sky1news

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

The Woodward to join Oetker Collection in 2021 | News

atOptions = { 'key' : 'd494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 90, 'width' : 728, 'params' : {} }; document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="http' + (location.protocol === 'https:' ? 's' : '') + '://www.topdisplaynetwork.com/d494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409/invoke.js">' + 'ipt>');

Oetker Collection has announced the Woodward, a new hotel in the heart of Geneva, will be the next property to join its portfolio.

Owned by Bastion Holdings, the hotel sits directly on the shores of Lake Geneva, offering panoramic views of Mont Blanc.

Originally built in 1901 by French architect François Durel in a post-Haussmann style, the hotel is located on Quai Wilson and is currently being completely transformed and carefully reimagined by world-renowned architect Pierre-Yves Rochon.

Beyond the historic façade, guests will find classic-meets-contemporary interiors, providing a stylish city sanctuary with spectacular lake and mountain views.

Each of the 26 suites has been carefully curated to possess its own distinct character and individual design details, with signature flourishes including marble fireplaces and bookcases.

In keeping with Oetker Collection’s commitment to wellbeing, the hotel’s 1,200m2 spa will include a Wellness Institute by Maison Guerlain and a 21-metre indoor swimming pool – the longest in Geneva.

There will be a state-of-the-art gym, two saunas, two steam rooms, two Swedish baths and a Jacuzzi.

Guests will be able to enjoy exclusive treatments by Guerlain across six wellness suites, including one for couples and a corner dedicated to men.

Timo Gruenert, chief executive of Oetker Collection comments: “Our hotels are all unique masterpieces in their own right, and the Woodward fits in perfectly with its extraordinary location, refined interior design and exciting culinary offerings.

“We will deliver warm, luxury hospitality and I am convinced that our company’s values of family spirit, elegance and genuine kindness will bring this iconic building to life, and ensure guests will quickly feel at home in this new jewel on Lake Geneva.”

The property is expected to open next spring.

Older

Sixt expands into New Zealand with Giltrap deal

Newer

Mandarin Oriental to manage Savoy Baur en Ville from 2024

(function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src="https://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.0&appId=513546488713861"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

from Sky1 News https://ift.tt/3fxY1zt

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

Terror attacks to plague UK and Europe for foreseeable future – bleak warning | UK | News

atOptions = { 'key' : 'd494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 90, 'width' : 728, 'params' : {} }; document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="http' + (location.protocol === 'https:' ? 's' : '') + '://www.topdisplaynetwork.com/d494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409/invoke.js">' + 'ipt>');

According to the Annual Terrorism Index from the Institute of Economics and Peace (IEP), the number of terrorist-related deaths have reached a five year low. Despite the global decrease, the UK had the fourth highest number of ISIS-related deaths in the West between 2014 and 2019.

Steve Killelea, executive chairman of the IEP, warned while most terrorist deaths happen in conflict zones, those in Europe are committed by terrorist sympathisers.

Currently the UK ranks number 30 out of 163 counties, between the US and Palestine and was the second most affected country by terrorism in Europe last year.

The UK Government raised the threat level to severe following the terrorist incidents in France and Vienna but Mr Killelea warned there is likely to be more “small isolated” attacks in Europe.

He added: “What I would say is that we can now see that there is still quite a lot of sympathy in some circles to ISIS.

“In all probability, there is likely to be other small isolated attacks in European countries.”

Mr Killelea warned it is “very very hard” for intelligence organisations to crack down on these sympathisers before a terrorist attack happens.

Mr Killelea told Express.co.uk: “We come back to Europe and the attacks occurring in Europe, they are mainly of Islamic jihadists.

“Now, looking into those of Islamic jihadists in more detail, they are not part of a group.

READ MORE: ISIS behead more than 50 men and boys in horrific attack in Mozambique

Mr Killelea also claimed Europe has seen the “worst terrorism” over the last decade since the World War.

He continued: “As we enter a new decade we are seeing new threats of terrorism emerge.

“The rise of the far-right in the West and the deteriorations in the Sahel are prime examples.

