For a long time, paleontologists had instead assumed that the fossils belonged to a pterosaur called Quetzalcoatlus northropi, says study coauthor Dave Hone, a paleontologist at Queen Mary University of London. But after refocusing the camera, they realized that the lens was being swarmed by tiny crustaceans known as amphipods. Youd hardly expect them to come in stripes as well. One of the most exciting discoveries is the HMS Endurance, a ship that belonged to explorer Ernest Shackleton that sank in 1915. The Southern Hemisphereat least the plesiosaurscould definitely use some attention, he says. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. These skeletons may have the answer, Scientists are making advancements in birth controlfor men, Blood cleaning? After drilling out the borehole, the scientists lowered a sediment corer and an attached video camera through the ice shelf. With 170 of its 300-odd bones preserved, this scientifically important but privately owned skeleton is currently at the Museum fr Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. Dragon skin occurs when strong "katabatic" winds downslope winds that exist only over icy regions continually lift the polynya's surface ice, subsequently freezing the water below, according. By Garreth / November 21, 2021. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. One. / Credit: NASA. At the coordinates 66 36 14 S 99 43 40 E the strange shape is clearly visible among the rock and snow in the hostile continent. TheNathan B Palmer icebreaker research vessel is continuing an expedition near the south pole even as winter approaches and most research boats move toward warmer weather. The excavation finally finished in 2017, yielding a substantial portion of the animals skeleton, which OGorman and his colleagues describe in their recent paper in Cretaceous Research. By KAI GENG The climate of Antarctica can vary depending on where you are and the time of the season. All the ingredients for life exist beneath ice shelves, said John Priscu, a professor of polar ecology at Montana State University, who has studied life under polar ice for almost 40 years but who was not involved in the latest study. An international team is currently trying to finish the job. Coat of arms of the Hungarian Bthory family which depicts a dragon. Dragon-skin ice is very rare, bizarre, evidence of a darker chaos in the cryospheric realm, not seen in Antarctica since 2007, saidIMAS researcher Dr. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. (University of Tasmania) Despite the frigid temperatures, Williams estimated that the ocean was generating more than 1,000 to 1,500 watts per square. Enjoyed the post, a fascinating take on the place. For years it was a mystery we didnt know if they were elasmosaurs or not, says Jos OGorman, a paleontologist with the National Scientific and Technical Research Council of Argentina (CONICET) who is based at the Museum of La Plata near Buenos Aires. PACKING TIP: Dont leave home without a solar powered battery pack so you can keep your devices connected at all times. The extremely cold water is full of animals such as Antarctic krill, a . It was only in 1773 that an expedition led by Captain James Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle. A huge skull discovered in China may be a new human species: Dragon Man. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). NY 10036. 1 The new Xuelong 2 (Snow Dragon 2 . New York, This genus, found in the Southern Hemisphere, is characterized by shorter necks and larger skulls. Here's how to watch. New York, Antarctica is also a good place to find meteorites, or rocks that fall from space to Earth. The cavern is visible as the growing red blob in the center of the image. Tom Metcalfe writes about science and space for NBC News. Its huge expanses of white winterland are full of. With 170 of its 300-odd bones preserved, this scientifically important but privately owned skeleton is currently at the Museum fr Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. In fact, the further north in latitude you go, the fewer dragonflies . The 15-ton elasmosaur adds to evidence that a vibrant marine ecosystem existed just before the dinosaur mass extinction. Also, meteorites that fall to Antarctica are preserved in ice for a long time. Rare 'Dragon Skin' Ice Found in Antarctica Is Intensely Beautiful. Multiple expeditions in the 19th century managed to reach the Antarctic Peninsula, and in 1911 Roald Amundsens party were the first people to reach the South Pole. Scary flick, great performance by Kirk Russell. Know more about this news here by reading this article now! Heres why each season begins twice. The ultimate action-packed science and technology magazine bursting with exciting information about the universe, Subscribe today and save an extra 5% with checkout code 'LOVE5', Engaging articles, amazing illustrations & exclusive interviews, Issues delivered straight to your door or device. And work on the bones unearthed over the past few decades has just begun; now that they are housed in a museum, OGorman says there is a lot of other research that can be done on this ancient specimen. Antarctica is ringed with more than half a million square miles of ice shelves the Filchner-Ronne is one of the largest, covering more than 160,000 square miles but boreholes have revealed an area of seafloor beneath them only the size of a tennis court. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. And for his part, OGorman seems thrilled with the whole experience: It was quite cold, and quite cool, too. I always think back to Alien vs. Dragon skin occurs when strong "katabatic" winds downslope winds that exist only over icy regions continually lift the polynya's surface ice, subsequently freezing the water below, according to Guy Williams, a polar oceanographer from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia. The explorer in me thinks that there must still be plenty more to find! The new specimen is also very interesting because it dates so close to the end of the Cretaceousjust 30,000 years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. In addition, a small number of researchers have since gotten the chance to see the Quetzalcoatlus fossils up closeincluding Habib, who measured the bones to model how the creature flew. What if we could clean them out? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Come along for the ride! This cycle produces 10 times more than the average amount of sea ice formed in the coastal polynyas, Williams said. Its a huge area, but we have a tiny widow into it, Griffiths said. The remains first gained notoriety for their scars. The near-perfect skeleton remains were located in a remote inland area of Antarctica. Research aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer vessel is ongoing as the icebreaker continues to sail across the Ross Sea in West Antarctica. The host shows the creatures front and rear limbs, as the curve of its spine and its skull. A never-before-seen ecosystem lurks in an underground river deep below the icy surface in Antarctica. It was an adventure., Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. They were some kind of weird plesiosaurs that nobody knew.. The different colorings can actually be simply explained as frozen meltwater (blue), sediment (black) or algae (green) that were trapped while the iceberg was forming. A lot of marine life would have needed to thrive there to satisfy the appetite of such a large creature, so the fact that these animals continued to exist so late in the Cretaceous adds to the evidence that the aquatic world, at least, was doing just fine right up until the sudden mass extinction. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. ", Another remarked: "Google search for images of seal skeleton shows a pretty good match. When it was discovered in 1911 by an Australian geologist, the explanation he came up with was that microscopic red algae gave the waterfall its coloring. Whereas if youre stuck to a rock and youre waiting for food to come to you, then the one bit that comes past this year could go past you.. There are not, nor. While the boulder is located about 150 miles from the ocean, the direction of the currents beneath the ice shelf suggests the nearest plant life is up to 1,000 miles away, Griffiths said. Thanks for sharing. The animal, when alive, would not have been a frozen dragon, notes study coauthor Mike Habib, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. "Antarcticais a very mysterious place. In 1911, scientists noticed an outflow of dark red water coming out of a glacier. They are associated with deep waterholes, rain, rivers, and, you guessed it, rainbows. And their immense patience in waiting for a meal to come to them. What comes to your mind when you hear the word iceberg? What if we could clean them out? Saturday, 4th March 2023See today's front and back pages, download the newspaper, order back issues and use the historic Daily Express newspaper archive. Like other members of the shergottite-nakhlite-chassignite (SNC) group of meteorites, ALH84001 is thought to have originated on Mars.However, it does not fit into any of the previously . For me, as a Canadian who also works on pterosaurs, its pretty cool to get an actual name for an animal thats been kicking around for a while, says paleontologist Liz Martin-Silverstone, a research associate at the University of Bristol who wasnt involved with the study. Most of the 45,000 meteorites found in Antarctica over the past century have only weighed a few grams, The Independent noted. Regardless, sometimes you might get lucky and find some Antarctica mythical creatures. The weather is one of the problems. The secret ecosystem was found more than 1,600 feet below the surface. Haha `Deception Island indeed. These radar images are even capable of seeing through the ice to get a clear model of the glacier down to the bedrock. The geologists were more than 150 miles from the open ocean when they bored a hole through the 3,000-foot-thick ice with a hot-water drill and lowered a coring device and a video camera into the dark seawater below it. "But then we found this tiny, gentle slope and guessed wed got the right spot.". Even in Antarctica, there were lots of happy elasmosaurs, Schulp says. They used jackhammers, rock saws and chisels at a punishing 4200 metres to unearth the dinosaur, which represents a new genus and species. The scientists found the secret subterranean habitat tucked away beneath the Larsen Ice Shelf a massive, floating sheet of ice attached to the eastern coast of the Antarctic peninsula that. The bodies of a 13-year-old girl, plus a. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies/University of Tasmania, IMAS - Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Future fossils, she adds, could even test whether Cryodrakon varied in size based on sex. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. It would have flying in a landscape that would have been reasonably temperate but a hell of a lot warmer than central Alberta is now.. But the researchers realized that a separate fossil at the Royal Tyrrell Museuma smashed-up tube of bone 16 inches longwas the middle portion of a neck vertebra from an azhdarchid that probably had a wingspan of more than 30 feet. I wouldnt find it creepy being on the bottom (or top) of the Earth, but some of those things Ive never heard of (sea spiders, striped icebergs) would give me chills. "The climate is changing, and some key focal points are yet to be understood by science," Steven said. The "dragon-skin" sighting was an early highlight of the expedition, because the rare ice formation had not been seen in Antarctica since 2007, the researchers said. Although the alleged Dragon creature in the video is not visible clearly in the blurry and dark footage, the video has been shared quite