“Cold Bone”: New Dinosaur Species Discovered That Lived on Greenland 214 Million Years Ago

By MARTIN LUTHER UNIVERSITY HALLE-WITTENBERG NOVEMBER 9, 2021

Living reconstruction of Issi saaneq, a newly discovered dinosaur that lived on Greenland 214 million years ago. Credit: Victor Beccari

The two-legged dinosaur Issi saaneq lived about 214 million years ago in what is now Greenland. It was a medium-sized, long-necked herbivore and a predecessor of the sauropods, the largest land animals ever to live. It was discovered by an international team of researchers from Portugal, Denmark, and Germany, including the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). The name of the new dinosaur pays tribute to Greenland’s Inuit language and means “cold bone.” The team reports on its discovery in the journal Diversity.

The initial remains of the dinosaur — two well-preserved skulls — were first unearthed in 1994 during an excavation in East Greenland by paleontologists from Harvard University. One of the specimens was originally thought to be from a Plateosaurus, a well-known long-necked dinosaur that lived in Germany, France, and Switzerland during the Triassic Period. Only a few finds from East Greenland have been prepared and thoroughly documented. “It is exciting to discover a close relative of the well-known Plateosaurus, hundreds of which have already been found here in Germany,” says co-author Dr. Oliver Wings from MLU.

Issi saaneq skulls (holotype on the top, paratype on the bottom). Picture and 3D models after the CT-scan. Credit: Victor Beccari

The team performed a micro-CT scan of the bones, which enabled them to create digital 3D models of the internal structures and the bones still covered by sediment. “The anatomy of the two skulls is unique in many respects, for example in the shape and proportions of the bones. These specimens certainly belong to a new species,” says lead author Victor Beccari, who carried out the analyses at NOVA University Lisbon.

The plant-eating dinosaur Issi saaneq lived around 214 million years ago during the Late Triassic Period. It was at this time that the supercontinent Pangaea broke apart and the Atlantic Ocean began forming. “At the time, the Earth was experiencing climate changes that enabled the first plant-eating dinosaurs to reach Europe and beyond,” explains Professor Lars Clemmensen from the University of Copenhagen.

The two skulls of the new species come from a juvenile and an almost adult individual. Apart from the size, the differences in bone structure are minor and only relate to proportions. The new Greenlandic dinosaur differs from all other sauropodomorphs discovered so far, however it does have similarities with dinosaurs found in Brazil, such as the Macrocollum and Unaysaurus, which are almost 15 million years older. Together with the Plateosaurus from Germany, they form the group of plateosaurids: relatively graceful bipeds that reached lengths of 3 to 10 meters.

The new findings are the first evidence of a distinct Greenlandic dinosaur species, which not only adds to the diverse range of dinosaurs from the Late Triassic (235-201 million years ago) but also allows us to better understand the evolutionary pathways and timeline of the iconic group of sauropods that inhabited the Earth for nearly 150 million years.

Once the scientific work is completed, the fossils will be transferred to the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

Reference: “Issi saaneq gen. et sp. nov.—A New Sauropodomorph Dinosaur from the Late Triassic (Norian) of Jameson Land, Central East Greenland” by Victor Beccari, Octávio Mateus, Oliver Wings, Jesper Milàn and Lars B. Clemmensen, 3 November 2021, Diversity.
DOI: 10.3390/d13110561

New species of iguanodontian dinosaur discovered from Isle of Wight

Peer-Reviewed Publication

TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP

 

IMAGE: RECONSTRUCTION OF THE HEAD OF BRIGHSTONEUS SIMMONDSI view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT TO JOHN SIBBICK

• Natural History Museum and University of Portsmouth scientists describe new species of dinosaur
• Discoveries of iguanodontian dinosaurs from the Isle of Wight have previously only been assigned to Iguanodon or Mantellisaurus
• Diversity of dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous of the UK is much greater than previously thought

 

Scientists from the Natural History Museum and University of Portsmouth have described a new genus and species of dinosaur from a specimen found on the Isle of Wight.

Following on from a new species of ankylosaur, new species of therapod and two new species of spinosaur dinosaurs, Brighstoneus simmondsi is the latest in a host of new dinosaur species described by Museum scientists in recent weeks.

The new dinosaur is an iguanodontian, a group that also includes the iconic Iguanodon and Mantellisaurus. Until now, iguanodontian material found from the Wealden Group (representing part of the Early Cretaceous period) on the Isle of Wight has usually been referred to as one of these two dinosaurs – with more gracile fossil bones assigned to Mantellisaurus and the larger and more robust material assigned to Iguanodon.

However, when Dr Jeremy Lockwood - a PhD student at the Museum and University of Portsmouth - was examining the specimen, he came across several unique traits that distinguished it from either of these other dinosaurs.

'For me, the number of teeth was a sign’ Dr Lockwood says. ‘Mantellisaurus has 23 or 24, but this has 28. It also had a bulbous nose, whereas the other species have very straight noses. Altogether, these and other small differences made it very obviously a new species.'

