Ancient whale sucked mud for food

Mammalodon probably lived by sucking small animals up from the seafloor

An ancient "dwarf" whale appears to have fed by sucking small animals out of the seafloor mud with its short snout and tongue, experts say.

Researchers say the 25 million-year-old fossil is related to today's blue whales - the largest animals on Earth.

The ancient animal's mud slurping may have been a precursor to the filter feeding seen in modern baleen whales.

These whales strain huge quantities of tiny marine animals through specialised "combs" which take the place of teeth.

The research is published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

The fossilised remains of the primitive baleen whale Mammalodon colliveri were discovered near Torquay, in Victoria, Australia.

This animal still had teeth; it had not yet evolved the baleen plates - used for filter-feeding - which characterise present-day baleen whales.

Although Mammalodon was discovered in 1932 and named in 1939, it has not been widely studied, according to Museum Victoria, which holds specimens of this group.

The study's author, Dr Erich Fitzgerald from Museum Victoria, said that his study of the fossil led him to the conclusion that Mammalodon was a bottom-feeding mud-sucker.

Splinter group

The idea would support Charles Darwin's observation about whale evolution in his seminal book On the Origin of Species.

In it, Darwin speculated that some of the earliest baleen whales may have been suction feeders - and that this served as a precursor to the filter feeding of today's giants of the deep.

Mammalodon probably evolved from much bigger ancestors

Mammalodon had a total body length of about 3m. But it appears to have been a bizarre evolutionary "splinter group" from the evolutionary lineage which later led to the 30m-long blue whale.

It was effectively a dwarf whale; the research suggests that Mammalodon may have evolved into a relatively tiny form from larger ancestors.

Mammalodon belongs to the same family as Janjucetus hunderi, fossils of which were also found in 25 million-year-old Oligocene rocks near Torquay in Victoria. This family appears to be unique to south-east Australia.

"Clearly the seas off southern Australia were a cradle for the evolution of a variety of tiny, weird whales that seem to have lived nowhere else," said Dr Fitzgerald.

The baleen plates which allow today's baleen whales to filter their food from water, distinguish this group from the toothed whales - a group which includes beaked whales and dolphins.

Baleen whales are a taxonomical group which includes not only the majestic blue whale, but also the right whales, fin whales and humpbacks, to name but a few.

‘Rapidly fatal’ swine flu kills in different ways: study

All fatalities from the (A)H1N1 were found to have a deadly version which caused acute lung injury.

WASHINGTON: People who die of swine flu contract a ‘rapidly fatal’ form of the disease and tend to die of lung injury, although it strikes different people in different ways, an autopsy study showed Thursday.

In the first study of its kind, researchers in Brazil examined 21 patients aged one to 68 who died in Sao Paulo with confirmed (A)H1N1 infections in July and August.

All 21 patients ‘presented a progressive and rapidly fatal form of the disease,’ the study, which will be published in the January one issue of the American Thoracic Society’s ‘American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine,’ found.

All were found to have died of severe acute lung injury, but with three distinct patterns of damage to the lungs, the study said, indicating to the researchers that swine flu ‘killed in distinct ways.’

‘All patients have a picture of acute lung injury,’ said the study’s lead author, Thais Mauad, an associate professor of the Department of Pathology at Sao Paulo University.

But some of the patients had only acute lung injury while in others it was associated with necrotizing bronchiolitis — severe inflammation of the small airway passages in the lungs — and in others there was ‘a hemorrhagic pattern,’ Mauad said.

Patients with necrotizing bronchiolitis were more likely to also have a bacterial co-infection, while patients with heart disease and cancer were more likely to have a hemorrhagic condition in their lungs.

‘It is important to bear in mind that patients with underlying medical conditions must be adequately monitored, since they are at greater risk of developing a severe H1N1 infection,’ said Mauad.

Sixteen of the patients had chronic underlying health conditions, such as heart disease or cancer, the study found.

The researchers also found evidence of an ‘aberrant immune response’ in the lungs of some of the patients, which ‘suggests that an overly vigorous host inflammatory response triggered by the viral infection may spill over to and damage lung tissue, causing acute lung injury and fatal respiratory failure,’ said John Heffner, a former president of the American Thoracic Society.

