Freeports: innovative trading hubs or centres for money laundering and tax evasion?

UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH

Research News

 

A new study from the University of Portsmouth calls for further government oversight to curb potential illegal activity through these zones.

This study demonstrates the attractive trading advantages offered by freeports to enable enterprise and innovation. Eight new freeports in England are due to enter operation in late 2021, which are hoped to drive investment, economic opportunities and growth to those regions.

However, researchers also advise that stronger regulation is needed to prevent Freeports being abused for money-laundering and tax-evasion purposes. The study, published today in the Journal of Money Laundering Control, raises justifiable concerns over the misuse of Freeports.

In early 2020, and with Brexit looming on the horizon, the UK government published a consultation into proposals to create Freeports across the country. The idea was to stimulate the economy following the departure from the EU.

Report lead author Paul Gilmour, from the University's Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, explains the role of freeports. He says: "In their basic form they are warehouses located within free-trade zones that lie within a country's geographical border but are designated by that country's government to be outside its normal customs regime.

"The companies based within these zones enjoy several concessions, such as cheaper import duties, suspended custom obligations, and reduced bureaucratic checks intended to streamline cross-border trade. They effectively act as offshore jurisdictions that offer attractive trading advantages which enable enterprise and innovation."

The research examined existing freeports around the world and found they are often used as tactical depots: intended as spaces to temporarily house valuable assets, such as artwork, precious metals and gems, wine collections and antiques.

Researchers say that many art dealers now commonly exploit the beneficial goods-in-transit position of freeports, to house assets on a more permanent basis. This means, as long as the dealers' goods remain within the freeports storage facility, those dealers are unaccountable for any duties (such as value-added taxes [VAT] or capital gains taxes) which would normally be applied upon export.

Gilmour explains: "The growth in freeports may have originally evolved from a desire to stimulate global investment by deregulating financial markets. However, there is an argument that permanent storage spaces within freeports only act to stifle capital mobility. Nonetheless, freeports do seem to provide innovative trading advantages to enable businesses to thrive in today's competitive global market."

The study warns that freeports can be abused for money-laundering and tax-evasion purposes because of a lack of transparency. It says they can help to obscure the true beneficial owners of assets through secretive corporate practices that thwart efforts by authorities to trace illicit profits and recoup government taxes.

"There is also evidence that these zones enable trade-based money laundering by the falsifying of trade invoices to deceive authorities," says Gilmour. "The many international transactions occurring through freeports, coupled with a lack of regulatory supervision, poses notable challenges for government officials."

The study suggests that banks that facilitate numerous international trade transactions need to be more alert to illicit trading and should be responsible for carrying out proper due diligence around freeport trade. It says that although governments have recognised the threat that freeports present by ensuring they fall within the scope of anti-money laundering control, there is still opportunity for freeports to operate without transparency.

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Notes to editors:

1. For further information about freeports visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/freeports-bidding-process-opens-for-applications

The first freeports will be open for business in 2021, and sea, air and rail ports from across England are encouraged to apply, working in tandem with their local leaders, businesses and others in their communities.

The government is working constructively and collaboratively with the devolved administrations to establish at least one freeport in each nation of the UK, in addition to those allocated in England.

2. The University of Portsmouth is a progressive and dynamic university with an outstanding reputation for innovative teaching and globally significant research and innovation.

The University's research and innovation culture is impacting lives today and in the future and addressing local, national and global challenges across science, technology, humanities, business and creative industries. http://www.port.ac.uk/

For further information:

Emma Gaisford, Media Officer, University of Portsmouth, email: emma.gaisford@port.ac.uk

Wealth inequality is key driver of global wildlife trade

Research co-led by HKU and Lingnan ecologists reveals that wealth inequality is key driver of global wildlife trade

THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Research News

 

IMAGE: ELEPHANT TUSKS SEIZED BY THE NATIONAL PARKS BOARD OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE CUSTOMS, AND THE IMMIGRATION & CHECKPOINTS AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE. view more 

CREDIT: MARCUS CHUA

It was commonly assumed that wildlife products are exported from low-income countries to meet the demand of consumers in wealthy economies, and therefore, a widening wealth gap may drive up the volume of global trade and endanger wildlife.

Recently, a research team co-led by Research Division for Ecology and Biodiversity (E&B), Faculty of Science, the University of Hong Kong (HKU) and the Science Unit (SU) of Lingnan University (LU) corroborated this premise by analysing global wildlife trade databases. The research team includes Dr Jia Huan LIEW, Research Assistant Professor of SU, and Emeritus Professor David DUDGEON from E&B, HKU. Their findings are published in Science Advances.

Wealthier countries take the vast part of the responsibility

A major take-home message of the study was that wealthy countries are responsible for most of the world's wildlife trade. The top three importers of wild animals were the United States, France, and Italy, while in Asia, wealthier nations including China, Singapore, and Japan were all net importers of wildlife products. On the supply-end of the trade, countries with better logistics capabilities (e.g., Indonesia) also exported more wildlife products.

Hong Kong has long been a global hub of the legal wildlife trade, importing approximately 13 million individual animals between 1998 and 2018. In particular, the city was a major destination for fishes, sharks, and rays.

The researchers looked at 20 years of legal wildlife trade data, ranging from live corals for hobbyist, to wild-caught sturgeons for aquaculture, and seahorses for traditional remedies. During this period, an estimated 421 million individual animals were traded globally, and the market was more extensive when there was greater wealth inequality between countries.

The study's findings may have important implications in a post-pandemic world, where issues surrounding the wildlife trade is once again in the spotlight. The COVID-19 virus is believed to have spread to humans via the wildlife trade, leading notably, to a ban on the consumption of wild terrestrial animals in China. While increased regulation may suppress trade in the short term, the pandemic's impact on the global economy will likely exacerbate wealth inequality between nations by disproportionately impacting some parts of the world. This, according to research findings that show a positive correlation between wealth inequality and the extent of the global wildlife market, could encourage more international trade in wildlife products.

There were marked inequalities between exporters and importers of wildlife products, and importers were generally better off in all measures of socioeconomic well-being. For example, the largest trade partnership the study recorded was between the USA (importer) and Indonesia (exporter), where the per capita GDP of the US was 20 times that of Indonesia. Other prominent trade flows include exports from Jamaica to France (importer per capita GDP 8 times higher) and exports from Indonesia to Singapore (importer per capita GDP 17 times higher).

CAPTION

Top participants of the legal wildlife trade in the last 20 years.

CREDIT

The University of Hong Kong

Urge for reduction of demands for animal products

Inequalities in the wildlife market and the dominant role of wealthy countries highlights the importance of efforts to reduce the demand for wildlife products via awareness campaigns or product substitution, among others. "One message is that it is evidently demand from richer countries that is fueling the capture and trade of wildlife from poor/low-income countries. That means that it is the responsibility of affluent consumers in rich countries to do something to limit their demands and greed for animal products," says Emeritus Professor Dudgeon.

This may also be a more socially equitable approach than blanket bans on wildlife harvesting that could impact vulnerable communities reliant on the trade. "Globally, we need to manage the trade in wildlife in a way which does not endanger their populations and the communities that rely on it for a source of protein or important source of livelihood," says Dr Janice LEE, Assistant Professor at the Asian School of the Environment.

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For the paper in Science Advances:

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/7/19/eabf7679/tab-article-info

Images download and captions: https://www.scifac.hku.hk/press

Roads pose significant threat to bee movement and flower pollination, U-M study shows

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

Research News

Roads can be barriers to wildlife of all sorts, and scientists have studied road impacts on animals ranging from Florida panthers and grizzly bears to box turtles, mice, rattlesnakes and salamanders.

But much less is known about the impact of roads on pollinating insects such as bees and to what extent these structures disrupt insect pollination, which is essential to reproduction in many plant species.

In a paper published online May 10 in the Journal of Applied Ecology, University of Michigan researchers describe how they used fluorescent pigment as an analog for pollen. They applied the luminous pigment to the flowers of roadside plants to study how roads affected the movement of pollen between plants at 47 sites in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

The researchers found that plants across a road from pigment-added plants received significantly less pigment than plants on the same side of the road. The study also suggests relatively simple ways to reduce this road-barrier effect.

"Our study shows that roads and paths pose a significant barrier to bee movement and therefore substantially reduce pollen transfer," said study author Gordon Fitch, a doctoral candidate in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. His co-lead author is Chatura Vaidya, also an EEB doctoral candidate.

The study focused on two species of insect-pollinated flowering plants native to the region, wild bergamot (Monarda fistulosa) and threadleaf coreopsis (Coreopsis verticillata).

At each site, three potted plants were placed along the roadside on a warm, sunny morning. Luminous pigment was applied to the reproductive structures in the flowers of one plant (the "pigment-added" plant).

