A new method for dating ancient earthquakes

by Linnaeus University JANUARY 17, 2020

Credit: Linnaeus University

Constraining the history of earthquakes produced by bedrock fracturing is important for predicting seismic activity and plate tectonic evolution. In a new study published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports Jan 17, 2020, a team of researchers presents a new microscale technique to determine the age of crystals grown during repeated activation of natural rock fractures over a time range of billions of years.

The dramatic energy release of an earthquake forms as bedrock segments move in relative opposite directions to each other due to the collision or spreading of the tectonic plates that makes up the Earth's crust. The movement occurs along fault planes where new mineral crystals grow simultaneously.

The bedrock of Scandinavia, up to two billion years old, displays an extensive network of fractures formed at different episodes stretching from the early history of the Scandinavian crust to modern times. In rock samples retrieved from deep boreholes in Sweden, new microscale radioisotopic dating of individual fault crystals reveals the dominant fracturing episodes affecting Scandinavia.

Mikael Tillberg, a doctoral student at the Linnaeus University, Sweden, and first author of the paper, explains, "The ages of our analysed crystals matches several distinct periods of extensive mountain range formation when plate boundaries were directly neighboring Scandinavia. These temporal constraints demonstrate that our newly developed approach is suitable to untangle complex fracturing histories."

Thomas Zack, of Gothenburg University, Sweden, and a co-author of the study, describes how the dating method works. "Specific minerals contain radiogenic elements where certain isotopes decay over time. The abundances of these isotopes in tiny crystals formed on fracture surfaces are measured with high precision and detailed spatial resolution."

"The link between crystal growth and the frictional movement of earthquakes is ensured by identifying striation lines formed on fracture surface crystals by the movement. This microscopic investigation precedes age analysis to enable a simple and robust procedure for dating of faulting," Henrik Drake at Linnaeus University, also a co-author, adds.

Mikael Tillberg summarizes on the significance and possible future applications of this technique:

"Repeated earthquake episodes produce a chaotic array of broken rock and mineral growth even in a single crystal or on a particular fracture surface. Our methodology can resolve these sequences and connect the microscale mechanisms involved in fracturing to continent-wide plate tectonic forces. This allows reconstruction of geological models for diverse applications such as seismicity and infrastructure engineering." 

Europe's largest meteorite crater home to deep ancient life

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More information: Mikael Tillberg et al. In situ Rb-Sr dating of slickenfibres in deep crystalline basement faults, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-57262-5

ARACHNIDS

Fossil is the oldest-known scorpion

by The Ohio State University  JANUARY 16, 2020

The fossil (left) was unearthed in Wisconsin in 1985. Scientists analyzed it and discovered the ancient animal's respiratory and circulatory organs (center) were near-identical to those of a modern-day scorpion (right). Credit: Andrew Wendruff

Scientists studying fossils collected 35 years ago have identified them as the oldest-known scorpion species, a prehistoric animal from about 437 million years ago. The researchers found that the animal likely had the capacity to breathe in both ancient oceans and on land.

The discovery provides new information about how animals transitioned from living in the sea to living entirely on land: The scorpion's respiratory and circulatory systems are almost identical to those of our modern-day scorpions—which spend their lives exclusively on land—and operate similarly to those of a horseshoe crab, which lives mostly in the water, but which is capable of forays onto land for short periods of time.

The researchers named the new scorpion Parioscorpio venator. The genus name means "progenitor scorpion," and the species name means "hunter." They outlined their findings in a study published today in the journal Scientific Reports.

"We're looking at the oldest known scorpion—the oldest known member of the arachnid lineage, which has been one of the most successful land-going creatures in all of Earth history," said Loren Babcock, an author of the study and a professor of earth sciences at The Ohio State University.

"And beyond that, what is of even greater significance is that we've identified a mechanism by which animals made that critical transition from a marine habitat to a terrestrial habitat. It provides a model for other kinds of animals that have made that transition including, potentially, vertebrate animals. It's a groundbreaking discovery."

