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a-dinosaur-a-day · 7 years

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It’s Jehol Biota Day!

The Jehol Biota is the ecosystem of the Yixian and Jiofotang Formations of northeastern China, dating between 133 and 120 million years ago in the Early Cretaceous (from the Valanginian to Aptian ages).

It is famous because of it’s method of preservation - there were ash eruptions periodically, and the fossils are Lagerstätten, meaning that they were exceptionally well preserved with articulated skeletons, soft tissues, stomach contents, and even coloration.

This has led to an amazing understanding of various types of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, especially very birdy dinosaurs.

These animals lived in forests around lakes, dominated by conifers but featuring the earliest flowering plants - Archaefructus, which may have been a water plant.

By Shizhao, CC BY-SA 2.5

There were dry seasons, but it was a mostly wet formation, as many of the plants grew in very wet habitats and probably stayed close to bodies of water.

The Yixian Formation was the older of the two main Jehol Formations, and featured many, many animals. Of invertebrates, there were spiders, crustaceans, dragonflies, flies, wasps, many other insects, and molluscs, of too many to list. Fish included the lamprey Mesomyzon, ray finned fishes such as Lycoptera, Peipiaosteus, Protopsephurus, Sinamia, and Yanosteus, and a potential shark. There were frogs and toads like Callobatrachus, Liaobatrachus, and Mesophryne, as well as a salamander, Liaoxitriton.

Callobatrachus by Emily Willoughby, CC BY-SA 3.0

There were mammals, too, of course - the stem-placental Acristatherium, the stem-marsupials Akidolestes, Maotherium, Zhangheotherium, and Sinodelphys, the stem-therian (Therians being the group of Marsupials and Placentals) Eomaia, the multituberculate (a group of mammals which seem to also be stem-therians) Sinobaatar, and a significant number of Eutriconodonts, a group of early derived mammals, including Chaoyangodens, Gobiconodon, Jeholodens, Juchilestes, Meemannodon, Repenomamus, and Yanoconodon.

Eomaia by Nobu Tamura, CC BY-SA 3.0

There were the weird early derived Saurians (the group consisting of Lepidosauromorphs and Archosauromorphs, so Extant Reptiles), Choristoderans - Hyphalosaurus, which is known from thousands of specimens, and Monjurosuchus. Lizards included Dalinghosaurus, similar to the modern Chinese Crocodile Lizard; Liushusaurus and Yabeinosaurus, lizards relatedx to modern geckos and skinks, and Xianglong, a gliding lizard. Turtles included Manchurochelys and Ordosemys, both Cryptodirans, a group including giant tortoises, sea turtles, tortoises, snapping turtles, and others.

Hyphalosaurus by Matt Martyniuk, CC BY 3.0

Xianglong by Nobu Tamura, CC BY 3.0

The heroes of the formation were, of course, the Avemetatarsalians. There were many pterosaurs - Beipiaopterus, Boreopterus, Cathayopterus, Elanodactylus, Eosipterus, Feilongus, Gegepterus, Gladocephaloideus, Haopterus, Moganopterus, Ningchengopterus, Pterofiltrus, and Zhenyuanopterus.

Ningchengopterus by Nobu Tamura, CC BY 3.0

Ornithischians included the ornithopods Bolong, Jeholosaurus, and Jinzhousaurus, the ankylosaur Liaoningosaurus, and the ceratopsians Liaoceratops and Psittacosaurus. There were sauropods too - the titanosauriform Dongbeititan, a potential titanosaur, and an animal that has for now been referred to Euhelopus. But the real heavyweights were the theropods.

Jeholosaurus by @ryuukibart

There were the tyrannosauroids Yutyrannus - one of the best known tyrannosauroids with feathers - and Dilong; the compsognathus Huaxiagnathus, Sinocalliopteryx, and Sinosauropteryx - the first non-avian dinosaur known to have feathers, and also with known coloration; early Ornithomimosaurs such as Hexing and Shenzhousaurus; the early derived maniraptoran Yixianosaurus; Beipiaosaurus, a therizinosaur; and tons of Chickenparrots, such as Similicaudipteryx, Protarchaeopteryx, Ningyuansaurus, Incisivosaurus, and Caudipteryx.

