Despite intensive scientific analyses, this centaur head remains a mystery
For almost 200 years, archaeologists have been puzzled by a mysterious brown stain on the ancient Greek Parthenon temple in Greece. Now, researchers have conducted new scientific analyses, and their...
View ArticleA window into plant evolution: The unusual genetic journey of lycophytes
An international team of researchers has uncovered a remarkable genetic phenomenon in lycophytes, which are similar to ferns and among the oldest land plants. Their study reveals that these plants have...
View ArticleComplex green organisms emerged a billion years ago
Of all the organisms that photosynthesize, land plants have the most complex form. How did this morphology emerge? A team of scientists has taken a deep dive into the evolutionary history of...
View ArticleNew research challenges hunter-gatherer narrative
Analysis of the remains of 24 individuals from the Wilamaya Patjxa and Soro Mik'aya Patjxa burial sites in Peru shows that early human diets in the Andes Mountains were composed of 80 percent plant...
View ArticleDNA from preserved feces reveals ancient Japanese gut environment
DNA from ancient feces can offer archaeologists new clues about the life and health of Japanese people who lived thousands of years ago, according to a new study.
View ArticleHow did humans learn to walk? New evolutionary study offers an earful
A new study, which centers on evidence from skulls of a 6-million-year-old fossil ape, Lufengpithecus, offers important clues about the origins of bipedal locomotion courtesy of a novel method:...
View ArticleNeanderthals and humans lived side by side in Northern Europe 45,000 years ago
Archaeologists have debated whether Neanderthals or modern humans made stone tools that are found at sites across northern Europe and date from about 40,000 years ago. A new excavation at one site in...
View ArticlePrehistoric mobility among Tibetan farmers, herders shaped highland...
Using advanced geospatial modeling to compare environmental and archaeological evidence, researchers found evidence that connects ancient mobility and subsistence strategies to cultural connections...
View ArticleThailand's Iron Age Log Coffin culture
A mortuary practice known as Log Coffin culture characterizes the Iron Age of highland Pang Mapha in northwestern Thailand. Between 2,300 and 1,000 years ago, individuals were buried in large wooden...
View ArticleInnovation in stone tool technology involved multiple stages at the time of...
A new study illuminates the cultural evolution that took place approximately 50,000 to 40,000 years ago, coinciding with the dispersals of Homo sapiens across Eurasia. The insights gleaned from their...
View ArticleScandinavia's first farmers slaughtered the hunter-gatherer population, study...
Following the arrival of the first farmers in Scandinavia 5,900 years ago, the hunter-gatherer population was wiped out within a few generations, according to a new study. The results, which are...
View ArticleThe hidden rule for flight feathers--and how it could reveal which dinosaurs...
Scientists examined hundreds of birds in museum collections and discovered a suite of feather characteristics that all flying birds have in common. These 'rules' provide clues as to how the dinosaur...
View ArticleGreat apes playfully tease each other
Babies playfully tease others as young as eight months of age. Since language is not required for this behavior, similar kinds of playful teasing might be present in non-human animals. Now cognitive...
View ArticleDid Eurasia's dominant East-West axis 'turn the fortunes of history'?
Jared Diamond proposed that Eurasia's unique geographic axis of orientation fueled a rapid spread of critical innovations among its societies, leading to a cultural and military dominance over other...
View ArticleSome Pre-Roman humans were buried with dogs, horses and other animals
Some people from an ancient community in what is now northern Italy were interred with animals and animal parts from species such as dogs, horses and pigs. The reasons remain mysterious, but might...
View ArticleVittrup Man crossed over from forager to farmer before being sacrificed in...
Vittrup Man was born along the Scandinavian coast before moving to Denmark, where he was later sacrificed, according to a new study.
View ArticleAnthropologists' research unveils early stone plaza in the Andes
Located at the Callacpuma archaeological site in the Cajamarca Basin of northern Peru, the plaza is built with large, vertically placed megalithic stones -- a construction method previously unseen in...
View ArticleA lighthouse in the Gobi desert
A new study explores the weight great fossil sites have on our understanding of evolutionary relationships between fossil groups and quantified the power these sites have on our understanding of...
View ArticleAncient DNA reveals Down syndrome in past human societies
By analysing ancient DNA, an international team of researchers have uncovered cases of chromosomal disorders, including what could be the first case of Edwards syndrome ever identified from prehistoric...
View ArticleDid neanderthals use glue? Researchers find evidence that sticks
Neanderthals created stone tools held together by a multi-component adhesive, a team of scientists has discovered. Its findings, which are the earliest evidence of a complex adhesive in Europe, suggest...
View ArticleBiggest Holocene volcano eruption found by seabed survey
A detailed survey of the volcanic underwater deposits around the Kikai caldera in Japan clarified the deposition mechanisms as well as the event's magnitude. As a result, the research team found that...
View ArticlePlant seed and fruit analysis from the biblical home of Goliath sheds...
While many aspects of Philistine culture are well-documented, the specifics of Philistine religious practices and deities have long remained shrouded in mystery. A recent study contributes valuable new...
View ArticleClimate change threatens thousands of archaeological sites in coastal Georgia
Thousands of historic and archaeological sites in Georgia are at risk from tropical storm surges, and that number will increase with climate change, according to a new study.
View ArticleExperiment captures why pottery forms are culturally distinct
Potters of different cultural backgrounds learn new types differently, producing cultural differences even in the absence of differential cultural evolution. The research has implications for how we...
View ArticleScientists ID burned bodies using technique used for extracting DNA from...
A technique originally devised to extract DNA from woolly mammoths and other ancient archaeological specimens can be used to potentially identify badly burned human remains, according to research.
View ArticleAn evolutionary mystery 125 million years in the making
Plant biologists have uncovered an evolutionary mystery over 100 million years in the making. It turns out that sometime during the last 125 million years, tomatoes and Arabidopsis thaliana plants...
View ArticleAcross oceans and millennia: decoding the origin and history of the bottle gourd
Researchers have uncovered intriguing details about the origins and spread of the bottle gourd, one of the oldest domesticated crops. Their work unveils the genetic diversification and population...
View ArticleToba supereruption unveils new insights into early human migration
Working in the Horn of Africa, researchers have uncovered evidence showing how early modern humans survived in the wake of the eruption of Toba, one of the largest supervolcanoes in history, some...
View ArticleResearchers name prehistoric amphibian ancestor discovered in Smithsonian...
Scientists have uncovered the fossilized skull of a 270-million-year-old ancient amphibian ancestor in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. The team of researchers...
View ArticleTudor era horse cemetery in Westminster revealed as likely resting place for...
Archaeological analysis of a near unique animal cemetery discovered in London nearly 30 years ago has revealed there was an international horse trading network, orchestrated by the elites of late...
View ArticleNew archive of ancient human brains challenges misconceptions of soft tissue...
A new study has challenged previously held views that brain preservation in the archaeological record is extremely rare. The team compiled a new archive of preserved human brains, which highlighted...
View ArticlePersian plateau unveiled as crucial hub for early human migration out of Africa
A new study combining genetic, palaeoecological, and archaeological evidence has unveiled the Persian Plateau as a pivotal geographic location serving as a hub for Homo sapiens during the early stages...
View ArticleUncovering the mystery of Dorset's Cerne Giant
For centuries, the Cerne Giant, a figure carved into a hillside in Dorset, has fascinated locals and visitors to the area. A new paper proposes that the Cerne Giant can in fact be dated to the early...
View ArticleAncient DNA reveals the appearance of a 6th century Chinese emperor
What did an ancient Chinese emperor from 1,500 years ago look like? A team of researchers reconstructed the face of Chinese Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou using DNA extracted from his remains. The study...
View ArticleDNA study IDs descendants of George Washington from unmarked remains,...
New DNA sequencing technologies have identified the historical remains of George Washington's grandnephews, Samuel Walter Washington and George Steptoe Washington Jr., and their mother, Lucy Payne...
View ArticleMosquito detectives track malaria's history
A group of researchers is calling on colleagues around the world to join them in what they call 'pathogen prospecting' by tracking down archival specimens of mosquitoes in museums and other collections...
View ArticleWhen did the chicken cross the road? New evidence from Central Asia
An international team of scholars present the earliest clear archaeological and biomolecular evidence for the raising of chickens for egg production, based on material from 12 archaeological sites...
View ArticleLast chance to record archaic Greek language 'heading for extinction'
A new data crowdsourcing platform aims to preserve the sound of Romeyka, an endangered millennia-old variety of Greek. Experts consider the language to be a linguistic goldmine and a living bridge to...
View ArticleFinds at Schöningen show wood was crucial raw material 300,000 years ago
During archaeological excavations in the Schoningen open-cast coal mine in 1994, the discovery of the oldest, remarkably well-preserved hunting weapons known to humanity caused an international...
View ArticleEarly medieval money mystery solved
Byzantine bullion fueled Europe's revolutionary adoption of silver coins in the mid-7th century, only to be overtaken by silver from a mine in Charlemagne's Francia a century later, new tests reveal....
View ArticleHumans can increase biodiversity, archaeological study shows
Through the ages, the presence of humans has increased the heterogeneity and complexity of ecosystems and has often had a positive effect on their biodiversity.
View ArticleBirdfeeders are designed to keep unwanted guests away
The first birdfeeders were made in the 19th century, and their design rapidly evolved during the 20th century. Researchers at the consider the evolution of the birdfeeder to be an example of...
View ArticleThe evolving attitudes of Gen X toward evolution
As the centennial of the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 approaches, a new study illustrates that the attitudes of Americans in Generation X toward evolution shifted as they aged.
View ArticleThe hidden role of the Milky Way in ancient Egyptian mythology
Astrophysicists shed light on the relationship between the Milky Way and the Egyptian sky-goddess Nut. The paper draws on ancient Egyptian texts and simulations to argue that the Milky Way might have...
View ArticlePacific cities much older than previously thought
New evidence of one of the first cities in the Pacific shows they were established much earlier than previously thought, according to new research. The study used aerial laser scanning to map...
View ArticleEvolution's recipe book: How 'copy paste' errors cooked up the animal kingdom
A series of whole genome and gene duplication events that go back hundreds of millions of years have laid the foundations for tissue-specific gene expression, according to a new study. The 'copy-paste'...
View ArticleInterspecies competition led to even more forms of ancient human -- defying...
Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins -- and produced a 'bizarre' evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage -- according to a new study that revises the start...
View ArticleGenetic variant identified that shaped the human skull base
Researchers have identified a variant in the gene TBX1 as key in the development of the unique morphology at the base of the skull. TBX1 is present at higher levels in humans than in closely related...
View ArticleFirst evidence of human occupation in lava tube cave in Saudi Arabia
New research has highlighted an area in Arabia that once acted as a key point for cultural exchanges and trades amongst ancient people -- and it all took place in vast caves and lava tubes that have...
View Article'Forgotten city:' the identification of Dura-Europos' neglected sister site...
The Dura-Europos site in modern-day Syria is famous for its exceptional state of preservation. Like Pompeii, this ancient city has yielded many great discoveries, and serves as a window into the world...
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