The "hunter scorpion" fossils were unearthed in 1985 from a site in Wisconsin that was once a small pool at the base of an island cliff face. They had remained unstudied in a museum at the University of Wisconsin for more than 30 years when one of Babcock's doctoral students, Andrew Wendruff—now an adjunct professor at Otterbein University in Westerville—decided to examine the fossils in detail.

Wendruff and Babcock knew almost immediately that the fossils were scorpions. But, initially, they were not sure how close these fossils were to the roots of arachnid evolutionary history. The earliest known scorpion to that point had been found in Scotland and dated to about 434 million years ago. Scorpions, paleontologists knew, were one of the first animals to live on land full-time.

The Wisconsin fossils, the researchers ultimately determined, are between 1 million and 3 million years older than the fossil from Scotland. They figured out how old this scorpion was from other fossils in the same formation. Those fossils came from creatures that scientists think lived between 436.5 and 437.5 million years ago, during the early part of the Silurian period, the third period in the Paleozoic era.

"People often think we use carbon dating to determine the age of fossils, but that doesn't work for something this old," Wendruff said. "But we date things with ash beds—and when we don't have volcanic ash beds, we use these microfossils and correlate the years when those creatures were on Earth. It's a little bit of comparative dating."

The Wisconsin fossils—from a formation that contains fossils known as the Waukesha Biota¬—show features typical of a scorpion, but detailed analysis showed some characteristics that were not previously known in any scorpion, such as additional body segments and a short "tail" region, all of which shed light on the ancestry of this group.

Wendruff examined the fossils under a microscope, and took detailed, high-resolution photographs of the fossils from different angles. Bits of the animal's internal organs, preserved in the rock, began to emerge. He identified the appendages, a chamber where the animal would have stored its venom, and—most importantly—the remains of its respiratory and circulatory systems.

This scorpion is about 2.5 centimeters long—about the same size as many scorpions in the world today. And, Babcock said, it shows a crucial evolutionary link between the way ancient ancestors of scorpions respired under water, and the way modern-day scorpions breathe on land. Internally, the respiratory-circulatory system has a structure just like that found in today's scorpions.

"The inner workings of the respiratory-circulatory system in this animal are, shape-wise, identical to those of the arachnids and scorpions that breathe air exclusively," Babcock said. "But it also is incredibly similar to what we recognize in marine arthropods like horseshoe crabs. So, it looks like this scorpion, this lineage, must have been pre-adapted to life on land, meaning they had the morphologic capability to make that transition, even before they first stepped onto land."

Paleontologists have for years debated how animals moved from sea to land. Some fossils show walking traces in the sand that may be as old as 560 million years, but these traces may have been made in prehistoric surf—meaning it is difficult to know whether animals were living on land or darting out from their homes in the ancient ocean.

But with these prehistoric scorpions, Wendruff said, there was little doubt that they could survive on land because of the similarities to modern-day scorpions in the respiratory and circulatory systems.

HORSESHOE CRABS ARE ALSO ARACHNIDSCompound eyes: The visual apparatus of today's horseshoe crabs goes back 400 million years

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More information: A Silurian ancestral scorpion with fossilised internal anatomy illustrating a pathway to arachnid terrestrialisation, Scientific Reports (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56010-z

Organized cybercrime—not your average mafia

by Caroline Brooks, Michigan State University 

JANUARY 16, 2020

Organized cybercrime differs from other types of criminal networks -- making trails to track them more challenging. Credit: Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

Does the common stereotype for "organized crime" hold up for organizations of hackers? Research from Michigan State University is one of the first to identify common attributes of cybercrime networks, revealing how these groups function and work together to cause an estimated $445-600 billion of harm globally per year.

"It's not the 'Tony Soprano mob boss type' who's ordering cybercrime against financial institutions," said Thomas Holt, MSU professor of criminal justice and co-author of the study. "Certainly, there are different nation states and groups engaging in cybercrime, but the ones causing the most damage are loose groups of individuals who come together to do one thing, do it really well—and even for a period of time—then disappear."

