Scientists Drilled Into An Underwater Mountain In the Atlantic’s ‘Lost City’ To Obtain A Massive Core Sample

The deep ocean is packed with clues about early life.

by Doris Elín Urrutia

 

Johan Lissenberg

Johan Lissenberg, igneous petrologist at Cardiff University, and his colleagues are fascinated with the extreme temperatures of melted rock. Earth churns out molten rock, and seawater cools it down. It is intrinsic to the planet itself, and likely created life. The undersea mountain, called the Atlantis Massif, is home to a hot spring environment known as the Lost City hydrothermal field. Eons ago, a place like this may have been the cradle of unique microbes and the creatures that consumed them.

In a new study published Thursday in the journal Science, Lissenberg and a team of scientists analyzed the mantle rock the JOIDES Resolution research ship drilled out of Atlantis Massif last year. The trip was led by the International Ocean Discovery Program.

Down below the surface

Atlantis Massif is one of the rare places on Earth where geochemists can get their hands on material from the largest part of our planet: the upper mantle.

“Say three to four billion years ago, the continental crust was formed from magma that was sourced in the mantle," Lissenberg tells Inverse.

“But the oceanic crust is always forming. Every day, basically,” he adds. As subaquatic tectonic plates spread apart, the melted rock that makes up Earth's mantle rises up. The material that reaches the surface forms new crust. So, the drill core is a snapshot of processes happening deep below the oceanic floor otherwise inaccessible to researchers.

“The rocks that were present on early Earth bear a closer resemblance to those we retrieved during this expedition than the more common rocks that make up our continents today,” Susan Lang, an associate scientist in Geology and Geophysics at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and co-chief scientist on the expedition, said in a study announcement.

Enigmatic reactions

The ship’s sample is mantle rock, the residue of partial melting underneath Earth’s crust. Embedded within it are minerals that may have been key to understanding early life, like serpentine. This mineral gets its name from a resemblance to snake skin. It’s usually grayish, white or green in color. It occurs when the primary mineral in mantle rock, called olivine, reacts with seawater.

This process releases hydrogen. “Hydrogen can then make compounds such as methane, which can then underpin microbial communities,” Lissenberg says.

Going forward, Lissenberg really wants to understand those reactions. The new study is a start. As the team logged the details of the core centimeter by centimeter, they were surprised. Instead of being rather homogenous, they saw a variability in the mineral composition.

This matters when scientists reconstruct the “chemical kitchen,” Lissenberg says, that led to reactions supporting life. Ultimately, Lissenberg wants to understand all the “flavors” of the upper mantle.

{ https://www.inverse.com/ }

12-08-2024 om 16:35 geschreven door peter  

Fossielen van oude kleine mensen genaamd "hobbits" onderzocht: studie onthult mogelijke oorsprong

door Janine

Cicero Moraes et alii/Wikimedia commons - CC BY 4.0

Er zijn nieuwe fossielen ontdekt van de Floresmens, een uitgestorven soort die net iets meer dan twee decennia bekend is en veel twijfels heeft opgewekt onder wetenschappers.

Floresmens, klein mens uit het verleden

Fossielen van de zogenaamde ‘hobbits’ die op Indonesisch grondgebied zijn gevonden, vertellen over minuscule mensen die 700.000 jaar geleden leefden. De nieuw ontdekte overblijfselen voegen informatie toe over hun twijfelachtige oorsprong: deze oude menselijke soort, die het eiland Flores bewoonde en ongeveer 50.000 jaar geleden uitstierf, heeft in feite voor veel verwarring onder wetenschappers gezorgd.

Homo floresiensis werd eenentwintig jaar geleden voor het eerst ontdekt en dit leidde tot twijfels over het oorspronkelijke idee dat de menselijke evolutie een lineair pad volgde, met een voortdurende ontwikkeling van primitieve wezens tot de moderne mens. De homo "hobbit", zo genoemd vanwege zijn kleine formaat, leefde echter in vrij recente tijden ondanks zijn kleine lichaam.  Bovendien, hoe slaagde hij erin om de oceaan over te steken naar het Indonesische eiland, waar past hij in de stamboom van de mensheid en waarom is hij uitgestorven?

Homo hobbit, miniatuurversie van Homo erectus?

Nature Communications

De auteurs van een nieuwe studie probeerden deze twijfels weg te nemen door fossielen te onderzoeken die toebehoorden aan een van deze kleine mensen en die ontdekt zijn op de eindplek Mata Menge, een van de slechts twee plaatsen op het eiland Flores waar overblijfselen van deze soort zijn gevonden. De resultaten van het onderzoek, zo leggen de auteurs uit, bevestigen de al eerder geformuleerde hypothese, volgens welke hobbits een soort miniatuurversie zouden zijn geweest van Homo erectus, de eerste die Afrika 1,9 miljoen jaar geleden verliet. Fossielen van Homo erectus zijn gevonden in Azië, Afrika en op het eiland Java, in Indonesië. Volgens wetenschappers bereikten ze het eiland ongeveer een miljoen jaar geleden en hier nam de omvang ervan in de loop van 300.000 jaar drastisch af.

Hetzelfde proces komt ook voor bij andere dieren die op afgelegen eilanden leven, vanwege de beperkte beschikbaarheid van hulpbronnen. Yousuke Kaifu, eerste auteur van het onderzoek en professor aan de Universiteit van Tokio, legt uit: "Misschien was het niet nodig om een groot lichaam te hebben, dat meer voedsel nodig heeft en er langer over doet om te groeien en zich voort te planten. Het geïsoleerde eiland Flores had geen roofdieren van zoogdieren en andere hominide soorten, dus de kleine omvang was prima".

Daarom was de hobbit zo klein

De hobbit waartoe de fossielen behoorden was een volwassene van ongeveer 100 meter lang en de tanden leken sterk op die van de Homo erectus die op Java is gevonden. Een andere bekende Homo floresiensis, ontdekt in de grot Liang Bua in 2003, ongeveer 75 km van Mata Menge, was zes centimeter groter en ongeveer 60.000 jaar oud. Dit verschil in grootte zou kunnen worden toegeschreven aan het verschil dat bij de moderne mens is gevonden. Homo floresiensis heeft zijn kleine formaat echter lange tijd consistent behouden.

De vondsten suggereren dat deze kleine mensen op het eiland konden overleven en zich konden vermenigvuldigen, ondanks de aanwezigheid van krokodillen en Komodovaranen, waarvan de lengte 3 meter bedroeg. De auteurs schrijven dat "de eerste dramatische vermindering en de daaropvolgende stabiliteit in omvang erop wijzen dat het hebben van een kleinere lichaamsgrootte op dit eiland een overlevingsvoordeel was voor deze archaïsche mensen."

Naast de hobbit leidt de ontdekking van andere kleine mensen zoals Homo naledi uit Zuid-Afrika en Homo luzonensis uit de Filipijnen, maar ook de grotere Denisovamens uit Tibet, tot de conclusie dat er verschillende soorten mensen bestonden, waarvan vele uit de tijd van de onze, Homo sapiens, en dat geen enkele soort zich in de loop van de tijd heeft ontwikkeld. Hoe dan ook, niet alle experts zijn het eens over de oorsprong van de hobbits en hun geschiedenis moet nog definitief worden opgehelderd.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

11-08-2024 om 00:54 geschreven door peter  

Fossielen ontdekt diep in het hart van Groenland: de ijskap was ooit een toendra

door Janine

Calotta glaciale della Groenlandia

Het centrum van de Groenlandse ijskap is in een niet al te ver verleden gesmolten, zo blijkt uit een onderzoek: het onomstotelijke bewijs zijn fossielen die zijn gevonden in wat ooit een groene toendra was.

Ook het centrum van Groenland is in het verleden gesmolten

Tegenwoordig zien we Groenland als een witte ijsvlakte, maar ooit was dat helemaal niet zo. Voortdurende ontdekkingen over het verleden van dit ijzige gebied op aarde onthullen steeds meer ongelooflijke achtergronden, zoals het feit dat het er uitgesproken “groen” uitzag. Nieuw onderzoek heeft bewijs gevonden dat niet alleen de randen, maar ook het midden van de Groenlandse ijskap in een nog niet zo ver geologisch verleden is gesmolten en dat het “oude” landschap eruitzag als een toendra.

In 1993 werd een ijskern van meer dan 3 kilometer lang uit het centrale deel van het grondgebied gewonnen en vervolgens tot op de dag van vandaag bewaard in een afzetting in Colorado, VS. Nu heeft een groep wetenschappers opnieuw de sedimenten op de bodem van dit halfronde stuk ijs onderzocht en iets spannends ontdekt.

Fossielen in het midden van de ijskap

Halley Mastro/University of Vermont

Het team ontdekte dat de sedimenten schimmels, insectenresten, wilgenhout en een maanzaad bevatten, allemaal ongerept. Paul Bierman van de Universiteit van Vermont, co-auteur van het onderzoek samen met Halley Mastro, stelt: "Deze fossielen zijn prachtig."

Onderzoek heeft het feit bevestigd dat de enorme ijskap van Groenland in het verleden is gesmolten als gevolg van een bijzonder warme periode, waardoor een groen eiland is ontstaan. Aangenomen wordt dat dit in de afgelopen miljoen jaar heeft plaatsgevonden, wat betekent dat de ijskap veel kwetsbaarder is dan wetenschappers hadden gedacht. Sinds het ijs in het midden van Groenland smolt, spreekt het voor zich dat de rest van het eiland hetzelfde lot onderging en, volgens Bierman, duizenden jaren lang, genoeg om een ​​terrein te creëren dat klaar was om een ​​ecosysteem te huisvesten.

Richard Alley, klimatoloog aan de Pennsylvania State University, verklaarde na bestudering van de resultaten van het onderzoek: “Het bevestigt en breidt het feit uit dat een groot deel van de zeespiegelstijging plaatsvond in een periode waarin de oorzaken van de opwarming niet bijzonder extreem waren”, en ziet het als een waarschuwing voor wat er zou kunnen gebeuren als het klimaat verder opwarmt door toedoen van de mens.

GISP2 till and macrofossils found in it: (A) Photo of the angular-clast-rich till section of the GISP2 subglacial core, taken 1994, up core to left (Credit: T. Gow, supplied by D. Meese). (B) Overview of sediment, mostly quartz and fossils. (C) Wood fragment. (D) Vertical orientation typical of GISP2 wood. (E) Wood at higher magnification showing simple pits in lateral vessel wall (1) and distinct simple perforation plate (2), along with the helical thickening typical of GISP2 wood. (F) Bud scale of Salix (willow). (G) Sclerotium of the soil fungus C. geophilum* (H) Insect eye, possibly from a fly*. (I) S. rupestris megaspore. (J) Seed of Papaver sect. Scapiflora. The asterisk shows macrofossil types also found in Camp Century sediment by ref. 5. Wood fragment images are same specimen.

De “kwetsbaarheid” van Groenland bevestigd

In feite stijgt de zeespiegel met 2,5 cm per jaar en in een versnellend tempo. Tegen het einde van deze eeuw zullen de oceanen naar verwachting ongeveer zes meter hoger stijgen dan nu.

In 2016 werd dezelfde ijskern, GISP2 genaamd, onderzocht door wetenschappers van Columbia University: de resultaten suggereerden dat de huidige ijskap niet ouder kon zijn dan 1,1 miljoen jaar en dat Groenland tijdens het Pleistoceen lange tijd zonder ijs heeft gezeten, minstens 90% van zijn grondgebied. In 2019 werden in een andere ijskern, die in de jaren ’60 werd gedolven, kleine takken en gefossiliseerde insecten gevonden die 416.000 jaar oud waren. Het huidige onderzoek bevestigde dat dit bevroren eiland niet zo sterk en veerkrachtig is als eerder werd gedacht: meer dan 3 meter ijs smolt gemakkelijk, waardoor er tijd en ruimte overbleef voor de ontwikkeling van een toendra. 

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

08-08-2024 om 22:45 geschreven door peter  

Artikel door thedailydigest.com

Een achtste continent onder water

Wetenschappers uit Australië en Nieuw-Zeeland hebben onlangs een nieuw onderwatercontinent herontdekt, namelijk Zealandia.

Afbeelding: NEOM/Unsplash

Een groep eilanden

Het is in feite een groep eilanden die vergelijkbaar is met de eilanden waaruit Nieuw-Zeeland bestaat, met een oppervlak dat iets minder groot is dan de helft van Brazilië.

Afbeelding: Marjan Blan/Unsplash

Een oud supercontinent
Er wordt aangenomen dat Zealandia deel uitmaakte van het oude supercontinent Gondwana, dat enkele honderden miljoenen jaren geleden een groot deel van het zuidelijk halfrond van onze planeet bedekte.

Afbeelding: Benjamin L. Jones/Unsplash

Indrukwekkende afmetingen
Volgens een artikel van de BBC zijn de afmetingen van dit ondergedompelde continent indrukwekkend: 4,9 miljoen vierkante kilometer.

Afbeelding: Jean Beller/Unsplash

De grootte van India
Volgens een ander team onderzoekers, dat in 2017 het continent Zealandia voor het eerst claimde te hebben ontdekt, heeft het ongeveer dezelfde grootte als India, zo bericht Ouest France.

