Tag Archives: Swim

Bolivian Fossil Site Captures Thousands of Cretaceous Dinosaur Footprints, Tail Marks, and Swim Trails

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The Carreras Pampas archaeological site within Bolivia’s Toro Toro National Park has documented 1,321 tracks and 289 isolated footprints, totaling 16,600 theropod dinosaur footprints. Additionally, 280 swim tracks have been identified, amounting to 1,378 swim tracks in total. Some of the tracks include tail traces.

Dinosaur footprints at the Carreras Pampas Stadium in Bolivia’s Toro Toro National Park. Image credit: Esperante et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0335973.

Bolivia boasts one of the most comprehensive and diverse records of dinosaur footprints globally, covering the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods.

Despite the abundance of track sites, there has been limited scientific research published.

A recent study led by paleontologist Raul Esperante from the Institute of Geosciences, along with his colleagues, has documented an extraordinary variety of dinosaur footprints at the Carreras Pampas site in Toro Toro National Park.

In nine different study areas, the research team uncovered 16,600 footprints left by three-toed theropod dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous.

These footprints vary in size from small (less than 10 cm) to large (over 30 cm) and capture a range of dinosaur behaviors, including running, swimming, tail dragging, and abrupt turns.

“The waist height of most (80%) of the trackmakers was between 65 cm and 1.15 meters, with a significant portion measuring between 75 cm and 1.05 meters,” stated the paleontologist.

“Interestingly, very few trackmakers exceeded 1.25 meters in height.”

The majority of these footprints are oriented approximately northwest to southeast, and the sediments retain ripple marks, indicating that these dinosaurs traversed ancient shorelines.

“The Carreras Pampas track set a new world record for the number of individual dinosaur footprints, continuous tracks, tail marks, and swimming marks,” the researchers noted.

“This exceptional frequency suggests it was a heavily trafficked area, and the parallel alignment of some footprints may imply groups of dinosaurs traveled together.”

“Numerous more footprints at this site and other locations in Bolivia remain to be studied,” they added.

“This site offers a remarkable glimpse into the region’s past. It reveals not only how many dinosaurs inhabited the area but also their behaviors during migration.”

“It’s truly incredible to work here, as the ground is covered with dinosaur footprints wherever you look.”

The team’s findings were published in the online journal PLoS ONE.

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R. Esperante et al. 2025. Morphology, preservation, and taphonomy of dinosaur footprints, tail prints, and swim tracks in the world’s largest athletic arena: Carreras Pampas, Toro Toro National Park, Bolivia (Upper Cretaceous). PLoS One 20 (12): e0335973; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0335973

Source: www.sci.news

The Science of Swim Trunks: An Analysis of Fit and Tightness

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Feedback is New Scientist A well-regarded outlet that observes the latest in science and technology news. If you have suggestions for articles that may interest our readers, please reach out via email at feedback@newscientist.com.

Too Harsh to Mention

Feedback encompasses numerous holidaymakers who have breached France’s swimming attire regulations. For those unaware, French law mandates men use tight-fitting swim briefs in public pools, while loose shorts are forbidden. This explains the absence of feedback from French pools.

Feedback refers to these snug garments as “budgie smugglers,” an Australian slang term that has crossed over to Britain. I later discovered that there’s an Aussie swimwear brand named Budgy Smuggler, famous for its swim briefs adorned with vibrant hibiscus patterns, which deterred me from pursuing further.

Now, let’s wander back to the core issues. Associate editor Thomas Leslie came across a research paper on medRxiv titled “Crossover Research Between Male Scholars” discussing the advantages of swim trunks versus shorts. It’s intriguing to ponder what search queries Thomas utilized to find this study.

Diving deeper, the authors clarify that France’s insistence on briefs is due to hygiene concerns, stating “loose clothing could introduce external contaminants into the pool environment.” However, “these claims remain unverified.” To investigate, they recruited 21 male academics, enticing them with free swim briefs, and instructed them to wear shorts or briefs for two hours, followed by soaking them in water. The researchers analyzed the water for bacteria and discovered higher bacterial counts from shorts compared to briefs.

In a follow-up, five participants attempted to swim in “local waters,” leading to quite an eventful experience: one volunteer had his clothes stolen, resulting in an awkward public spectacle. Another phase involved participants drying their briefs on a rock while swimming in their shorts. Canis lupus familis—I momentarily urinated at [them].

Feedback requires, I must admit, I was somewhat perplexed by the experiment. If shorts harbor more germs but you must wring them out to release microbes into the water, does it make a significant difference? The researchers themselves express uncertainty regarding the findings, noting that the pressure the briefs exert might reduce rectal contact with the fabric, possibly influencing the results.

Alternatively, fluid dynamics could play a crucial role in bacteria release from the shorts. The authors write, “Interestingly, the influence of pool hydrodynamic resistance on bacterial shedding remains poorly understood, and to our knowledge, no previous study has evaluated the fluid dynamics of various swimsuit types.” Someone should definitely draft that grant proposal.

