3+ day, 19+ hour ago  (467+ words) Excavations at the archaeological site of Did" West 1 in eastern Senegal have uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved iron-smelting workshop dated between the 4th century BCE and the 4th century CE, representing nearly eight centuries of activity. A pile of tuy'res at the site…...

4+ day, 19+ hour ago  (510+ words) Long thought to be fueled by increased atmospheric oxygen concentration, enormous griffinflies from the Carboniferous period, 300 million years ago, may have grown large for other reasons, according to new research led by University of Pretoria paleontologist Edward Snelling. Gigantic griffinfly…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago  (426+ words) A semi-complete skull of an adult Edmontosaurus at Montana State's Museum of the Rockies preserves a fleeting moment from the Late Cretaceous: a tyrannosaur biting into a duck-billed dinosaur's face. A Tyrannosaurus attacking an adult Edmontosaurus. Image credit: Jenn Hall....

2+ week, 1+ day ago  (642+ words) A cache of 142 beads and pendants from five Natufian (15,000 to 11,650 years before the present) sites in Israel reveals that clay was first used not for tools or cooking, but for symbolism and identity, often crafted by children whose fingerprints still…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago  (457+ words) New experiments show that tar made from birch bark " long known as a tool adhesive " can inhibit harmful bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, suggesting Neanderthals may have used it to treat wounds and manage infection during the Ice Age. Birch…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago  (739+ words) Paleontologists have described a new species of enigmatic cyclidan crustacean on the basis of three well-preserved specimens from the Early Triassic Guiyang biota of China. Yunnanocyclus fortis. Image credit: Sun et al., doi: 10.1002/spp2.70052. Cyclidans are a distinctive group of arthropods…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago  (478+ words) Chemical clues preserved in the teeth of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) from the 125,000-year-old site of Neumark-Nord in Germany suggest these massive animals traveled hundreds of kilometers " and that Neanderthals may have deliberately hunted them at the site. "The straight-tusked…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago  (723+ words) A new genus and species of archaic stem tetrapod from the Permian period has been identified from fossil jawbones found in Brazil. Named Tanyka amnicola, this strange amphibian relative had sideways-facing teeth and a rasp-like grinding surface, suggesting that some…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago  (437+ words) A pair of scarlet macaws (Ara macao) in Costa Rica. Image credit: Julio-C'sar Ch'vez / CC BY 4.0. The ancient parrot feathers that were discovered at Pachacamac, Peru " one of the preeminent religious centers of the Andean civilization " far outside the birds…...

4+ week, 1+ day ago  (717+ words) Graecopithecus freybergi lived 7.2 million years ago in the dust-laden savannah of the Athens Basin. This view from Graecopithecus freybergi's place of discovery, Pyrgos Vassilissis, to the southeast over the plain of Athens and under a reddish cloud of Sahara dust;…...