Habanocnus

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Xenarthra
Family: Megalonychidae
Genus: Habanocnus
Species: H. hoffstetteri
               H. paulacounto

Habanocnus is an extinct genus of ground sloth. It is also known as the Havana Sloth. It is  indigenous to Late Pleistocene Cuba. There is not much significant excavation of these spices with what we can get some identification. What we gather, we can only say that Acratocnus and Habanocnus are taxonomic synonyms. There is not much identificational difference between these to genus.

Antarctic Birds can Recognize Individual Humans

Brown skuas in Antarctica can discriminate individual people, even though they normally do not see many people around. Scientists studied brown skuas living in Antarctica.

We have heard of crows, mockingbirds and magpies recognizing individual people. These birds live among people, so it may be natural that they learn to differentiate people. But what about the animals that live in remote areas? Can anyone one of them can do the same?

Scientists in South Korea studied brown skuas living in Antarctica and reported that these birds too recognize people who had previously accessed against the skuas living in Antarctica and reported that these birds too recognize people who had previously accused the nests to measure their eggs and nestlings. 

The research team performed a series of experiments. The researchers checked the nests once a week to monitor the breeding status and the skuas attacked at closer distances with repeated visits of the researchers. to test if the birds specifically distinguish the researchers who visited the nests from those who did not, a pair of humans consisting of nest intruder and neutral human approached to the nests and walked towards the opposite directions. All seven skua pairs followed and tried to attack the nest intruder but never followd the neutral human.

Source: Animal Cognition

Decline of Early Crocodile Helped the Early Marine Turtle

Marine turtles experienced an evolutionary windfall thanks to a mass extinction of crcodyliforms around 145 million years ago. 

Crocodyliforms comprise modern crocodiles and alligators and their ancient ancestors, which were major predators that thrived on Earth millions of years ago. They evolved into a variety of species including smaller  ones that lived on land through to mega-sized sea-swimming species that were up to 12 metres long. However, around 145 million years ago crocodyliforms, along with many other species, experienced a severe decline -- an extinction event during a period between two epochs known as the Jurassic/Cretaceous boundary. 

During this boundary up to 80 percent of species on land and in marine environments were wiped out . This decline was primarily due to a drop in sea level, which led to a closing off of shallow marine environments such as lagoons and coastal swamps. These were the homes and primary hunting grounds for may crocodyliforms. The decimation of many marine crocodyliforms may also have laid the way for their ecological replacement by other large predatory groups such as modern shark species  and new types of plesiosaurs. Plesiosaurs were long-necked, fat-bodied and small headed ocean-going creature with fins, which later went extinct around 66 million years ago.

Other factors that contributed to the decline of marine crocodyliforms included a change in the chemistry of ocean water with increased sulphur toxicity and a depletion of oxygen. While primitive crocodilyform species on land also suffered major declines, the remaining species diversified into new groups such as  the new extinct notosuchians, which were much smaller in size at around 1.5 metres in length. Eusuchians also came to prominence after the extinction which led to today's crocodiles.

For this research work the researchers analyzed almost 1,200 crocodyliforms fossil records.

Source: Biological Science

Ancestral Malarial Organisms Traced to age of Dinosaurs

A new analysis of the prehistoric origin of malaria suggests that it evolved in insects at least 100 million years ago and the first vertebrate hosts of this disease were probably reptiles which at that time would have included the dinosaurs. The study also suggests that they  may have been involved in the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Source: American Entomologist

How Diet Shaped Human Evolution

The ancestor of modern humans shared the planet with Neanderthals, a close heavy-set relative that dwelled almost exclusively in Ice-Age Europe, until some 40,000 years ago. Neanderthals were similar to Homo sapiens, with whom they sometimes mated - but they were differences, Neanderthals were shorter and stockier with wider pelvises and rib-cages than their modern human counterparts.

But what was the reason behind the anatomical differences? A new study finds that the Ice-Age diet - a high-protein intake of large animals - triggered physical changes in Neanderthals, namely a larger ribcage and a wider pelvis.

According to the study, the bell-shaped Neanderthal rib-cage or thorax had to  evolve to accommodate a larger liver, the organ responsible for metabolizing great quantities of protein into energy. The heightened metabolism also required an expanded renal system to remove large amount of toxic urea, possibly resulting in a wide Neanderthal pelvis.

Source: Journal of Physical Anthropology

Lion Escaped from the National Park

A lion named Sylvester, escaped from a South African National Park. Helicopters will be used to track down the three year old animal, which may be put down as a result of his repeated breakouts from Karoo National Park in the South of the country. The same lion escaped from the park previously, that was happened in 2015.

A signal from Sylvester's tracking collar which was fitted after his last escape, showed he was outside the park on this Sunday and by Monday he was 20 km from the park's fenced boundary, in  a mountainous area not easily accessibe by foot. 

He has already killed cow. 

During his last escape,  he roamed 300 km from the park, killing 30 animals over three weeks before being shot by a tranquilizer dart fired from a helicopter. At the time, wildlife officials said he had been forced out of the park by older lions.

Lions were re-introduced to Karoo National Park, western Cape province, in 2010 after an absence of almost 170 years. The last Wild lion in the area was shot in 1842.

Acratocnus

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Pilosa

Family: Megalonychidae

Genus: Acratocnus
Species: A. odontrigonus
              A. antillensis
              A. ye

Temporal Range: 2.5 mya - 5000 BP (Pleistocene to Holocene)

Acratocnus is an extinct genus of ground sloth found in Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. It is a member of the family Megalonychidae, whose sole surviving genus is Choloepus (the two toed tree sloth)

 

HABITAT

The species of Acratocnus were found on the islands of Puerto Rico, Cuba and Hispaniola, where they inhabitat the montane forests of the highlands. The Puerto Rican ground sloth, Acratocnus odontrigonus is known from several poorly documented cave excavations in northwestern Puerto Rico. The various species are regarded as being semi-arboreal because of their small size and their large hooked claws.

SIZE

The various species of Acratocnus ranged in different weights. their weight varied from 22kg to 70 kg.This indicates that they are much larger than the living tree sloths as those are not more than 15 kg.

 

EXTINCTION

As with many sloth fossils, these species of sloth have not been radio-metrically dated. It is suggested that the Puerto Rican and Hispaniolan Acratocnus species survived into the late Pleistocene but disappeared by the mid-Holocene. According to the latest survival reports it is confirmed that there is no evidence of any kind of ground sloth in Cuba after 5000 BP. The causes of their extinction may have been climate changes or more likely human hunting or any kind of plague.

Human carbon release rate is unprecedentedd in the past 66 million years of Earth's history

Researchers look at changes of Earth's temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) since the end of the age of the dinosaurs. Their findings suggest humans are releasing carbon about 10 times faster than during any event in the past 66 million years.

The earliest instrumental records of Earth's climate, as measured by thermometers and other tools, start in the 1850s. To look further back in time, scientists investigate air bubbles trapped in ice cores, which expands the window to less than a million years. But to study Earth's history over tens to hundreds of millions of years, researchers examine the chemical and biological signatures of deep sea sediment archives.

Source: Nature Geo-science

Greenland melting tied to Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice

Ice of the arctic sea is vanishing, the weather systems over Greenland is dogged and the far-flung surface ice melting on the massive island.These dramatic trends and global sea-level rise are linked according to the study. 

During Greenland summers, melting Arctic sea ice favors stronger and more frequent blocking-high pressure systems, which spin clockwise, stay largely in place and can block cold, dry Canadian air from reaching the island. The highs tend to enhance the flow of warm, moist air over Greenland, contributing to incresed extreme heat events and surface ice melting, according to the study.

Source: Journal of Climate

Pandas hear more than we do

A new study may help conservationists understand this potential for human activitiws to distrub giant pandas in native habitats. Using captive pandas, conservation scientists worked with animal care specialists to determine pandas' range of hearing sensitivity, discovering that that they can detect sound into the ultrasonic range. Because giant pandas depend in large part on information transmitted through vocalizations for reprodictive success, noise from human activities in or near forest areas could be disruptive.

Source: Zoological Society of San Diego

Black Holes banish matter into cosmic voids

We live in a universe dominated by unseen matter and on the largest scales, galaxies and everything they contain are concentrated into filaments that stretch around the edge of enormous voids. Thought to be almost empty until now, a group of astronomers now believe these dark holes could contain as much as 20% of the normal matter in the cosmos and that galaxies make up only 1/500th of the volume of of the universe.

 

 Source: Royal Astronomical Society

First Contact with rare Sumatran Rhino in Indonesia's Borneo

The critically endangered rhino was caught in a pit trap this month in East Kalimantan province in an area close to mining operations and plantations where the WWF said it was struggling to survive. 

