amudu

Monday, March 5, 2012

Giant fleas fed on dinosaurs

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Giant fleas from the Middle Jurassic of Daohugou, China.

Image: HUANG Diying

Professor HUANG Diying from Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues make an important progress in Palaeoentomology recently. A paper entitled “Diverse transitional giant fleas from the Mesozoic era of China” has been published online in Nature on the 29th, February.

Fleas, including circa 2500 recent species or subspecies, are one of the dramatically specialized group of insect lineages, with reduction of wings, laterally-flattened body, and small size (usually 1-3 mm long). Fleas are ectoparasiticinsects specialized for feeding on the blood of mammals (including human beings) or birds. Fleas are difficult preserved as fossils like other ectoparasitic insects. Definitive fossil evidence of fleas has been largely confined to Cenozoic amber, and they are of extant forms. Therefore, the evidence suggesting the origin and early evolution of fleas has been lacking. Hitherto, only one record of fossil flea Tarwinia has been described from the Late Cretaceous of Australia (ca. 120 Ma). However, its affinity remains highly controversy.

In recent years, HUANG Diying has found several giant flea from the Middle Jurassic Daohugou biota (ca. 165 Ma) at Ningcheng Couty, Inner Mongolia and and the Early Cretaceous Jehol biota (ca. 125 Ma) at Beipiao City, Liaoning Province of China, which provides new insights into the origin and early evolution of fleas and the adaption of hosts. This finding traced back the earliest occurrence of fleas (Order Siphonaptera) at least for 40 million years.

These Mesozoic fleas are of great body sizes, approximately15 mm in length, and some longer than 20 mm. As the extant fleas, the ancient females are larger than males. For example, a flea species from Daohougou is 14 mm for female and only 8 mm for male. They are wingless insects, but more or less dorso-ventrally flattened, their antennae are short and compact with more antennal segments (16-19 segments) than extant ones (11 segments); they have a very long piercing siphonate mouthparts, elongate legs armed with various ctenidia, but its hind legs are not jumping type as in Recent fleas, abdomen covered numerous posteriorly-directed setae; male genitalia large and exposed.

New Mesozoic fleas with very long piercing mouthparts suggest a resemblance to some Mesozoic siphonate mecopteran, which supports the hypothesis that fleas are derived from Mecoptera.

By contrast the Tarwinia, the new Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous fleas armed with various ctenidia on legs and numerous posteriorly-directed setae on abdomen, indicating an adaption to hosts with hairs or furs. From the same period, a number of mammals have been described, but they are normally of small body size. If they are hosts for ancient fleas, the fleas should have been hidden in their nests. Nevertheless, the long siphon of fleas is obviously able to pierce the skin of feathered dinosaurs, so this is also a possibility. In addition, a peculiar insect from the Early Cretaceous of Russia, Saurophthirus, was suggested as an ectoparasitic insect for pterosaur. We suggest it is also a specialized flea. The above evidence indicates Mesozoic fleas have already display obvious specialization for adapting to different hosts.

This research was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, Ministry of Science and Technology of PRC, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy.

References: Huang, D., Engel, M. S., Cai, C., Wu, H. & Nel, A. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10839 (2012).

Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Collection of 15 Best Bonsai Trees

If you are looking for a way to bring nature indoors, you definitely need to look into getting a bonsai tree. Bonsai trees are beautiful and add a refreshing feel to a room. They are fun to take care of and they even make great gifts. It is believed that growing bonsai trees first started during the Han Dynasty (206 BC~220 AD) in China. Later on it came to Japan where the art of bonsai tree growing was perfected. Bonsai tree growing is nature captured in miniature, thus, the small trees in pots.

A bonsai tree has a unique beauty. It is almost like you take your favorite tree that you enjoy sitting under and shrink it down small enough to set on your table. So we have collected 15 different type of these Bonsai trees that you might like...

