I for one welcome our alien dinosaur overlords…maybe.
Dinosaurs once roamed and ruled the Earth. Is it possible that similar humongous creatures may have evolved on another planet – a world that DIDN’T get smacked by an asteroid – and later they developed to have human-like, intelligent brains? A recent paper discussing why the biochemical signature of life on Earth is so consistent in orientation somehow segued into the possibility that advanced versions of T. Rex and other dinosaurs may be the life forms that live on other worlds. The conclusion? “We would be better off not meeting them,” said scientist Ronald Breslow, author of the paper.
The building blocks of terrestrial amino acids, sugars, and the genetic materials DNA and RNA have two possible orientations, left or right, which mirror each other in what is called chirality. On Earth, with the exception of a few bacteria, amino acids have the left-handed orientation. Most sugars have a right-handed orientation. How did that homochirality happen?
If meteorites carried specific types of amino acids to Earth about 4 billion years, that could have set the pattern the left-handed chirality in terrestial proteins.
“Of course,” Breslow said in a press release, “showing that it could have happened this way is not the same as showing that it did. An implication from this work is that elsewhere in the universe there could be life forms based on D-amino acids and L-sugars. Such life forms could well be advanced versions of dinosaurs, if mammals did not have the good fortune to have the dinosaurs wiped out by an asteroidal collision, as on Earth.”
But not everyone was impressed with the notion of dinosaurs from space. “None of this has anything to do with dinosaurs,” wrote science author Brian Switek in the Smithsonian blog Dinosaur Tracking. “As much as I’m charmed by the idea of alien dinosaurs, Breslow’s conjecture makes my brain ache. Our planet’s fossil record has intricately detailed the fact that evolution is not a linear march of progress from one predestined waypoint to another. Dinosaurs were never destined to be. The history of life on earth has been greatly influenced by chance and contingency, and dinosaurs are a perfect example of this fact.”
For further reading:
American Chemical Society paper
ACS press release
Dinosaur Tracking blog
About Nancy Atkinson
Nancy Atkinson is currently Universe Today's Contributing Editor. Previously she served as UT's Senior Editor and lead writer, and has worked with Astronomy Cast and 365 Days of Astronomy. Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador.Welcome to our new lizard overlords: Study suggests alien worlds could be full of super-intelligent dinosaurs
- Life-forms based on different amino acids could be intelligent dinosaurs
- Mammals only triumphed on Earth due to 'accident' of asteroid
- 'We would be better off not meeting them,' says American scientist
Nasa's Kepler telescope scans the skies for 'habitable worlds' - but an American chemist has suggested the whole project might be a terrible idea.
Ronald Breslow suggests that life-forms based on slightly different amino acids and sugars could take the form of huge, ferocious dinosaurs that have evolved to have human-like intelligence and technologies.
'We would be better off not meeting them,' says Breslow, who claims that it was a stroke of luck that an asteroid wiped out dinosaurs on earth, leaving the field clear for mammals such as humans.
A scientist has suggested that other planets could be
populated by intelligent dinosaurs
Amino acid tryptophan: A scientists suggests
that a tiny
'tweak' to such acids could mean life on other worlds
evolved very differently
On other worlds, dinosaurs could have evolved into huge, intelligent warriors armed with hi-tech weaponry - but without losing their hunger for fresh meat.
'Of course,' Breslow says, 'Showing that it could have happened this way is not the same as showing that it did. An implication from this work is that elsewhere in the universe there could be life forms based on D-amino acids and L-sugars.
'Such life forms could well be advanced versions of dinosaurs, if mammals did not have the good fortune to have the dinosaurs wiped out by an asteroidal collision, as on Earth.
'We would be better off not meeting them.'
In the report, noted scientist Ronald Breslow, Ph.D., discusses the century-old mystery of why the building blocks of terrestrial amino acids (which make up proteins), sugars, and the genetic materials DNA and RNA exist mainly in one orientation or shape.
There are two possible orientations, left and right, which mirror each other in the same way as hands.
In order for life to arise, proteins, for instance, must contain only one chiral form of amino acids, left or right.
'Such life forms could well be advanced versions
of dinosaurs,
if mammals did not have the good fortune to have the
dinosaurs
wiped out by an asteroidal collision, as on Earth,' says
Breslow
With the exception of a few bacteria, amino acids in all life on Earth have the left-handed orientation.
Most sugars have a right-handed orientation. How did that so-called homochirality, the predominance of one chiral form, happen?
Breslow describes evidence supporting the idea that the unusual amino acids carried to a lifeless Earth by meteorites about 4 billion years ago set the pattern for normal amino acids with the L-geometry, the kind in terrestial proteins, and how those could lead to D-sugars of the kind in DNA.
http://scienceblogs.com/
Tetrapod Zoology
How intelligent dinosaurs conquered the world
Posted by Darren Naish on March 24, 2008
(123)
Maybe it’s because I write too much, but I am frequently surprised and sometimes a little freaked out at the strange coincidences that have so often cropped up during my time here at Tet Zoo. Long-time readers will recall the several occasions when we’ve looked at hypothetical intelligent dinosaurs: it started back in 2006 with my contention that ground hornbills (bucorvids) should be regarded as the dinosaurs most convergent with hominins (here). Humanoid dinosaurs like Dale Russell’s hypothetical big-brained troodontid – the ‘dinosauroid’ – are (in my opinion) utterly unrealistic, relying more on the notion that humans are the bestest animals ever, rather than on what we might really infer from dinosaur evolution. Inspired by all of this, my good friend Nemo Ramjet (blog here) designed a new-look dinosauroid, the bucorvid-like post-Cretaceous deinonychosaur Avisapiens saurotheos (here). Nemo went on to create a culture and society for Avisapiens, with cave art and everything (here)…
Perhaps partly because of this – but partly because of coincidence – two new articles have recently appeared on big-brained hypothetical dinosaurs. The first was by Jeff Hecht: Jeff is best known in the zoological world for the reporting he does in New Scientist on new palaeontological discoveries, but he’s best known globally (so I understand) for his writing on lasers and fibre optics. Jeff’s new article (Hecht 2007) highlights the fact that, 25 years on, palaeontologists are still interested in the thought experiment initiated by Russell & S�guin (1982), but think that ‘Russell’s dinosauroid needs updating’.
