New T-Rex ancestor discovered in drawers of Mongolian institute
PARIS: Misidentified bones that languished in the drawers of a Mongolian institute for 50 years belong to a new species of tyrannosaur that rewrites the family history of the mighty T-Rex, scientists said Wednesday. This slender ancestor of the massive Tyrannosaurus Rex was around four meters long and weighed three quarters of a ton, according to a new study in the journal Nature. 'It would have been the size of a very large horse,' study co-author Darla Zelenitsky of Canada's University of Calgary told AFP. The fossils were first dug up in southeastern Mongolia in the early 1970s but at the time were identified as belonging to a different tyrannosaur, Alectrosaurus.
For half a century, the fossils sat in the drawers at the Institute of Paleontology of the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in the capital Ulaanbaatar. Then PhD student Jared Voris, who was on a trip to Mongolia, started looking through the drawers and noticed something was wrong, Zelenitsky said. It turned out the fossils were well-preserved, partial skeletons of two different individuals of a completely new species. 'It is quite possible that discoveries like this are sitting in other museums that just have not been recognized,' Zelenitsky added.
They named the new species Khankhuuluu mongoliensis, which roughly means the dragon prince of Mongolia because it is smaller than the 'king' T-Rex. Zelenitsky said the discovery 'helped us clarify a lot about the family history of the tyrannosaur group because it was really messy previously'. The T-Rex represented the end of the family line. It was the apex predator in North America until 66 million years ago, when an asteroid bigger than Mount Everest slammed into the Gulf of Mexico. Three quarters of life on Earth was wiped out, including all the dinosaurs that did not evolve into birds. Around 20 million years earlier, Khankhuuluu - or another closely related family member - is now believed to have migrated from Asia to North America using the land bridge that once connected Siberia and Alaska.
This led to tyrannosaurs evolving across North America. Then one of these species is thought to have crossed back over to Asia, where two tyrannosaur subgroups emerged. One was much smaller, weighing under a ton, and was nicknamed Pinocchio rex for its long snout. The other subgroup was huge and included behemoths like the Tarbosaurus, which was only a little smaller than the T-rex. One of the gigantic dinosaurs then left Asia again for North America, eventually giving rise to the T-Rex, which dominated for just two million years - until the asteroid struck.— AFP
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Kuwait Times
2 days ago
- Kuwait Times
Polar bear biopsies to shed light on Arctic pollutants
With one foot braced on the helicopter's landing skid, a veterinarian lifted his air rifle, took aim and fired a tranquillizer dart at a polar bear. The predator bolted but soon slumped into the snowdrifts, its broad frame motionless beneath the Arctic sky. The dramatic pursuit formed part of a pioneering research mission in Norway's Svalbard archipelago, where scientists, for the first time, took fat tissue biopsies from polar bears to study the impact of pollutants on their health. The expedition came at a time when the Arctic region was warming at four times the global average, putting mounting pressure on the iconic predators as their sea-ice habitat shrank. 'The idea is to show as accurately as possible how the bears live in the wild - but in a lab,' Laura Pirard, a Belgian toxicologist, told AFP. 'To do this, we take their (fatty) tissue, cut it in very thin slices and expose it to the stresses they face, in other words pollutants and stress hormones,' said Pirard, who developed the method. Moments after the bear collapsed, the chopper circled back and landed. Researchers spilled out, boots crunching on the snow. One knelt by the bear's flank, cutting thin strips of fatty tissue. Another drew blood. Each sample was sealed and labelled before the bear was fitted with a satellite collar. Scientists said that while the study monitors all the bears, only females were tracked with GPS collars as their necks are smaller than their heads - unlike males, who cannot keep a collar on for more than a few minutes. This photograph taken with a thermical-infrared camera shows the head of the Polar Bear Program Jon Aars (right) changing the GPS collar of a female polar bear, in front of Norwegian veterinarian Rolf Arne Olberg (right) measuring a big polar bear male (left) in eastern Spitzbergen.--AFP French scientist Marie-Anne Blanchet (right) and Norwegian scientist Magnus Andersen take a badipose biopsie on a just sedated big polar bear male, in eastern Spitzbergen, in the Svalbard archipelago. French spatial scientist Marie-Anne Blanchet examines bear cubs before taking adipose tissue biopsies and blood samples from their sedated mother. French scientist Marie-Anne Blanchet (right) and Norwegian scientist Magnus Andersen take a badipose biopsie on a just sedated big polar bear male. French scientist Marie-Anne Blanchet walks past a helicopter as she brings biopsies in a thermos to the toxicolgists onboard "Kronprins Haakon" vessel. Belgian toxicologist Laura Pirard (right), specialized in marine mammals, tests the 'Slice' method on polar bear adipose tissue biopsies, with Finnnish toxicologist specialized in marine mammals, Heli Routti (left), in a laboratory onboard the science icebreaking vessel 'Kronprins Haakon' while sailing in eastern Spitzbergen. Belgian toxicologist Laura Pirard, specialized in marine mammals, shows biopsy slices samples of polar bears adipose tissue, in a laboratory onboard the science icebreaker vessel 'Kronprins Haakon'. The head of the Polar Bear Program, Jon Aars (second