Rattan

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ORCHARD ROAD, Singapore, Oct. 24, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- EXHIBITION ANNOUNCEMENT: 'Confluence: Hindu Art from Indonesia' by Wovensouls

• Despite their public image as torpid, lumbering creatures, many dinosaurs were evidently warm-blooded, highly active animals, capable of prolonged and strenuous aerobic exercise.
• In new research, my colleagues and I determined how much energy minibus-sized dinosaurs called Maiasaura used while growing to adulthood.

How bones heal and grow

• Locomotion and weight-bearing activity cause stresses and strains that result in microfractures in the bones.
• Fortunately, the leg bones of dinosaurs – like those of birds, mammals and varanid lizards such as the Komodo dragon – repair themselves in a process known as bone remodelling.
• The main impediment to this research is the shortage of collections of bones from a single dinosaur species at different stages of growth.

‘Good mother reptile’

• Fossils from this formation have yielded much information about the eggs, hatchlings and early lives of a dinosaur named Maiasaura (meaning “good mother reptile”).
• This herbivorous hadrosaur apparently tended her eggs and raised her offspring for more than a year after hatching.

How to measure blood flow from bones

• A decade ago, I wondered whether the size of the foramen could be an indirect measurement of the rate of blood flow to a bone.
• This turned out to be true, and since then the “foramen technique” has been used on fossils to estimate blood flow rate and hence how much energy and nutrients were used in the bones of adult dinosaurs.

Rapid growth doesn’t come cheap

• Blood flow rates calculated from foramen size were similar in one-year-old dinosaurs weighing between 189kg and 455kg and in six- to 11-year-old adults weighing between 1,680kg and 3,200kg.
• In other words, a one-year-old had about four times as much blood flowing to each gram of its shinbone as a full-grown adult did.
• These differences reveal how much more energy and nutrients it took to build bones in the early rapid growth stages of a Maiasaura’s life than it did to maintain the bones in adulthood.

• Costs have at least quadrupled every decade since 1970 and that trend is set to continue.
• Stopping pests and diseases arriving and establishing in Australia is not only better for the environment, it’s much cheaper too.
• Read more:
  The true damage of invasive alien species was just revealed in a landmark report.

One of the biggest threats to biodiversity

• Invasive alien species include weeds, feral animals, exotic pests and diseases.
• Invasive species are pushing most (82%) of Australia’s 1,914 nationally listed threatened species closer to extinction.
• Read more:
  1.7 million foxes, 300 million native animals killed every year: now we know the damage foxes wreak

1. Giant African land snail

Giant African snails have a ferocious appetite. They feed on more than 500 species of plants including agricultural crops and eucalyptus trees. The shells of these giants can be 20cm long and females typically lay 1,200 eggs a year. Adult snails could sneak into shipping containers or machinery and their eggs could be transported in soil or goods. They are now present on Christmas Island.

2. Avian influenza

• Avian influenza or bird-flu is a viral disease found in birds.
• Some strains can kill farmed poultry and susceptible wild birds.
• Read more:
  Migrating birds could bring lethal avian flu to Australia's vulnerable birds

3. New tramp ants

• We’re already battling some species of tramp ants, but there’s more where that came from - there are at least 16 different species.
• On Christmas Island, another tramp ant species (yellow crazy ants) formed “super colonies”, killing every animal in their path, including tens of millions of the island’s iconic red and robber crabs.

4. Bat white nose syndrome

White nose syndrome is a bat disease caused by a fungus. In less than 20 years it has killed more than five million bats across North America, causing local extinctions and reducing the beneficial services performed by bats such as eating harmful insects. The fungus could be introduced to Australian caves on the shoes, clothing and equipment of people who had previously visited caves in Europe or North America.

5. Crayfish plague

A highly infectious fungal disease, crayfish plague is the main cause of crayfish declines across Europe. It has the potential to devastate Australian freshwater crayfish populations. North American crayfish can be carriers of the disease and the illegal trade of crayfish, such as the dwarf Cajun crayfish for aquariums, also threatens to introduce the disease.

6. New myrtle rust strains

• When a strain of myrtle rust arrived in Australia in 2010, it spread quickly along the east coast, infecting 358 different native plant species including eucalypts, bottle brushes and lilly pillies.
• Other exotic myrtle rust strains occur outside Australia.

7. Savannah cats

• Savannah cats are two to three times the size of domestic cats.
• In 2008 the federal government banned the importation of savannah cats.

8. Black spined toad

• The black spined toad is potentially more damaging than the cane toad because it could survive across a bigger region including in the colder parts of Australia.
• It would prey on native frogs and other small animals, be toxic to larger animals, and probably carry exotic parasites or disease.

Prioritising nature

• Historically, the environment has also been the poor cousin of agriculture at the biosecurity table.
• Preparedness and responses for environmental threats remain chronically underfunded, especially when compared to those developed for industry.
• She previously worked for the now ended Threatened Species Recovery Hub of the Australian Government's National Environmental Science Program.