Jeff spoke to theropod expert Tom Holtz, who is quoted as saying that the dinosauroid looks too human, and that – if troodontids were to evolve primate-like braininess – they would retain the long tail and horizontal body posture common to theropods (Hecht 2007). This might sound familiar, because it’s the same argument I used when writing about dinosauroids at Tet Zoo. I’m not implying there that Tom stole my idea: he probably thought these thoughts before I did. I’m also quoted in the article, again making the point that, if theropods were to evolve big brains and sentience, there is no reason other than anthropocentrism to think that they might resemble us physically. Exhibit A: parrots.
Ah, Simon Conway Morris would be proud
A second article, this time on the subject of brain size and intelligence in dinosaurs, appeared in a 2008 issue of the Czech magazine Sv?t. The article, by Vladim�r Socha (and written in Czech of course), includes a discussion of hypothetical intelligent dinosaurs [this section shown below], and what will interest Tet Zoo readers in particular is its reference to Nemo’s Avisapiens. This is the first time Avisapiens has appeared in print if, that is, you don’t count Nemo’s portfolio (available here).
McLoughlin’s Bioparaptor
In another curious and totally unconnected coincidence, Tet Zoo regular Steve Bodio (of Querencia) recently sent me a copy of an article that I was totally unaware of: John C. McLoughlin’s ‘Evolutionary bioparanoia’, published in Animal Kingdom magazine in 1984. Most of you will know of John because of his 1979 book Archosauria: A New Look at the Old Dinosaur (less well known is its 1980 follow-up Synapsida: A New Look into the Origin of Mammals). Written back when everyone was getting all excited about Robert Bakker’s dynamic, hot-blooded view of the dinosaurian world, Archosauria was one of the first works to visualise dinosaurs as active, alert animals with boldly patterned, sometimes feathery, bodies. John depicted his dinosaurs chasing, trotting and foraging, and many were much-copied by other artists and proved highly influential (many of the dinosaurs in David Lambert’s 1983 Collins Guide to Dinosaurs, for example, are copied from those that appeared in Archosauria).
John’s 1984 article describes his contemplation of a new psychiatric disorder he recognises in himself: evolutionary bioparanoia. It is ‘an acute, often immobilizing sense of dread generated by fatigue in persons interested in both the current state of world affairs and the evolutionary history of life on Earth’ (McLoughlin 1984, p. 25). The article begins by considering the probable short lifespan of technologically advanced societies, the (alleged) short-lived nature of anthropogenic artefacts, buildings and other constructions, and the fact that humanity’s rise to global dominance and massive impact on the global biota will be all but geologically instantaneous. John notes that, in a global biota with a horribly impoverished large animal fauna, the most abundant large non-humans animals are domesticated cattle. We imagine what non-human geologists, living in the far distant future 60 million years hence and looking back at the Holocene fossil record, will see if human society obliterated itself by way of nuclear war. A layer of unusually concentrated elements; massive erosion caused by agriculture and war; a time of massive dying.
Here’s where the evolutionary bioparanoia kicks in. Noting that this sort of thing is, pretty much, what we see in the fossil record of the latest Late Cretaceous, John explains how comparatively big-brained maniraptorans like the dromaeosaurs might perhaps have evolved their very own sentient tool-maker: ladies and gentlemen, I give you McLoughlin’s smart tool-making maniraptoran, yet another hypothetical big-brained sentient theropod. He doesn’t name it, but I’m going to call it Bioparaptor macloughlini (bioparanoia + raptor, ‘macloughlini’ isn’t a typo: the ICZN recommends that ‘Mc’ spellings become ‘mac-‘ names).
Depicted as a swell-headed deinonychosaur that wears jewellery and has invented nuclear weapons, Bioparaptor recalls Russell’s dinosauroid in having a short-jawed, big-brained skull and in having lost its pedal sickle-claw, but differs from it in being long-tailed and overall more dinosaur-like. Its nefarious activities not only resulted in a nuclear conflict that caused the end-Cretaceous event, but its domestication of herding cattle-like herbivores (Triceratops and kin) resulted in an impoverished terrestrial fauna where other big animals were rare or absent. I’m shocked that no-one has brought this to my attention earlier, and am surprised that John’s Bioparaptor hasn’t been mentioned more often. McLoughlin (1984) makes no mention of Russell’s dinosauroid (published in 1982): while I’m sure that John was aware of it, the fact that Bioparaptor looks so different implies that it ‘evolved’ convergently, the product of a different thought experiment.
Magee’s Anthroposaurus sapiens
Moving on, here we come to the next coincidence as, while working with Jeff Liston in Glasgow’s Hunterian Museum during November 2007, I learnt that views essentially identical to those expressed by John had managed to get into the non-fictional literature elsewhere, thanks to an obscure little 1993 tome by one Mike Magee, titled Who Lies Sleeping: the Dinosaur Heritage and the Extinction of Man. Thanks to Jeff, I’ve since gotten hold of this book.
It’s very weird. As in McLoughlin (1984), the main thrust here is that sentient, big-brained dromaeosaurs – Magee calls them Anthroposaurus sapiens – evolved at the end of the Late Cretaceous and, via industrial pollution and a nuclear war, caused their own extinction as well as that of many of their contemporaries. On the way, Magee stops to look at Elaine Morgan’s aquatic ape hypothesis (I’m still not sure why) and generally agrees with it, and also spends a chapter examining the evidence for evolutionary saltation and super-rapid evolution (Magee 1993). He’s a big fan of Bakker’s The Dinosaurs Heresies and Desmond’s The Hot Blooded Dinosaurs (in fact they seem to be about the only dinosaur literature he cites). It is proposed that anthroposaurs evolved from arboreal primate-like theropods and that, like the aquatic apes of Morgan’s AAH, they went through an aquatic phase and hence convergently became human-like.
