On this ancient planet, we humans are the masters at the top of the entire food chain. With the continuous advancement of science and technology, the mysteries of many unknown areas in the world have been gradually opened by scientists, the world is more complex than we imagined, and some mysteries are waiting for scientists to unravel. For example, in the interior of the United States, there are many spiral-shaped rocks, geologists call these rocks "devil's spiral", why are these rocks in such shape? What's the secret behind it?
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the U.S. inland underground hides more than three meters of strange rocks, which is considered to be the residue of freshwater sponges </h1>
The topographical features of the United States are vast plains, nebraska belongs to the Midwest of the United States, and the plains are endless. When it comes to Nebraska, we can't help but think of "The Story of Mr. Streit", in this movie we appreciate the customs of Nebraska, the Indians who have lived here for a long time have been ostracized by the White race, in order to commemorate the past Sioux Indians have been living in this thick soil, posterity will name this place Sioux County. Often ostracized and discriminated against, the Indians were soon expelled by the White race, who occupied the land for a long period of time for agriculture and animal husbandry.
At the end of the 18th century, a farmer accidentally found many strange stones in the process of reclamation in order to expand his ranch. After digging deeper, the rancher couldn't bear to look directly, and actually dug out a spiral-shaped strange rock more than three meters high. After the local government learned of this matter, it also attached great importance to it, and specially sent a senior geologist and paleontologist Barber to explore.
"What is a spiral-shaped strange stone more than three meters high?" When barber, a senior expert, saw the strange stones in front of him, his first reaction was whether these spiral-shaped stones would be the remains of ancient creatures? Because the organic matter in the remains of many ancient creatures will decompose over time, and the hard parts of the body such as the shell, bones, branches, etc. will be petrified and turned into stone together with the surrounding sediments, but some external structures or forms will still be retained. In order to confirm this statement, the senior expert Barber consulted a lot of literature, but there is no detailed similar record, because these spiral shapes are more symmetrical, and finally the researcher named it "the devil's spiral, the devil's bottle opener."
Nebraska discovered the "Devil's Spiral", and the news spread quickly to all corners of the United States, attracting the attention of many scientists because of its special name. What exactly is the "Devil's Spiral"? Why is it named? In order to help everyone answer questions, Barber also specially published the cause of the "devil's spiral". It turns out that he named it mainly because he thought that this spiral rock was the remnant of a giant prehistoric freshwater sponge.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" >the devil's spiral is the most ancient "screw", is it a plant or an animal? Three generations of scientists have studied for 86 years </h1>
Unexpectedly, this strange rock made three generations of scientists study it for 86 years, and it was Barber who first called this spiral-like rock "the devil's spiral". Its external structure is like the rhizome of some kind of plant, constantly circling and winding, and the plant decays and is wrapped in minerals and finally fossilized.
Although Barber's explanation can be understood and accepted by many people, in 1893, another paleontologist in the United States, Drick, put forward a different view, in his view, this spiral rock should not be a plant, but like a cave dug by some large animals, the reason why it is spiral-shaped, these animals eat with their teeth (a way of grinding teeth), and this view put forward by paleontologist Delink was also endorsed by another Austro-Hungarian paleontologist. And he further confirmed that the animal that dug this special cave was the extinct ancient beaver.
As for how the "devil's spiral" was formed, it has been divided into two schools in the field of scientific research, the "plant school" represented by barber paleontologists and the "animal school" represented by Drick, everyone argues with reason, does not give in to each other, and has been looking for more powerful evidence for their own views for many years, and after nearly 70 years of stalemate, the "devil's spiral" still has no definite answer.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > why did the ancient beaver dig this "spiral" rat hole and build a mansion with plaster? </h1>
Until the mid-1970s, the famous American paleontologist Martin led his team to conduct in-depth research on the "Devil's Spiral" from multiple angles, Martin analyzed from the geographical structure, and the sediment of the stratigraphic particles in the spiral cave should only be formed by wind under drought conditions. The caves are as strong as plaster, and there are many animal tooth marks in these spiral rock layers, which overturns the previous Barber "plant" school of thought.
