Daily Archives: August 20, 2021

ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE POWER SECTORTHISDAYLIVE – THISDAY Newspapers

Posted: August 20, 2021 at 5:48 pm

Lack of transparency has aided incompetence in the sector

The entire country was recently plunged into blackout when the national grid collapsed and lost 3,489 megawatts (MW). That about 99.7 per cent of the countrys daily generation would collapse in one day reinforces existing concerns about the structural defects of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN). It has proved incapable of stabilising the power grid, transmitting generated volumes with minimal losses and putting an end to frequent power outages. More tellingly, the national blackout coincided with the release by the Senate of a N132 million fraud at the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc (NBET).

Both developments the nationwide power outage and the unbudgeted N132 million NBET expenditure clearly illustrate the absence of accountability in a sector that has a fully constituted NERC running its affairs. For the nationwide power outage, reports indicate that it was the fourth time the country would be experiencing system collapse in 2021. This is despite the huge investment of over $1.6 billion to upgrade TCNs transmission infrastructure through the World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), and other multilateral organisations. The TCN has also received budgetary allocations to support its transmission infrastructure upgrade, yet it is at best a lame duck, unable to support the objectives of the power sector privatisation consummated in 2013.

According to operations report, in the first week of March 2021 for example, the power sector lost about N6.8 billion to constraints and other challenges which included unavailability of transmission infrastructure. Clearly, the TCN cannot guarantee stable transmission of power to the Discos for onward distribution to end-users. It also constraints the national economy from growing as industries and commercial entities, including small and medium-sized enterprises heavily rely on diesel and petrol generators to stay afloat. Any country keen on sustainable socio-economic development cannot overlook the inevitable reorganisation needed at the hugely dysfunctional behemoth called TCN.

Data from the system operator of the TCN reveal that the national grid has recorded steady collapses, but no one is ever called to account by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for what could be considered a drawback on the power sector. This is also what is on display at NBET. Reports from the Senate Committee on Public Accounts which was adopted by the Senate, noted that the NBET spent N95.320 million on overseas training for its staff, which never took place; N34.163 million on unverifiable services and N2.583 million on uniforms for outsourced drivers. As indicated by the Senate, a federal government entity spending N2.583 million on uniforms for outsourced drivers is clearly illegal considering that it is solely the responsibility of the contractor to kit its employees. Additionally, the money spent on overseas training for NBET staff between October and November 2014 was in violation of a presidential directive against such expenses. The Senate also pointed out that the expenditure has no documentary evidence to back its execution.

The business of NBET as a bulk power trader in the sector is essential, just as its processes are expected to be transparent and fraud-proof. To have an NBET with questionable transactions is akin to putting the fate of the countrys electricity market in jeopardy. Clearly, both cases at the NBET and TCN are evidence that accountability in Nigerias power sector is not yet the priority of the government or the regulator, NERC. They also suggest that the reasons why top private investors and investments seldom look towards Nigerias power sector may not be all about the absence of funds to invest, but about the lack of trust in a market that lacks transparency and accountability.

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What lies behind social unrest in South Africa, and what might be done about it – The Conversation CA

Posted: at 5:48 pm

South Africa has among the highest recorded levels of social protest of any country in the world. The reasons behind this are more complex than often assumed.

The scale and severity of the looting and sabotage in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng in July, following the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma, has brought social protest and civil unrest into the popular discourse.

But much of the commentary on the July riot which cost over 300 lives and billions of rands in damage to the economy has neglected the long history of violent protest in the country. The truth is that, while disgruntlement by Zumas supporters was the trigger, the roots of social unrest go much deeper.

What is more, the available data shows that the number of protests in South Africa has been steadily rising over the past 20 years. For instance, there has been an almost nine-fold increase in the average number of service delivery protests each year comparing 2004-08 with 2015-19.

There is also evidence that social protests are increasingly violent and disruptive.

Read more: Violence in South Africa: an uprising of elites, not of the people

It is important to understand what lies behind this trend of growing social unrest, which makes the country precarious, and what might be done to tackle the underlying causes.

If the government wants to avoid a repeat of the social and economic catastrophe of the July 2021 riots even if on a smaller and more localised scale it should look back to learn some important lessons about why protest happens and how to address this.

There are a number of key factors in understanding the reasons behind social protest in South Africa:

First, it is important to recognise that the people and places with the highest levels of social and economic deprivation are not those most likely to protest. For example, protests over service delivery the provision of basic services such as electricity, water and sanitation are heavily concentrated in the metropolitan areas, such as Johannesburg, Cape Town, eThekwini, Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay and Mangaung. Yet rural municipalities actually have much lower levels of service coverage.

Access to basic services has also improved across the country over the past two decades. But delivery protests have increased exponentially over the same period. There are evidently deeper and more complex reasons behind how and when ineffective delivery of municipal services ends up in social conflict.

Second, it is often a sense of unfairness (inequality), not just levels of provision, that lead to grievances and resentment which spark social protest. For instance, long-standing differences in amenities between neighbouring communities send a clear signal that the government is not willing or not able to meet their needs in an equitable manner.

