Thursday 31 August 2017

Cretaconiopteryx grandis: A new species of Dustywing from Middle Cretaceous Burmese Amber.

The Dustrywings, Coniopterygidae, are small (usually under 5 mm) Insects related to Lacewings and Ant-lions. They are numerous and widespread, being found in woodland all over the world, where they feed on small Arthropods, such as Mites, Aphids and Scale Insects, living on trees and shrubs. Largely because of their affinity for woodland and small size, they have an excellent fossil record, with the group appearing in the Late Jurassic and specimens preserved in amber being found across much of the globe from the Cretaceous onwards.

In a paper published in the journal Zoological Systematics in July 2017, Xingyue Liu and Xiumei Lu of the Department of Entomology at the China Agricultural University, describe a new species of Dustywing from Middle Cretaceous Burmese Amber.

Middle Cretaceous ‘Burmese Amber’ has been extensively worked at several sites across northern Myanmar (though mostly in Kachin State) in the last 20 years. The amber is fairly clear, and often found in large chunks, providing an exceptional window into the Middle Cretaceous Insect fauna. This amber is thought to have started out as the resin of a Coniferous Tree, possibly a Cypress or an Araucaria, growing in a moist tropical forest. This amber has been dated to between 105 and 95 million years old, based upon pollen inclusions, and to about 98.8 million years by uranium/lead dating of ash inclusions in the amber. 

The new species is named Cretaconiopteryx grandis, where 'Cretaconiopteryx' is a combinaion of 'Cretaceous' and 'Coniopteryx', the modern genus that gives the group its name, and 'grandis' means 'large'. The species is described from a single female specimen, large for a Dustywing at 5.47 mm in length with 6.67 mm forewings and slender legs with numerous hairs. The venation of the wing is sufficiently different to all other known Dustywings that it is placed in a new subfamily all of its own, the Cretaconiopteryginae, thought to have branched off from a stem lineage before the common ancestor of all other known species.

Cretaconiopteryx grandis, female specimen in dorsal view. Liu & Lu (2017).

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/parababinskaia-elegans-new-species-of.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/lasiosmylus-longus-new-species-of.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/paleosisyra-minor-new-species-of.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/butterflies-of-jurassic-convergent.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/glenochrysa-minima-new-species-of-green.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/a-silky-lacewing-from-eocene-of.html
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Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake in Hormozgan Province, Iran.

The United States Geological Survey recorded a Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake at a depth of 10 km in about 84 km to the north of the city of Minab in Hormozgan Province, Iran, at about 6.00 am am local time (about 1.30 am GMT) on Thursday 31 August 2017. There are no reports of any damage or casualties associated with this event, though people have reported felling it locally.

The approximate location of the 31 August 2017 Hormozgan Earthquake. USGS.

Iran is situated on the southern margin of the Eurasian Plate. Immediately to the south lies the Arabian Plate, which is being pushed northward by the impact of Africa from the south. This has created a zone of faulting and fold mountains along the southwest coast of the country, known as the Zagros Thrust Belt, while to the northeast of this the geology is dominated by three large tectonic blocks, the Central Iran, Lut and Helmand, which move separately in response to pressure from the south, stretching and compressing the rock layers close to the surface and creating frequent Earthquakes, some of which can be very large.

The movement of the Arabian Plate and extent of the Zagros Thrust Belt. Rasoul Sorkhabi/Geo ExPro.

To the northeast of this the geology is dominated by three large tectonic blocks, the Central Iran, Lut and Helmand, which move separately in response to pressure from the south, stretching and compressing the rock layers close to the surface and again creating frequent Earthquakes.

The population of Iran is particularly at risk from Earthquakes as, unlike most other Earthquake-prone nations, very few buildings in the country are quake-resistant. The majority of residential buildings in Iran are made of mud-brick, a building material particularly vulnerable to Earthquakes as the bricks often liquefy, trapping people inside and quickly asphyxiating them with dust. This is particularly dangerous at night when the majority of people are inside sleeping.

Section through the Zagros Fold Belt. Sarkarinejad & Azizi (2007).

Witness accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events, and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit organisation Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here.
 
See also...
 
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/twenty-one-confirmed-fatalities.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/magnitude-47-earthquake-in-southeast.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/magnitude-50-earthquake-on-coast-of.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/magnitude-44-earthquake-in-khuzestan.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/magnitude-49-earthquake-on-coast-of.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/one-person-killed-and-around-30-injured.html
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Coprinopsis rugosomagnispora: A new species of Inky Cap Mushroom from Poland.