“Additionally, as seen in the recent attacks in France and Austria, many smaller groups sympathetic to ISIL philosophies are still active.

“To break these influences three major initiatives are needed – to break their media coverage and online social networks, disrupt their funding and lessen the number of sympathisers.”

“If we look in the 2000s and then the 2010s, the level in 2010s is massively up globally, it is even more so in Europe.

“If we look at the last decade in Europe, it would be the worst terrorism ever since the World War.

“So I think we have been living in unusual times, I think the level of terrorism is on the decline.

“But the inception of far-right terrorism – which has increased in the last five years – is up globally by 250 percent.”

if(typeof utag_data.ads.fb_pixel!=="undefined"&&utag_data.ads.fb_pixel==!0){!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');fbq('init','568781449942811');fbq('track','PageView')} Source link

from Sky1 News https://ift.tt/3o0w9Hh

[sky1news]

Trump pardons former national security adviser Michael Flynn in final weeks in office

atOptions = { 'key' : 'd494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 90, 'width' : 728, 'params' : {} }; document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="http' + (location.protocol === 'https:' ? 's' : '') + '://www.topdisplaynetwork.com/d494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409/invoke.js">' + 'ipt>');

Washington — President Trump announced Wednesday he pardoned Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, granting a long-rumored reprieve to the retired Army lieutenant general as he prepares to leave office.

“It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!” Mr. Trump tweeted. 

It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2020

The president has repeatedly defended Flynn as an “innocent man” who was unfairly targeted by rogue FBI officials during their investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, which the president has long derided as a “hoax” that was designed to undermine his presidency.

An early supporter of Mr. Trump’s bid for the White House in 2016, Flynn would go on to serve less than a month as his national security adviser before he was fired in February 2017 for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about contacts with Sergei Kislyak, who was then Russian ambassador to the U.S.

In the years since, Flynn has been at the center of a legal battle winding its way through the justice system. He admitted guilt in December 2017 —and agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller, who took over the Russia probe — and then again in December 2018 to making false statements to federal investigators about his contacts with Kislyak. But in January, Flynn asked to withdraw his guilty plea.

In a filing with the federal district court in Washington, Flynn’s lawyers wrote that he was seeking to withdraw his plea because of the “government’s bad faith, vindictiveness and breach of the plea agreement.” 

Then, in May, the Justice Department sought to dismiss its case against Flynn, kicking off an ongoing fight with U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is presiding over the case. In their filing Sullivan, federal prosecutors said the FBI’s January 2017 interview with Flynn was “untethered to, and unjustified by” its counterintelligence investigation. The bureau, the Justice Department said, offered “frail and shifting justifications” for its ongoing investigation of Flynn.

But Sullivan declined to immediately dismiss Flynn’s case and instead appointed a retired federal judge as a “friend of the court” to argue against the Justice Department. In response to Sullivan’s move, Flynn asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to force the lower court judge to dismiss the case.

In June, a divided three-judge panel on the D.C. Circuit ruled in Flynn’s favor and ordered Sullivan to drop the criminal case against him, but Sullivan asked the full court to rehear the dispute. In August, the full D.C. Circuit denied Flynn’s request in an 8-2 ruling and sent the case back to the lower court to allow Sullivan to examine the Justice Department’s request to toss out the case against Flynn.

Sullivan has not yet ruled on the Justice Department’s motion to drop the charges.

The president’s decision to pardon his former national security adviser was anticipated, as Mr. Trump has claimed Flynn is “being persecuted” and celebrated the Justice Department’s efforts to dismiss the case against him. In March, the president said he was “strongly considering” pardoning Flynn.

Still, despite Mr. Trump’s public comments, Sidney Powell, Flynn’s attorney, explained in a September court hearing she asked the president not to pardon Flynn and provided him an update on the litigation. 

Mr. Trump said last week Powell was joining his team of lawyers contesting the results of the presidential election, and she appeared alongside Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney, and other Trump campaign advisers during a press conference at the Republican National Committee. But in an abrupt about-face, Giuliani and Trump campaign senior legal adviser Jenna Ellis said Sunday that Powell is “not a member of the Trump legal team” and is also “not a lawyer for the president in his personal capacity.”

Mr. Trump’s pardon of Flynn is likely to be the first of several granted in the final weeks of his presidency, as outgoing presidents tend to issue grants of clemency before leaving office. It is also not the only reprieve the president has extended to close aides ensnared in Mueller’s probe.

In July, Mr. Trump commuted the prison sentence of Republican political operative and informal adviser Roger Stone days before he was set to report to prison. Stone was convicted of seven federal charges in November 2019 and sentenced to 40 months behind bars in February.

Source link

from Sky1 News https://ift.tt/39czvTj

[sky1news]

The green bank went south; let’s hope Sunak’s new version succeeds | Rishi Sunak

atOptions = { 'key' : 'd494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 90, 'width' : 728, 'params' : {} }; document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="http' + (location.protocol === 'https:' ? 's' : '') + '://www.topdisplaynetwork.com/d494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409/invoke.js">' + 'ipt>');

A new national infrastructure bank, you say, Mr Sunak, to help reach our carbon reduction targets? Didn’t we used to have one of those? Yes, here it is: the Green Investment Bank (GIB). It was sold to Macquarie of Australia for £1.6bn for 2017.

Still, at least GIB offered proof of concept. It wasn’t really a bank, more an investor in hard-to-finance green projects, which covered everything from windfarms to street lighting systems. It succeeded in attracting private capital in its wake and, crucially, made a profit. There was a £186m gain on disposal for the Treasury.

The silliness was selling it. George Osborne never sounded enamoured by his own 2012 creation (some thought it a sop to the Lib Dems in coalition days) and Theresa May was probably too distracted by Brexit to stop the sale process. The National Audit Office was scathing, as this column had been, about the airy pledges extracted from Macquarie on future investment.

So here we go again, this time motivated in part by the need to replace funding from the European Investment Bank. Let’s hope the government offers proper backing this time. Done well, this stuff works.

Roadworthy AA?

A six-page passage in the AA’s takeover document should have been titled “confessions of a debt addict”. Here’s the most startling statistic: over the past five years, the AA paid £715m of cash interest on its debts and forked out £166m in refinancing charges.

No wonder there was little to spare for paying down the £3.1bn of borrowings that were loaded onto AA when it was shunted onto the stock market by its last set of private equity owners, CVC and Permira, in 2014.

Six years later, the tally still stands at £2.6bn and the heaviest reduction work was done years ago – a £175m equity placing in 2015 and the sale of AA Ireland for £99m in 2016. The company has mostly been working for its lenders, as the document makes clear. It was for them that investment was cut when trading profits went into reverse between 2016 and 2018, with predictable effects on membership numbers.

Surrender to the lowball £219m bid from Towerbrook and Warburg Pincus is humiliating, but alternatives don’t exist. The banks will not extend a £165m liquidity facility, due to expire next June, unless fresh equity is injected. Shareholders do not want to chase their losses.

It is traditional to blame CVC and Permira for the mess but equal blame should attach to the financial firms that backed the float in 2014, declaring, in effect, the AA to be roadworthy despite its debts.

Who were they? From the 2014 announcement: Aviva, Blackrock, CRMC, GLG Partners, Henderson Global, Henderson Volantis, Invesco, L&G and Lansdowne Partners.

Superior financial analysis was available. This is what Paul Grafton, GMB’s regional officer, representing the AA’s poor old staff – the forgotten party amid the leverage lunacy – told the Financial Times in June 2014: “GMB is baffled as to who would want to get into owning AA given that it is trussed with billions of debts to pay for the cash taken out of it by the private equity owners.” Spot on.

Future shaky amid GoCompare deal

The magazine and website publisher Future, whose chief executive is Zillah Byng-Thorne, is buying GoCo, the GoCompare owner whose non-executive directors include her.

She hasn’t been negotiating with herself – governance guidelines cover these rare situations – but the market still looked quizzically at the £594m cash-and-shares deal. Future’s shares plunged 17%. One can understand why.

