UFO'S of UAP'S, ASTRONOMIE, RUIMTEVAART, ARCHEOLOGIE, OUDHEIDKUNDE, SF-SNUFJES EN ANDERE ESOTERISCHE WETENSCHAPPEN

With the pandemic and accompanying economic recession clouding 2020, it goes without saying that the year will not go down as the happiest for humanity. The archaeology world also felt the effects, as numerous digs were canceled or curtailed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the difficult year, many archaeological and historical discoveries came to light, including a sprawling geoglyph in Peru, a trove of mummies, the tomb of the legendary Romulus and more.

1. Cat revealed at Nazca

It took archaeologists about one week to refurbish the ancient cat outline.

(Image credit: Johny Isla/Ministerio de Cultura)

A 120-foot-long geoglyph of a cat discovered in Peru in 2020 is the most recent example of a Nazca Line to be found. The geoglyph was heavily eroded and barely visible, but conservation work revealed a more complete picture of the cat, which looks a bit like a child's doodle. Archaeologists estimate that the geoglyph was constructed sometime between 200 B.C. and 100 B.C., a time when many Nazca Lines were being built.

2. Amazon ice-age art

(Image credit: Marie-Claire Thomas/Wild Blue Media)

In 2020, archaeologists announced the discovery of an 8-mile-long (12.9 kilometers) "canvas" of ice-age art that dates back 11,800 to 12,600 years. Drawn using ocher, the images include depictions of mastodons, giant sloths and other now-extinct beasts that lived at the time. The images were drawn in the hills above three rock shelters in the Colombian Amazon.

The drawings also include human handprints, geometric designs, and images of deer, tapirs, alligators, bats, monkeys, turtles, serpents, porcupines, camelids and horses, among other animals. There are also drawings showing people hunting animals and interacting with plants and trees. The excavations were made possible thanks to a 2016 peace treaty that put an end to hostilities between the Colombian government and FARC, a rebel guerrilla group. With the onset of peace, the region became accessible to archaeologists.

3. Mummies galore!

(Image credit: Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities)

More than 100 sealed coffins with mummies have been found at Saqqara, in Egypt. Excavations are ongoing, and more mummies will likely be found.)

Since summer 2020, Egyptian archaeologists have been excavating a series of burial shafts at the site of Saqqara and have found an ever-growing number of sealed coffins with mummies inside. As of Nov. 14, the count was up to over 100 coffins containing mummies, and as the excavations continue, more will likely be found. In Egypt, tombs were frequently robbed in both ancient and modern times, and to find so many undisturbed, sealed coffins with mummies is a remarkable find.

Numerous artifacts have been found within the coffins, including 40 statues that depict Ptah-Soker, a deity who was an amalgamation of Ptah, the god of Memphis, andSoker (also spelled Sokar and Seker), who was the god of Saqqara. All of the finds date to between roughly 712 B.C. and 30 B.C., a time when Egypt was often controlled by foreign groups, such as the Assyrians, Persians and Greeks.

4. Tomb of Romulus

(Image credit: Parco Colosseo)

In February 2020, archaeologists announced the discovery of the tomb of Romulus beneath the Roman Forum's Senate House. According to legend, Romulus founded Rome in the eighth century B.C. He and his brother Remus were supposedly abandoned as infants and raised by a she-wolf. When they reached adulthood, the two brothers got into a dispute over which hill Rome should be built on, and Romulus killed Remus. Today, most historians regard the story as mythological and doubt that Romulus really existed. However, the ancient Romans took it seriously and placed his tomb beneath the Senate House, the heart of Roman politics.

Inside the tomb, archaeologists found an empty 4.5-foot-long (1.4 m) sarcophagus made of a light volcanic stone, called tuff, that was quarried from the Capitoline Hill beneath the Roman Forum. The tomb has been 3D laser scanned, and future excavations may reveal more details about it.

5. Female hunters

Artistic reconstruction of a vicuña hunt in Wilamaya Patjxa.

