Ancient news stories

Elephant fossils from 300,000–400,000 years ago bear the marks of the earliest signs of ancient humans butchering animals in the Indian subcontinent… The identity of the elephant species and the interaction with ancient humans are detailed in two papers published in the Quaternary Science Reviewsand the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

One of the brightest stars in the night sky, Betelgeuse, may not be on the brink of exploding as a supernova, according to a new study of the star’s brightening and dimming. Instead, recent research shows that the observed pulsing of the starlight is probably caused by an unseen companion star orbiting Betelgeuse.

A probabilistic new map of the universe surrounding the Milky Way reveals that our galaxy is likely part of an even larger “basin of attraction” than we previously assumed. See the study here.

Hands capable of using tools might have evolved much earlier than previously thought according to a new study of Australopithecus finger bones. Findings of the study are published in the Journal of Human Evolution.

Until now, only a small fraction of meteorites that land on Earth had been firmly linked back to their parent body out in space – but a set of new studies has just given us compelling origin stories for more than 90 percent of meteorites today. The research has been published in Nature, here and here, and Astronomy and Astrophysics.

An archaeological dig of a quarry in Lincolnshire has uncovered evidence of settlements and agriculture spanning 6,000 years. Excavations of the West Deeping quarry revealed a Roman settlement as well as Neolithic and Bronze Age finds.

Underneath the iconic and intricately carved Treasury building at the center of the renowned archaeological site Petra, excavators have stumbled upon a long-lost crypt holding 12 skeletons.

The trees, the researchers found, were able to do this despite sharp declines in population range and numbers, especially during ice ages. The results of the study are published in Nature Communications.

Ayahuasca lore celebrates serpents, jaguars, and panthers. But why do visions of these majestic jungle animals occur in the first place?

Palaeontologists report in the journal PLOS ONE that they have discovered the earliest evidence of predatory birds. At 68 million years old, the new species lived alongside T. rex and the other dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous period.

Humans seem to have been adapted to the last ice age in similar ways to wolves and bears, according to our recent study, challenging longstanding theories about how and where our ancestors lived during this glacial period.

Archaeologists have found the largest ever jade “dragon” made by the Neolithic Hongshan culture on record.

A new study published in the journal Science Advances by researchers at the IBS Center for Climate Physics (ICCP) at Pusan National University in South Korea shows that the patchwork of different ecosystems found in mountainous regions played a key role in the evolution of humans.

A new study published in the Quaternary Science Reviews has subjected the dirt dug from the cave to high-precision tests to find out what the environment was like tens of thousands of years ago.

Railroad construction through a farm on the Danish island of Falster has revealed a 5,000-year-old Neolithic site hiding an advanced technology—a stone paved root cellar. See the paper here.

A new study, led by Ph.D. candidate Vito Hernandez and Associate Professor Mike Morley from the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, has reconstructed the ground conditions in the cave between 52,000 and 10,000 years ago. The work appears in Quaternary Science Reviews.