"Mind-Boggling" Pictures: Goats Scale Dam in Italy

Gravity-Defying Goats

Using moves that would make any rock climber jealous, Alpine ibex cling to a near-vertical rock face of a northern Italian dam in summer 2010.

This and other pictures of the goats have been circulating online recently, particularly in emails claiming the animals are bighorn sheep on Wyoming'sBuffalo Bill Dam, the rumor-quashing website Snopes reported in September.

In truth, Adriano Migliorati snapped the pictures at the 160-foot-tall (49-meter-tall) Cingino Dam (see map of the region), the Italian hiker told National Geographic News via email. The goats are attracted to the dam's salt-crusted stones, according to the U.K.-based Caters news agency. Grazing animals don't get enough of the mineral in their vegetarian diets.

It's not far-fetched, though, to think such a scene could be photographed in theUnited States. For example, mountain goats could scale dams in the U.S. West, according to Jeff Opperman, senior advisor for sustainable hydropower at the U.S.-based nonprofit the Nature Conservancy.

Opperman, who called the Cingino pictures "mind-boggling," pointed out a picture of a Montana mountain goat doing an "incredibly acrobatic stretching maneuver to lick salt" in the November National Geographic magazine 

"He is wedged up this sheer vertical cliff face, almost doing a yoga pose with four hooves splayed out there," he said. "It's the same concept [with the Italian goats]—these animals can overcome what looks like impossible topography to get what they want."

Opperman cautioned, though, that the Italian dam is rare, in that its rough masonry provides gaps that act as toeholds. The more common, smooth-concrete dams—such as Buffalo Bill Dam— would give goats anywhere in the world trouble, he said.

Goat-Dotted Dam

Cingino Dam isn't completely vertical, allowing ibex—such as these goats pictured in summer 2010—to gain some purchase.

Adapted to their perilous environment, Alpine ibex have evolved a specialized split hoof, whose cleft is wider than on any other split-hooved species, according to Smithsonian Magazine. The hoof also has a hard wall that can grab on to steep cliffs and a soft, rubbery inside that serves as a "stopper" when the animal is pushed forward by gravity, the magazine reported.

And because dams are usually built in steep canyons, Cingino's steep rock face is likely nothing novel for the mountain-dwelling ibex, according to Opperman

Sometimes reaching heights of 16,000 feet (5,000 meters), the herbivores spend their lives scrambling the European Alps' rocky and steep terrain, according to Caters news agency.

A Dam Worth Its Salt

By scaling Cingino Dam, salt-craving ibex, such as this animal pictured in summer 2010, are "showing ingenuity, taking advantage of this human-created thing in their environment," the Nature Conservancy's Opperman said.

Some other enterprising species can also work around dams in their habitats. For instance, eels can literally wriggle up some dams obstructing their paths, Opperman noted. But all too often dams act as barriers for wildlife, for example by blocking migrating salmon and other fish.

"When we think about dams, it's often [about] these weighty issues," such as balancing energy needs with wildlife protection, Opperman added. The goat pictures are "a whimsical, comic relief to that."

Huge New Dinosaur Trackway Found in U.S.

Dinosaurs "stomping in the mud" left prints pointing to pigeon-toed hunter.

The newfound tracks suggest A. atokensis' feet weren't webbed after all.

Fossilized tracks of dinosaurs "stomping in the mud" have been discovered in southwestern Arkansas, scientists say.

Spanning the length of two football fields, the footprints hint that a giant predator was a bit pigeon-toed.

Several species, including the eight-ton Acrocanthosaurus atokensis—one of the largest predators ever to walk Earth—and sauropods, or long-necked plant-eaters, left their footprints in the 120-million-year-old Cretaceous limestone.

At the time, Arkansas was a broad mud flat, similar to the hot, dry, and salty shores of the modern-day Persian Gulf—not a particularly "pleasant place," said team leader Stephen Boss, a geoscientist at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

Predators like Acrocanthosaurus were likely attracted to the site by sauropods and other prey species, but "what the sauropods are doing out there, who knows?" Boss said.

Though found elsewhere in North America, dinosaur trackways are rare in the southern U.S., he said. Indeed, most people tend to think of dinosaurs dwelling in the "classic" western lands of Colorado and Utah.