In the animal kingdom, the thick-haired beavers enjoy the reputation of "architects", they have always been known for their excellent architectural skills, and in the animal kingdom they are also "hydraulic engineers". They are mainly distributed in Eurasia and North America, often inhabiting streams, ponds and lakes, so beavers are born with a habit of damming waterways. Diurnal and nocturnal production feeds on the leaves, buds and bark of trees. The beaver's teeth are sharp, and it is a veritable rodent.
The picture shows the ancient beaver
In addition to beavers, such as the rats, squirrels, etc. that we see every day are rodents. One of the biggest commonalities this animal is that it often needs to nibble on something hard to grind its teeth to prevent teeth from growing too long and affecting eating. Based on the characteristics of the beaver, the paleontologist Martin deduced that digging this "spiral"-like rat hole was built by the ancient beaver. To this end, some netizens questioned: "The same are rodents, why not the hole hit by the mouse but the ancient beaver?" ”
The biggest difference with rats, the teeth (incisors) of the ancient beaver are infinite growth, only constantly gnawing on things can prevent the growth of this tooth, and the teeth of the mouse are not as powerful as the ancient beaver, this spiral-like solid rock is the most outstanding work of the ancient beaver, their front teeth are like the saws we use in our daily life, a tree of about 30 centimeters, can be picked up by the ancient beaver, which shows how powerful the ancient beaver's front teeth are.
1. How does the ancient beaver make holes? How is this spiral structure made up?
Ancient beaver digging cave method is from top to bottom continuously digging deeper, in the process of digging the hole, the ancient beaver's hind legs play a supporting role, to the radius of the body as a spiral downward excavation, this way of digging holes is very strong, like a fortress built, the cave space is very large as a villa, can be defended to avoid foreign enemies. If the water level of the rat cave rises when the flood hits, the ancient beaver will make a hole in the roof of the cave, which is also the "ceiling" of his home, which is like the attic of our current high-rise belt.
So what role did this "devil's spiral" passage play in the ancient beaver rat cave? One of the main advantages is to avoid foreign enemies, even if there is a foreign enemy breaking into the cave, once confused by this spiral passage, it will soon be dizzy, unable to find the real bottom hole, and lose the sense of direction. Secondly, the spiral channel can regulate the temperature in the cave, which plays a role in warming the winter and cooling the summer, it is like the air conditioner can increase the temperature and reduce the humidity of the cave anytime and anywhere. When the ancient beavers want to excrete, they will easily drill out of this channel slope and go outside to excrete, which plays a role in "cleaning the garbage".
When the ancient beavers build their own "villas", they will also make full use of the large trees that have been gnawed down before, for example, they will use the thicker branches as the base, and those more slender branches will be used for support, and the thick leaves on the base will be laid, which is like a bed, which is perfectly built. Ancient beavers are also very principled in their work, they will not chew all the woods, but will leave some very small saplings behind, and later they will develop into towering trees.
2, the ancient beaver rat hole is covered with plant fibers - directly related to the topographic environment
Paleontologists have found that there are a lot of plant fibers in the holes of ancient beavers, is it the ancient beaver that stores ingredients? Not really. The cave passage of the ancient beaver mouse is a spiral structure, long-term ventilation can not store grain at all, because after the extinction of the ancient beaver, its cave is abandoned, the entire cave environment is wet and wet, this special geographical environment is very suitable for plant generation, after in-depth research by paleontologists, finally revealed why the rat cave has a large number of plant fibers.
Ancient beavers store food in a more special way, they will nibble the branches in advance when winter comes, and then drag them to their own holes, in the winter ancient beavers will find some ice cubes, these ice cubes are their "refrigerator", this "refrigerator" covers the branches they have previously stored, which not only preserves the freshness of the branches for easy storage, but also can wait until the next spring when the ice and snow melt to nibble.
As for how the ancient beaver eventually went extinct, we don't know, but from the current point of view, the mystery of the "devil's spiral" has been completely uncovered by paleontologists, which shows that scientists like to solve problems and dare to take risks. Their exploration of nature is endless, not only in their own realm, but also in other fields. In order to explore the mysteries of the world, in order to pursue the truth, scientists have been working hard, and they have shown us the wonders of nature with a persistent spirit.