[Texascavers] Paging Lee Jay Graves
Lee Jay, Please e-mail me off-line. Bill Steele - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
[NMCAVER] Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa
Forwarded from Texascavers. The story is from http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/538310/?sc=dwhn, which supposedly has a picture, but the site is inaccessible to the public for another week. Mark Minton From: Allan Cobb Sent: Wed 3/5/2008 9:47 AM To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: [Texascavers] Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa CHICAGO, IL (March 2008) - Newswise - When most of us think of Ancient Egypt, visions of pyramids and mummies fill our imaginations. For a team of paleontologists interested in fossil mammals, the Fayum district of Egypt summons an even older and equally impressive history that extends much further back in time than the Sphinx. In the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, these scientists report on the discovery of six new bat species dating to around 35 million years ago, which sheds new light on the early evolution of bats. It took over 25 years of fieldwork to collect the 33 specimens that form the basis of the new study. That translates to a little over one specimen per year - a lot of effort for a single fossil, said Erik Seiffert, a paleontologist at Stony Brook University. But it shows just how important patience and long term field programs are to science. Our long-term commitment to field work certainly paid off in this case. Among the new species is a giant among bats; though weighing in at less than a half-pound, it is one of the largest fossil bats ever discovered, said Gregg Gunnell, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan. Fossil bats of Eocene age are rare in Africa. Only a few fragmentary remains from Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania and Tunisia were previously known. The discovery of six new kinds of bats illustrates the remarkably rich, and previously unsuspected, diversity of bats in Africa 37-34 million years ago. These discoveries provide important new information for understanding the evolution of modern bat families. It was thought that most Old World families of bats evolved and diversified in the northern hemisphere, but the new study indicates that many modern bat families only diversified and radiated after their initial dispersal into Africa. Seiffert noted that the Fayum bats include members of the most common and widespread group of living bats, Clearly the modern bat families have very ancient origins, and at least some of them probably originated in Africa. Elwyn Simons of Duke University said, Interestingly, it seems that primitive modern bats may have entered Africa together with primitive anthropoid primates. Only then did they diversify and disperse into the rest of the Old and New Worlds. Gunnell hopes that if we can come to understand the history of how bats came to be so intertwined within our ecosystem, then we can begin to appreciate them instead of fear them as many people seem to do. ___ NMCAVER mailing list nmca...@caver.net http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/nmcaver_caver.net
[Texascavers] Paging Chris Vreeland
Chris, Please e-mail off-line. Thanks, Bill Steele - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
[Texascavers] Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa
Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa CHICAGO, IL (March 2008) - Newswise — When most of us think of Ancient Egypt, visions of pyramids and mummies fill our imaginations. For a team of paleontologists interested in fossil mammals, the Fayum district of Egypt summons an even older and equally impressive history that extends much further back in time than the Sphinx. In the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, these scientists report on the discovery of six new bat species dating to around 35 million years ago, which sheds new light on the early evolution of bats. It took over 25 years of fieldwork to collect the 33 specimens that form the basis of the new study. “That translates to a little over one specimen per year – a lot of effort for a single fossil,” said Erik Seiffert, a paleontologist at Stony Brook University. “But it shows just how important patience and long term field programs are to science. Our long-term commitment to field work certainly paid off in this case.” Among the new species is “a giant among bats; though weighing in at less than a half-pound, it is one of the largest fossil bats ever discovered,” said Gregg Gunnell, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan. Fossil bats of Eocene age are rare in Africa. Only a few fragmentary remains from Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania and Tunisia were previously known. The discovery of six new kinds of bats illustrates the remarkably rich, and previously unsuspected, diversity of bats in Africa 37-34 million years ago. These discoveries provide important new information for understanding the evolution of modern bat families. It was thought that most Old World families of bats evolved and diversified in the northern hemisphere, but the new study indicates that many modern bat families only diversified and radiated after their initial dispersal into Africa. Seiffert noted that the Fayum bats include members of the most common and widespread group of living bats, “Clearly the modern bat families have very ancient origins, and at least some of them probably originated in Africa.” Elwyn Simons of Duke University said, “Interestingly, it seems that primitive modern bats may have entered Africa together with primitive anthropoid primates. Only then did they diversify and disperse into the rest of the Old and New Worlds.” Gunnell hopes that “if we can come to understand the history of how bats came to be so intertwined within our ecosystem, then we can begin to appreciate them instead of fear them as many people seem to do.” ABOUT THE SOCIETY OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY Founded in 1940 by thirty-four paleontologists, the Society now has more than 2,000 members representing professionals, students, artists, preparators and others interested in VP. It is organized exclusively for educational and scientific purposes, with the object of advancing the science of vertebrate paleontology. The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (JVP) is the leading journal of professional vertebrate paleontology and the flagship publication of the Society. It was founded in 1980 by Dr. Jiri Zidek and publishes contributions on all aspects of vertebrate paleontology.
Re: [Texascavers] Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa
Sorry about that blank attachment. It was some artifact leftover from cutting and pasting the story into an email. Here is a link if you want to see the bat: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/538310/?sc=dwhn Allan - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
[Texascavers] RE: Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa
Allan Cobb said: Here is a link if you want to see the bat: http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/538310/?sc=dwhn When I went to that site it said: A reporter's PressPass is required to access this story until the embargo expires on 12-Mar-2008 at 00:00. :-( Mark Minton
Re: [Texascavers] RE: Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa
A reporter's PressPass is required to access this story until the embargo expires on 12-Mar-2008 at 00:00. The article was in a nonembargoed section of their daily science stories email. It has since been changed to embargoed. I guess someone overlooked it and then caught their mistake. You will have to wait until March 12 to see the artists rendition. Sorry about that, Allan
[Texascavers] Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa
If you google Giant Fossil Bats out of Africa, you'll find that the article was picked up by a number of news services. Science Daily has an article showing the artist's rendition which looks like every other bat I've seen, it's brown and has wings. I would like to see a photo of the fossil, geary -Original Message- From: Allan Cobb [mailto:a...@oztotl.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 9:40 AM To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: Re: [Texascavers] RE: Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa A reporter's PressPass is required to access this story until the embargo expires on 12-Mar-2008 at 00:00. The article was in a nonembargoed section of their daily science stories email. It has since been changed to embargoed. I guess someone overlooked it and then caught their mistake. You will have to wait until March 12 to see the artists rendition. Sorry about that, Allan
[Texascavers] RE: Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa
I copied the painting of the bat to my computer before it was embargoed. I'll happily send it to anyone who wants to see it. -- Crash From: Allan Cobb [mailto:a...@oztotl.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 9:40 AM To: Texascavers@texascavers.com Subject: Re: [Texascavers] RE: Giant Fossil Bats Out of Africa The article was in a nonembargoed section of their daily science stories email. It has since been changed to embargoed. I guess someone overlooked it and then caught their mistake. You will have to wait until March 12 to see the artists rendition. Sorry about that, Allan
[NMCAVER] Sulfuric-acid speleogenesis in popular culture
It seems that sulfuric-acid speleogenesis is now a 100% mainstream idea; it's gotten into game shows! I watched Jeopardy yesterday. The episode had a category Welcome to Carlsbad Caverns. It had questions on the stalactites, cave swallows, bats, etc. The $2,000 item: the cave was formed by this acid... [H2SO4 shown on screen]. One contestant gave the correct response, What is sulfuric acid? (Of course, a right answer would have been more impressive if they hadn't shown the formula.) --Donald ___ NMCAVER mailing list nmca...@caver.net http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/nmcaver_caver.net
[ot_caving] off-topic - LED's in cars
The article below alledges that LED lights are going to become popular in all automotive lighting situations: http://www.digitimes.com/displays/a20080227PD214.html I have noticed that several luxury cars that are about to hit the showrooms use LED's throughout the car, except for the headlight. Maybe in a few years our speleo-vehicles will have all LED lighting. David Locklear - Give this to a friend: ot-subscr...@texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: ot-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: ot-h...@texascavers.com
Re: [ot_caving] computer related - photo for background
