Tag Archives: largest

Preserving the Philippines’ largest flower for future generations

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Rafflesia panchoana on Mount Kemalgon in the Philippines

Chris Thorogood

rafflesia It is a parasitic plant that spends most of its life cycle inside its host tropical vine, emerging only to flower. Its flowers are the largest in the world, reaching a length of one meter. Despite this, little is known about its life cycle and it is almost impossible to grow.

Deceiver of Rizantes, a relative of Rafflesia in the hill forests of Bengkulu, Sumatra

Chris Thorogood

half of Rafflesia species Most of the organisms known to science have been described in the past 20 years, and since then most of them have come close to extinction. This is a plant at risk. On a recent visit to the Philippines, I saw the population shrinking to make way for agricultural crops. As is often the case, small farmers were in charge. They are simply people trying to make ends meet.

view of bungkulu

Chris Thorogood

What's the solution? Protecting habitat is the best safeguard.However, this only works if you know the location rafflesia It happens first. In many cases, this is not the case. Local community action groups are essential to monitor the population in this regard.

Showing the size of Rafflesia arnoldi in southern Bengkulu

Chris Thorogood


Beyond habitat conservation, most plants can be protected in seed banks and botanical gardens.but rafflesia It is a refractory parasite. The only botanical garden where it has been successfully cultivated is in Bogor, Indonesia. rafflesia-Infected vines are grafted onto new uninfected rootstock.

Chris Thorogood, Freddy Chavez, Adrian Tobias, and Pastor Malabrigo Jr. with Rafflesia grafts in the Sierra Madre Mountains of the Philippines.

Chris Thorogood

In 2022, my colleagues Pastor Malabrigo Jr. and Pastor Adrian Tobias from the University of the Philippines Los Baños and I went to Bogor to learn how to grow what cannot grow. When we returned to the Philippines, we conducted the first attempt in the history of this country. rafflesia Breeding within forest reserves.If our R. Panchoana If the transplant is successful, a template for propagation is created. rafflesia This species is on the verge of extinction in the Philippines.

Chris Thorogood (@thorogoodchris1) is Deputy Director of the Oxford University Botanic Garden and author of the following books: pathless forest

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Triassic ichthyosaurs: massive superpredators possibly ranking as the largest animals ever recorded

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Impression of Stenopterygius quadrissis, a type of ichthyosaur

Dotted Zebra / Alamy Stock Photo

Prehistoric Earth was home to monsters. They included a 2.5 meter long millipede, a flying reptile with an 11 meter wingspan, and a snake weighing more than a ton. But common sense says that if you're looking for the biggest animal of all time, there's no need to go back in time. Blue whales are known for reach 30 meters The length and weight reach 199 tons. In more than 500 million years of animal evolution, even the largest dinosaurs have no equal.

Conventional wisdom may be wrong. The fossil record may hide animals that were even larger than blue whales. For decades, evidence has trickled in that truly gigantic superpredators swam the oceans 200 million to 250 million years ago. Now, a series of discoveries and reanalyses of previous findings have dramatically supported this claim.

The impact is far-reaching. We don't know exactly what this giant animal looked like, and it doesn't even have a name. But we are beginning to understand how such gigantic creatures were able to feed themselves in prehistoric oceans. If confirmed to be larger than a blue whale, it would indicate that we may have significantly underestimated how large toothed carnivores can grow. More than that, the discovery that such a Leviathan emerged so soon after the most devastating mass extinction in Earth's history suggests that we may need to rethink the factors driving evolution on such a grand scale. ing.

When dinosaurs ruled the land, several groups of marine reptiles also ruled.

Source: www.newscientist.com

7,300 years ago saw the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history.

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Iojima is itself a volcano, located on the edge of the massive underwater Akahoya volcanic caldera.

Asahi Shimbun via Getty Images

The largest volcanic eruption in current geological time occurred underwater off the southern coast of Japan about 7,300 years ago. This explosion produced more than three times as much material as the eruption of Mount Tambora, the largest known modern eruption. Mount Tambora exploded in Indonesia in 1815, causing dramatic climate changes that led to the “Year Without a Summer” in 1816.

