A Phororhacoid bird from the Eocene of Africa

The bird fossil record is globally scarce in Africa. The early Tertiary evolution of terrestrial birds is virtually unknown in that continent. Here, we report on a femur of a large terrestrial new genus discovered from the early or early middle Eocene (between ～52 and 46?Ma) of south-western Algeria. This femur shows all the morphological features of the Phororhacoidea, the so-called Terror Birds. Most of the phororhacoids were indeed large, or even gigantic, flightless predators or scavengers with no close modern analogs. It is likely that this extinct group originated in South America, where they are known from the late Paleocene to the late Pleistocene (～59 to 0.01?Ma). The presence of a phororhacoid bird in Africa cannot be explained by a vicariant mechanism because these birds first appeared in South America well after the onset of the mid-Cretaceous Gondwana break up (～100?million years old). Here, we propose two hypotheses to account for this occurrence, either an early dispersal of small members of this group, which were still able of a limited flight, or a transoceanic migration of flightless birds from South America to Africa during the Paleocene or earliest Eocene. Paleogeographic reconstructions of the South Atlantic Ocean suggest the existence of several islands of considerable size between South America and Africa during the early Tertiary, which could have helped a transatlantic dispersal of phororhacoids.     

Detection of hazardous pollutants in chrome-tanned leather using locally developed laser-induced breakdown spectrometer

K?z?l?rmak River has been used as Ankara??s drinking water source for approximately 1.5?years. Therefore, this region??s water, sediment, and fish samples are measured for detecting the heavy metals. This is important for the current situation as well as the future in terms of potential impact. The amount of heavy metals in drinking water should be within the limited values; otherwise, the accumulation of heavy metals will cause many problems to living organisms. Especially high levels of arsenic, cadmium, nickel, mercury, etc. are very dangerous to freshwater ecosystems as for human if the water is being use as drinking water. In this study, water, sediment samples, muscle, and gills of three fish species (Capoeta tinca, Capoeta capoeta, Leuciscus cephalus) were analyzed for the presence of heavy metals such as (Al, Fe, As, Cd, Ni, Mn, Se, Si) to determine present accumulation levels and possible toxic effect. The accumulation pattern of heavy metals in the water, sediment, and fish tissue follows the sequence: Si > Fe > Al > Mn > As > Ni > Se > Cd, Fe > Al > Mn > Ni > As > Se > Cd, and Fe > Al > Mn > As > Ni > Si > Cd. In addition, the detected concentrations of heavy metals in the K?z?l?rmak and Delice Rivers are compared with other heavy metal studies in the other main rivers and lakes in Turkey.     

Antitumor effect of copper nanoparticles on human breast and colon malignancies

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - Breast and colon carcinomas are two types of common cancers which lead to cancer-related deaths. Due to their cytotoxic potential against cancer...     

The contribution of mediated oxidation mechanisms in the electrolytic degradation of cyanuric acid using diamond anodes

In this work, the contribution of mediated oxidation mechanisms in the electrolytic degradation of cyanuric acid using boron-doped diamond(BDD) anodes was investigated in different electrolytes. A complete mineralization of cyanuric acid was obtained in Na Cl;however lower degrees of mineralization of 70% and 40% were obtained in Na2SO4 and Na Cl O4, respectively. This can be explained by the nature of the oxidants electrogenerated in each electrolyte. It is clear that the contribution of active chlorine(Cl2, HCl O, Cl O-)electrogenerated from oxidation of chlorides on BDD is much more important in the electrolytic degradation of cyanuric acid than the persulfate and hydroxyl radicals produced by electro-oxidation of sulfate and water on BDD anodes. This could be explained by the high affinity of active chlorine towards nitrogen compounds. No organic intermediates were detected during the electrolytic degradation of cyanuric acid in any the electrolytes, which can be explained by their immediate depletion by hydroxyl radicals produced on the BDD surface. Nitrates and ammonium were the final products of electrolytic degradation of cyanuric acid on BDD anodes in all electrolytes. In addition, small amounts of chloramines were formed in the chloride medium. Low current density(≤ 10 m A/cm2) and neutral medium(p H in the range 6–9) should be used for high efficiency electrolytic degradation and negligible formation of hazardous chlorate and perchlorate.     

An overview on the enhanced gas condensate recovery with novel and green methods

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - A consideration of the negative environmental aspects of fossil fuels has made natural gas the best choice to meet the human demand for energy. The...     

Current perspective on veterinary drug and chemical residues in food of animal origin

Environmental Science and Pollution Research - The marked increase in the demand for animal protein of high quality necessitates protecting animals from infectious diseases. This requires...