Mosasaur fossil - Picture: Dinosaur Institute, NHM

One of the most intriguing and hardiest of marine predators, the marine mosasaur PlatecarpusPlatecarpus, thrived in the Cretaceous Period, which is somewhere in the vicinity of 85 million years ago, and it is believed to have gotten around much like an eel does.

This theory has been proven wrong however, and was thoroughly rebuked in a new paper published today in the journal PloS ONE. A crack team of scientists and researchers from all over the world have taken another look at the animal’s “body plan”, based on a well preserved specimen which is housed at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles County.

This particular specimen of the Mosasaur was found in Kansas back in 1969, and it made its way to the Natural History Museum in short time. It is made up of four different slabs, which make the specimen virtually 100% complete, and is 20 feet long. Dr. Chiappe was the one who got the team together for the preparation of the specimen, and with their help wrote the research paper. “It is one of several exceptional fossils that will be featured in Dinosaur Mysteries,” explained the curator of the 15,000-square foot landmark exhibition that opens at the museum in 2011, also Chiappe.

Before the Big Day, the fossil will be on display in the museum’s Dino Lab temporarily. This Dino Lab is situated on the second floor of the museum, where researchers prepare fossils in plain view of the curious public.

This Mosasaur fossil is “the finest preserved mosasaur in existence” comments Dr. Johan Lindgren, the lead author of this new research report. This specimen still has a partial outline of the body, skin color markings, external scales, a tail, bronchial tubes, and even stomach contents.

Champagne

“For this wine, time has stood still,” commented chief cellarman of Veuve-Clicquot, after swirling the two hundred year old wine around in his mouth. This spectacular find was found off of Sweden.

A bottle of champagne which is purportedly two hundred some odd years old was found in a shipwreck at the bottom of the Baltic, it tastes exceptional, however, it is not found the house of Veuve-Clicquot as was previously assumed.

Last month, Swedish divers making their rounds off of Finland, came across 30 bottles of perfectly preserved champagne at a depth of 180 feet. These bottles of champagne may just have been part of a consignment sent by King Louis XVI (of France) to the Russian Imperial Court.

Due to the fact that the corks still had a hint of an anchor logo, experts originally thought that the champagne might have come from the historic Veuve-Clicquot estate, which till this day, is still one of the best brands in terms of champagne.

However, after being put to the test, the firm has said that while it is perfectly preserved, the brew came from the now non-existent Juglar house.

“For this wine, time has stood still,” commented chief cellarman, Dominique Demarville, of Veuve-Clicquot, one of a small number of people who has had the privilege to sample a few millimeters of the discovery.
“It seems to me that it must taste the same as it did when it was made.”

The Lynx Nudibranch, known in scientific circles as Phidiana lynceus, is a rather interesting marine animal. It can be amazingly efficient at getting rid of hydroid pests, but it must have access to a continuous source of food. After this amazing sea creature digests the stinging hydroids, the Lynx Nudibranch is actually able to incorporate the eaten (and thus digested) hydroid nematocysts into its own set of spiked cerata, which it then turns around and uses it for its own protection.

It’s almost as if you were to eat a king cobra, and then somehow survived the ordeal, and then became deadly like the king cobra… Well, sort of but not really.. If you would like more information on the matter, there are many marine biologists who can explain the process to you.

Anyway the Lynx Nudibranch in question was recently captured on high definition video by Coral Morphologic. The video, placed on Vimeo’s HD Channel, shows the lynch nudibranch chowing down on hydroids on top of an oyster, known as Spondylus americanus.

The clip which was recently put up there by the crew over at Morphologic was so stunning it was given the honor of being among the best, and who can argue with that? Congratulations are in order all around.

Bottlenose Dolphin

Rocko, Nando, Kite and Palwas.. Those are the names of four very distinct bottlenose dolphins who are currently turning tricks at the dolphinarium in Germany. The dolphinarium was constructed in 1974 as a part of the local zoo, and is one of the last three of its kind in Germany. There were originally nine such facilities in Germany, however, only Nurnberg, Duisber, and Munster are still fighting concerns of the various animal welfare groups, conservationists and even politicians.

Christine Bindal, and Arne Feurhahn, who are both co-founders of The Black Fish, a new ocean activist group, have recently made their way to Munster to see with their own eyes, exactly what is going on in Westphalian city. “Our aim is to shut this facility down as quickly as possible. Public education and constant pressure are our main strategies to get our four aquatic friends out of the miserable and unworthy conditions they live in”.

This motion all began about seven days ago, when the award winning documentary “The Cove” finally made its way to the silver screen. This documentary completely unveils the brutal yearly slaughter of dolphins in a secluded cave in Taji, Japan. Many of the dolphins which are reeled in in Taji end up in dolphinariums around the globe.

