stumbling along

Hillary Mayell
for National Geographic News wrote;
A Tyrannosaurus rex fossil has yielded what appear to be the only preserved soft tissues ever recovered from a dinosaur. Taken from a 70-million-year-old thighbone, the structures look like the blood vessels, cells, and proteins involved in bone formation.

Most fossils preserve an organism’s hard tissues, such as shell or bone. Finding preserved soft tissue is unheard of in a dinosaur-age specimen.

“To my knowledge, preservation to this extent—where you still have original flexibility and transparency—has not been noted in dinosaurs before, so we’re pretty excited by the find,”

said Mary H. Schweitzer, a paleontologist at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.

The findings may provide new insights into dinosaur evolution, physiology, and biochemistry. They could also increase our understanding of extinct life and change how scientists think about the fossilization process.

“Finding these tissues in dinosaurs changes the way we think about fossilization, because our theories of how fossils are preserved don’t allow for this [soft-tissue preservation],”

Schweitzer said.

For three years scientists from the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, excavated the T. rex from sandstone at the base of the nearby Hell Creek formation. The dinosaur was relatively small and around 18 years old when it died.

“The dinosaur was under an incredible amount of rock,”

said Jack Horner, a curator of paleontology at the museum.

“When it was collected, the specimen was very far away from a road, and everything had to be done by helicopter.”

The team made a plaster jacket to get part of the fossil out, and it was too big for the helicopter to lift. And so we had to take the fossil apart.

“In so doing, we had to break a thighbone in two pieces. When we did that, it allowed [Schweitzer] to get samples out of the middle of the specimen. You don’t see that in most excavations, because every effort is made to keep the fossil intact,”

said Horner, a co-author of the study. A certain amount of serendipity lead to the discovery.
Because the leg bone was deliberately broken in the field, no preservatives were added. As a result, the soft tissues were not contaminated.

AMAZING

THE MAYA MATHEMATICAL SYSTEM

The decimal mathematical system widely used today originated by counting with the fingers a person has. Counting with the fingers and toes started the Maya vigesimal system. So it is based on groups of twenty units.

Just as the decimal system goes by 1, 10, 100, 1000, 10000, etc., the Maya vigesimal system goes 1, 20, 400, 8000, 160000, etc. While in the decimal system there are ten possible digits for each placeholder [0 - 9], in the Maya vigesimal system each placeholder has a possible twenty digits [0 - 19].

For example, in the decimal system 31 = 10 * 3 + 1 while in the vigesimal system 31 = 20 + 11. The Maya discovered and used the zero. Their zero is represented by an ovular shell.

Characteristics of The Maya Mathematical System:

a) It is vigesimal, this means that it is based on 20 units [0 - 19] instead of the 10 units [0 - 9] of the decimal system. This table shows the first 20 numbers and their Arabic equivalents. Learn the Maya mathematical system. The Mayan names for numbers are here.

b) It only uses three symbols, alone or combined, to write any number. These are: the dot - worth 1 unit, the bar - worth 5 units and the zero symbolized by a shell.

c) It also uses a vigesimal positioning system, in which numbers in higher places grow multiplied by 20´s instead of the 10´s of the decimal system, compare number 168,421 in both systems:

Place Number
168,421 Place’s
Decimal value Equals is
written Place’s
Vigesimal value Equals is
written
6th 1 X 100,000= 100,000 3′200,000
5th 6 X 10,000 = 60,000 160,000
4th 8 X 1,000 = 8,000 8,000
3rd 4 X 100 = 400 400
2nd 2 X 10 = 20 20
1st 1 X 1 = 1 1
TOTAL Arabic 168,421 Maya 168,421

d) Numbers in the Maya system can be written vertically or horizontally. In vertical writing, the bars are placed horizontally and the dots go on top of them, in this case the vigesimal positions grow up from the base. When written horizontally, the bars are placed vertically and the dots go to their left and higher vigesimal positions grow to the left of the first entry.

Thus when writing vertically the vigesimal positioning system, to write 20 a zero is placed in the first position (base) with a dot on top of it, in the second position. The dot in this place means one unit of the second order which equals to 20.

To write 21, the zero would change to a dot (1 unit) and for the subsequent numbers the original 19 number count will follow in the first position. As they in turn reach 19 again another unit (dot) is added to the second position. Any number higher than 19 units in the second position is written using units of the third position.

A unit of the third position is worth 400 (20 x 20), so to write 401 a dot goes in the first position, a zero in the second and a dot in the third. Positions higher than the third also grow multiplied by twenties from the previous ones. Examples of the numbers mentioned above follow:

(Note : the Maya made one exception to this order, only in their calendric calculations they gave the third position a value of 360 instead of 400, the higher positions though, are also multiplied by 20.)

Mayan Names For Numbers
0 xix im 10 lahun
1 hun 11 buluc 20 hun kal 400 hun bak
2 caa 12 lahca 40 ca kal 800 ca bak
3 ox 13 oxlahun 60 ox kal 1200 ox bak
4 can 14 canlahun 80 can kal 1600 can bak
5 hoo 15 hoolahun 100 hoo kal 2000 hoo bak
6 uac 16 uaclahun 120 uac kal 8,000 pic
7 uuc 17 uuclahun 140 uuc kal 160,000 calab
8 uaxac 18 uaxaclahun 200 ka hoo kal 3′200,000 kinchil
9 bolon 19 bolonlahun 300 ox hoo kal 64,000,000 alau

A Big Thanks Goes to mayacalendar.com/ for originally composing this post. I am just a messenger that has to share this important message.

