Fossil ‘flying’ lizard discovered in China

This is a video about Coelurosauravus.

From New Scientist:

Ancient lizard extended its rib bones to glide

* 21:00 19 March 2007
* NewScientist.com news service
* Roxanne Khamsi

Ancient lizards used their ribs to help them glide through the air, a new fossil find has revealed.

It shows a wing-like membrane spread over elongated ribs.

Xing Xu, at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China, and colleagues discovered the specimen, of the species Xianglong zhaoi, in the Liaoning Province of the country.

The fossil is 125 million years old and measures 15.5 centimetres long, including a slender 9.5-centimetre tail.

The animal has eight elongated ribs on each side that support a superbly preserved wing-like membrane.

They note the membrane is in a half-open position, which probably reflects folding of the wing after the lizard’s death.

The structure probably helped the lizards glide through the air to catch insect prey, the researchers speculate.

Previous excavations revealed that the Coelurosaurovus [sic; Coelurosauravus], Icarosaurus and Kuehneosaurus reptiles found in Germany, North America and UK, respectively, all had similar rib-supported wings.

These creatures belonged to the Permian and Triassic geologic periods, about 200 to 300 million years ago.

True lizard

But Sankar Chatterjee, a palaeontologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, US, explains that the new discovery is special because, “unlike other Permian and Triassic gliding forms, the Chinese genus Xianglong is a true lizard”.

He adds: “This is also the first fossil evidence that unequivocally demonstrates an impression of the skin around the edge of the ribcage.”

The modern-day Draco lizards in Southeast Asia have wings supported by ribs that help them glide.

But Robert Carroll, a vertebrate palaeontologist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, says it is “improbable” that Draco lizards descended from the Xianglong zhaoi lizard: “There are more gaps than there are links” between the ancient and modern lizards, he notes.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0609552104)

See also here.

And here.

Powered flight evolved three times in vertebrates, all converting their forelimbs into wings. The body plan modifications among gliders however are far more diverse, including a new Triassic reptile with long legs bearing a wing membrane: here.

Nuthatches understand chickadee language

This video from the USA is called Brown Headed Nuthatch 2nd nest [this season].

From Associated Press:

Mar 19

Nuthatches seem to understand chickadee

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON — Nuthatches appear to have learned to understand a foreign language – chickadee.

It’s not unusual for one animal to react to the alarm call of another, but nuthatches seem to go beyond that – interpreting the type of alarm and what sort of predator poses a threat.

When a chickadee sees a predator, it issues warning call – a soft “seet” for a flying hawk, owl or falcon, or a loud “chick-a-dee-dee-dee” for a perched predator.

The “chick-a-dee” call can have 10 to 15 “dees” at the end and varies in sound to encode information on the type of predator.

It also calls in other small birds to mob the predator, Christopher Templeton of the University of Washington said in a telephone interview.

“In this case the nuthatch is able to discriminate the information in this call,” said Templeton, a doctoral candidate.

The findings by Templeton and Erick Green, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Montana, are reported in this week’s online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Hear black-capped chickadee here.

The article is about the red-breasted nuthatch.

Red-Breasted Nuthatch: here.

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Polish environmentalists fight against destructive road plans

Reuters reports:

Young Poles battle government over swampland

By Monika Filipiuk

ROSPUDA VALLEY, Poland – Scores of young activists camped in a remote peat bog in the northeast of Poland last month and threatened to chain themselves to trees to stop bulldozers clearing land for a highway. …

“I came here to tell the government it’s wrong to destroy such a beautiful place,” said Mateusz Wojcik, a 20-year-old engineering student who traveled 800 miles from Wroclaw in southwest Poland to the Rospuda Valley. …

“We’ve come from across Poland to say there are better sites for a road,” said Magda Figura, a member of the environmental group Greenpeace, her breath freezing in the morning air.

Activists regard themselves as the last line of defense for the valley’s more than 50 rare or endangered plants and animals, including the fen orchid, lesser-spotted eagle and whitebacked woodpecker.

Scientists say Rospuda is one of the few pristine peat mires left in Europe and that slicing it down the middle with a highway would be like “slaughtering the last woolly mammoth.”

See also here.

Update: here.

And here.

And here.

And here.

Update 11 December 2007: here.

Update September 2008: here.

Malgorzata Górska from OTOP (BirdLife in Poland) has been awarded the world’s top prize for grassroots activists having led a successful campaign which stopped a road being built through Poland’s precious Rospuda Valley: here.

Polish troops in Iraq: here.

European governments vs. forests: here.

USA: Bush administration muzzles climate science

This video from the USA is called Bush Science Policy.

From British daily The Guardian:

Climate change expert slates US ‘interference’ in research

James Randerson, science correspondent

Monday March 19, 2007

George Bush – his adminstration stands accused of doing more than any previous one to interfere in science.

The Bush administration’s interference in climate change science has revealed “flaws that have developed in the functioning of our democracy”, according to a leading US climate scientist.

The stinging attack on the power of the White House to distort the issue of climate change will come today in testimony to the House of Representatives committee on oversight and government reform.

Jim Hansen at Nasa’s Goddard Institute for Space Science (GISS) in New York will say: “The executive branch seems to be exercising greater control in the functioning of our government, in ways that our forefathers probably did not imagine and almost certainly would not approve.

This includes White House control of testimony to Congress, White House control of information that scientists provide to the public … and most decidedly through control of the purse strings.”

See also here.

And here.

And here.

Butterflies of the Cairngorms in Scotland

The Dingy Skipper At Woolley Colliery from David Wise on Vimeo.

From the BBC:

Butterflies could help boost tourism to the Highlands, according to a group dedicated to protecting the insects.

Butterfly Conservation Scotland said the Cairngorms were home to more than 20 species. …

Species listed by Butterfly Conservation Scotland include the dingy skipper, green hairstreak, red admiral, small pearl-bordered fritillary, speckled wood and painted lady.

Cairngorms nature reserves: here.

Help needed to keep the Cairngorms National Park a special place for native wildlife: here.

Butterflies in Scotland: here.

Sand Mountain Blue Butterfly in Nevada, USA: here.

Sinai baton blue: here.

Highway closed for butterfly migration in Taiwan: here.

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Cash for peerages scandal net closing more and more around Tony Blair

This video from Britain is called Labour buys peerages! Cash for honours!

From the Daily Mail in Britain:

New Levy disclosure is triple blow to PM

Last updated at 11:52am on 19th March 2007

Tony Blair faces a triple blow over the growing sleaze allegations threatening to blight his premiership.

A wealthy businessman who lent Labour £1million admitted he had discussed an honour with the Prime Minister’s fundraiser Lord Levy who is at the centre of the cash-for-peerages furore.

More here…
• Lord Levy told businessman he should be ‘rewarded’
• Blair’s seven sins which will tarnish his legacy

Biotech boss Professor Sir Christopher Evans, the only lender to have been arrested by police investigating the cash-for-peerages claims, wrote to his colleagues, investors and advisers, expressing his concerns that he and Lord Levy may be used as scapegoats by the political establishment.

Sir Christopher, 49, chairman of Merlin Biosciences, insists he has done nothing wrong and stressed that he was never offered anything in return for a donation or loan.

However, his admission that he discussed an honour fuelled the furore over Lord Levy’s fundraising activities.

The peer, who has been arrested but not charged by the police, strongly denies any wrong-doing.

In a second blow, the outgoing chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, Sir Alistair Graham, launched a stinging attack on Mr Blair, accusing him of “seven mortal sins” which have damaged public trust in politicians.

They are: the cash-for-peerages row; the Iraq war; appointing an independent Whitehall figure to probe claims of improper conduct by ministers but failing to use this new system; politicising the civil service; a spin culture; allegedly failing to do enough to tackle electoral fraud; and interfering in a fraud investigation into claims of corruption in a deal between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia.

Sir Alistair said: “I suspect Blair and his government are going to be as strongly identified with the loss of public trust as Major’s was with sleaze.

“The most fundamental thing is that Blair has betrayed himself. He set such a high bar to judge him and he has fallen well below the standards he set for himself.”

…

Sir Alistair’s contract as chairman-of the anti-sleaze committee ends in April and it is not being renewed, raising concerns that the watchdog may be scrapped.

Labour insiders say Mr Blair is getting his revenge on Sir Alistair, by ousting him, for his outspoken criticism of the Government.

Meanwhile, two ministers faced allegations that they have been providing lobbyists with sensitive information.

Update: here.

And here.

Bush and Blair prosecuted by International Criminal Court for Iraq war?

From Lenin’s Tomb blog in Britain:

As Iraq death toll “hits one million”, ICC chief prosecutor says Blair and Bush could face war crimes trial

The Morning Star reveals that it has spoken to Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo of the International Criminal Court, to establish if Blair and Bush could face war crimes trials in the event of Iraq becoming a member-state.

The response: “Whatever country joins the court can know that whoever commits a crime in their country could be prosecuted by me.”

That would, of course, be something that couldn’t even begin as a notional process until such time as Iraq is free from occupation and has an independent government.

The Morning Star also reports on claims by Dr Gideon Polya that the death toll in Iraq had hit 1 million as of February this year.

That may in fact be a valid claim, or at least in the vicinity of truth, although I would add that it isn’t in fact based on a new survey, but an extrapolation of the Lancet‘s figures based on a uniform rate of excess deaths continuing for six months after the survey was completed.

Further, the one million figure is based on a comparison not with the pre-war mortality figure but with those persisting in unoccupied neighbouring countries.

The Iraq war and the mainstream media: here.

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Oil beetle, thought extinct, rediscovered in England

From the BBC:

Beetle re-emerges after 60 years

A beetle thought to be extinct in the UK since the 1940s has been rediscovered in south Devon.

The short-necked oil beetle was found by an amateur entemologist during a wildlife survey on National Trust (NT) land between Bolt Head and Bolt Tail.

The beetles were last recorded at Chailey Common, Sussex in 1948.

Up to 40 of the insects, which survive by hitching rides on miner bees as larvae and then eating the bees’ eggs, were found at the Devon site.

The beetle, which gets its name from the highly toxic oil secretions it produces when threatened, is also known as Meloe brevicollis.

The adult beetles, which live for about three months, lay up to 1,000 eggs in a burrow in soft or sandy soil and eggs hatch in the following spring.

Beetle parasite on honeybees: here.

Bean weevils: here.

Protests against Musharraf dictatorship in Pakistan

By Vilani Peiris and Keith Jones:

Protests mount against Musharraf attempt to sack Pakistan’s chief justice

19 March 2007

Islamabad and other Pakistani cities have seen violent confrontations in recent days between security forces and lawyers, opposition political activists, and ordinary Pakistanis opposing the attempt of the country’s US-backed military strongman, General Pervez Musharraf, to fire the head of the Supreme Court, Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry.

To prevent protests last Friday when Chief Justice Chaudhry was to appear before the Supreme Judicial Council, the police detained scores of political leaders.

Then, in an attempt to stop live broadcast of the protests, which occurred nonetheless, the police raided the private GEO television station, ransacked the facility, and roughed up many of the station’s personnel.

See also here.

Does Bush want to replace Musharraf with another military dictator? See here.