Paleontology / en Ancient amphibian had mouthful of teeth ready to grab you: ֱ research /news/ancient-amphibian-had-mouthful-teeth-ready-grab-you-u-t-research <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Ancient amphibian had mouthful of teeth ready to grab you: ֱ research</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-09-14-denticles-main-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=lU1mgUcI 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-09-14-denticles-main-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=1XIGMxXS 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-09-14-denticles-main-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=a8UbOdhe 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-09-14-denticles-main-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=lU1mgUcI" alt="Photo illustration of denticles"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>rasbachn</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-09-14T12:33:59-04:00" title="Thursday, September 14, 2017 - 12:33" class="datetime">Thu, 09/14/2017 - 12:33</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The Early Permian dissorophid Cacops displays its fearsome dentition as it preys on the hapless reptile Captorhinus (illustration by Brian Engh)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/elaine-smith" hreflang="en">Elaine Smith</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Elaine Smith</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-toronto-mississauga" hreflang="en">University of Toronto Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/department-biology" hreflang="en">Department of Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>The idea of being bitten by a nearly toothless modern frog or salamander sounds laughable, but their ancient ancestors had a full array of teeth, large fangs and thousands of tiny hook-like structures called denticles on the roofs of their mouths that would snare prey, according to new research by paleontologists at the University of Toronto.</p> <p>In research published online in a recent issue of <a href="https://peerj.com/articles/3727/"><em>PeerJ</em></a>, an open access journal, <strong>Robert Reisz</strong>, <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/Distinguished_Professors.htm">distinguished professor</a> of paleontology at University of Toronto Mississauga, explains that the presence of such an extensive field of teeth provides clues to how the intriguing feeding mechanism seen in modern amphibians was also likely used by their ancient ancestors.</p> <p>The researchers believe that the tooth-bearing plates “were ideally suited for holding on to prey, such as insects or smaller tetrapods, may have facilitated a method of swallowing prey items via retraction of the eyeballs into the mouth, as some amphibians do today."</p> <p>In many vertebrates, ranging from fish to early synapsids (ancestors of mammals), denticles are commonly found in dense concentrations on the bones of the hard palate (roof of the mouth). However, in one group of tetrapods, temnospondyls (which are thought to be the ancestors of modern amphibians), these denticles were also found on small, bony plates that filled the large soft part of the palate. The entire roof of the mouth was covered with literally thousands of these tiny teeth that they used to grab prey. Since these toothy plates were suspended in soft tissue, they are often lost or scattered during fossilization.</p> <p>Denticles are significantly smaller than the teeth around the margin of the mouth – on the order of dozens to a couple hundred microns in length. They are actually true teeth, rather than just protrusions in the mouths of these tetrapods, says Reisz and his colleagues, <strong>Bryan Gee</strong> and <strong>Yara Haridy</strong>, both graduate students in paleontology.</p> <p>“Denticles have all of the features of the large teeth that are found on the margin of the mouth,” says Reisz. “In examining tetrapod specimens dating back (approximately)&nbsp;289 million years, we discovered that the denticles display essentially all of the main features that are considered to define teeth, including enamel and dentine, pulp cavity and peridontia.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__5986 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="209" src="/sites/default/files/2017-09-14-denticles-resized_0.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="625" loading="lazy"></p> <p><em><span style="color: rgb(21, 27, 38); font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">A look at the skull of a small amphibamid dissorophid called Passawioops, with the tiny palatal plates in place in the roof of the mouth, with two close-ups to the right.&nbsp;</span></em></p> <p>In reaching these conclusions, the researchers analyzed specimens unearthed from the fossil-rich Dolese Brothers Limestone Quarry near Richards Spur, Okla. They were extraordinarily well preserved, making them ideal candidates for study.</p> <p>The researchers extracted and isolated the denticle-bearing plates, created thin section slides and examined them under the microscope – no small feat since denticles on this animal were only about 100 microns long.</p> <p>Reisz and his graduate students suggest that the next big question relates to evolutionary changes to the overall abundance of teeth: If these ancient amphibians had an astonishing number of teeth, why have most modern amphibians reduced or entirely lost their teeth?</p> <p>The research was supported &nbsp;by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 14 Sep 2017 16:33:59 +0000 rasbachn 115726 at ֱ paleontologists uncover 76-million-year-old armoured dinosaur skull /news/u-t-paleontologists-uncover-76-million-year-old-armoured-dinosaur-skull <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">ֱ paleontologists uncover 76-million-year-old armoured dinosaur skull</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-08-10-dinosaur-skull_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=y2pmR1sj 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-08-10-dinosaur-skull_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=00HRAXMG 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-08-10-dinosaur-skull_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=kDekR4M2 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-08-10-dinosaur-skull_0.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=y2pmR1sj" alt> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-08-10T13:58:19-04:00" title="Thursday, August 10, 2017 - 13:58" class="datetime">Thu, 08/10/2017 - 13:58</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">From left to right, postdoctoral researcher Victoria Arbour, PhD student Cary Woodruff and Associate Professor David Evans with the newly discovered dinosaur skull (photos courtesy of Mary Paquet/Royal Ontario Museum)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dinosaur" hreflang="en">Dinosaur</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A team of paleontologists affiliated with the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) discovered a 76-million-year-old armoured dinosaur skull over the weekend in Southern Alberta.</p> <p>The skull belongs to Euoplocephalus –&nbsp;one of the largest plant-eating armoured dinosaurs in Canada. The largely complete skull, found in the heart of Alberta's Badlands,&nbsp;has a broad, rounded snout and is covered with blocky ornamental plates.</p> <p>A&nbsp;large horn projects&nbsp;down&nbsp;from its&nbsp;cheek, and there's a blunt horn above the eye, writes&nbsp;<strong>David Evans</strong>,&nbsp;associate professor of ecology&nbsp;&amp; evolutionary biology at ֱ and the ROM, via email from the area.&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__5472 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-08-10-dinsoaurs-embed.jpg" style="width: 300px; height: 400px; margin: 10px; float: left;" typeof="foaf:Image">“This is an exciting find for our team,” he adds.&nbsp;“Fossil of armoured dinosaurs are very rare, even in places like Alberta where fossils form the Age of Dinosaurs are relatively common. This is the first good skull of an ankylosaur that my team has collected in the last 15 years of digging in southern Alberta, and it is an important find for helping us understand the dinosaur ecosystem at the time, about 75 million years ago.”