Latest news with #HattiesburgAmerican
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Will the U.S. Supreme Court grant a stay of execution for Mississippi man on death row?
Mississippi's oldest prisoner on death row has filed an emergency stay of execution with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for a last-minute reprieve. Richard Gerald Jordan, who turned 79 on May 25, is scheduled for execution on June 25. Jordan has been on death row in Mississippi since 1977 for the 1976 kidnapping and murder of Edwina Marter, the wife of a Gulfport bank executive. His attorneys are questioning the constitutionality of his death sentence, saying he was never given "the assistance of an expert 'sufficiently available to the defense' to assist in evaluating and preparing a mitigation case based on Petitioner's mental condition," according to the application for the stay filed May 21. What to know: Mississippi has an execution scheduled. How is it done? What is the process? "Petitioner was examined by a psychiatrist whose report was provided to the prosecution and then used against Petitioner during his sentencing proceedings." Jordan also is still awaiting the outcome of a petition for a writ of certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court. "If this execution is not stayed pending disposition of this case, Petitioner will undeniably suffer irreparable harm," his attorneys said in court documents. "This is an 'irremediable' harm because 'execution is the most irremediable and unfathomable of penalties.'" Death row: Mississippi man to be executed in June asks state court to reconsider elements of his case In addition, executing Jordan before the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the petition would mean the Mississippi Supreme Court would be stripping power from the nation's highest court by rendering its decision moot, Jordan's attorneys wrote. Jordan's attorneys hope the U.S. Supreme Court will consider Jordan's petition at its May 29 conference. Lici Beveridge is a reporter for the Hattiesburg American and Clarion Ledger. Contact her at lbeveridge@ Follow her on X @licibev or Facebook at This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi death row inmate asks SCOTUS for stay of execution
The Independent
30-04-2025
- Science
- The Independent
Giant ‘sea monster' fossil unearthed in Mississippi mud
The remains of a giant 'sea monster' that once dominated the oceans was unearthed by geologists on a riverbank in the Mississippi River, scientists have said. Geologists discovered a fossilised single vertebra of the giant sea lizard known as a mosasaur that lived during the late Cretaceous period, approximately between 82 and 66 million years ago. "This is a true, true sea monster," geologist James Starnes, from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Geology, told local newspaper Hattiesburg American. 'This is about as big as mosasaurs get." Mosasaurs were apex predators, and at their largest, they could weigh up to 20,000 pounds (9,000 kilograms) and reach lengths of up to 50 feet (15 metres). "I immediately knew what it was, but was completely awestruck by its size," Mr Starnes told Live Science. "The feeling you get when you find a fossil, even as a professional, never gets old. But when you find something you have never seen before, the elation can be overwhelming." The bone of the marine reptile, discovered on April 15, is potentially one of the largest found in the state. "This is a big animal,' Starnes said. 'The maximum (weight) is about 20,000 pounds that this animal could have gotten. This is bigger than most dinosaurs walking around on land." The bone was discovered in an area that was once completely submerged underwater. In 2022, another giant species of mosasaur, Thalassotitan atrox, was discovered in Morocco. The giant marine lizard, described in the journal Cretaceous Research, grew up to 9m (30 ft) in length and is a distant relative of modern iguanas and monitor lizards. While some mosasaurs evolved to eat small prey, such as fish and squid, and others crushed ammonites and clams, scientists, including those from the University of Bath in the UK, suggest that the newly discovered one evolved to prey on all other marine reptiles. Mosasaurs disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous period, approximately 66 million years ago, during the K-Pg event, when around 75 percent of all species on the planet became extinct. While the exact cause of their extinction is not fully understood, it is believed to be related to the aftermath of a massive asteroid impact in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. When top predators, such as the mosasaurs, disappeared, it opened the way for whales and seals to become dominant in the oceans, the researchers said, and fish like swordfish and tuna also appeared.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Geologists accidentally found a monstrous mosasaur fossil in Mississippi mud