The female animal, thought to be aged around sic, is now in a temporary enclosure and will later be airlifted by helicopter to a safer habitat on Borneo.
The contact with the rhino comes after environmentalists discovered in 2013 that the Sumatran rhino was not extinct on Indonesian Borneo - as had long been though - when hidden cameras captured images of the animals.

Borneo is the world's third-largest island and is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
No doubt this is a very important discovery as this rhinos are critically endangered. This discovery is very useful for the conservation of this species.

Source: TOI

International Trade Damages Tropical Nature

According to a new research report, tropical countries incur annual economic losses totaling US$1.7 trillion through destruction of ecosystem services. Countries in the tropics are among the largest global exporters of key agricultural commodities such as oil palm, rice, soybean, sugarcane and cassava.

Phone-based Laser rangefinders Works Outdoors

The Microsoft Kinect was a boon to robotics researchers. The Cheap, off-the-shelf depth sensor allowed them to quickly and cost effectively prototype innovative systems that enable robots to map, interpret, and negative thier environments.

But sensors like the Kinect, which use infrared light to gauge depth, are easily confused by ambient infrared light. Even indoors, they tend to require low-light conditions and outdoors,they're hopeless.

The researchers envision that cellphones with cheap, built-in infrared laser could be snapped into could be snapped into personal vehicles, such as golf carts or wheelchairs to help render them autonomous. A version of the system could also be built into small autonomous robots, like the package-delivery drones proposed by Amazon, whose wide deployment in unpredictable environments would prohibit the use of expensive laser rangefinders.

Source: MIT

Can Sun create a Superflare?

It does create a super-flare but its magnetic field is simply so weak. However, Out of all the stars with super-flares that Christoffer Karoff and his team analyzed, around 20% had a magnetic field with a strength similar to or weaker than the Sun's magnetic field. Therefore, even though it is not very likely, it is not impossible that the Sun could produce a super-flare.

If a eruption is to strike Earth today, it would have devastating consequences. Not just for all electronic equipment on Earth, but also for our atmosphere and thus our planer's ability to support life.

Source: Nature Communication

Our Sun Could also be a Superflare Star

Every now and then large sun storms strike the Earth where they cause aurora and in rare cases power cuts. Theses events  are , however, nothing compared to the apocalyptic destruction we would experience if the Earth is struck by a super-flare. An international research team has now shown that this is a scenario we may have to consider a real possibility.

 

Source: Nature Communication

Environment

The biophysical environment is the biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development and evolution. The biophysical environment can vary in scale from microscopic environment and the terrestrial environment. The number of biophysical environments is countless, given that each living organism has its own environment.

The term environment is often used as a short form for the biophysical environment, e.g. the UK's Environment Agency. The expression "the environment often refers to a singular global environment in relation to humanity."

Ecology

Ecology is the scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their environment. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes biology, geography and Earth science. Ecology includes the study of interactions organisms have with each other, other organism, and with abiotic components of their environment. Topics of interest to ecologists include the diversity, distribution, amount (biomass), and number (population) of particular organism, as well as co-operation and competitive between organisms, both within and among ecosystems.Ecosystems are composed of dynamically interacting parts including organisms, the communities, nutrient cycling, and various niche construction activities, regulate the  flux of energy and matter through an environment. These processes are sustained by organisms with specific life history traits, and the variety of organisms is called biodiversity. Biodiversity, which refers to the varieties of species, genes and ecosystems, enhances certain ecosystem services.

Ecology is not synonymous with environment, environmentalism, natural history or environmental science. It is closely related to evolutionary biology, genetics and ethology. An important focus for ecologists to improve the understanding of how biodiversity affects ecological function. Ecologists seek to explain:

• Life processes, interactions and adaptations
• The movement of materials and energy through living communities
• The successional development of ecosystems
• The abundance and distribution of organisms and biodiversity in the context of the environment

 Ecology is a human science as well. There are many practical applications of ecology in conservation biology, wetland management, natural resource management (agroecology, agriculture, forestry, agroforestry, fisheries), city planning  (urbari ecology), community health, economics, basic and applied science, and human social interaction (human ecology). 

The word 'Ecology' was coined in 1866 by the German scientist Ernst Haeckel.

Saber tooth cats hunted on the South America

There is no doubt that the saber tooth cat or known as the Smilodon lived and hunted in the the open, dry lands of the North America but there is no clear evidence that they also roamed the South American planes, until now a new research led by Professor Herve Bocherens, suggests that like the lion which today lives in the African savannah, the saber tooth cat inhabited the open.dry country found in South America during ice age.

 The researchers examined that the saber tooth cats did not eat animals which were at home in thickly wooded country. Their chief prey seems tp have been a camel-like, steppe-dwelling ungulate known to scientists as  Macrauchenia, and two species of giant sloth (Megatherium and Lestodon) - who unlike their surviving relatives, lived on the ground and could grow to several tonnes in weight. Several individual bones of the saber tooth cats were found together and contained similar isotopes which suggests that they may hunt togetger in group.

The saber tooth cat (Smilodon) evolved in North America and spread to South America with the formation of a stable land bridge between the two continents some three million years ago. It appears that the saber tooth cat's fiercest compititors were not other big cats. The study indicates that the jaguar preffered smaller prey, such as rodents and species of horse. But the ice age dog (Protocyon) seems to have shared the saber tooths culinary tastes. 

Source: University of Tubingen

Killer Fungus invades Europe

An invasive pathogenic fungus (Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans) is a threat to European salamander and newt biodiversity. Basal was originally discovered in the Netherlands because it caused mass mortality in salamanders and drove the infected populations to local extinction.  Subsequent laboratory trials showed most European salamander and newt die quickly after infection.

Using data from field surveillance, a new study showed that the killer fungus now occurs in many new places in the Netherlands and Belgium. In addition, it was found for the first time in the wild in Germany. The study also shows that the fungus infects additional species in the wild.

The international research team says that further surveillance of the chytrid fungus is very important .

Source: Ghent University

Megalonyx

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Pilosa
Family: Megalonychidae
Genus: Megalonyx
Species: M. matthisi
               M. wheatieyi
               M. leptostomus
               M. jeffersonii

Conservation Status: Extinct
Temporal Range: Miocene to Pleistocene 

Megalonyx is an extinct genus of giant ground sloths of the family Megalonychidae endemic to North America from the Hemphillian of the Late Miocene through to the Rancholabrean of the Pleistocene, living from around 10. 3 Million years ago to 11,000 years ago, existing for approximately 10.289 million years.

DESCRIPTION

Megalonyx certainly does not look like a sloth, it was a large, heavily built animal about 9.8 feet (3m) long. Its maximum weight is estimated at 1000 kg. This is medium-sized among the giant ground sloths. It is of the size of an American Bison. Like other ground sloths it had a blunt snout, massive jaw, and large peg-like teeth.

 HIND LEGS

It was not like the usual sloths what we have seen in the jungles of South America, it was built for living on the ground. Their hind was built like human feet, i.e. Megalonyx walked with heel, foot and toe bones all on the ground just what we do. This provided good surface area for carrying weight and better balance when the stood up. This is called 'Plantigrade' by the biologists. This provided good surface area for carrying weight and better balance when Megalonyx stood up. And Megalonyx probably spend a lot of time standing in order to eat. To give this giant ground sloth added stability and to ease the stress on its massive hind legs.

 TAIL

Except their massive legs the have a thick, muscular tail which is very rare for the land mammals. Its massive hips gave ample area for strong muscles, while Megalonyx spent time ripping down and feasting on soft leaves and fruit from the trees.

ARM

Bending down those huge branches to reach its mouth was the job of the Megalonyx's powerful arms. The arm and shoulder bones are large and have wide wings and large knobs where big muscles attached. Each of the three fingers on the hand was equipped with large, powerful claws upto 8 inches or 20 cm long. Unlike the claws of the modern lion these giant claws were mostly used to grasp and tear up branches and leaves. However, they also made for a very effective defense against the predators. One swipe of the arm of the Megalonyx may have been more powerful than a grizzly bear.

TEETH

One of the most peculiar anatomical  feature of sloths is their teeth, which lack the hard enamel found in the humans and nearly all other mammals. Instead, sloths possess simple peg-like molar (back) teeth made primarily of the material dentin. Dentin is much softer than enamel and wears out faster. The sloths teeth never stop growing. Because of this, Megalonyx could keep on eating even if a tooth was damaged, since the damaged part would wear out and be replaced by healthy dentin over time. Inlike nearly all other mammals, Megalonyx never had to worry about a chipped tooth.

