http://scienceblogs.com/gnxp/2009/12/are_chinese_subsets_of_southea.php?utm_source=editorspicks
Actually, I think 120ka Hs was thinly distributed along coasts and river valleys throughout the tropics from the East African Rift and coast, then 74ka Mt Toba exploded killing many around India, so from Papua some went to Malaya and split to west to India or east to China, while some from N Africa/Rift went east to Arabia/Iran/Caspian... tough call.
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Interesting, grain seeds were cut with stone tools 105ka in Mozambique:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/55114
750ka Jordan Valley site shows use of waterside flora/fauna:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/55115
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From Africa to India 100ka, from India to China 10ka
Scientists rejig human evolution, Indians ancestors of East Asians
Africa-India-China
Calcutta News.Net
Friday 11th December, 2009 (IANS)
The ancestors of the present-day populations of China, Japan and other east Asian countries had migrated from India, scientists from 10 countries including India said Friday after achieving a breakthrough in the study of the evolution of humans and their spread across the world. This large study establishes that ancient Indian population was a source of ancestors of Japanese, Chinese and all other East Asians... Samir Brahmachari, director general of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) told IANS Friday. According to the study, people from India moved to southeast Asia and east Asia. 'They all have a common genetic origin. It shows that India represents a microcosm of Asia's genetic diversity,' Brahmachari, who was a key researcher in this study, later informed media persons here. Scientists said that earlier it was believed that several groups of people from Africa entered India, China, Japan and other eastern Asian regions separately.
'But this study now negates them all. There was only a single group of entry from southern Africa to India around 100,000 years ago. They entered India through land but in and around the coastal belt. They slowly spread to southern India and moved to south east and east Asian regions,' the CSIR chief added. He said these Indians and their genetic mutation variety slowly migrated to other parts of Asia. 'This will give a new meaning to human evolution theory and its spread.' The study, which traces the 'genetic origins of Asian population' was conducted by 90 scientists from 10 countries in over 30 scientific institutions. At least 10 scientists from three key Indian science research labs were part of the study.
It took five years for these top scientists to come up with these new findings which will pave the way for more historical, medical and anthropological studies. Congratulating Indian scientists and the 'path breaking study', Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan said: 'It has important implications, in furthering the understanding of migratory patterns in human history and for the study of genetics and diseases.'
It also has political ramifications, he noted. 'In spite of many political differences, these Asian nations worked together to produce such a study that has wide implication on the origin of people. The study suggest that there was a single initial entry into the continent of Asia, instead of multiple inflows,' Chavan added.
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Taiwan not homeland of Austronesians?
"In addition, the topology of the maximum-likelihood population tree (Fig. 1)
seems to suggest that Taiwan aborigines may be derived from, rather than
ancestral to other Austronesian populations, because they occupy central, rather
than peripheral positions within the cluster of Austronesian speaking
populations. This observation seems to contradict a commonly cited Taiwan
"homeland" hypothesis of Austronesian populations. Given a nearly total lack of
prior autosomal data from Southeast Asian populations (9, 10), and conflicting
evidence based on mtDNA analyses, some of which questions the Taiwan homeland
story...
The scientists also reported a clear increase in genetic diversity from northern to southern latitudes. Their findings also suggest that there was one major inflow of human migration into Asia arising from Southeast Asia, rather than multiple inflows from both southern and northern routes as previously proposed. This indicates that Southeast Asia was the major geographic source of East Asian and North Asian populations.
(A figure illustrating the paper shows plausible routes of pre-historical migration of Asian human populations. According to the study, the PanAsia SNP Initiative, the most recent common ancestors of Asians arrived first in India and later, some of them migrated to Thailand, and South to the lands known today as Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines. The first group of settlers must have gone very far south before they settled successfully. These included the Malay Negritos , Philippine Negritos , the East Indonesians, and early settlers of the Pacific Islands. Thereafter, one or several groups of people migrated North, mixed with previous settlers there and, finally, formed various populations we now refer to as Austronesian, Austro-Asiatic, Tai-Kadai, Hmong-Mien, and Altaic. The figure is titled, "Putative Pre-Historical Migration Routes of Asian Human Populations.")
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/afst-gah120909.php
"…More than 90% of East Asian (EA) haplotypes could be found in either Southeast Asian (SEA) or Central-South Asian (CSA) populations and show clinal structure with haplotype diversity decreasing from south to north. Furthermore, 50% of EA haplotypes were found in SEA only and 5% were found in CSA only, indicating that SEA was a major geographic source of EA populations…"
"…The geographic source(s) contributing to EA populations have long been debated. One hypothesis
suggests that all SEA and EA populations derive primarily from a single initial migration,
which entered the continent along a southern, largely coastal route (19, 20). Another hypothesis
argues for at least two independent migrations into East Asia, first along a southern route, followed later by a series of migrations along a more northern route that served to bridge European and EA populations, but with little contribution to populations in Southeast Asia…"
"…the evidence from our autosomal data and the accompanying simulation studies (figs.
S29 and S30) point toward a history that unites the Negrito and non-Negrito populations of Southeast and East Asia via a single primary wave of entry of humans into the continent…"
India centre of Asian evolution?
NDTV Correspondant, Friday December 11, 2009, New Delhi
How did Asian populations evolve? Did they come from Europe, were they native to Asia? A new study that mapped human diversity across Asian nations reinforces an older controversial theory that after human beings first evolved in Africa, they possibly migrated to India via the land and sea routes. So out of Africa, India became the melting pot where humans evolved and then slowly spread all over Asia. This also means that after Africa some of the oldest living populations of humans can be found in India. Some of the tribes in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands the Jarawas, Onges and Great Andamanese are the closest relative mans ancestors.
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Out of Africa to China: African Eve of Chinese
All modern humans are descended from a 200,000-year-old African woman. In 1987 the New Zealander Allan Charles Wilson and Rebecca Cann published a study of mitochondrial DNA that supported the "African Eve" theory that all human beings living today are descendents of a single woman who lived in Africa around 200,000 years ago. According to Wilson and Cann descendents of this "African Eve" migrated around the world and later evolved into the different varieties of modern humans. Since then more and more genetic evidence has accumulated, all supporting the view that modern humans, including Chinese people, originated from a single population in Africa. In 1998, Chinese scientist Chu Jiayou and his team analyzed the DNA microsatellites (also known as simple sequence repeats) of northern and southern Chinese, both those of Han and ethnic minorities. Chu concluded that the ancestors of the modern Chinese had migrated to China from Africa via South Asia. As the mutation rate of DNA microsatellites is high, it is not the best method available for researching ancient human migration and the evolution process. Su Bing and other scientists from the Kunming Institute of Zoology proposed an alternative approach using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the Y-chromosome (Y-SNP). This was the approach used by Prof. Jin Li and associate professor Li Hui.
DNA molecules point to a startling conclusion: Jin chose the Y-chromosome because it is relatively pure from a genetic perspective. Human beings have two sets of chromosomes, X and Y, inherited from our mothers and fathers respectively. The Y-chromosome comes from male and has a low mutation rate. It reflects how human genes are passed on from generation to generation more clearly than the X chromosome. As a result, geneticists see it as ideal material for the study of human origins. Jin and his team focused on three SNPs on the Y-chromosome M89, M130 and YAP. They are mutations of another mutated DNA molecule M168, which originated in Africa between 31,000 and 79,000 years ago.
"M168 originated only in East Africans. All people outside Africa and some Africans still have it. So it is the most direct evidence to prove that modern humans came from Africa." Jin wrote in his paper. How do scientists work out the age of a DNA component? How do scientists know M168 existed in ancient Africa? How do they work out exactly when it originated? Associate Professor Li Hui said that non-genic DNA sequences are used in molecular anthropology because genes possess many physiological functions. If a gene mutates, a person's health may be greatly affected. There are two fundamental features of the materials Jin and his team chose: they were non-genic and genetic haploid. Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomes belong to this category. Most of the Y-chromosome consists of non-genic sequences. The team analyzed two types of mutation of the non-genic sequence. The first was SNP. This type of mutation is rare and stable. It will not repeat or change back to its original form. The structural relationships of all types of Y-chromosome all over the world are based on this feature. The other type of mutation was short tandem repeats (STR). These lengthen and shorten at a constant speed. Thus the origin of each type of Y chromosome can be dated by dividing the total number of mutations by the rate of mutation.
In other words analysis of SNP and SRT mutations show when the M168 mutation occurred. DNA from modern Chinese proves their African origins. Jin Li and his team randomly selected 9,988 Chinese males as samples. They found that all samples of M89, M130, and YAP led to only three mutations. 9,329 samples (93.4 percent) mutated into M89T0M130C and YAP-; 370 samples (3.7 percent) mutated into M89C0M130T and YAP-. 290 samples (2.9 percent) mutated into M89C0M130C and YAP+. No new mutation was found. The results coincided with findings in other parts of the world, that is, M168 displayed no new mutations in China. The result proved that Chinese people must have come from Africa, along with all other modern humans. But Jin Li's research also supported the African origin theory from another perspective, which was beyond their original expectations.
Tracing human migration routes using DNA: Besides trying to find evidence to prove one way or another whether Chinese people had an independent origin, Jin and his team wanted to study the genetic differences among people living in different parts of China by investigating the distribution frequency of the three ancient Y-chromosomes.
The molecular genetic structure of each ethnic group has its own particular characteristics. By analyzing the mutation process of M89, M130 and YAP, they figured out the distribution and migration routes of the different ethnic groups in China. For example, most samples that mutated into M89T, M130C and YAP- were from Han Chinese individuals. The other two types of mutation were more common in ethnic minorities.
Li Hui tested his own DNA to see where his ancestors came from. His Y-chromosome is type 01, which originated around Beibu Bay and the west of Hainan Province about 20,000 years ago. Type 01 then traveled to Guangdong, Taiwan and Fujian about 10,000 years ago and moved to the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang 8,000 years ago. So Li's ancestors must have followed the same route.
Scientists use similar methods to tell how the original Africans migrated around the world. Li Shilin, a teacher at RCCASFU, says human ancestors didn't have any specific destination. They roamed wherever was favorable for their survival. Judging by the geographic and environmental conditions at the time, our African ancestors probably traveled along the coast where they could find food both on land and in the sea. As the population increased they moved to other parts of the world, including China. Why did the African migrants survive but not the original Chinese? Though ancient Africans survived the formidable difficulties and managed to travel to China thousands of years ago, why do geneticists claim they are ancestors of Chinese? What happened to the original primitive human inhabitants of China? Is it possible that modern Chinese people are descendents of these early native hominids or the result of interbreeding between them and the African migrants? Jin and his team originally took this possibility into consideration. After all, many ancient human fossils had been discovered in Asia, especially in China. Their shapes and timelines displayed continuity and the inheritance of traits. To allow for this possibility, Jin's team collected their samples from all over China to see if they could find a different mutation of M168. But they found nothing new. Their conclusion remained that the ancestor of all modern Chinese people was a pure-blooded African. How did the original human population of China disappear?
Regarding the question, what happened to the original hominid population of China, Jin Li pointed out that there is a 60,000 year gap in the human fossil record. All ancient human fossils are older than 100,000 years, while modern human fossils are all less than 40,000 years old (and mostly 10,000 to 30,000 years old). That means no human fossils from 50,000 to 100,000 years old, that might support the hypothesis of multi-regional evolution, have yet been found in China. Jin Li believes this gap is not accidental. During that 50,000 year period, the majority of biological species on the East Asian mainland became extinct.
That fossil gap corresponds to the Quaternary ice age, which killed off the majority of species, including indigenous humans, in East Asia, as well as other parts of the world. But in Africa, near the equator, where the temperature remained relatively high, ancient human beings were able to survive and reproduce. Kong Xinggong from the School of Geographical Sciences of Nanjing Normal University, said that during the ice age, the average temperature in the equatorial regions was only 1-2 ! lower than now, while closer to the poles, the temperature dropped dramatically.
This explains why equatorial Africans survived, while the ancient human populations from other parts of world disappeared. The Neanderthals became extinct in Europe about 20,000 years ago, at the height of the ice age there. After the ice age, Africans migrated from Southeast Asia into Chinese mainland, replaced ancient pre-glacial man there, and became the ancestors of the modern Chinese. Professor Jin Li sees the African origin of the Chinese people as a hard fact, but not everyone agrees. Some scientists say it is wrong to rely solely on genetics to establish the origins of modern humans.
Academician Wu Xinzhi from Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, believes that the ancient human population on the Chinese mainland did not die out, but evolved into modern Chinese. In other words, modern Chinese people have a direct lineal descent from the original hominid inhabitants. On what does Wu base his argument and can it stand up to scrutiny? The history of modern humans starts with late Homo sapiens.
Dr. Xing Song from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, CAS, says we must first define what we mean by the origin of modern man. It is a completely different concept from the origin of mankind. The latter refers to when and where the ancient apes evolved into people; while the origin of modern man refers to when and where people who look like modern humans originated. The academic view is that modern humans, the latest phase in the history of human evolution, i.e. late Homo sapiens, appeared in the period from around 50,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Except for some particular characteristics, late Homo sapiens are basically the same as today's humans. Their fossils are widely distributed not only in Asia, Africa, and Europe but also in Australia and the Americas. Remains of late Homo sapiens dating back to between 50,000 to 37,000 years ago have been found all over China. The finds include Hetao man in Erdos, Inner Mongolia; Liujiang Man, dating back 50,000 to 30,000 years, in Liujiang County, Guangxi; the Upper cave man, dating back 30,000 years, in Zhoukoudian, near Beijing; and Ziyang man dating back 10,000 years, in Ziyang City, Sichuan. Professor Jin Li maintains that late Homo sapiens from all over the world, including China, had common ancestors, that is, migrating Africans, who arrived in China 60,000 years ago. China has been continuously settled by humans since the earliest times
But despite the seemingly conclusive genetic evidence, Professor Wu Xinzhi insists the debate between "single-region evolution" and "multi-region evolution," is not settled. He maintains that Africa is not the only origin of modern humans, but that modern man evolved separately in several parts of world. He believes there is ample evidence that at least some of the ancestors of modern Chinese were native to the area.
From the 1920s on, archaeologists discovered large numbers of ancient human fossils in China. According to Professor Wu, different populations of ancient humans lived in overlapping periods. Yuanmou Man in Yunnan Province dates back 1,700,000 years, Shaanxi Lantian Man 1,150,000 to 600,000 years, Peking Man 500,000 to 200,000 years, Shandong Yiyuan man 400,000 years, Anhui Hexian 300,000 to 200,000 years and Guangdong Maba Man 100,000 years.
Ancient human fossils found in China
Homo erectus:
Yuanmou Man 1,700,000 years ago, in Yuanmou County of Yunnan Province
Lantian Man 1,150,000 to 600,000 years ago, in Lantian County of Shaanxi Province
No. 1 Nanjing Man 600,000 years ago, Tangshan of Nanjing
Peking Man 500,000 to 200,000 years ago, Zhoukoudian of Beijing
Yiyuan Man 400,000 years ago, Yiyuan of Shandong Province
Early Homo sapiens:
Dali Man 230,000 to 180,000 years ago, Dali of Shaanxi Province
Maba Man 200,000 to 160,000 years ago, Maba of Guangdong Province
Changyang Man 195,000 years ago, Changyang of Hubei Province
Late Homo sapiens Upper Cave Man 30,000 years ago, Zhoukoudian of Beijing
Liujiang Man 50,000 to 30,000 years ago, Liujiang County of Guangxi Province
The fossil record shows that in China there have always been different populations of ancient humans. Therefore, it remains possible that today's Chinese people are directly descended from them. But there is a major problem facing the proponents of the multi-regional thesis: in China fossils from different eras are rarely found in the same location. This implies the different populations were unrelated and casts doubt on the thesis of continuity of settlement.
