Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs were the dominant vertebrate animals of terrestrial ecosystems for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period (about 230 million years ago to the end of the Cretaceous period (65 million years ago), when most of them became extinct in the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event.
The discovery in 1862 of Archaeopteryx first suggested a close relationship between dinosaurs and birds, as only the fossilized feathers of Archaeopteryx clearly distinguished it from contemporary small predatory dinosaurs such as Compsognathus. Research since the 1970s indicates that theropod dinosaurs are most likely the ancestors of birds; in fact, most paleontologists regard birds as the only surviving dinosaurs. Crocodilians are the other surviving close relatives of dinosaurs, and both groups are members of the Archosauria, a group of reptiles that first appeared in the very late Permian and became dominant in the mid-Triassic.
For about half of the 20th century both scientists and the general public regarded dinosaurs as slow, unintelligent cold-blooded animals. However, the bulk of research since the 1970s has supported the view that they were active animals with elevated metabolisms, and often with adaptations for social interactions. This change of view was strongly influenced by evidence of the descent of birds from theropod dinosaurs.
Since the first dinosaur fossils were recognized in the early nineteenth century, mounted dinosaur skeletons have become major attractions at museums around the world. Dinosaurs have become a part of world culture and remain consistently popular among children and adults. They have been featured in best-selling books and films (notably Jurassic Park), and new discoveries are regularly covered by the media.
The term dinosaur is sometimes used informally to describe other prehistoric reptiles, such as the pelycosaur Dimetrodon, the winged pterosaurs, and the aquatic ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, although none of these were dinosaurs.
In colloquial English "dinosaur" is sometimes used to describe an obsolete or unsuccessful thing or person, despite the dinosaurs' 160M-year reign and the global abundance and diversity of their descendants, the birds. This usage became
Dinosaurs diverged from their archosaur ancestors approximately 230 million years ago during the Middle to Late Triassic period, roughly 20 million years after the Permian-Triassic extinction event wiped out an estimated 95% of all life on Earth. Radiometric dating of the rock formation that contained fossils from the early dinosaur genus Eoraptor establishes its presence in the fossil record at this time. Paleontologists believe Eoraptor resembles the common ancestor of all dinosaurs; if this is true, its traits suggest that the first dinosaurs were small, bipedal predators. The discovery of primitive, dinosaur-like ornithodirans such as Marasuchus and Lagerpeton in Argentinian Middle Triassic strata supports this view; analysis of recovered fossils suggests that these animals were indeed small, bipedal predators.

Flying Car

Flying Car

A flying car or roadable aircraft is an automobile that can legally travel on roads and can take off, fly, and land as an aircraft. In practice, the vehicle usually has to be converted from a standard aeroplane to an aeroplane with sufficient roadworthiness.
In science fiction, the vision of a flying car is usually a practical aircraft that the average person can fly directly from any point to another (e.g. from home to work or to the supermarket) without the requirement for roads, runways or other special prepared operating areas, and they often start and land in a garage or on a parking lot. In addition, the science-fiction version of the flying car typically resembles a conventional car with no visible means of propulsion, rather than an aeroplane.
Glenn Curtiss, the Wrights' chief rival, was the first to design a flying car. The first flying car to actually fly was built by Waldo Waterman. Waterman became associated with Curtiss while Curtiss was pioneering naval aviation at North Island on San Diego Bay in the 1910s. However, it wasn't until March 21, 1937 that Waterman's Aerobile first took to the air. The Aerobile was a development of Waterman's tailless aircraft, the Whatsit. It had a wingspan of 38 feet (11 m) and a length of 20 feet 6 inches (6.25 m). On the ground and in the air it was powered by a Studebaker engine. It could fly at 112 mph (180 km/h) and drive at 56 mph (90 km/h).
In 1926, Henry Ford displayed an experimental single-seat aeroplane that he called the "sky flivver". The project was abandoned two years later when a test flight crashed, killing the pilot.
Today, there is an active movement in the search for a practical flying car. Several conventions are held yearly to discuss and review current flying car projects. Two notable events are the Flying Car forum held at the world-famous EAA Airventure at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) conventions held at various cities.
Flying cars can fall into one of two styles; integrated (all the pieces can be carried in the vehicle), or modular (the pieces to fly are left at the airport when the vehicle is driven).

Lantern Fishes

Lantern Fishes

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:
Chordata

Class:
Actinopterygii

Order:
Myctophiformes

Family:
Myctophidae

Lanternfishes are small, deep sea fish of the large family Myctophidae. One of two families in the order Myctophiformes, the Myctophidae are represented by 246 species in 33 genera, having a circumglobal distribution. They are aptly named after their conspicuous use of bioluminescence. Their sister family, the Neoscopelidae, is much fewer in number but superficially very similar; at least one neoscopelid shares the common name 'lanternfish': The large-scaled lantern fish, Neoscopelus macrolepidotus.
Sampling via deep trawling indicates that, together with the bristlemouths (Gonostomatidae) and lightfishes (Phosichthyidae), lanternfish account for as much as 90% of all deep sea fish biomass. Indeed, lanternfish are among the most widely distributed, populous, and diverse of all vertebrates, playing an important ecological role as prey for larger organisms. With an estimated global biomass of 550 - 660 million metric tonnes, several times the entire world fisheries catch, lanternfish also account for much of the biomass responsible for the deep scattering layer of the world's oceans. In the Southern Ocean, Myctophids provide an alternative food resource to krill for predators such as squid and the King Penguin. Although plentiful and prolific, currently only a few commercial lanternfish fisheries exist: These include limited operations off South Africa, in the sub-Antarctic, and in the Gulf of Oman.
Myctophid morphology is typified by a slender, compressed body covered in small, silvery deciduous cycloid scales (ctenoid in four species), a large bluntly rounded head, large elliptical to round lateral eyes (dorsolateral in Protomyctophum species), and a large terminal mouth with jaws closely set with rows of small teeth. The fins are generally small, with a single high dorsal fin, an adipose fin, and an anal fin—supported by a cartilaginous plate at its base—originating under or slightly behind the posterior end of the dorsal fin; the caudal fin is forked. The pectoral fins, usually with eight rays, may be large and well-developed to small and degenerate, or completely absent in a few species; the pectorals are greatly elongated in others, such as Lampanyctus species. The gas bladder is present in most lanternfish, but it degenerates or fills with lipids during the maturation of a few species. The lateral line is uninterrupted.
Lanternfish are well-known for their diel vertical migrations: during daylight hours most species remain within the gloomy bathypelagic zone, between 300 – 1,200 m depth; but towards sundown the fish begin to rise into the epipelagic zone, between 10 and 100 m depth. The lanternfish are thought to do this in order to avoid predation, and because they are following the diel vertical migrations of zooplankton upon which the lanternfish feed. After a night spent feeding in the surface layers of the water column, the lanternfish begin to descend back into the lightless depths and are gone by daybreak. Most species remain near to the coast, schooling over the continental slope. Different species are known to segregate themselves by depth, forming dense, discrete conspecific layers — this is believed to be a means of avoiding interspecies competition. Due to the lanternfishes' gas bladders, these layers are visible on sonar scans and give the impression of a "false bottom": this is the so-called deep-scattering layer that so perplexed early oceanographers.
It should be noted that there is great variability in migration patterns within the family. Some deeper-living species may not migrate at all, while others may do so only sporadically. Migration patterns may also be dependent on life history stage, sex, latitude, and season.
The arrangements of lanternfish photophores are different for each species, so it is assumed that their bioluminescence plays a role in intraspecies communication, specifically in shoaling and courtship behaviour. The concentration of the photophores on the flanks of the fish also indicate the light's use as camouflage: in a strategy termed counterillumination, the lanternfish regulate the brightness of the bluish light emitted by their photophores to match the ambient light level above, effectively masking the lanternfishes' silhouette when viewed from below.
A major source of food for many marine animals, lanternfish are an important link in the food chain of many local ecosystems, being heavily preyed upon by cetaceans, including whales and dolphins; large pelagic fish such as tuna and sharks; grenadiers and other deep-sea fish (including other lanternfish); pinnipeds; sea birds, notably penguins; and large squid such as the jumbo squid, Dosidicus gigas.

Endangered Species

Asian Arowana ->
Loggerhead Sea Turtle ->

Endangered Species

An endangered species is a population of an organism which is at risk of becoming extinct because it is either few in numbers, or threatened by changing environmental or predation parameters. An endangered species is usually a taxonomic species, but may be another evolutionary significant unit. The World Conservation Union (IUCN) has calculated the percentage of endangered species as 40 percent of all organisms based on the sample of species that have been evaluated through 2006. (Note: the IUCN groups all threatened species for their summary purposes.) Many nations have laws offering protection to these species: for example, forbidding hunting, restricting land development or creating preserves. Only a few of the many species at risk of extinction actually make it to the lists and obtain legal protection. Many more species become extinct, or potentially will become extinct, without gaining public notice.
The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that endangered species not living. Many factors are taken into account when assessing the conservation status of a species; not simply the number remaining, but the overall increase or decrease in the population over time, breeding success rates, known threats, and so on. The IUCN Red List is the best known conservation status listing.
Internationally, 189 countries have signed an accord agreeing to create Biodiversity Action Plans to protect endangered and other threatened species. In the United States this plan is usually called a species Recovery Plan.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species uses the term endangered species as a specific category of imperilment, rather than as a general term. Under the IUCN Categories and Criteria, endangered species is between critically endangered and vulnerable. Also critically endangered species may also be counted as endangered species and fill all the criteria
The more general term used by the IUCN for species at risk of extinction is threatened species, which also includes the less-at-risk category of vulnerable species together with endangered and critically endangered.
Some endangered species laws are controversial. Typical areas of controversy include: criteria for placing a species on the endangered species list, and criteria for removing a species from the list once its population has recovered; whether restrictions on land development constitute a "taking" of land by the government; the related question of whether private landowners should be compensated for the loss of use of their land; and obtaining reasonable exceptions to protection laws.
Being listed as an endangered species can have negative effect since it could make a species more desirable for collectors and poachers. This effect is potentially reduce-able, such as in China where commercially farmed turtles may be reducing some of the pressure to poach endangered species.
Another problem with listing species is its effect of inciting the use of the "shoot, shovel, and shut-up" method of clearing endangered species from an area of land. Some landowners currently may perceive a diminution in value for their land after finding an endangered animal on it. They have allegedly opted to silently kill and bury the animals or destroy habitat, thus removing the problem from their land, but at the same time further reducing the population of an endangered species. The effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act, which coined the term "endangered species", has been questioned by business advocacy groups and their publications, but is nevertheless widely recognized as an effective recovery tool by wildlife scientists who work with the species. Nineteen species have been delisted and recovered and 93% of listed species have a recovering or stable population.

