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Unsolved Mysteries (1 Viewer)

 


'Once in a lifetime find': Dinosaur tail discovered trapped in amber


The tail of a 99-million year old dinosaur has been found entombed in amber, an unprecedented discovery that has blown away scientists.
Xing Lida, a Chinese paleontologist found the specimen, the size of a dried apricot, at an amber market in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border.
The remarkable piece was destined to end up as a curiosity or piece of jewelry, with Burmese traders believing a plant fragment was trapped inside.
"I realized that the content was a vertebrate, probably theropod, rather than any plant," Xing told CNN.
"I was not sure that (the trader) really understood how important this specimen was, but he did not raise the price."

'Once in a lifetime find'

The findings, which shed fresh light on how dinosaurs looked, are published in the December issue of Current Biology.
Ryan McKellar, a paleontologist at the Royal Saskatchwan Museum in Canada and co-author of the paper, says he was blown away when Xing first showed him the piece of amber.
"It's a once in a lifetime find. The finest details are visible and in three dimensions."




The amber adds to fossil evidence that many dinosaurs sported feathers rather than scales.





Fragments of dinosaur-era bird wings have been found preserved in amber before but this is the first time part of a mummified dinosaur skeleton has been discovered, McKellar said.
The tail section belongs to a young coelurosaurian -- from the same group of dinosaurs as the predatory velociraptors and the tyrannosaurus.
The sparrow-sized creature could have danced in the palm of your hand.
The amber, which weighs 6.5 grams, contains bone fragments and feathers, adding to mounting fossil evidence that many dinosaurs sported primitive plumage rather than scales.

No scaly monster

McKellar said the creature would have had a whip-like tail like a mouse but covered with contour feathers similar to those that give shape and color to birds.
"The more we see these feathered dinosaurs and how widespread the feathers are, things like a scaly velociraptor seem less and less likely and they've become a lot more bird like in the overall view," he said.
"They're not quite the Godzilla-style scaly monsters we once thought."
Not so terrible: Many dinosaurs cooed rather than roared
The amber preserved pigmentation from the feathers allowing the scientists to assess with some certainty how it looked.
Seen under a microscope, the feathers suggest the creature was chestnut brown and white. ...
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http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/08/health/dinosaur-tail-trapped-in-amber-trnd/index.html?sr=twCNN120816dinosaur-tail-trapped-in-amber-trnd0532PMVODtopLink&linkId=32109284

 
Long-lost continent found submerged deep under Indian Ocean


An ancient continent that was once sandwiched between India and Madagascar now lies scattered on the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

The first clues to the continent’s existence came when some parts of the Indian Ocean were found to have stronger gravitational fields than others, indicating thicker crusts. One theory was that chunks of land had sunk and become attached to the ocean crust below.

Mauritius was one place with a powerful gravitational pull. In 2013, Lewis Ashwal at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and his colleagues proposed that the volcanic island was sitting on a piece of old, sunken continent.

Although Mauritius is only 8 million years old, some zircon crystals on the island’s beaches are almost 2 billion years old. Volcanic eruptions may have ejected the zircon from ancient rock below.

Now, Ashwal and his team have found zircon crystals in Mauritius that are up to 3 billion years old. Through detailed analyses they have reconstructed the geological history of the lost continent, which they named Mauritia.


The break-up


Until about 85 million years ago, Mauritia was a small continent — about a quarter of the size of Madagascar — nestled between India and Madagascar, which were much closer than they are today. Then, India and Madagascar began to move apart, and Mauritia started to stretch and break up.

“It’s like plasticine: when continents are stretched they become thinner and split apart,” says Martin Van Kranendonk at the University of New South Wales in Australia. “It’s these thin pieces that sink below the ocean.”

There is evidence that other volcanic islands in the Indian Ocean, including the Cargados Carajos, Laccadive and Chagos islands, also sit on fragments of Mauritia.

More and more remnants of other old continents are being uncovered, says Alan Collins at the University of Adelaide in Australia.

Several pieces have recently been found off Western Australia and underneath Iceland, he says. “It’s only now as we explore more of the deep oceans that we’re finding all these bits of ancient continents around the place.”
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https://www.newscientist.com/article/2119963-long-lost-continent-found-submerged-deep-under-indian-ocean/

 
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Scientists discover 'Zealandia' - a hidden continent off the coast of Australia


Geologists claim to have discovered a new continent to the east of Australia: Zealandia. At 4.9 million square kilometres of land mass, 94 per cent of which is under water, Zealandia would be the world's smallest continent. 

The 11 scientists behind the claim presented their findings in the study "Zealandia: Earth's Hidden Continent" in Geological Society of America, making a case for Zealandia to be recognised as the world's eighth continent in its own right.

According to their study, the land mass comprises all the four attributes needed to be considered a continent, including the presence of different rock types and crucially "the high elevation relative to regions floored by oceanic crust."

"It was not a sudden discovery but a gradual realisation," the scientists wrote. 



The term Zealandia was coined by geophysicist Bruce Luyendyk in 1995, at which time it was believed to possess three of the four necessary qualities required for continent status. A recent discovery using satellite technology and gravity maps of the sea floor have revealed that Zealandia is a large unified area, fulfilling all four requirements.

The political and economic implications of a new continent would be manifold, with the question of clearly defining what belongs to New Zealand and Australia particularly salient in light of offshore mining in the area. 

A six-year study by the GNS Science research institute in New Zealand has revealed that there could be tens of billions of dollars worth of fossil fuels located off-shore in the region.

According to the study, the 94 per cent of Zealandia currently submerged broke away from Australia and sank 60-85 million years ago.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/16/scientists-discover-eighth-continent-zealandia/


 
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[SIZE=24pt]What Really Killed William Henry Harrison?[/SIZE]






[SIZE=12pt]William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, holds a distinction that with luck will never be equaled: He was our shortest-serving president, dying on April 4, 1841, after just a month in office.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]What killed him? Historians have long accepted the diagnosis of Harrison’s doctor, Thomas Miller: “pneumonia of the lower lobe of the right lung, complicated by congestion of the liver.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]The pneumonia was thought to be a direct result of a cold the 68-year-old Harrison caught while delivering a numbingly long Inaugural Address (at 8,445 words, the longest in history) in wet, freezing weather without a hat, overcoat or gloves.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]But a new look at the evidence through the lens of modern epidemiology makes it far more likely that the real killer lurked elsewhere — in a fetid marsh not far from the White House.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]The first clue that the pneumonia diagnosis was wrong lies in Miller’s own apparent uneasiness with it. “The disease,” he wrote, “was not viewed as a case of pure pneumonia; but as this was the most palpable affection, the term pneumonia afforded a succinct and intelligible answer to the innumerable questions as to the nature of the attack.”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Harrison — who had had some medical training as a young man — summoned Miller to the White House on March 26, complaining not of a lung ailment but of anxiety and fatigue. Miller did not bleed him, as was the standard treatment for pneumonia at the time. (More about what he did do in a moment.) But Miller may have overlooked a clue that was in front of his nose.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]In those days the nation’s capital had no sewer system. Until 1850, some sewage simply flowed onto public grounds a short distance from the White House, where it stagnated and formed a marsh; the White House water supply was just seven blocks downstream of a depository for “night soil,” hauled there each day at government expense.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]An 1846 map of Washington, top, shows the home (A) of William Henry Harrison, above, its water supply (B), and a field of “night soil” (C) that could have harbored deadly bacteria. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]That field of human excrement would have been a breeding ground for two deadly bacteria, Salmonella typhi and S. paratyphi, the causes of typhoid and paratyphoid fever — also known as enteric fever, for their devastating effect on the gastrointestinal system.[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt][/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Two other antebellum presidents, James K. Polk and Zachary Taylor, developed severe gastroenteritis while living in the White House. Taylor died[/SIZE][SIZE=12pt], while Polk recovered, only to be killed by what is thought to have been cholera a mere three months after leaving office.Taylor diedTwo other antebellum presidents, James K. Polk and Zachary Taylor, developed severe gastroenteritis while living in the White House. [/SIZE][SIZE=12pt][/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Harrison had a history of dyspepsia, or indigestion, which potentially heightened his risk of infection by gastrointestinal pathogens that might have found their way into the White House water supply.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Although we have no record of how he managed his dyspepsia, the standard treatment in the 1840s was carbonated alkali, which would have neutralized the gastric acid that otherwise kills harmful bacteria. In the absence of the gastric acid barrier, gastroenteritis can be caused by as few as one ten-thousandth the number of bacteria usually needed.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]In 1841 there was no effective treatment for enteric fever. The most a doctor could do was adhere steadfastly to medicine’s most sacred tenet, primum non nocere — first do no harm. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]At least Miller did not bleed the president. But he gave him a host of toxic medications that were then considered the standard of care — including opium, which ######s the intestine’s ability to rid itself of microbial pathogens, facilitating their invasion into the bloodstream.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]Enemas, which Miller repeatedly gave to Harrison, are also potentially dangerous in such patients. They can perforate ulcers produced by S. typhi and S. paratyphi in the ileum, the lower end of the small intestine, through which the bacteria would be able to  escape from the intestine into the bloodstream, resulting in sepsis.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=12pt]As he lay dying, Harrison had a sinking pulse and cold, blue extremities, two classic manifestations of septic shock. Given the character and course of his fatal illness, his untimely death is best explained by enteric fever. Pneumonia was a secondary diagnosis — as Harrison’s hapless doctor perhaps suspected all along.[/SIZE]
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https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/science/what-really-killed-william-henry-harrison.html?_r=0

- Pretty amazing, two of America's presidents may have been killed by the fetid swamps in DC.

