Toothy Tree-Swinger May Be Earliest Human

Posted on May 22, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

The new human Homo gautengensis, a toothy, plant-chomping, literal tree swinger that was just named the world’s earliest recognized species of human , described in a paper accepted for publication in HOMO-Journal of Comparative Human Biology, emerged over 2 million years ago and died out approximately 600,000 years ago. The authors believe it arose earlier than Homo habilis, aka “Handy Man.”…

full story

Posted in BIODIVERSITY, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

South Asian Nations Unite to Fight Wildlife Trafficking

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

Wildlife experts from seven nations across South Asia have laid the foundation for a South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network that will serve as a coordinated regional response to illegal poaching and trafficking of such species as tigers, leopards and bears.

The experts from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka agreed the structure, functions and operational parameters for the South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network, SAWEN.

South Asia contains a range of habitats of global significance that support a unique array of animal and plant species such as tigers and other Asian big cats, rhinos, marine and freshwater turtles and pangolins. This richness of biodiversity makes the region a target for wildlife poachers and traffickers.

read here

Posted in BIODIVERSITY | Leave a comment

The Warm Ocean

Posted on May 21, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

John Lyman (left) holds an expendable bathythermograph or XBT, a device that was dropped from ships to obtain temperature. Gregory Johnson (right) holds an Argo Float, an autonomous, free-floating ocean device that collects a variety of data, including temperature. High resolution (Credit: NOAA)

The Oceans appear to be warming up a bit. The upper layer of Earth’s ocean has warmed since 1993, indicating a strong climate change signal, according to a new international study co-authored by oceanographer Josh Willis of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The energy stored is enough to power nearly 500 100-watt light bulbs for each of the roughly 6.7 billion people on the planet.

“The ocean is the biggest reservoir for heat in the climate system,” said Josh Willis, an oceanographer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and one of the scientists who contributed to the study. “So as the planet warms, we’re finding that 80 to 90 percent of the increased heat ends up in the ocean.” A warming ocean is a direct cause of global sea level rise, since seawater expands and takes up more space as it heats up. The scientists say that this expansion accounts for about one-third to one-half of global sea level rise.

A warming ocean is a direct cause of global sea level rise, since seawater expands and takes up more space as it heats up. The scientists say that this expansion accounts for about one-third to one-half of global sea level rise.

Sources:

Read here , here and Here

Posted in oceans, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Earth’s Mantle in Overdrive Under Alaska

Posted on May 20, 2010 by Rashid Faridi

A computer generated model shows Alaskan mantle rock swirling around the plunging slab of crust (in gray) like water around a paddle dipped in a stream. Click to enlarge this image. Margarete Jadamec

A new 3-D model of the mega-quake and tsunami-launching subduction zone in Alaska has uncovered a big surprise: The Earth’s mantle there is moving a whopping 20 to 30 times faster than the crust.

So instead of being dragged along for the ride as a slab of crust is pushed under another, the solid rock mantle rock is swirling around the plunging slab like water around a paddle dipped in a stream.

What the models predict are flows up to 90 centimeters per year around the descending slab of crust, said geologist Magali Billen of the University of California at Davis. Billen co-authored a report on the new model with former graduate student and lead author Margarete Jadamec in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.

read here

Posted in earth, Earth Magnetism | Leave a comment