264 results found.
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Land animals: earlier and earlier Two biologists looking for plant fossils in the Catskills found instead the remains of ancient centipedes, mites, and spider-like creatures -- a classical case of serendipity. These animals were in a Devonian formation dated at 380 million years. It turned out that they were the oldest fossils ever found of purely land animals. (Some fossil animals of about the same age are known in European rocks, but in semiaquatic environments.) Two aspects of the fossils are of special interest: The animals found were already well-adapted to terrestrial life, inferring that the (assumed) invasion of the land from the sea has to be pushed back much farther in time; and Many of the fossil animals are essentially identical to modern forms, suggesting that little if any evolution has occurred in 380 million years. (Anonymous; "Fossils found in N.Y . Alter Scientists' View," Baltimore Sun, May 29, 1983. Comment. Note the sudden jump from no land animals to well-developed, frozen-in-time land animals. From Science Frontiers #28, JUL-AUG 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 84: Nov-Dec 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects THE WOMAN WHO COULDN'T DESCRIBE ANIMALS The astounding complexity of the human brain was underscored recently by a 70-year-old woman, who could describe anything she saw except animals. The woman had an immune-system disorder that had damaged a small portion of her brain's temporal lobe. Her other mental faculties were intact. "The woman could name plants, foods, and inanimate objects and describe them without hesitation. The scientists were impressed that when shown a trellis, not exactly your everyday object, she could correctly name it and describe its cross-hatched geometry. "But when shown a squirrel or a dog, she froze. She couldn't find the right name for either, nor could she describe their size or shape or furry coats. "Her deficit, involving only a tiny portion of her language skills, was amazingly narrow." (Bor, Jonathan; "The Woman Who Couldn't Describe Animals," Baltimore Sun, p. A1, September 7, 1992.) The implications of this strange case were described in Science News: "The peculiar inability of a 70-yearold woman to name animals has led scientists to propose that the brain harbors separate knowledge systems, one visual, the other verbal or language-based, for different categories of living and inanimate things, such as animals and household objects." (Bower, B.; "Clues to ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 1: September 1977 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Animal Behavior Prior To The Haicheng Earthquake The catastrophic Chinese Haicheng earthquake of 1975 was preceded by many reports of unusual animal behavior. Beginning in December 1974, lay observers noted dazed rats and snakes that appeared to be "frozen" to the roads. In February, reports of this type increased markedly, including observations of general restlessness and agitation of the larger animals, such as cows and horses. Rats now appeared as if drunk. Chickens refused to enter their coops and geese frequently took to flight. Chinese scientists seem convinced that such animals behavior might help predict some of the larger earthquakes. Further research is being undertaken at the Institute of Biophysics in Peking and at Peking University. (Molnar, Peter, et al; "Prediction of the Haicheng Earthquake," Eos, 58:254, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #1 , September 1977 . 1977-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 39: May-Jun 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Upside-down animals Stephen Jay Gould's recent essay, "The Flamingo's Smile," like all his writing, is thought-provoking. The essay goes far beyond the happy flamingo. It is about unusual adaptations in nature, as illustrated by three inverted or partially inverted creatures. The flamingo is a filter-feeder that strains food out of the water with its bill while its head is upside-down. The flaming's bill and tongue are (and must be ) radically different from those of other birds to succeed in this strange behavior. One type of jellyfish, rather than swimming around with its pulsating bell on top, plunks itself upside-down on the bottom and uses its bell as a suction cup to anchor itself. It then shoots poisonous darts attached to strings of mucous at passing targets and reels them in. Some African catfish graze on algae on the undersides of water plants. They swim upside down all the time and display a reversed color scheme, being black on the bottom and light on top. Gould employs these three examples to argue that changes in animal behavior must have preceded the many changes in form, function, color, etc. that make upside down living profitable. In other words, the proto-flamingos tried feeding with their heads upside down; and it didn't work too well. But "nature" responded with a series of random biological changes ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Checklist Of Apparently Unknown Animals B. Heuvelmans, who operates the Center for Cryptozoology, in France, has compiled an annotated checklist of between 110 and 138 animals (some questions remain about how many are distinct species) which do not seem to be recognized by science. His list is based upon his collection of 20,000 references. Obviously we cannot reproduce all his descriptions here, but we will pass along three of the most interesting. A dolphin with two dorsal fins, both curved backwards, the anterior one set on the forehead like a horn. The first observation was apparently by Mongitore in the Mediterranean. During the Uranie and Physicienne expedition, Quoy and Gaimard reported a whole school of them between the Sandwich Islands and New South Wales. They were spotted black and white. Hairy "wild men," known as satyrs in classical antiquity. These were probably Neanderthals that survived into historical times. The most recent sightings were in 1774, in the Pyrenees, and 1784, in the Carpathians. Giant birds of prey in North America -- the famous "thunderbirds." Observers put the wingspans between 10 and 16 feet, making thunderbirds much larger than the Andean condor. Reports have come in from all over the southern United States. Some remains of these carnivorous birds have been dated at 8,000 years. (Heuvelmans, Bernard; "Annotated Checklist of Apparently Unknown Animals with Which Cryptozoology Is Concerned," ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 124: Jul-Aug 1999 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Late Survival Of The Kilopilopitsofy And Kidoky Cryptozoological articles are rare in the mainstream science literature, but a 1999 number of the American Anthropologist has surprised us with an investigation of two mystery mammals on Madagascar. In 1995, D.A . Burney and Ramilisonia interviewed elderly natives about their knowledge of the Kilopilopitsofy and Kidoky. Both of these animals are mentioned in the historical accounts and folklore of Madagascar between the mid-1600s and late 1800s. The testimonies collected by Burney and Ramilisonia enabled them to provide tentative indentifications of these two mystery animals, both of which may still survive today. The Kilopilopitsofy "A striking feature of the accounts of this mysterious animal is the consistency of the details. All the accounts we have collected stress that the animal is nocturnal, grunts noisily, and flees to water when disturbed. Likewise, there is general agreement that it is cow-sized, hornless, dark in color, and has a large mouth with big teeth." These data agree with the old descriptions of the mangarsahoc (1661), the tsy-aomby-aomby (1882), and the Ombyrano (1912). One animal fits all of these accounts: the dwarf hippopotamus ( Hippo potamus lemerlie , supposedly extinct for over 1,000 years. The Kidoky "This animal's description is decidedly lemur-like. It was compared to the sifaka by all the interviewees who described it, although all insisted that it ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 134: MAR-APR 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sleep-work And Dream-work To dream an animal must sleep, and sleep is a dangerous state in the natural world. The animal is motionless, its senses are diminished; it is very vulnerable. Neither is there any provable biochemical value to sleep. (See BHF31 in Humans II) Yet, a large fraction of an animal's life is spent in this apparently useless and hazardous condition. Why, then, did sleep ever evolve? But with