As in McLoughlin (1984), it is suggested that the low-diversity ornithischian assemblage of late Maastrichtian North America reflects the fact that the smart dinosaurs maintained Triceratops and Edmontosaurus as domestic animals: ‘herded on the great plains before being shipped to a Cretaceous Chicago for making into meat pies and hamburgers’ (Magee 1993, p. 110). Anthroposaur industry resulted in the evidence for iridium concentration, acid rain, rising global temperatures and so on seen in the late Maastrichtian record, and it is suggested that some dinosaur lineages actually evolved to cope with the chronic atmospheric pollution that resulted. Here we have the explanation for the elaborate cranial crests of lambeosaurs, the convoluted nasal passages of ankylosaurids and the big nose of Altirhinus (which wasn’t Maastrichtian, but let’s not worry about that).
The nuclear war that finished off anthroposaur society explains the evidence for global wildfires, the bits of stressed quartz and the tektites interpreted by others as evidence for asteroid impact. Mummified dinosaurs – like Sternberg’s famous Edmontosaurus from Wyoming [shown here] – surely owe their remarkable preservation to this global nuclear conflict: I think my favourite sentences in the whole book are ‘Dinosaur mummies are rare, but when found they are usually late Cretaceous hadrosaurs. Why should they have died so perfectly and been preserved? Because they died of gamma radiation and neutrons which preserved them as surely as it would preserve strawberries in a plastic bag?’ (Magee 1993, p. 148).
Equally if not more entertaining is Magee’s suggestion that the various man-like tracks reported from the Mesozoic are not the distorted genuine tracks, amorphous holes, or blatant fakes which examination has demonstrated them to be, but are instead actual anthroposaur tracks.
The book’s title refers to the idea, loosely ‘explained’ in the very last chapter, that anthroposaurs lay sleeping, though whether this is meant literally (that they are hiding under the ground) or figuratively (that they are somehow within our psyche) is never made clear. It might be both, as he writes of Typhon, Echidna, Tiamat and the serpent from the Garden of Eden as if they and other mythological semi-reptiles might be racial memories of smart dinosaurs, and of course there’s the fact (I use the term loosely) that H. P. Lovecraft had a telepathic connection with anthroposaurs, and that this explains his references to the Old Ones, the fallen city of R’lyeh, his loathing of immigrants, desertion of his attractive wife, and poekilothermic physiology. Err, yup.
A magazine article published in 1984 and a strange book published in 1993 are not exactly news, but Hecht (2007) and Socha (2008) clearly are. For me, it has been curiously coincidental, not only that both articles appeared within the last few months, but also that I only learnt about McLoughlin (1984) and Magee (1993) within this same space of time. Clearly, this is evidence that I too am in telepathic contact with the sleeping anthroposaurs. Or, wait, maybe I am an anthroposaur. I did always pretend to be a dinosaur when I was a kid, and I do generally prefer reptiles to people.
Thanks to Steve Bodio, Jeff Hecht and Jeff Liston for instigating it all. And to see what’s happening with Russell’s dinosauroid these days, visit Michael Ryan’s article here.
Refs – –
Hecht, J. 2007. Smartasaurus. Cosmos 15, 40-41.
Magee, M. 1993. Who Lies Sleeping: the Dinosaur Heritage and the Extinction of Man. AskWhy! Publications, Frome.
McLoughlin, J. 1984. Evolutionary bioparanoia. Animal Kingdom April/May 1984, 24-30.
Russell, D. A. & S�guin, R. 1982. Reconstruction of the small Cretaceous theropod Stenonychosaurus inequalis and a hypothetical dinosauroid. Syllogeus 37, 1-43.
Socha, V. 2008. Dinosau?i: hlup�ci, nebo g�niov�? Sv?t 3/2008, 14-16.
Reptilians
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other reptilian humanoids, see List of reptilian humanoids. For other uses, see reptilian (disambiguation).
An artist's conception of a reptilian; an adult human male is shown for scale
Contents
Origins
Michael Barkun, Professor of political science at Syracuse University, posits that the idea of a reptilian conspiracy originated in the fiction of Conan the Barbarian creator Robert E. Howard. The first appearance of "serpent men" in literature was in Howard's story, "The Shadow Kingdom", published in Weird Tales in August 1929. This story drew on Theosophical ideas of the "lost worlds" of Atlantis and Lemuria, particularly Helena Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine, with its reference to "'dragon-men' who once had a mighty civilization on a Lemurian continent".[4] Howard's "serpent men" were described as humanoid with human bodies but snake heads, able to imitate real humans at will, who lived in hiding in underground passages, using their shapechanging and mind control abilities to infiltrate humanity.[5] Clark Ashton Smith used Howard's "serpent men" in his stories, as well as themes from H. P. Lovecraft, and he, Howard and Lovecraft together laid the basis for the Cthulhu Mythos.[6] In the 1940s, a non-fiction writer, Maurice Doreal, wrote a pamphlet entitled "Mysteries Of The Gobi" which described a "serpent race" that had "bodies like man but...heads...like a great snake" and an ability to take true human form.[7] These creatures also appeared in Doreal's poem, "The Emerald Tablets", in which he claimed the titular tablets were written by "Thoth, an Atlantean Priest king". Barkun asserts that "in all likelihood", Doreal's ideas came from "The Shadow Kingdom", and that in turn, "The Emerald Tablets" formed the basis for David Icke's book, Children of the Matrix.[8]Alien abduction
Alien abduction narratives sometimes allege contact with reptilian creatures.[9] One of the earliest reports was that of Ashland, Nebraska police officer Herbert Schirmer, who claims to have been taken aboard a UFO in 1967 by humanoid beings with a slightly reptilian appearance, who wore a "winged serpent" emblem on the left side of their chests.[10]David Icke
According to British conspiracy theorist David Icke, 5–12 feet (1.5–3.7 m) tall, blood-drinking, shape-shifting reptilian humanoids from the Alpha Draconis star system, now hiding in underground bases, are the force behind a worldwide conspiracy against humanity.[11] He contends that most of the world's leaders are related to these reptilians, including George W. Bush of the United States, and Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.[12] Icke's conspiracy theories now have supporters in up to 47 countries and he has given lectures to crowds of up to 6,000.[13][14] American writer Vicki Santillano included it in her list of the 10 most popular conspiracy theories, describing it as the "wackiest theory" she had encountered.[15]A poll of Americans in 2013 by Public Policy Polling indicated that 4% of registered voters (+/- 2.8%) believed in David Icke's ideas.[16]
Politics
In the closely fought 2008 U.S. Senate election between comedian and commentator Al Franken and incumbent Senator Norm Coleman, one of the ballots challenged by Coleman included a vote for Franken with "Lizard People" written in the space provided for write-in candidates.[17] Lucas Davenport who later claimed to have written the gag ballot, said, "I don't know if you've heard the conspiracy theory about the Lizard Men; a friend of mine, we didn't like the candidates, so we were at first going to write in 'revolution', because we thought that was good and to the point. And then, we thought 'the Lizard People' would be even funnier."[18]"Evil reptilian kitten-eater from another planet" was a pejorative used to refer to then Ontario Liberal Party opposition leader Dalton McGuinty in a press release disseminated by the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario on September 12, 2003, during the provincial election campaign in Ontario, Canada.
