Otwayemys, a new cryptodiran turtle from the early Cretaceous of Australia. American Museum novitates ; no. 3233

28 p. : ill. ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-40)."The Early Cretaceous Eumeralla Formation, Otway Group, of Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia, has yielded remains of a new genus of eucryptodiran turtle, Otwayemys cunicularius, n. gen., n. sp. Otwayemys is based primarily on shell material, but unassociated skull elements, cervical and caudal vertebrae, and limb elements from the type locality are attributed to this taxon. Otwayemys cunicularius is characterized by a carapace with an emarginate nuchal area, wide vertebral scales, and a smooth shell texture; and by a plastron with wide epiplastra, small extragular scales (scale set 2), gular scales (scale set 1) extending onto entoplastron, a small and narrow entoplastron, a large hyoplastron/hypoplastron fontanelle, and an inguinal buttress terminating on the sixth peripheral. The shell of Otwayemys is most similar to Xinjiangchelys from the Jurassic of China; both have broad epiplastra, plastral buttresses not extending onto costals, a long first thoracic rib, no inclination to the first thoracic centrum, and no mesoplastra; all these characters are primitive for the Eucryptodira. Otwayemys is advanced over Xinjiangchelys in having formed vertebral articulations in the neck. Biconvex eighth and biconcave fifth (?) cervicals in Otwayemys are characters found in the Early Cretaceous Ordosemys of central Asia. Otwayemys differs from Chelycarapookus, also from the Early Cretaceous of Victoria, in being 20% larger and having a large plastral fontanelle, a smooth surface texture, and a wide posterior plastral lobe. Otwayemys belongs in the Centrocryptodira, eucryptodires with formed vertebral articulations. A parsimony analysis of 18 taxa using 40 characters (of which only 20 are known for Otwayemys) produces 12 equally parsimonious trees. A consensus tree shows Otwayemys and Meiolaniidae in an unresolved trichotomy with Polycryptodira (consisting primarily of the living cryptodires) plus Sinemydidae"--P. [1]

Food price spikes are associated with increased malnutrition among children in Andhra Pradesh, India

BACKGROUND: Global food prices have risen sharply since 2007. The impact of food price spikes on the risk of malnutrition in children is not well understood. OBJECTIVE: We investigated the associations between food price spikes and childhood malnutrition in Andhra Pradesh, one of India's largest states, with >85 million people. Because wasting (thinness) indicates in most cases a recent and severe process of weight loss that is often associated with acute food shortage, we tested the hypothesis that the escalating prices of rice, legumes, eggs, and other staples of Indian diets significantly increased the risk of wasting (weight-for-height z scores) in children. METHODS: We studied periods before (2006) and directly after (2009) India's food price spikes with the use of the Young Lives longitudinal cohort of 1918 children in Andhra Pradesh linked to food price data from the National Sample Survey Office. Two-stage least squares instrumental variable models assessed the relation of food price changes to food consumption and wasting prevalence (weight-for-height z scores). RESULTS: Before the 2007 food price spike, wasting prevalence fell from 19.4% in 2002 to 18.8% in 2006. Coinciding with India's escalating food prices, wasting increased significantly to 28.0% in 2009. These increases were concentrated among low- (χ(2): 21.6, P < 0.001) and middle- (χ(2): 25.9, P < 0.001) income groups, but not among high-income groups (χ(2): 3.08, P = 0.079). Each 10.0 rupee ($0.170) increase in the price of rice/kg was associated with a drop in child-level rice consumption of 73.0 g/d (β: -7.30; 95% CI: -10.5, -3.90). Correspondingly, lower rice consumption was significantly associated with lower weight-for-height z scores (i.e., wasting) by 0.005 (95% CI: 0.001, 0.008), as seen with most other food categories. CONCLUSION: Rising food prices were associated with an increased risk of malnutrition among children in India. Policies to help ensure the affordability of food in the context of economic growth are likely critical for promoting children's nutrition

The TESS-Keck Survey. VIII. Confirmation of a Transiting Giant Planet on an Eccentric 261 Day Orbit with the Automated Planet Finder Telescope

We report the discovery of TOI-2180 b, a 2.8 $M_{\rm J}$ giant planet orbiting a slightly evolved G5 host star. This planet transited only once in Cycle 2 of the primary Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission. Citizen scientists identified the 24 hr single-transit event shortly after the data were released, allowing a Doppler monitoring campaign with the Automated Planet Finder telescope at Lick Observatory to begin promptly. The radial velocity observations refined the orbital period of TOI-2180 b to be 260.8$\pm$0.6 days, revealed an orbital eccentricity of 0.368$\pm$0.007, and discovered long-term acceleration from a more distant massive companion. We conducted ground-based photometry from 14 sites spread around the globe in an attempt to detect another transit. Although we did not make a clear transit detection, the nondetections improved the precision of the orbital period. We predict that TESS will likely detect another transit of TOI-2180 b in Sector 48 of its extended mission. We use giant planet structure models to retrieve the bulk heavy-element content of TOI-2180 b. When considered alongside other giant planets with orbital periods over 100 days, we find tentative evidence that the correlation between planet mass and metal enrichment relative to stellar is dependent on orbital properties. Single-transit discoveries like TOI-2180 b highlight the exciting potential of the TESS mission to find planets with long orbital periods and low irradiation fluxes despite the selection biases associated with the transit method.Comment: Published in A