Saturday's letters: Alberta unions at risk from cabinet shuffle
Edmonton Journal

Of all the things Premier Kenney has done, removing Minister Shandro from the health portfolio has got to be the best. Now we can optimistically improve our public health system versus Shandro’s approach to destroy it or privatize it. The unfortunate side effect will be Shandro’s anti-union ideology.

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© Provided by Edmonton Journal Tyler Shandro leaves Government House in Edmonton on Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2021. Shandro was shuffled out at a short ceremony, swapping roles with former labour and immigration minister Jason Copping who now takes over the health ministry.

I can see his plan already of destroying our public service unions. And making union membership even more difficult in this business-oriented province. But let’s remember, it is unions who are working for us, the working folks. The UCP would still have us on a six-day work week with one week off per year.

Almost all our social and work-related benefits were championed by unions and implemented because of union influence. Union membership declined as neo-liberal political views influenced our governments, but they are still one of the few organizations working to improve our lot and keep ultra-right governments at bay

Code Clements, Cherry Grove

Avoiding vaccines makes no sense

To all those choosing not to vaccinate, would you be so keen to trust natural immunity if this were a pandemic of smallpox or polio? COVID can (and does) kill. Survivors of severe infection may be permanently debilitated.

Vaccines have saved more lives than any other public health measure except for the provision of clean drinking water. Avoiding vaccination makes as much sense as choosing to drink from a dirty ditch.

D.M. Gilchrist, Edmonton

Answers needed on pandemic decisions

Dear Conservative politicians: After living through the last 19 months, and seeing you playing with decisions about our health — physically and mentally — you are now breaking our hearts.

Having a parent in long-term care has been heartbreaking. While we will all not be getting back any of the precious times we missed, there is definitely little future for our loved ones. Our most vulnerable, while many are triple-vaccinated now, have lost the last few years of their life. This without comfort from family, and unable to even see their faces.

Many questions over the last 19 months on how things were handled. Questioning now, why vaccines were not mandated for all staff earlier, and why proof of vaccination is still not required to visit in LTC. Questioning, why proof of vaccination is still not required everywhere possible. These are sad times for all of us, and we need answers, actions and better direction.

Saxon Wolf, Edmonton

Schools shouldn’t cater to unvaccinated

I have ethical concerns and legitimate questions to which I have yet to get conclusive answers. When are school boards going to mandate all staff and support staff to show proof of full vaccination?

Schools have an ethical duty to keep all children safe but what measures have been put into place to ensure all students are safe from being infected by unvaccinated school employees including maintenance and transportation staff?

By school districts enforcing school-wide vaccination mandates, students, staff, parents, volunteers and community members that visit schools would be safe, while schools upheld their ethical duty to keep children safe.

Schools do not have an ethical duty to pander to the unvaccinated. The unvaccinated have an ethical duty to comply with all safety and emergency health regulations by getting themselves vaccinated. Stop thinking it is your choice. It is not your choice; it is your ethical responsibility.

Tanna Somerfield, St. Albert

THEY'RE BACK - THE WAR WAS NEVER ABOUT THEM

Taliban hang body in public; signal return to past tactics

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban hanged a dead body from a crane parked in a city square in Afghanistan on Saturday in a gruesome display that signaled the hard-line group’s return to some of its brutal tactics of the past.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Taliban officials initially brought four bodies to the central square in the western city of Herat, then moved three of them to other parts of the city for public display, said Wazir Ahmad Seddiqi, who runs a pharmacy on the edge of the square.

Taliban officials announced that the four were caught taking part in a kidnapping earlier Saturday and were killed by police, Seddiqi said. Ziaulhaq Jalali, a Taliban-appointed district police chief in Herat, said later that Taliban members rescued a father and son who had been abducted by four kidnappers after an exchange of gunfire. He said a Taliban fighter and a civilian were wounded by the kidnappers, and that the kidnappers were killed in crossfire.

An Associated Press video showed crowds gathering around the crane and peering up at the body as some men chanted.

