Fossil and Archaeology News - December 2008 Archives
In a recently conducted study, a multidisciplinary French-American research team with expertise in archaeology, past climates and ecology reported that Neanderthal extinction was principally a result of competition with Cro-Magnon populations, rather than the consequences of climate change. The study was published in the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE.
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Earth's creatures come in all sizes, yet they (and we) all sprang from the same single-celled organisms that first populated the planet. So how on Earth did life go from bacteria to the blue whale? "It happened primarily in two great leaps, and each time, the maximum size of life jumped up by a factor of about a million," said Jonathan Payne, assistant professor of geological and environmental science at Stanford.
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 | Passage graves are mysterious barrows from the Stone Age. New research from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen indicates that the Stone Age graves' orientation in the landscape could have an astronomical explanation. The Danish passage graves are most likely oriented according to the path of the full moon, perhaps even according to the full moon immediately before a lunar eclipse. The results are published in the scientific journal Acta Archaeologica. ...> Full Article |
 | Sure, they're polygamous, but male emus and several other ground-dwelling birds also are devoted dads, serving as the sole incubators and caregivers to over-sized broods from multiple mothers. It is rare behavior, but research described in the Dec. 19 Science found that it runs in this avian family, all the way back to its dinosaur ancestors. ...> Full Article |
Researchers compare cranial features using 3-D modeling
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Scientists at the University of Liverpool have found that early humans could have walked successfully on a 'flexible' flat foot, similar to modern day gibbons.
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The oldest surviving human brain in Britain, dating back at least 2000 years to the Iron Age, has been has been unearthed during excavations on the site of the University of York's campus expansion at Heslington East.
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It is widely accepted that early modern humans spread westward across Europe about 42,000 years ago, displacing and absorbing Neandertal populations in the process. But how long did they survive? New research, is shedding light on what were probably the last Neandertals.
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Study identifies 6 different mosses from the Tyrolean Iceman's alimentary tract
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Earliest human consumption of beans, pacay
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Fish can recognize a face based on UV pattern alone
Ancient DNA from rare fossil reveals that polar bears evolved recently and adapted quickly
Scientists locate apparent hydrothermal vents off Antarctica
Mars Express heading for closest flyby of Phobos
Artificial bee silk a big step closer to reality
Predicting the fate of stem cells
Artificial foot recycles energy for easier walking
New fiber nanogenerators could lead to electric clothing
What drives our genes? Researchers map the first complete human epigenome
Juggling enhances connections in the brain
Tracking down the human 'odorprint'
Fill 'er up - with algae
Scientists discover quantum fingerprints of chaos
Researchers help identify cows that gain more while eating less
Dinosaurs might be older than previously thought
Recently analyzed fossil was not human ancestor as claimed, anthropologists say
'Anaconda' meets 'Jurassic Park': Study shows ancient snakes ate dinosaur babies
Tiny shelled creatures shed light on extinction and recovery 65 million years ago
New dinosaur rears its head
New dinosaur discovered head first, for a change
Archaeologist discovers Jerusalem city wall from tenth century B.C.E.
Pitt-led study debunks millennia-old claims of systematic infant sacrifice in ancient Carthage
What was that? Unraveling a 400-million-year-old mystery
Queen's helps produce archaeological 'time machine'
Scientists complete color palette of a dinosaur for the first time
Ancient remains put teeth into Barker hypothesis