</p> <p>Evans says the skull was found Aug. 5 by&nbsp;Wendy Sloboda, a renowned Alberta fossil hunter who&nbsp;works with the&nbsp;team.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rom-armoured-dinosaur-fossil-1.4238858">Read more at CBC News</a></h3> <p>Euoplocephalus has&nbsp;been found throughout Dinosaur Provincial Park&nbsp;in the Badlands.&nbsp;The team of researchers are on a <a href="http://www.rom.on.ca/en/collections-research/research-community-projects/southern-alberta-dinosaur-project">month-long dig called the Southern Alberta Dinosaur Project</a>, where paleontologists from the ROM and the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio are trying to look&nbsp;for fossils to learn more about late Cretaceous dinosaurs. The dig is led by&nbsp;Evans and Michael J. Ryan of the Cleveland Museum.</p> <h3><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__5473 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/dinsoaurs-embed2.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <a href="/news/undergrads-dig-dinos-albertas-badlands">Read more about the&nbsp;research dig&nbsp;in the Badlands</a></h3> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 10 Aug 2017 17:58:19 +0000 ullahnor 112001 at Ouch! ֱ paleontologists identify 508-million-year-old sea creature with can opener-like pincers /news/ouch-u-t-paleontologists-identify-508-million-year-old-sea-creature-can-opener-pincers <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Ouch! ֱ paleontologists identify 508-million-year-old sea creature with can opener-like pincers</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4yrlYXtO 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=5tPDJ5nu 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=cbiifVUs 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4yrlYXtO" alt="illustration of mandible fossil"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-04-26T11:39:11-04:00" title="Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - 11:39" class="datetime">Wed, 04/26/2017 - 11:39</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Reconstruction of “Tokummia katalepsis” showing a pair of large pincers at the front for capturing prey with much of the multi-segmented body protected by a hardened shell (illustration by Lars Fields)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/sean-bettam" hreflang="en">Sean Bettam</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Sean Bettam</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/marine" hreflang="en">Marine</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/faculty-arts-science" hreflang="en">Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/ecology-evolutionary-biology" hreflang="en">Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/earth-sciences" hreflang="en">Earth Sciences</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Discovery points to origin of millipedes, crabs and insects among other species</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Paleontologists at the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered a new fossil species that sheds light on the origin of mandibulates, the most abundant and diverse group of organisms on Earth, to which belong familiar animals such as flies, ants, crayfish and centipedes.</p> <p><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature22080.html">The finding was announced in a study published today in <em>Nature</em>.</a></p> <h3><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/bc-fossil-discovered-with-can-opener-like-pincers/article34825763/">Read more at the <em>Globe and Mail</em></a></h3> <p>The creature, named <em>Tokummia katalepsis</em> by the researchers, is a new and exceptionally well-preserved fossilized arthropod – a ubiquitous group of invertebrate animals with segmented limbs and hardened exoskeletons.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/26/this-508-million-year-old-sea-predator-had-a-remarkable-mouth/?utm_term=.ca18907c5ed4">Read more at <em>The Washington Post</em></a></h3> <h3><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/26/pincer-wielding-507m-year-old-fossil-sheds-light-on-evolution-of-crabs">Read more at<em> The Guardian</em></a></h3> <p><em>Tokummia </em>documents for the first time in detail the anatomy of early “mandibulates,”&nbsp;a hyperdiverse sub-group of arthropods that&nbsp;possess a pair of specialized appendages known as mandibles, used to grasp, crush and cut their food. Mandibulates include millions of species and represent one of the greatest evolutionary and ecological success stories of life on Earth.</p> <p>“In spite of their colossal diversity today, the origin of mandibulates had largely remained a mystery,” said<strong> Cédric Aria</strong>, lead author of the study and a recent graduate of ֱ's PhD program in the Faculty of Arts &amp; Science's department of ecology &amp; evolutionary biology. “Before now, we’ve had only sparse hints at what the first arthropods with mandibles could have looked like&nbsp;and no idea of what could have been the other key characteristics that triggered the unrivalled diversification of that group.”<br> &nbsp;</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2h2iTIOpxKg" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>The creature&nbsp;lived in a tropical sea teeming with life and was among the largest Cambrian predators, exceeding 10 centimetres in length fully extended.</p> <p>An occasional swimmer, its robust anterior legs made it a preferred bottom-dweller, like&nbsp;lobsters or mantis shrimps today. Specimens come from 508 million-year-old sedimentary rocks near Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park, British Columbia. Most specimens at the basis of this study were collected during extensive ROM-led fieldwork activities in 2014.</p> <p>“This spectacular new predator, one of the largest and best preserved soft-bodied arthropods from Marble Canyon, joins the ranks of many unusual marine creatures that lived during the Cambrian explosion, a period of rapid evolutionary change starting about half a billion years ago when most major animal groups first emerged in the fossil record,” said co-author <strong>Jean-Bernard Caron</strong>, senior curator of invertebrate paleontology at the ROM and an associate professor in the departments of ecology &amp; evolutionary biology and earth sciences at ֱ.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4388 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil2.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 501px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>This specimen of&nbsp;Tokummia katalepsis&nbsp;shows a number of strong legs on the left partially protruding from the body, the shape of the bivalved carapace and dozens of small paddle-like limbs below the trunk at the lower right. This nearly complete fossil&nbsp;was chosen as the main reference for the new genus&nbsp;Tokummia&nbsp;and new species&nbsp;katalep&nbsp;(photo courtesy of&nbsp;Jean-Bernard Caron)&nbsp;</em></p> <p>Analysis of several fossil specimens, following careful mechanical preparation and photographic work at the ROM, showed that <em>Tokummia</em> sported broad serrated mandibles as well as large but specialized anterior claws,&nbsp;called&nbsp;maxillipeds, which are typical features of modern mandibulates.</p> <p>“The pincers of <em>Tokummia</em> are large, yet also delicate and complex, reminding us of the shape of a can opener&nbsp;with their couple of terminal teeth on one claw&nbsp;and the other claw being curved towards them,” said Aria, who is now working as a post-doctoral researcher at the&nbsp;Nanjing Institute for Geology and Palaeontology&nbsp;in China. “But we think they might have been too fragile to be handling shelly animals&nbsp;and might have been better adapted to the capture of sizable soft prey items, perhaps hiding away in mud. Once torn apart by the spiny limb bases under the trunk, the mandibles would have served as a revolutionary tool to cut the flesh into small, easily digestible pieces.”</p> <p>The body of<em> Tokummia</em> is made of more than 50 small segments covered by a broad two-piece shell-like structure called a bivalved carapace. Importantly, the animal bears subdivided limb bases with tiny projections called endites, which can be found in the larvae of certain crustaceans and are now thought to have been critical innovations for the evolution of various legs of mandibulates&nbsp;and for the mandibles themselves.