There you have it. Based on what we currently understand about cloning, we don’t have any way to regenerate a dinosaur. We’re just going to have to rely on time travel. Of course, there are other historic creatures that are within the reasonable DNA half-life, including Neanderthal Man. In this interview with Spiegel from several years ago, scientist, George Church, discusses the plausibility of cloning a Neanderthal Man and other topics that may shock or delight you. Church denied that he was seeking an “Adventurous Woman,” as some reported, to be a surrogate for a baby Neanderthal. We don’t know if he didn’t get a volunteer or if there were too many. (Can you just imagine the email?)
Alvin, a bearded dragon, is our official lucky lizard, live and on display
Are these places where science dare not go? If someone discovers a way around the half-life issue or wants to explore brining back a woolly mammoth or Neanderthal should we be worried or buy tickets? As host to the one and only Iceman, we would love to have a pet dinosaur. I guess we’ll have to be content to enjoy our lucky lizard, Alvin, on display in the museum.
Museum of the Weird owner Steve Busti stands by the original Minnesota Iceman.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Long Lost “Minnesota Iceman” Resurfaces… in Austin, Texas!
Austin, TX (MUSEUM OF THE WEIRD) June 26, 2013 ––– Museum of the Weird owner Steve Busti announced today that the infamous “frozen caveman” exhibit that toured around the country in the late 60’s and early 70’s is currently in his possession and will be exhibited to the world once again in his Austin, Texas tourist attraction, just in time for the Fourth of July weekend.
The strange tale of the Minnesota Iceman begins in 1968. A carnival attraction then being billed as “The Siberskoye Creature” began showing up at malls and fairgrounds across America. Also known as “The Creature In Ice,” the exhibit appeared to be the body of a hairy Neanderthal or Bigfoot-like monster frozen in a solid block of ice inside a refrigerated coffin.
The “Iceman” soon garnered the attention of scientists, the Smithsonian Institution, and even the FBI, who all wanted to get their hands on the creature. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the Iceman seemed to mysteriously vanish without a trace, and along with it all hopes of ever having the body thoroughly examined.
Over the ensuing decades the enigma of the Minnesota Iceman, as it were later to be called, became the subject of many books, lectures and television shows including Unsolved Mysteries and Animal X. The story grew to near legendary status among the generation that remembered seeing it, and for over three decades the mystery of whatever happened to it became as much an open question as whatever “IT” actually was.
Now, after many years of its whereabouts being unknown, the long enduring mystery of “Where is the Minnesota Iceman?” can finally be answered.
Busti is aiming to have the exhibit set up in his museum and open to the public by Wednesday, July 3, in time for the Fourth of July weekend. Plans for a special Grand Opening Gala on Saturday, July 13th will take place in cooperation with eminent cryptozoology site Cryptomundo.com.
The Museum of the Weird is an homage to dime museums made popular by the likes of P.T. Barnum, and features everything from real mummies, shrunken heads and oddities, to wax figures of classic movie monsters, to live giant lizards. They even boast a live sideshow on stage every day, where one can see magicians, sword-swallowers, human blockheads, and even an “elecrticity-proof” man.
In addition to the Minnesota Iceman taking up permanent residence at the Museum of the Weird however, Busti also plans to loan the Iceman for display to Loren Coleman’s International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine (cryptozoologymuseum.com) for a special future engagement in 2014. You can follow Coleman’s blog at cryptozoonews.com for forthcoming information.
Further details will be announced at a later date. In the meantime, you can find more information at http://www.museumoftheweird.com or by contacting Steve Busti at steve@museumoftheweird.com.
The theory of a Neanderthal-human hybrid may now be considered scientific fact after evidence that was presented in northern Italy earlier this week revealed a distinctive crossover of genetic traits between the two species. A paper published on PLoS ONE discusses aspects of the discovered skeletal remains, including fragments from a jawbone and cranium, which point to the gradual crossbreeding of the Homo neanderthalensis with the modern Homo sapiens, or humans.
Further analysis is needed to cement the theory, but if proven correct, the 30,000 to 40,000 year-old remains will be of the very first hybrid in existence. Previously, genetic research had revealed that humans with DNA of European and Asian descent were between one and four percent Neanderthal. However, the evidence up until now was not conclusive and based solely on “ambiguous fossils.” The Neanderthal genetic line declined and eventually vanished around 30,000 years ago through a mix of interbreeding and human conquest.
The fossilized jawbone and cranial fragments was discovered in 1957 in Riparo Mezzena in the Monti Lessini mountains of northern Italy. Researchers analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which revealed the Neanderthal lineage. However, the shape of the bone possessed characteristics more closely in line with traits of the modern human. Since mitochondrial DNA is passed down from mother to child, researchers have concluded that the remains are from a “female Neanderthal who mated with male Homo sapiens.”
“From the morphology of the lower jaw, the face of the Mezzena individual would have looked somehow intermediate between classic Neanderthals, who had a rather receding lower jaw (no chin), and the modern humans, who present a projecting lower jaw with a strongly developed chin,” said study co-author Silvana Condemi, an anthropologist at the University of Ai-Marseille, to Discovery News.
Homo sapiens migrated into the Riparo Mezzena region approximately 41,000 years ago where the Neanderthal already possessed an established culture. The two species coexisted for a lengthy duration before the modern human finally dominated the territory and phased out the Neanderthal lineage. Some experts within the scientific community still doubt the hybrid theory pointing to evidence from Spain, which suggests the Neanderthal species was actually extinct thousands of years before the arrival of the modern Homo sapiens. Genetic similarities, they say, are the result of common ancient ancestors.
