BUENOS AIRES: Paleontologists in Argentina's remote Patagonia region have discovered fossils of what may be the largest dinosaur ever, amid a vast cache of fossils that could shed light on prehistoric life.
The creature is believed to be a new species of Titanosaur, a long-necked, long-tailed sauropod that walked on four legs and lived some 90 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period.
Researchers say the plant-eating dinosaur weighed the equivalent of more than 14 African elephants, or about 100 tonnes, and stretched up to 40 meters (130 feet) in length.
The previous record holder, also in Argentina, the Argentinosaurus, was estimated to measure 36.6 meters long.
A fossilized femur of the Titanosaur was larger than a paleontologist who lay next to it.
And the find didn't stop there.
Bones from at least seven individual dinosaurs, including some believed to be younger, were found at the site.
This is "the most complete discovery of this type of giant dinosaur in the world, a momentous discovery for science," cheered Jose Luis Carballido, one of eight scientists who participated in the research.
The fossils were accidentally discovered in 2011 by a farm worker in a remote area in the Patagonian province of Chubut, some 1,300 km south of Buenos Aires.
The worker first spotted a massive leg bone, measuring some 2.4 meters in length.
Excavations launched in January 2013 also uncovered complete bones of the tail, torso and neck — which will allow for a fuller picture of what the entire animal looked like when alive.
Carballido, part of a team of Argentine and Spanish researchers, said the group had uncovered "10 vertebrae of the torso, 40 from the tail, parts of the neck and complete legs."
"Until now, what was known, worldwide, about sauropods was from fragmentary discoveries," said the 36-year-old paleontologist from the Egidio Feruglio Museum in the southern city of Trelew, calling the find "extraordinary."
Even more bones may yet appear.
So far, "we have only recovered an estimated 20 percent of what's in the field," said Carballido.
The find is set to help shed light on more than just the anatomy of these remarkably large herbivores.
The researchers have also found what they believe to be muscle insertions, which will help them reconstruct the form of the creature's muscles and calculate how much energy was needed to move them.
Paleontologists have found about 60 teeth at the site, 57 of which are from Tyrannotitan carnivores — one of the largest known therapods, and known scavengers.
In addition to the skeletal remains, fossil imprints of leaves and stems have been found, which could help researchers rebuild the ecosystem at the time.
"We will be able to make a very precise reconstruction and answer many questions," Carballido said — including just what about southern Argentina made conditions favorable for so many massive dinosaur species.
So far, the new species remains unnamed, and scientists estimate they will publish the first results next year.
"The research will be done in several stages. First we will present the new species, its characteristics," Carballido said, followed by years of study to detail the animal's biology and "the way it grew up."
Paul Barrett, fossils and anthropology expert at London's Natural History Museum, cautioned that claims this dinosaur is the largest ever still must be confirmed.
"This is an inspiring new discovery of a truly gigantic dinosaur," Barrett said.
"However, we need to know more about the overall size and proportions of the skeleton and use several different methods to investigate its possible width before deciding it's definitely the largest dinosaur species yet known."
US paleontologist David Burnham agreed that "a lot of things still need to be proven."
But largest dinosaur or not, the breadth of the discovery was truly remarkable.
"You can really start reconstructing past life when you get a treasure trove like this," said Burnham, of the University of Kansas.
Finding so many individual dinosaurs at one site could confirm the hypothesis that these herbivores lived in herds, as well as determine any predators they may have had, whether they were scavengers, when they died and in what type of environment they lived, the paleontologist added.
Fossils of 'largest' dinosaur found in Argentina
Fossils of 'largest' dinosaur found in Argentina
Egypt’s Sudanese refugees using rich cuisine to build new lives
- Across the sprawling megalopolis of Cairo — home to over 20 million people — many Sudanese refugees have opened businesses, bringing a taste of home and hoping to make a name for themselves
CAIRO: Sudanese entrepreneur Julie Samir’s dream of opening a restaurant has finally come true, but it’s a bittersweet achievement after she fled Egypt from her war-torn homeland of Sudan.
Now, Samir has one aim for her menu: winning over the palate of Egyptians with a taste of Sudan’s complex culinary traditions, born from a rich history at the crossroads of the Middle East and Africa.
“I’m targeting the Egyptian consumer, I want them to get to know Sudanese culture,” the 42-year-old told AFP from her sun-lit eatery in eastern Cairo, the scent of simmering aromatics wafting out of the kitchen.
Across the sprawling megalopolis of Cairo — home to over 20 million people — many Sudanese refugees have opened businesses, bringing a taste of home and hoping to make a name for themselves.
Samir and her two children have been in the Egyptian capital for over a year, since making the 2,000-kilometer (around 1,200-mile) journey from their home in Khartoum.
Along with half a million other Sudanese, they fled the war between Sudan’s regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to neighboring Egypt — and got to work rebuilding a life.
Today, on the lawns of one of Cairo’s upscale sporting clubs, Samir’s restaurant ‘Kush Children’s Village’ serves up a fusion menu.
