Advanced technologies with commodity standard-based hardware bring expensive face-recognition engineering closer to users as an access control in everyday working life.
The technology developed by XID Technologies, a face-recognition technology company, expands its foothold out of Singapore for the first time.
Jason Chaikin, Vice President World sales, said its patented face synthesis technology combined with commodity hardware and industry standard-based processor which is used in netbooks,brings face recognition-based access control devices to the commercial market.
Currently, most of the major players in facial recognition dominate in homeland security and government markets.Entering the commercial area will open new windows of opportunity.
The XID XS PRO-1000 device enables employees to use their company ID cards to touch the device while looking into a built-in camera and then the system will verify whether the ID information on a database server matches the face on the camera.
All verification processing takes less than three seconds and it is simple to install as a plug-and-play. However, compared with normal fingerprint access control systems on the market the cost of this system is around 30 percent higher but it is more accurate than fingerprint recognition which has an average 10 percent error rate.
In some workplaces which have a lot of employees - such as construction sites or factories - where they have to wait in long queues, if the system slows down it can affect productivity. The system also helps to resolve "buddypunching" time attendance by the em-ployees, which can cause company losses.
Carmelo Pistorio, executive chairman of XiD Technologies, said that it is aiming to make face-recognition a global easy access control by 2012.
Currently, fingerprint recognition dominates the biometric market. According to ABI research, in 2008 the biometric market worldwide reached $561 million while fingerprint recognition was worth $349 million, facial recognition was worth $92 million and iris recognition was worth $47 million. Both fingerprint and facial recognition had a combined growth rate from 2008-2013 forecast at 22 percent and were worth $931 million and $251 million, respectively.
This shows how huge the market is and the company decided to expand it reach into China, Indonesia and Vietnam as well as Thailand after spending six years of research and development in Singapore and using the country as test bed for the product technology which was used in a customer site with over 40,000 workers.
Adisorn Keawbucha, CEO, DataOne Asia (Thailand), the exclusive partner for XID, said the product can complement with its skill in integration and implementation service with existing banking and finance customers.
The solution will help to expand new market customers base that require high security areas like power plants, prisons,pharmaceutical labs and other high security zones or sensitive areas.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
SLOWER, LOWER, WEAKER MODERN MAN IS HISTORY'S LOSER
Today's Olympic stars would be no match for their prehistoric relatives, who were stronger and faster and more athletic
Many prehistoric Australian Aborigines could have outrun world 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions. Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the present world high jump record of 2.45 metres during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.
Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and present California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.
These and other eye-catching claims are detailed in a book by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister entitled Manthropology and provocatively sub-titled The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male .McAllister sets out his stall in the opening sentence of the prologue.
"If you're reading this then you - or the male you have bought it for - are the worst man in history.
"No ifs, no buts - the worst man, period ... As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet."
Delving into a wide range of source material, McAllister finds evidence he believes proves that modern man is inferior to his predecessors in, among other fields, the basic Olympic athletics disciplines of running and jumping.
His conclusions about the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago are based on a set of footprints, preserved in a fossilized claypan lake bed, of six men chasing prey.
An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men, dubbed T8, shows he reached speeds of 37k/ph on a soft, muddy lake edge. Bolt,by comparison, reached a top speed of 42k/ph during his then world 100 metres record of 9.69 seconds at last year's Beijing Olympics.
In an interview in the English university town of Cambridge where he was temporarily resident, McAllister said that, with modern training, spiked shoes and rubberised tracks,aboriginal hunters might have reached speeds of 45k/ph.
"We can assume they are running close to their maximum if they are chasing an animal,"he said.
"But if they can do that speed of 37k/ph on very soft ground I suspect there is a strong chance they would have outdone Usain Bolt if they had all the advantages that he does.
"We can tell that T8 is accelerating toward the end of his tracks."
McAllister said it was probable that any number of T8's contemporaries could have run as fast.
"We have to remember too how incredibly rare these fossilisations are," he said."What are the odds that you would get the fastest runner in Australia at that particular time in that particular place in such a way that was going to be preserved?"
