Large dinosaurs migrated huge distances, say scientists

The largest dinosaurs to walk the Earth may have embarked on seasonal migrations that covered hundreds of kilometres when local watering holes dried up and food became scarce.

Evidence that giant sauropods set off on epic journeys came to light when scientists examined fossilised teeth recovered from the remains of beasts unearthed in Wyoming and Utah in the US.

The analysis of 32 teeth belonging to two species of Camarasaurus, among the most common sauropods found in North America, suggests the creatures migrated during hot, dry summers, from their usual habitats on flood plains in search of food and water in surrounding uplands.

Some return journeys required the dinosaurs to cover distances of around 300 kilometres (190 miles) in each direction. The long-necked herbivores measured 20 metres from nose to tail in adulthood and weighed around 18 tonnes.

The arduous treks pushed the lumbering animals to their limit, and some appear to have died soon after returning to their lowland homes, before the rainy season brought fresh water to parched soils and vegetation flourished once more.

Understanding the ranges and seasonal movements of the animals will help scientists piece together the role of migrations on Jurassic ecology and any bearing this had on the evolution of gigantism among dinosaurs.

"The question of how sauropods got to be so big is one that is still being actively studied. There's evidence that some of the reason is that they didn't have the dental morphology to chew their food, so in order to get enough energy their guts got bigger, and they did more processing in their stomachs," said Henry Fricke, head of geology at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, who led the study which is published in Nature.

"Migration could come into the story of gigantism as a feedback process. Once they started to get big, it would be easier for them to migrate and get more food more consistently, which would help them to grow even more," he added. Moving long distances gets more energetically efficient the bigger strides a creature can take, so it would be highly inefficient for a mouse, for example, but much more efficient for a large dinosaur.

Fricke's team attempted to reconstruct camarasaur migrations by measuring oxygen isotopes (variants of particular elements that have different numbers of neutrons in their nucleus) in their teeth. The work relied on the fact that ratios of two oxygen isotopes differ markedly in the waters of streams and lakes, depending on local environmental conditions, such as how high and arid the landscape was at the time.

The dinosaurs kept an unwitting record of these oxygen isotopes as they roamed the land, because the oxygen in the water they drank became incorporated into successive layers of enamel as their teeth developed.

Most of the teeth, from remains collected at Thermopolis in Wyoming and Dinosaur National Monument in Utah, were worn and retained only a month or two of enamel growth, but others were in far better condition with up to four or five months of enamel still intact.

The scientists analysed oxygen isotopes in the dinosaurs' teeth and compared them with ancient soil samples from their lowland habitats and bordering uplands. From this, they pieced together the dinosaurs' movements over several months of their lives, concluding that the beasts made seasonal migrations to the uplands. Studies of one tooth suggest the dinosaur left its lowland habitat to find food and water in the highlands and returned home within five to six months.

"What was up in the highlands food-wise we don't know, the land is weathered away, but the conditions may not have been as hot and dry, and it may even have rained more continuously at the higher elevations," Fricke said.

"This is a neat example of how we can bring geochemical methods to bear on an issue, how we can learn something about dinosaur behaviour that we can't learn from looking at the morphology of the fossils themselves," he added.

Tunisians flock to voting stations for first taste of democracy in 50 years

At 7am, at the front of a long queue outside a polling station near the Tunis casbah, Samira, 50, impatiently waited for the doors to open on Tunisia's first-ever free elections. A shop assistant, she had been camped there since 5.45am in order to be the first voter. She hadn't slept a wink. "How could I sleep? It's the first time I've ever voted in my life," she said, rubbing her eyes. "What's one night when we've waited decades for freedom? This ballot box is what we took to the streets for."

Nine months after a people's revolution ousted the despot Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and inspired uprisings across the region, Tunisia held the first vote of the Arab spring. The country of 10 million is being watched by the Arab world as a kind of laboratory for the transition from dictatorship to democracy. If these elections succeed in ushering in a credible new political class after 50 years of a one-party state, it could boost the democratic hopes of neighbours such as post-Gaddafi Libya, and Egypt, where there is profound uncertainty despite elections in November that should end military rule.

