An 'instruction' to the crocodylian skull

Scientists from St Petersburg University described for the first time all structures in the animal's braincase, having studied more than 70 of their 3D models

ST. PETERSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

IMAGE: A 3D SKULL MODEL OF THE FALSE GHARIAL TOMISTOMA SCHLEGELII; THE BONES OF THE BRAINCASE ARE IN COLOUR. THE SPECIMEN IS FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE ZOOLOGICAL MUSEUM, MOSCOW STATE... view more 

CREDIT: SPBU

The braincase of crocodylians has a distinctive structure. Unlike evolutionary relatives (birds and squamates), in crocodylians, all braincase bones are rigidly fixed together and form an akinetic structure. In the process of evolution, this made it possible for animals to develop powerful jaws and stronger bite forces, thanks to which crocodylians could gnaw through the hard shell of crayfish and turtles and hunt fish and land animals, including dinosaurs. As a result, they have managed to fill the niche of predators and survive to the present day.

At present, in comparison with other parts of the crocodylian skull, the structure of their braincase has been understudied. This is because, until recently, scientists did not have the opportunity to investigate the complicated akinetic structure so that in the end the valuable collection specimen remained intact. At the same time, there is confusion in the already known data in terms and names. This complicates the work of many researchers studying the evolution of crocodylians.

Ivan Kuzmin, a doctoral student at St Petersburg University, decided to readdress this situation together with his colleagues from St Petersburg University, the Borissiak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Research and Practical Clinical Centre for Diagnostics and Telemedicine of the Moscow Department of Health, and the Smithsonian Institution (USA). To achieve this, they used computed tomography and a special 3D visualization program to create and study 3D models of 75 braincases of present-day crocodylians. This made it possible, without damaging the collection samples, to literally disassemble them by the bones and study every detail. Additionally, the researchers analysed academic papers describing the structure of the braincase from the beginning of the 19th century. The earliest work studied was an article dated 1821.

As a result, the scientists compiled a summary table in which they assigned a name to each structure in the crocodylian braincase. 'Our paper is the first one in which this part of the skull is described in detail and a complete ordered list of all its details is provided. We have introduced some terms, for example, the names of bone processes in the auditory area. In some cases, because the structures were named incorrectly before us, in others, because we have discovered new elements,' notes Ivan Kuzmin, the main author of the study, Master of Science from St Petersburg University.

While studying 3D models of braincases, the researchers found previously unknown evolutionary features. According to the scientists, recent data can help to better understand the structure of the crocodylian skeleton and resolve the contradictions around the genealogical tree of reptiles. The fact is that for almost 30 years, molecular biologists and paleontologists have been unable to agree on the sequence in which crocodylian species should be located on the evolutionary tree. For example, based on gene studies, molecular biologists assume that alligators are the most basal ones, while paleontologists, studying fossil remains, come to the conclusion that the most primitive ones are gharials. 'In the future, we plan to conduct a phylogenetic analysis and, based on its results, resolve this conflict,' says Ivan Kuzmin. 'The initial assumptions show that molecular biologists might be right.'

During the research, the authors also found out through what developmental mechanisms the crocodylian braincase acquired an akinetic structure. The researchers compared the evolution of the braincase in fossil relatives of crocodylians (crocodylomorphs) with the development of the braincase in the embryos of present-day animals. They have found out that in the crocodylian braincase area, in contrast to lizards and birds, complimentary structures appear at the initial stages of ontogenesis.

'Bones in an embryo are formed in two ways: endochondral and dermal. In the former case, cartilage first appears; then it ossifies. In the latter case, bones are formed as bones initially,' explains Ivan Kuzmin. 'Most of the braincase of all animals is formed by the endochondral process. However, it has turned out that everything happens differently in crocodylians. In addition to structures that are formed through endochondral ossification, they have new elements that are formed embryonically in the form of dermal ossifications. That is, new bone blocks that are missing in other animals are attached to the cartilaginous structures, as in the LEGO construction set. With further development of the embryo, cartilages are transformed into bones, and everything merges into a single structure. The same embryonic processes likely happened during the early stages of crocodylomorph evolution.'

