The straight poop: Mammoth style
in History and Nature of Science, Scientific Inquiry, and Biological Populations Change Over Time
Poop with flies: you always manage to find a few of these guys on the pile.
Courtesy PKmousiePoop. Poop. Poop. Poop. There. Have I got your attention? Of course, who can resist a story on poop? It is such a widely discussed topic with a vast array of monikers. Probably not a decent topic of conversation for invited guests or the dinner table, but it does get its chat time. Despite the disgust that it truly is, there is a curious fascination with the whole matter. It can tell you about your health, especially if you have the runs. It can tell you if you’ve been chewing your food well, or if you need to lay off the cheese. If you are a proper biologist, you’ve probably bent down and touched it or even broke it up to examine what passed. Certain scientists, such as Scatologists pursue the study of scat (poop) as a means to tell us more about a certain animal’s habits. If by the Fates, a poo survives intact and becomes old enough to fossilize, then we would call it a coprolite. Coprolites have been recovered from dinosaurs, ancient whales, fish, and prehistoric mammals to name a few.
Coprolite: one very old poo
Courtesy AlishaV
Recent news from BBC detailed a story about scientists studying the ancient droppings from mammoths. Well sort of. The researchers were examining mud deposits from a lake for fungal spores that are produced in large herbivore dung (mammoth poo). Their research concludes that the extra large mammals of the recent past experienced a slow and steady decline starting about 15,000 years ago. This flies in the face of the current prevailing theory, that an asteroid impact about 12,900 years ago caused global upheaval, world spread wildfire, and then abrupt extinction of the mega mammals. The asteroid theory had already been under assault by lack of evidence in soil samples. Samples taken all over the continent in soil cores extracted from peat bogs and lake bottoms.
Mammoth: artistic re-creation
Courtesy ecstaticist Was early man really responsible for the start of the downfall of the mammoth? I think undoubtedly we had a hand in their fate, but the answer is most likely multifaceted. Taking a closer look at the dung heaps of the past may well continue to give us a better picture of paleohistory. Just watch where you step!
Nice story on a recent find of a baby mammoth"
General Mammoth info
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/mammuthus.html
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mammoth/about_mammoths.html
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Evidence of new collision on Jupiter: Scarring on lower left sector marks recent impact on the giant planet.
Courtesy NASA/JPL/Infrared Telescope FacilityAn amateur astronomer in Australia has discovered a scar on the planet Jupiter indicating a recent collision between the planet and a comet or asteroid. Anthony Wesley noticed the new scar had appeared on the planet’s surface sometime between the hours of 5 a.m and 11 a.m (CDT) on the morning of July 20, 2009. NASA scientists used the agency’s Infrared Telescope Facility on Mauna Kea, Hawaii to confirm the impact. This new collision comes practically fifteen years to the day since the spectacular Levy-Shoemaker comet collided with Jupiter in 1994.
"We were extremely lucky to be seeing Jupiter at exactly the right time, the right hour, the right side of Jupiter to witness the event,” said Glenn Orton, a JPL scientist.
“We couldn't have planned it better."
Go here to read more about it.
UPDATE 7-24-09: I've added this new Hubble photo of Jupiter impact site via Space.com
Hubble photo of Jupiter impact
Courtesy NASA, ESA, H. Hamel (Space Science Institute, and the Jupiter Impact Team.
Each week, CNN posts a collection of space images. This week, you can see the green comet Lulin, thousands of satellites orbiting Earth, and some photos from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Making what is believed to be its first pass through our solar system, Comet Lulin will be passing by Earth tonight at its closest point to us on its celestial voyage. Full details are here from National Geographic. Despite its close tracking tonight to our planet, about 38 million miles, you'll still need to use a telescope or binoculars to see it. As a new comet, Lulin has just started to burn the frozen chemicals that make up its composition on this pass around the sun, giving astronomers a rare chance to see what happens with a brand-new comet
Stardust Capsule: Image courtesy NASA.From Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory:
Contrary to expectations for a small icy body, much of the comet dust returned by the Stardust mission formed very close to the young sun and was altered from the solar system’s early materials.
