Researchers wanted to find a mate for a rare left-coiled snail named Jeremy

STATES CHRONICLE – In November, Jeremy the snail’s story became popular. He belongs to a rare kind of snails, which made it hard for him to find another specimen for mating. Then, a global call was issued to find the special snail a mate, but this did not work out either, as he ended up on the unpleasant side of a love triangle.

Jeremy is a rare kind of snail

Jeremy is not like most snails, which have coils on the shell which go on the right. His coils are on the left, as well as his reproductive organs. This makes it difficult for him to mate with the other snails with reproductive organs on the right. Such left-coiled specimens are as rare as one in 100,000, or even one in one million. Therefore, the snail had trouble in finding his other half.

Therefore, researchers from the University of Nottingham decided to start a campaign and ask anybody who had a left-coiled snail bring it to mate with Jeremy. Shortly, they found not one, but two partners. A woman from the English city of Ipswich said she had a potential match named Lefty. Also, researchers had found another compatible snail in Spain, called Tomeu.

On the wrong side of the love triangle

However, it didn’t work out well for Jeremy. On Wednesday, scientists from the University of Nottingham revealed the sad truth. Jeremy did not get to mate with any of the snails, as they ignored him and mated with each other instead.

Lefty and Tomeu have laid three series of eggs, and 170 baby snails have already hatched. Unfortunately, none of them exhibit the genetic mutation present in their parents. Both of them laid eggs, since snails are hermaphrodites and have both types of sexual cells.

Researchers did not give up and are still searching for a pair for Jeremy. Until then, he has taken the role of uncle seriously, and is taking good care of Lefty and Tomeu’s baby snails.
Image Source: Public Domain Pictures

World’s most perfectly preserved nodosaur is exhibited in Alberta, Canada

STATES CHRONICLE – Canadian scientists were surprised by a breathtaking discovery which left them all speechless. An oil sands mine was hiding the fossils of a dinosaur which surprised scientists with its incredible state of preservation. The creature was almost intact, and looked as if it escaped from a Steven Spielberg movie.

The perfectly preserved nodosaur

Scientists identified the creature as a nodosaur. These dinosaurs were herbivores, moved on four legs, and kept predators away with the help of their armored skin covered in spikes. This fossil is around 110 million years old, but it looks strikingly different from other dinosaur remnants. The bones are not visible, as the skin of the nodosaur encased them and preserved the creature in an almost flawless state.

This fossil measures over 18 feet and will soon exhibited at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology from Alberta, Canada. Experts say this is the oldest specimen ever found around Alberta, as well as the armored dinosaur in the most intact state in the entire world.

The discovery was a lucky accident

The nodosaur was discovered accidentally, during a series of excavations in an oil sands mine in 2011. Scientists could immediately identify the value of this discovery, so they started the preparations for a more thorough analysis. After six years, they managed to reconstruct it and get it ready for the exhibition.

They suspect that floodwater might have taken the dinosaur and carried it away on the sea, where it sank to the bottom. There, minerals started gathering over its tank-like coat, which prevented it from decomposing and helped with its preservation. Right now, the nodosaur weighs 2,500 pounds, which is close to the weight it had while it was still alive.

The scientists from the museum want to continue the study of the nodosaur, so they started a partnership with National Geographic Society to continue the analyses. The exhibit has already opened for the public, so all who are interested can go and see the amazing fossils.
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

Archaeologists try to determine the origin of Hobbit humans.

STATES CHRONICLE – For many years now, scientists try to solve the mystery of hobbit humans. Back in 2003, researchers have unearthed the remains of a human pygmy species, namely Homo floresiensis, in a cave on the Flores Island. For 15 years, the origins of this species were enveloped in mystery, starting several rumors. At that time, scientists were not able to establish whether Homo floresiensis was a damaged Homo sapiens or a new human species.

Scientists could not determine the place of Hobbit humans in the evolutionary tree

Nevertheless, they continued to ask themselves whether hobbit humans were a new kind of humans and, if so, where was their place of the evolutionary tree. Anthropologists wanted to know how old this species was. There was a long series of unanswered questions. Thus, scientists decided to investigate in a try to find some accurate answers.

Anthropologists could not determine some satisfactory results to all their dilemmas due to three different reasons. Firstly, anthropologists do not have enough bones from Hobbit humans to examine them and undergo a detailed series of tests. Despite the fact many American, Australian and Indonesian archaeologists have struggled to find such skeletons, they did not succeed.

Homo floresiensis had some similar characteristics to chimpanzees

So far, some archaeologists manage to uncover the skull, arm, shoulder, forearm bones, half of its pelvis, wrist, thigh, foot and leg bones. In 2004, scientists discovered more bones from other individuals, including lower and upper limb bones, an adult lower jaw and a Hobbit child’s limb bones. Even if the samples were well-preserved, they were not enough evidence to account for the puzzle of their place in the evolutionary tree.

