'Find of century' for Egyptology

Egyptologists say they have identified the 3,000-year-old mummy of Hatshepsut, Egypt's most powerful female ruler. Egypt's antiquities chief Zahi Hawass made the official announcement at a packed news conference in Cairo. It is being billed as the biggest archaeological find in Egypt since the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb. Archaeologists hope the mummy, which has lain unrecognised for decades, will yield clues about the mystery of her death and subsequent disappearance. Mr Hawass has set up a DNA lab near the museum with an international team of scientists to verify the identification. The study was funded by the US television channel Discovery which is to broadcast a documentary on the subject in July. An important piece of the evidence is said to be that the mummy has a missing tooth, and the gap matches exactly an existing relic, a preserved tooth engraved with Hatshepsut's name.

Some archaeologists have expressed scepticism about the possibility of using DNA technology to identify the queen."It's a very difficult process to obtain DNA from a mummy," US molecular biologist Scott Woodward was quoted as saying by AP news agency. "To make a claim as to a relationship, you need other individuals from which you have obtained DNA, to make a comparison between the DNA sequences." DNA is the molecule that contains genetic information in all organisms and can be used to establish family relationships.

Team makes Tunguska crater claim

Scientists have identified a possible crater left by the biggest space impact in modern times - the Tunguska event. The blast levelled more than 2,000 sq km of forest near the Tunguska River in Siberia on 30 June 1908. A comet or asteroid is thought to have exploded in the Earth's atmosphere with a force equal to 1,000 Hiroshima bombs. Now, a University of Bologna team says a lake near the epicentre of the blast may be occupying a crater hollowed out by a chunk of rock that hit the ground. Lake Cheko - though shallow - fits the proportions of a small, bowl-shaped impact crater, say the Italy-based scientists. Their investigation of the lake bottom's geology reveals a funnel-like shape not seen in neighbouring lakes. In addition, a geophysics survey of the lake bed has turned up an unusual feature about 10m down which could either be compacted lake sediments or a buried fragment of space rock.

Other features suggest a recent origin for the lake.Luca Gasparini, Giuseppe Longo and colleagues from Bologna argue that the lake feature, about 8km north-north-west of the airburst epicentre, may have been gouged out by remnant material that made it to the ground. "We have no positive proof this is an impact crater, but we were able to exclude some other hypotheses, and this led us to our conclusion," Professor Longo, the research team leader, told BBC News.

Roswell: New Evidence

Much attention is being given to a new book, Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the 60-Year Cover-Up by Thomas J. Carey, and Donald R. Schmitt. The book is offered at a very low price, and if you have an interest in it, now is the time to buy. I would like to point out some of the key points of new facts given in the book.

The most compelling piece of information is from one Walter Haut, who was the Roswell base public information officer. He wrote, under the direction of Colonel Blanchard, the now famous press release that was carried in papers all over the world proclaiming that the Air Force was in possession of a flying saucer.
Of course, this was soon retracted.

Haut, now deceased, filled out a notarized affidavit in 2002, to only be opened after his death. This document makes some incredible claims. First of all, reiterating previous oral claims, he states that he actually saw the debris of the crashed flying saucer, and several alien bodies with big heads. This occurred at the now infamous Hangar 84 on July 8. <p>

He also affirms what many Roswell researchers have stated-a second crash site besides the one at the Foster Ranch. The second site allegedly held the main saucer and alien bodies. The northern most site had been found by civilians, and this news was being spread throughout the small town of Roswell.

On July 9, Haut was in attendance at a staff meeting, where members were brought up to speed on the events of the day. Jesse Marcel Sr. and Sheridan Cavitt briefed members on the wreckage at the Foster Ranch, while Blanchard, who had accompanied Haut to the hangar, briefed members on the northern crash site and alien bodies. Haut also states that General Ramey and Colonel Dubose were in attendance. It was at this meeting that battle plans were drawn to debunk the saucer story to the general public.

During this meeting, members were shown and able to handle material picked up from the crash sites. Haut had brought back debris of his own on at least one occasion. Haut also stated that clean-up crews were sent to the crash sites for months to be certain nothing was left behind.

Besides the Haut testimony, several other witnesses of importance are discussed in the book. A Sgt. Frederick Benthal, who was an Army photographer from Washington, D. C. is one of them. He was taken to the site of the dead alien bodies, and photographed them, housed in a tent. The tent was guarded by one PFC Ed Sain, whose son was told that his father was taken to the body site, and ordered to shoot anyone who tried to enter the tent. He also mentions another military policeman, Cpl. Raymond Van Why, who was with Benthal at the site.

Benthal's wife states that he talked about the Roswell event in 1954, after he left the military. He stated that he had been a guard at a crash site, and had actually seen an alien space craft.

