# Lost Worlds and New Species Found



## Gabriel

I have been finding so many articles on micro-environment pocket discoveries of new species of plants and animals, that we have never seen, for many months now, and decided to put some of them up for our enjoyment and learning 
Here is my first entry...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14834763/

Treasure trove of new marine species found....Variety of 'walking' shark among them; discoverers warn of threats


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## Gabriel

Also here is a great book that I got years ago when the project was first published. It is the most wonderful book I have read on re-introduction of old world crop foods, reasons for that, and sources for the seed. It inspired me to plant amaranth

LOST CROPS OF AFRICA

http://www.nap.edu/books/0309049903/html/

This online links shows just the intro to the chapters content of course


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## angelize56

I posted the first article earleir today in the "Space and Science" thread!


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## Gabriel

Oh My Sorry Angel...I'll post another new species link in the next few days


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## WarC

Lost crops of Africa?

*grabs a bong and a backpack*


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## Gabriel

What do you need the bong for WarC


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## WarC

Gabriel said:


> What do you need the bong for WarC


Why, for those lost crops, of course!

Unless I've been misled as to the exact nature of said crops.


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## Gabriel

WarC said:


> Why, for those lost crops, of course!
> 
> Unless I've been misled as to the exact nature of said crops.


They are food crops WarC


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## WarC

Gabriel said:


> They are food crops WarC


Awww.

 

*trudges back home*


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## Gabriel

Here you go WarC...this would be a fascinating journey

http://www.blueearth.org/projects/second_sun/index.html

Land of The Second Sun: Arctic Nomads of Siberia's Yamal Peninsula

You can follow the reindeer herders......the photos are haunting.
I would love to visit places like this before they are gone , or before I am gone


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## Gabriel

Here is another publication of lost plants being brought to light.

http://www.nap.edu/catalog/1398.html

Lost Crops of the Incas: Little-Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation (1989)
This fascinating, readable volume is filled with enticing, detailed information about more than 30 different Incan crops that promise to follow the potato's lead and become important contributors to the world's food supply. Some of these overlooked foods offer special ...


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## JEBWrench

I just saw on the BBC documentary series "Planet Earth" - some amazing ecosystems that exist in caverns. There's a river in the Yucatan which because of an underground oil deposit flows with sulfuric acid from its origin; and FISH live in it.


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## Gabriel

JEBWrench said:


> I just saw on the BBC documentary series "Planet Earth" - some amazing ecosystems that exist in caverns. There's a river in the Yucatan which because of an underground oil deposit flows with sulfuric acid from its origin; and FISH live in it.


 I would love if we could find a link to that...maybe later I will try to google it if you don't first JEB...I have to get packing now


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## JEBWrench

If I could remember the name of the river, it'd be easier, but I'll try.


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## JEBWrench

Cueva de Villa Luz

Here's an article about the cave and its life. (Yes, the "snottites" are actually microbacterial colonies. )


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## Gabriel

I will be trying to find more links to this\

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1695444/posts

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=etruscan

Hub of Etruscan Civilization Found


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## Gabriel

OMG...Here is a Scattered Species

Flying Foxes Vanish after Cyclone

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/...als&guid=20060921110030&dcitc=w01-101-ae-0000


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## Gabriel

Photo Gallery of the lost world of new species, found in Indonesia earlier this year

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0207_020607_lost_world.html

Article of same.............

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0207_060207_new_species.html


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## Chicon

Gabriel said:


> Photo Gallery of the lost world of new species, found in Indonesia earlier this year
> 
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0207_020607_lost_world.html
> 
> Article of same.............
> 
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0207_060207_new_species.html


Nice pics ! 

I like this one : the frog seems to have been fried in boiling oil !


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## Gabriel

My favorite is the Bower Bird...ever since I saw a special on Bower Birds, I fell in love with them


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## Gabriel

New found species..............Vast Cave Discovery

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15012809/

Quote from article.."The park service added that "ancient animal skeletons were found in the cave including one that resembles a bear."


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## iltos

Gabriel said:


> New found species..............Vast Cave Discovery
> 
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15012809/
> 
> Quote from article.."The park service added that "ancient animal skeletons were found in the cave including one that resembles a bear."


keep 'em coming gabriel....i love this stuff :up: it's great to be reminded the world, even as close as sequoyah, is not all known


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## Gabriel

Thanks Iltos...These are so fun. I have started to print out some of them, as my Favorites and Bookmarks are bursting with links 
I am amazed at the amount of info. I find that I value


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## ekim68

A Rare Bloom Is Fading
The celebrated kurinji flowers only once every 12 years in a region of India. Experts fear habitat loss may end its magical cycle forever.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...6sep26,0,5696255.story?coll=la-home-headlines


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## Gabriel

Maybe they will try and do something like has been done for the Wollemi Pine, Eskim....
Just yesterday, I got an ad from national Geographic that these ancient and endangered pines are now for sale....$99 each ...I did not save the ad, but here is an article on the most precious pine

Called...Nursing An 'Extinct' Tree back to Health

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/03/0305_030305_wollemipine.html


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## ekim68

Thanks Gabriel, good article.


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## Gabriel

Here is a pic of the Kuinji in bloom, and a link to the page Ekim..

http://kurinji.in/

They appear to be a member of the Acanthaceae (Acanthus) family...there are many cultivar of beloved house and garden plants in this family derived from the wild plants


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## Lurker1

Researchers have discovered *dozens* of new marine species on the northwestern end of Indonesia's Papua province, including two new species of epaulette sharks, nicknamed "walking sharks" because they propel themselves across the ocean floor on their pectoral fins.

http://www.redorbit.com/news/scienc...ience_archaeology/index.html?source=r_science

I saw a video of the sharks moving on the news last week. Really looked like a "missing link" as the sharks were moving using a walking pattern that looked like a four legged animal.


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## Gabriel

Interesting article on horses...ancient Botai people of Kazakhstan were among the earliest to domesticate horses......

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2006/1774972.htm?ancient

New extict species of buffalo found

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061017084321.htm


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## Gabriel

Rewriting the Easter Island story

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/scienceshow/stories/2006/1628502.htm#


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## Gabriel

Article on the Chachapoya "cloud warrior " people....

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16676630/


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## Gabriel

More new species news...

African Mountains.....

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/ind...-1-20070116-14182200-bc-africa-newspecies.xml

Also new group of Algea (Picobiliphytes)

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/01/070111181710.htm


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## Gabriel

More about the Wollemi Pines...see post #25

Availability link in Australia

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/aboutus/services/nurseries/wollemi_pines_are_now_available_for_purchase

Availability link in US

http://www.wollemipine.com/USA_link.php


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## johnnyburst79

:up::up::up::up::up::up::up::up::up::up:


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## Gabriel

Birth defect of ancient animal found in fossil

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16710924/


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## Gabriel

Ancient Treasure World Under Rome

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16777034/


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## ekim68

Thank you Gabriel, good find...Amazing how civilizations build on each other...


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## Gabriel

Here's another fascinating one Ekim...my dad will be vacationing somewhere near here this year sometime

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16887060/?GT1=8921

Ancient Village near Stonehenge


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## Gabriel

New found amphibian species

http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/31/stories/2007013102741400.htm


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## iltos

Gabriel said:


> New found amphibian species
> http://www.hindu.com/2007/01/31/stories/2007013102741400.htm


from the article


> The environmentalists pointed out that projects like the Mhadei dam would severely affect the biodiversity of the Sahyadri ranges, which have remained largely pristine.


makes you wonder what we killed off before we cared 

keep 'em coming gabriel....i love this thread :up:


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## Gabriel

Thanks Iltos...I try to let a little time go by before searching for new things to post. I'm looking for something interesting to revive my Earth Anomolies thread


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## ekim68

Gabriel said:


> Here's another fascinating one Ekim...my dad will be vacationing somewhere near here this year sometime
> 
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16887060/?GT1=8921
> 
> Ancient Village near Stonehenge


Wow, thanks Gabriel, good stuff...I hope your dad takes lots of pictures...(And, maybe he'll let you share them with us.)


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## Gabriel

Emerging DNA traces of land-bridge migrating ancesters of part of the Americas

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070202-human-migration.html


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## Gabriel

Fascinating research and method in determining origins of China's Terra Cotta Army

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/...html?category=archaeology&guid=20070129091500


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## ekim68

Sorry Gabriel, that last link didn't work for me..


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## ekim68

Now it does...


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## iltos

ekim68 said:


> Sorry Gabriel, that last link didn't work for me..


worked here....pretty darn interesting


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## Gabriel

I know this will interest some, though it isn't really about lost worlds or newfound species. 
I have just made a decision on the direction for this later part of my life. It has taken a couple of years (actually a little over 2) to figure out exactly what it is that I'm interested in, what really grabs me, and what I want to do when I grow up *chuckle, chuckle*....And I have taken classes in many forms to look into some of the side avenues of interest.

After careful self-assessment, reflection, ponderings, wonderings and explorations.....I feel I've come to a resolution in an area of learning that culminates all the interests I have. 
So, starting next month I'll be enrolled in a Wilderness School, using the Kamana Resources.
This method seems to utilize all the elements of interest I have.....exploring the places I travel to, writing, photgraphing, drawing, journaling, natural sciences, storytelling.....that kind of stuff that pulls me into so many directions at once....I can't seem to organize and tie them.........
Then there is an added element of Mentoring. This is a new concept to me really, and it seems very powerful and effective for communicating to both individuals and groups. 
That will be the most difficult for me, as the people thing I am just now coming to grips with.
But I have made the initial steps in this endeavor...it appears to be a 2 year program, I suppose some people do it faster....and I am looking forward to it. Wishing my own self luck


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## Gabriel

Hundreds of new shellfish species discovered

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16990150/


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## Gabriel

Sad loss for Whooping Crane protectors...project efforts and species sufferage

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16957523/


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## iltos

Gabriel said:


> I know this will interest some, though it isn't really about lost worlds or newfound species.
> I have just made a decision on the direction for this later part of my life. It has taken a couple of years (actually a little over 2) to figure out exactly what it is that I'm interested in, what really grabs me, and what I want to do when I grow up *chuckle, chuckle*....And I have taken classes in many forms to look into some of the side avenues of interest.
> 
> After careful self-assessment, reflection, ponderings, wonderings and explorations.....I feel I've come to a resolution in an area of learning that culminates all the interests I have.
> So, starting next month I'll be enrolled in a Wilderness School, using the Kamana Resources.
> This method seems to utilize all the elements of interest I have.....exploring the places I travel to, writing, photgraphing, drawing, journaling, natural sciences, storytelling.....that kind of stuff that pulls me into so many directions at once....I can't seem to organize and tie them.........
> Then there is an added element of Mentoring. This is a new concept to me really, and it seems very powerful and effective for communicating to both individuals and groups.
> That will be the most difficult for me, as the people thing I am just now coming to grips with.
> But I have made the initial steps in this endeavor...it appears to be a 2 year program, I suppose some people do it faster....and I am looking forward to it. Wishing my own self luck


i will join you in wishing you luck, gabriel:up: ....it sounds very interesting....i've always been a "naturalist" type, fascinated with nature, and took a slew of courses from all over about southern california geology, native plants, and natural history....your's sounds more rigourous, but i'm certain you will enjoy yourself immensely


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## Gabriel

Thanks Iltos. I will definitely have fun, and think this will help me focus. I'm amazed at the people just on the message board...so many of them have degrees and so I will be like a kid really for quite a while. That is OK with me Probably get a lot of direction that way.


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## Gabriel

Update on post #50....one Whooping Crane believed to have survived

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/...0&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000&dcitc=w01-101-ae-0003


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## ekim68

I, too, wish you good luck Gabriel...It sounds like it could be a fun and interesting time.


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## Gabriel

Thanks Ekim. I am looking forward to it.


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## Gabriel

This kind of qualifies for this thread

Human Skin Harbors Completely Unknown Bacteria

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070206095816.htm


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## Gabriel

Blind snake rediscovered after 100 years

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17130693/


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## Gabriel

Fascinating account of a woman scientist that has set up a DNA bank for Alpacas to find the gene(s) that produced the ultra-fine hair of ancient Alpacas and Llamas of the Incas

Called .............Lost Llamas Fine Fibre

http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s325745.htm


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## Gabriel

Tracing chili peppers

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070215-chili-peppers.html

Ancient fig find

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/06/060601-agriculture.html

I thought the title of Rueters article name on the peppers was cute
'First Peck of Peppers Picked 6,100 Years Ago'

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...07_RTRUKOC_0_US-PEPPERS-DISCOVERY.xml&src=rss


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## Gabriel

Interesting article about research of DNA compaison of ancient maize, and modern maize...called...'Mummies Amazing American Maize'

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070211202525.htm


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## Gabriel

Possible 25 million year old frog specimen in amber....I would love to have him as a pendant. I have a few amber pendants, but none like this

Actually I have leaves that are siver plated pendants and barrettes, and enameled flowers...

and my most unusual natural jewelry was (I don't have them anymore)....moose poop earrings...I am not kidding, a friend that made nature jewelry gave them to me...I thought they were tiny pinecones, and I put them in my ears all happy, and he told me what they were, and I almost fell through the floor....but they were dried droppings, and well laquered....I did give them away  

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17168489/


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## Gabriel

This kind of fits into the Lost Worlds theme...at least lost in translation through time

Called....Medieval Mosques Illuminated by Math

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7544360


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## ekim68

Wow, Gabriel, cool stuff. Looks like a lot of this comes back to math, too.


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## Gabriel

Yes Ekim...pretty math


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## Gabriel

More new species This time in Antarctica.

Ice collapse exposes Antarctic beauty

http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1856913.htm


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## Gabriel

Biologists record call of Cuckoo bird thought to be extinct

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...26314859_RTRUKOC_0_US-CUCKOO-CALL.xml&src=rss


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## ekim68

Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus

The Pacific Northwest tree octopus (Octopus paxarbolis) can be found in the temperate rainforests of the Olympic Peninsula on the west coast of North America. Their habitat lies on the Eastern side of the Olympic mountain range, adjacent to Hood Canal. These solitary cephalopods reach an average size (measured from arm-tip to mantle-tip,) of 30-33 cm. Unlike most other cephalopods, tree octopuses are amphibious, spending only their early life and the period of their mating season in their ancestral aquatic environment. Because of the moistness of the rainforests and specialized skin adaptations, they are able to keep from becoming desiccated for prolonged periods of time, but given the chance they would prefer resting in pooled water.

http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/


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## Gabriel

...whoa


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## Knotbored

That tree octipod is proof positive for the sasquach-otherwise they wouldn't be so dang hard to catch.
I can almost hear the screems now from a family of them surrounded by bigfoots !
wow I need another beer if I am to consider all the implications.


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## Gabriel

New Genus of Albino Millipedes found....

'Living fossils' will help researchers understand how life evolved in caves

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17400829/


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## Gabriel

Stone towers make up up oldest observatory in Peru

13 Towers of Chankilla

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...904_RTRUKOC_0_US-PERU-OBSERVATORY.xml&src=rss


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## ekim68

That's cool Gabriel...2300 years ago...Amazing amount of awareness....
For the time.....


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## Gabriel

500 + Million year old new prehistoric species (Orthrozanclus) found

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/070301_hairy_bugs.html


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## Gabriel

Archeologists uncover ancient marketplace in Athens...4th - 5th century BC

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17424039/

Museum IDs new species of horned Dino....may represent an intermidiate step in evolution

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17443393/


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## ekim68

Thanks Gabriel, interesting stuff. It's amazing to me that earlier civilizations were built upon 
for so long, and we're now uncovering them....I think the building part is gone, but the discoveries are fantastic...


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## Gabriel

I know Ekim...it is amazing what they are doing.


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## ekim68

*Museum IDs New Species of Dinosaur*

A new dinosaur species was a plant-eater with yard-long horns over its eyebrows, suggesting an evolutionary middle step between older dinosaurs with even larger horns and the small-horned creatures that followed, experts said.

http://ibtimes.com/apnews/20070304/new-dinosaur.htm


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## lotuseclat79

Short-Sighted Conservation Can Damage the Evolution of Species
Article here.

It seems like a no-brainer: People concerned with saving the environment should protect those places with the most species and that are under the biggest threats, right? WRONG. This scientist argues that such short-sighted conservation actually misses more species than it protects and literally changes the course of evolution... for the worse.

-- Tom

P.S. Ref: Digg 325


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## Gabriel

A Biological Hot Spot in Africa, With New Species Still to Discover

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/06/s...28163a8987f386&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Oh, I can hardly contain myself.....


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## Gabriel

It is like they are finding a whole new world in our world


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## ekim68

Wow, Gabriel, that's amazing stuff....Nice pictures....As usual...

But, why be nice to LAN this week?


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## Gabriel

Cause I tease him too much and think he takes me seriously...I probably should stop, but it's hard for me to do...that is one of the ways I show affection It is there to mostly remend myself


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## lotuseclat79

Wetland Bird Rediscovered in Thailand
Article here.

A wetland bird that eluded scientists for nearly 130 years has been rediscovered at a wastewater treatment plant in Thailand, Birdlife International announced Wednesday.

-- Tom


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## ekim68

This might have been mentioned before, but I read this today..

*Odd little critter sheds light on mammal evolution*

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have unearthed a fossil of a mammal the size of a chipmunk that skittered around with the dinosaurs, with a key feature in the evolution of mammals -- the middle ear bones -- fabulously preserved.

Writing in the journal Nature on Wednesday, the scientists said the unusual critter retrieved from a fossil-rich rock formation in northern China provides rare insight into a crucial element of mammalian evolution: ear structure that enabled highly sensitive hearing.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1437741620070315


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## johnnyburst79

Clouded Leopard










Clouded leopards found on Sumatra and Borneo represent a new species, research by genetic scientists and the conservation group WWF indicates.

Until now it had been thought they belonged to the species that is found on mainland southeast Asia.

Scientists now believe the two species diverged more than one million years ago, and have evolved separately since.

Clouded leopards are the biggest predators on Borneo, and can grow as large as small panthers.

-------------

:up: :up: So purty...


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## ekim68

johnny, that's a great picture.


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## lotuseclat79

Tiny rare owl spotted in Peru reserve
Article here.

An extremely rare species of tiny owl has been seen in the wild for the first time, the American Bird Conservancy said Thursday. The long-whiskered owlet, one of the world's smallest owls, was discovered in 1976. Researchers have caught a few specimens in nets after dark but had not seen it in nature.










-- Tom


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## Gabriel

As always...great stuff 
My favorites are filling up


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## lotuseclat79

Hi Gabriel,

Woodpecker's existence questioned
Article here.

Recent reports in the news refute the video of the (probably extinct) Ivory billed woodpecker known as the Grail Bird, the Lord God Bird, or the Good God Bird stating that is was most likely a Pileated woodpecker that has similar coloring when viewed from the rear. That would be a real shame if it is no longer alive.










-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Picture obtained of rare Indonesian rabbit
Article here. (Unfortunately - no picture)

Wildlife Conservation Society researchers in Asia have captured the image of one of the world's rarest rabbits -- the Sumatran striped rabbit.

Here's a picture from Wikipedia of the Sumatran striped rabbit:









Here's a picture of another species found in Laos, Article here.








The red-rumped Annamite rabbit: Only the second striped rabbit species known

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Effort to Catalog Species Tops 1 Million
Article here.

-- Tom


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## Gabriel

Thanks Lotus...I bookmarked that page......think if they would start catalogueing the fossil record species too ...what a great job for some folks....


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## ekim68

I've been reading up on an old, old city in Peru by the name of Caral, and I came across these pictures of lost cities.

http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/Highlights/LostCities.htm


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## ekim68

And more on Caral...Interesting story of a civilization 4,500 years old....(It's a short story.)

*The Lost Pyramids of Caral*

The magnificent ancient city of pyramids at Caral in Peru hit the headlines in 2001. The site is a thousand years older than the earliest known civilisation in the Americas and, at 2,627 BC, is as old as the pyramids of Egypt. Many now believe it is the fabled missing link of archaeology - a 'mother city'. If so, then these extraordinary findings could finally answer one of the great questions of archaeology: why did humans become civilised?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2001/caral.shtml


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## ekim68

It's interesting that a lot of theory on early cities and civilizations is based on the fact that war drives people together, and this civilization is without war for 1,000 years...


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## lotuseclat79

Possible new fish species found in Pacific
Article here.

A new undersea mineral chimney emitting hot, iron-darkened water that attracts unusual marine life has been discovered in the Pacific Ocean off Costa Rica.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Gene study shows three distinct groups of chimpanzees
Article here.

The largest study to date of genetic variation among chimpanzees has found that the traditional, geography-based sorting of chimps into three populations-western, central and eastern-is underpinned by significant genetic differences, two to three times greater than the variation between the most different human populations.









Georgia Tech scientists found that the rate of molecular evolution of chimpanzees is closer to that of humans than it is to other apes.

-- Tom


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## ekim68

Tom, I believe that chimps are close to humans. That picture looks a lot like my brother...


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## lotuseclat79

-- Tom


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## ekim68

You know, when you think about it, this thread title could be both history and prophecy..
After all, our planet is lost in the big picture, and it's inhabitants are 'New Species'...Eh?


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## Gabriel

ekim68 said:


> You know, when you think about it, this thread title could be both history and prophecy..
> After all, our planet is lost in the big picture, and it's inhabitants are 'New Species'...Eh?


 Yes Ekim...any way you can embellish the topic would be great


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## ekim68

Gabriel said:


> Yes Ekim...any way you can embellish the topic would be great


"embellish" is my new favorite word...


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## Gabriel

It's a great word...I have been using it in my scrapbooking projects lately


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## lotuseclat79

Darwin's Lost World
Article here.

Evolution is alive and swimming in Borneo.









A new catfish species of Glyptothorax, uses an adhesive organ on its belly
to glue itself to rocks. (Courtesy of Dr. Heok Hee Ng, WWF)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists work on Encyclopedia of Life
Article here.

In a whale-sized project, the world's scientists plan to compile everything they know about all of Earth's 1.8 million known species and put it all on one Web site, open to everyone here.

-- Tom


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## Gabriel

Just when I thought we were running out of new species

This time from the Antarctic...........

Carnivorous sponges, 585 new species of crustaceans and hundreds of new worms have been discovered in the dark waters around Antarctica, suggesting these depths may have been the source of much marine life, European researchers reported on Wednesday.

The team, who scooped samples from as deep as 20,000 feet , found unexpectedly rich diversity of animal life

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...0_RTRUKOC_0_US-ANTARCTICA-SPECIES.xml&src=rss


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## ekim68

Gabriel said:


> Just when I thought we were running out of new species
> 
> This time from the Antarctic...........
> 
> Carnivorous sponges, 585 new species of crustaceans and hundreds of new worms have been discovered in the dark waters around Antarctica, suggesting these depths may have been the source of much marine life, European researchers reported on Wednesday.
> 
> The team, who scooped samples from as deep as 20,000 feet , found unexpectedly rich diversity of animal life
> 
> http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...0_RTRUKOC_0_US-ANTARCTICA-SPECIES.xml&src=rss


Right on...Good stuff...It's interesting how so many things around the earth are symbiotic.


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists discover new life in the Antarctic deep sea
Article here.

Scientists have found hundreds of new marine creatures in the vast, dark deep-sea surrounding Antarctica. Carnivorous sponges, free-swimming worms, crustaceans, and molluscs living in the Weddell Sea provide new insights into the evolution of ocean life.









Anthosactis pearseae , a newly discovered species of sea anemone, are barely bigger than a human molar. The angled tip of the tweezers that the four anemones are shown against is about 2 centimeters (0.7 inches) long. Credit: Kevin Fitzsimons

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

OMG...Can you imagine being one of the team to catalogue these finds....how exciting


----------



## lotuseclat79

New bacteria discovered in tar pits
Article here.

U.S. environmental scientists have discovered the Rancho La Brea tar pits in Los Angeles contain hundreds of new species of unusual bacteria.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Cave Near Chicago Full of Ancient Wonders
Article here.

North America's oldest conifer tree and some ancient scorpion parts are among the fossil treasures found in a newly discovered cave in Illinois.

The new discovery also unearthed fossils of plants that may be new to science and revealed evidence of prehistoric forest fires.

Scientists date the specimens to nearly 315 million years ago, according to initial findings presented last month at the regional meeting of the Geological Society of America in Lawrence, Kan.

Related image:








The black material is the Pennsylvanian cave fill from 315 million years ago; the tan material on top and on the sides is limestone from the Ordovician period about 450 million years ago. Credit: Roy Plotnick, University of Illinois at Chicago

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient coelacanth (pronounced SEE-la-canth) caught in Indonesia
Article here.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/s...dca42295f50357&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


----------



## lotuseclat79

Biting Discovery: Entomologist Finds Host of New Aquatic Insect Species in Thailand
Article here.

While in Thailand, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher found a treasure trove of previously unknown information about aquatic insects in the country. In the process, he learned firsthand that a few of these little critters pack quite a punch when they bite.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Gabriel said:


> Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss
> 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/s...dca42295f50357&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss


Wow, amazing pictures...


----------



## Gabriel

Sometimes I feel like we are the aliens on our planet.


----------



## ekim68

Gabriel said:


> Sometimes I feel like we are the aliens on our planet.


Can you imagine what we look like to them? Probably like giants, I suppose....


----------



## lotuseclat79

New frog species found in Thailand
Article here.

A new species of mountain frog that changes colour in response to its surroundings has been discovered in northeast Thailand, a biologist said Wednesday.









The Odorrana Aureola frog, a new species of mountain frog discovered at Phu Luang National Park.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New Creature Found Living in Dead Whale
Article here.

A new species of sea anemone has been found in the carcass of a whale that sunk to the ocean floor off the coast of Monterey, California, marking the first discovery of one of these filter-feeding marine animals living in a so-called whale fall.









The small, white anemones (newly describes species), and also other animals characteristic of whale falls, including the "bone-eating zombie worm" called Osedax (frilly red plumes on bone) and scavenging crabs. Credit: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

Note: The new species of anemones are the same as in post # 108!

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

I know I shouldn't bring this here, but, it's an old species with a different promise...

*Female Sharks Can Reproduce Alone, Researchers Find*

A team of American and Irish researchers have discovered that some female sharks can reproduce without having sex, the first time that scientists have found the unusual capacity in such an ancient vertebrate species.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201405.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

Endangered Species Protection Sought for Bigfoot
Article here.

-- Tom

P.S. Those crazy Canadians, eh?


----------



## lotuseclat79

New limbless lizard species discovered
Article here.









This undated hand out photo provided by Indian zoologist Sushil Kumar Dutta, shows a new species of limbless lizard belonging to the genus sepsophis, in the forested region of Khandadhar near Raurkela in Orissa

-- Tom

P.S. New learning - modern limbless lizards are not snakes.


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists discover 5 new species of sea slugs from the Tropical Eastern Pacific
Article here.

The Tropical Eastern Pacific, a discrete biogeographic region that has an extremely high rate of endemism among its marine organisms, continues to yield a wealth of never-before-described marine animals to visiting scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Alicia Hermosillo, researcher at the Universidad de Guadalajara in Mexico, and Angel Valdes, assistant curator of Malacology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, describe five newly discovered species of nudibranchs, two of which Hermosillo collected in Panama, in Volume 22 of the American Malacological Bulletin.









Cuthona behrensi, one of five new species of aeolid nudibranchs discovered in the Eastern Pacific.Credit: Alicia Hermosillo

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists find 24 species in Suriname
Article here.

A frog with fluorescent purple markings and 12 kinds of dung beetles were among two dozen new species discovered in the remote plateaus of eastern Suriname, scientists said Monday.









AP Photo: In this photograph released by Conservation International on Monday, June 4, 2007, an Atelopus frog...

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

_Oldest mushroom fossil found in amber_

CORVALLIS, Ore., June 5 (UPI) -- A Kentucky nurse and an Oregon entomologist have identified the oldest known fossil mushroom, which they discovered in a piece of amber.

Ron Buckley, a nurse and photographer in Florence, Ky., who collects fossil amber, first spotted the 100-million-year-old mushroom last year. He sent the sample to George Poinar, a retired University of California professor living in Oregon, who confirmed the mushroom and found two parasites, one eating the mushroom and the second eating the other parasite.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/06/05/oldest_mushroom_fossil_found_in_amber/6667/


----------



## ekim68

*Fungus is world's largest living organism*

PRAIRIE CITY, Ore., June 10 (UPI) -- The fungus Armillaria ostoyae, commonly known at root rot, has become the world's largest living organism thanks to an outbreak in Prairie City, Ore.

Currently the fungus form dubbed the "humungous fungus" by the U.S. Forest Service underlies 2,200 miles of land outside the Oregon city and wildlife officials are at a loss how to stop its growth, The (Portland) Oregonian said Sunday.

With some estimates placing the fungus' age at 8,000 years old, the natural organism has had plenty of time to spread throughout the region as other life forms unknowingly moved above.

To that end, the fungus now spreads across an area equal to 1,600 football fields and is only noticeable in areas where it has claimed trees.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/06/10/fungus_is_worlds_largest_living_organism/3610/


----------



## Gabriel

Geesh ...I could not have even thought that up in my wildest imaginings


----------



## lotuseclat79

Reconstructing The Biology Of Extinct Species: A New Approach
Article here.









A computer reconstruction of an adult female baboon skull from high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT) slices. The skull is rendered transparent to show the position of the three semicircular canals and cochlea of left inner ear filled in red. The enlargement of the canals and cochlea is five times the size of the canals shown in the skull. Each canal is approximately 5 mm in diameter. (Credit: Alan Walker lab, Penn State)

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Here's a couple of years old one

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1119_031119_rorqualwhale.html

Another reason I posted it was to comment on whale baleen (a horny material from the upper jaws of certain whales) I found at a yard sale in Washington. I and the people that had it, had no idea what it was.
It (the baleen) had been incorporated in an adornment piece, made by one the Northwestern tribes people.
The piece was baleen, some kind of hammered metal as beads, and twine to hold it all together. Very interesting.
I love natural adornment and jewelery.


----------



## ekim68

_Antarctica icebergs hold sea life_

WASHINGTON, June 22 (UPI) -- Scientists say icebergs in Antarctica serve as hosts for thriving communities of seabirds, phytoplankton and fish.

A report published in the current issue of Science magazine said the icebergs hold trapped terrestrial material, which they release far out at sea as they melt, the National Science Foundation said Friday in a release.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/06/22/antarctica_icebergs_hold_sea_life/8653/


----------



## Gabriel

Another look at prehistoric wolves

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19355843/


----------



## Gabriel

Huge Dino-bird

http://www.livescience.com/animals/070613_dino_bird.html


----------



## ekim68

Wow, cool looking creatures Gabriel...


----------



## iltos

Gabriel said:


> Huge Dino-bird
> 
> http://www.livescience.com/animals/070613_dino_bird.html


amazing galleries at that site, gabriel....i posted one pic in the "striking pictures" thread....

and this one....isn't this the same shape as a trilobite?


----------



## Gabriel

Here is an interesting blog on some of the controversy brought up by the isopod findings, in regards to their similarities to the ancient trilobites

http://www.poe.com/?p=1271

Lan would love this 

I'm not positive, but I think they found new isopods in 1975 or around there also...I'll see if I can find the article.


----------



## lotuseclat79

Meep-Meep! 'Road Runner' Dino Discovered
Article here.

Skeletal remains from a 220-million-year-old dinosaur reveal a prehistoric road runner of sorts, whose svelte figure and long legs allowed it to evade predators lickety-split.









A skeletal reconstruction of Eocursor parvus, a plant-eating dinosaur related to Stegosaurus and Triceratops, shows its relatively long hindlimbs. Credit: Scott Hartman

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Gabriel said:


> I'm not positive, but I think they found new isopods in 1975 or around there also...I'll see if I can find the article.


 Well, I found articles relating to both the years 1975 and 1985, regarding new species isopods discoveries....however the articles are one paragraph long, and Cambridge Papers or something that they want you to pay $14.95 for the whole complete article....I found one pic, that may or may not be the isopod in 75, it was a drawing, and did not have the fluffy looking sides...just the elongated body. 
In short I suppose some things cost money to research 
I am running into a lot of that lately online, and since I have not been privy to higher learning, am not going to pay the $14.95 to see if the info. is worth it. All of my income would go to the spendy articles, and I have to save it for my classes in the fall

Now that makes me feel very ignorant and like there is a lot of learning that will be withheld from me because I'm not wealthy. Is there any truth to that?


----------



## lotuseclat79

Hi Gabriel,

Ah, but you are wealthy (of curiosity and mind) - IMHO that in and of itself is priceless!  So, you would be wise to ignore your feelings in this case and press on regardless!!! :up: The only one withholding knowledge and wisdom from you is yourself - if you let your feelings get the best of you in this matter. There is no absolute truth.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Any ideas on how to scale the Ivory Towers with one arm strapped behind your back.

I could purchase their textbooks I suppose. Like one or two a year   

I guess I could forgo a new wardrobe, in the pursuit of knowledge 
I gave up all my snack food and eating out last year, for buying new supplies to explore another craft, so I guess this year I can give up clothing and snack and eating out expense in pursuit of knowledge   

Or maybe just save that monies too for the fall HMMMM This is getting complicated


----------



## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi Gabriel,
> 
> Ah, but you are wealthy (of curiosity and mind) - IMHO that in and of itself is priceless!  So, you would be wise to ignore your feelings in this case and press on regardless!!! :up: The only one withholding knowledge and wisdom from you is yourself - if you let your feelings get the best of you in this matter. There is no absolute truth.
> 
> -- Tom


You're probably right. I should keep trudging in my own way. If Jungs Syncronicity happens down my path then something will manifest itself. Without pushing on my part that is. Just plant the little wish seeds and be on my way   

The days are growing short again, and even that it is by minutes, the ants are harvesting what looks to me like dried leaf and twigs. I was thinking when I observed this that they should be getting more of my bird seed, but they know what they're doing. Even the hole that they come in and out of is placed at the right proximity and slant to the sun. It reminds me of the Adobe cliff dwellings. 
I'm learning a lot from them, though I can't pinpoint with words what exactly it is. I can draw an ant now from memory...at many angles even, and in close-up.... and have purchased watercolor paper to do some washes of them in the sand....so my little drawings are evolving and when I do them, I go somewhere else inside for a while.
Gene says painting will be good for me. We'll see...


----------



## iltos

Gabriel said:


> Any ideas on how to scale the Ivory Towers with one arm strapped behind your back.
> 
> I could purchase their textbooks I suppose. Like one or two a year
> 
> I guess I could forgo a new wardrobe, in the pursuit of knowledge
> I gave up all my snack food and eating out last year, for buying new supplies to explore another craft, so I guess this year I can give up clothing and snack and eating out expense in pursuit of knowledge
> 
> Or maybe just save that monies too for the fall HMMMM This is getting complicated


this is not a solution, but a heads up
-some of the pay-per-view databases do have trial versions, which allow for a user to download and article or two
-check with you local library....if they are technically hip at all, they may have limited access to some of the databases, and so would be able to get you an article or two as well.


----------



## Gabriel

iltos said:


> this is not a solution, but a heads up
> -some of the pay-per-view databases do have trial versions, which allow for a user to download and article or two
> -check with you local library....if they are technically hip at all, they may have limited access to some of the databases, and so would be able to get you an article or two as well.


Thanks Iltos 
Yes, I found the trial version on one, and I got a great part of the article (not on the isopods...but on research someone was doing on Tidal Foraging Rhythm in Marine Iguanas).
And the find pointed me to the language of rhythms in the natural world. That will be a key thing in my observing.

And it is part of a solution, as I have to pay my dues like anyone does...and learn to crawl before I run  I just want it all now


----------



## lotuseclat79

Prehistoric equatorial penguins reached 5 feet in height
Article here.

Giant prehistoric penguins? In Peru? It sounds more like something out of Hollywood than science, but a researcher from North Carolina State University along with U.S., Peruvian and Argentine collaborators has shown that two heretofore undiscovered penguin species reached equatorial regions tens of millions of years earlier than expected and during a period when the earth was much warmer than it is now.









The late Eocene giant penguin Icadyptes salasi (right) and the middle Eocene Perudyptes devriesi (left) are shown to scale with the only extant penguin inhabiting Peru, Spheniscus humbolti (center). Art by Kristin Lamm.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Gabriel said:


> I can draw an ant now from memory...at many angles even, and in close-up.... and have purchased watercolor paper to do some washes of them in the sand....so my little drawings are evolving


Got one to share?


----------



## ekim68

_Skull of Giant Panda's Ancestor Found_

The ancient giant panda, formally known as Ailuropoda microta, or "pygmy giant panda," would have been about three feet long, compared to the modern giant panda, which averages in excess of five feet. Previously this animal had been known only by a few teeth and bones, but a skull had never been found.

http://www.sci-tech-today.com/news/...estor-Found/story.xhtml?story_id=12200C3X5PX6


----------



## Gabriel

ekim68 said:


> Got one to share?


Yes....I'll take a photo of it, and post it. My scanner is down, and I'm updating tools and stuff...but will get it up soon.


----------



## Gabriel

Here is a pic of the Harvester Ant Sketch Project....first page.
It isn't done yet...I will probably have some more much smaller sketches added to the page (like lots of the pogos running around, and their foods they harvest), as well as color backgrounds with the colored pencil I'm learning with. Maybe I will have some of the pogos running in and around the large Pogonomyrmex letters. That would be fun  
The pogo ant I did totally from memory, and it was the last thing I put on the page so I was really scared I'd mess it up. 
Gene feels I draw well enough to attempt some of the drawings in pencil, or even ink, and watercolor to produce the color effects...also some calligraphy practice might help me in the printed content.
I have a few other pages started.....colony and life cycle......and morphology.....
but these are still very incomplete.


----------



## ekim68

Cool, Gabriel...


----------



## Gabriel

Thanks Ekim. It's harder than I thought. Using color is new to me, and Gene feels I have a heavy hand at it, so the watercolor and calligraphy practice will lift that tendency a bit. I have the watercolor book and paper already, and I love the book. I have to get my watercolor paints on eBay this week.
Also I have pastels, and will mostly do plants with them because I'm better at drawing plants.


----------



## ekim68

Looks pretty good to me..The art comes first, and then the digital...


----------



## lotuseclat79

Photo in the News: Rare "Smiling" Bird Photographed for First Time
National Geographic News article: here.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

House Cats' Wild Ancestor Found
Article here.

I tought I taw a puddytat! 

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Evidence of ancient farming found in Andes

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...01_N28425596_RTRUKOC_0_US-FARMING.xml&src=rss


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists fly into raptures over flightless Fred
Article here.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Chilean teenagers find trove of whale fossils
Article here.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

China's terracotta tomb site hides mystery building

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...0931_RTRUKOC_0_US-CHINA-MAUSOLEUM.xml&src=rss


----------



## lotuseclat79

Is the Mysterious Tasmanian Tiger Really Extinct?
Article here.

Wildlife scientists have re-opened the cryptic case of a carnivore that resembled a striped coyote and vanished from its Australian haunt nearly 80 years ago.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Wolves of Alaska became extinct 12,000 years ago, scientists report
Article here.

The ancient gray wolves of Alaska became extinct some 12,000 years ago, and the wolves in Alaska today are not their descendents but a different subspecies, an international team of scientists reports in the July 3 print edition of the journal Current Biology

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> Wolves of Alaska became extinct 12,000 years ago, scientists report
> Article here.
> 
> The ancient gray wolves of Alaska became extinct some 12,000 years ago, and the wolves in Alaska today are not their descendents but a different subspecies, an international team of scientists reports in the July 3 print edition of the journal Current Biology
> 
> -- Tom


Great Wolf link Lotus ....that other ones too, are cool..


----------



## lotuseclat79

Biologists find answer to dying sheep
Article here.

Biologists at Washington State University say they have isolated a bacteria that may have contributed to the deaths of thousands of bighorn sheep in the West over the past five decades.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Curious creature caught off Keahole Point
Article here.

The animal, dubbed an "octosquid," is found off the Big Isle









An unidentified sea creature, termed an "octosquid," was found last week off Keahole Point on the Big Island.

-- Tom


----------



## BlooChoo

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15511696/

worms and sea creatures


----------



## BlooChoo

i always thought globsters wer quite interesting.....worth looking up on wikipedia


----------



## ekim68

*Baby mammoth find promises breakthrough*

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The discovery of a baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species extinct since the Ice Age, a Russian scientist said on Wednesday.

"It's a lovely little baby mammoth indeed, found in perfect condition," said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute, which has been taking care of the mammoth since it was uncovered in May.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1178205120070711


----------



## BlooChoo

ekim68 said:


> *Baby mammoth find promises breakthrough*
> 
> MOSCOW (Reuters) - The discovery of a baby mammoth preserved in the Russian permafrost gives researchers their best chance yet to build a genetic map of a species extinct since the Ice Age, a Russian scientist said on Wednesday.
> 
> "It's a lovely little baby mammoth indeed, found in perfect condition," said Alexei Tikhonov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Science's Zoological Institute, which has been taking care of the mammoth since it was uncovered in May.
> 
> http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1178205120070711


oh yeh...i heard that too..in a few months the mamoth will be re born...from this ones genes...odd huh


----------



## lotuseclat79

Found: the giant lion-eating chimps of the magic forest
Article here.

-- Tom


----------



## BlooChoo

ooh...ebaumsworld...giant pig

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/22705/


----------



## lotuseclat79

Have you ever heard of a kangahippomouse living in the Seattle, WA area?










If you know what it is, post it!

-- Tom


----------



## BlooChoo

looks like a koala that has lost its hair...its deffinatly an animal that has a bad skin condition rather than a hairless creature such as a naked mole rat...you can tell that by the way it has clumps of hair all ova in random places..


----------



## Gabriel

Looks like a squirrel or chipmonk that is a little messed up


----------



## Gabriel

Poor Baby


----------



## ekim68

*Ice Age Survivors Found In Iceland*

Science Daily  Many scientists believe that the ice ages exterminated all life on land and in freshwater in large parts of the Northern Hemisphere, especially on ocean islands such as Iceland.

Scientists at Holar University College and the University of Iceland have challenged that belief, at least when looking at groundwater animals. They have discovered two species of groundwater amphipods in Iceland that are the only animals species found solely in Iceland.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070719171816.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Camera-shy deer caught for first time
Article here.

A little-known species of deer called a large-antlered muntjac has been photographed for the first time in the wild, according to a survey team from the Nam Theun 2 Watershed Management and Protection Authority (WMPA) and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

-- Tom

P.S. No picture with story.


----------



## ekim68

*Anthropological discovery reported in Peru*

NASHVILLE, July 25 (UPI) -- A team of U.S.-led anthropologists in northern Peru have discovered the earliest-known evidence of peanut, cotton and squash farming.

The evidence of such plantings dating 5,000 to 9,000 years was found on the western slopes of the Andes Mountains in the Nanchoc Valley, about 1,600 feet above sea level.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/07/25/anthropological_discovery_reported_in_peru/9607/


----------



## Gabriel

Here is a Google Image search on new species. Many are viable links, and photos of many of the newly discovered species we have links here to, but expanded and updated YAY

http://images.google.com/images?sou...05-28,RNWE:en&q=new+species+&um=1&sa=N&tab=wi


----------



## Gabriel

New microbe discovered with new photosynthesizing technique or arrangement

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19979411/


----------



## Gabriel

I cannot wait til they have the diagram schematics on that microbe....I would love being the one checking it out


----------



## ekim68

I don't go to pbs as much as I'd like, but found myself cruising there today. Deep underwater fish..

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/abyss/life/bestiary.html


----------



## Gabriel

Oh...That is great Ekim...I bookmarked that sight....Thanks


----------



## ekim68

*Rare fossilized cypress trees found in Hungary*

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarian scientists said on Tuesday they have discovered a group of fossilized swamp cypress trees preserved from 8 million years ago which could provide clues about the climate of pre-historic times.

Instead of petrifying -- turning to stone -- the wood of 16 Taxodium trees was preserved in an open-cast coal mine allowing geologists to study samples as if they were sections cut from a piece of living wood.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL3188796820070731


----------



## lotuseclat79

New species of shrew, orchid found in Philippines
Article here.

A new species of shrew and a striking orchid variety have been discovered on the western Philippines island of Palawan, scientists said Friday.









This photo released by Conservation International shows a new specie of orchid belonging to the genus Coelogyne that was discovered in Mount Matalingahan located in the western Philippines island of Palawan.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Eight-million-year-old bug is alive and growing*

An 8-million-year-old bacterium that was extracted from the oldest known ice on Earth is now growing in a laboratory, claim researchers.

If confirmed, this means ancient bacteria and viruses will come back to life as ice melts due to global warming. This is nothing to worry about, say experts, because the process has been going on for billions of years and the bugs are unlikely to cause human disease.

http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12433&feedId=online-news_rss20


----------



## Gabriel

Oh My...I haven't been here much ...thanks for keeping the new and newly discovered old species and lifeforms going guys. Too busy to get here lately.


----------



## Gabriel

More new species....this time bats and frogs in the Congo
http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...50767_RTRUKOC_0_US-WILDLIFE-CONGO.xml&src=rss

I will put this here too...

8 million year old preserved forest

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/...html?category=archaeology&guid=20070806100030

Here is more on the new Congo species

http://www.physorg.com/news105722375.html


----------



## Gabriel

OMG Check this out.

How Many Species of Life on Earth

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20109284/


----------



## ekim68

More on the glaciers melting....

*Locked in Glaciers, Ancient Microbes May Return to Life*

New Brunswick, N.J. - The DNA of ancient microorganisms, long frozen in glaciers, may return to life as the glaciers melt, according to a paper published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by scientists at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and Boston University. The article is scheduled to appear in the print edition on Tuesday, Aug. 14.

The finding is significant, said Kay Bidle, assistant professor of marine and coastal sciences at Rutgers, because scientists didn't know until now whether such ancient, frozen organisms and their DNA could be revived at all or for how long cells are viable after they've been frozen. Bidle is lead author of the article, "Fossil Genes and Microbes in the Oldest Ice on Earth."

http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=23215


----------



## Gabriel

Another lost part of our civilization, found

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20215343/


----------



## Gabriel

Etruscan Find

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...9063_RTRUKOC_0_US-ITALY-ETRUSCANS.xml&src=rss


----------



## ekim68

Looks like they were the first Italians....Thank goodness...I love Italian food...


----------



## ekim68

*Stone Age Site Surfaces After 8000 Years*

Science Daily - Excavations of an underwater Stone Age archaeological settlement dating back 8000 years took place at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton between 30 July - 3 August 2007.

Maritime archaeologists from the Hampshire and Wight Trust for Maritime Archaeology (HWTMA) have been working at the site just off the Isle of Wight coast. Divers working at depths of 11 metres have raised sections of the seabed, which have been brought to the NOCS laboratories for excavation.

Garry Momber, Director of HWTMA said: 'This is a site of international importance as it reveals a time before the English Channel existed when Europe and Britain were linked. Earlier excavations have produced flint tools, pristine 8,000-year-old organic material such as acorns, charcoal and worked pieces of wood showing evidence of extensive human activity. This is the only site of its kind in Britain and is extremely important to our understanding of our Stone Age ancestors from the lesser-known Mesolithic period.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070805133952.htm


----------



## Gabriel

Lost Community in Angkor

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20252929/


----------



## Gabriel

ekim68 said:


> Looks like they were the first Italians....Thank goodness...I love Italian food...


These are probably some of my ancesters


----------



## ekim68

*'New Continent' And Species Discovered In Atlantic Study*

Science Daily  A scientist from the University of Aberdeen is leading a team of international researchers whose work will continue our understanding of life in the deepest oceans, and contribute to the global Census of Marine Life.

Exploring life in the North Atlantic Ocean at various depths of 800 to 3,500 metres, a team of 31 scientists are returning from a five-week scientific expedition which has surfaced a wealth of new information and insights, stunning images and marine life specimens, with one species thought to be new to science.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070817130102.htm


----------



## ekim68

*Volcano preserved early Mayan manioc field*

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A volcanic eruption that buried a Mayan village 1,400 years ago preserved a manioc field -- the first evidence that the nutritious crop was cultivated by the ancient people, researchers said on Monday.

The discovery may help explain how the civilization prospered, the team at the University of Colorado at Boulder said. It is the first evidence for cultivation of the calorie-rich tuber in the New World.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2031324720070820


----------



## lotuseclat79

ekim68 said:


> *'New Continent' And Species Discovered In Atlantic Study*
> 
> Science Daily  A scientist from the University of Aberdeen is leading a team of international researchers whose work will continue our understanding of life in the deepest oceans, and contribute to the global Census of Marine Life.
> 
> Exploring life in the North Atlantic Ocean at various depths of 800 to 3,500 metres, a team of 31 scientists are returning from a five-week scientific expedition which has surfaced a wealth of new information and insights, stunning images and marine life specimens, with one species thought to be new to science.
> 
> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070817130102.htm


Hi ekim68,

Looking at the article's content - the title is a bit misleading - they only said something like "it (the experience) was like discovering a new continent", i.e. they did not actually find a new continent between Iceland and the Azores. However, they did find new heretofore undiscovered species in the ocean's depths.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

You're right Tom. I just took it as a metaphor anyway...


----------



## lotuseclat79

Extinct sockeye mysteriously return to Alouette
Article here.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Earth's oldest diamonds are discovered*

PERTH, Australia, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- The oldest diamonds yet found on Earth -- 4.25 billion years old -- have been discovered in Western Australia.

The discovery of the minuscule gemstones, found in zircons, might provide a rare glimpse into Earth's distant geologic past, scientists told National Geographic News. Zircons form at temperatures between 1,112 degrees and 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit and, once crystallized, a zircon's chemical makeup and structure don't change, making it easy to determine its age.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/08/28/earths_oldest_diamonds_are_discovered/8036/


----------



## Gabriel

Just thought I'd throw this in for reading enjoyment

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761563856/Fish.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

Has a Mythical Beast Turned Up in Texas - the feared "goat sucker", Chupacabra?
AP article here.

-- Tom

P.S. My money is on the DNA test! Maybe a new species. I wonder what the effect will be on illegal immigration from Mexico heading for Texas when they hear that the chupacabra was found there?


----------



## ekim68

Not sure what to think of a 'goat sucker'...Is it a good thing?


----------



## lotuseclat79

Hi ekim68,

If the chupacabra actually exists, it is not looking for goat milk that is for sure:




























Texas town abuzz over sightings of mythical, bloodsucking 'chupacabras'.










-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Man, those things are ugly...


----------



## ekim68

*Fossil shows parents doted 260 million years ago*

LONDON (Reuters) - Parents have been doting over their offspring for a very, very long time, it seems.

A South African fossil suggests pelycosaurs -- intermediates between reptiles and mammals that lived in the Permian Period before the rise of dinosaurs -- may have been caring parents 260 million years ago, scientists said on Wednesday.

Jennifer Botha-Brink of South Africa's National Museum and colleagues found a fossilized group consisting of an adult pelycosaur and four juveniles arranged in a family group. The youngsters appear to be siblings.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL1185333520070911


----------



## Gabriel

Hail Atlantis!!
http://video.msn.com/v/us/v.htm?g=e...8&f=06/64&p=Source_AETN_history&fg=&GT1=10357

Short commercial clip before the story rolls


----------



## Gabriel

Lost World series

http://www.history.com/minisites/lostworlds/


----------



## lotuseclat79

New dinosaur species found in Montana
Article here.

A dinosaur skeleton found 24 years ago in Montana has finally been identified as a new species that links North American dinosaurs with Asian dinosaurs. The dinosaur would have weighed 30 to 40 pounds, walked on two feet and stood about three feet tall. The fossil came from sediment that's about 80 million years old.

-- Tom


----------



## lizard

*National Geographic News*

*"Nonexistent" Flying Fox Discovered*










*September 18, 2007*This unusual species of flying fox was recently discovered in the Philippines not long after it was deemed not to exist.

Jake Esselstyn, a biologist with the University of Kansas, was among a team of researchers that found the animal, a type of fruit bat, last year while surveying forest life on the island of Mindoro (see Philippines map).

"When we first arrived on Mindoro, a local resident that we hired as a guide described the bat to me in great detail, and he asked me what it was called," Esselstyn said.

"I politely told him that there was no such bat. I was wrong."

...continues...


----------



## lotuseclat79

Eleven new animal, plant species found in Vietnam: WWF
Article here.

Eleven new animal and plant species have been discovered in a remote area of central Vietnam, conservation group WWF announced Wednesday.

Scientists have found a snake, five orchids, two butterflies and three other plants new to science and exclusive to tropical forests in the Annamites Mountain Range, known as the Green Corridor, in Thua Thien Hue Province, WWF said in a press release.









WWF Photo: An orchid discovered at the Annamites mountain range in Thua Thien Hue province. The World...

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

This is kind of along the lines of Lost Worlds part of the thread...

*Only living Elem Pomo speaker teaches so she won't be the last*

Loretta Kelsey closed her eyes, letting memories ripple through her. Visions of coyotes, childhood acorn hunts and fishermen filled her head. A minute dragged by. She opened her eyes, stared at the calm waters of Clear Lake, and began to speak.

"Ah wee-e-bee, we-e bit," she said quietly. "Fac-ma, fa-a-kepkin. Aquichin wa mit." The words of the old ways rolled on for several minutes, and as they came, Kelsey fixed her gaze on the ground.

"Sholbit," she finally said, looking up and smiling. "The end."

Yes and no.

It was the end of her story, in Kelsey's native Elem Pomo language, about her aunt chewing tule reeds 60 years ago and using the chaff to catch fish in an apron. But by the mere act of telling that story, she was giving a desperately needed new beginning to her people's language.

Kelsey, 59, is the last person on Earth who is fluent in Elem Pomo, an 8,000-year-old dialect spoken by a people who once flourished the along the shores of Clear Lake (Lake County). Handed down orally and never written, the language has nearly vanished - and Kelsey, a quiet, almost demure woman with steely gaze, is doing everything she can to make sure the ancient words do not die with her.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/29/MNAISEMAH.DTL&tsp=1


----------



## ekim68

Not a lost world, just an earlier one...

*Chinese farmers grew rice 7,700 years ago*

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese farmers cultivated rice along the eastern coast as far back as 7,700 years ago and used fire and flood control measures to manage their fields, researchers said, citing new evidence.

In a letter published in Nature late last week, geographers in Britain and China described how they found artifacts -- bone, bamboo and wooden tools used for foraging and cultivation -- and high concentrations of charcoal in Kuahuqiao, a freshwater marsh about 200 km southwest of Shanghai.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSHKG14203020071002


----------



## Gabriel

Both articles are great Ekim.....


----------



## lotuseclat79

Tiny new frog discovered
Article here.









Sources: University of Delhi, various Indian news outlets. ©Image courtesy of University of Delhi.

This newly discovered frog, full-grown, is only 0.3937 inches or 10 mm (or 1 cm) tiny, and is shown above sitting on an Indian 5 rupee coin.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Not a new species, but a new way to observe....

*Tool use by shy crows caught on camera*

Tiny cameras attached to New Caledonian crows' tail feathers are offering new insights into the birds' behaviour in the wild.

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12738-tool-use-by-shy-crows-caught-on-camera.html


----------



## Gabriel

ekim68 said:


> Not a new species, but a new way to observe....
> 
> *Tool use by shy crows caught on camera*
> 
> Tiny cameras attached to New Caledonian crows' tail feathers are offering new insights into the birds' behaviour in the wild.
> 
> http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12738-tool-use-by-shy-crows-caught-on-camera.html


Too cool....or should I say...too tool


----------



## Gabriel

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21135806/ 
Thousands  of new marine microbes


----------



## Gabriel

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21133869/

A new type of dino


----------



## ekim68

That critter reminded me of the egg-snatcher in the Dinosaur movie...I think he was a sneaky one....


----------



## ekim68

*Ancient footprints open to public in Italy*

NAPLES, Italy, Oct. 9 (UPI) -- Italian researchers have opened two tourist paths to follow in the oldest known human footsteps at the extinct Roccamonfina volcano north of Naples.

The footsteps, which were discovered on the slopes of the volcano in 2003, were opened to the public last week and researchers said they plan to expand the attraction, Italian news agency ANSA reported Tuesday.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/10/09/ancient_footprints_open_to_public_in_italy/5506/


----------



## lizard

'We said to them, 'Come closer' but they said to us, 'Go further back''
*Increasing number of isolated groups being found in world's last wildernesses*
John Vidal, environment editor The Guardian Saturday October 6 2007 

"First just one came out, then two, then three, four, five, six, seven, but there were more than that in total. We had a dozen machetes, a dozen knives and some axes and pots with us. We gave these to them. Not by hand, but by leaving them on the beach. We said to them, 'Come closer' but they didn't want to. They said to us, 'Go further back, further back,' so we did."

The encounter between José, a Peruvian from the Las Piedras river area near the border with Brazil, and members of the large isolated Mashco-Piro tribe living in the deep Amazonian rainforest, took place this year and was described to the anthropologist Richard Hill, of Survival, the international campaign for tribal peoples.

Following a series of similar encounters and incidents, such as one this week when a Peruvian government team photographed a group of 21 Indians from the air, Mr Hill and other anthropologists are reassessing how many tribes there may be left who have chosen to shun the 21st century.

"Only 30 or so years ago, it was believed there were just 12," said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival. "Now we think there are 107 living in isolation. As more and more incursions are made into the forest, more and more groups are being found. The more people look, the more are being found," he said.

Some tribes who shun contact have a fair idea of life outside the forest, according to Mr Corry, and may have machetes which they could have acquired from contact with other groups. "Others may have had contact with outsiders generations ago, before they retreated deeper into forests because of incursions by westerners. Others may have no idea of country, other languages, or money, and no one has got close to them".

This year the Brazilian government increased its estimate of the number of isolated tribes in its part of the Amazon from 40 to 67. But it acknowledged some were reduced to a few individuals. One tribe is believed to be down to one man, known as the Man of the Hole, who digs holes in the forest to catch animals and fires arrows at anyone who comes near.

... continues ...


----------



## ekim68

*Petrified forest found in New Mexico*

LAS CRUCES, N.M., Oct. 11 (UPI) -- An amateur paleontologist has uncovered petrified forests near the proposed Prehistoric Trackways National Monument in New Mexico's Robledos Mountains.

Spencer Lucas, interim executive director of the Museum of Natural History and Science in Albuquerque, told the Las Cruces (N.M.) News-Sun it is "the most significant fossil wood find from the Permian era in New Mexico in at least a century."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/10/11/petrified_forest_found_in_new_mexico/2730/


----------



## AndrewWard

Wow, that's so cool and interesting


----------



## lotuseclat79

Rare Chinese tiger spotted for first time in decades
Article here.

A rare South China tiger has been spotted in the wild for the first time in decades, surprising researchers who feared the subspecies was extinct outside of captivity, state media said Friday.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*85-million-year-old fossil found in Japan*

MIFUNE, Japan, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- The skull of a platypus-like dinosaur estimated to be more than 80 million years old has been discovered on a Japanese mountaintop near the town of Mifune.

The local museum said Saturday the specimen comes from the species hadrosaurid, which thrived in the Late Cretaceous Period, between 65 million and 83 million years ago, the Kyodo News Service reported Sunday.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/10/15/85millionyearold_fossil_found_in_japan_/5894/


----------



## ekim68

*Huge new dinosaur species found in Argentina*

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian and Argentine paleontologists have discovered the largely complete fossil of a new species of giant dinosaur which roamed what is now northern Patagonia about 80 million years ago.

The herbivorous Futalognkosaurus dukei measured between 105 and 112 feet from head to tail.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1536246420071015

(Futalognkosaurus ; My new favorite word..)


----------



## BlooChoo

does any one know what happened with the texas el chupacabra story?


----------



## Gabriel

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21322859/?GT1=10450

more new species


----------



## ekim68

*For early humans, a beach party and clam bake*

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - For early humans, one of the first displays of modern behavior was a sort of beach party and clam bake along the coast of South Africa.

Artifacts found in a cave on coastal cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean showed that these people 164,000 years ago cooked mussels and other shellfish, used red pigment perhaps as body paint and made small stone blades that could be used at the tip of a spear -- all far earlier than previously thought.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1732478620071017


----------



## ekim68

BlooChoo said:


> does any one know what happened with the texas el chupacabra story?


Nope, not me not yet..


----------



## lotuseclat79

New 150 million-year-old crab species discovered
Article here.

Researchers from Kent State University and the University of Bucharest, Romania, have discovered a new primitive crab species Cycloprosopon dobrogea in eastern Romania. Previously unexamined, these ancient crabs from the Prosopidae family existed more than 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Dawn Of Animal Vision Discovered*

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2007) - By peering deep into evolutionary history, scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have discovered the origins of photosensitivity in animals.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071016205858.htm


----------



## BlooChoo

ah..kk i just thought that was a pretty cool find...interested in the whole mythical creatures...


----------



## ekim68

*Large dinosaur footprints found in Australia*

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Large, carnivorous dinosaurs roamed southern Australia 115 million years ago, when the continent was joined to the Antarctica, and were padded with body fat to survive temperatures as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSHKG2803120071023


----------



## lotuseclat79

New light trap captures larval stage of new species; DNA barcode technology used
Article here.

When David Jones, a fisheries oceanographer at the Cooperative Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Studies (CIMAS) located at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School, set out to design a better light trap to collect young reef fishes, he never imagined his invention would contribute to the discovery of a new species. But, after finding a goby that didn't quite fit any known description, his catch turned out to be the answer to another scientist's twenty-five-year-old research conundrum. The larval stage captured in Jones's new trap was matched to the adult form of a previously unknown species of reef fish by new DNA barcoding technology-which confirmed both were members of a new species.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Some Neanderthals may have been redheads*

LONDON (Reuters) - Some Neanderthals may have had fair skin and red hair, giving them an appearance resembling modern Europeans, an international team of researchers said on Thursday.

The researchers homed in on the MC1R gene linked to hair and skin color and used DNA analysis to find a variation that produced the same kind of pigmentation changes as in humans with red hair and pale skin.

The study, published in the journal Science, comes a week after another set of researchers looking at a different gene said Neanderthals may have been capable of sophisticated speech.

"The papers make Neanderthals more like modern Europeans, with light skin and hair color and language abilities, and yet there are no signs of interbreeding with modern humans," Carles Lalueza-Fox, a molecular biologist at the University of Barcelona, said in a commentary in Science.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL2583131020071025


----------



## lotuseclat79

Strange squid with human-like "teeth"









Apparently, this is real. Species: Promachoteuthis sulcus. According to the Tree of Life Web project, the single specimen is 25 mm and was captured at a depth of nearly 2000 meters in the south Atlantic Ocean off Tristan Da Cunha.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Jurassic Park was right about 'raptors'*

Jurassic Park had the right ideas about "raptor" dinosaurs - they were big, they were bad, and they roamed in packs - at least when they lived in Shandong Province, China, 120 to 100 million years ago, a fossil trackway shows. It is the first solid evidence of group behaviour among the speedy two-legged predators.

The movie depicted Velociraptor as a cunning and deadly predator of near-human size, while in fact the creature was turkey sized. However, palaeontologists later found a much larger related dinosaur called Utahraptor in Utah, which is on the same scale as the movie raptor.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12843&feedId=online-news_rss20


----------



## ekim68

*Full body ancient amphibian imprints found*

ALBUQUERQUE, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- U.S. paleontologists have discovered fossilized full body imprints of amphibians that lived more than 100 million years before the first dinosaurs.

The imprints, discovered in 330-million-year-old rocks from Pennsylvania, show the webbed feet and bodies of three previously unknown, foot-long salamander-like critters, the researchers said.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/10/31/full_body_ancient_amphibian_imprints_found/4809/


----------



## Gabriel

Whoa....Maritime graveyard found

http://www.newsweek.com/id/67475?&GT1=10547


----------



## ekim68

Wow, that's cool Gabriel....


----------



## lizard

BlooChoo said:


> does any one know what happened with the texas el chupacabra story?


Hi. I found this article this morning. It was a bald Coyote. 
*Suspected 'chupacabra' was just a coyote*

No monster, no mythical animal. 

neet.


----------



## lotuseclat79

Well, that sure was one ugly lookin' coyote!

One DNA test of a sample size of one, does not disprove the existence of a species of "cupacabra". That one sample was no monster and no mythical animal true.

Most myths are based on some factual evidence or observation. Only time will tell until a new species is verified and until then it remains a myth.

-- Tom


----------



## lizard

Hi Tom.

My suspicion was that ye wilde coyote had been partaking of some rather nasty effluent of our society, which may be the case concerning "cupacabra".

Plenty of pollutants such as toxins, hormones, and even mood-altering drugs are released back into lakes and rivers untreated, pretty much throughout North America. Basically, if coyote drinks bad water or eats weird frogs then I believe that DNA damage should be expected.

But in this particular case I don't think it's a myth, I think it's 'mange'.
From the same wiki page, here's a young coyote with a bad case of it.










nasty stuff.


----------



## Gabriel

Poor thing


----------



## lotuseclat79

Big Pig-Like Beast Discovered
Article here.

A new species of pig-like mammal called a peccary has been discovered in the southeastern Amazon region of Brazil, a scientist announced today. It is the largest peccary in the world, about the size of a large dog.

-- Tom


----------



## lizard

Thanks. I specifically enjoyed this scientific observation...



> The giant peccary has a gland that is active in other peccary species and used to mark territories as well as each other. However, the new peccary is scentless, van Roosmalen said.
> 
> "I think it's another adaptation to predation pressure from big cats," he said. "Through evolution, they cannot afford to be so stinky as the other ones."


----------



## lizard

ergo, evolution smells better.


----------



## lotuseclat79

Divers find new species in Aleutians
Article here.

There are unknown creatures lurking under the windswept islands of the Aleutians, according to a team of scientific divers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.









This may be a new species of sea anemone. Credit: Stephen Jewett

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

lizard said:


> ergo, evolution smells better.


Doesn't being scentless mean being odorless, i.e. there is no smell?

-- Tom


----------



## lizard

lotuseclat79 said:


> Doesn't being scentless mean being odorless, i.e. there is no smell?
> 
> -- Tom


Yes. It's better than "stinky".


----------



## ekim68

*Tutankhamun's face goes on public display in tomb*

LUXOR, Egypt (Reuters) - Egypt put the mummy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun on display in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings on Sunday, giving visitors their first chance to see the face of a ruler who died more than 3,000 years ago

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0435787420071104


----------



## ekim68

*Fossil Record Reveals Elusive Jellyfish More Than 500 Million Years Old*

ScienceDaily (Nov. 2, 2007) - Using recently discovered "fossil snapshots" found in rocks more than 500 million years old, three University of Kansas researchers have described the oldest definitive jellyfish ever found.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071030211210.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Q: What do sea urchins look like at a depth of over 1000 ft?









-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Paleontologists Discover Ancient Jurassic Mammal with New Type of Teeth
Article here.

A team of Chinese and American scientists has discovered a new mammal from the 165 million-year-old lakebeds of the Jurassic Period in Northern China.

The find is reported in the November 1st issue of the journal Nature. It sheds light on the earliest mammalian evolution, especially the convergent evolution of teeth among early mammals, and leads scientists to think that mammals were far more diverse in the age of dinosaurs than previously thought.

"This discovery indicates that Jurassic mammals had achieved far more complex dentition than believed, suggesting that mammals diversified much more rapidly in their early evolution than was known," said Richard Lane, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s division of earth sciences, which funded the research.

The new mammal, named Pseudotribos robustus, was an insectivore feeding on worms and insects. Its skeleton is about 12 centimeters long, and its estimated weight would be about 20 to 30 grams. This small animal had strong limbs and lived on the ground but was also capable of "power digging."

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Many Mammals Came from India, Discovery Suggests
Article here.

As if hidden from the paleo tooth fairy, a lone molar belonging to a hoofed mammal stayed tucked beneath a pillow of volcanic rock in central India for more than 65 million years. Recently uncovered, the tooth predates similar fossils found across the globe.

The fossil belonged to a new species of ungulate dubbed Kharmerungulatum vanvaleni, a hoofed animal related to modern horses, cows, pigs, sheep and deer. And it represents the oldest known evidence for the so-called archaic ungulates (small, primitive hoofed mammals), predating by millions of years the explosion of mammalian life that occurred during Paleocene Epoch, from 65 million to nearly 55 million years ago.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Prehistoric Fish Found Alive in a Russian Pond (PICS)
Webpage here.

Russian Workers in Chelyabinsk city caught a strange creature in a ditch and it tried to bite them. They then killed it with some equipment and these pictures are the remains of it. It was around 5 feet length.

I wonder is it is related to trilobite?

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Prehistoric women had passion for fashion*

PLOCNIK, Serbia (Reuters) - If the figurines found in an ancient European settlement are any guide, women have been dressing to impress for at least 7,500 years.

Recent excavations at the site -- part of the Vinca culture which was Europe's biggest prehistoric civilization -- point to a metropolis with a great degree of sophistication and a taste for art and fashion, archaeologists say.

In the Neolithic settlement in a valley nestled between rivers, mountains and forests in what is now southern Serbia, men rushed around a smoking furnace melting metal for tools. An ox pulled a load of ore, passing by an art workshop and a group of young women in short skirts.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL0782181520071112


----------



## Gabriel

HMMM...This seems like an extreme statement to me/ 90% unknown

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience...yearsofclassifyinglife90percentremainsunknown


----------



## iltos

lotuseclat79 said:


> Prehistoric Fish Found Alive in a Russian Pond (PICS)
> Webpage here.
> 
> Russian Workers in Chelyabinsk city caught a strange creature in a ditch and it tried to bite them. They then killed it with some equipment and these pictures are the remains of it. It was around 5 feet length.
> 
> I wonder is it is related to trilobite?
> 
> -- Tom


or a horseshoe crab?


----------



## lotuseclat79

New Ape Fossils Found in Africa
Article here.

Fossil hunters exploring the eastern edge of the Rift Valley of Kenya have found the jawbone of a 10-million-year-old ape that appears to be a close relative of the last ancestor of humans, chimpanzees, and gorillas. The discovery of this ancient ape strikes a new blow against a theory that apes in Africa died out millions of years ago only to be replaced by other apes that had migrated to Europe and Asia and then returned.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

OMG...What a cool new Dino species, found

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21818194/wid/18298287/?GT1=10628


----------



## ekim68

*Ancient jade study sheds light on sea trade*

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Over 100 ancient jade artifacts in museums across southeast Asia have been traced back to Taiwan, shedding new light on sea trade patterns dating back 5,000 years, researchers said.

Using X-ray spectrometers, the international team of scientists analyzed 144 jade ornaments dating from 3,000 BC to 500 AD and found that at least 116 originated from Fengtian in eastern Taiwan.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL192379920071119


----------



## ekim68

*Earliest Chocolate Drink Of The New World*

ScienceDaily (Nov. 20, 2007) - The earliest known use of cacao--the source of our modern day chocolate--has been pushed back more than 500 years, to somewhere between 1400 and 1100 B.C.E., thanks to new chemical analyses of residues extracted from pottery excavated at an archaeological site at Puerto Escondido in Honduras. The new evidence also indicates that, long before the flavor of the cacao seed (or bean) became popular, it was the sweet pulp of the chocolate fruit, used in making a fermented (5% alcohol) beverage, which first drew attention to the plant in the Americas.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071119103540.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Man-sized sea scorpion claw found
Article here.

The immense fossilised claw of a 2.5m-long (8ft) sea scorpion has been described by European researchers.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Museum receives reptile giraffe fossils
Article here.

Bones of a 230 million-year-old "reptile giraffe" found during digs in the Alps' Besano glacier were presented at Milan's Natural History Museum.

Note: giraffe is an oxymoron - it refers to the long neck of the fossil.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Here is truly a Lost World:
Eighth wonder of the world? The stunning temples secretly carved out below ground by 'paranormal' eccentric
Article here.

Nestling in the foothills of the Alps in northern Italy, 30 miles from the ancient city of Turin, lies the valley of Valchiusella. Peppered with medieval villages, the hillside scenery is certainly picturesque.

But it is deep underground, buried into the ancient rock, that the region's greatest wonders are concealed.

Wow!

-- Tom


----------



## iltos

lotuseclat79 said:


> Here is truly a Lost World:
> Eighth wonder of the world? The stunning temples secretly carved out below ground by 'paranormal' eccentric
> Article here.
> Wow!
> 
> -- Tom


wow is right!!!
thanks for posting this, tom :up:


----------



## Gabriel

That is so killer cooool Lotus


----------



## lotuseclat79

Alberta palaeontologists discover new dino genus ... Largest Horned Dino Found to Date
Article here.

A new and larger species of dinosaur has been discovered ... an ancestor of the infamous triceratops. This species is possibly the largest horned species over discovered.










-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Petrified Velvet Worms From 425 Million Years Ago Reveal True Ecology Of Distant Past*

ScienceDaily (Nov. 26, 2007) - University of Leicester Geologist Dr Mark Purnell, with Canadian colleagues, reported, in the journal Geology, a new, exceptionally preserved deposit of fossils in 425 million year old Silurian rocks in Ontario.

The fossils include complete fish (only the second place on Earth where whole fish of this age have been found), various shrimp and worm like creatures, including velvet-worms, which look (in Dr Purnell's words) "rather like a dozen headless Michelin men dancing a conga."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071126121836.htm


----------



## ekim68

*Rare ancient wooden throne found in Herculaneum*

ROME (Reuters) - An ancient Roman wood and ivory throne has been unearthed at a dig in Herculaneum, Italian archaeologists said on Tuesday, hailing it as the most significant piece of wooden furniture ever discovered there.

The throne was found during an excavation in the Villa of the Papyri, the private house formerly belonging to Julius Caesar's father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, built on the slope of Mount Vesuvius.

The name of the villa derives from the impressive library containing thousands of scrolls of papyrus discovered buried under meters (yards) of volcanic ash after the Vesuvius erupted on 24 August 79.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL0413888820071204


----------



## Gabriel

Hippo Fossils

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071205/ap_on_sc/cyprus_dwarf_hippos


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient kangaroo didn't hop: scientists
Article here.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Animal Treasures Found in Bahamas Sinkhole
Article here.

Fossil skeletons of an unusual land-roaming Cuban crocodile, a tortoise and 25 species of birds including a raptor known as a caracara are among the ancient treasures recently discovered in a sinkhole in the Bahamas.

-- Tom


----------



## johnnyburst79

Largest spitting cobra species found in Kenya

NAIROBI (AFP) - A new giant species of spitting cobra -- about 2.6 metres long and with enough venom to kill up to 20 people in one bite -- has been discovered in Kenya, a study said Friday.

The large brown spitting cobra, initially included under the black-necked spitting cobra species, was discovered at a snake farm in June 2004, but confirmed as a separate species this year.


----------



## ekim68

That's one big snake...Thank goodness I'm not going to Kenya..


----------



## lotuseclat79

Rare Species Discovered In Ghana
Article dated 6 December 2007 here.

Scientists exploring one of the largest remaining blocks of tropical forest in Western Africa discovered significant populations of new, rare and threatened species underscoring the area's high biological diversity and value.

Findings from Conservation International's Atewa RAP report include:

* A Critically Endangered frog (Conraua derooi) whose presence in Atewa may represent the last viable population in the world.
* A butterfly (Mylothris atewa) that is found nowhere else in the world and has been proposed as globally Critically Endangered. This status awaits confirmation by IUCN. The RAP report contains the first photo of this species in the wild.
* A new species of spider tick whose lineage is as old as the dinosaurs. This strange little creature looks like a cross between a spider and a crab, and males have their reproductive organs on their legs. They are considered quite rare, with only 57 other species known from this group throughout the world.
* The highest diversity of katydids (grasshopper relative) in all of Africa, including eight species new to science, making 13% of all species of katydids in Atewa new to science.
* The highest diversity of butterflies in Ghana, featuring 575 of the 925 species known to occur in Ghana - which is 62% of Ghana's butterfly fauna and twice the number of butterflies found in Europe.
* 17 species of rare butterflies, half of which are found only in Atewa or one other site in Ghana, including the magnificent Papilio antimachus, whose wingspan is the widest in the world.
* 10 mammal species of global and national conservation concern, including the IUCN Red Listed monkeys: Geoffroy's pied colobus (Colobus vellerosus) and the olive colobus (Procolobus verus).
* An unusually high 155 bird species. Six species of global conservation concern including the brown-cheeked hornbill and the Nimba flycatcher (first time recorded in Ghana).
* 19 fish species of significant potential value in the aquarium trade. These species indicate that the streams run through high quality, intact forest, which is becoming exceedingly rare in West Africa.
* The only tree fern species (Cyathea manniana) found in Ghana. Other places where similar species are found include forests in Brazil and Madagascar.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

johnnyburst79 said:


> Largest spitting cobra species found in Kenya
> 
> NAIROBI (AFP) - A new giant species of spitting cobra -- about 2.6 metres long and with enough venom to kill up to 20 people in one bite -- has been discovered in Kenya, a study said Friday.
> 
> The large brown spitting cobra, initially included under the black-necked spitting cobra species, was discovered at a snake farm in June 2004, but confirmed as a separate species this year.


But, did you know that the venom of infant cobras is many times more deadly than that of the adult cobras of whatever species. Watch out for those pencil thin kiddie cobras!

-- Tom


----------



## johnnyburst79

Yes, baby snakes are absolutely more dangerous than adults, but I did not know it was more deadly than an adults, just that the babies cannot control the amount of venom they inject and thus inject it all.

Got a link?


----------



## lotuseclat79

johnnyburst79 said:


> Yes, baby snakes are absolutely more dangerous than adults, but I did not know it was more deadly than an adults, just that the babies cannot control the amount of venom they inject and thus inject it all.
> 
> Got a link?


Hi johnnyburst79,

Unfortunately no link. Just experience of what I was told when I was in Thailand - needed to keep a towel blocking the door jam to keep 'en out as I was on the ground floor! I sure do miss that gecko skittering up and down the walls though.

-- Tom


----------



## lizard

> *Mysterious mammal caught on film*
> 
> An "extraordinary" desert creature has been caught on camera for what scientists believe is the first time.
> 
> The long-eared jerboa, a tiny nocturnal mammal that is dwarfed by its enormous ears, can be found in deserts in Mongolia and China.


Not only enormous ears, but a really long tail, and jumps around like a kangaroo. Check out the videos. :up:


----------



## ekim68

Cool. Thanks lizard..


----------



## ekim68

*Massive dinosaur discovered in Antarctica*

CHICAGO, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- U.S. and Argentine scientists working in Antarctica have discovered a new genus and species of massive dinosaur from the Jurassic period.

Field Museum researchers in Chicago said the giant plant-eating primitive sauropodomorph is called Glacialisaurus hammeri and lived about 190 million years ago.

