Diving physiology bio-chem: respiration, apnea
Divers should not hyperventilate causing alkalosis in blood, due to susceptibility to sudden black-out from lack of oxygen (with no chemoreceptor warning).
Rather they should be neutral pH, during dive the accumulation of carbon dioxide produces acidosis in the blood (even if there is abundant oxygen) which in MDR (mammalian divers reflex) is a safer mode, high CO2 triggers air hunger (oxygen conservation) and diaphragmatic contractions pump O2 & CO2 around efficiently.
REFINING THE BREATH by DOUG KELLER 2007
And then there are times when we anticipate physical stress and begin to breathe harder, using the chest muscles. The problem is that this situation of persistent mental and emotional stress has become more the rule of daily life than the exception. The body is on constant alert via the sympathetic nervous system, but the physical exertion — and the need for accelerated breathing — never comes. As a result, we’ve both pumped in more oxygen and pumped out carbon dioxide in this process of hyperventilation, and a vital chemical balance in the body has been seriously upset.
Here begins the vicious cycle that is so familiar to hyperventilators. The harder we breathe, the more oxygen-starved we feel, and we can’t ‘catch’ our breath. This is not for lack of oxygen, but because so much carbon dioxide has been forced out in the process of overbreathing. The presence of carbon dioxide in our blood allows the hemoglobins to transport oxygen to the body’s tissues. If too much carbon dioxide is ‘blown off’ by hyperventilation, the blood becomes alkaline, and the hemoglobin can’t release the oxygen molecules, which are chemically ‘stuck’ to it. The blood is carrying around plenty of oxygen: the problem is that the body can’t get any of it!
Carbon dioxide also provides the chemical message in the blood that leads us to take our next breath. At the end of the exhalation, there is a natural, restful pause before we breathe in again. During that pause, carbon dioxide builds up in the blood at the same time that oxygen is being released into the tissues. When it reaches a certain level, the respiratory center of the brain sends a signal through the phrenic nerve to the diaphragm to take another breath.
In the normal course of breathing, the entire process of respiration is driven by carbon dioxide, from the first neurochemical impulse that initiates the inhalation, to the chemical balancing act in the blood that delivers oxygen to the body. All of this happens without our having to think about or consciously direct the process, and the whole process works astoundingly well, with carbon dioxide playing a central role from beginning to end.
That, of course, describes the natural process of the breath, in which the conscious mind, with its slurry of desire, emotion and expectation, is not factored in. But what happens when we overbreathe? Usually an excess of carbon dioxide in the blood tells us to take another breath in, and the process is quite relaxed. But when carbon dioxide drops below a certain level (due to anticipatory fast hard breathing), the message from the body — which is now not receiving the oxygen it needs — is that we are suffocating! And so the breath is driven by the body’s panic, and we breathe harder, making the situation worse instead of better. A subtle chemical imbalance soon becomes a full-blown panic attack. The age-old cure for panic attacks — to breathe into a paper bag — has a very good biochemical basis: it’s meant to increase the levels of carbon dioxide by re-breathing the same air, until the proper balance is restored.
When it comes to stressful breathing patterns, or patterns of ‘overbreathing, certainly the vicious cycle of the biochemistry of hyperventilation plays the part of gasoline thrown on the fire. Mental anticipation and anxiety, however, is the match that lights the fire.
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So relax, and just glow a little. ;)
h/t kelp princess @ Deeper Blue
Showing posts with label diving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diving. Show all posts
Monday, February 22, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
interim
"Every physical body has four basic sides, or four comers: two points alone are only collinear, and three are only coplanar; not until there are four comers can the property of spatial existence be recognized. As a result, any physical body must be held at four noncoplanar points (triangulated distally), with three torque restraints at each point (triangulated locally), in order to be stabilized.
There are four fundamental corners in every system, and each must be triangulated: 4 × 3 = 12. Thus there are twelve degrees of freedom, tetrahedrally organized." Amy Edmondson, A Fuller Explanation, Re. R. Buckminster Fuller, vector equilibrium
Relative Volume Table: (tetra volumes) | (cube volumes)
Icosa = 18.51 tv +
Vector edge Cube = 8.49 tv =
Icosa + Vector edge Cube = 27 tv -
Vector diagonal Cube = 3 tv (2 small duotets) =
2F lattice Cube = 24 tv (2 big duotets) -
Octa = 4 tv =
Star Icosa ext = 20 tv or
Cubocta = 20 tv + 8 ext tetra =
Star Cubocta Cube = 28 tv + 6 ext sq pyramids =
Cmpd Cubocta = 40 tv - 8 ext tetra =
Superocta = 6 octa & 8 tetra = 32 tv
compound of (1st stellation of) cube & octahedron (not star cubocta)
Cumulation: tet, octa, cube, icosa, dodeca can be cumulated 4 times
CUMULATION
(Cube & tet can't be stellated but both can be cumulated)
tetra, triakis tetra, cube, 12-faced star deltahedron (star tetra)
cube, tetrakis hexahedron, rhomb dodeca, 24 face star deltahedron (star cube)
octa, sm triakis octa, stella octangula/duotet (star octa)
star tetra, star octa (domain net of cubocta), star icosa
Now excluding the nucleic polyhedron volume:
View of surface tets as skeletal structure, equi length struts
Star Tet: nuc tet void, 4 tets, 6 circ + 12 ext struts = 18
Star Octa: nuc octa void, 8 tets, 12 circ + 24 ext struts = 36
Star Icosa: nuc icosa void, 20 tets, 30 circ + 60 ext struts = 90
I think the star tetra, star octa and star icosa qualify as 'VE', if the central polyhedra (reg tet, reg octa, reg icosa) is considered to be the nucleus. All the connecting vectors are same length AFAICT. Eg. the star icosa has all equal length vectors and has no centroid vectors (which would be a different length). So you need to specify which VE:
VE cubocta
VE star tetra
VE star octa
VE star icosa
The star tetra has 12 face planes
Multiplication by division: http://synergeticists.org/synergetics/plates/figs/plate03.html
Noting Kirby's & Alan's relative volume tables here:
math
Eschers solid
The volume of the cuboctahedron is 5/6 of that of the enclosing cube and 5/8 of that of the enclosing octahedron. The cuboctahedron shares its edges and vertex arrangement with two nonconvex uniform polyhedra: the cubohemioctahedron (having the square faces in common) and the octahemioctahedron (having the triangular faces in common).
I suggest adding one more, some star polyhedra with identical regular tetrahedra, the internal central polyhedron is a void*, since the external tetras produce the structure, so no additional struts required:
star tetra: 4 tetras (star tet - tet nucleus)
star octa: 8 tetras (duotet - octa nucleus)
star cubocta: 8 tetras (cube - cubocta nucleus)
=====================
star icosa: 20 tetras (4 + 8 + 8) * jitterbug transformation
*These exclude the nuclear polyhedron, since it is a void built by the exoskeleton of structural tets and overlapped struts are unnecessary.
I haven't checked if the orientation of the 20 tets of the star icosa match with those of the others, or if they need to be rotated or jitterbugged to fit the icosa.
compound cubocta & 120 cell
What can fit into an icosa? a tet. an octa. a star tet? a star octa?
unknown.
rhombic dodeca (cube with pyramidal faces combine coplanar pairs of triangles into rhombi) rhomdodeca from cube+6pyramid (differs from star cube with noncoplanar pairs of triangles)
star rhombic dodeca & star octa:
star vol
C60 Carbon buckyball fullerene: 60 vertices divided into 12 pentagon sets; 32 faces of 12 pentas and 20 hexas, 90 edges of 60 pentagonal edges (single bonds)and 30 hexagonal edges (double bonds), each hexagon has alternating single and double bonds. Dual of truncated icosahedron C60 with 32 faces and 60 vertices is the pentakis dodecahedron (triangulated C60) of 60 faces and 32 vertices.
syn
1033.53 The vector equilibrium jitterbug provides the articulative model for demonstrating the always omnisymmetrical, divergently expanding or convergently contracting intertransformability of the entire primitive polyhedral hierarchy, structuring as you go in an omnitriangularly oriented evolution.
1033.54 As we explore the interbonding (valencing) of the evolving structural components, we soon discover that the universal interjointing of systems__and their foldability__permit their angularly hinged convergence into congruence of vertexes (single bonding), vectors (double bonding), faces (triple bonding), and volumetric congruence (quadri-bonding). Each of these multicongruences appears only as one vertex or one edge or one face aspect. The Eulerean topological accounting as presently practiced__innocent of the inherent synergetical hierarchy of intertransformability__accounts each of these multicongruent topological aspects as consisting of only one of such aspects. This misaccounting has prevented the physicists and chemists from conceptual identification of their data with synergetics' disclosure of nature's comprehensively rational, intercoordinate mathematical system.
1033.55 Only the topological analysis of synergetics can account for all the multicongruent__doubled, tripled, fourfolded__topological aspects by accounting for the initial tetravolume inventories of the comprehensive rhombic dodecahedron and vector equilibrium. The comprehensive rhombic dodecahedron has an initial tetravolume of 48; the vector equilibrium has an inherent tetravolume of 20; their respective initial or primitive inventories of vertexes, vectors, and faces are always present__though often imperceptibly so__at all stages in nature's comprehensive convergence transformation.
2 fold: triangle octavalent
3 fold: tetra quadruvalent
4 fold: cube, octa, apparent cubocta, rhom dodeca
5 fold: icosa, penta dodeca
6 fold: actual cubocta in motion when surface squares collapse
7 axes of symmetry, 14 faces of bubbles & cells: 14faces
Carbon C60 buckyball: truncated icosahedron C60
Boron B80 buckyball: truncated rhombic triacontahedron B80
Tetrakaidecahedron: 14 sided polyhedra includes VE, truncated octahedra (space filler) and hexagonal truncated trapezohedron (14 sided soap foam)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrakaidecahedron
The more regular honeycombs dualise neatly:
* The cubic honeycomb is self-dual.
* That of octahedra and tetrahedra is dual to that of rhombic dodecahedra.
Check: quasicrystal matrix composed of icosa & star tetra, where the icosa contain nuclei of star tetra.
Da Vincis' star tetrahedron & icosahedron: star tet
Jitterbug transformation: from 4 fold VE through 5 fold icosa to 3 fold tetra VV
The nucleated cubocta is a unique 3D system in Vector Equilibrium, where all 24 circumferential vectors (edges) are the same length as the 12 nuclear radiating vectors (rays). The non-nucleated VE is not structurally rigid with rubber joints (unlike the tetra, octa and icosa of 60 degrees) due to the 6 collapsable square faces of 90 degrees, but with polarised kinetic energy applied (compressed, extended or torqued at opposing triangle or square faces) will transform as follows:
Compressing polar triangles inward: spins through an incomplete icosa to an octa.
Extending polar triangles outward: unstable convex-concave tri-prism, which if equatorially compressed (at evertices or invertices) or polarly torqued forms a webbed pin-hinged double tetra hourglass.
Torqueing polar triangles laterally: 2f (nuc) triangle, folds to tetra.
Compressing polar squares inward: star square, folds to 1/2-octa to 1f triangle.
Extending polar squares outward produces stretched cube, which if equatorially compressed or polarly torqued forms a pin-hinged double 1/2-octa hourglass, folds to a single 1/2-octa to 1f triangle.
Torqueing polar squares laterally: incomplete 2f tetra, folds to saddle form or hexagon or 2f (nuc) triangle to tetra.
Jitterbug collapse to tetra: http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s04/figs/f6108.html
Jitterbug collapse to octa:
6 loops circumscribe a spherical VE: 6 loop VE
Relative Volumes at Grunch: http://grunch.net/archives/47
Concentric hierarchy: here
Quintet dodeca: http://www.newciv.org/Synergetic_Geometry/Quintet_Dodeca.JPEG
http://www.newciv.org/Synergetic_Geometry/amoeba.htm
xkcd symmetree
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Octet truss IVM virtual space frame allows tourists to see ancient artifacts without disturbing them at Java, Indonesia.
Time & Space Perspective
-
On spherical gravity "attraction" & EM radial wave "repulsion" relationships
2 round objects have more surface area than 1, so they are "attracted" to each other, collision reduces total surface area. Energy has no surface area so is independent of gravity, (it 'curves' around bodies due to reflection pressure?) it radiates outwardly in periodic (tidal) waves linearly from sphere center.
circumferential vectors & great circles: icosa edge vectors 30, icosa great circles 31; cubocta edge vectors 24, cubocta great circles 25
1052.21 Isaac Newton discovered the celestial gravitation interrelationship and expressed it in terms of the second power of the relative distance between the different masses as determined by reference to the radius of one of the interattracted masses. The gravitational relationship is also synergetically statable in terms of the second power of relative frequency of volumetric quanta concentrations of the respectively interattracted masses. Newton's gravitational constant is a radially (frequency) measured rate of spherical surface contraction, while Einstein's radiational constant is a radial (frequency) rate of spherical expansion. (See Secs. 960.12, 1009.31 and 1052.44.)
1052.30 Gravitational Constant: Excess of One Great Circle over Edge Vectors in Vector Equilibrium and Icosahedron: Pondering on Einstein's last problem of the Unified Field Theory, in which he sought to identify and explain the mathematical differentiations between electromagnetics and gravity__the two prime attractive forces of Universe__and recalling in that connection the conclusion of synergetics that gravity operates in spherical embracement, not by direct radial vectors, and recalling that electromagnetics follows the high-tension convex surfaces, possibly the great-circle trunk system of railroad tracks (see Secs. 452 and 458); led to pondering, in surprise, over the fact that the vector equilibrium, which identifies the gravitational behaviors, discloses 25 great circles for the vector equilibrium in respect to its 24 external vector edges, and the icosahedron, which identifies the electron behaviors of electromagnetics, discloses 31 great circles in respect to its 30 external vector edges.
1052.31 In each case, there is an excess of one great circle over the edge vectors. Recalling that the circumferential vector edges of the vector equilibrium exactly equal the radial explosive/implosive forces, while the icosahedron's 30 external edges are longer and more powerful than its 30 radial vectors [What 30 radial vectors?? A star icosa has external equilength pentalateral-bond tets, a cubocta has equilength quadrilateral-bond & equilength mono-radial vectors.], yet each has an excess of one great circle, which great circles must have two polar axes of spin, we encounter once more the excess two polar vertexes characterizing all topological systems, and witness the excess of embracingly cohering forces in contradistinction to the explosively disintegrative forces of Universe.
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A star tetra, a star octa, and a star icosa each contain a nuclear void (empty space tet, octa, icosa) polyhedron surrounded and structured by reg ext tets. A star cubocta does not contain a void nucleus. A star rh dodeca and star non-nucleated cubocta contain void polyhedron nuclei, but lacking full tet surfaces are not structured. Empty stars can be nucleated by structures: star icosa accepts a nuclear star tetra (free spinning? quasicrystal matrix), star cubocta accepts a nuclear star octa (IVM crystal matrix).
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domed dive mask
I'd like to get this dive mask, great vision underwater for those who are nearsighted (myopic) like me, and lack sufficient visual accomodation for clear dark adapted acuity.
Vortices in dragonfly flight animation:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March00/APS_Wang.hrs.html
Spiral column foldable origami: spiral
Fish bones, fermented fish vs cooked fish, calcium carbonate in sea water, sleep
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=921452
Fish-bone peptides (FBP) with a high affinity to Ca were isolated using hydroxyapatite affinity chromatography, and FBP II with a high ratio of phosphopeptide was fractionated in the range of molecular weight 5·0–1·0kDa by ultramembrane filtration. In vitro study elucidated that FBP II could inhibit the formation of insoluble Ca salts in neutral pH. In vivo effects of FBP II on Ca bioavailability were further examined in the ovariectomised rat. During the experimental period, Ca retention was increased and loss of bone mineral was decreased by FBP II supplementation in ovariectomised rats. After the low-Ca diet, the FBP II diet, including both normal level of Ca and vitamin D, significantly decreased Ca loss in faeces and increased Ca retention compared with the control diet. The levels of femoral total Ca, bone mineral density, and strength were also significantly increased by the FBP II diet to levels similar to those of the casein phosphopeptide diet group (no difference; P>0·05). In the present study, the results proved the beneficial effects of fish-meal in preventing Ca deficiency due to increased Ca bioavailability by FBP intake
ocean alkalinity & fish
New research reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life.
The discovery, made by a team of scientists from the UK, US and Canada, could help solve a mystery that has puzzled marine chemists for decades. Published 16 January 2009 in Science, the study provides new insights into the marine carbon cycle, which is undergoing rapid change as a result of global CO2 emissions.
Until now, scientists have believed that the oceans' calcium carbonate, which dissolves to make seawater alkaline, came from the external 'skeletons' of microscopic marine plankton. This study estimates that three to 15 per cent of marine calcium carbonate is in fact produced by fish in their intestines and then excreted. This is a conservative estimate and the team believes it has the potential to be three times higher.
Fish are therefore responsible for contributing a major but previously unrecognised portion of the inorganic carbon that maintains the ocean's acidity balance. The researchers predict that future increases in sea temperature and rising CO2 will cause fish to produce even more calcium carbonate.
To reach these results, the team created two independent computer models which for the first time estimated the total mass of fish in the ocean. They found there are between 812 and 2050 million tonnes (between 812 billion and 2050 billion kilos) of bony fish in the ocean. They then used lab research to establish that these fish produce around 110 million tonnes (110 billion kilos) of calcium carbonate per year.
Calcium carbonate is a white, chalky material that helps control the delicate acidity balance, or pH, of sea water. pH balance is vital for the health of marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, and important in controlling how easily the ocean will absorb and buffer future increases in atmospheric CO2.