One common complaint among Tunisians has been that they never felt able to celebrate their revolution. Ben Ali's departure was followed by weeks of curfews, uncertainty and pockets of violence stoked by remnants of the old regime. Then people again took to the streets and occupied the casbah in protest at what was to become a succession of weak, discredited and ineffective transition governments featuring faces from the old regime. Ben Ali has sought refuge in Saudi Arabia, but his state apparatus remains in place; torture and police brutality continues, the justice system is craven and compromised, corruption is rife, and unemployment – a main cause of the revolution – is rising.

"At last, there's an overwhelming sense of joy and relief today," said Mehdi Lassoued, a worker from a tyre company, wrapped in the Tunisian flag. "I feel we're finally moving on, that we can finish this revolution, vote for a legitimate government." A Tunis university professor, Ghofrane Ben Miled, said: "There's so much expectation and excitement on the street. I didn't sleep, I was wired. It felt like the nights during the revolution, but calmer. I'm 42 and I've never voted before."

Cars hung with flags beeped through the streets; hundreds queued in the sun, making hats for each other out of newspapers. Asked who the winner would be, most said: "We all are."

During 23 years under Ben Ali's notorious secret police, elections were a farce and few turned out to vote. Those who did were often, in fact, dead. Ben Ali would win by unlikely scores, such as the 99.91% he announced in 1994.

The people's uprising that began in December with the self-immolation of a poor vegetable seller in the desolate rural town of Sidi Bizoud was not led by any party, ideology or religion. So the election is the first test of a new political landscape. There are now more than 110 parties, and scores of independents. Tunisians will appoint a 217-seat assembly with the role of rewriting the constitution in preparation for parliamentary elections in at least one year's time.

A complex proportional representation system means that no one political party will dominate the assembly. But the Islamist party, An-Nahda, outlawed and brutally repressed under the regime, is expected to win an important share of the vote. The party has campaigned as a moderate, pro-democracy force, vowing to respect the diversity of Tunisia, one of the most educated countries in the region, with a strong secular tradition and the most advanced women's rights in the Arab world. The party likens itself to Turkey's Islamist-rooted ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) – liberal and conservative. Secular critics say An-Nadha is an unknown quantity and fear that once elected, hardliners could seek to enforce a more fundamentalist Islam on Tunisia's civil society.

When An-Nahda's leader, Rachid Ghannouchi, who recently returned from 22 years exile in London, arrived at his polling station to vote, followed by camera crews, he walked straight to the entrance. But he was jeered by crowds, who said: "The queue, the queue! Democracy starts there!" He swiftly took his place at the back, adding: "The people have a hunger for democracy."

The assembly will see An-Nahda sit with an array of secular, centrist parties, such as the centre-left Ettakatol which was in opposition under Ben Ali. Its founder, Mustapha Ben Jaafar, 70, a doctor and professor of medicine, was barred from running for president in 2009 but is tipped to seek a senior position in the new government. He faces opposition from the well-known lawyer Ahmed Néjib Chebbi, 67, of the rival PDP. A new party, the Congress for the Republic, led by the long-exiled human rights activist Moncef Marzouki, was also expected to gain seats.

Authorities predicted a high turnout, with early estimates of over 60%, and as high as 80% in some precincts. The count was due to begin at 7pm but full results would not be released until Monday. The coalition assembly will then face wrangling over who to appoint to top jobs or whether to focus on the vast task of producing a new democratic constitution, the foundations for a new state, while a government of technocrats keeps the country ticking over.

With unemployment officially at 19% but thought to be much higher and topping 40% for graduate women, the government will be under pressure to kickstart the economy and deal with the huge divide between Tunisia's tourist coast and the poor interior, where the self-immolation and uprising began.

In Ettadhamen, a poor, densely populated suburb of Tunis which rose up in the revolution and saw young men killed by Ben Ali's forces, hundreds of people were queueing to vote outside schools. "I've never seen anything like this," said Lameen Muhammed, a teacher. "Nine months ago you couldn't even talk about politics in the street for fear of the secret police. The stress was unbearable. Now, everyone's out debating and voting. It has been difficult, but we're leaning towards democracy. With this vote, the people will have spoken."

A 52-year-old builder voting for the first time said he would choose An-Nahda. "They have a history of struggle against the regime, they were treated brutally, their families suffered. I want them to improve security. There are a lot of problems here, alcohol is sold openly, and there are drugs sold on the street."

