The Zone of Silence

Everyone enjoys a good mystery and the natural world, despite the best efforts of scientists, still manages to provide a startling number of them. The Bermuda Triangle; the Dragon Triangle; the Brown Mountain lights; the list goes on. Here, in Mexico, there is another, deep within the scorching Chihuahua Desert. The academics call it Mar de Tetys (Sea of Thetys), but the rest of the world know it by another moniker: the Zone of Silence.



Thetys is a Greek goddess, who was seen as the embodiment of water. She was the sister and wife of Oceanus and the mother of the world's rivers. She may seem a bizarre choice to lend her name to a place of punishing heat and arid dryness, such as this part of the Chihuahua desert. However, in antiquity, there was a sea here. It covered most of modern day Mexico and the USA; and its legacy is the millions of fossilized marine creatures, which litter the desert today.



To say that the area has some unusual phenomena is to understate the situation. There are more UFO sightings, strange lights, alien encounters, ghostly figures and spontaneously burning bushes in this isolated part of the desert, than there are in the entire rest of the country. There is also some unusual flora and fauna, including a purple cactus and a sub-species of desert turtle, which aren't found anywhere else on the planet.

Back in the 19th century, local farmers were telling visitors about the 'hot pebbles' that habitually fell upon the wilderness. Modern scientists are still seeing them, but they are calling them tiny meteorites or guijolas.

Studies of the soil have shown high levels of magnetite. As the name suggests, this is the most magnetic of all of the Earth's minerals. This might give you a clue as to what happens to iron in the area.



Amongst the stories is that of a ranch, close to the Zone of Silence, which is regularly visited by two blond man and a blonde woman. To all intents and purposes, they are human and they speak perfect Spanish. What makes them so strange is that they only ever ask for water and, when asked where they come from, they simply answer, 'from above'. They are also wearing raincoats, which isn't common attire in a blazing hot desert.

The family on the ranch aren't alone in meeting them. A scientific researcher became separated from his party and was lost in the Zone. He was just starting to panic, when he spotted three blond haired people, wearing 'raincoats and ball caps'. They directed him back to civilization.



This is similiar to the experience of Josefina and Ernesto Diaz, a couple of fossil hunters, who got stuck after a rainstorm induced flash flood. This was on October 13, 1975, when their truck ended up in a hole, from which they could not simply drive out. As they surveyed the problem, they were approached by tall, blond men, in yellow raincoats, who suggested that the couple get back into their vehicle.

They did so and felt the truck being lifted and pushed back onto solid ground. Thankful and thrilled, the couple left their truck to shake the hands of the men. But they were now alone. The desert stretched for miles in each direction without a sign of their assistants. There were no footprints in the sodden sand.



A TV reporter also spotted them. Luis Ramirez Reyes was travelling with a photographer, in November 1978, with a view to investigating the area for a possible feature in a programme. As the two drove along, he saw three blond men, with raincoats, at the side of the road, watching them. The photographer was driving and, to the reporter's surprise, didn't stop the car.

As Reyes pressed him for a reason why, the photographer replied with incredulity that he hadn't seen then. This alone was enough to spook Reyes, but as they continued driving into a totally different part of the desert, he saw the same three men again, standing watching. As before, the photographer couldn't see them.

Travellers through the area often encounter the ghostly figure of a blond man, who just drifts across the road or is glimpsed walking across the landscape.



However, none of this is explaining why it's called the Zone of Silence. This is because no communication devise works there. Radio waves are randomly deadened. Cellphones have no signal; walkie-talkies just transmit white noise; televisions and transistors receive nothing but static; even compasses can't find north, but spin around on the spot.

This would be a harmless curiosity, but for the fact that it also destroys the equipment of anything flying above it. In fact, publicity for this place first leaked out after a pilot, Francisco Sarabia, crash-landed in the zone during the 1930s. He claimed that his 'plane's radio had stopped working, as he flew across.



Even more dramatic was what happened in 1970, when a US Athena missile left Utah bound on a test flight to New Mexico. However, the missile overshot its landing spot. NASA observers reported that it was as if the missile was suddenly pulled off course. It continued into Mexico and crashed into pieces in the Zone of Silence.

With the permission of the Mexican government, a team of US scientists and military crossed the border to the crash site. They discovered that not even satellite signals worked there. Short waves, radio waves, television waves, you name it, it was silenced.

These are just a few of the strange stories attached to the Zone of Silence. Many theories have been proffered to explain the strangeness of the area. They range from the spectacular to the prosaic, but none have definitely solved the mystery.

72 Million Year Old Dinosaur Bonanza Found in Mexico

72 million years ago, the desert of Coahuila looked very different. For a start, it wasn't a desert. This was the late Cretaceous period when, to the north, a vast, inland sea covered most of the south and western states of the present day USA. Coahuila sat at the southern plains of this sea. It was a huge, swampy estuary, covered in lush vegetation. It was here that the dinosaurs came to drink and feed; and some left traces that are only now coming to light.


