The Fossil Record

A sad seal story

When Columbus came to the New World, legend is the first animal he discovered was a Caribbean monk seal on the coast of Santa Domingo. In fact, Columbus and his men hunted the small but plentiful seals, who once populated the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, for food. The docile creatures were easy prey for the explorers and for the multitude of European settlers who followed in their footsteps.  

The seals were hunted so much for food and for their oil that by the 1880's, they were already rare.  But up until the 1950's, visitors to the Florida Keys could still see monk seals swimming in the area's warm waters.

There hasn't been an official sighting of a Caribbean monk seal in more than fifty years.

Now, just this past week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has officially declared the Monachus tropicalis species extinct--the first extinction to be officially blamed on humans.

Scientists warn that Hawaiian and Mediterranean monk seals could be the next pinnipeds to vanish from the planet.  They say there are about 1,200 Hawaiian and 500 Mediterranean seals remaining.

"We hope we've learned from the extinction of Caribbean monk seals, and can provide stronger protection for their Hawaiian and Mediterranean relatives," says Kyle Barker,  an NOAA Fisheries Service biologist.

U.S. National Museum illustration

Sea turtle gets another chance

Allison is a three-year-old green sea turtle who was found one day back in 2005 by some tourists on South Padre Island.  She was brought to Sea Turtle, Inc., a hospital for the endangered animals,  because she only had one fin. Allison's other three fins had been bitten off, probably by a shark.  The prospects for her survival looked pretty grim, but the staff at Sea Turtle, Inc. nursed her back to health by giving her antibiotics and feeding her a diet of squid.  

Now, Allison's doctors are working with the University of Texas Dental branch to create a prosthetic fin for her out of silicone.  A mold of the stump that's left from her injury will be used to fashion her new flipper, which will be the first of its kind.  The flipper will be attached to her body with straps, and may have to be replaced every five or ten years as she grows. She currently weighs only about eight pounds,  but adult green sea turtles can grow to be about 450 pounds and live to  be nearly 100!

Once she gets her new flipper, Allison will stay at Sea Turtle, Inc. since she would be too vulnerable to predators.  If she had three flippers, though, she could be returned to the wild.  That is why the work being done to help Allison will be important in helping to save other green sea turtles with injuries in the future. Green sea turtles nest at night in the Gulf of Mexico--but only every three or four years.  The rare sea turtle babies need all the help they can get in their difficult quest for survival.  

"Allison is near and dear to everyone's heart here at Sea Turtle, Inc.," says Jeff George, a curator there.  "She will make a great ambassador here since she is an endangered animal."

Learn more about green sea turtles here.

(Photo from Sea Turtle, Inc.)

Harvesting the sun

Can you say Solana? Sounds like the name of a space ship, but it's actually Spanish for "sunny place." It's also the name of what will be one of the world's largest solar energy farms, to be built near not-so-shady Phoenix, Arizona by the year 2011.

The plant will cover about 1,900 acres of land (about three square miles) with what are called parabolic trough reflectors, which look a lot like giant square-shaped satellite dishes.

The thick glass mirrors in the troughs will collect sunlight and reflect it like huge magnifying glasses into a receiver, where it heats a synthetic type of energy-carrying oil. The sunlight heats the oil to a blazing temperature of about 725 degrees Fahrenheit. The oil then travels through pipes to heat exchangers which convert the energy first to high-pressure steam, which powers a turbine that creates electricity.

When operating at full power, Solana will be able to provide clean electrical power to about 70,000 homes.

Now that's hot!

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(Solana farm illustration from APS)

Happy Earth Day!

Let's keep it clean.

Remember to reuse, recycle, reduce--turn off the lights when you leave a room (and the video games when you're done playing), shut off the water while you're brushing your teeth, don't waste paper, plant a tree, don't litter--and spread the word about conservation to all your friends!

It's so easy being green!

Hark! Who goes there?

We took another little road trip to West Texas recently where we came across this field in the Davis Mountains full of deer and wild turkey. There must have been at least 200 deer there, and they looked like they were gathering for some kind of huge family reunion. I'm surprised they weren't wearing little t-shirts telling them which banquet hall they belonged in. I know they were related because they all had those big funny ears.

In fact, those big ears gave the Mule Deer their family name. Their large, gray and white ears look like (guess what?) mule's ears. Mule Deer are pretty common in West Texas and the western half of the country. They look a bit different from the White-Tailed Deer I'm used to seeing back in the East!

Mule Deer like to eat grass, and lots of it, so these guys were all having fun at their picnic.

