Fossil snake from India fed on hatchling dinosaurs
The remains of an extraordinary fossil unearthed in 67-million-year-old sediments from Gujarat, India provide a rare glimpse at an unusual feeding behavior in ancient snakes.
An international paleontological team led by U-M’s Jeff Wilson and the Geological Survey of India’s Dhananjay Mohabey published their discovery online March 2 in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.
Jeff Wilson, assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences, records the location of exposed snake fossils just in front of his knee. Photo by Monica Wilson.
The remains of a nearly complete snake were found preserved in the nest of a sauropod dinosaur, adults of which are the largest animals known to have walked the earth. The snake was coiled around a recently hatched egg adjacent to a hatchling sauropod. Remains of other snake individuals associated with egg clutches at the same site indicate that the newly described snake made its living feeding on young dinosaurs.
In 1987 Mohabey recognized dinosaur eggshell and limb bones but was unable to fully interpret the specimen. In 2001 Wilson visited Mohabey at his office at the Geological Survey of India and was astonished when he examined the specimen.
“I saw the characteristic vertebral locking mechanism of snakes alongside dinosaur eggshell and larger bones, and I knew it was an extraordinary specimen,” says Wilson, assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences and assistant curator of the Museum of Paleontology.
From that point began a decade-long odyssey that led to a formal agreement with the Government of India Ministry of Mines in 2004 that allowed preparation and study of the fossil at the U-M Museum of Paleontology, weeks of museum study in India, and field reconnaissance at the original locality in Gujarat by a team of researchers.
The new snake, which was named Sanajeh indicus, adds critical information that helps resolve the early diversification of snakes.
— Nancy Ross-Flanigan, News Service
Treadmill training could help tots walk
Using a treadmill could help infants with prenatal complications or who were injured at birth walk earlier and better, according to a U-M researcher.
Prenatal injuries can often result in self-correcting or fixable neuromotor delays, but sometimes toddlers get a more serious diagnosis, such as cerebral palsy, says Rosa Angulo-Barroso, associate professor of movement science at the School of Kinesiology and a research associate professor at the Center for Human Growth and Development. Some of those diagnoses may come much later or, in mild cases, never, she says.
Angulo-Barroso and colleagues followed 15 infants at risk for neuromotor delays for two years and tested their changes in physical activity and treadmill-stepping in their homes. The infants were assisted using the treadmill by their parents.
The researchers looked at the frequency of steps and also the decrease in toe-walking over the two-year period. For those infants who were still not walking, they followed up by calling families to see if infants were walking by age 3.
They found that kids with neuromotor delays using the treadmill were on the same improving trajectory as normal kids. Of the 15 children, six were diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
The study also suggests a critical intervention window. Both children without a diagnosis and kids with cerebral palsy improved the most between 10 months and 18 months.
While this feasibility study merely shows that it warrants more work to see how much treadmill intervention helps, Angulo-Barroso stresses that in the meantime, parents should take other interventions seriously.
The current study, “Treadmill Responses and Physical Activity Levels of Infants at Risk for Neuromotor Delay,” appears in the journal Pediatric Physical Therapy.
— Laura Bailey, News Service
More reliable biomarkers needed for early detection of liver cancer
Widely used biomarkers are not optimal in early detection of liver cancer, the third most common cause of cancer-related death worldwide, according to a new study published in this month’s Gastroenterology.
Two biomarkers used to complement ultrasound in the early detection of hepatocellular carcinoma, or liver cancer, are not ideal, according to Dr. Anna Lok, professor of internal medicine at the Medical School and lead author of the study published in the official journal of the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) Institute.
The study analyzed the use of des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin and the most widely used biomarker, alpha fetoprotein. Biomarkers are found in patient’s blood and are used to indicate whether a disease or condition is present.
Liver cancer is the sixth most common malignancy, with 22,620 Americans expected to be diagnosed this year. The incidence of HCC in the United States is increasing and is largely attributed to hepatitis C.
“Most surprising was the finding that patient demographics influenced both des-gamma-carboxy prothrombin and alpha fetoprotein values, but in opposite directions,” says Lok, who also is the Alice Lohrman Andrews Research Professor in Hepatology. “This observation merits further investigation, as it might impact the accuracy of these biomarkers in the detection of liver cancer in men versus women and in patients of various races and ethnicity.”
— Mary Masson, UMHS Public Relations
Scientists listen to the sun in new sonification project
Scientists now can listen to a set of solar wind data that’s usually represented visually, as numbers or graphs. U-M researchers have “sonified” the data. They’ve created an acoustic, or musical, representation of it.
The researchers’ primary goal was to try to hear information that their eyes might have missed in solar wind speed and particle density data gathered by NASA’s Advanced Composition Explorer satellite. The solar wind is a stream of charged particles emanating from the sun.
The process of sonification isn’t new. It’s how Geiger counter radiation detectors emit clicks in the presence of high-energy particles.
“What makes this project different is the level of artistic license I was given,” says Robert Alexander, a composer and recent School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumnus.
The product, which Alexander says is “in between art and science,” sounds appropriately primal and otherworldly.
“Every piece of scientific data tells a story. I’m expressing this story through music,” Alexander says. “These sonifications present scientific data in a way that is immediately visceral.”
The solar wind fills the solar system and interacts with the planets, says Jason Gilbert, a research fellow in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences. On Earth, solar storms can disrupt power on the ground and on satellites. Scientists study it in part to improve their predictions about how it will behave.
“I am excited for sonification’s potential in research, but I think more work will need to be done to realize that potential,” says Jim Raines, research computer specialist with the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences.
“To me, this project exemplifies what U-M is about: creativity reaching seamlessly across many fields to create something new,” says Thomas Zurbuchen, an associate dean in engineering and an atmospheric science professor.
— Nicole Casal Moore, News Service
Untreated poor vision in elderly linked to dementia, study shows
Elderly people with visual disorders that are left untreated significantly are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease — the most common form of dementia, according to a U-M Health System study.
The study used Medicare data and shows that those with poor vision who visited an ophthalmologist at least once for an examination were 64 percent less likely to develop dementia.
The study appears online ahead of print in the American Journal of Epidemiology and may draw a new picture of poor vision as predictor of dementia rather than as a symptom after the diagnosis.
“Visual problems can have serious consequences and are very common among the elderly, but many of them are not seeking treatment,” says lead author Mary Rogers, research assistant professor of internal medicine at the Medical School and research director of the Patient Safety Enhancement Program at the U-M Health System and the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center.
For the study, Rogers and her colleague Dr. Kenneth Langa, professor of internal medicine at the Medical School and an author on the study, analyzed data from the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study and records from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“Our results indicate that it is important for elderly individuals with visual problems to seek medical attention so that the causes of the problems can be identified and treated,” Rogers says.
The types of vision treatment that were helpful in lowering the risk of dementia were surgery to correct cataracts and treatments for glaucoma, retinal disorders and other eye-related problems.
Proper vision is a requirement for many of the activities that previously have been found to lower the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. These include reading, playing board games, other mentally stimulating activities, social networking, as well as physical activity such as walking and routine exercising.
— Tara Hasouris, UMHS Public Relations
