Now, this enormous species of giant pterosaur part of a group known as azhdarchids finally has a name: Cryodrakon boreas, drawing from the ancient Greek words that translate to "cold dragon of the north winds." Most of them were remnants of ancient marine creatures, or even the ancestors of modern-day ducks. If you make a purchase through these links, at no extra cost to you, I will earn a small commission (for which I am very grateful). The discovery of what appear to be sponges in the pitch-black seawater beneath almost half a mile of ice has biologists baffled. Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. It could be a lot of different things. In other words, theres a good chance we could be looking at some serious melting in the near future, thanks to this glacier and the ice around it. When flying over whats now Texas, the creatures wingspan stretched more than 30 feet. All rights reserved. (Find out about a plesiosaur fossil found with a baby preserved in its body.). In the meantime, North American paleontologists have been caught in a catch-22. 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. They published . ", The YouTuber added:"I think this thing was frozen in time. As detailed below the claim that the video shows a real dragon inside . The Argentina Antarctic Institute got involved and started excavating the fossil as part of its annual summer research expeditions, but the giant reptile was uncovered at a glacial pace due to weather and logistics. Elasmosaurs make up a family of the plesiosaurs, which represent some of the largest sea creatures of the Cretaceous. When did Democrats and Republicans switch platforms? The wall stops everything from falling over the edge of the Earth. They estimate that the as-yet-unnamed elasmosaur weighed between 11.8 tons and 14.8 tons, with a head-to-tail length of nearly 40 feet. Pippin is just a whole new level. The main reference fossil for Cryodrakon belonged to an individual pterosaur that had a roughly 16-foot wingspan. 8 Spooky and Strange Things Found in Antarctica 1. 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. Meteorites are easier to see on the white ice. By Avery Thompson Published: Jan 31, 2019 "Were going to have our work cut out understanding what this means. Enjoyed the post, a fascinating take on the place. The more that he compared his measurements of Quetzalcoatlus to the Canadian fossil, the more he suspected it wasnt Quetzalcoatlus at all. But again, as with many weird things found in Antarctica, the explanation is much simpler. No, this is not the name of that one metal band your cousin listens to. Please be respectful of copyright. It's thought both types of stationary animals are types of sponges or are related to sponges, but scientists did not expect to find them beneath the ice shelf, in pitch-blackness and hundreds of miles from the coast. These things turned out to be over a ton of fossils on the James Ross Island, ranging from 71 to 67 million years old. This sea monster definitely fits the description of scary things found in Antarctica! Pictured near Deception Island (how convenient!) Sometimes the ice freezes into these beautiful ornate patterns reminiscent of dragon scales. . If you asked a friend, it would probably be the thing that sunk the Titanic in that famous DeCaprio movie. He is also interested in evolution, climate change, robots, space exploration, environmental conservation and anything that's been fossilized. Thankfully, they'll all miss. Glad to know that your list of spooky things is as far as it goes (or is it?). "We will spend the next two weeks taking advantage of quiet periods when the katabatic winds drop off to observe the increase in salinity of the shelf waters below polynyas as brine rejected during sea-ice formation rains down to depths below 1,000 meters [3,280 feet]," Williams said. The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. PRO TIP: My go-to camera for all my travels is the Sony A7iii I highly recommend it! In 2007, the MS Explorer struck an iceberg while cruising off the Antarctic peninsula and sank, causing an oil spill near penguin breeding grounds. (Would the dinosaurs have died out if not for that asteroid? Their cold habitat has given them some interesting features. That cavern is likely filled with air much warmer than the surrounding ice, triggering faster melting of the glacier than would happen otherwise. Science correspondent Scientists drilling off the coast of West Antarctica have found the fossil remains of forests that grew in the region 90 million years ago - in the time of the dinosaurs. Many dragonflies are beautifully colored with greens, reds, yellows and blues. According to a study published in Frontiers in Marine Science, researchers have discovered a massive living world below Antarctica's icy surface that could be as big as 5 million square. "Antarcticais a very mysterious place. Dragon ice is basically pancake ice frozen on a larger sheet of ice. Its a huge area, but we have a tiny widow into it, Griffiths said. One such thing is a series of 820-foot tunnels. Associated mainly with wetland habitats such as ponds, lakes, rivers, bogs, and marshes, and usually thriving most in milder climates. Antarctic researchers have shared images of the rarely seen scaly ice formation referred to as dragon ice. He added: "I dont know if this recently thawed and this has been frozen for thousands of years or if this is something new. By Dustin Nelson. Using special radars, a British team of specialists discovered the tunnels while flying over West Antarctica. Unauthorized use is prohibited. But after refocusing the camera, they realized that the lens was being swarmed by tiny crustaceans known as amphipods. Nearly 42,000 meteorites have been found in Antarctica by government funded expeditions, mainly by the U.S. and Japan. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. The tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur was found entombed in amber in 2016, an unprecedented discovery that has blown away scientists. Discovered in 2010 in Montanas famed Hell Creek Formation of the late Cretaceous, the 40-foot-long fossil took four years to excavate and prepare.

, The 'extreme cruelty' around the global trade in frog legs, What does cancer smell like? Again, while it isnt the most immediately terrifying phenomenon, these crazy things found in Antarctica are still unnerving. After a week, you get one tray of ice cubes. I'm a fun-loving blogger and coach from New Zealand, living in the south of Albania! Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. mostly around freshwater locations. He studied Marine Biology at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus) and after graduating started his own blog site "Marine Madness," which he continues to run with other ocean enthusiasts. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? All 154 people on board survived after being rescued by nearby vessels. In retrospect, that doesnt make them any less creepy. 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. The secret ecosystem was found more than 1,600 feet below the surface. The researchers set up camp a couple of days before the record-shattering eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai volcano in Tonga on Jan. 15. 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. Satellite photos showed an unusual groove in the ice shelf close to where it met with the land, and researchers identified the peculiar feature as a subsurface river, which they described in a statement (opens in new tab). ", Another remarked: "Google search for images of seal skeleton shows a pretty good match. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? He then proceeds to analyse the skeleton, before concluding that it could be an ancient dinosaur. Even in Antarctica, there were lots of happy elasmosaurs, Schulp says. Antarctica is a continent located in the Southern Hemisphere and contains the coldest environment on earth. Photograph by Stocktrek Images, Inc. / Alamy. He then zoomed in on the neck vertebra, whose ends are shot through with pneumatophores, the holes through which air sacs once entered the bones interior. H.P. The way it flies - it's like it's hovering in mid-air, just like a dragon. The pterosaurs bones have been known to scientists for nearly three decades, but it has only now been confirmed as its own genus, researchers announced on Tuesday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 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. There are not, nor have there ever been actual dragons on Earth. Antarctica is still a relatively unexplored area on our planet. A gigantic "alien" face in Antarctica. Did an ancient species of a dragon found living in Antarctica? Maybe one day you can work, and the next day you cannot because you have a snowstorm, OGorman says. The remnants come from the final days of the dinosaurs on Earth, so these strange things in Antarctica are quite an amazing sight to see today! While some previously known Aristonectes have weighed about 11 tons or so, most other elasmosaurs only come in at around five tons. All rights reserved. They are the slugs of the sea and live among other deep-sea creatures such as clams and coral. Its intact. As such, Cez and Agness of eTramping were kind enough to provide some spooky, puzzling and altogether creepy things found in Antarctica. All rights reserved, dug up from Canadas Dinosaur Provincial Park in 1992, Fossil Pictures Capture the Mystery of Dinosaurs. Sign up here for our daily Thrillist email, and get your fix of the best in food/drink/fun. The difference is that you can actually see something resembling them on Google Earth (coordinates 795839.25S 815732.21W). How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. Theres some weird stuff in Antarctica. The geologists used hot-water equipment to drill the borehole. Plesiosaurs generally look a little like large manatees with giraffe necks and snake-like heads, though they have four flippers rather than a manatees three. Rare 'Dragon-Skin' Ice Spotted During Antarctic Research Voyage By Kacey Deamer published May 10, 2017 Dragon skin occurs when strong winds continually lift surface ice, subsequently freezing. Fossil remains found by a Chilean research team in the Atacama Desert have been determined to belong to a prehistoric pterosaur flying dragon, it was reported. Scientists find 66-million-year-old sea lizard egg in Antarctica, the biggest ever recorded Chilean researchers were exploring the southern frozen continent looking for fossils of marine. 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. Fact Check: A video in circulation online since early 2015 claims to show a Real Dragon found Alive inside a Cave, caught on Camera. CNN During a recent excursion to the icy plains of Antarctica, an international team of researchers discovered five new meteorites including one of the largest ever found on the continent.. But the question of how these animals get food will have to wait until another scientific expedition can visit the spot, perhaps equipped with a remotely operated underwater vehicle that can recover samples of the animals. Related: Alarming heat waves hit Arctic and Antarctica at the same time. Most of these magnificent ice giants are either snow-capped and white, or have a clear turquoise color. Youve got this weird situation where Quetzalcoatlus is basically the first azhdarchid to be named, so it becomes the definition of the [group], and yet theres no good description of it, says Hone, who describes the situation as a giant loop of not being able to solve the problem properly.. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Geologists taking sediment cores from the seafloor beneath the giant Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf on the southern edge of Antarcticas Weddell Sea discovered what biologists believe are types of sponge. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. 