If you think winter lasted the longest in Game Of Thrones, we would like to remind you that it stands nowhere when compared to the real world and its chilling ice ages. So far, there are 5 registered ice ages that our planet has undergone over the past 4.6 billion years, ever since it was born. Once frozen, an object can last for thousands of years far from the damage. Ice's tendency to hold on to anything and everything that's inside it safely has always amused the scientists. As humans are able to make their way to each and every corner of this planet, researchers have discovered some of the strangest things to be ever frozen inside the ice. Get ready to be thrilled when you see the mysterious secrets that are trapped inside the ice.
Let's start with a recent picture of Michigan where a lighthouse, on a riverside donned a haunting look due to the chilled weather. Structures start to look entirely different when covered with snow. Even the greatest of man-made structures stand still and helplessly when nature plays its extreme games.
Moving forward to slightly old age, once upon a time in the history of research itself, scientists discovered the brains of a woolly mammoth. Till date, this is the only mammoth to be unearthed with the uninjured brain. It was old enough to be found in the derelict permafrost (permanently frozen soil under the present soil layer) of the Laptev Sea coast. This discovery is more than 39,000 years old and the mammoth was a young child of 6 to 9 years of age. Scientists agreed on the point that its age must have become the reason for its death as it died immediately after falling down.
Anyone and everyone can become a victim or frozen victim we must say of the freezing cold despite the period they've lived in. So this fox is a modern days example of what happens when the temperature falls down and one can't find shelter.
This fox was found in a German lake by a hunter who surprisingly claimed to have discovered a frozen deer and a boar in the past years. Well, we don't know how true that claim is that but we can tell you what this fox has been up to ever since it was discovered. It works as a warning for the people as it has been on display in a German hotel as an arctic appendage.
Alligators are one of the countable numbers of species that co-existed with the dinosaurs. Yes, they were able to survive what those gigantic figures didn't. Obviously, they survived all these periods with some tricks such as this one you can see in the picture. When it comes to frozen alligators, chances of that happening are very less as this species is strong enough and can live beneath the frozen ice!
So, yes, the alligator you see in this picture is alive. It's a trick to survive that this one is up to in North Carolina. This alligators style of going under temporary hibernation.
In 2013, a 60-year-old warning was discovered in the form of this letter by two researchers. In 1959, Paul T. Walker proved his point that the glaciers were melting at a rapid speed and to prove this fact he kept this note in a bottle and buried it under a couple of rocks. The letter asked anyone who find the bottle to measure the distance between the edge of the glacier and the bottle. The researchers followed the letter's instructions and it was more than 200 feet. Hence proved, Mr. Paul was indeed correct.
Scientists unearthed a crashed technology that was declared to be lost by the agencies. In 1952, a military plane took off but never landed to its destined location, ie, Anchorage, Alaska. The plane crashed into a glacier nearby killing all the 41 passengers and 11 crew members. For over 50 years, no one was able to extract any of the remains of the wreckage due to the glacier until recently when the glacier started to melt.
Look at this picture closely. It might take a couple of minutes before you finally understand that a fish was eating another fish when it got frozen. And a moment of taking a full grip on its food was surprisingly discovered by an ice fisherman.
This is a 110 million years old nodosaur, ie, in the middle of the Cretaceous period. This was the era of severe predation and in order to survive a species had to evolve to seek protection. The nodosaur you can see in the picture developed spikes and armor to survive.
Hunger can make every living creature helpless. These birds too took a dive into the chilled waters to catch some meals. The water, on the other hand, is cold enough that the birds freeze right then and there. This is the scene of Weisendorf, northern Bavaria where kingfishers fight and lose against the freezing waters every day.
Scientists unearthed a furry canine while they were on a search for the mammoth tusks. Researchers found 12,460 years old puppy deep inside the Siberian tundra that was frozen during the ice age. Although it wasn't well-preserved if compared with other ice-age discoveries but was in a good enough condition to change the scientists' theories about the canine phylogeny of the ice age.
