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.”

EUROPE, TURKEY, WORLD

Ancient goddess statue unearthed in central Turkey

Ancient goddess statue unearthed in central Turkey

In central Anatolia, at the site of Kültepe, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Kanesh, several goddess statues have been found, Yeni Şafak reports.

Fikri Kulakoğlu of Ankara University said that the largest of the 4,200-year-old statues unearthed this excavation season stands about 17 inches tall.

“We are happy to have found a 45-centimetre-high [17 inches] artefact, a statue. This is a very special piece,” Fikri Kulakoglu, a professor from the Ankara University and head of the excavation team, told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.

Kultepe, which was the capital of the ancient Kingdom of Kanesh, is 20 kilometres from the central Kayseri province. It was accepted in the UNESCO Tentative List of World Heritage in 2014.

Kulakoglu said the goddess statue is being cleaned of dust to be displayed in a museum.

“This artefact is around 4,200 years old,” he said, adding that all of the statues, statuettes, idols found in Kultepe are women figurines.

“No idols of men have been found so far… the women statues are naked and have a decorated throne, and there are braids on their back,” he said.

Highlighting that the finding is unique, he said: “It is a very special piece for us… it is one of the most precious works showing religious beliefs of this region, of Kultepe.”

The professor said they found around 20 new artefacts during this year’s excavations, all of which are of great importance.

This year’s work was being carried out with a limited number of people due to the coronavirus pandemic, he added.

EUROPE, GREECE, WORLD

Byzantine Amphora Found By Swimmer At Cretan Beach

Byzantine Amphora Found By Swimmer At Cretan Beach

An ancient amphora, which is a vase that was historically used to store and transport things such as wine, oil and grain was discovered by a man who was swimming at Arina beach in Heraklion, Crete.

Admittedly, this is more likely if your holiday is in Crete than Gran Canaria, but it’s what happened to one man who had been swimming from his hotel beach.

When he got back inside, he looked at his photos and noticed something round and bobbing in the water. At first, he thought it could be a floating human head.

In fact it was a 12th century Byzantine amphora found by a man out for a swim

That would clearly be of concern, so he alerted the beach lifeguard and took a surfboard out to investigate what it was on Thursday.

It was not a human head In fact it was a 12th century Byzantine amphora found by a man out for a swim In fact it was an amphora, a kind of vase used to store and transport things like wine, oil or grain.

Although it was covered in shells and other debris from the sea, it was intact and is believed to date from the Byzantine period in the 12th or 13th centuries. It will be handed over to the Directorate of Antiquities, local media reported.

The amphora was found at Arina beach by Heraklio in North Crete. Authorities warned that any historical artefacts like this had to be declared as they are property of the Greek state.

People should not move them, however, as this could damage them. Instead, they should give details of where they can be found.

NORTH AMERICA, U.S.A, WORLD

Metal monolith found by a helicopter crew in Utah desert

Metal monolith found by a helicopter crew in Utah desert

In a remote part of Utah, after being spotted by state employees counting sheep from a helicopter, a mysterious monolith was found. The structure appeared to be planted in the soil, estimated to be between 10ft and 12ft tall (about 3 metres).

It was made from some sort of metal, its shine in sharp contrast to the enormous red rocks which surrounded it.

Utah’s highway patrol shared images of both the sheep and the monolith.

Big horn sheep are native to southern parts of Utah

The helicopter pilot, Bret Hutchings, told local news channel KSLTV: “That’s been about the strangest thing that I’ve come across out there in all my years of flying.”

Hutchings was flying for the Utah department of public safety, which was helping wildlife resource officers count bighorn sheep in the south of the state.

“One of the biologists is the one who spotted it and we just happened to fly directly over the top of it,” Hutchings said. “He was like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, turn around, turns around!’ And I was like, ‘What?’ And he’s like, ‘There’s this thing back there – we’ve got to go look at it!’”

Hutchings said the object looked manmade and appeared to have been firmly planted in the ground, not dropped from the sky.

“I’m assuming it’s some new wave artist or something or, you know, somebody that was a big 2001: A Space Odyssey fan,” Hutchings said.

The monolith and its setting resembled a famous scene from Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film, in which a group of apes encounter a giant slab.

The somewhat monkey-like behaviour of two crew members, dressed in sci-fi costume-like overalls, who found themselves compelled to climbed onto each other’s shoulders in an apparent effort to see over the top of the rectangular cuboid, only added to the impression.

There was speculation that the monolith was installed by an artist

“We were kind of joking around that if one of us suddenly disappears, then the rest of us make a run for it,” Hutchings said.

Bighorn sheep live in some of Utah’s most rugged and remote areas and survive in hostile climate conditions. Fearing amateur explorers might get stuck in the wilderness while seeking out the monolith, the flight crew have not revealed its exact location.

Some observers compared the monolith to the plank sculptures by artist John McCracken, who lived in New Mexico and New York until his death in 2011. McCracken’s gallerist, David Zwirner, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Artist Liam Sharp summed up the people’s fascination with the discovery in 270 characters or less, putting into the portal the words, “I love this. I imagine it’s an art piece, but what if it isn’t”.

ASIA, ISRAEL, WORLD

UK Archaeologist Claims To Have Found Jesus Christ’s Childhood Home In Israel

UK Archaeologist Claims To Have Found Jesus Christ’s Childhood Home In Israel

The stone altar 2,800 years old offers insights into the acquisition of Atroth in Jordan. An archaeologist from Britain sheds new light on a fascinating ancient site under a convent in Nazareth.

Ken Darke, a professor at the University of Reading, investigates the archaeological history of the area underneath the Nazareth Convent, which is said to be the site of the childhood home of Jesus, in his new book, Sisters of the Nazareth Convent.

Research states that a partially rock-cut Early Roman-period house was found at the historic site, as well as Roman-era excavations and burials, a well-preserved cave-church, and prominent surface-level Byzantine And evidence from the Crusader churches was found. .

Cave churches and later churches are believed to be associated with the ancient house.

Dark in 2015 Identified The first century AD house within the crypt or cellar of the Byzantine Church which was later built on top of it. The houses and relics of the Byzantine Church are preserved within the Sisters of the Nazareth Convent.

First century BC The entrance to the house and the only surviving section of the floor in front of it appeared.

“This is certainly a site that throws a lot of light on what was in Nazareth of the first century, and there is no reason to discount the possibility that the people who built the Byzantine Church were probably the first May have been right in identifying — the century home as the childhood home of Jesus, ”Pro Dark told Granthshala News via email.

In his research, Darke states that the first archaeological discovery at the site occurred in the 1880s, leading to a series of excavations by the nuns of the convent until the 1930s.

The site was then examined by Henry Senes, a Jesuit priest and former architect based at the Pontifical Bible Institute in Jerusalem. Senius worked there from 1936 and 1964, drawing detailed descriptions of the structures discovered by the nuns, but according to Dark did not publish any academic papers or research on the site. The site was then largely forgotten by experts.

In 2006, Dark established a new project to reorganize the site and investigate earlier research. The archaeologist found that a first-century house on the site later formed part of the quarry and then rock-cut tombs.

According to research sent to Granthshala News, “a burial on the site, probably in the fourth century, a cave-church was built in the hill adjacent to the first-century house.” “A large surface-built church was built in the fifth century, above the first-century house and the fourth-century cave church.”

The large and elaborate church complex may have been the Byzantine Nazareth church and survived to the fifth and seventh centuries, possibly described as the church’s nurture in the “de locis sanctis”, which was dated to the seventh century by the Irish monk Adomon Work.

“Their description exactly matches the archaeological features of the site,” Dark’s research says. “If so, the first-century house was recognized as the place where Jesus was brought, judging from the cave-church.”

