Geosciences posts
- September 10, 2010
- 10:48 AM
- 439 views
A Strange Sail-Backed, Bristly-Armed Dinosaur
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
When I logged on to Facebook Wednesday morning, one of the first things I saw was a cryptic status update from University of Maryland paleontologist Thomas Holtz. He speculated that the paleo community at large would be “duly impressed” by something set to debut later in the day, but what was it? I jokingly replied [...]... Read more »
Ortega, F., Escaso, F., & Sanz, J. (2010) A bizarre, humped Carcharodontosauria (Theropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Spain. Nature, 467(7312), 203-206. DOI: 10.1038/nature09181
- September 9, 2010
- 10:58 AM
- 346 views
The Younger Dryas Cooling was Limited to the Northern Hemisphere
by Michael Long in Phased
Michael Kaplan (Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, United States) and coworkers report that the dramatic Younger Dryas cooling in the Northern Hemisphere was not manifested globally. This news feature was written on September 9, 2010.... Read more »
Kaplan, M. R., Schaefer, J. M., Denton, G. H., Barrell, D. J. A., Chinn, T. J. H., Putnam, A. E., Andersen, B. G., Finkel, R. C., Schwartz, R., & Doughty, A. M. (2010) Glacier retreat in New Zealand during the Younger Dryas stadial. Nature, 467(7312), 194-197. DOI: 10.1038/nature09313
- September 7, 2010
- 11:00 AM
- 1,825 views
Chemistry of the Great Big Blue: Nutrients
by Bluegrass Blue Crab in Southern Fried Science
The Great Big Blue looks like it contains nothing but water and maybe a little salt, especially out in the open ocean. However, this kind of sparse environment is exactly where the chemistry matters the most – it’s a fine line between not enough, too much, and just right. Given this, there’s no distinct [...]... Read more »
HECKY, R., & KILHAM, P. (1988) Nutrient limitation of phytoplankton in freshwater and marine environments: A review of recent evidence on the effects of enrichment. Limnology and Oceanography, 33(4_part_2), 796-822. DOI: 10.4319/lo.1988.33.4_part_2.0796
Howarth, R. (1988) Nutrient Limitation of Net Primary Production in Marine Ecosystems. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, 19(1), 89-110. DOI: 10.1146/annurev.es.19.110188.000513
Behrenfeld, M., Bale, A., Kolber, Z., Aiken, J., & Falkowski, P. (1996) Confirmation of iron limitation of phytoplankton photosynthesis in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Nature, 383(6600), 508-511. DOI: 10.1038/383508a0
Fanning, K. (1989) Influence of atmospheric pollution on nutrient limitation in the ocean. Nature, 339(6224), 460-463. DOI: 10.1038/339460a0
- September 3, 2010
- 10:14 AM
- 581 views
In Southern Utah, a Hadrosaur Left Quite an Impression
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
When Charles H. Sternberg and his sons excavated one of the first hadrosaur mummies ever found, in the summer of 1908, it was a major discovery. For nearly a century naturalists and paleontologists could only imagine what a dinosaur’s skin was like, but the Edmontosaurus the Sternbergs collected gave scientists an unprecedented look at the [...]... Read more »
Lucia Herrero . (2010) HADROSAURID DINOSAUR SKIN IMPRESSIONS FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS KAIPAROWITS FORMATION OF SOUTHERN UTAH, USA. PalArch’s Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology, 7(2), 1-7. info:/
- September 3, 2010
- 09:17 AM
- 422 views
Dirty Browsers – Determining a menu for North America’s fossil camels
Even with the young politician Jefferson Davis behind their adoption by the military, camels were a hard sell to the U.S. government. Along with other military men, Davis was convinced that camels could replace horses as the standard beasts of burden used by cavalry on the ever-expanding western frontier, but most congressmen and senators balked [...]... Read more »
Gina M. Semprebon and Florent Rivals. (2010) Trends in the paleodietary habits of fossil camels from the Tertiary and Quaternary of North America. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 131-145. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.05.033
- September 2, 2010
- 03:00 PM
- 629 views
Should Mother Nature have to sign the Copenhagen Accord?
by Maria José Viñas in GeoSpace
Carbon dioxide releases by hurricanes are significant, but offset by ocean cooling and phytoplankton growth
A hurricane’s passage over warm ocean waters can drive a significant amount of carbon dioxide from the waves to the sky. The violent winds associated with a passing storm can dramatically increase the gas exchange between the ocean and [...]... Read more »
P. Huang, & J. Imberger. (2010) Variation of pCO2 in ocean surface water in response to the passage of a hurricane. J. Geophys. Res. info:/10.1029/2010JC006185
- September 2, 2010
- 09:50 AM
- 440 views
Say Hello to Sinoceratops
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
It has been a good year for horned dinosaurs. The recent description of Mojoceratops, the discovery of a ceratopsian in Europe, and the long-awaited publication of the New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs volume have all given paleontologists reason to celebrate, and a new study led by Xu Xing reports on another significant discovery: the first [...]... Read more »
XU Xing, WANG KeBai, ZHAO XiJin . (2010) First ceratopsid dinosaur from China and its biogeographical implications. Chinese Science Bulletin, 55(16), 1631-1635. DOI: 10.1007/s11434-009-3614-5
- September 2, 2010
- 06:04 AM
- 1,232 views
Solar system might be older than we thought…
by Kelly Oakes in Basic Space
Researchers from Arizona State University have found the oldest solar system object ever discovered. In fact, it’s so old that it formed up to two million years before the solar system did, according to current estimates. It might be time for a rethink of when and how our little place in the Universe came into [...]... Read more »
Audrey Bouvier, & Meenakshi Wadhwa. (2010) The age of the Solar System redefined by the oldest Pb–Pb age of a meteoritic inclusion. Nature Geoscience. info:/10.1038/ngeo941
- September 1, 2010
- 09:07 AM
- 1,023 views
Diversity in the geosciences and the impact of social media
by Chris Rowan in Highly Allochthonous
In the September issue of GSA Today, you can find our article on The Internet as a resource and support network for diverse geoscientists. Where do we go from here? Continue reading →... Read more »
Jefferson, A.J., Hannula, K.A., Campbell, P.B., & Franks, S.E. (2010) The Internet as a resource and support network for diverse geoscientists. GSA Today, 20(9), 59-61. info:/10.1130/GSATG91GW.1
- August 31, 2010
- 11:56 AM
- 451 views
Balaur bondoc: A Raptor Unlike Any You Have Ever Seen
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Thanks to their prominent appearances in museum displays and the Jurassic Park film franchise, many people are very familiar with what dromaeosaurid dinosaurs looked like. Relatively small and lightly-built, these predators had long, grasping hands and a hyperextendable second toe on each foot tipped in a large sickle-shaped claw. But a newly-discovered “raptor” from the [...]... Read more »
Csiki, Z., Vremir, M., Brusatte, S., & Norell, M. (2010) From the Cover: An aberrant island-dwelling theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Romania. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(35), 15357-15361. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1006970107
- August 30, 2010
- 10:05 PM
- 536 views
All Thirteen Priority Elemental Pollutants Emitted via Oil Sand Extraction
by Michael Long in Phased
David Schindler (University of Alberta, Canada) and coworkers have thoroughly destroyed the claim that oil sand extraction, as currently practiced, is safe for the environment. This news feature was written on August 30, 2010.... Read more »
Kellya, E. N., Schindlera, D. W., Hodsonb, P. V., Shortc, J. W., Radmanovicha, R., & Nielsena, C. C. (2010) Oil sands development contributes elements toxic at low concentrations to the Athabasca River and its tributaries. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. info:/10.1073/pnas.1008754107
