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Landslides Linked to Plate Tectonics Create the Steepest Mountain Terrain

By Guest PostJune 3, 2012Environmentangle of slope, bay of bengal, bedrock, brahmaputra river, catastrophic breach, david montgomery, delta, downstream, eastern himalaya, Ganges River, isaac larsen, landslide, landslide erosion, mountain slopes, mountain terrain, plate tectonics, po tsangpo river, river, southeast tibet, southern asia, spy satellite photography, terrain uplift, tsangpo gorge, university of washington, vince stricherz, yarlung tsangpo river

Some of the steepest mountain slopes in the world got that way because of the interplay between terrain uplift associated with plate tectonics and powerful streams cutting into hillsides, leading to erosion in the form of large landslides, new research shows.

The work, presented online May 27 in Nature Geoscience, shows that once the angle of a slope exceeds 30 degrees – whether from uplift, a rushing stream carving away the bottom of the slope or a combination of the two – landslide erosion increases significantly until the hillside stabilizes.

“I think the formation of these landscapes could apply to any steep mountain terrain in the world,” said lead author Isaac Larsen, a University of Washington doctoral student in Earth and space sciences. (more…)

Some Mammals Used Highly Complex Teeth to Compete With Dinosaurs

By Guest PostMarch 19, 2012Nature, Science3 d images, alistair evans, angiosperms, australia, back teeth, bumps, computed tomography, ct, cusps, dinosaur extinction, dinosaurs, event, extinction, finland, food, fossil, gregory p wilson, ian corfe, insect pollinators, jukka jernvall, mammal, mesozoic era, mikael fortelius, monash university, mountain range, multituberculates, Nature, paleontologist, peter smits, rodent, scanning, tooth surface, topography, tubercles, university of helsinki, university of washington, vince stricherz

Conventional wisdom holds that during the Mesozoic Era, mammals were small creatures that held on at life’s edges. But at least one mammal group, rodent-like creatures called multituberculates, actually flourished during the last 20 million years of the dinosaurs’ reign and survived their extinction 66 million years ago.

New research led by a University of Washington paleontologist suggests that the multituberculates did so well in part because they developed numerous tubercles (bumps, or cusps) on their back teeth that allowed them to feed largely on angiosperms, flowering plants that were just becoming commonplace. (more…)

To Turn Up The Heat in Chilies, Just Add Water

By Guest PostJanuary 5, 2012Sciencebiologists, Bolivia, carlos manchego, david haak, defense, douglas levey, dry areas, dryer environments, fitness based tradeoff, focal populations, fungus, fusarium fungus, haley morris, heat, hot chilies, joshua tewksbury, leslie mcginnis, non pungent plants, pungency, pungent fruit, range of rainfall, self defense, sigma xi, spicy capsaicin, university of washington, vince stricherz, wetter regions, why some chilies are hot, wild chilies

Biologists have learned in recent years that wild chilies develop their trademark pungency, or heat, as a defense against a fungus that could destroy their seeds. But that doesn’t explain why some chilies are hot and others are not.

New research provides an answer: Hot chilies growing in dry areas need more water to produce as many seeds as non-pungent plants, but the Fusarium fungus is less of a threat in dryer environments so chilies in those areas are less likely to turn up the heat. In wetter regions, where Fusarium thrives, wild chilies build up their reserves of spicy capsaicin in self-defense. (more…)

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Landslides Linked to Plate Tectonics Create the Steepest Mountain Terrain

Some Mammals Used Highly Complex Teeth to Compete With Dinosaurs

To Turn Up The Heat in Chilies, Just Add Water