This calcium carbonate is being produced by bony fish, a group that includes 90% of marine fish species but not sharks or rays. These fish continuously drink seawater to avoid dehydration. This exposes them to an excess of ingested calcium, which they precipitate into calcium carbonate crystals in the gut. The fish then simply excrete these unwanted chalky solids, sometimes called 'gut rocks', in a process that is separate from digestion and production of faeces.
The study reveals that carbonates excreted by fish are chemically quite different from those produced by plankton. This helps explain a phenomenon that has perplexed oceanographers: the sea becomes more alkaline at much shallower depths than expected. The carbonates produced by microscopic plankton should not be responsible for this alkalinity change, because they sink to much deeper depths intact, often becoming locked up in sediments and rocks for millions of years. In contrast, fish excrete more soluble forms of calcium carbonate that are likely to completely dissolve at much shallower depths (e.g. 500 to 1,000 metres).
Lead author Dr Rod Wilson of the University of Exeter (UK) said: "Our most conservative estimates suggest three to 15 per cent of the oceans' carbonates come from fish, but this range could be up to three times higher. We also know that fish carbonates differ considerably from those produced by plankton"
toads, fish, sharks, CaCO3, etc.
reefs
Photic Sneeze
Photic sneeze: vestige of past tropical lagoon diving ancestors? Aqua-photic Respiratory Cycle forage divers, fast dark-adapted sunlight exhalations...
Y DNA Haplogroup T: Salt trade, boiling brine to trade via dugout for inland goods?
coastal transit/trade 30ka
Upper Rift seasonal fishing camp 770ka: carp, acorn, olive pit, raisin, bark
carp fishing with acorn bait & crabbing 770ka at Lake Hula
23ka bedding, salt and freshwater springs at Sea of Galillee
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC409895/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19125919?ordinalpos=1&itool=PPMCLayout.PPMCAppController.PPMCArticlePage.PPMCPubmedRA&linkpos=2
Similarities between Hs & Pt: proteins, DNA, chromosome
http://academic.reed.edu/biology/professors/srenn/pages/teaching/431S05/431S05_readings/431s05_examples/king_wilson_1975(classic).pdf
numeric sequences
There are four fundamental corners in every system, and each must be triangulated: 4 × 3 = 12. Thus there are twelve degrees of freedom, tetrahedrally organized." Amy Edmondson, A Fuller Explanation, Re. R. Buckminster Fuller, vector equilibrium
Relative Volume Table: (tetra volumes) | (cube volumes)
| form | = tv|cv | form | = tv | cv |
| tetra/coupler | = 1 | 1/3 | star octa | = 12 | 4 |
| double tetra | = 2 | 2/3 | star rh dodeca | = 12 | 4 |
| duo-tet cube | = 3 | 1 | cmpd cubocta ext | = 20 | ~7 |
| reg octa | = 4 | 4/3 | reg icosa int | :~18 | ~6 |
| star tetra | = 5 | 5/3 | star icosa ext | = 20 | ~7 |
| rhom dodeca | = 6 | 2 | cubocta int | = 20 | ~7 |
| 2F coupler | = 8 | 8/3 | 2F cube | = 24 | 8 |
Icosa = 18.51 tv +
Vector edge Cube = 8.49 tv =
Icosa + Vector edge Cube = 27 tv -
Vector diagonal Cube = 3 tv (2 small duotets) =
2F lattice Cube = 24 tv (2 big duotets) -
Octa = 4 tv =
Star Icosa ext = 20 tv or
Cubocta = 20 tv + 8 ext tetra =
Star Cubocta Cube = 28 tv + 6 ext sq pyramids =
Cmpd Cubocta = 40 tv - 8 ext tetra =
Superocta = 6 octa & 8 tetra = 32 tv
compound of (1st stellation of) cube & octahedron (not star cubocta)
Cumulation: tet, octa, cube, icosa, dodeca can be cumulated 4 times
CUMULATION
(Cube & tet can't be stellated but both can be cumulated)
tetra, triakis tetra, cube, 12-faced star deltahedron (star tetra)
cube, tetrakis hexahedron, rhomb dodeca, 24 face star deltahedron (star cube)
octa, sm triakis octa, stella octangula/duotet (star octa)
star tetra, star octa (domain net of cubocta), star icosa
Now excluding the nucleic polyhedron volume:
View of surface tets as skeletal structure, equi length struts
Star Tet: nuc tet void, 4 tets, 6 circ + 12 ext struts = 18
Star Octa: nuc octa void, 8 tets, 12 circ + 24 ext struts = 36
Star Icosa: nuc icosa void, 20 tets, 30 circ + 60 ext struts = 90
I think the star tetra, star octa and star icosa qualify as 'VE', if the central polyhedra (reg tet, reg octa, reg icosa) is considered to be the nucleus. All the connecting vectors are same length AFAICT. Eg. the star icosa has all equal length vectors and has no centroid vectors (which would be a different length). So you need to specify which VE:
VE cubocta
VE star tetra
VE star octa
VE star icosa
The star tetra has 12 face planes
Multiplication by division: http://synergeticists.org/synergetics/plates/figs/plate03.html
Noting Kirby's & Alan's relative volume tables here:
math
Eschers solid
A 1F cube has 3 tv. First stellation of a cube is a rhombic dodeca of 6 tv.
First stellation of a rhombic dodeca is Escher's Solid, of 12 tv,
half the volume of the 2F cube, same as the star octa.
The volume of the cuboctahedron is 5/6 of that of the enclosing cube and 5/8 of that of the enclosing octahedron. The cuboctahedron shares its edges and vertex arrangement with two nonconvex uniform polyhedra: the cubohemioctahedron (having the square faces in common) and the octahemioctahedron (having the triangular faces in common).
I suggest adding one more, some star polyhedra with identical regular tetrahedra, the internal central polyhedron is a void*, since the external tetras produce the structure, so no additional struts required:
star tetra: 4 tetras (star tet - tet nucleus)
star octa: 8 tetras (duotet - octa nucleus)
star cubocta: 8 tetras (cube - cubocta nucleus)
=====================
star icosa: 20 tetras (4 + 8 + 8) * jitterbug transformation
*These exclude the nuclear polyhedron, since it is a void built by the exoskeleton of structural tets and overlapped struts are unnecessary.
I haven't checked if the orientation of the 20 tets of the star icosa match with those of the others, or if they need to be rotated or jitterbugged to fit the icosa.
compound cubocta & 120 cell
What can fit into an icosa? a tet. an octa. a star tet? a star octa?
unknown.
rhombic dodeca (cube with pyramidal faces combine coplanar pairs of triangles into rhombi) rhomdodeca from cube+6pyramid (differs from star cube with noncoplanar pairs of triangles)
star rhombic dodeca & star octa:
star vol
C60 Carbon buckyball fullerene: 60 vertices divided into 12 pentagon sets; 32 faces of 12 pentas and 20 hexas, 90 edges of 60 pentagonal edges (single bonds)and 30 hexagonal edges (double bonds), each hexagon has alternating single and double bonds. Dual of truncated icosahedron C60 with 32 faces and 60 vertices is the pentakis dodecahedron (triangulated C60) of 60 faces and 32 vertices.
syn
1033.53 The vector equilibrium jitterbug provides the articulative model for demonstrating the always omnisymmetrical, divergently expanding or convergently contracting intertransformability of the entire primitive polyhedral hierarchy, structuring as you go in an omnitriangularly oriented evolution.
1033.54 As we explore the interbonding (valencing) of the evolving structural components, we soon discover that the universal interjointing of systems__and their foldability__permit their angularly hinged convergence into congruence of vertexes (single bonding), vectors (double bonding), faces (triple bonding), and volumetric congruence (quadri-bonding). Each of these multicongruences appears only as one vertex or one edge or one face aspect. The Eulerean topological accounting as presently practiced__innocent of the inherent synergetical hierarchy of intertransformability__accounts each of these multicongruent topological aspects as consisting of only one of such aspects. This misaccounting has prevented the physicists and chemists from conceptual identification of their data with synergetics' disclosure of nature's comprehensively rational, intercoordinate mathematical system.
1033.55 Only the topological analysis of synergetics can account for all the multicongruent__doubled, tripled, fourfolded__topological aspects by accounting for the initial tetravolume inventories of the comprehensive rhombic dodecahedron and vector equilibrium. The comprehensive rhombic dodecahedron has an initial tetravolume of 48; the vector equilibrium has an inherent tetravolume of 20; their respective initial or primitive inventories of vertexes, vectors, and faces are always present__though often imperceptibly so__at all stages in nature's comprehensive convergence transformation.
2 fold: triangle octavalent
3 fold: tetra quadruvalent
4 fold: cube, octa, apparent cubocta, rhom dodeca
5 fold: icosa, penta dodeca
6 fold: actual cubocta in motion when surface squares collapse
7 axes of symmetry, 14 faces of bubbles & cells: 14faces
Carbon C60 buckyball: truncated icosahedron C60
Boron B80 buckyball: truncated rhombic triacontahedron B80
Tetrakaidecahedron: 14 sided polyhedra includes VE, truncated octahedra (space filler) and hexagonal truncated trapezohedron (14 sided soap foam)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrakaidecahedron
The more regular honeycombs dualise neatly:
* The cubic honeycomb is self-dual.
* That of octahedra and tetrahedra is dual to that of rhombic dodecahedra.
Check: quasicrystal matrix composed of icosa & star tetra, where the icosa contain nuclei of star tetra.
Da Vincis' star tetrahedron & icosahedron: star tet
Jitterbug transformation: from 4 fold VE through 5 fold icosa to 3 fold tetra VV
The nucleated cubocta is a unique 3D system in Vector Equilibrium, where all 24 circumferential vectors (edges) are the same length as the 12 nuclear radiating vectors (rays). The non-nucleated VE is not structurally rigid with rubber joints (unlike the tetra, octa and icosa of 60 degrees) due to the 6 collapsable square faces of 90 degrees, but with polarised kinetic energy applied (compressed, extended or torqued at opposing triangle or square faces) will transform as follows:
Compressing polar triangles inward: spins through an incomplete icosa to an octa.
Extending polar triangles outward: unstable convex-concave tri-prism, which if equatorially compressed (at evertices or invertices) or polarly torqued forms a webbed pin-hinged double tetra hourglass.
Torqueing polar triangles laterally: 2f (nuc) triangle, folds to tetra.
Compressing polar squares inward: star square, folds to 1/2-octa to 1f triangle.
Extending polar squares outward produces stretched cube, which if equatorially compressed or polarly torqued forms a pin-hinged double 1/2-octa hourglass, folds to a single 1/2-octa to 1f triangle.
Torqueing polar squares laterally: incomplete 2f tetra, folds to saddle form or hexagon or 2f (nuc) triangle to tetra.
Jitterbug collapse to tetra: http://www.rwgrayprojects.com/synergetics/s04/figs/f6108.html
Jitterbug collapse to octa:
6 loops circumscribe a spherical VE: 6 loop VE
Relative Volumes at Grunch: http://grunch.net/archives/47
Concentric hierarchy: here
Quintet dodeca: http://www.newciv.org/Synergetic_Geometry/Quintet_Dodeca.JPEG
http://www.newciv.org/Synergetic_Geometry/amoeba.htm
xkcd symmetree
-
Octet truss IVM virtual space frame allows tourists to see ancient artifacts without disturbing them at Java, Indonesia.
Time & Space Perspective
-
On spherical gravity "attraction" & EM radial wave "repulsion" relationships
2 round objects have more surface area than 1, so they are "attracted" to each other, collision reduces total surface area. Energy has no surface area so is independent of gravity, (it 'curves' around bodies due to reflection pressure?) it radiates outwardly in periodic (tidal) waves linearly from sphere center.
circumferential vectors & great circles: icosa edge vectors 30, icosa great circles 31; cubocta edge vectors 24, cubocta great circles 25
1052.21 Isaac Newton discovered the celestial gravitation interrelationship and expressed it in terms of the second power of the relative distance between the different masses as determined by reference to the radius of one of the interattracted masses. The gravitational relationship is also synergetically statable in terms of the second power of relative frequency of volumetric quanta concentrations of the respectively interattracted masses. Newton's gravitational constant is a radially (frequency) measured rate of spherical surface contraction, while Einstein's radiational constant is a radial (frequency) rate of spherical expansion. (See Secs. 960.12, 1009.31 and 1052.44.)
1052.30 Gravitational Constant: Excess of One Great Circle over Edge Vectors in Vector Equilibrium and Icosahedron: Pondering on Einstein's last problem of the Unified Field Theory, in which he sought to identify and explain the mathematical differentiations between electromagnetics and gravity__the two prime attractive forces of Universe__and recalling in that connection the conclusion of synergetics that gravity operates in spherical embracement, not by direct radial vectors, and recalling that electromagnetics follows the high-tension convex surfaces, possibly the great-circle trunk system of railroad tracks (see Secs. 452 and 458); led to pondering, in surprise, over the fact that the vector equilibrium, which identifies the gravitational behaviors, discloses 25 great circles for the vector equilibrium in respect to its 24 external vector edges, and the icosahedron, which identifies the electron behaviors of electromagnetics, discloses 31 great circles in respect to its 30 external vector edges.
1052.31 In each case, there is an excess of one great circle over the edge vectors. Recalling that the circumferential vector edges of the vector equilibrium exactly equal the radial explosive/implosive forces, while the icosahedron's 30 external edges are longer and more powerful than its 30 radial vectors [What 30 radial vectors?? A star icosa has external equilength pentalateral-bond tets, a cubocta has equilength quadrilateral-bond & equilength mono-radial vectors.], yet each has an excess of one great circle, which great circles must have two polar axes of spin, we encounter once more the excess two polar vertexes characterizing all topological systems, and witness the excess of embracingly cohering forces in contradistinction to the explosively disintegrative forces of Universe.
-
A star tetra, a star octa, and a star icosa each contain a nuclear void (empty space tet, octa, icosa) polyhedron surrounded and structured by reg ext tets. A star cubocta does not contain a void nucleus. A star rh dodeca and star non-nucleated cubocta contain void polyhedron nuclei, but lacking full tet surfaces are not structured. Empty stars can be nucleated by structures: star icosa accepts a nuclear star tetra (free spinning? quasicrystal matrix), star cubocta accepts a nuclear star octa (IVM crystal matrix).
-
domed dive mask
I'd like to get this dive mask, great vision underwater for those who are nearsighted (myopic) like me, and lack sufficient visual accomodation for clear dark adapted acuity.
Vortices in dragonfly flight animation:
http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/March00/APS_Wang.hrs.html
Spiral column foldable origami: spiral
Fish bones, fermented fish vs cooked fish, calcium carbonate in sea water, sleep
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=921452
Fish-bone peptides (FBP) with a high affinity to Ca were isolated using hydroxyapatite affinity chromatography, and FBP II with a high ratio of phosphopeptide was fractionated in the range of molecular weight 5·0–1·0kDa by ultramembrane filtration. In vitro study elucidated that FBP II could inhibit the formation of insoluble Ca salts in neutral pH. In vivo effects of FBP II on Ca bioavailability were further examined in the ovariectomised rat. During the experimental period, Ca retention was increased and loss of bone mineral was decreased by FBP II supplementation in ovariectomised rats. After the low-Ca diet, the FBP II diet, including both normal level of Ca and vitamin D, significantly decreased Ca loss in faeces and increased Ca retention compared with the control diet. The levels of femoral total Ca, bone mineral density, and strength were also significantly increased by the FBP II diet to levels similar to those of the casein phosphopeptide diet group (no difference; P>0·05). In the present study, the results proved the beneficial effects of fish-meal in preventing Ca deficiency due to increased Ca bioavailability by FBP intake
ocean alkalinity & fish
New research reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life.
The discovery, made by a team of scientists from the UK, US and Canada, could help solve a mystery that has puzzled marine chemists for decades. Published 16 January 2009 in Science, the study provides new insights into the marine carbon cycle, which is undergoing rapid change as a result of global CO2 emissions.
Until now, scientists have believed that the oceans' calcium carbonate, which dissolves to make seawater alkaline, came from the external 'skeletons' of microscopic marine plankton. This study estimates that three to 15 per cent of marine calcium carbonate is in fact produced by fish in their intestines and then excreted. This is a conservative estimate and the team believes it has the potential to be three times higher.
Fish are therefore responsible for contributing a major but previously unrecognised portion of the inorganic carbon that maintains the ocean's acidity balance. The researchers predict that future increases in sea temperature and rising CO2 will cause fish to produce even more calcium carbonate.
To reach these results, the team created two independent computer models which for the first time estimated the total mass of fish in the ocean. They found there are between 812 and 2050 million tonnes (between 812 billion and 2050 billion kilos) of bony fish in the ocean. They then used lab research to establish that these fish produce around 110 million tonnes (110 billion kilos) of calcium carbonate per year.
Calcium carbonate is a white, chalky material that helps control the delicate acidity balance, or pH, of sea water. pH balance is vital for the health of marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, and important in controlling how easily the ocean will absorb and buffer future increases in atmospheric CO2.
This calcium carbonate is being produced by bony fish, a group that includes 90% of marine fish species but not sharks or rays. These fish continuously drink seawater to avoid dehydration. This exposes them to an excess of ingested calcium, which they precipitate into calcium carbonate crystals in the gut. The fish then simply excrete these unwanted chalky solids, sometimes called 'gut rocks', in a process that is separate from digestion and production of faeces.
The study reveals that carbonates excreted by fish are chemically quite different from those produced by plankton. This helps explain a phenomenon that has perplexed oceanographers: the sea becomes more alkaline at much shallower depths than expected. The carbonates produced by microscopic plankton should not be responsible for this alkalinity change, because they sink to much deeper depths intact, often becoming locked up in sediments and rocks for millions of years. In contrast, fish excrete more soluble forms of calcium carbonate that are likely to completely dissolve at much shallower depths (e.g. 500 to 1,000 metres).
