Earth Science Club of Northern Illinois - ESCONI

Ancient Seas May Have Poisoned Life

Via Science News:

Soon after complex animals made their first great strides onto the stage of life, the oceans brewed up a toxic chemical mix that put the brakes on evolutionary innovation, suggests a paper in the Jan. 6 Nature.

The culprits? Too little oxygen and too much sulfur dissolved in coastal waters, reports a team led by geochemist Benjamin Gill of Harvard University. Ancient creatures such as trilobites and brachiopods could not cope with the changes, and many of them went extinct.

The “remarkable” new data are the first to link a changing ocean environment to some of the extinctions that took place between about 490 million and 520 million years ago, says Graham Shields-Zhou, a geologist at University College London who was not on the research team...

Micromount Blog

The Micromount Corner is a blog on micromounting.

Burrowing Protoceratops?

Via David Hone's Archosaur Musings blog:

... it looks rather like this animal was buried and tried, and failed, to get out. The formation is apparently made up of aeolian (wind deposited) sediments, so this is not something that drowned or was buried in a river channel etc., but was trapped in a sandstorm, collapsing sand dune or something similar. The head is up and the body down, implying that it survived long enough to try and make an escape but never succeeded. There are, apparently (I’ve not seen them) a number of specimens like this in other collections, and I’d love to see if there are any studies on how often this thing happens now, though I dare say it’s an incredibly hard thing to find out.

 

How does one measure eggshell thickness in dinosaurs?

Interesting article from Scientific American about their expedition findings.

Peru Fossils Attract Collectors and Others

Via NYTIMES:

... But to the bone hunters who stalk the Ocucaje Desert each day, the punishing winds here have exposed a medley of life and evolution: a prehistoric graveyard where sea monsters came to rest 40 million years ago. These parched lands, once washed over by the sea, guard one of the most coveted troves of marine fossils known to paleontology...

Methane Burp

From Yahoo ESCONI News Group posting from msNBC:

The mass extinction that opened the door for the rise of the dinosaurs about 201 million years ago may have been caused by a spike in carbon pumped into the atmosphere — most likely by methane released from the seafloor, a new study indicates....

Geologist advises on Mars landing

Via UC Davis:

Based partly on the advice of a UC Davis geologist, the next Mars rover, Curiousity, will land in Gale crater near the Martian equator. The landing site was announced today (July 22) at a press conference at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The site was selected based on the “reachable science” nearby, said Dawn Sumner, professor of geology at UC Davis and co-chair of the landing site working group for the Mars Science Laboratory mission....

How to Hunt Meteorites

How to Book on Meteorite Hunting...

Who can resist the search for alien specimens from space? Most meteorites are small pebbles; they drop all over the planet but are most easily detected in deserts, or in fallen clusters. Finding them requires metal detectors, maps, jeeps, software simulations, chemical analysis, airplane tickets, patience and a lot of luck. The practical lore in this slim how-to manual was previously known only by the close-knit club of professional meteor hunters. As far as I can tell, this is the only book on how to find meteorites; even the web doesn’t contain the useful details this guide does. Its 84 color pages discuss the gear, the techniques, and the logical tricks needed to find and excavate a metallic needle in a geographic haystack.

The author is one of the stars of Meteorite Men,

Man Who Picks Up Stones Running

Narration about the celebrated American explorer Ferdinand Vandiveer Hayden via Wired.

...(For dinosaur fans, it’s worth noting that Hayden found several dinosaur teeth during his trip along the borders of the Missouri in what is now recognized as the Judith River Formation, including the first remains of ceratopsians to be described. At the time, though, Hayden had no idea that so many dinosaurs were waiting to be found there. He sent the paltry collection of teeth to Leidy for description, but confided that he did not find the strata of the Judith to be as interesting as those of the geologically younger White River where an abundance of impressive fossil mammals had been found.)

Hayden was the “Man Who Picks Up Stones Running” – a name said to be given to him in 1853 by the Sioux who lived in the vicinity of the deposits...

geophantasmogram

Via Wired:

That’s right, geophantasmogram. It’s an awesome word and I bet it’s now your favorite as well. I didn’t even know it was a real word until a colleague in graduate school mentioned it one day.I think a Canadian (or something similar) coined it. Oh, you don’t think it’s a real word?