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. As a point of comparison, Habib visited Canadas Royal Tyrrell Museum to see the partial pterosaur skeleton dug up in 1992, whose limb bone is among the best preserved in the world. This site contains affiliate links for products and services we recommend. Dragonflies are widely spread throughout the world and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. It wouldve been nice to have pictures accompanying this article. Flat-earthers believe that the North Pole is at the center of the world while the South Pole surrounds the Earth. Future fossils, she adds, could even test whether Cryodrakon varied in size based on sex. At first, researchers believed the color was due to the red algae, but years later, it was revealed that the color is due to iron oxides, Forbes . Site Powered by Pix & Hue. Antarctica is an ice covered continent. An illustration shows an elasmosaur swimming through rough waters. Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. However, the scientists waited years to make sure that they had the right tools to remove this stuff from the ice without breaking it. Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to take to the skies. It is the southernmost continent and is where the South Pole is located. The weather controls all. The SpaceX Crew-6 Falcon 9 rocket atop pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, awaiting a delayed launch to deliver a four-man crew to the International Space Station. In the past 15 years, paleontologists have found more types of azhdarchids in France, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Romania, and elsewhere, giving a much better reference for diversity within this pterosaur group. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, With such a young history of Antarctic exploration, it is no wonder that there are still many strange things about Antarctica that remain mysterious to this day. Meet the Great Eared-Nightjar, The Bird That Is Basically A Tiny Dragon. For 40 years, paleontologist Wann Langston worked off-and-on to complete the descriptionbut then he died in 2013, leaving the work unfinished. What if we could clean them out? The discovery of what appear to be sponges in the pitch-black seawater beneath almost half a mile of ice has biologists baffled. NASA Found a Manhattan-Sized Cavern in Antarctica The cavern sits where nearly 14 billion tons of ice used to be, all of which melted in the last few years. The video was titled 'Antarctica Melting Ice MAY have revealed ANCIENT skeletal remains fully INTACT! Why wetlands are so critical for life on Earth, Rest in compost? Horgan first spotted hints of the subsurface structure in 2020 while looking at a satellite photo of the area. They used jackhammers, rock saws and chisels at a punishing 4200 metres to unearth the dinosaur, which represents a new genus and species. The extremely well-preserved frozen bodies of three Incan child sacrifice victims were found entombed on the Llullaillaco volcano in Argentina in 1999. Heres the science, Related: See the Mystery and Beauty of Fossils. [Collapsing Beauty: Image of Antarctica's Larsen Ice Shelf], "Imagine your standard ice-cube tray, filled once. Lol. Life finds a way, the actor Jeff Goldblum playing scientist Ian Malcolm declared in the 1993 movie Jurassic Park.. The international science expedition is slowly making its way through the Antarctica's sea ice en route to the Ross Sea. If youve seen Jurassic World, its the giant whale-like colossus from the feeding show. The egg case belongs to the class Clitellata worm, species of which are long extinct which makes it quite an extraordinary finding. Because the Canadian remains make up a partial skeleton, Habibs colleague Hone had enough material to place the pterosaur on the azhdarchid family tree. IE 11 is not supported. More work on Cryodrakon may help crack the mystery and add more clues to this large pterosaurs lifestyle. Well, theyre not actually spiders, but a type of primitive marine arthropod. Lovecraft would have probably loved to see this interesting creature. You can see it for yourself at coordinates 63 256.73S 605732.38W on Google Earth. 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. 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. Their eyes are compound -they consist of 24,000 ommatidia (or tiny eyes). Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. it has spawned numerous theories on what it could be. 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. She has previously reported for Mother Jones, the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, Neon Tommy and more. MrMBB333 has previously posted videos of 'mysterious' Google Maps in Antarctica, including what he alleged was a huge man-made disc emerging from the snow in the region. A radar image of Thwaites from 2011 to 2017. Thanks to this nearly Manhattan-size gap in the ice, the entire glacier along with the surrounding ice sheet will likely disappear much more quickly. And when Habib, Hone, and Royal Tyrrell Museum paleontologist Franois Therrien compared the holes in the Canadian pterosaurs neck vertebrae against those for all other known azhdarchids, they found that its arrangement is unique. 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. Copyright 2023 Anita Hendrieka. An international team is currently trying to finish the job. They were some kind of weird plesiosaurs that nobody knew.. 