79 results found.
... Shark and Camel Protein Convergence of Elephant and Insect Pheromone BMD DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALS IN SPACE AND TIME BMD1 Remarkable Congregations and Concentrations of Mammals BMD2 Apparent Dearths and Absences of Mammals BMD3 Cycles in Mammal Populations BMD4 Exotic Mammals BMD5 Geographically Separated Populations of Flightless Mammals BMD6 Sharp Zoogeographical Divisions Despite Minimal Barriers to Movement BMD7 Decrease in Biodiversity with Latitude BMD8 Preference for Certain Geological Formations BMD9 Entombed Mammals BMD10 Late Survival of Mammoths and Mastadons BMD11 Current or Very Recent Survival of Giant Ground Sloths BMD12 Current Survival of the Thylacine BMD13 Current or Very Recent Survival of Steller's Sea Cow BMD14 Miscellaneous Potential Late Survivors Species Richness Correlated with Latitude BME THE FOSSIL RECORD OF MAMMALS BME1 Scarcity of Transitional Fossils in the Class Mammalia BME2 Persistence of Certain Mammalian Morphological Forms in the Fossil Record BME3 Explosive Radiations in Mammalian Evolution BME4 Unexplained Extinctions of Large Mammals BME5 The Failure of Evolution to Improve Mammal Survivability BME6 Anomalously Early Fossils BME7 Track-Like Markings in Ancient Strata BME8 Mammals with Histories Known Only from Subfossils BME9 Anomalous Distribution of Mammalian Skeletal Material BME10 Parallelisms in the Mammalian Fossil Record BME11 Pleistocene Dwarfing of Some Mammals BME12 Variations in Mammalian Teeth and Skeletons Show a Definite Direction Very Early Australian Placental Mammals Eurasian Apes as Ancestors of the Great Apes (and Humans) Aquatic Sloths Evolution of Cetacean Osmoregulation Evolution of Giraffe Necks Bipedal Apes (before Humans) BMF BODILY FUNCTIONS BMF1 Water-Breathing in Mammals BMF2 Remarkable Adaptations in Diving Mammals BMF3 Oddities of Digestion BMF4 Perpetual Growth in Mammals BMF5 Limb Generation in Mammals BMF6 Anomalies of Hibernation in Monotremes BMF7 The "Winter Sleep" of Bears BMF8 Freeze-Avoidance in Hibernating Mammals BMF9 Cold- ...
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... -Spot Tracks ECH3 Dearth of Continental Hot Spots ECH4 Non-Random Distribution of Hot Spots ECH5 Thermal Plumes Correlated with Other Geophysical Activity EQ SEISMIC PROBING OF INNER EARTH EQA LOCALIZED STRUCTURES IN THE CORE AND MANTLE EQA1 Stratification of Basement Rocks EQA2 Deep Continental Roots EQA3 Deep Penetration of Subducted Slabs EQA4 Lateral Inhomogeneities in the Lower Mantle EQA5 Mysterious Structures at the Core-Mantle Boundary EQA6 Seismic Reflectors EQD SEISMIC DETECTION OF LARGE SCALE DISCONTINUITIES, ZONES, STRUCTURES EQD1 Velocity Discontinuities EQD2 Channels and Zones EQD3 Structural Anomalies of the Inner Core EQD4 Anomalies Associated with Mantle Convection Cells EQQ ANOMALOUS SEISMIC SIGNALS EQQ1 Deep-Focus Earthquakes ES STRATIGRAPHIC ANOMALIES ESA EMBEDDED ACCRETION STRUCTURES ESA1 Cylindrical Structures in Rock and Unconsolidated Sediments ESA2 Spherical Aggregates ESA3 Concretions ESA4 Small Fused Structures ESA5 Geodes ESA6 Orbicules ESB ANOMALOUS BIOLOGICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESB1 Biological Extinction Events ESB2 Biological Explosion Events ESB3 Recent Vegetation and Shallow Water Fossils at Great Depths ESB4 Long-Buried, Undecomposed Organic Matter ESB5 Living and Fossil Marine Organisms Found Far Inland ESB6 Living Organisms and Recent Fossils at Very High Altitudes ESB7 Growth Structures on Marine Organisms and Their Fossils ESB8 Animals Entombed in Rocks ESB9 Living Organisms at Great Depths ESB10 Fossils of Warm-Climate, Light Dependent Organisms Found in the Polar Regions ESB11 Time-Wise Anomalous Fossils ESB12 Skipping in the Fossil Record ESB13 "Special" Nature of Fossils ESC ANOMALOUS CHEMICAL PHENOMENA IN GEOLOGY ESC1 Chemical Anomalies in the Stratigraphic Record ESC2 Chemical Anomalies in Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks ESC3 Surface Films on Rocks ESC4 Spontaneous, Rapid, Exothermic Reactions in Nature ESC5 Death Gulches ESC6 Violent Lake Turnovers ESC7 Petrifactions and Lignifications ESC8 Geological Effects of Natural Combustion ESC9 ...
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... with Blond Hair, Blue Eyes White Pygmies in Paraguay Guanche Origin Blacks in America [MGT, Olmec Stone Heads] Titans: Who Were They? MAC CUSTOMS, GAMES Similarity of Jewish and Zulu Customs Asian Customs in Central and North America Polynesia (Maori) Customs in South and Central America Neanderthal Burials Money-Cowrie in New World Chinese Customs of the Maya Aztec Backgammon Africans in South America Board-Game diffusion MAD BIOCHEMISTRY Maori Blood-Group Anomalies Blood Types and Diffusion: Global Anomalies Zuni Blood-Type Enigma DNA: Out-of-Africa Theory DNA and New World Settlement Polynesian DNA in New World DNA and Human-Diffusion Anomalies Basque DNA Differences Polynesia/Easter Island Biochemical Anomalies Japanese DNA in South America African DNA in China DNA and Polynesian Origins MAF FOSSILS, MUMMIES, CORPSES American Extinction of Megafauna Denied Grooving of Teeth Anomalously Ancient Fossils: Pliocene, Holocene, Miocene, etc. [BHE] Mummy Anomalies Teeth and Implications for the Settlement of Americas Calaveras Skull Controversy Minnesota Man/Loess Man/ Nebraska Man/Los Angeles Man/Vero Beach Man, etc. Caucasian Mummies in China Vast Ancient Cemeteries Light-Skinned Mummies in New Guinea Ice Man Tattoos Humerus (Olecranon) Perforation Neanderthal Fossils in the New World? Wyoming Mystery Mummy Evidence of Ancient Cannibalism Kennewick Man and Similar Recent Discoveries Rats in New Zealand That Suggest Pre-Maori Occupants Teeth and Ainu Origin Controversial Guadeloupe Skeleton Fossils Supporting the Multiregional Theory Ancient Horse-Cribbing Polynesian Fossils in the New World South American Fossils in New Zealand Babirusa Bones in Canada Humans and Domesticated Ground Sloths Trepanation Yuha Burial Problem Human Hair at ...