Tyrannosaurus Rex
This was the hunting ground of Tyrannosaurus Rex, but that infamous species of dinosaur certainly wasn't alone out there. The remains of Coahuilaceratops Magnacuerna, a dinosaur named after the state, were discovered last year here. That was just the beginning, for it seems that this area is a treasure trove of pre-historic remains, on a par to those in Wyoming or Utah. Moreover, paleontologists have only just begun to scratch the surface.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that 207 dinosaur footprints have been found so far in Coahuila. These lay alongside fragments of vertebrae and long bones, belonging to a selection of creatures, who died there 72 million years ago. They are so recently uncovered, that they haven't yet been fully identified and classified. However, they are likely to include the Hadrosauridae, Ornitomimidae and Tyrannosaurus families.


Hadrosauridae


Ornitomimidae
The discoveries have been made over three sites, covering 5,000 sq. meters (53,750 sq. feet, in Coahuila. The largest was within the city of General Cepeda. Paleontologists have sealed off an area of Las Aguilas, which is where the footprints were found. It will eventually be open to the public, once the experts have done their jobs.

INAH-Coahuila Center paleontologist Felisa Aguilar explained, "Those places are still hidden under vegetation and won’t be opened to the public until they are registered so that their future conservation can be guaranteed."

Other remains, in the same area, have been dated to the Pleistocene, which makes them a mere 2.5 million years to 10,000 years old.

Earliest American Found in Quintana Roo

Mexico often has the air of an archaelogists' adventure paradise about it. I defy anyone to visit Cobá, without feeling like they are on the set of an Indiana Jones film. But beyond the vacationers, the experts are flooding in too. So many of Mexico's treasures lie undiscovered beneath the surface of the soil. This past week has seen not one, but two highly significant finds. One of these might change what we know about the history of the Americas. Has the first trace of humanity, on this continent, just been found in Quintana Roo?


In a previously unknown cavern, 4,000ft (1,200 meters) below the surface of the Yucatán Peninsula, diving explorers found the remains of dinosaurs, alongside a human skull. They have yet to be officially dated, but the presense of many megafauna bones, including that of a mastodon, suggests that they date from the Pleistocene Period. In short, they could be over 12,000 years old.


These Mastodons once roamed the Americas.
The remains were discovered in the depths of the labyrinthine Aktun-Hu system. These are a series of subterranean caves and tunnels, beneath Quintana Roo, which were flooded during the last Ice Age. Quintana Roo (famous for being the state where Cancún is) lies upon limestone, through which groundwater easily seeps to create this vast underground world. However, caves like this one, where the discoveries were made, weren't always so far down. The human being inside could well have simply walked in there, before it was ever flooded.

If this human is as ancient as the explorers believe, then (s)he may pre-date even La Mujer de las Palmas (the Lady of the Palms). It certainly adds credence to the theory that the earliest human settlers, on the Americas, came from Europe. They would have sailed from modern-day France, following a wall of icebergs, lining the Atlantic. Until recently, the most common belief was that humans reached the Americas from the north, crossing the Bering Strait, between modern-day Russia and Alaska.


La Mujer de las Palmas - does the latest find pre-date her?
The team, who made these discoveries, had to trapse through dense jungle, carrying their heavy equipment, before even making the deep dive. More details can be read at National Geographic: Skull in Underwater Cave May Be Earliest Trace of First Americans.

Also in the spotlight this week are reports of the discovery of a 3,000 year old Olmec sculpture, in Ojo de Agua, in the state of Chiapas. Standing at 3ft (0.9 meters) tall, it is made of carved, volcanic rock. It depicts a figure, with his hand held up to the Heavens, though no-one knows precisely who he is. The best guesses are Corn God, Tribal Chief, Tribal God or Priest.


Olmec Sculpture found in Chiapas
It was a chance discovery, uncovered by locals, in 2009. Fortunately there was an archaelogist in the area, who was able to quickly reach the site and document precisely how and where it lay. John Hodgson, an anthropology doctorial candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA, immediately sealed off the area, into a 250 hectare archaeological zone. This allowed experts to thoroughly chronicle the site.

The intervening years have shown that Ojo de Agua was once a thriving Olmec settlement. Raised platforms and formal pyramids can be discerned around central plazas. It was abandoned around 2,000 years ago.

The Face of Ancient Mexico

She is known as La Mujer de las Palmas (the Lady of the Palms) and she made her home near Tulum, on the Riviera Maya. Not as a legendary creature, but as a living, breathing human being. Only she was there between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago, and that is changing a lot of what historians took for granted.

