Earth and Space News: October 2015

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Global Warming May Make Persian Gulf Hotspots Too Hot for Humans by 2100

Summary: Global warming may make Persian Gulf hotspots too hot for humans by exceeding mugginess limits, a study in Oct. 26's Nature Climate Change finds.

Construction workers nap during heat/lunch break in sun-baked Al Sufouh, western Dubai; Saturday, Nov. 25, 2006: Paul Keller, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Increasing concentrations of man-made greenhouse gases could cause wet-bulb temperatures for Persian Gulf hotspots to exceed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), the critical mugginess survival limit for healthy people in well-ventilated outdoor conditions, finds a study published Oct. 26 in Nature Climate Change.

Even the fittest people are susceptible to hyperthermia, or abnormally elevated body temperature, after more than six hours of exposure to wet-bulb temperatures beyond the 35-degrees-Celsius threshold. Wet-bulb temperature considers both the air’s actual temperature, known as dry-bulb temperature or, simply, as temperature, and moisture content, known as humidity. For most people, who do not meet the ideal definition, the survivable wet-bulb temperature is lower than 35 degrees C. Such harrowing temperatures tend to be fatal for children, the elderly and individuals in poor health.

The study presents a model with an arbitrarily selected, extreme dry-bulb temperature of 60 degrees C (140 degrees F). The selected extreme temperature is a little higher than Earth’s hottest record temperature, officially reported by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) as 56.7 degrees C (134 degrees F) at California’s Death Valley in 1913. Dry-bulb temperatures in the range of 40 to 60 degrees C (100 to 140 degrees F) affect not only the human body but also machinery, with aircraft malfunctions during takeoff and landing and rail line buckling. The Gulf’s average of maximum wet-bulb temperatures over almost three decades from 1976 to 2005 exceeds 31 degrees C (87.8 degrees F).

The study’s greenhouse gas concentration models for the end-of-the-century period from 2071 to 2100 predict annual wet-bulb temperatures in excess of 35 degrees C specifically for Abu Dhabi (United Arab Emirates), Bandar Abbas (Iran), Dhahran (Saudi Arabia), Doha (Quatar) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates). Near Mecca, Saudi Arabia, where pilgrims pray outdoors from dawn to dusk, wet-bulb temperatures are expected to rise to 32 degrees C (89.6 degrees F), with dry-bulb temperatures over 55 degrees C (131 degrees F).

A model based on measures to mitigate global warming considerably softens the dire forecasts for Persian Gulf hotspots. Wet-bulb temperatures would not exceed the 35-degrees-Celsius threshold. Actual air temperature would only exceed 55 degrees C in a few locations currently experiencing that range. With a temperature rise of only about 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), Mecca’s Hajj pilgrimage basically would be unaffected.

The study’s co-authors, Jeremy S. Pal, associate professor of civil engineering at Los Angeles’ Loyola Marymount University, and Elfatih A. B. Eltahir, associate department head of civil and environmental engineering at Massachusetts’ Institute of Technology (MIT), apply a regional climate model (RCM) to test the findings, published in 2013, by the physical science working group of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that manmade greenhouse gases are largely responsible for the recent decades’ global warming.

They identify their choice of the Persian Gulf, which they call the Arabian Gulf, as a major source for the local and global gas and oil that greatly contribute to past and present carbon dioxide emissions. The Gulf’s coastal geography is conducive to high humidity and high dry-bulb temperatures, with low-elevation, close-to-sea-level areas that encourage surface concentration of heat and water vapor. Cloudless skies, high absorption of solar energy (short-wave radiation), and high heat and water vapor retention due to a high evaporation rate at the surface account for the Gulf’s high wet-bulb temperatures.

The authors note: “Our results expose a specific regional hotspot where climate change, in the absence of significant mitigation, is likely to severely impact human habitability in the future.”

pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in September; photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters: Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk, via Twitter Oct. 26, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Construction workers nap during heat/lunch break in sun-baked Al Sufouh, western DubaiSaturday, Nov. 25, 2006: Paul Keller, CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/paulk/307513685/

pilgrims in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in September; photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters: Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk, via Twitter Oct. 26, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/AssaadRazzouk/status/658779442693677056

For further information:

Assaad Razzouk @AssaadRazzouk. "Intolerable Heat Due To #Climate Change May Make Persian Gulf Uninhabitable Within Decades." Twitter. Oct. 26, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/AssaadRazzouk/status/658779442693677056

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). "Climate change could bring deadly heat to Persian Gulf." YouTube. Oct. 26, 2015.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W05c04Ge4-o

Pal, Jeremy S., and Elfatih A.B. Eltahir. "Future temperature in southwest Asia projected to exceed a threshold for human adaptability." Nature Climate Change, vol. 6: 197-200. Published online Oct. 26, 2015. DOI: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2833
Available @ http://eltahir.mit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Paper.pdf

Warrick, Joby. "Report predicts temperatures too hot for humans in Persian Gulf." Boston Globe > Nation & World. Oct. 27, 2015.
Available @ https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/10/26/report-says-climate-change-could-push-persian-gulf-temperatures-lethal-extremes/8RvxLlDbgnl0co4PSywagP/story.html

Friday, October 30, 2015

2°C Warming Limit Possible If Major Economy Doubles Emissions Pledge

Summary: A study in Oct. 26's Nature Climate Change says a 2 degrees Celsius global warming limit is possible if a major economy doubles its emissions pledge.

