Category Archives: ASIA

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

Frozen Bird Found in Siberia is 46,000 years old

Frozen Bird Found in Siberia is 46,000 years old

For the past 46,000 years, a small bird that perished in the last ice age was frozen, protected from deterioration and scavenger until the body in Siberian permafrost was found by two Russians searching for fossil mammoth tusks.

Love Dalén, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, who was with the ivory hunters, Boris Berezhnov and Spartak Khabrov, when they spotted the bird, said that the bird was in such fine condition that it seemed “like it had] died just a few days ago,”

Dalén told Live Science in an email. “The bird is in pristine condition,” The discovery is remarkable, as “small animals like this would normally disintegrate very quickly after death due to scavengers and microbial activity.”

The frozen flier is a one-of-a-kind find, too: It’s the only near-intact bird carcass documented from the last ice age, Dalén added.

When the fossil hunters first uncovered the bird in September 2018, Dalén and his colleagues had no idea of the mystery bird’s age or species. So, Dalén “collected a couple of feathers and a small piece of tissue for radiocarbon dating and DNA sequencing,” he said.

The 46,000-year-old bird’s delicate feet are still in good shape.

He brought the ice age samples to his lab, where postdoctoral researcher Nicolas Dussex, the lead author of a new study on the bird, analyzed the remains.

Radiocarbon dating revealed that the bird lived during the same time as other ice age beasts, including mammoths, horses, woolly rhinos, bison, and lynx.

To discover the bird’s species, the researchers sequenced its mitochondrial DNA, genetic data that is passed down through the maternal line.

Although the bird’s mitochondrial DNA was fragmentary — there were “many millions of short DNA sequences,” Dalén said, a common occurrence in ancient specimens — the team was able to piece together these short sequences with the help of a computer program.

Then, the scientists took the finished mitochondrial DNA puzzle and searched for a match in an online database that has the genetic sequences of nearly every bird alive today. The results revealed that the ice age bird was a female horned lark (Eremophila alpestris).

This discovery sheds light on the transformation of the so-called mammoth steppe. When this bird was alive, the land was a mix of steppe (unforested grassland) and tundra (treeless, frozen ground), according to pollen records from 50,000 to 30,000 years ago.

When the last ice age ended about 11,700 years ago, the mammoth steppe transitioned into the three main Eurasian environments that exist today: the northern tundra, the taiga (a coniferous forest) in the middle, and the steppe in the south said Dalén, the senior researcher on the new study.

Nowadays, there are two subspecies of horned lark: “one living on the tundra in the far north of Eurasia and the other in the steppe in the south, in Mongolia and its neighboring countries,” Dalén said.

The horned lark (Eremophila alpestris), also known as the shore lark in Europe, is a small songbird that breeds across the northern hemisphere. It has 42 formally recognized subspecies that are divided into six different clades, each of which could warrant reclassification into distinct species clusters.

It appears that the newly discovered bird is an “ancestor of two different subspecies of the horned lark,” he said. As the environment changed, however, the horned lark diverged into the two evolutionary lineages that exist today, Dalén said.

“So all in all, this study provides an example of how climate change at the end of the last ice age could have led to the formation of new subspecies,” he said.

ASIA, MYANMAR, WORLD

Amber fossils reveal the true colours of 99-million-year-old insects

Amber fossils reveal the true colours of 99-million-year-old insects

Nature is full of colours, from the radiant shine of a peacock’s feathers or the bright warning colouration of toxic frogs to the pearl-white camouflage of polar bears.

Usually, fine structural detail necessary for the conservation of colour is rarely preserved in the fossil record, making most reconstructions of the fossil-based on artists’ imagination.

A research team from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGPAS) has now unlocked the secrets of true colouration in the 99-million-year-old insects.

Diverse structural-colored insects in mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar

Colours offer many clues about the behaviour and ecology of animals. They function to keep organisms safe from predators, at the right temperature, or attractive to potential mates. Understanding the colouration of long-extinct animals can help us shed light on ecosystems in the deep geological past.

The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B on July 1, offers a new perspective on the often overlooked, but by no means dull, lives of insects that co-existed alongside dinosaurs in Cretaceous rainforests.

Researchers gathered a treasure trove of 35 amber pieces with exquisitely preserved insects from an amber mine in northern Myanmar.

“The amber is mid-Cretaceous, approximately 99 million years old, dating back to the golden age of dinosaurs. It is essentially resin produced by ancient coniferous trees that grew in a tropical rainforest environment.

