Why were there so many dinosaur species?

A new species of dinosaur is described, on average, every ten days. As many as 31 species have already been reported this year and we can expect a few more before 2016 is over. Of course, figuring out what counts as a distinct species is a tricky problem. Palaeontologists are argumentative by nature, so getting any two of them to agree on a definitive list of species is probably impossible. But by anyone’s count, there were a lot of them – 700 or 800 that we know of, probably thousands in total. So how did the dinosaurs become so diverse?

First we need an idea of just how many dinosaur species there were. One study tried to estimate the total diversity of dinosaurs by using the species-area effect – the idea being that if we know how many species one small part of the Earth can support, we can extrapolate how many must have existed worldwide. These calculations suggest that at the end of the Mesozoic, 66m years ago, the standing diversity of dinosaurs – all the species alive at one point in time – was between 600 and 1,000 species.

This seems to be a reasonable estimate, in that if you counted up all of the living land mammals weighing more than 1kg (the size of the smallest dinosaurs) and then added the extinct species from the past 50,000 years, such as wooly mammoths, ground sloths, and giant kangaroos (correcting for losses to diversity caused by humans) you would end up with a similar figure.

However, this is just the number of species around at one point in time, and the dinosaurs were around for a very, very long time. Over the course of the Mesozoic, dinosaurs constantly evolved and went extinct. Doing some quick and rough estimates, and assuming 1,000 species of dinosaurs lived at any one time, and then that the species turned over every million years – that’s 160 times over the 160m-year reign of the dinosaurs – we end up with 160,000 species. Which is a lot of dinosaurs.

This is, of course, a very rough estimate. It depends on a lot of assumptions, such as how many different species the planet can support, and how quickly they evolve and go extinct. If we assume a lower standing diversity of 500 species and slower turnover, with species lasting 2m years, for example, we end up with around 50,000 species. On the other hand, perhaps standing diversity of 2,000 species is reasonable for the warm, lush, Mesozoic, and perhaps they only lasted just half a million years. That gives us over 500,000 species. So it seems reasonable to guess that there were between 50,000 and 500,000 species of dinosaurs – without including Mesozoic birds, which might double the diversity.

So many fossils.
Shutterstock

Why so many species, then? It comes down to three things. Dinosaurs were good at specialisation, localisation, and speciation.

Specialisation

Dinosaurs were specialists, and by specialising to exploit different niches, different species could coexist without competing. In western North America, the giant predator T. rex coexisted with little meat-eating dromaeosaurs. Enormous, long-necked sauropods browsed alongside horned ceratopsians, which grazed on ferns and flowers. There were smaller plant-eaters – pachycephalosaurs and ornithomimids – as well as heron-like fish eaters, and even anteater-like insectivores.

And within these niches, there was further specialisation. T. rex was large and had massive jaws but fairly stocky limbs, and was well-suited to preying on the slow-moving but heavily armed Triceratops. T. rex‘s cousin, Nanotyrannus, was smaller but had the lanky legs of a marathon runner, and probably chased down faster prey. This specialisation meant that - based on my recent studies of the fauna – as many as 25 dinosaurs could live side-by-side in one habitat.

Localisation

Localisation refers to how different places had different dinosaur species. Mongolia had one set of animals – tyrannosaurs, duckbills, and ostrich dinosaurs – inhabiting a lush delta that flowed through the middle of a desert. Just a few miles away, little horned dinosaurs and parrot-headed oviraptors inhabited the dune fields. Dinosaurs also show differences across continents, with different species inhabiting different parts of North America, for example. Between continents, the differences are even more extreme. During the Late Cretaceous, North America and Asia were dominated by tyrannosaurs, duckbilled dinosaurs, and horned dinosaurs. But Africa and South America, cut off by oceans for tens of millions of years, had an entirely different set of species. Instead of tyrannosaurs, the horned abelisaurs were top predators. Instead of duckbills, the long-necked titanosaurs were the dominant plant eaters.

Speciation

Dinosaurs evolved new species with remarkable speed. Radioactive dating has made it possible to date the rocks containing dinosaur fossils, and from that, to estimate how long dinosaur species lasted. The rocks forming the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, for example, were deposited over a period of around 2m years. At the bottom of these strata, we have one species- Triceratops horridus, and at the top, we have a second Triceratops prorsus evolving from the first.

This implies that a species lasts a million years or less – a short time, at least in geological terms. Studies of other formations, and other horned dinosaurs, tend to suggest that other species were similarly short-lived. In the badlands of Dinosaur Park in Canada, we can find fossils that show three different sets of dinosaur – the first replaced by the second, the second by the third – evolving in 2m years. Dinosaurs evolved rapidly, driven by shifts in the planet’s seas, climates, and continents, and also the evolution of other dinosaurs. And if they didn’t, they went extinct.

We’ll never know exactly how many dinosaurs existed. It’s so rare for an animal to fossilise and be preserved that many tens of thousands of species, maybe hundreds of thousands, are probably lost to us forever. And yet the remarkable thing is that the pace of dinosaur discovery has actually increased over the years. Most of the species that have ever lived are lost, but we have thousands left to find.



Nick Longrich, Senior lecturer, palaeontology, Milner Centre for Evolution, University of Bath

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Africa Gone Wild – Blythedale Beach horrific scenes

This horrific scene witnessed at Blythedale Beach forces any patriotic South African to involuntarily vomit, just a little, in your own mouth.

The way we mistreat our beautiful beaches/coasts reflects a hurtful lack of respect we have for ourselves as Africans. Ma’ Africa stirs angrily at this abuse of her goodness.

No doubt, this is an omen. It reveals the disturbing trend of the moral character of our people and the challenges ahead as a country. We suffered for our liberation, and now we vomit, urinate, shit and litter on the very shores of the African land that has embraced us.

So much for the dignity, our parents fought for.

What is the mindset of these feral people who feel empowered to behave this way? Are they just carefree? Are they embittered at life? Are they oblivious to their behavior? Are they brazenly setting the bar for what is the new norm in South Africa? Either way, it is clear their descent into wretchedness is disturbing.

Close to 6000 people moved into the village just after 22:00 last night. No police support.
Emergency services could not gain access to attend to a stabbing.

Three bodies were found on the beach, abandoned, this juxtaposed with early morning sex throes reverberating from the bushes nearby.

These bodies lie cold, like the future, our children can expect should we continue to let our government silently sponsor the destruction of moral values and the lack of accountability in our ailing country.

Of course, there are those who will say that littering occurs in every country and is a sore issue in many cultures …but why can’t we be better I ask? Where is our pride?

By Menzi Solomon Shange
Published on South Africa Today – South Africa News

Durban Beaches – Who do you think is going to clean up after you

Has South Africa’s entitlement culture resulted in people getting used to living with trash?

After all, someone is getting paid to pick up after you, right? Or, even worse …my parents picked up rubbish under apartheid, so I detest doing that now out of resentment.

Let’s be respectful and be responsible stewards of our country, and treat our environment like we would like to be treated ourselves.

By Menzi Solomon Shange
Published on South Africa Today – South Africa News

The end of coconut water? The world's trendiest nut is under threat of species collapse

“Orange juice for breakfast is over,” an investor interested in creating large, fair trade coconut plantations recently joked to me. These days, coconut water is king.

For the trendy and the wealthy, including celebrities such as Rihanna, Madonna or Matthew McConaughey, rarest coconut water extracted from the aromatic varieties of the nut, is the “it” drink and even a source of income.

Coconut water is being sold by luxury brands, at up to US$7 for 33 cl, about the same price as basic champagne.

A booming market

Even President Barack Obama loves coconuts.
Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

There is no doubt that the coconut market is exploding. Coconut water currently represents an annual turnover of US$2 billion. It is expected to reach US$4 billion in the next five years.

In 2007, a 25% stake in Vitacoco, the largest brand for coconut water, was sold for US$7 million to Verlinvest company. Seven years later, another 25% stake in Vitacoco was again sold to Red Bull China for about US$166 million.

Other large players in the coconut water business include Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, but more than 200 brands are now marketing coconut water.