The new record holder, the Kikai Akahoya eruption, originated from a submerged caldera in an area off Japan's Kyushu island.

The devastating impact this eruption had on humans living on nearby islands has been recorded by geologists and archaeologists, and analysis of volcanic ash deposits has shown that this eruption was the most recent geological event that began 11,700 years ago. It was shown to be one of the largest eruptions of the Holocene era. .

However, the origin and scale of the explosion were unclear because of the difficulty in accessing the submarine caldera, the crater formed after the volcanic eruption, and the volcanic deposits on the ocean floor.

now, Nobukazu Sema Professors at Japan's Kobe University calculated that the Kikai-Akahoya eruption produced far more rock and ash underwater than previously thought, about 70 cubic kilometers. Combining this with previous estimates from volcanic rocks deposited over Japan, the total amount of material pumped out of the volcano equates to more than 300 cubic kilometers of material. This is twice the amount of water in Lake Tahoe in the western United States. “It was huge, more than we expected,” Seema says.

However, it is still far behind the huge eruption of Indonesia's Toba supervolcano, which released more than 2,500 cubic kilometers of magma about 74,000 years ago.

To assess Kikai Akahoya, Seema and his colleagues conducted seismic surveys and mapped the underwater area around the caldera, about 200 meters below the surface. This allowed them to see layers of material around the volcano, but they could not tell which ones were due to the eruption itself.

The researchers used remote-controlled drilling robots to collect sediment from the ocean floor, take core samples from the underlying rock, and identify layers containing characteristic volcanic glass. This data allowed us to isolate the volcanic layers from seismic surveys and calculate the total amount of material produced by the volcano.

“We know that very large, caldera-forming eruptions like this are rare, but we also know that there have been many more of these events in the geological past, and we have found evidence for them. ” he says. David Pyle at Oxford University.

The main reason it took so long for the scale of the eruption to be determined is because calderas deep under the sea are difficult to locate and measure, he said.

It still remains in the Kikai Akahoya caldera. big magma chamber It's below. If this explodes, there could be another eruption, but it's unclear how big it will be because it depends on the size of the magma chamber, Seema said. He says the chance of an eruption is small, but his team is working on measuring the dome more precisely to better understand the risks.

Creating better models to predict future eruptions by combining historical information from past eruptions, such as the Kikai-Akahoya eruption, with research from recent underwater eruptions, such as the 2022 Hunga-Tonga eruption. Pyle says it could help.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Largest black hole energizes the most luminous entity in the cosmos

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Artist's impression of record-breaking quasar J0529-4351

ESO/M.Kornmesser

A quasar 500 trillion times brighter than the Sun has earned the title of the brightest known object in the universe. It appears to be powered by a supermassive black hole that devours a sun-sized mass every day.

Quasars are the centers of galaxies where gas and dust falling into a supermassive black hole emit energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. christian wolff Researchers at the Australian National University in Canberra will discover a new object called J0529-4351 in 2022 by scouring data from the Gaia Space Telescope and looking for extremely bright objects outside the Milky Way that have been mistaken for stars. The brightest quasar was discovered for the first time.

Follow-up observations from the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile revealed that it is the brightest object in the universe as we know it.

Wolf and his colleagues used an instrument on the VLT called a spectrometer to analyze the light coming from J0529-4351 and calculate how much was produced by the black hole's swirling disk of gas and matter, called the accretion disk. did. This revealed that J0529-4351 is the fastest growing black hole in the universe, swallowing about 413 solar masses per year, or more than one sun per day.

Using the spectra of these lights, the researchers calculated that the mass of the black hole was between 5 billion and 50 billion solar masses.

Wolf and his colleagues also discovered the brightest quasar to date in 2018, about half as bright as J0529-4351. Wolf believes this new discovery is likely to account for most of the observable sky and remain the record holder for some time. Now, thanks to extensive star catalogs like those created by Gaia, they can be studied in great detail. “This is the largest unicorn we've ever found with the longest horn on its head. I don't think this record will ever be surpassed,” Wolf says.