Graphic identifies ten indicators of a warming world as atmospheric factors (air temperature near surface [troposphere]; humidity), oceanic factors (temperature over oceans; sea surface temperature; sea level ;sea ice; ocean heat content) and land factors (glaciers; snow cover; temperature over land).: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Climatic Data Center, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A 2°Celsius global warming limit goal is achievable if any one of the three major economies (China, European Union, United States) doubles the level of its emissions reduction pledge for 2030, according to a study published Oct. 26, 2015, in Nature Climate Change.

The study’s model calls for a 2030 target of 32 percent below 2010 output levels for China, a 2030 target of 67 percent below 1990 levels for the European Union’s 28 member states (EU28), or a 2025 target of 54 percent below 2005 levels for the United States. In a concept called diversity-aware leadership by the co-authors, leadership by a major economy ends negotiation battles over fair sharing.

“Now we have calculated how much a major economy would have to cut its greenhouse gas output if all the other countries would follow the emissions allocation scheme that is most favourable to them, so some base their reduction number on the equal per capita scheme, others include the historical emissions, and still the 2-degree limit is met,” explains Louise Jeffery, co-author and research associate at Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).

The diversity awareness leadership and bottom-up approach presented in the study timely tackles the sensitive subject of allocating emission reduction levels. An assessment issued by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) on Oct. 27 finds that current climate commitments, known as Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), drawn up by 155 countries that account for around 90 percent of global emissions, would lead to an increase of around 3°C in global temperature.

Sebastian Oberthür, co-author and academic director of Belgium’s Institute for European Studies (IES), notes the challenges in emissions allocations that drove the study's ten co-authors to devise their model, based on databases of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific intergovernmental body under UN auspices: “If you look at what pledges the countries put on the table for Paris so far, it’s clearly not enough to keep warming within the internationally agreed 2-degree limit, hence the current ‘intended nationally determined contributions’ can only be regarded as a first step in the right direction.”

The study’s ten co-authors identify a major economy forerunner as critical to the outcome of the upcoming 2015 United Nations Climate Conference, scheduled for Nov. 30 to Dec. 12 in Le Bourget, France. Held annually since 1995 by the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the 21st conference (COP21) plans to produce its first legally binding, universal agreement on climate after two decades of negotiations. The agreement’s target is strategies for achieving the 2°C warming limit, the global goal originally set under the UNFCCC.

As shown by the study’s Australian and European co-authors, strategizing outside the box of seeming fairness seems critical to keeping within the internationally agreed upon 2°C warming limit.

As co-author Sebastian Oberthür explains: “If we postpone action until we have universal agreement on a fair allocation of emissions reductions, the result will be fair only in that everybody will lose, because climate change will hit us all.”

Graphic pie charts showing 2010 GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions and mitigation contributions for 2025 and 2030 for all G20 countries are provided at Mitigation Contributions.org's interactive website (www.mitigation-contributions.org): Potsdam Institute @PIK_Climate, via Twitter Oct. 26, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Meinshausen, Malte, et al. "National post-2020 greenhouse gas targets and diversity-awareness leadership." Nature Climate Change, vol. 5 (Oct. 26, 2015): 1098-1106.
Available @ http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nclimate2826.html

Pascual, Katrina. "Warming Could Be Limited To 2°C If Major Economy Takes Lead In Climate Change Fight: Study." Tech Times. Oct. 26, 2015.
Available @ http://www.techtimes.com/articles/99904/20151026/warming-could-be-limited-to-2°c-if-major-economy-takes-lead-in-climate-change-fight-study.htm

Potsdam Institute‏ @PIK._"If a major economy takes the lead, warming could be limited to 2°C: new study @NatureClimate." Twitter. Oct. 26, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/PIK_Climate/status/658680763760685056

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). "If a major economy takes the lead, warming could be limited to 2° C: Allocating greenhouse gas emissions reductions will be key for the outcome of the world climate summit COP21 in Paris." Science Daily. Oct. 26, 2016.
Available @ http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151026125037.htm

Big Butterfly Count 2015: Gatekeeper Pyronia tithonus Has Top Spot

Summary: Butterfly Conservation's sixth annual butterfly count, Big Butterfly Count 2015, set records for participation and sightings. Top spot went to Gatekeeper.

Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus), also known as Hedge Brown in UK, is #1 for abundance in Big Butterfly Count 2015; orange-and-brown butterfly with black eyespot at each forewing tip; each eyespot has two white pupils; often seen at entrances and gateways, along field edges and hedgerows; Friday, July 11, 2008: José Ramón P.V., CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Big Butterfly Count 2015, Butterfly Conservation’s sixth annual nationwide survey, took place from July 17 to Aug. 9, broke participation and sighting records and gave top spot for highest numbers to Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus).

With over 52,000 participants, this year’s event shattered 2013’s high of 46,400. Submitted counts totaled 50,037. With over 5,300 completed counts, Saturday, Aug. 8, held the honor of highest ever counts on a single day. This year’s counting brought the total for all six years to over 208,000 counts.

Almost 585,000 individual butterflies and moths were logged. Since 2014’s count, levels dropped for seven species and increased for eleven. Holly Blue (Celastrina argiolus) showed the biggest increase, at 151 percent. The biggest decline, at -61 percent change, fell to the Peacock (Aglais io), which won the top spot with 95,551 sightings in 2014 but received only 42,754 counts this year. Sliding from its usual spot in seventh or eighth place down into eleventh place with 14,437 counts, Green-veined White (Pieris napi) fell out of the top 10 for the first time in six years.

The overall top species in the United Kingdom for Big Butterfly Count 2015 were finalized with Gatekeeper as most sighted in first place and Common Blue as least sighted in 10th place.
Gatekeeper (Pyronia tithonus) = 106,995
Large White (Pieris brassicae) = 83,042
Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) = 76,713
Small White (Pieris rapae) = 72,483
Peacock (Aglais io) = 42,754
Small Tortoiseshell (Aglais urticae) = 31,322
Ringlet (Aphantopus hyperantus) = 27,604
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) = 21,027
Comma (Polygonia c-album) = 18,765
Common Blue (Polyommatus icarus) = 17,932

England's top ten mirrored the overall UK list. The exact match occurred because the vast majority, at over 90 percent, of the counts took place in England, the location of most of UK’s population.

Outside of England, the top spot was held by Ringlet for Northern Ireland and Scotland and by Meadow Brown for Wales. Second place went to Meadow Brown for Northern Ireland and Scotland and to Gatekeeper for Wales. Third place went to Small Tortoiseshell for Northern Ireland and Scotland and to Ringlet for Wales.

Launched in 2010, the Big Butterfly Count takes place annually throughout the United Kingdom. Participation since 2014’s count increased by 18 percent in England and by 9 percent in Wales but decreased by 41 percent in Northern Ireland and by 37 percent in Scotland. The drops in Northern Ireland and Scotland’s participants were attributed to excessively bad weather, especially in July.

The Big Butterfly Count consists of a 15 minute survey, taken in a sunny spot, with 20 targeted species of butterflies and moths. Records are submitted separately for different places as well as for the same place on different dates. Counts are done, while walking or while still, in any location, including fields, forests, gardens, parks and school grounds. The absence of butterflies or moths at a site is noted and is important for the survey’s aim of assessing the environmental health of the United Kingdom.

Big Butterfly Count 2016 is slated to take place from July 15 to Aug. 7.

With a 151 percent increase in numbers over 2014, holly blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus) claimed place 14 in the 2015 Big Butterfly Count: NT Press Office @NTPressOffice, via Twitter Oct. 13, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

With a 151 percent increase in numbers over 2014, holly blue butterfly (Celastrina argiolus) claimed place 14 in the 2015 Big Butterfly Count: NT Press Office NTPressOffice, via Twitter Oct. 13, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/NTPressOffice/status/653915092971601922

For further information:

"Big Butterfly Count 2015 results." Big Butterfly Count > 2015 main results.
Available @ http://www.bigbutterflycount.org/2015mainresults

"Big Butterfly Count 2014." Butterfly Conservation > Big Butterfly Count 2014.
Available @ http://butterfly-conservation.org/6115/big-butterfly-count-2014.html

NT Press Office NTPressOffice. "The results are in for the 2015 Big Butterfly Count from our friends at @savebutterflies." Twitter. 13 October 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/NTPressOffice/status/653915092971601922

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Freedom on the Net 2015 Finds World Internet Freedoms Declining

Summary: Freedom on the Net 2015, published Oct. 28, finds world internet freedoms declining in 32 assessed countries, improving in 15 and stabilizing in 18.

graphic of internet freedom in 65 countries (18 free, 28 partly free, 19 not free) in Freedom on the Net 2015, pages 18-19: Conrad Hackett @conradhackett, via Twitter Oct. 30, 2015

World internet freedoms are declining in 32 assessed countries, improving in 15 assessed countries and remaining stable in 18 assessed countries, according to Freedom on the Net 2015, published online Oct. 28, 2015, by Freedom House of Washington, D.C.

The non-governmental organization for advocacy and research on democracy, human rights and political freedom bases its findings upon examinations of internet-relevant laws and practices, interviews and tests of website accessibility between June 2014 and May 2015 by over 70 researchers regarding 65 countries.

Freedom House considers vital to the sixth annual report support from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Facebook; Google; Twitter; the U.S. State Department Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor; and Yahoo.

The 972-page report describes censorship of digital media and internet freedoms in terms of limits on content, obstacles to access and violations of user rights regarding 10 topics. It encounters access obstacles, content restrictions and rights violations regarding activism and mobilization for public causes in 16 countries; blasphemy (insults to religion and revered figures) in 21 assessed countries; conflict, terrorism or violence in 29; corruption and misuse of public funds in 28; criticism of authorities (government, military, or ruling family) in 47; ethnic and religious minority communities in 13; LGBTI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) issues in 14; political opposition in 23; satire (irony and ridicule of public officials) in 23; and social commentary in 20.

Freedom House’s five co-authors find no instances of censorships in Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Canada, Estonia, Georgia (the Eurasian country), Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Japan, Philippines, South Africa or the United States. It gives France and the United Kingdom each instances of internet topic censorships regarding conflict. It has instances of Ethiopia and of Iran each censoring all 10 topics.

