CNN.com => Fossil mounds may be oldest life on Earth
Odd-shaped mounds of dirt in Australia turn out to be fossils of the oldest life on Earth, created by billions of microbes more than 3 billion years ago, scientists say in a new report.
Life – three billions years on this planet and counting…
Technorati Tags: Blog, Paleontology, Science
Aftenposten => Record meteorite hit Norway
As Wednesday morning dawned, northern Norway was hit with an impact comparable to the atomic bomb used on Hiroshima.
Luckily, only 25 people live in that part of Norway…
news @ nature.com => Slouching out of Gondwana
Modern crocodiles and alligators may be able to trace their roots back to Australia, say palaeontologists who have dug up the scaly beasts’ most primitive known relative near a remote outback town.
The new crocodile-like species, unearthed in rural Queensland by a team led by Steven Salisbury of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, lived between 95 and 98 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Paleontology, Science
BBC News => Early web-spinner found in amber
True orb weaving spiders found trapped in amber from 121-115 million years ago are the oldest of their type yet found.
Now, if only the can find some good, dinosaur blood-engorged mosquitoes so they can create Jurassic Park.
Technorati Tags: Blog, Paleontology, Science
Monday was Michelle’s first day of “real” school, sort of.
The school year technically starts in August, but they also hold summer school, so we decided to get her a head start (and, for my wife’s sake, get her out of the house) early.
It’s an all-day school, so by the time she got home on her first day, she was out for the count. The family had a quiet day and a quiet evening, how refreshing!
We think she likes school. She doesn’t kick up a fit, seems to anticipate going each morning, but the best we get out of her are question and answer sessions like this:
“How was school?”
“OK”
or
“What’d you do at school?
“I went swimming, and ate and did stuff.”
or
“Did you meet any new friends?”
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“Hundreds.”
“What are their names?”
“I don’t know, but they don’t know my name, either.”
They’ve been giving writing and other simple worksheets during the day, which she brings home, graded. So far she’s nailed them all. Guess we’ll have to wait for some feedback from the school.