#palaeoecology

[probablyasocialecologist]

A dense forest isn’t necessarily a healthy one, says Knight. Douglas firs (Pseudotsuga menziesii), which dominate the lowland Klamath forests, are less fire resilient and more prone to calamitous wildfires. “This idea that we simply should let nature take its course is just not supported by this work,” she says. She adds that one of the study’s strengths is the multiple lines of evidence showing that past Indigenous burning helped to manage tree density.

[...]

Palaeoecology studies are increasingly incorporating Indigenous knowledge — but there’s still a long way to go, says physical geographer Michela Mariani at the University of Nottingham, UK. In Australia, Mariani has also found that tree density began to increase after British colonization hampered cultural burning. “It’s very important that we now include Indigenous people in the discussion in fire management moving on,” Mariani says. “They have a deeper knowledge of the landscape we simply don’t have.”

#california #indigenous #wildfires #forest #Palaeoecology

[fogtvz9nsdwzap]

Indian Randi sucking cock nd smoking Bianca de castro dando muito para um novinho no rio de janeiro RJ Lez rams dildo in asshole STEPMOM CUMS SISSY BOY LOVES MOMMY PANTIES Lesbian granny pussytoyed by adorable teen Another Husband watches his Young Amateur Wife fucked by stranger Miskupa Gay Bareback Viagra Mix Up With My Friends Hot Mom Complete Series Joslyn Jane Teen babes experiment with every other in sexy scenery Sexy teen blowjob a dildo

#postadolescent #codder #Ollie #galliass #Japonic #intermembranous #GUI #Angarsk #death-worm #licencing #bethesda #monopolistically #renoticing #渡邉理佐 #nonwetted #coulees #cheepy #flower-sprinkled #palaeoecological #mutilous

[new-dinosaurs]

Dynatoaetus pachyosteus Mather et al., 2023 (new species)

(Type humerus [upper arm bone] of Dynatoaetus pachyosteus [scale bar = 10 mm], from Mather et al., 2023)

Meaning of name: pachyosteus = thick bone [in Greek]

Age: Pleistocene (Chibanian)

Where found: Victoria Fossil Cave, South Australia, Australia

How much is known: Several isolated bones from the skull and limbs. It is unknown whether any of these bones belonged to the same individuals.

Notes: D. pachyosteus was an accipitrid, or a "hawk" in the broad sense. The only other species of Dynatoaetus that had previously been named was D. gaffae, which was described earlier this year from various Pliocene–Pleistocene fossil sites in Australia, including Victoria Fossil Cave. D. gaffae was one of the largest known accipitrids of all time, whereas D. pachyosteus was smaller (though still large for an accipitrid), about the same size as the wedge-tailed eagle (Aquila audax) that still lives in Australia today.

Despite being of similar size, D. pachyosteus was more robustly built than the wedge-tailed eagle and may have therefore been adapted to hunting larger prey. Given that wedge-tailed eagles can prey on big kangaroos by working in pairs, it is plausible that D. pachyosteus habitually hunted juveniles and weakened adults of the now-extinct giant marsupials and flightless birds that it lived alongside. Indeed, it may have been their reliance on these megafauna as a food source that drove both species of Dynatoaetus to their eventual demise.

Reference: Mather, E.K., M.S.Y. Lee, D.A. Fusco, J. Hellstrom, and T.H. Worthy. 2023. Pleistocene raptors from cave deposits of South Australia, with a description of a new species of Dynatoaetus (Accipitridae: Aves): morphology, systematics and palaeoecological implications. Alcheringa advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/03115518.2023.2268780

#Palaeoblr #Birblr #Dinosaurs #Birds #Dynatoaetus pachyosteus #Pleistocene #Oceania #Telluraves #2023 #Extinct

[leaping-laelaps-art]

Protomonaxonid sponges standing around (as sponges do) on the enthusiastically bioturbated sediment of the Fezouata Shale, 478 million years ago in the Antarctic Circle.

These early demosponges have been given the rather cumbersome designation of 'Hamptonia' christi Form B, pending a formal description. Standing a few centimeters tall, they (and several other sponges found in Fezouata) formed dense but single-species assemblages interpreted as rapid and repeated colonization events in a hostile environment (Botting 2016).