I wonder if those big ears help them hear better?

I like how that one fellow in the picture is not interrupting his meal for whatever is making the others stand up and listen!

Did you know...that deer appeared in the fossil record about 35 million years ago, in the Oligocene Epoch?

Earth lights at night

NASA photo

Click on the image to see a bigger version!

A beautiful baby makes her debut

Photo by Gareth Fuller of the Associated Press

This very rare 14-week-old Amur leopard baby just came out of hiding on February 28 for the first time. Her mother, Ascha, is a resident of the Marwell Zoological Park in Winchester, England. She has been caring for her little girl quietly in her den since the baby cat was born.

The cub doesn't have a name yet--but if you visit the Marwell Zoo's website before March 19, you can vote on one for her! (I chose "Kiska," a Russian name that means "pure.")

The Amur leopard, Panthera pardus orientalis, is a Far Eastern subspecies of leopard. The cats inhabit regions of eastern Russia and northern China, and are known for their distinctively large spots, on coats that grow from about 2 centimeters long in the summer to about 7 centimeters long during the harsh winters of their homelands.

The Amur leopard, unfortunately, is also considered the most endangered big cat in the world. There are, by most counts, less than thirty-five of them left in the wild. Efforts to save the cats have now reached a crisis point.

That is why zoos have become so important in the conservation of this incredible species. There are more than 200 of these rare and beautiful creatures now being cared for in zoos around the world. Since their numbers have dwindled in their native habitats, the cats have not been successfully giving birth in the wild. Male cats left in the wild also outnumber the females almost four to one. When a new Amur leopard baby is born in a zoo, her life expectancy is quite a bit longer than it would have been otherwise. She won't be in danger there from habitat loss, deforestation, or poaching.

A new leopard baby typically stays with her mother for about two years before she becomes independent. Most female leopards have only one or two cubs per litter.

Learn more about the Amur leopard here.

Get folding

You can share the following story with your teachers when you get caught designing future unmanned spacecraft during math class.

Download a template to make your own F-117 "Nighthawk" (shown in the picture) at Amazing Paper Airplanes.com.

Story by Yoko Kubota

From Reuters

KASHIWA CITY, Japan - A spacecraft made of folded paper zooming through the skies may sound far-fetched, but Japanese scientists plan to launch paper planes from the International Space Station to see if they make it back to Earth.

On February 6th, the University of Tokyo researchers tested small, origami planes made of special paper for 30 seconds in 482 degrees Fahrenheit heat and wind at seven times the speed of sound. The planes survived the wind tunnel test intact.

The theory is that paper craft, being much lighter than space shuttles, may escape the worst of the friction and heat that much heavier space shuttles face on re-entry to the atmosphere.

"Paper planes are extremely light so they slow down when the air is thin and can gradually descend," said Shinji Suzuki, a professor of aerospace engineering.

Suzuki said the technology might one day be used for unmanned spacecraft.

The team has asked a Japanese astronaut to release the 8-inch planes, made from paper chemically treated to resist heat and water, from the space station.

It will take several months for the craft to reach Earth, and there is no way to predict their landing spot if they make it, Suzuki said.

"It's going to be the space version of a message in a bottle. It will be great if someone picks one up," he said. "We are thinking of writing messages on the planes saying 'if found, please contact us' in a couple of languages."

The visitor

This little guy came to stay with us for a while over the holidays. He arrived on our doorstep one cold and blustery morning, moving very slowly. I think his little legs were starting to freeze.

Once he thawed out, though, there was no stopping Mr. Mantis. Because besides being one of the coolest looking bugs ever, praying mantises are very efficient predators. I thought I was being clever when I said to myself just now, "They should be called preying mantises..." until I saw that the scientist who wrote the Ohio State University Praying Mantis factsheet had already thought of my joke.

The "preying" mantis is actually so adept at catching pesky pests that he is used by ecologically conscientious farmers around the world to keep down populations of harmful insects.

That's an important job! I guess now I know why Mr. Mantis had to cut short his vacation.

New kid in town

I hope I can visit California's Monterey Bay Aquarium in person someday. But in the meantime, I'm happy poking around their fantastic website. The Monterey folks have done a great deal of important work in marine conservation and research.

And right now, they've got...

*drumroll please*

...a baby GREAT WHITE SHARK living there (gasp!!!), waiting to be studied, tagged and released back into the wild as part of the Aquarium's white shark field project.