The partial skeleton of the dinosaur was found on Mt. Kirkpatrick near the Beardmore Glacier in Antarctica at an elevation of more than 13,000 feet.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Science/2007/12/11/massive_dinosaur_discovered_in_antarctica/7673/


----------



## lotuseclat79

Fossils of ancient tank-like mammal found in Andes
Article here.

Scientists searching for fossils high in the Andes mountains in Chile have unearthed the remains of a tank-like mammal related to armadillos that grazed 18 million years ago in South America.

It was about 200 pounds (90 kg) and 2-1/2 feet long (76 cm). It was a primitive member of a line of heavily armored mammals that culminated in the massive, impregnable Gyptodon, a two-tonne, 10-foot (3 meters) long beast covered in armored plates and a spiky tail that lived until 10,000 years ago. (Velizar Simeonovski/Handout/Reuters)









An undated artist's rendering shows Parapropalaehoplophorus septentrionalis, a newly discovered extinct armadillo relative ...

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Ancient Mayan marketplace discovered

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20071203/sc_livescience/ancientmayanmarketplacediscovered


----------



## ekim68

*Great beasts peppered from space*

_Startling evidence has been found which shows mammoth and other great beasts from the last ice age were blasted with material that came from space._

Eight tusks dating to some 35,000 years ago all show signs of having being peppered with meteorite fragments.

The ancient remains come from Alaska, but researchers also have a Siberian bison skull with the same pockmarks.

The scientists released details of the discovery at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, US.

They painted a picture of a calamitous event over North America that may have severely knocked back the populations of some species.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7130014.stm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Two new mammals found in Indonesian 'lost world'
Article here.

A tiny possum and a giant rat were recorded by scientists as probable new species on a recent expedition to Indonesia's remote and virtually unknown "Lost World" in the pristine wilderness of western New Guinea's Foja Mountains.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Whale 'missing link' discovered
Article here.

The whale is descended from a deer-like animal that lived 48 million years ago, according to fossil evidence.









The animal was small, stocky and about the size of a raccoon

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Well, kinda like a Lost World and such:

*China raises sunken merchant ship after 800 years*

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - An 800-year-old merchant ship was raised from the bottom of the South China Sea on Saturday, loaded with artefacts that might confirm the existence of an ancient maritime trade route linking China and the West.

The 30-meter (100-foot) wooden vessel, containing thousands of gold, silver and porcelain trading goods, was hoisted onto a barge in a steel cage as high as a three-storey building, a live broadcast by national television showed.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSSHA19774920071222


----------



## ekim68

A different definition of Lost Worlds:

*Deep-sea Species' Loss Could Lead To Oceans' Collapse, Study Suggests*

ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2007) - The loss of deep-sea species poses a severe threat to the future of the oceans, suggests a new report publishing early online on December 27th and in the January 8th issue of Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press. In a global-scale study, the researchers found some of the first evidence that the health of the deep sea, as measured by the rate of critical ecosystem processes, increases exponentially with the diversity of species living there.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071227184100.htm


----------



## Gabriel

http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2007/0902-our_changing_climate.htm

Interesting article on climate changes, and speciation


----------



## Gabriel

http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...28102_RTRUKOC_0_US-MEXICO-PYRAMID.xml&src=rss

Ancient pyramid found in Mexico City


----------



## ekim68

*Insect Attack May Have Finished Off Dinosaurs*

ScienceDaily (Jan. 4, 2008) - Asteroid impacts or massive volcanic flows might have occurred around the time dinosaurs became extinct, but a new arguemet is that the mightiest creatures the world has ever known may have been brought down by a tiny, much less dramatic force -- biting, disease-carrying insects.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080103090702.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Newfound Carnivores of the Caveman Era
Article here.

Our ancestors had lots of predators and competitors to worry about - saber-toothed cats, dire wolves and even giant man-eating birds of prey.

Now you can add cave bears to that list. These prehistoric giants were roughly a third larger than modern grizzly bears.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Unusual British dinosaur had crocodile skull
Article here.

An unusual British dinosaur has been shown to have a skull that functioned like a fish-eating crocodile, despite looking like a dinosaur. It also possessed two huge hand claws, perhaps used as grappling hooks to lift fish from the water.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Scientists find 2,000 pound rodent - luckily it's a fossil*

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists in Uruguay have found the fossil remains of a 2,000 pound (1,000 kg) rodent that lived 2 million to 4 million years ago -- the largest rodent ever found.

The giant creature probably ate soft food such as fruit or tender plants, Andres Rinderknecht and Ernesto Blanco of the National Museum of Natural History in Montevideo reported on Wednesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1662162320080116


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists discover four new gecko species
Article here.

Herpetologists discovered four new species of geckos in isolated mountains and islands in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam.

-- Tom

P.S. I miss the little gecko that lived on the wall in my bedroom in Thailand - if it were here in my house it may have had the mosquito that bit me last night for dinner!


----------



## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> P.S. I miss the little gecko that lived on the wall in my bedroom in Thailand - if it were here in my house it may have had the mosquito that bit me last night for dinner!


Ohhh...That is so cute


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient "Lost City" Discovered in Peru, Official Claims
Article here.

Ruins recently discovered in southern Peru could be the ancient 'lost city' of Paititi according to claims that are drawing serious but cautious response from experts.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Recovering from a mass extinction*

The full recovery of ecological systems, following the most devastating extinction event of all time, took at least 30 million years, according to new research from the University of Bristol.

About 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian, a major extinction event killed over 90 per cent of life on earth, including insects, plants, marine animals, amphibians, and reptiles. Ecosystems were destroyed worldwide, communities were restructured and organisms were left struggling to recover. This was the nearest life ever came to being completely wiped out.

Previous work indicates that life bounced back quite quickly, but this was mostly in the form of disaster taxa (opportunistic organisms that filled the empty ecospace left behind by the extinction), such as the hardy Lystrosaurus, a barrel-chested herbivorous animal, about the size of a pig.

The most recent research, conducted by Sarda Sahney and Professor Michael Benton at the University of Bristol and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B this week, indicates that specialised animals forming complex ecosystems, with high biodiversity, complex food webs and a variety of niches, took much longer to recover.

http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=24550


----------



## Gabriel

Human migration lineage origin links
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/18/w...24&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&oref=slogin

Pacific Islanders' Ancestry Emerges in Genetic Study


----------



## lotuseclat79

Bizarre Amphibians Found Living on the Edge
Article here.

The Zoological Society of London announced this week these are among the 10 most unusual and threatened amphibian species, as part of the EDGE Amphibians conservation and fundraising initiative. Amphibians that made the list are deemed by the society to be the most evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered, aka EDGE species. They have few close relatives in the tree of life and are genetically unique, along with being on the verge of extinction.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

A dark side of lost worlds.....

*Ancient Maya sacrificed boys not virgin girls: study*

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The victims of human sacrifice by Mexico's ancient Mayans, who threw children into water-filled caverns, were likely boys and young men not virgin girls as previously believed, archeologists said on Tuesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2255347620080123


----------



## ekim68

*A Rare Find in Madagascar Gets Its Own Genus*

It started as a simple family picnic in the outback of Madagascar, off Africa's southeast coast. Xavier and Nathalie Metz, local cashew farmers, stared in disbelief at a 30-foot-tall mass of flowers and fruits sprouting gloriously from the top of a 30-foot-tall palm tree.

They had seen the same tree on an outing a year earlier, when it was not in bloom, and had presumed it to be a species common to that region. But the enormous floral display -- literally dripping with nectar and teeming with insects and birds -- convinced them on that day in 2006 that they were witnessing something rare.

Adding to their sense of awe was what they found on follow-up visits: Having thrown itself so completely into that spectacle of reproductive ardor, the huge tree soon collapsed in a depleted heap and died.

Now, scientists have confirmed just how unusual that tree was, and how rare are the 92 surviving specimens that have since been found.

The palm, which researchers say essentially "flowers itself to death," is not only a new species. It has forced palm biologists to invent an entirely new genus to accommodate it. That is an almost unheard of event in modern palm tree classification, but one made necessary by its many unique traits and by DNA testing suggesting the tree has been evolving independently of other palms for millions of years.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...01/27/AR2008012701498.html?hpid=moreheadlines


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientist discovers six new species of deep sea fish
Article here.

A sharp eyed marine scientist who spotted six strange fish during a deep sea research expedition has been rewarded for trusting her instincts.









The little pink fish with is named after Dr. Nikki King - I'm guessing!

But of the six the closest to Nikki's heart was a large 42cm long brown eelpout now known as Pachycara cousinsi which was named after the 27-year-old's geophysicist fiancé Michael Cousins.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

The Best: Extinct Animals, From an Elephant Bird to a 10-Foot-Long, Four-Eyed Spider
Article here.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Bizarre' new mammal discovered
Article here.

A new species of mammal has been discovered in the mountains of Tanzania, scientists report. The bizarre-looking creature, dubbed Rhynochocyon udzungwensis, is a type of giant elephant shrew, or sengi.

The cat-sized animal, which is reported in the Journal of Zoology, looks like a cross between a miniature antelope and a small ant eater.









The curious-looking creature was caught on camera

Note: You can watch a video of the creature at the linked website by clicking on the watch button under the picture.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Brazil finds fossil of "missing link" to crocodile here, and 'Missing link' croc displayed in Brazil here.

-- Tom


----------



## lizard

*'New type of bird' found in Nepal*



> *A previously unknown sub-species of bird has been discovered in the southern grasslands of Nepal, scientists say.*
> 
> The bird is a warbler with a very long tail and slender beak and has been named the Nepal Rufous-vented Prinia.










​


----------



## ekim68

*Oldest Horseshoe Crab Fossil Found, 100 Million Years Old*

ScienceDaily (Feb. 8, 2008) - Few modern animals are as deserving of the title "living fossil" as the lowly horseshoe crab. Seemingly unchanged since before the Age of Dinosaurs, these venerable sea creatures can now claim a history that reaches back almost half-a billion years.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080207135801.htm


----------



## Gabriel

Oldest oil cave paintings Afganistan

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/photogalleries/Bamian-pictures/index.html


----------



## Gabriel

That little bird is too much, Lizard....I would love to draw him


----------



## lizard

Quite a long bushy tail on the little pecker, eh, Gabriel?


----------



## lizard

*New Monkey Species Found in Remote Amazon*

A previously unknown species of uakari monkey was found during recent hunting trips in the Amazon, a New Zealand primatologist has announced.


----------



## Gabriel

Druid graves uncovered

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/11/druid-grave.html?dcitc=w01-101-ae-0001


----------



## Gabriel

Tiny Pterosaur

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23113944/


----------



## ekim68

Wow, that's cool Gabriel...Little dinosaurs...Just think of the time that they had to create themselves...A million years or so...And think of the changes in the last hundred years....What a jump...


----------



## lotuseclat79

More on the Tiny Pterodactyl Tiny Pterodactyl Fossil Found.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

ekim68 said:


> Wow, that's cool Gabriel...Little dinosaurs...Just think of the time that they had to create themselves...A million years or so...And think of the changes in the last hundred years....What a jump...


They could be cloned with parrots and be ptalkydactyls....Hey...great name for a puppet


----------



## ekim68

Thanks Gabriel, my new favorite word is ptalkydactyls....


----------



## lotuseclat79

2 new dinosaurs, 1 huge discovery
Article here.

Fossils of newly discovered elephant-sized creatures offer glimpse into evolutionary trends; scientists hope findings will help bridge evolutionary and migratory gaps

New meat-eating dinos identified
Article here.

Two previously unknown types of meat-eating dinosaur have been identified from fossils unearthed in the Sahara desert in Niger.









Eocarcharia dinops had teeth shaped like blades









Kryptops palaios had a horny covering over its snout

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Oldest animal to have ever lived found Ming.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Wow, what a trip..


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Frog from hell' fossil unearthed
Article here.

A 70-million-year-old fossil of a giant frog has been unearthed in Madagascar by a team of UK and US scientists.









Artist's impression of the "frog from hell"

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Gigantism and Antarctic sea creatures

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSSYD346520080219?feedType=RSS&feedName=scienceNews


----------



## lotuseclat79

Spironucleus Salmonicida - New Species Of Parasite Described
Article here.

While studying towards his doctorate of philosophy, Anders Jørgensen discovered a previously undescribed species of parasite that infects farmed fish and produces serious disease.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Satellite imagery and Mayan Temples..

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23282045/


----------



## lotuseclat79

Gabriel said:


> Satellite imagery and Mayan Temples..
> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23282045/


Hi Gabriel,

I saw a PBS program on just that a while ago when they first discovered that they could use satellite data to discover the temples and forgotten cities. I am sure there is more on it at pbs.org website if you look using their search.

I think it is just fantastically great how we can use modern technology to peer into the past like this! How else are we to learn not to repeat the mistakes of the past aside from making good decisions in the present?

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Butterfly Fish 'May Face Extinction'*

ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2008) - A beautiful black, white and yellow butterflyfish, much admired by eco-tourists, divers and aquarium keepers alike, may be at risk of extinction, scientists have warned.

The case of the Chevroned Butterflyfish is a stark example of how human pressure on the world's coral reefs is confronting certain species with 'blind alleys' from which they may be unable to escape, says Dr Morgan Pratchett of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080225072629.htm


----------



## Gabriel

Seed Bank Opening

http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2...9f87679ad6497b&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Here is the actual televised opening ceremony...you will need high speed internet for this, I believe

http://media01.smartcom.no/Microsite/dss_01.aspx?eventid=2798


----------



## lotuseclat79

Fossil sea monster big enough to "bite a car"
Article here.

The fossil of a 15 meter (50 ft) long "sea monster" found in Arctic Norway was the biggest of its kind known to science with dagger-like teeth in a mouth large enough to bite a small car, researchers said on Wednesday.

"It's a new species and the biggest proven pliosaur," ...

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Scientists find hibernating fish in Antarctic*

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have found an Antarctic fish that hibernates to conserve energy during the long southern winters.

The cod Notothenia coriiceps enters a dormant state, similar to hibernation in land animals like hedgehogs, British scientists said on Wednesday.

Researchers already knew Antarctic fish had antifreeze chemicals in their blood and their ability to effectively put themselves "on ice" is another remarkable adaptation to an extreme environment.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL049441120080305


----------



## lotuseclat79

White (Orca) Killer Whale Spotted Off Alaska
Article here.

The white killer whale spotted in Alaska's Aleutian Islands sent researchers and the ship's crew scrambling for their cameras. The nearly mythic creature was real after all.









In this photo provided by the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration a rare white killer whale was spotted by federal scientists Feb. 23, 2008, about 2 miles off Kanaga Volcano in Alaska's Aleutian Islands. (AP Photo/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Holly Fearnbach)

Technically not a new species, but the myth is now resolved!

Note: orca is a member of the dolphin family.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Elusive bird seen near Papua New Guinea
Article here.

A pale-bellied bird species last seen in the 1920s and long thought to be extinct has been rediscovered near Papua New Guinea. The Beck's petrel was photographed last summer by an Israeli ornithologist in the Bismarck Archipelago, a group of islands northeast of Papua New Guinea.









In this photo provided by Hadoram Shirihai, and the Royal Society for the Protection of... (AP Photo)

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Tiny Palau skeletons suggest "hobbits" were dwarfs*

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tiny skeletons found in the caves of the Pacific islands of Palau undercut the theory that similar remains found in Indonesia might be a unique new species of humans, researchers reported on Monday.

The Palau skeletons, which date to between 900 and 2,800 years ago, appear to have belonged to so-called insular dwarfs -- humans who grew smaller as a result of living on an island, the researchers said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN1059511220080310


----------



## lotuseclat79

Rare pygmy hippos photographed
Article here.

British conservationists have captured photographs of two extremely rare pygmy hippos living in the wild in Liberia.

-- Tom

P.S. Sorry, no pic available from story website.


----------



## lotuseclat79

Geologist Spots Oreodont Fossil in N.M.
Article here.

(AP) -- A geologic mapping project led to the finding of a 10 million-year-old fossil that's now being studied at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Harlequin frog rediscovered in remote region of Colombia - Batman & Robin tomb nearby!
Article here.

After 14 years without having been seen, several young scientists supported by the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP), have rediscovered the Carrikeri Harlequin Frog (Atelopus carrikeri) in a remote mountainous region in Colombia.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

The jumping goats of ancient Pakistan here -- a wild goat eating vegetation!

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Evidence Of Ice Age Hunters: 28 Palaeolithic Handaxes Found In North Sea*

ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2008) - An amazing haul of 28 flint hand-axes, dated by archaeologists to be around 100,000 years-old, have been unearthed in gravel from a licensed marine aggregate dredging area 13km off Great Yarmouth.

The find was made by a Dutch amateur archaeologist, Jan Meulmeester, who regularly searches for mammoth bones and fossils in marine sand and gravel delivered by British construction materials supplier Hanson to a Dutch wharf at Flushing, south west Netherlands.

The axes show that deep in the Ice Age, mammoth hunters roamed across land that is now submerged beneath the sea. These are the finest hand-axes that experts are certain come from English waters, although there have been several finds on beaches, for example at Pakefield in Suffolk.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311203247.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

New Bird Species Discovered
Article here.

The announcement of the discovery of a new bird comes with a twist: It's a white-eye, but its eye isn't white. Still, what this new bird lacks in literal qualities it makes up for as one of the surprises that nature still has tucked away in little-explored corners of the world.









An artist's rendering of Zosterops somadikartai, or Togian white-eye. (Credit: Photo by Agus Prijono)

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Exploring A 'Lost' City Of The Mycenaeans*

ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2008) - Along an isolated, rocky stretch of Greek shoreline, a Florida State University researcher and his students are unlocking the secrets of a partially submerged, "lost" harbor town believed to have been built by the ancient Mycenaeans nearly 3,500 years ago.

"This is really a remarkable find," said Professor Daniel J. Pullen, chairman of FSU's Department of Classics. "It is rare indeed to locate an entire town built during the Late Bronze Age that shows this level of preservation."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080311120621.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Workers uncovering mummified dinosaur
Article here.

Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all.

One of only 4 dinosaur mummified discoveries!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Giant marine life found in Antarctica
Article here.

Scientists who conducted the most comprehensive survey to date of New Zealand's Antarctic waters were surprised by the size of some specimens found, including jellyfish with 12-foot tentacles and 2-foot-wide starfish.









In this undated photo supplied by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, or NIWA, Benthic team members Sadie Mills, left, NIWA curatorial technician and Niki Davey, NIWA marine ecologist hold giant Macroptychaster sea star (starfish) measuring up to 60 cm across in Antarctic waters. Scientists found that some marine life doesn't come small in Antarctic waters, with giant-sized specimens surprising researchers during a survey of New Zealand's Antarctic seas that ended this week.
(AP Photo/NZ IPY-CAML, John Mitchell)

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

OMG...These are great


----------



## ekim68

*International team of scientists discover clue to delay of life on Earth*

TEMPE, Ariz. - Scientists from around the world have reconstructed changes in Earth's ancient ocean chemistry during a broad sweep of geological time, from about 2.5 to 0.5 billion years ago. They have discovered that a deficiency of oxygen and the heavy metal molybdenum in the ancient deep ocean may have delayed the evolution of animal life on Earth for nearly 2 billion years.

http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=25056


----------



## lotuseclat79

New fish has a face even Dale Chihuly could love
Article here.

A fish that would rather crawl into crevices than swim, and that may be able to see in the same way that humans do, could represent an entirely unknown family of fishes, says a University of Washington fish expert.









The leglike pectoral fin for walking is the clue that this newly found fish is an anglerfish, even though it does not have a lure on its head for attracting prey. Its flat face and forward-looking eyes are just two of a host of reasons why University of Washington professor Ted Pietsch thinks the fish found in January probably represents a new family of vertebrate animals. Credit: M. Snyder, starknakedfish.com/divingmaluku.com

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Bizarre Frog Has No Lungs
Article here.

The first lungless frog has been discovered lurking in the jungles of Borneo.

The enigmatic amphibian, dubbed Barbourula kalimantanensis, apparently gets all the oxygen it needs through its skin.









The first lungless frog has been discovered lurking in the jungles of Borneo. Credit: David Bickford

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

OMG....This is just hilariously funny

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38680

Archaeologist Tired Of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Yeti' fly lost for 40 years is rediscovered
Article here.

One of the most exotic and elusive flies known to science has been rediscovered, four decades after it was first found buzzing around a Caribbean crab, writes Roger Highfield.

-- Tom


----------



## JEBWrench

lotuseclat79 said:


> 'Yeti' fly lost for 40 years is rediscovered
> Article here.
> 
> One of the most exotic and elusive flies known to science has been rediscovered, four decades after it was first found buzzing around a Caribbean crab, writes Roger Highfield.
> 
> -- Tom


I'm all for knowledge and scientific investigation, but I'm not terribly sure I would label why a fly sits on a crab as a "key mystery".


----------



## JEBWrench

Gabriel said:


> OMG....This is just hilariously funny
> 
> http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38680
> 
> Archaeologist Tired Of Unearthing Unspeakable Ancient Evils


I so do hate when that happens.


----------



## lotuseclat79

JEBWrench said:


> I'm all for knowledge and scientific investigation, but I'm not terribly sure I would label why a fly sits on a crab as a "key mystery".


Ok, JEBWrench,

If you know the answer - spill it! If not, it remains a mystery!

Maybe the flies like "to be watched" during their courting dance? Looks like the crab has a front row seat, eh?

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

OMG.....I bookmarked both that link, and the research page, Lotus....tooooo much.


----------



## JEBWrench

lotuseclat79 said:


> Ok, JEBWrench,
> 
> If you know the answer - spill it! If not, it remains a mystery!
> 
> Maybe the flies like "to be watched" during their courting dance? Looks like the crab has a front row seat, eh?
> 
> -- Tom


The fly sits on the crab for protection from potential devouring by old ladies who have previously swallowed a spider, which would wiggle and wriggle and jiggle inside her.

*nods sagely* :up:


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient serpent shows its leg
Article here.

What was lost tens of millions of years ago is now found. A fossil animal locked in Lebanese limestone has been shown to be an extremely precious discovery - a snake with two legs.









How Eupodophis descouensi might have looked. The legs are far down the body









The top picture is a synchrotron view of the visible snake leg
Synchrotron light in the bottom view illuminates the hidden limb

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*"Extinct" plants found in remote Australia*

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Two plants that were thought to have been extinct since the late 1800s have been rediscovered in far northern Australia, according to an official report released on Saturday.

The Queensland state government's State of the Environment report said the two species were found on Cape York, in tropical far north Queensland.

"The Rhaphidospora cavernarum, which is a large herb that stands about one and a half meters high, has reappeared," state climate change minister Andrew McNamara told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

"It hasn't been seen in Queensland since 1873," he said.

He said the second plant that has reappeared, another herb called Teucrium ajugaceum, was last seen in 1891.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSSYD22254520080412


----------



## lotuseclat79

Hi ekim68,

Mmmmmm, a herb plant - I wonder how they taste and cook regarding flavor, eh?

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi ekim68,
> 
> Mmmmmm, a herb plant - I wonder how they taste and cook regarding flavor, eh?
> 
> -- Tom


Probably like chicken.................

Just kidding..

*Egypt finds coins dating to Roman Emperor Valens*

CAIRO (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered two gold coins in the Sinai peninsula dating to the era of Eastern Roman Emperor Valens that are the first of their kind to be found in Egypt, its antiquities council said on Sunday.

Egypt's Supreme Council for Antiquities said excavations at a site west of St. Catherine's monastery in Sinai unearthed two coins containing images of Valens, who ruled the Eastern Roman Empire from 364 to 378 AD.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL1321471520080413


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Elephants Loved Water
Article here.

Elephants, those large and lumbering landlubbers, used to live partially in the water, according to new research.

A recent study found that an ancient elephant ancestor called Moeritherium spent most of its time in rivers and swamps.

Scientists knew that elephants are related to modern aquatic creatures such as manatees, but they had never identified an ancient elephant relative that lived in water. Now the evolutionary link is there.









Moeritherium, a 37 million-year-old amphibious relative of modern elephants. Credit: Luci Betti-Nash, Stony Brook University

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Barbourula kalimantanensis is just a sweetheart of a frog. He is my favorite animal thus far this year.


----------



## ekim68

Kind of like a digital Lost World...

*Neanderthals speak out after 30,000 years*

Talk about a long silence - no one has heard their voices for 30,000 years. Now the long-extinct Neanderthals are speaking up - or at least a computer synthesiser is doing so on their behalf.

Robert McCarthy, an anthropologist at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton has used new reconstructions of Neanderthal vocal tracts to simulate the voice. He says the ancient human's speech lacked the "quantal vowel" sounds that underlie modern speech.

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/being-human/dn13672


----------



## lotuseclat79

Unknown creature was found by Russian soldiers
Article here.

This creature was found by Russian soldiers on Sakhalin shoreline. Sakhalin area is situated near to Japan, it's the most eastern part of Russia, almost 5000 miles to East from Moscow (Russia is huge). People don't know who is it. According to the bones and teeth - it is not a fish. According to its skeleton - it's not a crocodile or alligator. It has a skin with hair or fur. It has been said that it was taken by Russian special services for in-depth studies, and we are lucky that people who encountered it first made those photos before it was brought away.

Nine pictures - not a crocodile or alligator, but something mysterious. Booyah!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Researcher finds fossilized shell-breaking crab
Article here.

While waiting for colleagues at a small natural history museum in the state of Chiapas, Mexico last year, Cornell paleontologist Greg Dietl chanced upon a discovery that has helped rewrite the evolutionary history of crabs and the shelled mollusks upon which they preyed.









In a museum display case, Cornell paleontologist Greg Dietl recognized a 69 million-year-old crab fossil with an oversized right claw, a feature previously thought to appear more than 20 million years later. Credit: Cornell University

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Girl-only fish species survives by cloning*

Researchers are pondering how an exclusively-female fish species has survived without genetically self-destructing itself into extinction, the BBC reports.

The Amazon Molly, found in Mexico and Texas, reproduces by cloning, and while it does "interact" with chaps from other species to "trigger its reproduction process", doesn't utilise any of their DNA in producing offspring.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/23/amazon_molly/


----------



## ekim68

Almost a lost world...

*Humans nearly wiped out 70,000 years ago, study says*

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Human beings may have had a brush with extinction 70,000 years ago, an extensive genetic study suggests.

The human population at that time was reduced to small isolated groups in Africa, apparently because of drought, according to an analysis released Thursday.

The report notes that a separate study by researchers at Stanford University estimated that the number of early humans may have shrunk as low as 2,000 before numbers began to expand again in the early Stone Age.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/04/24/close.call.ap/index.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

Biologists rediscover rare cloud rat in Philippines: report
Article here.

A rare rat species last seen over a century ago in the mountainous northern Philippines has been rediscovered by a team of American and Filipino biologists, a report said Sunday.









Handout photo courtesy of the Chicago-based Field Museum shows a rare dwarf cloud rat. The rare rat species last seen over a century ago in the mountainous northern Philippines has been rediscovered by a team of American and Filipino biologists, a report said Sunday.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Gondwana - The Mysterious Demise Of An Ancient Supercontinent (Predecessor of Pangea)
Article here.

Gondwana was a 'supercontinent' comprised of Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia-New Guinea, and New Zealand, as well as Arabia and the Indian subcontinent of the Northern Hemisphere.

It existed between 500 and 180 million years ago but geologists have debated for decades over how it eventually broke up. The two primary camps support a theory claiming the continent separated into many small plates and a second theory believes it broke into a few large pieces.









Courtesy: University of Florida

Find out what they discovered ... read the article!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

For good or ill Ireland gains another mammal species
Article here.

A recent study, soon to be published in Mammal Review, details the discovery of a mammal which has never been seen before in Ireland. The shrew, which has been spotted in Tipperary and Limerick, is only the third new mammal to be found on the island in almost 60 years.









A (mighty unhappy looking) white toothed shrew found in Ireland.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Scientists link 17 living people to an aboriginal man found in glacier*

Scientists have found a direct link between the frozen remains of a man found in a glacier in northern B.C. and 17 people living in B.C., Yukon and Alaska.

The news came at a symposium in Victoria this past weekend, focusing on Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi', an aboriginal man whose remains were found in 1999 by hunters in Tatshenshini-Alsek Park, which is in the traditional territory of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations.

"The connection to the people," said Al Mackie, an archaeologist on the project, "how they know his clan, how they know who his relatives are, that's amazing. You just don't get that in archaeology. It never happens."

Kwaday Dan Ts'inchi' means Long Ago Person Found, and he's believed to have died some time between the years 1670 and 1850. His remains were revealed after a glacier started to recede.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080428.wbcfrozen28/BNStory/National/home


----------



## ekim68

*Aaptos kanuux, New Species of Sponge Discovered*

The new sponge species, Aaptos kanuux, is named for the Aleut word for "heart" and was discovered in the deep underwater canyons of the Bering Sea. It was named by Greenpeace campaigner George Pletnikoff and St. George Eco-Office Director Andrew Malavansky, to emphasize that the canyons represent the heart of the Bering Sea. The sponge was collected by Kenneth Lowyck of Greenpeace Canada with a Deep Worker submarine at a depth of 700 feet in Pribilof Canyon. This is the first record of the genus for the Bering Sea.

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/news/new-sponge-discovered

(Aaptos kanuux, my new favorite word..)


----------



## lotuseclat79

12 new species discovered in Brazil
Article here.

Researchers discovered a legless lizard and a tiny woodpecker along with 12 other suspected new species in Brazil's Cerrado, one of the world's 34 biodiversity conservation hotspots.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Missing link between modern birds and ancient archaeopteryx

http://www.newscientist.com/article...i.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=news8_head_dn13824


----------



## Gabriel

Archaeopteryx fossils are awesome. If you have never seen them, google them in the image context.
I have seen a few up close.
First one in our Museum in Pittsburgh, as a kid....I visit it every time I go back there.
And I have seen a few in Quartzsite, AZ. during the rock, gem and mineral show there in the winter months.

I would love to do stamp impressions of them in clay medium, and use as pendants for jewelery....that would be so cool


----------



## ekim68

*Dinosaur Bones Reveal Ancient Bug Bites*

ScienceDaily (May 6, 2008) - Paleontologists have long been perplexed by dinosaur fossils with missing pieces - sets of teeth without a jaw bone, bones that are pitted and grooved, even bones that are half gone. Now a Brigham Young University study identifies a culprit: ancient insects that munched on dinosaur bones.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080505221645.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

1,000 Ancient Tombs, Unique Remains Found in Colombia
Article (2 pages) here.



> Builders clearing land for a housing project in Colombia have uncovered an ancient burial site containing nearly a thousand tombs linked to two little-known civilizations.
> 
> The tombs range in date from around the first century to the 16th century A.D., based on analysis of pottery found with the remains.
> 
> The first 500 years of the site's use date to the so-called Herrera period, when several small, obscure groups thrived in this region of the Andean highlands during the development of agriculture.
> 
> From around A.D. 500 to 1500, the site seems to have been occupied by the Muisca, another culture that is one of Colombia's most important but least understood civilizations, Groot said.


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Mind-Blowing' New Creature Discovered
Article here.

Among the greatest mysteries in zoology for more than a century have been vaguely shrimp-like creatures known as y-larvae.

Although these microscopic beasts are clearly young crustaceans, no one knew what the adult forms looked like.

Now researchers may have solved this puzzle by dosing the y-larvae with a hormone that forced them to go through a growth spurt.

The result - simple, pulsing, slug-like masses of cells that were "mind-blowing" to the scientists. These surprisingly simple creatures - far simpler than their larval stage - may be parasites found worldwide.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Scientists discover "frogamander" fossil*

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The discovery of a "frogamander," a 290 million-year-old fossil that links modern frogs and salamanders, may resolve a longstanding debate about amphibian ancestry, Canadian scientists said on Wednesday.

Modern amphibians -- frogs, salamanders and earthworm-like caecilians -- have been a bit slippery about divulging their evolutionary ancestry. Gaps in the fossil record showing the transformation of one form into another have led to a lot of scientific debate.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN2134298920080521


----------



## Gabriel

What an awesome find


----------



## lotuseclat79

New family of gecko discovered
Article here.

Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Bell Museum of Natural History and Pennsylvania's Villanova University have discovered a new family of gecko, the charismatic large-eyed lizard popularized by car insurance commercials.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

"Phyllodactylidae", my new favorite word...Thanks Tom....


----------



## lotuseclat79

ekim68 said:


> "Phyllodactylidae", my new favorite word...Thanks Tom....


----------



## ekim68

*Microbes found living at record 1.6km below seabed*

OSLO (Reuters) - Microbes have been found living at a record depth of 1.6 km (a mile) beneath the Atlantic seabed in a hint that life might also evolve underground on other planets, scientists said on Thursday.

The discovery of prokaryotic microbes in searing hot sediments under the seabed off Newfoundland, Canada, doubles the previous depth record of 842 meters, according to experts in Wales and France writing in the journal Science.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL2273980520080522


----------



## ekim68

*Rare uncontacted tribe photographed in Amazon*

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Amazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.

The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2938303320080529


----------



## lotuseclat79

New Fossils Suggest Ancient Cat-sized Reptiles in Antarctica
Article here.

Cat-sized reptiles once roamed what is now the icebox of Antarctica, snuggling up in burrows and peeping above ground to snag plant roots and insects.









Restoration of the Early Triassic mammal-like reptile Thrinaxodon emerging from its Antarctic den. Credit: copyright, Jude Swales.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Group Touts 10 Wild New Species.

Thousands of new plant and animal species were discovered in 2007, though only 10 were bizarre enough, lethal enough or just plain cool enough to garner spots on a new Top-10 list.

Each year, the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) at Arizona State University issues the Top 10 New Species list, which spotlights flora and fauna described during the previous year, so in this case 2007.

The new list includes lethal animals like a box jellyfish (Malo kingi) - named after Robert King, who apparently died after he was stung by this species - and the Central Ranges Taipan (Oxyuranus temporalis), now thought to be one of the most venomous snakes in the world.









This shocking pink dragon millipede (Desmoxytes purpurosea) likely uses its gaudy coloration to warn would-be predators of its toxicity. Credit: IISE/ASU.









This stripe-faced fruit bat (Styloctenium mindorensis) is known only from the Philippine island of Mindoro, and is threatened by habitat loss and hunting. Credit: IISE/ASU.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*The Mystery of Mass Extinctions Is No Longer Murky*

_Ebb and flow of the sea is the primary cause of the world's mass extinctions over the past 500 million years_

If you are curious about Earth's periodic mass extinction events such as the sudden demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, you might consider crashing asteroids and sky-darkening super volcanoes as culprits.

But a new study, published June 15, 2008, in the journal Nature, suggests that it is the ocean, and in particular the epic ebbs and flows of sea level and sediment over the course of geologic time, that is the primary cause of the world's periodic mass extinctions over the past 500 million years.

http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=25688


----------



## ekim68

More on that Amazon tribe:

*Secret of the 'lost' tribe that wasn't*

They are the amazing pictures that were beamed around the globe: a handful of warriors from an 'undiscovered tribe' in the rainforest on the Brazilian-Peruvian border brandishing bows and arrows at the aircraft that photographed them.

Or so the story was told and sold. But it has now emerged that, far from being unknown, the tribe's existence has been noted since 1910 and the mission to photograph them was undertaken in order to prove that 'uncontacted' tribes still existed in an area endangered by the menace of the logging industry.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/21/amazon


----------



## ekim68

*Geologists push back date basins formed, supporting frozen Earth theory*

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Even in geology, it's not often a date gets revised by 500 million years.

But University of Florida geologists say they have found strong evidence that a half-dozen major basins in India were formed a billion or more years ago, making them at least 500 million years older than commonly thought. The findings appear to remove one of the major obstacles to the Snowball Earth theory that a frozen Earth was once entirely covered in snow and ice - and might even lend some weight to a controversial claim that complex life originated hundreds of million years earlier than most scientists currently believe.

"In modern geology, to revise the age of basins like this by 500 million years is pretty unique," says Joe Meert, a UF associate professor of geology.

Agreed Abhijit Basu, a professor of geological studies at Indiana University: "The required revision is enormous - 500 million years or about 11 percent of total Earth history."

http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=25865


----------



## lotuseclat79

Exotic Chameleon Spends Most of its Life as an Egg.

Scientists have discovered a chameleon species that spends a good two-thirds of its life inside an egg: Furcifer labordi lives about 8-9 months as an embryo, and has a post-hatching lifespan of just 4-5 months. As far as the scientists know, this strange life history is unique among all land vertebrates, and may help researchers better understand how certain ecological and hormonal factors influence life history evolution.









The Malagasy chameleon F. labordi has the shortest lifespan and most rapid growth rate of any known four-legged animal, and is also the only such species to spend the majority of its life as an egg. Credit: Chris Raxworthy, AMNH.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Fossil finds suggest an early origin for human speech*

It may be time to rethink the stereotype of grunting, wordless Neandertals. The prehistoric humans may have been quite chatty - at least if the ear canals of their ancestors are any indication.

The findings suggest human speech may have originated earlier than some researchers contend. Anthropologists disagree about whether language sprang up rapidly around 50,000 years ago or emerged more gradually over a longer period of time, says Rolf Quam, a paleoanthropologist at the American Natural History Museum in New York and coauthor of the new study.

The auditory bones of 530,000-year-old skulls indicate that an early human species called **** heidelbergensis may have heard sounds much the way people do today. H. heidelbergensis are thought to be an ancestor of Neandertals. The findings could reignite debate about whether Neandertals could speak, Quam and colleagues report. The study is the first to use a fossil to reconstruct sensory perception in any **** species, they add.

http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33933/title/Loud_and_clear


----------



## ekim68

*Tiny bug remains museum mystery*

LONDON, July 15 (UPI) -- A tiny, red-and-black bug in the Natural History Museum's gardens is a mystery to entomologists who've spent a year trying to find an exact match.

The bug, which is no bigger than a grain of rice, was first spotted in the museum's wildlife garden last summer and has now spread across southwest London, The Times of London reported Tuesday. Researchers have been unable to identify the bug.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2008/07/15/Tiny_bug_remains_museum_mystery/UPI-18211216180543/


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists discover 'world's first bird' that lived 235million years ago.

Palaeontologists have unveiled an extraordinary prehistoric 'flying' reptile which lived 235 million years ago.

The kuehneosaurs glided through the subtropical forests of Europe using scaly 'wings' that could carry it distances of more than 30ft.









The kuehneosaurs glided through forests 385million years ago

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

I've always wondered how many old fossils were archived long ago because they looked insignificant.


----------



## lotuseclat79

Saving the wild orchids of Borneo.

Borneo (Kalimantan) is the third largest island in the world. It is rich with a variety of indigenous orchid species that grow in the forests. Borneo's rain forests are also home to some extremely rare species of orchids, all highly valued for their exotic aromas and aesthetic beauty. It has been estimated that 2500 to 3000 orchid species grow in the forests of Borneo.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Thanks Tom..Once again human intervention continues....And, by 2010...That's pretty quick...:down:


----------



## lotuseclat79

Judge restores protection for Rockies wolves.

A federal judge has restored endangered species protections for gray wolves in the Northern Rockies, derailing plans by three states to hold public wolf hunts this fall.

I seem to recall in the recent news reports that the elk population in one of the National Parks has gone out of control because the wolf population was way down - I forget the reason.

We need the wolves to balance the prey population. Both populations need to be managed.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

ekim68 said:


> *Fossil finds suggest an early origin for human speech*
> 
> It may be time to rethink the stereotype of grunting, wordless Neandertals. The prehistoric humans may have been quite chatty  at least if the ear canals of their ancestors are any indication.
> 
> The findings suggest human speech may have originated earlier than some researchers contend. Anthropologists disagree about whether language sprang up rapidly around 50,000 years ago or emerged more gradually over a longer period of time, says Rolf Quam, a paleoanthropologist at the American Natural History Museum in New York and coauthor of the new study.
> 
> The auditory bones of 530,000-year-old skulls indicate that an early human species called **** heidelbergensis may have heard sounds much the way people do today. H. heidelbergensis are thought to be an ancestor of Neandertals. The findings could reignite debate about whether Neandertals could speak, Quam and colleagues report. The study is the first to use a fossil to reconstruct sensory perception in any **** species, they add.
> 
> http://sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/33933/title/Loud_and_clear


Hi ekim68,

The origin of human speech has a much more ancient heritage, it would seem:
From Humming Fish To Puccini: Vocal Communication Evolved With Ancient Species.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Scientists recover complete dinosaur skeleton*

Japanese and Mongolian scientists have successfully recovered the complete skeleton of a 70-million-year-old young dinosaur, a nature museum announced Thursday.

The scientists uncovered a Tarbosaurus - related to the giant carnivorous Tyrannosaurus - from a chunk of sandstone they dug up in August, 2006 in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, said Takuji Yokoyama, a spokesman for the Hayashibara Museum of Natural Sciences, a co-organizer of the joint research project.

"We were so lucky to have found remains that turned out to be a complete set of all the important parts," he said.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/07/24/international/i003325D13.DTL&tsp=1


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ultrasonic Frog Tunes Its Ears Like a Radio Dial. (2 web pages)

A Chinese frog that uses ultrasonic communication can tune its ears like a radio dial to block out lower pitched background noise, a new study finds.









The concave-eared torrent frog is the only animal known to actively select which frequencies it hears but opening and closing parts of its ears, new research reports.

Scientists think the frog's unusual ears and ultrasonic calls are adaptations to its noisy streamside environment.

-- Tom Tre Cool!   

P.S. I wonder if this ability has overlap with how we can filter out our name being mentioned across the room at a party room full of guests talking away?


----------



## lotuseclat79

Skull of Large Extinct Primate Reconstructed.

An extinct giant lemur has just gotten a high-tech makeover.









The skull of Hadropithecus was fit together from original fossils discovered in 1899 (white portions), fragments dug up in 2003 (red), and the rest by making a mirror image from the opposite side of this skull (shown in blue). The gray section was reconstructed with wax from a 3-D print. Credit: Timothy Ryan, Penn State University.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*World's smallest snake is as thin as spaghetti*

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Scientists have identified the world's smallest snake -- a reptile about 4 inches long and as thin as spaghetti that was found lurking under a rock on the Caribbean island of Barbados.

The new species, named Leptotyphlops carlae, is smaller than any of the other 3,100 previously known snake species, according to Pennsylvania State University biologist Blair Hedges, who also had helped find the world's smallest frog and lizard.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0151253520080803


----------



## Gabriel

Chicken bone debate

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080728-polynesia-chicken.html

Neanderthal DNA sequence project

http://www.nature.com/nature/videoarchive/neanderthaldna/index.html


----------



## Gabriel

Another mummyforus 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20080804/sc_livescience/greekmummyfoundinleadcoffin


----------



## lotuseclat79

Lost world frozen 14m years ago found in Antarctica.

A lost world has been found in Antarctica, preserved just the way it was when it was frozen in time some 14 million years ago.

The fossils of plants and animals high in the mountains is an extremely rare find in the continent, one that also gives a glimpse of a what could be there in a century or two as the planet warms.









Mt Boreas in the western Olympus Range, Dry Valleys (left) and moss mat (right),
the Dry Valleys climate prevented decomposition

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Amazing Gorilla Find In The Congo.

Researchers have found what they Gorillasare labeling the 'mother load' of western lowland gorillas in the Republic of Congo. The gorillas have been found in an isolated forest known by researchers and scientists alike as the "Green Abyss" because the forest is nearly impossible to navigate on foot because of all the swamps...

120,000 gorillas!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

US scientists find stone age burial ground in Sahara

A US-led team of archaeologists said Thursday they had discovered by chance what is believed to be the largest find of Stone Age-era remains ever uncovered in the Sahara Desert.

Wow! A treasue trove of green Sahara fossils!

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26208873/

Portal to Mythical Mayan Underworld Found-maze of stone temples in underground caves


----------



## ekim68

*Little robin from Gabon is world's newest species*

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A red-breasted bird discovered by accident in the forests of Gabon is a new species, U.S. scientists said on Friday.

They have named the little bird the olive-backed forest robin, or Stiphrornis pyrrholaemus, but say they know little about it yet.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSN1540423420080815


----------



## Gabriel

Sad and Beautiful

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20080817/SCI.Green.Sahara/

Also see
http://www.projectexploration.org/greensahara/


----------



## lotuseclat79

DNA Reveals New Species Of 1000 Pound Goliath Grouper, E. Quinquefasciatus.

Researchers from the University of Hawaii, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, National Marine Fisheries Service and Projecto Meros do Brazil discovered a new species of fish; a grouper that reaches more than six feet in length and can weigh nearly 1,000 pounds. This newly discovered species can be found roaming the tropical reefs of the Eastern Pacific Ocean.

Was the massive fish hiding among the corals and sea grass to evade marine biologists? No, it was just a case of mistaken identity, as explained in a recent genetic study in the journal Endangered Species Research.

It turns out that goliath in the Atlantic which inhabit the tropical waters of the Americas and western Africa are not the same groupers that swim in Pacific waters, even though they look identical.









A new genetic study by the University of Hawaii, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and others has found that there are two species of goliath grouper instead of one. Credit: Rachel Graham/Wildlife Conservation Society

-- Tom

P.S. That's some big fish!


----------



## lotuseclat79

Saber-toothed Cat Fossils Discovered in Venezuela.

An ancient tar pit exposed when Venezuelan oil workers laid a pipeline has yielded a rich trove of fossils, including a type of saber-toothed cat that paleontologists had never found before in South America. Scientists say the find holds the promise of many discoveries to come.

The fossils are 1.8 million years old and include skulls and jawbones of six scimitar-toothed cats - a variety of saber-toothed cat with shorter, narrower canine teeth than other species.









An ancient tar pit has yielded a rich trove of fossils, including those from a type of saber-toothed cat (shown) that paleontologists never found in South America before. Credit: AP Photo/Ascanio Rincon.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Pre-Incan female Wari mummy unearthed in Peru*

LIMA (Reuters) - Archeologists working at Peru's Huaca Pucllana ruins pulled a mummy from a tomb on Tuesday, thought to be from the ancient Wari culture that flourished before the Incas.

Besides the female mummy, the tomb contained the remains of two other adults and a child. It is the first intact Wari burial site discovered at Huaca Pucllana in the capital Lima, and researchers believe it dates from about 700 AD.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSN2636587520080826


----------



## lotuseclat79

New giant clam species offers window into human past.

Researchers report the discovery of the first new living species of giant clam in two decades, according to a report to be published online on August 28th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. While fossil evidence reveals that the new species, called Tridacna costata, once accounted for more than 80 percent of giant clams in the Red Sea, it now represents less than one percent of giant clams living there.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New parasitic wasp discovered in Ireland.

A new species of a parasitic wasp with a grisly life cycle that involves laying its eggs inside flies has been found in Ireland, Galway University said on Thursday.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Two African 'Lost Tribes' Discovered Deep in the Sahara.

The two tribes lived there in a plum lakeside community when the Sahara Desert, as we know it, was a lush, green country, but were separated by effects of climate change over a time line of 1,000 years.

The lost tribes were the Kiffian and Tenerian tribes, thought to have lived in the Sahara between 10,000 and 5,000 years ago and among their remains are bone harpoons, earthen pots, among other artifacts.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Lost World' Beneath The Caribbean.









Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes and find out what lives in a 'lost world' five kilometres beneath the Caribbean.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Greece unearths treasures at Alexander's birthplace*

ATHENS (Reuters) - Archaeologists have unearthed gold jewellery, weapons and pottery at an ancient burial site near Pella in northern Greece, the birthplace of Alexander the Great, the culture ministry said on Thursday.

The excavations at the vast cemetery uncovered 43 graves dating from 650-279 BC which shed light on the early development of the Macedonian kingdom, which had an empire that stretched as far as India under Alexander's conquests.

Among the most interesting discoveries were the graves of 20 warriors dating to the late Archaic period, between 580 and 460 BC, the ministry said in a statement.

Some were buried in bronze helmets alongside iron swords and knives. Their eyes, mouths and chests were covered in gold foil richly decorated with drawings of lions and other animals symbolizing royal power.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSLB8540920080911


----------



## ekim68

* Ancient trees recorded in mines*

_Spectacular fossil forests have been found in the coal mines of Illinois by a US-UK team of researchers._

The group reported one discovery last year, but has since identified a further five examples.

The ancient vegetation - now turned to rock - is visible in the ceilings of mines covering thousands of hectares.

These were among the first forests to evolve on the planet, Dr Howard Falcon-Lang told the British Association Science Festival in Liverpool.

"These are the largest fossil forests found anywhere in the world at any point in geological time," he told reporters.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7604721.stm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists Puzzled by New Bird Species Discovered in Africa.

Just over a month since the Smithsonian Institution announced the discovery of new bird species in Africa, little is still known about the olive-backed forest robin named for its distinctive olive back and rump.

Scientists are trying to unravel the little bird's specific diet, mating and nesting habits, and the species' complete habitat range, but the dense undergrowth of tropical forest where it was sighted may still offer further surprises.

Adult members of the robins - both male and female - measure just about 4.5 inches in length and average 18 grams in weight.









Males exhibit a fiery orange throat and breast, yellow belly, olive back and black feathers on the head. Females are similar, but less vibrant. Both sexes have a distinctive white dot on their face in front of each eye.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

World's 'rarest tree frog' found.

An extremely rare female frog has been spotted for the first time in 20 years.

The tiny tree frog, Isthmohyla rivularis, was seen in Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve.

This species was thought to have become extinct two decades ago, but last year a University of Manchester researcher caught a glimpse of a male.

Note: There are two inline embedded videos, one each of a female and a male frog.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Australian researchers discover elusive frog.

A tiny frog species thought by many experts to be extinct has been rediscovered alive and well in a remote area of Australia's tropical north, researchers said Thursday.









In this photo released by James Cook University, an armoured mistfrog is recently discovered in far north Queensland in this July 12, 2008 photo. The creatures had not been seen since 1991 and were thought to have been wiped out by a fungus. (AP Photo/James Cook University, Robert Puschendorf)

-- Tom

P.S. Another rediscovered frog species thought to be extinct! :up:


----------



## Gabriel

More Carboniferous rainforests found

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/8...-new-valuable-deposit-fossilized-rainforests/


----------



## lotuseclat79

Million-year-old camel bone unearthed in Syria.

Scientists have unearthed a camel jawbone in the Syrian desert that they think may be a previously unknown tiny species of the animal and say dates back a million years.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New ant species discovered in the Amazon likely represents oldest living lineage of ants.

A new species of blind, subterranean, predatory ant discovered in the Amazon rainforest by University of Texas at Austin evolutionary biologist Christian Rabeling is likely a descendant of the very first ants to evolve.









This new species of blind, subterranean, predatory ant, Martialis heureka, was discovered in the Amazon by Christian Rabeling at the University of Texas at Austin. It belongs to the first new subfamily of living ants discovered since 1923, and is a descendant of one of the first ant lineages to evolve over 120 million years ago. Credit: Christian Rabeling, the University of Texas at Austin

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

That is an AWESOME ant article, Lotus....I would love to help do the studies on a species like this:up:


----------



## lotuseclat79

Gabriel said:


> That is an AWESOME ant article, Lotus....I would love to help do the studies on a species like this:up:


Hi Gabriel,

Here is another article on the same find:
Scientists discover 120 million year-old ant.

German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe is the oldest on the planet, dating back around 120 million years.









A new species of Martialis heureka, a blind, subterranean, predatory ant, in an undated photo. German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe is the oldest on the planet, dating back around 120 million years. REUTERS/Microscopic photo by C. Rabeling & M. Verhaagh/National Academy of Sciences/Handout









A Martialis heureka worker foraging in a subterranean tunnel in a drawing depicting the ant in its assumed natural habitat as inferred from its morphology. German biologists have discovered a new species of ant they believe is the oldest on the planet, dating back around 120 million years. REUTERS/Illustration by Barrett A. Klein/National Academy of Sciences/Handout

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Wow, good find Tom...:up:


----------



## lotuseclat79

Fish glowing red.

Plenty of reef creatures fluoresce red, even where seawater absorbs red sunlight









A triplefin reef fish fluoresces red as patches on its body absorb blue wavelengths of light and release the energy as a red glow. The effect gets swamped when viewed in full-spectrum light (inset)









RED FIN AND ALLA wrasse fish appears one color under full natural lighting (top) but is red when seen through a filter that blocks everything but the red fluorescence (bottom).Michiels et al. BMC Ecology

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists name 100 new shark and ray species.

Scientists using DNA have catalogued and described 100 new species of sharks and rays in Australian waters, which they said on Thursday would help conservation of the marine animals and aid in climate change monitoring.

More than 90 of the newly named species were identified by scientists in a 1994 book "Sharks and Rays of Australia" but remained scientifically undescribed.

One rare species of carpet shark catalogued was found in the belly of another shark.

The new names and descriptions will now feature in a revised 2009 edition of the book by Australia's peak scientific body.









The Maugean Skate Zearaja maugeana, a new species from Bathurst and Macquarie Harbours in Tasmania is seen in this handout photo released by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation CSIRO on September 18, 2008.
(CSIRO/Handout/Reuters)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists discover a new Pacific iguana

And more clues to a longtime mystery

A new iguana has been discovered in the central regions of Fiji. The colorful new species, named Brachylophus bulabula, joins only two other living Pacific iguana species, one of which is critically endangered. The scientific name bulabula is a doubling of bula, the Fijian word for 'hello,' offering an even more enthusiastic greeting.

-- Tom

P.S. ekim68 - if you are reading this - your new most favorite word is bulabula!


----------



## ekim68

You got that right Tom....It's on the list.....Bulabula;.....................

(BTW, you should've seen my spellcheck when I sent that on...)


----------



## Gabriel

Neolithic Mystery

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/22/cucuteni-neolithic-art.html?dcitc=w01-101-ae-0002


----------



## lotuseclat79

Extinct tortoise 'can live again'.

An extinct Galapagos tortoise species could walk again, scientists believe.

Writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report finding relatives of Geochelone elephantopus alive and well.

-- Tom :up: :up:


----------



## Gabriel

Who'da thunk?...........................................................................................................................................
Or is that drunk?

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/09/23/ancient-yeast-beer.html?dcitc=w01-101-ae-0002


----------



## Gabriel

Awesome tortoise find, Lotus


----------



## lotuseclat79

America's smallest dinosaur uncovered.

Tiny Dino Fed on Termites









Besides ripping into trees for termites, this dinosaur likely ran through the forests on its two slender legs. Credit: Nick Longrich.









This tiny dinosaur likely used its giant hand claws to tear through wood in search of tasty termites. Credit: Nick Longrich.

An unusual breed of dinosaur that was the size of a chicken, ran on two legs and scoured the ancient forest floor for termites is the smallest dinosaur species found in North America, according to a University of Calgary researcher who analyzed bones found during the excavation of an ancient bone bed near Red Deer, Alberta.

"These are bizarre animals. They have long and slender legs, stumpy arms with huge claws and tweezer-like jaws. They look like an animal created by Dr. Seuss," said Nick Longrich, a paleontology research associate in the Department of Biological Sciences. "This appears to be the smallest dinosaur yet discovered in North America."

Called Albertonykus borealis, the slender bird-like creature is a new member of the family Alvarezsauridae and is one of only a few such fossils found outside of South America and Asia. In a paper published in the current issue of the journal Cretaceous Research, Longrich and University of Alberta paleontologist Philip Currie describe the specimen and explain how it it likely specialized in consuming termites by using its small but powerful forelimbs to tear into logs.

"Proportionately, the forelimbs are shorter than in a Tyrannosaurus but they are powerfully-built, so they seem to have served a purpose," Longrich said. "They are built for digging but too short to burrow, so we think they may have been used to rip open log in search of insects."

Smallest does not mean cute! I wonder if it tasted like chicken? 

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New life found in ancient tombs.

Life has been discovered in the barren depths of Rome's ancient tombs, proving catacombs are not just a resting place for the dead. The two new species of bacteria found growing on the walls of the Roman tombs may help protect our cultural heritage monuments, according to research published in the September issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Egypt unearths granite head of Ramses II*

CAIRO, Egypt -- Egypt's antiquities council says that archaeologists have unearthed a 3,000-year-old red granite head believed to portray the 19th Dynasty pharaoh Ramses II.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501ap_ml_egypt_antiquities.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

Prehistoric Giant Goose Skull Found.

Scientists have found a new huge and well-preserved fossil of a goose and duck relative that swam around what is now England 50 million years ago flashing sharp, toothy smiles.

The skull, discovered on the Isle of Sheppey off the southeast coast of England in the Thames Estuary, belonged to a huge ancient bird in the extinct genus Dasornis, which had a whopping 16-foot (5-meter) wingspan.









An artist's conception of an ancient giant pseudo-toothed bird, or pelagornithid. Credit: Ludger Bollen, from "Der Flug des Archaeopteryx", Quelle+Meyer Vlg









The skull of Dasornis, showing the fossil specimen and a reconstruction of the complete skull. Credit: Fred Clouter

-- Tom

P.S. Now, we have Canadian geese who've settled in New England and deposit their doo all year round soiling the area - imagine what the size of giant geese doo would have been back in prehistoric days - probably hardy enough for the cave men to use as fuel to burn at night, eh? Probably big enough to kill ya outright from the sky!


----------



## lotuseclat79

The Dinosaurs' Dancefloor.

Imagine a wall with more than 5,000 dinosaur tracks. In 1994, while walking around a cement factory in southern Bolivia, Klaus Schütt discovered a limestone wall with a shear size of 25'000 square meters literally covered by dinosaur tracks.










-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Oldest Known Rock on Earth Discovered*

Canadian bedrock more than 4 billion years old may be the oldest known section of the Earth's early crust.

Scientists at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and McGill University in Montreal used geochemical methods to obtain an age of 4.28 billion years for samples of the rock, making it 250 million years more ancient than any previously discovered rocks.

http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=26550


----------



## lotuseclat79

Catastrophe Killed Dinosaur Herd, New Species Emerges.

A catastrophic event 72.5 million years ago left a herd of giant, horned dinosaurs buried to become fossils. Now scientists have identified the extinct creatures as a new species.

The fossils, found in Northwest Alberta, Canada, revealed a herd of so-called ceratopsian dinosaurs that perished together. The animals are characterized by a bony frill on the back of the skull ornamented with smaller horns.

Parts of at least 27 individual animals were recovered at the site.

These dinosaurs also had large bony structures above their nose and eyes, which lends them their name: Pachyrhinosaurus (thick-nosed lizard). These structures probably supported horns of keratin, said researcher Philip Currie, Canada research chair of dinosaur paleobiology at the University of Alberta, who was involved in the excavations.

The new species of Pachyrhinosaurus is closely related to Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis, which is known from younger rocks near Drumheller and Lethbridge in southern Alberta, Currie said. The newfound species is a smaller animal with many differences in the ornamental spikes and bumps on the skull.









A 3-D computer rendering of the skeleton of Pachyrhinosaur lakustai. Credit: Pipestone Creek Dinosaur Project

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Deepest ever' living fish filmed.

*The "deepest ever" living fish have been discovered, scientists believe.*

A UK-Japan team found the 17-strong shoal at depths of 7.7km (4.8 miles) in the Japan Trench in the Pacific - and captured the deep sea animals on film.

The scientists have been using remote-operated landers designed to withstand immense pressures to comb the world's deepest depths for marine life.

Monty Priede from the University of Aberdeen said the 30cm-long (12in), deep-sea fish were surprisingly "cute".

The researchers said they were surprised by the fish's behaviour.

"We certainly thought, deep down, fish would be relatively inactive, saving energy as much as possible, and so on," Professor Priede told BBC News.

"But when you see the video, the fish are rushing around, feeding accurately, snapping at prey coming past."

Because the fish live in complete darkness, they use vibration receptors on their snouts to navigate the ocean depths and to locate food.









Pseudoliparis amblystomopsis (Oceanlab): The fish were surprisingly active

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Details Of Evolutionary Transition From Fish To Land Animals Revealed*

ScienceDaily (Oct. 15, 2008) - New research has provided the first detailed look at the internal head skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae, the 375-million-year-old fossil animal that represents an important intermediate step in the evolutionary transition from fish to animals that walked on land.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/10/081015144123.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Fossil Find May Document Largest Snake - New Species.

*The ancient bonecrusher likely weighed more than a ton*

Rocks beneath a coal mine in Colombia have yielded fossils of what could be the world's largest snake, a relative of today's boa constrictor that was12.8 meters long and weighed more than a ton.

Few of today's snakes exceed 9 meters in length, says Jonathan Bloch, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Some of the snakes that lived about 60 million years ago, however, would have dwarfed their modern kin, he reported Wednesday in Cleveland at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

At a site in northern Colombia, Bloch and his colleagues unearthed the partial remains of an ancient snake. Each of the dozen or so vertebrae in that body segment measured about 10 centimeters across. That's about twice the width of the largest vertebra taken from a 6-meter-long, modern-day anaconda, another modern relative, Bloch notes.

None of the ribs included in the fossil are complete, but the size and curvature of the fragments that remain indicate that the snake "would have had trouble fitting though the door into your office," he adds. The gargantuan fossils represent an as yet unnamed species.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

One of those 'double-posts' that JW doesn't seem to get, eh, Tom? 
But, as an aside, I'm glad that these 2,000 pound snakes aren't around now...Scary..


----------



## lotuseclat79

World's Longest Insect Discovered.

A recently identified stick insect, from the island of Borneo, almost the length of a human arm, is the world's longest insect. A specimen can be seen at the Natural History Museum's "Creepy Crawlies" gallery.









A giant stick insect named Phobaeticus chani, meaning "Chan's megastick".

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

A more fearsome saber-toothed cat.

*Fossils suggest creature's bite was devastating*

This would be a third type of saber-toothed cat, ranging from northern South America to the South-west of North America and in-between. I did not know that the other types of saber-toothed cats (including this one) had serrated teeth! Yikes! 

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Geologists discover 'dinosaur dance floor'*

SALT LAKE CITY - Geologists say they have discovered prehistoric animal tracks so densely packed on a 3/4-acre site that they're calling it a "dinosaur dance floor."

The site along the Arizona-Utah state line offers a rich new set of clues about the lives of dinosaurs 190 million years ago.

Back then, large stretches of the West were a Sahara-like desert. More than 1,000 tracks were found in what would have been a watery oasis nestled among towering, wind-whipped sand dunes.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/scienc...1-dino-dance-floor_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip


----------



## lotuseclat79

Weird dino rewrites the book on birds.

A tiny, egg-robbing dinosaur that lived more than 150 million years ago could help explain a key phase in the evolution of birds, scientists reported on Wednesday.

In unusual language for a high-brow journal, Chinese palaeontologists admit the wee dino was, frankly, "bizarre".

The beast was a distant relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex but was no bigger than a kitten. And it was covered in feathers but couldn't fly.

The creature lived between 152 and 168 million years ago, according to analysis of its fossil, found in Daohugou in Inner Mongolia, northern China.

Dubbed Epidexipteryx hui, the mini-dino was a two-footed predator, known as a therapod, that lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic era between 152 and 168 million years ago.

It probably weighed no more than 164 grammes, or just over five ounces, and fed opportunistically on eggs it found or stole, according to the paper, which appears in the British weekly journal Nature.

E. hui lived shortly before the famous Archaeopteryx, which arrived on the scene around 150 million years ago and is generally considered to be the first bird.

-- Tom


----------



## iltos

lotuseclat79 said:


> Weird dino rewrites the book on birds.
> 
> A tiny, egg-robbing dinosaur that lived more than 150 million years ago could help explain a key phase in the evolution of birds, scientists reported on Wednesday.
> 
> In unusual language for a high-brow journal, Chinese palaeontologists admit the wee dino was, frankly, "bizarre".
> 
> The beast was a distant relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex but was no bigger than a kitten. And it was covered in feathers but couldn't fly.
> 
> The creature lived between 152 and 168 million years ago, according to analysis of its fossil, found in Daohugou in Inner Mongolia, northern China.
> 
> Dubbed Epidexipteryx hui, the mini-dino was a two-footed predator, known as a therapod, that lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic era between 152 and 168 million years ago.
> 
> It probably weighed no more than 164 grammes, or just over five ounces, and fed opportunistically on eggs it found or stole, according to the paper, which appears in the British weekly journal Nature.
> 
> E. hui lived shortly before the famous Archaeopteryx, which arrived on the scene around 150 million years ago and is generally considered to be the first bird.
> 
> -- Tom


interesting, tom :up:
i wonder what the evolutionary advantage was of feathers, without flight...i suppose gliding, maybe hunting in or fleeing to water.....


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists Discover the Grandad of Modern Dogs.



> For hundreds of years they've been considered man's best friend. Now scientists have discovered remains 31,000 years old - twice as old as those previously found.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A Siberian husky, thought to most resemble the Paleolithic dogs of our forefathers
> 
> Analysis of the animals' bones found that the earliest dogs consumed horse, musk ox and reindeer, but not fish or seafood. Since the European Aurignacian people are believed to have hunted big game and fished at different times of the year, the researchers think the dogs might have enjoyed meaty handouts during certain seasons.
> 
> DNA studies showed that the canids carried 'a substantial amount of genetic diversity,' suggesting that past wolf populations were much larger than they are today.
> 
> Germonpré speculated that dog domestication began when the prehistoric hunters killed a female wolf and then brought home her pups. Recent studies on silver foxes suggest that when the most docile pups are kept and cared for, it takes just 10 generations of breeding for morphological changes to take effect.
> 
> 'I think it is possible that the dogs were used for tracking, hunting, and transport of game,' she said.
> 
> 'Transport could have been organized using the dogs as pack animals. Furthermore, the dogs could have been kept for their fur or meat, as pets, or as an animal with ritual connotation.'


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

iltos said:


> interesting, tom :up:
> i wonder what the evolutionary advantage was of feathers, without flight...i suppose gliding, maybe hunting in or fleeing to water.....


Hi iltos,

Well, let's see, feathers must have at first been a mutation, and the question is due to what environmental forces motivating the adaptation - a competing species for food sources maybe? One use could have been for camouflage, another as you suggest for gliding, possibly mating, and I somewhat doubt hunting, but fleeing is always a good one to guarantee another day of foraging which it looks like these critters did during their waking hours.

-- Tom


----------



## iltos

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi iltos,
> 
> Well, let's see, feathers must have at first been a mutation, and the question is due to what environmental forces motivating the adaptation - a competing species for food sources maybe? One use could have been for camouflage, another as you suggest for gliding, possibly mating, and I somewhat doubt hunting, but fleeing is always a good one to guarantee another day of foraging which it looks like these critters did during their waking hours.
> 
> -- Tom


mating is ALWAYS a good one..... :up:
there's lots of showmanship possible with feathers


----------



## Gabriel

iltos said:


> mating is ALWAYS a good one..... :up:
> there's lots of showmanship possible with feathers


Wiki seems to lean toward combined reasons for the adaptations. (Also an awesome page for the illustrious feather chart by an early artist)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feather


----------



## lotuseclat79

Heterodontosaurus - Tiny Two Inch Dinosaur Has Big Insight Into Evolution Of Plant Eaters.



> One of the smallest dinosaur skulls ever discovered has been identified and described by a team of scientists from London, Cambridge and Chicago. The skull would have been only 45 millimeters (less than two inches) in length. It belonged to a very young Heterodontosaurus, an early dinosaur. This juvenile weighed about 200 grams, less than two sticks of butter.
> 
> In the Fall issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the researchers describe important findings from this skull that suggest how and when the ornithischians, the family of herbivorous dinosaurs that includes Heterodontosaurus, made the transition from eating meat to eating plants.
> 
> "It's likely that all dinosaurs evolved from carnivorous ancestors," said study co-author Laura Porro, a post-doctoral student at the University of Chicago. "Since heterodontosaurs are among the earliest dinosaurs adapted to eating plants, they may represent a transition phase between meat-eating ancestors and more sophisticated, fully-herbivorous descendents."
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The teeth suggest Heterodontosaurus practiced occasional omnivory: the canines were used for defense or for adding small animals such as insects to a diet composed mainly of plants. Credit: Natural History Museum
> 
> "This juvenile skull," she added, "indicates that these dinosaurs were still in the midst of that transition."
> 
> Heterodontosaurus lived during the Early Jurassic period (about 190 million years ago) of South Africa. Adult Heterodontosaurs were turkey-sized animals, reaching just over three feet in length and weighing around five to six pounds.


-- Tom


----------



## iltos

Gabriel said:


> Wiki seems to lean toward combined reasons for the adaptations. (Also an awesome page for the illustrious feather chart by an early artist)
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feather


good article, gabriel...thanks :up:


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Sea Predators Shed Skin Secrets.



> Predatory reptiles called ichthyosaurs cruised the oceans between 230 million and 90 million years ago. In a classic case of convergent evolution, their body and fin shapes resembled those of today's dolphins, tunas, and great white sharks-the fastest swimmers in the sea.
> 
> A new study shows that the convergence even extended to the molecular composition of the animals' skin.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Illustration of Ichthyosaurs. Credit: Theagarten Lingham-Soliar
> 
> The ichthyosaur fibers were probably collagen, too, but proving it isn't easy: scientists usually identify fossilized molecules chemically, a tricky, destructive procedure requiring large samples.
> 
> Fortunately, two biologists found a way around the problem. Knowing that collagen molecules pack themselves in bands separated by about three-millionths of an inch, Theagarten Lingham-Soliar and James Wesley-Smith of the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa, examined a small sample of fossilized ichthyosaur skin with a scanning electron microscope. Sure enough, they found bands with just the right spacing.
> 
> The pair thinks electron microscopy could solve other questions about ancient soft tissue, such as the contentious nature of "proto-feathers" in some Chinese dinosaur fossils, which may turn out to be nothing more than degraded collagen fibers.


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Hawaiian Cave Reveals Ancient Secrets.









The Makauwahi Cave in Hawaii may be the richest fossil site in the entire Pacific Island region, loaded with bird and fish bones and ancient Polynesian artifacts. Credit: Alec Burney

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Rare, prehistoric-age reptile found in New Zealand.



> A rare reptile with lineage dating back to the dinosaur age has been found nesting on the New Zealand mainland for the first time in about 200 years, officials said Friday.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In this undated photo supplied by the Karori Sanctuary, an adult tuatara lizard is seen basking on a tree stump at the Karori Sanctuary in Wellington, New Zealand. Conservation staff at Wellington's Karori Sanctuary have found what is almost certainly the first confirmed tuatara nest on mainland New Zealand in over 200 years. The discovery came during routine maintenance work near the Sanctuary's unique mammal-proof fence, when staff uncovered the four ping-pong ball sized leathery white eggs.(AP Photo/Karori Sanctuary)
> 
> Four leathery, white eggs from an indigenous tuatara were found by staff at the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in the capital, Wellington, during routine maintenance work Friday, conservation manager Rouen Epson said.
> 
> "The nest was uncovered by accident and is the first concrete proof we have that our tuatara are breeding," Epson said. "It suggests that there may be other nests in the sanctuary we don't know of."
> 
> Tuatara, dragon-like reptiles that grow to up to 32 inches, are the last descendants of a species that walked the earth with the dinosaurs 225 million years ago, zoologists say.
> 
> They have unique characteristics, such as two rows of top teeth closing over one row at the bottom. They also have a pronounced parietal eye, a light-sensitive pineal gland on the top of the skull. This white patch of skin - called its "third eye" - slowly disappears as they mature.
> 
> A native species to New Zealand, tuatara were nearly extinct on the country's three main islands by the late 1700s due to the introduction of predators such as rats. They still live in the wild on 32 small offshore islands cleared of predators.
> ...


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

French scientists discover new species of gecko.

*French scientists say they hatched a new gecko species from an egg plucked from its nest in a South Pacific island and carried it 12,000 miles to Paris in a box lined with Kleenex.*









French scientist Ivan Ineich displays a never-before-seen species of gecko, baptised with the latin name Lepidodactylus buleli, at France's Natural History Museum in Paris, Friday, Nov. 7 , 2008. This gecko was born in Paris from an egg that was plucked from the canopy of forest on the west coast of Espiritu Santo, one of the larger South Pacific islands of the archipellago of Vanuatu, east of Australia. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

_Egypt says has found pyramid built for ancient queen_

SAQQARA, Egypt (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a pyramid buried in the desert and thought to belong to the mother of a pharaoh who ruled more than 4,000 years ago, Egypt's antiquities chief said on Tuesday.

The pyramid, found about two months ago in the sand south of Cairo, probably housed the remains of Queen Sesheshet, the mother of King Teti, who ruled from 2323 to 2291 BC and founded Egypt's Sixth Dynasty, Zahi Hawass told reporters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4AA3ID20081111


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## Gabriel

Beyond awesome find.
12,000 year old shawoman.....Isreal
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081111/wl_time/12000yearoldshamanunearthedinisrael


----------



## lotuseclat79

Two new 'flying lemur' species identified

*Genetics reveal that one species of the acrobatic primate is really three*









A Malayan colugo glides between trees with a baby hanging on. Norman Lim / National University of Singapore

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Here is a great link to how, when and why speciation occurs, and he different modes.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evosite/evo101/VSpeciation.shtml


----------



## ekim68

*Gobekli Tepe: The World's First Temple?*

Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple.

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html


----------



## ekim68

*Found: An Ancient Monument to the Soul *

In a mountainous kingdom in what is now southeastern Turkey, there lived in the eighth century B.C. a royal official, Kuttamuwa, who oversaw the completion of an inscribed stone monument, or stele, to be erected upon his death. The words instructed mourners to commemorate his life and afterlife with feasts "for my soul that is in this stele."

University of Chicago archaeologists who made the discovery last summer in ruins of a walled city near the Syrian border said the stele provided the first written evidence that the people in this region held to the religious concept of the soul apart from the body. By contrast, Semitic contemporaries, including the Israelites, believed that the body and soul were inseparable, which for them made cremation unthinkable, as noted in the Bible.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/18/science/18soul.html?_r=1


----------



## lotuseclat79

Researchers stumble upon new penguin species.

*Researchers have stumbled upon the remains of a previously unknown species of penguin that pre-dates the Polynesian settlement of New Zealand nearly half a century ago.*

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Scientists say Copernicus' remains, grave found*

Researchers said Thursday they have identified the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus by comparing DNA from a skeleton and hair retrieved from one of the 16th-century astronomer's books. The findings could put an end to centuries of speculation about the exact resting spot of Copernicus, a priest and astronomer whose theories identified the Sun, not the Earth, as the center of the universe.

Polish archaeologist Jerzy Gassowski told a news conference that forensic facial reconstruction of the skull, missing the lower jaw, his team found in 2005 buried in a Roman Catholic Cathedral in Frombork, Poland, bears striking resemblance to existing portraits of Copernicus.

http://forums.techguy.org/random-discussion/502219-lost-worlds-new-species-found-32.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Missing link' turtle was swimming with dinosaurs.

*A previously unknown species of primitive turtle made the move from land to water 164 million years ago, fossils found on the Isle of Skye indicate.*









Terrapin hot-spot

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Grape' is key to fossil puzzle.

*A single-celled ball about the size of a grape may provide an explanation for one of the mysteries of fossil history.*









The protist is similar to a grape in size and shape

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New dolphin species revealed by genetic test.



> A new, third species of bottlenose dolphin has been discovered in the waters off southern Australia. It is only the second new dolphin to be discovered in 50 years.
> 
> Luciana Möller of the Marine Mammal Research Group at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and her colleagues were studying populations of what they thought were Indo-Pacific and common bottlenoses in southern waters.
> 
> DNA analysis, though, revealed that most the animals living close to the shores of the states of Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania were in fact a new species, belonging to a new genus. "They look very like the Indo-Pacific species, but genetically they're very different," says Möller.
> 
> The team has called the new species the Southern Australian bottlenose. It is awaiting a scientific name after a formal description.
> ...











The Southern Australian bottlenose dolphin is only the second new dolphin to be discovered in 50 years (Image: Macquarie University)

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Ancient insect imprint found in Massachusetts*

NORTH ATTLEBORO, Massachusetts (Reuters) - U.S. researchers say they have discovered what appears to be the oldest imprint of a prehistoric insect, made while the dragonfly-like creature was still alive.

The imprint found at a rocky outcrop near a large shopping center in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, is believed to have been made by an insect about three inches long as it stood on mud some 312 million years ago.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE4B17CY20081202


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient city discovered deep in Amazonian rainforest linked to the legendary white-skinned Cloud People of Peru.

*A lost city discovered deep in the Amazon rainforest could unlock the secrets of a legendary tribe.

Little is known about the Cloud People of Peru, an ancient, white-skinned civilisation wiped out by disease and war in the 16th century.

But now archaeologists have uncovered a fortified citadel in a remote mountainous area of Peru known for its isolated natural beauty.*



> An ancient Chachapoyas village located close to the area where the lost city was found
> 
> The tribe had white skin and blonde hair - features which intrigue historians, as there is no known European ancestry in the region, where most inhabitants are darker skinned.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> The Chachapoyas, also called the Warriors of the Clouds, were an Andean people living in the cloud forests of the Amazonian region of present-day Peru
> 
> Named because they lived in rainforests filled with cloud-like mist, the tribe later sided with the Spanish-colonialists to defeat the Incas.
> 
> But they were killed by epidemics of European diseases, such as measles and smallpox.


-- Tom


----------



## Mumbodog

Thousands of New Species Discovered on Tiny Island

"An expedition to a tiny island in the South Pacific's Republic of Vanatu has yielded hundreds of new species, including possibly 1000 new species of crab."

"Out of over 10,000 species collected, the researchers are predicting that as many as 2000 may be previously unknown to the scientific community."

http://scienceblogs.com/zooillogix/2008/12/thousands_of_new_species_disco.php


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Flying Reptile Bigger Than a Car.

*A fossil of a toothless flying pterosaur, with a body bigger than some family cars, represents the largest of these extinct reptiles ever to be found and has forced the creation of a new genus, scientists announced today (Dec 4, 2008).*









A visitor looks at a reconstructed biological model of a 'Quetzalcoatlus northropi' at the 'Pterosaurs; Rulers of the Skies in the Age of Dinosaurs' exhibition at The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, in this June 28, 2008 file photo. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Isopora or isn't it? Mistaken identity leads researchers to two new extinct species of coral.

*What began as an homage to achievement in the field of coral reef geology has evolved into the discovery of an unexpected link between corals of the Pacific and Atlantic. Dr. Ann F. Budd from the University of Iowa and Dr. Donald McNeill of the University of Miami named a new species of fossil coral found on the Island of Curaçao - some six million years old - after renowned coral reef geologist and University of Miami Rosenstiel School professor, Dr. Robert N. Ginsburg. The new species, originally thought to be an elkhorn coral (genus Acropora), a species widely distributed throughout the Caribbean that was informally christened Acropora ginsburgi in 1995 on Ginsburg's 70th birthday.*



> Still having great difficulty distinguishing fossil acroporid species, when formally describing the new species, Budd elicited the help of Dr. Carden C. Wallace of the Museum of Tropical Queensland, Australia, who recognized why a positive identification had been so challenging -- the genus was not Acropora after all, but a Pacific acroporid genus named Isopora.
> ...


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

More than 1,000 species discovered in Mekong: WWF.

*Scientists have discovered more than 1,000 species in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong region in the past decade, including a spider as big as a dinner plate, the World Wildlife Fund said Monday.*

Note to self: Always look at what's on the dinner plate! 

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Ancient city unearthed' in Peru.

*The ruins of an entire city have been discovered in northern Peru, researchers say.*



> Archaeologists say the find could provide the missing link between the ancient cultures of the Wari people and the earlier Moche civilisation.
> ...
> Ceramics, clothing, and the well-preserved remains of a young woman were also discovered, he said.
> 
> "It provides the missing link because it explains how the Wari people allowed for the continuation of culture after the Moche [died out about 600 AD]," Cesar Soriano was quoted by Reuters as saying.
> 
> Mr Soriano said the find provides the first evidence of Wari culture, which was based in the south of the country, at the northern site.











The once buried city showed evidence of human sacrifice









Location of Chiclayo

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Jerusalem dig finds big gold hoard from 7th century*

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Excavations have unearthed a hoard of more than 1,300-year-old gold coins under a car park by the ancient walls of Jerusalem, the Israeli Antiquities Authority said on Monday.

Archaeologists said the discovery of the 264 coins, in the ruins of a building dating to about the 7th century, the end of the Byzantine period, was one of the largest coin hoards uncovered in Jerusalem.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE4BL2QQ20081222


----------



## ekim68

*4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs unveiled near Cairo*

A pair of 4,300-year-old pharaonic tombs discovered at Saqqara indicate that the sprawling necropolis south of Cairo is even larger than previously thought, Egypt's top archaeologist said Monday. The rock-cut tombs were built for high officials - one responsible for the quarries used to build the nearby pyramids and another for a woman in charge of procuring entertainers for the pharaohs.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/22/international/i085507S01.DTL


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Fossil Suggests Origin of Cheetahs.

*A nearly complete skull of a primitive cheetah that sprinted about in China more than 2 million years ago suggests the agile cats originated in the Old World rather than in the Americas.*

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Awesome finds everyone


----------



## ekim68

*Diamonds show comet struck North America, scientists say*

_The impact caused an ice age that killed some mammal species and many humans 12,900 years ago, researchers report. They say the discovery of tiny heat-formed diamonds is proof of the catastrophe._

A discovery of microscopic diamonds a few feet beneath the surface of North America reveals that a comet caused a cataclysm of fire, flood and devastation nearly 13,000 years ago that extinguished mammoths and mastodons and dealt a blow to early civilization, scientists said Friday.

The nanodiamonds, so small that they are barely visible in an electron microscope, are thought to be remnants of that comet, which would have hit about 65 million years after the much larger collision that wiped out the dinosaurs.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-extinction2-2009jan02,0,896970.story


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## Gabriel

Whoa, those are cool ekim


----------



## ekim68

*Basalt rock wall found in ocean near Taiwan*

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A biodiversity researcher has found a huge basalt rock formation in the Taiwan Strait, resembling a city wall and rivaling similar monoliths on land.

The 200 meter-long, 10 meter-high undersea wall, which looks like thousands of pillars packed together, is near the Pescadores archipelago, researcher Jeng Ming-hsiou said on Monday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE5040GV20090105


----------



## lotuseclat79

Pink iguanas discovered on Galapagos Islands.

*A team of Ecuadoran and Italian researchers have discovered a unique species of pink land iguanas living on the Galapagos Islands, the scientist who wrote the report told AFP.*









A Galapagos National Park picture, showing a pink iguana. A team of Ecuadoran and Italian researchers have discovered a unique species of pink land iguanas living on the Galapagos Islands, the scientist who wrote the report told AFP

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Mummy thought to be Queen Seshestet found in Egypt*

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have found the remains of a mummy thought to be that of Queen Seshestet, the mother of a pharaoh who ruled Egypt in the 24th century BC, the government said on Thursday.

After five hours spent lifting the lid of a sarcophagus in a pyramid discovered south of Cairo last year, they found a skull, legs, pelvis, other body parts wrapped in linen, and ancient pottery, the government's antiquities department said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE50732020090108


----------



## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> Pink iguanas discovered on Galapagos Islands.
> 
> *A team of Ecuadoran and Italian researchers have discovered a unique species of pink land iguanas living on the Galapagos Islands, the scientist who wrote the report told AFP.*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A Galapagos National Park picture, showing a pink iguana. A team of Ecuadoran and Italian researchers have discovered a unique species of pink land iguanas living on the Galapagos Islands, the scientist who wrote the report told AFP
> 
> -- Tom


I would love to see these cuties up close. Definitely on my things to do before I leave the planet list


----------



## lotuseclat79

Gabriel said:


> I would love to see these cuties up close. Definitely on my things to do before I leave the planet list


So, Gabriel, where are you headed once you leave this old sod? 

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Lost Worlds and such.....


----------



## Gabriel

I don't know where we go after this life, but I am hoping it is as interesting as this place.


----------



## Gabriel

New mammoth tusk find

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/sci_island_tusk


----------



## ekim68

*Demise of early Peruvians discovered*

GAINESVILLE, Fla., Jan. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. scientists say a series of earthquakes followed by torrential rains caused the demise of coastal Peruvians more than 3,600 years ago.

"This maritime-farming community had been successful for over 2,000 years … and then all of a sudden, 'boom,'" said University of Florida Professor Mike Moseley. "They just got the props knocked out from under them."

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/01/21/Demise_of_early_Peruvians_discovered/UPI-49091232568833/


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists Find First Creature With Eyes That Use Both Refractive and Reflective Optics.









Side view of the head of the Spookfish, showing the eye split into parts. The transparent head allows the fish to capture and process even more ambient light.

*Florida Atlantic University researcher and member of the Center for Ocean Exploration and Deep-Sea Research at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, Dr. Tamara Frank, was part of an international research team that discovered the first vertebrate with eyes that use mirrors rather than lenses to focus light. Results from this research have been published in the January issue of Current Biology.*

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Ancient cave houses found in China*

BEIJING, Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Chinese archaeologists say they've found ancient cave houses that may be the earliest made by man.

A row of 17 cave houses was found on a cliff along along a river northwest China's Shaanxi province, Xinhua news service reported Wednesday. Scientists say the houses were built between 3,500 and 3,000 B.C.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/01/28/Ancient_cave_houses_found_in_China/UPI-30371233194246/


----------



## Gabriel

Fresh water turtle fossil in Arctic

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/tropicalturtlefossilfoundinarctic


----------



## lotuseclat79

Many New Species Discovered In Hidden Mozambique Oasis With Help Of Google Earth.

*Space may be the final frontier, but scientists who recently discovered a hidden forest in Mozambique show the uncharted can still be under our noses. BirdLife were part of a team of scientists who used Google Earth to identify a remote patch of pristine forest. An expedition to the site discovered new species of butterfly and snake, along with seven Globally Threatened birds.*









Scientific surveying Mount Mabu -- Mozambique - found a wealth of wildlife including Pygmy Chamelons. (Credit: Julian Bayliss / Kew)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Early whales gave birth on land, fossil find reveals.

*Two newly described fossil whales---a pregnant female and a male of the same species--reveal how primitive whales gave birth and provide new insights into how whales made the transition from land to sea.*.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

whoa!!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090204/ap_on_sc/sci_monster_snake


----------



## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> Early whales gave birth on land, fossil find reveals.
> 
> *Two newly described fossil whales---a pregnant female and a male of the same species--reveal how primitive whales gave birth and provide new insights into how whales made the transition from land to sea.*.
> 
> -- Tom


Great article Ekim...and in that was this article about birdsongs that is interesting

http://www.physorg.com/news152546377.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists find world's biggest snake.

*'Titanic' boa fossils provide clues to past tropical climate.*









An artist's reconstruction of Titanoboa cerrejonensis.Jason Bourque









A vertebra of a modern Anaconda (left) and (right) a vertebra from the Titanoboa.Ray Carson - UF Photography

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Wow, almost 40 feet long. No thank you Mr. Anaconda, I'll walk the other way...


----------



## lotuseclat79

Largest prehistoric snake on record discovered in Colombia (Video).

Looks like Global Warming will produce larger snakes given they are cold-blooded!

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Census Of Modern Organisms Reveals Echo Of Ancient Mass Extinction*

Paleontologists can still hear the echo of the death knell that drove the dinosaurs and many other organisms to extinction following an asteroid collision at the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090205142139.htm


----------



## irvine25

Wouldn't it be exciting? To be able to find new species? A little consolation to those species that were already instinct because of man made causes? Still new species means hope, and it matters to most people, it matters to me too.


----------



## ekim68

*About 30 Egyptian mummies found in ancient cache*

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists have found about 30 mummies and at least one unopened sarcophagus in a burial chamber about 4,300 years old, the government said in a statement on Monday.

They found the chamber in the desert on the western side of the Step Pyramid of Saqqara, one of the earliest large stone structures in the world, dating from about 2,650 BC.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE51855D20090209


----------



## lotuseclat79

New Species Of Prehistoric Creatures Discovered In Isle Of Wight Mud.

*In just four years a University of Portsmouth palaeontologist has discovered 48 new species from the age of the dinosaurs.*









University of Portsmouth palaeontologist Mark Witton's depiction of the discoveries. (Credit: Mark Witton)

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

> Provo, UTAH -- Two BYU researchers who just returned from Antarctica are reporting a hardy worm that withstands its cold climate by cranking out antifreeze. And when its notoriously dry home runs out of water, it just dries itself out and goes into suspended animation until liquid water brings it back to life.


http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=27535


----------



## lotuseclat79

Twelve Frog Species Discovered in India.

*In the Western Ghats mountain range of India researchers discovered a dozen frog species.*









Image Credit: Anniruhdda H D



> Sathyabhama Das Biju, from the University of Delhi and Franky Bossuyt from the Free University of Brussels discovered the tree frogs at night while hiking in mountain forests during the monsoon season. (The same researchers were responsible for the discovery of the 'purple frog' in 2003 in the same area.) All of the frogs are in the Philautus genus, which has no tadpole stage during maturation.


-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Did you check out the purple frog mentioned in the article. I woud love to see one of those


----------



## lotuseclat79

Gabriel said:


> Did you check out the purple frog mentioned in the article. I woud love to see one of those


Hi Gabriel,

No, I didn't. I went back to the link, and did not see one. Do you have a link to the purple frog? Or, is there no such link?

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi Gabriel,
> 
> No, I didn't. I went back to the link, and did not see one. Do you have a link to the purple frog? Or, is there no such link?
> 
> -- Tom


Here is the link, Tom

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3200214.stm

Where I found it was by clicking on the hot link word purple frog in the article


----------



## lotuseclat79

Hi Gabriel,

Wow, I totally missed the "purple frog" link - guess my eyesight needs more carrots! That is quite the frog - purple and with a snout. My first impression upon seeing the photo before reading anything was that it looked like a pig's snout from the side. Oh well, as long as it doesn't go "oink, oink", eh? 

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi Gabriel,
> 
> Wow, I totally missed the "purple frog" link - guess my eyesight needs more carrots! That is quite the frog - purple and with a snout. My first impression upon seeing the photo before reading anything was that it looked like a pig's snout from the side. Oh well, as long as it doesn't go "oink, oink", eh?
> 
> -- Tom


He is really unusual. I wonder why he is that color. There aren't too many purple animals. The only other purple I can think of is in some bird feathers, maybe some butterfly wings, some dragonflies bodies, snakes, lizards and some beetles.


----------



## ekim68

_Cache of Ice Age fossils found in Los Angeles_

Scientists are studying a huge cache of Ice Age fossil deposits recovered near Los Angeles' famous La Brea Tar Pits. Among the finds is a near-intact mammoth skeleton and bones of saber-toothed cats, dire wolves, bisons, horses, ground sloths and other mammals.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/02/17/state/n160328S12.DTL&tsp=1


----------



## lotuseclat79

DNA evidence is in, newly discovered species of fish dubbed H. psychedelica (Video).

*"Psychedelica" seems the perfect name for a species of fish that is a wild swirl of tan and peach zebra stripes and behaves in ways contrary to its brethren. So says University of Washington's Ted Pietsch, who is the first to describe the new species in the scientific literature and thus the one to select the name.*









The leg-like pectoral fins used for walking are commonly found in anglerfish which prefer crawling to swimming. More than a dozen individual fish have been seen in Ambon Harbor, Indonesia, since divers with Maluku Divers first spotted one of the fish in January 2008. The fish have been found in 15 to 25 feet of water near a commercial jetty in the busy harbor. Credit: C. David

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Prints Show a Modern Foot in Prehumans*

Footprints uncovered in Kenya show that as early as 1.5 million years ago an ancestral species, almost certainly **** erectus, had already evolved the feet and walking gait of modern humans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/27/science/27foot.html?_r=1&hp


----------



## lotuseclat79

Fossil skull of giant toothy seabird found in Peru.

*The unusually intact fossilized skull of a giant, bony-toothed seabird that lived up to 10 million years ago was found on Peru's arid southern coast, researchers said Friday.*









AP - A paleontologist cleans a fossilized bird cranium at Peru's National History Museum in Lima, Friday, …

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Fish with human faces spotted in South Korea.

*Fish with human faces are making waves in South Korea.*









A fish with a human face is making waves in South Korea.The 'humanoid' carp are attracting attention in the town of Chongju, South Korea. Photo: Splash News

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Oldest Fossil Brain Find Is 'Really Bizarre'*

Most fossil specimens can only wish they had a brain. But paleontologists recently discovered the oldest known example nestled within a 300-million-year-old fish fossil from Kansas.

The rare find provides an unusually detailed view of brain structure in prehistoric life. It similarly sheds light on the extinct relatives of modern ratfishes, also known as "ghost sharks" or chimaeras.

http://www.livescience.com/animals/090302-oldest-brain-fossil.html


----------



## Gabriel

Fish with see thru head

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...transparent-head-barreleye-picture/index.html


----------



## ekim68

*Horses first ridden - and milked - 5,500 years ago*

LONDON (Reuters) - Horses were first domesticated on the plains of northern Kazakhstan some 5,500 years ago -- 1,000 years earlier than thought -- by people who rode them and drank their milk, researchers said on Thursday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5246HI20090305


----------



## iltos

Gabriel said:


> Fish with see thru head
> 
> http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...transparent-head-barreleye-picture/index.html


welpers....that's amazing :up:


----------



## lotuseclat79

New fish discovered in the Bellingshausen Sea.

*The new species of Antarctic fish, Gosztonyia antarctica, has been discovered at a depth of 650 metres in the Bellingshausen Sea in the Antarctic Ocean, an area which has not been studied since 1904 and where the fauna is "completely" unknown. Jesús Matallanas, the Spanish researcher responsible for the find, collected four specimens of the new species during Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) campaigns in the southern hemisphere summers of 2003 and 2006.*









Gosztonyia antarctica . Foto: Jesús Matallanas / SINC

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Oldest sea turtle fossil unveiled in Mexico.

*Paleontologists on Thursday unveiled the oldest fossil remains of a sea turtle that lived 72 million years ago in northern Mexico, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said.*









Green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) head to the sea just after hatching. Paleontologists unveiled the oldest fossil remains of a sea turtle, the ancestor of the present day green turtle, that lived 72 million years ago in northern Mexico, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) said.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Seven New Species Of Deep-sea Coral Discovered*

ScienceDaily (Mar. 6, 2009) - Scientists identified seven new species of bamboo coral discovered on a NOAA-funded mission in the deep waters of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Six of these species may represent entirely new genera, a remarkable feat given the broad classification a genus represents.*

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090305121657.htm


----------



## ekim68

*Rare Maya panels found in Guatemala*

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Archeologists have uncovered carved stucco panels depicting cosmic monsters, gods and serpents in Guatemala's northern jungle that are the oldest known depictions of a famous Mayan creation myth.

The newly discovered panels, both 26 feet long and stacked on top of each other, were created around 300 BC and show scenes from the core Mayan mythology, the Popol Vuh.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE52A7FP20090312


----------



## ekim68

*Researchers ID North America's smallest dinosaur*

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) - Canadian researchers said on Monday they have discovered North America's smallest known dinosaur, a pint-sized predator half the size of a house cat and cousin to the ferocious Velociraptor, which roamed in what is now Alberta 75 million years ago.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE52F6WL20090317


----------



## ekim68

*Fossil sea monster's bite makes T-Rex look feeble*

OSLO (Reuters) - A giant fossil sea monster found in the Arctic and known as "Predator X" had a bite that would make T-Rex look feeble, scientists said on Monday.

The 50 ft (15 meter) long Jurassic era marine reptile had a crushing 33,000 lbs (15 metric tons) per square inch bite force, the Natural History Museum of Oslo University said of the new find on the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE52F6D120090317


----------



## Gabriel

ARRRGH...He's cute


----------



## ekim68

*Against the odds ancient octopus fossils discovered*



> So the new study published in a recent copy of Palaeontology is a truly terrific find. Not only did a group of European scientists find a fossilized octopus, they found five complete fossils that show all eight legs in great detail, including a ghost of the characteristic suckers. The discovery of the 95-million-year-old specimens was made in Lebanon, where the "extraordinary soft-part preservation in the Lebanon limestones" [original paper] managed to save the entire impression of the ancient octopods. They consist of three new species, and there was even traces of of the octopods' ink found as well.


http://www.examiner.com/x-1242-Scie...t-the-odds-ancient-octopus-fossils-discovered


----------



## lotuseclat79

Fossil Fragments Reveal 500-million-year-old Monster Predator.

*Hurdia victoria was originally described in 1912 as a crustacean-like animal. Now, researchers from Uppsala University and colleagues reveal it to be just one part of a complex and remarkable new animal that has an important story to tell about the origin of the largest group of living animals, the arthropods.*









Reconstruction of Hurdia victoria. (Credit: Illustration: Marianne Collins)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists find 56 new species in Papua New Guinea.

*Jumping spiders, a tiny chirping frog and an elegant striped gecko are among 56 species believed new to science discovered during a Conservation International (CI) Rapid Assessment Program (RAP) expedition to Papua New Guinea's highlands wilderness.*









In this undated photo released from the Conservation International, a large tree frog, Nyctimystes sp., with enormous eyes that was discovered in a rainforest in Papua New Guinea's highlands wilderness in 2008 is shown. A brilliant green tree frog with huge black eyes, jumping spiders and a striped gecko are among more than 50 new animal species scientists have discovered in a remote, mountainous region of Papua New Guinea. (AP Photo/Conservation International, Steve Richards, HO)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Coin-Size Frog Found -- One of World's Smallest!.









A new species of frog in the Noblella genus









A new species of frog in the Noblella genus grasps her two eggs, which she will watch over and keep moist until they hatch into froglets

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*New orangutan population is discovered*

ARLINGTON, Va., April 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. environmental organization said it has discovered a new and significant population of the rarest primates on Earth -- Bornean orangutans.

A Nature Conservancy field team said although the exact number of orangutans found in a nearly inaccessible part of Borneo is still undetermined, it is believed a "medium density" of the primates exists in the 2-million-acre forested area in the Sangkulirant mountains.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/200...-population-is-discovered/UPI-20531239645867/


----------



## Gabriel

King of Bling tomb/Peru

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...es/king-bling-moche-tomb-pictures/photo2.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

Mystery of the Majorcan mouse-goat.

*A hundred years ago, Dorothea Bate's lonely forays into the island's rugged terrain led to a historic discovery, says Karolyn Shindler*









Reconstruction of a Myotragus skeleton Photo: Natural History Museum

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Cleopatra, Mark Antony's tombs may have been found*

Archaeologists will excavate three shafts under the temple of Taposiris Magna, west of Alexandria, Egypt. Nearby, they found a Cleopatra bust and possibly Mark Antony's funerary mask.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-cleo18-2009apr18,0,2639966.story


----------



## ekim68

*Arctic fossil shows how seals went from land to sea*

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Scientists in Canada's Arctic have discovered the fossil of a previously unknown web-footed carnivore that helps explain how seals developed from land-based mammals, a member of the team said on Wednesday.

The very primitive animal, measuring around 110 cm (43 inches) from nose to tail, had a body similar to that of an otter, with a skull more closely related to a seal.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE53L4XQ20090422


----------



## ekim68

*Cache of mummies unearthed at Egypt's Lahun pyramid*

LAHUN, Egypt (Reuters) - Archaeologists have unearthed a cache of pharaonic-era mummies in brightly painted wooden coffins near Egypt's little-known Lahun pyramid, the site head said on Sunday.

The mummies were the first to be found in the sand-covered desert rock surrounding the mud-brick Lahun pyramid, believed to be built by the 12th dynasty pharaoh Senusret II, who ruled 4,000 years ago. The team expects to announce more finds soon.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE53P1DT20090426


----------



## lotuseclat79

Evidence of the 'Lost World' -- did dinosaurs survive the end Cretaceous extinctions?.

*The Lost World, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's account of an isolated community of dinosaurs that survived the catastrophic extinction event 65 million years ago, has no less appeal now than it did when it was written a century ago. Various Hollywood versions have tried to recreate the lost world of dinosaurs, but today the fiction seems just a little closer to reality.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New dinosaur species possible in Northwestern Alberta.

*The discovery of a gruesome feeding frenzy that played out 73 million years ago in northwestern Alberta may also lead to the discovery of new dinosaur species in northwestern Alberta.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New extinct lemur species discovered in Madagascar.

*A third species of Palaeopropithecus, an extinct group of large lemurs, has just been uncovered in the northwest of Madagascar by a Franco-Madagascan team.*









P.kelyus maxilla fragment, removed from its matrix. © D. Gommery- MAPPM & CNRS

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Pink Dolphins and Purple Polar Bears

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30968596/
http://www.nwbotanicals.org/mediawatch/purplebear.htm


----------



## ekim68

*Skeleton unearthed on Monterey's Cannery Row*

As soon as construction crew members working next to the Sardine Factory realized they had unearthed human remains, the back hoe was turned off and a call was placed to the Monterey Police Department.

Turns out the skeleton found under the parking lot near Cannery Row was that of a woman, perhaps thousands of years old and probably a member of the Esselen Indian tribe.

http://www.montereyherald.com/ci_12484309?source=most_viewed


----------



## lotuseclat79

Spanish researchers describe new hominid.

*Researchers from the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP), from Universitat Autňnoma de Barcelona, directed by professor Salvador Moyà-Solà, publish this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the results of their research regarding the find of a new genus of hominoid primate at els Hostalets de Pierola, l'Anoia.*









Lluc Reconstruction

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Spanish researchers describe new hominid.

*Researchers from the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP), from Universitat Autňnoma de Barcelona, directed by professor Salvador Moyà-Solà, publish this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the results of their research regarding the find of a new genus of hominoid primate at els Hostalets de Pierola, l'Anoia.*









Lluc Reconstruction

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Revealed: The fossil treasure chest that was home to 'missing link' Ida.



> When the 47million-year-old fossil dubbed 'Ida' was revealed to the world, attention soon turned to the anonymous German shale pit where it was first unearthed. ...
> 
> But Ida is just one of thousands of fossils recovered from the Messel pit. It is a disused quarry near the village of Messel, about 20 miles south-east of Frankfurt. Bituminous shale was mined there, but because of its plethora of fossils, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1995.
> 
> Yet it is the richest fossil site in the world for understanding the early development of mammals - and therefore ultimately man himself.


Lots of good fossil pics at link above!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Whale Fossil Found in Kitchen Counter.

National Geographic video (6:31) at above link! Neat discovery on first animals to migrate from EurAsia to Africa.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Prehistoric Oddities.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Neolithic Age: Prehistoric Complex Including Two 6,000-year-old Tombs Discovered In Britain.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Eight more bizarre species that are new to science.

-- Tom


----------



## iltos

lotuseclat79 said:


> Eight more bizarre species that are new to science.
> 
> -- Tom


amazing


> But it was only this year that Mary Rumpho at the University of Maine in Orono discovered how it {a sea slug} does it. As well as stealing the algae's chloroplasts to add to cells in its gut, the solar-powered beast also incorporates some of the algaes genes into its own DNA.


an animal plant


----------



## lotuseclat79

Underground Lost World Lurks Beneath Stones of Naples.

*Beneath this city's espresso-fueled cacophony is a deep and ancient silence of a lost world, full of catacombs, caves and early Christian burial sites.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Resurrection bug' revived after 120,000 years.

*A tiny bacterium has been coaxed back to life after spending 120,000 years buried three kilometres deep in the Greenland ice sheet.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Sands of Gobi Desert yield new species of nut-cracking dinosaur.

*Plants or meat: That's about all that fossils ever tell paleontologists about a dinosaur's diet. But the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds. These characteristics present the first solid evidence of nut-eating in any dinosaur.*









Artistic rendering of a newly discovered species of parrot-beaked dinosaur, Psittacosaurus gobiensis. Scientists first discovered psittacosaurs in the Gobi Desert in 1922, calling them "parrot-beaked" for their resemblance to parrots. Psittacosaurs evolved their strong-jawed, nut-eating habits 60 million years before the earliest parrot. Credit: Todd Marshall

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Huge Pre-Stonehenge Complex Found via "Crop Circles"*

_Given away by strange, crop circle-like formations seen from the air, a huge prehistoric ceremonial complex discovered in southern England has taken archaeologists by surprise._

A thousand years older than nearby Stonehenge, the site includes the remains of wooden temples and two massive, 6,000-year-old tombs that are among "Britain's first architecture," according to archaeologist Helen Wickstead, leader of the Damerham Archaeology Project.

For such a site to have lain hidden for so long is "completely amazing," said Wickstead, of Kingston University in London.

Archaeologist Joshua Pollard, who was not involved in the find, agreed. The discovery is "remarkable," he said, given the decades of intense archaeological attention to the greater Stonehenge region.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090615-stonehenge-tombs-crop-circles.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

New discovery suggests mammoths survived in Britain until 14,000 years ago.

*Research which finally proves that bones found in Shropshire, England provide the most geologically recent evidence of woolly mammoths in North Western Europe publishes today in the Geological Journal. Analysis of both the bones and the surrounding environment suggests that some mammoths remained part of British wildlife long after they are conventionally believed to have become extinct.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

In world of amphibians, a rare bright spot (2 web pages) w/pics.

*Scientists find a new species of frog in Costa Rica.*

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Playing the flute... 35,000 years ago*

LONDON (Reuters) - People have been making music for more than 35,000 years, judging by prehistoric bird-bone flutes excavated in southwest Germany.

Researchers said on Wednesday they had found a five-hole flute made from the radius bone of a griffon vulture and two fragments of ivory flutes in a cave in the Swabian Jura mountains.

The flutes are at least 5,000 years older than any previous confirmed archaeological examples of musical instruments.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE55N47E20090624


----------



## lotuseclat79

Toothy 3-foot Piranha Fossil Found.

*If you thought piranhas were scary, be glad Megapiranha is no longer around.*









An artist's rendering of Megapiranha paranensis, a 3-foot-long ancestor of the modern piranha. Credit: © Ray Troll









This photograph of the fossilized teeth and upper jaw of Megapiranha paranensis shows intermediate tooth arrangement between single-rowed piranhas and their double-rowed relatives. The fossil measures about 3 inches in length, and the whole fish was up to 3 feet long. Credit: Mark Sabaj-Pérez

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Researchers find fossils of new type of European camel.

*Spanish researchers said Monday they have discovered evidence of a previously unknown type of camel which lived in Europe six million years ago.*

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Students excavate 450-year-old ship*

PENSACOLA, Fla., June 30 (UPI) -- Layers of sand helped preserve a 450-year-old shipwreck being excavated this summer in Florida's Pensacola Bay, an archaeologist said.

The Emanuel Point II, sitting under just 12 feet of water, was part of the fleet commanded by Pensacola's founder, Don Tristan de Luna, said John Bratten, who heads the anthropology and archaeology departments at the University of West Florida.

Twenty UWF students are conducting the excavation, which so far has turned up a stone cannon ball, part of a green ceramic dish and a chicken bone, The Pensacola (Fla.) News Journal reported Tuesday.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/06/30/Students-excavate-450-year-old-ship/UPI-85601246380296/


----------



## ekim68

*World's oldest known granaries discovered*

SOUTH BEND, Ind., July 1 (UPI) -- U.S. anthropologists say recent excavations in Jordan have provided evidence of the world's oldest known granaries.



> "These granaries reflect new forms of risk reduction, intensification and low-level food production," Kuijt said. "People in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Age (11,500 B.C. to 10,550 B.C.) were not using new food sources, but rather, by developing new storage methods, they altered their relationship with traditionally utilized food resources and created the technological context for later development of domesticated plants and an agro-pastoralist economy.


http://www.upi.com/Science_News/200...nown-granaries-discovered/UPI-86221246457095/


----------



## Gabriel

Whoa, what great finds


----------



## lotuseclat79

Australian scientists hail triple dinosaur find.

*Nicknamed Banjo, Matilda and Clancy after the songwriter of "Waltzing Matilda" because they were found in a billabong (small lake) near the Outback town of Winton, where poet Banjo Paterson is said to have written "Waltzing Matilda" in 1885.

Banjo is the Australian answer to Jurassic Park's velociraptor but many times bigger and more terrifying. The plant-eating Matilda and Clancy belong to the giant titanosaur family, the biggest creatures ever to walk the earth.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

It appears that DNA analysis has revealed a distant relationship between turtles and beetles! 

See attachment.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Armadillo-like Crocodile Fossil Found in Brazil.

*In addition to body armor never before found on a crocodile species, the ancient reptile had jaws that allowed it to chew like a mammal, paleontologists say.*









An ancient crocodile with armadillo-like body armor (above, a reconstruction of the fossil in an undated picture) roamed the arid interior of Brazil about 90 million years ago, say researchers who found the fossil in São Paolo state.

In addition to its unusual bony shield, the reptile could chew like a mammal, moving its lower jaw forward and backward, researchers said in July 2009.

Photograph courtesy Paul Jurgens/FAPERJ

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> It appears that DNA analysis has revealed a distant relationship between turtles and beetles!
> 
> See attachment.
> 
> -- Tom


OKAY Tom


----------



## Gabriel

This thread cannot be marked solved until all the new species and lost worlds are found.


----------



## ekim68

*T. rex tracks preserved in New Mexico*

CIMARRON, N.M., July 13 (UPI) -- A second full footprint of a Tyrannosaurus rex has been discovered on the remote Philmont Boy Scout Ranch near Cimarron, N.M., a paleontologist said.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/07/13/T-rex-tracks-preserved-in-New-Mexico/UPI-61201247494170/


----------



## ekim68

*Unusual Antarctic Microbes Live Life on a Previously Unsuspected Edge*

An unmapped reservoir of briny liquid chemically similar to sea water, but buried under an inland Antarctic glacier, appears to support unusual microbial life in a place where cold, darkness and lack of oxygen would previously have led scientists to believe nothing could survive, according to newly published research.

After sampling and analyzing the outflow from below the Taylor Glacier, an outlet glacier of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in the otherwise ice-free McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, researchers believe that, lacking enough light to make food through photosynthesis, the microbes have adapted over the past 1.5 million years to manipulate sulfur and iron compounds to survive.

http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=31776


----------



## ekim68

*Archaeologists find graveyard of sunken Roman ships*

ROME (Reuters) - A team of archaeologists using sonar technology to scan the seabed have discovered a "graveyard" of five pristine ancient Roman shipwrecks off the small Italian island of Ventotene.

The trading vessels, dating from the first century BC to the fifth century AD, lie more than 100 meters underwater and are amongst the deepest wrecks discovered in the Mediterranean in recent years, the researchers said on Thursday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE56M3IW20090723


----------



## ekim68

Well, kind of like Lost and Found...

*Bizarre Walking Bat Has Ancient Heritage*

ScienceDaily (July 29, 2009) - A bizarre New Zealand bat that is as much at home walking four-legged on the ground as winging through the air had an Australian ancestor 20 million years ago with the same rare ability, a new study has found.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090729095054.htm


----------



## ekim68

*World's first computer may be even older than thought *

From Swiss Army knives to iPhones, it seems we just love fancy gadgets with as many different functions as possible. And judging from the ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism, the desire to impress with the latest multipurpose must-have item goes back at least 2000 years.

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/07/jo-marchant-consultant-from-sw.html


----------



## ekim68

*The ancient Roman city of Altinum rises from Venice Lagoon*

Using aerial, near-infrared photos taken during a drought, researchers have mapped the city thought to be the ancestor to present-day Venice. It now awaits under modern farmland.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-ancient-rome1-2009aug01,0,5101657.story


----------



## ekim68

*Italy finds 4,500-year old skeleton of warrior*

ROME (Reuters) - A roughly 4,500 year-old skeleton of a man, probably a warrior killed by an arrow to the chest, has been discovered on a beach south of Rome, Italian police said.

The well-preserved skeleton, dubbed "Nello," was found during a routine flyover around areas of archaeological interest in May that prompted police to probe a fissure in the ground.

"We thought it was that of a Roman solider, but then the experts identified it as dating back to the third millennium B.C.," said Raffaele Mancino, an official with the police division overseeing Italy's cultural heritage.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5701MQ20090801


----------



## lotuseclat79

Computers Unlock More Secrets Of The Mysterious Indus Valley Script.

*Four-thousand years ago, an urban civilization lived and traded on what is now the border between Pakistan and India. During the past century, thousands of artifacts bearing hieroglyphics left by this prehistoric people have been discovered. Today, a team of Indian and American researchers are using mathematics and computer science to try to piece together information about the still-unknown script.*









Researchers have used computers to extract patterns in ancient Indus symbols. (Credit: J. M. Kenoyer / harappa.com)

-- Tom

I recommend all whom read this post to go to pbs.org and see The Story of India which was a wonderful multi-part(6) show that delved into the ancient past of this region.


----------



## ekim68

*Ancient pterosaurs were skilled fliers*

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - A fossil found in China of a pterosaur, the earliest known flying vertebrate, shows the creatures had unique and complex wing fibers that enabled them to fly with the precision and control of birds, researchers said on Wednesday.

The finding by a team of Brazilian, German, Chinese and British researchers backs up the theory that the reptiles that dominated the skies from up to 220 million years ago, also known as pterodactyls, were not just basic gliders.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE5745GJ20090805


----------



## lotuseclat79

Flying frog among 353 new Himalayan species: WWF.

*Over 350 new species including the world's smallest deer, a "flying frog" and a 100 million-year old gecko have been discovered in the Eastern Himalayas, a biological treasure trove now threatened by climate change.*









The WWF said that a flying frog, the world's smallest deer and the first new monkey to be found in over a century are among 350 new species discovered in the eastern Himalayas in the past decade.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Early Humans Used Heat-Treated Stone for Tools*

Tool manufacturers know that sometimes you have to heat-treat a material to make it harder or stronger.

Ancient toolmakers learned that trick, too. And archaeological research from South Africa pushes back the date of the earliest use of heat treatment at least 45,000 years, to more than 70,000 years ago.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/science/18obfire.html?hpw


----------



## lotuseclat79

Life has new meaning in the Himalayas.

*In a search from 1998 to 2008 that covered the eastern Himalayan regions of India, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet, scientists found 353 new species - including 242 plants, 16 amphibians, 16 reptiles, 14 fish, two birds, two mammals and 61 invertebrates.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

URBAN ANIMALS: Meet the coywolf dated August 15, 2009.

*A newly emerging species is behind the brazen attacks in Durham(Canada)*



> Wolves and coyotes are interbreeding to create an animal that has the pack-hunting instinct of wolves and the fearlessness of coyotes. JON WAY/EASTERNCOYOTERESEARCH.COM











The red wolf is considered by some to be a coyote/wolf hybrid










-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Deep Sea Worms Release Glow-Bombs When Disturbed*

Scientists have discovered seven new species of deep-sea worms in the Pacific. The worms, members of a new genus, Swima, are up to about four inches long, eyeless and have paddle-like bristles that move rapidly, allowing them to swim forward or backward.

That's all very interesting, but what makes the worms truly spectacular are the little green glow sticks that are found on five of the species. Attached to segments near the head, these tiny organs - more blobs than sticks, actually - can be released from the body, instantly producing a bright green bioluminescence that lasts for many seconds as the worms swim away. The researchers refer to the worms colloquially as green bombers and say the phenomenon may help them distract potential predators.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/science/25obbomb.html?_r=2&hpw


----------



## lotuseclat79

New Species Of Crustacean Discovered Near Canary Islands.









During a cave diving expedition to explore the Tunnel de la Atlantida, the world's longest submarine lava tube on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, a team of scientists and cave divers have discovered a previously unknown species of crustacean, belonging to the remipede genus Speleonectes. (Credit: Image courtesy of Springer)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

1000 year old marks in tree found near Prague.

*Czech archaeologists have uncovered a unique 1000-year-old mark engraved into an oak tree the remains of which were found near Celakovice in Prague, which is probably the oldest preserved sign of this kind in the world.*










-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Germany unveils 2,000-yr-old statue of horse's head*

BERLIN (Reuters) - German archaeologists on Thursday unveiled a bronze and gold horse's head they said was believed to be a remnant of a 2000-year-old Roman statue.

A team digging at a former Roman town near Waldgirmes in central Germany found the life-sized head along with the foot of a rider on August 12.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE57Q4XU20090827


----------



## lotuseclat79

A different "lost world" - i.e. that of sound:
Lost sounds of the past brought to life (w/ Video, Audio).

*Salpinx, barbiton, aulos, syrinx. Never heard them? Never heard of them? Neither had anyone else, for centuries. Until now.*









An audience experiences "the sonic scenario of the past." Image courtesy Luca Petrella

A hearty triple bravissimo to ASTRA's Lost Sounds Orchestra and its ASTRA (Ancient instruments Sound/Timbre Reconstruction Application) team.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Giant rat found in 'lost volcano'. (Video 1:46)

*A BBC expedition discovers a new species of giant rat in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, one of the largest ever found.*

And, its alive, smiles back, and never having seen humans before is as docile as a puppy - the size of a big cat.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Lost world of fanged frogs and giant rats discovered in Papua New Guinea.

Related pics (15): Lost land of the volcano.

Eight more pics: In Pictures: Weird crater creatures.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Giraffe of the Mesozoic' Discovered.

*A creature dubbed a "Giraffe of the Mesozoic" has been discovered in China. The animal, with its giraffe-like long neck and long forelimbs is the first well-preserved Early Cretaceous brachiosaurid dinosaur to be discovered in Asia. It lived about 100 million years ago.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Archaeologists discover oldest-known fiber materials used by early humans.

*A team of archaeologists and paleobiologists has discovered flax fibers that are more than 34,000 years old, making them the oldest fibers known to have been used by humans. The fibers, discovered during systematic excavations in a cave in the Republic of Georgia, are described in this week's issue of Science.*









Oldest known fiber materials used by early humans

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Lost seabird' returns to ocean.

*One of the world's rarest and most elusive birds has finally been seen flying in its natural habitat.*









The Fiji petrel, a seabird that once "went missing" for 130 years, has been sighted flying at sea, near the island of Gua in the Pacific Ocean.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Extinct New Zealand eagle may have eaten humans.

*Sophisticated computer scans of fossils have helped solve a mystery over the nature of a giant, ancient raptor known as the Haast's eagle which became extinct about 500 years ago, researchers said Friday.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Early, smaller version of T. rex discovered.

*About 125 million years ago a tiny version of Tyrannosaurus rex roamed what is now northeastern China. Tiny, that is, by T. rex standards - you still wouldn't want to meet it face to face. Described by paleontologist Paul Sereno as "punk size," this early predator stood about nine feet tall.*









This undated handout illustration provided by the journal Science shows a Raptorex.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Mysterious ruins may help explain Mayan collapse*

Ringing two abandoned pyramids are nine palaces "frozen in time" that may help unravel the mystery of the ancient Maya, reports an archaeological team.

Hidden in the hilly jungle, the ancient site of Kiuic (KIE-yuk) was one of dozens of ancient Maya centers abandoned in the Puuc region of Mexico's Yucatan about 10 centuries ago. The latest discoveries from the site may capture the moment of departure.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/scienc...-09-19-mayan-collapse_N.htm?poe=HFMostPopular


----------



## lotuseclat79

As I understand it, the Mayans were not knowledgable about conserving the trees which they burned to create the white ash they used to cover their temples in a white paint? They ran out of trees which created other problems for their crops and without trees helping to prevent erosion, etc. Maybe drought was also a major contributor as well.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Feather-covered dinosaur fossils found

*Peacock-sized creature predates the oldest known bird*









The newly discovered dinosaur Anchiornis huxleyi, shown in an artist's reconstruction, is the oldest known bird-like dinosaur.Credit: Credit: Zhao Chuang, Xing Lida

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Number of Earth's species known to scientists rises to 1.9 million*

The number of species on the planet that have been documented by scientists has risen to 1.9 million, according to the world's most comprehensive catalogue of plants and animals.

The new figure has been boosted by 114,000 new species discovered since the catalogue was last compiled by Australian researchers three years ago - a 6.3% increase.

The was report hailed by the naturalist Sir David Attenborough as a "crucial reference point for all those who are acting to protect our planet for future generations". It estimates there are 11 million species living on the planet.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/29/number-of-living-species


----------



## ekim68

*Nest of dinosaur eggs found in India*

TAMIL NADU, India, Sept. 30 (UPI) -- Geologists in Tamil Nadu, India, said a trove of dinosaur eggs was peeping out of the sand beds on grazing land in plain site as they walked by.

The site is part of an area rich in ancient organisms dating back 140 million years, geologists told The Times of India.

"We found clusters and clusters of spherical eggs of dinosaurs. And each cluster contained eight eggs," M.U. Ramkumar, geology lecturer of the Periyar University, said.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2009/09/30/Nest-of-dinosaur-eggs-found-in-India/UPI-46511254367063/


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ape Man? Researchers Spot Legendary Orang Pendek in Sumatra.

*Two of the explorers caught a brief glimpse of the hairy creature. The two described the creature as a broad-shouldered, large-headed creature with black skin and dark brown hair about the size of an adult chimpanzee.*









Legend has it, an ape-like man has been roaming the forests of Sumatra for years. For two weeks, a team of British explorers from the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ), along with an Indonesian guide, tracked the creature deep within the Kerinci National Park to find evidence of the ape-like man known as Orang Pendek, or short man.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*'Ardi' May Rewrite the Story of Humans*

Ardi lived 4.4 million years ago in the woodlands of East Africa. She spent most of her time in the trees. She stood about 4 feet tall, weighed 110 pounds, and had long arms, short legs, and a grasping big toe that was perfect for clambering branch to branch. She ate in the trees, raised her offspring in the trees, slept in the trees.

But sometimes she came down to the ground, and stood upright. She could walk on two legs. She was, in a sense, taking baby steps on a journey that would change the world.

"Ardi" is the nickname given to a shattered skeleton that an international team of scientists painstakingly excavated from the Ethiopian desert, analyzed over the course of 15 years, and declared Thursday to be a major breakthrough in the study of human origins. Ardi lived more than a million years before "Lucy," a much-celebrated, 3.2 million-year-old fossil of an early human progenitor found just 45 miles away.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/01/AR2009100103432.html


----------



## Gabriel

Look how cute she is Ekim, she would be a great mate for that Orang Pendak in Lotuses' post. Too bad the age difference

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/1002/1224255669002.html


----------



## ekim68

*Stonehenge gets facelift, still mystifies*

AMESBURY
, England, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- The area around Stonehenge, a 5,000-year-old monument in England, will be given a facelift and freed from unsightly surrounding traffic, officials said.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/10/04/Stonehenge-gets-facelift-still-mystifies/UPI-17751254713081/


----------



## ekim68

*Bluehenge unearthed: Prehistoric site that could be famous stone circle's little sister*

Archaeologists have discovered Stonehenge's little sister - just a mile from the famous monument.

The prehistoric circle, unearthed in secret over the summer, is one of the most important prehistoric finds in decades.

Researchers have called it 'Bluehenge' after the colour of the 27 giant Welsh stones it once incorporated - but are now missing.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencet...s-Unearthed-site-monuments-little-sister.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

Bizarre new horned tyrannosaur from Asia described.

*Now, just a few weeks after tiny, early Raptorex kriegsteini was unveiled, a new wrench has been thrown into the family tree of the tyrannosaurs. The new Alioramus altai-a horned, long-snouted, gracile cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex-shared the same environment with larger, predatory relatives. A paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes this exceptionally well-preserved fossil, shedding light on a previously poorly understood genus of tyrannosaurs and describing a new suite of adaptations for meat eating.*









This is Alioramus altai in a scientifically reconstructed scene. Credit: Jason Brougham

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

7 Glow-in-the-Dark Mushroom Species Discovered.

*Seven new glowing mushroom species have been discovered in Belize, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia and Puerto Rico.*









Image above: Mycena silvaelucens (forest light) was collected in the grounds of an Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in Borneo, Malaysia and was found on the bark of a standing tree. The mushrooms are tiny with each cap measuring less than 18 millimeters in diameter. / Brian Perry, University of Hawaii









Above: Mycena luxaeterna (light eternal) was collected in Sao Paulo, Brazil and was found on sticks in an Atlantic forest habitat. These mushrooms are tiny with each cap measuring less than 8 millimeters in diameter and their stems have a jelly-like texture. The species' name was inspired by Mozart's Requiem. /Cassius V. Stevani, Chemistry Institute, University of Sao Paulo









Above: Mycena luxarboricola (light tree dweller) was collected in Paraná, Brazil and was found on the bark of a living tree in old growth Atlantic forest. These mushrooms are tiny with each cap measuring less than 5 millimeters in diameter. / Cassius V. Stevani, Chemistry Institute, University of Sao Paulo

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*"Unique" dinosaur footprints discovered in France*

LYON (Reuters Life!) - A set of dinosaur footprints uncovered in eastern France and dating from 150 million years ago has been authenticated by scientists as a unique discovery.

The well-preserved footprints, between 1.5 and two meters in diameter, were discovered in Plagne in the French Jura by a team from Claude Bernard university in Lyon, eastern France.

"It's an exceptional discovery and unique in the world by virtue of the size of the prints, as well as by the length of the trail," Pierre Hantzpergue, geology professor at Lyon university, told Reuters on Tuesday.

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE59537G20091006


----------



## lotuseclat79

Origin of Komodo Dragon Revealed.

*Dragons may come from the land Down Under.*



> Scientists now find that the world's largest living lizard species, the Komodo dragon, most likely evolved in Australia and dispersed westward to its current home in Indonesia.
> 
> In the past, researchers had suggested the Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis) developed from a smaller ancestor isolated on the Indonesian islands, evolving its large size as a response to lack of competition from other predators or as a specialist hunter of pygmy elephants known as Stegodon.


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

The Fall of the Maya: 'They Did it to Themselves'.

*For 1200 years, the Maya dominated Central America. At their peak around 900 A.D., Maya cities teemed with more than 2,000 people per square mile -- comparable to modern Los Angeles County. Even in rural areas the Maya numbered 200 to 400 people per square mile. But suddenly, all was quiet. And the profound silence testified to one of the greatest demographic disasters in human prehistory -- the demise of the once vibrant Maya society.*









A deadly cycle of drought, warming and deforestation may have doomed the Maya.



> "We modeled the worst and best case scenarios: 100 percent deforestation in the Maya area and no deforestation," says Sever. "The results were eye opening. Loss of all the trees caused a 3-5 degree rise in temperature and a 20-30 percent decrease in rainfall."


Drought, warming and deforestation - can you say Global Warming aka Climate Change?

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New Giant Lizard: Komodo Cousin "A Nasty Piece of Work".



> A possible new species of giant prehistoric lizard-bigger and badder than the deadly Komodo dragon-may have stalked the ancient Australian outback, a new study says.


-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

Gabriel said:


> Look how cute she is Ekim, she would be a great mate for that Orang Pendak in Lotuses' post. Too bad the age difference
> 
> http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/1002/1224255669002.html


The Discovery Channel is doing a show on her...

http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/ardipithecus/ardipithecus.html?campaign=dsc-px09-1-nyt002


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## Gabriel

....


----------



## lotuseclat79

World's Rarest Lemur Discovery in Madagascar.



> Good news for the world's rarest lemur! A scientific survey has revealed that the Greater bamboo lemur, Prolemur simus, exists in more locations than previously recorded. Less than 100 Greater Bamboo Lemur were known to exist in the wild. But a scientific expedition into the rainforests of Madagascar has revealed the rare primate exists in twice as many locations as once thought.











Greater Bamboo Lemur

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Herbivory discovered in a spider.

*There are approximately 40,000 species of spiders in the world, all of which have been thought to be strict predators that feed on insects or other animals. Now, scientists have found that a small Central American jumping spider has a uniquely different diet: the species Bagheera kiplingi feeds predominantly on plant food.*









Adult female Bagheera kiplingi eats Beltian body harvested from ant-acacia Credit: R. L. Curry

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Missing link' pterosaur found in China.

*An international group of researchers from the University of Leicester (UK), and the Geological Institute, Beijing (China) have identified a new type of flying reptile - providing the first clear evidence of an unusual and controversial type of evolution.*









This is a drawing of Darwinopterus hunting a small feathered dinosaur (Anchiornis). Credit: Mark Witton, University of Portsmouth









This is the skull of Darwinopterus (skull 185 mm long). Credit: Lü Junchang









This is the fossil skeleton of Darwinopterus (skull 185 mm long). Credit: Lü Junchang









Evolution in action. Primitive long-tailed pterosaur (top), advanced, short-tailed pterosaur (bottom). Darwinopterus (middle) exhibits features of primitive pterosaurs such as the body (monochrome) and tail (blue) and advanced pterosaurs including the skull (red) and neck (yellow). Arrow denotes direction of evolution. Picture credit: Dave Unwin

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Researchers claim a third of dinosaurs might never have existed.

*A new ten-year study by US paleontologists suggests that up to a third of dinosaur fossils may have been incorrectly identified as new species, when they are actually juveniles of species in which there was a dramatic change as they developed.*









Tyrannosaurus rex, a theropod from the Late Cretaceous of North America, pencil drawing. Image: Wikipedia.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Pharaonic-era sacred lake unearthed in Egypt*

CAIRO (Reuters) - Archaeologists have unearthed the site of a pharaonic-era sacred lake in a temple to the Egyptian goddess Mut in the ruins of ancient Tanis, the Culture Ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry said the lake, found 12 meters below ground at the San al-Hagar archaeological site in Egypt's eastern Nile Delta, was 15 meters long and 12 meters wide and built out of limestone blocks. It was in a good condition.

It was the second sacred lake found at Tanis, which became the northern capital of ancient Egypt in the 21st pharaonic dynasty, over 3,000 years ago.

http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE59E32B20091015


----------



## lotuseclat79

lotuseclat79 said:


> Ape Man? Researchers Spot Legendary Orang Pendek in Sumatra.
> 
> *Two of the explorers caught a brief glimpse of the hairy creature. The two described the creature as a broad-shouldered, large-headed creature with black skin and dark brown hair about the size of an adult chimpanzee.*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Legend has it, an ape-like man has been roaming the forests of Sumatra for years. For two weeks, a team of British explorers from the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ), along with an Indonesian guide, tracked the creature deep within the Kerinci National Park to find evidence of the ape-like man known as Orang Pendek, or short man.
> 
> -- Tom


It looks like Ardi's ideal mate (re: Gabriel's comment) may just be a known animal: Orang Pendek At The St. Louis Zoo.

And the St. Louis Zoo has two of them! And it's not a gorilla!

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*World's Oldest Submerged Town Dates Back 5,000 Years*

ScienceDaily (Oct. 16, 2009) - Archaeologists surveying the world's oldest submerged town have found ceramics dating back to the Final Neolithic. Their discovery suggests that Pavlopetri, off the southern Laconia coast of Greece, was occupied some 5,000 years ago - at least 1,200 years earlier than originally thought.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091016101809.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Lemurs Take Bite Out of Evolutionary Tree (w/ Video).

*About 40 miles outside Cairo, Egypt, National Science Foundation-supported paleontologists from three American universities are revealing features of a newly discovered African primate and solving a riddle about humankind's evolutionary past.*









Artist's reconstruction of the lower jaw of a 37 million-year-old Egyptian primate, Afradapis. Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation









Using a method called parsimony analysis to reconstruct the most likely family tree of living and extinct primates, taking into consideration virtually all of the available anatomical evidence that can be observed, palentologists determined that Darwinius and its now extinct relatives, including Afradapis, are not on the evolutionary lineage leading to Old World monkey's, apes and humans, but instead are more closely related to the living lemurs and lorises. Credit: Erik Seiffert, Stony Brook University

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Malawi could be the cradle of humankind*

KARONGA, Malawi (Reuters) - The latest discovery of pre-historic tools and remains of hominids in Malawi's remote northern district of Karonga provides further proof that the area could be the cradle of humankind, a leading German researcher said.



> The site also contains some of the earliest dinosaurs which lived between 100 million and 140 million years ago and early hominids believed to have lived between a million and 6 million years ago.


http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSTRE59M40820091023


----------



## lotuseclat79

Colossal 'sea monster' unearthed w/Video of skull (it's huge!)

*The fossilised skull of a colossal "sea monster" has been unearthed along the UK's Jurassic Coast.*









Liopleurodon (apparently having breakfast)! 

It could swallow a T-Rex in one gulp!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Team Discovers New Dinosaur Species From Montana.

*A husband and wife team of American paleontologists has discovered a new species of dinosaur that lived 112 million years ago during the early Cretaceous of central Montana.*









Tatankacephalus cooneyorum. (illustration by William Parsons)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

T. rex's Oldest Relative Discovered.









The skull of Proceratosaurus, a relative of T. rex that lived about 170 million years ago, was tipped with a nose horn, whose function the study researchers have not determined. Credit: copyright Natural History Museum.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists: New dinosaur species found in SAfrica.

*Scientists say they've discovered a new dinosaur species in South Africa that may help explain how the creatures evolved into the largest animals on land.*









Paleontologist Adam Yates , second left, displays fossilized bones of a new dinosaur species, Aardonyx Celestae, from the early Jurassic period (about 200 million years old) during an announcement of the discovery at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009. The fossils, displayed on the table, were found in the town of Senekal, near Bethlehem in the Northern Free State, in South Africa. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Mummy's CT scans show heart disease came before fast food*

ORLANDO - Her name was Lady Rai. She was a nursemaid to an Egyptian queen who lived three centuries before the reign of Pharaoh Ramses I. And she suffered from heart disease.

The evidence lies in a CT scan of Lady Rai's mummified remains, researchers here said Tuesday. Using 21st-century science, they peered through her tattered wrappings and into her ancient arteries. There, they found evidence of the same kind of plaque that doctors now diagnose every day.

What's more, they found it in someone who lived 3,500 years before fast food, sedentary living and cheap cigarettes. The research suggests that while modern risk factors may account for the current epidemic of heart disease, the ailment predates them.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-11-17-Mummies-heart-disease_N.htm


----------



## ekim68

_Ancient crocodiles came in many forms, and some ate dinosaurs_

Ancient Africa's swamps and rivers swarmed with plant-eating and dinosaur-gobbling crocodiles some 100 million years ago, National Geographic paleontologists reported Thursday.

In a report in the online journal ZooKeys, Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and Hans Larsson of Canada's McGill University detail crocodilian discoveries from the plant-eating "RatCroc" (so named for their eating habits) to the saber-toothed "BoarCroc," a 20-foot-long, dinosaur gobbler.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-11-19-crocfossil_N.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Giant Lungless "Worm" Found Living on Land.

*A new amphibian species can survive on land with no nostrils, lungs, or legs, say researchers who discovered the bizarre beast.

The creature, found in Guyana, is part of the wormlike group of amphibians known as caecilians. Only one other caecilian species is known to live without lungs.*









The newfound species of amphibian seen above can survive on land with no nostrils, lungs, or legs, according to researchers who discovered the bizarre beast in Guyana. The animal is the second known caecilian-or wormlike amphibian-found to live without lungs, researchers reported in a November 2009 study. Photographs courtesy Marvalee Wake, University of California, Berkeley, via Proceedings of the Royal Society B

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Thousands of Strange Sea Creatures Discovered.

*The deep sea is teeming with thousands of species that have never known sunlight, explorers now say.*









At 1.7 miles down (2,750 meters) in the Northern Gulf of Mexico, scientists found this transparent sea cucumber, Enypniastes, creeping forward on its many tentacles at less than 1 inch (2 cm) per minute while sweeping detritus-rich sediment into its mouth. The creature was discovered as part of the decade-long, international 14-project Census of Marine Life. Credit: Larry Madin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution









What might look like ancient gold treasure is a magnified crustacean, a tiny copepod collected this year from deep in the Atlantic abyss, where the sun doesn't shine. The creature was discovered as part of the decade-long, international 14-project Census of Marine Life. Copyright Bunzow/Corgosinho









At more than 1 mile down (2,000 to 2,500 meters), scientist discovered this bizarre, elongated orange animal identified as Neocyema -- only the 5th specimen of the fish ever caught and never before on the mid-Atlantic Ridge. The odd fish was found as part of the decade-long, international 14-project Census of Marine Life. Credit: David Shale









A newfound deep-sea species of gelatinous dumbo (Grimpoteuthis sp.) flap a pair of large ear-like fins to swim. The creature was discovered as part of the decade-long, international 14-project Census of Marine Life. Credit: David Shale

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Dino discovery supports migration theory*

(12-10) 16:25 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Dinosaur hunters digging in a New Mexico quarry have unearthed the fossil bones of an early meat-eating beast whose remains tell a remarkable story of evolution that started more than 200 million years ago when the whole world was one supercontinent known as Pangaea.

The bones boost theories that the first dinosaurs originated in what is now South America and some migrated north into the present day United States as the giant landmass began breaking into pieces.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/10/BA9E1B0FN1.DTL&tsp=1


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## lotuseclat79

Flying dinosaur controversy resolved.

*New research appears to have ended a scientific debate that has vexed palaeontologists for almost 100 years.*









Reconstruction of a pterosaur. Photo by Dmitry Bogdanov

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Prehistoric Pygmy Sea Cow Discovered in Madagascar.

*A new species of extinct pygmy sea cow (illustrated above with skull inset) is one of the first fossil mammal species found in Madagascar from the mysterious time period between 80 million years ago and 90,000 years ago, experts say.*










-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Dinosaur with feathers and fangs prowled forests like a predatory turkey*

The remains of a venomous, feathered beast that terrorised prehistoric forests like a predatory turkey have been unearthed by fossil hunters in northern China.

Palaeontologists uncovered a well-preserved skull and partial skeleton of the bird-like dinosaur, Sinornithosaurus, that lived in the region 128 million years ago.

The creature, a close relative of the velociraptor, had fangs similar to those seen in modern poisonous snakes and venomous lizards, such as the Mexican gila monster.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/dec/21/feathered-dinosaur-turkey-sinornithosaurus


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## lotuseclat79

Fossil shelved for a century reworks carnivore family tree.

*More than a hundred years after its discovery, the limbs and vertebrae of a fossil have been pulled off the shelf at the American Museum of Natural History to revise the view of early carnivore lifestyles. Carnivores-currently a diverse group of mostly meat-eating mammals like bears, cats, raccoons, seals, and hyenas-had been considered arboreal in their early evolutionary history. But now that the skeleton of 'Miacis' uintensis has been unpacked from its matrix of sandstone, it is clear that some early carnivores were built to walk on the ground at least part of the time. The new research is published this month in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.*









An early carnivore that was a close relative of Miacis uintensis, Vulpavus, is about to climb on a tree trunk. This illustrates the varied locomotor adaptations seen across even the earliest relatives of living carnivorans. Credit: Marlene Donnelly and The Field Museum

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Students' sharp eyes restore dinosaur's rightful name.

*Three graduate students in paleontology blew dust off dinosaur toes found in 1924 to discover that something didn't quite add up. After examining a few more fossilized bones, they concluded that a 1970s reclassification of the dinosaur's species was wrong, and that the original paleontologist had it right the first time around.*

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*What Happened to the Hominids Who Were Smarter Than Us?*

The Boskops had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among **** sapiens.

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us


----------



## Fidelista

ekim68 said:


> *What Happened to the Hominids Who Were Smarter Than Us?*
> 
> The Boskops had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among **** sapiens.
> 
> http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us


I bet we ate em. >f


----------



## lotuseclat79

ekim68 said:


> *What Happened to the Hominids Who Were Smarter Than Us?*
> 
> The Boskops had big eyes, child-like faces, and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among **** sapiens.
> 
> http://discovermagazine.com/2009/the-brain-2/28-what-happened-to-hominids-who-were-smarter-than-us


Hi ekim68,

I would treat the article with skepticism due to the fact that the article offers no proof that the Boskops were smarter than us - i.e. their IQs were never tested and if they were so smart why didn't they survive? The whole article stinks of assumptions that cannot be verified except by sterotypes which only verifies that we can easily be duped.

-- Tom


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## Knotbored

I would dispute any brain size comparison meaning increased inteligence within a species. I have a (part) chihuaua that can outsmart many (most?) Saint Bernards. And I have a Siamese cat I would bet can outsmart both.


----------



## ekim68

lotuseclat79 said:


> Hi ekim68,
> 
> I would treat the article with skepticism due to the fact that the article offers no proof that the Boskops were smarter than us - i.e. their IQs were never tested and if they were so smart why didn't they survive? The whole article stinks of assumptions that cannot be verified except by sterotypes which only verifies that we can easily be duped.
> 
> -- Tom


Good point Tom. :up: But, Fidelista's comment might be right on, too...
Happy New Year...


----------



## lotuseclat79

ekim68 said:


> Good point Tom. :up: But, Fidelista's comment might be right on, too...
> Happy New Year...


And that would make them not very smart!

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

lotuseclat79 said:


> and that would make them not very smart!
> 
> -- tom


:up:


----------



## lotuseclat79

New crab species looks like a strawberry.

*A new species of crab which resembles a strawberry has been discovered living on the coast of Taiwan.*









The two crabs were spotted during research on the environmental impact of an oil spill in the Kenting National Park Photo: PA

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Rare Bird's Breeding Ground Found in Afghanistan*

BANGKOK (AP) -- The first known breeding area of one of the world's rarest birds has been found in the remote and rugged Pamir Mountains in war-torn Afghanistan, a New York-based conservation group said Monday.

A researcher with the Wildlife Conservation Society stumbled upon the small, olive-brown large-billed reed warbler in 2008 and taped its distinctive song -- a recording experts now say is probably the first ever.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/01/18/world/AP-AS-Afghanistan-Rare-Bird.html?_r=2


----------



## Gabriel

Here's a picture of the little bird

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/story/1431554.html


----------



## lotuseclat79

Hi Gabriel,

Great find! Thanks for that!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Giant sculptured Mayan head found.

*A decorated Mayan head measuring three meters (10 feet) at the base and sculptured out of stucco has been unearthed in northern Guatemala, near the border with Mexico. The sculpture had been buried for centuries under the thick jungle, and its presence may suggest the site could have been part of a Mayan city.*









Maya mask at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. Image: Wolfgang Sauber, via Wikipedia.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Dinosaur discovery helps solve piece of evolutionary puzzle (w/ Video).

*A George Washington University expedition to the Gobi Desert of China has enabled researchers to solve the puzzle of how one group of dinosaurs came to look like birds independent of birds. The discovery extends the fossil record of the family Alvarezsauridae - a bizarre group of bird-like dinosaurs with a large claw on the hand and very short, powerful arms - back 63 million years, further distancing the group from birds on the evolutionary tree.*









An example of a dinosaur group member that came to look like birds independent of birds.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New "Destroyer" Dinosaur Found, Was T. Rex Relative.

*A 29-foot-long (9-meter-long) "destroyer" dinosaur once reigned over the Wild West, according to a new study of a fossil T. rex relative found in New Mexico.*









A Bistahieversor sealeyi dinosaur skull found in the Bisti/De-na-zin Wilderness of New Mexico.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Skeleton of Western man found in ancient Mongolian tomb.

*DNA from 2,000-year-old skeleton may put Indo-Europeans in East Asia*



> Dead men can indeed tell tales, but they speak in a whispered double helix.











Excavations several years ago at an ancient cemetery in Mongolia uncovered a man's skeleton, including this skull, that has yielded genetic evidence of Indo-Europeans reaching eastern Asia at least 2,000 years ago.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Pictures: "Mythical" Temple Found in Peru.

*A thousand-year-old temple complex (including a tomb with human sacrifice victims, shown in a digital illustration) has been found under the windswept dunes of northwestern Peru, archaeologists say.*

Click on images to see pictures at above link.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Archaeologists find evidence of birds' dinosaur ancestors.

*Two new studies of fossils from China show that bird-like dinosaurs predate the earliest official birds, and shed light on the origin of feathers.*









Feathered dinosaur Anchio - NASA

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Thousands of dinosaur footprints uncovered in China.

*Archaeologists in China have uncovered more than 3,000 dinosaur footprints, state media reported, in an area said to be the world's largest grouping of fossilised bones belonging to the ancient animals.*









A mound strewn with dinosaur bones is seen October 2009 in Zhucheng, in northeast China's Shandong province. Paleontologists in China have uncovered more than 3,000 dinosaur footprints, state media reported, in an area said to be the world's largest grouping of fossilised bones belonging to the ancient animals.

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Ancient dialect extinct after last speaker dies*

PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters Life!) - One of the world's oldest dialects, which traces its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61439420100205


----------



## ekim68

*Life retreated to Antarctica during mass extinction*

Life on Earth hit a particularly rough patch about 250 million years ago, when about 90 percent of marine species went extinct along with about 70 percent of land organisms, including the only large-scale extinction of insects.

Apparently, there were few places to hide from disaster at the end of the Permian, a geologic period that lasted for about 50 million years until the widespread extinction of life.

Several hypotheses exist on what caused the extreme destruction of life. One of the leading theories involves global warming caused by massive volcanic activity that formed the Siberian Traps in Russia. Based on that assumption, researchers in a recent paper suggest that the far south of Pangaea -- present-day Antarctica -- served as a climate refuge for some vertebrate species.

http://www.astrobiology.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=33414


----------



## Gabriel

ekim68 said:


> *Ancient dialect extinct after last speaker dies*
> 
> PORT BLAIR, India (Reuters Life!) - One of the world's oldest dialects, which traces its origins to tens of thousands of years ago, has become extinct after the last person to speak it died on a remote Indian island.
> 
> http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61439420100205


That is so very sad


----------



## ekim68

I agree, it is sad...You know, I've never liked that old saying: "Nothing lasts forever"


----------



## lotuseclat79

Waking the dead: Ancient genome of extinct human being reconstructed.

*For the first time, scientists have reconstructed the nuclear genome of an extinct human being. The innovative technique can help reconstruct human phenotypic traits of extinct cultures. It also allows for finding those contemporary populations most closely related to extinct cultures revealing ancient human expansions and migrations. Finally, the discovery improves our understanding of heredity and the disease risk passed down from our ancestors. The spectacular findings are being published in Nature.*









Drawing of Inuk -- reconstruction. Credit: Nuka Godfredtsen

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Tree Carving Points to the Stars.

*Known as the "scorpion tree," locals had long believed that cowboys were behind the tree carving (the technical term is "arborglyph"). But paleontologist Rex Saint Onge knew it dated to long before then.*










-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Indonesian Dragon.









While participating in a herpetology study we stumbled across this female laying eggs in a nest. She was found in the Lambsuango Forest reserve and was immediately released after this photograph was taken.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Discovery Dates Seafaring 100,000-Plus Years Ago.



> *Early humans, possibly even prehuman ancestors, appear to have been going to sea much longer than anyone had ever suspected.
> 
> That is the startling implication of discoveries made the last two summers on the Greek island of Crete. Stone tools found there, archaeologists say, are at least 130,000 years old, which is considered strong evidence for the earliest known seafaring in the Mediterranean and cause for rethinking the maritime capabilities of prehuman cultures.*


HARDWARE Stone tools found on Crete are evidence of early sea voyages. Credit Nicholas Thompson and Chad DiGregorio









Credit: The New York Times

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Island of dwarf dinosaurs: 100-year-old theory confirmed.

*The idea of dwarf dinosaurs on Haţeg Island, Romania, was proposed 100 years ago by the colourful Baron Franz Nopcsa, whose family owned estates in the area. He realized that many of the Haţeg dinosaurs had close relatives in older rocks in England, Germany, and North America, but the Romanian specimens were half the size.*









Magyarosaurus (top) and Zalmoxes (bottom) from Haţeg. A dwarf sauropod and dwarf ornithopod, respectively, reconstructed beside their nearest normal-sized relatives that were twice the length and eight times the body mass of their dwarf cousins. Photo by Simon Powell

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New species of dinosaur found in eastern Utah rock (w/Video).

*A team of paleontologists has discovered a new dinosaur species they're calling Abydosaurus, which belongs to the group of gigantic, long-necked, long-tailed, four-legged, plant-eating dinosaurs such as Brachiosaurus.*

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Woolly mammoths resurfacing in Siberia*

The bones and tusks of the ancient creatures are becoming more prevalent as permafrost thaws. Now entire villages are surviving on the trade in mammoth bones.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-woolly-mammoth2-2010mar02,0,2703266.story


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Anaconda' meets 'Jurassic Park': Study shows ancient snakes ate dinosaur babies (w/ Video).

*The remains of an extraordinary fossil unearthed in 67-million-year-old sediments from Gujarat, western India provide a rare glimpse at an unusual feeding behavior in ancient snakes.*









This is a life-sized reconstruction of the moment just before preservation. The scales and patterning of Sanajeh's skin is based on modern relatives of the fossil snake. The hatchling dinosaur is reconstructed from known skeletal materials, but its color is conjectural. The eggs are based directly on the fossils. Credit: Sculpture by Tyler Keillor and original photography by Ximena Erickson; image modified by Bonnie Miljour

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Dinosaurs might be older than previously thought.

*Until now, paleontologists have generally believed that the closest relatives of dinosaurs possibly looked a little smaller in size, walked on two legs and were carnivorous. However, a research team including Randall Irmis, curator of paleontology at the Utah Museum of Natural History and assistant professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah has made a recent discovery to dispel this hypothesis.*









Life reconstruction of Asilisaurus kongwe from the Middle Triassic of Tanzania, with the sail‑backed archosaur Hypselorhachis in the background. Credit: Marlene Donnelly, Field Museum.









Phylogenetic postion of Asilisaurus among bird-line archosaurs. Image by S. Nesbitt.









This is a skeletal reconstruction of Asilisaurus kongwe with a human silhouette for scale. Credit: Sterling Nesbitt









This is the lower leg bone of Asilisaurus at the moment of discovery in Tanzania. Credit: Roger Smith

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Ice Age baby mammoth on display in Chicago, first time ever in U.S.*

CHICAGO - Some 42,000 years after scientists say she fell into mud near a river and suffocated to death, an intact baby woolly mammoth from the Ice Age is to go on display for the first time in the United States at The Field Museum.

Scientists say the mammoth calf named Lyuba is the best preserved and most complete mammoth specimen known. She was found in 2007 by a reindeer herder in northern Siberia's remote Yamal-Nenets autonomous region and named for his wife.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2010-03-08-mammoth-chicago-field-museum_N.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Australian archaeologists uncover 40,000-year-old site.

*Australian archaeologists have uncovered what they believe to be the world's southernmost site of early human life, a 40,000-year-old tribal meeting ground, an Aboriginal leader said Wednesday.*









An archeologist examines the colonial graveyard beneath Sydney's city hall in 2008

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient rivers buried under outback desert (2 web pages).

*An ancient river system buried 35 m below the Simpson Desert in Central Australia has been revealed by scientists from the Australian National University in Canberra.*









Sand dunes in the Simpson Desert, covering a river system that is up to 50 million years old. Credit: Michael Hutchinson/ANU

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Hunting for "The Hobbit" (w/13 photos).

*The discovery of **** floresiensis shocked and divided scientists. Here apparently was a band of distant relatives that exhibited features not seen for millions of years but were living at the same time as much more modern humans. Almost overnight, the find threatened to change our understanding of human evolution.*









At the left is an undated photo released by the National Archaeological Research and Development of Indonesian Cultural and Tourism Department of a researcher holding a skull of a **** floresiensis in Indonesia. At the right is an undated photo released by the Department of Anatomical Sciences of Stony Brook University Medical Center showing the skeleton of **** floresiensis that was discovered in Liang Bua cave in Ruteng, Flores island, Indonesia.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Amphibian Skull Discovered at (near) Airport.

*A meat-eating amphibian that lived 300 million years ago may represent one of the earliest examples of land-based vertebrate life, scientists announced today.*









The exquisitely preserved skull of Fedexia striegeli, an early terrestrial amphibian. Credit: Mark A. Klingler/Carnegie Museum of Natural History









An illustration of Fedexia striegeli in the environment of the Pennsylvanian Period (300 million years ago). Credit: Mark A. Klingler/Carnegie Museum of Natural History

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Rare armor-plated creature discovered in Canada's capital.

*Scientists have unearthed the remains of one of the Worlds rarest fossils - in downtown Ottawa. The 450 million year old fossil preserves the complete skeleton of a plumulitid machaeridian, one of only 8 such specimens known. Plumulitids were annelid worms - the group including earthworms, bristleworms and leeches, today found everywhere from the deepest sea to the soil in your yard - and although plumulitids were small they reveal important evidence of how this major group of organisms evolved.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

A Host of Mummies, a Forest of Secrets.

*In the middle of a terrifying desert north of Tibet, Chinese archaeologists have excavated an extraordinary cemetery. Its inhabitants died almost 4,000 years ago, yet their bodies have been well preserved by the dry air.*









SYMBOLISM Archaeologists believe the hundreds of 13-foot poles at the Small River Cemetery in a desert in Xinjiang Province, China, were mostly phallic symbols.



> The cemetery lies in what is now China's northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang, yet the people have European features, with brown hair and long noses. Their remains, though lying in one of the world's largest deserts, are buried in upside-down boats. And where tombstones might stand, declaring pious hope for some god's mercy in the afterlife, their cemetery sports instead a vigorous forest of phallic symbols, signaling an intense interest in the pleasures or utility of procreation.
> ...
> An exhibition of the Tarim Basin mummies opens March 27 at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana, Calif. - the first time that the mummies will be seen outside Asia.


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Velociraptor's cousin discovered.

*Scientists have discovered a new species of dinosaur that was closely related to the Velociraptor.*









The 1.8m-long predator was a dromaeosaurid - a family of theropod dinosaurs from which modern birds descended.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Human ancestors walked comfortably upright 3.6 million years ago, new footprint study says.

*A comparison of ancient and contemporary footprints reveals that our ancestors were strolling much like we do some 3.6 million years ago, a time when they were still quite comfortable spending time in trees, according to a study which will be published in the March 22 issue of the journal PLoS ONE.*



> "This more human-like form of walking is incredibly energetically efficient, suggesting that reduced energy costs were very important in the evolution of bipedalism,"


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Team explains how dinosaurs rose to prominence.

*A shade more than 200 million years ago, the Earth looked far different than it does today. Most land on the planet was consolidated into one continent called Pangea. There was no Atlantic Ocean, and the rulers of the animal world were crurotarsans - creatures closely related to modern crocodiles.*



> Brown University paleobiologist Jessica Whiteside led a scientific team that has explained what led to the dinosaurs' rise as the Triassic Period ended. Fossil and carbon evidence show that volcanic eruptions and a spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide wiped out half of plant species and early dinosaurs' primary competitors.
> 
> "The big thing is many people have heard why dinosaurs went extinct," said Whiteside, assistant professor of geological sciences, "but the question why they came to be is much more exciting."











Massive lava flow (top brown layer) sits atop end-Triassic (white) and Triassic (red) layers at a site in Five Islands Provincial Park, Nova Scotia. Credit: Jessica H. Whiteside/Brown University

The question for us today is what is our takeaway in terms of global warming - i.e. what are the conditions that will spike carbon dioxide in our atmosphere which lead to catastrophic consequences for humankind, animals and plants and microbes essential for life on Earth?

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Rare body parts find provides vital clues to identity of ancient fossil.

*A geologist from the University of Leicester is part of a team that has uncovered an ancient water flea-like creature from 425 million years ago - only the third of its kind ever to be discovered in ancient rocks.*









The fossil, illustrated without the shell and showing the soft-parts, including limbs and eyes. Credit: David J. Siveter, Derek E. G. Briggs, Derek J. Siveter and Mark D. Sutton









The fossil is illustrated with its shell. Credit: David J. Siveter, Derek E. G. Briggs, Derek J. Siveter and Mark D. Sutton

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Researchers investigate mysterious stone spheres in Costa Rica.

*The ancient stone spheres of Costa Rica were made world-famous by the opening sequence of "Raiders of the Lost Ark," when a mockup of one of the mysterious relics nearly crushed Indiana Jones.*









John Hoopes, University of Kansas associate professor of anthropology and director of the Global Indigenous Nations Studies Program, recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica where he and colleagues evaluated ancient stone spheres for UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization that might grant the spheres World Heritage Status. Credit: Courtesy of John Hoopes

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Aquatic invasion: Scientists find first amphibious insect species*

Several new species of rare Hawaiian moth caterpillars have been discovered to be able to thrive both totally submerged and totally dry. They are the first insects to be described as fully amphibious, reported a team of researchers in a study published online March 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=aquatic-invasion-scientists-find-fi-2010-03-22


----------



## lotuseclat79

Dinosaur Buried Alive By Collapsing Sand Dune.

*A plant-eating dinosaur might have been swallowed up by a collapsing sand dune some 185 million years ago in what are now Utah's red rocks. The desert disaster likely plopped the dinosaur onto its head, where it remained until being discovered by a local historian and artist in 2004.*









Paleontologist Mark Loewen displays the newly discovered dinosaur species, Seitaad ruessi, which is derived from the Navajo word, Seit'aad, a sand-desert monster from the Navajo creation legend that swallowed its victims in sand dunes. Credit: Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah.









Remains of a plant-eating dinosaur likely swallowed up by a collapsing dune were discovered just below an ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) cliff-dwelling called Eagles Nest in the in the Comb Ridge area near Bluff, Utah. Credit: Utah Museum of Natural History, University of Utah.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New gecko species discovered in Cambodia.

*A new species of gecko has been discovered in the foothills of the Cardamom Mountains in Cambodia's southwest, scientists announced Wednesday.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

New ancestor? Scientists ponder DNA from Siberia.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

A new fossil species found in Spain.

