Discovery & Weird News

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Archaeologists find 19th-century military base hidden beneath Alcatraz prison

Shivali Best

IWatch: Laser scans reveal military tunnel underneath Alcatraz (Geobeats)

It’s one of the most infamous prisons in history, and now it seems that Alcatraz may have some hidden secrets.

Researchers from Binghamton University have discovered a 19th century military base hidden beneath Alcatraz prison.

Using high-tech radar and laser scans, the team discovered historical remains, including a ‘bombproof’ earthwork traverse, as well as a vaulted brick masonry tunnel.

Timothy de Smet, who led the study, said: “The remains of these historical archaeology features were just a few centimetres beneath the surface and they were miraculously and impeccably preserved.

© De Agostini Editorial UNITED STATES - JANUARY 26: Aerial view of Alcatraz Island with The Rock, maximum security federal penitentiary from 1934 to 1963, San Francisco Bay, California, United States of America. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

“The concrete veneer of the Recreation Yard floor is incredibly thin and, in fact, in places sitting directly atop the architecture from the 1860s.

“We also learned that some of the earthwork traverses were covered over with thin concrete layers through time, likely to decrease erosion on the rainy windy island.

“It was wonderful to find the history just beneath our feet that we can visualise for the public.”

© Timothy de Smet The team used high-tech radars and lasers

Most tourists visit Alcatraz to explore its prison, and are unaware that the island used to be home to a 19th century coastal fort.

Mr de Smet said: “The area was essentially bulldozed from the former military installation to the modern prison we see today.

“In converting the area to a prison, the vast majority of the previous military history of the island had been erased, but we wondered if perhaps something of that significant time in both the islands and American history remained, but buried and preserved beneath the subsurface.”

© AP A man stands on a pier as Alcatraz Island looms in the background.

By using radars and lasers, the researchers were able to assess the area without having to dig it up.

Mr de Smet added: “With modern remote sensing methods like these, we can answer fundamental archaeological research questions about human behaviour, social organisation and cultural change through time without costly and destructive excavation, thereby preserving these non-renewable archaeological resources in the ground - or in situ as we say in the field - for future generations.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/archaeologists-find-19th-century-military-base-hidden-beneath-alcatraz-prison/ar-BBUflZD

 

 

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Woolly mammoth tooth from 40,000 years ago found in rock 'where it shouldn't be'

Jim Hardy

© 2019 Andrew Hasson BILLINGSHURST, ENGLAND - JANUARY 14: A family of taxidermied woolly mammoths photographed ahead of their appearance at an auction at Summers Place Auction House on January 14, 2019,in Billingshurst, England. The mammoths, which once belonged to a museum in Barcelona, will appear as part of the biggest collection of ice-age animals to appear at auction. (Photo by Andrew Hasson/Getty Images)

A schoolboy was shocked when he found a mammoth tooth dating back 40,000 years.

The eight-year-old, named only as Sebastian, was with other fossil hunters scouring the cliff-face rocks along so-called Jurassic Coast in Dorset.

The boy was taking part in one of Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre's fossil walks on Charmouth Beach when young Seb found the tooth, from a 15ft tall woolly mammoth.

 

© WESSEX NEWS AGENCY Sebastian found a fossilised tooth bigger than his fist at the cliff-face rocks along so-called Jurassic Coast in Dorset

Bigger than elephants, they plodded about during the Ice Age but gradually died out and became extinct.

Alison Ferris, the centre's deputy senior warden, said: "It is an unusual find because our layers here are Jurassic, approximately 200 million years old, and mammoths are obviously not Jurassic.

"The tooth would have washed out from possibly the river from now-eroded layers from the last Ice Ages.

"As part of the West Dorset Fossil Collecting Code, it is an important find because it is rare for this area.

"We usually find Jurassic fossils here from a marine environment, whereas this fossil represents a whole different terrestrial environment in a different age.

"It helps to piece together a little more of what Dorset could have been like thousands of years ago and what kind of animals were living here.

© WESSEX NEWS AGENCY The eight-year-old schoolboy found the tooth at Charmouth, Dorset

"We can't be sure where the tooth came from - if it has travelled down the river, how far?

"But other Ice Age fossils have been found locally, such as the Honiton Hippo, so we know these animals would have been roaming in Dorset and Devon.

"It is great that anyone can help find these fossils and Sebastian did so in a safe place, following the collecting code of conduct.

"You don't have to be a professional collector to make these amazing discoveries."

© MAURICIO ANTON The tooth could be from a 15ft tall woolly mammoth, according to Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre expert

Sebastian decided to retain his find and a photo of the tooth was sent to the centre's Ice Age fossil expert, who said that although it was difficult to tell the exact age, it was likely around 40,000 years old.

Professor Danielle Schreve, Royal Holloway University of London and patron of Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, said "It is part of a mammoth molar - I think eight enamel plates although it is hard to tell from the photo.

"It is very battered and worn so I am afraid I can't say more as to whether it is an upper or lower tooth, or indeed which tooth it is.

"However, it is definitely a woolly mammoth, Mammuthus primigenius, and therefore, although it could be as old as 180,000 years, the first appearance of this species in Britain, it is much more likely to date to the period between 60,000 and 25,000 years ago, the Middle Devensian, when these animals were very common in Britain, and 40,000 years old would, therefore, be a reasonable estimate."

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/woolly-mammoth-tooth-from-40000-years-ago-found-in-rock-where-it-shouldnt-be/ar-BBUknlP?ocid=chromentp

 

 

Edited March 4, 2019 by CaaC - John

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Maya ritual cave ‘untouched’ for 1,000 years stuns archaeologists

Gena Steffens

Archaeologists hunting for a sacred well beneath the ancient Maya city of Chichén Itzá on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula have accidentally discovered a trove of more than 150 ritual objects—untouched for more than a thousand years—in a series of cave chambers that may hold clues to the rise and fall of the ancient Maya. The discovery of the cave system, known as Balamku or “Jaguar God,” was announced by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in a press conference held today in Mexico City.

 

After its initial discovery by farmers in 1966, Balamku was visited by archaeologist Víctor Segovia Pinto, who wrote up a report noting the presence of an extensive amount of archaeological material. But instead of excavating the site, Segovia then directed the farmers to seal up the entrance, and all records of the discovery of the cave seemed to vanish

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Balamku remained sealed for more than 50 years until it was reopened in 2018 by National Geographic Explorer Guillermo de Anda and his team of investigators from the Great Maya Aquifer Project during their search for the water table beneath Chichén Itzá. Exploration of the system was funded in part by a grant from the National Geographic Society.

©Reuters  Archaeologist Guillermo de Anda observes a pre-Hispanic artefact at Balamku cave, located in the archaeological site of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico

De Anda recalls pulling himself on his stomach through the tight tunnels of Balamku for hours before his headlamp illuminated something entirely unexpected: A cascade of offerings left by the ancient residents of Chichén Itzá, so perfectly preserved and untouched that stalagmites had formed around the incense burners, vases, decorated plates, and other objects in the cavern.

