World's Oldest Ground-Edge Implement

Monash University archaeologist and member of the team who made the discovery, Dr Bruno David, said while there have been reports of much older axes being found in New Guinea, the implements were not ground. "This suggests that axe technology evolved into the later use of grinding for the sharper, more symmetrical and maintainable edges this generates," said Dr David. "The ground-axe fragment is dated to 35,000 years ago, which pre-dates the oldest examples of ground-edge implements dated to 22,000-30,000 years ago from Japan and Northern Australia."

Archaeological excavations undertaken in May 2010 at Nawarla Gabarnmang in Northern Australia uncovered the artifact. Evidence for stone tool-use among our earliest hominid ancestors dates to 3.4 million years ago. However, the first use of grinding to sharpen stone tool edges such as axes is clearly associated with modern humans, otherwise known as Homo sapiens sapiens.

Nawarla Gabarnmang is a large rock-shelter in Jawoyn Aboriginal country in southwestern Arnhem Land. The discovery of the rock-shelter was made by Ray Whear and Chris Morgan from the Jawoyn Association while flying by helicopter on 15 June 2006.

The discovery of the axe was made by a team of researchers including Jean-Michel Geneste from the Centre National de Prehistoire of the Ministry of Culture in France, Hugues Plisson from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at the University of Bordeaux in France, Christopher Clarkson from the University of Queensland, Jean-Jacques Delannoy from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at the University de Savoie in France and Fiona Petchey from the University of Waikato in New Zealand.

"Axes fulfilled a unique position within the Aboriginal toolkit as long use-life chopping tools, were labour intensive to manufacture and highly valued," said Dr David.

Scientists' working hypothesis to plant-eating monkeys

The scientists' working hypothesis is that excess plant-eating monkeys found on some of the smallest islands counterintuitively spur extra tree growth, which in turn boosts populations of insects that then attract all those birds, Duke investigator Kenneth Feeley reported Tuesday at the Ecological Society of America's annual meeting. "If you think about it, you wouldn't expect any sort of relationship between howler monkeys and birds," Feeley said in an interview before the meeting. "It took us by surprise."

The Duke professor "did a census of the bird communities in 1993 and 1995 and found that small islands had an extremely high density of birds, an average of two times what we found on the mainland, and on some islands almost 20 times as many," Feeley said. Many of the smaller islands, only a few acres or less in size, also have howler monkey populations up to 30 times higher than those off the islands. "Wherever there are lots of howlers there are also lots of birds," Feeley noted. "So we have a strong positive correlation between the two groups."Currently favored is a hypothesis that the plant-eating monkeys are actually making the trees they feed on more productive. "It's kind of a backward logic, but essentially it has to do with the rates of nutrient cycling," he added.

According to that view, an excess number of plant eaters increase soil fertility. "The dung of a howler monkey is recycled very rapidly, and so essentially trees benefiting from this are able to produce more vegetative matter," he explained. Because plants are also eaten by insects, the extra growth "allows for a high density of insects, which in turn allows for a high density of insectivorous (insect eating) birds," Feeley said. Since Terborgh's original survey, the Duke scientists have done additional bird censuses during the last three years and expanded their research area from 12 to 31 islands. In the process, their findings have become more variant, with some otherwise similar islands found to support high bird densities and others essentially none.

Class Mammalia

The Class Mammalia includes about 5000 species placed in 26 orders. Systematists do not yet agree on the exact number or on how some orders and families are related to others. The Animal Diversity Web generally follows the arrangement used by Wilson and Reeder (2005). Exciting new information, however, coming from phylogenies based on molecular evidence and from new fossils, is changing our understanding of many groups. For example, skunks have been placed in the new family Mephitidae, separate from their traditional place within the Mustelidae (Dragoo and Honeycutt 1997, Flynn et al., 2005). The Animal Diversity Web follows this revised classification.