Lead author Dr Rod Wilson of the University of Exeter (UK) said: "Our most conservative estimates suggest three to 15 per cent of the oceans' carbonates come from fish, but this range could be up to three times higher. We also know that fish carbonates differ considerably from those produced by plankton"
toads, fish, sharks, CaCO3, etc.
reefs
Photic Sneeze
Photic sneeze: vestige of past tropical lagoon diving ancestors? Aqua-photic Respiratory Cycle forage divers, fast dark-adapted sunlight exhalations...
Y DNA Haplogroup T: Salt trade, boiling brine to trade via dugout for inland goods?
coastal transit/trade 30ka
Upper Rift seasonal fishing camp 770ka: carp, acorn, olive pit, raisin, bark
carp fishing with acorn bait & crabbing 770ka at Lake Hula
23ka bedding, salt and freshwater springs at Sea of Galillee
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC409895/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19125919?ordinalpos=1&itool=PPMCLayout.PPMCAppController.PPMCArticlePage.PPMCPubmedRA&linkpos=2
Similarities between Hs & Pt: proteins, DNA, chromosome
http://academic.reed.edu/biology/professors/srenn/pages/teaching/431S05/431S05_readings/431s05_examples/king_wilson_1975(classic).pdf
numeric sequences
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Skull density in hominids
Gauld SC 1996 AJPA 100:411-426
Allometric patterns of cranial bone thickness in fossil hominids
Skull thickness in He is more than twice that of other primates of
comparable body size, Hn is intermediate, Hs is still above most other
primates, and A.africanus is somewhat above other equally-sized primates,
but I need more figures of other apiths, esp. robust ones.
Extraordinarily thick skull vaults are typically (AFAIK exclusively) seen in
shallow slow parttime diving animals. Slow divers in sea water (density c
1.024) are expected to have much thicker skulls than those in freshwater.
Alan Shabel found that in dentitions & enamel thickness apiths resembled
mungoes & other carnivores that fed (partly) on hard-shelled invertebrates.
Might africanus (& other apiths??) have parttime dived (or ducked) for
bottom shell+crayfish in the wetlands & swamp forests where they lived??
We need a lot more measurements of skull thicknesses esp. of fossil
hominids, but also of other animals.
I made a graph (somebody did it for me) with
- x-axis = the cubic root of the body weight of different primate spp,
- y-axis = their skull thickness.
It was almost a straight line, with small spp a bit below that line,
medium-sized a bit above (esp.orang & chimp), and very large ones (gorilla)
a bit lower.
But there were 3 obvious exceptions:
- He was far above that line (but it might have been heavier than the usual
estimation of c 50 kg),
- Hs was clearly above it,
- A.africanus was also clearly above it (depending on its body weight, which
might be a bit higher IMO than usu.estimated).
Other data suggest Hn was intermediate between He & Hn, but I still lack
enough comparable data on apiths, Ardipith etc.
Does anybody know where to find more data? MV @ AAT
-
This fits the pattern -
early hominoid, foraging on pond surface AHV aquatic herbs, congo lowland gorillas raking high-protein hydrocharis and yanking up sedges for their rhyzomes, not dunking their faces nor seeking benthic foods, with large inflatable laryngeal air sacs for partial flotation, with lightweight skulls. Apith afarensis similar, but in Rift valley, less fruit trees, more sedges.
Apith africanus ate more water lily rhyzomes, reaching below water so smaller air sacs and denser skull, more invertebrate foods crayfish/snails and small vertebrates, more high fruit trees. Rift - So. Africa shallow lakes?
Human ancestors similar, but more tidal saltwater, lost air sacs and gained dense skull, ate tidal mangrove oysters at lagoons, more shrub berries, less high fruit trees, Medit. zone?
-
Myrica gale is a flowering plant native to Europe, with sweet resinous scent, and is a traditional insect repellent, used by campers to keep biting insects out of tents. Sweet Gale can grow in a narrow band in the intertidal zone, especially if it has some logs, washed down into the estuary on which to establish itself. It is a favorite food of beavers and low beaver dams can be found in the intertidal zone if sufficient sweet gale is present. The ponds thus formed are often completely submerged at high tide but retain water at low tide and provide deep enough water to provide a refuge for fish, including juvenile salmon where the water is too deep for predation by wading birds. wiki
-
Ear wax & Scent: Difference of appocrine sweat glands in Europeans, Africans and Asians
scent, ear wax
rice, milk, alcohol in ancient Eurasians
-
Gorilla hybrids, Ardi party @ Lawnchair anthropology
-
Molars in hominoids
Gorilla and chimp molars evert earlier than orang and human due to more forest ground foraging (parallel with knucklewalking), orang probably has primitive hominoid condition, human also but even more so do to beaver lodge - hut/cave nesting & aquatic foraging & mainly food processing & cooking.
Speaking of dense bones and waterside herbivores, article on neolithic dugong & fishing rituals:
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/excavation-uncovers-ritual-site-1.523925
Allometric patterns of cranial bone thickness in fossil hominids
Skull thickness in He is more than twice that of other primates of
comparable body size, Hn is intermediate, Hs is still above most other
primates, and A.africanus is somewhat above other equally-sized primates,
but I need more figures of other apiths, esp. robust ones.
Extraordinarily thick skull vaults are typically (AFAIK exclusively) seen in
shallow slow parttime diving animals. Slow divers in sea water (density c
1.024) are expected to have much thicker skulls than those in freshwater.
Alan Shabel found that in dentitions & enamel thickness apiths resembled
mungoes & other carnivores that fed (partly) on hard-shelled invertebrates.
Might africanus (& other apiths??) have parttime dived (or ducked) for
bottom shell+crayfish in the wetlands & swamp forests where they lived??
We need a lot more measurements of skull thicknesses esp. of fossil
hominids, but also of other animals.
I made a graph (somebody did it for me) with
- x-axis = the cubic root of the body weight of different primate spp,
- y-axis = their skull thickness.
It was almost a straight line, with small spp a bit below that line,
medium-sized a bit above (esp.orang & chimp), and very large ones (gorilla)
a bit lower.
But there were 3 obvious exceptions:
- He was far above that line (but it might have been heavier than the usual
estimation of c 50 kg),
- Hs was clearly above it,
- A.africanus was also clearly above it (depending on its body weight, which
might be a bit higher IMO than usu.estimated).
Other data suggest Hn was intermediate between He & Hn, but I still lack
enough comparable data on apiths, Ardipith etc.
Does anybody know where to find more data? MV @ AAT
-
This fits the pattern -
early hominoid, foraging on pond surface AHV aquatic herbs, congo lowland gorillas raking high-protein hydrocharis and yanking up sedges for their rhyzomes, not dunking their faces nor seeking benthic foods, with large inflatable laryngeal air sacs for partial flotation, with lightweight skulls. Apith afarensis similar, but in Rift valley, less fruit trees, more sedges.
Apith africanus ate more water lily rhyzomes, reaching below water so smaller air sacs and denser skull, more invertebrate foods crayfish/snails and small vertebrates, more high fruit trees. Rift - So. Africa shallow lakes?
Human ancestors similar, but more tidal saltwater, lost air sacs and gained dense skull, ate tidal mangrove oysters at lagoons, more shrub berries, less high fruit trees, Medit. zone?
-
Myrica gale is a flowering plant native to Europe, with sweet resinous scent, and is a traditional insect repellent, used by campers to keep biting insects out of tents. Sweet Gale can grow in a narrow band in the intertidal zone, especially if it has some logs, washed down into the estuary on which to establish itself. It is a favorite food of beavers and low beaver dams can be found in the intertidal zone if sufficient sweet gale is present. The ponds thus formed are often completely submerged at high tide but retain water at low tide and provide deep enough water to provide a refuge for fish, including juvenile salmon where the water is too deep for predation by wading birds. wiki
-
Ear wax & Scent: Difference of appocrine sweat glands in Europeans, Africans and Asians
scent, ear wax
rice, milk, alcohol in ancient Eurasians
-
Gorilla hybrids, Ardi party @ Lawnchair anthropology
-
Molars in hominoids
Gorilla and chimp molars evert earlier than orang and human due to more forest ground foraging (parallel with knucklewalking), orang probably has primitive hominoid condition, human also but even more so do to beaver lodge - hut/cave nesting & aquatic foraging & mainly food processing & cooking.
Speaking of dense bones and waterside herbivores, article on neolithic dugong & fishing rituals:
http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/excavation-uncovers-ritual-site-1.523925
Sunday, August 16, 2009
On Bagpipes and Blowguns: Respiration at waterside
On Bagpipes & Blowguns
[Updated as of Aug. 31, 09 with addition on mumps, omnivory & air sac transition to diving]
Respiration in surface float feeding vs deep benthic diving
Float/surface foragers have a bagpipe-like system of breathing & vocalizing
The lungs and/or the air sac are always aerated (buoyant), nostril-up or closed
Dive/benthic foragers have a blowgun-like system of breathing & vocalizing
The lungs and/or the blood/muscle are oxygenated, nostril-down or closed
This is parallel in: [surface vs benthic foraging]
lily pad sitting frogs vs deep sub aquatic frogs
surface foraging right whales vs benthic foraging sperm whales
nostril-up wading reindeer/caribou vs nostril-down moose/muntjac
nostril-up gorillas/chimps vs nostril-down humans
Nostril-up usually indicates laryngeal/throat air sac (frog/gorilla/chimp)
Nostril-down usually indicates lack of throat sac (human/sea otter/nasalis)
-
Allopatric speciation in humans and chimpanzees:
http://www.mailund.dk/index.php/2009/08/26/patterns-of-autosomal-divergence-between-the-human-and-chimpanzee-genomes-support-an-allopatric-model-of-speciation/
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090828/full/news.2009.870.html?s=news_rss
Hominoid to human: From sit-float to backfloat to boat
http://the-arc-ddeden.blogspot.com/2009/04/re-from-sit-float-feeding-to-backfloat.html
The link from laryngeal air sac inflated sit-floating hominoids 20ma to forage diving - backfloating humans 1ma, connecting mumps, milk, weaning, hydrodynamics.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/53637
I think human laryngocoeles indicate at least a small throat air sac ancestrally (like dolphins). I doubt they had very large air sacs equal to large adult male gorilla. Human females in some areas low in Iodine can develop goiters, there may be a link, since the thyroid cartilage is adjacent. Goiters are usually mild, but can become very large. I've never heard of any non-human hominoid having a goiter. Both male and female apes have air sacs, only males may have huge ones.
We know that 3 year old Selam (dikik-1) of about 3ma had a hyoid bone (tongue base bone) indicating a laryngeal air sac, we don't know her exact species, though similar to Lucy the Apith afarensis. The hyoid is a small weak bone, usually it breaks down long before the skull does. The air sac itself doesn't last long at all. All Genus Homo hyoids found lack air sac indications, which fits with diving/submerged crouching but not much arboreal-terrestrial-swamp mix. Human ancestors after gorilla, chimps split didn't stay in wetlands, they were somewhere else, no more upright sit-floating. Most likely seashore beaches and no more thick forest canopy.
The correlation of fused tail bone and enlarged throat air sac is strong in non-quadruped tetrapods. Waterside foragers which don't dive tend to have shortened tails, whether they have air sacs or long prehensile nose-lip tools. I think our ancestors changed from sit-floating in lukewarm brackish water to backfloating in sunwarmed saltwater with face submerged, so air sacs became disadvantageous and the male beard became fuller, possibly females had slight goiters, possibly post-weaned kids had mild mumps swellings before puberty (post-milk, chewing-salivation immuno-reaction, triggered by contagious mumps
virus which might otherwise be present but non-infectious?).
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/53638
More on mumps, milk, air sacs, goiter, saliva, defensins:
Gorillasw are herbivores, they get their protein from floating herbs. A mother gorilla and mother rabbit both feed their infants fecal pellets, I think deer also do this, to provide symbiotic gut bacteria and pre-digested plant material and probably some maternal hormone and immuno-defensins. Carnivores and omnivores don't do this. Instead they chew, partly swallow, then regurgitate the food for the infant (birds and wolves). Human mothers just chew and spit out some foods, Marc has noted that kissing may have begun this way ancestrally,
notably some tribes don't kiss but do alternatively rub noses, foreheads or cheeks.
Pre-birth, fetus gets food and defensins via blood.
Post-partum, newborn gets food and defensins via milk.
Human babies at weaning get food chewed by the mother, mixing her saliva containing defensins (anti-biotics & pro-biotics).
So I think that mumps and probably goiters only originated after the move from fresh-brackish wetland herbivory float-sit-foraging to increased upright submersed crouch-plucking lily seeds and invertebrates and early shallow diving.
So in Genus Homo (and maybe only partially in Genus Pan, see bushbaby spearing by female fertile chimps) there is a combined correlation of increased omnivorous nutrition, salivary defensin transmittance at weaning, improved submerged hydrodynamic form of throat area but male-only beards, reduced plant protein consumption but still Vit C dependence on fruits-plants so PTC gene still selected for, contagious but mild form of mumps after weaning but before puberty, mild form of goiter hypothyroidy in fertile females but not
pre-pubertal females or males, effect of osteoporosis in elder females(?), weaned children chewing more, activating salivary glands, but also suction feeding at puberty (raw oyster as aphrodisiac).
So, I think the early speculation that mumps correlates to the diving transition is further confirmed. The loss of the laryngeal air sac and AHV herbivory resulted in increased general diet including seafood high in Iodine and Omega 3 fatty acids, supplementing shore foods, with effects on jaw, dentition, tongue, larynx, facial hair, "childhood diseases". (Chicken pox may correlate to hair loss or sun UV or eccrine sweating protection in some way.)
(Marc V. had the idea about the goiter-hydrodynamic-diet-temperature link.)
-
Air sac & tidal lung breathing and buoyancy in dinosaurs, birds, crocs & snakes
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/07/birds_cannot_be_dinosaurs.php#c2023608
"mauka to makai" Hawaiian for 'inland to oceanside' is a science/nature/marine blog
http://maukamakai.wordpress.com/
http://underwater-society.org/
http://www.usfreediving.org/freediving-gs-faq.htm
-
Laryngospasm & Shallow Water Blackout: When divers attempt long dives, they may run out of oxygen, which causes SWBO and associated laryngospasm (safety closure of larynx at glottis valve). The diving buddy needs to recover the unconscious diver, get them to the surface, and if the diver does not awaken within a few seconds, do the BTT: Blow (remove mask) across the eyelids, Tap the cheek, Talk to wake up the diver. The eyelids link to the trigeminal nerve, the cheeks to the facial nerve, the ears to the auditory nerve. The BTT informs the diver that oxygen conservation is completed and to breathe. Presumably in ancient human divers, sunlight in the eyes did the same thing.
[Updated as of Aug. 31, 09 with addition on mumps, omnivory & air sac transition to diving]
Respiration in surface float feeding vs deep benthic diving
Float/surface foragers have a bagpipe-like system of breathing & vocalizing
The lungs and/or the air sac are always aerated (buoyant), nostril-up or closed
Dive/benthic foragers have a blowgun-like system of breathing & vocalizing
The lungs and/or the blood/muscle are oxygenated, nostril-down or closed
This is parallel in: [surface vs benthic foraging]
lily pad sitting frogs vs deep sub aquatic frogs
surface foraging right whales vs benthic foraging sperm whales
nostril-up wading reindeer/caribou vs nostril-down moose/muntjac
nostril-up gorillas/chimps vs nostril-down humans
Nostril-up usually indicates laryngeal/throat air sac (frog/gorilla/chimp)
Nostril-down usually indicates lack of throat sac (human/sea otter/nasalis)
-
Allopatric speciation in humans and chimpanzees:
http://www.mailund.dk/index.php/2009/08/26/patterns-of-autosomal-divergence-between-the-human-and-chimpanzee-genomes-support-an-allopatric-model-of-speciation/
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090828/full/news.2009.870.html?s=news_rss
Hominoid to human: From sit-float to backfloat to boat
http://the-arc-ddeden.blogspot.com/2009/04/re-from-sit-float-feeding-to-backfloat.html
The link from laryngeal air sac inflated sit-floating hominoids 20ma to forage diving - backfloating humans 1ma, connecting mumps, milk, weaning, hydrodynamics.
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/53637
I think human laryngocoeles indicate at least a small throat air sac ancestrally (like dolphins). I doubt they had very large air sacs equal to large adult male gorilla. Human females in some areas low in Iodine can develop goiters, there may be a link, since the thyroid cartilage is adjacent. Goiters are usually mild, but can become very large. I've never heard of any non-human hominoid having a goiter. Both male and female apes have air sacs, only males may have huge ones.
We know that 3 year old Selam (dikik-1) of about 3ma had a hyoid bone (tongue base bone) indicating a laryngeal air sac, we don't know her exact species, though similar to Lucy the Apith afarensis. The hyoid is a small weak bone, usually it breaks down long before the skull does. The air sac itself doesn't last long at all. All Genus Homo hyoids found lack air sac indications, which fits with diving/submerged crouching but not much arboreal-terrestrial-swamp mix. Human ancestors after gorilla, chimps split didn't stay in wetlands, they were somewhere else, no more upright sit-floating. Most likely seashore beaches and no more thick forest canopy.
The correlation of fused tail bone and enlarged throat air sac is strong in non-quadruped tetrapods. Waterside foragers which don't dive tend to have shortened tails, whether they have air sacs or long prehensile nose-lip tools. I think our ancestors changed from sit-floating in lukewarm brackish water to backfloating in sunwarmed saltwater with face submerged, so air sacs became disadvantageous and the male beard became fuller, possibly females had slight goiters, possibly post-weaned kids had mild mumps swellings before puberty (post-milk, chewing-salivation immuno-reaction, triggered by contagious mumps
virus which might otherwise be present but non-infectious?).