Inky Cap Mushrooms, or Coprinoids, are saprophytic Fungi (Fungi that feed by breaking down decaying organic material) which produce Mushrooms with gills that liquify as they mature, releasing spores in a black 'ink' that aids dispersal. They were formerly all included in a single genus, Coprinus, until genetic analysis methods revealed that not all Inky Caps shared a common ancestor, resulting in many species being taken out and placed in three new genera, Coprinellus, Coprinopsis, and Parasola. To make matters worse, species tend to be both similar to one another and morpholgcally variable, so it is likely that the described list of species contains both hidden (cryptic) species that have not been recognised, and specimens of the same species described undr different names.

In a paper published in the journal Plant Systematics and Evolution on 28 April 2017, Błażej Gierczyk of the Faculty of Chemistry at Adam Mickiewicz University, Pamela Rodriguez-Flakus of the Laboratory of Molecular Analyses at the Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Marcin Pietras of the Department of Plant Taxonomy and Nature Conservation at the University of Gdańsk, and the Laboratory of Symbiotic Associations at the Institute of Dendrology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Mirosław Gryc of Ogrodniczki, Waldemar Czerniawski of Skawina, and Marcin Piątek of the Department of Mycology at the Władysław Szafer Institute of Botany of the Polish Academy of Sciences, describe a new species of Inky Cap Mushroom from Poland.

The new species is placed in the genus Coprinus,and given the specific name rugosomagnispora, meaning 'large, wrinkled spores', in reference to its distinctive spores, though it has been confirmed as a separtate species by genetic analysis. Coprinopsis rugosomagnispora forms small Mushrooms, with a cap at most 15 mm across, white in colour with gills that go from white to grey to black before liquifying. The species was found at two locations 450 km apart, in Podlaskie and Małopolska provinces, and is though likely to be present in other parts of Poland and probably other European countries. It was found growing on wet ground in both coniferous and mixed forests.

Basidiocarps of Coprinopsis rugosomagnispora from the Puszcza Knyszynska forest, northeast Poland: (a), (b) general view; (c) lamellae; (d), (e) young basidiocarps; (f) old specimen. Gierczyk et al. (2017).

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/gondwanagaricites-magnificus-new.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/unravelling-diversity-of-podaxis-fungi.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/truncospora-wisconsinensis-new-species.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/helvella-sublactea-new-species-of.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/four-new-species-of-mushroom-from.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/two-new-species-of-coral-fungi-from.html
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Seven dead and two injured after landslide in Qinghai Province, China.

Seven people have been confirmed dead and two more have been injured following a landslide in Qinghai Province in northwest China on Wednesday 30 August 2017. The incident happened at about 4.30 am local time, and hit the village of Sirouqian in Machin County. Around 700 rescue workers were deployed to the site, and all missing persons accounted for by 2.00 pm. A further 90 people from 17 households, plus about 200 cattle, have been evacuated from the village, and it is unclear when they will be able to return, as the landslide has blocked a river, which may lead to further problems.

Rescue workers in Sirouqian Village in Qinghai following a landslide on 30 August 2017. Xinhau.

The event happened after several days of heavy rain in the area associated with Typhoo Hato, which made landfall in Guangdong Province on 23 August, and subsequently slowed and weakened but remained over South China. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.

Tropical storms (called Typhoons in the West Pacific and Indian Oceans) are caused by solar energy heating the air above the oceans, which causes the air to rise leading to an inrush of air. If this happens over a large enough area the in rushing air will start to circulate, as the rotation of the Earth causes the winds closer to the equator to move eastwards compared to those further away (the Coriolis Effect). This leads to tropical storms rotating clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere.These storms tend to grow in strength as they move across the ocean and lose it as they pass over land (this is not completely true: many tropical storms peter out without reaching land due to wider atmospheric patterns), since the land tends to absorb solar energy while the sea reflects it.

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/magnitude-45-earthquake-in-northeast.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/seven-killed-in-landslide-in-qinghai.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/magnitude-51-earthquake-in-northeastern.html
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Wednesday 30 August 2017

Estimating the possibility of all life being wiped-out by astrophysical events on Earth or an Earth-like exoplanet.

People have speculated about the possibility of life on other planets for almost as long as they have been aware that other planets exist. With increasing technological capabilities, it is thought that we will be able to look for life on other planets within the next few decades. Before this is done, however. It is sensible to attempt to estimate how widespread life might be in the Universe, and where it is most likely to be found. There are two factors which affect this, namely the origin of life on planets, and its disappearance. We know that life arose on Earth between 4.0 and 4.5 billion years ago, though we do not fully understand how it occurred, hampering attempts to estimate how likely the same thing is to occur somewhere else. We also know that the history of life on Earth has been subject to a series of major extinction events, at least one of which is attributed to an astrophysical event (the End Cretaceous Extinction, which is widely thought to have been caused by the impact of a large extra-terrestrial body into the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. There has also been significant speculation about other astrophysical events causing extinction events, though as yet no evidence for this has been found, and the likelihood of such events happening at all is unclear.

