The purpose of this blog is the creation of an open, international, independent and free forum, where every UFO-researcher can publish the results of his/her research. The languagues, used for this blog, are Dutch, English and French.You can find the articles of a collegue by selecting his category. Each author stays resposable for the continue of his articles. As blogmaster I have the right to refuse an addition or an article, when it attacks other collegues or UFO-groupes.
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Deze blog is opgedragen aan mijn overleden echtgenote Lucienne.
In 2012 verloor ze haar moedige strijd tegen kanker!
In 2011 startte ik deze blog, omdat ik niet mocht stoppen met mijn UFO-onderzoek.
BEDANKT!!!
Een interessant adres?
UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN - DE ALLERLAATSTE NIEUWTJES
UFO's of UAP'S in België en de rest van de wereld Ontdek de Fascinerende Wereld van UFO's en UAP's: Jouw Bron voor Onthullende Informatie!
Ben jij ook gefascineerd door het onbekende? Wil je meer weten over UFO's en UAP's, niet alleen in België, maar over de hele wereld? Dan ben je op de juiste plek!
België: Het Kloppend Hart van UFO-onderzoek
In België is BUFON (Belgisch UFO-Netwerk) dé autoriteit op het gebied van UFO-onderzoek. Voor betrouwbare en objectieve informatie over deze intrigerende fenomenen, bezoek je zeker onze Facebook-pagina en deze blog. Maar dat is nog niet alles! Ontdek ook het Belgisch UFO-meldpunt en Caelestia, twee organisaties die diepgaand onderzoek verrichten, al zijn ze soms kritisch of sceptisch.
Nederland: Een Schat aan Informatie
Voor onze Nederlandse buren is er de schitterende website www.ufowijzer.nl, beheerd door Paul Harmans. Deze site biedt een schat aan informatie en artikelen die je niet wilt missen!
Internationaal: MUFON - De Wereldwijde Autoriteit
Neem ook een kijkje bij MUFON (Mutual UFO Network Inc.), een gerenommeerde Amerikaanse UFO-vereniging met afdelingen in de VS en wereldwijd. MUFON is toegewijd aan de wetenschappelijke en analytische studie van het UFO-fenomeen, en hun maandelijkse tijdschrift, The MUFON UFO-Journal, is een must-read voor elke UFO-enthousiasteling. Bezoek hun website op www.mufon.com voor meer informatie.
Samenwerking en Toekomstvisie
Sinds 1 februari 2020 is Pieter niet alleen ex-president van BUFON, maar ook de voormalige nationale directeur van MUFON in Vlaanderen en Nederland. Dit creëert een sterke samenwerking met de Franse MUFON Reseau MUFON/EUROP, wat ons in staat stelt om nog meer waardevolle inzichten te delen.
Let op: Nepprofielen en Nieuwe Groeperingen
Pas op voor een nieuwe groepering die zich ook BUFON noemt, maar geen enkele connectie heeft met onze gevestigde organisatie. Hoewel zij de naam geregistreerd hebben, kunnen ze het rijke verleden en de expertise van onze groep niet evenaren. We wensen hen veel succes, maar we blijven de autoriteit in UFO-onderzoek!
Blijf Op De Hoogte!
Wil jij de laatste nieuwtjes over UFO's, ruimtevaart, archeologie, en meer? Volg ons dan en duik samen met ons in de fascinerende wereld van het onbekende! Sluit je aan bij de gemeenschap van nieuwsgierige geesten die net als jij verlangen naar antwoorden en avonturen in de sterren!
Heb je vragen of wil je meer weten? Aarzel dan niet om contact met ons op te nemen! Samen ontrafelen we het mysterie van de lucht en daarbuiten.
04-01-2022
Previously Unknown Structures and Canals Found Near Peru’s Machu Picchu
Previously Unknown Structures and Canals Found Near Peru’s Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu – everyone’s favorite Inca site high in the Andes mountains of Peru – is one of those onion-style archeological sites that keeps revealing new features as mysterious layers are peeled away. The year 2021 ended with a major ‘peel’ for the site as LiDAR-equipped drones helped find 12 previously unknown small structures in Machu Picchu National Park which help identify the caretakers of the complex back in the 15th century. The LiDAR also revealed previously unknown canals that show how the Incas controlled water – a feat they believed was a ‘superpower’ granted to them by the gods.
Looking for something?
“The Chachabamba archaeological site contains a unique water complex erected and modified by the Incas. Based on archaeological investigations within the ceremonial sector, it has been established that the function of this water complex was strictly ceremonial.”
As described in a new study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, a team of researchers from the Center for Andean Studies at the University of Warsaw and the Wroclaw (Poland) University of Science and Technology focused new efforts on Chachabamba, a ceremonial water complex surrounding the Machu Picchu citadel that both demonstrated the power of the Inca peoples and offered pilgrims ritual baths, gardens and fountains. Using data from drones with lidar (light detection and ranging) systems flying very low over the dense vegetation covering much of Chachabamba, they found 12 small structures that appeared to be homes of those who were responsible for the amenities of Chachabamba.
“There are indications that it was mainly women who looked after the complex. as suggested by objects discovered during previous excavations by a Polish-Peruvian team.”
Dominika Sieczkowska from the Center for Andean Studies told Heritage Daily that despite the ornateness of Machu Picchu and Chachabamba, the homes of the female caretakers were plain … some things never change. The hydraulic systems of Chachabamba were functioning until mudslides destroyed part of it in 2012 and the area became overgrown. The LiDAR drones and computer simulations from their data helped the researchers see just how sophisticated the system was when operational and impressing the enemies of the Incas.
“Part of the system was destroyed, and the current study was conducted to answer such unknowns as how much water flowed through the system, which watercourse flowed into the system, and how fast. The light water flow evinced in the researchers’ lidar images is part of the basis for their conclusion that the site’s use was ceremonial rather than functional, supplying residences with water.”
Artnet News explains that researchers now know the power water played in the reputation of the Incas as they conquered other cultures from Argentina to Ecuador – and Chachabamba was the center of that power. And yet, we now know the caretakers of such power were women, not men. This fits in with the belief of some historians that men and women held equal stature and equal responsibilities in Inca society – a practice looked down upon by the invading Europeans because women had no such stature in their societies.
One wonders how different things might have been if the Europeans tried to learn from the Incas rather than conquer them.
Inca site of Chachabamba
Image Credit : Ivo Antonie de Rooij - Shutterstock
Four new dinosaurs including the 'horned crocodile-faced hell heron' are among 550 new animal and plant species discovered by Natural History Museum staff this year
Four new dinosaurs including the 'horned crocodile-faced hell heron' are among 550 new animal and plant species discovered by Natural History Museum staff this year
Over the last 12 months, Natural History Museum staff have described a total of 552 species new to science
This includes four dinosaurs from the UK, one from China and one from Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco
There's also a newly-found beetle from India named after Larry the cat, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office
Four new dinosaurs including the 'horned crocodile-faced hell heron' are among more than 550 new animal and plant species discovered by staff at the Natural History Museum (NHM) this year.
The museum's annual round-up of newly discovered species range from some of the smallest invertebrates swimming in the oceans to ferocious predators that stalked the land millions of years ago.
By far the biggest and most fearsome new species to have been described this year are a pair of giant carnivorous dinosaurs known as spinosaurs, discovered from remains on the Isle of Wight.
The predators were named the 'riverbank hunter' and 'horned crocodile-faced hell heron' after the swampy environment they would once have lived and hunted in.
The more ferocious of the two, the 'horned crocodile-faced hell heron', was named due to a series of low horns and bumps across the brow region and its 'heron-like' hunting style.
Both are thought to have roamed land that is now the the Isle of Wight around 129 million years ago.
Artist's depiction of the two new species of spinosaurid dinosaurs discovered on the Isle of Wight, named ‘Hell heron’ (foreground) and ‘Riverbank hunter’
Silhouettes showing the bones discovered. Ceratosuchops inferodios (hell heron) in the foreground, Riparovenator milnerae (riverbank hunter) in the background
Remains from Rhomaleopakhus turpanensis, a 'chunky' sauropod which had an unusually large funny bone, uncovered in China
NEWLY-FOUND DINOSAUR SPECIES
Ceratosuchops inferodios:Known as 'hell heron' and found in the Isle of Wight
Riparovenator milnerae: Known as 'riverbank hunter', also from the Isle of Wight
Brighstoneus simmondsi: An iguanodontian with an unusual snout also from the Isle of Wight
Spicomellus afer: The earliest ankylosaur and first to have been found in Africa
Pendraig milnerae: The earliest known carnivorous dinosaur from the UK
Rhomaleopakhus turpanensis: A chunky sauropod from China
The museum's total new species for discovered by staff this year – 552 – is despite international travel to field sites or other museum collections having remained largely off limits due to Covid-19 restrictions.
'It's been a fantastic year for the description of new dinosaurs, especially from the UK,' said Dr Susannah Maidment, a senior researcher in paleobiology at the NHM, who helped describe some of these new finds.
'Although we've known about the UK's dinosaur heritage for over 150 years, the application of new techniques and new data from around the world is helping us to uncover a hidden diversity of British dinosaurs.
'These specimens are parts of a vast palaeobiological jigsaw puzzle that allows us to understand environments of the past and how they changed over time.'
Riverbank hunter and hell heron were huge carnivorous dinosaurs that most likely walked upright. Their massive, crocodile-like jaws show that they mostly ate fish and possibly other dinosaurs too.
In total, four of these were from the UK, one was uncovered in China and the other from the Middle Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
Rhomaleopakhus turpanensis, from China, was a 'chunky' sauropod with an unusually large funny bone.
Meanwhile, Spicomellus afer from Morocco was an ankylosaur and had an odd series of spikes attached to the rib.
Ankylosaurs were a diverse group of armoured dinosaurs related to the stegosaurs, which were present throughout the Cretaceous period from 145 to 66 million years ago.
A bizarre armoured spike fossil, found in Morocco, belonged to a new species of dinosaur that was 'unlike anything else in the animal kingdom,' NHM researchers found
Artistic reconstruction of Brighstoneous simmondsi, a new igaunodontian with an unusual snout found on the Isle of Wight, UK
Artistic reconstruction of the 'small-bodied' Welsh theropod Pendraig milnerae, the earliest carnivorous dinosaur from the UK
NHM made a number of other fossil finds this year, including algae, arachnids trapped in amber and fossil bryozoans – microscopic aquatic invertebrates that live in colonies, also known as moss animals.
