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Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi Rescues over 250 Turtles

The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) has rescued over 200 sea turtles since the start of the new year. (WAM)
The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) has rescued over 200 sea turtles since the start of the new year. (WAM)
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Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi Rescues over 250 Turtles

The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) has rescued over 200 sea turtles since the start of the new year. (WAM)
The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) has rescued over 200 sea turtles since the start of the new year. (WAM)

The Environment Agency - Abu Dhabi (EAD) has rescued over 200 sea turtles since the start of the new year. EAD’s commendable efforts have been supported by their Wildlife Rescue Program partner and the largest aquarium in the Middle East, The National Aquarium of Abu Dhabi (TNA), reported the United Arab Emirates' state news agency (WAM) on Friday.

Ahmed Al Hashmi, Executive Director, Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity Sector at EAD, said: "Through our strategic partnership with TNA, we have been able to rescue and rehabilitate a number of turtles to ensure the longevity of several different turtle species found in Abu Dhabi waters. Furthermore, after releasing a large majority of these turtles back into their natural habitat, our specialized research team is monitoring them on a regular basis and frequently studying their behavior and habits."

"As part of our efforts, we are very pleased to include the rehabilitation of an Olive Ridley Sea Turtle, a species rarely seen in UAE waters; this is a sign of the abundance of our biodiversity, which we aspire to conserve so that future generations can enjoy it for decades to come."

Due to the increasing number of turtles that continue being stranded in Abu Dhabi’s waters every year, EAD is now ramping up its efforts to further protect and conserve native wildlife, said WAM. Accordingly, they have now added more manpower and invested in building state-of-the-art facilities; this proactivity reinforces their commitment to providing more efficient and effective rehabilitation for rescued local wildlife, with a specialized emphasis on sea turtles.

Beatriz Maquieira, Curator at TNA, said: "Sea turtles are amongst the most migratory animals on the globe, and two of the seven marine turtle species found worldwide frequent Abu Dhabi's waters - the critically endangered Hawksbill Turtle and the endangered Green Turtle. With over 5,000 sea turtles residing in Abu Dhabi and a huge number of turtles arriving on a yearly basis, we want to continue providing the finest care possible for these animals."

In 2020, EAD signed an MoU with TNA to birth the Wildlife Rescue Program, a mission dedicated to rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing native wildlife in Abu Dhabi. This alignment of objectives has successfully led to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of several species of turtles back into the Arabian Gulf, including rarely seen Loggerhead turtles and the ongoing and successful rehabilitation process of their most recent rescue, an Olive Ridley Turtle, which is the second-smallest of all sea turtles found in the world.

In 2021, the collaboration between EAD and TNA productively led to the rescue and rehabilitation of 250 sea turtles, of which, 150 were released back into the ocean, and three were satellite tagged. Additional release events took place last summer and now the current rescue of more than 200 turtles, which is the strongest start yet, will soon be released back into the Arabian Gulf; the current rescues can be seen one last time at The National Aquarium before the release commences.

With EAD being the Middle East’s largest environmental regulator, and TNA being the Middle East’s largest aquarium, it is only fitting that the two organizations have joined forces to develop the Wildlife Rescue Program as the largest of its kind in the region. Their commitment to being the best rehab center for wildlife in the Middle East maintains a distinct focus on sea turtles in Abu Dhabi.

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Dinosaur Fossils in Brazil Reveal New Giant Species

An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
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Dinosaur Fossils in Brazil Reveal New Giant Species

An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS
An employee works at the excavation site where dinosaur bones were found in Davinopolis, Maranhao state, Brazil, April 28, 2021. Giovani de Toledo Viecili/Handout via REUTERS

Brazilian scientists have identified a new species of giant dinosaur with ties to a similar animal found in Spain, reinforcing knowledge that land routes once connected parts of South America, Africa and Europe about 120 million years ago.

Named Dasosaurus tocantinensis, the species is one of the biggest found in the South American country and was described this month in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Reuters reported.

The fossils were uncovered in 2021 at a site hosting infrastructure works near Davinopolis, in Brazil's northeastern state of Maranhao, and the research was led by Elver Mayer of the Federal University of the Sao Francisco Valley.

The remains include a femur measuring about 1.5 meters (59 inches), which helped researchers estimate the animal stretched roughly 20 meters long.

"As the excavation progressed over the days, we began to see the evidence of that huge bone, which is the femur," said Leonardo Kerber, a paleontologist at the Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM) who contributed to the research.

"This indicates it was a very large dinosaur. Today we know Dasosaurus is among the biggest dinosaurs ever found in Brazil," he noted.

According to UFSM, analysis indicated the species is the closest known relative of Garumbatitan morellensis, a dinosaur described in Spain.

Their lineage was European and may have dispersed into what is now South America roughly 130 million years ago, likely via northern Africa, before the Atlantic fully opened, the university said.

Dasosaurus tocantinensis's name combines references to the region where the dinosaur was found, including the Tocantins River, a major waterway whose eastern margins lie near the fossil site.