Animals and plants trapped in the thick resin got preserved, some with life-like fidelity,” said Dr. CAI Chenyang, associate professor at NIGPAS who lead the study.

The rare set of amber fossils includes cuckoo wasps with metallic bluish-green, yellowish-green, purplish-blue or green colours on the head, thorax, abdomen, and legs. In terms of colour, they are almost the same as cuckoo wasps that live today, said Dr. CAI.

The researchers also discovered blue and purple beetle specimens and a metallic dark-green soldier fly. “We have seen thousands of amber fossils but the preservation of colour in these specimens is extraordinary,” said Prof. HUANG Diying from NIGPAS, a co-author of the study.

“The type of colour preserved in the amber fossils is called structural colour. It is caused by the microscopic structure of the animal’s surface. The surface nanostructure scatters light of specific wavelengths and produces very intense colours.

This mechanism is responsible for many of the colours we know from our everyday lives,” explained Prof. PAN Yanhong from NIGPAS, a specialist on palaeoecology reconstruction.

To understand how and why colour is preserved in some amber fossils but not in others, and whether the colours seen in fossils are the same as the ones insects paraded more than 99 million years ago, the researchers used a diamond knife blades to cut through the exoskeleton of two of the colourful amber wasps and a sample of the normal dull cuticle.

Using electron microscopy, they were able to show that colourful amber fossils have a well-preserved exoskeleton nanostructure that scatters light.

The unaltered nanostructure of coloured insects suggested that the colours preserved in amber may be the same as the ones displayed by them in the Cretaceous. But in fossils that do not preserve colour, the cuticular structures are badly damaged, explaining their brown-black appearance.

What kind of information can we learn about the lives of ancient insects from their colour? Extant cuckoo wasps are, as their name suggests, parasites that lay their eggs into the nests of unrelated bees and wasps.

Structural colouration has been shown to serve as camouflage in insects, and so it is probable that the colour of Cretaceous cuckoo wasps represented an adaptation to avoid detection.

“At the moment we also cannot rule out the possibility that the colours played other roles besides camouflage, such as thermoregulation,” adds Dr CAI.

ASIA, JAPAN, WORLD

Yonaguni Monument: Man-made structure or natural geological formation

Yonaguni Monument: Man-made structure or natural geological formation

THE YONAGUNI-JIMA KAITEI CHIKEI, LITERALLY translated as “Yonaguni Island Submarine Topography,” is an underwater mystery off the coast of the Ryukyu Islands, Japan. 

The massive underwater rock formation is speculated to have existed for more than 10,000 years, but whether the formation is completely man-made, entirely natural, or has been altered by human hands is still up for debate.

The monument was first discovered in 1986 by a diver searching for a good spot to observe hammerhead sharks. After its discovery, Masaaki Kimura, a marine geologist at the University of the Ryukyu, explored the monument for nearly two decades.

Yonaguni Monument: Man-made structure or natural geological formation

Kimura remains convinced that the site was carved thousands of years ago when the landmass was above water.

According to Kimura the Yonaguni’s numerous right angles, strategically placed holes and aesthetic triangles are signs of human alteration. He also claims that carvings exist on the monuments, resembling Kaida script.

He believes that a pyramid, castles, roads, monuments and a stadium can be identified within the structure – which for him is evidence that the monument is what remains of the Lost Continent of Mu, the Japanese equivalent to Atlantis.

As with most theories of lost civilizations, Kimura has met with controversy about his beliefs. Robert Schoch, a professor at Boston University, has dived at the site and explains that the formation is “basic geology and classic stratigraphy for sandstones, which tend to break along planes and give you these very straight edges, particularly in an area with lots of faults and tectonic activity.”

Sandstone structures typically erode into rigid formations, and it is unlikely that the structure was entirely man-made, if man-made at all, because the visible structure is connected to a hidden rock mass.

Geology and strong currents may explain the peculiar shape of the rock, but they cannot account for the pottery, stone tools and fireplaces found there, possibly dating back to 2500 BCE.

However, the items merely show that the area was once inhabited and do not indicate that the monument is anything other than a natural geological formation.

Yonaguni is composed of sandstone and mudstone that dates back 20 million years. If the monument was carved by human hands, it was during the last ice age (about 10,000 years ago) when Yonaguni was part of a land bridge that connected the site to Taiwan.

Both the Japanese Government’s Agency for Cultural Affairs and the Government of Okinawa Prefecture deny Yonaguni as a historical-cultural site.

