Two Cloned Boxer Puppies Look Like Dad and Are Named Chance and Shadow

Summary: The births of two cloned boxer puppies, named Chance and Shadow, make scientific history with DNA samples extracted 12 days after their dad's death.

Dylan passed away in June: Dylan Dog @WeLovedDylan, via Twitter Dec. 6, 2015

West Yorkshire couple Laura Jacques and Richard Remde are happily celebrating births of two cloned boxer puppies, born two days apart, Saturday, Dec. 26, and Monday, Dec. 28, and making scientific history with DNA extracted 12 days after their dad’s death.

David Kim, a scientist at Sooam, notes the milestone in cloning history: “This is the first case we have had where cells have been taken from a dead dog after a very long time. Hopefully it will allow us to extend the time after death that we can take cells for cloning.”

At Sooam, the newborn cloned puppies are tagged as 746 and 747. Jacques and Remde name Dylan’s cloned offspring after characters in Jacques’ favorite movie, Disney’s Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey. The firstborn of the two cloned boxer puppies, 746, is named Chance after the film’s rambunctious American bulldog. The second is named Shadow, after the film’s wise Golden Retriever.

Chance and Shadow are currently under quarantine at Sooam. Jacques and Remde are looking forward to welcoming the two cloned boxer puppies into their Silsden home in July 2016. They hope to provide continuity for the two cloned boxer puppies by adopting their surrogate mothers. The canine additions will join four other dogs and 11 other animals on the self-described “dog-mad” and “animal-mad” couple’s property.

The couple sees resemblances in markings between the two cloned boxer puppies and their DNA dad, Dylan, Jacques’ first dog. Jacques describes witnessing Chance’s caesarean birth:

“After they got him out I still couldn’t quite believe it had happened. But once he started making noises I knew it was real. Even as a puppy of just a few minutes old I can’t believe how much he looks like Dylan. All the colourings and patterns on his body are in exactly the same places as Dylan had them.”

Diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor, Dylan is given six to 18 months to live. Eighteen days after his diagnosis, 8-year-old Dylan dies unexpectedly of a heart attack.

While grieving, Jacques learns about Sooam Biotech Research Foundation’s commercial dog cloning service through “The £60,000 Puppy,” a 2014 game show on Channel 4 hosting a competition on behalf of Sooam for Britain’s first cloned dog.

First DNA samples taken from Dylan do not take. Second DNA samples are taken from Dylan 12 days after his death. Prior to Dylan, the turnaround time between death and DNA extraction usually is five days.

DNA from the second samples is inserted into eggs with no nucleus. The eggs are implanted into two surrogate mother dogs. Successful pregnancies are established in both mothers.

Sooam Biotech Research Foundation houses the only commercial dog-cloning laboratory in the world. The South Korean firm is credited with commercial production of more than 700 dogs. The current fee for the procedure is £67,000 ($100,000).

The two cloned boxer puppies both have births linked with Boxing Day, the holiday traditionally celebrated in Commonwealth nations the day after Christmas, on Dec. 26. When Boxing Day falls on a Saturday, the following Monday serves as a substitute bank holiday. The first of the two cloned boxer puppies is brought into the world by caesarean section Saturday, Dec. 26. The surrogate for the second of the two cloned boxer puppies goes into labor one day ahead of scheduled birth Tuesday, Dec. 29. The second cloned boxer puppy has a natural birth Monday, Dec. 28, the substitute Boxing Day bank holiday.

The couple is documenting the progress of their two cloned boxer puppies through a Twitter account, WeLovedDylan, created Dec. 6. After Chance’s caesarean birth, Jacques remembers Dylan, who now lives on through two cloned boxer puppies: “I had had Dylan since he was a puppy. I mothered him so much, he was my baby, my child, my entire world.”

(left to right) Richard Remde, Dr Hwang Woo-Suk and Laura Jacques: Dylan Dog @WeLovedDylan, via Twitter Dec. 26, 2015

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Dylan passed away in June: Dylan Dog @WeLovedDylan, via Twitter Dec. 6, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/WeLovedDylan/status/673587026151763968

(left to right) Richard Remde, Dr Hwang Woo-Suk and Laura Jacques: Dylan Dog @WeLovedDylan, via Twitter Dec. 26, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/WeLovedDylan/status/680776488170426368

For further information:

Dylan Dog @WeLovedDylan. 6 December 2015. "Hello, I'm Dylan the #Boxer dog and I've got a bit of a story to tell you." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/WeLovedDylan/status/673587026151763968

Dylan Dog @WeLovedDylan. 26 December 2015. "And they called it #PuppyLove." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/WeLovedDylan/status/680788925074554881

Dylan Dog‏ @WeLovedDylan. 26 December 2015. "#PuppyLove The pack of humans that helped my #Chance get born Richard and Laura /w Dr Hwang Woo-Suk @SooamBiotech." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/WeLovedDylan/status/680776488170426368

Dylan Dog @WeLovedDylan. 29 December 2015. "#PuppyLove. See? Here is my little ones on VIDEO in @guardian." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/WeLovedDylan/status/681959611059073025

Inside Edition. 29 December 2015. "Couple Gets Two Puppies After Spending $100,000 To Clone Deceased Dog." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ7lmWZEfw4

Taylor, Diane. 28 December 2015. "British couple overjoyed at birth of second cloned puppy." The Guardian > Science.
Available @ https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/dec/28/second-cloned-puppy-birth-british-couple-overjoyed

Taylor, Diane, and Met Haywood. 23 December 2015. "How we cloned our dead boxer dog Dylan - video." The Guardian > Science.
Available @ http://www.theguardian.com/science/video/2015/dec/23/how-we-cloned-our-dead-boxer-dog-dylan-video

Geneticists Find for Ancient Irish Near East and Pontic Steppe Origins

Summary: Geneticists at Ireland’s Trinity College and Northern Ireland’s Queen’s University Belfast find for the ancient Irish Near East and Pontic Steppe origins.

