PALEONTOLOGY

Archaic dolphin could hear high frequency sounds

Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns

 

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Fossil dolphin Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki

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Credit: M. Schellenberger, SNSB-BSPG

The shallow inland sea in which the newly described dolphin lived some 22 million years ago together with many other organisms, including a variety of microorganisms, algae, snails, mussels, relatives of squid, and fishes, stretched north of the just emerging Alps. The only fossil known of this dolphin to date comes from a site near Linz in Upper Austria. It was assigned to a new, previously unknown species and genus, and scientifically named Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki by researchers from the Bavarian State Collection of Palaeontology and Geology (SNSB-BSPG) and the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich, as well as the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum Frankfurt.

"All that remains of Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki is its fragmented and incomplete skull with an elongated snout and 102 uniform teeth" reports first author Catalina Sánchez Posada who examined the fossil as part of her master's thesis. The animal belongs to the toothed whales, but differs significantly from all previously known prehistoric representatives of this lineage. Comparisons and a complex computer-based analysis of the relationships to other fossil dolphins revealed that Romaleodelphis was probably related to the already extinct, very archaic dolphins of the so-called Chilcacetus clade. "All previously known fossils of this dolphin lineage come from the north-eastern Pacific and the coasts of South America. The discovery of Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki, a putative European relative of this lineage, could therefore provide important new insights into the origin and evolution of the lineage in the earliest Miocene," says PD Dr. Gertrud Rößner, curator of fossil mammals from the Bavarian State Collection of Palaeontology and Geology, senior author of the study.

The fossil of the skull is severely compressed and distorted, which made the examination of the skull anatomy particularly challenging. Computed tomography images taken at the Department of Radiology at the Ludwig Maximilians University Hospital in Munich made it possible to examine and reconstruct internal features.

The anatomical reconstruction of the fossil's inner ear using micro-computed tomography images also yielded astonishing results. "The shape of the well-preserved bony labyrinth in the skull indicates that Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki was able to hear high-frequency signals," explains co-author Dr. Rachel Racicot from Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum. This makes this dolphin one of the oldest known toothed whales that already had a similarly developed sense of hearing as modern porpoises, for example. These animals are able to communicate in frequency ranges that are beyond the hearing range of their predators. There may also be a connection in the development with the ability of orientation through echolocation, which is typical for dolphins.

The dolphin fossil was unearthed in 1980 by the private collector Jürgen Pollerspöck, who later gave it to the Bavarian State Collection of Palaeontology and Geology for restoration and proper storage. The study has now been published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

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Fossil dolphin Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki. View from above

Caption

Fossil dolphin Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki. Lateral view

Credit

Manuela Schellenberger, SNSB-BSPG

The skull of Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki in the CT of the Clinic and Polyclinic for Radiology at the LMU Munich Hospital

Credit

Catalina Sánchez Posada

Journal

Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

DOI

10.1080/02724634.2024.2401503 

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Romaleodelphis pollerspoecki, gen. et sp. nov., an archaic dolphin from the Central Paratethys (Early Miocene, Austria)

Article Publication Date

5-Nov-2024

Fossil of huge terror bird offers new information about wildlife in South America 12 million years ago

Johns Hopkins Medicine

 

image: 

The end of a terror bird’s left tibiotarsus, a lower leg bone in birds equivalent to that of a human tibia or shin bone, dates back to the Miocene epoch around 12 million years ago.

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Credit: Degrange et al.

Researchers including a Johns Hopkins University evolutionary biologist report they have analyzed a fossil of an extinct giant meat-eating bird — which they say could be the largest known member of its kind — providing new information about animal life in northern South America millions of years ago.

The evidence lies in the leg bone of the terror bird described in new paper published Nov. 4 in Palaeontology. The study was led by Federico J. Degrange, a terror bird specialist, and included Siobhán Cooke, Ph.D., associate professor of functional anatomy and evolution at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The bone, found in the fossil-rich Tatacoa Desert in Colombia, which sits at the northern tip of South America, is believed to be the northernmost evidence of the bird in South America thus far.