CAPTION

Animation of particular bones in the braincase of the false gharial Tomistoma schlegelii. The specimen is from the collection of the Zoological Museum, Moscow State University, Moscow

CREDIT

SPbU

 

New species of pseudo-horses living 37 million years ago

Researchers at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country describe two palaeotheriidae mammals that lived in the subtropical landscape of Alava

UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY

Research News

IMAGE: DETAIL OF THE MARGIN OF LAKE ZAMBRANA (ÁLAVA) FROM 37 MILLION YEARS AGO. ON THE LEFT THE NEW SPECIES OF PALEOTERID 'LEPTOLOPHUSCOSTIAI' AND IN THE CENTER AND ON THE RIGHT... view more 

CREDIT: PALEOILLUSTRATION: ULISES MARTÍNEZ CABRERA.

Although hypomorph mammals (or equids) are currently represented by only one genus ('Equus') and just a handful of species of horses, donkeys and zebras, they were more diverse during the Eocene epoch (between 56 and 33.9 million years ago). One of the most widespread groups in Europe, which was an archipelago at that time, were the palaeotheriidae, named after the genus 'Palaeotherium', described in 1804 from fossils originating in the quarries of Montmartre (Paris) by the famous French naturalist George Cuvier.

The international Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology has recently published a paper on a study led by Leire Perales-Gogenola describing two new species of palaeotheriidae mammals that inhabited the subtropical landscape of Zambrana (Álava) 37 million years ago. Together with their collaborators from the UPV/EHU's Vertebrate Palaeontology research group, they described the new species 'Leptolophus cuestai' and 'Leptolophus franzeni', naming them in memory of the palaeontologists Miguel Ángel Cuesta from Palencia, and Jens Lorenz Franzen from Bremen, specialists in mammal fauna of the Eocene epoch in Europe.

Palaeotheriidae (or pseudo-horses) were represented across the European archipelago by more than half a dozen genera, more than half of which were endemic to the Iberian island, and became extinct during the climatic-biological crisis of the Eocene-Oligocene transition, also known as Stehlin's 'Grande Coupure'. Palaeotheriidae were mammals similar in terms of body shape to today's horses, but smaller in size. "Can one imagine animals similar to horses with three toes, the size of a fox terrier, a Great Dane and a donkey living in a subtropical landscape in Alava? Many of these pseudo-horses have been described at the Zambrana site," said one of the team members Dr Ainara Badiola. "Examples of them are the 'Pachynolophus zambranensis' and 'Iberolophus arabensis' species, which were first specified in this palaeontological enclave".

The two new species not only expand the fossil record and the biodiversity of palaeotheriidae fauna, but also display dental features atypical for equids of the Eocene. "Their molars have a very high crown and are covered with a thick layer of cementum. This type of dentition, also present in other endemic Iberian palaeotheriidae, could be indicative of a difference in environmental conditions between the Iberian and Central European areas, with more arid conditions or less dense or closed forests and the presence of more open areas in Iberia," explained Perales-Gogenola.

At the end of the Eocene in Europe, forests of an intertropical type gradually disappeared, giving way to plant communities of a more temperate type with more open areas. Modern horses or equids appeared in Europe later on during the Miocene (23-5.3 Ma). Their dentition, with very high crowns, is adapted for eating vegetation with a high grit content (grasses). The new species 'Leptolophus cuestai' from the Upper Eocene site at Zambrana (Álava) also displays molars with atypically high crowns, similar to those of some of the earliest equids in Europe.

In addition to its palaeobiological interest, the diverse fossil association of mammals from Zambrana, which comprises primates, rodents, marsupials, carnivores, artiodactyla and perissodactyla, provides new information on the climatic and environmental changes that occurred in Europe and in our environment over geological time.

The UPV/EHU's Vertebrate Palaeontology group is currently immersed in the description of more palaeotheriidae material, which could facilitate the description of new genera and species with unusual dental features among the equoid perissodactyla.

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Sharp size reduction in dinosaurs that changed diet to termites

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Research News

 

IMAGE: PAINTING: ARTISTIC RECONSTRUCTION OF FOUR REPRESENTATIVE ALVAREZSAUROIDS, HAPLOCHEIRUS SOLLERS (LEFT), PATAGONYKUS PUERTAI (UPPER MIDDLE), LINHENYKUS MONODACTYLUS (LOWER MIDDLE) AND BANNYKUS WULATENSIS (LOWER RIGHT), ILLUSTRATING THE BODY SIZE AND DIETING CHANGE... view more 

CREDIT: ZHIXIN HAN/ HTTPS://WWW.ARTSTATION.COM/XINYANJUN

Dinosaurs were generally huge, but a new study of the unusual alvarezsaurs show that they reduced in size about 100 million years ago when they became specialised ant-eaters.