Another witness of importance was Sgt. Homer Rowlette, who was a member of the 603rd Air Engineering Squadron. His son and daughter stated that he told them on his deathbed about his involvement in the clean-up detail. He also had handled the famous "Roswell foil." He also claimed to have seen three little bodies with big heads at the scene. He stated that one of the aliens was still alive.

What I have related to you is just a small bit of the vast amount of information in the aforementioned book, and also contained on Internet web sites, message boards, and forums. What are the odds that all of these people are lying, even in affidavits, and on their death beds? The moral of this story is this: Don't give up on Roswell yet. The saga continues...

Researchers may remake Neanderthal DNA

Researchers studying Neanderthal DNA say it should be possible to construct a complete genome of the ancient hominid despite the degradation of the DNA over time. There is also hope for reconstructing the genome of the mammoth and cave bear, according to a research team led by Svante Paabo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.Their findings are published in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Debate has raged for years about whether there is any relationship between Neanderthals and modern humans. Some researchers believe that Neanderthals were simply replaced by early modern humans, while others argue the two groups may have interbred.Sequencing the genome of Neanderthals, who lived in Europe until about 30,000 years ago, could shed some light on that question.In studies of Neanderthals, cave bear and mammoth, a majority of the DNA recovered was that of microorganisms that colonized the tissues after death, the researchers said.But they were able to identify some DNA from the original animal, and Paabo and his colleagues were able to determine how it broke down over time. They also developed procedures to prevent contamination by the DNA of humans working with the material.

"We are confident that it will be technically feasible to achieve a reliable Neanderthal genome sequence," Paabo and his researchers reported.They said problem of damaged areas in some DNA could be overcome by using a sufficient amount of Neanderthal DNA from different individuals, so the whole genome can be determined."The contamination and degradation of DNA has been a serious issue for the last 10 years," observed Erik Trinkaus, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis. "This is a serious attempt to deal with that issue and that's welcome."

Calendar question over star disc

Archaeologists have revived the debate over whether a spectacular Bronze Age disc from Germany is one of the earliest known calendars. The Nebra disc is emblazoned with symbols of the Sun, Moon and stars and said by some to be 3,600 years old. Writing in the journal Antiquity, a team casts doubt on the idea the disc was used by ancient astronomers as a precision tool for observing the sky. They instead argue that the disc was used for shamanistic rituals. But other archaeologists who have studied the Himmelsscheibe von Nebra (Nebra sky disc) point to features which, they say, helped Bronze Age people to track four key dates during the year. The Nebra disc is considered one of the most sensational - and controversial - discoveries in archaeology in the past 10 years. The artefact was allegedly found by two treasure hunters near the town of Nebra, Germany, in 1999.Police in the Swiss city of Basel arrested the treasure hunters in a sting, and they were eventually convicted.

The pair said they found the disc on a 252m-high hilltop called Mittelberg in the German federal state of Saxony-Anhalt. While many scholars support its status as an object from the Bronze Age, it is claimed to be a fake by others, notably the German researcher Peter Schauer from the University of Regensburg. "German archaeologists don't say clearly that this is a fake. They hide, thinking that the thunderstorm will blow over," Dr Schauer told BBC News.

Two “Mile-Wide UFO” sightings in the news

 It is hard to say which is more incredible, the sighting of the largest UFOs ever seen, or the fact that this sighting managed to appear on FOXNews! Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer was flying near Alderney when he spotted a "cigar shaped brilliant white light". The UFO was 2,000 feet up and stationary, and at first he thought the object was about 10 miles away and perhaps a Boeing 737. However, he later realized that it was 40 miles away and because of the distance said "It could have been as much as a mile wide"As he approached Guernsey, he then noticed another object "identical" to the first, but further to the west.The captain's description of the "UFO", seen through binoculars, was "It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area". The second UFO was visible for 9 minutes.Whilst Ray Bowyer has not suggested that the object was from "another world", he did say "I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying" The UFO sighting was also witnessed by two passengers and a Blue Islands airline pilot. Although the report has been made public, as usual, some parts of this have apparently been withheld.

With several "reliable" witnesses to the sighting, we have been spared the normal rapid response that it isn't some alien craft. However, you can be fairly certain that some "excuse" will be forthcoming, and we shall have to hope that the authorities do not try to insult our intelligence with the "weather balloon" routine again.Hopefully, a serious investigation will be carried out to try and determine the nature of the object, and whilst there is no proof that this was an alien craft, it is difficult to imagine what else could be this big and have the ability to remain stationary (and then move off).

Maury Island’s UFO: 60 years later

Roswell, once just a military base in the New Mexican desert, is known today as the site of the United States' most high-profile and controversial UFO sighting and crash. But few Islanders know that Maury Island was home to the first alleged UFO sighting in U.S. history, and it took place weeks before two crafts fell from the sky in Roswell. Tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of the Maury Island Incident, as it was later dubbed in books and newspaper articles. It took place in June 1947, two years after World War II ended. The nation was abuzz with paranoia and suspicion, and it was in this atmosphere that first one, then two, then hundreds of Americans reported seeing strange, unidentifiable, usually saucer-shaped, objects whizzing through the sky. These were the incidents that triggered UFO hysteria, which gripped the nation for decades and spawned countless movies and books. But it all started with one close encounter. One X file. It all started with Maury Island. "I consider (the Maury Island Incident) the most complex mystery in Washington," said Charlette LeFevre, co-director of the Seattle Museum of the Mysteries, the state's only paranormal science museum.

"It wasn't as well promoted as Roswell, but it was the beginning of modern UFOlogy." While no one can say for sure what happened that afternoon in the Puget Sound, after cobbling together the various eyewitness, secondary, government and media accounts, a story with a life of its own emerges: At 2 p.m. on June 21, 1947, Tacoma seaman Harold Dahl was trolling the waters just east of Maury Island, looking for loose logs, which he collected and sold for profit. "As I looked up from the wheel on my boat I noticed six very large donut-shaped aircraft," Dahl later told one of the investigators of the incident. "I would judge they were about 2,000 feet above the water and almost directly overhead." He said the ships were 100 feet in diameter, had no "visible signs of propulsion" and made no noise.

Skull of giant panda's ancestor found

The first skull of the earliest known ancestor of the giant panda was been discovered in China, researchers report. Discovery of the skull, estimated to be at least 2 million years old, is reported by Russell L. Ciochon in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.Ciochon, an anthropologist at the University of Iowa, and a team of U.S. and Chinese researchers, made the find in a limestone cave in south China.The animal, formally known as Ailuropoda microta, or "pygmy giant panda," would have been about three feet long, compared to the modern giant panda, which averages in excess of five feet.Previously this animal had been known only by a few teeth and bones, but a skull had never been found.

Judging by the wear patterns on its teeth it also lived on a diet of bamboo, the main food of the current giant panda, the researchers said.Other than size, the animal was anatomically similar to today's giant panda, said Ciochon, pronounced, pronounced schuh-HON.The work was funded by the Chinese National Natural Science Foundation and University of Iowa.

Archaeologist sparks hunt for Holy Grail

An archaeologist has sparked a Da Vinci Code-style hunt for the Holy Grail after claiming ancient records show it is buried under a 6th century church in Rome. The cup - said to have been used by Christ at the Last Supper - is the focus of countless legends and has been sought for centuries. Alfredo Barbagallo, an Italian archaeologist, claims that it is buried in a chapel-like room underneath the Basilica of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura, one of the seven churches which Christian pilgrims used to visit when they came to Rome. Mr Barbagallo based his claim on two years spent studying mediaeval iconography inside the basilica and a description of a particular chamber, in a guide to the catacombs written in 1938 by a Capuchin friar named Giuseppe Da Bra. The friar describes a room of about 20 square metres with a vaulted roof ceiling. "In the corner of a wall-seat there can be seen a terracotta funnel whose lower part opens out over the face of a skeleton," he wrote. Da Bra then explains that giving liquid refreshment (refrigerium) to the dead was part of ancient funeral rites.

According to Mr Barbagallo, who heads an association called Arte e Mistero [Art and Mystery], this funnel is the Grail. He also points out to several beautiful mosaics and frescos in the basilica which feature images of the sacred cup. Mr Barbagallo added that its presence in the church fits the sketchy accounts of its early guardians. In 258 AD, during a phase of Christian persecution, Pope Sixtus V reportedly entrusted the treasures of the early Church to a deacon called Lawrence, Lorenzo in Italian. This deacon was martyred four days later and since then no one has ever seen the Grail. Various legends have it that the cup, given the name Holy Grail in the Middle Ages, was taken to different countries - including Britain. Dan Brown’s work of fiction, The Da Vinci Code, said the cup had been buried at Rossyln Chapel in Scotland, and sparked off a stampede to the isolated location as thousands flocked to see it for themselves. Mr Barbagallo said he believed it never went anywhere, and stayed with St Lawrence in his tomb.

Large lake in southern Chile goes missing

A lake in southern Chile has mysteriously disappeared, prompting speculation the ground has simply opened up and swallowed it whole. The lake was situated in the Magallanes region in Patagonia and was fed by water, mostly from melting glaciers.It had a surface area of between 4 and 5 hectares (10-12 acres) -- about the size of 10 soccer pitches."In March we patrolled the area and everything was normal ... we went again in May and to our surprise we found the lake had completely disappeared," said Juan Jose Romero, regional director of Chile's National Forestry Corporation CONAF. "The only things left were chunks of ice on the dry lake-bed and an enormous fissure," he told Reuters.CONAF is investigating the disappearance.One theory is that the area was hit by an earth tremor that opened a crack in the ground which acted like a drain.Southern Chile has been shaken by thousands of minor earth tremors this year.

'Mile-wide UFO' spotted by British airline pilot

One of the largest UFOs ever seen has been observed by the crew and passengers of an airliner over the Channel Islands.

An official air-miss report on the incident several weeks ago appears in today's Pilot magazine.

Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, flying close to Alderney first spotted the object, described as "a cigar-shaped brilliant white light".

A British airline pilot claims to have seen a mile-wide UFO off the coast of Guernsey

As the plane got closer the captain viewed it through binoculars and said:

"It was a very sharp, thin yellow object with a green area. It was 2,000ft up and stationary. I thought it was about 10 miles away, although I later realised it was approximately 40 miles from us. At first, I thought it was the size of a [Boeing] 737.

"But it must have been much bigger because of how far away it was. It could have been as much as a mile wide."

Continuing his approach to Guernsey, Bowyer then spied a "second identical object further to the west".

He said: "It was exactly the same but looked smaller because it was further away. It was closer to Guernsey. I can't explain it. This was clearly visual for about nine minutes.

"I'm certainly not saying that it was something of another world. All I'm saying is that I have never seen anything like it before in all my years of flying."

The sightings were confirmed by passengers Kate and John Russell. John, 74, said "I saw an orange light. It was like an elongated oval".

The sightings were also confirmed by an unnamed pilot with the Blue Islands airline.

The Civil Aviation Authority safety notice states that a Tri-Lander aircraft flying close to Alderney spotted the object.

"Certain parts of the report have not been published. I cannot say why," said a senior CAA source.

Earlier this year however, the MOD declared its intentions to open its UFO files to the public.

'Earliest gunshot victim' found

One of the first people thought to have been killed by gunfire in the Americas has been found in a burial plot near Lima in Peru, scientists have said. A skull bearing a gunshot hole was discovered amongst the remains of 72 bodies in a suburb of the capital. Archaeologists believe the bodies were those of ancient Incas killed by Spanish conquistadors 500 years ago. Forensics experts using a powerful scanning microscope later found fragments of metal on the skull. "There may have been Incas and other native people killed by Europeans before him, but this is our oldest example so far," Peruvian archaeologist Guillermo Cock, who led the excavations in Lima, is quoted as saying by the Washington Post newspaper. "We didn't expect it. We saw this skull and saw the almost round hole and thought people must have been shooting around here recently," Mr. Cock, whose research is funded by National Geographic, said. One of the forensics experts who analysed the skull said his team had tried to rule out all other possible causes of the hole, such as a rock from a slingshot, a spear or a sledgehammer.

"We all thought it was a million-to-one chance that we would find any traces of metal on a skull that old, but it was worth a try," said Al Harper, director of the Henry C Lee Institute of Forensic Science in West Haven, Connecticut, in the US. The skull is thought to have belonged to an Inca man who was involved in the 1536 siege of Lima. The bodies seemed to have been buried hastily in shallow graves instead of being wrapped and put in the ground in the traditional Inca way. "Some of the bodies also showed signs of terrible violence," Mr. Cock said.

Ancient gold unearthed in Sudan

A team of archaeologists has discovered a huge ancient gold processing centre and a graveyard along the River Nile in northern Sudan. They were part of the 4,000-year-old Kush, or Nubian, kingdom. The scholars say the finds show the empire was much bigger than previously thought and rivalled ancient Egypt. The archaeologists are racing to dig up the Hosh el-Geruf area, some 225 miles from the capital, Khartoum, before the Merowe dam floods the area next year. The dam is due to create a lake 100 miles long and two miles wide, forcing some 50,000 people from their homes. "Nubia was renowned for its gold deposits," said Geoff Emberling, from the University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, according to National Geographic News.

"Even today, panning for gold is a traditional activity in the area," said his colleague, Bruce Williams. Ancient Egypt conquered Kush some 3,000 years ago and took "hundreds, if not thousands, of pounds of gold each year" in tribute, Mr Emberling said. The new discoveries show that ancient Kush extended for up to 750 miles along the River Nile. Near the gold processing centre, the archaeologists found some 90 graves.