Then a second plant (the "across" plant) was placed across the road from the pigment-added plant, and the distance between the two plants was measured. Finally, a third plant (the "along" plant) was placed on the same side of the road as the pigment-added plant, at the same distance from the pigment-added plant as the "across" plants.

At most sites, both species of flowering plants were deployed in this fashion.

The researchers left the plants outside for the day, collected them in the evening, and brought them to a dark location. An ultraviolet flashlight was used to determine how patterns of pigment transfer varied, depending on whether the plants were located on the same side of the road or on opposite sides of the road.

To do this, the researchers counted the number of flowers on each plant that held pigment. Because wind and nonpollinating insects can sometimes transfer pigment, only flowers with pigment on their reproductive parts, not the petals, were counted.

Fitch and Vaidya found that being across the road reduced pigment transfer by 50% for the threadleaf coreopsis plants and by 34% for wild bergamot plants, compared to plants on the same side of the road.

"Ours is the first well-replicated study to examine how roads impact bee movement," Fitch said. "Moreover, we used an innovative technique relying on pigment as a pollen analog--rather than direct observation of insect behavior--which allowed us to collect data efficiently. As such, we are also the first to show that roads disrupt the movement of pollen between plants."

During the study, Fitch and Vaidya observed 65 insect visits to threadleaf coreopsis plants and 356 to wild bergamot plants. Ninety-seven percent of the visits were from bees.

Bees are indispensable pollinators, supporting both agricultural productivity and the diversity of flowering plants worldwide. In recent decades, both native bees and managed honeybee colonies have seen population declines blamed on multiple interacting factors including habitat loss, parasites and disease, and pesticide use.

Fitch and Vaidya found that reduced pigment transfer was driven by the size of the road, as well as the size of the bees: As the number of road lanes increased, or as the size of the bee decreased, the effect was greater.

Pigment transfer across roads with three or more lanes of traffic was rare for either plant species, they found, suggesting that medium-sized and large roads may impede the movement of bees sufficiently to impact foraging and pollination.

The researchers recommend the evaluation and implementation of strategies to make roads less of a barrier to pollinators--without spending huge sums of money to do so.

Wildlife crossing structures that have been used in North America and Europe to facilitate movement of animals through landscapes fragmented by roads include wildlife overpasses, bridges, culverts and pipes.

In a similar fashion, existing pedestrian overpasses could potentially be modified to help bees and other flying pollinators, simply by adding flower-containing planter boxes to the landscaping, Fitch said. He cautioned that such an approach is largely hypothetical and is untested.

Such measures could potentially dovetail with efforts in some cities to promote alternative modes of transportation and to reduce traffic accidents by using so-called road diets. This increasingly popular design strategy reduces the amount of a roadway dedicated to vehicular traffic through, for example, the addition of bicycle lanes or wider sidewalks.

In downtown Ann Arbor, recently installed examples of road diets include the protected, two-way bike lanes on William and Ashley streets.

"Since road width and traffic volume were major predictors of pigment transfer in our study, this suggests that road diets could also help reduce the effects of roads on flying insects, particularly if they included pollinator-friendly plantings," Fitch said.

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Study: "Roads pose a significant barrier to bee movement, mediated by road size, traffic, and bee identity" number is projected to increase by an additional 15 million miles or so by 2050.

Photos

Dartmouth engineering study shows renewable energy will enhance power grid's resilience

THAYER SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AT DARTMOUTH

Research News

 

IMAGE: IMAGE CREATED BY DAKOTA THOMPSON USING THE ELECTRIC GRID ENERGY RESOURCES GIS DATA FROM S&P GLOBAL PLATTS. (2017) PLATTS ENERGY MAP DATA PRO. view more 

CREDIT: DAKOTA THOMPSON/DARTMOUTH

A new Dartmouth Engineering study shows that integrating renewable energy into the American Electric Power System (AEPS) would enhance the grid's resilience, meaning a highly resilient and decarbonized energy system is possible. The researchers' analysis is based upon the incremental incorporation of architectural changes that would be required to integrate renewable energy into AEPS.

The paper, "A Hetero-functional Graph Resilience Analysis of the Future American Electric Power System," was recently published by IEEE Access.

"We concluded that there are no structural trade-offs between grid sustainability and resilience enhancements, meaning these strategic goals can be pursued simultaneously," said Principal Investigator Amro Farid, a professor at Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth and research affiliate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

"Whether you are of one political inclination or another, value resilience or sustainability, the efforts are entirely aligned and should serve as the basis for a bipartisan consensus on the transformation of the electric power grid," said Farid.