"Caption This is a reconstruction of the Ballynahatty Neolithic skull by Elizabeth Black. Her genes tell us she had black hair and brown eyes."; reconstruction of Ballynahatty Neolithic skull by Elizabeth Black; credit Barrie Hartwell: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert!

Human genome sequences are identifying for the ancient Irish Near East and Pontic Steppe origins, according to data published Dec. 28, 2015, in the online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Four co-investigators at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and three at Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland, base their findings upon Early Bronze Age and Neolithic remains. Extractible DNA conserves sufficient information for Barrie Hartwell, co-author and senior research fellow at Queen’s University Belfast, to reconstruct head-and-throat views of a dark-haired, brown-eyed lass. It derives from a Neolithic woman whose remains, preserved through a megalithic burial between about 3343 and 3020 B.C., were discovered in Northern Ireland in 1855.

Analysis establishes the Neolithic female’s farming pursuits.

The Lebor Gabhàla from the ninth century A.D. finds Ireland’s pre-history one of invasions subsequent to the megalithic (“built with great stones”) tomb-builders of 3500 B.C.

The Book of Invasions gives earliest Celtic immigrations to the Cruithnigh from ancient Scotland in 600 B.C. and the Euerni from continental Europe in 500 B.C. It has the third wave of Celtic immigrants, the spear-bearing Laighin, migrate from what is now western Normandy, France, to the Emerald Isle in 300 B.C. It identifies as the fourth wave Gaelic-speaking Feni fleeing Roman expansion into Gaul and receiving the Emerald islander names Connachta (“Conn’s people”) and Eoghanacht (“Owen’s people”).

Early Bronze Age male and Neolithic female remains join to demystify pre-Celtic Ireland.

Linguists and philologists know of Celtic as an ancient language, with Eurasian geo-origins and ties to China’s light-eyed, light-haired, tall, Tocharian language-speaking Tarim River Basin mummies.

Archaeologists and paleo-anthropologists list among ways of tracking Celtic migrations from Eurasia to Ireland following evidence of defensible fortifications, salt extraction, trained horses and woven textiles. They mull whether the introduction of agriculture among hunter-gatherers in 3750 B.C. and of metallurgy among farmers in 2300 B.C. recognizes cultural adoption or population change. They note haplogroup genealogy-extracted answers in Neolithic Ballynahatty and on Rathlin Island, County Antrim, from Early Bronze Age cist-burial remains of about 2026 to 1534 B.C.

Female-transmitted mitochondrial and male-transmitted Y-chromosome DNA offer genealogical and genetic reconstructions from prehistory.

Neolithic sequencing proves shared alleles (alternative genes) with Luxembourg’s ancient hunter-gatherers, genetic drift with ancient Scandinavians and Spaniards and HV0 membership with ancient French and Germans. It qualifies the Neolithic Irish as descendants of the Near East’s (west Asia’s) ancient migrant farmers and relatives of the southwest Mediterranean’s ancient Sardinians and Spaniards.

Early Bronze Age sequencing reveals mitochondrial J2b and U5 and Y-chromosome R1b1a2a1a2c, R1b1a2a1a2c1 and R1b1a2a1a2c1g haplogroups as milk-drinkers prone to cystic fibrosis and hemochromatosis (dietary iron-retention). It suggests descendants of ancient Eurasians from the Caucasus Mountains and of Yamnaya herders with Pontic Steppe origins and relatives of ancient English, Scots, and Welsh.

Light-haired Yamnaya immigrants turn the Irish into blue-eyed speakers of a Celtic language.

Ballynahatty Skull; "Caption Excavated near Belfast in 1855, she had lain in a Neolithic tomb chamber for 5,000 years; subsequently curated in Queens University Belfast."credit Daniel Bradley, Trinity College Dublin: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert!

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

"This is a reconstruction of the Ballynahatty Neolithic skull by Elizabeth Black. Her genes tell us she had black hair and brown eyes."; reconstruction of Ballynahatty Neolithic skull by Elizabeth Black; credit Barrie Hartwell: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/706355; (EurekAlert! news release @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/786647); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/105943.php?from=315215)

Ballynahatty Skull; "Caption Excavated near Belfast in 1855, she had lain in a Neolithic tomb chamber for 5,000 years; subsequently curated in Queens University Belfast."; credit Daniel Bradley, Trinity College Dublin: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/706354; (EurekAlert! news release @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/786647); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/105942.php?from=315215)

For further information:

Cassidy, Lara M.; Rui Martiniano; Eileen M. Murphy; Matthew D. Teasdale; James Mallory; Barrie Hartwell; and Daniel G. Bradley. Published Ahead of Print 28 December 2015. “Neolithic and Bronze Age Migration to Ireland and Establishment of the Insular Atlantic Genome.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 113, no. 2 (Jan. 12, 2016): 368-373. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1518445113
Available @ http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2015/12/22/1518445113
Available @ http://www.pnas.org/content/113/2/368.full

Cullen, Paul. 28 December 2015. “Ancient Irish Had Middle Eastern Ancestry, Study Reveals.” The Irish Times > News.
Available @ http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/ancient-irish-had-middle-eastern-ancestry-study-reveals-1.2478780

Feltman, Rachel. 29 December 2015. “Ancient Irish Genome Reveals a Massive Migration from the East.” The Washington Post > Speaking of Science.
Available @ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/12/29/ancient-irish-genome-reveals-a-massive-migration-from-the-east/

