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Categories: Archaeology: General, Environmental: Ecosystems

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Researchers argue that they have found evidence of the use of baby carriers 10,000 years ago at the Arma Veirana site in Liguria, Italy.

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The Laramie chickensage is unusual among the hundreds of species of sagebrush, most of which are primarily pollinated by the wind.

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In medieval Norway, high status individuals tended to be taller and to have stronger bones, possibly as a result of a favorable lifestyle, according to a new study.

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Ancient trees -- those that are many hundreds, or even thousands, of years old -- play a vital role in biodiversity and ecosystem preservation by providing stability, strength, and protection to at-risk environments. A team of ecologists highlight the importance of preserving these monumental organisms and present a project initiative to ensure their protection and longevity.

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Researchers have managed to sequence multiple individuals from a remote Neanderthal community in Siberia. Among these thirteen individuals, the researchers identified multiple related individuals -- among these a father and his teenage daughter. The researchers were also able to use the thirteen genomes to provide a glimpse into the social organization of a Neanderthal community. They appear to have been a small group of close relatives, consisting of ten to twenty members, and communities were primarily connected through female migration.

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Climate change is causing the Arctic Ocean's sea ice to melt away. When the polar ocean loses its cover of sea ice, carbon dioxide uptake increases disrupting the food web in the water according to a new study.

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New research, offering a comprehensive analysis of Asian elephant movement and habitat preference, finds that elephants prefer habitats on the periphery of protected areas, rather than the areas themselves.

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An analysis of obsidian artifacts excavated during the 1960s at two prominent archaeological sites in southwestern Iran suggests that the networks Neolithic people formed in the region as they developed agriculture are larger and more complex than previously believed. The study has applied state-of-the-art analytical tools to a collection of 2,100 obsidian artifacts.

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By the end of this century, permafrost in the rapidly warming Arctic will likely emit as much carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as a large industrial nation, and potentially more than the U.S. has emitted since the start of the industrial revolution. A new study forecasts cumulative emissions from this 'country of permafrost' through 2100 under low, medium, and high warming scenarios.

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A major new project will help benchmark biodiversity change in the Arctic Ocean and guide conservation efforts by identifying unique species and assessing their extinction risk.

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Stumbling upon a new source of underwater caffeine was just an added bonus of a new study examining the impact of chemical compounds that corals release into the seawater.

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A new study indicates previously unknown high altitude contests between two of America's most sensational mammals -- mountain goats and bighorn sheep -- over access to minerals previously unavailable due to the past presence of glaciers which, now, are vanishing due to global warming.

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The strong winds and torrential rains that accompany a cyclone do tremendous damage to ecosystems, and this damage can make them more prone to future wildfires. As intense cyclones are projected to become more frequent worldwide, a team of researchers examines the links between cyclones and forest fires, how they fuel one another, and why we may see fires burning in unlikely places in the future.

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A new study shows that losing a particular group of endangered animals -- those that eat fruit and help disperse the seeds of trees and other plants -- could severely disrupt seed-dispersal networks in the Atlantic Forest, a shrinking stretch of tropical forest and critical biodiversity hotspot on the coast of Brazil.

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Current protected areas only poorly cover the places most relevant for conserving soil ecological values. To assess global hotspots for preserving soil ecological values, an international team of scientists measured different facets of soil biodiversity (local species richness and uniqueness) and ecosystem services (like water regulation or carbon storage). They found that these facets peaked in contrasting regions of the world. For instance, temperate ecosystems showed higher local soil biodiversity (species richness), while colder ecosystems were identified as hotspots of soil ecosystem services. In addition, the results suggest that tropical and arid ecosystems hold the most unique communities of soil organisms. Soil ecological values are often overlooked in nature conservation management and policy decisions; the new study demonstrates where efforts to protect them are needed most.

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The amazing survival strategies of polar marine creatures might help to explain how the first animals on Earth could have evolved earlier than the oldest fossils suggest according to new research. These first, simple and now extinct, animals might have lived through some of the most extreme, cold and icy periods the world has ever seen.

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How healthy are coral reefs? And how are they responding to climate change? After more than 10 years of monitoring the Great Barrier Reef, geoscientists have developed a technique that allows them to answer these questions using satellites. And it all relies on sand aprons.

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There's more bad news for planet earth if climate change continues unabated. New research reveals that, under a worst-case scenario, half of coral reef ecosystems worldwide will permanently face unsuitable conditions in just a dozen years.

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A giant kangaroo that once roamed on four legs through remote forests in the Papua New Guinea Highlands may have survived as recently as 20,000 years ago -- long after large-bodied megafauna on mainland Australia went extinct, new research indicates. Palaeontologists, archaeologists and geoscientists, have used new techniques to re-examine megafauna bones from the rich Nombe Rock Shelter fossil site in Chimbu Province in a bid to better understand the intriguing natural history of PNG.

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A new scientific review article captures the unique and dynamic characteristics of coastal lagoon ecosystems in the Arctic Beringia Region, and discusses how climate change effects and human development could alter these habitats.