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Edinburgh Zoo Blames Fireworks for Death of Baby Red Panda

14 November 2024, United Kingdom, Edinburgh: Undated handout photo issued by The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) of three-month-old red panda Roxie who died at Edinburgh Zoo on Bonfire Night. Photo: Rzss/PA Media/dpa
14 November 2024, United Kingdom, Edinburgh: Undated handout photo issued by The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) of three-month-old red panda Roxie who died at Edinburgh Zoo on Bonfire Night. Photo: Rzss/PA Media/dpa
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Edinburgh Zoo Blames Fireworks for Death of Baby Red Panda

14 November 2024, United Kingdom, Edinburgh: Undated handout photo issued by The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) of three-month-old red panda Roxie who died at Edinburgh Zoo on Bonfire Night. Photo: Rzss/PA Media/dpa
14 November 2024, United Kingdom, Edinburgh: Undated handout photo issued by The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) of three-month-old red panda Roxie who died at Edinburgh Zoo on Bonfire Night. Photo: Rzss/PA Media/dpa

Zookeepers in Scotland have blamed pyrotechnics from annual Bonfire Night celebrations for the death of a baby red panda named Roxie.
The three-month-old died on Nov. 5 after choking on vomit that was believed to be caused by stress from the explosions that could be heard to mark Guy Fawkes Day, when fireworks and bonfires are lit to mark the failed plot in 1605 to blow up the British Parliament.
“Roxie had access to her den, but the frightening noises seem to have been too much for her," said Ben Supple, deputy chief executive of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which owns Edinburgh Zoo. “Very sadly, she choked on her vomit on Bonfire Night and our vets believe this was probably a reaction to fireworks."
The red panda, a cat-sized nocturnal animal with reddish fur and a shaggy tail, is native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China.
While it is protected in India, Bhutan, China, Nepal and Myanmar, the species is threatened by habitat loss, human encroachment and poaching. Fewer than 10,000 remain in the wild.
The small mammals have a low chance of survival — even when born in captivity — and they are especially vulnerable in their first months. Studies show that as many as 60% don't reach their first birthday, according to the Toronto Zoo, which in August announced the death of one of two infant red pandas born there in June.
Roxie's mother, Ginger, died five days earlier but Roxie had been eating on her own and responding well to care, Supple said. Stress from fireworks in the days between Halloween on Oct. 31 and Guy Fawkes' Day could have been a contributing factor in the mother's death, The Associated Press quoted him as saying.
Pet owners are well aware of the distress fireworks can cause dogs, cats, horses and other animals.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has campaigned for tighter restrictions and the zoo used the incident to call for a ban on fireworks sales and for only light, public pyrotechnic displays.
A petition to curb fireworks was signed by more than 1 million people and delivered to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's office this month.
Police in Edinburgh said disorder on Bonfire Night had caused a state of alarm in the city this year. More than a dozen people have been arrested so far on allegations that include shooting fireworks at police officers and other anti-social behavior.
Scottish community safety minister Siobhian Brown said this had been the first year that local authorities could ban the use of fireworks in certain areas. She said it was now a matter for the U.K. government to take up.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the Scottish Parliament, said current rules don't seem to be working and there may need to be a ban on noisy fireworks.

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Varieties

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.

Varieties

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.

Varieties

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.”