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4392 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil3_0.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>The specimen shows&nbsp;a pair of large pincers (maxillipeds) at the front preserved almost symmetrically. The anterior walking appendages are covered by the large carapace. Posterior appendages&nbsp;would have been used for occasional swimming and maybe a respiratory function. The trunk ends in a furcate tailpiece. (photo courtesy of Jean-Bernard Caron)&nbsp;</em></p> <p>The many-segmented body is otherwise reminiscent of myriapods, a group that includes centipedes, millipedes&nbsp;and their relatives.</p> <p>“<em>Tokummia</em> also lacks the typical second antenna found in crustaceans, which illustrates a very surprising convergence with such terrestrial mandibulates,” said Aria.</p> <p>The study also resolves the affinities of other emblematic fossils from Canada’s Burgess Shale more than a hundred years after their discovery.</p> <p>“Our study suggests that a number of other Burgess Shale fossils such as <em>Branchiocaris</em>, <em>Canadaspis</em> and <em>Odaraia</em> form with <em>Tokummia</em> a group of crustacean-like arthropods that we can now place at the base of all mandibulates,” said Aria.</p> <p>The animal was named after Tokumm Creek, which flows through Marble Canyon in northern Kootenay National Park, and is the Greek for “seizing.”&nbsp;The Marble Canyon fossil deposit was first discovered in 2012 during prospection work led by the Royal Ontario Museum and is part of the Burgess Shale fossil deposit, which extends north into Yoho National Park in the Canadian Rockies. All specimens are held in the collections of the Royal Ontario Museum on behalf of Parks Canada.</p> <p>The Burgess Shale fossil sites are located within Yoho and Kootenay national parks in British Columbia. The Burgess Shale was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. Parks Canada protects these globally significant palaeontological sites&nbsp;and works with leading scientific researchers to expand knowledge and understanding of this key period in&nbsp;the Earth's history. New information from ongoing scientific research is continually incorporated into Parks Canada's Burgess Shale education and interpretation programs, which include guided hikes to the&nbsp;fossil sites.</p> <p>Funding for the research was provided primarily by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant to Caron, and Royal Ontario Museum fieldwork grants.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__4393 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-04-26-mandible-fossil-4.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 500px; margin: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>Cédric Aria (left) and other crew members are splitting layers of shale from the Marble Canyon quarry site in the hopes of revealing new fossils and then cataloguing the specimens for further examination back at the museum (photo courtesy of Jean-Bernard Caron)&nbsp;</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 26 Apr 2017 15:39:11 +0000 ullahnor 107014 at Early Career Teaching Awards spotlight: Q&A with ornithologist Sanja Hinić-Frlog /news/early-career-teaching-awards-spotlight-qa-ornithologist-sanja-hini-frlog <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Early Career Teaching Awards spotlight: Q&amp;A with ornithologist Sanja Hinić-Frlog</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Sanja%20for%20web.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=vbLS3xJZ 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Sanja%20for%20web.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=iGwlxwFh 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Sanja%20for%20web.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=4bH1EXaH 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Sanja%20for%20web.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=vbLS3xJZ" alt="A picture of Sanja Hinić-Frlog"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>geoff.vendeville</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-03-16T14:40:48-04:00" title="Thursday, March 16, 2017 - 14:40" class="datetime">Thu, 03/16/2017 - 14:40</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Sanja Hinić-Frlog takes her students on nature walks to teach them how to identify birds by their song. The assistant professor, teaching stream in biology at ֱ Mississauga won an Early Career Teaching Award (photo courtesy of Hinić-Frlog)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/geoffrey-vendeville" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Vendeville</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Geoffrey Vendeville </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utm" hreflang="en">UTM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/awards" hreflang="en">Awards</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">Assistant professor Sanja Hinić-Frlog at ֱ Mississauga takes her students on nature walks to teach them how to identify birdsongs</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Although it was two decades ago, <strong>Sanja Hinić-Frlog</strong> clearly remembers the early morning walk&nbsp;when she first recognized a bird by its song. The songbird in question was the northern parula, a warbler with a yellow breast and orange throat that is about the length of an iPhone 5.</p> <p>Hinić-Frlog’s ears have perked up at the sound of chirping ever since.</p> <p>The ֱ Mississauga assistant professor now teaches her own undergraduate students how to listen for birdsongs on walks along ֱ Mississauga’s Nature Trail. She is one of four&nbsp;winners of this year's Early Career Teaching Award. She spoke with<em> ֱ News</em>, describing&nbsp;her teaching habits and her all-time favourite birds.</p> <p>This is the third story in a series&nbsp;casting a spotlight on the <a href="http://www.provost.utoronto.ca/awards/University_of_Toronto_Early_Career_Teaching_Award.htm">Early Career Teaching Award</a>&nbsp;winners. This year's other winners are:</p> <ul> <li><strong>Dawn Kilkenny</strong>, assistant professor, teaching stream in&nbsp;the&nbsp;Institute of Biomaterials &amp; Biomedical Engineering at the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering</li> <li><strong><a href="/news/early-career-teaching-awards-spotlight-qa-u-t-s-david-roberts">David Roberts</a></strong>, assistant professor, teaching stream, Innis College urban studies program, Faculty of Arts &amp; Science</li> <li><strong><a href="/news/early-career-teaching-award-spotlight-qa-kinesiology-and-phys-ed-prof-and-dog-trainer-ashley">Ashley Stirling</a>,</strong> assistant professor, teaching stream&nbsp;in the Faculty of Kinesiology &amp; Physical Education</li> </ul> <hr> <p><strong>What do you enjoy most about teaching?</strong></p> <p>The thing I love the most about teaching about birds is that once you hear the birds, you are never the same.</p> <p>We hear all these urban noises around us and don't pay attention to them. I remember the moment someone pointed out a bird song to me, and I never forgot that bird song. I heard birds all the time from that moment on. It doesn't matter if you're a little kid or if you're 50, and you learn about this. It opens up a world you're not really attuned to. It helps you realize you're a part of something bigger.</p> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="1" height="150" src="https://macaulaylibrary.org/audio/196483/play/640" width="640"></iframe><br> <em>The first birdsong that&nbsp;Hinić-Frlog learned to identify was that of the northern parula (audio courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology)&nbsp;</em></p> <p><strong>Is there a particular bird that fascinates you?</strong></p> <p>My students make fun of me because I always say “That's my favourite bird!” and then the next day I say “That's my favourite bird!”</p> <p>I think I'll just stick with my fossil bird. It's called <em>Hesperornis,&nbsp;</em>and it's not around anymore.&nbsp;[She did her&nbsp;PhD&nbsp;dissertation on&nbsp;<em>Hesperornis&nbsp;regalis</em>, an aquatic and carnivorous bird that lived about 80 million years ago].&nbsp;It lived in Kansas when Kansas was all covered by ocean. There's a lot of fascinating things we still don't know about these birds. And they lived in water and swam very fast. They spent most of their time in water.&nbsp;They’re fascinating.