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... 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 was not the same animal... It is much larger...perhaps 25 kg. It is usually encountered on the ground and may flee on the ground rather than taking to the trees...Its whooping call is suggestive of an indri." The Kidoky is probably the giant aboreal lemur ( Palaeopropithecus ), known only from subfossils 1,000 or more years old. (Burney, David A., and Ramilisonia; "The Kilopilopitsofy , Kidoky , and Bokyboky : Accounts of Strange Animals from Belo-sur-mer, Madagascar, and the ...
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... quantitative estimates tell us that the volcanic sources are grossly inadequate. So are all other possible terrestrial sources. Therefore, some scientists, such as D. Deming, University of Oklahoma, have been looking spaceward. Deming ventures that extraterrestrial sources of water and carbon may be four or five orders of magnitude greater than suspected. Obviously, a steady bombardment of icy comets might fulfill Deming's requirements. Down the long eons of geological time, they could have filled the oceans and showered all that excess carbon onto the planet's surface. Deming ups the stakes in the icy-comet controversy when he links these fluffy snowballs to the well-known vagaries of life on earth. "The extraterrestrial influx rate may also act as the pacemaker of terrestrial evolution, at times leading to mass extinctions through climatic shifts induced by changes in accretion rates with concommitant disruptions of the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Life on earth may be balanced precariously between cosmic processes which deliver an intermittent stream of life-sustaining volatiles from the outer solar system or beyond, and biological and tectonic processes which remove these same volatiles from the atmosphere by sequestering water and carbon in the crust and mantle." (Deming, David; "On the Possible Influence of Extraterrestrial Volatiles on Earth's Climate and the Origin of the Oceans," Palaeo , 146:33, 1999. Cr. P. Huyghe) Comment. Need we mention the book Living Comets , by F. Hoyle and C. Wickramasinghe? Why stop at water and carbon? From Science Frontiers #126, NOV-DEC 1999 . ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The Stone Enigmas of New England Astronomy Sun-Earth-Moon System May Not Be Stable Changes in Solar Rotation Biology Hopeful Monsters Rather Than Gradual Evolution? Hedgehogs Use Toad Venom for Defense Blind Man Runs on Lunar Time Infections From Comets Geology Will Radiohalos in Coalified Wood Upset Geological Clocks? How Real Are Biological Extinctions in the Fossil Record? Geophysics Another Indian Ocean Light Wheel Ghostly White Disk and Light Beam in Sky Fast-moving Dark Bands Cross Halo The Morning Glory Giant Ball Lightning Psychology Does Man Survive Death? ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 8: Fall 1979 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Enigmatic Stone Forts of the American Midwest Libyan Signs From Southeastern Kentucky Astronomy Are the Sun's Fires Going Out? An Oasis on Mars -- No Palm Trees But... Due to A Fortunate Coincidence You Can Read About A Fortunate Coincidence Rings of Uranus: Invisible and Impossible? Biology Convergent Evolution Or Chance Look-alikes The Importance of Nonsense Geology Coral Carbon Ratios Confound Chronometry Old Tektites in Young Sediments? Iridium and Mass Extinctions Geophysics Brontides Become Respectable Chicken-plucking by Tornados Psychology Deathbed Experiences Laid to Rest ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ancient Mud Structures in Colorado Astronomy At Poverty Point Astronomy The Cosmic Whirl Where Are the Primordial Stars? Biology Chessie Captured on Videotape Short-circuiting Heredity Remarkable Engineering Design in Nature Geology Facing Up to the Gaps The Cretaceous-tertiary Extinction Bolide Geophysics Zoom Lens in the Atmosphere Psychology High Technology Experiments in Parapsychology ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Who Mapped Antarctica in Pre-medieval Times? The Mallia Table The Great Wall of the Incas Astronomy Galactic Shell Game Order From Disorder? Biology Four 'Clever' Adaptations Brains Not Hardwired Evolution of Man and Malaria Is A Dog More Like A Lizard Or A Chicken? Geology The Case Against Impact Extinctions Subterranean Electric Currents The Magnetic Jerk Problem Geophysics Spiked Ball Lightning Whirlwind Spirals in Cereal Fields: Quintuplet Formations More Mysterious Hums Psychology Hypnotically Accelerated Burn Wound Healing Mental Control of Allergies Why Most People Are Right-handed Chemistry & Physics Zeta Not A Higgs: Too Bad! ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 59: Sep-Oct 1988 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Stele with Unknown Glyphs Found Near Vera Cruz All Roads Lead to Chaco Canyon How and When the Americas Were Peopled Astronomy "? " ! ? Nereid: Grotesque Shape Or Two-faced? Memoirs of A Dissident Scientist Biology Nothing Reacts with Something? Periodic Extinctions and Explosions in Terrestrial Life Aids: Another Great Deceiver Geology Going for Gold Is There Truth in the Grains? Did An Asteroid Impact Trigger the Ice Ages? The New Archaeoperyx Fossil Geophysics Fish and Winkle Showers Lightningless Thunder? Psychology The Enigma of Multiple Personality Observations of Luminous Phenomena Around the Human Body ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Ogam, Ogam, Everywhere Unbelievable Baalbek Astronomy Why Didn't Galileo Resolve Saturn's Rings? Asteroids That Turn Into Comets A New Face on Mars? Biology Anomalous Geographical Distribution of Diabetes Mellitus Purposeful Evolution? Lop-sided Evolution Update on the "infinite Dilution" Experiments Geology Mysterious Stone Rings Global Fire At the K-T Boundary Another "Cookie Cutter" Hole Collision/eruption/extinction/ Magnetic Reversal Geophysics Mystery Glow on the Sea Floor Airborne Observations of the Marfa Lights Spiral-circle Ground Patterns in Field Crops Icy Comets Evaporating? General How Genius Gets Nipped in the Bud ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 69: May-Jun 1990 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The enigmatic "mooring stones" Astronomy Mystery of the missing comets Megawalls across the cosmos A TRIO OF STRANGE METEORS Biology Extinction countdown Extinction discounted New species emerging? Don't pet your house plants! Geology Deep-sixing another hypothesis? A CLASH OF HYPOTHESES Geophysics Machine-like underground noises Lightning in the family Physics Fracto-fusion? Gravity-defying gyros come down to earth Krypton-cluster magic numbers General Spontaneous order, evolution, and life ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 103: Jan-Feb 1996 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Passenger pigeons not extinct!The English science magazine New Scientist has received numerous letters from persons confirming this assertion. For example, J. Howlett wrote: "In my experience, the sight of pigeons hitching a lift on the underground is nothing unusual. I too have often travelled from Paddington, westwards in my case -- not in frequently in the company of a pigeon, sometimes even two. "It raises fascinating questions. Do they just fly across the line and get the next train back? How many round trips a day do they make? Do they decide in advance how far to travel? Do they study the timetables?" (Howlett, Jack, et al; "Passenger Pigeons," New Scientist, p. 66, September 30, 1995) Comment. Birds frequently alight on ships at sea and even ride on the backs of animals, but these subway pigeons seem to be more than opportunistic! From Science Frontiers #103, JAN-FEB 1996 . 