Oh BTW - The only thing I can see that I *might* need PPPoE protocol setup to communicate between my router and DSL modem would be the login ID and password. That may have been established when I used the setup software from ATT and that it is still connected (I'm guessing here) I'm not really sure. I guess I'll look into this if I loose internet connection between the modem and router. I TRIED to look up support information on ATT's website - I have to say I was totally underwhelmed! They categorically dismiss ANY support effort for anything other than connecting your ATT modem to a Windows platform. [If you have any trouble trying to do anything else - tough luck. We don't support it. You're on your own.] This of course might seem to make it tougher for rouge users like myself - to share wireless internet access with neighbors (as I am). -Don C (proud to still be at least tech savvy enough to outdo Tha Man) On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 12:39 AM, Charles Goldsmith wo...@justfamily.org wrote: Seems his trip to Texas in 2001 included a sidetrip to Carlsbad, and my first thought of that pic was the caverns as well. Charles On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 11:02 PM, Don Cooper wavyca...@gmail.com wrote: Well - It's confusing because his path contains Texas2001 but I'm just about 99.99% sure it's in Carlsbad Caverns. -WaV On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 12:14 PM, David dlocklea...@gmail.com wrote: Here is a cave photo to use for your computer desktop background: http://sca.uwaterloo.ca/~praetzel/Texas2001/Scan3598r.jpghttp://sca.uwaterloo.ca/%7Epraetzel/Texas2001/Scan3598r.jpg Hmm, I wonder what cave that could be?? David Locklear - Give this to a friend: ot-subscr...@texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: ot-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: ot-h...@texascavers.com
[ot_caving] The Bee Crisis
Just a thought - as it seems that these scary accounts of the honey bee decline - I noticed something I thought was a little strange the other day. I had never noticed SO many bees in the garbage... While taking industrial food waste to the big dumpster yesterday I was really surprised to see that it wasn't buzzing with flies, but bees. And the one thing that seemed to bring in the biggest number were empty soda-dispenser syrup boxes. That stuff is full of corn syrup sweetner. Aside from microwave towers, and agricultural chemical products, it might also be useful to look into the effects of the stuff bees are exposed to when they pass up natural targets of flowers and seek out our disposables. Does anyone recall seeing bees in the trash twenty or thirty years ago? =Wav
RE: [ot_caving] The Bee Crisis
Don, Interesting. My answer is no, but then, we did not have as many people or as much trash 20 or 30 years ago. Fritz _ From: Don Cooper [mailto:wavyca...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, March 05, 2008 1:35 PM To: OT Texas Cavers Subject: [ot_caving] The Bee Crisis Just a thought - as it seems that these scary accounts of the honey bee decline - I noticed something I thought was a little strange the other day. I had never noticed SO many bees in the garbage... While taking industrial food waste to the big dumpster yesterday I was really surprised to see that it wasn't buzzing with flies, but bees. And the one thing that seemed to bring in the biggest number were empty soda-dispenser syrup boxes. That stuff is full of corn syrup sweetner. Aside from microwave towers, and agricultural chemical products, it might also be useful to look into the effects of the stuff bees are exposed to when they pass up natural targets of flowers and seek out our disposables. Does anyone recall seeing bees in the trash twenty or thirty years ago? =Wav
[Texascavers] TSA Convention Photo Salon
Folks, It looks like I will be handling both salons this year at the Kerrville convention. Details, rules, and entry forms for photos and for maps are posted on the TSA web site (follow convention links). Maps do not require entry forms. Last year there was only one submission in the easiest of all photo categories - digital. This one requires very little effort so let's see some photos. If you really want your photo noticed, however, print it and mount it. There is always a crowd looking at the mounted photographs. I'm anticipating some great competition and a great convention. See you in Kerrville, Marvin Miller (830) 885-5631
[NMCAVER] wilderness medicine
If anyone is interested we are offering two chance to be trained in wilderness medicine. These are great classes to learn or update your wilderness medicine knowledge. The classes are very hands-on and will keep you involved learning or relearning what really can go wrong on our trips. The first course is an 80-hour Wilderness First Responder Course being taught at the Texas Tech Campus in Junction, Texas. The second course is a 16 hours Wilderness First Aid course. This course is being taught at the Texas Tech Campus in Lubbock. More information about the course can be found at: www.wildmedcenter.com/ or at www.recsports.ttu.edu Cheers ___ NMCAVER mailing list nmca...@caver.net http://caver.net/mailman/listinfo/nmcaver_caver.net