The herbivorous dinosaur was about eight metres in length and weighed about 900kg. Published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Dr Lockwood describes the species and names it Brighstoneus simmondsi:  Brighstoneus after the village of Brighstone, near to the excavation site, and simmondsi honouring Mr Keith Simmonds, who made the discovery of the specimen in 1978.

The discovery of this new species suggests that there were far more iguanodontian dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous of the UK than previously thought, and that simply assigning specimens from this period to either Iguanodon or Mantellisaurus must change.

'We're looking at six, maybe seven million years of deposits, and I think the genus lengths have been overestimated in the past, ‘says Dr Lockwood. ‘If that's the case on the island, we could be seeing many more new species. It seems so unlikely to just have two animals being exactly the same for millions of years without change.’

Museum scientist Dr Susannah Maidment, a co-author of the paper, says: ‘The describing of this new species shows that there is clearly a greater diversity of iguanodontian dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous of the UK than previously realised. It’s also showing that the century-old paradigm that gracile iguanodontian bones found on the island belong to Mantellisaurus and large elements belong to Iguanodon can no longer be substantiated’.

The Isle of Wight has long been associated with dinosaur discovery, and even yielded the crucial specimens that led to Sir Richard Owen to coin the term Dinosauria. The authors conclude that the describing of Brighstoneus simmondsi as a new species calls for a reassessment of Isle of Wight material:

'British dinosaurs are certainly not something that's done and dusted at all,’ says Dr Lockwood. ‘I think we could be on to a bit of a renaissance.'

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The study A new hadrosauriform dinosaur from the Wessex Formation, Wealden Group (Early Cretaceous), of the Isle of Wight, Southern England is published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.

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JOURNAL

Journal of Systematic Palaeontology

DOI

10.1080/14772019.2021.1978005 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

A new hadrosauriform dinosaur from the Wessex Formation, Wealden Group (Early Cretaceous), of the Isle of Wight, Southern England

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Nov-2021

Tooth fast, tooth curious?

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY

 

IMAGE: LONG NECK, LONG TAIL, TINY HEAD, TINY TEETH. THESE ICONIC, GARGANTUAN DINOSAURS DEVELOPED A WHOLLY UNIQUE DINING STRATEGY TO SUPPORT THEIR MASSIVE SIZE. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE BY STEPHANIE ABRAMOWICZ, COURTESY OF THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY (NHM).

Los Angeles, CA (November 10, 2021) – How did the largest animals to ever walk the Earth dominate their environments? By doing something totally revolutionary: keeping it simple. Published in BMC Ecology and Evolution, a new study led by Postdoctoral Research Scientist and periodic dinosaur dentist Dr. Keegan Melstrom at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County’s Dinosaur Institute ​​reveals that colossal sauropod dinosaurs, the largest animals to ever walk the Earth, had a strategy for dining on plants unique to long-necked dinosaurs: linking tooth complexity to how fast teeth were replaced.

“In nearly every other animal we look at, the complexity of a tooth relates to the animal’s diet,” says Dr. Melstrom. “Carnivores have simple teeth, herbivores have complex teeth, often with distinct ridges, crests, and cusps for processing plant material. But sauropods break this incredibly consistent pattern. Instead, these dinosaurs link complexity to tooth replacement rate, with simple teeth being replaced every few weeks!”

The shapes of an animal’s teeth are thought to reveal a lot about its diet and by extension its lifestyle. The banana-sized knives ringing the mouths of T. Rex are perfect for ripping flesh, and deadly simple sharp teeth abound in living and extinct carnivores. Typically, herbivores have extremely complex teeth: perfect for grinding down fibrous leaves or grasses. When it comes to the largest animals to ever walk the Earth, sauropods chewed their own path. Unlike any other plant-eating animals living or extinct, sauropods rely on quickly replacing their teeth to keep the salad flowing.

CAPTION

Close up of a sauropod skull full of simple teeth. These simple, peglike chompers would be rapidly replaced, a strategy unique among all known herbivores.

CREDIT

Image by Stephanie Abramowicz, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM).

Keep It Simple, Sauropods

“The diet of extinct dinosaurs was incredibly varied, spanning tiny meat-eaters to massive plant-eaters,” says Dr. Melstrom. “Our research sheds light on the range of adaptations that allowed so many plant-eaters to live alongside one another.”

Using computerized tomography (CT) and microCT scanning, Dr. Melstrom and his colleagues made 3D models of specimens from around the globe, capturing the great diversity of tooth complexity in Late Jurassic dinosaurs. 

“This whole project was conducted during the pandemic. Instead of traveling the world to gather data, we relied on researchers who had made their data available to other scientists, as well as the incredible collections here at NHM. I think this project really demonstrates the importance of sharing information, it can lead to new discoveries even during a pandemic,” says Dr. Melstrom.

They converted the toothy hills and valleys of dinosaur teeth into numbers, quantifying tooth complexity between the three groups of dinosaurs: meat-eating theropods, plant-eating ornithischians, and similarly herbivorous sauropods.

What they found was an entirely new evolutionary strategy to handle a plant-based diet 150 million years ago. While meat-eating dinosaurs had sharp simple teeth expected for carnivores, and ornithischians had the more complex teeth similar to herbivores living today, sauropods had very simple teeth, unlike any other known herbivores extinct or living.