1. Worldï¿½s Smallest Bonsai Tree

Whatï¿½s smaller than a miniature tree? A miniature miniature tree. This masterpiece measures 22mm and it was obtained from a Malaysian local species called ï¿½water jasmineï¿½ ï¿½ the only species that can apparently be made so small. Creator Kuah Tee Teong claims that it may be the worldï¿½s smallest bonsai, since the standard measure of a miniature bonsai is 10cm. Kuah doesnï¿½t strive for popularity and didnï¿½t register his creation in the Worlds Book of records, neither is he planning to sell his tiny trees. His philosophy: ï¿½ï¿½If I sell, then Iï¿½ll have nothing to show.ï¿½ He also prunes animal shaped trees that look like dogs, snails or octopuses.

2. Music from a Bonsai

Diego Stocco is not a bonsai grower, hasnï¿½t won any bonsai competition award, but he is, in his own unique way, a bonsai lover and tamer. He bought a bonsai tree and made it sing, proving that you actually can teach an old bonsai new tricks. Using a Rï¿½de NT6 microphone, some tiny transducers and a customized stethoscope, Stocco recorded an experimental piece played exclusively by the bonsaiï¿½s small leaves and branches. He also used a piano hammer, a paint brush and different bows to obtain different sounds from the tree. Donï¿½t be scandalised if it seams from this video that he is somehow torturing the poor little tree. No bonsai was damaged during the experiment and, as you know, art demands sacrifices.

3. Rare Ganoderma Bonsai

This is an extremely rare ganoderma lucidum cultivated bonsai, with an impressive diameter of 90cm. The successive layers and crown shaped cap make it unique in the world. Known as ï¿½fairy herbï¿½, Gandorema lucidum has been used for medicinal purposes in traditional Chinese medicine for more than 2000 years. It is one of the oldest mushrooms to have been used in disease treatments and , due to itï¿½s presumed health benefits and apparent absence of side effects, it is known as one of the most powerful herbal substance in East Asia. In Chinese culture, it is also considered a good luck, beauty and longevity charm. The plants health benefits and spectacular shapes and colours saved it an important place on the bonsai market as well.

4. Awarded Penjing Landscape

ï¿½Penjingï¿½ is the Chinese extension of bonsai art and it can be literally translated ï¿½landscape in a potï¿½ï¿½. The chines art focuses more on creating a convincing miniature landscape than shaping the perfect miniature tree as Japanese bonsai growers strive to obtain. Nonetheless, the value of an awarded penjing is given by the way it looks with naked branches, when not attired in fabled leaves and flowers. The assembly in the image is called 大風驚濤, which literally means ï¿½harsh wind severe wavesï¿½ and it was awarded at the Guangzhou Penjing Exhibition in China, the biggest lingnan (southern style) penjing exhibition since the founding of the country.

5. The Oldest Bonsai Trees

The oldest known bonsai trees still living can be found in a private restaurant garden in Tokyo, Japan. The 400 to 800 years old trees in Happo-en Garden ar an attraction for any bonsai lover visiting Tokyo. Every tree is grown in era-specific pots that are often as valuable as the trees themselves.

The practice of potted trees gose way back to the Egyptian Era, 4000 B.C. Inhareted images depict miniature trees cultivated in rock containers. Pharaoh Ramesses III is known to have donated several olive trees and other miniature plants to various temples. In the Indian Pre-Common Era several plant species were grown in a ï¿½ï¿½bonsai mannerï¿½ for medicine and nutrition purposes.

6. Worldï¿½s Biggest Bonsai Tree

This 600 year old Japanese bonsai is presumably the biggest bonsai tree in the world, according to the staff of Akao Herb & Rose Garden in Atami, Japan. Sure, the title is somehow paradoxical since the main quality of bonsai trees is being small. But, after all, if bonsai means ï¿½tree in a potï¿½ it doesnï¿½t metter how big the pot is, especially if it contains an impressing 5 meter tall and 10 meter wide ancient red pine bonsai like this one.