 
Gobekli Tepe, the world's first temple.

Six miles from Urfa, an ancient city in southeastern Turkey, Klaus Schmidt has made one of the most startling archaeological discoveries of our time: massive carved stones about 11,000 years old, crafted and arranged by prehistoric people who had not yet developed metal tools or even pottery. The megaliths predate Stonehenge by some 6,000 years. The place is called Gobekli Tepe, and Schmidt, a German archaeologist who has been working here more than a decade, is convinced it's the site of the world's oldest temple.
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mr. furley said:
very interesting. never heard this theory before. 

given how most decried Oswald as a marksman and the difficulty with making those shots, it makes a bit of sense that he mostly missed his target.
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If only those shots came from Oswald direction would it make sense.

 
I've always wondered why maple syrup bottles have a handle on them too small for anyone over the age of 1 can fit a finger in

 
The Shigir Idol.

The Idol is around the same age as anthropomorphic stone stelae found at the ancient site of Gobekli Tepe in modern-day Turkey. 
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Mysterious Russian Statue Is 11,000 Years Old - Twice As Old As The Pyramids

A mysterious wooden idol found in a Russian peat bog has been dated to 11,000 years ago - and contains a code no one can decipher.

The Shigir Idol is twice as old as the Pyramids and Stonehenge - and is by far the oldest wooden structure in the world.

Even more mysteriously, it is covered in what experts describe as ‘encrypted code’ - a message from a lost civilisation.

Professor Mikhail Zhilin of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archeology said: 'The ornament is covered with nothing but encrypted information. People were passing on knowledge with the help of the Idol.'

Russian experts think that the strange carvings may contain a belief system, the equivalent of the Bible’s Genesis.

The statue had been dated as being 9,500 years old, after its discovery in a peat bog 125 years ago.

But new research in Mannheim, Germany used Accelerated Mass Spectrometry on small fragments of the sculpture, and found it is at least 11,000 years old.

That means the sculpture dates from the very beginning of the Holocene epoch - the era when man rose to dominate the world.
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...

The age of the Shigir idol is 11,000 years. 

'This is an extremely important data for the international scientific community. It is important for understanding the development of civilisation and the art of Eurasia and humanity as a whole. 

'We can say that in those times, 11,000 years ago, the hunters, fishermen and gatherers of the Urals were no less developed than the farmers of the Middle East.'

...

Russian experts have described the findings as 'sensational'. They show that the Idol - covered in an 'encrypted code' which academics say maybe a coded message from ancient man - is the oldest of its kind in the world. 

During the research it was discovered the Idol had eight faces, one more than previously understood. Only one is three dimensional. The wooden masterpiece was originally dug from the Urals' peat bog in 1890. The bog has preserved it 'like a time capsule'.

...

The ancient monument now stands 2.8 metres in height but originally was 5.3 metres tall, as high as a two storey house. In the Soviet era, two metres of the ancient artifact went missing, though drawings were made of it by pre-revolutionary archaeologist Vladimir Tolmachev

Professor Mikhail Zhilin, leading researcher of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archeology, has spoken previously of his 'feeling of awe' when studying the Idol. 'This is a masterpiece, carrying gigantic emotional value and force,' he said.

'It is a unique sculpture, there is nothing else in the world like this. It is very alive, and very complicated at the same time. The ornament is covered with nothing but encrypted information. People were passing on knowledge with the help of the Idol.'

While the messages remain 'an utter mystery to modern man', it was clear that its creators 'lived in total harmony with the world, had advanced intellectual development, and a complicated spiritual world', he said.
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http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/n0379-revelations-on-shigir-idol-change-our-understanding-of-ancient-civilisations/

- The way things are shaping up it's looking like our earliest located sites of civilization are about 11,000 years old (or 9,000 BC).

 
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Been watching Unsolved Mysteries on Amazon prime. Robert Stack was the perfect host for that show. 

Just watched the episode with Kerri Lynn Nixon. Very sad and kind of bizarre story, especially with the NKOTB tie in.