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports on 14 July 2017, David Sloan and Rafael Alves Batista of the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford and Abraham Loeb of the Astronomy Department at Harvard University discuss the possibility of a number of astrophysical events causing extinction events of sufficient magnitude to wipe out all life on an Earth-like planet.

In order to do this, they examined the energy levels needed to wipe out the toughest known group of organisms on Earth, Tardigrades, which are far more likely to survive any such events than more delicate organisms such as Humans, and which could potentially evolve into a range of new organisms occupying other ecological roles in the aftermath of a major extinction event. Tardigrades have been shown to survive temperatures between −272 °C and 150 °C, and can survive sustained periods of time at −20 °C. They can survive exposure to the vacuum of space, and are found living at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, where the pressure reaches about 1200 atmospheres. They can also survive exposure to radiation levels of ∼5000–6200 Gy (enough energy to endow every kilogram of matter with 5000-6200 Joules of energy). 

Firstly, Sloan et al. examined the possibility of a large impact event wiping out all life on Earth. While this is thought to have been the trigger mechanism for the End Cretaceous Extinction, and large impacts have the capability to cause an impact winter, lethal to large terrestrial animals and very bad news for anything dependent on photosynthesis, either by itself or its food, that cannot survive without any energy input for at least several years, it is far less threatening to marine organisms, particularly those which form part of the food-chains based upon chemosynthesis found around deep sea vents. In order to wipe out Tardigrades and other organisms at the bottom of the ocean trenches, Sloan et al. estimate that an asteroid would have to have a mass in excess of 1700 billion  megatonnes (note that this is significantly larger than the estimated size needed for an impactor to completely remove the Earth’s atmosphere, as it requires far more energy to heat water than air; a smaller impact could potentially remove Earth’s atmosphere but not its oceans, enabling a new atmosphere to form from the evaporation of the upper layers of the oceans).

 An artist's impression of a gigantic asteroid impacting an Earth-like planet. Don Davis/NASA.

The Solar System currently contains seventeen known asteroids larger than this limit, plus several Dwarf Planets. It is thought that there were more such bodies in the early Solar System, and that at least one body did impact the Earth (leading to the formation of the Moon), but the majority these are thought to have disappeared early in the history of the system (a period called the Early Bombardment), and Sloan et al. calculate that the possibility of such an impact happening to Earth later in the history of the Solar System (or to any Earthlike planet in a reasonably similar system) is in fact vanishingly small, even over periods of billions of years.

Secondly Sloan et al. consider the possibility of life on Earth being wiped out by a nearby supernova. Supernovae are spectacular events, occuring at the end of the life of massive stars, which generate sufficient gravity to fuse elements heavier than boron, then are blown apart by the energy released. The release of energy from a giant star exploding is, fairly obviously, quite significant, and has been suggested several times as potential trigger for extinction events. However most of the energy from such an event is released in a spherical shockwave, which quickly dissapates as the wave expands.

An artist's impression of an Earth-like planet being destroyed by a supernova. NASA.
 
Sloan et al. calculate that in order for a supernova to exterminate all life on Earth, it would have to occur within 0.04 parsecs (0.13 light years) from us, less than a thirtieth of the distance to the current nearest star, Proxima Centuri. The nearest star thought to be large enough to undergo a supernova at the end of its life, IK Pegasi, is about 45 Parsecs (147 light years) away. While the stars do move, and at different points in time other stars are likely to have been closer than Proxima Centuriet al. do note that stars are more densily packed towards the core of the Galaxy, and that there the risk of a supernova occuring close to a planet with life on would be somewhat higher; they estimate that a life-bearing planet in sich a situation would have a 1% chance of being completey sterilized by a supernova during the course of its life.

Next Sloan et al  consider the possibility of Earth, or an Earth-like planet being knocked out of its orbit by the tidal influence of a passing star. This is another theoretical possibilty that has been proposed in the past, both by serious scientists and science fiction writers, but which has not previouslt been analysed statistically. Sloan et al. calculate that at the density of stars in our part of the galaxy, there is a one in 300 000 000 chance of this happening for each billion years of a planet's life, but that in the more densely packed galactic core this will rise to 1 in 1 000 000 per billion years of an Earth-like planet's life.

Sloan et al. do note that one astrophysical event is almost certainly likely to wipe out life on Earth in the end, that being the eventual death of out star, the Sun. At the end of its life the Sun is expected to expand significantly as it uses up its hydrogen reserves, the fusion of which prevents it from collapsing to far under its own gravity, and contracts till it is sufficiently dense to begin fusing helium, at which point it will release more energy from each fusion event, and expand significantly. This may result in the Sun expanding sufficiently to engulph the Earth, or to steralize its surface. Alternatively, if the Sun does not expand this far, it will eventually run out of fuel completely and cool, causing Earth to freeze irreperably, again killing any surviving life.

