By Zach Royer

Seventy million years ago, the earth was inhabited by giant reptiles: gigantic lizards, colossal saurains, who slithered, swam, flew. Their reign lasted one hundred million years - whereas, according to the most optimistic estimates, man has had barely six million years.

This means that these species of reptiles had in order to become adapted and to evolve, an infinitely longer time than man. Furthermore, it is impossible to pretend that they represented an evolutionary failure: any species that lasts a hundred million years must be considered to be fully adapted. Yet few species that were contemporaries of those reptiles survive -- for example, certain crabs, which have not changed in three hundred million years. In fact, in less than one million years the giant reptiles entirely disappeared.

How and Why?

We can scarcely maintain that it was because a change in climate; for even when the climate changes, the oceans hardly vary, and many of these reptiles lived in the oceans.

It is impossible to believe that a higher form of life was able to exterminate them. This would have required a considerable army, whose traces we would certainly have found.

One amusing hypothesis is that our ancestors, the mammals, might have fed on dinosaur eggs. But it is only that: an amusing hypothesis: the icthyosaurs deposited their eggs in the oceans, out of their adversaries' reach.

It has been said that the grasses changed, and that the new grasses were too tough for the big reptiles. A completely unlikely hypothesis: large numbers of vegetation types have survived, on which they could have fed perfectly well. The giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands, the ones that interested Darwin so much, did not die of hunger.

One could say that species grow old, become senile, and die. But this is bad logic: the preservation of the genetic code prevents a species from dying out. And why haven't those species that are still living after several hundred millions of years, such as crabs and cockroaches, become senile too?

None of these hypotheses hold. But something happened. What then? An ingenious hypothesis has been outlined by two Soviet scientists, V. I. Krasovkii and I. S. Chklovski, both of whom are eminent astrophysicists -- especially the latter, who is the author of some extremely important works in astrophysics and radio astronomy. It was Chklovski, in fact, who studied synchotron radiation and showed that relatively rapid and extremely violent events can be produced at the center of galaxies as well as in space in general.

Contributed by Zach Royer

(AA) There’s talk all over the internet about pyramids in Antarctica, something we at Apparently Apparel love to write about. What appears to be causing all the discussion is this picture, showing what looks like two, possibly three pyramids lined up Giza style, nearly covered in snow and ice.

Frankly, I think we’re looking at plain ordinary mountains here, albeit ones of unusual apparent symmetry. But suppose we ARE looking at pyramids (and I think the size of these mountains would preclude that, but that’s just me), or, to put it differently, supposed there WERE pyramids in Antarctica? What would it mean?

Well, for one thing, it would confirm the speculations of many Atlantologists (including, incidentally, the Nazis), who believe that the ice-covered continent was in fact Atlantis, the continent literally being “sunk” under water, in this case, ice. The presence of such structures would raise the bar considerably not only for Atlantology but also for the possible motivations of the Nazi expedition in late 1938 and early 1939, and make it likely – if they discovered such structures during their aerial reconnaissance flights over the southern continent – that they decided to follow up with further investigations.

The reason any discovery of such structures on Antarctica would be significant is rather obvious, for the possibility would be quite strong that if they could be excavated (a mighty big if in Antarctica’s case!) the sites might yield some significant records or artifacts of a lost human past. One might even speculate that the discovery of ancient records and technologies might be considered a top prize. Such a discovery could rationalize not only the curious Nazi expedition, but also the postwar attempts not only to internationalize the continent but to keep the curious visitor OUT of the continent.

While I remain skeptical at this moment, the story is nonetheless worth watching, providing, of course, that we don’t get the usual mix of internet hysteria and hype (and yes, already the story has been predictably linked to extra-terrestrials and secret Nazi flying saucer research bases.)

Another story that just surfaced today is about palm trees having once thrived in Antarctica, when it was much warmer of course, which included the image below by Etienne Classen of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. The picture shows a pyramid structure surrounded by ice right in the center of the shot, right on the coast, as if this was what they were trying to photograph, an obvious clue which prompted the research and writing of this story.

[Author's Note: I've Googled the supposed photographer Etienne Classen and the only thing coming up is the article about palm trees and the image below, no profiles or bio, basically it's as if Etienne is a new name given by whoever submitted this photograph. In order to go to the Antarctic, don't you think you have to be a scientist with a verifiable background?  Anyone else notice this, or is it just me? ZR]