AFP

The first skeleton of a Gorgosaurus dinosaur to go under the hammer sold for $6.1 million at auction in New York Thursday, Sotheby’s said.

The specimen is 10 feet tall (three meters) and 22 feet long, and had been expected to fetch between $5 million and $8 million.

“The result places the Gorgosaurus among the most valuable dinosaurs ever sold at auction, and establishes a new benchmark for a Gorgosaurus skeleton,” Sotheby’s said in a statement.

The Gorgosaurus roamed the earth approximately 77 million years ago. 

A typical adult weighed about two tonnes, slightly smaller than its more famous relative, the Tyrannosaurus rex.

Paleontologists say it was fiercer and faster than the T-Rex, with a stronger bite of around 42,000 newtons compared to 35,000.

The skeleton was discovered in the Judith River Formation near Havre, in the US state of Montana in 2018.

The sale marked the first time that Sotheby’s had auctioned a full dinosaur skeleton since it sold Sue the T-Rex in 1997 for $8.36 million.

“Today’s Gorgosaurus came to auction without a name, providing the buyer the exclusive opportunity to name the dinosaur,” Sotheby’s said.

Sotheby’s did not reveal the buyer.

Unlike other countries, the United States does not restrict the sale or export of fossils, meaning the skeleton could end up overseas.

An “exceptional” marine heatwave is gripping the western Mediterranean with surface temperatures up to five degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than average, according to experts contacted by AFP. 

Although the record-breaking heatwave that baked northern Europe and Britain this month has subsided, the experts said the persistently hotter-than-normal temperatures in the Mediterranean posed a threat to the entire marine ecosystem.

“This huge marine heatwave began in May in the Ligurian sea” between Corsica and Italy, said Karina von Schuckmann, an oceanographer at the non-profit research group Mercator Ocean International.

It then spread to the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea, she said. 

By July, the heatwave had engulfed the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, and the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

“The surface temperature anomaly map shows higher than normal values, in the order of +4 to +5C from the east of the Balearic Islands to the east of Corsica,” Mercator said in a statement. 

While humans might find the warmer water temperatures pleasant in the tourist hotspots of the western Mediterranean, the group warned that “ocean warming impacts the entire ecosystem.” 

“It is important to be aware of the possible consequences for local fauna and flora, as well as the occurrence of extreme weather events that could result in natural disasters,” it said.

Von Schuckmann said that unusually warm temperatures could cause irreversible migration for some species and “mass die-offs” for others.

She noted knock-on effects for industries such as tourism and fishing which rely on favourable water conditions.

According to the UN’s climate science body, marine heatwaves have already doubled in frequency globally since 1980.

– Die-offs, invasive species – 

Although the Mediterranean only counts for one percent of Earth’s ocean surface area, it contains nearly 20 percent of all known marine species.

A study published this month in the journal Global Change Biology found that the Mediterranean had experienced five consecutive years of mass mortality events between 2015-2019.

France’s CNRS research centre has noted that marine heatwaves in 1999, 2003 and 2006 caused mass die-offs for some species, notably the posidonia, a genus of flowering plants.

“We can predict the main impact will be on fixed organisms such as plants or corals,” said Charles-Francois Boudouresque, a marine ecologist at Aix-Marseille University. 

Some species of fish such as the barracuda could become more abundant in warming northern Mediterranean waters, however.

Boudouresque said some species coming through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea could become problematic “within five to 10 years”.

These include the rhopilema — a herbivore jellyfish — and the rabbit fish, which Boudouresque described as “extremely greedy”.

Already abundant in the eastern Mediterranean, its appearance in western waters would threaten the algae forests that serve as nurseries for myriad varieties of fish. 

Rhopilema can also sting swimmers with enough severity to require hospital treatment.

As there is little governments can do once a marine heatwave takes hold, Von Schuckmann said the best course of action is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to warming.

“Even if we stopped emitting today, the oceans, which contain 90 percent of Earth’s heat, will continue to warm,” she said.

“Since at least 2003 (marine heatwaves) have become more common and in future they will last longer, cover more sea, and be more intense and severe,” said Von Schuckmann.

The city of Berlin started switching off spotlights illuminating its historic monuments as part of a national effort to save energy in the face of Russian gas shortages.

Some 200 buildings and landmarks including Berlin’s red-brick city hall, State Opera House and Charlottenburg Palace will fall dark at night, officials in the German capital said this week.

“Given the war against Ukraine and the energy policy threats by Russia, it’s important that we be as careful as possible with our energy,” the city’s chief official for the environment, Bettina Jarasch, said on Wednesday.

