3,687 research outputs found
Extreme Cranial Ontogeny in the Upper Cretaceous Dinosaur Pachycephalosaurus
BACKGROUND: Extended neoteny and late stage allometric growth increase morphological disparity between growth stages in at least some dinosaurs. Coupled with relatively low dinosaur density in the Upper Cretaceous of North America, ontogenetic transformational representatives are often difficult to distinguish. For example, many hadrosaurids previously reported to represent relatively small lambeosaurine species were demonstrated to be juveniles of the larger taxa. Marginocephalians (pachycephalosaurids + ceratopsids) undergo comparable and extreme cranial morphological change during ontogeny. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Cranial histology, morphology and computer tomography reveal patterns of internal skull development that show the purported diagnostic characters for the pachycephalosaurids Dracorex hogwartsia and Stygimoloch spinifer are ontogenetically derived features. Coronal histological sections of the frontoparietal dome of an adult Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis reveal a dense structure composed of metaplastic bone with a variety of extremely fibrous and acellular tissue. Coronal histological sections and computer tomography of a skull and frontoparietal dome of Stygimoloch spinifer reveal an open intrafrontal suture indicative of a subadult stage of development. These dinosaurs employed metaplasia to rapidly grow and change the size and shape of their horns, cranial ornaments and frontoparietal domes, resulting in extreme cranial alterations during late stages of growth. We propose that Dracorex hogwartsia, Stygimoloch spinifer and Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis are the same taxon and represent an ontogenetic series united by shared morphology and increasing skull length. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Dracorex hogwartsia (juvenile) and Stygimoloch spinifer (subadult) are reinterpreted as younger growth stages of Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis (adult). This synonymy reduces the number of pachycephalosaurid taxa from the Upper Cretaceous of North America and demonstrates the importance of cranial ontogeny in evaluating dinosaur diversity and taxonomy. These growth stages reflect a continuum rather than specific developmental steps defined by "known" terminal morphologies
Discovery of a very X-ray luminous galaxy cluster at z=0.89 in the WARPS survey
We report the discovery of the galaxy cluster ClJ1226.9+3332 in the Wide
Angle ROSAT Pointed Survey (WARPS). At z=0.888 and L_X=1.1e45 erg/s (0.5-2.0
keV, h_0=0.5) ClJ1226.9+3332 is the most distant X-ray luminous cluster
currently known. The mere existence of this system represents a huge problem
for Omega_0=1 world models.
At the modest (off-axis) resolution of the ROSAT PSPC observation in which
the system was detected, ClJ1226.9+3332 appears relaxed; an off-axis HRI
observation confirms this impression and rules out significant contamination
from point sources. However, in moderately deep optical images (R and I band)
the cluster exhibits signs of substructure in its apparent galaxy distribution.
A first crude estimate of the velocity dispersion of the cluster galaxies based
on six redshifts yields a high value of 1650 km/s, indicative of a very massive
cluster and/or the presence of substructure along the line of sight. While a
more accurate assessment of the dynamical state of this system requires much
better data at both optical and X-ray wavelengths, the high mass of the cluster
has already been unambiguously confirmed by a very strong detection of the
Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect in its direction (Joy et al. 2001).
Using ClJ1226.9+3332 and ClJ0152.7-1357 (z=0.835), the second-most distant
X-ray luminous cluster currently known and also a WARPS discovery, we obtain a
first estimate of the cluster X-ray luminosity function at 0.8<z<1.4 and
L_X>5e44 erg/s. Using the best currently available data, we find the comoving
space density of very distant, massive clusters to be in excellent agreement
with the value measured locally (z<0.3), and conclude that negative evolution
is not required at these luminosities out to z~1. (truncated)Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, 6 pages, 2 figures, uses
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The WARPS survey - IV: The X-ray luminosity-temperature relation of high redshift galaxy clusters
We present a measurement of the cluster X-ray luminosity-temperature relation
out to high redshift (z~0.8). Combined ROSAT PSPC spectra of 91 galaxy clusters
detected in the Wide Angle ROSAT Pointed Survey (WARPS) are simultaneously fit
in redshift and luminosity bins. The resulting temperature and luminosity
measurements of these bins, which occupy a region of the high redshift L-T
relation not previously sampled, are compared to existing measurements at low
redshift in order to constrain the evolution of the L-T relation. We find a
best fit to low redshift (z1 keV, to be L proportional
to T^(3.15\pm0.06). Our data are consistent with no evolution in the
normalisation of the L-T relation up to z~0.8. Combining our results with ASCA
measurements taken from the literature, we find eta=0.19\pm0.38 (for Omega_0=1,
with 1 sigma errors) where L_Bol is proportional to (1 + z)^eta T^3.15, or
eta=0.60\pm0.38 for Omega_0=0.3. This lack of evolution is considered in terms
of the entropy-driven evolution of clusters. Further implications for
cosmological constraints are also discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
The WARPS Survey. VIII. Evolution of the Galaxy Cluster X-ray Luminosity Function
We present measurements of the galaxy cluster X-ray Luminosity Function (XLF)
from the Wide Angle ROSAT Pointed Survey (WARPS) and quantify its evolution.
WARPS is a serendipitous survey of the central region of ROSAT pointed
observations and was carried out in two phases (WARPS-I and WARPS-II). The
results here are based on a final sample of 124 clusters, complete above a flux
limit of 6.5 10E-15 erg/s/cm2, with members out to redshift z ~ 1.05, and a sky
coverage of 70.9 deg2. We find significant evidence for negative evolution of
the XLF, which complements the majority of X-ray cluster surveys. To quantify
the suggested evolution, we perform a maximum likelihood analysis and conclude
that the evolution is driven by a decreasing number density of high luminosity
clusters with redshift, while the bulk of the cluster population remains nearly
unchanged out to redshift z ~ 1.1, as expected in a low density Universe. The
results are found to be insensitive to a variety of sources of systematic
uncertainty that affect the measurement of the XLF and determination of the
survey selection function. We perform a Bayesian analysis of the XLF to fully
account for uncertainties in the local XLF on the measured evolution, and find
that the detected evolution remains significant at the 95% level. We observe a
significant excess of clusters in the WARPS at 0.1 < z < 0.3 and LX ~ 2 10E42
erg/s compared with the reference low-redshift XLF, or our Bayesian fit to the
WARPS data. We find that the excess cannot be explained by sample variance, or
Eddington bias, and is unlikely to be due to problems with the survey selection
function.Comment: 13 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA
Cool Jupiters greatly outnumber their toasty siblings : Occurrence rates from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©2019 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.Our understanding of planetary systems different to our own has grown dramatically in the past 30 yr. However, our efforts to ascertain the degree to which the Solar system is abnormal or unique have been hindered by the observational biases inherent to the methods that have yielded the greatest exoplanet hauls. On the basis of such surveys, one might consider our planetary system highly unusual - but the reality is that we are only now beginning to uncover the true picture. In this work, we use the full 18-yr archive of data from the Anglo-Australian Planet Search to examine the abundance of 'cool Jupiters' - analogues to the Solar system's giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn. We find that such planets are intrinsically far more common through the cosmos than their siblings, the hot Jupiters.We find that the occurrence rate of such 'cool Jupiters' is 6.73 +2.09 -1.13 per cent, almost an order of magnitude higher than the occurrence of hot Jupiters (at 0.84 +0.70 -0.20 per cent). We also find that the occurrence rate of giant planets is essentially constant beyond orbital distances of ~1 au. Our results reinforce the importance of legacy radial velocity surveys for the understanding of the Solar system's place in the cosmos.Peer reviewe
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