Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Colin Lauva and I'm Alice Irasari. Spotlight uses
a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
matter where in the world they live. In two thousand and eight, doctor
Heinrich Frank discovered something strange. He was driving home from his work at the
Federal University of Rio Grande do Souls. He noticed a hole in a building
area he drove by. He was a geologist, a person who studies the
earth and its minerals and structures. The tunnel interested him. It looked different
from other tunnels in the area, so several days later he went to investigate
inside. The tunnel was different from anything he had seen before. Most caves
form when water flows underground. They do not go in a straight line,
but this tunnel did. It went back into the hill for fifteen meters,
and strangest of all, there were marks on the walls. They looked like
claw marks made by a huge animal. When Frank left the cave, he
did not know what he had found. Soon he understood that he had discovered
his first paleo burrow. These ancient tunnels were made by prehistoric animals over ten
thousand years ago. Today's spotlight is on paleo burrows. We know about most
ancient animals through their fossils. The study of former life on the earth as
preserved in fossils is called paleontology. Usually fossils are the bones of an ancient
animal. These bones have turned to stone over time. Sometimes scientists are able
to find other remains. Rarely, scientists may find animal droppings and even footprints.
But these paleo burrows, or ancient burrows, are new in the history
of the paleontology. These were an animal's home. A burrow is a hole
an animal digs in the ground as a living space or shelter. Through these
burrows, scientists can do more than picturing how the animals looked. They can
study how an animal may have lived and worked. They can know more about
the animal's social relationships. Each type of paleoborough would have been dug by a
different kind of animal. All of these burrow tunnels are very large. They
are dug out of salad rock. It would take many animals working together a
long time to dig a burrow. One paleo burrow found in the Amazon is
over one hundred meters long and two meters high. Mina's Jureis is a state
in Brazil. There, scientists have found a paleo burrow with six tunnels forty
meters long. This burrow has a large cave in the middle. The cave
is four meters tall and ten meters across. Scientists think many animals digging for
many generations made it so what creatures might dig a tan year after year for
their burrow. There are two possibilities, and both creatures may be responsible for
different kinds of paleo burrows. The first possibility is the lstodon. The Lstodon
was a huge ground sloth. These sloths were different from the slow moving tree
climbers we know today. Picture a sloth that looks like a hamster, but
with the size of an elephant. The leestodon was two meters tall and four
and a half meters long. It had huge, powerful claws on its hands
that it used for digging plants. The Lstodon probably dug the taller, wider
burrows. Another possible animal is the ancient armadillo. Like today's armadillos, they
had protective shells on their backs and heads, but on like today's armadillos,
they could grow unbelievably large. The biggest of these armadillos is called the Dodicorus.
The Doughdicarus was a meter and a half tall and three and a half
meters long. It may have weighed fifteen hundred kilograms. It also had a
large spiked club on the end of its tail. It was the size of
a small car. Scientists believe these animals built the shorter burrows, but they
may have made longer, more complex ones. Also. One great mystery about
paleo burros is where these are found. Giant ground slots and ancient armadillos lived
throughout North and South America, but scientists have only found paleo burrows in South
America. Most are in Brazil, in the states of Santa Catarina and Rio
Grande do Sous. These findings may be because most scientists studying paleo boros live
in Brazil, but these scientists also search in other places. But Brazil seems
to have the most of these prehistoric burroughs. We just do not know why.
Greg MacDonald is a scientist who studies ancient ground sloths. He is from
North America. He spoke to discover magazine about North America's lack of paleo burroughs.
The fact that we do not have them here could be that we have
not found them, or it may be that we had them up here,
but we did not have the right kind of soil that let them survive for
a long time. Another mysterious thing about paleo burrows is the size. Huge
animals made these tunnels, but most scientists believe the tunnel's sides is greater than
necessary. Scientists use the example of the giant arms. The giant armadillo is
the largest kind of armadillo alive today. They can grow up to a meter
long. Large ones can weigh almost fifty kilograms. Like ancient armadillos, today's
giant armadillos make tunnels. These modern tunnels are usually forty centimeters around. Modern
armadillo tunnels can be about four and a half meters long, but paleo burrows
have been found more than one hundred meters long. Of course, ancient animals
that dug these tunnels were bigger than a modern armadillo, but these paleo burrows
are larger than a single ancient armadillo or sloth would need. Why were many
of these paleo burrows so large. The creatures that built paleo burrows may have
had very complex behaviours. They may have worked together to create huge structures.
They may have used these boro to shelter from the cold, or they may
have hidden there from other animals. Scientists today are imagining the lives of these
ancient animals. Regrettably, paleo boroughs are in danger. The study of these
ancient tunnels is new, the money for research is limited, few scientists have
the chance to study them. Paleo boroughs are also in danger from modern technology.
Often people find these during building projects. By the time they know they
are digging into a paleo borough, parts are already destroyed. People build highways
and houses on these ancient boroughs, making it difficult to study what is below.
Still, scientists hope more people will soon understand how important paleo burroughs are.
Are trying to raise understanding. One day we may be able to learn
more about the unbelievable creatures that built these burrows. Do you remember doctor Heinrich
Frank From the beginning of the program. Since his first discovery, he has
become an expert in paleo boroughs. He and his team have found almost two
thousand of paleo boroughs and he supports the idea of studying these mysterious structures.
He spoke to the world about why these are so important. You can remake
the home of a prehistoric animal. This research does not exist in any kind
of ancient animal studies. You have the dinosaurs, you have their bones,
but you do not know where they lived. But we find the homes of
ancient animals. Our group is working in a new area. Do you like
ancient animals? What is your favorite dinosaur or ancient mammal? Why? We
want to hear your thoughts. You can leave a comment on our website or
email us at Radio at Radio English dot net. You can also comment on
Facebook at Facebook dot com slash Spotlight Radio. The writer of this program was
Dan Christman. The producer was Michio Osaki. The voices you heard were from
the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program
and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to this program again and read it
on the internet at www dot Spotlight English dot com. This program is called
Brazil's Most Mysterious Tunnels. We hope you can join us again for the next
Spotlight program. Goodbye, M.