“I couldn’t speak, I started to cry. I’ve analyzed human remains in [Chichén Itzá’s] Sacred Cenote, but nothing compares to the sensation I had entering, alone, for the first time in that cave,” says de Anda, who is an investigator with INAH and director of the Great Maya Aquifer Project, which seeks to explore, understand, and protect the aquifer of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

© Reuters A pre-Hispanic artefact is seen at Balamku cave

“You almost feel the presence of the Maya who deposited these things in there,” he adds.

An unprecedented second chance

To access just the first of seven ritual offering chambers identified so far within Balamku, archaeologists must crawl flat on their stomachs through hundreds of feet of tortuously narrow passages. In the original report on the cave (recently located by archaeologist and GAM investigator James Brady of California State University, Los Angeles), Segovia identified 155 artefacts, some with faces of Toltec rain god Tláloc, and others with markings of the sacred ceiba tree, a potent representation of the Maya universe. In comparison, the nearby cave of Balankanché, a ritual site excavated in 1959, contains just 70 of these objects.

“Balamku appears to be the ‘mother’ of Balankanché,” says de Anda. “I don’t want to say that quantity is more important than information, but when you see that there are many, many offerings in a cave that is also much more difficult to access, this tells us something.”

Why Segovia would decide to seal up such a phenomenal discovery is still a matter of debate. But in doing so, he inadvertently provided researchers with an unprecedented “second chance” to answer some of the most perplexing questions that continue to stir controversy among Mayanists today, such as such as the level of contact and influence exchanged between different Mesoamerican cultures, and what was going on in the Maya world prior to the fall of Chichén Itzá.

Entrances to the Underworld

“For the ancient Maya, caves, and cenotes [sinkoles] were considered openings to the underworld,” says Holley Moyes, a University of California, Merced expert on the archaeology and religious use of Maya caves who was not a part of the project. “They represent some of the most sacred spaces for the Maya, ones that also influenced site planning and social organization. They are fundamental, hugely important, to the Maya experience.”

But until the concept of cave archaeology began to take shape in the 1980s, archaeologists were more interested in monumental architecture and intact artefacts than they were in analyzing the residues and materials found in and around objects. When Balankanché was excavated in 1959, caves were still mapped by hand in the dark and artefacts were routinely removed from their sites, cleaned, and later put back. Of all the incense burners found in Balankanché that were filled with material that could have provided definitive evidence related to the chronology of the site, for instance, only one was ever analyzed.

Investigators of the Great Maya Aquifer Project see the (re)discovery of Balamku as a chance to implement a totally new model of cave archaeology, one that employs cutting-edge technology and specialized fields such as 3-D mapping and palaeobotany. These new insights could give us a much more detailed idea of what was actually occurring in Maya cave rituals, as well as the history of the great city of Chichén Itzá, which declined for unknown reasons in the 13th century.

“Balamku can tell us not only the moment of collapse of Chichén Itzá,” says de Anda. “It can also probably tell us the moment of its beginning. Now, we have a sealed context, with a great quantity of information, including useable organic matter, that we can use to understand the development of Chichén Itzá.”

© Getty CHICHEN ITZA, MEXICO

Further study of the site will also shed light on the intimate details of the catastrophic droughts that likely provoked the collapse of the Maya civilization. While this area has always been prone to drastic cycles of climate variability, some researchers have suggested that excessive deforestation in the Maya lowlands, which was once home to some 10-15 million people, could have exacerbated the problem and made the entire region uninhabitable.

Understanding these past cycles can have an added benefit for modern life as well, says National Geographic archaeologist-in-residence Fredrik Hiebert. “By studying these caves and cenotes, it’s possible to learn some lessons for how to best use the environment today, in terms of sustainability for the future.”

In this sense, de Anda believes archaeology has the potential to become a much more “useful” science.

“It’s always been considered the opposite—a beautiful and interesting field of science, but without a great deal of utility,” he says. “I think that here, we will be able to demonstrate the contrary because when we begin to understand these marvellous contexts, we can understand the footprints of humankind’s past, and what was happening on Earth during one of the most dramatic moments in history.”

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/maya-ritual-cave-untouched-for-1000-years-stuns-archaeologists/ar-BBUnVGW?ocid=chromentp

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The anchor has been found from a 1641 British shipwreck. Where is the 100,000 pounds of gold?

Kristin Lam

A fishing crew in the United Kingdom recently caught a link to buried treasure: an anchor from a 17th-century shipwreck carrying precious metals worth more than 1 billion British pounds.   

Found in a fishing vessel’s net 20 miles south of Land’s End, Cornwall, British media outlets report the anchor is believed to be from the Merchant Royal. A merchant ship that sank in 1641, it held 100,000 pounds of gold and 400 bars of Mexican silver when it disappeared.

Known as the “El Dorado of the seas,” the Telegraph reported the ship went down near the Isles of Scilly after hitting bad weather returning to Britain from Mexico. Experts identified the anchor by its size and age, Cornwall Live reported.

While the anchor gives a clue to where the world’s possibly most valuable shipwreck lies, a treasure hunter told inews.co.uk that amateurs would face danger searching for it. Mark Milburn, who regularly visits shipwrecks around the Cornish coast, said explorers need equipment and expertise to dive 300 feet to get to the Merchant Royal.

Any treasure hauls will need to be reported to the British government because the ship lies in state waters. A diver could end up keeping the treasure under salvage rights, but Milburn told the British outlet a license is required.

As for the anchor, Milburn said he is working with the fishing crew to store the anchor and preserve it. Milburn told the British outlet he can determine the anchor’s exact age in fresh water.

The Merchant Royal wouldn’t be the first treasure-laden shipwreck found recently in the U.K. Last year, divers found the remains of a British ship carrying diamonds and pearls from India, the Daily Mail reported. In 1684, it also sank in a storm off the coast of Cornwall.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/the-anchor-has-been-found-from-a-1641-british-shipwreck-wheres-the-100000-pounds-of-gold/ar-BBUCsJg?ocid=chromentp

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Edited March 11, 2019 by CaaC - John

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Orange-bellied 'Starry Dwarf Frog' discovered in Indian mountains

Nicola Davis

Video >> https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/orange-bellied-starry-dwarf-frog-discovered-in-indian-mountains/ar-BBUGADi?ocid=chromentp

An orange-bellied frog with a brown back, covered in tiny spots that resemble a starry sky, has been discovered in a mountain range in India, surprising researchers who said its ancestors branched off on the evolutionary tree from other members of the same frog family tens of millions of years ago.

The frog, which is about 2cm to 3cm long, has been named Astrobatrachus kurichiyana, although some might prefer its more rock-star sobriquet: “Starry Dwarf Frog.”

Dr Alex Pyron, a co-author of the study into the frog by George Washington University, said: “Astrobatrachus is from the Greek for star frog, and so we named it after the spots that sort of look like stars, and kurichiyana is the name of the local peoples in this area where it was found.”