The quasar's accretion disk appears to be the widest ever known, measuring 7 light-years in diameter. It says this provides a rare opportunity to directly image a black hole and precisely measure its mass. Christine Dunn At Durham University, UK. “This is large enough and bright enough that it can be solved with current equipment,” he says Done. “That means we can more directly measure the mass of this monster black hole. I was very excited about that.”

VLT is currently upgrading its spectroscopic equipment as part of the Gravity+ project, which should allow it to resolve the characteristics of J0529-4351 in detail. This means different parts of a quasar's accretion disk can be distinguished and better understood, but it could take several years, Dunn said.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

China unveils the largest onshore wind turbine blade in the world

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Blades forming part of the world's largest onshore wind turbine

Sanichi Renewable Energy

The largest onshore wind turbine blade in world history has been manufactured in China. Each foil is 131 meters long, enough to dwarf Big Ben or the Statue of Liberty.

Once installed in central China in the coming months, each structure containing a 15-megawatt turbine and three blades will be more than 260 meters in diameter.

The SY1310A onshore wind turbine blades were manufactured by SANY Renewable Energy at its factory in Bayannur, northern China.

The company said in a statement that the longer blade length increases requirements for stiffness and strength, as well as the need for protection from extreme weather events such as lightning strikes.

“Several advanced innovations have been applied to this blade, including a high-performance airfoil with a thick, blunt trailing edge, an optimized airfoil layout, and increased overall thickness.” .

Peter Majewski Researchers at the University of South Australia say the advantage of such large wind turbines is that the larger they are, the fewer turbines are needed. “But the bigger they are, the more visible they are, so it has to be socially acceptable to build such large structures,” he says.

“These are huge structures that are expensive to build and just as expensive to remove.”

Wind turbine blades may continue to grow in size, but the logistics of transporting such huge blades make their use difficult, Majewski said. It also says manufacturers and society need to consider what will happen to these structures as they age.

Majewski is researching the issue of recycling wind turbine blades.in 2022 surveyHe and his colleagues predicted that tens of thousands of tons of wind farm blades could have to go to landfill by 2050, when existing turbines reach the end of their 20- to 30-year lifespans.

However, he welcomed the use of recycled polyurethane as part of the construction of these newly announced blades.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The Extinction of the World’s Largest Ape: A Result of Climate Change

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HONG KONG — Didn't fall from the Empire State Building.

Instead, the giant ape, sometimes called the “real King Kong,” was driven to extinction by climate change that made its favorite fruit unavailable during the dry season, according to a new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. The results have been announced.

An artist's impression of a herd of giant apes Gigantopithecus blackii in a forest landscape in southern China.Southern Cross University/AFP – Getty Images

They can grow up to 10 feet tall and weigh up to 650 pounds. Gigantopithecus brachy Hundreds of thousands of years ago, they roamed the forested plains of southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, feeding on fruits and flowers.

But researchers have discovered that the apes' harsh diet may have led to the species' extinction.

The herbivorous apes made the “fatal mistake of becoming reluctant to change their food preferences to find new, more nutritious foods,” the study's lead researcher Yin-chi Chan said Thursday. told NBC News.

“As the environment changed, the food this great ape preferred became unavailable. But this great ape did not adapt to its dietary preferences. It remained dependent on a diet with low nutritional value. ” he added.

Zhang, a Beijing-based paleontologist, said the creatures stuck to dense forests, while apes like orangutans quickly adapted and moved into open forests, eating small animals.

Gigantopithecus blackii, thought to be the largest primate on Earth, roamed the plains of southern China before going extinct. Southern Cross University/AFP – Getty Images

The reason for the species' extinction has been a mystery ever since a tooth was discovered in a Hong Kong pharmacy in 1935 by German-Dutch paleontologist Gustav Heinrich Ralph von Königswald. It was sold as “Dragon Tooth”.

This discovery led to extensive research for more fossils, but 85 years later, only 2,000 isolated teeth and parts of the lower jaw have been discovered. No parts other than the skull were recovered.

Without a “precise timeline” of extinctions, “we're looking for clues in the wrong places,” said Kira Westaway, one of the study's lead authors and a geochronologist at Macquarie University in Sydney. says.

However, the researchers were able to use one of the latest techniques, called “luminescence dating,” which allowed them to determine the age of the soil around the fossils in 22 caves in southern China.