Trivia - Matthew McConaughey's first acting gig was on Unsolved Mysteries (season 5, episode 12)

 
someday i hope that they figure who put the bop in the bop shabopshabop you know it would just be good to have it settled once and for all so my uncle frank will finally shut up when he starts trying to tell everyone he did after 8 beers cripes frank just shut it take that to the bank brohans 

 
JoeSteeler said:
Been watching Unsolved Mysteries on Amazon prime. Robert Stack was the perfect host for that show. 

Just watched the episode with Kerri Lynn Nixon. Very sad and kind of bizarre story, especially with the NKOTB tie in.

Trivia - Matthew McConaughey's first acting gig was on Unsolved Mysteries (season 5, episode 12)
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Somehow I know this, and for some reason I'm almost positive he plays a guy who gets stabbed in a garage.

 
WHO BUILT ANCIENT EGYPT’S GREAT PYRAMID? HIDDEN TEXT HOLDS CLUES TO THOUSAND-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY

Archaeologists believe they have found the key to unlocking a mystery almost as old as the Great Pyramid itself: Who built the structure and how were they able to transport two-ton blocks of stone to the ancient wonder more than 4,500 years ago?

Over the years, researchers posited a number of competing theories as to how the pharaohs engineered the monumental structure, which remained the tallest on earth well into the middle ages.

Experts had long established that the stones from the pyramid’s chambers were transported from as far away as Luxor, more than 500 miles to the south of Giza, the location of the Great Pyramid, but had never agreed how they got there.  

However, the diary of an overseer, uncovered in the seaport of Wadi al-Jafr, appears to answer the age-old question, showing the ancient Egyptians harnessed the power of the Nile to transport the giant blocks of stone.

Experts had long established that the stones from the pyramid’s chambers were transported from as far away as Luxor, more than 500 miles to the south of Giza, the location of the Great Pyramid, but had never agreed how they got there.  

However, the diary of an overseer, uncovered in the seaport of Wadi al-Jafr, appears to answer the age-old question, showing the ancient Egyptians harnessed the power of the Nile to transport the giant blocks of stone.
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In handwritten letter, former ND man allegedly claims 3 Alcatraz prisoners 'barely' survived 1962 escape - and that he's one of them

The questions have stymied law enforcement agencies, haunted family members and intrigued the public for more than half a century.

Did the three men who escaped in 1962 from Alcatraz - then known as the world's most impenetrable island prison, a place for only the most hardened of criminals - survive their brazen attempt?

And if so, are they still alive, nearly 56 years later?

To this day, Frank Morris, Clarence Anglin and John Anglin remain the only people who have escaped Alcatraz and never been found - a disappearance that is one of the country's most notorious unsolved mysteries.

The prevailing theory is that Morris and the Anglin brothers drowned after leaving Alcatraz Island and attempting to cross the frigid San Francisco Bay.

But in a newly surfaced letter sent to San Francisco police in 2013 and obtained by CBS affiliate KPIX, a man claiming to be one of the escapees said all three of the prisoners survived the attempt - but he was the only one still living.

"My name is John Anglin," the handwritten letter began. "I escape [sic] from Alcatraz in June 1962 with my brother Clarence and Frank Morris. I'm 83 years old and in bad shape. I have cancer. Yes we all made it that night but barely!"

The letter claimed Morris died in 2008 and that Clarence Anglin died in 2011.

The note continued: "If you announce on TV that I will be promised to first go to jail for no more than a year and get medical attention, I will write back to let you know exactly where I am. This is no joke."

That was nearly five years ago.

According to KPIX, the FBI examined the letter but said its results were inconclusive. A U.S. Marshals Service representative told The Washington Post the agency believes the letter is without merit, based on handwriting analysis and other factors, but could not immediately provide further comment.

"There is absolutely no reason to believe that any of them would have changed their lifestyle and became completely law abiding citizens after this escape," the Marshals Service said in a statement to KPIX.

The writer of the letter says he spent many years after his escape from Alcatraz living in Seattle. He also mentions that he lived in North Dakota for eight years, and currently lives in southern California.

It's unclear why it took nearly five years for the letter to surface. FBI officials did not immediately respond to requests for additional details Wednesday morning.

Whatever the fate of the escapees, the bold prison break from a maximum-security facility nicknamed "The Rock" has become the stuff of legend, immortalized in the 1979 movie "Escape from Alcatraz," which starred Clint Eastwood.

According to the FBI, this much is known: About six months before the escape attempt, four Alcatraz prisoners began plotting their jailbreak, using found and stolen materials (including a broken vacuum cleaner motor) to fashion a makeshift drill.

