Fed’s Kaplan, Rosengren to Sell All Stocks Amid Ethics Concerns

Catarina Saraiva
Thu., September 9, 2021, 3:30 p.m.·1 min read

(Bloomberg) -- The presidents of the Federal Reserve banks of Boston and Dallas said Thursday they would sell their individual stock holdings by Sept. 30 and invest the proceeds in diversified index funds or hold them in cash.

Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Fed, and Robert Kaplan, president of the Dallas Fed, released near-identical statements Thursday after their 2021 financial disclosure documents showed investments in a variety of stocks and other financial instruments.

Rosengren’s disclosure listed stakes in four separate real estate investment trusts and disclosed multiple purchases and sales in those and other securities, the documents show.

Kaplan, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. executive, showed multiple $1 million-plus transactions last year as the U.S. economy was convulsed by Covid-19.

California Seeks to Avert Blackouts by Burning More Gas

Mark Chediak and Naureen S. Malik
Thu., September 9, 2021, 


(Bloomberg) -- California is asking the federal government to declare an “electric reliability emergency” so the Golden State can lean more heavily on fossil fuels to avoid blackouts.

The state’s main grid operator wants the U.S. Department of Energy to suspend air-pollution rules for some natural gas-burning power plants in case their output is needed “to meet demand in the face of extremely challenging conditions including extreme heat waves, multiple fires, high winds, and various grid issues,” according to a filing. The last time California received a waiver of such length and breadth was 21 years ago during the Western Energy Crisis.

For a second straight day, authorities urged residents of the biggest U.S. state to conserve energy as a heat wave boosts air-conditioning use.

The emergency request highlights the conflict between California’s green aspirations and the physical reality that wind and solar thus far haven’t been able to cover power shortfalls exacerbated by the shuttering of gas-fired generators. The California Independent System Operator has warned of looming electricity shortages several times this summer.

An emergency declaration by the Energy Department would allow new gas units recently ordered by the state to connect to the grid by the middle of this month, the California ISO said in its filing. It would also relax pollution limits for some other gas plants that would otherwise be forced to temporarily halt power production.

A similar emergency order was issued during the deadly Texas freeze that triggered widespread blackouts, Energy Department spokesman Kevin Liao said.

Clean Energy will drive Deep-Sea Mining to become a $100 billion plus industry, but U.S. can't participate

 

Kitco News  Thursday September 09, 2021 

(Kitco News) - The U.S. has locked itself out from the next major mining frontier -- deep sea mining -- while China leads the world in it, said Alex Gilbert. Achieving the goal of net zero emissions by 2050 would require six times more of certain minerals that are currently mined by 2040, according to the International Energy Agency. This has led to a demand in deep sea mining.

Gilbert, who is a Fellow at the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, spoke to Michelle Makori, lead anchor and editor-in-chief of Kitco News.

There is a Law of the Sea Treaty set up in 1982 that regulates deep sea mining, but the U.S. cannot participate in deep sea mining because the U.S. did not ratify this treaty. "American companies cannot participate. American companies that are interested in deep sea mining have to go abroad and work as a multinational corporation with their foreign subsidiaries," Gilbert said.

"The country that has received the most exploration permits for deep sea mining so far is China. For the U.S., this is potentially a large concern from an economic competitiveness perspective, because currently China is the leading processor of metals around the world," Gilbert explained. "If you believe that we are going through this energy transition from a fossil fuel based energy system to one based on metals for clean energy, the U.S. plays a central role in the fossil fuel based commodity system."

The shift to clean energy is expected to drive a huge demand for many metals but the International Energy Agency reported that there isn't enough supply at current levels. "The U.S. doesn't have a central role in the supply chain for metals. China is quickly moving across the board, not just for deep sea mining, but around the world it has established claims and mines so it can dominate the supply chain of the future," Gilbert discussed. "The question is how broadly do we ensure critical mineral supply, but that's something the U.S. needs to figure out."

The lack of metal supply has led to a demand in deep sea mining. The global deep sea mining technologies market and equipment is expected to reach about $73 billion by 2030, according to Allied Market Research.

"The potential size of the deep-sea mining market is really large. It is a huge question mark, it's an industry that we are just on the verge of really birthing. We are in the exploration phase. We are moving closely toward the exploitation phase," said Gilbert. "This could be an industry that's anywhere from a very small cottage industry up to a global industry that is a juggernaut. It could be a hundred billion plus industry by 2040 or later."