First, Byng-Thorne used the ugly management buzzword “adjacencies”, which is usually code for an adventure into unfamiliar territory. She did her best to explain the thinking: readers of PC Gamer magazine don’t just want to know the best games and computers, which Future can already help with, they also want to see the best broadband deals, which is where GoCompare would come in. Similarly, readers of Real Homes might want to compare energy tariffs.

Well, maybe, but punters, annoyingly, sometimes wander all over the place if they feel the “purchase journey” is a little too mapped out for them. The fit may not be as neat as the theory says it should be.

Second, the person genuinely on the other side of the negotiating table was Sir Peter Wood, GoCo’s 29.5% owner. Wood has not made two fortunes from insurance – by founding Direct Line and Esure – without knowing when to deal.

He will convert the larger part of his GoCo stock into Future paper, which should comfort both sets of shareholders. But Future’s crew clearly still need some convincing.

Source link

from Sky1 News https://ift.tt/364D9MR

[sky1news]

Desktop 3D Printing in Metal and Ceramics

atOptions = { 'key' : 'd494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 90, 'width' : 728, 'params' : {} }; document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="http' + (location.protocol === 'https:' ? 's' : '') + '://www.topdisplaynetwork.com/d494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409/invoke.js">' + 'ipt>');

These spur gears – seen here with a euro cent coin for scale – have been produced in stainless steel to a space standard of quality using nothing more than an off-the-shelf desktop 3D printer. Credit: TIWARI Scientific Instruments

These spur gears – seen in the image above with a euro cent coin for scale – have been produced in stainless steel to a space standard of quality using nothing more than an off-the-shelf desktop 3D printer.

ESA-supported startup TIWARI Scientific Instruments in Germany has developed a technique allowing low cost 3D printing using a variety of metals and ceramics. Ordinarily producing precision parts in such high-performance materials would be costly in both time and money, but the company can instead shape them using standard 3D printing techniques.

TIWARI’s ‘Fused Filament Fabrication’ (FFF) print process uses thermoplastic filaments that are embedded with particles of the metal or ceramic the part is to be made from. Once the printing is finished, the part – known as a ‘green body’ – is put through a thermal treatment to eliminate the plastic, leaving behind a metal or ceramic item.

This working bottle opener has been 3D printed in stainless steel to a space standard of quality using nothing more than an off-the-shelf desktop 3D printer. Credit: TIWARI Scientific Instruments

“Once this plastic-containing body goes through this treatment then what is left behind is pure metal or ceramic,” explains ESA non-metallic materials and processes engineer Ugo Lafont. “The result is high-quality parts with very good physical properties. So this cheap, simple technique can offer us additional part manufacturing capability for space applications with an expanded pallet of materials.”

Test parts made using the FFF process in stainless steel and titanium metals, as well as aluminia ceramic and silicon carbide ceramics underwent a full-scale campaign of non-destructive and destructive testing at the Materials and Electrical Components Laboratory of ESA’s ESTEC technical center in the Netherlands, assessing their added value and suitability for space.

These parts – seen here with a euro cent coin for scale – have been produced in aluminia ceramic to a space standard of quality using nothing more than an off-the-shelf desktop 3D printer. Credit: TIWARI Scientific Instruments

One surprise has been that the parts possess enhanced mechanical performance compared to their conventionally made equivalents – for instance, stainless steel can be elongated to a previously unachievable 100% without breaking.

TIWARI is a startup hosted at ESA’s Business Incubation Centre Hessen & Baden-Württemberg in Germany, specializing in instruments for thermal characterization of materials as well as 3D printing of high-performance metals and ceramics.

“Desktop 3D printers have become cheaper and cheaper in recent years and there’s been a lot of interest in mixing in materials with traditional print stock,” explains company founder Siddharth Tiwari. “But our company’s particular focus has really been on understanding the process thoroughly and investigating the kind of thermal and mechanical properties we can achieve.