In sauropods, they found that the more complex the tooth, the more slowly teeth were replaced, a correlation that demonstrates that tooth replacement rate is related to tooth complexity, unlike any other known animals. More specifically, diplodocoids like Apatosaurus and Diplodocus exhibited incredibly fast replacement rates and simple teeth, possibly allowing them to eat different foods from the other group of sauropods, macronarians like ​​Brachiosaurus, which had more complex teeth.  

Simple teeth would have made sense for sauropods’ long necks. Smaller teeth built to be lost weigh less than the tougher teeth of all other herbivores, which helps lighten the skull at the end of those long necks. The peculiar tooth replacement pattern meant these sauropods could focus on plant food other dinosaurs and non-dinosaur plant-eaters passed by.

“Time and time again, the fossil record shows us that there isn’t one solution to evolutionary problems. For sauropods, when it comes to eating tough plants, the simplest solution was the best,” says Dr. Melstrom. 

CAPTION

Differing dino teeth. Some sauropods, like Apatosaurus, had simple teeth, more similar to a meat-eater, such as the theropod Allosaurus, than to the small-bodied Nanosaurus, another herbivore.

CREDIT

Image by Dr. Keegan Melstrom, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM).

About the Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County
The Natural History Museums of Los Angeles County (NHMLAC) include the Natural History Museum in Exposition Park, La Brea Tar Pits in Hancock Park, and the William S. Hart Museum in Newhall. They operate under the collective vision to inspire wonder, discovery, and responsibility for our natural and cultural worlds. The museums hold one of the world’s most extensive and valuable collections of natural and cultural history—more than 35 million objects. Using these collections for groundbreaking scientific and historical research, the museums also incorporate them into on- and offsite nature and culture exploration in L.A. neighborhoods, and a slate of community science programs—creating indoor-outdoor visitor experiences that explore the past, present, and future. Visit NHMLAC.ORG for adventure, education, and entertainment opportunities.

CAPTION

A skeletal reconstruction of Fruitadens haagarorum, a diminutive ornithischian. Despite its small size, its tooth reflects the complexity typical in all other herbivores, excepting sauropods.

CREDIT

Silhouette by Stephanie Abramowicz, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM).

JOURNAL

BMC Ecology and Evolution

DOI

10.1186/s12862-021-01932-4 

ARTICLE TITLE

Exceptionally simple, rapidly replaced teeth in sauropod dinosaurs demonstrate a novel evolutionary strategy for herbivory in Late Jurassic ecosystems

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

6-Nov-2021

The world’s largest ammonite species evolved to reach diameters of 1.5-1.8m around 80 million years ago, possibly to evade predation

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

 

IMAGE: THE SPECIMEN WAS COLLECTED IN 1894 NEAR SEPPENRADE. LWL-MUSEUM FOR NATURAL HISTORY, MÜNSTER. PHOTO: CI. SCALE: 100 MM. view more 

CREDIT: IFRIM ET AL., 2021, PLOS ONE, CC-BY 4.0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/LICENSES/BY/4.0/)

The world’s largest ammonite species evolved to reach diameters of 1.5-1.8m around 80 million years ago, possibly to evade predation

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Article Title: Ontogeny, evolution and palaeogeographic distribution of the world’s largest ammonite Parapuzosia (P.) seppenradensis (Landois, 1895)

Author Countries: Germany, Mexico, U.K.

Funding: CI received grant IF61/10-1 from the German Science Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft DFG) WS received grant STI128/40-1 from the DFG Funding to CI for travel and research in Mexico and for analytics was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG; German Science Foundation). Funding to WS for travel and research in Mexico was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Article URL:  https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0258510  
 

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JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0258510 

ARTICLE TITLE

Ontogeny, evolution and palaeogeographic distribution of the world’s largest ammonite Parapuzosia (P.) seppenradensis (Landois, 1895)

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Nov-2021

COI STATEMENT

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Time series study first to suggest that increased consumption of ultra-processed foods has environmental implications

A new study of 30-year changes in the Brazilian diet finds that increased consumption of ultra-processed foods is linked to worsened impacts on the environment, and echoes dietary changes in the UK

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CITY UNIVERSITY LONDON

A new study finds that over the last 30 years, Brazil has undergone a nutrition transition toward a diet higher in ultra-processed foods, and that of food types consumed, these have been the largest contributor to worsening impacts on greenhouse gas emissions, the nation’s water footprint and ecological footprint, such as deforestation.

Ultra-processed foods include reconstituted meat products, such as sausages; ready meals; margarines; sweets; soft drinks; and other foods which contain artificial additives like sweeteners and flavours.

Whilst the negative effects of high consumption of ultra-processed foods on health have been outlined for over a decade - including links with obesity, coronary heart disease, diabetes and cancer - there had previously been very little understanding of its effects on the planet.

Experts argue that Britain went through a similar nutrition transition over the last 100 years, and warn that as the economies of more countries grow, so will the trend in the consumption of ultra-processed foods, which could adversely affect their ability to meet climate change targets.

Published in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, the study is the first of its kind to use nationally representative data over such a long time-frame to demonstrate how changes in a nation’s diet can affect its contribution to climate change.