Turning to the high jump, McAllister said photographs taken by a German anthropologist showed young men jumping heights of up to 2.52 metres in the early years of last century.
"It was an initiation ritual, everybody had to do it. They had to be able to jump their own height to progress to manhood," he said.
"It was something they did all the time and they lived very active lives from a very early age. They developed very phenomenal abilities in jumping. They were jumping from boyhood onwards to prove themselves."
McAllister said a Neanderthal woman had 10% more muscle bulk than modern European man. Trained to capacity she would have reached 90% of Schwarzenegger's bulk at his peak in the 1970s.
"But because of the quirk of her physiology,with a much shorter lower arm, she would slam him to the table without a problem,"he said.
Manthropology abounds with other examples:
* Roman legions completed more than one-and-a-half marathons a day carrying more than half their body weight in equipment.
* Athens employed 30,000 rowers who could all exceed the achievements of modern oarsmen.
* Australian aboriginals threw a hardwood spear 110 metres or more - the present world javelin record is 98.48m.
McAllister said it was difficult to equate the ancient spear with the modern javelin,but added:"Given other evidence of Aboriginal man's superb athleticism you'd have to wonder whether they couldn't have taken out every modern javelin event they entered."
Why the decline?"We are so inactive these days and have been since the industrial revolution really kicked into gear," McAllister replied."These people were much more robust than we were.
"We don't see that because we convert to what things were like about 30 years ago.There's been such a stark improvement in times, technique has improved out of sight,times and heights have all improved vastly since then, but if you go back further it's a different story.
"At the start of the industrial revolution there are statistics about how much harder people worked then.
"The human body is very plastic and it responds to stress. We have lost 40% of the shafts of our long bones because we have much less of a muscular load placed upon them these days.
"We are simply not exposed to the same loads or challenges that people were in the ancient past and even in the recent past so our bodies haven't developed. Even the level of training that we do, our elite athletes,doesn't come close to replicating that.
"We wouldn't want to go back to the brutality of those days, but there are some things we would do well to profit from."
Many prehistoric Australian Aborigines could have outrun world 100 and 200 metres record holder Usain Bolt in modern conditions. Some Tutsi men in Rwanda exceeded the present world high jump record of 2.45 metres during initiation ceremonies in which they had to jump at least their own height to progress to manhood.
Any Neanderthal woman could have beaten former bodybuilder and present California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in an arm wrestle.
These and other eye-catching claims are detailed in a book by Australian anthropologist Peter McAllister entitled Manthropology and provocatively sub-titled The Science of the Inadequate Modern Male .McAllister sets out his stall in the opening sentence of the prologue.
"If you're reading this then you - or the male you have bought it for - are the worst man in history.
"No ifs, no buts - the worst man, period ... As a class we are in fact the sorriest cohort of masculine Homo sapiens to ever walk the planet."
Delving into a wide range of source material, McAllister finds evidence he believes proves that modern man is inferior to his predecessors in, among other fields, the basic Olympic athletics disciplines of running and jumping.
His conclusions about the speed of Australian aboriginals 20,000 years ago are based on a set of footprints, preserved in a fossilized claypan lake bed, of six men chasing prey.
An analysis of the footsteps of one of the men, dubbed T8, shows he reached speeds of 37k/ph on a soft, muddy lake edge. Bolt,by comparison, reached a top speed of 42k/ph during his then world 100 metres record of 9.69 seconds at last year's Beijing Olympics.
In an interview in the English university town of Cambridge where he was temporarily resident, McAllister said that, with modern training, spiked shoes and rubberised tracks,aboriginal hunters might have reached speeds of 45k/ph.
"We can assume they are running close to their maximum if they are chasing an animal,"he said.
"But if they can do that speed of 37k/ph on very soft ground I suspect there is a strong chance they would have outdone Usain Bolt if they had all the advantages that he does.
"We can tell that T8 is accelerating toward the end of his tracks."
McAllister said it was probable that any number of T8's contemporaries could have run as fast.
"We have to remember too how incredibly rare these fossilisations are," he said."What are the odds that you would get the fastest runner in Australia at that particular time in that particular place in such a way that was going to be preserved?"