The new work is led by Zichuan Qin, a PhD student at the University of Bristol and Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing. He measured body sizes of dozens of specimens and showed that they ranged in size from 10-70 kg, the size of a large turkey to a small ostrich, for most of their existence and then plummeted rapidly to chicken-sized animals at the same time as they adopted a remarkable new diet: ant-eating.

The alvarezsaurs lived from the Late Jurassic to Late Cretaceous (160 to 70 million years ago) in many parts of the world, including China, Mongolia, and South America. They were slender, two-legged predators for most of their time on Earth, pursuing lizards, early mammals, and baby dinosaurs as their diet.

"Perhaps competition with other dinosaurs intensified through the Cretaceous," says Prof Michael Benton, one of Zichuan's supervisors, at Bristol's School of Earth Sciences. "The Cretaceous was a time of rapidly evolving ecosystems and the biggest change was the gradual takeover by flowering plants. Flowering plants changed the nature of the landscape completely, and yet dinosaurs mostly did not feed on these new plants. But they led to an explosion of new types of insects, including ants and termites."

This restructuring of ecosystems has been called the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution, marking the time when modern-style forests and woodlands emerged, with diverse plants and animals, including insects that specialised to pollinate the new flowers and to feed on their leaves, petals and nectar.

A key problem with many alvarezsaur specimens, especially the chicken-sized ones, was to be sure they were all adults. "Some of the skeletons clearly came from juveniles," says Dr Qi Zhao, a co-author and an expert on bone histology, "and we could tell this from sections through the bone. These showed the ages of the dinosaurs when they died, depending on the number of growth rings in the bone. We were able to identify that some specimens came from babies and juveniles and so we left them out of the calculations."

Ant-eating might seem an amazing diet for dinosaurs. "This was suggested years ago when the arms of Mononykus were reported from Mongolia," says Professor James Clark in Washington, DC, a co-author of this paper, and also one of the first discoverers of tiny alvarezsaurs from Mongolia. "Mononykus was one of the small alvarezsaurs, just about 1 metre long, but probably weighing 4-5 kilograms, a decent-sized Christmas turkey. Its arm was short and stout and it had lost all but one of its fingers which was modified as a short spike. It looked like a punchy little arm, no good for grabbing things, but ideal for punching a hole in the side of a termite mound."

"Interestingly, alvarezsaur dinosaurs were indeed not small in size or ant eaters at start," says Professor Jonah Choiniere in South Africa, a co-author of this paper, who was first to report the earliest alvarezsaurs in China. "Their ancestors, like Haplocheirus, are relatively large, close to the size of a small ostrich, and their sharp teeth, flexible forelimbs and big eyes suggest they had a mixed diet."

Zichuan Qin took all the measurements of body size and mapped these across a dated evolutionary tree of the alvarezsaurs. "My calculations show how body sizes went up and down for the first 90 million years they existed, ranging from turkey to ostrich-sized, and averaging 30-40 kg," says Zichuan. "Then, 95 million years ago, their body size suddenly dropped to 5 kg, and their claw shapes changed from grabbing and cutting to punching."

"This is a very strange result, but it seems to be true," says Professor Xing Xu, a co-supervisor to Zichuan in Beijing. "All other dinosaurs were getting bigger and bigger, but one group of flesh-eaters miniaturized, and this was associated with living in trees and flying. They eventually became birds. We've identified a second miniaturization event - but it wasn't for flight, but to accommodate a completely new diet, switching from flesh to termites."

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The paper

'Growth and miniaturization among alvarezsauroid dinosaurs' by Zichuan Qin, Qi Zhao, Jonah N. Choiniere, James M. Clark, Michael J. Benton and Xing Xu. Current Biology

CAPTION

Graphic: Bone tissue (osteohistological) sampling, body mass evolution and explosive diversification of Alvarezsauroidea.

