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Giants in New Mexico!

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWSFLASH
This news is from Jonathan Gray -www.beforeus.com 

You’ll be astonished at this news which Lisa has revealed. A young New Zealander on a visit to the USA, Lisa worked for a while with the New Mexico Parks Department. During her term of employment there was a big “washout” in one of the Park regions and I’m assuming it was up in Pueblo country around Taos.

The flash flood scoured out embankments and in doing so a large number of anomalous skeletons were exposed. Lisa and her colleagues were assigned the task of gathering up the remains and placing them into crates. Also in attendance at the site were Smithsonian Institute officials and FBI agents. Each day as Lisa and the other Parks Department employees went onto the site, they were searched for cameras. Similarly they were searched as they left the site each day to make sure they weren’t removing artefacts.

They were also obliged to sign “secrecy documents” ensuring that they would never divulge details of their participation in this undertaking. The reason for this degree of secrecy stems from the fact that the skeletons were of people who were about 8 feet tall. They had six fingers on each hand and six toes per foot. They also had a strange, double row arrangement of teeth. The crates containing the recovered remains, at the termination of work, were taken away by the Smithsonian officials and, undoubtedly, will never be seen again.

Lisa later had official “hassles” when trying to come home to New Zealand and was severely grilled by United States government functionaries as she attempted to depart from the US.

On The Trail of the Nephilim!

On The Trail of the Nephilim!

FORBIDDEN ARCHEOLOGY

Reblogged from The Story Behind The Story:

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Here's yet another update to "Forbidden Archeology" in America:

A giant mystery: 18 strange giant skeletons found in Wisconsin: Sons of god; Men of renown

Kristan Harris
SouthMilwaukeeNow
Sun, 20 Jan 2013 20:30 CST

© SouthMilwaukeeNow

  

Here's one for your "Forbidden Archaeology" file.Scientists are remaining stubbornly silent about a lost race of giants found in burial mounds near Lake Delavan, Wisconsin, in May 1912.

Read more… 6,499 more words

A Giant Mystery: Sons of god; Men of Renown...

Giant Remains near Cagliari, Sardinia

The Testimony of Luigi Muscas on his property near Cagliari, Sardinia on 11/11/2012

By Paola Harris http://paolaharris.com

Luigi told me about the tombs and artifacts of giants (15 foot tall beings) who lived in Sardinia thousands of years ago. He told me that his father and his uncles, who also own land near his land, have dug up many bones and human artifacts. He also mentioned that traditional archeology does not accept this discovery and that his entire family has been threatened. He has been told over and over to keep this secret and NOT talk to the general public. His has written two books on the GIANTS, one called The Giants, Children of the Stars and The Giants and the Culture from the Stars, which has many photographs. He says

“The people who come to my house to heard about the star people, they want a certainty, the proof that this is not a fantasy but the truth. This Reality is hidden, buried until it was discovered and been sold, occulted, destroyed without respect for our Sardinian history. I am hoping we can keep this story safe until we can deal with it with extreme care because it also is the story of all humanity.”

To talk about the Giants stimulates much curiosity but also much skepticism. It is true that is difficult to even imagine another reality different from the one we know. But as of 1997, our Italian media has slowly started to speak about it in their broadcasts. In Sardinia, we began to see this reality in our broadcasts 2003. It is a fact that in all the world enormous bones have been discovered. In Mexico, Athens, Africa and other countries we see the photos.

Some of us in Sardinia believe that our constructions called Nuraghi are the very tombs of these “giants”. But this has not yet been recognized as official.

Paola Harris holds fossilized Giant’s tooth.

Luigi Muscas holds giant tooth.

Luigi Muscas holds giant jawbone

Luigi Muscas shows Paola Harris giant tooth.

Want to read more on Giants? Go here! http://manvsarchaeology.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/giants/

New Evidence for Bigfoot?

