99 million years old dinosaur-era bird wings found trapped in amber
The new specimens come from a famous amber deposit in northeastern Myanmar, which has produced thousands of exquisite specimens of insects of all shapes and sizes
Beijing: In a first, scientists have discovered specimens of complete wings of tiny, prehistoric birds that were trapped in amber 100 million years ago and preserved in exquisite detail.
Thousands of fossil birds from the time of the dinosaurs have been uncovered in China. However, most of these fossils are flattened in the rock, even though they commonly preserve fossils.
The new specimens, discovered by researchers including Xing Lida from the China University of Geosciences, and Mike Benton from the University of Bristol in the UK, come from a famous amber deposit in northeastern Myanmar, which has produced thousands of exquisite specimens of insects of all shapes and sizes, as well as spiders, scorpions, lizards, and isolated feathers.
This is the first time that whole portions of birds have been noted.
The fossil wings are tiny, only two or three centimeters long, and they contain the bones of the wing, including three long fingers armed with sharp claws, for clambering about in trees, as well as the feathers, all preserved in exquisite detail.
The anatomy of the hand shows these come from enantiornithine birds, a major group in the Cretaceous, but which died out at the same time as the dinosaurs, 66 million years ago.
Amber is a solidified tree sap, and the Burmese amber occurs in small blocks that are polished to unveil treasures within. “These fossil wings show amazing detail.
Feathers of 99 million-year-old bird wings preserved in amber.
The individual feathers show every filament and whisker, whether they are flight feathers or down feathers, and there are even traces of colour – spots and stripes,” said Benton.
“The fact that the tiny birds were clambering about in the trees suggests that they had advanced development, meaning they were ready for action as soon as they hatched,” said Lida.
“These birds did not hang about in the nest waiting to be fed but set off looking for food, and sadly died perhaps because of their small size and lack of experience,” he said.
“Isolated feathers in other amber samples show that adult birds might have avoided the sticky sap, or pulled themselves free,” he added.
The Burmese amber deposits are producing a treasure trove of remarkable early fossils, and they document a particularly active time in the evolution of life on land, the Cretaceous terrestrial revolution.
An illustration of a Enantiornithine partially ensnared by tree resin, based on one of the specimens discovered.
Flowering plants were flourishing and diversifying, and insects that fed on the leaves and nectar of the flowers were also diversifying fasts, as too were their predators, such as spiders, lizards, mammals, and birds.
The cache of Ancient coins and Jewelry From the time of Alexander the Great discovered
he explorers of the grotto in Israel discovered a small cache of coins and jewellery from the time of Alexander the Great that archaeologists believe was hidden by refugees during an ancient war.
coins jewellery from alexander the great era found in Israel
The 2,300-year-old cache of jewelry and two Alexander the Great coins.
Eitan Klein of the Israeli Antiquities Authority said that the 2300-year-old cache was the first of its kind to be discovered from the period of the conqueror.
The Israel Antiquities Authority said that, in Israel, ancient coins and jewelry from the time of Alexander the Great were found in a cave. In addition, several pieces of silver and bronze jewellery were found, including decorated earrings, bracelets, and rings, which were apparently concealed in the cave, inside a cloth pouch.
Silver coin of Alexander the Great, here depicted in the guise of the Greek hero Herakles wearing a lion-skin cloak, discovered in a cave in northern Israel.
“The valuables might have been hidden in the cave by local residents who fled there during the period of governmental unrest stemming from the death of Alexander, a time when the Wars of the Diadochi broke out in Israel between Alexander’s heirs,” Xinhua quoted the Israel Antiquities Authority as saying in a statement.
“Presumably the cache was hidden in the hope of better days, but today we know that whoever buried the treasure never returned to collect it,” the authority said.
Archaeologists with the authority believe this is one of the important discoveries to come to light in the north of the country in recent years.
The cache was discovered by chance, as three members of the Israeli Caving Club were touring the area, known as one of the largest and well-hidden stalactite caves in northern Israel.
They wandered and crawled between various parts of a stalactite cave for several hours, as a shinning object caught their eyes.
They reported the find to the Israel Antiquities Authority, which sent researchers that have examined the cave over the past two weeks.
