Discovery of ferromanganese hydrocarbon-related nodules associated with the Meknes mud volcano (Western Moroccan margin)

A suite of ferromanganese nodules were sampled during the MVSEIS-2008 cruise aboard of the R/V Hespérides in the flanks of Meknes mud volcano (Moroccan margin, NE Central Atlantic). The nodules were collected at water depths between 750-850 m within a seabed area characterized by high acoustic backscatter values. Debris of cold water corals and hydrocarbon-derived authigenic carbonate crusts were sampled at same time. The nodules show tabular morphology, up to 20 cm in maximum diameter and 2 kg of weight, brown-reddish external color and they are internally composed by a concentric to complex arrangement of laminae. The results of X-ray diffraction analysis show that these ferromanganese nodules are essentially composed of goethite and lepidocrocite, being Mn-oxides, silicates (quartz and clay minerals) and carbonates (calcite, dolomite and siderite) accessory to occasional minerals. All the samples display micritic to micro-sparitic mosaic under the petrographic microscope which forms massive, laminated or dendritic-mottled textures. The nodules show a high abundance of Fe, minor Mn and low contents of trace metals and REEs. Mature hydrocarbons, as n-alkanes derived from marine bacterial activity, and phenanthrene have been detected in all the ferromanganese nodules analyzed. These nodules display analogous characteristics (textural, mineralogical and geochemical) to the nodules studied by González et al (2009) in the carbonate mud-mounds in the Gulf of Cadiz, offshore Iberian margin. In this way, the same preliminary genetic model proposed for these nodules might be applicable to those find in the Meknes mud volcano. Therefore, the anaerobic oxidation of hydrocarbon-rich fluids within the mud-breccia sediments in the flanks of Meknes mud volcano would induce the formation of early diagenetic Fe-(Mn) carbonate nodules. Thus, the nodules were later exhumed by the erosive action of sea bottom currents generating the replacement of ferromanganese carbonates by Fe-Mn oxy-hydroxides. Thus, the hydrocarbon-rich fluid venting from deep seated reservoirs and erosive action of bottom currents must have been essential actors, as mineralization controls, for ferromanganese nodules generation and evolution. These findings imply that this type of nodules must be considered as new product as derived from the anaerobic/aerobic oxidation of hydrocarbons in areas of active seepages.

Preliminary description of the cranium of Proteopithecus sylviae, an Egyptian late Eocene anthropoidean primate

Recent discovery of crania, dentitions, and postcrania of a primitive anthropoidean primate, Proteopithecus sylviae, at the late Eocene L-4l quarry in the Fayum, Egypt, provides evidence of a new taxonomic family of early African higher primates, the Proteopithecidae. This family could be part of the basal radiation that produced the New World platyrrhine primates, or it could be unrelated to any subsequent lineages. Although no larger than a small callitrichid or a dwarf lemur, this tiny primate already possessed many of the derived features of later anthropoids and was a diurnal and probably dimorphic species. In dental formula and other dental proportions, as well as in known postcranial features, Proteopithecus more nearly resembles platyrrhines than does any other Old World higher primate. The small size of the Proteopithecus cranium demonstrates that the defining cranial characteristics of Anthropoidea did not arise as a consequence of an increase in size during derivation from earlier prosimians.

Metabolism of d-Glycero-d-Manno-Heptitol, Volemitol, in Polyanthus. Discovery of a Novel Ketose Reductase1

Volemitol (d-glycero-d-manno-heptitol, α-sedoheptitol) is an unusual seven-carbon sugar alcohol that fulfills several important physiological functions in certain species of the genus Primula. Using the horticultural hybrid polyanthus (Primula × polyantha) as our model plant, we found that volemitol is the major nonstructural carbohydrate in leaves of all stages of development, with concentrations of up to 50 mg/g fresh weight in source leaves (about 25% of the dry weight), followed by sedoheptulose (d-altro-2-heptulose, 36 mg/g fresh weight), and sucrose (4 mg/g fresh weight). Volemitol was shown by the ethylenediaminetetraacetate-exudation technique to be a prominent phloem-mobile carbohydrate. It accounted for about 24% (mol/mol) of the phloem sap carbohydrates, surpassed only by sucrose (63%). Preliminary 14CO2 pulse-chase radiolabeling experiments showed that volemitol was a major photosynthetic product, preceded by the structurally related ketose sedoheptulose. Finally, we present evidence for a novel NADPH-dependent ketose reductase, tentatively called sedoheptulose reductase, in volemitol-containing Primula species, and propose it as responsible for the biosynthesis of volemitol in planta. Using enzyme extracts from polyanthus leaves, we determined that sedoheptulose reductase has a pH optimum between 7.0 and 8.0, a very high substrate specificity, and displays saturable concentration dependence for both sedoheptulose (apparent Km = 21 mm) and NADPH (apparent Km = 0.4 mm). Our results suggest that volemitol is important in certain Primula species as a photosynthetic product, phloem translocate, and storage carbohydrate.

Preliminary Report on the 2014 Field Season of the American Excavations at Morgantina: Contrada Agnese Project (CAP)

This article provides a preliminary report on the 2014 excavations carried out by the American Excavations at Morgantina (Sicily): Contrada Agnese Project (CAP). The 2014 season was the second year of this multiyear research and excavation project aimed at investigating both the urban planning of the city and the lives of its residents, with a specific focus on the periods of occupation and cultural transformation from the third to first century BCE. During the second season, three trenches were excavated in the area corresponding to Lot One of the urban insula W13/14S. This preliminary report presents the significant stratigraphic units and material finds encountered in each trench, along with a provisional outline of the phases of activity, setting the developments observed in each trench within the broader historical and archaeological context of the urban center at Morgantina. The discovery of several rooms with similar architectural features suggests that they belong to a single building, the so-called Southeast Building, the function and dimensions of which will be investigated in future CAP excavations.