Bigfoot’s stomping groundsThere’s more to Upper Fruitland than Northern Edge casino

By Cindy Yurth
Tséyi Bureau

FARMINGTON, January 26, 2012

(Courtesy photo – Brenda Harris)TOP: Brenda Harris of Upper Fruitland, N.M., found this footprint, nearly 18 inches long, in her yard in 2008, starting her on a mission of tracking the elusive creature.BOTTOM: This photo by Brenda Harris of Upper Fruitland, N.M., shows a figure she believes is a Bigfoot walking behind a cornfield near the San Juan River. Harris, who has investigated dozens of sightings and strange phenomena in her chapter, believes there is at least a family and possibly a whole colony of the creatures living in the mountains north of Fruitland.

M eet the Navajo Buffy.

She’s not a pretty cheerleader, she’s a pretty middle-aged mom. And she’s not a vampire slayer, exactly … she’s more of a live-and-let-live type.

But if you live on the northern edge of the rez, and there’s something strange in the neighborhood, who you gonna call? Brenda Harris.

Since finding an 18-inch long footprint in her yard in Upper Fruitland, Harris has investigated dozens of complaints from neighbors about strange livestock killings, hairy upright beings looking in windows, and odd giant footprints.

She has photographs and even hair and blood samples.

Her conclusion: Bigfoot is alive and well. In fact, there are almost certainly more than one of them living in the mountains north of the San Juan River, including some youngsters.

And that’s not at all. There is something else out there.

According to Harris, a recent spate of sheep and goat killings in Upper Fruitland reveal a killer that punctures a tidy hole in the neck and sucks the blood, then neatly slices open the abdomen along one side.

Harris’s obsession with monster tracking began in August 2008. Her son and nephew were up late, sitting out in the yard laughing and chatting.

“About 1 a.m. they came running in saying, ‘We found something,’” Harris recalled.

She went out with them and was astonished to see a quasi-human-looking footprint 18 inches long and four inches wide. There were two of them, a left and a right, four feet apart.

“I thought, ‘Anything with that wide a stance is really big,’” Harris said.

She shooed her family in for the night, but not before taking measurements and photos.

About a week went by before the next encounter. Harris’s sister came by at about 10:30 p.m.

“I could hear the dogs going nuts, but not in the usual way when someone comes over,” Harris recalled. “You can tell when something is really disturbing your dogs.”

Harris and her sister went out to investigate.

“We could hear something … heavy steps coming toward us,” Harris said. “I said, ‘Let’s climb over the fence.’”

They heard the steps again, and then they saw a shape rise out of the gloom.

“Huge,” said Harris. “Very, very hairy … long dark hair and no neck. Kind of a pointy head. The chest was really wide, very muscular. It dropped down on all fours and started running that way. It was surprisingly fast.”

Harris noticed the weeds, which grew almost above her 5-foot-2-inch frame, hit the creature at the waist. She estimated it was about 12 feet tall.

Telling the story to her neighbors, Harris found they had all seen the creature, but didn’t want to talk about it.

“Among the Native people, we’re told not to talk about things like that,” she said. “You just leave it alone. But I was worried about my animals and my kids. I felt like we should be talking about it as a community.”

Leonard Dan, our Dine’ guide told me, there where only two possibilities left, it was either a black bear or our large hairy biped. He then knocked the bear off the list saying that the black bear populations in the area are 200-300 pound in weight on average and the largest he has known to have been reported in his 69 years of growing up in the area was about 500 pounds.

Report from Steve Kulls:
We encountered several different witnesses. One of the more compelling reports came from “MJ” who stated her Grandmother in the 90’s had a habituation in the Dulce, New Mexico area. The Grandmother would allegedly feed the creature by placing food in a refrigerator which was kept outside her domicile. Contrary to the Navajo belief, the grandmother was Jicarilla Apache, and thought an encounter with a creature to be good luck rather than bad.

The Grandmother, unfortunately passed several years ago and neither the house nor the refrigerator is available for inspection. There has been no additional activity in this general area, recently. “MJ” also told us of her own encounter in which she, along with a male companion, observed a black, hairy, biped with a large cow under it’s arm! It turned and glanced at them briefly and stepped over a 5 foot fence! The interesting fact is “MJ” remembers more of the cow’s description than that of the creature, as it all totally shocked her!