Goenka, Himanshu. 29 December 2015. “Ancient Irish Genome Sequenced by Scientists, Reveals Massive Migration.” International Business Times > World.
Available @ http://www.ibtimes.com/ancient-irish-genome-sequenced-scientists-reveals-massive-migration-2242283

Marriner, Derdriu. “The Oldest Aged Kefir Cheese and the Tarim River Basin Mummies of Xiaohe Mudi in Northwest China.” Wizzley > Travel & Places.
Available @ https://wizzley.com/the-oldest-aged-kefir-cheese-and-the-tarim-river-basin-mummies-of-xiaohe-mudi-in-northwest-china/

Osborne, Hannah. 29 December 2015. “Ancient Irish Genomes Show Mass Migration to Emerald Isle from Middle East and Europe.” International Business Times > Science > Anthropology.
Available @ http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/ancient-irish-genomes-show-mass-migration-emerald-isle-middle-east-europe-1535224

Rincon, Paul. 28 December 2015. “Ancient DNA Sheds Light on Irish Origins.” BBC News > Science > Science & Environment.
Available @ http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35179269

Social IrishCentral. 29 December 2015. "Reading the past in ancient Irish genomes." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N6_iHAo3LY

888 Million California Trees Experience Drought Related Water Losses

Summary: Since 2011, up to 888 million California trees are experiencing drought related water losses, according to a study published online Monday, Dec. 28.

"Caption This image shows mixed levels of drought stress in a forested landscape in California."; image courtesy of Greg Asner: Usage restrictions -- With credit, via EurekAlert!

Current laser-guided imaging spectroscopy and historical satellite data reveal that, between 2011 and 2015, up to 888 million California trees on approximately 10.6 million hectares (40,926+ square miles) of forest are experiencing measurable, drought-related canopy water losses.

In a study published online Monday, Dec. 28, 2015, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, six researchers in Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Global Ecology find that drought-driven, severe reductions in ground water, reservoir stocks, snowpack and soil moisture are impacting progressively up to 888 million California trees. Of about 10.6 million hectares of affected forests, over 1 million hectares (3,861 square miles), with up to 58 million large California trees, measure severe canopy water losses of greater than 30 percent. Up to 412 million of the 888 California trees, covering an area of 5.4 million hectares (20,849.5 square miles), show canopy water losses of at least 10 percent.

In order to distinguish drought-related water losses from fire damage losses, the researchers exclude from their measurements fire-affected forested areas reported by the US Forest Service for 2011 to 2015. Low-altitude visual mapping studies conducted by the US Forest Service yield an estimated 27 million tree deaths from forest fires for that time period.

California’s approximately 13.4 million hectares (51,737.69 square miles) of forests are critical to the state’s globally important economy and population in excess of 38 million.

The researchers note: “Forests of California are of particular interest because they include the tallest, most massive, and oldest trees on Earth, as well as provide a wide variety of goods and services to the state of California and the world.”

The Carnegie Airborne Observatory (CAO) enables the researchers to gather canopy water content (CWC) data for 1.8 million hectares (6,949.8 square miles) via 12 days of flight operations in August 2015. Canopy water content represents the total amount of liquid water in the canopy’s foliage. The canopy’s water content reveals the progressive effects of drought on the canopy and also predicts foliage flammability.

"Caption Greg Asner works on the fixed-wing Carnegie Airborne Observatory."; image courtesy Robin Kempster: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert!

Flown onboard a fixed-wing aircraft, the observatory uses laser-guided high-fidelity imaging spectroscopy (HiFIS), a data-fusion technique that measures canopy water content and projects the forest data in three dimensions. High-fidelity imaging spectroscopy analyzes spectral, or wavelength, radiance reflected from the land surface. The Carnegie Airborne Observatory combines high-fidelity spectral measurements with dual-laser waveform LiDAR (light + radar) scans to produce high-resolution, 3-D maps of forest biochemistry.

The researchers use statewide multivariate satellite, compiled for 2011, 2013 and 2014, to create a retrospective estimate of canopy water content changes. The historical satellite data combines with airborne observatory findings to produce a model of forest canopy physiological responses to progressive drought from 2011 to 2015.

The co-authors conclude: “If drought conditions continue or reoccur, even with temporary reprieves such as El Niño, we predict substantial future forest change.”

"Caption This image shows progressive water stress on California's forests."; black areas are fire-affected forested areas reported by US Forest Service between 2011 and 2015 and are excluded from study's measurements; image courtesy of Greg Asner: Usage restrictions -- With credit, via EurekAlert!

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

"This image shows mixed levels of drought stress in a forested landscape in California."; image courtesy of Greg Asner: Usage restrictions -- With credit, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/596706; (EurekAlert! news release URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/583690); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/105934.php?from=315207)

"Caption Greg Asner works on the fixed-wing Carnegie Airborne Observatory."; image courtesy Robin Kempster: No usage restrictions, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/689213; (EurekAlert! news release URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/757758); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/96365.php?from=302469)

"Caption This image shows progressive water stress on California's forests."; black areas are fire-affected forested areas reported by US Forest Service between 2011 and 2015 and are excluded from study's measurements; image courtesy of Greg Asner: Usage restrictions -- With credit, via EurekAlert! @ https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/596707; (EurekAlert! news release URL @ https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/583690); (former URL @ http://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/105933.php?from=315207)

For further information:

Asner, Gregory P., et al. "Progressive forest canopy water loss during the 2012-2015 California drought." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 113, no. 2 (Jan. 12, 2016): E249-E255. Published online before print Dec. 28, 2015. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1523397113
Available @ http://www.pnas.org/content/113/2/E249.full

"Tens Of Millions Of Trees In Danger From California Drought." Carnegie Institution for Science > Science News. Dec. 28, 2015.
Available @ https://carnegiescience.edu/news/tens-millions-trees-danger-california-drought

Smog Smothering Northeastern China Triggers 10 City Red Alerts

Summary: Smog smothering coal-reliant northeastern China prompts 10 city red alerts, China's Ministry of Environmental Protection explains Wednesday, Dec. 23.