Wu says this is because not all of the ancient human remains were fossilized and became available to later generations. Essentially he is saying there are haphazard gaps in the fossil record. Is Nanjing Man the ancestor of the modern Chinese? Xu Hankui, a researcher from the Nanjing Paleontology Institute, who discovered the fossil remains of Nanjing Man, also supports the hypothesis of multi-regional evolution. When fossilized skulls of Nanjing Man were discovered by peasants exploring an ancient lava cave, Nanjing Paleontology Institute sent several experts on a field trip. Xu was among them and participated in the study of the fossils.
Later, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology showed that one of the skulls was of a 21 to 35-year-old women who lived 600,000 years ago and suffered from a bone disease called periostitis. She had many of the characteristics of Beijing Homo erectus, and genetic connections with other ancient Chinese human fossils. Another skull was from a male somewhere in the transitional phase between Homo erectus to Homo sapiens. There was gap of 100,000 years between the two skulls, and the finds showed evidence of continuous evolution of ancient Chinese human populations. Xu Hankui believes that the Nanjing Man finds are evidence of multi-regional evolution.
The puzzle of Chinese people's shovel-shaped front teeth: One of the puzzles that the out-of-Africa theory needs to account for is the prevalence of shovel-shaped front teeth among the modern Chinese population. Dr. Xing Song says the distinctively-shaped teeth are prevalent in the Mongoloid race in East Asia. Licking their inside front teeth, Chinese people will find that there's a dent in their upper teeth while the surfaces of the lower ones are even. From the inside, the upper teeth look like shovels. According to Xing, these peculiarly shaped teeth were inherited in a continuous line from early Chinese hominids. About 80 percent of Chinese have such upper front teeth in contrast to only 5 percent of Europeans and 10 percent of Africans. Xing says this is strong evidence of the continuity of human evolution in China. Moreover, hominid fossils in China share the same facial features: comparatively flat faces, a larger angle between the nose and the forehead, a flat nose bridge, rectangular eye sockets and forward-projecting cheekbones. All these features are absent in Africans.
Early Chinese lacked advanced stone technology seen in Africa. The stone artifacts unearthed in China also present difficulties for the out-of-Africa theory. In Palestine, archaeologists discovered stone artifacts from 100,000 years ago. These artifacts, very sophisticated and skillfully made, belong to the third phase of stone artifacts, much more advanced than the first and second phases. Palestine is an obvious route for African hominids to travel to the Eurasian Continent. If the geneticists are right, the African ancestors of the modern Chinese left Africa about 100,000 years ago, and passed through Palestine before reaching China some 60,000 years ago. Logically, the trekking Africans should have had the skills to make third phase stone artifacts when they arrived in China, and we would expect to find such artifacts.
But the fact is that the most basic stone artifacts, dating back 1.7 million years ago, were still in use on the Chinese mainland 30,000 years ago. About 98 percent of stone artifacts used by Chinese hominids belong to the "first phase." If migrating Africans were the ancestors of modern Chinese, why didn't they carry their advanced stone-working skills to China?
Huang Wanbo, a research fellow of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been conducting paleoanthropological research for more than 20 years in the Three Gorges area. He says that just as the physical characteristics of East Asian hominid fossils can be traced back to a single origin, so can the artifacts of ancient East Asian cultures. For example, the "hand-axe" was one of the important African stone artifacts, dating back 1.7 million years. Most were made of obsidian formed by volcanic eruptions. In contrast, the ancient Chinese mostly used choppers and crushers made of quartz.
Gao Xing, another research fellow, echoed his colleague's opinion, saying that Chinese culture had developed continuously without interruption since remote antiquity and there was no sign that it had ever been replaced by foreign cultures. Chinese may be "hybrid" descendants of "natives" and African migrants. Wu doesn't rule out that Chinese people interbred with African or European migrants but maintains this was relatively rare.
There is evidence of genetic exchanges between ancient Chinese and Europeans and Southeast Asians. Unlike the rectangular eye sockets of most Chinese hominid fossils, the Maba skulls unearthed in south China's Guangdong Province had round orbits, which may have come from interbreeding with Europeans. Another example is the bulging occipital bone in skulls discovered in Guangxi. Similar skulls were also discovered in Sichuan and Yunnan. The characteristics are also typical of Europeans. Moreover, some ancient Chinese skulls also exhibit high nose bridges, which could come from either European or African ancestors.
Xu Hankui says the similarities between the skulls of Nanjing Man and European and African Homo erectus and Homo sapiens prove that hybridization took place during the evolution of the modern Chinese. Wu says hybridization became more frequent as human travels covered a wider area. Foreign genes gradually changed the original Chinese type. As a result some modern Chinese have rectangular eye sockets and some have round ones.
Papers anti-OOA favoring multiregionalism (I suspect the mandibular foramen is due to cold water/air selecting for a parallel in neandertal and European Hs, IOW no mixing of genes)
neandertal & AMH
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Flower-fruit plants => Flying fauna! CO2, O2, N2
Green plants can't uptake carbon from soil, because they use water to move nutrients, water + carbon = carbonic acid (eats limestone -> caves). Soil fungi do decompose carbs, as do animals, and exude CO2. Plant leaves "breathe" O2 just like animals and fungi. Plant leaves "eat" CO2, using solar energy to decompose it into O2 & C, the C is then combined with H et al to make carbs for plant tissue. Plants (grasses) require wind to reduce stratification of gases (gas stratification starves them of C or chokes them of O2), tropical rainforests need mobile animals not only for fruit dissemination but also gas mixing (flying insects/fruit bats/fruit birds), this is the major advantage of angiosperm flora over non-fruiting gymnosperms (seeded but non-fruiting conifers) and the reason that flowering plants and symbiotic fauna "won" the competitive war against cycads, conifers, ferns, etc. Biological textbooks say little about gas stratification prevention, but it is critical in closed-canopy ecosystems (same reason that sealife comes in both mobile jetsam (tail/fin) & immobile photosynthetic flotsam). [my comment@]
flowers + fruit induce faunal flight to mix gas
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flower origin
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ancient scorpionflies pollinating gymnosperms?
ResearchBlogging.org
"The first flowering plants evolved more than a hundred million years ago, while dinosaurs were still on the scene. Since then, they’ve come to dominate the world, largely outcompeting the plants that were there before, such as conifers, cycads, and ginkgoes...The reason for showy flowers is to attract pollinators, most commonly insects. Today, the majority of flowering plants use insects to carry their pollen, whereas most gymnosperms (the older group of plants, including conifers) are pollinated by the wind. Insects have one clear advantage over the wind: they can track down another flower of the same species...From insect fossils, it looks like there were pollinators (scorpionflies) around in the Jurassic, which had evolved together with the gymnosperms that were around at the time...some fossil gymnosperms weren't well adapted for wind pollination."
http://takluyver.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/carbon-dioxide-and-nitrogen-not-such-a-double-whammy/
"Nitrogen makes up nearly 80% of the atmosphere, but pure nitrogen (aka N2) isn’t very easy to get at. What counts is ‘reactive nitrogen’, especially dissolved nitrate (NO3-) and ammonia (NH4+). Plants can readily take this up and use it, helping them to grow faster (NPK fert). In fact, over half of the reactive nitrogen being made each year now comes from human activities.
Ecologists know quite well that adding nitrogen often leads to fewer species living together. And a recent experiment neatly showed why that might be: when plants’ roots are battling it out for nutrients (like nitrogen), it’s a relatively fair fight. But add nitrogen, and the fight moves above the ground, for the light plants need to grow. Here, bigger plants can quickly shade out smaller ones and kill (some of) them off... carbon dioxide and nitrogen have different effects on plants, and they seem to balance out to some extent. Although the effect of light wasn’t clear cut in this experiment, I think it might also be important that higher carbon dioxide lets plants grow in deeper shade."
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leaf veins
http://ecographica.blogspot.com/2009/12/evolution-is-in-veins-of-our-captors.html
"...primitive ancestors of the tyrannical angiosperms underwent adaptation to feed on the then abundant atmospheric carbon dioxide. Through undertaking a process known as photosynthesis, some early plant-forms gained reproductive advantage and quickly out-competed their rivals. In time, their numbers became so great that oxygen – a byproduct of photosynthesis - accumulated in the biosphere to such extent that it triggered a catastrophic transition to an oxygenated planet. In hindsight, this rapid transition, called the ‘Great Oxygenation Event,’ can be viewed as a first step in the angiosperms’ selfish remaking of the Earth, and as foreshadowing the eventual enslavement of all humankind.
Initially, constrained anatomy affectively limited the plants’ ability to channel the xylem tissues required for harnessing the sun’s rays. Xylem tissues are essential to photosynthesis because it is their job to convey water and nutrients throughout the plant. Early plants lacked sufficient internal structure and architecture to serve as pathways for xylem transport; this physically restricted the amount of energy that could be generated through photosynthesis. In other words, because of a lack of adequate venation, the radiation of angiosperms was kept in-check. However, this all changed during the Cretaceous Period.
Over the course of evolutionary history, natural selection tinkered at the physiology of the angiosperms, incrementally improving their clumsy and inefficient application of photosynthesis until eventually, about 120,000,000 years ago, the density of the angiosperms’ veins dramatically increased by 300-400%. The upsurge in venation meant that the plants’ xylem tissues more frequently made contact with individual plant cells; this pushed the capacity of the angiosperms’ energetic processes far beyond what they could achieve previously. Newly acquired energy surpluses were promptly invested in reproduction and as a result angiosperm populations exploded the world over."
Marine CO2 effects on shellfish, crustaceans, calcific algae:
crabs & CO2
(compare to green plants in soil which can't absorb carbonic acid through roots, so must consume CO2 in air via photosynthesis.)
eco-web-tet: ants, fungi, bacteria, plant in 4 way symbiotic relationship
plants & ants
Game theory: bacteria and human in decision making in stress
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uoc--bpn121109.php
flowers + fruit induce faunal flight to mix gas
-
flower origin
-
ancient scorpionflies pollinating gymnosperms?
ResearchBlogging.org
"The first flowering plants evolved more than a hundred million years ago, while dinosaurs were still on the scene. Since then, they’ve come to dominate the world, largely outcompeting the plants that were there before, such as conifers, cycads, and ginkgoes...The reason for showy flowers is to attract pollinators, most commonly insects. Today, the majority of flowering plants use insects to carry their pollen, whereas most gymnosperms (the older group of plants, including conifers) are pollinated by the wind. Insects have one clear advantage over the wind: they can track down another flower of the same species...From insect fossils, it looks like there were pollinators (scorpionflies) around in the Jurassic, which had evolved together with the gymnosperms that were around at the time...some fossil gymnosperms weren't well adapted for wind pollination."
http://takluyver.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/carbon-dioxide-and-nitrogen-not-such-a-double-whammy/
"Nitrogen makes up nearly 80% of the atmosphere, but pure nitrogen (aka N2) isn’t very easy to get at. What counts is ‘reactive nitrogen’, especially dissolved nitrate (NO3-) and ammonia (NH4+). Plants can readily take this up and use it, helping them to grow faster (NPK fert). In fact, over half of the reactive nitrogen being made each year now comes from human activities.
Ecologists know quite well that adding nitrogen often leads to fewer species living together. And a recent experiment neatly showed why that might be: when plants’ roots are battling it out for nutrients (like nitrogen), it’s a relatively fair fight. But add nitrogen, and the fight moves above the ground, for the light plants need to grow. Here, bigger plants can quickly shade out smaller ones and kill (some of) them off... carbon dioxide and nitrogen have different effects on plants, and they seem to balance out to some extent. Although the effect of light wasn’t clear cut in this experiment, I think it might also be important that higher carbon dioxide lets plants grow in deeper shade."
-
leaf veins
http://ecographica.blogspot.com/2009/12/evolution-is-in-veins-of-our-captors.html
"...primitive ancestors of the tyrannical angiosperms underwent adaptation to feed on the then abundant atmospheric carbon dioxide. Through undertaking a process known as photosynthesis, some early plant-forms gained reproductive advantage and quickly out-competed their rivals. In time, their numbers became so great that oxygen – a byproduct of photosynthesis - accumulated in the biosphere to such extent that it triggered a catastrophic transition to an oxygenated planet. In hindsight, this rapid transition, called the ‘Great Oxygenation Event,’ can be viewed as a first step in the angiosperms’ selfish remaking of the Earth, and as foreshadowing the eventual enslavement of all humankind.
Initially, constrained anatomy affectively limited the plants’ ability to channel the xylem tissues required for harnessing the sun’s rays. Xylem tissues are essential to photosynthesis because it is their job to convey water and nutrients throughout the plant. Early plants lacked sufficient internal structure and architecture to serve as pathways for xylem transport; this physically restricted the amount of energy that could be generated through photosynthesis. In other words, because of a lack of adequate venation, the radiation of angiosperms was kept in-check. However, this all changed during the Cretaceous Period.
Over the course of evolutionary history, natural selection tinkered at the physiology of the angiosperms, incrementally improving their clumsy and inefficient application of photosynthesis until eventually, about 120,000,000 years ago, the density of the angiosperms’ veins dramatically increased by 300-400%. The upsurge in venation meant that the plants’ xylem tissues more frequently made contact with individual plant cells; this pushed the capacity of the angiosperms’ energetic processes far beyond what they could achieve previously. Newly acquired energy surpluses were promptly invested in reproduction and as a result angiosperm populations exploded the world over."
Marine CO2 effects on shellfish, crustaceans, calcific algae:
crabs & CO2
(compare to green plants in soil which can't absorb carbonic acid through roots, so must consume CO2 in air via photosynthesis.)
eco-web-tet: ants, fungi, bacteria, plant in 4 way symbiotic relationship
plants & ants
Game theory: bacteria and human in decision making in stress
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uoc--bpn121109.php
Friday, December 4, 2009
34ma migrations
Cavies and new world monkeys emigrated from Africa to South America (via antarctica?) 34ma.
cavies
Cavioids and New World Monkeys migrated northwards as Antarctica froze 34ma
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50250
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50350
African Rift formed 34ma
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50253
Pinwheeling Pangea
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50257
http://tech.grou
ps.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50380
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.U21E..01C
Cosmic impacts (oceanic?) on Earth and Moon 34ma
(Note that Australia separated from Antarctica 64ma, just after the Yucatan cosmic impact, deccan traps and C/K dino extinction of ~65ma) Aust. marsupials dispersed from So. America to Australia via Antarctca during late Cretaceous–early Paleocene.
La Meseta Fauna from Patagonia before early late Paleocene, other taxa arrived in early Eocene. http://www.springerlink.com/content/h5r16469kqr06560/
Fossil Land Mammal from Antarctica
MICHAEL O. WOODBURNE 1 and WILLIAM J. ZINSMEISTER 2
1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside 92521
2 Institute of Polar Studies and Department of Geology, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210
A fossil land mammal, apparently the first found in Antarctica, belongs to the extinct marsupial family Polydolopidae. The fossils were recovered from rocks about 40 million years old on Seymour Island, in the northern Antarctic Peninsula. The newly discovered marsupials support theories that predicted their former presence in Antarctica and strengthen proposals that Australian marsupials perhaps originated from South American species that dispersed across Antarctica when Australia still was attached to it, prior to 56 million years ago.
-
A Bizarre New Family of Marsupialia (Incertae sedis) from the Early Pliocene of Northeastern Australia: Implications for the Phylogeny of Bunodont Marsupials
We consider the distributions of a number of dental characters in bunodont marsupials and argue that no North American Late Cretaceous taxa can be convincingly referred to the order Polydolopimorphia. Thus, polydolopimorphians continue to be known only from the Cenozoic of Gondwana, with no fossil evidence that their initial divergences occurred in North America
-
These marsupials went from S America to Antarctica, some continued on to Australia.
Did monkeys and cavies go from Africa to Antarctica to S America? The timing data does not seem to indicate that this had happened. More likely both had rafted across the narrow but widening straits which eventually became the Atlantic Ocean. Currents may have brought vegetative rafts from W Africa westward to approximately Bolivia.