An essential crop

But there’s another side to the story. The coconut is one of 35 food crops listed in Annex 1 of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and considered crucial to global food security. In 2014, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated global production to be 61.5 million tonnes.

It is an important livelihood crop for more than 11 million farmers, most of whom are smallholders, cultivating coconut palms on around 12 million hectares of land in at least 94 countries worldwide. The coconut palm is popularly known as the “Tree of Life” – all its parts are useful.

The main products are copra – the dried inner meat of the nut, used for oil – and the husk, which provides a vital source of fibre. More recently, as we’ve seen, there is also high demand for tender coconut water and virgin coconut oil.

Braiding ropes made from the husk of the niu magi magi variety on Taveuni Island, Fiji, 2012.
Cogent/Roland Bourdeix, Author provided

Whole mature nuts are exported and sold to factories that produce desiccated coconut and coconut cream. At least half of the coconuts are consumed locally.

Genetic diversity

Over millennia, humans have slowly selected and maintained numerous coconut varieties, used for many purposes.

Diversity of coconut fruits in ex situ genebanks.
Roland Bourdeix

This has resulted in an extraordinary morphological diversity, which is expressed in the range of colours, shapes and sizes of the fruits. But the extent of this diversity is largely unknown at the global level. The huge amount of work that has gone into coconut breeding by farmers over millennia, and by scientists during the 20th century, remains greatly under-valued.

The rarest coconut varieties, for instance the horned coconut, grown and conserved on the Tetiaroa Atoll and in India, are not even recognised as coconuts by most people, especially Westerners.

Coconut conservation

The genetic diversity found in coconut populations and varieties, known by scientists as “germplasm”, is conserved by millions of small farmers.

A Samoan teen holds the famous niu afa coconut variety.
Roland Bourdeix

A number of initiatives have been launched to recognise and support the role of these farmers, and to sustain them by promoting landscape management approaches, such as the Polymotu concept (“poly” meaning many, and “Motu” meaning island in Polynesian.)

The Polymotu concept capitalises on the geographical or reproductive isolation of various species for the conservation and reproduction of individual varieties of plants, trees and even animals.

In a project led by the Pacific Community and funded by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, two small islands in Samoa have been recently replanted with the famous traditional niu afa variety, which produces the largest coconut fruits in the world, reaching more than 40 cm long.

Sadly, the coconut is endangered. One of the main challenges of coconut cultivation is the existence of lethal diseases, which are rapidly expanding and killing millions of palms. These pandemics are known as lethal yellowing diseases.

The diseases ravage countries in Africa (in Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire), and also in Asia (India), North America (Mexico, the Caribbean, Florida) and the Pacific Region (Papua New Guinea, and probably Solomon Islands).

The genetic diversity of the flowers of coconut varieties on display at the Marc Delorme Research Centre, Côte d'Ivoire.
COGENT, Author provided

Diversity under threat

Many coconut varieties that could be crucial for the future of agriculture are disappearing because of the loss of traditional knowledge, rapid transformations of agricultural landscapes, climate change and westernisation.

Due to the fragility of insular ecosystems, the Pacific Region is probably the location where the losses are highest.

During a recent survey in the Cook Islands, we succeeded with considerable difficulty in locating a sweet husk palm, known as niu mangaro locally. This is a rare, highly threatened form of coconut.

The husk of its unripe fruit, which in other species is usually tough and astringent, is tender, edible and sweet. It can be chewed like sugarcane. Once the fruits are ripe, the husk fibres are white and thin.

A comparison of the husk of a normal coconut (left) and a rare sweet husk coconut (right).
Roland Bourdeix

Our survey was conducted together with a government agricultural officer. During the work, he took a tender coconut and started to chew the husk. Then he stopped, telling me, “I do not want people here to see me eating niu mangaro, because they will say I am a poor man.”

The consumption of traditional varieties being still perceived as socially stigmatising, not embracing a “modern” way of life. On the other hand, the consumption of imported food is considered as a mark of modernity and richness.

During another survey conducted in 2010 in Moorea Island, a Polynesian farmer interviewed about sweet husk varieties, known as kaipoa there, told me:

I had one kaipoa coconut palm in my farm, but I cut it down two years ago … Over ten years, I was unable to harvest a single fruit: all were stolen and eaten by children from the neighbourhood.

So, a traditional variety remains appreciated by the next generation of Polynesians, but the farmer is not aware of the rarity and of the cultural value of the resource.

Coconut lethal yellowing disease in Côte d'Ivoire: state of emergency. A video from Diversiflora International.

The social and economic factors affecting coconut conservation have been the subject of discussion at two international meetings organised in 2016 by the Asia and Pacific Coconut Community in Indonesia and the Central Plantation Crop Research Institute in India.

Discussions included the constraints and advantages related to coconut biology; links with conservation in institutional field gene banks; farmer’s knowledge regarding the reproductive biology of their crop; socioeconomic dynamics; and policy measures.

Nursery of coconut seedlings from the Green Dwarf variety for production of coconut water in Brazil.
Roland Bourdeix, Author provided

Big business, but little money for research

The International Coconut Genetic Resources Network (COGENT) now comprises 41 coconut-producing countries, representing more than 98% of global production. Its activities are focused on conservation and breeding of coconut varieties.

Coconut germplasm is represented by about 400 varieties and 1,600 accessions in 24 genebanks. Accessions are the basic units of genebanks.

In the case of the coconut palm, each accession is generally constituted of 45 to 150 palms, all collected at the same location. They are documented in a Coconut Genetic Resources Database and a global catalogue.

COGENT also works on sequencing the coconut genome, in the framework of a collaboration between research organisations in Côte d’Ivoire, France and China.

Cultivating legumes in a coconut plantation devastated by the Lethal Yellowing Disease in Ghana.
Roland Bourdeix

Despite the upturn in the global market, many coconut farmers remain insufficiently organised, and investment in coconut research is incredibly scarce.

A yearly investment of about US$3 to US$5 million in public international research would be enough to address most of the challenges of coconut agriculture. But private companies benefiting from the market boom are still scarcely involved in research funding.

Coconut harvesters dance between trunks in Ghana.
Roland Bourdeix

The coconut is a perennial crop, producing fruit year-round, but it takes a long time to grow. Investors, more interested in rapid profits, remain reluctant to fund the ten-year research programmes that are often needed to efficiently address the challenges of coconut research.

In coconut-producing countries, under-resourced genebanks and laboratories lack the necessary budget, labour, equipment and technical training to conduct the controlled hand-pollinations required for regenerating the germplasm, and to implement other activities such as collecting, characterisation and breeding.

Coconut water brands will only make billions as long as coconuts are plentiful and diverse. More importantly, people all over the world rely on the security of this vital crop. Securing its future must be a priority for everyone who farms, eats and profits from the coconut.



Roland Bourdeix, Senior Researcher, Cirad

This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Verwoerd and Apartheid what every South African should know

Regrettably, Hendrik Verwoerd lost his life at a time when the political scene in South Africa was on the brink of a total makeover. Perhaps his foresight and aspirations to develop, change and turn South Africa into a first class world country did not undoubtedly match the plans of international and local people.

In his book, Stephen Goodson’s HENDRIK FRENSCH VERWOERD – SOUTH AFRICA’S GREATEST PRIME MINISTER, he details mind-blowing information every South African should know about Apartheid, Rothschild bankers, and Verwoerd who was a man of fairness, dignity, and wanted equality for everyone. 

The question is whether Verwoerd is responsible for apartheid, based on the perspective order of events.
• 1809 – The Native Pass Law of the British Government at Cape of Good Hope passed compel black people to carry a passbook.
• 1865 – British-born Sir Theophilus Shepstone prohibited blacks in Natalia from having any voting power.
• 1894 – Cecil John Rhodes prevented a colored man Krom Hendriks from joining the national cricket tour to England.
• 1895 – Cecil John Rhodes compelled schools in the Cape to teach separate for whites in English and Blacks in English. (Verwoerd was not born yet)
• 1901 – 8th September 1901 in Amsterdam.
• 1913 – The British Native Land Act 2 prohibited black people to own land. (Verwoerd 12 years of Age)
• 1915 – National Party of South Africa 2nd July 1915. The ideology of apartheid was never the ideology of the Boers but was a secret agenda propagated by the paid British press and their agents in the “Broederbond” to keep control over South Africa for Britain via the Nationalist Party, which shows a deliberate falsification of history in order to keep control over South Africa by design with conflict. The aforesaid is in addition confirmed by the Nationalist Party secret funds, mostly channeled to home in Britain, in institutions like Barclays Bank or the Bank of England who was affirmed by the “one stream” ideology of Jan Smuts and his predecessors with the land grab and dehumanizing legislation that preceded the Nationalist Party rule who had to content with the gross human right violations and a systemic ruggedness with secret control prevent change.

