Archaeological and historical evidence for significant catastrophes within the Holocene period Abstract #2 BG01-D3-PM2-P-007 Hugh Miller, Joe Taylor, Bill White, Hugh Owen, Robert Bennett, Marie Claire Van Oosterwych-Gastouche, Maciej Giertych, Jean De Pontcharra, and Otis Kline Archaeological evidence of distinct dinosaurian depictions exists world-wide, including a carving of a Stegosaurus-type animal on a Buddhist temple in Cambodia, reliefs of Brontosaurus-type dinosaurs on the brass crypt of a late 15th Century Catholic Bishop in England, and a 3rd Century mural on the floor of a Roman mansion in Israel. Two chateaus built by King Francois I of France in the 1530’s contain many beautiful carvings of distinct dinosaur-like creatures. In the United States, there is a petroglyph of a Brontosaurus-type dinosaur on a wall of Natural Bridge Monument in Utah. Archaeologists in the Acambaro area of Mexico found hundreds of fire-hardened clay figurines of dinosaur-like creatures, and distinct dinosaur depictions carved on burial stones in human graves were found in Ica, Peru. Sufficient 14C for dating has been reported for a marine reptile in Western Europe [Lindgren et al., 2011] and 11 dinosaurs in North America [Miller et al., 2014]. We propose that one or more massive cataclysms destroyed most dinosaurs but a few survived, just as humans have survived catastrophes throughout history.

A Stegosaurus is carved on the Ta Prohm Buddhist temple in Angkor, ► Cambodia. The building was completed in 1186 A.D. and occupied until the fall of the Khmer Empire to the Thai Kingdom in 1431 A.D., when the temple was abandoned.

From Nelson [2012], pg. 62

▲Dinosaur Depictions from the Middle Ages. In 1496, Richard Bell, the Bishop of Carlisle, was buried in Carlisle Cathedral in northern England. The tomb was inlaid with many engraved animals on brass. The engravings have been worn down by people walking on it over centuries, but the image of two sauropod dinosaurs with necks intertwined is still discernable. Note the spiked tail on the left sauropod, similar to a Shunosaurus. This image on the tomb of a high official reflects carefully preserved ancient knowledge.

◄Warm-Blooded Dinosaurs Depicted Centuries Ago. Digitally enhancing the worn engraving (top) is almost unnecessary because of the clear resemblance to a sauropod dinosaur such as the Vulcanodon. Before about 1970, the scientific consensus was that dinosaurs were cold blooded, low-energy creatures that dragged their tails. Since then, evidence that many dinosaurs were warm blooded has led to their being depicted walking with their tails up, balancing the weight of their necks. The intertwined necks match the depiction of sauropod dinosaurs on an ancient Babylonian cylinder seal. Along with the high tail, people apparently observed the intertwining of necks among sauropods▼.

Nelson, V. (2012), Dire Dragons, Untold Secrets of Planet Earth Publishing Company, Inc., Red Deer, Canada.

From Nelson [2012], pg. 63, Nelson, V. (2012), Dire Dragons, Untold Secrets of Planet Earth Publishing Company, Inc., Red Deer, Canada.

Battling a Giant Lizard Just a Few Thousand Years Ago. Sepphoris is in the Galilee region of Israel. A large mosaic covering the floor of the ancient Sepphoris synagogue was uncovered in 1993 by a construction crew breaking ground on a parking lot. Archaeologists were quickly called to the site to begin a major excavation. The mosaic is in seven distinct panels. In this section a man is hoisting a large stone to attack a possibly horned, dinosaur-like animal. ►

◄Ancient Mosaic from Genesis Park website, Dave Woetzel pointing. The circled image is enlarged below for greater detail.▼

▲Warriors Attack River Dinosaur. ► On the wall of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome is a former floor mosaic from the Sanctuary of Fortuna Primagenia at Palestrina, about 22 miles east of Rome. Scholars consider it to be a faithful copy of a lost Hellenistic original mosaic depicting scenes along the Nile River, made sometime between the Roman conquest of Egypt in 30 B. C. and the 3rd Century A. D. The large dinosaur-like creature with warriors nearby is in the circled area on the upper right of the mosaic, and enlarged to the left. Animals are realistically portrayed throughout, such as the crocodile circled in the lower left.

From Genesis Park website, Dave Woetzel pointing. Circled image on right is enlarged for clarity.

