PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Ancient New Zealand 'Dawn Whale' identified by Otago researchers

Ancient New Zealand 'Dawn Whale' identified by Otago researchers
2014-11-18
(Press-News.org) University of Otago palaeontologists are rewriting the history of New Zealand's ancient whales by describing a previously unknown genus of fossil baleen whales and two species within it.

Otago Department of Geology PhD student Robert Boessenecker and his supervisor Professor Ewan Fordyce have named the new genus Tohoraata, which translates as 'Dawn Whale' in Māori.

The two whales, which lived between 27-25 million years ago, were preserved in a rock formation near Duntroon in North Otago. At that time the continent of Zealandia was largely or completely under water and the whales were deposited on a continental shelf that was perhaps between 50 to 100 metres deep.

The new genus that the fossils represent belongs to the toothless filter-feeding family Eomysticetidae, and it is the first time members of this family have been identified in the Southern Hemisphere.

They named the younger of the two fossil whales, which may be a descendent of the elder, as Tohoraata raekohao. Raekohao means 'holes in the forehead'.

Mr Boessenecker says this whale lived between 26-25 million years ago and vaguely resembles a minke whale but was more slender and serpent-like. Its skull, which contains a number of holes near its eye sockets for arteries, was probably about two metres in length and the whole animal would have been eight metres long.

"This new species differs from modern baleen whales in having a smaller braincase and a skull that is generally much more primitive, with substantially larger attachments for jaw muscles. The lower jaw retains a very large cavity indicating that its hearing capabilities were similar to archaic whales."

The researchers also determined that the older fossil whale from the site, which was collected in 1949 and named in 1956, had been misidentified as belonging to the genus Mauicetus, a more advanced type of whale called a "cetothere". They have now changed its name from Mauicetus waitakiensis to Tohoraata waitakiensis.

Mr Boessenecker says this particular fossil had been poorly understood for more than 50 years and only with this study was it proven not to be from its originally attributed genus. The two whales have now become the first eomysticetids to be reported outside of South Carolina, USA, and Japan.

"Researchers contend with confusing or surprising fossils in museum collections all the time. Often, the best way to solve these mysteries is to go out and dig up another one, which is what Professor Fordyce and his colleagues did in 1993 when they collected the partial skull of Tohoraata raekohao."

Eomysticetids occupy an important position in the evolutionary tree of cetaceans: they are the earliest toothless baleen-bearing cetaceans, and in many characteristics are intermediate between toothed baleen whales and modern baleen whales, he says.

"They are the first baleen whales to have been completely toothless, and are therefore the earliest known cetaceans to have wholly relied upon filter feeding."

INFORMATION:

This study formed part of Mr Boessenecker's PhD thesis and was supported by a University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship. The Tohoraata raekohao fossil was collected during fieldwork funded by a grant from the National Geographic Society.


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Ancient New Zealand 'Dawn Whale' identified by Otago researchers

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Scientists get to the heart of fool's gold as a solar material

Scientists get to the heart of fools gold as a solar material
2014-11-18
MADISON, Wis. - As the installation of photovoltaic solar cells continues to accelerate, scientists are looking for inexpensive materials beyond the traditional silicon that can efficiently convert sunlight into electricity. Theoretically, iron pyrite -- a cheap compound that makes a common mineral known as fool's gold -- could do the job, but when it works at all, the conversion efficiency remains frustratingly low. Now, a University of Wisconsin-Madison research team explains why that is, in a discovery that suggests how improvements in this promising material could ...

Vanderbilt study finds nationwide decline in one type of serious heart attack

2014-11-18
The most emergent form of heart attacks is decreasing nationwide, but this declining incidence could affect emergency departments' quality and timeliness of care. This is the key finding of a Vanderbilt University study released today in the American Journal of Cardiology and presented at the national American Heart Association meeting in Chicago this week. Using data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, the nation's largest database of information about emergency department visits, the researchers found that approximately 250,000 patients present in emergency ...

Why we need to fund newer blood-thinning agents to prevent strokes

2014-11-18
Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2014 - Care gaps are emerging due to disharmony between healthcare reimbursement policies and evidence-based clinical guideline recommendations, cautions a group of Canadian physicians. Writing in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, they use the example of stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) to make a case for engaging with policy-makers to address the growing barriers to patients' access to optimal care. Stroke is a costly disease, imposing a significant human, societal, and economic burden. AF affects about one in eight people ...

Computerized cognitive training has modest benefits for cognitively healthy older adults

2014-11-18
Computerized cognitive training (CCT) has been widely promoted for older adults, but its effectiveness for cognitively health older adults has been unclear in systematic reviews to date. In a new systematic review and meta-analysis published in this week's issue of PLOS Medicine, Michael Valenzuela (Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) and colleagues evaluated 52 datasets in 51 studies and found a small overall effect of CCT (g = 0.22; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.29, where g END ...

Does 'brain training' work?

