Connect with us

Published

4 years ago

on

A team of palaeontologists has unearthed the bones of a dinosaur in Queensland, Australia. The discovered parts of spine, scientists said, could belong to a new species altogether and may well be the youngest dinosaur discovered in Australia to date. The remains were uncovered after experts from the Eromanga Natural History Museum carried out digging in the region of Eromanga, the country’s furthest town from the sea. The palaeontologists also stated that bones could belong to a dinosaur estimated to be 98 million years old.

Corey Richards, the museum’s operations manager, said that the site where the digging was carried out had a large number of fossils scattered across the surface. “The main excitement is we don’t know what type of dinosaur it is but we assume it’s a sauropod which is a plant-eating dinosaur,” he told Daily Mail. Since not many dinosaur bones have been found in Australia, Richard added that the ones discovered recently are expected to be “new or different.”

He said getting the bones out of the ground was a lengthy process and even involved processing the remains at an on-site lab before taking them to a formal laboratory. Then the team moved through the layers, about four inches at a time using machinery, Richard said.

Robyn Mackenzie, director and palaeontologist at Eromanga Natural History Museum, echoed Richards’ sentiment, saying the bones are likely of a new species. Mackenzie said that the remains will be sent to a laboratory but she could right away share “a little.” “It’s from a large plant-eating dinosaur, one they call a sauropod,” she told 9 News. Interestingly, the site where the remains were unearthed was first noticed by Mackenzie’s daughter Cindy, daughter-in-law Heidi, and son Sandy, who were checking sheep in the paddock.

The team that discovered the vertebrae has been able to dig only about a metre of earth and therefore they hope there is more to be uncovered. It may take somewhere between three to five years to fully exhume the remains of the 98 million-year-old dinosaur.

“The thing is we collect these fossils from the soils and then we have to come back and work on them in the museum and that process can take three to five years,” Richard said.

Mackenzie said that the team had found many sites over the last 17 years and each year they go through each site. “Because the right age soils have been exposed we’ve found the dinosaur bones on top of the soil. That’s the key to finding more bones beneath the ground,” she said. “These are some of the richest dinosaur fields in Australia”.

It’s an all television spectacular this week on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast, as we discuss 8K, screen sizes, QLED and mini-LED panels — and offer some buying advice. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading

Science

Iran’s Folded Rocks Reveal Ancient Tectonic Power at Asia-Europe Boundary

Published

7 hours ago

on

April 21, 2025

By

Iran’s Folded Rocks Reveal Ancient Tectonic Power at Asia-Europe Boundary

The deformed rocks of Iran are formed due to strong mountain ridges and valleys in the Greater Caucasus mountain range, southwest of the Caspian Sea. Between 10 million and 50 million years ago, its growth was marked by sedimentary layers crushed during the first impact between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The vividly coloured rocks produced by the sedimentary layers gathered over millennia range in tone from terracotta to greenish to bluish. Using satellite pictures, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Earth Observatory have shown how the landscape tended to cluster over time.

One image depicts the different strata layers, vegetation, and the Zanjan-Tabriz freeway linking Tehran and Poznan. Interestingly, another image is of the Qezel Ozan River, which provides agricultural water in the region. The region is still converging, and fresh research suggests that a slab of oceanic crust is being shredded beneath Iraq and Iran.

Iran’s Folded Rocks Expose Arabia-Eurasia Tectonic Collision

According to reported NASA experts, a tectonic clash between the continents — known as Eurasia and Arabia — crunched these vividly hued strata of rock into massive folds. Located southwest of the Caspian Sea, Iran’s folded rocks are mountain ridges and valleys from the Greater Caucasus mountain chain. The disrupted rocks are made of sedimentary layers that were tilted and folded after the first collision between the Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates, which is estimated to have occurred 10 to 50 million years ago.

Under Iraq and Iran, some of the oceanic crust between the Arabian and Eurasian plates is breaking apart, according to current research, which results in an anomalous silt accumulation at the surface. The complexity of the Earth’s surface and the Qezel Ozan River, combined with the Neotethys oceanic plate pulling the area down, account for this.

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who’sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.


Nothing’s CMF Phone 2 Pro Teasers Reveal Design, Show Dual Tone Finish, Swappable Rear Panel



Astronomers Discover Potential ‘Dark Galaxy’ Near the Milky Way

Continue Reading

Science

Astronomers Discover Potential ‘Dark Galaxy’ Near the Milky Way

Published

7 hours ago

on

April 21, 2025

By

Astronomers Discover Potential ‘Dark Galaxy’ Near the Milky Way

Astronomers might have discovered a dark galaxy, primarily made up of dark matter, in the local universe. Dark galaxies are theoretical starless systems that could provide valuable insight for galaxy formation models. The candidate was in a massive, rapidly moving gas cloud, first discovered in the 1960s. At high resolution, the methyl formate cloud appeared to be a tight knot of gas, potentially forming a dark galaxy. But not all astronomers are convinced. It’s more likely to be a regular gas cloud at the edge of the Milky Way, says the astronomer Tobias Westmeier.

The study was published in Science Adviser. It reveals that since the early 2000s, a few possible dark galaxies have been discovered close to the Milky Way. However, multiple studies have suggested that these alleged dark galaxies were misclassified. The study further highlights that the hypothetical dark galaxy evolved this way after a collision with cosmic gas close to our galaxy. Finding dark galaxies could enable better computer simulations and provide fresh insight into galaxy development.

Astronomers Discover Dark Galaxy Candidate Near Milky Way

According to the report, a hypothetical dark galaxy was revealed amid the field of dark matter in the early eras of the history of the universe. Better knowledge of the development of black galaxies, systems devoid of stars, is what astronomers aim for. First spotted half a century ago, a massive, fast-moving gas cloud showed new promise when scientists detected it. High-resolution cloud observations revealed a tiny gas cluster possibly matching a dark galaxy. Jin-Long Xu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing told Science News that the finding marks the first of a potential black galaxy in the nearby universe.

Still, not all scientists agree with the dark galaxy designation of the clump. The report further notes that Westmeier thinks the object is most likely a regular gas cloud at the Milky Way’s edge. The idea dates back to identifying some purported black galaxies in orbit as far back as the early 2000s.

The latest discoveries came from observations with three radio telescopes, including high-resolution photos from the Five-Hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) in southern China. In much of the cluster, the scientists shadowed the velocity and direction of hydrogen gas and then deduced distance, which they found to be 900,000 light-years from Earth.

Continue Reading

Science

NASA Scientists Study Crystal Formation in Space For Future Applications

Published

2 days ago

on

April 19, 2025

By

NASA Scientists Study Crystal Formation in Space For Future Applications

NASA scientists have been studying crystals to optimise the process of crystallisation for decades. Various researchers have conducted research on crystals within the first quarter of the year, the latest being protein crystallisation in microgravity. Alexandra Ros from Arizona State University led the research by launching a protein crystallisation test in the International Space Station (ISS). The experiments are meant to determine the growth of protein crystals in space using newly developed microfluid devices. The research agenda is to examine whether space-grown crystals can achieve better quality than those formed on Earth.

What is Crystallisation, & How Does It Impact Our Lives?

It is the process of freezing of liquid or molten materials in the form of highly organised molecules called crystals. These crystals can be a blend of different types of materials. This world consists of crystal examples everywhere. It would be wrong to say that we don’t live in a world of crystals.

Be it a coffee mug, cellphone or silicon that is used to form the brains of electronics and used in memory chips, everything is a result of crystallisation. Other types of semiconductor crystals are used as detectors for different radiations, such as gamma rays, infrared rays, etc. Lasers used in scanning the product are made of optical crystals. Turbine blades are an example of metal crystals used in the jet engine.

Why and How NASA Studies Crystals?

The scientists studied the growth of zinc selenide crystals in space, with the crystals on Earth, explained NASA. The result from the observations marked the way for the improvement of the operations of infrared wavelength in the high powered lasers. The research findings provide an insight into the strong influence of gravity on the electrical, optical and structural characteristics of the crystals.

Researchers have optimised the crystal usage for several years to study the types of crystals for growing in space.

The crystals grown on Earth have defects such as little cracks; these cracks can damage the properties of the crystals. This marks a strong reason why scientists want to study crystals in space, thus getting a complete microgravitational environment where they can grow better. Convection produced due to the presence of the gravitational force degrades the quality of crystals.

However, this convection is not seen in the environment of microgravity, helping in the better quality crystals. The ISS is now converted to a complete lab for the study of the formation of crystals, which can be further applied in technology and medicine.

Continue Reading

Trending