The Fossil Record

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?

Andes flyover

Gerard, our intrepid film producer, sent me this picture of the Andes Mountains from his cell phone in an airplane yesterday on his way to Argentina.

Digging around on NASA's website, I found the other images below of the Patagonian Ice Fields from a little further away (closer to the moon, maybe?).

The Andes mountains form an unbroken chain down the western coast of South America. The mountain range is over 4,400 miles long. The height of the mountains averages about 13,000 feet! They began to form in the Jurassic Period of earth's history, between about 200 and 140 million years ago. The tectonic plates of the earth at that time were shifting like crazy, and our continents were moving around, trying to find their eventual locations. All the stress of the move pushed the plates up and down and created mountains and other geographic features.

The climate in the Andes varies from a rainforest and jungle environment in Ecuador, in the northern part of the mountains, to glacial conditions near the southern tip, at Tierra Del Fuego, where Patagonia National Park is.

To learn about the wildlife and terrain of Patagonia, take a look at this PBS page, and click on this link to take a "Journey into Amazonia."

To see a very short animation of how these Imaging Radar pictures of the Andes Mountains were taken, read and then scroll down a little on this page to the animation link.

Meanwhile, I'll be sitting safely close to the ground here at my desk--let me know how your adventure goes!

Mapping the last frontier

Robert Ballard, the scientist who discovered the wreck of the Titanic, is now leading a team of researchers in a nuclear-powered submarine that can roll across the floor of the Gulf of Mexico to see if they can find signs that prehistoric humans might have lived along the gulf coast.

The team will also try to map out the parts of North America that are submerged underwater as a result of the last ice age. According to Dr. Ballard, up to 50% of U. S. territory is under water. "We have better maps of Mars than we do submerged America," he said.

To watch a live video channel of the "Secrets of the Gulf" exploration, go to OceansLive.

While you're there, be sure to check out the Kid's Section for puzzles, games and cool videos!

Robert Ballard in a U. S. Navy photo

Journey to the center of Antarctica

Getty Images

From Associated Press

A team of British and Canadian explorers endured seven weeks of howling winds and subzero temperatures to become the first expedition to reach the geographic center of Antarctica on foot.

Dragging 264-pound sleds, the team traveled more than 1,056 miles on foot or by kite ski to reach Antarctica's Pole of Inaccessibility — the furthest point from any ocean.

Located more than 12,221 feet above sea level, the Pole of Inaccessibility was first visited in 1958 by Soviet explorers who reached the remote outpost in convoy of snow vehicles.

The new team — led by Canadian Paul Landry — said it was surprised to find a bust of Vladimir Lenin erected by the Soviets nearly half a century ago still standing amid the ice.

The journey took 49 days.

Alvin to Alpha

NASA Photo

On Friday, an astronaut hovering high above earth in the Alpha space station and an oceanographer deep below the ocean's surface in the Alvin submersible research vessel had an interesting fifteen-minute conversation about what life is like for both of them.

"Greetings Alvin, this is the International Space Station Alpha, flying about 250 miles above the Earth's surface," said Sunita Williams, Expedition 14 flight engineer to marine biologist Timothy Shank, who was two miles beneath the Pacific Ocean.

They talked about what kinds of things they've seen, what their jobs are like, and even answered a few questions from the public.

"We haven't seen anything up here, but I'm sure you've seen stuff that looks pretty weird down there," Williams said to Shank.

"Yes, absolutely Suni," said Shank, a researcher with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). "Some of the life forms down here ... I think of as being aliens."

Despite the many differences in their research — Shank works in a murky aquatic environment, beyond the reach of the sun, whereas Williams sees 15 sunrises a day — the two found some common ground.

"We're both living life in the extremes," Shank said.

Source: Fox News