- ‘Groundbreaking’ bionic arm that fuses with user’s skeleton and nerves could advance amputee care Euronews
- Groundbreaking achievement as bionic hand merges with user’s nervous and skeletal systems, remaining functional after years of daily use EurekAlert
- It’s not ‘Star Wars’-level tech yet, but doctors get a step closer to a bionic hand with special surgery and AI CNN
- ‘Bionic woman’ is first to have robotic limb merged with bone — and controlled with her mind New York Post
- Groundbreaking bionic hand restores quality of life to amputee New Atlas
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Tag Archives: skeleton
Plesiosaur: Fossil hunters in Australia discover 100 million-year-old skeleton
CNN
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The discovery of a giant 100 million-year-old marine reptile’s skeleton in Australia has been hailed by researchers as a breakthrough that may provide vital clues about prehistoric life.
The remains of the 6-meter (19 feet) tall juvenile long-necked plesiosaur, also known as an elasmosaur, were found by a trio of amateur fossil hunters on a cattle station in the western Queensland outback in August.
Espen Knutsen, senior curator of palaeontology at the Queensland Museum, likened the discovery to that of the Rosetta Stone – the Ancient Egyptian block of granite rediscovered in 1799 that helped experts to decode hieroglyphics.
“We have never found a body and a head together and this could hold the key to future research in this field,” Knutsen said in a statement Wednesday that confirmed the discovery, adding it could give paleontologists greater insight into the origins, evolution and ecology of the cretaceous period in the region.
“Because these plesiosaurs were two-thirds neck, often the head would be separated from the body after death, which makes it very hard to find a fossil preserving both together,” he said.
The discovery was made by amateur paleontologists known as the “Rock Chicks” – Cassandra Prince, her sister Cynthia, and fellow fossil sleuth Sally, who goes only by her first name.
Elasmosaurs, which grew to between 8 and 10 meters long, lived in the Eromanga Sea, which covered large parts of inland Australia with waters 50 meters deep about 150 million years ago.
Knutsen told CNN that when an elasmosaur died, its decomposing body would swell with gas that made it rise to the water’s surface, and often the head would break off when predators scavenged the carcass – making full-body discoveries rare.
He added that because the latest find was a young specimen it would shed light on how the body shape of elasmosaurs changed from youth to adulthood.
“We’re going to look at the chemistry of its teeth and that can tell us something about its ecology in terms of habitat as well, whether it was migrating throughout his life, or whether it was sort of staying in the same habitat, and also into its diet,” he said.
Ancient marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs are not classified as dinosaurs even though they lived around the same time. Plesiosaurs evolved from ancestors who lived on land and therefore didn’t have gills and had to surface occasionally for air. It remains unknown how long they could stay underwater.
It’s the latest big discovery about prehistory to have been made in Australia in recent years.
In June last year, scientists confirmed that the 2007 discovery of a fossilized skeleton in Queensland was the country’s largest dinosaur. The dinosaur, nicknamed “Cooper,” stood about two stories tall, and was as long as a basketball court.
Two months later, scientists discovered that there once was a species of flying “dragon” that soared over Australia 105 million years ago. The pterosaur was described by researchers as a “fearsome beast” that snacked on juvenile dinosaurs.
Dinosaur senior: Enormous skeleton will go on show at history museum
Dinosaur senior: Enormous skeleton of prehistoric beast larger than a blue whale and heavier than Dippy the diplodocus will go on show at history museum
- Titanosaurs were a group of gigantic long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs
- The giant dinosaurs were found on all continents 100million years ago
- New exhibit will only just fit inside the enormous 30ft-high Waterhouse Gallery
For those wondering how big the Natural History Museum’s new dinosaur is, the clue is in the name.
A titanosaur skeleton, the most complete giant dinosaur remains ever discovered, will be showcased next year.
The exhibit is four times heavier than the museum’s famous Dippy the diplodocus, and 40ft longer than its blue whale, Hope.
Titanosaurs were a diverse group of gigantic long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs, found on all continents 100million years ago
Patagotitan mayorum, to give the titanosaur its Latin name, will only just fit inside the enormous 30ft-high Waterhouse Gallery.
Museum fossil expert Professor Paul Barrett said: ‘Comparable in weight to more than nine African elephants, this star specimen will inspire visitors to care for some of the planet’s largest and most vulnerable creatures, which face similar challenges for survival.’
Titanosaurs were a diverse group of gigantic long-necked, plant-eating dinosaurs, found on all continents 100million years ago.
