Fossils Rewrite History of Sex
Evidence of bony organs in ancient fish suggests that they copulated, although many of their descendants stopped doing so
Archaeology & Paleontology1358 articles archived since 1845
Human or Hobbit?
The arguments over an ancient skeleton just won’t die
Drought Exposes Once-Submerged Oregon Town to Archaeological Dig
Record drought on the U.S. West Coast has exposed the ruins of an Oregon hamlet once submerged under the waters of a man-made reservoir, allowing a rare opportunity for an archaeological excavation, a U.S...
Submarine Exosuit Makes Its First Manned Ocean Dive
Editor's Note: Veteran science journalist Philip Hilts is working with a team of archeologists, engineers and divers off the shore of Antikythera, a remote Greek island, where a treasure ship by the same name sank in 70 B.C...
Ancient Indonesian Cave Paintings Force Rethink of Art's Origin
Archaeologists have determined that artwork found in limestone caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi is far older than previously thought.
Diving to Antikythera Shipwreck, Technology Tackles Dangers of the Deep
Editor's Note: Veteran science journalist Philip Hilts is working with a team of archeologists, engineers and divers off the shore of Antikythera, a remote Greek island, where a treasure ship by the same name sank in 70 B.C...
Marine Archaeology Goes High-Tech
Editor's Note: Veteran science journalist Philip Hilts is working and diving with a team of archeologists, engineers and divers off the shore of Antikythera, a remote Greek island, where a treasure ship by the same name sank in 70 B.C...
"Missing Links" Found between Birds and Dinosaurs
Flock to this: A new analysis of anatomical features shows birds evolved gradually from dinosaurs
Fire Cooked Up Early Human Culture
An anthropologist studying current hunter–gatherers finds that nighttime around the fire is when conversation turns from business to bonding. Cynthia Graber reports
...
Pterosaur Discoveries Flourish in 2014
I'm still not sure whether I blog about Mesozoic archosaurs - specifically dinosaurs and pterosaurs - too often, or too infrequently. As I always say, the problem as I see it is that dinosaurs and pterosaurs have so much presence in the blogosphere that writing about them always feels like jumping on a bandwagon...
Dino Devastator Also Ravaged Veggies
After the Chicxulub meteorite, more than half the plant species in temperate North America perished along with the dinosaurs, and the composition of post-impact vegetation changed markedly...
Is Cryptozoology Good or Bad for Science?
I'm an unashamed fan of cryptozoology - this being (for the two of you that don't know) the field of study that revolves around those creatures thought to exist by some, but which remain unrecognised by mainstream science in general...
Lost Ship from 19th-C. Franklin Expedition Found by Arctic Archaeologists
Two ships led by Sir John Franklin vanished in 1859 en route to finding and exploring a Northwest passage
Newly Uncovered "Super Henge" Dwarfed Stonehenge
Digital mapping shatters the image of Stonehenge as a desolate site that was visited by few
Love among the Primates
Promiscuity, polygamy, monogamy—over the course of millions of years, humans and their primate relatives have tried nearly every possible mating arrangement
New "Dreadnought" Dinosaur Most Complete Specimen of a Giant
The 60-metric-ton herbivore may tell future researchers more about how gargantuan sauropods lived and evolved
Lone Survivor? Weird New Animal May Be Long Sought Living Ediacaran
It’s not every day a new animal is discovered that could shake up the roots of animal taxonomy and simultaneously form its own new phylum, the top classification in the Animal Kingdom, but today is such a day...
Ancient Engraving Strengthens Case for Sophisticated Neandertals
One of the longest-running, most fervent debates in the history of human evolution research concerns the cognitive abilities of the Neandertals.
Tiny Genetic Differences between Humans and Other Primates Pervade the Genome
Genome comparisons reveal the DNA that distinguishes Homo sapiens from its kin
