Eating Fruits During Pregnancy to Have Smarter Kids

According to a study, eating fruits during pregnancy increases the chance of having kids of higher IQ levels. The result showed that if pregnant mothers ate six or seven servings of fruit or fruit juice a day on average, their infants placed six or seven point on the IQ scale at one year of age.

"We found that one of the biggest predictors of cognitive development was how much fruit moms consumed during pregnancy. The more fruit moms had, the higher their child's cognitive development." said lead study author Piush Mandhane from University of Alberta in Canada.

The team examined data from 688 children and controlled for factors that would normally affect a child's learning and development such as family income, paternal and maternal education and the gestational age of the child. The mother who consumed more fruit during pregnancy  gave birth to children who performed better on developmental testing at age one. 

"We know that the longer a child is in the womb, the further they develop -- and having one more serving of fruit per day in a mother's diet provides her baby with the same benefit as being born a whole week later", Mandhane stated in the paper published in the journal EbioMedicine.

Mandhane teamed with co-author Francois Bolduc who researches the genetic basis of cognition in humans and fruit flies.

The findings indicated that flies born after being fed increased prenatal fruit juice had significantly better memory ability, similar to the result shown by Mandhane with one-year old infants

U.S. Returns Christopher Columbus Letter to Italy

After his initial voyage in 1493, Christopher Columbus wrote a letter to his patrons, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, which was reprinted and distributed to spread information about the New World. According to a report published in Live Science, a joint American-Italian investigation team has determined that one of the 80 surviving copies of the letter, donated to the Library of Congress, has been stolen from the Riccardiana Library in Florence. Italy, where a forgery had been left in its place. The forged document, in addition to having mismatched stitching, lacked an original Riccardiana Library stamp. Investigators also found that bleach had been used to remove the Riccardiana Library's stamp from the letter in the  Library of Congress. How the theft took place is still under investigation.

Genetic Study may Track Dogs' Travels with Humans

A genetic study of a sexually transmitted canine cancer has offered clues to how dogs may have traveled around the world with their humans. Scientists analyzed the DNA of 440 nine tumors that exist today. Additional mutation allowed the scientists to trace the tumor's family tree. 

The research estimated the time since the mitochondrial transfer events by counting the number of mutations. One of them really seems to just track around maritime trade routes, in the last few hundred years. We found it along the coast of West Africa, in the Cape Vede Islands, Brazil, South Africa, India and some parts of southern Europe.

Port Arthur Prison Yard Yields Convicts' Artifacts

Excavation of the exercise yard at the Port Arthur penitentiary building, World Heritage site in Tasmania, has yielded artifacts related to the convict's leisure time. The key thing about this space was keeping the convict population healthy as if they are healthy then they can work. According  to the study, the yards at first had shelters with fireplaces for the men, Then in the 1860s, toilets and washing areas were added.

The 1600 artifacts recovered from the site include recovered from the site include square and circular gambling tokens made of lead, slate and ceramic, buttons and clay pipes. Gambling was not allowed in the prison, so the tokens were probably smuggled into the yard. Many of the clay  pipe stems bear the teeth marks of their onwers, One pipe bowl features images of Napolean and Wellington and may have been made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

Painted Medieval Church Walls Discovered in Norther Sudan

A team from the Center of Mediterranean Archeology at the University of Warsaw is excavating the church of Raphael, part of a royal complex of buildings at the site of Dongola, the capital of Makuria which is a medieval kingdom located in what is now northern Sudan. The church's pulpit was made with hieroglyph-inscribed granite blocks repurposed from a pharaonic temple.Images of archangels, angels , priests, saints and officials of the Nubian kingdom were painted on smooth lime wall plaster with expensive pigments. Each person depicted in the paintings was also identified and described, One of the inscriptions records a meeting at the church attended by the bishops of Makuria, the archbishop of Dongola and the king. 

According to the researchers, the church was founded by king Joannes, until now nothing much is known about him. The inscription proves that he was an important person in the hierarchy of the church and had considerable political influence. 

16th Century Alter Cloth may have been Queen's Skirt Panel

Experts from Historic Royal Palaces examined a richly embroidered altar cloth kept in a glass case at St. Faith's Church, Bacton, and determined that it dates to the late sixteenth century. Tradition has associated the cloth with Bacton native Blanche Parry who had a monument commemorating her years of loyal service to the Queen erected at the church. Made from cloth of silver, the fabric has shaped seams at the back that suggest it may have been a skirt panel in a court dress at one time. During the Tudor period, sumptuary law limited the wearing of cloth of silver to the royalty and the highest echelons of the aristocracy. Historians have not found any documentation linking the altar cloth to Elizabeth I but it is similar to the garment worn by the Queen in the Rainbow Portrait and may have been given to Parry as a gift. joint chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces said in BBC News, "This is an incredible find. Items of Tudor dress are exceptionally rare in any case but to uncover one with such a close personal link to Queen Elizabeth I is almost unheard of."

Roman Baths in England

Archaeologists excavating rarely seen areas of the Roman Baths under York street and Swallow Street have found traces of red-painted plaster on the outside wall of the Great Bath. According to a report in The Bath Chronicle, the building may have been painted that color during the Roman period. Samples of that excavation have been sent to Bournemoouth University for analysis. 

The team has also found evidence of the earliest phases of the Roman Baths, a second bath beneath York Street, the footings of create a new learning center and a World Heritage Center.

Nilometer

Nilometer

It was a structure for measuring the Nile River's clarity and water level during the annual flood season. It was a step-like structure. IF it was low, there would be famine. If it was high it would be destructive. There was a specific mark that indicated how high the flood should be if the fields were to get soil. 

ceiling of the Nilometer

The ability to predict the volume of the coming inundation was part of the mystique of the Ancient Egyptian priesthood. The same skill also played a political and administrative role, since the quality of the year's flood was used to determine the levels of tax to be paid. This is where the nilometer came into play, with priests monitoring the day-to-day level of the river and announcing the awaited arrival of the summer flood. 

Nilometer Discovered in Ancient Egyptian City

A Nilometer that was probably constructed in the third century B.C., during the reign of Ptolemies, was uncovered by workmen who are building a water pumping station in the ancient Egyptian city of Thmuis.

Nilometer was a device used by the ancient Egyptian to calculate the water level of the Nile River during  its annual flood, and therefore predict the success of the harvest and compute the tax rate for the year. Rising water from the river may have flowed through a channel or from the rising water table, into the nilometer's circular well, which was accessed by a staircase. One of the large limestone blocks in the nilometer debars a list of Greek names followed by numbers which suggests that these people may have contributed funds to build it. Archaeologists suspect that it was originally located within a temple complex. They would have thought of the Nile River as a god and the nilometer was this point of interface between the spiritual and the pragmatic.

Scientists Assess Skulls in Prehistoric and Modern Population

Cribra orbitalia (CO), a condition in which the bone inside the eye sockets becomes porous, can be caused by iron deficiency anemia and is often used by anthropologists to assess the health and diet of prehistoric populations. It had been thought that this condition might have gone extinct but when anthropologists from North Carolina Sate University and the University of the Witwatersrand examined 844 modern, historic and prehistoric human adult and juvenile skulls for the prevalence of CO, they were surprised to find higher rates of CO in modern populations in both North America and South Africa.

The team suggests that access to adequate nutrition and the presence of intestinal parasites are still problems for disadvantaged socioeconomic groups and parts of the developing world. To read in depth about the bio-archaeology of disadvantaged people in nineteenth-century London.

Decorated Human Jaw Unearthed in Mexico

According to a ongoing study of a 1300 year old carved and painted human mandible discovered in a ceremonial area at the Zapotec site of Dainzu- Macuilxo, located in southern Mexico. The jaw bone is thought to have been worn as a pendant. The excavation team also recovered thousands of fragments of smashed ceramic whistles may have made owl-like sounds, while the figurines may have represented Xipe Totec, a Mesoamerican god associated with human sacrifice and agriculture. But Pink and the researchers think the decorated human bones belonged to ancestors of the site's residents, who were probably going into the tombs of their ancestors and bringing the remains of their ancestors out.

Antibiotics that Kill Gut Bacteria also Stop Growth of Brain Cells

Antibiotics strong enough to kill off gut bacteria can also stop the growth of new brains cells in the hippocampus, a section of the brain associated with with memory, reports a study in mice published in Cell Reports on May 19. Researchers also uncovered a clue to why - a type of white blood cell seems to act as a communicator between the brain, the immune system and the gut.

Wolf first saw clues that the immune system could influence the health and growth of brain cells through research into T cells nearly 10 years ago. But there were few studies that found a link from the brain to the immune system and back to the gut.

In the study, the researchers gave a group of mice enough antibiotics for them to become nearly free of intestinal microbes, Compared to untreated mice, the mice who lost their healthy gut bacteria performed worse in memory tests and showed a loss of neurogenesis (new brain cells) in a section of their  hippocampus that typically produces new brain cells throughout an individual's lifetime. At the same time that the mice experienced memory and neurogenesis loss, the research team detected a lower level of white blood cells (specifically monocytes), marked with Ly6Chi in the brain, blood and bone marrow. So researchers tested whether it was indeed the Ly6Chi monocytes behind the changes in neurogenesis and memory. 

In another experiment, the team compared untreated mice to mice that had healthy gut bacteria levels but low levels of Ly6Chi either due to genetics or due to treatment with antibodies that target Ly6Chi cells. In both cases, mice with low Ly6Chi levels in mice treated with antibiotics, then memory and neurogenesis deficits as mice in the other experiment who had lost gut bacteria.Furthermore, if the researchers replaced the Ly6Chi levels in mice treated with antibiotics, them memory and neurogenesis improved.
Luckily, the adverse side effects of the antibiotics could be reversed. Mice who received probiotics or who exercised on a wheel after receiving antibiotics regained memory and neurogenesis.
Luckily, the adverse side effects of the antibiotics could be reversed. Mice who received probiotics or who exercised on a wheel after receiving antibiotics regained memory and neurogenesis.
But one result in the experiment raised more questions about the gut's bacteria and the link between Ly6Chi and the brain. While probiotics helped the mice regain memory, fecal transplants to restore a healthy gut bacteria did not have an effect.
In future, researchers also hope to see more clinical trails investigating whether probiotic treatments will improve symptoms in patients with neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorder.

Ocean on Jupiter's Moon May Harbour Life

The Europa ocean on Jupiter's icy moon may have the Earth-like balance of chemical energy necessary for life even if the moon lacks volcanic hydrothermal activity, a new study says.

Europa is strongly believed to hide a deep ocean of salty liquid water beneath its icy shell. Whether the Jovian moon has the raw materials and chemical energy in the right proportions to support biology is a topic of intense scientific interest.

 

The answer may hinge on whether Europa has environments where chemicals are matched in the right proportions to power biological process. Life on Earth exploits such niches.

In a new study scientists compared Europa's potential for producing hydrogen and oxygen with that of Earth, through processes that do not directly involve volcanism.

The balance of these two elements is a key indicator of the energy available for life. The study found that the amounts would be comparable in scale; on both worlds, oxygen production is about 10 times higher than hydrogen production. 

The work draws attention to the ways that Europa's rocky interior may be much more complex and possibly Earth-like than people typically think, according to Steve Vance, a planetary scientist at JPL and lead author of the study.

"Mars is within Reach" says German Space Command

According to the German astronaut who has been tapped to become his country's first commander of the International Space Station, humans could set foot on Mars within decades if they wanted to.

Alexander Gerst said the space station offers a unique opportunity to test the technology needed to explore other planets, especially if if its lifetime is extended beyond 2020.

"It is very clear to me that those manned missions to the moon and Mars, human missions, will happen", he told the Associated Press in an interview at the European Space Agency's astronaut training center in Cologne, Germany. "But we need the decision as a society. And once we do the we are ready to go, basically"

According to Gerst, just like the movie The Martian, an astronaut fending for himself on the red planet, will be a realistic glimpse of the not too distant future.

"It shows us what we can possibly reach on a few year's time" he said. "I'm actually quite excited by the fact that us humans, we could fly to Mars and maybe you and I will live to see it."

NASA aims to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s. Astronauts have been living continuously aboard the 250 mile high International Space Station  since 2000. This month, the space station hit the milestone of 100,000 orbits around Earth - the equivalent of 10 round trips to Mars or almost one way to Neptune.

The European Space Agency saw its budget increase almost 20 percent this year to 5.25 billion euros and the agency is on course to active Europe's satellite navigation system Galileo_ a rival to the American GPS, Russia's Glonass and China's Beidou systems -this decade.

Earlier this year, ESA chief Jan Woerner suggested established a village on the mo=oon once the International Space Station reaches the end of its lifetime. There are no concrete plans for this yet, though and experts says the space station hasn't outlived  its usefulness_ over 100 experiments are conducted during each mission to the space station.

Extensive Ice Loss from Huge Antarctic Glacier

According to a new study, current rates of climate change could trigger instability in a major Antarctic glacier, ultimately leading to more than 2m of sea-level rise. That will be the same fate for the Totten Glacier, a significant glacier in Antarctica. Totten Glacier drains one of the world's largest areas of ice, on the East Antarctica Ice Sheet.

By studying the history of Totten's advances and retreats, researchers have discovered that if climate change continues unabated, the glacier could cross a critical threshold within the next century, entering an irreversible period of very rapid retreat. This would cause it to withdraw up to 300 km inland in the following centuries and release vase quantities of water, contributing up to 2.9 meters to global sea-level rise.

This is currently thought to be relatively stable in the face of global warming compared with the much smaller ice sheet in West Antarctica, but Totten Glacier is bucking the trend by losing substantial amounts of ice. The new research reveals that Totten Glacier may be even more vulnerable than previously thought.

Bronze Age Burial Found in England

According to a report in Worcester news, archaeologists surveying a future development site in England's West Midlands region were surprised to find a Bronze Age burial. The team was following up on an earlier excavation at the site that revealed ditches thought to date to the Iron Age. In broadening their investigation to include a larger tract of land, the team discovered ditches with artifacts dating back to 1000 years eariler than they expected to the early Bronze Age. The artifacts are being conserved and will eventually go on display at a local museum. 

Ancestral Pueblo Carved Paths Through Lava Fields

Archaeologists have explored an Ancestral Pueblo village in northwest New Mexico that dates to 900 years ago and was built amid lava fields. Surrounding the Village, called Las Ventanas, they  found a detailed array of trails, whose purpose is unclear. The trails totaled 62 miles in all and some had no apparent destination other than the lava itself.  What this means is the trails were built, primarily, as ritual features themselves, to access different points in the lava. Goods including ceramics and stone tools were also found along many of the paths, adding further evidence that they had a ceremonial purpose.The people who lived at Las Ventanas used the local black volcanic rock in their buildings, along with sandstone, which was traditionally used by Pueblo to the the north at Chaco Canyon. The village comprises more than 100 separate sites including a two-stored great house with up to 85 rooms that is estimated to have been built between 1075 to 1125.

Archaeologists Revisit Early Habitation Site in Florida

Evidence suggesting that humans lived in northwestern Florida more than 14,000 years ago has been re-examined by an international team of scientists, who also conducted an additional excavation. In 1983, stone artifacts and butchered mastodon remains were discovered at the Page-Ladson site, which is thought to have been a watering hole that is now located under 13 feet of sediment at the bottom of the Aucilla River. The sediments were dated to 14,400 years ago, but at the time, critics argued that the artifacts could have been carried to the site and deposited in the ancient sediments by river currents. The new excavation returned to the murky waters of the site and recovered more stone tools and the bones of extinct animals. The new information also suggest that humans and mega-fauna coexisted for at least 2,000 years.

