You knew this was coming. The U.S. Space Force’s Space Delta 9 unit has officially been given its mission — orbital warfare. As part of beefing up the Space Force’s weaponry, it has officially taken over control of the mysterious, unmanned experimental X-37B mini space shuttle that has completed a number of secret years-long orbits with undisclosed purposes – the last of which included a secret project for the Space Force. And, to unofficially join the Space Force with NASA, Air Force Col. Michael “Hopper” Hopkins, the commander of NASA’s upcoming SpaceX Crew-1 mission to the International Space Station, will be commissioned into the U.S. Space Force while onboard the ISS. Is this progress, readiness or the initial steps towards orbital warfare?

X-37B

“Delta 9 consists of three active duty squadrons headquartered at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado: 1st and 3rd Space Operations Squadrons, 750th Operations Support Squadron, and one operational Detachment. The mission of Delta 9 is to prepare, present, and project assigned and attached forces for the purpose of conducting protect and defend operations and providing national decision authorities with response options to deter and, when necessary, defeat orbital threats. Additionally, Delta 9 supports Space Domain Awareness by conducting space-based battlespace characterization operations and also conducts on-orbit experimentation and technology demonstrations for the U.S. Space Force.”

“The 750th Operations Support Squadron ensures the combat readiness of Delta 9 by building, developing, and equipping space professionals for orbital warfare. The squadron is responsible for training, intelligence, weapons and tactics, and other operational support necessary to enable Delta 9 to conduct its on-orbit protect and defend mission across the spectrum of conflict.”

The Delta 9 website was updated recently to reflect its expanded mission for orbital warfare – an “on orbit protect and defend mission.” To be “on orbit” requires an orbiting spacecraft, and the Air Force has at least on of those that we know of – the X-37B space plane. Built by Boeing for the Air Force, it’s launched from Cape Canaveral and lands at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, with Edwards Air Force Base as a backup. Other than that, little is known about its missions, which have lasted from 224 days to 779 days. And now it has its first orbiting warship, which The Drive reports may be used to “carry, or at least be used to test, space-based weapons, including directed energy systems, such as laser or high-power microwaves.”

Modified X-37B?

“If all goes well, we’re looking to swear him into the Space Force from the International Space Station.”

Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations of the U.S. Space Force, announced that Col. Hopkins will become the first NASA astronaut to serve in the Space Force. Col. Catie Hague, a spokesperson for the chief of space operations, described to SpaceNews that the transfer on the ISS to SpaceNews will be “a way to spotlight the decades-long partnership between DoD and NASA.” Well, the military has long provided pilots and personnel to NASA, so it’s about time for some moves in the opposite direction. And, with the expansion of Space Force duties to include “orbital warfare,” this is probably regarded as a promotion for Col. Hopkins. Is it possible that he’s being groomed as the first commander of the first manned mission on the X-37B?

If you’re into interesting coincidences, here’s one – Col. Hopkins’ previous trip to the ISS was as part of Expedition 37 and now he’s part of the Space Force, whose space plane is X-37B. Just a lighthearted ending to the heavy news that “orbital warfare” preparations are underway.

It’s not specifically a TIE fighter or X-Wing from the “Star Wars” series, but The Drive reported last week that Trump’s recently created Space Force is now in charge of the experimental X-37B spacecraft. A craft that was prior in the ownership of the Air Force, which should turn many heads.

The unit is also precariously known as Delta 9, according to the service. Military.com reports:

Space Operations Command was activated last month during a ceremony at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. Under the field commands are deltas and squadrons, according to the Space Force’s command hierarchy.

Delta 9’s Detachment 1 “oversees operations of the X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, an experimental program designed to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Space Force,” according to the unit’s fact sheet.

Delta 9 consists of three active-duty squadrons headquartered at Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado: 1st Space Operations Squadron, 3rd Space Operations Squadron and 750th Operations Support Squadron, along with Detachment 1. The three squadrons conduct “protect-and-defend operations from space and provide response options to deter and defeat adversary threats in space,” according to the chart.

It’s in this Delta group that the X-37B will be used, for what purpose exactly is unknown. But, according to the document, it states that Delta 9 will be responsible for “Orbital Warfare.” TMU previously reported that Johns Hopkins University political scientist Daniel Deudney warned that “space could end up controlled by a totalitarian empire.”

Nations including China and Russia are already beginning to weaponize space with energy weapons and anti-satellite missiles. That’s according to the Pentagon last year in a report in CNBC.

There have always been places in this world that manage to attract stories of the odd. They exist almost in their own sort of mysterious realm, a sort of parallel dimension that manages to simultaneously be of our world and beyond it. One such place must surely be a mountain out in the wilds of Puerto Rico, which has managed to not only become a hotspot of UFO activity, but also has stories of underground alien bases, government cover-ups, and one of the weirdest alien encounter reports on record.

It was a hot summer night in July of 1988 in the rural area of Betances, Puerto Rico, so hot in fact that Carlos Manuel Mercado could not sleep. He woke from his bed, where his wife was sleeping soundly beside him, and went to sleep on a sofa in another room in an effort to cool off. He lay down, and as he stared at the ceiling trying to decide if the heat was more bearable there or not, his thoughts were interrupted by a whitish glow that came in from outside to seep in through the blinds and frost the room with an eerie illumination. This glow was soon joined by a strange humming sound, followed by a mechanical tapping against the window, and it was enough to get him up off the sofa to go take a look outside. He had no idea at the time that his look out that window was about to change his life forever. He would tell of what he saw out that window to Jorge Martín, Editor of Evidencia OVNI (Puerto Rico):

I got up and opened the window, and there they were – three little fellows standing there under the window, on the sun-lounge of my house. It shook me. Because they were so different – they looked a bit like us. But they weren’t human. They were little chaps, as I say, and ugly, with heads a bit bigger than ours, and no hair. They had no ears, and their eyes were huge, dark. I could see no noses on them – just little holes. And a little slash for a mouth. Their faces looked flattened. Their skin was sort of greyish, and their faces and hands covered with little bumps or lumps. You know how acne looks? Well – it was like that. Ugly they were. They were about three to four feet high (a bit over one meter) and they were thin, and dressed in overalls like mechanics wear, from top to toe, of a sort of greyish-creamy looking color, a sort of sandy shade. Only their heads and hands were not covered by the clothing. At first I felt scared, but they told me not to be afraid, that they weren’t going to hurt me, and only wanted to show me something. And they told me this, as it were in my mind, because they didn’t open their mouths even once. When they told me that, my fear left me. I didn’t know why really, but I had the feeling that they were good, and that they weren’t going to do me any harm. “They asked me to come out, so I opened the door and went out.

Once he stepped outside into the bright illumination, and he explains that two of the creatures took him gently by the arms and led him up the road a short distance. That was when he finally saw the source of the light up close, which he describes as saucer shaped with a domed top, a multitude of blinking multi-colored lights around its rim, and the whole of it resting upon four metallic legs beneath it. He then noticed a hole in the bottom of it, from which there extended a ladder that led within to the unknown. At this point, Mercado felt some hesitation but no fear, and willingly ascended the ladder at the request of the odd beings. Once inside he would see that it was lit up with all manner of blinking panels and displays, and the two creatures then introduced him to their captain. Mercado would say of this:

I went up it with them and we arrived on top inside where the big windows were. There was lots of machinery there, and sort of panels, controls, little lights and some other little chaps working the controls. And also one other – who was different. They explained to me that this one – the different one – was their captain and doctor, and that from then on he would take over with me. And so they went off to do other things. Well, as you could imagine, the truth is that I felt better with him – because he looked more like us, less coarse, and smoother. His skin color was the same as theirs – greyish – his head a bit bigger than theirs, but his eyes not so big. And he had a nose like us, but pointed, and the surface of his skin was not like the skin of the little fellows with those awful lumps. He was dressed in a broad white tunic right up to his neck, and broad sleeves down to his wrists. The tunic reached down to his feet and he seemed to have something white on the feet.