The international collaboration of authors, including from the University of São Paulo, Brazil; City, University of London; the University of Manchester; Brunel University London; and the University of Sheffield used household budget survey data taken from urban Brazilian households between 1987 to 2018.

They calculated the environmental impact of food items purchased, per 1,000 calories (kcal) consumed, for four food groups outlined by the widely used NOVA system: unprocessed/minimally processed foods (G1); processed culinary ingredients (G2); processed foods (G3); and ultra-processed foods (G4).

The study found that while the proportion of G1 and G2 foods in the households’ diet had decreased, the amount of G3 and G4 foods consumed had increased. It found that the increasing environmental impact of G4 foods was driven by an increase in consumption of ultra-processed meat, which at least doubled its contribution to daily environmental impacts per individual, reaching about 20 per cent of total diet-related footprints over the 30-year time-frame.

Per 1,000 calories consumed, these changes in the diet were associated with a 21 per cent increased contribution to greenhouse gas emissions, 22 per cent increased contribution to the nation’s water footprint and 17 per cent increased contribution to its ecological footprint.

Nutritionist, and first author of the study, Jacqueline Tereza da Silva, of the Department of Preventative Medicine, University of São Paulo, said:

"The relationship between food systems and climate change is complex and challenges food security itself. Food systems are responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and yet, at the same time, they suffer from the climate impacts that they themselves help to cause."

Co-author of the study, Dr Christian Reynolds, Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Food Policy, City, University of London said:

“For our health and sustainability, ultra-processed foods are already a massive, and growing problem.  This study shows that Brazil is experiencing a similar transition in their diet to what has happened in the UK. Both in a shorter time frame, and with similar large effects on the environment.

“Our findings suggest that diet-related diseases and climate change share an underlying driver and therefore, should be addressed simultaneously. Multicomponent actions and policies targeting multiple areas should be considered. For instance, fiscal interventions such as taxes or subsides, regulation on advertising, and improving food and menus labelling with the addition of environmental impacts.”

Dr Ximena Schmidt, co-author and Global Challenges Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainable Energy Use, Brunel University London: 

“This study shows for the first time how increasing the consumption of ultra-processed foods has produced more greenhouse gas emissions and used more water and land, even in developing countries like Brazil. We need to help people change their diets to protect the environment and live healthy lives. We need to finally acknowledge that impacts to the environment and health have to be tackled together”

###

The study is published in the journal, The Lancet Planetary Health.

The project was funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council Global Challenges Research Fund (STFC GCRF).

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Planetary Health

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Greenhouse gas emissions, water footprint, and ecological footprint of food purchases according to their degree of processing in Brazilian metropolitan areas: a time-series study from 1987 to 2018

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Nov-2021

COI STATEMENT

The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose

Deforestation drives increasingly deadly heat in Indonesia: study

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Deforestation and global warming in one Indonesian province caused temperatures to rise nearly a whole degree Celsius in 16 years leading to an eight percent increase in deaths, a study found Wednesday.

The report published in The Lancet Planetary Health gives a rare insight into how global warming and deforestation can affect people living in one of the world's most vulnerable regions.

"Heat from deforestation and climate change is killing workers in tropical forest countries and decreasing the ability to work safely," lead author Nicholas Wolff of the Nature Conservancy told AFP.

With resources concentrated in developed countries, studies on the affects of global warming on health and mortality have largely focused on the so called global north.

"There's a real dearth of studies looking at the impacts on those who are most vulnerable to climate change and who are least responsible," Wolff said.

His team used publicly available data to reveal how the clearing of 4,375 square kilometres (1,690 square miles) of forest in the Berau Regency increased daily maximum temperatures by 0.95°C—on top of already warmer global temperatures—between 2002 and 2018.

Some 17 percent of Berau lost tree cover and the resulting heat increase made outdoor work conditions unsafe an additional 20 minutes of the day and caused an estimated 104 deaths.

Using climate modelling, the study projects that under a scenario of +3°C of global warming against pre-industrial levels (or +2°C against 2018 levels) deaths could increase by about 260 per year.

'Different reality'

Wolff's team used satellite image information to determine how much tree cover was lost in Berau between 2002 and 2018—years during which overall whether conditions were otherwise relatively stable.

They calculated the subsequent change in daily average temperatures and found nearly a whole degree Celsius of warming had occurred there in 16 years while over the rest of the country they remained relatively stable.

Wolff says that kind of change in such a short period of time is staggering.

"The globe has warmed about a degree so far... over 150 years," Wolff said referring to warming over pre-industrial levels.

"These forests go in a week or a month and suddenly you're just living in a completely different reality."

Researchers used public health data on heat-related mortality from other regions to calculate how many deaths had likely been caused by the additional heat.

But Wolff says that higher temperatures making it unsafe to work outdoors for an increasing part of the day is an equally bleak finding.

"It's going to affect so much of the larger population," he said, "People are going to have to make these awful choices about whether to risk their lives to put food on the table."

Indonesia is home to the world's third largest rainforest and although deforestation there has slowed markedly since 2015 economic drivers like agriculture, logging and mining mean the trees are still disappearing.