CREDIT

Zichuan Qin

Research brief: New fossil sheds light on the evolution of how dinosaurs breathed

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Research News

 VIDEO: USING A WELL-PRESERVED FOSSIL AND HIGH-POWERED X-RAYS, AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM INCLUDING A UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA RESEARCHER HAS DISCOVERED THAT NOT ALL DINOSAURS BREATHED IN THE SAME WAY. THIS VIDEO SHOWS... view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: VIKTOR RADERMACHER

Using an exceptionally preserved fossil from South Africa, a particle accelerator, and high-powered x-rays, an international team including a University of Minnesota researcher has discovered that not all dinosaurs breathed in the same way. The findings give scientists more insight into how a major group of dinosaurs, including well-known creatures like the triceratops and stegosaurus, evolved.

The study is published in eLife, a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal for the biomedical and life sciences.

Not all animals use the same techniques and organs to breathe. Humans expand and contract their lungs. Birds have air sacs outside their lungs that pump oxygen in, and their lungs don't actually move. For a long time, paleontologists assumed that all dinosaurs breathed like birds, since they had similar breathing anatomy. This study, however, found that Heterodontosaurus did not--it instead had paddle-shaped ribs and small, toothpick-like bones, and expanded both its chest and belly in order to breathe.

Heterodontosaurus is the oldest dinosaur in the Ornithischian line, one of three major dinosaur groups that includes Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and other duck-billed dinosaurs. The other groups are sauropods, or longnecks, and theropods like the T-Rex.

"We actually have never known how these [Ornithischians] breathed," said Viktor Radermacher, lead author of the study and a Ph.D. student in the University of Minnesota's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. "The interesting thing is that Heterodontosaurus is the ancestor of this group and it has these [newly discovered] pieces of anatomy, but its descendants don't. What that means is that Heterodontosaurus is a missing link between the ancestors of dinosaurs and the bigger, charismatic species we know. This gives us a whole bunch of information and fills in some pretty glaring gaps in our knowledge of the biology of these dinosaurs."

The researchers analyzed the new Heterodontosaurus specimen with high-powered x-rays generated from a synchrotron--a giant, donut-shaped particle accelerator that spins electrons at the speed of light--at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France. Using those x-rays, they were able to digitally reconstruct the skeleton and identify the dinosaur's unique features.

"The takeaway message is that there are many ways to breathe," Radermacher said. "And the really interesting thing about life on Earth is that we all have different strategies to do the same thing, and we've just identified a new strategy of breathing. This shows that utilizing dinosaurs and paleontology, we can learn more about the diversity of animals on Earth and how they breathe."

CAPTION

The newly discovered Heterodontosaurus tucki specimen (left), along with the researchers' digital reconstruction of the fossil (right), shows the dinosaur's unusual paddle-shaped ribs and small, toothpick-like bones.

CREDIT

Credit: Viktor Radermacher

In addition to Radermacher, the research team included Vincent Fernandez, an ESRF beamline scientist and X-Ray technician at the Natural History Museum, UK; Emma Schachner, an associate professor at Louisiana State University; Richard Butler, a professor of palaeobiology at the University of Birmingham, UK; Emese Bordy, an associate professor at the University of Cape Town, South Africa; Michael Naylor Hudgins, a grad student at the University of Alberta, Canada; William de Klerk, emeritus curator of the Department of Earth Sciences at Rhodes University in Makhanda, South Africa; Kimberley Chapelle, a postdoctoral fellow at the American Museum of Natural History in New York; and Jonah Choiniere, a professor of comparative palaeobiology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

The research was funded by grants from South Africa's National Research Foundation (NRF) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Palaeontological Scientific Trust, and the Durand Foundation for Evolutionary Biology and Phycology.

Read the full paper entitled "A new Heterodontosaurus specimen elucidates the unique ventilatory macroevolution of ornithischian dinosaurs" on the eLife website.

