«Morphing Paleovale: Dall’Homo Aeserniensis all’uomo di oggi: spettacolo sull’evoluzione»

In occasione della manifestazione «Morphing Paleovale: Dall’Homo Aeserniensis all’uomo di oggi: spettacolo sull’evoluzione» che si terrà ad Isernia nell’ultima decade di Ottobre, la Proloco di Isernia, in collaborazione con la direzione regionale per i Beni culturali del Molise, visto il crescente interesse intorno all’avvenimento e la pressante curiosità, hanno deciso di indire una sorta di concorso simpatia per il miglior make-up «preistorico».

In altri termini, oltre agli ospiti «cosiddetti ufficiali», si potrà prendere parte allo spettacolo-discussione presentandosi truccati da soggetti preistorici soddisfacendo così una doppia necessità: quella di essere protagonisti nella discussione e parte integrante dello spettacolo.
Al termine della serata, ai travestimenti più interessanti, a seguito di giudizio pubblico e tecnico, saranno proclamati, «Homini preistorici ad onorem» titolo di cui si fregeranno fino alla successiva edizione del premio oltre ad un simpatico dono sorpresa.
Nel ribadire che la serata avrà una base strettamente scientifica per i contenuti e per i temi trattati, non mancherà di tratteggiare aspetti più curiosi in modo da soddisfare l’immaginario collettivo.
A tutti i partecipanti sarà garantito l’omaggio di una t-shirt con il logo dell’Homo Aeserniensis
Per informazioni ci si può rivolgere alla Proloco Isernia, il cui presidente è Roberto Bucci, in via XXIV Maggio n. 169, 86 Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali del Molise 170 Isernia, tel. 0865235209, fax 086529161. Si può accedere al sito al seguente indirizzo internet: http://www.prolocoisernia.it/. Oppure utilizzare la seguente email: info@prolocoisernia.it.
Infine ci si può rivolgere alla Direzione Regionale per i Beni Culturali del Molise – Emilio Izzo, C.so Marcelli, 48 c/o Museo di Santa Maria delle Monache tel. 0864.415179 – 3476402951, email: emilcult@libero.it

http://iltempo.ilsole24ore.com/molise/2008/09/30/932660-occasione_della_manifestazione_morphing_paleovale.shtml

Epidexipteryx hui : le piume per “esibizionismo” e non per volare

vedi pure aggiornamento: 2008-10-23 – Epidexipteryx hui: le piume per “esibizionismo” e non per volare (2)

————————————————————————————-

First Dinosaur Feathers for Show, Not Flight?

Charles Q. Choi
for National Geographic News

September 29, 2008

The oldest known dinosaur relative of birds had “bizarre” anatomy, including long, ribbon-like tail feathers that suggest plumage may have first evolved for show rather than for flight, scientists say.

Farmers unearthed a fossil of the new dino species, dubbed Epidexipteryx hui, from the hills of Inner Mongolia in late 2007.
The remains date back 152 million to 168 million years ago, making the newfound creature slightly older than Archaeopteryx, the most primitive known bird.

(Related: “Earliest Bird Had Feet Like Dinosaur, Fossil Shows” [December 1, 2005].)

Like other avialans—birds and their closest dinosaur relatives—Epidexipteryx is a theropod, a group of two-legged animals that includes Tyrannosaurus rex.

A fossil of Epidexipteryx hui found in Mongolia shows long, ribbon-like tail feathers in addition to a body covered with shorter plumage.

Researchers think the pigeon-size Epidexipteryx might have used its plumes as flashy ornaments, since it was mostly covered in short feathers that lack the structure necessary for flight.

“For example, [the feathers] could potentially have played a role in displays intended to attract a mate, scare off a rival, or send a warning signal to other individuals of the same species,” said study co-author Fucheng Zhang, a paleontologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

“This is very exciting indeed, since it gives us a window into a stage of avialan history just preceding the appearance of the classic ‘first bird,'” Zhang said.

“It shows that the use of feathers for visual communication—as opposed to other functions such as insulation and flight—was a very early development.”

“Bizarre” Anatomy

Epidexipteryx lived in the mid- to late Jurassic period in a lush, well-vegetated area that was rich in salamanders and other possible prey.

The dinosaur had claws similar to those of ground-foraging birds, such as ostriches and turkeys, and its front teeth were large and protruding.

 

“One can certainly imagine [the teeth] being used to snatch at small prey, such as lizards, small mammals, or even insects,” Zhang said.

Strangely, Epidexipteryx’s anatomy seems to be a hodgepodge of features taken from a variety of animals.

For instance, its front limb bones and short, bony tail resemble those of living birds. But its short, high skull and large front teeth look like those of small theropods called oviraptors.

“It’s not uncommon for features present in one group to appear independently in another,” Zhang said of the newfound dino’s “bizarre” anatomy.

“It’s also typical for different parts of the body to evolve at different rates, so that some bits end up looking very specialized whereas others remain primitive.”

(See pictures of other “bizarre” dinosaurs.)

Zhang and his colleagues reported their findings last week in Nature Precedings, an online pre-publication service run by the journal Nature.

Evolution Experiments?

Luis Chiappe is a paleontologist with the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and a former National Geographic Society grantee. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society.)

He said that the mosaic of features suggests “there was a lot of evolutionary experimentation around the origin of birds, with many different kinds of lineages reaching different levels of ‘birdness.'”

But Chiappe, who was not involved in the new study, is skeptical of the idea that feathers originated as ornaments.

“Feathers could have served an aerodynamic function of some sort whether you fly or not. You could flap feathered wings and run faster,” he said.

“Still, these ornamental feathers are a really interesting new piece of evidence into why feathers first originated.”

SOURCES AND RELATED WEB SITES

• Chinese Academy of Sciences
• Nature Precedings
• Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/09/080929-bizarre-dinosaur.html
 

 free access article: http://precedings.nature.com/documents/2326/version/1

———————————————————————————–

  vedi approfondimento sul blog “Theropoda“

Museo Malacologico di Cupra Maritima, finalmente dissequestrati fossili

Museo Malacologico, dissequestrati oltre 1.400 fossili

Tutto cominciò dieci mesi fa nell’ambito di un’indagine su una presunta ricettazione di materiale paleontologico. Il pm ha comunque chiesto e ottenuto la proroga delle indagini fino al 4 gennaio

 

Cupra Marittima (Ascoli), 24 settembre 2008 – Erano stati messi sotto sequestro dieci mesi fa nell’ambito di un’indagine su una presunta ricettazione di materiale paleontologico. Ora, su disposizione del gip di Fermo Carla Moriconi, i 1.430 fossili del Museo Malacologico di Cupra Maritima sono stati dissequestrati. Le operazioni sono state eseguite dai carabinieri del Nucleo tutela dei beni culturali di Ancona.

 Secondo il direttore del museo, il gip ha riconosciuto l’insussistenza delle violazioni alle leggi doganali in materia. La vicenda processuale tuttavia non è ancora conclusa: il pm infatti ha chiesto e ottenuto la proroga delle indagini fino al 4 gennaio.

  link

Nuove considerazioni su “Lucy”

Lucy, the 3.2 million-year-old fossil, is a key piece in evolution’s puzzle

By TOM PAULSON
P-I REPORTER

Some 3 million years or so after her descendants arrived in the Pacific Northwest, Lucy represents just how far we have come from those days of wandering the savannas of Africa, scavenging for food, avoiding predators and awaiting the rapid expansion of a brain that today allows us to, among other things, ponder our origins.

 

Lucy, known by Ethiopians as “Dinkenesh” (wonderful one) and by scientists as an Australopith, is the popular name given to the rare and highly significant 3.2 million-year-old fossil remains of a female ancestor of modern humans to be displayed in Seattle at the Pacific Science Center from Oct. 4 until March 8.

She wasn’t human. But she wasn’t really an ape, either. She was, for many, a hint of humankind to come.

“Lucy is simply phenomenal,” said Patricia Kramer, an anthropologist at the University of Washington. “You can see yourself in her.”

You can, perhaps, as long as you are among those who can imagine having evolved along with chimpanzees, gorillas and other primates from a common — and now extinct — ancestor many millions of years ago. Not everyone can so easily imagine this, of course, whether because of conflicting religious beliefs or just that vague “sense” we have of human beings as somehow different, special, compared with the rest of creation.

However the metaphysical debate of our place in the cosmos may some day get resolved, there’s little debate within the scientific community today as to the significance of Lucy’s role in human evolution on Earth.

“She occupies a pivotal place on the human family tree,” said Donald Johanson, the American paleoanthropologist who, with his colleagues, discovered the fossil in 1974 near the northern Ethiopian community of Hadar. “We now know that one of the first significant things our ancestors did was to stand up, to walk on two feet instead of four.”

