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If you’re looking for reasons that 2016 might not have been the worst year ever, how about this? We (as in humans) discovered a lot of cool things last year.
Here are 8 of the most amazing things we uncovered as a species in 2016.
#8. Mount Diablo Buckwheat
This long-lost wildflower sighting by Antioch is botany’s holy grail. via @pfimrite https://t.co/EBFvuWtl0k pic.twitter.com/jc2Yf2X1LX
— SFChronicle (@sfchronicle) September 8, 2016
Thought to have gone extinct seven decades ago, the location of a field of 1.8 million of the rarest of wildflowers isn’t being disclosed by botanists.
#7. A Missing Black Box
Photo Credit: Atlas Obscura
In 1985, Eastern Airlines Flight 980 crashed on its way from Paraguay to Miami. After 31 years, two friends found the flight’s black box in a nearly inaccessible spot in the Bolivian mountains.
#6. New Species: Tiny Ghost Octopus
Photo Credit: Atlas Obscura
2.5 miles beneath the Pacific Ocean, NOAA’s Okeanos Explorer found this remarkable little guy. The octopus lacked fins and finger-like cirri on its arms, along with having no pigment and only one series of suckers on its legs.
#5. Ancient Oven with Food Still Inside
Photo Credit: Atlas Obscura
About 1,600 years ago, around 400 CE, someone started cooking a meal in Alberta, Canada. They never ate it, and the remains were discovered still intact last year.
#4. The World’s Largest Insect
Photo Credit: Atlas Obscura
The stick insect clocked in at over 2 feet long and was discovered in Liuzhou City, China. I mean, it’s just a stick, but I still wouldn’t want to meet it in a dark alley. Or a bright one.
#3. The World’s First Identical Twin Puppies
A dog has given birth to the first identical twin puppies https://t.co/KQswvWOc0k pic.twitter.com/a7L3ACV2nd
— BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) August 31, 2016
South African veterinarian Kurt de Cramer was performing a c-section on an Irish Wolfhound when he got the surprise of his life – two puppies sharing a single placenta.
#2. Fairy Circles in Australia
Photo Credit: Atlas Obscura
Once thought to exist only in Namibia, these strange, unexplained hexagonal patterns left bare by surrounding vegetation appeared outside Newman, Australia. I do love a good, lasting mystery!
#1. Heinrich Himmler’s Diaries
Photo Credit: Atlas Obscura
Thought to have been lost decades ago, the disturbing diaries of one of Hitler’s right hand men were discovered sitting in a Russian archive.
Want more? Check out the articles below:
- Anne Frank Made Her Last Diary Entry on August 1st, 1944. This Is What it Said…
- The First Woman to Run for President Was Called ‘Mrs. Satan’… This Is Why
- The Real Story of Elizabeth Báthory: History’s Most Prolific Female Serial Killer
- Here’s How Seemingly Random Events Can Lead to One of the Most Famous Photos in American History
- The BBC Halloween Hoax That Traumatized a Nation…and Killed Someone?
- These 16 Vintage Medical Photos Are Both Creepy and Fascinating
- In 1957, Five Guys Stood Underneath a Nuclear Blast… on Purpose.
- The Most Boring Day in History Has Been Identified. By a Computer.
- The Horribly Racist History of the Cakewalk
h/t: Atlas Obscura