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/53638
More on mumps, milk, air sacs, goiter, saliva, defensins:
Gorillasw are herbivores, they get their protein from floating herbs. A mother gorilla and mother rabbit both feed their infants fecal pellets, I think deer also do this, to provide symbiotic gut bacteria and pre-digested plant material and probably some maternal hormone and immuno-defensins. Carnivores and omnivores don't do this. Instead they chew, partly swallow, then regurgitate the food for the infant (birds and wolves). Human mothers just chew and spit out some foods, Marc has noted that kissing may have begun this way ancestrally,
notably some tribes don't kiss but do alternatively rub noses, foreheads or cheeks.
Pre-birth, fetus gets food and defensins via blood.
Post-partum, newborn gets food and defensins via milk.
Human babies at weaning get food chewed by the mother, mixing her saliva containing defensins (anti-biotics & pro-biotics).
So I think that mumps and probably goiters only originated after the move from fresh-brackish wetland herbivory float-sit-foraging to increased upright submersed crouch-plucking lily seeds and invertebrates and early shallow diving.
So in Genus Homo (and maybe only partially in Genus Pan, see bushbaby spearing by female fertile chimps) there is a combined correlation of increased omnivorous nutrition, salivary defensin transmittance at weaning, improved submerged hydrodynamic form of throat area but male-only beards, reduced plant protein consumption but still Vit C dependence on fruits-plants so PTC gene still selected for, contagious but mild form of mumps after weaning but before puberty, mild form of goiter hypothyroidy in fertile females but not
pre-pubertal females or males, effect of osteoporosis in elder females(?), weaned children chewing more, activating salivary glands, but also suction feeding at puberty (raw oyster as aphrodisiac).
So, I think the early speculation that mumps correlates to the diving transition is further confirmed. The loss of the laryngeal air sac and AHV herbivory resulted in increased general diet including seafood high in Iodine and Omega 3 fatty acids, supplementing shore foods, with effects on jaw, dentition, tongue, larynx, facial hair, "childhood diseases". (Chicken pox may correlate to hair loss or sun UV or eccrine sweating protection in some way.)
(Marc V. had the idea about the goiter-hydrodynamic-diet-temperature link.)
-
Air sac & tidal lung breathing and buoyancy in dinosaurs, birds, crocs & snakes
http://scienceblogs.com/tetrapodzoology/2009/07/birds_cannot_be_dinosaurs.php#c2023608
"mauka to makai" Hawaiian for 'inland to oceanside' is a science/nature/marine blog
http://maukamakai.wordpress.com/
http://underwater-society.org/
http://www.usfreediving.org/freediving-gs-faq.htm
-
Laryngospasm & Shallow Water Blackout: When divers attempt long dives, they may run out of oxygen, which causes SWBO and associated laryngospasm (safety closure of larynx at glottis valve). The diving buddy needs to recover the unconscious diver, get them to the surface, and if the diver does not awaken within a few seconds, do the BTT: Blow (remove mask) across the eyelids, Tap the cheek, Talk to wake up the diver. The eyelids link to the trigeminal nerve, the cheeks to the facial nerve, the ears to the auditory nerve. The BTT informs the diver that oxygen conservation is completed and to breathe. Presumably in ancient human divers, sunlight in the eyes did the same thing.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Dahab
freediving through the arc
Water babies
Through the Arch (freediving in Dahab) from dahaba.net on Vimeo.
Water babies
Friday, June 12, 2009
Parallel convergence
Sit float feeding in warm water -> hominoid, absent tail, air sac
Sit grass feeding on dry ground -> gelada, long tail, no air sac
Sit float feeding in warm water -> LCA toad/frog, throat sac, croak, long
prehensile tongue, rear feet similar to other frogs
Dive & swim in water -> diving frog, no throat sac, no croak, trill, no more
long prehensile tongue, rear feet differs from other frogs
Diving frog
This most-aquatic frog has a unique immunity to the fungi that is killing
amphibians around the world. Breath control.
Dive & swim in water -> human, no throat sac, no croak, speech/click
no prehensile toes, rear feet differs from other hominoids
Diving hominoid
This most-aquatic hominoid has a unique condition (domestication) that is
killing hominoids around the world. Breath control.
Parallel convergence among tetrapods.
-
Orang-utans: Our Closest Relative?
Lluc
I find it odd that Lluca was pictured as a flat faced orangutan, considering
that it is the most distant of all hominoids from the current location of the
orangutan populations. Yet if it was merely the westernmost kin of a ring
species of base Pongid-Hominid apes which distributed along the Tethys shores
with localized dietary and predatory adaptations, and varying degrees of
bipedality, it is not so surprising.
IMO the question is not "are humans and orangs most closely related?" but
rather, "why do people insist on placing human ancestors geographically next to
chimps and gorillas, despite the gross differences in morphology?". Two closely
related species living in the same environment do not change drastically their
morphology, see gorillas and chimps.
Since lowland gorillas forage for floating AHV in brackish water, mountain
gorillas forage in highland fog forests for ground THV, savanna chimps forage in
open woodlands, forest chimps forage for small invertebrates in shallow water
and rainforest bonobos forage in the sub-canopy, we know that human ancestors
must have done something different (or in addition) to account for the extreme
morphological changes.
Crocs and hippos dominate the tropical waters of Africa except for small puddles
and highland waters, notably they lack both fur and SC fat, like manatees, they
rely on the sun's warmth in shallow water. Beavers and otters have thick fur and
live in sub-tropical and temperate waters, with the habit of cool water diving.
Humans, unlike all other great apes, fit in between these two groups, sun
basking (ashore and afloat in warm water) and cool-water deep-diving (deeper
than body length).
That this would have developed after the Orangutan had split eastwards and the
African apes split westwards, seems most parsimonious. The human ancestor seems
to have done neither, until they had well adapted to and dominated their new
African and Asian niches.
Rather, human ancestors seem to have paralleled the crab eating macaques (and
possibly Allen's swamp monkey), foraging both at the shoreline and beneath the
water surface, but still retaining the primate ability to climb. (also
paralleling the African clawed frog and marine otters, which can climb but not
as well as treefrogs or stoats.)
Why would human ancestors have generally stopped climbing and hanging from tree
branches and reeds while foraging? Because they brought their sticks with them
into the water to get food, just as chimps bring customized sticks to spear
bushbabies, to gather termites, to collect honey, to dig tubers in the wet
season. Orangutans don't customize sticks, though they use twigs to get neesia
seeds from spiny fruit, using their lips since one hand and both feet are used
to keep them in position in the high forest canopy.
Human ancestors didn't need their hands and feet to keep in position in the
canopy, because the canopy was low at shorelines, and because the food was as
much under the water surface as above, including later ambushed prey.
I can think of an interesting parallel here, whereby the young and old males
both compete individually and cooperate societally,
Gorilla: young lighter males climbing to canopy, older large males actively
ground foraging and in bais shallows
Orangutan: young lighter males climbing to canopy to forage, older larger males
lower (and if no cats) on ground foraging in swamps.
Aquarboreal ape: young males more mobile fruit foraging, older larger males at
tidal waterside peeling mangrove oysters and papyrus.
He: young males climbing coconut palms, older larger males more in water diving
for longer periods.
Hn: young males in waterside trees leaping onto and stabbing thirsty animals
into the water, older larger fatter males backfloating camouflaged with long
spears aimed at the prey's throats and chest as they dash into deeper water away
from the airborne ambush.
Hs: young trim males as paddlers/sailors/fishers, older larger males as ship
builders/captains/bankers.
A bit simplified but interesting. Not sure what happened to the "harem" and size
dimorphism, seems variable depending on climate, but otherwise a sort of
continuum. I'd think the shoreline would make for weaker harem/dimorphism
societies than the inlands where drought would be more drastic. The very deep
diving elephant seal harems seem to contradict this, but that may be due to
quite different constraints (simultaneous birthing, cyclical food supply) than
an aquatic ape (with hidden estrus and year around birth) which could forage
above, below and along the surface, and travel far inland during the muddy
coastal rainy season.
Sit grass feeding on dry ground -> gelada, long tail, no air sac
Sit float feeding in warm water -> LCA toad/frog, throat sac, croak, long
prehensile tongue, rear feet similar to other frogs
Dive & swim in water -> diving frog, no throat sac, no croak, trill, no more
long prehensile tongue, rear feet differs from other frogs
Diving frog
This most-aquatic frog has a unique immunity to the fungi that is killing
amphibians around the world. Breath control.
Dive & swim in water -> human, no throat sac, no croak, speech/click
no prehensile toes, rear feet differs from other hominoids
Diving hominoid
This most-aquatic hominoid has a unique condition (domestication) that is
killing hominoids around the world. Breath control.
Parallel convergence among tetrapods.
-
Orang-utans: Our Closest Relative?
Lluc
I find it odd that Lluca was pictured as a flat faced orangutan, considering
that it is the most distant of all hominoids from the current location of the
orangutan populations. Yet if it was merely the westernmost kin of a ring
species of base Pongid-Hominid apes which distributed along the Tethys shores
with localized dietary and predatory adaptations, and varying degrees of
bipedality, it is not so surprising.
IMO the question is not "are humans and orangs most closely related?" but
rather, "why do people insist on placing human ancestors geographically next to
chimps and gorillas, despite the gross differences in morphology?". Two closely
related species living in the same environment do not change drastically their
morphology, see gorillas and chimps.
Since lowland gorillas forage for floating AHV in brackish water, mountain
gorillas forage in highland fog forests for ground THV, savanna chimps forage in
open woodlands, forest chimps forage for small invertebrates in shallow water
and rainforest bonobos forage in the sub-canopy, we know that human ancestors
must have done something different (or in addition) to account for the extreme
morphological changes.
Crocs and hippos dominate the tropical waters of Africa except for small puddles
and highland waters, notably they lack both fur and SC fat, like manatees, they
rely on the sun's warmth in shallow water. Beavers and otters have thick fur and
live in sub-tropical and temperate waters, with the habit of cool water diving.
Humans, unlike all other great apes, fit in between these two groups, sun
basking (ashore and afloat in warm water) and cool-water deep-diving (deeper
than body length).
That this would have developed after the Orangutan had split eastwards and the
African apes split westwards, seems most parsimonious. The human ancestor seems
to have done neither, until they had well adapted to and dominated their new
African and Asian niches.
Rather, human ancestors seem to have paralleled the crab eating macaques (and
possibly Allen's swamp monkey), foraging both at the shoreline and beneath the
water surface, but still retaining the primate ability to climb. (also
paralleling the African clawed frog and marine otters, which can climb but not
as well as treefrogs or stoats.)
Why would human ancestors have generally stopped climbing and hanging from tree
branches and reeds while foraging? Because they brought their sticks with them
into the water to get food, just as chimps bring customized sticks to spear
bushbabies, to gather termites, to collect honey, to dig tubers in the wet
season. Orangutans don't customize sticks, though they use twigs to get neesia
seeds from spiny fruit, using their lips since one hand and both feet are used
to keep them in position in the high forest canopy.
Human ancestors didn't need their hands and feet to keep in position in the
canopy, because the canopy was low at shorelines, and because the food was as
much under the water surface as above, including later ambushed prey.
I can think of an interesting parallel here, whereby the young and old males
both compete individually and cooperate societally,
Gorilla: young lighter males climbing to canopy, older large males actively
ground foraging and in bais shallows
Orangutan: young lighter males climbing to canopy to forage, older larger males
lower (and if no cats) on ground foraging in swamps.
Aquarboreal ape: young males more mobile fruit foraging, older larger males at
tidal waterside peeling mangrove oysters and papyrus.
He: young males climbing coconut palms, older larger males more in water diving
for longer periods.
Hn: young males in waterside trees leaping onto and stabbing thirsty animals
into the water, older larger fatter males backfloating camouflaged with long
spears aimed at the prey's throats and chest as they dash into deeper water away
from the airborne ambush.
Hs: young trim males as paddlers/sailors/fishers, older larger males as ship
builders/captains/bankers.
A bit simplified but interesting. Not sure what happened to the "harem" and size
dimorphism, seems variable depending on climate, but otherwise a sort of
continuum. I'd think the shoreline would make for weaker harem/dimorphism
societies than the inlands where drought would be more drastic. The very deep
diving elephant seal harems seem to contradict this, but that may be due to
quite different constraints (simultaneous birthing, cyclical food supply) than
an aquatic ape (with hidden estrus and year around birth) which could forage
above, below and along the surface, and travel far inland during the muddy
coastal rainy season.
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Orbits, eyeballs and opthamology
trivia: Can you see what I see? I'm trying to see how respiratory cycles, circadian rhythms, accomodation, dark adaptation, pupillary light reflex, photic sneezing and trigeminal nerve and oculomotor nerve work together in humans in air and water, especially with reference to humans apnea diving to dark depths and focusing on food gathering, surfacing and speedy exhalation, and alternatively backfloating while resting in the mid-day sunlight. Some of the info below may not be perfectly accurate, still ongoing investigative biomedical research.
"They also observed that the phase of the spontaneous circadian rhythm did not lock. This is because, circadian rhythm is very flexible. In humans, the cycle repeats about every 24.2 hours. The circadian clock is reset by light and our circadian apparatus is exquisitively sensitive to lights falling on the retina. The retina sends this light (for synchronization) to the SCN via the retino-hypothalamic tract. This synchronization or entrainment can now 'phase lock' the circadian rhythm.
Clinical implication of circadian (circa=about; dian=day) rhythm is enormous. Our sleep-wake cycle, growth hormone and cortisol secretion are only a few example. A person in whom the circadian period is short will rise early (early bird?) and a 'night owl' will have his/her circadian period short. Curiously, our sleepiness, tendency to sleep and occurrence of REM sleep peaks (resulting from endogenous circadian rhythm) when we are about to rise; and our endogenous clock reaches its peak about 1-3 hrs before our habitual bedtime.
link
Humans are the only species with exposed white sclerae.
20% of European/Asian humans sneeze at bright sunlight after having been dark-adapted. Humans can see clearly underwater (conclusively tested in Thai Moken children seafood forage divers and Scandinavian children) by employing 'visual accomodation', which is a form of dark-adaptation of the oculomotor nerve (CN#3) in association with the trigeminal nerve, the pupils constrict voluntarily, the complementary opposite of the pupillary light reflex and photic sneeze reflex, since this is not found in our mammalian kin, it must be assumed to have occurred in our seashore diving ancestors as selection for improved seafood foraging efficiency.
link
The Edinger-Westphal nucleus supplies preganglionic parasympathetic fibers to the eye, constricting the pupil and accommodating the lens. Edinger-Westphal nucleus (also known as the accessory oculomotor nucleus) is the accessory parasympathetic cranial nerve nucleus of the oculomotor nerve (cranial nerve III), supplying the constricting muscles of the iris. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinger-Westphal_nucleus
The accommodation reflex is a reflex action of the eye, in response to focusing on a near object, then looking at distant object (and vice versa), comprising coordinated changes in vergence, lens shape and pupil size. It is dependent on cranial nerve II (afferent limb of reflex), higher centres and cranial nerve III.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_reflex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_(eye)
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/accom.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/accom.html#c3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation_(eye)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupil
When bright light is shone on the eye, it will automatically constrict. This is the pupillary reflex, which is an important test of brainstem function. Furthermore, the pupil will dilate if a person sees an object of interest.
The oculomotor nerve, specifically the parasympathetic part coming from the Edinger-Westphal nucleus, terminates on the circular iris sphincter muscle. When this muscle contracts, it reduces the size of the pupil. The pupil gets wider in the dark but narrower in light. When narrow, the diameter is three to four millimeter. In the dark it will be the same at first, but will approach the maximum distance for a wide pupil 4 to 5 mm. The constriction of the pupil and near vision are closely tied. In bright light, the pupils constrict to prevent aberrations of light rays and thus attain their expected acuity; in the dark this is not necessary, so it is chiefly concerned with admitting sufficient light into the eye. The pupil dilates in extreme psychical situations (e.g., fear) or contact of a sensory nerve, such as pain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miosis
"They also observed that the phase of the spontaneous circadian rhythm did not lock. This is because, circadian rhythm is very flexible. In humans, the cycle repeats about every 24.2 hours. The circadian clock is reset by light and our circadian apparatus is exquisitively sensitive to lights falling on the retina. The retina sends this light (for synchronization) to the SCN via the retino-hypothalamic tract. This synchronization or entrainment can now 'phase lock' the circadian rhythm.
Clinical implication of circadian (circa=about; dian=day) rhythm is enormous. Our sleep-wake cycle, growth hormone and cortisol secretion are only a few example. A person in whom the circadian period is short will rise early (early bird?) and a 'night owl' will have his/her circadian period short. Curiously, our sleepiness, tendency to sleep and occurrence of REM sleep peaks (resulting from endogenous circadian rhythm) when we are about to rise; and our endogenous clock reaches its peak about 1-3 hrs before our habitual bedtime.
link
Humans are the only species with exposed white sclerae.
20% of European/Asian humans sneeze at bright sunlight after having been dark-adapted. Humans can see clearly underwater (conclusively tested in Thai Moken children seafood forage divers and Scandinavian children) by employing 'visual accomodation', which is a form of dark-adaptation of the oculomotor nerve (CN#3) in association with the trigeminal nerve, the pupils constrict voluntarily, the complementary opposite of the pupillary light reflex and photic sneeze reflex, since this is not found in our mammalian kin, it must be assumed to have occurred in our seashore diving ancestors as selection for improved seafood foraging efficiency.
link
The Edinger-Westphal nucleus supplies preganglionic parasympathetic fibers to the eye, constricting the pupil and accommodating the lens. Edinger-Westphal nucleus (also known as the accessory oculomotor nucleus) is the accessory parasympathetic cranial nerve nucleus of the oculomotor nerve (cranial nerve III), supplying the constricting muscles of the iris. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edinger-Westphal_nucleus
The accommodation reflex is a reflex action of the eye, in response to focusing on a near object, then looking at distant object (and vice versa), comprising coordinated changes in vergence, lens shape and pupil size. It is dependent on cranial nerve II (afferent limb of reflex), higher centres and cranial nerve III.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_reflex
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accommodation_(eye)
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/accom.html
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/accom.html#c3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation_(eye)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pupil
When bright light is shone on the eye, it will automatically constrict. This is the pupillary reflex, which is an important test of brainstem function. Furthermore, the pupil will dilate if a person sees an object of interest.