The London museum’s patagotitan, uncovered in South America, was estimated to be 121ft long and weigh 65 tons. It has been loaned to the UK by Argentina.
A titanosaur skeleton, the most complete giant dinosaur remains ever discovered, will be showcased next year
The London museum’s patagotitan, uncovered in South America, was estimated to be 121ft long and weigh 65 tons. It has been loaned to the UK by Argentina
Dr Alex Burch, director of public programmes at the Museum says, ‘We are so excited that Patagotitan, the most complete giant dinosaur ever discovered, is making its European debut here at the Natural History Museum, the home of the dinosaur.
‘Our fascination with dinosaurs provides the ideal opportunity to inspire and inform the next generation about the natural world, and empower them to act for the planet.’
The cast of Patagotitan mayorum has been provided to the Museum by the Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio (MEF), Argentina.
Ancient skeleton found in Mexico cave threatened by train
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A prehistoric human skeleton has been found in a cave system that was flooded at the end of the last ice age 8,000 years ago, according to a cave-diving archaeologist on Mexico’s Caribbean coast.
Archaeologist Octavio del Rio said he and fellow diver Peter Broger saw the shattered skull and skeleton partly covered by sediment in a cave near where the Mexican government plans to build a high-speed tourist train through the jungle.
Given the distance from the cave entrance, the skeleton couldn’t have gotten there without modern diving equipment, so it must be over 8,000 years old, Del Rio said, referring to the era when rising sea levels flooded the caves.
“There it is. We don’t know if the body was deposited there or if that was where this person died,” said Del Rio. He said that the skeleton was located about 8 meters (26 feet) underwater, about a half-kilometer (one third of a mile) into the cave system.
Some of the oldest human remains in North America have been discovered in the sinkhole caves known as “cenotes” on the country’s Caribbean coast, and experts say some of those caves are threatened by the Mexican government’s Maya Train tourism project.
Del Rio, who has worked with the National Institute of Anthropology and History on projects in the past, said he had notified the institute of the discovery. The institute did not immediately respond to questions about whether it intended to explore the site.
But Del Rio said Tuesday that institute archaeologist Carmen Rojas told him that the site was registered and would be investigated by the institute’s Quintana Roo state branch Holocene Archaeology Project.
He stressed that the cave — whose location he did not reveal because of a fear the site could be looted or disturbed — was near where the government has cut down a swath of jungle to lay train tracks, and could be collapsed, contaminated or closed off by the building project and subsequent development.
“There is a lot more study that has to be done in order to correctly interpret” the find, Del Rio said, noting that “dating, some kind of photographic studies and some collection” would be needed to determine exactly how old the skeleton is.
Del Rio has been exploring the region for three decades, and in 2002, he participated in the discovery and cataloguing of remains known as The Woman of Naharon, who died around the same time, or perhaps earlier, than Naia — the nearly complete skeleton of a young woman who died around 13,000 years ago. It was discovered in a nearby cave system in 2007.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador is racing to finish his Maya Train project in the remaining two years of his term over the objections of environmentalists, cave divers and archaeologists. They say his haste will allow little time to study the ancient remains.
Activists say the heavy, high-speed rail project will fragment the coastal jungle and will run often above the fragile limestone caves, which — because they’re flooded, twisty and often incredibly narrow — can take decades to explore.
Caves along part of the coast already have been damaged by construction above them, with cement pilings used to support the weight above.
The 950-mile (1,500-kilometer) Maya Train line is meant to run in a rough loop around the Yucatan Peninsula, connecting beach resorts and archaeological sites.
The most controversial stretch cuts a more than 68-mile (110-kilometer) swath through the jungle between the resorts of Cancun and Tulum.
Del Rio said the route through the jungle should be abandoned and the train should be built over the already-impacted coastal highway between Cancun and Tulum, as was originally planned.
López Obrador abandoned the highway route after hotel owners voiced objections, and cost and traffic interruptions became a concern.
“What we want is for them to change to route at this spot, because of the archaeological finds that have been made there, and their importance,” said Del Rio. “They should take the train away from there and put it where they said they were going to build before, on the highway … an area that has already been affected, devastated.”
Skeleton of female “vampire” unearthed at cemetery in Poland: “Pure astonishment”
Nicolaus Copernicus University
The remains of a female “vampire” have been unearthed by archaeologists at a cemetery in Poland, researchers announced this week.
The Polish researchers came across the remains of a woman with a sickle around her neck and a triangular padlock on her foot at a gravesite in the village of Pień. The farming tool, according to ancient beliefs, was supposed to prevent a deceased person thought to be a vampire from returning from the dead.