He's a little guy--at 4 feet 9 inches long and weighing 67 pounds--who was rescued by the Aquarium after he had gotten caught accidently in a commercial fishing net. He is the third young shark to have been housed by the Aquarium, and the other two were both tagged and returned to the wild. The white shark population has been in steady decline worldwide, so the research being done on them could prove invaluable in helping to keep this top predator off the endangered list.

Since sharks are my all-time favorite animals (next to my dog--I have to say that or he gets very jealous), I'm just itching to see a Great White in person. I wonder how long it takes to drive from here to California...

For now, I'll just have to try and catch him on the Aquarium's Outer Bay Cam.

Teeny tiny whale ancestor

Illustration from the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy

What do whales and deer have in common? Sure, they are both mammals, but beyond that, not much--until now. According to scientists at the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, whales may have evolved from small, deer-like animals that lived almost 50 million years ago in the Kashmir region of the Far East. Many previously thought an early, extinct type of hippopotamus was a whale's closest relative.

Now, they say there are very important similarities between whales, which date back to about 50 million years ago, and a fossil of a racoon-sized, hoofed animal belonging to the raoellid family.

Indohyus is the species of raoellid believed to be the missing link between whales and their land-dwelling ancestors. The telltale sign of their resemblance is inside their ears. Their ear bones are partially thickened in the same unique way that whales' ear bones are. Whales are the only other animal that have this trait.

Indohyus was also an aquatic wader who hunted for fish in shallow water. Scientists believe that the animal may have gone back to the seas, from where it once evolved, in order to take advantage of the water's bounty of food.

To learn more about this exciting discovery and Indohyus, go to Northeastern Ohio University's whale evolution page.

Best Christmas present ever

Under pressure from activists, citizens and the governments of the U.S. and Australia, Japan has agreed to at least temporarily stop its plans to hunt down 50 humpback whales.

Below is a beautiful Ocean Futures Society video of a humpback whale family in a peaceful habitat.

I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt them.

Kids' fact sheet on humpbacks

Ship named after Steve Irwin!

Photo from William West / AFP-Getty Images

Story from the Melbourne Herald-Sun

Terri Irwin is awaiting the day she reads the headline "Steve Irwin stops whaling vessel".

And it may happen sooner than later as the Crocodile Hunter's widow yesterday unveiled a new name for an anti-whaling ship owned by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

The newly christened "Steve Irwin" ship, formerly the "Robert Hunter," left Melbourne yesterday bound for Antarctic waters where its crew will attempt to stop Japan's so-called "scientific" whaling.

With a crew of 41, including 12 Australians, the ship will spend about two months in the Southern Ocean pursuing Japanese whalers, who plan to take 935 minke whales, 50 endangered humpbacks and 50 endangered fin whales.

Ms. Irwin called for Japan to end its whaling program.

"If you stop the whaling . . . you have the opportunity to be embraced by the world and held up as heroes for stopping something that should have ended along with slavery and cannibalism a long time ago," she said.

Help some furry friends

I saw this stuffed polar bear at a museum. I am really hoping that's not all we will have left of these great creatures in the future.

Dr. Rosa Meehan of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hopes not either. She has proposed listing the polar bear as an threatened species, so that the bears will be protected under national law.

But she needs help from us to make that happen. She needs to convince President Bush and the members of Congress that the bears need help and that their habitat is also in danger. One of the ways we can help her do that is to let our voices be heard by writing letters to our government officials telling them how we feel there is a great need to protect not only polar bears, but also their environment.

You should have your parents' help and permission to do this. You may even receive a letter in reply from your Senator or Representative, which is very exciting!

Here is the address for President Bush:

The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

_________________

Here are webpages to help you to find your elected officials:

Write to your U.S. Representative

Write to your U.S. Senator

You can also talk to your teachers about making a class project out of writing to your elected officials regarding polar bear conservation and other issues that you feel are important. It's a fun project that can really make a difference in the world, and can help you learn about how our government works at the same time.

You can download a great Polar Action Guide from The Natural Resources Defense Council here.

It's full of interesting facts about the Arctic and tips for helping the evironment.

Good luck!

Remembering the 'Wildlife Warrior'

November 15 is Steve Irwin Day. I'll be wearing my khakis.

"Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength."

--The Dalai Lama

T. Rex footprint found?

Source: AFP

British paleontologist Phil Manning thinks he may have found one of the world's first T. rex footprints, in the famous Hell Creek fossil formation of Montana. The footprint, which is about 30 inches long and covers an area of about 11 square feet, cannot be identified with 100 percent certainty, but because of the footprint's size and the fact that Hell Creek is famous for its T. rex treasure trove, Dr. Manning is pretty sure the 67 million year-old print is from the famous monstrous predator.