Afbeelding: Greg Rosenke/Unsplash

Bijna het gehele oppervlak bevindt zich onder water
Het land van Zealandia maakte waarschijnlijk deel uit van een uitgestrekt gebied boven zeeniveau. Tegenwoordig bevindt 94% van het oppervlak zich echter onder water.

Afbeelding: Yannis Papanastasopoulos / Unsplash

Wat is het precies?
Gaat het om een groot eiland of een continent? Zoals de Times of India opmerkt, is er geen geologische parameter die een precieze grens tussen de ene of de andere term vastlegt, en maakt het daardoor onderwerp voor discussie.

Afbeelding: Jay Wennington / Unsplash

Afgezonderd van het Australische continent
Ondanks de nabijheid van Australië geloven wetenschappers dat de twee groepen afzonderlijk van elkaar bestaan. Al wordt de term 'Australazië' soms gebruikt om het volledige landgebied van het zuidwesten van de Grote Oceaan aan te duiden.

Afbeelding: Alex Rose / Unsplash

Gedetailleerde kartering
Geowetenschappers hebben Zeelandia gedetailleerd in kaart gebracht, waarmee ook de locatie van vulkanische activiteit werd onthuld en belangrijke informatie over de opbouw van het continent werd verkregen.

Afbeelding: NOAA / Unsplash

Monsters genomen van de bodem in de oceaan
Om deze kartering uit te voeren, verzamelden de onderzoekers geologische monsters van de landmassa die zich onder water in de oceaan bevindt.

Afbeelding: Tyler Lastovich / Unsplash

Een schat aan mineralen
Het tijdschrift Slate berichtte dat er een echte schat is aangetroffen: "Een mengsel van verschillende soorten zandsteen, basalt en kalksteen".

Afbeelding: Christian Wiediger / Unsplash

Magnetische afwijkingen
De datering van deze monsters en het onderzoek van hun magnetische afwijkingen stelden wetenschappers in staat om de Zealandia op een waardevolle manier in kaart te brengen.

Afbeelding: Matt Hardy / Unsplash

Waarom ligt Zeelandia onder water?
De meest voor de hand liggende verklaring hiervoor is dat de tektonische platen door het uitrekken van Gondwana braken, waardoor het oceaanwater vrij spel kreeg.

Afbeelding: Dan Stark / Unsplash

Een dunne, ondergedompelde aardkorst
Het loskomen van Antarctica zou de aardkorst van Zeelandia geleidelijk hebben verdund tot het land volledig was ondergedompeld.

Afbeelding: Dan Gold / Unsplash

Meer kennis over de eigenschappen van de aardkorst
De ontdekkingen in Zealandia zouden wetenschappers meer kennis kunnen geven in waarom de aardkorst zo dun werd en zo sterk uitrekte.

Afbeelding: Matteo Paganelli / Unsplash

Zijn er nog andere verborgen continenten?
We weten niet of er meer onderzeese continenten zijn, omdat we eigenlijk maar weinig weten over de diepten van de oceanen. De ruige omgeving bemoeilijkt dit soort plekken. Daarom is deze recente ontdekking zo waardevol!

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08-08-2024 om 21:05 geschreven door peter  

What Are Diffractive Deep Neural Networks?

D2NNs are constructed from individual transmissive layers that are optimized through deep learning, allowing them to perform computation almost entirely through the use of optics.

In their recent research, the UCLA team, led by Professor Aydogan Ozcan, worked with a pyramid-shaped diffractive optical network, a design that allowed the team to achieve unidirectional imaging with fewer diffractive degrees of freedom.

The result is a design that helps to ensure high-fidelity image formation, but only in one direction. By contrast, significant image inhibition occurs in the opposite direction, conditions that are key for use with applications where imaging in one direction (i.e., unidirectional imaging) is required. Such fields include defense and security technologies, telecommunications applications, and systems used for privacy protection.

Artist’s concept of the pyramid diffractive optical network designed by Ozcan and his colleagues at UCLA

(Credit: Ozcan Lab / UCLA).

The team was also able to demonstrate modularity and scalability for their novel pyramid-structured system by cascading several P-D2NN modules. This allowed them to achieve even greater magnification or demagnification factors.

The Pyramid Mystery

The pyramid shape has long captivated human minds, and there is arguably no better example of this than the enigmatic pyramids at Giza.

In simple terms, a pyramid is a three-dimensional shape resulting from the construction of triangular faces arising from a polygonal base. Each of the points of the triangular portions meets at the highest point or apex.

This gives rise to a unique shape where weight is evenly distributed, which allowed ancient architects to rely on this design for the construction of some of the largest structures ever built, with the most famous examples comprising the Giza pyramids, monuments that are still impressive by today’s engineering standards, and which have proven their resilience by persisting for thousands of years. Given their enigmatic appearance, the pyramids have also contributed to a number of fringe ideas over the years, involving the mysterious powers the monuments at Giza may possess themselves or purported technologies (many of them pseudoscientific) based on the pyramid shape and powers it allegedly possesses.

The famous pyramids at Giza

(Credit: Osama Elsayed/Unsplash).

For the UCLA team, the pyramid structure offered real-life advantages in that the ascending structure allowed them to scale the layers of the new D2NN in such a way that aligns with the direction of image magnification or demagnification. In other words, the pyramid shape offers a sort of guide that either enlarges or shrinks the image in question in a controlled manner. The result is that high-fidelity imagery is able to pass progress through the network, but only in the desired direction.

During their research, the team also succeeded in experimentally validating the new P-D2NN system by using terahertz (THz) illumination. 3D-printed diffractive layers were tested under continuous-wave THz illumination, producing results that the team says very closely matched earlier numerical simulations.

Applications and Future Prospects

The system is ideal for various applications, including technologies that provide optical isolation for photonic devices and decoupling of transmitters and receivers in telecommunications. In the coming years, the new pyramid-shaped system could also benefit security and even surveillance technologies.

Overall, the team’s P-D2NN architecture represents a considerable advancement in optical imaging technology, which its developers believe could help pave the way toward a range of future innovations and applications. All of which, of course, relies on one of the most iconic and captivating ancient monumental shapes in human history.

The team’s findings were published in the journal Light: Science & Applications on July 31, 2024.

• Micah Hanks is the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of The Debrief. He can be reached by email at micah@thedebrief.org. Follow his work at micahhanks.com and on X: @MicahHanks.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

07-08-2024 om 01:26 geschreven door peter  

“The question of how our early ancestors arrived there from Southeast Asia is one of the most captivating in prehistoric migration, mainly because of the vast distances covered and advanced seafaring skills that would have been required,” explained Mr. Hendri Kaharudin, a PhD candidate at the Australian National University (ANU) and the lead author of the study outlining the advanced maritime technologies employed by these early sailors that helped them reach the Tanimbar Island of Elivavan.

“This discovery marks one of the southern route’s earliest known sites, making it a crucial piece of the puzzle,” Mr. Kaharudin added.

42,000 Years Ago, the First Human Migrants Sailed to Tanimbar

While scientists have often theorized about the first arrival of human migrants in Indonesia from Southeast Asia, no concrete theory is universally accepted. According to the team’s research published in Quarternary Science Reviews, recent discoveries made on the Indonesian Tanimbar island of Elivavan revealed that people first arrived there around 42,000 years ago.

“Along with tiny fragments of pottery, we also found evidence of things like bones, shells, and sea urchins that point to the island’s role as a hub for early maritime activities,” Mr. Kaharudin said.

To reach this remote location, ancient mariners would have had to traverse exceedingly long distances over treacherous seas. Mr. Kaharudin said these ancient mariners would have had to traverse bodies of water over 100 kilometers in the distance “regardless of their direction of travel.” According to the press release announcing the new findings, “the risky nature of the sea crossings suggests the colonists had developed advanced maritime technology by around 42,000 years ago.”

The Debrief previously reported on discoveries showing that Stone Age sailors from 7,000 years ago employed some advanced nautical techniques to sail long distances. However, this research is the first to identify similarly advanced techniques from tens of thousands of years earlier.

Mystery of Ancient Routes Potentially Solved

If the discoveries made on Elivavan ultimately confirm the first route to Indonesia taken by ancient mariners over 42,000 years ago was a southern one, it will solve a long-standing debate between scientists about which route these original colonists took to get there.

“There are two main routes that have been explored as possibilities since the mid-20th century, a northern path via islands like Sulawesi, and a southern track passing near Timor and the Tanimbar islands,” Kaharudin explained. This particular location, which lies along the southern route, is significant, the researcher notes, as “Tanimbar is located just off the ‘Sahul shelf’, which encompasses modern-day Australia, as well as New Guinea.”

To make such a dangerous crossing, the researchers believe that these ancient seafaring humans likely hopped along the coasts, moving from island to island as they slowly spread out. This strategy evolved over time, the researchers note, meaning that the colonization was not a single event but “a gradual process involving successive waves of seafaring populations.”

“Coastal communities likely navigated shorelines, exploiting marine resources and establishing resilient settlements along their journey,” Mr. Kaharudin explained. “This island-hopping strategy facilitated cultural exchange and adaptation, shaping diverse societies across the land mass.”

Studying Remote Locations Could Uncover More About Ancient Human Life

Although the discovery of human occupation on Elivavan of the Tanimbar Islands over 42,000 years ago is significant, the researchers behind the discovery note that there is still much more work to be done. This includes taking a closer look at the area where these discoveries were made to paint a more complete picture of these early seafaring humans. In fact, according to Kaharudin, it is the exploration of these remote locations that could answer the mysteries of ancient human migration.

“As more work is done in lesser-explored regions like the Tanimbar Islands, I expect we’ll uncover more about early human life and migration patterns,” he explained.

• Christopher Plain is a Science Fiction and Fantasy novelist and Head Science Writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with him on X, learn about his books at plainfiction.com, or email him directly at christopher@thedebrief.org.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

05-08-2024 om 22:02 geschreven door peter  

Now, if this story were true, then even in the modern day we should have found that our cranial capacities are gradually increasing over time. Instead, dozens of elaborate studies have revealed the exact opposite! The human brain has been consistently shrinking in volume over the past 12,000-odd years, since the end of the last Ice Age. We are dumber today than any time before in the Holocene era!

In one of the early studies titled, “Decrease of Human Skull Size in the Holocene”, published in the Human Biology journal in 1988, scientists computed cranial capacity (CC) for nearly 9500 male crania and 3300 female crania, originating from Europe and North Africa. The study found,

“Among male samples the peak CC (cranial capacity) occurred in the Mesolithic (1593 cc), the lowest value falls in modern times (1436 cc); in females sample timing is the same: Mesolithic maximum of 1502 cc and modern minimum of 1241 cc. For both males and females the decrease through time is smooth, statistically significant and inversely exponential. A decrease of 157 cc (9.9 % of the larger value) in males and of 261 cc (17.4 %) in females is a considerable one, of the order of magnitude comparable to the difference between averages for H. Erectus and H. Sapiens.”[1]

Separate studies conducted on large samples from Europe, the Near East, Africa, Japan and Australia have confirmed this general trend. Human cranial capacity has decreased by approx. 10% of its average value (i.e. 100-150 cc) since the Late Pleistocene until the early 20th century.[2]

If evolution by natural selection is consistently making us smarter then why did we lose such a large chunk of brain volume at a time when, supposedly, for the first time, humans transitioned from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle to settled, agricultural communities that allowed the first great civilizations of the world to flourish?

One of the first recognizable members of the genus Homo is called Homo erectus (meaning “upright man”), whose earliest appearance in the fossil records occurred around 2 million years ago. Homo erectus is thought to have been the earliest human ancestor capable of using fires, hunting and gathering in coordinated groups, caring for injured or sick group members, seafaring, and possibly art-making. The difference between the average cranial volume of Homo erectus and Homo sapiens is roughly the same as the amount of cranial volume that has been lost in the past 12,000 years in the Holocene period. 

Allow that to sink in. In just 12,000 years, we have lost the same amount of intelligence that, purportedly, took nearly 2 million years to develop! How does that happen? And why has the cranial volume been declining at a time when the most significant advancements in human civilization supposedly took place?

Clearly, something is amiss here. The data does not lie. Certain unfounded assumptions appears to have been made about human evolution and the origins of civilization that does not accord with the precipitous decline in human cranial capacity during the Holocene period. One of the thoughts that struck my mind when I came across this stunning data is, how do evolutionists and anthropologists explain it? 

I had a hard time finding a well-written paper or article on this topic until I came across this piece in the Discover Magazine titled, “If Modern Humans Are So Smart, Why Are Our Brains Shrinking?”[3], in which, science writer Kathleen McAuliffe, tells us that she was utterly dismayed when anthropologist John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin told her that, over the past 20,000 years, the average volume of the human male brain has decreased from 1,500 cc to 1350 cc, losing a chunk the size of a tennis ball. “This happened in China, Europe, Africa - everywhere we look,” Hawks informed her. 

When Kathleen contacted other experts to find out if they knew about the shrinking human brain, she came to a startling realization. It was a closely guarded secret. “Only a tight-knit circle of paleontologists seem to be in on the secret, and even they seem a bit muddled about the matter,” she wrote to her utter surprise. 