According to Global Forest Watch in 2001 the country had 93.8 million hectares (230 million acres) of primary forest—ancient forests which have largely not been disturbed by human activity—an area about the size of Egypt.

By 2020, that area had decreased by about 10 percent.

Wolff says that the forests act as "natural air conditioners"—a finding that should be considered hopeful.

"They are probably the best bet for adapting to climate change for these countries," he said, adding that re-growing deforested areas was an important option.

"An even more important option is to keep what's left."Five million deaths a year caused by global climate related abnormal temps

© 2021 AFP

Global temperatures over last 24,000 years show today's warming 'unprecedented'

by University of Arizona

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

A University of Arizona-led effort to reconstruct Earth's climate since the last ice age, about 24,000 years ago, highlights the main drivers of climate change and how far out of bounds human activity has pushed the climate system.

The study, published this week in Nature, had three main findings:

• It verified that the main drivers of climate change since the last ice age are rising greenhouse gas concentrations and the retreat of the ice sheets.
• It suggests a general warming trend over the last 10,000 years, settling a decade-long debate about whether this period trended warmer or cooler in the paleoclimatology community.
• The magnitude and rate warming over the last 150 years far surpasses the magnitude and rate of changes over the last 24,000 years.

"This reconstruction suggests that current temperatures are unprecedented in 24,000 years, and also suggests that the speed of human-caused global warming is faster than anything we've seen in that same time," said Jessica Tierney, a UArizona geosciences associate professor and co-author of the study.

Tierney, who heads the lab in which this research was conducted, is also known for her contributions to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and climate briefings for the U.S. Congress.

"The fact that we're today so far out of bounds of what we might consider normal is cause for alarm and should be surprising to everybody," said lead study author Matthew Osman, a geosciences postdoctoral researcher at UArizona.

An online search of "global temperature change since the last ice age" would produce a graph of global temperature change over time that was created eight years ago.

"Our team's reconstruction improves on that curve by adding a spatial dimension," Tierney said.

The team created maps of global temperature changes for every 200-year interval going back 24,000 years.

"These maps are really powerful," Osman said. "With them, it's possible for anyone to explore how temperatures have changed across Earth, on a very personal level. For me, being able to visualize the 24,000-year evolution of temperatures at the exact location I'm sitting today, or where I grew up, really helped ingrain a sense of just how severe climate change is today."

There are different methods for reconstructing past temperatures. The team combined two independent datasets—temperature data from marine sediments and computer simulations of climate—to create a more complete picture of the past.

The researchers looked at the chemical signatures of marine sediments to get information about past temperatures. Because temperature changes over time can affect the chemistry of a long-dead animal's shell, paleoclimatologists can use those measurements to estimate temperature in an area. It's not a perfect thermometer, but it's a starting point.

Computer-simulated climate models, on the other hand, provide temperature information based on scientists' best understanding of the physics of the climate system, which also isn't perfect.

The team decided to combine the methods to harness the strengths of each. This is called data assimilation and is also commonly used in weather forecasting.

"To forecast the weather, meteorologists start with a model that reflects current weather, then add in observations such as temperature, pressure, humidity, wind direction, and so on to create an updated forecast," Tierney said.

The team applied this same idea to past climate.

"With this method, we are able to leverage the relative merits of each of these unique datasets to generate observationally constrained, dynamically consistent and spatially complete reconstructions of past climate change," Osman said.

Now, the team is working on using their method to investigate climate changes even farther in the past.

"We're excited to apply this approach to ancient climates that were warmer than today," Tierney said, "because these times are essentially windows into our future as greenhouse gas emissions rise."How cold was the ice age? Researchers now know

More information: Matthew Osman, Globally resolved surface temperatures since the Last Glacial Maximum, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-03984-4. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03984-4

Journal information: Nature 

Provided by University of Arizona 

Introduced birds are not replacing roles of human-caused extinct species: study

by University College London

A specimen of a huia, which went extinct in New Zealand, housed in the Auckland 

Museum. Credit: Professor Tim Blackburn. Photo taken at Auckland Museum.

Human-caused bird extinctions are driving losses of functional diversity on islands worldwide, and the gaps they leave behind are not being filled by introduced (alien) species, finds a new study led by UCL and University of Gothenburg researchers.

The study, published in Science Advances, shows how human impacts such as habitat destruction and climate change are impoverishing ecosystems, even on islands where alien birds actually outnumber the species that have gone extinct.

Lead author Dr. Ferran Sayol (UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research, UCL Biosciences), who began the research while based at the University of Gothenburg, said: "Humans have drastically changed bird communities, not only by driving animals to extinction but also by introducing species into new habitats across the globe. There has been some debate as to whether introduced species might replace the roles of the extinct species, thus maintaining functional diversity within the ecosystem; here, we found that is unfortunately not the case.

"Some of the extinct species had a role in their ecosystem that has not been replaced by other birds. For example, some giant flightless species, like the moas of New Zealand and the elephant birds of Madagascar, were probably acting like large terrestrial herbivores as grazers, similar to ungulates like cattle and sheep on the continents, before being driven extinct by humans.

