The excavation works have resumed in Hadrut destrict Azokh and Drakhtik villages, Artsakh on August 29.Levon Episkoposyan, one of the heads of Azokh cave excavation told in the briefing with Armenpress, the excavations carried out by the group comprising of both European and Armenian specialists are aimed at revealing the cultural layers of the cave. "The excavations carried out in Azokh cave ceased in 1960, yet decades after the works restarted in 2002, current year excavation already mark the the 11th period of the excavations" the interlocutor noted.
In the words of Episkoposyan Azokh cave is the richest historical and cultural monument and in case all the layers of the cave will be examined, it would become possible to gather information about our ancestors and their lifestyle dating back to 350-400 thousand years." Azokh cave excerpts stored in special boxes are being kept in Stepanakert history museum.Those samples which need further study are being sent abroad by our foreign partners’ help due to the lack of appropriate equipment in Armenia" the specialist stated.
Excavation head notes with gratitude on the occasion of NKR declaration day September 2, 15- 20 samples of Azokh cave are scheduled to be demonstrated in Stepanakert history museum."The exhibition will last for two months, high ranking officials, foreign quests are set to take part in the opening ceremony. By the decision of the Government, the same exhibition is set to be launched in Shushi history museum as well, if possible the exhibition will be hosted in capital Yerevan too" the interlocutor underscored.
Plunged into the darkness surrounded by a spectacular shaft of light, these stunning pictures show daredevil explorers lowering themselves into a deep cave on the abseiling trip of a lifetime.
The amazing photographs appear to show abseilers hanging by a thread as they descend into Stephen's Gap - a geological wonder in Alabama, USA.
Daredevil photographer Amy Hinkle had to be strapped up in safety gear as she balanced on a slippy ledge inside the cave to capture the images.
Amy, from Chicago, said: 'I have been a caver for over two years and enjoyed photography for much longer. Getting photos in the underground world is entirely different, however.
'There is no light but what you bring with you, except near entrances, of course, where you get some sunlight.
'I have worked hard to develop techniques to bring light to these pitch-black underground systems without the use of massive amounts of equipment.
This composite image shows Typhleotris pauliani (top),
a previously known species of Malagasy cave fish,
and a newly discovered pigmented species (bottom).
A group of freshwater fish in Madagascar and another in Australia have a lot in common. Both are tiny, have no eyes and live in the total darkness of limestone caves. Now scientists say these two groups are more alike than thought — they are actually each other's closest cousins, despite the ocean between them.
Using DNA analysis, researchers found that the two types of blind fish — Typhleotris in Madagascar and Milyeringa in Australia — descended from a common ancestor and were estranged by continental drift nearly 100 million years ago. The scientists say their finding marks an important first.
"This is the first time that a taxonomically robust study has shown that blind cave vertebrates on either side of an ocean are each other's closest relatives," researcher Prosanta Chakrabarty of Louisiana State University said in a statement. "This is a great example of biology informing geology. Often, that's how things work. These animals have no eyes and live in isolated freshwater caves, so it is highly unlikely they could have crossed oceans to inhabit new environments."
An ongoing joint expedition of caving clubs from several Siberian sities to Sarma Cave in the Arabika Massif (Western Caucasus), led by Pavel Rudko, has reported that the cave has been pushed 60 m below the previous deepest point (-1760 m) reached last year.
This firmly establishes Sarma Cave as the second deepest cave in the world with depth of 1830 m, following Krubera Cave, located in the same massif, which has been explored this August to -2197 m by the Ukrainian expedition. The third place is hold by Snezhnaya Cave in the nearby Bzybsky Massif, with a depth of 1760 m.
It's a cave in Italy used during World War I, and authentic artifacts are still inside.
Historians knew about the cave because an Austrian officer wrote about it in his war diary, but its location wasn't revealed until two years ago by a retreating glacier.
Now officials are adding it to a map of World War I locations, but you can only visit it with the help of a mountain guide.
Managers on the Bighorn National Forest are reminding the public that entering caves on the forest to protect bats from contracting a disease that's killed millions of bats elsewhere in the country.
Regional Forester Dan Jiron recently extended an order that bars entering caves or abandoned mines on national forests and grasslands in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas.
The Forest Service says the closure is necessary to protect bat species and habitat from the spread of White-nose Syndrome. Experts estimate that the fungal disease has killed more than 5 million bats in the eastern U.S. and Canada. They say it's continuing to spread west.
A 20-year-old Briton drowned while snorkelling in underwater caves around Santa Marija Bay in Comino yesterday afternoon.
Marcus Hughes-Hallet was on holiday with his parents and was diving from one cave to the other when he “got stuck in the rocks beneath the caves,” the Armed Forces of Malta said.
His father called for help and a number of people dived down to look for him. After several attempts they managed to bring him to the surface but Mr Hughes-Hallet was not breathing, the AFM said.
Elephanta Caves, situated on the Elephanta Island is home to 1,200 year old rock cut temple of Lord Shiva. Ancient carvings and sculptures adorn the temple. The speciality of the temple is that it was built out of a single rock with space for columns and shrines. There are over 10 caves here but it's the main cave that has the privilege of being the most preserved.
This section of the cave is replete with gigantic structures that tell stories of Lord Shiva from the puranas.An astonishing fact is that even though the site was used for target practice in the 17th century by the Portuguese, the caves retained their charm and still attract loads of visitors everyday. The Elephanta Caves are now designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There are precious few Neandertal skeletons available to science. One of the more complete was discovered in 1957 in France, roughly 900 yards away from the famous Lascaux Cave. That skeleton was dubbed “Regourdou.” Then, about two decades ago, researchers examined Regourdou’s arm bones and theorized that he had been right-handed.
On August 20th cave diver Alexei Savelyev passed away after an accident in the second siphon of the Ilyuhinskaya cave at a depth of around 1000 m.
He was a member of the Sokolniki club, who were exploring the cave. Together with his diver partner Aleksey Aksenov he was on his way back from explorations beyond the 4th siphon.
His dive partner tried to resuscitate him but he was unsuccesful.
Currently, participants of nearby expeditions (Kuybishevskaya, Voronya) are working together with the expedition team to extract the body from the cave.
Given the depth and many obstacles along the way (including a siphon), the rescue action is going to be long and difficult.
Our thoughs go out to all family, friends and fellow cave divers.
A cave diver who desperately tried to save the life of a lost colleague is set to pick up a coveted bravery award.
Richard Stanton, of Allesley Old Road, reached spectacular depths in a courageous effort to find a French diver back in 2010.
He was given special leave from his job as a city firefighter to join a team at the Ardeche Gorge, near Marseille, for the mission to rescue Eric Establie, who had been attempting to explore a deep and dangerous cave.