Madeline Earp, Sanja Kelly, Laura Reed, Adrian Shahbaz and Mai Truong identify the assessed countries as harboring 88 percent of all internet users. It judges that 31 percent operate free of anonymity and encryption circumventions, content-creator coercion, surveillance technologies and tech-company intimidation whereas 22.7 percent and 34.3 percent operate in respectively semi-free and not at all free contexts.

The report keeps trajectories stable in Argentina, Armenia, Ecuador, Gambia, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Kingdom, United States and Vietnam. It lists negative trajectories in Angola, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belarus, Cambodia, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Malaysia, Myanmar, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and Zimbabwe.

Positive trajectories in Bahrain, Brazil, Cuba, Estonia, Georgia (country), India, Iran, Lebanon, Malawi, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tunisia, Uzbekistan and Zambia mean that “Digital activism has been and remains a vital driver of change around the world, particularly in societies that lack political rights and press freedom.”

cover image for Freedom House's Freedom of the Net 2015; protesters demonstrate against internet censorship in China, one of partner countries of CeBit (Centrum für Büroautomation, Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation,"Center for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunication") computer trade fair held in Hanover, Germany, March 2015; image by Alexander Koerner/Getty Images: Freedom House @FreedomHouseDC, via Facebook Oct. 29, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

graphic of internet freedom in 65 countries (18 free, 28 partly free, 19 not free) in Freedom on the Net 2015, pages 18-19: Conrad Hackett @conradhackett, via Twitter Oct. 30, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/conradhackett/status/659930863581270020

Conrad Hackett @conradhackett. 29 October 2015. "Internet freedom rank, 2015." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/conradhackett/status/659930863581270020

Freedom House @FreedomHouseDC. 29 October 29 2015. "Over 61% of all internet users live in countries where criticism of the government is subject to online censorship. To learn more, see the new report." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/FreedomHouseDC/photos/a.407886377077/10153184502217078/

Freedom House @FreedomHouseDC. 27 October 2015. "Updated their cover photo." Facebook.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/FreedomHouseDC/photos/a.10150579575497078/10153185726877078/

Kelly, Sanja; Madeline Earp; Laura Reed; Adrian Shahbaz, Adrian; and Mai Truong. 2015. Freedom on the Net 2015: Privatizing Censorship, Eroding Privacy. Washington, D.C., U.S.A.: Freedom House.
Available @ https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/FOTN%202015%20Full%20Report.pdf

Pimienta, Alberto. 28 October 2015. “Freedom House: World Internet Freedom Keeps Eroding.” Voice of America > News > Science & Technology.
Available @ http://www.voanews.com/content/freedom-house-world-internet-freedom-keeps-eroding/3027570.html

VOA News. 28 October 2015. "Freedom House: World Internet Freedom Keeps Eroding." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLYrivcWGzQ

Galápagos Archipelago Now Has Eastern Santa Cruz Island Tortoises

Summary: Eastern Santa Cruz Island Tortoises (Chelonoidis donfaustoi) now have separate species status from Western Santa Cruz Tortoises (Chelonoidis porteri).

Eastern Santa Cruz tortoise (Chelonoidis donfaustoi), Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014, 10:49: aposematic herpetologist from Ames IA, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons

Cerro Fatal and La Reserva are zones that the already known Galápagos giant tortoise species, Santa Cruz Island tortoises, and the newly identified Don Fausto's Eastern Santa Cruz tortoises respectively call home. Their tortoise populations now belong to separate species because of investigations described by a twelve-author team for the PLoS ONE online issue of Oct. 21, 2015.

Yale University evolutionary biologist Adalgisa Caccone currently calls only the estimated 1,750 to 3,750 Western Santa Cruz Island tortoises within “The Reserve” Chelonoidis porteri ("Porter’s tortoise"). Dr. Caccone and her 11 co-authors describe the estimated 250 Eastern Santa Cruz Island tortoises at “Deadly Hill” under the name Chelonoidis donfaustoi ("Don Fausto’s tortoise").

The revision extols Galápagos National Park retired ranger Fausto Llerena Sánchez for 43 service years, from 1971 to 2014, conserving captive, endangered tortoises and tortoise habitats.

Similar appearances, behaviors and genetics fit members of one species even though "the taxonomy of Galapagos tortoises has long been debated" regarding species and subspecies possibilities. Eco-tourists historically give rare second thoughts to the longstanding classification of superficially similar Eastern and Western Santa Cruz Island tortoises into one species with no subspecies. Western Santa Cruz Island tortoises consistently hint of "higher anterior" openings, "larger overall" sizes and "relatively larger" carapaces than Don Fausto's Eastern Santa Cruz Island tortoises. Observations of domes, openings, plates and sizes by United States Geological Survey herpetologist Thomas H. Fritts and Charles Darwin Foundation researcher Cruz Márquez inspire current reorganizations.

sites of two species of Santa Cruz Island tortoises: La Reserva for Western tortoises and Cerro Fatal for Eastern tortoises; agricultural land (light gray area) connects two sites: N. Poulakakis et al., CC BY 4.0 International, via PLOS ONE

Twenty kilometers (12.43 miles) of agricultural clearings join Cerro Fatal to La Reserva in the interior of Santa Cruz Island, second largest in the Galápagos archipelago. It keeps Don Fausto's Eastern Santa Cruz Island tortoises on 40-square-kilometer (15.44-square miles) arid lowlands and Western Santa Cruz Island tortoises on 156-square-kilometer (60.23-square-mile) cloud-forest highlands.

