#discovery

#discovery

Construction Workers at Northwest Iowa Community College Discover Woolly Mammoth ToothA once-in-a-lifetime event indeed!Justin Blawet, a construction employee, found an item that was confirmed to be a woolly mammoth tooth on the grounds of a property owned by the Northwest Iowa Community College in Sheldon, Iowa. The tooth was exposed during excavation and was discovered by Blauwet. However, knowing what it was and realizing its importance at first glance was because of Blawet’s enthusiasm for fossils and prehistoric animals. The discovery was a lucky find, according to Tiffany Adrain, a Paleontology Repository Instructor at the University of Iowa. “While discovery of mammoth remains is not uncommon in Iowa, once the bones and teeth are out in the open, they can fall apart and disappear quickly because they are not completely fossilized,” she further explained. The professor was called by the staff to confirm the fossil’s identity. The tooth is now being preserved to protect it from drying out too rapidly and disintegrating. As for where it will be placed, the Northwest Iowa Community College said that the plan is to put it at the Sheldon Prairie Museum as a semi-permanently loaned display.Image credit: DGR Engineering #discovery #fossil #tooth #woollymammoth #Iowa

Massive Sponge Gardens Discovered on top of Seamounts in the Arctic OceanSponges are animals with dense, porous skeletons. They are one of the most basal forms of animal life. These creatures are adaptable and successful in their environments. Sponges accommodate different organisms in a symbiotic relationship. Massive sponge gardens on top of seamounts in the Central Arctic Ocean were recently discovered by scientists from Bremen, Bremerhaven, and Kiel during an expedition.The sponge gardens appeared to feed on the remnants of extinct fauna. Alongside the microorganisms that this community of sponges has a symbiotic relationship with, they exploit the fluffy fauna as a source of food and energy. This discovery by scientists has revealed how sponges adapt to the most nutrient-poor environment. “Our analysis revealed that the sponges have microbial symbionts that can use old organic matter. This allows them to feed on the remnants of former, now extinct inhabitants of the seamounts, such as the tubes of worms composed of protein and chitin and other trapped detritus,” Teresa Morganti, one of the members of the team, said.Image credit: Alfred Wegener Institute/PS101 AWI OFOS system#discovery #sponges #aquaticlife #ArcticDeepSea #spongegardens

60 Million Active Nests of Icefish: Largest Colony of Breeding Fish Found in Antarctica's Weddell SeaExperts uncovered the largest colony of breeding fish in the world. Five hundred meters below the Weddell Sea in Antarctica lies approximately 60 million active nests of a type of icefish. This is the first time scientists have encountered such a huge number, as they usually only discover a handful of icefish nests at a time, or perhaps just several dozen.The discovery was made by deep-sea biologist Autun Purser of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven, Germany, and his colleagues. This team of experts was on a research cruise in the area, studying chemical connections between surface waters and the seafloor.Image credit: Alfred Wegener Institute, PS124 OFOBS team#discovery #science #marinebiology #icefish #Antarctica

Archaeologists Unearth "Once-in-a-Lifetime" Discovery of Roman Statues and Artefacts under a Church in EnglandArchaeologists in Buckinghamshire uncovered three extraordinarily rare stone Roman busts at a hypothesized Roman mausoleum under a Medieval Church in Stoke Mandeville. This church, St. Mary’s Norman church, was in its final stages of excavation when they found three stylistically Roman stone busts.Two of the stone busts are made up of a head and torso while the other one just the head. These two complete statues look like a female adult and a male adult with the other head like a child. The discovery of the said artefacts brought excitement to the team of archaeologists working on the site, and these efforts have been carried out by HS2’s Enabling Works Contractor, Fusion JV, and their archaeological contactor, L-P Archaeology.Dr. Rachel Wood, the Lead Archaeologist for Fusion JV, said, “For us to end the dig with these utterly astounding finds is beyond exciting. The statues are exceptionally well preserved, and you really get an impression of the people they depict – literally looking into the faces of the past is a unique experience. Of course, it leads us to wonder what else might be buried beneath England’s medieval village churches. This has truly been a once in a lifetime site and we are all looking forward to hearing what more the specialists can tell us about these incredible statues and the history of the site before the construction of the Norman church.”Aside from the statues, a well-preserved hexagonal glass Roman jug was found that can only be compared to another intact vessel in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The discovered artefacts will be brought to a specialist laboratory for cleaning and examination.Image: HS2

New Species of Dinosaur with Bizarre Armored Spikes Discovered in MoroccoA peculiar fossil with a series of spikes connected to a rib was recently discovered in the Middle Atlas Mountains in Morocco. It turned out to be the remains of the oldest ankylosaur ever found and was the first discovery of its kind in Africa.Dr. Susannah Maidment, a researcher at theNatural History Museum (NHM) and honorary senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham, said, “At first we thought the specimen could be part of a stegosaur, having previously found them at the same location. But on closer inspection, we realized the fossil was unlike anything we had ever seen.” She added, “It is completely unprecedented and unlike anything else in the animal kingdom.”Researchers named the species Spicomellus afer, with Spicomellus meaning “collar of spikes” and afer meaning “of Africa.”This extraordinary specimen was thought to be fake at first, but CT scans proved it to be real. The discovery also suggested that ankylosaurs and stegosaurs co-existed instead of competing with each other. Now, it is part of NHM’s collections and atopic for further studies.Image: Trustees of the Natural History Museum#dinosaur #ankylosaur #NewSpecies #spikes #discovery

40,000-Year-Old Gibraltar Cave Chamber was Home to the NeanderthalsAccording to researchers, further findings on the Neanderthal lifestyle can be learned based on the discovery of an at least 40,000-years-old chamber in a Gibraltar cave. Since 2012, Archaeologists from Gibraltar National Museum have been working to find potential chambers and passages blocked by sediment in Vanguard Cave, which was part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Gorham's Cave Complex.Last month, they found a 13-meter (42-foot) deep chamber at the back of the cave along with other discoveries. The most impressive finding was a large whelk or a marine mollusc that suggests that the newly discovered part of the cave was inhabited by ancient humans.This discovery could hold the key to the lives of the Neanderthals!All images: Gibraltar National Museum#Neanderthals #GibraltarCave #Discovery

World's Northernmost Island Discovered due to GPS ErrorIs it possible that there are still undiscovered places on our planet?After traveling there by mistake, a group of Danish researchers claimed to have discovered the world's northernmost island, which lies a kilometer away from Greenland. In July, the party was scheduled to collect scientific bacteria samples on the island of Oodag, but they ended up in the wrong location.It was only a month after they returned that they realized they had taken the wrong samples, that their GPS had failed, and that they had discovered a new Island. They plan to call the island “Qeqertaq Avannarleq” (Greenlandic for “northernmost island”), and it is estimated to be 30 by 60 meters in size, with moraine, gravel, and marine mud that could have accumulatedafter a violent storm.Morten Rasch, the expedition's leader, and a geographer at the University of Copenhagen, wrote to Motherboard in an email. “We weren't looking for new islands. That was not among the expedition's scientific goals.” And even though they have discovered it, they are uninterested in the new island. They went there to collect scientific samples of the bacteria in the neighborhood.Images by: Julian Charriere and Henrik Lassen#Northernmost #Island #Greenland #Discovery 

Remains of a Medieval Castle May Be Hiding In The Hill Behind An Old English ManorPicture it! A beautiful, old, and stately English manor. Out in the lush green fields, near this grand abode, something seems out of place. The land is uneven. For generations the owners of the property have wondered what caused the rise in the land. Fast forward to 2019. Experts from Dig Ventures, with the assistance of students from Cardiff University, began to seriously examine the land. Unfortunately, the Covid pandemic interrupted that initial excavation. The treasures of the land were to remain hidden for several more months. 