A stay-at-home mother, 44, in long robe and headscarf said she had voted for the centrist secular party Ettakatol because she liked what they said on TV.

Meanwhile, a student had chosen the CPR, "They're a new party, I trust them. I'm nearly 20 – I'm desperate to think I can hope for some kind of job."

Amid the optimism, there was a sense of vigilance. Many said that the people had staged the revolution and they would take to the streets again if they felt they were being cheated or let down. Najila Ahrissi, one of the many cleaning ladies who leave Ettadhamen each day to work in the homes of the rich for around ￡150 a month, had voted for a small secular party. She said: "In the old days, every election here was fixed. Let's just hope we can trust the politicians of tomorrow."

Jennifer Metcalfe glitters in gold as she shows off her curves on the catwalk to open Liverpool Fashion Week

She's most well known for playing Mercedes Fisher in Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks.
But Jennifer Metcalfe could soon be going for a change of careers, judging by photographs of the brunette actress taking to the catwalk in Liverpool last night.
The 28-year-old actress looked confident and assured as she strutted her stuff down the runway in a plunging gold dress which highlighted her curves to open Liverpool Fashion Week.
Jennifer teamed the backless dress with a pair of long earrings, and tied her hair up into a high ponytail to show off her gown to its full potential.
The Hollyoaks star was watched from the front row by her proud boyfriend, Dancing On Ice professional Sylvain Longchambon, who debuted his new bearded look at the event.
Speaking recently about the prospect of opening Liverpool Fashion Week at the Hard Day’s Night Hotel in the city, Jennifer said: 'I’m looking forward to the whole night.

'I love fashion and to be able to get the opportunity to open Liverpool Fashion Week is an honour.'
Jennifer is just one of the stars who will be making an appearance at the week-long event, which takes place until October 22.
It will feature a staggering 40 catwalk shows, with clothes from brands including Frockstar, Fashion Pony, Paris G and Pastiche featured on the runway.

Liverpool Fashion Week director Amanda Moss said: 'We’re delighted to be working with names ranging from Karen Millen, Next, Evans and local giant Matalan to new local designers such as Paris G.
'Brilliant young designers in Liverpool understandably focus their resources on creating outstanding collections.
'We will use our styling and image making expertise to help promote and build their businesses and get their great work out there so style hungry men and women of the region can wear and support new talent.

Pauline Quirke: The three warning signs I was eating myself to death

Emmerdale’S Pauline Quirke had turned a blind eye to her ever- expanding bulk for years – then one day she got on the scales.
And the horror of discovering she was almost 20 stone wasn’t the only thing to finally shock her into fighting the flab.

A series of health warnings made mum-of-two Pauline – who insists that being overweight never made her unhappy, unable to find love or unemployable – accept that she had to change.

Pauline, 52, who has lost an incredible eight stone since January, says: “I don’t know how many wake-up calls you need. I had my fair share, I suppose. But there were three pretty major ones in the space of a year that gave me the kick I obviously needed.”

The first big shock for Pauline, who became a household name in hit BBC1 sitcom Birds of a Feather, was when doctors told her she needed a hip replacement. At the age of 49.

“That was the lowest point,” she admits.

“Needing an operation like that before you’re 50 just isn’t right, and it was really upsetting for me.

DAMAGES

“I saw the X-ray and my right hip was more or less worn away. It’s a no-brainer. It’s a weight bearing joint so, even though I have osteoarthritis which damages your joints anyway, I had to accept a big part of the problem was my size.”

So when she landed the part as the Dales’ art teacher Hazel Rhodes last summer, she decided to use being away from home to try to slim.

Pauline, who lives in Buckinghamshire with husband Steve, and her children Emily, 26, and 17-year-old Charlie, thought that being in Leeds five days a week would help.

But despite her good intentions, somehow she just got even bigger.
She says: “I went up to Yorkshire with the idea I’d use this time away from the family to get healthy.

“I wasn’t cooking for them, I was just looking after myself, so I thought it would be fine.

“But within a couple of weeks I was having bacon and sausage baps in the canteen. And I also happened to live above the best Indian in the country, in my place in Leeds, which didn’t help. So rather than getting better, I was just getting worse. I had no motivation.”

