This Week's Weird News – Fox Sports Radio
The only footage ever found of a juvenile Tasmanian Tiger, an incredibly strange-looking dinosaur, and a massive Buddha statue discovered ‘hidden’ under an apartment complex in China were among the strange and unusual stories to pop up on our radar this week.
Although the last thylacine in captivity perished nearly a century ago, the world was afforded a brief glimpse of the creature this past week when the only known film of the animal as a cub was unearthed after being lost in the Australian archives for decades. The tantalizingly short piece of footage was captured by the late Reverend Harold Doyle back in 1930 when he visited the Hobart Zoo where the lone remaining Tasmanian Tiger, dubbed Benjamin, resided. Amazingly, the discovery of the film rewrites the legendary creature’s story as it had been previously thought that the thylacine was captured when it was older, but it now appears that the unfortunate animal spent its entire life at the facility.
Once again the breathtaking weirdness of Mother Nature was on display this week when paleontologists announced the discovery of a truly bizarre dinosaur which sported a pair of pole-like appendages that stuck out of its shoulders. Comprised of the protein keratin, which is what fingernails and hair is made of, the odd ribbons are believed to have either functioned as a means of warding off predators or attracting a mate in a fashion similar to the plumage of a peacock. Upon the discovery of the curious dinosaur’s strange appearance, researchers marveled that they have never seen anything quite like it in either the fossil record nor in contemporary wildlife.
By far the most jaw-dropping story of the week came by way of China where workers clearing vegetation and trash from a cliff beneath two residential buildings discovered a massive headless statue of Buddha that had been carved into the rock face. The incredible juxtaposition of the seemingly ancient piece of artwork sitting within the apartment complex captured the imagination of Chinese social media and led to speculation that perhaps the sculpture was thousands of years old. However, a subsequent investigation found that it was less than a century old and, in a testament to the power of the passage of time, was simply forgotten about for decades until this past week.
For more strange and unusual stories check out the Coast to Coast AM website.
