As many of you know by now, there are several things that I am probably more interested in than anything else. They are astronomy, space, ufos, science and archeology. This doesn't mean that I am not interested in anything else, but these subjects are sort of my main interest. I guess you could say that I like very old and very unusual things. On that note, scientists have reported finding the most primitive four legged creature that ever existed on this planet. The name of the creature is Ventastega curonica and it lived in the water over 365 million years ago. They think that this animal will shed new light on the transition from fish to animals, but they also believe that this animal is an evolutionary dead end. The skeleton was found in Latvia. Isn't it funny, just when you think that everything has been discovered in an area, something new pops up. This is not the first link in the fish to animal chain that has been found. An even older sample was discovered, but that was more fish like, while this one is more animal than fish. It was described as looking like a small alligator, but it had a fin in the back. Sometimes I wonder about these discoveries. What makes me wonder about them is the fact that there is a chance that they just might be a mutant specimen. If there were more of these skeletons to compare them to I would feel different about this, but since there is only one so far, I think that it is too early to start calling it a sort of missing link. Another strange fact is that scientists admit that there are older skeletons that show more advanced animals.

The famous site at Akrotiri has been closed to the public. This site is on the island of Santorini, one of the sites that has been suspected of being Atlantis. Santorini is truly amazing. It goes back to 4,000 B.C., and yet contains buildings that were several stories high, sewage systems and advanced architecture. It is easy to see why this island was thought of that way. A huge volcanic explosion blew away most of the island leaving a strange shaped remnant of what used to be. It was lucky for us that some of the glory of the island survived. It survived, because it was buried under volcanic ash, much in the same way as Pompeii. Imported objects from all over the world were found in this location. They show that the people were in contact with many different races and were quite sophisticated. The homes contained art, much of it in the form of paintings. All of this took place before 1700 B.C., when the explosion occurred. Hopefully the site will open again, it is said that it's closed for renovation.

The date of human habitation in the Americas just keeps getting pushed back. A new discovery in Chile indicates that people were living in a settlement there over 14,000 years ago. This was determined by carbon dating organic material that was found at the site. The area that the settlement was found at was Monte Verde. Since the original find, much more evidence has been found that solidifies the 14,000 year claim. This evidence includes genetic material. Wouldn't it be something if we found settlements in the Americas that were older than those in the Middle East and Africa? That will probably never happen, but it certainly would knock the scientific community on it's ear. It is believed that the early immigrants settled near the shore and now scientists believe that is how they made their way from South to North America. This seems reasonable and is probably correct, but you can not be 100% certain. Future discoveries might show something different, you never know.

A dinosaur find in Canada has puzzled scientists for over 50 years and now they think that this accidental discovery may have been of a new species of dinosaur. A geologist was checking out some outcrops and such when he stumbled upon a pile of fossilized bones. The bones have been studied for quite some time, but there is really no agreement as to what type of dinosaur they represent. The discovery is a sort of strange story. The geologist was looking for thorium which is radioactive. When he got a higher reading than the usual background radiation reading, he thought that he had found the element. It was not the element emitting the higher radiation, it was the bones. The bones are the most complete dinosaur remains found in British Columbia to this date. The bones are similar to two different types of dinosaurs, but not quite the same. The problem for the scientists is that there is no way to tell for sure if all the bones are from the same animal. It could be that they represent several different dinosaurs and this could account for the confusion. It is known for sure that the dinosaur was a two legged creature and of small height. It is thought that the creature was a plant eater.

A cave has been found in Oklahoma that seems to indicate that it was once occupied by ancient Asians and Europeans. The U.S. Park Service has moved to protect this site. They installed an iron gate in front of the cave and a key is needed for entry. This incredible discovery was made by scientist, engineer Bill McGlone. This happens to be the type of discovery that no one would have believed, if it wasn't for the fact that so much evidence was found and even the U.S. Government is protecting it. The area where the cave is located has high canyons on three sides. The cave itself is very narrow and only is about 30 feet deep. The cave might not have been investigated except for the fact that there were etched lines pointing to it. The lines were really a written language called Ogam. It was ancient Celtic. The inscriptions read, "[We are the] People of the Sun." The second inscription read, "On the day of Bel, the sun will strike here." The Ogam language is the oldest written language in Scotland and Ireland. This proves that you never know what you are about to find.

There is a great wall that was built on this planet. It is of extremely solid construction. No I am not talking about the great wall of China or Hadrian's wall. I am talking about the Red Snake. A wall that was discovered in Northern Iran. It is at least 117 miles long, but could be much larger, so large in fact that it could be the longest wall ever built outside of China. The wall was designed to ensure the flow of water and was perfectly built for that task. There are at least 30 forts along the part of the structure that has been discovered. These forts are at least 3 times larger than those on Hadrian's wall. Archaeologists are in awe of this structure. They have no idea who built it and it's construction is so precise that it surprises them. There are no records that have been discovered that even refer to the wall. No one knows when the wall was built, but they do know that millions of bricks were used and they were all of a standard size and it is felt that they were mass produced. Kilns were found near the wall and they held 10 stacks of bricks sideways and 17 lengthwise. It was obvious that this is where some of the bricks were made. Radioactive sampling indicates that the wall and the bricks were made between the 5^th and the 6^th century AD. It is thought that it could have been abandoned soon after construction and that is one reason why there is no historical record of it.

The theory of Woolly Mammoth extinction received a kick in the pants, after scientists did some genetic research on the beasts. It turns out that this group of mammals was really split into two groups and the first group died out long before man appeared, where they were located. Previously, the accepted theory stated that man had hunted the mammals to death. Now it is thought that disease was the most probable cause of their demise, along with the change in climate. This is the first time that scientists have used a genetic method to determine the fate of an entire population.