“The aim of this action is to alert all criminals that they are not safe,” a Taliban commander who did not identify himself told the AP in an on-camera interview conducted in the square.

Since the Taliban overran Kabul on Aug. 15 and seized control of the country, Afghans and the world have been watching to see whether they will re-create their harsh rule of the late 1990s, which included public stonings and limb amputations of alleged criminals, some of which took place in front of large crowds at a stadium.

Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, one of the founders of the Taliban and the chief enforcer of its harsh interpretation of Islamic law when they last ruled Afghanistan, told The Associated Press this week that the militant movement will once again carry out executions and amputations of hands, though perhaps not in public.

“Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments,” Turabi said. “No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran.”

The group’s leaders remain entrenched in a deeply conservative, hard-line worldview, even if they are embracing technological changes, such as video and mobile phones.

President Joe Biden’s administration signaled on Friday that the U.S. would not tolerate the Taliban’s return to their past punishment methods.

“We condemn in the strongest terms reports of reinstating amputations and executions of Afghans,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters. “The acts the Taliban are talking about here would constitute clear gross abuses of human rights, and we stand firm with the international community to hold perpetrators of these — of any such abuses — accountable.”

Also Saturday, a roadside bomb hit a Taliban car in the capital of eastern Nangarhar province, wounding at least one person, a Taliban official said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing. The Islamic State group affiliate, which is headquartered in eastern Afghanistan, has said it was behind similar attacks in Jalalabad last week that killed 12 people.

The person wounded in the attack is a municipal worker, Taliban spokesperson Mohammad Hanif said.

The Associated Press

Turnbull and Forrest push “green only” hydrogen, dismiss carbon capture


Michael Mazengarb 24 September 2021

Andrew Forrest and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at an event in Canberra. 

(AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)


Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull and resources billionaire Andrew Forrest have joined forces to launch a new group that will advocate for the emerging hydrogen industry to focus solely on production using renewable energy.

The pair officially launched the Green Hydrogen Organisation on Thursday night as part of the New York Climate Week. They said that the new group would advocate for a global focus on hydrogen production using renewable energy, saying that ‘blue’ hydrogen – produced using fossil fuels – was a distraction.

Turnbull and Forrest were both critical of carbon capture and storage technologies, which they said had failed despite receiving huge amounts of government support, adding that industry must resist fossil fuel industry efforts to grow the amount of hydrogen produced using coal and gas.

“This is an organisation with a global mission to ensure that only green hydrogen is given the recognition as being the fuel of the future because the alternatives result in more emissions and actually tend to defeat the object of decarbonising the global economy,” Turnbull said during the launch.

“Hydrogen is the answer, but only if it is produced with renewable energy. If hydrogen is produced from gas or coal or with electricity generated by burning gas or coal, there is nothing clean about it,” he said.

“Now the fossil fuel sector, regrettably, but predictively has a vested interest in persuading us that they can produce so-called clean or blue hydrogen.”


Turnbull hit out at carbon capture and storage technologies, as Forrest has done previously, in direct contrast to the federal government, which is now pushing it as part of its technology roadmap and as a legitimate component of “blue hydrogen” made with gas.

“Carbon capture and storage has received billions of dollars in support over many years. There were high hopes for it,” Turnbull said.

“I had high hopes for it when I was Australia’s environment minister back in 2007. But it simply has not worked. It does not work consistently. In fact, it only works in very niche areas. And it’s failed. Blue hydrogen is a delaying exercise that we have to resist.”

In supporting the creation of the Green Hydrogen Organisation, Forrest – who has an estimated net worth of around $27 billion – said that he had not fully appreciated the threat posed by climate change at the time of forming Fortescue Metals, but had grown to appreciate the impact that major industrial consumers of fossil fuels were having on the environment.


“When I started the company, I didn’t really know a great deal about global warming. It was starting to be spoken about, of course, but it wasn’t taken seriously,” Forrest said.