La Mujer's skeletal remains were discovered, in the Las Palmas cenote, in 2008. It is uncertain how she died, though it's unlikely that the water was the cause. The Yucatan Peninsula was a desert-like prairie at the time, so the sinkhole would not have been flooded.

However, it is now known what she looked like. The hyper-realistic reconstruction, pictured above, was created by Atelier Daynes, a company based in Paris, France. By taking casts of La Mujer's skull and skeleton, these experts were able to use state-of-the-art techniques and sculpture, alongside the latest paleo-anthropological knowledge, to determine precisely how she would have looked in life.

La Mujer de las Palmas was aged between 44 and 50, at the time of her death. She weighed around 128lbs (9 stone) and stood at 1.6 meters (5.1 ft). What has really surprised those coming face to face with her is her race. She doesn't look like any of the indigenious people of Mexico nor the rest of the Americas, as they were supposed to be at the time. Atelier Daynes wrote, in their report, "Her body structure, skin and eyes are similar to the population of Southeast Asia."

Dr Alejandro Terrazas, an anthropologist at the University of Mexico, explained that, until now, it was believed that Mexico was populated through one or two waves of migration, crossing the Bering Strait from North Asia. La Mujer has changed that view. "History is not that simple, there were a lot of movements."

“What Mujer de las Palmas reveals is that there were more migrations from Southern and Central Asia, that resulted in a local evolution in America," he continued, "producing a great diversity of populations, which already existed when the Clovis Culture developed."


Image Copyright Mark Hubbe

This idea, that the Americas were an ethnic melting pot from the very dawn of its human population, has also gained credence with Prof Susan Gillespie, at the University of Florida. However, she cautions against us comparing La Mujer de Las Palmas with the modern-day inhabitants of South Asia. These were not necessarily the same people who were there 10,000 years ago.

"You have to find skeletons of the same time period in Asia, or use genetic reconstructions, to make a strong connection, and cannot rely on modern populations. Do we have any empirical data on what Southeast Asian women looked like ... 10,000 years ago?"

The reconstruction of La Mujer de las Palmas is currently on display, in the 'Altered Planet: Climate Change and Mexico' exhibition, in Silao, Guanajuato. It is part of an Expo being held to mark the Bicentennial of Mexican Independence and will continue until November 20th, 2010.

World Heritage Status for Two Mexican Sites

UNESCO today announced that it has inscribed World Heritage status on two Mexican sites. El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and the prehistoric caves of Yagul and Mitla, in the Central Valley of Oaxaca, were both honored.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is as international a concern as its name implies. The 34th session of the World Heritage Committee met in Brasilia, Brazil, to consider the applications of 39 sites dotted around the globe. Six were added to the World Heritage List, while a seventh received an extension. The list is formed of those places which are deemed to represent humankind's 'cultural and natural heritage', with 'outstanding universal value'.

Mexico already had 25 cultural and 4 natural sites inscribed on this list. These can be explored on-line at the UNESCO World Heritage site. The two new additions boost our number to 27 cultural sites.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro (The Royal Road of the Interior Land) is a long-distance trade route that stretches from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh, New Mexico, USA. It is 2560 kilometers (1600 miles) long. The American section of it has been on the US National Historic Trail list since 2000.



UNESCO's statement read:

Camino Real de Tierra Adentro was the Royal Inland Road, also known as the Silver Route. The inscribed property consists of 55 sites and five existing World Heritage sites lying along a 1400 km section of this 2600 km route, that extends north from Mexico City to Texas and New Mexico, United States of America.

The route was actively used as a trade route for 300 years, from the mid-16th to the 19th centuries, mainly for transporting silver extracted from the mines of Zacatecas, Guanajuato and San Luis Potosí, and mercury imported from Europe.

Although it is a route that was motivated and consolidated by the mining industry, it also fostered the creation of social, cultural and religious links in particular between Spanish and Amerindian cultures.

UNESCO press release: 'World Heritage Committee inscribes three new cultural sites, three natural sites and one extension on World Heritage List'

There is a virtual tour of the trail on the American Bureau of Land Management site. However, it should be noted that, for some, the road actually extends as far as Veracruz. John Todd has written all about that on his site.

El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro is a very scenic route to travel along. It would take several days to thoroughly enjoy its views and the wayside attractions. A good place to start might be the National Museum of Viceroyalty, in Mexico City, where the 'Plata. Forjando México' (Silver. Forging Mexico) runs until October 2010. This exhibition shows the historic silverware that was such a mainstay of those using the trail. Other major urban stops along the way are Zacatecas, Durango, Parral and Chihuahua, before crossing into America.

Prehistoric Caves of Yagul and Mitla

There are around 100 caves and rock shelters in the Central Valley of Oaxaca, around Yagul and Mitla, which contain evidence of pre-historic human habitation. Many contain cave paintings, ceramics or stone tools dating to around 8000 BCE. The site has been on Mexico's Lista Indicativa de México since 1998.



