From mysterious secret tunnels to a newly found species, here are 10 incredible things
recently discovered by accident!
10.
Assyrian Artifacts In Abandoned Tunnels
When extremists from the Islamic State terrorist group began taking over territories in Iraq
and Syria, they set to work actively destroying ancient sites and artifacts.
They went on a rampage and proudly posted videos of their destructive acts on social
media.
In a strange turn of events, they accidentally uncovered a treasure trove of Assyrian artifacts
while digging tunnels beneath the streets of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, and
for whatever reason they left the items untouched.
Faleh al-Shumari, head of the Antiquities Authority in Mosul said that Iraqi government
officials already knew about the objects beneath the shrine of Nabi Yunis (the Prophet Jonah),
which date back to the eighth century B.C.
The site is also home to a palace belonging to a Neo-Assyrian King dating back to the
7th century BC.
Archaeologists had gone to excavate on several occasions but tried to keep their actions
hush hush in the 90’s and then in 2004 and 2005 since funding dried up and there was
nowhere safe to put them.
So they covered everything back up.
The goal was to go back and excavate everything when it was safe to move it to a secure location.
Iraqi soldiers then went down into the tunnels and rediscovered these artifacts.
Among other things, there were two sculptures of the winged bulls of Nineveh and other sculptures
of women and walls covered with cuneiform inscriptions.
Countless historically valuable artifacts have been found in Iraq, which is considered
one of the “cradles of civilization.”
Many Iraqi’s are proud of the country’s rich history they are still trying to recover
many artifacts that have been lost or stolen.
9.
The Ninja Lanternshark With this cool of a name, the Ninja Lanternshark
does not disappoint.
With a jet-black colour and bulging pale eyes, this deep-sea dweller looks as though it’s
rocking a Halloween costume.
They have a menacing look about them – like they’re about to jump out of the shadows,
and they’re kind of small, so they can move a lot faster.
In fact, they’re only about 18 inches long!
These sharks can be vicious and can rip into their prey with the ferocity of their larger
cousins featured in Jaws.
Thankfully, it’s rare for them to come in contact with humans.
In fact, you wouldn’t have to worry about finding yourself face-to-face with one of
these guys.
That’s because these ninjas don’t typically spend time in the shallow end.
They usually live about 1000 feet below the surface – so they’re not the typical creatures
that scuba-divers would find.
Found in the deep waters off the coast of Central America, these sharks get their name
because of their glowing organs – called photophores.
These tend to balance out the habitat they live in – which is usually pitch black,
enabling them to move around and sneak up on prey.
And while there are other lanternsharks that light up from the inside, these guys are the
only ones with a darker skin to camouflage.
8.
Atomic-Scale Wires
During a study that involved examining the properties of silver on an atomic scale, researchers
from Australia, China, and Japan accidentally developed a wire just one atom wide.
As part of the experiment, the team put nanoparticles of silver on the outside of tiny rods with
channels inside and tested them in regular air instead of a vacuum as they normally would.
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Professor Dmitri Golberg explained that when
we do this in a vacuum, or in some inert atmosphere nothing happens, but they did it in air.
The atoms from silver particles diffused very fast and they diffused inside the channels.
The team expected the silver to react with the air and form silver oxide, but instead,
the atoms self-organized within the channels, forming 200 atom-thin wires, each about one-fifth
as thick as a human hair.
They definitely weren’t trying to do this on purpose!!
The accidental creation opens the doorway for the development of atomic-scale wires
-- something scientists have been trying to achieve for over 20 years!!
Additional research shows that the silver nanowires could possibly be used as thermal
switches.
At a certain temperature, the material became an insulator.
This is not common for silver.
The next goal is to make the wires even smaller!!
7.
New Natural Blue
New colors are actually hard to come by, and NATURAL new colors, crazy rare!!
The color blue rarely occurs in nature, making naturally occurring blue pigments REALLY difficult
to find.
In fact, many seemingly blue colors are actually combinations of reds and purples, rather than
“true blue.”
But a newly discovered cyan blue variation could potentially be used as an alternative
to synthetic “brilliant blue” food dye.
Detected by chemists as part of a collaborative project between the University of California-Davis
and Mars Wrigley, the color is sourced from red cabbage, which contains water-soluble
pigments called anthocyanins.
Only a small amount of the vegetable’s anthocyanins are blue, prompting the researchers to use
specially designed enzymes to turn some of the other anthocyanins into the desired shade.
They designed the enzyme with the help of a powerful computer, which sorted through
trillions of potential protein sequences to come up with an efficient combination.
The resulting cyan blue pigment is reportedly “nearly identical” to the industry’s
go-to synthetic dye, known as “brilliant blue” FCF or E133.
Artificial blues have proven problematic, often posing environmental or durability issues.
Some, like Cobalt blue, even turned out to be toxic, and Prussian blue released cyanide.
The new pigment comes not long after scientists at Oregon University accidentally discovered
YInMn Blue, a so-called “near-perfect blue pigment,” in 2009.
It was the first such discovery in 200 years and came while the researchers were observing
the electrical properties of heated manganese oxide -- a project that had nothing to do
with looking for a pigment.
6.
Lost Golden City
Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities has just announced the discovery of the ruins of what
archaeologists call the “lost golden city” of Luxor.
Dating back more than 3,000 years, the ancient metropolis was found buried in sand last September.
It’s the largest ancient Egyptian city ever uncovered, according to archaeologist Zahi
Hawass, who led the team that unexpectedly made the discovery while searching for Tutankhamen’s
mortuary temple.
During the dig, the team was surprised to encounter zig-zagging mud walls measuring
as much as 10 feet (3 meters) tall.
Without meaning to, they had found a city that other archaeologists had tried and failed
to find.
In a statement, archaeologist Betsy Brian described the site as the most important discovery
in Egypt since King Tut’s tomb was found in 1922.
Speaking with NBC, Hawass said that the “golden city” will help researchers better understand
life during ancient Egypt’s “golden age.”
So far, the team has unearthed rings, scarabs, colored pottery, tools, and other artifacts
dating back between 1391 and 1353 B.C., during the reign of Amenhotep III.
The site contains storage houses, grinding stones, and areas for meat production, offering
an unprecedented look at everyday life in an industrial Egyptian city.
Oddly, the archaeologists found a skeleton with its arms outstretched and a rope around
the knees.
They have yet to come up with an explanation for the odd burial and have several other
lingering questions that they hope to answer through further excavations at the site.
Can’t wait to hear more about this site!!
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Couldn’t do it without you!!
5.
Firefly Sound Signals
While wandering around a tropical rainforest with microphones, gathering data for a study
on bats’ echolocation, a team unexpectedly detected similar high-frequency sounds coming
from fireflies!
Bats and fireflies have something in common!
Led by Tel Aviv University Professor Yossi Yovel the accidental discovery took the whole
study in a new direction.
They examined three different firefly species that are common in Vietnam and one from Israel.
Using high speed video, they found that the fireflies produce the sound by moving their
wings, but the fireflies themselves can’t hear this frequency.
That doesn’t make any sense.
But bats eat fireflies.
So this sound that the fireflies are making is an evolved warning signal against bats.
This ability may serve as additional protection in cases where the fireflies’ glow fails
to deter bats because they can’t see very well.
It’s musical armor!
Warning signals that the sender itself cannot detect is well documented for plants but in
animals this is quite rare.
The musical battle between bats and fireflies continues!
4.
Turtle Fossil In Church
While searching through the ruins of a church that was destroyed by an earthquake in Christchurch,
New Zealand, sculptor Paul Deans happened upon a 35-million-year-old turtle fossil embedded
in the core of a limestone pillar.
Built between 1881 and 1882, the Oxford Terrace Baptist Church sustained extensive damage
in the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes.
When it was demolished, its pillars were hollowed out for the construction of a new church that
opened in 2017.
Deans received several pieces of the pillars’ cores last year to use in his work, leading
him to the rather unexpected discovery.
Dr. Paul Scofield, senior curator of natural history at the Canterbury Museum, noticed
that the unnamed ancient turtle species resembles another turtle fossil that a builder found
while quarrying limestone in Oamaru in 1880.
He concluded that both fossils were likely extracted from the same quarry and may contain
parts of the same animal.
That would be a coincidence!
Scofield said that turtle fossils are really rare in New Zealand.
No similar turtle fossils have been found in Oamaru in more than 150 years of quarrying
there.
It’s amazing that this new fossil was sitting inside a pillar for 130 years.
It could have been lost forever!
Scientists will study the newly discovered piece and will examine microfossils surrounding
the turtle to determine if the two fossils are from the same animal as they suspect.