right) from Norway adresses a briefing to scientists, Marie-Anne Blanchet (second left) from France, Laura Pirard (top left) from Belgium, Sofie Soderstrom from Sweden, helicopter pilot Stig Folid (right) from Norway and helicopter mechanic Elias birkeflet (left) from Norway, in eastern Spitzbergen, while sailing to the Svalbard archipelago onboard the 'Kronprins Haakon'. This photograph shows a sedated female polar bear with a GPS collar and her two cubs. This photograph shows blood samples of polar bears. This photograph shows two adipose biopsies of polar bears. This photograph shows the scientific ice-going vessel "Kronprins Haakon" sailing through the sea ice in eastern Spitzbergen. This photograph shows a helicopter looking for traces of polar bears near glaciers. A male polar bear bear walks on the sea ice near glaciers. Finnnish toxicologist specialized in marine mammals Heli Routti poses in the Scientific Ice going vessel "Kronprins Haakon". Arctic lab For the scientists aboard the Norwegian Polar Institute's research vessel Kronprins Haakon, these fleeting encounters were the culmination of months of planning and decades of Arctic fieldwork. In a makeshift lab on the icebreaker, samples remained usable for several days, subjected to controlled doses of pollutants and hormones before being frozen for further analysis back on land. Each tissue fragment gave Pirard and her colleagues insight into the health of an animal that spent much of its life on sea ice. Analysis of the fat samples showed that the main pollutants present were per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) - synthetic chemicals used in industry and consumer goods that linger in the environment for decades. Despite years of exposure, Svalbard's polar bears showed no signs of emaciation or ill health, according to the team. The local population has remained stable or even increased slightly, unlike parts of Canada, where the Western Hudson Bay group declined by 27 percent between 2016 and 2021, from 842 to 618 bears, according to a government aerial survey. Other populations in the Canadian Arctic, including the Southern Beaufort Sea, have also shown long-term declines linked to reduced prey access and longer ice-free seasons. Scientists estimate there are around 300 polar bears in the Svalbard archipelago and roughly 2,000 in the broader region stretching from the North Pole to the Barents Sea. The team found no direct link between sea ice loss and higher concentrations of pollutants in Svalbard's bears. Instead, differences in pollutant levels came down to the bears' diet. Two types of bears - sedentary and pelagic - feed on different prey, leading to different chemicals building up in their bodies. Changing diet With reduced sea ice, the bears' diets have already started shifting, researchers said. These behavioral adaptations appeared to help maintain the population's health. 'They still hunt seals but they also take reindeer (and) eggs. They even eat grass (seaweed), even though that has no energy for them,' Jon Aars, the head of the Svalbard polar bear program, told AFP. 'If they have very little sea ice, they necessarily need to be on land,' he said, adding that they spend 'much more time on land than they used to... 20 or 30 years ago'. This season alone, Aars and his team of marine toxicologists and spatial behavior experts captured 53 bears, fitted 17 satellite collars, and tracked 10 mothers with cubs or yearlings. 'We had a good season,' Aars said. The team's innovations go beyond biopsies. Last year, they attached small 'health log' cylinders to five females, recording their pulse and temperature. Combined with GPS data, the devices offer a detailed record of how the bears roam, how they rest and what they endure. Polar bears were once hunted freely across Svalbard but since an international protection agreement in 1976, the population here has slowly recovered. The team's findings may help explain how the bears' world is changing, and at an alarming rate. As the light faded and the icebreaker's engines hummed against the vast silence, the team packed away their tools, leaving the Arctic wilderness to its inhabitants. — AFP
Arab Times
17-07-2025
- Arab Times
Largest piece of Mars on Earth fetches $5.3 million at auction
NEW YORK, July 17, (AP): The largest piece of Mars ever found on Earth was sold for just over $5 million at an auction of rare geological and archaeological objects in New York on Wednesday. But a rare young dinosaur skeleton stole the show when it fetched more than $30 million in a bidding frenzy. The 54-pound (25-kilogram) rock named NWA 16788 was discovered in the Sahara Desert in Niger by a meteorite hunter in November 2023, after having been blown off the surface of Mars by a massive asteroid strike and traveling 140 million miles (225 million kilometers) to Earth, according to Sotheby's. The estimated sale price before the auction was $2 million to $4 million. The identity of the buyer was not immediately disclosed. The final bid was $4.3 million. Adding various fees and costs, the official sale price was about $5.3 million, making it the most valuable meteorite ever sold at auction, Sotheby's said. The live bidding was slow, with the auctioneer trying to coax more offers and decreasing the minimum bid increases. The dinosaur skeleton, on the other hand, sparked a war among six bidders over six minutes. With a pre-auction estimate of $4 million to $6 million, it is one of only four known Ceratosaurus nasicornis skeletons and the only juvenile skeleton of the species, which resembles the Tyrannosaurus rex but is smaller. Bidding for the skeleton started with a high advance offer of $6 million, then escalated during the live round with bids $500,000 higher than the last and later $1 million higher than the last before ending at $26 million. People applauded