A National Geographic team has made the first ascent of the remote Mount Michael, looking for a lava lake in the volcanos crater. In Thwaites case, that radar uncovered a gigantic cavern between the glacier itself and the bedrock below it. Sea Pigs H.P. When flying over whats now Texas, the creatures wingspan stretched more than 30 feet. Three oval shaped motherships about 30 miles in diameter were discovered nearby revealing that the Pre-Adamites were extraterrestrial in origin, and had arrived on Earth about 55,000 years ago. The number of meteorites found in Antarctica is equal to the number of meteorites found in the rest of the world combined. Its like you go out to Africa, and you find some giant cat toothits probably a really big lion, but without the rest of the lion attached to it, its a tooth!, Martin-Silverstone agrees with the cautious approach: I think theyre right that its an azhdarchid [neck] vertebraIve seen this specimen, and I completely agree that thats what it is, she says. Now scientists have learned why its collapsing so quickly: Theres a giant underground cavern in the glacier almost as big as Manhattan. Scientists have found microplasticssmall plastic debris about the size of a sesame seedin freshly fallen snow in Antarctica for the first time. Even more worrying to scientists beyond the cavern's existing is how quickly it appeared. He added: "I dont know if this recently thawed and this has been frozen for thousands of years or if this is something new. The scientists will continue to study the newfound subsurface ecosystem and hope to learn more about how the nutrients in the water are cycled through Antarctica's underground water networks to support the abundance of life that lives there. OGorman, who was five years old when the fossil was discovered, went on the first of these trips starting in 2012. Their cold habitat has given them some interesting features. A gigantic "alien" face in Antarctica. The attribution of "Rainbow Serpent" stems from the belief that rainbows appear when they move from one river or waterhole to occupy another. The massive explosion caused pressure waves that rang Earth's atmosphere like a bell, and sensors the researchers had placed on the ice's surface recorded similar pressure waves moving through the underground chamber. 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. Long COVID patients turn to unproven treatments, Why evenings can be harder on people with dementia, This disease often goes under-diagnosedunless youre white, This sacred site could be Georgias first national park, See glow-in-the-dark mushrooms in Brazils other rainforest, 9 things to know about Holi, Indias most colorful festival, Anyone can discover a fossil on this beach. Lovecraft would have probably loved to see this interesting creature. Guy Williams in a statement. New York, As such, Cez and Agness of eTramping were kind enough to provide some spooky, puzzling and altogether creepy things found in Antarctica. Life Science Environment 'Strange creatures' found under Antarctica. This cycle produces 10 times more than the average amount of sea ice formed in the coastal polynyas, Williams said. They are the slugs of the sea and live among other deep-sea creatures such as clams and coral. In the past 15 years, paleontologists have found more types of azhdarchids in France, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Hungary, Romania, and elsewhere, giving a much better reference for diversity within this pterosaur group. ", The team arrived above the buried river just in time to make another interesting observation. What if we could clean them out? I love these critters. The Southern Hemisphereat least the plesiosaurscould definitely use some attention, he says. There have been all sorts of things found in the arctic, from underground lakes and ancient fossils to prehistoric skeletons and enormous tunnels. NASA Found a Manhattan-Sized Cavern in Antarctica The cavern sits where nearly 14 billion tons of ice used to be, all of which melted in the last few years. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

This nearly whole, deep-black skull belongs to the most complete specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex on display in Europe, an individual nicknamed Tristan Otto. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. Well, in 2016 a team of researchers discovered some very interesting things found frozen in Antarctica. Satellite photos showed an unusual groove in the ice shelf close to where it met with the land, and researchers identified the peculiar feature as a subsurface river, which they described in a statement (opens in new tab). She has previously reported for Mother Jones, the Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, Neon Tommy and more. For me, as a Canadian who also works on pterosaurs, its pretty cool to get an actual name for an animal thats been kicking around for a while, says paleontologist Liz Martin-Silverstone, a research associate at the University of Bristol who wasnt involved with the study. That is what the katabatic winds are doing in the polynya, removing the ice, exposing the water and making more ice form.". This creepy looking fall was named Blood Falls because of its deep color resembling blood. He then proceeds to analyse the skeleton, before concluding that it could be an ancient dinosaur. Antarctica is still a relatively unexplored area on our planet. When it was walking on the ground, as azhdarchids often did, it was more than eight feet tall at the shoulder, roughly the same height as some giraffes. Site Powered by Pix & Hue. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). It would have flying in a landscape that would have been reasonably temperate but a hell of a lot warmer than central Alberta is now.. Maybe were being too harsh here after all, this is just a satellite image were talking about. She has been put through hell and come out the other side . 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. The answer is fiction. (Would the dinosaurs have died out if not for that asteroid? 