National Geographic Tales of the Weird

by David Braun

  Published by the National Geographic Society

  Copyright © 2012 National Geographic Society

  All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  National Geographic tales of the weird: unbelievable true stories / edited by David Braun.

  p. cm.

  eISBN: 978-1-4262-0966-6

  1. Curiosities and wonders. I. Braun, David. II. National Geographic Society (U.S.)

  AG243.N38 2012

  031.02–dc23

  2012024608

  The National Geographic Society is one of the world’s largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations. Founded in 1888 to “increase and diffuse geographic knowledge,” the Society’s mission is to inspire people to care about the planet. It reaches more than 400 million people worldwide each month through its official journal, National Geographic, and other magazines; National Geographic Channel; television documentaries; music; radio; films; books; DVDs; maps; exhibitions; live events; school publishing programs; interactive media; and merchandise. National Geographic has funded more than 10,000 scientific research, conservation and exploration projects and supports an education program promoting geographic literacy.

  For more information, visit www.nationalgeographic.com.

  National Geographic Society

  1145 17th Street N.W.

  Washington, D.C. 20036-4688 U.S.A.

  Cover design by Jonathan Halling

  12//QGF-CML/1

  v3.1

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Introduction

  Contributors

  Acknowledgments

  CHAPTER 1: Ancient Rites & Sacred Places

  Maya “Doomsday” Calendar Explained

  Millions of Puppy Mummies

  Lifelike Chinese “Wet Mummy”

  Celtic Princess Tomb Yields Gold, Amber Riches

  Ancient Sorcerer’s “Wake” First Feast for the Dead?

  Ancient Chinese Chariot Fleet

  New Death Ritual Found in Himalaya

  Entrance to Maya Underworld Found in Mexico?

  Tomb of the Otters Filled With Stone Age Human Bones

  Headless Romans in England Came From “Exotic” Locales?

  CHAPTER 2: The Body Human

  Superhuman Hearing Possible?

  Women Can Sniff Out Men Without Knowing—and Vice Versa

  Is Your Brain Asleep While You’re Awake?

  Oldest Known Heart Disease Found in Egyptian Mummy

  Rejection Really Hurts, Brain Scans Show

  Cocaine Addiction Uses Same Brain Paths as Salt Cravings

  Different Nose Parts for Stinky, Sweet

  Sleep Cherry-Picks Memories, Boosts Cleverness

  Drug Could Make Aging Brains More Youthful?

  Your Hair Reveals Whether You’re a Morning Person

  Mutated DNA Causes No-Fingerprint Disease

  Making Music Bolsters the Brain’s Abilities

  The 2,500-Year-Old Brain

  Eating Crocodile Helped Boost Early Human Brains?

  Astronauts’ Fingernails Falling Off

  Ball Lightning May Be a Hallucination

  Secrets of Synesthesia

  Secrets of Sleeping Soundly

  CHAPTER 3: Creature Features

  Five Weirdest New Animals

  Crocodile Attacks Unsuspecting Elephant

  Spiky Rat Plant Poison Turns Hair Deadly

  Vampire Bats Have Vein Sensors

  Goats Scale Dam Walls

  Nature’s Four Worst Mothers

  Longest Polar Bear Swim Recorded

  Alligators Surprisingly Loyal to Old Flames

  How Do Giant Pandas Survive?

  “Vampire” Frog Found in Vietnam

  These Stripes Say Stay Away!

  Elephant Makes a Stool—First Aha! Moment for Species!

  Biggest Crocodile Ever Caught?

  Hibernating Bears Keep Weirdly Warm

  CHAPTER 4: Creepy Crawlies

  Wasps Can Recognize Faces Study Says

  Bumblebee Seeks Warm Flowers for Heavy Pollination

  Virus Brainwashes Caterpillars

  “Zombie” Ants Found With New Mind-Control Fungi

  Cricket Has World’s Biggest Testicles (But Puny Output)

  New “Devil Worm” Is Deepest-Living Animal

  Fire Ants Swarm Form Life Raft

  Snails Survive Being Eaten by Birds

  Five Weirdest Bugs

  Spider “Resurrections” Take Scientists by Surprise

  All in the Family

  Cockroach Brains May Hold New Antibiotics?

