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Texas discovery: Rare 95 million-year-old flying reptile Aetodactylus halli is new genus, species of pterosaur

A 95 million-year-old fossilized jaw discovered in Texas has been identified as a new genus and species of flying reptile, Aetodactylus halli.

Aetodactylus halli is a pterosaur, a group of flying reptiles commonly referred to as pterodactyls.

The rare pterosaur — literally winged lizard — is one of the youngest members in the world of the pterosaur family Ornithocheiridae, says paleontologist Timothy S. Myers, who identified and named Aetodactylus halli.

The newly identified reptile is only the second ornithocheirid ever documented in North America, Myers says. He is a postdoctoral fellow in the Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.

Aetodactylus halli would have soared over what is now the Dallas-Fort Worth area during the Cretaceous Period when much of the Lone Star state was under water, covered by a vast ancient sea.

Click here to view larger image of Aetodactylus halli

While rare in North America, toothed pterosaurs belonging to the Ornithocheiridae are a major component of Cretaceous pterosaur faunas elsewhere in the world, Myers says. The Texas specimen — a nearly complete mandible with most of its 54 teeth missing — is definitively younger than most other ornithocheirid specimens from Brazil, England and China, he says. It is five million years younger than the only other known North American ornithocheirid.

Myers describes the new species in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Myers named the pterosaur Aetodactylus halli after Lance Hall, a member of the Dallas Paleontological Society who hunts fossils for a hobby. Hall found the specimen in 2006 in North Texas. It was embedded in a soft, powdery shale exposed by excavation of a hillside next to a highway. The site was near the city of Mansfield, southwest of Dallas and west of Joe Pool Lake. Hall donated the specimen to SMU.

Pterosaurs ruled the skies from the late Triassic, more than 200 million years ago, to the end of the Cretaceous, about 65 million years ago, when they went extinct. They represent the earliest vertebrates capable of flying.

Fossil hunter saw long row of teeth sockets
The Aetodactylus halli jaw was discovered in the geologic unit known as the Eagle Ford Group, which comprises sediments deposited in a shallow sea, Myers says. Outcrop of the Eagle Ford Group extends northward from southwestern Texas into southern Oklahoma and southwestern Arkansas.

“I was scanning the exposure and noticed what at first I thought was a piece of oyster shell spanning across a small erosion valley,” Hall recalls of the discovery. “Only about an inch or two was exposed. I almost passed it up thinking it was oyster, but realized it was more tan-colored like bone. I started uncovering it and realized it was the jaw to something — but I had no idea what. It was upside down and when I turned over the snout portion it was nothing but a long row of teeth sockets, which was very exciting.”

SMU vertebrate paleontologist Louis L. Jacobs, a dinosaur expert internationally recognized for his fossil discoveries in Texas and Africa, and SMU paleontologist Michael J. Polcyn, recognized for his expertise on the extinct marine reptiles called mosasaurs, both told Hall it was a pterosaur and an important find.

Unique jaw differs from others
The 38.4-centimeter Aetodactylus jaw originally contained 54 slender, pointed teeth, but only two remain in their sockets, Myers says. The lower teeth were evenly spaced and extended far back along the jaw, covering nearly three quarters of the length of the mandible. The upper and lower teeth interlaced when the jaws were closed.

In Aetodactylus, changes in tooth size along the jaw follow a similar pattern to those of other ornithocheirids. However, Aetodactylus differs from all other ornithocheirids in that its jaws were thin and delicate, with a maximum thickness not much greater than 1 centimeter, Myers says. But the specimen does compare favorably with Boreopterus, a related pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China, in terms of the number of teeth present in the lower jaw, he says.

Myers has estimated the wingspan around roughly 3 meters, or about 9 feet, indicating Aetodactylus would have been a “medium-sized” pterosaur, he says. While it’s not known how Aetodactylus died, at the time of death the reptile was flying over the sea and fell into the water, perhaps while fishing, Jacobs says.