*In the '80s, Spanish researchers found the first fossils of Cloudina in Spain, a small fossil of tubular appearance and one of the first animals that developed an external skeleton between 550 and 543 million years ago. Now palaeontologists from the University of Extremadura have discovered a new species, Cloudina carinata, the fossil of which has preserved its tridimensional shape.*









Well-preserved fossils of Cloudina carinata were found in Extremadura. Credit: Cortijo et al.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Some incredible stuff lately. That amphibious insect species is awesome, Ekim.
And that gecko is very pretty close-up, Lotus


----------



## ekim68

Nice topic you started Gabriel....:up:  Seems like the more we learn going forward is discovering everything from the past...Fascinating...


----------



## lotuseclat79

An archaeological mystery in a half-ton lead coffin.

*In the ruins of a city that was once Rome's neighbor, archaeologists last summer found a 1,000-pound lead coffin.*









The lead coffin archaeologists found in the abandoned ancient city of Gabii, Italy could contain a gladiator or bishop. Credit: Jeffrey Becker, managing director of the Gabii project, McMaster University









Gabii project field director Anna Gallone brushes dirt away from the lead-encased burial. Credit: Jeffrey Becker, managing director of the Gabii project, McMaster University

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

ekim68 said:


> Nice topic you started Gabriel....:up:  Seems like the more we learn going forward is discovering everything from the past...Fascinating...


Hi Mike,

I second that!

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Door to afterlife from ancient Egyptian tomb found.

*Archaeologists have unearthed a 3,500-year-old door to the afterlife from the tomb of a high-ranking Egyptian official near Karnak temple in Luxor, the Egyptian antiquities authority said Monday.*









This undated photo taken in Egypt and released by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on Monday, March 29, 2010, is said by them to show a nearly six-foot-tall (1.75 meters) slab of pink granite used as a false door in the tomb of User, the chief minister of Queen Hatshepsut, which has been unearthed in Egypt. The Egyptian antiquities authority says archaeologists have unearthed the 3,500-year-old false door from the tomb of the high-ranking Egyptian official near Karnak temple in Luxor. (AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Mycenaean tombs discovered might be evidence of classless society.

*A team of archaeologists have unearthed five chamber tombs at Ayia Sotira, a cemetery in the Nemea Valley in Greece, just a few hours walk from the ancient city of Mycenae. The tombs date from 1350 - 1200 BC, the era in which Mycenae thrived as a major centre of Greek civilization.*









A shot of the burials in one of the tombs. The burial on the right is of an adult male in his 30's. The burial at top is of a teenage girl, age 16-17. To the left there are the skeletal remains of two men, put into a pit. The man at the top was in his 30's - the skull is placed above the skeleton on purpose. Photo courtesy Ayia Sotira Project.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Southern 'cousin' of T. rex found.

*Scientists have found the first evidence that tyrannosaur dinosaurs - relatives of the famous T. rex - existed in the southern hemisphere.*









Until now, Tyrannosaurs were known only from northern continents

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Missing link discovered in cattleman's shed (No, not that missing link!)

*The long-lost works of one of Australia's leading early anthropologists have been discovered in the shed of a northern New South Wales cattleman.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

First-ever single-claw dinosaur fossil found in China.

*Dr. Xing Xu, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his collaborators, described a new dinosaur that was one of the smallest known and also one of the best adapted for running.*









Reconstruction of Xixianykus zhangi (Credit: Matt van Rooijen) One of the smallest known dinosaurs, Xixianykus zhangi (shown here in a reconstruction) was built for quick running. A shorter upper leg relative to its lower leg helped the dinosaur carry its weight more efficiently. Credit: Matt van Rooijen.

Farmer Discovers Fossil of Ant-Eating Dinosaur.

*A newfound ant-eating dinosaur was one of the smallest known and also one of the best adapted for running, scientists revealed.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient snakes living on Madagascar.

*"Blindsnakes are not very pretty, are rarely noticed, and are often mistaken for earthworms," admits Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State University. "Nonetheless, they tell a very interesting evolutionary story." Hedges and Nicolas Vidal, of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, are co-leaders of the team that discovered that blindsnakes are one of the few groups of organisms that inhabited Madagascar when it broke from India about 100 million years ago and are still living today. The results of their study will be published in the 31 March 2010 issue of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.*









Blind snakes have been discovered to be one of the few species now living in Madagascar that existed there when it broke from India about 100 million years ago, according to a study led by Blair Hedges at Penn State University in the United Steates and Nicolas Vidal, of the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. The study will be published in the March 31, 2010, issue of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Credit: Frank Glaw

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

'Oriental yeti' discovered in China.

*A creature dubbed the 'oriental yeti' is being examined by scientists after emerging from ancient woodlands in remote central China.*









This bizarre creature dubbed the oriental yeti has baffled scientists after emerging from ancient woodlands in remote central China. Photo: CEN



> "It looks a bit like a bear but it doesn't have any fur and it has a tail like a kangaroo. ... it has a voice more like a cat"


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Cretaceous African Life Sealed in Amber (7Slides/Pics).

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Giant lizard discovered in the Philippines.

*Researchers have concluded that a giant, golden-spotted monitor lizard discovered in the forested mountains of the Philippines six years ago is a new species, according to a study released Wednesday.*









AP Photo/Arvin C. Diesmos

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*First Animals to Live Without Oxygen Discovered*

ScienceDaily (Apr. 7, 2010) - Deep under the Mediterranean Sea, small animals have been discovered that live their entire lives without oxygen and surrounded by 'poisonous' sulphides. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Biology report the existence of multicellular organisms (new members of the group Loricifera), showing that they are alive, metabolically active, and apparently reproducing in spite of a complete absence of oxygen.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100407094450.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Researchers shed light on ancient Assyrian tablets.

*A cache of cuneiform tablets unearthed by a team led by a University of Toronto archaeologist has been found to contain a largely intact Assyrian treaty from the early 7th century BCE.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Only known living population of rare dwarf lemur found.

*Elusive species "rediscovered" a century after first sighting.*










-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

OMG...love that face

There is an Extreme Mammal Exhibit ad on that page, Lotus...not too far from me. I'll have to try and make that.


----------



## ekim68

*Greco-Roman mummy, tombs uncovered in Egypt oasis*

(Reuters) - Egyptian archaeologists carrying out excavations at the site of a planned youth center have found 14 tombs dating back to the third century BC, including one with a female mummy adorned with jewelry.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B38Y20100412


----------



## ekim68

This is pre-religion...

ScienceDaily (Apr. 14, 2010) - An early ancestor of the cockroach that lived around 300 million years ago is unveiled in unprecedented detail in a new three-dimensional 'virtual fossil' model, in research published in the journal Biology Letters.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100413202658.htm


----------



## ekim68

*Microbial Life Found in Hydrocarbon Lake*

Pitch Lake is a poisonous, foul smelling, hell hole on the Caribbean island of Trinidad and Tobago. The lake is filled with hot asphalt and bubbling with noxious hydrocarbon gases and carbon dioxide. Water is scarce here and certainly below the levels normally thought of as a threshold for life.

These alien conditions have made Pitch Lake a place of more than passing interest to astrobiologists. Various scientists have suggested that it is the closest thing on Earth to the kind of hydrocarbon lakes that we can see on Saturn's moon Titan. Naturally, these scientists would very much like to answer the question of what kind of life these places can support.

Today, Dirk Schulze-Makuch from Washington State University and a few buddies provide an answer. Pitch lake, they say, is teaming with microbial life. They say that, on average, each gram of goo in the lake contains some 10^7 living cells.

http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/25051/


----------



## lotuseclat79

New bony-skulled dinosaur species discovered in Texas.

*Paleontologists have discovered a new species of dinosaur with a softball-sized lump of solid bone on top of its skull, according to a paper published in the April issue of the journal Cretaceous Research.*









Skull Dome: Texacephale langstoni had softball-sized lumps of bone on top of their skulls. Researchers found two of the fossilized domes in Big Bend National Park in southwest Texas. Credit: Nicholas Longrich/Yale University









Texacephale langstoni Reconstruction: Scientists speculate that Texacephale langstoni used the lumps of bone on top of their skulls to ram one another head-on. Credit: Nicholas Longrich/Yale University

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

New species of bacterium in fjords of Sweden

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100419113650.htm


----------



## lotuseclat79

Borneo Rainforest: New Species Found Include Lung-Less Frog.

*A lung-less frog, a frog that flies and a slug that shoots love darts are among 123 new species found in Borneo since 2007 in a project to conserve one of the oldest rainforests in the world.*









No lungs: Known as the Barbourula kalimantanensis and discovered in 2008, this flat-headed frog breathes entirely through its skin. It is among 123 new species found in Borneo since 2007 Credit: AFP/Getty Images

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient artifacts revealed as northern ice patches melt.

*High in the Mackenzie Mountains, scientists are finding a treasure trove of ancient hunting tools being revealed as warming temperatures melt patches of ice that have been in place for thousands of years.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Rare 95 million-year-old flying reptile Aetodactylus halli is new genus, species of pterosaur.

*A 95 million-year-old fossilized jaw discovered in Texas has been identified as a new genus and species of flying reptile, Aetodactylus halli.*









Aetodactylus halli

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Vanished Persian Army Said Found in Desert.

*Bones, jewelry and weapons found in Egyptian desert may be the remains of Cambyses' army that vanished 2,500 years ago.*









Hundreds of bleached bones and skulls found in the desolate wilderness of the Sahara desert may be the remains of the long lost Cambyses' army, according to Italian researchers. Alfredo and Angelo Castiglioni

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Mammoths had 'anti-freeze blood', gene study finds.

*Mammoths had a form of "anti-freeze" blood to keep their bodies supplied with oxygen at freezing temperatures.*









The mutation may have helped mammoths survive in the Ice Age

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

A shrunken giant: Island dino Magyarosaurus was a dwarf, after all.

*Sauropod dinosaurs, like the famous Brachiosaurus or Argentinosaurus, are known above all for their enormous size. Yet some of these giants evolved into dwarfs. An international research team at Bonn University has now confirmed that the sauropod dinosaur Magyarosaurus dacus, a close relative of the Argentinosaurus, never grew any larger than a horse.*









This is how Magyarosaurus could have looked. Credit: Mihai Dumbrava, liliensternus.deviantart.com

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Maya plumbing, first pressurized water feature found in New World.

*A water feature found in the Maya city of Palenque, Mexico, is the earliest known example of engineered water pressure in the new world, according to a collaboration between two Penn State researchers, an archaeologist and a hydrologist. How the Maya used the pressurized water is, however, still unknown.*









This is a site map of the Maya city of Palenque in Mexico. The inset shows the area around the Piedras Bolas aqueduct. Credit: Ed Barnhart

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Mapping Ancient Civilization, in a Matter of Days*

For a quarter of a century, two archaeologists and their team slogged through wild tropical vegetation to investigate and map the remains of one of the largest Maya cities, in Central America. Slow, sweaty hacking with machetes seemed to be the only way to discover the breadth of an ancient urban landscape now hidden beneath a dense forest canopy.

Even the new remote-sensing technologies, so effective in recent decades at surveying other archaeological sites, were no help. Imaging radar and multispectral surveys by air and from space could not "see" through the trees.

Then, in the dry spring season a year ago, the husband-and-wife team of Arlen F. Chase and Diane Z. Chase tried a new approach using airborne laser signals that penetrate the jungle cover and are reflected from the ground below. They yielded 3-D images of the site of ancient Caracol, in Belize, one of the great cities of the Maya lowlands.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/science/11maya.html?pagewanted=all


----------



## lotuseclat79

Odd Mosaic of Dental Features Reveals Undocumented Primate.

*It's in the teeth. An odd mosaic of dental features recently unearthed in northern Egypt reveals a previously undocumented, highly-specialized primate called Nosmips aenigmaticus that lived in Africa nearly 37 million years ago.*









Composite lower dentition of the 37 million-year-old primate Nosmips, from northern Egypt, is shown. Credit: Erik Seiffert, Stony Brook University

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists discover megalodon shark nursery.

*University of Florida researchers have discovered a 10-million-year-old Neotropical nursery area for the extinct megalodon shark in Panama, providing fossil evidence the fish used these areas to protect their young for millions of years.*









In this photo taken May 6, 2010, University of Florida vertebrate paleontology graduate student Dana Ehret compares the size of a juvenile megalodon tooth from the Gatun Formation, Panama, left, with an adult megalodon tooth from Florida. Ehret is a co-author of a National Science Foundation-funded study appearing in the journal PLoS One describing the first Neotropical megalodon shark nursery.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Brazil experts find fossils of pre-dinosaur creature.

*Brazilian paleontologists announced Tuesday they discovered the well-preserved and near-complete fossils of a pre-dinosaur predator that lived some 238 million years ago.*









Brazilian students observe dinosaur bones

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Fossil find fills in picture of ancient marine life.

*Paleontologists have discovered a rich array of exceptionally preserved fossils of marine animals that lived between 480 million and 472 million years ago, during the early part of a period known as the Ordovician. The specimens are the oldest yet discovered soft-bodied fossils from the Ordovician, a period marked by intense biodiversification. The findings, which appear in the May 13 issue of the journal Nature, greatly expand our understanding of the sea creatures and ecosystems that existed at a crucial point in evolutionary history, when most of the animal life on the planet was found in the oceans.*









Researchers found more than 1500 fossils of marine creatures, such as this cheloniellid arthropod, that lived nearly 500 million years ago. Credit: Peter Van Roy/Yale University

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

3 new monitor lizards from the Philippines identified.

*Results reveal again the underestimated diversity of these giant lizards in insular Southeast Asia*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

'Pinocchio' Frog and 'Gargoyle' Gecko Discovered.

*Pinocchio-nosed frogs, gargoyle-faced geckos and the world's smallest wallaby are among the newly identified species discovered during an expedition to Indonesia's remote Foja Mountains and announced today.*









This newly discovered tree frog (Litoria sp. nov.) has a long, Pinocchio-like spike on its nose that points upward when the male is calling but deflates and points downward when he is less active. The frog was discovered by Paul Oliver of Australia. Credit: Tim Laman/National Geographic.









This gargoyle-faced, bent-toed gecko with yellow eyes (Crytodactylus sp. nov.) was discovered by Paul Oliver of Australia. Credit: Tim Laman/National Geographic.

New species of tree mouse, blossom bat, and (world's tiniest) wallaby were also discovered (w/pics).

-- Tom


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## Gabriel

So many animals...so little time


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## ekim68

*Archaeologists discover 2,700-year-old tomb in Mexico*

Archaeologists in southern Mexico have discovered the 2,700-year-old tomb of a dignitary inside a pyramid that may be the oldest such burial documented in Mesoamerica.

The tomb held a man aged about 50, who was buried with jade collars, pyrite and obsidian artefacts and ceramic vessels. Archaeologist Emiliano Gallaga said the tomb dates to between 500 and 700BC.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/may/18/archaeology-pyramid-tomb-mexico-olmec


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists say the American lion is not a lion after all.

*There has been some debate over the last century or so about whether the extinct American lion, Panthera atrox, which dates from the Pleistocene, is related to present day African lions (Panthera leo) or to the jaguar (Panthera onca). Most paleontologists consider P. atrox as a lion, and have in the past even classified the American lion as Panthera leo rather than a separate species. Now a new study has challenged previous classifications and found the American lion was a distinct species and more similar to the jaguar than the lion.*









Panthera atrox skull. Image credit: Wikipedia.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Demoting a dinosaur: New fossil material redefines Azendohsaurus as a peculiar early reptile.

*Azendohsaurus just shed its dinosaur affiliation. A careful new analysis of A. madagaskarensis -- this time based on the entire skull rather than on just teeth and jaws -- aligns this 230-million-year-old animal with a different and very early branch on the reptile evolutionary tree. Many aspects of Azendohsaurus are far more primitive than previously assumed, which in turn means that its plant-eating adaptations, similar to those found some early dinosaurs, were developed independently. The new analysis is published in the journal Palaeontology.*









This is a reconstruction of the skull of the new species of Azendohsaurus. On top is a lateral or side view, and on the bottom, a palatal or roof of the mouth view. Note the teeth covering the palate, a highly unusual feature among reptiles, and the downturned front end of the lower jaw, a feature found independently in many herbivorous archosauromorphs. Credit: S. Nesbitt

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New skeletons from the Age of Dinosaurs answer century-old questions.

*More than 100 years ago paleontologist E. D. Cope of "Dinosaur Wars" fame found a few fragmentary bones of a reptile in the deserts of New Mexico. He named the reptile Typothorax.*









Reconstruction of the aetosaur, Typothorax coccinarum, in a Triassic landscape based on skeletons from the Bull Canyon Formation of eastern New Mexico. (Artwork by Matt Celeskey.)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New pyramid discovered in Peru linked to ancient copper industry.

*A team of archaeologists who uncovered a 1,400 year old pyramid in Peru say that the finding is particularly unusual. The flat-topped pyramid, which was built by the Moche culture, was used for the living rather than just for the dead, and contains a wealth of artefacts, murals and human remains.*









This adolescent woman was buried inside the pyramid. Her legs are close together indicating that they were bound. Her knees also show evidence of ritual burning. It's possible that she was sacrificed however the skeletal analysis found no evidence of trauma. Photo courtesy Professor Edward Swenson.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Oldest Soft-Bodied Marine Fossils Discovered.

*Paleontologists found more than 1,500 soft-bodied marine animal fossils, some dating to nearly 500 million years ago. The discovery provides a more complete understanding of marine life at that time and suggests that these soft-bodied sea animals did not die off during a major extinction event during the Cambrian period, as previously thought.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

57 ancient tombs with mummies unearthed in Egypt.

*Archeologists have unearthed 57 ancient Egyptian tombs, most of which hold an ornately painted wooden sarcophagus with a mummy inside, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities said Sunday.*









This undated photo released by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on Sunday, May 23, 2010, shows a painted wooden sarcophagus discovered in Lahoun, near Fayoum, some 70 miles (100 kilometers) south of Cairo, in Egypt. The Supreme Council of Antiquities says archeologists have unearthed 57 ancient Egyptian tombs, most of them containing a painted wooden sarcophagus with a mummy inside, with the oldest tombs dating back to around 2750 B.C. and twelve of the tombs belonging to the 18th dynasty which ruled Egypt during the second millennium B.C. (AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Revealing China's ancient past.

*An archeologist at Washington University in St. Louis is helping to reveal for the first time a snapshot of rural life in China during the Han Dynasty.*









These are Sanyangzhuang tiles set aside to repair a Han house. Credit: Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology









This is an impression of a mulberry leave, a sign of silk cultivation, found at the Sanyangzhuang site. Credit: Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology



> Exploration has revealed tiled roofs, compounds with brick foundations, eight-meter deep wells lined with bricks, toilets, cart and human foot tracks, roads and trees.
> 
> There is an abundance of metal tools, including plow shares, as well as grinding stones and coins. Also found have been fossilized impressions of mulberry leaves, which researchers see as a sign of silk cultivation.
> 
> "One could make the argument that this is where the Silk Road began," Kidder says.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Mesoamerican people perfected details of rubber processing more than 3,000 years ago: study.

*Spanish explorers encountering an advanced civilization in Mesoamerica in the 16th century had plenty of things to be astonished about, but one type of object in particular was unlike anything they had ever seen before: rubber balls. No such stretchy, bouncy material existed in the Old World, and they had to struggle to find words to describe it.*









The Aztec god, Xiuhtecuhtli, as one of the nine Lords of the Night, offers up rubber balls in this drawing.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Pictures: Nine Fish With "Hands" Found to Be New Species.









Using its fins to walk, rather than swim, along the ocean floor in an undated picture, the pink handfish is one of nine newly named species described in a recent scientific review of the handfish family.

Yeah, but can they do the dishes, shuffle a deck of cards and deal them, etc.? Good cartoon fodder, eh?

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

(Un)Dead Languages: 10 Mysterious Undeciphered Scripts.









A Sample of (Un)Dead Languages

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Palaeontologists solve mystery of 500 million-year-old squid-like carnivore.

*A study by researchers at the University of Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum sheds new light on a previously unclassifiable 500 million-year-old squid-like carnivore known as Nectocaris pteryx.*









This is a reconstruction of Nectocaris pteryx. Credit: Copyright (c) 2009 Marianne Collins.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

'Grinding mouth, wrinkle eye': New species of plant-eating dinosaur.

*A team of paleontologists, including a University of Pennsylvania doctoral candidate, has described a new species of dinosaur based upon an incomplete skeleton found in western New Mexico. The new species, Jeyawati rugoculus, comes from rocks that preserve a swampy forest ecosystem that thrived near the shore of a vast inland sea 91 million years ago.*









This is an artist's rendering of the new species, Jeyawati rugoculus, first discovered in 1996. Credit: Artwork by Lukas Panzarin









Skull and vertebrate bones of Jeyawati were found in New Mexico. Credit: University of Nebraska

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient Jaw Bones Discovered in Sahara Help Scientists Identify New Pterodactyl.

*With the help of ancient fossils unearthed in the Sahara desert, scientists have identified a new type of pterosaur (giant flying reptile or pterodactyl) that existed about 95 million years ago.

According to the findings published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, the scientists consider the newly identified pterosaur to be the earliest example of its kind.

Unearthed in three separate pieces, the jaw bone has a total length of 344mm (13.5 inches). Each piece is well preserved, uncrushed, and unlike most other pterosaur fossils, retains its original three dimension shape.*









An artists impression of Alanqa saharica. (Credit: By Davide Bonadonna)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Out Of The Woods For 'Ardi': Scientists Rip Habitat Claim for 'Breakthrough of the Year'.

*Ardipithecus ramidus - a purported human ancestor that was dubbed Science magazine's 2009 "Breakthrough of the Year" - is coming under fire from scientists who say there is scant evidence for her discoverers' claims that there were dense woodlands at the African site where the creature lived 4.4 million years ago.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Island-hopping dinosaur discovered in Europe.

*Paleontologists have found a fossil in Europe that comes from a dinosaur species previously thought to live only in North America and Asia. How did the dinosaur get there? Island hopping, of course! Between 100 million and 65 million years ago, researchers think the species was able to migrate off the Asian continent by making its way across an archipelago that now constitutes Europe. This may force a rethinking of the biogeography researchers have constructed up to this point, but the big picture may still be incomplete.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

8000 year old rock art may hold clues to dawn of Egypt.

*Archaeologists are studying prehistoric rock drawings discovered in a remote cave in 2002, including dancing figures and strange headless beasts, as they seek new clues about the rise of Egyptian civilization.*










-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists announce new horned dinosaur.

*Michael J. Ryan, Ph.D., a scientist at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, has announced the discovery of a new horned dinosaur, Medusaceratops lokii. Approximately 20 feet long and weighing more than 2 tons, the newly identified plant-eating dinosaur lived nearly 78 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period in what is now Montana. Its identification marks the discovery of a new genus of horned dinosaur.*









Medusaceratops © Luis Rey

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

First Horned Dinosaur from Mexico: Plant-Eater Had Largest Horns of Any Dinosaur.

*A new species of horned dinosaur unearthed in Mexico has larger horns that any other species -- up to 4 feet long -- and has given scientists fresh insights into the ancient history of western North America, according to a research team led by paleontologists from the Utah Museum of Natural History at the University of Utah.*









This is a fleshed-out artist's rendering of the Mexican horned dinosaur Coahuilaceratops. (Credit: Lukas Panzarin for the Utah Museum of Natural History)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient mayor's 'lost tomb' found south of Cairo.

*Archaeologists have discovered the 3,300-year-old tomb of the ancient Egyptian capital's mayor, whose resting place had been lost under the desert sand since 19th century treasure hunters first carted off some of its decorative wall panels, officials announced Sunday.*









This undated photo released by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on Sunday, May 30, 2010, shows the tomb of Ptahmes, the mayor of the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis, in Saqqara, south of Cairo, Egypt. Archaeologists discovered the 3,300-year-old tomb of Ptahmes, earlier this year, whose resting place had been lost under the desert sand since 1885 when treasure hunters first carted off some of its decorative wall panels, officials announced Sunday. (AP Photo/Supreme Council of Antiquities)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Stone Age Color, Glue 'Factory' Found.

*The color and glue trade could have been a blossoming industry some 58,000 years ago*









Cave Excavation: Ochre could have served many different functions during the Stone Age from makeup to medicine and more. Credit: Lyn Wadley



> THE GIST
> 
> * A 58,000-year-old ochre powder production site has been discovered at Sibudu, South Africa.
> * The end product -- ochre powder -- could have been used to color leather, to make adhesives and more.
> * The "factory" site was intended to produce large quantities of red pigment in a short time frame.


-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Bite marks on skeletons suggest discovery of a Roman gladiator graveyard in England*

Archaeologists say skeletons found in northern England with gruesome bite marks from lions, tigers or bears indicate the site may be the world's best-preserved roman gladiator graveyard, The Yorkshire Post reports.

While experts caution that the gladiator theory is not conclusive, the evidence is compelling:

* Several skeletons have one arm larger and more developed than the other, a sign of training with weapons form an early age;
* Many have bite marks from a large carnivore, such as a lion, tiger or bear;
* Some have healed and unhealed weapons injuries, including possible hammer blows to the head.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/06/gladiator-graveyard-found-in-york/1


----------



## lotuseclat79

Ancient Beehives Yield 3,000-Year-Old Bees.

*Honeybee remains found in a 3,000-year-old apiary have given archaeologists a one-of-a-kind window into the beekeeping practices of the ancient world.*

















Image: Top, micrographs of a drone head and larva; bottom, micrographs of a workers' head and thoracic flight muscles./PNAS.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Captivating Creatures: 12 Spectacular New Species.

*Isn't it amazing that centuries of human exploration still haven't come even close to discovering all of the life that exists on this planet? Treks into undisturbed jungles and unfathomably deep reaches of the sea have brought to life a curious cadre of new-to-us species in recent months from a long-nosed tree frog to a fish that walks on its 'hands'. We even unearthed a new relative that might put us one step closer to solving the mystery of human evolution.*

-- Tom


----------



## ekim68

*Oldest leather shoe steps out in Armenia after 5,500 years*

WASHINGTON - About 5,500 years ago someone in the mountains of Armenia put his best foot forward in what is now the oldest leather shoe ever found.

It'll never be confused with a penny loafer or a track shoe, but the well-preserved footwear was made of a single piece of leather, laced up the front and back, researchers reported Wednesday in PLoS One, a journal of the Public Library of Science.

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/discoveries/2010-06-09-oldest-leather-shoe_N.htm


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## lotuseclat79

Headless Gladiator Graveyard Unearthed.

*Archaeologists believe they have found the world's best-preserved gladiator cemetery in York after unearthing skeletons that suffered the kind of violent injuries usually sustained in a Roman amphitheater, researchers said on Monday.*









All of the skeletons appear to have suffered from violent deaths, from beheading to animal mauling, researchers said on Monday.



> THE GIST
> 
> * Archaeologists believe they have found the world's best-preserved gladiator cemetery in York, England.
> * The 2,000-year-old skeletons appear to have suffered violent injuries usually sustained in a Roman amphitheater.
> * Most of the skeletons were violently decapitated and appeared to have been buried with some respect.


-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Warm-blooded sea reptiles of the Jurassic.

*New evidence shows that reptiles roaming the oceans at the time of the dinosaurs could maintain a constant body temperature well above that of the surrounding water.*









Ichthyosaur Platypterygius kiprijanovi. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

The Thunderstone Mystery.

*What's a Stone Age axe doing in an Iron Age tomb? The archaeologists Olle Hemdorff at the University of Stavanger's Museum of Archaeology, Norway, and Eva Thate are researching older objects in younger graves. They have found a pattern.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Radar reveals extent of buried ancient Egypt city.

*An Austrian archaeological team has used radar imaging to determine the extent of the ruins of the one time 3,500-year-old capital of Egypt's foreign occupiers, , the Hyksos warrior people from Asia, said the antiquities department Sunday.*









This undated combination map overlay image released by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities on Sunday, June 20, 2010, displays a color satellite image with radar imaging in monochrome showing the outlines of streets, houses and temples underneath the green farm fields and modern town of Tel al-Dabaa, in Egypt.

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Scientists announce discovery of 3.6 million-year-old relative of 'Lucy'.

*Cleveland... Meet "Lucy's" great-grandfather. Scientists from The Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Kent State University, Case Western Reserve University, Addis Ababa University and Berkeley Geochronology Center were part of an international team that discovered and analyzed a 3.6 million-year-old partial skeleton found in Ethiopia. The early hominid is 400,000 years older than the famous "Lucy" skeleton. Research on this new specimen indicates that advanced human-like, upright walking occurred much earlier than previously thought. The discovery and results from this initial analysis will be published this week in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.*



> "As a result of this discovery, we can now confidently say that 'Lucy' and her relatives were almost as proficient as we are walking on two legs, and that the elongation of our legs came earlier in our evolution than previously thought."


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

World's Largest Dinosaur Graveyard Found.

*The Vancouver Sun reports that the massive dinosaur bonebed is 1.43-square miles in size. Eberth says it contains thousands of bones belonging to the dinosaur Centrosaurus, which once lived near what is now the Saskatchewan border.*









Centrosaurus was a plant-eating, cow-sized dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous, around 75 million years ago. It cut quite a figure back then, with its top-of-the-head frills and rhino-like nose horn. There is some evidence that it engaged in horn to horn combat among its own species, probably males fighting over mates.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Oldest-known black carp found in Mongolian plateau.

*Dr. Pingfu Chen, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. Gloria Arratia at the Biodiversity Research Center of the University of Kansas, described an oldest-known black carp, Mylopharyngodon wui, sp. nov., a completely preserved right pharyngeal bone with teeth from a middle Miocene deposit of the Tairum Nor area of Suniteyou Qi (Banner), Inner Mongolia, China.*









Pharyngeal bone and teeth of †Mylopharyngodon wui, sp. nov. (IVPP V12533), middle Miocene, Inner Mongolia. A, dorsal view; B, inner lateral view; C, outer lateral view; D, indetermined bivalves unearthed with the holotype. Scale bars equal 1 cm.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

12 Bizarre Sea Creatures (Slide Show).

*Scientists have recently discovered these oddball creatures that look like insects, trees, and feathers.*

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Behold Leviathan: the sperm whale that killed other whales (with short Video).

*In today's oceans, killer whales hunt other species of whales, working in packs to take down their much bigger prey. But living whales have it easy. Those that swam off the coast of Peru around 12 million years ago were hunted by a far bigger predator, a recently discovered animal with a very appropriate name: Leviathan.

Leviathan melvillei, named after the Biblical sea monster and the author of Moby Dick, was a giant sperm whale that has just been discovered by Belgian scientist Olivier Lambert. At between 13.5 and 18.5 metres in length, it was no bigger than the modern sperm whale, but it was clearly far more formidable.*









Leviathan killing whale









Leviathan, Spermwhale, and Orca

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Computer automatically deciphers ancient language.

*In his 2002 book Lost Languages, Andrew Robinson, then the literary editor of the London Times' higher-education supplement, declared that "successful archaeological decipherment has turned out to require a synthesis of logic and intuition … that computers do not (and presumably cannot) possess."*









An incidental challenge in developing a computer system that could decipher Ugaritic (inscribed on tablet) was developing a way to digitally render Ugaritic symbols (inset).

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient Hunting Weapon Discovered in Melting Ice.

*What looked like a small branch that blew off a tree during a storm turned out to be an ancient wooden hunting weapon wielded by Paleo Indians.

The 10,000-year-old atlatl dart was discovered in a melting patch of ice high in the Rocky Mountains close to Yellowstone National Park.*









Craig Lee, of the University of Colorado Boulder, holds a 10,000-year-old atlatl dart that had been frozen in an ice sheet near Yellowstone National Park. The dart was straight when it was entombed and became bowed from the melting and barely survived being snapped in half by a passing animal. Credit: Casey A. Cass/University of Colorado.

-- Tom


----------



## Gabriel

Hey Lotus, have you ever used an atlatl? A friend crafted one quite a few years back, and taught me how to use it. It was amazing how far the spear can go.


----------



## lotuseclat79

Hi Gabriel,

No I haven't had the experience to use the atlati, but I did see it used on the History Detectives when they were investigating a spear point embedded in the skull of a 5000 year old buffalo that someone found at the bottom of a creek in the mid-West somewhere. Quite an invention for humankind that far back, eh?

-- Tom


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## Gabriel

It's an amazing tool indeed. My attempts were usually comical, but toward the end of the lesson, I could understand that a person could get really adept at weilding it.


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## lotuseclat79

Early humans ventured further north than thought.

*Ancient man ventured into northern Europe far earlier than previously thought, settling on England's east coast more than 800,000 years ago, scientists said.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists prove all major animal groups with internal, external skeletons appeared in the Cambrian period.

*New York State Paleontologist Dr. Ed Landing is the lead author of an article published in the June issue of Geology that provides the first definitive proof that all major animal groups with internal and external skeletons appeared in the Cambrian geological period (543-489 million years ago).*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Egypt uncovers father-and-son Old Kingdom tombs.

*Two ancient tombs, belonging to a father and son, have been discovered in Egypt. The tombs, which date to the 6th Dynasty (c2325-2150 BC), were unearthed last week in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara. At least one of the rock-hewn tombs has never been looted in antiquity, making it a potentially huge breakthrough.*









Excavation of the 4,300-year old tombs discovered at Saqqara

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Mojoceratops: New Dinosaur Species Named for Flamboyant Frill.

*When Nicholas Longrich discovered a new dinosaur species with a heart-shaped frill on its head, he wanted to come up with a name just as flamboyant as the dinosaur's appearance. Over a few beers with fellow paleontologists one night, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: Mojoceratops.*









Longrich named the newly discovered dinosaur species Mojoceratops after its flamboyant, heart-shaped skull. (Photo: Nicholas Longrich)

-- Tom


----------



## lotuseclat79

Fish Found Walking in Gulf Spill (w/2 videos).

*Two new species of pancake batfish, which walk using their arm-like fins, have been found at the site of the Gulf oil spill, according to a study published in the Journal of Fish Biology.*









Pancake batfish

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Oldest Written Document Ever Found in Jerusalem Discovered.

*A tiny clay fragment -- dating from the 14th century B.C.E. -- that was found in excavations outside Jerusalem's Old City walls contains the oldest written document ever found in Jerusalem, say researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The find, believed to be part of a tablet from a royal archives, further testifies to the importance of Jerusalem as a major city in the Late Bronze Age, long before its conquest by King David, they say.*









This is a close-up view of the 14th century B.C.E. clay tablet fragment discovered in Jerusalem. (Credit: Hebrew University photo by Sasson Tiram)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Study finds Triceratops, Torosaurus were different stages of one dinosaur.

*Research by a Montana State University doctoral student and one of the nation's top paleontologists is upending more than 100 years of thought regarding the dinosaurs known as Triceratops and Torosaurus.*









The classic image of a Triceratops is on the left. On the right is the new face of Triceratops, previously called Torosaurus. (Artwork by Holly Woodward, MSU graduate student).

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Remarkable fossil cave shows how ancient marsupials grew.

*The discovery of a remarkable 15-million-year-old Australian fossil limestone cave packed with even older animal bones has revealed almost the entire life cycle of a large prehistoric marsupial, from ...*









Image credit: Karen Black









Image credit: Karen Black

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Fossil find puts a face on early primates (w/ Video).

*When paleontologist Iyad Zalmout went looking for fossil whales and dinosaurs in Saudi Arabia, he never expected to come face-to-face with a significant, early primate fossil.*









This photo, provided by the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology, shows the cranium of Saadanius hijazensis as it was found in February 2009 during a joint Saudi Geological Survey and University of Michigan field expedition. The last ancestor shared by monkeys and humans probably lived between 28 and 24 million yrs ago, several million later than previously thought, fossils have revealed.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Surprise Finds: 10 Strange Yet Exciting New Species.









(Images via: Gabrielle Wang, Science Codex, Baanmaha, Bangko Biz News, OMG Log, The Were 42, National Geographic, Natural History Museum, National Geographic, National Geographic)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

The Loris Lives! First Pictures of Primate Thought To Be Extinct.

*The Horton Plains slender loris (Loris tardigradus nycticeboides) was thought to be extinct. Between 1939 and 2002, no one spotted the animal. In 2002 someone reported a possible sighting, but didn't get any pictures.*









Loris. This cute furry primate is the first of its species to ever be photographed. Image: AP Photo/Zoological Society of London/Ho.



> The 2002 report inspired the Zoological Society of London and a team of Sri Lankan researchers to launch an effort to find the 8-inch-long primate.
> 
> After 200 hours of searching, they captured the first ever pictures of the creature, which were released Monday.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Beautiful 'lost' insect turns up anew in UK.

*A delicate, blue-hued insect has re-appeared in the UK after an interval of more than half a century.*









The dainty damselfly has been absent from UK shores for half a century

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Sister monument to Stonehenge may have been found.

*Scientists scouring the area around Stonehenge said Thursday July 22, 2010 they have uncovered the foundations of a second circular structure only a few hundred meters (yards) from the world famous monument.*









This is a Sept. 15, 2004. file photo of tourists looking at The Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain in England. (AP Photo/Dave Caulkin, File )

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Tourists heave menhirs to solve ancient mystery.

*In the Asterix comic books you only had to drink a magic potion to be able to lift a menhir. But in reality you need vast quantities of muscle power and lots of patience.*









French archaeologist Cyril Chaigneau (2ndL) sets wooden logs before moving a stony block weighing 4.2 tonnes, on July 7, 2010, at the archeological site of Petit Mont in Arzon, western France.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

"Fresh" Crater Found in Egypt; Changes Impact Risk?.

*A small impact crater discovered in the Egyptian desert could change estimates for impact hazards to our planet, according to a new study.

One of the best preserved craters yet found on Earth, the Kamil crater was initially discovered in February during a survey of satellite images on Google Earth. Researchers think the crater formed within the past couple thousand years.*









Geophysicists work in the newfound Kamil crater in an undated picture.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Discovered: The Biggest Rat That Ever Lived.

*Just a couple thousand years ago, the world's largest rat, weighing more than the average house cat, scuttled about what is now East Timor of Southeast Asia.*









Here, the upper tooth rows of Timor's extinct giant rat (left), the biggest rat that ever lived, compared with the skull of a black rat (right), one of the most common rats, weighing some 5 ounces (150 grams). The skull of the black rat shown here is 35 mm long. Credit: Ken Aplin, CSIRO.









The world's largest rat, found on East Timor would have dwarfed today's black rat (also called a house cat). Here, the skull of a black rat (right) compared with a fairly complete skull of one of Timor's other extinct giant rats (left). The giant rat shown here isn't the biggest of the extinct rats, which was around 25 percent bigger again. Credit: Ken Aplin, CSIRO.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient woman suggests diverse migration.

*A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.*









This undated photo taken at the France-based Atelier Daynes in Paris, released on Friday, July 23, 2010, by Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, shows a scientific reconstruction of an ancient woman known as La Mujer de las Palmas, based on the skeletal remains of a female who lived between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago in Tulum, Mexico. Experts reconstructed what the woman may have looked like based on the remains found in 2002 in a sinkhole cave near the Caribbean resort of Tulum, Mexico. Anthropologist Alejandro Terrazas says the reconstruction resembles people from southeastern Asia areas like Indonesia, even though experts had long believed the first people to migrate to the Americas where from northeast Asia. (AP Photo/ Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Human ancestors lived in Britain 840,000 years ago.

*Their presence dates to more than 100,000 years earlier than archaeologists previously believed, researchers say.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

A history of mass extinctions on Earth.









During long history of planet Earth, massive extinctions and violent climate changes are the norm. We've created this infographic to help you chart the rise and fall and rise of life on Earth over the past few billion years.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Last few early humans survived in 'Eden', scientists say.

*A strip of land on Africa's southern coast became a last refuge for the band of early humans who survived an ice age that wiped out the species elsewhere, scientists maintain.

The land, referred to by researchers as "the garden of Eden," may have been the only part of Africa to remain continuously habitable during the ice age that began about 195,000 years ago.*









These caves located off the South African coast sustained the human population through a devastating ice-age.Pictures: Arizona State University









The land around the caves was nutrient rich, sustaining a small population

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Chinese search for Ming shipwreck off Kenyan coast.

*Chinese archaeologists are due to begin searching for the remains of a Chinese ship believed to have sunk off the Kenyan coast 600 years ago.*









Zheng He is China's most famous explorer



> According to legend, some sailors survived the ship's sinking, swam to shore, and were allowed to stay after they killed a deadly snake.
> 
> In 2005, as part of an event in the run-up to the 600th anniversary of Zheng's first voyage, the Chinese paid a visit to Lamu to undertake DNA tests on a Swahili family, who were found to have had traces of Chinese ancestry.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Cuneiform Tablet Uncovered by Hebrew University Team at Hazor Parallel to Code of Hammurabi.

*For the first time in Israel, a document has been uncovered containing a law code that parallels portions of the famous Code of Hammurabi. The code is written on fragments of a cuneiform tablet, dating from the 18th-17th centuries B.C.E in the Middle Bronze Age, that were found in Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeological excavations this summer at Hazor in the north of Israel.*









The Site: Photo by Yoav Becher









Tablet: Photo by Yoav Becher









Amnon: Photo by Yoav Becher



> These two fragments are the 18th and 19th cuneiform finds from the Hazor excavations, which now form the largest corpus of documents of cuneiform texts found in Israel. Previous documents dealt with such subjects as the dispatch of people or goods, a legal dispute involving a local woman, and a text of multiplication tables. "These tablets point to Hazor's importance as a major center for administration and scholarship in the Middle and Late Bronze Ages," said Prof. Ben-Tor.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Rare Otter Spotted for the First Time in 100 Years (w/Video).









Borneo Hairy Nosed Otter (Lutra sumatrana) Image credit: Andreas Wilting

-- Tom


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## ekim68

How about a lost ship? 

Abandoned British ship found in arctic



> BANKS ISLAND, Northwest Territories, July 29 (UPI) -- Canadian archaeologists have found the HMS Investigator, a British ship abandoned in the arctic ice 155 years ago.


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient treasure rises from Berlin rubble.

*When an incendiary bomb hit in World War II, Berlin's Tell Halaf archaeological museum went up in flames and its 3,000-year-old statues were smashed to smithereens.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient bone find may change Filipino history.

*Archaeologists have found a foot bone that could prove the Philippines was first settled by humans 67,000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously thought, the National Museum said Tuesday.*









Professor Armand Mijares, an achaeologist from the University of the Philippines, holds up a 67,000-year-old foot bone. The bone could prove that the Philippines was first settled some 67,000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously thought.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient blob-like creature of the deep revealed by scientists.

*A unique blob-like creature that lived in the ocean approximately 425 million years ago is revealed in a 3D computer model in research published today in the journal Biology Letters. The model is helping researchers to understand what primitive species on early Earth looked like and how they might have evolved into the types of creatures that are on Earth today.*









3D model of ancient sea creature called _Drakozoon_

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Paleoanthropologist writes 'untold story of our salvation'.

*Inside caves near Mossel Bay, South Africa, a team of explorers have been piecing together an account of survival, ingenuity and endurance -- of the species known as **** sapiens. Team leader Curtis Marean, a paleoanthropologist with the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University, writes of their discoveries at Pinnacle Point in the cover story of the August issue of Scientific American.*

Reference previous post #782 in this thread - on this page for pictures of the story.

-- Tom


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## Gabriel

Iceman and mitochondrial DNA

http://www.livescience.com/history/081030-iceman-children.html


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## ekim68

Wow, the science in that is amazing Gabriel. :up:


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## lotuseclat79

Robot to explore mysterious tunnels in Great Pyramid.

*For 4,500 years, no one has known what lies beyond two stone doors deep inside the monument*









The Pyramid of Khufu is the only wonder of the ancient world still standing

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Neanderthal's Cozy Bedroom Unearthed.

*Even though it isn't wired for broadband, this prehistoric domicile does have beds and even a fireplace.*









A reconstructed Neanderthal skeleton in the foreground appears beside a modern human version of a skeleton.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Gondwana supercontinent underwent massive shift during Cambrian explosion.

*The Gondwana supercontinent underwent a 60-degree rotation across Earth's surface during the Early Cambrian period, according to new evidence uncovered by a team of Yale University geologists. Gondwana made up the southern half of Pangaea, the giant supercontinent that constituted the Earth's landmass before it broke up into the separate continents we see today. The study, which appears in the August issue of the journal Geology, has implications for the environmental conditions that existed at a crucial period in Earth's evolutionary history called the Cambrian explosion, when most of the major groups of complex animals rapidly appeared.*









Gondwana Shift: The paleomagnetic record from the Amadeus Basin in Australia (marked by the star) indicate a large shift in some parts of the Gondwana supercontinent relative to the South Pole.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New Find Pushes Age of Stone Tools Back A Million Years.

*The genus **** is no longer the sole primate lineage known to have used stone tools to consume the meat of large mammals. New research pushes that skill back nearly a million years.*









Two Stone Tool Modified Bones from Dikika, Ethiopia









Two Parallel Cutmarks Made by Stone Tools on the Rib of a Cow Size Mammal

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient Phoenician City 'Relocated'.

*The site of an ancient city called Aüza, the earliest African city of the Phoenician civilization that existed 3,500 years ago, may have been in a different spot than experts have thought, archaeologists report.*









A map of the Phoenician civilization's common trade routes around the Mediterranean Sea. Credit: DooFi/Wikimedia Commons

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient language mystery deepens.

*A linguistic mystery has arisen surrounding symbol-inscribed stones in Scotland that predate the formation of the country itself.*









Many of the stones are believed to have been carved during the 6th Century

Reminds me of the Pink Floyd album, Ummagumma, with the track entitled - Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict!

-- Tom


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## ekim68

Hoping we won't become a lost world....

Protect nature for world economic security, warns UN biodiversity chief



> Ahmed Djoghlaf says nations risk economic collapse and loss of culture if it does not protect the natural world


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## lotuseclat79

Afghan archaeologists find Buddhist site as war rages.

*"There is a temple, stupas, beautiful rooms, big and small statues, two with the length of seven and nine meters, colorful frescos ornamented with gold and some coins," said Mohammad Nader Rasouli, head of the Afghan Archaeological Department.

"Some of the relics date back to the fifth century (AD). We have come across signs that there are items maybe going back to the era before Christ or prehistory," he said.

"We need foreign assistance to preserve these and their expertise to help us with further excavations."*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Discovery of possible earliest animal life pushes back fossil record.

*Scientists may have discovered in Australia the oldest fossils of animal bodies. These findings push back the clock on the scientific world's thinking regarding when animal life appeared on Earth. The results suggest that primitive sponge-like creatures lived in ocean reefs about 650 million years ago.*









Stacking autotraced rock sections results in this image; the elliptical fossil is clearly visible. Credit: Situ Studio









Red autotraced forms from 15 slices through rock; the shape of a single fossil changes. Credit: Situ Studio

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ten-foot-tall prehistoric 'terror bird' had a fearsome bite.

*Andalgalornis, a prehistoric, flightless, carnivorous bird that lived in South America, subdued its prey using a repeated attack-and-retreat strategy, landing well-targeted, hatchet-like jabs with its massive beak.*









This undated handout image provided by Ohio University shows a fossil skull of the terror bird Andalgalornis, compared with the skull of a modern-day golden eagle and a human skull for scale. Ohio University/AP

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Archaeologists hail unique find in Albania.

*Archaeologists unearthed a Roman bust from the 2nd century AD hailed as the most important archaeological find of the last 50 years in Albania, experts said Friday.*









A marble bus of an athlete dating back to the Roman era, has been unearthed in the ancient city of Apollonia, 120 kms from Tirana. A team of French and Albanian archaeologists digging at the scene are studying how Apollonia evolved from a Greek colony founded in the 7th century BC to a Roman settlement in the 3rd century AD.

-- Tom


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## ekim68

Scientists find 10 new coral species in Hawaii



> PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (AP) - Scientists returning from a 30-day research expedition to the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands found what they believe are 10 new species of coral.
> 
> Researchers arrived Friday from their voyage to the remote string of atolls that make up the largest conservation area in the country, the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.
> 
> They found the species during a series of dives from Nihoa Island in the south to Kure Atoll in the north.
> 
> More than half were found at deep water coral reefs more than 150 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.


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## lotuseclat79

Gods In Color: Painted Sculpture Of Classical Antiquity.

*Original Greek statues were brightly painted, but after thousands of years, those paints have worn away. Find out how shining a light on the statues can be all that's required to see them as they were thousands of years ago.*










-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

What the locals ate 10,000 years ago.

*BYU archaeologists find a Utah site occupied by humans 11,000 years ago.The researchers documented a variety of dishes the people dined on back then.Grind stones for milling small seeds appeared 10,000 years ago.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Unearthed 400-year-old document shows how Peruvian natives used numbers.

*In the early 1600s in northern Peru, a curious Spaniard jotted down some notes on the back of a letter. Four hundred years later, archaeologists dug up and studied the paper, revealing what appear to be the first traces of a lost language.*









The back side of an early 17th century letter shows translations for numbers from Spanish to a lost language. Photo by Jeffrey Quilter

-- Tom


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## Gabriel

Pea sized Borneo frog, not a juvenile, but a whole separate species

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20100825/SCIENCE-US-MALAYSIA-FROG/


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## lotuseclat79

Gabriel said:


> Pea sized Borneo frog, not a juvenile, but a whole separate species
> http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20100825/SCIENCE-US-MALAYSIA-FROG/


Hi Gabriel,

Whoa, talk about a bunch of jumping peas in the salad, eh?

What a find. The peepers go crazy at night all around the world.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Deep-sea images reveal colorful life off Indonesia.

*Scientists using cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia were wowed by colorful and diverse images of marine life on the ocean floor - including plate-sized sea spiders and flower-like sponges that appear to be carnivorous.*









This image provided by NOAA shows a close look one of the many interesting images collected by the Little Hercules ROV during the INDEX 2010 Exploration of the Sangihe Talaud Region off Indonesia in July. Scientists using cutting-edge technology to explore waters off Indonesia were wowed by colorful and diverse images of marine life on the ocean floor _ including plate-sized sea spiders and flower-like sponges that appear to be carnivorous. They predicted Thursday Aug. 26, 2010 that as many as 40 new plant and animal species may have been discovered during the three-week expedition that ended Aug. 14. (AP Photo/NOAA Okeanos Explorer Program)

See video from Okeanos link at end of article.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Mayan pool in the rainforest: Archaeologists find huge artificial lake with a ceramic-lined floor.

*Archaeologists from the University of Bonn found a water reservoir the size of a soccer field, whose floor is lined with ceramic shards, in the Mexican rainforest. It seems that in combination with the limestone on top, the shards were supposed to seal the artificial lake. The system was built about 1,500 years ago. It is the first example of this design found for the Maya. It is not yet known whether the reservoir's entire floor is tiled.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

First clear evidence of feasting in early humans.

*Community feasting is one of the most universal and important social behaviors found among humans. Now, scientists have found the earliest clear evidence of organized feasting, from a burial site dated about 12,000 years ago. These remains represent the first archaeological verification that human feasting began before the advent of agriculture.*









Two wild cattle lumbar vertebrae consumed as part of a feast are under excavation in Structure B at Hilazon Tachtit Cave, Israel. Credit: Natalie Munro









This is a view of excavation area at Hilazon Tachtit Cave, Israel. Credit: Naftali Hilger









Articulated tortoise carapaces are under excavation in the grave of a unique woman in Structure A interpreted as a shaman at Hilazon Tachtit Cave, Israel at Hilazon Tachtit Cave. The grave contained the remains of at least 71 tortoises consumed by humans as part of a burial feast. Credit: Natalie Munro

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

'Stocky dragon' dinosaur terrorized Late Cretaceous Europe.

*Paleontologists have discovered that a close relative of Velociraptor hunted the dwarfed inhabitants of Late Cretaceous Europe, an island landscape largely isolated from nearby continents.*









This reconstruction shows the skeletal anatomy of Balaur bondoc. While only a few bones exist, they reveal a great deal about the organism, and represent one of the most complete predatory dinosaur skeletons from the middle to Late Cretaceous of Europe. Credit: Mick Ellison; Zoltan Csiki; Matyas Vremir; Stephan Brusatte; Mark Norell; AMNH









This is the fossilized hindlimb Balaur bondoc showing the double sickle claws of the foot, one of 20 unique features found on a Late Cretaceous island in what is now Europe. Credit: Mick Ellison

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Heaps of Fossils From Evolutionary 'Big Bang' Discovered.

*One of paleontology's most revered fossil sites now has a baby brother. Scientists have discovered a group of astonishing fossils high in the Canadian Rockies, just 40 kilometers from the famous Burgess Shale location.*









Looking towards Stanley Glacier, site of the new fossil deposit. Flickr/judemat.

-- Tom


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## ekim68

Ancient brewers tapped antibiotic secrets



> A chemical analysis of the bones of ancient Nubians shows that they were regularly consuming tetracycline, most likely in their beer. The finding is the strongest evidence yet that the art of making antibiotics, which officially dates to the discovery of penicillin in 1928, was common practice nearly 2,000 years ago.


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## lotuseclat79

Study suggests dinosaurs killed off by more than one asteroid.

*Dinosaurs, along with over half of other species, became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous period about 65.5 million years ago, and many scientists believe this was due to a single impact with an asteroid that hit at Chicxulub in the Gulf of Mexico. Now a study published in the Geology journal proposes the impact that produced the Boltysh crater in the Ukraine may also have been involved in the extinctions, and there may have been a shower of asteroids or comets.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Fox spit helped Forest Service confirm rare find.

*Three weeks ago, when U.S. Forest Service biologists thought they had found a supposedly extinct fox in the mountains of central California, they turned to UC Davis for confirmation.*









UC Davis wildlife genetics researcher Ben Sacks holds a native Sacramento Valley red fox (Vulpes vulpes patwin). (UC Davis photo)

-- Tom


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## ekim68

Pa. kayaker finds ancient tree fossil



> PITTSBURGH, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- A Pennsylvania man kayaking on a local river found a tree fossil embedded in a rock at the river's side that experts say is almost 300 million years old.


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## lotuseclat79

Egyptian papyrus found in ancient Irish bog.

*Irish scientists have found fragments of Egyptian papyrus in the leather cover of an ancient book of psalms that was unearthed from a peat bog, Ireland's National Museum said on Monday.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Researchers offer alternate theory for found skull's asymmetry.

*A new turn in the debate over explanations for the odd features of LB1 -- the specimen number of the only skull found in Liang Bua Cave on the Indonesian island of Flores and sometimes called "the hobbit" -- is further evidence of a continued streak of misleading science regarding the development of a new species, according to researchers.*

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient city by the sea rises amid Egypt's resorts.









With a five star hotel in the background, a man walks by restored Roman pillar tombs of the ancient city of Leukaspis a well known Greco-Roman port









Egyptian antiquities experts walk at the partially restored villa at the ancient city of Leukaspis, a well known Greco-Roman port overlooking the Mediterranean

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Quasimodo dino leaves experts grappling for a hunch.

*Palaeontologists in Spain have discovered the remains of a strange dinosaur with a hump that they believe is the forerunner of flesh-eating leviathans which once ruled the planet.*









Handout photo released by Nature magazine and the Universidad Nacional de Educacion shows the reconstitution of a new species of dinosaur, Concavenator corcovatus, with an unusual hump-like structure of the vertebrae and a series of small bumps on the ulna, discovered in Spain according to a study published today by Nature Magazine.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Rare, Tiny, Supercute Baby Seahorse Found in British Waters.

*File this under A for adorable. The Seahorse Trust, after years of surveying the fish in British waters, has finally found, measured and photographed a baby seahorse, which is also called a fry.*









Seahorse fry: Credit Image: The Seahorse Trust

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Petra's ancient paintings emerge from campfire smoke.



> *Conservation experts almost gave up when they first saw the severely damaged wall paintings they had come to rescue in the ancient city of Petra.
> 
> Cloaked for centuries in grimy soot from bedouin camp fires, the blackened murals appeared beyond repair.
> 
> But three years of restoration revealed intricate and brightly-colored artwork, and some of the very few surviving examples of 2,000-year-old Hellenistic wall painting.*
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> 2,000-year-old wall paintings are seen in a cave complex, nicknamed 'Little Petra', at Siq al-Barid in Beidha, about five km (three miles) away from the rock carved city of Petra, southern Jordan August 30, 2010. The two British conservators from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, will complete removing black grime from these masterpieces created by the Nabataeans this week, after three years of restoration work.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Discovered - Oldest Roman Baths In Asia Minor.



> *An archaeological team has discovered the oldest Roman baths in Asia Minor - underneath existing Roman baths. Location: Sagalassos, Turkey, which was inhabited as a city until the 7th century AD, when it was destroyed by earthquakes.*
> 
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> he approximately. 3 meter high south wall of the heating room of the bathing complex. Warm air was blown under the floor of the middle apsidal space or 'caldarium' (hot water pool). Credit: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New record set for wingspan with discovery of bird fossil in Chile.



> *A newly discovered skeleton of an ancient seabird from northern Chile provides evidence that giant birds were soaring the skies there 5-10 million years ago. The wing bones of the animal exceed those of all other birds in length; its wingspan would have been at least 5.2 m (17 ft.). This is the largest safely established wingspan for a bird. Other, larger estimates for fossil birds have been based on much less secure evidence.*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Goddess of fortune found in Sussita.



> *A wall painting (fresco) of Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune, was exposed during the 11th season of excavation at the Sussita site, on the east shore of the Sea of Galilee, which was conducted by researchers of the University of Haifa. Another female figure was found during this season, of a maenad, one of the companions of the wine god Dionysus.*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Greek archaeologists uncover ancient tombs.



> *Greek archaeologists on Thursday announced the discovery of 37 ancient tombs dating back to the iron age in a cemetery near the ancient Macedonian capital of Pellas.*
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> A handout photo shows a warrior's bronze helmet with gold mouth protector dated to the 6th century BC, found at the west cementary in Archontiko Pellas, northern Greece. Greek archaeologists on Thursday announced the discovery of 37 ancient tombs dating back to the iron age in a cemetery near the ancient Macedonian capital of Pellas.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists discover new species that looks like a tiny, furry elephant.



> *A new species of elephant shrew, a long-nosed, insect eating mammal native to Africa, was spotted scampering through a remote forest in Kenya.*
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> A new species of elephant shrew, similar to this Cape Elephant Shrew shown here in South Africa, was spotted in Kenya. Newscom/File


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

500 million year old fossils discovered on new site.



> *During an expedition into the Canadian Rocky Mountains in 2008, a Canadian-led team including Swedish researchers from Uppsala University found a new site with exceptionally preserved fossils. The site and its fossils have now been made public in this month's issue of Geology.*
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> Working area at Stanley Glacier, Kootenay National Park. Foto/bild: © ROM (foto/bild JB Caron)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Researchers Find 2,000 Year-Old Beer Was Used as Medicine.



> *Researchers at Emory University discovered that ancient Nubians consumed regular doses of sickness-fighting antibiotics, most likely in their beer.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Apollo discovery tells a new story.



> *A rare bronze signet ring with the impression of the face of the Greek sun god, Apollo, has been discovered at Tel Dor, in northern Israel, by University of Haifa diggers.*
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> This is the embossed image of the Greek sun god, Apollo, from a rare bronze signet ring with the impression of the face of the Greek god. The ring has been discovered at Tel Dor, in northern Israel, by University of Haifa diggers. "A piece of high-quality art such as this, doubtlessly created by a top-of-the-line artist, indicates that local elites developing a taste for fine art and the ability to afford it were also living in provincial towns, and not only in the capital cities of the Hellenistic kingdoms," explains Dr. Ayelet Gilboa, Head of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, who headed the excavations at Dor along with Dr. Ilan Sharon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Credit: Courtesy of the Tel Dor Expidition


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Calif. utility stumbles on 1.4M-year-old fossils.

*A utility company preparing to build a new substation in an arid canyon southeast of Los Angeles has stumbled on a trove of animal fossils dating back 1.4 million years that researchers say will fill in blanks in Southern California's history.*



















-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Archaeologists find theater box at Herod's palace.



> *Israeli archaeologists have excavated a lavish, private theater box in a 400-seat facility at King Herod's winter palace in the Judean desert, the team's head said Tuesday.*
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> Frescos discovered in the Herodium complex, in the West Bank, south of Jerusalem, Tuesday, Sept. 21.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Neanderthals more advanced than previously thought.



> *For decades scientists believed Neanderthals developed `modern' tools and ornaments solely through contact with **** sapiens, but new research from the University of Colorado Denver now shows these sturdy ancients could adapt, innovate and evolve technology on their own.*
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> The Reconstruction of the Funeral of **** neanderthalensis. Captured in the Hannover Zoo. (Via Wikipedia)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

How Doth the Hypercarnivorous Crocodile….









A Dakosaurus tries to snap up a pterosaur. Artwork by Dmitry Bogdanov, from Wikipedia.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New dinosaur species discovered on 'lost continent' (w/ Video).



> *Two remarkable new species of horned dinosaurs have been found in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. The giant plant-eaters were inhabitants of the "lost continent" of Laramidia, formed when a shallow sea flooded the central region of North America, isolating the eastern and western portions of the continent for millions of years during the Late Cretaceous Period. The newly discovered dinosaurs, close relatives of the famous Triceratops, were announced today in PLoS ONE, the online open-access journal produced by the Public Library of Science.*
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> This map shows the ancient western interior seaway that divided the "lost continent" of Laramidia from Appalachia, and distribution of dinosaurs found in the rich "dinosaur boneyard." Credit: Utah Museum of Natural History


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

2 new dinosaur species discovered in southern Utah.



> *Scientists said Wednesday they've discovered fossils in the southern Utah desert of two new dinosaur species closely related to the Triceratops, including one with 15 horns on its large head.*
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> This image provided by the Utah Museum of Natural History shows an artist's reconstruction of the Kosmoceratops. Scientists said Wednesday, Sept 22, 2010


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Longest dinosaur thigh bone in Europe found in Spain.



> *Palaeontologists in Spain have found the fossiled thigh bone of a dinosaur that is almost two metres in length, the longest such femur ever discovered in Europe, they said Friday.*
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> This handout picture released on September 26, by the Dinopolis Foundation, shows the fossiled thigh bone of a dinosaur that is almost two metres (more than six feet) in length, the longest such bone ever discovered in Europe in Teruel.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient Egypt's Pyramids: Norwegian Researcher Unlocks Construction Secrets.

*Scientists from around the world have tried to understand how the Egyptians erected their giant pyramids. Now, an architect and researcher at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) says he has the answer to this ancient, unsolved puzzle.*









The precision system of Khufu's Great Pyramid. (Credit: Ole J. Bryn / NTNU)

-- Tom


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## bettylovelife

Interesting thread! I'm curious about all the new plants.


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## lotuseclat79

Neandertals blasted out of existence, archaeologists propose.



> *Modern humans may have thrived thanks to geographic luck, not wits*
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> Human-made items, such as these pendants fashioned from animals' teeth, appeared in a Russian cave shortly after volcanic eruptions around 40,000 years ago wiped out Neandertal populations in the area, researchers say. Credit: Golovanova et al.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

No evidence for ancient comet or Clovis catastrophe, archaeologists say.

*New research challenges the controversial theory that the impact of an ancient comet devastated the Clovis people, one of the earliest known cultures to inhabit North America.*









Clovis spear points from the original Clovis site in New Mexico. (Photo: David Meltzer)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Boy with Amber Necklace skeleton, found near Stonehenge, hit the road to get there.



> *Boy with Amber Necklace remains, discovered near the Stonehenge monument in Britain, are believed to have come several hundred miles from the south. Boy with Amber Necklace is thought to have been a teenager when he passed.*
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> The sun is rising behind the Stonehenge monument in England, during the summer solstice June 21. A skeleton, dubbed 'The Boy with Amber Necklace,' was discovered nearby. It's believed the boy came from the Mediterranean around 1550 B.C. AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Fossilized giant penguin feathers reveal color, feather structure of ancient birds (w/ Video).



> *A team of researchers have discovered fossilized feathers from a giant penguin that lived near the Equator more than 36 million years ago. These feathery fossils reveal color patterns in an ancient extinct penguin species, and offer clues to how modern penguin feathers evolved.*
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> Artist reconstructions of Inkayacu paracasensis. Illustration: Katie Browne.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Dinosaurs significantly taller than previously thought, researchers find.



> *It might seem obvious that a dinosaur's leg bone connects to the hip bone, but what came between the bones has been less obvious. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri and Ohio University have found that dinosaurs had thick layers of cartilage in their joints, which means they may have been considerably taller than previously thought. The study is being published this week in the journal PLoS ONE (Public Library of Science).*
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> Dinosaur bones have rounded ends with rough surfaces that mark where blood vessels fed large amounts of cartilage in the joint. The cartilage could have added 10 percent or more to the height of a dinosaur. Credit: Casey Holliday/University of Missouri


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

A virtual Babylonian comeback 2,000 years after disappearence of natives.



> *Almost 2,000 years after its last native speakers disappeared, the sound of Ancient Babylonian is being lined up for an unlikely comeback, in an online audio archive.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Volcanoes wiped Neanderthals out, research suggests.

*New research suggests that climate change following massive volcanic eruptions drove Neanderthals to extinction and cleared the way for modern humans to thrive in Europe and Asia.*









Astronaut photo of ash cloud from Mount Cleveland, Alaska, USA. Image: NASA

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Archaeologists shed new light on adaptability of modern humans' ancestors.



> *A University of Otago-led archaeological investigation of campsites up to 50,000 years old in a remote highland valley of Papua New Guinea is revealing how highly adaptable the humans at the forefront of global colonisation were.*
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> Stone Tools used by Pleistocene peoples


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Archaeologists find statue of Tutankhamun's grandad.



> *Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed part a 3,000-year-old statue of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of the young King Tutankhamun, antiquities chief Zahi Hawass said on Saturday.*
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> A handout picture from the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities (ESCA) shows a 3,000-year-old statue of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, believed to be the grandfather of the young King Tutankhamu, unearthed by archaeologists.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Undocumented language found hidden in India.

*A "hidden" language spoken by only about 1,000 people has been discovered in the remote northeast corner of India by researchers who at first thought they were documenting a dialect of the Aka culture, a tribal community that subsists on farming and hunting.*









This undated handout photo provided by National Geographic shows Kachim, a speaker of the hidden language Koro, talking to National Geographic Fellow Gregory Anderson. Anderson and a team made the first known recordings of Koro, an endangered language that is new to science. The expedition is featured in a new National Geographic book, "The Last Speakers," by K. David Harrison. A previously unreported language spoken by fewer than 1,000 people has been discovered in the remote northeast corner of India. The region is known as hotspot of language diversity and researchers were documenting some of the unwritten tongues when they came across the new one, called Koro. (AP Photo/Chris Rainier, National Geographic)

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Long-extinct passenger pigeon finds a place in the family tree.



> *With bits of DNA extracted from century-old museum specimens, researchers have found a place for the extinct passenger pigeon in the family tree of pigeons and doves, identifying for the first time this unique bird's closest living avian relatives.*
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> The extinct passenger pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, was the only species in its genus. Credit: L. Brian Stauffer, U. of I. News Bureau.


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Unknown carnivore discovered in Madagascar lake



> Researchers have identified a previously unknown species of carnivore lurking in one of the world's most endangered lakes.
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> Durrell's vontsira (Salanoia durrelli), named in honor of the late conservationist and writer Gerald Durrell, was first photographed swimming in Madagascar's Lake Alaotra in 2004. Subsequent surveys by scientists at the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, the Natural History Museum, London, Nature Heritage, Jersey, and Conservation International confirmed the mongoose-like creature was indeed a new species.


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## lotuseclat79

Prehistoric man ate flatbread 30,000 years ago: study.



> *Starch grains found on grinding stones suggest that prehistoric man may have consumed a type of bread at least 30,000 years ago in Europe, US researchers said.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

10,000 miles: New study proposes giant Pterosaurs were record long-distance fliers.



> *A new study suggests four species of ancient pterosaurs might have been able to soar as far as 16,000 km nonstop, making them the longest distance fliers in the Earth's history.*
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> Life restoration of a group of giant azhdarchids, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, foraging on a Cretaceous fern prairie. A juvenile titanosaur has been caught by one pterosaur, while the others stalk through the scrub in search of small vertebrates and other food. Image: Mark Witton and Darren Naish, PLoS ONE


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Modern humans emerged far earlier than previously thought.



> *An international team of researchers based at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, including a physical anthropology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, has discovered well-dated human fossils in southern China that markedly change anthropologists perceptions of the emergence of modern humans in the eastern Old World.*


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Amazon's amazing diversity includes 1,200 new species



> More than 1,200 new species of plants and vertebrates were discovered in the Amazon in the last decade, at a rate of one new species every three days, a report today says.
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> The new species outlined include 637 plants, 257 fish, 216 amphibians, 55 reptiles, 16 birds and 39 mammals, according to the "Amazon Alive: A Decade of Discoveries 1999-2009" report by WWF, a conservation group previously known as the World Wildlife Federation.
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> "This report clearly shows the incredible diversity of life in the Amazon and what we could lose if we don't act now," said Francisco Ruiz, Leader of WWF's Living Amazon Initiative in announcing the findings. "We need to change the way we think about development and promote conservation at a regional level."


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## lotuseclat79

Found: First complete remains of early sauropod dinosaur.



> *Scientists have discovered in China the first complete skeleton of a pivotal ancestor of Earth's largest land animals - the sauropod dinosaurs. The new species, tentatively dubbed Yizhousaurus sunae, lived on the flood plains around Lufeng in the Yunnan Province of South China about 200 million years ago. The species helps explain how the iconic four-footed, long-necked sauropod dinosaurs evolved.*
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> Scientists have discovered in China the first complete skeleton of a pivotal ancestor of Earth's largest land animals -- the sauropod dinosaurs. This photo shows the skull and lower jaw of Yizhousaurus, an early sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic (~200-million-years-old) of southern China. Credit: Bill Mueller


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Origin of skillful stone-tool-sharpening method pushed back more than 50,000 years.



> *A highly skillful and delicate method of sharpening and retouching stone artifacts by prehistoric people appears to have been developed at least 75,000 years ago, more than 50,000 years earlier than previously thought, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.*
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> Pictured is a Still Bay bifacial point from Blombos Cave in South Africa made of silcrete and finished by pressure flaking, primarily at the tip. Credit: Image courtesy Science/AAAS


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

'Balloon head' dolphin discovered.



> *A new type of dolphin with a short, spoon-shaped nose and high, bulbous forehead has been identified from a fossil found in the North Sea.*
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> Channel Dolphin: The fossil's concave shape suggests it fit below a dome-like forehead
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> Channel Dolphin Skull: The fossil is one of thousands that must be fitted into a fuller catalogue of marine mammals


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Newly Discovered Walls Buffered Sphinx from Egypt's Sand.



> *A routine excavation has uncovered ancient walls surrounding the Great Sphinx of Giza, Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) announced today (Nov. 2).*
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> The walls were likely built to protect the Sphinx from blowing sand, said SCA Secretary-General Zahi Hawass, who is overseeing the excavation.
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> The first section of the mud wall found in front of Khafre's valley temple at Giza. Credit: SCA
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> The excavation trench outside Khafre's valley temple at Giza. Credit: SCA


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Identity of Pompeii's mystery horse revealed.



> *The identity of a mysterious breed of "horse" which has baffled experts since its remains were uncovered at Pompeii has been resolved by a Cambridge University researcher - who realised it was a donkey.*
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> Image Credit: University of Cambridge, UK


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Stone Age humans needed more brain power to make big leap in tool design.



> *Stone Age humans were only able to develop relatively advanced tools after their brains evolved a greater capacity for complex thought, according to a new study that investigates why it took early humans almost two million years to move from razor-sharp stones to a hand-held stone axe.*
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> A variety of stone tools. Image: Wikipedia


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Fossil finger records key to Neanderthals' promiscuity.



> *Fossil finger bones of early human ancestors suggest that Neanderthals were more promiscuous than human populations today, researchers at the universities of Liverpool and Oxford have found.*
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> The clue's in the ring finger: a fossilied hand of an early modern human


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

World's oldest axe found in Australia.



> *Archaeologists revealed they have found a piece of a stone axe dated as 35,500 years old on sacred Aboriginal land in Australia, the oldest object of its type ever found.*
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> An ancient Aboriginal rock carving is seen in this photo taken on the Burrup Peninsula in the north of Western Australia. Archaeologists have found a piece of a stone axe dated as 35,500 years old on sacred Aboriginal land in Australia, the oldest object of its type ever found.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New Species of Clone Lizards Found in Vietnamese Cuisine.



> *Some Vietnamese locals have long enjoyed dining on a type of self-cloning lizard, but researchers only recently stumbled upon the species' existence.*
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> A picture of the all-female, self-cloning lizard discovered in a Vietnamese restaurant by Ngo Van Tri, Lee Grismer and Jesse Grismer. Credit: Lee Grismer


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Stone age etchings found in Amazon basin as river levels fall



> Drought in Brazil reveals engravings up to 7,000 years old - evidence of ancient civilisation


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## lotuseclat79

Sphinx-lined road unearthed in Egypt.



> *Egyptian archaeologists have discovered a sphinx-lined road in Luxor that led to the temple of Mut, the ancient goddess worshipped as a mother, the culture minister said on Monday.*
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> A handout images made available by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities shows Egyptian workers standing next to one of the 12 sphinxes dating from the reign of the last Pharaonic dynasty, Nectanebo I (380-362 BC), discovered by Egyptian archaeologists along a sphinx-lined road in Luxor, southern Egypt.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists dig below Dead Sea for slice of Earth's history.



> *An international team of scientists has begun drilling deep below the Dead Sea in an effort to extract material that could provide an unusual look at Earth's history over the past 500,000 years.*
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> Two Palestinian Muslim women swim in their clothes in the waters of the Dead Sea in the West Bank during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, September 2010. An international team of scientists has begun drilling deep below the Dead Sea in an effort to extract material that could provide an unusual look at Earth's history over the past 500,000 years.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Vikings brought Amerindian to Iceland 1,000 years ago: study.



> *The first Native American to arrive in Europe may have been a woman brought to Iceland by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago, a study by Spanish and Icelandic researchers suggests.*
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> The Oseberg viking ship at the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo. The first Native American to arrive in Europe may have been a woman brought to Iceland by the Vikings more than 1,000 years ago, a study by Spanish and Icelandic researchers suggests.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Researchers link an African lizard fossil in Africa with the Komodo dragon in Indonesia.



> *University of Alberta researchers have unearthed a mysterious link between bones of an ancient lizard found in Africa and the biggest, baddest modern-day lizard of them all, the Komodo dragon, half a world away in Indonesia.*


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Busy microbial world discovered in deepest ocean crust ever explored



> The first study to ever explore biological activity in the deepest layer of ocean crust has found bacteria with a remarkable range of capabilities, including eating hydrocarbons and natural gas, and "fixing" or storing carbon.
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> The research, just published in the journal PLoS One, showed that a significant number and amount of bacterial forms were present, even in temperatures near the boiling point of water.
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> "This is a new ecosystem that almost no one has ever explored," said Martin Fisk, a professor in the College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences at Oregon State University. "We expected some bacterial forms, but the long list of biological functions that are taking place so deep beneath the Earth is surprising."


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## lotuseclat79

Horse-dragon and colossal iguana: Scientists identify new beaked herbivorous dinosaurs.



> *Paleontologists from the University of Pennsylvania and the Utah Geological Survey have described two skeletons representing two new species of beaked herbivorous dinosaurs, known as iguanodonts, from Utah. The new dinosaurs were preserved in rocks dating to the Early Cretaceous Epoch, ~145.5 - 99.6 million years ago. The new specimens help illuminate the natural history of North American iguanodonts.*
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> Horsedragona: Skull of Hippodraco (Andrew McDonald)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

DNA uncovers 1 of the world's rarest birds.



> *A team of Australian researchers involving DNA experts from the University of Adelaide has identified a new, critically endangered species of ground parrot in Western Australia.*
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> Western Ground Parrot: Caption: An adult Western gound parrot photographed in Fitzgerald River National Park, Western Australia. Credit: Photo by Brent Barrett, WA Department of Environment and Conservation.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Size of mammals exploded after dinosaur extinction.



> *Researchers demonstrate that the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago made way for mammals to get bigger - about a thousand times bigger than they had been. The study, which is published in the prestigious journal Science, is the first to show this new pattern of increased body size of mammals after the exit of the dinosaurs.*
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> The largest land mammals that ever lived, Indricotherium and Deinotherium, would have towered over the living African elephant. The tallest on diagram, Indricotherium, an extinct rhino relative, lived during the Eocene to the Oligocene Epoch (37 to 23 million years ago) and reached a mass of 15,000 kg, while Deinotherium (an extinct proboscidean, related to modern elephants) was around from the late-Miocene until the early Pleistocene (8.5 to 2.7 million years ago) and weighed as much as 17,000 kg. Credit: Alison Boyer/Yale University


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Warring Greeks find peace in ancient Egypt.



> *Naukrtis, a Greek trade emporium on Egyptian soil, has long captured the imagination of archaeologists and historians. Not only is the presence of a Greek trading settlement in Egypt during the 7th and 6th century B.C.E. surprising, but the Greeks that lived there in harmony hailed from several Greek states which traditionally warred amongst themselves.*


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Lost Civilization May Have Existed Beneath the Persian Gulf



> Veiled beneath the Persian Gulf, a once-fertile landmass may have supported some of the earliest humans outside Africa some 75,000 to 100,000 years ago, a new review of research suggests.
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## lotuseclat79

Following Maps, and Finding a 'Lost World'.



> The map room: Without Google Earth, the mission would not have been possible.
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> Collection-based research: The ant collection.
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> Mushroom forest: A question of scale.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Professor discovers hidden literary references in the Mona Lisa.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Earliest known winery found in Armenian cave.



> *The earliest known winery has been uncovered in a cave in the mountains of Armenia.
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> While older evidence of wine drinking has been found, this is the earliest example of complete wine production, according to Gregory Areshian of the University of California, Los Angeles, co-director of the excavation.
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> The findings, announced Tuesday by the National Geographic Society, are published in the online edition of the Journal of Archaeological Science.*
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> This undated handout photo provided by National Geographic shows a wine press, behind which an archaeological identification kit is placed


-- Tom


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## ekim68

34,000-Year-Old Organisms Found Buried Alive!



> It's a tale that has all the trappings of a cult 1960s sci-fi movie: Scientists bring back ancient salt crystals, dug up from deep below Death Valley for climate research. The sparkling crystals are carefully packed away until, years later, a young, unknown researcher takes a second look at the 34,000-year-old crystals and discovers, trapped inside, something strange. Something ... alive.





