Aussie cave tours in Trekkies' Klingon

Staff at the Jenolan Caves west of Sydney have added a new out-of-this-world attraction - a tour in the Star Trek language Klingon.

Currently a self-guided audio tour at the caves in the Blue Mountains is offered in eight languages, but staff came up with the idea of adding the fictional language Klingon as the caves did once feature in the popular TV series.

"In the Star Trek universe, Jenolan Caves was first immortalized in the Next Generation episode 'Relics,' through the naming of a Sydney Class Starship - the USS Jenolan," the Jenolan Caves Reserve Trust said in a statement.

"Now, this relationship will be developed further, when Jenolan Caves adds the language of Star Trek's great warrior race to a tour of their most popular cave."

The Jenolan cave system, located about 175 km west of Sydney, is enormous with over 40 km of passages and incorporating caves, underground rivers and natural archways.

Extreme archaeology: Divers plumb the mysteries of sacred Maya pools

Videographer Marty O'Farrell captures divers
taking a core sample from the bottom of pool 6.

Steering clear of crocodiles and navigating around massive submerged trees, a team of divers began mapping some of the 25 freshwater pools of Cara Blanca, Belize, which were important to the ancient Maya. In three weeks this May, the divers found fossilized animal remains, bits of pottery and -- in the largest pool explored -- an enormous underwater cave.

This project, led by University of Illinois anthropology professor Lisa Lucero and funded by the National Geographic Society and an Arnold O. Beckman Award, was the first of what Lucero hopes will be a series of dives into the pools of the southern Maya lowlands in central Belize. The divers will return this summer to assess whether archaeological excavation is even possible at the bottom of the pools, some of which are more than 60 meters deep.

Video: Krubera-Voronya expedition

Cave dig uncovers an early life cycle

Skulls found in a Queensland cave have allowed scientists to map for the first time the entire life cycle of an extinct prehistoric species.

A team of researchers from the University of NSW was exploring the world heritage Riversleigh fossil field, in northwestern Queensland, when they chanced upon the 15 million-year-old cave.

Among the hundreds of beautifully preserved fossils found beneath the limestone cave floor were 26 skulls from the Nimbadon, a wombat-like marsupial and major herbivore group before kangaroos.

By comparing the intact skulls from varying stages of the marsupial's life - including as babies in the pouch - scientists were able to map the Nimbadon's life cycle from birth to death in a world-first study.

"We've got skulls representing pouch young all the way through to elderly adults, and that's a first," said Karen Black from UNSW's School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Studies.

Remarkable fossil cave shows how ancient marsupials grew

Skull of sheep-sized diprotodontid Nimbadon lavarackorum
from the middle Miocene cave deposit, AL90.
Credit: Karen Black, UNSW

The discovery of a remarkable 15-million-year-old Australian fossil limestone cave packed with even older animal bones has revealed almost the entire life cycle of a large prehistoric marsupial, from suckling young in the pouch still cutting their milk teeth to elderly adults.

In an unprecedented find, a team of University of New South Wales [Sydney Australia] researchers in has unearthed from the cave floor hundreds of beautifully preserved fossils of the extinct browsing wombat-like marsupial Nimbadonlavarackorum, along with the remains of galloping kangaroos, primitive bandicoots, a fox-sized thylacine and forest bats.

By comparing the skulls of 26 different Nimbadon individuals that died in the cave at varying stages of life the team has been able to show that its babies developed in much the same way as marsupials today, probably being born after only a month's gestation and crawling to the mother's pouch to complete their early development.

Woman dies while cave diving in Suwannee County

A north Florida woman reportedly died while cave diving at Peacock Springs in Suwannee County.

The sheriff's office reports that 67-year-old Patricia Barkley had been diving with a partner Wednesday when she signaled to him with her light and then took off in the other direction. The partner told deputies that he caught up with her and put her hand on the safety cable, and they began swimming toward the exit. When the partner looked back, Barkley was swimming in the opposite direction.

Source: Orlando Sentinel