Dr Ferran Sayol pictured with a stuffed specimen of an extinct mamo bird at the Natural 

History Museum at Tring (UK). The mamo is an extinct bird from Hawaii which used to be

 an important pollinator of the island’s flora. This is an example of a functionally distinct

 bird whose role in the ecosystems has not been completely replaced by the introduced

 species. Credit: Ellen Pilanen

"Other valuable functions that may be lost with bird extinctions can include pollination and seed dispersal, which can have cascading harmful effects on other species."

For this study, the researchers compiled an exhaustive list of all bird species that have been present in nine different archipelagos* before and after human-caused extinctions occurred. This covered 1,302 bird species, including 265 globally or locally extinct, and 355 established introductions from 143 separate species. In addition, the scientists visited different museum collections, including the Natural History Museum, to measure several morphological traits in skin or skeleton specimens. With this data, the researchers were able to quantify the trait diversity before and after bird extinctions, and identify the ecological niches extinct birds once filled.

The research team found that before human arrival, island bird communities were more morphologically diverse than they are today. Their findings show how human-driven extinctions have disproportionally affected some types of birds (for example, larger birds and flightless birds are more likely to go extinct), leading to the loss of certain ecological roles.

The researchers also found that different archipelagos are becoming more and more similar in terms of trait diversity as native birds go extinct and the same kind of alien species are being newly established in many places.

Red-whiskered bulbul, which has been introduced in various locations such as Hawaii and

 the Mascarene Islands. Credit: Professor Tim Blackburn

Co-author Professor Tim Blackburn (UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research and the Institute of Zoology, ZSL) said: "Some groups of birds have been particularly successful at establishing outside their natural areas—for example, many species of parrot and starling. Because of this, islands are becoming more homogeneous as the same kind of birds are established everywhere."

Co-author Dr. Alex Pigot (UCL Centre for Biodiversity & Environment Research) said: "Our findings add to evidence that conservation efforts should be focused on preserving functionally distinct threatened species, to stem the tide of harmful losses to biodiversity that are driven by human actions. Huge numbers of species are being driven to extinction by human-driven effects such as habitat loss and climate change, so it is vital that we act now to reduce our negative impact on global biodiversity."

* The study covered the following archipelagos: Hawaii, Cuba & Jamaica, Bermuda, Saint Helena, Canary Islands, Madagascar, Mascarene Islands, New Caledonia, and New Zealand.Flightless birds more common globally before human-driven extinctions

More information: Ferran Sayol, Loss of functional diversity through anthropogenic extinctions of island birds is not offset by biotic invasions, Science Advances (2021). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj5790. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj5790

Journal information: Science Advances 

Provided by University College London 

 

Data from the Fermi Large Area Telescope suggests there is a particle accelerator in the galactic center

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

The segment division of the GC region and the inferred CR densities distribution. a The

 segments, annuli centered on the GC with a width of 0.5° except for the last one, where

 CR densities are derived, in the CMZ and off-CMZ are marked in red to orange and blue 

to green, respectively. The same color code is used to show data points of CR densities in 

corresponding segments in (b, c). b CR densities distribution from fittings with the GCE. 

For segments outside the CMZ, the CR density is almost a constant. In the CMZ, the CR

 density declines quickly as the distance increases from the GC. These facts strongly 

suggest different physical origins of CRs within and outside the CMZ. CR densities in the 

CMZ, inferred from analysis with the CS map29, are shown with black points, which agree

well with those derived from the fitting with the Planck map. The error bars represent the

 1σ statistical uncertainties. c CR densities distribution from fittings without the GCE, for

 which the inferred CR densities near the GC were boosted compared with those shown

 in (b). The error bars represent the 1σ statistical uncertainties. 

Credit: DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26436-z

A team of researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences has found evidence of a powerful particle accelerator in the galactic center. In their paper published in the journal Nature Communications, the group describes their analysis of data obtained from the Fermi Large Area Telescope.

The galactic center is the rotational center of the Milky Way galaxy—prior research has shown that it contains a large black hole. There are also other entities in the galactic center, such as remnants from supernovae and the pulsar wind nebulae, but not much else is known about the interior of the galactic center due to its density. The cloud is so thick that it is nearly impossible to read many of the forms of radiation within it. Still, most in the field agree that the galactic center emits a lot of cosmic rays, many of which could be important because they make it to Earth.

In this new effort, the researchers sought to learn more about the cosmic rays emitted from the galactic center, particularly those that make their way to Earth. To that end, they obtained and analyzed data collected by various teams working at the Fermi Large Area Telescope. They focused most specifically on gamma rays emitted from the central molecular cloud—a type of cloud that forms from interstellar dust and hydrogen gas—situated between Earth and the galactic center. They found that the density of cosmic rays in the central molecular cloud was lower than that in the cosmic ray sea, which suggested that there is a barrier of some sort preventing cosmic rays from entering the central molecular cloud. But they also found evidence of the cosmic rays slowing as they passed through the cloud and then speeding up again after they emerged—evidence that something near the center of the galaxy serves as a particle accelerator. They were not able to find evidence of what it might be, but suspect it could be the black hole, Sagittarius A*, wind nebulae or even leftover bits of a supernova.Unveiling a century-old mystery: Where the Milky Way's cosmic rays come from