Then a family holiday brought Pauline fresh humiliation and her second big weight warning of the year.

“I wish I could make a funny story out of this one, but it was just horrible,” she begins with a sigh. “Me, Steve and the kids were flying out to Majorca.

“As I walked up the stairs to the plane I just got the fear. I thought of something I knew was going to go wrong and cursed myself for not thinking of it six months before, and doing something about it.

“Of course, I was right. I pulled and pulled at the seatbelt waiting to hear the click and it just wasn’t coming, so I had to ask the attendant for an extension.

“I felt like c**p, to have to do that in front of my husband and kids.”
But there was one more shock before Pauline finally embarked on her intensive Lighter Life Total diet regime. Just before Christmas, she slipped on ice and broke her arm.

“By this time of the year I wasn’t even thinking about my weight any more – and I certainly wasn’t trying to lose any,” she admits.

“But when I fell and broke my arm, it felt like another sign. It wasn’t connected directly to my weight but, let’s face it, if there’s nearly 20st falling on top of a bone you’ve more chance of breaking it than if you’re 12st.

“It was all this stuff combined and I knew it was getting worse.

“I wasn’t getting any smaller. I wasn’t even staying the same. In all honesty, I was getting bigger and bigger.”

Curious to discover just how big she was, Pauline got on the scales for the first time in years.

She says: “I was genuinely horrified to see I weighed 19st 6lb. I had no idea at all I’d gone that big.

“You don’t really notice when you’re fat – especially if you don’t check. And I didn’t check for years. You just go from one pair of black elasticated pants to the next. They don’t look great anyway, so it doesn’t matter if they’re one size up.

“I honestly can’t remember the last time I weighed myself before then. It must have been a long time ago because in my mind I was around the 17st mark.

“I’m not stupid. Of course I knew I was getting bigger – you know by the clothes you’re wearing. You just don’t really acknowledge it, you just buy the next size up. By the time I broke my arm I was in size 26 or 28 clothes. That was when I decided to do something drastic.

“It’s called ‘morbidly’ obese for a reason – because it’s associated with a bigger risk of dying.”

Since January 3, when Pauline started on the Lighter Life Total plan she has shed an amazing 8st and reached her target weight of 11st 7lb. She is now getting ready to reintroduce food into her diet.

“It wasn’t easy,” she says. “But as tough as it was at the beginning there was always something to keep me going.

“After six weeks I was in the Woolpack with the lovely Zoe Henry, who plays Rhona, and we were having a little chat in between takes. She said, ‘Pauline, you look really well, have you lost weight?’

“I hadn’t told anyone at work, I wanted to get a couple of weeks under my belt before people started asking me about it. So I acted sort of surprised and said, ‘Really, do I?’ Then of course I admitted it. I might have lost a stone and a half by then.

“That might not make a massive difference when you’re 19st 6lb, but it felt brilliant that somebody had noticed. Zoe was the first person and there’s always something like that to keep you going.

“Before I knew it, the weeks had turned into months and now I’m at my target. I’ve lost the 8st I wanted to lose, I feel brilliant and I’m not fussed on going any further.”

The extreme weight-loss programme includes no conventional food until you reach your goal weight. Followers live on four pre-prepared food packs a day, adding up to 600 calories. They can drink water, black coffee and leaf tea with sweeteners, but that’s it. So it’s no surprise Pauline’s body transformed so rapidly.

As happy as she is to have the size 12 figure she last had as a teenager, Pauline insists she never once felt depressed or insecure about being a larger lady.

COMFORTABLE

“I don’t do self-doubt,” she says. “I never did. I never once felt down on myself when I was bigger. Why should I? It’s not like I wasn’t getting work. It wasn’t like I didn’t have a man who loved me.

“I’m very comfortable in my own skin, always have been.”

Does she regret not tackling her weight when she was younger?

“I don’t regret a thing,” she says. “It might have taken me 52 years, but I’ve done it. I’m not going to regret the fact I didn’t do it years ago. It doesn’t matter.

“Why focus on the negative? It was hard enough without beating myself up about wasting some years. I wasn’t ready then. But I wasn’t a pig either.

“People might assume that to get as fat as I did I sat there eating fried bread and doughnuts every day. But I didn’t. I was not a pig. What I did was have a little bit too much of everything all the time, over a 30-year period. And then when I was ready to stop, I did.

