Complementary Cognition: The Evolution of Collective Intelligence
The period preceding the emergence of behaviorally modern humans was characterized by dramatic climatic and environmental variability – it is these pressures, occurring over hundreds…
Archaeology
Unearthing Neanderthal Population History Using Ancient Nuclear DNA From Cave Sediments
Mitochondrial DNA of archaic humans has been retrieved from cave sediments, but it has limited value for studying population relationships. Now, researchers present a method…
New Species of Giant Rhino – the Largest Land Mammal That Ever Lived – Offers Clues to a Long-Running Mystery
The giant rhino, Paraceratherium, is considered the largest land mammal that ever lived and was mainly found in Asia, especially China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Pakistan. How…
Australia’s Largest Dinosaur – The Southern Titan – Has Just Stomped Into the Record Books!
What’s as long a basketball court, taller than a b-double and has just stomped into the record books as Australia’s largest dinosaur? It’s time to…
Raucous Barks Reverberating in the Night Lead to the Discovery of New Species
The raucous calls of tree hyraxes — small, herbivorous mammals — reverberate through the night in the forests of West and Central Africa, but their…
Neanderthal and Early Modern Human Culture Co-existed Alongside Older Traditions for Over 100,000 Years
Research from the University of Kent’s School of Anthropology and Conservation has discovered that one of the earliest stone tool cultures, known as the Acheulean,…
Two New Species of Ancient, Burrowing Mammal Ancestors Discovered in China
120-million-year-old animals evolved ‘scratch digging’ traits independently. A joint research team led by Dr. Fangyuan Mao and Dr. Chi Zhang from the Institute of Vertebrate…
Meet the Massive Australotitan, the “Southern Titan” – Australia’s Largest Dinosaur!
It is time to meet Australotitan cooperensis, a new species of giant sauropod from Eromanga in southwest Queensland. Australotitan, the “Southern Titan of the Cooper,” named from…
First Tales of the Earliest Domesticated Goats Revealed by 10,000-Year-Old DNA
New research has revealed the genetic makeup of the earliest goat herds. The findings, assimilated from DNA taken from the remains of 32 goats that…
Unexpected Discovery of Ancient Bones May Change Timeline for When People First Arrived in North America
An unexpected discovery by an Iowa State University researcher suggests that the first humans may have arrived in North America more than 30,000 years ago…
Kalvestene Grave Field: Viking Ship Burials Shrouded in Mystery
New detailed surveys of Viking age ship settings in Hjarnø, Denmark have been completed by archaeologists examining the origins and makeup of the Kalvestene grave field,…
Surprise Discovery of African “Climate Seesaw” Changes View of Human Evolution
While it is widely accepted that climate change drove the evolution of our species in Africa, the exact character of that climate change and its…
Southern African Dinosaur Had Extremely Irregular Growth
Anyone who’s raised a child or a pet will know just how fast and how steady their growth seems to be. You leave for a…
Jebel Sahaba: Analysis of Bones Reveals a Succession of Violence Rather Than a Prehistoric War
Since its discovery in the 1960s, the Jebel Sahaba cemetery (Nile Valley, Sudan), 13 millennia old, was considered to be one of the oldest testimonies…
Discovery of Ancient Fish Bones Reveals Non-kosher Diet of Ancient Judeans
Ancient Judeans commonly ate non-kosher fish surrounding the time that such food was prohibited in the Bible, suggests a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Tel…
Roots of Animal Domestication in Central Asia Stretch Back at Least 8,000 Years
Early Dispersal of Neolithic Domesticated Sheep Into the Heart of Central Asia Along the Tian Shan and Alay mountain ranges of Central Asia, sheep and…
Less Waste During Production of Marble Slabs in Ancient Roman Imperial Period Than Today
Analysis of wall decoration dating to the second century A.D. provides new insights into marble extraction and processing. When it comes to ancient Roman imperial…
Archaeologists Pioneer New Technology to Sort Ancient Pottery
Archaeologists at Northern Arizona University are hoping a new technology they helped pioneer will change the way scientists study the broken pieces left behind by…