Close to 200 crocodiles captured in Australia

A saltwater crocodile cruises around his enclosure at the Sydney Wildlife World.

SYDNEY: Almost 200 predatory saltwater crocodiles have been removed from waterways around Australia’s northern city of Darwin this year for the safety of residents, an official said Wednesday.

Rangers picked up 196 of the deadly reptiles in Darwin and elsewhere in the Northern Territory, with the largest a 4.9 metre male, regional director of Conservation and Wildlife Brett Easton told AFP.

‘Once captured they are taken to a crocodile farm where they live a long and lazy life,’ Easton said.

As part of its crocodile management programme, the government has been removing the ‘salties’ from waterways near residential, recreation and swimming areas. Last year 190 were removed.

Easton said some of the animals were found close to where people live, including in stormwater drains and swimming areas.

‘In the Northern Territory we all live fairly close to water and saltwater crocodiles are not unusual in our waters,’ he said.

He said heavy rainfall and flooding in the wet season allowed the crocodiles, believed to number 80,000 in the country’s north, to move more freely and inhabit areas they would otherwise avoid.

Two people, including a young girl, were killed in crocodile attacks in the Northern Territory this year.

How bees perform perfect landing

High-speed footage has revealed how a honeybee performs the perfect landing.

Researchers found that the insect switches from "flight mode" to a more stable "hover mode", where it then assesses the landing ground using its eyes, antennae and legs.

After a few thousandths of a second, the bee's hind legs make contact with the ground and then it delicately lowers itself down before coming to a stop.

The research was carried out by scientists at the Vision Centre at the University of Queensland, Australia, and Lund University, Sweden, and was published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

Europe's Goce satellite probes Earth's gravity

A first glimpse at the data coming down from Europe's Goce satellite

Europe's Goce satellite is returning remarkable new data on the way the pull of gravity varies across the Earth.

Scientists say its first maps clearly show details not seen in previous space and ground measurements.

Goce was launched by the European Space Agency (Esa) in March from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in north-west Russia.

Its information is expected to bring new insights into how the oceans move, and to frame a universal system to measure height anywhere on the planet.

Researchers who study geological processes, such as earthquakes and volcanoes, will also make use of the data.

The first maps built from Goce observations were presented at the American Geophysical Union's (AGU) recent Fall Meeting, the world's largest annual gathering of Earth scientists.

More or less

Although they represent just 47 days of operation following the start of the satellite's science campaign on 30 September, the maps prove Goce is attaining an exceptional level of performance. 

GRAVITY - A MOVING TARGET The 'standard' acceleration due to gravity at the Earth's surface is 9.8m per second squared In reality the figure varies from 9.78 (minimum) at the equator to 9.83 (maximum) at the poles

"There is a tremendous amount of geophysics in these plots," explained Rune Floberghagen, Esa's Goce mission manager.

"You see where there are big variations, for example in the mountain range of the Andes, or the Mariana Trench, or the Indonesian Arc, or the Himalayas. In fact, on most of the continents, you see a lot of variation," he told BBC News.

The maps reproduced on this page illustrate "gravity gradients".

The red colours indicate a positive variation in gravity moving from one place to another - i.e. places where Earth's tug becomes greater.

The blue colours indicate a negative variation in gravity - places where Earth's tug is a little less.

Simply put, if you were to take some bathroom scales to these locations you would weigh fractionally more in red places and weigh less in blue ones.

 

Compared to existing models, it is clear Goce has something new to offer

Most people are taught at school that the acceleration due to gravity at the Earth's surface - known as g - is about 9.8m per second squared. But, in truth, this figure varies around the planet depending on the nature of the material underfoot.

The planet is far from a smooth sphere; the radius of the globe at the equator is about 20km longer than at the poles.

Goce has been described as the most beautiful satellite ever built

This ellipsoid is then marked by tall mountain ranges and cut by deep ocean trenches.

The Earth's interior layers are also not composed of perfect shells of homogenous rock - some regions are thicker or denser.