You must be thinking what is so special about a copper arrowhead found in an ice patch. So, here it is. scientist always had doubts if the humans of that age were aware of metallurgy or not. And this finding cleared all the doubts. They did not just understood metallurgy but also implied it to make hunting efficient. In fact, the style in which this arrowhead was pointed made it look like a fishhook. This meant that the old generations were smart enough and knew their way around with metals.
In Juvfonna, Norway, scientists have found the proofs for the existence of the Vikings. They found 3,400 years old Viking gear trapped inside the glaciers. Most of these are reindeer-manufactured gear, sticks, bows, arrows, and several leather parts of shoes. They made some fascinating discoveries such as reindeer traps made of captive sticks that made noise when shaken. This noise might have helped to round the reindeers into a small group to capture. That's some smart work ahead of their age.
Antartica is far from normal people's reach. The place hides so many mysteries that have no explanation till date. For instance, this Blood Falls glacier is named after the bloodstream that was frozen thousands of years ago. Don't take us seriously as in reality its a gathering of iron-rich water that looks like blood. It's somehow similar to the characteristic of Mars that keeps the planet's color red. There is no factual explanation about what's the source of this iron. It might look spooky to you even though it's just the result of a unique mix of geology, oceanography, and glaciology.
In Chile, scientists discovered evidence of Inca sacrifices, a custom where the Incan people sacrificed unfortunate souls on the highest peaks which are 15,000 feet high at the Andes Mountains. This might come as a shock to you but such ritual isn't uncommon while diving deeper in human history. They believed that these sacrifices bring rains, crops, and protection. Scientists have discovered more than 115 different burial sites.
The question might arise in your mind too that how ice preserves all these millions of years old objects altogether. Well, the freezing cold blocks the bacterias and different decomposers. Especially chilled places like Arctic and Antartica are low on oxygen, this prevents the decomposers from functioning. Even if the decomposers work, it's at a much lower rate than any warmer place. That's how scientists get lucky to discover all these well-preserved objects.
WWI ended decades ago but its scars are still hidden under the ice. The wars that were fought in the Alps, where more soldiers died of frostbite and hypothermia and less died of the war. Once dead, their bodies were preserved for decades by the ice. This isn't all, there are even stranger things when it comes to living beings that scientists have discovered.
Otzi man and the Inca sacrifices are not the only examples where people became victims of deadly rituals. There are many other people who had a similar kind of fate. The scientist found 300 years old body of what is said to be an ancestor to the First Nations people. This man is named as the “Long Ago Man.” He was discovered with a robe formed by the skins of 95 pelts, a walking stick, fur coat. They even found scales of fish inside his pockets, there are no doubts that he was a rich man when he died. Although he met a sad end by falling inside the glaciers.
About 39,000 years ago this gigantic woolly mammoth wandered around Alaska and Siberia. Recently, scientists revived one such species of this historic creature from the Novosibirsk Islands, an archipelago in Northern Russia. This one is said to be the most nicely preserved animal to be found so far. You won't believe the blood and muscles were also intact, which made the scientists think of cloning.
This discovery made clear that humans have lived in places like Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana despite the extreme cold weather. Yellowstone was considered to be a land where no humans lived but the entire assumptions changed when the 10,300-year-old spear was discovered from this area. It was used to kill bison, elks and even wolves.
Unearthed in the Alps between Austria and Italy, the 5,300 years old Otzi Man is one of the most popular discoveries from the ice world. It was revealed later on that he is the genetic ancestor of several Austrian people living in the nearby areas at present. One of the interesting facts was that Otzi suffered from several diseases, such as gum disease, gallstones, worn joints, hardened arteries, Lyme disease, and parasitic worms. The old man was shot by an arrow which was embedded in his shoulder must have become the reason for his death.
Just imagine how a woolly rhino might look like. In one of the coldest region in northern Russia Sakha, Russia, an 18-months-old rhino was recently unearthed in a remarkably well-preserved condition. The fur on his body was still intact. According to scientists, this species lasted till 10,000 years ago.