Gilbert discussed that in order to meet the decarbonization goals we set internationally, it is imperative that we significantly increase the amount of mining we are doing. "The current production levels are not going to be sufficient," Gilbert said. "We are going to have to find new sources, rapidly develop new technologies that are using resources more efficiently, and we are going to need to use more recycling technologies."

In terms of investing in deep sea mining companies, Gilbert emphasized that "This is still an early industry, and he cautions investors to be careful. We see a fair amount of action happening primarily with a Canadian based company called Deep Green. It is currently going public as part of SPAC, which will be called the Metals Company going forward. It is targeting polymetallic nodules for electric vehicle supplies."

Critics of deep-sea mining say that harvesting these nodules on the bottom of the sea could do more harm than good in terms of decarbonization, and this could disturb the ecosystem dramatically. "One of the big issues that we are struggling with is that we only just started exploring the deep seabed in a systematic manner in terms of looking at the biology there. If this is going to be a major source of clean energy we need to resolve these environmental uncertainties, "Gilbert said.

Judge: County can't ban water delivery to Hmong pot farmers


Thu., September 9, 2021, 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A federal judge has ruled Northern California county officials can't stop trucks from delivering water to Hmong cannabis farmers, saying the practice raises “serious questions” about racial discrimination and leaves the growers without a source of water for drinking, bathing and growing food.

Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller last week issued a temporary injunction against Siskiyou County’s prohibition on trucked-in water deliveries to Hmong farmers growing marijuana in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision in the Big Springs area north of the town of Weed.

“Without an injunction, the plaintiffs and other members of the Shasta Vista Hmong community will likely go without water for their basic needs and will likely lose more plants and livestock,” she wrote in the ruling issued last Friday.

“The plaintiffs have also raised serious questions about their constitutional right to be free from racial discrimination,” she added.

Mueller’s injunction takes effect immediately and will remain in place until the conclusion of a federal lawsuit filed by the Hmong community against county ordinances aimed at cutting off the water supply to illegal marijuana grows. They allege the ordinances were racially motivated and violated their civil rights. No trial date has been scheduled, the Sacramento Bee reported.

Authorities estimate there are 5,000 to 6,000 greenhouses growing pot in the Big Springs area, with as many as 4,000 to 8,000 people tending them, most of them Hmong and immigrants of Chinese descent who have moved to the area in the last five years.

Siskiyou County officials this spring approved ordinances that prohibit selling well water without a permit and ban water trucks on the roads leading to the subdivision.

The permit forms are all written in English despite a language barrier for some residents, and the county requires anyone who signs an application to swear not to violate any county rules, which Mueller notes includes not having a proper water supply at their homes.

The ordinances were enacted after residents complained the expansion of the greenhouses was leading to local wells going dry and officials said there was a rise in violent crime.

The judge did leave in place a county ordinance that prohibits selling well water specifically for illegal cannabis cultivation. The injunction only covers water sales and deliveries for residents' needs such as bathing and gardening, said Allison Margolin, one of the attorneys for the Hmong.

Siskiyou County’s attorney, Edward Kiernan, didn’t immediately return a request for comment. In previous interviews, Siskiyou County officials denied their motivations were driven by race.

Mueller noted that the county does present its own compelling case that crime is on the rise.

“The Sheriff’s Office has responded to reports of armed robbery, assault, and murder. In just one recent week, a man was pistol-whipped and robbed, another was the target of gunshots fired by a neighbor, and six people were bound and robbed by gunmen wielding AK-47s. Few similar crimes were reported in Shasta Vista before illegal cannabis cultivation took hold,” she wrote.

Hmong growers also argued that the ban on water deprives them of the ability to put out any fires that start in the subdivision.

In late June, a lightning strike sparked the Lava Fire nearby before burning through several parcels in the Mount Shasta Vista subdivision.

The Hmong in Shasta Vista accused firefighters of not bothering to try to put it out, blocking them from bringing their own water trucks so they could fight the fire themselves.

Local authorities disputed those charges and said the marijuana farmers blocked roads, threw rocks and forced Cal Fire crews to retreat.

The tensions became deadly when officers shot and killed a Hmong man who they say tried to drive through a fire checkpoint brandishing a gun.

County officials say the investigation into the shooting is ongoing. Authorities haven’t yet released the final report or body camera or dash camera footage taken of the shooting.

The Associated Press

Lawsuit: Farm hired white immigrants over Black US laborers


Thu., September 9, 2021

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Six Black farmworkers in Mississippi say in a new lawsuit that their former employer brought white laborers from South Africa to do the same jobs they were doing, and that the farm has been violating federal law by paying the white immigrants more for the same type of work.