One of the experts she consulted was Christopher Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at the Natural History Museum in London. Stringer told her something quite stunning: “Scientists haven’t given the matter the attention it deserves. Many ignore it or consider it an insignificant detail”. I could hardly believe this. This absolutely jaw-dropping piece of scientific data, which turns the Darwinian theory of gradual evolution by natural selection on its head, is treated by some scientists as an “insignificant detail”. What really is significant then? How the Homo erectus learned to pick his nose?

Besides, why is there so much secrecy around this information? Why is it that only a “tight-knit circle of paleontologists” knows about this, and everyone else seems to be in the dark? Isn’t it the duty of scientists, academia and the media to widely disseminate this kind of shocking information and invite debates and discussions over it? 

The truth is that, and many have written about it, scientists and academics do not earn any brownie points by ruffling the calm surface of “Lake Consensus”, as John Anthony West put it. There is a strong tendency to adhere to the status quo, and very often, errant academics who do not toe the official line, are put in their place by being denied grants, positions and other academic privileges. As a result, even if grave anomalies are observed in a theory that has achieved consensus, they are ignored or quietly filed away from the public eye. This kind of knowledge filtering goes on continuously, and what we know as the truth is simply a “consensus”, and nothing more.

Kathleen went on to write that, some scientists have tried to explain why our brains are shrinking, but their explanations are vague, muddled and inconsistent. According to Christopher Stringer, the reduction in cranial volume may be due to the decline in human stature since the Holocene period, since a larger brain is required to control a bigger body mass. However, John Hawks has contested this, claiming that the brain has shrunk much faster than the body. “For a brain as small as that found in the average European male today, the body would have to shrink to the size of a pygmy”, Hawks said. Besides, the scientific data indicates that human height declined till the end of the Bronze Age, after which it has been steadily increasing. But, brain volume has continued to decline till the modern period. This means there cannot be any cause-effect relationship between body size and brain size. 

Cognitive scientist David Geary of the University of Missouri believes that people actually became dumber in the Holocene period. According to him, as population density increased and complex societies emerged, people did not have to be as smart to survive; they could get by with the help of others. This created the selection pressure for the brain to become smaller. However, historical facts do not support his contention. It is only around c. 5000 BCE in the Eastern Mediterranean that we see a jump in population densities, followed by the emergence of complex Bronze Age societies. In many other parts of the world, complex societies arose even later than that. By that time, there had already been a substantial reduction in cranial volume. What this implies is that, only after humans became substantially stupid they began to form large, complex societies, and, as a result, some people were able to get by without possessing any specific skill or sufficient gray matter.

John Hawks put a different twist on the situation. He believes that humans may be getting smarter due to a re-wiring of the brain. The brain is an energy guzzler; it consumes nearly 20 percent of our calorie intake. A bigger brain uses up more energy. So, optimally, we need a brain that packs the most intelligence for the least energy. Hawks believes that, over the past 10,000 years, due to a series of advantageous brain-related mutations, the neural connections of the brain may have become streamlined and the molecular activity at the synapses improved, thereby making us more intelligent than our Paleolithic ancestors, even though we have smaller brains.

So, what Hawks is essentially saying is that, after moving in the wrong direction for nearly 2 million years, turning itself into an energy-guzzling SUV, the brain went through a sudden awakening at the end of the last Ice Age and decided to change course and transform itself into a Tesla. Hawks himself admits that such a course correction would require a large number of very rare, beneficial mutations, the chances of which are extremely slim. The fact is that random new mutations are more likely to reduce than to raise intelligence. A course correction for the human brain after 2 million years of evolution in the wrong direction, due to the sudden appearance of extremely rare beneficial mutations, is wishful thinking at best. 

Besides, there is no tangible evidence that the neural connections in the brain suddenly became more efficient after the onset of the Holocene Period. Nor is it likely that any such evidence will ever be found since brain tissue is not preserved for such long periods of time. If they were, we might have found that even the neural connections have degraded! 

The truth is very simple. Our declining cranial capacity indicates that we have been getting dumber over the course of the past 12,000 years. Our memories have declined substantially compared to our ancestors who could remember massive volumes of data, and transmit them orally to the next generation. Our powers of judgment and discrimination have declined because of which we cannot distinguish between the truth and lies, or discern what truly serves our welfare as opposed to what takes us down the path of misery. Our ethics and morality have nosedived, along with all the subtle abilities of the brain that we possessed in the bygone ages such as intuition, telepathy, clairvoyance, etc. 

Unfortunately, most people have been brought up to believe otherwise. They think that we are the smartest generation of people that ever lived since that is the idea that is pushed down their throats from an early age. The problem is, once people have been indoctrinated with a specific belief or ideology, no amount of evidence is enough to overturn that. The hardest things to get rid of are deeply held biases, and scientists are no exceptions to this.

Although the decline in cranial capacity during the Holocene period is at odds with Darwinian evolution, it is perfectly aligned with the doctrine of the Yuga Cycle or Great Year. The last 12,000 years comprise the descending arc of the Yuga Cycle, when human consciousness, memory and intelligence are supposed be in a state of continuous degradation. In the Mahabharata, the sage Markandeya told Yudhisthira, “Know, O Yudhisthira, that the period of life, the energy, intellect and the physical strength of men decrease in every Yuga!”[4] These statements, which have been generally brushed away as fanciful notions, are amply borne out by the scientific data collected over the past few decades. 

Since we are now approaching the end of the Kali Yuga, the shrinking of the human brain has already started tapering off in some populations. We can expect that, once we come out of the Kali Yuga, our cranial capacity will again start increasing gradually and attain their peak value in the next Golden Age or Satya Yuga, after another 12,000 years evolution along the ascending arc of the Yuga Cycle. 

So, what does all of this mean for human evolution? It means that the sinusoidal fluctuation in cranial volume, height and lifespan has been going on for millions of years, ever since man first appeared on the earth. Over a period of roughly 25,800 years, the cranial volume goes up and down with a 10% - 15% fluctuation in its value. 

Contrary to oft-repeated claims, there has not been a gradual increase in cranial volume over the past 2 million years. That is an assumption and not a fact. We have found less than 200 pre-Holocene hominin skulls. 200 skulls in a span of 2 million years! How can such a scanty collection of pre-Holocene crania reveal the pattern of human evolution? A regression line was fitted through these data points assuming that cranial volume must have increased linearly. That is an unacceptable assumption. Any kind of curve can be drawn through a scatter of 200 data points over a 2 million-year time period. There are hundreds of thousands of years in the graph without a single data point! 

On the other hand, tens of thousands of Holocene crania have been found, and that data indicates that cranial volume has been decreasing over the past 12,000 years and gradually flattening out. Surely, the true nature of the cranial capacity curve will be revealed where the data density is the highest. 

The only sensible conclusion to be drawn from this is that human cranial capacity fluctuates in a sinusoidal manner over a 25,800-year cycle. I propose that all the available Homo sapiens cranial specimens can be plotted on this sinusoidal curve. Since I do not have access to a well-dated set of human skulls I cannot test it out myself. But, there is a well-known set of cranial specimens belonging to the Cro-Magnon, which supports this argument.

The Cro-Magnons were one of the earliest examples of modern Homo sapiens in Western Europe. Cro-Magnons were taller than modern humans, had more robust bones, with a cranial capacity of around 1600 cc, which is comparable to the peak cranial capacity of the Mesolithic period.[5] Their fossils have been found between 30,000 to 40,000 years ago, which straddles the peak of an earlier Golden Age at around 38,676 BP (Before Present) or 36,676 BCE. 

This can be easily calculated from the Yuga Cycle timeline. The peak of the last Golden Age was reached around 10,876 BCE, and we need to add 25,800 years to get the previous peak i.e. 36,676 BCE. This means that the Cro-Magnons lived in an earlier Golden Age and some part of the descending Yuga Cycle. This is why, their morphology and cranial capacities are larger than that of modern humans and comparable to the peak cranial capacities of the Mesolithic period i.e. the most recent Golden Age.

What this means is that, over the past 2 million years, since the first hominin fossils began to appear, our cranial volume has been oscillating over a 25,800-year cycle, without a net increase or decrease in any direction. This is true not only for Homo sapiens crania but is likely to be equally applicable to all the extinct members of the human family, including the Neanderthals and Homo erectus. 

For instance, the Neanderthals had a bigger skull than modern humans with an average cranial capacity of around 1500 cc, which is comparable to the cranial volume of humans who lived at the end of the last Ice Age. However, even Neanderthal skull capacities vary between 1300 to 1600 cc, and it is quite possible that this variation occurs in tandem with the 25,800-year precession cycle. No one has tested for this till now, but if we plot out the available Neanderthal skulls on this curve, we may be taken by surprise.

However, cranial specimens need to be accurately dated before plotting on the 25,800-year sinusoidal curve, because even a small percentage error in dating can make things go haywire. The difference between the peaks and troughs of the curve is only 12,900 years, which is very small in geological terms. Ideally, the hominin cranial specimens which have been discovered in the past 100,000 to 200,000 years should be used for plotting this curve, so that the error in dating is not very significant.

In case you are wondering what could be responsible for the decline in our cranial capacity during the Holocene period, certain studies indicate that genetics is the main driving factor. Over the past 12,000 years, we have been acquiring harmful gene mutations, and passing them on to our children, leading to the gradual degeneration of the human race. In a couple of papers published in the journal Trends in Genetics (2012), Professor Gerald Crabtree of Stanford University showed that, as a species, we are gradually declining in average intellect because we are accumulating mutations that deleteriously affect brain development or function.[6]

Professor John Sanford of Cornell University firmly believes that the human race is devolving and that there is no evidence of human evolution being directed by the forces of natural selection. In the book Genetic Entropy & the Mystery of the Genome (2008), he argued that the minimal rate of human mutation is estimated to be 100 new mutations per generation. While most mutations do not have any effect, some of them are deleterious. This causes a genetic degradation that leads to the gradual extinction of a species through time. In an interview with Jim Cantelon, he explained the new findings in the field of genetics:

“It’s kind of a trade secret amongst population geneticists - any really well-informed population geneticist understands that man is degenerating…what’s happening is that, every gene in every chromosome of every cell in my body is mutating, and so that guarantees my aging and my death. But the problem is that - these mutations that are accumulating in my body - some of them are transmitted to my children. I take all the mutations that I inherited from my ancestors – tens of thousands of deleterious mutations in my body – and I add my own contribution to that – about 100 new mutations at least – and pass it on to the next generation…It means we are a perishing people living in a dying world…there is no circle of life where things just continue staying the same, and it’s not an upward spiral of evolution where things keep getting better and better, it is a downward spiral. ”[7]

A downward spiral indeed! In other words, the descending arc of the Yuga Cycle or Great Year in which human intellect gradually declines. The wisdom of the ancients is now being validated by different scientific disciplines. But why is there so much secrecy? 

John Sanford said that the degeneration of man is a “trade secret amongst population geneticists”, while Kathleen McAuliffe had noted that the phenomenon of the shrinking human brain is a secret known to “only a tight-knit circle of paleontologists.” Why is this knowledge being concealed from the people at large? Why not just come out and say, “It's confirmed guys. We are idiots, and we are getting dumber, and that’s why we are messing up the world.” Is that too much to ask? 

I believe that John Sanford’s statement that we are “a perishing people in a dying world” is a bit too pessimistic, for it seems to imply that there is no hope for the world. That is not exactly true. Had the deterioration of the human brain been going on ceaselessly for the past 2 million years, then we would have transformed into chimps by now. Or become extinct. But we didn’t, right? This means that the process of degeneration is not unidirectional, but reverses itself at periodic intervals. Humanity is not headed towards extinction but towards transformation. 

At some point after the completion of the Kali Yuga, the harmful genetic mutations will get replaced by beneficial genetic mutations, which will then keep on accumulating and drive the upward spiral of evolution till the next Golden Age. This is how the Cycle of the Ages operate, and it is a shame that this essential wisdom has been discarded by the modern civilization. But, then, this is exactly what happens in the Kali Yuga, the age of ignorance and darkness, when, in spite of having so many advanced technologies, humanity remains completely oblivious of its origins and purpose.

One might naturally wonder what could be causing the harmful and beneficial genetic mutations to fluctuate over a 25,800-year cycle. Could the radiation from some powerful cosmic source be driving this phenomenon? The answer is yes, and I have explored this idea in my book Yuga Shift, and I shall write about it in future articles.

References

[1] Maciej Henneberg, “Decrease of Human Skull Size in the Holocene”, Human Biology, June 1988, Vol.60, No.3, pp. 395-405, https://digitalcommons.wayne.edu/humbiol/vol60/iss3/5/
[2] Christopher B. Ruff et al, “Body mass and encephalization in Pleistocene Homo”, Nature, 1997, Vol.387, pp. 173 - 176.
[3] Kathleen McAuliffe, “If Modern Humans Are So Smart, Why Are Our Brains Shrinking?” Discover Magazine, 20 January 2011, https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/if-modern-humans-are-so-smart-why-are-our-brains-shrinking
[4] Mahabharata 3.189, https://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m03/m03189.htm
[5] “Cro-Magnon”, Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Cro-Magnon
[6] Gerald R. Crabtree, “Our fragile intellect. Part I” and “Our fragile intellect. Part II”, published in Trends in Genetics. Taken from Kevin J. Mitchell, “Genetic entropy and the human intellect”, Trends in Genetics, 2013, Vol.29, No.2, pp. 59-60.
[7] Dr. John Sanford, author of “Genetic Entropy and the Mystery of the Genome”, in an interview with Jim Cantelon, on the YouTube channel 100huntley, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8KbM-xkfVk

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

31-07-2024 om 22:40 geschreven door peter  

The entrance to Leang Karampuang cave, where some of the oldest cave art has been found.

Google Arts & Culture

Recent studies involving advanced laser ablation techniques examined the images on the cave’s walls, which include ancient depictions of animals like pigs and bovines along with stick renderings of anthropomorphic shapes. The new analysis reveals that the art is likely several thousands of years older than previously thought.

However, the extreme age of the art within the cave may point to another intriguing possibility: that its creators were not modern humans, and instead may have been one of our ancient hominin cousins. Such a discovery, if proven, would have profound implications for the origins of figurative art and the cognitive capabilities of our now-extinct hominin relatives.

THE ENIGMA OF SULAWESI

Renowned for its ancient cave paintings, Sulawesi has long fascinated archaeologists. Among the island’s most notable works of cave art include a 14-foot-wide panel that depicts crude imagery of early humans hunting what are commonly believed to be warty pigs and dwarf bovines with spears.

Past work had already revealed the presence of what archaeologists recognized as some of the world’s oldest rock art on the island. A process known as solution uranium-series (or U-series) was used to analyze calcite deposits that had formed over the art on the walls of Maros-Pangkep, a rock art location on the southern portion of the island. This technique, which scans rock walls without taking physical samples, provides a more accurate estimate by distinguishing between layers of sediment.

Cave art found at Maros-Pangkep on southern Sulawesi

(Credit: Cahyo/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 3.0).

However, in their recent study, researchers led by Indonesian archaeologist Adhi Augus Oktaviana used what they describe as “a novel application of this approach,” called laser-ablation U-series imaging, which allowed them to more accurately date some of the earliest cave art in the area.

In a recent study detailing their work, the researchers write, “This method provides enhanced spatial accuracy,” resulting in older minimum ages for previously dated art.

The scene, covered with calcium carbonate deposits, shows three human figures and a pig.

Dominic Julian/BRIN Google Arts

Three human-like figures and a large pig are drawn on a limestone cave wall. Griffith University

REDATING THE WORLD’S OLDEST CAVE ART

The new analysis revealed remarkable results. A hunting scene found at the Leang Bulu’ Sipong 4 location, previously dated to at least 43,900 years ago during previous analysis, has now been revealed to have a minimum age closer to 51,200 years ago, making the art at the location at least 4,040 years older than initial estimates had placed it.

{ https://thedebrief.org/category/science/ }

30-07-2024 om 23:20 geschreven door peter  

Het iconische zeedier dat een schaal in de vorm van een taco had: een nieuwe studie onthult zijn “geheimen”

Door Janine

The Burgess Shale - Royal Ontario Museum

Vijfhonderd miljoen jaar geleden leefde er een zeedier in de vorm van een “taco” in de wateren van de aarde. Een ongekende fossiele analyse heeft iets nieuws ontdekt over dit merkwaardige uitgestorven dier.

Odaraia alata, het vreemde zeewezen uit het Cambrium

In het Cambrium, toen het leven op aarde dramatisch explodeerde, leefde een vreemd wezen dat op een garnaal leek in de eerste oceanen die zich op onze planeet vormden. Landdieren die worden gedefinieerd als geleedpotigen met onderkaken of tangkaken bestaan voor ongeveer 70% uit krabben, bijen, duizendpoten en garnalen. 

Daartoe behoorde de Odaraia, waarvan de specifieke schaal hem beschermde tegen mariene gevaren, in de prehistorie, ongeveer 508 miljoen jaar geleden. De Odaraia bewoog zich in ondiep water, was bijna twintig centimeter lang en door zijn taco-vormige schaal, de beroemde Mexicaanse tortilla, kon hij zowel in normale houding als ondersteboven voortbewegen in zee.

De Odaraia had kaken: het is bevestigd

Ghedoghedo/Wikimedia commons - CC BY-SA 3.0

Onderzoekers van het Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, hebben het eerste concrete bewijs geleverd dat dit schepsel was uitgerust met onderkaken, waarmee het zich voedde in open zee en niet alleen op de zeebodem. Door het analyseren van fossielen is het mogelijk geweest om enkele gaten in de evolutie van geleedpotigen op te vullen, en de Odaraia heeft in dit geval meer dan honderd jaar lang twijfels opgeroepen onder paleontologen.

In 1912 en 1981 werd de hypothese geopperd dat dit grote waterinsect in staat was om voedsel door zijn kaken te filteren, net als moderne garnalen. De beschikbare fossielen waren echter niet voldoende om deze theorie te bevestigen. De nieuwe studie, onder leiding van paleontoloog Alejandro Izquierdo López, heeft eindelijk wat duidelijkheid gebracht: na onderzoek van 150 exemplaren uit het Royal Ontario Museum die tot nu toe nog niet bestudeerd waren, koos het team 24 van de best bewaarde exemplaren uit om in detail te analyseren. De fossielen in kwestie waren gevonden in de rotsformatie Burgess Shale, waar de conservering van vondsten doorgaans buitengewoon goed is.

Ontdekt hoe de Odaraia zich voedde

Qohelet12/Wikimedia commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

De ongelooflijke staat van bewaring, zelfs van de zachte delen van het lichaam, maakte het mogelijk om te ontdekken dat de Odaraia doorzichtige kaken had, uitgerust met kleine tandjes. Tussen de kaken stond een enkele tand, die waarschijnlijk diende om voedsel beter te kunnen kauwen. Izquierdo López verklaarde dat “het lijkt op een drietand. Het is iets dat nog nooit bij een ander dier uit het Cambrium is gezien."

Verder bleek uit het onderzoek dat de 30 paar kleine poten van de Odaraia bedekt waren met talloze stekels en honderden kleine puntjes, die er samen uitzagen als een soort visnet voor de jacht op plankton. Een dier dat “deels filtervoeder, deels roofdier” was, met voor die tijd bijzonder grote ogen. Na meer dan een eeuw is het geheim van de bizarre Odaraia dus eindelijk onthuld en het helpt om de evolutie van de kaak bij de oude geleedpotigen van onze planeet te begrijpen.

Odaraia alata is portrayed swimming upside down. You can see its large eyes and mandibles, or pincers, at the front near its mouth.  

Artist's reconstruction of Odaraia alata. It has now been classified as a mandibulate, and rsearchers believe it could have swum upside down to gather food with the help of the many spines along its legs. Less 

ILLUSTRATED BY DANIELLE DUFAULT. COURTESY ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl/ }

27-07-2024 om 22:35 geschreven door peter  

99-Million-Year-Old Burmese Amber Reveals Oldest Known Skink

 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have found the remains of a previously unknown species of lizard in a piece of mid-Cretaceous amber excavated in northern Myanmar.

Life reconstruction of Electroscincus zedi; areas of the lizard not represented in the material available are depicted as blurred.

Image credit: Stephanie Abramowicz.

The newly-discovered species was a small lizard with an estimated snout-vent length of 3 cm (1.2 inches).

Named Electroscincus zedi, it lived during the mid-Cretaceous period, approximately 99 million years ago.

It differs from all other known squamates (lizards and snakes) from the Mesozoic by the presence of imbricate, compound osteoderms arranged in a staggered pattern around the body, supporting its placement in the skink family Scincidae.

“Scincidae is a megadiverse clade of squamates, which today has attained a near cosmopolitan distribution in temperate and tropical regions worldwide,” said Dr. Juan Daza of Sam Houston State University and his colleagues.

“It is represented by more than 1,745 described living species, comprising nearly 15% of all living lizards.”

“Typical skinks have cylindrical bodies and relatively short limbs and, in over 50 skink lineages, evolutionary transitions towards limb reduction or loss have occurred.”

“Among living scincoids (Xantusiidae, Gerrhosauridae, Cordylidae, Scincidae), members of Scincidae exhibit the greatest range in body length, including some miniaturized forms having a body length of only a few centimeters to the extinct Tiliqua frangens, which may have reached half a meter or more.”

“Skinks also show great variation in the number of presacral vertebrae, ranging from 26 to 108, which, in combination with cycloid scales and compound osteoderms, may have facilitated the repeated evolution of fossorial and limbless morphotypes.”

“Most skinks are characterized by possession of smooth, cycloid scales underlain by compound osteoderms — bony plates in the dermis that are made up of several articulated osteodermites per scale.”

Electroscincus zedi, fossil in ventral (a) and dorsal (b) views; detail of the right foot (c, e) and osteoderms (d); X-ray of the whole specimen showing the skeletal remains, and several articulated and scattered osteoderms (f).

Image credit: Daza et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66451-w.

A piece of Burmese amber (Burmite) that preserves Electroscincus zedi was found in the mid-Cretaceous outcrops in the Myitkyina district, Kachin province, northern Myanmar, approximately 100 km west of the town of Myitkyina.

The specimen includes two disconnected parts of the skink, containing the scales and mostly appendicular bones, but is clearly part of a single individual

“Currently over 100 specimens of squamates are known from Burmite,” the paleontologists said.

“In this large sample, this new fossil is the only one that preserves this osteodermal morphology which makes it diagnosable to the Scincidae, and differentiates it from all known fossil squamates from the Cretaceous.”

“The specimen is incomplete, but it does retain both postcranial skeletal elements and integumentary structures and, though less than ideal, it provides a basis for comparison with any putative scincid material that might be found in the future.”

“The specimen has a combination of compound osteoderms and overlapping cycloid scales that is limited to skinks.”

“We propose that this type of osteoderm evolved as a response to an increased overlap of scales, and to reduced stiffness of the dermal armor,” the researchers concluded.

• Their paper was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
• J.D. Daza et al. 2024. Compound osteoderms preserved in amber reveal the oldest known skink. Sci Rep 14, 15662; doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66451-w

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

24-07-2024 om 18:47 geschreven door peter  

Story by May Man

 

©Freepik

Research Suggests all Humans Share One Single Ancestor—and it's not Adam
Diversity is often hailed as the essence of beauty—an observation that is readily apparent when we consider the vibrant array of flowers, animals, landscapes, and humans that populate our world.

Yet, this remarkable diversity wasn’t always the norm. In fact, all life on Earth traces its lineage back to a singular origin.

©New Scientist

The True Ancestor Humans: LUCA
Contrary to popular beliefs—like those found in biblical texts—the progenitor of all living organisms wasn’t named God or Adam but is known as LUCA.

LUCA stands for "Last Universal Common Ancestor," a term used by scientists to describe a fundamental, primitive organism from which all life has descended.

©Wikimedia

The Ancient Root of All Life

This tiny, rudimentary life form is considered the root of the entire tree of life, encompassing everything from the tiniest bacteria to the most massive creatures that have ever existed.

Recent research, however, has revealed that LUCA’s existence may date back even further than previously thought

©Wikimedia

New Findings Suggest LUCA Predates Earlier Estimates
For a long time, scientists estimated that LUCA emerged approximately 4 billion years ago—around 600 million years after the Earth was formed.

But new findings, detailed in a recent study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution, suggest that LUCA might have appeared even earlier.

©Alexander Gerst/ESA via Getty Images

Detailed Insights into LUCA and Early Earth
The research not only pushes back the timeline of LUCA’s existence but also provides fascinating insights into its characteristics and the conditions of early Earth.

An international team of researchers from the UK, Netherlands, Hungary, and Japan undertook the challenge of pinpointing LUCA’s exact appearance on Earth.

©Sangharsh Lohakare/Unsplash

Genetic Analysis
To achieve this, they employed a technique that involved analyzing genetic data from modern species and tracking the mutations that have accumulated since these species diverged from their common ancestor—LUCA.

By applying a genetic equation to estimate the separation time between species, the team concluded that LUCA may have been around as early as 400 million years after Earth’s formation.

©Hellbus/Wikimedia

Life Amidst Earth’s Fiery Beginnings
This new timeframe places LUCA squarely within the Hadean Eon, a tumultuous period named after Hades, the Greek god of the underworld.

The Hadean Eon, which also draws from the Hebrew word for "hell," was characterized by extreme conditions, including a molten surface, relentless volcanic eruptions, and frequent asteroid impacts.

©flydime/Wikimedia

Surviving the Extreme
The fact that LUCA managed to survive in such a harsh environment is remarkable.

The researchers were keen to understand how this early ancestor endured these brutal conditions.

©iStock

LUCA's Primitive Immunity
Their investigation revealed that, despite LUCA’s simplicity as a prokaryote—a single-celled organism lacking a nucleus and membrane-bound organelles—it likely possessed a primitive immune system.

This early immune system would have enabled LUCA to fend off the primordial viruses that were pervasive at the time.

©Wikimedia

Early Microbial Ecosystems and Recycling
Tim Lenton, a co-author of the study from the University of Exeter, noted, “It’s clear that LUCA was exploiting and changing its environment, but it is unlikely to have lived alone.”

“Its waste would have been food for other microbes, like methanogens, that would have helped to create a recycling ecosystem.”

©Wikimedia

Ongoing Research
Although LUCA remains the oldest known common ancestor, the path from this primordial life form to the complex organisms we see today is still a subject of ongoing research.

Scientists continue to delve into our primordial past to uncover the intricate processes that led to the evolution of complex life and the remarkable diversity that defines our world today.

©Jakub Hałun/Wikimedia Commons

Unraveling the Evolution from LUCA to Modern Diversity
Further exploration is needed to fully understand how life evolved from its earliest beginnings.

Additionally, this research will help clarify how these early forms of life gave rise to the extraordinary variety of organisms we see today.

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/channel/topic/Science/ }

23-07-2024 om 21:09 geschreven door peter  

Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
Archaeologists have uncovered a 'monumental' structure in Jerusalem that is mentioned in two books of the Bible. They uncovered ruins of an ancient moat that was built more than 3,000 years ago in the City of David, which is considered one of the oldest cities in history. For 150 years, researchers have worked to prove the city was split in two - as described in the Bible - and they have now uncovered the moat that separated the southern residential region from the upper city in the north.

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
The moat measured about 30 feet deep and nearly 100 feet wide with perpendicular cliffs on each side that made it impassable. The team said the findings confirmed that the moat was created during the Iron Age - the same period when the Book of Kings and the Book of Samuel were written to describe the City of David being split into Ophel and Millo. 'This is a dramatic discovery that opens up a renewed discussion about the terms from the biblical literature that refers to the topography of Jerusalem, such as the Ophel and the Millo,' Researchers at the Israel Antiquities Association (IAA) said.

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
Ophel and Millo are terms used in scripture to describe different parts of the City of David. One reference can be found in the first Book of Kings (11:27), as King Solomon is described as building the construction, which was dubbed the 'Millo.': '… Solomon built up the 'Millo' and closed up the breach in the wall of the City of David his father.'

©pen news

Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
The ancient city was the birthplace of Jerusalem and built by King David to unite Israel around one captial. The location was built on top of a narrow, steep ridge overlooking hills and valleys that divided the land and made it difficult to move from one area to another.

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
'It is not known when the moat was originally cut, but evidence suggests it was used during the centuries when Jerusalem was the capital of the Kingdom of Judah, almost 3,000 years ago, beginning with King Josiah,' Dr Yiftah Shalev (pictured), the excavation director said. 'During those years, the moat separated the southern residential part of the city from the ruling Acropolis in the north; the upper city where the palace and the temple were located.'

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
The IAA confirmed that construction plans like this one typically date back to the Middle Bronze Age - about 3,800 years ago. 'We are confident that [the moat] was used at the time of the First Temple and the Kingdom of Judah [in the ninth century BC], so it created a clear buffer between the residential city in the south and the upper city in the north,' Dr Shalev said.

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
According to the researchers, the moat was designed to change the City of David's topography to display Jerusalem's ruler's powers over others who entered their gates and emphasized their strength and capability to defend their walls at the time. The structure was first discovered in the 1960s by British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon who noticed the moat was slightly east of today's Givati Parking Lot.

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
Kenyon thought the formation was just a natural valley, however, her discovery turned out to be a continuation of the moat as it curved to the west. 'Once again, discoveries are being revealed that shed new and vivid light on the biblical literature,' said Eli Escusido, Director of the IAA.

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
He added: 'When you stand at the bottom of this giant excavation, surrounded by enormous hewn walls, it is impossible not to be filled with wonder and appreciation for those ancient people who, about 3,800 years ago, literally-moved mountains and hills.'

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Archaeologists uncover 'monumental' structure in Israel from the Bible
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23-07-2024 om 18:35 geschreven door peter  

17-07-2024 om 21:53 geschreven door peter  

The sudden and catastrophic collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations was one of the most dreadful events in history. Towards the beginning of the 12th century BCE, cities across the eastern Mediterranean region – in Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Anatolia, Egypt, Syria, Levant, etc. – went up in flames, never to rise again, and the cultural expressions and religious institutions of the Bronze Age were lost forever. Historian Robert Drews, Professor of Classical Studies, Emeritus, at Vanderbilt University, wrote in the book, The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 BC, that, 

“Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again…Throughout the eastern Mediterranean, the twelfth century BC ushered in a dark age, which in Greece and Anatolia was not to lift for more than four hundred years. Altogether, the end of the Bronze Age was arguably the worst disaster in ancient history...”[1]

The intensity and geographic scale of this devastation are quite mind-boggling. When the archaeologists of the mid-19th century started exploring the ancient Bronze Age sites in the eastern Mediterranean, they found that the cities and palaces – which were constructed of megalithic blocks of stone - had been entirely leveled and almost everywhere they detected a layer of ash containing charred wood. At Hattusa, the capital of the mighty Hittite Empire, the excavators found a layer of “slag, formed when mud-bricks melted from the intense heat of the conflagration,”[2] while at Mycenae, the “masonry structures within the fortification walls (of the citadel) melted in a fire of great intensity.”[3]

Everywhere there were signs of a massive, violent conflagration that had brought on the utter demise of these longstanding centers of culture. Many of these sites – such as Hattusa or Mycenae - remained unoccupied, forgotten, and lost from the pages of history for thousands of years, until they were dug up by archaeologists in the 19th century. At some of the sites, archaeologists have detected signs of rebuilding after the initial wave of devastation in the early 12th century BCE. However, even the rebuilt cities did not last long and were destroyed and abandoned shortly. Apparently, whatever had brought on this widespread disaster lingered on for some time during the 400 years of the Dark Ages that followed.

However, not all cultures in the region were utterly decimated in the 12th century itself. In some cases, the collapse was long drawn out. In Egypt, the rule of Ramses III – the last of the great pharaohs - ended in 1155 BCE with his murder, following which there was a “mega drought” lasting 150 years or more, which caused a severe economic crisis.[4] The end of the 20th Dynasty in 1069 BCE marked the end of Egypt as an independent power. The period from 1070 BCE – 664 BCE is called the “Third Intermediate Period” of Egypt, when the Libyans and the Kushites claimed the throne, at a time of political turmoil, social disintegration, droughts and famine. 

Another ancient empire that survived the initial wave of destruction in the 12th century was Assyria, even as most cities in the Levant and Southern Mesopotamia went up in flames. However, upon the death of Ashur-bel-kala in 1056 BCE, even Assyria went into a comparative decline for the next hundred or so years. The empire shrank significantly, and by 1020 BCE, Assyria appears to have controlled only areas close to Assyria itself.

The effect of this catastrophic civilizational collapse on the people of the eastern Mediterranean was traumatic, to say the least. There was large-scale depopulation, and the people lived in small, isolated, settlements. Some squatters occupied the ruins of the big cities and lived in small huts. Famine gripped the lands, and people migrated in search of food. The ancient trading networks came to a grinding halt. A Dark Age gripped the lands for nearly 400 years, during which time the entire cultural edifice of the Bronze Age was lost forever. 

When the Iron Age began at around 750 BCE, the construction of megalithic cities and palaces had ceased. The pottery had simple geometric patterns. Iron replaced bronze as the metal of choice for manufacturing tools and weapons. Chariots were no longer used in warfare. The Linear B writing of the Mycenaean period was forgotten, and the Greeks had to re-learn the alphabet from the Phoenicians in the 8th century BCE. It was almost as if an “epoch” of humanity was over and the old had given way to the new.

Modern historians think of the Greek Dark Ages as a time of “transition” from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. Robert Drews used the term “dawn time” to refer to this period of catastrophe and transformation. He wrote that,

“The end of the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, in the twelfth century BC, was one of history’s most frightful turning points. For those who experienced it, it was a calamity. In long retrospect, however, the episode marked a beginning rather than an end, the “dawn time” in which people in Israel, Greece, and even Rome sought their origins. ...The metallurgical progress - from bronze to iron - was only the most tangible of the innovations. More significant by far were the development and spread of alphabetic writing, the growth of nationalism, of republican political forms, of monotheism, and eventually of rationalism.”[5]

The philosophers of ancient Greece generally thought of the Dark Ages as a time when a “Shift in the Ages” took place from the “Age of the Heroes” to the “Iron Age”. Many Greek writers dated the famous battle of Troy described in the Iliad, to around the same time that the Late Bronze Age collapse had occurred: Ephorus had dated it to 1135 BCE, Sosibius to 1172 BCE, and Eratosthenes to 1184 BCE. 

As it turns out, the ruins of the city of Troy were discovered by Heinrich Schliemann in 1870, in the course of his excavations on the mound of Hisarlik, which overlooks the plain along the Turkish Aegean coast. The excavations at the site have revealed multiple occupation layers dating back to 3600 BCE. 

What is interesting is that, Troy was destroyed at around 1180 BCE – coinciding with the onset of the Late Bronze Age collapse - following which the city was rebuilt but was destroyed again in 1050 BCE, possibly due to an earthquake. Troy was again rebuilt by the survivors, but suffered yet another destruction by a fire in 950 BCE. This tells us that the entire Mediterranean region was visited by an extended period of catastrophes during the Dark Ages. Robert Drews makes a similar observation: 

"Altogether, then, the Catastrophe seems to have begun with sporadic destructions in the 1st quarter of the thirteenth century, gathered momentum in the 1190s, and rages in fully fury in the 1180s. By about 1175 the worst was apparently over, although dreadful things continued to happen throughout the twelfth century."

The question is, what could have caused this widespread and long drawn-out calamity in the Mediterranean region that obliterated the Bronze Age cultures that had flourished in the region for nearly three millennia? 

The Sea Peoples

Some historians believe that the so-called “Sea Peoples”- a loose, seafaring, confederation of uncertain origin – are to blame for these upheavals. The principal evidence for the invasions of the Sea Peoples comes to us from the inscriptions and pictorial reliefs on the walls of the mortuary temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. 

They tell us that, during the eighth year of the pharaoh’s reign, a coalition of foreign states that originally lived “on the islands in the middle of the (Aegean) sea” attacked Egypt. The attackers are said to have defeated a number of countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, including Hatti (Hattusa), Alashiya (Cyprus) and Arzawa (a small city in Western Anatolia). Ramesses III claims to have slaughtered the Sea Peoples in a naval battle, and took many of them as captives.[6]

Scholars now believe that the Sea Peoples were a military alliance of “western Anatolian petty states”, since the names of some of the individual tribes that made up the Sea Peoples (which have been mentioned in the Egyptian inscriptions) are, to a large extent, identical to the neighbors of the Hittites in the west and the southeast.

But, if we think about it, the Sea Peoples were not such a powerful adversary, since they were easily annihilated by Ramses III, and therefore - while they might have defeated a few Hittite cities - they were unlikely to have reduced those cities to utter rubble. Besides, the Late Bronze Age collapse took place over a vast swathe of land in the eastern Mediterranean and the Sea Peoples certainly didn’t go anywhere after the thrashing they received in Egypt. Moreover, the catastrophic events in the Mediterranean region had persisted for some time during the Dark Ages. It was not just a collapse of cities that we are dealing with here. Famines had overtaken the lands, trade networks were disrupted, people forgot how to read and write, and all the cultural expressions of the Bronze Age were lost.

Clearly, this was not the work of some invaders of uncertain origin, but of Mother Nature. A major environmental cataclysm must have brought this on.

Some historians have pointed to the eruption of the Hekla volcano in Iceland as a potential trigger. The eruption of Hekla has been dated to around 1021 BCE (±130), and it caused worldwide temperatures to drop for nearly 18 years, as recorded in Irish bog oaks.[7] Since the explosion occurred nearly two hundred years after the beginning of the Late Bronze Age collapse it cannot be a regarded as a cause, although it certainly contributed to the woes already inflicting the people. 

Meteor Airbursts? 

A possible cause for the Late Bronze Age collapse could be a series of meteor airbursts above the eastern Mediterranean region. When meteors explode in the air, they do not leave any impact craters, but their effects on human civilization can be utterly devastating. Shock waves from meteor airbursts can flatten cities and the intense temperatures from the explosions can cause violent conflagrations capable of melting mud-bricks and stone walls – which is what has been seen at many Late Bronze Age sites. 

A well-known example of a meteor airburst is the Tunguska event of June 30, 1908, when a large meteor - about 120 feet across weighing 100 million kilograms - exploded over Eastern Siberia with the force of 1000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs, and flattened over 2000 square kilometers of forest. Strong seismic waves and near-hurricane gusts of wind were felt 600 kilometers from the site. Locally, hundreds of reindeer were killed, but there was no evidence that any person was killed in the blast, due to the remoteness of the location. The same explosion over a densely populated city would have had tragic consequences on human life. 

