Monday, 30 September 2013

Fish Fossil Has Oldest Known Face, May Influence Evolution

The 419-million-year-old fossil has the same jawbones as vertebrates.



Scientists have found the oldest face—and it's a fish. (Not a fishface, though.)

The 419-million-year-old fish fossil could help explain when and how vertebrates, including humans, acquired our faces—suggesting a far more primitive origin for this critical feature of our success, a new study says.

"Entelognathus primordialis is one of the earliest, and certainly the most primitive, fossil fish that has the same jawbones as modern bony fishes and land vertebrates including ourselves," said study co-author Min Zhu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

"The human jaw is quite directly connected to the jaw of this fish, and that's what makes it so interesting."

The bones comprising the fish's cheek and jaws appear essentially the same as those found in modern bony vertebrates, including humans, Zhu added. Because it boasts maxilla and mandible much like our own, the fish may be the earliest known creature with what we'd recognize as a face. (Related: "Ancient Toothy Fish Found in Arctic—Giant Prowled Rivers.")

Key Evolutionary Step

The development of jaws and faces was a key step in vertebrate evolution, and probably appeared as a way for fish to catch bigger and/or more nimble prey, according to the study, published September 26 in the journal Nature.

There remains much to learn about how it happened, however.

University of Oxford paleobiologist Matt Friedman, who wasn't involved in the research but penned a commentary for Nature, said the fossil boasts a jaw and face structure that's nothing like those in any other known members of Entelognathus's extinct family of primitive armored fishes, the placoderms. These creatures had simple jaws and cheeks composed of just a few large bones, Friedman explained, rather than complex arrangements of smaller bones like those found in modern bony fishes.

But in the new fossil, found in China, has a distinctive three-bone system still used by chewing vertebrates today: a lower jawbone called the dentary and two upper jaw bones called the premaxilla (holding the front teeth) and the maxilla (holding the canine and cheek teeth).

"The exciting thing about this fossil is that when you look at the top of it, it looks like a placoderm, but when you look at the side of the fish and the structure of the jaw, it doesn't look like any placoderm that we know of," Friedman said.

"This tends to suggest the exciting possibility that these jawbones evolved way deep down in the lineage, so these features we used to hold as being unique to bony fishes may not be so unique.” (Related: "Ancient Fish Downsized But Still Largest Ever.")

Understanding Our Origins

The ramifications of that theory, if confirmed, would extend far beyond fish into the deepest roots of our own family tree, Friedman said.

"Basically, as terrestrial vertebrates, we are a kind of very specialized, very bizarre fish that about 370 million years ago went on land and lost its fins. Understanding the origin of bony fishes is inextricably linked to understanding our own origins because we're bony fishes.

"These different bones in our skull, the ones that medical students learn the names of, where and when in our family tree did they arrive?” he asked. (Related: "Flat-Faced Early Humans Confirmed—Lived Among Other Human Species.")

If it's the case that the bones we see in Entelognathus are genuinely related to the ones in our own faces, Friedman explained, we can trace the origin of those features very deep down into our own family tree, even before the lineage of bony fishes (including terrestrial vertebrates like humans) split from that of the cartilaginous fishes (including sharks and rays).

"It suggests a real antiquity to some of the most prominent features of our own bony faces."

Saturday, 28 September 2013

2 kilograms of cocaine in the trim stomach

 Another confirmation of the fact that smugglers violent fantasy, and they are willing to go to great lengths in order to Transport that drugs illegally.A resident of Canada – Tabitha Leah Ritchiem, tried to Transport across the border from Colombia okalo 2 kilograms of cocaine in the trim stomach.She looked like a real pregnant woman.



Jaguar Kills Caiman in "Spectacular" Attack

On the Prowl

On August 25, photographer Paul Donahue got a call: A large male jaguar had been spotted on the hunt in central Brazil's Tres Irmãos River.
Donahue, who tracks jaguar sightings for ecotourism operator Southwild in Mato Grosso (map), arrived at the scene to find an animal named Mick Jaguar hidden in thick grass, stalking a nearby group of caiman, a crocodile relative native to South America (pictured).
"Over the next 30 to 40 minutes we watched the jaguar very slowly slink along in the direction of the yacaré,"
The largest of South America's cats, jaguars are good swimmers and regularly prey on fish, turtles, and caimans. They also eat larger animals such as deer, peccaries, capybaras, and tapirs.

All Wet

The jaguar slipped into the water and swam across to the sandbar (pictured), where a roughly 120-pound (54-kilogram) caiman was basking in the sun, facing away from the water and the approaching predator, Donahue said. (See more jaguar pictures.)
"A week earlier we had watched this same cat approach caiman on the same sandbar without success, and we were expecting a similar result this afternoon," he wrote.
"Just the same, our boat was positioned perfectly, with the sun behind us and very close to the [caiman], so whatever happened was going to happen right in front of us."

Attack

Reaching the sandbar, the big cat rose slowly out of the water, and then suddenly pounced on the caiman (pictured).
Named Mick Jaguar, the animal—known for its damaged right eye—had been observed before in 2011 and previously in 2013. Since 2004 Donahue and colleagues have recorded about 88 jaguars in the area of the Meeting of the Waters State Park, and since mid-June they've identified 22 individuals.
The big cats currently live in isolated populations scattered across North and South America, which is part of the reason the species is listed as "near threatened" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (See a map of jaguar populations.)