Slowly, each of the men drilled tiny holes around the air vents in the back of their cells, then punched out a portion of the wall large enough to wiggle through.

For weeks, the FBI stated, the prisoners used the air vents to access an empty corridor they used as a "secret workshop" to build their escape equipment, one that belied the men's ingenuity.

"More than 50 raincoats that they stole or gathered were turned into makeshift life preservers and a 6×14 foot rubber raft, the seams carefully stitched together and 'vulcanized' by the hot steam pipes in the prison (the idea came from magazines that were found in the prisoners' cells)," according to the FBI's website. "They also built wooden paddles and converted a musical instrument into a tool to inflate the raft.

"At the same time, they were looking for a way out of the building. The ceiling was a good 30 feet high, but using a network of pipes they climbed up and eventually pried open the ventilator at the top of the shaft. They kept it in place temporarily by fashioning a fake bolt out of soap.

At last, sometime between the evening of June 11 and the morning of June 12 in 1962, Morris and the Anglin brothers made their escape, slipping out through the air vents in their cells one last time, grabbing the equipment from their secret workshop and climbing up to the ventilator onto the prison roof. They were able to trick night guards into thinking they were still sleeping by tucking dummy heads into their beds before they left.

They were never seen again.

According to the FBI, Allen West, one of the four men originally in on the plan, wasn't ready in time and was left behind. West died in 1978.

The agency used interviews with him to glean most of the details about the plans leading up to the escape - but evidence after the escape remained scant, save for pieces of homemade paddles and a life vest that washed ashore nearby.

For decades, questions have persisted: Did the men successfully make it north toward Angel Island, either in their makeshift raft or by swimming? Or were they overcome by the bay's rough waters, their bodies long lost to the Pacific Ocean?

The unsolved case has spawned everything from television specials to interactive modeling of current conditions the night of the escape.

Alcatraz itself closed as a prison in March 1963, less than a year after the infamous escape, but the island facility remains one of San Francisco Bay area's best-known tourist attractions - and the starting point for the grueling "Escape from Alcatraz" triathlon.

The FBI officially closed its case on the Alcatraz escapees in 1979.

"For the 17 years we worked on the case, no credible evidence emerged to suggest the men were still alive, either in the U.S. or overseas," the FBI stated.

However, the Marshals Service has continued to investigate leads and said it will do so until the men are proven deceased, or until they turn 99.

"The ongoing U.S. Marshals investigation of the 1962 escape from Alcatraz federal prison serves as a warning to fugitives that regardless of time, we will continue to look for you and bring you to justice," Marshal Don O'Keefe of the Northern District of California said in a statement in 2012, the 50th anniversary of the escape.

Relatives of John and Clarence Anglin firmly believe they survived their escape: At least four members of the Anglin family, including two nephews and a sister, spoke to the San Francisco Chronicle in 2013, furnishing what they said was evidence the men were alive - including a Christmas card the family received in 1962 that read: "To Mother, from John. Merry Christmas."

"If they are not alive," a nephew, Dave Widner, told the newspaper, "then why is the government still looking for them?"

 
Sprawling Maya network discovered under Guatemala jungle

...

Maya civilisation, at its peak some 1,500 years ago, covered an area about twice the size of medieval England, with an estimated population of around five million.

"With this new data it's no longer unreasonable to think that there were 10 to 15 million people there," said Mr Estrada-Belli, "including many living in low-lying, swampy areas that many of us had thought uninhabitable."

Most of the 60,000 newly identified structures are thought to be stone platforms that would have supported the average pole-and-thatch Maya home.

The archaeologists were struck by the "incredible defensive features", which included walls, fortresses and moats.

They showed that the Maya invested more resources into defending themselves than previously thought, Mr Garrison said.

One of the hidden finds is a seven-storey pyramid so covered in vegetation that it practically melts into the jungle.

Another discovery that surprised archaeologists was the complex network of causeways linking all the Maya cities in the area. The raised highways, allowing easy passage even during rainy seasons, were wide enough to suggest they were heavily trafficked and used for trade.

"The idea of seeing a continuous landscape, but understanding everything is connected across many square miles is amazing," said Mr Houston.

"We can expect many further surprises," he added.

The Lidar survey was the first part of a three-year project led by a Guatemalan organisation that promotes cultural heritage preservation. It will eventually map more than 5,000 sq miles (14,000 sq km) of Guatemala's lowlands.

The project's discoveries will feature in a Channel 4 programme called Lost Cities of the Maya: Revealed, airing in the UK on Sunday 11 February at 20:00 GMT.
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