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. Research aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer vessel is ongoing as the icebreaker continues to sail across the Ross Sea in West Antarctica. Though Q. northropi was described in 1975, only one of its limb bones got a detailed writeup; the scientists who oversaw the giants remains never got around to publishing the rest. In the icy badlands of Alberta, paleontologists have found a "frozen dragon": a new genus of pterosaur that once soared over the heads of dinosaurs with a wingspan that stretched at least 16. Here's how to watch. The extremely cold water is full of animals such as Antarctic krill, a . Unknown ancient people left the newly discovered fantastical creatures hewn of granite in Altai Mountains. Heres why each season begins twice. A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. Future analyses could even peer deeper inside the pterosaurs bones. Dragonflies are members of the order Odonata. Scientists just confirmed a 30-foot void first detected inside the monument years ago. Both animals belong to a group known as the azhdarchid (azh-DAHR-kid) pterosaurs, which were notable for being mostly head and neck. Footage of the oddity was uploaded on the YouTube channel of MrMBB333 who regularly shares weird . But to those accustomed to the Hollywood image of an iceberg, seeing striped ones can make one feel a bit uneasy. Thwaites holds back a large portion of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and a handful of nearby glaciers; if Thwaites disappears, we could see an additional eight feet of sea level rise from these sources, on top of the two feet from Thwaites itself. No, this has nothing to do withGame of Thrones. The remains, previously only ever found in North America, were. After sending the camera down into the river, the team was surprised to learn that the cavern looked drastically different from what they had predicted. Son Doong is the largest cave in the world, and also contains a number of large underground lakes. Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) is a fragment of a Martian meteorite that was found in the Allan Hills in Antarctica on December 27, 1984, by a team of American meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project. Follow Kacey on Twitter. Was an ancient species of dragon found living in Antarctica? When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. 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. The amber adds to fossil evidence that many dinosaurs. But now, scientists have finally unearthed the heaviest known elasmosaur, an ancient aquatic reptile that swam the seas of the Cretaceous period alongside the dinosaurs. The formation may be . Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. I don't think it's a sea lion.". Video shows discovery of sea-sponges living nearly half a mile beneath Antarctica ice. This caught the team off guard, as they had not expected to find any type of life this far below the icy surface. The azhdarchids are also known for reaching immense sizes, none more so than Quetzalcoatlus. The animal, when alive, would not have been a frozen dragon, notes study coauthor Mike Habib, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California. I did say there were some scary facts about Antarctica! Three oval shaped motherships about 30 miles in diameter were discovered nearby revealing that the Pre-Adamites were extraterrestrial in origin, and had arrived on Earth about 55,000 years ago. By KAI GENG What we find by visiting the coordinates 7200' 36.00'' S, 168 34' 40.00'' E is a mysterious face in the ice - seemingly complete with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. (Though, it's been mentioned now, so kind of?) This genus, found in the Southern Hemisphere, is characterized by shorter necks and larger skulls. It wasnt until this year that researchers have found out that the waterfall springs from a lake trapped under the ice for over a million years! In a bizarre video posted this week, YouTuber MrMBB333 said the remains in a remote region of Antarctica may have belonged to a prehistoric beast. Over 14,000 meteorites have been found in the Sahara Desert of northern Africa, most since 1995, mainly by nomads and private collectors. But its identity remained unclear for decades because of a paleontological paradox: Quetzalcoatlus might be the best-known and worst-known azhdarchid all at once. Rare find'. If youre not afraid of spiders yet, these scary things in Antarctica might change your mind if youre lucky enough to see them on an Antarctic cruise. These animals can sniff it out. There have been all sorts of things found in the arctic, from underground lakes and ancient fossils to prehistoric skeletons and enormous tunnels. The cavern first appeared in 2012 and most of the ice that once occupied it melted in the last three years. Jun 26, 2021 12 The discovery of a huge fossilised skull that was wrapped up and hidden in a Chinese well nearly 90 years ago has forced scientists to rewrite the story of human evolution. 108K views 2 years ago When we think of Antarctica, we think of snow, clusters of wildlife and beautiful landscapes. "But what is clear is that great changes are afoot.". One place I have not yet managed to get to maybe one day. These animals can sniff it out. Antarctica is also a good place to find meteorites, or rocks that fall from space to Earth. How did this mountain lion reach an uninhabited island? However, sceptics were quick to claim that the remains look like a seal. A team of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany has discovered a whopping 77 seafloor . This constant uplift and formation of ice results in a scale-like appearance, giving the sea ice its dragon nickname. Dec 29, 2021, 6:55 AM PST. But for [biologists], it is amazing because no one has ever seen these [organisms] before.. The melting ice in Antarctica has revealed a skeleton of a mysterious creature - and the network believes it is a dinosaur. She has been put through hell and come out the other side . It was caused due to millions of years of erosion, and it is not uncommon for mountains to have at least a partially pyramidal shape in various parts of the world. Mining is illegal in Antarctica due to the Antarctic Treaty. But Habib soon saw more intriguing features. Tullbergia seems to have persisted in the same place for . But to their surprise, the camera showed colonies of stationary animals attached to the rock probably sponges and related sea creatures. While it is most likely some kind of big whale species, it still has a menacing, creepy air to it. It took decades of struggling with the weather on a small, desolate island off the Antarctic Peninsula. The bones bear scratches and an embedded tooth that appear to be from a scavenger, most likely a relative of Velociraptor.
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