“Some people lose weight because they hate the way they look, other people do it to get into nice clothes.

“That wasn’t the motivation for me, I didn’t care about that stuff.

“For me, it was my health, and that’s why I was able to finally do it. I had to.”

Barroso's eurozone crisis plan could stop bank dividends

Europe's biggest banks would be barred from paying out dividends and bonuses if they are forced to raise their capital reserves to withstand future shocks, under plans put forward by the European commission to resolve the debt crisis.

At the same time, banks are being softened up by Brussels to accept "haircuts", or losses, of 30%-50% on their holdings of Greek debt rather than the current 21%.

Senior commission officials are also examining ways to boost the size of the main bailout fund, the European financial stability facility (EFSF), closer to the €2 trillion (￡1.75tn) demanded by the US and UK without being forced to get this increase ratified by all 17 eurozone countries again.

These are the three key elements of a "roadmap to stability and growth" put forward to MEPs on Wednesday by José Manuel Barroso, the commission's president, in the run-up to the emergency EU and eurozone summits on 23 October.

Barroso's aides likened the plan to a "grand bargain" even though it lacks a lot of fine detail, following a series of top-level conflicts both among EU officials and between Brussels, Berlin and Paris.

But his supporters insist Barroso has pre-empted German chancellor Angela Merkel and French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who announced a "comprehensive plan" on Sunday and have since given no details. "They have not put a single word on paper because they don't agree," one said.

The EU has given itself little more than 10 days to come up with a viable, convincing scheme as the political crisis around Silvio Berlusconi deepens in Italy and the International Monetary Fund warns Cyprus it must take urgent action to shore up its economy.

Seeking to inject a sense of urgency "over the threat of systemic crisis now unfolding", Barroso is telling Germany that it has to accept that the EFSF needs to be leveraged up from its current €440bn and France that it will have to recapitalise its banks.

In Paris, budget minister Valérie Pécresse said France would use its own money, not that of the EFSF, if required.

The commission's plan for recapitalisation envisages some of Europe's 60- 70 biggest ("potentially systemic") banks being set a core ("tier one") capital ratio close to 9% after the European Banking Authority (EBA) completes its reassessment of stress tests carried out in July.

This equates to the "hard" capital ratio of 7% required by 2019 under the Basel III banking accord, but no final figure is being put on the ratio because this is being left to the EBA for political reasons.

The new tests, sources said, are examining the banks' exposure to the sovereign debt of some 30 countries, including the way this has deepened in the last three months.

Barroso said that banks without the required capital ratio would be prevented from paying out dividends and bonuses by national supervisors and would have to swiftly seek fresh capital.

The commission insists that banks should first act on their own account – by selling assets, turning to shareholders, changing debt into equity – before going to governments. Recourse to the EFSF would be a very last resort.

UK and Swiss banks, according to research by HSBC, would meet a 10% ratio requirement.

Barroso indicated that his plan would see the EFSF's permanent successor, the European stability mechanism, installed a year early, in mid-2012. This would come with conditions imposing haircut clauses on all eurozone bonds issued after that date, officials said.

Bondholders who agreed to take a voluntary 21% haircut on Greek debt in July's second bailout are now being warned they face losses closer to 50% under what Barroso called the second adjustment programme. Sources confirmed that a range of 30%-50% is being discussed, while Wolfgang Schaüble, Germany's finance minister, warned private creditors they would be asked to share the pain if Greece's "unsustainable" debt were cut.

George Papandreou, the Greek premier, said his country was "negotiating in every way to lighten this debt".

The Barroso plan sent stocks and the euro rising, with the FTSE finishing 46 points higher and the Dow Jones briefly moving back into positive territory for the year, but analysts' reactions were mixed.

"While greater capital strength will build confidence in the industry, the key question is the scale of investor appetite for providing capital to an industry where returns on equity appear to be heading south as a result of Basel III and other regulatory change," said Richard Barfield, a director at PwC.

Sony Kapoor, managing director at economic think tank Re-Define, welcomed the moratorium on bonuses and dividends and said: "Finally, the European Commission seems to have grasped all the aspects that a successful strategy to address the crisis would entail". But he also warned: "It may have left it too late."