</p> <p>Any bird that's really good at flying and moving in both air and water is interesting to me because those are two very different mediums with different mechanical and physical pressures.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3830 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/Illustration%20of%20fossil%20bird.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 418px;" typeof="foaf:Image">&nbsp;<br> <em>An illustration of </em>Hesperornis <em>from student <strong>Chi-Chun Liu</strong>'s master's research&nbsp;project in biomedical communications at ֱ Mississauga (photo courtesy of&nbsp;Chi-Chun Liu)</em></p> <p><strong>How do we know they could swim?</strong></p> <p>There are certain characteristics of the toe bones that can help you decide whether or not there was webbing between the toes, which is an indication that a bird lived in close association with an aquatic environment.</p> <p><strong>How would you describe your teaching method?</strong></p> <p>I use different methods in different classes, but I always incorporate an active learning approach. Although this approach may look very different in my small and large classes, it is essentially providing an opportunity for students to learn by doing.&nbsp;</p> <p>In my large classes, I use classroom response systems to break up the lecture and allow for in-class problem solving through content-related questions, case-studies or small discussions.&nbsp;<br> In a small classroom, like ornithology, it comes more naturally. When we're outdoors, we're learning by doing right away.&nbsp;</p> <p>Students learn through peer discussion in active classrooms, or by looking for and learning to identify birds by sight and sound through walks on the nature trail.</p> <p><strong>How do you keep students engaged?</strong></p> <p>In addition to getting students engaged by using the active-learning approach mentioned above, I use case studies, animations, videos&nbsp;and common misconceptions to introduce topics in lecture.</p> <p>When we are preparing for a test, I also often use popular-game structures&nbsp;such as Jeopardy or Pictionary to design a review session. I also like to provide students with time to reflect on their learning both inside and outside of the class and at least some choice in both the topics we cover and the assessment weights.</p> <p><strong>What do you hope students take away from your courses?</strong></p> <p>If I had to pick one thing –&nbsp;it's going to sound very non-academic, but I think it's important –&nbsp;I want them to learn something about themselves.</p> <p>If they’re new to the university, many of them can feel quite lost. If I can help them figure out at least what they don't want to do, I think that's useful for them. &nbsp;Using the content outside the classroom to formulate arguments, that is also something that's also very useful.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 16 Mar 2017 18:40:48 +0000 geoff.vendeville 105787 at ֱ researchers and science illustrator bring fossilized creatures to life /news/u-t-researchers-and-science-illustrator-bring-fossilized-creatures-life <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">ֱ researchers and science illustrator bring fossilized creatures to life </span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-02-27-fossil-ROM%20%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HWdQgYXC 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2017-02-27-fossil-ROM%20%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=uvHvx836 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2017-02-27-fossil-ROM%20%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=WuAm3hOD 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2017-02-27-fossil-ROM%20%281%29.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=HWdQgYXC" alt="picture of worm-like creature"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>geoff.vendeville</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-02-27T11:06:28-05:00" title="Monday, February 27, 2017 - 11:06" class="datetime">Mon, 02/27/2017 - 11:06</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">A scientific illustration of Ovatiovermis cribratus shows how this legged worm-like creature would have looked like with its front-feeding limbs extended (illustration by Danielle Dufault ©Royal Ontario Museum)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/geoffrey-vendeville" hreflang="en">Geoffrey Vendeville</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Geoffrey Vendeville</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/our-community" hreflang="en">Our Community</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/royal-ontario-museum" hreflang="en">Royal Ontario Museum</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/new-species" hreflang="en">New Species</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>ֱ researchers – some&nbsp;of whom are students – have uncovered fossils of creatures that roamed the earth or swam in its waters millions of years ago.</p> <p>But it’s only with the help of science illustrators like Danielle Dufault at the Royal Ontario Museum that they are able to bring these long-extinct species back to life.</p> <p>After many hours of research and consultation with experts, she depicts ancient creatures using traditional and digital media.</p> <p>“Being able to work and collaborate with scientists gives you&nbsp;the opportunity to learn every day,” she told&nbsp;<em>ֱ News</em>.&nbsp;“This is honestly my dream job.”</p> <p>On Tuesday, Dufault will be&nbsp;speaking at the annual ROM Research Colloquium and Vaughan Lecture, about her work with researchers.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.rom.on.ca/en/whats-on/rom-research-colloquium">Read more about the event&nbsp;</a></h3> <p><iframe allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="500" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0GQyE46-LaA" width="750"></iframe></p> <p>ֱ undergrad<strong>&nbsp;Joseph Moysiuk</strong>&nbsp;recently worked with Dufault&nbsp;to animate a marine creature known as a hyolith, which evolved more than 530 million years ago. The 20-year-old led a team of scientists to&nbsp;classify the mysterious cone-shaped&nbsp;creatures, showing that they were more closely related to brachiopods.&nbsp;<em>The New York Times&nbsp;</em>recently described&nbsp;the creature&nbsp;as a&nbsp;“tentacled ice cream cone with a lid.”</p> <p>Although there is a rich fossil record of the hyolith, important diagnostic aspects of their soft-anatomy remained a mystery until now. And so drawing a brachiopod that existed even before the first dinosaurs was no simple task.</p> <p>Dufault and Moysiuk started with what evidence they had, including fossils from the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains and collections in the ROM.</p> <p>“With fossils from the Burgess Shale, which are effectively compressed into flattened carbon films, the challenge is to figure out what the living animal would have looked like in three-dimensions,” Moysiuk said.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3574 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2017-01-11-Joseph%20Moysiuk_0.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 563px;" typeof="foaf:Image"><br> <em>ֱ undergrad Joseph Moysiuk showing matching halves of a fossil slab in Kootenay National Park (photo courtesy of Joseph Moysiuk)</em></p> <h3><a href="/news/u-t-undergrad-leads-team-paleontologists-classifying-mysterious-ancient-cone-shaped-sea">Read more about the cone-shaped hyolith</a></h3> <p>Another difficulty is that fossilized remains are rarely complete, so researchers and illustrators must often fill in the blanks.</p> <p>Over the years, Dufault has sat&nbsp;down and worked with many students and ֱ researchers like Moysiuk cross-appointed to the ROM to create images for these&nbsp;ancient creatures. She asks&nbsp;researchers to go over the details of the&nbsp;creature's anatomy, asking questions like how many limbs did it have, how were they attached to the body, and how did the creature&nbsp;move.&nbsp;</p> <p>Often, colour is a point of contention. Usually the scientists and illustrator will choose a colour based on the animal’s “ecological niche,” including where it falls in the food chain.</p> <p>“Colour always serves some kind of function in nature,” Dufault explained.