Find hints at new diversity of pterosaurs
North American pterosaurs that date from the Cretaceous are all toothless, except for Aetodactylus and Coloborhynchus, Myers says. The thinness of the jaws, upward angle of the back half of the mandible and the lack of a pronounced expansion of the jaw tips indicate that Aetodactylus is different from other ornithocheirids and represents a new genus and species of pterosaur.

“Discovery of another ornithocheirid species in Texas hints at a diversity of pterosaurs in the Cretaceous of North America that wasn’t previously realized,” Myers says. “Aetodactylus also represents one of the final occurrences of ornithocheirids prior to the Late Cretaceous transition to pterosaur faunas that were dominated by the edentulous, or toothless, species.”

Texas now claims the only two of their kind
Hall on April 14 was presented with the Dallas Paleontological Society’s highest honor, the Lloyd Hill award. The award is named for the late Lloyd Hill, an amateur fossil hunter and longtime member of the Dallas Paleontological Society. Hill wrote the well-regarded novel The Village of Bom Jesus.

Much of Texas was once submerged under the Western Interior Seaway. The massive sea split North America from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.

On shore, the terrain was flat and flowering plants were already dominating flora communities in this part of North America, according to paleobotanist Bonnie Jacobs, associate professor of Earth Sciences at SMU.

“There were still conifers and ferns as well, but mostly of the sort that had tiny needle leaves, like junipers,” says Bonnie Jacobs. “Sycamores and their relatives would have been among the flowering plants.”

The first ornithocheirid remains from North America, discovered in Fort Worth, were described by former SMU student Young-Nam Lee and donated by amateur collector Chris Wadleigh, says SMU’s Louis Jacobs.

“The ancient sea that covered Dallas provided the right conditions to preserve marine reptiles and other denizens of the deep, as well as the delicate bones of flying reptiles that fell from their flight to the water below,” says Louis Jacobs, a professor in SMU’s Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.

“The rocks and fossils here record a time not well represented elsewhere in North America,” says Louis Jacobs. “That’s why two species of ornithocheirids have been found here but nowhere else, and that’s why discoveries of other new fossils are sure to be made by Lance Hall and other fossil lovers.”

Myers’ article in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology is titled “A new ornithocheirid pterosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) Eagle Ford Group of Texas.”

The research was funded by SMU’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences and SMU’s Institute for the Study of Earth and Man.

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Health & Medicine Mind & Brain Researcher news SMU In The News

USA TODAY: SMU’s Jasper Smits urges exercise Rx for anxiety, depression

Exercies%20for%20anxiety%2C%20swimmer%2C%20150.jpgUSA Today interviewed SMU’s Jasper Smits about his research indicating exercise offers effective relief for anxiety and depression.

In the article “Exercise to get rid of anxiety, and put on a happy face” published April 26, health columnist Kim Painter quotes Smits saying more therapists should prescribe exercise as an effective treatment.

Smits co-authored a book detailing how exercise can provide relief for people who struggle with depression and anxiety disorders.

Exercise%20for%20anxiety%2C%20weights%2C%20400.jpgSmits and Michael Otto, psychology professor at Boston University, analyzed numerous studies and determined exercise should be more widely prescribed by mental health care providers.

They presented their findings to researchers and mental health care providers March 6 at the Anxiety Disorder Association of America’s annual conference in Baltimore. Their workshop was based on their therapist guide “Exercise for Mood and Anxiety Disorders,” with accompanying patient workbook (Oxford University Press, September 2009).

The guide draws on dozens of population-based studies, clinical studies and meta-analytic reviews that demonstrate the efficacy of exercise programs, including the authors’ meta-analysis of exercise interventions for mental health and study on reducing anxiety sensitivity with exercise.

EXCERPT:
By Kim Painter
USA TODAY

Most people seeking treatment for depression or anxiety face two choices: medication or psychotherapy. But there’s a third choice that is rarely prescribed, though it comes with few side effects, low costs and a list of added benefits, advocates say.

The treatment: exercise.