Protective masks shield China's population, at home and abroad, from air pollution; Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009, 12:13:21: Nicolò Lazzati (Nicolò Lazzati Photography), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Hazardous smog blanketing coal-reliant northeastern China sparks 10 city red alerts, according to a statement released Wednesday evening, Dec. 23, 2015, by China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection.

The 10 city red alerts apply to more than 100 million people and affect three provinces and one direct-controlled municipality. The Ministry identifies the ten cities as Tianjin direct-controlled municipality; Handan, Hengshui, Langfang, and Xinji in Hebei province; Anyang, Puyang, and Xinxiang in Henan province; Dezhou and Xintai in Shandong province.

The Ministry’s announcement also directs six unnamed major cities to evaluate their warning systems.

Red alerts signify that hazardous air pollution, at levels in excess of 300, is expected to last for at least three consecutive days. Red alerts trigger construction halts, factory closings, school shutdowns and drastic traffic reductions. An even-odd license number traffic control system cuts private vehicle use in half during red alerts. Residents are advised to remain indoors as much as possible and to reduce outdoor ventures to essential activities.

The red alert is the highest in China’s four-level emergency pollution warning system. The ten city red alerts follow two red alerts this month. Beijing’s second ever red alert of Saturday, Dec. 19, closely succeeds Beijing’s first ever red alert of Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015.

The announcement of the ten city red alerts occurs the day after the cancellation of Beijing’s second ever red alert at midnight on Tuesday, Dec. 22. A cold front dissipating Beijing’s hazardous smog does not rescue nearby provinces from air pollution.

Levels of toxic PM2.5 register as high as 727 micrograms per cubic meter in Xinjiang in Henan province on Thursday, Dec. 24. The maximum level of exposure recommended by the World Health Organization is almost 30 times less, at 25 micrograms over a 24-hour period, than Xinjiang’s counts.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection’s air quality status for November 2015 identifies Langfang as one of three cities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region with a mean monthly PM2.5 reading that is significantly elevated in comparison to November 2014. Also, Luo Yi, director general of the Ministry’s Department of Environmental Monitoring, notes that the region’s mean monthly reading of PM2.5 is much higher for November 2015 than for the previous month, October 2015.

PM2.5 refers to microscopic atmospheric particles that are smaller than 2.5 micrometers. Their microscope size allows the particles to enter the human blood stream and to embed deep in lungs. The particles are responsible for serious illnesses, such as cardiovascular and respiratory ailments.

According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, seven of the ten worst air quality cities in 2014 are located in Hebei province. Industrial Hebei province surrounds Beijing as well as Tianjin and contributes heavily to the smog blanketing both the capital and Northern China’s largest port. Four of the ten city red alerts announced on Dec. 23 place in 2014’s top ten list. Hebei province’s Handan is ranked as fifth, Hengshui as sixth, and Langfang as eighth most polluted cities. Tianjin is in tenth place.

Children cover their noses Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015, amid heavy smog in Binzhou, near industrial port of Tianjin, Shandong province, eastern China (credit: AFP): BBC News (World) @BBCWorld, via Twitter Dec. 24, 2015

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Protective masks shield China's population, at home and abroad, from air pollution; Thursday, Dec. 3, 2009, 12:13:21: Nicolò Lazzati (Nicolò Lazzati Photography), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ www.flickr.com/photos/the-niki/4331676192

Children cover,their noses Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015, amid heavy smog in Binzhou, near industrial port of Tianjin, Shandong province, eastern China (credit: AFP): BBC News (World) @BBCWorld, via Twitter Dec. 24, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/679936116267610112

For further information:

BBC News (World) @BBCWorld. "Chinese authorities advise people in 10 cities to stay indoors after hazardous smog sparks red alerts." Twitter. Dec. 24, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/679936116267610112

"Beijing issues first red alert for smog." Ecns.cn. Dec. 8, 2015.
Available @ http://www.ecns.cn/2015/12-08/191614.shtml

"China names 10 most polluted cities." China Daily > China. Feb. 2, 2015.
Available @ http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2015-02/02/content_19466412.htm

"China smog sparks red alerts in 10 cities." BBC News > World > Asia-China. Dec. 24, 2015.
Available @ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35173709

Marriner, Derdriu. "Chinese Bubble Families Seek Safety Bubbles of Air and Water Purifiers." Earth and Space News. Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/chinese-bubble-families-seek-safety.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "First-Ever Beijing Red Alert Slows China's Capital on Tuesday, Dec. 8." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/first-ever-beijing-red-alert-slows.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Hazardous Air Pollution Levels Trigger Orange Alert for Beijing." Earth and Space News. Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/hazardous-air-pollution-levels-trigger.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Second-Ever Beijing Red Alert Dec. 19 Less Than Two Weeks After First." Earth and Space News. Friday, Dec. 18, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/second-ever-beijing-red-alert-on.html

"MEP releases air quality status of key regions and 74 cities in November." Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China > News and Media Service > News Release. Dec. 13, 2015.
Available @ http://english.mep.gov.cn/News_service/news_release/201512/t20151217_319465.htm

Deciphering the Moon via Unusual Basaltic Data Beamed by a Jade Rabbit

Summary: Unusual basaltic data beamed by Chinese moon rover Yutu ("Jade Rabbit") after an Imbrium Basin landing Dec. 14, 2013, aids in deciphering the moon.