UNESCO's statement read:

This property lies on the northern slopes of the Tlacolula valley in subtropical central Oaxaca and consists of two pre-Hispanic archaeological complexes and a series of pre-historic caves and rock shelters. Some of these shelters provide archaeological and rock-art evidence for the progress of nomadic hunter-gathers to incipient farmers.

Ten thousand-year-old Cucurbitaceae seeds in one cave, Guilá Naquitz, are considered to be the earliest known evidence of domesticated plants in the continent, while corn cob fragments from the same cave are said to be the earliest documented evidence for the domestication of maize.

The cultural landscape of the Prehistoric Caves of Yagul and Mitla demonstrates the link between man and nature that gave origin to the domestication of plants in North America, thus allowing the rise of Mesoamerican civilizations.

UNESCO press release: 'World Heritage Committee inscribes three new cultural sites, three natural sites and one extension on World Heritage List'

Entrance to the vicinity of the caves is free, as it is maintained by the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History). Nearby are the ruins of a later settlement, where the Zapotec founded their great city, in Yagul, around 500 BCE. The nearest modern city is Tlacolula de Matamoros.

New Species of Dinosaurs Found in Mexico

For amateur and professional dinosaur-hunters alike, Mexico is the new frontier of exploration.   For centuries, paleontologists have combed areas in America and Canada looking for dinosaurs; but few people have been doing the same south of the border.   Now that they have begun, they are uncovering prehistoric treasures, set to revolutionize our understanding of the world so long ago.

In May 2010, it was announced that three new species of dinosaurs had been discovered.   Their fossilized remains were found in the Mexican state of Coahuila, by a team working under the auspices of the University of Utah.   The most exciting of these, Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna, was named after the state.   It has the longest horns of any dinosaur ever uncovered.


Artists impression courtesy of the University of Utah

Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna (pron. Koh-WHE-lah-SARA-tops mag-NAH-KWER-na) is a relative of its more famous cousin, Triceratops.   The name breaks down as Coahuila (Mexican state, where it was found); ceratops (Greek word meaning 'horned face'); magna (Latin for big/great); and cuerna (Spanish word for horn).  So it's the great horned, horn-face from Coahuila.   Once you realise that the horns stretched out 4ft (1.2 meters), you can understand the emphasis on said appendages.

This dinosaur lived around 72 million years ago.   It was about the size of a modern-day rhinoceros, but it weighed 4-5 tonnes.   Though it could certainly hold its own in a fight, Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna was a vegetarian.   His fossilized remains were found near to the village of Porvenir de Jalpa, near Saltillo, by a team which included Mexican, American and Canadian paleontologists.   The specimens have been deposited in a permanent exhibition, at the Museo del Desierto (Museum of the Desert), in Saltillo. The skull of the Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna will be revealed to the public, at the same museum, later in the year.

For those wishing to gain the fine detail, then a book was published last month which covers these findings. 'New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs' by Michael Ryan (Indiana University Press) announced the unearthing of Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna.

Paleontology is so under-developed in Mexico that Coahuilaceratops magnacuerna is only the fourth Mexican dinosaur ever named.   It wasn't discovered alone.  There were also the remains of a duck-billed creature, which has yet to be properly classified.   There were also members of the tyrannosaurus family, though not the infamous rex, as well as smaller relatives of the velociraptor.   The team also identified a dinosaur trackway, with many species of both carnivores and herbivores criss-crossing it, then leaving their remains for modern hunters to find.


In the Late Cretaceous Period (97 million to 65 million years ago), the world looked very different.   Central America had yet to form.   This made Mexico the southernmost tip of the Northern Americas.   In addition to this, high water levels had made a sea of the central, low-lying areas of the USA, Mexico and Canada.   The whole continent was split, with eastern and western landmasses huddling around this warm, shallow sea.   The western side was fairly narrow.  Dinosaurs lived and died on a peninsula sandwiched between the sea and the rising mountains to the west.   This peninsula has been named Laramidia; and it is the prospect of learning about this area that has scientists so excited.

"We know very little about the dinosaurs of Mexico, and this find increases immeasurably our knowledge of the dinosaurs living in Mexico during the Late Cretaceous," said Mark Loewen, a paleontologist with the Utah Museum of Natural History.  "Rather than focusing only on individual varieties of dinosaurs, we are attempting to reveal what life was like in Mexico 72 million years ago, and understand how the unique ecosystem of Mexico relates to ecosystems to the north at the time."

His colleague, Scott Sampson, added, "As the southernmost dinosaurs on Laramidia, we are confident that Mexican dinosaurs will be a critical element in unraveling the ancient mystery of this island continent."

If you are interested in dinosaurs, then Mexico is certainly the place to be watching in coming years.   For those wishing to make their name in paleontology, then heading to our beautiful country with a trowel and some brushes could well be the way forward.   Good luck!