“There was no societal expectations at all that you’d ever set up a huge industrial company, not using oil and gas, diesel and coal.

“But… I became serious about trying to understand global warming. So seriously, in fact, I sent myself back to school, I did a PhD in marine ecology.

“I began to understand that global warming literally has the oceans regurgitate its oxygen, it becomes barren… what we see just in the Anthropocene are major impacts now from climate warming, happening before our very eyes” Forrest added.

The organisation was launched as part of the New York Climate Week, timed to coincide with a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

Several world leaders have used the UN meeting to strengthen their commitments to cutting global greenhouse gas emissions, including a commitment from Chinese leader Xi Jinping to cease his country’s support for the overseas construction of new coal fired power stations.

On Wednesday, China’s hydrogen industry body, which is supported and supervised by the government, called for 100GW of green hydrogen electrolysers by 2030 – a target that Forrest has in mind for his own green hydrogen ambitions.

However, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has made no new commitments, revealing that his government has yet to reach a position on whether it will join a number of key international allies in adopting a zero net emissions pledge for 2050.

Forrest made clear that he sees decarbonisation as the future of Australian, and international, industry.

“There is now an opportunity to use our industrial might – the fact that [Fortescue is] a heavy carbon-emitting company to use that as an example – to drive a wedge between the argument that if you’re a company, which society depends upon but you’re also heavy carbon emitter, then you have to still stay a heavy carbon emitter. That is a fallacious argument,” Forrest said.

Forrest also lamented the amount of funds spent on unsuccessful carbon capture and storage projects.

“Carbon sequestration has robbed the economies of the world of more money than any bank robber ever possibly could, then you’ll realise because it simply doesn’t work,” Forrest said.

Turnbull is already collaborating with Forrest through the latter’s clean energy spin-off – Fortescue Future Industries – which will drive the resources company’s push into renewable energy and green hydrogen production. The intention is to see the Fortescue group of companies shift from one predominantly built around iron ore and steel, to one focused on sustainable materials and renewable hydrogen.

Turnbull was appointed as Fortescue Future Industries’ chairman in February, with the subsidiary setting itself the ambitious goal of developing 1,000GW of new renewable energy projects globally, including plans for up to 40GW in Australia. Fortescue has also committed to invest at least 10 per cent of future earnings into the ‘future industries’ business.

The new Green Hydrogen Organisation will have a presence across Australia, the United States and Europe. It will be led by the former head of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, Jonas Moberg.

Michael Mazengarb is a journalist with RenewEconomy, based in Sydney. Before joining RenewEconomy, Michael worked in the renewable energy sector for more than a decade.

Andrew Forrest spearheads global green hydrogen push
Bloomberg News | September 23, 2021 | 

Andrew Forrest (Credit: Ernst & Young)

Iron ore billionaire Andrew Forrest and former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will spearhead a new global body to promote greater use of hydrogen produced from renewable sources, targeting a 25% slice of the world energy market by 2050.


The Green Hydrogen Organization, to be known as GH2, was unveiled in New York Thursday to coincide with climate and energy discussions between world leaders at the United Nations. The group will seek to engage with governments to establish energy policies that stimulate demand and markets for the fuel, it said in a document.

“Green hydrogen is the sleeping giant of the energy transition and I believe it will have a bigger impact on tackling climate change than any other technology,” Forrest, chairman of Fortescue Metals Group Ltd. and founding member of the GH2 Board, said in a statement.

Forrest says his Fortescue business is pivoting to become a major clean energy producer over the next decade, and is trialing programs that use hydrogen as a substitute for metallurgical coal in the steel-making process.

While hydrogen produced from solar and wind power is not currently able to compete on cost with fossil fuels as a major source of energy supply, it is widely touted as the best future option to decarbonize industries like steel, cement, fertilizers, shipping and aviation.

GH2, of which Turnbull will be chairman, will host an international Green Hydrogen summit in Barcelona next May 2022.

