Geologists develop app to print 3-D terrain models of any place on Earth

Today's geology lesson is all about anticlines.

Students can read all they want about geological folds, axial planes, hinge lines, antiformal synclines and synformal anticlines. But it can still be a challenge to visualize just what geologists are talking about.

A better option is putting boots on the ground -- such as a trip to Iowa State University's Carl F. Vondra Geology Field Station near Shell, Wyoming. The field station is in the north-central part of the state, on the western flank of the Bighorn Mountains. Nearby is Sheep Mountain, a well-known and typical anticline.

The Bighorn River has cut a canyon through the mountain and students can hike along the river to get a good look at a natural cross section of the exposed geological fold.

But most students aren't able to make a trip to Sheep Mountain.

So Iowa State researchers have come up with a new option -- TouchTerrain.

The web application is open source and free for private use through Iowa State's GeoFabLab. It allows anybody with a 3-D printer to easily and quickly print terrain models of any place on the planet, including the ocean floor.

The largest Tanzanite crystal in the world

Tanzanite is the blue/violet variety of the mineral zoisite (a calcium aluminium hydroxyl Sorosilicate) belonging to the epidote group. It was discovered by a Tanzanian Jumanne Mhero Ngoma in the Mererani Hills of Manyara Region in Northern Tanzania in 1967, near the city of Arusha and Mount Kilimanjaro. Naturally formed tanzanite is extremely rare and is endemic only to the Mererani Hills.

Tanzanite is noted for its remarkably strong trichroism, appearing alternately sapphire blue, violet and burgundy depending on crystal orientation. Tanzanite can also appear differently when viewed under alternate lighting conditions. The blues appear more evident when subjected to fluorescent light and the violet hues can be seen readily when viewed under incandescent illumination. 

The largest tanzanite crystal “The Mawenzi,” was found in 2005 and crystal weighed 16,839 carats. 

Big L.A. Earthquake Could Cause Beach Areas to Sink Up to 3 Feet in Seconds

Big L.A. Earthquake Could Cause Beach Areas to Sink Up to 3 Feet in Seconds

The Newport-Inglewood fault has long been considered one of Southern California’s top seismic danger zones because it runs under some of the region’s most densely populated areas, from the Westside of Los Angeles to the Orange County coast.

But new research shows that the fault may be even more dangerous than experts had believed, capable of producing more frequent destructive temblors than previously suggested by scientists.

A new study has uncovered evidence that major earthquakes on the fault centuries ago were so violent that they caused a section of Seal Beach near the Orange County coast to fall 1½ to 3 feet in a matter of seconds.

“It’s not just a gradual sinking. This is boom — it would drop. It’s very rapid sinking,” said the lead author of the report, Robert Leeper, a geology graduate student at UC Riverside who worked on the study as a Cal State Fullerton student and geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

The study of the Newport-Inglewood fault focused on the wetlands of Seal Beach. But the area of sudden dropping could extend to other regions in the same geologic area of the Seal Beach wetlands, which includes the U.S. Naval Weapons Station and the Huntington Harbour neighborhood of Huntington Beach.

Leeper and a team of scientists at Cal State Fullerton had been searching the Seal Beach wetlands for evidence of ancient tsunami. Instead, they found buried organic deposits that they determined to be the prehistoric remains of marsh surfaces, which they say were abruptly dropped by large earthquakes that occurred on the Newport-Inglewood fault.

Those earthquakes, roughly dated in 50 BC, AD 200 and the year 1450 — give or take a century or two — were all more powerful than the magnitude 6.4 Long Beach earthquake of 1933, which did not cause a sudden drop in the land, Leeper said.

As a result, the observations for the first time suggest that earthquakes as large as magnitudes 6.8 to 7.5 have struck the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault system, which stretches from the border of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles through Long Beach and the Orange County coast to downtown San Diego.

The newly discovered earthquakes suggest that the Newport-Inglewood fault is more active than previously thought. Scientists had believed the Newport-Inglewood fault ruptured in a major earthquake once every 2,300 years on average; the latest results show that a major earthquake could come once every 700 years on average, Leeper said.

