All about dinosaurs, fossils and prehistoric animals by Everything Dinosaur team members.
30 08, 2016

“Lucy” Famous Fossil Hominin Died in a Fall

By | August 30th, 2016|General Teaching, Key Stage 3/4|Comments Off on “Lucy” Famous Fossil Hominin Died in a Fall

“Lucy” Australopithecus afarensis Died in a Fall

In 1974, in the Afar region of Ethiopia, the remarkably well-preserved and forty percent complete fossil of an ancient human-like animal was discovered.  The excavation team, which included American palaeoanthropologist Donald Carl Johanson, had been playing the track “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” by the Beatles.

“Lucy” The Famous Fossil Hominin

The bones represented a female, which subsequently was nicknamed “Lucy”.  The fossils represented a new species of ancient hominin (an animal more closely related to us than to a chimpanzee), the species was named Australopithecus afarensis.  Thanks to some amazing new research, a team of Ethiopian and American scientists, including eminent anthropologist Professor John Kappelman (University of Texas),  have worked out how “Lucy” died – apparently she was fatally injured in a fall from a tree.

Professor John Kappelman Surrounded by Fossils and Casts of Early Hominins

Professor Kappelman (University of Texax)

Professor Kappelman examines casts of “Lucy” – A. afarensis.

Picture credit: University of Texas

Forty-Five Thousand CT Images

The team scanned the fossil bones of this female A. afarensis whilst the fossils were on a tour of the United States.  In total, some 45,000 highly detailed CT scans were produced.  The scans revealed that the extensive fractures on the bones were most likely caused perimortem (at death or shortly before death).  An analysis of the broken bones led the team to postulate that 3.2 million year old “Lucy” was fatally injured after a rapid vertical deceleration event, probably a fall from a tree.

For model and replicas of prehistoric animals including hominins: Wild Safari Prehistoric World Figures and Models.

The Demise of “Lucy” Australopithecus afarensis

Lucy (A. afarensis) sudden deceleration event.

A reconstruction explaining the fatal injuries to “Lucy” – A. afarensis after a fall from a tree.

Picture credit: University of Texas

Applying New Technologies to Learn More About Fossils

A spokesperson from Everything Dinosaur commented that this “cold case” showed how scientists can use a variety of techniques to learn more about the lives and behaviours of ancient animals from the fossil record.

This study is significant as anthropologists have long debated how much time A. afarensis spent in trees.  Being able climb into a tree would have helped keep these small hominins safe from many predators, however, evolutionary adaptations to bipedal walking may have compromised their climbing abilities.  Bad news for “Lucy”, but this new research published in the journal “Nature” has provided a fascinating new dimension into the behaviour of an ancient human-like creature.

Visit Everything Dinosaur: Everything Dinosaur.

30 08, 2016

Scientists Search for Anthropocene “Spike”

By | August 30th, 2016|Geology, Main Page|0 Comments

Anthropocene Epoch Recommended by Geologists

The idea that we are now living in such a changed world as a result of the actions of our species, that a new geological epoch should be declared, is one step closer to reality.  A report from leading geologists presented at the 35th International Geological Congress held in Cape Town (South Africa), has recommended that the Anthropocene Epoch be added to the official geological history of Earth.

The decision to end the current epoch (the Holocene) and introduce a new geological time segment has not been finalised yet, more work needs to be done, specifically to decide at what point in time does the Holocene end and the new epoch, the Anthropocene (the age of humans), begin.

The Anthropocene Work Group (AWG)

A panel of experts has been put together to explore the possibility of creating a new epoch, the thirty-five members of the Anthropocene Work Group (AWG), presented their initial findings at the International Geological Congress and now work has started to identify the best point in time for the Holocene to end and the Anthropocene to start.  Twenty-eight of the panellists believe that the Anthropocene should be recorded as having started sometime in the 1950s, the decade identified as being the start of intense human activity that increased the impact of our species.

Identifying a Suitable Marker in Time

The search is on to find a “golden spike”, to identify a suitable marker in the environment that epitomises the start of a new phase in our planet’s history.

Some of the panel members have argued that July 16th 1945 could be that marker.   On that day, the first test of a nuclear bomb took place in New Mexico (code name Trinity).  Plutonium fallout from nuclear bombs will be present in sediments laid down at the time and over thousands of years the sediments will eventually form strata and the layers with unnaturally high levels of plutonium could provide the long-term geological evidence to indicate the start of a new and distinct unit of deep time.  However, other geologists think that rocks that contain large amounts of plastic compounds would make a better starting point for the Anthropocene.

Scientists Aim to Pinpoint in Strata the Starting Point for the Anthropocene Epoch

unstable cliffs.

Examining strata to highlight the beginning of an Epoch.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

Colin Waters (British Geological Survey), the secretary of the AWG, presented the team’s initial findings at the Congress he explained:

“This is an update on where we are in our discussions, we’ve got to a point where we’ve listed what we think the Anthropocene means to us as a working group.  The majority of us think that it is real, that there is something happening, that there are clearly signals in the environment that are recognisable and make the Anthropocene a distinct unit and the majority of us think it would be justified to formally recognise it.”

A Changing World

Our planet has gone through huge changes since the time of its formation some 4.58 billion years ago.  Geologists have broken down this immense period of time into units, with each component of the official timeline of our planet marked by distinct boundaries, preserved in the rocks.  This timeline of our Earth’s history is referred to as the Chronostratigraphic Chart and any changes made to it need to be agreed by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and then be further ratified by the executive committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).

The Anthropocene Working Group hope to present their findings within two years so that by 2019, a new geological epoch could be established.

The last time there was a major revision of the Chronostratigraphic Chart was in 2009, when, in a controversial move, scientists agreed to revise the date of the Quaternary Period: The Quaternary Just Gained 800,000 Years.

Although there is still debate as to the impact of our species on climate, most scientists and academics agree that we are entering a new phase of climate change.  Our world is getting warmer, the implications for a rapid and dramatic rise in global temperatures are frightening, hence the limits on temperature increases agreed at the recent Paris Conference (2015).

Creating a new geological epoch may seem like an exercise in semantics for some, but in reality, it would be an affirmation that our species H. sapiens is having such a profound effect on the planet that dramatic changes with far reaching consequences are now beginning to occur.  A new marker in the Chronostratigraphic Chart might help to drive change, providing a definitive rallying point for mankind to act collectively to put in place measures to help limit the impact we are having on the planet.

A related article on the global context of climate change: COP 21 – The Impact of Global Climate Change.

A study that shows climate change between the Pliocene and Pleistocene may help our understanding of current climate change issues: Pliocene/Pleistocene Climate Studies Supports Current Climate Change Models.

The Impact of Ice Age Mammals (mega-fauna) on the start of the Holocene: Calls for the Start of the Holocene Epoch to be Altered.

Dr Waters explained that in the past, climate change had taken place due to natural oscillations within our Earth’s ecosystems and environments, however: “in the last century we have had such a huge impact that we’re actually taking the planet away from that natural oscillation and changing the trend for global temperatures from what should have been a cooling trend to a warming trend.”

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