Discussion on hypothesized ancestral human cyclical ARC dive-foraging

[wet]

[Maternal/medical section] [Note: Not medical advice, only hypothesis]

Ancestral backfloating (on reed mats?) & breastfeeding, Possible correlates

infant nursing prone (on belly), mother semi-supine (on back)
infant resting supine is anti-SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome)
Infant resting supine with gas bubbles in GI tract lifts belly and nose up
Human infants have colic, why advantage? Atypical condition for mammal.
Baby elephant seals have sleep apnea, prevents inhaling water when asleep.
Fat human children/adults more often have sleep apnea
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Study Suggests Mothers Should Be Semi-Reclined to Nurse: Optimal positions for the release of primitive neonatal reflexes stimulating breastfeeding. Colson SD, Meek JH, & Hawdon JM (2008), Early human development, 84 (7), 441-9 PMID: 18243594

Maternal and infant postures were characterized by whether they were consistent with "biological nurturing" (BN), a breastfeeding approach in which the mother is encouraged to lean back and the baby is held prone, facing the mother and in contact with her body contours. [Other apes do not nurse this way, only humans.]

When mothers who were experiencing breastfeeding problems assumed BN positions, often became the active agent controlling the feed, aided by the different types of [reflexes]" (p. 5). In contrast to prevailing advice that breastfeeding mothers should sit upright and support the baby's back and head, biological nurturing involves semi-reclined positioning with the baby prone and in close contact with the mother's body. Babies in full-biological nursing positions employ anti-gravity reflexes to locate the breast and latch without dorsal support, and their mothers assist them in that task.
[So when the mother nurses while standing or sits up like a mother chimp on a tree branch, the human baby's reflexes are confused, but when the mother is semi-supine-reclining, the baby's reflexes fit. This doesn't mean ancestral nursing was done while backfloating, but it is possible, perhaps while sitting in shallows.]
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[From Elaine Morgans' AAT books, on SIDS]

A paper published by J. J. McKenna in 1986 gives a valuable background to the nature of the problem and the way it was being discussed at that time. One point made very clearly is that the problem of SIDS is 'unique among mammals'. 'SIDS does not occur in other species.' McKenna laid most stress on breath control. J. T. Laitman 'We have noticed that the first instances of oral tidal respiration are found in infants between 4 and 6 months'. The salient factor, then, seems to be not when the larynx is fully descended (by that time the danger of SIDS is over) but when it first loses its secure contact with the palate.

Edmund Crelin published a paper on it, suggesting that the difficulty arises when the infant's larynx is no longer securely locked in above the palate, and not yet safely tucked away below the base of the tongue, but at the back of the mouth on its way down. He thought that at this vulnerable time, when the baby was lying prone, there was a possibility that the uvula could enter the opening of the windpipe and block it up, causing asphyxia and death. The advice to lay the babies on their backs was promoted in Holland in a nation-wide campaign, and it cut cot deaths by 40 per cent in one year. In 1991 Britain launched a 'Back to Sleep' campaign (that is, 'on their backs to sleep') and in 1994 a newspaper headline proclaimed: 'Cot deaths show 70 per cent drop over past 5 years'. There may be other factors involved, such as general health or infections, but the scale of success of the 'Back to Sleep' advice seems to provide overwhelming evidence that Crelin got the priorities right. The only thing changed by following this advice is the direction of the force of gravity relative to the baby's respiratory organs, acting on the only organ loose and mobile enough to be affected by it. That is the unattached upper end of the infant's larynx."

 

[wet]

Drinking at seashores.

The idea that since humans can't drink saltwater, so our ancestors must not have spent much time in the sea, is rather odd, since the purpose of slow dive foraging was to consume prey rich in hypotonic (low salt) fluids. Humans like other mammals need to consume salt daily to maintain a healthy metabolism, as part of the diet. When marathon runners or swimmers rehydrate, they can't just intake freshwater, they need mineral salts as well.

The reason that marine mammals don't typically drink much seawater is because they don't develop water-thirst and salt-hunger patterns that terrestrial animals do, since their food contains hypotonic (low salt) fluids, they don't sweat, and their excreted/exhaled fluid is conserved.

Apes get most of their fluids from fruits and herbs, and living in the rainforest many plants (bromelids, epiphytes) accumulate small water puddles high in the canopy, lianas may contain watery saps.

Freshwater streams and sub-marine spring seeps along coasts provide drinking water and tropical coconuts contain sweet watery fluids. Coastal rains provide a brackish sea surface less saline than deeper denser sea water.

