Monday, 10 December 2018
Thursday, 6 December 2018
Fossil preserves 'sea monster' blubber and skin
JOHAN LINDGREN
Scientists have identified fossilised blubber from an ancient marine reptile that lived 180 million years ago.
Blubber is a thick layer of fat found under the skin of modern marine mammals such as whales.
Its discovery in this ancient "sea monster" - an ichthyosaur - appears to confirm the animal was warm-blooded, a rarity in reptiles.
The preserved skin is smooth, like that of whales or dolphins. It had lost the scales characteristic of its ancestors.
The ichthyosaur's outer layer is still somewhat flexible and retains evidence of the animal's camouflage pattern.
The reptile was counter-shaded - darker on the upper side and light on the underside. This counter-balances the shading effects of natural light, making the animal more difficult to see.
"Ichthyosaurs are interesting because they have many traits in common with dolphins, but are not at all closely related to those sea-dwelling mammals," said co-author Mary Schweitzer, professor of biological sciences at North Carolina State University (NCSU).
Their similar appearance suggests that ichthyosaurs and whales evolved similar strategies to adapt to marine life - an example of convergent evolution.
Prof Schweitzer said: "They have many features in common with living marine reptiles like sea turtles, but we know from the fossil record that they gave live birth, which is associated with warm-bloodedness."
Most reptiles today are cold-blooded, meaning their body temperature is determined by the warmth of their surroundings. Blubber helps some marine animals maintain a high body temperature regardless of the ocean water temperature.
Co-author Johan Lindgren, from Lund University in Sweden, told BBC News: "Blubber is found in living marine mammals but notably also adult individuals of the leatherback sea turtle. Its primary role in all of these animals seems to be insulation, and the leatherback is unique in many aspects.
JOHAN LINDGREN / MARTIN JARENMARK
"It has metabolic rates that are higher than are those of typical reptiles, and a suite of measures for heat retention and control, and collectively these enable adult leatherbacks to venture into cold water environments.
"So, ichthyosaurs were able to control their body temperature at least as well as leatherbacks, but then it is hard to say if they were fully endothermic (warm-blooded) or not."
The researchers identified the blubber and skin remains on a well-preserved ichthyosaur specimen held by the Urweltmuseum Hauff in Germany. It was discovered in Holzmaden quarry, in the country's south-west, which has produced many other well-preserved fossils from the Jurassic Period.
The fossil was subjected to an exhaustive analysis of its microscopic structure and molecular composition.
"Both the body outline and remnants of internal organs are clearly visible," said co-author Johan Lindgren, from Lund University in Sweden.
"Remarkably, the fossil is so well-preserved that it is possible to observe individual cellular layers within its skin."
The researchers identified cell-like microstructures which probably held pigment, and an internal organ thought to be the animal's liver.
The blubber-like material contained fragments of fatty acid molecules.
"This is the first direct, chemical evidence for warm-bloodedness in an ichthyosaur, because blubber is a feature of warm-blooded animals," said Prof Schweitzer.
To provide additional support for this idea, the researchers artificially matured the blubber of a modern porpoise, exposing it to high temperatures and pressures - as it would be during the process of fossilisation.
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY
The resulting "matured" porpoise blubber shared many features with the fossilised version.
As for the ichthyosaur's skin, the camouflage pattern would have provided protection from Jurassic predators such as flying pterosaurs, attacking from above, and pliosaurs (even bigger marine reptiles), which would have attacked from below.
Dr Lindgren said: "Given the density of pigment cells, and the fact that they occur in both the epidermis and dermis, we hypothesise that ichthyosaurs had a really dark dorsal (upper) skin, which is also what you see in many extant whales that are deep divers (as ichthyosaurs) and venture into cold, arctic regions (as did ichthyosaurs).
"A melanic (dark) colouration would benefit ichthyosaurs as a UV protection while at the sea surface, but could perhaps also help ichthyosaurs thermoregulate as is the case in the leatherback sea turtle."
Losing the scales and evolving smooth skin would also have helped ichthyosaurs manoeuvre more easily underwater.
Johan Lindgren said the still-flexible skin meant the specimen must have been fossilised so fast that organic molecules were trapped inside the mineral component of the fossil.
"Soft tissues, such as skin, have hitherto been considered to be so labile (easily broken down) that the only way they can survive is via full replacement by minerals. However, as it turns out, when these minerals are removed, some of the original organics remain," Dr Lindgren explained.
The results are published in the journal Nature.