(By James Thornhill)

 

Two New, Rare Freshwater Mussel Species Discovered

Sep 7, 2021 by News Staff / Source

An international team of scientists has discovered two new species of freshwater mussels endemic to the island of Borneo and established a new genus for them.

Khairuloconcha lunbawangorum and Khairuloconcha sahanae. Image credit: Zieritz et al., doi: 10.1002/aqc.3695.

Freshwater mussels are a crucial part of many freshwater habitats globally.

They live on the bottom of all kinds of freshwater habitats, where they filter algae, bacteria and other organisms from the water, thereby acting as biological filters and playing a major role in nutrient cycling.

They can remove algae, bacteria and other material at a rate of about one liter of water per hour per mussel.

Much of this material is subsequently transported to the benthos (organisms living on the bottom of the habitat), providing food for insects and other invertebrates, which thrive in mussel beds in terms of both abundance and diversity.

The island of Borneo has an exceptionally high number of freshwater mussels, with 15 of the 20 currently recognized native species being restricted to the island.

The two new species, named Khairuloconcha lunbawangorum and Khairuloconcha sahanae, are known from the basins of Limbang and Kinabatangan rivers, respectively.

“The new species are very rare, known only from a single site each (one in Sarawak, one in Sabah), and highly threatened by ongoing habitat destruction,” said Dr. Alexandra Zieritz, a researcher in the School of Geography at the University of Nottingham and the School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences at the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus.

“One of these species is at especially high risk of extinction, as the only site it’s known from has already been dedicated for an industrial oil palm plantation.”

“We are in the process of preparing the paperwork with the University of Malaysia Sarawak to get this area protected.”

“This would not only help the unique biodiversity in this area but also the indigenous Lun Bawang tribe after which we named that species, Khairuloconcha lunbawangorum.”

The declines of existing populations of freshwater mussels on Borneo have likely been caused by industrial-scale deforestation and land-use change from primary rainforest to agricultural monocultures (predominantly oil palm plantations).

“These practices result in high levels of soil erosion, strongly increasing sediment yield (amount of sediment run-off), and organic and inorganic pollution (via agricultural run-off) of rivers, all of which negatively affects freshwater mussels directly, by degrading habitat quality, or indirectly by reducing host fish populations that they require to complete their life cycles,” the researchers said.

“Other potential drivers of declines in Borneo’s freshwater mussel populations include pollution from domestic and industrial sewage, hydrological alterations, mining, climate change and invasive species.”

The study appears in the journal Aquatic Conservation.

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Alexandra Zieritz et al. A new genus and two new, rare freshwater mussel (Bivalvia: Unionidae) species endemic to Borneo are threatened by ongoing habitat destruction. Aquatic Conservation, published online September 3, 2021; doi: 10.1002/aqc.3695

 

Researchers Identify Seven Behavior and Personality Traits in Cats

Sep 9, 2021 by News Staff / Source

A team of scientists at the University of Helsinki has studied cat personality and behavior by collecting a large dataset of 4,316 cats from 56 different breeds, house cats and mixed breed cats, with online questionnaires.

Mikkola et al. examined the structure, test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity of a feline behavior and personality questionnaire and briefly examined the breed differences in personality and behavior. Image credit: Jan Mallander.

Cats have personalities, just like humans and other animals, with stable behavior differences between individuals.

Identification of a cat’s personality type is important as cats with different personalities have different environmental needs to reach a good life quality.

For example, active individuals may need more enrichment, such as playing, than less active individuals, and fearful cats may benefit from extra hiding places and owners’ peaceful lifestyle.

Cat behavior and personality have been studied with different approaches, for example, with owner-completed questionnaires.

The majority of these studies, however, lack a sufficient validation and reliability assessment of the questionnaires used.

“Compared to dogs, less is known about the behavior and personality of cats, and there is demand for identifying related problems and risk factors,” said first author Salla Mikkola, a doctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki and the Folkhälsan Research Center.

“We need more understanding and tools to weed out problematic behavior and improve cat welfare.”