-
Today Antarctica is compressed gravitationally by millions of tons of glacial ice, pushing the former coastlines far below todays' sea level (highly susceptible to constant erosion from the antarctic circumpolar current), leaving only former highlands and mountain ranges. Fossils from 34ma monkeys and cavioids from the former rainforests there aren't accessible except at rare uplifted areas such as offshore isles, and south Argentina.
-
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/soes/staff/acng/SOFINE/SOFINE.html
The SOFINE project studies the 'frictional' processes that slow down the strongest current on Earth (the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, ACC) and drive the extension of the ocean's overturning circulation across the Southern Ocean. The experiment focuses on a major ACC meander (around the northern Kerguelen Plateau, southern Indian Ocean), which features as an area of intensified 'friction' and cross-ACC flow in most present theories and models of the Southern Ocean circulation.
-
http://www.ga.gov.au/oceans/sa_Kergln.jsp
Geological sampling and scientific drilling shows that it was emergent or under shallow water for up to 40 million years of its history. Wood fragments and coal found in Late Cretaceous sediments indicate that the plateau may have been covered with forests.
-
http://www.genetics.wayne.edu/lgross/Problems.html
among eutherian or placental mammals, the ceboids have one of the oldest histories in South America with 26-27 million year old fossils of the primitive ceboid Branisella (3) documenting that ceboids were already established in South America during the Oligocene. Among extant eutherians, only caviomorph rodents and edentates have older documented histories in South America, the former now being represented by a 34 million year old Eocene fossil (4,5) and the latter by early Cenzoic Paleocene fossils (6)
Branisella: oldest NWM fossil, from Bolivia: As a whole, the dentition of Branisella is very similar to that of Proteopithecus from the Late Eocene of Fayum, Egypt, except in the lower canine morphology, suggesting a close phyletic relationship between them.
New fossil platyrrhines from the Pinturas Formation, southern Argentina
John G. Fleagle
Early Miocene coastal Patagonia: Primates
Two new fossil vertebrate localities are described from the Santa Cruz Formation (late early – early middle Miocene) of coastal Patagonia. They are noteworthy because they are the lowest stratigraphically of any precisely recorded in coastal Santa Cruz Province and they contain a rich fauna including many partially articulated skeletons undisturbed by collecting. Thus, they offer the potential for taphonomic analysis and paleocommunity reconstruction. The latter is particularly intriguing because the fauna document the Miocene Climatic Optimum at >51° South latitude. Together with several previously documented sites in this region, it offers a potential window into the nature of mammalian communities farther south than any other in the world during this time and documents the farthest south distribution of primates.
-
Radiometric dates indicate that the fossil mammals (including platyrrhine primates) occurring in the lower and middle parts of the formation may range in age from about 16·6 to younger than 13·3 Ma (million years ago) (Santacrucian and, almost certainly, Friasian land-mammal ages). This age range is somewhat younger than previous estimates, and suggests that the Pinturas faunas correlate broadly with those from the type Santa Cruz Formation http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WJS-4HCKFGH-6&_user=10&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F1990&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1258475485&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=844d12d7aeedf097b12b5de1b5329587
-
Chronology of Cenozoic primate localities in South America
Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 19, Issues 1-2, February-March 1990, Pages 7-21
Bruce J. MacFadden
The available fossil record indicates that primates have occurred in South America since the middle Tertiary. The oldest known primate-bearing locality, Salla, Bolivia, of Deseadan age, was previously thought to be about 35 myr old, or early Oligocene age. However, 12 radioisotopic dates from Salla using40K-40Ar and fission-track methods and magnetostratigraphic correlations indicate a late Oligocene age for this site. The exact level that produced the earliest-known South American primate,Branisella, lies just above a tuffaceous zone that yielded dates of 26·4 ± 1·0 and 25·1 ± 0·7 Ma. The revision of the “primate datum” in Bolivia from early to late Oligocene has ramifications for: (1) the calibration of other, younger primate-bearing localities in South America; and (2) biogeographic hypotheses concerning primate origins in light of plate tectonics. The other known Tertiary primate localities in South America are of Colhuehuapian (ca. 18–19 Ma). Santacrucian (ca. 15–18 Ma) and possible Friasian (ca. 14–15 Ma) ages. There is a major gap of some 14 myr that exists between these primate occurrences of middle Miocene age and the next younger localities, which are all late Pleistocene.
"But some lemurs, oddly enough, have only two nipples, and they're located over the pectoral muscles where we have them, but where most other mammals don't."
Which ones? If only lemurs with enlarged air sacs have one pair of pectoral nipples, that would indicate upright aquatic foraging/floating as in gorillas and apiths (sea cows), parallel convergence.
Anthropoidea: (monkeys) subset of Haplorhines have only two actual breasts, pectoral mammae which are unlike those of other mammals. And unlike lemurs, most monkeys have completely lost the ability to move their ears. Monkeys also lack the specialized sensory whiskers and the wet nose that lemurs and so many "lesser" animals have, and lost the ability to synthesize either vitamin D3 or vitamin C.
cavies
Cavioids and New World Monkeys migrated northwards as Antarctica froze 34ma
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50250
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50350
African Rift formed 34ma
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50253
Pinwheeling Pangea
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50257
http://tech.grou
ps.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/50380
http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007AGUFM.U21E..01C
Cosmic impacts (oceanic?) on Earth and Moon 34ma
(Note that Australia separated from Antarctica 64ma, just after the Yucatan cosmic impact, deccan traps and C/K dino extinction of ~65ma) Aust. marsupials dispersed from So. America to Australia via Antarctca during late Cretaceous–early Paleocene.
La Meseta Fauna from Patagonia before early late Paleocene, other taxa arrived in early Eocene. http://www.springerlink.com/content/h5r16469kqr06560/
Fossil Land Mammal from Antarctica
MICHAEL O. WOODBURNE 1 and WILLIAM J. ZINSMEISTER 2
1 Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Riverside 92521
2 Institute of Polar Studies and Department of Geology, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210
A fossil land mammal, apparently the first found in Antarctica, belongs to the extinct marsupial family Polydolopidae. The fossils were recovered from rocks about 40 million years old on Seymour Island, in the northern Antarctic Peninsula. The newly discovered marsupials support theories that predicted their former presence in Antarctica and strengthen proposals that Australian marsupials perhaps originated from South American species that dispersed across Antarctica when Australia still was attached to it, prior to 56 million years ago.
-
A Bizarre New Family of Marsupialia (Incertae sedis) from the Early Pliocene of Northeastern Australia: Implications for the Phylogeny of Bunodont Marsupials
We consider the distributions of a number of dental characters in bunodont marsupials and argue that no North American Late Cretaceous taxa can be convincingly referred to the order Polydolopimorphia. Thus, polydolopimorphians continue to be known only from the Cenozoic of Gondwana, with no fossil evidence that their initial divergences occurred in North America
-
These marsupials went from S America to Antarctica, some continued on to Australia.
Did monkeys and cavies go from Africa to Antarctica to S America? The timing data does not seem to indicate that this had happened. More likely both had rafted across the narrow but widening straits which eventually became the Atlantic Ocean. Currents may have brought vegetative rafts from W Africa westward to approximately Bolivia.
-
Today Antarctica is compressed gravitationally by millions of tons of glacial ice, pushing the former coastlines far below todays' sea level (highly susceptible to constant erosion from the antarctic circumpolar current), leaving only former highlands and mountain ranges. Fossils from 34ma monkeys and cavioids from the former rainforests there aren't accessible except at rare uplifted areas such as offshore isles, and south Argentina.
-
http://www.noc.soton.ac.uk/soes/staff/acng/SOFINE/SOFINE.html
The SOFINE project studies the 'frictional' processes that slow down the strongest current on Earth (the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, ACC) and drive the extension of the ocean's overturning circulation across the Southern Ocean. The experiment focuses on a major ACC meander (around the northern Kerguelen Plateau, southern Indian Ocean), which features as an area of intensified 'friction' and cross-ACC flow in most present theories and models of the Southern Ocean circulation.
-
http://www.ga.gov.au/oceans/sa_Kergln.jsp
Geological sampling and scientific drilling shows that it was emergent or under shallow water for up to 40 million years of its history. Wood fragments and coal found in Late Cretaceous sediments indicate that the plateau may have been covered with forests.
-
http://www.genetics.wayne.edu/lgross/Problems.html
among eutherian or placental mammals, the ceboids have one of the oldest histories in South America with 26-27 million year old fossils of the primitive ceboid Branisella (3) documenting that ceboids were already established in South America during the Oligocene. Among extant eutherians, only caviomorph rodents and edentates have older documented histories in South America, the former now being represented by a 34 million year old Eocene fossil (4,5) and the latter by early Cenzoic Paleocene fossils (6)
Branisella: oldest NWM fossil, from Bolivia: As a whole, the dentition of Branisella is very similar to that of Proteopithecus from the Late Eocene of Fayum, Egypt, except in the lower canine morphology, suggesting a close phyletic relationship between them.
New fossil platyrrhines from the Pinturas Formation, southern Argentina
John G. Fleagle
Early Miocene coastal Patagonia: Primates
Two new fossil vertebrate localities are described from the Santa Cruz Formation (late early – early middle Miocene) of coastal Patagonia. They are noteworthy because they are the lowest stratigraphically of any precisely recorded in coastal Santa Cruz Province and they contain a rich fauna including many partially articulated skeletons undisturbed by collecting. Thus, they offer the potential for taphonomic analysis and paleocommunity reconstruction. The latter is particularly intriguing because the fauna document the Miocene Climatic Optimum at >51° South latitude. Together with several previously documented sites in this region, it offers a potential window into the nature of mammalian communities farther south than any other in the world during this time and documents the farthest south distribution of primates.
-
Radiometric dates indicate that the fossil mammals (including platyrrhine primates) occurring in the lower and middle parts of the formation may range in age from about 16·6 to younger than 13·3 Ma (million years ago) (Santacrucian and, almost certainly, Friasian land-mammal ages). This age range is somewhat younger than previous estimates, and suggests that the Pinturas faunas correlate broadly with those from the type Santa Cruz Formation http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WJS-4HCKFGH-6&_user=10&_coverDate=03%2F31%2F1990&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_searchStrId=1258475485&_rerunOrigin=google&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=844d12d7aeedf097b12b5de1b5329587
-
Chronology of Cenozoic primate localities in South America
Journal of Human Evolution, Volume 19, Issues 1-2, February-March 1990, Pages 7-21
Bruce J. MacFadden
The available fossil record indicates that primates have occurred in South America since the middle Tertiary. The oldest known primate-bearing locality, Salla, Bolivia, of Deseadan age, was previously thought to be about 35 myr old, or early Oligocene age. However, 12 radioisotopic dates from Salla using40K-40Ar and fission-track methods and magnetostratigraphic correlations indicate a late Oligocene age for this site. The exact level that produced the earliest-known South American primate,Branisella, lies just above a tuffaceous zone that yielded dates of 26·4 ± 1·0 and 25·1 ± 0·7 Ma. The revision of the “primate datum” in Bolivia from early to late Oligocene has ramifications for: (1) the calibration of other, younger primate-bearing localities in South America; and (2) biogeographic hypotheses concerning primate origins in light of plate tectonics. The other known Tertiary primate localities in South America are of Colhuehuapian (ca. 18–19 Ma). Santacrucian (ca. 15–18 Ma) and possible Friasian (ca. 14–15 Ma) ages. There is a major gap of some 14 myr that exists between these primate occurrences of middle Miocene age and the next younger localities, which are all late Pleistocene.
"But some lemurs, oddly enough, have only two nipples, and they're located over the pectoral muscles where we have them, but where most other mammals don't."
Which ones? If only lemurs with enlarged air sacs have one pair of pectoral nipples, that would indicate upright aquatic foraging/floating as in gorillas and apiths (sea cows), parallel convergence.
Anthropoidea: (monkeys) subset of Haplorhines have only two actual breasts, pectoral mammae which are unlike those of other mammals. And unlike lemurs, most monkeys have completely lost the ability to move their ears. Monkeys also lack the specialized sensory whiskers and the wet nose that lemurs and so many "lesser" animals have, and lost the ability to synthesize either vitamin D3 or vitamin C.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Amazing animals
platymolekiwiduck
A Hawaiian duck that resembled a platypus-mole-kiwi, probably foraged in forest duff and shallow streams, huge trigeminus - why? electrosensory bill or nares? apnea adaptation? whiskery feathers?
An octopus carries and uses coconut shells
octopus hand tools
long tail glider
the tail has 2 rows of ventral ridges, reminds me of my interpretation of dino-bird and pterosaur long bony tails with bristle scale feathers to grasp tree bark, both taxa co-evolved into short tailed flyers with improved perching rear toe claws but in this "squirrel" which lacks wings is sufficient for gliding from tree to tree.
Both from Christopher Taylor's nature blog, Catalogue of Organisms
From Zooillogix nature blog: antarctic seals & elephant birth
leopard seals
weddell seals
http://scienceblogs.com/zooillogix/2009/11/graphic_elephant_birth.php
Cameron's blog: Galapagos Marine iguana
Marine CO2 effects on shellfish, crustaceans, calcific algae:
crabs & CO2
(compare to green plants in soil which can't absorb carbonic acid through roots, so must consume CO2 in air via photosynthesis.)
eco-web-tet: ants, fungi, bacteria, plant in 4 way symbiotic relationship
Ich! Parasite has 2 endoparasites:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uog-url120209.php
-
Humans and saltwater: (h/t Frank at Greg's site)
a recent study in ultra-marathon runners (100 mi) found that they lost between 11.2 and 144 g of sodium during the event. Obviously the range is huge and it really depends on the person. Total water loss in the same event ranges from 14 to 36 liters.
A liter of seawater contains approximately 35g of salt. One liter of blood contains 9g of salt. For every liter of seawater you drank you would need to add 2.8 liters of fresh unsalted water to be “even.”
-
While sweating excessive amounts of salt would be deleterious to humans inhabiting hot and humid inland environments, sweating large quantities of salt that was isotonic with the blood stream would be advantageous in a hot and humid coastal marine environment where significant
quantities of marine invertebrates were consumed." MW
-
PZ on evo development of nervous system: exaptation of simple organelles in protists to tissue cells, salt control, electric potential...
nerve evolution
A Hawaiian duck that resembled a platypus-mole-kiwi, probably foraged in forest duff and shallow streams, huge trigeminus - why? electrosensory bill or nares? apnea adaptation? whiskery feathers?
An octopus carries and uses coconut shells
octopus hand tools
long tail glider
the tail has 2 rows of ventral ridges, reminds me of my interpretation of dino-bird and pterosaur long bony tails with bristle scale feathers to grasp tree bark, both taxa co-evolved into short tailed flyers with improved perching rear toe claws but in this "squirrel" which lacks wings is sufficient for gliding from tree to tree.
Both from Christopher Taylor's nature blog, Catalogue of Organisms
From Zooillogix nature blog: antarctic seals & elephant birth
leopard seals
weddell seals
http://scienceblogs.com/zooillogix/2009/11/graphic_elephant_birth.php
Cameron's blog: Galapagos Marine iguana
Marine CO2 effects on shellfish, crustaceans, calcific algae:
crabs & CO2
(compare to green plants in soil which can't absorb carbonic acid through roots, so must consume CO2 in air via photosynthesis.)
eco-web-tet: ants, fungi, bacteria, plant in 4 way symbiotic relationship
Ich! Parasite has 2 endoparasites:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-12/uog-url120209.php
-
Humans and saltwater: (h/t Frank at Greg's site)
a recent study in ultra-marathon runners (100 mi) found that they lost between 11.2 and 144 g of sodium during the event. Obviously the range is huge and it really depends on the person. Total water loss in the same event ranges from 14 to 36 liters.
A liter of seawater contains approximately 35g of salt. One liter of blood contains 9g of salt. For every liter of seawater you drank you would need to add 2.8 liters of fresh unsalted water to be “even.”