Turning to the high jump, McAllister said photographs taken by a German anthropologist showed young men jumping heights of up to 2.52 metres in the early years of last century.
"It was an initiation ritual, everybody had to do it. They had to be able to jump their own height to progress to manhood," he said.
"It was something they did all the time and they lived very active lives from a very early age. They developed very phenomenal abilities in jumping. They were jumping from boyhood onwards to prove themselves."
McAllister said a Neanderthal woman had 10% more muscle bulk than modern European man. Trained to capacity she would have reached 90% of Schwarzenegger's bulk at his peak in the 1970s.
"But because of the quirk of her physiology,with a much shorter lower arm, she would slam him to the table without a problem,"he said.
Manthropology abounds with other examples:
* Roman legions completed more than one-and-a-half marathons a day carrying more than half their body weight in equipment.
* Athens employed 30,000 rowers who could all exceed the achievements of modern oarsmen.
* Australian aboriginals threw a hardwood spear 110 metres or more - the present world javelin record is 98.48m.
McAllister said it was difficult to equate the ancient spear with the modern javelin,but added:"Given other evidence of Aboriginal man's superb athleticism you'd have to wonder whether they couldn't have taken out every modern javelin event they entered."
Why the decline?"We are so inactive these days and have been since the industrial revolution really kicked into gear," McAllister replied."These people were much more robust than we were.
"We don't see that because we convert to what things were like about 30 years ago.There's been such a stark improvement in times, technique has improved out of sight,times and heights have all improved vastly since then, but if you go back further it's a different story.
"At the start of the industrial revolution there are statistics about how much harder people worked then.
"The human body is very plastic and it responds to stress. We have lost 40% of the shafts of our long bones because we have much less of a muscular load placed upon them these days.
"We are simply not exposed to the same loads or challenges that people were in the ancient past and even in the recent past so our bodies haven't developed. Even the level of training that we do, our elite athletes,doesn't come close to replicating that.
"We wouldn't want to go back to the brutality of those days, but there are some things we would do well to profit from."
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Highlighting His Majesty's innovations
The "Creative King" project of the Commerce Ministry will bring together all of His Majesty the King's innovative ideas and works on culture, music and inventions.
"We hope that the launch of the creative King project will inspire Thais to concentrate more on creative jobs," Sanya Sathiraboost, adviser to the deputy commerce minster, said yesterday.
The National Creative Economy Policy Committee, chaired by the prime minister, also approved Bt1 billion as a primary budget for "Creative Economy" activities that are scheduled to kick off next year.
The Creative King project will officially unveil the government's "Creative Economy Creative Thailand" policy.
So far, 181 projects worth Bt74.39 billion have applied for funding to the committee.
Of the total, 68 projects with a total budget of Bt23 billion have met the projects' requirements.
These proposals will be forwarded to a screening committee for budget allocation under the government's second economic stimulus package.
The government is setting up the Thailand Creatie Economy Agency to support all participants and government agencies in moving towards a Creative Thailand.
"We hope that the launch of the creative King project will inspire Thais to concentrate more on creative jobs," Sanya Sathiraboost, adviser to the deputy commerce minster, said yesterday.
The National Creative Economy Policy Committee, chaired by the prime minister, also approved Bt1 billion as a primary budget for "Creative Economy" activities that are scheduled to kick off next year.
The Creative King project will officially unveil the government's "Creative Economy Creative Thailand" policy.
So far, 181 projects worth Bt74.39 billion have applied for funding to the committee.
Of the total, 68 projects with a total budget of Bt23 billion have met the projects' requirements.
These proposals will be forwarded to a screening committee for budget allocation under the government's second economic stimulus package.
The government is setting up the Thailand Creatie Economy Agency to support all participants and government agencies in moving towards a Creative Thailand.
Monday, October 12, 2009
SOYUZ BRINGS SPACE CLOWN BACK TO EARTH
The Russian Soyuz capsule carrying Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte and two other space travellers landed safely in Kazakhstan yesterday, ending the entertainment tycoon's mirthful space odyssey.