“It’s become clear that this is a good intervention, particularly for mild to moderate depression,” says Jasper Smits, a psychologist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Exercise as an anxiety treatment is less well-studied but looks helpful, he says.

It’s no secret that exercise often boosts mood: The runner’s high is legendary, and walkers, bikers, dancers and swimmers report their share of bliss.

Now, data pooled from many small studies suggest that in people diagnosed with depression or anxiety, the immediate mood boost is followed by longer-term relief, similar to that offered by medication and talk therapy, says Daniel Landers, a professor emeritus in the department of kinesiology at Arizona State University.

And exercise seems to work better than relaxation, meditation, stress education and music therapy, Landers says.

Read the full article

Related links:
Jasper Smits
SMU Anxiety Research and Treatment Program
Michael Otto
Book: “Exercise for Mood and Anxiety Disorders
Google books: “Exercise for Mood and Anxiety Disorders Workbook

Categories
Earth & Climate Researcher news SMU In The News

Guam TV: USGS-SMU project monitors Anatahan volcano

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Anatahan volcano

News reporter Tina Chau of Guam News Watch television interviewed SMU vulcanologist James Quick about the danger of nearby Anatahan volcano to neighboring Guam. Quick leads a two-year, $250,000 volcano monitoring project of the U.S. Geological Survey and Southern Methodist University in the Northern Mariana Islands.

The project, which includes Anatahan volcano, will use infrasound — in addition to more conventional seismic monitoring — to “listen” for signs that a volcano is about to blow. The plan is to beef up monitoring of lava and ash hazards in the Marianas, a U.S. commonwealth near Guam. The island of Guam soon will be the primary base for forward deployment of U.S. military forces in the Western Pacific.

The USGS-SMU team recently installed equipment on the islands that was originally designed to detect nuclear explosions and enforce the world’s nuclear test-ban treaty, an area of expertise for <a href=”https://blog.smu.edu/research/2006/06/brian_stump.html#more” target=”blank”>SMU scientists</a>. The Marianas’ project is an effort to pioneer the use of the technology to monitor active volcanoes.

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Earth & Climate Technology

Cockpit audio: Listen as volcanic ash plume causes 1989 engine failure of KLM flight 867

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Eyjafjallajokull erupting

Floating ash plumes from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano have caused massive disruption to the world’s air traffic, highlighting the danger that volcanic ash plumes pose to aircraft.

The threat from volcanoes has become more severe as the world’s air traffic has increased, and as more people settle closer to volcanoes, says SMU vulcanologist James Quick, a professor in the Southern Methodist University Huffington Department of Earth Sciences.

Quick previously served as program coordinator for the USGS Volcano Hazards Program.

One of the most infamous encounters between a commercial jetliner and a volcano ash plume took place in 1989.
KLM Flight 867, carrying 231 passengers in a Boeing 747, flew into an ash plume after the eruption of Redoubt volcano in Alaska. According to USGS reports, the volcano spewed enormous clouds of ash thousands of miles into the air and nearly caused the airliner to crash.
Captured on audio was the frantic conversation between KLM’s pilot and the Anchorage control tower as the aircraft’s engines began flameout. Hear the cockpit audio in this video, as well as Quick’s comments on the danger.
Volcanic ash plumes can rise to cruise altitudes in a matter of minutes after an eruption, Quick says. Winds carry plumes thousands of miles from the volcanoes and then the plumes are difficult or impossible to distinguish from normal atmospheric clouds.
Quick and other scientists from Southern Methodist University and the U.S. Geological Survey are pioneering technology designed to detect nuclear explosions and enforce the world’s nuclear test-ban treaty to monitor active volcanoes in the Northern Mariana Islands.
Read AOL’s coverage:Determining When The Next One Will Blow
See Guam TV’s coverage:Eye On The Volcano: Could Guam Be The Next Iceland?
Quick on Fox News:Amazing Video Shows Shockwaves Explode From Volcano
Stars and Stripes interviews Quick:Monitoring to track Guam volcanoes
Geology.com news:Volcanoes and Volcanic Eruptions
Worldwide from 1970 to 2000 more than 90 commercial jets have flown into clouds of volcanic ash, causing damage to those aircraft, most notably engine failure, according to airplane maker Boeing.
Volcano monitoring by remote sensing allows USGS scientists to alert the International Civil Aviation Organization’s nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers as part of ICAO’s International Airways Volcano Watch program. The centers then can issue early warnings of volcanic ash clouds to pilots.
The islands are near Guam, which soon will be the primary base for forward deployment of U.S. military forces in the Western Pacific.
The two-year, $250,000 project will use infrasound — in addition to more conventional seismic monitoring — to “listen” for signs a volcano is about to blow.
The plan is to beef up monitoring of lava and ash hazards in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth.
Read more about the project.
Related links:
SMU Geophysics: Infrasound and seismo-acoustic sensing
NASA: Eruption of Anatahan
USGS: Anatahan volcano
Smithsonian: Anatahan volcano
Northern Mariana Islands
USGS: Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers
Alaska Volcano Observatory
James E. Quick
SMU Huffington Department of Earth Sciences
Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences
Categories
Culture, Society & Family Fossils & Ruins Researcher news SMU In The News

