Popular Science articles about Paleontology & Archaeology

Deep sea animals stowaway on submarines and reach new territory

This is a photo of <i>Lepetodrilus gordensis</i>, the species recovered from the Alvin submersible.

Factors behind past lemur species extinctions put surviving species in 'ecological retreat'

New research on the long-term impact of species extinctions suggests that the disappearance of one species does not necessarily allow remaining competitor species to thrive by filling now-empty niches.

Squid ink from Jurassic period identical to modern squid ink, U.Va. study shows

und that two ink sacs from 160-million-year-old giant cephalopod fossils discovered two years ago in England contain the pigment melanin, and that it is essentially identical to the melanin found...

Penn and Genographic Project scientists illuminate the ancient history of circumarctic peoples

Two studies led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania and National Geographic's Genographic Project reveal new information about the migration patterns of the first humans to settle the Americas....

New light on enigmatic burial rituals in Cambodian mountains

University of Otago researchers working in remote Cambodian mountains are shedding new light on the lost history of an unidentified people by studying their enigmatic burial rituals.

Is a new form of life really so alien?

The idea of discovering a new form of life has not only excited astronomers and astrobiologists for decades, but also the wider public. The notion that we are the only...

Mystery of the domestication of the horse solved

New research indicates that domestic horses originated in the steppes of modern-day Ukraine, southwest Russia and west Kazakhstan, mixing with local wild stocks as they spread throughout Europe and Asia.

Earth history and evolution

In classical mythology, the cypress tree is associated with death, the underworld and eternity. Indeed, the family to which cypresses belong, is an ancient lineage of conifers, and a new...

Were dinosaurs undergoing long-term decline before mass extinction?

Despite years of intensive research about the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs about 65.5 million years ago, a fundamental question remains: were dinosaurs already undergoing a long-term decline before an asteroid...

Italian merchants funded England's discovery of North America

Evidence that a Florentine merchant house financed the earliest English voyages to North America, has been published on-line in the academic journal Historical Research.

Evolution in an island, the secret for a longer life

ICP researchers have discovered one of the first fossil-based evidences supporting the evolutionary theory of aging, which predicts that species evolving in low mortality and resource-limited ecosystems tend to be...

Human-like spine morphology found in aquatic eel fossil

For decades, scientists believed that a spine with multiple segments was an exclusive feature of land-dwelling animals. But the discovery of the same anatomical feature in a 345-million-year-old eel suggests...

Modern dog breeds genetically disconnected from ancient ancestors

Cross-breeding of dogs over thousands of years has made it extremely difficult to trace the ancient genetic roots of today's pets, according to a new study led by Durham University.

Ancient giant turtle fossil revealed

Picture a turtle the size of a Smart car, with a shell large enough to double as a kiddie pool. Paleontologists from North Carolina State University have found just such...

Anthropologists discover earliest form of wall art

Anthropologists working in southern France have determined that a 1.5 metric ton block of engraved limestone constitutes the earliest evidence of wall art. Their research, reported in the most recent...

GW professor's research on ancient ballgame reveals more about early Mesoamerican society

George Washington University Professor Jeffrey P. Blomster's latest research explores the importance of the ballgame to ancient Mesoamerican societies. Dr. Blomster's findings show how the discovery of a ballplayer figurine...

UGA study finds there's not always safety in numbers when it comes to extinction risk

A basic tenet underpinning scientists' understanding of extinction is that more abundant species persist longer than their less abundant counterparts, but a new University of Georgia study reveals a much...

Anthropologist finds explanation for hominin brain evolution in famous fossil

One of the world's most important fossils has a story to tell about the brain evolution of modern humans and their ancestors, according to Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist Dean...

Jurassic pain: Giant 'flea-like' insects plagued dinosaurs 165 million years ago

It takes a gutsy insect to sneak up on a huge dinosaur while it sleeps, crawl onto its soft underbelly and give it a bite that might have felt like...

'Faster-ticking clock' indicates early solar system may have evolved faster than we think

Our solar system is four and a half billion years old, but its formation may have occurred over a shorter period of time than we previously thought, says an international...

Genes shed light on spread of agriculture in Stone Age Europe

One of the most debated developments in human history is the transition from hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. A recent issue of Science presents the genetic findings of a Swedish-Danish research...

'Inhabitants of Madrid' ate elephants’ meat and bone marrow 80,000 years ago

Humans that populated the banks of the river Manzanares (Madrid, Spain) during the Middle Palaeolithic (between 127,000 and 40,000 years ago) fed themselves on pachyderm meat and bone marrow. This...