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. But for [biologists], it is amazing because no one has ever seen these [organisms] before.. An international team is currently trying to finish the job. Multiple expeditions in the 19th century managed to reach the Antarctic Peninsula, and in 1911 Roald Amundsens party were the first people to reach the South Pole. IE 11 is not supported. The flying reptilenamed Cryodrakon boreaslived in what is now western Canada about 76 million years ago, during whats known as the Cretaceous period. The largest meteorite discovered in Antarctica weighs 7.6 kilograms. In East Antarctica, there is a place where it looks like the continent is gushing out blood. At first, researchers believed the color was due to the red algae, but years later, it was revealed that the color is due to iron oxides, Forbes . 18 Antarctica's Blood Falls. Sometimes the ice freezes into these beautiful ornate patterns reminiscent of dragon scales. 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! All rights reserved. Regardless, sometimes you might get lucky and find some Antarctica mythical creatures. Scientists have found a tiny animal, Tullbergia, living under rocks in Antarctica's inland mountain peaks, where nothing should survive. ", 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. By The Siberian Times reporter . When the researchers sent a camera down through the icy tunnel and into the cavern, hundreds of tiny, blurry flecks in the water obscured the video feed. Dragon skin occurs when strong winds continually lift surface ice, subsequently freezing the water below. 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. In 1911, scientists noticed an outflow of dark red water coming out of a glacier. The amber adds to fossil evidence that many dinosaurs. What we find by visiting the coordinates 7200' 36.00'' S, 168 34' 40.00'' E is a mysterious face in the ice - seemingly complete with two eyes, a nose, and a mouth. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Horgan first spotted hints of the subsurface structure in 2020 while looking at a satellite photo of the area. John Higgins The coronavirus pandemic has delayed his. Blizzard had been tortured beyound belief by the SkyWings. Its a huge area, but we have a tiny widow into it, Griffiths said. He thinks the work is well done, and hes happy that the team hasnt jumped to hasty conclusionsOGorman even hesitates to say whether the species is definitely from the Aristonectes genus, since further evidence may put the species in a new genus entirely. However, despite being prominent in the satellite images, the groove initially eluded surface detection, Stevens said. I don't think it's a sea lion.". Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Development of any resources found in Antarc-tica will be expensive. Copyright 2023 Anita Hendrieka. Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. CNN During a recent excursion to the icy plains of Antarctica, an international team of researchers discovered five new meteorites including one of the largest ever found on the continent.. Antarctica is also a good place to find meteorites, or rocks that fall from space to Earth. After drilling out the borehole, the scientists lowered a sediment corer and an attached video camera through the ice shelf. It was discovered by the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913. The more that he compared his measurements of Quetzalcoatlus to the Canadian fossil, the more he suspected it wasnt Quetzalcoatlus at all. The secret ecosystem was found more than 1,600 feet below the surface. MUST-HAVE: Before you head out on your trip, make sure you have travel insurance. Lovecraft would have probably loved to see this interesting creature. Dragon-skin ice is very rare, bizarre, evidence of a darker chaos in the cryospheric realm, not seen in Antarctica since 2007, saidIMAS researcher Dr. While it is most likely some kind of big whale species, it still has a menacing, creepy air to it. "Were going to have our work cut out understanding what this means. During this brutal interaction between the polar ocean and atmosphere, the seawater freezes as freshwater ice, according to the researchers. Heres the science.). I recommend either SafetyWing or World Nomads. DRAGON FOUND is the first book in The Dragon Queen series and reminded me (in a good way) of Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern - albeit a whole lot steamier and with more political backstabbing and intrigue. Learn about the anatomical features that made their flight possible, how large some of these creatures grew, and which species was named after a vampire legend. In order to survive, the organisms would have to feed on floating material from other animals or plants, because it is impossible for plants to photosynthesize in the sunless seawater. 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. Especially since you need to zoom in on a dark ocean cavern to spot it. ", The YouTuber added:"I think this thing was frozen in time. The different colorings can actually be simply explained as frozen meltwater (blue), sediment (black) or algae (green) that were trapped while the iceberg was forming. Footage of the oddity was uploaded on the YouTube channel of MrMBB333 who regularly shares weird . The formation may be . The researchers had expected that the roof of the chamber would be smooth and flat. But the researchers realized that a separate fossil at the Royal Tyrrell Museuma smashed-up tube of bone 16 inches longwas the middle portion of a neck vertebra from an azhdarchid that probably had a wingspan of more than 30 feet. An. These animals can sniff it out. (Though, it's been mentioned now, so kind of?) document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); I knew not of these creatures, nor, spooky happenings, in Antarctica. There are probably plenty of discoveries in Antarctica still to be made. What do you think theyll find on (or in) the icy continent next? Perhaps the most dragon-like mythological creatures found in Aboriginal mythology are the Rainbow Serpents. NASA Found a Manhattan-Sized Cavern in Antarctica, 60 Scientists Are Trying to Block the Sun, giant underground cavern in the glacier almost as big as Manhattan, map out glaciers and ice sheets in three dimensions, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads. Bizzard was a young IceWing dragonet, covered in scars. Rare 'Dragon-Skin' Ice Spotted During Antarctic Research Voyage By Kacey Deamer published May 10, 2017 Dragon skin occurs when strong winds continually lift surface ice, subsequently freezing. Youd hardly expect them to come in stripes as well. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Schulp has worked on some plesiosaurs from the Netherlands, but he says the aquatic reptiles are very different in the Southern Hemisphere. Which travel companies promote harmful wildlife activities? 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. The scientists found the secret subterranean habitat tucked away beneath the Larsen Ice Shelf a massive, floating sheet of ice attached to the eastern coast of the Antarctic peninsula that famously birthed the world's largest iceberg in 2021. Maybe not a spooky as the rest of the creepy facts about Antarctica on this list. He is also interested in evolution, climate change, robots, space exploration, environmental conservation and anything that's been fossilized. Two key advances offered a way off the Quetzalcoatlus merry-go-round. Old cells hang around as we age, doing damage to the body. 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 feet. TheNathan B Palmer icebreaker research vessel is continuing an expedition near the south pole even as winter approaches and most research boats move toward warmer weather. This nearly whole, deep-black skull belongs to the most complete specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex on display in Europe, an individual nicknamed Tristan Otto. The groundbreaking promise of cellular housekeeping. Weird Google Earth images appear to show a giant "dome" rammed in the ice and it's sent conspiracy theorists wild. 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. Initially, the team thought their equipment was faulty. The mysterious skeleton of a creature has been found on Google Maps in Antartica, The YouTuber shows the creatures front and rear limbs, as the curve of its spine and its skull, The YouTuber proceeds to analyse the skeleton, before concluding that it could be an ancient dinosaur, Stonehenge builders branded just as clever as us, Dinosaur discovery: Found fossils may be largest land animal, MrMBB333 has previously posted videos of 'mysterious' Google Maps in Antarctica, BBC's correspondent predicts leadership chaos even after CDU vote, Stunning backlash grows in revolt over EU's vaccine rollout, Prince William 'concerned' that Harry is trying to 'exploit' Diana, Space law: Is first step of alien constitution being prepared, Area 51 images show strange structure inside an open hangar, Solar flares study: Activity might not preclude existence of life. Can we bring a species back from the brink?, Video Story, Copyright 1996-2015 National Geographic Society, Copyright 2015-2023 National Geographic Partners, LLC. The new specimen is also very interesting because it dates so close to the end of the Cretaceousjust 30,000 years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs about 66 million years ago. 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. All rights reserved. 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. The MrMBB333 host told viewers: "What youre about to see here is intact, very large skeletal remains. The animal, when alive, would not have been a frozen dragon, notes study coauthor Mike Habib, a paleontologist at the University of Southern California. 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. Researchers needed a more complete specimen, and as it happened, William Zinsmeister of Purdue University had discovered a potential candidate on Seymour Islandjust south of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsuladuring a 1989 expedition. The researchers also unexpectedly discovered that the water column underground split into four or five distinct layers of water flowing in opposite directions. It was then kept secret from every other person in the world by calling it "The Pyramid" and then use that name on every . To recognize the modern climate in the region where this pterosaur once roamed, they named the new pterosaur Cryodrakon boreas, or the cold dragon of the north winds. Habib, a fan of the TV show Game of Thrones, had also suggested Cryodrakon viserion, a reference to one of the shows dragons, in part because of its rise from the ice, and in part because the animal might have reached movie-monster proportions. With 170 of its 300-odd bones preserved, this scientifically important but privately owned skeleton is currently at the Museum fr Naturkunde in Berlin, Germany. This site contains affiliate links for products and services we recommend. Examples of animals that live in Antarctica include the blue whale, fin whale, gentoo penguin, kelp gull, and krill. Eco-friendly burial alternatives, explained. In late April 2020, two Chinese icebreakers made a port call in Shanghai to a large state media celebration. But I would be much more conservative in saying its Cryodrakon, because, yeah, theres no features on that at all.. Even in Antarctica, there were lots of happy elasmosaurs, Schulp says. But instead, they found that the roof was very uneven and had lots of steep undulations. It was only in 1773 that an expedition led by Captain James Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle. The near-perfect skeleton remains were located in a remote inland area of Antarctica. Please be respectful of copyright. But what was most intresting about her was that she could see Antarctica, something no other dragon could do. But to their surprise, the camera showed colonies of stationary animals attached to the rock probably sponges and related sea creatures. As for those sea spiders I may dig em, having seen some cool-looking spiders from the tropics. A team of researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany has discovered a whopping 77 seafloor . NASA warns of 3 skyscraper-sized asteroids headed toward Earth this week. Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, 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! Dragon skin occurs when strong "katabatic" winds downslope winds that exist only over icy regions continually lift the polynya's surface ice, subsequently freezing the water below, according to Guy Williams, a polar oceanographer from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia.