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You’ll be forgiven if you first read that as “The Eye of Sauron.” Astronauts were the first to notice this 50-kilometer wide geological formation in Mauritania, in the middle of the Sahara Desert. Read about it and other wonders of nature in the post 13 Most Incredible Geological Wonders on Earth at Environmental Graffiti. Link
When travelling down a sand dune, the Saharan rolling spider (Araneus rota) is capable of rolling on its outstretched legs, achieving speeds of over 4 mph. It looks "like a small, unusually fast tumbleweed."
– via spiegel
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Photo: Mike Hettwer
Alan Taylor of the Big Picture Blog over at Boston Globe has a(nother) neat post – this time of fantastic photos of Mike Hettwer of a dinosaur fossil excavation in the Sahara Desert:
About 9,000 years ago, a very wet climate prevailed in parts of the Sahara Desert called the Neolithic Subpluvial period. Lasting several thousand years, this Green Sahara was home to many grassland and woodland animals as well as humans. While on an expedition for dinosaur fossils with paleontologist Paul Sereno in Niger in 2000, Hettwer discovered a burial area containing hundreds of skeletons from two distinct cultures, each thousands of years old – the Kiffian and Tenerian. Also found in the dry and desolate site were hunting tools, pottery, and bones of large land animals and fish.
Link | Many more excellent photos at Mike’s website: Link
