The Great London [Search results for Morocco] 

Some of the oldest marine animals on the planet, including armoured worm-like forms and giant, lobster like sea creatures, survived millions of years longer than previously thought, according to a spectacularly preserved fossil formation from southeastern Morocco.

The Lower Fezouata formation has been revealing exciting discoveries about life in the Ordovician -- around 485 -- 444 million years ago -- since its discovery just five years ago.

'The Fezouata is extraordinarily significant' says Professor Derek Briggs of Yale University, co-author of a study published today in the Journal of the Geological Society. 'Animals typical of the Cambrian are still present in rocks 20 million years younger, which means there must be a cryptic record in between, which is not preserved.'

Over 160 genera have already been documented from the Fezouata, with much more expected to be found. They include animals which would have looked perfectly at home during the Cambrian: armoured lobopodians -- worm like creatures with spines on their backs and short, stubby legs, and anomalocaridids -- huge segmented animals with remarkable feeding limbs, which are some of the largest marine creatures of the time.

As well as demonstrating the longevity of fauna thought to have been extinct millions of years previously, the Fezouata proves that other creatures evolved far earlier than previously thought.

'Horseshoe crabs, for example, turn out to be at least 20 million years older than we thought. The formation demonstrates how important exceptionally preserved fossils are to our understanding of major evolutionary events in deep time' says Peter Van Roy, also of Yale, who first recognised the scientific importance of the Fezouata fauna and is lead author of the study, part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation.

The spectacular preservation, which includes detailed soft parts and organisms over 2 metres in length, is thanks to the fine grained, muddy sediments in which the organisms were preserved.

'These are special rocks' says Professor Briggs. 'Some of the organisms are enormous -- several metres in length. With such exceptional preservation, in a fully marine exposure, we can develop a reasonably full picture of what marine life looked like in the Ordovician.'

The discoveries suggest the 'Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event' -- an explosion in diversity throughout the earlier part of the Ordovician period -- may have been a continuation of the Cambrian explosion.

'There is much more to learn from the Fezouata' says Professor Briggs. 'Why do we not see more assemblages like this in the Ordovician? What ecological changes happened at the Cambro-Ordovician interval? Are the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event separate, or phases of the same event?'

Source: Geological Society of London [July 07, 2015]

An unidentified fossilised bone in a museum has revealed the size of a fearsome abelisaur and may have solved a hundred-year old puzzle.

Alessandro Chiarenza, a PhD student from Imperial College London, last year stumbled across a fossilised femur bone, left forgotten in a drawer, during his visit to the Museum of Geology and Palaeontology in Palermo Italy. He and a colleague Andrea Cau, a researcher from the University of Bologna, got permission from the museum to analyse the femur. They discovered that the bone was from a dinosaur called abelisaur, which roamed the Earth around 95 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period.

Abelisauridae were a group of predatory, carnivorous dinosaurs, characterised by extremely small forelimbs, a short deep face, small razor sharp teeth, and powerful muscular hind limbs. Scientists suspect they were also covered in fluffy feathers. The abelisaur in today's study would have lived in North Africa, which at that time was a lush savannah criss-crossed by rivers and mangrove swamps. This ancient tropical world would have provided the abelisaur with an ideal habitat for hunting aquatic animals like turtles, crocodiles, large fish and other dinosaurs.

By studying the bone, the team deduced that this abelisaur may have been nine metres long and weighed between one and two tonnes, making it potentially one of the largest abelisaurs ever found. This is helping researchers to determine the maximum sizes that these dinosaurs may have reached during their peak.

Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, co-author of the study from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial, said: "Smaller abelisaur fossils have been previously found by palaeontologists, but this find shows how truly huge these flesh eating predators had become. Their appearance may have looked a bit odd as they were probably covered in feathers with tiny, useless forelimbs, but make no mistake they were fearsome killers in their time."

The fossil originated from a sedimentary outcrop in Morocco called the Kem Kem Beds, which are well known for the unusual abundance of giant predatory dinosaur fossils. This phenomenon is called Stromer's Riddle, in honour the German palaeontologist Ernst Stromer, who first identified this abundance in 1912. Since then scientists have been asking how abelisaurs and five other groupings of predatory dinosaurs could have co-existed in this region at the same time, without hunting each other into extinction.