The size of the bone also indicates that this terror bird may be the largest known member of the species identified to date, approximately 5%–20% larger than known Phorusrhacids, Cooke says. Previously discovered fossils indicate that terror bird species ranged in size from 3 feet to 9 feet tall.

“Terror birds lived on the ground, had limbs adapted for running, and mostly ate other animals,” Cooke says.

The bird’s leg bone was found by Cesar Augusto Perdomo, curator of the Museo La Tormenta, nearly 20 years ago, but was not recognized as a terror bird until 2023. In January 2024, researchers created a three-dimensional virtual model of the specimen using a portable scanner from Johns Hopkins Medicine, allowing them to analyze it further.

The fossil, the end of a left tibiotarsus, a lower leg bone in birds equivalent to that of a human tibia or shin bone, dates back to the Miocene epoch around 12 million years ago. The bone, with deep pits unique to the legs of all Phorusrhacids, is also marked with probable teeth marks of an extinct caiman — Purussaurus — a species that is thought to have been up to 30 feet long, Cooke says.

“We suspect that the terror bird would have died as a result of its injuries given the size of crocodilians 12 million years ago,” she says.  

Most terror bird fossils have been identified in the southern part of South America, including Argentina and Uruguay.

The Phorusrhacid fossil discovery as far north as Colombia suggests that it was an important part of predatory wildlife in the region. Importantly, this fossil helps the researchers better understand the animals living in the region 12 million years ago. Now a desert, scientists believe this region was once an environment full of meandering rivers. This giant bird lived among primates, hoofed mammals, giant ground sloths and armadillo relatives, glyptodonts, that were the size of cars. Today, the seriema, a long-legged bird native to South America that stands up to 3-feet-tall, is thought to be a modern relative of Phorusrhacid.

“It’s a different kind of ecosystem than we see today or in other parts of the world during a period before South and North America were connected,” Cooke says

Believed to be the first of its kind from the site, the fossil indicates that the species would have been relatively uncommon among the animals there 12 million years ago, Cooke says.

 “It’s possible there are fossils in existing collections that haven’t been recognized yet as terror birds because the bones are less diagnostic than the lower leg bone we found,” she says.

For Cooke, the finding helps her imagine an environment one can no longer find in nature.

“It would have been a fascinating place to walk around and see all of these now extinct animals,” she says.

In addition to Cooke and Perdomo, the study’s authors include first author Federico Javier Degrange of Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; Luis G. Ortiz-Pabon of Universidad de Los Andes, Carrera, Bogotá, Colombia and Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Carrera, Bogotá; Jonathan Pelegrin of Universidad del Valle, Colombia, and Universidad Santiago de Cali, Colombia; Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi of Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Avenida Arenales, Perú; and Andrés Link of Universidad de Los Andes, Carrera Bogotá, Colombia. 

DOI: doi.org/10.1002/spp2.1601

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Journal

Palaeontology

Reconstructing plesiosaur swimming styles with bio-mimetic control

Tohoku University

 

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The plesiosaur-like robot that uses the bio-inspired control system.

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Credit: Akira Fukuhara

A research group may have unraveled the mystery behind the locomotion of the ancient marine reptile, the plesiosaur, by recreating a bio-inspired control system that accounts for motion adjustment.

Extinct animals have vastly different body shapes from animals still around today, making it difficult to determine how they moved by comparing them to living species. Additionally, fossils rarely preserve the soft limb tissues that scientists need to study locomotion and gain key insights into their lifestyles.

Plesiosaurs roamed Earth's prehistoric oceans, propelled by their unique body structure, which featured four large, equally sized flippers. Yet how plesiosaurs used these flippers to swim has long baffled paleontologists. This so-called 'four-wing problem' has been a topic of heated debate for years.

But now, a research group comprising researchers from Tohoku University, Kanagawa University, and the University of Manchester has developed a novel approach to tackle this mystery.

"Instead of focusing solely on how water interacts with plesiosaur bodies - that is, the hydrodynamics of swimming - we decided to examine how these animals controlled their movement," says Akio Ishiguro, a professor at the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) at Tohoku University. "This is because plesiosaurs must have been able to swim at different speeds and in varied conditions."