China's Chang'e 3 mission soft lands Yutu ("Jade Rabbit"), a moon rover that quickly locates unusual basaltic rocks near CE-3 landing site: "Jade Rabbit Hops on the Moon, after Cui Bai": Mike Licht (Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

Unusual basaltic data beamed by China’s moon rover, Yutu (“Jade Rabbit”), after a soft landing in the basalt-riddled Imbrium Basin on Dec. 14, 2013, is aiding in deciphering the moon through glimpses of late-stage volcanism on Earth’s moon.

The ground truth that emerges from Yutu’s data is a distinct mineral signature for basaltic rocks that connects with late-stage volcanic activity on the moon. Basaltic ilmenite samples in Zi Wei crater, near the rover’s landing site in the moon’s northern hemisphere, register unusual, intermediate concentrations of titanium. The levels differ from the very high and very low extremes measured in lunar samples collected by Apollo and Luna missions in the 1970s. As a late crystallizer, ilmenite is associated with more recent, rather than earlier, stages of volcanic activity.

Understanding lunar volcanism helps scientists in deciphering the moon within the context of early formation of the Earth and its only natural satellite. Volcanic activity coughs up deep-down materials that form at different stages. Profiling the moon’s composition yields insights into its still mysterious formation. Composite materials came from somewhere to form the moon. Identifying the moon’s mineral assemblage may indicate the source in the solar system. For example, the Giant Impact Hypothesis, a leading scenario for the moon’s origins, suggests the formation of the moon from a collision about 4.5 billion years ago between Early Earth and Theia, a Mars-sized astronomical body. The hypothesis awaits disproving or proving through such evidence as similar mineral signatures.

As part of China’s Chang’e 3 mission,Yutu collects its unusual basaltic data from four locations within Zi Wei crater. The unusual results support findings by remote sensings, the only source for lunar surface studies since the ending of NASA’s Apollo program in 1972 and of the former Soviet Union’s Luna programme in 1976. Yutu’s efforts toward deciphering the moon represent the first onsite exploration of the lunar surface in over 37 years.

Zi Wei crater’s location within Mare Imbrium (Imbrium Basin) is an ideal region for analyzing prolific volcanism. Top lava flows from the Eratosthenian period of 3,200 million to 1,100 million years ago at Imbrium’s surface have an interpreted length of 745.6 miles (1,200 kilometers) and thickness of 32.8 to 196.85 feet (10 to 60 meters).

Seventeen co-authors of a study of Yutu’s data published online Dec. 22, 2015, in Nature Communications describe the Chang’e 3 landing site’s ideal location for deciphering the Moon: “Serial eruptions flooded the Imbrium basin from ~3.5Ga to ~2Ga, making this region of great scientific value for the detection of lava variations during extended volcanic activity.”

The region’s relative youthfulness, of around 2.96 billion years, stated geologically as 2.96Ga (gigayears or billions of years), and its confirmed intermediate titanium concentrations yield valuable data for deciphering the moon as a significant astronomical body in the solar system.

Seventeen co-authors, representing China’s Shandong University, China University of Geosciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Washington University in St. Louis, conclude from data beamed by a Jade Rabbit that “The chemical and mineralogical information of the CE-3 landing site provides new ground truth for some of the youngest volcanism on the Moon.”

view of the Chang'e 3 lander (large arrow) and Yutu rover (small arrow): NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Narrow Angle Camera, Public Domain, 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:

China's Chang'e 3 mission soft lands Yutu ("Jade Rabbit"), a moon rover that quickly locates unusual basaltic rocks near CE-3 landing site: "Jade Rabbit Hops on the Moon, after Cui Bai": Mike Licht (Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ www.flickr.com/photos/notionscapital/11372850544/

view of the Chang'e 3 lander (large arrow) and Yutu rover (small arrow): NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera Narrow Angle Camera, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chang%27e_3_landing_site.png

For further information:

Botkin-Kowacki, Eva. "China's 'Jade Rabbit' rover finds curious substance on moon." Christian Science Monitor > Science > First Look. Dec. 22, 2015.
Available @ http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2015/1222/China-s-Jade-Rabbit-rover-finds-curious-substance-on-moon

Ling, Zongcheng, et al. "Correlated compositional and mineralogical investigations at the Chang'e landing site." Nature Communications, vol. 6 (Dec. 22, 2015): article 8880. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9880
Available @ http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151222/ncomms9880/full/ncomms9880.html

Marriner, Derdriu. "Chinese Moon Rover Yutu Finds New Moon Rocks in Purple Palace Crater." Earth and Space News. Monday, Dec. 28, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/chinese-moon-rover-yutu-finds-new-moon.html

wochit News. "Chinese Rover Discovers New Moon Rock." YouTube. Dec. 22, 2015.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdjAdaOS3Ow

Japan Defense Expenditures Increased in Fiscal Year 2016 Draft Budget

Summary: For Japan defense expenditures keep claiming higher percentages of overall budgets through the “Abenomics” of a militarily, socio-economically secure Japan.

Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe, University College London (UCL), Thursday, May 1, 2014; Japan's Prime Minister gave the keynote speech at the Japan-UK Conference "Collaboration in Research and Education," co-hosted by UCL and the Embassy of Japan in the UK: HM Government's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Open Government Licence version 1.0 (OGL v.1.0), via Wikimedia Commons

For Japan defense expenditures are increasing for the fourth straight year under Shinzō Abe, Liberal Democratic Party leader and 57th Prime Minister, according to announcements in the Japanese press Dec. 24, 2015.

The approval by the State of Japan’s cabinet brings the general-account budget for the fiscal year starting in April 2016 a step closer to final passage. The draft budget comes before the two chamber-legislative lower House of Representatives and upper House of Councillors in Japan's unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy Jan. 4, 2016. Concerns over aging populations, local economies and national security direct greater expenditures on defense, tourism and welfare in anticipation of projected tax and tourist revenue increases.