Also, I am currently investigating a plane crash which occurred near here in the Chuska Mountains, in 1995 in which official reports stated the bodies from the plane had been removed from the craft and laid neatly next to each other under the fuselage, buried in pine needles prior to any human intervention in locating the crash. As of this writing, I currently have the National Transportation Safety Board Accident Report and several media articles covering the crash. The link to the NTSB report is: http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=FTW95FA349&rpt=fa I will be compiling more of this report as time allows and will share my findings with you through this site.
End of my report – Steve Kulls

View the original report here: http://www.navajotimes.com/entertainment/2012/0112/012612bigfoot.php

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The Mystery of the Decalogue Stone

The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone is a large boulder on the side of Hidden Mountain, near Los Lunas, New Mexico that bears an ancient inscription carved into a flat panel in the rock. The stone is also known as the Los Lunas Mystery Stone or Commandment Rock. The inscription is interpreted to be an abridged version of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments in a form of Paleo-Hebrew. The tetragrammaton YHWH, or “Yahweh,” is written four times throughout the inscription. The stone is controversial in that some claim the inscription is Pre-Columbian, and therefore proof of early Semitic contact with the Americas.

The first recorded mention of the stone is in 1933, when professor Frank Hibben, an archaeologist from the University of New Mexico, saw it. Hibben was led to the stone by an unnamed Indian guide who claimed to have found it as a boy in the 1880s. The 1880s date of discovery is important to those who believe that the stone was inscribed by a lost tribe of Israel. However, Florencio Chavez, a former Los Lunas resident, reported being shown the rock by his grandfather, Simon Serna. Serna was born in 1829 and his father had claimed to seen the rock in 1800.

The Paleo-Hebrew script is practically identical to the Phoenician script, which was known at the time, thus not precluding the possibility of fraud. One argument against the stone’s antiquity is its apparent use of modern Hebrew punctuation, though amateur epigrapher Barry Fell argued that the punctuation is consistent with antiquity.^[1] Other researchers dismiss the inscription based on the numerous stylistic and grammatical errors that appear in the inscription.

In 1948, William H. McCart an Albuquerque resident took an interest in the rock and sent photographs to Dr. Robert H. Pfeiffer of the Semitic Museum at Harvard University. But in doing so, in order to get a better picture, he purposely scratched out the natural patina over the inscription thus effectively destroying the most valuable information & context on the stone! Dr. Hibben had stated first hand to an archaeologist friend of mine in the 1960′s that he did see not only patina covering the inscription in the 1930′s but also lichen growing on the stone! What a tragedy that this important information was removed by an amature wanting to get photographs.

In 1949, Dr. Pfeiffer made a first known translation of the strange writing. Being an authority on the Old Testament (the Hebrew Scriptures of the Bible) he concluded that the inscription was a copy of the Ten Commandments. He thought that the inscription was written in the Phoenician, the Moabite, and the Greek languages. Indeed, some local native American Indians, as a result of his work, have been referring to this rock as the Phoenician Inscription Rock. Professor Pfeiffer never stated at that time whom he thought carved the message. Many locals have been calling this site the “Ten Commandments Rock” ever since. Further speculation involved the authorship of that rock inscription. Some even considered it to be an inscription from a member of one of the lost tribes of Israel.

However, Robert L. Pfeiffers translation has not remained unchallenged. Notably two translators rejected the idea that the rock inscription had something to do with the Ten Commandments. In 1964, Robert L. LaFollete wrote a translation which resulted in a travelers story carved on the rock using Phoenician as well as some Hebrew, Cyrillic and Etruscan letters. LaFollete translated this story in English as well as in the Navajo language. Dixie L. Perkins published another translation in 1979. This time under the assumption that the writer was of Greek origin and that he was using old-Greek and Phoenician letters. Perkins translation, too, challenges the Ten Commandment version, again resulting in another travelers story. (1) However, Mrs Perkins stated in her foreword to her translation that she only studied Latin and Greek, not however Hebrew. It remains clear that Dr. Pfeiffer’s translation is the correct one and has been verified by other scholars.