Akio and his colleagues drew inspiration from inter-limb coordination mechanics underlying the flexible gait patterns used by other four-legged vertebrates, such as dogs and cats. They developed an autonomous decentralized control system for a plesiosaur-like robot.

Experimental results showed that the control system successfully generated coordinated patterns between the fore and hind flippers in response to changes in the flapping cycle and morphology.

"Our new approach reconstructs the way extinct animals can adjust their movement patterns in a flexible, situation-dependent manner," says Akira Fukuhara, an assistant professor at RIEC and the lead/first author of the paper. "It also means we can start investigating the complete locomotion repertoires of other extinct animals and learn more about their lifestyles."

Details of the finding were published in the journal Scientific Reports on October 28, 2024.

Also involved in the study were Mtsutoshi Sato and Hisayuki Ogawa, two former graduate students from RIEC; along with Tamaki Sato, a professor at Kanagawa University; and William Sellers, a professor at the University of Manchester.

Looking ahead, the research group hopes to make motion reconstructions that factor in other aspects of plesiosaur bodies. "Plesiosaurs notoriously possessed elongated necks, but these lengths varied considerably from creature to creature," adds Ishiguro. "We hope to create models that incorporate the roles of the neck, head, and torso in controlling these ancient creatures' movements."

A plesiosaur with a unique morphology. Modern animals that swim using their fins propel themselves using their front fins, but plesiosaurs have very large front and hind fins, and it is thought that they could use both to propel themselves. The problem of the coordination of the limbs of plesiosaurs is discussed as the 'four-wing problem,' and it is one of the long-standing movement reconstruction issues in paleontology. 

Credit

Akira Fukuhara

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Journal

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-024-55805-z 

Article Title

Rethinking the four-wing problem in plesiosaur swimming using bio-inspired decentralized control

CTHULHU STUDIES
For the First Time Ever, the Colossal Squid Might Have Shown Its Secret Face

Darren Orf
Thu, 13 June 2024



Although its the largest invertebrate species in the world, scientists have never glimpsed the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) in its natural habitat.

However, a non-profit ocean research team named Kolossal may have finally spotted a juvenile colossal squid as it traversed the waters around Antarctica. If true, this would be the first video of its kind.



The team captured this footage by rigging a deep-sea camera to a polar tourism vessel.

Humans spend nearly their entire lives on land, but the Earth we call home is really a water world. With 71 percent of the Earth’s surface covered by water, this expansive ecosystem has been difficult to study, and many animals of the deep ocean remain a complete mystery. One of the most spellbinding of these animals is the colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni). When full-grown, this creature is about as long as a bus and weighs nearly 1,100 pounds.

Believed to live in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica, this immense cephalopod—the largest invertebrate species on the planet— has never been observed in its natural habitat. Scientists only get a good look at these animals when trawlers accidentally catch them in their nets. But a new kind of oceanographic study seems to have struck gold last year when international research team and non-profit called Kolossal appeared to have stumbled across a juvenile colossal squid during one of its four trips to Antarctica from December of 2022 to March of 2023.

The team used a novel approach for imaging the ocean—outfitting a polar tourism vessel called the Ocean Endeavor with a deep-sea camera. Thankfully, the research team released the footage, which the website IFLScience promptly posted to YouTube.

“Antarctica is experiencing rapid and complex change, and it is critical to have a better understanding of these changes for the region’s ocean ecosystems,” the Kolossal team wrote in a paper detailing the method in February. “The costs and logistical challenges to operate scientific research vessels prohibits the scaling of crucial science and discovery in the region. Yet, the tourism industry in Antarctica is growing rapidly, and collaboration between tourism companies and researchers provides important access to the region.”

While leveraging tourism for marine exploration is a logistical win-win, finding verified footage of a colossal squid is as hard as ever. Even the short clip of the above specimen isn’t confirmed, as the video could be capturing an adult glass squid Galiteuthis glacialis or perhaps even a species completely unknown to science. The video is currently being peer-reviewed by experts, but it’s unlikely that scientists will ever know for sure. But because footage of any squid species in the Southern Ocean is rare, the footage is a huge victory for marine biologists studying these famously elusive animals regardless of its contents.