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Wednesday, 5 December 2018
Tuesday, 4 December 2018
Skinwalker Ranch and Marley Woods: Are We Being Conned or Have Researchers Lost The Plot?
I should point out that I am not referring to Marley Woods near Chichester, UK! That is the 'joke' out of the way.
I have already written about how a very secretive community asked Ted Philips to investigate the "unusual phenomena" occurring in their small community but they did not want crackpots running around and reporters everywhere. Philips took the crack Center for Trace Evidence "SIU" Team, [Special Investigations Unit] and the investigation began.
Well, we assume it did because for all we know they could just be sat around eating doughnuts and drinking coffee all day. In well over a decade, Philips has spoken on podcasts, given talks to MUFON and others about the utter strangeness that baffles the mind. We have seen a rather unimpressive, low quality video clip of a light with a lot of excited shouting and equally noisy peacocks. We are told that This happened and then That to which you can add all that Other Stuff.
Philips claims that at one point Robert Bigelow offered to pay for the investigation, as at Skinwalker Ranch, but he refused because "Its important to get the facts and truth to you people out there".
A odd light, stories of (I shook my head that Philips was trying to sell the whole Marley Woods deal with this) unidentified giant dogs that may have been seen standing bipedally and smoking cigarettes. Oh...and "portals" -there have to be portals, right? In more than a decade we have heard all of this plus Philips recounting what appears to be a direct from Skinwalker ranch story of three dogs chasing an orb and being turned to goo. No evidence or photographs just the usual bunkum.
But Philips has even fallen into the "I haven't really done much research on this but I cannot explain UFOs so they are from a parallel dimension" trap. For goodness sake he has been at this for a few decades but has not realised that two totally separate phenomena are involved and he is mixing them together -oh, and ain't that Jacques (I produce the best inaccurate data for decades) Vallee a great guy?
The clothing of "the little guys" (jeez that is so scientific) -yes, he insists on calling entities by that term- never changes which means...they travel in time!
Oh, and Philips is very interested in discovering what might be a giant alien craft lodged inside a Czech mountain.
For over a year I have sent emails and letters to any place connected with Philips but no responses and even he physical trace web site is so out of date it has cobwebs over it.
Now, please, if I have missed information or a site then let me know but for someone who professes to wanting to get the info to us he has done sweet "FA" for well over a decade.
If you put yourself up as a researcher then you need to abide by the rules of science that Ufologists keep laying claim to (however falsely) as well as the debunkers. I publish my results in my books that are fully referenced and so that anyone can check and see if I went wrong somewhere -that is research.
Either Philips needs to release a report or Ufologists need to find out where 'Marley Woods' is and double investigate but so far it all appears to be a huge flim-flam job.
George Knapp also seems to be doing well on repeating the same stories over and over -with the odd change in account every so often.
With Skinwalker Ranch we know that Bigelow is basically interested for less than altruistic reasons. If there is some way of gathering data from what is going on there that can be developed and used for financial gain then that is a "win" situation.
The US Defence Department was involved at one point? There is still name-calling over that and claim and counter claim. I think the whole affair is more flim-flam.
Why is Bigelow not moving in on Hessdalen or other UNP (Unidentified Natural Phenomena) sites around the world? Well, he is a US citizen with money and US laws to back him up. The whole game changes when you leave the US -gagging orders are slightly frowned on and European scientists would not just sit back and let these claims go uninvestigated.
It would be interesting to hear from people in the UK or Europe who have areas of continuous UFO activity and are keeping an eye on things -confidentially if necessary. But this constant secrecy is NOT helping anyone and I call out anything I think involved a degree of bunkum. More than a decade and nothing out of the 'investigation' than a movie, You Tube podcasts and talking says a lot.
It says "Fake"
And when you find websites declaring light phenomena as "entities" you know that it has all gone wrong. "I do not understand how this phenomenon operates" turns to "It has an intelligence behind it -sometimes malignant".
Skinwalker has turned into a money-maker like Roswell and Aurora and Flatwoods.
Sunday, 2 December 2018
Haunted Skies Update
John Hanson has completed work on The Halt Perspective (book 2) and yesterday shared news about Volume 4 (new and revised) of Haunted Skies the UFO history encyclopedia.
I cannot recommend these books enough. I've been at this UFO game since 1974 and there are cases here totally new to me -because people have only reported them to John. Also there is a lot more updated info on old cases and fully illustrated!
https://www.facebook.com/john.hanson.357/videos/10216987789157242/
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