From this, they concluded that the great apes went extinct between 295,000 and 215,000 years ago.

“Now we have a target zone. We have a target period. So we start looking at changes in the environment,” Westaway said.

The researchers also found clues in the fauna around the cave, with analysis of pollen and wear on the great apes' teeth showing that changing seasons led to a lack of fruit and reduced reliance on less nutritious food. It became clear that he was no longer able to earn money.

“Gigants couldn't really expand their foraging range to find more suitable food because they're so big. Orangutans are also very small, mobile, and very “It's agile,” Westaway said, adding that the new study provided a blueprint for further research into the main extinction event.

“You need to get a very precise timeline. You need to look at what the environment is doing and then look at how they acted,” she said.

From about 2 million to 22 million years ago, dozens of species of great apes lived in Africa, Europe, and Asia. Today, only gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans remain.

Westaway said the research could also open the door to future possibilities for how humans can adapt to adverse weather events and ensure species survival.

“This sets a precedent for trying to understand how primates respond to environmental stress and what makes certain primates vulnerable and what makes others resilient.” she says.

Mitchell Agarwal

Mithil Aggarwal is a reporter and producer for NBC News based in Hong Kong.

alice kong

Alice Kong is an intern on NBC News' Asia desk.

Associated Press contributed.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

Largest ancient city ever discovered found in the Amazon

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Lidar scan of Ecuador’s Upano Valley reveals raised platform

Stephen Rostain

Aerial survey reveals the largest previously discovered pre-colonial city in the Amazon, connected by an extensive road network.

“This settlement is much larger than other settlements in the Amazon,” he says. Stefan Rostain at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris. “They are equivalent to Maya sites.”

Additionally, these cities are between 3,000 and 1,500 years old, making them older than other pre-Columbian cities found in the Amazon. It is not clear why the people who built them disappeared.

The Amazon rainforest was thought to be largely untouched until Italian explorer Christopher Columbus arrived in the Americas in the 15th century. In fact, the first Europeans reported seeing many farms and towns in the area.

These reports, long ignored, have been borne out in recent decades by the discovery of ancient earthworks and vast expanses of black soil created by farmers.According to some estimates, the pre-Columbian population of the Amazon was Up to 8 million.

Since the 1990s, Rostain and his colleagues have been studying archaeological sites in the Upano Valley of the Amazon River in Ecuador, in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Traces of an ancient settlement were first discovered there in his 1970s, but only a few remains have been excavated.

In 2015, Rostain’s team conducted an aerial survey using LIDAR, a laser scanning technology that can create detailed 3D maps of the surface beneath most vegetation, revealing features that are normally invisible to the eye. did. The findings, which have just been published, show that the settlements were much more widespread than anyone realized.

The survey revealed more than 6,000 raised earth platforms within an area of ​​300 square kilometers. These are the sites where wooden buildings once stood, and excavations have revealed postholes and fireplaces in these buildings.

Most of the platforms are approximately 10 x 20 meters and 2 meters high and are believed to be the site of residential buildings. The largest was 40×140 meters and 5 meters high and was considered the site of a monumental building used for rituals.

Surrounding the home were fields, many of which were drained by small canals dug around them. “The valley has been almost completely modified,” Rostain says.

Analysis of pottery suggests that corn, beans, caniolk, and sweet potatoes were cultivated.

Overall, there were five major settlements in the study area. According to Rostain, these could be described as garden cities because of their low density of buildings.

The survey also revealed a network of straight roads made by digging out soil and piling it up on the sides. The longest span at least 25 kilometers, but may extend beyond the surveyed area.

Upano Valley in Ecuador

Stephen Rostain

What's strange, Rostain says, is that the people of Upano went to great lengths to straighten the road. For example, in one place they dug down 5 meters instead of along the contour line. So the road probably had a symbolic meaning, he says, since there was no practical reason to make it straight.

There are traces of defensive structures such as ditches in places, suggesting that there may have been some sort of conflict between groups.

In the rest of the Amazon, many settlements were abandoned after the arrival of Europeans, as most of the population died from disease and violence, probably caused by the invaders.