The writings on the Los Lunas stone use a combination of Samaritan and Greek letters. Greek? That’s interesting. The Book of Mormon says nothing about Greek. The Greeks didn’t conquer Palestine until more than 200 years after Lehi and Mulek left Jerusalem. But the language of the stone uses good Greek grammar, and makes Samaritan mistakes that would be natural grammatical mistakes for a person of Greek learning, and unthinkable for a Hebrew. But what of the language? The particular combination of characters matches perfectly a Samaritan-Greek dialect that has been discovered in Alexandria. Doesn’t this mean the person who wrote it was most likely not a Hebrew? No, on the contrary. It could be a Phoenician influence.

Other Phoenician and old-Hebrew inscription samples
Another way to narrow down the problem of the age is to compare the Los Lunas inscription with other Phoenician and Paleo-Hebrew inscription samples from the Mediterranean Middle East. In general, if the Los Lunas inscription is old-Hebrew, it is no younger than 600 B.C.E. because after that old-Hebrew came to be gradually replaced by the square-Hebrew alphabet. The old-Hebrew and Phoenician characters used to be almost identical from 1100 B.C.E. to 600 B.C.E. Thereafter, mainly the Phoenicians continued to use this old alphabet, until their Mediterranean colonies were destroyed by the Romans during the Punic wars of the 2nd century B.C.E.  As mentioned in the Epigraphy section, the closest matching Phoenician or paleo-Hebrew writing samples are those from the Eshmunazar Sarcophagus (4th century B.C.E.) or those of the Bar Rakab Inscription and the Nerab Stelae.

What about Mormon Influence?

There is further speculation involving the authorship of the rock inscription. There are some that claim that the stone was carved by someone in the Mormon Battalion as they may have passed through that area. It is claimed that some of the members of the Mormon Battalion participated in the school of the prophets where ancient Semitic languages were studied. The stone could have been just the etchings of a bored solider, which would explain some of the typos and errors in the text. Others have expressed the thought that perhaps some Mormons may have carved this message in an attempt to support their views of an ancient pre-Columbian semitic history in North America. However, a simple research on Mormon Web sites reveals absolutely nothing about this rock inscription. It is not used by their church as a proof for the existence of ancient Nephites in America. For a certainty it is not written in so-called “reformed Egyptian” language.

The overwhelming number of Phoenician and Greek letters and words found in Los Lunas are more of a direct link to Old World (Bronze Age) employ. Again, though there are some dating overlaps seen between Los Lunas and Mormon Brigade, from the 1840’s to the end of the 1850’s, the concentration was on the Great Utah Basin and their early establishment in the area. Finally, I do not see a strong connection in the Mystery Stone and the Mormon community for the simple reason, there is not the faintest hint to any Christian Confession. The Mormon faith, nor any of the array of Christian denominations; especially, of early American age would omit such an opportunity for Christological profession. In addition, no names of individuals mentioned in the Book of Mormon have every been found in ancient inscriptions.

Nevertheless, the Mormons examined the stone in the 1950′s to see if it was theirs. They sent out the Archaeological Society of Brigham Young University from Provo, Utah. The Mormon team critically examined the stone and in 1954 published an article which concluded the inscription was quite recent because of the lack of patina in the letters. Consequently, they dismissed it altogether. I had one person email me who was interested in the Los Lunas Mystery Stone. He stated that he was Mormon & had been so all of his life. He had never heard of the stone within the Mormon community and was intrigued by those claiming that it was of Mormon influence. He personally visited the site & concluded that this indeed had nothing to do with the Mormons- independently verifying the 1950′s expedition!

In the Mormon community, I would love to see someone pursue that; someone like the wonderful scholarship provided by Dr. Brian Stubbs. What Dr. Stubbs has contributed to is the awesome connection between Hebrew consonal roots (and Hebrew plural construction) to languages of both ancient America; especially Indian languages squarely in the Los Lunas matrix. Another scholarly contribution in this area of Hebrew root connections and Ancient Americas is David Deal’s work in Mayan syllabary and words.

There is no evidence that supports the existence of the Nephites in Mormon archaeology. FARMS, a scholarly group associated with BYU, has no scholarship dealing with the site and does not make any evidentiary use of it. The stone is simply not connected to Mormon influence. The connection between the Stone and the Mormon community is circumstantial from both an alphabetical and historical perspectives.

“It can be stated definitely that there is no connection between the archeology of the New World and the subject matter of the Book of Mormon. There is no correspondence whatever between archeological sites and cultures as revealed by scientific investigations and as recorded in the Book of Mormon, hence the book cannot be regarded as having any historical value from the standpoint of the aboriginal peoples of the New World.” F.H.H. Roberts, Jr, Smithsonian Institution, 1951

The first step in deciphering the Los Lunas Inscription was to identify the letters.  Native American Indians in the New Mexico area never developed a character-based alphabet. They were mainly carving petroglyphs on rock surfaces. These are quite different and are more like little pictographic drawings than writings. The inscription itself was done in old-Hebrew or Phoenician letters, as can be seen from the following (to the right)  character chart:

Many modern scholars now seem to agree that the rock inscription is indeed an abridged version of the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. Among others, these include: Cline 1982 (2), Deal 1992 (3), Stonebreaker 1982 (4), Underwood 1982 (5), Cyrus Gordon 1995 (6), and Skupin 1989 (7). In 1996, Prof James D. Tabor of the Dept. of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, interviewed Professor Frank Hibben who is a local historian and retired archaeologist from the University of New Mexico. Hibben is convinced that the inscription is ancient and thus authentic. He also stated in the interview that he first saw the text in 1933. (see Tabor 1996: An Ancient Hebrew Inscription in New Mexico: Fact or Fraud” (8), see also J.Huston McCulloch 1997: “The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone” (9) ).

Dr. Cyrus Gordon, a historian of ancient Near Eastern civilizations, has promoted the idea that such people’s reached the New World for the past several decades. The historical and archaeological evidence is not unimpressive and has been well documented by Barry Fell in his major study entitled “America B.C.” (10)

Is there a Crypto-Jewish Connection?

Given the long history of crypto-Judaism in Spain, it seems logical to consider the question whether there is a connection between the native New Mexicans and those of the 15th-16th century Iberia. In the 1490′s, Spain & Portugal began the forced conversion of Jews which became increasingly violent. Approximately 100,000 Jews converted at the point of the sword. This resulted in about one-third of converts; but insincere converts at that. A significant portion of these so-called converts continued to practice the ancestral Jewish faith illegally & in secret. Another 100,000 refused & were killed, while another 100,000 escaped.  (11) What started as a campaign for religious conformity evolved into the establishment of racial and ethnic discrimination. At the end of the 14th century began the expulsion of the Jews driving them into Germany, Russia and Central, South, & North America.

The timing of Columbus’s expedition, which coincides with the expulsion of the Jews, begs the question whether Columbus himself was a Jew. What we do know is that at least one of these converts can be found among the crew of Columbus first voyage to the New World. His name was Luis de Torres and was specifically recruited because of his knowledge of Hebrew. (12)

While there is ample evidence beginning in the 1580′s of increasing crypto-Jewish immigration into New Spain, there is little evidence of settlement into New Mexico under Luis de Carvajal and the Failed Colony of Gaspar Castano de Sosa in 1579-1591, Juan de Onate in 1595-1607, or by Diego de Vargas in 1692.  Later during periods of persecution by the Mexican Inquisition in 1591, crypto-Jews migrated to frontier areas of northern New Spain to look for safe haven elsewhere.  So the question remains. Were there any Jews living in New Mexico under Spanish rule? Rabbi Floyd S. Fierman, a dedicated investigator of Jewish history in the Southwest US, faced this question in 1960. He turned to France V. Scholes, a leading historian of colonial New Mexico. Fierman reported the Scholes’s view that “there appears, in fact, to be very little positive evidence regarding Jews in 17th century New Mexico and Arizona.” (13)  The only circumstantial evidence for the first Anglo-Jew in New Mexico seems to be a person named Paul Levi, presumably of French background, who lived in Spanish colonial Santa Fe as early as 1773.

There is abundant evidence however for the migration & settlement of German Jews in the 18th century; specifically between 1840-1860.  One estimated places 15,000 Jews in the US in 1840 but only about 16 of them on the census in New Mexico by 1850.  However, the census was probably incomplete & thus would not accurately reflect the correct number. By 1860, a figure of 43 were numbered. The census for Los Lunas was very small showing only 12-16 residents there including one Moses Sachs. A survey by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations in 1877 estimated the total number of Jews in the US at 190,000 and assumed that the great majority came from Germany. (14) What is known currently is that German-Jewish immigrants made up the entire Jewish population of New Mexico in 1850. (15) Jews still only accounted for only two-tenths of one percent in 1860 with New Mexico ranked at the bottom of the population census. Clearly, Jews did not come to New Mexico in large numbers before the Civil War.

The main residence of the Jewish community centered around Santa Fe in 1860 with the census reflecting other areas such as Albuquerque, Las Vegas, Taos, & Los Lunas. One district in Santa Fe even became known as “Little Jerusalem”.  It is clear that the German-Jews in New Mexico did not hide their Jewishness nor seek to forget it although prior to 1860 there is no evidence or sign of public religious expression or that they sought to follow the Mosaic Law.The first clear indication that they had not abandon their belief systems & customs was in 1860. An article written in The American Israelite in 1881 recalled the first “Yom Kippur” held at Santa Fe at the home of Levi Spiegelberg in 1860. One family who migrated to New Mexico from Old Mexico in the late 1890′s and with a clear memory of their Jewish traditions, closed their curtains every Shabbat & still lit candles to Moses as a saint. Eventually with its continued growth,  the first bar mitzvah ceremony in New Mexico took place in Santa Fe in 1876 and the first synagogue was built in Las Vegas, NM in 1886- the Temple Montefiore.

So is the Los Lunas Mystery Stone connected to the crypto-Jews of New Mexico? There is very good evidence that the Mystery Stone was made by  the Crypto-Jews migrating out of Germany from 1840-1860. Hidden Mt. may have reminded them of Mt. Sinai and therefore they depicted the abridged version of the Ten Commandments in Paleo-Hebrew in remembrance of the Mosaic Law.

To obtain a copy of the documentary on DVD, go to www.AARONJUDKINS.com for details.

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References:

1. Dixie L. Perkins, “The Meaning of the New Mexico Mystery Stone”, Sun Publishing Company, Albuquerque 1979
2. Donald Cline, “The Los Lunas Stone”, Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 10 (1982 part 10)
3. David Allen Deal, “Discovery of Ancient America”, Kherem La Yah Press, Irvine CA, first published in 1984. 1999 3rd Edition available from David Deal (davebigdeal@cox.net).
4. Jay Stonebreaker, “A Decipherment of the Los Lunas Decalogue Inscription”, Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 18 (1989)
5. L. Lyle Underwood, “The Los Lunas Inscription”, Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 10 (1982, part 1)
6. Cyrus Gordon, “Diffusion of Near East Culture in Antiquity and in Byzantine Times”, Orient 30-31, 1995
7. Michael Skupin, “The Los Lunas Errata”, Epigraphic Society Occasional Publications 18 (1989)
8. James D. Tabor, “An Ancient Hebrew Inscription in New Mexico: Fact or Fraud”, United Israel Bulletin Vol. 52, Summer 1997
9. J.Huston McCulloch “The Los Lunas Decalogue Stone”, 1997, mcculloch.2@osu.edu
10. Fell, Barry; “Ancient Punctuation and the Los Lunas Text,” Epigraphic Society, Occasional Publications, 13:35, 1985.
11. Hordes, Stanley, “To the End of the Earth”, 2005, Columbia University Press, New York. pg. 18
12. Ibid. pg 25
13. Tobias, Henry, “A History of the Jews in New Mexico”, 1990, University of New Mexico Press, Albuqueque. pg. 7
14. Ibid. pgs. 27- 28
15. Ibid. pg. 29

Dinosaur Bone Confirms Protein Preservation

Analysis of Dinosaur Bone Cells Confirms Ancient Protein Preservation

ScienceDaily (Oct. 23, 2012) — A team of researchers from North Carolina State University and the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has found more evidence for the preservation of ancient dinosaur proteins, including reactivity to antibodies that target specific proteins normally found in bone cells of vertebrates. These results further rule out sample contamination, and help solidify the case for preservation of cells — and possibly DNA — in ancient remains.

