Category: Paleontology

The Reason Human Beings Evolved to Become Bi-Pedal

Leave a comment

There is evidence that between 6,000,000 – 10,000,000 (6 million – 10 million) years ago, grasslands expanded across landscapes, creating vast open savannas, whilst tall grasses continued to remain dominant within wetter environments. These novel environments influenced the movement and adaptation of early human beings. It is theorized by scientists that human beings walked out of these evolving landscapes and adapted to the ground as humans were not evolved and/or adapted to take advantage of tall grasses the way other species are (e.g. snakes, mice, large cats etc.). It is also theorized by scientists that human beings needed to stand upright because the forests around them were thinning and with that, the canopy disappearing, making it virtually impossible to move from treetop to treetop as time moved forward. With the discovery of the hominid Anamensis, it is now clear to scientists that the tree of human ancestry follows its evolutionary order from Australopithecus Anamensis 4,200,000 (4.2 million) years ago, to Kenyanthropus Platyops, to Homo Habilis within the past 2,300,000 (2.3 million) years, to Homo Erectus, and finally to Homo Sapiens, the species to which modern day human beings belong to. Anamensis allows scientists to definitively state that bipedalism occurred 500,000 years earlier than what was previously believed as the tibia bone from Anamensis clearly demonstrates that Anamensis walked upright on both legs

The Reason Life Upon Earth Migrated From the Ocean Onto Land

Leave a comment

Billions of years ago when the first living organisms started harnessing the energy of the sun through photosynthesis, they began producing a waste product which was oxygen. When oxygen rises high up into the atmosphere, it transforms into ozone which is why the Earth has a thin protective layer of ozone which alongside the magnetic field, helps protect the Earth from the violent ultraviolet radiation spewed out by the sun. As plants, microbes, and fungi migrated from the water to land, even more oxygen was produced, extending the ozone layer to become much more formidable. This was the catalyst for life migrating onto dry land which occurred 450,000,000 – 500,000,000 (450 million – 500 million) years ago during the Paleozoic Era, specifically during the Ordovician and Silurian periods

The Condition of the Earth After the Chicxulub Asteroid Collision Which Caused the Extinction of Dinosaurs

Leave a comment

Immediately after the Chicxulub Asteroid collided with the Earth, heat from the fireball produced reached temperatures of 5500 degrees Celsius and produced a shockwave which broke the speed of sound, causing gale force winds equivalent to a hurricane. Everything within 965 kilometers was instantly decimated. Within 11 minutes of impact, the sky began to darken as debris which had been pushed up into the atmosphere started to settle back down. As these small spheres the size of a grain of sand descended back down to Earth, they heated up upon re-entry, identical to that of an asteroid, which provided the illusion of billions of simultaneous shooting stars. The energy produced during this re-entry barrage of heat was more intense than the sun for a brief period of time and made the sky glow red, as if it was comprised of liquid magma. This debris reflected heat back towards the Earth and effectively caused the Earth to act as an enormous radiator. To add to this damage, wildfires began sprouting up due to the intense temperature which caused heat and smoke to fill the atmosphere, compounding the damage already done. Strong winds helped perpetuate these fires and because so much of the Earth was affected, it only took a few hours to become globalized, engulfing the entire Earth in a mass fire which burned hotter than a regular fire due to the inability to dissipate heat sideways. In addition to this, gypsum which contains sulphur, blocked the sun and cooled the Earth over the long term. Gypsum had a seismic effect upon the world’s oceanic ecosystems as ocean acidification occurred due to sulphuric rain being produced by the gypsum within the atmosphere. The reflecting of the sun caused 75% of all plants to die as the Earth only received as much light during mid day as what is present during a cloudy, moonless night of the modern day

The 12 Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Greece

2 Comments

The Ancient Greeks believed in 12 gods and goddesses who were understood to reside upon Mount Olympus. These deities included Zeus (pronounced “zoose”) the king of the gods, Hera (pronounced “hare-ah”) the wife of Zeus and goddess of marriage and childbirth, Apollo (pronounced “ah-pol-oh”) the son of Zeus, sun god, and god of music and healing, Artemis (pronounced “art-em-is”) the daughter of Zeus, twin sister of Apollo, and the goddess of the moon and hunting, Aphrodite (pronounced “af-row-dye-tee”) the daughter of Zeus and goddess of love and sexual desire, Ares (pronounced “air-eez”) the son of Zeus, god of war and battle, and lover of Aphrodite, Poseidon (pronounced “po-sai-den”) the brother of Zeus and god of the sea, storms, and earthquakes, Demeter (pronounced “de-me-tur”) a lover of Zeus and the goddess of agriculture and fertility, Athena (pronounced “ah-tee-nah”) the daughter of Zeus and goddess of wisdom and war, Hephaestus (pronounced “heh-fai-sch-tus”) the son of Zeus and god of fire and art, Hermes (pronounced “hur-meez”) the son of Zeus, god of commerce and travel, as well as being a personal messenger for his father, and finally Hestia (pronounced “hess-tee-yah”) the sister of Zeus and goddess of the home and family

The Oldest Artwork in Human History

1 Comment

Near the Ardeche River (pronounced “arr-desh”) in southern France, less than 0.5 kilometers away, 3 explorers set out a few days before Christmas in 1994. While seeking drafts of air emanating from the ground which would point to the presence of caves, these explorers found a subtle airflow which was blockaded by rocks. The explorers found a narrow shaft which was cut into the cliffside, so narrow in fact that their bodies could just barely squeeze through it. Deep inside the cave the explorers stumbled upon the oldest known cave paintings in human history, twice as old as any other artistic depiction made by human hands. The cave itself had been perfectly sealed for tens of thousands of years which is why this 32,000 year old artwork was found in pristine condition. In honor of the lead discover Jean-Marie Chauvet (pronounced “zhan mah-ree sho-vee”), the cave was named “Chauvet Cave”. The French Ministry of Culture controls all access to the cave, an intervention which was rapidly implemented as this discovery was immediately understood as an enormous scientific find, perhaps one of the greatest anthropological and artistic discoveries ever made. Scientists and art historians are typically the only members of the public permitted access to Chauvet Cave, with archeologists, paleontologists, and geologists being the most common interdisciplinary teams provided entry

Prince Albert’s Philanthropic Project of the South Kensington Museum

Leave a comment

Prince Albert owned the worlds largest collection of Raphael reproductions with over 50 unique portraits. Albert commissioned a photographer to go into the Vatican Museum in Rome, Italy and take photographs of all Raphael works. These photographs of course lacked color being a product of their time and technology, so hand painted versions were made using chromolithography technology. The intention of the collection was not simply to collect but rather to draw people into Windsor Castle to teach them about art history, which is actually the format in which modern day art historians teach artwork to students; in a photo library. Unlike most monarchs, Albert and Victoria wanted to feed the public with knowledge, art, and science. Albert believed that industry could place great works of art into the hands of the masses using manufacturing techniques which would cut costs dramatically. Albert was especially interested in batteries and their connection to various metals in different solutions. This borderline obsession was sparked when Albert seen a real rose turned to gold by dipping it into a chemical solution of chemicals which coated the rose, permanently changing its outer layer. This process is referred to as “electroforming” and involves dropping a dried rose into an electrically conductive material and attached to a battery. A solution of precious metal is prepared, typically gold, after which the rose is left to sit within the solution for a few moments. The rose attracts metal particulate within the solution because of its coating. Albert put on a great exhibition entitled the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851 which cost £335,742 which equates to £46,482,000 as of 2019 when accounting for inflation. The revenue from this project was £522,000 which equates to £72,269,000 as of 2019. Over 6,000,000 (6 million) people attended and exhibits from 25 countries were featured. Albert took the profits from this endeavor and purchased South Kensington Museum, a building which would be used solely for art, science, and industry to be displayed for the public. Because of Alberts involvement and enormous success, South Kensington Museum started to become referred to as “Albertopolis” meaning “City of Albert” in Greek. South Kensington Museum is the embodiment of Alberts enlightened belief that culture and learning should be at the very heart of any successful nation. South Kensington Museum opened on 1857 and is referred to during the modern day as the “Victoria and Albert Museum” or the abbreviation “V&A”. South Kensington Museum is the world’s largest museum of applied and decorative arts and design and sculpture and houses a permanent collection of over 2,270,000 (2.27 million) pieces. Alberts favorite place to get away in Buckingham Palace is the Print Room where his collection of Raphael’s are stored. Victoria could not bear to even enter the room for months after Alberts untimely death at age 42 in 1861

The Commonality Between Herbivores and Size

Leave a comment

The largest land animals on Earth today are all herbivores, but this was also true during the age of the dinosaurs. In descending order, the 5 largest living herbivores are the African elephant, the African bush elephant, the Asian elephant, the white rhinoceros, and the hippopotamus. The only living animals which are larger in size than these creatures are whales. Whales are not herbivores, but being a herbivore within the ocean is actually quite uncommon. The only reason whales are able to become larger than the largest land-dwelling mammals is because of the way that the ocean displaces gravity, therefore providing resistance to the pull which would under normal circumstances cause whales to collapse under their own weight. The primary reason the largest land animals are herbivores is because of food resources. There are a staggering amount of plant resources made abundant for herbivores in comparison to the relatively small amount of protein rich resources available to carnivores. Plant resources are also quickly renewable unlike protein resources. Herbivores are apt to survive predation as they increase in size whilst carnivores actually become hindered as they increase in size due to the fact that they become slower and less agile making their ability to catch prey severely reduced

The Original Intent of the Field of Archeology

Leave a comment

Archeology first began with a quest to discover one master truth above all others which was to find direct evidence of Jesus Christ. During the 17th century, fossils and other archaeological evidence of life prior to human beings were erroneously identified and explained as animals which were not able to make it onto Noah’s Ark and therefore perished in the great flood. Spear tips and dagger points were often incorrectly identified and explained as thunderbolts from heaven or meteorites during this period

The Rarity of Fossils

Leave a comment

If every single human being on Earth were to die suddenly, less than 10 fossils would be left behind, as the conditions required for fossils to materialize are incredibly specific and detailed

The Evolution of Feathered Dinosaurs

Leave a comment

Every single feathered dinosaur ever discovered has been identified as a predatory carnivore. It is suspected by paleontologists that the Tyrannosaurus rex had feathers in various areas of its body. Feathers often serve a purpose for birds dependent of their color, and it has been theorized that this was also the case for dinosaurs. Liaoning Province, China is the world capital for feathered dinosaur fossils, with the first ever feathered fossilized dinosaur remains discovered by a farmer by complete accident as he turned the soil of his field before planting crops. It is suspected by experts that due to the increase of species and therefore competition, reptiles were required to become more and more active which inevitably required a higher metabolism. This newer and further evolved metabolism is theorized to have caused some animals to become warm blooded, which is the primary reason feathers were introduced by evolution. Long necked birds tuck their heads under their feathers to minimize heat loss and proof of this occurring tens of millions of years ago is provided by an incredibly detailed fossil of a small dinosaur in this exact pose which was found in 2004 by American palaeontologist Mark Norell, providing for the first time in the study of paleontology, compelling evidence for dinosaurs having had feathers. It has been posited that dinosaurs may have had feathers for warmth during their early years which were then shed throughout adolescence as they moved into their adult life, with the majority of the feathers which fell out being in areas which were not particularly useful in aiding a visual display to potential predators or mates