Mosasaurs were some of the most fearsome apex predators to ever stalk the Cretaceous era's oceans. And according to Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) geologist James Starnes, a recent vertebrae fossil find belonged to 'about as big' a mosasaur specimen as one could get. 'This is a true, true sea monster,' Starnes recently told the local news outlet Hattiesburg American. 'This [was] bigger than most dinosaurs walking around on land.' Multiple mosasaur species swam Earth's prehistoric waters as recently as 66 million years ago, but the over seven-inch-wide fossil found on April 15 came from Mosasaurus hoffmanii—by far one of the family's largest species. 'This is a big animal. The maximum [weight] is about 20,000 pounds,' explained Starnes. Although M. hoffmanii likely grew over 50-feet-long, Starnes and the MDEQ team estimates the vertebrae originated from a creature that was probably more like 30-feet-long. Still, that's pretty big. '[B]ig enough to keep most people out of the water if it was swimming around today,' added Mississippi Museum of Natural Science paleontology curator George Phillips. 'People,' however, luckily didn't enter the evolutionary picture until Homo sapiens arrived roughly 300,000 years ago. As for a mosasaur's contemporary prey—they rarely stood a chance against the ocean reptile. While previous theories likened the mosasaur's underwater maneuvers to present-day sea snakes, recent evidence indicates many of the predators featured large, crescent-shaped tailfin flukes similar to a shark. These would have allowed mosasaurs to quickly ambush their targets instead of chasing them over long distances. Any prey that couldn't escape were ensnared by their 60-or-so daggerlike teeth, including an extra set on the roofs of their mouths. Starnes and colleagues found their latest discovery by complete accident. The team was out in the field near Starkville's Mississippi State University to create a 3D map of local geologic layers when fellow geologist Jonathan Leard realized he misplaced a pile of ancient seashells he had collected. While searching for the missing shells, Starnes noticed a partially exposed bone in the muck. It didn't take long before it became clear this was something much larger than any seashell. That said, mosasaur didn't immediately come to mind. 'It was so big, we didn't think it was a mosasaur,' said Leard. 'It might be the biggest one ever collected in Mississippi.'
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Geologists Found the Fossil of a Stunning 30-Foot Sea Dragon in Mississippi, of All Places
Geologists recently discovered the fossil of a Cretaceous-era mosasaur vertebra near Starkville, Mississippi. The experts believe the apex predator of the ancient seas could have weighed 20,000 pounds and been 50 feet long. The Late Cretaceous-era Mosasaurus hoffmannii was known to eat others of its own species. Whatever you want to call the Mosasaurus hoffmannii—a giant mosasaur, a massive water dragon, maybe even a sea monster—just know that it was one big dino, and we've got the bones to prove it. Geologists in Mississippi recently discovered the vertebra of the Late Cretaceous-era water dinosaur, which could reach up to 50 feet long and weigh 20,000 pounds at its largest. It was truly an apex predator extraordinaire. The find came in the fossil-rich outcrops of northeast Mississippi, near Starkville in the Prairie Bluff Formation, according to a statement from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, and the discovery sheds new light on the 'giant sea lizard' that was a contemporary of the Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor, and Triceratops. This Cretaceous carnivore was not to be messed with. It had jaws lined with 60 dagger-like pointed teeth curved inward—with additional rows of teeth at the roof of the back of their mouths to help secure large prey, including other mosasaurs—and the subaquatic dinos could regrow the teeth, which they frequently lost while hunting. 'Mosasaurs were sea dragons, both large and small, and were truly the apex predators dominating the various environments of the seas of this time,' according to the state's geologists. 'While the dinosaurs ruled the land, these Mesozoic-era oceans were likely the most dangerous of any time in the entire history of our planet.' The recent discovery was 'from a true giant,' the team said, adding it belonged to a M. hoffmannii, one of the largest and last mosasaurs during the Cretaceous period. Its size, coupled with its agility and speed in the water, made it 'one of the most formidable marine predators to ever swim in our planet's oceans.' Noting that in a period where much of Mississippi was believed covered by warm, tropical ocean waters, mosasaurs were akin to a giant lizard that was specialized in this environment. This specimen belongs to the largest-ever M. hoffmannii recorded in the state and would have been larger than most dinosaurs on land. 'This is a true, true sea monster,' James Starnes of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's Office of Geology, told the Hattiesburg American. 