‘Oldest bamboo’ fossil was really a conifer

From ScienceDaily:

‘Oldest bamboo’ fossil from Eocene Patagonia turns out to be a conifer

February 4, 2020

A fossilised leafy branch from the early Eocene in Patagonia described in 1941 is still often cited as the oldest bamboo fossil and the main fossil evidence for a Gondwanan origin of bamboos. However, a recent examination by Dr. Peter Wilf from Pennsylvania State University revealed the real nature of Chusquea oxyphylla. The recent findings, published in the paper in the open-access journal Phytokeys, show that it is actually a conifer.

The corrected identification is significant because the fossil in question was the only bamboo macrofossil still considered from the ancient southern supercontinent of Gondwana. The oldest microfossil evidence for bamboo in the Northern Hemisphere belongs to the Middle Eocene, while other South American fossils are not older than Pliocene.

Over the last decades, some authors have doubted whether the Patagonian fossil was really a bamboo or even a grass species at all. But despite its general significance, modern-day re-examinations of the original specimen were never published. Most scientists referring to it had a chance to study only a photograph found in the original publication from 1941 by the famous Argentine botanists Joaquín Frenguelli and Lorenzo Parodi.

In his recent study of the holotype specimen at Museo de La Plata, Argentina, Dr. Peter Wilf revealed that the fossil does not resemble members of the Chusquea genus or any other bamboo.

“There is no evidence of bamboo-type nodes, sheaths or ligules. Areas that may resemble any bamboo features consist only of the broken departure points of leaf bases diverging from the twig. The decurrent, extensively clasping leaves are quite unlike the characteristically pseudopetiolate leaves of bamboos, and the heterofacially twisted free-leaf bases do not occur in any bamboo or grass,” wrote Dr. Wilf.

Instead, Wilf linked the holotype to the recently described fossils of the conifer genus Retrophyllum from the same fossil site, the prolific Laguna del Hunco fossil lake-beds in Chubut Province, Argentina. It matches precisely the distichous fossil foliage form of Retrophyllum spiralifolium, which was described based on a large set of data — a suite of 82 specimens collected from both Laguna del Hunco and the early middle Eocene Río Pichileufú site in Río Negro Province.

Retrophyllum is a genus of six living species of rainforest conifers. Its habitat lies in both the Neotropics and the tropical West Pacific.

The gathered evidence firmly confirms that Chusquea oxyphylla has nothing in common with bamboos. Thus, it requires renaming. Preserving the priority of the older name, Wilf combined Chusquea oxyphylla and Retrophyllum spiralifolium into Retrophyllum oxyphyllum.

The exclusion of a living New World bamboo genus from the overall floral list for Eocene Patagonia weakens the New World biogeographic signal of the late-Gondwanan vegetation of South America, which already showed much stronger links to living floras of the tropical West Pacific.

The strongest New World signal remaining in Eocene Patagonia based on well-described macrofossils comes from fossil fruits of Physalis (a genus of flowering plants including tomatillos and ground cherries), which is an entirely American genus, concludes Dr. Wilf.

Hillary Clinton attacks Sanders, rap music parody

When Hillary Clinton lost the 2008 United States Democratic party primary elections to Barack Obama, somewhat more to the left than her, she did 12 meetings supporting the winner of the nomination.

When Bernie Sanders lost the 2016 United States Democratic party nomination to Hillary Clinton, after the party establishment had used dirty tricks, Sanders did many more meetings, 41, all over the USA asking voters to vote not for Trump, and not to stay home, but to vote for Clinton; even though the opposition to him had been much dirtier and the political differences were much bigger than after the Clinton-Obama primaries.

Now, it looks like Ms Clinton would rather have four more years of Donald Trump than Bernie Sanders being elected president.

This 3 February 2020 rap music video from Britain, a parody of the song Insane in the brain, by Cypress Hill, says about itself:

Cypress Hillary – Insane in the Dem Brain

Hillary Clinton‘s Cypress Hill tribute act.

LYRICS:

Listen up, DNC:
It’s looking rough
We can’t let Bernie win the primary
How can we make the nominee me?
Or Bloomberg or John Kerry?
Rig the convention selections
To kill momentum in time for the General Election
Damn! The gap just widened on Biden
And Liz Warren
Gotta come out fightin’
Oh! Can someone wake up Joe?
We need a good show for the Bernie Bros
They’re booing my name
It’s got Hillary Clinton going insane

Insane in the Dem brain
(Insane in the brain!)
Insane in the Dem brain
(Insane in the brain!)
Insane in the Dem brain
(Galaxy brain! Got no shame!)
Insane in the Dem brain
(Insane in the brain!)

Do my shit undercover, drone strike like Obama
Oughta take out the whole of Iowa
I’ll take a donation from any nation
Just make it out to the Clinton Foundation
Nobody in Congress likes Bernie S
He’s basically Trump for the left
And you’re all deplorable, frankly
You don’t believe I’m a fan of the Yankees
Or that I was attacked on the tarmacIn Bosnia with Sinbad and a press pack
Get on the galaxy brain thought train!
‘Cause Hillary Clinton’s going insane

Insane in the Dem brain
(Insane in the brain!)
Insane in the Dem brain
(Insane in the brain!)
Insane in the Dem brain
(Galaxy brain! Got no shame!)
Insane in the Dem brain
(Insane in the brain!)

Darwin’s finches evolution, new research

This 2017 video says about itself:

Evolution by Natural Selection – Darwin’s Finches | Evolution | Biology

In December 1831 a naturalist called Charles Darwin boarded the HMS Beagle, bound on a surveying voyage of South America. Whilst the ship and crew carried out coastline surveys, Darwin was free to explore the islands en route. In 1835 the Beagle arrived at the Galapagos islands, near Ecuador. What Darwin found there surprised him greatly. As well as giant tortoises and marine iguanas, Darwin collected and preserved a variety of different songbirds called finches. Upon returning to the UK he examined them together with ornithologist John Gould, and made some fascinating discoveries.

From the University of Bristol in England:

How the development of skulls and beaks made Darwin’s finches one of the most diverse species

February 3, 2020

Darwin’s finches are among the most celebrated examples of adaptive radiation in the evolution of modern vertebrates and now a new study, led by scientists from the University of Bristol, has provided fresh insights into their rapid development and evolutionary success.

Study of the finches has been relevant since the journeys of the HMS Beagle in the 18th century which catalysed some of the first ideas about natural selection in the mind of a young Charles Darwin.

Despite many years of research which has led to a detailed understanding of the biology of these perching birds, including impressive decades-long studies in natural populations, there are still unanswered questions.

Specifically, the factors explaining why this particular group of birds evolved to be much more diverse in species and shapes than other birds evolving alongside them in Galapagos and Cocos islands have remained largely unknown.

A similar phenomenon is that of the honeycreepers endemic to the Hawaiian archipelago. These true finches (unlike Darwin’s finches which are finch-like birds belonging to a different family) radiated to achieve an order of magnitude more in species and shapes than the rest of the birds inhabiting those islands.

An international team of researchers from the UK and Spain tackled the question of why the rapid evolution in these birds from a different perspective.

They showed in their study published today in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution that one of the key factors related to the evolutionary success of Darwin’s finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers might lie in how their beaks and skulls evolved.

Previous studies have demonstrated a tight link between the shapes and sizes of the beak and the feeding habits in both groups, which suggests that adaptation by natural selection to the different feeding resources available at the islands may have been one of the main processes driving their explosive evolution.

Furthermore, changes in beak size and shape have been observed in natural populations of Darwin’s finches as a response to variations in feeding resources, strengthening these views.

However, recent studies on other groups of birds, some of which stem from the previous recent research of the team, have suggested that this strong match between beak and cranial morphology and ecology might not be pervasive in all birds.

Professor Emily Rayfield, from the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, co-authored the new study. She said: “Other factors such as constraints on skull shape during development, the use of the beak for many other functions and the fact that the skull and beak develop and function as a coherent unit may have contributed to this mismatch.

“Therefore, the strong connection between beak, cranial morphology and feeding ecology over the evolution of Darwin’s finches, Hawaiian honeycreepers, and perhaps other lineages of birds, might have been only possible if this tight coevolution of cranial regions is somehow ‘relaxed’ and those regions are able to evolve more freely.”

Lead author Guillermo Navalón, recently graduated from a PhD at the University of Bristol and now a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Oxford, added: “By taking a broad scale, numerical approach at more than 400 species of landbirds (the group that encompasses all perching birds and many other lineages such as parrots, kingfishers, hornbills, eagles, vultures, owls and many others) we found that the beaks of Darwin’s finches and Hawaiian honeycreepers evolved in a stronger association with the rest of the skull than in most of the other lineages of landbirds.

“In other words, in these groups the beak is less independent in evolutionary terms than in most other landbirds.”

Jesús Marugán-Lobón co-author of the study and Lecturer at the Autonomous University of Madrid, said: “We found that as a result of this stronger cranial integration, these birds could evolve in a more versatile way but mostly constrained along a very specific direction of adaptive change in the shape of their skulls.

“Paradoxically, we hypothesised that this allowed them to evolve many different shapes very rapidly, filling many of the available niches in their archipelagos as a result.”

In contrast, the authors asserted that the other sympatric bird lineages that occupied the island archipelagos at similar time to the ancestors of finches and honeycreepers all belong to the group with the lowest cranial integration in their study and suggest that this was a limiting factor for rapid evolution in other lineages.

Guillermo Navalón added: “While these results are exciting, this is mainly the work of my PhD and at the minute we are working on solving different unanswered questions that stem from this research.

“For instance, are these evolutionary situations isolated phenomena in these two archipelagos or have those been more common in the evolution of island or continental bird communities? Do these patterns characterise other adaptive radiations in birds?

“Future research will likely solve at least some of these mysteries, bringing us one step closer to understanding better the evolution of the wonderful diversity of shapes in birds.”

American young people speak out against war

This 4 February 2020 video says about itself:

The International Youth and Students for Social Equality spoke to young people throughout the USA about their experience with war and its consequences.

More than half of the world’s millennials fear a nuclear attack will happen in the next decade: here.

Butterflies’ smell and evolution, new research

This 2010 video says about itself:

Bicyclus anynana: male and female butterflies performing courtship behavior

From the National University of Singapore:

Butterflies can acquire new scent preferences and pass these on to their offspring

February 3, 2020

Summary: New studies demonstrate that insects can learn from their previous experiences and adjust their future behavior for survival and reproduction.

It was long believed that physical characteristics acquired by organisms during their lifetime could not be passed on to their offspring. However, in recent years, the theory of inheritance of acquired traits has gained support, with studies showing how offspring of rats and tiny worms inherit behaviours that were acquired by their parents in response to particular environmental stimuli, even when the stimulus is no longer present in the offspring’s generation.

This theory is further supported by recent studies conducted by researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), in which they found that the inheritance of acquired traits also happens in butterflies, especially in the bush brown butterfly Bicyclus anynana.

Two research teams supervised by Associate Professor Antónia Monteiro, who is from the Department of Biological Sciences at the NUS Faculty of Science, as well as from Yale-NUS College, showed that both Bicyclus anynana caterpillars and adult butterflies can learn to prefer new odours if they are exposed to them during their development or early in life. The researchers also found that the offspring of the exposed caterpillars and butterflies show the same new preferences as their parents, even though they were not exposed themselves, indicating that their parents have passed their new acquired preferences to their children.

The findings of the two studies were published online in the scientific journals Evolution in October 2019 and Nature Communications in January 2020.

Learning to like new odours for feeding and mating

In the study that was published in Evolution, NUS doctoral student Ms V. Gowri, research fellow Dr Emilie Dion, and their collaborators exposed caterpillars and butterflies to new odours they typically do not experience in their natural environment. In the experiments, caterpillars were fed with corn leaves — their usual food — coated with banana or with mango essence throughout their development. Most of these caterpillars preferred to eat leaves with the fruit essence after only a few days of exposure.

In the second study, which was published in Nature Communications, Dr Dion and her collaborators exposed young female butterflies to new sex pheromone blends, a perfume produced by males to entice females to mate with them. The results showed that the exposed females later preferred to mate with males having the new pheromone blend.

“These results are significant because they show that insects are not only driven by their instincts, but can also learn from their previous experience and adjust their future behaviour accordingly. The consequences of their learning abilities on their survival and reproduction can be very important,” shared Dr Dion.

Offspring acquired the learned preferences of their parents

Both studies examined the behaviour of the offspring of the exposed Bicyclus anynana caterpillars and butterflies. The results revealed that the new generation also exhibited the same preference for the new food odours, or the new sex pheromone blends, although they were never exposed to these odours themselves. The teams concluded that the offspring inherited the preferences acquired by their parents.

While these learning and inheritance processes are hypothesised to facilitate the evolution of diet diversity across insects, and mate selection over the course of insect diversification, the impact of this inheritance mechanism on evolution is still unknown.

“We are now investigating whether this behavioural transmission is maintained for more than one generation, and also probing the underlying molecular mechanisms in our model species, as these remain some of the most exciting unanswered questions in the field of evolutionary biology,” said Assoc Prof Monteiro.

The study reveals that the African satyrid butterfly Bicyclus anynana (B. anynana), a member of the sub-family of the nymphalidae (or ‘brush-footed’) butterflies, changes its eyespot size using a complex physiological and molecular response that evolved gradually over millions of years. The findings also highlight that while temperature modulates hormone levels in various species of satyrid butterfly, B. anynana is just one of a few that take advantage of this response to regulate eyespot size: here.

YouTube, Google promote climate denialism, censor anti-fascism

This 2018 video says about itself:

Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming | Environmental Science

While YouTube and its parent corporation Google are busy censoring anti-fascism and pro-peace and leftist Internet sites … and promote Rupert Murdoch and other corporate media … and while Google corporation finances global warming denialists off the internet…

Now, on the Internet. From Avaaz.org today:

Dear friends,

Avaaz has just uncovered yet another social media scandal: while our world is burning, YouTube is spreading climate denial videos to millions of people!

And they’re making money off it…

YouTube is feeling pressure from the media. But now we know that these tech giants won’t act urgently, unless they see their public brand at risk and major advertisers speaking up.

That’s where we come in!

Let’s go after YouTube first – flooding their main advertisers with our demands and surround YouTube’s headquarters with billboards. Then take our call to all other major social media platforms, their employees and regulators — and keep up the pressure until they stop spreading lies to millions!

When searching for “global warming” and “climate change” Avaaz researchers found that the YouTube algorithm was throwing up misinformation videos, that racked up millions and millions of views. The videos claimed that “global warming is a hoax”, scientists are wrong, and blaming humans for it is a “scam”!

It’s not just YouTube. Most social media’s algorithms are programmed to maximise our time spent on the platform, even if that means millions of people watching crazy conspiracy theories and blunt disinformation.

Over the years, disinformation has become one of the biggest unseen threats on our planet. From our ability to fight diseases to fighting climate change – we need to know the truth to find the solutions that save us all. That’s why Avaaz is calling on all social media giants to detox their algorithms and stop amplifying lies to millions of people. …

More information:

Why is YouTube Broadcasting Climate Misinformation to Millions? YouTube is driving its users to climate misinformation and the world’s most trusted brands are paying for it – Avaaz report

Lawmaker Wants To Know Why Climate Misinformation Is Rampant On YouTube – Forbes

YouTube Has Been ‘Actively Promoting’ Videos Promoting Climate Denialism, According to New Report – TIME

YouTube’s Algorithm Keeps Suggesting Users Watch Climate Change Misinformation – VICE

Polar bear and her cubs, video

This 3 February 2020 BBC video says about itself:

Competition for food is fierce in the Arctic circle, but this courageous polar bear risks her life to feed her cubs.

Iowa, USA caucus chaos, establishment sabotages Sanders

This 4 February 2920 video from the USA is called Mike Waits for the Iowa Caucus Results…

How democratic is what happens now in the USA, which used to be called ‘the great arsenal of democracy‘?

By Patrick Martin in the USA:

With Sanders headed to victory, Iowa Democratic Party blocks release of caucus results

4 February 2020

The Iowa Democratic Party has refused to release results of the caucuses held throughout the state on Monday night to determine the allocation of delegates for the party’s presidential nomination. Officials are now saying that they hope to have results “some time Tuesday.”

The action is an unprecedented intervention by the party apparatus into the process of choosing the party’s presidential nominee. It is clearly directed at the campaign of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who was leading in the polls and was expected to place first in a four- or five-way contest in Iowa.

The media and non-Sanders Democratic Party candidates quickly developed a common line, citing supposed “quality control” issues in the vote that questioned its “legitimacy.” The New York Times, which earlier posted polling results that clearly showed Sanders in the lead, removed all such figures from its front page by midnight.

An official statement from the Iowa Democratic Party claimed that there were “inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results” from each of the more than 1,700 precinct caucuses held across the state. The party statement did not explain the nature of the discrepancies or how they were to be remedied, except to claim that the issue was not the result of a hack or other external interference with the tabulation of the vote.

Lawyers for the campaign of former Vice President Joe Biden sent a letter to the Iowa Democratic Party Monday night demanding an accounting of the method being used for “quality control” in the vote tabulation before any results are released. This could keep the results of the caucus voting secret for days, if not weeks, while courtroom battles are played out, in a manner reminiscent of the 2000 vote in Florida.

Precincts covered by the major media Monday night reported that Biden suffered a debacle, often not even receiving enough support to pass into the second round of voting.

The manipulation of the results in Iowa is clearly directed from the top. The Democratic National Committee sent dozens of top operatives, including software and cybersecurity experts, into Iowa in the weeks before the caucuses. Even before Monday, there were efforts to develop the line that the vote might not be legitimate.

In fact, the software application used to report the results from precinct caucuses—three sets of numbers for less than a dozen candidates—would not have been very complex, and there was ample time for testing and security measures.

The weeks leading up to the Iowa caucuses featured a coordinated campaign by the corporate media and the Democratic Party establishment to undermine Sanders’ support. This campaign was widely viewed as unsuccessful or even counterproductive—boosting support for the self-described “democratic socialist” rather than reducing it.

The failure to report results from the caucus raises new questions about Saturday’s decision to cancel the release of the final Iowa Poll by the Des Moines Register, allegedly because of a complaint by the Buttigieg campaign that at least one telephone survey worker did not include the name of their candidate. The poll was expected to confirm Sanders’ standing as the leading candidate, only two days before the caucuses.

All the major Democratic candidates made speeches Monday night thanking their supporters and pledging to continue their campaigns in the New Hampshire primary February 11. Significantly, however, Buttigieg was the only one to claim he had been “victorious” in the caucuses, an assertion that had no basis in any figures reported from the state, since there were none.

Data from entrance polls reported on cable television suggested that Sanders was in the lead with at least 23 percent, followed by Buttigieg, Warren and Biden, in fourth place with about 16 percent. Demographic information on caucus-goers also suggested such an order of finish, with the proportion of voters under 30 jumping from 18 percent in 2016, when Sanders and Hillary Clinton finished in a virtual tie, to 24 percent in 2020.

The proportion of voters over 65 years of age—the base of the Biden campaign—fell from 34 percent in 2016 to only 28 percent in 2020.

The debacle and orchestrated operation over the Iowa caucuses is only a foretaste of what is to come in the efforts by the Democratic Party to rig the primary election process.

This 4 February 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

DNC Vote Count DISASTER After Iowa Caucuses

The Iowa Caucus results were delayed because of an app the DNC used to tally the results. Ana Kasparian, Cenk Uygur, and Ben Mankiewicz discuss on The Young Turks special coverage of the 2020 Iowa Caucuses. Tell us what you think in the comments below.

This 4 February 2020 video from the USA is called Sure Sign Bernie Won Iowa Caucus.

FORMER US Secretary of State John Kerry has denied plans to enter the presidential race to “stop Bernie Sanders taking down the Democratic Party” ahead of today’s Iowa caucus. Mr Kerry was overheard by an NBC journalist speaking on the phone on Sunday explaining that he would need to step down from the board of the Bank of America and “raise a couple of million” for his campaign: here.

THESE CAMPAIGNS RAISED THOUSANDS FROM LOBBYISTS Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg all raised thousands of dollars from registered federal lobbyists, according to new campaign finance disclosures the candidates were required to file. Donors included lobbyists who have represented the fossil fuel industry, for-profit college companies and major pharmaceutical makers. [HuffPost]