In Yakutia, Siberia, scientists recently discovered the cubs of Sabretooth lions or Cave lions. They lived on the Arctic around 10,000 years ago. This species became extinct at the end of the ice age due to global warming and human hunting.
Scientists found atlatl (pronounced at-latel). It was the result of one of the very first stages in the field of weaponry. The best feature of this weapon was that it allowed the spear to be more accurate and cover a farther distance.
Scientists break the ice and make some of the weirdest discoveries ever. For instance, a quarter million years old bacteria was discovered. Not all bacterias can survive the cold weather but this one did, thanks to the process known as spores, a type of hibernation.
You must be thinking of what is even the relevance of finding these old bacterias. It showed that the old bacterias didn't have an immune system against the constantly changing environments, unlike today's generation that has evolved to have a strong immune system.
What scientists find constantly is animal excrement. We know you are least interested in knowing this but what if we tell you it stores all sort of necessary information that scientists might need. It can be so precise that it tells the type of life those animals lived long back.
The person who started to study these patches was Tom Andrews. He even raised funds to visit places like Alaska and the Canadian Arctic to take his research further. The arctic ice patches have started to appear on the surface due to the heavy melting of snow. This reveals the ice patches that have remained covered by snow for millions of years now. Many times animals who die under this layer gets solidified.
On the journey to 'un-ice', these historic items, researchers also came across a rare type of woods. The wood was rare because there were no trees anywhere within the coverage of several miles. This means that these pieces of woods were stripped, carved, and brought to the site where the scientist found it.
In 2003, a 650-year-old birch basket was discovered in one of the ice patches. It is a 2.3-inch long rim and sloped edges and 9.8 inches breadth. It is weaved in a creative manner that might describe their community. Scientists say they might've used it for collecting berries.
The fields of glacial and ice patch archaeology are booming because of global warming, decreasing glaciers, permafrost, and ice patches. This field of study has an enormous scope of research and discoveries. Scientists aren't yet done with the mysterious discoveries.
Scientists found a 1,800 years old stick made gopher. A contraption that served the purpose, of capturing gophers. A complicated trap made to tempt them and bring closer to the strongly tied sting.
People of the mountains always had a life entirely different from the valley people. And breaking the ice is one of the most accurate ways to discover more about their lives. For example, the ice patches of North America and Norway have an abundance of hunting tools while in the Alps ice has covered lots of travel materials, South American mountains' surface is intact with objects meant for rituals.
A 340 years old willow bow was carved from the willow tree. It was mainly used to hunt elks and reindeers. This was the first weapon discovered by Tom Andrews. It took a lot of funding for Tom to reach the spot where he discovered the willow bow.
This is a prehistoric variant of a moose. This frozen beast helped scientists a lot. It showed a lot of similarities to what we know as antlers and another similar kind of beasts. It even had the exact same kind of furs like today's antlers and moose.
This giant deep sea squid landed on the surface. Now the question is how did it even reach on this site? Scientists never made any clarifications on what exactly this squid-like creature was doing on the surface but we hope they'll do it in the near future.
Frogs trying to cross the stream that has cold water can get frozen in time. This teeny-tiny frog too died of the same cold. Tiny rivers are the first things to freeze when temperatures go low. We hope no one else ends up as lonely as this little guy.
Leaving animals in the snow can result in a similar kind of scene. These donkeys didn't find any shelter and ended up freezing in the chilling cold. These animals died way before they were spotted and someone was called to help.
The scope of glacial archaeology has increased over the years. The fact that scientists hopefully are looking forward to finding more ice age people and long extinct animals is not hidden anymore. However, the benefit of these scientists clearly means the melting of ice. It's more like hoping for global warming
As the glaciers are melting, these old artifacts are occurring every now and then. And if not noticed by the scientists it starts decaying. Even the weapons such as arrowheads will start to detach from the covering within a year of occurring on the surface.
Most of these discoveries happened because of the change in the climate. As the snow is melting, new discoveries are taking place every day. Yes, it is a good habit to look at the brighter side of things but getting to know these old creatures on the cost of global warming.