[Texascavers] Bahamian cave yields paleontological treasures :
Bahamas Sinkhole Yields Fossil Treasure Trove Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News Dec. 3, 2007 -- Divers exploring a water-filled sinkhole in the Bahama Islands recently recovered one of the world's largest and most pristinely preserved collections of animal and plant _fossils_ (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/01/11/fossils_arc.html) from a tropical island. Like a time machine, the fossils reveal in stages what ecosystems were like on the island of Abaco from periods between 12,000 to 1,000 years ago. Their ultra-high quality of preservation puts the fossils in a category all their own, David Steadman, who led the project and is curator of ornithology at the _Florida Museum of Natural History_ (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/) , told Discovery News. The potential for future analysis involves physical as well as chemical analysis, he added before explaining that stable isotopes, or atomic particles, can show what certain species ate, allowing scientists to reconstruct entire ecosystems. The blue hole, called Sawmill Sink, is a water-filled void in limestone bedrock that's open at the surface. The water, depleted of oxygen, necessitated special diving equipment and methods. The divers wore mixed gas rebreathers, closed-circuit devices that don't release exhaled air bubbles. This prevents bubbles from disturbing the site's unique water chemistry, while keeping the bubbles from whipping up clouds of bacterial mats, which could obscure visibility. The fossils included two extinct species of tortoise. One specimen had three sets of healed bite marks from a Cuban crocodile that's now locally extinct in the Bahamas. A particularly large group of fossils came from a part of the site known as the owl roost. Owls cough up bony pellets and are extremely efficient accumulators of small vertebrates, Steadman explained. Although no ancient owl was found at the roost, this part of the site yielded one species of lizard, three types of snakes, 25 species of birds and four bat species. Among the birds, one was a never before described extinct flightless rail. Four other locally extinct birds -- the Cooper's Gundlach 's hawk, the flicker, the cave swallow, and an eastern meadowlark -- were also recovered from the roost. _http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/03/tropical-island-fossils.html_ (http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2007/12/03/tropical-island-fossils.html) **Check out AOL's list of 2007's hottest products. (http://money.aol.com/special/hot-products-2007?NCID=aoltop000301)
Re: [Texascavers] RE: Honey Creek/Airmen's
Mark Minton wrote: Bill Steele once brought a triathlete to Honey Creek on a pretty hard trip. The poor guy had never been caving before, and he never knew what hit him. We would play with him, getting ahead and then waiting. When he showed up huffing and puffing Bill would say, Well, ready to go? He later said he thought he was in shape, but he wasn't so sure after that trip. I don't think he ever went caving again, at least not in Honey Creek, so I guess he thought caving was harder. ;-) (Seriously though, what's harder is a matter of what you're used to. I'd probably die off in a triathlon.) Let me explain. I was in a Rotary Club in San Antonio. The program chairman asked me to give a program on caving. After the program this guy came up, someone I recognized, and introduced himself: The name's Earl Woodell, triathelete. We'll er, commercial real estate broker, but my passion is triathlon. Ive done lots of them. I'm in tiptop shape and I'd like to go caving with you sometime to something you consider very demanding. It just so happened that Mark and I were going to some remote part of Honey Creek soon thereafter. So I outfitted the in the triathelete in the right gear and we took him along. I invited him to go caving some more, but he always had a conflict. Bill - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
Re: [Texascavers] Not caving - but a MUST SEE
How many caves in the world could that bird-guy fly thru? And during the cave flight, wouldn't he be called a bat-guy? I bet there are some window like formations in the Sierra Madres that he could needle thru? Isn't there one near Monclova? La Ventana or something like that? I know there is that big one in China that the jet flew thru. Or he could fly under a natural bridge or arch? They look more like flying squirrels than birds. Unfortunately, The technique will eventually be used for war-fare.Night-flying infrared helmet-cam wearing airborne soldiers will be spying and bombing on us in our sleep. David Locklear - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
RE: [Texascavers] Not caving - but a MUST SEE
David, Most of the places you mention do not allow enough height for the chutes to open and thus avoiding death. Fritz -Original Message- From: David Locklear [mailto:dlocklea...@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2007 8:48 AM To: Texas Cavers Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Not caving - but a MUST SEE How many caves in the world could that bird-guy fly thru? And during the cave flight, wouldn't he be called a bat-guy? I bet there are some window like formations in the Sierra Madres that he could needle thru? Isn't there one near Monclova? La Ventana or something like that? I know there is that big one in China that the jet flew thru. Or he could fly under a natural bridge or arch? They look more like flying squirrels than birds. Unfortunately, The technique will eventually be used for war-fare.Night-flying infrared helmet-cam wearing airborne soldiers will be spying and bombing on us in our sleep. David Locklear - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
Re: [Texascavers] theTerlingua Mine
My agency, the Railroad Commission, has an abandoned mine section that plugs old mine shafts with federal dollars, so you can blame them. But don't get any wrong ideas...we don't regulate railroads. Go figure. The word is that most or all of the known entrances to old mines in the state were sealed, under the auspices of some state or federal program, either permanently (with concrete slabs or walls or dynamite or bulldozers) or with locked gates (to allow access in case of some emergency or scientific study) and sufficient legal penalties should the gates be violated. Too bad. It was kinda neat having 5000 drunks wandering about during the chili cook-offs with 600 foot pits punctuating the countryside. Now, through the efforts of dedicated do-gooders to protect the public from their own ignorance, we no longer have access to a lot of fun things. Who shall protect us from the ignorance of the do-gooders? --Ediger - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com - Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
[Texascavers] Abandoned Mine Lands
Any of you in the Western States (or elsewhere) who are interested in the BLM/Forest Service Abandoned Mine Lands program, see the following site: http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/more/Abandoned_Mine_Lands.html The program only covers the 11 western states.
Re: [Texascavers] 2006 NSS Convention related
Hey, it was only like that for a day! Then the rain returned washed all the nasty snow away. Now it's clear and beautiful again. However, it's not perfect. You may recall how late the daylight lasted in the summer. Well, this is the time of year we pay for that. It gets dark by 4:30 now. Come Solstice, I'll be ready to jump over some bonfires. - Original Message From: David Locklear dlocklea...@gmail.com To: Texas Cavers texascavers@texascavers.com Sent: Wednesday, December 5, 2007 9:21:19 AM Subject: [Texascavers] 2006 NSS Convention related Does anybody remember the beautiful weather in Bellingham during the 2006 NSS Convention? It made me want to move up there. Check out the weather they had on Monday: http://media.bellinghamherald.com/smedia/2007/12/01/22/630-bham-20071202-000-floodwatchfollo-1922-MI0001.embedded.prod_affiliate.39.jpg And it was supposed to be worse yesterday. We don't get nasty weather like that here in Houston. David Locklear - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com Looking for a X-Mas gift? Everybody needs a Flickr Pro Account. http://www.flickr.com/gift/ - Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com
