After a twenty-year debate about human remains found on the bank of the Columbia River, the Army Corps of  Engineers said Wednesday the skeleton actually was a Native American, and they plan to hand over the remains to a group of five tribes for burial, according to the Seattle Times.

One of the oldest and most complete skeletons ever found in North America, the remains date back almost 9,000 years, and the debate over whether he should be buried in Native American tradition, or studied by a group of scientists has been raging almost since the discovery in 1996.

The final brick fell into place when DNA from an ancient finger bone from the remains, named Kennewick Man, was compared to samples taken from members of the Colville tribe and genetic similarities were confirmed.

The area in which the skeleton was found was ceded by the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in 1855, but the area would also have been visited or possibly inhabited by members of the Colville Reservation, the Wanapum Band, the Yakama Nation and the Nez Perce.  Each of these tribes consider the Kennewick Man a relative and they know him as the Ancient One.

It is suspected the five tribes will work together to determine the final resting place for the Ancient One, since being able to prove he was a member of a certain tribe would be very difficult and time consuming.  Traditionally the burial would be close to where the remains were found.

The remains were the subject of a lawsuit brought by a group of scientists that argued the skeleton should be preserved for additional study.  Douglas Owsley of the Smithsonian Institution said his research indicated not only was Kennewick Man not a Native American, but he most likely did not live in the Columbia Valley.  They argued the man probably lived near the coast due to high levels of isotopes found in his bones from marine-derived nutrients.

Meanwhile, the tribes say they welcome the decision by the Corps.  JoDe Goudy, chairman of the Yakama Nation, said the announcement was an acknowledgement for what the tribes had been saying for 20 years.  “Now we want to collectively do what is right, and bring our relative back for reburial,” continued Goudy.

Photo Credit:  (Chip Clark / Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History)

Titanosaurs roamed the countryside about 95 million years ago in the area that is now Patagonia in Argentina, and while many skeletal remains have been found from the massive beasts, paleontologists are reporting the find of a complete skull, resulting in a new species and a great deal of excitement in the scientific community.

Ruben Martinez, a paleontologist at the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco, reports in PLOS ONE, the finding of several neck vertebrae and an ossified tendon, along with a wonderfully preserved skull from Sarmientosaurus musacchioi, a herbivorous dinosaur.

The discovery of the mostly intact skull is a rare find for titanosaurs, since their heads are not often found near the remains of the rest of the body.  This new discovery will allow paleontologists an opportunity to investigate the way these large animals reacted and sensed their surroundings and possibly their eating habits.

Matthew Lamanna, from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pennsylvania and a co-author on the study, says while over 60 legitimate titanosaur species have been named so far, this is only the fourth time researchers have found an entire skull.  Paleontologist Matthew Wedel of Western University of Health Sciences in California, adds the finding is “probably the most complete and best preserved skull of any sauropod from South America to date.”

Wedel continues to say there was a gap between the earliest titanosaurs and the older sauropods from which they evolved, and, at least to him, the Sarmientosaurus bridges that gap.  Wedel says “we’ve been waiting for someone like you,” regarding the new find.

Lamanna reported the eye sockets from the new found skull indicate the dinosaur likely had better vision than many of its relatives, and the inner-ear of the species was suited for low-frequency sounds, meaning they probably communicated with each other with low rumbles.

The evidence shows the beast likely kept its nose to the ground, prompting many to believe it might have grazed on lower plants, but some suggest the narrow snout could mean it was better suited for feeding at different levels off the ground.

At any rate, the new discovery has paleontologists excited and looking to expand their understanding of these majestic creatures.

According to a new study, led by professor Ranga Myneni, of Boston University, the excessive amount of carbon dioxide that humans are releasing into the atmosphere each year is causing a “persistent and widespread increase” in the growing season of plants and is making the Earth more green.

As reported in the Daily Mail, the team of researchers found that in the past 33 years, the leaf cover around over half of the world’s vegetated areas has increased an equivalent of being able to cover the United States in plants two times over, approximately 6.95 million square miles.

The scientists are attributing the increases primarily to the extra carbon dioxide in the air, which plants use, along with energy from the sun, to produce sugars that make up the plant tissues.  Extra carbon dioxide and sunlight cause plants to grow bigger and faster, up to a point.  Too much carbon dioxide becomes toxic to the plants.

But hold on, this is not likely to be the cure for climate change or global warming.  Myneni says the surprising side-effect is not likely to continue forever.  He offers, “Currently, about a quarter of the 10 billion tons of carbon that we emit in to the air each year, are being stored in the body of trees and in the soils.  We do not know how long this will continue. This storage we do know is temporary.”

Professor Myneni adds the plants ultimately will adjust to the higher levels of CO2 in the air, and the process may soon start to slow down.

About 85 percent of the world’s ice-free surfaces are covered by vegetation, and the researchers used sensors from the NASA-Modis and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration AVHRR satellites to construct computer models to evaluate the data.

The team found much of the increases in the past 33 years were in areas around the tropics near large areas of rainforests, and that CO2 fertilization was responsible for about 70 percent of the increased greening.  They attributed another nine percent to extra nitrogen in the soil, eight percent to climate change itself, and four percent to changes in the land cover.

They also noted up to 50 percent of the vegetated areas had seen an increase in growing season length during the period as well.

For as long as most Americans can remember, they have been enjoying a period of relative mild weather, and that may have lulled many into complacency and dulled their worries over global warming, according to a new study cited in the Washington Post.

And while that can be viewed even as a benefit from the warming of the planet, researchers are warning us that if things continue to be the same, as many as 90 percent of American residents will have to deal with oppressive summer heat by the end of this century.

Patrick Egan, lead author on the study, and a public policy professor at New York University said Americans should be more concerned about global warming and they are getting the wrong signal from the pleasant weather cycles we are now experiencing.  “They’re getting the good parts and haven’t had to pay the price of the bad part,” continued Egan.

But it’s coming, according to the team, if steps are not taken immediately to reduce heat-trapping gasses.

Egan and Megan Mullin, an environmental policy professor at Duke University, developed a weather preference index, that looks at the movement of Americans based on their preference to the weather, and takes into account other factors such as employment re-locations.

The findings show that most Americans prefer warmer weather,with cities like Miami, San Diego and Phoenix topping the list of most desirable places to live, and cold-weather cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit near the bottom of the list.

According to the study, most Americans have experienced a warming of about one degree per decade during the winters over the last 40 years, and only one-seventh of a degree during the summer.  That is lulling many into complacency concerning climate change, according to Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann, who was not a part of the study.

But not everyone is convinced looking at where people live is the best indicator of their weather preferences, and that most believe politics have a greater influence on the perception of global warming than weather preferences.

The study results have been published in the journal Nature.