A team of scientists including researchers from Washington State University has shown for the first time that nicotine residue can be extracted from plaque, also known as “dental calculus”, on the teeth of ancient tobacco users. Their research provides a new method for determining who was consuming tobacco in the ancient world and could help…
Neanderthals Were Artistic Like Modern Humans
Scientists have found the first major evidence that Neanderthals, rather than modern humans, created the world’s oldest known cave paintings – suggesting they may have had an artistic sense similar to our own. A new study led by the University of Southampton and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology shows that paintings in three…
New Research Sheds Light on Prehistoric Human Migration in Europe
Two University of Wyoming researchers contributed to a new study in which DNA of ancient skeletal remains of people from southeastern Europe were used to determine migration patterns across Europe during prehistoric times. Ivor Jankovic, an associate adjunct professor, and Ivor Karavanic, an adjunct professor, both in UW’s Department of Anthropology, contributed to the new…
Ancient DNA Tells Tales of Humans’ Migrant History
World’s Most Venomous Spiders are Actually Cousins
Two groups of highly venomous spiders might be seeing more of each other at family reunions. A new study led by San Diego State University biologist Marshal Hedin has found that two lineages of dangerous arachnids found in Australia–long classified as distantly related in the official taxonomy–are, in fact, relatively close evolutionary cousins. The findings…
Cockroach Ancient Geographic and Genomic History Traced Back to Last Supercontinent
LiDAR Used to Uncover Hidden Ancient Mayan Lands
Researchers have taken to the sky in an attempt to learn about what is hidden on the ground in Guatemala from ancient Mayan civilizations. A recently conducted survey of 2,100-square kilometers has uncovered over 60,000 previously unknown structures using LiDAR, including unknown pyramids, palace structures, terraced fields, roadways, defensive walls and towers and houses…
Ancient Weapons Shed Light on Early Hunters
By recreating hunting tools from the Ice Age, researchers believe they can learn a lot about how early hunters adapted to technology. A team of archaeologists from the University of Washington have recreated weapons used by post Ice Age Arctic hunter-gatherers some 14,000 years ago that may shed light on how early people advanced their…
Fossil Evidence Shows Bats Colonized From Islands to Continents
Plants and animals are generally thought to colonize from continents to islands, over time leading to the evolution of separate island species. Scientists have theorized that the reverse – colonizing from islands to continents – seems unlikely, mainly because the few competitors on islands make thriving on the mainland difficult for island specialists. But a…
New Dinosaur Discovery Sheds Light on Europe, Africa Connection
The discovery of a new species of dinosaur in the Sahara Desert may fill in some unanswered questions on the ancient link between Africa and Europe. Researchers do not currently have a firm grasp on the final days of dinosaurs in Africa due to a lack of fossils found on the continent from the Late…
Researchers Find First Evidence of Sub-Saharan Africa Glassmaking
Scholars from Rice University, University College London and the Field Museum have found the first direct evidence that glass was produced in sub-Saharan Africa centuries before the arrival of Europeans, a finding that the researchers said represents a “new chapter in the history of glass technology.” The discovery is discussed in “Chemical Analysis of Glass…
DNA Analysis of Ancient Mummy, Thought to Have Smallpox, Points to Hepatitis B Infection Instead
A team of scientists has sequenced the complete genome of an ancient strain of the Hepatitis B virus (HBV), shedding new light on a pervasive, complex and deadly pathogen that today kills nearly one million people every year. While little is known about its evolutionary history and origin, the findings confirm the idea that HBV…
‘Rainbow’ Dinosaur Had Iridescent Feathers Like a Hummingbird
Birds are the last remaining dinosaurs. They’re also some of the most vibrantly colored animals on Earth. A new study in Nature Communications reveals that iridescent feathers go way back–a newly discovered species of dinosaur from 161 million years ago had rainbow coloring. Caihong juji was tiny, about the size of a duck, with a bony crest on…
Fossils Found of Giant, Extinct Burrowing Bat
The fossilized remains of a giant burrowing bat that has been extinct for millions of years has been found in New Zealand. A team led by scientists from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found the teeth and bones of a bat—estimated to be about three times the size of an average bat today—from…
Discovery Sheds Light on Unusual Gene Evolution in Bacteria
University of Montana researchers have made another discovery at the cellular level to help understand the basic processes of all life on our planet – this time within the unusual bacteria that has lived inside cicada insects since dinosaurs roamed Earth. During the past 70 million years, the bacteria underwent extreme adaptations to live within…
Worm Species Lost 7,000 Genes After Evolving to Fertilize Itself
Research Reveals Evidence of New Population of Ancient Native Americans
Genetic analysis of ancient DNA from a 6-week-old infant found at an Interior Alaska archaeological site has revealed a previously unknown population of ancient people in North America. The findings, published in the Jan. 3 edition of the journal Nature, represent a major shift in scientists’ theories about how humans populated North America. The researchers have…
Scientists Finally Describe 500-Million-Year Old Sea Predator
A decades old mystery regarding a centuries old sea creature may have been solved. Paleontologists from the Royal Ontario Museum and the University of Toronto have revealed more insight into the Habelia optata—a sea predator which belongs to the arthropods and lived during the middle Cambrian period about 508 million years ago—from fossil records found…
Origins of Photosynthesis in Plants Dated to 1.25 Billion Years Ago
The world’s oldest algae fossils are a billion years old, according to a new analysis by earth scientists at McGill University. Based on this finding, the researchers also estimate that the basis for photosynthesis in today’s plants was set in place 1.25 billion years ago. The study, published in the journal Geology, could resolve a long-standing…
Oldest Fossils Ever Found Show Life on Earth Began Before 3.5 Billion Years Ago
Researchers at UCLA and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have confirmed that microscopic fossils discovered in a nearly 3.5 billion-year-old piece of rock in Western Australia are the oldest fossils ever found and indeed the earliest direct evidence of life on Earth. The study, published today [Dec. 18, 2017] in the Proceedings of the National Academy of…
3D Imaging Animal Bone Cuts Provides Insight into Early Human Practices
Scientists are looking at animal bone cuts to try to answer some unknown questions about human evolution. A team led by Purdue University researchers have developed a new statistical method that is used with 3D imaging and shape analysis to accurately measure animal bone cut marks made by prehistoric human butchery. “This approach represents a…
Mammoth Bones Found in Michigan
6,000-Year-Old Skull Could Be From the World’s Earliest Known Tsunami Victim
Tsunamis spell calamity. These giant waves, caused by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and underwater landslides, are some of the deadliest natural disasters known; the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed over 230,000 people, a higher death toll than any fire or hurricane. Scientists studying the effects of tsunamis have now shed light on what could…
Miniature Droplets Could Solve an Origin-of-Life Riddle
Hardy Coral Make Their Moves to Build New Reefs from Scratch
Resilient species of coral can move to inhospitable areas and lay the foundations for new reefs, a study shows. Scientists have discovered that these tough, mobile corals can create their own stable habitats, which act as a base upon which other species can attach and build reefs. These hardy corals – known as coralliths –…