Lucy is still one of the most complete fossils from an early group of hominids (pre-humans) to routinely walk on two feet. This may sound like no big deal to us 21st century bipeds. But scientists say this was a key evolutionary adaptation probably caused by climate change, which forced our ancestors to shift from forest skills to operating on the savannas. It appears to have triggered other critical changes in our physique and behavior that led to modern humans.

More on those changes later. First, why is the fossil named Lucy?

“After the discovery, we kept listening to The Beatles’ song ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ in camp and a girlfriend of mine suggested we call her Lucy,” said Johanson, who neglected to mention the much-documented celebratory partying that also took place that night. “The name just stuck. I’m amazed at how this helped to make her into this popular icon for human evolution.”

But it wasn’t just The Beatles who lent Johanson’s discovery such prominence and recognition.

“Lucy forced us to rewrite much of the science,” said Gerry Eck, a retired UW anthropologist who worked with Johanson in Ethiopia on expeditions after Lucy was uncovered. “Evolutionary history is basically a puzzle with a lot of missing pieces. Lucy helped fill in a big piece of the puzzle.”

Technically, Lucy is a fossil member of a class of hominids, or proto-humans, known as Australopithecus afarensis who lived between 3.9 million and 2.9 million years ago.

Scientists use a lot of confusing Latin names for (and frequently argue about) labeling members of the human evolutionary family tree. For simplicity’s sake, human evolution can be broken into three phases — early and very apelike hominids, Australopiths such as Lucy and our genus Homo.

Lucy and her ilk occupied a critical phase in the evolutionary process that scientists believe led to a variety of other pre-modern human species such as Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis (the Neanderthals) and eventually to us, Homo sapiens.

Australopithecus is Latin for southern ape. Lucy’s species name A. afarensis means she is the southern ape who hails from Afar, the region in Ethiopia where she was discovered. She stood about 3.5 feet tall, but still had a very small brain. Back in the 1970s, scientists were still arguing over what came first in human evolution — growing a much bigger brain or moving from four-legged to two-legged walking.

Unlike most such ancient fossils, Lucy was more than just a piece of skull, femur or jaw. She was 40 percent intact, including much of her skull and most of her pelvis.

It was her pelvis and leg structure that nailed it: Bipedalism clearly had preceded the boom in brains.

“There was no question that we were bipedal millions of years before our brains got big,” said the UW’s Kramer.

“It was a spectacular find,” Eck agreed. This caused a bit of a fuss, he added, because Johanson was a relative newcomer to the field and, based on Lucy, was introducing a revolutionary new interpretation of how we evolved.

Put brutally simply, here is a quick summary of how Lucy’s bipedalism contributed to human evolution:

 

Standing up freed our hominid hands to eventually allow for tool use.  

Tool use led to greater success in hunting or otherwise acquiring meat in the diet.  

A diet rich in meat provided more of the basic biochemical building blocks needed for brain development.  

Someone, at some point, learned how to use fire. Someone started talking. Someone started writing.

It’s an absurd abbreviation of our story, of course, and of the scientific evidence. The complete story of human evolution, like the human brain, is too incredibly rich and complex to be so simplistically boiled down to such a short description. What makes Lucy so special is that, to some extent, she represents a stage in our prehistory, our evolutionary development, that we can comprehend.

There are still many mysteries, many gaps and unresolved issues to this story. Why did the Neanderthals disappear some 28,000 years ago? Did they really disappear or did they interbreed with us? Do the diminutive fossils dubbed the “Hobbits” recently discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores represent a new branch of Homo that lived contemporaneously with modern humans?

What does it really mean to be human?

Lucy certainly can’t answer all the questions, but she did answer some of the most significant ones for human evolution. As such, she likely will forever be regarded as a crucial turning point in our ongoing search to understand who we are, how we got here and, perhaps, where we are headed.

“Lucy really is the link, the common ancestor, between the older, more apelike creatures and the hominids that gave rise to us,” Johanson said.

“The field of paleontology is still quite young and we are in for an enormous number of further surprises. But Lucy will always be a touchstone.”

P-I reporter Tom Paulson can be reached at 206-448-8318 or tompaulson@seattlepi.com.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/ae/380502_lucy30.html

————————————————————————————-

other links (news) :

SA academic called on to solve fossil mystery Independent Online – 4 ore fa By Shaun Smillie They died suddenly in an Ethiopian riverbed – killed by a single catastrophic event that claimed babies, and possibly their mothers and …

‘Lucy’s Legacy’ holds treasures for all ages at the Pacific … Seattle Post Intelligencer – 15 ore fa By DOREE ARMSTRONG For such a little girl, she sure has had an enormous impact on the world. The 1974 discovery of 3 1/2-foot-tall Lucy, the oldest and most …

Lucy on display with controversy Seattle Times – 2 ott 2008 Lucy, the world’s most famous fossil, goes on exhibit in Seattle this week. But some scientists say the fragile bones should never have left Ethiopia. …

Ethiopia’s rich heritage: Lucy’s birthplace is globally significant Ethiopian Review – 19 ore fa By TOM PAULSON SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – It is fitting that one of the most signature discoveries of humankind — a finding that has helped define a big part of …

2008-09-30 – Scoperto dinosauro carnivoro che respirava come uccelli odierni (Aerosteon riocoloradensis gen. et sp. nov.)

Scoperto dinosauro carnivoro che respirava come uccelli odierni

martedì, 30 settembre 2008 8.50

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Alcuni scienziati hanno rinvenuto i resti di un dinosauro carnivoro di grossa taglia con un apparato respiratorio molto simile a quello di un uccello di oggi. La scoperta rafforza l’idea che ci sia un legame tra volatili e dinosauri e contribuisce a spiegare l’evoluzione del sistema respiratorio proprio solo degli uccelli.

Estratto da rocce datate 85 milioni di anni, lungo le rive del Rio Colorado nella provincia argentina di Mendoza, questo predatore lungo 10 metri e che camminava in posizione eretta pesava quanto un elefante e aveva probabilmente le piume, secondo quanto hanno riferito gli scienziati.

Ma il suo apparato respiratorio rende questo dinosauro unico, ha detto Paul Sereno dell’Università di Chicago, che ha scritto della scoperta sulla rivista Plos One.

Al posto dei polmoni che si espandono e restringono, ha detto Sereno, questo animale potrebbe aver avuto delle sacche d’aria che funzionavano come una sorta di soffietto, che spingevano l’aria nei polmoni rigidi, come accade negli uccelli.

Il team di studiosi ha nominato il dinosauro Aerosteon riocoloradensis (“ossa areate del Rio Colorado”), perché le sue ossa hanno una conformazione a spugna nota come “pneumatizzazione”.

Gran parte dei paleontologi pensa che gli uccelli si siano evoluti da piccoli dinosauri carnivori con le piume, e il primo uccello rinvenuto è molto simile a uno di questi animali estinti.

vedi commenti e approfondimenti dal post: link  (dai blog “Theropoda” e SVPOW)

————————————————————————————

Evidence for Avian Intrathoracic Air Sacs in a New Predatory Dinosaur from Argentina

Paul C. Sereno^1*, Ricardo N. Martinez², Jeffrey A. Wilson³, David J. Varricchio⁴, Oscar A. Alcober², Hans C. E. Larsson⁵

Abstract

Background

Living birds possess a unique heterogeneous pulmonary system composed of a rigid, dorsally-anchored lung and several compliant air sacs that operate as bellows, driving inspired air through the lung. Evidence from the fossil record for the origin and evolution of this system is extremely limited, because lungs do not fossilize and because the bellow-like air sacs in living birds only rarely penetrate (pneumatize) skeletal bone and thus leave a record of their presence.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0003303

————————————————————————————-

additional links:

MSU paleontologist part of team that discovered new dinosaur (with photos)