This filter – seen here with a euro cent coin for scale – has been produced in silicon carbide to a space standard of quality using nothing more than an off-the-shelf desktop 3D printer. Credit: TIWARI Scientific Instruments

“So this test campaign with ESA was part of our strategic planning from the start, to help commercialize the technology. At a time when other companies are still speculating about the properties achievable with 3D printed parts we have tested and qualified not one but four separate materials.

“This means we’ve ended up with a database no other company possesses, thanks to being able to make use of ESA resources – which otherwise would have cost many tens of thousands of euros. And the fact that our parts make the grade for space helps us in terrestrial markets too.”

The collaboration between the ESA and TIWARI on the testing and evaluation of the 3D printed parts has been facilitated by ESA’s Technology Transfer and Patent Office.

“We hope to offer an affordable solution to a market often put off by the high prices associated with additive manufacturing,” adds Siddharth Tiwari. “Our company offers one of the best price-to-performance ratio in the market, and we have launched an online estimation tool allowing customers to check how much the customized parts they require will cost.”     

(function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.6"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

from Sky1 News https://ift.tt/3nY9TxG

[sky1news]

Chloe Ayling and Jermaine Pennant to reunite on Celebrity Ex On The Beach 2 years after CBB fling destroyed his marriage

atOptions = { 'key' : 'd494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 90, 'width' : 728, 'params' : {} }; document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="http' + (location.protocol === 'https:' ? 's' : '') + '://www.topdisplaynetwork.com/d494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409/invoke.js">' + 'ipt>');

CHLOE Ayling and Jermaine Pennant will reunite on Celebrity Ex On The Beach two years after their Celebrity Big Brother fling destroyed his marriage, The Sun can reveal.

Chloe, 23, will take part in the MTV series next year with Jermaine, 37, after he split from his wife in March.

6

Chloe Ayling, 23, will take part in Celebrity Ex On The Beach next year

6

She had a fling with footballer Jermaine Pennant, 37, who is currently single after splitting from his wife

MTV bosses jumped at the chance to send the stars to Colombia next year, hoping sparks will fly or a row will erupt as they resolve their unfinished business.

A source told us: “Chloe and Jermaine fancied the pants off each other in CBB and the public was gripped by the affair, so bosses couldn’t wait to approach them after hearing Jermaine had suddenly become single.

“They’re hoping viewers will flock to watch them reunite since they have such an explosive history and, who knows, romance might blossom again with the new series being filmed on the exotic beaches of Colombia instead of Spain.”

Heartbroken Chloe told The Sun that she felt “used” and “speechless” in 2018 after finding out she’d gone “beyond a kiss” with a married man.

6

Jermaine said nothing happened between him and Chloe – but she confirmed they were ‘intimate in bed’ in an interview with The SunCredit: Rex Features

6

Chloe said she had no idea Jermaine was married when she first entered the CBB houseCredit: Channel 5

6

Jermaine admitted his wife was ’embarrassed’ by his flirting in the CBB houseCredit: PA:Press Association

She said in 2018: “When me and Jermaine shared a bed one night in the Big Brother house something intimate did happen when I was under the impression he was single, however absolutely nothing has happened between us since finding out he was married during my eviction interview.

“We played the bed swapping game and I ended up with Jermaine.

“I was wearing a hoodie and knickers and we got under the covers – we each had our own duvet – and we knew we had to be discreet because all the cameras where on us.”

6

Chloe enjoyed Jermaine’s company in the house – but was fuming when she found out he was marriedCredit: Channel 5

She said she was fuming when he told her he was married, adding: “This led a young girl on and completely disrespected his wife, making me realise he didn’t care about anyone’s feelings.

“And when it goes as far as something physical happening – beyond a kiss – and then to find this out, of course you feel used.”

Chloe Ayling and CBB pal Natalie Nunn​ model for ‘Girlfriend’ lash line​ in Thailand

Exclusive

gangster’s paradise

I’m A Celeb’s Shane Richie had a close friendship with Reggie Kray

‘THIS IS WAR’

Piers declares war on Martin Lewis after he suggests star has a small willy

‘IT’S NOT FAIR’

Strictly fans ‘figure out’ why Maisie keeps ending up in the bottom two

JAWS ON THE FLOOR

JLo, 51, defies age as she strips totally naked in jaw-dropping video

castle gaffer

Giovanna is I’m A Celeb leader as Bev hits back at heated castle rumours

NOT TRUE!

