Exercise: Fossils from the 'Missing Years' in Africa

Researchers say they have identified animal fossils from 27 000 000 years ago in what is now Ethiopia. The remains are from the middle of a time called the "missing years" or the "dark period." This is because scientists have so little information about the mammals that lived then. The period began 32 000 000 years ago. Africa and Arabia were a single continent, a huge island known as Afro-Arabia. The period ended 24 000 000 years ago, after a land bridge formed with Eurasia.
John Kappelman is an anthropologist at the University of Texas in Austin and leader of the American and Ethiopian search team. Mr Kappelman says 8 000 000 years is a long time to lack information about a continent. He says scientists have only been able to guess what happened to African mammals during that period. The remains found in the Chilga area of Ethiopia offer important evidence.
The remains include teeth, skull pieces and other bones. The scientists found them in a farming area about 2000 meters above sea level, in the highlands of Ethiopia. Satellite pictures helped the researchers decide where to dig. The fossils came from about 70 different digs. The magazine Nature published the findings. The scientists say the fossils come from before large numbers of animals began to arrive in Africa from Europe and Asia. The fossils also show that some animals existed millions of years before scientists had thought.
The researchers found several kinds of ancient proboscideans. These are animals with trunks. Modern elephants are proboscideans. Scientists have long thought elephants began in Africa. They say this discovery proves that theory. The ancestors weighed about 1000 kilograms, a lot smaller than African elephants today.
John Kappelman says the elephant ancestors were one of the few African mammals that survived the invasion of mammals from Eurasia. He says elephants got their start in Africa during the eight-million-year period, and then spread around the world. The researchers also found the remains of an ancient animal with two horns on its head, called the arsinoithere. The scientists were excited, because this is the youngest set of such remains yet discovered. The animal is much larger than its ancestors. Earlier forms were about the size of pigs. But the arsinoithere found at Chilga was about two meters tall and weighed more than two tons.
They were similar to the modern rhinoceros. The two are not related. In fact, scientists thought arsinoitheres had disappeared from the Afro-Arabian continent once rhinos arrived from Eurasia. One researcher says it now appears they did not compete for survival. Scientists say they expect more discoveries to come about the mammals that lived during the so-called missing years.

How to protect trees and nature

Trees are being destroyed

through the transportation
of invasive insects & diseases in firewood.

One of the most important things we can do to protect trees is stop moving invasive pests and diseases to new areas on firewood. It’s really that simple- don't move firewood, and keep trees healthy and alive.Forests are great places to play, but they also keep our air clean and our water pure. We must protect them by not moving firewood, so our kids, grandkids and great-grandkids can enjoy these amazing places like we do.

Need more reasons not to move firewood?

New infestations of tree-killing insects and diseases often are first found in campgrounds and parks. Why? Because people accidentally spread these invasive species when they brought firewood along with them. Don't risk it. Leave your firewood at home, and then buy new wood near to where you'll burn it. Protect the places you love by not moving firewood.

The trees in forests clean our air. Every acre of healthy forest cleans pollution out of the air and reduces greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. But invasive foreign pests are killing several million native trees every year. For every tree that dies, that’s a little bit more pollution that we have to deal with. And when several million trees die, that’s just scary.

A snowflake falling in the mountains passes through trees and forests before ending up in our drinking water. Trees filter groundwater, prevent erosion, and help ensure that our lakes and streams aren’t filled with harmful pollutants.

Forests are places where one generation teaches the next about nature and life. A place of traditions and continuity down through the generations. We must protect these places before our treasured customs like fishing, camping, hunting and hiking, are gone for good

How to Save Tropical Rainforests

Today tropical rainforests are disappearing from the face of the globe. Despite growing international concern, rainforests continue to be destroyed at a pace exceeding 80,000 acres (32,000 hectares) per day. World rainforest cover now stands at around 2.5 million square miles (6 million square kilometers), an area about the size of the contiguous 48 United States or Australia and representing around 5 percent of the world's land surface. Much of this remaining area has been impacted by human activities and no longer retains its full original biodiversity.

Deforestation of tropical rainforests has a global impact through species extinction, the loss of important ecosystem services and renewable resources, and the reduction of carbon sinks. However, this destruction can be slowed, stopped, and in some cases even reversed. Most people agree that the problem must be remedied, but the means are not as simple as fortifying fences around the remaining rainforests or banning the timber trade. Economic, political, and social pressures will not allow rainforests to persist if they are completely closed off from use and development

So, what should be done? The solution must be based on what is feasible, not overly idealistic, and depends on developing a new conservation policy built on the principle of sustainable use and development of rainforests. Beyond the responsible development of rainforests, efforts to rehabilitate and restore degraded forest lands along with the establishment of protected areas are key to securing rainforests for the long-term benefits they can provide mankind.

Past efforts

Historic approaches to rainforest conservation have failed, as demonstrated by the accelerated rate of deforestation. In many regions, closing off forests as untouchable parks and reserves has neither improved the quality of living or economic opportunities for rural poor nor deterred forest clearing by illegal loggers and developers. Corruption has only worsened the situation.

The problem with this traditional park approach to preserving wildlands in developing countries is that it fails to generate sufficient economic incentives for respecting and maintaining the forest. Rainforests will only continue to survive as functional ecosystems if they can be shown to provide tangible economic benefits. Local people and the government itself must see financial returns to justify the costs of maintaining parks and forgoing revenue from economic activities within the boundaries of the protected area.