A case in point is informal settlements which have often been hotspots for protest action. Rural migrants arrive in the city with expectations of a better life, only to end up living in squalor. Until the government can implement a realistic and scalable plan for upgrading informal settlements, this is likely to continue.

Third, government departments tend to get fixated with meeting numerical targets at the expense of service quality and what matters most for communities. Recent research suggests that municipal officials get locked into a culture of playing it safe and compliance in delivering services and related public investments rather than innovation and genuine transformation.

An infamous example is the delivery of toilets in an open field where municipalities get the credit and contractors get paid for erecting them, whether or not there are any houses or people living in the vicinity.

Government needs to stop paying lip service to the principles of community consultation and local participation, and take this work seriously. The extra time and effort are justified by aligning municipal plans and investments closer to peoples actual priorities. Local buy-in can also help ensure that investments in public infrastructure are protected and maintained.

Read more: Understanding violent protest in South Africa and the difficult choice facing leaders

Finally, feelings of frustration and anger have been heightened by years of waiting for promises to be fulfilled. International studies suggest that communities are more likely to protest when they can clearly attribute blame, and where visible institutions are perceived to possess the means for redress.

Municipal services have a clear line of sight, where communities can easily measure and attest to progress in their experience of daily life. Mismanagement and corruption have led to the collapse of many municipalities over recent years. This is especially so in smaller cities and towns, with images of sewage running down the street and no water in the pipes. In this way, grievances over service delivery are a common trigger for social protest. But the grievances often reflect a much broader basket of discontent.

Over the last 18 months, the hardship and suffering facing poorer urban communities, in particular, has been compounded by their disproportionate loss of jobs and livelihoods during the pandemic. The reality of hunger and food insecurity is a moral issue but also critical for social stability.

The recent extension of the R350 (US$23) special COVID-19 monthly grant should help to alleviate some of the immediate pressures on poorer households. But, the country also needs a clearer plan of how to tackle the problem of food insecurity.

At the heart of the matter, South Africas deep-seated social inequalities and segregated living conditions provide fertile ground for popular discontent. There is no easy fix for these.

Metropolitan populations continue to expand. This places added pressure on poorer communities forced to cope with rapid densification, strained services, informality and sparse economic opportunities. Fractured communities and weak, under-resourced governing institutions further complicate the task of upgrading and transforming these neighbourhoods.

Read more: South Africa's 1994 'miracle': what's left?

Meanwhile, affluent households can buy their way into places that are safer, better planned and have higher quality facilities. They can opt out of public services by paying for private schooling, healthcare and security. This accentuates the socio-economic divides even further.

There is a real danger that the current fiscal crisis will further corrode public services. This will encourage more and more middle-class families to buy into private provision. Unless the government gets to grips with this issue, the widening chasm between middle and working-class communities will amplify perceptions of unfairness and exacerbate social instability.

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Russia: Taliban controls most of Afghanistan, bids to topple it doomed – TRT World

Posted: at 5:48 pm

President Vladimir Putin says reality is that Taliban has taken control of most of the country, and separately, Russian envoy to Afghanistan insists there is no alternative to the insurgent group and resistance to it will fail.

Russian has called on the global community to prevent the "collapse" of Afghanistan following the Taliban takeover, saying there is no alternative to the insurgent group and resistance to it will fail.

"The Taliban movement control almost the entire territory of the country," President Vladimir Putin told a televised press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Kremlin on Friday.

"These are the realities and it is from these realities that we must proceed, preventing the collapse of the Afghan state," he added.

Both leaders said Afghanistan figured prominently during the outgoing German leader's final working visit to Russia.

He went on to say that Russia learned itself how counterproductive it is to impose foreign forms of government on Afghanistan, referencing the Soviet invasion of the country that ended in withdrawal in 1989.

Criticising the "irresponsible policy" of imposing "outside values" on war-torn Afghanistan he said, "You cannot impose standards of political life and behaviour on other people from outside."

The Russian president also highlighted the importance of preventing "terrorists" from entering neighbouring countries from Afghanistan, including "under the guise of refugees".

Putin said it was not in Russia's interests to dwell on the results of the US military campaign in Afghanistan and that it was important to establish good and neighbourly relations with Afghanistan.

He said that Moscow and its partners should unite to help people in Afghanistan.

He said Russia was interested in the country being stable which it was not at the moment.

In her remarks, Merkel said her country's priority is to help those who helped NATO mission in Afghanistan to "safely depart" and "evacuate as many people as possible to Germany".

READ MORE:UN: Taliban hunting for Afghan targets in 'door-to-door visits'

Russian envoy: Resistance to Taliban is doomed

Meanwhile, Russia's envoy to Afghanistan praised the conduct of the Taliban on Friday in the days since its takeover, saying there was no alternative to the group and resistance to it would fail.

The comments by Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov reflect efforts by Russia to deepen already well-established ties with the Taliban while stopping short, for now, of recognising them as the legitimate rulers of a country.

Speaking to Reuters news agency from Kabul, Zhirnov said the security situation in the capital was much better than it was before the Taliban took control of it and spoke optimistically about the future.

"The mood in Kabul can be described as one of cautious hope," said Zhirnov.