More than a week after he had gone missing - and after days of repeated and unsuccessful dives in horrendous conditions - Mr Stanton found the Frenchman's body. He had died after getting trapped following an underwater avalanche.
The word Tepui means "house of the gods" in the native language of "Pemon", the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana, in northern Amazon. This term indicates table-top mountains located in the north-east side of the Amazon forest, between Venezuela and Brasil.
Tepuis are unique mountains: square-shaped, wide summit surface limited by high vertical walls. Due to strong erosion some Tepuis have the shape of huge isolated towers, up to 1000 m high.
There, many new caves were discovered in the last twenty years, supposed to be the oldest caves on Earth.
The expedition Tepui 2012 is now coming to end, more than a month and a half of research, exploration and documentation in the Venezuelan tepui. This year the programs were limited by bad weather and logistical problems that forced us to change the original targets. Nevertheless, the final report is very positive.
Geological research have ranged from Roraima, to Akopan up to Auyan Tepui, including a geomorphological study of the entire Gran Sabana. Studies were performed on silica dissolved in water, the processes of arenizzation, on speleothems and mineralization inside the caves.
A great new spring has been reached on one of the most impressive walls of Roraima. The exploration of this new system has been hampered by a dangerous full of water, but the distance between the sinkhole and the wall is to assume interesting developments for next year.
Were completed the exploration of System Akopan-Dal Cin with the finding of a new branch, while on the Auyan Tepui were reached some new caves, one of these promise for the future great developments. Only in this tepui, thanks to overflights of our friend and partner Raul Arias, we have identified at least a dozen entries that will be the main target of the next expedition. Once again this huge mountain demonstrates not exausthed the exploration possibilities: after expeditions of the '90s, the discovery of Cueva Guacamaya and Cueva el Águila, new areas are proving to have complex underground systems that will surely give great satisfaction and even new scientific information.
At the same time it was done a remarkable job of documentation with thousands of photos outside and in the cave, but especially with a job to support a crew from BBC who worked on a documentary about Akopan, with spectacular aerial shots of the area and of the entrances in the wall. This documentary is meant to be aired in Europe, USA and Japan, showing the wonders of the underground river that runs through this mountain, a stream of water suspended in time, with a unique geological and biological diversity.
As in the past we return home with the feeling of having made a journey through time in these magical "islands" that have the taste of other worlds. Once again caving in quarz rocks proves to be one of the most fascinating frontiers of exploration in these times.
The team: Carla Corongiu,Vittorio Crobu, Antonio De Vivo, Marco Mecchia, Leonardo Piccini, Enzo Procopio, Laura Sanna, Francesco Sauro, Giacomo Strapazzon, Roberto Trevi, Freddy Vergara.
Since 1993 five expeditions were carried on by La Venta in the tepui Auyan, Chimantha and Roraima. The project is still going on with a new expedition are planned for 2013 on Auyan Tepui.
I have the great pleasure of announcing that the JSPDT (Caving Section of the Tolmin Alpine Club) and ICCC (Imperial College Caving Club) have successfully connected System Migovec and System Vrtnarija during the Sledi Vetra 2012 expedition.
The combined system is now 24.9 km long and 975 m deep.
This makes it by far the longest known cave in Slovenia, in a system where the majority of passage length is at depths of greater than 500 m.
The connection was made at a depth of ~650 m, during the last pushing trip of the expedition. A climb in the Queens Bed Chamber started last year was completed (named Apollo) and led to 420m of passage (The Milky Way) this was then pushed further to eventually reach a PSS from 1998 in Waterloo, SysMig (see Caves and Caving 84 p18 'The Northern Line', or The Hollow Mountain p100 [1]).
Some of the Slovenes have been working on Migovec every year since the 1970s, ICCC since 1994. There are perhaps more than 50 cavers of Migovec out there who contributed to this enormous project, all of whom share in the enjoyment of this moment.
Underground, beneath the surface of the Nesher quarry in Ramle, lies a cave with a vast array of calcite burrows, almost three kilometers long. For millions of years, the only sound interrupting the silence was the gentle scurrying of small, blind, colorless creatures, completely unaware of the world above them.
Before the quarry became active, the cave and tunnels were situated about 100 meters under ground level. In 2005, the first rays of light invaded the burrows, when a quarry bulldozer happened upon them. Scientists arriving at the scene, to research what they swiftly termed the "Ayalon Cave," discovered a unique form of life existing nowhere else on the planet: eight unknown species of crab, other arthropods and an eyeless scorpion.
The scientists shipped the creatures to labs throughout the world and now, six years on, the first part of the research is over, after most species were identified and described.
The scientists discovered an independent ecosystem in the underground cave that isn't based on photosynthesis. Since there was no light in the cave, or other known biological processes, the organisms in the cave were dependent on a process known as chimeotothropia which exists in other areas on earth, such as the bottom of the ocean.
Therion is a complete package which processes survey data and generates maps or 3D models of caves.
A new version (5.3.10) has been released and is available here.
Therion solves the most annoying problem of cave cartography – how to keep a map of large and complicated cave system always up-to-date.
Main features include:
Complete maps with all the detail. No additional ink stroke is needed.
Maps are dynamic, always up-to-date – i.e. they are automatically re-drawn after loop closure, blunder fix, scale or symbol set change
3D models are created using 2D maps
It runs on wide variety of platforms: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X. It is completely free, released under the terms of GNU GPL, with source code available. It doesn't require any other commercial software to run.
The latest version includes following additions/bug fixes: Therion:
* full OSGB grid coverage (e.g. cs OSGB:ST) * added New Zealand symbol set (NZSS, thanks to Bruce Mutton) * updated UIS symbol set (thanks to Bruce Mutton) * updated English translation (thanks to Bruce Mutton) * added te reo Maori translation (thanks to Kyle Davis)
Loch: * added checkbox that enables/disables surface lighting (Scene->Surface)
The area is known for Pictish incised carvings and the latest find could date from the 12th century.
The East Wemyss coastal area boasts 12 caves, the largest grouping in northern Europe.
Moira Cook of Save the Wemyss Ancient Caves Society (SWACS) said: ''The symbols were discovered in the Well Cave. We have asked experts for their opinion.
''There is a possibility of some sort of Templar connection. It's all very exciting.''
Local archaeologist Edwina Proudfoot added: ''An early carving would be a great find, but understanding what can be seen is also important.''
The Well Cave is below MacDuff Castle and was not thought to contain Pictish carvings, until the recent discovery by SWACS members.
The group was first formed by locals in 1986 following a spate of vandalism at the caves.
To find out more about the group, who run regular tours, visit www.wemysscaves.co.uk
In august 2012 an international group of cavers descended the deepest cave in the world: Krubera-Voronya which is located in Abkhazia (Georgia).
The expedition included around 60 representatives of various foreign countries, mainly Ukrainians, as well as 15 Lithuanians.