Cooking removes fluids, and salt is added to vegetables and meats, so additional fluids are drunk alongside; not necessary when eating fully hydrated fresh fruits or seafood. To avoid drinking ponded stagnant 'freshwater' which might contain parasites, when freshwater rains were insufficient, historically, either boiled teas with anti-microbial tannins, bitter or mint herbs, pinch of salt or low alcohol drinks (beer, mead, palm wine) were served.

The only time that saltwater consumption would occur was during extended exercising, such as while climbing seacliffs searching for seabirds and eggs, long distance swimming and while beachcombing/jogging, when body salts ran low due to eccrine sweating in tropical heat and humidity.

So saying that humans can't drink seawater isn't very significant, like marine animals, it is only done to replace lost mineral salts.

Responses from/with Marc Verhaegen at AAT group: Yahoo! Groups

 

[wet]

On carrying and drinking saltwater inland

"70,000 to one" by Quenton Reynolds about a Mr. Manuel, a US pilot shot
doen in WWII over the island of New Britain (near Papua).

P 105 Many years before the Maculculs and Baining tribes
had an argument. Both tribes lived inland [mountains], their fathers and
grandfathers lived within ten miles of the beach but had never
seen the ocean. Now somehow, the natives had always known
that salt was necessary to maintain their good health. This belief
had been handed down from generation to generation. Once a
week, natives would make the trip to the sea to bring salt water
back to their villages. They would carry the water in bamboo
containers. These were ordinary bamboo logs, about 4 inches
thick, hollowed out, but closed at both ends. The Bainings would
bore several holes near the end of the log, fill it with water, and
then carry it back. The maculculs used the same type of
containers, but would cut off one end. They insisted that the
Bainings follow their method to conform to custom, which was
rejected by the Baining, so they went to war.

 

[wet]

Spleen

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/science/04angier.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

...the spleen is a reservoir for huge numbers of immune cells called monocytes, and that in the event of a serious trauma to the body like a heart attack, gashing wound or microbial invasion, the spleen will disgorge those monocyte multitudes into the bloodstream to tackle the crisis.

In one study that appeared in The Lancet in 1977, for example, researchers compared a group of 740 American veterans of World War II who had had their spleens removed as a result of battle injuries with a similar size sample of veterans who had suffered other war injuries but had kept their spleens. The splenectomized men, the researchers found, were twice as likely to die of cardiovascular disease as were the veterans in the control group. More recently, researchers determined that the spleen is like an elaborate wetlands, a Mississippi bayou for filtering and freshening the blood. In other organs, blood flows through an interconnected mesh of increasingly narrow arteries, veins and capillaries. The spleen, by contrast, has a so-called noncapillary circulatory system: as the blood flows in, it is dumped into puddle-like sinusoids, and to get back out it must squeeze between cells. That dumping and squeezing help filter out blood-borne parasites, aging blood cells too brittle for compression and the little oxidized pellets, the BB’s, with which red blood cells are often pocked. The spleen has often been called a graveyard for red blood cells, but it is more of a recycling center, for the iron and other components are plucked out of the cells and used to stock new hemoglobin cages.

By the researchers’ reckoning, monocytes, like all blood cells, are born in the bone marrow and at some point migrate to the spleen, lured by cues yet to be identified. They sit and wait, a sessile bunch, but when aroused by such chemical signatures of damage as angiotensin, the cells surge forth without hesitation,

 

[wet]

Conjectural thoughts: Sneeze vs Contraction

Both MDR and ARC depend on the trigeminal nerve to engage via apnea/eupnea reflex, the MDR at dark cool depth, the ARC at sunny warm surface.

If the ARC is inverse/reverse of MDR, are repeated photic sneezes inverse of diaphragm contractions? Both diaphragm contractions and sneezes are repeated involuntary thoracic muscle twinges which vary in intensity with individuals. [But they seem very different and unrelated to each other?]

MDR: Mammalian Diving Reflex, engaged in apnea at depth
ARC: Aqua-photic Respiratory Cycle, where sun sneeze/exhalation induced eupneic breathing at surface alternated with diving apnea in MDR at depth.

Where presumably diaphragmatic contractions function as an accessory pump mechanism to move oxygenated blood to the core from the extremities, in addition to the MDR extremity vasoconstriction.

Do repeated sneezes move blood from the body core outwards, as a supplemental pump? (I would say yes, but how effectively?)

photic sneeze: triggered by dark to light at trigeminal nerve
contraction: triggered by high CO2 at chemoreceptors (via vagus?)

Do people with photic sneeze have stronger/weaker contractions or no correlation?