Biogeographical and morphological differences lead James Gibb of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and 11 colleagues to DNA analysis. DNA analyses manipulate a carapace and a skull from Cerro Fatal in 1991 and 2010, "natural populations" and the Western Santa Cruz Island holotype from 1902. The study's authors note an absence of site specifics from the London Tring Museum in England regarding the Chelonoidis porteri specimen collected by Rollo Howard Beck.

The study observes that DNA analyses offer indications of the holotype occurring from hybridization between Eastern Santa Cruz Island tortoises and Western Santa Cruz Island tortoises.

The study provides Eastern Santa Cruz tortoises with separate binomial nomenclature, scientific description and species status since analyses present "allele frequency differences at 12 microsatellite loci." DNA analyses qualify hybrid populations along or in Cerro Fatal and La Reserva for the description Santa Cruz Island tortoise and for the name Chelonoidis porteri. Taxonomic accuracy requires redescribing and renaming Western Santa Cruz Island tortoises, "part of the oldest lineage in the archipelago (diverged ~ 1.74 million years ago, Mya)."

Daniel Mulcahy of Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History shies away from reclassifying hybrids, La Reserva and "much younger (~0.43 Mya)" Cerro Fatal populations. He tempers reluctance with “They were very careful in what they did and very thorough with the data they collected and the way they analyzed it."

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Eastern Santa Cruz tortoise (Chelonoidis donfaustoi), Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2014, 10:49: aposematic herpetologist from Ames IA, CC BY SA 2.0 Generic, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chelonoidis_donfaustoi_(15072109070).jpg; Andy Kraemer, CC BY SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/38984611@N03/15072109070/

retired park ranger Fausto Llerena Sánchez with giant tortoise, Santa Cruz Island, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 (Galápagos National Park handout via Reuters): El Espectador @elespectador, via Twitter Oct. 22, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/elespectador/status/656988356404867072

For further information:

The Economist @TheEconomist. 25 October 2015. "Meet Chelonoidis donfaustoi, a new species of Galapagos turtle -- and the man it's named after." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/TheEconomist/status/658503033786101760

El Espectador @elespectador. 21 October 2015. "(En imágenes) 'Chelonoidis donfaustoi', la nueva especie de tortuga gigante en Galápagos." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/elespectador/status/656988356404867072

Marriner, Derdriu. 22 October 2015. "Chelonoidis donfaustoi: Eastern Santa Cruz Giant Galápagos Tortoise." Wizzley > Pets & Animals > Reptiles & Amphibians > Tortoises.
Available @ https://wizzley.com/chelonoides-donfaustoi-eastern-santa-cruz-giant-gal-pagos-tortoise/

Parq. Nac. Galápagos @parquegalapagos. 21 October 2015. "En Galápagos se describe nueva especie de tortuga gigante, Chelonoidis donfaustoi, en honor a ese gran guardaparque." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/parquegalapagos/status/656919113781112832

Parq. Nac. Galápagos @parquegalapagos. 21 October 2015. "Nueva especie de tortuga descrita en #Galápagos. Su nombre: Chelonoidis donfaustoi." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/parquegalapagos/status/656923304142491648

Poulakakis, Nikos, et al. 21 October 2015. "Description of a New Galapagos Giant Tortoise Species (Chelonoidis; Testudines; Testudinidae) from Cerro Fatal on Santa Cruz Island." PLOS ONE. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138779
Available @ http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0138779

SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. 21 October 2015. "New giant tortoise species found in Galapagos." ScienceDaily > Releases.
Available @ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151021151357.htm

Preserved Skin and Feathers Link Ornithomimus Dinosaurs to Birds

Summary: Preserved skin and feathers link Ornithomimus bird-like dinosaurs to modern-day birds, according to a study in Cretaceous Research Oct. 28, 2015.

"This is an illustration of Ornithomimus based on the findings of preserved tail feathers and soft tissue"; credit Julius Csotonyi: Usage restrictions -- "Please ensure caption and credit info appear," via EurekAlert!

A study in the Oct. 28, 2015, edition of Cretaceous Research announces the discovery by a University of Alberta paleontology undergraduate of an Ornithomimus edmontonicus fossil with preserved feathers and skin.

The specimen becomes the third adult fossil from Alberta, Canada, to link bird-like dinosaurs to modern-day birds.

Wispy feathers cover the specimen’s back, chest, neck and tail even though they lack bird-like barbs or hooks to keep the plumage sufficiently air-resistant and stiff for flight. Both leg bones display fossilized soft tissue from the mid-thigh down to both clawed, three-toed feet.

Ornithomimus edmontonicus ("Edmontonian bird mimic") emerges as a beaked, big-brained, burly-legged, long-necked, long-tailed, small-headed, toothless, 2-meter- (6.56-foot-) tall omnivore that looks like a flightless, present-day bird.

As the fossil’s technician, the publication’s first author and a student with 10 years’ experience preparing museum fossils in Canada and the United States, Aaron J. van der Reest finds the 75-million-year-old specimen indicative of shared ancestry with modern-day birds and prehistoric dromaeosaurids (feathered running lizards).

