Geochemical fingerprinting of oceanic basalts with applications to ophiolite classification and the search for Archean oceanic crust

The revolution that wasn't: a new interpretation of the origin of modern human behavior.

The Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) is a two-wavelength polarization lidar that performs global profiling of aerosols and clouds in the troposphere and lower stratosphere. CALIOP is the primary instrument on the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) satellite, which has flown in formation with the NASA A-train constellation of satellites since May 2006. The global, multiyear dataset obtained from CALIOP provides a new view of the earth’s atmosphere and will lead to an improved understanding of the role of aerosols and clouds in the climate system. A suite of algorithms has been developed to identify aerosol and cloud layers and to retrieve a variety of optical and microphysical properties. CALIOP represents a significant advance over previous space lidars, and the algorithms that have been developed have many innovative aspects to take advantage of its capabilities. This paper provides a brief overview of the CALIPSO mission, the CA...

Overview of the CALIPSO Mission and CALIOP Data Processing Algorithms

We present a high-quality genome sequence of a Neanderthal woman from Siberia. We show that her parents were related at the level of half-siblings and that mating among close relatives was common among her recent ancestors. We also sequenced the genome of a Neanderthal from the Caucasus to low coverage. An analysis of the relationships and population history of available archaic genomes and 25 present-day human genomes shows that several gene flow events occurred among Neanderthals, Denisovans and early modern humans, possibly including gene flow into Denisovans from an unknown archaic group. Thus, interbreeding, albeit of low magnitude, occurred among many hominin groups in the Late Pleistocene. In addition, the high-quality Neanderthal genome allows us to establish a definitive list of substitutions that became fixed in modern humans after their separation from the ancestors of Neanderthals and Denisovans.

http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/12717373/4031459.pdf?sequence=1

The complete genome sequence of a Neanderthal from the Altai Mountains

Recognition of facial expressions is critical to our appreciation of the social and physical environment, with separate emotions having distinct facial expressions. Perception of fearful facial expressions has been extensively studied, appearing to depend upon the amygdala. Disgust-literally 'bad taste'-is another important emotion, with a distinct evolutionary history, and is conveyed by a characteristic facial expression. We have used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the neural substrate for perceiving disgust expressions. Normal volunteers were presented with faces showing mild or strong disgust or fear. Cerebral activation in response to these stimuli was contrasted with that for neutral faces. Results for fear generally confirmed previous positron emission tomography findings of amygdala involvement. Both strong and mild expressions of disgust activated anterior insular cortex but not the amygdala; strong disgust also activated structures linked to a limbic cortico-striatal-thalamic circuit. The anterior insula is known to be involved in responses to offensive tastes. The neural response to facial expressions of disgust in others is thus closely related to appraisal of distasteful stimuli.

A specific neural substrate for perceiving facial expressions of disgust

ICESat-2 Atmospheric Channel Description, Data Processing and First Results

The origin of Australopithecus, the genus widely interpreted as ancestral to Homo, is a central problem in humanevolutionary studies. Australopithecus species differ markedly from extant African apes and candidate ancestral hominidssuch as Ardipithecus, Orrorin and Sahelanthropus. The earliest described Australopithecus species is Au. anamensis, theprobable chronospecies ancestor of Au. afarensis. Here we describe newly discovered fossils from the Middle Awashstudy area that extend the known Au. anamensis range into northeastern Ethiopia. The new fossils are fromchronometrically controlled stratigraphic sequences and date to about 4.1–4.2million years ago. They include diagnosticcraniodental remains, the largest hominid canine yet recovered, and the earliest Australopithecus femur. These newfossils are sampled from a woodland context. Temporal and anatomical intermediacy between Ar. ramidus andAu. afarensis suggest a relatively rapid shift from Ardipithecus to Australopithecus in this region of Africa, involving eitherreplacement or accelerated phyletic evolution.

Asa Issie, Aramis and the origin of

/pdf/age-of-early-hominids-1btcxl3wwu.pdf

Age of early hominids

With few exceptions, most of the hominid evolutionary record in Africa is closely associated with the East African Rift System. The exceptions are the South African and Chadian hominids collected from the southern and west-central parts of the continent, respectively Ethiopia's Middle Awash region stands alone as the most prolific paleo-anthropological area ever discovered (Figure 1). Its paleontological record has yielded over 13,000 vertebrate fossils, including several hominid taxa, ranging in age from 5.8 Ma to the present. The uniqueness of the Middle Awash hominid sites lies in their occurrence within long, > 6 Ma volcanic and sedimentary stratigraphic records.

Geoscience methods lead to paleo-anthropological discoveries in afar rift, Ethiopia

Granitoid magmatism in the Basin and Range Province of northwestern Nevada remains an important gap in our understanding of the along-strike variability of Mesozoic Cordilleran arc systems. We present a comprehensive investigation on a suite of intrusions within the Santa Rosa Range (SRR) and Bloody Run Hills (BRH) of northwestern Nevada. Petrography, whole-rock geochemistry, and zircon U-Pb geochronology indicate two distinct magmatic systems in the SRR: an older, mafic, and metaluminous pulse (Santa Rosa/Andorno [SRA] group—ca. 102–100 Ma) and a younger, felsic, and peraluminous pulse (Granite Peak/Sawtooth [GPS] group—ca. 94–92 Ma). Within the BRH to the south, the Flynn (ca. 105 Ma) and Bloody Run stocks (ca. 96 Ma) are compositionally similar to the SRA group. New Al-in-hornblende thermobarometry reveals emplacement paleodepths of ~5–10 km for the SRA group. Slightly deeper emplacement levels (~10.5–12 km) are inferred for the GPS group from structural relationships and metamorphic contact aureole assemblages. Elemental characteristics are correlated with whole-rock Sr and Nd isotope ratios, revealing higher εNd(t) (+0.8 to +2.5) and lower initial 87Sr/86Sr (0.7040–0.7054) in the older SRA group than the younger GPS group (εNd(t) = −3.2 to −1.5; Sr/Sr(i) 0.7056–0.7061). New zircon εHf isotope analyses reveal that with the exception of the Bloody Run stock (−0.4 ± 2.1), the SRA group has more primitive zircon εHf(t) values (+2.9 to +5.3) than the GPS group (+0.4 to −3.7). The systematic shift in whole-rock Sr and Nd isotope and zircon εHf(t) values with time suggests fundamental changes in the relative contributions of mantle and crustal sources. A comparison of published geochronology and geochemistry from regional intrusive suites confirms that SRR-BRH magmatism was coeval and geochemically similar to the larger Cordilleran batholiths, providing evidence for the continuity of the Mesozoic magmatic arc through northwestern Nevada. LITHOSPHERE; v. 10; no. 2; p. 327–350; GSA Data Repository Item 2018123 | Published online 1 March 2018 https://doi.org/10.1130/L694.1

/pdf/temporal-and-geochemical-signatures-in-granitoids-of-26xqorn6x0.pdf

Temporal and geochemical signatures in granitoids of northwestern Nevada: Evidence for the continuity of the Mesozoic magmatic arc through the western Great Basin

William K. Hart

Papers

ICESat-2 Atmospheric Channel Description, Data Processing and First Results

Asa Issie, Aramis and the origin of

Age of early hominids

Geoscience methods lead to paleo-anthropological discoveries in afar rift, Ethiopia

Temporal and geochemical signatures in granitoids of northwestern Nevada: Evidence for the continuity of the Mesozoic magmatic arc through the western Great Basin