Russia's plans to extend its gas link to Germany run counter to EU interests and risk further destabilizing Ukraine, 10 European governments said in a letter to the European Commission that called for a summit-level debate on the issue.
A group of European companies signed an agreement with Gazprom in September to expand its Nord Stream pipeline to Germany, bypassing Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Gazprom said it would halt gas deliveries to Ukraine while Kiev said it could find cheaper supplies elsewhere.
The letter, written on Thursday and signed by Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia, says the project should come under the closest regulatory scrutiny and called for "an inclusive debate" at next month's EU summit.
"The position of the European Commission on the Nord Stream II project will also essentially influence the perception of the EU's common foreign and security policy among its core allies and traditional partners," the letter, seen by Reuters, said.
World leaders have been urging Moscow and Ankara to avoid any escalation of tensions following the shooting down of a Russian jet by NATO member Turkey.
Russia's relationships with the European Union and Ukraine have been volatile since the annexation of Crimea in March last year.
The Nord Stream extension to deliver increased volumes of gas straight to Germany could have serious consequences for Kiev and EU nations, the letter said.
Such an animal has not been seen on Czech territory for hundreds of years.
A Dutch breeding program has recreated massive bovines closely related to aurochs, once the heaviest European land mammal and the wild ancestor of today's cattle that became extinct in the 17th century.
A small herd was introduced to a Czech sanctuary Tuesday, joining some wild horses. By eating invasive vegetation, these animals will help to maintain the steppe character of the land.
After a nine-hour drive and few more minutes of hesitation, six calves — five cows and a bull — jumped out of a truck at dawn to take the first look at their new home at the former Milovice military base, 35 kilometers (22 miles) northeast of Prague.
Middle Moscovian climate of eastern equatorial Pangea recorded in paleosols and fluvial architecture
Authors:
Opluštil et al
Abstract:
Fluvial architecture in conjunction with the morphology, petrographical, mineralogical and geochemical composition of intercalated paleosols of the Middle Moscovian upper Radnice Member of the continental Kladno-Rakovník Basin, Czech Republic, were studied in order to decipher climatic signals in the eastern Pangea region during the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. Analysis of architectural elements reveals vertical changes from strongly amalgamated channel fills of bedload-dominated braided streams, to isolated ribbon-like meandering channel fills in mud-dominated floodplain strata. The resulting large scale fining upward cycles separated by laterally widespread bounding surfaces are interpreted as having been formed in response to allocyclic processes driven by variable intensities of precipitation which affected the density of vegetation cover across the landscape and, in turn, the amount and character of sediment supply. Bedload-dominated parts of the cycles were deposited during periods of low water tables and sparse vegetation, whereas periods of maximum precipitation resulted in higher water tables and a greater density of vegetation cover, which, in turn stabilized the floodplains and fixed streams to narrow meandering/anastomosing channels in mud-dominated floodplain strata. Associated paleosols resemble modern Vertisols, which form under seasonal precipitation in modern settings. However, coeval formation of inertinite-rich peat represented by histosols and gleyed low chroma Vertisols in the stratigraphically lowest paleosol succession occurred under overlapping marginal conditions for the climatically different types of soils (i.e., under a seasonal climate where precipitation exceeds evapotranspiration for 6 to 8 months out of the year). Mean annual precipitation calculated from the geochemistry of B horizons of Vertisols (CALMAG proxy) varies between 1815 and 1730 mm/yr.
Cranial anatomy, ontogeny, and relationships of the Late Carboniferous tetrapod Gephyrostegus bohemicus Jaekel, 1902
Authors:
Klembara et al
Abstract:
We review the cranial morphology of the Late Carboniferous terrestrial tetrapod Gephyrostegus bohemicus from the coal deposits of the Nýřany Basin in the Czech Republic. Gephyrostegus is known from several skulls ranging in length from about 25 mm to about 58 mm (holotype). The narrow skull is about twice as long as wide and shows a well-ossified quadrate and articular, but no evidence of braincase ossification. Autapomorphic features include a pustular ornamentation on some skull table bones, and a plate-like tabular process exhibiting a fine dorsal pitting. Gephyrostegus shares with Bruktererpeton fiebigi (Late Carboniferous, Germany) the presence of low, anteromedially to posterolaterally orientated sharp ridges on the posteroventral surface of the vomer. It shares with seymouriamorphs a rectangular, transverse pterygoid process and closely packed, radially arranged rows of small denticles on the palate. A phylogenetic analysis retrieves Gephyrostegidae (Gephyrostegus, Bruktererpeton) as sister group to Seymouriamorpha, although this wider clade receives low bootstrap support.