-
While sweating excessive amounts of salt would be deleterious to humans inhabiting hot and humid inland environments, sweating large quantities of salt that was isotonic with the blood stream would be advantageous in a hot and humid coastal marine environment where significant
quantities of marine invertebrates were consumed." MW
-
PZ on evo development of nervous system: exaptation of simple organelles in protists to tissue cells, salt control, electric potential...
nerve evolution
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Relative volumes & concentric hierarchy
tetra tripod table, balloonage
Icosa alloys mimic elements:
Icosa
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050205125336.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091228152348.htm
Sphere/tet/cube packing, entropy, tets in quasicrystal disks, density in box container
quasi-crystal tet packing
Researchers packed tetrahedra into a cubic box more densely than ever before: 85.03
(Cubes have a 100 percent packing fraction in a cubic box, while spheres pack at only 74 percent.) The tetrahedron was for decades conjectured to be the only solid that packs less densely than spheres, until just last year when U-M mathematics graduate student Elizabeth Chen found an arrangement of 77% that proved that speculation wrong.
the more significant finding is that the tetrahedrons can unexpectedly organize into intricate quasicrystals at a point in the computer simulation when they take up roughly half the space in the theoretical box.
In this computer experiment, many thousands of tetrahedrons organized into dodecagonal, or 12-fold, quasicrystals made of parallel stacks of rings around pentagonal dipyramids. A pentagonal dipyramid contains five tetrahedrons arranged into a disk. The researchers discovered that this motif plays a key role in the overall packing. In the simulation, the tetrahedrons organized into a quasicrystal and settled on a packing that, when compressed further, used up 83 percent of the space. Engel then reorganized the shapes into a "quasicrystalline approximate," which is a periodic crystal closely resembling the quasicrystal. He found an arrangement that filled more than 85 percent of the space.
This is the first result showing such a complicated self-arrangement of hard particles without help from attractive interactions such as chemical bonds, Glotzer said.
Thermos vacuum allows IR radiation outwards through glass, photonic crystals reduce IR heat loss better than pure vacuum
In a typical thermos, a vacuum is used to reduce heat transfer. Scientists have found that layers of photonic crystals in a vacuum can reduce the thermal conductance to about half that of a pure vacuum. Basically, heat can be transferred from one material to another in three main ways: convection, conduction, and radiation. Conduction and convection both require some kind of material medium for heat to pass through; therefore, the lack of material in a pure vacuum greatly minimizes the effectiveness of these two processes. However, heat can also be transferred through infrared radiation, a form of light that is invisible but can be felt as heat. In the example of the thermos, infrared radiation can travel through the vacuum to the thermos' outer wall; when absorbed by the outer wall, the radiation causes the molecules in the outer wall to vibrate and release heat. Significantly, photonic crystals can have band gaps that forbid propagation of certain frequency ranges of light. In this case, they could be used to block infrared radiation.
The scientists found that a 100-micron-thick structure made of a stack of 10 photonic crystal layers, each 1 μm thick and separated by 90-μm gaps of vacuum, could reduce the thermal conductance to about half that of a pure vacuum. In a more recent study, Fan and his colleagues calculated the fraction of all frequencies that the photonic crystal allows through. They were somewhat surprised to find that the thermal conductance doesn't depend on the thickness of the layers but only on how fast light travels through the material, or its index of refraction.
Circles & spheres, flakes and crystals, water & ice
NYTimes
link
super cold
water-tet
Take a regular tetrahedron and set the distance from vertex to tet center as unit 1. Then an
edge of the tet is 1.632993.. . So this number is directly related to the ubiquitous Maraldi angle, 109.47.. degrees (the caltrop angle -- the vertex-center-vertex angle in a regular tet).
CircumsphereRadius/Edge = (1/4)*SQRT(6)
Edge/CircumsphereRadius = 4/SQRT(6)
Vertex-Vertex central Maraldi Angle = arc cos -1/3 ( or ) 2*ACOS(SQRT(1/3))
Giacomo_F._Maraldi: "In math known for obtaining experimentally the angle in the
rhombic dodecahedron shape in 1712, which is still called Maraldi angle."
"Water is a network-forming matter. You can imagine the structure of the network as a kitchen sponge, Matsumoto continues. The sponge structure is originally a kind of foam but membranes are lost, and only the beams - bonds - remain. In both network of water and kitchen sponge, four bonds meet at a point, or node, to form a three dimensionally connected random network. As Plateau pointed out in 19th century, four beams of a foam crosses at a node with regular tetrahedral angle - Maraldi's angle - similar to the waters hydrogen bond network. Matsumoto used computer simulation to look at three ways to change the volume of the foam cells: extension of the bonds, a change in the containing angle between the bonds, and a change in network topology. By discriminating the three contributions, the mechanism became very clear. One contributes to thermal expansion, another one contributes to thermal contraction, and the last one does not. Density maximum is a result of these competing contributions, he explains. "
Caltrops: reg tet 'land mines' The simple design paradigm says that the most elegant, efficient, iconic inventions are necessarily the simplest; like the elastic band, the brick, and the pizza. A caltrop is a simple piece of shaped metal (concrete tank killers); a spiky tetrahedron which, when liberally scattered on the ground, causes a great deal of annoyance to any passing dudes or ponies. And the brilliant thing is that however you drop them, they always land spiky point up.
Biological size, volume, area, fluid flow
size & form
Interaction on Bucky Fuller's tetrahedra as unit volume in synergetic sequence, with input from Allan, Kirby, myself:
Shape: Volume (notes)
MITE: 1/8 (AAB mods)
Tetra: 1 (24 A mods)
Coupler: 1 (8 MITE's)
Stella Octangula: 1.5 (Little octahedron of .5 volume + little tets totalling volume of 1. Notice that the Stella Octangula occupies half the volume of its enclosing cube.)
Cubocta: 2.5 (1/2 ƒ)
Octa: 4 (dual of cube)
Cube: 3 (dual of octa)
Cube-Octahedron Compound: 4.5 (first stellation of cub-octahedron)*
Rh-Dodeca: 6 (12 half-couplers, other ways)
Escher's Solid: 12 tetras (or 12 couplers [see above], other ways. Notice that the Escher's Solid occupies half the volume of its enclosing cube.)
Cubocta: 20 (volume = 8*2.5)
Cube: 24 (2ƒ)
Stella Octangula: 12 (Octa volume of 4 + 8 tets. Notice that the Stella Octangula occupies half the volume of its enclosing cube.)
Octahedron: 32 (2ƒ)
Cube-Octahedron Compound: 36 (larger version)
*The (small) cube-octahedron compound has a volume of 4.5, since the cube corners are
half the heights of the regular tetrahedrons.
Relative Volume Sequence: (mine, preliminary, w/ response from Allan)
tet 1 (reg or irreg)
reg tet volume, of course!
coupler 1 (irreg octa)
tet duo 2 (vertex/edge/face bonded)
two tetrahedrons
duotet cube 3
The volume of the cube is 3 tetrahedrons.
octa 4
The volume of the octahedron is 4 tetrahedrons.
The volume of the cube-octahedron compound or first stellation of cub-octahedron is 4.5 tetrahedra. If the octants are elevated even more to regular tetrahedra, then you will get the cuboctahedral star with a volume of 5. (see below)
star tet 5 [tetra-star]
The star tetrahedron is the unfolded net of the pentachoron, which is bounded by 5 tetrahedra.
rhombic triacontahedron 5
reg tet stell cubocta 5 [cubocta star w/ reg tet ecto]
rh dodeca 6
Rhombic dodecahedron has twice the volume of the cube. The volume of the stellated rhombic dodecahedron is 12, which is half the volume of the enclosing 2ƒ cube of volume 24. (below)
star octa 12 [octa star]
Stellated octahedron has half the volume of the enclosing 2ƒ cube of volume 24.
stellated rh dodeca 12
icosa int 18.51 endo
If you think that the icosahedron has volume 20, then you're obviously from another (fourth) dimension! The icosahedron, as we know in our flat Euclidean three-dimensional realm, has a endo- volume of about 18.51 tetrahedra.
cubocta 20 endo
This is the jitterbug, fully extended.
star icosa ext 20 [icosa star reg tet ecto]
But that's assuming that each face has a REGULAR tetrahedron on it.
star cubocta 40 [cubocta star reg tet endo ecto]
The 2ƒ version of the cube-octahedron compound or stellated cuboctahedron has a volume of 36 tetrahedra. For the star cuboctahedron to have a volume of 40, each face would have to be stellated with equilateral triangles (i.e. half-octahedra and regular tetrahedra). (see above)
-
> Icosa (Fuller explanation, Amy Edmondson, paraphrased)
> Its endo-volume of approximately 18.51 does not fit rationally into
> the cosmic hierarchy with whole numbers nor click-stop when
> jitterbugging.
> I found this interesting, a clue perhaps re. 18.51 1/electron
> "The icosahedron contracts to a radius less than the radii of the
> vector equilibrium from which it derived. There is a sphere that is
> tangent to the other 12 spheres at the center of an icosahedron, but
> that sphere is inherently smaller. Its radius is less than the
> spheres in tangency which generate the 12 vertexes of the vector
> equilibrium or icosahedron. Since it is no longer the same-size
> sphere, it is not in the same frequency or in the same energetic
> dimensioning. The two structures are so intimate, but they do not
> have the same amount of energy. For instance, in relation to the
> tetrahedron as unity, the [endo]volume of the icosahedron is 18.51 in
> respect to the vector equilibrium's [endo]volume of 20 [and also the
> star icosa's ectovolume of 20]. The ratio is tantalizing because the
> mass of the electron in respect to the mass of the neutron is one
> over 18.51. That there should be such an important kind of seemingly
> irrational number provides a strong contrast to all the other
> rational data of the tetrahedron as unity, the octahedron as four,
> the vector equilibrium as 20, and the rhombic dodecahedron as six:
> beautiful whole rational numbers". Syn 400.00 system
> "When the volume of a tetrahedron is specified as one unit, other
> ordered polyhedra are found to have precise whole-number volume
> ratios, as opposed to the cumbersome and often irrational quantities
> generated by employing the cube as the unit of volume. Furthermore,
> the tetrahedron has the most surface area per unit of volume".
> (sphere has least) A Fuller Explanation
> http://www.grunch.net/synergetics/ivm.html
> shows IVM in a tet
> from previous:
> Relative volumes: (endo = interior, ecto = exterior shell)
> Tet: (@IVM), vol 1
> Oct: (@IVM), vol 4
> Star Tet: center tet endovol 1 + ectovol 4 (ext tets), vol 5
> Star Oct: center oct endovol 4 + ectovol 8 (@IVM), vol 12
> Star Icosa: center icosa endovol 18.51 + ectovol 20, vol 38.51
> Star Cubocta: endovol 20 + ectovol 20, vol 40
> DD
> On Nov 23, 2009, at 8:00 AM, rybo6 wrote:
> > "Topologically, lines are composed of points."
> > I don't know how it is defined elsewhere, but to me, a line is a
> > point with depth (not = zero), and a point is a line with depth = 0.
> > [Where 'depth' is any direction.] This does not conflict with the
> > definition of a point being a line crossing (which is the same as 2
> > or more vectors meeting at a vertex).
> > The irreg tets that make an icosa, do their struts meet at the
> > center, or do each reach to the opposite face? I thought each face
> > triangle had a tet apex at the icosa center (not modelable with
> > toothpicks), but maybe it goes to the opposite side at a point. Or
> > are there no irreg tets in an icosa?
> > Here (@ link bottom) see the regular icosa and star icosa:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_triambic_icosahedron
> > Here see that 2 halves of duotet = cubocta & 2 halves of cubocta =
> > duotet. Do the relative volumes equate?
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/synergeo/attachments/folder/1932305706/item/652172707/view
> > http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s09/figs/f5031.html
> > http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s10/figs/f0632.html
> > Relative volumes: (endo = interior, ecto = exterior)
> > Tet: vol 1 (@IVM)
> > Oct: vol 4 (@IVM)
> > Star Tet: center tet endovol 1 + ectovol 4 (ext tets)
> > Star Oct: center oct endovol 4 + ectovol 8 (@IVM)
> > Star Icosa: center icosa endovol 18.51 + ectovol 20
> > Star Cubocta: endovol 20 + ectovol 20
> > Icosa (Fuller explanation, Amy Edmondson, paraphrased)
> > Its endo-volume of approximately 18.51 does not fit rationally into
> > the cosmic hierarchy with whole numbers nor click-stop when
> > jitterbugging. The icosahedron is a phase in between octahedron and
> > vector equilibrium, rather than a definitive stopping point in the
> > flow. The icosahedron is thus restricted to single-layer
> > construction, able to contract/collapse to rigidity, its radius too
> > small to permit having same-size nuclear sphere. (461.05)
> > You could not have two adjacent layers of vector equilibria and then
> > have them collapse to become the icosahedron, it has to be an outside
> > layer, remote from other layers... . It may have as high a frequency
> > as nature may require. The center is vacant. (456.20-1).
> > If the center of an icosa is vacant, should its structural volume be
> > zero? Consider the volume of a donut/torus, is the donut hole volume
> > included in the donut's volume? The donut hole does not contribute to
> > the structure of the donut, it is vacant, but it is part of the donut
> > definition. That is sort of what I think the inner volume of an icosa
> > is, a sort of donut hole, a vestige, therefore not a whole number,
> > perhaps like the interstitial spaces in ball packing.
> > DD
Cubocta = cube & octahedron dual intercept, VE when complete
Octet = octahedron & tetrahedron 3D lattice (CCP), cubocta or star oct IVM
Cuboctet = IVM with cubocta voids (vector flexor) expand-contract jitterbug
shrinks from 20 tetvol hollow cubocta with single bonds to 4 tetvol octet with double bonds
Relativity on earth
Bucky's design science goal was "To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone." Tim Tyler: How can you tell if the world is 'working' for someone? What % of humanity is the world 'working' for today? It seems rather unrealistic to expect nobody to be disadvantaged. Advantages in nature are relative - "evolution is driven by relative fitnesses, not absolute fitnesses. Santayana's aphorism, ``It is not enough to succeed; others must fail.''
At any time, an organism's chances of surviving depend not on how fit it is, but on how fit it is relative to its competition."
http://www.swintons.net/deodands/archives/cat_neutron_teaspoon.html
Neutron stars do really exist. Long after the protons and electrons have long given up the struggle to maintain their identity against the force of gravity, all that is left is neutrons, pressed together into one big atomic nucleus a few kilometres across.
Stars are big balls of gases. Their size is determined by the balance between two opposing forces: gravity pulling the gas inwards, and pressure pushing it outwards. Just like the pressure of air in a balloon, pressure reflects the fact that it's hard to push things together. The pressure depends on how many things you're trying to push together (density), but it also depends on how hard they are to push together. At higher temperatures, the air molecules have more energy, so it takes more effort to keep them from bouncing off each other. There's a relation, then, between the amount of matter and the pressure it exerts in a given setting, which is called the equation of state. We have a fairly good idea of this relationship for the interior of stars like our own sun. Eventually, as our sun radiates energy away, the internal pressure will fall and the gravitational force will increase the density until the point at which electrons are forced together (or, more precisely into degenerate states) forming a white dwarf, and for these conditions we also have a fairly good idea of the equation of state. But for more massive stars, the collapse keeps going past this point and is only halted when the remaining neutrons are forced too 'close' together. And at this point we reach some uncertainty (at least according to 1980 era graduate texts) in what the equation of state is. So there is some real scientific uncertainty in the mass of the neutron teaspoon.
Icosa alloys mimic elements:
Icosa
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/02/050205125336.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091228152348.htm
Sphere/tet/cube packing, entropy, tets in quasicrystal disks, density in box container
quasi-crystal tet packing
Researchers packed tetrahedra into a cubic box more densely than ever before: 85.03
(Cubes have a 100 percent packing fraction in a cubic box, while spheres pack at only 74 percent.) The tetrahedron was for decades conjectured to be the only solid that packs less densely than spheres, until just last year when U-M mathematics graduate student Elizabeth Chen found an arrangement of 77% that proved that speculation wrong.
the more significant finding is that the tetrahedrons can unexpectedly organize into intricate quasicrystals at a point in the computer simulation when they take up roughly half the space in the theoretical box.
In this computer experiment, many thousands of tetrahedrons organized into dodecagonal, or 12-fold, quasicrystals made of parallel stacks of rings around pentagonal dipyramids. A pentagonal dipyramid contains five tetrahedrons arranged into a disk. The researchers discovered that this motif plays a key role in the overall packing. In the simulation, the tetrahedrons organized into a quasicrystal and settled on a packing that, when compressed further, used up 83 percent of the space. Engel then reorganized the shapes into a "quasicrystalline approximate," which is a periodic crystal closely resembling the quasicrystal. He found an arrangement that filled more than 85 percent of the space.
This is the first result showing such a complicated self-arrangement of hard particles without help from attractive interactions such as chemical bonds, Glotzer said.
Thermos vacuum allows IR radiation outwards through glass, photonic crystals reduce IR heat loss better than pure vacuum
In a typical thermos, a vacuum is used to reduce heat transfer. Scientists have found that layers of photonic crystals in a vacuum can reduce the thermal conductance to about half that of a pure vacuum. Basically, heat can be transferred from one material to another in three main ways: convection, conduction, and radiation. Conduction and convection both require some kind of material medium for heat to pass through; therefore, the lack of material in a pure vacuum greatly minimizes the effectiveness of these two processes. However, heat can also be transferred through infrared radiation, a form of light that is invisible but can be felt as heat. In the example of the thermos, infrared radiation can travel through the vacuum to the thermos' outer wall; when absorbed by the outer wall, the radiation causes the molecules in the outer wall to vibrate and release heat. Significantly, photonic crystals can have band gaps that forbid propagation of certain frequency ranges of light. In this case, they could be used to block infrared radiation.
The scientists found that a 100-micron-thick structure made of a stack of 10 photonic crystal layers, each 1 μm thick and separated by 90-μm gaps of vacuum, could reduce the thermal conductance to about half that of a pure vacuum. In a more recent study, Fan and his colleagues calculated the fraction of all frequencies that the photonic crystal allows through. They were somewhat surprised to find that the thermal conductance doesn't depend on the thickness of the layers but only on how fast light travels through the material, or its index of refraction.
Circles & spheres, flakes and crystals, water & ice
NYTimes
link
super cold
water-tet
Take a regular tetrahedron and set the distance from vertex to tet center as unit 1. Then an
edge of the tet is 1.632993.. . So this number is directly related to the ubiquitous Maraldi angle, 109.47.. degrees (the caltrop angle -- the vertex-center-vertex angle in a regular tet).
CircumsphereRadius/Edge = (1/4)*SQRT(6)
Edge/CircumsphereRadius = 4/SQRT(6)
Vertex-Vertex central Maraldi Angle = arc cos -1/3 ( or ) 2*ACOS(SQRT(1/3))
Giacomo_F._Maraldi: "In math known for obtaining experimentally the angle in the
rhombic dodecahedron shape in 1712, which is still called Maraldi angle."
"Water is a network-forming matter. You can imagine the structure of the network as a kitchen sponge, Matsumoto continues. The sponge structure is originally a kind of foam but membranes are lost, and only the beams - bonds - remain. In both network of water and kitchen sponge, four bonds meet at a point, or node, to form a three dimensionally connected random network. As Plateau pointed out in 19th century, four beams of a foam crosses at a node with regular tetrahedral angle - Maraldi's angle - similar to the waters hydrogen bond network. Matsumoto used computer simulation to look at three ways to change the volume of the foam cells: extension of the bonds, a change in the containing angle between the bonds, and a change in network topology. By discriminating the three contributions, the mechanism became very clear. One contributes to thermal expansion, another one contributes to thermal contraction, and the last one does not. Density maximum is a result of these competing contributions, he explains. "
Caltrops: reg tet 'land mines' The simple design paradigm says that the most elegant, efficient, iconic inventions are necessarily the simplest; like the elastic band, the brick, and the pizza. A caltrop is a simple piece of shaped metal (concrete tank killers); a spiky tetrahedron which, when liberally scattered on the ground, causes a great deal of annoyance to any passing dudes or ponies. And the brilliant thing is that however you drop them, they always land spiky point up.
Biological size, volume, area, fluid flow
size & form
Interaction on Bucky Fuller's tetrahedra as unit volume in synergetic sequence, with input from Allan, Kirby, myself:
Shape: Volume (notes)
MITE: 1/8 (AAB mods)
Tetra: 1 (24 A mods)
Coupler: 1 (8 MITE's)
Stella Octangula: 1.5 (Little octahedron of .5 volume + little tets totalling volume of 1. Notice that the Stella Octangula occupies half the volume of its enclosing cube.)
Cubocta: 2.5 (1/2 ƒ)
Octa: 4 (dual of cube)
Cube: 3 (dual of octa)
Cube-Octahedron Compound: 4.5 (first stellation of cub-octahedron)*
Rh-Dodeca: 6 (12 half-couplers, other ways)
Escher's Solid: 12 tetras (or 12 couplers [see above], other ways. Notice that the Escher's Solid occupies half the volume of its enclosing cube.)
Cubocta: 20 (volume = 8*2.5)
Cube: 24 (2ƒ)
Stella Octangula: 12 (Octa volume of 4 + 8 tets. Notice that the Stella Octangula occupies half the volume of its enclosing cube.)
Octahedron: 32 (2ƒ)
Cube-Octahedron Compound: 36 (larger version)
*The (small) cube-octahedron compound has a volume of 4.5, since the cube corners are
half the heights of the regular tetrahedrons.
Relative Volume Sequence: (mine, preliminary, w/ response from Allan)
tet 1 (reg or irreg)
reg tet volume, of course!
coupler 1 (irreg octa)
tet duo 2 (vertex/edge/face bonded)
two tetrahedrons
duotet cube 3
The volume of the cube is 3 tetrahedrons.
octa 4
The volume of the octahedron is 4 tetrahedrons.
The volume of the cube-octahedron compound or first stellation of cub-octahedron is 4.5 tetrahedra. If the octants are elevated even more to regular tetrahedra, then you will get the cuboctahedral star with a volume of 5. (see below)
star tet 5 [tetra-star]
The star tetrahedron is the unfolded net of the pentachoron, which is bounded by 5 tetrahedra.
rhombic triacontahedron 5
reg tet stell cubocta 5 [cubocta star w/ reg tet ecto]
rh dodeca 6
Rhombic dodecahedron has twice the volume of the cube. The volume of the stellated rhombic dodecahedron is 12, which is half the volume of the enclosing 2ƒ cube of volume 24. (below)
star octa 12 [octa star]
Stellated octahedron has half the volume of the enclosing 2ƒ cube of volume 24.
stellated rh dodeca 12
icosa int 18.51 endo
If you think that the icosahedron has volume 20, then you're obviously from another (fourth) dimension! The icosahedron, as we know in our flat Euclidean three-dimensional realm, has a endo- volume of about 18.51 tetrahedra.
cubocta 20 endo
This is the jitterbug, fully extended.
star icosa ext 20 [icosa star reg tet ecto]
But that's assuming that each face has a REGULAR tetrahedron on it.
star cubocta 40 [cubocta star reg tet endo ecto]
The 2ƒ version of the cube-octahedron compound or stellated cuboctahedron has a volume of 36 tetrahedra. For the star cuboctahedron to have a volume of 40, each face would have to be stellated with equilateral triangles (i.e. half-octahedra and regular tetrahedra). (see above)
-
> Icosa (Fuller explanation, Amy Edmondson, paraphrased)
> Its endo-volume of approximately 18.51 does not fit rationally into
> the cosmic hierarchy with whole numbers nor click-stop when
> jitterbugging.
> I found this interesting, a clue perhaps re. 18.51 1/electron
> "The icosahedron contracts to a radius less than the radii of the
> vector equilibrium from which it derived. There is a sphere that is
> tangent to the other 12 spheres at the center of an icosahedron, but
> that sphere is inherently smaller. Its radius is less than the
> spheres in tangency which generate the 12 vertexes of the vector
> equilibrium or icosahedron. Since it is no longer the same-size
> sphere, it is not in the same frequency or in the same energetic
> dimensioning. The two structures are so intimate, but they do not
> have the same amount of energy. For instance, in relation to the
> tetrahedron as unity, the [endo]volume of the icosahedron is 18.51 in
> respect to the vector equilibrium's [endo]volume of 20 [and also the
> star icosa's ectovolume of 20]. The ratio is tantalizing because the
> mass of the electron in respect to the mass of the neutron is one
> over 18.51. That there should be such an important kind of seemingly
> irrational number provides a strong contrast to all the other
> rational data of the tetrahedron as unity, the octahedron as four,
> the vector equilibrium as 20, and the rhombic dodecahedron as six:
> beautiful whole rational numbers". Syn 400.00 system
> "When the volume of a tetrahedron is specified as one unit, other
> ordered polyhedra are found to have precise whole-number volume
> ratios, as opposed to the cumbersome and often irrational quantities
> generated by employing the cube as the unit of volume. Furthermore,
> the tetrahedron has the most surface area per unit of volume".
> (sphere has least) A Fuller Explanation
> http://www.grunch.net/synergetics/ivm.html
> shows IVM in a tet
> from previous:
> Relative volumes: (endo = interior, ecto = exterior shell)
> Tet: (@IVM), vol 1
> Oct: (@IVM), vol 4
> Star Tet: center tet endovol 1 + ectovol 4 (ext tets), vol 5
> Star Oct: center oct endovol 4 + ectovol 8 (@IVM), vol 12
> Star Icosa: center icosa endovol 18.51 + ectovol 20, vol 38.51
> Star Cubocta: endovol 20 + ectovol 20, vol 40
> DD
> On Nov 23, 2009, at 8:00 AM, rybo6 wrote:
> > "Topologically, lines are composed of points."
> > I don't know how it is defined elsewhere, but to me, a line is a
> > point with depth (not = zero), and a point is a line with depth = 0.
> > [Where 'depth' is any direction.] This does not conflict with the
> > definition of a point being a line crossing (which is the same as 2
> > or more vectors meeting at a vertex).
> > The irreg tets that make an icosa, do their struts meet at the
> > center, or do each reach to the opposite face? I thought each face
> > triangle had a tet apex at the icosa center (not modelable with
> > toothpicks), but maybe it goes to the opposite side at a point. Or
> > are there no irreg tets in an icosa?
> > Here (@ link bottom) see the regular icosa and star icosa:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_triambic_icosahedron
> > Here see that 2 halves of duotet = cubocta & 2 halves of cubocta =
> > duotet. Do the relative volumes equate?
> > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/synergeo/attachments/folder/1932305706/item/652172707/view
> > http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s09/figs/f5031.html
> > http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s10/figs/f0632.html
> > Relative volumes: (endo = interior, ecto = exterior)
> > Tet: vol 1 (@IVM)
> > Oct: vol 4 (@IVM)
> > Star Tet: center tet endovol 1 + ectovol 4 (ext tets)
> > Star Oct: center oct endovol 4 + ectovol 8 (@IVM)
> > Star Icosa: center icosa endovol 18.51 + ectovol 20
> > Star Cubocta: endovol 20 + ectovol 20
> > Icosa (Fuller explanation, Amy Edmondson, paraphrased)
> > Its endo-volume of approximately 18.51 does not fit rationally into
> > the cosmic hierarchy with whole numbers nor click-stop when
> > jitterbugging. The icosahedron is a phase in between octahedron and
> > vector equilibrium, rather than a definitive stopping point in the
> > flow. The icosahedron is thus restricted to single-layer
> > construction, able to contract/collapse to rigidity, its radius too
> > small to permit having same-size nuclear sphere. (461.05)
> > You could not have two adjacent layers of vector equilibria and then
> > have them collapse to become the icosahedron, it has to be an outside
> > layer, remote from other layers... . It may have as high a frequency
> > as nature may require. The center is vacant. (456.20-1).
> > If the center of an icosa is vacant, should its structural volume be
> > zero? Consider the volume of a donut/torus, is the donut hole volume
> > included in the donut's volume? The donut hole does not contribute to
> > the structure of the donut, it is vacant, but it is part of the donut
> > definition. That is sort of what I think the inner volume of an icosa
> > is, a sort of donut hole, a vestige, therefore not a whole number,
> > perhaps like the interstitial spaces in ball packing.
> > DD
Cubocta = cube & octahedron dual intercept, VE when complete
Octet = octahedron & tetrahedron 3D lattice (CCP), cubocta or star oct IVM
Cuboctet = IVM with cubocta voids (vector flexor) expand-contract jitterbug
shrinks from 20 tetvol hollow cubocta with single bonds to 4 tetvol octet with double bonds
Relativity on earth
Bucky's design science goal was "To make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological offense or the disadvantage of anyone." Tim Tyler: How can you tell if the world is 'working' for someone? What % of humanity is the world 'working' for today? It seems rather unrealistic to expect nobody to be disadvantaged. Advantages in nature are relative - "evolution is driven by relative fitnesses, not absolute fitnesses. Santayana's aphorism, ``It is not enough to succeed; others must fail.''
At any time, an organism's chances of surviving depend not on how fit it is, but on how fit it is relative to its competition."
http://www.swintons.net/deodands/archives/cat_neutron_teaspoon.html
Neutron stars do really exist. Long after the protons and electrons have long given up the struggle to maintain their identity against the force of gravity, all that is left is neutrons, pressed together into one big atomic nucleus a few kilometres across.
Stars are big balls of gases. Their size is determined by the balance between two opposing forces: gravity pulling the gas inwards, and pressure pushing it outwards. Just like the pressure of air in a balloon, pressure reflects the fact that it's hard to push things together. The pressure depends on how many things you're trying to push together (density), but it also depends on how hard they are to push together. At higher temperatures, the air molecules have more energy, so it takes more effort to keep them from bouncing off each other. There's a relation, then, between the amount of matter and the pressure it exerts in a given setting, which is called the equation of state. We have a fairly good idea of this relationship for the interior of stars like our own sun. Eventually, as our sun radiates energy away, the internal pressure will fall and the gravitational force will increase the density until the point at which electrons are forced together (or, more precisely into degenerate states) forming a white dwarf, and for these conditions we also have a fairly good idea of the equation of state. But for more massive stars, the collapse keeps going past this point and is only halted when the remaining neutrons are forced too 'close' together. And at this point we reach some uncertainty (at least according to 1980 era graduate texts) in what the equation of state is. So there is some real scientific uncertainty in the mass of the neutron teaspoon.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Note to a colleague re. the ARC
A fine diving spot: Deans Blue Hole, Bahamas
Divers paradise
Myostatin protein regulates muscle build, effect on myoglobin, brain, jaws?
myostatin vs follistatin
nose nerves, inf conchae, PSR
Physis: a marine journal, CIEE in Bonaire
Physis
Blue planet divers site, diver list
Blue Planet Divers
Shoal/slow/shallow, sandbar, reef, wave patterns at shallows
Shoal, lagoon, Ayre/lake/laut/loch
Ayre
The derivation of the word ayre is from Old Norse. It refers to a shallow bay/lake being separate from the sea by a sandspit. This may partly cut off a sheltered stretch of water from the sea to form a shallow freshwater loch.[2] This word is still in use for the particular landform in the Northern Isles of Scotland.
In Malay/Indonesian, ayer or air means water, laut means lake or sea.
The post-coastal Hadza Hunter/Gatherer camps
Hadza
Isotope markers in bone: Seal (high) vs mollusk (low) in human diet, iris bulbs, at South African coastal Holocene sites
South Africa coastal hunting and gathering diet
Through chemical analysis of bone collagen from 69 skeletons dated from 4,500 to 2,000 years before present, what foods were you able to determine that Holocene populations in Robberg/Plettenberg and the Matjes River Rock Shelter were consuming?
