Asian small clawed otter pups

teh cuteness
LOL-otterz at San Diego Zoo

Coastal Forest Giants: leave some for the future
Northern California Redwood trees
Tasmania Eucalyptus trees

water

Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.

Bob Dylan
deep time

World Water Day @ 'All my faults are stress related'

The Water Management Cluster is concerned about inland water supplies and their continued availability and quality. Existing water management activities through the NASA-funded WaterNet and the EPA-funded Midwest Spatial Decision Support Systems Partnership will be central to the work of this cluster.

The Water Management Cluster has focused its initial activities on inland basin water pollution and on drought and its impacts. Of special interest to the cluster is the NOAA National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) portal being developed.



Oil companies buy water supplies big oil and little water

Bay side base site

Boat house harbor (my boat in my father's boathouse) at Bay point park, Mississippi river, between the bluffs & tracks & bikes & trucks & traix archipelago (riparian).

boathouse village between MN & WI





Marine science program at College of the Redwoods CR link

Aquabase

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/microtrends/article5693274.ece

A house by the sea is a common dream. But in it? Surely that's only for James Bond baddies. Not so... an article by Murad Ahmed

Once the preserve of Bond villains, “semi-submerged environments”, or aquabases, to give them a more memorable name, are the latest projects being addressed by architects.

– These are homes that float on water, but with a submerged basement that can give you a great view of the ocean floor.

– One example is the Trilobis 65, designed by Giancarlo Zema. This amphibious home has four levels, half of which are a few metres underwater, and it can house a family of six. In fact, it’s a form of boat and can move at seven knots, although criminal masterminds may find it is not suited to making a quick getaway.

[DD: The dock reminds me a a floating dome I designed earlier. Don't take the trilobis near coral or rocky reefs in heavy surf!]

– Even more ambitious are the designs of Vincent Callebaut. His Lilypad is a floating eco-town that can accommodate 50,000 people. Self-sufficient, it runs on renewable energy and has a central freshwater lagoon that collects and purifies rain water. Huge shopping malls come built in as standard.

Comment: There's much more info available on this topic. Look up for instance "The Seasteading Book," a detailed online text about how to move beyond far-out utopian projects into something practical. Seasteading presents a new possibility for building a free society while socialism eats the West. Comment by Kris, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA

home offshore? Not for me, thanks, I like trees and sandy beaches. Maybe an island anchored to a seamount, with sliding dome cover for typhoons, with beach and coconut palms and lagoon and freshwater waterfall?



Water & Human Evolution

SOUTH AFRICA'S FAMOUS fossil apeman sites - Taung near Kimberley,
Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and Kromdraai near Krugersdorp, and Makapansgat
near Pietersburg - are situated in what is today the dry hinterland of the
subcontinent. So is the Olduvai Gorge on the Serengeti Plain of Tanzania,
Koobi Fora in the north and north-east of Kenya, and Bahr-el-Ghazal in the
Chad Republic in the Sahara Desert.
Yet, wherever the early members of the human family were evolving, they
needed water to drink and to keep cool. Proximity to water was the most
important factor in the location of an evolving group like the early
hominids. They must have lived near springs, rivers, lakes and freshwater
estuaries. Denied water in warm, tropical or sub-tropical climates, humans
quickly become dehydrated and death may follow in days. Water is necessary
for survival and an essential ingredient for evolutionary change.

Water and human dispersal
Water helped distribute humans across the planet, along seashores, lakes and
river banks. This would have accounted for the prehistoric peopling of most
of the Old World, from Africa to Europe and mainland Asia. Strolling or
swimming along the beach would have been sufficient to carry mankind from
the Horn of Africa to the Peloponnesos of Greece, from the Levant to the
Korean Peninsula, from Singapore to Siberia. When much water was bound up on
land as glaciers in the Ice Ages, sea levels were lower than they are today,
and previously submerged land-bridges appeared, helping spread humans to new
parts of the earth. At such times, it would have been possible to walk
dryshod from Tripoli and Tunisia to Malta and Sicily, from South Korea to
South Japan and from the Sakhalin Peninsula to Hokkaido, North Japan, from
Malaysia to Sumatra, Java and Bali and from Siberia to Alaska over the
500km-wide land connection called Beringia.
At some stages and in some places, humans learned to cross the water, even
without a land-bridge. Java and Bali were periodically connected to the
Asian mainland, so that animals, including humans, could easily cross to
them. However, the Indonesian island of Flores could be reached only by sea
crossings even when the sea level was lowest. Yet stone tools and fossil
bones on Flores show that humans (probably Homo erectus) and archaic
elephants (Stegodon) must have crossed this 19km-wide, deep oceanic channel
900 000 to 800 000 years ago. There is no evidence that they knew how to
make boats so early. Either they floated across using tree trunks and logs
as rafts, or they swam.
Another deep oceanic channel - the Strait of Gibraltar - lies between Ceuta
and Morocco in North Africa and Gibraltar and Spain. The strait today is
about 13 km at its narrowest point but when the sea-levels of the Atlantic
and Mediterranean were lower, the distance across was smaller and a few
islands (presently under water) would have appeared. The greatest sea
crossing then would have been only five kilometres. Stone tools and probable
fossil hominid remains between 1.5 and one million years old have been found
in south-eastern Spain near the village of Orce and the city of Murcia. For
a long time, the question has been: how did these earliest Europeans get to
the Iberian Peninsula from North Africa? There are two fairly obvious
overland routes ­ one through the Middle East across Suez and the Levant,
and one from Tripoli, via Malta, Sicily, the Strait of Messina to Calabria,
the toe of Italy. To get to the south of Spain from either of these two
passages would have involved taking the long way round, including the
crossing of the Pyrenees in a southerly direction. Several of us have been
pursuing the option of the short cut ­ the water traverse from Ceuta to
Spain. If people and elephants could get across a wider channel to get to
Flores just under a million years ago, I believe it is very likely that the
smaller water crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar would have been within
human capacity just over a million years ago. Again, floating, rafting on
flotsam and possibly even swimming seem to have been early acquisitions in
human cultural and behavioural evolution. Boats are technologically advanced
inventions which probably came much later.
These are details. The principle remains that water must have played a
crucial role in the distribution of humanity across the planet.

Semi-aquatic human ancestors?