“The two known Cranchiidae taxa seen in the Antarctic are Galiteuthis glacialis and Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni,” Aaron Evans, who is peer reviewing the footage, told IFLScience. “The squid seen here could belong to different life stages of either of those taxa—and is an exciting example of wild cranchiid behavior, as I cannot think of existing video footage of either of those squid in their natural environment.”

Although the team’s stated goal is to capture footage of an adult colossal squid in its natural environment, according to IFLScience, the camera filmed nearly 80 species. Among them were giant volcano sponges, Antarctic sunflower stars, and many other marine invertebrates.

For now, the world’s largest invertebrate species frustratingly remains one of the animal kingdom’s largest mysteries. But as marine biologists team up with tourism vessels to explore the oceans, some of the our water planet’s biggest questions could slowly be answered.

At The Mountains of Madness (2021) 

H.P. Lovecraft feature film adaptation in full for free.

Mediterranean marine worm has developed eyes “as big as millstones"

Scientists are amazed at the discovery of a bristle worm with eyes as sharp as those of mammals. The researchers from University of Copenhagen and Lund University suspect that they may have a secretive language, only seen by their own species

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - FACULTY OF SCIENCE

 

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MARVELOUS EYES, BUT YOU BE THE JUDGE OF THIS SEA CRITTER’S BEAUTY. VANADIS IS A BYNAME OF THE NORSE GODDESS OF LOVE, FREYA.
PHOTO: MICHAEL BOK

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CREDIT: PHOTO: MICHAEL BOK

Scientists are amazed at the discovery of a bristle worm with such sharp-seeing eyes that they can measure up to those of mammals and octopuses. The researchers from University of Copenhagen and Lund University suspect that these marine worms may have a secretive language, which uses UV light only seen by their own species. The advanced vision of such a primitive creature helps to finally settle an epic debate about the evolution of eyes.

The Vanadis bristle worm has eyes as big as millstones – relatively speaking. Indeed, if our eyes were proportionally as big as the ones of this Mediterranean marine worm, we would need a big sturdy wheelbarrow and brawny arms to lug around the extra 100kg.

As a set, the worm's eyes weigh about twenty times as much as the rest of the animal’s head and seem grotesquely out of place on this tiny and transparent marine critter. As if two giant, shiny red balloons have been strapped to its body.

Vanadis bristle worms, also known as polychaetes, can be found around the Italian island of Ponza, just west of Naples. Like some of the island's summertime partiers, the worms are nocturnal and out of sight when the sun is high in the sky. So what does this polychaete do with its walloping peepers after dark? And what are they good for?

Neuro- and marine biologist Anders Garm from the University of Copenhagen’s Department of Biology couldn’t ignore the question. Setting other plans aside, the researcher felt compelled to dive in and try to find out. He was hooked as soon as his colleague Michael Bok at Lund University showed him a recording of the bristle worm.

"Together, we set out to unravel the mystery of why a nearly invisible, transparent worm that feeds in the dead of night has evolved to acquire enormous eyes. As such, the first aim was to answer whether large eyes endow the worm with good vision," says Michael Bok who together with Anders Garm, authors a new research article that does just that.[LINK]

It turns out that the Vanadis’ eyesight is excellent and advanced. Research has demonstrated that this worm can use its eyes to see small objects and track their movements.

"It's really interesting because an ability like this is typically reserved for us vertebrates, along with arthropods (insects, spiders, etc.) and cephalopods (octopus, squid). This is the first time that such an advanced and detailed view has been demonstrated beyond these groups. In fact, our research has shown that the worm has outstanding vision. Its eyesight is on a par with that of mice or rats, despite being a relatively simple organism with a miniscule brain," says Garm.

This is what makes the worm's eyes and extraordinary vision unique in the animal kingdom. And it was this combination of factors about the Vanadis bristle worm that really caught Anders Garm's attention. The researcher’s work focuses on understanding how otherwise simple nervous systems can have very complex functions – which was definitely the case here.

