Science
International
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
13
Triceraaatooops, I Am Your Faaather An enormous horned dinosaur, weighing as much as an African elephant with a skull extending about 8 feet (2.4 meters), was recently discovered by a paleontologist - within the pages of a scientific journal article. The dinosaur, dubbed Titanoceratops ouranos, lived in the American southwest during the late Cretaceous period around 74 million years ago. The horned dinosaur represents the earliest member of the Triceratops lineage, called the Triceratopsini, suggesting the group evolved its large size more than 5 million years earlier than previously thought, according to Yale University paleontologist Nicholas Longrich, who made the discovery, which will be detailed in an upcoming issue of the journal Cretaceous Research. Until now, the oldest known member of the Triceratopsini was the 68-million-year-old Eotriceratops xerinsularis found in Alberta. Longrich made the discovery while searching through scientific papers. He came across a description of a partial skeleton of a dinosaur discovered in New Mexico in 1941, which went untouched until 1995 when it was identified as Pentaceratops sternbergi. When the missing part of its frill, a signature feature of the horned dinosaurs, was
reconstructed for display in the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, it was modeled after Pentaceratops. “When I looked at the skeleton more closely, I realized it was just too different from the other known Pentaceratops to be a member of the species,” Longrich said, adding that the specimen’s size indicated it likely weighed about twice as much as an adult Pentaceratops. The new species is very similar to Triceratops, but with a thinner frill, longer nose and slightly bigger horns, Longrich said. Longrich thinks Titanoceratops is the ancestor of both Triceratops and Torosaurus, and that the latter two split several millions years after Titanoceratops evolved. “This skeleton is exactly what you would expect their ancestor to look like,” Longrich said. Next, Longrich hopes other paleontologists will find fossil skeletons of Titanoceratops that include intact frills to help confirm the differences between Titanoceratops and Pentaceratops.
Pollutants may threaten Mexico’s coast: study Agence France Presse
WASHINGTON – Pharmaceuticals, pesticides, chemical run-off from highways and many other pollutants infiltrate the giant aquifer under Mexico’s “Riviera Maya,” a new study shows. The report published in the journal Environmental Pollution argues that the waste contaminates a vast labyrinth of waterfilled caves under the popular tourist destination on the Yucatan Peninsula. The polluted water flows through the caves and into the Caribbean
Sea. This pollution may have contributed to the loss since 1990 of up to 50 percent of corals on the reefs off the region’s coast, the report said. And, with a 10-fold increase in population through 2030 expected, the problems are likely to worsen, the study noted. “These findings clearly underline the need for monitoring systems to pin-point where these aquifer pollutants are coming from,” said Chris Metcalfe, senior research fellow of the United Nations University’s Canadian-based Institute for Water, Environment and
Health. “As well, prevention and mitigation measures are needed to ensure that expanding development does not damage the marine environment and human health and, in turn, the region’s tourism-based economy,” Metcalfe added.
This image obtained from the American Association for the Advancement of Science shows a sinkhole in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.
AFP/HO/Hanneke van Lavieren
Bottle of 1773 French wine fetches record price Agence France Presse
ARBOIS, France – An amateur wine group paid a record 57,000 euros ($77,000) Saturday for a 237-year-old bottle of wine from France’s eastern Jura region at a local wine festival auction. “Finally, yellow wine has hit the big leagues,” said wine festival founder Bernard Badoz of Jura’s trademark beverage.
AFP/Jeff Pachoud
A bottle of Vin Jaune (Yellow Wine) from 1774 is presented in Arbois, eastern France, before being auctioned.
“To sell a bottle for 57,000 euros is not crazy,” he said of the 1773 bottle that came from a Louis XV-era vine and grapes harvested during the reign of Louis XVI. Swiss aficionado Pierre Chevrier, who bought the bottle on behalf of an amateur wine group, did not appear stunned by the price. “My passion is to open bottles and I am delighted to have bought this bottle of yellow wine, which I will drink,” he said. A type of sherry-like white wine, Jura’s yellow wine gets its colour from its maturation in a barrel under a layer of yeast. The wine festival at Arbois, in the Jura region, is also offering tastings of its 2004 vintage for the 50,000 people expected to attend this weekend.