New evidence suggests that the earliest ancestors of modern sea turtles may have come from the Deep South in the United States. Working with two relatively complete turtle skeletons, the fossils help solve a long-standing debate as to whether this animal was a unique species. They also provide insights into the evolutionary history of living species of sea turtles, including the Kemp's Ridley, Loggerhead and the endangered Green sea turtle.
It's so cool that we can keep discovering old things. Such as those rocks that are literally hundreds of thousands of years old. It is crazy to me that we still do not know much about the depths of our oceans. I wonder what species could be out in the deep ocean that we do not know about as of now.
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It has been discovered that the Mediterranean Sea may have the oldest oceanic crust. Scientists found an undisturbed piece of the Earth's outermost shell that may be as old as 340 million years. Although most oceanic floor is less than 200 million years old due to being recycled back into the earths mantel, the Mediterranean Sea may break this record. "Changes in the magnetic field's orientation over time are recorded in the ocean floors, creating a unique bar code that provides a time stamp for crust formation," study author Roi Granot, a geologist at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, said in a statement. Granot proposed the ancient crust in this part of the eastern Mediterranean could be remnants of one of Earth's early oceans, Tethys, which had existed long before the Atlantic and Indian oceans. If that theory is correct, these findings show that the ancient Tethys Ocean formed much earlier than scientists previously thought. This article was very interesting. I think that it is cool that the earth can still have remains from over 300 million years ago- especially in the ocean where one would typically think things would erode fasted from the water. It also makes me think about all of the other untouched water and what scientific discoveries are still yet to be made. http://www.livescience.com/55827-oldest-oceanic-crust-mediterranean-sea.html Environmental Impacts
The most discussed & debated environmental effect today is CO2 emissions. Half of our CO2 emissions come from coal and nearly all CO2 emissions are fossil fuels. Reduction of CO2 emissions is widely discussed internationally in hope of reducing global warming and seeing the results it will have on the atmosphere. We control sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides are controlled to a certain degree internationally. Using water as power is beneficial but may become a problem in the future due to many people wanting to utilize utilize it. We have made progression in solar powered electricity, but it costs more money. The key to lowering the cost is to minimize environmental impacts while keeping the energy affordable. How is Oil Made Oil starts out as plankton which are tiny plants/ animals that live in oceans or lakes. When the plankton die they become apart of the sand, silt, and clay becoming apart of the mud. Over time, the planks and animals get crushed and heated into crude oil. (This process could take anywhere from 10 million years to 100 million years.) Once we get the oil we have to refine it. Half of the oil transforms into gasoline. A few other things produced from oil are jet/ diesel fuel, lubricants, propane, and asphalt. Oil is pretty much used in everything, from products to make clothes to products to make buildings. And, it all started out as little ocean plants and animals called plankton. Coal Coal is cheap and dirty. Nearly every country has an available available coal reserve, it is easy to find and cheap to collect. It is a very easy product to deal with in the fact that it is easy to mine transport and most importantly easy to turn into electricity. Because it is widely available it is cheap and beneficial for those who can't afford more expensive sources of energy, like solar power. The biggest downside to coal, however, is that it is dirty; and not only like the dirt that it comes from. Burning coal produces pollutants and large volumes of ash. Burning coal produces around half of all manmade CO2 emissions. It causes damage everyday, but it is the most affordable way of producing energy. When plastic ends up in the ocean, it gives off a chemical that some types of birds often use to locate food. This might lead the birds to ingest harmful junk instead of a real meal. Researchers at the University of California, Davis let small beads of three common plastics linger off the coast of California. After a few weeks, the plastic accumulated grit, grime and bacteria that gave off an odiferous gas called dimethyl sulfide. Phytoplankton give off the same gas, and certain seabirds use the odor as a cue that dinner is nearby. Not only can birds be fooled by the false alarm, other marine animals that use the cue could also be fooled.
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