In February 2011, on the Opie and Anthony radio show, the comedian Louis C.K. jokingly asked former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld a number of times if he and Dick Cheney were lizard people who enjoyed the taste of human flesh. Amused by Rumsfeld's refusal to directly answer the question, C.K. suggested it as a possible admission of guilt. He went on to further muse that perhaps those who are lizard people cannot lie about it; when asked if they are lizards, they either have to avoid answering the question or say yes.[19]
On March 4, 2013, a video depicting a security agent with unusual features guarding a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama was spotlighted in a Wired report about shapeshifting reptilian humanoids, leading to a tongue-in-cheek response from chief National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden that "any alleged program to guard the president with aliens or robots would likely have to be scaled back or eliminated in the sequester."[20]
Grey alien
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about alleged alien race. For topics associated with the colour, see Grey (disambiguation).
A typical depiction of a short Grey.
|
|
| Grouping | Alleged extraterrestrials |
|---|---|
| Similar creatures | Bug-eyed monster Reptilians Extraterrestrials in fiction |
| Other name(s) | Roswell Greys |
| Country | Many |
Grey aliens, also referred to as "Alien Greys", "Greys", "Grays", "Roswell Greys", and "Zeta Reticulans", are alleged extraterrestrial beings whose existence is promoted in ufological, paranormal, and New Age communities, and who are named for their skin color. Forty-three percent of all reported alien encounters in the United States describe Grey aliens.[1] Such claims vary in every respect including their nature (ETs, extradimensionals, demons, or machines), origins, moral dispositions, intentions, and physical appearances (even varying in their eponymous skin color). A composite description derived from overlap in claims would have Greys as small-bodied sexless beings with smooth grey-colored skin, enlarged head and large black eyes.
The origin of the idea of the Grey is commonly associated with the Betty and Barney Hill abduction claim which took place in 1961, although skeptics see precursors in science fiction and earlier paranormal claims. The Grey aliens are also famous from later depictions of the Roswell UFO incident from 1947.
Contents
Appearance
Greys are typically depicted as dark grey-skinned diminutive humanoid beings that possess reduced forms of, or completely lack, external human organs such as noses, ears or sex organs.[2] Their bodies are usually depicted as being elongated, having a small chest, and lacking in muscular definition and visible skeletal structure. Their legs are shorter and jointed differently from what one would expect in a human. Their limbs are often depicted as proportionally different from a human's; their humerus and thighs are the same lengths as their forearms and shins, respectively.[2]Greys are depicted as having unusually large heads in proportion to their bodies. They are depicted as having no hair anywhere on the body, including the face, and no noticeable outer ears or noses, but only small openings or orifices for ears and nostrils. They are depicted as having very small mouths, and very large opaque black eyes with no discernible iris or pupil. Sometimes Greys are depicted as having no noticeable nostrils or mouths. Also reports of alleged encounters state their height to be 2–4 ft tall.[citation needed]
In popular culture
History
In the 1893 article "Man of the Year Million", H. G. Wells envisaged humanity transformed into a race of grey-skinned beings, stunted and with big heads. (Compare the Morlocks of Wells's 1895 novel, The Time Machine, who appear greyish-white and large-eyed, but hairy.) In his 1901 book The First Men in the Moon, Wells described Selenites (natives of the Moon) as having grey skin, big heads, large black eyes and wasp-stings. He also briefly describes aliens resembling Greys brought down to Earth as food by the Martian antagonists of his 1898 novel The War of the Worlds.In 1933, the Swedish novelist Gustav Sandgren, using the pen name Gabriel Linde, published a science-fiction novel called Den okända faran (The Unknown Danger), in which he describes a race of extraterrestrials: "[...] the creatures did not resemble any race of humans. They were short, shorter than the average Japanese, and their heads were big and bald, with strong, square foreheads, and very small noses and mouths, and weak chins. What was most extraordinary about them were the eyes – large, dark, gleaming, with a sharp gaze. They wore clothes made of soft grey fabric, and their limbs seemed to be similar to those of humans." The novel, aimed at young readers, included illustrations of the imagined aliens.