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German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas Dies Age 96

German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
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German Philosopher Jurgen Habermas Dies Age 96

German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo
German philosopher Professor Juergen Habermas makes a speech during the awards ceremony for the "Understanding and Tolerance" prize at the Jewish museum in Berlin, November 13, 2010. REUTERS/Odd Andersen/Pool/File Photo

The German philosopher Jurgen Habermas has died, a spokesperson for his publishing house, Suhrkamp Verlag, told AFP on Saturday.

He died at the age of 96 in Starnberg, in southern Germany, she said, citing information from the family of the politically engaged theorist.

Habermas was considered the most influential German philosopher of his generation, involved in all the major postwar debates and seeing a united Europe, in his view, as the only remedy for the rise of nationalism, AFP reported.

In his later years, he devoted himself to promoting a federal European project and prevent the continent from falling, as it did in the 20th century, into nationalist rivalries.

Throughout his life, Habermas linked philosophy and politics, thought and action.

After serving as the voice of German student protest in the 1960s, he became its target thirty years later while warning of the risks of "left-wing fascism".

In 1989, he criticised the terms of German reunification, guided essentially by the demands of the market, and which made "the Deutsche mark its standard."

Born on June 18, 1929 in Duesseldorf, Habermas had been enrolled in the Hitler Youth, but he was too young to have taken an active part in the war. As a teenager, he was deeply marked by the collapse of Nazism.

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Research Reveals Decades-Long Silverpit Crater Triggered by Tsunami 40 Million Years Ago

A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
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Research Reveals Decades-Long Silverpit Crater Triggered by Tsunami 40 Million Years Ago

A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)
A massive asteroid struck the North Sea millions of years ago (Getty)

A long-running dispute about the origin of a North Sea crater has finally been settled, as new research finds a massive asteroid hit the water and triggered a towering tsunami millions of years ago.

Scientists have found that the Silverpit Crater – which lies around 700 meters beneath the southern North Sea seabed, roughly 80 miles off the coast of Yorkshire – was formed when an asteroid or comet struck the region roughly 43 to 46 million years ago, sparking a 330 feet tsunami.

Since geologists first identified the formation in 2002, the 3km-wide crater and its surrounding ring of circular faults spanning about 20 km have sparked intense debate, according to The Independent.

But researchers say their new study marks the clearest evidence yet that the structure is one of Earth’s rare impact craters.

This confirmation places it in the same category as well-known structures such as the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico, which is linked to the dinosaur mass extinction.

The team used computer modelling and analyzed newly available seismic imaging and microscopic geological samples taken from beneath the seabed.

Dr. Uisdean Nicholson, a sedimentologist in Heriot-Watt University’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, who led the investigation, said: “New seismic imaging has given us an unprecedented look at the crater.”

He said samples from an oil well in the area also revealed rare ‘shocked’ quartz and feldspar crystals at the same depth as the crater floor.

“We were exceptionally lucky to find these – a real ‘needle-in-a-haystack’ effort. These prove the impact crater hypothesis beyond doubt, because they have a fabric that can only be created by extreme shock pressures,” said Nicholson.

The scientists say these microscopic minerals form only under the extreme pressures generated during asteroid impacts, providing strong confirmation of the event.

Early research proposed that the feature was created by a high-speed asteroid impact. Supporters of that idea pointed to its round shape, central peak, and surrounding concentric faults, which are often seen in known impact craters.

But other scientists suggested different explanations. Some proposed that underground salt movement distorted the rock layers and created the structure.

Others argued that volcanic activity may have caused the seabed to collapse.

In 2009, geologists even voted on the issue. According to a report in the December 2009 issue of Geoscientist magazine, most participants rejected the asteroid impact explanation at the time.

The latest findings, published in the journal Nature Communications and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), now appear to overturn that conclusion.

Dr. Nicholson said: “Our evidence shows that a 160-meter-wide asteroid hit the seabed at a low angle from the west.”

“Within minutes, it created a 1.5 km high curtain of rock and water that then collapsed into the sea, creating a tsunami over 100 meters high.”

The impact would have produced a violent explosion at the seafloor and sent enormous waves spreading across the region.

Professor Gareth Collins, of Imperial College London, who attended the 2009 debate about the crater’s origin and contributed to the new research, said the researchers have “finally found the silver bullet” to end the debate.

He said: “I always thought that the impact hypothesis was the simplest explanation and most consistent with the observations.”

“It is very rewarding to have finally found the silver bullet. We can now get on with the exciting job of using the amazing new data to learn more about how impacts shape planets below the surface, which is really hard to do on other planets,” Collins added.

Dr. Nicholson also expressed his excitement about using the new findings for further research into asteroids.

“Silverpit is a rare and exceptionally preserved hypervelocity impact crater,” he said.

“These are rare because the Earth is such a dynamic planet – plate tectonics and erosion destroy almost all traces of most of these events.”