"They don't think this is a place that dinosaurs once roamed, but it is—and here's the proof."

Dinosaur Tracks Reveal Pigeon-Toed Predator?

A private citizen recently found the tracks, which were possibly exposed after a rainstorm scoured away a thin layer of shale. The shape of the footprints and the age of the limestone leaves "no doubt" that they were left by dinosaurs, said Boss, whose new research has not yet been published.

"The photographs seem to make it clear that they are indeed theropod dinosaur tracks," vertebrate paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz, Jr. said via email. Theropods, which included T. rex, were two-legged predators.

"Acrocanthosaurus tracks are already well known from Texas, and we have fossils of Acrocanthosaurus and closely related forms from Texas, Oklahoma, and Maryland, so almost certainly it lived in Arkansas, too," added Holtz, of the University of Maryland.

The tracks were likely left by multiple dinosaurs and must have been filled in fairly quickly—if they'd been exposed for long, the prints would have eroded beyond recognition, team member Boss said.

Set Lasers to "Discover"

Boss and colleagues scanned the trackway with a laser at a high resolution. The scan digitally preserved the tracks so that the scientists could analyze them and "walk across that surface in cyberspace," he said.

For example, looking more closely at Acrocanthosaurus's 2-foot-long (0.6-meter-long) footprint will help answer key questions such as "What did this thing look like when it had meat on it?" Boss said.

Already, the scans have revealed that the three-toed Acrocanthosaurus didn't have webbed feet—a discovery that wouldn't have been possible with just bones for evidence.

Researching the tracks digitally may also show scientists precisely how the dinosaur walked. "One of the things that surprised me [from early analyses]," Boss said, "is the feet turned inward—sort of pigeon-toed."

120 Roman Shoes Found in U.K.; "Substantial" Fort Find

Leather footwear found among jewelery, coins at supermarket construction site.

About 60 pairs of sandals and shoes that once belonged to Roman soldiers have been unearthed at a supermarket construction site in Camelon, Scotland, archaeologists say.

The 2,000-year-old leather footwear was discovered along with Roman jewelry, coins, pottery, and animal bones at the site, which is located at the northern frontier of the Roman Empire.

The cache of Roman shoes and sandals—one of the largest ever found in Scotland—was uncovered recently in a ditch at the gateway to a second century A.D. fort built along the Antonine Wall. The wall is a massive defensive barrier that the Romans built across central Scotland during their brief occupation of the region.

The find likely represents the accumulated throwaways of Roman centurions and soldiers garrisoned at the fort, said dig coordinator Martin Cook, an archaeologist with AOC Archaeology Group, an independent contractor in Britain.

"I think they dumped the shoes over the side of the road leading into the fort," he said.

"Subsequently the ditch silted up with organic material, which preserved the shoes."

Despite being discards, the hobnailed shoes are in relatively good condition, Cook added.

Newfound Fort One of Decade's Biggest Finds

While the new supermarket site also includes the remains of a first century Roman fort and ancient field systems, excavations have centered on the area of the younger Antonine fort.

"We've got evidence of a really substantial structure," Cook said. "You would have had a square fort with stone walls and three or four ditches around them." 

Other finds include a Roman axe and spearhead, three or four brooches, French Samian ware—which is a high-prestige ceramic—glass, and standard pots, he said.

"I would say it is one of the most important forts in Scotland," Cook added. "This will be one of the most important Scottish excavations in the last decade."

The Romans are believed to have abandoned the Antonine Wall and retreated south toward England in about A.D. 165.

The Camelon dig team is on the lookout for evidence that could challenge this by suggesting the Romans stayed longer in the region.

To date, however, the excavation seems to confirm that the Romans legged it—minus their footwear, of course.

Pictures: 3,000 Ancient Buddhas Unearthed in China

Knowing Smile

The head of a Buddha statue peeks above the dirt in Handan (map), China, where archaeologists have reportedly unearthed nearly 3,000 Buddha statues, which could be up to 1,500 years old.

The discovery is believed to be the largest of its kind since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, an archaeologist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences told reporters in late March, according to the Associated Press.

The Buddha statues—most of which are made of white marble and limestone and many of which are broken—could date back to the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties (A.D. 534 to 577), experts say.