 ————————————————————————————

Bus-Sized Dinosaur Breathed Like Birds Do FOXNews – 30 set 2008 By Jeanna Bryner This rendering of Aerosteon shows its lungs (red) and air sacs (other colors) as they might have been in life about 85 million years ago. … Dinosaur fossils may provide evolutionary link to modern birds guardian.co.uk – 30 set 2008 Fossils of a 33-foot-long (10.1-metre-long), previously unknown meat-eating dinosaur discovered in South America are delivering insights to scientists on … New scary, cool dino was Tweety’s great-grandpa Chicago Sun-Times – 30 set 2008 BY DAVE NEWBART Staff Reporter dnewbart@suntimes.com But Aerosteon — a new dinosaur discovery announced Monday by University of Chicago paleontologist Paul … Please Stop, Dad; I’m So Embarrassed Washington Post – 29 set 2008 A new study shows that adolescents use a different part of their brain than adults to process emotions such as guilt or embarrassment. … Dinosaur related to Tyrannosaurus Rex had bird-like breathing system Telegraph.co.uk – 29 set 2008 By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent The remains of a new dinosaur that was a distant relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex has been discovered and could … Forget bird-brained Science News – 29 set 2008 By Laura Sanders Paleontologists have discovered a new species of carnivorous dinosaur that possessed an interesting feature: It breathed like a bird. … PHOTOS: Meat Eating Dino had Birdlike Breathing System National Geographic – 29 set 2008 September 29, 2008–This newly found South American dinosaur may have had flesh-ripping teeth, but it had the lungs of a bird, scientists announced Monday. … Birdlike Dinosaur Found in Argentina National Geographic – 29 set 2008 A new predatory dinosaur with a birdlike breathing system found in Argentina may help scientists better understand the evolution of birds’ lung systems. … Dinosaur predator breathed like a modern bird Reuters – 29 set 2008 By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) – Scientists have unearthed the remains of a large meat-eating dinosaur with a breathing apparatus much like a modern … New Evidence To Suggest That Dinosaurs Breathed Like Birds Medical News Today – 1 ott 2008 Birds have evolved an unusual breathing system, and clues to its development lie in the remains of a recently-discovered 10-meter-long predatory dinosaur … ‘Air bone’ dinosaur is missing link with birds InTheNews.co.uk – 29 set 2008 A carnivorous dinosaur with a bird-like breathing system has provided more evidence of the connection between the two groups of animals separated by … New meat-eating dinosaur from Argentina had bird-like breathing system EurekAlert (press release) – 29 set 2008 MENDOZA, Argentina—The remains of a new 10-meter-long predatory dinosaur discovered along the banks of Argentina’s Rio Colorado is helping to unravel how … Dinosaur’s fowl breath seals tie to birds ABC Science Online – 29 set 2008 The discovery of air sacs in a new 10-metre-long, meat-eating dinosaur may seal the connection between birds and dinosaurs and explain how birds’ unique … Carnivorous Dinosaur With Bird-Like Lungs Discovered Discover Magazine – 30 set 2008 A 33-foot long, carnivorous dinosaur that lived 85 million years ago had a breathing system similar to that used by modern birds, and researchers say the … Meat-eating dinosaur from Argentina had bird-like breathing system EurekAlert (press release) – 29 set 2008 ANN ARBOR, Mich.–The remains of a 30-foot-long predatory dinosaur discovered along the banks of Argentina’s Rio Colorado is helping to unravel how birds …

In German:

Luftschlauch-Dino lässt Forscher rätseln Spiegel Online – 30 set 2008 Forscher haben einen bizarren Dinosaurier mit einem System von Luftkanälen unter der Haut entdeckt. Das Tier besaß ein dichtes Federkleid und war so schwer …

Dinosaurier mit “Klimaanlage” bestätigt wissenschaftliche Hypothesen derStandard.at – 29 set 2008 Buenos Aires/Mendoza – Der Vogelflug ist eine komplexe evolutionäre Errungenschaft, die einer Reihe ganz unterschiedlicher Voraussetzungen bedarf: Von einem …

Fundsache, Nr. 410 Raubsaurier mit “Klimaanlage” n-tv – 29 set 2008 Forscher haben in Argentinien einen bizarren Raub-Saurier mit Hinweisen auf eine Art eingebaute “Klimaanlage” zur Senkung der Körpertemperatur gefunden. …

2008-09-29 – Altamura: iniziati lavori per info-point

Turismo: iniziati ad Altamura lavori per info-point

Scritto da Pasquale Dibenedetto

lunedì 29 settembre 2008

Sono iniziati in via Treviso ad Altamura, su un’area libera e comunale, i lavori per la realizzazione di un info-point turistico e per la sistemazione a piazza pubblica.Si tratta di un progetto da circa un milione di euro che prevede anche la realizzazione della segnaletica turistica relativamente ai siti strategici (Pulo di Altamura, Uomo di Lamalunga, Cava dei dinosauri). Per illustrare i dettagli e per presentare gli altri progetti sull’accoglienza e sulla fruizione turistica è stata programmata una conferenza stampa alle ore 11 di mercoledì 1 ottobre, al Municipio, a cui parteciperà il sindaco Mario Stacca. Nell’occasione saranno illustrati anche i dati sulla presenza di turisti e visitatori nel periodo estivo.

http://www.notizie-online.it/content/view/23173/1/

2008-09-11 – “Creazionista” offre premio per prove dell’evoluzione

Creationist offers prize for fossil proof of evolution

 

 

A controversial creationist who successfully campaigned for Richard Dawkins’ official website to be banned in Turkey has offered a multitrillion- pound challenge to scientists.

