Earth news stories

Asteroid Bennu contains the ‘seeds of life,’ OSIRIS-REx samples reveal
30th January 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Earth, Space

Scientists have found all five nucelobases alongisde minerals essential for life as we know it on the potentially hazardous asteroid Bennu. The two teams of researchers who made the discoveries published their findings Jan. 29 in two papers in the journal Nature Astronomy.

Hand axes discovered in Iraqi desert may go back 1.5 million years
30th January 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Earth, Humans

The focus of the prospecting campaign was on an area that during the Pleistocene housed a large lake, now completely dried up, with ancient wadis or dry riverbeds crossing the landscape. Egberts collected over 850 artifacts, ranging from very old hand axes from the Early or Old Paleolithic to Levallois reduction flakes from the Middle Paleolithic, all surface material.

We may know very little about the origin of dinosaurs
29th January 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

A review of the oldest known dinosaurs has revealed that fossil evidence for their origin probably has not yet been discovered. Most of the earliest dinosaur fossils have been found in South America and Africa.

Did giant ice age beasts carve these vast caves in South America?
28th January 2025 | nature.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Researchers are investigating who — or what — cut ancient tunnels in sandstone in Brazil and nearby nations.

Giant footprints in Mongolia could be from the largest bipedal dinosaur
27th January 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

Footprints measuring 92cm in width found in Mongolia have raised the prospect of an as yet undiscovered skeleton of the largest bipedal dinosaur ever.

‘We are creating the fire equivalent of an ice age’: Humans have plunged Earth into the ‘Pyrocene’
27th January 2025 | livescience.com | Earth, Humans

I’m a historian of fire, and my reply is that we have both a narrative and an analog. The narrative is the unbroken saga of humanity and fire, a companionship that extends through all our existence as a species. The analog is that humanity’s fire practices have become so vast, especially in recent centuries, that we are creating the fire equivalent of an ice age.

Earliest evidence of hominins in Europe predates other finds by half a million years
22nd January 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Earth, Humans

The bones are at least 1.95 million years old but could be up to 2.2 million years old. They may help build a picture of when early human ancestors left Africa and reached Europe and Asia, and the route they took. This has been an area of debate for decades. The paper was published in Nature Communications.

We finally know what 1,400-year-old ‘mystery rings’ in Australia are
20th January 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Earth, Humans

Our new study, published in Australian Archaeology, presents the results of the only known archaeological excavation of one of these rings combined with Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung understanding of these enigmatic places.

Enormous skull of 200-million-year-old giant dinosaur discovered in China
14th January 2025 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

An enormous, extremely well preserved dinosaur skull unearthed in China belongs to a never-before-seen species, researchers say.

How the first animals changed the face of Earth forever
13th January 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

The first animals with mineral skeletons changed the way sediments develop on Earth forever, according to new research.

New excavation of ‘rings of mystery’ in Victoria reveals rich Aboriginal history
8th January 2025 theconversation.com | Ancient, Earth, Humans

Our new study, published today in Australian Archaeology, presents the results of the only known archaeological excavation of one of these rings combined with Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung understanding of these enigmatic places.

Evidence of a 517-million-year-old “arms race” in the ocean
7th January 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth

The oldest-known fossil evidence of a predator-prey arms race has been discovered in shells dating back to the early Cambrian. A new study was published in the journal Current Biology

The Genetic Book of the Dead
5th January 2025 cosmosmagazine.com | Animal Life, Earth, Humans

Richard Dawkin’s new book is woven with beautiful metaphors and rich descriptive language. Not so much conversational as poetic, settle in for an elaborate exploration of evolution. It raises some new and curious questions, including whether it’s worth thinking of our ‘own’ genes as a gigantic colony of cooperating viruses.

Rock art acoustics: South African study suggests that a distinct echo attracted ancient artists back to one site
3rd January 2025 phys.org | Ancient, Earth, Humans

Petroglyphs, engraved on rocks, have an obvious visual attraction. What is important and exciting about this study is the discovery that these images have an acoustic aspect as well.

Newly named psychedelic fungus points to African origins of world’s most popular ‘magic mushroom’
16th December 2024 | abc.net.au | Ancient, Earth

A new study, not yet peer reviewed but published on the biological sciences repository bioRxiv, suggests an ancestor of P. cubensis could have come from Africa before spreading far and wide.

Ancient ‘land bridge’ that connected Siberia to US wasn’t what it seems, scientists find
12th December 2024 | livescience.com | Ancient, Animal Life, Earth, Humans

The Bering land bridge that spanned between Siberia and Alaska during the Ice Age was more of a Bering land bog, new research finds.

News stories covering the environment, plant life, and the Earth itself.