The discovery comes a month after a hoard of at least 2,000 ancient gold coins was accidentally discovered by divers off the coast of Caesarea, north of Tel Aviv, in the largest gold trove ever discovered in Israel.
Over 6000 ancient tombs discovered by archaeologists in China
CHENGDU, May 14 (Xinhua) — More than 6,000 ancient tombs dating back between the Warring States Period (475 B.C.-221 B.C.) and the Ming Dynasty (1368―1644）have been discovered in southwest China’s Sichuan Province, local archaeological authorities said Thursday.
In China, archaeologists have found thousands of burials on a cliff. The burial ground was in use for over 2000 years. Many important historical artifacts have been uncovered in the tombs.
These graves could allow experts to trace the evolution of Chinese burial customs and indeed offer priceless insights into the culture’s religious beliefs over many centuries.
These tombs were found in the provincial capital of Sichuan, Chengdu, which is in the south-west of the People’s Republic.
The discoveries were made inside the Chuanxin Innovative Science and Technology Park during construction work in 2015.
Archaeologists from Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archaeology Research Institute, led by Zuo Zhiqiang, carried out a dig at the site and identified a large number of burials. Ecns.cn reports that the tombs cover an ‘area of 10.34 square meters’ (111 sq. ft.) The burials are cut into the face and on the top of a cliff.
The tombs have been cut into the red earth of the cliff. Heritage Daily reports that they are mostly ‘rock pit tombs or constructed from brick’. Some of the tombs have to be supported with wood so they do not collapse. So far, archaeologists have uncovered 6000 burial spaces of different sizes.
This burial site dates from the Warring States period (475 BC), the period before the unification of China to the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912 AD), the last Chinese dynasty.
The discovery can provide an insight into the history and burial customs of Sichuan. This region played a very important part in Chinese history and it was often the base for rebellious generals and independent empires, such as the Shu dynasty.
6000 tombs have been discovered cut into the cliffs.
The archaeologists discovered many artifacts that can provide them with clues to ancient Chinese burial customs. For example, they uncovered terracotta pottery and figurines. Ceramic figures of humans and also animals, such as ducks, were unearthed.
According to Heritage Daily, the excavators also uncovered ‘pieces of pottery, porcelain, copper, iron, glass, coins and stone artifacts’. Among the rarer finds are a bronze knife, statues of the Buddha, and some painted miniature ceramic houses and buildings.
Artifacts such as figurines can provide more insight into ancient Chinese burial customs
Xinhua. Net reports that in ancient China ‘people had the tradition of giving the deceased luxurious burials’. It seemed that the deceased family placed the grave goods in the tombs so that they could use them in the afterlife.
In Chinese burial customs, lavish offerings have been a sign of social status. This practice has taken place since the imperial period and continues today.
One of the rich burials found at the cliff site.
What is unique about the burial site is that all of the graves were left intact and were undisturbed for centuries. Xinhua reports that burials ‘of that period were typically robbed by modern-day tomb raiders.’ What is more, the grave goods were still in their original positions and this can help the researchers to better understand the evolution of Chinese funerary customs.
One particularly important find was from the late or Eastern Han (25-220 AD) period or after, which has been called the M94 Cliff Tomb. Here researchers have found 86 burial goods and hundreds of coins from the period.
The tomb clearly belonged to a person of high social rank. Zuo Zhiqiang told Heritage Daily, “The tomb will help us to construct the archaeological cultural sequence and the funeral behaviors, rituals, and concepts of the Shudiya tombs in the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period .”
Aerial view of the M94 cliff tomb, including skeletons and grave goods.
Work is ongoing at the tomb cliffs and it is hoped that more treasures will be found at the site to reveal even more secrets of ancient Chinese burial customs. More findings from the research will be announced in the near future. The site at Chengdu can help us comprehend the worldview and funerary beliefs of people over an incredibly long period of time.
This Gecko Has Been Trapped In Amber For 100 Million Years
Researchers at the University of Oregon state and the Natural History Museum in London confirmed that they had found the oldest known gecko fossil with life-like pieces after 100 million years of the amber-buried skeleton.
This ancient chameleon relative is the oldest found to date, beating out the previous title-holder by roughly 80 million years.
