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Newly Discovered Prehistoric Bird Lived Near a Balmy North Pole
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Shock & Dismay
Dec 23, 2016, 2:52:37 PM12/23/16
to
The North Pole wasn’t always a winter wonderland. Rewind 90
million years, and scientists think it was probably as warm as
parts of Florida.
A new clue supporting that idea is a fossilized wing bone
belonging to a newly discovered prehistoric bird found in the
Canadian Arctic. The duck-size creature looked like a cross
between a sea gull and a cormorant, but with a beak full of
teeth. It could both fly and dive, and it most likely lived
alongside turtles, crocodilelike reptiles and a whole lot of
fish.
“This was a hyperwarm period, a real spike in temperatures where
we think even during the winter there wasn’t freezing water,”
said John Tarduno, a geophysicist from the University of
Rochester. “Tingmiatornis arctica adds to this picture that we
have of this incredibly warm Arctic 90 million years ago.”
Dr. Tarduno and his team published their findings on Monday in
the journal Scientific Reports.
Scientists aren’t sure why Earth was stifling hot for several
million years during the Cretaceous period, but according to Dr.
Tarduno, the prevailing hypothesis is that the atmosphere was
filled with heat-trapping carbon dioxide, most likely the result
of extraordinary volcanic activity. The resulting greenhouse
effect would have transformed the polar ecosystem into a place
where Tingmiatornis arctica and its prey could thrive.
The warming period, known as the Turonian age, is estimated to
have lasted from 93.9 million to 89.8 million years ago. At its
coldest, it is estimated that the Arctic got around 57 degrees
Fahrenheit.
In his time exploring the snowcapped brown hills and thick
glaciers of Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic, Dr. Tarduno has
come across two wing bones belonging to this species of bird. He
uncovered the first humerus in 1999. It was relatively small and
he didn’t pay it much mind until he found a second, larger bone
a few years later. But even the second humerus didn’t catch his
attention at first. Instead, he and his team were preoccupied
with a large turtle shell that was on the other side of the same
rock.
“We took it back to camp and went, ‘Oh, wait a minute, there’s
another spectacular fossil on the other side,’ ” Dr. Tarduno
said.
After finding the bones, they turned to their colleague Julia
Clarke, a paleontologist from the University of Texas at Austin,
for further analysis. She knew the bones belonged to a group of
birds called ornithurines, which includes all living birds and
their closest extinct relatives. But by studying the unique
marks on the points on the bone where it was once attached to
muscle, she was able to determine that the fossil belonged to a
prehistoric bird unlike any that had previously been discovered.
Dr. Clarke was also able to determine that the bird was a
capable flier because of the size and shape of the bone, and
that the bird most likely dove in the water because of the
thickness of the outermost layer, known as the cortical bone.
She said the finding might help paleontologists understand an
even bigger mystery.
“We can’t explain why some flying dinosaurs, which we call
birds, went extinct right alongside all the other dinosaurs,”
she said, “and why only parts of the ornithurines survived to
the present day.”
By collecting more fossils of ornithurine birds like
Tingmiatornis arctica, paleontologists can better understand
what helped this lineage of birds survive the extinction event
66 million years ago when three-quarters of all animal and plant
life perished.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/science/prehistoric-bird-
arctic.html?_r=0
million years, and scientists think it was probably as warm as
parts of Florida.
A new clue supporting that idea is a fossilized wing bone
belonging to a newly discovered prehistoric bird found in the
Canadian Arctic. The duck-size creature looked like a cross
between a sea gull and a cormorant, but with a beak full of
teeth. It could both fly and dive, and it most likely lived
alongside turtles, crocodilelike reptiles and a whole lot of
fish.
“This was a hyperwarm period, a real spike in temperatures where
we think even during the winter there wasn’t freezing water,”
said John Tarduno, a geophysicist from the University of
Rochester. “Tingmiatornis arctica adds to this picture that we
have of this incredibly warm Arctic 90 million years ago.”
Dr. Tarduno and his team published their findings on Monday in
the journal Scientific Reports.
Scientists aren’t sure why Earth was stifling hot for several
million years during the Cretaceous period, but according to Dr.
Tarduno, the prevailing hypothesis is that the atmosphere was
filled with heat-trapping carbon dioxide, most likely the result
of extraordinary volcanic activity. The resulting greenhouse
effect would have transformed the polar ecosystem into a place
where Tingmiatornis arctica and its prey could thrive.
The warming period, known as the Turonian age, is estimated to
have lasted from 93.9 million to 89.8 million years ago. At its
coldest, it is estimated that the Arctic got around 57 degrees
Fahrenheit.
In his time exploring the snowcapped brown hills and thick
glaciers of Nunavut, in the Canadian Arctic, Dr. Tarduno has
come across two wing bones belonging to this species of bird. He
uncovered the first humerus in 1999. It was relatively small and
he didn’t pay it much mind until he found a second, larger bone
a few years later. But even the second humerus didn’t catch his
attention at first. Instead, he and his team were preoccupied
with a large turtle shell that was on the other side of the same
rock.
“We took it back to camp and went, ‘Oh, wait a minute, there’s
another spectacular fossil on the other side,’ ” Dr. Tarduno
said.
After finding the bones, they turned to their colleague Julia
Clarke, a paleontologist from the University of Texas at Austin,
for further analysis. She knew the bones belonged to a group of
birds called ornithurines, which includes all living birds and
their closest extinct relatives. But by studying the unique
marks on the points on the bone where it was once attached to
muscle, she was able to determine that the fossil belonged to a
prehistoric bird unlike any that had previously been discovered.
Dr. Clarke was also able to determine that the bird was a
capable flier because of the size and shape of the bone, and
that the bird most likely dove in the water because of the
thickness of the outermost layer, known as the cortical bone.
She said the finding might help paleontologists understand an
even bigger mystery.
“We can’t explain why some flying dinosaurs, which we call
birds, went extinct right alongside all the other dinosaurs,”
she said, “and why only parts of the ornithurines survived to
the present day.”
By collecting more fossils of ornithurine birds like
Tingmiatornis arctica, paleontologists can better understand
what helped this lineage of birds survive the extinction event
66 million years ago when three-quarters of all animal and plant
life perished.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/22/science/prehistoric-bird-
arctic.html?_r=0
Wally W.
Dec 23, 2016, 4:39:16 PM12/23/16
to
On Fri, 23 Dec 2016 20:48:12 +0100 (CET), Shock & Dismay wrote:
>The North Pole wasn’t always a winter wonderland. Rewind 90
>million years, and scientists think it was probably as warm as
>parts of Florida.
>
>A new clue supporting that idea is a fossilized wing bone
>belonging to a newly discovered prehistoric bird found in the
>Canadian Arctic. The duck-size creature looked like a cross
>between a sea gull and a cormorant, but with a beak full of
>teeth. It could both fly and dive, and it most likely lived
>alongside turtles, crocodilelike reptiles and a whole lot of
>fish.
>
>“This was a hyperwarm period, a real spike in temperatures where
>we think even during the winter there wasn’t freezing water,”
>said John Tarduno, a geophysicist from the University of
>Rochester. “Tingmiatornis arctica adds to this picture that we
>have of this incredibly warm Arctic 90 million years ago.”
>
>Dr. Tarduno and his team published their findings on Monday in
>the journal Scientific Reports.
>
>Scientists aren’t sure why Earth was stifling hot for several
>million years during the Cretaceous period, but according to Dr.
>Tarduno, the prevailing hypothesis
... prevailing among whom?
>The North Pole wasn’t always a winter wonderland. Rewind 90
>million years, and scientists think it was probably as warm as
>parts of Florida.
>
>A new clue supporting that idea is a fossilized wing bone
>belonging to a newly discovered prehistoric bird found in the
>Canadian Arctic. The duck-size creature looked like a cross
>between a sea gull and a cormorant, but with a beak full of
>teeth. It could both fly and dive, and it most likely lived
>alongside turtles, crocodilelike reptiles and a whole lot of
>fish.
>
>“This was a hyperwarm period, a real spike in temperatures where
>we think even during the winter there wasn’t freezing water,”
>said John Tarduno, a geophysicist from the University of
>Rochester. “Tingmiatornis arctica adds to this picture that we
>have of this incredibly warm Arctic 90 million years ago.”
>
>Dr. Tarduno and his team published their findings on Monday in
>the journal Scientific Reports.
>
>Scientists aren’t sure why Earth was stifling hot for several
>million years during the Cretaceous period, but according to Dr.
>Tarduno, the prevailing hypothesis
See 90 million years ago here:
http://www.climatereview.net/Movie%20Screenshots/High%20Res/600%20Million%20Years%20of%20CO2.jpg
Temperature was high; CO2 had been declining for 70 million years.
> is that the atmosphere was
>filled with heat-trapping carbon dioxide, most likely the result
>of extraordinary volcanic activity. The resulting greenhouse
>effect would have transformed the polar ecosystem into a place
>where Tingmiatornis arctica and its prey could thrive.
>
>The warming period, known as the Turonian age, is estimated to
>have lasted from 93.9 million to 89.8 million years ago.
The warm period lasted 80 million years, starting 120 million years
ago.
Greenies have their panties in a wad over nothing.
Siri Cruise
Dec 24, 2016, 2:24:35 AM12/24/16
to
In article <n36r5cpdrp7mqti39...@4ax.com>,
explained by this thing called plate tectonics.
(2) The earth has had its carbon dioxide seriously out of whack a few times over
the last three billion years. These lead to iceball earth or desert earth with
mass extinctions in plants and animal, terrestrial and aquatic.
(3) Can humans return enough carbon gas to the biosphere to trigger mass
extinctions? Let's try an experiment and find out.
--
:-<> Siri Seal of Disavowal #000-001. Disavowed. Denied. Deleted.
'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'
Free the Amos Yee one.
Yeah, too bad about your so-called life. Ha-ha.
Wally W. <ww8...@aim.com> wrote:
> >At its
> >coldest, it is estimated that the Arctic got around 57 degrees
> >Fahrenheit.
(1) The canadian arctic wasn't always in the arctic. Land moves around. It's
> >At its
> >coldest, it is estimated that the Arctic got around 57 degrees
> >Fahrenheit.
explained by this thing called plate tectonics.
(2) The earth has had its carbon dioxide seriously out of whack a few times over
the last three billion years. These lead to iceball earth or desert earth with
mass extinctions in plants and animal, terrestrial and aquatic.
(3) Can humans return enough carbon gas to the biosphere to trigger mass
extinctions? Let's try an experiment and find out.
--
:-<> Siri Seal of Disavowal #000-001. Disavowed. Denied. Deleted.
'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.'
Free the Amos Yee one.
Yeah, too bad about your so-called life. Ha-ha.
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