In this area, people were able to choose from a long menu of foods including venison and the meat of other wild animals, berries, edible roots and corms, particularly of plants in the iris family, seafood including shellfish, fish, seabirds, stranded dolphins or whales, and much else. All these items have been identified in excavated food remains. It is, however, harder to know their relative importance. Neither conventional archaeological techniques nor isotope analysis (for different reasons) permit precise quantification of individual foods, but it is clear from the high ratios of 15N/14N in their bones that people buried at Robberg/ Plettenberg Bay ate unusually large quantities of high trophic level [animals high on the food chain] marine foods, very likely the meat of seals and large predatory fish caught in the deep waters surrounding the Robberg Peninsula. Bone tissue accumulates over many years, so this was a long-term dietary pattern. People buried at Matjes River Rock Shelter, on the other hand, ate much more mixed diets, with more terrestrial food or low trophic level [low on the food chain] marine foods, such as shellfish.
Why do you think their diets were different? Why is this finding important or surprising?
Today, there is a seal colony on the Robberg Peninsula, and it was probably there in the past as well. (This inference is based on the age distribution of seals that ancient people butchered and ate.) Mainland seal colonies are relatively rare (most colonies are on offshore islands, which offer protection from predators), so this would have been a special opportunity for hunter-gatherers--a type of living larder. In addition, the peninsula juts out into deep water, allowing access to fish not usually caught by shore-based anglers. People who lived at Robberg/Plettenberg Bay made the most of their good fortune, while people who lived at Matjes River Rock Shelter didn't have these advantages. What's surprising about it is the degree of specialisation in local resources, from which we can infer that these people were living within relatively small areas, rather than trekking regularly across large areas of landscape. This is unexpected, given the very mobile lifestyle of most recent southern African hunter-gatherers.
How does ethnographic research contribute to the analysis of Stone Age societies in South Africa?
Later Stone Age societies were the ancestors of communities who continued to live a foraging lifestyle, in the Kalahari and elsewhere, into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Studies of Kalahari foragers have been of enormous importance in anthropology in recent decades. In some respects, there are clear similarities between recent and ancient southern African hunter-gatherers, and the ethnographies have provided valuable insights into earlier societies. For example, aspects of belief systems recorded in the Kalahari in the twentieth century are also expressed in rock paintings that may be several thousand years old.
What does the painted seal scapula found in the cave at Knysna tell us about the hunter-gatherer society that created it?
This is a unique artifact--it's the only painted bone we have from South Africa, so interpretation must be cautious. Paintings on the walls of caves and rock shelters, however, expressed aspects of people's belief systems, including ideas about relationships between animals and humans in this world and in the spirit world. The animals depicted are usually larger species charged with symbolic power. The choice of a seal scapula and the images painted on it, of which the left-hand one, at least, looks very seal-like, hints that seals may have been important in a spiritual, as well as an economic sense.
You describe the societies as succumbing to "opportunistic sedentism." What do you mean by this, and why is it significant? How might being sedentary affect other aspects of life?
The idea is that people might initially have practiced a degree of sedentism in areas where there were rich resources, because there was no need to move. Early on, this is likely to have been a flexible pattern. When population densities rose, and there were limited options for moving, settlement patterns became more fixed--increasing our chances of recognizing them in the archaeology. Cross-culturally, more settled lifestyles require people to develop new methods of dealing with conflict, they allow storage of food or other commodities, opening up the possibility of differential access to resources and thus to social inequality. Southern Cape peoples probably didn't go very far down this road, but these are interesting questions.
-
Owl monkeys, Aotus spp: nocturnal, huge tarsier/lemur-like eyes, thyroid, low metabolism, retro? Have same NeuA5 sialic acid as humans, so susceptible to human type malaria but brains small, and furry, retro? Original morph of NWM/OWM/apes, before malaria?
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a786187256
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090427214059AAhcd0T
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=com.ubuntu:en-US:official&hs=ELV&q=owl+monkey+sialic+acid&start=10&sa=N
Java man
http://www.planetmole.org/indonesian-news/sangiran-museum-sragen-central-java.html
Prehistory of leprosy
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/genomics/disease/leprosy-monot-2009-phylogeography.html
"How long should a dive last? A simple model of foraging decisions by breath-hold divers in a patchy environment" Authors: Thompson D.; Fedak M.A.
Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 61, Number 2, February 2001, pp. 287-296(10) Pub: Elsevier
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W9W-45BC899-7S&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=07b1166ce0f70cea4937c616fee8c25b
Effects of increased swimming costs on foraging behavior and efficiency of captive Steller sea lions: Evidence for behavioral plasticity in the recovery phase of dives
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, Volume 333, Issue 2, 13 June 2006, Pages 306-314 L.A. Cornick, S.D. Inglis, K. Willis, M. Horning
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T8F-4JBGKN3-3&_user=10&_coverDate=06%2F13%2F2006&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=article&_cdi=5085&_sort=v&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=34&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=05c93e6a3219bcfc6d5c4d49120eaba8
Why do macaroni penguins choose shallow body angles that result in longer descent and ascent durations? Authors: Katsufumi Sato, Jean-Benot Charrassin, Charles-André Bost, Yasuhiko Naito1
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/207/23/4057
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../18987289
Repetitive paired stimulation of nasotrigeminal and peripheral chemoreceptor afferents cause progressive potentiation of the diving bradycardia.
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2008 Nov 5;
Authors: Rozloznik M, Paton JF, Dutschmann M
The hallmarks of the mammalian diving response are protective apnea and bradycardia. These cardio-respiratory adaptations can be mimicked by stimulation the trigeminal ethmoidal nerve (EN5) and reflect oxygen conserving mechanisms during breath-hold dives. Increasing drive from peripheral chemoreceptors during sustained dives was reported to enhance the diving bradycardia. The underlying neuronal mechanisms, however, are unknown. In the present study, expression and plasticity of EN5-bradycardias after paired stimulation of the EN5 and peripheral chemoreceptors was investigated in the in situ working heart-brainstem preparation. Paired stimulations enhanced significantly the bradycardic responses compared to EN5-evoked bradycardia using sub-maxim…
http://www.immersionlibre.fr/
Bubbles and bubble rings:
bubblelogics
Prevalence and severity of external auditory exostoses in breath-hold divers
To explore the prevalence and severity of external auditory exostoses in a population of experienced breath-hold divers, and to compare these to the same parameters within surfing and self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving populations.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18346299&dopt=Abstract
Indirect evidence for arterial chemoreceptor reflex facilitation
by face immersion in man
It is concluded that the intensification is caused by chemoreceptor reflex facilitation, due to stimulation of trigeminal receptors in the face.
The initiation and maintenance of bradycardia in a diving mammal
the muskrat, Ondatra zibethica
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/469759&dopt=Abstract
Extremes in human breath hold facial immersion bradycardia
Although the average human response to apneic facial immersion in ice water is a reduction in heart rate from 70 to 45 beats/min, a small proportion of healthy subjects develop diving bradycardia to less than 20 beats/min. Twenty-seven healthy subjects performed resting, seated, 30-s mid-inspiratory breath hold, facial immersion in a basin of water. Heart rate dropped more when the water temperature was 1 degree C than at 24 degrees C. Five subjects developed asymptomatic diving bradycardia to less than 15 beats/min. One physically active individual consistently had dive heart rates as low as 5.6 beats/min.
The nose is the source of many powerful reflexes, including the diving response, sneeze and sniff reflexes, and reflexes affecting autonomic nervous function to the cardiovascular system, airways in the lungs, the larynx, and other organs. The physiology of the nose 1986
The water content and glucose concentration in the whole blood of marine mammals were found to be correlated to red blood cell concentration. Because hematocrit (Hct) undergoes significant periodic shifts in these mammals during periods of apnea and/or diving, the measured values of whole blood glucose change due to alterations in Hct, independent of shifts in metabolite regulatory pathways. In contrast to humans, where red blood cell and plasma glucose concentrations are equivalent, in most other mammalian species red blood cell glucose concentration is much lower than that in plasma.
Influence of hematocrit on whole blood glucose levels: new evidence from marine mammals
Passive Flooding Of Paranasal Sinuses
And Middle Ears As A Method Of Equalisation In Extreme Breath-hold Diving
We describe a diver who, by training, is capable of allowing passive flooding of the sinuses and middle ear with (sea) water during descent, by suppressing protective (parasympathetic) reflexes during this process.
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2008/02/28/bjsm.2007.043679.abstract
Adaptations to deep breath-hold diving: respiratory and circulatory mechanics
Respiration and circulation in diving mammals are characterized by interrelated adaptations of structure, function, and behavior that are incompletely described and understood. This speculative survey touches some of them. a) Arterial blood flow can be controlled by vasoconstriction not only in arterioles but also in large arteries. The latter physiology is not well known. b) Mechanisms that might regulate and limit nitrogen uptake are not clear, although Scholander's suggestion that airspaces become gas-free during deep dives is still accepted. c) Systemic arterial retes may be able to store oxygenated blood in some diving mammals. If so, O2 in the lung might be 'skimmed off' early in a dive, leaving the N2 behind. d) Variable clusters of interdependent adaptations in diving mammals include compliant chest walls that avoid thoracic squeeze; inspiratory breath holds that maintain high lung volumes; large tidal volumes that nearly empty the lung at end-expiration...
Renal response to head-out water immersion in Korean women divers
Head-out water immersion (HOI) induces a profound diuresis and natriuresis, which may endanger the body fluid balance of breath-hold divers during prolonged diving work.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8507293&dopt=Abstract
An intact glutamatergic trigeminal pathway is essential for the cardiac response to simulated diving http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/269/3/R669
Autonomic response to auditory stimulation
Autonomic and behavioral response to fear stimulation (sudden noise 80 dB) was studied in 12 sleeping infants at ages 8-50 weeks. The aim of the present study was to identify a possible passive defense response in infants. The response, which is widespread in birds and mammals, is characterized by apnea and bradycardia with circulatory changes as seen during the forced diving response.
Trigeminal mediation of the diving response in the muskrat
These data implicate trigeminal neurons in the medullary dorsal horn as modulators of autonomic activity, especially in the cardiorespiratory adjustments after nasal stimulation.
PMID: 1760738 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
h/t Ivo @ http://apnea.cz/media.html?Lang=EN&
-
Hello (...) [slightly modified]
Do you have an opinion on these?
Chromosome 2 is unique to humans amongst hominoids, it contains the genes/SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) for:
- Photic sneeze (Dark adaptation, O2/CO2 apnea regulation?)
- Hypothyroidsm (Ecto/endo-thermic adipocity, Iodine regulation?)
- Hemochromatosis (Bone density, Iron regulation?)
I do not view that as mere coincidence.
Regarding baby backfloating in warm sunlit lagoons:
Human babies have full envelope of SC white fat (insulatory) but dorsal brown fat, which provides warmth to the only sun-shaded area that also is exposed to the coolest proximal water, infant humans (and seals) AFAIK don't shiver for warmth (not useful for hydrostatic backfloating in water). Breastfeeding human infants produce/accumulate Hydrogen (nature's most buoyant material) in the gut, and this, combined with (otherwise healthy) infant colic (GI gas entrapment while backfloating and associated crying) and abundant white SC fat, would provide sufficient buoyancy in dense warm calm saltwater to allow parental foraging without hindrance, in part resulting in loss of fur coat.
Regarding human endurance locomotion: At lagoons, dive foraging would be typical, but in between optimal lagoons, shoreline walking/wading/jogging would be typical due to hazards of rough surf, cold water, box jellyfish, sharks/crocs, etc. This would be maintained during inland seasonal migrations where diving was limited.
Regarding islanding: I think that similar to how Gibralter functioned as a gateway for EurAsian macaques into north Africa, I think the Afar-Eritrea-Yemen region functioned as a gateway to and from EurAsia. The 'bridge' linking Yemen is about 100m deep, about the depth of sea level drop at various glacial periods, (disregarding lack of data on local tectonic changes). I do not view the Danakil alps region as "the refuge", but rather as a periodic gateway, similar to Gibralter and Sinai, though it may have been a stopover with a residual population, similar to today's Barbary macaques at Gibralter.
I haven't found any evidence to contradict the dark adaptation-dive / sunlight surface exhale idea (Aquaphotic Respiratory Cycle), except that it is not used today by modern human divers. I consider it plausible that during the MSC human ancestors separated from the other apes due to being trapped in the Medit. basin, where a unique environment produced selection for a unique hominid different from the others. The low UV present, similar to today's Dead Sea, may have selected for light skin tone or less fur, and unusual eyes (exposed white eye sclerae), and plausibly the sun sneeze, and also increased availability of stone, both for tools and climbing. Later filling of the basin would send various human-types in different directions, to adapt to local conditions with different morphotypes, many would go extinct later.
DD
ps. I've stepped away from AAT yahoogroup for a bit, but continue to skim the threads.
MSC refill
5.6 - 5.33ma MSC may have refilled in 2 years, H/P split 5 - 7ma
picture of Medit MSC refill 5.33ma
Divers paradise
Myostatin protein regulates muscle build, effect on myoglobin, brain, jaws?
myostatin vs follistatin
nose nerves, inf conchae, PSR
Physis: a marine journal, CIEE in Bonaire
Physis
Blue planet divers site, diver list
Blue Planet Divers
Shoal/slow/shallow, sandbar, reef, wave patterns at shallows
Shoal, lagoon, Ayre/lake/laut/loch
Ayre
The derivation of the word ayre is from Old Norse. It refers to a shallow bay/lake being separate from the sea by a sandspit. This may partly cut off a sheltered stretch of water from the sea to form a shallow freshwater loch.[2] This word is still in use for the particular landform in the Northern Isles of Scotland.
In Malay/Indonesian, ayer or air means water, laut means lake or sea.
The post-coastal Hadza Hunter/Gatherer camps
Hadza
Isotope markers in bone: Seal (high) vs mollusk (low) in human diet, iris bulbs, at South African coastal Holocene sites
South Africa coastal hunting and gathering diet
Through chemical analysis of bone collagen from 69 skeletons dated from 4,500 to 2,000 years before present, what foods were you able to determine that Holocene populations in Robberg/Plettenberg and the Matjes River Rock Shelter were consuming?
In this area, people were able to choose from a long menu of foods including venison and the meat of other wild animals, berries, edible roots and corms, particularly of plants in the iris family, seafood including shellfish, fish, seabirds, stranded dolphins or whales, and much else. All these items have been identified in excavated food remains. It is, however, harder to know their relative importance. Neither conventional archaeological techniques nor isotope analysis (for different reasons) permit precise quantification of individual foods, but it is clear from the high ratios of 15N/14N in their bones that people buried at Robberg/ Plettenberg Bay ate unusually large quantities of high trophic level [animals high on the food chain] marine foods, very likely the meat of seals and large predatory fish caught in the deep waters surrounding the Robberg Peninsula. Bone tissue accumulates over many years, so this was a long-term dietary pattern. People buried at Matjes River Rock Shelter, on the other hand, ate much more mixed diets, with more terrestrial food or low trophic level [low on the food chain] marine foods, such as shellfish.
Why do you think their diets were different? Why is this finding important or surprising?
Today, there is a seal colony on the Robberg Peninsula, and it was probably there in the past as well. (This inference is based on the age distribution of seals that ancient people butchered and ate.) Mainland seal colonies are relatively rare (most colonies are on offshore islands, which offer protection from predators), so this would have been a special opportunity for hunter-gatherers--a type of living larder. In addition, the peninsula juts out into deep water, allowing access to fish not usually caught by shore-based anglers. People who lived at Robberg/Plettenberg Bay made the most of their good fortune, while people who lived at Matjes River Rock Shelter didn't have these advantages. What's surprising about it is the degree of specialisation in local resources, from which we can infer that these people were living within relatively small areas, rather than trekking regularly across large areas of landscape. This is unexpected, given the very mobile lifestyle of most recent southern African hunter-gatherers.
How does ethnographic research contribute to the analysis of Stone Age societies in South Africa?
Later Stone Age societies were the ancestors of communities who continued to live a foraging lifestyle, in the Kalahari and elsewhere, into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Studies of Kalahari foragers have been of enormous importance in anthropology in recent decades. In some respects, there are clear similarities between recent and ancient southern African hunter-gatherers, and the ethnographies have provided valuable insights into earlier societies. For example, aspects of belief systems recorded in the Kalahari in the twentieth century are also expressed in rock paintings that may be several thousand years old.
What does the painted seal scapula found in the cave at Knysna tell us about the hunter-gatherer society that created it?
This is a unique artifact--it's the only painted bone we have from South Africa, so interpretation must be cautious. Paintings on the walls of caves and rock shelters, however, expressed aspects of people's belief systems, including ideas about relationships between animals and humans in this world and in the spirit world. The animals depicted are usually larger species charged with symbolic power. The choice of a seal scapula and the images painted on it, of which the left-hand one, at least, looks very seal-like, hints that seals may have been important in a spiritual, as well as an economic sense.
You describe the societies as succumbing to "opportunistic sedentism." What do you mean by this, and why is it significant? How might being sedentary affect other aspects of life?
The idea is that people might initially have practiced a degree of sedentism in areas where there were rich resources, because there was no need to move. Early on, this is likely to have been a flexible pattern. When population densities rose, and there were limited options for moving, settlement patterns became more fixed--increasing our chances of recognizing them in the archaeology. Cross-culturally, more settled lifestyles require people to develop new methods of dealing with conflict, they allow storage of food or other commodities, opening up the possibility of differential access to resources and thus to social inequality. Southern Cape peoples probably didn't go very far down this road, but these are interesting questions.
-
Owl monkeys, Aotus spp: nocturnal, huge tarsier/lemur-like eyes, thyroid, low metabolism, retro? Have same NeuA5 sialic acid as humans, so susceptible to human type malaria but brains small, and furry, retro? Original morph of NWM/OWM/apes, before malaria?
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a786187256
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090427214059AAhcd0T
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=com.ubuntu:en-US:official&hs=ELV&q=owl+monkey+sialic+acid&start=10&sa=N
Java man
http://www.planetmole.org/indonesian-news/sangiran-museum-sragen-central-java.html
Prehistory of leprosy
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/genomics/disease/leprosy-monot-2009-phylogeography.html
"How long should a dive last? A simple model of foraging decisions by breath-hold divers in a patchy environment" Authors: Thompson D.; Fedak M.A.
Source: Animal Behaviour, Volume 61, Number 2, February 2001, pp. 287-296(10) Pub: Elsevier
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6W9W-45BC899-7S&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=07b1166ce0f70cea4937c616fee8c25b
Effects of increased swimming costs on foraging behavior and efficiency of captive Steller sea lions: Evidence for behavioral plasticity in the recovery phase of dives
Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, Volume 333, Issue 2, 13 June 2006, Pages 306-314 L.A. Cornick, S.D. Inglis, K. Willis, M. Horning
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T8F-4JBGKN3-3&_user=10&_coverDate=06%2F13%2F2006&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=article&_cdi=5085&_sort=v&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=34&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=05c93e6a3219bcfc6d5c4d49120eaba8
Why do macaroni penguins choose shallow body angles that result in longer descent and ascent durations? Authors: Katsufumi Sato, Jean-Benot Charrassin, Charles-André Bost, Yasuhiko Naito1
http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/207/23/4057
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../18987289
Repetitive paired stimulation of nasotrigeminal and peripheral chemoreceptor afferents cause progressive potentiation of the diving bradycardia.
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2008 Nov 5;
Authors: Rozloznik M, Paton JF, Dutschmann M
The hallmarks of the mammalian diving response are protective apnea and bradycardia. These cardio-respiratory adaptations can be mimicked by stimulation the trigeminal ethmoidal nerve (EN5) and reflect oxygen conserving mechanisms during breath-hold dives. Increasing drive from peripheral chemoreceptors during sustained dives was reported to enhance the diving bradycardia. The underlying neuronal mechanisms, however, are unknown. In the present study, expression and plasticity of EN5-bradycardias after paired stimulation of the EN5 and peripheral chemoreceptors was investigated in the in situ working heart-brainstem preparation. Paired stimulations enhanced significantly the bradycardic responses compared to EN5-evoked bradycardia using sub-maxim…
http://www.immersionlibre.fr/
Bubbles and bubble rings:
bubblelogics
Prevalence and severity of external auditory exostoses in breath-hold divers
To explore the prevalence and severity of external auditory exostoses in a population of experienced breath-hold divers, and to compare these to the same parameters within surfing and self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving populations.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18346299&dopt=Abstract
Indirect evidence for arterial chemoreceptor reflex facilitation
by face immersion in man
It is concluded that the intensification is caused by chemoreceptor reflex facilitation, due to stimulation of trigeminal receptors in the face.
The initiation and maintenance of bradycardia in a diving mammal
the muskrat, Ondatra zibethica
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/469759&dopt=Abstract
Extremes in human breath hold facial immersion bradycardia
Although the average human response to apneic facial immersion in ice water is a reduction in heart rate from 70 to 45 beats/min, a small proportion of healthy subjects develop diving bradycardia to less than 20 beats/min. Twenty-seven healthy subjects performed resting, seated, 30-s mid-inspiratory breath hold, facial immersion in a basin of water. Heart rate dropped more when the water temperature was 1 degree C than at 24 degrees C. Five subjects developed asymptomatic diving bradycardia to less than 15 beats/min. One physically active individual consistently had dive heart rates as low as 5.6 beats/min.
The nose is the source of many powerful reflexes, including the diving response, sneeze and sniff reflexes, and reflexes affecting autonomic nervous function to the cardiovascular system, airways in the lungs, the larynx, and other organs. The physiology of the nose 1986
The water content and glucose concentration in the whole blood of marine mammals were found to be correlated to red blood cell concentration. Because hematocrit (Hct) undergoes significant periodic shifts in these mammals during periods of apnea and/or diving, the measured values of whole blood glucose change due to alterations in Hct, independent of shifts in metabolite regulatory pathways. In contrast to humans, where red blood cell and plasma glucose concentrations are equivalent, in most other mammalian species red blood cell glucose concentration is much lower than that in plasma.
Influence of hematocrit on whole blood glucose levels: new evidence from marine mammals
Passive Flooding Of Paranasal Sinuses
And Middle Ears As A Method Of Equalisation In Extreme Breath-hold Diving
We describe a diver who, by training, is capable of allowing passive flooding of the sinuses and middle ear with (sea) water during descent, by suppressing protective (parasympathetic) reflexes during this process.
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2008/02/28/bjsm.2007.043679.abstract
Adaptations to deep breath-hold diving: respiratory and circulatory mechanics
Respiration and circulation in diving mammals are characterized by interrelated adaptations of structure, function, and behavior that are incompletely described and understood. This speculative survey touches some of them. a) Arterial blood flow can be controlled by vasoconstriction not only in arterioles but also in large arteries. The latter physiology is not well known. b) Mechanisms that might regulate and limit nitrogen uptake are not clear, although Scholander's suggestion that airspaces become gas-free during deep dives is still accepted. c) Systemic arterial retes may be able to store oxygenated blood in some diving mammals. If so, O2 in the lung might be 'skimmed off' early in a dive, leaving the N2 behind. d) Variable clusters of interdependent adaptations in diving mammals include compliant chest walls that avoid thoracic squeeze; inspiratory breath holds that maintain high lung volumes; large tidal volumes that nearly empty the lung at end-expiration...
Renal response to head-out water immersion in Korean women divers
Head-out water immersion (HOI) induces a profound diuresis and natriuresis, which may endanger the body fluid balance of breath-hold divers during prolonged diving work.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8507293&dopt=Abstract
An intact glutamatergic trigeminal pathway is essential for the cardiac response to simulated diving http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/269/3/R669
Autonomic response to auditory stimulation
Autonomic and behavioral response to fear stimulation (sudden noise 80 dB) was studied in 12 sleeping infants at ages 8-50 weeks. The aim of the present study was to identify a possible passive defense response in infants. The response, which is widespread in birds and mammals, is characterized by apnea and bradycardia with circulatory changes as seen during the forced diving response.
Trigeminal mediation of the diving response in the muskrat
These data implicate trigeminal neurons in the medullary dorsal horn as modulators of autonomic activity, especially in the cardiorespiratory adjustments after nasal stimulation.
PMID: 1760738 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
h/t Ivo @ http://apnea.cz/media.html?Lang=EN&
-
Hello (...) [slightly modified]
Do you have an opinion on these?
Chromosome 2 is unique to humans amongst hominoids, it contains the genes/SNP (Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) for:
- Photic sneeze (Dark adaptation, O2/CO2 apnea regulation?)
- Hypothyroidsm (Ecto/endo-thermic adipocity, Iodine regulation?)
- Hemochromatosis (Bone density, Iron regulation?)
I do not view that as mere coincidence.
Regarding baby backfloating in warm sunlit lagoons:
Human babies have full envelope of SC white fat (insulatory) but dorsal brown fat, which provides warmth to the only sun-shaded area that also is exposed to the coolest proximal water, infant humans (and seals) AFAIK don't shiver for warmth (not useful for hydrostatic backfloating in water). Breastfeeding human infants produce/accumulate Hydrogen (nature's most buoyant material) in the gut, and this, combined with (otherwise healthy) infant colic (GI gas entrapment while backfloating and associated crying) and abundant white SC fat, would provide sufficient buoyancy in dense warm calm saltwater to allow parental foraging without hindrance, in part resulting in loss of fur coat.
Regarding human endurance locomotion: At lagoons, dive foraging would be typical, but in between optimal lagoons, shoreline walking/wading/jogging would be typical due to hazards of rough surf, cold water, box jellyfish, sharks/crocs, etc. This would be maintained during inland seasonal migrations where diving was limited.
Regarding islanding: I think that similar to how Gibralter functioned as a gateway for EurAsian macaques into north Africa, I think the Afar-Eritrea-Yemen region functioned as a gateway to and from EurAsia. The 'bridge' linking Yemen is about 100m deep, about the depth of sea level drop at various glacial periods, (disregarding lack of data on local tectonic changes). I do not view the Danakil alps region as "the refuge", but rather as a periodic gateway, similar to Gibralter and Sinai, though it may have been a stopover with a residual population, similar to today's Barbary macaques at Gibralter.
I haven't found any evidence to contradict the dark adaptation-dive / sunlight surface exhale idea (Aquaphotic Respiratory Cycle), except that it is not used today by modern human divers. I consider it plausible that during the MSC human ancestors separated from the other apes due to being trapped in the Medit. basin, where a unique environment produced selection for a unique hominid different from the others. The low UV present, similar to today's Dead Sea, may have selected for light skin tone or less fur, and unusual eyes (exposed white eye sclerae), and plausibly the sun sneeze, and also increased availability of stone, both for tools and climbing. Later filling of the basin would send various human-types in different directions, to adapt to local conditions with different morphotypes, many would go extinct later.
DD
ps. I've stepped away from AAT yahoogroup for a bit, but continue to skim the threads.
MSC refill
5.6 - 5.33ma MSC may have refilled in 2 years, H/P split 5 - 7ma
picture of Medit MSC refill 5.33ma
Monday, November 16, 2009
Human & elephants: big brains, O2, energy
The Brain: relative size, speed & complexity of sensory system (including intra-specific communication): oxygen as catalyst, food as fuel
On elephant and human brains, summarized from Not Exactly Rocket Science
Both humans and elephants show both semi-aquatic and terrestrial foraging traits, throw stones, manipulate branches or sticks, squirt water, live relatively long lives, have strong social behavior, have generally low rates of mutation yet high rate of mutations among specialized amino acids involved in "aerobic energy metabolism (AEM)" genes - which govern how mitochondria metabolise nutrients in food, in the presence of oxygen.
We already knew that the evolution of AEM genes has accelerated greatly since our human ancestors split away from those of other monkeys and apes (highly beneficial to a part-time sessile-benthic submersed forager (human ancestor, elephant ancestor) which needs both apneic and aerobic capability, but not a full-time pelagic dive chaser (dolphin) which needs maximal apneic (anaerobic) capability, nor a part-time wetland floating-food forager (congo swamp gorilla) which keeps its face always above water surface and so lacks apneic capability while not transiting far habitually so no selection for aerobic endurance.
"While other mutations were reshaping our brain and nervous system, these altered AEM genes helped to provide our growing cerebral cortex with much-needed energy.
And sure enough, elephants have more than twice as many genes with high ratios of non-synonymous mutations to synonymous ones than tenrecs do, particularly among the AEM genes used in the mitochondria. In the same way, humans have more of such genes compared to mice (which are as closely related to us, as tenrecs are to elephants). Overall, his conclusion was clear - in the animals with larger brains, a suite of AEM genes had gone through an accelerated burst of evolution compared to our mini-brained cousins. Six of our AEM genes that appear to have been strongly shaped by natural selection even have elephant counterparts that have gone through the same process.
Goodman's next challenge is to see what difference the substituted amino acids would have made to us and elephants and whether they make our brains more efficient at producing aerobic energy. He also wants to better understand the specific genes that have been shaped the convergent evolution of human and elephant brains over the course of evolution."
-
Both elephants and humans are very water-dependent and not well conserving of metabolic fluids (unlike full-time savanna/marine dwellers), moving from waterhole/lagoon to waterhole/lagoon, foraging opportunistically along the way.
-
Elephant ancestors were semi-aquatic - Telegraph
semi-aquatic ancestors of elephants
-
Tiny brains
Tiny brains: "Insects may have tiny brains, but they can perform some seriously impressive feats of mental gymnastics. According to a growing number of studies, some insects can count, categorize objects, even recognize human faces — all with brains the size of pinheads. Despite many attempts to link the volume of an animal's brain with the depth of its intelligence, scientists now propose that it's the complexity of connections between brain cells that matters most...
Whales, with brains that weigh up to 20 pounds and have more than 200 billion neurons, are no smarter than people, with our measly 3-pound brains that have just 85 billion neurons. Instead of contributing intelligence, big brains might just help support bigger bodies, which have larger muscles to coordinate [Larger muscles aren't significant, see large herbivore dinosaurs with tiny brains] and more sensory information coming in.
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An islanded goat evolved coldbloodedness and delayed life span and small brain/eyes:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/11/13/0813385106.abstract
Some animals stranded on resource-poor islands shrink size and develop lethargic metabolism while absorbing sunlight (Galapagos tortoises), others adapt to a shore-based lethargy & active aquatic lifestyle with large brain/eyes (seals, sea lions).
-
Discussion on baby crying relative to mother tongue:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1869
-
Sports competition & aggression, instinct vs control
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/sports/22brain.html?em
-
Brain and nerves slideshow at:
here
Hominid Brain to Body size: Encephalization Quotient, estimated diet
5.8 Homo sapiens - grain-meat-nut-fruit-herb/tuber-seafood-eater, boats, cooking
4.0 Homo erectus (late) - berry/nut-tuber-seafood-meat-eater, simple spears-axes
3.3 Homo erectus (early) - berry/nut/tuber-seafood-eater, sticks-pebbles
3.1 H/A habilis - mixed diet? -nut-fruit-invertebrate eater?
2.9 Australopithecus robustus - tuber-nut-berry-herb eater
2.0 Pan t. (chimpanzee) - fruit-honey-termite-meat-nut eater
1.7 Gorilla g. (gorilla) - herb-fruit-hydrocharis eater
On elephant and human brains, summarized from Not Exactly Rocket Science
Both humans and elephants show both semi-aquatic and terrestrial foraging traits, throw stones, manipulate branches or sticks, squirt water, live relatively long lives, have strong social behavior, have generally low rates of mutation yet high rate of mutations among specialized amino acids involved in "aerobic energy metabolism (AEM)" genes - which govern how mitochondria metabolise nutrients in food, in the presence of oxygen.
We already knew that the evolution of AEM genes has accelerated greatly since our human ancestors split away from those of other monkeys and apes (highly beneficial to a part-time sessile-benthic submersed forager (human ancestor, elephant ancestor) which needs both apneic and aerobic capability, but not a full-time pelagic dive chaser (dolphin) which needs maximal apneic (anaerobic) capability, nor a part-time wetland floating-food forager (congo swamp gorilla) which keeps its face always above water surface and so lacks apneic capability while not transiting far habitually so no selection for aerobic endurance.
"While other mutations were reshaping our brain and nervous system, these altered AEM genes helped to provide our growing cerebral cortex with much-needed energy.
And sure enough, elephants have more than twice as many genes with high ratios of non-synonymous mutations to synonymous ones than tenrecs do, particularly among the AEM genes used in the mitochondria. In the same way, humans have more of such genes compared to mice (which are as closely related to us, as tenrecs are to elephants). Overall, his conclusion was clear - in the animals with larger brains, a suite of AEM genes had gone through an accelerated burst of evolution compared to our mini-brained cousins. Six of our AEM genes that appear to have been strongly shaped by natural selection even have elephant counterparts that have gone through the same process.
Goodman's next challenge is to see what difference the substituted amino acids would have made to us and elephants and whether they make our brains more efficient at producing aerobic energy. He also wants to better understand the specific genes that have been shaped the convergent evolution of human and elephant brains over the course of evolution."
-
Both elephants and humans are very water-dependent and not well conserving of metabolic fluids (unlike full-time savanna/marine dwellers), moving from waterhole/lagoon to waterhole/lagoon, foraging opportunistically along the way.
-
Elephant ancestors were semi-aquatic - Telegraph
semi-aquatic ancestors of elephants
-
Tiny brains
Tiny brains: "Insects may have tiny brains, but they can perform some seriously impressive feats of mental gymnastics. According to a growing number of studies, some insects can count, categorize objects, even recognize human faces — all with brains the size of pinheads. Despite many attempts to link the volume of an animal's brain with the depth of its intelligence, scientists now propose that it's the complexity of connections between brain cells that matters most...
Whales, with brains that weigh up to 20 pounds and have more than 200 billion neurons, are no smarter than people, with our measly 3-pound brains that have just 85 billion neurons. Instead of contributing intelligence, big brains might just help support bigger bodies, which have larger muscles to coordinate [Larger muscles aren't significant, see large herbivore dinosaurs with tiny brains] and more sensory information coming in.
-
An islanded goat evolved coldbloodedness and delayed life span and small brain/eyes:
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2009/11/13/0813385106.abstract
Some animals stranded on resource-poor islands shrink size and develop lethargic metabolism while absorbing sunlight (Galapagos tortoises), others adapt to a shore-based lethargy & active aquatic lifestyle with large brain/eyes (seals, sea lions).
-
Discussion on baby crying relative to mother tongue:
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1869
-
Sports competition & aggression, instinct vs control
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/sports/22brain.html?em
-
Brain and nerves slideshow at:
here
Hominid Brain to Body size: Encephalization Quotient, estimated diet
5.8 Homo sapiens - grain-meat-nut-fruit-herb/tuber-seafood-eater, boats, cooking
4.0 Homo erectus (late) - berry/nut-tuber-seafood-meat-eater, simple spears-axes
3.3 Homo erectus (early) - berry/nut/tuber-seafood-eater, sticks-pebbles
3.1 H/A habilis - mixed diet? -nut-fruit-invertebrate eater?
2.9 Australopithecus robustus - tuber-nut-berry-herb eater
2.0 Pan t. (chimpanzee) - fruit-honey-termite-meat-nut eater
1.7 Gorilla g. (gorilla) - herb-fruit-hydrocharis eater
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Gibbons, Humans, Great Apes
http://news.discovery.com/human/human-ancestor-diet-nuts.html
"Early hominid ancestors may have left the trees to take advantage of ground-level foods, a behavioral shift that could have resulted in two of the major defining characteristics of humans: unique teeth and walking on two legs, a mode of locomotion known as bipedalism that is extremely rare elsewhere in the animal kingdom."
No, they started at wetland/woodland edges, eating water lily/lotus/sedge rhyzomes/umbels and bush berries and low hanging fruits and fallen nuts, then apes moved higher in rainforest canopy while human ancestors moved to more coastal seashore areas.
Note folded flanges of adult male reduce sunlight in eyes, give gorilla appearance; balding scalp. Nonfolded flanges are broadly flat faced, very non-gorilla appearance, note clear beard and non-nasal mustache. Bornean and Sumatran orangs separated 1.6ma
flanges
flat flange
Very dark furred orangutan
dark orangutan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangutan
Male with flanges, eyes near center of face, long hair like mammoth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pongo_pygmaeus84-300.jpg
Human deep larynx vs ape air sacs: apnea/speech vs flotation (de Boer, Boe, Lieberman...)
http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2009/10/how-old-is-language.html#more
http://ebbolles.typepad.com/babels_dawn/2008/03/fossil-evidence.html
http://ebbolles.typepad.com/babels_dawn/2008/03/stop-your-yacki.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WKT-46MJTJN-D&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=9b118ac4f846a53b6cb9455392901a9d
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15600/
http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2008/03/apes-are-not-us.html
Humans & gibbons share these traits (unlike great apes):
1) long achilles tendon
2) proportionately long legs (not neandertals)
3) protruding chin (not neandertals)*
4) upright biped primarily
5) no laryngeal air sac (exclude siamangs)
6) more monogamous pair bonding
7) continuous song rather than discrete hoots
8) low sexual dimorphism (teeth)
9) no woven branch nest (also siamangs)
gibbons and great apes share these traits (unlike humans)
1) fur coat
2) grasping big toe
3) very low carnivory
4) large canines, small molars
Chromosomes: Great apes have conserved primitive 48 chromosomes, humans derived 46, gibbons variable per species.
Gait: Gibbons and humans have conserved bipedal upright locomotion (original float-feeding/standing hominoid posture) while great apes have derived terrarboreal quadrupedalism.
Milk composition in hominoids, human milk is unique to all apes and all mammals
http://glycob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/5/499
"In comparison, type I oligosaccharides predominate over type II oligosaccharides in human milk, whereas nonprimate milk almost always contains only type II oligosaccharides. The milk or colostrum of the great apes contained oligosaccharides bearing both N-glycolylneuraminic acid and N-acetylneuraminic acid, whereas human milk contains only the latter. Great ape milk, like that of humans, contained fucosylated oligosaccharides whereas siamang milk did not."
Neu5Gc in hominoids, malaria susceptibility in humans and NWM Aotus monkeys
http://www.pnas.org/content/99/18/11736.abstract
Human malaria resistance recent? "Although sickle cell is best known in Africa, there is also an India-Pakistan variant of it that seems to have evolved separately," Hawks explained. "Both variants have evolved very recently, in the last three or four thousand years, and in that time have risen to as much as 10 to 15 percent of the populations.
Surprisingly, based on skull measurements, the human brain appears to have been shrinking over the last 5,000 or so years.
"When it comes to recent evolutionary changes, brains have shrunk about 150 cubic centimeters, off a mean of about 1,350. That's roughly 10 percent," Hawks said. "As to why is it shrinking, perhaps in big societies, as opposed to hunter-gatherer lifestyles, we can rely on other people for more things, can specialize our behavior to a greater extent, and maybe not need our brains as much," he added.
Human salivary amylase multiple of chimp, especially starch-eaters? Digestion begins as soon as you shovel a forkful of those mashed potatoes into your mouth and masticate (or chew) the food. Your mouth secretes saliva (up to 1.5 quarts a day) that moistens your food and also contains enzymes (special kinds of proteins) that help break down the food before it reaches your stomach.
One of these enzymes, called salivary amylase, breaks down starches, and a new study finds that humans carry extra copies of the gene that encodes the enzyme, which may have helped spur human evolution. The study, published in the Sept. 9 issue of the journal Nature Genetics, found that humans have more copies of the gene than their ape relatives. The humans sampled carried as many as 15 copies each, while chimpanzees had only two.
The study also found a correspondence between the number of copies of the gene and the amount of starch in a population's diet. Members of the Tanzanian Hadza tribe, which ate more tubers and roots, had more copies of the gene than their neighbors (the Datog) who mostly raised livestock. The finding supports theories that some change in the diet of early humans fueled the simultaneous increases in the size of human brains and bodies, as well as the expansion of our ancestors' geographic range.
Trade distinguished Hs from others (neandertal, baboon, bonobo)
group inter-trade
Evolving group gene
dance, trance & chance
Slight chin in early Hs man 110ka in China & S Africa?
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/fossils/china/mulan-mandible-stone-2009.html
Toba supervolcano dried and cooled south Asia 73ka
Toba effects
Face & limb traits identify various congenital disorders:
traits
Herbivorous hadrosaur dinosaur: biped, quadruped, hopper or walker?
hadrosaur
"Early hominid ancestors may have left the trees to take advantage of ground-level foods, a behavioral shift that could have resulted in two of the major defining characteristics of humans: unique teeth and walking on two legs, a mode of locomotion known as bipedalism that is extremely rare elsewhere in the animal kingdom."
No, they started at wetland/woodland edges, eating water lily/lotus/sedge rhyzomes/umbels and bush berries and low hanging fruits and fallen nuts, then apes moved higher in rainforest canopy while human ancestors moved to more coastal seashore areas.
Note folded flanges of adult male reduce sunlight in eyes, give gorilla appearance; balding scalp. Nonfolded flanges are broadly flat faced, very non-gorilla appearance, note clear beard and non-nasal mustache. Bornean and Sumatran orangs separated 1.6ma
flanges
flat flange
Very dark furred orangutan
dark orangutan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orangutan
Male with flanges, eyes near center of face, long hair like mammoth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pongo_pygmaeus84-300.jpg
Human deep larynx vs ape air sacs: apnea/speech vs flotation (de Boer, Boe, Lieberman...)
http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2009/10/how-old-is-language.html#more
http://ebbolles.typepad.com/babels_dawn/2008/03/fossil-evidence.html
http://ebbolles.typepad.com/babels_dawn/2008/03/stop-your-yacki.html
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WKT-46MJTJN-D&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=9b118ac4f846a53b6cb9455392901a9d
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15600/
http://www.babelsdawn.com/babels_dawn/2008/03/apes-are-not-us.html
Humans & gibbons share these traits (unlike great apes):
1) long achilles tendon
2) proportionately long legs (not neandertals)
3) protruding chin (not neandertals)*
4) upright biped primarily
5) no laryngeal air sac (exclude siamangs)
6) more monogamous pair bonding
7) continuous song rather than discrete hoots
8) low sexual dimorphism (teeth)
9) no woven branch nest (also siamangs)
gibbons and great apes share these traits (unlike humans)
1) fur coat
2) grasping big toe
3) very low carnivory
4) large canines, small molars
Chromosomes: Great apes have conserved primitive 48 chromosomes, humans derived 46, gibbons variable per species.
Gait: Gibbons and humans have conserved bipedal upright locomotion (original float-feeding/standing hominoid posture) while great apes have derived terrarboreal quadrupedalism.
Milk composition in hominoids, human milk is unique to all apes and all mammals
http://glycob.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/19/5/499
"In comparison, type I oligosaccharides predominate over type II oligosaccharides in human milk, whereas nonprimate milk almost always contains only type II oligosaccharides. The milk or colostrum of the great apes contained oligosaccharides bearing both N-glycolylneuraminic acid and N-acetylneuraminic acid, whereas human milk contains only the latter. Great ape milk, like that of humans, contained fucosylated oligosaccharides whereas siamang milk did not."
Neu5Gc in hominoids, malaria susceptibility in humans and NWM Aotus monkeys
http://www.pnas.org/content/99/18/11736.abstract
Human malaria resistance recent? "Although sickle cell is best known in Africa, there is also an India-Pakistan variant of it that seems to have evolved separately," Hawks explained. "Both variants have evolved very recently, in the last three or four thousand years, and in that time have risen to as much as 10 to 15 percent of the populations.
Surprisingly, based on skull measurements, the human brain appears to have been shrinking over the last 5,000 or so years.
"When it comes to recent evolutionary changes, brains have shrunk about 150 cubic centimeters, off a mean of about 1,350. That's roughly 10 percent," Hawks said. "As to why is it shrinking, perhaps in big societies, as opposed to hunter-gatherer lifestyles, we can rely on other people for more things, can specialize our behavior to a greater extent, and maybe not need our brains as much," he added.
Human salivary amylase multiple of chimp, especially starch-eaters? Digestion begins as soon as you shovel a forkful of those mashed potatoes into your mouth and masticate (or chew) the food. Your mouth secretes saliva (up to 1.5 quarts a day) that moistens your food and also contains enzymes (special kinds of proteins) that help break down the food before it reaches your stomach.
One of these enzymes, called salivary amylase, breaks down starches, and a new study finds that humans carry extra copies of the gene that encodes the enzyme, which may have helped spur human evolution. The study, published in the Sept. 9 issue of the journal Nature Genetics, found that humans have more copies of the gene than their ape relatives. The humans sampled carried as many as 15 copies each, while chimpanzees had only two.
The study also found a correspondence between the number of copies of the gene and the amount of starch in a population's diet. Members of the Tanzanian Hadza tribe, which ate more tubers and roots, had more copies of the gene than their neighbors (the Datog) who mostly raised livestock. The finding supports theories that some change in the diet of early humans fueled the simultaneous increases in the size of human brains and bodies, as well as the expansion of our ancestors' geographic range.
Trade distinguished Hs from others (neandertal, baboon, bonobo)
group inter-trade
Evolving group gene
dance, trance & chance
Slight chin in early Hs man 110ka in China & S Africa?
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/fossils/china/mulan-mandible-stone-2009.html
Toba supervolcano dried and cooled south Asia 73ka
Toba effects
Face & limb traits identify various congenital disorders:
traits
Herbivorous hadrosaur dinosaur: biped, quadruped, hopper or walker?
hadrosaur
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Global Sea Conditions as of date posted
Click on desired feature: region, wave height/direction, sea surface temperature...
http://www.oceanweather.com/data/
Compare today's sea surface temperatures to SST during the last glacial maximum 18,000 years ago in the ice age:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CLIMAP.jpg
Average sea surface salinities
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth540/content/c3_p4.html
View Larger Map
Antarctic glacier melt: today fastest since 14ka, per 100m sediment deposit
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/nocs-pco110609.php
The Falklands islands wolf: a social isolate for 6.7 million years, related closest to North American Maned wolf which 4ma later expanded to South America.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/darwins-wolf/
Google eyes see Amazon rainforest destruction
http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2009/11/google_had_never_done_anything.php
Nazca desertification due to empire growth (same everywhere).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/peru/6478168/Nazcas-destruction-of-forests-caused-downfall.html
MtDNA molecular clock proven unreliable in antarctic penguins
http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem_print.aspx?name=68078801
Speech genes? tospeak, Foxp2 and basal vocalization/tissue patterns
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48680/title/A_gene_critical_for_speech
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/11/revisiting_foxp2_and_the_origins_of_language.php?utm_source=networkbanner&utm_medium=link
http://www.oceanweather.com/data/
Compare today's sea surface temperatures to SST during the last glacial maximum 18,000 years ago in the ice age:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CLIMAP.jpg
Average sea surface salinities
https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth540/content/c3_p4.html
View Larger Map
Antarctic glacier melt: today fastest since 14ka, per 100m sediment deposit
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/nocs-pco110609.php
The Falklands islands wolf: a social isolate for 6.7 million years, related closest to North American Maned wolf which 4ma later expanded to South America.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/11/darwins-wolf/
Google eyes see Amazon rainforest destruction
http://scienceblogs.com/bioephemera/2009/11/google_had_never_done_anything.php
Nazca desertification due to empire growth (same everywhere).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/peru/6478168/Nazcas-destruction-of-forests-caused-downfall.html
MtDNA molecular clock proven unreliable in antarctic penguins
http://www.genengnews.com/news/bnitem_print.aspx?name=68078801
Speech genes? tospeak, Foxp2 and basal vocalization/tissue patterns
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/48680/title/A_gene_critical_for_speech
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2009/11/revisiting_foxp2_and_the_origins_of_language.php?utm_source=networkbanner&utm_medium=link
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