Old Weblog - July 2004

Australia's Great Barrier Reef became the world's biggest protected marine network on Thursday, a move environmental groups hope countries in Asia and Central America will copy in a bid to save their endangered coral reefs. Australia has slapped a ban on fishing and shipping on a third of the reef, the planet's largest living structure, protecting one of its main tourist attractions which is threatened by over-fishing, pollution and higher temperatures.
The remnants of a remarkably petite skull belonging to one of the first human ancestors to walk on two legs have revealed the great physical diversity among these prehistoric populations. But whether the species Homo erectus, meaning "upright man", should be reclassified into several distinct species remains controversial.
Senior citizens played an important role in the dramatic spread of human civilisation some 30,000 years ago, a study of the human fossil record has shown. Rachel Caspari at the University of Michigan and Sang-Hee Lee at the University of California at Riverside studied dental fossils belonging to early humans and pre-human species dating back 3 million years… [They] found a five-fold increase the number of individuals surviving into old age in the Early Upper Palaeolithic period—around 30,000 years ago. This coincides with an explosive population growth of modern humans and the spread of archaeological artefacts that suggest the development of more complex social organisation… Anthropologists have long suspected that older people may have played an important role in the development of early human societies by providing extra care for children, helping to accumulate useful information and strengthening kinship bonds.
Ammonia may have been found in Mars' atmosphere which some scientists say could indicate life on the Red Planet. Researchers say its spectral signature has been tentatively detected by sensors on board the European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express craft. Ammonia survives for only a short time in the Martian atmosphere so it must be getting constantly replenished. There are two possible sources: either active volcanoes, none of which have been found yet on Mars, or microbes.
Fractal patterns of early life revealed (New Scientist: 15-Jul-04)
Newly uncovered fossils reveal in extraordinary clarity the strangeness of the Earth's earliest complex life. The finds show that the organisms were assembled in fractal patterns from frond-like building blocks. They were unable to move and had no reproductive organs, perhaps reproducing by dropping off new fronds.
See also: Fossils from forgotten time amaze (BBC: 16-Jul-04)
80 Years of Watching the Evolutionary Scenery (Science Magazine: 02-Jul-04)
Having reached the rare age of 100 years, I find myself in a unique position: I'm the last survivor of the golden age of the Evolutionary Synthesis. That status encourages me to present a personal account of what I experienced in the years (1920s to the 1950s) that were so crucial in the history of evolutionary biology.

An essay by Ernst Mayr, age 100.

See also: The Evolution of Ernst: Interview with Ernst Mayr (Scientific American: 06-Jul-04)

Scientists are staking out part of Britain's coastline to monitor the apparent birth of a new species - an exceptionally unusual chance to record evolution in action. Research on the "fossil coast" of Yorkshire - famous for a string of geological breakthroughs - has discovered two colonies of sea-snails which are almost certainly dividing to form a distinct new species. The grey-brown rough periwinkle Littorina saxatilis is described modestly by the team as "unremarkable and lacking charisma", but it stands to earn a place in the textbooks. "We are increasingly certain that we are seeing one species become two," said John Grahame, a biologist at Leeds University, who is leading the project at sites between Flamborough Head, Filey and Ravenscar.
See also: 'Appen evolution is 'appening on Yorkshire beaches (Lunartalks: 21-Jul-04)
The smallest, lightest animal with a backbone has been described for the first time, by scientists in the US. The miniscule fish, called a stout infantfish, is only about 7mm (just under a quarter of an inch) long.
Yawning is catching in chimps (New Scientist: 21-Jul-04)
Chimpanzees yawn in response to seeing other chimps yawn, reveals a new study. The discovery bolsters the idea that chimps are able to understand their own and others' state of mind.
Ecuador's highest court struck down a ruling that undermined limits for sea cucumber fishing in the Galapagos islands in a victory for environmentalists fighting to conserve the species, officials said on Monday. The conflict began in early June when fishermen sought to overturn limits for this year's catch of sea cucumber, a starfish-like creature that is an Asian delicacy. The limits were set by environmental authorities to conserve the species.
Francis Crick, who helped discover the double helix shape of DNA along with James Watson, has died aged 88.
Tasty tale of the tortoise (Guardian: 31-Jul-04)

Despite the title, giant tortoises have had anything but a sheltered life, at least since humans became interested in them. Unlike other giant species, such as killer kangaroos or cave lions, tortoises managed to survive the ice age, taking refuge on isolated archipelagos like the Galápagos islands in the Pacific, or the Mascarene islands in the Indian Ocean. But mankind has proved a more deadly opponent than nature because, unfortunately for the giant tortoises, they tasted great…

In September 1835 Charles Darwin arrived on the Galápagos islands. He was distinctly unimpressed by what he saw. The volcanic islands were, he wrote, "what we might imagine the cultivated parts of the Infernal regions to be". But as Chambers argues, it was a conversation about giant tortoises with the governor of these islands, Captain Nicholas Lawson, which provided the father of evolution with a vital piece of evidence that he would recall many months later as he began formulating his paradigm-shifting theory. Lawson boasted that he could tell from which island a tortoise came simply by looking at the shape of its shell. "In time," Chambers writes, "Governor Lawson's remark would be the spark that started a fully fledged scientific revolution."