I could not resist giving them the same coloration as their fossils, which are beautifully rendered in hues of iron oxides. Surely reds and oranges aren't unusual colors for sea sponges?

References:

Botting, J. P. (2016). Diversity and ecology of sponges in the Early Ordovician Fezouata Biota, Morocco. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 460, 75–86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.05.018

Van Roy, P. (2006). Non-trilobite Arthropods from the Ordovician of Morocco. Gent University.

#hamptonia #protomonaxonid #sponge #fezouata #ordovician #paleozoic #paleontology #palaeoblr #paleoart #my art

[greenfrog04]

Trophic relationships in the Early Miocene Upper Marine Molasse of Baden-Württemberg, Southwest Germany, with special emphasis on the elasmobranch fauna

Published 10th November 2023

Reseachers present a fresh and comprehensive palaeoecological reconstruction of the Early Miocene Upper Marine Molas ecosystem in Baden-Württemberg with a focus on the elasmobranch fauna to determine the trophic relationships, using fossil teeth as proxies for diet and trophic levels based on functional morphology and an actualistic species- or genus-level approach.

New lithostratigraphic terminology for the Ottnangian deposits of the Upper Marine Molas in Southwest Germany

Map showing the fossiliferous localities

Generalized trophic interaction scheme of the five Upper Marine Molas deposits

source:

https://doi.org/10.26879/1233

#paleontology #fossil #prehistoric #extinct #extant

[covenawhite66]

An international team of researchers examined the environmental DNA of mammoth remains and more than 1,500 arctic plants to conclude that a wetter climate quickly changed the landscape from tundra grassland steppe to forested wetlands that could not support many of these big grazing animals, driving mammoths to extinction as recently as 3,900 years ago.

Sedimentary deposits are complex. Materials of different ages are routinely buried together. Scientists cannot carbon date DNA.

A unique challenge for environmental DNA (eDNA)-based palaeoecological reconstructions and extinction estimates is that organisms can contribute DNA to sediments long after their death. Recently, Wang et al.1 discovered mammoth eDNA in sediments that are between approximately 4.6 and 7 thousand years (kyr) younger than the most recent mammoth fossils in North America and Eurasia, which they interpreted as mammoths surviving on both continents into the Middle Holocene epoch. Here we present an alternative explanation for these offsets: the slow decomposition of mammoth tissues on cold Arctic landscapes is responsible for the release of DNA into sediments for thousands of years after mammoths went extinct

#paleontology #mammoth #dna #sediment layer #paleolithic #ice age #megafauna #extinct animals #carbon dating

[try-and-try-and-try-again]

In the end I’ve decided to stay at my current university. There are many good things about it that I would lose if I moved:

There are some really nice people here. I might go as far as saying I’ve made friends which I’m kind of in a state of disbelief about.

Getting to volunteer in the zoology museum.

Having the chance to do a palaeoecology module next year and a field trip to Canada to excavate fossils.

Having a choral scholarship and getting to sing choral evensong every week.

Having really nice hall wardens who have called me down when I’ve been in a state MH crisis. This wasn’t a thing at my other uni. When my parents thought I was in crisis the university told them to call the police.

The TTRPG group I went to this week and enjoyed.

Being able to go home at weekends and cuddle my cat.

Why should it matter that this university isn’t as prestigious as my last one? There’s so much that’s good about it. And I guess (if they still offer the masters course I saw) I could always see about going back there as a postgrad when I’ve got a bit more experience of living away from home (going home from there wouldn’t be easy).

#personal #university #university decisions

[neovenatorgirlteeth]

ngl i took a paleontology class in college but it mainly focused on marine invertebrates and like. ooh i enjoyed marine invertebrates way more than terrestrial vertebrates .... um... sorry dinosaurs

look what you've done,,, shes licherally crying. You BETTER be sorry.

(Jokes aside thats so great!! my palaeoecology module focused on marine invertebrates and I wasn't nearly as interested in them as I was as vertebrate megafauna, but its cool that people have such diverse interests even within palaeontology)

#anthem posts #transdumpsterfire #askes

[henrysblake]

Bafflingly comprehensive speculative fiction novel about a time traveling ecoterrorist who goes back in time to introduce white rot fungi to the carboniferous forests to prevent coal from ever being deposited in the earth. Its not fun or exciting this person succeeds and the rest is just an alternative history palaeoecology textbook from the hyperintelligent millipedes that inherited the earth

[aboutanancientenquiry]

“Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE

Hader Sheisha [email protected], David Kaniewski https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6569-3184, Nick Marriner https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7916-6059, +6, and Christophe Morhange https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1910-151X

Authors Info & Affiliations

Edited by Linda Manzanilla, Universidad Nacional Autonóma de México, Mexico, D.F., Mexico; received February 13, 2022; accepted June 29, 2022

August 29, 2022 

119 (37) e2202530119

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2202530119

Significance

The pyramids of Giza constitute one of the world’s most iconic cultural landscapes and have fascinated humanity for thousands of years. Indeed, the Great Pyramid of Giza (Khufu Pyramid) was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is now accepted that ancient Egyptian engineers exploited a former channel of the Nile to transport building materials and provisions to the Giza plateau. However, there is a paucity of environmental evidence regarding when, where, and how these ancient landscapes evolved. New palaeoecological analyses have helped to reconstruct an 8,000-year fluvial history of the Nile in this area, showing that the former waterscapes and higher river levels around 4,500 years ago facilitated the construction of the Giza Pyramid Complex.

Abstract

The pyramids of Giza originally overlooked a now defunct arm of the Nile. This fluvial channel, the Khufu branch, enabled navigation to the Pyramid Harbor complex but its precise environmental history is unclear. To fill this knowledge gap, we use pollen-derived vegetation patterns to reconstruct 8,000 y of fluvial variations on the Giza floodplain. After a high-stand level concomitant with the African Humid Period, our results show that Giza’s waterscapes responded to a gradual insolation-driven aridification of East Africa, with the lowest Nile levels recorded at the end of the Dynastic Period. The Khufu branch remained at a high-water level (∼40% of its Holocene maximum) during the reigns of Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure, facilitating the transportation of construction materials to the Giza Pyramid Complex.”

Source: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2202530119

An artist's illustration shows how a now-defunct arm of the River Nile known as the Khufu branch once reached the pyramids. Image credit: Alex Boersma/PNAS.

Source for the illustration: https://www.iflscience.com/nile-riverbed-clues-help-explain-the-mystery-of-egypts-pyramid-construction-65096

#ancient egypt #egyptology #the pyramids #the nile

[sciencespies]

Archaeology and ecology combined sketch a fuller picture of past human-nature relationships

https://sciencespies.com/environment/archaeology-and-ecology-combined-sketch-a-fuller-picture-of-past-human-nature-relationships/

Archaeology and ecology combined sketch a fuller picture of past human-nature relationships

For decades now, archaeologists wielded the tools of their trade to unearth clues about past peoples, while ecologists have sought to understand current ecosystems. But these well-established scientific disciplines tend to neglect the important question of how humans and nature interacted and shaped each other across different places and through time. An emerging field called archaeoecology can fill that knowledge gap and offer insights into how to solve today’s sustainability challenges, but first, it must be clearly defined. A new paper by Santa Fe Institute Complexity Fellow Stefani Crabtree and Jennifer Dunne, SFI’s Vice President for Science, lays out the first comprehensive definition of archaeoecology and calls for more research in this nascent but important field.

While an archaeology or palaeobiology study might examine a particular relationship, such as how humans in New Guinea raised cassowaries during the Late Pleistocene, archaeoecology takes a much broader view. “It’s about understanding the whole ecological context, rather than focusing on one or two species,” Dunne explains.

Crabtree hatched the idea for the paper in March 2020 after isolating in her father’s basement in Oregon as COVID spread across the U.S. She and Dunne, who had both worked on projects about the roles of humans in ancient food webs, realized that work didn’t fit readily in either archaeology or ecology. At the time, there was no notion in the scientific community of an area of research that deeply integrated those two disciplines. Crabtree, an archaeologist, and Dunne, an ecologist, saw an opportunity to define archaeoecology, including the role it can play in addressing the myriad challenges of the Anthropocene.

Archaeoecology, they explain in the paper, examines the past ~60,000 years of interplay between humans and ecosystems. It aims to show not only how humans impact nature, but also how the ecosystems they lived within shaped human culture and dynamics. To achieve this, archaeoecology weaves together data, questions, strategies, and modeling tools from archaeology, ecology, and palaeoecology.

“What it’s doing is breaking down a traditional, but unnecessary, disciplinary separation between archaeology and ecology,” Dunne says.

Crabtree hopes the paper will encourage more scientists to pursue research in the emerging field. And with humanity facing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, archaeoecology could yield crucial insights that help us navigate our present-day environmental challenges, she says. For instance, as climate change causes Utah’s Great Salt Lake to dry up, we don’t know exactly how this will impact the larger ecosystem. However, we can look to the past for warnings about what might be in store: Through an archaeoecological lens of the Aral Sea during the height of the Silk Road, we can see more clearly how the Soviet Union’s 1960s water diversion project and the subsequent desiccation of the sea impacted the surrounding ecosystems and human communities. Similarly, an archaeological lens documents the stabilizing role that Martu Aboriginal people had on Australia’s Western Desert and the massive biodiversity loss that resulted when the people were removed from the land.

“Every ecosystem on the planet is impacted by humans in one way or another,” Crabtree says. “It’s naïve to look at just the last 100 years because people have been impacting ecosystems everywhere for many thousands of years. We need to understand the past to understand our present and future. Archaeoecology helps with that. We can learn from these experiments with sustainability in the past.”

Story Source:

Materials provided by Santa Fe Institute. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

#Environment

#2022 Science News #9-2022 Science News #acts of science #Earth Environment #earth science #Environment and Nature #everyday items #Nature Science #New #News Science Spies #Our Nature #planetary science #production line #sci_evergreen1 #Science #Science Channel #science documentary #Science News #Science Spies #Science Spies News #September 2022 Science News #Space Physics & Nature #Space Science #Environment

[toenzy]

I have been tagged by @constantwords (to be tagged on tumblr is truly a disorientating act of violence and I shall be in touch with my very real legal team) and have decided to actually respond to something for once. I’m getting a little zesty in my old age I guess.

Currently reading:

Re-reading Raw Spirit by Iain Banks for the millionth time

Still need to finish Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams, as I’ve been working through all the Hitchhiker’s books (handily contained in one neat, enormous tome). Paused as I’m not enjoying it as much as the previous books.

Last song:

It’s probably something by Opeth.

I’ll check.

Yeah, Deliverance. From the album, er, Deliverance.

Last series:

I don’t really watch much conventional TV or even post-broadcast stuff? As I’m at my Mum’s while my fiancé and I search for a place to live close to Exeter Uni, the TV is certainly on a lot. I think we watched Cash in the Attic most recently? That or Animal Park.

If this is supposed to mean narrative series I have no idea. It may have genuinely been a year or more since I watched anything that would fit that label.

I don’t generally understand the appeal I don’t know what to tell you. 

Occasionally I rewatch the 6 good series of Red Dwarf so it was probably that, also I keep forgetting to watch What We Do In The Shadows.

Last movie:

Shit, no idea. Wait, stayed in a hotel recently and ended up watching The Predator (2018). It was awful, no redeeming features.

Currently working on: 

WELL

I technically haven’t finished my degree, I have 2 more pieces of work to submit and then I’m done. I wasn’t able to actually complete them when they were due because of various reasons, not least of which was/is long term grief after the death of my Dad.

Luckily the University have been extremely understanding, so I can submit the missing pieces as if it was the first go around. First one for my Ecology of Urban Areas (a mock grant proposal concerning research into the effect of warning signs on hedgehog deaths and whether such deaths are temporally variable) has been handed in.

I’m about half way through one of the projects, for my Palaeoecology module, a fossil key/mini guide to Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta, Canada.

And then I’ve got an essay to do; on a mass extinction event of my choice! (I’m probably going Late Devonian (~373-365 Mya), it was brutal)

Holding out hope I can scrape a 2:1 (my grades have generally been decent but my dissertation was a giant disaster, not going into it) but if I get a 2:2 I won’t be too disappointed in myself, just the usual amount really.