Scientists confessed that they did not even have enough evidence for the Homo erectus from Indonesia to compare it with the Hobbit’s skeleton. They explained that Hobbit humans seem to have a lot of chimpanzee’s features, but also some modern human bits.  However, the most awkward looking Hobbit human who was discovered so far indicated that the creature had large teeth and a small brain. The species might have mostly walked on two feet.

Homo floresiensis indicates to have had long arms and short legs, just like a chimpanzee. Researchers presupposed that it might have lived most of the time in the trees. Hobbit humans were believed to be 18,000 years old, but the species’ age was reevaluated to somewhere between 100,000 and 60,000 years old. For some researchers, the Hobbit is a very primitive member of Homo, irrespective of the consequences it brings to us.

Image source: flickr

Experts pointed out that climate change triggered the formation of massive meltwater lakes.

STATES CHRONICLE – Massive meltwater lakes which formed in Antarctica may cause a sea level rise that might affect the whole planet. Large areas of the Western Peninsula were discovered to be melting at a fast pace. Scientist argued that this part of Antarctica was especially affected by rigorous melting during summer months. Jonathan Kingslake, a glaciologist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, claimed that the effects of climate change could no longer be considered a future problem since they are already a reality.

Meltwater lakes, channels and rivers trigger even more melting, floating over the surface of snow

He also stated that many polar scientists have thought that the event of water moving across Antarctica is exceedingly rare. Nevertheless, they discovered it to be very popular, affecting large areas. The evidence found regarding these meltwater lakes forming during the summer season indicate that the whole continent may be more vulnerable than ever. Even slight temperature rises are likely to trigger melting events which will affect the area even more in the upcoming decades.

To develop the new study, Kingslake together with his colleagues have analyzed historical catalogs of pictures which were captured from military aircraft starting with 1974. They have also examined satellite images, going back to 1973. The team of researchers revealed that a network of approximately 700 meltwater lakes, rivers, streams, and channels formed across the ice layers.

Sea ice layers are continuously melting due to global warming

Some of these streams are popular at latitudes which are so far south such that researchers believed that liquid water was impossible to flow there. The new study was published on April 19 in the Nature magazine. In some cases, the water network has been developing for decades now. For example, meltwater lakes managed to reach the Roi Baudouin Ice Shelf of East Antarctica back in 1947. However, scientists could not establish whether these meltwater rivers have continued to grow since the first pictures were captured.

Some of these watery areas form where powerful winds carried away the snow from the surface, revealing the darker sea ice below. Other such areas appear to be developing near rocky mountains which peek out from the surrounding ice. The darker ice below attracts the sunlight which triggers the ice to melt at a fast pace. After the ice melts, meltwater lakes and rivers form, causing more melting when crossing over the surface of the snow.

What do you think should be done to stop these melting events? Are environmentalists able to save this area?

Image courtesy of: static pexels

Scientists revealed the fossil of a dinosaur’s relative which has legs similar to crocodile legs.

STATES CHRONICLE – Paleontologists have discovered the fossil of an ancient dinosaur which appears to have had crocodile legs or at least similar legs to those of a crocodile. When excavating a basin situated in southern Tanzania, they have revealed a 245-million-year-old fossil which belonged to one of the relatives of dinosaurs. Scientists argued that the massive creature was not a direct ancestor to dinosaurs.

A relative of dinosaurs was discovered to have crocodile legs

Nevertheless, paleontologists claimed that it was a sort of close cousin, being called Teleocrater rhadinus. The findings were published in the Nature magazine on April 12. This new data might help researchers add new pieces to the puzzle concerning people’s understanding of the evolution of dinosaurs. The discovery may also shed light on what dinosaur’s relative looked like.

Randall B. Irmis, who is a curator of paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Utah, claimed that this is the first time when scientists have an insight into the first forms on the ancestry which leads to birds, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs. The new research is bound to fuel further studies which will try to reveal why and how dinosaurs and pterosaurs managed to evolve in different ways from their early relatives.

The crocodile-like dinosaur was called Teleocrater rhadinus

Teleocrater rhadinus is an archosaur, being part of a group which encapsulated all dinosaur, birds and flying reptiles pterosaurs, as well as alligators and crocodiles. Approximately 250 million years ago, when the Triassic Period started, the archosaurs developed into two primary branches: the first one consisted of all the birds which also included dinosaurs and the second one encapsulated crocodiles. The Teleocrater is believed to be an early member of the bird-line archosaurs.

This species had appeared about 10 million to 15 million years before dinosaurs started to be part of the ancestry. For such a creature, which was closely a relative of dinosaurs, it did not look dinosaur-like. It appears to have had crocodile legs, walking on four limbs and it had somewhere between six to ten feet long. Some scientists argued that it looked like a Komodo dragon which had a very long neck.

Paleontologists were surprised by this creature’s ankles which appeared to be similar to the ones found in crocodiles than those discovered in dinosaurs or birds. This is strange even for researchers since Teleocrater was part of the bird lineage and not the crocodile one.

Image courtesy of: wikipedia