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POPSFossils tell of mass exodus from sea Creatures could develop some protection from the sun in the water, but the land was wide open, and predators were yet to get anywhere the efficiency of ocean based predators. They can understand why shelled arthropods had the protection to survive, but can't understand the survival of soft bodied things like worms and Molluscs? then perhaps they can explain why a slug like creature evolved a shell and branched unto the Snail genotype. i don't imagine life is safe anywhere for exposed slugs and worms, and solar radiation, particularly UV Light can accelerate development. and change. Perhaps they were moving to the place that was the least dangerous.
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POPSEncyclopedia of Life - by the World's Leading Scientists An epic effort to promote biodiversity and document all 1.8 million named species on the planet. When completed, http://www.eol.org will serve as a global biodiversity tool, providing scientists, policymakers, students, and citizens information they need to discover and protect the planet and encourage learning and conservation. The Encyclopedia of Life is a collaborative scientific effort led by the Field Museum of Natural History, Harvard University, Marine Biological Laboratory, Missouri Botanical Garden, Smithsonian Institution, and Biodiversity Heritage Library, a consortium including the core institutions and also the American Museum of Natural History (New York), Natural History Museum (London), New York Botanical Garden, and Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew).
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POPSHundreds of new marine species discovered in Australia Among their findings were an estimated 130 new species of soft corals, several undescribed shrimp-like species - some with claws larger than their bodies - and dozens of tiny crustaceans. They also collected around 100 small organisms called isopods that are believed to be new to science. Some isopods are parasites and burrow into fishes' mouths and nibble their tongues away. The expeditions, which are part of a four-year effort to build up a detailed picture of marine life around the sites, will feed into a global census that will release its first report in 2010.
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POPSNew clues on "The Great Dying" The lessons of the Permian-Triassic massacre are "directly applicable to the present," said John Isbell, a geoscientist at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. He said the world today is in danger of exceeding a CO2 "threshold" that could set off an environmental upheaval as great as the one 251 million years ago.
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POPSHistory of Western Civilization lost in Iraq "It was there, in what the Greeks called Mesopotamia, that life as we know it today began: there people first began to speculate on philosophy and religion, developed concepts of international trade, made ideas of beauty into tangible forms, and, above all developed the skill of writing." And US invaders stood by and watched as irreplaceable world history was hauled off by unarmed looters.
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POPSDoes the Milky Way Influence Earth's Biodiversity Cycles? Research Says "Yes" The boost in cosmic-ray exposure may have a direct effect on Earth's organisms, according to paleontologist Bruce Lieberman. The radiation would lead to higher rates of genetic mutations in organisms or interfere with their ability to repair DNA damage. In this way, the process could lead to new species while killing off others. If future studies confirm the galaxy-biodiversity link, it would force scientists to broaden their ideas about what can influence life on Earth. "Maybe it's not just the climate and the tectonic events on Earth," Lieberman said. "Maybe we have to start thinking more about the extraterrestrial environment as well."
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POPSViruses can catch colds, says study that redefines life itself Prof La Scola and his colleagues were surprised to spot a smaller type of virus attached to the virus-making factory inside infected cells. The new virus - Sputnik - was unable to infect cells by itself but seemed to hijack the larger to achieve its infectious aims. By regulating the growth and death of plankton, giant viruses - and satellite viruses such as Sputnik - could be a major influence on ocean nutrient cycles and climate. "These viruses could be major players in global systems," Nature is told by Prof Curtis Suttle, an expert in marine viruses at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
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