Latest science news in Paleontology & Archaeology
Extinct sabertooth cats were social, found strength in numbers
The sabertooth cat (Smilodon fatalis), one of the most iconic extinct mammal species, was likely to be a social animal, living and hunting like lions today, according to new scientific...
New Classification Of African Middle Stone Age
Archaeologists have succeeded in dating layers in South Africa that provide information about stone tool innovation on the Middle Stone Age. This archaeological epoch began at the same time as...
Dino-aged Reptile Makes a Comeback
He is greenish brown, has dragon scales for skin, grows up to 32 inches and is the world's last remaining lizard-like reptile that has a lineage dating back to about...
'Living fossil' tree contains genetic imprints of rain forests under climate change
The distinctive trunk and aerial roots of the tropical tree Symphonia globulifera in a rain forest in Panama. A "living fossil" tree species is helping a University of Michigan researcher...
Phoenicians: Forgotten But Not Gone
Rome destroyed the Phoenicians' greatest city - Carthage - centuries ago, but new genetic studies indicate that as many as one in 17 men living in communities around the Mediterranean...
Signs in Asia of Tsunamis That Struck Centuries Ago
The tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 2004 was the biggest in the Indian Ocean in some 600 years, two new geological studies suggest.
Ancient Mummy, The Tyrolean Iceman, Has No Modern Children
Researchers have revealed the complete mitochondrial genome of one of the world's most celebrated mummies, known as the Tyrolean Iceman or Ötzi. The sequence represents the oldest complete DNA sequence...
Polarized light guides cholera-carrying midges that contaminate water supplies
Cholera is a major killer and since the first pandemic in the early 19th century it has claimed millions of lives. According to Amit Lerner from The Hebrew University of...
DNA legacy of ancient seafarers
Scientists use DNA to trace the migrations of a civilisation which dominated the Mediterranean thousands of years ago.
What Is a Vertebrate Paleontologist? New Video Has an Answer
Few scientific pursuits fascinate like digging up fossils. But despite this fascination with fossil-hunting - one aspect of the field of vertebrate paleontology - most people would be hard pressed...
Technological innovation may have driven first human migration
Ancient tools give up their makers' secrets.
Ancient Meteorites Give Clues to Planet Formation
Ancient meteorites provide clues to early solar system, formation of planets.
Small islands given short shrift in assembling archaeological record
Small islands dwarf large ones in archaeological importance, says a University of Florida researcher, who found that people who settled the Caribbean before Christopher Columbus preferred more minute pieces of...
Oldest Malarial Mummies Shed Light on Disease Evolution
Egyptian mummies with malaria and two skeletons from Israel that had tuberculosis are helping scientists understand how and why disease-causing organisms evolve.
Kangaroo loose in snowy eastern Ontario
A small kangaroo is missing from a private zoo in eastern Ontario after a tree fell and crashed through his pen during the season's first snowstorm.
Predicting boom and bust ecologies
The natural world behaves a lot like the stock market, with periods of relative stability interspersed with dramatic swings in population size and competition between individuals and species...
Science Dad and Son Identify Ice-Nesting Finch in Andes
In an unusual research collaboration, a University of Massachusetts Amherst geoscientist, Douglas Hardy, and his son Spencer, 14, recently reported what is believed to be the first well documented evidence...
Bats galore at the Discovery Science Center
The fact-filled exhibition 'Masters of the Night' comes to Santa Ana. ...
The Real Robinson Crusoe – Evidence Of Alexander Selkirk’s Desert Island Campsite
Archaeological dig unearths evidence of the campsite of castaway Alexander Selkirk, the model for Robinson Crusoe.
Afghans plan museums to replace moonscapes
Campaign will reverse decades of cultural desecration and begin restoration of stolen antiques
In pictures: Jet packs
In movies and comics jetpacks are the ultimate superhero accessory. For a lucky few, these flights of fancy have become reality
"Spider God" Temple Found in Peru
A 3,000-year-old temple—featuring the image of a deity that's part spider, bird, and cat—may have been located in a capital of ancient religious worship.
Mercury was once alive with volcanoes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While it seems like a geologically dead planet today, early in its history tiny Mercury may have been a caldron of volcanic activity, NASA scientists said on...
Hallucinogens found in mummy hair
Andean mummy hair has provided the first direct archaeological evidence of the consumption of hallucinogens in pre-Hispanic Andean populations.
Casino gambling: Hold 'em or fold 'em?
(PhysOrg.com) -- People who gamble at casinos know when to hold 'em -- or quit while they're ahead -- but have trouble deciding when to fold 'em when they're behind,...
Mega-tsunami hit southeast Asia 700 years ago
HONG KONG (Reuters) - A mega-tsunami struck southeast Asia 700 years ago rivaling the deadly one in 2004, two teams of geologists said after finding sedimentary evidence in coastal marshes.
Amazon's champion awarded Duke of Edinburgh medal
The 2008 WWF Duke of Edinburgh Conservation medal has been awarded to former Brazilian Environment Minister Her Excellency Senator Marina Silva...
In Rome, a New Museum Invites a Hands-On Approach to Insanity
Overturning preconceptions about mental illness is the leitmotif of the eight-year-old Mind’s Museum, which reopened last week after a high-tech overhaul.