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December 6, 2007

Amazing Dino Find

In case you haven’t heard, they’re researching a “mummified” dinosaur found by a 17-year old out in North Dakota. “Dakota” is a hadrosaur, a plant-eater preyed on by T-Rex, and not an uncommon find. However, it is shaping up to be the most complete dinosaur ever found. They found fossilized skin covered in scales and evidence of stripes. They are also discovering hadrosaurs were much more muscular than previously thought, walked low to the ground and could run up to 45 mph. This is an amazing find and if you’re at all interested in paleontology or have kids who are, you should hop over and read up on it: http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1479288 There are numerous stories out on it now, so I’m sure a standard web search will bring up even more information.

posted by Kay at 8:13 am | Comments (0)

June 28, 2007

Genealogy of the Cat

You know my love for kitties of all shapes and sizes by now, I’m sure, so you shouldn’t be too terribly surprised to see me posting the news about cats’ roots! Genetic testing has determined that all domestic cats and several species of wild cat came from the near Eastern wildcat, known scientifically as Felis silvestris lybica. There are two articles (one, two) in my feeds about this discovery and that domestic cats date back a long long ways.

Enjoy!

posted by Kay at 3:13 pm | Comments (0)

June 27, 2007

Queen Hatshepsut’s Mummy Found

I heard about this one my local news this morning (which was a bit surprising, we usually don’t get historical finds!) and now I see it in my feeds. Anyway, the mummy of Queen Hatshepsut has been found. She ruled in the 15th century BC and was known for portraying herself as a man by wearing a false beard and dressing like a man. She’s commonly known as one of the most successful female pharaohs of Egypt. My news said this could rival the find of King Tut…so keep your eyes open!

posted by Kay at 10:47 am | Comments (0)

May 7, 2007

Chicagoland Cave Discovered Full of “Ancient Wonders”

That’s right, this falls under “Historical Finds!” For those who think space is the only frontier left, apparently you haven’t been spelunking lately! I used to love to go spelunking in high school/college and I’ve even gone rappelling (twice - once aboveground on a high cliff and another time into a cave). You thought I only rode horses, huh?

Anyway, this is an exciting find, recently a new cave was discovered “near Chicago” - two hours from. For understandable reasons they don’t tell exactly where this new “Plotnik’s Cave” is, as it houses North America’s oldest conifer tree and some ancient scorpion parts (yes, scorpions in Illinois), plus some pristine plant samples and evidence of prehistoric forest fires. You never know what you’re going to find…so check out the article to see that yes, there is still unexplored wilderness nearby.

posted by Kay at 10:35 am | Comments (0)

May 1, 2007

“Frozen” Music Unthawed

Now this is cool and really amazing. If you read The DaVinci Code and thought “Bah! No one had time to plan out all those clues and such!” Well, first I’d say you must have been sleeping through your Medieval history/culture classes because those people lived for symbolism but then I’d say, check out this story! In Rosslyn Chapel (yes, from the book) which is near Edinburgh, a father and son have cracked a code carved into the chapel’s walls. There are 13 carved angels with 213 carved cubes and by using the study of wave phenomena called cymatics they were able to translate the “frozen” music into music you can hear today. They have a sample of the music and a video of cymatics available on their site. They’ve called the piece The Rosslyn Motet. It’s really beautiful music (and, of course, very Medieval sounding). I disagree with the comment that “It’s not something you would want to put on in the car and listen to…” because I sure would, unless the rest is totally awful, but I can’t imagine that it is. Here’s the full story from Yahoo! news. It’s really fascinating, follow the links and learn something new today!

posted by Kay at 9:03 am | Comments (0)

March 15, 2007

Wanna Buy A Mammoth?

I couldn’t resist this bit of news that came across the feeds today - Farmer wants to sell mammoth skeleton. It’s known as the Hebior Mammoth and was found on Hebior’s farm in 1994 which is in Kenosha County, WI - yea, just over the border! The Milwaukee Public Museum is hoping to buy the bones for their museum. There seem to be a lot of mammoths and mastodons found in Kenosha County. If you haven’t been up to the Kenosha Public Museum, you should make a trip. It’s in a beautiful location along the Lake, has the Schaefer Mammoth and it’s FREE! It’s a gorgeous new museum with lots of interesting things for young and old alike. They’re building the new Civil War Museum next door too. While looking at their site, I see there’s the Dinosaur Discovery Museum up there too (and also free).

Anyway, if you want to buy a mammoth, now you know where to get one…

posted by Kay at 9:58 am | Comments (0)

December 18, 2006

Story of the Christmas Tree Ship

I ran across this timely entry today from the Wisconsin Historical Society. They have several RSS feeds which I subscribe to and find them a worth-while read. This is updated findings on the fate of the Christmas Tree Ship which they explored this past Summer. Captain Schuenemann and his schooner Rouse Simmons often brought Christmas trees down from Michigan to Chicago. He’d decorate the whole ship up and let people on board to buy their tree, but one year he didn’t make it…

posted by Kay at 9:39 am | Comments (0)

October 18, 2006

Buildings Found on Stonehenge Site

Now that’s interesting! Discovery Channel announced late last week that archaeologists digging around Stonehenge have discovered remains of 9 buildings from the same era. They had plaster floors and timber frames, many had central hearths and some even had excavated rings around them. Contemporary pottery and stone tools were found around the site as well. Worth keeping an eye on, for sure…

posted by Kay at 11:59 am | Comments (0)

August 28, 2006

Round Table Building at Windsor Castle

Ok, it’s not really THE Knights of the Round Table, but it’s the round building that housed the round table for the 300 members of the Knights of the Garter. It was built by Edward III in the 14th century for this purpose and was just recently excavated at Windsor Castle. They’ve also found some various artifacts as well.

posted by Kay at 10:13 am | Comments (0)

July 31, 2006

New Giant Argentinian Dino Found

Lots of dinosaur news these days which is good because I’m not finding a lot on the genealogy feeds these days! For those of you who headed down to the Gail Borden Public Library for the awe-inspiring South American dinosaur exhibit, you may find this new sauropod, Puertasaurus, interesting. It may not be the largest, it really is hard to tell, but it’s gigantic! And they have a nice sketch of what it may have looked like too. This is from the National Geographic.

posted by Kay at 10:40 am | Comments (0)

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