Yutyrannus, model from “Dinosaurs Among Us”, photo by me

Sinosauropteryx by Matt Martyniuk, CC BY-SA 3.0

There were many Dromaeosaurids (raptors), such as Graciliraptor, Tianyuraptor, Zhenyuanlong - a raptor known from nearly complete feather traces, including extremely large wings - and Sinornithosaurus, the first Dromaeosaurid found with feathers. There were also lots of Troodontids, such as Sinusonasus, Sinovenator, and Mei, as well as unnamed members of both groups. There were early-derived Avialans such as Zhongornis, Jixiangornis, Confuciusornis, and Changchengornis. There were loads of Enantiornithines, such as Bohaiornis, Eoenantironis, Dalingheornis, Liaoningornis, Longirostravis, and Shanweiniao - an Enantiornithine that had a tail fan like modern birds. There were also Euornithines - the group which contains modern birds - such as Longicrusavis, Hongshanornis, and Archaeorhynchus. In short, this was an extremely birdy formation indeed.

Zhenyuanlong by Emily Willoughby, CC BY-SA 4.0

Shanweiniao by Nobu Tamura, CC BY 3.0

The Jiuofotang Formation was slightly younger, but was similar to the Yixian in terms of the animals there. There were ray finned fishes such as Jinanichthys, Lycoptera, Peipiaosteus, Protsephurus, and Sinamia. There was the mammal Liaoconodon, a Eutriconodont, as well as an unnamed mammal similar to Eomaia from the Yixian Formation. There were also Choristoderans like Philydrosaurus, Ikechosaurus, and Liaoxisaurus.

Liaoconodon by Dylan Bajda, CC BY-SA 4.0

There were many, many, many pterosaurs. This included Chaoyangopterus, Eoazhdarcho, Guidraco, Ikrandraco, Jidapterus, Liaoningopterus, Liaoxipterus, Linlongopterus, Nemicolopterus, Nurhachius, Shenzhoupterus, and Sinopterus. And, as we shall see, there were a lot of flying theropods as well, indicating that the two groups did live alongside one another just fine, and the common narrative of “birds replaced pterosaurs” has little foundation in the fossil record.

Ikrandraco, by Fabrizio De Rossi, from www.pteros.com

Chaoyangopterus, by Joschua Knüppe, from www.pteros.com

There were only a few Ornithischians - namely Chuanqilong, an ankylosaur, and Psittacosaurus, a ceratopsian. There is also an unnamed titanosaur from the formation. As for theropods, there were a lot. The tyrannosauroid Sinotyrannus was the largest predator there, there was the Chickenparrot Similicaudipteryx, and of course one of the most famous raptors, Microraptor, which was a four-winged Dromaeosaurid that we know had iridescent black feathers.

Microraptor by @artisticthingem

There were many early derived Avialans, such as Confuciusornis, Dalianraptor, Omnivoropteryx, Sapeornis, Shenshiornis, Zhongjianornis, and my personal favorite, Jeholornis, a theropod we know was a seed-eater, which is actually quite hard to determine from fossils. There were many Enantiornithines, such as Alethoalaornis, Boluochia, Cathayornis, Cuspirostrisornis, Dapingfangornis, Eocathayornis, Gracilornis, Huoshanornis, Largirostrornis, Longchengornis, Longipteryx, Rapaxavis, Xiangornis, and one of my favorites, Sinornis, which is thought to have perched. As for Euornithines, there was Chaoyangia, Jianchangornis, Parahongshanornis, Schizooura, Songlingornis, Yanornis, and Yixianornis.

Jeholornis by Matt Martyniuk, CC BY-SA 3.0

Sinornis, by Pavel Rhia, CC BY-SA 3.0

It’s plain to see why the Jehol Biota is so fascinating. At least for me, I love it because it’s clearly one of the best pictures we have of Pennaraptoran evolution - the amount of birdie dinosaurs is absolutely ridiculous. But there’s really something for everyone here - there are titanosaur-like things, some of the earliest Ceratopsians, tons of Pterosaurs, weird Choristoderans, and even some insights into the evolution of early mammals and different types of amphibians and fish, as well as the first flowering plants. The Jehol Biota is one of the best ecosystems we know about, and it definitely deserves celebration!