This leader told Mercado telepathically that he had something to show him, and that he shouldn’t feel afraid as they were going to bring him back safely. The ship then began moving at great speed as the whole interior of the craft reverberated with a loud droning hum like thousands of bees. Looking out through one of the side windows, Mercado could see the landscape speeding past and he could tell that they were headed toward the Sierra Bermeja Mountain Range, in particular one peak called Monte El Cayúl. The craft was hurtling towards a ravine and sheer rock face at dangerously high speeds, but just as the startled Mercado thought they were going to plow right into the mountain, a sort of doorway opened up in the rock and they sped right on through to enter a tunnel. The craft seemed to be flying deep down into the mountain, and after some time flew out into a vast cavern, where numerous other alien craft of various shapes and sizes were parked or buzzing about. As the craft came in to land on a raised platform, Mercado could see many more of the same humanoid beings engaged in all manner of activities.

The whole place was a hive of activity and he got the impression that this was some sort of base for them, and the aliens he was with confirmed this, telling him that it was a facility for repairing their craft and as a base of operations from which to go forth and study Earth life. The leader then invited Mercado to step off the ship and come with him for a sort of tour, during which time the being explained the purpose of their base and mission there. Mercado would tell Martín of this:

The tall being told me to come out with him and he made me put on a sort of big, like enormous dark spectacles so that I could see everything down there clearly. It was all very well lit down there. You couldn’t see where the light was coming from, but it was a very brilliant light, very white. All the walls there were covered with a very shiny silvery metal. And lots and lots of the little chaps were there, and an enormous lot of activity. Many of the little men were working on the ships, and others seemed to be preparing things, like machinery or electronic stuff. That was a vast world down there. There were buildings there like military barracks. The tall being explained to me, mentally (for he too didn’t talk with the mouth) that they have been down there for a long, long time. He said they don’t want to leave there. He said that there, beneath the Sierra Bermeja, they have the Base for the maintenance of their craft. That approximately is what he said. He said they wanted me to see all that, because they wanted me to tell the folk here (us terrestrials) that they don’t have any bad intentions, and don’t want to do us any harm or conquer us. He said that what they want is to be able to sort of inter-relate with us totally, at the social level, mingle with us, but that our Authorities don’t want that. He insisted that I should tell the people outside all this, that they don’t want to conquer us or do us any harm.

The being also told him that there had been others who had been told the same message, and that there were even some humans who had chosen to stay there with them down there under the earth. He told Mercado that he should go off and tell the story and let people know what he had learned there that day, and after that took him back through the mountain to drop him off exactly where they had picked him up. Before leaving, the creatures told him that they would come back to see him some day, and then they left. Yet, although Mercado had been instructed to spread his story far and wide, he would at first keep quiet about his experience, and it was only another bizarre encounter that would convince him to finally come forward.

In December of that same year, Mercado claimed that he had been out at the Sierra Bermeja Range along with his friend, Wilson Soza, when they spotted an enormous brightly illuminated triangular craft flying across the sky. Even odder than this, they would claim that this “triangle” was being pursued by two military jets. These jets allegedly flew right at the craft until at some point they seemed to disappear within in, with the sound of their whining engines abruptly vanishing and cutting out as they did. The UFO then flew along until it came to a lake called Laguna Cartagena, where it then supposedly exploded in a spectacular ball of fire and falling debris, after which two smaller objects seemed to fly off away from it. The incident left Mercado shaken, he was immediately reminded of his bizarre alien encounter in the same area, and after witnessing all of this he decided to come forward with his story to Jorge Martín, who happened to have been in the area investigating numerous other UFO sightings going on in the same region at the time. Mercado would tell him:

You investigators know that we have experienced very strange things here. I seek no publicity. I just tell you this because I know that you are a sensible and serious person and will listen to me. You know, I’m still waiting for them, because I like what happened. In my opinion they aren’t bad. I could feel it. If they had wanted to do me harm they could have done it when they took me. I’d like them to come back, so that I could go with them again. They aren’t bad people. I’m telling you all this because, when that UFO took those two aeroplanes, I was very nervous, because the aeroplanes were harassing it, it carried them off. That has left me very worried, because I have the feeling that those beings are good, and it looks as though somebody wants to get them out of there. There’s something going on there!