ASIA, SAUDI ARABIA, WORLD

Saudi Arabia Opens Its First UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Hegra’ After 2,000 Years

Saudi Arabia Opens Its First UNESCO World Heritage Site ‘Hegra’ After 2,000 Years

Saudi Arabia is now opening the ancient archaeological site – Hegra – for the public in order to promote historical sites. Hegra, which has been unchanged for nearly 2000 years, is the first UNESCO World Heritage site in the Kingdom.

This lesser-known sister city of Petra in Jordan was founded by the Nabateans, an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the southern Levant.

They had created a huge empire in the desert from the 4th century BC to the 1st century AD when Emperor Trajan conquered them and they became subjects of the Romans. These nomads controlled the spice trade, and later they built an astonishing civilization in the desert.

The Qasr al-Farid tomb (The Lonely Castle) carved into rose-colored sandstone in Hegra, also known as Madain Saleh, a UNESCO World Heritage site, near Saudi Arabia’s northwestern town of al-Ula.

Petra was rediscovered in the 19th century, however, the earliest historic location in the kingdom — Hegra — was left forgotten by all but the Bedouin until recent decades. But all that remains now of the city they built is some rock-cut tombs and relics.

Over 90 of the total 111 tombs recorded at the location are decorated. Many of the tombs have inscriptions, written in an early form of Arabic that “warn the living not to interfere with the tombs”, according to a report.

One inscription reads, “May the lord of the world curse upon anyone who disturbs this tomb or opens.” The site also features some 50 inscriptions of the pre-Nabataean period and some cave drawings.

According to UNESCO, the site “bears witness to the development of Nabataean agricultural techniques using a large number of artificial wells in the rocky ground”.

The challenge with getting to know the Nabataeans is that they left behind so little first-hand history.

The remains at Hegra show a lot of Roman influence as it was also once subjugated by the Romans. Despite the Roman subjugation, the city of Hegra continued to prosper until the 3rd century AD.

Ever since the city fell into decline, it had been left practically undisturbed for almost 2,000 years. It was abandoned by the Middle Ages, but the Ottomans built a fort at the site during World War 1 during the Arab revolt which was instigated by Lawrence of Arabia.

Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia’s tourism minister had said that the country could see a decline in the tourism sector this year due to measures taken by the government to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Saudi Arabia is now determined to wean its economy off the petro pipeline.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced Saudi Vision 2030 in 2016.

It is a roadmap for the kingdom over the next two decades to transform into a global hub for trade and tourism that connects Africa, Asia, and Europe. Also, magnificent antiquities in Saudi Arabia are being promoted as must-do itineraries for travellers seeking undiscovered locations.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

3000-year-old temple-era gold bead found by 9-year-old Jerusalem boy

3000-year-old temple-era gold bead found by 9-year-old Jerusalem boy

A nine-year-old boy, the Temple Mount Sifting Project (TMSP) revealed earlier this week, found the first-ever Temple-era gold granule bead during wet sifting of earth from the Temple Mount.

In August, while sifting through the soil with his kin, Binyamin Milt, a resident of Jerusalem, unearthed a perfectly preserved small, flower-shaped cylinder, made of four layers of tiny gold balls, unaware that the item he carried was probably forged around 3,000 years ago.

In fact, the bead was so well preserved that when the boy took the bead to the supervising archaeologist, he initially wrote it off as likely to be an unidentified modern object, not even writing down the boy’s contact information before hurrying back to continue sifting.

3000-year-old temple-era gold bead found by 9-year-old Jerusalem boy
First Temple-era gold granule bead

It was only while sorting through the summer’s artefacts in Dr Gabriel Barkay’s backyard that he realized the bead was strikingly similar to several similar items he had found when he excavated burial systems from the First Temple period in Katef Hinnom.

While those beads were made of silver, they were identical to the gold bead in both shape and manufacturing method (called granulation).

Similar beads have been found in several other sites across Israel, dated to various periods, with the overwhelming majority dating to the Iron Age (12th to 6th centuries BCE).

Once the bead’s significance had become clear, TMSP researchers called all the families who participated in the sifting on that specific day, until they made contact with Binyamin.

Pieces of gold jewellery are rarely found among archaeological artefacts from the First Temple period since gold at that time was not refined and generally contained a significant percentage of silver.

Granulation is a technique which demands of the goldsmith a considerable amount of expertise and experience, due to the many components and complex manufacturing stages.

The granules are shaped using tiny metal pieces which are melted on a bed of charcoal or charcoal powder, which absorbs air, preventing oxidation.

Once the metal melts, the surface tension of the liquid produces ball-shaped drops. An alternative method involves dripping the liquid metal from a height into a bowl and constantly stirring the drops.