More information: Xiaoyuan Huang et al, A GeV-TeV particle component and the barrier of cosmic-ray sea in the Central Molecular Zone, Nature Communications (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26436-z

Journal information: Nature Communications 

© 2021 Science X Network

AUSSIE MINERS IN ALBERTA

Panel on Rockies coal mining granted six-week extension to deliver its report

EDMONTON — A panel gathering public input on coal mining in the Alberta Rockies has been given another six weeks to hand in its report

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"Due to the extraordinary volume, breadth and depth of the input provided by Albertans, the coal policy committee requested an extension to the deadline for both their engagement and final reports," said a statement Wednesday by provincial Energy Minister Sonya Savage.

"An extension until Dec. 31 has been granted."

The panel said it has received more than 1,000 emailed documents and 170 detailed written submissions, along with associated materials from 67 meetings across the province.

Established in March, the five-member panel was supposed to deliver two reports to Savage on Monday — one summarizing what it heard and another one with recommendations. The summary report was originally expected in October, making Wednesday's announcement its second delay.

"The coal policy committee is grateful for the outpouring of interest throughout the engagement process," said a statement from chairman Ron Wallace. "In fact, we extended the engagement period by two months until the end of September.

"We have requested a deadline extension so that we may better compile, assess and report on the extensive and insightful input submitted."

New Democrat environment critic Marlin Schmidt called the extension "irritating."

"They're planning to release this long-awaited report during New Year’s Eve celebrations, when they know most Albertans will not be able to read it," he said.

Schmidt urged the government to stop its delaying tactics and pass legislation proposed by his party that would end coal mining in the Rockies.

Wallace has promised that all submissions made to the committee would be publicly released. He has said most are strongly critical of coal development in the foothills and peaks of the Rockies — a much-loved Alberta landscape and the source of much of the province's drinking water.

In her statement Wednesday, Savage said the reports would be reviewed "in detail" before they were released.

The panel was struck in response to a broad public outcry over proposals for open-pit coal mines in the mountains and foothills.

Alberta has paused further coal exploration lease sales and halted work in the most sensitive landscapes while it develops a new coal policy.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 10, 2021.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

'On edge all the time:' Children's mental health nearing 'crisis' in Alberta's fourth wave, doctors say

Author of the article: Blair McBride

Publishing date:Nov 07, 2021 •

Dr. Doug Klein poses for a photo outside his Edmonton clinic, Friday Nov. 5, 2021.

 Dr. Klein runs a wellness clinic at a High School and believes the COVID-19 pandemic has produced a cumulative effect on youth mental health, and that youth mental health will get worse before it gets better because young people will need time to get used to regular socializing again after more than 18 months of restrictions and too much screen time. 

Photo by David Bloom /Postmedia

Worsening mental health indicators in Alberta children and youth are spurring some doctors to declare a crisis in the fourth wave of the pandemic.

Diagnoses and severity of depression, anxiety and eating disorders have increased by at least 20 percent in the last four months, say doctors, some of whom worry the worst is yet to come.

Although COVID-19 restrictions are looser now than one year ago, mental health issues are being driven by a combination of return-to-school stress, less socializing, excessive screen time and general worry over the pandemic.
More fearful

Dr. Caroline Buzanko, who works with youth aged five to 22 at her Koru Family Psychology clinic in Calgary, said 80 per cent of her clients are currently reporting anxiety, up from 40 per cent in April.

“Depressive symptoms are secondary after anxiety, more in older kids,” she said. “There’s been a 20 per cent increase since the summer.”

In her interactions with patients, she finds youth are more fearful in many situations. She described a recent experience where a patient went to Disney World for her 18th birthday.

“She was mortified that someone would get sick before they went. (Youth) are on edge all the time worrying about what will happen,” she said.

In Calgary, psychiatrist Dr. Chris Wilkes has found a 200 per cent increase in emergency room visits for youth under 18 for anxiety, depression and eating disorders in the last eight months.

“We’ll probably see a worsening or high level of (demand for) mental health services for some time to come,” Wilkes said. “We have a crisis in terms of a demand on our services that is outstripping our resources.”

Dr. Rena LaFrance, a psychiatrist at Misericordia Community Hospital in Edmonton, said the severity of mental health issues she is seeing in patients aged four to 18 has doubled or tripled in the last few months.

The most common issues she’s seeing are anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute stress, ADHD and bereavement among children who lost family members to COVID-19.

“That doesn’t get better when kids go online and back (to in-person learning),” she said.

LaFrance attributes the problem to children absorbing the fourth wave anxieties of their parents, more deaths in the news, and uncertainty about kids getting COVID.

For children under 11, who can’t yet be vaccinated, LaFrance said the uncertainty of not feeling fully protected is also contributing to anxiety.

“There’s been fear about bringing it home to their parents and grandparents,” she said.

“They might not be thrilled at getting an actual needle (but) my perception is they are thrilled about protecting their friends and family and themselves.”
Normalcy still a ways off

For Calgary pediatrician Dr. April Elliott, the remaining restrictions in place show youth that normalcy is still a ways off, because kids are missing out on regular social interactions due to masking and distancing.