Laliberte, who wore a bulbous clown nose during his stay aboard the International Space Station, was estracted from the cramped Soyuz capsule yesterday morning following its landing in the steppes of northern Kazakhstan.
After the landing, he was carried from the capsule wearing the round red nose.
Laliberte returned with Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and Nasa astronaut Michael Barratt, re-entering the Earth's atmosphere several hours after their capsule left the International Space Station.
Valery Lyndin, spokesman for Russian mission control, said the capsule drifted by parachute to Earth at 10.32am local time.
Russian television showed pictures of Padalka sitting outside the spacecraft, scorched by the searing heat of re-entry, eating an apple and drinking tea as ground crew extracted the other space travellers from the capsule. all of the world's apple trees are descended from those that first grew in Kazakhstan.
Laliberte emerged later, wearing his red clown nose as he reclined in a chair set up near the Soyuz capsule. Returning astronauts must rest after Soyuz landing in order to reacclimate to the Earth's gravity.
Laliberte, who wore a bulbous clown nose during his stay aboard the International Space Station, was estracted from the cramped Soyuz capsule yesterday morning following its landing in the steppes of northern Kazakhstan.
After the landing, he was carried from the capsule wearing the round red nose.
Laliberte returned with Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka and Nasa astronaut Michael Barratt, re-entering the Earth's atmosphere several hours after their capsule left the International Space Station.
Valery Lyndin, spokesman for Russian mission control, said the capsule drifted by parachute to Earth at 10.32am local time.
Russian television showed pictures of Padalka sitting outside the spacecraft, scorched by the searing heat of re-entry, eating an apple and drinking tea as ground crew extracted the other space travellers from the capsule. all of the world's apple trees are descended from those that first grew in Kazakhstan.
Laliberte emerged later, wearing his red clown nose as he reclined in a chair set up near the Soyuz capsule. Returning astronauts must rest after Soyuz landing in order to reacclimate to the Earth's gravity.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
SPACE CLOWN AIRS SAVE WATER CAMPAIGN FROM ISS
The first clown in space, Guy Laliberte, has launched a 14-city poetic planetary exrtravaganza to promote clean drinking water, from the International Space Station.
The billionair space tourist and founder of Cirque du Soleil described his journedy as "poetic, social mission".
The two-hour live One Drop show, broadcast online on Friday included guests Al gore, Bono, Salma Hayek, Peter Gabriel, Shakira, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and a musical theatrical performance by Laliberte's circus troupe.
It kicked off with a reading of a poem by Man-Booker prize-winning author Yann Martel, describing a conversation between the Sun, the Moon and a drop of water.
Throughout the show, several people read bits of the fable.
Former US vice president Gore used charts and video to warn of melting polar ice caps, water pollution, and extreme weather causing droughts and flooding.
"To solve the climate crisis and safe-guard our planet and its beauty ... will require global effort," he said.
Australian Tiffany Speight sang fromthe Sydney opera house.
Inuit singer Elisapie Isaac belted out haunting lyrics in her native language, while rappers Fnaire performed from Morocco.
Throughout the show crowds danced and cheered in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, New York's Times Square and at outdooe concerts worldwide.
The 14 segements were broadcast from South Africa, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Canada, Britain, Japan, France, Indian, Morocco, Australia, and several cities in the United States.
Acrobats swan underwater with whales in the Pacific Ocean, as others swung from a makeshift ship dangling high above a pool at a Las Vegas casino.
In Moscow, ballet students of the State Academic Maliy Theatre splashed in a curtain of rain with Bolshoi Ballet star Nikolai Tsiskaridze.
U2 rocked a stadium crowd in Tampa Bay, Florida as part of what bono described as "an out of this world event."
Between songs, Laliberte spoke with Bono onstage from orbit via a satellite video link.
"Every time I look down at this fantastic planet ... it looks so fragile," he said. at times losing his footing in zero gravity.
Later, Laliberte was shown trying to gulp a drop of water floating in air.
Flanked by the ISS crew who described onboard technology for recycling urine into drinking water that could someday be used to allay a water crisis predicted to be coming in 25 to 50 years, Laliberte touted: "All for water, water for all."
As well, he expressed his wish that a "ripple effect" from the show would spur more people to become water conservation activists.