Martín didn’t seem to be all that surprised in the least. Throughout that year he had been investigating numerous UFO sightings reports in the mountains made by very reliable witnesses, and was accustomed to the weirdness the location could produce. One very frequent type of report was of locals seeing crafts of various shapes and sizes hovering or circling over the Cayúl Peak, and the researcher had also uncovered other tales of something very odd going on up there in those mountains, as well as signs of mysterious underground alien bases and of some sort of bizarre conspiracy involving a mysterious facility built there by the military right where the UFO sightings were most frequent. Martín has said of this enigmatic facility and its possible relation to the UFO activity:

On top of a peak lying to the right of the Cayúl Peak (i.e. as seen from the direction of Cabo Rojo), there were erected, about seven years ago, some facilities said to be for a station of the Voice of America Radio. The area around it was declared a restricted area, the excuse being that this was on the general grounds of security and nobody living in the region was permitted to approach the place. However, so far as we know until now, no transmissions from that alleged Station have ever gone out. So why, then, was the building erected there? If it is not being used for the function for which it was allegedly built, what then is its true role? At times unidentified individuals have been seen visiting there. Who are they, and what are these people doing? On many occasions the residents of Boquerón, Las Palmas, and Betances (all in Cabo Rojo Municipal Region) and of Olivares (in Lajas Municipality) have observed large UFOs of different shapes (triangles, discs, cigars, etc.) hanging stationary over the Cayúl Peak and over the mountain where the building of the alleged Voice of America Station is located. What are the UFOs looking for so persistently up there?

What was going on out at this mountain and is it still going on today? What happened to Mercado on those occasions when he had his brush with the unexplained? Is there an alien UFO base tucked away in a subterranean cavern in Puerto Rico and perhaps other places around the world? These are questions we will probably never be able to answer, but Mercado and Martín have both stood by the veracity of the story, and the area has accrued all kinds of weirdness over the years. Whether any of this is real or not, it is certainly an area steeped in strangeness, and it is hard not to look out over those peaks and wonder what if.

Available right now is the new book from Raymond Fowler, a well-respected and long-time Ufologist. The title of Ray’s new book: UFOs: The Ultimate Abduction. I haven’t read the book yet, but I will soon – and I’ll definitely be reviewing it right here at Mysterious Universe. In the meantime, however, at Amazon there is some fascinating information on the book that is provided by Ray himself. It begins as follows: “This book addresses and answers a rampant question within UFOlogy, whether UFOS are physical or psychic in nature. In my early days as a UFO investigator I would throw UFO reports that contained paranormal phenomena in the proverbial wastebasket. My position, etched in the halls of Congress, was that UFOS were machine-like physical craft from another star system. However, as time went by, I watched in dismay as several respected UFO researchers moved from a physical to a psychic interpretation of the UFO phenomenon. Little did I know then that my own view would also slowly but surely be honed to accommodate ever deeper levels of the psychic components triggered by the UFO experience.”

The information continues: “Stringed to together by amazing synchronicities, I became obsessed, one after the other with UFO Abductions, Out-of-the-body experiences, Near Death Experiences, After Death Communications, Quantum Physics, and the Time Slip Phenomenon. Studies of these phenomena led me to the startling conclusion that they, and UFOS, are interconnected and all part of one encompassing metaphenomenon. I concluded that UFOS originate from the dimension NDErs describe and that we are transitory citizens of that world of Light who shuffle back and forth between a particle dimension and a wave (light) dimension through reincarnation.”

And, finally, we have this from Ray: “The UFO abductions reflect UFO entities monitoring and caring for the human particle form in preparation for their metamorphosizing by OBES into a new body of light in the afterlife dimension. The robed human-appearing entities that greed NDErs at the world of light appear to be controlling this process and to be genetically related to humans. PLES on the other hand reflect physical humans returning and repeating this process by reincarnation as part of a natural constant inter-balanced exchange between matter and energy – between particle and wave. Inconceivable as this might be to the reader, the final analysis reached by the author is that UFOS represent a final abduction for one’s current life and that we are property!”