Note: Recurrent laryngeal nerve is very strange in all mammals, it loops from the larynx down around the aorta and back up to the brain. Might this relate to tension of the aortic flow, and the MDR, and possibly sneezing? (doubtful, but compare human to ape laryngeal air sac/thyroid/larynx descent and to sea otter, whale and seals.)

Is a person with alkaline blood more susceptible to sneezing/asthma/allergy?
... acidic blood ... ?

If I inhaled through the nose strong CO2, I'd get contractions/inhale. (ADR's post)
If I sniffed through the nose strong scented dark chocolate/mint/liquor, I'd sneeze/exhale, just like a sun sneeze after dark adaptation.

 

[wet]

Many animals seldom drink, getting most fluids from their food, including desert oryx and oceanic orcas. Apes usually get their fluids from fruits and tree hollow puddles and liana vine saps. Humans are high-production eccrine salt sweaters and urinators mammals, very poor at internal water conservation biologically compared to most mammals, and more so compared to water-stingy reptiles. People need abundant water always available nearby. The biological "rule" is that humans 'waste' water, just like beavers, very watery urine and feces and sweat, and humid exhaling. Even humans whose families have lived in deserts for 10,000 years still waste biological water, although slightly less than others. Both oryx antelope and orca whales never do, their entire metabolism is based on using water conservatively (don't spill a drop), we probably pee out in a day what they pee in a week (guessing), quantitatively. So our ancestors were very freshwater-dependent, a niche similar to a marsh deer, marsh beaver, mountain beaver, muskrat. But unlike them, we also waste lots of salt, (even while asleep through insensible sweat), which does not fit the freshwater niche.

Beavers conserve salt but waste water. Marine animals conserve water but waste salt. Desert animals conserve both. Humans waste both. That puts early humans at well-watered tropical coasts, which is where most people live, except for technology and trade, and more recently agriculture and pastoral domestication, allowing deeper inland settlement, for a primarily tropical coastal species.

Briefly, after having split from wetland-forest apes, human ancestors lived at seashore pocket beaches with freshwater
streams/springs. Chimps and other apes did not live at seashores, they adapted to higher and higher forest canopy but still coming down to wetlands and forest floor for some foods unless the big cats were nearby.

During the rainy season, when the seashores became muddy (favorable to electrosensing sharks & crocs) due to the seasonal flushing of silts and organic detritus from the mountain valleys and lowlands into the bays and lagoons, the inland savannah had clean fresh rainwater to drink (and fresh green sprouts), so early humans stored and brought clean saltwater inland in bamboo tubes (hollow sharpened bamboo spear/club/wading stick) and seashells and ostrich shells for their inland salt needs.

As the containers became empty, they refilled them with clean rainwater, plugged them and buried them in soft mud near flint quarries and upland sites (since the lowlands were flooded) rich in flowering berry bushes and nut/fruit trees which would have mast drop later in the dry season, after the available waterholes had become stagnant cesspools filled with pathogenic bacteria and concentrated hungry/nasty crocs, cats and hippos.

During the hot dry season, they would be at the seashores, but as the dry season got drier and streams thinned and seafood more sparse, they'd return inland when the fruits and nuts were ripe (mast fall), (there was often a weak secondary rainy season at this time) walking during the cooler morning and evening to conserve water loss, carrying only minimal saltwater and freshwater to lighten the load, but eating, gathering and drying the fruits and also knapped flint/basalt for hand axe tomahawks and flakes on site, to avoid carrying heavy cores around.

Bucky Fuller, Alister Hardy, Elaine Morgan, Marc Verhaegen and the paleoanthropologists didn't mention any of this, because they didn't see the seasonal cyclical patterns of tropical inland migrations alternating with seashore pocket beach foraging. The MDR & ARC sunny-surface / cool-depth diving cycle, combined with the Maculcul-type saltwater container carrying and the KhoiSan-type freshwater shell burying in wet mud fill in the missing gaps. (Marc V. has noted that later, in temperate Europe/Siberia the seasonal cold-water salmon migrations would have induced inland migrations amongst the spear-bearing H neandertals and H sapiens with harpoons, later nets and boats.)

Now you know the rest of the story, at least in general. Feel free to share it as I have, but qualify it as our hypothesized path of the past, the footprints on the sand, without all the fairytale myths, misunderstandings and contradictions, just the simple biological, archaeological and geographical lines of evidence merging together to show the trail our ancestors took that left the monkeys and apes up in the trees and us to the moon and eventually onward outwards to new 'islands' in far off galaxies. We're still learning how to dive and live in microgravity, but the closest parallel is diving at the seashore.