"There was a bad regime which disappeared and people are hopeful. They say it can't be worse so it should be better. But this is another test for the Taliban to pass. After they restore order, they should start improving the socio-economic situation," he said.

Kabul has been largely calm, except in and around the airport where 12 people have been killed since Sunday, NATO and Taliban officials said.

READ MORE:Afghan women voice their fears about Taliban rule

'Ticket to a new life'

Zhirnov's said efforts to hold out against the Taliban by former Afghan officials from Panjshir valley north of Kabul would fail.

"They have no military prospects. There are not many people there. As far as we know they have 7,000 armed people. And they already have problems with fuel. They tried to fly a helicopter but they have no petrol and no supplies," he said.

Zhirnov also questioned the idea that all of the Afghans trying to flee the country were doing so because of the Taliban.

"Many people now see this situation now as a possible ticket to a new life (in the West) and this may not be related to the Taliban," he said of the chaotic exodus.

READ MORE:Anti-Taliban forces coming together in Panjshir Valley, says Russia

Cautiously optimistic

Moscow has been cautiously optimistic about the new leadership in Kabul and is seeking contact with the insurgents in an effort to avoid instability spilling over to neighbouring ex-Soviet states.

The Kremlin has in recent years reached out to the Taliban which is banned as an "extremist" group in Russia and hosted its representatives in Moscow several times, most recently last month.

READ MORE:Taliban marks Afghan Independence Day by asserting victory over US

Source: AFP

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Jos crisis: Time to end artificial wall of hatred – Blueprint newspapers Limited

Posted: at 5:48 pm

The eve of a democratic Nigeria witnessed high incidence of ethnic-related rivalry and violence in the North Central zone, to which Plateau state belongs.

These ethnic rivalries posed serious socio-economic threats to the state and the fortunes of the people are being jeopardised.

Ethnic rivalries are as old as the world itself.The Plateau ethnic rivalry has received both local and international attention, even though the solution to the recurrent conflicts has not been attended by successive governments.

The ethnic rivalry seems to have been heated up overtime by the high visibility of mobilised, politicised and ethnicided armed ethnic groups found in most multi-ethnic states, as found in Jos, Plateau state. This political undertone given to this conflict has made it highly impossible for both the federal and Plateau state governments to find a lasting solution to the crisis.

The recent unrest in Bassa, Riyom local government area of Plateau state and subsequent attack on innocent passers-by in Gada Biyu has proven that the bad elements are still wearing the cloths of ethnicity and religion on the Plateau.

They are likely to be the conspirators in the Jos unending conflict that started 20 years ago.It is because of ignorance and mindless hate that these conflicts have continued to advance beyond a manageable stage. It was on a beautiful Friday in September 2001 around 4pm while listening to Voice of America (Hausa Service) that the sad development broke in the air and Jos was in flames.

This sad development will remain in history as one of heartbroken news that ever passed through my ears and 20 years down memory lane, the state is still searching for peace.

One would have thought that the horrors, the bloodshed and the losses Plateau has witnessed in the last few decades are enough lessons to serve as a warning signal to avert further distruction of lives and properties. The renewed ethnic conflicts in Bassa, Riyom and Jos North (Gada biyu) have proven that the conflict entrepreneurs are still alive and are working to sink Plateau into another unrest.

Since then, Plateau state has been experiencing wave after wave of violence, killings and reprisals, more wanton and brutal with each occurrence. We have seen repeated attacks on cattle, and the persistent destruction of farmlands in recent times in some parts of Jos and its environs.

Bassa, Bokkos, Riyom and Barkin Ladi local government areas are now the centre of the repeated attacks attributed to kidnappers and gunmen.What makes my heart bleed is the seeming movement of this conflict to no end in sight. This conflict has brought us to the brink of food insecurity. Education has been halted and economic activities have been drastically weakened

The rural economy is on the verge of total collapse. Health services cannot be accessed. Development has been reversed. Thousands of Plateau citizens are displaced. Every time we are convinced it cannot get any worse, we are plunged deeper into the mess. It is unarguable that what emerges clearly from the situation in Plateau state is that all sides are complicit in the killings and violence.

What is making the conflict more complex to manage is due to ethnic and religious dimension it has taken. People have chosen to align with their own (tribe) even when they are the architects of the recurrent incidents that have caused the lives of countless people and rendered millions homeless.

Plateau state was an important mining area in Nigeria and is a major exporter of tin and columbite. The tin is melted just outside Jos, the state capital and its largest town.The metals are shipped by rail to Port Harcourt for export.

Other minerals, notably, tantalite, kaolin, tungsten (wolfram), zircon, and thorium compounds, are also exploited on the Plateau.Lead, zinc, and silver are mined on a small scale in the eastern part of the state around Wase, Zurak, and Kigom. We have to deconstruct that in humane artificial wall in Jos and environs.

A christian should be able to move freely with a relaxed mind at Unguwan Rogo, Zololo etc anytime. Likewise, a muslim should not be afraid to be at Unguwan Rukuba, Rukuba road etc at any moment.

Since the outbreak of this ugly terrain in Plateau state, security agencies have detailed an accurate report of attacks carried out by deviants from every side.