7. Walter Pallï¿½s Rocky Mountain Juniper

Walter Pall is a kind of bonsai rock-star among the cultureï¿½s enthusiasts. He has received several dozens national and international awards for his beautiful, dramatic bonsai. He has won the most prestigious Crespi Cup Award of Italy for his well known Rocky Mountain Juniper, and has come in among the top six, every time he has entered. He has also won second and third and other places places in the Gingko Cup Awards of the Belgium bonsai competition held every two years. The most controversial information about Walter pall is that, although world renown, he considers himself an amateur working professionally. Thatï¿½s because he styles trees for his own amusement and not for commercial purposes. In time he managed to put together one of the most comprehensive bonsai collections around.

8. Walter Pallï¿½s Acer Platanus

Another famous piece from Walter pallï¿½s collection is this Sycamore Maple that won the Bonsai Today / Art of Bonsai Photo Contest. Pall was one of the first Europeans to work with indigenous species, which he collects in his beloved Alpine mountain.s He now owns a collection of about 1000 quality trees in varying stages of development and keeps a store reserve of about 1000 handmade pots to compliment the bonsai. Besides his famous conifers he is also well known for his beautiful deciduous trees. Walterï¿½s bonsai usually are strong, powerful trees which he frequently forms in natural shapes. The longer he has been involved with tree development, the more he has moved away from traditional bonsai styling to his own concepts of design.

9. Walter Pallï¿½s Crab Apple Tree

This is my personal favourite from Pallï¿½s collection: an incredibly sweet 65 cm high apple tree. I have no idea how anyone that sees it live could resist not to taste those tiny apples, but I guess Mr. Pall keeps it in a safe place, away from leering guests. Fruit trees training is an ascending trend among bonsai growers. The fascinating part about it is that the fruits are indeed edible, especially those belonging to the citrus category. Common fruits that can be obtained in small size include: cherries, apples, lime, lemons, tangerine and figs. The bonsai fruit tree success strongly depends on meteorological and topographical factors, like humidity, temperature and soil.

10. Awarded Chinese Juniper ï¿½Itoi-gawaï¿½

The Chines Juniper is a very loved and popular tree among bonsai professionals and amateurs alike. Due to the woods malleability, it can be stylised into beautiful and interesting shapes. Like this one belonging to Enrico Savini from Italy, that has won several awards, including Ben Oki International Design Award in 2003 and Bonsai Clubs International Peopleï¿½s Choise Award 2008. Savini says he fell in love with bonsai art at age ten and his first tree, a Prunus mume that only survived a few months, was a gift from his grandma. ï¿½ I couldnï¿½t forgive myself for that failure, so I took it as a personal challenge, my entire career has been a continuous personal challenge.ï¿½

11. Dan Robinson, The Picasso of Bonsai

This perfect Mountain hemlock expresses Dan Robinsonï¿½s virtuosity as a bonsai artist and his respect for the natureï¿½s own ways. Known as a pioneer in bonsai art, or as the Picasso of bonsai, he practices an preaches techniques inspired by the ancient Japanese ways. This is one of the many amazing captures pictured in the book Gnarly Branches, Ancient Trees: The Life and Works of Dan Robinson ï¿½ Bonsai Pioneer made ]n collaboration with photographer Will Hiltz.

12. Awarded Junipero San Jose

This work of art belongs to Nacho Marin, a Venezuelan Fine Arts graduate who is fascinated by the infinite possibilities of taming and manipulating trees. In his quest to recreate a natural environment, he also takes great care so that the shape and mood of the final product reflects his artistic vision. No wonder that his Junipero San Jose won the flattering title of ï¿½Most artistically innovative entry of all entries from all categoriesï¿½ at The Art of Bonsai Contest 2008.

13. Adenium Flower Bonsai

Not as popular as junipers, but unanimously loved for their delicacy and frailness, flower bonsais can come up in extraordinary forms. Mr. Jai Krishna Agarwal from India has about 100 specimens in his collections and he especially loves adenium flowers. Why? Because their trunks often remind the shapes of the human body . The effect is surrealistic to say the least, this beautiful example shown here brings to mind some elaborate fauvist sculpture.

14. Semi-cascade Juniper Bonsai

A Juniper bonsai collected, designed and developed by Harry Hirao and displayed at the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at The United States National Arboretum. This very old, semi-cascade style bonsai was probably collected in the White Mountains of California. The shari (deadwood on the trunk) is very prominent on this bonsai, leaving only one stripe where the tree is connected between its leaves and the roots.

