Latest science news in Paleontology & Archaeology
Study challenges presumed age of Grand Canyon
Scientists analyzing helium levels in rock say the gorge could have been there 70 million years ago. It's generally believed to be 5 or 6 million years old.The Grand Canyon...
19th-century shipwrecks found off Israel
Archaeologists have discovered four 19th-century warships, and possibly the remains of an ancient Greek harbor, off the coast of Israel.
Skeletons in cave reveal Mediterranean secrets
Skeletal remains in an island cave in Favignana, Italy, reveal that modern humans first settled in Sicily around the time of the last ice age and despite living on Mediterranean...
Caves Reveal Picture of Ancient Winters
Scientists have found a stalagmite in an Oregon cave that tells the story of thousands of winters in the Pacific Northwest.
$550 Million Powerball: What Are Your Chances?
The odds of winning tonight's historic $500 million Powerball jackpot are 1 in 175 million. If that seems encouraging, then it may be time to insure yourself against a donkey...
Bizarre creatures found in Spanish cave
Three bizarre-looking springtails, tiny insectlike creatures, have been discovered in a Spanish cave.
Killer Cave May Have Inspired Myth of Hades
The Greek cave collapsed and killed hundreds of people living there 9,000 years ago.
Green Blog: Research Animals Lost in Wolf Hunts Near Yellowstone
The recent loss of seven Yellowstone wolves wearing high-tech research collars is renewing the decades-old arguments about when and where hunters should be allowed to shoot the charismatic predators.
New research suggests massive marsupials lived in treetops in early Australia
(Phys.org)—Researchers from the University of New South Wales and the University of Adelaide in studying fossils of Nimbadon lavarackorum, an extinct wombat-like marsupial, have concluded that the animal likely lived...
Fish ear bones point to climate impacts
Scientists believe that fish ear bones and their distinctive growth rings can offer clues to the likely impacts of climate change in aquatic environments.
For some feathered dinosaurs, bigger not always better
Researchers have started looking at why dinosaurs that abandoned meat in favor of vegetarian diets got so big, and their results may call conventional wisdom about plant-eaters and body size...
3Qs: The evolution of profanity
#@&#! Profanity has long been a key element of American culture. We're profane when we're frustrated or telling a story or even when we're watching TV, but how do words...
'Your in America' sets grammar fascists against fascists | Arwa Mahdawi
The Twitter-bot exposes those who mess up when trying to uphold 'good' English. But careful with that schadenfreudeI mean, how hard can it be? When in Rome, speak Roman, and when in...
Jurassic insect that mimicked ginkgo leaves discovered
(Phys.org)—Researchers working in China have discovered an insect that lived 165 million years ago that they believe used its wings to mimic the leaves of an ancient ginkgo tree. The...
'Egyptian Popeye' defends his 31-inch upper arms
MILFORD, Mass. (AP) -- Don't tell Popeye. It turns out you don't need to eat your spinach to get the world's biggest arms....
Linguist makes sensational claim: English is a Scandinavian language
"Have you considered how easy it is for us Norwegians to learn English?" asks Jan Terje Faarlund, professor of linguistics at the University of Oslo. "Obviously there are many English...
The Yeti: Asia's Abominable Snowman
This mysterious creature, similar to America's Bigfoot, is said to live in the Himalayas.
People Use Same Brain Regions to Read Alphabetic and Logographic Languages
Learning to read Chinese might seem daunting to Westerners used to an alphabetic script, but brain scans of French and Chinese native speakers show that people harness the same brain...
YouTube anaconda vomited goat, not cow
A YouTube video of an anaconda allegedly disgorging a cow became an overnight sensation, but the unlucky animal was probably a much less impressive goat, one expert says.
Pictures: Falcon Massacre Uncovered in India
Every fall, locals in northeastern India kill hundreds of thousands of Amur falcons as the birds journey south to their wintering grounds, conservationists say.
Mosaic Evolution Versus Punctuated Equilibrium: Morphological Traits Within Fossil Species Lineages
What happens when the modern evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium collides with the older theory of mosaic evolution? That's the issue addressed by paleobiologists Melanie J Hopkins at the Museum...
Three new arthropod species have been found in the Maestrazgo Caves in Teruel
Scientists have discovered three new collembolan species in the Maestrazgo caves in Teruel, Spain. These minute animals belong to one of the most ancient animal species on the planet. The...
Myna 'guity of evicting Aussie birds'
The common myna – popularly known as 'the cane-toad of the air' – has been convicted on new evidence it is pushing Australian native birds out of their home range.
Europe's snakeskin fashions could threaten pythons
Europe's love of snakeskin fashion items could threaten the very survival of pythons, according to a report published Tuesday.
Ancient poo clue to environment
US scientists say they can track early human movements by analysing molecules in ancient fecal matter.
DNA sleuth hunts wine roots in Anatolia
There are easier places to make wine than the spectacular, desolate landscapes of southeast Turkey, but DNA analysis suggests it is here that Stone Age farmers first domesticated the wine...
Google's Phantom Island May Have 19th-Century Roots
A Kiwi librarian may have discovered the origin of a non-existent island that's been outfoxing cartographers for more than a century.
FOR KIDS: Shoulder bones fuel debate
Fossil shoulder blades suggest an ancient humanlike species may have been at home in the trees as well as on the ground