The statues—discovered during a dig outside of Ye, the ancient capital of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi dynasties—may have been rounded up and buried after the fall of the Northern Qi dynasty by later emperors in an attempt to purge the country of Buddhism.

"It may have been that some of the ruins and broken sculptures from the past were gathered from old temple sites and buried in a pit," said Katherine Tsiang, director of the Center for the Art of East Asia at the University of Chicago.

In some cases, the Buddhist statues may have been buried by the faithful themselves in times of danger.

"In other sites, there are inscriptions that suggest that old damaged sculptures were not just dumped in a pit, but respectfully buried in an orderly way," Tsiang said.

Deep in the Past

On March 20 Chinese archaeologists stand at the edge of a pit where thousands of ancient Buddha statues were unearthed in January. The statues range from about 8 inches (20 centimeters) long to life-size.

While rare, such finds are not unheard of, Tsiang said. In the 1950s, for example, archaeologists found more than 2,000 fragments from broken marble Buddha statues at the site of a temple in Dingxian in China's Hebei Province.

"Many sculptures from these sites are similar in style to those found recently at Ye," Tsiang said. But this "may be the largest find. I don't know of larger examples."

The fifth and sixth centuries were important periods for the spread and development of Buddhism in China, she added.

"We know that Buddhism"—which began in India around 500 B.C.—"was introduced to China during the Han dynasty" several hundred years before the newfound artifacts are believed to have been created, Tsiang said.

"At first, it may have only been practiced by foreigners. ... Gradually it became much more popular after the Han dynasty fell. And by the fifth and sixth centuries, there was quite a lot of trade across the Silk Road into China from Central Asia.

"So [Buddhist] monks from India were coming in, and Chinese monks were traveling and learning. There were also translation projects, so the texts of Buddhism were being translated into Chinese."

Colorfast

A Chinese archaeologist gingerly holds an ancient headless Buddha statue, one of thousands recently uncovered in a pit in northern China.

Such "freestanding" Buddha statues—typically shown wearing monk-style robes like the one shown here—were widely made in northern China from the middle of the fifth century A.D. onward. Before this time, the Buddha was usually shown standing in a group, with pairs of attendants.

The life-size or nearly life-size nature of the freestanding Buddha and the lack of a standard body type or facial expression for the statues have led some scholars to speculate that the sculptures were results of a new understanding of the Buddha in human terms, rather than as a supernatural divinity or immortal.

Blooming Halo

 

A stone Buddha missing its body is one of nearly 3,000 ancient statues depicting the enlightened prince that were unearthed in northern China earlier this year.

The Buddha's head is surrounded by a halo with a large central lotus-leaf blossom—an important symbol in Buddhism of purity and rebirth.

"The Buddha had a bump on top of his head that represents his extra wisdom," Tsiang said. "In this case that extra protuberance is not very high. It's just shown as a slightly raised part of the skull."

In fifth-century China, Buddhists would often pay to have craftsmen carve a statue of the Buddha, which they would then donate to temples.

"It was a way of doing good deeds, generating merit," Tsiang said. "People who gave gifts to temples were considered deeply deserving of rewards, which could include good health or protection by the Buddha."

Often the statues would include inscriptions wishing a deceased loved one a good rebirth or the attainment of enlightenment

Bodhisattva

Some of the statues gifted to Buddhist temples by ancient Chinese donors—such as this newfound sculpture of a bodhisattva, or enlightened Buddhist being—were elaborately decorated at great expense.

"People wanted to show their generosity with the use of expensive materials like marble and bronze and expensive pigments and gold," Tsiang said.

Deep Thoughts

Statues like this one—of young figure in a cross-legged pose common in Buddhist art—were common in fifth-century China. Such sculptures refer to a formative period in the Buddha's youth, when he had first contemplated the suffering of life and resolved to detach himself from this world while seated in the shade of a bodhi tree.

"This is an image derived from India that appeared in scenes of the life of the Buddha, and it shows the Buddha as a prince before he went in search of enlightenment," Tsiang explained.

The popularity of this "contemplative" pose amongst Buddha statues in fifth-century China may be related to the growing belief at the time that living Buddhist practitioners could also achieve enlightenment, Tsiang said.

"People learned that Buddha himself was a human," she added, "and that it was possible for them to become enlightened through study, cultivation of spirit, and meditation."