“The most common behavioral challenges associated with cats relate to aggression and inappropriate elimination.”

In a questionnaire designed by the team, personality and behavior were surveyed through a total of 138 statements.

The questionnaire included five personality and two problematic behavior-related factors: activity/playfulness, fearfulness, aggression towards humans, sociability towards humans, sociability towards cats, litterbox issues, and excessive grooming.

“While the number of traits identified in prior research varies, activity/playfulness, fearfulness and aggression are the ones from among the traits identified in our study which occur the most often in prior studies,” Mikkola said.

“Litterbox issues and excessive grooming are not personality traits as such, but they can indicate something about the cat’s sensitivity to stress.”

“In addition to individuals, clear personality differences can be found between breeds. In other words, certain personality and behavior traits are more common among certain cat breeds.”

“The most fearful breed was the Russian Blue, while the Abyssinian was the least fearful,” said senior author Professor Hannes Lohi, also from the University of Helsinki and the Folkhälsan Research Center.

“The Bengal was the most active breed, while the Persian and Exotic were the most passive.”

“The breeds exhibiting the most excessive grooming were the Siamese and Balinese, while the Turkish Van breed scored considerably higher in aggression towards humans and lower in sociability towards cats.”

The team’s results appear in the journal Animals.

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Salla Mikkola et al. 2021. Reliability and Validity of Seven Feline Behavior and Personality Traits. Animals 11 (7): 1991; doi: 10.3390/ani11071991

 

Scientists Observe Biofluorescence in Burrowing Mammals for First Time

Sep 21, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of researchers led by the University of Georgia has documented ultraviolet biofluorescence in live southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) and in museum specimens of four additional gopher species.

Southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) are biofluorescent, giving off a colored glow when illuminated with UV light. Image credit: Pynne et al., doi: 10.1674/0003-0031-186.1.150.

“Ultraviolet (UV) biofluorescence has been extensively documented in plants, invertebrates, and vertebrates,” said lead author Dr. J.T. Pynne from the D. B. Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia and colleagues.

“Among vertebrates, biofluorescence is widespread in fish, amphibians, and birds. However, documented occurrences of biofluorescence are limited in reptiles and mammals.”

“Biofluorescence in mammal pelage previously was known from the family Didelphidae (New World opossums), but recently was documented in the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), New World flying squirrels (Glaucomys sp.), the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus), and the family Pedetidae (springhares).”

“Presence in monotremes and metatherians suggests biofluorescence may be a retained characteristic from the nocturnal lifestyle of early mammals, but occurrence in multiple eutherian lineages raises questions about the evolutionary and ecological significance.”

In the new study, Dr. Pynne and co-authors used a handheld UV light to determine presence and extent of fluorescence on the pelage, bare skin and in the cheek pouches of captured southeastern pocket gophers.

“When held under UV light, all live individuals examined fluoresced bright orange-pink on the venter with duller fluorescence on the dorsum,” they said.

“Biofluorescence was brighter on the legs and chin where pelage color is lighter. Some individuals also fluoresced blue around the mouth and vibrissae.”

The researchers also tested specimens of four pocket gopher species — plains pocket gophers (Geomys bursarius), desert pocket gophers (Geomys arenarius), northern pocket gophers (Thomomys talpoides), and yellow-faced pocket gophers (Cratogeomys castanops) — archived at the Georgia Museum of Natural History.

The specimens fluoresced similar colors, though visual intensity was reduced relative to the live individuals examined.

“While the reason for pocket gophers’ and other animals’ ability to glow under UV light is still up for debate, it can serve as a unique introduction to the animals’ world,” Dr. Pynne said.

“With UV flashlights readily available, most anyone can highlight a foraging opossum in their backyard, for example, or watch how different insects light up at night.”

The findings were published in The American Midland Naturalist.