The museum also found two ancient mammals – Megalomys camerhogne, which belonged to a group of rodents which once lived scattered across the Caribbean, and Borealestes cullinensis, a 'Jurassic mouse' from the Isle of Skye, Scotland that would have scurried around the feet of dinosaurs 166 million years ago.
Many of the new species described this year have been crustaceans, in particular 291 species of copepods – small, shrimp-like creatures that are found near water.
Despite their small and unassuming appearance, they are critical to our planet's ecology and carbon cycle, according to the NHM, and form the major component of zooplankton.
'Copepods are not only free-living but many are parasites, and they can be found living in virtually every other major animal group,' said Professor Geoff Boxshall, researcher in the department of life sciences at the NHM.
'I have been focusing my research on these parasitic copepods from fishes and marine invertebrate hosts.'
Museum scientists have also described 52 species of wasps, 13 moths, seven crabs, six flies, five amphipods and 90 beetles.
The moths includes Wallace's sphinx moth, which has the longest tongue of any insect, according to the NHM, used for reaching the bottom of the nectar tubes.
The moth is notable for having been predicted to exist by Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, some 40 years before it was recorded in the wild.
The beetles included a pair of glitteringly purple and green metallic beetles from India, a chunky monochromatic beetle with a large pair of jaws from the Philippines and Caccothryptus larryi, a minute marsh loving beetle named in honour of Larry the cat at 10 Downing Street.
A beautiful green Donaciolagria regia beetle from India. This is the female of the species which is a different colour from the male (below)
Donaciolagria regia female. Note the striking differences in colour between the male and female of this particular Indian species
Caccothryptus larryi - a minute marsh-loving beetle from India named after Larry the cat, Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office
There's also Rhabdophis bindi, a new species of snake from India and Bangladesh that lives in tropical evergreen forest.
Rhabdophis bindi has a red spot on the nape of the neck, 'reminiscent of the red beauty spot adorning the foreheads of Indian women', according to a paper describing the species.
Three new species of lizards have also been described, including a fan-throated lizard and a gecko from India, as well as one new species of frog from Vietnam.
There has also been a new species of caecilian, a type of snake-like amphibian which lives primarily underground and in the water.
Rhabdophis bindi - a new species of snake from India and Bangladesh that lives in tropical evergreen forest. Note the red spot on the nape of the neck, 'reminiscent of the red beauty spot adorning the foreheads of Indian women', according to a paper describing the species
Pictured here is impatiens versicolor - one of five new species of jewelweeds, or touch-me-nots, described from eastern Africa
NHM also found five new species of plants from eastern Africa. Known as jewelweeds or touch-me-nots, they usually produce delicate pink or white flowers, except for a few species which have switched to producing red flowers.
Rather than being pollinated by butterflies, these red flowers are visited by birds, which find it easier to pick the colour red out from amongst green foliage.
NHM staff were also involved in classification of a piece of space rock that fell to Earth in a blazing fireball in February this year.
The space rock burnt through the atmosphere before coming to a sudden stop on a driveway in the Gloucestershire town of Winchcombe.
Winchcombe meteorite. A piece of the meteorite which fell to earth during lockdown in February, the first observed meteorite fall to have been recovered in the UK in 30 years
Hundreds of people spotted the fireball streaking across the night sky, and within a matter of hours researchers were able to get out and recover over 600 grams of the meteorite that had travelled billions of kilometres.
Each official meteorite becomes its own type specimen, which is roughly analogous to being a new species.
'The Winchcombe meteorite is the first meteorite fall to be recovered in the UK for 30 years,' said Dr Helena Bates, a researcher at the museum who was involved with recovering the Winchcombe meteorite.
'Winchcombe is thought to come from an asteroid that has remained largely unchanged since the birth of the solar system 4.6 billion years ago.'
Tabwecala robinsoni. This rather striking new moth from Vanuatu is one of 14 new species of moths and butterflies described this year
Xanthopan praedicta. This species of moth was predicted to exist by Darwin and Wallace, and was finally recognised as its own species this year
Neanthes goodayi. A new species polychaete worm found to live within the polymetallic nodules which are being eyed up for deep sea mining
Eurythenes atacamensis. One of two colour morphs of giant isopod from the Atacama Trench off the coasts of Peru and Chile
Crinitostella laguardai. It is a deep-sea wood-dwelling seastar from the Gulf of Mexico which feeds on wood at the bottom of the ocean
It was a very busy and productive year for the Natural History Museum as their experts described 552 new species that included dinosaurs, crustaceans, plants, and even a meteorite.
The majority of the new species described by the museum were a group of crustaceans called copepods. Wherever there is water, you’ll find the small shrimp-like creatures. “Copepods are not only free-living but many are parasites and they can be found living in virtually every other major animal group,” stated Professor Geoff Boxshall. A total of 291 copepods species were described in 2021.
A total of 52 wasps, 13 moths, 7 crabs, 6 flies, and 5 amphipods were described as well. Additionally, 91 new beetle species were described that included a couple of green and purple glittering metallic beetles that were from India.
There were 10 new species of amphibians and reptiles that included five snakes. The other five included a fan-throated lizard and a gecko found in India; a frog from Vietnam; another frog that is categorized as likely extinct; and a snake-like amphibian called a caecilian. Eight algae species, six parasitic worms, and three diatoms were described as well.
(Not any of the frogs mentioned in this article.)
Five new plants species from the eastern part of Africa were described which included jewelweeds that have white or pink flowers (very few have red flowers).
Six new dinosaur species – four which were found in the United Kingdom – have been described by the museum. Two of them were large carnivorous spinosaurs that were found on the Isle of Wight. The other two that were discovered in the UK were a dinosaur with a huge nose called a Brighstoneus simmondsi (also found on the Isle of Wight); and the Pendraig milnerae which was the earliest ever carnivorous dinosaur found in the United Kingdom. The two species that were not found in the UK were the Spicomellus afer which was the first ever ankylosaur discovered in Africa; and a sauropod from China named Rhomaleopakhus turpanensis.
Other discoveries included fossil bryozoans (also called moss animals), algae, arachnids, and brachiopods that were trapped inside of amber. An ancient relative of crocodiles was described as well. There were two prehistoric mammals – Megalomys camerhogne from the Caribbean, and the Borealestes cullinensis which was a “Jurassic mouse” that lived about 166 million years ago in Scotland.
(Not the mouse mentioned in this article.)
A very interesting discovery was made in February of 2021 when a fireball flew through the sky before landing in a driveway in the town of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England. More than 600 grams of the meteorite were located in the driveway. It was revealed that the space rock had come from billions of kilometers away and was heated to more than 1,600 degrees Celsius (2,912 degrees Fahrenheit) when it streaked across the sky. This meteorite, which has been classified as being a carbonaceous chondrite, was the first to have been found in the United Kingdom in the last 30 years and is believed to date back 4.6 billion years when our Solar System first formed.
Pictures of some of the creatures and of the meteorite can be viewed here.
Another new species from the deep is the giant amphipod Eurythenes atacamensis, found to be living in the depths of the Atacama Trench.
Because of its connection to so many of the world’s religions, there are many stories in the Hebrew bible that are familiar to most people – even atheists. The Book of Exodus story of the burning bush – the original ‘call waiting’ sign of a bush in flames yet not being consumed that let Moses know he was about to receive an important message, is a good example. While few of these incidents have been proven by historians – even biblical one – the ‘burning bush’ may have roots based in a natural phenomenon, according to The New York Times. However, as in so many of these cases, the truth about one aspect may refute another. Finally, this new revelation once again links modern religions to practices and belief of previous non-Christian religions – a repurposing to help convince others to join voluntarily … before being dragged in by force. All of that is part of this new story of the burning bush.
“At midday, with the sun low in the sky on one of the shortest days of the year, he peered across a deep ravine and spotted a strange aura of light, flickering like flames, emanating from a spot on a sheer rock face.”
That’s not a modern translation of Hebrew text on a Dead Sea scroll but a 2003 event that begins the quest to explain the burning bush. According to The New York Times, a tour guide walking on Mount Karkom (Har Karkom or ‘Mountain of Saffron’) at the time of the winter solstice saw a glare of light reflected from the sides of a cave that the Israeli television quickly deemed the “burning bush” even though there was no bush and it occurred on the wrong mount – the mountain of the biblical version was Mount Sinai, whose real location remains disputed but is most often thought to be Mount Horeb. Did a guide just rewrite biblical history?
“At the base of Mount Karkom, named in Hebrew for a desert crocus, there is evidence that ancient migration trails converged here and that cultic rituals took place in the area. Mr. Anati identified what he thought was a sacrificial altar with the remains of 12 pillars of stone that could conceivably correspond to the one described in Exodus 24 that Moses built, representing the 12 tribes of Israel.”
Actually, he added credence to a theory proposed nearly 50 years earlier by Italian archeologist Emmanuel Anati, who found thousands of rock carvings and rock circles on a plateau of Mount Karkom, about 2,500 feet above sea level – including scenes some claimed matched stories in the Hebrew bible. Anati eventually propose that Mount Karkom “should be identified with the sacred mountain of the biblical narrations.” However, other scholars dispute that claim – pointing out that the carvings were made in the third millennium BCE while biblical scholars put the dating of the unproven historical exodus between 1600-1200 BCE.
Was is just a calendar error?
“Without binoculars or biblical vision, it was possible to make out a strange, if faint, glow, though some visitors expressed disappointment that the aura around the cave mouth was not more fiery.”
However, that didn’t stop a crowd from gathering on the 2021 winter solstice for a new tradition – the observation of the burning bush/cave on Mount Karkom. The New York Times reports that this year’s event included the man who started it all – Professor Anati, now in his 90s. (Photos here.)
The “Burning Bush” phenomenon, occurring on the winter solstice, at Mount Karkom in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, Dec. 21, 2021. It is actually sunlight reflecting off the sides of a cave.
(Amit Elkayam/The New York Times)
Scores of people fanned across the edge of a ravine to see the “Burning Bush” phenomenon for themselves in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, Dec. 21, 2021. On the year’s shortest day, hundreds of Israelis ventured deep into the desert to witness a strange natural phenomenon atop an ancient pilgrimage site that some argue is where God spoke to Moses.