The research team, led by Professor Dariusz Polinski of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, made the unique discovery in late August.
In an interview with the Polish Press Agency PAP, Magdalena Zagrodzka, who represented the research team, said the human remains also had a silk headdress, which was woven with gold or silver thread. While the padlock and sickle are linked to 17th-century superstitions, Zagrodzka said the cap is evidence of the high social status of the deceased.
Zagrodzka said that the sickle and padlock “may have protected against the return of the deceased, which was probably feared. In this context, these practices can be considered so-called anti-vampiric.” The farming tool was placed with the blade on the neck. It was believed that such an arrangement would cause the head to be cut if the deceased tried to “get up.”
This type of practice became common throughout Poland in the 17th century, as a response to a reported vampire epidemic. Polanski explained that in addition to practices with a sickle, sometimes corpses were burned, smashed with stones or had their heads and legs cut off.
Experts are planning further research at the cemetery, aided by new technologies for surveying the area. In addition, researchers from the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Krakow will conduct DNA testing on the remains to learn more about the deceased woman.
In an interview with CBS News, Polinski said the find left him speechless.
“Such a discovery, especially here in Poland, is astonishing, especially now — centuries later,” he said. “Pure astonishment.”
This is not the first such discovery in the country. Archaeologists led by Lesley Gregoricka of the University of South Alabama in the United States found six so-called “vampire skeletons” at a cemetery in northwest Poland in 2014.
‘Vampire’ Skeleton Discovered in 17th-Century Graveyard
- The skeleton of female “vampire” was discovered in a 17th-century Polish graveyard, the Daily Mail reported.
- Professor Dariusz Poliński said the skeleton was found restrained to prevent her returning from the grave.
- The remains had a sickle laying across the throat and a padlock on her big toe.
The skeletal remains of a female “vampire” were found in a 17th-century Polish graveyard — with a sickle across her neck to prevent her rising from the dead.
Professor Dariusz Poliński from Nicholas Copernicus University headed the archaeological dig that led to the discovery of the remains, which were found wearing a silk cap and with a protruding front tooth, the Daily Mail reported Friday.
Mirosław Blicharski
“The sickle was not laid flat but placed on the neck in such a way that if the deceased had tried to get up… the head would have been cut off or injured,” Poliński told the Daily Mail.
In the 11th century, citizens of Eastern Europe reported fears of vampires and began treating their dead with anti-vampire rituals, according to Smithsonian magazine, believing that “some people who died would claw their way out of the grave as blood-sucking monsters that terrorized the living.”
By the 17th century, Science Alert reported such burial practices “became common across Poland in response to a reported outbreak of vampires.”
Mirosław Blicharski
“Other ways to protect against the return of the dead include cutting off the head or legs, placing the deceased face down to bite into the ground, burning them, and smashing them with a stone,” Poliński told the New York Post.
Though other common anti-vampire burial methods included a metal rod hammered through the skeleton, the remains in Poland were found with the sickle across the neck and a padlocked toe to restrain her.
The padlocked big toe attached to the skeleton’s left foot, Poliński told the Daily Mail, likely symbolized “the closing of a stage and the impossibility of returning.”
Poliński did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Dinosaur Skeleton Found In Portugal Man’s Backyard Could Be Europe’s Largest Ever Find: Report
The remains are believed to belong to a sauropod dinosaur.
The remains of what could be the largest dinosaur ever found in Europe have been uncovered in man’s back garden in Portugal.
According to BBC, the skeleton was discovered in the central city of Pombal in 2017, when a man began building work on his house and noticed fragments of fossilised bone. Spanish and Portuguese palaeontologists then excavated the dinosaur in August this year. They believe that the fossilised skeleton is of a sauropod, which were herbivorous, four-legged creatures who had long necks and tails.
Sauropods were the biggest of all dinosaurs and the largest land animals ever to have lived. Experts informed that they lived during the Upper Jurassic period which was around 150 million years ago.
Also Read | Scientists Discover Undersea Crater Created When Dinosaurs Disappeared
Palaeontologists unearthed parts of the spine and ribs of the dinosaur which suggest that the huge reptile was about 12 meters (39 feet) tall and 25 meters (82 feet) long.
Elisabete Malafaia, post-doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, told Phys.org, “It is not usual to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, maintaining their original anatomical position.”
“This mode of preservation is relatively uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, in particular sauropods, from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic,” she added.