Stones may Mark Site of 18th-Century British Fort

According to CBC CANADA reports that researchers from Saint Mary's University uncovered traces of what could be an eighteenth-century British fort at the site of the Lunenburg Academy. The professors and adult student first conducted a geophysical survey of the area where historical records place the fort in 1753. The subsequent excavation uncovered two rows of stone that may have been knocked down after the Seven Years War to make way for residential expansion.

Archaeologists Examine The Curtain Theater in London

According to a report published in the Guardian reports that archaeologists from the Museum of London Archaeology have excavated the well-preserved remains of The Curtain, a sixteenth-century theater where Shakespeare performed as an actor. They found a rectangular building that could have held about 1,000 people and segments of wall standing about five feet tall. Scholars think that Shakespeare may have staged the first performances of Romeo and Juliet and Henry V at the Curtain which was assumed to have a circular shape, since the prologue of Henry V mentions a wooden O. 

Artifacts from the site include a lead token, a broken bone comb, a mental mount for a cloth purse and a piece of green pottery thought to be the base of a bird call, perhaps used for stage effects. Bowsher now thinks that the Henry V prologue mentioning the wooden O may have been added later, when the play was performed at The Globe.

Lead Levels Reveal History of Water System in Naples

An international team from CNRS, the University of Glasgow, the University of Southampton and the University of Naples Federico II, tested core samples from a nearly 20-foot deep deposit of sediments in the ancient port of Naples to study the effect of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79 on the Aqua Augusta aqueduct and water system. According to a report, which accumulated in the harbor after passing through the water circulation system in Naples and neighboring to towns. The geochemical analysis detected two different lead isotopes, one before and one after the eruption of the volcano. The team says this indicates the system was destroyed by the eru[topm and that the Romans replaced it over a period of about 15 years with lead from one or more different mines. The study also suggests that the water system had been expanding until about the beginning of fifth century, when the sediments in the harbor became less contaminated. This shrinking of the water system may have been caused by damage from invasions, new eruptions of Mount Vesuvius or epidemics.

5000 Year Old Kurgan Excavated in Turkey

According to the excavation report from the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, archaeologist have excavated the first and oldest 5000 year old kurgan style tomb that has been discovered and completely unearthed in Turkey. The circular mound sat over an intact burial in the Silivri district of Istanbul. Evidence at the site suggests treasure hunters had attempted to dig it up several times, but had not been able to reach the main burial chamber, where researchers found the remains of a Bronze Age soldier or warrior who had been buried with a spear and two pots.

New Thought on Europe's Ancient Music

The horns played in southern India today are almost identical to those from Iron-Age Europe. A research suggests that the ancient horns were often used as rhythm instruments, not for melody or harmony as modern Westerns might expect. Almost identical instruments that have been unearthed together may be out of tune with each other, but the dissonance may have been intentional.

Why Earth's Atmosphere Became Oxygenated

Earth scientists are offering a new answer to the long-standing question of how our planet acquired its oxygenated atmosphere. Based on a new model that draws from research in diverse fields including petrology, geodynamics, vocanology and geochemistry, suggest that the rise of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere was an inevitable consequence of the formation of continents in the presence of life and plate tectonics.

The new model suggests how atmospheric oxygen was added to Earth's atmosphere at two key times: one about 2 billion years ago and another about 600 million years ago. 

 

Today, some 20 percent of Earth's atmosphere is free molecular oxygen. Free oxygen is not bound to another element, as are the oxygen atoms in other atmospheric gases like carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide. For much of Earth's 4.5 billion-year history, free oxygen was all but nonexistent in the atmosphere. 

Researchers showed that around 2.5 billion years ago, the composition of Earth's continental crust changed fundamentally. Lee said the period, which coincided with the first rise in atmospheric oxygen, was also marked by the appearance of abundant mineral grains known as zircons.

The second rise in atmospheric oxygen was related to a change in production - analogous to turning up the flow from the faucet. The model of the research showed that Earth's carbon cycle has never been at a steady state because carbon slowly leaks out as carbon dioxide from Earth's deep interior to the surface through volcanic activity. Carbon dioxide is one of the key ingredients for photosynthesis.  The model also suggests that volcanic activity and other geologic inputs of carbon into the atmosphere may have increased with time and because oxygen production is tied to carbon production, oxygen production also must increase. The model showed that the second rise in atmospheric oxygen had to occur late in Earth's history.

Exactly what caused the composition of the crust to change during the first oxygenation event remains a mystery, the team believes it may have been related to the onset of plate tectonics where Earth's surface for the first time became mobile enough to sink back down into Earth's deep interior.

Though the new model is not without controversy. For example, the model predicts that production of carbon dioxide must increase with time, a finding that goes against the conventional wisdom that carbon fluxes and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have steadily decreased over the last 4 billion years.

Roman Shipwreck Discovered in Caesarea Harbor

The Israel Antiquities Authority has announced the discovery of Late Roman period shipwreck in the ancient harbor of Caesarea by recreational divers. The ship had been carrying bronze statues, coins, and iron anchors, all thought to have been slated for recycling. 

The ship may be sank during a storm that buried the objects including a bronze lamp depicting the Roman Sun god Sol, a sculpture of the moon goddess Luna, and fragments of three life-size bronze statues. The archaeologists explained that metal statues are rare finds because they were usually melted down because the statues were were wrecked together with the ship, they sank in the water and thus were saved from the recycling process.