The results of the structural analysis are the first to take into account the hetero-functionality of the grid's resources, including renewable energy, using a new method that uniquely captures the true connectedness and capabilities of the grid. Using the novel hetero-functional graph theory, which Farid has been developing for over a decade, the researchers analyzed more than 175,000 energy resources throughout the United States such as power plants, substations, and transmission lines.

"Through the hetero-functional graph theory analysis of the American Electric Power Systems, we were better able to track the systems capabilities and structural resilience as the AEPS underwent both attacks and developments," said first author Dakota Thompson, a Dartmouth Engineering PhD candidate. Dartmouth Engineering alumnus Wester Schoonenberg also contributed to the study.

The authors received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) as part of the American Multi-Modal Energy System (AMES) project, which supported this work.

The researchers are already working on their next project: developing a synthetic model of the AMES, including electric power, oil, natural gas, and coal infrastructure, so that the research community can study how the model can evolve to meet current and future needs.

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Tanzanian farmers boost diets with sustainable methods

CORNELL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: MENTOR FARMERS DISCUSSING THEIR FARMING PRACTICES WITH AGRICULTURAL SCIENTISTS. view more 

CREDIT: MARIANNE V. SANTOSO

ITHACA, N.Y. - A project based in Tanzania found significant improvements in the diversity of children's diets and food security for households after farmers learned about sustainable crop-growing methods, gender equity, nutrition and climate change from peer mentors.

The farmers experimented with practices introduced to them by Malawian farmers and Tanzanian and American scientists, decided which ones to incorporate within their own farms, and met monthly to share experiences and problem-solve.

The three-year study builds on longer-term research where these environmentally-friendly farming methods, called agroecology, combined with peer-mentoring and farmers collaborating in the process, had successfully improved adult nutrition in Malawi.

"There were a lot of questions about whether an approach that is effective in one context can work in other contexts," said Rachel Bezner Kerr, professor of global development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University and co-author of the study that published May 11 in the Journal of Nutrition.

Bezner Kerr is a co-principal investigator on the project, along with corresponding author Sera Young, associate professor of anthropology at Northwestern University, lead author Marianne V. Santoso and collaborators at Action Aid Tanzania, Nelson Mandela African Institute for Science and Technology and Singida Rural District Council.

Agroecology applies ecological principles to agriculture in a holistic manner. In trainings for this study, farmers learned about practices such as intercropping, in which several crops are planted together in the same beds, to provide diversified foods while also reducing pests that thrive in monocultures. Farmers decided which agroecological practices they wanted to test, such as environmentally safe botanical pesticides from local plants or adding compost and manure to improve soil health.

American and Tanzanian researchers invited food-insecure smallholder farmers with children under 1 year old from 20 villages in Singida, Tanzania, to participate. Ten of the villages began the program, while the other 10 served as a control group for two years before they too were taught the practices.

In total, 600 households participated, split evenly between the intervention and control groups. Before training began, the researchers conducted surveys about nutrition, farming practices, and gender equity and measured children's growth. Over the course of the program, these things continued to be assessed. Households in the intervention group were given about a pound of legume seeds of their choice, including cowpea, groundnut and pigeon pea, which enriched soil with nitrogen and added diversity to staple sorghum, millet and corn crops they grew. Farmers were able to save legume seeds from crops they grew for the following year.

At the start of the program, a group of 20 farmers that included one man and one woman from 10 villages were selected to be peer mentors in their communities. They were brought to Malawi to learn about different practices used by the Malawian farmers.

Then, Malawian peer-mentors traveled to Tanzania to teach a two-week agroecology course co-designed by farmers and researchers. The integrated curriculum had hand-on activities on agroecology, gender and social equity, child nutrition and climate change.

The researchers measured food security, children's dietary diversity and agricultural practices within households. They used a standard set of questions about diets and foods consumed in each category to arrive at a minimum dietary diversity score.

"We found that this intervention approach of combining agroecology with attention to nutrition and gender equity led to improvements in food security and children's dietary diversity for households that were food insecure at the start of the intervention," Bezner Kerr said.

They found no significant impact on child growth, which wasn't a surprise, as research shows that diversifying diets has significant impacts on child health and well-being, but less on growth, Bezner Kerr said.

Furthermore, data collected on division of labor within households, decision making and mental health outcomes led to a separate paper that showed the approach significantly improved women's mental health and well-being.

CAPTION

Mentor farmer Dorothea Gabriel Ngura showing off her harvest from the project.

CREDIT

Marianne V. Santoso

Santoso is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern University. She is supported by a competitive research fellowship through the Innovative Methods and Metrics for Agriculture and Nutrition Actions program.

The study was funded by the Collaborative Crop Research Program of the McKnight Foundation, the Cornell Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, the National Institutes of Health and the Borlaug Fellows in Food Security Program.

 

New USask research will make bean crops hardier, help improve global food security

Tepary bean genome may lead to sustainable alternatives for legume crops affected by changing climate

UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN

Research News

 

IMAGE: USASK PLANT RESEARCHER KIRSTIN BETT (LEFT) DISCUSSES BEANS AND PULSES WITH CRYSTAL CHAN, FORMER PROJECT MANAGER view more 

CREDIT: DEBRA MARSHALL PHOTOGRAPHY

SASKATOON - Tepary beans--a high protein legume common to the southwest United States and Mexico--may hold the key to adapting bean crops for the increasingly harsh conditions brought on by a changing climate, according to research led by University of Saskatchewan (USask) and Michigan State University.

In a study just published in Nature Communications, the researchers found that as the mercury rises to 27oC at night--a temperature devastating for current bean crops--specific genes sensitive to heat stress in the tepary bean get activated, protecting the plant.

"We are interested in tepary beans because they are very stress tolerant, unlike their cousin the common bean," said Dr. Kirstin Bett (PhD), professor of plant breeding and genetics at USask and one of the senior authors of the study.

By 2050, the major regions growing common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.)--the most important legume protein source for human consumption--may be unsuitable and the overall nutritional quality of the crop will likely be reduced.

"Tepary beans are an under-appreciated protein crop that are ideal for production in marginal environments due to their inherent tolerance of temperature stresses," said Bett.

The team sequenced the genome of the tepary bean (Phaseolus acutifolis A. Gray) to study how the legume adapts more effectively to fluctuating temperatures than its common bean cousin, and to combine traits of the two species into a more sustainable crop variety.

Having been part of Indigenous diets in regions such as northern Mexico, the southwest United States and Africa for centuries, the tepary bean has been valued for its ability to survive in arid environments. While the tepary bean can handle heat and dry, the researchers found it is less capable of surviving the threat of disease.

"Tepary beans have fewer disease resistance genes, perhaps because they are typically grown in arid climates where disease pressure has been less than in the wetter regions where common beans have been grown," said Bett.

"My group was responsible for the wild genome assembly and the comparative mapping work that shows the genome-level relationships between wild and cultivated tepary bean and common bean," said Bett. "This will help us better understand how to transfer traits between the two species. We are trying to increase the stress tolerance of the common bean by crossing with tepary bean and selecting for lines that are more tolerant to cold and drought."

In the future, researchers hope to be able to leverage this genetic information to improve the vitality of bean crops that must thrive in extreme temperatures or changing environments.

"We are continuing to try to develop tepary bean varieties that will grow here in Saskatchewan and in other dry areas of the world," Bett said.

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The team included researchers from USask's College of Agriculture and Bioresources, USask's Global Institute for Food Security, Michigan State University, North Dakota State University, Canada's National Research Council (NRC) located on the USask campus, USDA Agricultural Research Service - Tropical Agriculture Research Station, Alabama-based HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, and the U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute.

The Saskatoon contingent of the research team included USask bioinformatics specialists Chushin Koh and Larissa Ramsay, and Sateesh Kagale, a research scientist at NRC.

The research was supported locally by Saskatchewan Pulse Growers, and internationally by the Michigan State University Plant Resilience Institute, the United States Agency for International Development and the United States Department of Agriculture.

Southern African dinosaur had irregular growth

UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND

Research News

 

IMAGE: RECONSTRUCTION OF MASSOSPONDYLUS CARINATUS view more 

CREDIT: DORLING KINDERSLEY

Anyone who's raised a child or a pet will know just how fast and how steady their growth seems to be. You leave for a few days on a work trip and when you come home the child seems to have grown 10cm! That's all well and good for the modern household, but how did dinosaurs grow up? Did they, too, surprise their parents with their non-stop growth?

A new study lead by Dr Kimberley Chapelle of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand suggests NOT. At least for one iconic southern African dinosaur species. By looking at the fossil thigh bones under a microscope, researchers can count growth lines, like those of a tree. This allows them to study how much the individuals grew each year. By looking at growth rings in the bones of Massospondylus carinatus, Dr Chapelle was able to show that its growth varied season-to-season, more like a tree than a puppy or a baby human.

"These things were just all over the show" said Chapelle, "one year they might gain 100kg of body weight and the next year they'd only grow by 10kg!"

Massospondylus was a medium sized dinosaur, up to 500kg in body weight, that lived in the Early Jurassic, so 200 million years ago. It fed on plants like ferns. The study suggests that Massospondylus' growth directly responded to its environmental conditions. In a good year with lots of rain and food, the species might race ahead, almost doubling their size. In a bad year where nutrients were scarce, it might hardly grow at all.

Chapelle and her colleagues suggest that such a growth strategy might have helped Massospondylus cope with the harsh environmental conditions following the end-Triassic Mass Extinction 200 million years ago, when more than 50% of species were wiped out.

"Massospondylus was one of the first Southern African dinosaurs named back in 1854 and we are still learning so much from it. It teaches us so much about our past environments and what southern Africa was like 200 million years ago" said Chapelle.

"This study shows the power of big sample sizes," said Jonah Choiniere, Professor at Wits University and co-author of the study, "when we can study a dinosaur from embryo to adult, like Massospondylus, we can begin to understand them as living animals."

"It is exciting to see such varied growth patterns in a dinosaur, showing us there is still so much to learn about these unique creatures!" said Dr Jennifer Botha from the National Museum, Bloemfontein, a co-author on the study.

CAPTION

Cross section of a Massospondylus carinatus thigh bone, showing the growth rings, similar to those of a tree

CREDIT

Kimi Chapelle

Newly described horned dinosaur from New Mexico was the earliest of its kind

With a frilled head and beaked face, Menefeeceratops sealeyi lived 82 million years ago, predating its relative, Triceratops

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Research News

IMAGE: WITH A FRILLED HEAD AND BEAKED FACE, MENEFEECERATOPS SEALEYI, DISCOVERED IN NEW MEXICO, LIVED 82 MILLION YEARS AGO. IT PREDATED ITS BETTER-KNOWN RELATIVE, TRICERATOPS. view more 

CREDIT: SERGEY KRASOVSKIY

A newly described horned dinosaur that lived in New Mexico 82 million years ago is one of the earliest known ceratopsid species, a group known as horned or frilled dinosaurs. Researchers reported their find in a publication in the journal PalZ (Paläontologische Zeitschrift).

Menefeeceratops sealeyi adds important information to scientists' understanding of the evolution of ceratopsid dinosaurs, which are characterized by horns and frills, along with beaked faces. In particular, the discovery sheds light on the centrosaurine subfamily of horned dinosaurs, of which Menefeeceratops is believed to be the oldest member. Its remains offer a clearer picture of the group's evolutionary path before it went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.

Steven Jasinski, who recently completed his Ph.D. in Penn's Department of Earth and Environmental Science in the School of Arts & Sciences, and Peter Dodson of the School of Veterinary Medicine and Penn Arts & Sciences, collaborated on the work, which was led by Sebastian Dalman of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. Spencer Lucas and Asher Lichtig of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque were also part of the research team.

"There has been a striking increase in our knowledge of ceratopsid diversity during the past two decades," says Dodson, who specializes in the study of horned dinosaurs. "Much of that has resulted from discoveries farther north, from Utah to Alberta. It is particularly exciting that this find so far south is significantly older than any previous ceratopsid discovery. It underscores the importance of the Menefee dinosaur fauna for the understanding of the evolution of Late Cretaceous dinosaur faunas throughout western North America."

The fossil specimen of the new species, including multiple bones from one individual, was originally discovered in 1996 by Paul Sealey, a research associate of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, in Cretaceous rocks of the Menefee Formation in northwestern New Mexico. A field crew from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science collected the specimen. Tom Williamson of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science briefly described it the following year, and recent research on other ceratopsid dinosaurs and further preparation of the specimen shed important new light on the fossils.

Based on the latest investigations, researchers determined the fossils represent a new species. The genus name Menefeeceratops refers to the rock formation in which it was discovered, the Menefee Formation, and to the group of which the species is a part, Ceratopsidae. The species name sealeyi honors Sealey, who unearthed the specimen.

Menefeeceratops is related to but predates Triceratops, another ceratopsid dinosaur. However Menefeeceratops was a relatively small member of the group, growing to around 13 to 15 feet long, compared to Triceratops, which could grow to up to 30 feet long.

Horned dinosaurs were generally large, rhinoceros-like herbivores that likely lived in groups or herds. They were significant members of Late Cretaceous ecosystems in North America. "Ceratopsids are better known from various localities in western North America during the Late Cretaceous near the end of the time of dinosaurs," says Jasinski. "But we have less information about the group, and their fossils are rarer, when you go back before about 79 million years ago."

Although bones of the entire dinosaur were not recovered, a significant amount of the skeleton was preserved, including parts of the skull and lower jaws, forearm, hindlimbs, pelvis, vertebrae, and ribs. These bones not only show the animal is unique among known dinosaur species but also provide additional clues to its life history. For example, the fossils show evidence of a potential pathology, resulting from a minor injury or disease, on at least one of the vertebrae near the base of its spinal column.

Some of the key features that distinguish Menefeeceratops from other horned dinosaurs involve the bone that make up the sides of the dinosaur's frill, known as the squamosal. While less ornate than those of some other ceratopsids, Menefeeceratops' squamosal has a distinct pattern of concave and convex parts.

Comparing features of Menefeeceratops with other known ceratopsid dinosaurs helped the research team trace its evolutionary relationships. Their analysis places Menefeeceratops sealeyi at the base of the evolutionary tree of the centrosaurines subfamily, suggesting that not only is Menefeeceratops one of the oldest known centrosaurine ceratopsids, but also one of the most basal evolutionarily.

Menefeeceratops was part of an ancient ecosystem with numerous other dinosaurs, including the recently recognized nodosaurid ankylosaur Invictarx and the tyrannosaurid Dynamoterror, as well as hadrosaurids and dromaeosaurids.

"Menefeeceratops was part of a thriving Cretaceous ecosystem in the southwestern United States with dinosaurs that predated a lot of the more well-known members closer to end of the Cretaceous," says Jasinski.

While relatively less work has been done collecting dinosaurs in the Menefee Formation to date, the researchers hope that more field work and collecting in these areas, together with new analyses, will turn up more fossils of Menefeeceratops and ensure a better understanding of the ancient ecosystem of which it was part.

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Peter Dodson is a professor of anatomy in the School of Veterinary Medicine and a professor of earth and environmental science in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.

Steven E. Jasinski is a curator of paleontology and geology at the State Museum of Pennsylvania and corporate faculty at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. He earned his doctoral degree in the Department of Earth and Environmental Science in the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts & Sciences.

Sebastian G. Dalman is a research associate at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.

Spencer G. Lucas is a curator of paleontology at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.

Asher J. Lichtig is a research associate at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque.

Jasinski was supported by Geo. L. Harrison and Benjamin Franklin fellowships while attending the University of Pennsylvania. The research was also partially funded by a Walker Endowment Research Grant and a University of Pennsylvania Paleontology Research Grant.

New ancient shark discovered

UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

Research News

 

IMAGE: TEETH OF THE NEW HYBODONTIFORM SHARK DURNONOVARIAODUS MAISEYI FROM THE UPPER JURASSIC KIMMERIDGE CLAY FORMATION OF ENGLAND view more 

CREDIT: (© SEBASTIAN STUMPF)

This rare fossil find comes from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation in England, a series of sedimentary rocks that was formed in a shallow, tropical-subtropical sea during the Upper Jurassic, about 150 million years ago. The fossil shark skeleton was found more than 20 years ago on the southern coast of England and is now held in the Etches Collection. Additional fossil shark specimens from it will be investigated in the years to come.

Due to their life-long tooth replacement shark teeth are among the most common vertebrate finds encountered in the fossil record. The low preservation potential of their poorly mineralized cartilaginous skeletons, on the other hand, prevents fossilization of completely preserved specimens in most cases.

The new study published in the journal PeerJ and led by Sebastian Stumpf from the University of Vienna now presents the fossil skeleton of a new ancient shark from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of England, a fossiliferous rock sequence that was formed during the Late Jurassic in a shallow, tropical-subtropical sea.

The new shark fossil, which is about 150 million years old, is assigned to a previously unknown genus and species of hybodontiform sharks named Durnonovariaodus maiseyi. This extremely rare fossil find was made almost 20 years ago on the southern coast of England and is now held and curated in the Etches Collection, which houses one of the most scientifically significant fossil collections in England.