2014-11-18
Computer based 'brain training' can boost memory and thinking skills in older adults, but many programs promoted by the $1 billion brain training industry are ineffective, reveals new research by the University of Sydney. Published today in PLOS Medicine, the study shows that engaging older adults computer-based cognitive training (also known as brain training) can lead to improvements in memory, speed, and visuospatial skills. However, it has no impact on attention or executive functions such as impulse control, planning and problem solving. Brain degeneration ...

House fly sex may reveal one key to controlling them

House fly sex may reveal one key to controlling them
2014-11-18
HOUSTON, Nov. 18, 2014 - The quest of University of Houston professor Richard Meisel to understand how and why males and females differ may one day lead to a more effective means of pest control - namely, the pesky house fly. Meisel, an assistant professor in the UH Department of Biology and Biochemistry, collaborated with several scientists on sequencing the house fly genome. The results were recently published in the open-access journal Genome Biology. "The house fly genome will be a useful resource for understanding how pest species are able to exist in their environment ...

Small volcanic eruptions could be slowing global warming

Small volcanic eruptions could be slowing global warming
2014-11-18
WASHINGTON, DC-- Small volcanic eruptions might eject more of an atmosphere-cooling gas into Earth's upper atmosphere than previously thought, potentially contributing to the recent slowdown in global warming, according to a new study. Scientists have long known that volcanoes can cool the atmosphere, mainly by means of sulfur dioxide gas that eruptions expel. Droplets of sulfuric acid that form when the gas combines with oxygen in the upper atmosphere can remain for many months, reflecting sunlight away from Earth and lowering temperatures. However, previous research ...

Fossils cast doubt on climate-change projections on habitats

Fossils cast doubt on climate-change projections on habitats
2014-11-18
EUGENE, Ore. -- Nov. 18, 2014 -- Leave it to long-dead short-tailed shrew and flying squirrels to outfox climate-modelers trying to predict future habitats. Evidence from the fossil record shows that gluttonous insect-eating shrew didn't live where a species distribution technique drawn by biologists put it 20,000 years ago to survive the reach of glaciers, says University of Oregon geologist Edward B. Davis. The shrew is not alone. According to a new study by Davis and colleagues, fossil records of five ancient mammalian species that survived North America's last glacial ...

Some heparin-allergic patients could have urgent heart surgery sooner with combination of appropriate blood screenings and therapeutic plasma exchange

2014-11-18
Hamilton, ON (Nov. 18, 2014) - McMaster University researchers have found new evidence that suggests patients with a history of adverse reaction to the blood thinner heparin may be ready for urgent heart surgery sooner with a combination of appropriate blood screenings and therapeutic plasma exchange. The study was published online today in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology. The lead author is Dr. Theodore Warkentin, a professor in the Department of Medicine's Division of Hematology and Thromboembolism and the Department of Pathology and Molecular ...

High-fructose diet in adolescence may exacerbate depressive-like behavior

2014-11-18
The consumption of a diet high in fructose throughout adolescence can worsen depressive- and anxiety-like behavior and alter how the brain responds to stress, according to new animal research scheduled for presentation at Neuroscience 2014, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. "Our results offer new insights into the ways in which diet can alter brain health and may lead to important implications for adolescent nutrition and development," said lead author Constance Harrell of ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Gone but not forgotten: the brain’s map of the body remains unchanged after amputation

Vaginal estrogen tablets may be safe for postmenopausal women who have had a stroke

New research identifies key genes that act as a brake on blood cancer growth

‘Rosetta stone’ of code allows scientists to run core quantum computing operations

If aliens explore space like us, we should look for their calls to other planets

Repackaged cancer drug boosts delivery to tumors, improves combination therapies

Phantom limb study rewires our understanding of the brain

Heat-stressed Australian forests are thinning fast, producing carbon emissions

Asia steps into the global carbon cycle conversation

Residing in conservative states is impacting the mental health of US LGBTQIA+ students—national study suggests

Gene sequencing uncovers differences in wild and domesticated crops

Inaugural editorial of Sustainable Carbon Materials

Nostalgia is an asset in company acquisitions

Individuals should be held to account for environmental damage, say experts

Menopause misinformation is harming care, warn experts

Companies may be misleading parents with “outrageous claims” about banking baby teeth

Ozone will warm planet more than first thought

Tissue origami: Using light to study and control tissue folding

‘Cyborg jellyfish’ could aid in deep-sea research, inspire next-gen underwater vehicles

2022 Pacific volcano eruption made a deep dive into Alaska

International collaboration on nursing and midwifery in the Caribbean deemed a success, according to new study

AABB updates transfusion standards after another massive Carson study

UCF researcher helps confirm genetic restoration success for Florida panthers

High-salt diet inflames the brain and raises blood pressure, study finds

Updated lab guide equips researchers with modern tools to identify plant pathogens

Inflammation and aging: Looking through an evolutionary lens

With human feedback, AI-driven robots learn tasks better and faster

Urban civilization rose in Southern Mesopotamia on the back of tides

Parkinson’s disease risk increases with metabolic syndrome

What happened before the Big Bang?

[Press-News.org] Ancient New Zealand 'Dawn Whale' identified by Otago researchers