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Dr. Mary Schweitzer, professor of marine, earth and atmospheric sciences with a joint appointment at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, first discovered what appeared to be preserved soft tissue in a 67-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus Rex in 2005. Subsequent research revealed similar preservation in an even older (about 80-million-year-old)Brachylophosaurus canadensis. In 2007 and again in 2009, Schweitzer and colleagues used chemical and molecular analyses to confirm that the fibrous material collected from the specimens was collagen.

Schweitzer’s next step was to find out if the star-shaped cellular structures within the fibrous matrix were osteocytes, or bone cells. Using techniques including microscopy, histochemistry and mass spectrometry, Schweitzer demonstrates that these cellular structures react to specific antibodies, including one — a protein known as PHEX — that is found in the osteocytes of living birds. The findings appear online in Bone and were presented last week at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

“The PHEX finding is important because it helps to rule out sample contamination,” Schweitzer says. “Some of the antibodies that we used will react to proteins found in other vertebrate cells, but none of the antibodies react to microbes, which supports our theory that these structures are surviving osteocytes. Additionally, the antibody to PHEX will only recognize and bind to one specific site only found in mature bone cells from birds. These antibodies don’t react to other proteins or cells. Because so many other lines of evidence support the dinosaur/bird relationship, finding these proteins helps make the case that these structures are dinosaurian in origin.”

Schweitzer and her team also tested for the presence of DNA within the cellular structures, using an antibody that only binds to the “backbone” of DNA. The antibody reacted to small amounts of material within the “cells” of both the T. rex and the B. canadensis. To rule out the presence of microbes, they used an antibody that binds histone proteins, which bind tightly to the DNA of everything except microbes, and got another positive result. They then ran two other histochemical stains which fluoresce when they attach to DNA molecules. Those tests were also positive. These data strongly suggest that the DNA is original, but without sequence data, it is impossible to confirm that the DNA is dinosaurian.

“The data thus far seem to support the theory that these structures can be preserved over time,” Schweitzer says. “Hopefully these findings will give us greater insight into the processes of evolutionary change.”

Dr. Marshall Bern, from PARC, performed the mass spectrometry. Former NC State doctoral student Timothy Cleland and research assistant Wenxia Zheng also contributed to the work, which was funded by grants from the National Science Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by North Carolina State University.

North Carolina State University. “Analysis of dinosaur bone cells confirms ancient protein preservation.” ScienceDaily, 23 Oct. 2012. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.

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Journal Reference:

1. Mary Higby Schweitzer, Wenxia Zheng, Timothy P. Cleland, Marshall Bern. Molecular analyses of dinosaur osteocytes support the presence of endogenous molecules. Bone, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.bone.2012.10.010

Ancient Aliens Debunked

Along with commentary by noted Ph.D. scholar, Dr. Michael Heiser, independent filmmaker Chris White presents an exhaustive point-by-point critique of the Ancient Aliens series while providing a massive list of references from scientific journals and other scholarly sources to back up his definitive refutations.

These 252 footnotes, combined with White’s sound, logical arguments, show that the theories promoted by the History Channel as historical fact on this wildly popular series are actually embarrassingly easy to disprove.

Even those sympathetic to the ideas proposed in the Ancient Aliens series are giving praise to this new documentary. One author from the DailyGrail.com, a very prominent website that typically upholds the viewpoints touted in Ancient Aliens, recently said the following of White’s new film:

“A new 3-hour documentary, Ancient Aliens Debunked, takes the series apart, fact-checking individual’s claims on topics including pyramid construction, the Temple of Baalbek, Incan sites, Easter Island. Pacal’s ‘rocket’, the Nazca lines, and the Egyptian ‘light bulb’.…..[the film] offers clarifications, corrections, and background information that certainly removes much of the superficial gloss from Ancient Aliens.”

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This is part 1 of 3: The Megaliths

Intro, Puma Punku, The Pyramids, Baalbek, Incan sites, Easter Island.

http://t.co/e8tpXsSD

Part 2: Ancient Artifacts

Pacal’s rocket, The Nazca Lines, Tolima “fighter jets”, Egyptian “light bulb”, Ufo’s in ancient art, The crystal skulls

Part 3: Ancient Texts

Ezekiel’s Wheel, Ancient nuclear warfare, Vimana’s, Anunnaki, Nephilim, Misc. and conclusion

Believe it or not, They’re All the Same Species

By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent Telegraph U.K.

