Giant Bugs a Thing of the Past

National Geographic reports on a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that explains why 300 million years ago, giant insects roamed Earth.

A higher concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere let dragonflies sometimes grow to the size of hawks, and some millipede-like bugs reached some six feet (two meters) in length.

Now that the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere is lower, insects can’t grow that large, which bums me out; I figured that was the only silver lining to global warming: a world populated by giant bugs.

Dragonfly image from the University of Wollongong, modification by me.

Strange Maps

If there was ever any question that I’m a huge geek, it would be answered by anyone observing my fanatical love of maps. I love the damn things. If you love them too, and you haven’t yet happened across the site Strange Maps, you must.

Today Strange Maps blows me away with two magnificent posts: first, with a historical map of Russia’s ethnic Germans who came with Catherine the Great (from which group my significant other derives some part of her heritage).

Second, and maybe of more interest to the devotees of my more fanciful intrerests, is a work that proves the possibilities of the map as a fantastical artform in and of itself: a treatment by Vlad Gerasimov of an inverted Earth: one in which land is sea and vice-versa.

 Thank you, Strange Maps, WordPress homies, yo, represent, Word up, dawg.

Salt Cured Mummy Found in Iranian Mine

Scientists in Iran have uncovered the remains of a Roman-era man preserved in a salt mine. The man, believed to be a mine worker buried by an earthquake, is the sixth “natural mummy” found at the site, with estimates for the mummies’ age ranging from 539 BCE to AD 640, according to National Geographic.

The five previously unearthed mummies have proven immensely valuable to archaeologists “due to their advanced state of preservation,” with intact beards, hair, and garments — and, in some cases, food in their stomach.

But preservation of the mummies after excavation has proved difficult for Iranian scientists due to the country’s lack of equipment. Mohammad-Hassan Fazeli Nashli, director of the Iranian Centre of Archaeological Research, wants the new mummy left in the ground. He told Iran’s Cultural Heritage News Agency that “Iran is still a novice in protection of artifacts. Thus… it is better if we let the artifact remain in the earth, which is the best trustee.”

Ancient Salt Cured Man Found in Iranian Mine (National Geographic)

See also: The Persian Princess, an alleged Persian mummy found in Pakistan. It turned out to be a forgery and possibly a murder victim.