It’s possible the earthquakes can come more frequently than the average, and data suggest they have arrived as little as 300 years apart from one another.

If a magnitude 7.5 earthquake did rupture on the Newport-Inglewood/Rose Canyon fault system, such a temblor would bring massive damage throughout Southern California, said seismologist Lucy Jones, who was not affiliated with the study. Such an earthquake would produce 45 times more energy than the 1933 earthquake.

“It’s really clear evidence of three earthquakes on the Newport-Inglewood that are bigger than 1933,” Jones said of the earthquake that killed 120 people. “This is very strong evidence for multiple big earthquakes.”

The idea that the Newport-Inglewood fault could produce more powerful earthquakes than what happened in 1933 has been growing over the decades. Scientists have come to the consensus that the Newport-Inglewood fault could link up with the San Diego County coast’s Rose Canyon fault, producing a theoretical 7.5 earthquake based on the length of the combined fault system.

An earthquake of magnitude 7 on the Newport-Inglewood fault would hit areas of Los Angeles west of downtown particularly hard.

“If you’re on the Westside of L.A., it’s probably the fastest-moving big earthquake that you’re going to have locally,” Jones said. “A 7 on the Newport-Inglewood is going to do a lot more damage than an 8 on the San Andreas, especially for Los Angeles.”

The study focused on taking samples of sediment underneath the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge in 55 locations across a broad zone, mapping buried layers for signs of past seismic activity.

To do this, scientists used a vibrating machine to push down a 20-foot-long, sharp-tipped pipe into the sediment and extract sediment samples that gave them a look at what has happened geologically underneath the site.

They found a repeating pattern where living vegetation on the marsh suddenly dropped by up to 3 feet, submerging it underwater, eventually killing everything on the surface and later buried.

“We identified three of these buried layers [composed of] vegetation or sediment that used to be at the surface,” Leeper said. “These buried, organic-rich layers are evidence of three earthquakes on the Newport-Inglewood in the past 2,000 years.”

Earthquakes elsewhere have also caused sudden drops in land, such as off the Cascadia subduction zone along the coast of Oregon and Washington. There, pine trees that once grew above the beach suddenly dropped below sea level, killing the trees as salt water washed over their roots, said study coauthor Kate Scharer, a USGS research geologist.

Another reason pointing to major earthquakes as a cause is the existence of a gap — known as the Sunset Gap — in the Newport-Inglewood fault that roughly covers the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge and Huntington Harbour.

The gap is oriented in a way that, if a major earthquake strikes, land could suddenly drop. Such depressions have formed in other Southern California faults, which have created Lake Elsinore from the Elsinore fault, and created Quail Lake, Elizabeth Lake and Hughes Lake from the San Andreas fault, Jones said.

While the scientists focused their study on the Seal Beach wetlands, because Huntington Harbour and the Naval Weapons Station area also lie in the same gap of the Newport-Inglewood fault, it could be possible that the sinking would extend to those areas as well, Leeper said.

But further study would be a good idea for those areas. It’s possible that an investigation of Huntington Harbour, for instance, would show that land underneath it did not drop during earthquakes but moved horizontally, like much of the rest of the Newport-Inglewood fault, Scharer said.

Sudden dropping of land could cause damage to infrastructure, Scharer said, such as roads or pipes not designed to handle such a rapid fall.

Nothing in the new study offers guidance for when the next major earthquake on the Newport-Inglewood fault will strike next. “Earthquakes can happen at any time. We can’t predict them. All we can do is try to understand how often they occur in the past, and be prepared for when the next one does occur,” Leeper said.

Scientists generally say that the chances of a major quake on the San Andreas fault are higher in our lifetime because that fault is moving so much faster than the Newport-Inglewood, at a rate of more than 1 inch a year compared with a rate of one-twenty-fifth of an inch a year.

But it’s possible a big earthquake on the Newport-Inglewood fault could happen in our lifetime.

Oldest Fossils

Found in Australia by researchers with the University of Western Australia and Oxford University, these microscopic fossils are sulfur bacteria cells. The sedimentary rock in which the cells were found allegedly dates back to 3.4 billion years ago, leaving some scientists claiming that was life on an early, oxygen-free world.
But microfossil identification can be a hot topic. It can be difficult to discern if the fossils were created by living cells or nonbiological processes, like mineral deposits. The researchers, as reported by the New York Times, believe they’ve nailed these as bacteria though:
Cell-like structures in ancient rocks can be deceiving — many have turned out to be artifacts formed by nonbiological processes. In this case, the geologists have gathered considerable circumstantial evidence that the structures they see are biological. With an advanced new technique, they have analyzed the composition of very small spots within the cell-like structures. “We can see carbon, sulfur, nitrogen and phosphorus, all within the cell walls,” professor Martin Brasier of Oxford University said.
Crystals of fool’s gold, an iron-sulfur mineral, lie next to the microfossils and indicate that the organisms, in the absence of oxygen, fed off sulfur compounds, Brasier and his colleagues say.
The New York Times also states that contention in identifying microfossils could arise among scientists who have already claimed to have found the oldest fossils:
The honor of having found the most ancient microfossil has been long been held by J. W. Schopf, a paleobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1993, Schopf reported his discovery of fossils 3.465 billion years old in the Apex chert of the Warrawoona Group in Western Australia, about 20 miles from where the new fossils have been found. Those would be some 65 million years older than the new find, but Dr. Schopf’s claim was thrown in doubt in 2002 when Brasier attacked his finding, saying the fossils were not biological but just mineral artifacts.
According to Oxford’s press release, the researchers believe this finding could have implications for finding life on other planets. If there were life on other planets, researchers say it would look similar to this. The findings were published in the latest issue of Nature Geoscience.

Image: These fossils are clustered together in a fashion that supports scientists' theory they are evidence of early single cellular life. (Photo: David Wacey/University of Western Australia)

World's Deepest Underwater Cave Discovered

A team of explorers say they've discovered that a cave in the eastern Czech Republic is the world's deepest flooded fissure, going at least 404 meters (1,325 feet) deep.

Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski, who led the team, told The Associated Press on Friday that he felt like a "Columbus of the 21th century" to have made the discovery near the Czech town of Hranice.

Starnawski, 48, determined Tuesday that the flooded limestone Hranicka Propast, or Hranice Abyss, which divers, including him, have explored for decades in its upper parts, was at least 404 meters deep. He scuba dived to a narrow slot in the rock formation at 200 meters down, then sent a remotely operated underwater robot, or ROV, that went to the depth of 404 meters, or the length of its cord, but still did not hit the bottom.

In 2015, Starnawski himself passed through the slot and went to 265 meters down without reaching the cave's bottom, which made him want to do more exploring. But after diving that far down, Starnawski had to spend over six hours in a decompression chamber, and decided he needed a robot instead.

Speaking on the phone from his home in Krakow, southern Poland, Starnawski said Tuesday's discovery makes Hranice Abyss the world's deepest known underwater cavity, beating the previous record-holder, a flooded sinkhole in Italy called Pozzo del Merro, by 12 meters (39 feet).

The Czech Speleological Society said it thinks the cave is even deeper and will yield additional records. When the robot was 404 meters deep "it was as deep as its rope could go, but the bottom was still nowhere in sight," the society said.

In this underwater photo taken Aug. 15, 2015 in the flooded Hranicka Propast, or Hranice Abyss, in the Czech Republic Polish explorer Slawomir Packo is exploring the limestone abyss and preparing for deeper exploration with the use of a remotely-operated underwater robot, or ROV. On Sept. 27, 2016, the robot went to the record depth of 404 meters (1,325 feet) revealing the abyss to be the world's deepest flooded cave, during the 'Hranicka Propast - step beyond 400m' expedition led by Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski and partly funded by the National Geographic. (Krzysztof Starnawski of EXPEDITION via AP)

Diving in the cave is a challenge, because of its muddy areas and a water temperature of 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit). The water's mineral composition also damages equipment and injures exposed skin, Starnawski said.

"But that is the only price to be paid for this discovery, and it was worth paying," he said.

A cross-section map he made of the cave ends with question marks in an unexplored area where he believes the fissure goes deeper.