</p> <p>To better understand a fossilized animal's environment, she will sometimes accompany researchers to a dig as she did in South Dakota for the excavation of a triceratops. She shares some of those adventures via <a href="http://twitter.com/MesozoicMuse">Twitter</a>.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3572 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="472" src="/sites/default/files/Mesozoic%20Muse.JPG" typeof="foaf:Image" width="588" loading="lazy"></p> <h3><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/science/hyolith-fossil.html">Read about Moysiuk in <em>The New York Times</em>&nbsp;</a></h3> <p>Moysiuk said the process can&nbsp;help researchers refine their hypotheses.&nbsp;</p> <p>“If something doesn’t make sense in the reconstruction, you have a chance to go back and look at the fossils to see why,” he said.</p> <p>“For our project, it was particularly difficult to determine how the helens (curving spines) would have been positioned relative to the body in the living hyolith.”</p> <p>ֱ Associate Professor <strong>Jean-Bernard Caron</strong> and researcher&nbsp;<strong>Cédric Aria</strong>, who recently completed a PhD in ֱ's department of ecology and evolutionary biology, have worked with Dufault to illustrate a new species, <em>Ovatiovermis cribratus</em>, a 500-million-year-old worm-like creature said to be no longer than a thumb.</p> <p>Aria said he had also worked with Dufault to animate a fossil called <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/en/about-us/newsroom/press-releases/new-lobster-like-predator-found-in-508-million-year-old-fossil-rich"><em>Yawunik</em></a>, a lobster-like, Cambrian-age predator which is an ancestor of butterflies and spiders.</p> <p>The pictures, which end up in studies, textbooks and museums, help communicate research findings to a wide audience, Aria said. In fact, the depictions are partly what drew him to the field.</p> <p>“If I am a paleontologist today, it is because some reconstructions of prehistoric animals have managed to capture both the novelty and the reality of extinct life,” he said.</p> <h3><a href="/news/500-million-year-old-species-%E2%80%93-detailed-u-t-scientists-%E2%80%93-offers-insight-ancient-legged-worms">Read more about the worm-like creature</a></h3> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 27 Feb 2017 16:06:28 +0000 geoff.vendeville 105250 at Good ribbance: ֱ researcher finds dino rib bones reveal remnants of 195-million-year-old protein /news/good-ribbance-u-t-researcher-finds-dino-rib-bones-reveal-remnants-195-million-year-old-protein <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Good ribbance: ֱ researcher finds dino rib bones reveal remnants of 195-million-year-old protein</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Lufengosaurusinground.jpg?h=0d27ee61&amp;itok=51rdJQQq 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/Lufengosaurusinground.jpg?h=0d27ee61&amp;itok=8BZq2g70 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/Lufengosaurusinground.jpg?h=0d27ee61&amp;itok=JdeXIHTJ 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/Lufengosaurusinground.jpg?h=0d27ee61&amp;itok=51rdJQQq" alt="Photo of dinosaur"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>ullahnor</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2017-02-01T10:02:00-05:00" title="Wednesday, February 1, 2017 - 10:02" class="datetime">Wed, 02/01/2017 - 10:02</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Skeleton of the 195-million-year-old dinosaur “Lufengosaurus” preserved as found in the ground in Yunnan Province, China. (photo courtesy of Robert Reisz)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/nicolle-wahl" hreflang="en">Nicolle Wahl</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Nicolle Wahl</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dinosaur" hreflang="en">Dinosaur</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/protein" hreflang="en">Protein</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/u-t-mississauga" hreflang="en">ֱ Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/robert-reisz" hreflang="en">Robert Reisz</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Is fossilized rock all that remains when a dinosaur decomposes?</p> <p>New research from scientists at the University of Toronto and researchers in China and Taiwan provides the first evidence that proteins have been preserved within the 195-million-year-old rib of the sauropodomorph dinosaur <em>Lufengosaurus</em>.</p> <p>The study appears in the Jan. 31&nbsp;issue of the journal <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14220"><em>Nature Communications</em></a>&nbsp;and the news is already making headlines around the world.</p> <h3><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/02/01/oldest-proteins-ever-have-been-found-in-a-195-million-year-old-dinosaur-scientist-say/?utm_term=.aecda336715a&amp;wpisrc=nl_science&amp;wpmm=1">Read <em>The Washington Post</em> story</a></h3> <p>“These dinosaur proteins are more than 100 million years older than anything previously discovered,” says Professor <strong>Robert Reisz</strong>, a specialist in vertebrate paleontology in the department of biology at ֱ Mississauga. &nbsp;“These proteins are the building blocks of animal soft tissues, and it’s exciting to understand how they have been preserved.”</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__3338 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" height="563" src="/sites/default/files/dino%20protein.jpg" typeof="foaf:Image" width="750" loading="lazy"><br> <em>Close up of a cross section of the “Lufengosaurus”&nbsp;rib, showing how the bone was organized around vascular canals that contained blood vessels in the living dinosaur, and ran along the length of the rib (photo courtesy of Robert Reisz)</em></p> <p>The Canada-Taiwan research team, led by Reisz, used the synchrotron at the Taiwanese National Synchrotron Radiation Research Centre to find the substance in place, known as collagen type I, preserved within the tiny vascular canals of the rib where blood vessels and blood would be in the living dinosaur.</p> <h3><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/195-million-year-old-dinosaur-bone-yield-traces-of-soft-tissue/article33846083/">Read more at the <em>Globe and Mail</em></a></h3> <h3><a href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/dino-rib-yields-evidence-of-oldest-soft-tissue-162108906.html">Read the Agence-France Presse story</a></h3> <h3><a href="https://ca.news.yahoo.com/dino-rib-yields-evidence-of-oldest-soft-tissue-162108906.html">Read more about the discovery at BBC News</a></h3> <p>The collagen was found together with lots of small, spherical hematite particles. Hematite is a mineral that can be formed from the iron in hemoglobin, the oxygen-transport protein in red blood cells. The chemical bond between iron and oxygen is what gives blood cells their red colour.&nbsp;</p> <p>Reisz and his colleagues believe that these hematite particles were derived from the original blood of the dinosaur, and that they acted as the catalyst for preserving the protein in the vascular canals of the bone. These collagen pieces are probably remnants of the blood vessels that supplied blood to the bone cells in the living dinosaur.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Interestingly, there was no evidence of preservation of organic remains in the main mass of the bone, only in the small vascular canals that ran along the length of the rib, where hematite was also present” says Reisz.</p> <p>“Our localized search, in areas of the bone that are likely to preserve remnants of the original soft tissues, is more likely to succeed than previously used methods. This approach has great future potential, because localized searches will yield important results even when the amount of organic remains is miniscule.”</p> <p>Previous evidence of preserved collagen date back to the Late Cretaceous Period – more than 100 million years younger than this discovery – but those studies extracted the organic remains by dissolving away all other parts of the fossil, without a clear understanding of the precise origins of the collagen.</p> <p>This research allowed the scientists to find the collagen in place&nbsp;without dissolving the rest of the fossil,&nbsp;and it has helped them understand how the organic remains were preserved. Reisz believes that future explorations for even older proteins will be possible if this technique is used.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Wed, 01 Feb 2017 15:02:00 +0000 ullahnor 104253 at 300 teeth? Duck-billed dinosaurs would have been dentist’s dream /news/300-teeth-duck-billed-dinosaurs <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">300 teeth? Duck-billed dinosaurs would have been dentist’s dream</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/dinoteeth.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=nwEKRd61 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/dinoteeth.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=77J-gbrA 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/dinoteeth.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=IneNfKLW 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/dinoteeth.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=nwEKRd61" alt="Artist depiction of duck-billed dinosaurs"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lavende4</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-08-16T10:03:50-04:00" title="Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - 10:03" class="datetime">Tue, 08/16/2016 - 10:03</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Artist depiction of hadrosaurs (image copyright Danielle Dufault)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/elaine-smith" hreflang="en">Elaine Smith</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Elaine Smith</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dinosaurs" hreflang="en">Dinosaurs</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/university-toronto-mississauga" hreflang="en">University of Toronto Mississauga</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/robert-reisz" hreflang="en">Robert Reisz</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Imagine how much dental care you’d need if you had 300 or more teeth packed together on each side of your mouth.</p> <p>Duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs), who lived in the Cretaceous period between 90 million and 65 million years ago, sported this unique dental system, which had never been fully understood until it was examined at the microscopic level through recent research conducted by&nbsp;<strong>Aaron LeBlanc</strong>, a University of Toronto Mississauga PhD candidate; his supervisor, Professor&nbsp;<strong>Robert Reisz&nbsp;</strong>(University of Toronto Mississauga vice-dean, graduate), and colleagues at the Royal Ontario Museum and the Museum of the Rockies.</p> <p>Rather than shedding teeth and replacing them with new ones like other reptiles, hadrosaurs’ mouths contain several parallel stacks of six or more teeth apiece, forming a “highly dynamic network” of teeth that was used to grind and shear tough plant material. Although hadrosaur teeth appear to be fused in place, LeBlanc and his colleagues show that the newest teeth were constantly pushed towards the chewing surface by a complex set of ligaments. When viewed under the microscope, the columns of teeth are not physically touching and are held together by the sand and mud that can get in between the teeth following the decay of the soft ligaments after the animals died.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__1708 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" height="453" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/Fig.%204%20Hadrosaur%20battery%20modelR1.jpg?itok=jbCuDvZt" typeof="foaf:Image" width="397" loading="lazy"></p> <p>“Hadrosaur teeth are actually similar to what we have because our teeth are not solidly attached to our jaws. Like us, hadrosaur teeth would have had some fine-scale mobility as they chewed thanks to this ligament system that suspended the teeth in place,” says Reisz.</p> <p>As they reached the grinding surface, hadrosaur teeth were essentially dead, filled with hard tissue – unlike humans, whose teeth have an inner core filled with blood vessels and nerves.</p> <p>“Since the teeth were already dead, they could be ground down to little nubbins,” Reisz says.</p> <p><img alt class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__1709 img__view_mode__media_large attr__format__media_large" src="/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/tooth_closeup.jpg?itok=WmpnTg_C" style="width: 300px; height: 292px; float: left; margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px;" typeof="foaf:Image">LeBlanc says this tooth structure<span style="line-height: 20.8px;">&nbsp;–&nbsp;</span>with its tough grinding surface<span style="line-height: 20.8px;">&nbsp;–&nbsp;</span>was “well-adapted to break down tough plant material for digestion,” through both shearing and grinding. This adaptation may have contributed to the hadrosaurs’ longevity and proliferation.</p> <p>Reisz says that hadrosaurs had “probably the most complex dental system ever made.”</p> <p>“It’s very elegant – not a single brick of teeth working as a solid unit,” he says. “It’s more like chain mail, providing flexibility as well as strength.”</p> <p>LeBlanc notes that the duck-billed dinosaur has been known for over 150 years and its dental system has long been recognized as unique, but no one had taken a look inside it at the microscopic level previously. He created thin sections of entire dental assemblies from the upper and lower jaws, that he then ground down, polished and examined under a powerful microscope. Working with their museum colleagues, he and Reisz were also able to explore how hadrosaur teeth form in embryos and hatchlings, providing a more complete picture of this unique model of dental evolution and development.</p> <p>“The amazing thing is how consistently these dental assemblies conform to our hypothesis of how the system works,” LeBlanc says. “Even in the youngest specimens, the same processes that maintained dental assemblies in the adults were visible.”</p> <p>The paper, published online in<a href="https://bmcevolbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-016-0721-1">&nbsp;BMC Evolutionary Biology</a>, is part of LeBlanc’s PhD research into the evolution and development of teeth in reptiles and mammals.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Tue, 16 Aug 2016 14:03:50 +0000 lavende4 99981 at When snakes had legs: New look at rare fossil reveals clues about early reptiles /news/when-snakes-had-legs-new-look-rare-fossil-reveals-clues-about-early-reptiles <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">When snakes had legs: New look at rare fossil reveals clues about early reptiles</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-06-27-snake-legs-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=SZSSk_dM 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-06-27-snake-legs-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=KACKeQwm 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-06-27-snake-legs-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=tW6aLbxh 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-06-27-snake-legs-resized.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=SZSSk_dM" alt="composite photo of fossil and artist's rendering of snake "> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>krisha</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-06-27T09:49:28-04:00" title="Monday, June 27, 2016 - 09:49" class="datetime">Mon, 06/27/2016 - 09:49</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">The fossil snake Tetrapodophis, as preserved (composite image of part and counterpart) and as reconstructed in life (image by: Alessandro Palci, Michael Caldwell &amp; Michael Lee - Flinders University, University of Alberta and South Australian Museum)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/blake-eligh" hreflang="en">Blake Eligh</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Blake Eligh</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utm" hreflang="en">UTM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/international" hreflang="en">International</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/collaboration" hreflang="en">Collaboration</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Close examination of a rare Brazilian fossil is shedding new light on an enduring controversy in evolutionary thought&nbsp;–&nbsp;why snakes evolved their long, limbless bodies.</p> <p>At the heart of the controversy is a tiny fossil discovered in Brazil. Known as a squamate, <em>Tetrapdophis amplectus</em> was a snakelike creature that lived about 110&nbsp;million years ago during the early Cretaceous period. It is is considered one of the oldest snakes and is notable for having four small, paddle-like legs.</p> <p>Previous research described the creature as a primitive snake and worm-like burrower, suggesting that snakes originally evolved to live underground. However, new findings by a Canadian-Australian research team reveal that the creature was more closely related to aquatic lizards, suggesting that snakes evolved their long bodies for eel-like swimming.</p> <p>Professor <strong>Robert Reisz</strong> of ֱ Mississauga’s department of biology studied the 20-centimetre-long juvenile specimen first-hand.</p> <p>“This exquisite tiny fossil is very slender, with limbs that are certainly not suited for burrowing,” Reisz says. “Instead, it shares features with aquatic lizards from the Late Cretaceous. Tetrapodophis may be closely related to snakes and resembles a snake, but probably is not a snake proper.”</p> <h2><a href="/news/find-a-story?keys=Robert%20Reisz%20&amp;field_topic_tid=All&amp;date_filter%5Bmin%5D%5Bdate%5D=&amp;date_filter%5Bmax%5D%5Bdate%5D=&amp;field_tag_tid_1">Read more about research by Robert Reisz</a></h2> <p>According to the research team, <em>Tetrapodophis</em>’ shape –&nbsp;a long slender tail and four slender legs –&nbsp;doesn’t fit with the characteristics we see in burrowing snakes and lizards alive today. The team also observed that<em> Tetrapodophis</em> limb bones appear weak and poorly ossified&nbsp;–&nbsp;both traits that are similar to ancient marine lizards such as mosasaurs. The findings suggest that snakes had aquatic origins.</p> <p>The radical new ideas about the aquatic habits of <em>Tetrapodophis</em> add to the debate, and helps cement this tiny reptile as one of the most important and controversial fossils of our times,” says Reisz.</p> <p>The research appears online in the latest issue of <a href="http://www.journals.elsevier.com/cretaceous-research"><em>Cretaceous Research</em></a>.</p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Mon, 27 Jun 2016 13:49:28 +0000 krisha 14504 at Did dinosaurs have lips? Ask this University of Toronto paleontologist /news/did-dinosaurs-have-lips-ask-university-toronto-paleontologist <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Did dinosaurs have lips? Ask this University of Toronto paleontologist</span> <div class="field field--name-field-featured-picture field--type-image field--label-hidden field__item"> <img loading="eager" srcset="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-05-19-dinosaurs-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ABAxNEkA 370w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_740/public/2016-05-19-dinosaurs-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=FZiztwgz 740w, /sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_1110/public/2016-05-19-dinosaurs-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=8sp367zv 1110w" sizes="(min-width:1200px) 1110px, (max-width: 1199px) 80vw, (max-width: 767px) 90vw, (max-width: 575px) 95vw" width="740" height="494" src="/sites/default/files/styles/news_banner_370/public/2016-05-19-dinosaurs-lead.jpg?h=afdc3185&amp;itok=ABAxNEkA" alt="artist's rendering of dinosaurs"> </div> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>lanthierj</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2016-05-19T16:08:17-04:00" title="Thursday, May 19, 2016 - 16:08" class="datetime">Thu, 05/19/2016 - 16:08</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Artist interpretation shows 190-million-year-old nests, eggs, hatchlings and adults of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus in Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa (image credit: Julius Csotonyi) </div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/blake-eligh" hreflang="en">Blake Eligh</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Blake Eligh</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/global-lens" hreflang="en">Global Lens</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utm" hreflang="en">UTM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/dinosaurs" hreflang="en">Dinosaurs</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-subheadline field--type-string-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Subheadline</div> <div class="field__item">“In popular culture, we imagine dinosaurs as more ferocious-looking, but that is not the case”</div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Can a crocodile’s smile reveal whether dinosaurs had lips? What if lips and gums hid most of dinosaur's teeth?</p> <p>New findings from University of Toronto&nbsp;vertebrate palaeontologist <strong>Robert Reisz</strong> challenge&nbsp;the idea of what therapods might have looked like when dinosaurs roamed the earth.</p> <p>His research will be presented today at a conference at ֱ Mississauga – and&nbsp;it's already making headlines.</p> <h2><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/science/t-rex-would-have-had-lips-toronto-paleontologist-says-in-new-research/article30090914/?cmpid=rss1">Read the <em>Globe and Mail</em> story</a></h2> <h2><a href="http://motherboard.vice.com/read/kiss-me-deadly-did-t-rex-have-lips-all-along-toronto-dinosaurs">Read the <em>Vice</em>&nbsp;story</a></h2> <h2><a href="http://The series itself is at the bottom of the news site: /news and the individual stories are here – /news/innovations-teaching-inside-con-hall-christian-caron /news/innovations-teaching-inside-con-hall-ashley-waggoner-denton /news/innovations-teaching-inside-con-hall-mike-reid">Read the BBC story</a></h2> <h2><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/may/21/tyrannosaurus-rex-lips-fierce-teeth">Read the <em>Guardian </em>story</a></h2> <p>“When we see dinosaurs in popular culture, such as in the movie Jurassic Park, we see them depicted with big teeth sticking out of their mouths,” Reisz says. Large dinosaurs, such as&nbsp;<em>Tyrannosaurus rex</em>, bare a ferocious grin, while smaller creatures such as velociraptors are shown with scaly lips covering their teeth.</p> <p>The ֱ Mississauga expert&nbsp;was curious about which version might be most accurate. “We have very little information about dinosaurs’ soft tissue,” he says.</p> <p>For clues about how therapods might have appeared, he looked to modern-day reptilian predators like crocodiles and monitor lizards. According to Reisz, lipless crocodiles have exposed teeth, much like a <em>Jurassic Park</em> predator, while monitor lizards conceal teeth behind scaly lips that are similar to the movie version of velociraptors.</p> <p>Lips help to protect teeth, in part by helping to enclose them in a moist environment where they won’t dry out, Reisz says. Crocodiles, which spend their time submerged in water, don’t need lips for protection. “Their teeth are kept hydrated by an aquatic environment,” Reisz says.</p> <p>Reptiles with lips, such as monitor lizards, typically live on land (much like their movie counterparts) where their teeth require different protection. From this, Reisz concludes that dinosaur teeth would likely have been covered by scaly lips.</p> <p>“It’s also important to remember that teeth would have been partially covered by gums. If we look at where the enamel stops, we can see that a substantial portion of the teeth would be hidden in the gums. The teeth would have appeared much smaller on a living animal.</p> <p>“In popular culture, we imagine dinosaurs as more ferocious-looking, but that is not the case.”</p> <p>(<em>Below: Gorgosaurus using its specialized teeth for feeding on a young Corythosaurus/image credit: Danielle Default</em>)&nbsp;</p> <p><img alt="artist's rendering of a theropod eating a smaller dinosaur" class="media-image attr__typeof__foaf:Image img__fid__976 img__view_mode__media_original attr__format__media_original" src="/sites/default/files/2016-05-19-TheropodPredation---Danielle-Dufault.jpg" style="width: 750px; height: 579px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;" typeof="foaf:Image"></p> <p>Reisz presents his findings on May 20&nbsp;at the annual meeting of the Canadian Society of Vertebrate Palaeontolgy at UTM. The two-day conference, which began on May 19, &nbsp;brings together 60 Canadian researchers working in Canada and around the globe.</p> <p>“Canada has some very significant locations for understanding vertebrate evolution, ranging from the late Cretaceous in Alberta to the Pleistocene in the Arctic and the early stages of terrestrial vertebrate evolution in the Atlantic region,” says Reisz, who helped to organized the conference.