In cases like New York City's "Five Families," organized crime networks have historic validity, and are documented and traceable. In the online space, however, it's a very difficult trail to follow, Holt said.

"We found that these cybercriminals work in organizations, but those organizations differ depending on the offense," Holt said. "They may have relationships with each other, but they're not multi-year, multi-generation, sophisticated groups that you associate with other organized crime networks."

Holt explained that organized cybercrime networks are made up of hackers coming together because of functional skills that allow them to collaborate to commit the specific crime. So, if someone has specific expertise in password encryption and another can code in a specific programming language, they work together because they can be more effective—and cause greater disruption—together than alone.

"Many of these criminals connected online, at least initially, in order to communicate to find one another," Holt said. "In some of the bigger cases that we had, there's a core group of actors who know one another really well, who then develop an ancillary network of people who they can use for money muling or for converting the information that they obtained into actual cash."

Holt and lead author E. R. Leukfeldt, researcher at the Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement, reviewed 18 cases from the Netherlands in which individuals were prosecuted for cases related to phishing. Data came directly from police files and was gathered through wire and IP taps, undercover policing, observation and house searches.

Beyond accessing credit cards and banking information, Holt and Leukfeldt found that cybercriminals also worked together to create fake documents so they could obtain money from banks under fraudulent identities.

The research, published in International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, also debunks common misconceptions that sophisticated organized criminal networks—such as the Russian mafia—are the ones creating cybercrime.

Looking ahead as law enforcement around the world takes steps to crack down on these hackers, Holt hopes his findings will help guide them in the right direction.

"As things move to the dark web and use cryptocurrencies and other avenues for payment, hacker behaviors change and become harder to fully identify, it's going to become harder to understand some of these relational networks," Holt said. "We hope to see better relationships between law enforcement and academia, better information sharing, and sourcing so we can better understand actor behaviors.

Here's what police know about digital evidence

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More information: E. R. Leukfeldt et al. Examining the Social Organization Practices of Cybercriminals in the Netherlands Online and Offline, International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (2019). DOI: 10.1177/0306624X19895886

New dinosaur discovered in China shows dinosaurs grew up differently from birds

by San Diego Natural History Museum JANUARY 16, 2020

Wulong bohaiensis. The skeleton described in the new paper is remarkably complete. The name means "Dancing Dragon" in Chinese and was named in part to reference its active pose. Credit: Ashley Poust

A new species of feathered dinosaur has been discovered in China, and described by American and Chinese authors and published today in the journal, The Anatomical Record.

The one-of-a-kind specimen offers a window into what the earth was like 120 million years ago. The fossil preserves feathers and bones that provide new information about how dinosaurs grew and how they differed from birds.

"The new dinosaur fits in with an incredible radiation of feathered, winged animals that are closely related to the origin of birds," said Dr. Ashley Poust, who analyzed the specimens while he was a student at Montana State University and during his time as a Ph.D. student at University of California, Berkeley. Poust is now postdoctoral researcher at the San Diego Natural History Museum.

"Studying specimens like this not only shows us the sometimes-surprising paths that ancient life has taken, but also allows us to test ideas about how important bird characteristics, including flight, arose in the distant past."

Scientists named the dinosaur Wulong bohaiensis. Wulong is Chinese for "the dancing dragon" and references the position of the beautifully articulated specimen.

About the Discovery

The specimen was found more than a decade ago by a farmer in China, in the fossil-rich Jehol Province, and since then has been housed in the collection of The Dalian Natural History Museum in Liaoning, a northeastern Chinese province bordering North Korea and the Yellow Sea. The skeletal bones were analyzed by Poust alongside his advisor Dr. David Varricchio from Montana State University while Poust was a student there.

Larger than a common crow and smaller than a raven, but with a long, bony tail which would have doubled its length, Wulong bohaiensis had a narrow face filled with sharp teeth. Its bones were thin and small, and the animal was covered with feathers, including a wing-like array on both its arms and legs and two long plumes at the end of its tail.

This animal is one of the earliest relatives of Velociraptor, the famous dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived approximately 75 million years ago. Wulong's closest well-known relative would have been Microraptor, a genus of small, four-winged paravian dinosaurs.

The discovery is significant not only because it describes a dinosaur that is new to science, but also because it shows connection between birds and dinosaurs.

"The specimen has feathers on its limbs and tail that we associate with adult birds, but it had other features that made us think it was a juvenile," said Poust. To understand this contradiction, the scientists cut up several bones of the new dinosaur to examine under a microscope. This technique, called bone histology, is becoming a regular part of the paleontology toolbox, but it's still sometimes difficult to convince museums to let a researcher remove part of a nice skeleton. "Thankfully, our coauthors at the Dalian Natural History Museum were really forward thinking and allowed us to apply these techniques, not only to Wulong, but also to another dinosaur, a close relative that looked more adult called Sinornithosaurus."

The bones showed that the new dinosaur was a juvenile. This means that at least some dinosaurs were getting very mature looking feathers well before they were done growing. Birds grow up very fast and often don't get their adult plumage until well after they are full sized. Showy feathers, especially those used for mating, are particularly delayed. And yet here was an immature dinosaur with two long feathers extending beyond the tip of the tail.

"Either the young dinosaurs needed these tail feathers for some function we don't know about, or they were growing their feathers really differently from most living birds," explained Poust.

An additional surprise came from the second dinosaur the scientists sampled; Sinornithosaurus wasn't done growing either. The bone tissue was that of an actively growing animal and it lacked an External Fundamental System: a structure on the outside of the bone that vertebrates form when they're full size. "Here was an animal that was large and had adult looking bones: we thought it was going to be mature, but histology proved that idea wrong. It was older than Wulong, but seems to have been still growing. Researchers need to be really careful about determining whether a specimen is adult or not. Until we learn a lot more, histology is really the most dependable way."

In spite of these cautions, Poust says there is a lot more to learn about dinosaurs.

"We're talking about animals that lived twice as long ago as T. rex, so it's pretty amazing how well preserved they are. It's really very exciting to see inside these animals for the first time."

About the Jehol Biota

The area in which the specimen was found is one of the richest fossil deposits in the world. The Jehol biota is known for the incredible variety of animals that were alive at the time. It is also one of the earliest bird-rich environments, where birds, bird-like dinosaurs, and pterosaurs all shared the same habitat.

"There was a lot of flying, gliding, and flapping around these ancient lakes," says Poust. "As we continue to discover more about the diversity of these small animals it becomes interesting how they all might have fit into the ecosystem." Other important changes were happening at the same time in the Early Cretaceous, including the spread of flowering plants. "It was an alien world, but with some of the earliest feathers and earliest flowers, it would have been a pretty one."

First evidence of feathered polar dinosaurs found in Australia

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More information: Ashley W. Poust et al, A new microraptorine theropod from the Jehol Biota and growth in early dromaeosaurids, The Anatomical Record (2020). DOI: 10.1002/ar.24343

Fossils of largest theropod to date found in Australia

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org JANUARY 16, 2020

Australovenator with prey. Credit: Matt A. White, Phil R. Bell, Alex G. Cook, David G. Barnes, Travis R. Tischler,Brant J. Bassam,David A. Elliott - CC BY 2.5

A team of researchers from the University of New England, the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Museum and Swinburne University of Technology, all in Australia, has identified fossils found near Winton as remains of the largest theropod found to date in Australia. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the group describes the bones they found and its likely species.

In 2017, a farmer in the central-western Queensland town of Winton discovered several fragmented bones on his property. Suspecting they might be dinosaur fossils, he contacted the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Natural History Museum. A team was assembled, and a dig was established. The researchers found 15 more limb and vertebrae fossils.

The fossils closely resembled Australovenator wintonesis—a theropod species that was discovered in Australia in 2006. Theropods are a group of large, bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs—included in the group are both Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor. The newly found fossils are bigger than those of the specimen found in 2006, making it difficult to determine if the two specimens are the same species. The fossil size suggests the creature was approximately two meters tall and five to seven meters long. The researchers are not ruling out the possibility that the fossils belong to an undiscovered species. But the larger size indicates that the find represents the largest known carnivore to have lived in Australia.

The newly found fossils include two partial vertebrae, an unspecified number of hands and feet and multiple fragments that have yet to be identified. The hand bones are large and have recurved claws with a horny sheath, reminiscent of birds. Their size and shape suggest the dinosaur used them to grapple prey—strongly indicating that it was a predator. According to the researchers, the creature likely fed on quadrupedal herbivores, though there was the possibility it was also a scavenger.

The newly discovered dinosaur is just the third theropod found in Australia—the only other evidence of them in Australia is shed teeth found at sauropod dig sites. The researchers note that there is still debate regarding whether the theropods living in Australia had feathers.

Huge-clawed predatory dinosaur discovery in Victoria

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More information: Matt A. White et al. New theropod remains and implications for megaraptorid diversity in the Winton Formation (lower Upper Cretaceous), Queensland, Australia, Royal Society Open Science (2020). DOI: 10.1098/rsos.191462

Journal information: Royal Society Open Science

Male and female firefighters have different problems with protective suits

LIKE SPACE SUITS FOR WOMEN 

by Bill Wellock, Florida State University JANUARY 17, 2020 

Meredith McQuerry, an assistant professor in the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship. Her research investigated the different problems male and female firefighters have with flexibility and range of motion in their protective equipment. Credit: Florida State University

When female firefighters put on the protective suits they need for their work, they're often using gear that has been designed for a male body.

Because of that mismatch, the suits don't fit as well as they should, and their mobility is impaired. Firefighters working in gear that restricts their movement must work harder to move around in a stressful and physically demanding environment, which puts them at greater risk of overexertion and heart attacks, the leading cause of on-duty deaths.

New research from Florida State University investigates differences in mobility for male and female firefighters while wearing the gear that is essential for protection from the intense heat of fires. The study is available in the January print edition of the journal Applied Ergonomics.

"There's not enough research to say 100 percent, 'This is what a female turnout suit needs to be,' but we do know women need a suit designed for them," said author Meredith McQuerry, an assistant professor in the Jim Moran College of Entrepreneurship. "The National Fire Protection Association sees the need. There are female and male sizes, but those are oversimplifications that don't take different anthropometric proportions into account, like the waist-to-hip ratio, the bust or shoulder breadth."

Previous studies have investigated the effects of bulky firefighting gear on the movement of male firefighters, but most research has not considered the measurements and range of motion of female firefighters.

McQuerry's study surveyed 16 career firefighters (10 men and six women) from the Tallahassee Fire Department on the fit and mobility of their firefighting gear. The research measured range of motion in three configurations: with only a base layer, with the "turnout suit" firefighters don for protection at the scene of a fire and with a full "turnout ensemble" that includes a breathing apparatus and helmet. The subjects were measured in a three-dimensional body scanner, then performed a range-of-motion test and recorded how comfortable they were and how easy it was to move.

McQuerry found that for both male and female firefighters turnout equipment significantly reduced mobility, but the men and women reported significant differences with the parts of the suit that gave them problems. Women reported more problems with the upper body areas of their turnout suit during overhead activities and were more likely to say that the suits were too large. Men expressed more dissatisfaction with restrictions in the crotch and pant leg during lower body movements.

Because these restrictions are gender specific, there is a strong need to develop a female-specific turnout gear sizing system in addition to the existing gear designed for men, McQuerry said. Researchers should collect more data, including body measurements and mobility assessments with a larger sample size, so that both men and women fighting fires can be equipped with appropriately sized personal protective clothing, she said.

A recently awarded grant of more than $400,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will help McQuerry continue her research.

"We need more data on female firefighter anthropometrics," she said. "A little bit has been done, but it is very limited. We need to conduct more research to understand what all of the barriers are along the production pipeline, from the design, to the sourcing, all the way to the purchasing within the fire service."

The goals for an improved turnout suit are clear, she said: "Better performance, less exertion, better safety."

Female firefighters more likely to suffer PTSD, contemplate suicide

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More information: Meredith McQuerry. Effect of structural turnout suit fit on female versus male firefighter range of motion, Applied Ergonomics (2019). DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2019.102974

Wooden Shigir idol found to be over twice as old as Egyptian pyramids

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org  APRIL 27, 2018 REPORT

Credit: Antiquity (2018). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2018.48

A team of researchers in Germany has found evidence suggesting that the famous wooden Shirgir Idol is actually 11,500 years old. The team has documented their efforts and findings in a paper published on the Cambridge University Press site Antiquity.

The Shigir Idol was discovered in an ancient peat bog by miners in Russia back in 1890. Early analysis showed that it was made entirely of larch wood and was constructed from several chunks. It remained preserved for thousands of years because of antimicrobial properties found in the peat. The idol was also covered extensively with markings, some of which depicted tiny human faces. To this day, no one knows what most of the markings depict. It was also noted that some of the original pieces of the idol had been lost—it is believed that it originally stood approximately five meters tall. In 1997, a team in Russia used radiocarbon dating to estimate the age of the icon and found it to be approximately 9,500 years old.

Experts have studied the carvings on the idol over the years, and many have suggested they likely represent a form of art, possibly linked with spiritual or religious activities.

Recently, the team in Germany expressed interest it taking a closer look at the idol, which is normally housed in the Sverdlovsk Regional Museum, in Russia. Arrangements were made for the idol to be shipped to Germany, where it was studied, along with other original material found in the peat bog. Using accelerator mass spectrometry, the team found the true age of the idol to be approximately 11,500 years old, placing its creation at around the time of the end of the Ice Age. That age also makes it the oldest known wood monumental sculpture ever found and more than twice the age of the Egyptian pyramids. The researchers report that they also found another face carved into the wood, bringing the total to eight. Their findings suggest that researchers looking to better understand very early human behavior perhaps need to widen their search beyond the Fertile Crescent.

Credit: Public Domain

Rejection from 'American Idol' provides insights into perseverance

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More information: Mikhail Zhilin et al. Early art in the Urals: new research on the wooden sculpture from Shigir, Antiquity (2018). DOI: 10.15184/aqy.2018.48

Abstract
The carved wooden object uncovered from the Shigir peat bog in the Sverdlovsk region towards the end of the nineteenth century remains one of the oldest, known examples of monumental anthropomorphic sculpture from anywhere in the world. Recent application of new analytical techniques has led to the discovery of new imagery on its surface, and has pushed the date of the piece back to the earliest Holocene. The results of these recent analyses are placed here in the context of local and extra-local traditions of comparable prehistoric art. This discussion highlights the unique nature of the find and its significance for appreciating the complex symbolic world of Early Holocene hunter-gatherers.

Journal information: Antiquity

Pachacamac Idol of ancient Peru was symbolically painted

by Public Library of Science JANUARY 15, 2020

The wooden statue of the Pachacamac Idol. Credit: Sepúlveda et al, 2020.

The Pachacamac Idol of ancient Peru was a multicolored and emblematic sacred icon worshipped for almost 700 hundred years before Spanish conquest, according to a study published January 15, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Marcela Sepúlveda of the University of Tarapacá, Chile and colleagues.

The Pachacamac Idol is a symbolically carved wooden statue known from the Pachacamac archaeological complex, the principal coastal Inca sanctuary 31 km south of Lima, Peru during the 15th-16th centuries. The idol was reportedly damaged in 1533 during Spanish conquest of the region, and details of its originality and antiquity have been unclear. Also unexplored has been the question of whether the idol was symbolically colored, a common practice in Old World Antiquity.