Ready for the Kill

Jaguars are ambush killers, dispatching their prey by piercing the skull or neck with a single speedy bite. Their strategy differs from that of most other cats, which grab their prey's throat and suffocate it.


Fatal Bite

The jaguar grabbed the caiman first with its right front paw, then bit the reptile's back a little below the head.
The predator then quickly adjusted its bite to the base of the yacaré's skull—the manner in which a jaguar normally kills—then wrestled the yacaré into a dragging position and headed back across the inlet, Donahue recounted in his field notes.

Speedy End

The jaguar carries off his prize, which took just a few seconds to capture, Donahue said.
"We all just stood there with our mouths hanging open, not believing what we had just witnessed," he said.
"We had seen kills before, but nothing so spectacular and horrific nor at such close range. It's made me think a lot about the fragility of life and the fine line between life and death."



Friday, 27 September 2013

The tiger as a pet

The tiger as a pet


 A Brazilian family has got as pets real tigers, who lives in the family Ari Borges. This happened many years ago, Ari Borges and his wife rescued two tigers at the zoo, they decided to temporarily shelter the animals in his house. But soon become attached to them and could not refuse. Now in their home lives seven tigers. They behave like ordinary domestic cats love to play sleep and eat a lot of meat.













Cameras capture eagle killing deer in Russia

Cameras capture eagle killing deer in Russia

The eagle, red-handed.
Remote cameras intended to monitor Siberian tigers in Russia instead caught a golden eagle's fatal attack on a deer, snapping three photos as the massive bird dug its talons into the distressed animal's back.

 London's Zoological Society, which distributed the pictures to journalists, said the sequence showed a rare but not unheard of attack by a golden eagle. The society's Linda Kerley said she first realized something was up when she approached the wildlife-monitoring device — also called a camera trap — and found a mangled deer carcass nearby.
Something felt wrong about it," she said in a statement accompanying the photographs. "There were no large carnivore tracks in the snow, and it looked like the deer had been running and then just stopped and died.
"It was only after we got back to camp that I checked the images from the camera and pieced everything together," she said. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
 Golden eagles are large birds. Their wingspan tops more than 2 meters (6 ½ feet) and, while they typically eat small birds, mammals, or snakes, they've been known to target larger animals as well.
It's rare for a camera to catch such an attack in progress, and the photos have been an online sensation.
The zoological society said the photos were shot in the Lazovsky State Nature Reserve in the Primorye region of Russia's Far East on Dec. 8, 2011. The pictures were released only after the publication of a scholarly article by Kerley and co-author Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Ohio-based Journal of Raptor Research earlier this month.

Thursday, 26 September 2013

A Chinese man has become a widower two hours after the wedding

A Chinese man has become a widower two hours after the wedding



The woman who spent two years in a coma, had a heartbreaking farewell to loved ones by turning off the life support machine in just a few hours after she got married. Xu Jingjing and her fiance Lu Lai of Guangdong Province in south-east China in 2011 were full of enthusiasm and it seemed that in front of them a happy and interesting life. Both found jobs in local government in Guangzhou in very high positions. The pair even bought a new house and was about to get married. But their plans for a long and happy life together were dashed when Hee Jingjing felt at work is not good. On the way to the hospital she went into a coma and never regained consciousness. Two years later, on the day of 28th birthday girl Jingjing family decided to fulfill a dream of a wedding couple before disconnect it from the machine that supports life. At the wedding ceremony, which took place at the bedside of the girl, and was attended by close relatives. A few hours after the wedding Jingjing has been disconnected from the unit. By decision of the girl, her organs will be donated to people who need them.






Saturday, 7 September 2013

Android KitKat is the next version of Google's mobile operating system

Android KitKat is the next version of Google's mobile operating system


 Google's Sundar Pichai, head of both Android and Chrome, has confirmed that the next version of Android will be called KitKat. Yes, you've read correctly, KitKat, as in the trademarked name of the chocolate candy bar made by Nestle (and licensed by Hershey in the US). A splash page for the new operating system reveals that KitKat will be the codename for Android 4.4, not the long-rumored Android 5.0. The name keeps the company's long-standing tradition of naming each version of its mobile operating system after desserts.
To date, Google has internally referred to the release as Key Lime Pie, but the company decided to go for another name after realizing that "very few people actually know the taste of a key lime pie," director of Android partnerships John Lagerling tells the BBC. Late last year, someone suggested naming the upcoming version KitKat — apparently a favorite snack of Android coders — and the company "decided to reach out to the Nestle folks." Within 24 hours an agreement was made, though it's apparently "not a money-changing-hands kind of deal," according to Lagerling.
Google says that "it's our goal with Android KitKat to make an amazing Android experience available for everybody." That's certainly a bit vague, but the statement does line up with earlier rumors that suggested Google plans to use its next Android release in smartwatches, gaming consoles, low-cost smartphones, and even laptops.
Pichai says in a Google+ post that he's just returned from meeting with hardware partners in Asia, and he adds that there are now over 1 billion Android activations. He goes on to say that he "can’t wait to release the next version of the platform that is as sweet as the candy bar that’s one of our team’s favorites." To promote the partnership, a new Willy Wonka-style contest offers buyers of specially-marked KitKat packages a chance to win either a free Nexus 7 or a Google Play credit. If you're really lucky, you might even get a KitKat bar in the shape of an Android robot.