Angela Milner, associate keeper of palaeontology at London's Natural History Museum, thinks it could be a T. rex print. She plans to compare it to another, slightly smaller footprint that was found in New Mexico in 1993, also thought to be from a T. rex.

"It is never possible to be certain of the animal that made fossil footprints as they do not die conveniently at the end of their tracks," she says. "However both these prints occur in rocks of the right age, they definitely were made by large carnivorous dinosaurs -- and the only one that was that large enough to leave such a huge footprint was Tyrannosaurus rex."

China builds dam to protect dino fossils

Story from China Daily

Workers have spent three years building a huge earth dam to protect valuable dinosaur bones from being washed away by one of China's most famous rivers.

A horde of dinosaur bones lies buried in a mountain that sits right on the river that forms the boundary between China and Russia - the Heilongjiang River.

So far, thousands of dinosaur fossil bones have been unearthed from the mountain and assembled into 13 dinosaur skeletons, which are now exhibited in several museums nationwide.

Archaeologists believe there are enough fossil bones buried in the mountain to put together at least 100 more dinosaur skeletons. Every summer, rising waters and strong currents erode parts of the mountain, leaving dinosaur fossils exposed. Many fossils have been washed away in the past.

So the Land and Resources Department of Heilongjiang Province ordered the building of a 1,450-meter-long embankment on the Chinese bank of the river to stop the fossils being washed away.

Building the embankment has been hard, with workers battling cold and long winters at a high altitude in China's cold northernmost province. Rising water levels in the summer also limit construction times, and it has taken workers three years to complete the 1,450-meter-long, 5.5-meter-high and 10-meter wide embankment around the dinosaur fossil site.

"The embankment could effectively protect the Dinosaur Mountain from threats of water erosion and floods, thus, the dinosaur fossils are rescued from being washed away," said Li Jinshan, vice-director of Jiayin Dinosaur National Geologic Park Administrative Bureau.

Dinosaur Mountain, which used to be called Mountain of Dinosaur Bones, is inside Jiayin Dinosaur National Geologic Park at Jiayin County, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

To learn more about the unique and important dinosaur discoveries of China, check out a new exhibit about them at the Miami Science Museum, where this Sinraptor hepingensis skeleton is on display.

Bigfoot sighting?

Story and photo from Associated Press

RIDGWAY, Pa. -- It's furry and walks on all fours. Beyond that, about the only thing certain about the critter photographed by a hunter's camera is that some people have gotten the notion it could be a Sasquatch, or Bigfoot. Others say it's just a bear with a bad skin infection.

Rick Jacobs says he got the pictures from a camera with an automatic trigger that he fastened to a tree in the Allegheny National Forest, about 115 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, hoping to photograph deer.

"We couldn't figure out what they were," Jacobs said of the images captured on Sept. 16. "I've been hunting for years and I've never seen anything like this."

He contacted the Bigfoot Research Organization, which pursues reports of a legendary two-legged creature that some people believe lives in parts of the U.S. and Canada.

"It appears to be a primate-like animal. In my opinion, it appears to be a juvenile Sasquatch," said Paul Majeta of the bigfoot group.

However, the Pennsylvania Game Commission has a more conventional opinion. Agency spokesman Jerry Feaser said conservation officers routinely trap bears to be tagged and often see animals that look like the photos.

"There is no question it is a bear with a severe case of mange," Feaser told The Bradford Era.

Discovery in orbit

We got to watch the space shuttle chase the Space Station into orbit last night in the sky over south Texas. It looked like a giant shooting star.

The shuttle was carrying a crew of astronauts who will be staying at the Space Station. Five spacewalks are planned once they get there, which will be the most ever conducted while a shuttle is docked at the station.

To read all the latest news about the International Space Station, see NASA's Space Station page.

Here's a great video from a "rocket cam" of an older Discovery launch that shows just how fast the ship travels:

I see London, I see France...

Frogs don't need underpants. That may be old news, but listen up: scientists at the Hiroshima University in Japan have created transparent amphibians!

The see-through frogs result from the genetic engineering of a recessive gene (meaning both parents must contribute the same genetic code for their offspring to have a certain trait, like blue eyes or red hair) for transparent skin.

Though transparent fish already exist, the transparent frogs are the first four-legged animals produced with this trait. "It was the first time in the world, so I wanted to shout for joy," said Professor Masayuki Sumida at the University.

The new creatures may be helpful some day in school biology classes to those who are squeamish about dissecting frogs--just hold them up to the light instead!

(ITN photo)