Although Ray uses the word “property,” it’s important to note it’s not meant in a negative or a frightening fashion. It should be noted, however, that not everyone is of that opinion. Some are absolutely terrified. It’s a fact that over the years there has been a growing interest in the issue of the “Grey” aliens of Ufology and their alleged connections to the afterlife. Indeed, this subject turned up extensively in my 2010 book, Final Events, albeit from a perspective very different to that of Ray. My book is a study of the research and investigations of a small think-tank-type group that nicknamed themselves the “Collins Elite.” It’s the belief of the group that far from being extraterrestrial in origin, our purported alien visitors are, in reality, deceptive demons and fallen-angels; the minions of Satan, who are paving the way for Armageddon, Judgment Day, and the reaping and enslavement of our very souls. It’s important to note that I do not personally adhere to any of the beliefs of the Collins Elite, as I have consistently noted in just about every interview I did for the book. I wrote the book because I found it fascinating that there was (and still is) a group in the U.S. government that fully believes the UFO issue is demonic.

The group’s opinion is that aliens have never visited us. Rather, they termed them our visitors as “Non-Human Entities.” It was a term that, for the group, equated with “demon.” That’s right: the Collins Elite believes the UFO phenomenon has demonic origins. Not only that, they suspect the NDEs “ingest” the human soul when we die. In other words, and from the C.E. perspective, the soul is a form of “food” for the NDEs. A grim situation, to be sure. And, it’s a scenario not too dissimilar to that in the Matrix movies. In the movies, it’s our electricity the machines want. For the NHEs, it’s the soul. Of course, it should be remembered these are simply the beliefs of the Collins Elite. Even the members of the group admitted their theory was just that: a theory. One final thing: even the controversial Bob Lazar talked about this, and long before the Collins Elite were being discussed.

It’s a fact that most people who have studied the claims of Bob Lazar focus their attentions on what he had to say about UFOs allegedly secretly held deep in the Nevada desert. There is one issue which doesn’t get the attention that it really should. It’s a part of Lazar’s story that takes things down a path that is filled with disturbing revelations involving the afterlife. One of the many briefing papers that Lazar said he read at Area 51’s S-4 facility stated that the aliens refer to us, the human race, as what we would call “Containers.” But, containers of what? Well, that’s where things get really controversial. Back in the late 1980s, Lazar told KLAS-TV’s George Knapp that based on what he, Lazar, read in those papers “…religion was created so we have some rules and regulations for the sole purpose of not damaging the containers.”

There followed an awkward conversation which saw Knapp pressing for answers, and Lazar almost squirming because of the nightmarish nature of the story. That’s hardly surprising, because the claimed big secret is that the aliens have an interest in the human soul. Worse, though, they allegedly use the soul in a way that the U.S. Government doesn’t fully understand. Or, that the government does know, but doesn’t know how to tell the world the awful truth. George Knapp was not the only person who Bob Lazar spoke to on this issue of containers. Michael Lindemann is the author of a 1995 book, UFOs and the Alien Presence: Six Viewpoints. He also questioned Lazar on this controversy-dominated aspect of the story of Lazar and Area 51. Lazar added a bit more to the story, when speaking with Lindemann, as the latter acknowledged in his book. He noted that Lazar said the containers were “extremely, extremely unique,” that they were “very difficult to find,” and that the biggest UFO-themed secret of all revolved around our souls.

With that all said, I look forward to reading and reviewing Ray Fowler’s new book very soon.

RELATED VIDEOS, selected and posted by peter2011

In the world of aliens and UFOs there have been some often very bizarre and sometimes downright bonkers ideas and theories thrown about. A lot of this stuff challenges the limits of what we know and indeed stretches believability to the max, and some of these corners of the field are much weirder than others. One idea that is talked about in the fringes is that of alien hybrids, or basically extraterrestrials mixing their own DNA with that of humans for a plethora of proposed reasons that stretches well out of the confines of the scope of this article. The main thing is that there is the belief held by a good number of people that alleged aliens are doing this, and to many even within the field of ufology it might all sound pretty out there, absurd even. Nevertheless, there have been numerous accounts of such things going on in the shadows, and perhaps the wildest of these are those reports from those who claim to have been actually involved in such programs. Hold on to your hats, because we are going for a ride into the weird world of people who claim to be part of alien hybrid programs, or even say they are hybrids themselves.