In this study, Sepúlveda and colleagues obtained a wood sample from the Pachacamac Idol for chemical analysis. Through carbon-dating, they were able to determine that the wood was cut and likely carved approximately 760-876 AD, during the Middle Horizon, suggesting the statue was worshipped for almost 700 years before Spanish conquest. Their analysis also identified chemical traces of three pigments that would have conferred red, yellow, and white coloration to the idol.

This nondestructive analysis not only confirms that the idol was painted, but also that it was polychromatic, displaying at least three colors and perhaps others not detected in this study. The fact that the red pigment used was cinnabar, a material not found in the local region, demonstrates economic and symbolic implications for the coloration of the statue. The authors point out that coloration is a rarely discussed factor in the symbolic, economic, and experiential importance of religious symbols of the pre-Columbian periods, and that more studies on the subject could illuminate unknown details of cultural practices of the Andean past in South America.

The authors add: "Here, polychromy of the so-called Pachacamac Idol is demonstrated, including the presence of cinnabar."

In the last picture, the red arrows mark the presence of red pigments containing mercury. Credit: © Marcela Sepulveda/Rommel Angeles/Museo de sitio Pachacamac

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More information: Sepúlveda M, Pozzi-Escot D, Angeles Falcón R, Bermeo N, Lebon M, Moulhérat C, et al. (2020) Unraveling the polychromy and antiquity of the Pachacamac Idol, Pacific coast, Peru. PLoS ONE 15(1): e0226244. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226244

An evolving understanding of extinction

by Christine Steininger and Bruce Rubidge, Wits University JANUARY 17, 2020

Few things related to science capture the imagination more than the magic of worlds past. This includes the origins of life, dinosaurs, mass extinctions, meteorite impacts, and the evolution of our species. Understanding the evolution of life is central to the way we view ourselves and others and developing this field is thus critical.

Furthermore, South Africa's rich palaeontological, palaeo-anthropological and archaeological record provides a unique competitive advantage to local heritage-related scientists.

Palaeosciences is the only discipline dedicated to understanding the origin and development of past life and its interactions with changing environments. It is the responsibility of these scientists to ensure understanding of the depth of our dependence on Earth as a life support system. Additionally, paleosciences research can provide knowledge of how to manage human interactions with the planet responsibly.

As our knowledge of the Earth expands, we begin to realise far more synergy and mutualistic relationships with the biological world—built up over millions of years—in many of the fundamental processes to secure biodiversity, soils, water, minerals, energy, and other resources.

South Africa rocks

South Africa is poised to become a global leader in an area of geographic advantage.

Because of the country's immense diversity, antiquity, and continuity of geological, palaeontological, and archaeological records, and its rich genetic heritage, South Africa is unique in the world.

Credit: Wits University

The country boasts some of the most significant mineral deposits on Earth and preserves, amongst others, the oldest evidence of life on Earth from over 3,500-million years; the most distant ancestors of dinosaurs from 200-million years ago; and a remarkable record of human origins and achievements over four-million years.

Erasing Earth

The study of past biodiversity has recognised that five global extinction events have occurred in the last 500-million years, where between 65 percent and 95 percent of species went extinct over a relatively short period. South Africa has a record of four of these five extinction events. Many scientists consider that the Earth has now entered a new epoch—the Anthropocene. Like other transitions between geological eras, the marker for this transition is a mass extinction event, although this one—uniquely—is human-induced. And avoidable.

The current rate of species extinction is estimated to be 10 to 1,000 times higher than the natural, background rate. This is likely to increase as habitat destruction, global change, and other human-induced stresses on the natural environment accelerate.

South Africa is the only country in the world with the necessary fossil resources to undertake a research initiative over such an extensive period. Our fossil archives provide case studies throughout Earth's history to understand how climactic and environmental change affect biodiversity.

Decoding the mechanisms that lead to population extirpation [localised extinction] and ultimately species extinction under climate change is critical for scenario-planning, interpreting, and possibly predicting its impact on biodiversity and to inform policy to conserve South African biodiversity in future.

