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Categories: Archaeology: General, Paleontology: Fossils
Published Sea sequin 'bling' links Indonesian islands' ancient communities
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Microscopic analysis has revealed that trends in body ornamentation were shared across Indonesian islands.
Published Scientists explore dinosaur 'Coliseum' in Denali National Park
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered and documented the largest known single dinosaur track site in Alaska. The site, located in Denali National Park and Preserve, has been dubbed 'The Coliseum' by researchers.
Published China's oldest water pipes were a communal effort
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A system of ancient ceramic water pipes, the oldest ever unearthed in China, shows that neolithic people were capable of complex engineering feats without the need for a centralized state authority, finds a new study.
Published Evolving elegance: Scientists connect beauty and safeguarding in ammonoid shells
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source With 350 million years of evolution culminating in almost two centuries of scientific discourse, a new hypothesis emerges. Researchers propose a new explanation for why ammonoids evolved a highly elaborate, fractal-like geometry within their shells. Their analysis shows that the increasing complexity of shell structures provided a distinct advantage by offering improved protection against predators.
Published Fossil feces infested with parasites from over 200 million years ago
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fossilized feces preserve evidence of ancient parasites that infected an aquatic predator over 200 million years ago, according to a new study.
Published Drops of seawater contain traces of an ancient world
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research links chemical changes in seawater to volcanic activity and changes.
Published Ancient DNA reveals an early African origin of Cattle in the Americas
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Using ancient DNA, researchers have determined cattle were imported from Africa to the Americas much earlier in the process of European colonization than documented. The first records of African cattle in the Americas date back to the 1800s, leading some historians to conclude that early colonists relied entirely on a small stock of European cattle initially shipped to the Caribbean Islands. DNA from archaeological specimens pushes the introduction of African cattle back by more than 100 years.
Published Roman road network spanning the South West identified in new research
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research has found evidence that a Roman road network spanned Devon and Cornwall and connected significant settlements with military forts across the two counties as well as wider Britannia.
Published Oldest known species of swimming jellyfish identified
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Royal Ontario Museum announces the oldest swimming jellyfish in the fossil record with the newly named Burgessomedusa phasmiformis. This 505-million-year-old swimming jellyfish from the Burgess Shale highlights diversity in the Cambrian ecosystem.
Published Earth's most ancient impact craters are disappearing
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Earth's oldest craters could give scientists critical information about the structure of the early Earth and the composition of bodies in the solar system as well as help to interpret crater records on other planets. But geologists can't find them, and they might never be able to, according to a new study.
Published Using gemstones' unique characteristics to uncover ancient trade routes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Gems' unique elemental composition and atomic orientation act as a fingerprint, enabling researchers to uncover the stones' past, and with it, historical trade routes. Scientists now employ three modern spectroscopic techniques to rapidly analyze gems found in the Arabian-Nubian Shield and compare them with similar gems from around the world. They have identified elements that influence gems' color, differentiated stones found within and outside the region, and distinguished natural from synthetic.
Published Bees evolved from ancient supercontinent, diversified faster than suspected
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The origin of bees is tens of millions of years older than most previous estimates, a new study shows. A team led by Washington State University researchers traced the bee genealogy back more than 120 million years to an ancient supercontinent, Gondwana, which included today's continents of Africa and South America.
Published 'Time-traveling' pathogens in melting permafrost pose likely risk to environment
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Ancient pathogens that escape from melting permafrost have real potential to damage microbial communities and might potentially threaten human health, according to a new study.
Published New insights into the origin of the Indo-European languages
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international team of linguists and geneticists has achieved a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the origins of Indo-European, a family of languages spoken by nearly half of the world's population.
Published Ancient DNA reveals diverse community in 'Lost City of the Incas'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source DNA analysis of 34 individuals buried at Machu Picchu revealed that many traveled alone from throughout the Inca Empire.
Published Family trees from the European Neolithic
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The Neolithic burial site of Gurgy 'les Noisats' in France revealed two unprecedentedly large family trees which allowed a Franco-German team to explore the social organization of the 6,700-year-old community. Based on multiple lines of evidence, the team describes a close kin group which practiced monogamy and female exogamy, and experienced generally stable times.
Published Missing island explains how endemic species on the Miyako Islands emerged
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Miyako Islands are home to various native species of snake and lizards. How these species came to call these islands home has long puzzled scientists. A group of researchers have compiled the latest geological and biological data, proposing that an island once facilitated migration between Okinawa and Miyako Islands.
Published Spurge purge: Plant fossils reveal ancient South America-to-Asia 'escape route'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Newly identified plant fossils found in Argentina suggest that a group of spurges long thought to have Asian origins may have first appeared in Gondwanan South America.
Published Miocene period fossil forest of Wataria found in Japan
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An exquisitely preserved fossil forest from Japan provides missing links and helps reconstruct a whole Eurasia plant from the late Miocene epoch.
Published Paleontologists identify two new species of sabertooth cat
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Sabertooth cats make up a diverse group of long-toothed predators that roamed Africa around 6-7 million years ago, around the time that hominins -- the group that includes modern humans -- began to evolve. By examining one of the largest global Pliocene collections of fossils in Langebaanweg, north of Cape Town in South Africa, researchers present two new sabertooth species and the first family tree of the region's ancient sabertooths. Their results suggest that the distribution of sabertooths throughout ancient Africa might have been different than previously assumed, and the study provides important information about Africa's paleoenvironment.