The tiny foot of this ancient lizard also displays the tiny “lamellae” or sticky headdress hairs, that to this day give modern geckos their unusual ability to cling to surfaces or run across a ceiling. Research programs around the world have tried to mimic this bizarre adhesive capability, with limited success.
This gecko’s running days are over, however, as only the foot, toes, and part of a tail are left in the stone. The rest might have become lunch for a small dinosaur or another predator during an ancient fight in the tropical forests of Myanmar during the Lower Cretaceous Period, from 97 million to 110 million years ago.
These ancient amber fossils from Burma in Southeast Asia help complete the patchy record of lizard evolution.
The find is at least 40 million years older than the oldest known gecko fossil, shedding additional light on the evolution and history of these ancient lizards that scampered among the feet of giant dinosaurs then and still are common in tropical or sub-tropical regions all over the world.
The findings were just published in Zootaxa, a professional journal.
“It’s the unusual toe pads and clinging ability of some geckos that make them such a fascinating group of animals, so we were very fortunate to find such a well-preserved foot in this fossil specimen,” said George Poinar, Jr., a courtesy professor at OSU and one of the world’s leading experts on insects, plants and other life forms trapped in amber, a semi-precious stone that begins as tree sap.
“There’s a gecko society, gecko clubs, just a lot of interest in these animals because of their unusual characteristics,” Poinar said. “So there are a lot of people pretty excited about this.”
Based on the number of lamellae found on its toe pads, this gecko was probably a very small juvenile of what would have become a comparatively large adult, possibly up to a foot long, the researchers say. Modern geckos get no more than about 16 inches long, although it’s possible there were larger species millions of years ago.
The juvenile gecko found in the fossil was less than an inch in length when it died – possibly by being eaten or attacked since only partial remains were found.
The discovery has been announced as a new genus and species of gecko, now extinct, and has been named Cretaceogekko. It had a striped pattern that probably served as camouflage.
There are more than 1,200 species of geckos in the world today, common in warm or tropical regions, including parts of the southern United States. They are frequently kept as pets, and often are welcome in the homes of some tropical residents because they help control insects. Some are very colorful. They use long tongues to lick, clean, and moisturize their eyes.
“Geckos are territorial, and when I lived in Africa in the early 1980s we used to have them in our house,” Poinar said. “They are pretty friendly and don’t bother humans. Certain individuals would move into the house, we’d give them names, and they would run around the house, catch mosquitoes, help control bugs. They would crawl across the ceiling and look down at you.”
The new study provides evidence that geckos were definitely in Asia by 100 million years ago, and had already evolved their bizarre foot structure at that time. The amber fossil was mined in the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar, and during its life, the gecko probably lived in a moist, tropical forest with ample opportunities for climbing.
3D printing the fossils allow researchers to study them without risking damage to the originals. They can also enlarge the printed fossils to get a look at minute details.
This 3D print of the early gecko trapped in amber gives a much clearer view of the lizard’s remarkable preservation—right down to its teeth.
This micro-CT scan of the oldest known fossil chameleon shows the hyoid bone highlighted in blue, which indicates that the lizard had a projectile tongue like modern chameleons.
The ability of geckos to walk on vertical walls or even upside down is due to the presence of thousands of “setae” on their toes, very tiny, hairlike structures that have tips which attach to surfaces by van der Walls forces. It’s a type of incredibly strong, dry adhesion shared by virtually no other group of animals.
It’s not known exactly how old this group of animals is, and when they evolved their adhesive toe pads. However, the new study makes it clear that this ability was in place at least 100 million years ago, in nature. Modern research programs still have not been able to completely duplicate it.
Scientists at the University of California at Berkeley reported earlier this year that they have developed a new “anti-sliding” adhesive that they said was the closest man-made material yet to mimic the ability of geckos – they think it might help a robot climb up the side of walls. A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this year created a waterproof adhesive bandage inspired by geckos, that may someday be used in surgery. And of course, geckos have become an advertising icon for the insurance company Geico.
This study is just one of many in which Poinar and colleagues have used the unusual characteristics of amber to study ancient life forms and develop information on the ecology of ancient ecosystems.
As a stone that first begins to form as sap oozing from a tree, amber can trap small insects or other life forms and preserve them in near-perfect detail for observation millions of years later.