At this stage, it is not yet clear what purpose the bead served, though initial projections by TMSP members say it could have been part of an ornament worn by an important personage who visited the Temple, or by a priest. More info on the piece will be published once all the artefacts from the summer are processed.

TMSP was founded in response to illegal renovations which were carried out in 1999 by the northern branch of the Islamic Movement, disposing of over 9,000 tons of dirt, mixed with invaluable archaeological artefacts, dumping it all into the Kidron Valley.

Archaeologists Dr Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira retrieved the rubble and began sifting through it in 2004, with the goal of understanding the archaeology and history of the Temple Mount, while preserving history.

Over the years, it has grown into an internationally significant project, bringing in over 200,000 volunteers who have helped the researchers find thousands of priceless artefacts.

ASIA, THAILAND, WORLD

Thailand: Rare 5,000 Years old whale skeleton discovered

Thailand: Rare 5,000 Years old whale skeleton discovered

In Samut Sakhon, researchers say, an almost fully preserved whale skeleton believed to be between 3,000 and 5,000 years old has been uncovered.

Thailand: Rare 5,000 Years old whale skeleton discovered
The rare whale skeleton discovered in Thailand. It is thought to be up to 5,000 years old.

The bones were discovered about 12 kilometres from the coast in the province just west of Bangkok in early November, the BBC announced on Friday.

The 12-metre-long skeleton is thought to be that of a Bryde’s whale, it said.

Experts hope the find might provide “a window into the past”, especially for research on sea levels and biodiversity.

The partially fossilised bones are “a rare find”, mammal researcher Marcus Chua of the National University of Singapore told the BBC.

“There are few whale subfossils in Asia,” he said, and even fewer ones are “in such good condition”.

Pictures shared by Environment Minister Varawut Silpa-Archa show the bones apparently almost entirely intact.

According to Mr Varawut, more than 80% of the skeleton has so far been recovered, including vertebrae, ribs, fins and one shoulder blade.

The skeleton’s head alone is estimated to be about 3 metres in length.

Mr Chua said the discovery would allow researchers to find out more about the particular species in the past, whether there were any differences compared to today’s Bryde’s whales.

The skeleton will also provide information about the “paleobiological and geological conditions at that time, including sea level estimation, types of sediments, and the contemporary biological communities at that time”.

“So this find provides a window into the past once the skeleton has been dated,” Mr Chua said.

The bones are yet to be carbon-dated to determine their exact age, with the results expected in December.

The Gulf of Thailand has an interesting history in the last 10,000 years, Mr Chua pointed out, with sea levels possibly up to four metres higher than today and active tectonic activity.

Bryde’s whales, which live worldwide in warm temperate and tropical waters, are still found in the waters around Thailand today.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

Eerie train graveyard gives a glimpse into the golden age of Soviet steam trains

Eerie train graveyard gives a glimpse into the golden age of Soviet steam trains

In Russia’s central Perm region, near the village of Shumkovo, a cemetery lies on the sidetrack. Instead of tombs and headstones, it is filled with trains from the 20th century.

There are dozens of steam locomotives, the oldest dating back to 1936 and the youngest from 1956. They sit on rusty rails, in the middle of overgrown vegetation.

During the Soviet era, the location served as a backup railway base in case of nuclear war. At that time, around 140 locomotives were docked there. But, as electric power replaced steam, these reserve trains hit the end of the line.

As railway authorities waned, maintenance work on the locomotives eventually came to a complete halt, leaving the way for rust.

Many of the trains have bought and taken away by Chinese owners. Others have been restored to become exhibits at museums and memorials.

Grigoriy Gordeyev has managed the place for 30 years and resists calls to have the locomotives scrapped down for metal.

“You can see for yourself how they (the locomotives) are living out their lives, just standing there,” he says.

“People are interested, they come here, take photos, observe. It’s our history after all.”

Visitor and photographer Alexander Osipov, also believes that the trains take you on a trip back in time.

“It’s like you go several decades into the past, especially when you get inside a steam train. There are all these levers, which someone touched, you get this feeling. You really feel that there are fascists and the Red Army are running just outside the window. It is all really very interesting,” he says.

According to museum manager Alexander Yemelyanov, Russian steam locomotives dating to early 20th century are a rarity nowadays.

“Trains were mass-produced technology and the attitude towards them was neither reverent nor very serious. They were sent to be melted for disposal. And unfortunately, many types of locomotives at the beginning of the 20th century were not preserved,” he explains.