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jehol_Biota

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiufotang_Formation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yixian_Formation

#dinosaurs #birds #pterosaurs #jehol biota #palaeoblr #prehistoric life #yixian formation #jiufotang formation

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decaffeinatedlightluminary-blog · 7 years

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Science And The Fundamentalist Religious Right

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Science And The Fundamentalist Religious Right

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There are those religious fundamentalists who claim that all you need to know about science is contained within the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible. Not only is the Bible a religious text, an historical document, but it’s a science textbook too chock full of astronomy, geology, meteorology, biology, medicine, etc. And should there ever be a disagreement between nerdy white-coated scientists in jeans and God Almighty’s holy word, well it’s a no-brainer; no contest – God always wins – in God we trust not nerdy Einstein-types. Any science that undermines your faith in God, etc. is a false science. Real science proves the bona-fides of the Bible.

The fact that such Right Wing Christian fundamentalists say this with a straight face and sincerely (apparently) believe this claptrap is actually a tad frightening. In any other context they appear to be intelligent, articulate, sane and rational beings! But then again, how many people have been taken aback to find out that their wonderful and lovely next door neighbour was a serial killer, kidnapper, paedophile, or a closet white supremacist pseudo-Nazi.

Fundamentalists though in general, when pressed, admit they aren’t scientists, but that doesn’t stop them from bucketing any science that rubs their personal worldview the wrong way. One common argument is that science is fundamentally limited since it can only explain the natural, whereby supernatural philosophy (i.e. – Right Wing Christianity) explains all. The natural in their opinion or belief is just a minor subset of all things supernatural.

SCIENCE vs. RELIGION

There has been quite a number of various religious vs. scientific issues hotly debated over time.

The Earth is (religion) or is not (science) the centre of the Universe. Science won that issue.

The age of the Earth is less than 10,000 years old (religion); way, way, way more than 10,000 years old (science). Science won that debate too though diehard religious fundamentalists haven’t conceded any ground.

Most recently, starting with Charles Darwin in 1859 (“The Origin of Species”) down to the Scope’s (Monkey) Trial in 1925 and ongoing today is that Homo sapiens were made in God’s image (religion) vs. Homo sapiens were the product of natural (Darwinian) selection and evolution from primate ancestors (science). Creationism is pure science; evolution is junk or false science according to the religious right. The names that fundamentalists call evolutionists would make many a blue-water sailor blush!

It’s that most recent issue, evolution (science) vs. creationism/intelligent design (religion) that mainly dominates the debate today. You could make a journalistic career just following, covering and reporting on the ever ongoing battles between creationists, educational institutions and authorities, politicians, and scientists over whether science curricula and textbooks should be giving equal space to God and intelligent design vis-à-vis Darwinian evolution.

BIBLICAL ‘SCIENCE’

But let’s go back to the Biblical truth about all things scientific. We all know the standards:

The Bible is literally true; scientifically accurate. Science according to the Bible requires that:

* Life, the universe and everything was created in just six days somewhere roughly around 4004 BCE and any evidence to the contrary of an earth billions of years old (i.e. – radioactive dating; geochronology) is the work of that great deceiver, Satan.

* Adam was created from the dry dust of the earth despite that fact that a human is roughly 70% water.

* Eve was created from Adam’s rib which means Eve should have been, genetically speaking, a male.

* There was a universal flood which requires the creation (and later destruction) of an additional and massive inventory of water out of nothing in defiance of conservation laws.

* Noah’s Ark carried two (or sometimes more) individuals (male and female) of every (presumably bisexual) species. Okay, that’s fine, but that must include the New Zealand flightless kiwi bird; every species of Antarctic penguin; the Australian koala; and the dodo bird of Madagascar. Am I the only one who sees a problem here?

* Some Biblical characters lived in excess of 900 years, but such longevity hasn’t been observed in recent post-Biblical times so don’t get your expectations up, no matter how religious and God-fearing you happen to be.

* A bush refused to be consumed by fire, an obvious case of the application of high-tech fire retardant in use thousands of years ago.

