Fossils Rock! Birds Evolved From Theropod Dinosaurs

From T. rex to treecreepers in one handy graphic. Picture credit: University of Edinburgh.

Tens of millions of years of gradual evolution turned a family of dinosaurs called theropods into modern birds, new research by the University of Edinburgh has confirmed.

Led by Dr Steve Brusatte, the research highlights how the largest terrestrial carnivore took to the skies, acquiring feathers, wings and wishbones along the way.

The findings were published in Current Biology with the title "Gradual Assembly of Avian Body Plan Culminated in Rapid Rates of Evolution across the Dinosaur-Bird Transition".

Dr Brusatte told The Telegraph:

"What we think of as the classic bird skeleton was pieced together gradually over tens of millions of years.

"Once it came together fully, it unlocked great evolutionary potential that allowed birds to evolve at a super-charged rate."

What is important here is that there was no 'missing link', no intermediary, between dinosaurs and birds. This means that it is scientifically correct to refer to birds as avian dinosaurs. Dinosaurs began developing birdlike features until the first distinctly bird-like dinosaurs evolved around 150 million years ago.

You can read the original research paper here.

Fossils Rock! Spinosaurus Was Born To Swim

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus skeleton being fitted for display . Picture credit: Mike Hettwer/National Geographic

Just a quick post to briefly describe what is possibly the most exciting fossil-related news of 2014. Without all the hype piled onto the story by the mainstream press, here's why Spinosaurus was different from other dinosaurs:

• Nostrils higher up on head than on strictly terrestrial dinosaurs
• Long neck and trunk shift weight onto knee joint to balance in water
• Short, solid hind limbs
• Flat bottomed pedal claws for swimming
• Dorsal sail covered in skin for displaying in and out of water

This massive predator was adapted for long-term aquatic habitation. Here's how it would have looked when it was alive on Earth, 97 million years ago:

Picture credit: National Geographic

If you want to read the original research paper, you can find it here.

Archaeologists Unearth Massive "Super-Henge" Near Stonehenge

Credit: Ludwig Boltzmann Institute

An archaeological project utilizing new technology has revealed new monuments belonging to the ancient ritualistic landscape that is home to the famous Stonehenge. Perhaps the most startling of these new monuments is a "super henge" several times larger than Stonehenge itself.

The Stonehenge Hidden Landscape Project, a joint venture by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute and the University of Birmingham, took four years to complete its surveys. The impressive results were described in a press release on the project's website:

"The startling results of the survey include 17 previously unknown ritual monuments dating to the period when Stonehenge achieved its iconic shape. Dozens of burial mounds have been mapped in minute detail, including a long barrow (a burial mound dating to before Stonehenge) which revealed a massive timber building, probably used for the ritual inhumation of the dead following a complicated sequence of exposure and excarnation (defleshing), and which was finally covered by an earthen mound.

"The project has also revealed exciting new - and completely unexpected - information on previously known monuments. Among the most significant relate to the Durrington Walls 'super henge', situated a short distance from Stonehenge. This immense ritual monument, probably the largest of its type in the world, has a circumference of more than 1.5 kilometers (0.93 miles).

"A new survey reveals that this had an early phase when the monument was flanked with a row of massive posts or stones, perhaps up to three metres high and up to 60 in number - some of which may still survive beneath the massive banks surrounding the monument. Only revealed by the cutting-edge technology used in the project, the survey has added yet another dimension to this vast and enigmatic structure.

"Work also revealed novel types of monument including massive prehistoric pits, some of which appear to form astronomic alignments, plus new information on hundreds of burial mounds, Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman settlements and fields at a level of detail never previously seen."

Newly Discovered Mushroom-Shaped Animal Baffles Scientists

Dendrogramma enigmatica. Picture credit: Jorgen Olesen.