The third way in which water is thought by some to have affected human
evolution is a nearly 40-year-old proposal, the Aquatic Ape Theory (AAT),
which holds that mankind evolved some of its distinctive features in an
aquatic environment and that ancient human ancestors spent more time in the
water than present-day descendants. As Graeme Addison explained in Out There
(January 1998), Sir Alister Hardy put forward the idea that man was more
aquatic in the past, following Max Westenhöfer's 1923 proposal that some
modern human anatomical features indicate an aquatic form of adaptation.
The idea was largely ignored by Hardy's contemporaries. There are two ways
in which a new idea in science is rejected: one is by direct confrontation
and attempts to refute it; the other is by turning a blind eye to it and
hoping that it will simply go away.
Among those who opposed the AAT, some pointed out that there were no fossils
to support it. One is tempted to ask what sort of fossils did they expect?
Those fossils already discovered in South and East Africa, four to three
million years old, show signs that they belonged to erect bipedal hominids.
One of the things the AAT proposed was that the early hominids developed
uprightness to hold the head above water while wading. Claiming that
water-adapted fossils had not been found, amounts to a circular argument
when the theory of water-adaptedness purported to explain the very erectness
of those fossil skeletons that had been found!
When a new idea is rejected, it is frequently because it flies in the face
of an accepted prevailing paradigm, in this case the Savannah Hypothesis
(SH).

The Savannah Hypothesis
From 1925 to 1995 almost everyone grew up on the "received wisdom" that the
Hominidae (the family of mankind) was born on the savannah, believed to have
been the ideal crucible in which the strange form of locomotion known as
bipedalism came into being. The idea is an old one. Robert Broom, in his
1933 book The Coming of Man: was it Accident or Design? stated: "Before
Australopithecus was discovered some of us believed that the ancestor of man
would be found in an anthropoid ape which had left the forest and taken to
living on the plains and among the rocks; and here (in Australopithecus, the
Taung child) we have just such a form."
Raymond Dart's 1925 paper, that announced the features of the little fossil
child from Taung, included this passage: "For the production of man a
different apprenticeship was needed to sharpen the wits and quicken the
higher manifestations of intellect ­ a more open veldt country where
competition was keener between swiftness and stealth, and where adroitness
of thinking and movement played a preponderating role in the preservation of
the species... in my opinion, Southern Africa, by providing a vast open
country with occasional wooded belts and a relative scarcity of water,
together with a fierce and bitter mammalian competition, furnished a
laboratory such as was essential to this penultimate phase of human
evolution." (Emphasis mine)
From the animal remains found with the Australopithecus child, Broom (1933)
wrote, "... we can safely infer that the rainfall was then, as now, scanty,
and that there were no forests in that region, only grassy and bushy plains
from which the hills and krantzes arose."
My generation grew up steeped in what more recently has been called the
Savannah Hypothesis. As Elaine Morgan has chronicled in her book, The
Aquatic Ape Hypothesis (1997), this view was supported, directly or
indirectly, by numerous scholars, including Sherwood Washburn, Kenneth
Oakley, Richard Leakey, Peter Wheeler, Alan Walker. It was a paradigm that
lasted for about 70 years of this century.
In 1980, the Africanist archaeologist J. Desmond Clark put forward a
modified version of SH which favoured a mixed ecology. He said "there is
little doubt that proto-hominids (ancestors of hominids) were widely
distributed throughout the tropical savannahs. It seems certain that it was
within habitats consisting of mosaics of grassland, woodland, and forest
that the hominid line first became differentiated from that of the pongids
(the apes)." Clark singled out not only the great richness and diversity of
plant and animal resources in the savannahs compared with the forest, and
the fragmentation of the forest cover during the later Miocene-early
Pliocene, which isolated some hominid populations, but also the progressive
expansion of grasslands from that time onward, which made available "empty
niches" into which hominids could expand. These factors, he believed, "can
be expected to have led to a number of adaptations".
In 1985, Elisabeth Vrba suggested that the family of man was probably a
"founder member" of the African savannah fauna! That year, I published a
chapter called "The conquest of the savannah and the attaining of erect
bipedalism" in which I expressed the old idea: "The living apes of Africa
are to be found exclusively in the wet forest of the middle reaches of the
continent. It is likely that ancestral apes, too, were forest-dwelling
creatures...The spread of lighter woodland and savannah and the retreat of
the margins of the primaeval forests could well have created conditions in
which the tendency to uprightness and bipedalism was favoured. The ability
to run across the high grass cover of the savannah, perhaps from one
woodland-girt stream to another, might have held advantages for those apes
which could 'walk tall'. Uprightness gave its possessors a chance to see
over the tall grass and to watch out for predatory enemies like the lions
and sabre-toothed big cats. Seemingly it was under just such a set of
conditions that the Hominidae made their appearance upon the face of the
earth."
That statement may well be the quintessence of the SH - and I believe it was
my last statement in support of it. By 1995, when I gave the Daryll Forde
Memorial Lecture at University College, London, I stated of the SH, "We were
all profoundly and unutterably wrong!"

Repudiation of the Savannah Hypothesis
My disavowal of SH was based in the first place on evidence which had been
coming forth from excavations in South and East Africa. From Sterkfontein,
suggestions of greater woodland cover at the time when Australopithecus was
deposited in Member 4, had emerged from studies on fossil pollen, but these
were not compelling. Then Wits team member Marian Bamford identified fossil
vines or lianas of Dichapetalum in the same Member 4: such vines hang from
forest trees and would not be expected in open savannah. The team at
Makapansgat found floral and faunal evidence that the layers containing
Australopithecus reflected forest or forest margin conditions. From Hadar,
in Ethiopia, where "Lucy" was found, and from Aramis in Ethiopia, where Tim
White's team found Ardipithecus ramidus, possibly the oldest hominid ever
discovered, well-wooded and even forested conditions were inferred from the
fauna accompanying the hominid fossils.
All the fossil evidence adds up to the small-brained, bipedal hominids of
four to 2.5 million years ago having lived in a woodland or forest niche,
not savannah. The evidence for the presence of big forest trees supports the
idea we had gleaned from the bones of "Little Foot" that tree-climbing had
been a part of the lifeways of these early African hominids. At least, one
could conclude, there had been trees big enough to bear the weight of the
Australopithecines (for which stunted acacias of the savannah would have
been unsuitable).
To a large London audience in 1995 I said: "All the former savannah
supporters (including myself) must now swallow our earlier words in the
light of the new results from the early hominid deposits... Of course, if
savannah is eliminated as a primary cause, or selective advantage of
bipedalism, then we are back to square one."