> Schubert, now an assistant researcher at the University of Hawaii, said the bacteria - a salt-loving sort still found on Earth today - were shrunken and small, and suspended in a kind of hibernation state.
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## ekim68

New Podcast about the Rise of Complex Life on Earth



> In this new podcast produced through the NAI MIT team, journey back in time to learn about Ediacaran Fauna, a diverse group of organisms that lived in the world's oceans about 580 million years ago. We'll meet Dickinsonia rex, a sort of living bathmat without eyes or a mouth, and other strange denizens of the primordial slimebed.


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## Gabriel

ekim68 said:


> New Podcast about the Rise of Complex Life on Earth


That is one of the best resource and learning sites yet, Ekim....I registered, and will spend hours on it...Thanks!


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## Gabriel

lotuseclat79 said:


> Following Maps, and Finding a Lost World.
> 
> -- Tom


Very awesome article, Lotus. Lots of food for thought.


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## ekim68

Gabriel said:


> That is one of the best resource and learning sites yet, Ekim....I registered, and will spend hours on it...Thanks!


Thank you for starting this thread Gabriel...:up: It's become a resource...


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## Gabriel

New crayfish species

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20110120/SCIENCE-US-CRAYFISH-GIANT/


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## Gabriel

Gabriel said:


> New crayfish species...in Tennessee!
> 
> http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20110120/SCIENCE-US-CRAYFISH-GIANT/


Woops, Oh well I will leave it as is


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## paisanol69

Gabriel said:


> New crayfish species
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> http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-science/20110120/SCIENCE-US-CRAYFISH-GIANT/


...it's too bad it's such a rare species (so far). Can you imagine how happy the Cajuns in La would be, if they could have their crawfish boils with these monsters?

( I wonder what they taste like? and yes, I do love my crawfish!!)

btw, how you doing Gabriel??


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## Gabriel

paisanol69 said:


> ...it's too bad it's such a rare species (so far). Can you imagine how happy the Cajuns in La would be, if they could have their crawfish boils with these monsters?


Maybe they should breed them



paisanol69 said:


> btw, how you doing Gabriel??


I am doing ok. Have a big move coming up in March. Will be on the road for almost two weeks, visiting friends and family, and then ending up back East.


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## paisanol69

Gabriel said:


> I am doing ok. Have a big move coming up in March. Will be on the road for almost two weeks, visiting friends and family, and then ending up back East.


..so I guess you are going to drive, rather than ship the car? March will be here before you know it!

Be careful, take your time, and try to enjoy the scenery as you travel. I hope you have good weather for your trip, and arrive safely at your destination!


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## Gabriel

paisanol69 said:


> ..so I guess you are going to drive, rather than ship the car? March will be here before you know it!
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> Be careful, take your time, and try to enjoy the scenery as you travel. I hope you have good weather for your trip, and arrive safely at your destination!


Yes,  Decided to drive and ship boxes of stuff back instead of the car and dog. A friend is coming along, and my Corky dog, so we will be begging sleeping arrangements from friends and relatives and dog friendly moteling along the way. I will be spreading Gene's ashes also at our many temporary stomping grounds. So it is a combination save hassle of shipping dog and car and dreaded airplane flying, healing, tying up loose ends with traveling buddy (Debby), and visiting friends.  Will be my last road trip for a while, too.


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## lotuseclat79

How the Romans made pottery in Britain.



> *In the shadow of Hadrian's Wall, Roman soldiers defended their empire's northern borders in Great Britain, passed the time in their bathhouses and inevitably drank a lot of wine. They also made an awful lot of pots.*
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-- Tom


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## Gabriel

This will be a definite "must see" this spring. "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

http://blog.movies.yahoo.com/blog/457-going-deep-into-the-cave-of-forgotten-dreams?nc

Quote from blog article: "The walls contain hundreds of animals -- like the typical Paleolithic horses and bisons -- but some of them are not supposed to be there, like lions, panthers, rhinos, and hyenas."


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## lotuseclat79

Researchers find smoking gun of world's biggest extinction.



> *About 250 million years about 95 per cent of life was wiped out in the sea and 70 per cent on land. Researchers at the University of Calgary believe they have discovered evidence to support massive volcanic eruptions burnt significant volumes of coal, producing ash clouds that had broad impact on global oceans.*
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> The coal‑ash particle on the left is from the latest Permian extinction boundary at Buchanan Lake. Nunavut, the particle on the right is from a modern power plant. Credit: Hamed Sanei, NRCan/University of Calgary


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Giant crayfish found in Tennessee is new species.



> *A new species of giant crayfish literally crawled out from under a rock in Tennessee, proving that large new species of animals can be found in highly populated and well-explored places, researchers said on Wednesday.*
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> The "bearded" setae on the antennae, bright red highlights and aquamarine tail fins add to the distinctiveness of the new species of crayfish, Barbicambarus simmonsi. REUTERS/Carl Williams/Handout


-- Tom


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## paisanol69

lotuseclat79 said:


> Giant crayfish found in Tennessee is new species.
> 
> -- Tom


... ^^^^ if you look at post 886, 887,888 and 889, you will see this has already been posted!


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## Gabriel

His picture looks pretty on the post page though. I hardly ever do anything more than the link.


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## lotuseclat79

Test shows dinosaurs survived mass extinction by 700,000 years.



> *University of Alberta researchers determined that a fossilized dinosaur bone found in New Mexico confounds the long established paradigm that the age of dinosaurs ended between 65.5 and 66 million years ago.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Geobiologists uncover links between ancient climate change and mass extinction.



> *About 450 million years ago, Earth suffered the second-largest mass extinction in its history-the Late Ordovician mass extinction, during which more than 75 percent of marine species died. Exactly what caused this tremendous loss in biodiversity remains a mystery, but now a team led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has discovered new details supporting the idea that the mass extinction was linked to a cooling climate.*
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> This is rock strata on Anticosti Island, Quebec, Canada, one of the sites from which the researchers collected fossils. Credit: Woody Fischer


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Great Pyramid has two secret chambers: French architect.



> *A French architect campaigning for a new exploration of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza said on Thursday that the edifice may contain two chambers housing funereal furniture.*
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> A tourist walks in front the Great Pyramid of Khafre in Giza in 2010. A French architect campaigning for a new exploration of the 4,500-year-old Great Pyramid of Giza said on Thursday that the edifice may contain two chambers housing funereal furniture.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Modern humans walked out of Africa and across the Red Sea.



> *Modern humans may have left Africa 65,000 years earlier than we previously thought, according to new evidence discovered at a dig site in the Arabian peninsula. Sets of tools found at the site suggest that humans living on the Persian Gulf weren't even advanced enough to cross the Red Sea by boat. So how'd they get across? According to the researchers, the sea level was low enough that they could simply walk at that point.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

That Ain't No Jackal: New African Wolf Species Identified.



> *Conservationists in Egypt have discovered a new species of wolf, which shares DNA with Indian and Himalayan cousins.
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> The "Egyptian jackal", as it's known, is not in fact a jackal at all, despite the visual similarities it bears to another local species, the golden jackal. The discovery sheds light on how wolf species migrated through Africa and Europe - proving that grey wolves emerged in Africa about 3 million years before they spread to the northern hemisphere.
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> As long ago as 1880 it had been noticed that the Egyptian jackal looked suspiciously like the grey wolf. Several biologists in the 20th century, studying skulls, made the same claim. Still, the creature retained its name. Now, the difference has been formalised.*
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-- Tom


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## Gabriel

A wolf right under our radar. Wonder if that is somehow advantageous to the wolf, or the jackal to resemble one another so closely

I am also thinking the ears have something to do with it.....like maybe natural selection has favored these types of ears on the canines in the region of the earth these animals come from? What do you think?


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## lotuseclat79

Hi Gabriel,

I think you might be onto something there. Like the big ears of a dessert hare are for getting rid of heat, which could be the same for the newly found wolf, eh?

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Norwegian petroglyphs found beneath burial mounds.



> *It looked to be a routine excavation of what was thought to be a burial mound. But beneath the mound, archaeologists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Museum of Natural History and Archaeology found something more: unusual Bronze Age petroglyphs.   "We believe these are very special in a Norwegian context," says museum researcher and project manager Anne Haug.*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

A new henge discovered at Stonehenge.



> *An archaeology team led by the University of Birmingham and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Archaeological Prospection and Virtual Archaeology in Austria discovered a major ceremonial monument less than one kilometre away from the iconic Stonehenge.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Photos released to protect endangered Amazonians.



> *Brazil has allowed the release of rare photographs of Amazonian natives to bring attention to the plight of indigenous people who rights groups say are faced with possible extinction.*
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> Undated handout picture released by Survival International of what they say are uncontacted Indians seen from a Brazilian government's observation aircraft in the Brazilian Amazon forest, near the border with Peru. Brazil has allowed the release of rare photographs of Amazonian natives to bring attention to the plight of indigenous people who rights groups say are faced with possible extinction.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Newly discovered dinosaur likely father of Triceratops.



> *Triceratops and Torosaurus have long been considered the kings of the horned dinosaurs. But a new discovery traces the giants' family tree further back in time, when a newly discovered species appears to have reigned long before its more well-known descendants, making it the earliest known member of its family.*
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> This is an illustration of the Titanoceratops, thought to be the ancestor of the more well-known Triceratops. Credit: Nicholas Longrich/Yale University
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> The missing portions of the Titanoceratops frill, shown in the shaded areas in the illustration on the right, were reconstructed to look like a Pentaceratops skull (left). Credit: Nicholas Longrich/Yale University
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> The Titanoceratops rivaled the Triceratops in size, with an estimated weight of nearly 15,000 pounds and a massive eight-foot-long skull. Credit: Nicholas Longrich/Yale University


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Vikings could have steered by polarized light.



> *The Vikings are said to have been able to navigate with the aid of "sunstones" that allowed them to see the sun on cloudy or foggy days. Now scientists in Hungary and Sweden say the sunstones could have been polarizing crystals.*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Rare insect fossil reveals 100 million years of evolutionary stasis.



> *Researchers have discovered the 100 million-year-old ancestor of a group of large, carnivorous, cricket-like insects that still live today in southern Asia, northern Indochina and Africa. The new find, in a limestone fossil bed in northeastern Brazil, corrects the mistaken classification of another fossil of this type and reveals that the genus has undergone very little evolutionary change since the Early Cretaceous Period, a time of dinosaurs just before the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana.*
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> A fossil found in northeastern Brazil confirmed that the splay-footed cricket of today has at least a 100-million-year-old pedigree. Credit: Hwaja Goetz


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Northern hunters slowed down advance of Neolithic farmers.



> *One of the most significant socioeconomic changes in the history of humanity took place around 10,000 years ago, when the Near East went from an economy based on hunting and gathering (Mesolithic) to another kind on agriculture (Neolithic). Farmers rapidly entered the Balkan Peninsula and then advanced gradually throughout the rest of Europe.*
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> This image shows the chronology of the Neolithic wave of advance in Europe. The arrow corresponds to the Y-direction in the model. Credit: J. Fort y N. Isern.


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Giant archaeological trove found in Google Earth



> Indiana Jones, put down your whip. To scour the globe for archaeological sites these days all you need is a desktop computer.
> 
> Almost two thousand potential archaeological sites in Saudi Arabia have been discovered from an office chair in Perth, Australia, thanks to high-resolution satellite images from Google Earth.


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## ekim68

More on post #907:



> The Moxatetéu are one of more than 100 peoples worldwide who live and thrive in isolation from society. Exact numbers are unknown: there could be up to 70 isolated peoples in the Brazilian rainforest, according to Funai, and an estimated 15 uncontacted tribes in Peru. Gauging how many such tribes there are in West Papua is difficult, because its treacherous terrain, and militarisation of some areas, prevents easy access.
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> Little is known about uncontacted tribes, but it is easy to imagine what they don't know: of cars or banks or telephones, the concept of government, the internet or the administration of Barack Obama, or why loggers would want to denude their forests. "We didn't know about deforestation," said a man from Brazil's Enawene Nawe tribe, after they were first contacted in 1974. "We didn't know that tractors existed and we didn't know about chain saws that cut down trees." Everything else about their lives - their languages, their names, what they hope for and to whom they pray - is mere speculation. But photographs such as those published last week put an end to speculation about their existence.


Here


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## lotuseclat79

Wurdi Youang rocks could prove Aborigines were first astronomers.



> *After years of meticulous examination, a group of Australia's most distinguished astro-physicists is starting to believe it's the latter - a discovery that could turn history upside down and render England's famous Stonehenge an also-ran.*
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> Early astronomers? ... an aerial view of the Wurdi Youang stone arrangement, also known as the Mount Rothwell site.
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> What is it? ... Wurdi Youang stone arrangement, also known as the Mount Rothwell site.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Early humans won at running; Neandertals won at walking.



> *New research has compared the performance of the heels of modern-day distance runners to the heels of Neandertals and ancient **** sapiens. The results show the Neandertals' heels were taller than those of modern humans and **** sapiens, and more adapted to walking than running over long distances, while those of **** sapiens were more adapted to endurance running.*
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> Calcaneus (heel bone) fracture X-ray. Image: Wikipedia.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient shells meet high-tech: Researchers study the sound of pre-Incan conches (w/ Video: 3:50).



> *Archaeologists and acousticians strike an unusual partnership to understand the mesmerizing role of conches in the temple culture around Peru's Chavin.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient teeth raise new questions about the origins of modern man.



> *Eight small teeth found in a cave near Rosh Haain, central Israel, are raising big questions about the earliest existence of humans and where we may have originated, says Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam. Part of a team of international researchers led by Dr. Israel Hershovitz of Tel Aviv University, Qaum and his colleagues have been examining the dental discovery and recently published their joint findings in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology.*
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> Excavated at Qesem cave, a pre-historic site that was uncovered in 2000, the size and shape of the teeth are very similar to those of modern man, **** sapiens, which have been found at other sites is Israel, such as Oafzeh and Skhul - but they're a lot older than any previously discovered remains.
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> Teeth found at a site near Rosh Haain in Israel are providing new information about who the earlier occupants of this region were as well as their potential evolutionary relationships with later fossils from this same region, says Binghamton University anthropologist Rolf Quam. Credit: Rolf Quam


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Experts determine age of book 'nobody can read'.



> *While enthusiasts across the world pored over the Voynich manuscript, one of the most mysterious writings ever found - penned by an unknown author in a language no one understands - a research team at the UA solved one of its biggest mysteries: When was the book made?*
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> The Voynich manuscript's unintelligible writings and strange illustrations have defied every attempt at understanding their meaning.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

On their own 2 feet: 3.2 million-year-old fossil foot bone supports humanlike bipedalism in Lucy's species.



> *A fossilized foot bone recovered from Hadar, Ethiopia, shows that by 3.2 million years ago human ancestors walked bipedally with a modern human-like foot, a report that appears Feb. 11 in the journal Science, concludes. The fossil, a fourth metatarsal, or midfoot bone, indicates that a permanently arched foot was present in the species Australopithecus afarensis, according to the report authors, Carol Ward of the University of Missouri, together with William Kimbel and Donald Johanson, of Arizona State University's Institute of Human Origins.*
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> This image shows the position of the fourth metatarsal Australopithecus afarensis (AL 333-160) recovered from Hadar, Ethiopia, in a foot skeleton. Credit: Carol Ward/University of Missouri
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> Paleoanthropologists report in the Feb. 10 edition of Science on the recovery of a fossilized foot bone recovered from Hadar, Ethiopia, locality 333, popularly known as the "First Family Site," the richest source of Australopithecus afarensis fossils in eastern Africa. Credit: Donald Johanson/Institute of Human Origins/Arizona State University
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> This is the fossilized foot bone -- fourth metatarsal of Australopithecus afarensis (AL 333-160) -- recovered from Hadar, Ethiopia. Credit: Elizabeth Harmon/Arizona State University


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient Mesoamerican sculpture uncovered in southern Mexico.



> *With one arm raised and a determined scowl, the figure looks ready to march right off his carved tablet and into the history books. If only we knew who he was - corn god? Tribal chief? Sacred priest?*
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> This photo and drawing illustrate a recently discovered 3,000-year-old Olmec-style stone monument from Ojo de Agua, the site of an early planned settlement in what is now the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The carved monument provides information about Olmec culture in the area and includes symbols of maize, deities or other important figures, and possible features of the natural world. Photo: John Hodgson; Drawing: Kisslan Chan and John Clark, New World Archaeological Foundation


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

'Walking cactus' rewrites arthropod odyssey.



> *Fossils of a bizarre animal dubbed the "walking cactus" have shed light on the evolution of crabs and spiders, Chinese researchers reported in the journal Nature on Wednesday.*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient Peruvian site forces experts to re-think past.



> *Archeologists have discovered a group of ancient tombs in the mountainous jungle of southeastern Peru they say is as important as the discovery of the lost city of Machu Picchu.*
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> Objects found in so-called Lord of the Wari tomb, discovered by archeologists in southeastern Peru. The Waris, a pre-Inca civilization, had an enormous cultural impact in the Andean region between 600 and 1200.


-- Tom


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## sangamam

@ lotuseclat79 
Nice piece of information. all are interesting ,especially the walking cactus


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## lotuseclat79

Ice Age child discovered in Alaskan wilderness.



> *Ice Age child: The remains of a prehistoric child have been found in the woods of Alaska. The story behind the Ice Age child may help modern day Native Americans understand something new about their ancestry.*
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> Ice Age child found: Some 11,500 years ago one of America's earliest families laid the remains of a three-year-old child to rest in their home in what is now Alaska. Today archaeologists are learning about the life and times of the early settlers who crossed from Asia to the North American continent. Photo Credit: Ben A. Potter/Science/AP


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Advanced Light Source finds big surprise in Paleozoic scorpion fossil.



> *It's not quite Jurassic Park, but who wants Paleozoic scorpions scurrying around anyway? Scientists used a powerful microscope at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) to detect remnants of protein and chitin in the exoskeleton of a 417-million-year-old fossil of an extinct mega-scorpion, a discovery that is several hundred million years older than previously thought possible.*
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> A big surprise is revealed in this soft x-ray absorption image of exoskeleton from a 310-million-year-old scorpion fossil. The brighter areas map the abundance of nitrogen from chitin, which scientists previously believed couldn't endure in extremely old fossils. For scale, the black bar is one-millionth of a meter. (Image courtesy of Carnegie Institution)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Rare 89 million-year-old flying reptile fossil from Texas may be world's oldest Pteranodon (w/Vidoe).



> *Fossilized bones discovered in Texas from a flying reptile that died 89 million years ago may be the earliest occurrence in the world of the prehistoric creature known as Pteranodon.*
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> Fossilized bones discovered in Texas are from the left wing of an ancient flying reptile that died 89 million years ago. Evidence suggests the specimen may be the earliest occurrence of the prehistoric creature Pteranodon, says paleontologist Timothy S. Myers, Southern Methodist University, who identified the fossils. If the reptile is Pteranodon, it would be the world's oldest and the first of its kind discovered as far south as Texas. Credit: Timothy S. Myers, SMU
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> Fossilized bones discovered in Texas are from the left wing of an ancient flying reptile that died 89 million years ago. Evidence suggests the specimen may be the earliest occurrence of the prehistoric creature Pteranodon, says paleontologist Timothy S. Myers, Southern Methodist University, who identified the fossils. If the reptile is Pteranodon, it would be the world's oldest and the first of its kind discovered as far south as Texas. Credit: Timothy S. Myers, Southern Methodist University


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New dinosaur species is titanic.



> *Titanoceratops may be oldest known member of triceratops group*
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> An oddball fossil skull in an Oklahoma museum may represent a new kind of dinosaur, the earliest giant horned species yet found.
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> A reconstruction of an early giant among horned dinosaurs still carries the label Pentaceratops among the fossils in the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, Okla., but may deserve to be considered a new species, Titanoceratops. Credit: Sanford Mauldin/Copyright Sam Noble Museum, Univ. of Oklahoma
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> The white area in the skull diagram of the proposed Titanoceratops indicates how much of the displayed reconstruction comes from actual fossil material. Credit: Courtesy of Nick Longrich


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Lost city of Atlantis, swamped by tsunami, may be found.

Watch National Geographic channel tonight at 9PM (Finding Atlantis), or whenever it airs in your locale.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Lost world hints at life in the Mesozoic.



> *In an echo of Arthur Conan Doyle's famous book, a lost world containing a community of animals that has changed little since Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops walked the Earth has been found. But while Conan Doyle's lost world was on a South American plateau, its real life equivalent lies on a submerged mountain off the Antarctic coast.*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Neanderthals were nifty at controlling fire: study.



> *A new study involving the University of Colorado Boulder shows clear evidence of the continuous control of fire by Neanderthals in Europe dating back roughly 400,000 years, yet another indication that they weren't dimwitted brutes as often portrayed.*
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> A new study involving the University of Colorado Boulder indicates Neanderthals had achieved continuous control of fire by roughly 400,000 years ago. Credit: JPL/NASA


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

First dinosaur fossil discovered in Angola.



> *Scientists say they have discovered the first fossil of a dinosaur in Angola, and that it's a new creature, heralding a research renaissance in a country slowly emerging from decades of war.*
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> In this undated photo supplied by the PaleoAngola Project, researcher Octávio Mateus analyses part of a fossilized dinosaur. A paper published Wednesday March 16, 2011, in the Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences describes a classic, long-necked, elephant-sized, plant-eating sauropod. The international team that found and identified the fossilized forelimb bone say it is from a new dinosaur, citing unique skeletal characteristics. (AP Photo/PaleoAngola Project/HO)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

The skull of extinct birds revealed.



> *Birds are the most diverse clade on the planet, and the skull of the living bird is one of the most highly modified and morphologically variable regions of their skeleton. The large diversity of enantiornithine birds (a group closely related to the lineage that includes living birds) uncovered from Cretaceous age deposits around the world is considered the first major avian radiation. During the complex early evolutionary history of the modern bird, it appears many derived features of living birds evolved in parallel in other more primitive groups, and some areas of the skeleton evolved modifications before others, such as the wing and other skeletal elements important to flight. However, few comprehensive studies have been done to test this. Although many enantiornithine species are recognized, and most from the famous Jehol deposits of northeastern China, our specific knowledge of morphological variation, biology and ecology is still incomplete because the rate of fossil discoveries in China continues to be very high. Outside China, only three enantiornithine specimens preserve skull material, however the skull is commonly preserved in numerous Jehol specimens. Because in birds the skull includes the sole feeding apparatus (the beak or rostrum), understanding the enantiornithine skull can help reveal the biology of these extinct birds. However, no attempt to reconstruct and better understand the enantiornithine skull has been made in over a decade.*
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> Fig.1: Camera lucida drawings of select enantiornithine skulls: A, Rapaxavis pani, DNHM D2522; B, Longirostravis hani, IVPP V1130; C, Longipteryx chaoyangensis, IVPP V 12325; D, Eoenantiornis buhleri, IVPP 11537; E, Longipteryx sp., DNHM D2889; F, Longipteryx chaoyangensis, IVPP V12552; G, .Shenqiornis mengi, DNHM D2951; H, Pengornis houi, IVPP 15336; I, Alethoalaornis agitornis, LPM 00009; J, Cathayornis yandica, IVPP V9769; K, Dapingfangornis sentisorhinus, LPM 00039; L, M, Gobipteryx minuta, IGM-100/1011, righl and left lateral view. Credit: O'Connor JK


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Researchers consider ancestry of recent fossil finds.



> *Someday a future intelligent organism could sweep away a million years of dust and find the bones of a **** sapiens and wonder what he was.*
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> Evolutionary biologists and physical anthropologists traditionally use a species' physical characteristics--or morphology--to determine which groups of organisms are most closely related to one another. But, in some cases, common physical traits may not indicate a common evolutionary history.
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> The central theme here is something called homoplasy, a character shared by a set of species but not present in a common ancestor. A good example is the evolution of the eye which originated independently in many different species.
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> Sometimes these homoplasies and/or common morphologies may mean common ancestry and sometimes they may not.
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> "The Evolutionary Context of the First Hominins," a paper published in the journal Nature, encourages researchers, teachers and students to acknowledge a number of pemssible interpretations of morphological evidence before classifying newly discovered fossils. Credit: 2011 JupiterImages Corporation


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Nuralagus rex: Giant extinct rabbit that didn't hop.



> *On the small island of Minorca, a popular European tourist destination, researchers have unearthed an enormous fossil rabbit skeleton. A recent study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology highlights this new find off the coast of Spain. This massive rabbit, aptly named the Minorcan King of the Rabbits (Nuralagus rex), weighed in at 12 kg (26.4 lbs)! - approximately ten times the size of its extinct mainland cousin (Alilepus sp.) and six times the size of the living European rabbit, Oryctolagus cuniculus.*
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> A reconstruction of Nuralagus rex in a landscape with a living European rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus in the foreground for comparison. Image: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Rare dinosaur found in Canada's oil sands.


> *The Canadian oil sands, a vast expanse of tar and sand being mined for crude oil, yielded treasure of another kind this week when an oil company worker unearthed a 110-million-year-old dinosaur fossil that wasn't supposed to be there.
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> The fossil is an ankylosaur, a plant-eating dinosaur with powerful limbs, armor plating and a club-like tail. Finding it in this region of northern Alberta was a surprise because millions of years ago the area was covered by water.*
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> Ankylosaur fossil


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New Archeology Find Buries Theory on First Americans, Re-Opening a Gaping Mystery.



> *What's the News: Archeologists have discovered thousands of stone tools in Texas that are over 15,000 years old. The find is important because it is over 2,000 years older than the so-called Clovis culture, which had previously thought to be the first human culture in North America. As Texas A&M University anthropologist Michael Waters says, "This is almost like a baseball bat to the side of the head of the archaeological community to wake up and say, 'hey, there are pre-Clovis people here, that we have to stop quibbling and we need to develop a new model for peopling of the Americas'."*
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> Arrows


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Study names new genus of 125-million-year-old eudicot from China.



> *A University of Florida researcher has helped describe the earliest known fossil remains of a flowering plant from China that has a direct evolutionary relationship with most plants humans depend on today.*
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> Image credit: Hongshan Wang


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Unlocking the past with the West Runton Elephant.



> *Researchers from the University of York and Manchester have successfully extracted protein from the bones of a 600,000 year old mammoth, paving the way for the identification of ancient fossils.*
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> Mammuthus trogontherii, Steppe Mammoth. Image: Dmitry Bogdanov/Wikipedia.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Long lost cousin of T. rex identified by scientists.



> *Scientists have identified a new species of gigantic theropod dinosaur, a close relative of T. rex, from fossil skull and jaw bones discovered in China.*
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> Scientists have identified a new species of gigantic theropod dinosaur, a close relative of T. rex, from fossil skull and jaw bones discovered in China. According to findings published online April 1, 2011, in the scientific journal Cretaceous Research, the newly named dinosaur species "Zhuchengtyrannus magnus" probably measured about 11 metres long, stood about 4 meters tall, and weighed close to 6 tons. Comparable in size and scale to the legendary T. rex, this new dinosaur is one of the largest theropod (carnivorous) dinosaurs ever identified by scientists. Credit: Courtesy of Robert Nicholls (copyright)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Hidden in a cave for 2,000 years... is this the first-ever portrait of Jesus?.



> *The image is eerily familiar: a bearded young man with flowing curly hair. After lying for nearly 2,000 years hidden in a cave in the Holy Land, the fine detail is difficult to determine. But in a certain light it is not difficult to interpret the marks around the figure's brow as a crown of thorns.
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> The extraordinary picture of one of the recently discovered hoard of up to 70 lead codices - booklets - found in a cave in the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee is one reason Bible historians are clamouring to get their hands on the ancient artefacts.
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> If genuine, this could be the first-ever portrait of Jesus Christ, possibly even created in the lifetime of those who knew him.*


Definitely, a lost world.

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Boluochia closely related to longipteryx, study shows.



> *Very little was known about Mesozoic birds until nearly complete skeletons began to be discovered in the now famous Jehol Group deposits of northeastern China.*
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> Figure 1. Photograph of the holotype of Longipteryx chaoyangensis (IVPP V12325). Scale bar represents 1 cm. Credit: O'Connor JK


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Did dinosaurs have lice? Researchers say it's possible.



> *A new study louses up a popular theory of animal evolution and opens up the possibility that dinosaurs were early - perhaps even the first - animal hosts of lice.*
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> This 44-million-year-old louse fossil (left), discovered by co-author Vincent Smith and described in a paper in Biology Letters in 2004, helped the researchers anchor the lineages of lice that today parasitize aquatic birds (right). Credit: Vincent S. Smith


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Discovery in Guatemala finds oldest royal Mayan tomb.



> *At the recent Society for American Archaeology meeting in Sacramento, California, archaeologist Michael Callaghan from the University of Texas presented his team's findings from the ancient site of K'o (now modern-day Guatemala) and what they believe to be the oldest known royal Mayan tomb.*
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> A drawing of the incense burner found in a tomb, ~350 BC. The tri-lobed forehead symbol is a marker of the Jester god. Drawing: Fernando Alvarez / Holmul Archaeological Project


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

The mummy study returns: Scanning of more ancient Egyptians confirms heart disease, finds princess to be oldest case.



> *Although ancient Egyptian royalty didn't gobble down bacon cheeseburgers or doughnuts dripping with trans fats, smoke cigarettes or spend hours each night in front of the TV, they did share a similar health consequence with people who do these things today: Their coronary arteries were clogged all the same.*
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> American and Egyptian researchers performed whole-body CT scans on 52 mummies housed in Cairo's Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. Almost half of the mummies showed calcifications in arteries that are highly suggestive of atherosclerosis. Credit: Michael Miyamoto


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Bones of leper warrior found in medieval cemetery.



> *Researchers in Italy have uncovered the bodies of three Middle Ages warriors from a military cemetery.*
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> The bones of a soldier with leprosy who may have died in battle have been found in a medieval Italian cemetery, along with skeletons of men who survived blows to the head with battle-axes and maces.
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> Studying ancient leprosy, which is caused by a bacterial infection, may help scientists figure out how the infectious disease evolved.
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> Rubini and other researchers are working to extract the DNA of the bacteria that causes leprosy from bones found in the cemetery. The goal is to compare the medieval version of the disease to the bacteria alive today, Rubini said: "We study the past to know the present."
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> LEPER WARRIOR: This man, unearthed from the Campochiaro cemetery, took his horse to the grave with him. (Photo: Mauro Rubini)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Three dinosaur footprints discovered on one boulder.



> *Three different dinosaur footprints have been found on a 50 kilo boulder from an Isle of Wight beach, providing evidence of life on a riverbank 130 million years ago.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Long-sought fossil mammal with transitional middle ear found.



> *Paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History and the Chinese Academy of Sciences announce the discovery of Liaoconodon hui, a complete fossil mammal from the Mesozoic found in China that includes the long-sought transitional middle ear. The specimen shows the bones associated with hearing in mammals- the malleus, incus, and ectotympanic- decoupled from the lower jaw, as had been predicted, but were held in place by an ossified cartilage that rested in a groove on the lower jaw. The new research, published in Nature this week, also suggests that the middle ear evolved at least twice in mammals, for monotremes and for the marsupial-placental group.*
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> Liaoconodon hui skull from the ventral side showing (l to r) the bony ring that holds the ear drum, ossified Meckel's cartilage, and the lower jaw Credit: Meng, et al 2011 (Nature)
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> This is Liaoconodon hui, a fossil mammal from China. Credit: Meng, et al 2011 ( Nature)
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> This is a dorsal view and ventral view of a Liaoconodon hui skull. Credit: Meng, et al 2011 (Nature)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Loch fossils show life harnessed sun and sex early on.



> *Remote lochs along the west coast of Scotland are turning up new evidence about the origins of life on land.*
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> "We have discovered evidence for complex life on land from 1 billion year old deposits from Scotland. This suggests that life on land at this time was more abundant and complex than anticipated. It also opens the intriguing possibility that some of the major events in the early history of life may have taken place on land and not entirely within the marine realm."
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> Professor Brasier said: "It may even be that the sort of conditions found in the ancient lakes around Loch Torridon favoured a key step in this transformation, which involved the incorporation of symbiotic bacteria into the cell to form chloroplasts, rather than this occurring in the sea as usually envisaged."
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> Around 500 million years after the emergence of these complex cells, the surface of the land was starting to become covered in simple vegetation like lichens, mosses and liverworts, and the first animals were able to take their chance and leave the sea behind. These pioneers were followed by the first fish and ferns, reptiles and conifers, mammals and flowering plants - and, eventually, humans.
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> Professor Brasier adds: "None of this would have been possible without advances long ago made by these little microbes, now entombed within phosphate from the Torridon lakes. It was arguably these organisms that helped to turn our landscape from a harsh and rocky desert into a green and pleasant place."
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> These are cell pairs. Credit: Oxford University/Martin Brasier
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> This is a cluster of cells. Credit: Oxford University/Martin Brasier


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists discover a new species of dinosaur, bridging a gap in the dinosaur family tree.



> *A team of scientists led by the Smithsonian Institution has discovered a fossilized dinosaur skull and neck vertebrae that not only reveal a new species, but also an evolutionary link between two groups of dinosaurs. The new species, Daemonosaurus chauliodus, was discovered at Ghost Ranch, N.M. The team's findings are published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Wednesday, April 13.*
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> This rendering of Daemonosaurus chauliodus shows its size relative to an American quarter. The species name chauliodus is derived from the Greek word for "buck-toothed" and refers to the species' big slanted front teeth. Credit: Jeffrey Martz
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> Daemonosaurus chauliodus, the new species of dinosaur discovered at Ghost Ranch, N.M. is estimated to have been similar in size to a large dog. Credit: Smithsonian
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> The skull of Daemonosaurus chauliodus is narrow and relatively deep, measuring 5.5 inches long from the tip of its snout to the back of the skull and has proportionately large eye sockets. The upper jaw has large, forward-slanted front teeth. Credit: Carnegie Museum of Natural History


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

The eyes have it: Dinosaurs hunted by night.



> *The movie Jurassic Park got one thing right: Those velociraptors hunted by night while the big plant-eaters browsed around the clock, according to a new study of the eyes of fossil animals. The study will be published online April 14 in the journal Science.*
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> This conclusion overturns the conventional wisdom that dinosaurs were active by day while early mammals scurried around at night, said Ryosuke Motani, professor of geology at UC Davis and co-author of the paper.
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> Velociraptor mongoliensis was a nocturnal carnivore. Credit: Lars Schmitz, UC Davis.
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> Dinosaurs, lizards and birds all have a bony ring called the "scleral ring" in their eye, a structure that is lacking in mammals and crocodiles.
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> The pterosaur Scaphognathus crassirostris was a day-active, flying archosaur. Scleral ring highlighted. Credit: Lars Schmitz/UC Davis.
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> Day-active, or diurnal, animals have a small opening in the middle of the ring. In nocturnal animals, the opening is much larger. Cathemeral animals -- active both day and night -- tend to be in between.
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> The size of these features is affected by a species' environment (ecology) as well as by ancestry (phylogeny). For example, two closely related animals might have a similar eye shape even though one is active by day and the other by night: The shape of the eye is constrained by ancestry.
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> This plant-eating dinosaur, Protoceratops andrewsi, was active day and night, like many other herbivorous dinosaurs. Credit: Lars Schmitz, UC Davis.


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Kiwi's mother of language discovery creates stir



> Atkinson said the world's 6000 languages descended from a single ancestral tongue spoken by early southern African humans between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago. The Mother of all Mother Tongues is known as Khoisan, a family of the Kalahari Bushmen click language.


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## lotuseclat79

Reptilian root canal: Study reveals infection in jaw of ancient fossil.



> *A reptile that lived 275-million years ago in what is now Oklahoma is giving paleontologists a glimpse of the oldest known toothache.*
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> This fossil reveals evidence of missing teeth, bone destruction and dental disease. Credit: Reisz R R et al (2011). Osteomyelitis in a Paleozoic reptile: ancient evidence for bacterial infection and its evolutionary significance. Naturwissenschaften - The Nature of Science.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Enormous statue of powerful pharaoh unearthed.



> *Archaeologists unearthed one of the largest statues found to date of a powerful ancient Egyptian pharaoh at his mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor, the country's antiquities authority announced Tuesday.*
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> This undated photo released by the Supreme Council of Antiquities on Tuesday, April 26, 2011, shows a 13 meter (42 foot) tall statue of Amenhotep III in Luxor, Egypt. Archeologists unearthed one of the largest statues to date of the powerful ancient Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III at his mortuary temple in the southern city of Luxor, as well as one of the god Thoth with a baboon's head and and a six foot (1.85 meters) tall one of the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, the country's antiquities authority announced Tuesday.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Lost City Revealed Under Centuries of Jungle Growth.



> *A hundred ancient Maya buildings detected under Guatemala rain forest. Hidden for centuries, the ancient Maya city of Holtun, or Head of Stone, is finally coming into focus. Three-dimensional mapping has "erased" centuries of jungle growth, revealing the rough contours of nearly a hundred buildings, according to research presented earlier this month.*
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> Three-dimensional map of the buried observatory at the Guatemalan Maya site of Holtun. Illustration courtesy Melvin Rodrigo Guzman Piedrasanta.
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> Archaeologist Brigitte Kovacevich in a looters' tunnel inside the pyramid at the Head of Stone site. Photograph courtesy Michael G. Callaghan


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient Teeth Show Neanderthals Were Righties.



> *Right-handedness reaches back a half million years in the human evolutionary family, at least if scratched-up fossil teeth have anything to say about it.*
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> Neanderthal tooth scratches laterally


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

No nuts for 'Nutcracker Man': Early human relative apparently chewed grass instead.



> *For decades, a 2.3 million- to 1.2 million-year-old human relative named Paranthropus boisei has been nicknamed Nutcracker Man because of his big, flat molar teeth and thick, powerful jaw. But a definitive new University of Utah study shows that Nutcracker Man didn't eat nuts, but instead chewed grasses and possibly sedges - a discovery that upsets conventional wisdom about early humanity's diet.*
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> This photo of casts of two palates demonstrates the large size of the teeth of Paranthropus boisei (left), an early human relative that lived in East Africa between 2.3 million and 1.2 million years ago and is known as Nutcracker Man. Much smaller teeth from a human skull are shown on the right. A new study led by University of Utah researchers shows that Nutcracker Man didn't eat nuts as had been believed for decades, but instead used the large, flat teeth to chew grasses or plants known as sedges. Credit: Melissa Lutz Blouin, University of Arkansas.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Endogenous proteins found in a 70-million-year-old giant marine lizard.



> *With their discovery, the scientists Johan Lindgren, Per Uvdal, Anders Engdahl, and colleagues have demonstrated that remains of type I collagen, a structural protein, are retained in a mosasaur fossil.*
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> One of the most well preserved mosasaur sculls in the world. Fossil at Museum of Paleonthology, University of California Berkeley, California. Photo: Johan Lindgren


-- Tom


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## Gabriel

Truncated life cycle in newfound 'forever young' starfish

http://www.livescience.com/13990-st...m+Science+Headline+Feed)&utm_content=My+Yahoo


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## lotuseclat79

Neolithic humans lived a communal life: study.



> *A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds evidence that the previous assumption that stone and mud-brick buildings built nearly 12,000 years ago were the homes and settlements of the first farmers may not have been homes at all, but community centers.*
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> Neolithichum: Image credit: W16 project


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Lost Civilizations: 12 Societies that Vanished in Mystery.



> *Why would a flourishing civilization, advanced for its time, suddenly cease to exist, its inhabitants gone and its architecture abandoned? Conspiracy theorists offer all manner of offbeat explanations including alien abduction, but in the case of these 12 societies, the causes were likely more mundane: natural disasters, climate change, invasions and economic irrelevance. Still, we don't know - and likely never will - exactly what happened to bring about the end of the Khmer Empire of Cambodia, the Minoan society of Crete or two ancient civilizations right here in the United States.*
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> Vanished Empires


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Anthropologist discovers new fossil primate species in West Texas.



> *Physical anthropologist Chris Kirk has announced the discovery of a previously unknown species of fossil primate, Mescalerolemur horneri, in the Devil's Graveyard badlands of West Texas.*
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> This is Mescalerolemur horneri's partial upper jaw (in two pieces, at left) and partial lower jaw (at right) (scales = 2 mm). Credit: University of Texas at Austin
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> This is Mescalerolemur horneri's partial right lower jaw (scale = 2 mm). Credit: University of Texas at Austin


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Clues to Neanderthal hunting tactics hidden in reindeer teeth.



> *Scientists have found that our cousins the Neanderthal employed sophisticated hunting strategies similar to the tactics used much later by modern humans. The new findings come from the analysis of subtle chemical variations in reindeer teeth.*
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> A tribe of neanderthals returning from a hunt.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Lizard fossil provides missing link in debate over snake origins.



> *Until a recent discovery, theories about the origins and evolutionary relationships of snakes barely had a leg to stand on.*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

China fossil shows bird, crocodile family trees split earlier than thought.



> *A fossil unearthed in China in the 1970s of a creature that died about 247 million years ago, originally thought to be a distant relative of both birds and crocodiles, turns out to have come from the crocodile family tree after it had already split from the bird family tree, according to research led by a University of Washington paleontologist.*
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> This is a reconstruction of X. sapingensis, based on the fossil. Credit: Sterling Nesbitt


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Mastodon skull discovered in Chile.



> *A perfectly preserved skull of a mastodon -- a relative of today's elephant -- was found here during excavation work at a water treatment plant, one of the scientists involved in the discovery said Tuesday.*
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> A visitor reads about the aastodon skeleton at the National History Museum of Los Angeles County, in 2010. A perfectly preserved skull of a mastodon -- a relative of today's elephant -- was found here during excavation work at a water treatment plant, one of the scientists involved in the discovery said Tuesday.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Red-crested tree rat is adorable, not extinct.



> *The last red-crested tree rat was spotted in 1898. After 113 years, and several searches, the species was assumed to be extinct. That is, until this one showed up on a public handrail at 9:30 pm on May 4, in Colombia's El Dorado Nature Reserve. Cute! And not dead!*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Brush away the cobwebs: 49 million-year-old spider fossilised in amber recreated using 3D imaging technology.



> *This astonishing image is the face of a 49million-year-old spider preserved in amber.*
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> Using new computer-imaging techniques, scientists were able to produce detailed pictures of the face of this 49 million-year-old Huntsman spider preserved in amber


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists list top 10 new species.



> *Glow-in-the-dark mushrooms, a batfish flat as a pancake that appears to hop in the water, Titanic-eating bacterium, and a T. rex leech with enormous teeth are among the new species from 2010 selected as the top 10 by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and a committee of taxonomists from around the world - scientists responsible for species exploration and classification.*
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> The top 10 new species announced May 23 include a six-foot long fruit-eating lizard, pollinating cockroach, Titanic-eating bacterium, mushroom that fruits underwater, bioluminescent fungi, Darwin's Bark Spider, duiker, jumping cockroach, T. rex leech and pancake batfish. The top 10 new species list is issued annually by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University and an international committee of taxonomists - scientists responsible for species exploration and classification.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Tiny teeth are new mouse species, a rare 'living fossil'.



> *Tiny fossil teeth discovered in Inner Mongolia are a new species of birch mouse, indicating that ancestors of the small rodent are much older than previously reported, according to paleontologist Yuri Kimura, Southern Methodist University in Dallas.*
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> Paleontologist Yuri Kimura, Southern Methodist University in Dallas, identified Sicista primus from 17 tiny teeth, whose small size makes them difficult to find. A single molar is about the size of half a grain of rice. The teeth, however, are distinctive among the various genera of rodents known as Dipodidae. Cusps, valleys, ridges and other distinguishing characteristics on the surface of the teeth are identifiable through a microscope. (Credit: Kimura)
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Egyptian pyramids found by infra-red satellite images.



> *Seventeen lost pyramids are among the buildings identified in a new satellite survey of Egypt.*
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> Two new finds are at Saqqara, an older but lesser known pyramid site than Giza
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> An infra-red satellite image shows a buried pyramid, located in the centre of the highlight box.
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> "Indiana Jones is old school, we've moved on from Indy, sorry Harrison Ford " Dr Sarah Parcak Space Archaeologist


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Blackbeard's anchor recovered off N.C. coast


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## lotuseclat79

Climate played big role in Vikings' disappearance from Greenland.



> *The end of the Norse settlements on Greenland likely will remain shrouded in mystery. While there is scant written evidence of the colony's demise in the 14th and early 15th centuries, archaeological remains can fill some of the blanks, but not all.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient War Revealed in Discovery of Incan Fortresses.



> *Incan fortresses built some 500 years ago have been discovered along an extinct volcano in northern Ecuador, revealing evidence of a war fought by the Inca just before the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the Andes.
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> "We're seeing evidence for a pre-Columbian frontier, or borderline, that we think existed between Inca fortresses and Ecuadorian people's fortresses," project director Samuel Connell, of Foothill College in California, told LiveScience.
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> The team has identified what they think are 20 fortresses built by the Inca and two forts that were built by a people from Ecuador known as the Cayambe. The volcano is called Pambamarca.*
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> The fortresses at the site, Quitoloma, were filled with Inca weaponry, including stones for slingshots. CREDIT: Samuel Connell


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Study: Ancient hominid males stayed home while females roamed.



> *The males of two bipedal hominid species that roamed the South African savannah more than a million years ago were stay-at-home kind of guys when compared to the gadabout gals, says a new high-tech study led by the University of Colorado Boulder.*
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> A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder indicates that the males of two ancient homind species, including Paranthropus robustus, pictured here, stayed home while the females roamed. Credit: Illustration courtesy of Walter Voigt/Lee Berger/Brett Hilton-Barber


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Marlborough mound revealed to be 4,400 years old.



> *An earthen mound, in Wiltshire, England, named the Marlborough mound and situated on the grounds of the Marlborough boarding school, has been found to date back 4,400 years, giving it a much longer history than most experts of historical England had suspected.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Huge Ancient Language Dictionary Finished After 90 Years.



> *An ambitious project to identify, explain and provide citations for the words written in cuneiform on clay tablets and carved in stone by Babylonians, Assyrians and others in Mesopotamia between 2500 B.C. and A.D. 100 has been completed after 90 years of labor, the University of Chicago announced June 5.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Were ancient human migrations two-way streets?.



> *The worldwide spread of ancient humans has long been depicted as flowing out of Africa, but tantalizing new evidence suggests it may have been a two-way street.*
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> This undated handout photo provided by Reid Ferring of the University of North Texas shows the Dmanisi excavation site in the Republic of Georgia. The worldwide spread of ancient humans has long been depicted as flowing out of Africa, but tantalizing new evidence suggests it may have been a two-way street. A long-studied archaeological site in a mountainous region between Europe and Asia was occupied by early humans as long as 1.85 million years ago, much earlier than the previous estimate of 1.7 million years ago, researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (AP Photo)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Photos: "Glam Rock" Lizard Among New Madagascar Species.



> *Speckled with what looks like glam rock makeup, the chameleon Furcifer timoni was recently discovered on the species-rich African island nation of Madagascar, according to a WWF report released Monday* (See chameleon pictures.)
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> "Glam Rock" Chameleon Photograph courtesy Patrick Schonecker, WWF Madagascar


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## lotuseclat79

Scientists reveal a first in Ice Age art.



> *Researchers from the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Florida have announced the discovery of a bone fragment, approximately 13,000 years old, in Florida with an incised image of a mammoth or mastodon. This engraving is the oldest and only known example of Ice Age art to depict a proboscidean (the order of animals with trunks) in the Americas. The team's research is published online in the Journal of Archaeological Science.*
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> The engraving, approximately 13,000 years old, is 3 inches long from the top of the head to the tip of the tail, and 1.75 inches tall from the top of the head to the bottom of the right foreleg. Credit: Chip Clark/Smithsonian


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Dinosaurs Had Mammal-Hot Blood.



> *A new method for determining temperature using isotopes is now being applied to dinosaurs, and promises to provide hard data that could advance the debate - i.e. whether they were cold blooded or warm blooded.
> *
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> Camarasaurus dinosaur skull


Fascinating progress!

-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Conservationists discover more than 1,000 species in New Guinea.



> *Treasure trove of unknown varieties of animal, bird, fish, insect and plant have been identified in the forests and wetlands of the Pacific island over a period of just 10 years*
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> Wattled Smoky Honeyeater (Melipotes carolae). Photograph: WWF


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Peking man differing from modern humans in brain asymmetry.



> *Paleoanthropologists studying the fossil endocasts of Australopithecus, **** habilis, **** erectus, Neanderthals, and **** sapiens have reported that almost all brain endocasts display distinct cerebral asymmetry. Peking man's endocasts are good examples of ancestral brains and are useful in studying human evolution. However, studies examining brain asymmetries in fossil hominids are usually limited to scoring of differences in hemisphere protrusion rostrally and caudally, or to comparing the width of the hemispheres.*
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> The six Peking man's endocasts used in the study, showing left lateral views. Credit: WU XiuJie


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New Fossils Demonstrate That Powerful Eyes Evolved in a Twinkling.



> *Palaeontologists have uncovered half-a-billion-year-old fossils demonstrating that primitive animals had excellent vision. An international team led by scientists from the South Australian Museum and the University of Adelaide found the exquisite fossils, which look like squashed eyes from a recently swatted fly.*
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> A half-billion-year-old fossil compound eye, showing exquisite detail of the visual surface (the individual lenses can be seen as darker spots). (Credit: Photo by John Paterson (University of New England).)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient house in Israel shocks archaeologists.



> *The best-preserved remains of a house from the Kingdom of Israel, dating back some 3,000 years ago, have been uncovered in Tel Shikmona, on the southern edge of Israel's city of Haifa.*
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> ANCIENT HOUSE: A well preserved four-room house from the period of the Kingdom of Israel has been uncovered at Tel Shikmona, Israel. (Photo: Shay Bar/University of Haifa)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Mexico finds 2 sculptures of Mayan warriors.



> *Mexican archaeologists have found two 1,300-year-old limestone sculptures of captured Mayan warriors that they say could shed light on the alliances and wars among Mayan cities during the civilization's twilight.*
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> One of two pre-hispanic stone sculptures that were recently found in the archeological site of Tonina, near Ocosingo, southern Mexico is seen Wednesday, July 6, 2011. According to Mexico's National Institute of History and Anthropology, INAH, the 1,300-year-old limestone sculptures of captured Mayan warriors could shed light on the alliances and wars among Mayan cities during the civilization's twilight. (AP Photo/Moyses Zuniga)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

A Lost World? Atlantis-Like Landscape Discovered.



> *Buried deep beneath the sediment of the North Atlantic Ocean lies an ancient, lost landscape with furrows cut by rivers and peaks that once belonged to mountains. Geologists recently discovered this roughly 56-million-year-old landscape using data gathered for oil companies.*
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> This image of the ancient buried landscape discovered deep beneath the sediment of the North Atlantic Ocean was made using sound waves bounced off different rock layers. An ancient meandering riverbed is visible.
> CREDIT: R A Hartley et al.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Human Ingenuity: A 100,000-Year-Old Story.



>


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

9 weird newly discovered species.



> *scientists in the Philippines recently ... found 300 previously undiscovered life forms.*
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> 3 of 9 new species: Sea Pen, Inflatable Shark, and unidentified tree-like coral


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

A toothy grin only a palaeontologist could love.



> *McGill and University of Sao Paulo researchers identify new species of 70-million-year-old crocodile - with really big teeth and dog-shaped head.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient City Mysteriously Survived Mideast Civilization Collapse.



> *As ancient civilizations across the Middle East collapsed, possibly in response to a global drought about 4,200 years ago, archaeologists have discovered that one settlement in Syria not only survived, but expanded.
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> Their next question is - why did Tell Qarqur, a site in northwest Syria, grow at a time when cities across the Middle East were being abandoned?*
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> The site of Tell Qarqur in northwest Syria was occupied for nearly 10,000 years. The debris that people left behind accumulated into a human-made mound known as a tell. Archaeologists have determined that 4,200 years ago, at a time when cities and civilizations were collapsing in the Middle East, Tell Qarqur actually grew. CREDIT: Photo courtesy Tell Qarqur Expedition


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Rare fossil of sea reptile found on Alaska beach



> (Reuters) - Alaska scientists have discovered the fossil of a rare, prehistoric marine reptile that is likely the most complete remnant of the creature ever found in North America.
> 
> The nearly complete fossilized skeleton is of a thalattosaur, a long-tailed sea creature that plied warm, shallow waters in the early days of dinosaurs and became extinct at the end of the Triassic period some 200 million years ago.


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## ekim68

Evidence of ancient supercontinent found



> BOULDER, Colo., Aug. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. and international geologists say they've discovered a billion-year-old piece of North America they can trace back to Antarctica.
> 
> Researchers say it's the strongest evidence yet found suggesting North America and Antarctica were connected 1.1 billion years ago, long before the supercontinent Pangaea formed, a Geological Society of America release reported Monday.


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## lotuseclat79

Explorer Marco Polo 'never actually went to China'.



> *Marco Polo's journeys to China and the Far East established him as one of history's greatest explorers but archeologists now believe he never actually went there.*
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> Explorer Marco Polo


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Researchers discover freshwater mussel species thought to be extinct.



> *Researchers from the Texas A&M Institute of Renewable Natural Resources have discovered fresh remains of a freshwater mussel species thought to be extinct in Texas, according to a research associate with the institute.*
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> This recently discovered fresh remains is of a false spike freshwater mussel, a species previously thought to be extinct. Credit: (Photo courtesy of Texas AgriLife Research)


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Oldest Fossils On Earth Discovered



> ScienceDaily (Aug. 22, 2011) - Earth's oldest fossils have been found in Australia by a team from the University of Western Australia and Oxford University. The microscopic fossils show convincing evidence for cells and bacteria living in an oxygen-free world over 3.4 billion years ago.


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## ekim68

2-million-year-old fossils raise hope over 'missing link'



> A new analysis of bones that are nearly 2 million years old suggests they come from a species that may be a leading candidate as an ancient ancestor to humans, paleontologists reported Thursday.
> 
> Calling the ape-like species Australopithecus sediba, South African team leader Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg suggests that many "human" traits - long thumbs, upright walking, wide hips - evolved from this vanished species. This may represent "the best candidate for the ancestor" to people as any other species considered a front-runner to date, Berger says.
> 
> Africa is the birthplace of humanity, where Australopithecine ("southern ape") precursors to humans and modern apes originated over several million years, as shown by fossils and genetic evidence. The South African fossils are among the best-preserved examples.


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## ekim68

Scientists Discover Rare Theropod Dinosaur Wounded in Action in Southern Utah



> Raptor dinosaurs like the iconic Velociraptor from the movie franchise Jurassic Park are renowned for their "fear-factor." Their terrifying image has been popularized in part because members of this group possess a greatly enlarged talon on their foot -- analogous to a butcher's hook. Yet the function of the highly recurved claw on the foot of raptor dinosaurs has largely remained a mystery to paleontologists. This week a collaboration of scientists unveil a new species of raptor dinosaur discovered in southern Utah that sheds new light on this and several other long-standing questions in paleontology, including how dinosaurs evolved on the "lost continent" of Laramidia (western North America) during the Late Cretaceous -- a period known as the zenith of dinosaur diversity.


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## ekim68

Ancient Greek city digitally recreated



> A submerged ancient Greek city, from the heroic era portrayed in Homer's Iliad, is being 'raised' from the bottom of the Aegean.
> 
> Using cutting edge underwater survey equipment and site reconstruction software, archaeologists and computer scientists have joined forces to map and digitally recreate a Bronze Age port which was swallowed by the waves up to 3000 years ago.
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> It's the first time that a submerged city has ever been fully mapped in photo-realistic 3D.
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> The entire city - covering 20 acres - has been surveyed in ultra-high definition, with error margins of less than three centimetres.


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## ekim68

Artifacts indicate a 100,000-year-old art studio



> In a tiny South African cave, archaeologists have unearthed a 100,000-year-old art studio that contains tools for mixing powder from red and yellow rocks with animal fat and marrow to make vibrant paints as well as abalone shells full of dried-out red pigment, the oldest paint containers ever found.


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## poochee

ekim68 said:


> Artifacts indicate a 100,000-year-old art studio


Interesting!


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient Greek ships traded more than just wine.



> *While many historians have assumed that Greek sailors were using amphorae, or ancient storage containers, to transport and trade wine, new DNA testing is providing evidence that these containers were used for many different products.*
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> Greek amphora, National Archaeological Museum of Athens, showing the goddess Athena. Image: Wikipedia.


-- Tom


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## poochee

Beautiful!


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## ekim68

Near-Perfect Young Dinosaur Fossil Found in Bavaria



> German paleontologists have discovered what they believe is the best-preserved dinosaur skeleton ever found in Europe. Some 98 percent of the fossil found in the southern state of Bavaria is intact, and it will soon be placed on display for a short time in Munich.


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## ekim68

Researchers Identify Mysterious Life Forms in the Extreme Deep Sea



> A summer research expedition organized by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego has led to the identification of gigantic amoebas at one of the deepest locations on Earth.
> 
> During a July 2011 voyage to the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench, the deepest region on the planet, Scripps researchers and National Geographic engineers deployed untethered free-falling/ascending landers equipped with digital video and lights to search the largely unexplored region. The team documented the deepest known existence of xenophyophores, single-celled animals exclusively found in deep-sea environments. *Xenophyophores are noteworthy for their size, with individual cells often exceeding 10 centimeters (4 inches),* their extreme abundance on the seafloor and their role as hosts for a variety of organisms.


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## poochee

Interesting finds.


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## lotuseclat79

**** sapiens arrived in Europe earlier than previously believed.



> *Members of our species (**** sapiens) arrived in Europe several millennia earlier than previously thought. At this conclusion a team of researchers, led by the Department of Anthropology, University of Vienna, arrived after re-analyses of two ancient deciduous teeth. These teeth were discovered 1964 in the "Grotta del Cavallo", a prehistoric cave in southern Italy. Since their discovery they have been attributed to Neanderthals, but this new study suggests they belong to anatomically modern humans. Chronometric analysis, carried out by the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit at the University of Oxford, shows that the layers within which the teeth were found date to ~43,000-45,000 cal BP. This means that the human remains are older than any other known European modern humans. The research work was published in the renowned science journal Nature.*
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> Mesial view of the specimen Cavallo-B (deciduous left upper first molar), the first European anatomically modern human. The white bar in the figure is equivalent to 1 cm. Credit: Stefano Benazzi


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Ice age horse painters really did see spots, scientists say



> During the last ice age, 25,000 years ago, a man - or woman - painted spotted horses on the walls of caves at what is now Pech Merle, France.
> 
> Scholars still argue about why. Did this prehistoric Picasso paint in order to faithfully depict his surroundings? Or did he work for some other purpose, perhaps creative or religious?
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> Did spotty horses even exist back then? Until now, researchers had generally thought that wild horses of the period were solid black or bay.
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> Now a new genetic analysis shows otherwise - suggesting that the ancient painter was taking little artistic license.
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> Sampling DNA from the bones and teeth of 31 horses that lived in Europe and Siberia during the time the paintings were created, an international research team found that several of the animals had a genetic variant that causes the "leopard" pattern familiar in modern horses such as appaloosas.


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## lotuseclat79

Castles of 'Lost Cities' Revealed in Libyan Desert.



> *Using satellites and air photographs to identify the remains in one of the most inhospitable parts of the desert, a team from the University of Leicester in England has discovered more than 100 fortified farms and villages with castle-like structures and several towns, most dating between AD 1 to 500.*
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> A satellite image of area of desert with archaeological interpretation of features: fortifications are outlined in black, areas of dwellings are in red and oasis gardens are in green.
> CREDIT: Copyright 2011 Google, image copyright 2011 DigitalGlobe.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11...weapon was older than thought, scientists say.



> *It's not unusual for an archaeologist to get stuck in the past, but Carl Gustafson may be the only one consumed by events on the Olympic Peninsula in 1977.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Ancient bronze artifact from East Asia unearthed at Alaska archaeology site.



> *A team of researchers led by the University of Colorado Boulder has discovered the first prehistoric bronze artifact made from a cast ever found in Alaska, a small, buckle-like object found in an ancient Eskimo dwelling and which likely originated in East Asia.*
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> A National Science Foundation-funded excavation led by the University of Colorado Boulder to look at human response to climate change on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska some 1,000 years ago has yielded a bronze artifact resembling a buckle that was found inside an ancient house dug into the side of a sand-covered beach ridge once occupied by Inupiat Eskimos. The object is the first prehistoric bronze artifact made from a cast ever found in Alaska and appears to have originated in East Asia. Credit: Jeremy Foin, University of California, Davis


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Monkey-Shaped Skull Was Sports Gear for Mayan Afterlife, Expert Says.



> *A toothy Mayan skull, made of limestone and in the shape of a monkey head, is set to go on display at a Maya exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto Canada.
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> But unlike the famous crystal skulls, which are widely regarded as fake, this one is believed to be real.*
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> The Mayan skull is set to go on display at the Royal Ontario Museum. CREDIT: Owen Jarus, with permission


-- Tom


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## poochee

Lots of finds!


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## lotuseclat79

Massive volcanoes, meteorite impacts delivered one-two death punch to dinosaurs: study.



> *A cosmic one-two punch of colossal volcanic eruptions and meteorite strikes likely caused the mass-extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period that is famous for killing the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, according to two Princeton University reports that reject the prevailing theory that the extinction was caused by a single large meteorite.*
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> Princeton University researchers found that massive, prolonged eruptions of the Deccan Traps in India gradually eliminated species and resulted in the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Marine sediment trapped between Deccan lava flows revealed that a species known as planktonic foraminifera -- widely used to gauge the severity of prehistoric disasters -- succumbed to lava mega-flows and volcano-induced environmental stress such as acid rain and drastic climate changes. As conditions on Earth worsened, large, variedspecies (left) were eliminated. The no more than seven or eight smaller species (right) that remained dwarfed further. Credit: Courtesy of Gerta Keller


Related article: Researchers pinpoint date and rate of Earth's most extreme extinction.



> *It's well known that Earth's most severe mass extinction occurred about 250 million years ago. What's not well known is the specific time when the extinctions occurred. A team of researchers from North America and China have published a paper in Science this week which explicitly provides the date and rate of extinction.*
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> Charles Henderson (middle) of the University of Calgary collects material from a sedimentary layer in Shangsi, Sichuan Province, China. This was one of more important sections studied for ash layers and marine fossils used to pinpoint the dates and rate of Earth's massive extinction. Credit: Charles Henderson


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Whales in the desert: Fossil bonanza poses mystery.



> *More than 2 million years ago, scores of whales congregating off the Pacific Coast of South America mysteriously met their end.*
> 
> Maybe they became disoriented and beached themselves. Maybe they were trapped in a lagoon by a landslide or a storm. Maybe they died there over a period of a few millennia. But somehow, they ended up right next to one another, many just meters (yards) apart, entombed as the shallow sea floor was driven upward by geological forces and transformed into the driest place on the planet.
> 
> Today, they have emerged again atop a desert hill more than a kilometer (half a mile) from the surf, where researchers have begun to unearth one of the world's best-preserved graveyards of prehistoric whales.
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> In this Aug. 24, 2010 photo released by Chile's Paleontological Museum of Caldera, a prehistoric whale fossil lies embedded in the Atacama desert near Copiapo, Chile. More than 2 million years ago, scores of whales congregating off the Pacific Coast of South America mysteriously met their end. Maybe they became disoriented and beached themselves. Maybe they were trapped in a lagoon by a landslide or a ferocious storm. Maybe they died there over a period of a few millennia. But somehow, they ended up right next to one another, many just several yards (meters) apart, entombed over the ages as the shallow sea floor was driven upward by geologic forces and transformed into the driest place on the planet. Today, the whales have emerged again atop a desert hill more than half a mile (a kilometer) from the surf, where researchers have begun to unearth one of the world's best-preserved graveyards of prehistoric whales. (AP Photo/Museo Paleontologico de Caldera)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Coins show Herod built only part of Second Temple walls.



> *Israeli archaeologists have uncovered ancient coins near the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City which challenge the assumption that all of the walls of the Second Temple were built by King Herod.*
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> Two ancient bronze coins which according to Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) archaeologists were struck by the Roman procurator of Judea, Valerius Gratus, in the year 17/18 CE and recently were revealed in excavations beneath the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City are exposed to the media.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Archaeologists find new evidence of animals being introduced to prehistoric Caribbean.



> *An archaeological research team from North Carolina State University, the University of Washington and University of Florida has found one of the most diverse collections of prehistoric non-native animal remains in the Caribbean, on the tiny island of Carriacou. The find contributes to our understanding of culture in the region before the arrival of Columbus, and suggests Carriacou may have been more important than previously thought.*
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> This peccary jaw is among the animal remains found at archaeological sites on Carriacou. Such finds indicate the small island may have had significant importance to pre-Columbian cultures in the Caribbean. Credit: Scott Fitzpatrick, North Carolina State University


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Experts stumped by ancient Jerusalem markings.



> *Mysterious stone carvings made thousands of years ago and recently uncovered in an excavation underneath Jerusalem have archaeologists stumped.*
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> In this photo taken on Dec. 1, 2011, Israel's Antiquities Authority archeologist Eli Shukron sweeps marks carved in the bedrock in an archeological excavation in the city of David near Jerusalem's Old City. The mysterious stone carvings made thousands of years ago and recently uncovered in an excavation underneath Jerusalem have archaeologists stumped. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

New study reveals North America's biggest dinosaur.



> *New research from Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies and the State Museum of Pennsylvania has unveiled enormous bones from North America's biggest dinosaur.*
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> It is difficult to estimate body sizes from only fragmentary remains, but overlapping skeletal material indicates similar maximum sizes for the biggest dinosaurs. Credit: Denver Fowler


-- Tom


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## poochee

lotuseclat79 said:


> New study reveals North America's biggest dinosaur.
> 
> -- Tom


Wow!


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## lotuseclat79

77,000-year-old evidence for early 'bedding', use of medicinal plants at South African rock shelter.



> *An international team of archaeologists is reporting 77,000-year-old evidence for preserved plant bedding and the use of insect-repelling plants in a rock shelter in South Africa. This discovery is 50,000 years older than earlier reports of preserved bedding and provides a fascinating insight into the behavioural practices of early modern humans in southern Africa.*
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-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

'Elvis' monkey, psychedelic gecko found in SE Asia.



> *A psychedelic gecko and a monkey with an "Elvis" hairdo are among 208 new species described last year by scientists in the Mekong River region of Southeast Asia, a conservation group announced Monday.*
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> This undated photo provided by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) shows a psychedelic gecko recently discovered in Hon Khoai island, Ca Mau province, in southern Vietnam. (AP Photo/World Wide Fund for Nature, Lee Grismer)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

The disappearance of the elephant caused the rise of modern man 400,000 years ago.



> *Elephants have long been known to be part of the **** erectus diet. But the significance of this specific food source, in relation to both the survival of **** erectus and the evolution of modern humans, has never been understood - until now.*
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> This photo shows the dig at Qesem Cave. Credit: Tel Aviv University


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Razor-Toothed Meat-Eater Was Mammal Relative.



> *With its saw-like teeth and sleek body, this voracious predator was equipped to rip flesh from prey.*
> 
> THE GIST
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> * A newly discovered ancient mammal-like animal was a sleek predator with an incredible appetite for meat.
> * The animal was a hypercarnivore, meaning over 70 percent of its diet was meat.
> * The protomammal died out, but another group -- the cynodonts -- gave rise to mammals some 35 million years later.
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> Fossil remains of a newly identified varanopid pelycosaur suggest it looked a lot like today's Komodo dragon.
> Credit: Robert Reisz


-- Tom


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## franca

lotuseclat79 said:


> Razor-Toothed Meat-Eater Was Mammal Relative.
> 
> -- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Controversy over Triceratops identity continues.



> *Despite their extinction millions of years ago, Triceratops continue to incite controversy. In the latest chapter, researchers present further evidence that three genera thought at one time or another to be distinct - Triceratops, Torosaurus, and Nedoceratops - actually represent different individuals that all belong to the Triceratops genus.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Original offering found at Teotihuacan pyramid.



> *Archaeologists announced Tuesday that they dug to the very core of Mexico's tallest pyramid and found what may be the original ceremonial offering placed on the site of the Pyramid of the Sun before construction began.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Dinosaurs with killer claws yield new theory about flight.



> *New research from Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies has revealed how dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Deinonychus used their famous killer claws, leading to a new hypothesis on the evolution of flight in birds.*
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> (Illustration by Nate Carroll).


Take a look at the full image - scary, eh?

-- Tom


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## poochee

lotuseclat79 said:


> Dinosaurs with killer claws yield new theory about flight.
> 
> Take a look at the full image - scary, eh?
> 
> -- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

1,000 Hidden Species Revealed in Aussie Outback Underground.



> *The Australian Outback is hot, dry and desolate. But just under the surface it is teeming with life.
> 
> A team of researchers in Australia has been looking for invertebrates in small underground cavities beneath the desert. So far the team, including scientists from the University of Adelaide, the South Australian Museum in Adelaide and the Western Australian Museum in Perth, has found more than 1,000 new species. They estimate there are another 3,500 beneath the arid topsoil.*
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> A crustacean that has fangs connected to secretory glands, from the stygofauna at Cape Range, Western Australia. This is a very primitive group of crustaceans, previously only known from the northern hemisphere.
> CREDIT: Australian Center for Evolutionary Biology & Biodiversity, University of Adelaide.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Plant-eating dinosaur discovered in Antarctica.



> *For the first time, the presence of large bodied herbivorous dinosaurs in Antarctica has been recorded. Until now, remains of sauropoda - one of the most diverse and geographically widespread species of herbivorous dinosaurs - had been recovered from all continental landmasses, except Antarctica. Dr. Ignacio Alejandro Cerda, from CONICET in Argentina, and his team's identification of the remains of the sauropod dinosaur suggests that advanced titanosaurs (plant-eating, sauropod dinosaurs) achieved a global distribution at least by the Late Cretaceous. The Cretaceous Period spanned 99.6-65.5 million years ago, and ended with the extinction of the dinosaurs.*


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Neanderthal home made of mammoth bones discovered in Ukraine.



> *Up till recently, most researchers studying Neanderthals had assumed they were simple wanderers, hiding out in caves when the weather got bad. Now however, the discovery of the underpinnings of a house built by a group of Neanderthals, some 44,000 years ago, turns that thinking on its head. Discovered by a team of French archeologists from the Muséum National d'Histories Naturelle, in an area that had been under study since 1984, the home, as it were, was apparently based on mammoth bones. The team's findings are to be published in the science journal Quaternary International.*
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> The Reconstruction of the Funeral of **** neanderthalensis. Captured in the Hannover Zoo. (Via Wikipedia)


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Deciphered Ancient Tablet Reveals Curse of Greengrocer.



> *A fiery ancient curse inscribed on two sides of a thin lead tablet was meant to afflict, not a king or pharaoh, but a simple greengrocer selling fruits and vegetables some 1,700 years ago in the city of Antioch, researchers find.*
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> The curse tablet calls on Iao, the Greek name for Yahweh, god of the Old Testament, to strike down Babylas who is identified as being a greengrocer. CREDIT: Photo courtesy Professor Alexander Hollmann


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Over 65 Million Years, North American Mammal Evolution Has Tracked With Climate Change



> Climate changes profoundly influenced the rise and fall of six distinct, successive waves of mammal species diversity in North America over the last 65 million years, shows a novel statistical analysis led by Brown University evolutionary biologists. Warming and cooling periods, in two cases confounded by species migrations, marked the transition from one dominant grouping to the next.


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## lotuseclat79

'Animal embryo' fossils are actually microbes (Update) (w/Video).



> *Tiny fossils that scientists have thought for decades were the embryos of the earliest animals ever found have turned out to be the remains of much simpler microbial organisms.*
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> 570 million year old multicellular spore body undergoing vegetative nuclear and cell division (foreground) based on synchrotron x-ray tomographic microscopy of fossils recovered from rocks in South China. The background shows a cut surface through the rock - every grain (about 1 mm diameter) is an exceptionally preserved gooey ball of dividing cells turned to stone.


-- Tom


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## lotuseclat79

Top 10 Hominid Discoveries of 2011.



> *For this last Hominid Hunting post of 2011, I reviewed recent human evolution research highlights to come up with my picks for the top 10 hominid discoveries of the year. While genetic breakthroughs have hogged the spotlight the past couple of years, good old-fashioned fossil and archaeological finds were front and center in 2011.*
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> The skull of Australopithecus sediba. Picture by Brett Eloff, courtesy of Lee Berger and the University of the Witwatersrand


-- Tom


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## ekim68

Ancient Texts Part of Earliest Known Documents



> A team of scholars has discovered what might be the oldest representation of the Tower of Babel of Biblical fame, they report in a newly published book.
> 
> Carved on a black stone, which has already been dubbed the Tower of Babel stele, the inscription dates to 604-562 BCE.
> 
> It was found in the collection of Martin Schøyen, a businessman from Norway who owns the largest private manuscript assemblage formed in the 20th century.
> 
> Consisting of 13,717 manuscript items spanning over* ‬5,000* ‬years, the collection includes parts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient Buddhist manuscript rescued from the Taliban, and even cylcon symbols by Australia's Aborigines which can be up to 20,000 years old.


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## lotuseclat79

Almost 3,000-year-old tomb of female singer found in Egypt.



> *Swiss archaeologists have discovered the tomb of a female singer dating back almost 3,000 years in Egypt's Valley of the Kings, Antiquities Minister Mohammed Ibrahim said on Sunday.*
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> A handout picture released by Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities shows the grave of Nany of the 22nd Dynasty, a singer of the Egyptian deity Amun-Re, which was discovered near the Temple of Karnak in the southern ancient city of Luxor during excavations by Swiss archaeologists.


-- Tom


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## poochee

Lots of interesting facts in this thread.


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## ekim68

Russians regenerate flowering plant from 30,000-year-old frozen burrow of Ice Age squirrel



> MOSCOW - It was an Ice Age squirrel's treasure chamber, a burrow containing fruit and seeds that had been stuck in the Siberian permafrost for over 30,000 years. From the fruit tissues, a team of Russian scientists managed to resurrect an entire plant in a pioneering experiment that paves the way for the revival of other species.
> 
> The Silene stenophylla is the oldest plant ever to be regenerated, the researchers said, and it is fertile, producing white flowers and viable seeds.


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## ekim68

Drought may have ended Maya civilization



> MEXICO CITY, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Relatively mild drought may have caused the collapse of the classic Maya civilization in what is now southern Mexico and Guatemala, researchers say.





> "Societal disruptions and abandonment of cities are likely consequences of critical water shortages, especially because there seems to have been a rapid repetition of multi-year droughts," he said.
> 
> Archaeologists have long argued over the collapse of the classic Maya civilization, with other studies blaming social unrest, disease and deforestation for its demise.


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## ekim68

New evidence of end of Neanderthals seen



> UPPSALA, Sweden, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- European Neanderthals were dying off and already on the verge of extinction even before the arrival of competing modern humans, Swedish researchers say.
> 
> Scientists said a study of ancient DNA indicates most Neanderthals in Europe died off as early as 50,000 years ago, leaving only a small group that re-colonized central and western Europe and survived for another 10,000 years before modern humans arrived on the scene.
> 
> "The fact that Neanderthals in Europe were nearly extinct, but then recovered, and that all this took place long before they came into contact with modern humans came as a complete surprise to us," Love Dalen at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm said.
> 
> "This indicates that the Neanderthals may have been more sensitive to the dramatic climate changes that took place in the last Ice Age than was previously thought," he said.


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## ekim68

Super-sized fleas adapted to feed off dinosaurs



> Primitive fleas were built to sup on dinosaur blood in the Jurassic period, more than 150 million years ago. The potential host-parasite relationship has been uncovered thanks to a set of beautifully preserved fossils found in China.


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## ekim68

Jawless vertebrate had world's sharpest teeth



> An extinct primitive marine vertebrate had the sharpest dental structures ever known - with tips just one-twentieth of the width of a human hair, but able to apply pressures that could compete easily with those from human jaws.
> 
> The razor-sharp teeth belonged to conodonts, jawless vertebrates that evolved some 500 million years ago in the Precambrian eon and went extinct during the Triassic period, around 200 million years ago. The creatures roamed the planet for longer than any other vertebrate so far-- and despite their lack of jaws, they were the first creatures to evolve teeth.


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## ekim68

Researchers uncover 8,000 years of human history hidden in the Middle East



> How do you map the expansion of Earth's earliest civilizations? For years, researchers have tackled this daunting task on a settlement-by-settlement basis, searching for clues in mounds of earth throughout the Middle East.
> 
> But now, researchers have turned to satellite imagery to uncover a vast network of over 14,000 long-overlooked Mesopotamian settlements, spanning 8,000 years of ancient civilization. Their findings represent a monumental step forward for the fields of archeology and anthropology, and suggest that an aerial perspective may hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of humanity's first major settlements.





> The new method of aerial analysis relies on the detection of anthrosol, a distinctive type of soil that forms in the presence of long-term human activity. Anthrosols have a subtle but distinctive color, and are richer in organic matter than surrounding soils - a fact that archeologists have been using for years to search for settlements at the ground level. But Ur and Menze took the search for anthrosols to the sky, with the help of multi-spectral satellite images.
> 
> Multi-spectral imagery, explains Ur, is useful for distinguishing different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation, including those wavelengths that our eyes can't see:


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## ekim68

Strange organism has unique roots in the tree of life



> Talk about extended family: A single-celled organism in Norway has been called "mankind's furthest relative." It is so far removed from the organisms we know that researchers claim it belongs to a new base group, called a kingdom, on the tree of life.
> 
> "We have found an unknown branch of the tree of life that lives in this lake. It is unique! So far we know of no other group of organisms that descend from closer to the roots of the tree of life than this species," study researcher Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi, of the University of Oslo, in Norway, said in a statement.
> Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi
> Yngve Vogt
> The primordial animal from As lake, 30 km south of Oslo, does not fit on any of the main branches of the tree of life. Kamran Shalchian-Tabrizi had to create a new main branch, called Collodictyon.
> 
> The organism, a type of protozoan, was found by researchers in a lake near Oslo.


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## Broly

Cool topic. I ran across this article about some fish that are ravaging the Virginia/Maryland area called "Snakefish". Acording to the article, these fish are extremely aggressive to other fish in that area and are damaging the seafood economy in that area. This fish is the top of the food chain there. They say that these fish can live out of water for up to four days. They have become such a problem that they have earned a $200 bounty per fish on their heads. Here is the article from Yahoo!