Officials expect budgetary enactment by March 2016.

The budget furnishes for Japan defense expenditures increased by 1.5 percent over the previous fiscal year in order to comply with legislation passed in summer 2015. The parliamentary legislation gives Japan’s military authority to assist allies under attack, to defend the disputed Senkaku Islands, to launch ballistic missiles and to strengthen intelligence-gathering.

The draft budget has a potentially controversial application if ally assistance leads to sending maritime forces to support U.S. freedom-of-navigation operations in the South China Sea. Such an application is opposed by Prime Minister Abe and through rare public demonstrations since China claims more than 80 percent of the sea’s shipping routes.

Deterrence, effective response and security join to claim 5 percent of budgeted expenditures.

Ministry of Defense purchases and U.S. troop realignments keep national security expenditures at 5.1 trillion yen ($42 billion) of the 96.7 trillion-yen ($799.9 billion) draft budget.

Allocations list Abe's plane among 23 billion-yen midair-refueling aircraft, 103 billion-yen patrol helicopters, 108 billion-yen fighter jets, 143 billion-yen unmanned drones and 173 billion-yen antiballistic missiles. The 1.5 percent increase over the previous fiscal year’s spending makes it possible for the Ministry of Defense to address cyber and outer space security concerns. The budget needs to prioritize other national concerns, which the cabinet-approved draft does by doubling spending on tourism to 20 billion to attract 30 million tourists.

Other prioritizations occur where non-defense “arrows” in the three-arrowed “Abenomics” promote fiscal health.

Aging populations, existing infrastructure and U.S. influences prompt increases to 31.9 billion for social security, 551.9 billion for developing countries and 5.97 trillion for public works.

Bank of Japan and private-sector economists question the draft’s projection of a 25-year high through 57.6 trillion-yen tax revenues from strong corporate profits and weak yen. The bond issuance to budgeted revenues reveals its lowest ratio in nine years while the national debt rises to more than twice the gross national product. Abenomics situates fiscal health in 1.4 fertility rates increased to 1.8, 600 trillion-yen gross domestic product raised by 20 percent and surpluses replacing primary balance deficits.

For Japan defense expenditures turn upon controlling debts, generating revenues and problem-solving Fukushima.

Fiscal year 2016-2017 budget increases defense expenditures by 1.5 percent over those of the previous fiscal year: The Diplomat @Diplomat_APAC, via Twitter Dec. 28, 2015

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe, University College London (UCL), Thursday, May 1, 2014; Japan's Prime Minister gave the keynote speech at the Japan-UK Conference "Collaboration in Research and Education," co-hosted by UCL and the Embassy of Japan in the UK: HM Government's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Open Government Licence version 1.0 (OGL v.1.0), via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prime_Minister_of_Japan_(13895799989).jpg;
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/foreignoffice/

Fiscal year 2016-2017 budget increases defense expenditures by 1.5 percent over those of the previous fiscal year: The Diplomat @Diplomat_APAC, via Twitter Dec. 28, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/Diplomat_APAC/status/681459664060563456

For further information:

AP/Kyodo. 24 December 2015. “Cabinet Approves Record ¥96.7 Trillion Budget for Fiscal 2016.” Japan Times > News > National > Politics.
Available @ http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/12/24/national/politics-diplomacy/japans-cabinet-oks-record-¥96-7-trillion-fiscal-2016-budget-focused-welfare-fiscal-health/#.VowkCfmrC50

The Diplomat @Diplomat_APAC. 28 December 2015. "Japan Approves Record Defense Budget for 2016/2017." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/Diplomat_APAC/status/681459664060563456

“Japan Cabinet Approves JPY 96.7 Trillion Budget for Fiscal 2016.” RTT News > Economy > Asian Economic News.
Available @ http://www.rttnews.com/2594600/japan-cabinet-approves-jpy-96-7-trillion-budget-for-fiscal-2016.aspx

PressTV News Videos. 24 December 2015. "Japan govt. OKs record defense budget." YouTube.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEpAAgOGg20

Sharp, Andy. 24 December 2015. “Japan Approves Record Defense Budget as China’s Presence Grows. Bloomberg.
Available @ http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-24/japan-approves-record-defense-budget-as-china-s-presence-grows

Chinese Moon Rover Yutu Finds New Moon Rocks in Purple Palace Crater

Summary: Chinese moon rover Yutu discovers new moon rocks, with interesting concentration levels, in Purple Palace crater, officially named Zi Wei crater.

Figure 1: Location of the Chang'e-3 landing site (a) Chang'e-1 CCD image with boundaries of typical mare basalt units; (b) Chang'e-2 CCD image and (c) LROC NAC image (LROC NAC M1142582775R); (d) The traverse map of the Yutu rover and the locations of APXS and VNIS measurements, (e) Panoramic view of the ‘Zi Wei’ crater by the Panoramic Camera on the Yutu rover at the CE3-0008 site: Zongcheng Ling et al., CC BY 4.0 International, via Nature Communications

Earth’s moon becomes more interesting with new moon rocks discovered by Chinese moon rover Yutu in Zi Wei crater, nicknamed Purple Palace, after landing in the moon’s northern hemisphere on Dec. 14, 2013, according to findings published online Dec. 22, 2015, in Nature Communications.

Yutu's landing site in the northern part of the lava-rich Imbrium Basin is ideally located near a relatively young lava-flow crater, nicknamed Purple Palace and officially named Zi Wei crater. The crater's loose surface materials, known as regolith, form a thin layer that is undisturbed by debris from other lunar sites. The purity of Zi Wei's regolith reveals the composition of the crater's underlying volcanic bedrock.

