Latest science news in Paleontology & Archaeology
English 'originated in Turkey'
Modern Indo-European languages - which include English - originated in Turkey about 9,000 years ago, research concludes.
Bugs sunbathe to keep germs away
Western boxelder bugs frequently stretch out in the sun, though not to get a tan. Canadian researchers found that these insects use sunbathing to keep germs at bay.
How scientists preserve artifacts from shipwrecks
Parks Canada is scouring the Arctic for the Franklin's ships lost in their 1845 effort to discover the Northwest Passage. If the wrecks are found, the artifacts discovered will shed...
Ancient poem deifies emperor Nero's wife
A just-deciphered ancient Greek poem discovered in Egypt deifies Poppaea Sabina, the wife of the infamous Roman emperor Nero, showing her ascending to the stars.
Mollusk mouths weren't all that fierce
The inside of a mollusk's mouth is a fearsome sight to behold. Most mollusks, from giant squids to predatory slugs, have radulas, or tonguelike structures covered with interlocking teeth that...
Gibbons and Opera Singers Use the Same Voice Tools
Gibbons and human soprano opera singers share common vocalization anatomy and techniques, according to new research findings that indicate humans haven’t evolved as much as scientists had first thought.
Just how big were dinosaurs?
Almost any report on dinosaurs will feature a measure of the size of one species or another, but what are these values based on?The physical size of dinosaurs is a constant fascination...
Video: Man dies after being buried alive in sand
A fun day at the beach ended in tragedy when a young man was buried alive in sand and couldn't be saved in time. KCBS' Suraya Fadel reports from...
FEATURE: What’s in a name?
"...it is the taxonomists who write up how and why the specimen is new and give it a name." Image: t.light/iStockphoto Species are all around us, and taxonomists are the people who...
Why Women Go Through Menopause: Blame the In-Laws
Competition between female in-laws may explain why women stop reproducing at age 50 or so.
Half of the particulate pollution in North America comes from other continents
Roughly half the aerosols that affect air quality and climate change in North America may be coming from other continents, including Asia, Africa and Europe, according to a new study.
Ancient fossils reveal how the mollusc got its teeth
This is a reconstruction of the Odontogriphus mouthparts. The radula sounds like something from a horror movie – a conveyor belt lined with hundreds of rows of interlocking teeth....
Ancient Roman Tablet Holds 'Black Magic' Curses
An ancient Roman lead scroll unearthed in England three years ago has turned out to be a curse intended to cause misfortune to more than a dozen people, according to...
Native landscaping in urban areas can help native birds
A recent study of residential landscape types and native bird communities in Phoenix, Ariz., led by a University of Massachusetts Amherst urban ecologist suggests that yards mimicking native vegetation and...
Wi-Fi Donkeys Carry Internet Access on Park Trails
An Old Testament reenactment village has a clever way of providing Wi-Fi on its remote hiking trails.
New Camouflage Face Paint Could Shield Soldiers From Bomb Blasts' Heat
Standard Camouflage Paint U.S. Army When a roadside bomb or other explosive device goes off, it hits everything nearby with an extreme blast of pressure. Almost simultaneously comes a heat--more than 1,000 degrees...
Gibbon's 'earliest use of irony' revealed by manuscript
A newly-discovered manuscript may represent Edward Gibbonâs earliest experiment in the irony for which he would become famous, an Oxford University English academic has found.
Mayans may have aided own demise
The city states of the ancient Mayan empire flourished in southern Mexico and northern Central America for about six centuries. Then, around A.D. 900 Mayan civilization disintegrated.
Edinburgh International Book festival: day 12 bulletin
Ian McEwan with Alex Salmond and Iain Rankin with inspector Rebus are among today's stellar highlightsThe Edinburgh World Writers' Conference came to a stunning end yesterday, with China Miéville's engaging and often controversial...
Historian examines animals' role in westward expansion
The story of westward expansion in the United States is often told from the perspective of the men and women who crossed the Great Plains in search of a better...
Eww! Newly discovered rat has no back teeth
A newly discovered rat in the Philippines doesn't have any molars, making it the only known rodent in the world without back teeth.
Divers uncover evidence of Viking port
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Archaeologists say 100-yard jetties found at the site of an ancient Viking village in Sweden suggest a coastal marketplace not previously imagined.
Archaeologist digs into Nazi death camp
When Israeli archaeologist Yoram Haimi decided to investigate his family's unknown Holocaust history, he turned to the skill he knew best: He began to dig.
NASA Finds Spiny Dinosaur Prints in Own Backyard
Armored plant-eater once roamed today's high-tech space campus.
Cuba gears up for Namibia 'Noah's Ark'
Cuba spruces up its zoo ahead of 'Noah's Ark' gift from Namibia
Mammoth find in Germany
Workers digging on the underground network in the western city of Duesseldorf have uncovered a 34-kilogramme (76-pound) woolly mammoth tusk over 10,000 years old, city officials said on Tuesday.
Forest razing by ancient Maya worsened droughts, says study
(Phys.org) -- For six centuries, the ancient Maya flourished, with more than a hundred city-states scattered across what is now southern Mexico and northern Central America. Then, in A.D. 695,...
FOR KIDS: DNA hints at ancient cousins
Scientists find evidence of an extinct humanlike species within modern-day Africans