UV light and a secret language

For now, the researchers are trying to find out what caused the worm to develop such good eyesight. The worms are transparent, except for their eyes, which need to register light to function. So they can't be inherently transparent. That means that they come with evolutionary trade-offs. As becoming visible must have come at a cost to the Vanadis, something about the evolutionarily benefits of its eyes must outweigh the consequences.

Precisely what the worms gain remains unclear, particularly because they are nocturnal animals that tuck away during the day, when eyes usually work best.

“No one has ever seen the worm during the day, so we don't know where it hides. So, we cannot rule out that its eyes are used during the day as well. What we do know is that its most important activities, like finding food and mating, occur at night. So, it is likely that this is when its eyes are important," says Anders Garm.

Part of the explanation may be due to the fact that these worms see different wavelengths of light than we humans do. Their vision is geared to ultraviolet light, invisible to the human eye. And according to Garm, this may indicate that the purpose of its eyes is to see bioluminescent signals in the otherwise pitch-black nighttime sea.

"We have a theory that the worms themselves are bioluminescent and communicate with each other via light. If you use normal blue or green light as bioluminescence, you also risk attracting predators. But if instead, the worm uses UV light, it will remain invisible to animals other than those of its own species. Therefore, our hypothesis is that they’ve developed sharp UV vision so as to have a secret language related to mating," says Garm, who continues:

"It may also be that they are on the lookout look for UV bioluminescent prey. But regardless, it makes things truly exciting as UV bioluminescence has yet to be witnessed in any other animal. So, we hope to be able to present this as the first example," says the researcher.

Exciting for robotics research and evolutionary history

As a result of the discovery, Anders Garm and his research colleagues have also started working with robotics researchers from the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Institute at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU) who find technological inspiration in biology. Together, they share a common goal of investigating whether it is possible to understand the mechanism behind these eyes well enough so as to translate it into technology.

"Together with the robotics researchers, we are working to understand how animals with brains as simple as these can process all of the information that such large eyes are likely able to collect. This suggests that there are super smart ways to process information in their nervous system. And if we can detect these mechanisms mathematically, they could be integrated into computer chips and used to control robots," explains Ander Garm.

According to Garm, Vanadis' eyes are also interesting with regards to evolutionary theory because they could help settle one of the heaviest academic debates surrounding the theory: Whether eyes have only evolved once – and evolved into every form that we know of today, or whether they have arisen several times, independently of one another, in evolutionary history.

Vanadis' eyes are built simply, but equipped with advanced functionality. At the same time, they have evolved in a relatively short evolutionarily time span of just a few million years. This means that they must have developed independently of, for example, human eyes, and that the development of vision, even with a high level of function, is possible in a relatively short time.

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Extra Info: The eye and evolution

In general, eyes come in complex sizes, which is the case with the human eye, for example. Evolutionary skeptics have often pointed to the eye and said 'see for yourself, this must have been created by God'. The eyes of the Vanadis worm have a surprisingly simple natural "design" that has evolved in a relatively short time span compared to typical evolutionary timelines – i.e., a few million years. Despite their simplicity, they are advanced.

The emergence of eyes has been the subject of many debates since Darwin presented his theory of evolution in On the Origin of Species, both among those who are religious and skeptics outside science, as well as among eye biology and vision researchers.

One of these debates has been about whether eyes have only evolved once – and into every form that we know today, or whether they have arisen several times, independently of one another, in evolutionary history. Research in recent years has provided a number of pieces of evidence to support the latter, and the eyes of the Vanadis worm are another powerful piece of evidence in that direction.

“This means that they must have developed independently of, for example, human eyes and that the development of vision, even with a high level of function, is possible in a relatively short time. Because, this worm is so young on an evolutionary scale," says Michael Bok.

Darwin and the eye

In Charles Darwin’s major work, On the Origin of Species, he wrote about the incredible nature of the eye in relation to his theory of evolution by natural selection. He is often quoted by evolutionary skeptics as saying:

“To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I confess, absurd in the highest degree...”