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J.T. Pynne et al. 2021. Ultraviolet Biofluorescence in Pocket Gophers. The American Midland Naturalist 186 (1): 150-155; doi: 10.1674/0003-0031-186.1.150

 

Study: Vampire Bats Prefer to Hunt with Socially Bonded Roostmates

Sep 23, 2021 by News Staff / Source

 

During nightly foraging trips, closely bonded females of common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) depart their roost separately, but often reunite far outside the roost to hunt together, says a new paper published today in the journal PLoS Biology.

The common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus). Image credit: Uwe Schmidt.

Vampire bats roost together in trees where they can be observed grooming each other and even sharing regurgitated blood meals with hungry roostmates.

Previous research has shown this cooperative behavior is directed towards close relatives and social partners.

In the new study, Dr. Simon Ripperger and Dr. Gerald Carter from the Ohio State University, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and the the Museum fur Naturkunde at the Leibniz-Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, aimed to investigate whether the bats’ social bonds also influence their foraging behavior.

The researchers attached tiny proximity sensors to 50 female vampire bats — including 27 wild bats and 23 that had been captive for nearly 2 years — before releasing them back into their wild roost on a cattle pasture in Tolé, Panama.

They found that although the tagged bats almost never left the roost together, closely bonded females often re-united far from the roost.

Bats that associated with more partners in the roost also met up with more partners during foraging trips.

“The bats may meet up with trusted partners during foraging trips to share information about hosts or access to an open wound,” the scientists said.

“This collaboration might save on the time and effort involved in selecting and preparing a wound site on the cattle.”

“The downward sweeping calls, which are similar to contact calls used to recognize partners in the roost, may also help the bats to identify friends and foes on the wing.”

“How far does ‘friendship’ go? We show that social bonds of vampire bats are not restricted to grooming and food sharing at the roost, but bonded individuals even hunt together, highlighting the complexity of their social relationships.”

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S.P. Ripperger & G.G. Carter. 2021. Social foraging in vampire bats is predicted by long-term cooperative relationships. PLoS Biol 19 (9): e3001366; doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001366

 

Bipedal Dinosaurs Wagged Their Tail while Running, New Study Reveals

Sep 23, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The tail of bipedal non-avian dinosaurs played a role analogous to the swinging arms of humans during walking and running, according to new research led by Harvard University’s Dr. Peter Bishop.

Computer simulations of running locomotion in a modern tinamou bird (brown) and the extinct theropod dinosaur Coelophysis (green). Gray tiles – 50 cm. Image credit: Bishop et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abi7348.

“Previous studies have always treated non-avian dinosaur tails as a static rear extension of the pelvis that acted as a counterbalance,” Dr. Bishop said.

“Essentially, our findings show that dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor wagged their tails from side to side when they ran, which helped them stay balanced.”

“When I first saw the simulation results I was very surprised, but after running a range of further simulations making the tails heavier, lighter and even no tail at all, we were able to conclusively demonstrate that the tail wagging was a means of controlling angular momentum throughout their gait.”

In the study, Dr. Bishop and colleagues performed computer simulations of running locomotion in the tinamou (Eudromia elegans), a living analog for non-avian theropods.

The three-dimensional, muscle-driven simulations accurately replicated movements in the bird.

The authors then applied their validated framework to a previously developed musculoskeletal model of Coelophysis, a bipedal non-avian theropod dinosaur that lived during the Triassic period, some 210 million years ago.

“We focused on a striding, parasagittal, obligate biped with a pronograde trunk and a long, heavy tail — a body plan that died out 66 million years ago,” they said.

“Unexpectedly, our Coelophysis running simulation involved marked tail lateroflexion that was coupled with hindlimb protraction-retraction.”

The study moves beyond speculation of the tail’s importance, and mechanically demonstrates a previously unrecognized, crucial and 3D dynamic role.

“These cutting-edge, three-dimensional simulations show that we’ve still got much to learn about dinosaurs,” said Professor John Hutchinson, a researcher at the Royal Veterinary College.

“Our results raise interesting questions about how dinosaur tails were used in a whole array of behaviors, not just including locomotion, and how these functions evolved.”

The findings were published in the journal Science Advances.