Mississippi Center for Justice and Southern Migrant Legal Services filed the federal lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of the six workers against Pitts Farm Partnership, which grows cotton, soybeans and corn in the Mississippi Delta's Sunflower County.

The lawsuit said the farm violated regulations of a foreign worker visa program, which requires equal treatment of U.S. workers and their immigrant counterparts. It seeks an unspecified amount in damages, including money the U.S. workers say they were shorted because of the uneven pay scale.

The Associated Press left messages by phone and email with Pitts Farms seeking comment about the lawsuit. There was no immediate response by Thursday afternoon.

Four of the plaintiffs — Andrew Johnson, Wesley Reed, Gregory Strong and Richard Strong — said they did agricultural work from February through November and Pitts Farm Partnership usually paid them the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, with $8.25 an hour for weekend work.

Two of the plaintiffs, Stacy Griffin and James Simpson, drove trucks for the farming operation during harvest time, usually from late July or early August through November. The lawsuit said they had been paid $9 an hour since 2018.

The farm paid the white workers from South Africa $9.87 an hour in 2014 and that rate increased most years until it reached $11.83 an hour in 2020, the lawsuit said.

Amal Bouhabib, an attorney for Southern Migrant Legal Services, said the H-2A program allows U.S. farmers to hire foreign workers when no U.S. workers are available.

“It does not allow farmers to pay their American workforce less than the foreign workers, or to replace willing and able U.S. workers," Bouhabib said in a news release.

The lawsuit said the Pitts family hired a white supervisor who gave employees their daily duties and had the power to hire and fire workers.

“Occasionally, the supervisor used racial slurs,” the lawsuit said. “Pitts Farms was informed about the supervisor’s use of racial slurs and did nothing.”

The lawsuit said the farm started bringing in white workers from South Africa in 2014, using a placement firm to hire seasonal labor, and that from 2014 to 2020, the farm did not make the same effort to recruit U.S. workers as it did to obtain immigrant workers.

Ty Pinkins of the Mississippi Center for Justice said in the news release that with high unemployment in the Mississippi Delta, “it is unacceptable and unlawful" for farmers to hire outside workers when local residents need jobs.

"Unfortunately, this case is emblematic of a disastrous pattern in the South. Our research indicates that farm owners are increasingly abusing the H-2A program and denying opportunities to U.S. workers,” Pinkins said. “The case also reflects our nation’s deep, ugly history of exploiting Black labor. For too long, powerful businesses have abused Black Americans for profit.”

Mississippi is a largely rural state with poultry, soybeans, timber, cotton and corn as the top agricultural products.

In August 2019, U.S. immigration agents raided seven chicken processing plants in Mississippi and arrested 680 mostly Latino workers in the largest such operation in at least a decade. Two years after the raid, Mississippi Center for Justice said about 230 people had been deported because of previous immigration orders or other causes, and about 400 were awaiting hearings.

____

Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.

Emily Wagster Pettus, The Associated Press

Immigrant Sept. 11 cleanup crews seek residency as a reward

Wed., September 8, 2021



NEW YORK (AP) — Franklin Anchahua cleared thick layers of dust in offices, apartments and even in a chapel in lower Manhattan for weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

At first, he treated his heartburn and acid reflux with herbs his mother would send from Peru. He avoided available health programs because he lives illegally in the U.S. and feared deportation.

Until the discomfort was too much.

“It was awful. I needed medical treatment, a specialist. I also had breathing problems,” said Anchahua, 50, who sought care for the first time at Bellevue Hospital in 2011.

He and other immigrants, mostly Spanish-speaking clean up workers, have long asked to obtain legal immigration status in the U.S. as a way to compensate for the work and subsequent health problems they suffered after the attacks.

But 20 years after 9/11, only several dozens are still participating in protests and making the request, while others have abandoned that fight.

“It is hard to find a job here without immigration status,” Anchahua said. “Attorneys who helped us years ago told us we would get immigration papers but, look, 20 years have passed and we have nothing."

Not as visible as those who worked on the World Trade Center rubble pile, some of these cleaners didn’t seek medical help immediately because they feared deportation, ignored how to navigate the application process or did not know help was available.

While some say they feel forgotten by the U.S. government, others returned to Latin America.

Hired informally by cleaning companies, they cleared debris, asbestos and dust inside lower Manhattan buildings for months without adequate protective gear. Some are struggling to cope with how the disaster transformed their lives, saying they are also treated for anxiety, depression and post traumatic disorder.