New fossil sheds light on the evolution of how dinosaurs breathed

EUROPEAN SYNCHROTRON RADIATION FACILITY

VIDEO: DIGITAL HETERODONTOSAURUS SOUTH AFRICAN DINOSAUR SKELETON PRODUCED BY THE SCANNING AT THE ESRFN THE EUROPEAN SYNCHROTRON, FRANCE, THAT SHOWS COMPLETE SPECIMEN AND NEW ANATOMY. view more 

CREDIT: CREDIT: VINCENT FERNANDEZ, ESRF, NMHN

An international team of scientists has used high-powered X-rays at the European Synchrotron, the ESRF, to show how an extinct South African 200-million-year-old dinosaur, Heterodontosaurus tucki, breathed. The study is published in eLife on 6 July 2021.

In 2016, scientists from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, came to the ESRF, the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France, the brightest synchrotron light source, for an exceptional study: to scan the complete skeleton of a small, 200-million-year-old plant-eating dinosaur. The dinosaur specimen is the most complete fossil ever discovered of a species known as Heterodontosaurus tucki. The fossil was found in 2009 in the Eastern Cape of South Africa by study co-author, Billy de Klerk of the Albany Museum, Makhanda, South Africa. "A farmer friend of mine called my attention to the specimen" says de Klerk, "and when I saw it I immediately knew we had something special on our hands."

Fast forward some years: the team of scientists, using scans and new algorithm developed by ESRF scientists to virtually reconstruct the skeleton of Heterodontosaurus in unprecedented detail, and thus show how this extinct dinosaur breathed. "This specimen represents a turning point in understanding how dinosaurs evolved" explains Viktor Radermacher, corresponding author, South African PhD now at the University of Minnesota, US.

Not all animals use the same techniques and organs to breathe. Humans expand and contract their lungs. Birds have air sacs outside their lungs that pump oxygen in, and their lungs don't actually move. For a long time, paleontologists assumed that all dinosaurs breathed like birds, since they had similar breathing anatomy. This study, however, found that Heterodontosaurus did not--it instead had paddle-shaped ribs and small, toothpick-like bones, and expanded both its chest and belly in order to breathe.

Heterodontosaurus is one of the oldest and first-evolving Ornithischians, the group that includes favourites like Triceratops, Stegosaurus, and duckbilled dinosaurs. Heterodontosaurus lived in the early Jurassic period, about 200 million years ago, surviving an extinction at the end of the prior Triassic period. Understanding how this dinosaur breathed could also help paleontologists figure out what biological features allowed certain dinosaurs to survive or caused them to go extinct.

"We've long known that the skeletons of ornithischian dinosaurs were radically different from those of other dinosaurs," explains Richard Butler, from the School of Geography, Earth, and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, UK. "This amazing new fossil helps us understand why ornithischians were so distinctive and successful", he adds.

This study is the result of a long-standing collaboration between palaeontologists based in South Africa and at the ESRF, where non-invasive techniques have been developped specifically for palaeontological studies. "You could only do this study with a synchrotron" says Vincent Fernandez, scientist at the Natural History Museum in London, UK, co-author of the study and former ESRF scientist. "The characteristics of the ESRF's X-rays, combined with its high energy beamline configuration, made scanning this complete turkey-sized dinosaur possible".

This is a perfect example of the diversity of life on Earth. "The takeaway message is that there are many ways to breathe," Radermacher said. "And the really interesting thing about life on earth is that we all have different strategies to do the same thing, and we've just identified a new strategy of breathing."

"Studies like this highlight how South Africa's fossil record once again helps us understand evolutionary origins" said senior author Jonah Choiniere, Professor at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

CAPTION

Life reconstruction of Heterodontosaurus vocalising on a cool Jurassic morning. Credit: Viktor Radermacher

CREDIT

Viktor Radermacher

Scientists Contact:

Viktor Radermacher, corresponding author, University of Mineesota, US - viktorsaurus91@gmail.com - US cell number: +1 6123254785

Whatsapp: +27 761278242

Vincent Fernandez, former scientist at the ESRF, now at the Natural History Museum, London, UK, co-author - v.fernandez@nhm.ac.uk - +33 6 95 57 68 96

Supports:

Authors Viktor Radermacher, Kimberley Chapelle, and Jonah Choiniere were supported by grants from the NRF-African Origins Platform, Centre of Excellence in Palaeosciences, and the Palaeontological Scientific Trust. South African participation in the ESRF, the European synchrotron, is supported by the NRF and DSI.