© PA Astrobatrachus kurichiyana was found in the Western Ghats mountain range by Indian and US researchers.

Writing in the journal PeerJ, the team of researchers from the US and India said they first came across the creatures in 2010 while exploring a hill range called Kurichiyarmala in India’s Western Ghats mountain range.

The researchers explained they were working at night to survey amphibians and reptiles when they spotted the frogs on the forest floor and in adjacent grassland, adding that they were generally found lurking beneath leaf litter.

“Because individuals were secretive and difficult to spot, sampling involved an intensive search of the forest floor,” the authors wrote. “Individuals were found to be shy of torchlight and, upon disturbance, made quick hopping movements to hide.”

The team said the frog’s appearance was unusual. “When [the others] first saw it, they immediately knew that it was something unusual that hadn’t been seen before,” Pyron said.

Through a genetic analysis, the team said they worked out the Starry Dwarf Frog was not only a new species, but the sole member of a whole new subfamily of frogs within the Nyctibatrachidae family.

“It may have had other relatives in the past that have since died out, but this is the sole living representative,” Pyron said.

The team said it was an example of an “ancient lineage”, with the last common ancestor of the Starry Dwarf Frog and its closest living species thought to have lived somewhere in the region of 57m–76m years ago.

“It fills in a gap in our knowledge of what the ancient history of frogs in India looked like,” said Pyron, adding that it increased the period of time for which ancestors of the Nyctibatrachidae frog family have been in the area.

The team said other frogs in the area also have an ancient lineage, and the biodiversity in the Western Ghats is down to a combination of factors, including the broad diversity of species present when India broke away from other parts of the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, as well as the wide range of habitats provided by mountain ranges.

“Having an ancient tropical mountain range like the Western Ghats is relatively rare, there are only a few places like that, so they tend to harbour very ancient, very diverse and very rich assemblages of plants and animals,” Pyron said.

 

 

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World's oldest ship's bell and astrolabe discovered in 516-year-old Portuguese wreck off Oman

Henry Bodkin

© Warwick University A gunmetal disc excavated from the wreck site of Portuguese Armada Ship Esmeralda identified as a rare mariner’s astrolabe

The world’s oldest ship’s bell has been discovered by a British team of scientists following recovery from the 516-year-old wreck of a Portuguese vessel found off Oman.

Guinness World Records have verified the artifact, along with a rare type of early navigation device, as the oldest of its type after marine archaeologists and historians identified the stricken ship as one involved in the pioneering days of East Indies exploration.

Commanded by the uncle of the famous explorer Vasco da Gama, the heavily armed Esmeralda was supposed to protect Portuguese trading posts during the nation’s fourth Armada to India, which set off from Lisbon in 1502.

Instead, captain Vicente Sodre sailed his vessel to the Gulf of Aden in order to loot and burn Arab shipping.

His ship, along with one other in the squadron, was sunk when a sudden storm tore them from their moorings and dashed them against the rocks in 1503.

The wreck was surveyed by a UK-based team in 2013 and the fractured bell subsequently found nearby under a boulder.

Tests revealed the bell bore an inscription including the date of 1498.

It was found alongside a rare example of an astrolabe, an early navigation device, which has also been certified as the oldest of its type in the world, dated 1496.

The thin 175 mm diameter disk weighing 344 grams was analysed by a team from the University of Warwick who traveled to Muscat in November 2016 to collect laser scans of a selection of the most important artefacts recovered from the wreck site.

Astrolabes are considered to be the rarest and most prized of artefacts to be found on ancient shipwrecks, with only 104 known examples in the world.

Prof Mark Williams said: “Using 3D scanning technology has enabled us to confirm the identity of the earliest known astrolabe, from this historians and scientists can determine more about history and how ships navigated.

“Using technology normally applied within engineering projects to help shed insight into such a valuable artefact was a real privilege.”

The artifacts were discovered by David Mearns of Blue Water Recoveries, the oceanographer who in 2001 located the wreck of the Second World War Royal Navy battleship HMS Hood, and Bismark, the German ship which sunk it.

“Without the laser scanning work performed by WMG [Warwick] we would never have known that the scale marks, which were invisible to the naked eye, existed,” he said.

“Their analysis proved beyond doubt that the disk was a mariner’s astrolabe.

“This has allowed us to confidently place the Sodré astrolabe in its correct chronological position and propose it to be an important transitional instrument.”

Until these new discoveries, the oldest official ship's bell was dated 1509 and carried aboard the Mary Rose, which sunk in the Solent in 1545, meanwhile, the oldest known astrolabe was from another Portuguese shipwreck, tentatively identified as the Bom Jesus that sank in 1533 off the coast of Namibia.

They are described in a study published in The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology. 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/worlds-oldest-ships-bell-and-astrolabe-discovered-in-516-year-old-portuguese-wreck-off-oman/ar-BBUTzEw

 

 

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Ancient bird that died 110-million-years-ago is found perfectly preserved with an egg inside its body

Victoria Bell For Mailonline

© Provided by Associated Newspapers Limited The 'first ever' bird fossil with an egg preserved inside the body (pictured) has been discovered. Scientists say that the 'incredibly well preserved' find, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs, sheds new light on the…

The 'first ever' bird fossil with an egg preserved inside the body has been discovered.

Scientists say that the 'incredibly well preserved' find, dating back to the time of the dinosaurs, sheds new light on the reproduction of birds.

The specimen, representing a new species called Avimaia schweitzerae, was discovered in 110-million-year-old deposits in north western China.

It belongs to a group called the Enantiornithes - 'opposite birds' - which were common all around the world during the Cretaceous Period and lived alongside the dinosaurs.

But scientists discovered a further tragic secret - the egg may have killed the 'mother bird'.

The discovery was made by a team of scientists led by Doctor Alida Bailleul and Doctor Jingmai O'Connor from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Dr Bailleul said: 'The new fossil is incredibly well preserved, including the remains of an egg inside its abdomen.

'Because the specimen is crushed flat, it was only after a small fragment was extracted and analysed under the microscope that the team realised that the unusual tissue was an egg.

'Detailed analysis of the eggshell fragment revealed a number of interesting facts indicating the reproductive system of this female bird was not behaving normally.

'The egg shell consists of two layers instead of one as in normal healthy bird eggs, indicating the egg was retained too long inside the abdomen.

'This condition often occurs in living birds as a result of stress. The unlaid egg then gets coated in a second layer - or sometimes more - of eggshell.

'This abnormality has also been documented in sauropod dinosaurs, as well as in many fossil and living turtles.

'In addition, the eggshell preserved in Avimaia was extremely thin - thinner than a sheet of paper - and did not show the correct proportions of healthy eggs.'

© Provided by Associated Newspapers Limited The specimen, representing a new species called Avimaia schweitzerae, was discovered in 110-million-year-old deposits in north western China. The female dead in the water on the left with an unlaid egg not visible inside its abdomen in this artist's impression  represents the fossilised bird

'These abnormalities suggest that the preserved egg may have been the cause of death of this 'mother bird', said Dr Bailleul.

'Egg-binding, in which the egg becomes stuck inside the body causing death, is a serious and lethal condition that is fairly common in small birds undergoing stress.

'Despite being malformed, the egg is excellently preserved, including parts of the eggshell that are rarely seen in the fossil record, such as traces of the egg membrane and the cuticle, which are mostly made of proteins and other organic materials.'

Scanning electron microscopy revealed that the cuticle - the outer most protective layer of the eggshell - was made up of very small spherules of minerals.

This type of cuticle morphology would be expected for birds that partially bury their eggs, as it has already been proposed to be the case for enantiornithines.

'Finding this morphology in Avimaia also supports the hypothesis that a cuticle with protective spherules represents the ancestral condition for avian eggs, said Dr O'Connor.

'Female birds about to lay eggs deposit a unique bone tissue found inside the empty spaces of their skeleton, which serves as a calcium reservoir for the developing eggshell.'

Some researchers have argued that this tissue, called medullary bone, is present in other bird fossils, as well as some non-avian dinosaurs and pterosaurs.

But the research team said some of the identifications were ambiguous. 

Analysis of a fragment of leg bone from the new specimen revealed the presence of medullary bone.

'Avimaia is the only Mesozoic fossil in which additional morphological evidence of reproductive activity - i.e. the egg - supports the identification of medullary bone.

'The preserved egg allows the specimen to be unequivocally identified as female, Dr O'Connor added.

'This new specimen is arguably one of the most interesting Cretaceous fossil birds yet discovered, providing more reproductive information than any other Mesozoic fossil bird.'

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/ancient-bird-that-died-110-million-years-ago-is-found-perfectly-preserved-with-an-egg-inside-its-body/ar-BBV0fKR

 

 

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Spectacular new fossil bonanza captures explosion of early life

Michael Greshko

© Photograph by Ao Sun Frozen in time, a distant relative of modern jellyfish is preserved down to its bell and tentacles.

A wealth of ancient remains found by chance on the banks of a river in China are some of the most astoundingly preserved fossils now known on Earth, researchers report today in the journal Science.

The 518-million-year-old site, called Qingjiang, joins just a few places around the world where fossil preservation is so extraordinary, it captures even soft-bodied animals. Called Lagerstätten, these special types of deposits include Canada's famous Burgess shale, which dates to 507 million years ago, and China's Chengjiang locality, which formed at about the same time as Qingjiang but in shallower waters.

“Most fossil localities throughout all of time are going to preserve the shelly things, the hard things ... [but] what these localities give you is anatomy,” says Harvard paleontologist Joanna Wolfe, an expert on Cambrian life who wasn't involved in the study. “These are the best of the best.”

 

© Illustration by Dongjing Fu

This drawing of the Qingjiang biota illustrates how scientists think the fossils were preserved. More than half a billion years ago, creatures living near the top of a muddy slope enjoyed higher oxygen levels, while deeper waters lacked oxygen. As mud flowed down the slope, animals caught in the mix were quickly buried, their decomposition slowed by the low-oxygen waters.

So far, researchers have identified 101 animal species in the remains, and more than half of them are brand-new to science. “I can see a bright future,” says lead study author Dongjing Fu, a paleontologist at Northwest University in Xi'an, China. “Qingjiang will be the next Burgess shale.”

The discovery adds substantially to our knowledge of the early Cambrian period, when animal life exploded onto the scene in spectacular fashion. In just a few tens of millions of years, complex marine ecosystems sprung up all around the world, teeming with creatures that form the base of today's major animal groups. It's thought that many factors triggered this unprecedented radiation of species—from new shallow marine habitats to the evolution of DNA regulation, which enabled the formation of segmented body plans.

© Photograph by Yang Zhao

Researchers argue that the newfound animal Daihua sanqiong is an ancestral comb jelly, based in part on the rows of hairlike projections on its tentacles.

“To find a site where over half is brand-new is pretty unexpected—we felt that we had a pretty good handle on diversity at this time,” says University of Lausanne paleontologist Allison Daley, an expert on Cambrian creatures who wasn't involved with the study. “It's really, really exciting!”

Gulliver's (Time) Travels

Fu and her coauthor Xingliang Zhang, Fu's former Ph.D. advisor, found the site in the summer of 2007 while combing through the rocks of northwestern China for fossil material. Fighting the summer heat, Fu and Zhang were walking along a river when they happened to see some promising shale on the riverbank. When they started digging, they immediately found an eye-catching fossil: Leanchoilia, a shrimp-like creature known from other Cambrian sites.

Now, after four field seasons, Fu and Zhang's team has a pretty good sense of what it'd be like to go back in time and swim through this ecosystem. For one, the jaunt into the past might feel like an undersea version of Gulliver's Travels—you'd by far be the biggest animal in the deep. Life at Qingjiang topped out at about six inches long, if that.

As you floated along, a rich undersea drama would play out in front of you. Trilobites would scuttle across the ocean floor past primitive sea anemones gripping the bottom with their fleshy holdfasts. Branching algae and about 20 varieties of sponges, all different colors and sizes, would add living texture to the scene. And wormlike creatures called lobopodia would clamber by, wriggling across the seafloor on their stubby legs.

1/4 SLIDES © Photograph by Ao Sun

THE QINGJIANG SITE PRESERVES EVEN THE TINIEST DETAILS OF THIS COMB JELLY, INCLUDING THE "COMB ROWS" DOWN ITS SIDES.

2/4 SLIDES © Photograph by Ao Sun

THIS FOSSIL LEANCHOILIA PRESERVES FINE ANATOMICAL DETAILS, INCLUDING ITS LARGEST APPENDAGES.

3/4 SLIDES © Photograph by Ao Sun

THIS NEWFOUND ARTHROPOD HAS PRESERVED INTERNAL SOFT TISSUES.

4/4 SLIDES © Photograph by Ao Sun

THIS CREATURE MAY BE RELATED TO TODAY'S KINORHYNCHS, TINY MARINE INVERTEBRATES ALSO CALLED MUD DRAGONS. BUT UNLIKE TODAY'S MILLIMETER-SIZE MUD DRAGONS, THIS ANIMAL IS NEARLY AN INCH LONG.

Occasionally, some creature buried in the sediment would pop its head up, only to retreat into its protective subterranean lair. And then, just as you least expect it, the ecosystem's odd-looking apex predator would dart by: Anomalocaris, a creature with mouthparts that look like side-by-side shrimp. Jellyfish would hypnotically drift in the waters as comb jellies flit by, the rows of hairlike combs on their sides glittering like rainbows.

Soft bodies, hard questions

Qingjiang's exquisite comb jelly fossils could help scientists further unravel an evolutionary mystery that's been raging for years: Where do these unusual animals, which still exist today, fit on the tree of life?

Though comb jellies superficially resemble true jellyfish, the two sets of squishy blobs aren't direct relatives and might be only faintly related. Early work suggested that sponges were the most simple, ancient offshoot of the animal family tree, with comb jellies later forking from the line that yielded jellyfish and, eventually, us.

But for the last decade or so, DNA analyses have suggested that comb jellies are a more removed family member than even sponges. If so, does that mean the comb jelly nervous system evolved independently from the ones seen in jellyfish and humans? To help resolve this debate, it's helpful to have detailed fossils from this early time period, but they'd have to be good enough to preserve a comb jelly's goopy, ghostly form—which is where Lagerstätten sites come in.

In independent work publishing today in Current Biology, other paleontologists make the claim that previously known Cambrian sites, such as the Chengjiang locality and the Burgess shale, contain fossils of the most ancestral comb jellies. If they're right, the ur-comb jelly isn't what anyone expected: a flower-shaped filter-feeder that anchored itself to the seafloor.

“Looking at these fossils and just seeing how they all fit together—the plot was just thickening,” says study coauthor Jakob Vinther, a paleobiologist at the University of Bristol. “That was one of those rare eureka moments that you can only dream of as a scientist.”

Protecting the past

The researchers argue that new fossils from Chengjiang, such as the filter-feeder Daihua, show some traits of a comb jelly, including rows of hairlike projections called cilia. And when they compared the new fossils with Dinomischus—an enigmatic creature recovered from the Burgess shale—they came to a startling conclusion: Dinomischus and the new fossils are not only related, but they also represent the close cousins of the comb jellies' common ancestors. If so, comb jellies would fall closer to the jellyfish branch on the tree of life than previously thought.

For now, experts on modern comb jellies are treating Vinther's claims with caution.

“This paper strikes me as seeing the webbed feet and bill of a platypus and saying it must be a duck, [despite the fact that] it doesn't fly like a duck, or quack like a duck,” says Steven Haddock, a biologist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. “To those familiar with modern comb jellies, the purported correspondence with [these] fossils is equally fanciful.”

Vinther welcomes the debate, adding that the newest fossil trove at Qingjiang could help improve the picture: “It’s a Pandora’s box, every time we find a new site like this. There's still many gaps, there's still many weird wonders.”

Fortunately for Vinther and other paleontologists, Fu's team there has only just scratched the surface. “For now, we just have thousands of fossils, but for Chengjiang and the Burgess shale, they have hundreds of thousands,” she says.

To ensure that Qingjiang can enjoy the same longevity of Canada's Burgess shale—which has been studied since the 1900s—researchers are already taking steps to protect the site. Fu says that discussions are underway with the local government to protect Qingjiang in similar fashion as Chengjiang, which is both a Chinese protected area and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/spectacular-new-fossil-bonanza-captures-explosion-of-early-life/ar-BBV54fP?ocid=chromentp

 

 

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Edited March 22, 2019 by CaaC - John

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2,000-Year-Old Bread That Was Found Amid Pompeii's Volcanic Ashes

The excavations of Pompeii’s ruins have revealed great works of art and objects that provide important information about the city’s final days. They have also turned up 2,000-year-old bread.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/2000-year-old-bread-that-was-found-amid-pompeiis-volcanic-ashes/vi-BBV7Zuu

 

 

[Cicero]

Well was it good?

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Mystery 520 million-year-old sea creature with 18 tentacles discovered

Danya Bazaraa

© Yang Zhao TAKEN FROM THE INTERNET WITHOUT PERMISSION caption: 520-Million-Year-Old Sea Monster Had 18 Mouth Tentacles LINK: https://www.livescience.com/65049-ancient-creature-18-tentacles.html Credit: Yang Zhao

A mystery sea creature believed to be at least 518 million years old has been discovered by scientists. 

The fossil has 18 tentacles coming out of its mouth and has been described as resembling a modern day comb jellyfish- with experts saying it could be its 'relative'.

It's covered in fine, feather-like branches said to be used to catch prey.

The extinct creature was spotted by a team of scientists who were exploring waters in China. It has been dubbed 'Daihua sanqiong'.

Lead researcher Jakob Vinther, from Bristol University, told Live Science : "With fossils, we have been able to find out what the bizarre comb jellies originated from.

"Even though we now can show they came from a very sensible place, it doesn't make them any less weird."

© Jakob Vinther A magnified shot of the creature

© Xiaodong Wang The sea creature has tiny hairs used to catch prey

"To make a long story short, we were able to reconstruct the whole [early] lineage of comb jellies," by doing anatomical comparisons, Vinther added.

It is believed by some that some of the ancestors of comb jellies had skeletons and that their tentacles involved into the hairy 'combs' seen today, the report says.

The creature was discovered by study co-researcher Xianguang Hou, a paleobiologist at Yunnan University.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/mystery-520-million-year-old-sea-creature-with-18-tentacles-discovered/ar-BBVbNmt

 

 

[nudge]

2 minutes ago, CaaC - John said:

The fossil has 18 tentacles coming out of its mouth

[CaaC (John)+]

22 minutes ago, CaaC - John said:

The fossil has 18 tentacles coming out of its mouth 

 

18 minutes ago, nudge said:

  

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Aztec war sacrifices found in Mexico may point to an elusive royal tomb

By David Alire Garcia

© Thomson Reuters The 500-year-old interior of a stone box shows an Aztec offering including a set of black flint knives decorated to represent warriors with carved pearl, jade and green stone and used by priests in ritual sacrifices, in Mexico City, Mexico March 14, 2019. Picture taken March 14, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Romero

MEXICO CITY, March 25 (Reuters) - A trove of Aztec sacrifices including a richly adorned jaguar dressed as a warrior and recently discovered in downtown Mexico City could lead archaeologists to the most tantalizing find yet: an Aztec emperor's tomb.

Discovered off the steps of the Aztec's holiest temple during the reign of the empire's most powerful ruler, the sacrificial offerings also include a young boy, dressed to resemble the Aztec war god and solar deity, and a set of flint knives elaborately decorated with mother of pearl and precious stones.

The offerings were deposited by Aztec priests over five centuries ago in a circular, ritual platform once located in front of the temple where the earliest historical accounts describe the final resting place of Aztec kings.

None of these details have been reported before and such a discovery would mark a first since no Aztec royal burial has yet been found despite decades of digging.

"We have enormous expectations right now," lead archeologist Leonardo Lopez Lujan told Reuters. "As we go deeper we think we'll continue finding very rich objects."

The jaguar offering, found in a large rectangular stone box in what would have been the center of the circular platform, has stirred particular excitement.

Only about one-tenth of the box's contents has been excavated, but already a wide array of artifacts has been found near the top, including a spear thrower and a carved wooden disk placed on the feline's back that was the emblem of the Aztec patron deity Huitzilopochtli, the war and sun god.