Away from the Smuts/Brittan ideology JBM Hertzog (Minister of Justice) employed a two stream ideology propagating equal rights towards English and Afrikaner Communities which was reflected in the election where Jan Smut (South Africa) seats were reduced from 67 to 54, Thomas Smartt (Unionist) maintain 39 and JBM Hertzog (National Party) gained 27.
• 1918 – Establishment of the “Afrikaner Broederbond” (Jong Zuid-Afrika) by the British as a secret extension of their influence in the same way it was portrayed in the film of Mel Gibson “The Patriot” (Verwoerd was not a member)
• 1925 – British minister HW Sampson promulgated the Labor Demarcation Act to divide black and white. (Verwoerd 32 years of age and not in politics)
• 1927 – Immorality Act was promulgated in Natal controlled by Britain prohibit intimacy between black and white (Verwoerd 34 years of age and not in politics).
British Union Genl Jan Smuts promulgated • 1936 – Separate representation in parliament. (Verwoerd was 43 and editor of a newspaper)
• 1945 – The Native Urban Area Act prohibited blacks to stay longer than 72 hours in a white urban area (Verwoerd was 52 years of age into politics but without a portfolio)
• 1948 – Nationalist Party took over on 4 June 1948 with the Pass Laws and No Voting rights and other discriminate laws still intact, established by the Britain.
• 1958 – Verwoerd 2 September 1958 in office as prime minister of South Africa. (State President –Charles Roberts Swart)
• 1966 – Verwoerd was murdered because he started to give the land progressively back to the black people who were against the rugged British plan, which was disowned by The British Native Land Act 2 passed in 1913, for which he was killed. He was not killed by a disgruntled black group or activists’ which is eminent from the following factual events;-
o Establishes “Black education” as a national law. Many African countries haven’t achieved that to date
o the inflation rate was 2% or less
o Interest rate was 3%
o there was peace as a result of the transformation and restoration process
o the national growth was 7.9% the second highest in the world.
o the living standards of blacks was rising by 5.4% versus the 3.9 % of whites
o had no needs for foreign loans and/or indebtedness versus the current indebtedness of approximately 50% and overall indebtedness approaching 70%. At present, the repayment to banks by the government is approximately R500 million per day.
o Stafendas worked for Anton Rupert in London prior his appointment as a messenger in the parliament while an illegal immigrant, appointed by Hendrik van der Berg who was promoted ±6 ranks by John Voster as minister of Justice at the time, to put him in control of security of the parliament.
o It is well known that Verwoerd was assassinated by Zionist Banking Cartel arranged through John Voster with specific input from the Rupert’s and the Oppenheimer’s being controlled from London promoting Voster to the prime minister.
• 1970 – Implementation of skimming from policies owners of Old Mutual Via Old Mutual Bank a non-entity and stash money across the globe for relocation and take over.
• 1989 – Implementation of SARB Act, Section 33 clause to suppress all evidence
• 1992 – ANC agree to take Political Power only and sign away all economic survivability of SA (Old Mutual, ABSA, SAB, de Beers, etc.) – MAS 57/08/92 – Pretoria North Case ref, investigation officer – Lt. Col. AE Botha conducted an investigation into the irregularities, but it was never made public or brought to court.
• 1994 – Project Hammer completed, ANC agree for Political Control only.

For an in-depth review of the book read – Tot lof van Hendrik Verwoerd
South Africa Today – South Africa News