 

Adnan Oktar said that he has “issued a call to all evolutionists” that he will give “10 trillion Turkish lira to anyone who produces a single intermediate-form fossil demonstrating evolution” – a sum roughly equal to £4.4trn.

The Muslim writer, who uses the pen name Harun Yahya, is a fierce critic of what he calls “the Darwinist dictatorship” and a popular figure in his home country, where – according to a 2006 survey – only a quarter of the population believe in Darwin’s theory.

The 52-year-old former architecture student, who has been heavily criticised in the West, claims there are no fossils to support Darwinist theories. “Evolutionists are at a dead-end in the face of the fossil record,” he said. “Not one [fossil] belongs to strange-looking creatures in the course of development of the kind supposed by evolutionists.” However, scientists reject his claims that these fossils do not exist. Dr Kevin Padian at the University of California told The New York Times that Mr Oktar “does not have any sense of what we know about how things change through time. If he sees a fossil crab, he says, ‘It looks just like a regular crab, there’s no evolution,'” Dr Padian said. “Extinction does not seem to bother him.”

Mr Oktar found fame in 2006 when 10,000 copies of his The Atlas Of Creation were distributed worldwide. The 800-page volume illustrated his claims that for millions of years life forms have not developed, supporting his Islamic creationist beliefs.

Richard Dawkins, the British biologist, called the Atlas “preposterous”, speaking of “the breathtaking inanity of the content”. Mr Oktar responded: “We could have spoken on a more scientific basis if he had been able to produce an intermediate form fossil capable of confirming evolution in the face of all the hundreds of fossils in my book.”

Mr Oktar defended Professor Michael Reiss, the British biologist who resigned as the director of education for the Royal Society earlier this month after suggesting that science teachers should consider creationism “not as a misconception but as a world view”.

Mr Oktar called it “concrete evidence of the panic Darwinists are experiencing”. Earlier this month he successfully brought a case against Mr Dawkins to a Turkish court, claiming that his website contained blasphemous and defamatory content. Internet users in Turkey can no longer access the site.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/creationist-offers-prize-for-fossil-proof-of-evolution-945289.html

 

2008-09-28 – Grande successo alla mostra dedicata ai Dinosauri (Tunbridge Wells Museum, GBR)

Dinosaur show breaks attendance records for museum

Sunday, September 28, 2008, 16:00

A dinosaur exhibition at a museum has proved a roaring success with more than 20,000 fans of the prehistoric creatures attending.

The Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery, which is run by the town’s borough council, said the summer show attracted more than double its normal visitor numbers.

Katrina Burton, audience development officer for the museum, said the universal appeal and mystery surrounding the lives of dinosaurs had made the exhibition such a success.

“I think the dinosaur theme appeals to everyone,” she said.

“They are big, scary and fierce and a bit mystical because they were around so long ago.

“That’s why I think the science part of it appeals because people are interested in how we can find out more about them, how they lived and how they became extinct.”

Families and visitors of all ages came to The BBC Ballad of Big Al: A Walking With Dinosaurs Exhibition, which displayed some of the models used in the popular television series.

Allosaurus fans were also able to see footage from the programme staring the 145 million-year-old creature.

The exhibition also marked the 75th anniversary of the discovery of iguanodon fossils in High Brooms near Tunbridge Wells.

“The remains were found in the old brick pit while workers were digging clay out. They found this huge dinosaur.

“Iguanodons were land dwelling herbivores. They lived in this high Weald area which at the time had a big fresh water lake.

“You can imagine them foraging for leaves and plants around the shores,” Ms Burton said.

The distinguishing feature of the creatures is thumb spikes, which experts believe could have been used as defence against predators, she said.

Two thigh-bones and a bit of the back bone from the iguanodon were discovered in 1933 and are 136 million years old from a time when the species was common to the area.

“It is quite a significant find, especially for this country because there are not that many [dinosaur remains] discovered in Britain,” Ms Burton added.

