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Categories: Anthropology: General, Geoscience: Landslides
Published Oldest human genome from southern Spain


A new study reports on genomic data from a 23,000-year-old individual who lived in what was probably the warmest place of Europe at the peak of the last Ice Age. The oldest human genome recovered from the southern tip of Spain adds an important piece of the puzzle to the genetic history of Europe.
Published Reassessment of Storegga event: Second major landslide recognized


Submarine landslides have a large tsunami potential and occurred on the central Norwegian shelf more frequently in the past than previously thought. Scientists investigate the Nyegga landslide off the coast of Norway. The submarine landslide occurred in the same area as the well-known Storegga event 8,150 years ago. The new findings suggest that approximately one-third of the seafloor material missing -- previously attributed to the Storegga event -- was removed by the Nyegga event 20,000 years ago. This raises questions about the frequency of large submarine landslides and their associated tsunami hazard.
Published Mysterious new behavior seen in whales may be recorded in ancient manuscripts


In 2011, scientists recorded a previously unknown feeding strategy in whales around the world. Now, researchers in Australia think they may have found evidence of this behaviour being described in ancient accounts of sea creatures, recorded more than 2,000 years ago. They believe that misunderstandings of these descriptions contributed to myths about medieval sea monsters. Whales are known lunge at their prey when feeding, but recently whales have been spotted at the surface of the water with their jaws open at right angles, waiting for shoals of fish to swim into their mouths. A clip of this strategy was captured in 2021 and went viral on Instagram. This strategy seems to work for the whales because the fish think they have found a place to shelter from predators, not realising they are swimming into danger. It's not known why this strategy has only recently been identified, but scientists speculate that it's a result of changing environmental conditions -- or that whales are being more closely monitored than ever before by drones and other modern technologies.
Published Jurassic shark: Shark from the Jurassic period was already highly evolved


Cartilaginous fish have changed much more in the course of their evolutionary history than previously believed. Evidence for this thesis has been provided by new fossils of a ray-like shark, Protospinax annectans, which demonstrate that sharks were already highly evolved in the Late Jurassic.
Published Ancient proteins offer new clues about origin of life on Earth



By simulating early Earth conditions in the lab, researchers have found that without specific amino acids, ancient proteins would not have known how to evolve into everything alive on the planet today -- including plants, animals, and humans.
Published Deadly waves: Researchers document evolution of plague over hundreds of years in medieval Denmark


Scientists who study the origins and evolution of the plague have examined hundreds of ancient human teeth from Denmark, seeking to address longstanding questions about its arrival, persistence and spread within Scandinavia.
Published Archaeologists uncover early evidence of brain surgery in Ancient Near East


A recent excavation in Megiddo, Israel, unearthed the earliest example of a particular type of cranial surgery in the Ancient Near East -- and potentially one of the oldest examples of leprosy in the world.
Published Hidden from the Romans: 200 tons of silver on the shores of the river Lahn


In their search for silver ore, the Romans established two military camps in the Bad Ems area near Koblenz in the 1st century AD.
Published Gene variations for immune and metabolic conditions have persisted in humans for more than 700,000 years


A new study explores 'balancing selection' by analyzing thousands of modern human genomes alongside ancient hominin groups, such as Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes. The research has 'implications for understanding human diversity, the origin of diseases, and biological trade-offs that may have shaped our evolution,' says evolutionary biologists.
Published 2.9-million-year-old butchery site reopens case of who made first stone tools


Along the shores of Africa's Lake Victoria in Kenya roughly 2.9 million years ago, early human ancestors used some of the oldest stone tools ever found to butcher hippos and pound plant material, according to new research. The study presents what are likely to be the oldest examples of a hugely important stone-age innovation known to scientists as the Oldowan toolkit, as well as the oldest evidence of hominins consuming very large animals. Excavations at the site, named Nyayanga and located on the Homa Peninsula in western Kenya, also produced a pair of massive molars belonging to the human species' close evolutionary relative Paranthropus. The teeth are the oldest fossilized Paranthropus remains yet found, and their presence at a site loaded with stone tools raises intriguing questions about which human ancestor made those tools.
Published Changing climate conditions likely facilitated early human migration to the Americas at key intervals, research suggests



Researchers have pinpointed two intervals when ice and ocean conditions would have been favorable to support early human migration from Asia to North America late in the last ice age, a new paper shows.
Published Prehistoric human migration in Southeast Asia driven by sea-level rise


An interdisciplinary team of scientistshas found that rapid sea-level rise drove early settlers in Southeast Asia to migrate during the prehistoric period, increasing the genetic diversity of the region today.
Published Remapping the superhighways travelled by the first Australians reveals a 10,000-year journey through the continent


New research has revealed that the process of 'peopling' the entire continent of Sahul -- the combined mega continent that joined Australia with New Guinea when sea levels were much lower than today -- took 10,000 years. Sophisticated models show the scale of the challenges faced by the ancestors of Indigenous people making their mass migration across the supercontinent more than 60,000 years ago. This pattern led to a rapid expansion both southward toward the Great Australian Bight, and northward from the Kimberley region to settle all parts of New Guinea and, later, the southwest and southeast of Australia.
Published Evolution of wheat spikes since the Neolithic revolution



Around 12,000 years ago, the Neolithic revolution radically changed the economy, diet and structure of the first human societies in the Fertile Crescent of the Near East. With the beginning of the cultivation of cereals -- such as wheat and barley -- and the domestication of animals, the first cities emerged in a new social context marked by a productive economy. Now, a study analyses the evolution of wheat spikes since its cultivation began by the inhabitants of ancient Mesopotamia -- the cradle of agriculture -- between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Published New geosciences study shows Triassic fossils that reveal origins of living amphibians


A team of paleontologists have discovered the first 'unmistakable' Triassic-era caecilian fossil -- the oldest-known caecilian fossils -- thus extending the record of this small, burrowing animal by roughly 35 million years. The find also fills a gap of at least 87 million years in the known historical fossil record of the amphibian-like creature.
Published Agriculture linked to changes in age-independent mortality in North America


The transition to agriculture from hunting and gathering in pre-colonial North America led to changes in age-independent mortality, or mortality caused by factors that are not associated with age, according to a new study. The team found that the intensification of crop use occurred in two phases, the first of which led to a decline in human age-independent mortality, while the second is associated with a rise in it. The study is the first to tie patterns of age-independent mortality to food production.
Published Plague trackers: Researchers cover thousands of years in a quest to understand the elusive origins of the Black Death


Seeking to better understand more about the origins and movement of bubonic plague, in ancient and contemporary times, researchers have completed a painstaking granular examination of hundreds of modern and ancient genome sequences, creating the largest analysis of its kind.
Published Violence was widespread in early farming society


Violence and warfare were widespread in many Neolithic communities across Northwest Europe, a period associated with the adoption of farming, new research suggests. Of the skeletal remains of more than 2300 early farmers from 180 sites dating from around 8000 -- 4000 years ago to, more than one in ten displayed weapon injuries, bioarchaeologists found.
Published Mummified crocodiles provide insights into mummy-making over time


Crocodiles were mummified in a unique way at the Egyptian site of Qubbat al-Hawa during the 5th Century BC, according to a new study.
Published In the Neanderthal site of Combe-Grenal, France, hunting strategies were unaffected by changing climate


Neanderthals in Combe-Grenal (France) preferred to hunt in open environments, and their hunting strategies did not alter during periods of climatic change, according to a new study.