“Right now they’re being told they can’t do so many things,” she said. “And they’ve also been in an era when screen use is necessary. And it’s hard to withdraw from (screens) when they’re socially necessary.”

On a national level, youth mental health was under-addressed by governments even before the pandemic, according to researchers in the recent FACETS journal article “The impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of Canadian children and youth.”

The authors urged that a school-based national strategy on mental health be developed, as COVID “put a spotlight” on the problem.

They called for new federal funding to be allocated to schools over the next two years to deal with the “growing mental health crisis” among youth. They also want investment in a population-based follow-up of the 2019 Canadian Health Survey on Children and Youth so accurate information can be obtained about how the pandemic has affected young people.

In Edmonton, local family physician Dr. Doug Klein concurs with the need for more collaboration in schools, as he believes most youth who need help aren’t seeking it, fuelling a crisis that could get worse before it gets better.

“The health-care system and education system and the community need to work together. Children are in our schools for several hours everyday. We need to focus on making sure they’re gaining those life skills that will be protective (of mental health),” he said.


To help youth manage their mental health, Klein suggested that more needs to be done to encourage them to be active, as restrictions have led to an increase of inactivity, and getting more exercise can alleviate anxiety and depression. And LaFrance said giving kids the opportunity to talk about their COVID fears, while also working to maintain a regular home routine, can help them feel more stable amid the pandemic.

How does the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic affect mental health?

Social isolation exacerbated in the long term by the pandemic

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ATR BRAIN INFORMATION COMMUNICATION RESEARCH LABORATORY GROUP

Family and friends who have become social recluses, or co-workers who feel depressed and are unable to come to work...most of us probably know someone in one of these situations. The prolonged stress of the COVID-19 pandemic has had several effects on mental health because people are continuously being stressed by changes in their environments, such as restrictions on activities, school closures, and remote work, or no work. Some people have become depressed due to anxiety about infection and many have experienced exhaustion. Others are isolated from society and have gradually become dependent on the Internet to relieve their loneliness. Worse yet, suicides in Japan have increased since before the pandemic, and this increase is related to mental health problems. Thus, the effect of the pandemic on mental health is a complex combination of problems that change over time. However, most research to date has focused on individual symptoms at single points in time, and there is no comprehensive understanding of the pandemic’s impact on mental health. To develop such understanding, we conducted a series of surveys and examinations about various mental states. 

The team examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on psychiatric symptoms by using questionnaires that fortuitously were distributed over the Internet in December 2019, just before the pandemic, and then again in August 2020, December 2020, and April 2021, during the pandemic. Using data-driven statistical methods, changes in psychiatric symptoms during the pandemic were categorized into the following four components: 1) "general psychiatric burden," which is the interplay of all psychiatric symptoms; 2) "social isolation," associated with internet dependence and social anxiety; 3) "alcohol-related problems"; and 4) "depression/anxiety.” "General psychiatric burden," "social isolation," and "depression/anxiety” worsened during the pandemic. But while "general psychiatric burden'' and “depression/anxiety” peaked soon after the beginning of the pandemic, "social isolation” continued to worsen progressively through the pandemic.

Next, the team sought to identify factors that most aggravated the risks within each component. All components were more likely to worsen in women than in men. This highlights an urgent need to reduce the physical and mental burden that falls on women during the pandemic. The "general psychiatric burden" and “depression/anxiety” that peaked in the early stages of the pandemic, were greatly affected by the decrease in income during the pandemic. On the other hand, "social isolation,” which has continued to deteriorate gradually, was less likely to do so among those who changed the amount that they communicated with others and those who were self-employed. The importance of job type in "social isolation” suggests the influence of the work environment, human relations, types of work, and the ways that people connect with their colleagues.

How can society address these mental problems? Whereas economic policies were important in the early stage of the pandemic, policies, programs, and public education to maintain connections between people and throughout society may be more important from this point forward. It will certainly be necessary to continue to monitor the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public mental health.

“As the COVID-19 pandemic prolonged, social anxiety and internet addiction issues emerged,” notes Dr. Shuken Boku, a co-author on the paper and Associate Professor at Kumamoto University in Japan. “Social anxiety and internet addiction cause social isolation, and social isolation contributes to social anxiety and Internet addiction. This vicious cycle needs to be addressed as soon as possible before the problem becomes more serious. It is important to maintain social connections by increasing opportunities to see each other and have face-to-face contact, even online. This is especially true for those who are isolated from the society during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

---

JOURNAL

Translational Psychiatry

DOI

10.1038/s41398-021-01696-x 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Multiple time measurements of multidimensional psychiatric states from immediately before the COVID-19 pandemic to one year later: a longitudinal online survey of the Japanese population

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

10-Nov-2021

COI STATEMENT

N.K, T.H., and M.H. are employees of KDDI Research Inc. Y.M. is an employee of KDDI Corporation. N.K., Y.M., T.H., and M.H. were involved in the study design, data acquisition, statistical analysis, and interpretation of the results. For the remaining authors none were declared conflicts of interest.