According to research, the cave-church is probably described by the pilgrim Agaria in a fourth-century account of Nazareth.

“There is no archaeological reason that identification is impossible, although it is unable to prove it using any available archaeological or written evidence,” the research says.

Last year, in a separate project, the room was hailed as the Last Supper of Jesus revealed in stunning detail thanks to the stunning 3D laser scanning technology.

EUROPE, SPAIN, WORLD

More than 4,500 skeletons discovered in Islamic Necropolos in Spain

More than 4,500 Skeletons Discovered in Islamic Necropolos in Spain

CNN reports that more than 4,500 graves have been identified at a cemetery in northeastern Spain, in an area thought to have been largely untouched by the Arab invasion of the Iberian peninsula in the early eighth century A.D. 

More than 4,500 Skeletons Discovered in Islamic Necropolos in Spain
An ancient Islamic necropolis containing over 4,500 bodies has been uncovered in northeastern Spain, with archaeologists excavating more than 400 tombs in the five-acre site.

In an 8th-century burial ground in the town of Tauste, near Zaragoza in Aragon, the tombs were uncovered, Eva Gimenez, an archaeologist currently excavating the region with the archaeology firm Paleoymás, told CNN.

By 711, Arab forces had invaded and begun to conquer the Iberian peninsula. They remained for the next seven centuries until 1492, when the area was totally reconquered by the Christian kingdoms.

Muslim occupation of Tauste had been considered “incidental and even non-existent” by traditional and written sources, researchers from the University of the Basque Country have said — but the region’s cultural association had long suspected the area had been home to a large Islamic settlement because of architectural clues and human remains found in the town, Miriam Pina Pardos, director of the Anthropological Observatory of the Islamic Necropolis of Tauste with the El Patiaz cultural association, told CNN.

Earlier excavations revealed several skeletons at the site.

From 711 to 1492, the boundaries between the Christian north and the Islamic south shifted constantly with the changing sovereign authority, according to researchers from the University of the Basque Country.

A first dig of the site in 2010 revealed a five-acre necropolis, spread over at least two levels, Pina Pardos said.

DNA studies and carbon dating place remains in the necropolis between the 8th and 11th centuries, according to El Patiaz.

Archaeologists unearth ‘huge number’ of sealed Egyptian sarcophagi
Some 44 skeletons were uncovered during smaller excavations in the years following the initial dig, Pina Pardos said, and this year, more than 400 bodies have been found after local authorities ordered an extensive excavation of the area.

“It’s rare to do an excavation and to find 400 tombs. It’s amazing,” she said.

All of the skeletons had been buried according to Islamic customs, positioned to the right and facing southeast toward Mecca, Pina Pardos added.

Experts believe the discovery will challenge previous assumptions about Muslim settlements in the area.

“We can see that the Muslim culture and Islamic presence in this area is more important than we thought,” Gimenez said.

“We can see there was a big Muslim population here in Tauste from the beginning of the presence of Muslims in Spain,” she added.

“It is very important — the 400 Muslim tombs shows the people lived here for centuries,” she said.

The remains will be cataloged, stored for research and studied, Pina Pardos said.

ENGLAND, EUROPE, WORLD

University of Cambridge: Remains of 1,300 scholars are found under a building

University of Cambridge: Remains of 1,300 scholars are found under a building

Some were sickly Cambridge University scholars, other homeless wayfarers or simply the infirm.

Having fallen on hard times, and being too poor to care for themselves, they all ended up receiving spiritual succour during their last days in the medieval Hospital of St John the Evangelist, set up in 1195.

After they died they were buried in the hospital’s own cemetery whose exact site and scale was a mystery for centuries – until a lecture hall belonging to a Cambridge college needed refurbishing.

To their amazement, archaeologists digging under the Old Divinity School – a Victorian building owned by St John’s College, which was founded in 1511 on the site of the hospital and which takes its name from it – unearthed the cemetery and the remains of 1,300 people.

