Archaeology

A 2.8-million-year mandible and a digital model of a key fossil paint a complicated picture of the genus Homo

It may have hidden in the ocean for millions of years, but life today poses numerous challenges for the West Indian Ocean coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae), the "living fossil" fish that was famously rediscovered off the coast of South Africa in 1938.

Sediments at a Britsh archaeological site include wheat remains dating back 8,000 years, meaning that Britons were bringing in European wheat two millennia before they grew it. Cynthia Graber reports      

 

A reexamination of museum mastodon specimens provides evidence that that last ones were gone from what's called the Beringia region well before any humans showed up. Emily Schwing reports     

 

The fossils, more than 160 million years old, preserve a tree-climber and a tunnel-digger that lived alongside the dinosaurs

Via bizarre and unexpected circumstances I recently* found myself secretly and furtively attending a lecture by Brian J. Ford. Ford is a British author and researcher who dabbles widely in matters of science and science communication.

When did the Anthropocene begin?

Savino di Lernia, director of the Archaeological Mission in the Sahara at the Sapienza University of Rome, says violence and unrest threaten World Heritage sites and researchers. Cynthia Graber reports     

 

Hadrosaurs could outrun tyrannosaurusesbecause of the layout of the herbivores’ tail muscles

The discovery shows, for the first time, that Homo sapiens was living in the Near East at the same time as Neandertals

To a human, two billion years is an unfathomable interval. But that, a team of European, Gabonese, and American scientists now say, is how long ago a recently discovered hoard of fossils suggests Earth’s first big life evolved — large enough to see with the naked eye, and in a spectrum of forms that tease [...]

Midway through the school year, parents and teachers are starting to plan (and fundraise) for winter and spring field trips. Among the most popular destinations is the science museum.