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Peter J. Bishop et al. 2021. Predictive simulations of running gait reveal a critical dynamic role for the tail in bipedal dinosaur locomotion. Science Advances 7 (39); doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abi7348

Fossil of Earliest Known Ankylosaur Unearthed in Morocco

Sep 24, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro


The newly-discovered dinosaur species, Spicomellus afer, is the earliest-known ankylosaur and the first ankylosaur to be named from Africa.

Life reconstruction of the armored dinosaur Borealopelta markmitchelli, which lived in what is now Alberta, Canada, some 110 million years ago, eating ferns. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi / Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Spicomellus afer lived in what is now Morocco during the Middle Jurassic period, some 168 million years ago.

The new species belongs to Ankylosauria, a diverse group of armored herbivorous dinosaurs.

Ankylosaurs diverged from their sister-taxon, Stegosauria, in the Early or Middle Jurassic, but their fossil record at this time is extremely sparse.

Spicomellus afer is not only the first found in Africa, but also the earliest example of the group ever discovered.

“Ankylosaurs had armored spikes that are usually embedded in their skin and not fused to bone,” said Dr. Susannah Maidment, a researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences at the Natural History Museum and honorary senior lecturer in the School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham.

“In this specimen we see a series of spikes attached to the rib, which must have protruded above the skin covered by a layer of something like keratin.”

“It is completely unprecedented and unlike anything else in the animal kingdom.”



The specimen of Spicomellus afer consists of a rib with spiked dermal armor fused to its dorsal surface. Image credit: Maidment et al., doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01553-6

The new specimen is a slightly curved dorsal rib fragment with four elongate, conical spines.

It was found at a site in the Middle Atlas Mountains in Morocco — the same site where paleontologists previously discovered Adratiklit boulahfa, the oldest stegosaur ever found.

“Morocco seems to hold some real gems in terms of dinosaur discoveries,” Dr. Maidment said.

“In just this one site we have described both the oldest stegosaur and the oldest ankylosaur ever found.”

The specimen fills a gap in the fossil record of Ankylosauria, suggesting that shortly after their evolution, ankylosaurs had attained a global distribution, and indicates an important but as yet undiscovered armored dinosaur fossil record in the Jurassic of the supercontinent Gondwana.

The discovery also calls into question a previous theory that ankylosaurs outcompeted stegosaurs and led to their extinction.

“Stegosaurs appear to have gone extinct in the Early Cretaceous, at the same time that ankylosaurs increased in diversity, leading to suggestions that ankylosaurs outcompeted stegosaurs,” the paleontologists said.

“However, both clades co-occurred in Jurassic ecosystems. This indicates long-term ecological overlap between stegosaurs and ankylosaurs for over 20 million years, suggesting that the decline of stegosaurs may have been for reasons other than competition with ankylosaurs.”

The study was published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.

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S.C.R. Maidment et al. Bizarre dermal armour suggests the first African ankylosaur. Nat Ecol Evol, published online September 23, 2021; doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01553-6

 Mantle beneath Earth’s Continents Experienced Large-Scale Heating Two Billion Years Ago

Sep 24, 2021 

New research from the University of Adelaide sheds light on why cold eclogites — high-pressure, metamorphic rocks that consist primarily of garnet and omphacite — mysteriously disappeared from geological records during the early stages of the Earth’s development.




The supercontinent Nuna about 1.59 billion years ago. Image credit: Alexandre DeZotti.

“Cold eclogites mysteriously disappeared from the Earth’s rock record between 1.8 and 1.2 billion years ago before reappearing after this time,” said Dr. Derrick Hasterok, a researcher in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Adelaide.

“They are important because they are sensitive to the temperatures in the upper mantle and provide evidence of rocks rapidly transported deep below Earth’s surface along geological faults lines that occur where tectonic plates collide.”

“The prevailing belief is that cold eclogites are preserved only when supercontinents merged,” he said.