TAXONOMY

The generic name Megalonyx was proposed by future U.S. President Thomas Jefferson in 1797, based on fossil specimens of what later came to be called Megalonyx jeffersonii that he had received from western Virginia. His presentation to the American Philosophical Society that year is often credited as the beginning of vertebrate paleontology  in North America. However, Jefferson's name has no validity in zoological nomenclature, and Megalonyx was first formally named by Richard Harian in 1825.

 

EVOLUTION

Megalonyx evolved from ancestors that island-hopped across the Central American Seaway from South America, where ground sloths arose, prior to formation of the Panamanian land bridge. Its appearance in North America thus predates the bulk of the faunal exchange between North and South America. Its immediate predecessor was Pliometanastes and its closest living relatives are the two toed sloths (Choloepus).
M. jeffersoni lived from the Illinoian Stage during the Middle Pleistocene (150,000 years BP) through to the Rancholabrean of the Late Pleistocene (11,000 BP). It belongs to the genus Megalonyx, a name proposed by Thomas Jefferson, future president of the United States, in 1797. M. jeffersoni was probably descended from M. wheatieyi, which was in turn was probably derived from M. leptostomus. This was named by Cope (1893). This species lived from Florida to Texas, north to Kansas and Nebraska, and west to New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. It is about half the size of M. jeffersoni.

 

HABITAT

Megalonyx ranged over much of North and Central America. Their remains have been found as far north as Alaska and the Yukon.

M.jeffersonii was apparently the most wide ranging giant ground sloth. Fossils are known from many Pleistocene sites in the United States, including most of the states east of the Rocky Mountains as well as along the west coast. It was the only ground sloth to range as far north as the present-day Yukon and Alaska.

The first specimen  ever found in the Colorado was discovered at the Ziegler Reservoir site near Snowmass Village. The Firelands ground sloth fossils dated between 11,727and 11,424 B.C. represents the earliest known hunting activity by Ohioan Paleoindians.

SOCIAL BEHAVIOR

Aside from the basics of the size, food choice and general mobility it is often difficult to learn details of the life habits of animals from their fossils. But recently from an ongoing excavations at Tarkio valley in southwest lowa may reveal something of the familial life of Megalonyx. An adult was found in direct association with two juveniles of different ages, suggesting that adults cared for young of different generations.

Homosexuality as common in Uganda as elsewhere

Uganda has one of the harshest standpoint on homosexuality in the world. Homosexual acts are prohibited by law and have previously been suggested to warrant the death penalty. However a new study shows that homosexuality among young people is as common in Uganda as in other countries.

250-Million-years old New Reptile Species Found in Brazil

A new reptile species that lived about 250 million years ago in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul, southernmost  Brazil has been discovered by an international team of researchers.

The species has been identified from a most complete and well preserved fossils skull.

The team named the reptile Teyujagua paradoxa

Extinct Bats Species Discovered in Hawaiian Land

The Hawaiian Islands have long been thought to support just one endemic land mammal in the archipelago's brief geological history, the Hawaiian hoary bat. But  new fossils evidence indicates that a second, very different species of bat lived alongside the hoary bat for thousands of years before going to extinct shortly after human arrived the Islands. The researchers describes the bat whose remains were first discovered in a lava tube more than 30 years ago.

Source: American Museum of Natural History

Earthquake at Jalpaiguri

According to the Mousum Bhaban of Delhi, an earthquake hits the North Bengal on Saturday night around 9:45.
According to the report the center of the quake is 21 km under the earth surface of the Jalpaiguri district. The magnitude of the earthquake is 3.8..
According to the locals those who lived in the multi-storied building could feel the ground shaking, within minutes, panic spread across the area and people came out of their  houses.
The jolts comes 11 months after the Nepal quake that felt the country in shock.

Sibling may be Good for Child's Health

According to a study, birth of a sibling , especially when the child was between 2 to 4 years old, was associated with a healthier body mass index (BMI) by first grade. Children the same age who did not have a sibling were nearly three times more likely to be obese by first grade. the finding includes 697 children across the U.S ., appear in the April 2016 issue of Pediatrics.

According to the author one possible explanation could be that parents may be change the way they feed their child once a new siblings born. With children developing long-lasting feeding habits at around three years old, changing dietary habits may have a significant impact.