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- | China is building a giant laser facility to master near-limitless clean energy, satellite images appear to show [[https://v2-renzo-protocol.com/|renzo token]] | + | Filling in fossil record gaps |
+ | The model suggested that, during the 18 million-year time period in question, the proportion of land the four dinosaur clades likely occupied remained constant overall, suggesting their potential habitat area remained stable, and the risk of extinction stayed low. [[https://v2-renzo.net/|renzo]] | ||
+ | One of the factors that could have clouded the true diversity patterns of dinosaurs was the lack of rock exposed at the Earth’s surface during that window of time — and thus available for fossil hunters today to scrutinize. | ||
+ | “In this study, we show that this apparent decline is more likely a result of a reduced sampling window, caused by geological changes in these terminal Mesozoic fossil-bearing layers — driven by processes such as tectonics, mountain uplift, and sea-level retreat — rather than genuine fluctuations in biodiversity,” said study coauthor Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, a Royal Society Newton International Fellow at University College London’s department of Earth sciences, in a statement. | ||
- | Images from space reveal an enormous X-shaped building rising up from rocky terrain in southwestern China. This is a huge nuclear fusion research facility, analysts say, and it could be a sign China is leaping ahead in the quest to harness this futuristic energy source. | + | “Dinosaurs were probably not inevitably doomed to extinction at the end of the Mesozoic,” Chiarenza said. “If it weren’t for that asteroid, they might still share this planet with mammals, lizards, and their surviving dscendants: birds.” |
+ | The study helped to highlight what biases may affect scientists’ understanding of the true pattern of dinosaur diversity leading up to the extinction event, said Darla Zelenitsky, a paleontologist at the University of Calgary in Alberta who wasn’t involved in the research. | ||
- | It could also mean they are amping up nuclear weapons development. | + | “Because of the nature of the rock record, (paleontologists have) found it was more difficult to detect dinosaurs and thus understand their diversity patterns in that window of time just before the mass extinction,” she said. |
- | Decker Eveleth, an analyst at US-based research organization the CNA Corporation, has been among those watching this facility for years. In 2020, a US official released images purporting to show various potential Chinese nuclear locations, including the site near Mianyang in Sichuan province. | + | “It certainly makes sense as we know there are biases related to the rock record that can obscure true biological patterns. The more rock that is exposed at the surface (today), the better our chance of finding dinosaurs in that rock, which in turn leads to a better understanding of their diversity patterns.” |
- | At this point, it was basically “a patch of dirt,” Eveleth told CNN. But after Covid shutdowns were lifted, construction accelerated. The project is described as a “laser fusion” facility in contract documents obtained by Eveleth and seen by CNN. | + | Mike Benton, a professor of vertebrate paleontology at the UK’s University of Bristol, called the paper “thorough and detailed” but said it doesn’t prove there was no reduction in dinosaur diversity ahead of the extinction event. Benton’s work has suggested that dinosaurs were in decline before the asteroid wiped them out. He wasn’t involved in the new study. |
- | If the facility is indeed a laser facility, it will offer a unique way of studying materials in extreme conditions. It allows scientists to create “pressures that are typically found in the center of stars or in nuclear weapons,” said Brian Appelbe, a research fellow from the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London. | + | “The current paper suggests that the ‘reduction’ can be explained as a statistical artefact,” Benton said via email. “What it shows is … simply that the reduction could be real or could be explained by reduced sampling, in my opinion.” |
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- | Eveleth says the four giant arms shown in the satellite image are “bays” which will be able to shoot lasers at the tall, central tower, which houses a target chamber containing hydrogen isotopes. The laser energy fuses the hydrogen together to create a burst of energy in a process called ignition. | + | |
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- | Nuclear fusion offers the tantalizing prospect of abundant, clean energy without the long-lived radioactive waste problem of nuclear fission, the world’s current nuclear energy technology. Countries and companies across the world are in a race to master it. | + | |