160-million-year-old proteins show surprising power against superbugs
Scientists resurrected antimicrobial peptides from mammals that lived millions of years ago and found that some were more potent against drug-resistant bacteria than modern human versions. These...
View Article1.7-billion-year-old fossils reveal a crucial clue to the rise of complex life
Scientists studying ancient Australian rocks uncovered more than 12,000 fossils from some of the oldest known eukaryotes on Earth. These early complex cells lived in settings ranging from coastal...
View ArticleThese medieval graves looked like family burials. DNA told a different story
Ancient DNA shows that adults and children buried together in medieval Sweden were often not members of the same immediate family, suggesting that burial choices reflected more than biological kinship....
View ArticleScientists burned their own scrolls to unlock a 2,000-year-old mystery
Scientists discovered that tiny amounts of lead in ancient ink can make writing inside burned papyrus scrolls stand out dramatically in X-ray scans. The technique could help unlock lost Greek and Roman...
View ArticleWhy Viking museums still can’t escape the warrior myth
Scandinavian museums are trying to move beyond the familiar image of Vikings as sword-wielding male warriors, highlighting women, farmers, traders, and a far more complicated society. But the enduring...
View ArticleStonehenge’s 6-ton altar stone may have traveled from Scotland by glacier
Stonehenge’s six-ton Altar Stone may have been carried from Scotland to Dogger Bank by glaciers before prehistoric people transported it hundreds of kilometers to Salisbury Plain. The possible...
View ArticleScientists may have solved a 2,000-year-old Dead Sea Scrolls mystery
Researchers may have solved a long-running mystery surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls by proposing that the Qumran sect really did use its distinctive 364-day calendar. Its perfectly ordered 52-week...
View ArticleA 66-million-year-old tooth reveals T. rex was nearly as warm as a human
Chemical clues preserved inside fossilized T. rex teeth reveal that the dinosaur maintained a body temperature of about 97 degrees Fahrenheit, almost identical to humans. The finding provides direct...
View ArticleScientists discover the first diplodocus ever found outside North America
A 150-million-year-old dinosaur fossil from Spain has been identified as the first confirmed Diplodocus ever found outside North America. The giant sauropod measured about 25 meters long and was...
View ArticleA 240-million-year-old fossil just changed the dinosaur timeline
A newly identified 240-million-year-old animal from Tanzania is forcing scientists to rethink the early dinosaur timeline. Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda belongs to a group previously known only from...
View ArticleThis Australian cave hid 25,000 years of ritual secrets
Microscopic plant remains are revealing how GunaiKurnai ancestors used Cloggs Cave for ritual practices over thousands of years. People deliberately gathered whole grasses, carried them into the dark...
View ArticleUV light reveals possible camouflage on a 125-million-year-old crocodile
A 125-million-year-old crocodile fossil has revealed preserved skin, possible sensory organs, sophisticated respiratory structures, and an unexpected pattern on its tail. Ultraviolet light exposed...
View ArticlePlague was killing entire families thousands of years before the Black Death
Ancient DNA reveals that plague was already killing hunter-gatherers in Siberia 5,500 years ago, long before cities and flea-driven epidemics. The prehistoric strains may have been especially dangerous...
View ArticleOne Mount Etna eruption took weeks. Another happened in hours
Mount Etna’s ancient eruptions followed radically different paths, with some magma lingering near the surface for weeks while other magma raced upward from nearly 30 kilometers deep in just hours....
View Article66-million-year-old feather in dinosaur poop may reveal why birds survived...
A feather discovered inside 66-million-year-old fossilized dinosaur poop may help explain why modern birds survived the asteroid catastrophe. The extinct bird it came from had more primitive insulating...
View ArticleArchaeologists find a 3,000-year-old Egyptian tomb before it’s too late
While clearing debris to protect ancient Egyptian tombs from flash floods, researchers near Luxor stumbled upon an unknown 3,000-year-old tomb. Its remarkably preserved paintings depict an official...
View ArticleDNA solves the mystery of a body found in the Arctic in 1859
Scientists have used DNA from living descendants to identify four more members of the doomed Franklin expedition, including Harry Peglar, whose identity had remained uncertain for 166 years. The...
View ArticleAncient teeth reveal humans were getting high 25,000 years ago
Ancient human remains from Sulawesi suggest people were habitually using the psychoactive betel nut as far back as 25,000 years ago. Researchers found both unusual tooth wear and traces of arecoline,...
View Article400,000-year-old teeth reveal a hidden link in human evolution
More than 400,000-year-old Homo erectus teeth from China may reveal a surprising link between this ancient human species, Denisovans, and some modern people. Scientists found protein mutations...
View ArticleDevil’s Arrows: Ancient builders hauled 55,000-pound stones 11 miles for...
Britain’s towering Devil’s Arrows were built from 25-tonne stones hauled at least 18 kilometers from Brimham Rocks around 4,000 years ago. The discovery reveals an astonishing feat of prehistoric...
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