But these quotations often forget to add the end of the passage:

“Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real.” (Origin of Species, chap. 6)

Facts: The Worm

• The Vanadis worm belongs to a family of large-eyed bristle worms, or polychaeta, found in many parts of the world.
• Its eyesight rivals that of rodents such as mice and rats. Vanadis' eyes weigh about 20 times more than the rest of its head
• The worms can see UV light and focus on relatively small objects, tracking them as they move.
• It is nocturnal. The researchers believe that these bristle worms use their eyes to communicate for mating and hunting prey.

Facts: Bioluminescence

• Bioluminescence is when organisms are luminescent, i.e., capable of producing light using their own power. This can be done chemically within the body, as with glow-worms.
• Should the researchers succeed in documenting it, the Vanadis worm could become the first animal proven to use UV bioluminescence, meaning that they create ultraviolet light naturally, for communication, among other things. 

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JOURNAL

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.055. 

ARTICLE TITLE

High-resolution vision in pelagic polychaetes

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

8-Apr-2024

Slimming down a colossal fossil whale

Date: February 29, 2024

Source: University of California - Davis 

Summary:

A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded.

FULL STORY

A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists at UC Davis and the Smithsonian Institution. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded. The work is published Feb. 29 in PeerJ.

A fossil skeleton of Perucetus was discovered in Peru and described in a paper in Nature last year.

The animal lived about 39 million years ago and belonged to an extinct group of early whales called the basilosaurids.

Perucetus' bones are unusually dense. Mammal bones usually have a solid exterior and are spongy or hollow in the center.

Some animals have more of the center filled in with solid bone, making them dense and heavy.

In aquatic animals, heavy bones can offset buoyancy from body fat and blubber, allowing the animal to maintain neutral buoyancy in water or -- in the case of the hippopotamus -- to walk on river beds.

The fossil whale bones have both extensive in-filling and extra growth of bone on the outside as well, a condition called pachyostosis also seen in some modern aquatic mammals, such as manatees.

Based on a series of assumptions, the original authors (Giovanni Bianucci at the University of Pisa, Italy and colleagues) estimated a body mass for Perucetus of 180 metric tons (ranging from 85 to 340 metric tons). This would make Perucetus as heavy as, or heavier than the biggest blue whales known, even though it is considerably shorter at 17 meters long compared to a blue whale at about 30 meters.

How to weigh a whale?

Professor Ryosuke Motani, a paleobiologist at the UC Davis Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, said that these estimates would make Perucetus impossibly dense.

"It would have been a job for the whale to stay at the surface, or even to leave the sea bottom -- it would have required continuous swimming against the gravity to do anything in the water," Motani said.

Motani and Nick Pyenson at the Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History reexamined the assumptions used to make those estimates.

The first problem is that Bianucci et al used the fossil bones to estimate the weight of the skeleton, then extrapolated to the weight of the entire animal, assuming that the skeletal and non-skeletal mass would scale at the same rate with increasing body size.

But measurements of other animals show this is not the case, Motani and Pyenson argue.

The original estimates also overestimated how much overall body mass increases as a result of pachyostosis.

But evidence from manatees shows that their bodies are relatively light relative to their skeletal mass.

Motani and Pyenson estimate that the 17-meter long Perucetus weighed in at 60 to 70 tons, considerably less than the known weights of blue whales.

A Perucetus that grew to 20 meters could weigh over 110 tons, still well short of the largest blue whales at 270 tons.

"The new weight allows the whale to come to the surface and stay there while breathing and recovering from a dive, like most whales do," Motani said.

Paleontologists have not yet uncovered a skull or teeth of Perucetus, so it is hard to tell what it ate. Sustaining a huge body takes a lot of food. Bianucci et al suggested that Perucetus might have browsed on coastal fish and shellfish, or scavenged carcases, as some sharks do. The new slimmed-down size estimate puts Perucetus in a similar range to sperm whales (80 tons, 20 meters long), which hunt large prey such as giant squid.

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of California - Davis. Original written by Andy Fell. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:Ryosuke Motani, Nicholas D. Pyenson. Downsizing a heavyweight: factors and methods that revise weight estimates of the giant fossil whale Perucetus colossus. PeerJ, 2024; 12: e16978 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.16978

University of California - Davis. "Slimming down a colossal fossil whale." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 29 February 2024. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/02/240229124554.htm>.

John Wayne's Wildest Non-Western Movie Sees Him Fight A Sea Monster (He Almost Turned It Down)

BYCHARLES NICHOLAS RAYMOND

SCREEN RANT

PUBLISHED 1 DAY AGO


Despite being given a chance to team up with an acclaimed director, John Wayne nearly turned down a chance to fight a sea monster in a wild 1942 film.



SUMMARY

John Wayne's versatile filmography included sea monster movie "Reap the Wild Wind," a unique break from his usual Westerns and war films.

Wayne's character in "Reap the Wild Wind" challenges his traditional roles by losing a fight and not getting the girl in the end.

Despite initial reluctance, starring in "Reap the Wild Wind" actually enhanced John Wayne's Hollywood reputation and led to more opportunities.

Despite being a huge critical and commercial success, John Wayne's only sea monster movie is far from one of his best-known films. Although famous primarily for headlining Westerns and war films, the Hollywood action legend wasn't associated exclusively with those two genres. At numerous points in his long career in Hollywood, Wayne broke away from his standard formula.

In addition to a multitude of Westerns and war classics, Wayne also held lead roles in romantic comedies, adventure films, modern-day dramas, and more. One of these periods was in the early 1940s, even though he had recently made his first massive Western hit, Stagecoach, in 1939. John Wayne took time to star in a number of non-Westerns, including The Shepherd of the Hills, A Man Betrayed, and more. After starring opposite Joan Blondell in 1942's Lady for a Night, Wayne appeared in Reap the Wild Wind, which would go on to become a unique entry in his filmography.

Reap The Wild Wind Bucks 2 Massive John Wayne Movie Trends

Reap the Wild Wind was an unusual movie for Wayne for more than one reason. Taking place in the 19th century, the 1942 adventure epic featured an ending in which the main characters battled a monster-sized giant squid. Wayne played the role of Jack Stuart, a ship captain who winds up in a love triangle with the other two leads, Ray Milland's Steven Tolliver and Paullette Goddard's Loxi Claiborne. A dispute over what caused a mysterious shipwreck - which Jack was taking the blame for - resulted in Jack and Steve teaming up to fight the 45-foot-long squid in the ocean in Reap the Wild Wind's ending.

As if John Wayne fighting a sea monster rather than a Western outlaw isn't surprising enough on its own, it's only part of what makes Reap the Wild Wind such a strange movie for the actor. True to his "tough guy" image, John Wayne characters regularly get involved in gunfights and brawls, and provided that the fight is fair, there's always an expectation for them to come out on top. However, that's not what happens in Reap the Wild Wind, which pits Jack against Steve. Despite initially painting Jack as 'the hero' of the story, it's actually Steve who wins their fist fight - and the one who ends up with the two men's love interest at the end of the film.

Why John Wayne Almost Turned Down His Reap The Wild Wind Role

Interestingly, Reap the Wild Wind taking such an unexpected direction with a John Wayne movie almost resulted in the actor passing up the role. According to Empire of Dreams: The Epic Life of Cecil B. DeMille by Scott Eymann, getting Wayne to accept the part of Jack took some convincing, partially because of the fight his character was to lose to Steve. The book claims that after the director said that the role wouldn't lead to any loss of dignity, Wayne told DeMille that being beaten up by Ray Milland would "lose anybody their dignity."

It's important to keep in mind that although Wayne was not necessarily Hollywood's biggest star in 1942 and many of his biggest films were still years away, Wayne was still considered a leading actor by this point. Wayne had already made Stagecoach and was accustomed to getting top billing. In Shooting Star: A Biography Of John Wayne, Maurice Zolotow revealed that Wayne expressed his concerns to DeMille about playing what he felt was a supporting part. But as the book says, DeMille managed to sway Wayne through his persistence, telling the actor, "I want you very much. I give you my word of honor that I will do you justice."