A few of them are organizing a small protest in October to push the government to establish a pathway for legal residency for immigrant cleanup workers.

They have done similar protests in the past. Former U.S. Rep. Joseph Crowley announced a bill in 2017 to put Sept. 11 responders and cleanup workers on a fast track to legal immigration status in the U.S. His office estimated then that 1,000 to 2,000 immigrants would be covered.

The bill did not go very far; it was not reintroduced by any of Congressman Crowley’s fellow cosponsors after he retired.

The office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who defeated Crowley in midterm election primaries in 2018, told AP it was “actively” exploring the possibility of reintroducing the bill.

“The Congresswoman is also supportive of greater immigration reform, co-sponsoring many pieces of legislation that would have provided a path to citizenship for these workers as well as others,” said Ocasio-Cortez spokesperson Lauren Hitt.

While many of the cleaners were from Latin America, others were from Poland and other European countries. They organized in different groups and shared information about medical help and forms of compensation.

Rosa Bramble Caballero, a licensed clinical social worker, has helped these workers for 15 years, first in partnership with state and local programs to assist them and afterward voluntarily, organizing meetings at the basement of her office in Queens.

Dozens of cleanup workers have shown up there to talk, eat chicken and cheese empanadas, and sip coffee together.

“This became a space so they could feel safe, talk about their lives, about their needs, but most of all, support each other, not feel alone,” said Bramble Caballero.

Lucelly Gil, a 65-year-old Colombian, is a regular at the Queens gatherings.

She received compensation from the federal victims fund after developing breast cancer and takes medication for rhinitis and gastritis. She is being treated for depression and uses an asthma inhaler.

Gil spent six months cleaning debris in lower Manhattan, at government offices, banks and restaurants. She made about $60 for every eight hours of work.

She said she had nightmares for a long time after seeing first responders retrieve body parts. She vividly remembers her cough while working and the rashes in her skin after tearing down fiberglass insulating paper from walls.

“Instead of giving us some compensation, they could have given us (immigration) papers,” she said. “All of us, all of the Hispanic workers, we saw the consequences of that cleanup work later on."

More than 112,000 people have enrolled in the federal World Trade Center Health Program, which offers free medical care to people who can document that they were exposed to dust from the twin towers, regardless of their immigration status.

Many of those enrollees have mild or controllable conditions, like heartburn, chronic sinus problems or asthma, that are common in the general public and may or may not be linked to the attacks. Others are more seriously ill or developed conditions rare for their age group.

Joan Reibman, medical director at the World Trade Center Environmental Health Center, which has treated cleanup workers for years, said that many of them have developed a significant reduction in lung function, digestive disorders and PTSD.

“They were exposed to terrible sights in those days,” she said.

They faced barriers in seeking care, like economic vulnerabilities and not belonging to a union, she said.

“Many of them were not aware of the programs because they were not connected in the same way that many other responders were. Many of them were also not English speakers,” said Reibman.

About 800 cleanup workers are treated at the WTC Environmental Health Center, one of several places they could potentially get care.

The medical programs do not ask about immigration status.

About four years ago, Anchahua, the Peruvian immigrant, received $52,000 after filing a claim against the cleaning company he worked for in lower Manhattan after the attacks. Early last year he moved back to Peru to assist her elderly mother and a sick brother.

He decided, however, to return to New York this year after not finding work in his homeland and concluding that he needed to continue medical treatment. He asked the U.S. government for a humanitarian visa, which was denied. He crossed the border illegally through Mexico last month.

Luis Soriano, another cleanup worker, also left for Latin America but decided not to return to the U.S.

“My mother was getting old so I moved to Ecuador in 2016. But my health wasn't great," said the 59-year-old artisan mannequin maker in a phone interview.

Soriano cleared debris for three months around Fulton Street. He still sometimes feels fatigue or shortness of breath.. Medication for that, however, is expensive in Ecuador and he can’t afford it, he said.

“We need to be remembered. We were all immigrants who contributed to the U.S. We worked hard there, paid taxes, grew old there. Some cleanup workers I knew died of cancer,” he said. “We should all be remembered for what we did.”

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/09/thousands-suffer-health-effects-of.html

Mars Homes, Residences in Post-Apocalyptic Setting Shown in 3D Architecture Including Drone-Like Flying Houses, Domes, Aquatic Pods

Margaret Davis Sep 09, 2021 06:47 AM EDT

Architect Chris Lawson reimagines future homes on Earth would look. According to New York Post, Lawson specifically laid out his plans on four types of homes for different conditions, such as a home on land, in the clouds, underwater, and even an underground post-apocalyptic type.

