Latest news with #SouthAustralianMuseum
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
Unknown 'world full of aliens' discovered in deep hole in Aussie outback
A 'world full of aliens' has been unearthed by researchers in a hole on the side of a barren Aussie hill. While the swimming pool-sized dig site in South Australia's outback may not look like much, its stratified layers of sandstone provide a glimpse into life that existed at the bottom of a shallow sea some 555-million-years ago. "We're finding things that have been hidden for over half a billion years,' South Australian Museum palaeontologist Diego García-Bellido, who has been chipping away at the secret fossil bed with his team for the past few years, said. The associated professor and his crew of 10 researchers and volunteers just returned from another 10-day stint at the excavation site in the Nilpena Ediacara National Park, 520km north of Adelaide. 'We found a new outcrop some kilometres away from the original Ediacara fossil beds, which were discovered in the early 2000s,' García-Bellido said. After extracting each layer of rock by hand, researchers were thrilled to uncover a variety of fossilised organisms that once lived on the 20 metre-deep sea floor, including Dickinsonia, Tribrachidium, and Spriggina — all of which lived during the late Ediacaran period. At that time, Australia was still attached to Antartica, and the first animals were starting to evolve. 'The sea floor was covered with a microbial mat — not unlike what grows at the bottom of a swimming pool during winter — and there were a few organisms living and feeding on that mat,' García-Bellido said. While some of the 'early complex organisms' did 'some of the things that animals do', they can't quite be classified as such, he added. 'These are the closest things to aliens that we have on our planet's history.' 🏡 Aussie renter's 250 million-year-old discovery in inner-city backyard 🌳 Incredible photos capture 'magical' phenomenon in Aussie forests 🏕️ Ancient discovery near popular Aussie camping spot sparks delight The impressions on the sandstone have been digitised and measured so further research can be conducted. 'We look at how they are distributed on the fossil surface and how they grow,' García-Bellido explained. 'How the juvenile is different to the adult, and what is the spatial relationships between each of the organisms. 'What this is telling us, is the world back then was much more complicated than we expected. We are finding things that have never been discovered before.' The Ediacara fossils are now on display at the South Australian Museum for anyone who wants to see them first-hand. Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@ You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube.
The Independent
11-02-2025
- General
- The Independent
Owner of immensely valuable Viking Age ‘Galloway Hoard' of silver and gold finally found
Runic inscriptions on an 1,100-year-old arm ring unearthed in Scotland suggest that the hoard of silver and gold it was buried with belonged to an entire Viking community. The Galloway Hoard, discovered in 2014, has been the subject of mystery with theories suggesting it was likely buried by four prosperous owners based on arm rings inscribed with Anglo-Saxon runes. A new translation of the runes suggests that the hoard of silver and gold was 'the community's wealth' and not owned by any particular individual. 'This is another really interesting and significant development in our understanding of the Galloway Hoard,' Martin Goldberg of National Museums Scotland said. The findings, however, raise questions like what community this was and what circumstances led to its wealth to be buried. 'Some material within the hoard like the pectoral cross and the rock crystal jar made for a Bishop Hyguald would support this being a religious community,' Dr Goldberg said. Researchers analysed runic words inscribed on the curved half of the arm ring. They found that one of the words could be a misspelt form of 'this', pronounced 'dis' like how it would be in parts of modern Ireland. Another word was 'higna', an Old English word meaning community. The full inscription could be translated as 'this is the community's property', with 'higna' used in Anglo-Saxon documents to indicate a religious community. 'There are a number of things which are technically 'wrong' when we compare it with what we know about 'correct' runic writing,' said runologist David Parsons from the University of Wales. 'However, if we think about both spoken and written English today, there are a huge range of regional and idiomatic variations and, if we allow for this, then it becomes possible to accept this as a plausible reading,' he said, calling the latest discovery 'quite compelling'. The Galloway Hoard still holds many secrets. Many of the objects have never been seen before in the British Isles, with some likely travelling thousands of miles to reach Scotland, according to researchers. One of the arm rings has gone on display at the South Australian Museum in Adelaide as part of a new international touring exhibition from 8 February.