Another reason the exhibition proved so popular could have been due to the rainy summer and the dinosaur related activities at the museum, which included interactive challenges for children also drew a crowd.

Cllr James Scholes, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s portfolio holder for communities, said some families had even come to the exhibit several times.

He added: “The museum gallery is an important resource, attracting visitors from the wider area.  With so many people visiting throughout July and August it proves that the exhibitions that are selected are exactly what people are interested in.”

link

2008-09-28 – Italiani creduloni (“Nessie”, Loch Ness)

 

Italiani creduloni temono ufo e yeti

28/9/2008 (10:57) – INDAGINE

Cresce il numero di persone convinte che dietro ad alcuni miti e leggende ci sia un fondo di verità

ROMA
Aumentano gli italiani che danno almeno un pò di credito a miti e leggende come il triangolo delle Bermuda, lo yeti e gli ufo. “Colpa” dei media, ma anche di un bisogno proprio degli esseri umani, quello di credere a qualcosa di superiore o d’inspiegabile. È il risultato di un’indagine condotta dal mensile Outside, nella quale sono stati intervistati 75 psicologi; tra loro sono 6 su 10 quelli convinti che sia in crescita nella Penisola il numero di persone secondo cui dietro a certi miti e leggende ci sia qualche fondamento. Gli esperti si sono basati sia sulla loro esperienza, sia sull’analisi di 10 focus group ai quali hanno partecipato nel complesso 180 tra uomini e donne. Quei misteri, sostiene il 58% degli psicologi intervistati, sono ’una nuova mitologia dei tempi di Internet e della conquista dello spaziò.

Nello specifico, il 35% degli psicologi intervistati sottolinea come molti italiani siano convinti che dietro ad alcuni miti e leggende ci sia un fondo di verità, e l’11% evidenzia come sia rilevante il numero di quelli disposti a crederci ciecamente. Invece, il 29% afferma che il numero dei creduloni non è in crescita. Secondo gli studiosi intervistati, l’aumento è dovuto in parte all’insistenza con cui questi argomenti sono trattati da tv e giornali, dai quali ricevono un’aura scientifica (fattore molto influente per il 57% degli psicologi intervistati), in parte al bisogno di credere che non sia ancora stato scoperto e spiegato tutto (fattore evidenziato dal 38% degli psicologi intervistati).

Un italiano su dieci crede vera la maggior parte di leggende come quelle degli ufo, dello yeti e del triangolo delle Bermuda, spiega il mensile. Per uno psicologo intervistato su quattro la maggior parte dei creduloni è soprattutto affascinata da quei misteri. Per quasi un italiano su cinque, però, la reazione è la paura; a incutere più timore il triangolo delle Bermude (32%) e i fantasmi. In quanto al rapporto degli italiani con quei misteri, la maggioranza dei partecipanti ai focus group, il 60%, è composta da convinti e possibilisti, mentre il restante 40% è scettico radicale. Tra gli scettici radicali, l’atteggiamento predominante verso questi argomenti è il fastidio (lo ha detto il 33% di loro) anche se una parte (il 21%) ammette di seguirli pur essendo sicura che si tratti di favole; il 18% degli scettici radicali dice che accetterebbe di essere smentito, mentre il 16% dice di essere del tutto indifferente ai misteri e di non interessarsene mai.

Tra chi ci crede (come detto, il 60% dei membri dei focus group), il 25% ha detto che questi temi lo appassionano, ne è «affascinato», anche se in molti evitano di parlare di questa convinzione, per il timore di doversi scontrare con uno scettico (24%). Uno dei dati che gli psicologi hanno più evidenziato è la risposta data dal 18% che ha detto di averne paura. E se in molti si informano e cercano di saperne di più (26%), c’è anche chi, pur ammettendo di esserne molto incuriosito, preferisce non approfondire (7%). In quanto alle fonti d’informazione su miti e leggende, al primo posto c’è la tv, citata dal 53% dei partecipanti ai focus, e in particolare le trasmissioni su questi temi, che molti definiscono scientifiche. Al secondo posto c’è il web, citato dal 48%, seguito da riviste e giornali (29%) e persino da film su questi temi (che per il 18% devono avere qualche fondamento).

