Climate may have influenced the evolution of humans and other humanlike species

If you were to trace human evolution backward in time and space, you’d eventually end up in Africa. There, millions of years ago, animal species evolved to walk upright on two legs and spend more of their lives on the ground than in the trees. Homo sapiens, the species you belong to if you’re reading this article,had appeared on the continent by 200,000 years ago. Your ancestors weren’t alone: Other upright, humanlike species were also around — at least for a while.

Scientists agree on Africa as a starting place because the oldest human bones have been found there. Eventually, ancient humans and other species moved to every other continent except Antarctica and the Americas. But how they evolved, or changed over time, once they left Africa isn’t entirely clear. Eventually, every cousin in the sprawling human family — except H. sapiens — became extinct. Online-biology-degree.com should be able to help you understand human and non-human primate cognition from the perspective of human evolutionary biology.

Climate may have played an important part in the evolution of ancient people. Two new studies suggest that during ice ages, steep drops in temperature may have sent ancient species moving to more temperate, or mild, areas. As a result, these species would have been isolated from other populations.

One of the new studies looks at bones found in caves in southwestern China. A team of scientists report that the bones came from an ancient species that looked a lot, but not exactly, like H. sapiens. Either this type of H. sapiens looked different than others, or they belonged to a previously unknown humanlike species.

Darren Curnoe, who studied the bones from China, told Science News that he suspects a new species could have formed when early humans left Africa 120,000 years ago and evolved in isolation for tens of thousands of years. Anthropologists study humankind, and Curnoe, an anthropologist from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, studies human evolution.

On the other hand, those bones may represent a new species that arose when two others interbred, Christopher Stringer told Science News. Stringer, an anthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London, worked on the other study. He suggests the bones came from a group of ancient H. sapiens that moved into the area and reproduced with a humanlike species called the Denisovans.

In their paper, Stringer and ecologist Jon Stewart from the Bournemouth University in England show how changes in climate have controlled the migration of different types of animals. Studies suggest, for example, that polar bears were once brown bears that became isolated in the north and adapted to the cold conditions.

They Stringer and Stewart argue that changes in climate have had a major impact on the evolution and survival of humans and humanlike species, too. Ice age conditions may have driven the H. sapiens in what is now China to live and reproduce with the Denisovans.

Stringer and Stewart also suggest that the Neandertals, another species, may have evolved from an isolated humanlike population in western Asia during ice ages. In addition, the so-called “hobbits,” a short species known to scientists as Homo floresiensis, may also have evolved from other isolated humanlike species.

Not all scientists agree with the idea that dramatic changes in climate drove human migration — and then human evolution — in the way that Stringer and Stewart have outlined. Anthropologist Rick Potts from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., told Science News that ancient species had to handle a wide range of environments. They probably could have adapted to the extremes brought on by the ice age and may not have needed to seek safer areas.

POWER WORDS (adapted from the New Oxford American dictionary)

anthropology The study of humankind.

ecology The branch of science that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their environments.

evolve To change gradually over successive generations.

species A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals.

Neandertal An extinct species of human with a receding forehead and prominent brow ridges that was widely distributed in ice-age Europe between about 120,000 and 35,000 years ago.

ice age A time during a past geological period when temperatures dropped and glaciers formed.

The US Coast Guard has used cannon to sink a crewless Japanese ship that drifted to Alaska after the 2011 tsunami.

The coast guard earlier said they would hold off scuttling the Ryou-Un Maru after a Canadian fishing boat claimed salvage rights.

But a Canadian official later said that the Bernice C had been unable to tow the 200ft (61m) Japanese "ghost ship".

The boat had no lights or power and was viewed as a danger to other ships.

It was thought to be at the vanguard of a stream of tsunami debris that has been drifting east since last year's disaster hit Japan.

Owner contacted

The Ryou-Un Maru was first spotted off the coast of Canadian British Columbia on 23 March.

The vessel was moving at about 1km/h in a maritime transport corridor that separates US and Canadian waters.

It was adrift about 195 miles from Sitka, Alaska, when it was sunk, officials said.

Chief Petty Officer Kip Wadlow told AP news agency that a cutter was used to fire cannon at the abandoned ship, which burst into flames and took on water.

After a few hours, larger ammunition was used to complete the job, he said.

A Hercules C-130 air crew was ready to participate in the operation, broadcasting to mariners and air traffic to alert them and help clear the surrounding area before the demolition of the ship began.

CPO Wadlow said it would be too expensive to try to salvage the ship, and too dangerous to put anyone on board.

The ship may have carried more than 7,500 litres of diesel fuel, officials said.

The Ryou-Un Maru, a shrimping boat, has been traced to the Japanese island of Hokkaido.

Alaskan Senator Mark Begich suggested that the boat's owner had been identified, but the owner did not want the vessel back.

On 11 March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit Japan, triggering a tsunami that swamped a power station, prompting the worst nuclear crisis since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Sometimes, a first-time singer just needs a bit of self-confidence to conquer the stage.

But then there was amateur entertainer Jeremy Love: lacking not just self-confidence, but musical competency to boot. Love was the sort of misfit performer who only could have found an audience at Abilene’s curiously named Tony Barker & Meatball Acoustic Jam.

Founded 10 years ago by local musicians Barker and Benny “Meatball” Bartek, the weekly Thursday night jam started as an informal way to get Abilene’s fledgling singers and songwriters up on stage and in front of an audience. No snobbery, no judgment, no stress — just a bunch of players banging out material in a friendly atmosphere.

Love hopped aboard soon after the event’s birth, and immediately put Barker and Bartek’s altruistic principles to the test. Every time he took the stage, the audience would collectively brace itself for an onslaught of flubbed guitar notes, off-key singing and forgotten lyrics.

“Every week for five years, I sucked it up,” Love said, in his typically self-effacing manner. “There were some people who would rather listen to endless karaoke than me.”

So while it pained Bartek to bring down the hammer on such a fragile ego, he pulled Love aside to deliver an ultimatum: either he would shape up within a month or he was barred from the stage. For a musical event founded on a laid-back, “live and let live” philosophy, this was unprecedented.

But a funny thing happened after Bartek deployed the nuclear option: Love finally started taking his playing seriously. It wasn’t just enough to want to entertain, he realized. He had to work to make people want to listen.

So Love got down to rehearsal — serious rehearsal, playing through songs again and again until his fingers were sore. Unexpectedly, he started coming up with his own material for the first time during these sessions, some five or six songs that burst out of him one after the next. Two or three of those songs actually turned out to be pretty good.

Bit by bit, he gained confidence on the stage and off. Normally a strict wallflower, Love began to mix and mingle with the crowds at each of the shows. In so doing, he wound up meeting his future wife. With the help and encouragement of his fellow musicians, he became a solid member of the weekly stage show.

Of course, Love is still just a chubby guy with a guitar. Barker and Bartek’s jams haven’t transformed him into Bruce Springsteen or anything. But still, they’ve given him an artistic outlet and a new bounce to his stride — and he’s not the only one.

Over those 10 years, an entire generation of Abilene musicians has come up through the weekly jam sessions. And last Thursday, that generation reconvened to celebrate.

Reunion

The Barker & Meatball Acoustic Jam currently calls Strawberry’s Bar on South 7th Street its home. The building’s pale, unadorned brick exterior suggests some sort of hidden dive bar seediness, but the room inside has the air of a casual sports bar.

Last Thursday, the jam took over for its semiofficial 10th anniversary party. The packed bar felt like a high school reunion, with gray-haired guys grabbing each other every few paces for hugs and handshakes. Balloons drifted through the air while bands and solo performers took the stage.

Darting around the room were Barker and Bartek, who collectively serve as the night’s talent bookers, technical crew, emcees, guest musicians and hype men. Several times throughout the night, it was Bartek’s hands that sparked the crowd into collective, rhythmic clapping to accompany performances.

Bartek, much like his nickname, brings an unconventional approach to music promotion. On the jam’s first night 10 years back, Bartek focused on recruiting a big crowd but barely bothered with tracking down actual musicians to provide entertainment. Barker, who was already wary about associating himself with a man named “Meatball,” questioned that approach.

“I told him, ‘Hey! Let’s use our brains, let’s do it differently,’ ” Bartek said. “Musicians have got to have a reason to play. They’ve got to have a crowd first, and then they’ll come.”

From there, the event grew and blossomed due to Abilene’s unique musical culture, Barker says.

“What distinguishes us, and what towns like Austin should be envious of, is that we have a very supportive group of local bands,” Barker said. “People borrow things from each other and support each other. I’ve never been part of a scene like the one in this community, and believe me, I’ve seen a lot of communities.”

The night’s performers include mail carriers, cops, oil field workers and more. Then there are out-and-out characters like Jackie Johnson, a white-bearded country singer who always arrives dressed in full cowboy get-up. An active part of the Nashville music scene in the 1970s, the Anson native is now semiretired, but continues to sling his guitar to supplement his Social Security checks.

His business card has the word “WANTED” written across the top in an Old West typescript.

“A gypsy once told me that I was going to lead an interesting life,” the 67-year-old Johnson said with a wily smile. “Well, it’s been more interesting than you can imagine.”

Sharing the spotlight

Nearly every musician in the room got his or her start via the Thursday night jam sessions, gaining their first performance time and forming bands through connections made in the audience. Since most of these performers play competing bar shows on the weekends, Thursday is their designated hangout time.

Ric Rogers and his band Three Shades Blue arrived in Abilene in 2003 as outsiders from Fort Worth, but soon found themselves embraced by the Barker and Meatball crowd.

“The only reason we’re known in the Abilene music scene is hanging out at these acoustic jams,” Rogers said. “And most of the musicians here will tell you the same.”

Clyde-based performer Eric Logan credits the jam’s founding duo with creating an incubator for Abilene talent and then having the foresight to step aside. While Barker and Bartek’s and names and fingerprints are all over the event, they act more as facilitators than the stars of the show. Bartek will always play the first set of the night, but only to kill time until someone else is ready to go.

The actual onstage performances can be a bit rough, but the night’s importance goes beyond mere entertainment.

“It might not be the most stellar performance ever, but it’s a place to gain confidence,” Logan said. “For (Barker and Bartek), it wasn’t about the money or the sheer numbers. It was about harnessing the musical talent that Abilene has. ... It wasn’t their time to shine. The thought was, ‘Let’s put the spotlight on other people.’ Abilene owes them for putting up with us all for a decade.”

Launched last year offering 360 degree tours of 17 museums' collections, 46 more institutions have now signed up.

The project uses Google's Street View technology to provide high resolution images of paintings, sculptures and photographs.

More than 30,000 objects can now be seen in detail.

With images larger than a gigapixel (one billion pixels), a zoom-in feature allows viewers to get inside cracks in the parchment and other details that are not visible to the naked eye.

In the UK, new additions to the project include the Victoria And Albert Museum, Royal Collection and Imperial War Museum.

Dulwich Picture Gallery, Serpentine Gallery, National Galleries of Scotland, the Jewish Museum, the Museum of London, and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool have also signed up.

They join Tate Britain and the National Gallery which are already involved in the project.

Viewers can now also look at the White House in Washington, the Museum of Islamic Art in Qatar, and the Santiniketan Triptych in the National Gallery of Modern Art in Delhi, India.

"From now on anyone can visit these great institutions with just the click of a mouse," Google President Margo Georgiadis said. 

"This project breaks down all of the barriers and allows people to study art in a seamless way."

Google has also signed partnerships with 151 other institutions in 40 countries to show objects in their collections.

Train Accident News Updates! In a tragic accident, seven elephants were killed when a goods train hit a herd of about 15 as it was crossing railway tracks in West Bengal's Jalpaiguri district.

Five elephants died on the spot, two later. The incident took place at around 11 pm on Wednesday night. The elephants were crossing from the Moraghat to the Reti Bandapani forest via an often used corridor when the train rammed into them.

"One of the elephants got stuck in the cow catcher in front of the train and it was dragged by more than 200 metres along the railway track and I've been told that many of the fishplates and couplings of the track got severely damaged. So you can imagine what was the impact," said AK Raha the Principal conservator of forests, West Bengal.

Among the dead were three female elephants, one male, one juvenile and two calves.

The Forest Department has filed an FIR against the railways alleging the train was running at about 70 km per hour. But the Railways refuse to take the blame.

"We told them two days ago there was a big elephant herd roaming about in the area but they did nothing about it. They should have realized the elephants may come this way," said Sachidanand Singh the District Railways Manager of Alipurduar Northeast Frontier Railways.

Such accidents have been spiraling in the area since 2003 when rail tracks were upgraded from meter gauge to broad gauge and more goods trains diverted on this route. Though, the Forest department wants a speed limit of 20 to 40 km per hour for trains but that hasn't happened.

"We have been told by the DRM in the past that we cannot do it on our own. The instruction for speed limit should come from the Railways board. These are policy decisions. Unless they receive the orders, they cannot do it," added A K Raha.

With no solution available for the problem, elephant herds roaming the area remain vulnerable.

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