Fossil and Archaeology News - January 2010 Archives

Lost Roman law code discovered in London (1/31/2010)

Part of an ancient Roman law code previously thought to have been lost forever has been discovered by researchers at UCL's department of history. Simon Corcoran and Benet Salway made the breakthrough after piecing together 17 fragments of previously incomprehensible parchment. The fragments were being studied at UCL as part of the Arts & Humanities Research Council-funded "Projet Volterra" -- a 10-year study of Roman law in its full social, legal and political context. ...> Full Article

Does evolution always lead to bigger brains? (1/30/2010)

The commonly held assumption that as primates evolved, their brains always tended to get bigger has been challenged by a team of scientists at Cambridge and Durham. Their work helps solve the mystery of whether Homo floresiensis -- dubbed the Hobbit due to its diminutive stature -- was a separate human species or a diseased individual. ...> Full Article

The color of dinosaur feathers identified (1/29/2010)

The color of some feathers on dinosaurs and early birds has been identified for the first time, reports a paper published in Nature this week. ...> Full Article

Last Neanderthals died out 37,000 years ago (1/28/2010)

The last Neanderthals in Europe died out at least 37,000 years ago -- and both climate change and interaction with modern humans could be involved in their demise, according to new research from the University of Bristol published today in PLoS ONE. ...> Full Article

Researchers of microraptor shed light on ancient origin of bird flight (1/27/2010)

A joint team from the University of Kansas and Northeastern University in China says that it has settled the long-standing question of how bird flight began. ...> Full Article

Can modern-day plants trace their New Zealand ancestry? (1/24/2010)

Is the current flora of New Zealand derived from plants that grew on the supercontinent Gondwana before its breakup, or derived from plants that more recently dispersed to New Zealand? Discovery of new macrofossils and/or detailed examinations of fossil pollen combined with evolutionary analyses may help to answer questions of whether the ancestors of current plants coexisted with dinosaurs in New Zealand. ...> Full Article

New evidence links humans to megafauna demise (1/23/2010)

A new scientific paper co-authored by a University of Adelaide researcher reports strong evidence that humans, not climate change, caused the demise of Australia's megafauna -- giant marsupials, huge reptiles and flightless birds -- at least 40,000 years ago. ...> Full Article

Chemical analysis uncover secrets of an ancient amphora (1/22/2010)

A team of chemists from the University of Valencia has confirmed that the substance used to hermetically seal an amphora found among remains at Lixus, in Morocco, was pine resin. The scientists also studied the metallic fragments inside the 2,000-year-old vessel, which could be fragments of material used for iron-working. ...> Full Article

New theory on the origin of primates (1/20/2010)

New biogeographic evidence supports the origin of primates in the Jurassic and the evolution of the modern primate groups -- prosimians, tarsiers, and anthropoids -- by the early Cretaceous. ...> Full Article

Gators breathe like birds (1/18/2010)

University of Utah scientists discovered that air flows in one direction as it loops through the lungs of alligators, just as it does in birds. The study suggests this breathing method may have helped the dinosaurs' ancestors dominate Earth after the planet's worst mass extinction 251 million years ago. ...> Full Article

Ancient Egyptian cosmetics: 'Magical' makeup may have been medicine for eye disease (1/13/2010)

There's more to the eye makeup that gave Queen Nefertiti and other ancient Egyptians royals those stupendous gazes and legendary beauty than meets the eye. Scientists in France are reporting that the alluring eye makeup also may have been used to help prevent or treat eye disease by doubling as an infection-fighter. Their findings are scheduled for the Jan. 15 issue of ACS' Analytical Chemistry, a semi-monthly journal. ...> Full Article

Use of body ornamentation shows Neanderthal mind capable of advanced thought (1/12/2010)

The widespread view of Neanderthals as cognitively inferior to early modern humans is challenged by new research from the University of Bristol published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...> Full Article

30,000-year-old teeth shed new light on human evolution (1/9/2010)

The teeth of a 30,000-year-old child are shedding new light on the evolution of modern humans, thanks to research from the University of Bristol published this week in PNAS. ...> Full Article

Most ancient Hebrew biblical inscription deciphered (1/8/2010)

Professor Gershon Galil of the department of biblical studies at the University of Haifa has deciphered an inscription dating from the 10th century BCE (the period of King David's reign), and has shown that this is a Hebrew inscription. The discovery makes this the earliest known Hebrew writing. The significance of this breakthrough relates to the fact that at least some of the biblical scriptures were composed hundreds of years before the dates presented today in research. ...> Full Article

Fossil footprints give land vertebrates a much longer history (1/8/2010)

The discovery of fossil footprints from early backboned land animals in Poland leads to the sensational conclusion that our ancestors left the water at least 18 million years earlier than previously thought. The results of the Polish-Swedish collaboration are published online this week in Nature. ...> Full Article