In merito alla popolarità dei misteri, i più diffusi sui media sono gli Ufo e i cerchi nel grano (68%), seguiti dai fantasmi (54%) e dal triangolo delle Bermude (49%). Ritornando agli Ufo, uno dei temi caldi è quello dei rapimenti che gli alieni farebbero per studiare la razza umana (il 47% ne ha sentito parlare più volte) o antichi mostri preistorici che ancora vivrebbero, come il famoso Nessie, ovvero il mostro di Lochness (33%). Seguono la maledizione del faraone Tutankhamon (29%) e i misteri legati a Stonehenge (25%). «E che dire dell’Uomo delle Nevi (21%) – osserva il mensile – se anche uno scalatore esperto come Messner ha detto di averne trovato le tracce e addirittura di averlo visto?».

Il 26% degli esperti intervistati ha detto che la maggior parte delle persone, anche scettiche, prova comunque un certo fascino nei confronti di questi temi, a cui si aggiunge una naturale curiosità (elemento evidenziato dal 21%); il 18% evidenzia la crescita di una certa paura legata a quei misteri. Nella classifica delle situazioni misteriose che incutono più timore nei partecipanti ai focus group, in testa c’è trovarsi coinvolti in qualche fenomeno inspiegabile in grado di inghiottire una nave, un aereo o un’auto (il 32% ammette di averci pensato almeno una volta), in stile triangolo delle Bermuda; il 28%, invece, ha paura, o ne ha avuta, di trovarsi alle prese con uno spettro; il 14% ha dichiarato di aver pensato almeno una volta con terrore all’ipotesi di un rapimento da parte degli alieni o di trovarsi di fronte a un essere preistorico (11%), come il mito di Lochness. In realtà, però, spiega il mensile, la maggior paura è legata in generale all’ambito dei misteri, non ad un fenomeno specifico, come ha dichiarato il 25%.

Per la maggioranza degli esperti intervistati (57%), una credenza così diffusa e in crescita per tutto ciò che riguarda i misteri e il paranormale è alimentata con forza dalla parvenza scientifica che alcuni siti Internet, giornali e trasmissioni tv danno a tutto ciò che riguarda alieni e misteri. La colpa non è solo dei media, però. Il 38% degli esperti sottolinea come credere a cose di quel tipo sia spesso un vero bisogno, quello proprio degli esseri umani di credere in qualcosa di superiore o inspiegabile, minacciato da una società dove tutto sembra essere svelato e avere delle risposte razionali.

«E se per il 41% è solo una questione di curiosità e di sempre maggiori difficoltà (con il moltiplicarsi di “fonti”) nel discernere il vero dal “verosimile” e dal “falso” – conclude il mensile – il 26% è sicuro che si tratti del bisogno di crearsi nuove paure, di provare emozioni forti e intense».

http://www.lastampa.it/redazione/cmsSezioni/societa/200809articoli/36856girata.asp

2008-09-27 – Riaperti al pubblico i resti Paleolitici dell’area di Pian S.Angelo (Viterbo)

RIAPERTO AL PUBBLICO IL MONUMENTO NATURALE PIAN S’ANTANGELO

VITERBO – E’ stato riaperto al pubblico, dopo un lungo restyling finanziato dalla Regione Lazio con un contributo straordinario di 150mila euro, il monumento naturale di Pian Sant’Angelo: oltre 600 ettari di natura incontaminata tra Corchiano e Gallese, nel cuore dell’Agro Falisco, in provincia di Viterbo. Il territorio, caratterizzato dalla presenza di profonde forre, una sorta di canyon, scavate nel corso dei millenni dai corsi d’acqua, e’ ricco di ritrovamenti preistorici risalenti al Paleolitico e cosparso di reperti archeologici come i monumentali resti dell’acquedotto falisco, detto ”Ponte del Ponte” e una serie di tombe rupestri a camera. La gestione dell’area e’ stata affidata al Wwf, che ha gia’ programmato una serie di visite guidate: la prima per domenica 28 settembre, con partenza dalla piazza di Corchiano, dove per l’occasione saranno allestiti degli stand gastronomici con prodotti tipici e tradizionali locali, la seconda il 13 ottobre, con partenza da Gallese, dove sara’ allestita anche una mostra a tema nel museo locale. L’apertura del monumento naturale e’ stata presentata nel corso di un incontro sul tema ”Monumento naturale Pian Sant’Angelo – Un esempio di gestione delle aree protette”, organizzato dalla Provincia di Viterbo, dal Wwf Lazio e dai comuni di Gallese e Corchiano.

http://www.ansa.it/tuscia/notizie/fdg/200809261556325983/200809261556325983.html