One of the most bonkers cases having to do with these supposed alien hybrid programs is the tale told by a woman from Apache Junction, Arizona, by the name of Cynthia Crawford. She claims that there was always something different about her since birth, born a fraternal twin, yet oddly missing an amniotic sac when brought into the world, something she says the doctors had no record of ever happening before. She was also found to have unusually porous bones, and throughout her life she had frequent health problems that her sister never experienced. She also had various purported psychic powers, and on top of this she had many frequent nightmares of being abducted by aliens, which she often suspected were fragments of real memories that had been suppressed in her mind and were bubbling up to the surface. It would not be until she was in her 30s that she says her father would apparently come forward with the truth about her bizarre heritage and the likely answer behind her physical issues and nightmares.

You see, according to her, she is the result of an elaborate, secret experiment to mix alien and human DNA in order to create a hybrid. In fact, she says she has within her the DNA of not one alien race, but two in her genetic makeup. Her father allegedly told her that she had been created in a petri dish and placed within her mother’s womb, and it was for this reason that she was apparently abducted throughout her childhood in order for them to study her progress. She was also purportedly often whisked away by the government as a young child to a top secret facility, where they would also do medical tests on her and poke, prod, and examine her. She says of all of this:

I came from a government experiment. My father told me about it. He had operated with the government in Korea and experimented with alien devices found in their crashed ships. My mom was drugged as part of a program and impregnated with me. For that reason, my DNA is only 34 per cent human and I’ve got very porous bones, which are typical of my alien family. There are many races — Zuma Zeta, Tall White Zeta and Blue Archturian. I love them all. I channel their energies into my sculptures.

Indeed, Crawford became well-known for these mysterious sculptures, as well as for her talks at numerous UFO conferences about her experiences. Rather tragically, Crawford passed away in 2017 from a brain tumor, so any truth her story may hold she took to the grave with her. Speaking of secret alien hybrid experiments, another similar case that has made the rounds is that of Eddie Page, who was born as Tommy Coleman Jr. in Florida. He was adopted at a young age, and went on to have a life full of various strangeness. It began with numerous sightings of a “boomerang shaped” UFO he had in his youth, but things would get more colorful upon joining the U.S. Marines, being shipped off to the Vietnam War in 1972 as a part of what he calls an “special Elite secret service group” on a mission to assassinate the Vietnam Premiere.

According to Page, something went horribly wrong, and he was engaged by the enemy and then blacked out. When he awoke what he thought to be a few minutes later, he was in in a rice field wearing a new green uniform and without any of his weapons or equipment. As he stood there wondering what had happened, he says he was approached by military helicopters, captured, and interrogated. It would turn out that the rice field was over 500 miles away from where he had blacked out, and that a full 11 days had passed, time he had no memory of. The military also informed him that he had unusual organs and an anomalous blood type, and Page claims that they had stamped his medical records with “Not of Human Origin.” He would eventually be released and allowed to return to normal civilian life, never being told why he had ended up in that rice field or what had happened during that missing 11 days. Pretty weird stuff, but it gets even weirder.

Years later after being constantly haunted by this past, Page would undergo hypnotic regression to try and recover what had happened during those missing 11 days, and would find that his mission had failed, all of his unit had been killed, and he had been abducted by aliens from the Pleiadian star system, who had swooped in to save him from certain death. Why had they done this, you ask? Why, because he was part of their hybrid program, which was being carried out with the cooperation of the U.S. government. According to Page, he learned that he was one of 32 clones who were part of the experiment, consisting of 21 females and 11 males, of which only 8 had survived into adulthood, making him one of the last. He says that he would be constantly harassed by unidentified agents from then on out, and that he has the medical documentation to prove his story. Is this guy for real? Who knows?