From wetland "apes" sit-float eating and making papyrus nests like beaver lodges and beach "monkeys" making moated sand castles on the sunny shore, to high tech cooperative self-contained fluid-recycling solar-powered silicate-paneled ISS sand castles in the sky, we indeed have come a long way. The extraordinary journey is ongoing, and to be continued...

respect.

DDeden
Diver, Naturalist, Author/ The Aquamarine Research Center
Kuala Walu Wiki, Humboldt Bay / Eureka, California / orca-nor calif

 

[wet]

Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) have elucidated how the stability of the REDD1 protein is regulated.

Unraveling how cells respond to low oxygen
The REDD1 protein is a critical inhibitor of the mTOR signaling pathway, which controls cell growth and proliferation. The study was published in the August 2009 issue of EMBO Reports .

As part of the cellular stress response, REDD1 is expressed in cells under low oxygen conditions (hypoxia). The Burnham scientists showed that the REDD1 protein rapidly undergoes degradation by the ubiquitin-proteasome system, which allowed for the recovery of mTOR signaling once oxygen levels were restored to normal.

"Cells initially shut down the most energy-costly processes, such as growth, when they're under hypoxic stress. They do this by expressing REDD1, which inhibits the mTOR pathway" said Dr. Chiang. "But when the cell needs the mTOR pathway active, REDD1 has to be eliminated first. Because the REDD1 protein turns over so rapidly, it allows the pathway to respond very dynamically to hypoxia and other environmental conditions."
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ATP as fuel cell and signal processing
http://www.newsleader.com/article/20090807/NEWS01/90807003/1002/news01

Power plants produce energy by burning coal. Human beings burn a compound called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP for short. And while power companies struggle to find ways to deal with the byproducts of combustion, evolution solved that problem for humans long ago. The human body not only recycles the byproducts of ATP, it has found other uses for them as well.

One of these molecules – adenosine – is produced when cells under stress burn lots of ATP. Accordingly, it has been adapted by the body as a cell-signaling agent, to help the body deal with inflammation and injury. Because receptors for adenosine are found on virtually every cell type in the body, its therapeutic potential for treating diseases like diabetes, atherosclerosis and arthritis is vast. The key to harnessing adenosine has been the identification of the four adenosine receptors, each of which sets in motion a specific cascade of events within the cell when adenosine docks with it. Linden played a prominent role in identifying these receptors, and his collaboration with Macdonald enabled him to elucidate the functions of each one. Macdonald synthesized adenosine-like molecules that would dock with a specific adenosine receptor, either mimicking the action of adenosine or blocking it.

In effect, these molecules allowed Linden to turn the receptors on and off, the key to enabling him to discover their function. Linden found that one of the four receptors is responsible for dilating coronary arteries. The ability to dilate these arteries at will is particularly useful for imaging coronary arteries in the hearts of people who are not healthy enough to undergo traditional treadmill stress testing.

Although there are other pharmacological stress agents on the market, Macdonald's synthetic vasodilator potentially causes fewer side effects, is fast-acting and disappears from the system quickly.

 

[wet]

Clicking in submersibles
Yahoo! Groups

Hydrostatic tail loss in semi-submersibles
Yahoo! Groups

 

[wet]

Research on deep diving penguins, seals and high flying geese on oxygen conservation.

Penguinology: How Penguins & Seals Survive Deep Dives

 

[wet]

Hi all, in the interest of trying to maintain a good quality thread on Diving and Surfacing efficiently, please keep comments relevant to Diving and Surfacing efficiently, rather than letting it deteriorate into pointless arguments of little regard for Diving and Surfacing efficiently. I don't know why some think that humans in the past wouldn't have enjoyed swimming, diving & backfloating as much as people do today and as well into the future. I always welcome topic-related messages of course. There is much to learn.

 

[wet]

Frogs & hominoids are tail-less, salamanders and other primates have tails.

An attempt to explain: [comment submitted to tetrapod zoology and AAT]

"Sanyanlichan" is the name given to a fossil that represents the earliest known "modern" frog. The earliest known flowering seed plant, an aquatic herb, Archaefructus, and Sanyanlichan, were both found in 125,000,000 year old fossil beds in NE China. Archaefructus may/not be basal within angiosperms, rather it may be close to the Nymphaeales (eg. water lily) or the basal eudicots (eg. lotus).
/tietjen/images/in_search_of_the_first_flower.htm
wiki/Sanyanlichan
wiki/Nymphaea_nouchali

I think there was a symbiotic relationship, the Archaefructus attracted (via night UV and day visible color and homeothermic pheromonal scent) flying insects which pollinated the flowers but which also deposited eggs of hungry larva, frogs hastened the departure/death of lingering insects preventing herbivorous insects from eating the leaves (tongue was not yet so long). This in turn produced larger leaves with less competition, which then allowed an ideal frog ambush, coccyx fusion, long tongue zapping, improved evasive pad hop/frog kicking, better camouflage, larger vocal sac but no scent (that would compete with the floral scent wafting around the pond).