'This is about as big as mosasaurs get.' George Phillips, paleontology curator at the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, told the Hattiesburg American, this find—with a backbone seven inches at its widest point—was likely at least 30 feet long, though the M. hoffmannii is believed to be able to reach 50 feet in length. 'We find them from time to time, but to find one this size is phenomenal,' Starnes said. 'The transparent size of this thing blew us away.' The team located the vertebra in mud while building a three-dimensional map of the site's geological layers. It may have sat there for about 66 million years, the team believes, ever since the species went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period. You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Geologist left 'awe-struck' by giant 'sea dragon' discovery in Mississippi
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A giant "sea dragon" backbone plucked from a riverbank in Mississippi could belong to the largest mosasaur ever found in the state, scientists say. Researchers only found a single vertebra from the creature and aren't sure exactly how large the mosasaur was in total, but it is estimated to have been at least 30 feet (9 meters) long, Hattiesburg American reported. Mosasaurs, or "sea dragons," ruled the oceans when dinosaurs dominated the land towards the end of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago). The newly discovered fossil belonged to Mosasaurus hoffmanni, which was one of the largest — if not the largest — mosasaur species. James Starnes, a geologist at the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, spotted the fossil protruding from a stream bed just south of Starkville on April 15, he told Live Science in an email. His fellow geologist, Jonathan Leard, then carefully pulled it out of the sediment. "I immediately knew what it was, but was completely awe struck by its size," Starnes said. "The feeling you get when you find a fossil, even as a professional, never gets old. But when you find something you have never seen before, the elation can be overwhelming." Related: 'Red flags' raised over ancient sea monster pulled from Moroccan mine Mosasaurs were a diverse group of marine reptiles. Researchers are still figuring out the sizes of the largest mosasaur species, but they likely reached a maximum length of around 50 feet (15 m). One of the largest specimens on record is a skull that belonged to M. hoffmanni and is estimated to be around 56 feet (17 meters) long, according to a 2014 study published in the journal Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS. The newly discovered vertebra fossil is more than 7 inches (18 centimeters) wide at its widest point. Starnes and his colleagues compared the fossil to the largest mosasaur remains held in the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, which include jaws, portions of a skull and a tooth. Starnes noted that the jaws and skull appeared to be from a smaller individual than the individual represented by the new vertebra, but the tooth looked like it belonged to an individual that was more comparable in size to the new specimen. In other words, the new fossil seemed to belong to a mosasaur that was bigger or as big as the largest in the state museum. Starnes noted it could be the largest in the state's history. "It may represent the largest," Starnes said. "The lumbar vertebra we found is a good indicator to the relative size of the animal. This is the biggest one that I have ever encountered." RELATED STORIES —80 million-year-old sea monster jaws filled with giant globular teeth for crushing prey discovered in Texas —Scientists uncover 'inside-out, legless, headless wonder' that lived long before the dinosaurs —'Twins! She has another baby': Sea monster from Chile had 2 buns in the oven, rare fossil reveals M. hoffmanni was an apex predator, hunting down prey with large jaws and cone-shaped teeth. Large mosasaurs likely ate whatever they wanted for the most part, including fish, sharks, sea birds and even other mosasaurs — researchers have found the remains of mosasaurs in the fossilized stomachs of other mosasaurs. The giant mosasaur that left behind this particulare vertebra likely had no shortage of food in what is now Mississippi, which had a very different environment towards the end of the Cretaceous. "Mississippi was completely covered at the time by warm shallow tropical sea that was teaming with life, including a wide diversity of sharks, fish, marine lizards, and ammonites," Starnes said. "Pterosaurs and even some birds would have been flying overhead while a variety of both plant and meat-eating dinosaurs of different sizes and kinds would have been walking the shore lines and through the wooded forests along the coastal estuaries." As well as being one of the largest, M. hoffmanni was also one of the last mosasaurs. The group went extinct alongside non-avian dinosaurs after the Chicxulub asteroid slammed into Earth 66 million years ago. The rich marine ecosystems that mosasaurs depended on collapsed following the strike, bringing the reign of this dominant ocean predator to a permanent end.