Also the living situation of my fiancé and I is in a state of flux (see above) so there’s stuff EVERYWHERE in our room, and the spare room, and the loft, and also still stuff in Reading so *screaming*

Did you know the rental market in the South West sucks out loud? Yes you did, because you already knew it sucks everywheeerrrrrrreee.

Favourite colour:

It’s black, black slaps and if you spill something down a black shirt basically no one can tell.

Sweet/Savoury/Spicy:

Savoury. I genuinely cannot get enough salt, I always crave more. 

tagging: oh

er @alwaysfaithfulterriblelizard who I don’t think checks their tumblr anymore, @scavengedluxury  @medicalmechanicas @angelofsappho

#personal #is this the social part of social media #I spill a lot of food down myself

[pressnewsagencyllc]

Homo Sapiens' First Homeland Outside Of Africa Has Been Found

One of the biggest moments in human history took place 60,000 to 70,000 years ago when a portion of Homo sapiens left Africa. Despite this epoch’s huge significance, we know surprisingly little about people’s whereabouts from 70,000 to 45,000 years ago when they first set foot into the wider world. Thanks to a combination of genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence, scientists have…

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[leaping-laelaps-art]

The orthid brachiopods Nanorthis bifurcata and Lipanorthis santalaurae (attached) from the Early Ordovician of Argentina.

Got inspired by a cool paper I read today and decided to try my hand at 2D art for once. I'm not very good at it but I have to admit it's pretty fun.

Reference:

Santos, A., Mayoral, E., Villas, E., Herrera, Z., & Ortega, G. (2014). First record of Podichnus in orthide brachiopods from the Lower Ordovician (Tremadocian) of NW Argentina and its relation to the early use of an ethological strategy. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 399, 67–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.02.003

#nanorthis #lipanorthis #orthid #brachiopod #ordovician #paleozoic #paleontology #palaeoblr #paleoart #my art

[greatspacedustbin]

4, 11 and 17? :)

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

Emily H. Wilson, for her book Inanna (an adaptation of the Gilgamesh epic)

11. What was your favourite book that has been out for a while, but you now just read?

Finally got round to reading A Christmas Carol (after having watched too many different adaptations over the years, but never getting managing to actually reading the thing), and you know what... timeless classic.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

Inanna by Emily H. Wilson was great - historical fiction can be hit and miss, but this was really well-written and leaves me waiting impatiently for the next 2 books

And Otherlands: Journeys in Earth's Extinct Ecosystems by Thomas Halliday. As someone who's studied palaeoecology it's been right up my alley

#wordsintimeandspace #thanks for the ask :) #as always I planned on answering soon but then promptly forgot about it again 😂 #books #book meme

[evoldir]

Fwd: Graduate position: GriffithU.CaveSedimentAncientDNA

Begin forwarded message: > From: [email protected] > Subject: Graduate position: GriffithU.CaveSedimentAncientDNA > Date: 20 December 2023 at 09:23:06 GMT > To: [email protected] > > > Deep time extinctions informed by DNA in Australian underwater caves > > We are currently looking for a PhD candidate to join our research team > in the examination of cave sediments in Australia using ancient and > environmental DNA (aDNA) techniques. The primary focus of this role is to > reconstruct whole Australian fossil ecosystems using widescale genetic > investigations of sediment and water samples from the unique submerged > Mt Gambier cave deposits. The underwater deposits of Mt Gambier fill a > critical gap in cave palaeontology and preserve exquisite specimens of > megafauna species including the rare Propleopus, a giant carnivorous > kangaroo, the giant short-faced kangaroos Simosthenurus, and the > marsupial 'tapir' Palorchestes. There is potentially ~95,000 years > of critical information locked in the Mt Gambier caves, in the form > of ancient environmental DNA as well as cave sediments in conditions > beneficial for the preservation of ancient DNA, that can shed light > on the dramatic biodiversity loss that occurred during the Pleistocene > and the factors that drove this change. Success in this role requires > collaboration with interdisciplinary experts in archaeology, genetics, > and palaeoecology, as well as with Indigenous communities to ensure the > ethical and respectful use of cultural heritage materials. > > The 2023 Griffith University Postgraduate Research Scholarship has > an annual stipend of $32,192 (indexed) for a period of up to three > years of full-time study. Please see the GUPRS Conditions of Award >

#IFTTT #Email