A new study in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology describes a new pterosaur called Cryodrakon boreas, "frozen dragon of the north winds." Son Doong is the largest cave in the world, and also contains a number of large underground lakes. The bloblike protrusions seen in the right of the video are clearly a type of sponge, while the stalked creatures on the left are similar to some other sponges found near the Antarctic, he said. Its huge expanses of white winterland are full of. However, the researchers also worry that even hidden ecosystems like this one may be at risk from rapidly warming temperatures caused by climate change. Because the Canadian remains make up a partial skeleton, Habibs colleague Hone had enough material to place the pterosaur on the azhdarchid family tree. While not part of the same family, the underwater Sea Spiders youll find here are some of the strangest things found in Antarctica to date! The remains, previously only ever found in North America, were. Its intact. 108K views 2 years ago When we think of Antarctica, we think of snow, clusters of wildlife and beautiful landscapes. Nearly 42,000 meteorites have been found in Antarctica by government funded expeditions, mainly by the U.S. and Japan. Published on 5/11/2017 at 1:25 AM. However, despite being prominent in the satellite images, the groove initially eluded surface detection, Stevens said. Dinosaurs once foraged beneath the Southern Lights in Antarctica By Howard Falcon-Lang Royal Holloway, London It may be hard to believe, but Antarctica was once covered in towering forests. The largest meteorite discovered in Antarctica weighs 7.6 kilograms. I always think back to Alien vs. The formation may be . A gigantic "alien" face in Antarctica. The mysterious skeleton of a creature has been found on Google Maps in Antarctica in footage which has since gone viral. But if you empty and refill the tray each night, you get so much more," Williams said in a statement. Well, in 2016 a team of researchers discovered some very interesting things found frozen in Antarctica. Were glad youve enjoyed reading our guest post. How a zoo break-in changed the life of an owl called Flaco, Naked mole rats are fertile until they die, study finds. Their appearance is vastly different depending on which ocean you spot them in, but one thing is for certain: the sea pig is the stuff of nightmares, and definitely one of the weirdest things found in Antarctica. Its amazing that in the age of 50+ megapixel quality images we can still have grainy photos that yield Sasquatch or UFO-hunts on the Internet. The flying reptilenamed Cryodrakon boreaslived in what is now western Canada about 76 million years ago, during whats known as the Cretaceous period. The geologists used hot-water equipment to drill the borehole. Antarctica is still a relatively unexplored area on our planet. It wouldve been nice to have pictures accompanying this article. The extremely well-preserved frozen bodies of three Incan child sacrifice victims were found entombed on the Llullaillaco volcano in Argentina in 1999. Related: Alarming heat waves hit Arctic and Antarctica at the same time. Kacey Deamer is a journalist for Live Science, covering planet earth and innovation. She has previously reported for Mother Jones, the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, Neon Tommy and more. It was an adventure., Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic SocietyCopyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. . Now scientists have learned why its collapsing so quickly: Theres a giant underground cavern in the glacier almost as big as Manhattan. Although the alleged Dragon creature in the video is not visible clearly in the blurry and dark footage, the video has been shared quite often. Habib, for one, still wants to use the limb measurements to calculate how it flewthe project that inadvertently turned up the frozen dragon in the first place. If you asked a friend, it would probably be the thing that sunk the Titanic in that famous DeCaprio movie. Even in Antarctica, there were lots of happy elasmosaurs, Schulp says. Especially since you need to zoom in on a dark ocean cavern to spot it. Bats and agaves make tequila possibleand theyre both at risk, This empress was the most dangerous woman in Rome. Heres the science, Related: See the Mystery and Beauty of Fossils. "Getting to observe and sample this river was like being the first to enter a hidden world," lead researcher Huw Horgan, a glaciologist at Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, told The Guardian (opens in new tab). Scientists find 66-million-year-old sea lizard egg in Antarctica, the biggest ever recorded Chilean researchers were exploring the southern frozen continent looking for fossils of marine. All rights reserved, finally unearthed the heaviest known elasmosaur, Find out about a plesiosaur fossil found with a baby preserved in its body, mass extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs, Would the dinosaurs have died out if not for that asteroid? More details about