The oculomotor nerve, specifically the parasympathetic part coming from the Edinger-Westphal nucleus, terminates on the circular iris sphincter muscle. When this muscle contracts, it reduces the size of the pupil. The pupil gets wider in the dark but narrower in light. When narrow, the diameter is three to four millimeter. In the dark it will be the same at first, but will approach the maximum distance for a wide pupil 4 to 5 mm. The constriction of the pupil and near vision are closely tied. In bright light, the pupils constrict to prevent aberrations of light rays and thus attain their expected acuity; in the dark this is not necessary, so it is chiefly concerned with admitting sufficient light into the eye. The pupil dilates in extreme psychical situations (e.g., fear) or contact of a sensory nerve, such as pain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miosis
Friday, October 24, 2008
Musing on music of the seashore divers
(from my post at deeperblue.com, re. Rather than listening to conventional i-pod music during a dive...)
I think I prefer to tune in to the sounds of the sea, with the middle ear canals saline-filled to still the dissonance of air conduction against bone conduction while diving. But since I've never done this (being too cold here to try) I'll just have to wait til I get to the tropics again, if ever, to hear as a dolphin hears (in a sense) the echoes of the dive song...
listening most intently at depth while my backfloating wife/dive partner hums a lullaby to our nursing infant son and daughter at the warm sunlit surface of the tropical lagoon, she in turn listens to the water for my dental-lingual clicking, knowing I'm soon to bring up some delicious fresh seafood from the ocean's banquet. I can't think of a better harmony than that little duet...
not a mythical haunting symphony of the sailors' sirens of the seas,
nor the obnoxious cacophony of the chattering rainforest monkeys,
nor the roaring of beached sea lions or trumpeting of sea elephants,
nor the loud whoops or paired call-songs of the inland swamp apes,
just ongoing quiet baby babbling and mothers humming melodies at the surface,
and non-vocalized staccato rhythmic clicking invisible yet audible from beneath,
alternating and complementing each other, the couple's chorus of the seashore,
with the simple message, "I am here, I hear you, you are there, I'll see you soon".
with nothing but deep & clear, sky-blue waters as the superb conductor,
and colorful fish & corals, jellyfish and urchins the distinguished audience,
and dolphins, dugongs, sharks and sea turtles the occasional stagehands,
Operettas performed repeatedly, daily feasts for more than a million years,
we come from awesome beginnings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[inspired by HHamid]
DDeden
___________________
The-Arc-of-a-Diver:
http://the-arc.wikispaces.com/
http://the-arc-ddeden@blogspot.com
My post at AAT on humming/sneezing/sleep apnea/prone clicking/supine humming/Nitric Oxide and suckling/etc. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/48696
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Images
Triaxial weaving
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/gallery.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=107
Carbon nanotubes (sponge)
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/moreinfo.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=2
Squid embryos
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/moreinfo.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=59
tree branching
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/moreinfo.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=19
and finally, pass the peanuts
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/48610
"LOLrus found the bucket"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Breathing, Backfloating, Diving cycles
MV: Yes, little doubt our ancestors once regularly dived in clear sunlit sea-water, cf.studies on Moken (& later Scandinavian) children (pupil closure), this perfectly fits your photic sneeze idea.
Cheyne-Stokes respiration Pronunciation (chān stōks)
A rhythmical breathing where there is an alteration in the depth of the breaths and there are regularly occurring apneic episodes. The pattern of breathing with gradual increase in depth and sometimes in rate to a maximum, followed by a decrease resulting in apnea; the cycles ordinarily are 30 seconds to 2 minutes in duration, with 5–30 seconds of apnea; seen with bilateral deep cerebral hemispheric lesions, with metabolic encephalopathy, and, characteristically, in coma from affection of the nervous centers of respiration.
MV: Typical human Nasal Cycle suggests our ancestors dived for about 90".
Typical Sleep Apnea Rhythms in humans AFAIK seem to be a bit shorter 60".
Perhaps these 2 cycles synchronised, or perhaps they're remnants of different diving cycles (at different evolutionary periods possibly).
MV: The erectile tissue in vasomotor rhinopathy, allergic rhinitis ("hay fever"), etc.
The nasal cycle is ca.90 seconds. A periodicity of 90 seconds: for what purpose other than diving? Flaring of the nostrils is more anteriorly, at the nose entrance, not
inside the nose at the conchas, where the erectile tissue is.
MV: A lot of people suffer from nasal obstruction (by swelling of venous caverns over the inferior concha - uniquely human): can be complete, more frequent when lying down, see my paper "AAT & some common diseases". An important argument is that there's a nasal cycle in this swelling with a periodicity of c 90 seconds.
MV: Streamlining is extremely important for any actively moving (even slow-moving) animals: water is ~800 times denser than air, and ~60 times more viscous, so streamlining saves a lot of energy for the time they spent in water diving for seafoods.
MV: In Cetacea, the time needed to breathe is a few seconds or less,
DD: Yes. However, this depends on species, diving depth, diving length,
feeding behaviour, size, typical speed in water, association with other intra-specifics (competition, co-op.). There is some variability, like Homo.
MV: but our nasal cycle (about 90", Paul Van Cauwenberge) seems to suggest that our ancestors dived & floated (cf. sea otters) for about half of that time, so perhaps spouting was not necessary?
DD: Spouting depends on length of time sub-surface, not at-surface time.
I think it's likely they sneeze-spouted while surfacing from long deep
dives, whereas shallow swimming dives might have been more voluntary
blowing (seems like seals use this in shallows).
MV: The usual cycle in sleep apnea syndrome is shorter (almost a minute), so there might have been different diving customs (in different phases? or could the cycles be synchronised & used at the same time?)
DD: Perhaps different time cycles reflect different diving-depths, or
different evolutionary periods (freshwater-river vs. marine) or simply
variation due to lack of use more recently, (do vestigial organs
(tailbone-muscles, ribs, adenoids, vestigial veins) vary in shape-size
in modern Homo? I think there is much variety, considering the genetic
bottlenecks of modern HS).
DD: I currently (speculatively) view the diving-breathing cycle as a Homo aquaticus complete package, with most of the cycles in synchrony, (even possibly in synchrony with menstruation, lunar tide, sunspots, whatever).
MV: but this again suggests they stayed at the surface for almost half a minute or so.
DD: Possibly, the larger the mammal, the more explosive the exhalation? Elephants have unusual lungs, explained by their snorkel-trunk, but also possibly due to long-time submergence as well.
MV: As for the (lack of) basicranial flexion in He, if the face/nose was upwards, the body must perhaps have been vertical I'd think.
DD: What would be the largest angle they could comfortably backfloat? I drew it at 90 degrees (sea otters and modern Hs can backfloat at 90 degrees comfortably), you are suggesting 180 degrees when surfacing. Would they backfloat with eyes closed and submerged, or eyes above water? Nostrils may have remained sealed at surface (philtrum-septum valve) while mouth breathing, or alternatively, mouth closed (eating)while nostrils were open above surface.
MV: I suppose they emerged with vertical body & with the nostrils first, so I don't think they spouted in a horizontal position.
DD: Likely more forward position then, perhaps 45 degrees, (sperm whales, some balleens, sirenians?, walrus?).
MV: Did they spout through the mouth (as you drew it) or the nose or both
IYO? IYO the spouting = sneezing?
MV: Our aquarboreal theory: I tend to think early hominoids (suspension in trees) must have swum regularly [DD: face always above water, laryngeal air sacs inflated], eg, to get at the trees of other islands in the Tethys, but not that they dived a lot (although it's difficult to exclude the possibility). Wading came later IMO (early hominids, ie, even after the hominid/pongid split?). Regular diving only in Homo (although, again, earlier periods of diving can't be excluded). An external nose suggests partial aq. adapations (full aquatics have no external noses), and all apes lack this feature (I'm not sure about prenatal stages).
MV: From "The aquatic ape theory: evidence and a possible scenario" Med.Hypoth.16:17-32, 1985: "Intranasal adaptations - All aquatic mammals are able to close the nostrils, and they do so under water. Most terrestrial mammals cannot close their nostrils. Humans have rudimentary compressor and dilatator naris muscles. An even better "nose-closing-system" in our ancestors could have been the erectile tissue of the inferior nasal concha with its uniquely [not present in other mammals AFAWK, eg, not in chimps] abundant and hypersensitive plexus cavernosus. In humans, a very sudden and complete nasal obstruction can be caused by sudden changes in humidity or temperature, e.g. going into the water, or even by laying down
(vasomotor rhinopathy). Moreover, humans have a short cycle of non-alternating fluctuations in nasal resistance: the erectile tissues of the conchae involuntarily swell and shrink with a rhythm of 90 sec (23). This corresponds to the diving-rhythm of the diving women of Korea and Japan (3). In shallow-diving aquatic endotherms, the diving-and-emerging cycle is usually less than 3 min. Enhydra, for example, dives for 30 to 40 sec to catch a few mussels or sea-hedgehogs, and then emerges and floats on the surface for about the same time to crack and eat them (see Stage III)." I still think it's correct, although I would now formulate it more cautiously...
MV: It's true that salt water (eg, sterilised sea water) can well be used to clear the nasal passages (not the sinuses): salt water (more than fresh or even physiologic water?) seems to have some decongestive effect on the nasal mucosa.
DD: What is cause of vasomotor rhinopathy? bacteria, virus, genetic?
MV: Hyperactive erectile tissue on inferior concha, often elicited by laying down, or by cold & wet weather (= the reason why viral rhinitis is often called "a cold" (common cold): it resembles vasomotor rhinopathy (but has more more rhinorrhea - allergic rhinits has more sneezing & itching).
MV: The inferior concha is the lower turbinal (I think "turbinal" & "turbinate" are interchangeable): scroll-like, thin, bony processes lined throughout by mucous membrane on the lateral walls & roof of the nasal cavity, which form a labyrinth of so-called turbinals or conchae (Schultz 1969:141). Haplorhini have less turbinals than Strepsirhini, and the olfactory epithelium is withdrawn to the remotest uppermost region, eg, adult hominids-pongids only have 3 conchae (inf.=maxillo-turbinal, middle=endoturb.I, sup.=endoturb.II); gibbons & monkeys usu.still have the naso-turbinal (uppermost turbinal) = rudimentary "agger nasi" in hominids-pongids; "early in the life of man there are still as many as 5 ethmo-turbinals laid down besides the maxillo-& naso-turbinals" (7!).
DD: Does/can Vasomotor Rhinopathy occur both in sea and freshwater?
MV: It occurs on land, of course, but I don't have the impression it's more frequent when I go swimming. Everybody (incl.non-VR patients) seems to have it to some extent: it has a (uniquely human?) nasal cycle of about 90 seconds (dry apers usu.confuse this with the "long" nasal "cycle" (also in other mammals) which is perhaps fifty times longer, and not in both conchae at the same time) with which both inferior conchae synchronously swell & shrink. The only reasonable explanation I can find for such a cycle is cyclic diving, but possibly not in the latest pre-terrestrial phase (otherwise it would have been more functional in us today when we dive I'd think).
DD: Does/can VR occur both in warm (blood temp.) and cold water?
MV: Most VR patients have more problems in misty weather.
DD: Does/can VR occur both in shallow and very deep water? Does/can VR occur
both in Vt. Head up & Head down, Hz. position?
MV: Most patients have more problems at night (horizontal position, but nobody sleeps with his head down). When we lay down on our right side, it's usu.the right nasal passage that is blocked, and v.v. This happens almost immediately. It gradually worsens by abuse of nasodilator drops (Nesivin etc.).
DD: Does/can VR occur both in active swimming and inactive sinking-diving?
MV: Yes, but AFAIK there are no studies on this.
DD: [Closeable nostrils/nares prevent water from entering nasal cavities, you are saying the same applies to VR. Could water enter the paranasal sinuses or any part of the nasal cavity if the erectile tissues are fully erected?
MV: No, the nose is completely blocked, as any VR patient can tell you (it's very frequent).
DD: Do newborns/infants/children/adults all have VR capability?
MV: To some extent, probably yes. About 10-15 years ago (when I read a lot about this), one of the few groups worldwide that studied the (short) nasal cycle was that of prof. Van Cauwenberghe from Univ.Gent (now rector of the university). IIRC he told me that the cycle is more prevalent in children than in adults. Since newborns are obligate nose-breaters, I guess they don't have it (and, see Schultz above ("early in life"=?), they still have more than 3 conchae!).
DD: Are there semi-aquatic animals that use VR in diving?
MV: AFAIK, it's unuquely human. Cetacea have special pump systems that immediately block the nasal passages, but you can hardly compare these to our nasal swelling tissue.
DD: Cetaeceans inhale 3,000 times more air than Hs in 1/2 the time a Hs takes. -Humans exchange 15% of the air we breathe normally (NOT PS), Ceteaceans an exchange 85-90% of their air (How? Sneeze?) -During sneeze, how much air is exchanged? [Critical question] -The diving reflex depends on max. temp. differential, PS does not. -PS depends on max. light differential, diving reflex does not. -Speculation: Cetae (esp. large deep whales) have a
baro-sensor or temperature-sensor which triggers exhale (sneeze IMO) through
blowhole, most likely the sensor is part of the ear or eye region, though possibly part of the blowhole or echolocation equipment. -PS is semi-voluntary in Hs, often can be delayed if necessary. -PS only occurs after in-dark for about a minute.
MV: Is this so, DD?
DD: No. Not absolute, but I've read 4-5 minutes (I doubt this was timed scientifically). [The synovial fluid in finger knuckle joints can "pop", then can't be popped for about 15 minutes, this was timed scientifically.] I don't think the PS was timed this way, and from my own experience, can happen more often than 1 time in 4 minutes. My guess is that if it was done
habitually as part of a diving respiratory cycle, it would be about 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. In modern Hs, it is variable. Problem: at 200 ft down, light is 5% visible in perfect clear seawater, but if they only dived to 50ft, too much light, no PS?
MV: The best moment to sneeze would have been at the exact moment of emerging.
If surfacing-sneezing ever existed, the exact moment must have been fine-tuned by different means: sunlight ("photic") would indeed be a good indicator I'd think, but also some CNS urge to sneeze at emerging (CO2, O2?), and perhaps cutaneous sensory afferents?
DD: -Sneezing can be done vert. or horiz., probably not underwater.
MV: When a mammal starts diving (eg, to collect underwater shellfish), it has to keep the water out of its airways by all means. This can be achieved, eg, by lengthening of the airways, by narrowing them, by evolving closure possibilities... (= in parallel). We see all of this in human ancestors: external nose, longer internal airway (can be seen on transection of human & chimp nasal cavity), cavernous venous sinuses over inferior conchae, splitlike nostrils, nostril closure in young children, upper lip + philtrum to close nostrils, perhaps velum to close posterior nares. I assume that when diving becomes perfected, only one of these remains necessary.
MV: Bronchial hyper-reactivity as well as bronchial sphincters are typical of
humans (asthma) & also of, eg, seals (Elaine "Aq.ape" p.89). - allergy: Some people have stronger IgE allergic reactions than others. I don't know whether humans are generally more allergic than apes?
MV: The nose was closed: at the nostrils & at the cavernous tissue on the conchae & at the velum. The mouth could be closed at the lips & the tongue, voluntarily (BTW, this is how we voluntarily can produce consonants at free will at different places (labial, dental etc., ie, the beginning of human speech): according to suction & eating underwater. During swallowing the larynx was closed by the epiglottis. I can't see any parallelism/convergence here between dolphins & us. Cetacea have ascended larynges, the opposite of Hs. Besides, the pressure upon the glottis would have been far too high. The vocal chords (very fine & mobile structures) are for phonation, not for closing the airways underwater. This was done by the tongue & the epiglottis.
Laryngospasm is a reflex also seen in terr.mammals, to protect against food, fluids, insects... falling/flying into the airways. Of course, they closed when water came in, but not or at least not in the first place because we were semi-aquatic.
MV: - There is a so-called "long" cycle, ill-defined, about 1 to 4 hours, a general fluctuation of the nasal passages, usu.alternating right & left, not typically human. (I guess it has to do with olfaction or with cleansing of the nasal passages?)
- There is a typically-human "short" cycle of ~90 seconds, in which both nasal passages at the same time narrow by swelling of the venous plexus on the inferior nasal concha. I have no doubt this has to do with diving. At the time I corresponded with one of the investigators of this cycle,
prof. Paul van Cauwenberge (now rector of the University of Ghent), who knows what he's talking about. These swelling tissues (comparable to the corpora cavernosa in the penis) are activated by lying down, by sudden cooling & by misty weather (cf. going into the water?) - the reason why "common cold" (in fact, a viral infection by rhinoviruses of the upper airways) is often thought to be caused by "cold". People who suffer a lot from this common condition have "vasomotor rhinitis" (nasal obstruction due to swelling of the veins of the lower concha, ofter made worse by abusus of nasal vasocontrictors). It's the same swelling tissue that is often stimulated in allergic people (eg, pollen allergy).
MV: When a terrestial mammal finds more & more food underwater, it has to dip or dive for it, and therefore to close its airways underwater. Every adaptation that helps to close the airways will be advantageous during these early adaptations to food collection underwater: H as compared to P have longer airways, an external nose, the nostrils underneath the nose, an
inverted U in the nasal passage, narrower airways, swelling tissues on the inferior concha, an upper lip that can seal off the nostrils, nostril-closing muscles, etc.