Humans are not savannah-adapted animals
In rejecting the SH, I was moved primarily by the evidence unearthed in
South Africa and East Africa. Meanwhile, Elaine Morgan had been piecing
together a number of other arguments against the SH, based on some
anatomical, biochemical and physiological data of modern humans, much of
which was collected by Belgium's Dr Marc Verhaegen, which contrast sharply
with the traits in present-day animals that are truly adapted to savannah
life.
As examples, modern humans lack sun-reflecting fur and are virtually
hairless. The cooling system in our skin is quite unfit for hot, dry,
exposed environments: we have numerous sweat glands and we waste water and
sodium - not very suitable for life on the savannah. Our ability to
concentrate our urine is poor and too low and if ever our earliest ancestors
were savannah dwellers, we must have been the worst, the most profligate
urinators there.
Adapted savannah-dwellers need to drink more water at a time, but most
humans are not able to drink much at a time. The quantity of our
subcutaneous fat, which would insulate us against heat loss, is never found
in truly savannah-adapted animals.
In our bodily functions, chemistry and microscopical anatomy, we should be
hopeless as savannah-dwellers. So Marc Verhaegen and Elaine Morgan, in her
remarkable book, The Scars of Evolution, came to the same conclusion that we
had reached from quite different lines of evidence: the old Savannah
Hypothesis was not tenable. All former savannah supporters must recant ­ and
this I did in London. It was an exciting moment - living through a change of
paradigm.
Max Planck, the German physicist and Nobel laureate, once wrote these words
on the replacement of an outworn paradigm: "A new scientific truth does not
triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but
rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows that
is familiar with it."
That must be one of the masterpieces of cynicism on the scientific process.
Paradigm changes, I like to think, flow overwhelmingly from new evidence
and, where the evidence is sound and even irresistible, they should be
embraced just as lief by the old as by the young. It was three weeks after
my 17th birthday and I went on to declare, "A change of paradigm shakes us
up; it rejuvenates us; and, this above all, it prevents mental
fossilisation - and that is good for all of us."

What the demise of the SH means for the AAT
My formal slaying of the SH removed a key objection to the AAT. Supporters
of the Hardy-Morgan concept hailed this event as my espousal of the aquatic
ape hypothesis. This was not strictly correct for there were other theories
on the “primary causes” of bipedalism, though, to my knowledge, there was
none to explain those physiological and biochemical aspects which seemed to
ally us to marine mammals. Now, at least, anthropologists should be able to
examine this with a more open mind than previously when the thinking of so
many was clouded by the SH.
It seems, however, that the name Aquatic Ape Theory has become a handicap.
For nearly 40 years since Hardy first put the idea forward, AAT has been a
bit of a joke to many scientists, conjuring up visions of a creature that
spent all - or almost all - of its time in the water. Yet Hardy's original
1960 article was modestly entitled, "Was man more aquatic in the past?" In
scientific writing a name can send very misleading messages and the term
"Aquatic Ape" does just that. Replace it with something else, I urged Elaine
Morgan. Then, I think the implications of those apparently water-adapted
features like humans' loss of hair will receive less cynical attention from
those who have hitherto smirked at the mere mention of "The Aquatic Ape"!
At the Dual Congress at Sun City in 1998, Marc Verhaegen and Pierre-François
Puech of France summed the evidence that hominid evolution did not begin in
warm and dry, but in warm and wet conditions. This included new thinking on
what one can infer from the micro-wear on the teeth as to the food of early
hominids: they found signs of marshland plants, molluscs, aquatic herbs.
Dr Michael Crawford of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition,
London, Dr L Broadhurst of the USA., and other collaborators presented an
unexpected and fascinating study. In his book The Driving Force: Food,
Evolution and the Future (1989), Crawford explores many issues around "the
land-water interface". To develop the large brain characteristic of the
hominids, a chemical known as DHA was necessary. The lack of DHA in savannah
food may explain the "degenerative evolution" of the brains of savannah
species and the reason why Homo sapiens could not have evolved on the
savannahs. The marine food chain, on the other hand, has an abundant supply
of DHA. Early hominids had to make use of the marine food chain to enable
the evolution of brain and brain size to keep pace with body size. Their
claim that the human brain depended on the marine food chain suggests
independent evidence in support of the importance of water in human
evolution.
In the face of all this evidence, old and new, it is time for human
evolutionists to open their minds and give fair and objective thought to the
role of water in the evolution of mankind. We need a new holistic emphasis
on water: first for drinking, secondly as a source of food from aquatic
plants and animals and, thirdly, as waterways facilitating - or impeding -
the spread of humanity across the globe. Fourthly, we may no longer shy away
from the questions posed by those especial features of the human skin,
sweat-glands, chemistry of sweat, body temperature control and fluctuations,
heat and radiation tolerance and water consumption, which in modern humans
appear so different from those of savannah-adapted mammals and so
reminiscent, in some cases, of aquatic mammals.
As the Savannah Hypothesis still held sway when the Valkenburg Conference on
AAT took place 11 years ago, many arguments raised at that meeting are no
longer tenable. Another international forum should be set up to explore the
whole question in the light of the demise of the SH - but please, let it be
under a different name! Tobias, Paleoanthropologist

a walk on the beach

a walk on the beach is often the best medicine

http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/


http://forums.deeperblue.com/beach-bar/81903-walk-beach.html


http://www.footprints-inthe-sand.com/index.php?page=Poem/Poem.php
Poem, Footprints in the sand, by Mary Stevenson



1.5 million years ago, set of footprints in Kenya

a day at the beach

Spheres: Planets & stars

Click on pic to compare sizes

star of peace
starmaker
http://online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/clusters09/lifetime/

Sewer manure + fire -> GOLD! http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE50T56120090130

Peri-Tethys hominoids

The Caspian never dried out, it is more than 1km deep at its south portion, the south shore is always warm (never colder than 10 deg C), about 3ma it included the Aral sea.

temp
depth
paleo-caspian
Peri-tethys/para-thetis Euxine-Caspian prehistory

Some 50-60 million years ago, before the beginning of the Tertiary Period, a vast oceanic basin extended from west to east across Southern Europe and Central Asia, linking the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean. It was the salty Tethys Sea. By the middle of the Tertiary Period, as a result of crust upheavals, the Tethys Sea had become separated first from the Pacific Ocean and later from the Atlantic.

