An Interglacial Jump In Sea Level

Posted on April 15, 2009 by Brent

Nature:

The potential for future rapid sea-level rise is perhaps the greatest threat from global warming. But the question of whether recent ice loss from Greenland and Antarctica is the first indication of such a rise is difficult to answer given the limited duration of the instrumental record. New evidence from an exceptionally exposed fossil reef in the Xcaret theme park in Mexico provides a detailed picture of the development of reef terraces, erosion surfaces and sea-level excursions in the region during the last interglacial. A combination of precise uranium-series dating and stratigraphic analysis, together with comparison with coral ages elsewhere, suggests that a sea-level jump of 2 to 3 metres occurred about 121,000 years ago, consistent with an episode of ice-sheet instability towards the end of the last interglacial. On that evidence, sustained rapid ice loss and sea-level rise in the near future are possible.

Posted in Oceanography | Comments Off

Social Sabertooths Hunted In Packs

Posted on March 6, 2009 by Brent

National Geographic:

An abundance of sabertooth fossils in tar pits in present-day Los Angeles, California, suggests that the cats were pack scavengers, scientists say. Tar pits occur when underground asphalt leaks to the surface, causing a large puddle or lake of the sticky substance.

Posted in Paleontology | Comments Off

Paleontologists Strike Fossil Gold In Colombia

Posted on March 4, 2009 by Brent

Washington Post:

Last month, an international group of scientists revealed in the journal Nature that Jaramillo’s team had made a startling discovery — a species of snake larger than a school bus that ruled northern South America 60 million years ago. Evolving after the extinction of the dinosaurs, Titanoboa cerrejonensis — or titanic boa from Cerrejon — might have been the largest vertebrate living on land at that time, the Paleocene era.

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Crunching The Data For The Tree Of Life

Posted on February 10, 2009 by Brent

New York Times:

Within the next few decades, biologists may figure out how the millions of species on Earth are related to one another. But for people to actually see that tree of life, the tree itself will have to evolve.

Posted in Evolution, Genetics | Comments Off

Gorillas Mate Face To Face

Posted on February 20, 2008 by Brent

MSNBC:

Gorillas have been caught on camera for the first time performing face-to-face intercourse.

Posted in Biology | Comments Off

Frog From Hell Fossil Found In Madagascar

Posted on February 19, 2008 by Brent

National Geographic:

The bad-tempered Beelzebufo, or “devil frog,” also poses a big mystery. Why do its closest relatives live half a world away in South America?

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Bizarre Furry Mammal Is A Giant Sengi

Posted on February 4, 2008 by Brent

MSNBC:

In the 1970s, Rathbun first described the monogamous behavior of elephant-shrews, which maintain exclusive mating pairs. They got their nickname due to the animals’ long, flexible snouts. But recent research has shown that elephant-shrews, also called sengis, are more closely related to elephants than to shrews.

Posted in Zoology | Comments Off

A Rare Find In Madagascar Gets Its Own Genus

Posted on January 28, 2008 by Brent

Washington Post:

The palm, which researchers say essentially “flowers itself to death,” is not only a new species. It has forced palm biologists to invent an entirely new genus to accommodate it. That is an almost unheard of event in modern palm tree classification, but one made necessary by its many unique traits and by DNA testing suggesting the tree has been evolving independently of other palms for millions of years.

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A Rodent As Big As A Bull

Posted on January 17, 2008 by Brent

New York Times:

Uruguayan scientists say they have uncovered fossil evidence of the biggest species of rodent ever found, one that scurried across wooded areas of South America about four million years ago, when the continent was not connected to North America.

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Dwarf Salamanders Found In Costa Rica

Posted on January 7, 2008 by Brent

MSNBC:

Two of the new salamanders are from the Bolitoglossa genus and are nocturnal, coming out at night to feed. The first Bolitoglossa species is 3 inches (8 centimeters) long and black, with a bold red stripe down its back and small yellow markings on its side.

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