Details and photographs of the eerie find are made public for the first time.

University of Cambridge: Remains of 1,300 scholars are found under a building
Creepy: Hundreds of complete skeletons were found in the ground

Experts said it is one of the largest medieval hospital cemeteries ever discovered in Britain and, with on-going DNA analysis of the remains, will help to cast fresh light on life and death in medieval times. 

The archaeologists broke out the floors of the Old Divinity School and the team of 20 dug down inside each room. 

In a six-month dig, they found some 400 almost perfectly preserved human skeletons and the partial remains of up to 900 more, all dating from the 13th to 15th centuries. 

Medieval mysteries: Archaeologists digging under a building owned by St John’s College, University of Cambridge has unearthed the cemetery of a medieval hospital and the remains of 1,300 people

Craig Cessford, of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, said: ‘It was known that the cemetery was in that area, but we didn’t know for definite it was where we were working. 

‘It was quite amazing to find.’ Most of the skeletons are of 25 to 45-year-old men. The hospital was run by Augustinian monks, and pregnant women were excluded.

Mr Cessford, 45, said the skeletons were buried in neat rows and once the cemetery was full, more were buried on top.

Boning up: The remains are thought to be form poor people who died while at the hospital

The names of the dead are a mystery, but the cemetery was found to have had gravel paths, suggesting that people visited their deceased loved ones.

The bodies did not exhibit many serious illnesses and conditions. 

The Archaeological Journal, which reports on the findings in its latest issue, says this reflects how medieval hospitals’ main role was ‘spiritual and physical care of the poor and infirm rather than medical treatment of the sick and injured’.

ASIA, EUROPE, RUSSIA, WORLD

Holding hands for 5,000 years, a couple with mysterious jade rings and dagger

Holding hands for 5,000 years, a couple with mysterious jade rings and dagger

An elderly couple who have held hands for the last five thousand years were revealed by archaeologists in a Bronze Age grave. The skeletons, thought an ancient dignitary and his wife or lover, were uncovered at a burial site overlooking Baikal lake in Siberia.

The elderly couple have been holding hands for the past 5,000 years

They were found decorated with unusual rings made of rare white jade, one of which was placed above the man eye socket. It is thought that the couple is from the ancient Bronze Age ‘Glazkov Culture,’ the oldest and deepest lake in the world that lived around Baikal.

Intriguingly, Russian scientists have not yet revealed details of a ‘metal implement’ discovered inside a leather pouch placed between the man’s kneecaps.

The skeletons are believed to be an ancient dignitary and his wife or lover

Three jade rings were found placed on the male’s chest, while a 20-inch jade dagger, made from the same rare stone, was also unearthed inside the grave.

Archaeologist Dr Dmitry Kichigin, of Irkutsk National Research Technical University, said the rings were ‘somehow connected’ with the pair’s ‘ideas about the afterlife’.

They were found decorated with unusual rings made from rare white jade

“In the grave we found male and female skeletons, lying on their backs, heads to the west, hand in hand,” he said.

“It would be very interesting to find out the purposes of the massive jade knife, which we found near the woman, was used for.

“We also found some metal implement in a small leather bag between male’s kneecaps.”

Pendants of red deer and musk deer teeth were found on the man’s skull, and around the feet.

But while the male skeleton is complete, rodents have destroyed the upper part of the female.

While the male skeleton is complete, rodents have destroyed the upper part of the female

Dr Kichigin said he believed the couple could be ‘an owner and his concubine’.

The burial site near the lake is at a ‘sacred place for ancient people’, where Neolithic remains were also discovered.

The couple are thought to be from the ancient Bronze Age ‘Glazkov Culture’

The precise location is being kept secret to avoid it being ransacked by treasure hunters.

“We can expect a lot of interesting discoveries on this archaeological site, so we plan to continue our work next year,” Dr Kichigin told The Siberian Times.

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