Rare Turtle Statue Found Submerged in Angkor Reservoir
Archaeologists in Cambodia have discovered a massive, century-old turtle statue in the temple complex of Angkor.
The Srah Srang reservoir site at sunset, Angkor Archaeological Park, Cambodia.
On Wednesday, a carved, 56 by 93 centimeters (22-by-37 inches) carved stone turtle believed to date from the 10th century was discovered during digging at what was the site of a small temple that had been built on Srah Srang, one of Angkor’s several reservoirs.
Researchers pinpointed where the temple had been and workers drained the water off to enable the dig, which began March 16, said Mao Sokny, head of the excavation team of the Apsara Authority, a government agency that oversees the Angkor archaeological site.
The bottom half of the turtle remained buried Thursday while preparations were being made to lift it out without damaging it.
Angkor was strongly influenced by Hindu culture, and as a result, when a temple or other important structure was built, sacred objects would often be buried in the ground underneath as a gesture to ensure safety and good fortune.
In several Asian cultures, turtles are seen as symbols of longevity and prosperity.
The turtle sculpture found in the Angkor reservoir is believed to have been placed as an offering in the temple’s foundation.
The Glories of a Temple Submerged in the Angkor Reservoir
According to The Star, ‘the remnants of the temple can be seen peeking over the waterline in the dry season’. Srah Srang is completely submerged during Cambodia’s wet season.
It appears that at some date the artificial island upon which the structure was built sank into the sediment of the Angkor reservoir or baray.
This temple is believed to date to the 9th or 10th century AD and was rebuilt by King Jayavarman VII.
It was built in the Khmer style of architecture that was influenced by South Indian buildings.
Some of the original landing points that were built to allow people to access the temple can still be seen. Archaeologists have unearthed a burial site with the cremated remains of many individuals near the sunken temple.
The Kandal Srah Srang temple was once one of the many wonders of Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was the capital of the Khmer Empire, which was the dominant power in South East Asia for much of the Medieval era.
It was an Indianized kingdom and was heavily influenced by Buddhism and Hinduism. This Empire collapsed in the 15th century because of environmental factors and foreign invasions.
A Glimpse into Khmer Rituals and Ceremonies
The Hindu-Buddhist culture of the Khmer Empire is crucial in helping experts to understand the turtle statue. Similar objects have been found at Khmer temples such as Lor Ley, but the one found at Sran Srang is much larger.
Chea Socheat told The Khmer Times that “The turtle is known as one of the avatars of the Hindu god, Vishnu.” Depictions of turtles were often ritual offerings and they were placed in the center or foundations of temples.
However, experts cannot definitively state if this was the case for this particular statue, though they believe the sculpture may have been used as part of some religious ritual or celebration.
The Khmer Times quotes Chea Socheat as saying that “Our recent discovery can help explain the history of the temple, including the religious ceremonies that were once performed here.”
There have been many archaeological studies of the site but there have been no systematic investigations based on the objects unearthed.
Trident found at Kandal Srah Srang Temple in Siem Reap province.
Thus, this rare find in the Angkor reservoir could help experts to better understand the culture and religion of the Khmer Empire.
Why ISIS Hates Archaeology and Blew Up Ancient Iraqi Palace
The broken remains of Nimrud tell numerous people different things. To Sheikh Abdullah Saleh, a custodian of the ancient site until he was chased away by Islamic State extremists two years ago, they represent nothing but destruction and loss.
The hulking piles of rock are a big jigsaw riddle for Iraqi archeologist Layla Salih, from which one of the world’s most significant ancient sites might be slowly rebuilt.
Both the sheikh and the scholar have stood in the rubble of Nimrud in the week since the Iraqi military reclaimed what remained of it.
Sheikh Abdullah Saleh in the pulverized ruins of Nimrud in Iraq.
Salih was at the site picking out inscriptions from cracked stone and, in her mind’s eye, reassembling the giant winged buffaloes, known as lamassus, which Isis had laid to ruin among dozens of other priceless artifacts that had been there for almost 4,000 years.
“There are fragments that can be repaired,” she said. “The winged buffaloes in particular. It is not all lost. It was a really sad vision, but what can we do? We expected it. The good thing is we can put it back together.”