However, the Upano artifacts dated by Rostain's team are all more than 1,500 years old, suggesting that the valley settlements were abandoned after this period, long before colonial times. doing. It's not clear why, but the team found layers of volcanic ash, suggesting a series of eruptions may have forced people to leave the valley.

“This demonstrates the unprecedented degree of complexity and density of payments in this early period,” he says. michael heckenberger at the University of Florida. “The authors rightly conclude that the complexity and scale are now comparable to well-known cases such as the Maya.”

“This is the largest complex containing a large settlement ever found in the Amazon,” he says. charles clement at the National Amazonian Institute in Manaus, Brazil.

They were also found in an area of ​​the Amazon that other researchers had concluded was sparsely inhabited during the pre-Columbian period, Clement said.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

The Top Podcast of the Week: Exploring the Metropolitan Police Department’s Largest Crime Bust

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This week’s picks

football greats
Wide range of weekly episodes available
Was Ian Wright a better footballer than Alan Shearer? How do players communicate with foreign teams who only know the word “Bobby Charlton”? Geoff Stelling discusses these questions with guests including Paul Merson, Glenn Hoddle and Sir Geoff Hurst. In the first episode, Stelling reunites with Soccer Saturday partner Chris Kamara and relives many fond memories, including the origin of that iconic “I can’t believe it, Jeff!” Catchphrase. Hannah Verdier

Blindspot: Plague in the Shadows
Wide range of weekly episodes available
This podcast focuses on New York, where misinformation and misinformation were rife in the early days of the HIV epidemic. WNYC’s Kai Wright has been a reporter on the ground since 1996, and is not critical of how people in need are denied access to medical care. Dr. Anthony Fauci was among those interviewed, along with activists from the 1980s. HV

On January 6, 2021, supporters of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. Photo: Mandel Gunn/AFP/Getty Images

capture the kingpin
BBC Sounds, weekly episodes
If you enjoy a podcast filled with drug dealing, corruption, and encrypted phone networks, then this six-part show about the Metropolitan Police’s biggest organized crime bust is for you. As host Mobeen Azhar puts it, the story becomes “increasingly shocking” as we uncover inside stories from the squad that infiltrated key figures in the criminal organization. HV

less is better
Episodes will be widely available weekly starting Sunday, January 14th
Is it better for your health to eat high-quality meat or eat less meat? This month, promoting vegan curiosity and positive health messages, Katie Revell and Olivia Oldham explore what it’s like to raise and slaughter animals, and how culture and education influence people’s preferences. Find out whether it is easy to give and buy good things. HV

January 6: America’s Story
Wide range of weekly episodes available
As we mark the third anniversary of the storming of the U.S. Capitol and with Donald Trump set to become the next Republican nominee, Our Body Politics on the people of color who helped lead the committee investigation on January 6th is an insightful series. They talk about their experiences, starting with why they chose to protect a country that doesn’t always protect them. Holly Richardson

There’s a podcast for that

Oprah Winfrey speaks on Oprah’s “2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus” tour. Photo: Steve Jennings/Getty Images

this week, Rachel Aroesti Our picks for the 5 best podcasts featuring true storyfrom a chronicle of LGBT heroes to the remarkable rise of Oprah Winfrey.

unusual life
Truth is always stranger than fiction, this fascinating series from the BBC World Service delicately unearths some of the most remarkable stories of human endeavor. I am amazed at the determination of Tariq Mehmood, one of the bradford 12, He was arrested as a young man for trying to protect himself from skinhead violence and became a novelist. In the drama “Prison His Break'' Jaibet uses his knowledge of Papua to escape from an inhumane immigration camp in New Guinea as he is overwhelmed by Nous of Elom. And just as amazed by the courage of Laura Dekker, who decided to travel around the world alone at the age of 13 (much to the surprise of the Dutch authorities).

making gay history
Journalist Eric Marcus established himself as a leading authority on 20th century gay life with his award-winning 1992 book Making History. In this moving podcast, he revisits his extensive archive of interviews to allow key figures in the LGBT rights movement to tell their own stories. Celebrities like early transgender activist Sylvia Rivera, playwright Larry Kramer, and television host Ellen DeGeneres, as well as lesser-known figures whose activism has made the world a safer place for queer people. I’ll listen to you.