“Archaeology” magazine looks at childhood archaeology research of SMU’s Eiselt

SMU archaeologist Sunday Eiselt leads the SMU-in-Taos Childhood Archaeology Project, a systematic and scientific examination of children’s lives through a community archaeological excavation project in the historic and picturesque plaza of Ranchos de Taos in northern New Mexico.

Journalist Julian Smith wrote about Eiselt’s research in the May/June edition of Archaeology magazine.

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Sunday Eiselt

The research will provide new perspectives on the dynamics of Spanish and American occupation of New Mexico, says Eiselt, an SMU anthropology professor in SMU’s Dedman College. The plaza was once a hub of village life in Ranchos de Taos. But these days it’s notably absent of children. Their families have been driven to the outskirts of the Catholic village by a booming tourism industry that has pushed up property values.

Still, the children who lived there in decades past left their mark, says Eiselt, who for three years has led digging crews in some of the homes through her work in the SMU Archaeology Field School at the SMU-in-Taos campus. The crews have unearthed children’s artifacts up to 100 years old, including pieces of clay toys, tea sets, doll parts, clothing, mechanical trains, jacks, marbles, child-care implements, modern plastic Legos, Barbie doll parts, action figures and jewelry.

Eiselt’s pilot excavations in 2007 and 2008 revealed patterns that suggest children were integral to the workforce and household economy in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 1930s, the evidence shows, they were drawn from the workforce into the home and pulled as a consumer into the expanding commercial market as well as into the public education realm, Eiselt says.

Her interest in childhood artifacts is unique because children are rarely documented in archaeological narratives — particularly in the Spanish borderlands, where they appear as victims of slavery and boarding schools.

Eiselt specializes in the historical archaeology of native people of the Southwest.

EXCERPT

Excavated toys and games reflect the changing experience of childhood in New Mexico

By Julian Smith
The full moon casts a warm glow across the dirt plaza of Ranchos de Taos and the adobe walls of the church of Saint Francis of Assisi, made famous by the paintings of Georgia O’Keeffe.

Inside the parish hall, archaeologist Sunday Eiselt of Southern Methodist University (SMU) faces a small crowd. She’s a little nervous. Eiselt is about to ask the residents of this conservative Hispanic community near Taos, New Mexico, for permission to dig up their backyards and the floors of their centuries-old homes. Today, the area is known as a ski town and a magnet for both the super-rich and hippie artists, but the community was founded in the 17th century, and is one of the oldest in the country.

Read the full online version. (A more complete story appears in the printed version.)

Related links:
Sunday Eiselt and her research
Sunday Eiselt brief bio
SMU’s Archaeology Field School
SMU-in-Taos
Taos Collaborative Archaeology Project
SMU’s Department of Anthropology
Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences