Almost everyone has suffered in 2020, and we’re not just talking about humans. The worldwide crisis has made life difficult for animals, too, with shelters facing particular challenges. Thankfully, the adoption drive Clear the Shelters has turned their luck around. In August alone, they were able to rehouse over 100,000 pets, changing so many lives for the better.

A Month Of Support

Clear the Shelters, which is a cooperative project between animal shelters and NBC owned stations, usually holds an adoption drive every year. However, due to the ongoing crisis, this wasn’t possible in 2020. So, rather than dedicating one day to rehoming animals, they focused their efforts around an entire month. People were encouraged to donate and adopt in August so that these pets could get a second chance at happiness. Thankfully, the giving spirit was in full swing that month.

What A Turnout

In the space of 31 days, nearly $1.2 million was raised for shelters and rescues across the States. Even better than that, more than 130,000 animals were given a new home that month, an incredible achievement considering the struggles faced by many this year. Thousands of people did their part to help out, including the likes of Dennis Quaid. He adopted a cat who shared his name.

The Giving Spirit

There was significant concern amongst shelters that the events of 2020 would make rehousing animals difficult. However, Clear the Shelters’ first-ever virtual campaign was a clear success. The project has been active since 2015, and in the last five years, over 550,000 animals have left shelters and found new families in the US. The fact that nearly a quarter of that total came from one month alone is pretty incredible. It shows that even during the toughest times, people still have a lot of love to give.

We hope all these pets enjoy their new forever homes. They deserve it.

With all of its snow and undomesticated land, you never know what could be found deep within Russia.

At its Kostenki 11 site, a strange structure made of mammoth fossils was recently found. Dated back to around 25.000 years, it’s the oldest structure of its kind discovered so far. What its significance and historical use were is yet to be discovered.

Structures Dating Back to the Ice Age

Man-made formations similar to the one discovered at the Kostenki 11 site were seen before in several spots across Eastern Europe. They’re commonly circular and made of numerous mammoth fossils. The Kostenki 11 site is located in Russia, by the Don River, near the city Voronezh. The structure found here is the largest and oldest one of its kind discovered so far. Its age was determined through radiocarbon dating and all findings regarding this site were published in Antiquity. There are usually several large pits surrounding the structures. Similar sites were found in Russia in the 1950s, the 1960s, and 2013.

What Were These Structures Made of Fossils For

Researchers have several ideas regarding what the significance of these structures was during the last Ice Age. However, no theory has been proven. Alexander Pryor, one of the leading authors of the new study, offers a few possibilities about the significance of these structures. He says they may have been dwellings, although he claims it isn’t the most likely theory. Humans of that era were nomadic and didn’t typically make long-term dwellings. Additionally, if some of the bones used in the construction still had meat and cartilage, they would have attracted predators.

Another idea is that the site was used for storing food. The flotation technique used by the researchers to sift through the remains on this site discovered some charcoal, including charred plant remains, burnt bones, and bits of stone tools. Another theory is that the site had some sort of spiritual significance for the Pleistocene humans.

This discovery shows that the hunter-gatherers of the last Ice Age had the skills to plan and build. Hopefully, further research will give more conclusive evidence as to what role these structures played.