In this underwater photo taken Aug. 21, 2015, in the flooded Hranicka Abyss, Czech Republic, Polish explorer Krzysztof Starnawski is seen examining the limestone crevasse and preparing for a 2016 expedition to measure it depths. On Sept. 27, 2016 Starnawski and his Polish-Czech team discovered that the cave goes 404 meters (1,325 feet) down, making it the world's deepest known flooded abyss. (Krzysztof Starnawski of the Krzysztof Starnawski EXPEDITION via AP)

On Saturday, he plans to dive to 200 meters again to bring the robot back through the narrow passage. The device was made especially for the expedition and operated by a Polish firm, GRALmarine.

NASA Has Found A New Solar System With 7 Earth-Size Planets

APE CANAVERAL:  Astronomers have found a nearby solar system with seven Earth-sized planets, three of which circle their parent star at the right distance for liquid surface water, raising the prospect of life, research published on Wednesday showed. The star, known as TRAPPIST-1, is a small, dim celestial body in the constellation Aquarius. It is located about 40 light years away from Earth.

Researchers said the proximity of the system, combined with the proportionally large size of its planets compared to the small star, make it a good target for follow-up studies. They hope to scan the planets' atmospheres for possible chemical fingerprints of life.

"I think that we've made a crucial step towards finding if there is life out there," University of Cambridge astronomer Amaury Triaud told reporters on a conference call on Tuesday.

The discovery, published in this week's issue of the journal Nature, builds on previous research showing three planets circling TRAPPIST-1. They are among more than 3,500 planets discovered beyond the solar system, or exoplanets.

Researchers have focussed on finding Earth-sized rocky planets with the right temperatures so that water, if any exists, would be liquid, a condition believed to be necessary for life.

The diameter of TRAPPIST-1 is about 8 percent of the sun's size. That makes its Earth-sized planets appear large as they parade past.

From the vantage point of telescopes on Earth, the planets' motions regularly block out bits of the star's light. Scientists determined the system's architecture by studying these dips.

"The data is really clear and unambiguous," Triaud wrote in an email to Reuters.

Because TRAPPIST-1 is so small and cool, its so-called "habitable zone" is very close to the star. Three planets are properly positioned for liquid water, said lead researcher Michael Gillon, with the University of Liege in Belgium.

"They form a very compact system," Gillon said on a conference call. "They could have some liquid water and maybe life."

Even if the planets do not have life now, it could evolve. TRAPPIST-1 is at least 500 million years old, but has an estimated lifespan of 10 trillion years. The sun, by comparison, is about halfway through its estimated 10-billion-year life.

In a few billion years, when the sun has run out of fuel and the solar system has ceased to exist, TRAPPIST-1 will still be an infant star, astronomer Ignas Snellen, with the Netherlands' Leiden Observatory, wrote in a related essay in Nature.

"It burns hydrogen so slowly that it will live for another 10 trillion years," he wrote, "which is arguably enough time for life to evolve."

Scientists discover 2-meter long carnivorous WORM with snapping jaws

This is a photograph showing the holotype of Websteroprion armstrongi.

Gigantic Worm With Snapping Jaws Lived 400 Million Years Ago

A previously undiscovered species of an extinct primordial giant worm with terrifying snapping jaws has been identified by an international team of scientists.

Researchers from the University of Bristol, Lund University in Sweden and the Royal Ontario Museum studied an ancient fossil, which has been stored at the museum since the mid-1990s, and discovered the remains of a giant extinct bristle worm (the marine relatives of earthworms and leeches).

The new species is unique among fossil worms and possessed the largest jaws ever recorded in this type of creature, reaching over one centimetre in length and easily visible to the naked eye. Typically, such fossil jaws are only a few millimetres in size and need to be studied using microscopes.

Despite being only knows from the jaws, comparison with living species suggests that this animal achieved a body length in excess of a metre.

This is comparable to that of 'giant eunicid' species, colloquially referred to as 'Bobbit worms' which are fearsome and opportunistic ambush predators, using their powerful jaws to capture prey such as fish and cephalopods (squids and octopuses) and dragging them into their burrows.

Lead author Mats Eriksson from Lund University said: "Gigantism in animals is an alluring and ecologically important trait, usually associated with advantages and competitive dominance.