Nelson, V. (2012), Dire Dragons, Untold Secrets of Planet Earth Publishing Company, Inc., Red Deer, Canada.

▲Dragons of Legend Strongly Resemble Known Dinosaurs. Two kings of France, Louis XII and Francois I, made additions to the Chateau de Blois in the Loire valley in the early 1500’s. Among the furnishings was a tapestry showing two dinosaur-like animals, an adult and a baby. Called “salamanders,” based on a legendary salamander that could survive fire, they became especially popular decorative elements during the reign of Francis I. A fire-breathing “salamander” under a crown was a favorite image at a hunting lodge built by Francois I, the Chateau de Chambord.

◄Hogwart Dragons. In Europe they were often portrayed as fire-breathing dragons. Note the similarity to the skull of the dinosaur Dracorex Hogwartsia, discovered in the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota in 2004. Its name reflects the obvious similarity to dragons such as those described in the Harry Potter books, and thus the reference to “Hogwarts” in the name.

►American Indians Draw a Dinosaur. The petroglyph of a sauropod-like animal in Natural Bridges National Monument in Utah was made by North American Anasazi Indians that lived in the area between 150 B.C. and 1200 A.D. The brownish film which has hardened over the picture, along with pitting and weathering, attests to its age.

Dinosaurs Modeled in Mexico and South America. A resident of Acambaro, Mexico, Waldemar Julsrud, discovered clay figurines buried at the foot of El Toro Mountain in 1945. Eventually over 33,000 ceramic and stone figurines were found. These include musical instruments and animal depictions. There are clear similarities to Chupicuaro Cultural artifacts (800 B.C. to A. D. 200) found in the area. Among the animals are dinosaur-like creatures which are modeled in very agile, active poses that fit current scientific thinking since about 1970. Many figurines remain buried in the ground at El Toro Mountain, and new pieces are regularly being exposed as a result of erosion, construction work, and farming.

Peruvian Dinosaur Depictions. In the Ocucaje desert near the city of Ica in southern Peru are thousands of pre-Columbian tombs that date from 400 B.C. to 700 A.D.; most are unexcavated. Engraved andesite stones depicting scenes of all kinds have been uncovered there, embedded in the sides of the mortuary chambers, and they became well-known in the western world in the early 1970’s. Undoubtedly, many more remain buried. Controversy ensued over images of living dinosaurs, and dinosaurs interacting with humans, on some of the stones. Collections of Ica

stones are in both government and private museums. The Cabrera Collection holds over 11,000 stones. Some fakes have been made to sell to tourists, and they are easy to identify by the lack of a coat of patination and oxidation in the cut lines and by rotary tool or saw blade marks. They might have an airplane flying overhead or show a Coke machine. On authentic stones, by contrast, there is a patina on both the dark surfaces and the cut lines (which are approximately 1/16th inch deep) indicating age. A black tar on some stones in one of the collections (Cabrera) was radiocarbon dated to 2,000 years before present. Some stones are carved in bas relief, where the image is higher than the background.

Marine Reptile. Mosasaurs were aquatic lizards (now extinct) that grew up to 50 feet long and swam in shallow Cretaceous oceans; they are considered to be 80 to 66 million years old. Evidence of collagen in the bones of a Mosasaur was reported by Lindgren et al. [2011]. They radiocarbon dated a bone sample, which yielded a date of 24,600 14C years before present. (Lindgren, J., P. Uvdal, A. Engdahl, A. H. Lee, C. Alwmark, K-E. Bergquist, E. Nilsson, P. Ekstrom, M. Rasmussen, D. A. Douglas, M. J. Polcyn, and L. L. Jacobs (2011), Microspectroscopic Evidence of Cretaceous Bone Proteins, PLoS ONE 6(4), 8-9, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019445.) Sufficient Carbon-14 exists in all dinosaur bones that we and several other scientific teams have tested for 14C content. Samples from 11 dinosaur bones were dated with Carbon-14 by Miller et al. [2014] and the results are shown. The result for the Mosasaur reported by Lindgren et al. [2011] is

In northern Peru, the Moche culture flourished between A. D. 1 and 800. This Moche pot depicts a dinosaur-like creature.