Critics lamented the eonormous cost of the promotion and Laliberte's own US$35-million (Bt1.2 billion) space voyage aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, suggesting the money would have been better spent digging wells in Africa.
The billionair space tourist and founder of Cirque du Soleil described his journedy as "poetic, social mission".
The two-hour live One Drop show, broadcast online on Friday included guests Al gore, Bono, Salma Hayek, Peter Gabriel, Shakira, Canadian astronaut Julie Payette and a musical theatrical performance by Laliberte's circus troupe.
It kicked off with a reading of a poem by Man-Booker prize-winning author Yann Martel, describing a conversation between the Sun, the Moon and a drop of water.
Throughout the show, several people read bits of the fable.
Former US vice president Gore used charts and video to warn of melting polar ice caps, water pollution, and extreme weather causing droughts and flooding.
"To solve the climate crisis and safe-guard our planet and its beauty ... will require global effort," he said.
Australian Tiffany Speight sang fromthe Sydney opera house.
Inuit singer Elisapie Isaac belted out haunting lyrics in her native language, while rappers Fnaire performed from Morocco.
Throughout the show crowds danced and cheered in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, New York's Times Square and at outdooe concerts worldwide.
The 14 segements were broadcast from South Africa, Mexico, Russia, Brazil, Canada, Britain, Japan, France, Indian, Morocco, Australia, and several cities in the United States.
Acrobats swan underwater with whales in the Pacific Ocean, as others swung from a makeshift ship dangling high above a pool at a Las Vegas casino.
In Moscow, ballet students of the State Academic Maliy Theatre splashed in a curtain of rain with Bolshoi Ballet star Nikolai Tsiskaridze.
U2 rocked a stadium crowd in Tampa Bay, Florida as part of what bono described as "an out of this world event."
Between songs, Laliberte spoke with Bono onstage from orbit via a satellite video link.
"Every time I look down at this fantastic planet ... it looks so fragile," he said. at times losing his footing in zero gravity.
Later, Laliberte was shown trying to gulp a drop of water floating in air.
Flanked by the ISS crew who described onboard technology for recycling urine into drinking water that could someday be used to allay a water crisis predicted to be coming in 25 to 50 years, Laliberte touted: "All for water, water for all."
As well, he expressed his wish that a "ripple effect" from the show would spur more people to become water conservation activists.
Critics lamented the eonormous cost of the promotion and Laliberte's own US$35-million (Bt1.2 billion) space voyage aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket, suggesting the money would have been better spent digging wells in Africa.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Fossilised pig belongs to new species
A fossilised pig discovered in a sand pit in Nakhon Ratchasima eight years ago has been found to belong to a new species.
And scientists have also named a new species of stingray in the past year.
The developments were revealed yesterday by the Nakhon Ratchasima-based Northeastern Research Institute for Petrified Wood and Mineral Resources, which supports research projects by scientists.
The institute said two new species had been confirmed this year.
The pig fossils were found in the Moon River basin in Nakhon Ratchasima by palaeontologist Rattanaphorn Hanta in 2001.
The discovery was published early this year in a palaeontology journal to confirm it was a new ancient pig species.
The pig, which lived in the lateMiocene period 6 million to 8 million years ago, was named Merycopotamus thachangensis after the Tha Chang village where the fossils were found.
"The pig fossils show the pig had a unique tooth shape pattern which is different from prehistoric pig species,but close to the pig species of present day," Ms Rattanaphorn said.
Judging from the shape of its skull,the pig lived in similar conditions to the hippopotamus. The pig, which is about 800cm tall with short legs, lived in swamps with adjacent grassland.
She found the fossils at a sand pit near the Moon River in Chalerm Phrakiat district,20 metres below the surface.
Fossils of several other species, such as a mammoth and rhinos, were also uncovered.
Her team was waiting for confirmation of two new ancient elephant species also found as fossils at the site, Ms Rattanaphorn said.
Another species given a formal name by the institute this year is a stingray.
Chavalit Vidthayanon, the institute's deputy director, said a stingray of the genus Himantura , found in Songkhla lake in the southern provinces of Songkhla and Phatthalung, had been confirmed as a new species.