“The name was my father’s idea, inspired by the Bible,” she said, explaining the reference to Kush, the ancient kingdom that straddled modern-day Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.
“We serve all three cuisines,” she said proudly, but insisted the restaurant is still distinctly Sudanese.
“Everyone who works here is from Sudan, all of us came here fleeing the war,” she said, explaining how the team found each other through solidarity networks on social media.
In the kitchen, 46-year-old chef Fadi Moufid fussed over pots and pans stewing a number of the restaurant’s wide array of dishes.
The former caterer’s signature is agashe — skewered meat, chicken or fish seasoned with a spicy peanut dry rub then barbequed low and slow on glowing embers.
“Egyptians don’t like their food as spicy as we do, so we try to tone it down so they can really appreciate it,” Moufid told AFP over a bowl of zigni, a beef stew marinated in Ethiopian spices and served with injera, a spongy flatbread.
But cracking the Egyptian culinary scene is no easy feat.
“Competition wasn’t as big in Sudan between food businesses, but here it’s huge,” Moufid says, pointing particularly to “large Syrian restaurants” founded by diaspora entrepreneurs who also fled their war-torn homeland in recent years.
Standing out can be difficult, but Moufid and Samir are slowly drawing in Egyptian palates.
“I liked the taste of the spices and how tender the meat is,” one of their Egyptian guests, Khaled Abdelrahman, told AFP.
“It has a different feel to it,” he said.
In the suburb of Sheikh Zayed, west of Cairo, Sudanese confectioner Qussay Biram’s dessert shop, “Jeeb Maak” — Arabic for “Bring Along” — sells deep-fried dough balls called ‘luqaimat’.
They are similar to Egyptian ‘zalabia’, but still shock the Egyptians who step into the sweet-smelling store.
“They’re taken by surprise because we put more salt in the dough than they’re used to,” one of his employees, Ziad Abdelhalim, told AFP.
“It brings out a different taste to the sweetness,” he said while serving customers a steaming cup of traditional cardamom-spiced milk tea — also novel to most Egyptians.
The business model is clearly working, with ‘Jeeb Maak’ now boasting three branches across Cairo.
But Biram says it hardly makes up for what he left behind.
At 29, the entrepreneur believes he will likely never return to Sudan and that the businesses he “closed because of the war” back home are gone forever.
In a little over a year, already impoverished Sudan has been torn apart. The war has killed tens of thousands of people, pushed close to nine million from their homes and brought the country to the brink of famine.
“Even if things calm down, there won’t be many business opportunities,” he said, resolute in his plan to “see this experience in Egypt through.”
Samir, who said her family was stalked by paramilitary fighters when fleeing Sudan, had planned to spend only a month in Egypt.
“But the war’s not ending,” she said, resigned to finding ways to remind herself of the homeland she longs for.
“I want to hire a henna artist in the restaurant, I know Egyptians love that,” she said with a laugh.
Climate activist arrested for attacking Monet painting in Paris
- Action is the latest in a string of protests aimed at drawing attention to global warming by defacing art
PARIS: A climate activist was arrested on Saturday for sticking an adhesive poster on a Monet painting at the Musee d’Orsay in Paris to draw attention to global warming, a police source told AFP.
The action by the woman, a member of “Riposte Alimentaire” (Food Response) — a group of environmental activists and defenders of sustainable food production — is the latest in a string of protests aimed at drawing attention to global warming by defacing art.
In a video posted on X, the woman — introducing herself as a “concerned citizen” --- is seen placing a blood-red poster over the “Coquelicots” (Poppy Field) painting by Claude Monet, a French Impressionist artist.
In the video she said of the poster covering Monet’s art that “this nightmarish image awaits us if no alternative is put in place.”
She added: “At four degrees, we can expect hell,” a reference to forecasts saying that Earth’s temperature could rise by 4 Celsius over pre-industrial levels by 2050.
Monet’s painting, completed in 1873, shows people with umbrellas strolling in a blooming poppy field and is part of a special Musee d’Orsay show called “Paris 1874, Inventing Impressionism” that features 130 works by 31 artists.
A restoration expert examined the painting which suffered no permanent damage, the Musee d’Orsay told AFP, adding that it had been put back on the wall.
“The exhibition is entirely accessible to the public again,” a spokesperson said.
The museum would file a criminal complaint, the spokesperson added.
Some of Monet’s works have sold for tens of millions of dollars, with his painting “Meules” (“Haystacks“) even fetching over $110 million including fees at an auction in 2019.
Riposte Alimentaire has claimed responsibility for several attacks on art in France in a bid to draw attention to the climate crisis and deteriorating food quality.
They included an attack on the world’s most famous portrait, the “Mona Lisa,” in the Louvre in January when two protesters hurled soup at the bullet-proof glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s masterwork, saying they had a right to “healthy and sustainable food.”
The attackers were sentenced by a Paris court to carry out volunteer work for a charity organization.
Already in 2022, a man had thrown a custard pie at the Mona Lisa because, he said, artists were not focusing enough on “the planet.”
In February, Riposte Alimentaire protesters again threw soup at a painting, this time in Lyon, southeast France, targeting another Monet painting, “Springtime.”
Last month activists also belonging to the group stuck flyers around “Liberty Leading the People,” a painting by Eugene Delacroix in the Louvre.
In April, two of its members were arrested at the Musee d’Orsay, which is dedicated to 19th-Century art, suspected of preparing an action there.
Riposte Alimentaire calls itself a “French civil resistance movement which aims to spur a radical societal change for the environment and society.”
“We love art,” the movement has said, “but future artists will have nothing to paint on a burning planet.”
Monet appears to be a favorite target for climate activists elsewhere, too, with paintings by the Impressionist having previoiusly come under attack in Potsdam, Germany, and in Stockholm.
Jennifer Lopez cancels summer tour: ‘I am completely heartsick and devastated’
- The tour was scheduled to kick off on June 26 in Orlando, Florida, and conclude in Houston on Aug. 31
NEW YORK: Jennifer Lopez has canceled her 2024 North American tour, representatives for Live Nation confirmed to The Associated Press.
“Jennifer is taking time off to be with her children, family and close friends,” they said in a statement.
The tour was to be her first in five years, in support of her first solo album in a decade, “This Is Me... Now” and its companion film.
The tour was scheduled to kick off on June 26 in Orlando, Florida, and conclude in Houston on Aug. 31. Live Nation shared that attendees who purchased tickets through Ticketmaster will be automatically refunded.
Lopez offered her own statement to fans on her OntheJLo website and newsletter, writing, “I am completely heartsick and devastated about letting you down. Please know that I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t feel that it was absolutely necessary.”
She continued: “I promise I will make it up to you and we will all be together again. I love you all so much. Until next time…”
“This Is Me... Now” was released early this year, 20 years after her hit album, “This Is Me... Then.” Lopez told the AP that the new album was a “miracle” and “a second chance. And I’d love to capture this moment in time the way that album captured that moment in time.”
Kodi, star of ‘Dog on Trial,’ takes home Cannes’ top dog prize
- The Griffon mix was praised for his “breathtaking” performance as Cosmos, a guide dog for a visually impaired man
- Xin, the greyhound who made a star turn in Chinese director Guan Hu’s “Black Dog,” was awarded the Palm Dog’s Grand Jury Prize
CANNES, France: There was lots of tail-wagging and face-licking as Kodi, this year’s winner of the Palm Dog, the canine equivalent of the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize, went up to receive his red collar for the French comedy “Dog on Trial” on Friday.
The Griffon mix was praised for his “breathtaking” performance as Cosmos, a guide dog for a visually impaired man, who goes on trial over an attack, in a case whose outcome could mean death.
“This film is very significant because it not only explores the bond between humans and dogs but it takes a satirical, comedic but quite profound look at the way that we domesticate dogs and the way that we relate to dogs, and the way our justice system relates to dogs,” said critic and jury member Anna Smith.
Xin, the greyhound who made a star turn in Chinese director Guan Hu’s “Black Dog,” was awarded the Palm Dog’s Grand Jury Prize.
Xin was in Cannes to don the red collar for the film about an ex-convict tasked with ridding his town of stray dogs who befriends one of them.
The unofficial awards show, which was created in 2001, is now in its 24th edition.
Kodi succeeds last year’s winner, Messi from Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” who converted his star power into a French TV show in which he, through the voice of French humorist Raphael Mezrahi, interviews people at this year’s festival.
Other past winners include Brandy, a pit bull belonging to Brad Pitt’s character in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and Tilda Swinton’s spaniels, who co-starred with her in a film directed by Joanna Hogg.
Massive cradle of baby stars revealed in new space telescope images
- The European Space Agency released the photos from the Euclid observatory on Thursday
- Euclid will spend the next several years observing billions of galaxies covering more than one-third of the sky
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida: A massive cradle of baby stars has been observed in new detail by a European space telescope, adding to its celestial collection of images.
The European Space Agency released the photos from the Euclid observatory on Thursday.
They were taken following the telescope’s Florida launch last year as a warm-up act to its main job currently underway: surveying the so-called dark universe.
From its perch 1 million miles (1.6 million kilometers) from Earth, Euclid will spend the next several years observing billions of galaxies covering more than one-third of the sky.
The shape and size of all these galaxies can help scientists understand the mysterious dark energy and dark matter that make up most of the universe.
“Euclid is at the very beginning of its exciting journey to map the structure of the universe,” the space agency’s director general, Josef Aschbacher, said in a statement.
Among the newly released pictures is one of an enormous cradle of baby stars some 1,300 light-years away known as Messier 78. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles. Euclid’s infrared camera peered through the dust enveloping the stellar nursery, revealing new regions of star formation, according to ESA.