  Ladybug Incubators Enslaved by Wasps

  Male Spiders Massage Their Mates

  Alien Wasps Abduct Ants, Drop Them to Get Food

  CHAPTER 5: Explaining the Unexplained

  Titanic Discovered During Secret Cold War Navy Mission

  Bigfoot Discovery Declared a Hoax

  Chupacabra Science: How Evolution Made a Monster

  Exclusive Area 51 Pictures: Secret Plane Crash Revealed

  Kraken Sea Monster Account “Bizarre and Miraculous”

  King Tut Mysteries Solved: Disabled, Malarial, and Inbred

  “Vampire” Skull Found in Italy

  Amelia Earhart Spit Samples to Help Lick Mystery?

  Great Pyramid Mystery to Be Solved by Hidden Room?

  The Freemasons: 8 Myths Decoded

  Crop Circles Explained! Frauds, Artists, Scientists, and Aliens

  7 Moon Landing Hoax Myths - Busted

  Loch Ness Sea Monster Fossil a Fake, Say Scientists

  CHAPTER 6: Feathered Friends

  Highest Flying Bird Found

  Body Odor Attracting Predators to Birds

  Half-Male, Half-Female Chicken

  Sexually Showy Male Birds Finish Early

  Why Do Birds Fall From the Sky?

  Bird With “Human” Eyes Knows What You’re Looking At

  Bird “Sings” Through Feathers

  Birds Can “See” Earth’s Magnetic Field

  Chubby Snipe Snaps Nonstop Record

  Elusive “Smiling” Bird Captured on Film

  Superfast Muscle Power Found in Songbirds’ Throats

  Crows Have Human-Like Intelligence, Author Says

  Why Transylvanian Chickens Have Naked Necks

  CHAPTER 7: The Final Frontier

  What Created Earth’s Oceans? Comet Offers New Clue

  New Planet May Be Among Most Earthlike, Weather Permitting

  Sun Headed into Hibernation, Solar Studies Predict

  Star Caught Eating Another Star, X-Ray Flare Shows

  Saturn Moon Coated in Fresh Powder

  Star Found Shooting Water “Bullets”

  Uranus Has a Bright New Spot, Picture Shows

  Planets Being Pulverized Near Giant Black Holes?

  Youngest Planet Picture: Gas Giant Seen in Throes of Creation

  “Diamond” Planet Found, May Be Stripped Star

  Seven Supernovae Found in Single Galaxy—A First

  Meteors Delivered Gold to Baby Earth

  Darkest Planet Found

  Should Pluto Be a Planet?

  “Vampire” Stars Found in the Heart of Our Galaxy—A First

  CHAPTER 8: Human History

  Oldest Known Mattress Found

  Dead Sea Scrolls Mystery Solved?

  Legendary Swords’ Sharpness, Strength From Nanotubes, Study Says

  Lost City Revealed Under Centuries of Jungle Growth


  The Seven New Wonders of the World

  120 Ancient Roman Shoes Found in U.K.

  Maya Collapse Caused by Man-Made Climate Change?

  Ancient Gem-Studded Teeth Show Skill of Early Dentists

  Mysterious Inscribed Slate Discovered at Jamestown

  “Lost” Fortresses of Sahara Revealed by Satellites

  Spawn of Medieval “Black Death” Bug Still Roam the Earth

  Oldest Readable Writing in Europe

  Blackbeard’s Ship Yields Ornamental Sword

  King Solomon’s Wall Found, Proof of Bible Tale?

  Vikings Navigated With Translucent Crystals?

  Jewelry Shows De Soto Deeper in U.S. Than Originally Thought

  CHAPTER 9: Natural Phenomena

  Oldest Living Tree Found in Sweden

  The Truth About Daylight Saving Time

  UFO-Like Clouds Linked to Military Maneuvers?

  Giant Sinkholes Pierce Guatemala

  Yellowstone Has Bulged as Magma Pocket Swells

  Brand-New Cloud

  Solved! The Case of the Giant Crystals

  Giant, Mucuslike Sea Blobs on the Rise, Pose Danger

  “Bodies” Fill Underwater Sculpture Park

  Moss Has Cloned Itself for 50,000 Years, Study Says

  World’s Biggest Cave Found in Vietnam

  New “Porta Potti” Flower Discovered

  CHAPTER 10: Prehistoric Life

  T. Rex, Other Dinosaurs Had Heads Full of Air

  Massive “Sea Monster” Skull Revealed

  Biggest Snake Discovered, Was Longer Than a Bus

  Oldest Animal Discovered, Aquatic African Ancestor

  Ancient “Saber-Toothed Squirrel” Found

  Prehistoric Bird Had Wings Like Nunchucks

  “Thunder Thighs” Dinosaur Thrashed Predators to Death?

  Giant Bugs Once Roamed the Earth

  Brainy Birds Out-Thought Doomed Dinosaurs?

  Prehistoric “Shield”-Headed Croc Found

  Largest Flying Bird Could Barely Get off Ground, Fossils Show

  Oldest Fossil Brain Found in Kansas

  Did Love Make Neanderthals Extinct?

  “Nasty” Little Predator From Dinosaur Dawn Found

  Venomous Dinosaur Discovered

  Giant “Roly-Poly” Rabbit Fossil Found

  CHAPTER 11: Underwater Weirdness

  Rare “Cyclops” Shark Found

  Fish With “Hands” Found to Be New Species

  Wild Fish Uses Tool, Cockle Put to Clever Use

  Piranhas Bark, Three Fierce Vocalizations Deciphered

  Squid Males Evolved Shot-in-the-Dark Mating Strategy

  Great White Shark Jumps on Boat, Stressing Everyone

  Giant “Amoebas” Found in Deepest Place on Earth

  Sawfish Snout Has Sixth Sense, Splits Prey in Half

  “Bizarre” Octopuses Carry Coconuts as Instant Shelters

  Lobster Caught “Half Cooked” in Maine

  Weird Fish With Transparent Head

  Strange Sea Species Found off Greenland

  Grizzly Bear-Size Catfish Caught in Thailand

  New Jellyfish Attacks Other Jellies

  Small Squid Have Bigger Sperm

  Census Scopes Out Strange New Sea Species

  405-Year-Old Clam Called Longest-Lived Animal

  Illustrations Credits

  (Photo Credit col.1)

  INTRODUCTION

  You Can’t Make This Stuff Up!

  And to think it all began with a two-headed snake. A Spanish farmer captured one in 2002, and scientists were eager to study it. National Geographic Daily News published a story about the strange reptile on our website, and our readers went wild. More than a million people clicked on that weird tale, and then they came back for more and more stories.

  Ten years and 8,000 stories later, more than 200 million individuals have clicked on our stories about strange and wonderful things. The two-headed snake was the first of many of the astounding National Geographic stories that lit up the Internet during the last decade. Our fans just can’t get enough of tales about albino Cyclops sharks, fish with hands, zombie ants with mind-controlling fungi, top-secret photographs of Area 51, and the truth behind the Maya “Doomsday” calendar.

  As the founding editor of National Geographic News, I have watched our community of fans grow from hundreds to millions to hundreds of millions. It’s been a delight to publish stories that are as much fun to produce as they are to read. There isn’t a day that goes by when the editors of National Geographic News do not find stories about new species, amazing animal secrets, the wonders of deep space—all weird discoveries that change our thinking about who we are and where we came from, the great enigmas of the universe.

  Did comets make life on Earth possible? Will superhuman hearing soon be possible? Can stars “eat” other stars? Where was the world’s oldest mattress found? These are only some of the hundreds of questions explored in our stories. The answers can be profound (and even disturbing), and they almost always lead to new questions.

  National Geographic Tales of the Weird is our first reader filled with all kinds of these unbelievable true stories. National Geographic Books editor Amy Briggs and I have selected some of the highlights of the first ten years of National Geographic News—the stories that were most popular with the National Geographic global audience as well as some of our personal favorites. From “Creepy Crawlies” to “Human History,” each chapter is stuffed full of our strangest, oddest, and most truly fascinating stories.

  As I picked each tale, I had to constantly remind myself that you can’t make this stuff up. We are living in the real age of discovery, and I have observed that the world is more marvelous and mysterious than anything we can imagine. All we’re doing is sharing this with millions of readers. It’s got to be one of the best jobs in the world.

  —David Braun

  Editor in Chief, National Geographic Daily News

  news.nationalgeographic.com

  Contributors

  The stories you’re about to read were crafted by the talented journalists at National Geographic Daily News, a top-notch crew devoted to ferreting out the weird and wonderful facts about our world.

  Carolyn Barry

  David Braun

  Anne Casselman

  Ted Chamberlain

  Charles Choi

  Chris Combs

  Christine Dell’Amore

  Blake de Pastino

  Willie Drye

  Fritz Faerber

  Brian Handwerk

  Mason Inman

  Victoria Jaggard

  Sebastian John

  Matt Kaplan

  Rachel Kaufman

  Lucas Laursen

  Richard A. Lovett

  Stefan Lovgren

  Sean Markey

  Hillary Mayell

  Mati Milstein

  Anne Minard

  Dave Mosher

  Paula Neely

  Scott Norris

  James Owen

  Diana Parsell

  Heather Pringle

  John Roach

  Ker Than

  Traci Watson

  Acknowledgments

  Our thanks to the team at National Geographic Books who made this weird collection come together.

  Amy Briggs, Senior Editor

  Dee Wong, Researcher and Writer

  Melissa Farris, Art Director

  Ruthie Thompson, Designer

  Rob Waymouth, Illustrations Editor

  Marshall Kiker, Associate Managing Editor

  Judith Klein, Production Editor

  Lisa A. Walker, Production Manager

  Galen Young, Rights Clearance Specialist

  Katie Olsen, Design Assistant

  CHAPTER 1

  Ancient Rites and Sacred Places

  (Photo Credit 1.1)

  For centuries, human civilizations have been grappling with some very big spiritual issues: What happens when we die? How will the w
orld end? Will I need my chariot in the afterlife? Strange and wonderful archaeological discoveries—from the puppy mummies of ancient Egypt to the entrance to the Maya underworld in Mexico—are revealing the many fascinating ways that cultures all over the world developed sacred rituals and practices.

  THE END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT?

  Maya “Doomsday”

  Calendar Explained

  It’s remotely possible the world will end in December 2012. But don’t credit the ancient Maya calendar for predicting it, say experts on the Mesoamerican culture.

  (Photo Credit 1.2)

  It’s true that the so-called long-count calendar—which spans roughly 5,125 years starting in 3114 B.C.—reaches the end of a cycle on December 21, 2012. That day brings to a close the 13th Bak’tun, an almost 400-year period in the Maya long-count calendar.

  But rather than moving to the next Bak’tun, the calendar will reset at the end of the 13th cycle, akin to the way a 1960s automobile would click over at mile 99,999.9 and reset to zero.

  FAILED PROPHECIES

  70: Ancient Romans believe the end is near with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

  1666: The Great Fire of London, along with the biblical denouncement of the number 666, contributes to Londoners’ belief that this is their final year.

  1910: The appearance of Halley’s comet stirs up apocalyptic fears among Europeans and Americans, who believe gases in the comet’s tail will end life on Earth.

  1914: Since its founding in the 1870s, Jehovah’s Witnesses predicted the end of the world in 1914. When it didn’t come, the religion’s followers began predicting that the end is coming “shortly.”

  March 1997: Heaven’s Gate members commit suicide when comet Hale-Bopp is closest to Earth because they believe a UFO riding the comet will save them from the Apocalypse.

  January 1, 2000: A 1984 trade publication predicts that computers will be crippled by a “Y2K” bug and cause mass chaos.

  May 5, 2000: Richard Noone predicts that the planetary alignment of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn with the sun and the moon will cause another ice age to occur.

  September 2009: Critics of the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest atom smasher, believe that it will create a black hole that destroys Earth.

  “We, of course, know that really means a hundred thousand [miles] and not zero,” said William Saturno, an expert on Maya archaeology at Boston University and National Geographic explorer.