Nature Hub

  By Shingai Nyoka & Oliver Slow, BBC News, Harare & London, Edited by - Amal Udawatta, IMAGE SOURCE, ANDREY ATUCHIN / VIRGINIA TECH Image caption, An artistic reconstruction of the Mbiresaurus raathi Scientists have unearthed in Zimbabwe the remains of Africa's oldest dinosaur, which lived more than 230 million years ago. The Mbiresaurus raathi was one metre tall, ran on two legs and had a long neck and jagged teeth. Scientists said it was a species of sauropodomorph, a relative of the sauropod, which walked on four legs. The skeleton was discovered during two expeditions, in 2017 and 2019, to the Zambezi Valley. "When we talk of the evolution of early dinosaurs, fossils from the Triassic age are rare," Darlington Munyikwa, deputy director of National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, and who was part of the expeditions, told the BBC. He said that fossils from that era - which ended more than 200 million years ago - had been unearthed in South America, India and

  By Helen Briggs, Environment correspondent, Edited by -Amal Udawatta, From all the pictures of parched fields, dusty soil and dried-up reservoirs, it might appear obvious there's a drought. But from a scientific point of view, it's more complicated than that. There's no one definition of drought - it's different depending on whether you look at weather, agriculture or water flow in rivers and streams. And when it comes to declaring an "official" drought, government agencies look at how the long dry spell is affecting food production, water supplies and the environment. That includes how much rivers and streams are shrinking, which puts wildlife and water supplies at risk. They also look at threats to crops and livestock if fields are turned into dust bowls. How water supply is affected One big indicator for drought is hydrology - the flow of water through rivers and the state of the water stored underground in permeable rocks beneath the soil. These are cruc

 From  Ancient Archaeology Written by – A. Sutherland  – Ancient Pages.com Edited by -Amal Udawatta These ancient skeletons are said to be remains of Catholic martyrs dug up from Roman catacombs. The bodies are covered in priceless ancient treasure and they are a truly gruesome sight. The bodies were discovered by art historian Paul Koudounaris who hunted them down in secret Catholic vaults in Rome and churches across Europe. Incredibly, some of the skeletons, said to be the remains of early Christian martyrs, were even found hidden away in lock-ups and containers . In his book, Heavenly Bodies: Cult Treasures and Spectacular Saints from the Catacombs, Paul Koudounaris offers an intriguing visual history of the veneration in European churches and monasteries of bejeweled and decorated skeletons. “Death has never looked so beautiful. The fully articulated skeleton of a female saint, dressed in an intricate costume of silk brocade and gold lace, withered fingers glittering with colorful

 From - Ancient Archaeologists , Edited by  Amal Udawatta , A trophy rack of human skulls that had once belonged to victims of human sacrifice has been discovered by archaeologists from Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History at the Templo Mayor complex, part of the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan on the site of the modern Mexico City. The racks were known as “tzompantli” and they were used by the Aztecs to display the severed heads of sacrificial victims, which were exhibited for all to see on vertical posts. The skulls were suspended horizontally by the use of wooden poles push through the sides. According to Eduardo Matos, the skull rack was a “show of might” used by the Aztecs to impress friends and enemies alike. They were invited into the city where they would be cowed into passivity by the grisly display of human heads, several of them in advanced stages of decomposition. Such racks were often depicted in paintings and written texts from the early colonial period, how