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/maryland-offering-200-gift-cards-dead-snakehead-fish-163943568.html


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## ekim68

World's Oldest Blood Cells Found on Iceman



> When Ötzi the Iceman was alive 5300 years ago, eating ibex and deer and traipsing over the Alps, his veins pulsed with blood. But when Ötzi's frozen, mummified body was discovered in 1991, his vessels were empty; scientists assumed his blood had degraded over time. Now, a team of researchers has zoomed in on two spots on the Iceman's body: a shoulder wound found with an embedded arrowhead and a hand lesion resembling a stab wound. The scientists used atomic force microscopy, a visualization method with resolution of less than a nanometer, to scan the wounds for blood residue. They discovered red blood cells (inset)-the oldest in the world to be found intact-as well as fibrin, a protein needed for blood to clot, they report today in Journal of the Royal Society Interface. The presence of fibrin indicates that Ötzi didn't die immediately after being wounded.


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## ekim68

Mini mammoth once roamed Crete



> Scientists can now add a 'dwarf mammoth' to the list of biological oxymorons that includes the jumbo shrimp and pygmy whale. Studies of fossils discovered last year on the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea reveal that an extinct species once thought to be a diminutive elephant was actually the smallest mammoth known to have existed - which, as an adult, stood no taller than a modern newborn elephant.


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## ekim68

Ancient life, potentially millions of years old and barely alive, found beneath ocean floor



> Call it survival of the slowest: Extraordinarily old, bizarrely low-key bacteria have been found in sediments 100 feet below the sea floor of the Pacific Ocean, far removed from sunlight, fresh nutrients and what humans would consider anything interesting to do.
> 
> Some of these organisms, scientists say, could be at least 1,000 years old. Or maybe millions of years.


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## ekim68

Prehistoric flutes date to 42,000 years ago



> Good news, flute fans. You have prehistoric company -- flutes go back at least 42,000 years, longer ago than previously reported, conclude archaeologists looking at the likely era of the first modern human occupation of Europe.
> 
> In an upcoming report in the Journal of Human Evolution, led by carbon dating expert Thomas Higham of the United Kingdom's University of Oxford, experts reanalyzed Stone-Age artifacts from Geißenklösterle cave in southwestern Germany.
> 
> The "Aurignacian" artifacts found at the cave site have long been associated with modern humans, rather than our Neandertal cousins who populated Europe for hundreds of thousands of years before dying out around 30,000 years ago. Geißenklösterle cave lies in the "former Danube Valley through which the Ach River flows today," notes the study. And its artifacts have been central to debates about when early modern humans first moved into Europe.


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## ekim68

Boy unearths important horse fossils



> A startling discovery by a young Californian boy has helped fill a key gap in the evolution of the horse.
> 
> Gavin Sutter, aged eight, from Auburn, found the prehistoric bones of a horse dating back 15 million years.
> 
> Crucially, the remains he found were of a three-toed horse.


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## poochee

Lots of interesting finds in this thread.


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## ekim68

An Asian Origin for Human Ancestors?



> Researchers agree that our immediate ancestors, the upright walking apes, arose in Africa. But the discovery of a new primate that lived about 37 million years ago in the ancient swamplands of Myanmar bolsters the idea that the deep primate family tree that gave rise to humans is rooted in Asia. If true, the discovery suggests that the ancestors of all monkeys, apes, and humans-known as the anthropoids-arose in Asia and made the arduous journey to the island continent of Africa almost 40 million years ago.


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## ekim68

Spanish cave paintings shown as oldest in the world



> WASHINGTON - New tests show that crude Spanish cave paintings of a red sphere and handprints are the oldest in the world, so ancient they may not have been by modern man.
> 
> Some scientists say they might have even been made by the much-maligned Neanderthals, but others disagree.
> 
> Testing the coating of paintings in 11 Spanish caves, researchers found that one is at least 40,800 years old, which is at least 15,000 years older than previously thought. That makes them older than the more famous French cave paintings by thousands of years.
> 
> Scientists dated the Spanish cave paintings by measuring the decay of uranium atoms, instead of traditional carbon-dating, according to a report released Thursday by the journal Science. The paintings were first discovered in the 1870s.


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## poochee

ekim68 said:


> Spanish cave paintings shown as oldest in the world


Wow!


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## ekim68

Oldest DNA Recovered from 7,000-Year Old Skeletons in Spain



> Researchers published a paper in the current issue of Current Biology detailing their analysis of DNA from 7,000-year old cavemen in northern Spain.
> 
> The bones of the two young adult males were found in a cave in the Cantabarian mountain range in 2006 by a handful of explorers, 4,920 feet above sea level. The cold atmosphere is what preserved the DNA in the remains of the two bodies. The cavemen lived during the Mesolithic period and were hunter-gatherers, as determined by an ornament one of the skeletons was holding. They have named the two skeletons Braña1 and Braña2 after the Braña-Arintero site in which they were discovered. They were in near-perfect condition.
> 
> Prior to the discovery, the oldest DNA belonged to Otzi the Iceman. His DNA was 5,300 years old and was found in the Alps mountain range in 1991.


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## ekim68

Medieval "Lingerie" From 15th Century Castle Stuns Fashion Historians



> Archaeologists have unearthed several 600-year-old bras that experts say could rewrite fashion history. While they'll hardly send pulses racing by today's standards, the lace-and-linen underpinnings predate the invention of the modern brassiere by hundreds of years. Found hidden under the floorboards of Lengberg Castle in Austria's East Tyrol, along with some 2,700 textile remains and one completely preserved pair of (presumably male) linen underpants, the four intact and two fragmented specimens are believed to date to the 15th century, a hypothesis scientists later confirmed through carbon-dating.


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## ekim68

Ancient human figure unearthed in Turkey



> ANTAKYA, Turkey, July 30 (UPI) -- An international archaeological team says it's unearthed a large, extraordinary human sculpture at an excavation site in southeast Turkey.
> 
> The figure was part of a monumental gate complex giving access to the upper citadel of Kunulua, the capital of the Neo-Hittite Kingdom of Patina, researchers said.
> 
> A large semi-circular column base, ornately decorated on one side, was also discovered at the Tayinat site and dated with the human figure to around 1000-738 B.C., they said.


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## ekim68

Scientists discover beautiful new insect species after stumbling upon photos on Flickr



> Scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of lacewing insect after stumbling upon a series of photos posted on Flickr®, according to a paper published in the journal ZooKeys.
> 
> The species is named Semachrysa jade and lives in the rainforests of Malaysia.


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## ekim68

Prehistoric Human Brain Found Pickled in Bog



> A brain in near-perfect condition is found in a skull of a person who was decapitated over 2,600 years ago.


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## ekim68

Spider Version of Bigfoot Emerges from Caves in the Pacific Northwest



> ScienceDaily (Aug. 14, 2012) - The forests of the coastal regions from California to British Columbia are renowned for their unique and ancient animals and plants, such as coast redwoods, tailed frogs, mountain beavers and the legendary Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch). Whereas Bigfoot is probably just fiction, a huge, newly discovered spider is very real. Trogloraptor (or "cave robber") is named for its cave home and spectacular, elongate claws. It is a spider so evolutionarily special that it represents not only a new genus and species, but also a new family (Trogloraptoridae). Even for the species-rich insects and arachnids, to discover a new, previously unknown family is an historic moment.


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## poochee

ekim68 said:


> Spider Version of Bigfoot Emerges from Caves in the Pacific Northwest


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## ekim68

Oldest insects preserved in amber found 



> NEW YORK, Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Researchers say insects preserved in amber found in Italy are 100 million years older that any previously collected amber inclusions of arthropods.
> 
> The discovery in the Dolomite Alps of northeastern Italy of the preserved arthropods -- invertebrate animals that include insects, arachnids, and crustaceans -- has been dated to 230 millions years ago, breaking the previous record for the oldest specimens preserved in amber by 100 million years, the American Museum of Natural History reported Monday.


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## ekim68

Indo-European Languages Originated in Anatolia, Research Suggests



> ScienceDaily (Aug. 23, 2012) - The Indo-European languages belong to one of the widest spread language families of the world. For the last two millenia, many of these languages have been written, and their history is relatively clear. But controversy remains about the time and place of the origins of the family. A large international team, including MPI researcher Michael Dunn, reports the results of an innovative Bayesian phylogeographic analysis of Indo-European linguistic and spatial data.
> 
> Their paper appears this week in Science.
> 
> The majority view in historical linguistics is that the homeland of Indo-European is located in the Pontic steppes (present day Ukraine) around 6,000 years ago. The evidence for this comes from linguistic paleontology: in particular, certain words to do with the technology of wheeled vehicles are arguably present across all the branches of the Indo-European family; and archaeology tells us that wheeled vehicles arose no earlier than this date. The minority view links the origins of Indo-European with the spread of farming from Anatolia 8,000 to 9,500 years ago.


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## ekim68

Fossil discovery is new flying reptile



> BAMBERGH, Germany, Sept. 4 (UPI) -- German researchers say a fossil of a new species of pterosaur, the flying reptiles that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, is 155 million years old.
> 
> That makes the exquisitely preserved skeleton, discovered in the Bamberg region of Germany, one of the oldest pterosaurs known, officials at the Bamberg Natural History Museum said.
> 
> Paleontologists say the creature was well adapted to wading in water, with exceptionally long arms and legs, and possessed jaws shaped like the beak of a stork or flamingo.


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## ekim68

Remarkable new monkey discovered in remote Congo rainforest



> In a massive, wildlife-rich, and largely unexplored rainforest of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), researchers have made an astounding discovery: a new monkey species, known to locals as the 'lesula'. The new primate, which is described in a paper in the open access PLoS ONE journal, was first noticed by scientist and explorer, John Hart, in 2007. John, along with his wife Terese, run the TL2 project, so named for its aim to create a park within three river systems: the Tshuapa, Lomami and the Lualaba (i.e. TL2), a region home to bonobos, okapi, forest elephants, Congo peacock, as well as the newly-described lesula.


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## ekim68

Skeleton could prove coup for maligned King Richard III



> LONDON -- The discovery under a parking lot of a battle-scarred skeleton may restore the reputation of arguably Britain's most maligned king and lead to a royal burial five centuries late.
> 
> "There has been a lot of debate on almost every aspect of Richard III's life, appearance, personality and death," said historian John Ashdown Hill, whose book, "The Last Days of Richard III," explores the final 150 days of the king's life before he was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485.
> 
> "The remains won't clarify everything, but they will be part of the process of getting back to original, authentic, documentary evidence rather than being misled by the propaganda that spread after his death," he said.
> 
> The propaganda he refers to was propagated by none other than Shakespeare, who in the 16th-century play "Richard III" portrays the monarch as a power-hungry scoundrel who murders anyone who stands in the way of his quest for power.


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## poochee

So many things being discovered!:up:


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## poochee

*Ancient Tooth Found In Slovenia Suggests Beeswax Was Used To Treat Toothache *
Posted: 09/20/2012 12:14 pm EDT Updated: 09/20/2012 12:14 pm EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/ancient-tooth-slovenia-beeswax-toothache_n_1899827.html


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## ekim68

Fenland Black Oak: 5,000-year-old tree found in Norfolk



> The trunk of a giant oak tree, thought by experts to be more than 5,000 years old, has been unearthed in a field in Norfolk.


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## ekim68

Boy finds woolly mammoth carcass in Siberia



> MOSCOW, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- An 11-year-old boy in Russia has discovered the almost-complete 30,000-year-old carcass of a woolly mammoth, Russian media reported.
> 
> Yevgeny Salinder found the 1,100-pound mammoth in the tundra of the Taymyr peninsula in northern Russia, Moscow News said.


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## poochee

ekim68 said:


> Boy finds woolly mammoth carcass in Siberia


Wow!


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## ekim68

Fossil of ancient spider attack only one of its type ever discovered



> CORVALLIS, Ore. - Researchers have found what they say is the only fossil ever discovered of a spider attack on prey caught in its web - a 100 million-year-old snapshot of an engagement frozen in time.
> 
> The extraordinarily rare fossils are in a piece of amber that preserved this event in remarkable detail, an action that took place in the Hukawng Valley of Myanmar in the Early Cretaceous between 97-110 million years ago, almost certainly with dinosaurs wandering nearby.


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## ekim68

Core sample sends carbon clock farther back in time



> Sediment from Japanese lake provides more accurate timeline for dating objects as far back as 50,000 years.


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## ekim68

Europe's oldest prehistoric town unearthed in Bulgaria



> The walled fortified settlement, near the modern town of Provadia, is thought to have been an important centre for salt production.
> 
> Its discovery in north-east Bulgaria may explain the huge gold hoard found nearby 40 years ago.
> 
> Archaeologists believe that the town was home to some 350 people and dates back to between 4700 and 4200 BC.
> 
> That is about 1,500 years before the start of ancient Greek civilisation.


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## ekim68

Stone tools hint at the origins of the modern human mind



> Despite intense scientific inquiry, there are still major gaps in our knowledge about early human life. One major question that remains unanswered: when humans were first capable of complex cognition? In other words, when did early humans develop sophisticated cognitive abilities, such as prioritization and cultural transmission, that we would recognize today?
> 
> A new study in Nature addresses this; after six years of excavation, archaeologists have unearthed technologically-advanced stone tools that were created about 71,000 years ago. This finding enhances our knowledge about the history of human tool use, suggesting that sophisticated cognitive abilities were present relatively early in human history. It also raises the possibility that tools may have given early humans an advantage as they ventured out of Africa.


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## ekim68

New "Sauron" Dinosaur Found, Big as T. Rex



> Named after the demonic Eye of Sauron from the Lord of the Rings films, a new species of flesh-ripping dinosaur terrorized North Africa some 95 million years ago, a new study says.


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## ekim68

Archaeologists Identify Oldest Spear Points: Used in Hunting Half-Million Years Ago



> ScienceDaily (Nov. 15, 2012) - A collaborative study involving researchers at Arizona State University, the University of Toronto, and the University of Cape Town found that human ancestors were making stone-tipped weapons 500,000 years ago at the South African archaeological site of Kathu Pan 1 -- 200,000 years earlier than previously thought. This study, "Evidence for Early Hafted Hunting Technology," is published in the November 16 issue of the journal Science.


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## ekim68

The Earliest Known Dino?



> A team of paleontologists thinks it may have identified the earliest known dinosaur-a creature no bigger than a Labrador retriever that lived about 243 million years ago. That's at least 10 million years earlier than the oldest known dinos and could change researchers' views of how they evolved. But some scientists, including the study's authors, caution that the fossils could instead represent a close dino relative.
> 
> Tracing back the earliest dinosaurs has not been easy. Fossils that old tend to be fragmentary, and researchers don't always agree about their evolutionary pedigree. Paleontologists do agree, however, that pint-sized specimens found in Argentina and dated to 230 million years ago-with names like Eoraptor and Eodromaeus-are true dinosaurs.


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## ekim68

Primate species: new slow loris found in Borneo



> A new species of small nocturnal primate has been discovered by scientists in Borneo.
> 
> The primate is a type of slow loris, a small cute-looking animal that is more closely related to bushbabies and lemurs than to monkeys or apes.
> 
> Uniquely among primates, they have a toxic bite, belying their appearance.


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## ekim68

Humans Have Been Eating Cheese for at Least 7,500 Years



> Researchers have found conclusive evidence for the first time that humans have been making cheese since the 6th millennium BC. That means that humans have been eating cheese for at least 7,500 years.


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## ekim68

Spider That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys Discovered



> A spider that builds elaborate, fake spiders and hangs them in its web has been discovered in the Peruvian Amazon.
> 
> Believed to be a new species in the genus Cyclosa, the arachnid crafts the larger spider from leaves, debris and dead insects. Though Cyclosa includes other sculpting arachnids, this is the first one observed to build a replica with multiple, spidery legs.
> 
> Scientists suspect the fake spiders serve as decoys, part of a defense mechanism meant to confuse or distract predators.


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## poochee

ekim68 said:


> Spider That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys Discovered


Interesting!


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## ekim68

World's Oldest Wooden Water Wells Discovered



> Researchers have discovered four wooden water wells in the Greater Leipzig region, Germany, which are believed to be the oldest known timber constructions in the world.
> 
> A team of experts led by Willy Tegel and Dr. Dietrich Hakelberg from the Institute of Forest Growth of the University of Freiburg, Germany, uncovered the wells built during the early Neolithic period between the years 5206 and 5098 B.C.


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## ekim68

Bacterial traces from 3.5 billion years ago are 'oldest fossils,' experts say



> Scientists analyzing Australian rocks have discovered traces of bacteria that lived a record-breaking 3.49 billion years ago, a mere billion years after Earth formed.
> 
> If the find withstands the scrutiny that inevitably faces claims of fossils this old, it could move scientists one step closer to understanding the first chapters of life on Earth. The discovery could also spur the search for ancient life on other planets.


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## ekim68

Famed Roman shipwreck reveals more secrets



> Marine archaeologists report they have uncovered new secrets of an ancient Roman shipwreck famed for yielding an amazingly sophisticated astronomical calculator. An international survey team says the ship is twice as long as originally thought and contains many more calcified objects amid the ship's lost cargo that hint at new discoveries.


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## ekim68

Ancient migration: Genes link Australia with India



> Australia experienced a wave of migration from India about 4,000 years ago, a genetic study suggests.
> 
> It was thought the continent had been largely isolated after the first humans arrived about 40,000 years ago until the Europeans moved in in the 1800s.
> 
> But DNA from Aboriginal Australians revealed there had been some movement from India during this period.
> 
> The researchers believe the Indian migrants may have introduced the dingo to Australia.


----------



## ekim68

Ice age art at the British Museum was crafted by 'professional' artists



> It's smaller than your thumb: a little piece of mammoth ivory delicately carved into the shape of a woman's head. But this miniature sculpture, with one wonky eye and rather elongated, slightly Modigliani-esque proportions, is the oldest known portrait in the world, and is about to go on show to the public for the first time in Britain in a new exhibition at the British Museum, Ice Age Art: Arrival of the Modern Mind.
> 
> Some 26,000 years ago, in a valley teeming with game in what is now Moravia, a man or woman carved this little head with skill and not a little persistence, using stone tools to smooth away the recalcitrant, hard ivory.


----------



## poochee

Many interesting finds out there!


----------



## ekim68

Most Comprehensive Tree of Life Shows Placental Mammal Diversity Exploded After Age of Dinosaurs



> Appearing February 7 in the journal Science, the study details how researchers used both genetic and physical traits to reconstruct the common ancestor of placental mammals, the creature that gave rise to many mammals alive today. The data show that contrary to a commonly held theory, the group diversified after the extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

New Whale Species Unearthed in California Highway Dig



> BOSTON-Chalk yet another fossil find up to roadcut science. Thanks to a highway-widening project in California's Laguna Canyon, scientists have identified several new species of early toothed baleen whales.


----------



## ekim68

Take it from the beginning if you're really interested....


----------



## ekim68

New Scorpion Species Discovered Outside Tucson



> A new species of scorpion has been discovered in the mountains just outside the city of Tucson, Ariz.
> 
> The newfound creature is only about 1 inch (27 millimeters) long and sports a dapper brown color. It lives in the oak forests in the Santa Catalina Mountains, at an elevation of around 5,900 feet (1,800 meters), according to a study describing the new scorpion published recently in the journal ZooKeys.


----------



## ekim68

Briton finds 500-year-old arrest warrant for Machiavelli



> A British academic has stumbled upon a 500-year-old "most wanted" notice for the arrest of Niccolo Machiavelli, the infamous Renaissance political operator who wrote The Prince.


----------



## ekim68

The father of all men is 340,000 years old 



> Albert Perry carried a secret in his DNA: a Y chromosome so distinctive that it reveals new information about the origin of our species. It shows that the last common male ancestor down the paternal line of our species is over twice as old as we thought.


----------



## ekim68

Russia Finds 'New Bacteria' in Antarctic Lake



> Russian scientists believe they have found a wholly new type of bacteria in the subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica, the RIA Novosti news agency reported on March 7.
> 
> The samples obtained from the underground lake in May 2012 contained a bacteria which bore no resemblance to existing types, said Sergei Bulat of the genetics laboratory at the Saint Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics.
> 
> "After putting aside all possible elements of contamination, DNA was found that did not coincide with any of the well-known types in the global database," he said.


----------



## ekim68

600-Year-Old Chinese Coin Found in Kenya



> A Chinese coin about 600 years old was recently unearthed on an island just off the coast of Kenya. If it proves to be authentic, the coin could show that the Chinese explorer Zheng He - like a Christopher Columbus of the East - came to this part of east Africa.


----------



## ekim68

Pre-Viking tunic found by glacier as warming aids archaeology



> (Reuters) - A pre-Viking woolen tunic found beside a thawing glacier in south Norway shows how global warming is proving something of a boon for archaeology, scientists said on Thursday.


----------



## valis

origins of mayan civ?

http://io9.com/ancient-maya-discovery-sheds-new-light-on-the-origins-o-481053780


----------



## ekim68

Ancient Roman Cemetery Discovered Beneath Parking Lot



> Hidden beneath a parking lot in Leicester, England, archaeologists have discovered a 1,700-year-old Roman cemetery that seemed to show no religious bias.
> 
> The new discovery, found at the junction of Newarke and Oxford Streets, includes numerous burials and skeletal remains from 13 individuals, both male and female of various ages. The cemetery is estimated to date back to around A.D. 300, according to University of Leicester archaeologists who led the dig.


----------



## ekim68

Linguists identify 15,000-year-old 'ultraconserved words'



> _You, hear me! Give this fire to that old man. Pull the black worm off the bark and give it to the mother. And no spitting in the ashes!_
> 
> It's an odd little speech. But if you went back 15,000 years and spoke these words to hunter-gatherers in Asia in any one of hundreds of modern languages, there is a chance they would understand at least some of what you were saying.
> 
> That's because all of the nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs in the four sentences are words that have descended largely unchanged from a language that died out as the glaciers retreated at the end of the last Ice Age. Those few words mean the same thing, and sound almost the same, as they did then.


----------



## valis

google maps discovers new cat?

nope.


----------



## ekim68

Agriculture in China Predates Domesticated Rice: Discovery of Ancient Diet Shatters Conventional Ideas of How Agriculture Emerged



> May 17, 2013 - Archaeologists have made a discovery in southern subtropical China which could revolutionise thinking about how ancient humans lived in the region. They have uncovered evidence for the first time that people living in Xincun 5,000 years ago may have practised agriculture -- before the arrival of domesticated rice in the region.
> 
> Current archaeological thinking is that it was the advent of rice cultivation along the Lower Yangtze River that marked the beginning of agriculture in southern China.


----------



## ekim68

New Cave-Dwelling Scorpion Species Discovered



> Two new species of short-tailed whip scorpions have been found living deep inside the cool, humid caves of northeastern Brazil, a study reports.
> 
> Whip scorpions are not true scorpions, but rather part of a group of arachnids that don't have stings and are not poisonous. They possess a whip-like tail, but look more like ants.


----------



## ekim68

Why Early Human Ancestors Took to Two Feet



> The researchers say our upright gait may have its origins in the rugged landscape of East and South Africa which was shaped during the Pliocene epoch by volcanoes and shifting tectonic plates.
> 
> Hominins, our early forebears, would have been attracted to the terrain of rocky outcrops and gorges because it offered shelter and opportunities to trap prey. But it also required more upright scrambling and climbing gaits, prompting the emergence of bipedalism.


----------



## ekim68

9th century, meet 21st: Supercomputer revolutionizes Cairo Geniza research



> A supercomputer on the campus of Tel Aviv University is set to revolutionize research on one of the world's most important repositories of ancient documents - the Cairo Geniza, which came to light 117 years ago behind the wall of an ancient synagogue.
> 
> The computer, fed more than 300,000 images of fragments from the geniza collection, began work on May 16. Over five weeks, it will make 12 billion visual comparisons between pieces, suggesting possible matches.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists say newly discovered woolly mammoth blood boosts cloning prospects



> A team of scientists says blood recovered from the preserved carcass of a woolly mammoth is reviving hopes that the extinct creature could one day be cloned back into existence.


----------



## valis

ick.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/giant-flourescent-pink-slugs-140528983.html


----------



## poochee

Hot pink at that!


----------



## valis

hot pink, yes.........however, still ick.


----------



## ekim68

World's Oldest Tumor Discovered In Neanderthal Bone, Fibrous Dysplasia Found In 120,000 Year-Old Rib



> Researchers have found a tumor in a Neanderthal bone that is more than 120,000 years old.


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists Discover Lost City In Cambodian Jungle



> Australian archaeologists using remote-sensing technology have uncovered an ancient city in Cambodia that has remained hidden for more than a millennium under dense jungle undergrowth.
> 
> The discovery of Mahendraparvata, a 1,200-year-old lost city that predates Cambodia's famous Angkor Wat temple complex by 350 years, was part of the Hindu-Buddhist Khmer Empire that ruled much of Southeast Asia from about 800 to 1400 A.D., during a time that coincided with Europe's Middle Ages.


----------



## valis

that is wicked cool.......thanks, Mike.....


----------



## ekim68

700,000-Year-Old Horse Becomes Oldest Creature With Sequenced Genome



> Scientists have sequenced the oldest genome to date-and shaken up the horse family tree in the process. Ancient DNA derived from a horse fossil that's between 560,000 and 780,000 years old suggests that all living equids-members of the family that includes horses, donkeys, and zebras-shared a common ancestor that lived at least 4 million years ago, approximately 2 million years earlier than most previous estimates.


----------



## valis

this is fascinating.....

http://news.yahoo.com/cave-art-reveals-ancient-view-cosmos-120220061.html


----------



## ekim68

Odd-Looking Orcas May Be a Distinct Species



> A strange-looking and mysterious killer whale living in the heaving seas ringing Antarctica might be a distinct species. Known as Type D orcas, the whales are so seldom seen that scientists relied on a 60-year-old museum specimen to unravel their ancestral story.
> 
> The tale places the black-and-white toothed whales among the most genetically distinct orcas on the planet. Roughly 400,000 years ago, it concludes, Type D orcas diverged from the rest of the lineage.


----------



## ekim68

Mysterious Toe Rings Found on Ancient Egyptian Skeletons



> Archaeologists have discovered two ancient Egyptian skeletons, dating back more than 3,300 years, which were each buried with a toe ring made of copper alloy, the first time such rings have been found in ancient Egypt.
> 
> The toe rings were likely worn while the individuals were still alive, and the discovery leaves open the question of whether they were worn for fashion or magical reasons.


----------



## ekim68

Farming Started in Several Places at Once: Origins of Agriculture in the Fertile Crescent



> July 5, 2013 - For decades archaeologists have been searching for the origins of agriculture. Their findings indicated that early plant domestication took place in the western and northern Fertile Crescent. In the July 5 edition of the journal Science, researchers from the University of Tübingen, the Tübingen Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Paleoenvironment, and the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research demonstrate that the foothills of the Zagros Mountains of Iran in the eastern Fertile Crescent also served as a key center for early domestication.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient City of Angkor Much Bigger Than Thought



> Angkor, the ancient capital of the Khmer Empire, has been mapped for the first time using laser light.
> 
> The technique called LIDAR, which uses billions of reflected light beams to map the topography below a thick forest canopy, revealed that the city was even more massive than previously thought.
> 
> The new analysis "shows there were hundreds, if not thousands of settlements, mounds, ponds, roads and urban blocks which actually organized a quite dense city," said study co-author Christophe Pottier, an archaeologist and co-director of the Greater Angkor Project. "This area of dense occupation was much bigger than what we were expecting."


----------



## ekim68

Canada's Arctic islands yield new clues in ancient mass extinction



> Canadian scientists probing two sites in the High Arctic have found fresh evidence pointing to a fiery Siberian suspect in the greatest mass extinction of all time - a planet-wide cataclysm that wiped out more than 90 per cent of the Earth's species about 250 million years ago.
> 
> The so-called "Great Dying" at the end of the Permian geological era killed off a larger proportion of species than any of the 25 other mass extinctions scientists have identified from sudden and widespread gaps in the fossil record at certain layers of rock corresponding to specific periods of time.


----------



## ekim68

Researchers Discover First Use of Fertilizer



> Europe's first farmers helped spread a revolutionary way of living across the continent. They also spread something else. A new study reveals that these early agriculturalists were fertilizing their crops with manure 8000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously thought.


----------



## ekim68

World's Biggest Virus May Have Ancient Roots



> Researchers have discovered the largest virus ever, and they've given it a terrifying name: Pandoravirus.
> 
> In mythology, opening Pandora's Box released evil into the world. But there's no need to panic. This new family of virus lives underwater and doesn't pose a major threat to human health.
> 
> "This is not going to cause any kind of widespread and acute illness or epidemic or anything," says , an evolutionary biologist at the National Institutes of Health who specializes in viruses.
> 
> *Instead, the Pandoravirus opens up a host of questions about the origins of life on Earth, according to its discoverer, of Aix-Marseille University in France. He says, "We believe that those new Pandoraviruses have emerged from an ancestral cellular type that no longer exists."*


----------



## ekim68

New Species of Hero Shrew Found in Equatorial Africa: Most Bizarre Mammalian Spine On Earth



> July 24, 2013 - Scientists at Chicago's Field Museum and international collaborators have described a new species of Hero Shrew -- the mammal with the most bizarre lower spine on Earth. The interlocking vertebrae of the Hero Shrew render the spine four to five times more robust relative to body mass, a condition not found in any other mammal. The spine has been an enigma to evolutionary biologists, with no known adaptive significance.


----------



## ekim68

Tomb of ancient nomadic noblewoman found in southern Russia



> FILIPPOVKA, Russia, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Russian archaeologists say they've found the intact burial chamber of a noblewoman from a powerful tribe that roamed the Eurasian steppes 2,500 years ago.
> 
> The burial site found near the village of Filippovka in southern Russia dates to the time of the Sarmatians, a group of Persian-speaking tribes that ruled in what are now parts of southern Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia from around 500 B.C. until A.D. 400, they said.


----------



## ekim68

'Digging Up' 4-Billion-Year-Old Fossil Protein Structures to Reveal How They Evolved



> Aug. 8, 2013 - Modern proteins exhibit an impressive degree of structural diversity, which has been well characterized, but very little is known about how and when over the course of evolution 3D protein structures arose. In a study published by Cell Press August 8 in Structure, researchers resurrected 4-billion-year-old Precambrian proteins in the laboratory and gained novel insights into protein evolution by analyzing their X-ray crystal structures. This method has revealed a remarkable degree of structural similarity among proteins since life first evolved on this planet, and it represents a powerful and novel approach to explore the evolution of protein structures.


----------



## poochee

Many interesting facts here.


----------



## poochee

*Science Discovers New Very Adorable Mammal *
SETH BORENSTEIN- August 15, 2013, 10:48 AM 2279



> WASHINGTON (AP)  Imagine a raccoon with a teddy bear face that is so cute its hard to resist, let alone overlook. But somehow science did  until now.
> 
> Researchers announced Thursday a rare discovery of a new species of mammal called the olinguito. It belongs to a grouping of large creatures that include dogs, cats and bears.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/science-discovers-new-very-adorable-mammal.php


----------



## ekim68

Fossil of History's Most Successful Mammal: Prehistoric 'Rodent' May Have Set the Stage for Life in Trees, Herbivorous Diets



> Aug. 15, 2013 - The 160 million-year-old fossil of an extinct rodent-like creature from China is helping to explain how multituberculates -- the most evolutionarily successful and long-lived mammalian lineage in the fossil record -- achieved their dominance.


----------



## ekim68

Ostrich-egg globe hailed as 'oldest' orb showing Newfoundland and the New World



> A European collector of antique maps claims to have identified the oldest known globe depicting the New World - including the future Canada - after spending a year researching what he concluded is a 509-year-old ostrich egg transformed into a one-of-a-kind cartographic orb from the first decade of the 16th century.


----------



## ekim68

Life found in the sediments of an Antarctic subglacial lake for the first time



> Evidence of diverse life forms dating back nearly a hundred thousand years has been found in subglacial lake sediments by a group of British scientists.


----------



## valis

whoa.......pretty sure I will never see one of these......

http://phys.org/news/2013-09-life-deep-beautiful-translucent-snail.html


----------



## ekim68

40-Million-Year-Old 'Walking Whale' Fossil Discovered In Peru's Ocucaje Desert



> Paleontologists in Peru have unearthed the fossil of a 40 million-year-old "walking whale."
> 
> Found in the Ocucaje Desert in southern Peru, the fossils belong to a group called Achaeocetes, or ancient whales, that possess both land- and sea-dwelling characteristics. Over time, the ancient land animals adapted to water environments where their legs became fin-like and their bodies began to resemble modern sea mammals like dolphins and whales, ITN reports.


----------



## valis

used to have a 'whales have feet' bumper sticker.......used to annoy my religious kin........


----------



## ekim68

Flowering plant origins pushed back 100 million years



> Flowering plants may have originated more than 100 million years earlier than previously thought, according to scientists in Switzerland and Germany.
> 
> The previously oldest known flowering plant-like pollen dates from the Early Cretaceous period.
> 
> But the team described six types of fossil pollen grains from older Middle Triassic core samples that closely resemble these earliest examples.


----------



## ekim68

Well, kind of like Old Species....

Scientists have grown an extinct tree from ancient seeds



> Get ready for the Jurassic Park of trees, because researchers managed to sprout a Judean date palm - extinct since 500 B.C. A.D. - from ancient seeds that were unearthed in the 1960s.
> 
> This species of palm, Treehugger writes, was destroyed more than 1,500 years ago, despite - and in some cases because of - its enormous cultural and strategic significance:


----------



## ekim68

Hunter-gatherers got on fine with Europe's first farmers



> Europe's first farmers lived alongside a ghost people. Even some 2000 years after farming began to spread through the continent, some people were still clinging to the hunter-gatherer lifestyles that had been practiced formerly. The first farmers and last of Europe's hunter-gatherers lived alongside each other for millennia and even shared burial sites.


----------



## ekim68

First Evidence Found of a Comet Strike on Earth



> Saharan glass and a brooch belonging to King Tut provide the first evidence of a comet directly impacting Earth, a new study claims. The finding may help unlock some of the mysteries surrounding the birth of our solar system.
> 
> About 28 million years ago a comet exploded over Egypt, creating a 3600°F (2000°C) blast wave that spread out over the desert below. The fiery shockwave melted the sand, forming copious amounts of yellow silica glass scattered over 2,300 square miles (6,000 square kilometers) of the Sahara.


----------



## valis

huh.....didn't know that.....I would have thought we'd have found evidence before.......

now for something YOU don't know, Mikey.....Oregon leads the world in production of these two seeds, one is a nut, the other a graminoid......


----------



## ekim68

Sure, you had to make me look up graminoid... Is the nut Filbert?


----------



## valis

nope....hazelnut...

When I worked for Ferrero, I got taken to Italy for a visit.....imagine my surprise, when pulling into Alba, Italy, there was a HUGE picture of Oregon......

FYI, Ferrero is the largest global user of hazelnuts......

'the more you know'......


----------



## ekim68

Umm, a hazelnut is a filbert...


----------



## valis

valis said:


> 'the more you know'......




THAT sorta backfired, didn't it?


----------



## ekim68

The haunting music that takes you back 1,800 years: Expert records '100% accurate' version of song as heard in ancient Greece



> The beautiful texts of ancient Greece have captivated our imaginations for thousands of years.
> 
> From the tragedies of Sophocles to the epics of Homer, modern literature throughout the world continues to be inspired by these classics.
> 
> But the haunting music these poems were originally sung to have long since been lost, with researchers instead focusing on the meaning of the words.
> 
> Now an expert from Oxford University has reconstructed the music, and rediscovered some of the instruments that played them - and he claims the recordings are 100 per cent accurate.


----------



## valis

interesting.......I've long wondered what it would be like to go back to roman times with our current knowledge and see what we can improve on.......


----------



## poochee

ekim68 said:


> The haunting music that takes you back 1,800 years: Expert records '100% accurate' version of song as heard in ancient Greece


Interesting!


----------



## ekim68

valis said:


> interesting.......I've long wondered what it would be like to go back to roman times with our current knowledge and see what we can improve on.......


Or go back in time to listen to what they sing around the campfire...


----------



## valis

kumbuya.......

seriously, though, with YOUR knowledge, what could you bring to roman civilization? guitars? Bread? Firearms (probably not a good idea, that one).......


----------



## ekim68

Got to head out for a while, but I'll think that over...


----------



## valis

I got nothing. Bread, maybe? Very small rocks?

I could easily tell them that I carry in my pocket a device the size of a deck of playing cards that carries ALL the worlds information on it, but I'd probably get hung.


----------



## ekim68

I like the idea of Guitars with many stacks of Marshal Amps and blasting away with heavy Van Halen licks on the way to battle...

(Oh, and some electricity to go with the Amps... )


----------



## ekim68

Monkey That Purrs Like a Cat Is Among New Species Discovered in Amazon Rainforest



> Oct. 25, 2013 - At least 441 new species of animals and plants have been discovered over a four year period in the vast, underexplored rainforest of the Amazon, including a monkey that purrs like a cat.
> 
> Found between 2010 and 2013, the species include a flame-patterned lizard, a thumbnail-sized frog, a vegetarian piranha, a brightly coloured snake, and a beautiful pink orchid, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
> 
> Discovered by a group of scientists and compiled by WWF, the new species number 258 plants, 84 fish, 58 amphibians, 22 reptiles, 18 birds and one mammal. This total does not include countless discoveries of insects and other invertebrates.


----------



## valis

ekim68 said:


> I like the idea of Guitars with many stacks of Marshal Amps and blasting away with heavy Van Halen licks on the way to battle...
> 
> (Oh, and some electricity to go with the Amps... )


it's going to be inventing the electricity that will get ya.....

I could make a Baghdad battery, I guess, and if I found enough copper I could make something that went boom.....unintentional of course, as electricity and I do NOT get along.


----------



## ekim68

Actually I think the Romans did well without our Modern Help..And they spread irrigation efficiently, eh?


----------



## valis

and don't forget, the fall of the Roman Empire ended flush toilets for a thousand years......


----------



## valis

this is a joke, people.....


----------



## valis

not 'species' per se, but a few people I think I, personally, could learn a LOT from.

http://io9.com/modern-day-hermits-and-robinson-crusoes-470874532


----------



## ekim68

New Species of Dolphin Found in Australian Waters



> Oct. 29, 2013 - A species of humpback dolphin previously unknown to science is swimming in the waters off northern Australia, according to a team of researchers working for the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and numerous other groups that contributed to the study.


----------



## ekim68

New dinosaur that predates T. rex found in Utah



> Paleontologists on Wednesday unveiled a new dinosaur discovered four years ago in southern Utah that proves giant tyrant dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus rex were around 10 million years earlier than previously believed.





> Paleontologists believe the dinosaur lived 80 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period on a landmass in the flooded central region of North America.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists tracking Brazilian wildlife find ancient cave paintings



> After the discovery, Keuroghlian contacted archaeologist Rodrigo Luis Simas de Aguiar, a regional specialist in cave drawings, who determined they were made between 10,000 years and 4,000 years ago by hunter-gatherer societies that either occupied the caves or used them specifically for their artistic activities.


----------



## ekim68

Himalayan fossils point to Asian origin of big cats



> The evolutionary origin of big cats has been a mystery. Until recently, the oldest fossils, dating back to 3.8 million years ago, came from Africa, but analyses of the molecular relationships between living species suggest that big cats originated in Asia about 10.8 million years ago.
> 
> Yet an Asian origin for big cats was disputed because there was no fossil evidence during that 7-million-year gap, says Zhijie Jack Tseng, a palaeontologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
> 
> No longer. Tseng and colleagues have uncovered a partial skull, a jawbone and a few teeth belonging to a species of big cat in the Zanda basin in the south-west Tibetan plateau, dated to 5.95 to 4.10 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

How to Feed Your Mummy



> So you've gone through all the trouble of mummifying a loved one. You've hired embalmers to remove her organs, treat her body with a precise mixture of oils and balms, and carefully wrap her in bandages. You've spared no expense on a lavish tomb, beautifully decorated and stuffed with riches. You've even mummified her pets, all to make sure she will fully enjoy her afterlife. There's just one last question: What is your beloved mummy going to eat for the rest of eternity?
> 
> For some ancient Egyptians, the answer included meat. In King Tutankhamun's tomb, for example, archaeologists found 48 wooden cases of butchered cuts of beef and poultry. But unlike offerings of fruit and grains, which could last for quite a while once dehydrated and placed in dry tombs, pieces of meat required special treatment. After just a few hours in the desert heat, "they will become a terrible mess if you don't take some steps to preserve them," says Richard Evershed, an archaeological chemist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. The solution? *Mummify.*


----------



## ekim68

Ancient ocean found under Chesapeake Bay



> The remains of a salty ocean ancient enough for dinosaurs to have drowned in it have been found deep in the sediment under the Chesapeake Bay.
> 
> The seawater - believed to be 100 to 150 million years old - was isolated, trapped a half-mile underground, and preserved with the help of an asteroid that smashed into the area around 35 million years ago, creating a huge crater.


----------



## poochee

*Ancient Wine Bar? Giant Jugs Of Vino Unearthed In 3,700-Year-Old Cellar*
by Michaeleen Doucleff
November 22, 2013 6:04 PM



> It looks like our ancestors from the Bronze Age were way bigger lushes than we had ever realized.


http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...gs-of-vino-unearthed-in-3-700-year-old-cellar


----------



## ekim68

700,000-Year-Old Horse Found in Yukon Permafrost Yields Oldest DNA Ever Decoded



> The frozen remains of a horse more than half a million years old have reluctantly given up their genetic secrets, providing scientists with the oldest DNA ever sequenced.
> 
> The horse was discovered in 2003 in the ancient permafrost of Canada's west-central Yukon Territory, not far from the Alaskan border.





> And first among its revelations is that the shared ancestor of all horses, donkeys, and zebras lived more than 4 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Sneaky kitty: New Brazilian wild cat found hiding in tigrina DNA



> Cats are stealthy, but this kind is a pro -- it's been hiding in plain sight for years. A whole new species of Brazilian feline has been discovered after scientists analyzed the DNA of several different wild cat populations.
> 
> The findings, published in Current Biology, highlight the need for careful conservation efforts. After all, it's hard to protect a potentially endangered species if scientists don't yet know it exists.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest Hominin DNA Sequenced: Mitochondrial Genome of a 400,000-Year-Old Hominin from Spain Decoded



> Using novel techniques to extract and study ancient DNA researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, have determined an almost complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a 400,000-year-old representative of the genus **** from Sima de los Huesos, a unique cave site in Northern Spain, and found that it is related to the mitochondrial genome of Denisovans, extinct relatives of Neandertals in Asia. DNA this old has until recently been retrieved only from the permafrost.


----------



## ekim68

Polynesians May Have Invented Binary Math



> How old is the binary number system? Perhaps far older than the invention of computers or even the invention of binary math in the West. The residents of a tiny Polynesian island may have been doing calculations in binary-a number system with only two digits-centuries before it was described by Gottfried Leibniz, the co-inventor of calculus, in 1703.
> 
> If you're reading this article, you are almost certainly a user of the decimal system. That system is also known as base-10 because of its repeating pattern of 10 digits: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 is followed by 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and so forth. But the decimal system is not the only counting system available. The Babylonians used base-60. The Mayas used base-20. Some Australian aboriginal groups may have used base-5. And of course, today most counting and calculation is done by computers not in decimal but binary, the base-2 system of zeros and ones.


----------



## ekim68

When Cats Became Comrades



> Cats have been part of human society for nearly 10,000 years, but they weren't always string-chasers and lap-sitters. Ancient felines hunted crop-destroying rats and mice for early farmers, and in return we provided food and protection. At least that's what scientists have long speculated. Now, they can back it up. Cat bones unearthed in a 5000-year-old Chinese farming village indicate that the animals consumed rodents and that some may have been cared for by humans. The findings provide the earliest hard evidence of this mutually beneficial relationship between man and cat.


----------



## valis

cats? Comrades?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/this-kitty-s-got-claws--182419063.html

THAT'S a cat...I know, I've got a couple...


----------



## poochee

valis said:


> cats? Comrades?
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/this-kitty-s-got-claws--182419063.html
> 
> THAT'S a cat...I know, I've got a couple...


----------



## ekim68

Well she had that coming, IMHO....


----------



## valis

totally.......love it when idiot humans get what is coming to them.....seriously, what was she thinking? 



all I know is I laughed and laughed and laughed at that one.....


----------



## DaveBurnett

I've got two cats that were thrown out when the elder female produced too many kittens. I took her and one male kitten in.
they had been badly treated.
Some 3 months later when I picked up the kitten to flea spray it, it squealed blue murder. next thing I know, the mother is on my shoulders attacking me.

Nowadays, we are the best of friends; they both bring me food (mice and birds) when I am poorly or stay in bed.


----------



## poochee

Yep, cats know how to defend themselves!


----------



## ekim68

Michelangelo's Handwritten 16th-Century Grocery List



> I admit to having a hard time keeping grocery lists. Do I write them by hand? If so, do I do it in a dedicated notebook, on a refrigerator pad, or on any old scrap I find around? Do I compose them electronically, using some combination of my computer, my phone, and other, more specialized devices? And do I keep separate lists for separate trips to separate stores? (Certain delicacies, after all, you can only get at Trader Joe's.) Living in the 15th and 16th centuries, the Italian High Renaissance sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer Michelangelo faced a rather less complicated shopping problem: he had only to send assistants off to market to bring back what he needed. Though vanishingly few of this prolific creator's papers survive today, we do happen to have a few of the grocery lists he sent with them, like that which you see above.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient Egyptian brewer's tomb found in Luxor



> Archaeologists have discovered the tomb of a brewer who served an ancient Egyptian court more than 3,000 years ago in Luxor.
> 
> The man buried in it was "head of beer production", archaeologists say.
> 
> A Japanese team found the tomb during work on another tomb belonging to a top official under Pharaoh Amenhotep III, who died around 1354 BC.


----------



## ekim68

First Dinosaurs Identified from Saudi Arabia



> Dinosaur fossils are exceptionally rare in the Arabian Peninsula. An international team of scientists from Uppsala University, Museum Victoria, Monash University, and the Saudi Geological Survey have now uncovered the first record of dinosaurs from Saudi Arabia.
> 
> What is now dry desert was once a beach littered with the bones and teeth of ancient marine reptiles and dinosaurs.


----------



## valis

talk about a lost world......insane photo.

http://gizmodo.com/geminis-first-image-shows-a-planet-orbiting-a-star-63-1497080935


----------



## ekim68

The 'Nutcracker Man' Diet: Extinct Species Of Early Human Survived on 'Tiger Nuts,' Not Meat



> Fresh analysis of an extinct relative of humans suggests our ancient ancestors dined primarily on tiger nuts, which are edible grass bulbs, settling a discrepancy over what made up prehistoric diets. According to a new study published in the journal PLOS One, the strong-jawed ancient hominin known as paranthropus boisei, nicknamed "Nutcracker Man," which roamed East Africa between 2.4 million and 1.4 million years ago, survived on a diet scientists previously thought implausible.


----------



## ekim68

This intricately crafted harpoon tip is 35,000 years old



> A harpoon tip dating to 35,000 years ago has been discovered on Timor, an island 250 miles northeast of Darwin, Australia. The ancient artifact, which was hewn from bone, is notable for its design, the complexity of which suggests humans in the region manufactured sophisticated weaponry earlier than previously believed.


----------



## ekim68

Mysterious 4600-year-old pyramid unearthed in Egypt



> Archaeologists have discovered a 4600-year-old pyramid in Edfu, Egypt, which is the seventh "provincial" pyramid to be built before the Great Pyramids at Giza.
> 
> The step pyramid is only 16 feet high, but is believed to have been 43 feet high when built. The pyramid is identical to six other provincial pyramids found earlier, which are located near different settlements. The exact purpose of these pyramids has eluded archaeologists, who think they could have been used as a symbol of the king's power in the southern provinces.


----------



## valis

interesting.....any idea what they mean by 'provincial'?


----------



## DaveBurnett

Is the other 27ft still underneath??


----------



## ekim68

Nope, it weathered away at the top I suspect...There would be nothing left of it in a Rain Forest....


----------



## valis

4600 hundred years will do that to sandstone.....


----------



## ekim68

Scientists find 800,000-year-old footprints in U.K.



> British scientists have discovered human footprints in England that are at least 800,000 years old - the most ancient found outside Africa, and the earliest evidence of human life in northern Europe.
> 
> A team from the British Museum, the Natural History Museum and the University of London uncovered imprints from up to five individuals in ancient estuary mud at Happisburgh on the country's eastern coast.


----------



## valis

that is SO awesome....I've wondered what I would so if I saw something like that. I've stumbled across dino prints before, but never 'in the wild'.....i mean, yes, they were in the wild, but in a national park or some such. Let's just say I wasn't the first to see them.

That is awesome. great read too.......:up:


----------



## DaveBurnett

The footprints they showed on the news were NOT all that old.
I've been going to Happisburgh for my summer holidays for the last 45 years - well till a couple of years ago. The location they showed has had the beach far lower than it was shown and the mud runs off the cliff on to that part of the beach all the time. If you look at the film carefully, you can see an old WW2 pillbox in the background that used to be on the top of the cliff but has fallen on to the beach.
I've been there when the breakwater that is behind them for most of the film was so high above the beach that it was impossible to climb over. The next week you could not even see it as the sand had returned and completely buried it.


----------



## valis

800k counts as pretty dang old in my book.....the rough weather you guys have been having over the past year or so (don't forget these were discovered in May of 2013) removed most of the silt/salt/ocean debris and those showed up.....pretty neat stuff IMO.

What you were seeing when you were there was standard ocean detritus; the aforementioned sand that's been accumulating for thousands and thousands of years.

good write ups here and here. The first is a bit more digestible, the second some serious science.


----------



## DaveBurnett

> What you were seeing when you were there was standard ocean detritus; the aforementioned sand that's been accumulating for thousands and thousands of years.


I beg to differ. As I said, I've been there when the breakwater you see in the background stood so far above the beach that you could not see or even climb over it. Happisborough was a second home to me during my youth. Our next door neighbour at the time owned a bungalow there that we borrowed at every opportunity. Our local vicar retired to a cottage there.


----------



## valis

no worries.....I've not been there, so I cannot speak to it. But I can say that I believe that this discovery has been vetted enough, and by enough, scientists to be released to the public. I sincerely hope it stands, and it is not taken down as a hoax in the future. Science has already had enough of those. Don't need more, that will just set everything back again.


----------



## ekim68

Fossil captures moment of live birth in ancient marine reptile



> "The study reports the oldest vertebrate fossil to capture the 'moment' of live-birth, with a baby emerging from the pelvis of its mother," Motani said. "The 248-million-year old fossil of an ichthyosaur suggests that live-bearing evolved on land and not in the sea."


----------



## ekim68

'Mother Lode' of Amazingly Preserved Fossils Discovered in Canada



> A treasure trove of fossils chiseled out of a canyon in Canada's Kootenay National Park rivals the famous Burgess Shale, the best record of early life on Earth, scientists say.





> The fossils are extraordinary because they preserve soft parts of ancient animals in exceptional detail; these soft parts are less likely to be imprinted in stone than harder parts, like bones. More than 200 animal species have been identified at the 1909 fossil site, providing a rare window into the Cambrian explosion, the time when complex body forms first appeared in Earth's fossil record starting about 542 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Confirmed: Earth's oldest rock in Australia



> Ancient zircon crystals discovered in Western Australia have been positively dated to 4.374 billion years, confirming their place as the oldest rock ever found on Earth, according to a new study.
> 
> The research reported in the journal Nature Geoscience, means Earth began forming a crust far sooner than previously thought, following the giant impact event which created the Earth-Moon system 4.5 billion years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Chilean highway project unearths amazing graveyard of fossilized whale skeletons



> The whales were found more than 120 feet above sea level, about two-thirds of a mile from the ocean, in ancient sandstones below what is now the northbound lane of the Pan-American Highway in the Atacama region of northern Chile.
> 
> Highway construction workers found the first skeletons. They called a nearby museum, and said: We found bones.
> 
> It has turned out to be one of most extraordinary marine mammal fossil sites on the planet. Scientists discovered more than 40 skeletons, most of them baleen whales, strewn across a small area in four distinct levels, suggesting four separate mass strandings over a period of more than 10,000 years. In one spot, the skeletons of two adult whales lay on top of the skeleton of a juvenile whale.


----------



## valis

http://io9.com/our-first-glimpse-of-ocean-life-at-the-bottom-of-an-une-1535242517

whoa.......life at the bottom of the new hebrides trench.....


----------



## ekim68

Giant virus revived from ancient permafrost



> Scientists have discovered a new type of virus in 30,000-year-old permafrost and managed to revive it, producing an infection.
> 
> Fortunately, the new virus, named Pithovirus sibericum, infects amoebas and is not harmful to humans.
> 
> But its *ability to become infectious again after so many millenniums is a warning*, writes Jean-Michel Claverie at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique at Aix-Marseille University and his colleagues in a new study published Monday..


----------



## valis

worrisome, to say the absolute least.

Who in their ever-lovin' right mind would think that this was a good idea?


----------



## DaveBurnett

Jurassic Park??


----------



## ekim68

Scientists have 'Good Chance' of Successfully Cloning 43,000-Year-Old Woolly Mammoth



> Scientists have claimed they have a "good chance" of cloning a woolly mammoth which has been frozen for the past 43,000 years


(I wonder what kind of atmosphere was around when they lived...)


----------



## DaveBurnett

Heavy in CO2??


----------



## poochee

ekim68 said:


> Scientists have 'Good Chance' of Successfully Cloning 43,000-Year-Old Woolly Mammoth
> 
> (I wonder what kind of atmosphere was around when they lived...)


Cold?


----------



## ekim68

Scientist finds 19 new species of speedy, clever praying mantises



> Welcome to the fold! An entomologist trekking through Amazonian rain forest and sifting through musty museums has discovered 19 new species of praying mantis in Central and South America. The findings, published in the journal ZooKeys, nearly triple the number of known bark mantis species and reveal the diversity of this charismatic insect group.
> 
> These insects aren't your typical praying mantises, said entomologist Gavin Svenson, curator of invertebrate zoology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The archetypal praying mantis is a fresh, new-leaf green with a tubular body and is seen as an ambush hunter. Not so with the bark mantises, which have brownish, mottled backs and flat bodies that allow them to lie flat against the bark of a tree and hide from predators.


----------



## poochee

*Scientists Discover New Dinosaur Species Dubbed 'Chicken From Hell' (PHOTO)*
Caitlin MacNeal  March 19, 2014, 5:50 PM EDT2006



> Scientists discovered a new species of dinosaur that looks like a cross between a bird and a reptile.


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/new-dinosaur-chicken-from-hell


----------



## ekim68

Spectacular fossil fern reveals Jurassic-era chromosomes



> A violent death has led to a remarkably lucky preservation. Researchers in Sweden have discovered ferns that were buried suddenly in a volcanic eruption during the Jurassic period. The sudden burial has preserved stunning details of the fern, down to showing the plant's chromosomes being separated during cell division. In fact, the details are sufficient to determine that its genome hasn't undergone major changes in at least 180 million years.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest Cardiovascular System Found in Ancient Shrimplike Creature



> They were crushed. Without warning, 520 million years ago an ancient tsunami or storm trapped 50 shrimplike creatures under layer after layer of fine dirt particles and mud in the seabed that formerly covered much of southwest China. But rather than pulverize them, the powdery silt and Cambrian oceanic chemicals preserved the 6-centimeter-long animals, known as Fuxianhuia protensa, with impeccable statuesque detail.


----------



## ekim68

The fish that crawled out of the water



> A crucial fossil that shows how animals crawled out from the water, evolving from fish into land-loving animals, has been found in Canada.
> 
> The creature, described today in Nature1,2, lived some 375 million years ago. Palaeontologists are calling the specimen from the Devonian a true 'missing link', as it helps to fill in a gap in our understanding of how fish developed legs for land mobility, before eventually evolving into modern animals including mankind.


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists' findings may prove Rome a century older than thought



> As Italian capital approaches 2,767th birthday, excavation reveals wall built long before official founding year of 753BC.


----------



## ekim68

A good read....

The Lost Empire that Ruled the Silk Road



> Today, the city of Samarkand in Uzbekistan is relatively remote, known mostly for its magnificent medieval ruins. But over a millennium ago, it was one of the richest cities on the infamous trade route known as the Silk Road. Back in the 600s CE, that route was called simply "the road to Samarkand."
> 
> Its culture was a hybrid of Iranian and Chinese influences, its religion a mix of Zoroastrianism and other traditions, and it belonged to a now-vanished ethnic group called the Sogdians.


----------



## valis

twas a good read.......btw, how's Neuromancer?


----------



## ekim68

Um, I have to confess that I do have the book, however I'm finishing, or should be finished today, Havenstar by Glenda Larke and I have another trilogy to wade through before Neuromancer. (The weather is co-operating with rainy days right now so reading is picking up.)


----------



## valis

that made me laugh.......


----------



## ekim68

These Are Some of the Oldest Living Things on Earth



> Animals sometimes sleep inside the hollows of giant 2,000-year old baobab trees in South Africa. Humans too, sometimes use old trees, for more dubious purposes - a jail, a toilet, a pop-up bar - as photographer Rachel Sussman discovered when she toured the world to photograph ancient trees and other organisms for her new book, The Oldest Living Things in the World.
> 
> The very oldest living things on the planet, scientists believe, are Actinobacteria that have inhabited underground permafrost in Siberia for up to 600,000 years. But ancient life survives on every continent, from 5,500-year-old Antarctic mosses, to a 100,000-year-old Mediterranean sea grass meadow, to 12,000-year-old creosote bushes in the Mojave desert, to the Tasmanian lomatia, a 43,600-year-old tree so endangered that only a single individual exists.


----------



## ekim68

New Study Outlines Water World Theory of Life's Origins



> Life took root more than four billion years ago on our nascent Earth, a wetter and harsher place than now, bathed in sizzling ultraviolet rays. What started out as simple cells ultimately transformed into slime molds, frogs, elephants, humans and the rest of our planet's living kingdoms. How did it all begin?
> 
> A new study from researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, and the Icy Worlds team at NASA's Astrobiology Institute, based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA, describes how electrical energy naturally produced at the sea floor might have given rise to life. While the scientists had already proposed this hypothesis - called "submarine alkaline hydrothermal emergence of life" - the new report assembles decades of field, laboratory and theoretical research into a grand, unified picture.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest pterodactyloid species discovered: Primitive flying reptile took wing 163 million years ago



> Scientists have discovered and named the earliest and most primitive pterodactyloid -- a group of flying reptiles that would go on to become the largest known flying creatures to have ever existed -- and established they flew above Earth some 163 million years ago, longer than previously known.


----------



## ekim68

Found after 500 years, the wreck of Christopher Columbus's flagship the Santa Maria 



> More than five centuries after Christopher Columbus's flagship, the Santa Maria, was wrecked in the Caribbean, archaeological investigators think they may have discovered the vessel's long-lost remains - lying at the bottom of the sea off the north coast of Haiti. It's likely to be one of the world's most important underwater archaeological discoveries.
> 
> "All the geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests that this wreck is Columbus' famous flagship, the Santa Maria," said the leader of a recent reconnaissance expedition to the site, one of America's top underwater archaeological investigators, Barry Clifford.


----------



## ekim68

Flooded cave hides Naia, a 13,000-year-old American



> It must have been an awesome sight. As the cave divers drifted down through the dark waters of the Mexican sinkhole, they first spotted large boulders piled on the floor. Then they saw animal bones: the remains of sabretooth cats, giant sloths and the elephant-like gomphothere. But the key discovery sat up on a ledge, staring back at them: the small, upturned skull of a young woman.
> 
> Naia, named after ancient Greek water nymphs, was around 15 years old when she died. Three independent dating methods put that between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago, making her the sixth oldest known American. DNA analysis shows Naia was related to an ancient Siberian population from which most, if not all, native Americans descend.


----------



## ekim68

'Biggest dinosaur ever' discovered



> Fossilised bones of a dinosaur believed to be the largest creature ever to walk the Earth have been unearthed in Argentina, palaeontologists say.
> 
> Based on its huge thigh bones, it was 40m (130ft) long and 20m (65ft) tall.
> 
> Weighing in at 77 tonnes, it was as heavy as 14 African elephants, and seven tonnes heavier than the previous record holder, Argentinosaurus.


----------



## ekim68

Entirely new kind of sea animal discovered



> Researchers creating a catalog-like "tree of life" for sea anemones discovered an entirely new kind of animal among them.
> 
> Based on genetic analysis, a creature that lives near deep sea thermal vents in the Pacific and had been considered a giant sea anemone really isn't actually a sea anemone and belongs to an order of its own, NBC News reports.
> 
> "It's the equivalent to finding the first member of a group like primates or rodents," says researcher Estefanía Rodríguez of the American Museum of Natural History, which led the study.


----------



## ekim68

The Earliest Bird to Sip a Flower



> Researchers have unearthed the earliest evidence of a bird sipping nectar from a flower. The stomach contents of the 47-million-year-old fossil flyer-a long-extinct species of perching bird-include hundreds of grains of pollen.


----------



## valis

not really a 'lost' species, but dang near extinct......from my understanding it was totally extinct in the wild, with a few in captivity. Color this experiment a success.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/nature/conservation-in-limbo/


----------



## ekim68

A good read Tim...:up:


----------



## valis

bunch of ptersosaurs found.....including an egg!


----------



## ekim68

First Farmers Were Also Sailors



> When hunter-gatherers in the Middle East began to settle down and cultivate crops about 10,500 years ago, they became the world's first farmers. But two new papers suggest that they were at home on both the land and the sea: Studies of ancient and modern human DNA, including the first reported ancient DNA from early Middle Eastern farmers, indicate that agriculture spread to Europe via a coastal route, probably by farmers using boats to island hop across the Aegean and Mediterranean seas.


----------



## ekim68

New Inca road to Machu Picchu discovered



> Archaeologists have discovered a new section of Inca Road- and this one leads right to Machu Picchu.
> 
> According to Andina news agency, the newly discovered road is about one and a half kilometers long, and varies between 1.2 and 1.4 meters in breadth, depending on the terrain. The road begins at Wayraqtambo and leads up to a platform from which travelers can see parts of the complex at Machu Picchu.
> 
> Right now, much of the road is covered in vegetation and therefore difficult to sée. El Comercio reports that specialists are working to clear the road.


----------



## ekim68

Cal scientist resolves debate on Neandertals' age



> A Berkeley scientist who uses powerful instruments to determine the ages of everything from the Earth's crust to Polynesian temples has used the technology to define just when nearly half a million years ago the earliest Neandertal people lived and died.
> 
> By determining that those ancient people were living "most probably" about 434,000 years ago, Warren D. Sharp, a geologist at the Berkeley Geochronology Center, has resolved a long-simmering uncertainty over the ages of the fossils, which are providing scientists with new insights into human evolution.


----------



## valis

little bit of lost world, and a little bit of new species, all in one......

http://io9.com/researchers-discover-new-miniature-mammals-in-new-guine-1596466016


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists Uncover A Trove Of Rare Inca Calculating Devices



> Archaeologists working in Peru have discovered 25 well-preserved quipus, an ancient string-based device used to solve mathematical problems and to assist in record-keeping.
> 
> The find was made in the archaeological complex of Incahuasi, south of Lima, Alejandro Chu, reports Peru This Week. The items were found in ancient warehouses, or kallancas, and not in a funerary context as is the norm, making this a rather unique find. The placement of the quipus suggests they were used for administrative purposes. Incahuasi was one of the most important strategic cities built by the Incas in the valley of Lunahuana.


----------



## ekim68

Swedish space rock may be piece of early life puzzle



> A fossil meteorite unlike anything seen before has been uncovered in a Swedish quarry. The mysterious rock may be the first known piece of the "bullet" that sparked an explosion of life on early Earth.
> 
> Roughly 100 fossil meteorites have emerged from the limestone quarry west of Stockholm, which is being mined for flooring. All of the meteorites are part of an iron-poor class called the L chondrites. They date back about 470 million years to the Ordovician period, when Earth experienced a mysterious burst of new species.
> 
> Now miners working in the Swedish quarry have found a meteorite fragment that is not an L chondrite. Analysing its microscopic crystals, Birger Schmitz at Lund University and his colleagues found that the rock dates to the same time period but is of a kind completely unknown to science.


----------



## valis

read about that this morning.......nice find, Mike....:up:


----------



## valis

deep cave beetle found...a new one, on top of that.....

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/new-creepy-crawly-discovered-in-the-worlds-deepest-cave-1598437374


----------



## ekim68

Tibetans inherited high-altitude gene from ancient human



> A "superathlete" gene that helps Sherpas and other Tibetans breathe easy at high altitudes was inherited from an ancient species of human. That's the conclusion of a new study, which finds that the gene variant came from people known as Denisovans, who went extinct soon after they mated with the ancestors of Europeans and Asians about 40,000 years ago. This is the first time a version of a gene acquired from interbreeding with another type of human has been shown to help modern humans adapt to their environment.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient bird had wingspan longer than a stretch limousine



> Fossils unearthed at a construction project in South Carolina belong to a bird with the largest wingspan ever known, according to a new study. The animal measured 6.4 meters from wingtip to wingtip, about the length of a 10-passenger limousine and approaching twice the size of the wandering albatross, today's wingspan record-holder. Like modern-day albatrosses, the newly described species would have been a soaring champ.


----------



## valis

well, sort of a new species, I guess.....and definitely from a lost world.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...ake-contact-with-outside-world-in-Brazil.html


----------



## ekim68

Mystery of China's Terracotta Army solved



> Every member of First Emperor Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Army - thousands of replicas of Chinese imperial guards rendered in clay around 221 BC - is unique and incredibly realistic, which is why they've fascinated researchers since they were discovered in 1974. Now, scientists in China say they've peeled back another layer of mystery - they've figured out the binding media used to paint the more than 8,000 soldiers, chariots, and horses, Science China Press announces.


----------



## ekim68

Reconstructions show how some of the earliest animals lived -- and died



> A bizarre group of uniquely shaped organisms known as rangeomorphs may have been some of the earliest animals to appear on Earth, uniquely suited to ocean conditions 575 million years ago. A new model has resolved many of the mysteries around the structure, evolution and extinction of these 'proto animals.'


----------



## ekim68

Vast tomb unearthed in northern Greece



> Archaeologists in Greece have discovered a vast tomb that they believe is connected with the reign of the warrior-king Alexander the Great, who conquered vast swathes of the ancient world between Greece and India.
> 
> The tomb, dating to around 300 BC, may have held the body of one of Alexander's generals or a member of his family. It was found beneath a huge burial mound near the ancient site of Amphipolis in northern Greece.


----------



## airborne17

Our TV Discovery Channel in the UK has just been showing a nightly program entitled "Megalodon - The Monster Shark Still Lives".

Well, although it makes interesting viewing, it is being said that it is just another TV spoof show, like those transmitted on the "evasive" Bigfoot.

A widely acclaimed scientific channel like Discovery should be ashamed of themselves.

See - http://www.cnet.com/news/shark-week-show-gets-panned-for-being-a-fake-documentary/

These kind of TV sham shows are becoming far too frequent. Of course there are all kinds of species that have not yet been discovered, but this extreme pseudo scientific nonsense is abusing the intelligence of viewers.


----------



## valis

COMPLETE agreeance......my son was all excited to watch this show, had no clue why, found out he'd been watching the trailers.....he was a bit upset when I informed him that Meg died out a few hundred million years ago.......


----------



## airborne17

valis said:


> COMPLETE agreeance......my son was all excited to watch this show, had no clue why, found out he'd been watching the trailers.....he was a bit upset when I informed him that Meg died out a few hundred million years ago.......


Valis,

They showed a shot of a huge fin, some 6 feet high and a tail following 65 feet behind, making the shark about 100 feet long. The shot was taken by a German U-Boat in WW2. This 100 feet and about 70-100 tons thing was swimming alongside the submarine. An animal that size and weight, with a bad temper, would have the capability of damaging a U-Boat.

No Captain would have risked his ship. The Germans would have blown it out of the water with their deck gun.


----------



## ekim68

Embalming study 'rewrites' key chapter in Egyptian history



> Researchers from the Universities of York, Macquarie and Oxford have discovered new evidence to suggest that the origins of mummification started in ancient Egypt 1,500 years earlier than previously thought.


----------



## DaveBurnett

That would be grand-mummy with about 40 greats in front of it.


----------



## ekim68

DNA reveals history of vanished 'Paleo-Eskimos'



> A new "genetic prehistory" provides the best picture ever assembled of how the North American Arctic was populated, from 6,000 years ago to the present.


----------



## ekim68

Rock Engraving Made by Neanderthals, Suggests Study



> Scientists studying a curious rock engraving in the seaside Gorham's Cave in Gibraltar are suggesting that its cross-hatched impression was created by Neanderthals and represents their capacity for abstract expression.
> 
> While excavating a layer of deposits dated within a range between 38,500 and 30,500 cal kyr BP (using radiocarbon dating), Ruth Blasco of the Gibraltar Museum and colleagues eventually came down to a layer pre-dating 39,000 BP consisting of bedrock that featured what appeared to be an intentional cross-hatch engraving. The engraving was found on a rock platform at an elevation of 40 cm above the cave floor and consisted of deeply engraved lines forming a criss-cross pattern.
> 
> "Here we present the first known example of an abstract pattern engraved by Neanderthals," summarizes Blasco, et al., in their study report. "This discovery demonstrates the Neanderthals' capacity for abstract thought and expression."*


----------



## ekim68

Sea creatures add branch to tree of life



> Scientists have identified two mushroom-shaped marine animals that do not fit in any of the known categories of the tree of life and could be related to groups thought to be extinct for 500 million years.


----------



## valis

a modern age mystery......does the giant sloth still exist amongst us? And another thing; the word 'sloth' just started that whole 'what a bizarre word' thing going on in my head.....

http://www.academia.edu/683586/Does_the_ground_sloth_Mylodon_darwinii_still_survive_in_South_America


----------



## ekim68

China: Shang or Zhou dynasty sword found in Jiangsu



> A Chinese boy has made the discovery of a lifetime by stumbling across a 3,000-year-old bronze sword in a river in Jiangsu Province.
> 
> Eleven-year-old Yang Junxi says he touched the rusty weapon's tip while washing his hands in the Laozhoulin River, in Gaoyou County, the state news agency Xinhua reports. After pulling it out he took it home, where it quickly became a sensation for curious locals, before the family decided to send the blade to officials for examination. "Some people even offered high prices to buy the sword," Junxi's father Jinhai says. "But I felt it would be illegal to sell the relic."


----------



## valis

Okay, no clue where to put this one......

http://io9.com/marine-biologists-release-incredible-video-of-a-borg-li-1635336488


----------



## ekim68

Wow, thanks Tim....It took me a couple of minutes to sound out 'siphonophore'....Good stuff....


----------



## ekim68

New branch added to European family tree: Europeans descended from at least 3, not 2, groups of ancient humans



> The setting: Europe, about 7,500 years ago. Agriculture was sweeping in from the Near East, bringing early farmers into contact with hunter-gatherers who had already been living in Europe for tens of thousands of years.
> 
> Genetic and archaeological research in the last 10 years has revealed that almost all present-day Europeans descend from the mixing of these two ancient populations. But it turns out that's not the full story.
> 
> Researchers at Harvard Medical School and the University of Tübingen in Germany have now documented a genetic contribution from a third ancestor: Ancient North Eurasians. This group appears to have contributed DNA to present-day Europeans as well as to the people who travelled across the Bering Strait into the Americas more than 15,000 years ago.


----------



## valis

wow.....that's pretty big news right there.....


----------



## ekim68

Ancient campfires led to the rise of storytelling



> Sometime about 400,000 years ago, humans learned to fully control fire. This breakthrough radically changed our diets, because we could now cook food, but did it transform our culture as well? A study of evening campfire conversations by the Ju/'hoan people of Namibia and Botswana suggests that by extending the day, fire allowed people to unleash their imaginations and tell stories, rather than merely focus on mundane topics.


----------



## valis

here ya go, Mike......a lost world in our own backyard.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/roadt...ando_b_5927164.html?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592


----------



## ekim68

Whoa, that's a keeper Tim...:up:


----------



## ekim68

Did Marco Polo "Discover" America?



> For a guy who claimed to spend 17 years in China as a confidant of Kublai Khan, Marco Polo left a surprisingly skimpy paper trail. No Asian sources mention the footloose Italian. The only record of his 13th-century odyssey through the Far East is the hot air of his own Travels, which was actually an "as told to" penned by a writer of romances. But a set of 14 parchments, now collected and exhaustively studied for the first time, give us a raft of new stories about Polo's journeys and something notably missing from his own account: maps.
> 
> If genuine, the maps would show that Polo recorded the shape of the Alaskan coast-and the strait separating it from Asia-four centuries before Vitus Bering, the Danish explorer long considered the first European to do so. Perhaps more important, they suggest Polo was aware of the New World two centuries before Columbus.


----------



## ekim68

Cave paintings change ideas about the origin of art



> The artworks are in a rural area on the Indonesian Island of Sulawesi.
> 
> Until now, paintings this old had been confirmed in caves only in Western Europe.
> 
> Researchers tell the journal Nature that the Indonesian discovery transforms ideas about how humans first developed the ability to produce art.
> 
> Australian and Indonesian scientists have dated layers of stalactite-like growths that have formed over coloured outlines of human hands.
> 
> Early artists made them by carefully blowing paint around hands that were pressed tightly against the cave walls and ceilings. The oldest is at least 40,000 years old.


----------



## ekim68

Antikythera wreck yields new treasures



> An international expedition says it has made further, remarkable finds at the site of the Antikythera shipwreck.
> 
> The vessel, which dates from 70-60BC, was famously first identified by Greek sponge divers more than 100 years ago.
> 
> Its greatest treasure is the remains of a geared "computer" that was used to calculate the positions of astronomical objects.
> 
> The new archaeological investigations have retrieved tableware, ship components, and a giant bronze spear.


----------



## valis

ekim68 said:


> Antikythera wreck yields new treasures


this i am looking forward to........the antikythera mechanism has befuddled me for quite some time....


----------



## ekim68

Iconic 2,500 year old Siberian princess 'died from breast cancer', reveals MRI scan



> Preserved by ice, the 25 year old ancient woman covered in tattoos used cannabis to cope with her ravaging illness.


----------



## ekim68

Massive clubhouse of ancient cult found in Israel



> Archaeologists at the ancient site of Tel Burna, in Israel, have uncovered a massive complex they say likely served as the meeting place for a cult that worshipped one the culture's unique gods. The complex dates to roughly 3,000 years ago.
> 
> The buried complex is huge, comprising a number of smaller rooms, most centered around a large, 55-foot by 55-foot, courtyard. Inside the chambers researchers found ceramic jars, called pithoi, nearly large enough to hold a human body. Also present were three connected cups, fragments of face masks, and burnt animal bones -- possible evidence of animal sacrifice.


----------



## ekim68

Found 1300-Year-Old Ski and 6000-Year-Old Arrows in Reinheimen



> In recent summers, many sensational archaeological discoveries in Norwegian national parks have been made. This summer there was found 390 objects from the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age, including sixty 6000-years-old arrows and an 1300-year-old ski.


----------



## ekim68

Incredible New Artifacts Found In 2,000-Year-Old Mexican Tunnel



> For the past year, archaeologists have been working in a 2,000-year-old tunnel at the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan. The dig has yielded thousands of new relics and the discovery of three chambers that could hold more important finds.
> 
> First, a little bit of history. Established around 100 B.C., the city of Teotihuacan dominated central Mexico until 750 A.D. At its height, around the first half of the first millennium AD, it was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population estimated at 125,000 - making it the sixth largest city in the world at the time. It began as a religious center, and came to be the most vibrant city in the New World. It's known for its architecturally significant Mesoamerican pyramids and its complex, multi-family residential compounds.


----------



## ekim68

Munnified animals from the Ice Age



> The thick permafrost of Siberia hides the mummified remains of a menagerie of ice age animals. Here are four such mummies that tell us how these animals lived.


----------



## ekim68

Satellites spot hidden villages in Amazon



> The Amazon is home to perhaps dozens of isolated tribes who make their living far off the grid from the wider society, growing crops and hunting and gathering in the forest. These reclusive peoples are threatened by drug running, illegal logging, and highway construction, even if they dwell in "protected" reserves in Peru or Brazil; one group, apparently pushed out of its lands, made contact this summer. Now, researchers have a new way of examining their fate without disruptive and frightening flyovers by aircraft.


----------



## valis

wow......that's awesome........


----------



## ekim68

37,000-year-old Russian skeleton has Neanderthal DNA that's gone missing



> Another week, another ancient human genome. We just recently covered the oldest modern human genome yet described. Now, another paper takes a look at the DNA from a different modern human genome and comes to similar conclusions: interbreeding with Neanderthals was already deep in the past as of 37,000 years ago. But researchers were able to find stretches of the Neanderthal genome that are no longer present in any modern human populations that we've sampled.


----------



## valis

wow.......zeroing in on the missing link......


----------



## ekim68

8 Strange New Spider Species Found on Indian Tiger Reserve



> Eight potentially new species of spiders have been found living in India's Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, a park near the southwestern coast of the subcontinent.
> 
> The reserve is in the Western Ghats regions, which is known for being a biodiversity hotspot, stuffed with many species of plants and animals. But while much of the larger flora and fauna have been described, the area's smaller inhabitants - the charismatic minifauna - have gotten a bit less attention.
> 
> So, in early October, a team of scientists set out to survey the Reserve's spider species. For four weeks, the team found, photographed, and cataloged a multitude of eight-legged critters - logging 210 different spider species in total, says leader A.V. Sudhikumar of the Centre for Animal Taxonomy and Ecology of Christ College, Irinjalakuda.


----------



## ekim68

As mystic as Stonehenge - Siberia's eerie Whale Bone Alley 'en vogue' for Western tourists



> Located in the pristine wilds of Siberia, this is Whale Bone Alley, a location so remote that few outside this part of the Russian Far East know about its historical secrets.
> 
> It was here in 1976 that Soviet archaeologists discovered dozens of 600-year-old bowhead whale bones standing horizontal in the ground, arranged in a double line running parallel to the shore.
> 
> Between the mysterious "alley" of giant jaw and rib bones, propped up by rocks, were huge skulls and square pits once thought to have contained tonnes of meat.


----------



## ekim68

It turns out the world's oldest 'computer' dates back to 205 BC



> The device regarded the world's first computer (analog, of course) could have been used even earlier than researchers thought. Inspection of a dial from the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism and an examination of Babylonian eclipse records revealed the device's origin to be 205 BC, 50-100 years before previous findings indicate. The new date offers a clue as to how Greeks predicted eclipses and planetary position, too.