Image of minotaur labyrinth discovered

Bulgarian archaeologists have found an image of the legendary labyrinth of King Minos, the Bulgarian National Radio reported. The exclusive find was unearthed near the village of Golyam Derven last week. The team of Professor Daniela Agre, who are doing excavation works in the area, stumbled upon the unique artefact while researching a an ancient Thracian tomb's entrance stone. The labyrinth image, which is carved on the slate, is perfectly preserved. The legendary labyrinth was considered a just a myth from the Greek mythology until the exclusive finding. According to the legends, King Minos ordered the construction of the labyrinth to keep inside the monstrous Minotaur. The Greek mythology tells about a dispute over the sovereignty of Crete that led Minos to ask Poseidon for help. He asked the god to send an offering as a sign of his true kingship. The god of the sea sent a gleaming pure white bull, which emerged miraculously from the waves.

This confirmed that Minos was a true king. However, as soon as King Minos saw the beast he refused to sacrifice it to Poseidon, and replaced it with another. Poseidon in retaliation sent Pasiphae into uncontrollable lust for this huge beast. So much so that she had the urge to mate with this huge animal. The result was the beast Minotaur. King Minos ordered Daedalus to construct a palace to hide the Minotaur, and Daedalus built Labyrinth.

"Ghost" captured outside courthouse

Apparition or reflection, that is the question. A surveillance camera at the First Judicial District courthouse downtown captured a strange image Friday morning that left sheriff’s deputies, lawyers, clerks and judges scratching their heads as to what it might have been. Some thought it was the ghost of a man killed at the courthouse more than 20 years ago after bringing a rifle to the building and taking several people hostage. Others felt it had to be a reflection from a passing car or a piece of cottonwood tree fluff. Still others threw their hands in the air, but somehow liked the image anyway or at least the hullabaloo it prompted. “I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s neat that it showed up on a Friday,” said Sally Saunders, assistant to District Judge Stephen Pfeffer. “Now we have something to talk about.”Deputy Alfred Arana first noticed the image when he arrived at the courthouse early Friday morning and began reviewing the surveillance video from the night before, said Sgt. Vanessa Pacheco of the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department. Pacheco arrived half an hour later, and Arana said he’d seen something he couldn’t explain on the digital video and asked Pacheco to rewind it, she said.

When she watched the video, Pacheco was stunned. “It’s something unexplainable,” said Pacheco, who watched the 12-second clip over and over Friday. “I don’t believe in ghosts so I don’t think that’s what it is.”The image, which starts at 7:27:11 a.m., shows a bright spot of light that comes from either the roof or near the courthouse’s back door on Catron Street — which is used only by law enforcement personnel. The light flits with buglike movements toward the west, appears to move across the front bumper of a parked police car and then traces a small semicircle in a gravel area in the frame’s foreground before leaving the frame at 7:27:23.“To me, it looks like a person walking, but I don’t know why they have this neon light on their head,” said Steve Aarons, a lawyer.

View: Ghost footage

Scientists pin down mass of "10th planet"

Pluto can't seem to catch a break. It was ignominiously demoted to 'dwarf planet' status after astronomers discovered an even larger icy world in the outer solar system. Now, new observations have pinned down the mass of that world, called Eris, revealing it outweighs Pluto by a hefty 27%.But Pluto still appears to have the upper hand in one respect – it has three moons, while the new observations suggest Eris has just one.Because its diameter is slightly larger than Pluto's, Eris was dubbed the 'tenth planet' when its discovery was announced in 2005. After re-igniting a debate over the definition of a planet, it became the largest "dwarf planet" – a new category of object that included Pluto – when astronomers officially defined the term in 2006.Since Eris was found to have a small moon about 1/16th its size, astronomers knew they could observe the moon's orbit to calculate Eris's mass, using a simple equation derived by the 16th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler.

Now, Caltech researchers Michael Brown and Emily Schaller have observed the moon, called Dysnomia, over seven nights in 2005 and 2006 using the Keck Observatory in Hawaii, US, and the Hubble Space Telescope. It appears to be on a 15-day circular orbit, suggesting Eris has a mass of 17 million trillion tonnes – making it 27% more massive than Pluto.Since Eris is larger than Pluto in size – spanning 2400 km compared to Pluto's diameter of 2320 km – its larger mass is not especially surprising. Nor is its density – calculated from its mass and physical size – surprising; it appears similar to Pluto's, suggesting Eris is made of rock and ice.

Pentagon sought to develop "gay bomb"

 
A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting. Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb."Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon."The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistably attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviewing the documents.

"The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay," explained Hammond. The Pentagon told CBS 5 that the proposal was made by the Air Force in 1994."The Department of Defense is committed to identifying, researching and developing non-lethal weapons that will support our men and women in uniform," said a DOD spokesperson, who indicated that the "gay bomb" idea was quickly dismissed.

Huge bird dino unearthed in China

The fossilised remains of a giant bird-like dinosaur have been uncovered in the region of Inner Mongolia, China. While some have theorised that meat-eating dinosaurs got smaller as they evolved to be more bird-like, this beast weighed about 1,400kg (3,080lbs). That is about 35 times heavier than other similar feathered dinosaurs. Nature journal reports that the beaked animal was 8m (26ft) long and twice as tall as a man at the shoulder; yet it was only a young adult when it died. The authors suggest the dinosaur's enormous size was due to a fast growth rate, faster even than the precocious Tyrannosaurus rex. In truth, though, just what it ate is really mystery. Gigantoraptor erlianensis had some features associated with meat-eating dinosaurs, such as sharp claws for tearing flesh; but it also had some features associated with plant-eaters, such as a small head and long neck.

Chinese researchers uncovered the fossilised remains of the flightless giant in the Erlian basin in Inner Mongolia. The researchers had originally thought they had found the bones of a tyrannosaur - the group of dinosaurs to which T. rex belongs - due to their large size. The team has established that the creature lived about 70 million years ago, in the late Cretaceous Period. According to lines of arrested growth detected on its bones, it died in its 11th year of life. "It was a very surprising discovery, not at all what we expected," said Xu Ling, a palaeontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and co-author on the Nature paper. "We think it's the largest feathered animal ever to have been discovered."

Fossil traces deep dinosaur roots

Scientists have described a new primitive dinosaur species, Eocursor parvus, which lived in the Late Triassic - about 210 million years ago. Unearthed in South Africa's Free State, the creature appears to have been a small, agile plant-eater. The team tells a Royal Society journal that Eocursor sheds light on the early evolution of the Ornithischia. This important group included the well known herbivororous dinosaurs Triceratops and Stegosaurus. The fossil specimen was first identified in 1993 but only recently appraised. It is by far the most complete example of a Triassic ornithischian known, comprising skull and skeletal material, including bones of the backbone, arms, pelvis and legs. In its day, Eocursor would have been little bigger than a fox. Its bone structure and light form suggest it moved swiftly. The scientists say the creature provides the earliest evidence for the origins of many skeletal characteristics seen in the ornithischian group, including the backward-pointing pelvis.

A comparison has been done across a wide range of specimens and this indicates that Late Triassic ornithischians were really quite rare. The group then diversified in the subsequent early Jurassic, filling empty herbivorous niches following mass extinctions of other creatures. "We know ornithischians were a very successful and important group of plant-eating dinosaurs that first appeared 220 million years ago, in the late part of the Triassic Period," explained Dr Richard Butler, a palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, London, UK.

Dinosaurs died agonizing deaths

Fossilized dinosaurs often have wide-open mouths, heads thrown back and tails that curve toward the head. Paleontologists have long assumed the dinosaurs died in water and the currents drifted the bones into that position, or that rigor mortis or drying muscles, tendons and ligaments contorted the limbs."I'm reading this in the literature and thinking, 'This doesn't make any sense to me as a veterinarian,'" said Cynthia Marshall Faux, a veterinarian-turned-paleontologist at the Museum of the Rockies.Faux and a colleague say brain damage and asphyxiation are the more likely culprits.A classic example of the posture, which has puzzled paleontologists for ages, is the 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx, the first-known example of a feathered dinosaur and the proposed link between dinosaurs and present-day birds.

"Virtually all articulated specimens of Archaeopteryx are in this posture, exhibiting a classic pose of head thrown back, jaws open, back and tail reflexed backward and limbs contracted," said Kevin Padian, professor of integrative biology and curator in the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley. He Faux (pronounced "Fox") published their findings this week in the journal Paleobiology.Some animals found in this posture may have suffocated in ash during a volcanic eruption, consistent with the fact that many fossils are found in ash deposits, Faux and Padian said. But many other possibilities exist, including disease, brain trauma, severe bleeding, thiamine deficiency or poisoning.

Kecksburg incident continues to intrigue

Sometime close to 5 on the evening of Dec. 9, 1965, a bluish object was spotted over several American states and parts of Canada. The unidentified flying object was reported to seemingly change course until it finally plummeted to Earth, resting in a densely wooded area in Kecksburg, Mt. Pleasant Township. What was the object and why was the military called out? Was there a government cover up?What was the acorn-shaped object that was reported to have been removed from the area, under a taut tarp on the back of a flat bed truck? What fell from the sky that winter night? Greensburg native Stan Gordon has been studying these very questions since the incident occurred and has become a devoted researcher and popular lecturer on the subject that has come to be known as "The Kecksburg Incident." In keeping with the Mt. Pleasant library's program "Get a Clue @ Your Library," Gordon was asked to be a guest lecturer. "We thought he would be a good choice and people are interested in his talks," librarian Jamie Falo said.

"We hoped for a good crowd." And Gordon did draw a good crowd, showing his video presentation, and fielding a question and answer period for a crowd of about 40. Gordon, who has been fascinated by the occurrence for more than 40 years, has spoken across the country on the subject, and is continually compiling facts as new people come forward with information. "There is a huge amount of interest in the Kecksburg incident," Gordon said, "but so many people didn't come forward at the time." Television programs about the Kecksburg incident have been shown on the History Channel and on the series "Unsolved Mysteries."

Mystery skeleton spotted on iceberg

Submitted by Telemachos: Marine scientists in Canada and abroad are puzzled by bizarre photographs that appear to show the skeleton of a large mammal jutting out of an iceberg that recently drifted past Newfoundland's east coast. The six pictures show what looks like a brown rib cage and spinal column, slightly bent, sticking out of a crust of ice. But researchers throughout Canada, Greenland and Norway are unable to determine the origin of the skeleton, said Garry Stenson, a marine mammal scientist with the federal Fisheries Department. "It's definitely unusual," Stenson said Monday. "It's not something that I've encountered before." His colleagues have been debating whether the carcass belongs to a bearded seal, a walrus or a beluga whale. But without the actual specimen in his hands, Stenson said he can't resolve the mystery. "It would be really nice to get a copy, a sample, a hold of it, but at this point we're not quite sure what it is," he said. The photos were taken near Newtown, in Bonavista Bay, by Eli and Donna Norris on the weekend of May 26, said Ruth Knee, a friend who forwarded them to the Fisheries Department in hopes of identifying the bones. The Norris family couldn't be reached for comment Monday. Knee said the retired couple didn't want to be interviewed, but said she could vouch for the authenticity of the photos. "Not everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame," Knee said.

Stenson said he is fairly certain the pictures aren't a hoax. "If it was Photoshopped, it's a damn good job," he said. "The way that it's laying there, with what looks to be part of it underwater, looks authentic." Stenson said he was told the backbone was roughly 2.4 metres out of the ice, leading him to believe the spine belonged to a large mammalian creature. But he is uncertain whether the animal would have fallen into a crevasse in an iceberg and then got stuck, or if it simply died on an ice floe and later became embedded by other pans of ice. "It could be a walrus, for example, that died and is laying on its back and the pressure of the snow and the ice has flattened those ribs," he said. The bones don't appear very weathered, and it looks like there may be tissue still attached to them. Stenson wouldn't speculate on how old they are because the ice may have preserved them for years. The iceberg's location, or if it was still intact, weren't known Monday.

Deep hole found on Mars

A very dark spot on Mars could be an entrance to a deep hole or cavern, according to scientists studying imagery taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The geological oddity measures some 330 feet (100 meters) across and is located on an otherwise bright dusty lava plain to the northeast of Arsia Mons, one of the four giant Tharsis volcanoes on the red planet.The hole might be the sort of place that could support life or serve as a habitat for future astronauts, researchers speculated.The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) instrument to draw a bead on the apparent deep hole - a feature that may cause more scientists to ponder about potential subsurface biology on Mars.Because the spot lacks a raised rim or tossed out material called ejecta, researchers have ruled out the pit being an impact crater. No walls or other details can be seen inside the hole, and so any possible walls might be perfectly vertical and extremely dark or - more likely - overhanging.HiRISE image specialists said the pit must be very deep to prevent detection of the floor from natural daylight, which is quite bright on Mars.

In April, it was announced that the NASA Mars Odyssey and its Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) found near the equator seven dark spots that scientists think could be entrances to underground caves.Meanwhile, MRO is ready to target the dark spots on Mars over the coming months as opportunities arise, explained HiRISE principal investigator, Alfred McEwen, of the University of Arizona in Tucson."We especially want oblique images from the west, to see illuminated walls. These are deep holes with overhanging walls, but perhaps not long caves," McEwen told SPACE.com.

Alien life to be discovered within 10 years ?

Intelligent extra-terrestrials almost certainly exist on distant planets beyond our solar system, leading British astronomers told the government yesterday. The scientists expect that the first evidence of primitive alien life, such as microbes and vegetation, will emerge within 10 years, with more substantial finds following future space missions. The experts, from high-ranking UK universities and research institutes, were gathered in London by the science minister, Malcolm Wicks, to describe the latest advances in the search for distant, habitable planets capable of harbouring life. A recent revolution in technology means astronomers can now spot Earth-like planets orbiting faraway stars, raising the chances of alien life being found. By analysing reflected light, it is becoming possible to find any that may host vegetation and breathable atmospheres. "Twenty years ago we only had one solar system to study and that's the one we live in. But since then, there's been an explosion in the number of planets outside our solar system that we've been able to detect," said Professor Keith Mason, chief executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council and former head of space physics at University College London.

Some 200 planets have been detected orbiting stars other than the sun. Scientists this year announced the discovery of a warm, rocky "second Earth" circling a distant star called Gliese 581, about 20 light years away in the constellation of Libra. Crucial measurements of the planet's surface temperature range revealed it was able to hold liquid water, believed to be a prerequisite for life. In 2015, the European Space Agency will launch a mission called Darwin, a cluster of four orbiting telescopes that will scour the heavens for life-bearing planets. For five years, the telescopes will peer at 500 stars and conduct spectral analyses of the 50 most promising planets it detects.

Is there a hidden ocean on Titan ?

A mysterious radio wave detected on Saturn's largest moon may point to the location of an ocean hidden beneath its surface, the European Space Agency announced. The discovery comes from evidence collected when the Cassini-Huygens spaceprobe made a descent over two years ago onto Titan, the only moon in the solar system known to have an atmosphere.On Earth, radio waves occur naturally during lightning strikes, which cause electrons in the atmosphere to oscillate and release the waves. These radio waves bounce back and forth between the Earth's surface and its ionosphere, the high-up region of the atmosphere filled with electrically-charged particles.But the discovery of radio waves on Titan, if verified, would be noteworthy for two reasons. For one, data collected from the space probe suggest little or no evidence of lightning to trigger naturally occurring radio waves, meaning another process must be at work.

The results would also be unusual because Titan's dusty surface makes a poor reflector of radio waves, which suggests the waves are bouncing off something that lies underneath the surface, according to Fernando Simões, a member of the team that runs the Huygens's sensor that made the discovery."The wave could have been reflected by the liquid-ice boundary of a subsurface ocean of water and ammonia predicted by theoretical models," Simões told the ESA.

Trip proposed to Earth centre via Arctic hole

A U.S. scientist and a small band of believers are planning a journey to the Canadian Arctic for what they call "the greatest geological expedition in history." Are they searching for Arctic oil reserves? Documenting evidence of climate change?Not quite. They're looking for a fog-shrouded hole in the Arctic Ocean that leads -- they say -- to the centre of the Earth, where an unknown civilization is lurking inside the hollow core of the planet.This time next year, Kentucky based physicist and futurist Brooks Agnew hopes to board the commercially owned Russian icebreaker Yamal in the port of Murmansk, and to sail into the polar sea just beyond Canada's Arctic islands."Everest has been climbed a hundred times," Mr. Agnew says. "The Titanic has been scanned from stem to stern. [But] this is the first and only expedition to the North Pole opening ever attempted."Mr. Agnew is the latest in a long line of people to peddle the nutty, yet persistent, theory that humans live on the surface of a hollow planet, in which two undiscovered openings, near the North and South poles, connect the outer Earth with an interior realm.In the 17th century, English astronomer and mathematician Sir Edmond Halley, who calculated the orbit of Halley's Comet, advanced hollow-Earth theories, as did German scientist Athanasius Kircher.

More recently the myth has experienced a slight revival, thanks in part to a 2006 book, by American author David Standish, titled Hollow Earth: The long and curious history of imagining strange lands, fantastical creatures, advanced civilizations, and marvellous machines below the Earth's surface.A year before the book was published, a Utah adventure guide named Steve Currey also tried to cash in on the hollow- Earth legend, by organizing an expedition to locate the North polar opening.

Identity of "Victor" revealed ?

The identity of “Victor” the man behind the footage which was allegedly smuggled out of Area51 and displayed a alien being interviewed may have finally been revealed. The footage of an alien which was said to have come from Area51 fist came to light on the Art Bell UFO radio show on March 13th 1997 when ufologist Sean David Morton was interviewed. Mr. Morton claimed that the footage had been taken in 1996.The colour footage lasts for around two minutes and it is reported that the interview was conducted by a US General and a telepathic aide and that the being was actually positioned behind a one way mirror. Morton later made the following remarks about the video and the environment in which the video was taken - "The film was shot through a large plane of glass. There was no sound accompanying the images. The interview took place in a darkened room, lit with an eerie greenish glow, I could make out the silhouettes of two men, one dressed in military uniform with what appeared to be the stars on the epaulet of his jacket, and another more casually dressed man with his hand occasionally rubbing his forehead. They sat with their backs to the camera at one end of a long table, which was littered with wires, chords and microphones. There were what appeared to be medical devices.

One in particular was blinking erratically, as if it was monitoring a very sick heart. And there sitting at the end of the table was a small, beige-skinned, black-eyed, bulbous headed creature, the like of which haunt the nightmares of thousands of unwilling abductees."As the two minute piece of films reaches its startling conclusion the entity seems to become alarmed and starts bobbing up and down all over the place. Some sort of light is seen near the being which begins to make erratic motions Morton described this light as being a hart monitor. As the being begins to make jerking motions medical personnel wearing white masks, white gloves and lab coats come to the beings aide and begin shinning a torch in his eyes presumably to see what the problem was.