Now the researchers in today's study suggest that these predatory dinosaur groups may not have co-existed so closely together. They believe that the harsh and changing geology of the region mixed the fossil fragment records together, destroying its chronological ordering in the Kem Kem beds, and giving the illusion that the abelisaurs and their predatory cousins shared the same terrain at the same time. Similar studies of fossil beds in nearby Tunisia, for example, show that creatures like abelisaurs were inland hunters, while other predators like the fish eating spinosaurs probably lived near mangroves and rivers.

Chiarenza added: "This fossil find, along with the accumulated wealth of previous studies, is helping to solve the question of whether abelisaurs may have co-existed with a range of other predators in the same region. Rather than sharing the same environment, which the jumbled up fossil records may be leading us to believe, we think these creatures probably lived far away from one another in different types of environments."

Fossilised femora are useful for palaeontologists to study because they can determine the overall size of the dinosaur. This is because femora are attached to the thigh and tail muscles and have scars, or bumps, which tell palaeontologists where the ligaments and muscles were attached to the bone and how big those muscles and ligaments would have been.

Andrea Cau, co-author from the University of Bologna, said: "While palaeontologists usually venture to remote and inaccessible locations, like the deserts of Mongolia or the Badlands of Montana, our study shows how museums still play an important role in preserving specimens of primary scientific value, in which sometimes the most unexpected surprises can be discovered. As Stephen Gould, an influential palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist, once said, sometimes the greatest discoveries are made in museum drawers."

The study is published in the journal Peer J. Chiarenza did the underpinning analysis with Cau while at the University of Bologna.

The next step will see the team looking for more complete remains from these predatory dinosaurs trying to better understand their environment and evolutionary history.

Author: Colin Smith | Source: Imperial College London [February 29, 2016]

I promised a break-down on Chris Nolan’s latest project, Inception, and here it is. Complete with confirmed news, rumours and cast list. Prepare to become enthused, nay, extremely intrigued.

Batman fans went into cardiac arrest last year when Nolan announced his next film would not be a third Batman instalment, rather a film he had written several years earlier. Details of the plot are being keep under tighter wraps than Tutankhamen with the actors forbidden to give away any of the details.

When asked about the movie by MTV recently, cast member and my favourite Joseph Gordon-Levitt had this to say (or not say):

"Here’s the thing… I cant wait to talk to you about [Inception] but I’ve been very specifically asked not to talk about it. I want to respect [director Chris Nolan's wishes] because I love his movies and I’m so honored and grateful to be working with him. He’s got a really specific idea and way he wants people to be presented with this thing."

This, in my humble opinion, hints there are more than a few twists which would spoil the movie if known beforehand. Here is what we know about the plot so far; a CEO-type becomes involved in a blackmailing scandal. That’s it. Actually, Nolan also described the film as being set “within the architecture of the mind”. The films genre falls under the action, sci-fi, thriller categories and Nolan is no amateur at creating an amazing story. In fact, just knowing he has penned this latest effort makes me feel in safe hands considering he has previously written these masterpieces ; The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, The Prestige, Memento, Following and Doddlebug. His wife, Emma Thomas, is teaming up with him again to produce and Nolan is also directing.

I think this guy is one of the most creative cinema masterminds working and frankly I would go and see a Pizza Hut commercial if he made it. Fanaticism aside, this sounds so very, very exciting. And interesting. Inception is being shot in five countries including Morocco and a significant portion in Kananaskis, Alberta (a rural district in the Canadian Rockies). Oh, and it has a budget of $200 million. Yeah baby, $200 MILLION!

I know what you’re thinking — there are more than 10 Worst Movie Posters titles listed here. Bingo, and I’m sure other people out there could add some more titles to this list because essentially the answer depends on what YOU see. For example, a friend said Pirates of the Caribbean was in there but I couldn’t see it so didn’t add it. Another example is the cartoon of a man wearing a ball gown. Technically this could be the movie title Cinderella Man, the boxing movie with Russel Crowe, or the Jerry Lewis classic Cinderfella — it just depends on what you see. Also, the shaking building with love hearts could be Sex and the City or the Tilda Swinton drama Love Factory. So have some fun with this. If you think you’ve seen something I haven’t then please add a comment. Since I forgot about this mission for half a year I will make it up to you by starting a new mission; next time I go to the movies I intend to yell out every title when this ad comes on. I wonder how long until I’m escorted out?