The failure of successive governments in Plateau to implement different reports of committee of enquiries is gradually making this conflict to become a norm. Lack of political will to address and go after the conflict entrepreneurs has given room for more recurrent incidents as many has it that nothing will happen to them as criminals with same crime history.

In 1976, Plateau state was carved out of the former Benue-Plateau. It is bounded by the states of Kaduna and Bauchi on the north, Taraba on the east, and Nasarawa on the south and west.

The Jos Plateau rises to about 5,250 feet (1,600 m) above sea level in the states north-central part, and the Benue river valley stretches along the southwestern border.Although there are wooded valleys in the southeast, the vegetation is mostly open grassland.

It is now occasion by hedges of cacti and scattered trees, which is used for grazing and farming. Although the state is best known for its mining production, agriculture is the major occupation of the people. Acha, millet, yams, sorghum, corn (maize), potatoes, cowpeas, rice, fruits, and vegetables are the cash crops and occupation of the people of the state. Fulani herdsmen graze their cattle on the tsetse-free Plateau and supply milk to the dairy at Vom.

The states of Borno, Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Niger and Yobe have witnessed more violent crisis attributed to bandits and kidnappers that are wearing the Boko Haram cap.

The conflicts in states of Plateau, Taraba, Kaduna and Benue have paid the supreme price of hypocritical violence related to ethnic and religious conflicts.

The face off between Jukun and Tiv in some of parts of Taraba, Eggon and Alago in Nasarawa state, the current wage of violence in the Northwest have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that conflict entrepreneurs have no respect for our tribes or religion during the execution of their evils. It means that in most cases, these conflicts continue to occur because of hatred that is running through our blood stream.

We have failed to embrace recourse to law, the failure to accept responsibility and the failure to align with peace, is what has brought the state to its knees and it is about to be a norm as these criminals are not only entertained but are seen as hereos.

Since the return of the fourth Nigeria Republic in 1999, farmer-herder violence has killed quite a number of people and displaced hundreds of thousands.

It followed a trend in the increase of farmer-herder conflicts throughout much of the western Sahel, due to an expansion of agriculturist population and cultivated land, deteriorating environmental conditions, desertification and soil degradation, population growth, breakdown in traditional conflict resolution mechanisms of land and water disputes as well as proliferations of small arms and crime in rural areas.

Insecurity and violence have led many populations to create self-defence forces and ethnic and tribal militias which have engaged in further violence. The majority of farmer-herder clashes have occurred between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian farmers, exacerbating ethno religious hostilities.

It means that disputes involving indigenes and those being referred to as settlers are common nation-wide particularly in the developing world.

The Ifes and the Modakekes, the Ijebu of Lagos state and those of Ogun state, Ijaws and the Ilajes in Ondo and Delta states among few too many to mention ethnic conflicts in Nigeria and other parts of the world. It is only an enemy of Plateau that will wish the state to go back to the ugly days.

The emergence of Simon Bako Lalong administration in 2015 came with peace and good governance as one of the policy trust of his government. The establishment of peace and conflict resolution agency coupled with some of the measurers taken have shapen the thinking of many sons and daughters of Plateau that there is no alternative to peace.

The story is the same in all parts of the state including the communities that were tagged no go areas. Plateau has had enough of this violence and crime against humanity that caused them the best market in West Africa the popular Terminus (Main Market) and too many to mention of the state valuables that should give the Youths more jobs.

This must not be allowed to become our new normal. It is time for us as a nation to face the reality that we have an emergency on our hands. A catastrophe that must be decisively dealt with before it snowballs into an existential crisis. We must stop treating these acts of criminality with kid gloves and enough of this bloodshed that keep repeating itself.

There must be the safety of lives and property in spheres of human endeavours and without peace and security, there would be a loss of confidence in the government.This is the more reason why I have maintained in the past that impunity must give way to punitive measures. When criminals profit from their criminality, crime will increase.

Once these criminals have clarity on what awaits them should they toe such evils paths, then their audacity to commit evil will be weakened, and gradually, this ugly chapter in our national life will become a thing of the past. Let a state of emergency be declared in the security sector so as to deal decisively with the criminals currently testing the power of the nation state apparatus from north down to the south.

To this end, I must commend Governor Lalong always for demonstrating high level of commitment to ensure that the gang of mischievous elements are not allowed to sink Plateau into another well of violence.

As citizens that have paid the supreme price of these violence in the last 20 years in Plateau state, working closely with Governor Lalong to broker peace is not a choice but an only option. It is an expensive venture.

Lets give peace a chance and build our lost bones together to return Plateau state as a destination for all like Dubai where everyone will go and do business lawfully. This is the template of Governor Lalong because peace and unity are the prerequisites of development.

Mohammed, President, Arewa Youth Advocate for Peace and Unity Initiative, writes from Bauchi.

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Evolution Deniers Are Finally a Minority in the U.S. – Gizmodo

Posted: at 5:47 pm

A skull on display as part of the Neanderthal exhibition at the Musee de lHomme in Paris on March 26, 2018. Photo: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP (Getty Images)

Americans continue to have a challenging relationship with science, modern medicine, and at times reality, but a review of annual surveys from 1985 to 2019 does yield some good news: Over half of surveyed participants believed in the science of evolution. Thats a win, I guess.