The esthetics behind this type of contorted and twisted trunk is called literati and it was influenced by the political and academic conditions in the Tang Dynasty period, when penjing was once widely practiced by the elites. Literati is a contemplative, lyrical style displaying tension (in the trunk) and release (in the cascading branches) like the universal law of Yin and Yang.

15. Beautiful Azalea Tree

An old Azalea, probably a Satsuki type, from the Collection of the National Bonsai and Penjing Museum at The United States National Arboretum. Azaleas bloom in spring, their flowers often lasting several weeks. In Chinese culture, the azalea is known as ï¿½thinking of home bushï¿½ (xiangsi shu) and is immortalized in old poetry and contemporary stories.

Top 10 Worst Female Health Habits

From workouts to healthy diets, many of us make an effort to look after ourselves. However, we could be compromising our health on a daily basis without even knowing it. It includes everything, from carrying heavy handbags to wearing crippling heels. In order to improve the health, we have listed 10 worst female habits that you should try to break...

1. Wearing heels

More and more of us are opting to wear heels on a daily basis, and this could be bad news for our health. High heels affect our posture, put pressure on joints, and can lead to a range of conditions including arthritis, hammer toes, back pain and tendon injuries ï¿½ and that's before you take into account any heel-related accidents! To minimize damage, limit your heels to 1.5 inches for daily wear, and wear insoles to help reduce the pressure on joints.

2. Carrying a heavy handbag

With the rising number of gadgets and accessories the majority of women haul around, many of us are carrying around several pounds of weight on our shoulders every day. As a result, lots of us are also putting our long term health at risk. While you may not feel the effects right now, lugging around a heavy handbag can lead to serious back problems and neck pain as well as poor posture. Don't wait until the damage is done ï¿½ do your health a favour and try clearing out all non-essential items and switching to a smaller bag.

3. Sleeping in makeup

Most of us have succumbed to the temptation to sleep in our post-party makeup at some point. However, leaving makeup on overnight ï¿½ along with the dirt and oil that naturally accumulates on skin throughout the day ï¿½is a quick route to clogged pores, congested skin and spots. Sleeping with mascara and eye makeup on can also affect your health by causing eye irritation, bloodshot eyes or even infection.

4. Matching men drink for drink

From networking drinks to first dates and social events, there are many instances when women may feel compelled to keep up with the drinking habits of the opposite sex. However, women not only tend to weigh less than men but they have less body water to dilute the alcohol, which means they tend to get more drunk more quickly. To minimize the risks of alcohol on your health, try to keep within the recommended guidelines for alcohol consumption and alternate alcohol with soft drinks.

5. Wearing the wrong size clothes

It is thought that more than 70 per cent of women are wearing the wrong bra size. However, wearing a badly fitted bra can not only affect the look of your clothes, but research suggests it can cause a range of health problems including back, neck and breast pain, breathing difficulties, poor posture, skin irritation, circulation problems and even irritable bowel syndrome. Rather than guessing your size, make sure you get measured to ensure you are getting the support you need.

6. Worrying and harbouring regrets

Stress is damaging to both our physical and mental health, and women are twice as likely as men to suffer from stress-related disorders, as well as having higher rates of depression and anxiety. While it is thought there may be biological reasons for this, worrying about the future and dwelling on regrets can also add to our problems, with research suggesting that women are more than twice as likely as men to harbour regrets over lost loves and broken relationships.

7. Obsessing over appearance

While both genders suffer from body insecurity, many women tend to overly obsess over their idea of the perfectï¿½ body. Research findings published in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology found that 16 per cent of the normal or underweight women studied believed themselves to be overweight, while a studycommissioned by Dove found that 90 per of women wanted to change at least one aspect of their appearance. Body insecurity not only affects our mental health, but it can also lead to physical damage caused by extreme diets, yo-yo dieting, eating disorders and cosmetic surgery.

8. Emotional eating