Mass extinction of land and sea biodiversity 250 million years ago not simultaneous

Beach-combing Neanderthals dove for shells

by University of Colorado at Boulder JANUARY 15, 2020

OUR ANCESTORS WERE BEACH BUMS

General morphology of retouched shell tools, Figs C-L are from the Pigorini Museum. Credit: Villa et al., 2020

Did Neanderthals wear swimsuits? Probably not. But a new study suggests that some of these ancient humans might have spent a lot of time at the beach. They may even have dived into the cool waters of the Mediterranean Sea to gather clam shells.

The findings come from Grotta dei Moscerini, a picturesque cave that sits just 10 feet above a beach in what is today the Latium region of central Italy.

In 1949, archaeologists working at the site dug up some unusual artifacts: dozens of seashells that Neanderthals had picked up, then shaped into sharp tools roughly 90,000 years ago.

Now, a team led by Paola Villa of the University of Colorado Boulder has uncovered new secrets from those decades-old discoveries. In research published today in the journal PLOS ONE, she and her colleagues report that the Neanderthals didn't just collect shells that were lying out on the beach. They may have actually held their breath and went diving for the perfect shells to meet their needs.

Villa, an adjoint curator in the CU Museum of Natural History, said the results show that Neanderthals may have had a much closer connection to the sea than many scientists thought.

"The fact they were exploiting marine resources was something that was known," Villa said. "But until recently, no one really paid much attention to it."

Cave discoveries

When archaeologists first found shell tools in Grotta dei Moscerini, it came as a surprise. While Neanderthals are well-known for crafting spear tips out of stone, few examples exist of them turning shells into tools.

But the find wasn't a fluke. The 1949 excavation of the cave unearthed 171 such tools, all valves from shell belonging to a local species of mollusk called the smooth clam (Callista chione). Villa explained that the ancient humans used stone hammers to chip away at these shells, forming cutting edges that would have stayed thin and sharp for a long time.

"No matter how many times you retouch a clam shell, its cutting edge will remain very thin and sharp," she said.

But did the Neanderthals, like many beachgoers today, simply collect these shells while taking a stroll along the sand?

To find out, Villa and her colleagues took a closer look at those tools. In the process, they found something they weren't expecting. Nearly three-quarters of the Moscerini shell tools had opaque and slightly abraded exteriors, as if they had been sanded down over time. That's what you'd expect to see, Villa said, on shells that had washed up on a sandy beach.

The rest of the shells had a shiny, smooth exterior.

Those shells, which also tended to be a little bit bigger, had to have been plucked directly from the seafloor as live animals.

"It's quite possible that the Neanderthals were collecting shells as far down as 2 to 4 meters," Villa said. "Of course, they did not have scuba equipment."

Researchers also turned up a large number of pumice stones from the cave that Neanderthals had collected and may have used as abrading tools. The stones, Villa and her colleagues determined, washed onto the Moscerini beach from volcanic eruptions that occurred more than 40 miles to the south.

Going for a dip

She's not alone in painting a picture of beach-loving Neanderthals.

In an earlier study, for example, a team led by anthropologist Erik Trinkaus identified bony growths on the ears of a few Neanderthal skeletons. These features, called "swimmer's ear," can be found in people who practice aquatic sports today.

For Villa, the findings are yet more proof that Neanderthals were just as flexible and creative as their human relatives when it came to eking out a living—a strong contrast to their representation in popular culture as a crude cavemen who lived by hunting or scavenging mammoths.

"People are beginning to understand that Neanderthals didn't just hunt large mammals," Villa said. "They also did things like freshwater fishing and even skin diving."

Other coauthors on the new study included researchers from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, the University of Geneva, Roma Tre University, Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Pisa.

Neanderthals used resin 'glue' to craft their stone tools

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More information: Villa P, Soriano S, Pollarolo L, Smriglio C, Gaeta M, D'Orazio M, et al. (2020) Neandertals on the beach: Use of marine resources at Grotta dei Moscerini (Latium, Italy). PLoS ONE 15(1): e0226690. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226690

Journal information: PLoS ONE