Coming to theaters soon: Pleistocene Park Woolly Mammoth Resurrection, "Jurassic Park" Planned
A team of Japanese genetic scientists aims to bring woolly mammoths back to life and create a Jurassic Park-style refuge for resurrected species. The effort has garnered new attention as a frozen mammoth is drawing crowds at the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan (see photo).
The team of scientists, which is not associated with the exhibit, wants to do more than just put a carcass on display. They aim to revive the Ice Age plant-eaters, 10,000 years after they went extinct.
Their plan: to retrieve sperm from a mammoth frozen in tundra, use it to impregnate an elephant, and then raise the offspring in a safari park in the Siberian wild.
We're dubious of the effort at this time. As noted, DNA is difficult to preserve for that long. If and until we have the technology to assemble complete DNA strands out of myriad fragments, we think this will be sci-fi.
We're rather less concerned with the so-called "ethical implications" since we as a species appear to have no difficulty breeding stuff like this:
First International Conference Of Islamic Archaeology Starts
Turkish State Minister Besir Atalay said on Friday, ''the Islamic archaeology has constituted an era of its own in the history of the humanity of 15 centuries.''
The First International Conference of Islamic Archaeology hosted by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) Research Center For Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) started in Istanbul under the auspices of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Islamic archaeology is an area most people are unfamiliar with, notably us. It tends to be out of the Western evolutionary line (mostly, history of science notably excluded from this) and, like Medieval or Crusader archaeology, too recent in time to be of much general interest.
Archaeological pun we hadn't heard before Archaeologists get to the hearth of the matter
HEARTHS from buildings which once would have stood on Huntingdon's market square are being unearthed.
The hearths have been found by archaeologists working on the Cambridgeshire County Council site at the rear of Walden House where a major redevelopment scheme is taking place.
Archaeologists from the county have moved across the site and are building up a picture of the Market Hill and George Street area in medieval times, with discoveries including pits, domestic hearths and ovens which were once part of backyards and kitchens of homes.
We figure we can hear this one, oh, maybe another 4,000 times before it gets as tiring as "Archaeologists dig something-or-other".
And speaking of puns that have outlived their usefullness. . . Dig into some archaeology on the Net
If going to see "Petra: Lost City of Stone" at Calvin College has inspired you to learn a little more about archaeology or if you are a teacher and want to use Petra as a way to get students interested in past civilizations, then you might want to take a look at www.anth.ucsb.edu/videos.
The UC-Stanta Barbara Web site dedicated to anthropology has a list of films and descriptions about archaeological activities. There also are reviews of these films and information about obtaining copies.
Newly-discovered Mamallapuram temple fascinates archaeologists
The temple discovered by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), a few hundred metres to the south of the Shore Temple at Mamallapuram, near Chennai, must have been as big or even bigger than the Shore Temple, said archaeologists conducting the excavation there. The ASI had discovered massive remains of a temple on the shore, close to the Shore Temple during the excavations it had conducted in February and March.
While continuing the excavation, it discovered a subsidiary shrine adjacent to the remains of a square garbha graham (sanctum sanctorum) of the newly- discovered temple.
Dunno, looks kinda dull really:
This seems like good news State archaeologist pleased with developer's plans
The state's archaeologist is satisfied with a developer's plans to preserve ancient Indian burial sites known as the Glass Mounds that date back 18-hundred years.
State archaeologist Nick Fielder met with officials of Southern Land Company this week after receiving a call from a concerned resident about the future of the mounds.
But Fielder said he was pleased with the company's plans regarding future use of the land.
12,000-year-old Animal Bones Found in Mazandaran Caves
Archaeologists have found 1000 pieces of animal bones dating to 12,000 years ago in Gomishan Cave of the northern province of Mazandaran. A great part of these bones belong to foxes, but it is not yet clear why they have been hunted.
The bones belong to large hoofed and herbivorous animals hunted by cavemen some 12,000 years ago.
Way cool non-archaeological news Nearly 100 fossilised dinosaur eggs unearthed in China
Nearly 100 fossilised dinosaur eggs dating back to the Jurassic and cretaceous periods have been unearthed in Central China's Hubei province.
The eggs were discovered by workers when they removed a rock during construction of the expressway running through Jinyin mountain in Yunxi county of the province.
Among the first group of 14 fossilised dinosaur eggs discovered at the construction site, 11 were interlocked. The eggs were pale blue and buried four metres deep, said Wu Xianzhu, a researcher with the Hubei Provincial Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology said.
Local archaeologists confirmed the site, which covers 5,000 square metres, to be an important region full of fossilised dinosaur eggs and ordered stoppage of construction works.
Archaeologists have started an excavation work in the region.
Technically, of course, that would be 'paleontologists'. That's the whole thing.