When the Stardust mission returned to Earth with samples from the comet Wild 2 in 2006, scientists knew the material would provide new clues about the formation of our solar system, but they didn’t know exactly how.
New research by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and collaborators reveals that, in addition to containing material that formed very close to the young sun, the dust from Wild 2 also is missing ingredients that would be expected in comet dust. Surprisingly, the Wild 2 comet sample better resembles a meteorite from the asteroid belt rather than an ancient, unaltered comet.
More on this story here.
More on the Stardust/Wild 2 mission here.
Attention seeking comet: Comet Holmes photographed in 6" reflector telescope, 100x, 2 seconds, 400iso on Oct 25,2007, 7:10 UT (from Minneapolis, Minnesota) Image courtesy Tom Ruen via Wikipedia.So, in the category of “we don’t know why this is happening but you should check it out” a comet that used to be so dim you needed a telescope to see it has become suddenly so much brighter it can now be seen with the naked eye.
Comet 17P Holmes, visible to northern hemisphere residents, is practically demanding attention by suddenly becoming just over half a million times brighter than it was just a few hours previously. The comet can be found in the constellation Perseus and is visible for most of the night, and thanks to daylight savings time is easier to see earlier in the day. It resembles a fuzzy, yellowish star.
The comet was originally discovered by British astronomer Edwin Holmes on November 6, 1892. The crazy thing is, he discovered it because of a similar incident to what is happening now, it suddenly became so much brighter it was easily observable. Practically 115 years to the day! Also crazy is that if you think about its size (no more than 2 miles in diameter) and its distance from the Earth, it has to really be glowing to be seen!
In 1892 the comet faded after a few weeks, and we should expect a similar fading to happen in this instance – so get out there now to see this once in a lifetime opportunity! (Binoculars will help.)
We've previously posted about Comet McNaught over Minneapolis. NASA's STEREO satellite, which is normally used to look at our sun, caught some awesome pics of this super close comet. Watch the movie of Comet McNaught.
Comet McNaught hovers above an outbound aircraft. Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, MN, January 12, 2007
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Comet McNaught appears over Duluth, Minnesota's Spirit Mountain. Photo by Bob King, Duluth News Tribune
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Celestial visitor: Comet McNaught appears over Duluth, Minnesota's Spirit Mountain.
Photo courtesy Bob King, Duluth News Tribune
Comet Hale-Bopp in the Minneapolis skies in 1997: Will Comet McNaught outshine it? Photo courtesy Mark RyanFor us in the Northern Hemisphere, Comet McNaught –one of the brightest in decades- will be visible for a short time on the horizon just before sunrise and just after sunset.
Faint showing: Comet McNaught hovers over an outbound jet above Lake Harriet in Minneapolis, MN, January 12, 2007. Photo courtesy Mark Ryan
Comets, often called “dirty snowballs”, or perhaps more precisely “icy dirtballs”,
are composed of ice, dust, snow and gas, and are believed to originate in the far reaches of our solar system in a hypothesized area of space called the Oort Cloud. They are invisible to us until they orbit near the sun and reveal their glowing tails. Recent space probes have gathered more information about their composition .
According to NASA astronomer Tony Phillips, Comet McNaught is six times brighter than 1997’s Comet Hale-Bopp, and 100 times brighter than Halley’s Comet when it last appeared in 1986.
“It will remain a spectacular comet for weeks, perhaps months, in the Southern Hemisphere,” he said. “It could emerge as the brightest comet in recorded history.”
Weather permitting, Comet McNaught should be visible just after sunset today (4:54 CST Jan. 12 at Latitude 45° N) in the west-southwestern sky. Once the sun sets, locate the bright planet Venus about 11 degrees above the horizon in the southwest, then look down and to the right for Comet McNaught. You may also spot it just before sunrise (7:49 CST Jan. 13 at Latitude 45° N). About twenty minutes before the sun rises would be a good time to look. The comet should be visible just to the south of due east.
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