Sheikh Saleh points out pieces of a broken statue.
The view looked very different to Sheikh Saleh days after he returned from a year-long exile at the hands of the marauders who had chased him from town for trying to protect what, to him, was both a national treasure and a personal livelihood.
“This has been here for thousands of years, before Jesus,” he said amid piles of rock that had once formed the heart of the city known to the ancient Assyrians as Kalhu. People used to visit from all over the world, especially before 1991. “It used to generate money for our village. Many of our people worked here,” he said.
“Then one-day last year, they came around the village with a truck and loudspeakers. They told us to open our windows because there would be a big explosion. It was so big that our houses were covered in rocks.”
Iraq’s deputy antiquities minister, Qais Rasheed, estimates that as much as 70% of Nimrud has been destroyed by Isis. The scale of the site’s ransacking suggests his estimate might be conservative but Salih said a trained archaeological eye could pick out enough scattered remnants across the landscape to suggest that all might not be lost.
“There were pieces that I could put together in my mind,” she said. “Small things and big things. I hope we can make this happen.”
A screengrab from a video on an Isis-supporting website shows smoke billowing from Nimrud after it was wired with explosives and detonated.
There are some encouraging signs. Salih said a meeting with Unesco and the governor of Nineveh province to yielded a commitment to divert funding from a long-stalled archaeological project into rebuilding Nimrud. “It’s a substantial figure,” she said. “It will get us started. Initially, we will document the losses and protect the site. We hope to start this from the beginning in the coming year.
Sheikh Saleh said the site needed to be protected by guards to stop the pillage of what remains of Nimrud. “We need to put guards there right away,” he said, warning that a failure to lock it down could lead to a repeat of the looting that followed the US invasion of Baghdad in 2003, after which the Iraqi National Museum was pillaged by Iraqi civilians and US forces.
Thirteen years later, many of those stolen artifacts remain unaccounted for and continue to fetch high prices on a lucrative black market for stolen antiquities. Other sites around Iraq have also been looted in the instability that has plagued the country since the US invasion.
The Mosul Museum, where Salih was a curator until 2009, has been largely emptied by Isis since it took the city in mid-2014 and started a rampage to erase anything that pre-dated the Islamic era.
The Nineveh plains, on which Nimrud stands, is one of the world’s cradles of civilisation and is a heartland of Assyrian cities and Christian communities. As well as laying ancient cities to ruin, Isis rampaged over modern towns and villages in the area until the fight to reclaim them began by Iraqi forces and Kurdish peshmerga.
Remains of wall panels and colossal statues of winged bulls destroyed by Isis in Nimrud.
From his vantage point, Sheikh Saleh is sceptical about how the military might that is being brought to the battlefield could do so little to stop Isis as it methodically worked through Nimrud with dynamite and sledgehammers.
“They try to save the oil companies, but they do not try to save Iraq’s history,” he said of the fighter jets that buzz overhead. What [Isis] was doing was so obvious. They do not want to leave intact anything connected to Iraqi civilisation.
This is one of the very few places in Iraq where our history was on the show, how our civilization was organized. Now our history has been destroyed. We have nothing to show the world now and we will miss that.”
Why ISIS Hates Archaeology
While using the destruction of cultural heritage to demonstrate their “piety” and stoke division within local populations, ISIS also sees the practice of archaeology as a foreign import that fans Iraqi nationalism and impedes their ultimate goal, in which modern nations of the Middle East are subsumed into a wider caliphate encompassing the entire Muslim world.
An article on the destruction at the Mosul museum in a recent issue of Dabiq, the online magazine of the Islamic State, makes its position clear: “The kuffār [unbelievers] had unearthed these statues and ruins in recent generations and attempted to portray them as part of cultural heritage and identity that the Muslims of Iraq should embrace and be proud of.”
150,000-Year-Old Pipes Baffle Scientists in China: Out of Place in Time?
In the province of Qinghai near Mount Baigong in China, there is a strange pyramid with three caves leading to the saltwater lake
Below the lake bed and on the coast there are iron pipes of about 150,000 years old that are some as thin as a toothpick.
What is baffling Chinese historians is that the area wasn’t thought to have been occupied by people until around 30,000 years ago.