Star map of Zeta Reticuli, according to Betty Hill and Marjorie Fish
The Greys also appear as the (benevolent) aliens in the 1977 movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
1980–1991
A Grey popularized from the cover of Communion by Whitley Strieber. The portrait was painted by Ted Seth Jacobs to Strieber's description and approval.
In 1987, popular novelist Whitley Strieber published the book Communion, in which he describes a number of close encounters he purports to have experienced with Greys and other extraterrestrial beings. The book became a New York Times bestseller, and New Line Cinema released a film adaption starring Christopher Walken in 1989.
In 1988 Christophe Dechavanne interviewed the French science-fiction writer and ufologist Jimmy Guieu during a weekly French TV Live Show which, at the time, was entitled "Ciel, mon mardi !". It was broadcast by TF1, one of the three national TV channels in France. Besides mentioning Majestic 12, Jimmy Guieu described the existence of what he called "the little greys" which, later on, became better known in French under the following name: les Petits-Gris.[4] In early 90's, the same ufologist Jimmy Guieu has written two docu-dramas, using as plot the Grey aliens / Majestic-12 conspiracy as described by John Lear and Milton William Cooper : the series "E.B.E." (for "Extraterrestrial Biological Entity") : E.B.E. : Alerte rouge (first part) (1990) and E.B.E. : L'entité noire d'Andamooka (second part) (1991).
1992–present day
A CGI generated rendering of two Greys.
In 1995 filmmaker Ray Santilli claimed to have obtained 22 reels of 16 mm film that depicted the autopsy of a "real" Grey supposedly recovered from the site of the 1947 incident in Roswell, New Mexico.[6][7] However, in 2006 Santilli announced that the film was not original, but was instead a "reconstruction" created after the original film was found to have degraded. He maintained that a real Grey had been found and autopsied on camera in 1947, and that the footage released to the public contained a percentage of that original footage, but he was unable to say what that percentage was. This incident became the subject of the 2006 British comedy film Alien Autopsy, starring television presenters Ant & Dec.[8][9]
The 2011 film Paul tells the story of a Grey who attributes the Greys' frequent presence in science-fiction pop-culture to the US government deliberately inserting the stereotypical Grey alien image into mainstream media so that if humanity came into contact with Paul's species, there would be no immediate shock as to their appearance.
The 1994 video game UFO: Enemy Unknown and its 2012 remake XCOM: Enemy Unknown both use grey aliens (called Sectoids) as a main enemy type.
Analysis
In close encounter claims and ufology
Greys are commonly included in alien abduction claims. Among reports of supposed alien encounters, Greys make up approximately 50 percent in Australia, 43 percent in the United States, 90 percent in Canada, 67 percent in Brazil, 20 percent in Continental Europe, and around 12 percent in the United Kingdom.[1] These reports include two distinct groups of Greys that differ in height.[2] Abductees say that they recognize the leader of their abductors by its "demeanor."[2] Some ufologists and abduction researchers believe that taller Greys, with their reported increased authority and apparently more complex psychology, may be the only Grey type to be biologically alive and that the shorter form could be their artificially constructed robot or cyborg servants.[2]Some alien abduction reports have depicted variant skin colors such as blue-grey, green-grey, or purple-grey and sometimes not grey at all. The skin is typically described as being extremely smooth, almost as if made of an artificial material like rubber or plastic.[2]
Abduction claims are often described as extremely traumatic, similar to an abduction by humans or even a sexual assault in the level of trauma and distress. (Research has shown that emotional impact of perceived abduction can be as great as or even greater than that of combat, sexual abuse, and other traumatic events.)[10]
The eyes are often a focus of abduction claims. They are said to not move or focus in any observable way to the naked eye. Claims often describe a Grey staring into the eyes of an abductee when conducting mental procedures.[2] This staring is claimed to induce hallucinogenic states or directly provoke different emotions.[11] Although abduction claimants often say that the Grey was only inches from their face during the staring mindscan procedure, they often subsequently claim to not feeling breath or seeing the Grey's chest move from breathing.[2]
Psychocultural expression of intelligence
Neurologist Dr. Steven Novella argues that the idea is a byproduct of the human imagination, with the Greys' most distinctive features representing everything that modern humans traditionally link with intelligence. "The aliens, however, do not just appear as humans, they appear like humans with those traits we psychologically associate with intelligence."[12]The "Mother Hypothesis"
In 2005, Frederick V. Malmstrom, writing in Skeptic magazine, vol. 11 issue 4, presents his hypothesis that Greys are actually residual memories of early childhood development. Malmstrom reconstructs the face of a Grey through transformation of a mother's face based on our best understanding of early childhood sensation and perception. Malmstrom's study offers a possible alternative to the existence of Greys, the intense instinctive response many people experience when presented an image of a Grey, and the ease of regression hypnosis and recovered-memory therapy in "recovering" memories of alien abduction experiences, along with their common themes.[13]Evolutionary feasibility debate
A rendering of a grey (left) and a male human being (right) bearing similarities to each other.
Some ufologists say such seemingly impossible coincidences show that extraterrestrial beings had some influence on the evolution of life on Earth in the distant past (the theory of "ancient astronauts"), specifically that extraterrestrials were directly involved in the evolution of primates, including humans. This was supposedly done by genetic engineering, cross-breeding, or a combination of both. This idea may have first gained widespread exposure with the 1968 publication of Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken and has since been the source of much controversy, inspiring numerous other books with various related theories.
Proponents of this theory of alien genetic/evolutionary intervention on Earth argue that if the Greys (or similar beings) were performing genetic manipulations and/or experiments with pre-human life forms on Earth (and could somehow overcome the vast genetic and biochemical differences involved in the completely separate evolutionary histories) that these alleged aliens may have attempted to influence the evolution of life forms here in a direction consistent with their own genetic makeup, and similar to their own physiology and general physical structure, since genetically that is what they would presumably be most familiar with.[citation needed] Counter to this view, the anatomy, physiology, and genetic makeup of primates and humans are extremely similar to other animals on Earth, including those with divergent non-humanoid forms such as sea urchins, sea squirts, and acorn worms.