Featherless soft tissue and long tail feathers give indications of convergent evolution with emus and ostriches.

Mr. van der Reest holds that “Ostriches use bare skin to thermoregulate. Because the plumage on this specimen is virtually identical to that of an ostrich, we can infer that Ornithomimus was likely doing the same thing, using feathered regions on their body to maintain body temperature. It would’ve looked a lot like an ostrich.”

Fluffiness is predicted from ornithomimid membership in the Coelurosauria (feathered hollow-tailed lizard) clade of alvarezsaurs, compsognathids, deinonychosaurs, ornithomimosaurs, oviraptorosaurs and tyrannosaurs.

The specimen that the study calls UALVP 52531 joins previous discoveries -- an adult with shafted feather-marked forearms, a juvenile with filamentous feathers and an adult with fuzzy feathers -- to confirm fuzziness in juvenile and mature ornithomimids and complex arm-feathers in adults.

As co-investigator of the discoveries from 1995, 2008 and 2009, Darla Zelenitsky of the University of Calgary’s department of geoscience knows of bird-like feathers and proto-wing forearms facilitating brooding, resting, and strutting functions: “We infer that because these wing feathers are not showing up until later in life, they were used for reproductive purposes.”

Mr. van der Reest’s two-year-long preparations of UALVP 52531, encased in rock since 2009 and missing forelimbs and head, lead to Royal Ontario Museum vertebrate paleontology curator David Evans’s pronouncement: “It is the most complete feathered dinosaur specimen found in North America to date.”

Alexander P. Wolfe, co-author and paleobiologist, mentions the “many components of the morphology of this fossil as well as the [electron microscopy-scanned, three-dimensional keratin] chemistry of the feathers that are essentially indistinguishable from modern birds.”

Mr. van der Reest notes regarding co-authorship with world-famous paleontologist Philip J. Currie and respecting UALVP 52531’s abdomen-to-thigh skin-webs predicting bird abdomen-to-knee skin-bridges: “This is my baby. I get to go as far as I can with it.”

UALVP 52531: UAlbertaScience @ualbertaScience, via Twitter Oct. 28, 2015

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

This is an illustration of Ornithomimus based on the findings of preserved tail feathers and soft tissue"; credit Julius Csotonyi: Usage restrictions -- "Please ensure caption and credit info appear," via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/746313; (EurekAlert! news release @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/860943); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/102142.php)

UALVP 52531: UAlbertaScience @ualbertaScience, via Twitter Oct. 28, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/ualbertaScience/status/659503726806343680

For further information:

111222sanya. 26 October 2012. "First feathered dinosaur Ornithomimus edmontonicus." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9DI1y4iZeg

Mostly Mammoths @MostlyMammoths. 29 October 2015. "Wow!! @UAlberta Aaron van der Reest finds fossil feathers, skin on ostrich-like dinosaur." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/MostlyMammoths/status/659765362343469056

Pascoe, Jennifer. 28 October 2015. "Prehistoric plumage patterns." University of Alberta Faculty of Science > News.
Available @ https://uofa.ualberta.ca/science/science-news/2015/october/prehistoric-plumage-patterns

UAlbertaScience @ualbertaScience. 28 October 2015. "Undergrad discovers plumage patterns, tightens link btw dinos and birds." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/ualbertaScience/status/659503726806343680

van der Reest, Aaron J., et al. March 2016. "A densely feathered ornithomimid (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Park Formation, Alberta, Canada." Cretaceous Research, vol. 58 (March 2016): 108-117. DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2015.10.004
Available @ http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195667115300847

Zelenitsky, Darla K., et al. 26 October 2012. "Feathered Non-Avian Dinosaurs from North America Provide Insights into Wing Origins." Science, vol. 338, no. 6106: 510-514.
Available @ https://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6106/510

Rosetta Finds Molecular Oxygen on Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko

Summary: Comet-chasing Rosetta finds molecular oxygen in Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko's gas cloud, according to a study published in Nature Oct. 29, 2015.

Detection of molecular oxygen by the Rosetta Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neutral Analysis Double-Focusing Mass Spectrometer (ROSINA-DFMS) during study period September 2014 to March 2015: spacecraft image credit ESA/ATG medialab, comet image credit ESA/Rosetta/NavCam, data credit André Bieler et al. ("Abundant Molecular Oxygen in the Coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko," Nature, vol. 526, issue 7575, published Oct. 29, 2015, pages 678-681): CC BY SA 3.0 Intergovernmental Organization, via NASA Scientific Visualization Studio

A study published Oct. 29, 2015, in Nature’s online issue announces the presence of molecular oxygen in the gas cloud surrounding comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Andre Bieler, University of Michigan Department of Climate and Space Science and Engineering physicist at Ann Arbor, and 32 co-authors base their findings on measurements made between September 2014 and March 2015 with ROSINA’s Double Focusing Mass Spectrometer on-board the Rosetta spacecraft.

Analysis of 3,193 mass spectra challenges current solar system formation models of the compound’s difficult, rare detection outside Earth, Jupiter’s moons (Callisto, Europa, Ganymede), Orion Nebula’s and Rho Ophiuchi’s star-forming clouds, and Saturn’s rings. Mainstream theories do not predict cometary molecular oxygen surviving the solar system’s formation 4.6 billion years ago.

