Breaking News, Business, Financial and Economic News, World News from EconoTimes

Become a contributor

Bookmark Econotimes

Thu, Apr 25, 2024 11:27 PM All times are UTC

Follow Series

©Econometrics LLC . All Rights Reserved.

John Long

Strategic Professor in Palaeontology, Flinders University

Activity
Prof John Long researches the early evolution of vertebrates in order to unravel the stages of how the modern vertebrate body plan was assembled.

Many parts of our human anatomy had their origins back in the Early Palaeozoic (540-350 million years ago). This was when jaws, teeth, paired limbs, ossified brain-cases, intromittent genital organs, chambered hearts and paired lungs all appeared in early fishes.

He has conducted field work collecting fossils throughout Australia, SE Asia, South Africa, China and Antarctica.

Prof Long has served as the Vice President of Research and Collections at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (2009-2012), Head of Sciences at Museum Victoria (2004-2009) and as Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the Western Australian Museum (1989-2004). He is currently the President of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (2014-2016) and the Vice President of the Royal Society of South Australia (2014-2016).

For the past 30 years Prof Long has been collecting fossils from the Gogo sites in northern Western Australia, whose perfectly preserved 3-D fish fossils have yielded many significant discoveries, including mineralised soft tissues, the origins of complex sexual reproduction in vertebrates.

His discoveries include the State Fossil Emblem of Western Australia (Mcnamaraspis), the mother fish with the world's oldest vertebrate embryo (Materpiscis), a tetrapod-like fish with large holes on top of its head for air-breathing (Gogonasus), and the oldest evidence for copulation in vertebrates (Microbrachius).

He has also worked on fossil heritage issues, working with Government agencies over the years to help solve fossil-related crime and repatriate fossils smuggled out of other countries including China and Argentina.

Prof Long is an author of many adult and children's books, including non-fiction and fiction, covering topics as diverse as evolution, dinosaurs, fossil fishes, prehistoric mammals, travels in Antarctica, the illegal fossil trade, climate change and the birth of human civilisation.

His most recent books include " Dawn of the Deed -The Prehistoric Origins of Sex" (University of Chicago Press, 2012) which gives an account of the Gogo discoveries and explores their relevance and other fossils showing evidence for sexual behaviour for understanding sex in an evolutionary context, and "Frozen in Time - Prehistoric Life in Antarctica" (with Jeffrey Stilwell, CSIRO Publishing 2011).

Ancient fish evolved in shallow seas – the very places humans threaten today

Oct 28, 2018 13:13 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

You walk and talk and live on land, but your ancient relatives were fish. It took about 480 million years for these fish to evolve and adapt to different environments and become the many different back-boned species...

What evolution and motorcycles have in common: let's take a ride across Australia

Sep 30, 2018 22:08 pm UTC| Insights & Views Life

How can the development of motorcycles have anything to do with the story of the evolution of life on Earth? You need a palaeontologist to help answer that question, and one with a love of motorcycles. The article is...

Curious Kids: How many dinosaurs in total lived on Earth during all periods?

Aug 08, 2018 12:02 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

This is an article from Curious Kids, a series for children. The Conversation is asking kids to send in questions theyd like an expert to answer. All questions are welcome serious, weird or wacky! You might also like the...

The origins of those sexual organs: a fishy tale much more primitive than we thought

Jul 19, 2018 14:10 pm UTC| Insights & Views Nature

Fossil discoveries from the Devonian rocks of Scotland and Australia first revealed that the earliest jawed fishes, the placoderms, reproduced using copulation in much the same way as sharks and rays do today. They also...

Economy

What if the Reserve Bank itself has been feeding inflation? An economist explains

Heres something for the board of the Reserve Bank of Australia to ponder as it meets next month to set interest rates. It has pushed up rates on 13 occasions since it began its attempt to restrain inflation in May...

China’s new world order: looking for clues from Xi’s recent meetings with foreign leaders

There is broad consensus that Chinese foreign policy has become more assertive and more centralised in the decade since Xi Jinping has ascended to the top of Chinas leadership. This has also meant that Chinese foreign...

How India’s economy has fared under ten years of Narendra Modi

More than 960 million Indians will head to the polls in the worlds biggest election between April 19 and early June. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is seeking a third...