MV: Interesting is that we seem to have 2 diving cycles: one at the conchae of ~90", and one during SAS (sleep apena syndrome) of ~60" or so. This seems to suggest that our diving habits showed at least 2 different phases?
ice age increases aquaticness?
Wet sinuses, VR, venal pooling at depth, bronchial closure... http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/38976
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/39630
Clicking
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/40072
Archaic pre-heidelbergensis calvaria at Ceprano Italy
http://scienceblogs.com/afarensis/2008/11/02/sunday_need_to_read_more_from/
http://www.citeulike.org/user/EsepBib/article/1122446
Common descent @ Dive Song
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/41529
DD: Why do we sneeze, which is a complex, whole body reaction, only to remove microscopic pollen, when simply blowing the nose is more effective and more efficient? If sneezing is to remove particles, then why do people often blow their nose AFTER sneezing? And why the runny nose AFTER sneezing, if the particles are supposedly removed already? It just does not add up to natural selection for fitness.
MV: Rhinorrhea can be caused allergic reaction, viral damage &/or anti-viral reaction (rinsing away viruses/allergens)? They overlap, but generally allergy = more sneezing, VR = more obstruction, common cold (rhinoviruses) = more rhinorrhea.
Ice Age - Aquaticness effects
=====================================================
m3d: While back floating the face/mouth would out of the water, but the ears would be in the water, would you hear a clicking/humming sound emitted above the surface of the water?
DD: Sound moves about 1500 meters per second in seawater. Sound moves much more slowly in air, at about 340 meters per second. Note that both prone clicking at depth and supine humming at surface both produce sound underwater. Humming while exhaling sends sounds out of the nostrils or both nostrils and mouth which are above the water surface, however the sound is actually produced in the larynx at the glottal folds which is submersed, like the ears, while backfloating.
This means for example the infant nursing on the mother hears the air-born sound (laryngeal-nasal humming or laryngeal-oral song), while the partner below hears primarily the water-born laryngeal vibration of the humming but perhaps not any verbal consonants. One possible reason why humans don't have SC fat covering the throat especially around the adams apple may be because it would weaken (insulate) the hum/song/speech) sound transmission.
Submerged prone clicking, due to it's open mouth (bell jar) method, would travel directly from the air entrapped oral cavity to the water, without skin or fat to obstruct or insulate the sound. Therefore the chubby cheeks did not interfere with click sound transmissions. (That had confused me earlier, when trying to click with closed mouth.)
So apparently human ancestors at seashores used these: underwater open mouth clicking, supine humming in eupnea with nursing infant, clear vision at dark depth followed by whalespout sun sneezing, sunwarmed catnaps while backfloating in apnea.
---
Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2008 Nov 5.
Repetitive paired stimulation of nasotrigeminal and peripheral chemoreceptor afferents cause progressive potentiation of the diving bradycardia.
Rozloznik M, Paton JF, Dutschmann M. Neuro and Sensory Physiology, Georg-August University Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.
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-maximal stimulation intensity. Alternating stimulations of the EN5 followed by paired stimulation of the EN5 and chemoreceptors (10 trials, 3 min interval) caused a progressive and significant potentiation of EN5-evoked diving bradycardia. In contrast, bradycardias during paired stimulation remained unchanged during repetitive stimulation. The progressive potentiation of EN5-bradycardias was significantly enhanced after microinjection of the 5-HT3 receptor agonist (CPBG hydrochloride) into the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS), while the 5-HT3 receptor antagonist (zacopride hydrochloride) attenuated the progressive potentiation. These results suggest an integrative function of the NTS for the multi-modal mediation of the diving response. The potentiation or 'training' of a sub-maximal diving bradycardia requires peripheral chemoreceptor drive and involves neurotransmission via 5-HT3R within the NTS. Key words: diving response, plasticity, nucleus of the solitary tract.
Electrical stimulation of the anterior ethmoidal nerve produces the diving response
Paul F. McCulloch*, Kevin M. Faber and W. Michael Panneton
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1402 South Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63104, USA Accepted 9 March 1999.
Stimulation of the upper respiratory tract usually produces apnea, but it can also produce a vagally mediated bradycardia and a sympathetically mediated increase in peripheral vascular resistance. This cardiorespiratory response, often called the diving response, is usually initiated by nasal stimulation. The purpose of this research was to investigate the anterior ethmoidal nerve (AEN) that innervates the nasal mucosa of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus). Electrical stimulation of the AEN (typically 50 Hz, 100 μs and 500 μA) produced immediate and sustained bradycardia and cessation of respiration similar to that of the diving response. Heart rate (HR) significantly decreased from 264±18 to 121±8 bpm, with a concurrent 4.2±0.9 s apnea, during the 5 s stimulation period. BP decreased from 97.9±4.8 to 91.2±6.4 mmHg. Using estimations from (1) cross-sectional areas of AEN trigeminal ganglion cells labeled with WGA-HRP, and (2) electron microscopic analysis of the AEN, we found that approximately 65% of the AEN is composed of unmyelinated C-fibers. In addition, 72.4% of myelinated fibers from the nerves that innervate the nasal passages were of small diameter (<6 n="1142">50 s). DMR decreased by 15%, but did not differ significantly from surface metabolic rates (MR(S)) when dive duration increased from 1 to 7 min. Overall, these data suggest that DMR is almost the same as MR(S), and that Steller sea lions incur an O(2) debt during spontaneous diving that is not repaid until the end of the dive bout. This has important consequences in differentiating between the actual and ;apparent' metabolic rate during diving, and may explain some of the differences in metabolic rates reported in pinniped species.
Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2008 Oct 9.
Estimating the effect of lung collapse and pulmonary shunt on gas exchange during breath-hold diving: The Scholander and Kooyman legacy. Fahlman A, Hooker SK, Olszowka A, Bostrom BL, Jones DR.
Global Diving Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada K2J 5E8; Department of Zoology, The University of British Columbia, 6270 University Blvd., Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
We developed a mathematical model to investigate the effect of lung compression and collapse (pulmonary shunt) on the uptake and removal of O(2), CO(2) and N(2) in blood and tissue of breath-hold diving mammals. We investigated the consequences of pressure (diving depth) and respiratory volume on pulmonary shunt and gas exchange as pressure compressed the alveoli. The model showed good agreement with previous studies of measured arterial O(2) tensions ( [Formula: see text] ) from freely diving Weddell seals and measured arterial and venous N(2) tensions from captive elephant seals compressed in a hyperbaric chamber. Pulmonary compression resulted in a rapid spike in [Formula: see text] and arterial CO(2) tension, followed by cyclical variation with a periodicity determined by Q (tot). The model showed that changes in diving lung volume are an efficient behavioural means to adjust the extent of gas exchange with depth. Differing models of lung compression and collapse depth caused major differences in blood and tissue N(2) estimates. Our integrated modelling approach contradicted predictions from simple models, and emphasised the complex nature of physiological interactions between circulation, lung compression and gas exchange. Overall, our work suggests the need for caution in interpretation of previous model results based on assumed collapse depths and all-or-nothing lung collapse models.
Cheetahs of the deep sea: deep foraging sprints in short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife (Canary Islands)
Authors: Aguilar Soto, Natacha; Johnson, Mark P.; Madsen, Peter T.; Díaz, Francisca; Domínguez, Iván; Brito, Alberto; Tyack, Peter
Source: Journal of Animal Ecology, Volume 77, Number 5, September 2008 , pp. 936-947(12) Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Summary: Empirical testing of optimal foraging models for breath-hold divers has been difficult. Here we report data from sound and movement recording DTags placed on 23 short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife to study the foraging strategies used to catch deep-water prey. Day and night foraging dives had a maximum depth and duration of 1018 m and 21 min. Vocal behaviour during dives was consistent with biosonar-based foraging, with long series of echolocation clicks interspersed with buzzes. Similar buzzes have been associated with prey capture attempts in other echolocating species.
Foraging dives seemed to adapt to circadian rhythms. Deep dives during the day were deeper, but contained fewer buzzes (median 1), than night-time deep dives (median 5 buzzes). In most deep (540-1019 m) daytime dives with buzzes, a downward directed sprint reaching up to 9 m s−1 occurred just prior to a buzz and coincided with the deepest point in the dive, suggestive of a chase after escaping prey.
A large percentage (10-36%) of the drag-related locomotion cost of these dives (15 min long) is spent in sprinting (19-79 s). This energetic foraging tactic focused on a single or few prey items has not been observed previously in deep-diving mammals but resembles the high-risk/high-gain strategy of some terrestrial hunters such as cheetahs. Deep sprints contrast with the expectation that deep-diving mammals will swim at moderate speeds optimized to reduce oxygen consumption and maximize foraging time at depth. Pilot whales may have developed this tactic to target a deep-water niche formed by large/calorific/fast moving prey such as giant squid.
Heart rate and blood pressure time courses during prolonged dry apnoea in breath-hold divers
Authors: Perini, Renza1; Tironi, Adelaide2; Gheza, Alberto2; Butti, Ferdinando2; Moia, Christian3; Ferretti, Guido2
Source: European Journal of Applied Physiology, Volume 104, Number 1, September 2008 , pp. 1-7(7) Publisher: Springer
To define the dynamics of cardiovascular adjustments to apnoea, beat-to-beat heart rate (HR) and blood pressure and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) were recorded during prolonged breath-holding in air in 20 divers. Apnoea had a mean duration of 210 ± 70 s. In all subjects, HR attained a value 14 beats min−1 lower than control within the initial 30 s (phase I). HR did not change for the following 2-2.5 min (phase II). Then, nine subjects interrupted the apnoea (group A), whereas 11 subjects (group B) could prolong the breath-holding for about 100 s, during which HR continuously decreased (phase III). In both groups, mean blood pressure was 8 mmHg above control at the end of phase I; it then further increased by additional 12 mmHg at the end of the apnoea. In both groups, SaO2 did not change in the initial 100-140 s of apnoea; then, it decreased to 95% at the end of phase II. In group B, SaO2 further diminished to 84% at the end of phase III. A typical pattern of cardiovascular readjustments was identified during dry apnoea. This pattern was not compatible with a role for baroreflexes in phase I and phase II. Further readjustment in group B may imply a role for both baroreflexes and chemoreflexes. Hypothesis has been made that the end of phase II corresponds to physiological breakpoint.
Undersea Hyperb Med. 2008 May-Jun;35(3):163-7.
Barotraumatic orbital emphysema of rhinogenic origin in a breath-hold diver: a case report. Bolognini A, Delehaye E, Cau M, Cosso L. Sardinian Institute of Hyperbaric and Subaquatic Medicine, Sassari, Italy.
Orbital emphysema is a well-recognized complication of fractures involving the orbit. Commonly, it occurs when high pressure develops in nasal cavity as during nose blowing, coughing or Valsalva's maneuver and usually occurs in the subcutaneous tissues. We report the case of a young breath-hold diver who developed spontaneous, non compressive orbital emphysema during underwater fishing, with a maximal depth of 25-30 meters in the Sardinian sea. He was otherwise healthy, without previous cranio-facial trauma and nasosinusal diseases or surgery were not present in the history. When he was referred to our attention the patient presented right eyelid ptosis but diplopia and vision impairment were absent. Computer tomography scans showed subcutaneous air in the right upper eyelid and around the eyeball, particularly near the orbit's roof but optic nerve area, intraconal, was free of air. A dehiscence in lamina papyracea was evident. In our opinion, this has been the point of air entry into the orbit. A supportive therapy was advised and two weeks later the emphysema was recovered completely and the subject was symptoms free. The literature has been revised and to our knowledge no previous cases of barotraumatic orbital emphysema, in a breath-hold diver, are referred.
J Comp Physiol [B]. 2008 Nov 5.
Terrestrial apnoeas and the development of cardiac control in Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) pups.
Deacon NL, Arnould JP. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia.
The development of cardiac control in association with terrestrial respiration patterns was examined throughout the period of maternal dependence in Australian fur seal pups. Resting eupnoic heart rate and respiration rate were significantly correlated (r (2) = 0.49) and both decreased with age (P < href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358868.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358868.stm
A humid corridor across the Sahara for the migration of early modern humans
out of Africa 120,000 years ago AH Osborne cs 2008 PNAS 105:16444-7
It is widely accepted that modern humans originated in sub-Saharan Africa 150-200 thousand years ago (ka), but their route of dispersal across the currently hyperarid Sahara remains controversial. Given that the first modern humans north of the Sahara are found in the Levant 120-90 ka, northward dispersal likely occurred during a humid episode in the Sahara within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e (130-117 ka). The obvious dispersal route, the Nile, may be ruled out by notable differences between archaeological finds in the Nile Valley and the Levant at the critical time. Further west, space-born radar images reveal networks of now-buried fossil river channels that extend across the desert to the Mediterranean coast, which represent alternative dispersal corridors. These corridors would explain scattered findings at desert oases of Middle Stone Age Aterian lithic industries with bifacial and tanged points that can be linked with industries further to the east and as far north as the Mediterranean coast. Here we present geochemical data that demonstrate that water in these fossil systems derived from the south during wet episodes in general, and penetrated all of the way to the Mediterranean during MIS 5e in particular. This proves the existence of an uninterrupted freshwater corridor across a currently hyperarid region of the Sahara at a key time for early modern human migrations to the north and out of Africa. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7668250.stm
Previous data show there was increased rainfall across the southern part of the Sahara between 130,000 and 170,000 years ago; in a gap between Ice Ages known as the last interglacial period.
J Trapani 2008 JHE 55:521-530
The late Quaternary Kibish Fm preserves environments reflecting a history of fluctuations in the level of nearby Lake Turkana over the past 200 ky. The Kibish Fm has yielded a diverse mammalian fauna (+ birds & crocodiles), stone tools, & the oldest anatomically modern Hs. Fish, the most common vertebrate fossils in this unit, are reported in this study. Catfish (esp.clariids & Synodontis) & Nile perch Lates niloticus predominate, but the gymnarchid Gymnarchus, a cyprinid (Barbus), tigerfish (Hydrocynus) , pufferfish (Tetraodon) & other catfish are also present. In total, 9 teleost genera are found in the Kibish Fm, representing a subset of
the 37 genera that constitute the modern Omo-Turkana ichthyo-fauna. Several taxa present in the modern fauna, incl.Polypterus & members of Cichlidae, are not found in the Kibish deposits. Most spms are preserved as disarticulated or broken skeletal elements, but some preservation of articulated elements (eg, sets of vertebrae, crania with lower jaws or cleithra) also occurs. Many of the catfish and Nile perch spms are larger than the largest reported from the modern river or lake. Faunas of Kibish Members I & III closely resemble one another; the fauna from Member IV contains only the 3 most common taxa (Clarias, Synodontis, Lates), though
this may result from insufficient sampling. Barbed bone points have been collected from the upper part of the fm, indicating a long association (200ka? 40ka?) between the human inhabitants & the fish fauna of the Omo Valley.
Stewart suggests that the hominid fishers would not have needed elaborate harpoons, fishhooks or other fishing paraphernalia : hyenas, leopards, baboons & other mammals occasionally catch fish without the benefit of technology. And traditional African fishers today sometimes
scoop fish up by hand. Several common African freshwater fish are easy to catch, esp.at certain
times of year. The best catching times would have been when fish congregated to spawn in shallow water during the rainy season, and when they were stranded in pools during the dry season : fat reserves in some fish increase towards the end of the dry season, just before spawning, which makes them esp. nutritious. Only at rel. recent African sites dating up to 50 ka have fish bones been considered as evidence that fish were an important seasonal food. Fish remains have been recorded from several early hominid sites, among them E. & W.Turkana in Kenya, Senge in Zaire, Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eg, at Olduvai Gorge, >4000 fragments of fish bone (catfish or Tilapia) were recovered from deposits ass.x H.habilis or the later H.erectus. The hominids lived close to a shallow, saline, alkaline lake.
http://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/anthro/disotell/vitae.html paper on mol. clock
Divergence dates
- Homo-Pan 6.0 Ma,
- Pongo-hominines 14.0 Ma,
- hominoid/cercopithe coid 23.0 Ma.
Because a uniform mol.clock does not fit the catarrhine mtDNA data, we
estimated divergence dates using a penalized likelihood & a Bayesian method
(both take into account the effects of rate differences on lineages),
phylogenetic tree structure & multiple calibration points.
The penalized likelihood method applied to the coding regions of the mtDNA
genome yielded the following divergence date estimates:
- cercopithecine- colobine 16.2 Ma (14.4-17.9),
- colobin-presbytin, 10.9 Ma (9.6-12.3),
- cercopithecin- papionin, 11.6 Ma (10.3-12.9),
- Macaca-Papio, 9.8 Ma (8.6-10.9).
Within the hominoids :
- hylobatid-hominid 16.8 Ma (15.0-18.5),
- Gorilla-Homo+ Pan 8.1 Ma (7.1-9.0),
- Po. py. pygmaeus-Po.py. abelii 4.1 Ma (3.5-4.7),
- Pan troglodytes- paniscus 2.4 Ma (2.0-2.7).
===========================================================
technology
(from plucking, nut cracking, oyster shelling, nest weaving)
from simple to complex craft
stone simple (hand axe)
pebble + chop outside -> sharp core + chips
stone/bone complex
punching maul/awl, hafted axe/adze
wood simple (dugout canoe)
hollow log + chop inside -> dugout + chips
wood complex
dugout + adze -> thin side planks, lighter boat portage
fiber simple
strips + bundle/braid/weave -> nest, mattress
fiber complex
basket, basket boat, tri axial weave, knotted net
pelt simple
fur/skin/rawhide + deflesh/defat -> fur cape
pelt complex
cape + punch/sew -> leather clothes, skin boats
Stone - detach to create, attach hafting
Wood - detach to create, attach planking
Fiber - attach to create
Pelt - detach to create, attach sewing
I think I prefer to tune in to the sounds of the sea, with the middle ear canals saline-filled to still the dissonance of air conduction against bone conduction while diving. But since I've never done this (being too cold here to try) I'll just have to wait til I get to the tropics again, if ever, to hear as a dolphin hears (in a sense) the echoes of the dive song...
listening most intently at depth while my backfloating wife/dive partner hums a lullaby to our nursing infant son and daughter at the warm sunlit surface of the tropical lagoon, she in turn listens to the water for my dental-lingual clicking, knowing I'm soon to bring up some delicious fresh seafood from the ocean's banquet. I can't think of a better harmony than that little duet...
not a mythical haunting symphony of the sailors' sirens of the seas,
nor the obnoxious cacophony of the chattering rainforest monkeys,
nor the roaring of beached sea lions or trumpeting of sea elephants,
nor the loud whoops or paired call-songs of the inland swamp apes,
just ongoing quiet baby babbling and mothers humming melodies at the surface,
and non-vocalized staccato rhythmic clicking invisible yet audible from beneath,
alternating and complementing each other, the couple's chorus of the seashore,
with the simple message, "I am here, I hear you, you are there, I'll see you soon".
with nothing but deep & clear, sky-blue waters as the superb conductor,
and colorful fish & corals, jellyfish and urchins the distinguished audience,
and dolphins, dugongs, sharks and sea turtles the occasional stagehands,
Operettas performed repeatedly, daily feasts for more than a million years,
we come from awesome beginnings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
[inspired by HHamid]
DDeden
___________________
The-Arc-of-a-Diver:
http://the-arc.wikispaces.com/
http://the-arc-ddeden@blogspot.com
My post at AAT on humming/sneezing/sleep apnea/prone clicking/supine humming/Nitric Oxide and suckling/etc. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/48696
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Images
Triaxial weaving
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/gallery.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=107
Carbon nanotubes (sponge)
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/moreinfo.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=2
Squid embryos
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/moreinfo.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=59
tree branching
http://www.nikonsmallworld.com/moreinfo.php?grouping=year&year=2008&imagepos=19
and finally, pass the peanuts
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/48610
"LOLrus found the bucket"~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Breathing, Backfloating, Diving cycles
MV: Yes, little doubt our ancestors once regularly dived in clear sunlit sea-water, cf.studies on Moken (& later Scandinavian) children (pupil closure), this perfectly fits your photic sneeze idea.
Cheyne-Stokes respiration Pronunciation (chān stōks)
A rhythmical breathing where there is an alteration in the depth of the breaths and there are regularly occurring apneic episodes. The pattern of breathing with gradual increase in depth and sometimes in rate to a maximum, followed by a decrease resulting in apnea; the cycles ordinarily are 30 seconds to 2 minutes in duration, with 5–30 seconds of apnea; seen with bilateral deep cerebral hemispheric lesions, with metabolic encephalopathy, and, characteristically, in coma from affection of the nervous centers of respiration.
MV: Typical human Nasal Cycle suggests our ancestors dived for about 90".
Typical Sleep Apnea Rhythms in humans AFAIK seem to be a bit shorter 60".
Perhaps these 2 cycles synchronised, or perhaps they're remnants of different diving cycles (at different evolutionary periods possibly).
MV: The erectile tissue in vasomotor rhinopathy, allergic rhinitis ("hay fever"), etc.
The nasal cycle is ca.90 seconds. A periodicity of 90 seconds: for what purpose other than diving? Flaring of the nostrils is more anteriorly, at the nose entrance, not
inside the nose at the conchas, where the erectile tissue is.
MV: A lot of people suffer from nasal obstruction (by swelling of venous caverns over the inferior concha - uniquely human): can be complete, more frequent when lying down, see my paper "AAT & some common diseases". An important argument is that there's a nasal cycle in this swelling with a periodicity of c 90 seconds.
MV: Streamlining is extremely important for any actively moving (even slow-moving) animals: water is ~800 times denser than air, and ~60 times more viscous, so streamlining saves a lot of energy for the time they spent in water diving for seafoods.
MV: In Cetacea, the time needed to breathe is a few seconds or less,
DD: Yes. However, this depends on species, diving depth, diving length,
feeding behaviour, size, typical speed in water, association with other intra-specifics (competition, co-op.). There is some variability, like Homo.
MV: but our nasal cycle (about 90", Paul Van Cauwenberge) seems to suggest that our ancestors dived & floated (cf. sea otters) for about half of that time, so perhaps spouting was not necessary?
DD: Spouting depends on length of time sub-surface, not at-surface time.
I think it's likely they sneeze-spouted while surfacing from long deep
dives, whereas shallow swimming dives might have been more voluntary
blowing (seems like seals use this in shallows).
MV: The usual cycle in sleep apnea syndrome is shorter (almost a minute), so there might have been different diving customs (in different phases? or could the cycles be synchronised & used at the same time?)
DD: Perhaps different time cycles reflect different diving-depths, or
different evolutionary periods (freshwater-river vs. marine) or simply
variation due to lack of use more recently, (do vestigial organs
(tailbone-muscles, ribs, adenoids, vestigial veins) vary in shape-size
in modern Homo? I think there is much variety, considering the genetic
bottlenecks of modern HS).
DD: I currently (speculatively) view the diving-breathing cycle as a Homo aquaticus complete package, with most of the cycles in synchrony, (even possibly in synchrony with menstruation, lunar tide, sunspots, whatever).
MV: but this again suggests they stayed at the surface for almost half a minute or so.
DD: Possibly, the larger the mammal, the more explosive the exhalation? Elephants have unusual lungs, explained by their snorkel-trunk, but also possibly due to long-time submergence as well.
MV: As for the (lack of) basicranial flexion in He, if the face/nose was upwards, the body must perhaps have been vertical I'd think.
DD: What would be the largest angle they could comfortably backfloat? I drew it at 90 degrees (sea otters and modern Hs can backfloat at 90 degrees comfortably), you are suggesting 180 degrees when surfacing. Would they backfloat with eyes closed and submerged, or eyes above water? Nostrils may have remained sealed at surface (philtrum-septum valve) while mouth breathing, or alternatively, mouth closed (eating)while nostrils were open above surface.
MV: I suppose they emerged with vertical body & with the nostrils first, so I don't think they spouted in a horizontal position.
DD: Likely more forward position then, perhaps 45 degrees, (sperm whales, some balleens, sirenians?, walrus?).
MV: Did they spout through the mouth (as you drew it) or the nose or both
IYO? IYO the spouting = sneezing?
MV: Our aquarboreal theory: I tend to think early hominoids (suspension in trees) must have swum regularly [DD: face always above water, laryngeal air sacs inflated], eg, to get at the trees of other islands in the Tethys, but not that they dived a lot (although it's difficult to exclude the possibility). Wading came later IMO (early hominids, ie, even after the hominid/pongid split?). Regular diving only in Homo (although, again, earlier periods of diving can't be excluded). An external nose suggests partial aq. adapations (full aquatics have no external noses), and all apes lack this feature (I'm not sure about prenatal stages).
MV: From "The aquatic ape theory: evidence and a possible scenario" Med.Hypoth.16:17-32, 1985: "Intranasal adaptations - All aquatic mammals are able to close the nostrils, and they do so under water. Most terrestrial mammals cannot close their nostrils. Humans have rudimentary compressor and dilatator naris muscles. An even better "nose-closing-system" in our ancestors could have been the erectile tissue of the inferior nasal concha with its uniquely [not present in other mammals AFAWK, eg, not in chimps] abundant and hypersensitive plexus cavernosus. In humans, a very sudden and complete nasal obstruction can be caused by sudden changes in humidity or temperature, e.g. going into the water, or even by laying down
(vasomotor rhinopathy). Moreover, humans have a short cycle of non-alternating fluctuations in nasal resistance: the erectile tissues of the conchae involuntarily swell and shrink with a rhythm of 90 sec (23). This corresponds to the diving-rhythm of the diving women of Korea and Japan (3). In shallow-diving aquatic endotherms, the diving-and-emerging cycle is usually less than 3 min. Enhydra, for example, dives for 30 to 40 sec to catch a few mussels or sea-hedgehogs, and then emerges and floats on the surface for about the same time to crack and eat them (see Stage III)." I still think it's correct, although I would now formulate it more cautiously...
MV: It's true that salt water (eg, sterilised sea water) can well be used to clear the nasal passages (not the sinuses): salt water (more than fresh or even physiologic water?) seems to have some decongestive effect on the nasal mucosa.
DD: What is cause of vasomotor rhinopathy? bacteria, virus, genetic?
MV: Hyperactive erectile tissue on inferior concha, often elicited by laying down, or by cold & wet weather (= the reason why viral rhinitis is often called "a cold" (common cold): it resembles vasomotor rhinopathy (but has more more rhinorrhea - allergic rhinits has more sneezing & itching).
MV: The inferior concha is the lower turbinal (I think "turbinal" & "turbinate" are interchangeable): scroll-like, thin, bony processes lined throughout by mucous membrane on the lateral walls & roof of the nasal cavity, which form a labyrinth of so-called turbinals or conchae (Schultz 1969:141). Haplorhini have less turbinals than Strepsirhini, and the olfactory epithelium is withdrawn to the remotest uppermost region, eg, adult hominids-pongids only have 3 conchae (inf.=maxillo-turbinal, middle=endoturb.I, sup.=endoturb.II); gibbons & monkeys usu.still have the naso-turbinal (uppermost turbinal) = rudimentary "agger nasi" in hominids-pongids; "early in the life of man there are still as many as 5 ethmo-turbinals laid down besides the maxillo-& naso-turbinals" (7!).
DD: Does/can Vasomotor Rhinopathy occur both in sea and freshwater?
MV: It occurs on land, of course, but I don't have the impression it's more frequent when I go swimming. Everybody (incl.non-VR patients) seems to have it to some extent: it has a (uniquely human?) nasal cycle of about 90 seconds (dry apers usu.confuse this with the "long" nasal "cycle" (also in other mammals) which is perhaps fifty times longer, and not in both conchae at the same time) with which both inferior conchae synchronously swell & shrink. The only reasonable explanation I can find for such a cycle is cyclic diving, but possibly not in the latest pre-terrestrial phase (otherwise it would have been more functional in us today when we dive I'd think).
DD: Does/can VR occur both in warm (blood temp.) and cold water?
MV: Most VR patients have more problems in misty weather.
DD: Does/can VR occur both in shallow and very deep water? Does/can VR occur
both in Vt. Head up & Head down, Hz. position?
MV: Most patients have more problems at night (horizontal position, but nobody sleeps with his head down). When we lay down on our right side, it's usu.the right nasal passage that is blocked, and v.v. This happens almost immediately. It gradually worsens by abuse of nasodilator drops (Nesivin etc.).
DD: Does/can VR occur both in active swimming and inactive sinking-diving?
MV: Yes, but AFAIK there are no studies on this.
DD: [Closeable nostrils/nares prevent water from entering nasal cavities, you are saying the same applies to VR. Could water enter the paranasal sinuses or any part of the nasal cavity if the erectile tissues are fully erected?
MV: No, the nose is completely blocked, as any VR patient can tell you (it's very frequent).
DD: Do newborns/infants/children/adults all have VR capability?
MV: To some extent, probably yes. About 10-15 years ago (when I read a lot about this), one of the few groups worldwide that studied the (short) nasal cycle was that of prof. Van Cauwenberghe from Univ.Gent (now rector of the university). IIRC he told me that the cycle is more prevalent in children than in adults. Since newborns are obligate nose-breaters, I guess they don't have it (and, see Schultz above ("early in life"=?), they still have more than 3 conchae!).
DD: Are there semi-aquatic animals that use VR in diving?
MV: AFAIK, it's unuquely human. Cetacea have special pump systems that immediately block the nasal passages, but you can hardly compare these to our nasal swelling tissue.
DD: Cetaeceans inhale 3,000 times more air than Hs in 1/2 the time a Hs takes. -Humans exchange 15% of the air we breathe normally (NOT PS), Ceteaceans an exchange 85-90% of their air (How? Sneeze?) -During sneeze, how much air is exchanged? [Critical question] -The diving reflex depends on max. temp. differential, PS does not. -PS depends on max. light differential, diving reflex does not. -Speculation: Cetae (esp. large deep whales) have a
baro-sensor or temperature-sensor which triggers exhale (sneeze IMO) through
blowhole, most likely the sensor is part of the ear or eye region, though possibly part of the blowhole or echolocation equipment. -PS is semi-voluntary in Hs, often can be delayed if necessary. -PS only occurs after in-dark for about a minute.
MV: Is this so, DD?
DD: No. Not absolute, but I've read 4-5 minutes (I doubt this was timed scientifically). [The synovial fluid in finger knuckle joints can "pop", then can't be popped for about 15 minutes, this was timed scientifically.] I don't think the PS was timed this way, and from my own experience, can happen more often than 1 time in 4 minutes. My guess is that if it was done
habitually as part of a diving respiratory cycle, it would be about 1.5 to 2.5 minutes. In modern Hs, it is variable. Problem: at 200 ft down, light is 5% visible in perfect clear seawater, but if they only dived to 50ft, too much light, no PS?
MV: The best moment to sneeze would have been at the exact moment of emerging.
If surfacing-sneezing ever existed, the exact moment must have been fine-tuned by different means: sunlight ("photic") would indeed be a good indicator I'd think, but also some CNS urge to sneeze at emerging (CO2, O2?), and perhaps cutaneous sensory afferents?
DD: -Sneezing can be done vert. or horiz., probably not underwater.
MV: When a mammal starts diving (eg, to collect underwater shellfish), it has to keep the water out of its airways by all means. This can be achieved, eg, by lengthening of the airways, by narrowing them, by evolving closure possibilities... (= in parallel). We see all of this in human ancestors: external nose, longer internal airway (can be seen on transection of human & chimp nasal cavity), cavernous venous sinuses over inferior conchae, splitlike nostrils, nostril closure in young children, upper lip + philtrum to close nostrils, perhaps velum to close posterior nares. I assume that when diving becomes perfected, only one of these remains necessary.
MV: Bronchial hyper-reactivity as well as bronchial sphincters are typical of
humans (asthma) & also of, eg, seals (Elaine "Aq.ape" p.89). - allergy: Some people have stronger IgE allergic reactions than others. I don't know whether humans are generally more allergic than apes?
MV: The nose was closed: at the nostrils & at the cavernous tissue on the conchae & at the velum. The mouth could be closed at the lips & the tongue, voluntarily (BTW, this is how we voluntarily can produce consonants at free will at different places (labial, dental etc., ie, the beginning of human speech): according to suction & eating underwater. During swallowing the larynx was closed by the epiglottis. I can't see any parallelism/convergence here between dolphins & us. Cetacea have ascended larynges, the opposite of Hs. Besides, the pressure upon the glottis would have been far too high. The vocal chords (very fine & mobile structures) are for phonation, not for closing the airways underwater. This was done by the tongue & the epiglottis.
Laryngospasm is a reflex also seen in terr.mammals, to protect against food, fluids, insects... falling/flying into the airways. Of course, they closed when water came in, but not or at least not in the first place because we were semi-aquatic.
MV: - There is a so-called "long" cycle, ill-defined, about 1 to 4 hours, a general fluctuation of the nasal passages, usu.alternating right & left, not typically human. (I guess it has to do with olfaction or with cleansing of the nasal passages?)
- There is a typically-human "short" cycle of ~90 seconds, in which both nasal passages at the same time narrow by swelling of the venous plexus on the inferior nasal concha. I have no doubt this has to do with diving. At the time I corresponded with one of the investigators of this cycle,
prof. Paul van Cauwenberge (now rector of the University of Ghent), who knows what he's talking about. These swelling tissues (comparable to the corpora cavernosa in the penis) are activated by lying down, by sudden cooling & by misty weather (cf. going into the water?) - the reason why "common cold" (in fact, a viral infection by rhinoviruses of the upper airways) is often thought to be caused by "cold". People who suffer a lot from this common condition have "vasomotor rhinitis" (nasal obstruction due to swelling of the veins of the lower concha, ofter made worse by abusus of nasal vasocontrictors). It's the same swelling tissue that is often stimulated in allergic people (eg, pollen allergy).
MV: When a terrestial mammal finds more & more food underwater, it has to dip or dive for it, and therefore to close its airways underwater. Every adaptation that helps to close the airways will be advantageous during these early adaptations to food collection underwater: H as compared to P have longer airways, an external nose, the nostrils underneath the nose, an
inverted U in the nasal passage, narrower airways, swelling tissues on the inferior concha, an upper lip that can seal off the nostrils, nostril-closing muscles, etc.
MV: Interesting is that we seem to have 2 diving cycles: one at the conchae of ~90", and one during SAS (sleep apena syndrome) of ~60" or so. This seems to suggest that our diving habits showed at least 2 different phases?
ice age increases aquaticness?
Wet sinuses, VR, venal pooling at depth, bronchial closure... http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/38976
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/39630
Clicking
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/40072
Archaic pre-heidelbergensis calvaria at Ceprano Italy
http://scienceblogs.com/afarensis/2008/11/02/sunday_need_to_read_more_from/
http://www.citeulike.org/user/EsepBib/article/1122446
Common descent @ Dive Song
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/41529
DD: Why do we sneeze, which is a complex, whole body reaction, only to remove microscopic pollen, when simply blowing the nose is more effective and more efficient? If sneezing is to remove particles, then why do people often blow their nose AFTER sneezing? And why the runny nose AFTER sneezing, if the particles are supposedly removed already? It just does not add up to natural selection for fitness.
MV: Rhinorrhea can be caused allergic reaction, viral damage &/or anti-viral reaction (rinsing away viruses/allergens)? They overlap, but generally allergy = more sneezing, VR = more obstruction, common cold (rhinoviruses) = more rhinorrhea.
Ice Age - Aquaticness effects
=====================================================
m3d: While back floating the face/mouth would out of the water, but the ears would be in the water, would you hear a clicking/humming sound emitted above the surface of the water?
