December 21, 2011

Good Morning,

Although the transportation of the monolithic stones at Stonehenge may forever exist only in our imagination, archaeologists have made significant progress in uncovering where the stones came from. Check out the first article for details on this awesome find.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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Source of Stonehenge stones pinpointed

LEICESTER, England - Archaeologists in Britain say they have confirmed the precise origin of some of the huge rocks at Stonehenge, pinpointing a location in Wales. While it has long been suspected that slabs of igneous rock called rhyolite found in the area, each weighing several tons, were used to build the circular monument between 2000 B.C. and 3000 BC, research by National Museum Wales and Leicester University has identified their source to within 230 feet of Craig Rhos-y-felin near Pont Saeson, the BBC reported Monday. Rhyolitic rocks at Rhos-y-felin differ from all others in south Wales, the researchers said, which helped locate almost all of Stonehenge's stones to within areas of tens of square yards. "Being able to provenance any archaeologically significant rock so precisely is remarkable," Rob Ixer of Leicester University said. "However, given continued perseverance, we are determined that we shall uncover the origins of most, if not all of the Stonehenge bluestones so allowing archaeologists to continue their speculations well into a third century." Still unknown is exactly how the stones were transported to the Stonehenge site. "Many have asked the question over the years, how the stones got from Pembrokeshire to Stonehenge," Richard Bevins of the National Museum Wales said. "Was it human transport? Was it due to ice transport?" "Thanks to geological research, we now have a specific source for the rhyolite stones from which to work and an opportunity for archaeologists to answer the question that has been widely debated."


Calif. academy named 140 species in '11

SAN FRANCISCO - Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences added 140 new relatives to the world family tree of life in 2011, the academy said. The new species described by more than a dozen academy scientists, working with several dozen international collaborators, include 72 arthropods, 31 sea slugs, 13 fishes, 11 plants, nine sponges, three corals and one reptile, a release from the academy's San Francisco headquarters said Thursday. The finds were made in six continents -- all except Antarctica -- and in three oceans, the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian, the academy said. Among the discoveries were four new species of shark, including an African dwarf shark collected from 1,600 feet below the surface off the coast of Mozambique. Arthropods -- the most numerous species on Earth -- got a boost with the discovery of 43 new species of ants and 20 new species of spiders, researchers said.


Central Asian glaciers resist warming

ASTANA, Kazakhstan - Glaciers in Central Asia will melt far less from the effects of climate change than will those in other mountain ranges, researchers say. This means the people who depend on those glaciers for water will be shielded from the effects of global warming for several decades at least, scientists said. The mountains in and around the Himalayas are so high, unlike in the Andes, the Alps or the Rockies, that even in summer temperatures remain below freezing and most of the glaciers don't melt away at all, Richard Armstrong, a geographer at Colorado University's National Snow and Ice Centre, told Inter Press Service. "It doesn't make much difference if it gets a little warmer up there because it's still far below zero," he said. In a study of a part of what is called High Asia, researchers found 96 percent of the water that flows down the mountains of Nepal into nine local river basins comes from snow and rain, and only 4 percent from summer glacier melt. Of that 4 percent only a small proportion comes from the melting away of the end points of the glaciers due to global warming, Armstrong said.


Study: Hatcheries altering fish evolution

CORVALLIS, Ore. - The genetic impact of hatcheries on salmon is so profound it can create fish that struggle to thrive and reproduce in a wild environment, U.S. researchers say. Genetic traits are selected within a single generation that allow fish to survive and prosper in the hatchery environment but put them at a disadvantage in a natural setting, researchers at Oregon State University said Monday. "We've known for some time that hatchery-born fish are less successful at survival and reproduction in the wild," Michael Blouin, a professor of zoology, said in an OSU release. "However, until now, it wasn't clear why. What this study shows is that intense evolutionary pressures in the hatchery rapidly select for fish that excel there, at the expense of their reproductive success in the wild." While hatcheries are efficient at producing fish for harvest, the study findings raise concerns about the genetic impacts hatchery fish may have when they interbreed with wild salmon, scientists said. The speed of the genetic changes came as a surprise to researchers. "We expected to see some of these changes after multiple generations," Mark Christie, an OSU postdoctoral research associate and lead author on the study, said. "To see these changes happen in a single generation was amazing. Evolutionary change doesn't always take thousands of years."

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