One can only hope that “The Black Fish” can raise awareness for the mistreatment of dolphins around the world, and finally something can be done about this horrible situation. Dolphins are intelligent creatures and really do deserve more respect that what we give them.

Illustration of how sonar works

The skeletons of these wrecks, which date back from the first century BC up until the fifth to seventh century AD, are at a depth of approximately 165 meters beneath the waves, which saved them from being disturbed by fishermen for centuries.
“The deeper you go, the more likely you are to find complete wrecks,” an official from the archaeological services section of the Italian culture ministry, Annalisa Zaratinni said.

The wooden hulks have all but disappeared, as tiny marine organisms used it as food. However the skeletons as well as the cargoes are still in the same positions as the ay they sank.

“The ships sank, they came to rest at the bottom of the sea, the wood disappeared and you find the whole ship, with the entire cargo. Nothing has been taken away,” Annalisa Zaratini explained.

These ancient wrecks were discovered by the the Aurora Trust, a US foundation which promotes the exploration of the Mediterranean seabed, and Italian authorities.

The wrecks, which were about 18 meters in length, had been carrying large jars of wine from Italy, and other cargo which included olive oil, fruit, and even a fish sauce.

Another wreck was discovered, and appears to have been carrying bricks for building. It is not clear as of yet, just what led these ships to their demise, and there have been no human remains found, making these apparent “ghost” ships.

oil spill

It comes as no surprise that the oil spill, which was labelled, “minor” has now been elevated to “worse than thought”. These oil companies like to think they have things under control, but nine times out of ten, they don’t.

Some reports on the incident are suggesting that the prevailing winds have started to blow the oil from the spill back towards the shore.

China is frantically ramping up their efforts to clean up a severe oil spill of the north east coast.

There are now murmurings and increasing fears that some rather strong winds might be blowing the oil farther than what was originally expected.

Greenpeace, a large environmental group, has said that the oil was as much as 20cm thick in some areas of the coast dangerously near the city of Dalian.

Shipments of oil from the north to the industrial belt in the south have been put on immediate hold, while they try to work this mess out.

At least one worker has died during this clean up process, they were thrown from their vessel by a wave and then drowned in the oil…

The oil spill was caused by two pipelines exploding on Friday night, and caused quite a ruckus.

Officials have stated that 430 square kilometers of the ocean in the vicinity is now polluted, however help is on the way. Oil eating bacteria and oil skimming boats are being sent to the area, and should be there soon.

Greenpeace has said that this might just be the worst oil spill in China’s history.

Scientists and other researchers have examined some ancient fossils which were identified as the remains of a rather small monkey which is extinct.

These remains were found and brought back to the surface by divers from an underwater cave in the Dominican Republic.

The researchers who examined the fossils have come to the conclusion that the remains are somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 years old, but are saying that the species of monkey which these remains came from, could be much much older.

This sheds some light about the origin of primates in the region.

It may also suggest that many more ecologically valuable treasures could be unearthed beneath the sea, by the rather unusual field of study known as “underwater paleontology”

A researcher from the Brooklyn College in New York, Dr. Alfred Rosenburger, was in charge of the examination process of the tiny monkey’s bones, the results of this process were then published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.

Dr. Rosenburger has explained that the fossils which were incovered, including an almost complete skull, were discovered by a crack team of scuba divers who were spelunking in the underwater cave in the area.

“It’s miraculous that they even saw it,” he said, “When they discovered it, they were fearful the bones were exposed, so they moved the material to a little nook to protect it.”

Upon learning of he discovery Dr. Rosenburger went about getting official permission to take the fossil out of the cave, and then returned with the scuba divers October of last year to pick them up.

The bones were packed into tupperware containers, and then brought to the surface by the divers.

Champagne

Divers have recently uncovered what might just be the world’s oldest champagne (which hasn’t turned to vinegar) in a shipwreck off the Baltic Sea. They celebrated by popping open a bottle even before they made it back to dry land.

Christian Ekstrom, a diving instructor, has said that the champagne is thought to be from the 1780s and was likely on its way to Russia before it met its fate. The origin of the wreck has not yet been determined.

“We brought up the bottle to be able to establish how old the wreck was,” he said at a press conference, “We didn’t know it would be champagne. We thought it was wine or something.”

He went on to say that the diving team was ecstatic when they popped open a bottle after hauling the find up some 200 feet (60 meters) out of the water.

“It tasted fantastic. It was a very sweet champagne, with a tobacco taste and oak,” Ekstrom vividly explained.

The wreck was discovered near the Aland Islands, between Sweden and Finland last Tuesday. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 bottles of the prime bubbly are thought to be aboard the sunken derelict ship.