----------



## ekim68

An Early Holiday Present: Forty-six new Greek manuscripts online



> Just in time for the holidays, we announce the latest batch of Greek manuscripts to be uploaded to Digitised Manuscripts. This project has been generously funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and many others, including the A. G. Leventis Foundation, Sam Fogg, the Sylvia Ioannou Foundation, the Thriplow Charitable Trust, and the Friends of the British Library.


----------



## ekim68

Fossil hunters find skeleton of 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth in North Sea



> The bones were found at a depth of 100 feet off the east coast of England, which 40,000 years ago was land inhabited by mammoths.


----------



## ekim68

Microbes discovered by deepest marine drill analysed



> Life uncovered by the deepest-ever marine drilling expedition has been analysed by scientists.
> 
> The International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) found microbes living 2,400m beneath the seabed off Japan.
> 
> The tiny, single-celled organisms survive in this harsh environment on a low-calorie diet of hydrocarbon compounds and have a very slow metabolism.


----------



## ekim68

Million-Mummy Cemetery Unearthed in Egypt



> TORONTO - She's literally one in a million.
> 
> The remains of a child, laid to rest more than 1,500 years ago when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, was found in an ancient cemetery that contains more than 1 million mummies, according to a team of archaeologists from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.


----------



## ekim68

How the Ancient Romans Made Better Concrete Than We Do Now



> The Roman recipe used by the team involves adding volcanic rocks to a liquid mortar. To make the mortar, ancient Romans - and the modern research team - started by heating limestone into quicklime, and then added water and volcanic ash. The key ratio for this mixture is three parts ash to one part lime. Rome had no shortage of volcanic ash to use, since volcanoes lay to north and south of Rome. But the ancient Romans settled on the Pozzolane Rosse ash from the Alban Hills volcano to the south. This "pozzolonic mortar," say the researchers, "is key to the durability of concrete components in structurally sound monuments well maintained over two millennia of use."


----------



## ekim68

Byzantine Shipwrecks Shed Light on Shipbuilding History



> Archaeological excavations in Turkey that began in 2004 have yielded a unique historical treasure - 37 shipwrecks from the Byzantine Empire, eight of which are now described in a new report.
> 
> The shipwrecks were discovered at a site called Yenikapi, in Istanbul, in what was a port of the ancient city, then called Constantinople. The ships date back to the fifth to 11th centuries, and are in exceptionally good condition, archaeologists say.


----------



## ekim68

Tomb of Pharaoh's unknown queen discovered



> Czech archaeologists have unearthed the tomb of a previously unknown queen believed to have been the wife of Pharaoh Neferefre who ruled 4,500 years ago, officials in Egypt have said.
> 
> The tomb was discovered in Abu Sir, an Old Kingdom necropolis southwest of Cairo where there are several pyramids dedicated to pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty, including Neferefre.


----------



## ekim68

1795 time capsule found in Boston capitol



> A time capsule buried in 1795 by Paul Revere and Samuel Adams was unearthed Thursday in Boston at the Massachusetts Statehouse, possibly the oldest such U.S. artifact ever uncovered.
> 
> About the size of a cigar box, the copper container - green from oxidation and caked in plaster - was found in the cornerstone of the "new" statehouse on Beacon Hill, which was completed in 1798.
> 
> As Boston Museum of Fine Arts Conservator Pam Hatchfield chiseled away for hours to free the box, five silver coins spilled from the stone block - measures of good luck tossed in when the capsule was entombed by the revolutionary heroes 219 years ago, officials told the Boston Globe. At the time, Adams was known as the governor, not a beer.


----------



## ekim68

Utah's Dinosaur 'Death Trap' Reveals Trove of Giant Predators



> A nine-ton block of sandstone that was pulled from a Utah mountain late last year holds the biggest fossil trove ever found of the giant predatory dinosaur known as Utahraptor. Covered in feathers, with a huge sickle claw on each second toe, Utahraptor looked like a pumped-up version of the Jurassic Park star Velociraptor.
> 
> The fossils might help resolve a long-standing debate about whether these predators hunted in groups.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient stringed instrument unearthed in China



> Chinese archaeologists have unearthed relics of musical instruments from a complex of tombs dating back thousands of years in Zaoyang city, Hubei province, the local Chutian Metropolis Daily reported Tuesday.


----------



## ekim68

Human language may have evolved to help our ancestors make tools



> If there's one thing that distinguishes humans from other animals, it's our ability to use language. But when and why did this trait evolve? A new study concludes that the art of conversation may have arisen early in human evolution, because it made it easier for our ancestors to teach each other how to make stone tools-a skill that was crucial for the spectacular success of our lineage.
> 
> Researchers have long debated when humans starting talking to each other. Estimates range wildly, from as late as 50,000 years ago to as early as the beginning of the human genus more than 2 million years ago. But words leave no traces in the archaeological record. So researchers have used proxy indicators for symbolic abilities, such as early art or sophisticated toolmaking skills.


----------



## DaveBurnett

What a load of poppycock!! and who wasted the money for that study.??

Language came well before tools. Even animal species that don't use tools, as such, have language. I can see two animal species. other than human, right now from my chair that communicate verbally. What is more they use understandable interspecies language as well.


----------



## ekim68

Unlocking Scrolls Preserved in Eruption of Vesuvius, Using X-Ray Beams



> Researchers have found a key that may unlock the only library of classical antiquity to survive along with its documents, raising at least a possibility of recovering vanished works of ancient Greek and Roman authors such as the lost books of Livy's history of Rome.
> 
> The library is that of a villa in Herculaneum, a town that was destroyed in A.D. 79 by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius that obliterated nearby Pompeii. Though Pompeii was engulfed by lava, a mix of superhot gases and ash swept over Herculaneum, preserving the documents in a grand villa that probably belonged to the family of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists find translucent fish living under Antarctic ice shelf



> It shouldn't be all that surprising at this point -- living organisms defying the odds, that is. Life continues to turn up in the oddest places. This time, it's a fish scrounging out a lonely, frigid existence some 2,500 feet under the surface of Antarctica in a tiny wedge of seawater surrounded by ice.
> 
> Scientists weren't ice fishing when they stuck a tiny remote-controlled, camera-equipped robot down a small shaft dug deep into the Ross Ice Shelf. They simply wanted to get a better look at where the ocean, ice and earth all converge, as part of their work on Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (WISSARD), a project organized by Northern Illinois University.
> 
> There -- some 500 miles inland and half a mile beneath the surface -- scientists found a tiny translucent fish subsisting in a pocket of sea water, surrounded on all sides by ice.


----------



## ekim68

Remarkable Fossils Push Back Snake Origins by 65 Million Years



> WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Snakes have been slithering on Earth far longer than anyone ever realized.
> 
> Scientists on Tuesday described the four oldest-known snake fossils, the most ancient of which was a roughly 10-inch-long (25 cm) reptile called Eophis underwoodi unearthed in a quarry near Oxford, England, that lived about 167 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

New original Magna Carta discovered in Kent



> As a result of research for the Magna Carta Project, a previously unknown exemplar of the 1300 Magna Carta has been discovered in Sandwich, Kent. The find was made when Nicholas Vincent, our Project's Principal Investigator, asked Kent County Council's community history officer, Dr Mark Bateson, to look up a copy of Sandwich's Charter of the Forest. This led to the discovery of the Magna Carta in the Sandwich archive in Maidstone. It is of great significance, particularly as it survives with its partner Forest Charter of 1300. Only one other extant pair is known, kept at Oriel College, Oxford.


----------



## ekim68

Drones and satellites spot lost civilizations in unlikely places



> Many Garamantian structures are still standing in some form or another today, but very few have been visited by archaeologists. It's hard to do fieldwork in the hot, dry, remote Sahara, Mattingly explains. "And that relative absence of feet on the ground leads to an absence of evidence" about the Garamantes and other cultures that may have thrived before the Islamic conquest of the region. But because many Garamantin sites haven't been buried or otherwise destroyed, they show up in stunning detail in satellite photos. By analyzing such images, "in an area of about 2500 square kilometers, we've located 158 major settlements, 184 cemeteries, 30 square kilometers of fields, plus a variety of irrigation systems," Mattingly says. Not only have he and his team been able to select the most promising sites for on-the-ground fieldwork, but they can also use the images to reconstruct the Garamantes' regional footrpint-something that would have been very hard to do by excavating one site at a time.


----------



## ekim68

Forgotten fossil found to be new species of ichthyosaur



> A fossil stored in a Doncaster museum for 30 years and thought to be a plaster copy has turned out to be a new species of ancient reptile.
> 
> A young palaeontologist working with the University of Manchester found the fossil in 2008, in the collections of Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery.
> 
> He realised it was the 189-million-year-old remains of an ichthyosaur - an extinct marine reptile.
> 
> Further study confirmed it to be a previously unknown species.


----------



## ekim68

Mummified Monk Sits Inside Ancient Buddha Statue



> Researchers at the Drents Museum in the Netherlands made a shocking discovery when they imaged an ancient Chinese statue and found a nearly 1,000-year-old mummy inside.
> 
> Sitting in the lotus position, the mummy fits within the statue perfectly.


----------



## ekim68

Lost WHITE CITY of the MONKEY GOD found after 500 years



> In a scene straight from Raiders of the Lost Ark, archaeologists believe they have found the fabled lost White City of the Monkey God in Honduras.
> 
> Aided by former Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers, the team of scientists uncovered the location in the Mosquitia jungle, along Honduras's eastern coast, over 500 years after the last time it was visited, according to National Geographic.
> 
> The ruins were identified in May 2012 using a remote-sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser known as Light Detection and Ranging, or LIDAR.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest known member of human family found in Ethiopia



> It's not the most charismatic fossil ever found, but it may reveal secrets of our earliest evolution. Unearthed in Ethiopia, the broken jaw with greying teeth suggests that the **** lineage - of which modern humans are the only surviving member - existed up to 400,000 years earlier than previously thought.
> 
> The fragment dates from around 2.8 million years ago, and is by far the most ancient specimen to bear the **** signature. The earliest such fossil was one thought to be up to 2.4 million years ages old.


----------



## ekim68

Newly discovered sea creature was once the largest animal on Earth



> Almost half a billion years ago, the largest animal on Earth was a 2-meter-long, helmet-headed sea creature that fed on some of the ocean's tiniest prey. The newly described species is one of the largest arthropods yet discovered, a class of animals that includes spiders and crabs. The well-preserved remains of the multisegmented creature are providing clues about how subsequent arthropods' legs may have evolved from the dozens of stubby flaps used to propel this beast through the water.


----------



## ekim68

Killer salamanders dominated ancient Portugal



> FARO, Portugal, March 24 (UPI) -- During their rise to power and prominence, dinosaurs shared the lower latitudes with another formidable (and previously undiscovered) predator -- a crocodile-like amphibian that looked a giant salamander.
> 
> Researchers discovered the prehistoric species (known informally as "super salamander") after analyzing newly unearthed fossils excavated from an ancient lake in southern Portugal. The fossils date to between 220 and 230 million years ago, a time when a variety of primitive amphibians dominated the lakes and rivers of warmer climates.


----------



## ekim68

Underground city in Turkey may be largest in region



> It's a stunning find uncovered by accident: Construction workers demolishing homes in Turkey's Nevsehir province in 2013 ended up discovering entrances to what could be the largest ancient underground city ever found in the region. The country's Hurriyet Daily News reported on its existence just days before the end of 2014, calling it "potentially the year's biggest" such discovery.


----------



## ekim68

A new beginning for baby mosasaurs



> They weren't in the delivery room, but researchers at Yale University and the University of Toronto have discovered a new birth story for a gigantic marine lizard that once roamed the oceans.
> 
> Thanks to recently identified specimens at the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, paleontologists now believe that mighty mosasaurs-which could grow to 50 feet long-gave birth to their young in the open ocean, not on or near shore.
> 
> The findings answer long-held questions about the initial environment of an iconic predator that lived during the time of the dinosaurs. Mosasaurs populated most waters of the Earth before their extinction 65 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

World's oldest stone tools discovered in Kenya



> SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA-Researchers at a meeting here say they have found the oldest tools made by human ancestors-stone flakes dated to 3.3 million years ago. That's 700,000 years older than the oldest-known tools to date, suggesting that our ancestors were crafting tools several hundred thousand years before our genus **** arrived on the scene. If correct, the new evidence could confirm disputed claims for very early tool use, and it suggests that ancient australopithecines like the famed "Lucy" may have fashioned stone tools, too.


----------



## valis

wow.....that one hadn't heard of......:up:


----------



## valis

new whale species?

http://gizmodo.com/a-strange-whale-...a-could-be-f-1698062178/+katharinetrendacosta


----------



## ekim68

3.46-billion-year-old 'fossils' were not created by life forms



> What are the oldest fossils on Earth? For a long time, a 3.46-billion-year-old rock from Western Australia seemed to hold the record. A 1993 Science paper suggested that the Apex chert contained tiny, wormy structures (pictured) that could have been fossilized cell walls of some of the world's first cyanobacteria. But now there is more evidence that these structures have nothing to do with life. The elongated filaments were instead created by minerals forming in hydrothermal systems, researchers report online today in a new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.


----------



## ekim68

Dinosaur eggs found by Chinese road construction crew



> HEYUAN, China, April 21 (UPI) -- Workers upgrading a road in Heyuan, China, unearthed 43 large dinosaur eggs -- 19 of them completely intact, officials said.
> 
> Du Yanli, director of the Dinosaur Museum in the Guangdong province city, said workers moving earth for a road construction project in Heyuan discovered the 43 eggs earlier this month and 19 of them were found to be completely intact, with the largest measuring about 5 inches in diameter.


----------



## poochee

*10 Newly Discovered Species That Need To Be Protected*
By Frontier Gap
April 24, 2015



> There are around 8.7 million different species in the natural world at present, and it is estimated that a vast majority have not yet been discovered. An exciting 18,000 species are discovered every year, and this figure is almost too high to keep track of every animal, especially because their IUCN status is always changing.


https://www.thedodo.com/10-newly-di...il&utm_term=0_4342b46fc5-3db1ce5337-142150833


----------



## ekim68

Scientists Find New Dinosaur With Bat-Like Wings



> Among newly discovered, 160-million-year-old, fossils in northeastern China is one of Yi qi ("Yi" meaning "wing" and "qi" meaning "strange"), a pigeon-sized dinosaur without feathered wings. Instead, Yi qi has a long bone extending from the wrist, which resembles the structure of bat wings.
> 
> The long bone is completely new to dinosaurs, and only by comparing it to bats, flying squirrels and the like could the researchers, published in Nature, even guess as to its function. But even though they believe it has to do with flight, how exactly the styliform worked - and whether the Yi qi flapped or glided in the air - is still a mystery:


----------



## ekim68

Ancient DNA suggests dogs split from wolves 40,000 years ago



> Man's best friend may be a very old friend indeed. An analysis of a bone from a newly identified ancient wolf species suggests dogs may have split from wolves as early as 40,000 years ago  with or without being domesticated at the same time.


----------



## ekim68

Dazzling jewels from an Ethiopian grave reveal 2,000-year-old link to Rome 



> Spectacular 2,000-year-old treasures from the Roman empire and the Aksumite kingdom, which ruled parts of north-east Africa for several centuries before 940AD, have been discovered by British archaeologists in northern Ethiopia.
> 
> Louise Schofield, a former British Museum curator, headed a major six-week excavation of the ancient city of Aksum where her team of 11 uncovered graves with extraordinary artefacts dating from the first and second centuries. They offer evidence that the Romans were trading there hundreds of years earlier than previously thought.


----------



## ekim68

13th century Mongolian ship Kublai Khan sent to invade Japan found



> Archaeologists have discovered the wreck of a Mongolian ship that was part of a fleet dispatched by Kublai Khan to invade Japan in the 13th century.
> 
> The ship is the second to be located off southern Japan from two massive armadas  each reputedly made up of more than 4,000 ships and with an invasion force of 140,000 men  sent by the emperor of the Yuan Dynasty to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281.
> 
> Both invasion fleets were destroyed by devastating typhoons, with the storms going down in Japanese history as "kamikaze", or divine wind, that saved the nation from foreign invasion. The kamikaze were again invoked in the dying days of the Second World War, with the crew of aircraft and miniature submarines carrying out suicide missions against the Allies.


----------



## ekim68

'Big Bird' dino: Researchers discover largest ever winged dinosaur



> When we see birds winging their way across the sky, we are really looking at living dinosaursthe only lineage of these mighty beasts that survived mass extinction. Yet before they went extinct, many dinosaurs sprouted wings themselves. Researchers now report finding the largest ever winged dino in China, a sleek, birdlike creature adorned with multiple layers of feathers all over its arms and torso that lived 125 million years ago. It almost certainly could not fly, howeveran important confirmation that wings and feathers originally evolved to serve other functions like attracting mates and keeping eggs warm.


----------



## ekim68

Remains of English Jamestown colony leaders discovered



> Scientists say they have identified the remains of four men who were among the early leaders of Virginia's Jamestown settlement.
> 
> Jamestown was the first successful British colony that gave rise to modern day America.
> 
> The bodies were exhumed in November 2013 in the church where Pocahontas married Captain John Rolfe in 1614.
> 
> It took two years of detective work and the latest scientific techniques to identify the badly-preserved bones.
> 
> It's now known the remains belong to important figures who lived in Jamestown between 1607 and 1610, when the colony almost collapsed.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://io9.com/the-bologna-stone-was-a-glowing-mystery-for-400-years-1724589932']The Bologna Stone Was a Glowing Mystery for 400 Years[/URL]




> The Bologna Stone was discovered in 1603, at the base of a dead volcano near Bologna. When treated with heat, and exposed to sunlight, it would glow for hours-sometimes days. It took 400 years to figure out why.


----------



## ekim68

Boffins found mammoth and bison fossils of the Ice Age era in construction site in California




> Construction workers have excavated the remains of an Ice Age mammoth and bison at the Quarry Creek development site in Carlsbad, California. Paleontologists who were called to the site worked with construction workers to carefully unearth the fossils which were later transported to the San Diego Museum of Natural History for analysis and storage.
> 
> The construction workers happened upon the fossils while earth-moving operation at the site, and these included the skull and partial skeleton of a bison, as well as those of a Columbian mammoth, horses, and turtles. The curator of paleontology at the San Diego Museum of Natural History, Tom Deméré, said the fossils could be aged anywhere between 50,000 to 200,000 years old. He revealed his is going to put the bison skull and skeleton on display at the museum.


----------



## valis

ekim68 said:


> The Bologna Stone Was a Glowing Mystery for 400 Years


how on earth have I not heard of this?


----------



## valis

Holy cow.

http://gizmodo.com/scientists-have-discovered-a-new-human-like-species-in-1729771292



> In a burial chamber deep within a South African cave system, a team of scientists has discovered 15 partial skeletons - of a completely new human-like species.


----------



## valis

wow.....some of these stories about how they accessed the cave are just nuts.



> The interesting part about this story is how hard it is to get to the bones. Yes, it is deep into a cave, but also beyond a crack that is roughly 7" wide for a length of about 30 feet. The crack is so narrow that the researchers put out a call for slim assistants to help with the excavation. On top of this one point, the remainder of the climb in the cave is quite difficult.
> 
> Researchers ran fiber optic cable (I heard some estimates of 2 miles) so that the "fatty" team outside could work real time with the "skinny" team at the site.
> 
> The discovery was reported to the researchers by cave explorers who took photos of a skull on the floor of the cave. Given the depth and difficulty, it is amazing that these were placed in this location.
> 
> As for dating, because they were buried and the nature of the cave, standard dating means don't work. The bones COULD be as recent as 100,000 years. Or they could be millions of years old. More sophisticated tests need to be done.


----------



## DaveBurnett

Transporter accident?? 

If specially thin assistants were needed to get to them, how were they PUT there in the first place??


----------



## valis

Apparently a bit smaller than us.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://io9.com/paleolithic-people-were-baking-bread-inside-this-cave-o-1730776503']Paleolithic People Were Baking Bread Inside This Cave Over 30,000 Years Ago[/URL]




> Researchers from the University of Florence have been exploring Grotta Paglicci, an ancient cave that was once a favorite haunt of Paleolithic peoples. Among the most interesting things they've been looking at is this pestle.
> It may not look like much at first, until you learn what they found on it: a couple oat starch grains still attached.


----------



## valis

That's awesome.....


----------



## ekim68

Pre-reptile may be earliest known to walk upright on all fours




> Wandering an arid region of the ancient supercontinent of Pangea about 260-million years ago, the pre-reptile Bunostegos akokanensis is the oldest known creature to have walked upright on all fours, according to a newly published study.


----------



## DaveBurnett

That does not make sense!
*the pre-reptile Bunostegos akokanensis is the oldest known creature to have walked upright on all fours, according to a newly published study.*


----------



## steppenwolf

are moths poisonous?


----------



## DaveBurnett

Well I suppose they could fly?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukn...kill-humans-is-found-breeding-in-Britain.html


----------



## valis

steppenwolf said:


> are moths poisonous?


Nope.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists refine the timing of events that killed the dinosaurs




> It took a half-million years before Earth and all its creatures began to recover from the world's most recent mass extinction some 66 million years ago, scientists report, and it took all that time for volcanoes that contributed to it to quiet down after erupting mountainous surges of lava across nearly half the Asian continent.
> 
> Scientists have said the volcanoes in what is now India and the giant asteroid that blasted a crater off the coast of Mexico combined to cause the extinction, but now they have determined the time of those twin events to write the first full scenario for the final death of the dinosaurs.



[/URL]


----------



## ekim68

Hiker finds 1,200-yr-old Viking sword in Norway




> A hiker travelling the ancient route between western and eastern Norway found a 1,200-year-old Viking sword after sitting down to rest after a short fishing trip.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/the-plague-has-been-around-for-a-lot-longer-than-we-tho-1738255001']The Plague Has Been Around For a Lot Longer Than We Thought[/URL]




> The Black Death wiped out nearly half the population of Europe during the 14th Century, a blight that swept through the continent in the gut of fleas. But a new analysis of ancient human DNA shows that the dreaded bacteria emerged at least 3,000 years before the first plague pandemic-a time before it mutated into its modern and more virulent form.


----------



## ekim68

NASA Adds to Evidence of Mysterious Ancient Earthworks




> High in the skies over Kazakhstan, space-age technology has revealed an ancient mystery on the ground.
> 
> Satellite pictures of a remote and treeless northern steppe reveal colossal earthworks - geometric figures of squares, crosses, lines and rings the size of several football fields, recognizable only from the air and the oldest estimated at 8,000 years old.


----------



## valis

Was reading that this morning. That stuff fascinates the heck out of me. Literally the only way to see these is from the air; one could be walking over it and never recognize it. Amazing.


----------



## ekim68

Mother of all apes-including humans-may have been surprisingly small




> From sturdy chimpanzees to massive gorillas to humans themselves, the living great apes are all large-bodied, weighing between 30 and 180 kilograms. So for years most researchers thought the ancestral ape must have tipped the scales as well. But the partial skeleton of an 11.6-million-year-old primitive ape may force scientists to reimagine the ancestor of all living apes and humans. With a muzzle like a gibbon but a large brain for its body size, the ancient primate has traits that link it to all apes and humans-yet it weighed only 4 kg to 5 kg, according to a report today in _Science_.


----------



## DaveBurnett

There's a dwarf living up the road from me..........


----------



## ekim68

Do you ever talk to him/her?


----------



## DaveBurnett

No, I don't personally know him.
I used to work with one though some years ago. He could drink the rest of us under the table!
He had bone problems and lived in a wheelchair. Our offices were on the top floor of an old lemonade brewery and we had to make sure that there was always someone fit and strong enough to carry him downstairs if there was an alarm.


----------



## ekim68

Hunting for DNA in Doggerland, an Ancient Land Beneath the North Sea




> In 1931 a fishing boat trawling the North Sea hauled in a spear point along with its catch. The sharpened piece of antler with barbs carved into one sides was almost 14,000 years old-a remnant of a place called Doggerland, underwater since the end of an ice age raised sea levels.
> 
> Today, researchers are embarking on an ambitious project to fully explore Doggerland-using DNA, seafloor sediment, and survey data from oil and gas companies.
> 
> This kind of research used to seem impossible. Vincent Gaffney, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford, used to tell students it was a landscape researchers could do nothing with. But in 2001, he started to wonder if data from energy companies could make a map.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/hundreds-of-dinosaur-footprints-found-in-a-scottish-lag-1745666129']Hundreds of Dinosaur Footprints Found in a Scottish Lagoon[/URL]




> A team of researchers has happened upon several hundred footprints left by Middle Jurassic dinosaurs at a coastal lagoon in Scotland.
> 
> The footprints measure around 70 centimetres across, which is larger than those that would have been left by T. Rex, and date back around 170 million years. In fact, the team that discovered the prints reckon they were left by early sauropods - large plant eating dinosaurs that weighed over 20 tonnes and could be as tall as a 7-storey building.


----------



## ekim68

One lake in Kenya has yielded fossils that revolutionised our understanding of human evolution



> Our ancient human ancestors were an elusive lot. Their remains are literally thin on the ground, and even when fossils are unearthed it is rare for them to be complete. Sometimes they must be pieced together from dozens of fragments.
> 
> That is why a staggering find in 1984 excited the entire field, and continues to do so today over 30 years later.
> 
> It was a skeleton of a young boy, discovered at Lake Turkana in the deserts of northern Kenya. He died when he was about eight years old and his bones sank into the sediments of the lake, where they were preserved for 1.5 million years. He was, and is, the most complete early-human fossil ever discovered.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists find 1500-year-old Viking settlement beneath new airport site




> When Norway announced plans to expand its Ørland Airport this year, archaeologists got excited. They knew that pre-construction excavation was likely to reveal ancient Viking artifacts. But they got far more than they had hoped.
> 
> Ørland Airport is located in a region of Norway that changed dramatically after the last ice age ended. The area was once completely covered by a thick, heavy layer of ice whose weight caused the Earth's crust to sink below sea level. When the glaciers melted, much of this region remained underwater, creating a secluded bay where today there is nothing but dry land. At the fringes of this vanished bay, archaeologists with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Museum found the remains of what appears to have been a large, wealthy farming community.


----------



## ekim68

These Are the Oldest Trees on the Planet




> While Pando isn't technically the oldest individual tree, this clonal colony of Quaking Aspen in Utah is truly ancient. The 105-acre colony is made of genetically identical trees, called stems, connected by a single root system. The "trembling giant" got its start at least 80,000 years ago, when all of our human ancestors were still living in Africa.


----------



## ekim68

Plants Appeared On Land Earlier Than Previously Thought




> Plant biologists agree that it all began with green algae. At some point in our planet's history, the common ancestor of trees, ferns, and flowers developed an alternating life cycle--presumably allowing their offspring to float inland and conquer Earth
> 
> But on December 16 in Trends in Plant Science, Danish scientists argue that some green algae had been hanging out on land hundreds of millions of years before this adaptation and that land plants actually evolved from terrestrial, not aquatic, algae.


----------



## ekim68

Grisly find suggests humans inhabited Arctic 45,000 years ago




> In August of 2012, an 11-year-old boy made a gruesome discovery in a frozen bluff overlooking the Arctic Ocean. While exploring the foggy coast of Yenisei Bay, about 2000 kilometers south of the North Pole, he came upon the leg bones of a woolly mammoth eroding out of frozen sediments. Scientists excavating the well-preserved creature determined that it had been killed by humans: Its eye sockets, ribs, and jaw had been battered, apparently by spears, and one spear-point had left a dent in its cheekbone-perhaps a missed blow aimed at the base of its trunk.
> 
> When they dated the remains, the researchers got another surprise: The mammoth died 45,000 years ago. That means that humans lived in the Arctic more than 10,000 years earlier than scientists believed, according to a new study. The find suggests that even at this early stage, humans were traversing the most frigid parts of the globe and had the adaptive ability to migrate almost everywhere.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient tools may shed light on the mysterious 'hobbit'




> The "hobbit" had neighbors. Back in 2004, researchers announced the discovery of this tiny, ancient human, which apparently hunted dwarf elephants with stone tools on the Indonesian island of Flores 18,000 years ago. Its discoverers called the 1-meter-tall creature _**** floresiensis_, but skeptics wondered whether it was just a stunted modern human. In the years since, researchers have debunked many of the "sick hobbit" hypotheses. Yet scientists have continued to wonder where the species came from.
> 
> Now, an international team originally led by the hobbit discoverer reports stone tools, dated to 118,000 to 194,000 years ago, from another Indonesian island, Sulawesi, likely made by another archaic human-or possibly by other hobbits. "It shows that on another island we have evidence of a second archaic early human," says paleoanthropologist Russell Ciochon of the University of Iowa in Iowa City, who was not involved with the work. The discovery makes the original hobbit claim appear more plausible, he says, by suggesting that human ancestors may have island-hopped more often than had been thought.


----------



## ekim68

Prehistoric Massacre Hints at War Among Hunter-Gatherers




> The scene was a lagoon on the shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya. The time about 10,000 years ago. One group of hunter-gatherers attacked and slaughtered another, leaving the dead with crushed skulls, embedded arrow or spear points, and other devastating wounds.


----------



## ekim68

Math whizzes of ancient Babylon figured out forerunner of calculus




> Tracking and recording the motion of the sun, the moon, and the planets as they paraded across the desert sky, ancient Babylonian astronomers used simple arithmetic to predict the positions of celestial bodies. Now, new evidence reveals that these astronomers, working several centuries B.C.E., also employed sophisticated geometric methods that foreshadow the development of calculus. Historians had thought such techniques did not emerge until more than 1400 years later, in 14th century Europe.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/what-ancient-greek-music-sounded-like.html']What Ancient Greek Music Sounded Like: Hear a Reconstruction That is '100% Accurate'[/URL]




> Between 750 BC and 400 BC, the Ancient Greeks composed songs meant to be accompanied by the lyre, reed-pipes, and various percussion instruments. More than 2,000 years later, modern scholars have finally figured out how to reconstruct and perform these songs with (it's claimed) 100% accuracy.


----------



## ekim68

Humans Caused a Major Shift in Earth's Ecosystems 6,000 Years Ago



> It's hard to imagine a global force strong enough to change natural patterns that have persisted on Earth for more than 300 million years, but a new study shows that human beings have been doing exactly that for about 6,000 years.
> 
> The increase in human activity, perhaps tied to population growth and the spread of agriculture, seems to have upended the way plants and animals distribute themselves across the land, so that species today are far more segregated than they've been at any other time.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient Greek manuscripts reveal life lessons from the Roman empire




> Newly translated textbooks from the second and sixth centuries aimed at language learners also provide pointers on shopping, bathing, dining and how to deal with drunk relatives


----------



## DaveBurnett

Life went on!!


----------



## ekim68

Flightless bird with giant head roamed swampy Arctic 53m years ago



> A giant, flightless bird with a head the size of a horse's roamed the Arctic 53m years ago when the icy wilderness was more like a swamp, scientists have confirmed.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/these-ancient-hand-prints-were-not-made-by-human-hands-1762152221']These Ancient 'Hand Prints' Were Not Made by Human Hands[/URL]




> The Wadi Sura cave in the Libyan Desert features a number of stencil paintings dating back to between 6,000 and 8,000 years ago, including over a dozen tiny human-like hand prints. Since its discovery, the hands were thought to belong to human babies, but an anthropologist now says they're not human at all.
> 
> Sorry folks, it's not aliens. It turns out, the iconic stencils were made using the forefeet of reptiles.


----------



## valis

Aaaaand they were most likely traced on there. Still pretty cool to look at those, knowing the age. Humbling.


----------



## ekim68

Story of cities #3: the birth of Baghdad was a landmark for world civilisation




> If Baghdad today is a byword for inner-city decay and violence on an unspeakable scale, its foundation 1,250 years ago was a glorious milestone in the history of urban design. More than that, it was a landmark for civilisation, the birth of a city that would quickly become the cultural lodestar of the world.
> 
> Contrary to popular belief, Baghdad is old but not ancient. Founded in AD762 by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur "The Victorious" as the new seat of his Islamic empire, in Mesopotamian terms it is more _arriviste _than _grande dame_ - an upstart compared to Nineveh, Ur and Babylon (seventh, fourth and third millennium BC respectively).
> 
> Baghdad is a mere baby, too, when compared with Uruk, another ancient Mesopotamian urban settlement, which lays claim to being one of the world's earliest cities and which was, sometime around 3,200BC, the largest urban centre on earth with a population estimated at up to 80,000. Some think the Arabic title for Babylonia, al-Iraq, is derived from its name.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/archaeologists-discovered-a-5-000-year-old-beer-recipe-1778251318']Archaeologists Discovered a 5,000-Year-Old Beer Recipe in China[/URL]




> Step aside with your claims to long legacies, craft breweries! This reconstructed beer recipe is over 5,000 years old. It's the earliest beer recipe-and the earliest known use of barley-in China.


----------



## ekim68

Dagger in Tutankhamun's tomb was made with iron from a meteorite




> A dagger entombed with King Tutankhamun was made with iron from a meteorite, a new analysis on the metal composition shows.


----------



## ekim68

Rare vellum Aristotle "de Animabilis" goes to auction - the foundation of the study of biology



> Though this book was printed in medieval Italy in 1476, and translated into Latin by Greek scholar Theodore Gaza, it was written 2,400 years ago by Aristotle (384 to 322 BC), and is unquestionably the foundation of the scientific study of biology.


----------



## valis

> "This find has important implications for our understanding of early human dispersal and evolution in the region and quashes once and for all any doubters that believe _**** floresiensis_ was merely a sick modern human," said van den Bergh.


http://gizmodo.com/ancestral-remains-of-mysterious-hobbit-species-uncove-1781257770

Boy, my sis is gonna _love_ this......


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/99-million-year-old-bird-wings-found-encased-in-amber-1782733782']99-Million-Year-Old Bird Wings Found Encased in Amber[/URL]



> Finding ancient bugs trapped in amber is a relatively common occurrence, but the recent discovery of two ancient bird wings fossilized in Burmese amber is unprecedented. These 3D fossils-which still contain feather arrangements and traces of soft tissue-are simply amazing.
> 
> Birds first emerged over 150 million years ago when dinosaurs still ruled the Earth. Scientists have collected some fairly decent bird fossils over the years, but they tend to be run-of-the-mill 2D impressions forged into rock. Researchers have found traces of ancient birds in amber before, but only single feathers. The discovery of a pair of 99-million-year old bird wings fossilized in amber is now offering an unprecedented glimpse into these early birds and what they must have looked like.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/this-massive-shipwreck-graveyard-is-way-bigger-than-sci-1783671803']This Massive Shipwreck Graveyard Is Way Bigger Than Scientists Thought[/URL]



> An underwater survey off the coast of Greece has uncovered a massive cache of wrecked ships, sunk over a span of more than 2,000 years. And researchers just keep finding more and more to add to that tally.
> 
> In the nine months they've been swimming around Greece's Fourni archipelago, the research team from The Fourni Underwater Survey has already found 45 individual shipwrecks in the 17-mile stretch. A whopping 23 of those shipwrecks were detailed in a new announcement from the team issued today. Strangest of all, there doesn't seem to be any pattern to the age of the shipwrecks. The oldest dates back to around 500 BC, while the youngest is from around 1800.


----------



## ekim68

Last woolly mammoths died of thirst 5,600 years ago, study finds



> "Freshwater resources look like the smoking gun for what pushed them into this untenable situation."


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists Find Remains of 'High-Status' Women in Cahokia Burial Mound



> Archaeologists in Illinois say a prominent pre-Columbia burial mound in the famous ancient city of Cahokia was hardly a monument to masculinity, as their predecessors in the 1960s had claimed. They published their findings in several journals, including _American Antiquity._
> 
> A thousand years ago, the complex cities and suburbs of Mississippian peoples sprawled across the Midwest. Cahokia, the largest urban center, lay just across the river from modern-day St. Louis. At its peak in the 13th century, it rivaled London in size. Then, over time, like so many civilizations do, it vanished.
> 
> But the Mississippians were builders of mounds, whose works left large, hard-to-miss marks on the landscape. French and Spanish explorers first spotted Cahokia's burial mounds in the 1500s, and we've been unearthing its secrets ever since.


----------



## ekim68

Mysterious magic spells unearthed by archaeologists in Serbia



> Archaeologists in Serbia are trying to decipher magic spells etched on to tiny rolls of gold and silver that have been found alongside skeletons of humans buried almost 2,000 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Lost cities #8: mystery of Cahokia - why did North America's largest city vanish?



> In its prime, about four centuries before Columbus stumbled on to the western hemisphere, Cahokia was a prosperous pre-American city with a population similar to London's.
> 
> Located in southern Illinois, eight miles from present-day St Louis, it was probably the largest North American city north of Mexico at that time. It had been built by the Mississippians, a group of Native Americans who occupied much of the present-day south-eastern United States, from the Mississippi river to the shores of the Atlantic.


----------



## ekim68

Stromatolite fossils push back date for start of life on Earth



> In a remote, isolated region of Greenland, where ancient rocky outcrops have recently been exposed after a perennial snow thaw, scientists claim to have found fossil proof of the oldest life ever discovered. Consisting of fossilized blue-green algae colonies known as stromatolites, the 3.7 billion year old petrified remains are more than 200 million years older than the world's previous oldest stromatolite fossils and are set to rewrite the record books on the age of life in Earth's earliest seas.


----------



## ekim68

Reconstructing the 6th century plague from a victim



> Before the infamous Black Death, the first great plague epidemic was the Justinian plague, which, over the course of two centuries, wiped out up to an estimated 50 million (15 percent) of the world's population throughout the Byzantine Empire----and may have helped speed the decline of the eastern Roman Empire.
> 
> No one knows why it disappeared.
> 
> Recent molecular clues from ancient plague victims have suggested that plague may have been caused by the same bacterium, _Yersinia pestis_, which was responsible for the Black Death. But the geographic reach, mortality and impact of the Justinian pandemic are not fully known.
> 
> Both information from ancient hosts and bacteria could shed light on the role of plague, which has afflicted mankind for more than 5,000 years.
> 
> Now, scientists based in Germany, including Michal Feldman, Johannes Krause, Michaela Harbeck and colleagues have confirmed this by recovering the bacterial culprit from sixth century skeletons found in Altenerding, an ancient southern German burial site near Munich. The Altenerding genome dates back to the beginning of the plague.


----------



## ekim68

Ship found in Arctic 168 years after doomed Northwest Passage attempt



> The long-lost ship of British polar explorer Sir John Franklin, HMS Terror, has been found in pristine condition at the bottom of an Arctic bay, researchers have said, in a discovery that challenges the accepted history behind one of polar exploration's deepest mysteries.
> 
> HMS Terror and Franklin's flagship, HMS Erebus, were abandoned in heavy sea ice far to the north of the eventual wreck site in 1848, during the Royal Navy explorer's doomed attempt to complete the Northwest Passage.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists reveal most accurate depiction of a dinosaur ever created



> Reconstruction is based on studies of a spectacular fossil from China, preserved with skin and pigments intact


----------



## ekim68

Human Skeleton Found on Famed Antikythera Shipwreck



> Two-thousand-year-old bones could yield first DNA from an ancient shipwreck victim


----------



## valis

the antikythera mechanism is one of my favorite things....ever. I love that we don't know how they made it.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/what-otzi-the-icemans-voice-sounded-like-1786963868']What Ötzi the Iceman's Voice Sounded Like[/URL]



> Ötzi the Iceman, the world's favorite prehistoric mummy, has been subjected to every scientific test imaginable, since his remains were discovered poking out of a glacier high in the Italian Alps in 1991. Now, a team of Italian researchers has reconstructed Ötzi's vocal cords and used it to reproduce what his voice may have sounded like.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/mysterious-hybrid-animal-discovered-in-18-000-year-old-1787919651']Mysterious 'Hybrid' Animal Discovered in 18,000-Year-Old Cave Art[/URL]



> By combining archaeological, paleontological, and genetic evidence, an international team of researchers has identified a previously unknown hybrid species that contains both bison and cattle DNA. The discovery solves a longstanding mystery about the origins of modern European bison.


----------



## ekim68

Discovery of 49,000-year-old human settlement in Australia found



> In what is considered to be one of the biggest recent archaeology discoveries made in Australia, there is an interesting side story about how, exactly, the discovery was made.
> 
> The remains of a prehistoric Aboriginal settlement dating back to 49,000 years ago - 10,000 years earlier than previous theories - was found by a man in search of a bathroom.
> 
> Giles Hamm, a consultant archaeologist and doctoral student at La Trobe University, described the discovery to ABC, saying that he and local Adnyamathanha elder Clifford Coulthard were taking surveys of an area of southern Australia called the Flinders Ranges.
> 
> "Nature called, and Cliff walked up this creek bed into this gorge and found this amazing spring surrounded by rock art," Hamm told the news organization. They surveyed the area and discovered a shelter among the rocks with a "blackened roof," signifying that fires had been lit inside by humans, Hamm said.


----------



## ekim68

Human ancestor 'Lucy' was a tree climber, new evidence suggests



> Since the discovery of the fossil dubbed Lucy 42 years ago this month, paleontologists have debated whether the 3 million-year-old human ancestor spent all of her time walking on the ground or instead combined walking with frequent tree climbing. Now, analysis of special CT scans by scientists from The Johns Hopkins University and the University of Texas at Austin suggests the female hominin spent enough time in the trees that evidence of this behavior is preserved in the internal structure of her bones. A description of the research study appears November 30 in the journal _PLOS ONE_.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/when-the-vandals-took-north-africa-they-had-their-way-1789532960']When The Vandals Took North Africa, They Had Their Way With The Roman Empire [/URL]



> North Africa was one of the heartlands of the Roman Empire. It produced most of the grain that fed Rome, the olive oil that burned in lamps from Sicily to Spain, the pottery that sat on every dinner table from Britain to Greece, and the tax revenue that kept the Roman government flush.
> 
> When the Vandals, a group of barbarians who had burned and looted their way from the Rhine to Iberia, took North Africa by force, it was the final nail in the coffin of the western half of the Roman Empire.
> 
> The Western Empire could get by without Britain, which cost more to defend than it had ever generated in revenue, and it could even get by without parts of modern-day France. It couldn't do without African grain to feed the populace of Rome or African taxes to pay the army.


----------



## ekim68

Baby Dinosaur's 99 Million-Year-Old Tail, Encased In Amber, Surfaces In Myanmar



> They say that 99 million years ago, a baby dinosaur about the size of a sparrow got stuck in tree resin and never made it out. Had the young dinosaur had a more auspicious day, it would have grown up to be a little smaller than an ostrich.


----------



## ekim68

Surprise virus in child mummy unravels thousands of years of disease history



> From the pockmarked mummified pharaohs of ancient Egypt to the epic triumph of complete global eradication, smallpox had a remarkable history. But that lengthy history may be in for a massive revision, thanks to a little mummy found in the crypt of a Lithuanian church.
> 
> The mummy, thought to be of a child between the ages of two and four who died sometime between 1643 and 1665, teemed with the genetic remains of the bygone virus. That smallpox DNA was the oldest ever found-yet it was quite young, evolutionarily speaking. In fact, genetic analysis of the preserved smallpox blueprints, published Thursday in _Current Biology_, suggests that smallpox is just hundreds of years old, not millennia as many had thought. The finding stands to rewrite the virus' storied past.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/bizarre-new-deep-sea-creatures-found-in-unexplored-hydr-1790137365']Bizarre New Deep Sea Creatures Found in Unexplored Hydrothermal Vents[/URL]



> Marine biologists have discovered six new animal species in undersea hot springs nearly two miles deep in the southwest Indian Ocean-an area already slated for future seafloor mining.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/treasure-trove-of-newly-discovered-species-includes-a-n-1790269283']Treasure Trove of Newly Discovered Species Includes a Newt That Looks Like a Klingon[/URL]



> Biologists working in the Greater Mekong area have identified a staggering 163 new species, including a horned lizard, a rainbow-headed snake dubbed "Ziggy Stardust," and a newt that looks like a Klingon from _Star Trek_.
> 
> Each year, scientists comb the jungles, swamps, and caves of the Greater Mekong in search of new plants and animals. In 2015, over 160 new species were uncovered, including three mammals, nine amphibians, 11 fish, 14 reptiles, and 126 plants. The animals are described in a report released today by the World Wildlife Federation.


----------



## ekim68

Anthropologists uncover art by (really) old masters -- 38,000 year-old engravings



> An international team of anthropologists has uncovered a 38,000-year-old engraved image in a southwestern French rockshelter--a finding that marks some of the earliest known graphic imagery found in Western Eurasia and offers insights into the nature of modern humans during this period.


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists uncover first Dead Sea Scrolls cave in 60 years



> The Dead Sea Scrolls are among the most important historical texts ever discovered, dating as far back as the third century BCE. These texts were spread across 11 caves, and for decades archeologists have been searching for more. Now, for the first time in 60 years, a new cave has been excavated that "beyond any doubt" once contained more Dead Sea Scrolls. Sadly, looters got there first.


----------



## valis

That is pretty cool. Just fascinates me. :up:


----------



## ekim68

Hundreds of ancient earthworks resembling Stonehenge found in Amazon rainforest



> The findings prove for the first time that prehistoric settlers in Brazil cleared large wooded areas to create huge enclosures meaning that the 'pristine' rainforest celebrated by ecologists is actually relatively new.


----------



## ekim68

Naica's crystal caves hold long-dormant life



> Scientists have extracted long-dormant microbes from inside the famous giant crystals of the Naica mountain caves in Mexico - and revived them.
> 
> The organisms were likely to have been encased in the striking shafts of gypsum at least 10,000 years ago, and possibly up to 50,000 years ago.
> 
> It is another demonstration of the ability of life to adapt and cope in the most hostile of environments.


----------



## ekim68

Move over, Bernie Ecclestone. Scientists unearth Earth's oldest fossil yet: 4bn years old



> As far as we know, nearly four billion years ago nothing walked the lands of Earth, but there was life in the seas. Now British boffins think they've found a fossil record of some of the earliest lifeforms on the planet.
> 
> The structures are tubes and filaments made of haematite - a form of iron oxide - that the team postulate formed around a deep-sea thermal vent. In a paper in _Nature_ they explain how the fossils appear to show organisms forming around their hot, iron and nutrient-rich vents, as they still do today.


----------



## valis

Nice touch, calling out Bernie.......


----------



## ekim68

World's oldest plant-like fossils discovered



> Scientists at the Swedish Museum of Natural History have found fossils of 1.6 billion-year-old probable red algae. The spectacular finds, publishing on 14 March in the open access journal _PLOS Biology_, indicate that advanced multicellular life evolved much earlier than previously thought.


----------



## ekim68

14,000-year-old village discovered in Canada one of oldest settlements ever found in North America



> An ancient village believed to be one of the oldest human settlements ever found in North America has been discovered during an excavation on a remote island in British Columbia.
> 
> The village, which is estimated to be 14,000 years old, has been found on a rocky spit on Triquet Island, about 500 kilometres northwest of Victoria, Canada.
> 
> It is estimated the village is older than Egypt's pyramids.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='http://gizmodo.com/secret-medieval-tomb-reveals-resting-site-of-five-lost-1794381618']Secret Medieval Tomb Reveals Resting Site of Five Lost Archbishops[/URL]



> During renovations at the former site of a medieval church in London, England, construction workers uncovered the entranceway to a hidden crypt. Inside lay 30 lead coffins, including the remains of five former Archbishops of Canterbury. It's a completely unexpected archaeological finding-showing that even London's most famous historical sites still have secrets to tell.


----------



## ekim68

Researchers Discover New Species of Giant Spider




> Tiny, dainty spiders





> no bigger than a Tic-Tac probably won't send your blood pressure rising. But the 4-inch-long, red-fanged Sierra Cacachilas wandering spider (_Califorctenus cacachilensis_), recently named by researchers at the San Diego Natural History Museum and Mexico's Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas del Noroeste, is another story.


----------



## ekim68

Egyptian nobleman unearthed in 3,500-year-old-tomb



> April 19 (UPI) -- Egyptian archaeologists unearthed eight mummies Tuesday in a 3,500-year-old tomb, the Ministry of Antiquities announced.
> 
> The 18th Dynasty tomb belonged to a nobleman named Userhat a nobleman who worked as the city judge during the New Kingdom period between 1570-1544 BC, the ministry said.
> 
> The latest in a series of major discoveries of ancient relics included 10 colorful sarcophagi and numerous figurines.


----------



## ekim68

Discovery May Help Decipher Ancient Inca String Code



> A discovery made in a remote mountain village high in the Peruvian Andes suggests that the ancient Inca used accounting devices made of knotted, colored strings for more than accounting.
> 
> The devices, called khipus (pronounced kee-poos), used combinations of knots to represent numbers and were used to inventory stores of corn, beans, and other provisions. Spanish accounts from colonial times claim that Inca khipus also encoded history, biographies, and letters, but researchers have yet to decipher any non-numerical meaning in the cords and knots.
> 
> Now a pair of khipus protected by Andean elders since colonial times may offer fresh clues for understanding how more elaborate versions of the devices could have stored and relayed information.


----------



## ekim68

A first-ever find in Egypt: 4,000-year-old funerary garden at tomb entrance



> Scientists have discovered a 4,000-year-old funerary garden- the first such garden ever to be found- on the Dra Abu el-Naga hill in Luxor, Egypt.


----------



## ekim68

Early humans co-existed in Africa with human-like species 300,000 years ago



> Scientists unveiled the first evidence on Tuesday that early humans co-existed in Africa 300,000 years ago with a small-brained human-like species thought to already be extinct on the continent at that time.
> 
> The findings, published in three papers in the journal "eLife", raise fresh questions about human evolution, including the prospect that behaviors previously attributed to humans may have been developed by hominin precursors of **** sapiens.
> 
> Hominins are an extinct group of the same genus as humans, the only surviving members of that category today. Man's nearest living relatives, chimpanzees and gorillas, are further removed from **** sapiens biologically than hominins are.
> 
> The species in question is **** naledi, named in 2015 after a rich cache of its fossils was unearthed near Sterkfontein and Swartkrans in South Africa.


----------



## ekim68

Did human ancestors split from chimps in Europe, not Africa?



> It's generally accepted that humans originated in Africa and gradually spread out across the globe from there, but a pair of new studies may paint a different picture. By examining fossils of early hominins, researchers have found that humans and chimpanzees may have split from their last common ancestor earlier than previously thought, and this important event may have happened in the ancient savannahs of Europe, not Africa.
> 
> The split between humans and our closest living relatives, chimpanzees, is a murky area in our history. While the point of original divergence is thought to have been between 5 and 7 million years ago, it wasn't a clean break, and cross breeding and hybridization may have continued until as recently as 4 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists unveil Japan's largest complete dinosaur skeleton



> June 6 (UPI) -- Scientists in Japan have discovered the island nation's largest complete dinosaur skeleton. The record-breaking, 72-million-year-old fossils were unearthed on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido.
> 
> The bones belong to a duck-billed dinosaur specimen. Paleontologists from Hokkaido University and Hobetsu Museum in Mukawa have been excavating the skeleton since 2013.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient grains offer insights into the birth and growth of the world's oldest cities



> June 6 (UPI) -- By studying ancient grains, researchers have gained insights into how the world's oldest cities grew and evolved some 8,000 years ago.
> 
> Using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope analysis to survey ancient, charred grains, archaeologists from the University of Oxford were able to reconstruct the growing conditions of Mesopotamia, the historical region stretching across modern-day Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Kuwait.
> 
> The research team's findings -- detailed in the journal Nature Plants -- suggest as populations in the region's ancient cities grew, farmers looked to cultivate large swaths of land instead of funneling more resources, like manure, into existing plots. Farmers didn't attempt to plant denser rows, they simply expanded.


----------



## ekim68

Ornithologists identify new parrot species in Mexico



> June 27 (UPI) -- Scientists have identified a new parrot species living on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. Researchers believed the blue-winged Amazon parrot diverged from its closest relative, the white-fronted parrot, about 120,000 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Fossil sheds light on bird evolution after asteroid strike



> The fossil of a tiny bird that lived 62 million years ago confirms that birds evolved very rapidly after the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs.
> 
> The sparrow-sized tree-dweller lived ''just a geological blink of an eye" after the mass extinction.
> 
> Bird fossils from that time period are very rare.
> 
> Analysis suggests the ancestors of most modern birds, from owls to woodpeckers, had taken to the wing within four million years of the asteroid strike.


----------



## ekim68

Did the first flower look like this?



> All living flowers ultimately derive from a single ancestor that lived about 140 million years ago, a study suggests.
> 
> Scientists combined models of flower evolution with the largest data set of features from living flowers ever assembled.
> 
> From this the team was able to infer the appearance of the ancestral flower.


----------



## ekim68

Well-preserved Canadian fossil reveals dinosaur armor like no other



> Aug. 3 (UPI) -- One of the most well-preserved dinosaur fossils ever recovered has revealed a set of scales unlike any sported by armored dinosaurs.
> 
> The newly discovered dinosaur species, _Borealopelta markmitchelli_, was the Humvee of the Cretaceous period. Despite the tank-like species' impressive size, the dinosaur's scales also served as camouflage, suggesting it hid to avoid predation.
> 
> Spectral analysis of the 110-million-year-old herbivore's scales revealed the presence of pigmentation. The dinosaur was darker on top and lighter on the bottom, a camouflage strategy known as countershading.


----------



## ekim68

New species of dinosaur is the largest land animal to ever walk the Earth



> After years of digging and research, paleontologists have identified a new species of dinosaur - and it seems to be the largest land animal to ever walk the Earth. Over 150 bones from at least six individual animals were found in a dig site in Argentina, and from those scientists were able to estimate their body mass, age, and the environment the beasts came from.
> 
> As the name suggests, the family group titanosaur contains some of the biggest known dinosaurs, and the newest addition is the largest yet. Dubbed _Patagotitan mayorum,_ the first part of its name means "giant from Patagonia," while the second bit honors the Mayo family, who owns the ranch where the fossils were discovered in 2012.


----------



## ekim68

This ancient Babylonian tablet may contain the first evidence of trigonometry



> Trigonometry, the study of the lengths and angles of triangles, sends most modern high schoolers scurrying to their cellphones to look up angles, sines, and cosines. Now, a fresh look at a 3700-year-old clay tablet suggests that Babylonian mathematicians not only developed the first trig table, beating the Greeks to the punch by more than 1000 years, but that they also figured out an entirely new way to look at the subject. However, other experts on the clay tablet, known as Plimpton 322 (P322), say the new work is speculative at best.


----------



## valis

Not a lot of discoveries these days really surprise me, but setting back trig 1500 years definitely did that. So much for Hipparchus.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient German 'sea monster' was earliest of its kind



> Aug. 28 (UPI) -- Scientists have identified one of the oldest known plesiosaurs. The 132 million-year-old remains of the ancient sea monster were recovered in 1964 in northern Germany, but only recently examined by researchers.
> 
> Paleontologists named the newly examined species _Lagenanectes richterae_, a reference to the medieval Germanic name for the Leine River and Annette Richter, the natural sciences curator at the Lower Saxony State Museum. Richter was key is making the study of the ancient reptilian remains possible.
> 
> During the early Cretaceous, as dinosaurs ruled the land, plesiosaurs, long-necked aquatic reptiles resembling the iconic Loch Ness monster, dominated the seas.


----------



## ekim68

Mysterious fossil footprints may cast doubt on human evolution timeline



> We share plenty of features with apes, but the shape of our feet isn't one of them. So that makes the discovery of human-like footprints dating back 5.7 million years - a time when our ancestors were thought to still be getting around on ape-like feet - a surprising one. Further confounding the mystery is the fact that these prints were found in the Greek islands, implying hominins left Africa much earlier than our current narrative suggests.


----------



## ekim68

Expedition yields secrets of the lost continent of Zealandia



> "Zealandia, a sunken continent long lost beneath the oceans, is giving up its 60 million-year-old secrets through scientific ocean drilling," Jamie Allan, program director in the ocean sciences division at NSF, said in a news release. "This expedition offered insights into Earth's history, ranging from mountain-building in New Zealand to the shifting movements of Earth's tectonic plates to changes in ocean circulation and global climate."
> 
> Zealandia, which is roughly the size of India, was confirmed as Earth's eighth continent earlier this year. The only visible parts of Zealandia are New Zealand and New Caledonia -- the rest of its 2 million square miles are underwater.


----------



## ekim68

Who Built Ancient Egypt's Great Pyramid? Hidden Text Holds Clues to Thousand-Year-Old Mystery



> Archaeologists believe they have found the key to unlocking a mystery almost as old as the Great Pyramid itself: Who built the structure and how were they able to transport two-ton blocks of stone to the ancient wonder more than 4,500 years ago?


----------



## ekim68

Songbook From the 16th-Century Spells Out Samurai Customs, Tactics and Baby Names



> Study archery, show respect for horses, drink a little alcohol before a battle (but don't overindulge), be sure to pack some sun-dried plums, and never be concerned about whether you will live or die. These are some of the rules and kernels of advice offered to samurai warriors in newly translated 450-year-old Japanese text called _The Hundred Rules of War_.


----------



## ekim68

New "mega-carnivore" dinosaur species revealed in African fossil footprints



> Nowadays lions, leopards and cheetahs may be the dominant carnivores of Lesotho, Africa, but they all pale in comparison to what might have been the largest predator to ever stalk the continent. Palaeontologists have found the first evidence of a previously unknown mega-carnivore dinosaur that lived much earlier than others of its size.
> 
> The evidence in question is a set of footprints left in rock that dates back 200 million years, to the Early Jurassic period. Back then, the area was apparently a watering hole or river bank, judging by the ripple marks and dessication cracks the team found in the surface.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='https://gizmodo.com/stunned-scientists-detect-suspected-hidden-chamber-with-1820054009']Stunned Scientists Detect Suspected Hidden Chamber Within Great Pyramid of Giza[/URL]



> Though they were constructed nearly 5,000 years ago, the Great Pyramids of Egypt are still packed with secrets. Using a technique that leverages the power of cosmic rays, scientists have confirmed the presence of a large empty space within Khufu's pyramid-a void that's signaling the presence of a possible hidden chamber.


----------



## ekim68

World's longest sauropod dinosaur trackway brought to light



> In 2009, the world's largest dinosaur tracks were discovered in the French village of Plagne, in the Jura Mountains. Since then, a series of excavations at the site has uncovered other tracks, sprawling over more than 150 meters. They form the longest sauropod trackway ever to be found. Scientists have concluded these tracks were left 150 million years ago by a dinosaur at least 35 m long and weighing no less than 35 tons.


----------



## ekim68

New Mariana Trench species is the deepest-dwelling fish in the ocean



> Humans have pretty much traipsed over all the dry parts of the planet, but the vast oceans still hide plenty of secrets from us landlubbers. Deep-sea expeditions have recently discovered eerie "faceless" fish and hairy-chested "Hoff" crabs, nicknamed after a certain _Baywatch_ star. And now, an ongoing study has identified a new species, the Mariana snailfish, which appears to be the deepest-dwelling fish in the world.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists just discovered the mother lode of pterosaur eggs, and they are over the moon



> "Extraordinary." "Stellar." "Truly awesome." "A world-class find."
> 
> That's how paleontologists are reacting to the discovery of several hundred ridiculously well-preserved pterosaur eggs in China, some of them still containing the remains of embryos.


----------



## ekim68

New excavation has researchers revising chronology of Near East's last hunter-gatherers



> Dec. 5 (UPI) -- New excavations in Jordan have revealed a well-preserved Natufian site, home to some of the Near East's last hunter-gatherers. The discovery has archaeologists reconsidering the chronology of the Natufian Culture.
> 
> The Natufian Culture is the name given to a group of semi-sedentary people living in the Levant -- an area including present-day Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria -- between 14,500 and 11,500 years ago. The hunter-gatherers were the earliest people of the Near East to construct houses and tend to edible plants prior to the development agriculture.
> 
> Scientists believe the Natufian Culture set the stage for large scale farming and permanent settlements.


----------



## ekim68

New Dinosaur Looks Like Odd Mix of Duck, Croc, Ostrich, Swan



> Washington (AP) -- With a bill like a duck but teeth like a croc's, a swanlike neck and killer claws, a new dinosaur species uncovered by scientists looks like something Dr. Seuss could have dreamed up.
> 
> It also had flippers like a penguin, and while it walked like an ostrich it could also swim. That's the first time swimming ability has been shown for a two-legged, meat-eating dinosaur.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists revamp 'Out of Africa' model of early human migration



> According to genetic analysis, humans moving into Eurasia interbred with hominins along the way, including Neanderthals and Denisovans.
> 
> Taken together, the research on the topic suggests humans migrated out of Africa several times, with the first exodus occurring as early as 120,000 years ago.
> 
> Human remains recovered from China have been dated to 70,000 and 120,000 years ago. Fossil dating also suggests humans reached Southeast Asia and Australia prior to 60,000 years ago -- the date scientists once thought marked the Out of Africa migration.


----------



## ekim68

Two ancient tombs uncovered in Egypt



> Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Archaeologists have discovered two small ancient tombs in the southern Egyptian city of Luxor that date to 3,500 years ago, the government announced Saturday.
> 
> The tombs are on the west bank of the Nile River in a cemetery for noblemen and top officials, Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani announced during a ceremony on Luxor's West Bank.


----------



## ekim68

Indonesian island found to be unusually rich in cave paintings



> A tiny Indonesian island, previously unexplored by archaeologists, has been found to be unusually rich in ancient cave paintings following a study by researchers from The Australian National University (ANU).
> 
> The team uncovered a total of 28 rock art sites dating from at least 2,500 years ago on the island of Kisar which measures just 81 square kilometres and lies north of Timor-Leste.


----------



## ekim68

Thousands Once Spoke His Language in the Amazon. Now, He's the Only One.



> INTUTO, Peru - Amadeo García García rushed upriver in his canoe, slipping into the hidden, booby-trapped camp where his brother Juan lay dying.
> 
> Juan writhed in pain and shook uncontrollably as his fever rose, battling malaria. As Amadeo consoled him, the sick man muttered back in words that no one else on Earth still understood.
> 
> _Je'intavea'_, he said that sweltering day in 1999. _I am so ill._
> 
> The words were Taushiro. A mystery to linguists and anthropologists alike, the language was spoken by a tribe that vanished into the jungles of the Amazon basin in Peru generations ago, hoping to save itself from the invaders whose weapons and diseases had brought it to the brink of extinction.


----------



## 2twenty2

"Thousands Once Spoke His Language in the Amazon. Now, He’s the Only One."

That is really sad!


----------



## ekim68

Construction workers just accidentally discovered 30 perfectly preserved dinosaur eggs



> The holidays are all about happy surprises, and paleontologists got one heck of a shock earlier this week after learning about an unexpected discovery in China. Chinese construction workers digging on Christmas day found a gift that was wrapped 130 million years ago in the form of 30 incredibly preserved dinosaur eggs. The discovery was made in the city of Ganzhou at the future site of a new middle school, but work on the new facility had to be put on hold after the ancient eggs were discovered.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient DNA discovery reveals previously unknown population of native Americans



> A few years ago the fossilized remains of a baby girl were uncovered in a harsh and isolated part of central Alaska. The remains were dated at 11,500 years old, and a new DNA study has now revealed not only an incredible insight into the origins of human migration into North America, but also the existence of a previously undiscovered population of humans that have been named "Ancient Beringians".


----------



## ekim68

Scientists discover 11th Archaeopteryx fossil, the oldest yet



> Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Paleontologists have discovered an 11th _Archaeopteryx_ fossil. The 150-million-year-old dinosaur bones are the oldest yet to be attributed to the transitionary genus.
> 
> The discovery -- detailed this week in the journal PeerJ -- could help scientists more easily differentiate between the group of bird-like dinosaurs and their closest relatives.


----------



## ekim68

New Fossil Found In Israel Suggests A Much Earlier Human Migration Out Of Africa



> Archaeologists in Israel have discovered the oldest fossil of a modern human outside Africa. The fossil suggests that humans first migrated out of the continent much earlier than previously believed.
> 
> The scientists were digging in a cave called Misliya, on the slopes of Mount Carmel on the northern coast of Israel. "The cave is one of a series of prehistoric caves," says Mina Weinstein-Evron of the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, who led the team. "It's a collapsed cave, but people lived there before it collapsed."
> 
> The cave had been occupied for several hundred thousand years, she says.


----------



## ekim68

Exclusive: Laser Scans Reveal Maya "Megalopolis" Below Guatemalan Jungle




> A vast, interconnected network of ancient cities was home to millions more people than previously thought.


----------



## ekim68

Land ho! Plants may have left the sea much earlier than we thought



> Most of what we know about the deep history of life on Earth comes from fossils, and according to that record, plants migrated from the sea onto land about 420 million years ago. But the story told by those dusty old rocks is patchy at best. New research led by the University of Bristol has wound back the evolutionary clock to determine that plants likely invaded dry land much earlier, about 500 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient tattoos uncovered on 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies



> Using infrared imaging technology a team at the British Museum has uncovered tattoos on two ancient Egyptian mummies, revealing the oldest ever discovered examples of figurative tattoos.
> 
> The two mummies date back to Egypt's Predynastic period between 3351 and 3017 BCE. Known as the Gebelein mummies, these well-preserved bodies have been on display at the British museum for over a century after being excavated at the end of the 19th century.


----------



## ekim68

A New Type of Tardigrade Just Turned Up in a Parking Lot



> A newfound species of tardigrade, or "water bear," with tendril-festooned eggs has been discovered in the parking lot of an apartment building in Japan.
> 
> The newfound tardigrade, _Macrobiotus shonaicus_, is the 168th species of this sturdy micro-animal ever discovered in Japan. Tardigrades are famous for their toughness: They can survive in extreme cold (down to minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 200 Celsius), extreme heat (more than 300 degrees F, or 149 degrees C), and even the unrelenting radiation and vacuum of space, as one 2008 study reported.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient d20 die emerges from the ashes of time



> Let's go back in time. Way back. Keep going. OK, stop. You're in the Ptolemaic Period. It's somewhere around 304 to 30 B.C. You're in Egypt. You're playing Dungeons & Dragons. Except back then, it's more like Pyramids & Petsuchos.
> 
> The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns what may be the world's oldest d20 die. It's made out of serpentine and looks to be in remarkably good shape for its age.


----------



## ekim68

Evidence of early innovation pushes back timeline of human evolution



> March 15 (UPI) -- Move over Silicon Valley, newly unearthed artifacts suggest early humans were innovating some 320,000 years ago.
> 
> For a million years, bulky stone axes, often called Acheulean hand axes, were the tool of choice for primitive hominins in Africa's Rift Valley. Now, researchers have found evidence that early humans adopted a new technology during the Middle Stone Age, opting for smaller, smoother and sharper blades and points.


----------



## Shellae

Makes me wonder if we will ever get to the bottom of things


----------



## ekim68

I'm amazed at the Technological advances made over the last number of years in studying the Past. 

And I think we're going to find out a lot more... :up:


----------



## ekim68

13,000-year-old human footprints found off Canada's Pacific coast



> Human footprints found off Canada's Pacific coast may be 13,000 years old, according to a new study. The finding adds to the growing body of evidence supporting the hypothesis that humans used a coastal route to move from Asia to North America during the last ice age.


----------



## Shellae

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/w...lant-not-seen-150-years-re-emerges-underworld

Underneath the re-emergent plant (Thismia neptunis) story is a link to a crab species that lives in trees...kind of a double header.


----------



## ekim68

Researchers decipher ancient Dead Sea Scrolls with help of advanced imaging



> May 2 (UPI) -- Archaeologists have used advanced imaging technology to decipher previously unrecognizable fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, documents written some 2,000 years ago.
> 
> The breakthrough was announced Tuesday evening in Jerusalem at a press conference to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the scrolls' discovery.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest "oxygen oasis" marks Earth's first breath of fresh air



> Carbon dioxide is the current villain in the story of atmospheric gases, but billions of years ago the bad guy was our friend oxygen. Although it's weird to think that we wouldn't be here today were it not for a global catastrophe, the Great Oxygenation Event actually wiped out most life on Earth at the time. This ramped up about 2.5 billion years ago, but now scientists have discovered signs of the oldest known "oxygen oasis" in South Africa, showing that the process started almost half a billion years earlier.


----------



## ekim68

78,000-year cave record from East Africa shows early cultural innovations



> An international, interdisciplinary group of scholars working along the East African coast have discovered a major cave site which records substantial activities of hunter-gatherers and later, Iron Age communities. Detailed environmental research has demonstrated that human occupations occur in a persistent tropical forest-grassland ecotone, adding new information about the habitats exploited by our species, and indicating that populations sought refuge in a relatively stable environment.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest ice-core ever drilled dates back 2.7 million years



> Scientists working in the Allen Hills region of Antarctica have drilled the oldest ice core ever. Dating back an estimated 2.7 million years, this ice sample is more than 1.5 million years older than any other previously recovered and the data garnered from the sample offers a rich insight into the climate of the planet millions of years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Major fossil study sheds new light on emergence of early animal life 540 million years ago



> All the major groups of animals appear in the fossil record for the first time around 540-500 million years ago -- an event known as the Cambrian Explosion -- but new research suggests that for most animals this 'explosion' was in fact a more gradual process.


----------



## ekim68

Pterodactyls didn't fly like bats, new research shows



> May 23 (UPI) -- Pterosaurs are key figures in the story of the evolution of flight. But new research suggests the flying reptiles didn't take to the air like bats, as has been previously suggested.
> 
> "Most of the work that's being done right now to understand pterosaur flight relies on the assumption that their hips could get into a bat-like pose," Armita Manafzadeh, a doctoral student at Brown University, said in a news release. "We think future studies should take into account that this pose was likely impossible, which might change our perspective when we consider the evolution of flight in pterosaurs and dinosaurs."


----------



## ekim68

Reptilian-mammal fossil changes the timeline of supercontinent breakup



> It was previously thought that by the end of the Jurassic, about 145 million years ago, the supercontinent of Pangaea had split into Laurasia and Gondwana, with North America separated from Europe and Africa. But this fossil, along with other similar ones, suggests that there were still migration corridors open between the landmasses into the Early Cretaceous, and at least until 130 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists discover a 1,000-year-old mummy in Peru



> Archaeologists have completed a significant excavation in Pachacamac, Peru, where they have discovered an intact mummy in especially good condition. Pachacamac's status as a Pre-Colombian pilgrimage site under the Inca empire. is confirmed by further evidence.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='https://gizmodo.com/new-evidence-reveals-a-17-000-year-old-coastal-route-in-1826427608']New Evidence Reveals a 17,000-Year-Old Coastal Route Into North America[/URL]



> The first people to cross into North America from Eurasia did so by traveling through the Bering Strait, or so the theory goes. A new theory has emerged proposing a coastal route into the continent, but evidence has been lacking. A recent analysis of boulders, bedrock, and fossils in Alaska is now providing a clearer picture, pointing to the emergence of a coastal route some 17,000 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

"Sleeping" dinosaur fossil so well preserved it still sports skin and scales



> It takes plenty of imagination to interpret what dinosaurs looked like and how they behaved, since all we usually have are dusty old bones squashed flat. Occasionally new insights will come from other tissues, like feathers or pickled brains, but now Canadian palaeontologists have described one of the most intact fossils ever found, which almost looks like it could wake up any minute. The specimen's skin and stomach contents have been preserved, giving new clues to its diet and camouflage.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='https://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-oldest-known-footprints-on-the-planet-1826648702']These Are the Oldest Known Footprints on the Planet[/URL]



> An international team of researchers is claiming to have discovered the world's oldest footprints. Dating back a whopping 550 million years and found in a limestone bed in China, the prints were made by an unknown sea creature that was undoubtedly very strange.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='https://gizmodo.com/meet-jason-the-tiny-beetle-stuck-in-amber-for-99-milli-1826671538']Meet Jason, the Tiny Beetle Stuck in Amber for 99 Million Years[/URL]



> Featherwing beetles are some of the smallest insects out there-and one researcher managed to spot an ancient specimen in a 99-million-year-old chunk of amber. Just half a millimeter long, this Cretaceous period beetle had its signature fringed wings unfurled when it met its sticky demise.
> 
> "These beetles lived in the Cretaceous, so they lived with dinosaurs," said Shuhei Yamamoto, an entomologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, who discovered the beetle. Featherwing beetles don't flap their wings, but instead use them to glide through the air like a dandelion wisp. Yamamoto told Gizmodo that this beetle was probably gliding when it got caught in some tree sap, where it has remained for millions of years.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists discover world's oldest colors



> July 9 (UPI) -- Scientists have unearthed the world's oldest colors, or pigments, from deep beneath the Sahara.
> 
> Researchers found 1.1 million-year-old pink pigments inside ancient rocks dredged from beneath Africa's Great Desert. The colors are more than 500 million years older than the next oldest pigments.


----------



## ekim68

200-million year old monster pushes back the clock on giant dinosaurs



> Most of the classic creatures that come to mind when you think of dinosaurs are from the Cretaceous period, when evolution seems to have hit its stride and splashed out with things like the huge, long-necked sauropods. But dinosaurs weren't always giants - during the earlier Triassic period they were mostly chicken-sized critters, and they didn't really grow to be massive until the Jurassic. Now, the discovery of a new species in Argentina is pushing back the clock on dinosaur gigantism by up to 30 million years.


----------



## valis

interesting......https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...phagus-discovered-alexandria-egypt-180969551/


----------



## ekim68

The original Paleo Diet: Ancient Iceman's stomach contents reveal last meal



> In 1991, a pair of German tourists stumbled onto the remarkably well-preserved corpse of a man, frozen in the ice of the Eastern Italian Alps. The body turned out to be 5,300 years old, and Ötzi - as he's since come to be known - has taught us a lot about the Copper Age world he came from, including men's fashion of the time. The newest lesson comes from an analysis of his stomach contents, indicating an unexpectedly high-fat diet of meat interspersed with cereals and strangely, toxic bracken.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient stone tools found in China shake up human ancestor timeline (again)



> Archaeologists have discovered ancient tools and bones in China that, once again, shake up the timeline of the human origin story. The items are more than two million years old, indicating that early hominins had spread much further east earlier than previously thought.
> 
> Although it's being updated all the time, the general consensus holds that hominins - the group of our ancestors that are more closely related to humans than to chimps - originated in Africa, before spreading out into Europe and Asia about 1.8 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='https://gizmodo.com/discovery-of-14-000-year-old-toast-suggests-bread-can-b-1827631358']Discovery of 14,000-Year-Old Toast Suggests Bread Can Be Added to Paleo Diet[/URL]



> Archaeologists have uncovered the earliest evidence of bread-making at a site in northeastern Jordan. Dating back some 14,400 years, the discovery shows that ancient hunter-gatherers were making and eating bread 4,000 years before the Neolithic era and the introduction of agriculture. So much for the "Paleo Diet" actually being a thing.
> 
> Bread-making predates agriculture, according to a new study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. That's quite the revelation, given the conventional thinking that bread only appeared after the advent of farming. The discovery means that ancient hunter-gatherers were using the wild ancestors of domesticated cereals, such as wild einkorn and club-rush tubers, to make flatbread-like food products. What's more, the new paper shows that bread had already become an established food staple prior to the Neolithic period and the Agricultural Revolution.


----------



## ekim68

Rome's Subway Expansion Reveals Artifacts From The Ancient Past



> All roads may lead to Rome, but once you get there, good luck taking the subway. The sprawling metropolis is expanding its mass transit system - a sluggish process made even slower as workers keep running into buried ancient ruins.
> 
> "I found some gold rings. I found glasswork laminated in gold depicting a Roman god, some amphoras," says Gilberto Pagani, a bulldozer operator at the Amba Aradam metro stop, currently under construction not far from the Colosseum.


----------



## ekim68

Massive monumental cemetery built by Eastern Africa's earliest herders discovered in Kenya



> An international team has found the earliest and largest monumental cemetery in eastern Africa. The Lothagam North Pillar Site was built 5,000 years ago by early pastoralists living around Lake Turkana, Kenya. This group is believed to have had an egalitarian society, without a stratified social hierarchy. Thus their construction of such a large public project contradicts long-standing narratives that a stratified social structure is necessary to enable the construction of large public monuments.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient DNA discovery reveals previously unknown population of native Americans



> A few years ago the fossilized remains of a baby girl were uncovered in a harsh and isolated part of central Alaska. The remains were dated at 11,500 years old, and a new DNA study has now revealed not only an incredible insight into the origins of human migration into North America, but also the existence of a previously undiscovered population of humans that have been named "Ancient Beringians".


----------



## ekim68

Scientists identify protein that may have existed when life began




> The primordial peptide may have appeared 4 billion years ago


----------



## ekim68

Earth's first animals formed complex communities, study shows



> Sept. 17 (UPI) -- Until now, scientists thought Earth's first macroscopic animals, the Ediacaran biota, were ecologically simple. But new research suggests the unusual animals formed complex communities.
> 
> The Ediacaran biota is comprised of a diversity of blob-like creatures with frond-like patterns. They're revealed by fossil imprints in ancient rocks dated to between 635 and 542 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Fat from 558 million years ago reveals earliest known animal



> Scientists have discovered molecules of fat in an ancient fossil to reveal the earliest confirmed animal in the geological record that lived on Earth 558 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

New species of neon fish emerges from the "twilight zone"



> According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more than 80 percent of the world's oceans remain unexplored - so it's not surprising that new species keep turning up from the deep. Now researchers from the California Academy of Science (CAS) have discovered a new species of fish that looks pretty hard to miss with its neon green, pink and yellow coloring.


----------



## ekim68

Girl, 8, pulls a 1,500-year-old sword from a lake in Sweden



> An eight-year-old found a pre-Viking-era sword while swimming in a lake in Sweden during the summer.
> 
> Saga Vanecek found the relic in the Vidostern lake while at her family's holiday home in Jonkoping County.
> 
> The sword was initially reported to be 1,000 years old, but experts at the local museum now believe it may date to around 1,500 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Fossil Discoveries Challenge Ideas About Earth's Start



> In the arid, sun-soaked northwest corner of Australia, along the Tropic of Capricorn, the oldest face of Earth is exposed to the sky. Drive through the northern outback for a while, south of Port Hedlund on the coast, and you will come upon hills softened by time. They are part of a region called the Pilbara Craton, which formed about 3.5 billion years ago, when Earth was in its youth.
> 
> Look closer. From a seam in one of these hills, a jumble of ancient, orange-Creamsicle rock spills forth: a deposit called the Apex Chert. Within this rock, viewable only through a microscope, there are tiny tubes. Some look like petroglyphs depicting a tornado; others resemble flattened worms. They are among the most controversial rock samples ever collected on this planet, and they might represent some of the oldest forms of life ever found.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest intact shipwreck discovered at the bottom of the Black Sea



> Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Archaeologists have discovered the world's oldest intact shipwreck half-submerged in sediment at the bottom of the Black Sea.
> 
> The 75-foot-long ship was found lurched on its side but in pristine condition. Researchers believe the ship was Greek and dates to 400 BC. Scientists discovered the ancient trading vessel off the coast of Bulgaria.
> 
> The ship is one of 60 discovered during a three-year survey of the Black Sea floor.