Such factors will cause g to deviate from place to place by very small but significant amounts.

The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (Goce) maps these differences with a state-of-the-art gradiometer produced by the French Onera company.

The instrument is sensitive to accelerations of about one-tenth of a millionth of a millionth of g.

And the gradiometer measures these accelerations across all three axes of the spacecraft to obtain a multi-dimensional view of the Earth's gravity field.

"These are by far the smallest accelerations ever measured from orbit," said Dr Floberghagen.

Ocean shape

The first maps not only record the three components but also compare their signals to the best available gravity field models assembled from existing space- and ground-acquired data-sets.

Again, in this challenge to the existing models the Goce gradients appear most pronounced in high latitude and continental regions. The gradients seem less marked over the oceans where a lot of gravity field information has already been determined by spacecraft that measure sea-surface topography.

The Goce team stresses that its data is not yet fully homogenous; some areas of the Earth are currently covered better than others. This is evident in the diagonal stripes that can be seen in a number of the maps. The scientists say that some work also remains to be done in understanding how best to process the data.

Nonetheless, it is hoped that sufficient high-quality information will have been gathered in the opening months of the science campaign to construct what geophysicists call a geoid.

This is a special type of Earth model which traces its idealised "horizontal" surface - the plane on which, at any point, the pull of gravity is perpendicular to it. If you could put a ball on this hypothetical surface, it would not roll - even though it appears to have slopes.

The geoid is of paramount interest to oceanographers who study the causes of the "hills" and "valleys" on the sea surface.

If local gravity differences are not pulling water about to create these features, then other factors such as currents, winds and tides must be responsible.

Extended mission

The mission team also announced at the AGU meeting that Goce is likely to keep flying far longer than anyone had envisaged at launch.

This increase in lifetime is a result of the unusually quiet behaviour of the Sun at the moment. In periods of reduced solar activity, the Earth's atmosphere is less extensive and this means satellites do not experience quite so much drag.

Even at its ultra-low altitude of just 254.9km, Goce requires little effort from its propulsion system to maintain a steady orbit and keep itself from falling out of the sky.

Esa had been expecting the satellite to stay aloft for about two years. Current solar conditions suggest Goce will still be orbiting and gathering science data in five years' time.

"The air drag that we have experienced on orbit after launching has been very different from what any model was able to predict pre-launch," said Dr Floberghagen.

"And that in turn means there is a lot of new science not only in the gravity field measurements but also in the measurements of the surface forces acting on the spacecraft.

"So we plan to generate another product from this mission which will serve modellers of the thermosphere, people who model the air density in the upper layers of the atmosphere." 

GRAVITY FIELD AND STEADY-STATE OCEAN CIRCULATION EXPLORER

1. Goce senses tiny variations in the pull of gravity over Earth

2. The data is used to construct an idealised surface, or geoid

3. It traces gravity of equal 'potential'; balls won't roll on its 'slopes'

4. It is the shape the oceans would take without winds and currents

5. So, comparing sea level and geoid data reveals ocean behaviour

6. Gravity changes can betray magma movements under volcanoes

7. A precise geoid underpins a universal height system for the world

8. Gravity data can also reveal how much mass is lost by ice sheets

1. The 1,100kg Goce is built from rigid materials and carries fixed solar wings. The gravity data must be clear of spacecraft 'noise'

2. Solar cells produce 1,300W and cover the Sun-facing side of Goce; the near side (as shown) radiates heat to keep it cool

3. The 5m-by-1m frame incorporates fins to stabilise the spacecraft as it flies through the residual air in the thermosphere

4. Goce's accelerometers measure accelerations that are as small as 1 part in 10,000,000,000,000 of the gravity experienced on Earth

5. The UK-built engine ejects xenon ions at velocities exceeding 40,000m/s; the engine throttles up and down to keep Goce at a steady altitude

6. S Band antenna: Data downloads to the Kiruna (Sweden) ground station. Processing, archiving is done at Esa's centre in Frascati, Italy

7. GPS antennas: Precise positioning of Goce is required, but GPS data in itself can also provide some gravity field information

Chimps use cleavers and anvils as tools to chop food

 Poni, a chimp who likes to chop his food

For the first time, chimpanzees have been seen using tools to chop up and reduce food into smaller bite-sized portions.

