Yale scientists discover the last living dinosaur

July 16, 2011 CTV News.ca Staff
A fossil discovered in Montana has given new momentum to the hypothesis that dinosaurs were thriving right up until a devastating meteor hit Earth 65 million years ago, causing their extinction.
Scientists from Yale University have found what is believed to be the youngest dinosaur fossil ever found, thought to be from just before the mass extinction took place.
The discovery, described in a study published in the online edition of the journal Biology Letters, contradicts the theory that the dinosaurs slowly went extinct before the cosmic impact.
The fossil -- a 45-centimetre horn believed to be from a triceratops -- was found in Montana's Hell Creek formation. It was located just below the K-T boundary, the band of the Earth's crust that represents the time period in which the meteor struck.
One of the main problems with the meteor theory has been the lack of any non-avian dinosaur fossils buried within 10 feet of the boundary -- known as the 'three metre gap.'
The absence of fossils, some paleontologists say, indicates dinosaurs were already extinct when the cosmic impact occurred.
Yale paleontologist Tyler Lyson, lead author of the study, says the new discovery proves otherwise.
"To all of our surprise the boundary was no more than 13 centimetres above this horn, and the significance is this indicates that at least some dinosaurs were doing quite well in this locale at the time of the meteor impact," he told CTV.ca.
There is evidence that avian dinosaurs thrived up to and into the K-T boundary. In fact, they are believed to have survived the meteor and evolved into modern-day birds.
But until now there has been no sign of non-avian dinosaurs, such as tyrannosaurus rex, triceratops, torosaurus or duckbilled dinosaurs anywhere even close to the boundary.
The new finding suggests the three-metre gap doesn't exist, Lyson said. Instead, he's now referring to the "13-centimetre gap."
The dinosaur that the horn came from is believed to have lived between "tens of thousands of years to just a few thousand years before the impact," but Lyson said the team is unable to determine a specific age.
Reached at the dig site in an insolated part of Montana, he said the team's goal now is to find additional fossils, ideally from a "diversity" of species, also within close proximity to the K-T boundary.
"We've found several candidates right now but we have to do our homework, we have to do the full analysis and unfortunately that takes time," he said.
From: Ottawa.ctv.ca/

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Post Fukushima: India begins construction on new nuclear plant

RAWATBHATA, RAJASTHAN: Moving ahead with its nuclear programme despite the Fukushimaaccident, India on Monday began construction of its 25th atomic power plant.
The first pour of concrete for the 700 MW indigenous Pressurised Heavy Water Reactor (PHWR), the seventh nuclear plant at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS), took place in this bustling Rajasthan township, about 65 km from Kota.
The first pour of concrete ceremony, which signals the beginning of the construction of a nuclear plant, was attended by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Srikumar Banerjee and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) CMD Shreyans Kumar Jain.
Banerjee gave the command to pour the concrete by pressing the button on the control panel of the concrete pressure pump. Soon after the M45 grade concrete began pouring in the foundation of what would be the emergency core cooling system of the new reactor building.
The concrete is being poured at the rate of 90 cubic metres per hour and at a controlled temperature of 19 degree Celsius. To monitor the temperature, ice is being mixed with the concrete.
The 700 MW PHWR, designed by NPCIL by scaling up its 540 MW PHWRs under operation at Tarapur since 2005, is expected to be completed in the next five years.
Banerjee said, "The 540 MW PHWR at Tarapur was built by NPCIL in a record time of four years and ten months. We will try to beat that record".
RAPS already has six units of PHWRs, five of which are producing over 1180 MW, the largest from a single site.
Construction for the seventh unit began today and excavation work is currently on for the eighth unit, also a 700 MW PHWR.
From: india/Post-Fukushima

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Spa fish will go hungry

Business owner forced to stop offering 'fish nibbling' treatment.

Fish nibbling was becoming a popular pedicure procedure at a Vancouver Island spa, at least until health officials found out.
Dixie Simpson, owner of Duncan, B.C.'s Purple Orchid Spa, said her business now faces ruin because the Vancouver Island Health Authority has ordered her to stop running her fish spa.
She is now asking health officials to reconsider their decision.
"It's a third of my business, if not more," said Simpson. "It could sink me. In fact, it may sink me."
The service, which began in July 2010 but has since stopped, saw clients, seated on a bench, submerge their feet in a 454-litre tank filled with 85 Turkish Gurra rufa fish.
Simpson said the water, treated by a filtration system and ultraviolet light, softened clients' skin. The fish then went to work, nibbling away.
Since she began offering the service, said Simpson, her spa has treated more than 700 clients, including some 300 regulars.
But only after health authorities saw a documentary on her spa this past winter was she asked to stop providing the service, she said.
In fact, before opening up her business in 2010, said Simpson, she ran the idea by Health Canada, which raised no concerns.
Simpson said the health authority has threatened her with a $25,000 fine or the possibility of six months in jail if she doesn't shut down.
In Winnipeg a salon that advertised fish pedicures is still operating but the fish are long gone, though not due to complaints.
The arm of Manitoba that inspects and regulates this kind of treatment never registered a single complaint, a Manitoba Health spokeswoman said.
LA Nails on Pembina Highway ran a fish pedicure treatment -- that was featured in a couple of media profiles.
In the wake of the scandal in Vancouver, a worker who answered the phone at the salon Friday said the fish-pedicure fad bottomed out ages ago.
Not only is the treatment no longer available, it apparently didn't last long in Winnipeg, the worker said.
Dr. Richard Stanwick, the Vancouver Island health authority's chief medical officer, said medical officials are worried about the transmission of infection, and the health authority commissioned a report on the procedure by an animal-health specialist.
Stanwick said while there are no studies specifically addressing fish spas, the report indicated the procedure is almost equivalent to running an aquarium in a home or business, and an aquarium-like setting can expose people to at least 11 potentially very serious infections, some of them life threatening.
"You could get sort of fish to person and then what you get (is) person to fish to person," said Stanwick. People can even transmit a superbug through the tank, Stanwick said.
He also pointed to a case reported in the media of a 12-year-old U.S. girl who will lose her hand from an infection she received from a fish tank when she was nine years old.
He said there is no safe way to operate such a spa, and some infections are resistant to ultraviolet light.
Bill Routley, NDP MLA for Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley, said he's asked the health authority to change its mind.
Routley said spas in Quebec, Manitoba, Japan and China offer the service, and he said some jurisdictions in the United States allow it, while others don't.
-- The Canadian Press, with files from the Winnipeg Free Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 17, 2011 A4
From: winnipegfreepress.com

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