In an extremely rare event, a genus new to science has been described. Bizarre mushroom-shaped animals were found in the sea off south-east Australia at depths between 400 and 1000 meters in the mid-1980s, and have only now been scientifically categorized. The animals are so different from any other living creature that they have been assigned their own genus, called Dendrogramma.

Genus Dendrogramma contains two species, D. enigmatica and D. discoides. The organisms are so distinct to any other type of creature that the genus even has its own family, Dendrogrammatidae, as they defy classification into any other family.

The two physically closest phyla are Ctenophora and Cnidaria, but the new species differ from both as they lack the specialized characteristics of those animal groups.

The two members of the new genus are described in a paper published in research journal Plos One. Lead scientist Dr Jorgen Oleson on the paper said: "New mushroom-shaped animals from the deep sea have been discovered which could not be placed in any recognized group of animals.

"Two species are recognised and current evidence suggest that they represent an early branch on the tree of life, with similarities to the 600 million-year-old extinct Ediacara fauna."

The National Geographic describes the creatures:

"What looks like a mushroom's stalk on Dendrogramma has a mouth at the base leading to a digestive canal that forks repeatedly once it reaches a disk, which looks like a mushroom cap.

"The animals' lifestyle is as mysterious as their appearance. None of the specimens showed signs of having been torn from something else, leading researchers to think the animals are free-living, rather than attaching to a surface or each other."

The same source goes on to report that the discovery may rewrite zoology textbooks, as the genus may represent an early evolutionary stage not accounted for by our current understanding of how life developed on Earth.

The closest animals to Dendrogramma spp. are known only from the fossil record and became extinct 540 million years ago, at the tail-end of the Ediacaran Era. Could Dendrogramma spp. have evolved the same channeled disk-shaped body independently, perhaps as a result to the same environmental pressures? If not, the new species may be descendants of those ancient life-forms.

Earth Dodged a Bullet: The Solar Superstorm Nobody Told You About

The July 2012 solar superstorm almost struck Earth. Source: NASA

A recent communication from NASA describes how close the Earth came to getting a debilitating blast from the Sun two years ago. A double coronal mass ejection (CME) narrowly missed the Earth, shooting out radiation that would have knocked out all telecommunications devices on the planet, along with all electrically powered equipment.

Described as a solar superstorm, the July 2012 CMEs would have caused lasting damage: "If it had hit, we would still be picking up the pieces," says Daniel Baker of the University of Colorado. Although it somehow failed to make the news in 2012, the event was described in a paper produced by NASA scientists at the time entitled "A major solar eruptive event in July 2012: Defining extreme space weather scenarios".

"I have come away from our recent studies more convinced than ever that Earth and its inhabitants were incredibly fortunate that the 2012 eruption happened when it did," Baker said in the recent press release from NASA. "If the eruption had occurred only one week earlier, Earth would have been in the line of fire."

A report by the National Research Council into the socio-economic impact of such an event warned of "extensive social and economic disruptions."

It went on to add, "Power outages would be accompanied by radio blackouts and satellite malfunctions; telecommunications, GPS navigation, banking and finance, and transportation would all be affected.

"Some problems would correct themselves with the fading of the storm: radio and GPS transmissions could come back online fairly quickly.

"Other problems would be lasting: a burnt-out multi-ton transformer, for instance, can take weeks or months to repair. The total economic impact in the first year alone could reach $2 trillion, some 20 times greater than the costs of a Hurricane Katrina."

So what is the probability that a flare this big could actually hit Earth? Physicist Pete Riley published a recent paper in Space Weather called "On the probability of occurrence of extreme space weather events" in which he explained that there is a 12% chance that a flare of this magnitude will strike Earth in the next ten years.

And according to Ashley Dale, writing in Physics World, violent superstorms occur every 150 years - and we're five years overdue.

With odds like these, it may be a good idea to be prepared. According to advice available from the US Government, families should have a communications plan, and households should have emergency kits on hand. Check out the ready.gov website for more ways in which you can be prepared for an extreme space weather event. You can also keep an eye on solar storm warnings with NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center.