the dragon-like creature: The fossil was found in a quarry northwest of Richmond, Queensland, back in June 2011 by Len Shaw, who conducted excavations in the area in search of valuable details. (University of Tasmania) Despite the frigid temperatures, Williams estimated that the ocean was generating more than 1,000 to 1,500 watts per square. The climate of Antarctica can vary depending on where you are and the time of the season. What comes to your mind when you hear the word iceberg? That cavern is likely filled with air much warmer than the surrounding ice, triggering faster melting of the glacier than would happen otherwise. But, it could certainly be the subject of a song on their album! During this brutal interaction between the polar ocean and atmosphere, the seawater freezes as freshwater ice, according to the researchers. This cycle produces 10 times more than the average amount of sea ice formed in the coastal polynyas, Williams said. When flying over whats now Texas, the creatures wingspan stretched more than 30 feet. Thanks to this nearly Manhattan-size gap in the ice, the entire glacier along with the surrounding ice sheet will likely disappear much more quickly. The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. Antarctic researchers have shared images of the rarely seen scaly ice formation referred to as dragon ice. But it wouldnt be AS exciting if they didnt also discover massive dinosaur bones, such as from the mosasaurus. The tail of a 99-million-year-old dinosaur was found entombed in amber in 2016, an unprecedented discovery that has blown away scientists. In other words, theres a good chance we could be looking at some serious melting in the near future, thanks to this glacier and the ice around it. The abdomen is divided into ten segments. Animal life was not what scientists were expecting to find in the pitch-black seawater beneath almost half a mile of floating Antarctic ice, but it seems to have found a way with the discovery of sea creatures living in the extreme environment. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies/University of Tasmania, IMAS - Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. "Imagine your standard ice-cube tray, filled once," Williams said in the announcement. "It looked like a loaf of bread, with a bulge at the top and narrow slope at the bottom," Stevens said. A team of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany has discovered a whopping 77 seafloor . The cavern first appeared in 2012 and most of the ice that once occupied it melted in the last three years. If youre not afraid of spiders yet, these scary things in Antarctica might change your mind if youre lucky enough to see them on an Antarctic cruise. MrMBB333 has previously posted videos of 'mysterious' Google Maps in Antarctica, including what he alleged was a huge man-made disc emerging from the snow in the region. All the ingredients for life exist beneath ice shelves, said John Priscu, a professor of polar ecology at Montana State University, who has studied life under polar ice for almost 40 years but who was not involved in the latest study. It was previously unknown if they harbored life, which makes the new finding even more important. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. Did an ancient species of a dragon found living in Antarctica? Regardless, sometimes you might get lucky and find some Antarctica mythical creatures. Gear-obsessed editors choose every product we review. It was only in 1773 that an expedition led by Captain James Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle. YouTuber Michael Bradbury, who hosts the conspiracychannel MrMBB333, suggested that the skeleton remains indicated a dinosaur which had been preserved in the Antarctic ice. Schulp adds that the work moves our knowledge of plesiosaurs forward, and he is excited to see Argentine paleontologists go back out there and find more fossils. Youve got this weird situation where Quetzalcoatlus is basically the first azhdarchid to be named, so it becomes the definition of the [group], and yet theres no good description of it, says Hone, who describes the situation as a giant loop of not being able to solve the problem properly.. More info. Most of these magnificent ice giants are either snow-capped and white, or have a clear turquoise color. This sea monster definitely fits the description of scary things found in Antarctica! Pictured near Deception Island (how convenient!) formed in Antarctica, just as they have on adjacent continents once connected to Antarctica, but be-cause nearly 98 percent of the continent is covered by ice, few mineral deposits are likely to be exposed. The continent is rapidly melting, and a large chunk of the snow and ice is held back from the ocean only by an array of glaciers and ice shelves guarding the coasts. All Rights Reserved. Plesiosaurs generally look a little like large manatees with giraffe necks and snake-like heads, though they have four flippers rather than a manatees three. The different morphology of this species also shows that specialization was