Filed: 26/12/2004)

It is one of the best-known stories in science: the evolution of mankind from ape-like creatures to modern humans via knuckle-grazing cave-dwellers.

Now it has been blown apart by the first comprehensive study of all the fossils, which has revealed that they are probably all variants of Homo sapiens.

This is the type of dumb illustration often included with these stories & it was this time as well.

The discovery comes as fossil-hunters in Indonesia continue to defend claims to have found yet another new species of human, dubbed “Hobbit Man”. If true, the diminutive creature would join such famous specimens as Lucy, Java Man and the Neanderthals in the complex family tree of mankind.

 The findings have significant implications for the oftenbitter debates between fossil-hunters about thesignificance of their finds. While they no longer bicker over the so-called “Missing Link” – the now-derided idea of a creature linking humans to chimpanzees – experts continue to argue over the relationship between Australopithecines and early humans, and between Neanderthals and modern humans.

 The number of human species claimed by fossil-hunters now stands at around 10, while the total number of human-like species exceeds 50. Such claims have long been based on supposedly significant differences in sizes and shapes of fossil bones.

Now they have all been thrown into doubt by research showing that the differences lie within the range expected for just a single species.

Professor Maciej Henneberg, of the University of Adelaide, a world authority on fossil human anatomy, made the discovery after analysing the skull sizes and estimated body weights for all of the 200 identified specimens of human-like fossils known as hominims.

These span the entire history of humans, from the emergence of so-called Australopithecines with an upright stance more than four million years ago to neolithic modern humans from around 10,000 years ago.

Prof Maciej Henneberg

Prof Henneberg found that the fossils show clear evidence of evolution, with substantial increases in both skull sizes and body-weight. However, he also found that the fossils show no evidence of being anything other than a single species which had grown bigger and smarter over time.

According to Prof Henneberg, the much-vaunted differences in fossil size used to identify “new” species all lie within the normal range expected for one species. Plotted out as a graph, they form the classic bell-shaped curve found using data from modern humans.

Reporting his findings in the current issue of the Journal of Comparative Human Biology, Prof Henneberg concludes:

 “All hominims appear to be a single gradually evolving lineage containing only one species at each point in time.”

 The findings have big implications for the often bitter debates between fossil-hunters about the significance of their finds. Experts have long bickered over the relationship between Australopithecines and early humans, and between Neanderthals and modern humans.

Prof Henneberg has said that the new results suggest such disputes are meaningless, as they ignore the possibility of huge differences within the same species. He said they also raise doubts about the reliability of bones in identifying new human species: “There is no precise way in which we can test whether Julius Caesar and Princess Diana were members of the same species of Homo sapiens”.

According to Prof Henneberg, the study highlights the scant evidence for so many of the claimed new species of human. “Considering that there are only about 200 specimens in total, if these really do represent ten different species, that makes an average of just 20 specimens per species”.

He added that only a single skull had been found for the “Hobbit Man” of Indonesia.

Other authorities hailed Prof Henneberg’s findings as a much-needed reality check. “Clearly there is a need to be more aware of the possibility of variation – but that is not the inclination today,” said Geoffrey Harrison, emeritus professor of biological anthropology at the University of Oxford.

“It has been a problem because the discoverers have usually put so much effort into finding the evidence, so they want it to be important”.

Professor Chris Stringer, a leading expert on human fossils at the Natural History Museum, London, said even Neanderthals were not significantly different in skull or body size from modern humans.

However, he added that they do differ in other details, such as inner ear bones. He said: “The argument they are a different species is, of course, only a hypothesis, but comparisons of skull shape published recently certainly show they are as different from us as monkeys and apes are different from each other”.

According to Prof Henneberg, there are fewer than 30 examples of Neanderthals on which to base any conclusions. What evidence there is, however, is consistent with Neanderthals being from the same species as modern humans.

He added that the never-ending announcements of new species said more about those making the claims than about human evolution. “The problem is there are far more palaeontologists than fossil specimens”.

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