Since the history of life on Earth gives some idea of what is and is not feasible on other worlds, and there is no conclusive evidence of any alleged past extraterrestrial genetic manipulation in our own evolution, some Ufologists have offered alternative explanations to accommodate for the evolutionary improbability of Greys (or any other bipedal, humanoid "extraterrestrial" species) by explaining them as being native hominids to Earth either having left or living in hiding, as Mac Tonnies proposed in his book The Cryptoterrestrials, or from another dimension, as proposed by John A. Keel and J. Allen Hynek.[citation needed]
Conspiracy theories
Some conspiracy theorists believe that Greys represent part of a government-led disinformation or plausible deniability campaign,[14] or that they are a product of government mind control experiments.[15][16] Dr. Steven Greer, founder of the Disclosure Project, head of CSETI, and a prominent UFO conspiracy theorist, claims to have over 400 "government, military, and intelligence community witnesses" that have offered testimony to the existence of aliens and UFOs or efforts to cover up their existence and who have stated that they would be willing to defend their claims under oath.[17]Dinosaur intelligence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Skeletal cast of Troodon inequalis. Troodontids had some of the highest non-avian encephalization quotients, meaning they were behaviourally advanced and had keen senses.[1]
Contents
Dinosaur brain volume and encephalization quotient
Traditional comparisons of brain volume to body mass in dinosaurs have estimated brain size as the volume of the endocast.[2] However, the brain of the modern reptile genus Sphenodon fills only about half of its endocranial volume.[3] Some paleontologists used this fifty percent estimate in their estimates of dinosaur brain volume.[2] Other workers have observed that details on the endocranial surface indicates that some fossil reptiles had brains that occupied a much larger portion of the endocranium.[4] Hans Larsson notes that the transition from reptiles to birds prevents using a set ratio from being a valid approach to estimating the volume of the endocranium occupied by a dinosaur's brain.[4]Theropod brains
Allosaurus fragilis
The brain of Allosaurus fragilis resembled that of the related form Carcharodontosaurus saharicus.[6] The shape resembles that of the modern day crocodile.Carcharodontosaurus saharicus
Tyrannosaurus
Tyrannosaurus lies just outside the 95% confidence limits of the nonavian reptile ratio of cerebrum volume to whole brain volume in the direction of a more avian proportion.[5] This is in contrast to Carcharodontosaurus saharicus and Allosaurus fragilis, which lie firmly within the reptilian range.[5]Troodon
Troodon's cerebrum-to-brain-volume ratio was 31.5% to 63% of the way from a nonavian reptile proportion to a truly avian one.[9]Archaeopteryx
Archaeopteryx had a cerebrum-to-brain-volume ratio 78% of the way to modern birds.[10]Limosa gypsorum
One discrepancy is the ratio possessed by the Eocene bird Limnosa gypsorum, which was only 63% of the modern bird ratio.[11] However, this may be explainable if the endocast was distorted, as it had been previously depicted in the past by Deschaseaux, who is described by Larsson as portraying the endocast "slightly anteroposteriorly sheared and laterally compressed."[10]Birds
Kea are
known for their intelligence and curiosity, both vital traits for
survival in the harsh mountain environment that is their home. Kea can
solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain
order to get to food, and will work together to achieve a certain
objective.
"Two brains" myth
Brain cavity of S. stenops marked with red
Speculations of anthropomorphic sapient dinosaurs
Toyota (1977)
Aritsune Toyota (豊田有恒), a Japanese science fiction writer was one of the earliest proposers of the idea of sapient dinosaurs.[14] Toyota was intrigued by the theory of the "Warm-blooded Deinonychus" (John Ostrom, 1964) and developed the idea that some kinds of dinosaurs would have evolved to acquire intelligence. He referred to The Hot-blooded Dinosaurs (Desmond, Adrian J., 1975, Rosemarie Buckman, Oxfordshire) and constructed a theoretical model of what they might have been like.[15] He first published his ideas as science fiction in the novel Kako no kageri (『過去の翳』, A shadow of the past) in 1977. In the story he described them as reptilian humanoids who use bone tools for hunting, speak a primitive language, and build a rudimentary society. The creature was supposed to have evolved from a dinosaur similar to dromaeosaurus.A year later, Toyota received advice from Japanese zoologist Tatsuo Saneyoshi (實吉達郎), and began striving for more zoological authenticity on details. He then authored Zoku jikanhō keikaku (『続・時間砲計画』, Prospectus for the spatiotemporal cannon part 2). He continued to study theropoda, and serialized his novel as Dainosaurusu sakusen (『ダイノサウルス作戦』, The plan of the dinosaurs) in 1979.
Sagan (1977)
In his 1977 book, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, author Carl Sagan speculated about the related genus Saurornithoides evolving into ever more intelligent forms in the absence of any extinction event. In a world dominated by Saurornithoides, Sagan mused, arithmetic would be Base 8 rather than Base 10.Jerison (1978)
American psychologist Harry Jerison suggested the possibility of sapient dinosaurs. In 1978, he gave a presentation titled "Smart dinosaurs and comparative psychology", at a meeting of the American Psychological Association. According to his speech, Dromiceiomimus supposedly could have evolved into a highly intelligent species like human beings.[15]Russell (1982)
A model of the hypothetical Dinosauroid, Dinosaur Museum, Dorchester
See also: Dinosauroid
Russell proposed that this "Dinosauroid", like most dinosaurs of the troodontid family, would have had large eyes and three fingers on each hand, one of which would have been partially opposed. As with most modern reptiles (and birds), he conceived of its genitalia as internal. Russell speculated that it would have required a navel, as a placenta aids the development of a large brain case. However, it would not have possessed mammary glands, and would have fed its young, as birds do, on regurgitated food. He speculated that its language would have sounded somewhat like bird song.[17][18]
Russell's thought experiment has been met with criticism from other paleontologists since the 1980s, many of whom point out that his Dinosauroid is overly anthropomorphic. Gregory S. Paul (1988) and Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., consider it "suspiciously human" (Paul, 1988) and Darren Naish has argued that a large-brained, highly intelligent troodontid would retain a more standard theropod body plan, with a horizontal posture and long tail, and would probably manipulate objects with the snout and feet in the manner of a bird, rather than with human-like "hands"[18] (although a non-avian theropod would still have hands—in some cases, including Troodon, complete with at least partly opposable thumb—so birds may not be the best analogy).