1996-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 93: May-Jun 1994 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cold-blooded birds?Zoologists have been taking it for granted that birds evolved from warm-blooded, active dinosaurs. They may now have to redraw that part of the avian family tree, because the microscopic structure of the leg bones of two species of long-extinct birds suggest otherwise. "Cross sections of the bones of these birds, which lived during the time of the dinosaurs, reveal growth rings -- concentric rings where normal bone growth was interrupted, possibly because of seasonal temperature changes. No such rings are found in the bones of modern birds, which maintain their body temperatures metabolically even in cold weather. But growth rings are found in such reptiles as crocodiles, which cannot maintain their temperatures metabolically, and in some fossil dinosaurs." (Browne, Malcolm W.; "Study May Shake Birds Down from the Dinosaur Tree," New York Times, March 17, 1994. Cr. J. Covey.) From Science Frontiers #93, MAY-JUN 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 103: Jan-Feb 1996 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology A REMARKABLE MAYAN SUSPENSION BRIDGE Did irish monks build this new england chamber circa 700 ad? Two probable frauds Astronomy Einstein's nemesis: di herculis A BRIEF HISTORY OF QUANTIZED TIME Biology Passenger pigeons not extinct! I HISS THEREFORE I AM Geology Target: south america Fossil mantle plume under south america But what about the hawaiian volcanic chain? Geophysics A SUBTERRANEAN TROMBONE Anomalous radar echoes and visual phenomenon "BLUE JETS" EMITTED UPWARD FROM TOPS OF THUNDERCLOUDS Stythe = choke damp Psychology Seeing is feeling Mathematics How to find a piece of pi ...
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... pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Unidentified Object May 7, 1994. The South Pacific. On this date, the Chief Officer of the m.v . Forthbank , A.D . MacPherson, observed the object detailed below. The vessel was at 13 09'S , 137 49'W enroute to Papeete. "Shortly after sunset at 0337 UTC the 'object' shown in the sketch was observed crossing the sky from starboard. Initial observation was made as the object passed Sirius but whether or not it emanated from there remains unclear. "The passage of the object took about 20 seconds, appearing to follow a straight line through Canis Major, Puppis and Carina, and its luminous intensity was constant until a rapid drop just prior to extinction short of Crux. The object's 'tail' extended upwards about 3" in length with a curve towards the direction of travel and had a bluish tinge while the object itself was whitish in colour." (Ginder, D.E .; "Unidentified Object," Marine Observer, 65:73, 1995.) From Science Frontiers #100, JUL-AUG 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... zenith, I could see that it was in fact a group of at least 30 lights distributed in a broad, symmetrical V-configuration, reminiscent of a boomerang. Three members of my family who were with me also observed the group of lights. "Each individual light of the group looked like a star of third or fourth magnitude; the color was a pale white similar to a neon light, with a slight tint of yellow. The brightness was rather steady, with no apparent flicker. The angular width of the group was about 4 degrees, and the central angle of the V was about 150 degrees. It was first visible about 20 degrees above the western horizon and disappeared at about that altitude in the east. The disappearance was gradual, probably as a result of atmospheric extinction. Since the group was in view for approximately two minutes, the mean angular velocity must have been a bit more than one degree per second. All these estimates are approximate of course. No noise was heard during the observation." Noel added that the lights maintained a rigid V-formation. He ruled out birds as the source of the phenomenon. (Noel, F.; "Unidentified Atmospheric Phenomena Observed by an Astronomer," Journal of Scientific Exploration, 7:439, 1993. Journal address: ERL 306, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4055.) From Science Frontiers #92, MAR-APR 1994 . 1994-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... : Mar-Apr 1995 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects A Unified Theory Of Geophysics It takes a lot of nerve to propose a theory that can unite such a fragmented field as geophysics. H.R . Shaw makes a try in his new book: Craters, Cosmos, and Chronicles: A New Theory of the Earth . Shaw's ideas have recently been reviewed in Science News and our item is based on that article. Shaw contends that cosmic projectiles -- asteroids and comets -- have controlled almost all features of the earth's evolution. For example: Impacts have determined the positions of the continents. They have controlled the geomagnetic field. They have created volcanoes and massive basalt flows. They have caused mass extinctions. Of course, for two centuries, other catastrophists have proposed similar dire consequences of giant impacts. But Shaw does introduce three ideas that are worth recording here. Large impact craters occur in swaths. Although this has been suggested before, Shaw has mapped out several swaths where large craters of about the same age are located. His "K -T swath" includes the Chicxulub crater (Yucatan), the Manson crater (Iowa), the Avak crater (Alaska), and three more in Russia -- all of which were gouged out about the time of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K -T ) boundary. Shaw has plotted several other swaths of different ages. The application of chaos theory to solar system debris. Shaw hypothesizes that nonlinear gravitational effects channel asteroids and comets ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 150: Nov - Dec 2003 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Australians First in the New World? Origin of Clovis Culture Disputed A "Magic Number" Encoded in Three of the World's Major Pyramids Astronomy Mapping and Analyzing Dark Matter Biology Frog Poison Factory Puffin Tongue Trick? Human-chimp DNA Dissimilarities Four-Dimensional Biology A Squid's Eyes that Look Up and Down Tuberculosis and the Extinction of the Megaforna Dark Matter in our Genome Unknown Source of Animal Diversity Communication among Bacteria Geology When the Earth Gets Cracking Subduction Doesn't Check Out Chicxulub Didn't Do It! Geophysics Squishy Ball Lightning Far-Floating Fowl Psychology Natural-Born Readers Physics Mixed Anomalies ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 59: Sep-Oct 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects PERIODIC EXTINCTIONS AND EXPLOSIONS IN TERRESTRIAL LIFE Claims of a 26-million-year periodicity in biological extinctions have been given wide publicity recently. One theory has it that periodic comet showers have created this regular pulse beat in the history of life. A recent issue of Science presents the results of an analysis of the ups and downs of 20,000 marine genera -- that is, percent extinctions over a period of 600 million years, as revealed by the fossil record. The graph of ten groups of 1000 genera shows at least two things: (1 ) strong hints of periodicity; and (2 ) suggestions that extinctions, whatever they really are, "cut across