- August 30, 2010
- 12:01 PM
- 491 views
Debate Over Identity of an Australian Tyrant
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
Last March a team of paleontologists led by Roger Benson described what appeared to be a partial hip of a tyrannosauroid dinosaur from Australia—the first-ever trace of this group of dinosaurs on the southern continent. Now, in a comment and reply printed in last week’s Science, Matthew Herne, Jay Nair and Steven Salisbury argue that [...]... Read more »
Herne, M., Nair, J., & Salisbury, S. (2010) Comment on "A Southern Tyrant Reptile". Science, 329(5995), 1013-1013. DOI: 10.1126/science.1190100
Benson, R., Barrett, P., Rich, T., Vickers-Rich, P., Pickering, D., & Holland, T. (2010) Response to Comment on "A Southern Tyrant Reptile". Science, 329(5995), 1013-1013. DOI: 10.1126/science.1190195
- August 30, 2010
- 06:26 AM
- 1,612 views
when a few million years don’t mean much…
by Greg Fish in weird things
Oh those scientists with their constant corrections. Slightly more than a century ago, they said our planet and the entire solar system was a few hundred million years old, then they said it was 4.56 billion years old after fiddling around with radioactive isotopes in asteroids and meteors. Now, they’re changing the age of the [...]... Read more »
Bouvier, A., & Wadhwa, M. (2010) The age of the Solar System redefined by the oldest Pb–Pb age of a meteoritic inclusion. Nature Geoscience. DOI: 10.1038/ngeo941
- August 27, 2010
- 11:41 AM
- 546 views
It’s just a little pre-digested; it’s still good, it’s still good.
If you want to know about the life and habitat of a woolly mammoth, there is scarcely a better place to look than in its dung. Found frozen in the permafrost or extracted from the intestines of well-preserved specimens, mammoth coprolites are fecal records of the plants which existed in the animal's local environment and [...]... Read more »
VANGEEL, B., APTROOT, A., BAITTINGER, C., BIRKS, H., BULL, I., CROSS, H., EVERSHED, R., GRAVENDEEL, B., KOMPANJE, E., & KUPERUS, P. (2008) The ecological implications of a Yakutian mammoth's last meal. Quaternary Research, 69(3), 361-376. DOI: 10.1016/j.yqres.2008.02.004
van Geel, B., Guthrie, R., Altmann, J., Broekens, P., Bull, I., Gill, F., Jansen, B., Nieman, A., & Gravendeel, B. (2010) Mycological evidence of coprophagy from the feces of an Alaskan Late Glacial mammoth. Quaternary Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.03.008
- August 27, 2010
- 02:55 AM
- 614 views
Effect of climate change on human morbidity and mortality and sea levels
by Sarah Stephen in An ecological oratorio
Climate change has been resulting in quite a many detrimental manifestations which tend to have a domino effect: fluctuations in temperature and precipitation (resulting in climate variability), as well as extreme manifestations such as drought, storms, rise in sea levels, and frequent severe weather events.Consider the research by Grinsted et al (2009) who used a ‘physically plausible four parameter linear response equation’ to relate nearly 2,000 years of global temperatures and sea level......... Read more »
Patz, J., Campbell-Lendrum, D., Holloway, T., & Foley, J. (2005) Impact of regional climate change on human health. Nature, 438(7066), 310-317. DOI: 10.1038/nature04188
Grinsted, A., Moore, J., & Jevrejeva, S. (2009) Reconstructing sea level from paleo and projected temperatures 200 to 2100 ad. Climate Dynamics, 34(4), 461-472. DOI: 10.1007/s00382-008-0507-2
- August 26, 2010
- 12:43 PM
- 1,160 views
Yellowstone: what lies beneath
by Chris Rowan in Highly Allochthonous
The best evidence yet that the Yellowstone hotspot is the result of a mantle plume - one that had to burn through a subducting slab to get to the surface. Continue reading →... Read more »
Obrebski, M., Allen, R., Xue, M., & Hung, S. (2010) Slab-plume interaction beneath the Pacific Northwest. Geophysical Research Letters, 37(14). DOI: 10.1029/2010GL043489