CEO diary
Money can’t buy happiness. And just because you make millions doesn’t automatically mean you’re considered an inspirational person. But it’s also true that entrepreneur Stephen Bartlett’s hit interview podcast frequently serves as motivational rocket fuel. Since 2017, Bartlett has relentlessly questioned business leaders about their childhoods, work habits, and the philosophies they live by, unearthing practical, life-changing advice for his listeners. Since then, he has expanded his remit to include headline-grabbing celebrities including Davina McCall, Maisie Williams, Liam Payne, and Jesse Lingard.

hidden heroes of history
From energetic secret agent Virginia Hall and her epic prison escape to Surrey banker Eric Roberts’ hunt for Nazi sympathizers, this thrilling podcast narrated by Helena Bonham Carter explores perseverance from the second world. Relive some of the most amazing feats and stories of damnation. war. Along with stories of spies, we hear about the remarkable artistic resistance of Claude Cahan and Marcel Moore, and the pioneering feminism of Major Charity Adams, the first black officer to serve in the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps.

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The World’s Top 10 Largest Cities

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Since the world’s population reached 8 billion on November 15, 2022, various predictions have been made about when the world’s population will reach its peak. Studies vary, with some suggesting that the world’s population will peak at 8.8 billion by mid-century and then begin to decline. Other predictions, such as those made by the United Nations, world population By the 2080s, the number could exceed 10 billion.

In any case, the massive increase in population has created significant congestion in some of the world’s largest cities, raising major concerns about pollution and overcrowding.

To put this list in some perspective, Greater London in the UK has a whopping 8.9 million people, and New York in the US has a population of about 8.5 million.

Here are the 10 most populous cities on Earth and what it’s like to live there.

10. Osaka, Japan – 19.2 million people

Aerial view of Osaka city.Photo credit: Getty Images

Approximately 19.2 million people live in the Keihanshin metropolitan area, which includes Japan’s third-largest city, Osaka. Historically an important center of commerce and industry, the city remains a financial center with many of Japan’s largest companies based there.

Osaka is famous for its food culture and modern architecture, making it a popular destination for tourists. And thanks to a middling public transport system, unheard of in the UK, the city’s Underground carries more than 900 million passengers a year.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Giant sea scorpions, the largest insects, were all predators.

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All pterosaur eurypterids (sea scorpions), giant aquatic arthropods with large claws, were considered apex predators, but some scientists believe that certain species are not predatory because their claws are weak. suggested. New research reveals that their claws were stronger and were only used to capture prey. Other appendages chewed it up. Fossils found in the pterosaur eurypterids show that some species specialized in lightly armored crustaceans and fishes, but most species specialized in heavily armored fishes.

Size of sea scorpions (Euripterids) over time.pterosaur eurypterid Jachelopterus (Background), the largest arthropod of all time, and a eurypterid of the Hibertopteridae family. Siltoctenus (Foreground) The size of a human (an average British male) compared to the silhouette of its eurypterid relatives. Image credit: Simon Powell.

Sea scorpions (family Eurypteridae) are ancient aquatic creepy crawlers (arthropods) that lived long before the dinosaurs, from 467 million to 253 million years ago.

These include the “pterygoids” (428 to 391 million years ago), which had large, fearsome claws. Grows up to 2.5 meters longthe biggest bug that ever existed.

An extinct millipede called Arthropleura was It is claimed that it is even largerHowever, if the length of 12 to 14 preserved body segments is 76 cm, the body length of an animal with 32 segments is (76/12 x 32), which is just over 2 m (excluding the head).

All pterosaurs, eurypterids, were thought to have been ferocious apex predators. tyrannosaurus About their time.

Later, some scientists believed that pterygoid claws acutiramus It could only catch and slice weak, soft-bodied prey, and its eyesight wasn't sharp enough Becoming a predator.It has been demoted from the top echelon of predators and even a label is attached “Pussycat”.

According to new research, nails acutiramus It was much more robust. Suggestions that they would snap were based on incorrect assumptions.