functional, physiological, and ecological lines." The plotters of these graphs, D. Raup and G. Boyajian, claim that whatever the mechanism, "major pulses of extinction result from geographically pervasive environmental disturbances." What besides powerful, external physical forces (read "comets and asteroids") could affect such wide ranges of marine organisms? (Lewin, Roger; "Pattern and Process in Extinctions," Science, 241:26, 1988.) Comment . This all sounds so reasonable that one must wonder why it is given space in Science Frontier. The reason is that we have a suspicion that it is all too easy, too simplistic. Could something more subtle be at work? After all, we really know next to nothing ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 2: January 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects How real are biological extinctions in the fossil record?Much has been made by catastrophists of the apparent wholesale extinctions of many forms of life from one geological period to another. Some uniformitarians have been arguing all along that these so-called extinctions are more apparent than real. The present study supports this view with its study of world-wide records of the Triassic-Jurassic transition period. Correlation of U.S . and South African rocks imply that this key geological interface was actually a period of gradual faunal replacement rather than sudden, simultaneous extinction of live forms. (Olsen, Paul E., and Galton, Peter M.; "Triassic-Jurassic Tetrapod Extinctions: Are They Real?" Science, 197:983, 1977.) From Science Frontiers #2 , January 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... : April 1978 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Yeti or wild man in siberia?Reports from Russia tell of a creature known locally as the "Chuchunaa" which is over 2 m tall, clad in deerskin, and unable to talk, although it does utter a piercing whistle. A man-eater, the Chuchunaa often steals food from settlements. Observers say that the creature has a protruding brow, long matted hair, a full beard, and walks with its hands hanging below its knees. Soviet scientists speculate that the Chuchunaa represents the last surviving remnant of the Siberian paleoasiatic aborigines that retreated to the upper reaches of the Yana and Indigirka rivers. The last reliable sightings were in the 1950s, and this animal may now be extinct. (Anonymous; "Yeti or Wild Man in Siberia?" Nature, 271:603, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #3 , April 1978 . 1978-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 23: Sep-Oct 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The cretaceous-tertiary extinction bolide The recently discovered worldwide iridium-rich layer is taken by many scientists as evidence of the collision of an asteroid or comet with the earth about 65 million years ago. This cataclysmic event is also blamed (by some, at least) for the apparent sudden biological extinctions recorded on these pages of the fossil record. In this setting, the authors of this paper calculate the effects on the earth of a 10-kilometer-diameter object impacting at about 20/km/sec. Do the theoretical results jibe with the geological and paleontological data? Very definitely. Crater ejecta rich in extraterrestrial material would be blasted to an altitude of 10 km, where winds would insure global distribution. In terms of biological stress, the 10-km projectile would transfer 40-50% of its kinetic energy to the atmosphere, creating a heat pulse that could raise global temperatures 30 C (50 F) for several days. Many large animals might well succumb to such a temperature transient. In addition, the protective ozone layer might be blown away by shock waves and not reform for a decade. (O 'Keefe, John D., and Ahrens, Thomas J.; "Impact Mechanics of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Bolide," Nature, 298,123, 1982.) Reference. We catalog biological extinctions at ESB1 in Anomalies in Geology. To order this book, visit: here ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 8: Fall 1979 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Iridium And Mass Extinctions Alvarez and his colleagues at the University of California, while chemically analyzing a series of sedimentary strata from Italy, discovered that one layer had 25 times the concentration of iridium residing in adjacent strata. The iridium-rich layer forms the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, 65 million years ago. During that death-filled interval, 50% of the earth's genera were wiped out. Such are the two correlated facts: iridium increase and mass extinction. But do they have the same cause? Alvarez et al point out that iridium is rare on earth but much more common out in space. The anomalous concentration of iridium could have been injected by a massive solar flare, a big meteor impact, or come other extraterrestrial catastrophe. Thus is catastrophism being resurrected. (Anonymous; "An Iridium Clue to the Dinosaur's Demise," New Scientist, 82: 798, 1979.) From Science Frontiers #8 , Fall 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 12: Fall 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Rehabilitation Of Cuvier Cuvier (1769-1832) was a catastrophist. To him, the record of death in the layers of fossiliferous rocks was obviously the consequence of terrestrial convulsions. But Cuvier's ideas were swept aside by the uniformitarians who saw the earth and its cargo of life unfolding with almost agonizing slowness. But Cuvier is making a comeback, as illustrated by the following back-to-back articles in Nature. We quote from the abstracts. "Closely spaced samples from an uninterupted calcareous pelagic sequence across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary reveal that the extinction of planktonic Foraminifera and nannofossils was abrupt without any previous warning in the sedimentary record, and that the moment of extinction was coupled with anomalous trace element enrichments, especially of iridium and osmium. The rarity of these two elements in the crust of the Earth indicates that an extraterrestrial source, such as the impact of a large meteorite may have provided the required amounts of iridium and osmium." (Smit, J., and Hertogen, J.; "An Extraterrestrial Event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary," Nature, 285:198, 1980.) "Evidence is presented indicating that the extinction, at the end of the Cretaceous, of large terrestrial animals was caused by atmospheric heating during a cometary impact and that the extinction of calcareous marine plankton was a consequence of poisoning by cyanide released by the fallen comet and of a catastrophic rise in calcitecompensation depth in ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 18: Nov-Dec 1981 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Iridium-rich layers and catastrophism Kyte et al have discovered a 2.3 -millionyear-old sedimentary layer under the Antarctic Ocean that contains iridium and gold concentrations comparable to those in the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. The noble metals are mostly contained in millimeter-sized grains that resemble ablation debris from a large extraterrestrial object. Unlike the Cre taceous-Tertiary episode, however, the newly found layer is not accompanied by evidence of mass biological extinctions. (Kyte, Frank T., et al; "High Noble Metal Concentrations in a Late Pliocene Sediment," Nature, 292:417, 1981.) Comment. Perhaps those paleontologists who deny the existence of sudden biological extinctions at the CretaceousTertiary boundary are correct and something else besides catastrophism impacted terrestrial life at that juncture. Reference. The implications of iridium "spikes" are found in Category ESB1 in our Catalog: Anomalies in Geology. To order, go to: here . From Science Frontiers #18, NOV-DEC 1981 . 1981-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 10: Spring 1980 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Cosmic Death Waves In the language of science, W.M . Napier and S.V .M Clube provide a scenario of cyclic terrestrial catastrophism. Their thesis is that the solar system periodically passes through the regularly spaced spiral galaxy arms every few 107 years. Planetesimals in these arms cra-ter the solar-system planets at these times and also provide the raw materials for new comets, asteroids, satellites, and even planets. Supporting their theory is the repeating history of geological revolutions with the accompanying extinctions and reflowerings of life. A remarkable feature of this paper is a table of shortlived solar-system phenomena (comets and rapidly evolving staellite-and-ring systems). The tenor is one of episodic catastrophism and a rapidly changing solar system; viz., Saturn's rings evolving in only 104 years. (Napier, W.M ., and Clube, S.V .M .; "A Theory of Terrestrial Catastrophism," Nature, 282:455, 1979.) Comment. This outlook differs radically from that still disbursed in our schools and colleges. From Science Frontiers #10, Spring 1980 . 1980-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 19: Jan-Feb 1982 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Species Stability Is A Real Problem The reader should refer to the following item for the basic paleontological facts discussed by Williamson. The biological implications of the mollusc lineages drawn up by Willianson are rather profound. In the present item, Williamson complains that scientists and critics have focussed primarily upon his claim that his mollusc lineages support the punctuated evolution model (which they do) but avoid his main point: namely, that the lineages are static over very long periods of time. They do not change slowly, bit by morphological bit, into new species as an evolutionist would expect. Instead, they remain un-changed until they become extinct. This striking aspect of the fossil record is not predicted by neo-Darwinism -- and there is the rub! (Williamson, Peter G.; "Morphological Stasis and Developmental Constraint: Real Problems for Neo-Darwinism," Nature, 294:214, 1981.) Comment. In neo-Darwinism, evolution unfolds by small accumulated changes, the causes of which may be chemicals in the environment, nuclear radiation, and other "stresses." Neo-Darwinism goes hand-in-hand with geological Uniformitarianism, both of which are favored philosophically by scientists because slow change is more amenable to scientific explanation. The large sidewise steps of punctuated evolution are difficult to explain in terms of known "forces." In this context, the radical concepts of directed panspermia and the impact ...
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... and Population II, those relatively older ancestor stars containing more hydrogen and fewer heavier elements. Population I, according to present thinking, was formed out of the "ashes" of Population-II stars. What is missing from the picture are PopulationIII stars -- stars almost devoid of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium, and formed while the Big Bang was still echoing throughout the cosmos. Current astrophysical theory requires "ashes" from Population III to create Population II. Do the astronomers find any primordial Population-III stars kicking around? Hardly a handful; not nearly enough to satisfy the prevailing model of stellar evolution. One explanation is that Population-III stars have been around long enough to collect a camouflaging veneer of metallic debris. Some astronomers surmise that Population-III stars are truly extinct for some unknown reason. (Anonymous; "Where Is Population III?" Sky and Telescope, 64:19, 1982.) From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... facing up to the fact that many gaps in the fossil record still exist after a century of Darwinism. One has even dispaired that "the stratigraphic record, as a whole, is so incomplete that fossil patterns are meaningless artefacts of episodic sedimentation." D.E . Schindel, Curator of Invertebrate Fossils in the Peabody Museum, has scrutinized seven recent microstratigraphical studies, evaluating them for temporal scope, microstratigraphical acuity, and stratigraphical completeness. His first and most important conclusion is that a sort of Uncertainty Principle prevails such that "a study can provide fine sampling resolution, encompass long spans of geological time, or contain a complete record of the time span, but not all three." After further analysis he concludes with a warning that the fossil record is full of habitat shifts, local extinctions, and general lack of permanence in physical conditions. (Schindel, David E.; "The Gaps in the Fossil Record," Nature, 297:282, 1982.) Comment. This candor makes one wonder how much of our scientific philosophy should be based upon such a shaky foundation. From Science Frontiers #23, SEP-OCT 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... data from complex top theory to ancient legend, Warlow suggests that the earth has undergone many violent catastrophes, some of them within the time of man. Flood legends, geomagnetic reversals, tektites, paleoclimatology, salinity crises, and other familiar standbys of the catastrophists force P. Warlow to examine the stability of the earth in the presence of astronomical collisions and near-collisions. He shows that the earth rotates slowly and that, even with the stabilizing equatorial bulge, our planet is rather sensitive to outside forces. It is, he says, like a tippe top or magic top; a 8,000-mile-diameter top that turns over repeatedly in response to external influences. Did not the ancient Egyptians write that the sun once rose in the west? Are there not massive faunal extinctions? Have not stray solar-system bodies left scars on all the inner planets? (Warlow, P.; "Geomagnetic Reversals," Journal of Physics,11:2107, 1978.) From Science Frontiers #6 , February 1979 . 1979-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 36: Nov-Dec 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects The Case Against Impact Extinctions The neocatastrophists seem to be getting overly smug with their iridium-rich deposits at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Is there really incontrovertible evidence that a large asteroid or comet hit the earth at this point in history, causing widespread biological extinctions? To add some perspective, Leigh M. Van Valen has tossed 15 arguments against impact extinctions on the scales. Ten of these are reproduced below, as taken from Nature. More de-tails may be found in Paleobiology, 10: 121, 1984. Freshwater life was unaffected; In Montana and its vicinity, the last occurrence of dinosaurs was detectably below the crucial boundary; Transitional floras also exist below the boundary; Apparently extraterrestrial material exists below the boundary; The expected effects of eliminating atmospheric ozone are missing; The Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary is coincident with a very large marine regression, suggesting a nonextraterrestrial cause; Marsupials but not placentals were nearly eliminated, while most aboreal multituberculates (a type of vertebrate) and birds survived; The predicted cooling effects on the earth are absent; The predicted effects of acid rain cannot be found; and Assuming a marine impact, no turbidites can be found; assuming a land impact, no large terrestrial crater has been discovered. (Van Valen, Leigh M.; "The Case against Impact Extinctions," Nature, 311:17, 1984.) From Science Frontiers #36, NOV-DEC 1984 . ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 31: Jan-Feb 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Wanted: disasters with a 26-million-year period J. Sepkoskiand and D. Raup, two researchers at the University of Chicago, have drawn up graphs showing the numbers of families of marine organisms that have vanished from the fossil rec ord over the eons. From this overview of manifest mass extinction emerged a puzzling and potentially profound pattern. Roughly every 26 million years over the last 250 million years, the number of extinctions jumped well above the background level. Some cyclic phenomenon seems to have been killing off life forms on a systematic basis. But no natural 26-million-year cycles are known although meteors and comets are favored causes of mass extinctions these days, they display no such cyclic period. (Simon, C.; "Pattern in Mass Extinctions," Science News, 124:212, 1983.) Comment. Instead of looking outward to astronomical catastrophism, perhaps we should look inward. The earth itself may undergo cyclic paroxysms; or life might undergo intrinsic phases of decline and rejuvenation. Periodic events in the evolutionary time scale. The 300-million-year cycle shown involves alternations between "icehouse" conditions (O ) and "greenhouse" conditions (G ). These may be due to changes in heat convention within the earth. From Science Frontiers #31, JAN-FEB 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects More Doubts About Asteroids In an apparent reaction to the stampede to climb aboard the extinction-by-asteroid bandwagon, dissenting papers have begun to appear in the scientific literature. For example, Van Valen's list of objections to the hypothesis of asteroid impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary was reproduced in the last issue of Science Frontiers. Now, in a recent issue of New Scientist, T. Hallam raises still more objections: Tropical plants, mammals, crocodiles, birds, and benthic invertebrates were little affected by whatever happened at the Cretaceous-Tertiary interface. Furthermore, many groups that were extinguished were already well into a decline. Some geologists insist that some of the supposedly synchronous extinctions were probably separated by several hundred thousand years; viz., plankton and dinosaurs. The vaunted iridium anomaly in deep-sea cores is spread through a considerable thickness of sediment. Even after allowing for the mixing of sediments, the iridium-rich layer is thousands of years thick. According to the asteroid scenario, the clay layer separating the Cretaceous from the Tertiary should represent the fallout from impact-raised dust, which would include asteroidal material and a mixed sample of earth rocks. However, in Denmark, the boundary is marked by the so-called Fish Clay, which is almost pure smectite -- a single mineral and not a mixture of terrestrial rock flour. If it wasn't an asteroid impact, why the ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 37: Jan-Feb 1985 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Recent Pulsations Of Life At a recent meeting of scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, E. Vrba, of the Transvaal Museum, in Pretoria, stated: "If we eventually are able to establish a good time resolution with the continental record, I expect to be able to discern synchronous pulses of evolution that involve many groups of fauna and flora. Many different lineages in the biota will respond by synchronous waves of speciation and extinction to global temperature extremes and attendant environmental changes. This is my starting hypothesis." Vrba was speaking mainly about the last 25 million years, a mere flash in geological time. For this brief period, the Deep Sea Drilling Program has provided geologists with a detailed and continuous record of climate changes as they were recorded in deep-sea sediments. By contrast, the faunal history of the continents is rather fragmentary, making it rather difficult to match up pulsations of climate with pulsations of life. Even so, scientists have found rather strong correlations between climatary change and biological speciation and extinction at 15, 5, and 2.4 million years ago. (Lewin, Roger; "The Paleoclimatic Magic Numbers Game," Science, 226:154, 1984.) Comment. Note that this is just the period our ancestors seemed to be evolving rapidly. Also interesting is the general agreement between Vrba's statement about the driving forces behind evolution and McClintock's conclusion quoted earlier ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 30: Nov-Dec 1983 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Non-lethal tektites It is the fashion these days to blame the many so-called "extinctions" prevalent in the fossil record on extraterrestrial cataclysms. Some deposits of tektites and microtektites have indeed been correlated with the disappearances of some species. Since tektites are supposedly formed during meteor collisions with the earth, many scientists thought the evidence, circumstantial though it may be, very convincing. What has not been publicized as well is the fact that many microtektites, particularly in sediments 30-40 million years old, have no correlations whatsoever with any important biological extinctions. (Anonymous; "Non-lethal Tektites," New Scientist, 99:345, 1983.) Reference. The many paradoxes and anomalies associated with tektites are cataloged at ESM3 in: Neglected Geological Anomalies. Information on this book may be found here . From Science Frontiers #30, NOV-DEC 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... and Cambrian life forms to preserve the continuity of life. This has proved difficult, and some scientists now feel that The Edicaran approach to "largeness" was to increase surface area externally. The Ediacarans were therefore shaped like pancakes, tapes, fans, etc. This enabled them to present large areas to the environment for respiration, feeding, and other biological functions. In contrast, many present life forms achieve "largeness" by increasing internal areas, as in the lungs, folded intestines, etc., along with the forced circulation of air, blood, and other sub stances. This latter approach survived, while the two-dimensional Ediacaran Experiment did not. The demise or extintcion of the Ediacarans led Gould, the author of this far-ranging article, to the influence of extinctions on life in general -- a hot topic these days. Gould stated that with natural selection operating, one would expect continual "improvement" in life forms, but that this had not happened. "I regard the failure to find a clear 'vector of progress' in life's history as the most puzzling fact of the fossil record. But I also believe that we are now on the verge of a solution, thanks to a better understanding of evolution in both normal and catastrophic times. We need a twotiered explanation for patterns (or non-patterns) in the history of life." The first tier of explanation involves the theory of punctuated equilibrium, as championed by Gould and Eldredge. Gould says he once thought that punctuated evolution would be sufficient to explain all ...