often. .css-v1xtj3{display:block;font-family:FreightSansW01,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:100;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-v1xtj3:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.1387rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:1rem;margin-top:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-v1xtj3{line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.18581rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;margin-top:0rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-v1xtj3{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.2;margin-top:0.9375rem;}}60 Scientists Are Trying to Block the Sun, Particle Accelerator Reveals Beginning of Time, Earth's Inner Core Has Another Inner Core, 8 Questions About Turkey With an Earthquake Expert, Conspiracy: Blaming Weather Weapons for Earthquake, Scientists Just Discovered a Literal Hell, How the NFL Grew the Field for Super Bowl LVII, The Doomsday Clock Is at 90 Seconds to Midnight, Uh, Earth's Inner Core Just Stopped Spinning, Supercomputer: 27% of Earth's Life Dead by 2100, Why Bill Gates Keeps Buying Up So Much Farmland. it has spawned numerous theories on what it could be. All rights reserved, finally unearthed the heaviest known elasmosaur, Find out about a plesiosaur fossil found with a baby preserved in its body, mass extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, Would the dinosaurs have died out if not for that asteroid? Follow Kacey on Twitter. One of the weird things about Antarctica is that its very good at preserving things the Endurance was found very well preserved thanks to Antarcticas cold waters. The Nathaniel B. Palmer expedition is currently at "ground zero" of a katabatic wind event, Williams said, with hurricane-strength gusts topping 75 miles per hour (120 km/h). If you asked a friend, it would probably be the thing that sunk the Titanic in that famous DeCaprio movie. True to their name, the Antarctic Icefish lives in the icy cold waters of the Arctic and has icy-looking blood to match. Taissa Rodrigues, a paleontologist at Brazils Federal University of Esprito Santo who wasnt involved with the study, says that taking thin sections of Cryodrakon bones could reveal how the pterosaur grew from hatchling to adult. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Researchers discovered swarms of shrimplike amphipods while they were exploring an underground Antarctic river. Nearly 42,000 meteorites have been found in Antarctica by government funded expeditions, mainly by the U.S. and Japan. "Getting to observe and sample this river was like being the first to enter a hidden world," lead researcher Huw Horgan, a glaciologist at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, told The Guardian (opens in new tab). The new year once started in Marchhere's why, Jimmy Carter on the greatest challenges of the 21st century, This ancient Greek warship ruled the Mediterranean, How cosmic rays helped find a tunnel in Egypt's Great Pyramid, Who first rode horses? .css-3wjtm9{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.125rem;text-decoration-color:#1c6a65;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:inherit;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-3wjtm9:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}None of these are doing well, but one of themthe Thwaites Glacier in West Antarcticais rapidly crumbling. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. ", The YouTuber added:"I think this thing was frozen in time. In order to survive, the organisms would have to feed on floating material from other animals or plants, because it is impossible for plants to photosynthesize in the sunless seawater. Small mobile animals such as shrimp and crustaceans called sea fleas have been seen before beneath ice shelves, but no one expected to see stationary animals like these. "It looked like a loaf of bread, with a bulge at the top and narrow slope at the bottom," Stevens said. But to their surprise, the camera showed colonies of stationary animals attached to the rock probably sponges and related sea creatures. One place I have not yet managed to get to maybe one day. Its amazing that in the age of 50+ megapixel quality images we can still have grainy photos that yield Sasquatch or UFO-hunts on the Internet. Because the Canadian remains make up a partial skeleton, Habibs colleague Hone had enough material to place the pterosaur on the azhdarchid family tree. "Seeing the effect of the Tongan volcano, which erupted thousands of kilometres away, was quite remarkable," Stevens said. "But what is clear is that great changes are afoot.". Maybe not a spooky as the rest of the creepy facts about Antarctica on this list. "I would guess this is somewhere in the region of 15 to 20ft. This creepy looking fall was named Blood Falls because of its deep color resembling blood. Still, one that has been making the rounds recently is the discovery of supposed pyramids as one of the strange things found in Antarctica, remnants of an ancient civilization.. The geologists used hot-water equipment to drill the borehole through more than half a mile of the ice shelf, on the southern edge of Antarctica's Weddell Sea. In the meantime, North American paleontologists have been caught in a catch-22. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, . Published on 5/11/2017 at 1:25 AM. It is barren, cold and almost seems like it is from another world, so it would make sense that if a UFO were to land on Earth with the hope of going undiscovered, that's where it'd park, and it turns out, that just might have happened.. A researcher examining satellite maps of the continent uncovered what they claim is a UFO, and sent the discovery . Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, and get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun. The remains of a dinosaur described as the "closest thing we have to a real-life dragon" has been unveiled in .