Jarasch of the Green party said that included consumers and industry but also public institutions, calling the move “the right thing to do to make a visible contribution”.

The policy affected six monuments from Wednesday night and will eventually encompass 200 buildings and landmarks along with their 1,400 spotlights over the next four weeks, Jarasch’s office said.

An electrical services firm will shut off 100-120 lights per day without dismantling them, keeping the policy temporary.

The cash-strapped capital will not save money as the labour costs are expected to match the benefit of cutting energy use.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said this week he wanted to set an example by keeping the facade of his official residence, Bellevue Palace in Berlin’s sprawling Tiergarten park, dark at night. 

– Cold showers –

Several German cities have said they would step up efforts to limit the use of energy, with Hanover in the north announcing plans this week to only offer cold showers at public pools and sports centres.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left-led government has launched a national drive to save energy amid soaring prices due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the EU agreed this week to reduce Russian gas use across the bloc.

Officials have warned that the Kremlin could cut off supplies this winter in retaliation for biting Western sanctions against Moscow over the war.  

The German efforts include reducing the use of air conditioning, promoting public transport and pushing for more efficient shower heads.

Before the Ukraine war, Germany bought 55 percent of its natural gas from Russia. 

Although the rate had fallen to 35 percent by early June, Europe’s top economy is still heavily dependent on Russia for its energy, and says Moscow is using it as a “weapon”.

On Wednesday, Russian state-run energy giant Gazprom slashed deliveries of gas through the Nord Stream pipeline to Germany to 20 percent capacity from the previous 40 percent. 

An “exceptional” marine heatwave is gripping the western Mediterranean with surface temperatures up to five degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit) hotter than average, according to experts contacted by AFP. 

Although the record-breaking heatwave that baked northern Europe and Britain this month has subsided, the experts said the persistently hotter-than-normal temperatures in the Mediterranean posed a threat to the entire marine ecosystem.

“This huge marine heatwave began in May in the Ligurian sea” between Corsica and Italy, said Karina von Schuckmann, an oceanographer at the non-profit research group Mercator Ocean International.

It then spread to the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea, she said. 

By July, the heatwave had engulfed the Balearic Islands, Sardinia, and the Tyrrhenian Sea. 

“The surface temperature anomaly map shows higher than normal values, in the order of +4 to +5C from the east of the Balearic Islands to the east of Corsica,” Mercator said in a statement. 

While humans might find the warmer water temperatures pleasant in the tourist hotspots of the western Mediterranean, the group warned that “ocean warming impacts the entire ecosystem.” 

“It is important to be aware of the possible consequences for local fauna and flora, as well as the occurrence of extreme weather events that could result in natural disasters,” it said.

Von Schuckmann said that unusually warm temperatures could cause irreversible migration for some species and “mass die-offs” for others.

She noted knock-on effects for industries such as tourism and fishing which rely on favourable water conditions.

According to the UN’s climate science body, marine heatwaves have already doubled in frequency globally since 1980.

– Die-offs, invasive species – 

Although the Mediterranean only counts for one percent of Earth’s ocean surface area, it contains nearly 20 percent of all known marine species.

A study published this month in the journal Global Change Biology found that the Mediterranean had experienced five consecutive years of mass mortality events between 2015-2019.

France’s CNRS research centre has noted that marine heatwaves in 1999, 2003 and 2006 caused mass die-offs for some species, notably the posidonia, a genus of flowering plants.

“We can predict the main impact will be on fixed organisms such as plants or corals,” said Charles-Francois Boudouresque, a marine ecologist at Aix-Marseille University. 

Some species of fish such as the barracuda could become more abundant in warming northern Mediterranean waters, however.

Boudouresque said some species coming through the Suez Canal from the Red Sea could become problematic “within five to 10 years”.

These include the rhopilema, a herbivore jellyfish Boudouresque described as “extremely greedy”, and which could disrupt marine food chains.

Already abundant in the eastern Mediterranean, its appearance in western waters would threaten the algae forests that serve as nurseries for myriad varieties of fish. 

Rhopilema can also sting swimmers with enough severity to require hospital treatment.

Another invasive species is the rabbit fish, which is native to the Red Sea but is increasingly found in the Mediterranean. 

As there is little governments can do once a marine heatwave takes hold, Von Schuckmann said the best course of action is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to warming.

“Even if we stopped emitting today, the oceans, which contain 90 percent of Earth’s heat, will continue to warm,” she said.

“Since at least 2003 (marine heatwaves) have become more common and in future they will last longer, cover more sea, and be more intense and severe,” said Von Schuckmann.