Fossil teeth reveal facts about modern
hippos
Among the large mammals that roamed prehistoric North America
was a type of rhinoceros that seems to have lived in the water,
much like a modern hippopotamus. The extinct rhinoceros, known as
Teleoceras, ranged from Florida to the West Coast from about 17
million years ago until about 4.5 million years ago. Its
semi-aquatic lifestyle, first suggested by its body shape, has been
disputed by some researchers.
But evidence preserved in fossil teeth now indicates that in
some areas, at least, Teleoceras did spend much of its life in the
water.
“Morphologically, Teleoceras looked a lot like modern
hippos, with large, squat bodies and short legs, and we now have
evidence from isotope analysis that they were semi-aquatic like
hippos,” said Mark Clementz, a graduate student in Earth
sciences, who presented his findings at the Geological Society of
America meeting on Nov. 14. Clementz and Paul Koch, an associate
professor of Earth sciences, analyzed oxygen isotopes in fossil
Teleoceras teeth for clues to the animals’ habits. Oxygen
occurs in nature as three different isotopes.
UC Davis enrolls record number of students
The UC Davis has enrolled a record high 26,094 students this
fall ““ 1,002 more than last fall, it was announced recently.
The number includes a 32.9 percent increase in all transfer
students and a 22.8 percent increase in California residents
transferring from California community colleges.
The new freshman enrollment of 4,339 was 39 more than expected;
new transfer students, 74 more than anticipated. All transfer
students numbered 1,391 last year, compared to this fall’s
1,849 final tally, and California residents transferring from
California community colleges numbered 1,248 last year, compared to
1,533 this fall.
Carol Wall, vice chancellor for student affairs at UC Davis,
said all campuses in the UC system are working with the community
colleges, particularly in their geographical regions, to increase
the number of students who first attend community colleges before
transferring to the university.
“This work by university and community college advisers
has been successful and has resulted in increasing numbers of
transfer students,” Wall said.
This fall’s student body slipped in diversity, with
non-white students making up 50.97 percent of all domestic
undergraduates, compared to 51.52 percent last fall. Numbers
declined among most historically underrepresented groups.
“As a land-grant institution with a commitment to educate
the best of the state’s young people, we continue to be
concerned that the population of students at the university does
not yet mirror the population of the state,” Wall said.
State drug treatment measure may be costly
The state may need to find more money to implement the sweeping
drug treatment initiative adopted by voters this month, Senate
President Pro Tem John Burton said in a letter made public
Tuesday.
The ballot measure, Proposition 36, requires that those
convicted of possessing or using drugs for the first or second time
be sent to treatment programs instead of prison or jail.
But the $120 million allocated to treatment programs by the
initiative may not pay for enough treatment or monitoring of drug
offenders, nor will it pay for periodic drug testing, said Burton,
D-San Francisco, who supported the initiative.
“The voters of California have delivered a historic demand
for change by approving Proposition 36,” Burton said in a
letter to Gov. Gray Davis.
Compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports.