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FReepathon day 39.
Two percent a day keeps the 404 away.
Posted on 08/09/2014 12:18:58 PM PDT by Citizen Zed
The cave is cool and damp -- prefect for preserving prehistoric remains, Meachen says. "It's like a refrigerator in there, and probably has been for 20,000 years," she said. "Some of the bones we're finding there have collagen in them. That is where you could get the ancient DNA."
The scientists saw bones falling out of a part of the cave, and decided to start digging there. "That was the fossil layer," she said. "There is so much to dig. We have two more years for funding that we can be out there, so we are going to try to dig up as much as we can." This year's excavation was funded by National Geographic.
Professor Alan Cooper of Australia's University of Adelaide was also part of the excavation that began on July 29. The Bureau of Land Management in Wyoming tweeted a video of the professor discussing the fossil finds at Natural Trap Cave on Thursday, which was uploaded to Youtube.
"This is one of the richest sites for megafauna mammal bones in the lower 48 states and southern Canada," he said in the video. Megafauna mammals are considered to be large or giant animals, typically larger than a human.
Some of the remains are believed to be of the North American lion and the American cheetah, Cooper explained in the video. Some of the species found are estimated to have gone extinct more than 20,000 years ago, according to the National Park Service.
"I've had this list of really puzzling evolutionary mysteries, things like the Falkland Islands wolf or the American cheetah, which we are finding bones of here, and the American lion," Copper said.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.wpbf.com ...
Written history goes back no more than around 5000 years.
Prehistoric bones ping.
Actually, it was a moose, not an elk. And if it hadn’t bitten the girl (my sister) it would never have been found.
Wow, I had to read that title a couple of times.......My first thought was that it was in danger of being undiscovered...........LOL!
I’m sick of hearing about the Senate.
It took me a moment...
Good one Tabasco. {golf clap}
earlier on FR:
Wyoming cave dig unearths bones of ancient horses, cheetahs and bison
Reuters | August 8, 2014 5:23pm EDT | LAURA ZUCKERMAN
Posted on 8/9/2014 5:33:26 AM by blueplum
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3190765/posts
Thanks afraidfortherepublic.
West US cave with fossil secrets to be excavated
Phys dot org | July 24, 2014 | unattributed
Posted on 07/27/2014 1:48:24 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3185734/posts
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