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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 A Real Death Star As reported in SF#31, the geological record seems to show that widespread biological extinctions have occurred about every 26 million years. Coupled with this is Walter Alvarez's recent observation that terrestrial impact craters 10kilometer-diameter and up have been blasted out episodically -- every 28.4 million years on the average. This figure is close enough to 26 million years to impel some astronomers to search for a periodic source of cosmic projectiles. R.A . Muller and M. Davis, at Berkeley, think they have found one. They postulate that the solar system is really a double-star system. Our sun's companion star has only about 0.1 solar mass and is so faintly luminous that we have not found it visually. It does, however, now cruise along its orbit some 2.4 light years away. But it will be back! In fact, it returns every 26 million years to jostle the Oord Cloud of comets that hovers on the fringe of the solar system. This nudging periodically sends a large shower of comets careening around the inner solar system. The earth intercepts one or more of these projectiles each visit and -- bang -- we have new craters and another biological catastrophe. (Anonymous; "A Star Named George," Scientific American, 250:66, April 1984.) Comment, Ho hum! Still another cometary impact scenario ...
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... warming. Temperature gradients, and thus density gradients, from pole to equator decrease in surface waters, and the deep ocean currents of oxygenated polar waters wane. Oxygen minimum zones intensify and widen; anoxic conditions throughout entire basins are indicated by black shales deposited in the deep sea. These relations thus suggest that the earth's interior processes and its climates are related and their status recorded by both magnetic polarity and anoxic event chronologies of the earth." (Force, Eric R.; "A Relation among Geomagnetic Reversals, Seafloor Spreading Rate, Paleoclimate, and Black Shales," Eos, 65:18, 1984.) Comment. But what stopped and restarted the magnetic reversals and other concurrent processes? Strangely enough, the quiet, anoxic periods do not seem to coincide with biological extinctions! From Science Frontiers #32, MAR-APR 1984 . 1984-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... mechanical, thermal, chemical; in fact, almost anything. McClintock's conclusion is: ". .. that stress, and the genome's reaction to it may underlie many formations of new species." (McClintock, Barbara; "The Significance of Responses of the Genome to Challenge," Science, 226:792, 1984.) Comment. The implications here are broad and deep. Evolution can be driven by external stresses. The new species thus produced may differ substantially from the original organism, eliminating the need to look for "missing links" in the fossil record. What "hope-ful monsters" are latent in our human genome, awaiting only the right stresses to manifest themselves? And is the genomes's malleability reversible; that is, can extinct species be recovered when the engendering stresses are removed? From Science Frontiers #37, JAN-FEB 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 34: Jul-Aug 1984 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Behind magnetic flip-flops The earth's magnetic field frequently reverses its polarity. Such flips can of-ten be correlated with climate changes, global ice volumes, sea-floor spreading rates, and deposition of black shales, tektite falls, biological extinctions, etc. The frustrating thing is the lack of clear-cut cause and effect; that is, how these phenomena are linked physically to the geomagnetic field. Part of the problem is that we can only guess at how the geomagnetic field is generated. Let us assume that the earth's magnetic field is created by dynamo action in the planet's fluid core. P. Olson finds analytically that the core dynamo may reverse sign due to fluctuations in core turbulence caused by two competing energy sources: heat loss at the mantle-core boundary and progressive growth of the inner core. In concept, the heat lost at the core-mantle boundary might be linked to climate changes and sea-floor spreading. Taking a different tack, D. Gubbins has investigated the possibility that field reversals are triggered by ice ages and meteorite impacts (tektite falls). The physical mechanism here would be the increase in pressure upon the core, which affects the rate of freezing in the outer core, and thus the power available to the core dynamo. Gubbins found that these externally caused pressure changes were too small to explain the polarity changes. However, the parameters involved ...
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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 Why don't we all have cancer?Biologists have just found that the difference between a normal human gene responsible for manufacturing a specific protein and a gene causing cancer is the replacement of a single nucleotide by another in a very long string of nucleotides. This is a very delicate situation. The difference between cancer and no cancer is simply too tiny. Given the high frequency of random changes (mutations), we should all have cancer. One implication is that humans (and other animals, too) have come up with some method of preventing or correcting these minor mutations -- otherwise we would have become extinct long ago. No one knows what this mechanism is or why it sometimes fails. (Anonymous; "More Speculation about Oncogenes," Nature, 300;213, 1982.) Reference. Other anomalies of cancer are cataloged in BHH23-35 in: Biological Anomalies: Humans II. For a description of this volume, visit: here . From Science Frontiers #25, JAN-FEB 1983 . 1983-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... mantle and which contains billions of tons of volatiles, probably including hydrogen; and the origin of the moon from the earth after the formation of the earth's core." " Editor's Note . This article by John O'Keefe puts forth a viewpoint with which most planetologists disagree strongly. On the ground that a fresh airing of the long-standing discussion on lunar volcanism is appropriate, Eos offers this article, untouched by editors or referees, and awaits reply by readers." O'Keefe's article reviews considerable evidence supporting his two points: for Point One; crater dimensions and frequencies, craters with dark floors, lunar soil constituents; and, for Point Two; tektite analysis. He also remarks that the ages of the terrestrial tektite fields correlate with biological extinctions. This can be explained in terms of lunar volcanism as follows: lunar volcanos expel material violently, some of which escapes the moon's gravitational field and is drawn toward earth. Some falls as tektites; the rest forms a temporary ring around the earth. The ring shadows parts of the earth, causing radical climate changes and, as a consequence, biological extinctions. (O 'Keefe, John A.; "The Coming Revolution in Planetology," Eos, 66:89, 1985.) Comment. The Editor's Note does not really convey the depth of the antagonism in the controversy about tektite origin. From Science Frontiers #39, MAY-JUN 1985 . 1985-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... 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 Tiger?" International Wildlife, 15:37, July-August 1985. Cr. M.J . Shields) Reference. Evidence for the survival of the Tasmanian tiger (thylacine) may be found in BMD12 in our catalog: Biological Anomalies: Mammals II ...
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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 Cretaceous Incineration The worldwide deposit of iridium at the end of the Cretaceous implies, to many at least, that the great biological extinctions of this period were the consequence of a meteorite impact. It has now been discovered that clay samples from the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary also contain 0.36-0 .58% graphitic carbon. It is fluffy stuff and suggests that the planet was once covered by a thick layer of soot. Quantitatively, the soot layer is equivalent to the carbon in 10% of the earth's present biomass. The authors speculate that this soot was created by huge wildfires that consumed much of the earth's vegetation and perhaps fossil fuel as well. Terrestrial life was, of course, devastated -- just as it is in the currently popular "nuclear winter" scenarios. The end-of-the-Cretaceous soot is in fact, thicker and more widely spread than nuclear winter theories predict. (Wolbach, Wendy S., et al; "Cretaceous Extinctions: Evidence for Wildfires and Search for Meteoric Material," Science, 230:167, 1985.) Comment. Questions arise, though: How could a single meteorite impact ignite worldwide wildfires? Why haven't other meteorite impacts, recorded abundantly by large craters and astroblemes, also set fire to the planet and left iridium layers? From Science Frontiers #43, JAN-FEB 1986 . 1986-2000 William ...
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... 165 feet in diameter. Their heights are 2 to about 15 feet. All of the material making up the mounds seems to come from the immediate surroundings: coral debris, earth, and grains of iron oxide. The larger tumuli enclose a block of tuff, about 5 feet high and 6 feet in diameter, comprised of tumuli material held together by a calcareous cement or mortar. Some who have investigated these mounds believe that the presence of cement, presumably man-made, is proof-positive that the tumuli are the product of human activity. Other archeologists doubt this because the early settlers of New Caledonia did not use cement. Besides, there seem to be no other signs of human involvement. This has led to the hypothesis that the mounds were built by huge, now-extinct, flightless birds for the purpose of incubating their eggs. Some birds do indeed incubate their eggs in mounds today; and some 5,000 years ago New Caledonia did boast a giant bird (Sylviornia neocale doniae), which was 5-6 feet tall. The authors of the present paper feel that the giant bird hypothesis is just as reasonable as the theory that these mounds were built by ancient humans who knew how to make cement. (Mourer-Chauvire, Cecile, and Poplin, Francois; "Le Mystere des Tumulus de Nouvelle-Caledonie," La Recherche, 16: 76, September 1985. Cr. C. Mauge.) Comment. We find in our Handbook Ancient Man an article by A. Rothovius entitled: "The Mysterious Cement Cylinders of New Caledonia ...
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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 Tigers in western australia?The title of course refers to the Tasmanian tiger or wolf or thylacine. We reported above on the possibility of a small relict population of Tasmanian tigers in Tasmania, where the supposedly last specimen expired in a Hobart zoo in 1936. There is now good evidence that the thylacine also roams Western Australian, where it has been believed extinct for thousands of years! At hand are photographs, casts of footprints, a carcass that may be very recent, and many eye-witness reports. Much of the recent evidence has been gathered by Kevin Cameron, a first-rate bushman with two superbly trained dogs. A.M . Douglas, the author of this article and formerly Senior Experimental Officer at the Wetern Australian Museum in Perth was skeptical about living thylacines at first but is now a firm believer. He states, "I think Kevin Cameron has made the single most important wildlife discovery of this century." (Douglas, Athol M.; "Tigers in Western Australia?" New Scientist, p. 44, April 24, 1986.) From Science Frontiers #46, JUL-AUG 1986 . 1986-2000 William R. Corliss ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 47: Sep-Oct 1986 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Two Points Of Great Impact Geologists have been searching in vain for a large crater that might account for the biological extinctions at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary some 65 million years ago. C.J .H . Hartnady believes he had found the culprit. It is somewhat larger than expected (300 kilometers in diameter instead of 100200), but it is of the right age. Supporting this notion is the observation that the Seychelles Bank and Madagascar suddenly shifted their locations at about this time. (Murray, M.; "Point of Impact: The Indian Ocean," Science News, 129:356, 1986.) The existence of another terrestrial cat aclysm at an earlier date is suggested by a layer of shattered crustal rock fragments stretching over at least 260 kilometers in South Australia. Folded within Precambrian marine shales, these fragments reach 30 centimeters in diameter and show evidence of vertical fall. Evidence points to an origin near Lake Acraman, about 300 kilometers west. (Gostin, Victor A., et al; "Impact Ejecta Horizon within Late Precambrian Shales, Adelaide Geosyncline, South Australia," Science, 233:198, 1986.) Reference. The subject of very large terrestrial craters is discussed in ETC2 in our catalog: Carolina Bays, Mima Mounds. Description here . The Amirante Basin (black circle) lies about 500 kilometers north-east of Madagascar. From Science Frontiers #47, SEP-OCT ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 49: Jan-Feb 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Geomagnetic Reversals From Impacts On The Earth R.A . Muller and D.E . Morris review the evidence tying geomagnetic reversals to the impacts of large bodies with the earth: the tektites and microtektites; the climate changes; the biological extinctions, etc. Then they propose a physical mechanism for geomagnetic reversals: "The impact of a large extraterrestrial object on the Earth can produce a geomagnetic reversal through the following mechanism: dust from the impact crater and soot from fires trigger a climate change and the beginning of a little ice age. The redistribution of water near the equator to ice at high latitudes alters the rotation rate of the crust and mantle of the Earth. If the sea-level change is sufficiently large ( 10 meters) and rapid (in a few hundred years), then the velocity shear in the liquid core disrupts the convective cells that drive the dynamo. The new convective cells that subsequently form distort and tangle the previous field, reducing the dipole component near to zero while increasing the energy in multipole components. Eventually a dipole is rebuilt by dynamo action, and the event is seen either as a geomagnetic reversal or as an excursion." (Muller, Richard A., and Morris, Donald E.; "Geomagnetic Reversals from Impacts on the Earth," Geophysical Research Letters, 13:1177, 1986.) Comment. That the earth's field is generated by internal dynamo action is ...
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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 60: Nov-Dec 1988 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Collision/eruption/extinction/ magnetic reversal An increasingly popular scenario is: (1 ) Every 34 million years the solar system bobs up and down through the thickly populated disk of our galaxy; (2 ) The resulting encounters lead to showers of comets and/or asteroids on earth; (3 ) The mechanic trauma leads to basalt flooding; (4 ) Great biological extinctions occur in consequence; and (5 ) The terrestrial magnetic field reverses in step. Now, if scientists could show that all of these phenomena occur at the same frequency and are roughly in phase, it would constitute one of science's most important syntheses. The stratigraphic record and the estimated ages of meteor craters certainly hint at such synchrony. Recently, two more papers have appeared which support the above scenario. First, M.R . Rampino and R.B . Stothers show that during the past 250 million years, eleven episodes of basalt flooding have occurred with an average cycle time of 32 million years. Second, J. Negi maintains that the earth's magnetic record boasts a similar string of disturbances, with an average period of 33 million years. (Anonymous; "Regular Reversals in Earth's Magnetic Field A Fluke?" New Scientist, p. 32, August 25, 1988.) From Science Frontiers #60, NOV-DEC 1988 . 1988-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 1 - Score: 69 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf060/sf060p13.htm
