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Paleontologists Uncover Oldest and Smallest Dinosaurs In North America

December 11, 2014 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

A group of US researchers discovered the oldest horned dinosaur from North America. They found dinosaur equal to the size of a house cat which is nearly 15 million years old.

In 1997, a Scott Madsen uncovered the jaw and skull of Aquilops Americuns. After several years researchers identified it as a milestone work of art. However, the new species is known as Aquilops americanus which means Eagle Face. It lived around 107 million years ago on the earth.

Andrew Farke, a paleontologists informed at first Scott thought it was generic. Later on, it becomes apparent that it is an early horned dinosaur. The new discovery will certainly give an insight about the life style of early dinosaurs. These dinosaurs lived in North America nearly 108 million years ago.

This new specie is pretty similar to the animals of Asia such as Archaeoceratops oshimai and leptoceratops gracilis. Researchers were surprised with the size of the Aquilops. It is approximately weigh around 3.5 pounds and was around two feet in length. The plant eater animal is so small that anyone can hold it with one arm. The remnants of skull would fit quite effortlessly in one hand.

The little dinosaur does not possess horn like Triceratops. It has numerous other features which were not present in the horned dinosaurs such as toothless beak. This kind beak is also present on turtles and Triceratops. Commonly, it is known as rostral bone.

The report is published in 10 December’s edition of Journal PlOS One.

Chimps Caught On Camera Performing Nighttime Raid In Uganda Farm

October 24, 2014 By Germaine Hicks Leave a Comment

Recently, a group of chimps has been caught on camera while performing a nighttime raid in Uganda farm. Though, it’s a common practice for chimpanzees to filch crops in the daytime, but this is the first time they have displayed such of-the-night behavior.

Certainly, wildlife remains a significant drain for the farmers residing on the edges of parks. According to a study’s estimation, Rwandan farmers faced 10% to 20% reduction in income because of the chimpanzees and monkeys pilfering crops. With chimps known to consume over 30 different species of crops, raids are becoming increasingly widespread.

A team of researchers from the National Museum of Natural History in Paris wanted to document the activities of wandering chimps, way back in 2013. For this purpose, the team set up a series of camera traps, dotted throughout the maize fields of Uganda’s Kibale National Park. Over a three-week period, they observed 14 crop raids.

The researchers found evidence of chimp activity inside the farms, even though access to the farm had been restricted after the owners of the plantation created a 6.5-foot-deep trench to keep elephants out. After the detection of crop damage, the researchers finally found that the chimpanzees were climbing over the trench using a fallen tree to bridge the gap.

Typically, the chimps rove in groups of three, but the recent study reveals that they move in an eight-strong party. Mostly, females were responsible for leading the nighttime raids, some of whom even had infant chimps at their sides. During the raids, the chimps would gather up ears or stems of corn in their mouths and quickly leave the area; they would rarely remain to eat the food on-site.

Moreover, the researchers think the chimps respond to humans intruding on their land. They argue this type of activity is an attempt for the chimps to coexist with humans and adapt to their ever-changing habitat.

“Our study suggested that the chimps were responding to a very strong pressure to obtain the basic foods they need to survive – a response to the widespread destruction of their natural forest home,” Dr. Catherine Hobaiter, a University of St. Andrews chimp behavior specialist, told BBC News .

Although, Hobaiter concludes that the behavior is not a long-term solution. Performing nighttime raids is risky because of natural predators. In addition to this, she believed local farmers will soon learn of the nighttime raids and begin defending their crops in the dark; in the past, farmers have been known to kill thieving chimps, in a bid to daunt other members of their party.

The study, entitling Wild Chimpanzees on the Edge: Nocturnal Activities in Croplands is published in the PLOS ONE journal.

Study Revealed: Ancient Kangaroos Walked Instead of Hopped

October 16, 2014 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

Modern day kangaroos are a diverse bunch of species, however, we recognize them by their tendency to hop. Recently, a study has been published in the PLOS One journal stating, the ancient relatives of kangaroos possibly had a gait, which will seem strange to us: They actually walked upright on two legs, like humans.

Researchers claimed that, now extinct sub-family of sthenurine kangaroos had legs made for walking. Some species of the giant were short-faced, weighed more than 220 kilos, which is roughly 3 times the weight of their contemporary relatives. With such size, hopping would have become heavy.

Christine Janis (study author), who is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Brown University stated that, “At best, they’d have been really clumsy hoppers. Though, she along with her colleagues believed that sthenurine was more than just awkward.”

Current species of kangaroos hop for speed. They actually use a particular type of stroll when they need to move slowly: They use their tails as a third leg.

Some former studies revealed that sthenurine cannot actually manage that movement. These kangaroos had rigid spines and their tails are not springy and flexible that support their colossal weight.
Professor Janis stated that, “They would have had to do something else to move around slowly.”

Professor Janis and her colleagues examined the various components of sthenurine skeletons and identified some differences between these and modern day kangaroos. Sthenurine kangaroos had larger hip and knee joints along with the broad, flared pelvis, which enable for larger gluteal muscles that support their body weight even on one leg most of the times as compared to the modern kangaroos possess.

Janis and her colleagues think that sthenurines firstly used this walking gait for slow locomotion , though they also hopped at high speed similar to other kangaroos. With the passage of time, the differences in their gait enabled them to evolve into a huge-size and those kangaroos had to give up hopping for good.

She further stated that, “Hopping is a thorny gait, and current kangaroos are near the limit, in terms of size. This is just one case of humans thinking that extinct animals must have moved and acted like their modern-day relatives. In most of the cases, the truth is a lot more alien.”

Losing Smell Sense May Lead to Earlier Death

October 2, 2014 By Germaine Hicks Leave a Comment

Recently, a report revealed by the U.S. researchers stating that, the losing ability to smell might be associated to the higher risks of death.

Researchers have studied more than 3,000 people aging 57 to 85 discovered that 39% of the patients, who failed in the smell test died within 5 years. Reuters reported, the findings of the study were published in the journal ‘Science’ PLOS ONE on Oct.1.

Dr. Jayant Pinto, the study’s lead author, told Reuters that, “A person with the normal sense of smell as compared to the one with absent sense of smell has 3 times higher chances of dying within the 5 years time span.”

Dr. Jayant Pinto is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Chicago’s medical department.

He further stated that, “Te sense of smell actually indicates your overall health status.”

39% of the patients, who passed away within the time period of 5 years, scored less in the smell test, creating 4 or 5 errors. This is comparable to the 19% with the moderate sense of smell and just above 10% with good sense of smell, creating 0 to 1 errors.

The odor in the test included rose, leather, peppermint, fish and orange. Those people who have poor sense of smell are at the greatest risk and for this purpose other factors such as age, nutrition; smoking habits and poverty are considered.

The loss of the sense of smell is like the canary in the coal mine. It did not directly cause death, but it’s a portent, and just an early warning that something has gone wrong said by pinto. Scientists are doing more research to study this link and they conclude that losing the ability to smell means less regeneration and cell repair in the body and a poor sense of smell is a reflection of lifetime’s experience to bugs and pollution.

A consultant head and neck surgeon who is the honorary secretary of ENT UK, Nirmal Kumar an organization for ear, nose and throat specialists, says that, people losing their sense of smell should not panic; the study was motivating but questioned the consistency of the smell test used.

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