Major crust movements led to mountain-building in the Miocene (from 5 to 7 million years ago) and the formation of the Alps, the Carpathians, the Balkan Mountains and the Caucasus Mountains. As a result the Tethys Sea shrunk in size and became divided into a number of brackish basins. One of them, the Sarmatic Sea, stretched from the present location of Vienna to the foothills of the Tien Shan Mountains and included the modern Black Sea, the Azov Sea, the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea. The Sarmatic Sea was separated from the ocean, and gradually its salinity fell as a result of the inflow from rivers. It is assumed that the salinity in the sea was even lower than in the modern Caspian Sea. Much of the marine fauna endemic to the Tethys Sea became extinct. However, it is interesting to note that typically oceanic animals, such as whales, manatees and seals, continued to inhabit the Sarmatic Sea for a long time, before they too disappeared.

The Caspian Sea's bed is below sea level and this is true of the land on some of its shores because this is still a low spot on the earth, unlike Death Valley, of course, it is filled with water. The drawing I made from the satellite photos shows clearly how Arabia, as it is shoved harder and harder into the last of the Tethys' basin, has raised a ridge of mountains on one side of this basin and the European side is also high mountains, the Caucasus range. It is interesting that the point where these continents collide still has a deep depression instead of it just building up as mountains directly.

http://elainemeinelsupkis.typepad.com/earth_news/2007/02/elaine_meinel_s_1.html

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.zin.ru/projects/caspdiv/img/cbd_21.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.zin.ru/projects/caspdiv/biodiversity_report.html&usg=__u5PjSe-ZVOf1YuUJ760ecLZVhRU=&h=354&w=700&sz=12&hl=en&start=14&sig2=tHUngSI_9RRbzbjGW31hIg&um=1&tbnid=ESaj8XH5HgrcJM:&tbnh=71&tbnw=140&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcaspian%2Bpliocene%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dcom.ubuntu:en-US:official%26um%3D1&ei=33ohS53QAp6ysQO3l4TWBA





The Akchagyl reservoir emerged approximately 3m years ago, right at the beginning of the Pliocene and can be regarded as the brightest page in the history of the Caspian. The waters of Akchagyl Lake penetrated into the Aral depression, which at that time used to occupy the Black Sea or Euxine basin via the Manych hollow drained into brackish Kuyalnits basin. Extensive lowland stretches of trans-Caspian, Azerbaijan, Dagestan and Volga were flooded. It is believed that northern border of the reservoir lied in region of the river Kama. Obviously, that Akchagyl Lake had the highest level and area, and by its sizes considerably exceeded, for example, Khavalyn Lake, which emerged in the Later Pleistocene epoch. Akchagyl Lake existed for a bit less than 1m years and left a thick complex of deposits relating to a lower layer of the Upper Pliocene. Akchagyl strata were discovered in the beginning of the 20th century by N. I. Andrusov, who showed that they contain fossil fauna of a semi-marine type. This fauna originally lived under the salinity of 20-25 gr/l, however, later, as a result of large inflow of fresh waters, Akchagyl lake desalinized up to 5-12 gr/l. The character of microsculpture of shells of Cyprideis torosa testifies about very low paleohalinity, not higher than 5-6 gr/l. Thus, the paleohalinity of Akchagyl Lake, reconstructed using this method, appears to be a little bit lower than that determined using fauna fossils, mainly, molluscs.

Speaking about Akchagyl fauna and flora, it is necessary to note that there are two points of view on their origins. In the first case, when a semi-marine type is postulated, implying a genetic connection with Sarmatian fauna and flora is implied. In the second case, a marine type is defended assuming introduction of fauna and flora from the Arctic Ocean, Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean or Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean. The obtained data on rather low - 4-6 gr/l salinity in Akchagyl Lake prove that Akchagyl fauna and flora is mostly of semi-marine origins rather than marine. This point of view is also supported by the fact that endemic development of Caspian malacofauna in the Pleistocene was always characterized by survival of more ancient relicts in successive basins (Starobogatov 1970). In our opinion, basic elements of Akchagyl fauna and flora lived in Balakhany Lake, which later freshened and turned into a huge Akchagyl reservoir.

The post-Akchagyl reservoir appeared more than 2m years ago. It used to occupy only basins of the Middle and Southern Caspian, and it should be regarded as the maximum regression of the Akchagyl basin. It is difficult to say how long post-Akchagyl lake existed, as its deposits have been very poorly investigated. Most probably, the low level occurred for a short period, approximately 50-150 thousand years, and it was supplanted by the next transgression. Unfortunately, we did not manage to find valves of Cyprideis torosa in available collections, in order to determine paleohalinity of this lake based on their microsculpture. However, it is possible to suggest with confidence that the salinity of post-Akchagyl lake was much higher than that of Akchagyl, but lower than the salinity of Balakhany.

The Absheron reservoir emerged approximately 2m years ago. By its sizes, the lake was less than Akchagyl, however, its waters also penetrated into the Aral basin and drained into the Black Sea or Euxine depression which was accupied by the Guriy basin at that time. The cis-Caspian lowland was completely flooded and the Kura lowland and Karakum were partially inundated. Absheron Lake existed for more than 1m years and left a thick complex of deposits relating to an upper layer of the Upper Pliocene. Fauna fossils show that it had similar salinity to Akchagyl lake i.e. within 5-12 gr/l. It is also believed that the waters of Absheron Lake occupying the Aral basin were the most desalinized the salinity of about 5 gr/l. Those representatives of Absheron fauna, which were able to survive the greatest level ofdesalinization, occured here (Federov, 1983; Rubanov et.al. 1987). The character of microsculpture of valves of Cyprideis torosa shows the salinity level of about 7 gr/l. The materials from Absheron deposits, discovered in northern regions of the Aral basin, were analysed in addition to shells from the Caspian basins. These shells were found in detrital limestone of the Absheron epoch in the region of the gulf Shevchenko and peninsula Kokturnak of the Minor Aral Sea. The microsculpture of valves of Cyprideis torosa corresponds to the paleohalinity of 3-4 gr/l, and even about 1 gr/l.

The Turkan reservoir emerged a bit less than 2m years ago. It developed on the background of climate aridity and drastic reduction of freshwater inflow. Obviously, by its sizes, it resembles the post-Akchagyl reservoir i.e. occupied only basins of the Middle and Southern Caspian. Abrasive surface of Turkan lake is situated at the depth of 200-300 ì of the present Caspian Sea (Aladin, Carpenters, 2000). However, it would be a mistake to consider that the level of this ancient water body was so low. In Federov’s opinion (1983), such deep location is accounted for recent tectonic subsidence, and the real difference of levels of the present Caspian and Turkan lake does not exceed 100-150 m. Apparently, this lake, as well as post-Akchagyl, existed for a rather short period of time. Such a low level could have persisted for some scores and may be hundreds millennia, and it was ensued by the next transgression. Speaking about Turkan Lake, we should especially note that original Caspian brackish fauna of molluscs appeared in this lake for the first time. Thus, the turning point in development of fauna took place during a regression, instead of a transgression (Federov, 1983). The microsculpture of valves of Cyprideis torosa refers to the paleohalinity of 26-30 gr/l.