sleep, come dreams, and maybe an answer is to be seen in them. Cats establish long-term memories during sleep. First, it is relevant that an animal's brain (a cat's brain here) seems to be active even when an animal is sleeping deeply but not dreaming. It seems that during an extremely quiet phase of sleep, when researchers thought that nothing much was happening in the [cat's ] brain, groups of cells involved in the formation of new memories signal one another. The signals, discovered only a few years ago, allow cells in many parts of the brain to form lasting links. Then, when a few cells are stimulated during waking hours, the links are activated and an entire memory is recalled. Deep, dreamless sleep has long been thought to be of little value to an animal. Apparently this is not the case. Deep sleep seems to be valuable in memory activation. Score ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 41: Sep-Oct 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects An Animal That Photosynthesizes At a recent meeting of the American Society for Photobiology, chemist Pill-Soon Song, of Texas Tech University, reported the discovery of a blue-green, trumpet-shaped protozoan that employs photosynthesis to sustain itself. Called Stentor coeruleus, this protozoan is only 0.2 mm long and swims backward by rotating its cilia. According to the article, this is the first instance of a photosynthesizing animal. (Anonymous; "Animal That Lives on Light," San Francisco Chronicle, June 28, 1985, p. 2. Cr. J. Covey) Comment. Nothing was said about whether the protozoan also ate food in the conventional manner. If verified, this is not a trivial discovery. Of course, some plants eat meat, but animals seem to have found sunlight too weak to utilize for mobility and other energy-rich processes and activities. From Science Frontiers #41, SEP-OCT 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Animals As Nutrient Carriers "It has long been recognized that the movement of grazing animals from one terrestrial ecosystem to another, feeding in one and defaecating in the other, may result in significant movement of certain [chemical] elements between them (i .e . the ecosystems). What has now been made evident, in work on the coral reefs of the Virgin Islands, is that a similar process takes place in aquatic ecosystems." Several examples, terrestrial and aquatic, follow this introductory paragraph of the referenced article. (Moore, Peter D.; "Animals As Nutrient Carriers," Nature, 305:763, 1983.) Comment. This process may emphasize the fine-tuning of the Gaia Hypothesis, in which life-as-a -whole operates in ways that make the planet-as-a -whole more productive of life. From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 138: NOV-DEC 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Animal Talents And Capabilities Looking backward with genital photoreceptors. Photoreceptors are sensitive to light but do not produce images. They are found in many groups of animals. Even humans possess photoreceptors besides their eyes; specifically, in the pineal gland and, perhaps, the knees. (SF#116, SF#117) The pineal gland (our "third eye") may have registered photons at some stage in our evolution, but it is now useless or adapted to other purposes. The arthropods, however, still find photoreceptors useful. Crayfish have them on their abdomens, where they initiate an escape response when illuminated. Additionally, the blind shrimp that collect around the glowing deep-sea vents have photoreceptors perched on their backs, presumably to guide them to their prey located around the luminous vents. Recently, the Japanese yellow swallowtail butterflies were discovered to sport photoreceptors on their genitalia. These I are used during mating to confirm the position of the female's ovipositor.(Arikawa, Kentaro; "Hindsight of Butterflies," BioScience, 51:219, 2001.) Barn-Owl auditory neurons multiple signals. Barn Owls can locate rustling mice in the dark with high precision. They discern their prey by sound rather than light. To achieve the high accuracy needed to home in on small rodents in the black of night, their ears are slightly offset so that they can draw a bead by using microsecond time ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 132: NOV-DEC 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sandslides: Desert Catastrophes Some of the most important fossil discoveries being made today come from the desolate Gobi Desert -- a most unlikely place for the sudden mass burial of agile animals. Furthermore, the fossils now coming to light in the Gobi sandstones are not only abundant but also preserved with great fidelity. For example, at Ukhaa Tolgod, paleontologists are excavating the planet's largest assemblage of fossil vertebrates from the end of the Cretaceous Period (71-75 million years ago). In 1993, about 1,000 fossils representing 20 species of mammals and reptiles were collected. Amazingly, these bones were not disarticulated, scattered about, or severely worn. It was obvious that the Ukhaa Tolgod animals had been very suddenly engulfed by a "tidal wave" of sand. It was a catastrophic event of some sort. But what kind of catastrophes occur on desolate, riverless deserts? Wind is always blowing sand about and dunes creep along in deserts, but healthy animals easily avoid burial. Of course, there are rare, sudden downpours even on the Gobi. But one would expect this rain to be quickly absorbed by the sand. Intrigued by the evidence of unexpected catastrophism in the Gobi, scientists from the American Museum of Natural History first took a look at Nebraska's strange Sand Hills. These Sand Hills stretch for thousands of square miles, reach heights of 400 feet, and are believed to be of aeolian ...
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... items (SF#60/187 and SF#85/ 187). A paleontological fact of life is that all known body plans (phyla) seem to have evolved suddenly -- within a few million years -- after the onset of the Cambrian period some 545 million years ago. Evolutionists are understandably uncomfortable with such a high rate of evolutionary innovation. Nothing like the Cambrian Explosion appears in the hundreds of millions of years of geological strata that followed. So rapid was speciation during the Cambrian Explosion that doubt is cast upon the accepted mechanisms of evolution: slow, stepwise accumulation of mutations plus natural selection. (Refs. 1 and 2) But G.A . Wray and colleagues seem to have rescued Darwinism. They have analyzed the DNA sequences of seven genes found in living animals. Assuming that these genes mutate at constant rates and working backwards in time, they calculate that animal diversification (i .e ., when chordates diverged from invertebrates) actually began about 1 billion years ago, rather than about 545 million years ago. This expansion of the time frame gives accepted evolutionary processes much more time to innovate and create all those new body plans. The evolutionists are pleased. The paleontologists, however, are in a quandry. They see nothing -- or very little -- in the Precambrian fossil record that substantiates the claim of Wray at al. Thus, molecular biology directly contradicts the findings of paleontology. Not to worry say supporters of the new and much more comfortable scenario: The Precambrian animals were so soft and "squishy" that they did not ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 57: May-Jun 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects You can fool some of the animals some of the time, but....R. Sheldrake has found another possible example of "morphic resonance," as he relates in the New Scientist: "Ranchers throughout the American West have found that they can save money on cattle grids by using fake grids instead, consisting of stripes painted across the road. Real cattle grids, known as cattle guards in the U.S ., are usually made of a series of parallel steel tubes or rails with gaps in between, which make it physically impossible for cattle to walk across them. However, cattle do not usually try to cross them; they avoid them. The illusory grids work just like the real ones. When cattle approach them, they 'put on the brakes with all four feet,' as one rancher expressed it to me. .. .. . "According to my hypothesis of formative causation..., organisms inherit habits from previous members of their species. This collective memory, I suggest, is inherent in fields, called morphic fields, and is transmitted through both time and space by morphic resonance, a process which takes place on the basis of similarity. From this point of