Known as pla kraben bua , the fish was well known among local people.
It has a sharply pointed snout and rounded wing. However, scientists do not know how many are left.
"I can't say exactly how many of them still exist.
"But local fishermen catch only 20 or so a year now, down from about five tonnes a year two decades ago, which suggests there are very few left," Mr Chavalit said.
He said the fish was at risk of extinction because of the poor condition of the Songkhla lake.
And scientists have also named a new species of stingray in the past year.
The developments were revealed yesterday by the Nakhon Ratchasima-based Northeastern Research Institute for Petrified Wood and Mineral Resources, which supports research projects by scientists.
The institute said two new species had been confirmed this year.
The pig fossils were found in the Moon River basin in Nakhon Ratchasima by palaeontologist Rattanaphorn Hanta in 2001.
The discovery was published early this year in a palaeontology journal to confirm it was a new ancient pig species.
The pig, which lived in the lateMiocene period 6 million to 8 million years ago, was named Merycopotamus thachangensis after the Tha Chang village where the fossils were found.
"The pig fossils show the pig had a unique tooth shape pattern which is different from prehistoric pig species,but close to the pig species of present day," Ms Rattanaphorn said.
Judging from the shape of its skull,the pig lived in similar conditions to the hippopotamus. The pig, which is about 800cm tall with short legs, lived in swamps with adjacent grassland.
She found the fossils at a sand pit near the Moon River in Chalerm Phrakiat district,20 metres below the surface.
Fossils of several other species, such as a mammoth and rhinos, were also uncovered.
Her team was waiting for confirmation of two new ancient elephant species also found as fossils at the site, Ms Rattanaphorn said.
Another species given a formal name by the institute this year is a stingray.
Chavalit Vidthayanon, the institute's deputy director, said a stingray of the genus Himantura , found in Songkhla lake in the southern provinces of Songkhla and Phatthalung, had been confirmed as a new species.
Known as pla kraben bua , the fish was well known among local people.
It has a sharply pointed snout and rounded wing. However, scientists do not know how many are left.
"I can't say exactly how many of them still exist.
"But local fishermen catch only 20 or so a year now, down from about five tonnes a year two decades ago, which suggests there are very few left," Mr Chavalit said.
He said the fish was at risk of extinction because of the poor condition of the Songkhla lake.
Monday, October 5, 2009
A feared predator, its origin evolving
" L ike a locomotive with a mouth full of butcher knives."That is how a shark expert, Matt Hooper,described Carcharodon megalodon to the police chief in Peter Benchley's novel Jaws . He was referring to the 15m-long, 50-tonne body and enormous 15- to 18cm-long teeth that made the extinct megalodon shark perhaps the most awesome predator that has ever roamed the seas.
Hooper had just received his first glimpse of the massive great white shark that was terrorising the residents of Amity Island. Hooper explained that the Latin name for the great white was Carcharodon carcharias and that "the closest ancestor we can find for it" was megalodon. So maybe, he speculated,this creature wasn't merely a great white,but a surviving sea monster from an earlier era.
Hooper was toying with a simple and long-established idea: that the most feared predator in the ocean today, the great white shark, evolved from megalodon, the most fearsome predator of a few million years ago.
That is how the two species had been viewed, until recently, when new ways of looking at shark teeth, and new shark fossils from a Peruvian desert, convinced most experts that great whites are not descended from a mega-toothed megashark. Rather, they evolved from a more moderate-size, smooth-toothed relative of mako sharks.
If true, then the mouth full of fleshripping razor blades that are the stuff of nightmares, and box office blockbusters,are also a great example of one of the most interesting phenomena in the story of life, convergent evolution - the independent evolution of similar adaptations by different creatures.
The idea of a close relationship between great whites and megalodon started in 1835, when Louis Agassiz, a Swiss palaeontologist and fish expert, formally named the giant species. The huge fossil teeth of megalodon had been known for centuries and were once believed to be the fossilised tongues of dragons.Agassiz, noting that great white shark teeth and the fossil megalodon teeth were both serrated, lumped megalodon into the same genus - Carcharodon (from the Greek karcharos, meaning sharp or jagged, and odous, meaning tooth).