</p> <p>“There are about 1,000 people worldwide who study vertebrate fossils. It’s important to come together and exchange ideas and unite a community that is so widespread geographically.”</p> <p>The conference features presentations on the latest research in palaeontology, including a crocodile-like creature from Sudan discovered by ֱ researcher <strong>David Evans</strong>; a talk on the evolution of how birds hear; what a recently discovered ceratops from Montana tells us about horned dinosaurs; and deciphering the social behaviour of oviraptorsaurs found in Mongolia.</p> <h2><a href="https://cansvp.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/csvp-2016-abstract-book-compressed.pdf">See the complete schedule</a></h2> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> Thu, 19 May 2016 20:08:17 +0000 lanthierj 14121 at ֱ prof unlocks mystery of an ancient mass extinction /news/u-t-prof-unlocks-mystery-ancient-mass-extinction <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">ֱ prof unlocks mystery of an ancient mass extinction</span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2015-10-01T12:03:47-04:00" title="Thursday, October 1, 2015 - 12:03" class="datetime">Thu, 10/01/2015 - 12:03</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">(all photos via Marc Laflamme)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/blake-eligh" hreflang="en">Blake Eligh</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">Blake Eligh</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-topic field--type-entity-reference field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Topic</div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/topics/breaking-research" hreflang="en">Breaking Research</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/more-news" hreflang="en">More News</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/utm" hreflang="en">UTM</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/paleontology" hreflang="en">Paleontology</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/fossils" hreflang="en">Fossils</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/research" hreflang="en">Research</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>University of Toronto Mississauga paleontologist <strong>Marc Laflamme</strong> spends his summers exploring the rocky red canyons of Namibia, searching for the faint fossilized remains of a long-extinct and very unusual creature.</p> <p>Neither animal nor vegetable, the biotas of the Ediacaran period were the earliest large, complex life forms on the planet, dominating salt oceans for nearly 40 million years. Very little is known about the soft-bodied creatures, except that they mysteriously disappeared about 500 million years ago, and have no living relatives today.</p> <p>While the life of the creatures remains something of a mystery, Laflamme and his colleagues may have unlocked the secret of how and why the Ediacarans died out at the beginning of the Cambrian period. Ecosystem engineering by newly-evolving animals radically changed the Ediacaran environmen, causing the demise of the unusual organisms. The team’s research is published in the <a href="http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/282/1814/20151003">September edition of the <em>Proceedings of the Royal Society B</em></a>.</p> <p>The researchers examined three theories about why the Ediacaran creatures disappeared.</p> <p>“We theorized that the disappearance of Ediacarans could be due to a lack of (fossil) preservation, a catastrophic mass extinction due to climate change, or something else,” Laflamme says. The answer, to the team’s surprise, turned out to be the third option.</p> <p>But before they could prove that theory, the team had to actually locate the fossils. The team looks for subtle tube-like impressions in the rocks by the soft-bodied organisms that lived on the floor of long-gone salt-water bodies.</p> <p><img alt="photo of fossil" src="/sites/default/files/2015-10-01-Ediacaran-fossil-.jpg" style="width: 625px; height: 417px; margin: 10px 25px;"></p> <p>“It’s a challenge to find fossilized records,” Laflamme says. There are about 50 sites around the world where Ediacaran fossils are found but, according to Laflamme, the Namibian site is a fossil bonanza.</p> <p>“It marks the boundary of the Ediacaran world and the animal world, so we can study how ecosystems changed,” he says.</p> <p>Geochemistry ruled out the catastrophic mass extinction theory. “Conducting tests on the chemical composition of the rocks tells us if we were dealing with environments that were oxygenated or undergoing a stressful change,” he says.</p> <p>Positive results would have shown changes in ancient environments due to massive climate change, a volcanic activity or meteor impacts.</p> <p>“We looked for evidence in the geochemistry, but our data didn’t show evidence of environmentally-driven extinction.”</p> <p>But a different look at the fossil record revealed a surprising answer to their query, suggesting that “ecosystem engineering” caused the Ediacaran to disappear.</p> <p>“Ecosystem engineers are organisms that significantly alter their environment,” Laflamme says. “Clams, for instance, can filter a lot of bacteria and nutrients out of the water, which causes problems for other creatures that need those resources.&nbsp;</p> <p>“Something came in and shook up the Ediacaran system,” he adds. “We hypothesized that it had to do with the evolution of new life, and asked ourselves, ‘What happens when you introduce new biology to a system?’”</p> <p>The researchers found fossil evidence of new animals&nbsp;–&nbsp;worms and worm-like animals&nbsp;–&nbsp;burrowing into sediment on the ocean floor.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <object height="300" width="400"><param name="flashvars" value="offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Futmmagazine%2Fsets%2F72157659017214362%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Futmmagazine%2Fsets%2F72157659017214362%2F&amp;set_id=72157659017214362&amp;jump_to="><param name="movie" value="https://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=237555616"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="offsite=true&amp;lang=en-us&amp;page_show_url=%2Fphotos%2Futmmagazine%2Fsets%2F72157659017214362%2Fshow%2F&amp;page_show_back_url=%2Fphotos%2Futmmagazine%2Fsets%2F72157659017214362%2F&amp;set_id=72157659017214362&amp;jump_to=" height="300" src="https://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=237555616" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400"></object> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>“We can see trails all over the place, showing evidence of different behaviours like burrowing, feeding and den building,” Laflamme says. “We documented how new populations of Ediacaran biota responded to the presence of things that we knew, for sure, were animal fossils.”</p> <p>“The new organisms would have disrupted the layer of bacteria along the sea floor that Ediacaran biota likely fed on,” Laflamme says. “It made it difficult for anything that didn’t move to survive.“</p> <p>Delicate and sedentary, the Ediacarans couldn’t move or adapt, leaving them vulnerable to the effects of emerging new animals that disturbed the ocean environment. Unable to compete with the new animals for ecosystem space for nutrients, for space on the sea floor, and for food and oxygen, the biota were edged out by animals who were better adapted to use the available resources.</p> <p>Laflamme’s research team included UTM graduate students <strong>Thomas Boag</strong> and <strong>Sara Mason</strong>. Funding was provided by Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, NASA Astrobiology Institute, the Connaught Foundation, National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, National Science Foundation-Earth Sciences and the National Geographic Society.</p> <p><a href="http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/quirks-quarks-for-sep-19-2015-1.3233930/the-extinction-of-the-ediacarans-1.3233961">Hear Marc Laflamme talk about his research on CBC Radio’s Quirks &amp; Quarks program</a>&nbsp;</p> <p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/utmmagazine/sets/72157659017214362/show">See photos from the team's field research in Namibia&nbsp;</a></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2015-10-01-fossil.jpg</div> </div> Thu, 01 Oct 2015 16:03:47 +0000 sgupta 7318 at