Water, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and molecular oxygen emerge as the most abundant cometary elements. Kathrin Altwegg, University of Bern Center for Space and Habitability professor in Switzerland and study co-author, finds that “It is the most surprising discovery we have made so far at 67P because oxygen was not among the molecules suspected in a cometary coma.” Constant measurements despite variable solar winds, spacecraft position and ultraviolet radiation furnish evidence contrary to prevailing perceptions of molecular oxygen as quick to bond with hydrogen and resistant to embed within comets.

Michael A’Hearn, University of Maryland distinguished professor emeritus at College Park and Research Professor unaffiliated with the study, indicates that “How the oxygen got there is unclear.”

Sarah Hörst, Johns Hopkins University assistant professor at Baltimore and planetary scientist unaffiliated with the study, judges that molecular oxygen on Calliope, Europa and Ganymede recombines atoms after water splits into hydrogen and oxygen. Dr. Hörst keeps away from explanations that upend current solar system formation models since “There needs to be more work that needs to be done to show that it [the oxygen] isn’t just coming from chemistry in the comet.”

Photolysis and radiolysis lower or modify molecular oxygen and water ratios since ultraviolet radiation breaks bonds and solar wind ionizes molecules. The 33 co-researchers mention 67P’s out-gassing several meters of regolith (surface dust) without Rosetta’s Orbiter Spectrometer for Ion and Neural Analysis detecting decreases.

The study’s 33 co-authors note: “Given that radiolysis and photolysis, on any of the discussed timescales, do not seem to be plausible production mechanisms, the preferred explanation of our observations is the incorporation of primordial O2 into the cometary nucleus.“

The discovery offers possibilities for the detection of molecular oxygen on other comets as well as within interstellar clouds with comet-like temperatures of 20 to 30 degrees Kelvin (minus 423.67 degrees Fahrenheit to minus 405.67 degrees Fahrenheit/minus 253.15 degrees Celsius to minus 243.15 degrees Celsius). It prompts Dr. Altwegg to venture from cometary and solar system formation models and theories to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence: “On this comet we have both [O2 and methane], but we don’t have life. So having oxygen may not be a very good bio-signature [for exo-planets].”

mosaic of four images of comet 67P taken by Rosetta's navigation camera (NAVCAM), Friday, Sep. 19, 2014, at distance of 28.6 kilometers (17.8 miles) from comet's center: ESA/Rosetta//NAVCAM, CC BY SA 3.0 Intergovernmental Organization, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

mosaic of four images of comet 67P taken by Rosetta's navigation camera (NAVCAM), Friday, Sep. 19, 2014, at distance of 28.6 kilometers (17.8 miles) from comet's center; credit ESA/Rosetta//NAVCAM, CC BY SA 3.0 Intergovernmental Organization, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Comet_67P_on_19_September_2014_NavCam_mosaic.jpg;
CC BY SA 3.0 Intergovernmental Organization, via ESA Science & Technology @ https://sci.esa.int/web/rosetta/-/54679-comet-67p-on-19-september-2014-navcam-mosaic

For further information:

AFP. 28 October 2015. "Rosetta Finds Molecular Oxygen on Comet 67P (Update)." Phys.org > Astronomy & Space > Space Exploration.
Available @ http://phys.org/news/2015-10-rosetta-molecular-oxygen-comet-67p.html

Bauer, Markus, Kathrin Altwegg, Andre Bieler, Ewine van Dishoeck and Matt Taylor. 28 October 2015. "First detection of molecular oxygen at a comet." Rosetta / NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Available @ http://rosetta.jpl.nasa.gov/news/first-detection-molecular-oxygen-comet-0

Bieler, A., et al. 29 October 2015. "Abundant Molecular Oxygen in the Coma of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko." Nature 526 (Oct. 29, 2015): 678-681. DOI: 10.1038/nature15707
Available @ http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v526/n7575/full/nature15707.html

Cesare, Chris. 28 October 2015. "Rosetta Sniffs Oxygen around Comet 67P." Nature > News.
Available @ http://www.nature.com/news/rosetta-sniffs-oxygen-around-comet-67p-1.18658

Kramer, Miriam. 28 October 2015. "In a First, Scientists Detect Oxygen within Atmosphere of a Comet Hurtling through Space." Mashable.
Available @ http://mashable.com/2015/10/28/oxygen-found-in-comet-rosetta/#qOSaj_erFaqI

Pinkowski, Jen. 28 October 2015. "Scientists Discover Oxygen in a Comet." Mental Floss.
Available @ http://mentalfloss.com/article/70415/scientists-discover-oxygen-comet

Ranosa, Ted. 29 October 2015. "Rosetta Scientists Find Oxygen On Comet 67P: How This Gas Came To Be Formed On The Space Rock." Tech Times.
Available @ http://www.techtimes.com/articles/100907/20151029/rosetta-scientists-find-oxygen-on-comet-67p-how-this-gas-came-to-be-formed-on-the-space-rock.htm

"Rosetta Images of Comet 67P on April 5, 2016." NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.
Available @ https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30765

RT. 29 October 2015. "'Big Surprise': Rosetta Finds Primordial Oxygen on 67P Comet." RT > News.
Available @ https://www.rt.com/news/320007-rosetta-comet-oxygen-surprise/

Scalise, Joseph. 29 October 2015. "Stunning: Molecular Oxygen Discovered on Comet 67P." Science Recorder > News.
Available @ http://www.sciencerecorder.com/news/2015/10/29/stunning-molecular-oxygen-discovered-comet-67p/

Curiosity Follows the Water on Mars to Ancient Lake in Gale Crater

Summary: NASA's Curiosity follows the water on Mars to an ancient lake in Gale Crater, according to Mars Science Laboratory team's Oct. 9 report in Science.