Agassiz was not, however, making an evolutionary judgement. In 1835, a young Charles Darwin was just then visiting the Galapagos Islands. There would be no theory of evolutionary descent for nearly 25 years. In fact, the brilliant Agassiz, who later became a professor at Harvard and the leading figure of natural history in the US, forever resisted Darwin's revolutionary ideas. Rejecting biological evolution, Agassiz defined species as a "thought of God". His classification scheme signified nothing about shark origins.
But over the next century, the idea that great whites evolved from megalodon took hold. Because shark skeletons are largely made of nonmineralised cartilage that isn't preserved in the fossil record, the principal evidence has come from their teeth. Shark teeth are heavily mineralised, preserve well,and sharks may shed thousands of them over their lifetime. Megalodon teeth are highly sought by collectors, so we have lots of their teeth.
Great white teeth reach a maximum size of about 6.3cm. Scary enough, but adult megalodon teeth dwarf them. The most obvious characteristics the species'teeth have in common are their pointed shape and serrations. The points facilitate the puncturing of flesh and grasping of prey. The fine, regularly spaced serrations aid in cutting and ripping it into pieces.
Based primarily on these characteristics and some similarities in specific tooth shapes and roots, many experts supported the idea that great whites were, in effect, dwarf megalodons.
But a small minority had their doubts.It was noted that great white teeth also bore similarities to the teeth of an extinct mako shark, Isurus hastalis, some of which had weak serrations. An alternative proposal for great white origins was offered - that they evolved from an extinct group of mako sharks.
Many debates about interpretations of the appearances of structures in the fossil record boil down to the emphasis on different characters by different researchers, the great white origins debate included. It is often similar to a discussion at a family reunion of which child looks more like one parent or grandparent. It depends upon the feature and the viewer.
Such subjective arguments are hard to settle without more quantitative measures. Kevin Nyberg and Gregory Wray of Duke University and Charles Ciampaglio of Wright State University used new computer-assisted imaging and measurement methods to better assess the similarities and differences among great white, megalodon and extinct mako teeth. They determined that the extinct mako and great white teeth and roots were similar in shape and clearly distinct from megalodon.
Furthermore, high-resolution electron microscopy revealed that the shape and spacing of serrations of great white teeth were markedly different from those in megalodon teeth. The serrations that impressed Agassiz now appear to be just a superficial resemblance. The great white did not inherit its sharp cutting tools from megalodon.
Rather, it appears that great whites evolved from a less ferocious-looking ancestor and independently evolved sharp serrations. A remarkably wellpreserved fossil of what a great white ancestor may have looked like was recently brought to light. The desert region of southwestern Peru is a graveyard of marine animals from the past 40 million years, including spectacularly preserved whales, dolphins, walruses, seals, turtles and sharks. It was there that Dr Gordon Hubbell, a shark expert, collected the four-million-year-old fossil that had not only its jaws intact with 222 teeth, but also 45 vertebrae - both rarities for shark fossils and rare opportunities for shark experts.
The serrations of great white teeth undoubtedly evolved to exploit expanding populations of marine mammals.That adaptation appears to have given the predators an advantage as they, like megalodon in its day, enjoy a broad oceanwide distribution. At least for now.
I say "for now" because the number of great whites is declining along with most shark species, some of which have experienced alarming drops in their numbers in just the past 20 years.
Hooper had just received his first glimpse of the massive great white shark that was terrorising the residents of Amity Island. Hooper explained that the Latin name for the great white was Carcharodon carcharias and that "the closest ancestor we can find for it" was megalodon. So maybe, he speculated,this creature wasn't merely a great white,but a surviving sea monster from an earlier era.
Hooper was toying with a simple and long-established idea: that the most feared predator in the ocean today, the great white shark, evolved from megalodon, the most fearsome predator of a few million years ago.
That is how the two species had been viewed, until recently, when new ways of looking at shark teeth, and new shark fossils from a Peruvian desert, convinced most experts that great whites are not descended from a mega-toothed megashark. Rather, they evolved from a more moderate-size, smooth-toothed relative of mako sharks.