Nearly a century ago, the Scopes trial of 1925 pitted a science teacher and his curriculum (which included evolutionary theory) against the state of Tennessee, which had just banned the subject in schools because, they said, it contradicted the Bibles creation story. Evolutionary theory is the idea that living organisms change over time, adapting to their environments through a process called natural selection. The naturalist Charles Darwin observed and chronicled such adaptations in the beaks of finches in the Galapagos Islands. Like every other living thing, humans have evolved over time, and its that fact that certain folks seem to take the most issue with.

Over the decades, more and more Americans have accepted evolution by natural selection as a driving force of life on Earth. For a long time, though, the split was pretty much half-and-half, but a new study from the University of Michigan has found that the deniers are finally in the minority. The paperpublished this week in the journal Public Understanding of Sciencelooked at opinions on evolution in public opinion surveys conducted since 1985. It found that a recent surge has pushed Americans over the halfway line in believing in the theory put forth by Darwin in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.

Anti-evolution books being sold in Dayton, Tennessee, where the Scopes trial happened.Photo: Topical Press Agency (Getty Images)

From 1985 to 2010, there was a statistical dead heat between acceptance and rejection of evolution, said Jon D. Miller, a researcher who specializes in public understanding of science at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and lead author of the paper, in a university press release. But acceptance then surged, becoming the majority position in 2016.

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The surveys analyzed by the team were conducted by the National Science Board, NASA, and subsidiaries of the National Science Foundation, which posed the following statement to American adults to agree or disagree with: Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals. For the first 20 years of the study, the yes-and-no results were pretty even. Not so anymore: 54% of survey participants agreed with the statement in 2019.

In a time filled with disinformation, distrust of expertise, and utter foolishness, some folks previously not keen on the idea of evolution have decided its not so bad. Maybe its because denialists have moved on to hotter topics like covid-19 and climate change. Evolution is just old hat, perhaps.

Though the number of participants who identified as religious fundamentalists declined in the last decade, the research team found that even those individuals have started to come around. In 1988, only 8% of self-described fundamentalists accepted evolution; in 2019, the number was 32%.

Co-author Mark Ackerman noted that more than twice as many Americans had college degrees in 2018 than in 1988; while that may play a role, the more clear-cut connection is political. In 2019, the most recent year included in the work, only 34% of people who identified as conservative Republican said they accepted evolution, while 83% of people who identified as liberal democrats said the same.

More: Pope Rails Against Intelligent Design, Says God Isnt A Magician

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Why the coronavirus changed over time, and what it means going forward – STAT

Posted: at 5:47 pm

Its impossible to say how the coronavirus will continue to evolve. Those changes, after all, are a result of random mutations.

But there are some fundamental principles that explain why the virus has morphed as it has, principles that could guide our understanding of its ongoing evolution and what that means for our future with the pathogen.

The great fear is that nature could spit out some new variant that completely saps the power of vaccines and upends the progress weve made against the pandemic. But to virologists and immunologists, such a possibility seems very unlikely.

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Thats not to say variants wont impair immune protection. Already, it appears Delta is causing breakthrough infections and symptomatic cases at higher rates than other variants. But vaccines have shown they dont lose much oomph at protecting people from hospitalization and death, no matter the variant theyre up against. The way the vaccines work leaves experts optimistic that mutations wont suddenly leave everyone vulnerable again.

I dont think that well end up with variants that completely escape antibodies or vaccine-induced immunity, said vaccinologist Florian Krammer of Mount Sinais Icahn School of Medicine. Already, Krammer said, weve seen the immune systems ability to neutralize viral variants drop to the greatest degree with the Beta variant but it still persists. Because of that, vaccines havent lost major steps at protecting people from the worst outcomes of Covid-19.

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Something unexpected could happen, scientists caution another twist in a pandemic full of them. Already, theyve had to reassess their thinking about the coronavirus evolution. This family of viruses proofreads itself as it replicates, which means it picks up mutations more slowly than viruses like influenza. For the first several months of the pandemic, the virus didnt seem to be changing in dramatic ways. But now, variants are dominating the conversation.

This virus has been surprising us, said Ramn Lorenzo-Redondo, a molecular virologist at Northwestern Universitys Feinberg School of Medicine.

Below, STAT outlines some of the key questions about the virus evolution and what it means going forward.

Why does the virus keep getting more transmissible?

When the coronavirus started circulating among people in late 2019, it was already quite the spreader. Cases overwhelmed Wuhan and led China to impose what were then jaw-dropping lockdowns.

But to the virus, people were a new host. A change in its RNA genome had enabled it to infect our cells, replicate inside them, and jump to other people, but the pathogen hadnt had much of a chance to figure us out yet. It had a lot of room to get better at using us to proliferate.

That meant there were a lot of low-hanging fruit mutations that the virus could pick up and that would give it a competitive advantage over other iterations of the virus. Its not that the virus was knowingly figuring out which mutations would make it a better spreader. But as the virus made copies of itself, sometimes it made errors. And by chance, some of those errors gave it a boost over its siblings, helping it outcompete them.