Chimps in the Nimba Mountains of Guinea, Africa, use both stone and wooden cleavers, as well as stone anvils, to process Treculia fruits.

The apes are not simply cracking into the Treculia to get to otherwise unobtainable food, say researchers.

Instead, they are actively chopping up the food into more manageable portions.

Observations of the behaviour are published in the journal Primates.

PhD student Kathelijne Koops and Professor William McGrew of the Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies, University of Cambridge, UK, studied a group of chimps living wild in the Nimba Mountains.

Ms Koops research is focused on the use by the chimps of elementary technology, such as the use of tools while foraging.

"Chimpanzees across Africa vary greatly in the types of tools they use to obtain food. Some groups use stones as hammers and anvils to crack open nuts, whereas others use twigs to fish for termites," she says.

The apes' use of such tools can be surprisingly sophisticated.

Cleaver and smashed fruit (shown by arrow)

"For example, nut-cracking in the Bossou chimpanzee community in Guinea involves the use of a movable hammer and anvil, and sometimes the additional use of stabilising wedges to make the anvil more level and so more efficient," explains Ms Koops.

"Termite fishing in some chimpanzee communities in the Republic of Congo involves the use of a tool set, i.e. different tool components used sequentially to achieve the same goal.

"These chimpanzees were found to deliberately modify termite fishing probes by creating a brush-end, before using them to fish for termites."

Alzheimer's 'associated with reduced risk of cancer'

The number of dementia patients in the UK is predicted to double

Alzheimer's disease is associated with a reduced risk of cancer and vice versa, a study suggests.

US researchers followed 3,020 people aged 65 and above for the study, published in the journal Neurology.

Those who had Alzheimer's at the start of the study were 69% less likely to be admitted to hospital with cancer than those free of the disease at the start.

And those with cancer at the study's start were 43% less likely to develop Alzheimer's than the cancer free.

The researchers followed the subjects for an average of five years to see whether they developed Alzheimer's, and an average of eight years to see whether they developed cancer.

At the start of the study, 164 people (5.4%) already had Alzheimer's disease and 522 people (17.3%) already had a cancer diagnosis.

During the study, 478 people developed dementia and 376 people developed invasive cancer.

The researchers stressed that more work was needed before any firm conclusions could be drawn, and said the findings only seemed fully to apply to white people.

They found no association between cancer and another type of dementia, known as vascular dementia, which is thought to be caused by a lack of blood supply to the brain.

However, patients with this condition died earlier than people with Alzheimer's.

Lead researcher Dr Catherine Roe, of Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis, said this suggested the association between Alzheimer's and cancer was not simply due to people with those conditions dying before they could contract the other ailment.

"Discovering the links between these two conditions may help us better understand both diseases and open up avenues for possible treatments," she said.

"Alzheimer's disease and cancer are both characterised by abnormal, but opposing, cellular behaviour.

"In Alzheimer's disease, excessive cell death occurs, whereas cancer is characterised by excessive cell growth.

"Other scientists have suggested that there are certain molecular pathways that may influence both Alzheimer's disease and cancer."

For instance, one specific enzyme has been shown to target a number of proteins, some of which are believed to stimulate cancer, some to suppress it, and others to be a hallmark of Alzheimer's.

Rebecca Wood, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, agreed the study raised hopes of finding new ways to prevent or treat disease.

She said: "This study suggests that there might be a link between cancer and Alzheimer's, but it is much too soon to say for certain whether the two diseases are connected.

'Research needed'

"There could be molecular processes involved in both Alzheimer's and cancer, which, with more research, we could identify."

However, Professor Clive Ballard, of the Alzheimer's Society, said the existence of one of the diseases could mask the symptoms of the other and affect diagnosis.

"More research is needed to establish categorically if this link exists."

It is estimated 700,000 people in the UK have dementia, a number forecast to double in a generation.