 

Wildfire detection takes flight

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (KAUST)

Research News

 

Networks of ground-based sensors paired with airborne drones could give firefighters a critical edge when battling wildfires, KAUST researchers have found. The sensor/unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) network could significantly shorten the time taken to detect a wildfire, giving firefighters a better chance to contain the fire before it grows too large to control.

Wildfire detection is currently performed mainly by satellite imaging and remote cameras, but these technologies can be impeded by cloudy weather and fires can grow to a considerable size before they are spotted. With the recent significant global increase in wildfire frequency and severity, technologies that can aid wildfire management are in demand. One possibility is Internet of things (IoT) sensors, which could monitor the forest for the first signs of smoke and heat.

"Deploying a massive number of low-cost IoT sensors through the forest allows for early wildfire detection at the sensor level," says Osama Bushnaq, a former Ph.D. student at KAUST. However, inexpensive sensors do not have the battery or computational power to communicate a fire detection event across a massive IoT network to the fire control center. "To guarantee that IoT devices are low cost and have a simple structure, UAVs can be utilized," Bushnaq says. The UAVs could fly over the forest to wirelessly gather data from each sensor, returning to base to report a fire or to recharge their depleted batteries.

"UAV-IoT networks are rapidly advancing, allowing for ubiquitous application at declining deployment cost," Al-Naffouri says. To assess the potential of the technology for wildfire detection, Al-Naffouri and his team simulated how a wildfire detection IoT/UAV network might perform.

The team showed that the more UAVs that are deployed, the faster a fire could be detected. "However, surprisingly, our analysis shows that increasing IoT devices' density beyond a threshold does not improve wildfire detection probability," Bushnaq says. Beyond a certain sensor density, the extra time UAVs had to spend gathering data in each location compromised their capability to monitor the whole forest.

"We also show that, given optimal UAVs and IoT device densities, the wildfire can be detected in a much shorter time when compared with satellite imaging," Bushnaq says. However, UAV-IoT networks could only cover relatively small areas of forest compared to satellite imaging. "UAV-IoT networks will be complementary to satellite imaging," Al-Naffouri says. "The UAV-IoT network would be particularly suitable for wildfire detection in high-risk regions, such as near human settlements and national parks."

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Predicting the future of cod

Hereon scientists develop new fisheries management planning tool -- fewer stocks expected

HELMHOLTZ-ZENTRUM HEREON

Research News

IMAGE: COD STOCKS WILL PROBABLY DECREASE IN THE FUTURE view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO: DAVID YOUNG VIA FOTOLIA

The future of cod stocks in the North Sea and the Barents Sea may be much easier to predict than before. This is the result of an international research project led by the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon and its Institute of Coastal Systems - Analysis and Modeling. For the first time, the team has succeeded in predicting the development of stocks for ten years in advance, taking into account both changes due to climate and fishing. Traditionally, fisheries experts provide catch recommendations for about a year in advance, on the basis of which fishing quotas are negotiated and set internationally. This involves first estimating the size of current cod stocks and then calculating how much cod can be caught in the coming year without endangering the stocks as well as harvesting the stock optimally. The climatic change, long-term changes in water temperature, circulation and mixing, which have a decisive influence on how well cod reproduce, are not included in this prediction, so that the development of stocks can only be predicted in the short term.

Warm North Sea causes stress

As the experts around climate modeler Vimal Koul und Corinna Schrum of Hereon now write in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment, they have taken temperature into account in their calculations. For the North Sea, the climate forecast continues to predict temperatures at a high level, so that cod stocks are unlikely to recover or reach earlier levels. As a result, catches are expected to remain low. Things look better for the Barents Sea, where stocks can be managed sustainably.

For the researchers, the challenge was that climate models cannot calculate how much fish there will be in the oceans in the future. They only provide information about expected temperatures. "So we first had to develop a program that translates water temperature into fish quantities," says Vimal Koul. Among other things, this took into account the ocean temperature in the North Atlantic. The researchers were then able to run their prediction model. The model starts with today's conditions - the current temperature conditions and the current carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, and can then calculate how the situation will change as carbon dioxide concentrations increase. The future temperatures are then translated into expected fish abundance and stock sizes.

To test how reliably the model works, it was first compared with real fish data from the 1960s to the present. As it turned out, it was able to correctly estimate fish stocks for the ten-year periods since the early 1960s. In this respect, the researchers led by Vimal Koul can assume that the current view of the coming ten years is also correct.

Fishing intensity taken into account

Another interesting aspect of the study is that the team of climate modelers, fisheries biologists and oceanographers took four different fishing scenarios into account. This allowed them to determine how cod stocks would fare if they were fished at different levels - from intensive to sustainable. In this respect, the results of the current study are very practical. "The 10-year estimates will help the fishing industry better plan catches in the future - so that cod stocks are fished sustainably and gently despite changes in climate," says Vimal Koul. The new 10-year calculation model could also help fishing companies in their strategic planning - by providing a secure basis for investments in new vessels or processing facilities.

Backlash, conspiracy theories swirl as IDF aids in Surfside collapse
The IDF had been sent to Florida to help in the rescue and demolition of the collapsed condo in Surfside, but they have been hit by backlash and conspiracy accusations.

By GABRIELLE ABRAMS
JERUSALEM POST
JULY 6, 2021 20:17


IDF in Miami (photo credit: IDF SPOKESMAN’S UNIT)

IDF soldiers have been facing backlash and been victim to potential conspiracy theories via tweets from political activists about their involvement in the Surfside, Miami building demolition.

An emergency front of the IDF Home Front Command was sent to Miami on June 27 to aid in the rescue efforts. The Surfside tower was demolished on Monday as Tropical Storm Elsa was scheduled to hit Western Florida on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Eric Garland, a liberal political activist, took to Twitter on Monday to add fuel to the conspiracy theory fire. Garland responded to a tweet by Florida Senator Jason Pizzo, with a video of the demolition of the Surfside building.

He wrote to his over 250K followers, “Given the presence of Israeli Defense Forces in this mess, I have a lot of questions as to why this building was demolished in such a rush.”

The tweet received hundreds of retweets and over a thousand likes as well as many replies making assumptions about the IDF’s involvement.

Garland did not expand on this claim further.

Rafael Shimunov, a political activist from Queens, New York, also took to Twitter on Monday to voice his opinion about the IDF’s involvement.

Shimunov wrote: “I really don't understand the IDF's involvement in rescue attempts of people tragically crushed under buildings in Miami. Their expertise is crushing buildings with people in them, not rescuing them.”
Palestinian-American political activist Linda Sarsour replied to Shimunov’s tweet with fingers pointing upwards in agreement.

Shimunov added that, “Next the Israeli government will be jumping over occupied Palestinians without vaccines to send vaccines and photographers to Latin America 11,000 km. away. Oh, nevermind. They already planned that.”


This Twitter thread was followed by a possible justification from Shimunov about the IDF’s involvement.
Shimunov drew his followers' attention to the Jewish ritual of chesed shel emes, the process of recovering remains for burial, which IDF soldiers are well-versed in from terror attacks.

Shimunov concluded that the efforts by the IDF soldiers in Miami are rooted in Israeli government propaganda and hypocrisy

 

Eric Garland questions demolition of Surfside condo due to ‘presence of Israeli Defense Forces’

Posted at 1:17 pm on July 6, 2021 by Greg P. ON TWITCHY

On Sunday night, officials demolished what was left of the Champlain Towers South condominium in Surfside, Florida over worries that the remaining structure was too unstable and could put first responders at risk:

Video here:

There was a worry that winds from Elsa could have toppled the building, which was one of the reasons they chose Sunday night for the demolition:

Now, this brings us to Eric “time for some game theory” Garland, who questioned the decision to implode the building because of the “presence of Israeli Defense Forces” who are aiding in the rescue and recovery efforts:

He’s just asking questions, right?

Well, Garland does love to spew a good conspiracy theory:

“Classic two-face buffoonery”:

And remember when Twitter blue-checks were praising this clown?

Screenshot for posterity:

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THE CIA WENT LOOKING FOR UFOS — BUT DECIDED IT WOULD RATHER SPY ON AMERICANS

The CIA went looking for UFOs in the early 1950s. They decided they’d rather spy on Americans. Image from CIA archives.

By Lauren Coontz | May 20, 2021

On Dec. 10, 1946, a World War II-era C-46 transport carrying 32 Marines lost its way in heavy weather near Mount Rainier in Washington and crashed, killing all aboard.

