Junkers Ju 87
Junkers Ju 87
The Junkers Ju 87, or Stuka, was a German dive bomber and ground attack aircraft. It was designed by German aerospace engineer Hermann Pohlmann (1894-1991). The Junkers Ju 87’s first flight was in 1935. The Junkers Ju 87 made its combat debut in 1937, with the Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939. The Junkers Ju 87 served in World War II on the Axis side from the beginning of the war to the end of the war. The aircraft was recognizable by its inverted gull wings and fixed spatted undercarriage. On the leading edges of the Junkers Ju 87’s main gear legs were mounted ram air sirens known as Jericho trumpets. These fearsome sirens terrified those who heard them. The Junkers Ju 87 was a very good aircraft for close air support and anti-shipping roles. The Junkers Ju 87 led the air assaults in the invasion of Poland in September 1939. Junkers Ju 87s proved to be very good against ground targets. The Junkers Ju 87s were very vulnerable to enemy fighter aircrafts due to their lack of maneuverability, armor, and speed to escape from enemy aircrafts. This made it so that Junkers Ju 87s needed a fighter escort to operate effectively. The Junkers Ju 87s were deployed in many theaters of WWII. There were about 6,000 Junkers Ju 87s built between 1936 and 1944.
A Salamander That Isn’t a Salamander
A Salamander That Isn’t a Salamander
Near What Cheer, Iowa, a fossil of an extinct animal was found. The name of this fossil is Whatcheeria Deltae, located in a limestone quarry. Whatcheeria is a stem tetrapod although the creature has a salamander-like body with a crocodile's head. Whatcheeria was named after the county: What Cheer and Delta, Iowa in 1995. Scientists have found around 350 specimens of Whatcheeria, ranging from a fully complete skeleton to one bone. Whatcheeria can grow up to a length of six and a half feet long. Close relatives of Whatcheeria are Pederpes and possibly Ossinodus.
In the long-abandoned Jasper Hiemstra Quarry, many fossils were discovered. Paleontologists unearthed the fossils from the quarry in the late 1980s. Two ancient sinkhole deposits were preserved in this quarry. The St. Louis Formation's Waugh and Verdi members contain muddy limestone layers from the collapsed deposits. The majority of tetrapod fossils are discovered above the coarser breccia in the limy conglomerate. The sinkhole deposit dates from the late Visean, according to microfossils. This location's geology implies an isolated brackish water environment such as an estuary or lagoon.
The Delta site has yielded more than 600 fossilized tetrapod remains, including several partially articulated heads and skeletons. The genus Whatcheeria is thought to include up to 90% of the site's tetrapod fossils, although only 26 specimens have been positively recognized as belonging to that species. Other tetrapods include colosteid Deltaherpeton and an unidentified species of embolomere.
Whatcheeria was probably mostly an aquatic creature since its basic, blocky phalanges, and weakly ossified ankles and wrists make it challenging for them to move about on land. The existence of bony groves for sensory organs on the skull, found in fish and aquatic amphibians lends more evidence to this.
Whatcheeria's exceptionally thin skull was heavily strengthened by various mechanisms of contact between its constituent bones. The interdigitating sutures that connected the cheek and roof of the skull at the back of the head would have lessened the compressive forces between the top and sides of the rear skull. Numerous front-to-back overlapping scarf joints were present on the nose, which would have prevented torsion by feisty prey. Whatcheeria has longer anterior fangs than other early tetrapods, which may be related to a higher power at the front of the mouth while biting prey. Whatcheeria's skull functions as a firm and powerful platform for biting, with a concentration on the front of the snout for early food acquisition.
Paleontologists assess each bone's developmental history; a cross slice of nine femora from four size classes has been collected for histological analysis. The cortex, which takes up more than half of the bone's volume in the bigger femora, becomes proportionately thinner in the smaller femora. The kind of bone deposited in each femur varies according to size as well. The smallest femora are composed mostly of parallel-fibered bone and fibrolamellar bone, a rapidly forming composite substance that combines random bone fibers with concreted osteons. Size classes three and four adult femora, which are the biggest, lose their fibrolamellar bone and obtain lamellar bone. Whatcheeria is the only early tetrapod to have fibrolamellar bone, which is a sign of rapid juvenile growth more akin to amniotes than the majority of extinct or surviving amphibians. Additionally, the existence of parallel-fibered bone suggests that the smallest known femora are just late juveniles and that younger individuals, who probably developed even quicker, have not been preserved in fossil form at the Delta site. All of the femora lack growth markings, indicating that there were no seasonal fluctuations or resource shortages that may have slowed growth.
Stephanie Briones Interview
by Yamileth Sanchez- Avila
Stephanie is 13 years old, born on June 13th, 2009. She's in class 818, her favorite subject is ELA and her favorite teacher is Ms. McDonald. Her favorite things to eat are Takis and her favorite drinks are fruit punch Arizona and water. Stephanie has a loving family of three. She loves them very much! Stephanie's very nice. Stephanie wants to go to Sunset Park High School when she graduates and build her own nail tech business.
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