DD: Sound moves about 1500 meters per second in seawater. Sound moves much more slowly in air, at about 340 meters per second. Note that both prone clicking at depth and supine humming at surface both produce sound underwater. Humming while exhaling sends sounds out of the nostrils or both nostrils and mouth which are above the water surface, however the sound is actually produced in the larynx at the glottal folds which is submersed, like the ears, while backfloating.
This means for example the infant nursing on the mother hears the air-born sound (laryngeal-nasal humming or laryngeal-oral song), while the partner below hears primarily the water-born laryngeal vibration of the humming but perhaps not any verbal consonants. One possible reason why humans don't have SC fat covering the throat especially around the adams apple may be because it would weaken (insulate) the hum/song/speech) sound transmission.
Submerged prone clicking, due to it's open mouth (bell jar) method, would travel directly from the air entrapped oral cavity to the water, without skin or fat to obstruct or insulate the sound. Therefore the chubby cheeks did not interfere with click sound transmissions. (That had confused me earlier, when trying to click with closed mouth.)
So apparently human ancestors at seashores used these: underwater open mouth clicking, supine humming in eupnea with nursing infant, clear vision at dark depth followed by whalespout sun sneezing, sunwarmed catnaps while backfloating in apnea.
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Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol. 2008 Nov 5.
Repetitive paired stimulation of nasotrigeminal and peripheral chemoreceptor afferents cause progressive potentiation of the diving bradycardia.
Rozloznik M, Paton JF, Dutschmann M. Neuro and Sensory Physiology, Georg-August University Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.
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-maximal stimulation intensity. Alternating stimulations of the EN5 followed by paired stimulation of the EN5 and chemoreceptors (10 trials, 3 min interval) caused a progressive and significant potentiation of EN5-evoked diving bradycardia. In contrast, bradycardias during paired stimulation remained unchanged during repetitive stimulation. The progressive potentiation of EN5-bradycardias was significantly enhanced after microinjection of the 5-HT3 receptor agonist (CPBG hydrochloride) into the nucleus tractus solitarii (NTS), while the 5-HT3 receptor antagonist (zacopride hydrochloride) attenuated the progressive potentiation. These results suggest an integrative function of the NTS for the multi-modal mediation of the diving response. The potentiation or 'training' of a sub-maximal diving bradycardia requires peripheral chemoreceptor drive and involves neurotransmission via 5-HT3R within the NTS. Key words: diving response, plasticity, nucleus of the solitary tract.
Electrical stimulation of the anterior ethmoidal nerve produces the diving response
Paul F. McCulloch*, Kevin M. Faber and W. Michael Panneton
Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, 1402 South Grand Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63104, USA Accepted 9 March 1999.
Stimulation of the upper respiratory tract usually produces apnea, but it can also produce a vagally mediated bradycardia and a sympathetically mediated increase in peripheral vascular resistance. This cardiorespiratory response, often called the diving response, is usually initiated by nasal stimulation. The purpose of this research was to investigate the anterior ethmoidal nerve (AEN) that innervates the nasal mucosa of muskrats (Ondatra zibethicus). Electrical stimulation of the AEN (typically 50 Hz, 100 μs and 500 μA) produced immediate and sustained bradycardia and cessation of respiration similar to that of the diving response. Heart rate (HR) significantly decreased from 264±18 to 121±8 bpm, with a concurrent 4.2±0.9 s apnea, during the 5 s stimulation period. BP decreased from 97.9±4.8 to 91.2±6.4 mmHg. Using estimations from (1) cross-sectional areas of AEN trigeminal ganglion cells labeled with WGA-HRP, and (2) electron microscopic analysis of the AEN, we found that approximately 65% of the AEN is composed of unmyelinated C-fibers. In addition, 72.4% of myelinated fibers from the nerves that innervate the nasal passages were of small diameter (<6 n="1142">50 s). DMR decreased by 15%, but did not differ significantly from surface metabolic rates (MR(S)) when dive duration increased from 1 to 7 min. Overall, these data suggest that DMR is almost the same as MR(S), and that Steller sea lions incur an O(2) debt during spontaneous diving that is not repaid until the end of the dive bout. This has important consequences in differentiating between the actual and ;apparent' metabolic rate during diving, and may explain some of the differences in metabolic rates reported in pinniped species.
Respir Physiol Neurobiol. 2008 Oct 9.
Estimating the effect of lung collapse and pulmonary shunt on gas exchange during breath-hold diving: The Scholander and Kooyman legacy. Fahlman A, Hooker SK, Olszowka A, Bostrom BL, Jones DR.
Global Diving Research, Ottawa, ON, Canada K2J 5E8; Department of Zoology, The University of British Columbia, 6270 University Blvd., Vancouver, BC, Canada V6T 1Z4.
We developed a mathematical model to investigate the effect of lung compression and collapse (pulmonary shunt) on the uptake and removal of O(2), CO(2) and N(2) in blood and tissue of breath-hold diving mammals. We investigated the consequences of pressure (diving depth) and respiratory volume on pulmonary shunt and gas exchange as pressure compressed the alveoli. The model showed good agreement with previous studies of measured arterial O(2) tensions ( [Formula: see text] ) from freely diving Weddell seals and measured arterial and venous N(2) tensions from captive elephant seals compressed in a hyperbaric chamber. Pulmonary compression resulted in a rapid spike in [Formula: see text] and arterial CO(2) tension, followed by cyclical variation with a periodicity determined by Q (tot). The model showed that changes in diving lung volume are an efficient behavioural means to adjust the extent of gas exchange with depth. Differing models of lung compression and collapse depth caused major differences in blood and tissue N(2) estimates. Our integrated modelling approach contradicted predictions from simple models, and emphasised the complex nature of physiological interactions between circulation, lung compression and gas exchange. Overall, our work suggests the need for caution in interpretation of previous model results based on assumed collapse depths and all-or-nothing lung collapse models.
Cheetahs of the deep sea: deep foraging sprints in short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife (Canary Islands)
Authors: Aguilar Soto, Natacha; Johnson, Mark P.; Madsen, Peter T.; Díaz, Francisca; Domínguez, Iván; Brito, Alberto; Tyack, Peter
Source: Journal of Animal Ecology, Volume 77, Number 5, September 2008 , pp. 936-947(12) Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Summary: Empirical testing of optimal foraging models for breath-hold divers has been difficult. Here we report data from sound and movement recording DTags placed on 23 short-finned pilot whales off Tenerife to study the foraging strategies used to catch deep-water prey. Day and night foraging dives had a maximum depth and duration of 1018 m and 21 min. Vocal behaviour during dives was consistent with biosonar-based foraging, with long series of echolocation clicks interspersed with buzzes. Similar buzzes have been associated with prey capture attempts in other echolocating species.
Foraging dives seemed to adapt to circadian rhythms. Deep dives during the day were deeper, but contained fewer buzzes (median 1), than night-time deep dives (median 5 buzzes). In most deep (540-1019 m) daytime dives with buzzes, a downward directed sprint reaching up to 9 m s−1 occurred just prior to a buzz and coincided with the deepest point in the dive, suggestive of a chase after escaping prey.
A large percentage (10-36%) of the drag-related locomotion cost of these dives (15 min long) is spent in sprinting (19-79 s). This energetic foraging tactic focused on a single or few prey items has not been observed previously in deep-diving mammals but resembles the high-risk/high-gain strategy of some terrestrial hunters such as cheetahs. Deep sprints contrast with the expectation that deep-diving mammals will swim at moderate speeds optimized to reduce oxygen consumption and maximize foraging time at depth. Pilot whales may have developed this tactic to target a deep-water niche formed by large/calorific/fast moving prey such as giant squid.
Heart rate and blood pressure time courses during prolonged dry apnoea in breath-hold divers
Authors: Perini, Renza1; Tironi, Adelaide2; Gheza, Alberto2; Butti, Ferdinando2; Moia, Christian3; Ferretti, Guido2
Source: European Journal of Applied Physiology, Volume 104, Number 1, September 2008 , pp. 1-7(7) Publisher: Springer
To define the dynamics of cardiovascular adjustments to apnoea, beat-to-beat heart rate (HR) and blood pressure and arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) were recorded during prolonged breath-holding in air in 20 divers. Apnoea had a mean duration of 210 ± 70 s. In all subjects, HR attained a value 14 beats min−1 lower than control within the initial 30 s (phase I). HR did not change for the following 2-2.5 min (phase II). Then, nine subjects interrupted the apnoea (group A), whereas 11 subjects (group B) could prolong the breath-holding for about 100 s, during which HR continuously decreased (phase III). In both groups, mean blood pressure was 8 mmHg above control at the end of phase I; it then further increased by additional 12 mmHg at the end of the apnoea. In both groups, SaO2 did not change in the initial 100-140 s of apnoea; then, it decreased to 95% at the end of phase II. In group B, SaO2 further diminished to 84% at the end of phase III. A typical pattern of cardiovascular readjustments was identified during dry apnoea. This pattern was not compatible with a role for baroreflexes in phase I and phase II. Further readjustment in group B may imply a role for both baroreflexes and chemoreflexes. Hypothesis has been made that the end of phase II corresponds to physiological breakpoint.
Undersea Hyperb Med. 2008 May-Jun;35(3):163-7.
Barotraumatic orbital emphysema of rhinogenic origin in a breath-hold diver: a case report. Bolognini A, Delehaye E, Cau M, Cosso L. Sardinian Institute of Hyperbaric and Subaquatic Medicine, Sassari, Italy.
Orbital emphysema is a well-recognized complication of fractures involving the orbit. Commonly, it occurs when high pressure develops in nasal cavity as during nose blowing, coughing or Valsalva's maneuver and usually occurs in the subcutaneous tissues. We report the case of a young breath-hold diver who developed spontaneous, non compressive orbital emphysema during underwater fishing, with a maximal depth of 25-30 meters in the Sardinian sea. He was otherwise healthy, without previous cranio-facial trauma and nasosinusal diseases or surgery were not present in the history. When he was referred to our attention the patient presented right eyelid ptosis but diplopia and vision impairment were absent. Computer tomography scans showed subcutaneous air in the right upper eyelid and around the eyeball, particularly near the orbit's roof but optic nerve area, intraconal, was free of air. A dehiscence in lamina papyracea was evident. In our opinion, this has been the point of air entry into the orbit. A supportive therapy was advised and two weeks later the emphysema was recovered completely and the subject was symptoms free. The literature has been revised and to our knowledge no previous cases of barotraumatic orbital emphysema, in a breath-hold diver, are referred.
J Comp Physiol [B]. 2008 Nov 5.
Terrestrial apnoeas and the development of cardiac control in Australian fur seal (Arctocephalus pusillus doriferus) pups.
Deacon NL, Arnould JP. School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, 221 Burwood Highway, Burwood, VIC, 3125, Australia.
The development of cardiac control in association with terrestrial respiration patterns was examined throughout the period of maternal dependence in Australian fur seal pups. Resting eupnoic heart rate and respiration rate were significantly correlated (r (2) = 0.49) and both decreased with age (P < href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358868.stm">http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7358868.stm
A humid corridor across the Sahara for the migration of early modern humans
out of Africa 120,000 years ago AH Osborne cs 2008 PNAS 105:16444-7
It is widely accepted that modern humans originated in sub-Saharan Africa 150-200 thousand years ago (ka), but their route of dispersal across the currently hyperarid Sahara remains controversial. Given that the first modern humans north of the Sahara are found in the Levant 120-90 ka, northward dispersal likely occurred during a humid episode in the Sahara within Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5e (130-117 ka). The obvious dispersal route, the Nile, may be ruled out by notable differences between archaeological finds in the Nile Valley and the Levant at the critical time. Further west, space-born radar images reveal networks of now-buried fossil river channels that extend across the desert to the Mediterranean coast, which represent alternative dispersal corridors. These corridors would explain scattered findings at desert oases of Middle Stone Age Aterian lithic industries with bifacial and tanged points that can be linked with industries further to the east and as far north as the Mediterranean coast. Here we present geochemical data that demonstrate that water in these fossil systems derived from the south during wet episodes in general, and penetrated all of the way to the Mediterranean during MIS 5e in particular. This proves the existence of an uninterrupted freshwater corridor across a currently hyperarid region of the Sahara at a key time for early modern human migrations to the north and out of Africa. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7668250.stm
Previous data show there was increased rainfall across the southern part of the Sahara between 130,000 and 170,000 years ago; in a gap between Ice Ages known as the last interglacial period.
Although it is unclear which routes they took to get there, Homo sapiens had reached the Levant by around 100,000 years ago, where their remains are known from Es Skhul and Qafzeh in Israel. However, this appears to have been an early, failed foray outside Africa by modern humans (??). By 75,000 years ago, Neanderthals had replaced our species in the region. Then, about 45,000 years ago, modern humans reoccupied the area. Genetic evidence suggests that populations living outside Africa today are the descendents of a migration which originated in the east of the continent between 60-70,000 years ago.
Scientists have identified a major climate drought crisis that struck Africa about 70,000 years ago and which may have changed the course of human history. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4505516.stmThe evidence comes from sediments drilled up from the beds of Lake Malawi and Tanganyika in East Africa, and from Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana. It shows equatorial Africa experienced a prolonged period of drought.
Quaternary fossil fish from the Kibish Formation, Omo Valley, EthiopiaJ Trapani 2008 JHE 55:521-530
The late Quaternary Kibish Fm preserves environments reflecting a history of fluctuations in the level of nearby Lake Turkana over the past 200 ky. The Kibish Fm has yielded a diverse mammalian fauna (+ birds & crocodiles), stone tools, & the oldest anatomically modern Hs. Fish, the most common vertebrate fossils in this unit, are reported in this study. Catfish (esp.clariids & Synodontis) & Nile perch Lates niloticus predominate, but the gymnarchid Gymnarchus, a cyprinid (Barbus), tigerfish (Hydrocynus) , pufferfish (Tetraodon) & other catfish are also present. In total, 9 teleost genera are found in the Kibish Fm, representing a subset of
the 37 genera that constitute the modern Omo-Turkana ichthyo-fauna. Several taxa present in the modern fauna, incl.Polypterus & members of Cichlidae, are not found in the Kibish deposits. Most spms are preserved as disarticulated or broken skeletal elements, but some preservation of articulated elements (eg, sets of vertebrae, crania with lower jaws or cleithra) also occurs. Many of the catfish and Nile perch spms are larger than the largest reported from the modern river or lake. Faunas of Kibish Members I & III closely resemble one another; the fauna from Member IV contains only the 3 most common taxa (Clarias, Synodontis, Lates), though
this may result from insufficient sampling. Barbed bone points have been collected from the upper part of the fm, indicating a long association (200ka? 40ka?) between the human inhabitants & the fish fauna of the Omo Valley.
Stewart suggests that the hominid fishers would not have needed elaborate harpoons, fishhooks or other fishing paraphernalia : hyenas, leopards, baboons & other mammals occasionally catch fish without the benefit of technology. And traditional African fishers today sometimes
scoop fish up by hand. Several common African freshwater fish are easy to catch, esp.at certain
times of year. The best catching times would have been when fish congregated to spawn in shallow water during the rainy season, and when they were stranded in pools during the dry season : fat reserves in some fish increase towards the end of the dry season, just before spawning, which makes them esp. nutritious. Only at rel. recent African sites dating up to 50 ka have fish bones been considered as evidence that fish were an important seasonal food. Fish remains have been recorded from several early hominid sites, among them E. & W.Turkana in Kenya, Senge in Zaire, Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, eg, at Olduvai Gorge, >4000 fragments of fish bone (catfish or Tilapia) were recovered from deposits ass.x H.habilis or the later H.erectus. The hominids lived close to a shallow, saline, alkaline lake.
M174
http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2008/10/60000-year-old-y-chromosome-haplogroup.htmlhttp://www.nyu.edu/gsas/dept/anthro/disotell/vitae.html paper on mol. clock
Divergence dates
- Homo-Pan 6.0 Ma,
- Pongo-hominines 14.0 Ma,
- hominoid/cercopithe coid 23.0 Ma.
Because a uniform mol.clock does not fit the catarrhine mtDNA data, we
estimated divergence dates using a penalized likelihood & a Bayesian method
(both take into account the effects of rate differences on lineages),
phylogenetic tree structure & multiple calibration points.
The penalized likelihood method applied to the coding regions of the mtDNA
genome yielded the following divergence date estimates:
- cercopithecine- colobine 16.2 Ma (14.4-17.9),
- colobin-presbytin, 10.9 Ma (9.6-12.3),
- cercopithecin- papionin, 11.6 Ma (10.3-12.9),
- Macaca-Papio, 9.8 Ma (8.6-10.9).
Within the hominoids :
- hylobatid-hominid 16.8 Ma (15.0-18.5),
- Gorilla-Homo+ Pan 8.1 Ma (7.1-9.0),
- Po. py. pygmaeus-Po.py. abelii 4.1 Ma (3.5-4.7),
- Pan troglodytes- paniscus 2.4 Ma (2.0-2.7).
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technology
(from plucking, nut cracking, oyster shelling, nest weaving)
from simple to complex craft
stone simple (hand axe)
pebble + chop outside -> sharp core + chips
stone/bone complex
punching maul/awl, hafted axe/adze
wood simple (dugout canoe)
hollow log + chop inside -> dugout + chips
wood complex
dugout + adze -> thin side planks, lighter boat portage
fiber simple
strips + bundle/braid/weave -> nest, mattress
fiber complex
basket, basket boat, tri axial weave, knotted net
pelt simple
fur/skin/rawhide + deflesh/defat -> fur cape
pelt complex
cape + punch/sew -> leather clothes, skin boats
Stone - detach to create, attach hafting
Wood - detach to create, attach planking
Fiber - attach to create
Pelt - detach to create, attach sewing
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