Melting Mummies Are on Thin Ice, Thanks to Climate Change
Glacial archaeologists scramble to save long-preserved specimens thawing out of vanishing ice before they are lost forever
Archaeology & Paleontology1354 articles archived since 1845
4-Legged Fossil Snake Is a World First
"Hugging" creature from Brazil shakes up picture of snake evolution
![Clues to How <em>Homo sapiens</em> Conquered Earth Emerge from Digs in South Africa [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/A035E5B4-D538-48CD-98B85630693E266D_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
Clues to How Homo sapiens Conquered Earth Emerge from Digs in South Africa [Slide Show]
Archaeological sites along the southern coast are yielding fresh insights into an enduring mystery of human evolution
Oldest Animal Sperm Found inside Fossilized Worm Cocoon
The remains of a preserved 50-million-year-old cell may provide clues to the evolution of earthworms and leeches
Could These Be the Oldest Human Footprints in North America?
Ancient coastal dwellers made tracks just below the tide line of an island off British Columbia, but the big question is when
Ancient American Genome Rekindles Legal Row
“Kennewick Man” sequencing points to Native American ancestry
The Most Momentous Year in the History of Paleoanthropology
In an excerpt from his new book Ian Tattersall lays out the story of how a scientific giant in the field of evolution put forth a spectacularly incorrect theory about the diversity of hominids...
75-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Soft Tissue Suggests Ancient Organic Preservation May Be Common
Researchers have found what appear to be collagen fibers and blood cells in unremarkable-looking fossils
![How I Dissected a <i>T. Rex</i> [Video]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/69ED70AA-693E-46C8-B4C862DA75B077BA_agenda.jpg?w=275&h=154&fit=crop)
How I Dissected a T. Rex [Video]
Hint: it took chain saws, feathers and lots of latex, says vertebrate palaeontologist and evolutionary biologist Stephen Brusatte
Ancient Human Migration Route Marked by Snail Shell "Bread Crumbs"
Fragments of edible marine snail shells found in Lebanon support the idea that ancient humans went from Africa to Europe through the Levant. Cynthia Graber reports
CSI: Middle Pleistocene
Skull fragments dating back 430,000 years appear to be those of the world's first known murder victim, based on the damage observed. Dina Maron reports
New Human Ancestor Discovered Near Fossil of "Lucy"
The Australopithecine lived about 3.4 million years ago in what is now Ethiopia, around the same time as Australopithecus afarensis
Mummy Mavens Unwrap Preservation Methods
In 1994 researchers made a mummy. Now scientists have reverse engineered the process to figure out how it's done, with the mummy makers still around to tell them how they did. Cynthia Graber reports ...
Alzheimer's Origins Tied to Rise of Human Intelligence
Factors that drove the evolution of our intellectual capacity are also implicated in the memory disorder
Dog Domestication Much Older than Previously Known
Genetic information from a 35,000-year-old wolf bone found below a frozen cliff in Siberia is shedding new light on humankind's long relationship with dogs
Feathered Dinosaurs on Post-its
Sometimes, the pathway to a new idea becoming universally accepted requires a steady stream of little nudges, small pebbles thrown into the lake.
Yi qi Is Neat but Might Not Have Been the Black Screaming Dino-Dragon of Death
A couple of weeks ago I hatched a plan to write about all the neat new dinosaur-themed studies that had just appeared in print; I began by penning my thoughts on the Brontosaurus issue.
Mammoth Genomes Provide Recipe for Creating Arctic Elephants
A catalogue of the genetic differences between woolly mammoths and elephants reveals how the ice age giants braved the cold
Meet the New Tyrannosaurs [Video]
Recent fossil discoveries fill in long-standing holes in Tyrannosaurus rex’s family tree
Learning to Make a Stone Age Axe Gives Clues to How the Brain Evolved
For many decades, scientists have tried to understand the past by doing as our forebears did. One important endeavor in what is called experimental archaeology involves moderns crafting Stone Age tools by chipping away at rocks...