Its happened throughout the pandemic. An early change dubbed D614G led to a strain that was better at spreading than the very first version, enabling that variant to sweep around the world. For a while, that strain was dominant, but then Alpha appeared, and now Delta. Each subsequent iteration was a more effective spreader than the strains before it, so it outran the others. (One note about Alpha: scientists believe it emerged from a person who was immunocompromised and had a rare chronic Covid-19 infection, which allowed the virus to pick up a lot of mutations in a relatively quick period in one host, and then spread from there.)

One way to think about a virus transmissibility is on a curve, one that rises fast and tapers off toward some peak ability. Its going to get better at spreading comparatively quickly, particularly when theres been uncontrolled transmission for a year and a half. Over time, it could evolve more slowly, with fewer new combinations of mutations that might increase its transmissibility. Some scientists have questioned whether Delta is so transmissible that the virus might be nearing the flatter part of the curve. But to virologist Adam Lauring of the University of Michigan, We just dont know where we are in terms of that leveling off. Its possible then, that the virus could still stumble upon mutations that help it spread even more efficiently.

The virus could change in other ways too. If theres one silver lining about Delta, its that its so transmissible that its crowded out other variants that are more worrying from an immune perspective, namely Beta, as well as Gamma. But scientists caution that theres no fundamental reason why a variant couldnt emerge that combines Deltas spreading prowess with Betas ability to partially sneak around immune responses.

Such a variant might look different than we would imagine. Sometimes combining mutations that would seem to maximize transmissibility and immune-dodging abilities actually leads to a virus that fizzles out. Variants that can escape the immune response might be inept at hacking into cells to cause infections. But more worrisome variants are possible, and the best way to prevent them, experts say, is cutting transmission.

How will all this change as more people are protected?

Because basically everyone on the planet was susceptible to Covid-19 at first, the fastest-spreading variant has been able to outrun others. But as the environment changes, the pressures that select for certain characteristics do as well. And instead of a sprinter like Delta, a bulldozer could eventually get the advantage.

Take Beta and Gamma. These variants, which respectively appeared in South Africa and Brazil, emerged in areas that had massive first waves. Thats led to one hypothesis that the variants took off because they could circulate better among people who had previous infections. Viruses that didnt have those features couldnt find as many new cells to infect, and fell back.

Scientists cant say for sure thats what happened with Beta and Gamma perhaps they were just more transmissible in other ways. But it still holds that variants that have some ability to get around the immune response will get the upper hand in populations with greater levels of protection. They might not be causing severe disease in people who are protected whether from vaccination or past infection but if they can cause infections in at least some of those people and transmit from there, their prevalence will increase over other variants that have a harder time causing infections in protected people. (This appears to be happening with Delta to an extent, given that its now known that some vaccinated people transmit the variant.)

When populations have high levels of immunity, it favors [variants] that have some sort of escape mutation that doesnt throw a monkey wrench in the transmission side of things, said Michael Worobey, a professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.

Now, you may be wondering: If thats the case, does that mean a population thats largely vaccinated will actually encourage the virus to evade protection?

Different forces are at play here. But one key factor is that by cutting how much the virus replicates both through preventing infections and by shortening the infections that do occur vaccines limit the likelihood of additional, more dangerous variants. People who are protected against the virus can act as evolutionary dead ends.

The pressure is there, but the opportunity is not, said Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport. The virus has to replicate in order to mutate, but each virus doesnt get many lottery tickets in a vaccinated person whos infected.

How will the virus future evolution affect vaccine protection?

The nightmare scenario is the virus changes in ways that completely escape immune response but that preserve its lethality and transmissibility. But many experts say that a sudden appearance of such a strain seems exceedingly unlikely. Variants could dent some of the defenses vaccines give us, but the immune response should still generally be able to protect us against severe disease.

A virus just cant change a couple amino acids and completely evade the totality of the immune response, said virologist Angela Rasmussen of the University of Saskatchewans Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, referring to the building blocks that make up the virus.

Our first line of defenders is antibodies, some of which are trained to recognize specific pieces of the virus and prevent it from infecting cells. If mutations change those components akin to putting on a fake mustache and sunglasses then perhaps the antibodies geared to identify the virus upper lip or eyes might be fooled. The virus could gain a toehold and start an infection. But the vaccines have primed our bodies to recognize other parts of the virus, and to have waves of responders. Antibodies that latch on to other parts of the virus could kick in, and immune cells that help clear out infections before they cause much damage could arrive as reinforcements.

No vaccine is perfect. A small number of people get hospitalized with Covid-19 or even die after being vaccinated, often those with other health conditions. And its possible that variants could cause the vaccines to lose some of their effectiveness: perhaps they cause symptomatic disease at higher rates, and even increase the rate of severe disease or death by a hair. Concerns about the immune response waning in general, combined with the partial escape potential of Delta, are driving the debate about boosters, at least for certain groups of people. But overall, the vaccines are so protective that many virologists while cautioning they cant guarantee it dont see some variant arriving that alone upends the power of the shots.