The Baku reservoir emerged later, some 1.7m years ago, on the background of climate moistening and cooling. It was less than Absheron Lake, and its waters did not penetrate into the Aral basin, but along the Manych hollow drained into the Black Sea or Euxine basin, where at this time the Chaudine basin was situated. Baku Lake occupied western stretches of lowland Karakum, completely Caspian and partially Kura lowland. It existed for about one million or half-million years, leaving a thick stratum of marine deposits, which was named the Baku layer. This layer is of the Quaternary age, and these deposits are usually compared to those of Likhvin glaciation on the Russian plain. However, we should note that lower part of Baku layer, probably, belongs also to an earlier period. Baku Lake went through three transgressions and two regressions. The long developing Early Baku transgression followed by the Late Baku and Urunjick transgressive phases. These phases were divided by two small regressions: post Early Baku and post Late Baku. It is considered that Baku lake had the biggest surface during the Urunjick transgressive phase and Early Baku had the smallest surface. The Late Baku transgressive phase took an intermediate position. As it was mentioned above, during all three transgressive phases, Baku Lake was bigger than the present Caspian and use to discharge its waters into the Chaudine basin. However, this discharge ceased during the Post Early Baku and Post Late Baku regressive phases. We can assume that during a low level period, the surface of Baku Lake was to that of the present Caspian Sea or even a little bit less. Unfortunately, because of short duration of these regressive phases of Baku Lake, it is very difficult to identify precise boundaries of the reservoir. Speaking about Baku Lake, it is necessary to note that except for the rivers, traditionally feeding the Caspian, such as the Volga, Ural, Emba, Atrek, Kura, Samur, Terek, Kuma etc., the Amu Darya also used to be its tributatry. At that time, this river did not flow into the Aral, but flowed through the lowland Karakum and entered Baku Lake at eastern part of the cis-Balkhan lowland.





http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/49480

Oreopithecus, island, ape, hominins
They are characterized by lack of predators and limitation of space and thus of trophic resources (23, 24). Whereas the absence of predation removes the need for adaptations related to predator
avoidance, intraspecific and interspecific competition for food resources increases (23, 24). Both factors impose specific selective pressures that favor, on the one hand, adaptations linked to low
energy expenditure, namely those related to energetically less expensive locomotor activities (flightless birds, ref. 25), and to reduction of bone mass in the locomotor apparatus at the expense of mobility and speed (26) (reduction of limb lengths in all mammals, fusion of limb elements in ruminants, elephants, and hippos, ref. 23).
On the other hand, they select for feeding strategies that increase the efficiency of resource utilization (increase in hypsodonty, rodent-like continuously growing incisors in bovids, reduction of premolars in many groups, etc.) (23). These adaptations are universally found in all mammal faunas of small islands. These selective pressures probably played a crucial role in the evolution of Oreopithecus, too, because the accompanying bovid fauna clearly exhibits the typical traits of insularity (27), such as strongly reduced limb bones and continuously growing incisors (28). In
Oreopithecus, the lack of predators may have led to a decrease of energetically expensive (29, 30) and risky (31) climbing activities, while favoring significant terrestriality. Bipedal standing while foraging, combined with bipedal shuffling during frequent short distance travel during food gathering [in water], as recently described for wild chimpanzees (32), could have increased the
harvesting efficiency for this ape. The postcranial morphology of Oreopithecus clearly reflects such bipedal terrestrial activities. The peculiar feet, less suitable for fast walking or running than
those of early hominids, yield, however, an especially well designed platform for stable postural harvesting, as the tripod formed by the deviated metatarsals and the widely abducted hallux provides a large area of support. Short legs further increase stability during bipedal stance because the center of gravity is low. Both features, short legs and short lever arm of the feet, indicate short stride length and low speed and suggest bipedal shuffling.
http://www.pnas.org/content/94/21/11747.full

This sounds right, bipedal shuffling in freshwater swamps, while holding overhanging branches or cane stems, using one hand to hold it and the other to peel/pluck the bark/skin/fruit/oyster off and eat. This would select for better balance when reaching one hand above the head while the foot or feet were on soft substrata, rather than for walking in a straight line like at Laetoli. The straighter feet of apiths and Homo probably reflects predation, but doesn't eliminate wetland wade foraging in them similar to Oreopith.

The straighter feet (= adducted hallux?) (also?) suggest more swimming (paddle).

The long fingers and short toes of Opith may reflect crocs, where the ability to quickly get above the water was more significant than tree canopy climbing for food where long toes would be useful, as in siamangs.

Humans also have very short toes, but elongation hind feet, which makes the foot sole larger/longer for paddling?

Vegetation rafts may lack pure clay mud, but might have rotting organic material and very stinky & slimy mucky mud. But this does depend on the local environment, possibly it wasn't so bad. I know that cattail swamps are mucky and mosquito filled, I used to duck hunt in them autumns after it got cold. Significantly, being in a shallow boat was ok, it was the wading that was nasty. This was in the upper Mississippi river bottoms, somewhat equivalent to the Sudd, not
the Nile Delta. Elephants & hippos have extremely thick skin AFAIK, humans don't, neither do furry chimps. Mosquitoes, leeches, ticks, lice, fleas, parasitic worms, Schistomiasis, are all freshwater - forest related, they can't survive repeated saltwater submersion & sunlight UV
drying AFAIK.

I'm sorry if this sounds too negative. Perhaps the Mesopotamia marsh & Sudd was better than this, especially 5 Ma, who knows? I'm just saying that freshwater swamps are good for people but GREAT for some nasty things that are not good for people. Maybe the apiths had special adaptations that we don't know about, like manatee-style dense collagen skin or thick fur that was bug proof. Or maybe they had controlled smoky fires. Or push-pole rafts?

We don't know whether apiths were naked, but it's not unlikely: great apes are born with naked bodies.

