Three hundred million years ago, the Earth did not look like it does today. The continents were joined together into a giant supercontinent called Pangaea. Near the equator, vast coal-swamp forests extend across the landscape. Oxygen levels in the atmosphere were much higher than today, and forest fires occurred frequently. Life was abundant in every …
homo naledi Fossils essential in South Africa, the cradle of mankind Leipzig – Germany-biology report that proteomic analysis of 20 homo naledi The teeth determined that all the individuals to which they belonged were females, because each of them lacked a gene variant found only in biological males. The 300,000-year-old hominin fossils were discovered in …
While hiking in the Dades Valley of Morocco, Dr. Rowan Martindale saw something so unusual that it immediately caught his attention. Martindale, a paleontologist and geobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, was exploring the rugged landscape with fellow researchers including Stefan Bodin of Aarhus University. Their goal was to investigate the ancient reef …
Empires have shaped human history, often growing from a single city or cultural group into territories spanning continents. Some empires emerged through conquest, and others grew through trade or shrewd alliances. Their borders, captured in maps described by historians or revealed by long-forgotten burials and artefacts, show how far their influence once reached. Whether you’re …
It takes a dozen or so hours for the mushroom to kick in. Then, the hallucinations are unlike any others known to science. On this trip, there are none of the heightened colors, breathing or pulsing objects, nor geometrical patterns typically reported by users of psychedelic substances. In fact, the hundreds of people who enter …
Bones recovered from Wonderwork Cave show varying stages of burning, from half-burned (#1, on the left) to most burnt (#5, on the right). Toronto Canada-science news Evidence of the oldest use of fire by hominins has been discovered in South Africa’s Wonderwork Cave by a team of researchers led by Michael Chazan of the University …
SOFTEN, Denmark—A Viking textile production site dating back more than 1,000 years has been discovered in eastern Jutland, according to a associated Press Report. Moesgaard Museum archaeologist Liv Stidssing Rehr-Langenberg said the site contains an area where flax would have been processed and more than 80 pit houses where spindle whorls and loom weights have …
A new study finds that increasing water scarcity could hinder the expansion of lithium mining in the US, deepening its dependence on foreign imports in the coming decades. Lithium Because of its high energy density and low weight compared to other minerals, it is used in electric-vehicle and energy-storage batteries, but mining it requires huge …
Fragment of a Neanderthal femur from the Goyette Caves in Belgium Leiden, Netherlands – According to a statement issued by Leiden UniversityMarie Soresi of Leiden University and colleagues analyzed the genomes of 27 Neanderthals who lived shortly before the species’ extinction. These remains were recovered in France and Belgium, and included the bones of a …
The Turkana Rift of East Africa is known for both a rich record of early human fossils and intense volcanic activity driven by shifting tectonic plates. Now, scientists report that the crust beneath the region is much thinner than previously thought, pointing to the long-term disintegration of the African continent and offering a new explanation …