One future for the virus is that it reaches some stability but then continues to change in small ways. People could become susceptible to an infection over time (whether thats every year or after several years isnt known and will likely vary) but will still generally be protected from worse outcomes. And with every exposure to the virus, including exposure-mimicking vaccines, our bodies will get better at warding it off, maybe even without symptoms. In that way, SARS-CoV-2 will eventually become another endemic respiratory virus.

The indications are that immunity is really protective against hospitalization and death, even if were going to be stuck in a groundhog day world where the virus keeps infecting people year after year even after theyve been exposed, Worobey said.

A lab study, published as a preprint this month, found that even if a variant emerged that could escape the immune protection people have a scenario that study author and virologist Paul Bieniasz of Rockefeller University called extremely unlikely to happen suddenly a booster shot could raise antibody levels to the point where people could fend off the evolved virus. Similarly, if the virus continues to evolve and leads to a more gradual erosion of immune protection, an extra jab could handle it, perhaps one thats tweaked to better suit the changes in the virus.

Even if the virus acquires those resistance mutations, its possible to generate an immune response thatll cope with that, Bieniasz said.

Helen Branswell contributed reporting.

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Rush Street Interactive Partners With Evolution To Debut Its Red Tiger Online Casino Games In Michigan At BetRivers.com – Yahoo Finance

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CHICAGO, Aug. 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rush Street Interactive (NYSE: RSI) ("RSI"), a Chicago-based gaming company, has partnered with Evolution (Nasdaq Stockholm: EVO) to be among the first online casino operators in Michigan to debut the global entertainment company's fan favorite Red Tiger game studio on BetRivers.com. The newly launched games include Bounty Raid, 777 Strike and Reel Keeper. These popular games will soon be joined by Red Tiger's Cash Vault, Piggy Riches Megaways and Gonzo's Quest Megaways which are already player favorites on BetRivers.com in Pennsylvania.

"We are excited to partner with Evolution to bring these top quality and much-loved Red Tiger casino games to our players in Michigan," said Richard Schwartz, CEO of RSI, which operates BetRivers.com. "RSI was the first to debut the Red Tiger games in the U.S. where they are already some of the top performing games in Pennsylvania. We are thrilled to now launch Red Tiger in Michigan where we are sure these games will become fan favorites for our loyal players there as well."

Evolution's acquisition of Red Tiger Gaming combined two of the most innovative and respected online gaming companies, so its Commercial Director for North America says partnering with RSI, a market leader in online casino gaming, only made sense for their debut into Michigan.

"We're very proud to be partnering with RSI, a highly acclaimed U.S. operator, to debut our very successful Red Tiger games in Michigan," said Jeff Millar, Commercial Director, North America for Evolution. "This collaboration with RSI will allow us to deliver these popular games to other markets in the U.S. in an accelerated fashion and will help strengthen our position as a top provider in the online casino category."

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. RSI's actual results may differ from their expectations, estimates and projections and consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as "expect," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believes," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, RSI's expectations about its partnership with Evolution and the anticipated products and services made available in connection with that partnership. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside RSI's control and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, without limitation, changes in applicable laws or regulations, unanticipated product or service delays, and other risks and uncertainties indicated from time to time in RSI's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, including those under "Risk Factors" therein, and in RSI's other filings with the SEC. RSI cautions that the foregoing list of factors is not exclusive. RSI cautions readers not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. RSI does not undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

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About RSI

RSI is a trusted online gaming and sports entertainment company focused on regulated markets in the United States and Latin America. Through its brands, BetRivers.com and PlaySugarHouse.com, RSI was an early entrant in many regulated jurisdictions and is currently live with real-money mobile, online and/or retail operations in ten U.S. states: Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Michigan, Indiana, Virginia, Colorado, Iowa and West Virginia. RSI is also active internationally, offering its online casino and sportsbook in the regulated gaming market of Colombia on RushBet.co. RSI offers, through its proprietary online gaming platform, some of the most popular online casino games and sports betting options in the United States. Founded in 2012 in Chicago by gaming industry veterans, RSI was named the 2020 Global Gaming Awards Digital Operator of the Year and the 2021 EGR North America Awards Casino Operator of the Year, Customer Services Operator of the Year and Social Gaming Operator of the Year. RSI is committed to industry-leading responsible gaming practices and seeks to provide its customers with the resources and services they need to play responsibly. For more information, visit http://www.rushstreetinteractive.com.

About Evolution

Evolution Gaming Group AB (publ) ("Evolution") develops, produces, markets and licenses fully-integrated B2B Live Casino solutions to gaming operators. Since its inception in 2006, Evolution has developed into a leading B2B provider with 500+ operators among its customers. The group currently employs about 10,000+ people in studios across Europe and in North America. The parent company is based in Sweden and listed on Nasdaq Stockholm with the ticker EVO. Visit http://www.evolution.com for more information.

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Rush Street Interactive Partners With Evolution To Debut Its Red Tiger Online Casino Games In Michigan At BetRivers.com - Yahoo Finance

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Evolution reports record net profits – Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly

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PERTH (miningweekly.com) Gold miner Evolution Mining has reported record statutory net profit for the 2021 financial year ended June, despite a 4% decline in revenues.