And according to historians, the humans that were around were nomads, thus making it unlikely that they would have taken the time to install plumbing.
That leaves a 120,000-year gap of “who was here laying down the iron pipe?”
Aliens?
Yes, it’s a far-fetched possibility, but the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences isn’t ruling it out. Research fellow, Yang Ji told Xinhua News Agency the pyramid may have been built by intelligent beings.
He didn’t dismiss the theory that ancient extraterrestrials may be responsible as complete hogwash, but said: “it’s worth looking into and science would have to determine if there’s any truth.” Okay, so now that we’ve got the obligatory space alien theory out of the way, what about more likely theories?
The investigation into the pipes began in 2002 with some researchers believing the pipes were left over by a prehistoric civilization whose techniques were later lost to the humans that moved into the area.
Around the pipes leading to the area are “strangely shaped stones” protruding from the ground that are confusing historians even more.
So weird rocks are protruding from the ground and the pipes can’t be traced to a known civilization. If that wasn’t strange enough, the scientist isn’t entirely sure what they’re made of.
While the pipes are believed to be mostly iron, the head of publicity for the local Delingha government told reporters that the pipes were analyzed at a local smeltery and 8 percent of the material could not be identified.
The remaining material was a combination of ferric oxide, silicon dioxide, and calcium oxide which are byproducts of long interaction between iron and the surrounding sandstone.
One final theory is that they aren’t even pipes at all but fossilized tree roots. Fossilized tree roots of similar structures have been found in Louisiana and scientists found plant matter in some of the pipes and it looks very similar to tree rings.
It’s a long-standing geological theory that in certain temperatures and under certain chemical conditions, tree roots can undergo the transformation of soil into rock and in time, produce iron formations.
So, are they pipes laid down by an ancient tribe or space aliens? Or are they the result of iron-rich magma forcing its way up through the earth into fissures, or just fossilized tree roots? Whatever the case, the “oopart” (out of place artifact) is certainly a source of puzzlement and wonder for conventional scientists and historians alike.
A Mysterious X-Shaped Ancient Tomb has been Excavated in China
Xbox???? no way…….. I see X-men…..or were the terra-cotta warriors’ avid gamers???
Maybe they are going to unearth the Wolverine …..let him save the world from us.
In any case ……. the tomb is considered to be 221-206 B.C. from the Qin dynasty. … the Qin dynasty was the first Imperial China dynasty to be established by the first Emperor
Xbox fans (you know who you are) are positively giddy of what appears to be a new discovery in China of a 2nd century BCE tomb that looks very much like the iconic logo of the popular gaming console. Needless to say, Microsoft likes it too.
Except for the rumors, the Chinese beat them to the technology and are now demanding a share of the profits. Will the descendants of the person in the tomb supplant Bill Gates on the world’s richest person lists? Should the company be getting ready for an invasion of terracotta soldiers?
Not much information seems to be available about the tomb. The photo appeared first on the Xbao twitter feed and was picked up by OnMSFT.com (see the picture here), which calls itself one of the original Microsoft-centered communities but is not affiliated with Microsoft.
The site traced the picture to a video posted on the Weibo YouTube channel and is of a newly-discovered tomb from the Qin dynasty.
Ah yes, that’s the Xbox 220 BC.
That might place it near the city of Xian, in Shaanxi province of China where the army of life-size, terracotta soldiers was found at the burial site of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who ruled China from 221 BCE to 207 BCE.
There don’t appear to be any other tombs with the unique “X” on top of a circular dome.
More is known about the Xbox, of course. It was pitched to Bill Gates in 1998, announced to the public in 2000, and hit the market at the 2001 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas with a name and a logo that internal marketing people didn’t think would work.
How wrong they were. The original logo featured the text “XBOX” next to a large 3D “X.”
In 2005, 3D “X” was placed over a grey 3D ball – the image the tomb resembles.
Or is it the other way around?
“Most ancient Copyright claim in history incoming?” “Had a great selection of games, but only played in 0.00000000000004k”
The Twitter comments allude to the question – did Microsoft steal the logo from the Chinese? Did Emperor Qin Shi Huang die while playing an abacus version of the Xbox? Who knows? Until archeologists determine the real reason for the symbol, speculating is almost as much fun as playing on the Xbox.