Some endangered animals:
- Island Fox
- Sea Otter
- American Bison
- California Condor
- Loggerhead Sea Turtle
- Santa-Cruz Long-Toed Salamander
- Asian Arowana

Devil Frog

Devil Frog

Beelzebufo ampinga was a particularly large species of prehistoric frog first identified in 2007. Common names assigned by the media include "Devil Frog", "Devil Toad", and "the Frog from Hell". Fossils of Beelzebufo have been recovered from strata dating to the late Cretaceous Period, some 70 million years ago.

The generic name Beelzebufo is a portmanteau of Beelzebub (a Semitic deity sometimes identified as one of the chief lieutenants, or persona of the Judeo-Christian Devil) and bufo (Latin for "toad"). The specific name ampinga means "shield" in Malagasy, the national language of Madagascar.

The species may have grown to over 40 cm (16 in.) and four kg (10 lb.) — larger than any living frogs, including the largest known species, the goliath frog, which can be up to 32 cm (12.5 in.).

Although Beelzebufo appears to have lived in what is now Madagascar, it superficially resembled its closest living relatives, the horned toads of South America, marketed as pacman frogs in the United States pet trade. Modern pacman frogs grow to 15 cm (6 in.) long.
Richard Lane, program director in NSF's Division of Earth Sciences, said "The occurrence of this frog in Madagascar and its relatives' existence in South America provides strong evidence that the supercontinent Gondwana 'disassembled' during the latest part of the Cretaceous."

In comparison with the living horned frogs, Beelzebufo was a rapacious predator that would have attacked any animal that could fit into its capacious mouth, and would have been capable of eating relatively large prey, perhaps even juvenile dinosaurs. Beelzebufo was probably a dry-land frog, living in arid environments and ambushing prey.
The first fossil fragments were found in 1993 by David W. Krause of New York's Stony Brook University, but it took 14 years for scientists Susan E. Evans, Marc E. H. Jones, and Krause to assemble enough data for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the journal of the United States National Academy of Sciences. Some 75 fossil fragments have been found. Researchers have been able to reconstruct parts of the frog's skeleton, including nearly the entire skull.

The Bug's Life (Sparing Times Edition)

Sparing Times

See from your nearest sight, then their lifes will look beautiful. Spare a little of times to see, and maybe they will give something useful. It's a truth that there are only few peoples that look at the insect that share life space with us. But, in fact, they make the gardens and parks as living places for themselves.

Global Warming

Global Warming

Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of the Earth's near-surface air and oceans in recent decades and its projected continuation.

The global average air temperature near the Earth's surface rose 0.74 ± 0.18 °C (1.33 ± 0.32 °F) during the 100 years ending in 2005. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concludes "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations" via the greenhouse effect. Natural phenomena such as solar variation combined with volcanoes probably had a small warming effect from pre-industrial times to 1950 and a small cooling effect from 1950 onward. These basic conclusions have been endorsed by at least 30 scientific societies and academies of science, including all of the national academies of science of the major industrialized countries. While individual scientists have voiced disagreement with some findings of the IPCC, the overwhelming majority of scientists working on climate change agree with the IPCC's main conclusions.

Climate model projections summarized by the IPCC indicate that average global surface temperature will likely rise a further 1.1 to 6.4 °C (2.0 to 11.5 °F) during the 21st century. The range of values results from the use of differing scenarios of future greenhouse gas emissions as well as models with differing climate sensitivity. Although most studies focus on the period up to 2100, warming and sea level rise are expected to continue for more than a thousand years even if greenhouse gas levels are stabilized. The delay in reaching equilibrium is a result of the large heat capacity of the oceans.

Increasing global temperature will cause sea level to rise, and is expected to increase the intensity of extreme weather events and to change the amount and pattern of precipitation. Other effects of global warming include changes in agricultural yields, trade routes, glacier retreat, species extinctions and increases in the ranges of disease vectors.

Remaining scientific uncertainties include the amount of warming expected in the future, and how warming and related changes will vary from region to region around the globe. Most national governments have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there is ongoing political and public debate worldwide regarding what, if any, action should be taken to reduce or reverse future warming or to adapt to its expected consequences.