Paleontologist Garety Dyke at the University College Dublin in Ireland suggested that an extinct dinosaur called Sharovipteryx mirabilis was the world’s first delta-wing flyer:
Sharovipteryx mirabilis is known from only a single fossil. It was about 8 inches long, weighed less than a tenth of a pound and lived during the late Triassic, a time when the first dinosaurs were still evolving. Scientists knew that S. mirabilis had a membrane stretched across its hind legs, which allowed it to glide, but the exact shape of this membrane and the way it was attached to the animal’s body has been debated.
In a new study, Gareth Dyke, a paleontologist at the University College Dublin in Ireland, and colleagues used wind-tunnel data from modern flying lizards and computer modeling to propose a new membrane configuration for S. mirabilis, one they say is unique because it is grounded in aerodynamics.
Scientists can now finally explain how the unusual steps at the Mammoth Hot Springs came to be:
Geologists have long been at a loss to explain the rocks’ unusual shapes, but physicists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign say they have figured out the answer.
Unlike most water-washed surfaces, the primary geological process shaping the Mammoth Hot Springs landscape is not erosion. The rocks there are actually growing — at the rate of one to five millimeters a day — as calcium carbonate in the water precipitates to form the mineral travertine.
There’s a thief in Greencastle, Indiana, that’s obsessed with the letter R:
A consonant-loving thief has police and business owners baffled after dozens of Rs were stolen from signs around the community. "We’ve lost our Rs. And we want them back," said Randall Jones, president of Headley Hardware.
The weekend caper targeted gas stations, restaurants, repair shops and medical offices in the city of 10,000 people about 40 miles west of Indianapolis.
Here’s the kicker:
The thief also nabbed half a dozen letters from a lighted marquee in front of a National Guard post.
Which countries back immediate ceasefire in the growing Middle East Crisis (some call it a war already) and which countries do not, asks the Belfast Telegraph. Here’s the answer: Link – via digg.
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