ASIA, CHINA, WORLD

Mysterious 520 million-year-old sea monster with tentacles coming out of its mouth discovered

Mysterious 520 million-year-old sea monster with tentacles coming out of its mouth discovered

A recent research finds that the discovery of a fossil demonstrating an underwater marine monster with 18 tentacles surrounding its mouth has helped solve a modern-day puzzle about the origins of a gelatinous carnivore called a comb jelly.

The once unexplained “sea monster,” which scientists named Daihua sanqiong, existed in today’s China a whopping 518 million years ago. And the extinct animal shares a number of anatomical characteristics with the modern comb jelly, a little sea creature that uses so-called comb rows full of loads of hair-like cilia to swim through the oceans.

The finding indicates that this recently identified species may be the distant relative of the comb jelly, said study lead researcher Jakob Vinther, a paleobiologist at the United Kingdom’s Bristol University.

“With fossils, we have been able to find out what the bizarre comb jellies originated from,” Vinther told Live Science. “Even though we now can show they came from a very sensible place, it doesn’t make them any less weird.”

This finding, however, has sparked a debate. While the discovery of D. sanqiong is impressive, it’s hard to say whether this ancient creature is part of the lineage that produced comb jellies, said Casey Dunn, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, who was not involved with the study.

“I am highly skeptical of the conclusions they draw,” Dunn told Live Science.

A magnified shot of the rows of cilia on Daihua sanqiong, which suggest that it might be a distant relative of the modern comb jelly.

18 incredible tentacles

Vinther came across the D. sanqiong fossil while visiting colleagues at Yunnan University in China.

The scientists there showed him a number of fossils in their collection, including the mysterious creature they later named Daihua sanqiong, which was discovered by study co-researcher Xianguang Hou, a paleobiologist at Yunnan University. The genus name honors the Dai tribe in Yunnan; “hua” means flower in Mandarin, and refers to the critter’s flower-like shape.

On each of D. sanqiong’s tentacles are fine, feather-like branches with rows of large ciliary hairs, which likely helped it catch prey. These hairs, according to Vinther, grabbed his attention “because we only find big cilia on comb jellies.” To swim, comb jellies move their cilia, which then flicker in beautiful iridescent colors.

A living comb jelly, known as Euplokamis. The creature’s rainbow iridescence is caused by the movement of the ciliary comb bands on the animal’s body.

Moreover, the D. sanqiong fossil bears an intriguing resemblance to other known ancient animals, including Xianguangia, another ancient creature with 18 tentacles, and the tulip-like sea creatures Dinomischus and Siphusauctum.

“To make a long story short, we were able to reconstruct the whole [early] lineage of comb jellies,” by doing anatomical comparisons, Vinther said. This is a big deal, because some scientists argue that these swimming carnivores were among the first animals to evolve on Earth, based on family trees analyses and genetic modeling of modern comb jellies. But now, this international team has possibly shown that comb jellies have a long lineage that precedes them, Vinther said.

This newly described lineage suggests that some of the ancestors of comb jellies had skeletons and that their ancient tentacles evolved into the combs with the densely packed cilia seen on comb jellies today.

An artist’s illustration of Daihua sanqiong

The discovery also sheds light on where these ancient animals likely sat on the tree of life. For instance, researchers previously thought that Xianguangia was a sea anemone, but it “is actually part of the comb jelly branch,” study co-researcher Peiyun Cong , a professor of paleobiology at Yunnan University, said in a statement.

These findings also make a strong case that comb jellies are related to corals, sea anemones and jellyfish, the researchers said. “Those [ancient] tentacles are the same tentacles that you see on corals and sea anemones,” Vinther said. “We can trace comb jellies to these flower-like animals that lived more than half a billion years ago.”

But not everyone agrees with this analysis. While Dunn commended the researchers for their detailed description of D. sanqiong and its proposed relatives, some of these creatures have such different body shapes that it’s challenging to see how they could be related, he said. It’s possible that the tulip-looking Dinomischus and Siphusayctum creatures are related to each other.

But Siphusauctum has ciliary rows on the inside of its body, and the animal purported to come after it, Galeactena, has these rows on the outside of its body.

It’s hard to see how this animal would, in effect, turn inside out as it evolved, Dunn said. Given that some of these claims are tenuous, the burden of proof is higher, and the researchers don’t quite get there, Dunn said.

“These are exciting animals no matter how they’re related to each other,” Dunn said. “Even though I’m skeptical that tentacles and comb rows are homologous [evolutionarily related], I think that as we describe more diversity from these deposits, certainly we’re going to learn a lot more about animal evolution.”