still happening at this late point in the existence of plesiosaurs. As a species, they are present all around the planet, and can be as small as 1 millimeter in size. Antarctica is a continent located in the Southern Hemisphere and contains the coldest environment on earth. In Thwaites case, that radar uncovered a gigantic cavern between the glacier itself and the bedrock below it. The noisy red and blue part in the bottom corner comes from ice breaking off into the sea. Heres the technology that helped scientists find itand what it may have been used for. Also, meteorites that fall to Antarctica are preserved in ice for a long time. In 2007, the MS Explorer struck an iceberg while cruising off the Antarctic peninsula and sank, causing an oil spill near penguin breeding grounds. John Higgins The coronavirus pandemic has delayed his. One of the weird things about Antarctica is that its very good at preserving things the Endurance was found very well preserved thanks to Antarcticas cold waters. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. Copyright 2023 Anita Hendrieka. It resembles a shark, dragon, or whale, or a shapeshifter that can appear like. The mysterious skeleton of a creature has been found on Google Maps in Antarctica in footage which has since gone viral. it has spawned numerous theories on what it could be. Largest fish nursery discovered beneath Weddell Sea in Antarctica, 'Giant MRI of Antarctica' reveals 'fossil seawater' under ice sheet, Rare wispy ice formations streak across the sea near Antarctica in beautiful satellite image, 'Runaway' black hole the size of 20 million suns found speeding through space with a trail of newborn stars behind it, Artificial sweetener may increase risk of heart attack and stroke, study finds, 'Unreal' auroras cover Earth in stunning photo taken by NASA astronaut, Wreck of long-lost US World War II submarine found off Japanese coast. Sea Pigs H.P. Shocking Rituals From The Cannibal Indian Aghori Monks, 6 Incredible Europe Contiki Tours to Go On, 74 Underrated and Off The Beaten Path Places To Visit, How to Get From Tirana Airport to the City, 9 Easy Ways To Repurpose Podcast Content In 2023. I recommend either SafetyWing or World Nomads. One place I have not yet managed to get to maybe one day. Maybe one day you can work, and the next day you cannot because you have a snowstorm, OGorman says. What do you think theyll find on (or in) the icy continent next? Was an ancient species of dragon found living in Antarctica? The Maori monster Taniwha lives in the ocean but also lurks in the rivers, lakes, or watery caves of New Zealand. So what happens if Thwaites melts? What is wind chill, and how does it affect your body? I wouldnt find it creepy being on the bottom (or top) of the Earth, but some of those things Ive never heard of (sea spiders, striped icebergs) would give me chills. Antarctica is also a good place to find meteorites, or rocks that fall from space to Earth. Slowly, over time, Antarctica befriended Bizzard, and found out her history. A fossil from Antarctica is now the heaviest known animal in this group of prehistoric marine reptiles. The flying reptile was said to have . The ice shelves under Antarctica are hiding numerous things unknown to humankind. Now, this enormous species of giant pterosaur part of a group known as azhdarchids finally has a name: Cryodrakon boreas, drawing from the ancient Greek words that translate to "cold dragon of the north winds." Nearly all of these have been found since 1976. There are some people out there that would do anything to get their hands on some good scotch that's over a hundred years old. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. October is coming up, and you just know social media will be flooded with Halloween posts even before the event. Examples of animals that live in Antarctica include the blue whale, fin whale, gentoo penguin, kelp gull, and krill. The geologists were more than 150 miles from the open ocean when they bored a hole through the 3,000-foot-thick ice with a hot-water drill and lowered a coring device and a video camera into the dark seawater below it. The MrMBB333 host told viewers: "What youre about to see here is intact, very large skeletal remains. Follow Kacey on Twitter. The number of meteorites found in Antarctica is equal to the number of meteorites found in the rest of the world combined. This information is extremely useful to scientists because how quickly a glacier melts depends a great deal on whats going on near that bedrock. In the icy badlands of Alberta, paleontologists have found a "frozen dragon": a new genus of pterosaur that once soared over the heads of dinosaurs with a wingspan that stretched at least 16. I am a big fan of the movie The Thing, which presented us with a fictional but horrifying alien. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? Benedikt von Imhoff. A BONKERS conspiracy theorist claims to have found the skeleton of a "mysterious" creature on Google Earth. The explorer in me thinks that there must still be plenty more to find! The main reference fossil for Cryodrakon belonged to an individual pterosaur that had a roughly 16-foot wingspan. It could be a lot of different things. Well, theyre not actually spiders, but a type of primitive marine arthropod. It is also called Hoffman's. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies/University of Tasmania. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. He then proceeds to analyse the skeleton, before concluding that it could be an ancient dinosaur. Meet the Great Eared-Nightjar, The Bird That Is Basically A Tiny Dragon. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, You can see it for yourself at coordinates 63 256.73S 605732.38W on Google Earth. Coat of arms of the Hungarian Bthory family which depicts a dragon. It could be an old dinosaur. All rights reserved, dug up from Canadas Dinosaur Provincial Park in 1992, Fossil Pictures Capture the Mystery of Dinosaurs. I love these critters. In East Antarctica, there is a place where it looks like the continent is gushing out blood. Their eyes are compound -they consist of 24,000 ommatidia (or tiny eyes). "The climate is changing, and some key focal points are yet to be understood by science," Steven said. The remains of a dinosaur described as the "closest thing we have to a real-life dragon" has been unveiled in . An illustration shows an elasmosaur swimming through rough waters. Because the fossil is fragmentary, researchers cant say for sure whether it belongs to Cryodrakon, but the neck vertebra is definitely from an azhdarchid, and Cryodrakon is now the only known azhdarchid from that place and time. Taissa Rodrigues, a paleontologist at Brazils Federal University of Esprito Santo who wasnt involved with the study, says that taking thin sections of Cryodrakon bones could reveal how the pterosaur grew from hatchling to adult. Researchers drilled more than 1,600 feet under the Larsen Ice Shelf. It took decades of struggling with the weather on a small, desolate island off the Antarctic Peninsula. They used jackhammers, rock saws and chisels at a punishing 4200 metres to unearth the dinosaur, which represents a new genus and species. Enjoyed the post, a fascinating take on the place. Fact or fiction .An ancient species of dragon was found living in Antarctica? This nearly whole, deep-black skull belongs to the most complete specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex on display in Europe, an individual nicknamed Tristan Otto. Dragonflies are widely spread throughout the world and can be found on every continent except Antarctica. An international team is currently trying to finish the job. If they found pieces of what looked like a large Cretaceous azhdarchid, they provisionally assigned them to Quetzalcoatlus, because they didnt know enough about Quetzalcoatlus to say anything different. Whereas if youre stuck to a rock and youre waiting for food to come to you, then the one bit that comes past this year could go past you.. . "It is a reminder about just how connected our whole planet is. And when Habib, Hone, and Royal Tyrrell Museum paleontologist Franois Therrien compared the holes in the Canadian pterosaurs neck vertebrae against those for all other known azhdarchids, they found that its arrangement is unique. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Dec 29, 2021, 6:55 AM PST. That guy is big! Schulp says from looking at photos of the bones. After lowering the sediment corer through the borehole, the scientists then lowered it through about 1,600 feet of seawater below the floating ice shelf. It wasnt until this year that researchers have found out that the waterfall springs from a lake trapped under the ice for over a million years! There are numerous conspiracy theories regarding Antarctica, and we wont get into them (though some are hilarious). The pterosaurs bones have been known to scientists for nearly three decades, but it has only now been confirmed as its own genus, researchers announced on Tuesday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The team drilled down around 1,640 feet (500 meters) below the ice's surface using a powerful hot-water hose to reach the underground chamber. The discovery of what appear to be sponges in the pitch-black seawater beneath almost half a mile of ice has biologists baffled. PACKING TIP: Dont leave home without a solar powered battery pack so you can keep your devices connected at all times. These underwater terrors can grow up to have a leg span of 25 centimeters. Lovecraft would have probably loved to see this interesting creature. It was discovered by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913. The find came months after NASA successfully destroyed a 530-foot-wide . He studied Marine Biology at the University of Exeter (Penryn campus) and after graduating started his own blog site "Marine Madness," which he continues to run with other ocean enthusiasts. As a point of comparison, Habib visited Canadas Royal Tyrrell Museum to see the partial pterosaur skeleton dug up in 1992, whose limb bone is among the best preserved in the world. It was caused due to