Bold Bald Physique

It has finally happened: LEGO reached an agreement with the owners of Star Trek. The first release features a large model of the USS Enterprise-D from The Next Generation.

Kudos to the designer who tackled such a challenging task. The sleek curves and elusive straight lines of the Enterprise-D make it a significant feat to construct from primarily rectangular blocks.

Regrettably, the LEGO team overlooked a minor error in this design process. Hidden within the model is a plate inscribed with: “Be bold and go where no one has gone before.”

Funky Rodent

Concerned that your lab mice are losing interest, you ponder playing music to entertain them. What should be on the playlist?

This query was posed by Johann Maas and his collaborators in a study published in Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience titled “Taylor Swift vs. Mozart: C57BL/6J Mouse’s Music Taste”.

The authors observe that researchers usually select the same pieces for mice, predominantly Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major K.448 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a composition believed to enhance children’s intelligence, known as the “Mozart effect,” which has been largely discredited over time. This skepticism gained traction in a 2010 study titled “Mozart Effect – Schmozart Effect: Meta-Analysis”.

It seems peculiar that biologists are so fixated on playing this supposedly non-intelligence-boosting Mozart piece. The authors note, “Mice can hear sounds ranging from about 2 kHz to 100 kHz,” while most of the sonata falls below 1 kHz; thus, mice likely hear very little of it.

Consequently, the researchers designed a “mouse disco” testing setup consisting of four soundproof rooms interconnected by a tunnel. Each room played different music: one featured Mozart, another played electronic dance music from The Very Best of Euphoric Dance: Breakdown 2001 – CD1, a third showcased what the team labeled “classic rock” (much to Feedback’s amusement, including tracks by Nazareth, Firehouse, and the dreaded Whitesnake), and the fourth had a Taylor Swift playlist.

The mice exhibited no strong preferences, notably spending the least time in the Mozart room. Take that, Amadeus!

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You can send your article to Feedback at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week’s and past feedback can be accessed on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

Triathletes preparing for Paris Olympics swim in Seine after last-minute safety tests

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After months of speculation about whether the water in the Seine was clean enough for Olympic athletes to compete in, authorities have determined after last-minute testing that the river’s water is safe for swimming.

After tests of the Seine’s water quality came back positive on Wednesday morning Paris time, the men and women will swim in back-to-back races as part of a triathlon, starting at 8 a.m. local time. The men’s race was originally scheduled for Tuesday but was postponed after the Seine’s water failed tests.

“The latest water quality analysis results, received at 3:20 a.m., have been assessed by World Triathlon as meeting the standards and clearing the way for the triathlon to go ahead,” World Triathlon, the organisers and governing body of the Paris Games, said in a statement.

People cool off under a bridge over the Seine during the sweltering heat at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday.
Maya Hitidji/Getty Images

After the race, Team USA triathlete Taylor Spivey said he “swallowed a ton of water” during the triathlon swim in the Seine, a river that has historically been so polluted that swimming in it has been illegal for the past century.

Spivey, who finished 10th in the race, told NBC News that his biggest concern wasn’t the water quality, but the “exceptional” and “shocking” strength of the current, which he said was so strong that the race could have been canceled.

“The flow was incredible,” she said. “It felt like I was on a treadmill in one place.”

When asked about the quality of the water, she added, “I’ve been taking lots of probiotics for the past month. We’ll see how it goes.”

Cassandre Beaugrand of France won the gold medal ahead of Julie Delong of Switzerland, who took the silver medal, while Beth Potter of Great Britain took the bronze medal.

The Seine’s water quality has caused a bit of a stir in the run up to the events, as organizers rush to clean up the polluted waterway for prime-time attention. For months, France has been testing samples from the river for the presence of pathogens such as E. coli and enterococcus. High levels of E. coli put swimmers at risk of developing gastrointestinal illness.

The Seine has not passed these tests after wet weather, when storms can send runoff and sometimes sewage into the river.

Swimming in the Seine has been banned for more than a century because it was deemed too polluted, but the city of Paris led a $1.5 billion effort to clean up the river and strengthen waste-treatment systems ahead of the Olympics.

As the first event approached, organizers were hoping for sunny weather that would reduce overall pollution and allow ultraviolet light to inactivate some bacteria.

But the weather rarely cooperated.

last year, Test Event Triathlon rehearsals were canceled due to concerns about water quality after the rains.

The opening ceremony, which included a boat parade on the Seine, took place in pouring rain on Friday, which continued into Saturday.

Pollution from the rain forced organisers to cancel two days of swimming training on Sunday and Monday, then postpone the men’s triathlon originally scheduled for Tuesday morning.

There were no spectators at the swimming venue for the Olympic triathlon along the Seine river in Paris on Tuesday.
Thibaut Moritz/AFP – Getty Images

“I’m just trying to focus on what I can control,” U.S. triathlete Kirsten Kasper told NBC News on Tuesday. “We swim in a lot of cities and water quality is often an issue, but I just have to trust that the race organizers are doing the testing and doing what it takes to make sure we’re safe.”