Each home is designed with materials that can withstand the elements of its environment. GoodMove , a real estate development company, and a 3D designer brought Lawson's sketches to life to show a futuristic view of houses in different settings.

Lawson's Four Types of Future Homes

NASA and its partners, like SpaceX, try to make the dream of living on Mars possible through the Mars mission program that sends orbiters, and rovers on the Red Planet to study its composition, terrain, atmosphere, and whether it once hosted life in the past. As they move on to send the first manned mission to Mars by 2030, Lawson believes a bubble-like dome could be the shelter for future humans.

Lawson explains that the dome would allow easier layering from the upper and lower level for farming crops and adding solar panels outside to promote self-reliant energy. It would be made of either titanium, heavy-duty plastic, or glass to bear the weight of the dome and make it functional.

Moreover, flying homes are also a possibility given the myriad of technological advances today. GoodMove said that these flying homes would resemble the shape of drones today, except they would be bigger with gigantic propellers that will continuously spin for the house to continually fly in the air.

The third type of home Lawson designed are pods that are ideal for aquatic living. It somewhat resembles the Mars dome, but only it is designed to float on the water. Since Earth is 71% covered by water, it is an ideal aquatic type of home.

The aquatic home will be built using glass or heavy-duty plastic to hold up against the water. GoodMove also pointed out that lift access would be required so people could get back to the surface as some parts of the structure would be sitting beneath the waves.

Lastly, the fourth type of home would be the apocalyptic home. It is built and designed to be sturdier than common homes inspired by the possibility that humans may have to live in an apocalypse in the future. Lawson and GoodMove envision a nicer version of post-apocalyptic houses that are built underground for optimal safety, and windows or surface domes that are built-in hillsides.

Also, the futuristic design allows for fresh air to come in and an external vent or tube to filter that air. Mirrors will also be included to allow sunlight in for crop production.

ALSO READ: Ancient Homes Unearthed at German Stonehenge; Archeologists Consider It an Archeology Breakthrough

Home on Mars

(Photo : Wikimedia Commons)
Artist's concept of Martian habitat Mars has air, but not the kind that people can breathe. Even on the warmest days, the temperature is too cold for people to live comfortably. When astronauts go to Mars, they will always need to be in spacesuits or inside buildings to live.

So, how about Martian habitats for future manned missions? Although Lawson did not release any sketches for a possible home on Mars, NASA and other organizations have been designing possible Martian shelters for the future colony on the Red Planet.

For instance, NASA is studying using 3D printers that will use soil from Mars to print habitats for astronauts. According to a previous report from Science Times, they would employ 3D printing to make parts, tools, and other electronics that are essential for the habitat.

Additionally, there was also a plan of using chitin-derived materials to build parts and tools that are needed to build a Martian habitat. Researchers from the Singapore University of Technology and Design are planning to use the organic substance to build shelters for future Mars missions.

Lastly, some scientists are also proposing using the hollow lava tubes beneath Mars as a temporary shelter from radiation. Although for now, NASA would still prefer for the astronauts to remain in secured spacecraft.

Did a Black Hole Cause a Rare, Premature Supernova? Scientists Explain How It Happened

Aubrey Clarke Sep 07, 2021 

Astronomers have found a new sort of supernova for the first time. After meeting with an incredibly massive object, maybe a black hole or a neutron star, an unfortunate star appears to have burst prematurely, leaving a distinct trace in the sky.

The narrative began when Caltech astronomer Dillon Dong saw an unusual signal in data collected by the Very Large Array (VLA) Sky Observatory in 2017. The said observatory continuously monitors the universe for radio emitters. This specific signal, known as VT 1210+4956, was a very bright radio wave pulse.

Researchers detailed the study findings, titled "A Transient Radio Source Consistent With a Merger-Triggered Core Collapse Supernova," in the journal Science.

Spotting a Star-Studded Mystery

Certain astronomical phenomena, particularly those that are unique, leave behind temporary calling cards. Short, brilliant bursts of radio waves that fade away rapidly are known as radio transients. Catching a glimpse of them at the proper time can show the explosive nature of merging stars.

CNN, citing Dong's interpretation of the event, said the explosive outburst occurred from a star engulfed by a thick shell of gas. The gas had been ejected from the star hundreds of years earlier. When the star exploded in a supernova, a brilliant explosion happened. When the exploding material collided with the gas shell, a brilliant burst of radio waves resulted.