millions of years of erosion, and it is not uncommon for mountains to have at least a partially pyramidal shape in various parts of the world. He then zoomed in on the neck vertebra, whose ends are shot through with pneumatophores, the holes through which air sacs once entered the bones interior. Please be respectful of copyright. But its identity remained unclear for decades because of a paleontological paradox: Quetzalcoatlus might be the best-known and worst-known azhdarchid all at once. Two key advances offered a way off the Quetzalcoatlus merry-go-round. The animal would have weighed as much as 15 tons, and it is now one of the most complete ancient reptile fossils ever discovered in Antarctica. This caught the team off guard, as they had not expected to find any type of life this far below the icy surface. The roughly 5,000-year-old human remains were found in graves from the Yamnaya culture, and the discovery may partially explain their rapid expansion throughout Europe. . The way it flies - it's like it's hovering in mid-air, just like a dragon. A Fish Equipped With Antifreeze. The seas around Antarctica are rich in marine (sea-living) animals, ranging from microscopic plankton to the largest animal ever to live on Earth, the blue whale. We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. They had expected the seafloor to be mud, but were dismayed when they hit a boulder, which meant they couldnt get the intended sediment samples. Not according to biology or history. "This changes our current understanding and models of these environments," Stevens said. A discovery of this magnitude would definitely be spooky, but according to LiveScience the formation is simply a mountain that looks like a pyramid. In retrospect, that doesnt make them any less creepy. A lot of marine life would have needed to thrive there to satisfy the appetite of such a large creature, so the fact that these animals continued to exist so late in the Cretaceous adds to the evidence that the aquatic world, at least, was doing just fine right up until the sudden mass extinction. (Would the dinosaurs have died out if not for that asteroid? ", Another remarked: "Google search for images of seal skeleton shows a pretty good match. New York, But again, as with many weird things found in Antarctica, the explanation is much simpler. The video has recorded nearly 300,000 views, sparking fierce debate among conspiracy theorists online. Both animals belong to a group known as the azhdarchid (azh-DAHR-kid) pterosaurs, which were notable for being mostly head and neck. Thats awesome, Ryan, thanks a lot for sharing. On active days, the team had to wait for the sun to defrost the soil before they could excavate, and every piece wrested from the dirt would then need to be shipped by helicopter to the Argentine Marambio Base a few miles away. This Antarctica expedition focused on recovering large volume samples of the 2-plus-million-year-old ice discovered four years earlier. Many dragonflies are beautifully colored with greens, reds, yellows and blues. At the time, though, he didnt have the resources to excavate the fossil find, but he informed researchers in Argentina about the discovery. When does spring start? He added: "I dont know if this recently thawed and this has been frozen for thousands of years or if this is something new. Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) is a fragment of a Martian meteorite that was found in the Allan Hills in Antarctica on December 27, 1984, by a team of American meteorite hunters from the ANSMET project. Jupiter and Venus 'kiss' in a stunning planetary conjunction tonight. Their arrival marked the completion of the Xuelong 2's maiden voyage.Along with her older sister, the Xuelong, China's newest Polar Class 3 icebreaker had steamed more than 70,000 nautical miles over the course of her expedition to Antarctica. MUST-HAVE: Before you head out on your trip, make sure you have travel insurance. The dragon skin ice was found among the continent's coastal polynyas,. And work on the bones unearthed over the past few decades has just begun; now that they are housed in a museum, OGorman says there is a lot of other research that can be done on this ancient specimen. When it was discovered in 1911 by an Australian geologist, the explanation he came up with was that microscopic red algae gave the waterfall its coloring. The discovery of Cryodrakon means North America was home to at least two genera of large azhdarchids, expanding our knowledge of ancient diversity and how the worlds largest flying creatures eked out a living. Well send you our daily roundup of all our favorite stories from across the site, from travel to food to shopping to entertainment. Experts have long suspected that there is a vast network of rivers, lakes and estuaries underneath Antarctica, but until now these features have been poorly studied. 03 Mar 2023 23:42:27 Something fascinating about their legendary predatory skills. The wall stops everything from falling over the edge of the Earth.

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