Whales almost certainly arose from within the Artiodactyla (Matthee et al. 2001; Gingerich et al. 2001). The traditional subdivision of the Chiroptera into megabats and microbats may not accurately reflect evolutionary history (Teeling et al. 2002). Even more fundamentally, molecular evidence suggests that monotremes (Prototheria, egg-laying mammals) and marsupials (Metatheria) may be more closely related to each other than to placental mammals (Eutheria) (Janke et al. 1997), and placental mammals may be organized into larger groups.The malleus and incus are derived from bones present in the lower jaw of mammalian ancestors. Mammalian hair is present in all mammals at some point in their development. Hair has several functions, including insulation, color patterning, and aiding in the sense of touch. All female mammals produce milk from their mammary glands in order to nourish newborn offspring. Thus, female mammals invest a great deal of energy caring for each of their offspring, a situation which has important ramifications in many aspects of mammalian evolution, ecology, and behavior.

Although mammals share several features in common (see Physical Description and Systematics and Taxonomic History), Mammalia contains a vast diversity of forms.
The smallest mammals are found among the shrews and bats, and can weigh as little as 3 grams. The largest mammal, and indeed the largest animal to ever inhabit the planet, is the blue whale, which can weigh 160 metric tons (160,000 kg). Thus, there is a 53 million-fold difference in mass between the largest and smallest mammals! Mammals have evolved to exploit a large variety of ecological niches and life history strategies and, in concert, have evolved numerous adaptations to take advantage of different lifestyles. For example, mammals that fly, glide, swim, run, burrow, or jump have evolved morphologies that allow them to locomote efficiently; mammals have evolved a wide variety of forms to perform a wide variety of functions. All mammals share at least three characteristics not found in other animals: 3 middle ear bones, hair, and the production of milk by modified sweat glands called mammary glands. The three middle ear bones, the malleus, incus, and stapes (more commonly referred to as the hammer, anvil, and stirrup) function in the transmission of vibrations from the tympanic membrane (eardrum) to the inner ear.

Rare Animals

There are many beautiful animals on this great planet. Some are familiar to us because we’ve seen them in person, on one of the many television shows devoted to animals, or in school books or biology textbooks.  Other animals are rare.  So rare, in fact, that you may have never heard of them.  Or, you may have heard of them, and know that they are extremely rare because they are critically endangered.  Here are some of the rarest animals in the world.

The Red Wolf is a cousin to the Gray Wolf.  The Red Wolf was actually deemed extinct in the wild in 1980.  There were, luckily, some Red Wolves were still in captivity, twenty to be exact.  Wildlife conservationists increased the number of Red Wolves in captivity to 207, and today there are about 100 living in the wild.  A success story, yes, but the factors that caused the Red Wolf to become so endangered are still present today, in that their hunting ground has been severely depleted.  Luckily there are wildlife preserves that allow these wolves to live in their natural habitat, though protected from urban sprawl.

Tarsiers are found only in the islands of Southeast Asia. Since Southeast Asia encompasses a wide range of islands – Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and more, that might not seem like these little guys are so rare. When you think about the fact that they used to live in many more regions, it sort of puts in in perspective. They mostly live in Borneo. These little primates are only 4-6 inches tall, but their hind legs are twice the length of their torso. Additionally, their eyes are each the size of their brains. What else makes these adorable little primates so rare? They are the only primates who are completely carnivorous – insectivorous to be exact. They stalk bugs and jump at them. They also eat small animals like birds, bats, lizards, and snakes. Tarsiers are considered Critically Endangered and will likely be on that list for some time. They are, thus far, impossible to breed in captivity.

Is it a giraffe?  Is it a zebra?  Is it a ziraffe?  A gebra?  It’s an Okapi!  Ever heard of it?  Apparently, the Okapi’s history reaches back to ancient Egypt, where carvings have since been found.  In Europe and Africa, prior to the 20th century, there existed legends of an “African unicorn.”  Today, that animal is thought to be the Okapi.  In 1887, Henry Morton Stanley reported on a type of donkey in the Congo named an “Atti.”  Today, THAT animal is thought to be the Okapi as well.  Scientists, zoologists, and scholars know a lot more about the animal today.  For instance, the fact that it is related to the giraffe, despite it’s zebra-like markings, and the fact that the species Okapia johnstoni is considered a “living fossil,” a creature who seems to be the same species as it’s ancient fossils and has no close living relatives (I guess the giraffe is a VERY distant cousin).  There are about 10,000-20,000 alive in the wild, but since this dude is sooooo vintage, he goes on the list

The ROI

What’s the nature of the system? Then a leader must evaluate what kind of leadership skills are required to be successful when leading people in it. How will I engage those I require to move my efforts forward?Then, and only then, does it make sense to think about the tools and tactics you’ll use to inspire people to engage with your brand, movement, or cause. Because tactics and tools change. Especially in and around the social web. What should matter to you and I is finding those enduring templates that travel with us through the changing realities of our careers, our company’s strategic landscape, and the people who flow in and out of our leadership contexts.In my view, the deeper meaning that underpins all the treatises from social media “experts” is really a reframing of what leadership books and thought experts have studied for years.

What the study was interested in understanding (based on my reading – there are certainly more conclusions to make as Pink shows) is the value of social contracts. By removing the connection parents had with the people behind the center, and creating more of a pure transactional relationship, they’ve turned late pick-ups into acceptable behavior. They removed the social contract.I give a presentation called Leading in a Social World. In it I suggest that in order to grasp the significance of the social web, a leader (by leader I mean all of us – anyone involved in trying to inspire one or more people to do something) must value it first. What’s the asset or capital the social web brings to bear for me or my company?

Then a leader must understand what makes it tick. Permission, Thank You, Naked, Trust, fillintheblank-a-nomics…these are really just new concepts for building social capital. And social capital has long been an asset that any leader in any time has always had to concern themselves with.As an asset, social capital results in many tangible benefits. The value of a social contract, as the Israeli daycare centers learned, is one of them. So is the idea of a social license.

Most businesses need various licenses to operate: liquor, tax, BMI/ASCAP, water rights, mining. But they need social licenses too. Neighborhood buy-in for the nightclub. Community approval to divert water.Newmont mining knows this to be true. Their ability to operate in a stable environment and open new mines with greater efficiency depends on their deliberately-planned social license programs. (You can read more about social licenses in the natural resources industry here.) The result? Consistent growth in earnings, and the first gold mining company to be named to the Dow Jones Sustainability index. As for the rest of us, I use everybody’s-favorite-animal Erik Proulx and a remarkable redhead by the name of Erika Napoletano in my presentation as tangible, everyperson examples of leaders who understand how to build social capital, and the value it can bring.

Love Animals, Care Them

Animal lovers have long dreamed of the day when there will be no more homeless pets. Located in the Central Illinois town of Pekin and founded in 1958, TAPS is committed to providing a safe environment for homeless pets until they can be placed into permanent, loving homes. We take in and rehabilitate sick and injured pets that have nowhere else to go, and we provide education to pet owners to ensure happier, healthier lives for companion animals.

　　

Adoptions are made with the best interest of the pets in mind. We attempt to match the right person with the right pet. We ask each person surrendering an pet to provide detailed information about the pet. We are always happy to share what information we can about a pet and to help you find the right pet for your home. All pets placed for adoption receive a veterinary examination, their first set of shots, are dewormed and are spayed or neutered.

　　
Thanks to a generous grant from the Kenneth Scott Charitable Trust, we are reducing the cost of our cat and kitten adoptions. The $5000 gran Calico Picturet awarded to Friendship will help us cover the cost of spay/neuter for our companion cats and kittens.The cost to adopt a kitten is now only $80, adult cats are only $40, and senior cats are $20. We are trying to help more people who need our assistance with their cats during this struggling economy, so we need your help finding more homes. Please show your support and give one of our cats a new home for the holidays!