(Photo: Chuck Carter/Caltech)
This illustration shows a massive star that is about to explode. The explosion was triggered after its dead-star companion (a black hole or neutron star) plunged into the star's core. Scientists say that the black hole or neutron star rammed into the massive star and then, as it traveled inward over the course of centuries, ejected a spiral of material from the star's atmosphere (pictured surrounding the star). When it reached the star's core, material from the core rapidly fell onto the stellar corpse, which led to the launching of a pair of jets at nearly the speed of light. In this artist's depiction, the jets are shown tunneling through the star and soon set off the supernova explosion. After a few years, the supernova will crash through the bulk of the ejected spiral, extending to about 10,000 times the size of the star. This will create the luminous transient radio source observed by the Very Large Array.

However, Dong had more doubts regarding when and why the star first expelled its gas.

In a statement, Caltech graduate student Anna Ho recommended that the radio transient be compared to known brilliant X-ray bursts that last barely a few seconds.

ALSO READ: Supernova Blast Captured: Kepler Space Telescope Reveals the Groundbreaking Data It Recorded 3 Years Ago

Weird, Unusual Event

Slashgear said Dong located X-rays in the exact location as the strong radio transient. The researchers indicated that they were most likely produced by the same source.

According to Dong, the X-ray transient was a rare occurrence. He added that the transient indicated the deployment of a jet at the time of the explosion. Relativistic jets are electrified matter beams that travel at almost the speed of light.

Dong said the debris from the explosion eventually collided with a huge torus of dense gas expelled from the star millennia before. These two occurrences have never been linked back, and they are incredibly unique on their own.

How VLT Solved The Weird Mystery

Tech News Taiwan, citing the researchers, said two stars were born and created a system of concatenations a long time ago. One of which died later in a supernova explosion and became a neutron star or black hole. But as gravity crossed paths with two objects closer to each other, the nearby star swallowed up the death star. It orbited in the outermost surface of the latter for hundreds of years.

Large masses of gas and dust were released around the star during this time to form a material shell. The massive energy jet from the death star was noticed in X-ray form by maxi in 2014, after which debris from the explosion hit the nearby material shell at high speed, making visible light and radio radiation, which was found by a vast antenna array.

A big star should have burst after running out of core fuel. Still, the event was triggered by a dead partner in the system pushing it into the ocean, causing the massive star to explode early, according to scientists.

Scientists discovered a 26-foot-long dinosaur with shark-like teeth that
ruled the food chain before the T. rex

Marianne Guenot

Thu, September 9, 2021

• Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that lived around 90 million years ago.

• It was about 26 feet long and weighed more than a ton.

• It would have been the largest carnivorous predator in that ecosystem at the time, scientists said.

• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Scientists have found a previously unknown, 26-foot-long dinosaur that ruled the food chain before the T. rex.

The study, a collaboration between University of Calgary in Canada and Tsukuba University in Japan, was published in the peer-reviewed journal Royal Society Open Science on Tuesday.

The Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis (pronounced oo-LOOG-bek-SAW-rus, according to CBS News) was a meat-eating dinosaur would have roamed Central Asia more than 90 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous Period.

It would have towered over other predators at the time, including the tyrannosaurus, which were a lot smaller than the T. rex, which appeared about 7 million years later.

The scientists estimated that the Ulughbegsaurus was about 26 feet long, according to a Tsukuba University statement. It also weighed more than 1,000 kilograms (1.1 tons), the study said.

"It would have been the largest carnivorous predator of the ecosystem at that time," said Darla Zelenitsky, associate professor of dinosaur paleobiology at the University of Calgary and one of the study's authors, per CBS News. 

The Ulughbegsaurus also had shark-like teeth, CBS News reported, with Zelenitsky calling the discovery "the latest occurrence of one of these shark-tooth dinosaurs."

The dinosaur was a type of carcharodontosaur, a group of dinosaurs in which there are only two other known species. The Ulughbegsaurus was named after Ulugh Beg, a sultan and astronomer who lived in the region in the 1400s.

The bone fragments and teeth that led to the discovery of the new dinosaur were unearthed from the Kyzylkum Desert in Uzbekistan in the 1980s, CBS News reported.

But Kohei Tanaka, a University of Tsukuba professor who led the study, was the first to realize that the pieces had belonged to an undiscovered species, per CBS News.

Powered By Planet Data, Allen Coral Atlas Completes Map of all the World’s Coral Reefs