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Easter 2008
Frogs
Mars A TEAM of Dutch geoscientists have established the timescale of the formation of Martian stepped-deltas. These geological features are found on the surface of the planet and provide a record of previous surface water flow. In the past, morphological studies based solely on the data collected by space probes offered only
Professor Susan Evans, responsible for the discovery at UCL, suggests Beelzebufo had a much more diverse palate than its present day relative: “Its diet would most likely have consisted of insects and small vertebrates like lizards, but it’s not impossible that Beelzebufo might even have munched on hatchling or juvenile dinosaurs.” Evans adds, “Our discovery of a frog strikingly different from today’s Madagascan frogs, lends weight to the controversial paleobiogeographical model, suggesting that Madagascar, the Indian subcontinent and South America were linked well into the Late Cretaceous.” The finding is not only an important one for the field of paleontological biology, it also fuels the debate about how
an estimate of the duration of ancient hydrological events on the planet’s surface. The new modelling approach aims to provide a more precise understanding of water flow on Mars by calculating the timescales of the formation of various Martian landscapes. The data suggest that stepped-delta formation was driven by a single hydrologic event and was not characterised by long-term silt deposition, as was previ-
Research carried out at the University of Granada has found a natural compound in olives that is seen to prevent and inhibit the growth of cancerous cells. The study, carried out by Drs Fernando Reyes and Jose Lupianez, looked at the response of both colon cancer cells and normal intestine cells to treatment with maslinic acid, a waxy compound extracted from the leaves and skins of olives. Maslinic acid has been found to be selective, acting only on the carcinogenic cells that have a lower, more
the Earth’s land masses were arranged millions of years ago and may be a piece of the jigsaw that could settle the argument, for now. BA
ously believed. The water volume required to produce the observed landscapes is significant, comparable to that discharged by rivers like the Mississippi. Because soil permeability on Mars is unknown, calculations suggest that the basin in the Martian canyon quickly filled with water, as opposed to undergoing a slow process of sediment deposition. The timescale for the generation of these morphologies, including fan
acidic pH. The compound stops the proliferation of the cancerous cells by inducing cell cycle arrest, cell shrinking and ultimately cell death. It has also been shown to inhibit the development of cancer in cells that have a higher predisposition to develop it. While the study focused on the treatment of colon cancer cells, the researchers say that it could also be used in the treatment of other types of tumour. Clinical trials will be required to see if maslinic acid can be used effectively as a therapeutic treatment for cancer. KT
creation, canyon erosion and basin filling, was a minimum of 15 days to a maximum of 130 years, while past data suggested a timescale ranging from decades to millions of years. These results are consistent with a topography sculpted by the fast release of a significant amount of water, rather than the surface accumulation of sediment, and serve to clarify the origins of water flow on the surface of Mars. JK
Olives
Darwin Bell
The FOSSIL of a giant dinosaur-eating frog was recently discovered in Madagascar. This finding suggests that the island, just off the southeastern coast of Africa, was linked to the Indian and South American land masses at around the time of the dinosaurs. A collaboration between UCL and Stony Brook University, New York, unearthed this 70 million-year-old species, which resembles today’s horned toad, a species previously thought to only have lived in South America. Weighing around four kg, Beelzebufo (‘the frog from hell’) expands on the already diverse history of species that have been discovered in Madagascar – a land famous for its meat-eating dinosaurs, plant-eating crocodiles and giant snakes.