological infrastructure. Their study emphasizes the importance of looking at historical records in light of modern scientific knowledge.
Published Antarctica's ancient ice sheets foreshadow dynamic changes in Earth's future
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Identifying how and why Antarctica's major ice sheets behaved the way they did in the early Miocene could help inform understanding of the sheets' behavior under a warming climate. Together, the ice sheets lock a volume of water equivalent to more than 50 meters of sea level rise and influence ocean currents that affect marine food webs and regional climates. Their fate has profound consequences for life nearly everywhere on Earth.
Published Decoding past climates through dripstones
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A recent study demonstrates how dripstones can be crucial for reconstructing past climates. The new approach can provide a detailed picture of the climate around early human occupations in South Africa.
Published how far can the wind can carry a plant's seeds? New model
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Playing an essential foundational role in an ecosystem, plants contribute to the well-being of human health by helping create resources like food and medicine. Therefore, to better understand how plants can maintain resiliency in the face of challenges like climate change, researchers recently developed an innovative mathematical model that can provide fast and reliable predictions of how far wind can carry a plant's seeds.
Published Unknown animals were leaving bird-like footprints in Late Triassic Southern Africa
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Ancient animals were walking around on bird-like feet over 210 million years ago, according to a new study.
Published 600 years of tree rings reveal climate risks in California
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The San Joaquin Valley in California has experienced vast variability in climate extremes, with droughts and floods that were more severe and lasted longer than what has been seen in the modern record, according to a new study of 600 years of tree rings from the valley.
Published Landscape dynamics determine the evolution of biodiversity on Earth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A landmark study into the geological timescale distribution of sediment and nutrients over 500 million years shows that species biodiversity on Earth is driven by landscape dynamics.
Published Study gives grandmother gecko a place of honor -- and a new name
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Paleontologists have identified a new fossil lizard, found in the western United States, which they say was an ancestor of modern geckos. And they gave it a name that honors the lead researcher's grandmother and great aunt. The discovery of the new species, which they named Helioscopus dickersonae, suggests that gecko ancestors appeared in North America much earlier than previously known.
Published Commitments needed to solve aviation's impact on our climate
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers could find no simple solution to limiting non-CO2 emissions from aircraft.
Published How shifting climates may have shaped early elephants' trunks
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have provided new insights into how ancestral elephants developed their dextrous trunks. A study of the evolution of longirostrine gomphotheres, an ancestor of the modern day elephant, suggests moving into open-land grazing helped develop their coiling and grasping trunks.
Published Solar activity likely to peak next year
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered a new relationship between the Sun's magnetic field and its sunspot cycle, that can help predict when the peak in solar activity will occur. Their work indicates that the maximum intensity of solar cycle 25, the ongoing sunspot cycle, is imminent and likely to occur within a year.
Published Minimalist or maximalist? The life of a microbe a mile underground
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers characterize nearly 600 microbial genomes collected from goldmine. The study illuminates 'microbial dark matter' residing below the surface. Microbes divide into two groups: minimalists that have one, specialized job or maximalists that are prepared to use any available resource. Study has implications for how underground activities, like mining and carbon storage, could affect or be affected by microbial life. The lifestyle of these 'intraterrestrial' microbes also provides hints to what organisms could be living on other planets.
Published Antarctic glacier retreating rapidly
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists are warning that apparently stable glaciers in the Antarctic can 'switch very rapidly' and lose large quantities of ice as a result of warmer oceans. Their finding comes after glaciologists used satellites to track the Cadman Glacier, which drains into Beascochea Bay, on the west Antarctic peninsula.
Published Slash-and-burn agriculture can increase forest biodiversity, researchers find
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The slash-and-burn agriculture practiced by many Indigenous societies across the world can actually have a positive impact on forests, according to a new study done in Belize. Researchers found that in areas of the rainforest in which Indigenous farmers using slash-and-burn techniques created intermediate-sized farm patches -- neither too small nor too large -- there were increases in forest plant diversity.
Published Giant sea salt aerosols play major role in Hawai'i's coastal clouds, rain
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study from atmospheric scientists revealed that the coastline can produce up to five times the concentration of giant sea salt aerosols compared to the open ocean and that coastal clouds may contain more of these particles than clouds over the open ocean -- affecting cloud formation and rain around the Hawaiian Islands.
Published Sensitive ecosystems at risk from mine waste
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Nearly a third of the world's mine tailings are stored within or near protected conservation areas, new research has found.
Published Deoxygenation levels similar to today's played a major role in marine extinctions during major past climate change event
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have made a surprising discovery that sheds new light on the role that oceanic deoxygenation (anoxia) played in one of the most devastating extinction events in Earth's history. Their finding has implications for current day ecosystems -- and serves as a warning that marine environments are likely more fragile than apparent. New research, published today in leading international journal Nature Geosciences, suggests that oceanic anoxia played an important role in ecosystem disruption and extinctions in marine environments during the Triassic--Jurassic mass extinction, a major extinction event that occurred around 200 million years ago. Surprisingly however, the study shows that the global extent of euxinia (an extreme form of de-oxygenated conditions) was similar to the present day.
Published Was 'witchcraft' in the Devil's Church in Koli based on acoustic resonance? The crevice cave has a unique soundscape
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The national park of Koli in eastern Finland is home to a famous, 34-metre-long crevice cave known as Pirunkirkko, or Devil's Church in English. A new study investigates the acoustics of the Devil's Church and explores whether the acoustic properties of the cave could explain the beliefs associated with it, and why it was chosen as a place for activities and rituals involving sound.
Published Separating out signals recorded at the seafloor
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Research shows that variations in pyrite sulfur isotopes may not represent the global processes that have made them such popular targets of analysis and interpretation. A new microanalysis approach helps to separate out signals that reveal the relative influence of microbes and that of local climate.