How Reap The Wild Wind Helped John Wayne's Career




Reap the Wild Wind isn't usually mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Red River, Sands of Iwo Jiwa, Rio Bravo, or Stagecoach, but even so, it remains an important milestone in the Hollywood icon's career. It received critical acclaim at the time, including three Academy Award nominations. The positive buzz it had earned at the time, combined with the prestige that comes with starring a Cecil DeMille film, helped improve Wayne's reputation and garnered him additional interest from other studios.

Zolotow wrote in Shooting Star that John Wayne had said of his career after Reap the Wild Wind, "I had no trouble holding up my head in Hollywood." Based on his comments, putting aside his reservations about the Jack Stuart role was the right move for the actor. After all, it obviously didn't harm his image, as his litany of "tough guy" roles only piled up as the years passed.

 

Singapore engineer pivots from oil rigs to 'fish farm of the future'

Singapore (AFP) – A high-tech fish farm floats just off the coast of Singapore, part of a plan by a retired engineer who once built oil rigs to bring diners cleaner, healthier seafood.


Issued on: 17/02/2024 - 

Fish tanks at Singapore's Eco Ark simulate ocean conditions that allow fish to swim against a current while shielding them from diseases 

© Roslan RAHMAN / AFP

The tiny city-state imports 90 percent of its food but hopes to locally source about a third of it by 2030 to guard against supply disruptions such as climate change, disease and conflict.

So officials are backing projects such as Eco Ark, a giant aquafarm that produces seabass, grouper and threadfin for restaurant tables across the city of nearly six million.

The facility harvests 30,000 kilograms (66,000 pounds) a month, which ex-engineer Leow Ban Tat, founder of Eco Ark and the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence, says is 20 times more per hectare than traditional open-net cage farms.

"There is a great difference in what we do because we believe in technology," Leow, who once built oil rigs, told AFP.

The structure, which sits on a purpose-built submersible platform, filters seawater through an ozone machine to kill disease-causing pathogens before then transferring it into fish tanks six metres (20 feet) deep.

The tanks simulate ocean conditions to keep the fish swimming against the current, making them leaner and more nutritious, and shield them from threats such as disease, plankton blooms and oil spills.

Leow, 65, said the water is so clean that, unlike other farms, Eco Ark has no need to add antibiotics, which help protect fish from disease but can cause resistance in humans over time and affect the environment.

Adult fish are given frozen squid as well as pelleted feed, with younger ones also given probiotics "which helps with both digestion and physiological function and improves the performance of the animal", he said.
'Really delicious'

Leow is also looking to cut emissions from his "fish farms of the future" by adding solar panels and has built a hatchery after finding that juvenile fish imported from Malaysia and Australia carried diseases.

Eco Ark's fish are delivered to more than 80 restaurants, supermarkets and specialty shops that put a premium on them being freshly harvested and healthy.

Leow Ban Tat, founder of the Aquaculture Centre of Excellence, hopes to eventually export the technology behind his Eco Ark fish farm 

© Roslan RAHMAN / AFP

Leow hopes eventually to export not only the fish but the technology for the Eco Ark, which he says can be built near coastal areas to shorten delivery time and cut costs.

Daniel Teo, the co-founder of Singapore's Kin Hoi restaurant, which buys fish from the Eco Ark facility, said: "It is very important that local farmers (who) actually know the economy" should be encouraged to help meet demand.

Food security has become a major issue for Singapore, roughly the size of New York City but without the space to meet its agricultural and industrial needs, so funding has been granted for everything from rooftop vegetable farms to Eco Ark's fish farm.

However, Madhumitha Ardhanari, principal sustainability strategist at the Forum for the Future nonprofit group, said Singaporean fish farmers' heavy reliance on government subsidies raised concerns about their long-term survival.

Kin Hoi diner Martin Pei had no complaints as he polished off a portion of fried seabass from Eco Ark.

"The fish was really delicious," he said. "Just eating it, I didn't know that it was farmed."

© 2024 AFP