Bird intelligence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kea are
known for their intelligence and curiosity, both vital traits for
survival in the harsh mountain environment that is their home. Kea can
solve logical puzzles, such as pushing and pulling things in a certain
order to get to food, and will work together to achieve a certain
objective.
Contents
Studies
Cormorants used by fishermen in Southeast Asia may be able to count
Counting
Counting has been considered an ability that shows intelligence. Anecdotal evidence from the '60s has suggested that crows may count up to 3.[2] Researchers however need to be cautious and ensure that birds are not merely demonstrating the ability to subitize, or count a small number of items quickly.[3][4] Some studies, such as one done at Moscow State University, have suggested that crows may indeed have a true numerical ability.[5] It has been shown that parrots can count up to 6.[6]Cormorants used by Chinese fishermen that were given every eighth fish as a reward were found to be able to keep count up to seven. E.H. Hoh wrote in Natural History magazine:
In the 1970s, on the Li River, Pamela Egremont observed fishermen who allowed the birds to eat every eighth fish they caught. Writing in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, she reported that, once their quota of seven fish was filled, the birds "stubbornly refuse to move again until their neck ring is loosened. They ignore an order to dive and even resist a rough push or a knock, sitting glum and motionless on their perches." Meanwhile, other birds that had not filled their quotas continued to catch fish as usual. "One is forced to conclude that these highly intelligent birds can count up to seven," she wrote.[7]Many birds are also able to detect changes in the number of eggs in their nest and brood. Parasitic cuckoos are often known to remove one of the host eggs before laying their own.
Associative learning
Visual or auditory signals and their association with food and other rewards have been well studied, and birds have been trained to recognize and distinguish complex shapes. [clarification needed]This is probably an important ability that aids their survival.[clarification needed][8]Spatial and temporal abilities
A common test of intelligence is the detour test where a glass barrier between the bird and an item such as food is used in the setup. Most mammals discover that the objective is reached by first going away from the target. Whereas domestic fowl fail on this test, many within the crow family are able to readily solve the problem.[9]Large fruit-eating birds in tropical forests depend on trees which bear fruit at different times of the year. Many species, such as pigeons and hornbills, have been shown to be able to decide upon foraging areas according to the time of the year. Birds that show food hoarding behavior have also shown the ability to recollect the locations of food caches.[10][11] Nectarivorous birds such as hummingbirds also optimize their foraging by keeping track of the locations of good and bad flowers.[12] Studies of western scrub jays also suggest that birds may be able to plan ahead. They cache food according to future needs and risk of not being able to find the food on subsequent days.[13]
Many birds follow strict time schedules in their activities. These are often dependent upon environmental cues. Birds also are sensitive to daylight length, and this awareness is especially important as a cue for migratory species. The ability to orient themselves during migrations is attributed to birds' superior sensory abilities, rather than to intelligence.
Beat induction
Research published in 2008 that was conducted with an Eleonora cockatoo named Snowball has shown that birds can identify the beat of man-made music, an ability known as beat induction.[14]Self awareness
The mirror test allows scientists to determine whether birds are conscious of themselves and able to distinguish themselves and from other animals by determining whether an animal possesses or lacks the ability to recognize itself in its own reflection. The European magpie is the only animal besides mammals that is shown to be able to pass this test by trying to remove a colored sticker from underneath their beaks when shown in a mirror. However in 1981, Epstein, Lanza and Skinner published a paper in the journal Science in which they argued that pigeons also pass the mirror test. A pigeon was trained to look in a mirror to find a response key behind it which it then turned to peck—food was the consequence of a correct choice (i.e., the pigeon learned to use a mirror to find critical elements of its environment). Next, the bird was trained to peck at dots placed on its feathers; food was, again, the consequence of touching the dot. The latter training was accomplished in the absence of the mirror. The final test was placing a small bib on the pigeon—enough to cover a dot placed on its lower belly. A control period without the mirror present yielded no pecking at the dot. When the mirror was revealed, the pigeon became active, looked in the mirror and then tried to peck on the dot under the bib.It is true that untrained pigeons have never been able to pass the mirror test. However, pigeons do not normally have access to mirrors and do not have the necessary experiences to use them. Giving the pigeons this experience in no way guaranteed it would pass the mirror test, since the pigeon never pecked dots on its own body in the presence of the mirror (until the final test). Despite this, the birds are not classified as being able to recognize their reflection, because those that did were trained to do so and the animal has to be able to do this without human assistance. Therefore, it must also be shown that the birds are able to do this in the wild as well with no experience, just on their own intelligence, to see if it is able to comprehend that it is looking at its own reflection on its own. However, even when an animal is trained to do this, it is still unknown if they are aware that they are looking at themselves, or are just repeating the same movements and commands that they were taught so that they may receive a treat as a reward after they have correctly completed their task.[citation needed]
Tool use
Further information: Tool use by animals § In_birds
The woodpecker finch using a stick to impale a grub, with a second image showing it had successfully captured it.
the use of physical objects other than the animal's own body or appendages as a means to extend the physical influence realized by the animal[15]By this definition, a bearded vulture (lammergeier) dropping a bone on a rock would not be using a tool since the rock cannot be seen as an extension of the body. However the use of a rock manipulated using the beak to crack an ostrich egg would qualify the Egyptian vulture as a tool user. Many other species, including parrots, corvids and a range of passerines, have been noted as tool users.[1]
New Caledonian crows have been observed in the wild to use sticks with their beaks to extract insects from logs. While young birds in the wild normally learn this technique from elders, a laboratory crow named "Betty" improvised a hooked tool from a wire with no prior experience.[16] The woodpecker finch from the Galapagos Islands also uses simple stick tools to assist it in obtaining food. In captivity, a young large cactus finch learned to imitate this behavior by watching a woodpecker finch in an adjacent cage.[17][18][19][20] Crows in urban Japan have innovated a technique to crack hard-shelled nuts by dropping them onto crosswalks and letting them be run over and cracked by cars. They then retrieve the cracked nuts when the cars are stopped at the red light. Macaws have been shown to utilize rope to fetch items that would normally be difficult to reach.[21][22] Striated herons (Butorides striatus) use bait to catch fish.
