Dec 6, 2019 04:06 PM
(This post was last modified: Dec 7, 2019 07:15 AM by C C.)
Microbe that eats meteorites might hint at our alien origins
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/...en-origins
EXCERPT: . . . a peculiar microbe by the name of Metallosphaera sedula, which is known for its voracious metal-hungry appetite. Because meteorites are filled with lots of the food that these microbes crave, researchers wanted to see how well the bugs adapted to a steady diet of extraterrestrial rock. [...] What they found was quite remarkable. Not only did the M. sedula heartedly chomp on the meteorites, but they actually harvested food from the space debris more efficiently than they could from Earth stones.
[...] The meteorites clearly produced healthier, fitter microorganisms. ... While this research is hardly proof of panspermia, it does offer a model for how the idea could have worked. ... an intergalactic voyage that they could survive, because they had all the food they needed for the journey: the meteor that would become their transport... (MORE - details)
Did a million years of rain jump-start dinosaur evolution? (Carnian age)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03699-7
EXCERPT: . . . Three decades later, there is a growing consensus that they were right, after all. Something strange happened in the Late Triassic — and not just in Somerset. About 232 million years ago, during a span known as the Carnian age, it rained almost everywhere. After millions of years of dry climates, Earth entered a wet period lasting one million to two million years. Nearly any place where geologists find rocks of that age, there are signs of wet weather. This so-called Carnian pluvial episode coincides with some massive evolutionary shifts.
Perhaps most dramatically, the Carnian pluvial might have overlapped with when a rare group of reptiles — early dinosaurs — evolved into a diverse group and came to dominate land ecosystems. The Carnian could have paved the way for the spectacular dinosaurs that evolved later, including Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus.
Other groups also left the Carnian in very different shape from how they had entered it: reef-building corals and marine plankton were all becoming more ‘modern’ — moving evolutionarily closer to the forms alive today. The period could even have seen the appearance of the first mammals. “It was almost like a turning point between some elements of a more ancient world and a modern world,” says Simms. After years in obscurity, the Carnian pluvial is becoming a major research focus... (MORE - details)
https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/...en-origins
EXCERPT: . . . a peculiar microbe by the name of Metallosphaera sedula, which is known for its voracious metal-hungry appetite. Because meteorites are filled with lots of the food that these microbes crave, researchers wanted to see how well the bugs adapted to a steady diet of extraterrestrial rock. [...] What they found was quite remarkable. Not only did the M. sedula heartedly chomp on the meteorites, but they actually harvested food from the space debris more efficiently than they could from Earth stones.
[...] The meteorites clearly produced healthier, fitter microorganisms. ... While this research is hardly proof of panspermia, it does offer a model for how the idea could have worked. ... an intergalactic voyage that they could survive, because they had all the food they needed for the journey: the meteor that would become their transport... (MORE - details)
Did a million years of rain jump-start dinosaur evolution? (Carnian age)
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03699-7
EXCERPT: . . . Three decades later, there is a growing consensus that they were right, after all. Something strange happened in the Late Triassic — and not just in Somerset. About 232 million years ago, during a span known as the Carnian age, it rained almost everywhere. After millions of years of dry climates, Earth entered a wet period lasting one million to two million years. Nearly any place where geologists find rocks of that age, there are signs of wet weather. This so-called Carnian pluvial episode coincides with some massive evolutionary shifts.
Perhaps most dramatically, the Carnian pluvial might have overlapped with when a rare group of reptiles — early dinosaurs — evolved into a diverse group and came to dominate land ecosystems. The Carnian could have paved the way for the spectacular dinosaurs that evolved later, including Stegosaurus and Tyrannosaurus.
Other groups also left the Carnian in very different shape from how they had entered it: reef-building corals and marine plankton were all becoming more ‘modern’ — moving evolutionarily closer to the forms alive today. The period could even have seen the appearance of the first mammals. “It was almost like a turning point between some elements of a more ancient world and a modern world,” says Simms. After years in obscurity, the Carnian pluvial is becoming a major research focus... (MORE - details)