Maya lived in the area in Central America which now consists of Yucatan, Guatemala, Belize and southern Mexico (the Chiapas and Tabasco provinces). This whole area lies south of the tropic of Cancer, and north of the equator, and is about 900 kilometers from north to south and 550 kilometers in the east-west direction. Theirs was a true Stone Age Culture, although the Maya at the time of Spanish contact in the sixteenth century, did know about working with copper and gold. While the Spanish prized gold highly, the Maya venerated jade.

The landscape is very diverse. The Yucatan peninsula is a very flat, relatively young limestone area. The earth’s crust pushes it southward into the Guatemalan highlands; as a result high ridges have formed which are covered in rain forest. To the south of the Central American highlands is a belt of active volcanoes, followed by a narrow strip of Pacific lowlands.

The climate is as varied as the landscape is. In general it is hot and humid, as the area lies in the tropics, and the coast is always near. The rainfall is strongly influenced by the presence of the mountain ranges near the coast, and this creates large differences in rainfall in different parts of the land.

The rainy season lasts from May to December; in the entire Maya area the relative humidity stays above 80% in this season, in the dry season it drops to about 60%. This seasonality governs the agricultural cycle, and it makes it important for the farmers to time their activities accurately.

The altitude is the main influence on the temperature; the annual temperature in the lowlands is between 25 and 30 degrees Celsius, in the highland plateaus between 15 and 25 degrees, and in the mountains below 15 degrees.

These external factors lead to a rough division of the Maya land into three areas: The lowland (the arid Yucatan peninsula), the central rain-forest zone, and the southern highlands and Pacific slope.
Thanks you Famsi

Maya Writing
The Maya developed a highly complex system of writing, using pictographs and phonetic or syllabic elements. A complete discussion of their writing system is beyond the scope of this paper. Their writing was highly sophisticated, probably only members of the higher classes were able to read their symbols. The Maya carved these symbols into stone, but the most common place for writing was probably the highly perishable books they made from bark paper, coated with lime to make a fresh white surface. These “books” were screen-folded and bound with wood and deer hide. They are called codices, codex is singular. Because of their perishable nature and zealous Spanish book burning, only four codices remain today.

The contents of the codices must have varied, but some of them were evidently similar to astronomic almanacs. We have examples of a Venus table, eclipse tables in a codex in Dresden. There is a codex in Paris that seems to contain some kind of Maya Zodiac, but if it is and how it must have worked are still unknown. Another major example of Maya almanacs are present in the Madrid Codex. The fourth codex is called the Grolier and was authenticated as late as 1983. These codices probably contained much of the information used by priests or the noble class to determine dates of importance or seasonal interest. We can only speculate as to whether or not the Maya developed poetry or drama that was committed to paper.
The codices probably kept track of dynastic information as well.

The Maya developed a sophisticated calendar. The ritual calendar that developed in Mesoamerica used a count of 260 days. This calendar gave each day a name, much like our days of the week. There were 20 day names, each represented by a unique symbol. The days were numbered from 1 to 13. Since there are 20 day names, after the count of thirteen was reached, the next day was numbered 1 again. The 260-day or sacred count calendar was in use throughout Mesoamerica for centuries, probably before the beginning of writing.

The Maya also tracked a vague solar year in which they counted 365 days per year. Because they could not use fractions, the “quarter” day left over every year caused their calendar to drift with regard to the actual solar year. The 365-day year contained months were also given names. numbers 0-19 before they changed, so that the count goes Zero Pohp to 19 Pohp, then continues with Zero Wo.

To the eighteen regular months the Maya appended a special five-day month called Wayeb composed of 5 days which were considered unnamed and unlucky. Thus the days were counted: One Imix, Zero Pohp, Two Ik, One Pohp. When the thirteenth day was reached the next day was Thirteen Ben, Twelve Pohp; then One Ix, Thirteen Pohp, Two Men, Fourteen Pohp. After Seven Ahaw, Nineteen Pohp, the next day was Eight Imix, Zero Wo
In addition, the Maya used special glyphs to indicate time periods, the kin represented one day. Winals are periods of 20-days which we now call a month. The Tun was a year of 360 days and the K’atun was a time period of 20 years of 360 days each. As we will see later, the K’atun ending was a special time period celebrated by the Maya. It has its parallel in the modern world, the period of time which we call a decade. The Maya also counted 400-year periods called Baktuns. The Maya used these time periods in a special day count which is now called the Long count. Today a typical long count date is written thus: 9.14.12.2.17. This represents 9 baktuns, 14 k’atuns, 12 tuns, 2 winals and 17 k’ins. [Special note: All names given here are in the new orthography developed by native Maya of Guatemala. Their system is being accepted by many various organizations of Maya and similar forms of this orthography are being adopted by other Maya groups. In reality, this system probably makes it easier for English speakers to pronounce the actual words. Given the Maya propensity for words and language it is only a natural development.]
Today’s date is: 10 Cauac 7 Uo (12.19.14.4.19)
Thank to michielb.nl