"Learn Something Old Everyday"
about what's new and old this week.
New York:::
For those curious as to what is going on with the ship unearthed 2 weeks ago in Lower Manhattan, the New York Times has an update.
David Dunlap reports:
"She was most likely a brigantine; the two-masted workhorse of the coastal trade, ranging perhaps from New England (where she might have picked up lumber needed by an ever-growing New York City) as far south as Barbados (from which she would have carried sugar and molasses to feed a growing population)."He continues:
"The disassembly should be finished Friday, Dr. Riess said. The forensic work will then shift to the Maryland Archaeological Conservation Laboratory.What was a sodden mess two weeks ago looked more and more like a ship in recent days, with the exposure of the lowermost hull. This allowed Dr. Riess, of the Darling Marine Center at the University of Maine and archaeologists from the AKRF firm to see how honeycombed and worm-eaten the wood was, bolstering speculation that the ship’s sorry final lot was to be used as landfill around the turn of the 19th century."
Wynne Perry, LiveScience Senior writer, reports on Yahoo that the origins of domestication of Donkeys is better understood now that crucial DNA work is underway.
"Five thousand years ago, in North Africa, humans formed an alliance with the wild ancestors of the donkey, twice.This was no insignificant feat; domestication of the donkey's ancestors helped these ancient cattle herders become more mobile and adapt as the Sahara Desert expanded. Donkeys also expanded over-land trade and contributed to the growth in the early Egypt state."
To that end he also reports:
"Modern donkeys can be divided into two, genetically distinct groups, leading scientists to believe that they have two ancestors, which were believed to be the Somali wild ass and the Nubian wild ass, both subspecies of the African wild ass.
In new research, scientists analyzed mitochondrial DNA, or that contained in the energy-producing centers of cells, taken from archeological sites, museum collections and live animals.
Their results showed that the Somali wild ass, or a close relative of this subspecies, was not one of the two ancestors. It is possible this unknown ancestor came from an extinct population of wild ass or from another region, the researchers suggest.
The more telling finding came when researchers confirmed that the Nubian wild ass was indeed the ancestor of one of the donkey groups. As part of their genetic analysis, the team found evidence that humans domesticated Nubian wild asses multiple times, and that all the while, these future donkeys continued interbreeding with their wild relatives.The findings also suggest donkey domestication took place in Africa, far from the Fertile Crescent, where most animals were once believed to be domesticated."
This cryptic marks are said to be "the earliest evidence we've got for reptiles."
Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Managing Editor, reports that the footprints were discovered by Howard Falcon-Lang of Royal Holloway, University of London, while he was mucking about looking for something entirely different.
She goes on to write:
"From the size of the tracks, the researchers suggest the animal was about the size of a gecko, nearly 8 inches (20 centimeters) from snout to tail tip.