Hint: Ancient sedimentary environment

What is your favorite geology word?

Nautical Archaeology Finds Ancient Fishing Ships

From UPI via geology.com:

... a new report published in the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology concludes Roman fishing ships may have used a pumping system to supply oxygenated water to an on-board fish tank, PhysOrg.com reported Monday..

Read more: http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2011/06/06/Wreck-suggests-Romans-shipped-live-fish/UPI-70751307407812/#ixzz1Sa7GFJCL

 

Archaeology of Beer

The Beer Archaeologist explains all at the Smithsonian:

... “Dr. Pat,” as he’s known at Dogfish Head, is the world’s foremost expert on ancient fermented beverages, and he cracks long-forgotten recipes with chemistry, scouring ancient kegs and bottles for residue samples to scrutinize in the lab. He has identified the world’s oldest known barley beer (from Iran’s Zagros Mountains, dating to 3400 B.C.), the oldest grape wine (also from the Zagros, circa 5400 B.C.) and the earliest known booze of any kind, a Neolithic grog from China’s Yellow River Valley brewed some 9,000 years ago....

 

Dinosaur Comic

A new comic featuring dinosaurs, Paleo Loner:

 Page 3 - "He could do it. The mother wouldn't be expecting a direct charge..."

 

Neanderthal Part of X Chromosome

And another article from Science Daily:

Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, according to an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center. The research was published in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

New Insect Order of Lower Cretaceous

Forwarded by an ESCONI member, Kim S. - via Science Daily:

Scientists at the Stuttgart Natural History Museum and colleagues have discovered a new insect order from the Lower Cretaceous of South America. The spectacular fossils were named Coxoplectoptera by their discoverers and their findings were published in a special issue on Cretaceous Insects in the scientific journal Insect Systematics & Evolution.

Arizona Permits

Via geology.com:

“Permitting mineral exploration or mining in Arizona just got a little clearer, due to the release of the Arizona Mining Permitting Guide, a comprehensive guide to the permitting process. The 187-page Arizona Mining Permitting Guide, a product of the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, replaces the Arizona Mining Summit: Guide to Permitting Mining Operations of March 1999.

The guide should prove an essential tool for the mining community, from the largest international corporation, to junior mining companies, to the professional prospector.” Quoted from the Arizona Geological Survey press release.

Big Dig

Via MSNBC:

Diggers at an excavation in west-central Colorado turned up almost 5,000 large bones in seven weeks from mammoths, mastodons, giant ground sloths, bison, horses, deer and camels. They also uncovered thousands and thousands of smaller remains, such as rodent teeth and salamander vertebrae.

New Tectonic Force Reported

Vis Scripps Oceanography via geology.com:

... Scientists who study tectonic motions have known for decades that the ongoing "pull" and "push" movements of the plates are responsible for sculpting continental features around the planet. Volcanoes, for example, are generally located at areas where plates are moving apart or coming together. Scripps scientists Steve Cande and Dave Stegman have now discovered a new force that drives plate tectonics: Plumes of hot magma pushing up from Earth's deep interior. Their research is published in the July 7 issue of the journal Nature...

Catchy Tune about the Cambrian Explosion

Via BoingBoing - going viral! "Opabinia, how you've been?"

Bering Strait Theory in Question

Via Latin American Herald Tribune:

... Recent excavations in Uruguay to uncover and begin to investigate the bones of animals dating back 29,000 years could shoot down the theory that the populating of the Americas came via the Bering Strait some 12,000 years ago, officials said.

A team of experts from the Science Faculty at the Universidad de la Republica earlier this year began digging in an area where a few years ago prehistoric animal fossils were discovered, the Uruguayan Office of the President said in a statement.

“In this first excavation we discovered, in the stream bed, thousands of bones belonging to between eight and ten glyptodonts, sloths and a toxodont in a single spot” in a “marvelous” state of preservation,” Richard Fariña, the paleontology team leader, said....