(Amit Elkayam/The New York Times)
The Negev Desert, with Mount Karkom in the distance, in southern Israel, Dec. 21, 2021. On the year’s shortest day, hundreds of Israelis ventured deep into the desert to witness a strange natural phenomenon atop an ancient pilgrimage site that some argue is where God spoke to Moses.
(Amit Elkayam/The New York Times)
An ancient burial site constructed by nomads in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, Dec. 21, 2021. On the year’s shortest day, hundreds of Israelis ventured deep into the desert to witness a strange natural phenomenon atop an ancient pilgrimage site that some argue is where God spoke to Moses.
(Amit Elkayam/The New York Times)
He again witnessed the ‘glow’ but admitted he can’t prove this is what inspired the biblical story or that Mount Karkom is the true biblical Mount Sinai. He’d rather “bring all the opinions and evidence and let the reader decide for themselves.” That’s a noble cause, but he also refers to the area as “story of the history of humankind” – conveniently ignoring the histories going on at the same time (and long before) in the Far East, Africa, Australia and the Americas.
Gathering all of those cultural and religious histories together and THEN letting the reader decide for themselves would be an event worthy of a burning bush.
Researchers analyzed dinosaur footprints dating back more than 200 million years and now their findings have been revealed. The footprints, which were found on a beach in Penarth, Wales, were discovered in 2020 and experts have been studying them ever since.
Researchers believe that the footprints were made by a group of sauropodomorphs that were traveling through the region sometime between 237 and 201 million years ago during the Triassic Period. Sauropodomorphs were huge quadrupedal herbivores that had very long necks and tails. They were divided into two groups – prosauropods and sauropods (these included Diplodocus and Apatosaurus among others).
It’s unclear as to which sauropodomorph species left the tracks, but it may have been a dinosaur like the Camelotiawhich was an herbivore that lived in England during the late part of the Triassic Period and was estimated to have measured about 10 meters in length (33 feet).
Professor Paul Barrett went into further details about the footprints by explaining, “We think the tracks are an example of Eosauropus, which is not the name of a particular dinosaur species but for shape of a type of track thought to have been made by a very early sauropod or a prosauropod.” “We know these kinds of dinosaur were living in Britain at the time, as bones of the sauropod Camelotia have been found in Somerset in rocks dated to the same age.” “We don’t know if this species was the track maker, but its presence nearby was another smoking gun which suggested something like it could have made these tracks.”
(Not the footprints mentioned in this article.)
He went on to say that it is thought that the location was a place where numerous sauropod dinosaurs once gathered, “There are hints of trackways being made by individual animals, but because there are so many prints of slightly different sizes, we believe there is more than one trackmaker involved,” adding, “These types of tracks are not particularly common worldwide, so we believe this is an interesting addition to our knowledge of Triassic life in the UK. Our record of Triassic dinosaurs in this country is fairly small, so anything we can find from the period adds to our picture of what was going on at that time.” Their study was published in the journal Geological Magazine where it can be read in full.
Pictures of some of the dinosaur footprints can be viewed here.
The tracks are located on a public beach in Penarth, Wales and are thought to date back over 200 million years.
Almost a quarter of a billion years ago in the state of Nevada, a massive sea monster inhabited the area. Named Cymbospondylus youngorum, the huge fossil of this new ichthyosaur species was found back in 1998 in rocks from the Augusta Mountains.
However, it took until 2015 and with help from a helicopter for all of the fossils to be removed from the site. The remains were then brought to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County where experts have since been studying them.
Their detailed analysis revealed that the creature was massive with a skull that measured 6.5 feet in length (2 meters), meaning that the entire body of the Cymbospondylus youngorum would have been more than 55 feet long (17 meters) and weighed about 45 tons. In an email to Live Science, Lars Schmitz, who is an associate professor of biology at Scripps College in Claremont, California, described the species, “Imagine a sea-dragon-like animal: streamlined body, quite long, with limbs modified to fins, and a long tail.”
A drawing of a Cymbospondylus. (Via Wikipedia)
It lived about 247 million years ago during the Triassic Period. It would have occupied the Panthalassic Ocean off the western coast of what is now North America when the land was the supercontinent of Pangaea. It is believed that the Cymbospondylus youngorum would have feasted on ichthyosaurs that were smaller than itself, as well as fish and perhaps squid.
In a time span of about 2.5 million years, ichthyosaurs grew to massive lengths. Interestingly, it took almost 55 million years for whales to reach their sizes – the same size that it took ichthyosaurs just 1% of their 150-million-year history to achieve.
Schmitz explained this further, “We have discovered that ichthyosaurs evolved gigantism much faster than whales, in a time where the world was recovering from devastating extinction [at the end of the Permian Period].” “It is a nice glimmer of hope and a sign of the resilience of life — if environmental conditions are right, evolution can happen very fast, and life can bounce back.”
An ichthyosaur but not the Cymbospondylus youngorum.
As for why ichthyosaurs grew to such massive sizes in such a short time period, it may be partly caused by feasting on large amounts of marine mollusks called ammonoids and eel-like jawless conodonts that grew in population numbers after the mass extinction event. Two studies in relation to the Cymbospondylus youngorum have been published in the journal Science – they can be read here and here.
A picture of the fossil and an image of what the Cymbospondylus youngorum would have looked like can be seen here.
An illustration of Cymbospondylus youngorum in a Triassic ocean teeming with life. Ammonites and squid were abundant in this open ocean environment.
(Image credit: Illustration by Stephanie Abramowicz, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM).)
The size of the new ichthyosaur is perhaps best illustrated with a human for scale.
(Image credit: Photo by Martin Sander)
A direct comparison of two ocean giants from different epochs side by side: The Triassic Cymbopsondylus youngorum (the new species described in the paper) vs. today’s sperm whale, with a human for scale.
(Image credit: Illustration by Stephanie Abramowicz, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM).)
The skull of the new ichthyosaur species, Cymbospondylus youngorum, is nearly 6.5 feet (2 meters) long and very well preserved.
(Image credit: Photo by Natalja Kent, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.)
The snout of the new ichthyosaur, Cymbospondylus youngorum, shows an array of teeth. (Image credit: Photo by Natalja Kent, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.)
The skull of the new ichthyosaur species, Cymbospondylus youngorum, dates to the early Triassic.
(Image credit: Photo by Stephanie Abramowicz, courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (NHM).)
Mummy of Amenhotep I is 'digitally unwrapped' for the first time: CT scans reveal the Egyptian Pharaoh was some 35 years old, 5'7" and circumcised when he died 3,000 years ago
Mummy of Amenhotep I is 'digitally unwrapped' for the first time: CT scans reveal the Egyptian Pharaoh was some 35 years old, 5'7" and circumcised when he died 3,000 years ago
Amenhotep I ruled Egypt from around 1525 to 1504 BCE, during the 18th dynasty
He was later unwrapped and carefully restored by priests in the 11th century BCE
Modern Egyptologists have never dared open him, as he is so well-preserved
In what is less of a Christmas present and more of a macabre past, the mummified remains of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep I have been digitally 'unwrapped'.
Amenhotep I — the second ruler of Egypt's 18th Dynasty — is thought to have died around 1506–1504 BCE, at which point he was painstakingly preserved.
Unlike all the other royal mummies unearthed in the 19th and 20th centuries, that of Amenhotep I has never been unwrapped by modern Egyptologists.
This is not in fear of a curse, but because the specimen is so beautifully preserved — decorated with floral garlands and an exquisite facemask inset with precious stones
University of Cairo-led experts, however, were able to use computed tomography (CT) scans to create 3D reconstructions of the man underneath the bandages.
They found that the beloved pharaoh was 35 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall and circumcised when he died some three millennia ago.
This is not the first time Amenhotep I has been 'opened', however — he was actually unwrapped, restored and reburied in the 11th century BCE by 21st dynasty priests.
They reburied him at Deir el-Bahari in southern Egypt, where he was discovered along with a number of other restored royal mummies in 1881.
In what is less of a Christmas present and more of a macabre past, the mummified remains of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep I have been digitally 'unwrapped' (left). Unlike all the other royal mummies unearthed in the 19th and 20th centuries, that of Amenhotep I has never been unwrapped by modern Egyptologists. This is not in fear of a curse, but because the specimen is so beautifully preserved — decorated with floral garlands and an exquisite facemask inset with precious stones (right)
Amenhotep I — the second ruler of Egypt's 18th Dynasty — is thought to have died around 1506–1504 BCE, at which point he was painstakingly preserved. Pictured: his mummy
This is not the first time Amenhotep I has been 'opened', however — he was physically unwrapped, restored and reburied in the 11th century BCE by 21st dynasty priests. They reburied him at Deir el-Bahari in southern Egypt, where he was discovered along with a number of other restored royal mummies in 1881.
Pictured: Deir el-Bahari
ABOUT AMENHOTEP I
Amenhotep I was the second pharaoh of Egypt's 18th Dynasty and ruled from around 1525 to 1504 BCE.
His reign came in the wake of his father Ahmose I's expulsion of the Hyksos invaders and successful reunification Egypt — and represented something of a golden age for ancient Egypt.
Not only was the 'New Kingdom' both prosperous and secure, but Amenhotep I also oversaw a religious building spree and successful military campaigns against both Libya and northern Sudan.
Amenhotep's name meant 'Amun is satisfied’ — referring to the ancient Egyptian god of the air.
'The fact that Amenhotep I's mummy had never been unwrapped in modern times gave us a unique opportunity,' explained paper author and radiologist Sahar Saleem of Cairo University and the Egyptian Mummy Project.
It allowed the team, he added,' not just to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his death, by High Priests of Amun.
'By digitally unwrapping of the mummy and "peeling off" its virtual layers — the facemask, the bandages, and the mummy itself — we could study this well-preserved pharaoh in unprecedented detail.
'We show that Amenhotep I was approximately 35 years old when he died. He was approximately 169cm [5'7''] tall, circumcised and had good teeth.'
'Within his wrappings, he wore 30 amulets and a unique golden girdle with gold beads,' Professor Saleem continued.
'Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father — he had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair and mildly protruding upper teeth.
'We couldn’t find any wounds or disfigurement due to disease to justify the cause of death, except numerous mutilations post mortem, presumably by grave robbers after his first burial.
'His entrails had been removed by the first mummifiers, but not his brain or heart.'
University of Cairo-led experts, however, were able to use computed tomography (CT) scans to create 3D reconstructions of the man underneath the bandages
The team found that the beloved pharaoh was 35 years old, 5 feet 7 inches tall and circumcised when he died some three millennia ago. Pictured: a statue of Amenhotep I in life
Amenhotep I was the second pharaoh of Egypt's 18th Dynasty and ruled from around 1525 to 1504 BCE. Pictured: CT scans revealed that his mummy had a full set of healthy teeth
Records in the form of hieroglyphic writings have indicated that its was common during the later 21st dynasty for priests to restore and re-bury mummies from earlier dynasties in order to repair the damage done to them by grave robbers.
Professor Saleem and her Egyptologist colleague Zahi Hawass of Antiquities of Egypt, however, had speculated that these 11th century BCE priests had an ulterior motive in opening centuries old mummies — to re-use royal burial equipment.
However, their latest findings seem to counter that hypothesis.
'We show that — at least for Amenhotep I — the priests of the 21st dynasty lovingly repaired the injuries inflicted by the tomb robbers,' said Professor Saleem.
In fact, the restorers appeared to have returned the mummy 'to its former glory and preserved the magnificent jewellery and amulets in place.'
'Amenhotep I seems to have physically resembled his father — he had a narrow chin, a small narrow nose, curly hair and mildly protruding upper teeth,' said Professor Saleem. 'We couldn’t find any wounds or disfigurement due to disease to justify the cause of death, except numerous mutilations post mortem, presumably by grave robbers after his first burial'
Pictured: a CT scan of Amenhotep I's lower torso. The team believe that he was originally buried with his arms crossed in front of his body, however it appears that damage by grave robbers has dislocated his right arm and broken two fingers from his left hand. These can be seen inside his abdomen (long arrow), while a pin (short arrow) has been used —presumably by 21sy dynasty restorers — to hold the left arm in its new position
Professor Saleem and Dr Hawass have studied more than 40 royal mummies dating back to ancient Egypt's New Kingdom (16th–11th centuries BCE) as part of an Egyptian Antiquity Ministry Project launched back in 2005.
'CT imaging can be profitably used in anthropological and archaeological studies on mummies, including those from other civilizations, for example Peru,' the duo said.
Amenhotep I was found in a cache at Deir el-Bahari in southern Egypt in 1881, alongside a number of other royal mummies restored during the 21st dynasty
COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY (CT) SCANS EXPLAINED
Computed tomography (CT) scans use an x-ray beam to produce cross-sectional images of an object.
They are used in medical settings to peer inside the human body, as well as in scientific research to examine artefacts without damaging them.
When the imaging process is taking place, the x-ray tube continuously emits an x-ray beam and is rotating in a 360 degree circle in a device called a gantry.
While this is happening, the patient or object is placed on a special CT imaging table that lets the x-ray beam pass through.
The x-ray beam is shaped similar to a hand-held fan and is often described as a fan beam.
There are multiple digital detectors located within this circular gantry that continually identify the energy of the x-ray photons that exit the object or person.
The motion of the table moving through the gantry allows images to be reconstructed as slices (or tomographs).
With the holidays over, some parents may be reviewing the experience and planning ahead for ways to better hide presents from their inquisitive children. If your kid is a budding archeologist … good luck. The mummified body of Pharaoh Amenhotep I had been hidden for thousands of years in Egypt, then locked up for decades away from those who wished to unwrap it because of its beautiful yet fragile flower garlands and lifelike facemask inset with colorful stones. That changed recently when Egyptian archeologists and scientists used three-dimensional medical CT (computed tomography) scanners to ‘digitally unwrap’ the mummy of Amenhotep I and reveal contents that were better than they ever expected.
Pharaoh Amenhotep I with his mother Queen Ahmose-Nefertari.
(Public domain)
“This fact that Amenhotep I’s mummy had never been unwrapped in modern times gave us a unique opportunity: not just to study how he had originally been mummified and buried, but also how he had been treated and reburied twice, centuries after his death, by High Priests of Amun.”
In the press release announcing the scan, whose details were published in Frontiers of Medicine, Dr. Sahar Saleem, professor of radiology at the Faculty of Medicine at Cairo University and radiologist on the Egyptian Mummy Project, first reminds us that Amenhotep I had been unwrapped and rewrapped in the 11th century BCE, possibly because the tomb had been looted by grave robbers. That was 400 years after his reign from 1525 BCE to 1504 BCE. His original tomb was eventually destroyed for renovations to his mortuary temple and has never been positively identified. The mummy was found in 1881 with other reburied royal family members and has been kept safe and unwrapped ever since.
“We show that Amenhotep I was approximately 35 years old when he died. He was approximately 169cm tall, circumcised, and had good teeth. Within his wrappings, he wore 30 amulets and a unique golden girdle with gold beads.”
They could see he had been circumcised! That’s a tribute to the priests who performed the mummification, those who did the restoration, and the power of modern CT scanning. Saleem says Amenhotep I physically resembled his father, Ahmose I – bearing his narrow chin and nose, curly hair and protruding upper teeth. The scan showed post-mortem mutilations possibly made by the grave robbers but no cause of death at age 35. The scan showed him buried with 30 amulets and a unique golden girdle with gold beads befitting his status in death as a god. The fact that the priests who reburied Amenhotep I with his jewels in place was both a tribute to his status and a tribute to the priests, who many archeologists thought had repurposed such burial items for other later leaders.
An image of Amenhotep I from his funerary cult.
(Public domain)
Are your packages safe from budding young Egyptologists? Dr. Saleem doesn’t think so.
“We show that CT imaging can be profitably used in anthropological and archeological studies on mummies, including those from other civilizations, for example Peru.”
Do you own a lead closet?
RELATED PHOTOS AND VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011
The mummified wrapping of ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep I
Dr Saleem says the scans of the body did not show any wounds or disfigurement due to disease
PA MEDIA
EGYPTIAN MINISTRY OF ANTIQUITIES HANDOUT
An image of the head of King Amenhotep I created using CT scanning
DR SAHAR SALEEM/UNIVERSITY OF CAIRO
Golden beaded jewellery with a snail amulet hidden beneath Amenhotep I's wrappings
A strange Alien medallion was discovered in an Egyptian tomb (video)
A strange Alien medallion was discovered in an Egyptian tomb (video)
One of the most mysterious discoveries ever made is included in the video you’re about to watch. Professor Winwood was the one who made the discovery. According to what we can see, ancient kings and monarchs of our world were in contact with aliens.
Take a look at the video below and come to your own conclusions.
That may clarify why characters from Egypt, such as Thoth and Orus, appear in some of the symbols. The being or being from the talisman has hollow eyes, and we can see a structure that looks like a ship behind it.
The cylinder-like objects next to it resemble glass tubes, as if they were designed to hold everything inside.
A strange medallion discovered in an Egyptian tomb is also seen in the film. Alien-like characters appear in some of its features, supporting the hypothesis that aliens made peace with pharaohs and ruled Egypt from the shadows.
Professor Winwood is accused of stealing items from the tomb and then publishing them in a publication years later. This professor, who was also an archaeologist, was apprehended. The stolen artifacts were sent to a museum for safekeeping.
An Ancient Egyptian Medallion Is The Proof For Contact With Alien Races
Egyptian gold jewelry were found in the tomb of Queen Zer and Queen Pu-abi of Ur in Sumeria and are the oldest examples found jewelry from the third millennium BC.
Over the centuries, most Egyptian tombs robbed, stolen from tombs ended up in private collections and among them was puzzling medallion which is proof that the Egyptians had contact from an alien civilization
Medallion found in ancient Egyptian tomb.The Egyptian pharoahs have elongated skulls, as found in Paracas. Some figures have “alien like” features. One theory is that an “alien like” being and a possible space craft are at the top to represent alien rule /leadership over the Egyptians in ancient times.
Underground Atlantis: Did Ancient Civilization Take Refuge In Advanced Underground Tunnels?
Underground Atlantis: Did Ancient Civilization Take Refuge In Advanced Underground Tunnels?
Several of the impressive megalithic buildings around the world were erected by the A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ Atlantean c̳i̳v̳i̳l̳i̳z̳a̳t̳i̳o̳n̳. But not only that, in times so immemorial when the world was physically unstable, this race built fantastic tunnel systems in which to take refuge if necessary, both from the onslaught of nature and from attacks from outer space.
At least that is how the U̳F̳O̳logist William Francis Brinsley Le Poer Trench (1911-1995), 8th Earl of Clancarty, 7th Marquis of Heusden believed, who in 1974 wrote the book The S̳e̳c̳r̳e̳t̳ of the Ages: U̳F̳O̳s from the interior of the Earth, elaborating on this and other topics related to the Hollow Earth hypothesis.
To begin with, in his book Le Poer Trench quotes the famous Erich von Däniken and his Gold of the Gods to refer to “a gigantic system of tunnels, thousands of kilometers long” that stretches below Ecuador and Peru. This interconnected cave and tunnel system was discovered by Juan Moricz in 1965.
Von Däniken related that a tunnel led to a large room where there were stone and metal objects, including statues of many types of animals made of solid gold. Additionally, there was a metal library consisting of metal plates (sheets) with writing in an unknown language, which Moricz believed contained a history of mankind and details about a vanished c̳i̳v̳i̳l̳i̳z̳a̳t̳i̳o̳n̳.
Erich von Dániken with the discoverer of the tunnels, Juan Moricz, at the entrance to the mysterious underground world.
According to the quoted author, “the tunnels under Ecuador and Peru have smooth walls and often appear polished”, which would suggest that they had not been cut with rudimentary tools, but with much more sophisticated means. In Von Daniken’s words:
“… If the drill hits exceptionally hard geological strata, these could be destroyed with a few well-aimed shots from the weapon. The thermally shielded drill would attack the resulting blocks and heat the debris mass to a liquid state. As soon as the liquid rock cooled, it would form a diamond-hard enamel. The tunnel system would be safe against water infiltration and the camera supports would be superfluous. ”
Atlantis: The Refuge of War?
Towards the end of El Oro de Los Dioses, the Swiss author proposed a very interesting theory about a specific reason why A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ c̳i̳v̳i̳l̳i̳z̳a̳t̳i̳o̳n̳s̳ like the Atlantean, direct descendants of A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ astronauts, built the tunnels. This is quite apart from the dangers of seismic activity that Le Poer Trench himself also mentions as a threat.
Von Däniken suggests that in A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ times a cosmic battle took place between human beings. The losers apparently escaped in a spaceship, although the count attributes more than one spacecraft to them, and took refuge on Earth, where they were forced to wear “gas masks” to resist and adapt to the new atmosphere, hence the rock art. representing beings with “helmets” and “respiratory apparatus” -.
The author then claims that these fugitives, gifted with all the technological advances, “dived deep into the earth and made the tunnel systems” out of fear of their pursuers.
Later, and to hide their position even better, they established transmission stations on the fifth planet of our solar system, which then existed between Mars and Jupiter. The enemy, deceived by this ruse and believing that the signals betrayed the fugitives, bombards the mentioned planet until its complete destruction. Debris from the exploded world spread across what is now called the asteroid belt. This area is made up of thousands of asteroids and small pieces of stones. “P̳l̳a̳n̳e̳t̳s̳ don’t explode by themselves, someone makes them explode!” Däniken says
Le Poer Trench adds in his book that, if this really were the case, the weapons used in those A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ times were even more lethal than those of today and would explain the withering “bolts” of Zeus and other “gods” with truly destructive effects. capabilities.
Furthermore, he points out that the gravitational disruptions generated in the solar system by the loss of the fifth planet were responsible for a tilting of the Earth’s axis and the universal flood described by so many A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ cultures.
Underground tunnels in South America
The U̳F̳O̳logist of the last century then quotes the Italian journalist Peter Kolosimo and his work Timeless Land, where he mentions a system of tunnels that connects Lima with Cuzco, and from there continues to the Bolivian border.
According to the Kolosimo, these tunnels present a fascinating archaeological problem. “Scholars agree that they were not manufactured by the Incas themselves, who used them but ignored their origin. In fact, they are so imposing that it does not seem absurd to conjecture, as some scientists have done, that they are the work of an unknown race of giants, ”he writes.
On the other hand, the British Harold T. Wilkins, in his book Mysteries of Ancient South America, was probably describing the same tunnel system when he stated:
«One of the entrances to the great tunnels was, and still is, near the old Cuzco, but it is masked so as not to be discovered. This hidden path leads directly to a huge “subway”, which goes from Cuzco to Lima, in a straight line, a distance of 380 miles! Then, turning south, the great tunnel stretches out into what, until about 1868, was modern Bolivia, some 900 miles! ”
Wilkins also referred to some tunnels in the West Indies:
«Strange tunnels of incredible antiquity and unknown origin caught the attention of Christopher Columbus when he visited Martinique, in the West Indies. To be sure, the Atlantean white race built splendid cities on what are now islands of the West Indies, but which, at that distant date, may have been part of the now submerged American continent, whose name is commemorated in the word: “Antilles. ”
A curious old world Asian tradition is that A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳ Atlantis had a network of tunnels and labyrinthine passages that ran in all directions, the day the land bridge existed between the submerged land and Africa on one side and old Brazil on the other. . In Atlantis, the tunnels were used for necromantic and black magic cults.
Kolosimo, for his part, noted that tunnel systems are found all over the world. In addition to South America, he listed California, Virginia, Hawaii, Oceania, and Asia. In Europe, there are tunnels in Sweden, the Czech Republic and Slovakia; and, in the Mediterranean area, in the Balearic Islands and Malta.
“A huge tunnel, of which some thirty miles have been explored, runs between Spain and Morocco, and many believe that this is how the‘ Barbary monkeys ’, otherwise unknown in Europe, arrived in Gibraltar,” wrote the Italian. “It has even been suggested that these cyclopean galleries form a network connecting the most distant parts of our planet.”
Agartha
Wilkins has more to tell us about the old tunnel systems:
“Among the tribes of Inner Mongolia, even today, there are traditions about tunnels and underground worlds that sound as fantastic as anything in modern novels. A legend, if so! – says the tunnels lead to an underworld of antediluvian descent, somewhere in Afghanistan or in the Hindu Kush region.
They even give it a name: Agharta. Legend adds that a maze of tunnels and underground passages extends in a series of links that connect Agharta with all the other underground worlds. The underworld, it is said, is illuminated by a strange green luminescence that favors the growth of crops and favors the length of days and health.
This last story is of special interest to Le Poer Trench, who draws a parallel with another Kolosimo writing that speaks of a similar fluorescence in another part of the world.
In Timeless Earth it is read that “a strange bottomless pit in Azerbaijan” has walls where “a bluish light comes out and strange noises are heard”, adding that after investigating and exploring, “scientists found a complete system of tunnels that connected with others in Georgia and throughout the Caucasus. ”
After describing these tunnels, which are on a regular basis and, he claimed, almost identical to others in Central America, Kolosimo goes on to say that they are part of a huge system that even connects with Iran and, furthermore, with the tunnels in C̳h̳i̳n̳a̳, Tibet and Mongolia.
Now, as for Wilkins’ account of an underworld named Agharta, which was said to be illuminated by a strange green luminescence, Kolosimo has this to say:
“Tibetans believe that the tunnels are citadels, the last of which still offers refuge to the survivors of an immense cataclysm. This unknown town is said to make use of an underground energy source that replaces that of the sun, causing plants to reproduce and prolong human life. It is supposed to emit a green fluorescence, and it is curious that we also find this idea in American legends.
conclusion
Thus, Le Poer Trench concludes that the Atlanteans and their descendants built tunnel systems around the world for various purposes. In the first place, to protect against attacks from nature, then very common, in the form of seismic activity and floods, and secondly, as protection in case of being attacked from outer space:
“Most of these fantastic tunnels were built in ways that exceed our current capabilities. For years England and France have been talking about the idea of a Channel Tunnel. However, it seems that the A̳n̳c̳i̳e̳n̳t̳s built the amazing tunnels of their time as something natural, and on a grand scale, for good and imperative reasons.
PERFECT BEWAARD GEBLEVEN EMBRYO VAN EEN DINOSAURUS ONTDEKT
PERFECT BEWAARD GEBLEVEN EMBRYO VAN EEN DINOSAURUS ONTDEKT
Caroline Kraaijvanger
Het embryo onthult de verrassende wijze waarop piepkleine dinosaurussen in hun ei opgevouwen zaten.
In de afgelopen eeuw zijn behoorlijk wat gefossiliseerde dinosauruseieren teruggevonden. Maar slechts zelden herbergden die eieren tevens een goed bewaard gebleven dinosaurusembryo. Geen wonder dat wetenschappers bijzonder in hun nopjes zijn met een dinosaurusei dat enkele jaren geleden in het zuiden van China is teruggevonden en nu uitgebreid is geanalyseerd. Het ei blijkt namelijk een bijna perfect bewaard gebleven dinosaurusembryo te herbergen.
Baby Yingliang Het ei – dat zo’n 72 tot 66 miljoen jaar oud is – werd al in 2000 in de Chinese provincie Jiangxi teruggevonden. Even dreigde het in de vergetelheid te raken, tot museummedewerkers het ei tijdens het samenstellen van een nieuwe museumcollectie weer tegenkwamen. Het ei trok de aandacht, omdat het reeds dwars doormidden was gebroken en de museummedewerkers enkele botjes in het ei dachten te ontwaren. Nader onderzoek en preparatie van het fossiel onthulde vervolgens dat het een goed bewaard gebleven dinosaurusembryo herbergde, dat onderzoekers inmiddels ‘Baby Yingliang’ hebben gedoopt.
Oviraptorosaurus Afgaand op de diepe, tandenloze schedel van het embryo denken onderzoekers dat het ei een jonge Oviraptorosaurus herbergt. Dit waren gevederde, tweebenige dino’s die nauwverwant zijn aan moderne vogels en miljoenen jaren geleden in Azië en Noord-Amerika leefden.
De vondst zorgt voor enige opwinding, omdat het embryo bijna perfect bewaard is gebleven en dus meer inzicht kan geven in hoe kleine dinosaurussen in hun ei zaten opgevouwen. “We zijn heel opgewonden over de ontdekking van ‘Baby Yingliang’ – het embryo is uitstekend bewaard gebleven en kan ons helpen om een groot aantal vragen over de groei en voortplanting van dinosaurussen te beantwoorden,” aldus onderzoeker Fion Waisum Ma.
Hier zie je het gefossiliseerde dinosaurusembryo in het ei.
Afbeelding: Xing et al. / iScience.
In de vogel-houding Zo zit het embryo – en dat is heel verrassend – ongeveer op dezelfde wijze in het ei gevouwen als moderne vogels. “We waren verrast toen we dit mooi bewaard gebleven embryo, liggend in een vogel-achtige houding, in een dinosaurusei aantroffen,” erkent Waisum Ma. “Deze houding hebben we nog niet eerder gezien bij niet-vliegende dinosaurussen.”
Een reconstructie van de dinosaurus in het ei. Het ei is 17 centimeter lang. Het embryo is naar schatting 27 centimeter lang.
Afbeelding: Lida Xing.
De dinosaurus ligt als het ware dubbelgeklapt in het ei, waarbij de kop net onder de buik uitkomt. De pootjes liggen aan weerszijden van het lijf. Het is grofweg vergelijkbaar met de houding die vogels kort voor ze uit het ei kruipen, aannemen. Dat ook dinosaurussen met die houding bekend waren, suggereert voorzichtig dat deze al onder niet-vliegende dinosaurussen geëvolueerd is. “Het is interessant om te zien dat dit dinosaurusembryo en een kipembryo op vergelijkbare wijze in hun ei liggen,” vindt Waisum Ma. “Dit dinosaurusembryo in het ei is één van de mooiste fossielen die ik ooit heb gezien,” aldus onderzoeker Steve Brusatte. “Dit kleine prenatale dinosaurusje ziet er net zo uit als een babyvogel die opgekruld in zijn ei zit en dat is nog meer bewijs dat veel kenmerken die we vandaag de dag bij vogels zien, geëvolueerd zijn onder hun dinosaurus-voorouders.”
De wetenschappers zijn voornemens om nog meer gefossiliseerde dinosaurusembryo’s onder de loep te nemen en zo met meer zekerheid vast te stellen dat de houding van vogelembryo’s zijn oorsprong vindt onder dinosaurussen. Daarnaast mag ook Baby Yingliang zich in de toekomst in de aandacht van wetenschappers verheugen; wetenschappers willen dit zeldzame embryo graag nader verkennen. Daarbij zal gebruik worden gemaakt van verschillende beeldtechnieken om bijvoorbeeld de nog niet blootgelegde botjes in de schedel nader te onderzoeken.
The earliest records could even be in the form of paintings by our caveman ancestors - perhaps showing that the UFO sightings now subject to official probes in Washington and Beijing are really nothing new.
A stone age carving dating from 8,000BC, said to show 'astronauts' in northern Italy
Earlier this year, a long-awaited Pentagon report admitted experts could not explain some 144 reports of "unidentified aerial phenomena".
It was slammed as a "whitewash" by believers even though top brass said they could not rule out an alien origin for the sightings.
More than 500 relics made of jade have been unearthed at the site of the former capital of the Xia Dynasty which ruled from 2070BC-1600BC.
The green colour and pointy ears are said to be evidence of contact with another civilisation.
The growing popularity of the theory even led to an official denial of any alien link.
"Some artistically exaggerated goddess statues cannot be said to be 'aliens,'" said Lei Yu, an archaeologist at the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute.
Ezekiel's vision
The Bible's Book of Ezekiel describes how the prophet saw a flying chariot emerging from a whirlwind and a cloud of fire.
The chariot was carried by four human-like angels each with four faces, and below it were four mysterious wheels.
Scholars claim it was around 593BC in modern day Kuwait. But there has been fierce debate on how to interpret the verses.
Famed Swiss Ufologist Erich von Däniken claimed it was evidence of an alien visitation, rather than a vision from God.
He was so convincing that Nasa scientist Josef Blumrich later wrote a book explaining how such a craft would have operated.
Classical history
Roman chronicler Livy left a fascinating account of "many prodigies" spotted in 214 BC, including "phantom ships" that were "seen gleaming in the sky".
The historian Plutarch wrote about an even more remarkable event during a battle in 74BC.
He said "with no apparent change of weather, the sky burst asunder and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies.
"In shape it was most like a wine-jar, and in colour like molten silver."
Thousands of onlookers, including enemy leader King King Mithridates VI, apparently confirmed the truth of the story.
Another eminent scholar, Titus Flavius Josephus, wrote about a "miraculous phenomenon defying belief" in the first century AD.
It involved "chariots and armed battalions hurtling through the clouds and encompassing the cities".
Princess from the Moon
Archives in medieval Japan record how a woman arrived in a strange round vessel
One of Japan's most famous legends dating from around 1,000 years ago tells the story of “The Shining Princess”.
Kaguya is said to have been found as a baby inside a shining bamboo stalk, and when she grows up the Emperor is desperate to marry her.
But she rejects him explaining she is not from the Earth, and a craft arrives to take her home to the Moon.
Official records tell how a woman did arrive in Japan in a round vessel which some claim is a classic flying saucer shape.
The Nuremberg 'UFO battle'
A newsletter reports sightings of a 'UFO battle' over Nuremberg
In 1561, witnesses said they saw the sky filled with bright shining objects in Nuremberg, Germany.
They ranged from "blood-red semi-circular arcs" to dark balls of "black ferrous colour".
They rushed back and forth and "fighting among themselves", according to contemporary newsletters.
Eventually they fell onto the earth and "wasted away" with "immense smoke".
A similar UFO battle was reported five years later in Basel, Switzerland.
Witness said numerous red and black balls were "fighting" in the sky over several days, accompanied by unusual sunsets and sunrises.
ET renaissance
Is this a flying saucer in The Baptism of Christ by Aert De Gelder?
An exquisitely preserved dinosaur embryo has been found curled up inside a fossilised egg, unearthed in southern China, dating back some 66–72 million years.
The embryo has been dubbed 'Baby Yingliang' and was found in the rocks of the 'Hekou Formation' at the Shahe Industrial Park in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province.
Palaeontologists led from the University of Birmingham said that Baby Yingliang belonged to species of toothless, beaked theropod dinosaurs, or 'oviraptorosaurs'.
Oviraptors, which were feathered, are found in the rocks of Asia and North America and had varied beaks and body sizes allowing them to adopt a wide range of diets.
The specimen is one of the most complete dino embryos known and notably sports a posture closer to those seen in embryonic birds than usually found in dinosaurs.
Specifically, Baby Yingliang was close to hatching, and had its head below its body, its back curled into the egg's blunt end and its feet positioned either side of it.
In modern birds, such a posture is assumed during 'tucking' — an embryo behaviour controlled by the central nervous system that is critical for a successful hatching.
The discovery of such behaviour in Baby Yingliang suggests that this is not unique to birds, but may instead have first evolved among the non-avian theropod dinosaurs.
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An exquisitely preserved dinosaur embryo has been found curled up inside a fossilised egg (pictured), unearthed in southern China, dating back some 66–72 million years
Palaeontologists led from the University of Birmingham said that Baby Yingliang (depicted in this artist's impression) belonged to species of toothless, beaked theropod dinosaurs
BABY YINGLIANG STATISTICS
Age: 72–66 million years old
Locality: Ganzhou City, China
Type: Oviraptorosaur
Length: 10.6'' (27 cm) head-to-tail
Egg size: 6.7'' (17 cm) -long
The study was conducted by vertebrate palaeontologist Fion Waisum Ma of the University of Birmingham and her colleagues.
'Dinosaur embryos are some of the rarest fossils and most of them are incomplete with the bones dislocated,' Ms Ma said.
'We are very excited about the discovery of "Baby Yingliang" — it is preserved in a great condition and helps us answer a lot of questions about dinosaur growth and reproduction with it.
'It is interesting to see this dinosaur embryo and a chicken embryo pose in a similar way inside the egg, which possibly indicates similar prehatching behaviours.'
Baby Yingliang takes its nickname from the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in Xiamen, among whose fossil collections it is held.
The researchers believe that the embryonic oviraptorosaur would have been some 10.6 inches (27 cm) from head to tail, but was developing curled inside a 6.7 inch (17 cm) -long egg.
'This dinosaur embryo was acquired by the director of Yingliang Group, Mr Liang Liu, as suspected egg fossils around the year 2000,' said paper author and palaeontologist Lida Xing of the China University of Geosciences in Beijing.
'During the construction of Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in the 2010s, museum staff sorted through the storage and discovered the specimens.
'These specimens were identified as dinosaur egg fossils. Fossil preparation was conducted and eventually unveiled the embryo hidden inside the egg.
'This is how "Baby Yingliang" was brought to light.'
The specimen is one of the most complete dino embryos known and notably sports a posture closer to those seen in embryonic birds than usually found in dinosaurs. Specifically, Baby Yingliang — who was close to hatching — had its head below its body, its back curled into the egg's blunt end and its feet positioned either side of it
'It is interesting to see this dinosaur embryo (pictured) and a chicken embryo pose in a similar way inside the egg, which possibly indicates similar prehatching behaviours,' said vertebrate palaeontologist Fion Waisum Ma of the University of Birmingham
'This dinosaur embryo inside its egg is one of the most beautiful fossils I have ever seen,' said paper co-author and vertebrate palaeontologist Steve Brusatte of the University of Edinburgh.
'This little prenatal dinosaur looks just like a baby bird curled in its egg, which is yet more evidence that many features characteristic of today’s birds first evolved in their dinosaur ancestors.'
The full findings of the study were published in the journal iScience.
The embryo — which has been dubbed 'Baby Yingliang' — was found in the rocks of the 'Hekou Formation' at the Shahe Industrial Park in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province
HOW THE DINOSAURS WENT EXTINCT AROUND 66 MILLION YEARS AGO
Dinosaurs ruled and dominated Earth around 66 million years ago, before they suddenly went extinct.
The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event is the name given to this mass extinction.
It was believed for many years that the changing climate destroyed the food chain of the huge reptiles.
In the 1980s, paleontologists discovered a layer of iridium.
This is an element that is rare on Earth but is found in vast quantities in space.
When this was dated, it coincided precisely with when the dinosaurs disappeared from the fossil record.
A decade later, scientists uncovered the massive Chicxulub Crater at the tip of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, which dates to the period in question.
Scientific consensus now says that these two factors are linked and they were both probably caused by an enormous asteroid crashing to Earth.
With the projected size and impact velocity, the collision would have caused an enormous shock-wave and likely triggered seismic activity.
The fallout would have created plumes of ash that likely covered all of the planet and made it impossible for dinosaurs to survive.
Other animals and plant species had a shorter time-span between generations which allowed them to survive.
There are several other theories as to what caused the demise of the famous animals.
One early theory was that small mammals ate dinosaur eggs and another proposes that toxic angiosperms (flowering plants) killed them off.
Leaked Secret Photos Under Great Sphinx of Egypt! Hidden Tunnels Now Confirmed
Leaked Secret Photos Under Great Sphinx of Egypt! Hidden Tunnels Now Confirmed
Leaked Secret Photos Under Great Sphinx of Egypt! Hidden Tunnels Confirmed
FIRST EVER Photos/Videos from UNDER & INSIDE the Great Sphinx of Giza Egypt…
A limestone statue of a reclining sphinx, a mythical creature. Facing directly from West to East, it stands on the Giza Plateau on the west bank of the Nile in Giza, Egypt. Wikipedia
Atlantis 60,000 Years Ago: A War Between Poseidon People & The Sons of Belial History
Atlantis 60,000 Years Ago: A War Between Poseidon People & The Sons of Belial History
Atlantis 60,000 Years Ago: A War Between Poseidon People & The Sons of Belial
Millennia ago, Lemuria and Atlantis were wiped from our planet, but the wisdom of these civilizations live on with us today. In this interview, Regina Meredith and Tom T. Moore discuss their experiences of past lives in Atlantis and Lemuria and how tapping into the wisdom of those times directly connects to humanity’s work in the present and future.
As we each follow the paths of our soul contracts, we have the potential to end all conflict in the world, moving humanity to a higher vibration in service of the greater good.
Hundreds of dinosaur footprints have been discovered in a clay mine close to the village of Borkowice, Poland. It is such a significant find that experts have called it the most spectacular discovery ever made in Poland, as well as the largest find in all of Europe and possibly even the world.
The dinosaur tracks date back approximately 199 million years during the early part of the Jurassic Period that is known as the Hettangian Age (this was between 201.3 and 199.3 million years ago). They were found by Professor Grzegorz Pieńkowski from the National Geological Institute in Warsaw, as well as geologist and paleontologist Dr. Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki from Uppsala University.
(Not any of the footprints mentioned in this article.)
The tracks were so remarkably preserved that Dr. Niedźwiedzki explained them as looking like “…the dinosaurs were walking there yesterday,” adding, “This will make the site the largest collection of its type in Europe.” In fact, they were so well preserved that they have been compared to the best quality ones that were previously found in North America, Greenland, South Africa, and China.
The footprints were found in rocks with approximately 60 big blocks containing hundreds of tracks that have been recovered thus far. The researchers are planning on excavating over 200 additional blocks of rocks in the coming months and there could be as many as thousands more footprints that have yet to be found.
The prints were made by carnivorous and avian dinosaurs. Some of the tracks were made by sauropodomorphs (this group includes the Brontosaurus). The biggest footprints measured 40 centimeters in length (15.7 inches) which means that the dinosaurs that left them would have measured as tall as 6 meters (19.7 feet). What’s even more remarkable is that the claws and skin were imprinted in the rocks.
Another interesting fact is that even though hundreds of footprints were found, actual dinosaur bones are quite rare in Poland. The reason why not many dinosaur fossils have been found is because a lot of the country was under water millions of years ago and the fossil site near Borkowice was a coastal area.
This is certainly a very important and exceptional find as Professor Pieńkowski stated, “I have never seen such a treasure trove before.” Pictures of some of the footprints can be viewedhere.
For decades, many authors and researchers have been inspired by the idea that the human race was created by Ancient Aliens. And while mainstream science believes this is just ridiculous, countless pieces of evidence have been found across the globe that back up the ancient alien theory. Perhaps the most important connection between the rise of civilization and alien beings can be found in history, written in ancient manuscripts and clay tablets that have survived for thousands of years.
For example, the Ancient Sumerian King List, which describes kings, who ruled over Earth for a total of 241,200 years since the original kingship, had “descended from heaven.” The clay tablet of this unique text is 4,000-year-old and was found by German-American scholar Hermann Hilprecht at the beginning of the 20th century. Hilprecht found at least 18 such cuneiform tablets (c. 2017-1794 BCE). They were not identical but shared the information that is believed to have been taken from a single source of Sumerian history. There are more than a dozen of copies of the Sumerian King List found in Babylon, Susa, and Assyria, and the Royal Library of Nineveh from the 7th century BC.
The Ancient Sumerian King List.
Unfortunately, mainstream scholars refused to believe that everything written down on the Sumerian King list is real, saying that the list is a mixture of prehistorical and mythological accounts which speaks of Gods that ruled over the land enjoying implausibly lengthy reigns.
If we look at other ancient cultures such as Mesoamerican, we will find how the sacred book of the ancient Maya, the Popol Vuh describes the beings that created the mankind.
According to Living Maya Time, “The Popol Vuh, meaning ‘Book of the Community,’ narrates the Maya creation account, the tales of the Hero Twins, and the K’iche’ genealogies and land rights. In this story, the Creators, Heart of Sky, and six other deities including the Feathered Serpent wanted to create human beings with hearts and minds who could “keep the days.” But their first attempts failed. When these deities finally created humans out of yellow and white corn who could talk, they were satisfied. In another epic cycle of the story, the Death Lords of the Underworld summon the Hero Twins to play a momentous ball game where the Twins defeat their opponents. The Twins rose into the heavens, and became the Sun and the Moon. Through their actions, the Hero Twins prepared the way for the planting of corn, for human beings to live on Earth, and for the Fourth Creation of the Maya.”
The Popol Vuh
And while these above-mentioned ancient texts are extraordinary, perhaps, even more are the countless artifacts that have been found scattered across the globe depicting beings eerily similar to modern-day astronauts.
And while speaking of astronauts, Al Worden, a former astronaut and member of the Apollo 15 mission had something fascinating to say about alien life, while speaking in an interview with Good Morning Britain.
Al Worden was an American astronaut and engineer who was the Command Module Pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. The former astronaut was also listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “Most isolated human being” during his time alone in the Command Module Endeavour. He believed that humans are the descendants of ancient aliens.
In 2017, on a British TV show “Good Morning Britain,” he gave a shocking response when a host asked why to spend a lot of money on space missions when there are lots of problems on Earth. He was asked if he believed aliens were real. The answer probably surprised everyone watching the interview.
The former Apollo 15 member said that not only were aliens real, but they had come to Earth in the distant and created our civilization, and if we wanted to look for evidence, all we had to do was to look at ancient Sumerian literature.“We are the aliens, but we just think they are somebody else. But we are the ones who came from somewhere else, because somebody else had to survive, and they got into little spacecraft then they came here and landed, and they started civilization here. And if you don’t believe me, go get books on Ancient Sumerians and see what they had to say. They’ll tell you right up front,” Worden added. He died on March 18, 2020.
According to his words, he was the firm believer of the ancient Sumerian scriptures. They reveal that humans and gods used to live together, while humans were servants to gods and each Sumerian city was guarded by its own god. The earliest record of a Sumerian creation myth can be found in a tablet excavated in Nippur, an ancient Sumerian city in Mesopotamia, in 1893. (Click here for full article)
According to the cuneiform tablets, Earth was ruled by human-like gods at the beginning. When they arrived on Earth, they made it habitable by toiling the soil and mining the minerals. Besides, the text mentioned the revolt between the gods and their laborers.
“When the gods like men Bore the work and suffered the toll The toil of the gods was great, The work was heavy, the distress was.”
It is said before humans, the Anunnaki (a group of deities of the ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians) used the Igigi (sometimes also spelled “Igigu”), the young generation of Ancient Astronaut Gods as their servants to mine gold on Earth, but later, they were replaced by humans when they rebelled against the Annunaki. For the ancient Mesopotamians, heaven is divided into three domes. The lowest dome of heaven was the home of the stars, and the middle dome was the home of the Igigi, the younger gods. The highest and outermost dome of heaven was personified as An, the god of the sky.
Supporting Al Worden’s statement, Dr. Ellis Silver, an author of the book “Humans are not from Earth: a scientific evaluation of the evidence,” has a strong belief that life on earth was sparked by aliens thousands of years ago.
According to him, humans should have become the strongest race in the universe, but the mortal body failed to thrive in the Earth’s environment, it can easily be harmed by sunlight, natural disasters, and diseases. He said: “Mankind is supposedly the most highly developed species on the planet, yet is surprisingly unsuited and ill-equipped for Earth’s environment: harmed by sunlight, a strong dislike for naturally occurring foods, ridiculously high rates of chronic disease, and more.”
Dr. Ellis concluded that mankind did not come from that particular strain of life, but evolved elsewhere and was transported to Earth (as fully evolved Homo sapiens) between 60,000 and 200,000 years ago.
WETENSCHAPPERS ONTHULLEN HET UNIEKE LOOPJE VAN HET GROOTSTE VLIEGENDE DIER DAT OOIT OP AARDE HEEFT GELEEFD
WETENSCHAPPERS ONTHULLEN HET UNIEKE LOOPJE VAN HET GROOTSTE VLIEGENDE DIER DAT OOIT OP AARDE HEEFT GELEEFD
Vivian Lammerse
Lopen met vleugels van 6 meter lang valt echt niet mee…
Als je vandaag de dag door moerassig gebied loopt, zie je hooguit één meter lange reigers in ondiep water waden, op zoek naar visjes, insecten of schaaldieren. Maar zo’n 70 miljoen jaar geleden zou je langs de Texaanse Rio Grande-rivier een indrukwekkender en enger wezen door de moerassen hebben zien struinen. Het gaat om een vrij angstaanjagende pterosauriër, bekend als Quetzalcoatlus. Dit beest, met een spanwijdte van bijna 12 meter, was het grootste vliegende dier dat ooit op aarde leefde. En in een nieuwe studie schetsen onderzoekers nu het meest complete beeld van dit gevreesde familielid van de dinosaurus.
Mysterie In de jaren zeventig van de vorige eeuw ontdekte wetenschappers in het Amerikaanse Big Bend National Park de gefossiliseerde botten van de pterosauriër. Eén van de mysteries is echter sindsdien geweest hoe een dier met zes meter lange vleugels rond kon lopen… De vleugels zouden zelfs opgevouwen de grond moeten hebben geraakt. Bovendien gingen er onder zijn enorme vleugels in verhouding vrij kleine beentjes schuil. En dus is het de vraag hoe Quetzalcoatlus het luchtruim koos. “Dit oude vliegende reptiel is legendarisch,” zegt onderzoeker Kevin Padian. “Maar dit is de eerste keer dat we een grondige blik werpen op het grootste dier dat ooit op aarde rondvloog.”
Studie De onderzoekers bogen zich over de gefossiliseerde botten en vergeleken deze met talrijkere exemplaren van een kleinere Quetzalcoatlus-soort om het vlieg-, loop- en lanceergedrag beter te begrijpen. En uiteindelijk slaagde het onderzoeksteam erin het unieke loopje van Quetzalcoatlus te onthullen.
Vleugels Het beeld dat het onderzoeksteam uiteindelijk schetst, is van een dier dat best wat weg heeft van hedendaagse reigers, gecombineerd met kenmerken van condors en gieren. “Pterosauriërs hebben enorme borstbeenderen – de plek waar de vliegspieren zich hechten – dus het lijdt geen twijfel dat het geweldige vliegers waren,” zegt Padian. “Hun opperarmbeen – de humerus – kenmerkt zich door enorme, benige toppen waar de spieren die ze gebruikten om te vliegen, worden verankerd. Deze zijn groter dan die van vogels en veel groter dan die van vleermuizen. De vleugels werkten in wezen hetzelfde als die van vogels en andere dinosauriërs, waaraan pterosauriërs het nauwst verwant zijn.”
Meer over Quetzalcoatlus De onderzoekers vermoeden dat Quetzalcoatlus geen veren had: zijn lichaam – inclusief vleugels – was bedekt met haar, zoals bij alle pterosauriërs. Net als dinosaurussen waren ze warmbloedig en actief. Quetzalcoatlus had geen staart, vermoedelijk om zo wendbaarder te zijn. Daarnaast leek hij een beetje op een uit de kluiten gewassen ooievaar. De pterosauriër hield er waarschijnlijk een gevarieerd dieet op na en zocht in de modder naar krabbetjes, wormen en kokkels, maar ook kleine visjes, insecten, slangen en hagedissen stonden geregeld op zijn menu.
Net als vogels, vleermuizen en zelfs mensen, hebben de voorpoten van pterosauriërs drie segmenten: de humerus, de onderarm en de pols- en handbotjes. Maar in tegenstelling tot vogels en vleermuizen, bestaat het buitenste deel van de pterosauriërvleugel uit een gigantische ‘vleugelvinger’. “Het is vergelijkbaar met een skistok die zich vanaf het begin van je vingers uitstrekt en 90 graden naar buiten buigt,” legt Padian uit.
Tweevoetig Quetzalcoatlus was tweevoetig, wat betekent dat hij op twee benen liep. Maar omdat de botten van de voorpoten zo langwerpig zijn, raakten zijn vleugels de grond wanneer ze opgevouwen waren. Dit deed sommigen vermoeden dat de pterosauriërs zich net als een vampiervleermuis voortbewogen; die gebruiken hun voorpoten om zichzelf op de grond voort te stuwen.
Een schets van de botten van Quetzalcoatlus northropi. Het dier hield er een uniek loopje op na, die duidelijk verschilde van die van een vampiervleermuis. Afbeelding: John Conway
De onderzoekers komen nu echter tot de ontdekking dat Quetzalcoatlus hier waarschijnlijk niet toe in staat was: als hij op de grond stond, kon hij zijn vleugels alleen naar voren of opzij bewegen. “Eenmaal op de grond, kon hij zijn voorpoten niet terugdraaien om vooruit te komen,” zegt Padian. “Het bot in zijn schouder zat daarvoor in de weg.” Om toch op de grond vooruit te komen, hief de pterosauriër eerst zijn linkerarm op, zette vervolgens met zijn linkerbeen een stap en plaatste zijn linkerarm op de grond. Dit proces herhaalde hij aan de rechterkant. “Dit lijkt misschien wat omslachtig,” zegt Padian. “Maar het dier kon de gang snel en gemakkelijk uitvoeren.”
Opstijgen Hoe Quetzalcoatlus opsteeg? Omdat zijn poten korter waren dan zijn vleugels, kon hij niet simpelweg met zijn vleugels klapperen om zichzelf te lanceren. De onderzoekers vermoeden dan ook dat de pterosauriër zijn sterke achterpoten gebruikte om omhoog te springen. Vervolgens begon hij, zodra er enige ruimte onder hem was gekomen, met zijn vleugels te klapperen. Reigers en zilverreigers doen hetzelfde, hoewel ze aanzienlijk kleiner zijn dan Quetzalcoatlus.
Een stapsgewijze reconstructie van hoe Quetzalcoatlus opsteeg. De pterosauriër hurkt, springt en begint dan met zijn vleugels te klappen. Afbeelding: Kevin Padian and John Conway
De bevindingen zijn revolutionair voor de studie naar pterosauriërs – de eerste dieren, na insecten, die ooit een gemotoriseerde vlucht ontwikkelden. Padian geeft toe dat er nog steeds enkele vragen over Quetzalcoatlus en pterosauriërs in het algemeen onbeantwoord blijven. Maar dankzij het omvangrijke onderzoek hebben we nu wel een veel beter beeld van hoe het grootste vliegende dier dat ooit op aarde leefde, zich – op vrij eigenaardige wijze – voortbewoog.
Spinal Missing Link Is Discovered Unifying Apes, Neanderthals and Us
Spinal Missing Link Is Discovered Unifying Apes, Neanderthals and Us
A team of scientists has analyzed a set of two-million-year-old so-called ‘missing link’ fossils. Unlike anything presented before, their new study shows how the ancient human relative, Australopithecus sediba , 'walked like a human, but climbed like an ape'. Is this the missing link Darwin dreamed of?
A collection of two-million-year-old fossil vertebrae from an early human relative, discovered in Africa, has finally put to bed a long outstanding anthropological debate. The argument had always been whether Australopithecus sediba could both walk and climb trees, or not.
Now, a new paper shows that this early hominin was like a cat, being a master of both vertical and horizontal planes. The researchers have demonstrated how A. sediba used its upper limbs to climb trees and cliffs, while their lower limbs powered them along, walking like humans.
Australopithecus sediba silhouette showing the newly-found vertebrae (colored) which is the spinal missing link, along with other skeletal remains from the species.
Discovered In Africa’s ‘Cradle Of Humankind’, Of course
The team of researchers from New York University, the University of the Witwatersrand, and 15 other academic institutions around the world, published their findings in the open access journal e-Life. The study was based on two discoveries of ‘lumbar vertebrae from the lower backs’ of a male and female Australopithecus sediba.
According to a New York University release , in 2008, Professor Lee Berger from the University of the Witwatersrand and his son, Matthew, first discovered the two million years old fossilized spine of the new species of ancient human relatives. Researchers call this female skeleton “Issa,” which means ‘protector’ in Swahili, after she was found at Malapa Cave, in the self-proclaimed Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Then, in 2015, anthropologists discovered ’the most complete lower back ever discovered’ of a male sediba at the same site. Together, the two sets of vertebrae have been used to successfully demonstrate that our ancient human relatives climbed like animals and walked like modern humans.
The fossils were encrusted in breccia, a cement-like rock, so, to avoid damaging the fossils, they were scanned with a Micro- CT scanner at the University of the Witwatersrand. Once the fossilized vertebrae had been ‘virtually prepared,’ they were then pieced together with other fragments of fossils recovered at the site. The 2008 and 2015 vertebrae were found to ‘articulate perfectly’, according to the study.
Professor Scott Williams of New York University and Wits University, the lead author on the new paper, said the lumbar region ‘is critical to understanding the nature of bipedalism in our earliest ancestors. Moreover, lumbars inform scientists as to whether any given species could walk on two legs, like modern humans do. Previous lumbar studies were all based on incomplete lower spines. Until now, it was not noticed that sediba had ‘a relatively straight spine, without the curvature, or lordosis, typically seen in modern humans,’ according to the paper.
Australopithecus sediba silhouette showing the newly found vertebrae along with other skeletal remains from the species.
Professor Gabrielle Russo of Stony Brook University was a coauthor of the new study and he explained that ‘Lordosis’ is the inward curve of the lumbar spine associated with tendencies towards bipedalism. The research showed how the lordosis of sediba was ‘more extreme than any other australopithecines yet discovered.’ This indicates ‘a powerful trunk musculature, perhaps for arboreal [tree climbing] behaviors,’ according to Russo. And, Issa’s spine was found to be more similar to ‘Neanderthals, and other more primitive species of ancient hominins older than two million years’.
The study concluded that the new spine research demonstrates sediba’s ‘transitional nature’ being able to walk like a human and climb trees like an ape: ‘a missing link’ showing another intermediate species between the great apes, Neanderthals and modern humans.
Top image: Life reconstruction of Australopithecus sediba commissioned by the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Sculpture by Elisabeth Daynes.
Recent analysis of ancient DNA found in soil samples collected in the Canadian permafrost has revealed that mammoths and Yukon wild horses survived thousands of years longer than previously thought.
The samples, which were found specifically in the Klondike region of Yukon, were analyzed and presented in a 30,000-year DNA record by researchers from McMaster University, the University of Alberta, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Yukon government.
The samples provided the researchers with valuable information regarding plants and animals from the Pleistocene-Holocene transition period that occurred between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago. This was also the time when numerous animals were believed to have gone extinct such as mammoths, sabre-toothed cats, and mastodons.
They found that the woolly mammoths and North American horses were already declining drastically in numbers before that time period when the climate became unstable. However, they did not completely go extinct until around 5,000 years ago – thousands of years later than previously estimated. Previous research conducted by scientists at McMaster University claimed that woolly mammoths and North American horses were alive in the Yukon around 9,700 years ago.
Hendrik Poinar, who is an evolutionary geneticist and director of the McMaster Ancient DNA Centre, discussed their research in further details, “The rich data provides a unique window into the population dynamics of megafuana and nuances the discussion around their extinction through more subtle reconstructions of past ecosystems.” Their study was published in the journal Nature Communications.
Researchers used DNA capture-enrichment technology developed at McMaster to isolate and rebuild the fluctuating animal and plant communities during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.
Credit: Julius Csotonyi
Ross MacPhee from the American Museum of Natural History weighed in by noting, “Although mammoths are gone forever, horses are not,” adding, “The horse that lived in the Yukon 5,000 years ago is directly related to the horse species we have today, Equus caballus. Biologically, this makes the horse a native North American mammal, and it should be treated as such.”
He is correct in regards to woolly mammoths currently being extinct; however, a new company is planning on changing that. A few months ago, it was reported that a new de-extinction company named Colossal is planning on resurrecting the woolly mammoth within the next six years.
As for how they plan on doing that, they want to change the genome in Asian elephants to create a modern mammoth. More specifically, they would need to add mammoth genes to the DNA of Asian elephants so that the modified creature would have curved tusks, subcutaneous fat stores, smaller ears, and a thick shaggy coat that would help them to live in the Arctic Circle. Realistically, if they succeed, it would be an Asian elephant/woolly mammoth hybrid. We’ll have to wait and see how that experiment turns out…
A video from McMaster University explaining the study:
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Over mijzelf
Ik ben Pieter, en gebruik soms ook wel de schuilnaam Peter2011.
Ik ben een man en woon in Linter (België) en mijn beroep is Ik ben op rust..
Ik ben geboren op 18/10/1950 en ben nu dus 74 jaar jong.
Mijn hobby's zijn: Ufologie en andere esoterische onderwerpen.
Op deze blog vind je onder artikels, werk van mezelf. Mijn dank gaat ook naar André, Ingrid, Oliver, Paul, Vincent, Georges Filer en MUFON voor de bijdragen voor de verschillende categorieën...
Veel leesplezier en geef je mening over deze blog.
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