Because of the natural position that the skeleton was found in, researchers working on the dig are hopeful that there is more of it they are yet to unearth.
The skeleton is now being studied by an international research team.
Also Read | Scientists Discover Over 4,300 Dinosaur Footprints In China: Report
Meanwhile, this comes after researchers in the United States found dinosaur footprints from 113 million years ago. After a drought in Texas dried up a river flowing through Dinosaur Valley State Park, tracks from the giant reptiles were exposed.
82-foot-long dinosaur skeleton found in man’s backyard in Portugal
A man doing construction work in his backyard in Portugal unearthed fossilized bones, which have now been identified as the skeleton of an 82-foot-long dinosaur — possibly the largest ever found in Europe, according to a press release.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science said in the release on Wednesday that the initial discovery was made back in 2017 in the Portuguese city of Pombal.
Paleontologists from Portugal and Spain who have been working at the site since then say the bones could be those of a sauropod dinosaur measuring 39 feet in height and 82 feet in length.
Sauropods were plant-eating, four-legged dinosaurs with long necks and tails that lived from the Upper Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous period, about 160-100 million years ago.
The international team of researchers spent more than a week in early August collecting key portions of the hulking skeleton, including vertebra and ribs.
“It is not usual to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, maintaining their original anatomical position. This mode of preservation is relatively uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, in particular sauropods, from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic”, Elisabete Malafaia, postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, said in the statement.
Malafaia told CBS News the ribs measured nearly 10 feet in length, making them “the largest ribs of a sauropod that are currently known in Europe and one of the largest that was described worldwide.”
The recovered skeleton fragments will be cleaned and stabilized in a lab, documented and studied before going on display in a museum, Malafaia told Newsweek.
Based on the preservation and positioning of the bones removed from the site, researchers suspect that there could be more fossils buried in the backyard in Pombal, and they plan to continue the excavation work next year.
Portuguese man discovers 82-foot long dinosaur skeleton in his backyard
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An international research team is uncovering the remains of what could be the largest dinosaur ever found in Europe after a Portuguese man started noticing fossilized bones in his backyard years ago.
The fossil, located in central Portugal, is believed to be a brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur that would have stood 39 feet tall and been about 82 feet long, according to the University of Lisbon.
Portuguese and Spanish researchers are uncovering the skeleton of an 82-foot long dinosaur that a man found in his back yard.
(Instituto Dom Luiz, Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal)
“It is not usual to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, maintaining their original anatomical position,” Elisabete Malafaia, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, said this week.
“This mode of preservation is relatively uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, in particular sauropods, from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic.”
SCIENTISTS FIND A NEW ASTEROID CRATER THAT MAY SHED LIGHT ON DINOSAUR’S EXTINCTION
Sauropods, iconic herbivorous dinosaurs known for their long necks and tails, lived from 160 to 100 million years ago.
A man in Pombal, Portugal, first noticed fragments of bones on his property in 2017 while doing construction.
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In recent weeks, Portuguese and Spanish researchers have uncovered the vertebrate and ribs of the sauropod in the man’s backyard.
Skeleton of an 82-foot-long dinosaur was found in a man’s backyard in Portugal. It could be the largest ever found in Europe.
The skeleton of a massive dinosaur was discovered in a man’s backyard in Pombal, Portugal, and it could be the largest ever found in Europe, according to a news release published Wednesday.
The property owner noticed fragments of fossilized bones in his yard when carrying out construction in 2017, and contacted a research team, which launched an initial excavation campaign the same year, the news release said.
Earlier this month, paleontologists from Spain and Portugal worked at the site for over a week and they believe they have unearthed remains of the largest sauropod dinosaur to ever be found on the continent, according to the release. Sauropods are plant-eating, four-legged dinosaurs with long necks and tails. This dinosaur measured about 39 feet tall and 82 feet long.
Photo courtesy of Instituto Dom Luiz (Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon) (Portugal).
“It is not usual to find all the ribs of an animal like this, let alone in this position, maintaining their original anatomical position. This mode of preservation is relatively uncommon in the fossil record of dinosaurs, in particular sauropods, from the Portuguese Upper Jurassic,” Elisabete Malafaia, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lisbon, said in a statement.
The most important elements of the skeleton have been collected from the site, which includes the vertebrae and ribs of a possible brachiosaurid sauropod, or brachiosaurus, the news release said. The dinosaur species roamed the Earth 160 to 100 million years ago.
Due to the dinosaur’s preservation characteristics, researchers believe other parts of its skeleton will also be found.
Encyclopaedia Britannica