An analysis of Yutu’s 32 days of surface operations by the study’s 17 researchers identifies mineral concentrations in the crater’s basalts, which are dark, fine-grained, volcanically-formed rocks. Concentrations differ from levels in samples collected in the 1970s by NASA’s Apollo astronauts and the former Soviet Union’s Luna probes.

Yutu’s Active Particle-Induced X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS) register extremely high concentrations of calcium oxide, rich levels of iron oxide and intermediate concentrations of titanium dioxide. Apollo and Luna samples yield only extreme levels, either very high or very low, of titanium dioxide. Apollo and Luna samples link to the moon’s peak volcanism of 3 to 4 billion years ago. Yutu’s data for new moon rocks concern more recent lava flows from 3 billion years ago or less.

“We now have ‘ground truth’ for our remote sensing, a well-characterized sample in a key location,” says co-author Bradley L. Jolliff, the Scott Rudolph Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. “We see the same signal from orbit in other places, so we now know that those other places probably have similar basalts.”

With its predictable occurrence in igneous, or volcanic, rocks, titanium is a key indicator to understanding the moon’s volcanic history. Titanium’s varying concentrations in weight from less than 1 percent to over 15 percent reveal differences in mantle source regions deriving from the cooling of the moon’s supposed early magma ocean.

Titanium’s occurrences in ilmenite (FeTiO3) around Yutu’s landing site reflect the area’s relative youthfulness. Ilmenite crystallizes at a late stage in volcanic activity, with only about 5 percent of the original magma melt left.

Yutu’s exploration covers 374 feet ( 114 meters) of the young crater. Zi Wei has a diameter of about 1,476 feet (450 meters).

Yutu’s journey to the moon occurs during the Chang’e 3 mission launched by the China National Space Administration as the second phase of the three-phase Chinese Lunar Exploration Program. Chang’e 3 mission objectives include a soft landing and exploration of the moon’s surface topography. The mission’s name honors the Chinese goddess of the moon, originally known as Heng’e.

China’s first lunar rover receives its name from an online poll. Yutu literally means “Jade Rabbit.” The rover’s name honors the moon goddess’s mythological rabbit, known also during China’s golden age Han dynasty (206 BCE to 220 CE) as Gold Rabbit.

Yutu's discovery of new moon rocks sheds new light on Earth's moon. The distinct mineral profile of Chang'e 3's landing site's new moon rocks aids in understanding the processes involved in the moon's formation.

“The diversity tells us that the Moon’s upper mantle is much less uniform in composition than Earth’s,” co-author Bradley L. Jolliff explains. “And correlating chemistry with age, we can see how the Moon’s volcanism changed over time.”

Yutu rover's discovery occurred in Purple Palace crater, officially named Zi Wei crater: Guardian Science @guardianscience, via Twitter Dec. 22, 2015

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

Figure 1: Location of the Chang'e-3 landing site (a) Chang'e-1 CCD image with boundaries of typical mare basalt units; (b) Chang'e-2 CCD image and (c) LROC NAC image (LROC NAC M1142582775R); (d) The traverse map of the Yutu rover and the locations of APXS and VNIS measurements, (e) Panoramic view of the ‘Zi Wei’ crater by the Panoramic Camera on the Yutu rover at the CE3-0008 site: Zongcheng Ling et al., CC BY 4.0 International, via Nature Communications @ http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151222/ncomms9880/fig_tab/ncomms9880_F1.html; specific image URL @ https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9880/figures/1

Yutu rover's discovery occurred in Purple Palace crater, officially named Zi Wei crater: Guardian Science @guardianscience, via Twitter Dec. 22, 2015, @ https://twitter.com/guardianscience/status/679331856228028416

For further information:

Guardian Science‏ @guardianscience. "New type of moon rock discovered by Chinese lunar lander." Twitter. Dec. 22, 2015.
Available @ https://twitter.com/guardianscience/status/679331856228028416

Ling, Zongcheng, et al. "Correlated compositional and mineralogical investigations at the Chang'e landing site." Nature Communications, vol. 6 (Dec. 22, 2015): article 8880. DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9880
Available @ http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2015/151222/ncomms9880/full/ncomms9880.html

Lutz, Diana. "Chinese rover analyzes Moon rocks: First new 'ground truth' in 40 years." Washington University in St. Louis The Source > Newsroom. Dec. 22, 2015.
Available @ https://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/Chinese-rover.aspx

Marriner, Derdriu. "Deciphering the Moon via Unusual Basaltic Data Beamed by a Jade Rabbit." Earth and Space News. Monday, Dec. 28, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/12/deciphering-moon-via-unusual-basaltic.html

wochit News. "Chinese Rover Discovers New Moon Rock." YouTube. Dec. 22, 2015.
Available @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdjAdaOS3Ow

Pickerel Frogs: Night Eyes on Folded, Spotted, Toxic Tan Bodies

Summary: North American pickerel frog habitats get day-active eyes on tan bodies with brown-spotted rows and orange-yellow inner thighs in eastern wooded wetlands.

pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris; formerly Rana palustris); Leesylvania State Park, Woodbridge, Prince William County, Northern Virginia; Sunday, Sep. 2, 2012: Judy Gallagher (Judy Gallagher), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr

North American pickerel frog habitats accomplish distribution ranges from Nova Scotia through Georgia, Alabama through Louisiana, Texas through Kansas, Missouri through Minnesota, Wisconsin through Maine, Ontario through New Brunswick and everywhere in-between.

Pickerel frogs bear their common name as bait for American, chain, grass, muskellunge, northern and redfin pickerel fish and as true frogs in the Ranidae family. The scientific names Lithobates palustris and Rana palustris carry the respective English equivalents of "haunter of (climber over, treader upon) stones in marshes" and "marsh frog." Scientific designations defer to descriptions in 1825 by John Eatton Le Conte (Feb. 22, 1784-Nov. 21, 1860), United States Army Corps of Topographical Engineers officer, 1818-1831.

Pickerel frog life cycles expect twilight zones of caves near clear, cool, northerly waters and tannin-stained, warmer, southerly floodplain swamps in woodland pools, ponds and springs.

December through June favor pickerel frog life cycles with breeding season months despite predatory bald eagles, garter, ribbon and water snakes, insects, mink, newts and raccoons.

Pickerel frogs get around in water and on land through front toes without terrestrial life-unfriendly webbing that gives space for male swollen thumbs during mating seasons. Matched filtering helps them hear, despite mixed-species choruses, by calls having frequency ranges that vibrate two circular tympanic-membraned eardrums and the inner-ear's amphibian and basilar papillae. Closed-mouth, closed-nostril advertisement, similar courtship and rain, aggression and similar release calls involve lung expirations that impel air streams over vocal cords and inflate vocal sacs.

Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis fungal disease, fertilizer runoff, globally warmed climate change, nonnative species, toxic pesticides, trematode fluke-induced deformities and ultraviolet radiation jeopardize North American pickerel frog habitats.

Two thousand to 4,000-egg clusters and, 11 to 21 days later, gill-breathing, keel-tailed tadpoles keep to water whereas legged, lung-breathing, tailless adults know land and water.

Multicolored masses 1.97 to 3.4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) in diameter latched brown-topped, cream-bottomed, spherical eggs onto aquatic vegetation at surface to 4-foot (1.22-meter) depths. Yellow to yellow-brown tadpoles, with eyes close together and pointed snouts, mature within about three months to cream-bottomed, four-legged, gray brown-topped, 1.02-inch (2.6-centimeter-) long, olive-brown metamorphs. Unlike algae-, debris-, diatom-eating tadpoles, adults need ants, beetles, caddisflies, craneflies, crickets, flies, grasshoppers, mites, mosquitoes, moths, pillbugs, sowbugs, spiders, springtails, stinkbugs, termites, wasps and worms.

North American pickerel frog habitats offer season's coldest temperatures, northward to southward, from minus 45 to 25 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 42.11 to minus 6.66 degrees Celsius).

Wooded wetlands with bogs, breeding ponds, cool-watered, slow-moving lakes, rivers, streams and swamps, dense, low-lying vegetation, flooded ditches and meadows and rocky ravines promote pickerel frogs.

Lang Elliott, Carl Gerhardt and Carlos Davidson quantify 1.75- to 3.4375-inch (4.44- to 8.73-centimeter) snout-vent (excrementary opening) lengths in The Frogs and Toads of North America. Adults reveal on their tan bodies gold-rimmed, night-active eyes; light, unbroken dorsolateral (back-to-side) folds; two parallel rows of brown rectangular or squarish spots; orange-yellow inner thighs. Advertisement calls sound like grating, soft, two-second snores, similar to drawn-out, northern leopard frog-like, rattling, snore-like, three-second advertisements; and like garbled, green frog-like, throaty guck vocalizations.

North American pickerel frog habitats team guck-punctuated snoring with toxin-secreting bodies with dorsolateral folds, black-brown, rectangular, squarish spots in two parallel rows and orange-yellow inner thighs.

pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris) under synonym Rana palustris; depiction by Italian-born scientific illustrator J. Sera, lithograph by George Lehman/Lehman & Duval Lithographers; J.E. Holbrook's North American Herpetology, vol. I (1836), Plate XIV, opposite page 93: Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library

Acknowledgment

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

Image credits:

pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris; formerly Rana palustris); Leesylvania State Park, Woodbridge, Prince William County, Northern Virginia; Sunday, Sep. 2, 2012: Judy Gallagher (Judy Gallagher), CC BY 2.0 Generic, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/52450054@N04/7917501420/

pickerel frog (Lithobates palustris) under synonym Rana palustris; depiction by Italian-born scientific illustrator J. Sera, lithograph by George Lehman/Lehman & Duval Lithographers; J.E. Holbrook's North American Herpetology, vol. I (1836), Plate XIV, opposite page 93: Harvard University, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Ernst Mayr Library, Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4075426; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/7209604008/;
Smithsonian Libraries and Archives, Public Domain, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/35765124; Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLibrary), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/6046609320/

For further information:

Elliott, Lang; Carl Gerhardt; and Carlos Davidson. 2009. The Frogs and Toads of North America: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Identification, Behavior and Calls. Boston MA; New York NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Frost, Darrel. "Lithobates palustris (LeConte, 1825)." American Museum of Natural History > Our Research > Vertebrate Zoology > Herpetology > Amphibians Species of the World Database.
Available @ http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/index.php//Amphibia/Anura/Ranidae/Lithobates/Lithobates-palustris

Holbrook, John Edwards, M.D. 1836. "Rana palustris." North American Herpetology; Or, A Description of the Reptiles Inhabiting the United States. Vol. I: 93-94. Philadelphia PA: J. Dobson.
Available via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/4075426

Le Conte, Captain John. 1825. "Remarks on the American species of the Genera Hyla and Rana: 2. Rana palustris, or marsh frog." Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History of New-York, vol. I, part 1: 282. New York NY: J. Seymour.
Available @ https://archive.org/stream/annalsoflyceumof11824lyce#page/282/mode/1up

Patterson, Daniel, ed. 2008. Early American Nature Writers. Westport CT: Greenwood Press.

"The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map." The National Gardening Association > Gardening Tools > Learning Library USDA Hardiness Zone > USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.
Available @ https://garden.org/nga/zipzone/2012/