Ekstrom has said that the age and authenticity of the champagne is beyond refute, however samples have been sent off to private laboratories in (where else?) France for testing. “We’re 98 percent sure already because of the bottle (we found),” he explains.. But then, wouldn’t your judgment be a little off after drinking a bottle of bubbly with some friends?

Stay Tuned for the outcome!

Wonder what that would go for on Ebay?

Fish raining down on you from the sky is rare, but fish raining down on you two nights in a row is just plain eldritch. The unlikely two-night fish rain occurred last week in a small Australian town called Lajamanu in the Northern Territory.

On Thursday around 6 pm hundreds of small white fish started falling from the sky, to the shock and surprise of the local inhabitants who live on the edge of the Tanami Desert, hundreds of kilometers from Lake Argyle and Lake Elliot and even further away from the ocean. To make things even more bewildering, the same thing happened around 6 pm on Friday as well.

Christine Balmer, an aged care co-ordinator working at the Lajamanu Aged Care Centre, said her family interstate thought she had lost the plot when she told them about the event.

“I haven’t lost my marbles,” she said to local media. “Thank god it didn’t rain crocodiles.”
Balmer also managed to snap some photos of the fish littering the ground.

“They fell from the sky everywhere”, she explained. “Locals were picking them up off the footy oval and on the ground everywhere. These fish were alive when they hit the ground.”

Lajamanu has a population of less than 700 people, of which a significant amount are of Aboriginal origin. Its only accessible by air or dirt road and governed by a combination of community government council and local tribal council.

The town is no stranger to fish rains. Back in 2004 Lajamanu experienced a similar downpour and there are also reports of fish falling from the sky in 1974. This is however the first recorded incident of fish raining down on Lajamanu two evenings in a row.

Fish rains are normally caused by tornadoes that sweep up fish, and fish captured in this fashion can travel far distances and still be alive when they land.

According to Ashley Patterson, senior forecaster at the weather bureau, conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly region. However, no tornadoes has been reported to the authority.

“It’s a very unusual event,” he said. “With an updraft, (fish and water picked up) could get up high – up to 60,000 or 70,000 feet. Or possibly from a tornado over a large water body – but we haven’t had any reports.”

The small white fish has been tentatively identified as spangled perch (Leiopotherapon unicolor ), one of the most widely distributed Australian native freshwater fishes.

A Swedish woman vacationing with her family in Langkawi, Malaysia was killed by a jellyfish while bathing off the coast of Pantai Cenang.

Carina Löfgren was on her way back to the beach when she encountered the dangerous jellyfish just a few meters from the shore.

“Carina was walking roughly one meter in front of me,” her husband Ronny Löfgren told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. “It wasn’t deep; the water barely reached my trunks. Suddenly she started screaming violently and grasp at her legs. It made us realise that it was some kind of stinging jellyfish. We tried to remove the tentacles from her. It took four to five seconds, then she collapsed.”

Carina was dragged out of the water and her brother, who used to work as an emergency first responder, administered first aid with heart compressions and mouth-to-mouth.

“He administered CPR for four or five minutes”, Ronny Löfgren explained. “Then I replaced him. But I instantly felt that she was lifeless. She died in my arms.”

The ambulance reached the beach after 15 minutes. According to Ronny Löfgren they immediately understood that they could do nothing to help Carina at this point.

“One of them said ‘ah, jellyfish’ and shook his head. They tried to revive her for half a minute. Then they shook their heads again.”

Box Jellyfish

Box jellyfish are a group of invertebrates belonging to the class Cubozoa. One of the most dangerous members of this group is Chironex fleckeri, also known as the Sea wasp. Chironex fleckeri is found in the oceans of Australia and southeastern Asia and an average specimen contains enough venom to kill 60 adult humans.

“They can be very small and transparent which makes them difficult to spot”, says Swedish marine biologist Lars Hernroth. “Heart failure is the most common cause of death when stung by a sea wasp. In most cases, it happens extremely fast. The overall health condition of the victim will in part determine the victims’ resilience towards the venom.”

Hernroth believes it is important to ask local tourist information agencies about the jellyfish situation in the area. Some popular holiday destinations places nets in the water to catch jellyfish, but it will only work against the big ones – the small ones will slip through.

Swimmers stung by Chironex fleckeri often fail to make it back to the shore; they die from drowning or cardiac arrest within minutes. If a person does make it back he or she will be in need of immediate treatment, and even with proper treatment, fatalities are common. While administering first aid, make sure that some calls an ambulance. Chironex fleckeri antivenom does exist, but must be administered quickly. In areas where Chironex fleckeri is common, ambulances often carry antivenom – at least in developed parts of the world.