In the eastern Mediterranean, a devastating meteor airburst had occurred a few centuries prior to the Late Bronze Age collapse. In 2021, a team of scientists discovered that the Bronze Age city of Tall el-Hammam in Jordan had been completely flattened by a Tunguska-sized meteor airburst at around 1650 BCE. The high temperatures from the airburst melted pottery shards and clay bricks and produced diamond-like carbon, while the incredible pressures shocked quartz crystals. Their findings were published in the journal Nature.[8]

Some researchers believe that Tall el-Hammam could be the biblical city of Sodom mentioned in Genesis, which, in addition to Gomorrah, had been destroyed by God, since its inhabitants had become wicked. As per Genesis, fire and sulfur had rained down on the cities, which leveled the buildings, killed all the inhabitants and destroyed the vegetation in the fields.[9]

James Kennett, emeritus professor of Earth Science at UC Santa Barbara, who was leading the research team, said that “All the observations stated in Genesis are consistent with a cosmic airburst…but there's no scientific proof that this destroyed city is indeed the Sodom of the Old Testament.”[10]

While the biblical identity of Tall el-Hammam will continue to be debated, it is becoming evident that meteor airbursts can have devastating consequences on human civilization, and many such events have occurred in the past. But, did anything of this sort occur during the time of the Late Bronze collapse?

The Kaali Crater 

A recent scientific paper published in the International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics (2020), claims that the Kaali Crater in Estonia - which is named after a small village called Kaali located close to the impact site - was caused by a meteorite impact between 1183 - 1162 BCE. The force of the impact set up a Baltic-wide mega-tsunami at 1171 BCE, and caused a violent seismotectonic effect in Sweden. 

The author of the paper, Nils-Axel Morner, a retired geologist of Stockholm University wrote,

“At about 1200 cal. yr. BC something quite unique occurred in the Baltic region: a meteorite impacted the ground on Saaremaa Island in Estonia giving rise to the Kaali Crater and 8 minor impact marks. At the same time along the Swedish east coast, we record high-magnitude paleoseismic activity, ground shaking with power of fracturing the bedrock, intensive methane venting tectonics, and the occurrence of a mega-tsunami with a run-up on the order of 15 m. In this paper, we propose that all the events occurred at the same time, and that the geodynamic events along the Swedish east coast were all triggered by the Kaali impact.”[11]

The main Kaali Crater has a diameter of around 110 m and a depth of 25 m, including its debris rim. Today, the crater has a lake in it, fed by groundwater and precipitation. There are eight minor craters within 1 km of the main crater, with diameters ranging from 12 – 40 m. It is believed that these craters were created when a large meteor, weighing anywhere between 400 – 1000 tons entered the earth’s atmosphere and fragmented into multiple pieces, which struck the Saaremaa Island in Estonia with a velocity of about 10 - 20 km. per second.

There have been ongoing debates about the age of the Kaali Crater, with the span of uncertainty ranging between 1700 BCE – 1000 BCE. New mathematical models used by Brendan Duffy for the computation of the boundary age for the onset of sedimentation within the crater provide dates ranging from 1183 BCE - 1162 BCE. This is in close agreement with the 1171 BCE date for the Baltic-wide mega-tsunami that has been recorded at 11 sites in Sweden. 

Nils-Axel Morner has proposed that a large meteor fragment must have fallen into the Baltic Sea, somewhere between Estonia and Sweden, and caused the mega-tsunami. Around the same time, there was an abnormal peak of seismotectonic events at 13 sites in Sweden resulting in bedrock deformation, large-scale liquefaction, and explosive methane venting tectonics. 

The timing of the impact i.e. between 1183 - 1162 BCE coincides with the catastrophe that struck the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the 12th century BCE. Since multiple fragments of the meteorite struck the land in Estonia, and a large fragment probably fell into the Baltic Sea, all of them may have originated from a large, disintegrating, comet. 

It is quite possible that some large chunks of cometary debris exploded over the eastern Mediterranean region, flattening the Bronze Age cities, and causing the mud-bricks and stone masonry to melt. Cosmic airbursts and impact events can also destroy the vegetation in the fields and induce widespread aridity, thereby causing famines. Since volcanism can also be triggered by meteor impacts, the Hekla eruption could have been a result of these bombardments. 

The reason why the Sea Peoples were invading other cultures of that time was possibly because they were one of the first victims of the meteor airbursts; and having lost their homes and food sources, they were searching around for a new place to settle. 

There are indications that meteor impacts continued to occur during the Dark Ages. Lars Franzen and Thomas Larsson of Goeteborg University, Sweden, have presented evidence from sites in Tunisia and Sweden, which show that,

“A major atmospheric cooling event, accompanied by excessive precipitation, which led to flooding, occurred around 1000 BCE. The event was sudden and widespread, and the finding of small glassy spherules pointed to a possible impact origin. Franzen and Larsson suggested that an asteroid or comet of diameter in the range 0.5-5 km may have landed in the eastern Atlantic around 1000 BCE, affecting in particular Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.”[12]

Now, why would the earth be subjected to an extended period of bombardment from asteroids and meteors? From where did these impactors originate? The answer to that question probably lies within the dense core of the Taurid meteor stream. 

The Taurid Swarm

The Taurids are the largest meteor stream in the inner solar system. It contains some large chunks of rocks that have struck the earth in the past. Most scientists believe that the Beta Taurids – which is the section of the stream we cross from June 5 to July 18, with peak activity on June 29 – was the source of the Tunguska meteor of June 30, 1908. 

The progenitor of the Taurid stream was a giant comet, around 50 - 100 km in diameter, which had entered the inner solar system at least 20,000 to 30,000 years ago. The comet was tossed into a short-term orbit around the Sun, and disintegrated in stages, leaving behind a trail of debris known as the Taurid meteor stream or Taurid Complex.[13]

The giant progenitor comet of the Taurid meteor stream still remains hidden in the center of the Taurids, moving within a tightly packed swarm consisting of several large comets formed by the fragmentation of the progenitor (all of which are in a dormant state), and dozens of full-size asteroids up to 1 km wide. This dense cluster of comets and asteroids within the Taurid meteor stream is called the “Taurid Resonant Swarm”. The faint Comet Encke, which is the only visible comet within the Taurid meteor stream today, could be a recently reactivated fragment of the Taurid progenitor comet. 

In an article in National Geographic, Australian astronomer Duncan Steel provided an estimate of how often we get hit by the comets and asteroids within the Taurid swarm:

“Every 2,500 to 3,000 years or so, the core of the Taurid stream passes near Earth and produces much more intense meteor showers for a few centuries, said Steel. A gap of a few centuries separates the era of intensity between Northern Taurids and Southern Taurids.”[14]

This is a significant observation from the perspective of the Late Bronze Age collapse. If the earth had passed through the dense core of the Taurids towards the beginning of the 12th century BCE, then it would have resulted in intense meteor showers over a period of a few centuries – with consequent cosmic airbursts and impact events - which could account for all the calamities that befell the eastern Mediterranean region over the next 400 years. 

The area of collapse, in fact, was much wider than the eastern Mediterranean. In reality, the Greek Dark Ages was a time of global collapse of civilization. 

A Global Catastrophe

Everywhere we look around the world, the period from 1200 BCE – 700 BCE was the time when the erstwhile Bronze Age cultures collapsed and gave way to the Iron Age civilizations. In Persia, for instance, the Median kingdom emerged in the 8th century BCE, but what do we know about the Bronze Age cultures of the region? Very little, for all of them disappeared, and it is only at sites like Jiroft that we get an inkling of Bronze Age Persia.

The Indus Valley civilization had already undergone a catastrophic collapse at around 1900 BCE due to a host of environmental conditions – notably droughts and earthquakes - and most Indus cities had been abandoned by 1700 BCE. However, a Late Harappan, post-urban culture continued to survive in parts of Sindh and Saurashtra, which was characterized by relative poverty in their material culture – crude pottery, poorly constructed buildings, disappearance of urban amenities etc. The Late Harappan phase continued till around 1000 - 900 BCE,[15] and ended due to factors not clearly known. After a gap of nearly 400 years we see the emergence of the 16 Great Kingdoms (Mahajanapadas) in the Gangetic plains at around 600 BCE, marking the beginning of the Iron Age culture of India. While certain Harappan traditions were carried over to the later-day Indian civilization, many elements of their skills, beliefs, customs, and socio-cultural setup were lost forever.

Catastrophe also struck the Olmec civilization of Mesoamerica at this time. The center of Olmec culture in the early years was at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan. However, in c.950 BCE there was a wholesale destruction of San Lorenzo monuments. The site was abandoned at around 900 BCE, and the center of power shifted to La Venta soon afterward. Mesoamerican scholars believe that severe environmental changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmec centers, with certain important rivers changing course.

Apparently, the Greek Dark Ages was a time when civilizations across the world got a drastic reboot. The old ways of doing things were violently erased, and while some elements of the Bronze Age societies were carried forward, we mostly see the emergence of new artistic styles, religious beliefs, philosophies, architecture, and modes of governance. This brings to mind those haunting words that the Egyptian priest of Sais had spoken to Solon, the Athenian law-giver when Solon had gone to Egypt at around 600 BCE: 

“Whereas just when you and other nations are beginning to be provided with letters and the other requisites of civilized life, after the usual interval, the stream from heaven, like a pestilence, comes pouring down, and leaves only those of you who are destitute of letters and education; and so you have to begin all over again like children, and know nothing of what happened in ancient times, either among us or among yourselves.”[16]

The “stream from heaven” that the Egyptian priest spoke of, could refer to the Taurid meteor stream, which seems to play a crucial role in the periodic annihilation of civilization. In my book Yuga Shift, I have proposed that the Greek Dark Ages correspond to the period of transition between the descending Kali Yuga and the ascending Kali Yuga in the Yuga Cycle, and I have identified the Taurid meteor stream as the primary trigger for the cataclysms of the transitional periods between the Yugas.

References

[1] Robert Drews, The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C., Princeton University Press, 1993, p. 3-4.
[2] Ibid p. 8.
[3] Ibid p. 24
[4] Dave Roos, “What Caused Ancient Egypt’s Decline?”, History, 10 August 2022, https://www.history.com/news/decline-ancient-egypt-causes
[5] Ibid p. 3.
[6] "The Sea Peoples’ Inscriptions and Excavation Results", Luwian Studies, https://luwianstudies.org/the-sea-peoples-inscriptions-and-excavation-results/
[7] Mike Baillie, “Do Irish bog oaks date the Shang dynasty?” Current Archaeology 1989, 10: 310–313.
[8] Ted E. Bunch et al, “A Tunguska sized airburst destroyed Tall el-Hammam a Middle Bronze Age city in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea”, Scientific Reports, 2021, Vol.11, Article No.18632, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97778-3
[9] Genesis 19:24-26.
[10] Sonia Fernandez, “Evidence that a cosmic impact destroyed ancient city in the Jordan Valley”, Phys.org, 20 September 2021, https://phys.org/news/2021-09-evidence-cosmic-impact-ancient-city.html
[11] N. Mörner, “The Kaali Impact as Trigger of a Mega-Tsunami Event and Violent Seismotectonics in Sweden”, International Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2020, Vol.10, No.3, pp. 235-246, https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=103095
[12] Trevor Palmer, Robert N. Brandon, Perilous Planet Earth: Catastrophes and Catastrophism Through the Ages, Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 344.
[13] D.I. Steel, D.J. Asher, S.V.M Clube, “The Taurid Complex: Giant Comet Origin?” International Astronomical Union Colloquium, 1991, Vol. 126, pp. 327-330, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0252921100067063 
[14] John Roach, “Meteor Shower Promises Seven Shooting Stars an Hour”, National Geographic News, 7 November 2003, https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1107_031107_taurids.html
[15] Jim G. Shaffer, “Reurbanization: The Eastern Punjab and Beyond”, Studies in the History of Art, 1993, vol. 31, pp. 53–67.
[16] Plato, Timaeus, http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/timaeus.html

LINKS VIDEOS

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• https://youtu.be/B965f8AcNbw

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16-07-2024 om 00:26 geschreven door peter  

42-million-year-old biting midge. 

Maria Blake

Australian Fossilized Amber Reveals A 42 Million Year-Old Secret

Amber is fossilized tree resin. Unlike traditional fossils found on land or in the sea, amber can preserve ancient life forms in incredible detail.

BY MARIA BLAKE, JEFFREY STILWELL AND THE CONVERSATION

 

Przemek Klos/500px/Getty Images

Australian amber is now helping to understand the biological diversity of ancient Gondwanan environments from 42 million years ago and their connections to today’s Australian forests. From it, we can learn yet more reasons for why we must protect today’s forests.

THE UNIQUE VALUE OF AUSTRALIAN AMBER

Unlike typical, squashed fossil rock shapes, paleontologists value amber for its remarkable ability to preserve inclusions in full three dimensions. This means we can study fossil organisms that would otherwise not have been recorded in such detail.

This is especially important considering that around 85% of modern biodiversity comes from arthropods (spiders, flies, beetles, bees, and the like). Only 0.3% is represented by the “bony” mammals more commonly found as fossils in rocks.

Overall, only a tiny fraction of all life throughout geologic time has been fossilized. This means we work with a biased fossil record that may not accurately represent past diversity.

Amber provides a unique opportunity to find less common specimens. It helps to reveal the diversity of past ecosystems and to reduce these biases in our understanding of ancient life.

Most amber discoveries come from the Northern Hemisphere (the Baltic region, Spain, China, and Myanmar). Australia is one of the rare places in the Southern Hemisphere where scientists can also study organisms trapped in amber.

The most promising site for finding these preserved organisms is a former coal mining area in Victoria. The amber and fossils from this site are estimated to be 42–40 million years old, dating back to the Eocene epoch.