- August 26, 2010
- 10:05 AM
- 617 views
Fossil Plant Debris Key to UK Dinosaur Preservation
by Brian Switek in Dinosaur Tracking
When I think of dinosaur bones, the rocky and shrub-flecked expanses of western North America immediately come to mind, but it should not be forgotten that some of the first dinosaurs recognized by science were discovered across the Atlantic in England. Paleontologists have been searching for dinosaurs there longer than anywhere else, and among the [...]... Read more »
Sweetman, S., & Insole, A. (2010) The plant debris beds of the Early Cretaceous (Barremian) Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, southern England: their genesis and palaeontological significance. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 292(3-4), 409-424. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.03.055
- August 26, 2010
- 03:35 AM
- 738 views
Global Temperature Proxy Reconstructions ~ now with CO2 forcing
by apeescape in mind of a Markov chain
Previously, I did a simple Bayesian projection of recent temperature using proxy data and the methods shown in McShane and Wyner (2010). I showed that when you take out the last 30 years of data (1969~1998), the projection does not track the recent uptick in temperatures well. The “projection” is a simple unparametric bootstrap which [...]... Read more »
BLAKELEY B. MCSHANE AND ABRAHAM J. WYNER. (2010) A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE TEMPERATURE PROXIES: ARE RECONSTRUCTIONS OF SURFACE TEMPERATURES OVER THE LAST 1000 YEARS RELIABLE?. Annals of Applied Statistics, 4(3). info:/
- August 24, 2010
- 09:01 PM
- 588 views
What would a Zostera blog be without a Zostera entry?
by John Carroll in Chronicles of Zostera
In the most recent issue of Marine Biology, there is a manuscript addressing the issue of 2 introduced species and their interactions with one another. Its an interesting read - one of the species is a commercially important bivalve, the Manila clam, which was introduced in the early 20th century and is now one of the most commercially harvested clams on the west coast of the US. The second is Zostera japonica, dwarf eelgrass, an introduced seagrass species which can establish itself on tidal ........ Read more »
Tsai, C., Yang, S., Trimble, A., & Ruesink, J. (2010) Interactions between two introduced species: Zostera japonica (dwarf eelgrass) facilitates itself and reduces condition of Ruditapes philippinarum (Manila clam) on intertidal flats. Marine Biology, 157(9), 1929-1936. DOI: 10.1007/s00227-010-1462-0
Irlandi, E., & Peterson, C. (1991) Modification of animal habitat by large plants: mechanisms by which seagrasses influence clam growth. Oecologia, 87(3), 307-318. DOI: 10.1007/BF00634584
Judge M, Coen L, Heck KL. (1993) Does Mercenaria mercenaria encounter elevated food levels in seagrass beds? Results from a novel technique to collect suspended food resources. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 141-150. info:/
- August 24, 2010
- 06:29 AM
- 554 views
Fancy going on a wild plankton chase?
by Vivienne in Outdoor Science
Fancy going on a wild plankton chase around Antarctica this Christmas? In November 2002, a team of scientists did exactly that. They went on a nine-week expedition around the Southern Ocean – the ocean surrounding Antarctica – looking for a lush marine oasis awash with marine life and previously overlooked by science. Among their trials and tribulations, Dr Walter Geibert [...]... Read more »
Geibert, W., Assmy, P., Bakker, D., Hanfland, C., Hoppema, M., Pichevin, L., Schröder, M., Schwarz, J., Stimac, I., Usbeck, R.... (2010) High productivity in an ice melting hot spot at the eastern boundary of the Weddell Gyre. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 24(3). DOI: 10.1029/2009GB003657
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