* The Red Sea parted over a rather lengthy time period in order to allow hundreds of thousands of pedestrians to ‘cross with the green’ and then un-parted so that another set of pedestrians got run down by trying to cross against the sudden red traffic light. Such a phenomenon has never been witnessed since so a one-off report doesn’t have much credibility.

* The sun and moon stood still in the sky and thus for the duration the Earth ceased rotating on its axis.

* Unicorns exist (and no doubt so do Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy).

* Life actually begins before conception according to Jeremiah 1:5!

* Jonah lived undigested for three days in the belly of a large fish. Jonah must have had on hand an extraordinary supply of antacids in order to prevent being dissolved and turned into or assimilated as fish food.

* Mary reproduced asexually – the virgin birth – which means Jesus should have been born a woman, again, genetically speaking.

* Jesus walked on water in defiance of gravity. Newton and Einstein are not amused at this parlour trick!

* Loaves and (dead) fishes multiplied – the creation of something from nothing yet again.

* Presumably the lion will lie down with the lamb (and also presumably if the lion isn’t hungry).

* There were resurrections (life after death). That’s no big deal any longer in this modern age of medical ‘miracles’.

IN ADDITION

The Earth is the centre of the Universe (or firmament) and the Sun goes around the Earth and that religious point of view got lots of people who suggested otherwise into lots of trouble.

Scientists can’t determine the age of the Earth, nor can they determine what the origin of life was, for the extremely simple reason that they weren’t Johnny-on-the-spot and therefore actually present at the exact time and place of the happening.

Homosexuality/lesbianism is a free-will choice and has nothing to do with genetics or biochemistry or neurochemistry. You aren’t born gay any more than you’re born an astronomer or a criminal. Homosexuality is encouraged by the powers-that-be as a ways and means of population control. Satan also inspires and encourages homosexuality to cause the participants to be in direct disobedience and in defiance to God and God’s laws. Further, there are clear connections between homosexuality and paedophilia and bestiality, etc.

Fossils are a deliberate deception by Satan; or a deliberate deception by God in order to test your faith; or proof of that universal flood – take your pick.

Non-avian dinosaurs and human beings coexisted, religious fundamentalists citing fossil dinosaur and human footprints check-by-jowl embedded into rocks (in Texas). Dinosaurs were therefore on Noah’s Ark (which means Noah’s Ark had to have been just a tad larger than the Bible says it was).

There was no evolution by natural selection, just intelligent design and creationism by a Creator God. God created all species as is. Humans did not evolve from apes. Teaching and accepting evolution is apparently an evil Jewish plot according to some! Further, evolutionists support abortion, gay marriage and stem cell research.

There are no ‘natural’ disasters only acts of God (as in displays of God’s wrath). It’s been claimed by those Right Wing religious fundamentalist types that whenever God is pissed off, He sends His wrath via a ‘natural’ disaster. So, any tornado or hurricane or blizzard or earthquake or wildfire, etc. isn’t really ‘natural’, rather its an Act of God’s punishment. However, it’s rather amazing that tornados tend to happen in roughly the same areas at roughly the same time of year; ditto hurricanes; ditto blizzards; ditto wildfires; ditto floods. You don’t tend to get massive earthquakes other than in well known fault zones and thus earthquake prone areas. You don’t get volcanoes erupting in areas not known to be tectonically active. Now if ‘natural’ disasters were really Acts of God, you might expect God to produce the occasional blizzard in Southern California in July; or how about 40 straight days and nights of rain in Death Valley; New York City becoming ground zero for a massive earthquake or volcanic eruption; a tornado outbreak in Alaska in January; or wildfires in areas of high rainfall and high humidity. If ‘natural’ disasters are Acts of God, why doesn’t God have an asteroid striking Chicago or a comet spanking Las Vegas or for that matter institute a massive solar flare or coronal mass ejection to blanket the entire US of A? Even more central, why does God have to hide behind Mother Nature’s skirts in the first damn place? Why doesn’t God take a leaf out of His earlier wrath-filled up-yours and smite the first born?

Environmentalism (i.e. – the Green Dragon) is out to destroy Christianity, destroy America and replace it with fascist tyranny! In fact, the ultimate objective of environmentalists is to kill off 95% of humanity! After all, didn’t God say to humanity to “be fruitful and multiply” and subdue the earth and take dominion over the earth (and basically rape and pillage – Genesis 1:28) which has any greenie spitting chips!

Stem cell research is equivalent to Nazism.

We’re well aware that some fundamentalists reject vaccinations and blood transfusions and will allow their child to die rather than allow any medical procedures that they see as ungodly and against Biblical teachings.

Anything fundamentalists don’t like, like say birth control, will be linked to anything and everything nasty, like AIDS, and by extension, all disease is caused by sinful activities. In a similar fashion, if you accept any ungodly tenants, like evolution, you are way more prone to be antisocial and of criminal intent. Mass murderers are all Darwinists.

In a variation of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, one finds fundamentalist Christians supporting Islamic fundamentalists (otherwise strange bedfellows) since the latter do not accept and undermine Darwinian evolution.

Any normal museum that exhibits anything on physical or cultural anthropology that doesn’t reflect and give credit to the Almighty and God’s holy word is just asking for trouble.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

There’s more that you probably didn’t know.

According to Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association:

* The laws of thermodynamics are detailed in the Bible although Fischer tends to muddy the waters by mixing up the first and second laws of thermodynamics.

* Jesus is the entity that holds together the nucleus of an atom. [What held the nucleus together before the birth of Christ isn’t related by Fischer, assuming there even ever was a supernatural Christ of course.]

* Only God can alter the climate. Humans have nothing to do with any global warming. Global warming is pure junk science. Further, God created fossil fuels for the benefit of mankind and so to refuse to use them (in favour of renewable sources like wind or solar energy) is an insult to God. Trying to prevent climate change is anti-Christian.

If you have a spare couple of weeks, tune into the Right Wing Watch (RWW) website, or his videos on YouTube for tons more Fischer idiocy.

Bryan Fischer isn’t the only rather fishy fundamentalist going.

Just touching a very few of the highlights (via the RRW) from the patriarch of the extreme religious fundamentalists, Pat Robertson, and so-called self-proclaimed prophet Cindy Jacobs, is more than enough to make any scientist turn in their lab coat and head for the hills. Again, you can few more of them (if you must) on YouTube – far better on an empty stomach however

PAT ROBERTSON

“[Robertson’s] 700 Club: Climate change helps environment and civilization, SUV owners treated like witches.”

“Robertson: Expect natural disasters and divine wrath over Middle East peace talks.”

“Robertson: Environmentalists may cause the deaths of ‘a couple billion people’.”

“Robertson lashes out at ‘doctrinaire’ environmentalist ‘fanatics’.”

“Robertson dismisses ‘nutty,’ ‘true believer’ climate scientists.”

“Pat Robertson blames drought on Americans who ‘ignore the laws of God with impunity’.”

“Robertson: Scientists ‘can’t speculate about the origins of life’.”

“Pat Robertson says Satan is behind homosexuality and abortion rights.”

“Pat Robertson says people could have stopped deadly tornadoes through prayer.”

“Robertson calls Oklahoma earthquake a sign of the end times”

“Robertson suggests crack in the WashingtonMonument was a sign from God.”

“Robertson: Asteroid will destroy the Earth.”

CINDY JACOBS

“Cindy Jacobs heals broken cheek bones and her own tumours.”

“Cindy Jacobs’ prayers can cure insanity.”

“Cindy Jacobs’ five-year-old daughter can stop tornadoes.”

“God miraculously made a pair of Cindy Jacobs’ shoes last for years.”

“Jacobs warns Obama’s ‘anti-Biblical’ policies have led to ‘floods and fires and more’.”

“Cindy Jacobs: I have the power to revive dead children.”

“How Cindy Jacobs reversed a hysterectomy.”

“[Jacobs]: We are seeing natural disasters ‘because sin has reached Biblical proportions.”

“Jacobs: The DC earthquake is a sign from God to share the gospel.”

“Jacobs: God is using earthquake to break Japan’s pagan idolatry.”

“Jacobs: Birds are dying because of DADT [Don’t Ask Don’t Tell] repeal.”

“Jacobs and Pierce issue warning that CA [California] will be destroyed by earthquake if Prop 8 is struck down.”

“When Cindy Jacobs caused WashingtonDC to flood.”

On that note, I might just head for the hills myself!

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