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ScienceArchaeologists discover evidence of a vanished civilisation from 1300s  Lucy Pasha-Robinson,The Independent 5 hours ago  Reactions   Like   Reblog on Tumblr   Share   Tweet   Email Archaeologists may have discovered evidence of an ancient civilisation that disappeared from a corner of the southwestern US over seven centuries ago.The exodus of the Ancestral Puebloans has baffled scientists for years after they vanished without a trace from Colorado's Mesa Verde National Park in the 13th Century.One theory was the group - also known as the Anasazi - had simply migrated several hundred kilometres east.Now scientists may have found the evidence to...

Washington State University scientists... say the region saw three other cultural transitions over the preceding five centuries. The researchers also document recurring narratives in which the Pueblo people agreed on canons of ritual, behavior and belief that quickly dissolved as climate change hurt crops and precipitated social turmoil and violence... Bocinsky, WSU Regents Professor Tim Kohler and colleagues analyzed data from just over 1,000 southwest archaeological sites and nearly 30,000 tree-ring dates that served as indicators of rainfall, heat and time. Their data-intensive approach, facilitated by climate reconstructions run at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of...

"Some of these birds did not live a happy life. They were kept to produce feathers and their feathers were plucked out as soon as they grew in."...In total, at least six species of parrots originally recovered from five of the desert's archaeological sites were studied in the research, with the remains variously dating from between 1100 to 1450..."The feathers of tropical birds were one of the most significant symbols of economic, social, and sacred status in the pre-Columbian Americas," the authors write in their study."In the Andes, finely produced clothing and textiles containing multicolored feathers of tropical parrots materialized...

Historically, scarlet macaws lived from South America to eastern coastal Mexico and Guatemala, thousands of miles from the American Southwest. Previously, researchers thought that ancestral Puebloan people might have traveled to these natural breeding areas and brought birds back, but the logistics of transporting adolescent birds are difficult. None of the sites where these early macaw remains were found contained evidence of breeding—eggshells, pens or perches. "We were interested in the prehistoric scarlet macaw population history and the impacts of human direct management," said George. "Especially any evidence for directed breeding or changes in the genetic diversity that could co-occur...

New work on the skeletal remains of scarlet macaws found in an ancient Pueblo settlement indicates that social and political hierarchies may have emerged in the American Southwest earlier than previously thought. Researchers determined that the macaws, whose brilliant red and blue feathers are highly prized in Pueblo culture, were persistently traded hundreds of miles north from Mesoamerica starting in the early 10th century, at least 150 years before the origin of hierarchy is usually attributed. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the acquisition and control of macaws, along with other valued...

In two separate incidents at Otay Mesa and San Ysidro, agents discovered a total of 28 parrots and three chickens during suspected smuggling attempts. The first incident unfolded on April 30 at the Otay Mesa port of entry. After the 51-year-old driver exited his vehicle, officers noticed peculiar bulges around his ankles. A safety pat-down revealed a shocking discovery: six live, undeclared parrots crammed inside the man’s boots, according to a CBP release. A further search of the vehicle uncovered six additional parrots, sadly, two of which had died. Just days later, on May 4, at the San Ysidro port...

At Brooklyn's Green-Wood Cemetery the living get as much attention as the dead. Groundskeepers maintain the 478-acre historic landmark as an arboretum and habitat for more than 200 breeding and migratory bird species. But many visiting wildlife lovers aren't interested in those native birds. They're at the entryway, their binoculars trained on the spire atop its Gothic Revival arches. They've come to see the parrots. The urban cemetery hosts dozens of long-tailed, dove-size parrots, lime green with gray accents on their foreheads and chests, called Monk Parakeets. (Parrots and parakeets are part of the same family.) These birds maintain barrel-size...

The 24 bright green baby parrots began chirping and bobbing their heads the second anyone neared the large cages that have been their homes since hatching in March. The Central American natives, seized from a smuggler at Miami International Airport, are being raised by the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation — a round-the-clock effort that includes five hand feedings a day in a room filled with large cages. At just 9 weeks old, these parrots have already survived a harrowing journey after being snatched from their nests in a forest. They are almost fully feathered now and the staff has started...

Wild parrots tend to fly in flocks, but when kept as single pets, they may become lonely and boredWhen humans are feeling lonely, we can call or video chat with friends and family who live far away. But, scientists asked, what about pet parrots? New research suggests that these chatty creatures may also benefit from virtually connecting with their peers. Domesticated parrots that learned to initiate video chats with other pet parrots had a variety of positive experiences, such as learning new skills, researchers from Northeastern University, the University of Glasgow and MIT report this month in Proceedings of the...

