Kitten vs Dinosaur

Originally from the Cat versus Human blog.

Sunlight our future

So, we all know that using crude oil for feeding our civilization has several environmental, social and economical cons. Looking for a viable, clean and cheap source of energy is an imperative. Solar energy has been seen for a long time as promising replacement for petroleum, but, how feasable is to use it?

Parabolic dishes in Almeria, Spain, used to obtain solar energy. Photo by the Sandia National Laboratory.

Well, solar power is still vigorous, at least according to iSuppli, a market research firm. Thru a press release, iSuppli states that the market for this kind of energy is expected to grow more than 40% in 2011 compared to this year. However, solar energy market has shrunk compared to 2009, when it grew almost 98% compared to the precedent year.

Graphic by iSuppli

Recently, the South African government anounced that they are building the biggest solar energy plant ever constructed. As well, Europe will have its biggest solar energy plant in Italy.

A new (?) eurogiant

From the almost prehistoric times when there was no Internet, I am back with some news about our old good fellows, the dinosaurs. This time we go again to Spain, exactly to Teruel, where a team of paleontologists has discovered the fossil of the largest dinosaur's femur (the upper bone of the leg) ever to be found in Europe.

 Location of Teruel, Spain

Along with the femur, which measures 1,92 m, there have been found a right tibia 1,25 m long, 15 tail vertebrae, 11 chevrons, a nearly complete set of teeth and part of the skull. The sediments surrounding the bones are 145 million years old, so this dinosaur may have lived in between the late Jurassic and the early Cretaceous.

 

Photo by Dinopolis, the Teruel dinosaur thematic park.

In 2006, Turiasaurus riodevensis (something like "lizard of Riodeva, Turia", being Turia the latin name for Teruel), the biggest European dinosaur known until now (with a lenght exceeding 30 m), was unearthed from this same spot (the Riodeva dig). However, the discovery can't be yet assigned to a species, neither T. riodevensis nor a new one.

Reconstruction of Turiosaurus riovedensis, by Carin L. Cain.