[lotuseclat79]

Hi ekim68,

Sounds like a perfect example of "Noah's Ark" - preserve as many species as you know about - by way of DNA would be the most efficient.

Also, I find the concept of a rogue planet colliding with Earth less credible than an asteroid. Gravity and the Sun has something to do with how large planets orbit in our solar system, and the moment (let's say for discussion) a rougue planet were to enter our solar system - all large objects would have an influence by way of gravity on it. In other words, random chance would play a role, and the probability would be there but only if the planets are lined up just so to minimize the effect of gravity on its path through our solar system - would it be likely to come in contact with the Earth.

-- Tom

[ekim68]

Monkeys, apes teeter on brink of extinction

BEIJING (Reuters) - Mankind's closest relatives are teetering on the brink of their first extinctions in more than a century, hunted by humans for food and medicine and squeezed from forest homes, a report on endangered primates said on Friday.

There are just a few dozen of the most threatened gibbons and langurs left, and one colobus may already have gone the way of the dodo, warned the report on the 25 most vulnerable primates.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scien...K3382420071026

[lotuseclat79]

I am posting the following URL/article here about: 400 Year Old Clam Found -- Oldest Animal Ever
Article here.

A clam dredged from Icelandic waters had lived for 400 years - is this the longest-lived animal known to science?

-- Tom

[LANMaster]

Scientists Find Oldest Living Animal, Then Kill It

British marine biologists have found what may be the oldest living animal — that is, until they killed it.

The team from Bangor University in Wales was dredging the waters north of Iceland as part of routine research when the unfortunate specimen, belonging to the clam species Arctica islandica, commonly known as the ocean quahog, was hauled up from waters 250 feet deep.

Only after researchers cut through its shell, which made it more of an ex-clam, and counted its growth rings did they realize how old it had been — between 405 and 410 years old.

Another clam of the same species had been verified at 220 years old, and a third may have lived 374 years. But this most recent clam was the oldest yet.

"Its death is an unfortunate aspect of this work, but we hope to derive lots of information from it," postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker told London's Guardian newspaper. "For our work, it's a bonus, but it wasn't good for this particular animal."

Link

[ekim68]

Amazing that anything could live 400 years...Imagine how much history would pass...

[lotuseclat79]

The animal is only the oldest "we have found" making it likely there are other clams of the same species that are even older IMO.

-- Tom

[LANMaster]

Originally Posted by lotuseclat79

The animal is only the oldest "we have found" making it likely there are other clams of the same species that are even older IMO.

-- Tom

Maybe then the "Scientists" can find them and kill those too?

[poochee]

Effort to Save Everglades Falters as Funds Drop arbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
Published: November 2, 2007

MIAMI, Oct. 31 — The rescue of the Florida Everglades, the largest and most expensive environmental restoration project on the planet, is faltering.

Seven years into what was supposed to be a four-decade, $8 billion effort to reverse generations of destruction, federal financing has slowed to a trickle. Projects are already years behind schedule. Thousands of acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat continue to disappear, paved by developers or blasted by rock miners to feed the hungry construction industry.

The idea that the federal government could summon the will and money to restore the subtle, sodden grandeur of the so-called River of Grass is disappearing, too.

Supporters say the effort would get sorely needed momentum from a long-delayed federal bill authorizing $23 billion in water infrastructure projects, including almost $2 billion for the Everglades.

But President Bush is expected to veto the bill, possibly on Friday. And even if Congress overrides the veto, which is likely, grave uncertainties will remain.

The product of a striking bipartisan agreement just before the 2000 presidential election, the plan aims to restore the gentle, shallow flow of water from Lake Okeechobee, in south-central Florida, into the Everglades, a vast subtropical marshland at the state’s southern tip.

That constant, slow coursing nurtured myriad species of birds, fish and other animals across the low-lying Everglades, half of which have been lost to agriculture and development over the last century.

Excerpt from: http://www.nytimes.com:80/2007/11/02...kZKJ7ht3aTo1cw

[ekim68]

Gas may be to blame for extinction

Contrarian theory argues against meteorite killing dinosaurs.

A worldwide burp of volcanic gases caused the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs and other creatures 65 million years ago, says research reported this week. It’s the latest argument from a group that has been trying for some time to discredit the leading theory — that a meteorite striking Mexico led to the mass die-offs.

The international team says that we should instead blame plumes of climate-altering gas given off by monumental lava flows that stretch hundreds of kilometres across India.

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/0710....2007.205.html

[lotuseclat79]

Explorers relive 'nightmare' of being ringed by Arctic wolf pack
Article here.

Pics are in pop-ups - so, your browser settings may need to be jiggered to see them.

British explorers on a polar expedition described their terror yesterday after coming face to face with a pack of bloodstained wolves. Event occured Nov 1, 2007.

-- Tom

[poochee]

Originally Posted by lotuseclat79

Explorers relive 'nightmare' of being ringed by Arctic wolf pack
Article here.

Pics are in pop-ups - so, your browser settings may need to be jiggered to see them.

British explorers on a polar expedition described their terror yesterday after coming face to face with a pack of bloodstained wolves. Event occured Nov 1, 2007.

-- Tom

Dinner?

[lizard]

Scientists warn that species extinction could reduce productivity of plants on Earth by half

An international team of scientists has published a new analysis showing that as plant species around the world go extinct, natural habitats become less productive and contain fewer total plants –– a situation that could ultimately compromise important benefits that humans get from nature.

The article is to appear in the online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Nov. 5.

“The process by which plants grow and produce more plant biomass is one of the most fundamental biological processes on the planet,” said Bradley Cardinale, lead author of the paper and assistant professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Plant productivity regulates the ability of nature to take greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, as well as the ability of habitats to produce oxygen, food, fiber, and biofuels, according to the authors of the study. “Therefore, species extinctions could compromise the benefits that nature provides to society,” said Cardinale.

[ekim68]

Well, we're all in this together....Nature and everything...

[poochee]

Oil spill could threaten S.F. Bay wildlife for years

Story Highlights
Environmentalists rush to save oil-covered wildlife off San Francisco
Some question whether Coast Guard reported spill's extent quickly enough
Oil spilled from a South Korea-bound container ship that hit bridge support
Accident is bad news for area fish and fishermen

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Dozens of dead and injured seabirds found coated in black goo are the most visible victims of a 58,000-gallon oil spill in the San Francisco Bay, an incident that scientists say could threaten wildlife for years.

The spill has fouled miles of coastline and had environmentalists scrambling Friday to save the bay's birds, fish, invertebrates and marine mammals.

"The effects of the oil spill could persist for months and possibly years," said Tina Swanson, a fish biologist with the Bay Institute.

Excerpt from: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/09/bay....ap/index.html

[lotuseclat79]

Remains of extinct sloth found in Peru
Article here.

Workers in Peru stumbled upon the remains of a megathere, an extinct elephant-sized ground sloth that roamed the American continent in the Pleistocene Epoch, El Comercio reported Friday.

-- Tom