Higher regions of Mount Sharp showing changing mineralogy (long ridge of hematite, undulating clay-rich plain, sulfate-rich rounded buttes); composite image obtained Wednesday, Sep. 9, 2015, by Curiosity; image addition date 2015-10-02; image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS: "PIA19912 Mount Sharp Comes In Sharply," May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal

MSL (Mars Science Laboratory) rover Curiosity’s successful follow-the-water exploration in Gale Crater finds Mount Sharp’s lower layers formed by sediment from lakes filling the crater over 3 billion years ago, according to a report by the MSL team published in Science on Oct. 9, 2015.

Located in the Southern Hemisphere near the Martian equator, Gale Carter presents ideal terrain for an ancient scenario of life-supporting, wet Mars. Alluvial fans, deltas, clay and sulfate byproducts of water, and layers of sediment all suggest the presence of water. Finely laminated, or layered, mudstone indicate standing water. Deposits from fast-moving streams and standing lake water seem to have built up Mount Sharp’s lower layers by filling in the underlying basin. The process of mountain building is thought to have taken place over a period of less than 500 million years.

Ashwin Vasavada, co-author and MSL project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, sums up Curiosity’s successful diggings: “Observations from the rover suggest that a series of long-lived streams and lakes existed at some point between about 3.8 to 3.3 billion years ago, delivering sediment that slowly built up the lower layers of Mount Sharp.”

Curiosity has been drilling for samples and gathering information on Mount Sharp since the car-sized rover’s arrival on Sept. 11, 2014, at Pahrump Hills, an outcrop serving as one of the mountain’s entryways. The sophisticated, car-sized rover’s original two-year mission began with its landing on Aolis Palus, the plain on Mount Sharp’s northern foothills, at 10:32 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Aug. 5, 2012.

On Dec. 4, 2012, NASA announced an indefinite extension to Curiosity’s mission of searching for evidence of microbial life on Mars. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) powers the $2.5 billion rover through heat conversion of plutonium-238’s radioactive decay into electricity.

John Grunsfled, NASA’s associate administer for science, gives an informed guess on Curiosity’s lifespan: “I never get a straight answer on this, but I think it has 55 years of positive power margin.”

Mount Sharp, known officially as Aeolis Mons, rises as Gale Crater’s central peak to a height of 3.4 miles (5.5 kilometers) above the crater’s northern floor and 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers) above the southern floor. With a sprawling diameter of 55+ miles (88+ kilometers), Mount Sharp dominates the crater’s 96-mile-diameter (154-kilometer-diameter) and roughly covers an area equal to that of the combined states of Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Water deposits appear to have formed the mountain’s lower layers, from the base up to one-half mile (800 meters). Dry, wind-driven deposits seem to be responsible for the bulk of Mount Sharp.

As with the big questions of the source for the water that sculpted the crater’s terrain and the triggers for the planet’s apparent change from anciently wet Mars to today’s dry Mars, Curiosity’s diggings show Mars as a big question mark.

“We have tended to think of Mars as being simple. We once thought of the Earth as being simple too," John Grotzinger, former MSL project scientist and the report’s lead author, notes. "But the more you look into it, questions come up because you’re beginning to fathom the real complexity of what we see on Mars. This is a good time to go back to reevaluate all our assumptions. Something is missing somewhere.”

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Curiosity's selfie of drilling in cross-bedded sandstone Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, at Big Sky site for mission's "fifth taste of Mount Sharp"; image addition date 2015-10-13; image credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS: "PIA19920 Curiosity Self-Portrait at 'Big Sky' Drilling Site," May be used for any purpose without prior permission, via NASA JPL Photojournal @ https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA19920;
Generally not subject to copyright in the United States, via NASA Science Mars Exploration @ https://science.nasa.gov/resource/curiosity-self-portrait-at-big-sky-drilling-site/; (NASA Science Mars Exploration image gallery URL @ http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/multimedia/images/?ImageID=7507)

For further information:

Clavin, Whitney. "NASA's Curiosity Rover Team Confirms Ancient Lakes on Mars." NASA > Mars. Oct. 8, 2015.
Available @ https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-curiosity-rover-team-confirms-ancient-lakes-on-mars

Grotzinger, J.P., et al. "Deposition, exhumation, and paleoclimate of an ancient lake deposit, Gale Crater, Mars." Science, vol. 350, issue 6257 (Oct. 9, 2015). DOI: 10.1126/science.aac7575
Available @ http://www.sciencemag.org/content/350/6257/aac7575

Klotz, Irene/Reuters. "NASA Mars rover finds clear evidence for ancient lakes." Review Journal. Oct. 8, 2015.
Available @ http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/nation-and-world/nasa-mars-rover-finds-clear-evidence-ancient-lakes