"It is, however, a poorly understood phenomenon among marine worms and has never before been demonstrated in a fossil species.

"The new species demonstrates a unique case of polychaete gigantism in the Palaeozoic, some 400 million years ago."

Co-author Luke Parry from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, added: "It also shows that gigantism in jaw-bearing polychaetes was restricted to one particular evolutionary clade within the Eunicida and has evolved many times in different species."

The specimens were collected over the course of a few hours in a single day in June 1994, when Derek K Armstrong of Ontario Geological Survey was dropped by helicopter to investigate the rocks and fossils at a remote and temporary exposure in Ontario.

Sample materials, from what proved to belong to the Devonian Kwataboahegan Formation, were brought back to the Royal Ontario Museum, where they have been stored until they caught the eyes of the authors'.

avid Rudkin from the museum said: "This is an excellent example of the importance of looking in remote and unexplored areas for finding new exciting things, but also the importance of scrutinizing museum collections for overlooked gems."

The species has been named Websteroprion armstrongi. This honours Armstrong, who collected the material, and bass player extraordinaire, Alex Webster of Death Metal band Cannibal Corpse, since he can be regarded as a 'giant' when it comes to handling his instrument.

Luke Parry added: "This is fitting also since, beside our appetite for evolution and paleontology, all three authors have a profound interest in music and are keen hobby musicians."

A new plate boundary is forming beneath the Indian Ocean

Newly formed fracture in Indian Ocean tectonic plate may trigger quakes in future

Newly formed fracture in Indian Ocean tectonic plate may trigger quakes in future

A new plate boundary appears to be forming in the region of the Indian Ocean where the 2012 earthquake took place. Scientists say the presence of strike-slip earthquakes along a newly discovered fault system could be evidence of the new formation on the Indo-Australian Plate.

A team of researchers with members from several institutions in Singapore, France and Indonesia has found evidence of a possible new plate boundary forming on the floor of the Indian Ocean in the Wharton Basin. In their paper published in the journal Science Advances, the team reports that they studied seismic and ocean floor topology to learn more about tectonic plate deformations in the region and what they found by doing so.

Most people are aware of earthquakes that occur when tectonic plates push against one another, but there is another kind called a slip-strike quake. It occurs when two plates slide horizontally against one another. Such quakes can be caused by deformations that occur in plates distant from fault lines as pressure builds up across a plate.

In some cases, such deformations can cause what are known as interplate earthquakes, and they can also sometimes cause a plate to break, resulting in a new plate boundary, which in turn can lead to even more quakes. It is this scenario that the researchers believe happened in 2012 when two earthquakes struck the Andaman-Sumatran region (northwest part) of the Indian Ocean—the largest interplate earthquakes ever recorded.

To better understand what occurred during the 2012 quakes, the researchers studied seismic data that was recorded before, during and after the quakes and also conducted sea floor depth analysis by venturing into the ocean aboard the research vessel Falkor—that allowed them to create high-resolution imagery of the sea floor, which in turn allowed them to note the deformations that had occurred.

Their analysis revealed a new fault system had developed in the area off the coast of Sumatra that was involved in the 2012 quakes. They noted the system was oriented in a way that set it off against those that were around it—a clear indication of deformation. The data also showed that strike-slips in the same area (and distant from known plate boundaries) suggested that the plate had broken along a 1,000k fracture zone, resulting in a new plate boundary—one that is likely to be the site of future fault-slip quakes.

Monumental Forgotten Gardens of Petra Rediscovered After 2,000 Years

In Petra, there is a huge 2,000-year-old pool. This waste of water is a sign of power in the desert. Archaeologists reveal the mosaics that were from the Apostle Paul’s era.

The excavations of the Philistine Gath has discovered similarities to the Cypriot cities. The 6,000-year-old fortress that was discovered in Jordan displays signs of an advanced early society.

The most recent excavation at Petra has unveiled an advanced irrigation system and water storage systems that helped the desert city civilization to survive. They were as well able to maintain a garden that included a huge swimming pool, ponds, and fountains.

The engineering achievements and other luxuries are clear evidence of the ancient Nabateen capital’s former glory and wealth around 2,000 years ago.

