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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brad Witt, Former President Trump, Henry Heimuller, Joe Biden, Pat Robertson, Ted Cruz, Joe Biden’s dogs, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone. See Bill’s Standard Disclaimer
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Newly Found Ancient Spider Species
I am tired of politics this week and I am tired of talking about covid spikes and the increase of dummies getting covid, tired of reporting hospitals in crisis, tired of seeing nurses and doctors working non-stop all because the dummies, non-believers, conspiracy theorists, and Trumpsters who won’t get a vaccine. Stupid is what stupid does. Unfortunately their ignorant actions is effecting all of us, they are keeping us in masks, and they are allowing the virus to mutate. As long as these people remain unvaccinated we will continue to live in a pandemic era, 2 years is long enough.
A new and exciting discovery in South Wales, Australia
When New South Wales farmer Nigel McGrath hit heavy rock while ploughing a field, little did he realize he was sowing the seeds of a discovery some 15 million years in the making. The site, named McGraths Flat and located in the Central Tablelands, near the town of Gulgong, was discovered by the farmer. Paleontologists visited and excavated the site seven times. They found a Cache of well-preserved fossils. The fossils are amazingly pretty to look at, and by using a microscope they could look at the detail for the surfaces of the fossils that are also amazingly well preserved. Features like the individual cells and even organelles within the cells can be seen. This level of detail allows scientists to say so much more about what these ecosystems were like. It’s like a picture book. Melanosomes discovered in a fossilized feather mean that the scientists can determine the feather's color. In this case, they believe it was dark brown to black. The arid deserts and shrub lands in Australia weren't always that way, according to a newly discovered and astonishingly well-preserved fossil site in New South Wales. Many of the fossils that they are finding are new to science and include trapdoor spiders, giant cicadas, wasps and a variety of fish and fruiting bodies. There was also mayflies, beetles, flies and assassin bugs. The quality of the fossils means interactions between species can also be determined. Even after all this time, the stomach contents of fish have been preserved, allowing the researchers to determine what they ate 15 million years ago. They found examples of pollen preserved on the bodies of insects so we can tell which species were pollinating which plants. A vast treasure trove of information. The fossilized spiders, cicadas, wasps, plants and fish, which date back to between 11 million and 16 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch, are painting a vivid picture of Australia's once abundant rainforest ecosystems. It is an extremely important fossil site. It has everything that paleontologists hope for, exceptionally well-preserved fossils from a time that they don't know a lot about. A fossilized feather found at the site is shown. Scientists believe it would have been dark brown or black. The Miocene was the point in time when most of the modern Australian environments were established, and when the continent was drifting westward. When the Miocene began 23 million years ago, Australia was rich with diverse plant and animal life, only for an abrupt change in climate to cause widespread extinctions about 14 million years ago. The scientists believe the discovery provides an important case study for figuring out which species can adapt to a changing environment, and which go extinct. "The McGraths Flat plant fossils give us a window into the vegetation and ecosystems of a warmer world, one that we are likely to experience in the future. This fossil site is really Australia's origin story. During the Miocene, reduced precipitation caused rainforests around the world to shrink, leading to increasingly arid landscapes, the study said. The site, formed from iron-rich rock, was destined to be regarded as a Lagerstätte, a German term paleontologists use to describe an exceptional site with many perfectly preserved fossils. The plants and creatures were fossilized when iron-rich groundwater drained into a billabong, or water hole. There are so many unfounded sites in the world just waiting to be discovered. These sites hold treasures of wonder, and unfounded wealth of knowledge.
Tammy
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