Word: fossils
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...Donald Johanson shouted, "There's part of a humerus right next to it!" That July 1986 find in Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge marked the beginning of a startling discovery that was formally unveiled last week by White and Johanson. The team of ten U.S. and Tanzanian scientists unearthed 302 fossil bones and teeth that have yielded a more complete picture of modern humans' earliest direct ancestor, Homo habilis. The new material could alter the way scientists interpret human evolution...
...running out of fossil fuels, and problems with fission prevent us from using that," he said...
...environmental cost of plumbing the desert water reserves may be considerable. Estimates of the amount of fossil water beneath the Sahara vary widely, as do calculations about the rate of replenishment through flash floods, which turn desert wadis into raging torrents. Says Hydrologist Smith: "It is a one-off use of the resource, and only a short-term solution to the problem." Indeed, some scientists say it is impossible to know for sure whether the desert water will flow for 200, 50 or just 20 years...
First to spot the fossil forest was Paul Tudge, a helicopter pilot who has been ferrying Geological Survey scientists to and from remote sites on Axel Heiberg and Ellesmere for years. He had once seen McMillan's fossil forest, and on a flight to Axel Heiberg in July 1985, Tudge recalls, "I saw the same sort of stumps, but many, many of them." He later returned to the site, landed nearby, collected samples and brought them to Basinger, who immediately began planning this summer's expedition. Aided by a grant from the Geological Survey and accompanied by another fossil-forest...
Discovery of the fossil forest may have an economic spin-off. When resins given off by these ancient trees are buried 6,000 ft. underground, according to McMillan, they are eventually converted into very good oil. The resins, he believes, are the major source of oil found in the Beaufort Sea and elsewhere in the Arctic. "The more we know of the climate and vegetation," he says, "the better we'll be able to assess the oil and gas potential there...