Second Century Millitary Barracks Found in Rome

A subway construction line through the center of Rome has uncovered barracks for the Praetorian guards dating to the reign of Emperor Hadrian in the second century A.D., according to an announcement made by Italy's Culture Ministry. Archaeologists have reportedly found a long hallway and 39 rooms decorated with mosaic floors and frescoed walls. The site also yielded 13 skeletons in a collective grave, a bronze coin and a bronze bracelet. 

Interaction between Magnetic fields of Earth and Sun

Physicist have now provided the first major results of NASA's Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, including an unprecedented look at the interaction between the magnetic fields of Earth and the Sun, The magnetic fields of Earth and the sun. The article describes the first direct and detailed observation of a phenomenon known as magnetic re-connection which occurs when two opposite magnetic field lines break and reconnect with each other and release massive amount of energy.

Mysterious Dwarf Planet Snow White Much Bigger than Previously Thought

A faraway object nick named snow white is considerably larger than scientists had thought and is in fact the third-largest dwarf planet in fact the third-largest dwarf planet in the solar system.

According to the report Snow White is about 955 miles in Diameter rather than 795 miles wide as previously believed. This makes it the largest still-unnamed object in our solar system. If this new measurment is accurate, the only known dwarf planets bigger than Snow White are Pluto and Eris, Which are 1,475 miles and 1,445 miles across respectively;

Fourth place belongs to Haumea which is 1195 miles across in the longest direction but has an oblong shape and is therefore less voluminous than Snow White; The 890 mile wide make-make comes in fifth.

However there is some uncertainty surrounding Snow White's newly determined size, the object's diameter may actually be as large as 1000 miles or as small as 814 miles according to the new study published in Astronomical Journal.

Einstein's Relativity Theory Still Valid

After analyzing a 3D map of 3,000 galaxies that are 13 billion light years from Earth, an international team led by Japanese researchers has found that theoretical physicists physicist Albert Einstien's general theory of relativity is still valid. 

 

Since it was discovered in the late 1990s that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate, scientists have been trying to explain why.

The mysterious dark energy could be driving acceleration or Einsteins theory of gemeral relativity, which says gravity wraps space and time could be breaking down.

Intese Wind Found in the Neighbourhood of a Black Hole

An international team of astrophysicists have detected an intesne wind from one of the closest known black hole.

During observations of V404 Cygni, which went into a bright and violent out burst in June 2015 after more than 25 years of quiescence, the team began taking optical measurements of black hole's accretion disc using the 10.4 m Gran Telescopio CANARIAS - the biggest optical - infrared telescope in the world, situated at the Roque deloos Muchachos observatory in the Canary Island.

The results published in Nature, it shows the presence of a wind of natural materials i.e. unionized hydrogen and helium which is formed in the outer layers of the accretion disc, regulation the accretion of material by the black hole. This wind detected for the first time in a system of this type has a very high velocity  which is about 3000 km per second. so that it can escape from the gravitational field around the black hole.

Professor Charles from University of Southampton said, "Its presence allow us to explain why the outburst, in spite of being bright and very violent, with continuous changes in luminosity and ejections of mass in the form of jets, was also very brief, lasting only weeks."

At the end of this outburst the GTC observations revealed the presence of a nebula formed from material expelled by the wind. This phenomenon which has been observed for the first time in a black hole, also allows scientists to estimate the quantity of mass ejected into the interstellar medum;

It is a black hole within a binary system located in the constellation of Cygnus. In such systems, of which less than 50 are known; a black hole of around 10 times the mass of the sun is swallowing material from a very near by star, its companion star. During this process material falls onto the black hole and forms an accretion disc whose hotter inhermost zones emit in X-rays. In the outer regions, however we can study the disc in visible light which is the part of the spectrum observable with the GTC.

This is one of the closest known black hole to the earth, whose distance is only 8,000 light years away from earth; it has a large accretion disc with a radius  pf about 10 million km making its outbursts especially bright at all wavelengths.

Cosmic Dust rereveals Earth's Ancient Atmosphere

Using the oldest fossil micrometeorites - space dust - ever found, new research has made a surprising discovery about the chemistry of Earth's atmosphere 2.7 billion years ago.

The findings of new a new study published in the journal Nature - led by dr. Andrew Tomkins and a team from the school of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash, along with scientists from the Australian Synchrotron and Imperial College London

According to the new researcher Earth's upper atmosphere contained about the same amount of oxygen as today and that a methane haze layer separated this oxygen rich upper layer from the oxygen-starved lower atmosphere.

Dr Tompkins said, "This was an existing result because it is the first time, anyone has found a way to sample the chemistry of the ancient Earth's upper atmosphere."

The next step of this research will be to extract micrometeorites from a series of rocks, covering over a billion years of earth's history, in order to learn more about changes in atmosphere chemistry and structure across geological time. This research will be focusing particularly on the great oxidation event, which happened 24 billion years ago. When there was a sudden jump in oxygen concentration in the lower atmosphere.

Chubutherium

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Xenarthra
Family: Mylodontidae
Genus: Chubutherium
Species: S. leptocephalum
               S. parodii
Conservation Status: Extinct
Temporal Range: Oligocene - Mid Miocene

Chubutherium ferelloii is an extinct species of ground sloth. They first appeared in the Oligocene and died out during the Middle Miocene. It is related to the Pleistocene genus, Scelidotherium. Only a few specimens have been found in Patagonia.