Ancient columns of the Great Temple 

Petra is possibly best known for the sandstone canyon that goes directly to Al Khazneh.

This place was seen the the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where two hero archaeologists, played by Sean Connery and Harrison Ford, had ridden out of the canyon and into the Treasury with their quest for the Holy Grail.

Yet 2,000 years ago Petra was famous for different reasons.

It had been one of the most famous water stops in the Middle East where the camel caravan routes linked to distant cities. Now the archaeologists are finding the Nabataean capital located in southwestern deserts of Jordan.

It was once beautiful with a delicate, irrigated garden. It most likely featured paths that were shaded by date palms, grasses, trees, and vines next to a large 44-meter wide swimming pool.

The Nabataean’s capability to tame nature, and the consumption of the precious resource of water, was pure propaganda to display their wealth and power.

They were able to do this since they invented the clever hydraulic system that allowed the people to not only reserve enough water for their own requirements. It also had lavish gardens with fountains and a pool.

Water was very scarce in the desert waste – it was usually used for only necessity.

The ongoing diggings in Petra have unveiled a shaft that seems to have guided water more than 10 meters down for the artificial conveyance of water to the pool level.

The archaeologists have as well discovered underground channels that helped in controlling runoff during the rainy season.

View of the Royal Tombs in Petra

This reveals the true quality of the system for the very first time.

The very complicated system of channels, underground cisterns, ceramic pipelines, and water tanks that also filtered the water allowed the people of Petra to be able to cultivate crops, produce wine, harvest fruit, and manufacture olive oil.

They could as well create a lavish garden with a large pool in the middle of the desert. Several cities of the ancient world had rivers whose large waters nourished and protected them.

Yet for Petra, situated on the northwest border of the Arabian Desert, this city rose to importance because of their lack of water.

60,000-year-old microbes found in Mexican mine: NASA scientist

Scientists from NASA have found a microbe, said to have survived inside crystals for up to 60,000 years, which they believe could prove the existence of living organisms in other extreme environments, like planets and the moon

NASA scientists have discovered living microorganisms trapped inside crystals for as long as 60,000 years in a mine in Mexico.

These strange ancient microbes have apparently evolved so they can survive on a diet of sulfite, manganese and copper oxide, said Penelope Boston of NASA's Astrobiology Institute in a presentation over the weekend at a conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

"This has profound effects on how we try to understand the evolutionary history of microbial life on this planet," she said.

They were discovered in the Naica mine, a working lead, zinc and silver mine in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.

The mine is famous for its huge crystals, some as long as 50 feet (15 meters).

The discovery has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but it has led Boston to believe that living organisms may also have survived in the extreme environments of other planets and moons in our solar system.

She said about 100 different kinds of microorganisms—most of them bacteria—have been found locked in Naica crystals for periods ranging from 10,000 to 60,000 years.

Ninety percent of them have never been observed before now, she said.

The discovery of these ultra-hardy microorganisms has been a windfall for researchers but also a source of concern for astrobiologists thinking about bringing back samples collected on space missions in the solar system.

The extreme conditions under which these microbes have survived raises the possibility that dangerous extraterrestrial organisms could accidentally hitch a ride to Earth on a returning spaceship.

Astrobiologists also worry about the risk that Earth organisms could contaminate other planets in the course of missions to places like Mars, which has already been visited by several US robots.

NASA sterilizes its spacecraft and equipment before launching them into space. But there is always a risk that ultra-resistant microorganisms will survive.

"How do we ensure that life-detection missions are going to detect true Mars life or life from icy worlds rather than our life?" asked Boston.

The concerns are not new. During the Apollo missions of the 1960s and '70s, astronauts returning from the moon were quarantined.

The microorganisms found in the Naica mine are not even the oldest discovered to date.

Several years ago scientists reported finding microbes in ice and salt that were up to 500,000 years old.

400 million year old gigantic extinct monster worm discovered in Canadian museum

A previously undiscovered species of an extinct primordial giant worm with terrifying snapping jaws has been identified by an international team of scientists.

Researchers from the University of Bristol, Lund University in Sweden and the Royal Ontario Museum studied an ancient fossil, which has been stored at the museum since the mid-1990s, and discovered the remains of a giant extinct bristle worm (the marine relatives of earthworms and leeches).