I view this interaction as similar to early tail-less hominoids eating papyrus/lily/lotus rhyzomes/seeds/etc., but with the caveat that due to consumption of (stagnanct freshwater) parasitic trematode flukes which attach to herbs, hominoids benefitted by eating sweet-sour fruits high in vit. C (ascorbic acid) which harmed flukes, (I think) so, the loss of self-made vit C was a sum benefit, since fruit trees were always available near wetlands. (I wonder if guinea pigs also have a two-part feeding cycle, as they lack vitamin C production also.) Also, possible slight selection for adding saltwater and later cooking to soften fibers and kill flukes, would have given great benefits later on. [this solves a puzzle and fits a path of parallel convergence of coccyx fusion (semi-submersed hydrostatic feeding), rare but expected in apes and frogs.]

I think this is why reptiles, other primates, sloths, bats and birds retain (and can partly regrow) segmented caudal vertebrae (even after spined feathers), no static wet feeding habit. Ducks and wading birds keep their rears above water, penguins don't sit in water and usually stand on ice. Seals, sea otters and walruses need a tail rudder, humans and frogs don't, but have a slight keeled profile.

Posted by: DDeden | August 13, 2009 3:57 AM

 

[wet]

Cave sonar - clicking & humming -> speech, song, art

Cave Men Loved to Sing | LiveScience

Ancient hunters painted the sections of their cave dwellings where singing, humming and music sounded best, a new study suggests.

Analyzing the famous, ochre-splashed cave walls of France, the most densely painted areas were also those with the best acoustics, the scientists found. Humming into some bends in the wall even produced sounds mimicking the animals painted there.

Cave dwellers used echolocation

People who lived in Europe during the Upper Paleolithic — from 10,000 to 40,000 years ago — spent a lot of time in caves, often living there or at least camping out for short periods. "They were hunters in cold conditions," Reznikoff told LiveScience.

With only dull light available from a torch, which couldn't be carried into very narrow passages, the ancient hunters had to use their voices like sonar to explore the crooks and crannies of a newfound cave, Reznikoff explained.

"When acting in a cave in conditions similar to prehistoric ones ... the surroundings a few meters ahead are almost completely dark," he said, adding that "since sound reaches much farther than reduced light, especially in irregular surroundings, the only possibility and security is to explore the cave with the voice and its echoing effects."

When they vacated their caves, many Paleolithic people left behind vast murals depicting bison, mammoth, ibex and other local fauna, as well as splotches of color — usually red — along narrow hallways and corners. A famous example is the network of caves at Lascaux, France, which contains several thousand figures painted across its walls.

Trained vocalists tested cave pitch

The cave paintings were part of a ritual system — like early religious beliefs — practiced by Paleolithic humans that likely also included singing and music, Reznikoff said, noting that bone whistles and flutes have been found inside many of the caves. What archeologists didn't know is whether the paintings and music were connected.

Suspecting a possible link, Reznikoff and a team used voice resonance to study the acoustics in caves across France (some work was done in past years and combined with the latest findings).

A trained vocalist was sent through the caves testing different sounds and pitches in various locations. Spots of maximum resonance, or places where the voice was most amplified and clear, were noted in each section and later laid over a map of the cave drawings. The vast majority of the paintings, up to 90 percent in some cases, were located directly at, or very near, the spots where the acoustics were the absolute best, they found.

Single red spots were even discovered in the most resonant areas of tiny tunnels where people could only have crawled in the dark, suggesting that the paintings were not just coincidentally located in the biggest, best open spaces where the sound was also rich, Reznikoff said. Some reverberations produced in the caves' resonant spots also sounded very similar to the animals painted on the walls nearby, he noted.

Sights and sounds come together

Because Paleolithic humans had a deep connection with the melodic properties that helped them navigate in a cave, they likely celebrated the unique acoustics by singing in conjunction with their painting sessions.

"Why would the Paleolithic tribes choose preferably resonant locations for painting," he said, "if it were not for making sounds and singing in some kind of ritual celebrations related with the pictures?"

The phenomenon isn't limited to the interior of caves, etiher. Studies have been done at some outdoor Paleolithic sites in France and Finland, and the sound-painting connection is also strong, Reznikoff said.

At a site called the Lac des Merveilles in Provence, there is a large flat rock archaeologists have labeled the Altar Stone, covered with more than a thousand pictures.

"There by the lake, the echo answers whole melodies and it is a pleasure to sing or play at this place; one can easily imagine celebrations using voice and horns," said Reznikoff.

Make Like a Dolphin: Learn Echolocation | Wired Science | Wired.com
http://forums.deeperblue.com/freediving-science/79552-diving-surfacing-efficiently-5.html#post773974
http://www.donsmaps.com/images/abridepoisson.jpg
A metre long life size salmon, made on the overhang of Abri du Poisson in the Gorge d'Enfer is the only sculpted representation of a fish, an animal rarely depicted in cave art, although it appears more often in portable art.
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By the time this salmon was carved into the rock wall, dive/backfloat foraging had been largely replaced by fishing with harpoons, nets, raft/dugout canoe, fish traps. The advantage being the mass quantities harvested, more efficient for feeding larger groups, and the ability for both waterside ambush hunting and fishing at cold water sites. Dive/backfloat foraging was a tropical dry season activity and summer season activity in the temperate zone, during the ice ages it was not available outside of the tropics. Coldwater salmon, trout, tuna were not frequently harvested before the advent of coldwater fishing equipment.

Humming (gibbon-like song) preceded clicking but followed pant-hooting (great apes), humming and tongue clicking associated with dive foraging became very simple speech with click consonants and vowels (KhoiSan bushmen speech, some are still retained (eg. the words technology, attach, attack, tick, touch, take all derive from the sound made by a hammerstone knapping a stone tool, taking off a flake), which eventually became more complex tonal speech and softened the clicks (Vietnamese), then lost tonality in favor of simpler monotonic pitched accent speech in western languages (IndoEuropean, Latin) when humans left cave dwelling entirely.

 

[wet]

S Prahl, S Huggenberger, H Schliemann 2009 J.Morphol.
Histological and ultrastructural aspects of the nasal complex in the harbour
porpoise, Phocoena phocoena

During the evolution of odontocetes, the nasal complex was modified into a
complicated system of passages & diverticulae. It is generally accepted that
these are essential structures for nasal sound production. However, the
mechanism of sound generation and the functional significance of the
epicranial nasal complex are not fully understood. We have studied the
epicranial structures of harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) using light
and electron microscopy with special consideration of the nasal
diverticulae, the phonic lips and dorsal bursae, the proposed center of
nasal sound generation. The lining of the epicranial respiratory tract with
associated diverticulae is consistently composed of a stratified squamous
epithelium with incomplete keratinization and irregular pigmentation. It
consists of a stratum basale and a stratum spinosum that transforms apically
into a stratum externum. The epithelium of the phonic lips comprises 70-80
layers of extremely flattened cells, i.e., four times more layers than in
the remaining epicranial air spaces. This alignment and the increased number
of desmosomes surrounding each cell indicate a conspicuous rigid quality of
the epithelium. The area surrounding the phonic lips and adjacent fat bodies
exhibits a high density of mechanoreceptors, possibly perceiving pressure
differentials and vibrations. Mechanoreceptors with few layers and with
perineural capsules directly subepithelial of the phonic lips can be
distinguished from larger, multi-layered mechanoreceptors without perineural
capsules in the periphery of the dorsal bursae. A blade-like elastin body at
the caudal wall of the epicranial respiratory tract may act as antagonist of
the musculature that moves the blowhole ligament. Bursal cartilages exist in
the developmental stages from fetus through juvenile and could not be
verified in adults. These histological results support the hypothesis of
nasal sound generation for the harbor porpoise and display specific
adaptations of the echolocating system in this species.

 

[wet]

On Bagpipes & Blowguns

Respiration in surface float feeding vs deep benthic diving

Float feeders have a bagpipe-like system of breathing & vocalizing
The lungs and/or the air sac are always aerated (oxygenated), nose up

Dive foragers have a blowgun-like system of breathing & vocalizing
The lungs and/or the blood/muscle are oxygenated, nose down

This is parallel in: [surface vs deep]
Lily pad sitting frogs vs deep sub aquatic frogs
surface feeding right whales vs benthic diving sperm whales
nostril-up wading reindeer/caribou vs nostril-down moose/muntjac
nostril-up gorillas/chimps vs nostril-down humans

Nostril up usually indicates laryngeal air (throat) sac (gorilla, chimp)
Nostril down usually indicates lack of throat sac (human, sea otter)

 

[wet]

Giant Lotus Leaves

Giant water lily pad. Actually the vertical fan leaves behind the child are lotus.

 

[wet]

I just noticed that Willard Wigan updated his web page, I like the
micro-architecture (at the page top).

Willard Wigan - Micro Sculptor

Fine manual crafting as WW does using deep breath holds, is an amazingly practical use for "dry" apnea.

Many freedivers practice dry apnea when unable to dive, some apnea walk, some apnea bicycle stationary, many sit and hold the breath, watching the clock. I haven't heard of anyone else doing fine craftwork while in apnea.

 

[ezequiel]

This thread is very entertaining. It appears to be an exercise in banging head into wall for Mullins :head :blackeye

Keep fighting the good fight for common sense and critical thinking mate, but I think that there are forces out there that you will never overcome.

is true, I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS THREAD AND THE WAY "THEY PROVE and EXPLAIN" the theory .

thanks Mullins for trying.

 

[wet]

more spam, now from 'ezequiel'.

 

[wet]

There is probably some confusion amongst some divers who wear weights to offset their natural buoyancy, reading this thread. As I've said before, ancestral coastal humans (1ma) did not carry heavy stones in order to quickly drop down to depth, for the same reason other diving mammals do not, its not practical physiologically in a cyclical diver/backfloater to do so.

Instead, the body itself gradually developed denser bones, for example the femur (hip bone) and occiput amongst coastal/waterside people were both larger and more filled internally with mineralized (rather than porous cancellous) bone than hominids inland and later humans using boats. There is a parallel with other slow diving benthivores like walruses, sea otters and manatees, though not to the same extent of course, since ancient humans were only part-time divers, rather than full-time aquatic mammals completely reliant upon a seafood diet.

Today's divers with boats, long fins, roped weights (as in the Ama divers) etc. have a different paradigm, and different set of priorities, obviously, especially amongst competitive sport freedivers setting records for single deepest/longest dives, and spearos seeking trophy pelagic fish, the concept of 'efficiency' is bounded by very different parameters, which would have been quite alien to the natural sea divers along the seashores of antiquity.

A modern marathon road runner wearing $1,000 shoes may run a good race, perhaps beating (on the clock) a barefoot runner on the beach. But the beach runner has water and salt available, while the other must carry it or rely on a complex trade system (not available to ancient ancestors), to avoid dehydration and heat stroke.

Similarly, archaic divers had no fancy gear, just their bodies, and their reliance on physiological respiratory cycle diving, to gather foods from the depths, (never during the rainy season, when they inland foraging and highland quarrying), to supplement their shoreside diets.

It is humorous how so many folks today have issues with freediving ancestry, yet gladly embrace thoughts of early hominins chasing wildebeests for hours on end on the dry hot savannas, losing their fur coat and sweating away all their vital water and salt supplies, or living permanently in tropical inland rainforests as furry chimps and gorillas do, rather than diving and backfloating at quiet seashore lagoons. But then, anthropologists have always been good story tellers. I'm just a freediving naturalist (when I get to warm shores), interested in our biology and social foraging past, and comparing it to today and future coastal living.

 

[wet]

[See next post for analysis]

Injuries in a Mysticete Skeleton from the Miocene of Virginia, With a Discussion of Buoyancy and the Primitive Feeding Mode in the Chaeomysticeti Jeffersoniana (an ancient whale) by Brian L. Beatty and Alton C. Dooley, Jr.

ABSTRACT
A mostly complete skeleton of a mysticete from the Carmel Church Quarry displays some injuries, including a fractured and partially-healed left mandible, previously not reported in any fossil mysticete. Possible scenarios for how this
injury could have happened include intraspecific aggression and, more likely, impact with the seafloor during benthic feeding. The ribs of this individual are heavily osteosclerotic from dorsal to ventral ends, which would suggest that this taxon was a benthic feeder. In comparison with a sample of ribs from fossil mysticetes, it appears that Diorocetus may have been one of the last mysticetes with rib osteosclerosis, a feature possibly primitive to Mysticeti. Although this remains speculative, the presence of osteosclerotic ribs in primitive mysticetes suggests that the feeding mode employed by the earliest Chaeomysticeti was one of benthic feeding.

Free Jeffersoniana #20 Download

http://web.me.com/dooleyclan/Site_2...9_Left-handed_whale_died_a_painful_death.html

"Brian and I believe this occurred when the whale was engaged in bottom feeding. This is a practice employed by modern gray whales, in which they scoop up a mouthfull of sediment and filter out the invertebrate animals living in it. The whale presumably collided with something hard on the seafloor, causing the injury.

This is reminiscent of the ribs of sirenians (eg. manatees), which have no cancellous bone in the ribs at all. In sirenians, this has been interpreted as ballast to aid the sea cow is staying on the bottom while feeding on sea grasses. To document the relatively high rib density in Diorocetus, Brian and I measured rib thicknesses in a variety of whales, and found that the Carmel Church Diorocetus did have remarkably dense ribs compared to its contemporaries. To our surprise, however, we found that very early (Oligocene) baleen whales, as well as Oligocene toothed mysticetes such as Aetiocetus, have ribs as dense as, or more dense than, Diorocetus. If our assumption that high rib density correlates with bottom feeding is correct, it suggests that baleen originally evolved as a mechanism for benthic feeding. The use of baleen to capture swimming animals such as small fish and krill in the water column (employed by almost all living baleen whales) may be a behavior that evolved later. "

The Aquatic Amniote

This animal, probably Diorocetus, has some seriously osteosclerotic ribs. It is hard to find good diagnostic specimens of mysticetes that have decent skulls with associated ribs (partly because they are a pain to collect), so when we looked at this we couldn't believe it when we saw this classic "cetothere" with ribs that almost have as much cortical bone thickness as a manatee! Ok, that is perhaps a bit exaggerated, but it is significantly thicker than that found in odontocetes.

So then we decided to look for osteosclerosis in other mysticetes, especially fossil taxa, and found that in our preliminary sample that some of the oldest mysticetes, including toothed mysticetes like Aetiocetus, they had a very advanced form of osteosclerosis, and that only "modern" mysticetes, particularly rorquals, have more porous bones like those seen in odontocetes. What this implies for the evolution of benthic feeding and filter feeding in general with mysticetes is interesting, and discussed in the paper's discussion section. I would urge you to read the paper and judge it for yourself. The discussion of the cause and behavior associated with this individual specimen is meant to be speculative, although an intriguing idea, but the best part is the osteosclerosis (in my opinion)."

*****ALSO - for another media release about this, see the article in the Virginia Pilot, including comments by Mark Uhen and Nick Pyenson.

VMNH PRESS RELEASE CONTACT: Ryan Barber (276) 634-4163

Virginia Museum of Natural History releases 20th installment of the Jeffersoniana scientific publication series Publication features first published evidence of bottom feeding habits in extinct whales.

MARTINSVILLE, Va. (August 19, 2009) - The Virginia Museum of Natural History has released the 20th installment of its Jeffersoniana scientific publication series, which is now available as a free download from the museum's online
store. The publication, titled "Injuries in a Mysticete Skeleton from the Miocene of Virginia", focuses on the mostly complete fossil skeleton of a baleen whale discovered during a museum excavation at the Carmel Church Quarry in Caroline County, Virginia in 2006. Unique features from these particular remains had never been documented in any other fossil baleen whale and give evidence to suggest several previously unpublished theories of the feeding habits of this now extinct species.

Co-authors Dr. Brian Beatty, VMNH museum research associate and assistant professor of anatomy at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Dr. Alton Dooley, Jr., assistant curator of vertebrate paleontology at VMNH, suggest that the baleen whale was likely a benthic, or bottom feeding animal, primarily obtaining its food from scooping mud from the ocean floor and filtering the sediment from the plentiful fauna living in the sea floor. Such behavior is common in today's gray whales and to a lesser extent in humpback whales. The size and placement of a fracture on the left side of its jaw suggests that the injury likely had occurred during feeding. The characteristics of the injury indicate it was likely the result of a severe impact, likely trauma resulting from benthic feeding.

Supporting this theory is the density of the whale's rib bones. Dense ribs like those seen in this baleen whale are associated in bottom feeding in some other marine mammals, such as the manatee. Moreover, the presence of similar dense ribs in early baleen whale relatives suggests that baleen may have originally evolved to allow feeding from seafloor mud and only later was adapted for capturing fish and shrimp. In addition, the publication documents the presence of lateralization in a
fossil whale for the first time. Lateralization, or handedness, is well-known in humans and occurs in many animals, including modern gray and humpback whales. Like humans, whales are usually right-handed, and primarily feed from the right side of their mouths when they canvas the ocean floor. Such a fracture on the left side of the fossil whale's jaw indicates it favored eating from its left side, a much less frequent occurrence.

Barstovian (middle Miocene) Land Mammals from the Carmel Church Quarry, Caroline County, Virginia Jeffersoniana #18

Alton C. Dooley, Jr.

ABSTRACT
Excavation of marine sediments of the Calvert Formation at the Carmel Church Quarry has resulted in the collection of remains of several land mammals. These include the first reports from the upper Calvert Formation of the family Dromomerycidae and of the equid Calippus cf. regulus as well as the tayassuid "Prosthennops" xiphidonticus and a tapirid.