The apparent lack of an “elbow joint” doesn't hurt either. This was at the base of the nail. Also, the claws were used only for catching prey. If it had more powerful mouthparts in the groin, it would kill or chew it up.

It doesn't matter that their eyesight is poor either. Their prey is large, and some non-predatory insects (such as bees and butterflies) have eye indicators similar to arthropods that were considered predators.

Computer modeling and experiments with robotic swimming eurypterids also show that pterosaurs were slower swimmers than expected. They were so large that relatively small swim paddles could not provide sufficient propulsion, so a flat tail (telson) served both as a rudder and as propulsion.

Analysis of the types of fossils found with pterygomorphs also suggests that: acutiramus It specializes in lightly armored crustaceans (called foliaceans) and pterophytes. Eretopterus Therodont fish and pterigotus and Jachelopterus About the more heavily armored placoderm fish.

Evidence of predation (claw marks) and fossilized feces (coprolites) confirm that some eurypterids ate armored fish, trilobites, and even other eurypterids.

Previous studies have generally dismissed suggestions that Eurypteridae influenced the evolution of early vertebrates (fish) in a predator-prey arms race, but this new study This suggests that pterosaurs and other eurypterids probably had some influence on the evolution of early vertebrates.

The evolutionary relationships of pterygoids have also changed. Their shape, vision, fossil associations, ecology, and stratigraphic record all indicate that: acutiramus It was more basic Jachelopterus and pterigotus.

This is the largest arthropod in history (Jachelopterus lenaniae) It is now estimated to be about 2.6 meters long, 10 centimeters longer than previous estimates. The biggest bug is now a little bigger.

this paper will appear in Earth Science Bulletin.

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S. J. Brady. 2023. Paleoecology of the pterygoid eurypterids: Pladicnia and paleontological assemblages. Earth Science Bulletin 98(4); doi: 10.3140/bull.geosci.1891

Source: www.sci.news

Largest Mobile Company in Britain Files £3bn Lawsuit for Overcharging Loyal Customers | UK News

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Vodafone, EE, Three and O2 are facing a class action lawsuit worth “over £3 billion” for allegedly using their market power to overcharge up to 28.2 million mobile phone contracts in the UK.

Four major network operators are accused of penalizing loyal customers, customers who pay more for the same service than new customers.

Many contracts provide for repaying the price of the smartphone in stages over two to three years, but the company reportedly did not reduce the monthly fee once the device was paid for.

The suit, brought by former Citizens Advice executive Justin Gutman and law firm Charles Lyndon, is seeking at least £3.285 billion in damages.

Mr Gutmann claimed that if successful, affected consumers could receive up to £1,823 each.

The class action was filed at the Competition Appeal Court in London.

All eligible consumers will automatically be included in your bill free of charge unless you follow specific opt-out steps.

This complaint follows a ‘super complaint’ made by Citizens Advice to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in September 2018, following the CMA’s finding that: You paid for the device at the end of the minimum contract period.

“This is unfair and it has to stop.”

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Mr Gutmann said: “I am bringing this class action because these four mobile phone companies have systematically exploited millions of loyal customers across the UK through loyalty penalties, leaving hard-working people and their families out of pocket. “We believe that more than £3 billion has been extracted from the public.” .

“These companies continued to take advantage of their customers despite the 2008 financial crisis, COVID-19, and now the cost of living crisis. It’s time to hold them accountable.”

A spokesperson for O2 said: “To date, we have not been able to contact our legal team regarding this allegation. However, 10 years ago we entered into a separation agreement that automatically and completely reduces our customers’ bills. We’re proud to be the first provider to start.” I have finished paying my mobile phone bill.

“We have long called for an end to ‘smartphone fraud’ and for other mobile phone carriers to stop the egregious practice of charging customers for phones they already own. Ta.”

An EE spokesperson said: “We strongly oppose the speculative claims being brought against us. EE has a wide range of tariffs and a robust process for dealing with contract termination notices.” Stated.

“The UK mobile market is highly competitive, with pricing among the lowest in all of Europe.”

Vodafone said: “This matter has only recently come to our attention and we do not yet have sufficient details for our legal team to assess.”

Source: news.sky.com