At that time, Australia and Antarctica were still connected as part of the slowly fragmenting supercontinent called Gondwana. Australia had a warm and moist climate and forests teeming with insects, arachnids, and other creatures.

LIVING FOSSILS

The amber we’re working with has been studied by researchers since 2014. Findings described in 2020 include biting midges, baby spiders, and even a pair of mating flies.

Our latest work reveals more details on the species. We’ve learned not only where these organisms lived in the past but also the surprising fact that many of them still exist in Australia’s forests today, albeit in greatly reduced geographic ranges.

This means creatures from ancient Gondwana have persisted for more than 40 million years. Their survival for so long gives even more reason to protect them in the future.

One major breakthrough in our research is based on new advancements at ANSTO’s Australian Synchrotron research facility in Melbourne. Improved resolution and the capability to scan smaller samples with X-rays have greatly improved how we can produce images of organisms trapped in amber. This allows us to create detailed 3D reconstructions, and we can identify the species more easily.

The synchrotron has also made it possible to finally detect inclusions within large, opaque pieces of amber that were hard to examine previously with traditional microscopes.

WHAT HAVE WE FOUND IN AUSTRALIAN AMBER?

Some of the new major findings have been a “non-biting” or “feather” midge from the Podonominae insect subfamily. It’s the first fossil record of the genus Austrochlus in the Southern Hemisphere. Even though it was widely distributed globally in the past, it is now restricted to Australia.

With the synchrotron, we revealed not only the specimen’s sex and position in its family tree but also the internal structures of what are potentially wing muscles. Even in amber fossils, that’s a rarity.

We also found a true biting midge that’s still around today (Austroconops). It’s the first fossil of its kind dating back to the Cenozoic, spanning the last 66 million years. Once widespread, today this midge is only found in Western Australia, again restricted just to our continent.

A wasp from the family Embolemidae, recognised today from all around the world to be a parasite on planthopper nymphs, is another highlight from Australian amber. This group has quite a scarce fossil record, and this is only the second time one has been found in the Southern Hemisphere.

This parasitic wasp has a very scarce fossil record. 

Maria Blake

All of these insect fossils are the first of their kind found in Australia. And we’ve only scratched the surface – there are many more yet to be described.

Remarkably, these insects are still around in Australian forests today, tracing their lineage back in time to ancient Gondwana. Without realizing it, we exist among living fossils.

While we know these species were widely distributed in the past, today, most of them are found only on this continent. They now face new challenges which threaten their habitats. The threats include climate change, deforestation, and urban sprawl.

Protecting these ancient “living fossils” and their environments is essential for the health of our native ecosystems.

• This article was originally published on The Conversation by Maria Blake and Jeffrey Stilwell at Monash University. Read the original article here.

Long-legged flies were 'caught in the act' 42-40 million years ago, 

Image credit: Jeffrey Stilwell

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15-07-2024 om 20:30 geschreven door peter  

Dat de ontdekking van die extra ogen zo lang op zich heeft laten wachten, is wel te verklaren. Ze zitten – in gefossiliseerde trilobieten – namelijk enigszins verstopt.

Zo’n 500 miljoen jaar geleden wemelden de oceanen van de trilobieten. Dit zijn een bekende klasse uitgestorven geleedpotigen die in vervlogen tijden in de zee leefden. Trilobieten behoren samen met ammonieten en dinosauriërs ongetwijfeld tot de bekendste fossielen. Maar ondanks 150 jaar onderzoek heeft het beestje alsnog verrassingen voor ons in petto. Zo zijn wetenschappers op extra ogen gestuit, die al die tijd over het hoofd zijn gezien.

Ogen

Geleedpotigen hebben meestal twee soorten ogen. Allereerst hebben ze een paar samengestelde ogen (ook wel facetogen genoemd). Deze bestaan vaak uit duizenden aparte lensjes. Daarnaast zijn geleedpotigen ook nog eens uitgerust met mediane ogen. Dit zijn eigenlijk een extra set enkelvoudige ogen, die zich in het midden van het voorhoofd bevinden, tussen de samengestelde ogen in. Alleen trilobieten, een belangrijke groep geleedpotigen die ten tijde van het Paleozoïcum leefden, leken vreemd genoeg geen mediane ogen te hebben.

Ontdekking
Tenminste, dat was tot voor kort de veronderstelling. Totdat onderzoekers de trilobiet Aulacopleura koninckii, waarvan een deel van de kop was afgeschraapt, aan een nadere inspectie onderwierpen.

Het team ontdekte drie bijna identiek gevormde, donkere, onopvallende kleine ovale vlekjes van dezelfde grootte aan de voorkant van de kop. Deze drie structuren lopen evenwijdig aan elkaar en waaieren aan de onderkant iets uit. Alle drie de vlekken worden gekenmerkt door een gladde, duidelijke omtrek en een uniforme, donkerbruine kleur. “Deze plekken onderscheiden zich duidelijk van de vlekken die ontstaan door verval of fossilisatie,” legt onderzoeker Brigitte Schoenemann uit. “In plaats daarvan komt het precies overeen met hoe de overblijfselen van eenvoudige mediane ogen eruitzien.

Mediaan oog
Het betekent dat trilobieten mogelijk toch – net als alle andere geleedpotigen én veel naaste verwanten – niet alleen samengestelde ogen hadden, maar ook met een extra set ogen waren uitgerust. “De ontdekking ondersteunt de veronderstelling dat trilobieten oorspronkelijk mediane ogen hadden,” concludeert Schoenemann.

Onopgemerkt
Dat de trilobiet dit geheimpje zolang heeft weten te bewaren, is opvallend. Zoals gezegd is de trilobiet al ruim een eeuw uitgebreid bestudeerd. Bovendien zijn er ondertussen al meer dan 22.000 soorten ontdekt. Ondanks dat, zijn de mediane ogen al die tijd onopgemerkt gebleven. Toch is dit wel te verklaren. Ze zitten – in gefossiliseerde trilobieten – namelijk enigszins verstopt.

Verstopt
De wetenschappers gaan ervan uit dat de mediane ogen kenmerkend waren voor het larvenstadium, zo leggen ze in hun studie uit. Bovendien bevonden ze zich onder een transparante laag van het schild. Gedurende het fossilisatieproces wordt deze laag echter ondoorzichtig. “Dit heeft er beide toe bijgedragen dat de ontdekking van de extra set ogen zo lang op zich heeft laten verwachten,” aldus Schoenemann.

Meer over trilobieten
Trilobieten zijn te herkennen aan een verkalkt exoskelet aan de rugkant van het lichaam. Ze hadden een halvemaanvormige kop die wel wat weg had van de hedendaagse degenkrab. Hoewel de dieren onderhand zijn uitgestorven, waren ze een succesvolle soort in termen van evolutie. Ze hebben meer dan 250 miljoen jaar weten te overleven; langer dan de dinosauriërs.

Het betekent dat trilobieten waarschijnlijk meerdere verborgen ogen hadden. Toen de onderzoekers de trilobiet Cyclopyge sibilla bestudeerden, vonden ze namelijk ook drie mediane ogen op het voorhoofd, precies tussen de twee samengestelde ogen in. Deze waren bovendien zelfs uitgerust met lenzen die vergelijkbaar zijn met die in menselijke ogen. Dit wijst erop dat deze trilobiet waarschijnlijk beter kon zien dan zijn naaste verwant Aulacopleura koninckii, die – in tegenstelling tot Cyclopyge sibilla – enkel op de bodem leefde.

Variërend
Kortom, uit de bevindingen blijkt dat trilobieten veel meer ogen hadden dan gedacht; waarschijnlijk minstens vijf! Al kan dat aantal ook nog weleens hebben gevarieerd. De onderzoekers denken dat geleedpotigen namelijk op verschillende momenten in de evolutie over een verschillend aantal mediane ogen beschikten. “Het oorspronkelijke aantal mediane ogen is twee,” vertelt Schoenemann. “Daarnaast hadden zeer primitieve geleedpotigen er waarschijnlijk vier. Hedendaagse dieren, zoals insecten en schaaldieren, zijn uitgerust met drie mediane ogen.”

Al met al zijn de onderzoekers er dankzij hun eigen scherpe oog in geslaagd het mysterie van de ontbrekende mediane ogen bij trilobieten op te lossen. Maar dit breidt niet alleen onze kennis over deze uitgestorven prehistorische zeedieren uit. Dat het aantal mediane ogen in geleedpotigen varieerde, zou mogelijk de evolutionaire classificatie van archaïsche geleedpotigen kunnen vergemakkelijken. “Met behulp van het aantal mediane ogen kunnen we nu mogelijk eenvoudiger de positie van een geleedpotige in de evolutieboom bepalen,” besluit Schoenemann.

Bronmateriaal

• "New eyes discovered in trilobites" - University of Cologne
  
• Afbeelding bovenaan dit artikel: jonnysek van Getty Images (via canva.com)

{ https://scientias.nl/ }

14-07-2024 om 23:10 geschreven door peter  

Er is een "Pompeii van de zee" ontdekt met perfect bewaarde fossielen: het dateert van 515 miljoen jaar geleden

Abderrazak El Albani, University of Poitiers

Allerlei families van trilobieten verschijnen plotseling in het Cambrium en zien er al direct zeer complex uit. Van evolutionaire voorouders is vooralsnog geen spoor te bekennen.

Overblijfselen van trilobieten bewaard gebleven dankzij gevonden vulkanische as: de studie

We zijn in Aït Youb, in de regio Souss-Massa in Marokko. Hier heeft een team onderzoekers onder leiding van Abderrazak El Albani fossielen ontdekt van twee nieuwe soorten trilobieten die gedateerd kunnen worden op ongeveer 515 miljoen jaar geleden. Tot zover niets vreemds, behalve dat de staat van bewaring van deze trilobieten de beste is die ooit is gevonden.

Zoals we in de inleiding al zeiden, was het tot nu toe onmogelijk om de interne structuren van trilobieten goed te bestuderen: meestal fossiliseert alleen het exoskelet. In het geval van Aït Youb daarentegen heeft vulkanische as van uitbarstingen uit het Precambrium het mogelijk gemaakt om exemplaren te vinden die bijna perfect bewaard zijn gebleven, zo goed zelfs dat ze doen denken aan de vondsten in Pompeii. Aan de andere kant, zo stelt El Albani, is de dynamiek die ten grondslag ligt aan het behoud ervan vrijwel hetzelfde.

Wat is er gebeurd met de trilobieten die ontdekt zijn in Aït Youb?

Didier Descouens/Wikimedia Commons - CC BY-SA 4.0

Volgens El Albani en zijn team hebben we de uitstekende conservering van de trilobieten in feite te danken aan een snelle vulkaanuitbarsting, die de exemplaren begroef en in zeer korte tijd gevangen hield. Sommige trilobieten zijn al opgerold, terwijl andere zich voorbereiden om te ontsnappen, en er zijn enkele exemplaren die zelfs het spijsverteringskanaal vol sediment laten zien dat kort voor de uitbarsting is ingenomen. Als je bedenkt dat het tot voor kort niet mogelijk was om de interne anatomie van een trilobiet te bestuderen, begrijp je heel goed de revolutionaire betekenis van deze ontdekking.

Om deze fossielen beter te kunnen bestuderen, gebruikten de onderzoekers röntgenmicrotomografie, zodat ze een driedimensionale weergave konden bekijken zonder de exemplaren uit de rotsmatrix te halen.  Dit is een innovatieve techniek waarmee anatomische details kunnen worden bekeken zonder de vondsten in gevaar te brengen. Het onderzoek, gepubliceerd in het tijdschrift Science, onthulde ook tot nu toe onbekende anatomische structuren van trilobieten, waaronder sporen van mondaanhangsels en zacht weefsel.

Een bijna perfecte bewaring... zoals in Pompeii

El Albani zelf noemde de vondst in Marokko een “Pompeii van de zee”, en met een goede reden. Zoals we hebben gezien, creëerde de vulkanische as driedimensionale mallen van de trilobieten, waardoor ze in feite bevroren werden in de tijd. Maar terwijl er in het geval van Pompeii zo'n 2000 jaar is verstreken, is er hier 515 miljoen jaar verstreken en daarom was het gebruik van röntgenmicrotomografie bijzonder nuttig.

Ontdekkingen zoals deze zorgen voor een beter begrip van het belang van vulkanische asafzettingen voor het behoud van fossielen, maar tegelijkertijd testen ze de technologische vooruitgang in het bestuderen van het verleden. In staat zijn om trilobieten van 515 miljoen jaar geleden te analyseren vertegenwoordigt een onmisbare kans, die in het verleden onmogelijk was: vanuit een bepaald oogpunt is het ook een vorm van respect voor deze oude fossielen. Laten we niet vergeten dat ze een groot deel van de geschiedenis van onze planeet hebben overbrugd en bijna perfect bewaard zijn gebleven.

Allerlei families van trilobieten verschijnen plotseling in het Cambrium en zien er al direct zeer complex uit. Van evolutionaire voorouders is vooralsnog geen spoor te bekennen.

{ https://www.curioctopus.nl}

14-07-2024 om 23:00 geschreven door peter  

Archaeologists Discover 4,000-Year-Old Temple and Theater in Peru

Field Museum scientist Luis Muro Ynoñán with the carving of a mythological bird creature in La Otra Banda, Cerro Las Animas. 