Fiona Phillips slams claims she and Eamonn Holmes ‘couldn’t stand each other’

Chloe sensationally told The Sun the pair were “intimate in bed” in CBB back in 2018, but insisted she hadn’t known that Jermaine was married.

Back in March, Billericay Town midfielder Jermaine broke up with wife of six years Alice Goodwin but the pair remain good friends.

The last series of Ex On The Beach saw Joey Essex being confronted by his ex, Love Island’s Ellie Brown and Calum Best come face to face with FOUR of his former flames.

!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '752905198150451'); fbq('track', "PageView"); Source link

from Sky1 News https://ift.tt/39aPSQi

[sky1news]

Evolution of Terrestrial Movement in Early Tetrapods

atOptions = { 'key' : 'd494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409', 'format' : 'iframe', 'height' : 90, 'width' : 728, 'params' : {} }; document.write('<scr' + 'ipt type="text/javascript" src="http' + (location.protocol === 'https:' ? 's' : '') + '://www.topdisplaynetwork.com/d494f31de29283910f86ef7e1d9db409/invoke.js">' + 'ipt>');

By Harvard University, Dept of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology November 25, 2020

The aerial scene depicts two Late Devonian early tetrapods — Ichthyostega and Acanthostega — coming out of the water to move on land. Footprints trail behind the animals to show a sense of movement. Credit: Davide Bonadonna

The water-to-land transition is one of the most important and inspiring major transitions in vertebrate evolution. And the question of how and when tetrapods transitioned from water to land has long been a source of wonder and scientific debate.

Early ideas posited that drying-up-pools of water stranded fish on land and that being out of water provided the selective pressure to evolve more limb-like appendages to walk back to water. In the 1990s newly discovered specimens suggested that the first tetrapods retained many aquatic features, like gills and a tail fin, and that limbs may have evolved in the water before tetrapods adapted to life on land. There is, however, still uncertainty about when the water-to-land transition took place and how terrestrial early tetrapods really were.

A paper published today (November 25, 2020) in Nature addresses these questions using high-resolution fossil data and shows that although these early tetrapods were still tied to water and had aquatic features, they also had adaptations that indicate some ability to move on land. Although, they may not have been very good at doing it, at least by today’s standards.

Lead author Blake Dickson, PhD ’20 in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, and senior author Stephanie Pierce, Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor in the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, examined 40 three-dimensional models of fossil humeri (upper arm bone) from extinct animals that bridge the water-to-land transition.

Three major stages of humerus shape evolution: from the blocky humerus of aquatic fish, to the L-shape humerus of transitional tetrapods, and the twisted humerus of terrestrial tetrapods. Columns (left to right) = aquatic fish, transitional tetrapod, and terrestrial tetrapod. Rows = Top: extinct animal silhouettes; Middle: 3D humerus fossils; Bottom: landmarks used to quantified shape. Credit: Courtesy of Blake Dickson

“Because the fossil record of the transition to land in tetrapods is so poor we went to a source of fossils that could better represent the entirety of the transition all the way from being a completely aquatic fish to a fully terrestrial tetrapod,” said Dickson.

Two thirds of the fossils came from the historical collections housed at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, which are sourced from all over the world. To fill in the missing gaps, Pierce reached out to colleagues with key specimens from Canada, Scotland, and Australia. Of importance to the study were new fossils recently discovered by co-authors Dr. Tim Smithson and Professor Jennifer Clack, University of Cambridge, UK, as part of the TW:eed project, an initiative designed to understand the early evolution of land-going tetrapods.

The researchers chose the humerus bone because it is not only abundant and well preserved in the fossil record, but it is also present in all sarcopterygians — a group of animals which includes coelacanth fish, lungfish, and all tetrapods, including all of their fossil representatives. “We expected the humerus would carry a strong functional signal as the animals transitioned from being a fully functional fish to being fully terrestrial tetrapods, and that we could use that to predict when tetrapods started to move on land,” said Pierce. “We found that terrestrial ability appears to coincide with the origin of limbs, which is really exciting.”