Scelidotherium

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Xenarthra

Family: Mylodontidae

Genus: Scelidotherium

Species: S. leptocephalum

               S. parodii 

Scelidotherium is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Mylodontidae, endemic to South America during the middle Pleistocene epoch. It lived from 780,000 - 11,000 years ago. They existed for approximately 0.67 million years.

It is characterized by an elongated, superficially anteater-like head. It is known almost exclusively from Argentina, but its distribution may have extended into Paraguay and Uruguay.

The meaning of their name is femur Beast.

They were 3.6 ft tall and about 3000 kgs.

Paramylodon

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Pilosa

Family: Mylodontidae

Genus: Paramylodon

Species: P. harlani

Temporal Range: Late Pliocene to Pleistocene (4.9 ma - 11,000 years ago)

It is an extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Mylodontidae endemic to North America during the Pliocene through Pleistocene epochs.

Paramylodon was about 9.8 ft in height and weighted as much as 1000 kg. It is known from North America deposits, including in Mexico and the United States and as far south as Guatemala. Currently there is just one recognized species, P. harlani. 

Recently a Paramylodon specimen was identified from the Tarkio Vallet site in Lowa association with Megalonyx. This is probably the first time these species have been found in close association. These two species have since been uncovered at  the Fairmead Landfill Site and Irvington Site in California.

Mylodon

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Pilosa

Family: Mylodontidae

Genus: Mylodon

Species: M. darwini

Temporal Range: Pleistocene to Holocene

It is a extinct genus of ground sloth that lived in the region South America until roughly 10,000 years ago. Exactly the fossil remains found in Argentina and Chile.

Mylodon's close relatives include the ground sloths of the genera has often been confused with Glossotherium and Paramylodon. Scientists often confused Mylodon with Glossotherium. 

Mylodon weighed about 2,500 kg and stood up to 10 ft when raised up on its hind legs. It had very thick hide and had osteoderms within its skin for added armor. Because of this armor and its long and sharp claws, it is unlikely that the Mylodon had any natural enemies other than humans, who would have still difficult to pierce with stone projectile points.

Mylodon has been traditionally considered a grazer in open areas, which is theorized based on its paleoenvironment as well as from the vegetation found in fossilized dung. However new study suggests that they  had been a mixed or selective-feeder instead and the paleoenvironment of the formation where the animal was found indicates a wide variety of vegetation to be selected from. 

The Mylodon had a wide range of climate and environment tolerance. It was probably capable of inhabiting arid to semiarid and cold climates, humid and warm climates and cooler and montane climates.

Lestodon

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Pilosa

Family: Mylodontidae

Genus: Lestodon

Species: L. armatus

Temporal Range: Pleistocene

It is an extinct genus of megafaunal ground sloth from South America during the Pleistocene period. Its fossil

remains have been found in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia. 4.6 (15ft) from snout to tail tip, it is estimated to have weighted about 4 tons. It was a herbivore and primarily fed on the grasses on the South American Plains and is thought to perhaps have used its semi-bipedal stance to obtain foliage from trees. The genus name Lestodon derives from the Greek for robber tooth.
Lestodon had a large, blunt and square mandible well adapted for foliage consumption. Its muzzle and dentition show significant adaption to this diet. The shape of the muzzle aided the ground sloth in the grazing necessary to sustain the metabolic activity of its large body, square,flat muzzles are associated with bulk feeders while pointed snouts are adaptive features of precision eaters. To sustain its coloric needs with plant matter, the sloth would have needed to be able to consume a high quantity of food with little precision. The species would dig its food, and would have accidentally ingested a large amount of grinity dirt and soil particulate. This gives them a large crown height, called hypsodonty that is unsuitable for strong bite forces. While the mandibular muscles would have been well developed to support the allometrically positive jaw of Lestodon, they would have also been extremely weak.
Researchers working at the Arroyo del Vizcaino site near Sauce, Uruguay, found evidence suggesting that Lestodon was hunted by humans about 30,000 years ago. This was discovered through the analysis of Lestodon bones. Deep slash markings on some of them were discovered the use of human stone tools.

Glossotherium

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Xenarthra

Family: Mylodontidae

Genus: Glossotherium

Species: G. robustum

               G. chapadmalense

Temporal Range: Late Pliocene to Early Holocene (2.5 - 0.010 ma)

Its literal meaning is the Tongue Beast. It was a genus of ground sloth which was heavily built animal with a length of about 13 ft snout to tail-tip and a weight estimated at 1000 kg. They could potentially assume a slight bipedal stance.

They are generally wider and more robust with a dignostic increased amount of lateral flare at the predental spout. 

G. robustum was endemic to South America and weighted about 1500 kg. Pleistocene records indicate that it was widely distributed between 20 degree south to 40 degree south with a range spanning across Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

Sloths have ever-growing adult dentition. They lack deciduous dentition and have a reduction in tooth number. Sloth teeth also lack the enamel and cuspation pattern generally present in other mammals. Their tooth forms are oval, sub-rectangular or elongate irregular ovoid. cheek teeth in Glossotherium are larger, have more complex shapes and retain more of the cementum layer around all sides of each tooth than the shasta ground sloth and tree sloths.