 The surface of a future Earth is likely be sterilized by an expanding, superheated Sun. Alamy.

However there is a third (albeit rather unlikely) scenario, in which an expanding Sun pushes the Earth out of its orbit, causing it to become a rogue planet, drifting through space without an accompanying star. While this would clearly be cataclismic to life on the planet's surface, Sloan et al. suggest that life around hydrothermal vents, now at the bottom of a shrunken ocean burried beneath a thick ice cap, could potentially survive for a few tens of millions of years, with a (very) slight chance that the drifting planet might be captured by another star in this time, enabling life tore-emerge.

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/macrobiotus-polypiformis-new-species-of.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/gobekli-tepe-does-ancient-anatolian.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/could-there-have-been-life-on-ancient.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/using-hypothetical-ninth-planet-to.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/multicellular-eukaryotic-organisms-from.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/milnesium-swansoni-new-species-of.html
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Coelogyne putaoensis: A new species of Epidendroid Orchid from northern Myanmar.

Epidendroid Orchids, Epidendroideae, are the largest subfamily of Orchids, with over 15 000 described species, more than all other Orchid groups combined. The majority of these species are epiphytic (live on other plants, typically in the canopy of rainforest trees), though terrestrial forms are known. The group is found across the globe, with the exception of the polar regions, the deserts of Africa, Arabia and Australia, and the southern part of South America. The genus Coelogyne contains about 200 species predominately found in South and Southeast Asia, as well as on the islands of the Pacific as far east as Fiji and Samoa.

In a paper published in the journal PhytoKeys on 29 June 2017, Ye Lwin Aung of the State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiaohua Jin, also of the State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany at the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences,and of the Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and André Schuiteman of the Science Directorate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, describe a new species of Coelogyne from Kachin State in Myanmar.

The new species is named Coelogyne putaoensis, meaning 'from Putao', in reference to Putao, the northernmost town in Myanmar and the closest to the locality where the new species was discovered. The species as found growing in the Hponkanrazi Wildlife Sanctuary, in an area of subtropical montane rainforest, at altitudes of between 2500 and 3100 m. It is a rhizomatous herb with leaves reaching 9.5 cm in length, found growing both epiphytically on the trunks of trees and epilithically upon rocks. It has solid brown flowers, which enable it to be distinguished from other members of the genus growing in the same area, all of which have flowers with striped patterns.

Close-up of flower of Coelogyne putaoensis, showing the white papillae on the two lateral lamellae. Xiaohua Jin in Aung et al. (2017).

Only a sigle population of the new Orchid was discovered, comprising about 200 individual plants. However the location where it was found is not thought to be under any particular threat, and forms part of a large (2700 square kilometres) reserve, so Aung et al. do not believe that the species faces any immediate conservation threat.

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/habenaria-yookuaaensis-new-species-of.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/lecanorchis-tabugawaensis-new-species.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/epiphytic-orchids-from-lengguru-fold.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/gastrodia-madagascariensis-not-so-new.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/catasetum-telespirense-new-species-of.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/liparis-wenshanensis-new-species-of.html
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Landslide in Guizhou Province, China kills at least two.

Two people have been confirmed dead and twenty five are still missing following a landslide that hit the township of Zhangjiawan in Nayong Couty, Guizhou, on Monday 28 August 2017. The event happened at about 10.40 am local time, destroying 34 homes and damaging about 140 more, after several days of heavy rain in the area associated with Typhoo Hato, which made landfall in Guangdong Province on 23 August, and subsequently slowed and weakened but remained over South China. Landslides are a common problem after severe weather events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all landslides are caused by heavy rainfall. Rescue efforts in Zhangjiawan have been hampered by continuing slope instability, with emergency responders having to repeatedly retreat in the face of further landslides.

Rescue workers at the site of the Zhangjiawan landslide on 28 August 2017. Chinatopix/AP.

Tropical storms (called Typhoons in the West Pacific and Indian Oceans) are caused by solar energy heating the air above the oceans, which causes the air to rise leading to an inrush of air. If this happens over a large enough area the in rushing air will start to circulate, as the rotation of the Earth causes the winds closer to the equator to move eastwards compared to those further away (the Coriolis Effect). This leads to tropical storms rotating clockwise in the southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere.These storms tend to grow in strength as they move across the ocean and lose it as they pass over land (this is not completely true: many tropical storms peter out without reaching land due to wider atmospheric patterns), since the land tends to absorb solar energy while the sea reflects it.

See also...

http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2017/08/typhoon-hato-takes-at-least-twenty-six.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/injuries-reported-following-earthquake.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/magnitude-42-earthquake-in-guizhou.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/seven-dead-and-20-missing-after.html
http://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/six-killed-by-explosion-at-coal-mine-in.htmlhttp://sciencythoughts.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/at-least-three-dead-following-landslide.html
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