view, cattle confronted for the first time by grids, or by things that look like grids, would tend to avoid them because of morphic resonance from other cattle that had learnt by experience not to ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Animals Attack Human Technological Infrastructure We are accustomed to termites feasting on our homes' timbers and mice gnawing in the walls, but in recent years many species have developed a taste for more sophisticated fare: Pine martens are chewing through the electical wiring of Swiss cars. Mammal repellents popular there. British dormice seem to enjoy the electrical fittings of Rolls Royces. The keas (mountain parrots) of New Zealand have an innate urge to strip out the rubber gaskets around car windows. Land crabs on Tahiti bite through the electrical cables of film crews. Rarely are they electrocuted. New Zealanders have to put metal collars on telephone poles to prevent bushy tailed possums from getting at the cables. Squirrels, rabbits, langurs, and others species are also on the attack in all countries. (Ager, Derek; "Unwary Animals and Vicious Volts," New Scientist, p. 47, January 9, 1993.) Comment. We mustn't forget that sperm whale that got tangled up in an undersea cable over a mile down! From Science Frontiers #87, MAY-JUN 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Navigation BBT8 Inheritance of Migration Data BBT9 The Existence of Avian Migration BBT10 Sensitivity to Impending Weather and Earthquakes BBT11 Possible Unrecognized Senses BBT12 Remarkable Feats of Flight BBT13 The Origin of Avian Flight BBT14 Unanswered Questions Concerning Flightlessness BBT15 Some Curiosities of Avian Flight BBT16 Deep-Diving Capabilities BBT17 Vocal Mimicry in Birds BBT18 Birds That Vocally Mimic Only in Captivity BBT19 Vocal Mimicry of Hosts by Parasitic Species BBT20 Duetting BBT21 Chorusing BBT22 Large Vocal-Repertoire Sizes and High Speeds of Delivery BBT23 Female Singers BBT24 Whisper Songs and Subsongs BBT25 The Two-Voice Phenomenon BBT26 Some Curiosities of Avian Vocalizations BBT27 Incubator Nests BBT28 Woven and Sewn Nests BBT29 Nests Containing Protective Materials BBT30 Bowers BBT31 Nest Curiosities BBT32 Tool Use BBT33 Communication between Chick Embryos BBX AVIAN INTERFACE PHENOMENA BBX1 Unusual Attacks on Humans BBX2 Unusual Predators of Birds BBX3 Unusual Bird-Animal Psychological Interfaces BBX4 Curious Associations of Birds with Other Animals and Plants BC BIOCHEMISTRY Titles not yet posted BF FISH Titles not yet posted BG GENETICS Titles not yet posted BH HUMANS BHA EXTERNAL APPEARANCE AND MORPHOLOGY BHA1 Human Asymmetry BHA2 The Appearance of Beauty in the Human Lineage BHA3 General Physique Correlated with the Month of Birth BHA4 Human Body Badly Designed for Swimming BHA5 The Apparent Physical Degeneration of Humans BHA6 Human Physical Degeneration and Genius BHA7 Variability of External Appearance BHA8 Discordances in the Appearances of Identical Twins BHA9 Mirror-Image Twins BHA10 The Apparent Primitive Character of Some Features of the Human Body BHA11 Human and Orang-Utan Physiological Similarities BHA12 Significant Morphological Differences between Humans and the Great Apes BHA13 Sports, Monsters, Terata BHA14 Two Separate Populations of Pygmies BHA15 Birth Weight Varies with Month of Birth BHA16 Human Sexual ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 6: February 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Positive Ion Emission Before Earthquakes May Affect Animals Both folklore and modern observations are emphatic that many animals become agitated prior to earthquakes. Cats car-ry their kittens outdoors; cattle panic in their barns; dogs bark for no apparent reason; and even some humans become restless. Tributsch notes that similar behaviors also accompany certain weather situations, such as the Alpine foehn and Near East sharav, which are characterized by high concentrations of positive ions. The unusual "fogs" and luminous displays preceding some earthquakes may also have electrical origins. In essence, Tributsch has reviewed many earthquake precursors and suggests that most can be explained in terms of positive ion emission from the earth due to pre-quake strains. (Tributsch, Helmut; "Do Aerosol Anomalies Precede Earthquakes?" Nature, 276: 606, 1978.) Reference. Even humans are sensitive to "earthquake weather." See Section GQW in: Earthquakes, Tides. Unidentified Sounds. More information on this Catalog volume here . From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 133: JAN-FEB 2001 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Animal Miscellany Animals interact with humans in many curious ways. Here are a few tidbits that we have recently added to our files. The dark side of black cats. Folklore assures us that black cats are bad luck. There may be something to this notion---at least for some people. Shahzad Hussain and his colleagues at the Long Island College Hospital in New York gave a questionnaire to 321 allergy sufferers asking them to describe their cats and assess the severity of their symptoms. Those with dark cats were four times as likely to have severe symptoms as people with light-coloured cats. "We were surprised," says Hussain. "So many questions need to be answered." (Anonymous; "The Dark Side of Black Cats," New Scientist, p. 27, November 4, 2000) Tales of toppling penguins. British scientists are heading for the South Atlantic in an attempt to disprove claims that penguins fall over backwards when aircraft fly overhead. Royal Navy and RAF pilots have been bringing back reports of toppling penguins since the Falklands War in 1982. The flightless birds are said to be so mesmerized by helicopters and jets that they lose their balance as they attempt to keep track of them. (Tweedie, Neil; "Scientists to Check on Toppling Penguins," The Age, November 2, 2000. As downloaded from the web: www.theage.com.au/frontpage/ ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 42: Nov-Dec 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Remarkable Distribution Of Hydrothermal Vent Animals Hydrothermal vents support a bizarre array of large clams, mussels, worms and other curious species. These biological communities are unique in that they are supported not by solar energy but rather the earth's thermal energy. What verges on the anomalous is the appearance in both Atlantic and Pacific Oceans of very similar vent communities, with similar or identical species. How did these continent-separated communities originate ? In the words of the author of the present article, "The cooccurrence of a clam, a mussel, and a vestimentiferan worm at widely separated sites in the Pacific and Atlantic represents either an unusual distribution from a single lineage or, even more remarkably, cases of parallel evolution. " (Grassle, J. Frederick; "Hydrothermal Vent Animals: Distribution and Biology, " Science, 229:713, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #42, NOV-DEC 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 39: May-Jun 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How Animals Might Get Inverted The above title is just a literary ploy. We don't know how upside-down animals get that way; and, obviously, we don't think anyone else does either. Nevertheless, biologists are now discovering some radical things about life that could lead to some real "answers." First, we have a case of genetic material being transferred from a fish to a bacterium. The case at hand is the light-producing bacterium that provides the ponyfish with its luminous organ. In this symbiotic arrangement, the fish somehow passes genetic instructions to its retinue of bacteria. (Lewin, Roger; "Fish to Bacterium Gene Transfer," Science, 227:1020, 1985.) Comment. Perhaps symbiotic relationships are fine-tuned by the mutual exchange of information! Second, the role of viruses in transferring genetic material across species barriers is at last getting some serious attention. (Remember how Fred Hoyle was snickered at for promoting this idea in his books?) D. Erwin and J. Valentine, of the University of California, are now pointing out how a whole colony of "hopeful monsters" might be created en masse by an attack of viruses carrying new genetic blueprints. (And remember how Richard Goldschmidt got the same treatment as Fred Hoyle for suggesting "hopeful monsters" decades ago? (Anonymous; "Gene-Swapping Breaks Barriers in Evolutionary Theory," ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 95: Sep-Oct 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Dwarf mammoths in ancient egypt?Dwarf mammoths may have survived in northeastern Siberia into historical times. (SF#87) Given this possibility, B. Rosen wonders whether the ancient Egyptians might have known of them. He points to some evidence that they might have. For example, one scene painted on the tomb of one pharaoh represents tributes brought from afar to Egypt, including a parade of exotic animals. One of these animals is an obvious bear. This animal would have intrigued the pharaoh because bears and ancient Egyptians did not coexist. Just as exotic to the pharaoh would have been the miniature elephantid following just behind the bear in the painting. It was about the same size as the bear. Since this elephantid was depicted with large tusks, it was definitely not an immature. It also displayed the peculiar domed skull typical of mammoths and which is absent on African elephants. Could it have been a late-surviving dwarf mammoth brought all the way from Siberia? Of course, there are alternative interpretations. Asian elephants do have domed skulls, and the artist could have deliberately drawn the elephantid at a reduced scale. However, other animals are realistically sized. (Rosen, Baruch; "Mammoths in Ancient Egypt?" Nature, 369:364, 1994.) From Science Frontiers #95, SEP-OCT 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 66: Nov-Dec 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The babirusa: a quasi-ruminant pig The babirusa, an inhabitant of Indonesia, looks like a thin pig, but its stomach is like that of a sheep, which is a "simple" ruminant. The babirusa's stomach possesses an extra sac; and the animal often browses on leaves and shoots. It does not, however, chew a cud. The Indonesian babirusa, a pig-like animal with curious tusks and an unusual digestive system (for a pig). Taxonomists are a bit puzzled over the babirusa. They aren't sure whether its closest relatives are modern pigs, peccaries, or hippos. The babirusa's "tusks" pose more questions about its evolution: "The creature's oddest characteristic is the two impressive pairs of curving tusks grown by the males. One pair are simply extended lower canines, but the second are actually upper canines, the sockets of which have rotated, resulting in tusks that grow through the top of the muzzle and emerge from the middle of the animals's face. The effect is bizarre and startling. The males fight with their dagger-like lower canines and probably deflect opponents' blows with the upper set, thus protecting their eyes. Indonesians say the tusks are similar to deer antlers, giving the babirusa its name, which means 'pig deer.'" (Rice, Ellen K.; "The Babirusa: A Most Unusual ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 130: JUL-AUG 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Attention, Pupils!The following questions appeared in the December 11, 1999, issue of the New Scientist: Why do some animals have a non-circular pupil? Cats and some snakes have a vertical shape yet horses and goats have a horizontal one. What is the reason behind the differences and, more importantly, how do the different shapes affect how animals actually see things? The answer for the vertical slit is that it improves an animal's focus in the direction perpendicular to the slit. Thus, cats and snakes hunting close to the ground can better detect their prey over a wide horizontal field. But how about the horses, goats and other grazing animals that must keep their eyes open for predators across a wide horizon? Pupils with horizontal slits would seem to defeat this purpose. Ah, but when they lower their heads to graze, their vertical pupils become horizontal. Simple! (Anonymous; "Eye to Eye," New Scientist, p. 85, December 11, 1999.) Comments. But puzzles remain, otherwise we wouldn't address this subject. (1 ) Some snakes have round pupils (as in the illustration) having apparently been subjected to different environmental forces; (2 ) Of all the 9,000+ species of birds, only the skimmers own pupils with vertical slits. You would expect ground-feeding birds like robins and larks to also have them; ( ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 72: Nov-Dec 1990 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects 1989 SIGHTINGS OF OGOPOGO Okanagan Lake, in south central British Columbia, is the home of Ogopogo. At least this is where a large, elusive lake monster has been reported for many years. During the summer of 1989, the British Columbia Cryptozoology Club (BCCC) made two expeditions to Okana gan to search out Ogopogo. Several sightings of the animal were made, as well as a video tape. The first sighting, on July 30, was quite detailed, and we quote here from the BCCC report. July 30, 1989. Four sketches of Ogopogo from different vantage points. "The focus of the investigation turned to Summerland, and a particularly good vantage point was located at Peach Orchard Beach, Lower Summerland, on July 30. All four members of the investigating team were stationed at various points on the beachfront when, at 3:55 p.m ., a most extraordinary occurrence took place. A large patch of white water materialized close to a headland at the southern end of the beach, drawing the attention of the BCCC observers. It was about 1,000 feet distant at this point, and it was clear that a large animal was swimming in a northerly direction against the prevailing wind and slight swell. At a distance of about 600 feet, Kirk Sr. was able to see clearly through a Bushnell 40X telescope that this was the classic Ogopogo, with its humps well above the water ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 46: Jul-Aug 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Which came first?The advent of complex life keeps getting pushed back farther and farther in time, as evidenced by the following abstract: "Microfossils resembling fecal pellets occur in acid-resistant residues and thin sections of Middle Cambrian in Early Proterozoic shale. The cylindrical microfossils average 50 x 110 microns and are the size and shape of fecal pellets produced by microscopic animals today. Pellets occur in dark gray and black rocks that were deposited in the facies that also preserves sulfide minerals and that represent environments analogous to those that preserve fecal pellets today. Rocks containing pellets and algal microfossils range in age from 0.53 to 1.9 gigayears (Gyr) and include Burgess Shale, Greyson and Newland Formations, Rove Formation, and Gunflint Iron-Formation. Similar rock types of Archaean age, ranging from 2.68 to 3.8 Gyr, were barren of pellets. If the Proterozoic microfossils are fossilized fecal pellets, they provide evidence of metazoan life and a complex food chain at 1.9 Gyr ago. This occurrence predates macroscopic metazoan body fossils in the Ediacaran System at 0.67 Gyr, animal trace fossils from 0.9 to 1.3 Gyr, and fossils of unicellular eukaryotic plankton at 1.4 Gyr." (Robbins, Eleanora Iberall, et al; "Pellet Microfossils, Possible Evidence for Metazoan Life in Early Proterozoic Time," National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings, 82:5809, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 11: Summer 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Hark, hark, the dogs do bark American geophysicists have been slow to take unusual animal behavior prior to earthquakes seriously. Spurred by Chi-nese work, a network of observers has been set up in California in an earthquake-prone area. Most reports of strange animal behavior have been after-the-fact. Furthermore, the "strange behaviors" frequently turn out to be common during quake-free periods, but simply not remarked upon. Nevertheless, geophysicists did observe some clear-cut instances of animals super-sensitivity to quake phenomena. Studying aftershocks in the Mohave Desert in 1979, Donald Stierman and his colleagues often heard earthquake booms 4-l0 sec after feeling the shock and seeing their portable seismometers record the tremor. Two dogs nearby inevitably responded with a chorus of barking. Sometimes though, the human observers heard and felt nothing when the seismometers and dogs announced another aftershock. (Kerr, Richard A.; "Quake Prediction by Animals Gaining Respect," Science, 208: 695, 1980.) From Science Frontiers #11, Summer 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 25: Jan-Feb 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Learning By Injection The following abstract is taken from the Psychological Record. "In an attempt to replicate previous findings that learned information could be transferred from trained donor animals to untrained recipient animals by means of brain extracts, two groups of