In 2016 we also have the story of a group of women who claim that they are the mothers of alien hybrids spawned through such programs. Bridget Nielson and Aluna Verse both claim that they were abducted by aliens on numerous occasions and forced to conceive hybrid babies as part of a top-secret program, with Brigette alone claiming to have had 10 such offspring. The women have said that these children live with their alien fathers aboard massive motherships in space, and that they have regular contact with them. They also claim that there are many other women out there who have had such children and aren’t even aware of it, as it all happened in a type of dream state. These two women have both claimed that the fathers are of the reptilian variety of alien, and that their children display reptilian features and big, black eyes. Alright, then. Interestingly, such outlandish cases have been written of by author Jujuolui Kuita, who also wrote the book We Are Among You Already, and just so happens to be a self-proclaimed alien hybrid. Kuita’s story is perhaps even more off-the-wall than Crawford’s, and she told one reporter at a UFO conference:

My planet is Faqui in the Andromeda galaxy. Since birth I’ve known I was from another place. I felt isolated and different, that this wasn’t my home. I am half reptilian and can shape-shift into another species called Fajan. It’s scary when it happens in public. Although other people don’t necessarily notice because it happens at a higher frequency than they can see.

It might be easy for people to laugh and snicker at such reports, easy to judge these as the tales one finds in tabloids at the checkout counter, to be scoffed at and shunned, and indeed perhaps they are nothing but the product of troubled minds and the imagination. Yet such reports skirt about on the periphery of the UFO field and have increasingly attracted a sizeable number of those who would entertain such thoughts. Can it all be laughed off and brushed aside or is there anything we can learn from such accounts, some light that can be shed on the corners of the alien phenomenon as a whole? Are these just tall tales and fodder for ridicule or do they hold something for us to learn or ponder? It is hard to say, but no matter what one may personally think, cases like this do pop up from time to time, and are a peek into the wilder side of supposed alien interactions with humans, whether real or imagined.

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A 2-million-year-old skull that belonged to a distant human cousin named Paranthropus robustus was unearthed during an archaeological dig at the Drimolen cave system located close to Johannesburg, South Africa.

According to researchers from La Trobe University in Australia, the nearly-complete skull (which they labelled DNH 155) of the large-toothed, small-brained male hominin is the best preserved and earliest remains ever found of our distant cousin. Even though the skull is now put together, when it was first discovered, there were hundreds of small individual bones. (Pictures of the skull can be seen here.)

Paranthropus robustus had relatively large teeth and a small brain.

(Supplied)

Palaeoanthropologist Angeline Leece noted that Paranthropus robustus lived around the same time as Homo erectus. “But these two vastly different species — Homo erectus with their relatively large brains and small teeth, and Paranthropus robustus with their relatively large teeth and small brains — represent divergent evolutionary experiments,” she explained, adding, “While we were the lineage that won out in the end, two million years ago the fossil record suggests that Paranthropus robustus was much more common than Homo erectus on the landscape.”

Paranthropus robustus evolved to adapt to climate change.

It was previously thought that Paranthropus robustus lived in groups where large dominant males co-habited with smaller females; however, the male skull was actually pretty close in size compared to the female remains that were discovered at the same site.

This discovery seemingly sheds new light on human microevolution (the evolutionary change within a species in a short amount of time). In fact, it could be the best evidence so far of a human ancestor evolving in order to adapt to climate change. South Africa was believed to have transformed from a wet and lush environment to much drier conditions around two million years ago due to climate change. Because of the change, Paranthropus robustus would have had to evolve in order to survive the new climate – such as being able to chew on tougher plants.

Interestingly, the male skull was quite a bit smaller than other male skulls that were discovered in a nearby cave called Swartkrans; however, those skulls belonged to Paranthropus robustus who were around 200,000 years younger than the one found at the Drimolen cave system. And since the older male’s chewing muscles were not as strong as those found at Swartkrans, that would indicate that they evolved during that time period.

Archaeologist Andy Herries explained this further by stating that the species evolved enough to survive in South Africa for around a million years. “Like all other creatures on Earth, to remain successful our ancestors adapted and evolved in accordance with the landscape and environment around them.”

He went on to say, “We believe these changes took place during a time when South Africa was drying out, leading to the extinction of a number of contemporaneous mammal species,” adding, “It is likely that climate change produced environmental stressors that drove evolution within Paranthropus robustus.”

The research was published in Nature Ecology and Evolution where it can be read in full.