New mammal from dinosaur age found in China

From the National Science Foundation:

Paleontologists discover new mammal from Mesozoic Era

Animals shows intermediate ear structure in evolution of modern mammals

An international team of American and Chinese paleontologists has discovered a new species of mammal that lived 125 million years ago during the Mesozoic Era, in what is now the Hebei Province in China.

The new mammal, documented in the March 15 issue of the journal Nature, provides first-hand evidence of early evolution of the mammalian middle ear–one of the most important features for all modern mammals.

The discovery was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

“This early mammalian ear from China is a rosetta-stone type of discovery which reinforces the idea that development of complex body parts can be explained by evolution, using exquisitely preserved fossils,” said H. Richard Lane, program director in NSF’s Division of Earth Sciences, which co-funded the discovery with NSF’s Division of Environmental Biology and its Assembling the Tree of Life (AToL) program.

Named Yanoconodon allini after the Yan Mountains in Hebei, the fossil was unearthed in the fossil-rich beds of the Yixian Formation and is the first Mesozoic mammal recovered from Hebei.

The fossil site is about 300 kilometers outside of Beijing.

The researchers discovered that the skull of Yanoconodon revealed a middle ear structure that is an intermediate step between those of modern mammals and those of near relatives of mammals, also known as mammaliaforms.

“This new fossil offers a rare insight in the evolutionary origin of the mammalian ear structure,” said Zhe-Xi Luo, a paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH) in Pittsburgh, Pa.

“Evolution of the ear is important for understanding the origins of key mammalian adaptations.”

Mammals have highly sensitive hearing, far better than the hearing capacity of all other vertebrates, scientists have found.

Consequently, paleontologists and evolutionary biologists have been searching for more than a century for clues to the evolutionary origins of mammal ear structure.

Mammalian hearing adaptation is made possible by a sophisticated middle ear of three tiny bones, known as the hammer (malleus), the anvil (incus) and the stirrup (stapes), plus a bony ring for the eardrum (tympanic membrane).

The mammal middle ear bones evolved from the bones of the jaw hinge in their reptilian relatives.

However, paleontologists long have attempted to understand the evolutionary pathway via which these precursor jaw bones became separated from the jaw and moved into the middle ear of modern mammals.

“Now we have a definitive piece of evidence, in a beautifully preserved fossil split on two rock slabs,” said Luo.

“Yanoconodon clearly shows an intermediate condition in the evolutionary process of how modern mammals acquired their middle ear structure.”

Yanoconodon is about 5 inches (or 15 cm) long and estimated to weigh about 30 grams.

Its teeth are notable for the three cusps in a straight line on molars (thus known as a triconodont) for feeding on insects and worms.

It has a long body, short and sprawling limbs and claws that were ideal for either digging or living on the ground.

See also here.

Related articles

• Fossil Supports Theory That Mammal Ears Began As Reptile Jaws (history.com)
• Obama lizard became extinct with dinosaurs (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Strange fossil mammal discovery (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Dinosaurs, why so many big species? (dearkitty1.wordpress.com)
• Jurassic Dark: Study Suggests Dinosaurs Hunted at Night (history.com)
• New study shows effects of prehistoric nocturnal life on mammalian vision (esciencenews.com)
• After 121 years, identification of ‘grave robber’ fossil solves a paleontological enigma (eurekalert.org)

Flowers, geese, and pigeons

On my way to the nature reserve, many butterbur, and, further, lesser celandine, flowering.

Chiffchaffs singing.

A moorhen swimming.

The two white storks still on their nest.

Greenfinch singing.

In the reserve: jay, great spotted woodpecker, chaffinch.

Queen bumblebees near flowers.

Wood anemone flowering.

On the meadow to the east: shelduck.

Over twenty Egyptian geese, and over ten wood pigeons.

In Bush’s ‘new’ Afghanistan, women’s suicides rising

This video is called A 8-year-old Afghan girl was raped and murdered in Takhar.

From Associated Press:

Self-Immolation by Afghan Women Rising

By ALISA TANG

March 15, 2007

One woman committed suicide by setting herself ablaze after her father-in-law tried to rape her.

Another set herself on fire because her brothers would not let her marry, preferring that she remain their servant at home.

Yet another told her mother before she died that her husband beat her daily.

Testimony gathered by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission documents how life for many Afghan women remains so bleak that some choose a horrific and painful death instead.

The group interviewed about 800 Afghans whose sisters, daughters and daughters-in-law have killed themselves by self-immolation to escape domestic abuse, forced marriage and other misogynistic social customs.

The report and anecdotal evidence from other rights workers suggests the phenomenon is growing, with desperate women sometimes mimicking what they have seen reported on TV.

See also here.

Australia: Batavia ship from the same oak as Rembrandt’s and Rubens’ painters’ panels

From the Western Australian Museum:

New research work on timbers from the Dutch ship Batavia show that it was built from the same oak on which famous Flemish artists such as Rembrandt and Rubens painted their 17th century masterpieces.

Tree-ring dating shows that Western Australia‘s oldest ship timbers date back to seedlings growing in a Polish oak forest south of Danzig after 1324. In 1628, they were used to build the Batavia, which sank off Geraldton in 1629 on its maiden voyage to Indonesia.

By the time the ship was built in 1628, the wood beams sourced from the forests growing along Poland’s longest river was already 300 years old – making WA’s surviving timbers some of the oldest splinters in maritime history.

The link has been made for the first time by WA Museum maritime archaeology assistant curator Wendy van Duivenvoorde just after she received the results from a dendrochronology laboratory in The Netherlands.

Batavia struck grief off Morning Reef in the Abrolhos group of islands off Geraldton in 1629.

About 125 men, women and children died of ill health, drowned or were killed by mutineers who were later caught and hanged on the islands, about 60km from the WA mainland.

The wreck was discovered in 1963 and her timbers raised several years later.

Ms van Duivenvoorde said Batavia’s hull is the only surviving example of an early 17th century Dutch East Indiaman to be raised and preserved.

Until now, the hull had never been tree ring dated to determine how old or what type of oak it was, let alone the forest in Europe they had grown in – but a mix of patience and persistence has paid off, the historic timbers traced back to the same forest area on the Vistula River where Dutch painters sourced their solid wood panels or boards.

“Batavia’s timbers perfectly match the chronology established in the 1970s of Flemish painters‘ panels, which were made of oak,” she explained.

“Those Dutch panel painters used wood from a particular forest area in Poland where it was very fine-ringed, straight and easy to work with. So did the Dutch ship builders.”

Captain Cook: here.

Related articles

• Maritime Shipwreck Galleries ( Fremantle, Australia) Part 2 (nava-k.com)
• Rembrandt square (4girlszz.wordpress.com)
• Bath Goes Dutch: Ravishing Rembrandts at the Holburne Museum (independent.co.uk)
• Gedung kesenian Jakarta (moemoecakep.wordpress.com)
• The Prophetess Anna Rembrandts Mother – 1631 (theruine.wordpress.com)

Borneo’s clouded leopard proves to be new cat species

This is a clouded leopard video.

From WWF:

15 Mar 2007

Gland, Switzerland – Scientists have discovered that the clouded leopard found on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra is an entirely new species of cat.

The secretive rainforest animal was originally thought to be the same species as the one found in mainland South-east Asia.

The news comes just a few weeks after a WWF report showed that scientists had identified at least 52 new species of animals and plants over the past year on Borneo.

“Who said a leopard can never change its spots?” said Stuart Chapman, WWF International Coordinator of the Heart of Borneo programme.

“For over a hundred years we have been looking at this animal and never realized it was unique.

The fact that Borneo’s top predator is now considered a separate species further emphasizes the importance of conserving one of the most biologically diverse habitats on Earth.”

Researchers at the US National Cancer Institute say the differences between the Borneo and mainland clouded leopard were found to be comparable to the differences between other large cat species such as lion, tiger, leopard, jaguar and snow leopard.

They believe the Borneo population likely diverged from the mainland population some 1.4 million years ago.

“Genetic research results clearly indicate that the clouded leopards of Borneo should be considered a separate species,” said Dr Stephen O’Brien, Head of the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity, US National Cancer Institute.

“DNA tests highlighted around 40 differences between the two species.” …

The Borneo clouded leopard has small cloud markings, many distinct spots within the cloud markings, grey fur and a double dorsal stripe. It is darker than the mainland species.

Clouded leopards from the mainland have large clouds on their skin with fewer, often faint, spots within the cloud markings.

They are lighter in colour, with a tendency toward tawny-coloured fur and a partial double dorsal stripe.

By taking into consideration the forest conditions in Borneo, a total number of 5,000 to 11,000 Bornean clouded leopards are estimated to live there.

The total number in Sumatra could be in the range of 3,000 to 7,000 individuals. However, further studies are needed to obtain better population data.

See also here.

And here.

And here.

See video of the newly recognized Bornean species here.

The natural history museum in Leiden in The Netherlands has found out they have both species in their collection, they said in a NOS TV interview today.

Clouded leopard cubs to be released into the wild in India – Can you help? Here.

Snow leopard: here.

New Mark Fiore animation on US Attorney General Gonzales

There is a new Mark Fiore animation on the Internet.

It is here.

The subject is George W. Bush’s Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and his policies of domestic spying, torture, and sacking attoneys for political reasons.

See also here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

Video: Gonzales lies under oath: here.

Internet Weekly cartoon here.

Update: here.

And here.

and here.

Right-wing US blogs and Gonzales: here.

Bush administration spying on peace movement in US, Canada, and Europe: here.

Britain: refugees revolt against privatized Blairite prison camp regime

From London daily News Line:

Thursday, 15 March 2007

CAMPSFIELD REVOLT! – after ‘violent removal’ of Algerian detainee

‘This will probably happen in other detention centres, the only time people listen is when there is a revolt,’ Bill MacKeith of Close Campsfield Campaign told News Line yesterday.

He was speaking after serious disturbances and a subsequent fire at the privately-run immigration removal centre left at least two inmates injured.

Seven staff were also injured.

MacKeith said: ‘My information is that at 6.30am guards went to arrest one or more detainees, most likely Algerians.

‘Other detainees witnessed the violent removal and began to protest.’

See also here.

And here.

Campsfield detainees go on hunger strike over treatment: here.