Statutory net profits after tax for the full year reached A$345.3-million, up from the A$301.6-million reported in the last financial year, while underlying net profits after tax declined from the A$405.4-million in 2020 to A$354.3-million.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation declined from A$1.02-billion to A$914.2-million.

Gold production during the full year also declined from 680 788 oz, down from the 746 463 oz produced in the previous financial year, resulting in revenue declining from A$1.94-billion to A$1.86-million in the same period.

Total gold sold equalled 677 150 oz, which included deliveries into the Australian gold delivery commitments of 100 000 oz at an average price of A$1 829/oz and Canadian hedge book of 40 000 oz at an average price of C$2 272/oz. Evolution noted that the remaining 537 150 oz were sold in the spot market comprising 456 001 oz delivered at an average price of A$2 474/oz and 81 169 oz delivered at an average price of C$2 361/oz.

Copper revenue achieved was a record with a 26% increase from the prior year to A$236.9-million, driven by a 33% increase in copper price of A$11 172/t partially offset by a 5% decrease in production to 21 361 t.

I am proud of Evolutions achievements during 2021 amid the challenging backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our teams have risen to the challenge to deliver a record net profit and maintain our sector leading margins. The fully franked final dividend of 5c per share is our seventeenth consecutive dividend, with A$943-million in dividends paid to shareholders since our maiden dividend in 2013, said executive chairperson Jake Klein.

We continued to upgrade the quality of the portfolio with our commitment to develop the Cowal underground mine, and district consolidations completed at both Red Lake and Mungari to further enhance those cornerstone operations. Evolution is well placed to deliver an exceptional, high margin growth pipeline.

Evolution recently approved the A$380-million development of the Cowal underground mine, New South Wales, subject to the receipt of final regulatory approval.

During the ramp-up phase, the underground mine would produce between 0.04-millionand1.1-million tonnes of ore between 2022 and 2024, increasing to between 1.6-million and 1.9-million tonnes during its peak operation between 2025 and 2031, winding down to between 0.9-million and 1.25-million tonnes between 2032 and 2038.

The company also approved a clear and defined programme that accelerates the restoration of its Red Lake mine, in Ontario, to a premier Canadian gold mine with the goal of producing 350 000 oz of low-cost gold ayear by 2026.

In May, Evolution completed the acquisition of all of the outstanding shares of Battle North Gold at a price of C$2.65 a common share in cash for a total consideration of about C$343-million.

Battle North Gold's key asset is the Bateman mill which is located 10 km from Evolutions existing Red Lake operations. The additional processing capacity from the new Bateman mill will accelerate the ability to achieve in excess of 350 000 oz/y from Red Lake. In addition, the expansion of Evolution's footprint in the region provides an opportunity to build on itstrack record as a safe and sustainable operator for the long-term benefit of a broad range of stakeholders.

Furthermore, Evolution earlier this week settled the A$400-million acquisition of fellow-listed Northern Stars Kundana assets, which includethe Kundana operations, a 51% interest in the East Kundana joint venture, full interest in certain tenements making up the Carbine project, and a 75% interest in the West Kundana joint venture.

These operations are some 8 km from Evolutions Mungari operations, and representa strategic opportunity to consolidate the region, optimise existing infrastructure, and capture significant operational synergies.

Looking ahead at 2022, Evolution has set a group gold production target of between 700 000 oz and 760 000 oz, at an all-in sustaining cost of between A$1 220/oz and A$1 280/oz.

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The other cradle of humanity: How Arabia shaped human evolution – New Scientist

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New evidence reveals that Arabia was not a mere stopover for ancestral humans leaving Africa, but a lush homeland where they flourished and evolved

By Michael Marshall

Andrea Ucini

THE Rub al-Khali is both desert and deserted a landscape of reddish sand dunes that stretches as far as the eye can see. This hyper-arid region in the south-east of the Arabian peninsula is approximately the size of France. Parts of it often go an entire year without rain. Almost nobody lives there; its name means empty quarter.

The rest of Arabia is less environmentally extreme, but still a very tough place to live without air conditioning and other recent technologies. However, the peninsula wasnt always so parched. A mere 8000 years ago, it was wet enough for there to have been many lakes. The same was true at intervals throughout the past million years, when rivers criss-crossed Arabia, forming green corridors where lush vegetation and wildlife flourished amid the sand dunes. For much of recent geological time, the peninsula was at least partly green.

Arabias verdant past is no mere factoid: it suggests that the region was habitable at times in the distant past. That realisation has prompted archaeologists to start looking for evidence of occupation by humans, their ancestors and their extinct relatives. In just a decade, they have found countless sites where these hominins lived, stretching hundreds of thousands of years into the past. Arabia, it seems, wasnt a mere stopover for hominins as they moved out of Africa into the wider world. It was somewhere they settled for long stretches of time. Indeed, many researchers now think Arabia should be thought of as part of a greater Africa, and that the peninsula played an important role in human evolution and expansion across the world.

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Histology and CT reveal the unique evolution and development of multiple tooth rows in the synapsid Endothiodon | Scientific Reports – Nature.com

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Histology and CT reveal the unique evolution and development of multiple tooth rows in the synapsid Endothiodon | Scientific Reports - Nature.com

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