A layer of aquatic offerings placed on top of the west-facing jaguar have also been identified, including a large amount of shells, bright red starfish and coral that likely represented the watery underworld the Aztecs believed the sun traveled through at night before emerging in the east to begin a new day.

A roseate spoonbill, a pink bird from the flamingo family, has also been found in the offering. It was associated with warriors and rulers, and thought to represent their spirits in their descent into the underworld.

"There's an enormous amount of coral that's blocking what we can see below," said archeologist Miguel Baez, part of the team excavating the offerings at the base of the temple, known today as the Templo Mayor, located just off Mexico City's bustling Zocalo plaza.

The Templo Mayor would have been as high as a 15-story pyramid before it was razed along with the rest of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan after the 1521 Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Expanded by each Aztec king, the shrine was believed to be at the center of the universe and was crowned with two smaller temples, one on the north side dedicated to the rain god Tlaloc and one on the south to Huitzilopochtil.

The latest offerings all align with the southern temple.

WARRIOR SOCIETY

Several decades after the conquest, chroniclers detailed the burial rites of three Aztec kings, all brothers who ruled from 1469 to 1502.

According to these accounts, the rulers' cremated remains were deposited with luxurious offerings and the hearts of sacrificed slaves in or near the circular platform.

In 2006, a massive monolith of the Aztec earth goddess was discovered nearby with an inscription corresponding to the year 1502, which is when the empire's greatest ruler and the last of the brothers, Ahuitzotl, died.

Elizabeth Boone, an ancient Mexico specialist at Tulane University, notes that Ahuitzotl's death would have been marked with lavish memorizing and that the jaguar may represent the king as a fearless warrior.

"You could have Ahuitzotl in that box," she said.

A smaller stone box next to the jaguar offering containing a top layer of copal bars, used by Aztec priests for incense, has also been identified, though it too has only been partially excavated as both were only opened earlier this year.

Next to it another stone box has been found containing 21 flint knives decorated to resemble warriors, including the same war god disk but made of mother of pearl, as well as a miniature wooden spear thrower and shield.

Finally, an adjacent circular offering holds an approximately 9-year-old sacrificed boy found with a wooden war god disk, a jade bead necklace and wings made from hawk bones and attached to his shoulders.

Like the jaguar, the boy likely had his heart torn out as part of a ritual sacrifice, though further tests will need to be conducted to confirm the theory.

The offerings also speak to the geographic reach of the Aztecs, a warrior society like ancient Sparta that conquered neighboring kingdoms to acquire tribute.

The starfish came from the Pacific Ocean, for example, while the jade was brought from Central America near present-day Honduras.

"The offerings provide a window not only into the (Aztecs) sacred world, but also their economic lives," said Frances Berdan, an Aztec scholar at California State University, San Bernardino.

Meticulous sifting through the latest offerings is expected to continue for at least several more months, though practical hardships weigh on the archaeologists.

Mexico's new government has cut the project's budget by 20 percent this year, according to several archeologists who work on the excavation, and nearly all members of the 25-person team have not been paid since December. 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/exclusive-aztec-war-sacrifices-found-in-mexico-may-point-to-elusive-royal-tomb/ar-BBVbIQV

 

 

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'World's longest salt cave' discovered in Israel

Israeli researchers say they have discovered the world's longest salt cave.

The 10km (6.2 miles) of passages and chambers inside Malham Cave, overlooking the Dead Sea, were mapped out over two years.

The desert site was near where, according to the Bible, Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt.

Rain is expected to lengthen Malham further over time, the researchers said.

This happens when rainwater flows down cracks in the surface, dissolving salt and creating semi-horizontal channels along the way that flow down towards the Dead Sea.

Part of the Malham cave, which runs through Mount Sodom, Israel's biggest mountain, had already been mapped during the 1980s.

Two years ago Yoav Negev from the Israel Cave Explorers Club decided to complete the survey and set up a team of researchers and caving experts.

During one dinner break in the cave, Boaz Langford from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem said the explorers felt their pasta lacked seasoning.

"So we just broke some salt off one of the rocks and used that," he said.

Malham has taken a 13-year record held since 2006 by the Cave of the Three Nudes, a 6.85km (four miles) salt cave in Iran's Qeshm Island, the researchers added.

All photos copyright

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-47731943

 

 

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Mysterious 4,000-year-old lost city discovered

James Rogers

© nik wheeler/Corbis via Getty Images Representational/File photo- The ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Ur of the Chaldees. Iraq. | Location: Ur of the Chaldees, Iraq.

A team of French archaeologists has located the remains of a lost ancient city in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Over the course of six excavations between 2012 and 2018, researchers uncovered the ancient city at Kunara near the Zagros mountains. Previously, experts had been prevented from exploring the site near the modern city of Sulaymaniyah by Saddam Hussein’s regime and conflicts in the region.

The discovery is described in the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) journal.

Located on the western border of the Mesopotamian Empire, the city may have been an important center of an ancient mountainous people known as the Lullubi, according to experts.

Large stone foundations were discovered at the site, which dates to around 2200 B.C. Dozens of clay tablets covered with cuneiform writing were also found, shedding light on the city’s agriculture. For example, the first of the clay tablets discovered records the delivery of different types of flour.

The archaeologists' research indicates that the city’s demise occurred about 4,000 years ago when it was ravaged by fire.

However, the city’s name is still unknown. Further excavation of the site will take place in the fall.

Ancient sites in other parts of the world are also revealing their secrets. Last year, archaeologists in Greece located the remains of a lost city believed to have been settled by captives from the Trojan War.

Separately in 2018, archaeologists in Western Mexico used sophisticated laser technology to discover a lost city that may have had as many buildings as Manhattan.

In 2017, archaeologists harnessed spy satellite imagery and drones to help identify the site of an ancient lost city in Northern Iraq.

The Qalatga Darband site overlooks the Lower Zab river at the western edge of the Zagros Mountains, is part of a historic route from ancient Mesopotamia to Iran.

Experts recently created a stunning digital reconstruction of a centuries-old lost city discovered in South Africa. In another project, researchers have shed new light on the events that led to the demise of the ancient Cambodian megacity of Angkor.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/mysterious-4000-year-old-lost-city-discovered/ar-BBVwamk

 

 

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A Man's Grave In Connecticut Is Covered With Dinosaur Tracks

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/a-mans-grave-in-connecticut-is-covered-with-dinosaur-tracks/vi-BBVvI5E

 

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https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/02/atomic-rooms-beijing-china-housing/?utm_source=reddit.com

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A Million People Live in These Underground Nuclear Bunkers

Beneath the streets of Beijing, people live in an underground universe constructed during the Cold War era.

Fascinating read and kind of silly how expensive living is in Beijing.

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Fossil of ancient four-legged whale found in Peru

The fossil of a 43-million-year-old whale with four legs, webbed feet and hooves has been discovered in Peru.

Palaeontologists believe the marine mammal's four-metre-long (13 ft) body was adapted to swim and walk on land.

With four limbs capable of carrying its weight and a powerful tail, the semi-aquatic whale has been compared to an otter or a beaver.

Researchers believe the discovery could shed light on the evolution of the whale and how it spread.

"This is the most complete specimen ever found for a four-legged whale outside of India and Pakistan," Dr Olivier Lambert, a scientist at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences and co-author of the study, said.

It was found in marine sediments 1km (0.6 miles) inland from Peru's Pacific coast, at Playa Media Luna.

The location has piqued researchers' interest as the first whales are thought to have first evolved in South Asia around 50 million years ago.

As their bodies became better suited to water, they migrated further afield to North Africa and North America, where fossils have been found.

The latest discovery suggests early whales managed to swim there from South America.

"Whales are this iconic example of evolution," Travis Park, an ancient whale researcher at the Natural History Museum in London, said.

"They went from small hoofed mammals to the blue whale we have today. It's so interesting to see how they conquered the oceans."

An international team of palaeontologists from Peru, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium excavated the fossil in 2011.

They have named it Peregocetus pacificus, meaning "the travelling whale that reached the Pacific".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-47822228

 

 

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Thousands-year-old Egypt sarcophagus to be opened on live TV

© Provided by AFPRelaxNews Artefact fragments are seen outside newly-discovered burial chambers dating to the Ptolemaic era (323-30 BC) at the necropolis of Tuna el-Gebel in Egypt's southern Minya province, about 340 kilometres south of the capital Cairo.

A sarcophagus believed to contain an Egyptian nobleman will be opened on live TV during a special broadcast by the American channel Discovery.

The two-hour "Expedition Unknown: Egypt Live" will air Sunday night (0000 GMT Monday) from the site outside Minya, which is along the Nile River south of Cairo and its Giza pyramids.

Egypt has sought to promote archeological discoveries across the country in a bid to revive tourism hit by turmoil after the 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak.

The country's Supreme Council of Antiquities declined to comment, even though Discovery announced that council head Mostafa Waziri would be present for the event.

The site containing the sarcophagus was discovered in February last year, and a Discovery spokesman told AFP that the project was set up in collaboration with Egypt's antiquities ministry.

Archeologists at the site recently discovered a network of vertical shafts leading to a network of tunnels and tombs containing 40 mummies "believed to be part of the noble elite."

In one of those, a limestone sarcophagus holding a 3,000-year-old mummy is to be opened during the show.

Discovery declined to disclose the identity of the mummy prior to the broadcast.

Prominent Egyptian archaeologist and former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass will also participate, Discovery previously announced.

Asked by AFP about a possible financial deal between the channel and the Egyptian state for permission to film and open the grave, the spokesman for Discovery refused all comment.

"It's a media spectacle in the end -- but it could make people love antiquities and is a good promotional opportunity for tourism, if done right," an Egyptian archeologist who asked to remain anonymous told AFP.

She said the broadcasters should not open the tomb without providing solid archeological context, but "the main problem" is something else.

"If money is being paid by a major channel to the ministry to show antiquities, where is it going to end up?" the archeologist asked.

"Will it go in the state's purse-strings or end up elsewhere? We need more transparency on where the money is going."

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has overseen a crackdown on dissent, banning protests and jailing Islamists as well as liberal and secular activists.

He regularly evokes political stability to draw foreign investment.

The tourism sector has begun to return, with arrivals reaching 8.3 million in 2017, according to government figures.

That still falls far short of the 14.7 million tourists in 2010.

Discovery's broadcast also comes with global interest in Egyptian archeology generated by a "once in a generation" exhibition about the pharaoh Tutankhamun, which opened in Paris last month and will tour the world.

In Washington, a separate exhibition has opened focusing on the "Queens of Egypt."

Discovery said that its broadcast will be simulcast on the Travel and Science channels.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/thousands-year-old-egypt-sarcophagus-to-be-opened-on-live-tv/ar-BBVDyhr

 

 

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Scientists solve the mystery of pristine weapons of China's Terracotta Warriors

Will Dunham

Terracotta warriors and horses stand inside the No. 1 pit of the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xian, Shaanxi province, in China

A Terracotta Warrior which guarded the tomb of China’s First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, on loan from China is displayed in The World Museum, Liverpool

Terracotta warriors, which were unearthed during the first excavation from 1978 to 1984, stand inside the No. 1 pit of the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses in Xi'an

For decades, scientists have been perplexed by the marvelous preservation of bronze weapons associated with China's famed Terracotta Warriors, retaining shiny, almost pristine surfaces and sharp blades after being buried for more than two millennia.

Research by an international team of scientists published on Thursday may solve the mystery while putting to rest an intriguing hypothesis: that ancient Chinese artisans employed an unexpectedly advanced preservation method using the metal chromium.

The fine preservation of weapons including swords, lances and halberds was due to serendipity - factors such as the bronze's high tin content and favorable soil composition, the scientists decided after examining 464 bronze weapons and parts.

Chromium found on the bronze surfaces, they determined, was simply contamination from chromium-rich lacquer applied by the artisans to the terracotta figures and weapons parts. Chromium played no role in their preservation.

The Terracotta Army consists of thousands of life-sized ceramic warriors and horses alongside bronze chariots and weapons, part of the vast 3rd century BC mausoleum near the city of Xi'an for Qin Shi Huang, first emperor of a unified China. Found in 1974, it represents one of the 20th century's greatest archaeological discoveries.

Scientific analyses almost four decades ago detected chromium on the surface of some of the weapons, spurring the hypothesis that the weapon-makers used a chromium-based treatment to prevent corrosion.

Chromium-conversion coating, a technology discovered in the early 20th century, is used to treat metals to render them more corrosion resistant. It involves dipping metal in a solution containing chromium salts. A chromium oxide layer is deposited on the metal's surface, providing a barrier against rust.

"The lacquer was applied to the Terracotta Army as a primer before they were painted with colors, and we think it's quite likely it was also applied to the now-decayed wooden parts such as handles and shafts," said University of Cambridge archaeological scientist Marcos Martinón-Torres, who led the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Ancient bronzes often have poor states of preservation, with porous, pitted surfaces showing green or dark colors.

"In essence, we show that, yes, the Terracotta Army weapons generally show a very good state of preservation, but there is currently no indication that this is anything other than the result of chance," added Martinón-Torres, who participated in the research while at University College London and in collaboration with the Terracotta Army Museum.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/scientists-solve-mystery-of-pristine-weapons-of-chinas-terracotta-warriors/ar-BBVEAjs#image=BBVEAjs_1|3

 

 

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Beagle finds 250,000-year-old woolly rhino bone

 

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/video/viral/beagle-finds-250000-year-old-woolly-rhino-bone/vi-BBVFseL?MSCC=1554548199&ocid=chromentp

 

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Mummified mice found in husband and wife's tomb in Egypt

Philip Whiteside, international news reporter

Dozens of mummified mice have been found in a newly discovered tomb belonging to a husband and wife in Egypt.

The burial chamber was located after authorities came across a group of grave robbers attempting to secretly dig in an area of archaeological importance.

© Other The mummified remains of the owners of the tomb TuTu and T-Cheret Isis

The tomb, which dates back to the Ptolemaic, or Greek, era of Egyptian history, is thought to be about 2,000 years old.

Egypt's ministry of antiquities said it found the remains of several birds and animals, as well as the occupants, a high-ranking official called TuTu and his wife T-Cheret Isis.

Other animals include a mummified eagle, falcon, ibex, dogs and cats.

The grave consists of two underground rooms with various decorations, including a "winged sun disk" and another disk with the name "Horus, Lord of Heaven" written on it.

The names of the two occupants and their parents are also inscribed on the interior.

A statement issued by the ministry said in translated Arabic: "The cemetery is in a good state of preservation and is characterised by the beauty of its engravings and bright colours.

© Other A detail of an image from inside the tomb

"On both sides of the entrance, two scenes of the god Anubis are received by Tutu once, and once again by Isretis, in addition to the trial scene in front of the god Osiris and the successor of the daughters Isis and Nephthis."

It was found in the small but historically important town of Akhmim, which was on the ancient trade routes, according to Encyclopaedia Britannica.

The town was well known to the Greeks, being mentioned by Herodotus and Strabo, and was said to have been famous in the Roman world for its textiles.

© Getty The mummies were found scattered inside part of the tomb

It later became a centre of the Coptic community and in 1907, when a census was carried out, it was the largest town on the east bank of the Nile in Upper Egypt.

© Other The mummies are being examined by archaeologists

The latest find comes as an Egyptian team has re-erected a 15m (49ft) statue of Ramses II found broken into 70 pieces in Akhmim in 1981, after a two-month reconstruction and restoration.

© Other Some of the artwork on the walls of the tomb

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/mummified-mice-found-in-husband-and-wifes-tomb-in-egypt/ar-BBVI2o8

 

 

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Mystery 8,000-Year-Old Abandoned Structure Discovered

Callum Paton

Archaeologists from the universities of Pennsylvania and Harvard have used an unlikely source to give a fresh perspective on the ancient mysteries of the Middle East: declassified spy plane images from the Cold War.

Emily Hammer and Jason Ur from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University respectively have scoured through extensive archives of high and low-resolution images taken by U2 spy planes from across Europe, the Middle East and central eastern Asia uncovering a “goldmine” of archaeological evidence.

According to a press release from the University of Pennsylvania, the experts have uncovered stone-wall structures that date back 5,000 to 8,000 years, used to trap gazelle and other animals.   

In the declassified images the pair have spotted many historical and archaeological features, including prehistoric hunting traps, 3,000-year-old irrigation canals, and 60-year-old marsh villages no longer visible today.

Throughout the 1950s, into the 1960, the U.S. flew U2 spy planes to record information behind the iron curtain, in the Soviet Union and other foreign nations of interest. However, at the same time, the spy planes also captures spots between their missions. The resulting images from decades ago have allowed archaeologists to see features from the air that are no longer visible through satellite imagery.

The only comparable images of this kind have been retrieved by the  CORONA spy satellite program between 1959 and 1972 but the U2 images are of a higher quality. Though the pictures from the spy planes were declassified in 1997, this most recent work, published in the journal Advances in Archaeological Practice, marks the first time experts have sifted through the important images.

“The photos provide a fascinating look at the Middle East several decades ago, showing, for example, historical Aleppo long before the massive destruction wrought in the ongoing civil war,” says Hammer, an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “Plus, the work and the accompanying online resources will allow other researchers to identify and access U2 photos for the first time.”

The process of examining and categorizing all the images was time-consuming and at times tedious but the U.S.-led team were nevertheless excited by the prospect of new discoveries. One canal system shown by the images in northern Iraq has given clues as to the methods of governance used by the region’s early rulers.

“The Assyrians built the first large, long-lasting, multi-cultural empire of the ancient world, so many people are interested in how they organized territory, controlled people, built their huge cities, and managed the land,” Hammer says. “The irrigation system fed the royal capitals, made agricultural surplus production possible, and provided water to villages,” she added.  

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/mystery-8000-year-old-abandoned-structure-discovered/ar-BBVMStg

 

 

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by CaaC - John

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Monstrous 430 Million-Year-Old Sea Cucumber Discovered

Aristos Georgiou

© Elissa Martin, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History This is a reconstruction of Sollasina cthulhu.

Researchers have discovered an exceptionally well preserved fossil in 430 million-year-old rocks representing a new species of primitive sea cucumber, which they have named Sollasina cthulhu due to its resemblance to the sea deity from H. P. Lovecraft’s fictional universe.

An international team of paleontologists created an accurate 3D reconstruction of the remains—which were discovered at a site in the U.K. county of Herefordshire—revealing an important circulatory system which was previously unknown in this group of animals, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The researchers say that while the newly described creature looks like a kind of sea urchin, it actually belongs to an extinct group of echinoderms called "ophiocistioids" which, according to their analysis, are ancient relatives of sea cucumbers—a group of leathery-skinned, marine animals with elongated bodies that live on the sea floor.

“In terms of its morphological characteristics, Sollasina cthulhu was characterized by the presence of 45 tentacle-like tube feet, a body composed of many hard plates, and a mouth surrounded by five large ‘teeth,’” Imran Rahman, lead author of the study from the University of Oxford, told Newsweek.

The fact that the roughly one-inch-wide fossil was so well preserved allowed the scientists to create an exceptionally accurate 3D virtual model of its anatomy.

“The nodule containing the fossil was collected in the early 2000s and split in 2006, but it was not until late 2016 that it was reconstructed as a ‘virtual fossil,’” Rahman said. “Based on this 3D reconstruction, we were able to recognize the fossil as a species new to science.”

“We created the reconstruction through a process called serial grinding,” he said. “This involved painstakingly grinding away the fossil, a few hundredths of a millimeter as a time, taking photographs of each exposed surface with a digital camera. This allowed us to build up a dataset of hundreds of ‘slices’ through the fossil, which were then digitally reconstructed as a ‘virtual fossil’ on a computer.”

Using this reconstruction, the team were able to identify inner soft tissues which have never previously been seen in a fossil of this kind.

“This allowed us to reconstruct the internal anatomy of this extinct group of fossil echinoderms for the first time, revealing similarities with modern sea cucumbers,” Rahman said. “Moreover, our analysis of the fossil’s evolutionary relationships demonstrates that the skeleton of sea cucumbers was gradually reduced during their early evolution over 400 million years ago.”

The S. cthulhu fossil is just one of many important discoveries at the Herefordshire fossil site, which is well-known for the hard and soft body structures that have been found there

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/offbeat/monstrous-430-million-year-old-sea-cucumber-discovered/ar-BBVN5Ky

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Edited April 10, 2019 by CaaC - John