Adventure Ausrama Blog

A 5,000 year old skeleton of a woman suffering from non-genetic dwarfism is found in China. Skeletal dysplasia resulted in proportionate dwarfism where the whole skeleton is small. It is rare in humans. Pediatric onset hypopituitarism and hypothyroidism is an underactive thyroid and pituitary gland. This individual would need support from others to survive. It indicates that a tight social structure existed in the community. Of course, the society did not know that iodine would have prevented the ongoing damage to the person's body. Even today Chinese people suffer more from iodine deficiency than Westerners because it is lacking in their diet. There is contentious debate among archaeologists about the treatment of those with dwarfism in Ancient Chinese society. Confucian texts written in the 4th century B.C. say that those with deformities were accepted as equals. However, accounts two centuries later indicate that people with dwarfism were pushed out to live with othe...

Australopithecus africanus were much like humans. They had evolved to use their hands to do intricate thing. It would have been possible for them to turn a key or hold a hammer. Coming down from the trees "caused" manipulatory advancement. The most useful attributes spread to more of their number due to longer survival and breeding capability. While anthropologists are not sure that they used the advanced abilities, it is highly probable that they did otherwise the traits would not have become dominant. This pushes tool use way, way back to 3 million years ago. How do scientists know that Australopithecus had complex skills? Trabeculae which is inside bones in the hands shows how hands were used. Humans, for example use the fingers and thumb region more than chimpanzees. Our friendly relations mainly use their fingers. The supposition that tool use began millions of years ago was only theory: now it is proven.  Culture must have been passed on to offspring as well. ...

Watch out Caribs: your reputation could be under threat. This group of tribal people found in the West Indies when explorers first arrived there were given the "badge" of real cannibals. It now seems cannibalism was practiced elsewhere, in Britain as a matter of fact. Yes, in jolly old blighty. Ancient Britons sat around the fire enjoying bloody drinks from skulls. They reached out to grab pieces of human flesh from the spit. Human remains from a dig at Glough's Cave show dismemberment of some bodies. There is evidence of butchering with bone marrow being removed. This is the most nutritious substance that can be obtained from a body. The edges of skulls were also made smooth to make them more comfortable to drink from. While using skulls as drinking vessels is not evidence in itself that ancient Britons drank human blood from craniums - some non-meat eating people in Asia used them - prying damage on the skeletons does clearly point to cannibalism occurring   His...

Australia is a very old continent. It seems the ancestors of Tyrannosaurus rex lived here. A hip bone has been found that dates to 110 million years ago which is 40 million years before T.rex roamed elsewhere on earth. Until now it was believed that T.rex only lived on northern continents. Many of the things stated as fact by scientists are indeed just matters of faith until they are "proven" otherwise. Scientists argue about when dinosaurs developed feathers and why. They claim that birds today are direct descendants from dinosaurs. This is like saying humans are descended from dinosaurs. Much evidence points to birds having a line of descent completely separate from dinosaurs. The same rings true with the Hobbit people of Flores Island. Some scientists will not accept that people different from humans survived until 18,000 years ago alongside humans. Neanderthals lived until 50,000 years ago, so why not another type of human? Science is much like religion. What is just ...

Darwin got it right. Well actually he may not have. Fossils of early humans do not alter basic scientific thought in relation to evolution, Finds do not show a linear development toward advanced Man. Evolution though does tend to predict what new discoveries show. Claims that a particular fossil find is a breakthrough are just not true. New dinosaur fossils, however, tend to be groundbreaking with regular identification of new type of dinosaurs. Indeed, they seem to have roamed on every continent. The whole book on dinosaur evolution has not yet been written. Time will tell how clear an understanding of it we can get.  It seems evolution of dinosaurs is clearer than that of humans. New research teams need to be formed to go to all parts of the world and seek answers to evolution of mammals and reptiles, if indeed dinosaurs were reptiles. Some specialists today even question this view. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://adv...

The Timor region is a fascinating place to study early humans. At the eastern end of East Timor fish hooks made from shells have been found. They were among bones of more than 2,800 fish. Jerimalai cave was a home for humans up to 42,000 years ago. The fish hooks were used between 23,000 and 16,000 years before the present. Deep sea pelagic fish were the target food. Tuna bones were abundant. Professor Sue O'Connor based at the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University led the research. The varieties of fish identified showed that ancient humans were skilled fishermen. Fishing for tuna is complex even today. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/blogs/ http://adventure--australia.blogspot.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Anthropology

Long-necked dinosaurs had hollow bones in their skin according to fossils in Madagascar. The animal in question is the giant Rapetosaurus. Hollow bones are found in the skin of reptiles and a few mammals. These skin bones are called osteoderm. Dinosaurs with hollow skin bones are Titanosaura, a Sauropod, Rapetosaurus, Stegosaurus and Ankylosaurus. It is believed that the bones stored mineral for hard times. Rapetosaurus, for example, had only a few bones spread throughout their skin, so the bones were not used for defence or to moderate temperature. The fossils in Madagascar were of Rapetosaurus. What applies for Rapetosaurus can be used to evaluate the hollow bones of other dinosaurs. It cannot be ruled out that Titanosaura used the bones partially for defence but the main function of hollow bones was to store minerals. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/AdventureAustralia http://www.technorati.com/...

Dinosaur metabolism was not only higher than reptiles, their bodies ran at a faster rate than mammals. Analysis of tiny holes in their bones shows that they pumped a lot of blood through their bodies. So scientists have been wrong for a long time claiming that dinosaurs were slow moving creatures who relied on the sun to get going each day. Tests across a wide range of dinosaurs, big and small, confirm they moved around with ease. Some scientists have accepted the hypothesis that dinosaurs were not reptiles. It makes one wonder how many other things we are taught at schools are totally wrong. New evidence for upright walking of apes goes back more than four million years to an animal with feet designed to climb trees. Their hips are clearly designed for walking upright. And for decades we had been told a special foot design was necessary for bipedal walking. http://www.adventure--australia.blogspot.com/ http://www.tysaustralia.blogspot.com/ http://www.feeds.feedburner.com/Adventu...

A new find of human remains challenges Darwinian theory. Science was absolutely certain that for the past 80,000 or so years only humans and Neanderthals wandered the earth. First the "hobbit" on the island of Flores was found which showed that other hominids lived almost to the present time in remote parts of the world. Now a new human species has come to light in Mongolia. The DNA from a child's finger indicates a separate species. Denisova is the name given to the new humans after the region where it was found. For many years it was believed animals with a different number of chromosomes could not interbreed. This premise is now brought into question. Neanderthal DNA has been identified in human DNA. This finding makes the discovery of our origins almost impossible. With no clear distinction between species how do you put them into categories? Denisova and humans diverted from a common ancestor about a million years ago. Neanderthals and humans separated from...

"You know this bone is bigger than both of us!" http://vistacomputersolutions.blogspot.com/ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Many people have written off the "hobbit" find as being just a joke, a sad hoax played on society. However, finding tiny "humans" is, apparently, real. Most scientists have accepted it though some still scoff at the whole issue without looking into it. In 2004 archaeologists in Indonesia found skeletons, not fossils, skeletons of small human-like creatures who lived on the island of Flores as recently as 18,000 years ago. While humans spread around the world, these small "humans" carried on hunting pygmy elephants and other local species in isolation. Flint flakes found in million year old volcanic sediment show hobbit activity there a very long time ago. The question is - When did the early humans leave Africa? Considering Man left the continent no more than 100,000 years ago why did other excursions of early man end in extinction? At least one group survived long enough to enlighten us about the numerous times humans left Africa. Evidence from bone struc...