Their diet is still unclear. However based on the dental evidence, it was likely more suited to grazing, though it was also probably less efficient at ingesting grasses since its dental apparatus was more suited to shearing which would have been too ineffective at processing plant materials down to an ingestible size to obtain adequate nutritive value. They have a very slow rate of passage of food through the gut. They could probably survive better on foods of lower nutritional value than other sloths could. They likely ate grasses, but also probably they ate a variety of foliage as well and would be better considered a browser-grazer than simple grazer.

They use the same way what the elephants do to communicate. sloths may have used low frequency sounds in melting calls or other social interactions of for long-range sound sensing as in predator-prey interactions or weather forecasting. Another possible explanation for hearing in low frequencies may be due to forssorial habits: low hearing frequencies coupled with a short interaural distance suggest that Glossotherium probably had very poor sound localization.This indicates evidence of an underground lifestyle since loss of high frequency hearing is common to fossorial mammals. Their huge nostrils were likely effective for sound emission with expanded nares possibly related to emission of low frequency sounds up to 600 Hz.

Due to its size and strength, Glossotherium would have had few natural enimies apart from Smilodon. It is believed to have died out in the Pleistocene (1.8 - 12,000 years ago). The most recent reported date is about 8700 years ago.

They have been found in South America and Mexico. It is closely related to Paramylodon of North America.Earliest Glossotherium specimens are known from the Pliocene of South America and are represented by the species, G. chapadmalense. All speciemens of Pleistocene age are typically lumped into G. robustum and a few other quentionalbe species. Further research is needed at the species level.

Mylodontidae

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia

Order: Pilosa
Family:  Mylodontidae
Mylodontidae is a family of extinct ground sloths which  lived about 22.89 million years from 23 million years ago to 11,000 million years ago.

Genus

• Glossotherium
• Lestodon
• Mylodon
• Paramylodon
• Scelidotherium
• Chubutherium

The Genetic History of Ice Age Europe

Analyses of ancient DNA from prehistoric humans paint a picture of dramatic population change in Europe from 45,000 to 7,000 years ago, according to a new study. The new genetic data reveal two big changes in prehistoric human populations that are closely linked to the end of the last Ice Age around 19,000 years ago.

Archeological studies have shown that modern humans swept into Europe about 45,000 years ago and caused the demise of the Neanderthals, indicated by the disappearance of Neanderthal tools in the archaeological record. The researchers also knew that during the Ice age - a long period of time that ended about 12,000 years ago, with its peak intensity between 25,000 and 19,000 years ago - glaciers covered Scandinavia and northern Europe all the way to northern France. As the ice sheets retreated beginning 19,000 years ago, prehistoric spread back into northern Europe.

But prior to this study, there were only four samples of prehistoric European modern humans 45,000 to 7000 years old for which genomic data were available, which made it all but impossible to understand how human populations migrated or evolved during this period. 

The genetic data show that, beginning 37,000 years ago, all Europeans come from a single founding population has some deep branches in different parts of Europe, one of which is represented by a specimen from Belgium. This branch seems to have been displaced in most parts of Europe 33,000 years ago, but around 19,000 years ago a population related to it re-expanded across Europe. Based on the earliest sample in which this ancestry is observed, it is plausible that this population expanded from the southwest, present-day Spain, after the Ice Age peaked.

The Study was an equal collaboration of David Reich's laboratory with the laboratories of Savante Paabo and Johannes Krause, which worked together to extract and analyze the DNA from these ancient bones. Ancient specimens are frequently contaminated with m-DNA, as well DNA from archaelogists or lab technicians who have have handled the specimens.

Pronothrotherium

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Xenarthra
Family: Nothrotheriidae
Genus: Pronothrotherium
Species: P. typicum
Temporal Range: Miocene

It is an extinct genus of ground sloth of South America. They were from the Miocene Epoch. They may be familiar with the Marine life.

Nothrotherium

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Xenarthra

Family: Nothrotheriidae

Genus: Nothrotherium

Species: N. maquinense Lund

               N. escrivanense

 It is an extinct genus of medium-sized ground sloth from South America and Mexico. It differs from Nothrotheriops in smaller size and differences in skull and hind leg bones, but genera can be traced back to Hapolops, the genus which both evolved from in different ecoloogical conditions. These browsing ground sloths consumed roots, stems, seeds and leaves of various desert plants, such as the yucca and agave.

Nothrotheriops

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Xenarthra

Family: Nothrotheriidae

Genus: Nothrotheriops

Species: N. shastensis

               N. texanus

Temporal Range: 2.6 - 0.011 ma

It is a genus of Pleistocene ground sloth found in North America, from what is now central Mexico to the southern United states. This genus of bear-sized xenarthran was related ti the much larger and far more famous Megatherium which was from the family Megatheriidae 

It was one of the smallest ground sloth species, it reached 9 ft from head to tail and weighted 550 lb which is much smaller than some of its contemporary species such as the Eremotherium, which could easily weigh over two tons and be 20 ft long. It had large, stout hind legs and a powerful, muscular tail that it used to forn a supporting tripod whenever it shifted from a quadrupedal stance to a bipedal one.

This genus's lineage dates back to the Miocene The ancestors of Nothrotheriops migrated to North America from South America as part of the Great American Interchange about 2.6 million years ago.

The best known historical specimen was found in a lava tube at Aden Crater in New Mexico; It was found with hair and tendon still preserved. Rampart Cave, in the Grand Canyon, Arizona has a plentiful amount of the sloth's hair and dung which allowed the scientists both to use radiocarbon dating techniques to establish when it lived. The most recent credible dates from this and each of about half a dozen other southwestern caves are about 11,000 BP.