Hybodontiform sharks are one of the most species-rich groups of extinct sharks and represent the closest relatives to modern sharks. They first appeared during the latest Devonian, about 361 million years ago, and went extinct together with dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, about 66 million years ago. The new genus and species Durnonovariaodus maiseyi differs from all other previously described hybodontiform sharks, including those that are characterized by having similarly shaped teeth. "Durnonovariaodus maiseyi represents an important source of information for better understanding the diversity of sharks in the past as well as for new interpretations of the evolution of hybodontiform sharks, whose relationships are still poorly understood, even after more than 150 years of research," says Stumpf.

The scientific importance of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation is underlined by additional, but still undescribed hybodontiform shark skeletons, which are also held in the Etches Collection. The research of fossil sharks from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation of England, which will be continued in the years to come, will certainly contain further surprises to be yet discovered.

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Publication in PeerJ: Stumpf, S., Etches, S., Underwood, C.J., Kriwet, J. 2021. Durnonovariaodus maiseyi gen. et sp. nov., a new hybodontiform shark-like chondrichthyan from the Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay Formation of England. PeerJ. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.11362

Americans are increasingly experiencing chronic pain

New UB research suggests that chronic pain is trending upward in every adult demographic category

UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO

Research News

 

BUFFALO, N.Y. - Americans are in chronic pain, and a comprehensive new study exploring trends in this major public health concern reveals that what has been a long-standing and under-acknowledged problem is getting substantially worse.

The findings, published in the latest issue of the journal Demography, suggest blanket increases across multiple measures, with pain rising in every adult age group, in every demographic group, and at every site of pain for which data exists. People today are experiencing more pain than individuals of the same age in earlier decades. In fact, each subsequent birth group is in greater pain than the one that came before it.

"We looked at the data from every available perspective including age, gender, race, ethnicity, education, and income, but the results were always the same: There was an increase in pain no matter how we classified the population," says Hanna Grol-Prokopczyk, associate professor of sociology in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, and co-author of the paper with Zachary Zimmer, professor of sociology at Mount St. Vincent University, and first author Anna Zajacova, associate professor at Western University.

"You might think that with medical advances we'd be getting healthier and experiencing less pain, but the data strongly suggest the exact opposite," Grol-Prokopczyk says.

While some other recent research has examined trends in chronic pain, those earlier studies focused on narrower age groups, usually those over age 50. The current paper examines a more comprehensive range of adults, aged 25-84. In addition, it relies on the 2002-20018 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) -- a nationally representative data set with more than 441,000 participants -- to show how pain, which was already alarmingly high at the start of the research period in 2002, increased substantially based on annual data over 16 years.

In the United States, chronic pain affects more people and has a greater economic cost than heart disease, diabetes and cancer combined, according Grol-Prokopczyk, a medical sociologist and an expert in chronic pain.

"It's important for policymakers to understand trends in chronic pain so we can wisely and appropriately invest resources in research and treatment," says Grol-Prokopczyk. "We hope this paper can help illustrate the issue."

In addition to revealing trends, the paper also provides a glimpse of what might be causing the increase.

The information necessary for a detailed explanation isn't part of the NHIS data set, but the researchers did look at a host of variables to determine which ones were most closely associated with the pain trends.

In the oldest age group (65-84), physical health conditions such as body mass index (BMI), hypertension, diabetes and kidney conditions correlate most with increases in pain. While BMI again surfaces as a correlate in young and middle-aged people, distress and alcohol use also have strong associations with chronic pain trends in these age groups.

"What we're seeing in the younger age groups demonstrates how pain in some ways functions as much as a mental health problem as it does a physical health problem," says Grol-Prokopczyk. "Pain can be exacerbated by stress, and stress can bring about alcohol use."

The paper's findings are so robust that they inspire questions about why chronic pain hasn't previously been a larger part of the national dialogue on the country's biggest health challenges.

Information on cancer mortality is readily available. There is plenty of research on obesity and other health concerns, but until approximately five years ago there were no national studies on general chronic pain trends, according to Grol-Prokopczyk.

"It's likely that the opioid epidemic brought about some awareness of the importance of pain," says Grol-Prokopczyk. "The timing of the opioid crisis' arrival suggests that it began to open the public's eyes to the problem."

What's clear is that chronic pain is having a profoundly detrimental effect on the U.S. population and demands closer monitoring by public health officials.

"Pain is a leading cause of disability and there is evidence that pain has an impact on life expectancy," she says. "So the problem is one not only affecting quality of life, but potentially even quantity of life."

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