rats were trained to approach a food cup in response to a discriminative stimulus (click or light). RNA extracted from the brains of these animals was injected intraperitoneally into untrained rats. The two untrained groups showed a significant tendency to respond specifically to the stimulus employed during the training. The results support the conclusion that acquired behaviors can be transferred between animals by transferring brain DNA, and further suggest that the transfer effect is dependent upon and specific to the learning of the donors." (Oden, Brett B., et al; "Interanimal Transfer of Learned Behavior through Injection of Brain RNA," Psychological Record, 32:281, 1982.) Comment. Of course, morphogenic fields, as described in R. Sheldrake's A New Science of Life, could also explain this effect. From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... or "Speaking in Tongues" Planchette and Ouija-Board Phenomena Channeling Table-Tilting Xenoglossy [PHR] PBD COMMUNICATED HYSTERIA AND DELUSIONS Mass Hysteria and Psychogenic Illnesses Folie a Deux: Communication of Abnormal Mental States Self-Induced Delusions "Jumping" and Other Triggered Explosive Activities Abnormal Mass Delusions The Latah Phenomenon PBH HYPNOTIC BEHAVIOR (GENERAL FEATURES) General Features of So-Called "Hypnotic Behavior" Supposed Hypnosis by Telepathy Fascination by Inert Objects (" Spontaneous Hypnosis") Posthypnotic Behavior Effects of Magnetism on Hypnotically Induced Images Self-Hypnosis Drum Phenomena [BHB7, BHH8] Collective Hypnosis PBJ DEJA VU Deja Vu PBM MULTIPLE PERSONALITY Multiple-Personality Phenomena Hypnotic Probing of Secondary Personalities Possible Duality of Consciousness under Anesthesia PBP POSSESSION Going Berserk and Running Amok Spirit Possession Possession by Devils and Demons Vampirism The Windigo Psychosis Animal Possession (Lycanthropy) Witchcraft PBS ALTERED STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS The Ultraconscious Transcendental/Mystical Phenomena Sensory Deprivation Break-off Phenomenon Peak Experiences, Ecstasy Trances (Mediumship) Conversion (Religious, Political) Meditation Spiritualism PBZ ANOMALOUS DREAM BEHAVIOR AND DREAM CONTENT Hypnotically Induced Dreams The Need to Dream Somnabulism Lucid Dreaming Dreams and Biological States Dream Inventions Group Dreaming Recurring Dreams Precognitive Dreams [PHP] Telepathic Dreams [PHT] Dreaming Consciousness PH HIDDEN KNOWLEDGE PHD DIVINING HIDDEN MATERIALS AND OBJECTS Locating Concealed, But Known, Objects Locating Concealed, But Known, People Locating Water, Oil, and Other Minerals Sensing the Presence and/or Attention (Staring) of Other People Divining the Identity and/or Nature of Objects (Zener Cards) Divining the Identity and/or Nature of People and Animals Psychic Archeology Psychic Sleuthing ...
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... First: An Anecdote. Some 30 years ago, D. Berliner, at the University of Utah, was studying human skin. To acquire raw material, he scraped skin cells from the insides of casts discarded by skiiers who had had broken bones. From this debris, Berliner extracted numerous chemical compounds. As far as anyone could tell, these substances were odorless, so he stored them in open flasks. However, Berliner noticed that when people were working in the lab with the flasks, they were more friendly and relaxed than normal. He could not divine the reason until some months later when he decided to cover the flasks of skin-derived substances. Curiously, the lab workers soon reverted to their usual grumpy selves! What could account for this strange behavior change? Knowing that animals often communicated with one another employing chemicals called pheromones, Berliner suspected that the flasks had been releasing odorless human pheromones. Sure enough, analysis of the skin-derived materials proved him correct. Next: A Look Up the Nose. Biologists have long realized that animal noses actually contain two sensory channels. The first is the familiar olfactory system, which humans also possess. The second channel is the vomeronasal system. In animals, each system has its own separate organs, nerves, and bumps in the brain. The function of the vomeronasal system is pheromone detection. It was widely believed that humans had long ago discarded this sensory system along evolution's trail. But a closer look at the human nose by B. Jafek and D. Moran, affiliated with the Rocky Mountain Taste ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Mokele-mbembe Lake Tele is a shallow, oval lake about 4 by 5 kilometers in the People's Republic of the Congo. Swamp forest reaches to the very edge of the water. From this difficult-to-reach body of water, almost right on the equator, come reports of a large unidentified animal -- Mokele-Mbembe. In 1983, Marcelin Agnagna, a biologist, led an expedition to Lake Tele in hopes of observing MokeleMbembe. The expedition was successful, but we don't know too much more than we did before. Agnagna and others ob-served the animal from a distance of about 240 meters. Unfortunately no photos were taken. Mokele-Mbembe appeared as shown in the accompanying sketch. What is it? (Agnagna, Marcelin; "Results of the First Congolese Mokele-Mbembe Expedition," Cryptozoology, 2:103, 1983.) Comment. Vague rumors have long floated abound that dinosaurs survive in deepest Africa! Maybe they are true. Sketch of a large animal seen in Lake Tele that may be the famous Mokele-Mbembe. From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 113: Sep-Oct 1997 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sheep Foil Cattle Guards When farmers and ranchers wish to keep livestock from exiting a fenced pasture via an entrance road, they can either install an inconvenient gate or a "cattle guard." The latter is a grid of metal bars bridging a shallow pit. Cattle cannot cross because their feet would slip between the bars. Neat idea! But some sheep, normally considered rather dull animals with miniscule initiative, have invented a scheme to thwart cattle guards. When they see greener pastures, in particular succulent gardens on the nether side of a cattle guard, one sheep volunteers (? ) or is picked (we don't know which). It altruistically flings itself across the grid and stoically endures while the rest of the flock trots across its body. The selfless sheep is usually marooned on the wrong side of the grid, but at least it has the pasture all to itself. (Anonymous; "Selfless Sacrifice Puts Sheep in Clover," London Times, March 20, 1997. Cr. A.C .A . Silk.) Comment. Yes, contrary to some animal behaviorists, animals can be altruistic. Furthermore, sheep can size up a problem, conceive a solution, and act collectively. Reference. The question of altruism in mammals is discussed in Section BMB4 in our Catalog Mammals I . To order, visit here . From Science Frontiers #113, SEP-OCT 1997 . 1997-2000 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 75: May-Jun 1991 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Monster Skeletons Found In Underwater Fiji Cave The scene is a remote underwater cave 51.5 kilometers from one of Fiji's resort islands. K. Deacon, a professional diver from Sydney is the source of the following report. "' We have found what appears to be two adults, one adolescent and one juvenile,' he said. 'They bear no resemblance to any marine creature I know.' "The adult skulls were about 1 m long with a total body length of 8 m to 10 m. They looked prehistoric and perhaps were land animals or amphibious species. "The cave, now a part of a reef about 50 m under water, may once have been above sea level. .. .. . "Mr Deacon believed the creatures were either prehistoric or contempory animals unknown to science -- or, if they were some known kind of animal, then how they had found their way into the cave was a mystery." (Spencer Geoff; "Monsters Found in the Fiji Deep," New Zealand Herald , May 31, 1990, Cr. R. Collyns via L. Farish.) From Science Frontiers #75, MAY-JUN 1991 . 1991-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 33: May-Jun 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Rubberneckia The long-standing belief that unlimited rotary motion is impossible in animals has been shattered. It was, after all, a very reasonable assumption, because necks and other appendages turn only so far before bones and muscles begin to snap. Well, it seems that inside ter-mite guts there resides a single-celled animal with a head that rotates constant-ly 30 times a minute. Since none of its membranes shear during rotation, we must infer that membranes are basically fluid structures rather than solids as supposed. The animal, called Rubberneckia, has a shaft running the full length of its body plus a motor of undetermined character. To make Rubberneckia even more bizarre, thousands of tiny, rod-like bacteria occupy long grooves on the cell's surface. Like galley slaves, the bacteria row with their flagella to keep Rubberneckia moving -- a curious symbiotic relationship. (Cooke, Robert; "A Tale to Make Your Head Spin,: Boston Globe, March 20, 1984, p. 1. Cr. P. Gunkel) From Science Frontiers #33, MAY-JUN 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 39: May-Jun 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Bone Bed Discovered In Florida A new bond bed has been discovered south of Tampa. Paleontologists say it it is one of the richest fossil deposits ever found in the United States. It has yielded the bones of more than 70 species of animals, birds, and aquatic creatures. About 80% of the bones belong to plains animals, such as camels, horses, mammoths, etc. Bears, wolves, large cats, and a bird with an estimated 30-foot wingspan are also represented. Mixed in with all the land animals are sharks' teeth, turtle shells, and the bones of fresh and salt water fish. The bones are all smashed and jumbled together, as if by some catastrophe. The big question is how bones from such different ecological nitches -- plains, forests, ocean -- came together in the same place. (Armstrong, Carol; "Florida Fossils Puzzle the Experts," Creation Research Society Quarterly, 21:198, 1985.) From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 50: Mar-Apr 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Strange Patterns In Another Oceanic Habitat The sea-floor vents and their unique assemblages of animals are just beginning to be explored. "Perhaps the most intriguing biological mystery in the vent area, however, was the finding of thousands of highly symmetric, Chinese-checkerboard-like patterns on the seafloor, which were first photographed several years ago. [P .] Rona thinks the patterns may be either an animal itself or the burrows made by an animal. He says the patterns are 'dead ringers for a 70million-year-old...trace fossil that is exposed in the Alps." (Weisburd, Stefi; "Hydrothermal Discoveries from the Deep," Science News, 130:389, 1986.) Thousands of such checkerboard patterns have been spotted on the seafloors. From Science Frontiers #50, MAR-APR 1987 . 1987-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... in the Fortean Times; "The first incident occurred in Easton, Pennsylvania, in 1989. As 16-yearold Crystal Cresseveur set off for church around midday on Sunday 24 September, she noticed a commotion in the hedge outside her house, it was a writhing furry bundle of six young squirrels all squeaking at once. At first she thought they were playing but she soon realized they were in a panic, and as they pulled in all directions at once they had become firmly stuck among the trunk of the bushes. She called her father, Paul, and their neighbour, Charles Kootares, and with help from the growing crowd of onlookers, managed to extract the frantic cluster from the hedge." In this case, the squirrels' tails could not be disentangled, and the poor animals were put to sleep. The second incident occurred in Baltimore on September 18, 1991. Here, the squirrels' tails were tangled and stuck together by tree sap, hair, and nesting debris. (Anonymous; "Tangled Tales," Fortean Times, no. 63, p. 13, 1992.) Comment. Squirrel kings have even received a modicum of attention in the scientific literature: Animal Kingdom, 55:46, 1952. (See Incredible Life .) Some involve several adult squirrels, and it is hard to imagine how such active animals could become mutually tied and/ or stuck together. Reference. Our catalog Biological Anomalies: Mammals I also deals with the problem of "rat kings." Information on this volume as well as our handbook Incredible Life can ...
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... the level of the groundwater is too high. Nor were they used as dumps; archaeological evidence shows that they were filled in shortly after they were dug, and some have very little in them." It was only when Therkorn mapped the pits did she see that they were not distributed at random. Connecting them as children do with dot-puzzles, she quickly recognized the constellations Taurus (bull), Canis Major (dog), Pegasus (winged horse), and Hercules. The pits were geoglyphs of a new sort, streching for more than 100 meters, sort of Nazca lines in Holland. About 500 meters from the 57-pit array, still another Taurus pattern of pits was uncovered. The mysterious pits didn't contain much, but there were often a few animal bones. The Taurus pits yielded cattle bones; the Pegasus pits, horse bones; etc.; with the bones matching the zodiac animal in each sign. Therkorn surmised that the animal remains represented ritual sacrifices that were probably time-coordinated with specific celestial positions of the real stellar constellations. The pit-zodiac story does not end at Muggenburg. At Velserbroek, over 40 kilometers distant, Taurus and Pegasus pit-patterns have been identified. These are dated at 600 BC -- 1,000 years earlier than Muggenburg. The pit-zodiacs show astronomical sophistication unexpected in European farmers 2,600 years ago. And how did these "barbarians" learn about the zodiac of the "civilized" Greeks and Babylonians long before the Roman legions pushed north into Gaul? Of course, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 55: Jan-Feb 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Ubiquity Of Sea Serpents Public interest is usually focussed (by the media) upon the supposed monsters in Loch Ness, Lake Champlain, the Chesapeake Bay, etc. Actually, an immense body of sea serpent reports also exists. B. Heuvelmans collected many of these in his 1965 classic In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents. P.H . LeBlond, a professor at the University of British Columbia, is extending Heuvelman's work, concentrating on the thousand miles of Pacific Coast between Alaska and Oregon. Since 1812, there have been 53 sightings of sea serpents or other unidentified animals along this narrow strip of ocean. Some of these are very impressive. Take this one for example: "In January 1984 a mechanical engineer named J.N . Thompson from Bellingham, Washington, was fishing for Chinook salmon from his kayak on the Spanish Banks about three-quarters of a mile off Vancouver, British Columbia, when an animal surface between 100 and 200 feet away. It appeared to be about 18-20 feet long and about two feet wide, with a 'whitish-tan throat and lower front' body. It had stubby horns like those of a giraffe, large (' twelve to fifteen inches long') floppy ears, and a 'somewhat pointed black snout.' The creature appeared to Thompson to be 'uniquely streamlined for aquatic life,' and to swim 'very efficiently and ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 128: MAR-APR 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Consciousness Gene We humans assume that our consciousness is something more than just the sum total of all our senses, as integrated by our brains. In other words, consciousness is something "special" that makes us more than automatons. Other animals may be automatons, but not us! D. Jones speculates in Nature that if consciousness is a definite, inheritable characteristic, it must have had survival value for it to have evolved. It then follows that consciousness must be en-coded somewhere in our genes. Only a single gene may be enough, for consciousness seems to be an uncomplicated phenomenon. Why? Because just a few simple molecules, such as those found in anesthetics, can disable it completely without affecting other bodily functions. Eventually, Jones continues, the gene (or small number of genes) responsible for consciousness will be identified. Then, we can determine for certain if any of the lower animals are also conscious. We think chimps and dolphins might be, but we're not really sure until we see if they have the necessary genes. In fact, the old-time behaviorists could be right, and all the other animals really are merely automatons. That would definitely make us "special"! Once we have the consciousness genes in our labs, we can introduce them into those other species, such as Rover and Kitty, upon whom we would like to confer the boon of consciousness ...
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... -915554-26-7 , 7x10. Biological Anomalies: Humans II: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print The second Catalog volume on human biological anomalies focuses upon the "internal" machinery of the body (1 ) Its major organs; (2 ) Its support structure (the skeleton); and (3 ) Its vital subsystems (the central nervous system and the immune system) Typical subjects covered: Enigma of the fetal graft * Phantom limbs * Blood chimeras * Anomalous human combustion * Bone shedders * Skin shedders * "Perfection" of the eye * Dearth of memory traces * Sudden increase of hominid brain size * Health and the weather * Periodicity of epidemics * Extreme longevity * AIDS anomalies * Cancer anomalies * Human limb regeneration * Nostril cycling * Voluntary suspended animation * Male menstruation [Picture caption: Is the complexity of the human eye anomalous?] 297 pages, hardcover, $19.95, 40 illus., 3 indexes, 1993. 494 references, LC 91-68541, ISBN 0-915554-27-5 , 7x10. Biological Anomalies: Humans III: A Catalog of Biological Anomalies Sorry, Out of print Completing our trilogy on human anomalies, this volume focuses on four areas (1 ) the human fossil record; (2 ) biochemistry and genetics; (3 ) possible unrecognized living hominids; and (4 ) human interactions with other species and "entities " Typical subjects covered: Neanderthal demise * Giant skeletons * Tiny skeletons * Hominid gracilization * Sudden brain expansion * Human chimeras * Sasquatch / Bigfoot, Alma, ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 35: Sep-Oct 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Man The Scavenger Some 2 million years ago, man's supposed ancestors were meat-eaters. But were they noble hunters with dominion over other life forms? Probably not! The analysis of tool marks on ancient animal bones tells us that human tool marks predominate in regions of the bones where there was little meat, as if ancient humans were dismembering the animals for skins and other products. On the meat-bearing portions of the bones, the tooth marks of non-human carnivores predominate. Where the tool marks overlap the tooth marks of other carnivores, the tool marks are mostly on top of the tooth marks. The gist of the tool-mark analysis is that humans got to the animals second -- after the non-human carnivores. In other words, ancient humans were probably meat scavengers -- opportunists rather than the noble hunters often portrayed. As a matter of fact, one characteristic of a scavenger species is its ability to cover wide areas with little expenditure of energy, like the vultures. Now, human bipedalism is pitifully poor for running down game but great for searching far and wide with minimum physical effort. Tooth-wear studies of ancient human skulls indicate that humans were vegetarians first and meat-eaters second. This situation was suddenly reversed when Homo erectus came along. Then, according to toothwear patterns, there was a shift to a mainly meat diet. This was also the time when ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 27: May-Jun 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Does ri = mermaid?The astounding item that follows is taken from the new journal Cryptozoology, which is the official journal of the International Society of Cryptozoology. The Society was founded by a group of scientists interested in unrecognized species of animals. "An aquatic creature roughly resembling the traditional 'mermaid,' and sometimes identified with it, is reportedly known through a variety of encounters with natives of Central New Ireland. The ri, as they are called, are frequently sighted by fishermen, occasionally netted or found dead on beaches, and sometimes eaten. Males, females and juveniles are reported, subsisting on fish in the shallow seas around the Bismarck and Solomon archipelagos. It is unlikely that the animals are dugongs or porpoises, both of which are known to, and readily identified by, the natives." New Ireland is northeast of Papua-New Guinea. The article proper goes on to describe the ri as an air-breathing mammal with human-like head, arms, genitalia, and upper trunk. The lower trunk is legless and terminates in a pair of lateral fins. (Wagner, Roy; "The Ri -- Unidentified Aquatic Animals of New Ireland," Cryptozoology, 1:33, 1982.) Reference. Unrecognized mammals are cataloged in Chapter BMU in Biological Anomalies: Mammals II. Ordering information can be found here . From Science Frontiers #27, MAY-JUN 1983 . 1983-2000 ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 28: Jul-Aug 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Nazca Figures Duplicated Sensational literature makes much of the huge geometrical figures and outlines of animals etched into the high Peruvian tablelands. Most of these figures and lines are so large that one can fully appreciate them only from the air. This fact has led some writers to invoke ancient astronauts and even ancient Peruvian balloon technology. The fact of the matter is that archeological evidence is pretty convincing that the Nazca Indians constructed the lines about 500 A.D . But did they have extraterrestrial help or use some advanced technology? The author of the subject article, with the help of a few friends, answered these questions quite convincingly -- in the negative -- in the summer of 1982. Using sticks and string, they scaled up a small copy of the famous Nazca "condor" into a 440-foot replica of the real thing on a Kentucky landfill. The scaling up involved no high technology; in fact, even angular measurements were avoided. Instead of removing stones to make the lines, as the Nazcans did, lime was applied. The whole figure was laid out and limed in just a few man-hours. Then, from an aircraft at 1,000 feet, photos were taken. Lo and behold, a very convincing replica of the Nazca condor appeared on the prints. Still unanswered, though, is why anyone would want to make such huge drawings. (Nickell, Joe; "The Nazca Drawings ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Is caddy a mammal?" Caddy" is short for Cadborosaurus , the speculative sea animal seen rather frequently off the British Columbia coast and as far south as Oregon. Professor P. LeBlond, University of British Columbia, recently presented a paper on Caddy at a joint meeting of the Canadian and American Societies of Zoology. Of all the supposed sea serpents, Caddy seems closest to respectability. Not only are there many sightings on record, but the remains of a 3-meterlong carcass of an apparent juvenile specimen of Caddy was discovered in the stomach of a sperm whale. Adult Caddys are about 7 meters long. "The descriptions [of Caddy] are generally similar. They suggest a long-necked beast with short pointed front flippers, a horse-like head, distinct eyes, a visible mouth and either ears or giraffe-like horns. Often Caddy is described as having hair like a seal, and sometimes a mane along its neck." Most interesting is Caddy's body hair, which implies a mammal rather than a reptile. But if it is a mammal, how does it get air, since it surfaces so rarely? Some have suggested that the giraffe-like horns are snorkels! But E. Bousfield, a colleague of LeBlond, thinks that the tubercules reported along the animal's back might be gill-like tissues that would allow a mammal to extract oxygen from seawater! With so ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 97: Jan-Feb 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Possible Survival Of Giant Sloths In South America For many years, rumors have been filtering out of trackless western Amazonia telling of a 6-foot, 500-pound giant sloth clothed in reddish hair. Rubber gatherers of the region report that this fearsome creature emits a hideous odor and transfixes one with a paralyzing stare! It also seems impervious to spears and shotgun pellets. Natives and some cryptozoologists equate this animal to the legendary Mapinguari. P. J. Wynne's impression of South America's late-surviving giant sloth. D.C . Owen, an American biologist working with the Goeldi Natural History Museum in Belem, Brazil, has been tracking these stories. The present fossil record asserts that giant ground sloths resembling the supposed Mapinguari did occupy western Amazonia up to about 8700 years ago. To this must be added the appearance of an apparently fresh skin of the animal in 1897. Even more recently, gold miners are said to have killed a giant sloth. As with the North American Bigfoot, hard data are elusive, particularly actual specimens, dead or alive. Owen is optimistic, however. He sees his hunt for the Mapinguari as more than just another useless monster hunt: "If South America's largest terrestrial mammal has been hidden to science until 1994, what else does the Amazon have in terms of biodiversity that's new to us?" (Stolzenberg, William; "Bigfoot of the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 43: Jan-Feb 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Return Of The Tasmanian Tiger "In March 1982, a park ranger in northwestern Tasmania awoke in the dead of night. From force of habit, he scanned the woods, his spotlight punching through black walls of rain. And there in the beam was one of the strangest creatures he had ever seen. About the size and shape of a dog, it was covered with stripes that ran from its shoulders across its back to its thick, rigid, tail. "The animal stood still as the startled ranger counted the stripes, then it nonchalantly gave an enormous jaw-stretching yawn. But when the ranger reached for his camera, the creature faded into the undergrowth, leaving nothing but a rank smell. It also left a trail of excitement, for the bizarre beast looked exactly like a Tasmanian tiger -- also called a thylacine or Tasmanian wolf -- an animal thought to have been extinct nearly 50 years ago." Hundreds of people claim they have spotted the Tasmanian tiger since the last captive died in 1936, but we have no good photos or other "proofs." Mediaman Ted Turner has offered a prize of $100,000 for "verifiable evidence" that the Tasmanian tiger still lives. Consequently, the Tasmanian wilds are being combed diligently and automatic cameras, triggered by infrared beams, are being set up in likely spots. (Bunk, Steve; "Just How Extinct Is Tasmania's ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 64: Jul-Aug 1989 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Sheep circles!Britain has been plagued lately with circular areas incised in fields of cereal crops. G.T . Meaden has collected scores of such events, some of which he has published in his Journal of Meteorology. On the theory that one kind of circle might somehow be related to another kind of circle (the same reasoning biologists employ to draw the Tree of Life), J.C . Belcher submitted a most interesting letter to Meaden. "By their very nature sheep tend to be stubborn self-willed animals exhibiting individual characteristics not suggestive of good group co-ordination. For example, when disturbed by a potential predator, a flock of sheep tends to mass protectively in a group of irregular outline, the group being formed of individual groups of small numbers of sheep. When grazing undisturbed, sheep tend to fan out from a given point, sometimes following a dominant group leader. Progress is usually uncoordinated and ragged. In general, patterns presented by sheep en masse are seen to be haphazard, indeed, generally random in nature. If follows that any suggestion of flocks of sheep forming geometric patterns would appear to be highly improbable, since this would call for group coordination only to be found in such as wolves and wild-dogs. In view of this it would appear that certain exceptional observations made on Sunday 21 August 1988 would be worthy of recording. "Out on an afternoon drive M. Belcher ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 81: May-Jun 1992 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Eusocial Beetles The best-known eusocial animals are the ants, termites, and naked mole rats. As As biological observations accumulate, the phenomenon is being found elsewhere in the animal kingdom. The following quotation extends eusociality to the beetles and (in case you wondered) defines "eusociality": "The weevil Austroplatypus incompertus lives in galleries in the heartwood of Eucalyptus trees. Colonies are initiated by solitary fertilized females and, when mature, manifest the three phenomena which characterize eusociality: overlapping generations, cooperative brood care and division into reproductive and sterile (unfertilized) castes. Each colony contains one fertilized and five or so unfertilized adult females, the job of the second group being to deal with predators and to extend and maintain the galleries." (Anonymous; "Sociable Beetles," Nature, 356:111, 1992.) Comment. Eusociality is somewhat of a puzzle in evolutionary theory because one must ask how the phenomenon arises, when it requires some individuals to forswear reproduction and thus give up the chance to pass their genes directly on to progeny. Explanations of such extreme altruism generally state that the nonbreeders are really helping to pass some (or even all) of their genes on by supporting the colony, for they are usually closely related to the breeding female. From Science Frontiers #81, MAY-JUN 1992 . 1992-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 87: May-Jun 1993 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Uniqueness Of Human Adolescence What major biological characteristics separate humans from other animals? The usual list begins with our large brain and bipedality, but these features are shared with dolphins and birds, respectively. Even our peculiar reproductive biology (permanent breasts, continuous sexual receptivity of both sexes, etc.) no longer seem so unique, particularly after reading about the antics of the bonobos (pygmy chimps)! But wait! No other animal, even the other primates, go through adolescence. That time period between puberty and the attainment of adult stature turns out to be something uniquely human. The great puzzle of adolescence, according to B. Bogin, is its evolutionary origin. What possible advantage does adolescence confer on humans in the battle for survival? To the contrary, skipping the teens would appear to be an advantage in the survivability of parents! One guess is that adolescence -- all 8 or so years of it -- is required for the development of the complex social skills needed by adults. (Bogin, Barry; "Why Must I Be a Teenager at All?" New Scientist, p. 34, March 6, 1993.) From Science Frontiers #87, MAY-JUN 1993 . 1993-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 13: Winter 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects New Definition For Humans Needed One scientist has defined humans as "tool makers" as distinguished from "tool users." This distinction is necessary because several animals employ tools for simple tasks, such as fishing termites out of holes. However, Kitahara-Frisch points out in this paper that experiments by Wright with a young orangutan proved that at least one animal can actually make tools; that is, use one tool to make another. More specifically, Wright taught the orangutan to strike sharp flint flakes from a core and then use them to cut a cord and gain access to its favorite food. (Kitahara-Frisch, J.; "Apes and the Making of Stone Tools," Current Anthropology, 21:359, 1980.) Comment. Apparently, with orangutans, at least, no manipulative or cognitive barriers exist to prevent them from entering their own Stone Age. Reference. The ability of non-human mammals to manufacture and use tools is cataloged at BMT11 in Biological Anomalies: Mammals I. To order, go to: here . From Science Frontiers #13, Winter 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 94: Jul-Aug 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Our genes aren't us!Almost without exception, biology textbooks, scientific papers, popular articles, and TV documentaries convey the impression that an organism's genes completely specify the living animal or plant. In most people's minds, the strands of DNA are analogous to computer codes that control the manufacture and disposition of proteins. Perhaps our current fascination with computers has fostered this narrow view of heredity. Do our genes really contain all the information necessary for constructing human bodies? In the April 1994 issue of Discover, J. Cohen and I. Stewart endeavor to set us straight. The arguments against the "genes-are-everything" paradigm are long and complex, but Cohen and Stewart also provide some simple, possibly simplistic observations supporting a much broader view of genetics. Mammalian DNA contains fewer bases than amphibian DNA, even though mammals are considered more complex and "advanced." The implication is that "DNA-as-a -message" must be a flawed metaphor. Wings have been invented at least four times by divergent classes (pterosaurs, insects, birds, bats); and it is very unlikely that there is a common DNA sequence that specifies how to manufacture a wing. The connections between the nerve cells comprising the human brain represent much more information than can possibly be encoded in human DNA. A caterpillar has the same DNA as the butterfly it eventually becomes. Ergo, something ...
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