after the auctioneer gaveled the bidding closed. The official sale price was $30.5 million with fees and costs. That buyer also was not immediately disclosed, but the auction house said the buyer plans to loan the skeleton to an institution. It was the third-highest amount paid for a dinosaur at auction. A Stegosaurus skeleton called "Apex' holds the record after it was sold for $44.6 million last year at Sotheby's. Parts of the skeleton were found in 1996 near Laramie, Wyoming, at Bone Cabin Quarry, a gold mine for dinosaur bones. Specialists assembled nearly 140 fossil bones with some sculpted materials to recreate the skeleton and mounted it so it's ready to exhibit, Sotheby's says. It was acquired last year by Fossilogic, a Utah-based fossil preparation and mounting company. It's more than 6 feet (2 meters) tall and nearly 11 feet (3 meters) long, and is believed to be from the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. Ceratosaurus dinosaurs could grow up to 25 feet (7.6 meters) long, while the T. rex could be 40 feet (12 meters) long. The bidding for the Mars meteorite began with two advance offers of $1.9 million and $2 million. The live bidding slowly proceeded with increases of $200,000 and $300,000 until $4 million, then continued with $100,000 increases until reaching $4.3 million. The red, brown and gray meteorite is about 70% larger than the next largest piece of Mars found on Earth and represents nearly 7% of all the Martian material currently on this planet, Sotheby's says. It measures nearly 15 inches by 11 inches by 6 inches (375 millimeters by 279 millimeters by 152 millimeters). It was also a rare find. There are only 400 Martian meteorites out of the more than 77,000 officially recognized meteorites found on Earth, the auction house says. "This Martian meteorite is the largest piece of Mars we have ever found by a long shot,' Cassandra Hatton, vice chairman for science and natural history at Sotheby's, said in an interview before the auction. "So it's more than double the size of what we previously thought was the largest piece of Mars.' It's not clear exactly when the meteorite was blasted off the surface of Mars, but testing showed it probably happened in recent years, Sotheby's says. Hatton said a specialized lab examined a small piece of the red planet remnant and confirmed it was from Mars. It was compared with the distinct chemical composition of Martian meteorites discovered during the Viking space probe that landed on Mars in 1976, she said. The examination found that it is an "olivine-microgabbroic shergottite,' a type of Martian rock formed from the slow cooling of Martian magma. It has a course-grained texture and contains the minerals pyroxene and olivine, Sotheby's says. It also has a glassy surface, likely due to the high heat that burned it when it fell through Earth's atmosphere, Hatton said. "So that was their first clue that this wasn't just some big rock on the ground,' she said.
Kuwait Times
16-07-2025
- Kuwait Times
Bull sharks linger in warming Sydney waters
Bull sharks are lingering off Sydney's beaches for longer periods each year as oceans warm, researchers said Friday, predicting they may one day stay all year. The predators are migratory, swimming north in winter when Sydney's long-term ocean temperatures dip below 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) to bask in the balmier waters off Queensland. A team of scientists looked at 15 years of acoustic tracking of 92 tagged migratory sharks in an area including Bondi Beach and Sydney Harbor. Records show the sharks now spend an average of 15 days longer off Sydney's coast in summer than they did in 2009, said James Cook University researcher Nicolas Lubitz. 'If they're staying longer, it means that people and prey animals have a longer window of overlap with them.' Bull sharks gather to inspect a group of divers and a bait box that has caught their attending off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. Shark attacks are rare in ocean-loving Australia, and most serious bites are from three species: bull sharks, great whites, and tiger sharks, according to a national database. There have been more than 1,200 shark incidents around Australia since 1791, of which over 250 resulted in death. Researchers found an average warming of 0.57C in Bondi for the October-May period between 2006 and 2024, said the study published in the peer-reviewed journal Science of The Total Environment. Over a longer period, remotely sensed summer sea-surface temperatures in the area rose an average 0.67C between 1982 and 2024, they said. Bull sharks 'year-round' 'If this trend persists, which it likely will, it just means that these animals are going to spend more and more time towards their seasonal distributional limit, which currently is southern and central New South Wales,' Lubitz said. 'So it could be that a few decades from now, maybe bull sharks are present year-round in waters off Sydney,' he added. 'While the chances of a shark bite, and shark bites in Australia in general, remain low, it just means that people have to be more aware of an increased window of bull shark presence in coastal waters off Sydney.' Climate change could also change breeding patterns, Lubitz said, with early evidence indicating juvenile sharks were appearing in rivers further south. There was some evidence as well that summer habitats for great whites, which prefer colder waters, were decreasing in northern New South Wales and Queensland, he said. Tagged sharks trigger an alarm when they swim within range of a network of receivers dotted around parts of the Australian coast, giving people real-time warnings on a mobile app of their presence at key locations.—AFP This handout image released by Simon Fraser University/James Cook University shows bull sharks in the waters off Fiji. --AFP photos
