Archive for month: January, 2010

Back in the Field! — Excavation and Survey Season at Horvat Kur and Study Season at Tel Kinrot: June 20 – July 16, 2010

04/01/2010

Based upon preliminary results from the 2008 and 2009 seasons,…

Breaking news via ScienceDaily

Scientists reexamine 47-year-old fossil and discover a new Jurassic sea monster 04/08/2025
A new long-necked marine reptile, Plesionectes longicollum, has been identified from a decades-old fossil found in Germany’s Posidonia Shale. The remarkably preserved specimen rewrites part of the Jurassic marine story, revealing unexpected diversity during a time of oceanic chaos. It is now the oldest known plesiosaur from Holzmaden.
4,000-year-old teeth reveal the earliest human high — Hidden in plaque 01/08/2025
Scientists have discovered the oldest direct evidence of betel nut chewing in Southeast Asia by analyzing 4,000-year-old dental plaque from a burial in Thailand. This breakthrough method reveals invisible traces of ancient plant use, suggesting psychoactive rituals were part of daily life long before written records.
A dusty fossil drawer held a 300-million-year-old evolutionary game-changer 24/07/2025
A century-old fossil long mislabeled as a caterpillar has been reidentified as the first-known nonmarine lobopodian—rewriting what we know about ancient life. Discovered in Harvard’s museum drawers, Palaeocampa anthrax predates even the famous Cambrian lobopodians and reveals that these soft-bodied ancestors of arthropods once lived not only in oceans, but in freshwater environments too.
A 500-million-year-old fossil just rewrote the spider origin story 24/07/2025
Half a billion years ago, a strange sea-dwelling creature called Mollisonia symmetrica may have paved the way for modern spiders. Using detailed fossil brain analysis, researchers uncovered neural patterns strikingly similar to today's arachnids—suggesting spiders evolved in the ocean, not on land as previously believed. This brain structure even hints at a critical evolutionary leap […]
Ancient recipes or rituals? Neanderthal bones reveal a prehistoric culinary mystery 18/07/2025
Neanderthals living just 70 kilometers apart in Israel may have had different food prep customs, according to new research on butchered animal bones. These subtle variations — like how meat was cut and cooked — hint at cultural traditions passed down through generations. The findings challenge the idea that Neanderthal life was purely practical, suggesting […]
Butchery clues reveal Neanderthals may have had “family recipes” 17/07/2025
Neanderthals living in two nearby caves in ancient Israel prepared their food in surprisingly different ways, according to new archaeological evidence. Despite using the same tools and hunting the same animals, they left behind distinct cut-mark patterns on bones—hints of cultural traditions passed down through generations.
Scholars just solved a 130-year literary mystery—and it all hinged on one word 16/07/2025
After baffling scholars for over a century, Cambridge researchers have reinterpreted the long-lost Song of Wade, revealing it to be a chivalric romance rather than a monster-filled myth. The twist came when “elves” in a medieval sermon were correctly identified as “wolves,” dramatically altering the legend’s tone and context.
Princeton study maps 200,000 years of Human–Neanderthal interbreeding 13/07/2025
For centuries, we’ve imagined Neanderthals as distant cousins — a separate species that vanished long ago. But thanks to AI-powered genetic research, scientists have revealed a far more entangled history. Modern humans and Neanderthals didn’t just cross paths; they repeatedly interbred, shared genes, and even merged populations over nearly 250,000 years. These revelations suggest that […]
Inside the Maya king’s tomb that rewrites Mesoamerican history 12/07/2025
A major breakthrough in Maya archaeology has emerged from Caracol, Belize, where the University of Houston team uncovered the tomb of Te K'ab Chaak—Caracol’s first known ruler. Buried with elaborate jade, ceramics, and symbolic artifacts, the tomb offers unprecedented insight into early Maya royalty and their ties to the powerful Mexican city of Teotihuacan.
The first pandemic? Scientists find 214 ancient pathogens in prehistoric DNA 11/07/2025
Scientists have uncovered DNA from 214 ancient pathogens in prehistoric humans, including the oldest known evidence of plague. The findings show zoonotic diseases began spreading around 6,500 years ago, likely triggered by farming and animal domestication. These ancient infections may still influence us today, and help guide the vaccines of tomorrow.

Archive for month: January, 2010

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