----------



## ekim68

Earliest cave paintings of animal discovered in Indonesia, dating back 40,000 years



> The world's earliest-known cave painting of an animal has been discovered on Borneo in Indonesia. It dates back to at least 40,000 years ago, a new study says.
> 
> The drawing is even older than the famous images of animals found in France and Spain. It was spotted in a remote cave by a team of archaeologists from Australia and Indonesia.


----------



## ekim68

Why 536 was 'the worst year to be alive'



> Ask medieval historian Michael McCormick what year was the worst to be alive, and he's got an answer: "536." Not 1349, when the Black Death wiped out half of Europe. Not 1918, when the flu killed 50 million to 100 million people, mostly young adults. But 536. In Europe, "It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year," says McCormick, a historian and archaeologist who chairs the Harvard University Initiative for the Science of the Human Past.
> 
> A mysterious fog plunged Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia into darkness, day and night-for 18 months. "For the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during the whole year," wrote Byzantine historian Procopius. Temperatures in the summer of 536 fell 1.5°C to 2.5°C, initiating the coldest decade in the past 2300 years. Snow fell that summer in China; crops failed; people starved. The Irish chronicles record "a failure of bread from the years 536-539." Then, in 541, bubonic plague struck the Roman port of Pelusium, in Egypt. What came to be called the Plague of Justinian spread rapidly, wiping out one-third to one-half of the population of the eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse, McCormick says.


----------



## ekim68

Prehistoric 'Swiss Army knife' suggests stone tool technology emerged early in East Asia



> Nov. 19 (UPI) -- New analysis of what archaeologists call the "Swiss Army knife of prehistoric tools," originally recovered from a dig site in China, suggests stone tool technology developed independently in East Asia -- and much earlier than previously thought.
> 
> The stone tools, sometimes called Levallois cores, were used by early humans between 80,000 to 170,000 years ago. Previously, researchers dated the arrival of stone tool technology in East Asia to between 30,000 to 40,000 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient elephant-sized mammal ancestor gave dinosaurs a run for their money



> While mammals dominate the planet nowadays, for millions of years we played second fiddle to reptiles - most notably the dinosaurs. While reptiles became the biggest land animals to ever walk the Earth, mammals were mostly rat-sized critters running around underfoot. But now palaeontologists have described a mammal ancestor from the Triassic Period that bucked the trend and grew to the size of an elephant, giving those early dinosaurs a run for their money.


----------



## ekim68

DNA analysis suggests people migrated from Siberia to Finland 3,500 years ago



> Nov. 27 (UPI) -- For the first time, scientists have used genetic analysis to confirm the link between Finland and Siberia.
> 
> The research showed Siberian ancestry migrated from Russia's Kola Peninsula to Finland several thousand years ago.
> 
> Scientists confirmed the link by comparing DNA from 3,500-year-old bones and teeth recovered from Bolshoy Oleny Island, located along the Kola Peninsula, to DNA from remains excavated from a 1,500-year-old water burial in Finland.


----------



## ekim68

Stone tools suggest humans were in Arabia as recently as 190,000 years ago



> Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Stone tools unearthed in Saudi Arabia suggest early human ancestors were living on the Arabian Peninsula as recently as 190,000 years ago.
> 
> Stone hand axes are the trademark of Acheulean technology, the longest cultural-technological tradition in human evolutionary history. The new findings -- announced Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports -- suggest that tradition spread across the Arabian Peninsula and persisted for longer than previously thought.


----------



## ekim68

Newly discovered plague strain may have decimated Stone Age settlements in Europe



> Dec. 6 (UPI) -- Scientists have discovered one of the earliest and most primitive strains of bacteria responsible for pneumonic plague. The early strain may explain the demise of European mega-settlements at the end of the Neolithic period.
> 
> Researchers found the ancient plague strain by searching genomic databases for DNA sequences similar to modern forms of the deadly bacteria. They traced a match to the remains of a young woman recovered from an ancient burial site in Sweden.


----------



## ekim68

Fluffy pterosaurs push evolution of feathered friends back 70 million years



> Pterosaurs, those flying reptiles that soared over the heads of dinosaurs, have long been depicted with scaly skin and bat-like, hairless wings. But a new study paints them as far cuddlier creatures than we might have thought. According to an international team of palaeontologists, pterosaurs were covered in no less than four different types of feathers, pushing back the origin of this bodily covering by about 70 million years.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest, large-bodied predatory dinosaur hails from the Italian Alps



> Dec. 19 (UPI) -- Paleontologists have identified the oldest known ceratosaur, a type of theropod dinosaur. The new species is the largest predator dinosaur yet recovered from the Lower Jurassic.


----------



## ekim68

Pompeii horse found still wearing harness



> The remains of a horse still in its harness have been discovered at a villa outside the walls of Pompeii, in what archaeologists are hailing as a find of "rare importance".
> 
> The horse was saddled up and ready to go, possibly to help rescue Pompeians fleeing the AD79 eruption of Mount Vesuvius that buried the town in ashes.
> 
> It was found with the remains of other horses at the Villa of the Mysteries.
> 
> The villa belonged to a Roman general or high-ranking military magistrate.


----------



## ekim68

Dogs started helping humans 11,500 years ago, fossils in Jordan suggest



> Jan. 16 (UPI) -- New archaeological evidence excavated in Jordan suggests dogs may have helped humans hunt as early as 11,500 years ago.
> 
> Scientists analyzed hundreds of animal bones found at Shubayqa 6, a Neolithic settlement in northwest Jordan. The evidence showed humans and dogs lived alongside each other and hunted together.


----------



## ekim68

Artificial Intelligence Study of Human Genome Finds Unknown Human Ancestor



> Can the minds of machines teach us something new about what it means to be human? When it comes to the intricate story of our species' complex origins and evolution, it appears that they can.
> 
> A recent study used machine learning technology to analyze eight leading models of human origins and evolution, and the program identified evidence in the human genome of a "ghost population" of human ancestors. The analysis suggests that a previously unknown and long-extinct group of hominins interbred with _**** sapiens _in Asia and Oceania somewhere along the long, winding road of human evolutionary history, leaving behind only fragmented traces in modern human DNA.


----------



## ekim68

20-million-year-old tusked sea cow is Central America's oldest marine mammal



> A researcher searching the shoreline of the Panama Canal for fossil plants instead found an ancient sea cow. An 'emergency fossil excavation' due to rising water levels yielded a remarkably complete skeleton of a new genus and species of dugong, estimated to be about 20 million years old, the first evidence of a marine mammal from the Pacific side of the canal.


----------



## ekim68

Neanderthals' main food source was definitely meat



> Researchers describe two late Neanderthals with exceptionally high nitrogen isotope ratios, which would traditionally be interpreted as the signature of freshwater fish consumption. By studying the isotope ratios of single amino acids, they however demonstrated that instead of fish, the adult Neanderthal had a diet relying on large herbivore mammals and that the other Neanderthal was a breastfeeding baby whose mother was also a carnivore.


----------



## ekim68

Geologists have finally found exactly where some Stonehenge rocks came from, debunking old research



> London (CNN)Five thousand years after people in the British Isles began building Stonehenge, scientists now know precisely where some of the massive rocks came from and how they were unearthed.
> 
> A team of 12 geologists and archaeologists from across the United Kingdom unveiled research this month that traces some of the prehistoric monument's smaller stones to two quarries in western Wales.
> The team also found evidence of prehistoric tools, stone wedges and digging activity in those quarries, tracing them to around 3000 BC, the era when Stonehenge's first stage was constructed.


----------



## ekim68

Bold study claims humans may have arrived in Australia 120,000 years ago



> Australia's Aboriginal population is said to be the oldest continuing civilization on Earth - but just how old is that? It's currently believed that Aboriginal ancestors made their way to Australia as long as 65,000 years ago, but new evidence uncovered at a dig site in the continent's southeast may push the timeline back much further. If the site does turn out to be human-made, it suggests that people have been living in Australia for as long as 120,000 years.


----------



## ekim68

Canadian Tyrannosaurus rex turns out to be largest ever found



> At a length of 13 meters (42.7 ft) and with an estimated body weight of 8,800 kg (19,401 lb), Scotty was certainly a big reptile - bigger than any other known T rex specimen. It has a few additional claims to fame, too.
> 
> For one, it's the largest dinosaur skeleton of any type ever found in Canada, plus it's the longest-lived T rex on record. Based on growth patterns found within its bones, Scotty is estimated to have lived 30 years. That's a long time, for a Tyrannosaurus. Its life was evidently a hard one, though, as it suffered from broken ribs, a jaw infection, and possibly even a bite from a fellow T rex on its tail.


----------



## ekim68

Fossils discovered from the day the dinosaurs died 66 million years ago, when an asteroid hit the Earth



> It's like a time capsule of the end of the world.
> 
> 66 million years ago, in what's now North Dakota, a group of animals died together, only a few minutes after a huge asteroid smashed into the Earth near present-day Mexico.
> 
> Scientists Friday announced the discovery of the jumbled, fossilized remains of the animals, all killed when a tsunami-like wave and a torrent of rocks, sand and glass buried them alive.
> 
> This graveyard of fish, mammals, insects and a dinosaur is a unique, first-of-its-kind discovery from the exact day that life on Earth changed forever, according to the study lead author Robert DePalma, a curator at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient, four-legged whale with otter-like features found along the coast of Peru



> Cetaceans, the group including whales and dolphins, originated in south Asia more than 50 million years ago from a small, four-legged, hoofed ancestor. Now, researchers reporting the discovery of an ancient four-legged whale-found in 42.6-million-year-old marine sediments along the coast of Peru-have new insight into whales' evolution and their dispersal to other parts of the world. The findings are reported in the journal _Current Biology_ on April 4.
> 
> The presence of small hooves at the tip of the whale's fingers and toes and its hip and limbs morphology all suggest that this whale could walk on land, according to the researchers. On the other hand, they say, anatomical features of the tail and feet, including long, likely webbed appendages, similar to an otter, indicate that it was a good swimmer too.


----------



## valis

wow....had the link to that story from Gizmodo on my clipboard and came to paste it. Great minds, eh?


----------



## ekim68

Jurassic crocodile discovery sheds light on reptiles' family tree



> A newly identified species of 150 million-year-old marine crocodile has given insights into how a group of ancient animals evolved.
> 
> The ancestor of today's crocodiles belonged to a group of animals that developed a tail fin and paddle-like limbs for life in the sea, resembling dolphins more than crocodiles.
> 
> These slender animals, which fed on fast-moving prey such as squid and small fish, lived during the Jurassic era in shallow seas and lagoons in what is now Germany. Related species have previously been found in Mexico and Argentina.


----------



## valis

new species of human found?

https://gizmodo.com/new-species-of-tiny-extinct-human-discovered-in-philip-1833942655


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists identify first prehistoric figurative cave art in Balkans



> An international team, led by an archaeologist from the University of Southampton and the University of Bordeaux, has revealed the first example of Palaeolithic figurative cave art found in the Balkan Peninsula.
> 
> Dr Aitor Ruiz-Redondo worked with researchers from the universities of Cantabria (Spain), Newfoundland (Canada), Zagreb (Croatia) and the Archaeological Museum of Istria (Croatia) to study the paintings, which could be up to 34,000 years old.


----------



## ekim68

A history of the Crusades, as told by crusaders' DNA



> History can tell us a lot about the Crusades, the series of religious wars fought between 1095 and 1291, in which Christian invaders tried to claim the Near East. But the DNA of nine 13th century Crusaders buried in a pit in Lebanon shows that there's more to learn about who the Crusaders were and their interactions with the populations they encountered.
> 
> The remains suggest that the soldiers making up the Crusader armies were genetically diverse and intermixed with the local population in the Near East, although they didn't have a lasting effect on the genetics of Lebanese people living today. They also highlight the important role ancient DNA can play in helping us understand historical events that are less well documented.


----------



## ekim68

First hominins on the Tibetan Plateau were Denisovans



> So far Denisovans were only known from a small collection of fossil fragments from Denisova Cave in Siberia. A research team now describes a 160,000-year-old hominin mandible from Xiahe in China. Using ancient protein analysis the researchers found that the mandible's owner belonged to a population that was closely related to the Denisovans from Siberia. This population occupied the Tibetan Plateau in the Middle Pleistocene and was adapted to this low-oxygen environment long before **** sapiens arrived in the region.


----------



## ekim68

99-million-year-old, unknown millipede found trapped in Burmese amber



> Picking up where the Jurassic period left off, the Cretaceous is best known as the last hoorah for the dinosaurs. As far as insects are concerned, it gave us ants, termites, aphids and the explosion of pollinators that coincided with the development of flowering plants. But, ironically, the prehistoric-looking millipedes of the order _Callipodida_, are thought to have come later. Until now.
> 
> Scientist now have to rearrange what they know - or thought they knew - about the evolution of millipedes due to a tiny, 8.2-mm member of the order _Callipodida_ who got its many feet stuck in some tree resin, which turned up in Myanmar 99 million years later as a golden lump of amber.


----------



## ekim68

'Reconstruction' begins of stone age lands lost to North Sea



> Lost at the bottom of the North Sea almost eight millennia ago, a vast land area between England and southern Scandinavia which was home to thousands of stone age settlers is about to be rediscovered.
> 
> Marine experts, scientists and archaeologists have spent the past 15 years meticulously mapping thousands of kilometres under water in the hope of unearthing lost tribes of prehistoric Britain.
> 
> On Wednesday a crew of British and Belgian scientists set off on their voyage across the North Sea to reconstruct the ancient Mesolithic landscape hidden beneath the waves for 7,500 years. The area was submerged when thousands of cubic miles of sub-Arctic ice started to melt and sea levels began to rise.


----------



## ekim68

Study links spikes in oxygen levels with bursts of evolution



> Life on Earth may have begun billions of years ago with a quiet, single-celled whimper, but it really arrived with a bang about 540 million years ago. Within a relatively short period of time, life burst forth into an incredible diversity of forms, in an event that has since come to be known as the Cambrian explosion. Now, an international team of scientists has found clues to what may have caused that - spikes in oxygen levels.


----------



## ekim68

One billion year old fungi found is Earth's oldest



> Scientists have unearthed fossilised fungi dating back up to one billion years, in a discovery that could reshape our understanding of how life on land evolved, research showed Wednesday.


----------



## ekim68

[URL='https://gizmodo.com/2-300-year-old-bark-shield-showcases-a-previously-unkno-1835005153']2,300-Year-Old Bark Shield Showcases a Previously Unknown Iron Age Technology[/URL]



> A one-of-a-kind bark shield dating back to the Iron Age has been unearthed in England. Archaeologists have never seen anything like it, describing the artifact as "lost technology."
> 
> The bark shield was discovered four years ago in what was once a livestock watering hole, according to a release issued by the University of York. Normally, items made from organic materials, such as bark, don't preserve well, but in this case, the moist, soggy conditions prevented the shield from degrading. The bark shield is the only one of its kind ever found in Europe, according to a University of Leicester release.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient DNA tells the story of the first herders and farmers in east Africa



> A collaborative study led by archaeologists, geneticists and museum curators is providing answers to previously unsolved questions about life in sub-Saharan Africa thousands of years ago. The results were published online in the journal _Science_ Thursday, May 30.





> Previous archaeological research shows that the Great Rift Valley of Kenya and Tanzania was a key site for the transition from foraging to herding. Herders of livestock first appeared in northern Kenya around 5000 years ago, associated with elaborate monumental cemeteries, and then spread south into the Rift Valley, where Pastoral Neolithic cultures developed.


----------



## ekim68

Baby pterodactyls could fly from birth



> A breakthrough discovery has found that pterodactyls, extinct flying reptiles also known as pterosaurs, had a remarkable ability -- they could fly from birth. This discovery's importance is highlighted by the fact that no other living vertebrates today, or in the history of life as we know it, have been able to replicate this. This revelation has a profound impact on our understanding of how pterodactyls lived, which is critical to understanding how the dinosaur world worked as a whole.


----------



## ekim68

Scottish crannogs may be older than Stonehenge



> Archaeologists from the Universities of Southampton and Reading have determined that some of Scotland's famous lake dwellings are older than Stonehenge. Called "crannogs," the little artificial islands made out of piled rocks have yielded pottery from the Neolithic period that indicate that settlements were built as early as 3640 BCE.


----------



## ekim68

The father of all men is 340,000 years old



> Albert Perry carried a secret in his DNA: a Y chromosome so distinctive that it reveals new information about the origin of our species. It shows that the last common male ancestor down the paternal line of our species is over twice as old as we thought.
> 
> One possible explanation is that hundreds of thousands of years ago, modern and archaic humans in central Africa interbred, adding to known examples of interbreeding - with Neanderthals in the Middle East, and with the enigmatic Denisovans somewhere in southeast Asia.


----------



## ekim68

Prehistoric bird standing 11.5 ft tall and weighing half a ton found in Crimean cave



> Generally speaking, the animals alive today are mere shadows of their former selves - everything from worms to otters to penguins to sharks were bigger and meaner in the distant past. And birds were no exception, as newly-found fossils indicate. In a Crimean cave, palaeontologists have uncovered the bones of some of the most gigantic birds to have ever walked the Earth, that would have lived alongside early European humans.
> 
> Dated to between 1.5 and 2 million years old, the bird belongs to the species _Pachystruthio dmanisensis_. Judging by the hefty thigh bone, the researchers estimated that it would have stood at least 3.5 m (11.5 ft) tall, and weighed as much as 450 kg (992 lb). That makes it one of the largest birds to ever exist.


----------



## valis

Sorry, had to....


----------



## ekim68

"Lost City of the Monkey God" reveals treasure trove of rare, new and rediscovered species



> In 2012, centuries-old legends of a lost city in Honduras were confirmed when ancient ruins were rediscovered in the dense Mosquita rainforest. Now, scientists have conducted a three-week expedition to these ruins, known as the "White City" or the "Lost City of the Monkey God," and found a trove of natural treasures. Living in the pristine forests around the city is an incredibly rich array of wildlife, including species new to science, some unknown in the area, some that haven't been seen in decades and others that were believed extinct.
> 
> The White City lies at the heart of the Honduran Mosquita, 865,000 acres (350,000 hectares) of pristine and relatively unexplored rainforest.


----------



## ekim68

Wakanda forever! Scientists describe new species of 'twilight zone' fish from Africa



> SAN FRANCISCO (July 11, 2019) - Africa has new purple-clad warriors more than 200 feet beneath the ocean's surface. Deep-diving scientists from the California Academy of Sciences' _Hope for Reefs_ initiative and the University of Sydney spotted dazzling fairy wrasses--previously unknown to science--in the dimly lit mesophotic coral reefs of eastern Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania. The multicolored wrasses sport deep purple scales so pigmented, they even retain their color (which is typically lost) when preserved for research. The scientists name this "twilight zone" reef-dweller _Cirrhilabrus wakanda_ (common name "Vibranium Fairy Wrasse") in honor of the mythical nation of Wakanda from the Marvel Entertainment comics and movie Black Panther.


----------



## ekim68

RNA recovered and sequenced from 14,000-year-old mummified wolf



> Under the right conditions, DNA has been known to last for thousands of years, allowing scientists to study the genomes of ancient Egyptians, the very first Brits, and even early human ancestors. RNA, on the other hand, degrades much more quickly and was thought impossible to recover in older samples. But now researchers have done exactly that, isolating and sequencing the RNA of a 14,000-year-old wolf found frozen in the Siberian permafrost.


----------



## ekim68

Recursive language and modern imagination were acquired simultaneously 70,000 years ago



> A genetic mutation that slowed down the development of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) in two or more children may have triggered a cascade of events leading to acquisition of recursive language and modern imagination 70,000 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient tools suggest humans spread across Eurasia earlier than previously thought



> The story of human history is patchy at best, but now another patch may have been filled in. Archaeologists have found ancient tools at a dig site in Mongolia, indicating that humans were on the scene about 45,000 years ago, which is much earlier than current evidence suggests. There's also a chance that the site is one spot where our ancestors met and mingled with the mysterious Denisovans.


----------



## ekim68

New beaked whale species discovered off the coast of Japan



> New species turn up on Earth with surprising regularity, but most of the time they're small, like ants and tarantulas. You'd be forgiven for thinking that we must have found all the big animals like whales by now, but Japanese scientists have managed to find a previously-unknown whale species.
> 
> Named _Berardius minimus_, the new species measures between 6.2 and 6.9 m (20.3 and 22.6 ft) long, is mostly black, and has a small beak like a dolphin. It was identified from six specimens that were found stranded along the northernmost coast of Japan's northern island, Hokkaido. Interestingly, local whalers had long told tales of the strange animals, but they were presumed to belong to a known species, _Berardius bairdii_.


----------



## ekim68

550-million-year-old worm tracks offer earliest evidence of animal mobility



> Sept. 4 (UPI) -- Newly unearthed worm tracks have provided the earliest evidence of animal mobility. The worm fossil also offered the earliest evidence of a segmented, bilaterally symmetric body plan.
> 
> Using a molecular clock, scientists previously predicted that segmented, mobile, bilaterally symmetric species first emerged during the Ediacaran Period. Indentations in 550-million-year-old rocks in China confirmed the prediction.
> 
> The ancient fossil is unique in that it not only provided proof of animal mobility, but also revealed the identity of the animal that left the tracks. Scientists described their discovery this week in the journal Nature.


----------



## ekim68

Chemical secrets of the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed



> One of the most frustrating problems of history is how fragile the written record is. The various media used to write or print words on, like paper, papyrus, and parchment can be extremely short-lived, even if preserved as carefully as possible. Unless a work is copied and distributed in large numbers, whole libraries can and have been lost over the millennia.
> 
> However, sometimes circumstances manage to preserve documents against all odds. Perhaps the most famous example is the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were discovered by accident in 1947 by Bedouin shepherds looking for a lost sheep in the Qumran Caves, which are situated in the Judaean Desert on the northern shore of the Dead Sea.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient European megastructures may have been community centres



> The mysterious megastructures of ancient eastern Europe were hubs of social and political decision making, but their role in centralising political control may have led to the downfall of these societies.
> 
> Tripolye culture spread from modern-day Moldova and Romania into Ukraine and is known for its finely crafted pottery and huge settlements. These large settlements, which were home to up to 10,000 inhabitants, could stretch hundreds of hectares across and are the largest in prehistoric Europe.
> 
> The settlements emerged around 4100 BC and appear to have stopped being built around 3600 BC. Most are buried today.


----------



## ekim68

Direct evidence finally found of 3.5-billion-year-old microscopic life



> We don't entirely know when life arose on Earth, but there's increasing evidence that it happened pretty quickly after the planet itself got started. Now, scientists have found some of the earliest direct evidence, in the form of preserved organic remains in 3.5-billion-year-old stromatolites in Australia.
> 
> In the Pilbara region of Western Australia sits the Dresser Formation, an expansive series of stromatolites. These rocky formations are usually believed to represent some of the oldest evidence of life, created layer by layer as generations of ancient microorganisms lived and died there.


----------



## ekim68

New artifacts show humans reached Greek islands earlier than thought



> The early chapters of the story of human migration are constantly being rewritten as new discoveries bring more information to light. The latest update comes from the Greek island of Naxos, where new archaeological finds show that early humans, Neanderthals and other hominins have occupied the site for around 200,000 years - far earlier than previously believed.
> 
> Although it changes regularly, the currently-accepted story says that modern humans arose in Africa roughly 300,000 years ago, before migrating away from the continent only 120,000 years ago. Other bones suggest we left as early as 194,000 years ago.


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## ekim68

New fossil pushes back physical evidence of insect pollination to 99 million years ago



> A new study co-led by researchers in the U.S. and China has pushed back the first-known physical evidence of insect flower pollination to 99 million years ago, during the mid-Cretaceous period.
> 
> The revelation is based upon a tumbling flower beetle with pollen on its legs discovered preserved in amber deep inside a mine in northern Myanmar.


----------



## ekim68

Early humans domesticated themselves, new genetic evidence suggests



> When humans started to tame dogs, cats, sheep, and cattle, they may have continued a tradition that started with a completely different animal: us. A new study-citing genetic evidence from a disorder that in some ways mirrors elements of domestication-suggests modern humans domesticated themselves after they split from their extinct relatives, Neanderthals and Denisovans, approximately 600,000 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Sulawesi art: Animal painting found in cave is 44,000 years old



> A painting discovered on the wall of an Indonesian cave has been found to be 44,000 years old.
> 
> The art appears to show a buffalo being hunted by part-human, part-animal creatures holding spears and possibly ropes.
> 
> Some researchers think the scene could be the world's oldest-recorded story.


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## ekim68

Some of the most exciting fossil discoveries ever have come out of this site in Nova Scotia



> Over 150 years ago, geologist Sir William Dawson made an astounding discovery in the Joggins Cliffs, along the shores of Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy. Within the lithified remains of a giant tree-like fern were the bones of a tiny, 310 million-year-old animal.
> 
> This animal was unlike any other seen thus far. It was able to venture where no vertebrate (back-boned) animal had ventured before, deep into the lycopsid forests, away from the water's edge. This was all thanks to an evolutionary innovation: the amniotic egg.


----------



## ekim68

Playing with tools-and weapons-was a 'normal' part of prehistoric childhood



> Prehistoric children may have been cherished by their parents-but until recently, they've been neglected by many archaeologists, who assumed that childhood is simply about toys and games. Now, a new study adds to the growing literature that prehistoric children were hard workers, who learned from an early age to use the weapons and tools that would help them with the rigors of adulthood.


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## ekim68

Researchers determine age for last known settlement by a direct ancestor to modern humans



> An international team of researchers has determined the age of the last known settlement of the species **** erectus, one of modern humans' direct ancestors. The site is called Ngandong, on the Indonesian island Java. The team dated animal fragments where **** erectus remains were found and the surrounding landscape. The team determined the last existence of **** erectus at Ngandong between 108,000 and 117,000 years ago.


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## ekim68

Early modern humans cooked starchy food in South Africa, 170,000 years ago



> "The inhabitants of the Border Cave in the Lebombo Mountains on the Kwazulu-Natal/eSwatini border were cooking starchy plants 170 thousand years ago," says Professor Lyn Wadley, a scientist from the Wits Evolutionary Studies Institute at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (Wits ESI). "This discovery is much older than earlier reports for cooking similar plants and it provides a fascinating insight into the behavioural practices of early modern humans in southern Africa. It also implies that they shared food and used wooden sticks to extract plants from the ground."


----------



## ekim68

Female warriors' tomb suggests basis for Amazons of Greek mythology



> The Amazons, a mythical race of female warriors that inspired fictional heroes such as Wonder Woman and Xena the Warrior Princess, may have been more than ancient Greek lore.
> 
> The Institute of Archaeology at the Russian Academy of Sciences announced the discovery of a tomb where four women were buried alongside a slew of battle weapons about 2,500 years ago. The findings were published by the Akson Russian Science Communication Association last Wednesday.
> 
> The Scythian women represented three generations of female warriors. The eldest was buried with a ceremonial headdress consistent with Amazon myths.


----------



## ekim68

Modern trees emerged earlier than previously believed, new research reveals



> A research team led by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York has uncovered evidence that the transition toward forests as we know them today began earlier than typically believed.
> 
> While sifting through fossil soils in the Catskill region near Cairo, N.Y., researchers uncovered the extensive root system of 385-million-year old trees that existed during the Devonian Period. While seed plants didn't appear until some 10 million years later, these preserved root systems show evidence of the presence of trees with leaves and wood--both of which are common in modern seed plants. The finding, published Dec. 19 in Current Biology, is the first piece of evidence that the transition toward modern forests began earlier than previously believed.


----------



## ekim68

Study pinpoints the timing of earliest human migration



> Jan. 10 (UPI) -- Sangiran, a World Heritage archeological site on the island of Java, is home to dozens of hominin fossils, comprising three different species, including evidence of the earliest hominid migration to Southeast Asia.
> 
> Until now, scientists have struggled to figure out the precise timing of the hominin migrations that populated Java. New estimates, based on a unique fossil dating survey, suggest _**** erectus_, the most successful archaic human, first arrived at Sangiran between between 1.3 and 1.5 million years ago -- some 300,000 years later than previous estimates.


----------



## ekim68

In death of dinosaurs, it was all about the asteroid -- not volcanoes



> Volcanic activity did not play a direct role in the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs, according to an international, Yale-led team of researchers. It was all about the asteroid.
> 
> In a break from a number of other recent studies, Yale assistant professor of geology & geophysics Pincelli Hull and her colleagues argue in a new research paper in _Science_ that environmental impacts from massive volcanic eruptions in India in the region known as the Deccan Traps happened well before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago and therefore did not contribute to the mass extinction.


----------



## ekim68

Buried in Sand for a Millennium: Africa's Roman Ghost City



> Got your archeologist's cap on? Today we invite you to touch down in Algeria and explore Timgad, a lost Roman city on the edge of the Sahara desert that remained hidden beneath the sand for nearly a thousand years. Positively obscure compared to the international notoriety of Pompeii, this ancient city is nonetheless one of the best surviving examples of Roman town planning anywhere in the historical Empire.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists reconstruct the eerie "voice" of ancient mummy



> The dead speak! Well, sort of. Scientists have recreated the "voice" of a 3,000-year-old mummy by scanning the shape of his vocal tract, 3D printing a replica of it, then hooking it up to an electronic larynx. The resulting sound is a single vowel, and while it may be a tad underwhelming in the light of day, it's definitely not something you'd want to hear while exploring a tomb by torchlight.


----------



## ekim68

Hot pots helped ancient Siberian hunters survive the Ice Age



> The research - which was undertaken at the University of York - also suggests there was no single point of origin for the world's oldest pottery.
> 
> Academics extracted and analysed ancient fats and lipids that had been preserved in pieces of ancient pottery - found at a number of sites on the Amur River in Russia - whose dates ranged between 16,000 and 12,000 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Researchers revise timing of Easter island's societal collapse



> Team led by University of Oregon doctoral student says new evidence, based on statistical modeling of radiocarbon dates, shows the island's monument-building culture was thriving when Europeans arrived


----------



## ekim68

"Reaper of death" tyrannosaur unearthed in Canada



> An older relative of the famous _Tyrannosaurus rex _with the very cool name meaning "Reaper of Death" has been identified by paleontologists from the University of Calgary and Royal Tyrrell Museum. Uncovered in the Canadian province of Alberta, _Thanatotheristes degrootorum_ lived 79 million years ago, making it the oldest known tyrannosaur from northern North America.


----------



## ekim68

Fish in the Sahara? Yes, in the early Holocene



> Catfish and tilapia make up many of the animal remains uncovered in the Saharan environment of the Takarkori rock shelter in southwestern Libya, according to a study published February 19, 2020 in the open-access journal _PLOS ONE_ by Wim Van Neer from the the Natural History Museum in Belgium, Belgium and Savino di Lernia, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, and colleagues.
> 
> Today, the Saharan Tadrart Acacus mountains are windy, hot, and hyperarid; however, the fossil record shows that for much of the early and middle Holocene (10,200 to 4650 years BP), this region was humid and rich in water as well as life, with evidence of multiple human settlements and diverse fauna.


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists use laser tech to reveal secrets of 100-km Maya road



> Archaeologists have used laser technology to map a 100-km (62-mile) Maya stone road that could have been built 1,300 years ago to help with the invasion of an isolated city in modern-day Mexico. The ancient highway is thought to have been constructed at the command of the warrior queen Lady K'awiil Ajaw, and would have been coated in white plaster.
> 
> The 26 ft (8 m)-wide road, also known as Sacbe 1 or White Road 1, stretches from the ancient city of Cobá - one of the greatest cities of the Maya world - to the distant, smaller settlement of Yaxuná, located in the Yucatan Peninsula.


----------



## ekim68

Researchers find evidence of a cosmic impact that caused destruction of one of the world's earliest human settlements



> Based on materials collected before the site was flooded, Kennett and his colleagues contend Abu Hureyra is the first site to document the direct effects of a fragmented comet on a human settlement. These fragments are all part of the same comet that likely slammed into Earth and exploded in the atmosphere at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, according to Kennett. This impact contributed to the extinction of most large animals, including mammoths, and American horses and camels; the disappearance of the North American Clovis culture; and to the abrupt onset of the end-glacial Younger Dryas cooling episode.


----------



## ekim68

Hummingbird-sized dinosaur skull preserved in 99-million-year-old amber



> A tiny, 99-million-year-old skull found in a piece of Burmese amber in Myanmar may not only be the smallest known dinosaur of the Mesozoic era, but it could also provide new insights into the evolution of birds. Called _Oculudentavis khaungraae_, it was the size of a hummingbird and shared reptilian and bird-like features.


----------



## valis

interesting read....

https://gizmodo.com/scientists-discover-ice-age-structure-made-from-bones-o-1842363260


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## ekim68

Extraordinary fossil isolates the moment fish began evolving fingers



> Described as "the missing evolutionary link in the fish to tetrapod transition," a fascinating Canadian fossil reveals an ancient fish species with arm, hand and finger bones similar to our own, wrapped in fins.
> 
> Found some 10 years ago in the Miguasha National Park in Canada's Southeast, the 157-cm (61.8-in) specimen dates back to somewhere between 393 and 359 million years ago, a period called the Late Devonian age in which a certain family of fish were beginning to experiment with coming out of the water. These adventurous little fellas eventually evolved into the entire family of tetrapods, or four-legged vertebrates, a family that includes dinosaurs, reptiles, birds, amphibians, whales, dolphins, seals, sea turtles and mammals - including humans. Quite a legacy.


----------



## ekim68

Ancestor of all animals identified in Australian fossils




> A wormlike creature that lived more than 555 million years ago is the earliest bilaterian


----------



## ekim68

Not just boring old bones: 6 incredible dinosaur fossils



> While huge dinosaur skeletons sure look impressive towering over us in museums, there's only so much we can learn from dusty old bones. But occasionally more striking specimens turn up bearing skin or feathers, encased in gemstones, and even preserving traces of DNA, against all odds. New Atlas rounds up some of the most incredible fossil finds of recent years.


----------



## ekim68

Landmark skull fossil provides surprising human evolution clues



> The study published on Wednesday involved the so-called Broken Hill skull, also called the Kabwe skull in recognition of a nearby town, discovered by a Swiss miner working in the Broken Hill lead and zinc mine in what was then Northern Rhodesia. Until now, scientists had been in the dark about how old it was, making it difficult to know its place on the human family tree.
> 
> But two sophisticated dating methods have determined the skull to be about 299,000 years old, plus or minus 25,000 years, said geochronologist Rainer Grün of Griffith University in Australia, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature. Some experts had hypothesized it was 500,000 years old.


----------



## ekim68

Origins of human language pathway in the brain at least 25 million years old



> Scientists have discovered an earlier origin to the human language pathway in the brain, pushing back its evolutionary origin by at least 20 million years.
> 
> Previously, a precursor of the language pathway was thought by many scientists to have emerged more recently, about 5 million years ago, with a common ancestor of both apes and humans.


----------



## ekim68

Superpredator Spinosaurus revealed as first known swimming dinosaur



> A new Spinosaurus fossil has revealed that this gigantic predatory dinosaur was a proficient swimmer. The first fossil of the creature's tail has been discovered, revealing large spines that indicate a paddle shape like a crocodile's tail - the first dinosaur to show any kind of aquatic adaptation.
> 
> Spinosaurus was one of the largest carnivores to ever stalk the Earth. It's believed to have been up to 18 m (59 ft) long and weigh more than 20 tons, making it bigger even than the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Its most iconic feature, of course, is the big sail on its back.


----------



## ekim68

Paleontologists reveal 'the most dangerous place in the history of planet Earth' 



> 100 million years ago, ferocious predators, including flying reptiles and crocodile-like hunters, made the Sahara the most dangerous place on Earth.
> 
> This is according to an international team of scientists, who have published the biggest review in almost 100 years of fossil vertebrates from an area of Cretaceous rock formations in south-eastern Morocco, known as the Kem Kem Group.


----------



## ekim68

Long-necked, toothless T.rex cousin unearthed in Australia 



> Paleontologists in Australia have uncovered a strange new species of dinosaur. This new creature is an elaphrosaur, placing it in the theropod family along with the Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor - but this one had a long neck, no teeth and an unusual diet.
> 
> The new species itself doesn't have an official name yet, but the specimen has been dubbed "Eric the Elaphrosaur," after the dig site where it was uncovered: Eric the Red West, near Cape Otway in Victoria, Australia.


----------



## ekim68

Dinosaur-dooming asteroid struck Earth at 'deadliest possible' angle



> New simulations from Imperial College London have revealed the asteroid that doomed the dinosaurs struck Earth at the 'deadliest possible' angle.
> 
> The simulations show that the asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which maximised the amount of climate-changing gases thrust into the upper atmosphere.
> Such a strike likely unleashed billions of tonnes of sulphur, blocking the sun and triggering the nuclear winter that killed the dinosaurs and 75 per cent of life on Earth 66 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

New research reveals Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Biblical Arad



> Analysis of the material on two Iron Age altars discovered at the entrance to the "holy of holies" of a shrine at Tel Arad in the Beer-sheba Valley, Israel, were found to contain Cannabis and Frankincense, according to new article in the journal, _Tel Aviv_.


----------



## ekim68

Entire Roman city revealed without any digging



> For the first time, archaeologists have succeeded in mapping a complete Roman city, Falerii Novi in Italy, using advanced ground penetrating radar (GPR), allowing them to reveal astonishing details while it remains deep underground. The technology could revolutionise our understanding of ancient settlements.


----------



## ekim68

Red Lion: Archaeologists 'find London's earliest theatre'



> Mr White, who directed the work, said: "After nearly 500 years, the remains of the Red Lion playhouse, which marked the dawn of Elizabethan theatre, may have finally been found.
> 
> "The strength of the combined evidence - archaeological remains of buildings, in the right location, of the right period - seem to match up with characteristics of the playhouse recorded in early documents."


----------



## ekim68

Tiny songbird is East Asia's 'oldest' carved work of art



> A miniature bird sculpted out of burnt bone in China about 13,500 years ago is the oldest known figurine from East Asia, researchers who discovered it in a refuse heap near an archeological site said.
> 
> The carefully crafted depiction of a songbird on a pedestal - smaller than an almond kernel - was found among burnt animal remains and fragments of ceramics at Lingjing in north ce ntral Henan Province, an area thought to have been home to some of China's earliest civilizations.


----------



## ekim68

Giant ancient egg found in Antarctica could be first from a mosasaur 



> A strange fossil discovered in Antarctica almost a decade ago has finally been identified. Researchers at the University of Austin at Texas have determined that the object is a giant, soft-shell egg, most likely laid by an ancient marine reptile.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists find huge ring of ancient shafts near Stonehenge



> Archaeologists said Monday that they have discovered a major prehistoric monument under the earth near Stonehenge that could shed new light on the origins of the mystical stone circle in southwestern England.





> Experts from a group of British universities led by the University of Bradford say the site consists of at least 20 huge shafts, more than 10 meters (32 feet) in diameter and 5 meters (16 feet) deep, forming a circle more than 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) in diameter.


----------



## ekim68

A Massive Volcanic Eruption in Alaska May Have Doomed the Roman Republic



> The fall of the Roman Republic gave rise to the Roman Empire, making it one of the most significant events in Western history. According to a new study published in _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences_, it may have been hastened by a volcanic eruption on the other side of the world.


----------



## ekim68

Divers find evidence of America's first mines - and skeletons - in underwater caves



> Experts and cave divers in Mexico's Yucatan peninsula have found ocher mines that are some of the oldest on the continent. Ancient skeletons were found in the narrow, twisting labyrinths of now-submerged sinkhole caves.
> 
> Since skeletal remains like "Naia," a young woman who died 13,000 years ago, were found over the last 15 years, archaeologists have wondered how they wound up in the then-dry caves.


----------



## ekim68

Ultra-black fish that absorb 99.5% of light found in the deep ocean 



> Scientists have discovered ultra-black fish that absorb almost all light that hits them, allowing them to effectively hide in the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean.


----------



## ekim68

Newly-discovered sponge is surprisingly abundant 



> Although cold waters aren't known for their coral reefs, they _do_ contain ecologically important "glass reefs" created by live sponges. Now, scientists have discovered a previously unknown species of sponge living on those reefs, in Canada.
> 
> Home to a variety of marine life, the delicate glass reefs are made up of hexactinellid sponges. These deep-dwelling animals have a skeleton consisting of what are known as _siliceous spicules_, which is a fancy way of saying small, pointy, silica structures.


----------



## ekim68

Ramps for disabled people trace back to ancient Greece



> The ramps for disabled people that smooth entry into many public buildings today aren't a modern invention. The ancient Greeks constructed similar ramps of stone to help individuals who had trouble walking or climbing stairs access holy sites, new research suggests. That would make the ramps-some more than 2300 years old-the oldest known evidence of architecture designed to meet the needs of the disabled.


----------



## ekim68

Ancient cave "hotel" places humans in the Americas 30,000 years ago



> It's generally believed that the Clovis people were the first humans to inhabit the Americas, as long as 15,000 years ago. But now archaeologists have found evidence in a cave in Mexico that suggests humans visited as early as 30,000 years ago - although who they were and where they came from remains a mystery.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists pull living microbes, possibly 100 million years old, from beneath the sea



> Microbes buried beneath the sea floor for more than 100 million years are still alive, a new study reveals. When brought back to the lab and fed, they started to multiply. The microbes are oxygen-loving species that somehow exist on what little of the gas diffuses from the ocean surface deep into the seabed.


----------



## ekim68

One Mystery of Stonehenge's Origins Has Finally Been Solved



> For more than four centuries, archaeologists and geologists have sought to determine the geographical origins of the stones used to build Stonehenge thousands of years ago. Pinning down the source of the large blocks known as sarsens that form the bulk of the monument has proved especially elusive. Now researchers have resolved the mystery: 50 of the 52 extant sarsens at Stonehenge came from the West Woods site in the English county of Wiltshire, located 25 kilometers to the north of Stonehenge.


----------



## Brigham

ekim68 said:


> One Mystery of Stonehenge's Origins Has Finally Been Solved


Those old people must have had an enormous job getting heavy stones that distance.


----------



## ekim68

Dinosaur diagnosed with late-stage cancer in first-of-its-kind study 



> Researchers in Canada have diagnosed an advanced, malignant bone cancer - in a dinosaur. Using the kinds of diagnostic techniques used in humans, a team of cancer professionals examined a large growth on the long-dead animal's leg bone, marking the first time such a diagnosis has been made for a dinosaur.
> 
> The specimen is a _Centrosaurus apertus, _a horned dinosaur in the same general family as the famous _Triceratops_. Dating back between 76 and 77 million years, the fossil was originally discovered in Alberta back in 1989, and attention was drawn to a malformed mass on the end of the animal's fibula, the lower leg bone.


----------



## ekim68

6,600-year-old gravesites in Poland suggest wealth gap existed earlier than thought



> A team of researchers from Sweden, the U.S., Poland and the U.K. has found evidence that suggests the wealth gap in human communities goes back at least 6,600 years. In their paper published in the journal _Antiquity_, the group describes their study of skeletons in an ancient Polish graveyard and what they found.


----------



## ekim68

Native American stone tool technology found in Arabia



> Stone fluted points dating back some 8,000 to 7,000 years ago, were discovered on archaeological sites in Manayzah, Yemen and Ad-Dahariz, Oman. Spearheads and arrowheads were found among these distinctive and technologically advanced projectile points. Until now, the prehistoric technique of fluting had been uncovered only on 13,000 to 10,000-year-old Native American sites. According to a study led by an international team of archaeologists from the CNRS (1), Inrap, Ohio State University and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.


----------



## ekim68

"Supergiant" new species of isopod discovered in the deep ocean 



> Named _Bathynomus raksasa, _the holotype, or physical specimen that serves as the basis for the description and name of the new species, is a male that was measured to be 36.3 cm (14.3 in) long, which puts it among the largest giant isopods ever found. The second specimen was a female measuring 29.8 cm (11.7 in). Along with being bigger on average, the team noted other differences when compared to the closest known species, _Bathynomus giganteus, _including smoother "skin" and different body proportions and shapes.


----------



## ekim68

Cliff collapses in Grand Canyon, revealing 313 million-year-old footprints, park says



> After a cliff collapsed in Grand Canyon National Park, a boulder with fossilized tracks was revealed, park officials said in a Thursday news release. The fossil footprints are about 313 million years old, according to researchers.


----------



## ekim68

Destroyed Ancient Temple Now Open for Virtual Exploration



> The UC San Diego Library has digitally reconstructed the world-famous ancient Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Syria; effort aims to preserve the cultural heritage of Palmyra and other sites around the globe for future generations


----------



## ekim68

First complete dinosaur skeleton reconstructed 162 years after find



> After only 162 years, the first complete dinosaur skeleton to be recovered has finally been properly reconstructed and studied. Found on the shore beneath Black Ven at Charmouth in west Dorset, the 193-million-year-old fossilized remains of a _Scelidosaurus_, spent over a century and a half stored at the Natural History Museum in London before being fully described and analyzed by Dr. David Norman of the University of Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences.


----------



## ekim68

In the Land of Kush

_



A dazzling civilization flourished in Sudan nearly 5,000 years ago. Why was it forgotten?

Click to expand...

_


> The land south of Egypt, beyond the first cataract of the Nile, was known to the ancient world by many names: Ta-Seti, or Land of the Bow, so named because the inhabitants were expert archers; Ta-Nehesi, or Land of Copper; Ethiopia, or Land of Burnt Faces, from the Greek; Nubia, possibly derived from an ancient Egyptian word for gold, which was plentiful; and Kush, the kingdom that dominated the region between roughly 2500 B.C. and A.D. 300. In some religious traditions, Kush was linked to the biblical Cush, son of Ham and grandson of Noah, whose descendants inhabited northeast Africa.


----------



## ekim68

Which Ancient City Is Considered the Oldest in the World?



> Archaeologists still debate which city came first - let alone how to define one in the first place. But a few settlements offer illuminating views of early urban life.


----------



## ekim68

120,000-year-old footprints mark oldest evidence of humans in Arabia 



> Archeologists have discovered fossilized human footprints in Saudi Arabia that help fill in the story of the early migration of our species. Dating back 120,000 years, the tracks are the oldest evidence of the presence of modern humans on the Arabian Peninsula.
> 
> The footprints were discovered in the south-western region of the Nefud Desert, on the site of what was once semi-arid grasslands dotted with lakes. The team identified 376 prints made by an assortment of creatures, including humans.


----------



## ekim68

Modern humans reached westernmost Europe 5,000 years earlier than previously known



> Modern humans arrived in westernmost Europe 41,000 to 38,000 years ago, about 5,000 years earlier than previously known, according to an international team of researchers that discovered stone tools used by modern humans dated to the earlier time period in a cave near the Atlantic coast of central Portugal. The tools document the presence of modern humans at a time when Neanderthals were thought to be present in the region.


----------



## ekim68

Yemen's Ancient 'Manhattan Of The Desert'



> Yemen's ancient city of Shibam, a UNESCO World Heritage site, has a big chance of collapse. The ancient city, also called the 'Manhattan of the desert,' faces collapse from disrepair. If continued to be left unrepaired, the city's hundreds of sun-dried mud-brick towers that are almost seven stories high may be gone forever, as Barrons detailed:


----------



## ekim68

Early big-game hunters of the Americas were female, researchers suggest



> For centuries, historians and scientists mostly agreed that when early human groups sought food, men hunted and women gathered. However, a 9,000-year-old female hunter burial in the Andes Mountains of South America reveals a different story, according to new research conducted at the University of California, Davis.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists discover two new mammals in Australia



> Two new species of greater glider, a cat-size marsupial that lives in the forests of Australia, have been discovered Down Under after scientists ran DNA tests on new tissue samples of the animals. A new study published in Nature's public access Scientific Reports journal details the findings.


----------



## ekim68

Dinosaurs were not on the way out before asteroid hit, study claims



> If an asteroid had not hit Earth 66m years ago, dinosaurs might have continued to dominate the planet, according to new research.
> 
> A team from the University of Bath and the UK National History Museum has published a study to Royal Society Open Science saying that, contrary to some scientific thinking, dinosaurs were not in a state of decline prior to the mass extinction event.


----------



## ekim68

The aroma of distant worlds



> Asian spices such as turmeric and fruits like the banana had already reached the Mediterranean more than 3000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. A team of researchers working alongside archaeologist Philipp Stockhammer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich (LMU) has shown that even in the Bronze Age, long-distance trade in food was already connecting distant societies.


----------



## ekim68

A good read.. 


Discovery of 66 new Roman Army sites shows more clues about one of the empire



> The discovery of dozens of new Roman Army sites thanks to remote sensing technology has revealed more about one of the empire's most infamous conflicts.
> 
> Analysis of the 66 camps shows the Roman army had a larger presence in the region than previously thought during the 200-year battle to conquer the Iberian Peninsula.


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists uncover ancient street food shop in Pompeii



> ROME (Reuters) - Archaeologists in Pompeii, the city buried in a volcanic eruption in 79 AD, have made the extraordinary find of a frescoed hot food and drinks shop that served up the ancient equivalent of street food to Roman passersby.


----------



## ekim68

Drainage works unearth Roman baths in heart of Jordan's capital



> AMMAN (Reuters) - The discovery of the ruins of old Roman baths during the construction of a major drainage system in the heart of Jordan's capital has posed a dilemma: how to preserve the country's ancient past while providing for its modern future?


----------



## ekim68

World's oldest known figurative artwork found in Indonesian cave



> Archaeologists have discovered what they claim to be the oldest example of figurative art made by human hands. An ochre painting of pigs, found on a cave wall in Indonesia, has been dated to be at least 45,500 years old.


----------



## ekim68

World's oldest industrial brewery unearthed in Egypt



> Beer is one of humankind's oldest prepared beverages, with artifacts and evidence of its production dating back thousands of years. Shedding further light on its long and storied history are new findings from archeologists working in Egypt who have uncovered the world's first industrial-scale brewery, which they believe was pumping out thousands of liters of beer for the ancient kings of the region.
> 
> In the past few years, we've seen archeologists make discoveries that have reshaped our understanding of beer's history, tracing its roots via 5,000-year-old vessels and funnels, and even recreating these ancient brews in the lab. One discovery in Israel unearthed evidence of beer production that was found to be around 13,000 years old, making it the oldest example that we know of.


----------



## ekim68

Million-Year-Old Mammoth Teeth Contain Oldest DNA Ever Found



> An international team of scientists has sequenced DNA from mammoth teeth that is at least a million years old, if not older. This research, published today in Nature, not only provides exciting new insight into mammoth evolutionary history, it reveals an entirely unknown lineage of ancient mammoth.
> 
> The woolly mammoth (_Mammuthus primigenius_) may rival _T. rex_ in popular imagination, but it is, in fact, one of the last mammoth species to have evolved, and it's only one of various, sometimes odd-looking species of large, tusked animals belonging to the order Proboscidea. Mammoths are believed to have originated in Africa approximately 5 million years ago, with populations traveling north into what is now Eurasia and eventually moving into North America.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest dog remains in Americas tell a tale of ancient canine migration



> We know that humans have been sharing their lives with dogs for thousands of years, but there remain plenty of blanks to fill in regarding this relationship and the way it spread throughout the world. Scientists at the University of Buffalo have found a very useful clue concerning the migration of canines to the Americas, in the DNA of an ancient bone fragment said to be the oldest known dog remains in the region.
> 
> The discovery was actually an inadvertent one, with scientists conducting DNA sequencing of old bone fragments dug up years ago in Alaska, including one they thought to be from a bear. The analysis revealed that the bone was in fact part of a femur belonging to a dog that lived in the region about 10,150 years ago. The researchers say this is thought to be the oldest confirmed remains of a domestic dog in the Americas.


----------



## ekim68

Asteroid Dust Found In Crater Closes Case Of Dinosaur Extinction[/SIZE]



> Researchers believe they have closed the case of what killed the dinosaurs, definitively linking their extinction with an asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago by finding a key piece of evidence: asteroid dust inside the impact crater.
> 
> Death by asteroid rather than by a series of volcanic eruptions or some other global calamity has been the leading hypothesis since the 1980s, when scientists found asteroid dust in the geologic layer that marks the extinction of the dinosaurs. This discovery painted an apocalyptic picture of dust from the vaporized asteroid and rocks from impact circling the planet, blocking out the sun and bringing about mass death through a dark, sustained global winter - all before drifting back to Earth to form the layer enriched in asteroid material that's visible today.


----------



## ekim68

Hidden Egyptian handbook reveals secrets of mummification



> A 3,500-year-old Egyptian medical text is shedding new light on the ancient practice of mummification. Recently discovered inside a much larger work, the papyrus document being studied by University of Copenhagen Egyptologist Sofie Schiødt is the oldest known mummification manual.


----------



## ekim68

Fresh analysis reveals Laos' ancient Plain of Jars predates the Iron Age 



> Dotted with thousands of giant stone vessels, the Plain of Jars in Laos is one of the most intriguing archeological sites in Southeast Asia. Now, a new study has uncovered how old the jars are, and it turns out they've been there much longer than previously thought.
> 
> The Plain of Jars extends across the Xiangkhoang Plateau, made up of over 100 sites containing anywhere from a few to a few hundred jars. The jars themselves are hewn from stone, stand between 1 and 3 meters tall, and weigh up to 20 tonnes. Their purpose has been debated for decades, with some suggesting they may have been used to store water or brew alcohol, while the presence of human remains implies they hosted burial and/or cremation rituals.


----------



## ekim68

Fossilized dinosaur found sitting on eggs - with embryos inside



> While we've seen fossilized dinosaur eggs and embryos before, paleontologists have now discovered an unprecedented three-for-one - a fossilized dinosaur parent sitting on a nest of eggs, in which embryos are present.
> 
> Unearthed in southern China's Jiangxi Province, the fossils include the partial skeleton of a presumably adult oviraptorosaur, which is "crouched in a bird-like brooding posture" over a batch of approximately 24 eggs. Within at least seven of those eggs, bones or partial skeletons of unhatched embryos are present.


----------



## ekim68

45,000-year-old human genomes reveal extent of Neanderthal interbreeding



> Two new genetic studies have shed light on just how often our ancestors got frisky with Neanderthals. Scientists analyzed the genomes of 45,000-year-old human remains found in caves in Czechia and Bulgaria, including the oldest known genome of a modern human, and found that they all had relatively recent Neanderthal ancestors.
> 
> Today, modern humans, or **** sapiens, are the only living species of human, but that wasn't always the case - for hundreds of thousands of years we shared the planet with a whole family of related species. While there was no doubt conflict, and we may have even contributed to the extinction of some species, we also got along _very _well at times.


----------



## ekim68

2.5 billion T. rex inhabited the planet, researchers say



> For the first time, scientists have estimated how many Tyrannosaurus rex, the so-called king of dinosaurs, once roamed the Earth.
> 
> *Why it matters: *The number is staggering: 2.5 billion Tyrannosaurus rex lived and died during the roughly 2.4 million years the species survived on the planet, according to a new study set to be published in the journal _Science_ on Friday.


----------



## ekim68

Mass grave suggests tyrannosaurs were pack hunters *

*


> Tyrannosaurs were pretty capable killers, and it's easy to assume they didn't need much help bringing down their prey. But contrary to the popular image of these fearsome predators being lone hunters, new analysis of a mass grave site adds to evidence tyrannosaurs may have lived and hunted in packs.


----------



## ekim68

AI tool offers clues to mystery of who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls



> A new method of handwriting analysis developed by researchers from the University of Groningen is offering fresh clues as to who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls. Testing the machine learning tool on one of the most famous ancient scrolls has revealed not one but two scribes were responsible for the ancient text.
> 
> The Great Isaiah Scroll was among the first Dead Sea Scrolls to be discovered in 1946. It is one of the largest and best preserved of all the scrolls, presenting the oldest complete copy of the Book of Isaiah.


----------



## ekim68

2,000-year-old marble head of Rome's first emperor discovered



> A 2,000-year-old marble head of Augustus, Rome's first emperor, has been discovered in Isernia, an Italian town in the south central region of Molise.
> 
> Archaeologist Francesco Giancola made the exceptional discovery during restoration works to repair a medieval wall that collapsed due to strong rains in 2013.


----------



## ekim68

Enigmatic Designs Found in India May Be The Largest Images Ever Made by Human Hands



> Hidden in the vast, arid expanses of India's Thar Desert lie mysterious old drawings carved into the land.
> 
> These newly discovered designs are of such immense scale, they were likely never able to be glimpsed in their entirety by those who made them, researchers say.


----------



## 2twenty2

This animal survived 24,000 years frozen in the Siberian permafrost

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/07/...l-survive-frozen-in-permafrost-scn/index.html


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## ekim68

Dinosaur Found In Australia Was 2 Stories Tall And The Length Of A Basketball Court



> Researchers in Australia have confirmed the discovery of Australia's largest dinosaur species ever found.
> _Australotitan cooperensis_ was about 80 to 100 feet long and 16 to 21 feet tall at its hip. It weighed somewhere between 25 and 81 tons. For comparison, the _Tyrannosaurus rex _was about 40 feet long and 12 feet tall.


----------



## ekim68

Negev Desert archaeological site illuminates an important chapter in modern humans' origin



> The Boker Tachtit archaeological excavation site in Israel's central Negev desert holds clues to one of the most significant events in human history: the spread of modern humans, **** sapiens, from Africa into Eurasia, and the subsequent demise of Neanderthal populations in the region. Researchers from the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Max Planck Society, led by Prof. Elisabetta Boaretto, together with Dr. Omry Barzilai of the Israel Antiquities Authority, returned to Boker Tachtit nearly 40 years after it was first excavated. Using advanced sampling and dating methods, they offer a new chronological framework for this important chapter in our anthropological evolution. Published in the _Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences_ (_PNAS_), the study suggests that **** sapiens and Neanderthals were far from strangers.


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## ekim68

Dozens of new viruses discovered in 15,000-year-old glacier ice



> Scientists have collected viruses from almost-15,000-year-old ice samples, taken from glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau. Dozens of species were found to be unknown to science, which could provide an intriguing look back at the history of viral evolution.
> 
> Glaciers are fantastic at preserving deep history, as they trap particles of dust, traces of gas, microbes, and plant matter from different time periods. Since these layers build up over time, scientists can drill and study ice cores to learn a huge amount about ancient climates, what was in the atmosphere, and what kinds of life existed at various points of history.


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## ekim68

310-million-year-old brain exceptionally preserved in unique fossil



> Researchers have discovered one of the oldest and best-preserved brains in the fossil record. A 310-million-year-old horseshoe crab was found with its complete brain intact, thanks to a previously unknown preservation method.


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## ekim68

Australian mathematician discovers applied geometry engraved on 3,700-year-old tablet



> Old Babylonian tablet likely used for surveying uses Pythagorean triples at least 1,000 years before Pythagoras


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## ekim68

7-meter-wide "spear-mouth" pterosaur was Australia's largest flying reptile



> Paleontologists have discovered the largest known flying reptile that ever took to the Australian skies. Named _Thapunngaka shawi_, this "fearsome dragon" sported a 7-m (23-ft) wingspan and a jaw full of awful jagged teeth.
> 
> Although they're not technically dinosaurs themselves, pterosaurs soared over their heads for hundreds of millions of years. These flying reptiles ranged in size from a cat to a Cessna, and were the first known vertebrates to evolve powered flight.


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## ekim68

Life story of one mammoth traced from birth to death, week by week



> Scientists have been able to track the entire life of a mammoth that lived more than 17,000 years ago, right down to the week. By studying the isotopes in different parts of its tusk, the team figured out where in Alaska it likely was at any given point of its 28-year life.


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## ekim68

An immense mystery older than Stonehenge 



> When German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt first began excavating on a Turkish mountaintop 25 years ago, he was convinced the buildings he uncovered were unusual, even unique.
> 
> Atop a limestone plateau near Urfa called Gobekli Tepe, Turkish for "Belly Hill", Schmidt discovered more than 20 circular stone enclosures. The largest was 20m across, a circle of stone with two elaborately carved pillars 5.5m tall at its centre. The carved stone pillars - eerie, stylised human figures with folded hands and fox-pelt belts - weighed up to 10 tons. Carving and erecting them must have been a tremendous technical challenge for people who hadn't yet domesticated animals or invented pottery, let alone metal tools. The structures were 11,000 years old, or more, making them humanity's oldest known monumental structures, built not for shelter but for some other purpose.


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## ekim68

Police raid unearths prehistoric flying reptile in remarkable condition



> Stunning specimen found in Brazil is opening a window onto pterosaur predilections going back 115 million years.


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## ekim68

Ancient beer was brewed from rice 9,000 years ago



> Archaeologists have discovered one of the oldest examples of alcohol being consumed. A set of ancient pots dating back around 9,000 years have been found to contain traces of an early form of beer, which seems to have been used as part of a ritual honoring the dead.


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## ekim68

New species of ancient four-legged whale discovered in Egypt



> Scientists in Egypt have identified a new species of four-legged whale that lived around 43 million years ago.
> 
> The fossil of the amphibious Phiomicetus anubis was originally discovered in Egypt's Western Desert.
> Its skull resembles that of Anubis, the ancient Egyptian jackal-headed god of the dead after which it was named.


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## ekim68

Oldest known mammal cavities discovered in 55-million-year-old fossils suggests a sweet tooth for fruit



> A new U of T study has discovered the oldest known cavities ever found in a mammal, the likely result of a diet that included eating fruit.


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## ekim68

Oldest archeological evidence of clothes making found in Moroccan cave 



> A new study is presenting archeological evidence of the oldest known bone tools used for making clothes. The tools, found in a cave in Morocco, suggest humans were skinning animals for fur to wear as clothes up to 120,000 years ago.


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## ekim68

Fossil footprints show humans in North America more than 21,000 years ago



> The footprints, the earliest firm evidence for humans in the Americas, show that people must have arrived here before the last Ice Age.


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## ekim68

A giant space rock demolished an ancient Middle Eastern city, possibly inspiring the Biblical story of Sodom



> As the inhabitants of an ancient Middle Eastern city now called Tall el-Hammam went about their daily business one day about 3,600 years ago, they had no idea an unseen icy space rock was speeding toward them at about 38,000 mph (61,000 kph).
> 
> Flashing through the atmosphere, the rock exploded in a massive fireball about 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) above the ground. The blast was around 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The shocked city dwellers who stared at it were blinded instantly. Air temperatures rapidly rose above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit (2,000 degrees Celsius). Clothing and wood immediately burst into flames. Swords, spears, mudbricks and pottery began to melt. Almost immediately, the entire city was on fire.


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## ekim68

Three new species of freshwater goby fish found in Japan and the Philippines



> Scientists have discovered three new species of goby fish, two found in Okinawa and a third from Palawan in the Philippines


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## 2twenty2

New fish species found at formerly polluted Port Lands after Lakefilling project

https://torontosun.com/news/local-n...polluted-port-lands-after-lakefilling-project


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## ekim68

Bizarre new dinosaur species brandished a battle axe for a tail



> T-rex had huge teeth. Raptors sported sharp, scythe-like claws. Triceratops fought with head-mounted horns. The ancient arsenal of dinosaur warfare was varied, and now a brand new weapon has been added to the collection. Paleontologists have discovered a new type of ankylosaur with a tail like a battle axe.
> 
> Ankylosaurs are those armored dinosaurs built like tanks, covered in bony plates and spikes and often brandishing a heavy tail club that no carnivore would want anywhere near its kneecaps. But the new species takes a different tack, attacking with a tail armed with seven pairs of large, flat spikes that its discoverers liken to an Aztec battle axe.


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## ekim68

Brazil Is Home to Prehistoric Underground Tunnels Created by Giant Ground Sloths



> While you may have heard of underground cities built by humans, what about huge tunnels dug by giant prehistoric sloths? Though it may sound outlandish, it's actually what one finds across southern Brazil. Known as paleoburrows, these enormous tunnels can measure up to 2,000 feet long and over six feet tall. Shockingly, the existence of these caves was relatively unknown until a Brazilian geologist noticed something while driving down the highway.


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## ekim68

Colossal marine skull reveals Earth's earliest known giant animal



> Scientists have discovered fossils of a new species of aquatic reptile that may represent the first giant animal that ever lived on Earth. Named _Cymbospondylus youngorum_, the creature is a new type of ichthyosaur dating back to the early stages of the Age of Dinosaurs, and grew to huge proportions extremely quickly.
> 
> The discovery made in the Augusta Mountains of Nevada included a well-preserved skull measuring 2 m (6.6 ft) long, as well as part of the backbone, shoulder and forelimb. They were attributed to a previously unknown species of ichthyosaur, which lived about 246 million years ago.


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## ekim68

'Incredibly detailed preservation': scientists discover new fossil site in NSW



> The new fossil site is located in the Central Tablelands, NSW near the town of Gulgong, and represents one of only a handful of fossil sites in Australia that can be classified as a 'Lagerstätte'- a site that contains fossils of exceptional quality.
> 
> Over the last three years a team of researchers has been secretly excavating the site, discovering thousands of specimens including rainforest plants, insects, spiders, fish and a bird feather.


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## ekim68

Part donkey, part wild ass, the kunga is the oldest known hybrid bred by humans



> From mules to ligers, the list of human-made hybrid animals is long. And, it turns out, ancient.
> 
> Meet the kunga, the earliest known hybrid animal bred by people. The ancient equine from Syro-Mesopotamia existed around 4,500 years ago and was a cross between a donkey and a hemippe, a type of Asiatic wild ass, researchers report January 14 in _Science Advances_.


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## ekim68

Ancient empire used psychedelic beer to win friends and influence people



> New research published in the journal _Antiquity_ suggests an ancient South American civilization spiked a beer-like drink with psychoactive drugs as a way of maintaining social cohesion and forging new bonds with surrounding communities.
> 
> The Wari civilization flourished in the Peruvian Andes from about 500 to 1000 CE. The new research arose from recent archeological findings at a Wari outpost known as Quilcapampa.


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## ekim68

Archaeologists find ritual hunt site in Jordanian desert from 7,000 B.C.



> AMMAN, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered a stone age site dating back to 7,000 B.C. in a remote desert in Jordan, with structures which show humans were rounding up and hunting gazelles much earlier than previously thought.
> 
> The team of French and Jordanian experts also found over 250 artifacts at the site, including exquisite animal figurines which they believe were used in rituals to invoke supernatural forces for successful hunts.


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## ekim68

The last day of the dinosaurs



> The asteroid which killed nearly all of the dinosaurs struck Earth during springtime. This conclusion was drawn by an international team of researchers after having examined thin sections, high-resolution synchrotron X-ray scans, and carbon isotope records of the bones of fishes that died less than 60 minutes after the asteroid impacted.


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## ekim68

Why this 5,000 year old chalk drum is one of the most important prehistoric finds in Britain



> In support of the current show at The British Museum, "The World of Stonehenge," _History Hit's_ Tristan Hughes takes a closer look at one of the artifacts in the exhibition, the so-called Burton Agnes chalk drum. This item was discovered in a Yorkshire barrow grave site along with the skeletons of three "cuddling" children.


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## ekim68

Roman boat that sank in Mediterranean 1,700 years ago gives up its treasures



> One squally day or stormy night about 1,700 years ago, a boat carrying hundreds of amphorae of wine, olives, oil and garum - the fermented fish sauce that so delighted the ancient palate - came to grief during a stopover in Mallorca.
> 
> The merchant vessel, probably at anchor in the Bay of Palma while en route from south-west Spain to Italy, was quickly swallowed by the waves and buried in the sands of the shallow seabed.


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## ekim68

Meet Horridus, the world's best-preserved and most complete Triceratops



> T-rex is hacky. Velociraptors are just exaggerated movie monsters. And Brachiosaurus is pretty much just "kind of a big cow." No, the most discerning of dinosaur-obsessed kids always knew that Triceratops was the coolest. And now, the coolest specimen of this coolest dinosaur has just gone on public display for the first time.


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## ekim68

New clues reveal the devastation the day the dinosaurs died



> An asteroid impact about 66 million years ago forever changed the trajectory of life on Earth. Now scientists have used bits of ancient debris to measure the blazing temperatures of the dust and gas that spread from the impact site.


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## ekim68

Ancient smells reveal secrets of Egyptian tomb



> More than 3,400 years after two ancient Egyptians were laid to rest, the jars of food left to nourish their eternal souls still smell sweet. A team of analytical chemists and archaeologists has analysed these scents to help identify the jars' contents1. The study shows how the archaeology of smell can enrich our understanding of the past - and perhaps make museum visits more immersive.


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## ekim68

Researchers home in on possible "day zero" for Antikythera mechanism



> The mysterious Antikythera mechanism-an ancient device believed to have been used for tracking the heavens-has fascinated scientists and the public alike since it was first recovered from a shipwreck over a century ago. Much progress has been made in recent years to reconstruct the surviving fragments and learn more about how the mechanism might have been used. And now, members of a team of Greek researchers believe they have pinpointed the start date for the Antikythera mechanism, according to a preprint posted to the physics arXiv repository. Knowing that "day zero" is critical to ensuring the accuracy of the device.


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## ekim68

Ancient surgeon found buried with his scalpels, awls, needles, and other tools of the trade



> Archaeologists in Lambayeque, Peru discovered the 1,000-year-old tomb of a surgeon who was buried with his scalpels, needles, and other implements.


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## ekim68

Astonishing new species of trippy, red jellyfish discovered in the ocean's "midnight zone"



> Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) scientists have described a new species of Atolla jellyfish that they discovered in the ocean's "midnight zone" 1000 to 4000 meters below the surface. Sunlight doesn't reach that depth so the only glow comes from bioluminescent creatures. The researchers first spotted the creature in video from remotely operated vehicles exploring the Monterey Bay off the coast of California.


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## ekim68

Prehistoric people created art by firelight, new research reveals



> Our early ancestors probably created intricate artwork by firelight, an examination of 50 engraved stones unearthed in France has revealed.
> 
> The stones were incised with artistic designs around 15,000 years ago and have patterns of heat damage which suggests they were carved close to the flickering light of a fire, the new study has found.


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## ekim68

Is the world's oldest tree growing in a ravine in Chile?



> ALERCE COSTERO NATIONAL PARK IN CHILE*-*Some 5400 years ago, about the time humans were inventing writing, an alerce tree (_Fitzroya cupressoides_) may have started to grow here in the coastal mountains of present-day Chile. Sheltered in a cool, damp ravine, it avoided fires and logging that claimed many others of its kind, and it grew into a grizzled giant more than 4 meters across. Much of the trunk died, part of the crown fell away, and the tree became festooned with mosses, lichens, and even other trees that took root in its crevices.


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## ekim68

Flying reptile: Remains of scary prehistoric creature discovered



> Fossilized remains from a giant flying reptile the size of a bus have been discovered in Argentina.
> 
> The Dragon of Death, as scientists have dubbed the new species, hunted prey from Earth's skies around 86 million years ago.
> 
> When fully extended, its wings measured a massive nine metres (30 ft) from one tip to the other.


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## ekim68

Researchers sequenced the genome of one of Pompeii's ancient inhabitants



> We now also have a better idea of the man's origins. Comparing his DNA against 1,030 ancient and 471 present-day West Eurasian individuals, the research team concluded that some of his ancestors came from Anatolia, which is now mostly part of modern Turkey. He also had links to the island of Sardinia. However, he had the most genetic similarities with people who lived in and around Rome during Pompeii's destruction. That lends evidence to the suggestion that the Italian peninsula was a melting pot of racially diverse people at the height of the Roman Empire.


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## ekim68

The heat is on: Traces of fire uncovered dating back at least 800,000 years



> Scientists reveal an advanced, innovative method that they have developed and used to detect nonvisual traces of fire dating back at least 800,000 years -- one of the earliest known pieces of evidence for the use of fire. The newly developed technique may provide a push toward a more scientific, data-driven type of archaeology, but -- perhaps more importantly -- it could help us better understand the origins of the human story, our most basic traditions and our experimental and innovative nature.


----------



## ekim68

Archaeologists Rebury 'First-of-Its-Kind' Roman Villa



> Ruins of a sprawling ancient Roman villa discovered in the United Kingdom have been reburied, just one year after their discovery was announced.
> 
> Historic England, a government preservation organization, hopes the move will safeguard the "first-of-its-kind" archeological site for future generations, reports BBC News.


----------



## ekim68

Turkey's underground city of 20,000 people



> More than 85m beneath the famous fairy chimneys of Cappadocia lies a massive subterranean city that was in near-constant use for thousands of years.


----------



## ekim68

Bizarre new armored dinosaur species was a two-legged tank



> Armored dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus were mostly big, bulky animals that walked on four legs, but paleontologists have now discovered a bizarre relative the size of a dog that strutted around on two legs.


----------



## ekim68

Impact crater may be dinosaur killer's baby cousin



> When an asteroid slammed into what is now the Gulf of Mexico 66 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs, did it have a companion?
> 
> Was Earth bombarded on that terrible day by more than one space rock?
> 
> The discovery of what seems to be a second impact crater on the other side of the Atlantic, of a very similar age, is raising these questions.


----------



## ekim68

Luxurious 1,200-year-old mansion found in southern Israel



> Archaeologists unearthed a lavish 1,200-year-old estate in Israel's desert south that offers a unique glimpse of life for wealthy residents of the Negev region, the country's antiquities authority said Tuesday.
> 
> The discovery in the Bedouin town of Rahat dates to the early Islamic period in the 8th or 9th century, the authority said.
> 
> The luxury home is built around a courtyard and features four wings with several rooms for its residents. One lavish section features a marble hallway with stone floors and elaborate wall decorations. Archaeologists also found shards of decorated glass serving dishes.


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## ekim68

Skeleton of an 82-foot-long dinosaur was found in a man's backyard in Portugal. It could be the largest ever found in Europe.



> Earlier this month, paleontologists from Spain and Portugal worked at the site for over a week and they believe they have unearthed remains of the largest sauropod dinosaur to ever be found on the continent, according to the release. Sauropods are plant-eating, four-legged dinosaurs with long necks and tails. This dinosaur measured about 39 feet tall and 82 feet long.


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## ekim68

The ancient mounds of Louisiana



> Hundreds of ancient mounds are scattered all over Louisiana. The mounds hold clues—in the forms of artifacts like projectile points, pottery, axes, grinding stones, fired earth objects, and more—about the prehistoric cultures who lived there thousands of years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Toothy Triassic shrew crowned earliest known mammal



> Paleontologists have identified the earliest known mammal – a small shrew-like animal that lived about 225 million years ago. The species, known as Brasilodon, had previously been categorized differently, but new research reveals a distinctly mammalian tooth structure.


----------



## ekim68

Oldest known heart found preserved in 380-million-year-old fish fossil 



> Soft tissues don’t fossilize well, so most of the time scientists have to infer organ anatomy from just bones. But an unexpected treasure trove of new information has been discovered in Australia, with a 380-million-year-old fish fossil preserving the oldest heart ever found.


----------



## ekim68

Researchers rebuild the genome of the great-grandparent of all mammals 



> Some 180 million years ago, there lived an early mammal – built a lot like the guilty looking fella below – that became the earliest-known ancestor to all mammals on Earth, from the blue whale, to the camel, the rhino, the koala, and your good self.



*







*


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## ekim68

Pleistocene-Era Plant Revived from Siberian Permafrost



> A team of scientists claims that they’ve revived a plant from the Pleistocene era, which lived 32,000 to 28,000 years ago. _Silene stenophylla_ was revived after it had been ingested by an arctic ground squirrel roughly 32,000 years ago.


----------



## ekim68

This miracle plant was eaten into extinction 2,000 years ago—or was it?



> Silphion cured diseases and made food tasty, but Emperor Nero allegedly consumed the last stalk. Now, a Turkish researcher thinks he’s found a botanical survivor.


----------



## ekim68

Mashki Gate: Stunning ancient rock carvings found in Iraq



> Archaeologists in northern Iraq have made an exciting discovery - unearthing beautiful rock carvings that are about 2,700 years old.
> 
> They were found in Mosul by a US-Iraqi excavation team working to reconstruct the ancient Mashki Gate, which Islamic State (IS) militants destroyed in 2016.
> 
> Iraq is home to some of the world's most ancient cities, including Babylon.


----------



## ekim68

World's oldest complete star map, lost for millennia, found inside medieval manuscript



> Scholars may have just discovered a fragment of the world's oldest complete star map.
> 
> The map segment, which was found beneath the text on a sheet of medieval parchment, is thought to be a copy of the long-lost star catalog of the second century B.C. Greek astronomer Hipparchus, who made the earliest known attempt to chart the entire night sky. The fragment was concealed beneath nine leaves, or folios, of the religious Codex Climaci Rescriptus at St. Catherine's Monastery in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.


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## valis

Holy cow....that is cool as all get out.


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## ekim68

Ancient Rome: Stunningly preserved bronze statues found in Italy


----------



## ekim68

‘Iceman’ discovery wasn’t a freak event. More frozen mummies may await



> Later dubbed Ötzi after the Ötztal Valley nearby, the man’s body is the oldest known “ice mummy” on record. His physical condition, equipment, and violent death—confirmed when x-ray and CT scans revealed an arrowhead embedded in his shoulder—have opened a window on life in prehistoric Europe. But Ötzi’s preservation may not be as unusual as it first seemed, archaeologists argue in a paper published today. And that could mean more bodies from the distant past are waiting to emerge as ice melts in a warming climate.


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## ekim68

Earliest evidence of humans cooking with fire dates back 780,000 years



> Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of humans cooking food through the controlled use of fire, dating to almost 800,000 years ago. An archeological site in Israel contains fish remains that, on closer examination, show clear signs of having been cooked.


----------



## ekim68

Scientists discover giant turtle the size of a VW Beetle in Spain



> Paleontologists have discovered the fossil remains of one of the largest turtles that ever lived. Measuring about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, it roamed the seas of Europe during the age of the dinosaurs.


----------



## ekim68

Australia's first complete plesiosaur fossil discovered in outback Queensland



> Dr Knutsen said the discovery, believed to be around 100 million years old, would enhance understanding about the evolution and diversity of the species.


----------



## ekim68

Fossil site reveals giant arthropods dominated the seas 470 million years ago



> Discoveries at a major new fossil site in Morocco suggest giant arthropods – relatives of modern creatures including shrimps, insects and spiders – dominated the seas 470 million years ago.


----------



## ekim68

Feline genetics help pinpoint first-ever domestication of cats, MU study finds



> Cat genes reveal how invention of agriculture bonded cats with people in ancient Mesopotamia, leading to worldwide feline migration with humans.


----------