If true, then the mouth full of fleshripping razor blades that are the stuff of nightmares, and box office blockbusters,are also a great example of one of the most interesting phenomena in the story of life, convergent evolution - the independent evolution of similar adaptations by different creatures.
The idea of a close relationship between great whites and megalodon started in 1835, when Louis Agassiz, a Swiss palaeontologist and fish expert, formally named the giant species. The huge fossil teeth of megalodon had been known for centuries and were once believed to be the fossilised tongues of dragons.Agassiz, noting that great white shark teeth and the fossil megalodon teeth were both serrated, lumped megalodon into the same genus - Carcharodon (from the Greek karcharos, meaning sharp or jagged, and odous, meaning tooth).
Agassiz was not, however, making an evolutionary judgement. In 1835, a young Charles Darwin was just then visiting the Galapagos Islands. There would be no theory of evolutionary descent for nearly 25 years. In fact, the brilliant Agassiz, who later became a professor at Harvard and the leading figure of natural history in the US, forever resisted Darwin's revolutionary ideas. Rejecting biological evolution, Agassiz defined species as a "thought of God". His classification scheme signified nothing about shark origins.
But over the next century, the idea that great whites evolved from megalodon took hold. Because shark skeletons are largely made of nonmineralised cartilage that isn't preserved in the fossil record, the principal evidence has come from their teeth. Shark teeth are heavily mineralised, preserve well,and sharks may shed thousands of them over their lifetime. Megalodon teeth are highly sought by collectors, so we have lots of their teeth.
Great white teeth reach a maximum size of about 6.3cm. Scary enough, but adult megalodon teeth dwarf them. The most obvious characteristics the species'teeth have in common are their pointed shape and serrations. The points facilitate the puncturing of flesh and grasping of prey. The fine, regularly spaced serrations aid in cutting and ripping it into pieces.
Based primarily on these characteristics and some similarities in specific tooth shapes and roots, many experts supported the idea that great whites were, in effect, dwarf megalodons.
But a small minority had their doubts.It was noted that great white teeth also bore similarities to the teeth of an extinct mako shark, Isurus hastalis, some of which had weak serrations. An alternative proposal for great white origins was offered - that they evolved from an extinct group of mako sharks.
Many debates about interpretations of the appearances of structures in the fossil record boil down to the emphasis on different characters by different researchers, the great white origins debate included. It is often similar to a discussion at a family reunion of which child looks more like one parent or grandparent. It depends upon the feature and the viewer.
Such subjective arguments are hard to settle without more quantitative measures. Kevin Nyberg and Gregory Wray of Duke University and Charles Ciampaglio of Wright State University used new computer-assisted imaging and measurement methods to better assess the similarities and differences among great white, megalodon and extinct mako teeth. They determined that the extinct mako and great white teeth and roots were similar in shape and clearly distinct from megalodon.
Furthermore, high-resolution electron microscopy revealed that the shape and spacing of serrations of great white teeth were markedly different from those in megalodon teeth. The serrations that impressed Agassiz now appear to be just a superficial resemblance. The great white did not inherit its sharp cutting tools from megalodon.
Rather, it appears that great whites evolved from a less ferocious-looking ancestor and independently evolved sharp serrations. A remarkably wellpreserved fossil of what a great white ancestor may have looked like was recently brought to light. The desert region of southwestern Peru is a graveyard of marine animals from the past 40 million years, including spectacularly preserved whales, dolphins, walruses, seals, turtles and sharks. It was there that Dr Gordon Hubbell, a shark expert, collected the four-million-year-old fossil that had not only its jaws intact with 222 teeth, but also 45 vertebrae - both rarities for shark fossils and rare opportunities for shark experts.
The serrations of great white teeth undoubtedly evolved to exploit expanding populations of marine mammals.That adaptation appears to have given the predators an advantage as they, like megalodon in its day, enjoy a broad oceanwide distribution. At least for now.
I say "for now" because the number of great whites is declining along with most shark species, some of which have experienced alarming drops in their numbers in just the past 20 years.
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