The findings are published today in Scientific Reports.

The new species is unique among fossil worms and possessed the largest jaws ever recorded in this type of creature, reaching over one centimetre in length and easily visible to the naked eye. Typically, such fossil jaws are only a few millimetres in size and need to be studied using microscopes.

Despite being only knows from the jaws, comparison with living species suggests that this animal achieved a body length in excess of a metre.

This is comparable to that of 'giant eunicid' species, colloquially referred to as 'Bobbit worms' which are fearsome and opportunistic ambush predators, using their powerful jaws to capture prey such as fish and cephalopods (squids and octopuses) and dragging them into their burrows.

Lead author Mats Eriksson from Lund University said: "Gigantism in animals is an alluring and ecologically important trait, usually associated with advantages and competitive dominance.

"It is, however, a poorly understood phenomenon among marine worms and has never before been demonstrated in a fossil species.

"The new species demonstrates a unique case of polychaete gigantism in the Palaeozoic, some 400 million years ago."

Co-author Luke Parry from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, added: "It also shows that gigantism in jaw-bearing polychaetes was restricted to one particular evolutionary clade within the Eunicida and has evolved many times in different species."

The specimens were collected over the course of a few hours in a single day in June 1994, when Derek K Armstrong of Ontario Geological Survey was dropped by helicopter to investigate the rocks and fossils at a remote and temporary exposure in Ontario.

Sample materials, from what proved to belong to the Devonian Kwataboahegan Formation, were brought back to the Royal Ontario Museum, where they have been stored until they caught the eyes of the authors'.

David Rudkin from the museum said: "This is an excellent example of the importance of looking in remote and unexplored areas for finding new exciting things, but also the importance of scrutinizing museum collections for overlooked gems."

The species has been named Websteroprion armstrongi. This honours Armstrong, who collected the material, and bass player extraordinaire, Alex Webster of Death Metal band Cannibal Corpse, since he can be regarded as a 'giant' when it comes to handling his instrument.

Luke Parry added: "This is fitting also since, beside our appetite for evolution and paleontology, all three authors have a profound interest in music and are keen hobby musicians."

Researchers Discover Bacteria That Produces Pure Gold

Bacteria eats poison, poops out gold

The gold you see in the photo above was not found in a river or a mine. It was produced by a bacteria that, according to researchers at Michigan State University, can survive in extreme toxic environments and create 24-karat gold nuggets. Pure gold.

Maybe this critter can save us all from the global economic crisis?

Of course not—but at least it can make Kazem Kashefi—assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics—and Adam Brown—associate professor of electronic art and intermedia—a bit rich, if only for the show they have put together.

The gold you see in the photo above was not found in a river or a mine. It was produced by a bacteria that, according to researchers at Michigan State University, can survive in extreme toxic environments and create 24-karat gold nuggets. Pure gold.

Maybe this critter can save us all from the global economic crisis?

Of course not—but at least it can make Kazem Kashefi—assistant professor of microbiology and molecular genetics—and Adam Brown—associate professor of electronic art and intermedia—a bit rich, if only for the show they have put together.

Kashefi and Brown are the ones who have created this compact laboratory that uses the bacteria Cupriavidus metallidurans to turn gold chlroride—a toxic chemical liquid you can find in nature—into 99.9% pure gold.

Accoding to Kashefi, they are doing "microbial alchemy" by "something that has no value into a solid [in fact, it the toxic material they use does cost money. Less than gold, but still plenty], precious metal that's valuable."

The bacteria is incredibly resistant to this toxic element. In fact, it's 25 times stronger than previously thought. The researchers' compact factory—which they named The Great Work of the Metal Lover—holds the bacteria as they feed it the gold chloride. In about a week, the bacteria does its job, processing all that junk into the precious metal—a process they believe happens regularly in nature.

So yes, basically, Cupriavidus metallidurans can eat toxins and poop out gold nuggets.

It seems that medieval alchemists were looking for the Philosopher's Stone—the magic element that could turn lead to gold—in the wrong place. It's not a mineral. It's a bug.