Hundreds of monk parakeets, escapees from the pet trade, have settled beneath the city’s elevated highway. The non-native birds have become an unlikely fixture in the urban landscape of the Windy City, where large numbers of the striking green-and-gray parakeets live year-round. Chicago is on a main flyway for migratory birds, but monk parakeets have put down deep roots here. The South American members of the parrot family were brought north in the 1950s and 1960s and sold as pets, But they have long had fans in high places here. Former Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, who lived across the street...

A giant cannibalistic parrot that stood more than three feet tall and lived in New Zealand 19 million years ago has been dubbed 'squawkzilla'. Scientists reckon the animal, which is officially known as Heracles inexpectatus, feasted on other parrots to nourish its massive frame. The tree-dwelling creature is believed to have used its enormous beak to feed on the flesh of its own species. It is thought to be the largest parrot ever and rivals the famed dodo in its bulk, and towers above the current flightless inhabitants of New Zealand, the kakapo.

Nye's tweet apparently suggests that climate change is to blame for the supposed lack of snow on the slopes around Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Michelle Malkin and JunkScience.com have already debunked much of this tweet, the latter by showing that Nye's picture was not of Jackson Hole, but instead of Jackson – and the former by illustrating that there was anything but an absence of snow in Jackson Hole.

Katie Couric and Stephanie Soechtig, who tackled childhood obesity in this year's documentary Fed Up, are setting their sights on an even bigger hot-button issue: gun violence. "Much like Fed Up traced the history of the obesity epidemic, this film will trace the history of guns and their impact on society," says Couric, currently Yahoo's global news anchor. "We hope we can deconstruct this complex issue and give people a better understanding of existing and proposed gun laws and take a closer look at one of the most polarizing issues of our time."

Things to look for would be unemployment, rumors from people within the banking and financial world (some of those rumors saved people millions when our economy collapsed) crime and what type of crime is taking place, corruption, debt and inflation. You must also become pretty skeptical regarding the information the main stream media provides. Who OWNS such media channels? Who are their sponsors and advertisers? What political agenda do they have or slightly tend to favor? If the media says the economy is doing wonderful but people on the street are barely getting by and you see more industries moving...

A passenger was arrested after security officials discovered he had carried snakes, birds and a squirrel in hand luggage on a long-haul flight. In a thankfully less-dramatic version of the 2006 thriller film Snakes On A Plane, fellow passengers were blissfully unaware of the man's box full of pets.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – A 49-year-old Jackson man has been arrested in Ann Arbor following a fight with the pet parrot carried in his backpack. Police told Annarbor.com for a story Wednesday that witnesses reported the colorful bird was shaken so violently that its feathers were scattered. Three 911 calls were made following the Tuesday night incident. Lt. Renee Bush said the parrot was "squawking loudly" when officers arrived.

These seemingly inebriated birds are presenting a mystery for veterinarians struggling to explain their behavior.Hundreds of seemingly drunk parrots are falling out of trees and the sky in a northern Australian town, mystifying veterinary surgeons who are struggling to care for them. The brightly colored lorikeets are showing classic signs of drunkenness by losing all coordination and passing out, and then cowering in cages as they recover from their "hangovers". "They definitely seem like they're drunk," said Lisa Hansen, a veterinary surgeon at the Ark Animal Hospital in Palmerston, near Darwin. "They fall out of trees... and they're not so...

There was brief discussion this afternoon on Rush Limbaugh's show about an article in Newsweek regarding babies and racism. I'm not sure what the point of the story is although the slant from left-leaning Newsweek is likely to be similar to the University of Maryland position that all whites are born racist and must be taught how to reject this and adapt a multicultural worldview. I see this issue differently. I agree that children (of all races) are probably born bigots but not for whatever reasons the liberals would like you to think. As someone who owns birds, I have...

A five-year-old parrot in South Korea has proved smarter than human investors in a stock investment contest. Ddalgi (Korean for strawberry), from Papua New Guinea, finished third in the six-week contest which ended on Wednesday, said Paxnet, an online stock market information provider. The bird competed with 10 stock investors. Each started with 60 million won (£29,000) in cyber money and traded 10 million won worth of stocks in each transaction. Human investors picked any stocks they wanted. The parrot, using its beak, made random choices from balls representing 30 blue chips including Samsung Electronics. "The outcome of our contest...

One of the world's rarest birds, New Zealand's kakapo, is now not quite so rare thanks to the arrival of 34 kakapo chicks. In 1995, kakapo numbers had dwindled to just 51. Kakapo chick If we hadn't taken the chicks off the island to hand raise them, a lot of them would have died Nyia Strachan New Zealand Department of Conservation "It's critically endangered but it's in a healthier position than it was a decade ago," says Nyia Strachan, a communications officer at New Zealand's Department of Conservation. The prolific - by kakapo standards - breeding season was a combination...