Ucupe Cultural Landscape Archaeological Project

The newly-discovered structures predate the famous Inca citadel of Machu Picchu by roughly 3,500 years, and were made long before the Inca and their predecessors, according to a team of archaeologists with the Ucupe Cultural Landscape Archaeological Project.

The newly-discovered archaeological site, including carving of a mythological bird creature, at La Otra Banda, Cerro Las Animas, Peru.

Image credit: Ucupe Cultural Landscape Archaeological Project.

“It was amazing. This discovery tells us about the early origins of religion in Peru,” said Dr. Muro Ynoñán, an archaeologist at the Field Museum.

“We still know very little about how and under which circumstances complex belief systems emerged in the Andes, and now we have evidence about some of the earliest religious spaces that people were creating in this part of the world.”

“We don’t know what these people called themselves, or how other people referred to them.”

Dr. Ynoñán and his team discovered the new archaeological site at La Otra Banda in Peru in 2023.

They selected a plot roughly 10 by 10 m (33 by 33 feet) and began slowly removing the sediment that had piled up over the millenia.

Just 1.8 m (6 feet) deep, they found signs of ancient walls made of mud and clay.

“It was so surprising that these very ancient structures were so close to the modern surface,” Dr. Ynoñan said.

As they dug deeper, the archaeologists found evidence that the site once housed a temple.

“We think that a large temple was built into the side of the mountain, and we’ve found one section of it,” Dr. Ynoñan said.

“One of the most exciting things we found was a small theater, with a backstage area and a staircase that led to a stage-like platform.”

“This could have been used for ritual performances in front of a selected audience.”

A team of archaeologists work on what appear to be parts of a 4,000-year-old ceremonial temple buried in a sand dune of northern Peru, in Lambayeque, Peru, Jun 27, 2024.

(Photo: Pontifical Catholic University via Reuters)

Flanking one of the theater’s staircases, the archaeologists found mud panels decorated with elaborate carved designs showing a bird-like creature.

“It’s a very beautiful and, at the same time, intriguing design, of a mythological creature — it’s like an anthropomorphic bird, but with some reptilian features,” Dr. Ynoñán said.

“This figure stood out to us because it gives important clues as to when the temple was built and how this construction relates to other ancient temples built by early groups from the Andes.”

“Other images of mythological creatures similar to the one found by our team have been found in Peru, dating to what archaeologists call the Initial Period, roughly 4,000 years ago.”

“Despite the name, the people of the Initial Period were not the first to live in the region: people have inhabited Peru for 15,000 years.”

Close-up of the carving of a mythological bird creature in La Otra Banda, Cerro 

“Around 5000-3000 BCE, called the Preceramic Period, people in coastal Peru began creating societies and complex political systems.”

“The Initial Period came next, starting around 2,000 BCE and lasting until 900 BCE.”

“The Initial Period is important because it’s when we first start to see evidence of an institutionalized religion in Peru.”

“The bird creature at this temple resembles a figure known from the Chavín region, nearly 500 years later. This new site could help reveal the origins of this religion

VIDEOS:

• https://youtu.be/id4R4lT1qEc

• https://youtu.be/76dTXIB9eRw

{ https://www.sci.news/ }

11-07-2024 om 20:28 geschreven door peter  

Story by James Dorman

©Noah's Ark Discovered Project / Facebook

Archeologists Believe They've Located the Remains of Noah's Ark
The story of Noah’s Ark is perhaps one of the most universally known Bible tales. The biblical patriarch used his enormous eponymous vessel to allow his family and a menagerie of animals to survive a great flood and repopulate the earth in its aftermath.

Researchers examining a peculiar geological formation in modern Turkey believe they may have in fact found the remains of Noah’s Ark, which would shine a whole new light on our understanding of the ancient world.

©Grant Whitty/Unsplash

Biblical Flood
The story of Noah’s Ark is one of the more memorable tales from the Bible. Ahead of a great flood, God chooses a man and instructs him to build an enormous boat and populate it with two of every animal, alongside his family.

The story goes that God observed man’s corruption, violence and weakness. Abhorred by the actions of his creation, God looked to wipe the slate clean with a cleansing flood and restore man’s goodness.

©Elias Null/Unsplash

Hunt for the Ark
The story is known all around the world. Many view it, along with other stories in the bible, as simple metaphor and myth, perhaps inspired by some natural calamity like a devastating flood of some kind.

Others believe the event occurred exactly as described in the Bible, and finding the remains of the Ark would prove their stance correct. Scholars, archaeologists and even amateur adventurers have tried, and failed, to locate the Ark over the years.

©Daniel Born/Unsplash

The Ark’s Location
The Bible states that the Ark arrived on Turkey’s “mountains of Ararat” after the 150-day flood sent by God. Since 2021, archaeologists have been working at a geological formation in the Doğubayazıt district of Ağrı in eastern Turkey, which aligns well with the description in the Bible.

The Durofeiner formation looks, from above, to have a boat-like outline. Some suggest this could in fact be the fossilized remains of the Ark.

©Wikimedia Commons

Noah’s Ark Research Team
Many have believed Mount Ararat to be the Ark’s final resting place for some time now. Recent work at the Durofeiner site has been carried out by a collaboration between Turkish and American universities, the “Mount Ararat and Noah’s Ark Research Team.”

Researchers have taken samples from the rock formation, and tests revealed seafood, clay and marine materials. Some claim this as evidence of human activity in the region.

©Rod Long/Unsplash

Age of the Site
The 500-foot-high rock formation sits just 3 miles from the Turkey/Iran border. It’s composed primarily of limonite.

Researchers have determined that test samples from the site are around 3,500 to 5,000 years old. Biblical archaeologists and scholars put the time of the 150-day flood from the Noah’s Ark tale at around 3,000 BC, meaning the samples align well with this time frame.

©Julia Koblitz/Unsplash

Human Activity in the Region at the Time of the Flood
Dr. Faruk Kaya of the Agri Ibrahim Chechen University claims the data gathered from the samples is proof of human activity in the area during the period following the biblical flood.

In her words: “According to the preliminary findings of our research, we believe that human activity occurred in this region during the Chalcolithic period (Stone and Copper Age), specifically between 5,500 and 3,000 BC.”

©Scott Graham/Unsplash

Too Early to Draw Conclusions
Dr. Kaya was careful to stress that while these findings are promising for Ark hunters, they are far from conclusive, and it’s too early to tell whether they could lead to the discovery of Noah’s Ark.

In the same study, Dr. Kaya says: “Noah’s flood is believed to have taken place 5,000 years ago, and our findings indicate the presence of life in this region during that time. However, it is too early to draw definitive conclusions.”

©Trust “Tru” Katsande/Unsplash

Dispute of the Findings
Not everyone supports the suppositions of the Mount Ararat team, and many geologists in particular have pushed back against their claims. Far from being evidence of human activity, they believe the formation at the Durofeiner site is simply ancient rocks.

It would take something far more substantial than the current findings to convince many in the geological community that researchers have found the fossilized remains of Noah’s Ark.

©Lukas Hron/Unsplash

Flood Myths and Actual History
Many ancient cultures share narratives of massive, cataclysmic floods. They likely represent a shared symbolic representation in mythical narratives of survival, rebirth and intervention of the divine.

These stories may indicate how ancient cultures responded to natural disasters. If we examine flood myths alongside geological evidence, we can start to get an idea of what actually happened and what is mythical embellishment.

©Dan Dimmock/Unsplash

Future Research
Through multidisciplinary research of things like the Durofeiner site by archaeologists, Bible scholars and geologists working in tandem, we may be able to start to recontextualize the myth of Noah’s Ark into an established, historical narrative.

Researchers are far from done with the Durofeiner site and are planning excavations to conduct detailed analysis and hopefully uncover new artifacts. They hope to get greater insight into the history of the region, particularly ancient civilizations in the area, and hopefully firmly establish the existence of Noah’s Ark.

©Ben White/Unsplash

Transparency Is Key in Future Research
Whatever the findings at the Durofeiner site ultimately mean, future research is probably warranted. It will be crucial to keep this research transparent, though, so that it’s properly framed.

Things can sometimes get contentious when science meets faith. Having a multidisciplinary team can help to give findings proper context without a skewed narrative one way or the other. If findings don’t completely support the myth of the great flood and Noah’s Ark, there is still meaningful significance to finding proof of human activity in an area of biblical importance.

{ https://www.msn.com/en-us/ }

09-07-2024 om 16:32 geschreven door peter  

Scientists investigate Grand Canyon's ancient past to predict future climate impacts

by Keyonna Summers, Tony Allen, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

The Grand Canyon's valleys and millions of years of rock layers spanning Earth's history have earned it a designation as one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. But, according to a new UNLV study, its marvels extend to vast cave systems that lie beneath the surface, which just might hold clues to better understand the future of climate change—by studying nature's past.

(Credit: sumikophoto/Shutterstock)

A research team—led by UNLV paleoclimatologist and professor Matthew Lachniet—pulled an ancient stalagmite from the floor of an undisturbed Grand Canyon cave. By studying the mineral deposits' geochemistry, they were able to analyze precipitation patterns during the rapidly warming period following the last Ice Age to improve understanding about the potential impact of future climate change on summer monsoon rains in the U.S. Southwest and northwestern Mexico.

Their findings, published Oct. 2 in Nature Geoscience, revealed that increasing levels of water seeped into the cave between 8,500 and 14,000 years ago, during a period known as the early Holocene when temperatures rose throughout the region. Using a paleoclimate model, the researchers determined that this was likely caused by intensified and expanded summer rainfall stemming from atmospheric impacts on air circulation patterns that more quickly melted the winter snowpacks and sped up the evaporation process that fuels monsoon rains.

Recent photograph of Grand Canyon from Walhalla Plateau, with the red line showing the Great Unconformity between the metamorphic Proterozoic basement complex and the Paleozoic sediment strata.

This is significant, authors say, because most of the water currently infiltrating through the bedrock and into caves and aquifers—and contributing to groundwater recharge—comes from winter snowmelt. During the early Holocene, however, when peak temperatures were only slightly warmer than today, both summer and winter moisture contributed to groundwater recharge in the region.

The authors suggest that future warming, which could cause temperatures to rise above those of the early Holocene, may also lead to greater rates of summer rainfall on the high-elevation Colorado Plateau and an intensifying North American monsoon, the pattern of pronounced and increased thunderstorms and precipitation that typically occur between June and mid-September.

"What was surprising about our results is that during this past warm period, both the summer monsoon and infiltration into the cave increased, which suggests that summer was important for Grand Canyon groundwater recharge, even though today it is not an important season for recharge," said Lachniet, who personally retrieved the stalagmite from a cave in the Redwall Formation on the South Rim of eastern Grand Canyon in 2017. "While we still expect the region to dry in the future, more intense summer rainfall may actually infiltrate into the subsurface more than it does today."

Stalagmites are common cave formations that act as ancient rain gauges that record historic climate change. They grow as mineral-rich waters seep through the ground above and drop from the tips of stalactites on cave ceilings. Calcite minerals from tiny drops of water accumulate over thousands of years, and much like tree rings, accurately record the rainfall history of an area. Three natural forms of oxygen are found in water, and the quantity of one form decreases as rainfall increases. This information is locked into the stalagmites over time.

Because of the distinct difference in the oxygen isotope composition between summer and winter precipitation, it is possible to estimate the relative contributions from each season. Variation in uranium-234 isotope and changes in the growth thickness of stalagmite give indication of the change in the amount of precipitation.

"We were able to validate the oxygen record with the growth data, with the uranium isotope data to confirm that in fact, we see significant increases in summer moisture during this warm period, which we attribute to the monsoon," said the University of New Mexico professor Yemane Asmerom. "Unfortunately, effective moisture is the balance between precipitation and evaporation. Unlike the more temperate Grand Canyon climate, the dry southern part is likely to be drier, as a result of the increased temperatures."

The research team used stalagmite samples to reconstruct groundwater recharge rates—or, the amount of water that penetrates the aquifers—in the Grand Canyon area during the early years of the Holocene period. High groundwater recharge rates likely occurred on other high-elevation plateaus in the region, too, they said, though it's unclear how the activity applies to hotter, low-elevation deserts.

What is clear is that ongoing human-caused climate change is leading to hotter temperatures throughout southwestern North America, including the Grand Canyon region. Alongside population growth and agricultural pressures, this warming can reduce the infiltration of surface water into groundwater aquifers. Groundwater recharge rates also depend on the frequency and intensity of summer rains associated with monsoon season.

Though summer infiltration isn't a significant contributor to groundwater recharge in the region today, these latest findings suggest that could change in the future as the climate warms and monsoonal moisture increases. What's unknown is how a projected decrease in winter precipitation and snowpack could impact overall groundwater reserves.

In addition to Lachniet and Asmerom, the following researchers collaborated on the report: Xiaojing Du and Sylvia G. Dee of Rice University; Victor Polyak of the University of New Mexico; and Benjamin W. Tobin of the University of Kentucky.

• Provided by University of Nevada, Las Vegas 

{https://phys.org/ }

08-07-2024 om 01:30 geschreven door peter