The news is still sparse, but it seems that the Ukrainian cave diver Gennadiiy Samokhin, was able to find a new lead and push the depth of worlds deepest cave to a new record of 2197 m.
This is six meters deeper than the previous record.
A big thanks goes out to the Lithuanian's support team who laid out all the lines.
As for now it remains the only cave with a depth of more than 2000 meters.
The expedition had to deal with high water levels and had some technicial problems (communication was lost for a while) during the beginning of the expedition.
Jurkėnienė said reaching the surface safely was the team's main task now.
"There have been no heavy showers this week but weather conditions remain bad. It is still raining and conditions inside the case are rather bad. They said three siphons they have to dive through to reach the bottom are flooded. It will be a bit harder to come out."
Lithuanian Vytis Vilkas had planned to reach the record depth but he dropped the plan after his health deteriorated.
A massive 400-foot deep sinkhole that has opened up in a Louisiana bayou has swallowed all of the 100-foot trees in the surrounding area and led to mandatory evacuations.
About 150 people have been ordered to leave their residences after the 400-sqaure-foot gaping hole opened in Assumption Parish amid fears of potential radiation leaks and natural gas explosions.
But despite the authorities enacting the mandatory evacuation, most people have decided to stay following allegations of a cover-up and industrial mis-management from the owners of a nearby salt cavern.
As state scientists monitored the toxicity of naturally occurring radiation at a slurry hole in Assumption Parish, residents said Thursday they were furious with their public state officials because they think they have been withholding information.
A few highlights of this year's Pearse Resurgence expedition in New Zealand, where divers pushed the cave to a new depth of 221m and discovered another 100m of passage.
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-- The Wet Mules have just completed the 2012 expedition to the Pearse River Resurgence near Mt Arthur in the South Island of New Zealand. The six Mules (David Bardi, Craig Challen, John Dalla-Zuanna, Richard “Harry” Harris, Ken Smith and Sandy Varin), were accompanied by diving physician and support Dr Karen Richardson for the 17 day trip.
Both primary objectives of the trip were accomplished. With the assistance of Nelson Speleological Group’s Andrew Smith and Dawn Wood, dye tracing from the Spillway in Nettlebed Cave again confirmed the connection between the two sites. Unfortunately, the dye appeared to be coming from the main passage deeper than 120m, so any hopes of making a shallow connection were lost.
Hence attention shifted back to pushing the deep section of the cave, and once the four habitats were installed at 7, 16, 28 and 38m, and gas was staged in the cave, build-up dives commenced.
On Thursday 12th January Dave and Sandy dived to 180m and completed an extraordinary 7 hour all in-water decompression.
The following day Richard Harris pushed past the end of Craig’s 2011 line at 194m, and laid 70m of line in large passage to a maximum depth of 207m. A total run time of 10½ hours was spent in comfort thanks to the habitats and the surface supplied suit-heating systems.
After two days of rain the resurgence flooded, delaying diving for a day. The final push dive by Craig Challen began on Sunday 15th January as the water levels subsided. Tying off to the end of Harry’s line, he scootered on a short distance only to meet another steep descent. Craig made a final tie off at 221m and returned to the surface after a total dive time of 17 hours. The passage continues beyond, heading deeper.
Ken, JDZ and Craig made tape measure surveys of several areas including the Nightmare Crescent and Big Room area at 120m.
The forest officials have recently unearthed a natural cave inisde the thick forest, in Kodagu district.
The cave is situated near Anderson stream inside thick forest at Vatekoli, which is 15 kms from Virajpet- Makutta road. The cave is 60 metre long and two metres in height. According to forest department officials, they have heard the sound of water inside the cave. “If there is water inside the cave, then it would be giving shelter to water creatures like fish, crab and so on. Realising the decrease in oxygen inside the cave, the officials did not make an attempt to move further inside the cave.”
The bats will welcome anyone who enters the cave. Normally, snakes live in and around those areas where bats live, say officials. Kodagu Circle Chief Conservator of Forest Deekshith said that the cave must have been formed by the flow of water through limestone and similar rocks. Water seeps into the pores and cracks of rocks and soil and bubbles beneath the earth above. Such caves are called as Solution caves.
The soil in the cave is a mixture of white and grey colour and is soft. The roof of the cave is strong. “We could not see the cave fully. The cave will provide an opportunity for the geologists to make a study. I will inform the State government on the discovery of a cave. If the government sends an expert, we will get more details on the cave,” said an official. It is said that the forest guards had discovered it a year ago. However, they had not informed it to the higher authorities. After taking charge, Deekshith visited the spot. In fact, he has marked the route to the cave through GPS.
One of the aims of the Gibraltar Museum is to encourage volunteer participation in the study of our history and the care of our heritage. With the start of the Gorham’s Cave excavations, help with processing finds will be among the tasks suitable for volunteer effort under supervision. But the involvement of volunteers goes further.
Recently, as part of the wider Gibraltar Caves Project, which was started in 1991,the Cave Unit of the Gibraltar Museum has been working with volunteers in the surveying of Gibraltar’s caves. This is specialised work which is carried out under supervision and is already producing excellent results. The unit is preparing an inventory of Gibraltar’s caves, checking previous work done and looking at each site today. The number of caves now exceeds 200!
Part of the work involves assessing the archaeological and palaeontological potential of each site. Some of these caves were last excavated in the 19th Century, so determining how much archaeology is left is a major challenge.
Others were excavated in the 1960s by the late Mr George Palao, and the unit has not only used Mr Palao’s reports which are in the archives of museum, but has also met with some of his collaborators in order to obtain as much information as possible. The unit is also in contact with – and collaborating with - the GONHS Cliffs and Caves Section who have also worked a number of Gibraltar’s caves.
Tabon Cave, the Philippines Cradle of Civilization, was recently declared a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum of the Philippines.
The declaration followed a long process of study and examination by the National Museum of the Philippines pursuant to provisions of Republic Act No. 10066 also known as the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009.
The Act defines National Cultural Treasure as a unique cultural property found locally, possessing outstanding historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value which is highly significant and important to the country and nation, and officially declared as such by pertinent cultural agency.
The formal declaration was led by Dr. Jeremy Barns, director, and Angel Bautista, chief of Commission on Museums, Cultural Property Division of the National Museum witnessed by archaeologists from Thailand, Indonesia, France, Belgium, USA and a UNESCO representative.
Charina Cabading, executive director of Culture & Arts Division of the provincial government represented Palawan Governor Baham Mitra in a simple ceremony at the formal declaration made at the Tabon Cave Complex in Quezon town.
Tabon Cave is famous as the site where the earliest evidence of man in the Philippines was discovered in 1962. Dubbed as the Tabon Man, its discovery was made by a National Museum team led by Dr. Robert B. Fox.
The fossil, composed of human skull, jaw bones and teeth, found in the cave date back to about 22,000 to 23,000 years making it the most important archaeological discovery in the country.
Another important discovery in the cave complex is the world-renown burial jar, the Manunggul Jar, featured in the 1,000 peso bill. The jar is also a National Treasure.
Tabon Cave Complex is 138-hectares of rugged cliffs and deep slopes in Lipuun Point in Quezon municipality located about 145 kilometers southwest of Puerto Princesa City.
John Kearny swam into the cave in darkness to rescue the teenagers.
The mother of a teenage kayaker who got into difficulty off Rosscarbery, Co Cork, and had to stand on a ledge for nearly five hours on Saturday before he and his girlfriend were rescued, yesterday expressed her gratitude to Baltimore lifeboat.
Eoin Bourke and his girlfriend Alison O’Keeffe, from Douglas in Cork city, were fortunate to escape alive having been discovered trapped in a cave late at night by the lifeboat’s crew. The pair had left at 7pm and had got into difficulty at Pouladav cave at 7.30pm when they were tossed out of their kayaks in turbulent conditions.
Shortly before 10pm the Coast Guard issued a call for assistance after the two 17-year-olds failed to arrive back to shore at the scheduled time.
The all-weather lifeboat ALB Alan Massey and the inshore lifeboat ILB Bessie were launched to investigate.
While the search was continuing, Baltimore RNLI lifeboat helm John Kearney heard what he thought was a faint whistle coming from Pouladav cave, known locally for its blowhole.
The lifeboat crew were unable to enter the cave due to the dangerous surf conditions, so a small boarding boat was launched.
An archaeological excavation near Barcelona has discovered an approximately 100,000 year old skeleton of a young elephant, less than 7 years old. They are the first remains of an elephant found in the Massís del Garraf, a hilly area in Greater Barcelona, and what’s more, the find is exceptional since the discovery of complete elephant skeletons in caves is rare in Catalonia. Up to now, the two back legs, the pelvis and the spine have been documented as anatomically connected, although only a small portion has been excavated from where the elephant was found, in the ‘Cova del Rinoceront (Rhinoceros’ cave), in Castelldefels. Researchers from the University of Barcelona are confident that the rest of the animal will be complete, but it won’t be found until the next archaeological dig.
In Massís del Garraf, individual parts of pachyderm, such as tusks, have already been found, especially belonging to woolly mammoth skeletons. The findings show that there were elephants in the central Catalan coastal area before the mammoths’ own arrival during the Ice Age. Therefore the recently discovered elephant remains, as well as numerous finds of Mediterranean tortoises in the same rhinoceros’ cave in Castelldefels, show that 100,000 years ago the climate of the Catalan coastal area was warmer.
The ‘Cova del Rinoceront’ is a Palaeolithic site which ranges from 200,000 to 80,000 years BC and is unique to Catalonia. At the site, there are a lot of animal remains in an excellent state of preservation, although extensive mining of the limestone has destroyed a large part of the Rhinoceros cave, such as the original entrance. The remains that have been recovered suggest that the cave was a den of carnivores, which used the cave as shelter and where they brought their prey.
The archaeological excavations at the ‘Cova del Rinoceront’ in Castelldefels are led by researchers Joan Daura and Monze Sanz, members of the Quaternary Research Group-SERP of the University of Barcelona, which is directed by Professor of Prehistory, Josep Maria Fullola. Funding comes mainly from the Castelldefels City Council and the Catalan Government’s Service of Archaeology and Palaeontology.
Early humans in Africa procreated with a mystery species of human that may have been related toNeanderthals that later inhabited Europe, according to latest genetic studies.
While no fossilized bones have been found from these enigmatic people, they did leave their mark in present-day Africans: snippets of foreign DNA.
Scientists insist that there's only one way that genetic material could have made it into modern human populations.
"Geneticists like euphemisms, but we're talking about sex," the Washington Post quoted Joshua Akey of the University of Washington in Seattle, whose lab identified the mystery DNA in three groups of modern Africans, as saying.
According to Akey, these genetic leftovers do not resemble DNA from any modern-day humans. The foreign DNA also does not resemble Neanderthal DNA, which shows up in the DNA of some modern-day Europeans.
That means the newly identified DNA came from an unknown group.
"We're calling this a Neanderthal sibling species in Africa," Akey said.
He further said that the interbreeding probably occurred 20,000 to 50,000 years ago, long after some modern humans had walked out of Africa to colonize Asia and Europe, and around the same time Neanderthals were declining in Europe.
The find offers more evidence that for thousands of years, modern-looking humans shared the Earth with evolutionary cousins that later became extinct.
And whenever the groups met, whether in Africa or Europe, they bred.
In fact, hominid hanky-panky seems to have occurred wherever humans met others who looked kind of like them - a controversial idea until recently.
The research was recently published in the journal Cell:
U.S. Forest Service officials have extended an emergency order that restricts access to caves and abandoned mines on lands in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. But some Colorado cavers are criticizing the approach taken by the federal agency.
The goal of both groups is to curb the spread of White Nose Syndrome, a deadly disease that’s killed 5.5 million bats in eastern and southern states.
“Western Oklahoma is actually the furthest west that it's been detected, and actually it’s the fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome that has been confirmed,” says USFS Spokesperson Janelle Smith.’
With the disease on Colorado’s doorstep, Smith says the U.S. Forest Service decided to extend an emergency blanket closure order for a third year in a row. The move isn’t popular with some Colorado cavers, who favor targeted closures on U.S. Forest land.
“The caving community doesn’t feel it’s the most effective approach,” says Derek Bristol, chair of the Colorado Cave Survey.
Bristol says closing all 30,000 abandoned mines and hundreds of caves unnecessarily cuts off access for members of his group. Instead, he favors specific closures of caves that bats are known to use for activities such as hibernation and maternity roosts.
“The caving community could be an ally in helping to enforce closure of sensitive sites,” says Bristol. “But since they’ve chosen to go the route of blanket closure orders of all caves they’ve really alienated the caving community by doing that.”
The U.S. Forest Service is working with national groups like Alabama-based National Speleological Society and Kentucky-based Cave Research Foundation. Active members of both groups can get exemptions from the closure orders. Gaining access to the caves will still involve some paperwork.
Meantime, Spokesperson Janelle Smith says other groups and individuals can also apply for exemptions to enter caves. Exactly what that process will look like is unfolding right now.
“We definitely are requiring written permission from the Forest Supervisor to authorize an activity that’s approved. People who get that permission will be able to enter the caves,” she says.
Smith says the agency will focus on approving visits that add to scientific understanding of the disease. Researchers are still trying to figure out how to hault the spread of White Nose Syndrome.
The excavation works have resumed in Hadrut destrict Azokh and Drakhtik villages, Artsakh on August 29.Levon Episkoposyan, one of the heads of Azokh cave excavation told in the briefing with Armenpress, the excavations carried out by the group comprising of both European and Armenian specialists are aimed at revealing the cultural layers of the cave. "The excavations carried out in Azokh cave ceased in 1960, yet decades after the works restarted in 2002, current year excavation already mark the the 11th period of the excavations" the interlocutor noted.
In the words of Episkoposyan Azokh cave is the richest historical and cultural monument and in case all the layers of the cave will be examined, it would become possible to gather information about our ancestors and their lifestyle dating back to 350-400 thousand years." Azokh cave excerpts stored in special boxes are being kept in Stepanakert history museum.Those samples which need further study are being sent abroad by our foreign partners’ help due to the lack of appropriate equipment in Armenia" the specialist stated.
Excavation head notes with gratitude on the occasion of NKR declaration day September 2, 15- 20 samples of Azokh cave are scheduled to be demonstrated in Stepanakert history museum."The exhibition will last for two months, high ranking officials, foreign quests are set to take part in the opening ceremony. By the decision of the Government, the same exhibition is set to be launched in Shushi history museum as well, if possible the exhibition will be hosted in capital Yerevan too" the interlocutor underscored.
Plunged into the darkness surrounded by a spectacular shaft of light, these stunning pictures show daredevil explorers lowering themselves into a deep cave on the abseiling trip of a lifetime.
The amazing photographs appear to show abseilers hanging by a thread as they descend into Stephen's Gap - a geological wonder in Alabama, USA.
Daredevil photographer Amy Hinkle had to be strapped up in safety gear as she balanced on a slippy ledge inside the cave to capture the images.
Amy, from Chicago, said: 'I have been a caver for over two years and enjoyed photography for much longer. Getting photos in the underground world is entirely different, however.
'There is no light but what you bring with you, except near entrances, of course, where you get some sunlight.
'I have worked hard to develop techniques to bring light to these pitch-black underground systems without the use of massive amounts of equipment.
This composite image shows Typhleotris pauliani (top),
a previously known species of Malagasy cave fish,
and a newly discovered pigmented species (bottom).
A group of freshwater fish in Madagascar and another in Australia have a lot in common. Both are tiny, have no eyes and live in the total darkness of limestone caves. Now scientists say these two groups are more alike than thought — they are actually each other's closest cousins, despite the ocean between them.
Using DNA analysis, researchers found that the two types of blind fish — Typhleotris in Madagascar and Milyeringa in Australia — descended from a common ancestor and were estranged by continental drift nearly 100 million years ago. The scientists say their finding marks an important first.
"This is the first time that a taxonomically robust study has shown that blind cave vertebrates on either side of an ocean are each other's closest relatives," researcher Prosanta Chakrabarty of Louisiana State University said in a statement. "This is a great example of biology informing geology. Often, that's how things work. These animals have no eyes and live in isolated freshwater caves, so it is highly unlikely they could have crossed oceans to inhabit new environments."
An ongoing joint expedition of caving clubs from several Siberian sities to Sarma Cave in the Arabika Massif (Western Caucasus), led by Pavel Rudko, has reported that the cave has been pushed 60 m below the previous deepest point (-1760 m) reached last year.
This firmly establishes Sarma Cave as the second deepest cave in the world with depth of 1830 m, following Krubera Cave, located in the same massif, which has been explored this August to -2197 m by the Ukrainian expedition. The third place is hold by Snezhnaya Cave in the nearby Bzybsky Massif, with a depth of 1760 m.
It's a cave in Italy used during World War I, and authentic artifacts are still inside.
Historians knew about the cave because an Austrian officer wrote about it in his war diary, but its location wasn't revealed until two years ago by a retreating glacier.
Now officials are adding it to a map of World War I locations, but you can only visit it with the help of a mountain guide.
Managers on the Bighorn National Forest are reminding the public that entering caves on the forest to protect bats from contracting a disease that's killed millions of bats elsewhere in the country.
Regional Forester Dan Jiron recently extended an order that bars entering caves or abandoned mines on national forests and grasslands in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas.
The Forest Service says the closure is necessary to protect bat species and habitat from the spread of White-nose Syndrome. Experts estimate that the fungal disease has killed more than 5 million bats in the eastern U.S. and Canada. They say it's continuing to spread west.
A 20-year-old Briton drowned while snorkelling in underwater caves around Santa Marija Bay in Comino yesterday afternoon.
Marcus Hughes-Hallet was on holiday with his parents and was diving from one cave to the other when he “got stuck in the rocks beneath the caves,” the Armed Forces of Malta said.
His father called for help and a number of people dived down to look for him. After several attempts they managed to bring him to the surface but Mr Hughes-Hallet was not breathing, the AFM said.
Elephanta Caves, situated on the Elephanta Island is home to 1,200 year old rock cut temple of Lord Shiva. Ancient carvings and sculptures adorn the temple. The speciality of the temple is that it was built out of a single rock with space for columns and shrines. There are over 10 caves here but it's the main cave that has the privilege of being the most preserved.
This section of the cave is replete with gigantic structures that tell stories of Lord Shiva from the puranas.An astonishing fact is that even though the site was used for target practice in the 17th century by the Portuguese, the caves retained their charm and still attract loads of visitors everyday. The Elephanta Caves are now designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
There are precious few Neandertal skeletons available to science. One of the more complete was discovered in 1957 in France, roughly 900 yards away from the famous Lascaux Cave. That skeleton was dubbed “Regourdou.” Then, about two decades ago, researchers examined Regourdou’s arm bones and theorized that he had been right-handed.
On August 20th cave diver Alexei Savelyev passed away after an accident in the second siphon of the Ilyuhinskaya cave at a depth of around 1000 m.
He was a member of the Sokolniki club, who were exploring the cave. Together with his diver partner Aleksey Aksenov he was on his way back from explorations beyond the 4th siphon.
His dive partner tried to resuscitate him but he was unsuccesful.
Currently, participants of nearby expeditions (Kuybishevskaya, Voronya) are working together with the expedition team to extract the body from the cave.
Given the depth and many obstacles along the way (including a siphon), the rescue action is going to be long and difficult.
Our thoughs go out to all family, friends and fellow cave divers.
A cave diver who desperately tried to save the life of a lost colleague is set to pick up a coveted bravery award.
Richard Stanton, of Allesley Old Road, reached spectacular depths in a courageous effort to find a French diver back in 2010.
He was given special leave from his job as a city firefighter to join a team at the Ardeche Gorge, near Marseille, for the mission to rescue Eric Establie, who had been attempting to explore a deep and dangerous cave.
More than a week after he had gone missing - and after days of repeated and unsuccessful dives in horrendous conditions - Mr Stanton found the Frenchman's body. He had died after getting trapped following an underwater avalanche.
The word Tepui means "house of the gods" in the native language of "Pemon", the indigenous people who inhabit the Gran Sabana, in northern Amazon. This term indicates table-top mountains located in the north-east side of the Amazon forest, between Venezuela and Brasil.
Tepuis are unique mountains: square-shaped, wide summit surface limited by high vertical walls. Due to strong erosion some Tepuis have the shape of huge isolated towers, up to 1000 m high.
There, many new caves were discovered in the last twenty years, supposed to be the oldest caves on Earth.
The expedition Tepui 2012 is now coming to end, more than a month and a half of research, exploration and documentation in the Venezuelan tepui. This year the programs were limited by bad weather and logistical problems that forced us to change the original targets. Nevertheless, the final report is very positive.
Geological research have ranged from Roraima, to Akopan up to Auyan Tepui, including a geomorphological study of the entire Gran Sabana. Studies were performed on silica dissolved in water, the processes of arenizzation, on speleothems and mineralization inside the caves.
A great new spring has been reached on one of the most impressive walls of Roraima. The exploration of this new system has been hampered by a dangerous full of water, but the distance between the sinkhole and the wall is to assume interesting developments for next year.
Were completed the exploration of System Akopan-Dal Cin with the finding of a new branch, while on the Auyan Tepui were reached some new caves, one of these promise for the future great developments. Only in this tepui, thanks to overflights of our friend and partner Raul Arias, we have identified at least a dozen entries that will be the main target of the next expedition. Once again this huge mountain demonstrates not exausthed the exploration possibilities: after expeditions of the '90s, the discovery of Cueva Guacamaya and Cueva el Águila, new areas are proving to have complex underground systems that will surely give great satisfaction and even new scientific information.
At the same time it was done a remarkable job of documentation with thousands of photos outside and in the cave, but especially with a job to support a crew from BBC who worked on a documentary about Akopan, with spectacular aerial shots of the area and of the entrances in the wall. This documentary is meant to be aired in Europe, USA and Japan, showing the wonders of the underground river that runs through this mountain, a stream of water suspended in time, with a unique geological and biological diversity.
As in the past we return home with the feeling of having made a journey through time in these magical "islands" that have the taste of other worlds. Once again caving in quarz rocks proves to be one of the most fascinating frontiers of exploration in these times.
The team: Carla Corongiu,Vittorio Crobu, Antonio De Vivo, Marco Mecchia, Leonardo Piccini, Enzo Procopio, Laura Sanna, Francesco Sauro, Giacomo Strapazzon, Roberto Trevi, Freddy Vergara.
Since 1993 five expeditions were carried on by La Venta in the tepui Auyan, Chimantha and Roraima. The project is still going on with a new expedition are planned for 2013 on Auyan Tepui.
I have the great pleasure of announcing that the JSPDT (Caving Section of the Tolmin Alpine Club) and ICCC (Imperial College Caving Club) have successfully connected System Migovec and System Vrtnarija during the Sledi Vetra 2012 expedition.
The combined system is now 24.9 km long and 975 m deep.
This makes it by far the longest known cave in Slovenia, in a system where the majority of passage length is at depths of greater than 500 m.
The connection was made at a depth of ~650 m, during the last pushing trip of the expedition. A climb in the Queens Bed Chamber started last year was completed (named Apollo) and led to 420m of passage (The Milky Way) this was then pushed further to eventually reach a PSS from 1998 in Waterloo, SysMig (see Caves and Caving 84 p18 'The Northern Line', or The Hollow Mountain p100 [1]).
Some of the Slovenes have been working on Migovec every year since the 1970s, ICCC since 1994. There are perhaps more than 50 cavers of Migovec out there who contributed to this enormous project, all of whom share in the enjoyment of this moment.
Underground, beneath the surface of the Nesher quarry in Ramle, lies a cave with a vast array of calcite burrows, almost three kilometers long. For millions of years, the only sound interrupting the silence was the gentle scurrying of small, blind, colorless creatures, completely unaware of the world above them.
Before the quarry became active, the cave and tunnels were situated about 100 meters under ground level. In 2005, the first rays of light invaded the burrows, when a quarry bulldozer happened upon them. Scientists arriving at the scene, to research what they swiftly termed the "Ayalon Cave," discovered a unique form of life existing nowhere else on the planet: eight unknown species of crab, other arthropods and an eyeless scorpion.
The scientists shipped the creatures to labs throughout the world and now, six years on, the first part of the research is over, after most species were identified and described.
The scientists discovered an independent ecosystem in the underground cave that isn't based on photosynthesis. Since there was no light in the cave, or other known biological processes, the organisms in the cave were dependent on a process known as chimeotothropia which exists in other areas on earth, such as the bottom of the ocean.
Therion is a complete package which processes survey data and generates maps or 3D models of caves.
A new version (5.3.10) has been released and is available here.
Therion solves the most annoying problem of cave cartography – how to keep a map of large and complicated cave system always up-to-date.
Main features include:
Complete maps with all the detail. No additional ink stroke is needed.
Maps are dynamic, always up-to-date – i.e. they are automatically re-drawn after loop closure, blunder fix, scale or symbol set change
3D models are created using 2D maps
It runs on wide variety of platforms: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X. It is completely free, released under the terms of GNU GPL, with source code available. It doesn't require any other commercial software to run.
The latest version includes following additions/bug fixes: Therion:
* full OSGB grid coverage (e.g. cs OSGB:ST) * added New Zealand symbol set (NZSS, thanks to Bruce Mutton) * updated UIS symbol set (thanks to Bruce Mutton) * updated English translation (thanks to Bruce Mutton) * added te reo Maori translation (thanks to Kyle Davis)
Loch: * added checkbox that enables/disables surface lighting (Scene->Surface)
The area is known for Pictish incised carvings and the latest find could date from the 12th century.
The East Wemyss coastal area boasts 12 caves, the largest grouping in northern Europe.
Moira Cook of Save the Wemyss Ancient Caves Society (SWACS) said: ''The symbols were discovered in the Well Cave. We have asked experts for their opinion.
''There is a possibility of some sort of Templar connection. It's all very exciting.''
Local archaeologist Edwina Proudfoot added: ''An early carving would be a great find, but understanding what can be seen is also important.''
The Well Cave is below MacDuff Castle and was not thought to contain Pictish carvings, until the recent discovery by SWACS members.
The group was first formed by locals in 1986 following a spate of vandalism at the caves.
To find out more about the group, who run regular tours, visit www.wemysscaves.co.uk
In august 2012 an international group of cavers descended the deepest cave in the world: Krubera-Voronya which is located in Abkhazia (Georgia).
The expedition included around 60 representatives of various foreign countries, mainly Ukrainians, as well as 15 Lithuanians.
The news is still sparse, but it seems that the Ukrainian cave diver Gennadiiy Samokhin, was able to find a new lead and push the depth of worlds deepest cave to a new record of 2197 m.
This is six meters deeper than the previous record.
A big thanks goes out to the Lithuanian's support team who laid out all the lines.
As for now it remains the only cave with a depth of more than 2000 meters.
The expedition had to deal with high water levels and had some technicial problems (communication was lost for a while) during the beginning of the expedition.
Jurkėnienė said reaching the surface safely was the team's main task now.
"There have been no heavy showers this week but weather conditions remain bad. It is still raining and conditions inside the case are rather bad. They said three siphons they have to dive through to reach the bottom are flooded. It will be a bit harder to come out."
Lithuanian Vytis Vilkas had planned to reach the record depth but he dropped the plan after his health deteriorated.
A massive 400-foot deep sinkhole that has opened up in a Louisiana bayou has swallowed all of the 100-foot trees in the surrounding area and led to mandatory evacuations.
About 150 people have been ordered to leave their residences after the 400-sqaure-foot gaping hole opened in Assumption Parish amid fears of potential radiation leaks and natural gas explosions.
But despite the authorities enacting the mandatory evacuation, most people have decided to stay following allegations of a cover-up and industrial mis-management from the owners of a nearby salt cavern.
As state scientists monitored the toxicity of naturally occurring radiation at a slurry hole in Assumption Parish, residents said Thursday they were furious with their public state officials because they think they have been withholding information.
A few highlights of this year's Pearse Resurgence expedition in New Zealand, where divers pushed the cave to a new depth of 221m and discovered another 100m of passage.
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-- The Wet Mules have just completed the 2012 expedition to the Pearse River Resurgence near Mt Arthur in the South Island of New Zealand. The six Mules (David Bardi, Craig Challen, John Dalla-Zuanna, Richard “Harry” Harris, Ken Smith and Sandy Varin), were accompanied by diving physician and support Dr Karen Richardson for the 17 day trip.
Both primary objectives of the trip were accomplished. With the assistance of Nelson Speleological Group’s Andrew Smith and Dawn Wood, dye tracing from the Spillway in Nettlebed Cave again confirmed the connection between the two sites. Unfortunately, the dye appeared to be coming from the main passage deeper than 120m, so any hopes of making a shallow connection were lost.
Hence attention shifted back to pushing the deep section of the cave, and once the four habitats were installed at 7, 16, 28 and 38m, and gas was staged in the cave, build-up dives commenced.
On Thursday 12th January Dave and Sandy dived to 180m and completed an extraordinary 7 hour all in-water decompression.
The following day Richard Harris pushed past the end of Craig’s 2011 line at 194m, and laid 70m of line in large passage to a maximum depth of 207m. A total run time of 10½ hours was spent in comfort thanks to the habitats and the surface supplied suit-heating systems.
After two days of rain the resurgence flooded, delaying diving for a day. The final push dive by Craig Challen began on Sunday 15th January as the water levels subsided. Tying off to the end of Harry’s line, he scootered on a short distance only to meet another steep descent. Craig made a final tie off at 221m and returned to the surface after a total dive time of 17 hours. The passage continues beyond, heading deeper.
Ken, JDZ and Craig made tape measure surveys of several areas including the Nightmare Crescent and Big Room area at 120m.
The forest officials have recently unearthed a natural cave inisde the thick forest, in Kodagu district.
The cave is situated near Anderson stream inside thick forest at Vatekoli, which is 15 kms from Virajpet- Makutta road. The cave is 60 metre long and two metres in height. According to forest department officials, they have heard the sound of water inside the cave. “If there is water inside the cave, then it would be giving shelter to water creatures like fish, crab and so on. Realising the decrease in oxygen inside the cave, the officials did not make an attempt to move further inside the cave.”
The bats will welcome anyone who enters the cave. Normally, snakes live in and around those areas where bats live, say officials. Kodagu Circle Chief Conservator of Forest Deekshith said that the cave must have been formed by the flow of water through limestone and similar rocks. Water seeps into the pores and cracks of rocks and soil and bubbles beneath the earth above. Such caves are called as Solution caves.
The soil in the cave is a mixture of white and grey colour and is soft. The roof of the cave is strong. “We could not see the cave fully. The cave will provide an opportunity for the geologists to make a study. I will inform the State government on the discovery of a cave. If the government sends an expert, we will get more details on the cave,” said an official. It is said that the forest guards had discovered it a year ago. However, they had not informed it to the higher authorities. After taking charge, Deekshith visited the spot. In fact, he has marked the route to the cave through GPS.
One of the aims of the Gibraltar Museum is to encourage volunteer participation in the study of our history and the care of our heritage. With the start of the Gorham’s Cave excavations, help with processing finds will be among the tasks suitable for volunteer effort under supervision. But the involvement of volunteers goes further.
Recently, as part of the wider Gibraltar Caves Project, which was started in 1991,the Cave Unit of the Gibraltar Museum has been working with volunteers in the surveying of Gibraltar’s caves. This is specialised work which is carried out under supervision and is already producing excellent results. The unit is preparing an inventory of Gibraltar’s caves, checking previous work done and looking at each site today. The number of caves now exceeds 200!
Part of the work involves assessing the archaeological and palaeontological potential of each site. Some of these caves were last excavated in the 19th Century, so determining how much archaeology is left is a major challenge.
Others were excavated in the 1960s by the late Mr George Palao, and the unit has not only used Mr Palao’s reports which are in the archives of museum, but has also met with some of his collaborators in order to obtain as much information as possible. The unit is also in contact with – and collaborating with - the GONHS Cliffs and Caves Section who have also worked a number of Gibraltar’s caves.
Tabon Cave, the Philippines Cradle of Civilization, was recently declared a National Cultural Treasure by the National Museum of the Philippines.
The declaration followed a long process of study and examination by the National Museum of the Philippines pursuant to provisions of Republic Act No. 10066 also known as the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009.
The Act defines National Cultural Treasure as a unique cultural property found locally, possessing outstanding historical, cultural, artistic and/or scientific value which is highly significant and important to the country and nation, and officially declared as such by pertinent cultural agency.
The formal declaration was led by Dr. Jeremy Barns, director, and Angel Bautista, chief of Commission on Museums, Cultural Property Division of the National Museum witnessed by archaeologists from Thailand, Indonesia, France, Belgium, USA and a UNESCO representative.
Charina Cabading, executive director of Culture & Arts Division of the provincial government represented Palawan Governor Baham Mitra in a simple ceremony at the formal declaration made at the Tabon Cave Complex in Quezon town.
Tabon Cave is famous as the site where the earliest evidence of man in the Philippines was discovered in 1962. Dubbed as the Tabon Man, its discovery was made by a National Museum team led by Dr. Robert B. Fox.
The fossil, composed of human skull, jaw bones and teeth, found in the cave date back to about 22,000 to 23,000 years making it the most important archaeological discovery in the country.
Another important discovery in the cave complex is the world-renown burial jar, the Manunggul Jar, featured in the 1,000 peso bill. The jar is also a National Treasure.
Tabon Cave Complex is 138-hectares of rugged cliffs and deep slopes in Lipuun Point in Quezon municipality located about 145 kilometers southwest of Puerto Princesa City.
John Kearny swam into the cave in darkness to rescue the teenagers.
The mother of a teenage kayaker who got into difficulty off Rosscarbery, Co Cork, and had to stand on a ledge for nearly five hours on Saturday before he and his girlfriend were rescued, yesterday expressed her gratitude to Baltimore lifeboat.
Eoin Bourke and his girlfriend Alison O’Keeffe, from Douglas in Cork city, were fortunate to escape alive having been discovered trapped in a cave late at night by the lifeboat’s crew. The pair had left at 7pm and had got into difficulty at Pouladav cave at 7.30pm when they were tossed out of their kayaks in turbulent conditions.
Shortly before 10pm the Coast Guard issued a call for assistance after the two 17-year-olds failed to arrive back to shore at the scheduled time.
The all-weather lifeboat ALB Alan Massey and the inshore lifeboat ILB Bessie were launched to investigate.
While the search was continuing, Baltimore RNLI lifeboat helm John Kearney heard what he thought was a faint whistle coming from Pouladav cave, known locally for its blowhole.
The lifeboat crew were unable to enter the cave due to the dangerous surf conditions, so a small boarding boat was launched.
An archaeological excavation near Barcelona has discovered an approximately 100,000 year old skeleton of a young elephant, less than 7 years old. They are the first remains of an elephant found in the Massís del Garraf, a hilly area in Greater Barcelona, and what’s more, the find is exceptional since the discovery of complete elephant skeletons in caves is rare in Catalonia. Up to now, the two back legs, the pelvis and the spine have been documented as anatomically connected, although only a small portion has been excavated from where the elephant was found, in the ‘Cova del Rinoceront (Rhinoceros’ cave), in Castelldefels. Researchers from the University of Barcelona are confident that the rest of the animal will be complete, but it won’t be found until the next archaeological dig.
In Massís del Garraf, individual parts of pachyderm, such as tusks, have already been found, especially belonging to woolly mammoth skeletons. The findings show that there were elephants in the central Catalan coastal area before the mammoths’ own arrival during the Ice Age. Therefore the recently discovered elephant remains, as well as numerous finds of Mediterranean tortoises in the same rhinoceros’ cave in Castelldefels, show that 100,000 years ago the climate of the Catalan coastal area was warmer.
The ‘Cova del Rinoceront’ is a Palaeolithic site which ranges from 200,000 to 80,000 years BC and is unique to Catalonia. At the site, there are a lot of animal remains in an excellent state of preservation, although extensive mining of the limestone has destroyed a large part of the Rhinoceros cave, such as the original entrance. The remains that have been recovered suggest that the cave was a den of carnivores, which used the cave as shelter and where they brought their prey.
The archaeological excavations at the ‘Cova del Rinoceront’ in Castelldefels are led by researchers Joan Daura and Monze Sanz, members of the Quaternary Research Group-SERP of the University of Barcelona, which is directed by Professor of Prehistory, Josep Maria Fullola. Funding comes mainly from the Castelldefels City Council and the Catalan Government’s Service of Archaeology and Palaeontology.
Early humans in Africa procreated with a mystery species of human that may have been related toNeanderthals that later inhabited Europe, according to latest genetic studies.
While no fossilized bones have been found from these enigmatic people, they did leave their mark in present-day Africans: snippets of foreign DNA.
Scientists insist that there's only one way that genetic material could have made it into modern human populations.
"Geneticists like euphemisms, but we're talking about sex," the Washington Post quoted Joshua Akey of the University of Washington in Seattle, whose lab identified the mystery DNA in three groups of modern Africans, as saying.
According to Akey, these genetic leftovers do not resemble DNA from any modern-day humans. The foreign DNA also does not resemble Neanderthal DNA, which shows up in the DNA of some modern-day Europeans.
That means the newly identified DNA came from an unknown group.
"We're calling this a Neanderthal sibling species in Africa," Akey said.
He further said that the interbreeding probably occurred 20,000 to 50,000 years ago, long after some modern humans had walked out of Africa to colonize Asia and Europe, and around the same time Neanderthals were declining in Europe.
The find offers more evidence that for thousands of years, modern-looking humans shared the Earth with evolutionary cousins that later became extinct.
And whenever the groups met, whether in Africa or Europe, they bred.
In fact, hominid hanky-panky seems to have occurred wherever humans met others who looked kind of like them - a controversial idea until recently.
The research was recently published in the journal Cell:
U.S. Forest Service officials have extended an emergency order that restricts access to caves and abandoned mines on lands in Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas. But some Colorado cavers are criticizing the approach taken by the federal agency.
The goal of both groups is to curb the spread of White Nose Syndrome, a deadly disease that’s killed 5.5 million bats in eastern and southern states.
“Western Oklahoma is actually the furthest west that it's been detected, and actually it’s the fungus that causes White Nose Syndrome that has been confirmed,” says USFS Spokesperson Janelle Smith.’
With the disease on Colorado’s doorstep, Smith says the U.S. Forest Service decided to extend an emergency blanket closure order for a third year in a row. The move isn’t popular with some Colorado cavers, who favor targeted closures on U.S. Forest land.
“The caving community doesn’t feel it’s the most effective approach,” says Derek Bristol, chair of the Colorado Cave Survey.
Bristol says closing all 30,000 abandoned mines and hundreds of caves unnecessarily cuts off access for members of his group. Instead, he favors specific closures of caves that bats are known to use for activities such as hibernation and maternity roosts.
“The caving community could be an ally in helping to enforce closure of sensitive sites,” says Bristol. “But since they’ve chosen to go the route of blanket closure orders of all caves they’ve really alienated the caving community by doing that.”
The U.S. Forest Service is working with national groups like Alabama-based National Speleological Society and Kentucky-based Cave Research Foundation. Active members of both groups can get exemptions from the closure orders. Gaining access to the caves will still involve some paperwork.
Meantime, Spokesperson Janelle Smith says other groups and individuals can also apply for exemptions to enter caves. Exactly what that process will look like is unfolding right now.
“We definitely are requiring written permission from the Forest Supervisor to authorize an activity that’s approved. People who get that permission will be able to enter the caves,” she says.
Smith says the agency will focus on approving visits that add to scientific understanding of the disease. Researchers are still trying to figure out how to hault the spread of White Nose Syndrome.
