Male Woolly Mammoth Went Extinct Due To Poor Living Arrangements
Scientists were confused as to why a whopping 70 percent of mammoth fossils were males and those of females were so rare. In 2017, the Swedish Museum of Natural History found that this was due to poor male mammoth living arrangements.
When male mammoths reached adulthood, they were kicked out of the female-led herds. The males then either lived as hermits or formed bachelor herds. As such, the exiled males would engage in riskier behavior that would lead to a better chance of fossil preservation, like getting trapped in a sinkhole or a bog.
The Black Sinkhole In Florida
The sinkhole in the Aucilla River, south of Tallahassee, in Florida, has been known by archaeologists for years. However, it is so dark that no divers would want to explore and examine it. But Jessi Halligan, a Florida State University professor, decided to conduct some research. The diving expeditions found mastodon tusks that had long grooves left by human tools. The discovery implies that humans inhabited the Florida area much earlier than had been thought initially thought, which dates back as far as 14,500 years ago.
The Kidnapping Of Carlina White
Carlina White, who was kidnapped as a baby, was later reunited with her birth parents. On August 4, 1987, Carlina, who was only 19 days old, was rushed to New York’s Harlem Hospital Center. Suffering from an infection and high fever, Carlina was admitted, but disappeared during an early morning shift change. Witnesses claimed they saw a woman dressed as a nurse somewhere near the NICU, however, the hospital’s video surveillance system wasn’t working, so an accurate description wasn’t possible.
This incident was the first non-parental infant abduction in New York history. A reward was set up for Carlina’s return, but she was never found. The parents sued the hospital, won a settlement, and eventually split up. The case remained cold for decades. For the next 23 years, Carlina was raised under a new name by Connecticut resident Annugetta “Ann” Pettway.
Carlina eventually became suspicious that she looked nothing like Ann. This suspicion was further heightened when she couldn’t provide her with birth documents. Carlina began researching things on the net and eventually came across baby photos that matched those of her when she was small. She called the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and was reunited with her real parents in 2000. The kidnapper disappeared, eventually turned herself in, pleaded guilty to kidnapping, and was given a 12-year sentence.
The Egyptian Secret To Moving Stone Blocks For The Pyramids Wasn’t Aliens, It Was Sledge
Aliens seem to get a lot of credit from conspiracy theorists! Aliens didn’t help build the Egyptian pyramids, even though the stones would have been difficult to move. In 2014, physicists from the University of Amsterdam dispelled rumors by putting a method found on an ancient tomb drawing to the test. They determined that the workers hauled the massive stone blocks on a sort of sled. By pouring water on sand or slippery clay as a type of lubricant, the workers reduced the friction of their path and drag the large blocks to construct the pyramids.
A Man Missing For Nine Years Spotted On Google Maps
72-year-old David Lee Niles disappeared after leaving a bar in Byron Township, Michigan, in 2006. Niles had been suffering from both cancer and depression, so his family had assumed the worst, that he’d taken his own life, even putting out an obituary for him in 2011. It took nine years for them to figure out what happened—but the answer would turn out to be startlingly obvious. The answer was always there.
A maintenance worker installing Christmas lights with a crane on a nearby funeral home saw a car in a small lake nearby, and police divers confirmed that it was Niles when they found his wallet. But the twist is that the car was clearly visible on Google Maps. Anyone looking at the lake could have seen it.
How Did The Ancient Indus Survive In The Desert Without A River?
The Indus civilization stood around 5,000 years ago in what now is northwest India and Pakistan. The civilization was known for cotton and date farming and some of its cities even had plumbing and a working sewer system.
Scientists were confused about how the civilization thrived in the desert without a nearby river source. Though there was a glacier-fed river there once, historians once believed that the civilization dried up as soon as the river did. But recent research revealed that the river dried up 3,000 years before the collapse of the Indus civilization. Meanwhile, the civilization relied on monsoon flooding to trap groundwater in the clay in order to extract it and feed their crops.
The Lost Grave Of Richard III Are No Longer Lost
When the monastery that Richard III was buried in was bought by a private entrepreneur, his corpse was lost for centuries. The corpse of the dead king was feared gone, but scientists didn’t give up hope. In 2012, they caught a lucky break when an old grave was found buried under a parking lot in Leicester. DNA testing was able to reveal that the bones in the grave were indeed the long lost remains of Richard III.
Paul Fronczak’s Real Identity
The story of Paul Fronczak has shaken the US as it became the second-longest cold case in US history. Still a baby, Paul was abducted from his parents and later found abandoned in a stroller in 1965. Initially, The Fronczaks were sure that they had found their lost child, but over time, doubt settled in. As Paul was getting older, the family noticed that he looked less and less like either of the Fronczaks and the family decided to order a DNA test.
But in 2012, a test concluded that the child was not the Fronczaks’ and Paul suddenly had no idea who he was. Paul was eventually able to track down his true identity of Jack and learned that both his parents had died. While the mystery did help Paul Jack discover who he was, he also learned that he had a twin sister known as Jill who remains missing to this day. Unfortunately, the Fronczaks still don’t know what became of their biological child either.
The Source Of Blood At Blood Falls Is Iron Oxides
In 1911, explorer and geographer Thomas Griffith Taylor stumbled upon a bizarre sight at the edge Taylor Glacier in East Antarctica. Taylor noted the occurrence of red blood-colored water flowing out of the glacier. At first, scientists thought it was some sort of algae that gave the water the reddish color. They eventually realized iron oxides were the reason, but how this occurred remained a mystery for over 100 years. In 2017, scientists finally discovered the source. Using radio-echo sounding radar, they were able to uncover that the waterfall was connected to an iron-rich source of water trapped under the glacier. The briny water source is believed to be over a million years old — making Blood Falls one very strange and very old waterfall.
The Mysterious ‘Starchild Skull’ Came From A Human With Congenital Hydrocephalus
Back in 1999, paranormalist and former Magnum, P.I. writer Lloyd Pye introduced the world to a misshapen skull he claimed as proof of extraterrestrial life. The so-called “Starchild skull” is child-sized and features an enlarged cranium, a flattened back, and no sinuses. Pye also claimed the skull’s teeth were much more worn down than a child’s would be, and that it was made of organic materials supposedly unknown to science. Pye believed the skull belonged to an alien-human hybrid with a human mother and extraterrestrial father, resembling the “little grey men” that were depicted by sci-fi author Whitley Strieber and the TV show The X-Files.
However, scientists who examined the Starchild skull didn’t agree. A dentist who examined the skull’s teeth concluded that it belonged to a child aged about 5 years old. A neurologist found that the skull’s deformations are consistent with congenital hydrocephalus, and DNA tests concluded the remains were entirely human in origin, not alien.