If any hominoids became naked, it occurred in brackish/saline water I'd think, or else had very dense skin much thicker than humans. The infant apes I've seen have fluffy fur after the mother licks off the birth mucus. AFAIK apes have no other protection against mosquitoes and other parasites.

I guess it occurred at the Tethys coasts somewhere between 18 & 14 Ma or so. At first they lost body hair but kept head hair & pubic hair: this could have been where the hominid louse split into scalp louse Pediculus & pubic louse Pthirus.
---
Their estimate for the Pediculus-Pthirus divergence is 13 million years. Thirteen million is as much as twice the age of the human-gorilla common ancestor. This estimate is probably biased toward the recent side, since it is calibrated against a divergence between hominoid and baboon lice assumed at 22.5 million years ago -- probably more recent than the true hominoid-baboon divergence.
http://johnhawks.net/weblog/reviews/genetics/divergence/lice_gorilla_reed_2007.html
>
I don't know if the lesser apes have lice, but the orangutan doesn't IIRC. The Asian apes have sternal gland/pit which may be anti-mosquito anti-lice secretion (or possible attractant to bring mosquito/lice towards the chest to kill/eat).

A guess: the LCA HPGPo lived in the Caspian/black/Medit. and Tethys coast and had long red-brown body/head hair (mammoth like) and light skin. Po, Hn & Hs with red hair is primitive, black hair is derived from Africa post-fur loss.

To add to this, 700ka hippos were in London.

So about +/-20ma, the PeriTethys may have been subtropical, and the early Hominoids (various spp.) there may have had long thick red body hair, and fed on the AHV and reeds/sedges along the brackish but freshwater-fed inner sea coasts along with the woolly mammoths and hairy rhinos, all of which probably had some SC fat deposits (note fat pads of adult dominant male orangs, which may have assisted the then-growing laryngeal air sacs for flotation. Baby Asian elephants and young Sumatran rhinos have long red hair so are probably derived from the PeriTethyan kin after following the Tethys coast to India and Malay peninsula, possibly migrating along routes which were blocked during the ice ages and periodic droughts,
forcing alternate routes.

I don't know if European miocene ape (Dryopith, etc.) vertebrae have been found to compare with the Morotopith, they may have been identical or similar. Oreopith may have been a western variant, merely continuing the wetland foraging.

At some point, a "wetland bridge" connected Africa to Eurasia (elephants, rhinos, dryopith-HPG), much later a dry land bridge connected (ostriches?), resulting in two directional traffic. Today, the vast reed marshes of the Caspian, Aral and Black sea are on
the northern side of the seas, at that time perhaps also, with the caucasus mountains being small hills.

If true, the Dmanisi Hg may have had long red hair, and may have been more closely related to Hjava or Hflores or Hpeking than to derived HAfrica. The color of dried reeds is yellow/brown, not black, the flowers are light toned, so red/blonde hair on head would camoflage well. If If
the Miocene-Pliuocene-Pleistocene anthropoids did weave and sleep on reed nests, it would explain woven nests/baskets in HPGPo. Since lesser apes don't make nests, they may have been a dwarf ape specialized for eating the umbrels (flower/nut) at the stem top,rather than eating the lower pith and rhyzomes like the larger ones, that would explain why the gibbons prefer the canopy. Again, perhaps a parallel to some coastal lemurs.

I credit Falasha with part of this idea, since she brought up the sedge habitat concept and great illustrations.

My guess is HPG lost body hair while adapting to reed nests and float foraging but retained scalp hair (now lowland gorilla red patch, black body fur is new) to protect head while air sacs were inflated in water, but before entering Africa they had no lice (like the orang).

The LCA HPG lost both the sternal organ and long red fur coat due to long period of brackish immersion feeding of sedge rhyzomes and inverts./oysters while vert. sit/floating at tethys coastal wetlands. Upon contact in Africa or Arabia with OWM baboons, got head lice.

Increased hanging fruit foraging and improved tree climbing developed more and melanistic body hair with associated axillary/pubic apocrines due to sleeping in tree nests. Gorillas moved inland, getting a new black fur coat except on the chest (which attracts mosquitoes for killing?
Gorilla habit of slapping their chests?), gorilla fur is most similar to human pubic/axillary coarse hair, rather than human long scalp hair. HP at mangrove coasts, scalp hair became selected for black due to camouflage in shaded lower tree trunks and waterside foraging. P eventually moved more inland losing the tidal effect permanently but staying often at the lower understory rather than the upper canopy except to sleep in the thin branches at night. H stayed at shores most
of the time, dipping but not yet diving, so H head hair was more similar to P head hair until H began diving and backfloating, when the head louse evolved to attach to nest/net/clothing or long hair.---

When they got a fur again later, in gorillas the pubic louse replaced the scalp louse, in chimps the scalp louse replaced the pubic louse. Human kept a naked body, with scalp & pubic hair apart, so
scalp louse & pubic louse stayed where they were (but our pubic louse got recently
a sidebranch that adapted to clothing).

I accept periodic treks to freshwater cane/forests for ancient human ancestors, as in the Sudd, but not as permanent residents, until they had reed houses & reed boats. There's good reasons that apes don't spend so much time in freshwater, and choose a few selected spots, as opposed to hippos, elephants, pigs, rhinos which just make their own water holes in swamps, so as to avoid hidden crocs.

Lowland gorillas often spend a few hours in swamps.

Ndoki swamp seems to have no crocs for some reason? Nor hippos?

I have no idea. Elephants in deeper swamps are aggressive towards hippos & crocs??

I think that apiths, like apes, gave birth out of the water, though not sure. I think that Homo spp gave birth in calm saltwater lagoons, ringed by wave-stopping reefs. Possibly, they (a midwife/aunty) made a birthing pool with pebbles or used a tidepool. They weren't ignorant,
probably had a bunch of people with weapons around to watch out for predators. The afterbirth could be buried in the sand, I think thats what sea lions do. The blood dissipates within minutes in the sea. I just think that cane would be convenient to cut & bundle & float downstream to a bay or lagoon, maybe the first deliberate rafting? If a cane stem is broken or cut off with a sharp blade, and stored, how long will it last if unpeeled? Probably the cut-end would seal up,
and the pulp will stay moist for quite a while. Many people eat seaweed today, coconuts too.

The big toe of O'pith is an adaptation for verticle climbing for a species that never developed opposable hallux. Perhaps there was a particularly tastey fruit high up in a tree on their predatorless island?
Mosquitos could be alleviated by mud dressing such as elephants & hippos have accomplished with far lesser intelligence. If their rafts broke up they could just find another. Apparently
there are so many they create problems. I have a hard time imagining a mother giving birth to a baby in the ocean. Elaine has proven, to my satisfaction, that we went through a period of water births.

Did she? AFAIK she's not fond the hypothesis? It seems a better fit for a mother to have
food and protection at her disposal. If a mother gave birth in the ocean she would attract predators galore! And would have to hunt for food; either catch fish, bust open shellfish, smething! I have not seen any evidence that we consumed seaweed. How could a mother do
this?
Sudd (Arabic for Dam) is a floating papyrus island that can be 20ft deep and miles across. It is so strong that men AND ELEPHANTS can walk across. It's called plant rafts.
http://www.fao. org/DOCREP/ 006/X7580E/ X7580E08. htm

Ok, I misunderstood your meaning. You are saying that the hominids could climb onto the vegetative rafts of papyrus (not that they could climb up stems of papyrus) in order to escape predators such as leopards, hippos and crocs? And this parallels other areas like the Nile estuaries & the swamps of Mesopotamia & other areas like that. But a fur coat would seem mandatory since the mosquitos & water pathogens are thick there, and also the divergent big toe of Oreopithecus would seem advantageous for balance, just like wading & swimming birds have which frequently nest on floating vegetation rafts. I didn't see any mention of trees or wood on these isles, so wading stick spears & stones & shells would need to be gotten elsewhere.
If these types of vegetative rafts are washed into the ocean,they tend to break up quickly, unlike timber rafts.The once annual rainy season (per one site) & stagnant waters differ from the tidal coastal swamps & wetlands which flush daily bringing oxygen & nutrients. If Australopithecus was furred like a chimp and possessed airsacs, as Dik-1-1 indicates, then perhaps this type of habitat might have been productive foraging environment, in association with climbable
waterside trees. Despite the C4 food link, I have difficulty seeing how this Sudd habitat as primary home could have led to human descendants. Australopith did not lead to Hs, but to the Afr.apes lowland gorillas are still +-abundant in swamp forests, where they eat aq.herbs. Yes, I don't know if any hominoid or OWM lives in the Sudd swamps.

The mosquitoes alone would be problematic for altricial infants, thin yet furless skin would be an invitation for them, well scented adults would draw them in. Smoky fires would prevent them, but that requires fuel, fire making gear & knowledge.

In Egypt papyrus was a fuel for fires. Re our ancestral line, I can imagine with dugouts or reed bundle boats going there to harvest papyrus & fish, but not staying there. Before boats, perhaps foraging bundles of sedges, to be carried to the seashore at times, to supplement their seashore/frugivorous diet and provide bedding at shore caves? Perhaps inland apiths did develop at these wetlands.

Yes, likely: early gracile apiths (4-3 Ma) in denser swamp forests, later robust apiths (2-1 Ma) in more open wetlands. Thick enamel (not super-thick) in all hominids = part-time sedges?
I still have no idea what the thick enamel was for: protection against small
snails etc on aquatic herbs? a diet of hard-shelled invertebrates? for racking nuts? parts of palms? of sedges?? of bamboo?? It's usu.thought it was for very hard (not tough) plant foods, but another possibility is very calorie-poor plant parts. Orangs eat nuts, heard exocarps etc. Why did robusts (& Ouranopith in Greece) have even thicker enamel than the gracile
apiths & humans & orangs?
The late-Miocene apes in Africa also had (very?) thick enamel: Chorora-, Nakali- & Samburupith, but Samburupith is doubted by some to be hominid

http://jambo.africa.kyoto-u.ac.jp/kiroku/asm_suppl/abstracts/pdf/ASM_s32/51-62.pdf
See also"Phyletic affinities of Samburupithecus kiptalami: a late Miocene proconsulid"
AJ Olejniczak, DR Begun, E Mbua & J-J Hublin 2009 AAPA abstracts... Results reveal many characters in common between Samburup & early Miocene proconsulids ... The unique combination of these traits suggests affinities to proconsulids & precludes a close relationship to
Afr.apes & humans ...

http://books. google.com/ books?id= Vj7A9jJrZP0C& pg=PA227&
lpg=PA227& dq=papyrus+ taxonomy& source=web& ots=zr-_qizBLt&
sig=mr-jFNSsxV7K JRaszFlDpzpqaSg& hl=en&sa= X&oi=book_
result&resnum=
7&ct=result# PPA227,M1
"shallow rooted, small feeble stalk, large head," unlikely to have grown in the main stream of the Nile, due to current. doesn't sound easily climbable for a Hominid (with non-divergent big
toes). (Apparently Papyrus cyranus is not a biological taxon.)

The art of scientific interpretation

h/t evolving thoughts

Marine monuments & Wing diving

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090106/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_marine_conservation_5
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2009/01/20090106-7.html

Establishment of the Rose Atoll Marine National Monument
map

mahalo!

DDeden
kanaka haoli maoli
pakeha maori
papalani fufu
matsaleh bule

If any female (as dive partner) would like to join me in starting Islamarina Dive Clinic, partly based at Rose Atoll, American Samoa, USA, please email me at daud.deden@gmail.com, entitle it "DIVING". Rose Atoll is the southern-most land of the United States and the easternmost isle of the Malayo-Polynesian Samoan islands, and located south of the equator. I am very motivated to begin testing of the ARC there due to the warm clear lagoons and pristine environment. Collaborative non-competitive dive partnership preferred, the focus will be on natural aqua-photic respiratory cycle diving while evidence foraging, theory testing and photo-videographing. An internship may be possible in future, haven't worked out administrative details or funding yet. Come make a dream happen.




wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Rock, River & Renewal

The Ephemeral art of Andrew Goldsworthy http://scienceblogs.com/chaoticutopia/2008/12/the_ephemeral_art_of_andy_gold.php


Andy Goldsworthy's Rivers & Tides http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002JL9N6?ie=UTF8&tag=chaoticutopia-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=B0002JL9N6

New Year is upon us. Happy Peaceful New Year, Salam Muharram, Slainte Hogmanay, Selamat Tahun Baru, Bonne Année, Gungheefatzhai, Feliz año nuevo...


http://www.ncidc.org/photos/gallery2/85_2.htm#anchor291593
The Karuk people tradition of World Renewal: The altar is built in the form of a crescent up to eye level in height. It is within this wall that the Medicine Man Healer gathers the powers given to him to make medicine for his people - to bring an abundance of fish from the river and good hunting from the forest. The spring from which the Healer drinks is also sacred and kept covered to protect its purity for the next World Renewal Ceremony.

http://www.wiyot.com/history.htm
A central act in the Wiyot people's spirituality is an annual World Renewal Ceremony held at Tuluwat village. Indian Island, formerly called Duluwat Island, was and is the center of Wiyot world. On the island a ceremonial dance was held to start the new year. The ceremony was called the World Renewal ceremony. All people were welcomed, no one was turned away. The people ate mostly clams and acorns and made long carved log canoes. Healers and ceremonial leaders were mostly women, who got their powers on mountain tops at night.


I re-cycled a small woven sphere left there for renewal.

New Year celebration, colorful geodesic sphere at New York City Times Square.
http://www.timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye_ball.html

200 years since Darwin: Grand Rounds ~ Evolutionary Medicine http://www.moneduloides.com/?p=850

kanakahaoli: ]-[/-\\/\//-\||/-\|\|

Hajj pilgrims http://wallpapersyi.blogspot.com/2009/01/holy-hajj-pictures-2008.html

Round stone tool & round basket craft

Great apes construct woven tree shelters, using triangulated branches with a coil of leaves inside serving as a lining. Central African Bambuti people construct geodesic woven-branch domes externally covered with a coil of leaves to repel water. Were the first boats made from dome-derived baskets? Were they the arc (teba) of Moses (Hebrew) & Horus (Egyptian, eq. to Torus? see bottom of post), baskets covered with bitumen tar/pitch?
http://boatsandrice.org/wovenBamboo.html
torus
1560s, from L. torus "knot; cushion"


Roman Coliseum
Shark vertebrae
Basking shark vertebrae, from Coastal Paleontology [Unrelated to post title, but cool, like this stonehenge animation]
Stonehenge
More info on roof, and how the stones were moved, quite similar to Dick Parry's
idea of how the Giza Pyramid stone blocks were moved in 1/4 circle wood cradles.
rock n roll
pyra-cone roof


http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/fenn-05.html

"No one knows what this crescent-shaped tool was used for, though it has turned up in association with Clovis points elsewhere. While the tool's middle edges are dull from grinding, its ends remain sharp. It is made of chert from the Green River Formation of southwestern Wyoming and contiguous parts of Utah and Colorado. This is not far from where the cache is believed to have been found, the three corners area where Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho come together."
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.onlinenevada.org/media/image/Crescent-Fig-2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.onlinenevada.org/crescents&usg=__3T1y8_Tsy9ZV2kJExEbojTL6gkc=&h=334&w=500&sz=19&hl=en&start=7&tbnid=bRpWiNIfVz6_sM:&tbnh=87&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgreat%2Bbasin%2Bcrescents%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26sa%3DG

Crescent-shaped knapped stone (scraper?) from the Holocene have been found at Lake Baikal, Siberia and San Miguel Island California and the the Great Basin of Utah and coastal sites, often of obsidian or chert. Neat pic.

==================================================================

Thuyen Thung chai round basket boats, using woven split bamboo and plant sap as water sealant varnish

http://english.vovnews.vn/Home/Basket-boats-intertwined-with-Ngan-Ha-villages-history/20063/35366.vov


round basket using similar weave

typical woven pack basket



Video on hyper-origami. Math * Computer -> a single flat sheet of paper can form super complex forms. Used for folding metal stents in arteries, and folding mirrors in outer orbit space. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami.html

I made a paper sphere by making a takraw ball of 6 paper strips, then another long strip to make 12 trefoil knots (pentagons) which filled in the pentagon holes of the takraw ball. Cool. I'm sure it's possible to make a sphere from one single folded sheet of square paper, but it would be complex hyper-triangulated.

Knots and lashings
http://www.geocities.com/kinta_ke_19/skill/knot.htm

Torus: knot or cushion, Latin (Egyptian. Horus?)
stele
"upright slab," usually inscribed, 1820, from Gk. stele "standing block, slab," related to stellein "to set in order, arrange"
stet
direction to printer to disregard correction made to text, 1755, from L. stet "let it stand," third person singular present subjunctive of stare "to stand, stand upright, be stiff," from PIE base *sta- "to stand, set down, make or be firm" (cf. Skt. tisthati "stands;" Avestan histaiti "to stand;" Pers. -stan "country," lit. "where one stands;" Gk. histemi "put, place, weigh," stasis "a standing still," statos "placed," stater "a weight, coin," stylos "pillar;" L. sistere "stand still, stop, make stand, place, produce in court," status "manner, position, condition, attitude," statio "station, post;" Lith. stojus "place myself," statau "place;" O.C.S. staja "place myself," stanu "position," staru "old," lit. "long-standing;" Goth. standan, O.E. standan "to stand," O.N. steði "anvil," O.E. stede "place;" O.Ir. sessam "the act of standing").
Stalactite = stylos, galact = drip... did the first temple columns derive from cave stalactites?

Surf Diving Dolphins

How the pros do it!

Aquatic Theory

Datum: Fri, 5 Dec 2008 20:31:31 -0800 (PST)
Onderwerp: Elaine Morgan: 88 Years old and still head and shoulders above
your typical anthropologist

Anyone interested in human ancestry at the seashores should see Elaine Morgan talk on
the subject.

At 88, she is still knocking 'em cold with her common sense and logic.

Here's footage of a talk she gave recently at UCL.

Part 1 : http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aRrRzdIYzac

Part 2: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lHtWADJgsQI&feature=channel

Part 3: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Sra-MsmehAI&feature=channel

Part 4: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IgF0qeGWJI8&feature=channel

And here's an interview she did earlier...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=yd4LP1wedaQ

LOLturtles

Gator causes turtle traffic jam

164ma skye turtles in Scotland
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081119093227.htm

220ma 1/2- shelled turtles in China
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre4ap6hx-us-china-turtle/
http://scienceblogs.com/notrocketscience/2008/11/heroes_in_a_halfshell_show_how_turtles_evolved.php
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/11/odontochelys_a_transitional_tu.php?utm_source=mostactive&utm_medium=link
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAT/message/48820
Also, vets used ultrasound to find a gallstone in a soft-shelled pancake turtle.

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

Evolving tides

http://vimeo.com/1914765?pg=embed&sec=1914765

Magnificent Polar arctic & antarctic show and music (aria de amor (tosca))



h/t jeanie

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"

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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.

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.stm

The 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, Ethiopia
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.

M174

http://dienekes.blogspot.com/2008/10/60000-year-old-y-chromosome-haplogroup.html

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