Observational learning
Using rewards to reinforce responses is often used in laboratories to test intelligence. However, the ability of animals to learn by observation and imitation is considered more significant. Crows have been noted for their ability to learn from each other.[23]Brain anatomy
At the beginning of the 20th century, scientists argued that the birds had hyper-developed basal ganglia, with tiny mammalian-like telencephalon structures.[24] Modern studies have refuted this view.[25] The basal ganglia only occupy a small part of the avian brain. Instead, it seems that birds use a different part of their brain, the medio-rostral neostriatum/hyperstriatum ventrale (see also nidopallium), as the seat of their intelligence, and the brain-to-body size ratio of psittacines (parrots) and corvines (birds of the crow family) is actually comparable to that of higher primates.[26]Studies with captive birds have given insight into which birds are the most intelligent. While parrots have the distinction of being able to mimic human speech, studies with the African grey parrot have shown that some are able to associate words with their meanings and form simple sentences (see Alex). Parrots and the corvid family of crows, ravens, and jays are considered the most intelligent of birds. Not surprisingly, research has shown that these species tend to have the largest HVCs. Dr. Harvey J. Karten, a neuroscientist at UCSD who has studied the physiology of birds, has discovered that the lower parts of avian brains are similar to those of humans.
Social behavior
Further information: Bird § Social systems and Social animal
Social life has been considered to be a driving force for the
evolution of intelligence. Many birds have social organizations, and
loose aggregations are common. Many corvid species separate into small
family groups (or "clans") for activities such as nesting and
territorial defense. The birds then congregate in massive flocks made up
of several different species for migratory purposes. Some birds use
teamwork while hunting. Predatory birds hunting in pairs have been
observed using a "bait and switch" technique, whereby one bird will
distract the prey while the other swoops in for the kill.Social behavior requires individual identification, and most birds appear to be capable of recognizing mates, siblings and young. Other behaviors such as play and cooperative breeding are also considered indicators of intelligence.
When crows are caching food, they appear to be sensitive to note who is watching them hide the food. They also steal food caught by others.[27]
In some fairy-wrens such as the superb and red-backed, males pick flower petals in colors contrasting with their bright nuptial plumage and present them to others of their species that will acknowledge, inspect and sometimes manipulate the petals. This function seems not linked to sexual or aggressive activity in the short and medium term thereafter, though its function is apparently not aggressive and quite possibly sexual.[28]
Language
Main article: Talking birds
Birds communicate with their flockmates through song, calls, and body
language. Studies have shown that the intricate territorial songs of
some birds must be learned at an early age, and that the memory of the
song will serve the bird for the rest of its life. Some bird species are
able to communicate in a variety of dialects. For example, the New Zealand saddleback
will learn the different song "dialects" of clans of its own species,
much as human beings might acquire diverse regional dialects. When a
territory-owning male of the species dies, a young male will immediately
take his place, singing to prospective mates in the dialect appropriate
to the territory he is in.[29] Similarly, with around 300 calls the male tūī also uses this ability to attract female birds.[30] An analysis by a group at Massey University
is that they are the most intelligent bird in not blurting. They
theorize that 'each baronial song has a reason' whether this is
knowledge is abstruse. Garbled, if identified could also help in
population decline, expatriation and conservation,
quoting Mr Hill "The greater the competition in the area, then the more
likely the birds are to actually create or make their song more
complex,".[31]Recent studies indicate that some birds may have an ability to understand grammatical structures.[32]
Conceptual abilities
Evidence that birds can form abstract concepts such as same v. different has been provided by Alex, the African grey parrot. Alex was trained by animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg to vocally label more than 100 objects of different colors and shapes and which are made from different materials. Alex could also request or refuse these objects ('I want X') and quantify numbers of them.[33]Macaws have been demonstrated to comprehend the concept of "left" and "right." [34][35]
Object permanence
Macaws have been demonstrated to fully comprehend the concept of object permanence at a young age.[36] They will even refute the "A-not-B error". If they are shown an item, especially one with whose purpose they are familiar—they will search logically for where it could be feasibly placed. One test for YouTube was done as follows: A macaw was shown an item; the item was then hidden behind the back of the trainer and placed into a container. The container it was placed in without the macaw seeing, along with another container and multiple objects, were spread upon a table simultaneously. The specific container that the item was stored in out of the macaws' sight was one that the macaw had never observed before. The macaw searched this some, then another container, then returning to open the correct container to demonstrate knowledge of and the ability to search for the item.[37]Theory of mind
Further information: Theory of mind
A study on the little green bee-eater suggests that these birds may be able to see from the point of view of a predator.[38] The brown-necked raven
has been observed hunting lizards in complex cooperation with other
ravens, demonstrating an apparent understanding of prey behavior.[39] The western scrub jay hides caches of food
and will later re-hide food if it was watched by another bird the first
time, but only if the bird hiding the food has itself stolen food
before from a cache.[40] Such an ability to see from the point of view of another individual had previously been attributed only to the great apes and sometimes elephants. Such abilities form the basis for empathy.