Water experts said the difficulty of keeping the Seine clean enough could draw attention to a broader problem of environmental pollution shared around the world.

“In large cities, it’s very difficult to control the amount of human waste that you see,” said Katie Graham, an assistant professor in the Georgia Institute of Technology’s College of Engineering. “The public assumes that a lot of these problems have been completely solved, but that’s by no means the case.”

NBC News is a unit of NBCUniversal, which owns U.S. media rights to the Olympics through 2032, including the 2024 Paris Games, which begin July 26.

Evan Bush reported from Seattle and Alexander Smith from Paris.

Source: www.nbcnews.com

The World’s bravest lion manages to survive a history-making swim through waters infested with crocodiles

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Imagine swimming at night in a river filled with crocodiles and hippos. Sounds terrifying, right? Well, two lions in Uganda did just that earlier this year, and for the first time, Scientists captured this daring act on film. Click here to watch the footage.

Using a drone-mounted, high-resolution thermal imaging camera, Researchers from Griffith University’s Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, guided by Dr. Alexander Bratskovsky, captured the scene of two lions crossing Uganda’s Kazinga Channel in the middle of the night.

A remarkable lion named Jacob, who has faced numerous challenges, including losing his leg in a poaching incident, was one of the lions in the video captured by the researchers. Jacob was described as “the most tenacious lion in Africa.”

Jacob lost his leg in a metal trap during a poaching attempt. – Image credit: Alex Blaczkowski

Despite the risks of encountering crocodiles and hippos, Jacob and his brother Tib swam over a kilometer, displaying incredible resilience. The motivation behind this risky journey was likely the pursuit of finding a mate in the female-dominated system of Queen Elizabeth National Park.

The brothers' first attempt at crossing is followed by a creature. – Image credit: Alex Braczkowski

While the river had a bridge connecting the two sides, the lions chose to swim due to human presence and past negative encounters. Understanding the behaviors of lions in such environments is crucial for their conservation.

About our experts

Alexander Bratskovsky is leading long-term research on African lions and other predators in Uganda’s national parks. Learn more about his work here. The study on Jacob and Tib’s swim, titled “Long-distance swims by African lions in Uganda,” was published in Ecology and Evolution.

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Source: www.sciencefocus.com

Drone camera captures Lion’s historic swim across Channel

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Brothers Jacob and Tiv in Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda

Alex Blaczkowski

A pair of lion brothers have completed the longest recorded swim of their kind, crossing waters infested with hippos and crocodiles for around 1.5km.

The swim, the equivalent of an Olympic triathlon, was the duo’s fourth attempt to cross the Kazinga Channel in Uganda’s Queen Elizabeth National Park and was recorded at night with a thermal camera mounted on a drone.

The lions had to abandon an earlier attempt after encountering a larger animal, possibly a hippopotamus or Nile crocodile, which was also seen on footage.

What makes the effort even more amazing is that one of the lions, named Jacob, only has three legs.

Jacob says he’s had a very difficult life. Alexander Bratskovsky While at Griffith University in Australia, he was gored by a buffalo, his family was poisoned to sell lion parts, he was caught in a poacher’s trap and eventually lost his leg to a poacher’s iron trap.

Catching the swimming scene on film was unexpected, as Braczkowski and his colleagues were actually keeping an eye on the two lions to determine whether Tibu, Jacob’s brother, was feeding and supporting his sibling.

“The brotherhood of lions goes far beyond the limitations of an injury like losing a leg,” Blaczkowski said.

The researchers believe the brothers probably crossed the strait to reach a lioness whose roaring they had heard two kilometers away. They say the crossing was a straight line of 1.1 kilometers, but taking into account maneuvers, they estimate the lions swam closer to 1.5 kilometers.

“It’s amazing to see the individual capabilities and courage of different species in passing on their genes,” Blaczkowski said. “A human being can’t swim across that channel in the middle of the night, but a lion, even a three-legged lion who has had almost everything taken from him, will jump in.”

Braczkowski said the lions in Queen Elizabeth National Park were under huge pressure from as many as 60,000 people living within its boundaries, as well as cattle farming, wildlife poaching and the occasional agricultural crop cultivation.

“The lion population in the park has almost halved from 72 to 39 in the past five years, so male lions are spending a lot of their time searching for new females,” he said.

Females are more vulnerable because they tend to congregate in larger groups, and leaving the poisoned carcasses increases the risk of multiple deaths, he added.

“The ratio in the park is currently one female to two males, but in a healthy population it should be one male to two females.”

Team Members Duane Biggs Researchers from Northern Arizona University say long-term solutions need to be found to protect both people and lions in the park.

“The three-legged lion swimming through crocodile-infested waters in search of a mate and caught in a poacher’s trap is a symbol of a protected area in distress,” he said.

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Source: www.newscientist.com