also shown for comparison. The corresponding dates range from 22,380 ± 800 to 41,010±220 14C years before present. This is well within the detection range of the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer systems employed, which are reliable up to 45,000 or 55,000 14C years before present, depending on the system. The concordance of results from different fractions of the same bone, displayed by the 6 circled points, indicates that almost all contaminants were removed by the pretreatment procedures used by the laboratory technicians. A comparison of δ13C & pMC values for ten Cretaceous-Jurassic dinosaur bones from Texas to Alaska USA, China, and Europe with that of coal and diamonds presented in the 2003 AGU meeting, Miller, H., R. Bennett, J. de Pontcharra, M. Giertych, O. Kline, M. C. van Oosterwych, H. Owen, and J. Taylor (2014), AGU 2014 Fall Meeting Abstracts, Abstract #B31E-0068. The radiocarbon dates of dinosaur bones in the range of 22,000 to 41,000 14C years before present mean that for a period of time mankind co-existed with dinosaurs. The depictions of dinosaurs described here are only some of the many that have survived, and they portray living dinosaurs as people saw them, confirming the implications of the radiocarbon data. The dinosaur bones we tested were uncovered from Cretaceous and Late Jurassic strata, which conventionally date from 66 to 157 million years ago. The evidence presented here indicates that at least the portion of the geological timescale since the Late Jurassic should be compressed considerably. Of the 44 largest meteorite impact craters on land that have been recognized to date, 21 of them are assigned ages less than 157 million years. That includes the Chicxulub crater, which is commonly connected to the demise of the dinosaurs. Indeed, this line of research warrants further investigation not only for understanding the past but for the security of mankind going forward. Based on the physical evidence, at least these 21 impacts should be considered to have occurred in the Holocene. Thus the apparent frequency of large, devastating meteorite impacts on Earth is

many times higher than is currently assessed. We propose that although one or more massive cataclysms destroyed most dinosaurs, some survived into the time of man. In 2005, the U.S. Congress assigned NASA the task of detecting 90% of near-Earth objects (NEOs) larger than 140 meters in diameter by the year 2020, often referred to as the "Spaceguard Goal". These bodies have bombarded Earth throughout its existence, sometimes with devastating consequences. In response, several programs have been undertaken to map the orbits of large NEOs that might pose a danger to Earth: Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research (LINEAR) is an MIT Lincoln Laboratory program funded by the U.S. Air Force and NASA. Its objective is to detect NEOs that threaten the Earth, using a telescope at the U.S. Army's White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico. It specializes in the discovery of NEOs larger than one

Figure 2. Explosion of 65 ft diameter asteroid over Chelyabinsk, Russian on 15 February 2013, taken from a car.

kilometer. The Catalina Sky Surveys (CSS) is currently the most efficient survey program for finding new NEOs. CSS utilizes three telescopes that use cryogenically cooled cameras. There are two in Arizona and one in Australia.

These search programs have discovered hundreds of thousands of main-belt asteroids, and have identified thousands of NEOs. They have made great progress toward meeting the congressional mandate and have catalogued most, thought not all, of the 1-km and larger NEOs - the ones that are most likely to produce a global catastrophe such as a mass extinction should they collide with Earth. The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) will complete the survey of all 1-km diameter objects, and will detect most of the dangerous objects down to 300 meters in diameter -- objects that can cause major regional catastrophes should they hit the Earth.

The B612 Foundation is a non-governmental organization funded by donations from the public. Their original goal was to find a way to stop dangerous asteroids from impacting Earth. They have since expanded their mission to include early detection. In July 2012, on the anniversary of the Tunguska Asteroid impact, the B612 Foundation announced the Sentinel Mission to detect and track the million asteroids with the potential to destroy any major city on Earth. In partnership with Ball Aerospace, which produces infrared deep space telescopes, the B612 Foundation announced its plans to build, launch and operate a deep space telescope with an infrared lens – the first private-sector deep space mission in history.

On their website they answer the question, how much advance notice will we have of an impending impact with Earth? The map that the Sentinel Space Telescope will create will give Earth decades of advance notice of an impending impact. There are several promising technologies, including kinetic impactors, gravity tractors, and nuclear standoff explosions. The urgency in completing the map arises because there could be an impact in the next few decades. Every year delayed in completing the Sentinel Space Telescope increases our chances of having no available options. Why take this risk? By 14C dating dinosaur bones and other fossils, and considering the study of how sediments form*, Government space agencies can prove to themselves and to their governments that the risk from asteroids/comets is 2000 times more prevelant than thought. Thus, the need for such defensive systems is now more urgent than anyone imagined. *www.sedimentology.fr