That would be quite the find!
Scofield speculates that the prehistoric species was a sea turtle similar in size to the modern-day
Leatherback turtle, which grows up to 7.2 feet (2.2 meters) long.
It lived during the Oligocene period, which lasted from 65.5 million to 23 million years
ago, when New Zealand was covered in shallow seawater.
3.
Hidden Frescoes
A few years ago, Tufts University Professor Christina Maranci discovered hidden centuries-old
artwork at the Mren Cathedral, a historic church in western Armenia.
While hiding from local police inside the church during her investigation of “off-limits”
archaeological sites, she suspected that there was something beneath the plaster on the walls.
Maranci snapped photos with her camera and used Photoshop to enhance the obscured features,
visually restoring parts of the hidden frescoes and inscriptions that are invisible to the
naked eye, including an ox in the church’s apse.
She believes the image is an early 11th-century depiction of the biblical figure Ezekiel with
an ox, lion, man, and angel, the symbols of the Four Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John.
But Maranci also admitted that her speculation is inconclusive for now, and that more investigating
needs to be done to confirm the frescoes’ age and meaning.
The keen-eyed researcher said she was not particularly interested in frescoes when she
made the discovery, but that the finding prompted her to start investigating other old churches
for similar historical features.
And while she credits imaging software that anyone could use for drawing out the concealed
artwork, Maranci noted the importance of someone having knowledge of what they are looking
for.
She continues to investigate her findings and hopes to overcome several obstacles surrounding
the discovery, including a lack of experts and governmental red tape that prevents researchers
from legally exploring valuable historical sites in the region.
She wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place.
2.
Medieval Tunnel
Earlier this year, electrical workers discovered a mysterious network of medieval tunnels beneath
a 12th-century Abbey in Wales.
They were digging a hole for a new power line pole in a customer’s backyard.
Situated along a brook, the tunnel system is just four feet (1.2 meters) tall and there’s
no record of it being built.
Archaeologists who investigated the site do not know what the tunnels were used for or
how extensive the network is.
They were a complete secret!!
It does not appear on any maps created by the U.K.’s mapping agency, which dates back
to the 18th century.
So the power company had full permission to dig at an archaeological site, because nobody
knew that it existed!!
They got quite the surprise!
It’s possible that the tunnels are connected to nearby Tintern Abbey, a “national icon”
of Wales that was built in 1131.
The Abbey fell into ruin after King Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in
the 16th century, which would explain the tunnels’ absence in historical records.
The tunnels could also be associated with the ruins of old furnaces and iron works in
the area.
Allyn Gore, a technician who participated in the discovery, said that he has been involved
in other excavations where they have discovered old wells and cellars not shown on any plans,
but nothing as exciting and impressive as this.
The electrical work was rerouted, and archaeologists plan to thoroughly excavate the secret tunnels
in hopes of uncovering their secrets!
1.
Ancient Fish
While studying sediment cores collected from Norwegian coastal lakes, a group of geologists
found the remarkably well-preserved bones of an ancient threespine stickleback fish.
After the ice sheets melted at the end of the last Ice Age, coastlines throughout the
Northern Hemisphere experienced an uplift, creating inland lakes that effectively cut
the species off from the ocean.
The recently discovered fish lived in brackish waters around 12,000 years ago, a time when
the lake it was found in was nearly, but not completely disconnected from the sea.
A new study reveals that stickleback populations in separate places evolved to survive in their
new freshwater environments, experiencing similar changes in their behavior, function,
and appearance -- a phenomenon known as parallel evolution.
Scientists typically rely on modern-day freshwater and marine species as models for learning
about parallel evolution.
The rare opportunity to study these types of changes in ancient species eliminates some
of the guesswork that comes with differentiating modern evolutionary traits from those experienced
by ancestral populations.
For the study, scientists extracted DNA from two prehistoric stickleback fish and compared
the results against modern specimens.
A researcher explained that although these bones belong to sticklebacks that died thousands
of years ago, when most of Scandinavia was still covered by a giant ice sheet, they still
contain fragments of DNA.
These genetic sequences provide us with a window into the past and to the early stages
of when fish began to adapt to freshwater.
In this case, the stickleback fish already contained genetic variants that made them
adaptive to freshwater.
These findings are helping experts to better learn the ways evolution occurs over thousands,
or even tens of thousands, of years, helping to fill in the “gaps” in evolutionary
timelines.