Though weather was the clear cause of the crash, the incident indirectly launched a half-century of UFO conspiracies, panics, and ham-handed government investigations, many of which are still echoed in the military reports about UFOs circulating this month. But the early UFO craze also caught the eye of the CIA, which launched its own investigations. Far from finding aliens, declassified documents tell the tale of how a Soviet-obsessed CIA eventually recommended the legally questionable step of monitoring America’s own civilian UFO watchers.Declassified CIA documents detail the agency’s early 1950s hunt for UFOs. Document from CIA archives.

The C-46 crash was a major tragedy for the Marines, and a reward was offered to find the wreckage. The following June, Idaho businessman Kenneth Arnold was flying himself in a three-seat Call-Air Model A. With time on his hands before an appointment on the ground, he lingered an extra hour over Rainier to see if he might spot the lost plane.

Instead, he later claimed, he saw nine “tailless objects streaking south” across the landscape.

Within days he told his story to a wire service reporter, guessing the speed of the craft at over 1,000 mph.

Arnold — who later wrote a book called The Coming of the Saucers — was soon on front pages across America as over 150 newspapers picked up the story. Almost immediately, other UFO reports followed, and America’s UFO craze was on.

As the mania grew, one place listening to the rumors was the Central Intelligence Agency.

Declassified CIA documents detail the agency’s search for UFOs, noting explanations for unexplained sightings both terrestrial and extra. Eventually, the agency decided it would rather be watching citizens who were watching the skies. From CIA archives.

Declassified CIA reports of the time reference the Arnold incident frequently, including one from 1952 that says “The Saucer furore in this country started in June 1947 when Kenneth Arnold, a reputable business man flying his own plane reported nine discs flying in formation past Mount Rainier at an estimated speed of 1000 miles per hour.”

Other declassified CIA documents of the time described UFO sightings between 1947 and 1952 as “national security threats.” In a declassified memo, Assistant Director of the Office of Scientific Intelligence H. Marshall Chadwell wrote to the CIA’s director, declaring: “‘Flying saucers’ pose two elements of danger which have national security implications. The first involves mass psychological considerations and the second concerns the vulnerability of the United States to air attack.”

To move beyond the agency’s own analysts’ opinions, Chadwell put together a team of scientists known as the Robertson Panel in 1953, chaired by CalTech physicist H.P. Robertson. The panel included civilian experts in nuclear physics, radar, and electronics.

After meeting for four days, the Robertson Panel unanimously concluded that flying saucers offered no threat to national security. The committee’s report, declassified in 2001, said UFOs posed a distinct “lack of danger,” and were “not beyond the domain of present knowledge of physical science.” In a conclusion that said more about the McCarthy-era politics of the time than it did extraterrestrial life, the report recommended that the CIA should refocus its efforts on “Unofficial Investigating Groups,” specifically naming the “Civilian Flying Saucer Investigators” in Los Angeles and the “Aerial Phenomena Research Organization” in Wisconsin, both little more than civilian clubs swapping stories and do-it-yourself “research.” The Robertson committee, however, believed that such organizations should be watched because of their “potentially great influence on mass thinking if widespread sightings should occur.”

The CIA dropped its UFO research in 1953. CIA archives.

After the Robertson Panel report, the CIA no longer had the desire or funding to chase UFOs, and turned the subject over to the Air Force’s purview. Between 1952 and 1969, the Air Force ran programs like Project Saucer, Project Grudge, and Project Sign, eventually ending in the more famous Project Blue Book. Operational for almost two decades, Project Blue Book was responsible for creating a UFO reporting system for the military and included various research projects over the years but never did find any ETs.

After another flare-up of supposed sightings by military jets in the last decade, yet another military report, this one from Defense’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, is due soon.





LAUREN COONTZ

STAFF WRITER

Lauren Coontz is a staff writer for Coffee or Die Magazine. Beaches are preferred, but Lauren calls the Rocky Mountains of Utah home. You can usually find her in an art museum, at an archaeology site, or checking out local nightlife like drag shows and cocktail bars (gin is key). A student of history, Lauren is an Army veteran who worked all over the world and loves to travel to see the old stuff the history books only give a sentence to. She likes medium roast coffee and sometimes, like a sinner, adds sweet cream to it.

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