“But there is ample evidence for a nearly continuous geological record of cold eclogites over the past 700 million years during which time two supercontinents formed and broke-up.”

Associated with this change in eclogites is a change in the concentration of many trace elements in igneous rocks found elsewhere in the crust, which provide additional evidence of heating beneath continents.

These trace elements are found in critical minerals, which are considered vital for the economic well-being of the world’s major and emerging economies.

“We found evidence from the trace element chemistry of granites that suggests a large-scale heating of the continents around 2 billion years ago that corresponds with the assembly of Nuna (also known as Columbia, Paleopangaea, and Hudsonland), a supercontinent which completed its formation 1.6 billion years ago,” said Dr. Renee Tamblyn, also from the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Adelaide.

“The Earth has generally been cooling since its formation but Nuna had an insulating effect on the mantle, rather like a thick blanket, which caused temperatures to rise beneath the continents and prevent the preservation of eclogites and change the chemistry of granites.”

“The changes in chemistry resulting from this unusual warming event during Earth’s geologic past could help to locate certain critical minerals by looking for rocks formed before or after this heating event — depending on which element is of being looked for.”

The findings were published in the journal Geology.

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R. Tamblyn et al. Mantle heating at ca. 2 Ga by continental insulation: Evidence from granites and eclogites. Geology, published online September 21, 2021; doi: 10.1130/G49288.1

Geological cold case may reveal critical minerals

by University of Adelaide

Credit: University of Adelaide

Researchers on the hunt for why cold eclogites mysteriously disappeared from geological records during the early stages of the Earth's development may have found the answer, and with it clues that could help locate critical minerals today.

"Cold eclogites mysteriously disappeared from the Earth's rock record between 1.8 and 1.2 billion years ago before reappearing after this time," said Dr. Derrick Hasterok, Lecturer, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Adelaide.

"Cold eclogites are important because they are sensitive to the temperatures in the upper mantle and provide evidence of rocks rapidly transported deep below Earth's surface along geological faults lines that occur where tectonic plates collide.

"The prevailing belief is that cold eclogites are preserved only when supercontinents merged. But there is ample evidence for a nearly continuous geological record of cold eclogites over the past 700 million years during which time two supercontinents formed and broke-up."

Eclogites are high-pressure, metamorphic rocks that consist primarily of garnet and omphacite (a sodium-rich variety of pyroxene).

Associated with this change in eclogites is a change in the concentration of many trace elements in igneous rocks found elsewhere in the crust, which provide additional evidence of heating beneath continents. These trace elements are found in critical minerals. Critical minerals are considered vital for the economic well-being of the world's major and emerging economies.

Lead author Dr. Renee Tamblyn worked with Dr. Hasterok and fellow researchers Professor Martin Hand and Ph.D. student Matthew Gard from the University of Adelaide on the study which was published in the journal Geology.

"We found evidence from the trace element chemistry of granites that suggests a large-scale heating of the continents around 2 billion years ago that corresponds with the assembly of Nuna, a supercontinent which completed its formation 1.6 billion years ago," said Dr. Tamblyn.

"The Earth has generally been cooling since its formation but Nuna had an insulating effect on the mantle, rather like a thick blanket, which caused temperatures to rise beneath the continents and prevent the preservation of eclogites and change the chemistry of granites.

"The changes in chemistry resulting from this unusual warming event during Earth's geologic past could help to locate certain critical minerals by looking for rocks formed before or after this heating event—depending on which element is of being looked for."

Much of Western Australia is older than 2 billion years while South Australia and the eastern states are generally younger.

"The rocks in the Northern Territory and NW Queensland are a little older than the 1.8 billion year mark so may be a place where we can continue our investigations into this mysterious geological case," said Dr. Hasterok.

New model suggests lost continents for early Earth

More information: R. Tamblyn et al, Mantle heating at ca. 2 Ga by continental insulation: Evidence from granites and eclogites, Geology (2021). DOI: 10.1130/G49288.1

Journal information: Geology 

Provided by University of Adelaide