It behaved like all typical ground sloths of North and South America, feeding on various plants like the desert globemallow, cacti and yucca. It was hunted by various local predators. Like Smilodon, from which the sloths may have defended themselves by standing upright on hindlegs and tail and swiping with their long foreclaws, like its distant relative Megatherium. The same claws could also been used as tools to reach past the plant spines and grab softer flowers and fruits. Also the have had a prehensile tongue like a giraffe to strip leaves off branches.

This sloth is believed to have played an important role in the dispersal of Joshua tree,seeds. Preserved dung belonging to the sloth has been found to contain Joshua tree leaves and seeds, confirming that they fed on the trees. It has been suggested that the lack of this ground sloths helping to disperse the seeds to more favourable climates is causing the trees to suffer.

Nothropus

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Pilosa
Family: Northorotheriidae
Genus: Nothoropus
Temporal Range: Early Pleistocene - Early Holocene

Nothropus is extinct genus of ground sloth of the family Nothrotheriidae, endemic to South America during the Pleistocene epoch. It lived from 0.781 mya - 12,000 years ago existing for approximately 0.769 million years.

Fossils have been uncovered from Tarija, Bolivia, east side of the Andes Mountains.

Thalassocnus

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum:  Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Pilosa

Family: Nothrotheriidae

Genus: Thalassocnus

Species: T. antiquus

               T. natans

               T. littoralis

               T. carolomartini

               T. Yaucensis

Temporal Range: Late Miocene to Late Pliocene

It is an extinct genus of semi-aquatic or fully aquatic marine sloth from the Miocene and Pliocene of South America. Fossils found to date have been from the coast of Peru and Chile. They were apparently grazers of sea grass and seaweed. The various species of this genus provides the best-documented case of gradual adaptation ti a secondary aquatic lifestyle. This is documented both at the morphological level, such as a progressive flattening of the radius.and at the micro anatomical level, which shows a progressive increase in thickness and compactness of the long limb bones and ribs, providing ballast. They may have used their powerful claws to anchor themselves to the sea floor to facilitate feeding, simmilar to the behavior of the marine iguana.

The oldest species, T. antiquus, T. natans and T. littoralis show indications of partial adaptation to grazing with little evidence of transverse mandibular movement while eating, and abundant dental striae indicating ingestion of sand from feeding on vegetation stranded on beaches or or in shallow water. The later species T. carolomartini and T. yaucensis were apparently specialized grazers that fed in deeper water, they display distinct evidence of transverse mandibular movement and lack dental striae.

Mionothropus

Kingdom:  Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Xenarthra
Family: Nothrotheriidae
Genus: Mionothropus
Species: M. cartellei
Temporal Range: 7.9 Ma

It is an extinct genus of the sloth family Nothrotheriinae which existed in Peru in western Amazonia, during the late Miocene. 

Nothrotheriidae

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata

Class: Mammalia

Order: Pilosa

Family: Nothrotheriidae

Temporal Range: 11.6 - 0.011 Ma

It is a family of extinct ground sloths that lived from approximately 11.6 mya - 11,000 years ago. During the late Miocene and Pliocene, the nothrotheriid Thalassocnus of the west coast of South America became adapted to a shallow water marine lifestyle.

The earliest nothrotheriid in North America was Nothrotheriops, which appeared at the beginning of the Pleistocene, about 2.6 Ma ago. Nothrotherium reached Mexico by the late Pleistocene.

The last ground sloths in North America belonging to Nothrotheriops died so recently that their dried subfossil dung has remained undisturbed in some caves, as if it were just recently deposited. 

The largest samples of Nothrotheriops dung can be found in the collections of Smithsonian Museum.

Genus:

• Mionothropus
• Nothropus
• Nothrotheriops
• Nothrotherium
• Pronothrotherium
• Thalassocnus

Obama Signs into Law New Restrictions on Syrian Antiquities

The united states on Monday stepped up efforts to stop the Islamic State's trade in looted antiquities as President Barrack Obama signed into law new import restrictions on Syrian cultural artifacts. The bill passed the House and Senate last month. Its proponents argue that Islamic State and other militants have made millions of dollars selling irreplaceable artifacts on the black market, with buyers in America part of the market for the stolen goods. The profits have helped fund violence.

The new law prevents archaeological or ethnological material removed from Syria from being imported into the United States or sold in the country. Possible exceptions apply, such as when rightful owners want to temporarily relocate cultural property to the U.S. for protection.

Picture Tattoos Spotted on Egyptian Mummy

Most tattoos found on Egyptian mummies are patterns of dots or dashes but according to a report that published in Nature, tattoos representing actual objects on a 3000 year old mummified woman from Deir el Medina, the village where the artisans who worked on tombs in the Valley of Kings are thought to have lived. Using infrared lighting and an infrared sensor.

Newly reported tattoos are the first on a mummy from dynastic Egypt to show actual objects, among them lotus blossoms on the mummy's hips. cows on her arm and baboons on her neck. Just a few other ancient Egyptian mummies sport tattoos, and those are merely patterns of dots or dashes.

Especially prominent among the new tattoos are so-called wadjet eyes: possible symbols of protection against evil that adorn the mummy's neck. Shoulders and back.