(Image credit: Matthew Verdolivo (UC Davis IET Academic Technology Services))

In 2020, the idea that males did all of the big-game hunting while females gathered herbs and plants was proved wrong, as archaeologists found a 9,000-year-old burial of a female hunter in Peru. She was buried with a hunter tool kit that included projectile points and flakes, and she may have hunted vicuñas, wild ancestors of alpacas.

The archaeologists who excavated the woman's remains do not believe she was an unusual case. When they analyzed over 400 skeletons that had been previously excavated in the Western Hemisphere, the archaeologists found that 27 were buried with tools suitable for hunting big game and 11 of those individuals were female, suggesting that females often hunted big game in the Western Hemisphere.

6. Polynesians meet Native Americans around A.D. 1150

(Image credit: Ruben Ramos-Mendoza)

A large study that involved gathering DNA from 807 Indigenous individuals from Polynesia and the Pacific coast of South America has revealed that Polynesians and native peoples of Colombia not only made contact but also bred with one another around A.D. 1150. It's not clear how the groups met; the Polynesians may have sailed to South America or vice versa.

Either way, their descendants were living in the Marquesas Islands — about 4,350 miles (7,000 km) from the coast of Colombia — by A.D. 1200, and gradually branched out to other islands in Polynesia.

7. Biggest prehistoric monument in the U.K.

This map shows how the giant pits and the Larkhill Causewayed Enclosure circle around Durrington Walls and the smaller Woodhenge.

(Image credit: © Crown copyright and database rights 2019 (OS MasterMap® Scale 1:1250) and 2013 (OS Profile DTM Scale 1:10000); EDINA Digimap Ordnance Survey Service (100025252) http://digimap.edina.ac.uk)

The biggest prehistoric monument in the U.K. was revealed in 2020. Dating to around 4,500 years ago, during the Neolithic period, it consists of 20 giant holes that appear to mark the boundaries of an earlier enclosure circle. Each of the holes is 32 feet (10 m) in diameter and 16 feet (5 m) deep. The holes form a circle stretching 1.2 miles (2 km) and covering an area larger than 1.2 square miles (3.1 square km). It's so large that it has Durrington Walls, the largest henge in the U.K., at its center.

It's not clear why the giant circle of holes was created. It's possible that it formed a symbolic barrier that told certain members of society how close they could get to Durrington Walls. Another possibility is that the holes were used to hold water during the wet season. In any case, the circle of holes is one of a kind, with no comparable prehistoric monuments known elsewhere, archaeologists said.

8. Assyrian rock panels

(Image credit: Alberto Savioli/Land of Nineveh Archaeological Project/University of Udine)

Ten ancient Assyrian rock panels showing carvings of Assyrian deities were discovered at a canal that dates back more than 2,700 years. They include carvings of Ashur, the main Assyrian god, who is shown on a dragon. They also show Ashur's wife, Mullissu, who is seated on a decorated throne supported by a lion. Other depictions include the sun god Shamash on a horse and the moon god Sin on a horned lion. All of the deities face in the direction of the water that flowed in the canal.

The panels and canal were likely built during the reign of the Assyrian king Sargon II, who ruled from 722 B.C. to 705 B.C. In the rock panels, Sargon II is shown at the beginning and end of the procession of deities.

Archaeologists announced the discovery of the canal and rock panels, found near Mosul, Iraq, in January 2020. Work on uncovering the panels began in 2012, but when the terrorist organization ISIL (also known as ISIS or Daesh) approached the region,archaeologists hid the panels to prevent their destruction by ISIL. As a result the panels were not fully uncovered until recently.

9. Rich ninth-century Viking longhouse on Iceland

(Image credit: Bjarni Einarsson)

In June 2020, archaeologists in Iceland announced the discovery of a 130-foot-long (40 m) longhouse that was built in the ninth century. It is one of the earliest Viking structures in Iceland to be discovered and has lavish hoard of ornamental beads and coins archaeologists found.

The finds include Roman and Middle Eastern silver coins, as well as "hacksilver" — cut and bent pieces of silver that the Vikings and other peoples used as bullion or currency. The hoards also contained glass beads, rings, weights and a tiny fragment of gold. The Vikings who lived there may have acquired the goods by trading whale and seal meat and skins for them.

10. Mammoth structure

(Image credit: Alex Pryor)

A circular structure constructed out of the remains of at least 60 mammoths was discovered in Russia. Bones from reindeer, horses, bears, wolves, red foxes and arctic foxes, among other animals, were also used to build the structure, archaeologists said. Dating back around 20,000 years, the structure is 36 feet (11 m) in diameter and may have had a roof made of animal hides, the researchers said.

The purpose of the structure is a bit of a mystery. It might have been used for rituals, or possibly food storage. At the time, pieces of animal meat were still attached to the bones, which would have made the structure smelly. Archaeologists could tell that they had meat on them because some of the bones were articulated (joined together) in a way that could only have been done if flesh was still on them.

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It’s always wonderful to see a new, complete pterosaur skeleton.
This one comes with a backstory that is making the rounds. Here we’ll talk about the specimen itself, GP/2E 9266 (Beccari et al. 2021; Early Cretaceous; Figs. 1-5), presently assigned to the name Tupandactylus navigans, a putatitve relative of Tupandactylus imperator.

Figure 1. The new Tupandactylus compared to the old Tupandactylus to scale. Both are considered adults. Note the similarity between Brazilian and Chinese tapejarids.

The first strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is how much it resembles Tupandactylus (known from a partial skull only)… except for size (Fig. 1). The authors considered both to be adults. From the abstract: “The specimen can be assigned to Tupa. [= Tupandactylus] navigans due to its vertical supra-premaxillary bony process and short and rounded parietal crest.” Let’s stop assigning taxa based on a few traits. That’s “Pulling a Larry Martin“. Case in point: See the next paragraph.

The second strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is how it doesn’t nest with Tupandactylus in the Large Pterosaur Tree (LPT, 260 taxa). Instead it nests with a similarly-sized Chinese taxon, ZMNH M 8131 (Fig. 1), closer to the base of the Tapejaridae.

Figure 2. Tupandacatylus navigans (GP/2E 9266) in situ and µCT scans produced by Beccari et al. 2021. Note the lack of a prepubis and the extremely slender ventral process of the pubis, likely incapable of supporting a prepubis.

The third strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is that tall headcrest. It leans anteriorly, distinct from other, otherwise similar, crests. The authors found no posteriorly projecting process, but this is often broken off in fossils. There is an impression that matches the missing bone (Fig. 3). Speculative, but there it is, an impression.

Figure 3. Skull of Tupandactylus navigans (GP/2E 9266) from Beccari et al. 202. Colors added here. Compare to the original identity of skull bones by Beccari et al. in figure 2.

The fourth and fifth strange things about GP/2E 9266
is it has one parasagittally expanded neural spine. The authors report that five vertebrae form a notarium, different than any other tapejarid… and the medial scapula is not modified to articulate with it. Likewise the ventral coracoid is not expanded, as in related taxa.

The sixth and seventh strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is the lack of a prepubis… and the extremely slender ventral process of the pubis, likely incapable of supporting a prepubis.

Figure 4. The pes of the GP/2E 9266 specimen as originally figured by Beccari et al. 2021 and revised here. Comparison to the other metatarsus shows the correct lengths overlooked by Beccari et al. who also renamed the phalanges on toe 4, not realizing that two phalanges were fused to become one.

The eighth strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is the fusion of pedal phalanges 4.2 and 4.3 (Fig. 4). Beccari et al. also overlooked the fifth metatarsal and its two digits. The authors mistakenly wrote: “As in all later-diverging pterodactyloids, there are only four pedal digits.”

BTW, I’ve never seen distal tarsals on any tetrapod or pterosaurs like those shown in Beccari et al. (red elements in Fig. 4). Let’s leave those be for the time being.

Figure 5. Wing of the GP/2E 9266 specimen as originally illustrated by Beccari et al. (left) and repaired here (right).

The ninth strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is the authors flipped the wing finger upside-down with the leading edge trailing (Fig. 5). They also did not create horizontal stabilizers of the sprawling hind limbs (Fig. 6). Pterosaurs are such perfect natural inventions. Don’t leave the hind limbs dangling uselessly. Remember Sharovipteryx

Figure 6. The GP/2E 9266 specimen reconstructed in dorsal view by Beccari et al 2021 and modified here (top half) to reflect the sprawling femora.

The tenth strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is the odd quadrupedal pose Beccari et al. put their reconstruction into (Fig. 7). Sure some pterosaurs walked around quadrupedally and left tracks. These were all beachcombers, seeking food in shallow waters. Tapedjarids are not members of those clades. Don’t generalize and make all pterosaurs awkward quadrupeds. Look at each one individually. Bipedal pterosaur ancestors were able to flap before they were pterosaurs. That was the initial attraction, together with crests.

Figure 7. Pterosaurs were like birds, right? Able to flap their forelimbs since before they were pterosaurs. A Tapejara prepubis is added here, but is not present in the GP/2E 9266 specimen.

The eleventh strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is the gracile pteroid. Really slender, more so than I’ve seen in pterosaurs.

The twelfth strange thng about GP/2E 9266
is the longer than typical phalanx 4.1, extending to the proximal ulna when the wing is folded (Fig. 7). Beccari et al. got things mixed up when they reported, “first wing phalanx length to metacarpal IV length in GP/ 2E 9266 = 0.58.”

The thirteenth strange thing about GP/2E 9266
is the tiny size of the foot.

Beccari et al. performed a phylogenetic analysis
(unfortunately, derived from previous studies). The authors reported, “The holotype of Tupa. navigans SMNK PAL 2344 was initially coded as a separate OUT, but no character differed from the scoring of GP/2E 9266. Therefore, the phylogenetic position of Tupa. navigans was accessed through the scoring of GP/2E 9266 using the character-taxon matrix of, composed by 64 taxa (including the new specimen) and 150 discrete characters.” This is why convergence can be so difficult to deal with. What can be scored of the two skulls are virtually identical. In the Beccari et al. analysis the Huaxiapterus corollatus specimen ZMNH M8131 (Fig. 1) nests in a polytomy with other Chinese pterosaurs separate from a sister polytomy of Brazilian pterosaurs. Since no one in Beccari et al. published comparable reconstructions or figures of related taxa (as in Fig. 1), other than some colorful silhouettes, we can assume they did as they said they did: borrowed data, never traced taxa, trusted scores and taxon lists.

Beccari et al. have outdated notions regarding pterosaur ontogeny
and bone fusion. They seek the fusion of elements as a ‘sign’ of maturity, as in the archosaurs and dinosaurs in their outdated cladogram. Adding taxa shows this notion is false. Fusion is entirely phylogenetic. When you look at enough taxa you learn that immature and late-stage embryo pterosaurs are identical to adults, except for an 8x difference in overall size, as in the lepidosaurs missing from the Beccari et al. cladogram.

Flight?
The authors report, “The relatively longer forelimbs and the long cervical series may argue for a terrestrial foraging lifestyle.” “This could indicate that the aberrant crest may have restricted Tupa. navigans to short-distance flights, such as to flee from predators.” Sure the wing finger is skinny and phalanx 4.4 is short, but this taxon is far from flightless.

References

Beccari V, Pinheiro FL, Nunes I, Anelli LE, Mateus O and Costa FR 2021. Osteology of an exceptionally well-preserved tapejarid skeleton from Brazil: Revealing the anatomy of a curious pterodactyloid clade. PLoS ONE 16(8): e0254789. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254789

wiki/Tupandactylus
eptileevolution.com/tapejaridae.htm

https://www.sciencenews.org/article/pterosaur-stolen-fossil-big-head-walking-flying