Will global oil supply be at risk if Iran and Israel pull the Middle East into war?

Tensions in the Middle East have escalated following Irans weekend missile and drone attacks on Israel, heightening concerns of a wider conflict. As with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, further conflict has the...

EU enlargement: What does the future hold?

To widen or to deepen. This has been one of the longstanding dilemmas throughout European Union (EU) history, and a perennial sticking point in the unending process of European integration. In its time, the UK...

Politics

Georgia is sliding towards autocracy after government moves to force through bill on ‘foreign agents’

Georgias ruling party attempted to pass a controversial bill on foreign agents in March 2023. The law would have required civil society groups and the media to register as being under foreign influence if they receive...

South Korean President Yoon faces foreign policy challenges after the National Assembly election

South Koreas parliamentary election of April 10, 2024, was widely seen as a referendum on President Yoon Suk Yeols first two years in office. That being the case, the nation collectively expressed its strong...

How will US foreign policy affect Joe Biden’s chances of re-election in November?

When big questions about American foreign policy collide with an election, its rarely good news for a sitting president. Like many leaders before him, US President Joe Biden has had some of these questions thrust on...

US Commerce Secretary Asserts Huawei Chip Lag, Affirms Export Control Success

In an interview on CBS News 60 Minutes, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated that the latest Huawei Mate 60 Pro phones chip remains significantly behind U.S. technology despite being the most advanced from China. She...

‘We have thousands of Modis’: the secret behind the BJP’s enduring success in India

Since 2014, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity has grown exponentially and so has the formidable organisational machine of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). These two factors will be key to delivering the BJP...

Science

The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook

A piece of space junk recently crashed through the roof and floor of a mans home in Florida. Nasa later confirmed that the object had come from unwanted hardware released from the international space station. The 700g,...

Peter Higgs was one of the greats of particle physics. He transformed what we know about the building blocks of the universe

Peter Higgs, who gave his name to the subatomic particle known as the Higgs boson, has died aged 94. He was always a modest man, especially when considering that he was one of the greats of particle physics the area of...

Could a telescope ever see the beginning of time? An astronomer explains

The James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST for short, is one of the most advanced telescopes ever built. Planning for JWST began over 25 years ago, and construction efforts spanned over a decade. It was launched into space on...

US media coverage of new science less likely to mention researchers with African and East Asian names

When one Chinese national recently petitioned the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to become a permanent resident, he thought his chances were pretty good. As an accomplished biologist, he figured that news...

If life exists on Jupiter’s moon Europa, scientists might soon be able to detect it

Europa is one of the largest of more than 90 moons in orbit around the planet Jupiter. It is also one of the best places to look for alien life. Often termed an ocean world by scientists, observations to date strongly...

Technology

Qualcomm Responds to Snapdragon X Elite Benchmark Cheating Claims

Qualcomm has responded to the serious allegations that it cheated on performance benchmarks for its Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips, targeting competition with leading laptop processors. According to Toms Hardware,...

Bitcoin Surges Globally, Yen Hits Record Low Against Cryptocurrency

In a stunning financial shift, the Japanese yen has reached a 34-year low against Bitcoin, which also hit all-time highs in 14 countries, fueled by optimism surrounding new spot Bitcoin ETFs. Yen Hits 34-Year Low as...

Worldcoin Targets OpenAI Alliance, Faces Scrutiny Amid Regulatory Challenges

Worldcoin, a digital identification innovator, is eyeing a partnership with OpenAI despite facing regulatory scrutiny and data privacy concerns. The collaboration aims to bolster its technological advancements and market...

SHIB Community Ignites Burn Rate by 2,076% Following Major Announcement

The Shiba Inu community has dramatically increased the SHIB burn rate by 2,076% in response to a recent significant announcement, signaling a proactive shift in strategy. Shiba Inu Community Ramps Up Token Burns,...

Toyota Teams with Tencent, Nissan Joins Forces with Baidu in China AI Drive

The automakers announced on Thursday that Nissan will partner with Baidu and Toyota Motor of Japan will partner with Tencent of China. These cross-border alliances underscore the significance of artificial intelligence to...