Alaska still holds many archaeological wonders like the petroglyph beach and the discovery of strange fossils of an ancient sea animal Subscribe to Talltanic http://goo.gl/wgfvrr # 8 New Butterfly Species In March 2016, a scientist accidentally discovered a new undocumented species of butterfly native to Alaska. Andrew Warren, a butterfly expert, was organizing a museum’s butterfly collection when he noticed one butterfly was seemingly mislabeled as a variation of the Chryxus Arctic butterfly - when actually it was a whole new species altogether. The Tanana Arctic is the new name of this species of butterfly - which evolved when two other species intermingled until their hybrid offspring became distinct enough to become their own breed. Because of this new discovery, little is known about them except that they make their home in the harsh and cold environment of Alaska. # 7 Cremated Child Excavators in an Alaskan archaeological dig found something that unnerved them to their core. The archeologists in Central Alaska uncovered the cremated remains of a 3 year old child who died almost 11,500 years ago. The child’s burned bone remains were found in the center of an ancient house, a place that served as their home while they were alive and their graveyard when they died. # 6 Ice Age Babies Surrounded by Weapons A similar and mysterious archaeological find was discovered incredibly close to the cremated 3 year old child. Buried just a few centimeters below the cremated remains, the remains of two infants were found. The two would be aged anywhere between a few days to a few weeks. The children were surrounded by an array of ancient weapons like spears and sharpened rock tips, a set-up that would have been considered a very lavish funeral. Why the two babies weren’t cremated while the older one was is a mystery. The reason for such an intricate burial ceremony of any of these children remains equally shrouded in mystery. # 5 Lady of the Lake The Lady of the Lake is a mysterious site just a few miles of a city called North Pole, Alaska. It’s the name of a WB-Superfortress plane that is half sunken into a lake. The ominous looking abandoned aircraft has a history of being used as a recon plane during World War II, but the exact reason for it’s new home at the bottom of a shallow lake is unclear. It makes for an intimidating discovery for anyone who happens to find it. # 4 Petroglyph Beach A rocky beach in Juneau, Alaska has a rare archaeological find that only reveals itself at low tide. Over 40 different rock sketches decorate the rocks on the coast, depicting things like salmon, whales, human faces, and a community. It is one of the oldest concentration of ancient drawings in the world, and it’s incredibly hard to piece together the true meaning of the disappearing petroglyphs as they are slowly being washed away by the ocean. # 3 Pre-American Trade Archaeologists discovered a collection of prehistoric bronze relics in Northwestern Alaska, at a time when the people of Alaska were not yet capable of making their own bronze. The artifacts were made in Mongolia, Korea, China and Japan, other finds seem to originate from places in Russia. These artifacts prove the existence of intercontinental trade and cultural exchange in Alaskan way before Columbus arrived in the Americas. # 2 Igloo City A strange monument exists 120 miles north of Anchorage - a giant abandoned igloo. The building, once called Igloo City, was first built in the 1970s and was meant to be a novelty hotel for tourists. The building could never meet construction codes and soon it became too expensive to keep trying to build it and just as expensive to tear it down. Several other owners came to the property throughout the decades but none could get the cursed building to meet regulations. Soon it was abandoned to the Alaskan elements and has now become a strange landmark for adventurers to check out. # 1 “Buzz saw” shark An Alaskan Geology student named Richard Glenn found an oddly shaped rock while mapping geological formations in the Brooks Range of Northern Alaska. The rock was a spiral shape, similar to a fossil of a shell someone might find. The difference? This spiral shape was dotted with 100s of teeth. After a long journey from Alaska to the Smithsonian and back, the spiral set of teeth was identified as the jaw from a Helicoprion, an extinct shark also known as the Buzz saw shark. Fossils from the buzz saw shark are rare, as all of their insides were made of cartilage that wouldn’t survive fossilization. The buzz-saw shark is known for its mysterious coil of teeth that don’t seem to belong on a predator. They are also native to the Atlantic ocean, so how that fossil ended up in a mountain range in the arctic is another layer of mystery to this rare discovery.

• published: 12 Jun 2016
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