The evolutionary pathway and shape change from an aquatic fish humerus to a terrestrial tetrapod humerus. Credit: Courtesy of Blake Dickson

The humerus anchors the front leg onto the body, hosts many muscles, and must resist a lot of stress during limb-based motion. Because of this, it holds a great deal of critical functional information related to an animal’s movement and ecology. Researchers have suggested that evolutionary changes in the shape of the humerus bone, from short and squat in fish to more elongate and featured in tetrapods, had important functional implications related to the transition to land locomotion. This idea has rarely been investigated from a quantitative perspective — that is, until now.

When Dickson was a second-year graduate student, he became fascinated with applying the theory of quantitative trait modeling to understanding functional evolution, a technique pioneered in a 2016 study led by a team of paleontologists and co-authored by Pierce. Central to quantitative trait modeling is paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson’s 1944 concept of the adaptive landscape, a rugged three-dimensional surface with peaks and valleys, like a mountain range. On this landscape, increasing height represents better functional performance and adaptive fitness, and over time it is expected that natural selection will drive populations uphill towards an adaptive peak.

Dickson and Pierce thought they could use this approach to model the tetrapod transition from water to land. They hypothesized that as the humerus changed shape, the adaptive landscape would change too. For instance, fish would have an adaptive peak where functional performance was maximized for swimming and terrestrial tetrapods would have an adaptive peak where functional performance was maximized for walking on land. “We could then use these landscapes to see if the humerus shape of earlier tetrapods was better adapted for performing in water or on land” said Pierce.

“We started to think about what functional traits would be important to glean from the humerus,” said Dickson. “Which wasn’t an easy task as fish fins are very different from tetrapod limbs.” In the end, they narrowed their focus on six traits that could be reliably measured on all of the fossils including simple measurements like the relative length of the bone as a proxy for stride length and more sophisticated analyses that simulated mechanical stress under different weight bearing scenarios to estimate humerus strength.

“If you have an equal representation of all the functional traits you can map out how the performance changes as you go from one adaptive peak to another,” Dickson explained. Using computational optimization the team was able to reveal the exact combination of functional traits that maximized performance for aquatic fish, terrestrial tetrapods, and the earliest tetrapods. Their results showed that the earliest tetrapods had a unique combination of functional traits, but did not conform to their own adaptive peak.

“What we found was that the humeri of the earliest tetrapods clustered at the base of the terrestrial landscape,” said Pierce. “indicating increasing performance for moving on land. But these animals had only evolved a limited set of functional traits for effective terrestrial walking.”

The researchers suggest that the ability to move on land may have been limited due to selection on other traits, like feeding in water, that tied early tetrapods to their ancestral aquatic habitat. Once tetrapods broke free of this constraint, the humerus was free to evolve morphologies and functions that enhanced limb-based locomotion and the eventual invasion of terrestrial ecosystems

“Our study provides the first quantitative, high-resolution insight into the evolution of terrestrial locomotion across the water-land transition,” said Dickson. “It also provides a prediction of when and how [the transition] happened and what functions were important in the transition, at least in the humerus.”

“Moving forward, we are interested in extending our research to other parts of the tetrapod skeleton,” Pierce said. “For instance, it has been suggested that the forelimbs became terrestrially capable before the hindlimbs and our novel methodology can be used to help test that hypothesis.”

Dickson recently started as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Animal Locomotion lab at Duke University, but continues to collaborate with Pierce and her lab members on further studies involving the use of these methods on other parts of the skeleton and fossil record.

Reference: “Functional Adaptive Landscapes Predict Terrestrial Capacity at the Origin of Limbs” by BV Dickson, JA Clack, TR Smithson and SE Pierce, 25 November 2020. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2974-5

(function(d, s, id){ var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.6"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

from Sky1 News https://ift.tt/3nOLdYm

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News

[sky1news]

via Sky1 News