Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist
Combining Science and Joyful Creativity
#365papers for May 25, 2017
What’s it about?
There’s a family of birds called the Anhingidae, which includes anhingas and darters. This is a description of a new fossil darter from India.Continue reading “Ann Hinga. Phone Call for Ann Hinga – #365papers – 2017 – 145”
#365papers for May 24, 2017
What’s it about?
The Hart Mountain slide is famous (in geology) for being a land slide that covers at least 3500 km3 and may have moved as far as 85 km. How do you get something that big started? This paper shows that the emplacement of an igneous body below what became the slide may have helped trigger the movement.Continue reading “Getting Mountains to Move – #365papers – 2017 – 144”
#365papers for May 23, 2017
What’s it about?
Yesterday’s paper was about the age of the new species Graecopithecus, an early relative of humans. This paper discusses what separates Graecopithecus from other apes and what unites it more closely with humans.
Why does it matter?
With a clear definition of what distinguishes humans and their closest relatives from apes, and by also having an age for the oldest member of the human lineage, we can better understand how we came to be who we are.
Why did I read this?
This paper was all over social media. I felt obligated to read it.
#365papers for May 22, 2017
What’s it about?
Hominins are humans and their non-ape ancestors. Graecopithecus appears to fall into this group. Using geochemical methods plus study of the sediments that the fossils came from, the researchers show that this fossil is the earliest hominin by a few hundred thousand years and that the environment was one of wooded grasslands or braided streams and supports the ‘Savannah Hypothesis’ of human evolution.Continue reading “Maybe the oldest hominin? – #365papers – 2017 – 142”
#365papers for May 21, 2017
What’s it about?
The authors discuss the utility of isotopes of calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and zinc for study of ancient environments, dietary preferences, and food chains.Continue reading “Because Isotopes of Carbon and Oxygen Are So Last Century… – #365papers – 2017 – 141”
#365papers for May 20, 2017
What’s it about?
A major mass extinction terrestrial and marine animals occurred at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary. Here, the authors examine whether land plants also suffered an extinction. It appears that plants were largely unaffected.Continue reading “Animal Extinctions Don’t Mean Plant Extinctions – #365papers – 2017 – 140”
#365papers for May 19, 2017
What’s it about?
One of the “Big Five” mass extinctions that has affected life on this planet is the Late Ordovician mass extinction or LOME. The causes of such extinctions are topics of focused research efforts. Here, the authors show that pulses of volcanic activity may be related to the extinction events.Continue reading “Volcanoes and the Late Ordovician Extinction – #365papers – 2017 – 139”
#365papers for May 18, 2017
What’s it about?
Trace fossils (scratches, pits, fractures) on the fossils large mammalian herbivores from the Pampean region of Argentina are used to infer that carnivores completely utilized the carcasses of their prey.Continue reading “All Your Carcass Are Belong in Carnivore Belly – #365papers – 2017 – 138”
#365papers for May 17, 2017
What’s it about?
Geochemical and sedimentological methods are used to determine the age and provenance (i.e. where did the sediments come from) of dinosaur-bearing rocks. The bones themselves could not be directly dated, but cannot be younger than the rocks they’re found in. Continue reading “Dinosaur Fossils: Dating the Rock to Date the Bones – #365papers – 2017 – 137”
#365papers for May 16, 2017
What’s it about?
This study used techniques described in yesterday’s paper to examine the annual changes in activity of a population of Megalobulimus paranaguensis snails in southeast Brazil. There are specific periods of time when more snails are active and when they are reproducing, based upon the environmental conditions such as evaportranspiration and precipitation. These snails are more active during the winter months and are dormant during the summer.Continue reading “How Do Populations of Giant Snails Cope Annual Changes? – #365papers – 2017 – 136”
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist